country, over and above the expenses of the Colonial Government. This
revenue comes chiefly from the duties levied upon all imported articles,
and from the orchilla trade, which is monopolized by the Government at
home, and produces 50,000 dollars per annum. Another source of profit is
found in the tithes for the support of the Church, which, in some, if not
all the islands, have been seized by the Government (under a pledge for
the maintenance of the clergy), and are farmed out annually. These islands
supply the Portuguese with a place of honorable exile for officers who may
be suspected of heresy in politics, and hostility to existing
institutions. They are advanced a step in rank, to repay them (and a poor
requital it is) for the change from the delicious climate of Portugal, and
the gaieties of Lisbon, to the dreary solitude, the arid soil, and burning
and fever-laden air of the Cape de Verds. It is a melancholy thought, that
many an active intellect--many a generous and aspiring spirit--may have
been doomed to linger and perish here, chained, as it were, to the rocks,
like Prometheus, merely for having dreamed of kindling the fire of liberty
in their native land.

22.--We have spent some days at Porto Praya, the capital of St. Jago, the
largest of the Cape de Verd islands; whence we sail to-day. A large part
of the population is composed of negroes and mulattoes, whose appearance
indicates that they are intemperate, dissolute, and vile. The Portuguese
residing here are generally but little better; as may be supposed from the
fact, that most of those who were not banished from Portugal, for
political or other offences, came originally to engage in the slave-trade.

Going ashore to-day, we beached the boat, and a large negro, with a ragged
red shirt, waded out and took me on his shoulders. There is no position so
absurd, nor in which a man feels himself so utterly helpless, as when thus
dependant on the strength and sure-footedness of a fellow-biped. As we