Unfortunately, Fernão Dulmo did not have better luck, but ultimately, around the 17th Century, did organize an expedition to the northwest of Terceira, where an unknown island had been spotted. Settlement The colonization of Sete Cidades developed after the property owner, José Bettencourt, who was the principal benefactor of the lands within the crater, made tracts available for settlement. These lands were rented to farmers and other colleagues, who then cultivated the limited tracts and paid monthly stipends for their use. For a long time, this limited the number of inhabitants living within the caldera. Geography Physical geography The Sete Cidades volcano is situated on the extreme western portion of the island of São Miguel occupying an area of approximately and refers to a polygenetic volcano (Sete Cidades Massif) and caldera. Its subaerial volume, of about , has grown at an estimated rate of per century, beginning more than 210,000 years ago. Presently, the interior of the structure is occupied by diverse volcanic structures and four lakes. It is almost circular caldera ( in diameter and up to high walls) formed through three phases of eruptions. The last intra-calderan eruption occurred approximately 500 years A.D., resulting in the creation of the Caldeira Seca cone. At the base of the caldera, there exist six Holocene era pyroclastic cones. Further, a large group of pleistocene post-caldera trachytic lava domes, lava flows, and pyroclastic flow deposits have been discovered on the northwestern flanks of the massif. The two crater lakes (), within the crater, are referred to by the color of the waters: blue, reflecting the sky () and green, reflecting the ground (). According to legend, the differently colored lakes were created when a princess and her lover, a young shepherd, had to part from each other. The tears they shed at their farewell became the two lakes, with the water colored like their eyes. Human geography The urbanized portion of the parish, the village of Sete Cidades, is located in the southwest portion of the crater within the Cumierias da Bretanha and extends from the Blue Lake north to south. Farmland, mostly pastures, are located around the village, and confined to the portions south of the Blue Lake. The remainder of the crater is forested, although the southeastern portion also has some grasslands. A bridge at the junction of the two lakes provides the most direct road connection to Ponta Delgada.