Azores or Western Islands.

Azores or Western Islands. (The map shows the entire archipelago of nine islands and their coastal features. The Azores’ strategic location in the Atlantic between Europe and the Americas made them an ideal rendezvous for ships plying the Atlantic. Certainly the British navy following the defeat of the combined French and Spanish navies at Cape Trafalgar in 1805 in the Napoleonic Wars would be interested in any strategically located harbors to maintain control of the far-flung British Empire. Many of the British Navy’s captains and seamen who fought in the Napoleonic Wars later were involved at the behest of the British Admiralty in diverse explorations in an effort to promote or control trade routes for Britain.)