wns of St George are Ribeira Seca (2817) and Velas (2009).

_History._--It does not appear that the ancient Greeks and Romans had any
knowledge of the Azores, but from the number of Carthaginian coins
discovered in Corvo it has been supposed that the islands must have been
visited by that adventurous people. The Arabian geographers, Edrisi in the
12th century, and Ibn-al-Wardi in the 14th, describe, after the Canaries,
nine other islands in the Western Ocean, which are in all probability the
Azores. This identification is supported by various considerations. The
number of islands is the same; the climate under which they are placed by
the Arabians makes them north of the Canaries; and special mention is made
of the hawks or buzzards, which were sufficiently numerous at a later
period to [v.03 p.0085] give rise to the present name (Port. _Acor_, a
hawk). The Arabian writers represent them as having been populous, and as
having contained cities of some magnitude; but they state that the
inhabitants had been greatly reduced by intestine warfare. The Azores are
first found distinctly marked in a map of 1351, the southern group being
named the Goat Islands (_Cabreras_); the middle group, the Wind or Dove
Islands (_De Ventura sive de Columbis_); and the western, the Brazil Island
(_De Brazi_)--the word Brazil at that time being employed for any red
dye-stuff. In a Catalan map of the year 1375 Corvo is found as _Corvi
Marini_, and Flores as _Li Conigi_; while St George is already designated
_San Zorze_. It has been conjectured that the discoverers were Genoese, but
of this there is not sufficient evidence. It is plain, however, that the
so-called Flemish discovery by van der Berg is only worthy of the name in a
very secondary sense. According to the usual account, he was driven on the
islands in 1432, and the news excited considerable interest at the court of
Lisbon. The navigator, Gonzalo Velho Cabral--not to be confounded with his
greater namesake, Pedro Alvarez Cabral--was sent to prosecute the
discovery. Another version relates that Prince Henry the Navigator of
Portugal had in his possession a map in which the islands were laid down,
and that he sent out Cabral through confidence in its accuracy. The map had
been presented to him by his brother, Dom Pedro, who had travelled as far
as Babylon. Be this as it may, Cabral reached the island, which he named
_Santa Maria_, in 1432, and in 1444 took possession of St Michael's. The