4 BERMUDA. 



the despatch of ships to the West India stations and 

 the American Atlantic coast. 



In 1522, when the discovery of insular America 

 had become well known in the Old World, we find 

 that Bermuda was first visited by Juan Bermudas, 

 captain of a Spanish ship. La' Garza, when on a 

 voyage from Old Spain to Cuba with a cargo of 

 hogs, and by that illustrious historian of the Indies, 

 Gonzales Oviedo. 



History infornis us that the Spaniards' benevolent 

 intention of leaving a few hogs, which might breed 

 and be useful afterwards, was frustrated, on the eve 

 of their debarking, by the springing up of a strong 

 gale, which obliged them to steer off, and be con- 

 tented with only a partial view, as they thought, of a 

 single island. 



Bermuda, sometimes called the " Bermudas," after 

 the name of the individual who first saw them, 

 is a cluster of small islands situated in the North 

 Atlantic Ocean. That portion of the coast which 

 looks to the east and to the south is in general 

 shelving towards the sea, with a flat, shallow beach; 

 while the western and northern shores rise almost 

 perpendicularly from the ocean to a height of from 

 twenty to thirty feet; and except in some of the 

 small creeks, where steep sandy beaches occur, under 



