Since the beginning of colonisation that the indented coast of Pico Island, as well as the unstable winds – a metereological feature of the Island – made access to land difficult. This obstacle was already mentioned by Frei Diogo da Chagas, when he writes that the first crew member to disembark on the south coast, Fernando Álvares Evangelho, had to be left behind by his fellow-crew members due to the bad weather conditions. According to his reports, these problems in the shore caused the first inhabitant to remain isolated, and only “At the end of one year did the sailors return to the island through the same side, and with better tide he [Fernando Alvares Evangelho], who was already quite familiar with the coast, guided them into the port (...)" [1] .

As Pico had no anchorage that was naturally safe, this resulted in the proliferation of inlets along the Island’s coastal line.

 

From the very beginning, the first contacts with the land were equally subject to climatic and geological limitations. The climate is humid to very humid in the highlands – 75% in average – and temperature varies between 12º and 20ºC. Just out of curiosity, in the first decade of the past century, António Ferreira de Serpa praised the benefits of the climate on the Island, underpinning the benignity of temperature on the mountain-island, dust-free air, beautiful and rich vegetation, and he considered these factors exceptional features for developing sanatoriums for the treatment of tuberculosis [2]. Rain is more abundant in the north coast, which is also quite sheltered from the Westerly and South-westerly winds. January is the month with the most rainfall and July with the least. The soil, which is particularly porous, absorbs rainwater very easily, thus producing only a few brooks and streams. Consequently, fresh water supply used to be seasonal and depended on precisely the more rainy seasons. Such circumstances forced the population to adopt different strategies in order to obtain water and it limitted the places where the first settlers managed to settle. Indeed, Gaspar Frutuoso describes such situations when he states that “(...) there are no flowing streams nor fountains other than that which has been described, besides a few small springs which originate on top of the rough mountains, where people go to get some water, which is hard work along those craggy and long paths, sometimes nine miles and tiresome; and for this reason in the woods and where they live, people carve notches in the tree trunks and place here vases, or vats which fill up when it rains during the day or at night, and they do this especially in the laurel trees, where they think they can get the best and healthiest water as no other (...).(...) many men build their houses, which they live in, where there are laurel trees, in the woods, as they know this is where they will find water to drink (...)” [3].

 

The geological design of Pico provides it with a unique topography, divided into two main areas. On the one side, the ground is predominantly composed of recent basalt, mildly meteriorised, colouring the island in black: these places are normally called "Mistérios" (mysteries) or "Biscoitos" (cookies). The other area is covered in extensive patches of trees and brushwood, elements characterising the economy of Pico.

 

Since the early colonisation years, the relation between space and man is reflected in the way of life on this Island. As an example, we underline the constraints felt in internal transports, as witnesses Gaspar Frutuoso: "(...) on Pico Island there are no other pathways than the one that goes around the Island, along the coast, and another that comes from the South, from Lages to São Roque village, which is in the North (...)"
[4] . Frei Diogo das Chagas also expresses the troubles felt in establishing internal communication in the following manner: “(...) there were already people living on one end of Pico Island, who after three years brought a little boy, who came on his own foot to be baptised in Lages village, so rough was the Island that these people were kept away from the parish for three years (...)" [5]. Due to this reality, the communities were dispersed along the Island’s coastline, as Padre António Cordeiro later describes: “(...) there is no place where we find a community, they [the inhabitants] all live isolated (...)” [6]. The human context on the Island was also determined by volcanic eruptions, which punished Pico on several occasions throughout the centuries. Hence, the earthquake in 1562 forced the population of Prainha do Norte to flee to other islands, namely Terceira and S. Jorge and, from 1718 to1720, the people of S. João parish and surrounding areas were forced to leave the places where they lived” [7].

 

No doubt the features of the Pico environment described above have structured the history of the Island. Linked to this, there is the influence and the course of human action on the Island.

 

 

[1] Frei Diogo das Chagas, Espelho Cristalino em Jardim de Várias Flores, dir. Artur Teodoro de Matos, Angra do Heroísmo - Ponta Delgada, Secretaria Regional da Educação e Cultura/Direcção Regional dos Assuntos Culturais- Universidade dos Açores/Centro de Estudos Gaspar Frutuoso, 1989, pág. 507

[2] Cf. António Ferreira de Serpa, A Ilha do Pico e a Tuberculose: Carta aberta a Sua Magestade a Rainha D. Amélia, Lisboa, Oficina Typographica, 1905, pp. 5-6

[3] Gaspar Frutuoso, Livro Sexto das Saudades da Terra, Ponta Delgada, Instituto Cultural de Ponta Delgada, 1978, pág. 300

[4] Ibidem, pág. 297

[5] Frei Diogo das Chagas, Op. Cit., pág. 531

[6] Cf. Padre António Cordeiro, História Insulana das Ilhas a Portugal Sugeytas no Oceano Occidental, edição fac-similada da edição princeps de 1717, Angra do Heroísmo, Secretaria Regional da Educação e Cultura,1981, pág. 473

[7]"Anno de 1562. Erupção na ilha do Pico" in Arquivo dos Açores, Volume I, pp. 360-367. Carreiro da Costa, Esboço Histórico dos Açores, Ponta Delgada, Instituto Universitário dos Açores, 1978, pp. 21-22.