THE AZORES 



397 



The islands were discovered between 1432 (Santa Maria) and 1452 

 (Flores), and the early settlers displayed much energy in clearing 

 the forests. Goats, hogs, and cattle were soon introduced, and they 

 doubtless effectively assisted man in " the rapid and total extinction 

 of these grand denizens of the forest, and with them probably of 

 interesting plant and insect life " (Walker, p. 25). It is stated 

 that as early as 1526 the coasts of San Miguel were all under cultiva- 

 tion, and that sixteen parishes and six villages had been founded. 

 According to the Traveller's Guide to Michael's, by F. S. Mayor (pp. 18, 

 19, Ponta Delgada, 1911), from which the facts just quoted have been 

 taken, the earliest cultivation was of cereals and sugar-cane, the latter 

 succumbing in 1560 to disease. From 1520 to 1640 great quantities 

 of the Woad plant (Isatis tinctoria) were raised and exported ; and, 

 as we learn from the same authority, flax was cultivated between 

 1750 and 1764. In Linschoten's time (about 1589) the inhabitants 

 of San Jorge, as they do at present, chiefly raised cattle and conveyed 

 their produce to the islands near (see Purchas). One can imagine 

 the extensive importation of weeds that must have been involved 

 in the endeavours of the earlier colonists to develop the resources 

 of the group. 



In the course of time, so rapidly was the clearing of the woods 

 effected in the more populous islands, like San Miguel and Terceira, 

 that they began to look to the other islands for their timber. Thus 

 Flores supplied Terceira with " cedars," and Pico seems to have been 

 from the earliest days of the occupation a source of timber for the 

 neighbouring islands. Some of the most valuable woods were sent 

 to Portugal in these early times. Thus Dr. Webster, whose descrip- 

 tions of St. Michael was published in 1821, states that considerable 

 quantities of " the wood of Pico," apparently a species of yew, 

 were formerly sent to Lisbon, where it was manufactured into work- 

 tables, desks, etc. 



Whilst the earlier colonists despoiled their timber forests for 

 erecting their houses, churches, and for similar purposes, they also 

 employed the timber for firewood. Linschoten writes that in his 

 day, namely, in the latter part of the sixteenth century, the wood 

 of the " cedar " (Juniper) " is the commonest wood that they use 

 to burne in those Countries, whereby it is the wood that with them 

 is least esteemed, by reason of the great quantity thereof " (Purchas, 

 vol. 18, p. 366). This practice has continued down to more recent 

 times. The Bullars state that the " small stunted cedars " were 

 so common on Flores in their time (1839) that their wood was used 

 for heating the ovens, the pleasant smell from the cedar smoke 

 of the cottage fires being noticeable outside the houses. In Pico 

 at the present day the wood of the Juniper is extensively employed 

 for the staves and bottoms of the milk buckets. 



The need of fuel through the centuries and the requirements for 

 fruit-boxes in later times have sealed the fate of the original forests. 

 The demands of the fruit-trade were so great that at the time of 

 which Walker wrote, about 1880, trees fifty years old were seldom 

 met with on San Miguel. Those demands have passed away with 

 the trade; but the need for fuel is of course insistent. Pico has 

 been for generations the principal source of fuel for the neighbouring 



