Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1889-12-14
AZORE ISLE SCENES
spIendidly Pictured by E, L, Wake
man, Who Writes From Fayal.
PICO AND ITSMOUNTAIN GRANDEUR
A Slender Black Rising From the Sea and
Having White Bands.
SOLITUDE IN MOST TAKING ASPECTS



right AFTER voyage of four days from
ST. Michael in little Portuguese trading
coaster, during which we had touched at the
port of Augrs, in the Island OF Terceira,
and Vellas, in the Island of st. George. 1
finally debarked at Horta, the capital city
of the Island of Fayal, and at once made
preparations to cross to the near Island Of
Pico, whose famous mountain of the same
name was desirous of ascending.
The Azorean island of Terceira is SO
named iron its having been the third in the
order of discovery. 1t has about $50 square
miles and a population of nearly &C, 900 souls.
There are few mountain heights or ocean
hesdlands of impressive picturesqueness,
none furnishing scenic views of grandeur,
but within its 20 miles Of coast line are
many noble pIateaus often reaching eleva-
tions of 5000 and &, 900 feet above the sea.
Terceira, however enjoys few distinctive
superiorities, from the Azorean standpoint.
1t has always been the most loyal to the
Portuguese crown. No less than three Portu-
guese rulers have made this island their
temporary residence, and fine monuments in
token of the fact have been erected. The
capital and chief port, Angra, possesses the
aristocracy of the Azores. Titles are COM
mon as donkeys in Angra. Then, too, its
streets are more modern; its public build
ings handsomer; its whitewash and paints
are whittier, bluer, pinker or yellower than
elsewhere in the Azores; and to crown all,
the city is the only one in the islands which
boasts an enclosure for the fiesta de touros, or
bull fight
The Island of st. George is complete con-
trast in many respects to Terceira. Its area
is perhaps 80 square miles and it has pop
ulation of fully 1900 souls. Topograph-
ically considered, it is the most interesting
of the entire Azoresn group, save perhaps
Pico, which only surpasses 1t in the extraor-
binary height of its single tremendous
mountain. It's coastline of some 20 or 80
miles faces on the southwest of both Fayal
and Pico, and is one of the most impressive
sea walls 1 ever beheld.
INCOMPATIBLE PALISADES.
Anyone who has caughthalfviewst through
a shifting Quoddy fog of the northern sheer
hesdlands of the grim island of Grand
Manan, of our northeasternmost Maine
coast, cah form an excellent idea of this
mighty mass of beadlands which for hall
q days sail confronts one from the Azo-
rean Sea. They are mlghtier, vaster and
incomparably more grim and weird than
Mansn's dark northern heights, for, with
scarcely break, here are almost precip-
itous heights rising not 800 and 400 feet
above the waves, but from 800 to 500 feet
Nellas, the chief city, or rather hamlet, lies
like beggar In the sun beneath these
heights, with volcanoes behind, not 90 long
ago extinct but there remain evidences of
their destructive belchings which once all
but annihilated the near hamlet of Ursu-
lima. Vellas is antiquated, woebegone,
slothful. Its cathedral and hospital are the
only two structures at all noteworthy; the
people of the island are lazily engaged in
agriculture, fishing and Wrecking; and the
peasants, who are most picturesque in dress
and manners, are as primitive in all meth
DDS of labor as were the Moors when in
Spain and Portugal, from whom the inhabi-
tants are said to have sprung. and to whom
they bear strong facial resemblance.
The Island of Pico, with an area of 80
square miles and from $4,000 to 2S, 900 in
habitants, is in two particulars the most in
teresting of the Azores. Its single tremen-
dous peak, from which the island derives its
name, furnishes the highest elevation to be
seen by mariners in Atlantic waters; and its
women are the most beautiful to be found
upon all the Atlantic shores. Pieo, the
mountain, is nearly 5000 feet above the sea
level. 1t can be deserted for distance OF
rs miles at sea. Its formation is volcanic.
and at the present time it is simply q slum-
bering volcano; for from the crater at its
summit there constantly pour streams of air
of such intense heat that In the moonlight,
or in certain conditions of the atmosphere
ut dawn or twilight a pale flame is easily
discerned from the opposite shore of Fayal
Pieo, the island, is the southernmost of the
middle Azorean group comprising Graeiosa,
St. George, Tereeira, Fayal and Pico, and is
shaped like an Indian club, its handle to
the east, and its blunt head, with its sharp
Ant mn foo4hi hiorb aoF ho
WHAT PIco is LIKE.
It is only separated from Fsyal by a mar
row channel which the Horta and Madelena
pescadores and boatmen will row you across
in less than half an hour. In its half dozen
little cities and perhaps two-score hamlets,
you will see more beautiful women than you
will encounter in years ordinary observa-
tion in Europe. Even the old married
women and grandams possess that lustrous
beauty which remains with fadeless eyes
But the menlnas and the senoritas, the girls
ard misses, are physically EinEome past all
telling. This Pico maid has the delicately
arched foot of the Spanish woman, and her
short skirts disclose limbs as graceful and
shapely. If her splendid figure has one fault
il lies in her lack OF height, but in nearly ev-
erv instance the compensation is found in
perieet proportion. Her complexion is
cheeks. Her mouth is large, mobile and
tremulous. Her teeth are faultless and the
enthusiast would insist that her lips were
naddening. Her hair, not black as with
most Southern types, is oil that misty brown
color which one may sometimes see on the
sides Of mountains opposite the sun. But
her crOwning glory is melting, languorouS,
vet flashing, eyes. Her facial beauty is not
greatest in repose. Then, if unconscious
tropic countries where intelligence is lack
. ing her face has trace of the splendid ami
mai in it; and noticeable touch of helpless
ness and pathos. But bring her features
into active play with a man at the other
end of the effort, with her large, dark,
dreamful, glowing eyes, firing and melting
hehiud long dark, half-hiding lashes with
the endless supple and willowy movement
OF every portion of her splendid body-ior
her every mental and physical faculty plays
in responsive harmony with her tongue or
her eyes-and you have come close to some
thing which makes you long for an artists
mower. They say here that the women
among American and English tourists call
these winsome Pico maidens perfectly
borrid creatures" Doubtless. The Pico girls
forgive this, for it somehow increases the
snrTeptitioHs admiration of the defamers
husbands.
MOST sIEGULAR AND STRIKING.
From the distance of ST. George or Terceira
si,e mountain, Pico, has the appearance of
slender black cone rising from the sea, its
fartbest heights truncated here and there
br shining bands OF white. From the
beiolts behind HOrta, in Fayal, if an occa-
sionai cloud should intervene, its appearance
n incalculable height and size is wondrous-
- fssoinatine. Down at the waters edge in
Horta il seems that precipice ofimmeasur-
abIe altitude is looming above you. The lon
rer vou look. the more portentous this seem /