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Show V v V In the a. 'Jk AZJLKt5 :mt i Loading Azores Beef for Portugal. : Tcurlsis Find Many Interesting j Things in the Azores Islands j Prepared bv National Geographic Soeiet: Washington. D. C WKU Service. IT IS an interesting trip to visit the seven islands of the Azores, northwest of Sao Miguel. Sailing at 9 in the evening, you anchor at dawn in the little harbor of Angra do Heroismo, on the island of Terceira. This attractive, at-tractive, historic old town, hemmed in by green hills, nestles at the head of an oval bay. From the firft, Terceira (third Island to be discovered) has been the home of explorers and warriors. war-riors. In 1474 half of the island was given by the crown to Joao Vaz Corte-Real as a reward for his voyage voy-age to Terra Nova dos Bacalhaus (New Land of Codfish: Newfoundland). Newfound-land). He was the first European except the Vikings, so the Portuguese Portu-guese affirm, to set foot on New World soil. You see the house Corte-Real built and the church Vhere he lies. In the same church is the tomb of Paulo da Gama, second sec-ond in command on the first voyage to India, who fell ill on the way home and was put ashore here, while his brother, Vasco, sailed on to Lisbon to receive the highest honors his king could bestow. Other brave mariners sailed from Terceira to the Far West, one of whom is credited in Portuguese annals an-nals with the discovery of Labrador. Although some historians question the voyages of the father, two sons of Corte-Real, Gaspar and Miguel, are known to have sailed from Angra An-gra do Heroismo, but they did not return. In the town hall you are shown a sealed box presented to the city by Prof. Edmund B. Delabarre, of Brown university, who some years ago deciphered, on a rock by a Massachusetts river, a worn inscription in-scription which he translated: I "Miguel Corte-Real, by the grace of God, chief here of the Indians, ; 1511." The box in the town hall contains I soil from a spot near this rock. It is quite possible that Christopher Chris-topher Columbus, while on a visit to his brother-in-law, governor of Graciosa, the island next door to Terceira, profited by tales told him by early Azorian voyagers who had sailed west and returned. Islanders Were Good Fighters. In the Sixteenth century, men of Terceira put up a splendid fight against the invading Spaniards. When their stronghold fell, Philip II made it his bulwark against British sea rovers. Angra received the handle "do Heroismo" to its name when, a century ago, it sent troops to Portugal Por-tugal to win battles for Dom Pedro IV (who was Dom Pedro I, emperor emper-or of Brazil) against his brother, Dom MigueL In the massive fortress built by Philip II. political prisoners are now held. During the World war German Ger-man residents of Portugal were brought here. The leading export from the Azores to the United States is em- broidery of the Madeira type, made ; by the women of Terceira. I This is the only island of the Azores where bullfights are held, j These are in the Portuguese fash-I fash-I ion no bulls killed and line horsemanship horse-manship displayed. In Angra do Heroismo is one of i the Azorian meteorological stations, j These stations are the watchdogs of the mid-Atlantic, warning ships of approaching storms, sending ! word to craft on the distant coast of Morocco of the coming of the houle, that strange wave which rises between Iceland and the Azores and sweeps across the ocean. I After motoring to the landing Held for airplanes on a plateau four miles from the city, and to Praia da Vitoria, across the island, with one of the finest natural harbors in the Azores, you sail on. i Graciosa from the sea is not as attractive as its neighbors, but does its part agriculturally in spite of shortage of water, producing wine, cereals, and oattle. The Azorian i donkeys arc bred here. In the hot-j hot-j torn of its rock-strewn crater is a large cave with a fresh-water lake. J Albert, prince of Monaco, who did : much scientific work in the seas of these northern islands, describes it j as "a unique miracle of Nature." I Sao Jorge is beautiful and wood- j ed; its pastures are famous in the archipelago. In the port of Vila j das Velas there is a statue to the memory of a native of the island who "struck oil" in California and left money for the sick and poor of his boyhood home. Pico's Wines and Cattle. Pico, whose imposing volcanic peak rises 7,821 feet above the sea, is poorly watered and raises its vines in an unusual way. In rifts in the old lava flow, lupine is placed to decompose, and in this improvised im-provised soil the young vines are planted. Pico wine is stronger in alcoholic content than other Azorian wines. The men of Pico are famous whalers. whal-ers. There are lookouts on the hilltops,' hill-tops,' and when the call, "Baleia! Baleia!" rings out, the specially built boats are swiftly launched, towed nowadays by a motorboat, and off they go to chase the giant of the deep. Harpoons, thrown by hand, are used, and spears when the exhausted whale is at last brought alongside a combat requiring courage cour-age and skill. It is interesting to watch the loading load-ing of cattle at Caes do Pico, future beefsteaks for Lisbon. At all of the Azorian ports you anchor offshore. The cattle are rowed out in barges, 10 or 12 to a barge. A broad sling is placed under an animal, a rope tied fore and aft to prevent kicking, and, by means of a cable from the ship securely hooked to the sling, j the creature is hoisted aboard most humanely. The conical mountain of Pico, the j glory of the Azores, is best seen j from the island of Fayal, separated j from Pico by a channel about four miles wide. In winter it wears a mantle of snow. You see it pearly gray, with a girdle of floating clouds; clear and blue, sharply outlined out-lined against the sky; glowing rose, fading to mauve and deepest purple against a star-spangled background a never-to-be-forgotten sight. No other volcanic pea.k appears so seagirt sea-girt and isolated as this queen of the North Atlantic. Cable Station at Horta. Horta, on the island of Fayal, is a town well known to Americans in the days of New England windjammers windjam-mers and whalers. It is the seat of the oceanic cable stations. In one building six companies British, German, Italian, French and two American are housed. They transmit, trans-mit, through many systems of channels, chan-nels, messages to stations in North America, Europe, and South Africa, and, by interconnection, to every part of the world. Four staffs do the work of relaying. In the center cen-ter of the building is a four-way window through which messages, mainly in code, are passed. Thus, should Jones and Jenks of New York cable to their Rome representative, represen-tative, the message, received by one of the two American companies, com-panies, is handed through the window win-dow and a moment later is being received in Italy. It is a night's sail from Fayal to the jagged rock of Corvo, a single extinct volcano which thrusts only its head above the sea. Corvo's 700 hardy sons and daughters, daugh-ters, whose home is lashed in winter by the sea in its fury, are isolated for weeks at a time, even from their only near neighbors on the island is-land of Flores, 12 miles away. In spite of hard work and exposure, they are a sturdy lot, living a simple, sim-ple, contented life. Flores is the most beautiful of all the islands. Water is so plentiful that streams cascade into the sea. The hedges of blue hydrangeas, the floral wonder of the Azores, are at their best from July to September on nearly all the islands, growing to a height of 10 to 20 feet. In Flores trails are actually cut through tunnels of these sky-blue blossoms. Masses of golden broom drape the cliffs. The island is without with-out roads, but one is soon to be constructed. |