THE DESERTED ISLANDS 11 



revenue which the gathering of Orehilla moss 

 (a once i'amous dye product) might yield. 



These islands were first occupied in the 

 fifteenth century, and used mainly for pastoral 

 purposes, as is shown by this extract from Hakluytfs 

 Voyages, as quoted from the letters of Thomas 

 Nicols, an Englishman, in 1526 : 



" On the East side of the He of Madcra sixe 

 leagues distant standeth another litle Hand called 

 the Desert, which produce th oncly Orchcll, and 

 nourisheth a great number of Goates, for the 

 provision of the maine Hand." 



A great cloud-burst destroyed the few farms 

 and the old Chapel of Deserta Grande over a 

 century ago, and drove away the inhabitants with 

 their flocks and herds. Ever since then the 

 islands have been left to wild goat and sea-gull, 

 which haunt crag and crest of their wall-like cliffs, 

 and to the seals, which live deep down in caves 

 where the sea breaks over a rocky shore. 



There are three islands in the Dcsertas, and 

 while all arc precipitous, they differ much in size. 

 The most easterly, Chaon, about half a mile long, 

 is flat topped, and some SCO feet high. Deserta 

 Grande, the central island, nearly 12 miles long, 

 rises to a height of 1500 feet in the centre, sloping 

 to 600 or 700 feet at either end, by an open valley 

 westwards, and a sharp saddleback to the east. 

 Bugio, the eastern island, though called Monkey's 

 Back, resembles a crocodile's more closely. It is 

 some 7 miles long, and rises in a line of sheer 

 cliffs from the sea. 



