"The Azores: or the Western Islands."

As nossas ilhas vistas pelos olhos dum britânico do final do séc XIX.
O documento intitulado "The Azores: or the Western Islands."(1886) de Walter Frederick Walker retrata um pouco da nossa história e situação social da época.
Para quem estiver interessado deixo aqui algumas passagens do livro, bem como uma cópia das páginas sobre Santa Maria.


"The archipelago of the Açores, or as our sailors prefer to call them, the Western Islands(...)
They consist of nine islands, Sao Miguel, Santa Maria, Terceira, San Jorge, Pico, Fayal, Graciosa, Flores and Corvo (...)
According to the last census of 1878, the population of the Açores amounted altogether to 259,790, made up as follows :

Sao Miguel, 119,933; Santa Maria, 6,338; Terceira, 45,026 ; Graciosa, 8,321 ; San Jorge, 18,272 ; Fayal, 24,962 ; Pico, 26,396 ; Flores, 9,662 ; and Corvo, 880.
The whole of them, with the exception of Santa Maria,which appears to lie outside the focus of disturbance, show evidences of comparatively recent volcanic activity."