Corvo is the smallest, and most northerly of the Azores, being only six miles in length, and three in breadth, with a population of nine hundred souls. It is rocky and mountainous; and on being first descried, exhibits a sombre dark-blue appearance, which circumstance gave rise to its present name, whereby it was distinguished by the early Portuguese navigators.... It is not known at what period this island was first visited, though from a combination of circumstances, it is supposed, about the year 1460. The inhabitants are ignorant, superstitious, and bigoted, in the highest degree, and relate innumerable ridiculous traditions respecting their country. Amongst other absurdities they state, with the utmost gravity, that to Corvo is owed the discovery of the western world--which, they say, originated through the circumstance of a large projecting promontory on the N. W. side of the island, possessing somewhat of the form of a human being, with an outstretched arm toward the west; and this, they have been led to believe, was intended by Providence, to intimate the existence of the new world. Columbus, they say, first interpreted it thus; and was here inspired with the desire to commence his great researches.[281] Captain Boid was wrong in his derivation of the name Corvo, as we have seen; wrong also, in another way, in despising the “superstitions” as “absurd” and refusing them record, for they might embody some valuable suggestion. Humboldt thought, however, that the story of the pointing horseman might have grown out of this natural rock formed in human semblance. No doubt this is possible; but it would not account for like stories of the other islands nor the general similitude of their figures. Perhaps an equally valid explanation might be found in the former presence of such artificial figures, leaving a certain repute behind them and causing popular fancy to point out resemblances which would not have been noticed otherwise. A more recent mention of this pointing rock occurs in “A Trip to the Azores” by Borges de F. Henriques, a native of Flores. He says: Another natural curiosity which has been defaced by the weather and the bad taste of visitors is a rock resembling a horseman with the right arm extended to the westward as if pointing the way to the new world. Some insular writers deny the existence of this rock.[282] NEED OF EXPLORATION