Azores

“ Michael as it is called in English, was mapped, two mountain peaks were marked where later only one could be discovered. Thus it was that the Azores gained their reputation. Islands full of volcanoes amid seas of spouting geysers could be nothing else but enchanted. And islands and mountain peaks which suddenly vanished away from one's sight! Surely the Azores must be the true land of magic. ”

“ I think the Azores must be very little known in America. Out of our whole ship's company there was not a solitary individual who knew anything whatever about them. Some of the party, well read concerning most other lands, had no other information about the Azores than that they were a group of nine or ten small islands far out in the Atlantic, something more than halfway between New York and Gibraltar. That was all. These considerations move me to put in a paragraph of dry facts just here.
The community is eminently Portuguese—that is to say, it is slow, poor, shiftless, sleepy, and lazy. ”

“ The mild airs of the warmer latitudes surprised and delighted those who had only known the moist climate of Britain. As the vessel sailed close to the island of Pico, one of the Azores, the deck was crowded with gazers on the unknown land.
It was the forenoon of a lovely day. The sun shone with radiant splendour on the soaring peak and purple cliffs of Pico. The island seemed to most of those on the ship like some legendary land of fairy lore. They bad never seen any country but England, and they had never before heard even the name of this important-looking place. ”

“ It was the season for fruit when I arrived at the Azores, and there was soon more of all kinds of it put on board than I knew what to do with. Islanders are always the kindest people in the world, and I met none anywhere kinder than the good hearts of this place. The people of the Azores are not a very rich community. The burden of taxes is heavy, with scant privileges in return, the air they breathe being about the only thing that is not taxed. ”

“ Before we had passed the Azores we came in for a terrific gale, which our overladen vessel was in no condition to meet; she speedily sprang a leak, so serious that in a very short time four of the eight furnaces were extinguished and the firemen were toiling at the rest up to their knees in water. For hours we looked for her to founder at any moment, as the gray breakers came rolling upon us, but somehow we managed to keep her afloat, and in due course were ploughing through the sunny waters of New Providence, and came to rest in the pretty harbour of Nassau. ”

“ If Man, or Mayda, were really Corvo or another island of the Azores group, surely someone would have found it out in the course of the fifteenth or sixteenth century, just as it came to be perceived after a time that the Azores had been located too near to Europe and just as Bianco’s duplication of the Azores in 1448 had finally to be rejected. ”

“ Now it is generally known in the Azores that if one does not want to keep up a quarrel it is well to pretend that his mouth is full of water. This is the reason why the people of the islands are so peaceful and happy. ”

“ Speaking in round numbers, we may say that four-fifths of all the species now wild in the Azores are wild also in Europe, from which many of them have been doubtless carried to the Azores by the early settlers. Of the remaining one-fifth, nearly the whole number are peculiar to the Azores, or to the Archipelago of the Atlantic Islands, which includes also Madeira and the Canaries. Some have emigrated to the Azores from the continents of Africa and America. ”

“ The deep-sea soundings show that the vast bulk of land, of which the Azores are the outcroppings, are so connected yet with such ridges, although their crests are below the sea-level; and we know of no other island-mass of the Atlantic that is so united with the continents on both sides of it. ”

“ Soon after passing the Azores, they were overtaken by a terrible tempest, in which the tiny pinnace was tossed about by the waves like a straw. The Golden Hind kept as near her as the rolling billows permitted ”

“ The Spanish navy remained at the Azores till the end of September, to assemble all the fleet together, which in the end amounted to the number of 140 sail in all, including the ships of war and those of the Indies. When all ready to sail, there arose suddenly so violent a storm, that the islanders declared nothing like it had been seen in the memory of man. The sea raged with such fury as if it would have swallowed up the islands, the waves rising higher than the cliffs, so that it was amazing to behold them, and living fish were thrown upon the land. ”

“ The Azores themselves are Grenville's monument, and in the memory of Englishmen are associated for ever with his glorious story. Behind these islands, too, lay Grenville's comrades, the English privateers, year after year waiting for Philip's plate fleet. Behind these islands lay French squadrons waiting for the English sugar ships. They are calm and silent now, and are never likely to echo any more to battle thunder. Men come and go and play out their little dramas, epic or tragic, and it matters nothing to nature. ”

“ FLORES, an island in the Atlantic Ocean, belonging to Portugal, and forming part of the Azores archipelago. Pop. (1900) 8137; area, 57 sq. m. Flores and the adjacent island of Corvo (pop. 806; area, 7 sq. m.) constitute the westernmost group of the Azores, and seem but imperfectly to belong to the archipelago, from the rest of which they are widely severed. They lie also out of the usual track of navigators; but to those who, missing their course, are led thither, Flores affords good shelter in its numerous bays. Its poultry is excellent; and the cattle are numerous, but small. ”

“ The so-called “Fayal wine,” which was largely exported from the Azores in the 19th century, was really the produce of Pico, a larger island lying to the east. The women of Fayal manufacture fine lace from the agave thread. They also execute carvings in snow-white fig-tree pith, and carry on the finer kinds of basket-making. A small valley, called Flemengos, perpetuates the name of the Flemish settlers, who have left their mark on the physical appearance of the inhabitants. (See Azores.) ”

“ A most valuable MS. has been discovered in the Azores. It refers to the colonization, in the year 1500, of the northern part of America, by emigrants from Oporto, Aveiro, and the Island of Terceira. It was written by Francisca de Souza, in 1570. ”

“ Many of the original settlers came from the Azores, and some of the inhabitants are still glad to call themselves Azoreans. It was not until 1822 that it was definitely united with the rest of Brazil, but at that time it was joined to the empire as a separate province. The independent [161] and martial spirit, engendered by the many wars, has made the state very independent, and this has caused it to be turbulent. Quite a good deal of railway construction has been done in the past decade, and this has added to the prosperity of the country by opening up new districts to trade and commerce. ”

“ All the Azores Islands had been colonised in the Iffante's lifetime. As after his death the Guinea coast was revealed in ever-lengthening extent, other adventurers dared to sail further and further westward into the unknown expanses of the Atlantic. The name commonly given among the Portuguese seamen to the object of such voyages was "Antilha,"-a word by some antiquaries derived from the Arabic, though more probably a Compound Portuguese word meaning " opposite island,1' or " island in the distance," and denoting any land expected to be descried on the horizon. ”

“ The province of Saint Paul has been peopled by Portuguese and inhabitants of the Azores from the old world, who have formed alliances with the Gayanazes, a hunting and pacific tribe, and with the Carijos, who are warlike and agricultural. ”

“ I lost my ship off this same island of Flores—a ship that was loaded even to the gunwales with Spanish treasure—and for two weeks I cruised among the Azores in an open boat in search of a vessel to fetch me home to England. I have been ashore on every island in the group, and have lived in Terceira for full three months. ”

“ MRS. WILTON. "The Azores are also called the Land of Falcons, because when discovered there were so many of these birds found tame on the islands. They are 800 miles from the shores of Portugal, and belong to that kingdom. Nature appears everywhere smiling; the plains wave with golden harvests, delicious fruits adorn the sides of the hills, and the towering summits are covered with evergreens. But, as Charles observes, they are volcanic; and many new islands have been raised from the bottom of the sea by volcanic action. ”

“ They inhabit the wooded slopes of Monte Brasil on the island of Terceira. The fisher folk who visit the barren Ilheos de Cabras on the Bay of Angra know that there are fairies living in those rocky isles even yet when the boys and girls of the Azores are sailing away from them to seek their fortunes in America. Have they not often seen the fairy garments spread out upon the rocks in the bright sunshine? ”

“ THE POOR MAN'S WELL.
Among the Azores, is situated the beautiful Island of Fayal, with its orange-groves and profusion of flowers. But, notwithstanding the fruit and flowers, there is one thing which Americans who live there miss sadly, and that is fresh, cool water. There are no lakes or ponds, such as we have here; and so the people have to use rain-water, which they save in large tanks or cisterns. ”

“ Mary, one of the Azores. It is (p. 440) worthy of note that such skilful sailors as the Nina's captain, Vicente Yañez Pinzon, and the pilot Ruiz were so confused in their Cold reception at the Azores. reckoning as to suppose themselves near the Madeiras, whereas Columbus had correctly maintained that they were approaching the Azores,—a good instance of his consummate judgment in nautical questions. [523] From the Portuguese governor of the island this Spanish company met with a very ungracious reception. ”

“ Why do you not see quite such soft richness of colour in the air farther east? There is greater velvetyness of colour here in the Azores than in Madeira, or the west of Spain, or anywhere in the Mediterranean, or the Far East. ”

“ Reeds of enormous size, such as were described by Ptolemy to grow in India, had been picked up, and trunks of huge pine-trees had been driven on the shores of the Azores, such as did not grow on any of those islands. The bodies of two dead men, whose features differed from those of any known race of people, had been cast on the island of Flores. ”

“ Of course, it might have been a much shorter distance had they decided to head almost south-west-by-south, making for the Azores, and stopping there to prepare for another flight across to Newfoundland. Going that way, they would have had the benefit of the general easterly winds. But this did not appeal to Tom and Jack for several good reasons. In the first place, it meant that a landing at the Azores would be reckoned of such importance that it must be heralded far and near. ”

“ The people are very gentlemanly and polite, though I believe they are no more given to hard work than the natives of the mother country. The island is a great resort for invalids, especially those with pulmonary complaints; and the same is true of the Azores. The average temperature is sixty-four degrees. A hot south-west wind, which comes over from the great desert of Africa, sometimes carries the mercury up to eighty degrees, though the heat in summer rarely exceeds seventy. ”

“ They are easily separated by the prows of passing vessels, for they form only a surface layer, nowhere superimposed in thick masses. They disappear altogether to the east of the Azores, abounding mostly in the regions west and south-west of this archipelago, where they stretch across a space of over fifteen degrees of latitude and longitude, covering altogether an area of about 1,200,000 square miles. ”

“ The decided predominance of the European flora is appealed to by those geographers who claim the Azores as a natural dependency of Europe. Hence the term "Western Islands" applied to them by English mariners, as to European lands lying farther west than all others. Even the indigenous species nearly all resemble European types, so that the question arises whether they are to be regarded as independent species, or merely simple varieties gradually transformed by isolation. ”

“ On the boundary line, one hundred miles west of the Azores, the ocean is found still and calm, being scarcely ever moved by a breeze. On my passage from the Canary Islands to the parallel of Sierra Leone, we had to endure a frightful degree of heat, but as soon as we had crossed the above-mentioned line, the climate changed, the air became temperate, and the freshness increased the farther we proceeded. ”

“ The history of the exploration of the Azores, the Canaries, and the Madeira group, before Prince Henry's time, seems to deserve a special notice in this place.
[Pg lxxii] It is pretty certain that the Fortunate Islands of ancient geography were our Canaries. Eudoxus of Cyzicus was said to have discovered off the West African coast an uninhabited island, so well provided with wood and water, that he intended to return there and settle for the winter. ”

“ The stony plateau or platform spoken of is undoubtedly a platform or mound of siliceous sinter, so common to geyser areas.
The Azores mark one of the volcanic centers of the Atlantic Ocean ridge, on which also Iceland lies. The Island of San Miguel, or St. Michael's, has hot springs in all parts, but especially in two places at the West End, in the valley of Furnas. ”