Show NEW AMONG NATIONS facts agrout alie azores to which iia granted autonomy portugal has recognized the american principle of local self government in granting autonomy to the azores and that interesting little community of rather less than three hundred thousand people will soon be legislating for itself doubtless at aggra angra the almost unknown capital of the group the independent blue flag with the white hawk and alie nine stars displayed by the islanders of san miguel when the good news came from lisbon contains a sort of brief history of the group it tells there are nine islands sown thick in the blue mid ocean and that the emblematic hawk reminds the world that the name acor portuguese for hawk was conferred on alie islands because of the great number of those birds found there by the navigator sent out from portugal to take possession of the group one story of that quest is that a dutch merchant being driven out of his course chanced upon the islands and reported them when he touched at lisbon another is that dom henry of portugal having an old map upon which the islands were laid down dispatched gonzalo velho cabral to search for them at any rate the navigator reached the islands in 1433 the very date ascribed to vander bergs adventure and twelve years later took possession of san migual all the nine islands had been rediscovered by 1457 and colonization soon becan |