St Thomas

St Thomas, a volcanic island of Africa belonging to Portugal, lies in the Gulf of Guinea 170 miles W. of the mouth of the river Gaboon. Its southern extremity almost touches the equator. Measuring 32 miles by 21, it has an area of 360 sq. m.; pop. nearly 20,000, including 1000 whites. Although it rises to the altitude of 6000 feet, it has the reputation of being very unhealthy. Coffee and cocoa, with some pepper, cinnamon, maize, indigo, &c., are the principal products. Chief town, St Thomas (pop. 3000), on the north-east coast, the seat of a bishop. The island was discovered in 1470, and colonised in 1493 by the Portuguese, to whom it reverted after a Dutch occupation from 1641 to 1844. See Crouch, Glimpses of Feverland (1889).