A. E. Verr'dl — The Bermuda Islands. 455 



with great peeces, and men to defend them." It is also spoken of 

 by Capt. John Smith (History of Virginia, etc., 1024) as " Gnrnets 

 Head." He says of Governor Tucker, 1616, that he "appointed 

 Master Stokes, Lieutenant of the Kings Castle at the Gurnets Head." 



By some unexplained error, or confusion of terms, the name came 

 to be applied later to the headland at the southern extremity of 

 Cooper's Island, where Governor Moore built in 1614 a fortification 

 called Pembroke Fort, doubtless of heavy cedar timber. On most 

 modern maps the latter is still erroneously called Gurnets Head.* 



The " Gurnard Head," as used by the Company, is only the more 

 modern form of the same word. In the narratives of various voy- 

 ages of about that period, certain headlands are said to be shaped 

 "like the head of a gurnet," or "gurnard." It was a common com- 

 parison at that time. Doubtless one or the other (or both) of these 

 Bermuda headlands, as seen by approaching sailors, had a fancied 

 resemblance to a gurnards head, but the resemblance may have now 

 disappeared by erosion. f 



Hughes' "Letter from the Summer Islands," 1015, and Capt. John 

 Smith's History, ed. I, 1624, are the earliest books in which I have 

 found the name. Governor Butler's Historye, which contains numer- 

 ous references to the place, antedates the latter, but though written 

 in 1619-26, it has only recently been published (1882), except those 

 parts of it borrowed and printed by Capt. John Smith in 1624. 



The name does not occur on Norwood's map of 1663 (at least not 

 on the editions that I have seen), though it does occur on his map of 

 1022. 1 But the name is placed on the latter so far away from land 



replace the one built by Moore on the same site, and burned in 1619. These 

 were the "three forts" mentioned. 



* The old writers do not give any clue as to the reason for the application of 

 the name, but the same name has been given to high headlands in other cotan- 

 tries, as for example, " Gurnet Head " on the north shore of Massachusetts Bay. 

 ' ' Gurnet " is simply an old form for gurnard— the name of several species of 

 English market fishes having large, rough, angular heads. 



f Viewed from the shore ledges on the south side, there is a very striking 

 human profile to be seen near the base of the cliffs under the old "Kings 

 Castle." (See fig. 21.) 



X On this map both Latin and English names are given to many places. The 

 Latin name of Gurnets Head is given as " Hyrcae promont." Precisely what 

 this means is uncertain. It may be bad Latin for " Hirci Prom." The name 

 on the map is even outside of " Gurnet Head Rock," for which he may have 

 intended it. But the fault may have been due to the Dutch engraver. In his 

 map of 1663, the rock is correctly named. The use of the name " Gurnett 

 Head " was well established before Norwood's first map was made. 



