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The discovery of the Azores archipelago, as Madeira, is one of the most contentious issues in the history of Discovery. Among the various theories about this, some based on the assessment of many Genoese maps produced since 1351, which led the historians to say that these islands are already well known on the return of shipments to the Canary Islands made around 1340-1345, in the reign Alfonso IV of Portugal. Others argue that the discovery of the first islands (San Miguel, Santa Maria, Terceira) was performed by sailors in the service of Infante D. Henry, although there is no written document to confirm and of itself prove that. The support this version there is only one set of written later, based on oral tradition, which was created in the first half of the fifteenth century. Some theories consider more daring, however, that the discovery of the first islands already occurred to the time of Alfonso IV of Portugal and that the trips made in time of the Infante D. Henry went from not just recognition.

What is known is that specifically Mary Elizabeth came to the island of Santa Maria in 1431, took place during the years following the (re) discovery - or recognition - of the remaining islands of the Azores archipelago in the sense of progression from east to west. A letter of Infante D. Henry, dated July 2 in 1439 and addressed to his brother D. Peter, is the first reference on the safe operation of the archipelago. At this point, the islands of Flores and Corvo had not yet been discovered, what would happen only around 1450, by the work of Diogo Teive. Meanwhile, D. Henry, with the support of his sister D. Isabel, populate the island of Santa Maria.
The Portuguese began to populate the islands around 1432, mainly from the Algarve and Alentejo, having been registered, then the entry of Flanders, Britons and other Europeans and North Africans.
Célia Pires