Faial Island (), also known in English as Fayal, is a Portuguese island of the Central Group (Portuguese: Grupo Central) of the Azores. The Capelinhos Volcano, the westernmost point of the island, may be considered the westernmost point of Europe (if the Monchique Islet, near Flores Island, is considered part of North America, since it sits on the North American Plate). Its largest town is Horta. With its nearest neighbours, Pico (east across the channel) and São Jorge (northeast across the channel), it forms an area commonly known as the Triângulo (English: Triangle). The island has also been referred to as the Ilha Azul (English: Blue Island), derived from the writings of Portuguese poet Raul Brandão, due to the large quantity of hydrangeas that bloom during the summer months: History During a period of medieval legends and unsubstantiated stories of mystical lands, the island of Faial first appeared on the 1375 Catalan Atlas, as Ilha da Ventura or Insula de La Ventura (English: Venture Island). By 1427 they had discovered what most had suspected: islands in the middle of the Atlantic (specifically the islands of Santa Maria and São Miguel). New discoveries would be made in subsequent years until, during his first voyage of exploration (in 1451), the navigator Diogo de Teive explored the coast of Faial. It was the humanist friar Gaspar Frutuoso who recounted that the first explorers did not find an uninhabited island: a hermit, who had a small flock and lived in a cave in the interior, had occupied the land. By 1460, the nautical charts would refer to this island as Ilha de São Luis. It was at about this time that Valentim Fernandes da Morávia, a German intellectual and translator residing in Lisbon, recounted the first story related to the settlement of the island. As he wrote, Frair Pedro, the queen's confessor, traveled with the Infanta Isabella of Portugal, Duchess of Burgundy, to Flanders, where he met and developed a friendship with the nobleman Josse van Huerter. During their conversations D. Pedro talked to van Huerter of the islands and of their deposits of silver and tin (which he assumed were the Ilhas Cassitérides, or in English, the Islands of Tin). Van Huerter convinced 15 other men of the profitability of a venture in the archipelago. Around 1465, Huerter disembarked for the first time on Faial along the beach of Praia de Almofariz (now