We don't pay them for their salt, but for
the labour of themselves and their beasts in lading it: for which we give
them victuals, some money, and old clothes, namely hats, shirts, and
other clothes: by which means many of them are indifferently well rigged;
but some of them go almost naked. When the turtle season comes in they
watch the sandy bays in the night to turn them; and having small huts at
particular places on the bays to keep them from the rain, and to sleep
in: and this is another harvest they have for food; for by report there
come a great many turtle to this and the rest of the Cape Verde Islands.
When the turtle season is over they have little to do but to hunt for
guinea-hens and manage their small plantations. But by these means they
have all the year some employment or other; whereby they get a
subsistence though but little else. When any of them are desirous to go
over to St. Jago they get a licence from the governor and desire passage
in any English ship that is going thither: and indeed all ships that lade
salt here will be obliged to touch at St. Jago for water, for here at the
bay is none, not so much as for drinking.
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