There are a great number of horses, horned cattle, goats, pigs, &c. bred here.  There was formerly an extensive traffic in slaves carried on between these islands and the coast of Africa, which I was informed is not yet wholly abolished.  The best anchorage among the Capede Verds is at St. Vincent’s.  What should prevent the Portuguese giving it up to us, so that we might form an establishment for any ships to call there, instead of going to St. Jago, where they so often make fever an accompaniment with their refreshments?  His Majesty’s ship Tweed, visited this place on her way to the Cape of Good Hope station, and a great proportion of the young officers who slept on shore, died within a fortnight afterwards.

The bay abounds with fine fish, yet there are not many taken, therefore the town is badly supplied, owing entirely to the indolence of the inhabitants.

At 5 in the afternoon we made sail out of Porto Praya, leaving it without regret, except what we felt in parting from the Consul and his family.  There was also a Consul for the United States, but he was not on friendly terms with Mr. Clark.  Their differences, however, were very soon settled by the great pacificator, death, for they were not long after interred near each other in the fort.  Visiting the Portuguese was quite out of the question, as very few of them had the power of entertaining strangers, excepting one old woman known by the name of English Mary, and she was well paid for her civilities.  She could give you a sort of dinner with bad wine, bad spirits, and fruit.  You could also get your things badly washed here, that is, wetted and well beaten for money.  The Portuguese troops vary from black to white, with all the intermediate shades, in ragged party-coloured clothing:  but a truce with the Colonial Portuguese:—­I am now bound to an English colony, where I fear I shall not find every thing as it ought to be, and that is Sierra Leone, which bears from Porto Praya about S.E. by E. 1/2 E. 720 miles.

P.S.  The port charges at St. Jago are not heavy, as they do not exceed sixteen dollars for a vessel of any size or nation.

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[4] This island was named Thenariffe, or the White Mountain, by the
natives of Palma; Thenar, in their language, signifying a mountain,
and Ife, white—­the Peak of Teneriffe being always covered with snow.

[5] Malmsey, or sack.

[6] This word is erroneously supposed to be a corruption of “sec,” or dry, but both Canary and sherry sack of old times (as well as the present) was a sweet and rich wine, and the name could not, therefore, have been so derived.  The term sac is more likely to be a contraction of the word “saccharine,” or it may have been adopted in consequence of the wine being made from half-dried grapes.

[7] The islands of Mayo, Bonavista (or St. Filippe), and St. Jago, were the first of the Cape de Verds discovered, in May 1461, by Antonio de Nolle, a Genoese in the service of Portugal; and St. Jago, was the first settled.  The remaining seven were also discovered the same year, by Portuguese subjects, namely, St. Antonio, St. Vincent, St. Lucia, St. Nicholas, Sall, Fuego, and Bravos.