The Beautiful São Miguel Island, Azores.
In 1427, São Miguel became the second of the islands discovered by Gonçalo Velho Cabral to be settled by colonists from continental Portugal. This date is uncertain, as the island was believed to have been discovered between 1426 and 1437 and inscribed in portolans from the middle of the 15th century. Father Gaspar Frutuoso later recorded its discovery in the seminal history of the Azores, Saudades da Terra, as he began: "This island of São Miguel where...we are, is mountainous and covered in ravines, and it was, when we discovered it, covered in trees...due to its humidity, with its water showers and ravines warm with sun..."
It was sometime after the initial settlement of Povoação Velha (on the southeastern coast) that (between 1439 and 1444) a volcanic eruption occurred in the crater of Sete Cidades (then uninhabited). There are no records of the precise date. Still, Gaspar Frutuoso noted that navigators returning to São Miguel (soon after its discovery) encountered the western part of the island completely changed and tree trunks and pumice stone floating in the waters around the island. After docking in Povoação, the settlers reported feeling tremors and aftershocks; "...those settlers living in their earthen holes of straw and hay heard almost within a year a great loud noise, roars and snorts that came from the earth with large tremors still proceeded the subversion and fire from the peak that had disappeared."
These photos were taken during my vacation in August 2024. I used my Canon T3 EOS with an 18-55mm Lens and a 55-250mm long-range zoom equipped with an image stabilizer.
