In 1838, Joseph and Henry Bullar set out on a voyage from England to spend seven months in the Azores. This extraordinary journey led them to the islands of São Miguel, Faial, Pico, São Jorge, Flores, and Corvo. Wittily written, the narrative account of these travels is most endearing to modern readers, giving accurate descriptions of the customs, religion, education, trade, and agriculture of the bygone Azorean society.
Contemplating the future while enjoying the thermal baths at Furnas, the Bullars wonder if one day “this quiet and healthful place should by means of transatlantic steamers and other consumptive luxuries be transformed into a second Madeira or rather into another Baden-Baden, and blow its pleasant bubbles like those from the Brunnens of Nassau.”
“Islands of great external beauty, rising abruptly out of the water to the height of several thousand feet, and clothed with green to their topmost acclivities; — what spot on the earth with such circumstances of enjoyment could be found in so large a measure, and with so few drawbacks?”
A Winter in the Azores and a Summer at the Baths of the Furnas, by Joseph Bullar & Henry Bullar, originally published in 1841, edited by Andreas Stieglitz, 516 pages, frontispiece and 27 b/w illustrations in the text.