Page:Africa by Élisée Reclus, Volume 3.djvu/114

 88 WEST AFEICA. tlie whole archipelago, belongs to a single proprietor, whose tenants and retainers number some three thousand. Many estates, however, have gradually passed by inheritance from the first European concessionaries to their half-caste descendants ; hence the land to a large extent now belongs to men of colour, the offspring of slaves in the female line. Although the final measures for the abolition of slavery date only from 1857, the last slave having disappeared in 1876, complete social equality is already established between men of all colours. A certain number of degradadoa, or convicts, are however transported to all the islands except Saint Vincent ; in 1878 they numbered altogether over a hundred. Pursuits, Agriculture, Industries, Trade. During the early period of the occupation the archipelago was utilised almost exclusively for stock-breeding. The cattle, swine, sheep, and especially goats, let loose in the interior increased rapidly, and the first settlers were almost solely occupied in grazing their herds, or capturing the animals that had run wild. The horses, introduced from the Mandingo country, Senegambia, also prospered, and since the middle of the sixteenth century began to be re-exported to the neigh- bouring continent. Although not shod, these horses climb the rocks with a sure foot like goats. The asses, originally from Portugal, resemble those of the mother country, and are almost exclusively used as pack animals. Many that had lapsed into the wild state were hunted down like game during the great famine of 1831, and those that were not taken and eaten died of thirst, so that the race was completely exterminated. The same fate has overtaken the destructive rabbits which had been imported into Sam-Thiago. Notwithstanding the arid appearance of Saint Vincent and some other islands, much of the land has been brought under cultivation, the volcanic soil yielding- excellent crops of all sorts whenever the rainfall is sufficiently copious. The chief cultivated plants are manioc, maize, haricot beans, and especially the Jatropha curcaSy a medicinal plant of such powerful purgative properties that it is no longer used in the European pharmacopoeia. But the seed and oil are still largely exported for industrial purposes. Industry, properly so called, is little developed in the archipelago. The dj-eing of textile fabrics for the Negro populations of the continent is carried on especially in Sam-Nicolau, and Brava produces some lace work and highly esteemed woollen coverlets But the natives have a more natural bent for trade ; every village has its shops, and a brisk interchange of commodities is kept up between all the islands. Boa- Vista, Sal, Maio export salt, building stone, and goatskins, while Santo Antam supplies the neighbouring Saint Vincent with wood and water. International trade is centred almost exclusively in Porto-Grande and Saint Vincent. Topography. — Santo-Antam. Sanfo-Antam (Saint Anthony), the large island of nearly regular quadrilateral shape at the north-west extremity of the semicircular curve, is the privileged