A. E. Verrill — The Bermuda Islands. 419 



demons, on account of the hidden reefs, which made it very danger- 

 ous to approach them, even at a great distance. The early writers 

 called them " Devills Hands ; " " Hands of Devills," and other 

 similar names.* 



Sir Walter Raleigh, in 1595, referred to the Bermudas in this 

 way: "The rest of the Indies for calmes and diseases very trouble- 

 some, and the Bermudas a hellish sea for thunder and lightning and 

 stormes." 



This idea prevailed up to about 1600, when two successive ship- 

 wrecks and the escape of the survivors led to more accurate descrip- 

 tions of the islands and reefs, and almost immediately to their settle- 

 ment by the English. But it was many yeai'S after they were settled 

 before a survey of the main ship-channel was made with sufficient 

 accuracy to allow large vessels to enter with safety. Governor 

 Murray, in 1798, made the first reliable survey and located the ship- 

 channel, and the anchorage inside, which still bears his name. 



For about two hundred years, or up to 1815, St. George's was the 

 capital, and its harbor was the principal one in use. There are 

 several other smaller and shallower passages or " cuts " through the 

 outer reefs, some of which are sometimes used by the smaller local 

 vessels, but they are mostly crooked, and dangei'ous, except in pleas- 

 ant weather. (See Part II, ch. 14, and map, fig. 20.) Elies Bay, at 

 the western side of Somerset Island, was used as a harbor, to a 

 considerable extent, in former times, the entrance being through 

 Hogcut Channel at the southwestern end of the Main Island. 



The water is usually so transparent that the reefs can easily be 

 seen at a distance, even when covered by a considerable depth of 

 water, for they appear like dark masses, against the white shell-sand 

 bottom of the surrounding deeper water. Their dark color is due 

 to the luxuriant growth of brown sea-weeds (mostly Sargassum), 

 corals, etc., with which their tops are always covered. Thus the 

 navigation of the inner waters is rendered comparatively easy and 

 safe for small vessels, even where reefs abound. But there are large 



* Silvanus Jourdan, one of the party shipwrecked here with Sir George 

 Somers, in 1609, alluded to this superstition as follows :— 



"And hereby also, I hope to deliver the world from a foule and generall 

 errour : it being counted of most, that they can be no habitation for Men, but 

 rather given over to Devils and wicked Spirits; whereas indeed wee find them now 

 by experience, to bee as habitable and commodious as most Countries of the same 

 climate and situation : insomuch as if the entrance into them were as easie as 

 the place it selfe is contenting, it had long ere this beene inhabited as well as 

 other Hands." 



