A. EF. Verrilli— The Bermuda Islands. 549 
though planted too late (they arrived in July). But he states that 
their second crop was nearly a failure. This may have been due 
partly to the neglect of planting at the proper time, on account of 
the pressing need of fortification work, and partly to the lack of 
care later ; but the season may have been a bad one, with drouths 
or tempests, and the Wood Rats may have been present, even then.* 
Besides, they were mostly ignorant and quite inexperienced, both 
as to the crops and the climate. But whatever the cause, it is evi- 
dent that the Company did very wrong to send out, during the first 
years, so many ignorant and ill-provided poor people, taken largely 
from the slums of London, expecting them to clear a densely wooded 
country, plant crops, and build forts and houses, all in one year. 
The governor had on his hands more than any man could do, with 
the men and materials at his disposal. 
It is remarkable that he succeeded by his energy and wit in keep- 
ing the colony alive. In fact, had not nature provided such an 
abundance of birds and fish, at that time, most of the people would 
surely have starved. It was by mere chance that a stray vessel, the 
Edwin, loaded with meal, came to the islands from the West Indies, 
in the middle of their second winter (about January, 1614), when 
they were on the verge of starvation. This was the vessel said to 
have introduced the wood-rats. (See Part III, ch. 33.) 
The following extract is from “A Plaine and true relation of the 
Goodnes of God towards the Sommer Islands,” London, 1621 (writ- 
ten in the latter part of 1620). Mr. Hughes lived in Bermuda from 
1615 to 1620. After a visit to London, he returned on the “ Joseph” 
in 1622 :— ; 
“Upon your second crop, (partly for the unthankfulnesse of some, 
and partly for the trial of other some) God denied his blessing, so 
as you received not your seede againe, therefore feare of great want 
came upon you Then, even then when your hearts began to be 
troubled with feare of want, Almighty God who never faileth nor 
forsaketh them that are his, did send you a comfortable supply 
unlooked for.”+ 
*Tt is not improbable that the unsuspected ravages of wood rats were the 
chief causes of the failure of the crops in all these three earlier years, though 
they did not attract attention till 1615, when they had apparently greatly 
increased, perhaps largely due to their gathering, for food, in the vicinity of the 
cultivated land. There is no sufficient evidence that they were first introduced~ 
in 1614. (See ch. 38, b.) 
+ This is a reference to the ‘‘ runaway frigate” which came loaded with meal 
from the West Indies, and was said to have also brought the wood-rats, January, 
1614. 
