INTRODUCTION. 1X 
of them charitably inclined towards them, when it pleased 
God they fell in with “the honest English barque Fawmouth,” 
which received them on board. While with this vessel they 
“tooke” a French ship, into which May’s dear friend 
Captain de la Barbotier, and his seamen, were transferred ; 
May himself remaining with the English vessel, which 
arrived at Falmouth, in August, 1594. 
The next published account of a visit to the Bermudas 
is contained in an old black letter work, entitled, “The Wreck 
of the Sea Adventure,” by Sil. Jourdan, a copy of which 
scarce work is in the library of the British Museum. 
The “Sea Adventure” was one of a small fleet of ships 
which sailed from England in the year 1609, for the Colony 
of Virginia, having on board Sir Thomas Gates, the newly 
appointed Governor of that possession, Admiral Sir George 
Somers,* and other persons, beside the crews. After de- 
scribing minutely the horrors of a terrific storm, which 
separated the “Sea Adventure ” from the rest of the fleet, 
and drove her, in a shattered condition, upon the reefs of 
Bermuda, where she became a total wreck, the writer 
proceeds to describe the natural features of those islands. 
Weeds and plants of several kinds; tall and goodly 
cedars, with “infinite store” of palmettos, mulberries, wild 
olive, and other trees, where found everywhere. Sea-birds 
were particularly abundant, and evinced that absence of 
fear towards man, which even at the present day, is noticed 
by navigators and others, when visiting isolated rocks or 
uninhabited islands. Fish of many kinds were obtained in 
large quantities, and required little piscatory skill or fineness 
* The Bermudas, in former times, were better known as the “ Somers’ 
Isles,” a title frequently corrupted into “ Summer Isles.” 
