BONAVISTA, or BUENA-VISTA, tile most east ern of the Cape de Verd Islands, discovered in 1450, is about 24 miles long, and 15 miles broad. There are two bays which are frequented by vessels. One of them, called the English Bay, is very spacious, but 6 has numerous shallows. The other, which is called the Portuguese Bay, though less commodious for de ) barkation, has the advantage of being near the town, and has nothing_injprious to shipping but its banks.
The productions of Bonavista are, salt, indigo, and cotton. Those who come here for salt receive it from the mines, and carry it a little distance to a proper 'Tor drying .it. The inhabitants then convey it to the ship by means of asses, which tra vel in troops of 15 each, every troop being under the charge of a negro.
The indigo, which grows without cultivation, is gathered by the inhabitants ; but they have :rot the art of separating the dye, and of making what in the West Indies is called blue stone. They satisfy them selves with bruising the green leaves in a wooden mortar. They next form it into a kind of paste,
of which they make round balls, that arc dried for .use.
Though the cotton tree grows naturally on the island, yet its culture is greatly neglected by the na tives. They never think of collecting it till some vessel arrives to purchase it. Roberts maintains, that the island could furnish annually the eargo of a large vessel ; and he informs us, that in some years, when it has failed in the other islands, it has been in great abundance in Bonavista.
The surface of the island is low towards the sea, but hilly in the interior, particularly towards the north-east, where there is a hill, probably volcanic, from its resembling a truncated cone. There is still a higher hill in the south-west. The soil is sandy and uncultivated, and the inhabitants live on fish, goats, turtle, and milk. W. Long. 22° 47', N. Lat. 16° 6'. (Q)