“No,” said Mr Lavie, who was standing near them. “Their name has nothing to do with forests or grass-fields. There is a mass of weed on the other side of the group, extending for a long distance over the sea, which is something like a green meadow to look at—that’s the meaning of the name. There are very few woods on any of the islands, and this one in particular produces hardly anything but salt.”
“They belong to the Portuguese, don’t they?” asked Frank.
“Yes; the Portuguese discovered them three centuries and a half ago, and have had possession of them ever since. Portuguese is the only language spoken there, but there are very few whites there, nevertheless.”
“Why, there must be a lot of inhabitants,” remarked Ernest, his eye resting on the villages with which the shores were studded.
“Yes, from forty to fifty thousand, I believe. But they are almost all of them half-breeds between the negroes and the Portuguese.”
“Well, I suppose there’s some fun to be had there, isn’t there?” inquired Frank.
“And something to be seen?” added Warley.
“And first-chop grub?” wound up Gilbert. “There’s plenty to see at Porto Prayo,” returned Mr Lavie. “The town, Ribeira Grande they call it, is curious, and there are some fine mountain passes and grand views in the interior. As for grub, Master Nick” (for this sobriquet had already become young Gilbert’s usual appellative), “there are pretty well all the fruits that took your fancy so much at Madeira—figs, guavas, bananas, oranges, melons, grapes, pine-apples, and mangos—and there’s plenty of turtle too, though I’m not sure you’ll find it made into soup. But as to fun, Frank, it depends on what you call fun, I expect—”
“Let us go ashore,” interrupted Nick, “and we shall be safe to find out lots of fun for ourselves. It would be jolly fun, in itself, to be walking on hard ground again, instead of these everlasting planks. I suppose, as these islands belong to the Portuguese, and we’ve no quarrel with them, the skipper will go ashore, and allow the passengers to do so too?”
“He’ll go ashore, no doubt,” said a voice close at hand; “but he won’t let you go, I’ll answer for that.”