x INTRODUCTION. 
of tackle in their capture; indeed, the writer amusingly 
states that, “if a man step into the water they will come 
round about him, so that men were faine to get out for fear 
of byting.’ Hogs, supposed to have been introduced by 
Bermudez, or by some subsequent and unrecorded navigator, 
had increased so largely, as to enable Sir George Somers to 
kill thirty-two in a single day’s hunt. 
In May, 1610, Sir George Somers and his companions 
embarked in two small vessels which they had themselves 
constructed, and sailed for the settlement of James Town, 
in Virginia, where they arrived in safety. Here Sir George 
found the settlers in much distress for want of supplies, and, 
although upwards of sixty years of age, gallantly volun- 
teered to return to the Bermudas, in his little cedar-built 
craft of thirty tons, for the purpose of obtaining hogs. It was 
on this expedition, and on the site where the town of Saint 
George now stands and bears his name, that this worthy 
admiral breathed his last, exhorting his companions to 
return with all diligence to Virginia. 
Captain Matthew Somers, the nephew and heir of Sir 
George, who appears to have inherited the gallant spirit of 
his uncle, in place of returning to Virginia, formed the 
_ daring resolution of navigating the same small cedar-built 
vessel to England, taking with him the embalmed remains 
of his departed relative. Fortune smiled upon the bold 
undertaking, and the ship arrived, in due time, safely at 
Whitchurch, in Dorsetshire, where the admiral’s remains 
were buried with military honors, and an epitaph, in Latin, 
inscribed upon his tomb. 
Upon the representation made by Captain Somers and 
his companions, a company was formed in England for the 
