X. MADEIRA. CHA P. Add to this, that the landed property is in the hands of a few ancient families; the vineyards are held only by an annual tenure; and the farmer reaps but four tenths of the produce; four tenths being paid in kind to the landlord, one tenth to the king, and one to the clergy. Such small profits, joined to the thought of making improvements for others, preclude all alterations for the better, under the present system. But, oppressed as they are, they are chearful and contented. Their labours are commonly alleviated with fongs; and, in the evenings, they dance to the drowsy guittar. Military. 228. The governor is at the head of all the civil and military departments of Madeira, Porto Santo, the Salvages and the Ilhas Defertas, which laft contain only the temporary huts of fishermen.-The law department is under the corregidor, commonly fent from Portugal, and holding his place during the king's pleasure. To him appeals lie from the inferior courts, each of which has a senate, and a prefiding judge chosen by them. The merchants elect their own judge, or providor, who collects the king's revenue, amounting annually to about £120,000 fterling, arifing (1) from one tenth of all the produce of the island; (2) from 11 per cent. on all exports; and (3) from 10 per cent. on all imports, provisions excepted. Far the greater part of the revenue is applied to the fupport of the civil and military establishments, and of public buildings. 229. The island has but one regular company of 100 men; but the militia confifts of 3000, who are annually embodied for one month, under the Sergeanté Mor.› Neither privates nor officers receive any pay; and yet the places of the latter are much fought after, on account of the rank. X. MADEIRA. 230. The secular priests are about 1200, many of them CHA P. employed as private tutors; for, since the expulsion of the Jefuits, there have been no regular public schools here, except one, where a priest educates 10 ftudents, at the Priests. king's expense. Those who intend to go into orders are obliged to study at the university of Coimbra, in Portugal. There is a dean and chapter at Madeira, headed by a bishop, whose income, which confiderably exceeds the governor's, confifts of 110 pipes of wine, and 960 English bufhels of wheat, amounting, at a mean, to £3000 fterling. births, 231. In 1768, the inhabitants of the 43 parishes of Madei- Population, ra, amounted to 63,913, of whom 31,341 were males, and deaths. 32,572 females. But, in that year, the deaths were exactly 5243, and the births 2198. It is highly probable that some epidemical distemper prevailed in that year, as such a mortality would foon depopulate the island: a fuppofition which is ftrengthened by the excellence of the climate. Climate. In fummer, the heat is very moderate on the higher parts of the island, whither the better sort of people then retire: in winter, the fnow lies there for several days, while, in the lower parts, it never continues above a day or two. 232. In 1449, Antonio Nolli, a Genoese in the fervice of CAPE VERD Don Henry, Infanté of Portugal, discovered fome of the ISLANDS I. Cape Verd Islands; and in 1460, another voyage was under * There appears to be a priest in Madeira for every 53 inhabitants; exclufive of about 70 friars and 300 nuns. + My author's fuppofition is farther ftrengthened, by Dr. Heberden's obfervation, that the inhabitants of Madeira double their own numbers, by the births, in 84 years, under all their oppreffions; for nothing short of West Indian oppreffion can prevent mankind, when once fairly fettled in a tolerable climate, from keeping up, or increafing, their numbers by births-See Price on Annuities, p. 204. Abridged from Forfter's Voyage round the Word, Vol. I. p. 33 et feq, X. CAPE VERD CHAP. taken to settle them, when the rest were discovered. Santiago, (as Colonel Bolts writes it) is the largest of them, and ISLANDS. about 17 leagues in length. The capital, of the same name, lies in the interior, and is the fee of the bishop of all these islands. This ifle contains 11 parishes, the most populous of which has about 4000 houses. Oppreffed by monopoly. Inhabitants. 233. The Cape Verd Islands are generally mountainous; but their lower hills are often covered with verdure, and have a gentle declivity, with extensive vales between them. They are ill fupplied with water; but Santiago has one tolerable river. The hills are covered with ftones, which are a fpecies of lava. The foil, which is fertile enough in the vallies, is a kind of rubbish of cinders and ochreous afhes: hence it is probable that all these islands have contained volcanoes; especially as Fogo ftill confifts of a burning mountain. 234. Porto Praya ftands on a steep rock, and contains only a few cottages. It's fortifications are old walls towards the fea, and low fences of loose stones, towards the land. A tolerable building, at a little distance, belongs to a company at Lisbon, who monopolize the trade to all these islands, and keep an agent here. "The company," fays Forfter "perfectly tyrannizes over the inhabitants, and fells them wretched merchandize, at exorbitant prices."-It is believed, however, that those poor people have lately been delivered from this cause of their wretchedness, by the abolition of that most odious and oppreffive monopoly. May Heaven preserve every colony in Africa, especially thofe profeffedly undertaken on humane principles, from the cruel clutches of such unfeeling companies! 235, The natives of Santiago are middle fixed, and almost black, with frizzled hair, and thick lips, like the ugliest ne groes. X. CAPE VERD groes. But, whether the change has been wrought in these CHA P. defcendants of the first Portuguese colonists, by the climate acting on their complexion, for nine generations (300 years) ISLANDS or by intermarriage with negroes, Dr. Forster does not decide. He flates, however, the opinion of Canon Pauw, the Abbé Demanet, and the Count de Buffon, that "the colours of the human species depend principally on the climate *." At present, there are no whites in these islands, except 12 or 15 at Santiago. Even the governors and the priests in the other islands are blacks. The better fort wear ragged European cloaths: the rest seem well pleased with the partial covering of a shirt, a veft, a pair of breeches, or a hat†. Defpotic governors, bigotted priests and the indolence of Caufes of the court of Lisbon, will always keep thofe people more wretched than any community of negroes in Africa. They are rather inclined to floth; and their situation confirms this habit. Beggary alone can protect them from the gripe of tyrants, to increase whose treasures, would be the only effect of their toil. Add to this, that the dry foil is parched up, when the annual rains fail, and famine inevitably suc. ceeds. From these powerful causes, it is reasonable to fuppofe, that the inhabitants are deterred, from marriage *See De Pauw Rech. phil. fur les Americ. T. I. p. 186.-Demanet Nouv. hift. de l'Afr. Fran. T. II. p. 224.-Buffon Hift. Nat. 12mo. T. VI. p. 260.—If I might venture to offer an opinion on a subject so much controverted among the learn ed, I would give it as the refult of my obfervations in Africa, that a black, or a very dark, complexion would be the confequence of whites living within the tropics, after the manner of the natives. But the whites, except perhaps at the Cape Verd Islands, have hitherto lived in tropical countries, cloathed and lodged, as in temperate climates; and therefore the complexions of them and their defcendants have, in general, undergone but little alteration, especially in individuals not much expofed to the fun. + I have been credibly informed, that Rag-fair in London fupplies the Cape Verd Iflands with great quantities of old cloaths. their wretch edness. X. CHA P. which would only bring misery, and perhaps the horrors of flavery, on their offspring*. CAPE VERD 236. After what has been faid, the state of agriculture in these islands cannot be expected to be very flourishing. Agriculture: The valley near Porta Praya fort, however, feems to have fome moisture, and is planted, here and there, with cocoanut-palms, fugar-canes, bananas, cotton, goaves and papaws. But the greatest part of it is over-run with brushwood; and another is left for pasture.-But we may perhaps conclude, that the Cape Verd Islands, in the hands of an active nation, might be cultivated to great advantage. The cochineal plant, some spices, and coffee, would thrive particularly well in this hot, parched climate. These would supply the natives not only with the neceffaries, but the luxuries of life, under the influence of a free and equal government, like that of Great Britain. Exports and manufactures. 237. Such is the substance of our learned voyager's ac * In 1773 and 1774, (as Mr. Forfter was told at the Cape of Good Hope, in 1775) a famine deftroyed multitudes of people, in the Cape Verd Islands. In the midft of this diftrefs, feveral of the natives fold themfelves for flaves to a Dutch captain, who happened to arrive, and who fold them at the C. of G. Hope. But the government there having been informed of it, ordered the captain to redeem them, at his own expense, to carry them back to their own country, and to bring a certificate from the Portuguese governor, importing the execution of these orders. From the dates given by Forfter, I infer that fome of the members of the government to whom this praise worthy action was to be ascribed, were Baron Joachim von Plettenberg, the Governor; M. Hemmy, the second governor; M. von Prehn, the major; and M. Berg, the secretary, gentlemen whom Forster, on another occafion, (V. I. p. 74) mentions as valuable members of fociety, ornaments to their country and friends to mankind; and he gives the fame character of M. Christophel Brand, commander of the poft at False Bay, and of M. Kerste and M. de Wit, who appear to be private gentlemen.-While I was at Goree, in 1787, a vessel arrived from the Cape Verd Islands, which brought accounts that they had been without rain for three years.-The W. Indian Ifland of Antigua once had no rain for 7 years.— Privy Council's Report. count |