He replied that salt was indeed an acceptable commodity with
the poor people, but that if I designed to buy any cattle I must give
money for them. I contented myself with taking in dunghill-fowls: the
governor ordering a crier to go about the town and give notice to the
people that they might repair to such a place with fowls and maize for
feeding them where they might get salt in exchange for them: so I sent on
board for salt and ordered some of my men to truck the same for the fowls
and maize while the rest of them were busy in filling of water. This is
the effect of their keeping no boats of their own on the several islands,
that they are glad to by even their own salt of foreigners for want of
being able to transport it themselves from island to island.
St. Jago Town lies on the south-west part of the island in latitude about
15 degrees north, and is the seat of the general governor and of the
bishop of all the Cape Verde Islands. This town stands scattering against
the sides of two mountains, between which there is a deep valley, which
is about 200 yards wide against the sea; but within a quarter of a mile
it closes up so as not to be 40 yards wide.
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