20 THE GEOLOGY OF BERMUDA. 



being- twelue leagues in length, and sixe in breadth, and about thirtie 

 in circuit, lying in the three and thirtieth degree of the North side. 

 While I remayned here, I saw a strife and combat betweene these fly- 

 ing-fishes, and the fishes named giltheads, and the fowles called sea 

 mewes, and cormorants, which surely seemed unto one a thing of as 

 great pleasure and solace as could be deuised." 



On this passage. General Lefroy comments as follows:* "The terms 

 of this narrative imply a stay of some slight duration, which is to be 

 inferred also from the approximation with which the dimensions of 

 the group are fixed; and it is very unlikely that none of the party 

 landed. * * * It is probable that the purpose he was prevented 

 from fulfilling was that of landing hogs, not that of communicating 

 with the shore." It seems to me, on the contrary, a more likely infer- 

 ence from the language of Oviedo, that he was altogether prevented 

 from landing. It would uot require a sojourn on land to witness a fight 

 between flying-fishea and cormorants — the only incident which lie refers 

 to in connection with his visit to the islands. Certainly every circum- 

 stance indicates that Oviedo's estimate of the size of the archipelago 

 must be taken as merely a rough guess, and no inference can be drawn 

 from the slight excess of that estimate over the present actual dimen- 

 sions. 



The chief evidence relied upon by General Lefroy to support the 

 belief of a subsidence within historic times is the testimony of Henry 

 May, an English sailor in a French vessel, who was shipwrecked on the 

 islands in December, 1593, and remained there until April, 1594.t The 

 statements in May's narrative bearing upon the subject in question are 

 as follows: "We made account at the first that we were cast away 

 hard by the shore, being hie cliffs, but we found ourselues seuen 

 leagues off, but with our boat and a raft, which we had made and towed 

 at our boats sterne, we were saued some 26 of us. * * * We rowed 

 all the day until an hour or two before night yer we could come on 

 land, towing the raft with the boat. * * * This island is diuided 

 all into broken islands; and the greatest part I was upon, which might 

 be some four or five miles long, and two miles and a halfe ouer, being 

 all woods, as cedar and other timber, but cedar is the chiefest." 



General Lefroy adds to this narrative the following comments : | " There 



* Op. cit, Vol. I., p. 3. 



tHakluyt's Collection of the early Voyages, Travels, and Discoveries, of tbo 

 English Nation. New edition, with additions. 5 vols. Loudon, 1809-'12. Vol. IV., 

 pp. 55, 56. May's narrative is quoted in Lefroy, ojp. cit, Vol. I., pp. 7-9. 



Wp. cit., pp. 9, 10. 



