000, as the larger quantity
would amount to 10,000 tons.--E.]

_Santa Maria_, twelve leagues S. of San Michael, is ten or twelve
leagues in circumference, its only trade being in earthen ware, with
which the inhabitants supply the other islands. It also produces
plenty of all manner of provisions for its own inhabitants. The island
of _Gratiosa_, seven or eight leagues N.N.W. of Tercera, is only about
five or six leagues in circumference, but abounds in provisions of all
sorts. _St George_, eight or nine leagues N.W. of Tercera, is
twelve leagues in length by two or three in breadth. This is a wild
mountainous country, producing very little woad. The inhabitants
subsist by cultivating the ground and keeping cattle, and export
considerable quantities of cedar to Tercera. _Fayal_, seven German
leagues S.S.W. of St George, is seventeen or eighteen leagues in
circumference, and is the best of the Acores, after Tercera and San
Michael. This island has plenty of woad, with abundance of fish,
cattle, and other commodities, which are exported to Tercera and the
other islands. Its chief town is called _Villa Dorta_. Most of the
inhabitants of this island are descended from Flemings, but now speak
the Portuguese language; yet they continue to love the Flemings, and
use all strangers kindly.

Three leagues S.E. of Fayal is the island of _Pico_, so called from
a peaked mountain, which some believe to be higher than the Peak of
Teneriffe. The inhabitants cultivate the soil, and have plenty of
cattle and other provisions, growing also better wine than in any
other island of the Acores. This island is about fifteen leagues in
circumference. Seventy leagues W.N.W. from Tercera is the island of
_Flores_, and to the N. of it lies _Corvo_, the former about seven,
and the latter not above two or three leagues in circumference.
They both produce woad, especially Flores, which also abounds in
provisions. The winds at all these islands are so strong, and the air
so piercing, especially at Tercera, that they in a short time spoil
and consume the stones of the houses, and even iron.[6] They have a
kind of stone, however, that is found within high-water mark, which
resists the air better than the other sorts, and of which the fronts
of their houses are generally built.

[Footnote 6: This effect on the iron is obviously occasioned by
the muriatic acid in the sea spray; and were it not that the author
expressly says they have no lime, one woul