CHAP. IV.] ST. THOMAS TO BERMUDAS. 273 
London to convey the newly appointed governor, Sir Thomas 
Gates, Admiral Sir George Somers, and some other officials, to 
the young colony of Virginia. 
On Monday, July 24th, St. James’s Day, when they reckoned 
themselves within seven or eight days’ sail of Cape Henry, 
“the clouds began to thicken around, and a dreadful storm 
commenced from the north-east, which, swelling and roaring, as 
it were, by fits, at length seemed to extinguish all the light of 
heaven and leave utter darkness. The blackness of the sky 
and the howling of the winds were such as to inspire the bold- 
est of our men with terror, for the dread of death is always 
more terrible at sea, as no situation is so entirely destitute of 
comfort or relief as one of danger there.” 
After seeing St. Elmo’s fires on the rigging, springing a leak, 
and undergoing every possible trial, moral and physical, for five 
days, Sir George Somers at length sighted land; and the wind 
lulling a little, they ran their ship ashore, where she became a 
complete wreck. 
“We now found that we had reached a dangerous and dread- 
ed island, or rather islands, called the Bermudas, considered ter- 
rible by all who have touched at them ; and, from the dreadful 
tempests, thunders, and other alarming events prevailing, are 
commonly named the Devil’s Islands.” Sir Thomas Gates, Sir 
George Somers, and their companions, found the islands totally 
uninhabited, but capable of yielding abundance of food. Hogs 
which had been set adrift by some earlier visitors, whose names 
have been lost, were so numerous that thirty-two were brought 
in by a party after one day’s hunting. Fish abounded on the 
coasts, and were caught with the greatest ease; and turtles 
added daily to the luxury of their fare. “It is such a kind of 
meat as a man can neither absolutely cail fish nor flesh ; the 
animal keeps chiefly in water, feeding on sea-grass like a heif- 
er, in the bottom of the coves and bays; and the females lay 
their eggs, of which we found five hundred at a time on open- 
