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1605 - 1611 Famine conditions in Santiago are compounded by
smallpox and a plague of blood sucking flies which torments both humans
and livestock.
1620 English settlers aboard the ship Mayflower arrive in America
and establish the Plymouth Colony.
1620s English codfishers begin to routinely call at Maio and Sal
to take on salt before sailing on to the rich fishing grounds off of
Newfoundland, Canada. So many English flag vessels came that Vila
do Maio became known as Porto Inglez. About 80 vessels per year
were engaged in the salt trade.
1623 Authorities in Vila de Ribeira Grade on Santiago petition
the Crown not to appoint a Royal Governor for Cape Verde. Lisbon
responded that "the people are revolutionary, there are cases of
homicide and other crimes, and that the natives which are many would
assassinate the whites which are few and become heads of the government
and will govern". (Barcelos, Subsidios para a historia de Cabo
Verde e Guine, parte 1, p. 228).
1634 Mathias DeSouza described as a mulatto and an indentured
servant to Jesuit priests was among a group of six African passengers
to land at the colony of St. Mary's, Maryland aboard the Ship
Arc. After working off his indenture, DeSouza was a translator for
the colonists in their dealings with local Native peoples. Later
DeSouza piloted his own ship. In 1642, DeSouza was elected to
serve in the Maryland General Assembly. There is sufficient reason
to assume that he may have been a Cape Verdean. (Maryland Hall of
Records).
1643 Massachusetts Bay colonist Jonathan Winthrop records in his
journal that a ship out of Boston carrying boat staves for sale in
England made a voyage to the Island of Maio in Cape Verde and there
purchased "Africoes" which were then taken to Barbados and sold to
purchase molasses for shipment to Boston rum producers. This is the
first recorded incidence of the infamous "triangular" Atlantic slave
trade.
1652 The capital of Cape Verde is moved from Vila de Ribeira
Grande to a more militarily defensible location at Praia.
1654 With the restoration of the Portuguese monarchy and the
recovery of the Portuguese empire in Brazil a dramatic reduction in
trade between the merchants of Portugal and the Islands followed.
Hard currency (gold and silver coin) was drained away. The royal
government refused to raise the value of money in circulation. The
Royal monopoly system in the slave trade, transportation and produce
stifled even the smallest local initiatives. A policy of disinterest
and neglect would characterize Portuguese colonialism in Cape Verde
for the next three hundred years.
The island of Fogo distinguished itself as the only Portuguese
territory that never flew the Castellan flag. As a reward the village
of Sao Filipe was give the administrative status of cidade (city)
after Portugal regained its throne from Spain in 1640.
1680 Earthquake and volcanic eruptions in Fogo force many people
to abandon their homes and relocate on Ilha Brava. The Pico volcano
on Fogo (2,829m / 9,281 feet high) has a crater of less
than 500m in diameter and 180m deep). The volcano on Fogo
would be almost continuously active from the time of Portuguese
settlement in the early 1500s to 1760.
1680 The barafula was the unit of exchange in the Cape Verde
islands and on the Guinea coast. An ordinary Cape Verdean cloth was
known as a barafula; one standard iron bar could be traded for two
barafula cloths.
A single goat skin selling for between 160 and 300 reis in the
Cape Verdes could be marketed in Boston for the equivalent of 600
reis (Duncan 1972:171 in Meintel).
Three Spanish Capuchin priests in Bissau (1683-86) were
ejected in favor of Portuguese Franciscans at the behest of a local
Portuguese priest, on the grounds that the Spaniards had not
attempted to form commercial ties with local groups but had "only"
tried to convert them. (Rodney 1970:143)
1687 (January 23) Decree of the Portuguese Crown prohibits
the sale of the Cape Verdean-produced cotton body cloths (panos) to
foreigners under penalty of death.
1690 The Governor reported that several years of drought had
claimed some 4,000 victims, most of them slaves (Duncan
1972: 235-36).
1693 The cathedral at Ribeira Grande is dedicated. Most of the
building's exterior stone work was transported from Portugal as
ship's ballast over many decades. The long delay in completing the
construction suggests a lack of civic spirit and interest in religious
matters. The Bishop of Bahia (Brazil) described the population of
Ribeira Grande in 1552 as "richer in money than in virtue".
Padre Antonio Vieira, the famous Portuguese literary figure of the
era, stopped in Ribeira Grande en route to Brazil. In a sermon in
the Cathedral he said that "the local [Afro-Portuguese] priests
are as black as coal [azeviche] but they are well behaved,
knowledgeable and well versed ...and would be the envy of the priests
of our Cathedral [in Portugal]".
It would take the Bishop of Cape Verde until the 1720s before a
pastoral visit would be scheduled to the West African coast. It
would take until 1975 and the independence of Cape Verde before
the Catholic Church would appoint a Cape Verdean to serve as Bishop
of Cape Verde.
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