290 REPTILES OF BERMUDA. 
temperate and torrid zones long enough before our race is said to have 
taken its first lessons of navigation in boats made of their gigantic 
shells. Of two of the four, Mr. Jones says that the Green, Chelonia 
mydas, is ‘the common turtle of the Bermudas,” but “not abundant”; 
and the Hawkbill, Hretmochelys imbricata, is “not unfrequently taken.” 
The other two, the Leather Back, Sphargis coriacea, and the Logger- 
head, Thalassochelys caouana, are only occasional visitors. They were 
first placed upon the list by Professor Goode, 1877. Below I have 
quoted from a number of accounts of the Bermudas and their life by 
the pens of those who wrote during the first half century of the exist- 
ence of the colony. These quotations give a fair idea of the abundance, 
habits, and capture of turtles in those early days. Below them is 
placed all that could be gathered in the West Indies and among tne 
Florida Keys, where the turtles are still numerous, but where, as was 
the case in the Bermudas, reckless destruction is gradually reducing 
their numbers. 
The history of the Bermuda reptiles reaches back to a very early 
date in that of the islands themselves. December 17, 1593, the French 
vessel, commanded by de la Barbotiére, was wrecked upon the Isle of 
Bermuda, and it was not until the 11th of the following May that the 
crew was able to get away, which they finally did in a vessel of their 
own make. Henry May, an Englishman who happened to be with the 
party, furnished an account of the adventure and the construction of 
the vessel, in whieh occurs the following: 
“In stead of pitch we made lime, and mixed it with the oyl of tor- 
toises, and as soone as the carpenters had calked, I and another, with 
ech of vs a small sticke in our hands, did plaister the mortar into the 
seames, and being in April, when it was warm and faire weather, we 
could no sooner lay it on, but it was dry, and as hard as a stone. In 
this moneth of April 1594, the weather being very hot, we were afrayd 
our water should fayle vs; and therefore made the more haste away; 
and at our departure we were constrayned to make two great chests, 
and calked them, and stowed them on ech side of our mainmaste, and 
so put in our prouision of raine water, and thirteen liue tortoises for our 
food, for our voyage which we intended to Newfoundland. In the 
South part of this Island of Bermuda there are hogs, but they are so 
Jeane that you cannot eat them, by reason the Island is so barren, but 
it yieldeth great store of fowle, fish and tortoises.” 
An anonymous writer, in an account of the loss of the ship of Sir 
