A. E. Verrill — The Bermuda Islands. 545 



the islands, though all the others should, and that this induced two 

 others to volunteer to stay behind with him.* Very likely he had 

 promised the admiral to stay and take care of his plantation, which 

 there is good reason for supposing he had started immediately after 

 his arrival, perhaps early in July. We find no record of the nature 

 of his illness, beyond the intimation that it was due to exposure, nor 

 of what was done during the four months before he died, though 

 Capt. Smith intimated that Somers was not idle here. 



c. — The Settlement of the Bermuda Islands in 1612. 



The Bermuda Company was soon organized in London, and the 

 first ship, the " Plough," with Governor Richard Mooref and about 

 60 colonists, was sent out in May, 1612, arriving there July 11th. 



On their arrival at Bermuda, Governor Moore and his company 

 found the three men that had been left there, two years before, well 

 and in excellent condition, though destitute of clothes. They had an 

 acre of corn ready to harvest, and other food in abundance, and 

 had built a cedar house and a boat. They were anxious to sail away, 

 however, and had commenced to build a vessel. Probably they 

 doubted if the pinnace had ever reached England ; or if so, whether 

 another would come for them. Perhaps it was partly due to the 

 fact that they had discovered an enormous mass of ambergris, 

 weighing about 180 pounds and worth about $32,000.00, which they 

 naturally wished to secure for themselves, but which the governor 

 very soon took from them. He punished one of them by imprison- 

 ment for three years for trying to conceal it. (See p. 517.) 



They must have been supplied with seeds and instructions for 

 their cultivation by Admiral Somers, before he died, for their sub- 

 sequent history shows that they were men of no great ability or 

 knowledge. It is stated that he had actually planned to start a 

 plantation there, even if he had to do it at his own cost. Somerset 

 was named for him, probably because he had selected it for a plan- 

 tation. 



The anonymous writer of 1612 (Governor Moore?) also says that 

 they had planted " corne, great store of wheate, Beanes, Tobacco, 

 and melones, with many other good things for the use of man," and 



* The other men were Edward Chard and Edward Waters ; the latter had 

 previously been left on the islands with Carter. In 1616, he and Carter were 

 two of the Deputy Governors, but neither proved efficient in that capacity. 



f His name was often written More, but in the official commission from the 

 London Company it is spelled Moore. 



Trans. Conn. Acad., Vol. XL 35 May, 1902. 



