At that time, in the parish of Altares, lived Pérola Rego, a very wealthy girl, heir to an immense fortune. She was descended from the Rego and Baldaya families on her father’s side and from the Pamplona family on her mother’s side. Pérola Rego was beautiful, with dark, shiny, thick blond hair. Her eyes were brown, the color of satin. Her rosy skin was very fine.

These attributes, combined with her great candor and kindness of spirit and heart, led a large number of young men to fall in love with her. One beautiful sunny morning, Pérola came down from the roof of her father’s manor house and went to see her reflection in the waters of the house’s cistern.

A fairy who lived nearby wanted to protect Pérola from her suitors, as they did not love her and only wanted her money. Hidden inside the cistern, waiting for the girl, she cast a spell and took control of the girl’s image reflected in the still waters of the cistern. Then she began to devise a way to surprise her while she slept and take her to a safe place in her enchanted castle, far from the gaze of men.

The palace was located in the interior of the island, near Pico do Vime; it had beautiful gardens and magnificent woods of trees typical of the exotic forests of Macaronesia. It had beautiful holly, bloodwood, tall cedars, beautiful whitewood trees, and gigantic, ancient dragon trees. It was surrounded by golden fields of wheat adorned with red poppies. In the center of these fields stood the grand castle made of white marble, shiny ivory, silver, and gold.

At midnight on St. John’s Day, when the stars shine softly and the moon reigns supreme in the heavens, the beautiful Pérola was carried away in her sleep, enveloped in the white wings of the fairy. In the morning, news of her disappearance spread, leaving her parents in a panic, the manor in an uproar, and her suitors in anxiety. As a group, the suitors turned to an old witch who lived on top of a mountain and revealed to them the existence of the enchanted palace.

Some suitors wanted to attack the castle, tearing down the walls by force of arms. Others, more cautious, also consulted an old healer who lived in the parish of Biscoitos. She told them that they had to take lutes and, in the manner of the ancient troubadours, sing magical verses and perform magic marches that she would teach them. Then they would see the enchanted castle in the distance, since an enchanted thing can only be disenchanted with another enchantment.

The healer also warned them that they would find an inscription on a huge rock: if it were engraved in silver, its words would contain the way to attract Pérola; but if it had been engraved with fire, its powers would not be strong enough to overcome the spell and none of them would deserve the young woman’s love.

The suitors left at dawn, as soon as the sun rose. Along the way, they sang the verses taught to them by the old healer from Biscoitos. After many hours of walking, a cry of joy was heard. In the distance, the fairy’s palace could be seen silhouetted against the landscape, beautiful, shining in the light of the rising sun.

Hurrying their pace, they traveled the long road to the castle. They descended slopes, traversed valleys, and climbed mountains and hills. When they arrived at the place where the castle should have been, it had disappeared into the mist. In its place was a beautiful, serene, and placid lagoon of clear waters. On one of the banks, a message engraved in stone read: “Here, in this spacious lake, lies the palace of the beautiful Pérola, the maiden with blonde hair.” Disappointed, they thought that Pérola was lost forever.

But her mother, a devout Christian, on the very morning that the fairy had taken her daughter, knelt before an image of Saint Roch and asked for his intervention. At the end of one of her many prayers, she heard a voice whispering in her ear: “Be at peace, your daughter is with her guardian angel.” On St. Peter’s Day at sunset, Pérola appeared on the terrace of her father’s manor, accompanied by an archangel. They came in an ivory boat pulled by a swan of immaculate whiteness.

Years later, Pérola’s true love appeared, a knight in search of the Holy Grail, dressed in shining armor. Centuries after this legend began, the enchanted lake where the fairy’s castle was hidden still exists – the Lagoa do Ginjal.