The landing at St. Jago is, at all times, indifferent, and in the rainy season frequently very bad, both on the rocks, and on the beach, for there are two distinct places of debarkation.  Yet, with a little attention, and a small amount of labour, a more secure landing-place could very easily be made, by cutting a few steps in two or three favourable situations, that would readily admit of the improvement; whereas now you are obliged to watch the swell, and step out on pointed rocks, or an irregular surface, at the risk of falling back into the boat or the water; or bruising yourself severely on the rocks.  Captain Owen and myself once fell, when he was kindly assisting me out of the boat.  The best time for landing on the rocks is at half-tide.  I was informed that materials have been collected for constructing a pier, a project, for which nature has provided an excellent site; but, from the poverty of the government, or some other cause, it has been postponed.  This is the more extraordinary, as the Portuguese government has hitherto been in the habit of transporting to St. Jago convicted felons, by whom public works could have been cheaply accomplished.  Angola, however, has latterly been adopted as the principal convict settlement of the Portuguese.

Hides, goat skins, and salt, are exported from these islands, but the chief and most valuable produce is the orchilla weed.  It is a government monopoly, and is at present farmed out to a man named Martiney.

As the orchilla weed is a production, the practical application of which in various ways is diffused over a large surface of utility, and as its peculiar properties are not very generally known, a minute description of its nature and uses, which I have procured at some cost of time and research, may not prove uninteresting.

The orchilla is a delicate fibrous plant, springing up in situations that are apparently the most unfavourable to the sustenance of vegetable life.  When gathered it has a soft delicious odour, which it retains for a great length of time.  Mr. Glas, in his history of the Canary Islands, gives so clear and accurate an account of its growth, that I will avail myself of his description, as being not only the best I have met with, but as containing all the necessary particulars.  “The orchilla weed,” he observes, “grows out of the pores of the stones or rocks, to about the length of three inches:  I have seen some eight or ten inches, but that is not common.  It is of a round form and of the thickness of common sewing twine.  Its colour is grey, inclining to white:  here and there on the stalk we find white spots or scabs.  Many stalks proceed from one root, at some distance from which they divide into branches.  There is no earth or mould to be perceived on the rock or stone where it grows.  Those who do not know this weed, or are not accustomed to gather it, would hardly be able to find it, for it is of such a colour, and grows in such a direction, that it appears at first sight to be the shade of the rock on which it grows.”