Bays / Baías

It does not seem easy to establish an exact and rigorous distinction in the meaning that some of the terms gulf, bay, cove, inlet, harbor, etc. bear among themselves. Dictionaries and geography treatises reveal this difficulty, as they are not in agreement when trying to define the meaning of these words. Partially disagreeing with the classification that has been adopted by several authors with respect to Madeira (Frutuoso, Azevedo, Nobrega Soares, Sarmento, Loureiro, Meneses, etc.), we will say that, of the indentations along the entire coastline of the archipelago, only those of Funchal and Porto Santo deserve the name of Bays, with the rest being given the generic name of Coves.