“ISLANDERS ON VERGE OF RUIN.
Drought and Famine Have Devastated the Cape Verde Islands, and the In- habitants Are Starving.
Further details were obtained yesterday concerning the terrible famine now raging throughout the Cape Verde Islands, following an unprecedented drought and consequent failure of crops. The brigantine St. Thiago, Capt. Francisco Olivera, from Praia, the chief town of the Island of St. Thiago and seat of the Portuguese Island Government, brings the news that not a drop of rain has fallen on any of the ten islands of the group for more than two years. At last the once blossoming and fertile lands have been reduced to barren wastes, on which dire want and suffering have afflicted the inhabitants in varying degrees for months, until at last the limit has been reached, and now the peasants, never greatly blessed with riches, are dying by scores daily of actual starvation.”
