CAPE VERD ISLANDS (Rhas Verdes), a group of islands belonging to Portugal, lying in lat. 14° 45' to 17° 19' n., and long. 22°45' to 25° 25' w., and distant about 320 M. w. of the cape from which they take their name. The principal islands are ten—viz., Santiago, the largest and most important, Fogo, Brava, Maio, Boavista, San Nimbi°, San Antonio, San San Luzia, and Sal. There are besides four islets, barren and uninhabited. The total area is about 1700 sq.m., with a pop. (1872) of 76,000. The islands are all very mountainous, and owe their origin to the action of submarine volcanoes. The highest elevation is reached in a volcanic peak, 9,157 ft. above the sea, on the island of Fogo, and which is still active. The climate is unhealthy during the rainy season. Though water is deficient, vegetation is luxuriant, yielding African and southern European products. Sugar, cotton, coffee, tobacco, and indigo are grown, and the trade in archil, monopolized by government, has in some seasons yielded as much as
.€24,000. Several of the European domestic animals thrive well. Turtles are abundant in the surrounding seas, and whales also are fished by British and American vessels. Amber is found ou the coasts, and great quantities of salt formed by solar evaporation is obtained from the lagunes on the shores, especially on the island of Sal. The inhabi tants, who are mostly negroes, indolent but harmless, speak a corrupted form of Portu guese, called Lingua Crcoula. The revenue for 1874-75 was estimated at about £43,000, and the expenditure for the same year at £42,000. The islands are under a governor general, exercising both civil and military authority-. The chief ports are Porto Praya, on the island of Santiago, and Porto Grande, the best harbor in the whole group, on the island of San Vicente. The islands were discovered about the middle of the 15th c. by the Portuguese, who shortly after colonized them.