Apparently the reference is to the first ascent of Corvo after its rediscovery between 1449 and 1460. The mention of “characters” recalls those found in a cave of St. Michael, also by rediscoverers, during the same period, as related by Thevet[279] long afterward, most likely from tradition. A man of Moorish-Jewish descent, who was one of the party, thought he recognized the inscription as Hebrew, but could not or did not read it. Some have supposed the characters to be Phoenician. There is naturally much uncertainty about these stories of very early observations by untrained men, recorded at last, as the result of a long chain of transmissions: but they tend more or less to corroborate the other evidences of Phoenician presence. It may be possible that the persistent and widely distributed story of westward-pointing equestrian statues marking important islands may have grown out of the ancient mention of the pillars of Saturn, afterward Hercules, and Strabo’s discussion[280] as to whether they were natural or artificial in origin; but this puts a severe strain on fancy. We know that the Carthaginians did set up commemorative columns; and that the horse figured conspicuously in their coinage. Nothing in the enterprising character of the Phoenician people is opposed to the idea of incitement to exploration westward. It seems easier to believe that they set up these statuary monuments on one island after another than that the whole tradition has grown out of a misunderstanding. Such statues might well vanish subsequently as completely as the great silver “tabula” map of Edrisi and many other valuable things of olden time. Corvo has no statue now; but it is reputed to hold a statue’s representative. Captain Boid (1834) relates: