water to him who is dying with thirst? Whether any of the Codrington family would partake of one of thofe precious pintados, that had cost his countryman or his fellow-creature his life? Whether the man who fhould be convicted of having fuffered a fick perfon to die at his door, would be fufficiently punished by the general execration? And whether he would not deferve to be dragged before the tribunals of juftice as an affaffin?

Anguilla is seven or eight leagues in length, and is very unequal in its breadth, which never exceeds two leagues. Neither mountains, nor woods, nor rivers, are found upon it, and its foil is nothing more than chalk.

Some wandering Englishmen fettled upon this porous and friable rock towards the year 1650. After an obftinate labour, they at length fucceeded in obtaining from this kind of turf a little cotton, a fmall quantity of millet feed, and fome potatoes. Six veins of vegetating earth, which were in process of time difcovered, received fugar-canes, which, in the best harvest, yield no more than fifty thousand weight of fugar, and fometimes only five or fix thousand. Whatever elfe comes out of the colony hath been introduced into it clandeftinely from Santa Cruz, where the inhabitants of Anguill have formed feveral plantations.

In seasons of drought, which are but too frequent, the island hath no other resource but in a lake, the salt of which is fold to the people of New-England; and in the fale of sheep and goats, which thrive better in this dry climate, and upon thefe arid plains, than in the rest

of America,

Anguilla reckons no more than two hundred free inhabitants, and five hundred flaves; nevertheless it hath an assembly of its own, and even a chief, who is always chofen by the inhabitants, and confirmed by the governor of Antigua. A foreigner, who fhould be fent to govern this feeble fettlement, would infallibly be driven away, by men who have preserved fomething of the independent manners, and of the rather favage character of their ancestors.

The coaft of this island affords but two harbours, and even in these very small veffels only can anchor: they are both defended by four pieces of cannon, which, for half a century past, have been entirely unfit for fervice.

BER

BERMUDAS, OR SOMMER'S

ISLAND S.

THIS clufter of iflands lies almoft in the form of a fhepherd's

crook, in weft longitude 65o, north latitude 32° 30′, between two and three hundred leagues diftant from the nearest place of the continent of America, or of any of the other West-India islands. The whole number of the Bermudas islands is faid to be about four hundred, but very few of them are habitable. The principal is St. George's, which is not above fixteen miles long, and three at most in breadth. It is univerfally agreed, that the nature of this and the other Bermudas islands has undergone a furprising alteration for the worse, fince they were first discovered; the air being much more inclement, and the foil much more barren than formerly: this is afcribed to the cutting down those fine spreading cedar trees for which the islands were famous, and which fheltered them from the blasts of the north wind, at the fame time that it protected the undergrowth of the delicate plants and herbs. In fhort, the Summer iflands are now far from being defirable spots; and their natural productions are but just fufficient for the fupport of the inhabitants, who chiefly, for that reafon perhaps, are temperate and lively even to a proverb. At first tobacco was raised upon these islands, but being of a worfe quality than that growing on the continent, the trade is now almoft at an end. Large quantities of ambergris were allo originally found on the coafts, and afforded a valuable commerce; but that trade; alfo reduced, as likewise their whale trade, though the perquifites pon the latter form part of the governor's revenue, he having ten pounds for every whale that is caught. The Bermudas islands, however, might ftill produce fome valuable com→ modities, were they properly cultivated. There is here found, about three or four feet below the furface, a white chalk stone which is easily chifelled, and is exported for building gentlemen's houses in the Weft-Indies. Their palmetto leaves, if properly manufactured,

4

tured, might turn to excellent account in making women's hats; and their oranges are ftill valuable. Their foil is alfo said to be excellent for the cultivation of vines, and it has been thought that filk and cochineal might be produced; but none of these things have yet been attempted. The chief refource of the inhabitants for fubfift ence is in the remains of their cedar-wood, of which they fabricate small floops, with the affiftance of the New-England pine, and fell many of them to the American colonies, where they are much ad mired. Their turtle-catching trade is also of service; and they are ftill able to rear great variety of tame-fowl, and have wild ones abounding in vaft plenty. All the attempts to establish a regular whale fishery on these islands have hitherto proved unsuccessful; they have no cattle, and even the black hog breed, which was probably left by the Spaniards, is greatly decreased. The water on the iflands, except that which falls from the clouds, is brackish; and at prefent the fame difeafes reign there as in the Caribbee iflands. They have feldom any fnow, or even much rain; but when it does fall, it is generally with great violence, and the north or north-eaft wind renders the air very cold. The ftorms generally come with the new moon; and if there is a halo or circle about it, it is a furè fign of a tempeft, which is generally attended with dreadful thunder and lightning. The inhabited parts of the Bermudas iflands are divided into nine districts, called tribes. 1. St. George. 2. Hamilton. 3. Ireland. 4. Devonshire. 5. Pembroke. 6. Pagets. 7. Warwick. 8. Southampton. 9. Sandys. There are but two places on the large ifland where a fhip can fafely come near the fhore, and these are so well covered with high rocks, that few will chufe to enter in without a pilot; and they are fo well defended by forts, that they have no occafion to dread an enemy. St. George's town is at the bottom of the principal haven, and is defended by nine forts, on which are mounted seventy pieces of cannon that command the entrance. The town has a handfome church, a fine library, and a noble town-house, where the governor, council, &c. affemble. The tribes of Southampton and Devonshire have each a parish church and library, and the former has a harbour of the fame name; there are allo scattered houfes and hamlets over many of the islands, where particular plantations require them. The inhabitants are clothed chiefly with British manufactures, and all their implements for tilling the ground and building are made in Britain.

It is uncertain who were the first discoverers of the Bermudas iflands. John Bermudas, a Spaniard, is commonly faid to have difcovered them in 1527; but this is difputed, and the discovery attributed to Henry May, an Englishman. As the islands were without the reach of the Indian navigation, the Bermudas were abfolutely uninhabited when firft difcovered by the Europeans. May abovementioned was shipwrecked upon St. George's, and with the cedar which they felled there, assisted by the wreck of their own ship, he and his companions built another which carried then to Europe, where they published their accounts of the islands. When Lord Delawar was governor of Virginia, Sir Thomas Gates, Sir George Summers, and Captain Newport, were appointed to be his deputygovernors; but their fhip being feparated by a ftorm from the reft of the fquadron, was in the year 1609 wrecked on the Bermudas, and the governors difagreeing among themfelves, built each of them a new fhip of the cedar they found there, in which they severally failed to Virginia. On their arrival there, the colony was in fuch diftrefs, that Lord Delawar, upon the report which his deputygovernors made him of the plenty they found at the Bermudas, difpatched Sir George Summers to bring provifions from thence to Virginia, in the fame fhip which brought him from Bermudas, and which had not an ounce of iron about it except one bolt in the keel. Sir George, after a tedious voyage, at last reached the place of his deftination, where, foon after his arrival, he died, leaving his name to the islands, and his orders to the crew to return with black hogs to the colony of Virginia. This part of his will, however, the failors did not chufe to execute, but fetting fail in their cedar fhip for England, landed safely at Whitchurch in Dorsetshire.

Notwithstanding this dereliction of the island, however, it was not without English inhabitants. Two failors, Carter and Waters, being apprehensive of punishment for their crimes, had fecreted themselves from their fellows when Sir George was wrecked upon the island, and had ever fince lived upon the natural productions of the foil. Upon the fecond arrival of Sir George, they enticed one Chard to remain with them; but differing about the fovereignty of the ifland Chard and Waters were on the point of cutting one another's throats, when they were prevented by the prudence of Carter. Soon after, they had the good fortune to find a great piece of ambergris weighing about eighty pounds, befides other pieces, which in those days were fufficient, if properly dfi ofed of, to have made each of

them

them mafter of a large eftate. Where they were, this ambergris was useless, and therefore they came to the defperate resolution of carrying themselves and it in an open boat to Virginia or to Newfoundland, where they hoped to dispose of their treafure to advan tage. In the mean time, however, the Virginia company claimed the property of the Bermudas islands, and accordingly fold it to one hundred and twenty perfons of their own fociety, who obtained a charter from King James for poffeffing it. This new Bermudas company, as it was called, fitted out a flip with fixty planters on board to fettle on the Bermudas, under the command of one Mr. Richard Moor, by profeffion a carpenter. The new colony arrived upon the island just at the time the three failors were about to depart with their ambergris; which Moor having discovered, he immediately seized and difpofed of it for the benefit of the company. So valuable a booty gave vaft fpirit to the new company; and the adventurers fettled themselves upon St. George's ifland, where they railed cabins. As to Mr. Moor, he was indefatigable in his duty, and carried on the fortifying and planting the island with incredible diligence; for we are told, that he not only built eight or nine forts, or rather blockhouses, but inured the fettlers to martial difcipline. Before the first year of his government was expired, Mr. Moor re ceived a fupply of provifions and planters from England, and he planned out the town of St. George as it now ftande. The fame of this fettlement foon awakened the jealoufy of the Spaniards, who appeared off St. George's with fome weffels; but being fired upon by the forts, they fheered off, though the English at that time were fo ill provided for a defence, that they bad fcarce a fingle barrel of gunpowder on the ifland. 'During Moor's government, the Bermudas were plagued with rats, which had been imported into them by the Englifh fhips. This vermin multiplied so fast in St. George's ifland, that they even covered the ground, and had nests in the trees. They deftroyed all the fruits and corn within doors; nay, they increased to fuch a degree, that St. George's ifland was at laft unable to maintain them, and they fwam over to the neigh bouring iflands, where they made as great havoc. This calamity lafted five years, though probably not in the fame degree, and at laft it ceafed alt of a fudden.

On the expiration of Moor's government, he was fucceeded by Captain Daniel Tucker, who improved all his predeceffor's schemes for the benefit of the island, and particularly encouraged the culture

of