Legendary Islands of the Atlantic: A Study of Medieval Geography

by William Henry Babcock

Equestrian Statues

Furthermore, Corvo is one of several Atlantic islands reputed to have been marked by monuments generally of one type. Edrisi[276] knows of them in Al-Khalidat, the Fortunate Isles—bronze westward-facing statues on tall columnar pedestals. There are said to have been six such in all, the nearest being at Cadiz. Tradition places an equestrian statue also on the island of Terceira, as repeated in a much more modern work.[277] The Pizigani map of 1367, it will be remembered, shows ([Fig. 2]) near where Corvo should be the colossal figure of a saint warning mariners backward, with a confused inscription declaring westward navigation impracticable beyond this point by reason of obstructions and announcing that the statue is erected on the shore of Atilie. But perhaps the best and most apposite account is that of Manuel de Faria y Sousa in the “Historia del Reyno de Portugal:”

In the Azores, on the summit of a mountain which is called the mountain of the Crow, they found the statue of a man mounted on a horse without saddle, his head uncovered, the left hand resting on the horse, the right extended toward the west. The whole was mounted on a pedestal which was of the same kind of stone as the statue. Underneath some unknown characters were carved in the rock.[278]

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:

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]