lege at all of thefe iflands. We fhall describe them in the order in which they occur.

Ilha Mayo, or the island of Mayo, lies in the 15th deg. Mayo of north latitude, and 22d of longitude from London, land. about nine leagues fouth-fouth-west of Buena-vifta. It is but fmall, being no more than feven leagues in circumference, its form oval, with a variety of sharp rocks and points projecting into the sea above a mile. La Croix, Davity, and Linfchoten, defcribe it with dangerous fhoals and fand-banks round the coaft; notwithstanding which Dampier affirms, that he has coasted it almost in a circle, and yet could never difcover any thing dangerous, befides the promontories, which render it hazardous to fall in at night too clofe with the land. Mayo is raifed confiderably above the fea, but level and plain, except two mountains of confiderable height. The fhore, according to the last mentioned writer, is clear, with fandy bays between the promontories, which afford good anchorage. On the weft fide of the island, where fhips generally drop anchor, there is a large fandy bay, and a fand-bank forty paces wide, running near three miles along thore, within which is a large falt-pond contained between the rifing fhore and the oppofite fand-bank. The whole falt-pond is full two miles in length, and half a mile in breadth, but feldom filled with water. It is the north end which chiefly produces falt, that being never dry, though the water evaporates, and the falts form themfelves for the whole dry feafon; that is, from November to the month. of May. The waters yielding this falt run in from the fea through a natural fluice, or perforation of the sandbank, in all fpring-tides, by which the pond is filled with a greater or smaller quantity of water, in proportion to the height of these tides. Whatever falt happens to remain in the pond, is diffolved by the additional water pouring in at the fluice; but then they begin to fettle again in two or three days, and continue forming into crystals as long as any water remains, or till the next high tide again diffolves them. We are affured by Dampier, who had it from the inhabitants, that the water enters at no other paffage than the fluice we have mentioned, nor at any other feafon but high tides at the new moon; but why that should be, he fays, he cannot conjecture; and we will not spend time in refolving the difficulty. Those who come to load falt, and carry it away for exportation, lay it up in houses on the dry land, be

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fore the waters break in; they obferve, that, contrary to what is remarked of the falt-ponds in the West Indies, the falt cryftallizes here in the dry feafon only, whereas, at Tortuga, the cryftals form in the rainy feafon, and never before fome heavy fhowers have fallen.

Formerly the English drove fo great a trade in this commodity, that a man of war was continually ftationed for the protection of the fhips employed in this article; but we have reafon to believe that either this trade has fince diminished, or that the legislature are lefs regardful of the intereft of commerce than they have been; for this guardship has been laid afide for a number of years. In Dampier's time, no less than a hundred English veffels ufed to frequent the Cape de Verd ports, and chiefly upon the account of this article, which required no other expence than a little labour, and the mere taking it up and conveying it on board, without we except the pittance bestowed on the natives for their affiftance, and the use. of their affes in conveying the falt into boats. As the pond is not above a mile from the fhore, the price of a load is ftated, or rather an afs's labour for a day, at little more than a penny.

The island of Mayo is a dry foil, confifting chiefly of fand, or a loose crumbling ftone, without rivulets, fprings, or any natural moisture, except the dews of the night, and the showers in the wet season, which run off as fast as they fall. In the whole island there is but one spring, and that in the very centre, running off in a small stream through a valley confined by the hills. Hence it is that we may account for the barrennefs of the island, and why it produces no large trees, which can neither fix their roots in fo loose, or draw the neceffary nourishment in fo dry, a foil. The fand-bank that forms the falt-pond produces a fpecies of filk-cotton, that grows on a tender fhrub, about four feet high, in pods of the fize of a small cucumber or bean. This pod, when ripe, opens at one end, and easily feparates into four pieces, the cotton burfting forth at the firft aperture that appears; but however beautiful this production may be to the eye, it is of too delicate a texture, and fhort, to be manufactured or converted into any other ufe than ftuffing pillows, or fome fuch trifling purpofes. The genuine cotton-fhrub grows here likewife, but not in fo large quantities as to make an article of foreign trade; the whole being manufactured and confumed by the inhabitants.

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In Mayo are three fmall towns, in which all the inhabitants of the island are contained. They are incommodioufly fituated, at the diflance of five or fix miles from the road, on the oppofite fide of the island; each having its church and padre, or priest, with a certain ftipend affigned him. The metropolis is called Pinofe, which has two churches and priests, and a confiderable number of mean, fmall, and low huts, but very little fuperior to the Negro hamlets on the continent. The name of the fecond town is St. John, and of the third, Loango; both contemptible for their size, the poverty of the people, and defpicable meannefs of the buildings, which are formed of fig-trees (for the ifland produces no others of any tolerable dimenfions), and the rafters of wild cane.

The chief fruits of Mayo are figs, water-melons, a few citrons and oranges, all of them bad in their kinds, and pumpkins, which ferve the natives for their ordinary diet, together with calavanas, or a fpecies of bean, of which they are fond. Dampier takes notice of no quadrupeds, befides goats, of which he fays a few are bred; and yet we are told by Jurin, Linfchoten, and others, that this animal is so abundant, that flocks of above a thousand together may be feen; befides affes, fmall horses, monkies, and apes; nay, fome cows and bullocks of a small ftature. Of fowls, it produces the flamingo, in fhape refembling a heron, but larger, and of a reddish colour. They delight in fociety, and keep conftantly together in flocks, feeding amidst the mud on the fhore, or by the fides of falt-water ponds. These birds are fhy, difficult to fhoot, build their neft in ponds, of mud, which they collect into a hillock a foot and a half above the furface of the ftagnated water. This little mount they form with a broad base, leaving a hollow at the top, in which they lay their eggs and hatch their young. They fit upon the eggs in a very extraordinary manner, with their long legs upon the ground, and their rumps over the neft, leaning againft the hillock; an ingenious dictate of nature, by which they avoid deftroying the eggs in the neft with their weight. The flamingo never lays more than two eggs, and feldom fewer: the young ones are not able to fly till they are almost fullgrown; a defect which they fupply by the rapidity with which they run. Their flefl, whether old or young, is

lean and black, but fweet and delicious, without the leaft taste of fith, though they live upon them and worms. Their tongues are large, with a piece of fat at the root, that is reckoned luxuriant eating. A difh of flamingoes

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tongues is deemed the moft elegant and delicious of all dainties. Befides the flamingo, Mayo produces a variety of other birds; partridges, curlews, Guinea hens, pigeons, and michotas, a fpecies of land-fowl of the fize of a crow, a green plumage, and fweet flesh. Crufias are another kind of fowl, nearly of the fame fize, seen only in the night, and thence esteemed a kind of owl. The flesh of this animal is reckoned excellent for confumptive patients, after every other remedy has failed. Rabeks, a large grey fowl, efteemed good eating, with a grey plumage, and long legs, refembling a heron, is another fowl common here. Dampier concludes this article with obferving, that the pirates, who had, for many years before his time, greatly infefted thefe iflands, had diminished the number of all animals, and especially of the tame quadrupeds, which they killed for fea-ftore.

The fea is plentifully stocked with a variety of fish, mullets, dolphins, bonettos, fnappers, filver-fish, porpusfes, and a fmall fpecies of whale that commonly vifits the road every day in queft of their prey, during the season that the green turtles lay their eggs.

All the inhabitants of this ifland are Negroes, if we may credit Dampier; though Sanutus, Linfchoten, and La Croix, affirm, that the natives of the Cape Verds in general were defcended of Portuguese parents in their time. At prefent they are fubject to the Portuguese, acknowlege their government, and profefs their religion. They are a ftout, robuft, well-limbed, and active people, though both males and females are rather grofs and bulky, notwithstanding the fimplicity of their diet, which is wholly vegetable, and the poverty of the island. Dampier was told by one of the padres, that the inhabitants amounted to two hundred and thirty fouls, who, in general, appeared a good-natured civil people. They have a Negro governor, who holds his commiffion of the Portuguese governor of St. Jago, and exacts a fmall duty from every captain of a fhip that loads at his falt-pits. The feasons when the fhipping arrive are this officer's harveft; he is often treated on board, and fpends his whole time with the failors, in whofe converfation he delights. As no European nation, befides the English, used to frequent this port, Dampier fays, that their arrival was always expected with impatience, and welcomed with joy, it being

e Linsch, vol. vi. cap. 95. Sanut, & La Croix, loc. citat. Damp. Voy, zd, paffim, tom iv.

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the only means the natives had of procuring a little money and neceffaries, or of living merrily; for, befides their hire for loading the fhips, they likewife made a kind of trade of affes, which the feamen bought to fell again at a high price in Barbadoes and other iflands of the Weft Indies.

Buena-vifta lies north of Mayo, under 15 deg. 56 min. Buenanorth latitude. It is alfo called Bonvifta and Bonnevue; vifta. but the firft is the true appeilation, the others being only abbreviations and corruptions of the original name, which fignifies a good profpect, intimating the beautiful appearance it makes to fhips at fea. This island is reckoned near twenty leagues in circumference, and is diftinguished on the north fide by a ledge of white rocks that bound it. The eaftern coaft, that ftretches caft and north-weft, is terminated with fundry banks to the fea, though the interior part is chiefly mountainous. From the northern point there is a large chain of rocks, projecting near a whole league into the fea, against which the waves break with incredible fury. Another point of rocks ftretches into the fea, on the fouthern point of the island eastward, a league and a half beyond that point; and in this bay is the beft road for fhipping'.

Under the parallel of 17 deg. north, and in the 22d of Ilha del longitude, lies the island called by the Spaniards Ilha del Sal. Sal, or Salt Ifland, ftretching from north to fouth about nine leagues, but not above half a league broad. This whole ifland is full of falt-ponds, where the water cryftallizes into a beautiful falt, the chief production to be met with here, where land is fo barren as to bear no trees, no verdure, except a few inconfiderable fhrubs. Dampier faw hardly a blade of grafs, and no other animals than a few fmall lean goats, which bore all the marks of the poverty of the country; and yet Davity affirms, that, notwithstanding the apparent barrennefs of this ifland, it produces incredible flocks of goats, fome affes, a few fmall horfes, and a great variety of fea-fowls. Perhaps the ravages of the buccaneers might have occafioned their prefent fcarcity. La Croix obferves, that a prodigious number of tortoifes lay their eggs on this ifland, which alone would be fufficient to maintain a number of inhabitants; yet all authors agree, that it is a defolate and defert ifland.