dings, there being no less than three
convents of men and two of women, and eight churches, including those
belonging to the convents, and the one in the Jesuits' college. This
college is a fine structure, and is situated on an elevation in the
pleasantest part of the city. Since the expulsion of that order, it has
been suffered to go to decay, and will probably, in a few years, be no
better than a heap of ruins.

Fayal, although the most noted for wines, does not raise sufficient for
its own consumption. This article is raised on Pico, where there is no
road for shipping; but being brought to De Horta, and from thence
shipped abroad, chiefly to America, it has acquired the name of Fayal
Wine.

The bay, or road of Fayal, is situated at the east end of the isle,
before the Villa de Horta, and facing the west end of Pico. It is two
miles broad, and three quarters of a mile deep, and hath a semi-circular
form. The depth of water is from twenty to ten and even six fathoms, a
sandy bottom, except near the shore, and particularly near the S.W.
head, off which the bottom is rocky, also without the line which joins
the two points of the bay, so that it is not safe to anchor far out. The
bearing before mentioned, taken when at anchor, will direct any one to
the best ground. It is by no means a bad road, but the winds most to be
apprehended, are those which blow from between the S.S.W. and S.E.; the
former is not so dangerous as the latter, because, with it, you can
always get to sea. Besides this road, there is a small cove round the
S.W. point, called Porto Pierre, in which, I am told, a ship or two may
lie in tolerable safety, and where they sometimes heave small vessels
down.

A Portuguese captain told me, that about half a league from the road in
the direction of S.E., in a line between it and the south side of Pico,
lies a sunken rock, over which is twenty-two feet water, and on which
the sea breaks in hard gales from the south. He also assured me, that of
all the shoals that are laid down in our charts and pilot-books about
these isles, not one has any existence but the one between the islands
of St Michael and St Mary, called Hormingan. This account may be
believed, without relying entirely upon it. He further informed me, that
it is forty-five leagues from Fayal to the island of Flores; and that
there runs a strong tide between Fayal and Pico, the flood setting to
the N.E. and the ebb to the S.W., but that, out at sea