246 
CAPE COD. 
ing attitude, and you must sail prudently between two 
tiers of stony knuckles before you come to feel the 
warmth of their breasts. 
The Bermudas are said to have been discovered by a 
Spanish ship of that name which was wrecked on them^ 
which till then,” says Sir John Smith, for six thou¬ 
sand years had been nameless.” The English did not 
stumble upon them in their first voyages to Virginia; 
and the first Englishman who was ever there was wrecked 
on them in 1593. Smith says, “No place known hath 
better walls nor a broader ditch.” Yet at the very first 
planting of them with some sixty persons, in 1612, the 
first Governor, the same year, “ built and laid the foun¬ 
dation of eight or nine forts.” To be ready, one would 
say, to entertain the first ship’s company that should be 
next shipwrecked on to them. It would have been 
more sensible to have built as many “ Charity-houses.” 
These are the vexed Bermoothees. 
Our great sails caught all the air there was, and our 
low and narrow hull caused the least possible friction. 
Coming up the harbor against the stream we swept by 
everything. Some young men returning from a fishing 
excursion came to the side of their smack, while we 
were thus steadily drawing by them, and, bowing, ob¬ 
served, with the best possible grace, “We give it up.’‘ 
Yet sometimes we were nearly at a stand-still. The 
sailors watched (two) objects on the shore to ascertain 
whether we advanced or receded. In the harbor it 
was like the evening of a holiday. The Eastern steam-» 
boat passed us with music and a cheer, as if they were 
going to a ball, when they might be going to-Davy’s 
locker. 
1 heard a boy telling the story of Nix’s mate to some 
