History of the World/History of the World (Bureau Development, Inc.)(1992).BIN/dp/0031/00310.txt

Text File | 1992-10-11 | 7KB | 138 lines

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$Title{Australia And The Islands Of The Sea
Chapter XXIII.  Cape Verd Islands And St. Helena.}
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$Author{Larkin, Dunton}
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Title:       Australia And The Islands Of The Sea
Author:      Larkin, Dunton

Chapter XXIII.  Cape Verd Islands And St. Helena.

     The Cape Verd Islands lie three hundred and twenty miles west of Cape
Verd, on the west coast of Africa.  They are ten in number, and have an area
of nearly seventeen hundred square miles.  The population numbers one hundred
and eleven thousand, and only one person out of every twenty is white.

     The surface of the islands is mountainous, some of the peaks attaining a
considerable height.  The volcano of Fogo is over nine thousand feet high.
The soil is of many kinds, and is for the most part fertile.  There are but
few trees and little water, which lack gives rise to frequent distress.  The
climate is very hot.

     The chief vegetables raised are maize, rice, and French beans. Coffee,
which was introduced in the latter part of the eighteenth century, has proved
a great success.  The cotton shrub is native, and indigo grows wild.  There
are many tropical fruits.

     Cattle are extensively reared, and dried and salted provisions form a
large part of the exports.  Asses and mules are the only beasts of burden.
Fowls are so abundant in most of the islands that they are sold for the merest
trifle.  Amber is found on all of the coasts, which are frequented by large
numbers of turtles.

     The natives are a quiet, docile race, but extremely indolent, and their
houses are very filthy.  They are nearly all engaged in agriculture and the
preparation of salt.  There are only a few schools in the archipelago, and the
religion is Roman Catholic.

     St. Helena lies in the South Atlantic Ocean, twelve hundred miles west of
the west coast of South Africa and eighteen hundred miles from the east coast
of Brazil.  Being in the former direct line of the great ocean thoroughfare
from Europe to the East, it became a most important halting station for
vessels making that long voyage.  It has an area of nearly forty-seven square
miles.

     When seen from a distance, it has the appearance of a lofty, pyramidal
mass of dark gray color, rising abruptly from the water and presenting no sign
of vegetation.  On nearer approach, the precipitous and almost inaccessible
coasts become still more striking, particularly on the north, where they rise
almost perpendicularly to the height of from six hundred to twelve hundred
feet.  A number of openings in these precipices form the mouths of narrow
valleys leading gradually to a central plateau, and on the shore of each,
where a landing might be effected, the British government has erected small
forts or other military works for the purpose of making the island a secure
prison.

     Jamestown, the residence of its principal authorities, is situated in one
of these ravines on the northwest coast.  It has an excellent harbor of twelve
fathoms of water and is defended by strong batteries.  It contains the
governor's residence, called "The Castle," three churches, six schools, and
several very fine buildings, beside twenty-nine shops of fair size.  There is
a government garden above the castle, and a botanical garden above the
infantry barracks.

     The central plateau of the island is traversed by a limestone ridge,
dividing it into two unequal portions and attaining, in Diana's Peak near the
center, a height of twenty-seven hundred feet, the greatest elevation in St.
Helena.  The portion lying south of the ridge is the more rugged of the two,
and consists of a succession of hills and peaks, several of which assume
curious and fantastic shapes.

     In this part is situated the craterlike district known as Sandy Bay.
There is little doubt that this great amphitheater was once a volcanic crater.
Crossing it from side to side in parallel lines are great dikes of harder
material.  The great peaks called the "Asses' Ears" look as if they had been
built up of so many distinct prisms.  Lot and Lot's Wife are both formed of
strangely contorted columnar basalt.  Along the coast, in this same part of
the island, there stretches a wall of the same material, which rises to the
height of from fifty to one hundred feet.  The isolated portion of this forms
what is known as the Chimney, a remarkable column sixty-four feet high.

     All kinds of vegetables are raised here.  Of fruits there are peaches,
pears, plums, figs, limes, lemons, all kinds of apples, and many kinds of
berries.  The prickly pear, a large cactus, bears a luscious fruit about three
inches long, which is considered a great delicacy, especially among the poorer
classes.  Fowl and fish are abundant, but fresh meat is hard to obtain.

     Closely linked with the name St. Helena is that of the great emperor,
Napoleon Bonaparte.  Banished from Europe, he was carried to this rock-girt
island, where he spent the last five years of his eventful life in solitude.
The house in which he lived and died has become famous and is visited yearly
by many people.  It is called Old House Longwood, and is a neat, plain, but
not large, structure.  A new house was in process of construction at the time
of the emperor's death.

     Many interesting places are pointed out on this island.  Our attention is
arrested by a signboard bearing these words, - "The road to Napoleon's Tomb."
We take this path, and, after walking about three quarters of a mile, reach
the gate in the hedge of privet which almost surrounds the tomb land.  Passing
this gate we notice a bed of rushes just below the road, and a little farther
on is the house of the keeper.

     In two minutes after leaving the house we are at the tomb.  It is
surrounded by a neat iron railing, fifteen Norfolk Island pines, eighteen
cypress trees, and a young weeping willow, an offshoot of the older tree blown
down several years ago.  At the left is a little well, into which trickles the
water of Napoleon's favorite spring.  We inscribe our name in the visitor's
book, and take our way once more toward the Old House Longwood.

     After proceeding some distance we come to a cottage, just beyond which is
Wood End Gate, so called on account of its being situated at the end of the
"Great Wood" of native gum trees which existed here at the discovery of the
island.  Near this entrance are the police constable's quarters.  Walking up
the avenue, we pass the Magnetic Observatory, now used as a boarding house,
and the New House Longwood, and are at the gate leading to Old House Longwood.
This is opened for us, and we are politely conducted to the room where the
bust of the great conqueror stands in the very place where he breathed his
last.

     Neat flower and vegetable gardens are seen in the inclosure, which is
surrounded with privet.  At the back of the house is the emperor's fish pond,
and a few yards beyond is the signal station, from which every ship coming to
St. Helena is descried, and telegrams are sent to all parts of the island.