SAN MIGUEL. 
33 
epidemic, we took our course on the following day through the channel between Fayal and 
Pico, and, after another sail over the blue summer seas, arrived on the 4th July off Ponta 
Delgada, the capital of the island of San Miguel, and the commercial centre of the Azores. 
SAN MIGUEL. 
There is not much in the first view of this port to attract special attention: an old- 
fashioned fort commanding the harbour, whence proceeds the annual fleet of small vessels 
with supplies of oranges for England, and a few church towers of no particular style 
of architecture. What, perhaps, took us most by surprise, was to hear the sound of a steam- 
whistle and the jet of a locomotive proceeding from the works of the new breakwater then in 
process of construction. 
Ponta Delgada and its vicinity, however, can boast of several gardens laid out with 
all the skill of the modern horticulturist, and combining the products of almost every clime. 
Of late years some of the wealthier residents had made successful efforts to introduce trees 
PONTA DELGADA, SAN MIGUEL. 
from Europe, America, and even from Australia and Japan, as the careless inhabitants of the 
island had almost stripped it of its native vegetation. Amongst recent introductions we 
noticed the Australian gum-tree, which seems to flourish in its new home. Behind the town 
rises a range of hills whose conical shape and occasionally eccentric outlines betray their 
volcanic origin. Although untold ages must have gone by since these islands rose from the sea, 
the date of the latest eruptions is too recent to encourage the comfortable hope that the ancient 
fires are extinct. In the year 1591 an earthquake, which lasted twelve days, destroyed the 
