qiz B E R 
than could have been expended on fuels an occafion, where 
there was every incentive which could work upon the !i- 
cendou fuel's of a conquering army. But, though their be¬ 
haviour was decent with regard to the private inhabitants, 
there was fomething (hocking in their treatment of the 
king’s palaces. The apartments of the ro.yal callle of 
Charlottenburgh were entirely plundered, the furniture 
fpoiled, the pictures defaced, without e-ven fparing the 
antique ftatues collected by cardinal Polignac, which had 
been purchafed by the houfe of Brandenburgh. ThecaL 
tie of Schonhaufen, belonging to the queen, arid that of 
Fredei icsfield, belonging to the margrave Charles, were 
all'o plundered. The palace of Potfdam, the famous Sans 
Souci, had a better fate ; prince Efterhali commanded 
there, and it was preferved from the fmalleft violation. 
The prince, on viewing the palace, only alked what pic¬ 
ture of the king rel’embled him molt; and, being informed, 
defired that he might have leave to take it, together with 
two German flutes, which the king ufed, to keep them, 
he laid, in memory of his majefty. This was a fort of 
taking very different from pillage. They (laid in the city 
four days : but hearing that the king, apprehenfive of 
this llroke, was moving to the relief of his capital, they 
quitted it on the [3th of October ; and having walled the 
country round for a vail extent, and driven away all the 
cattle and horfes they could find, retreated by different 
routes out of Brandenburgh. All religions are tolerated 
at Beilin ; the Roman Catholics, the Lutherans, Calvinifts, 
and Jews, have free exercife of their religion. By means 
of canals there is a free communication between the Spree 
and the Oder, and the Spree and the Elbe. Lat. 52. 33. N. 
Ion. 31. 8. E. Ferro. 
Berlin, f. [from Berlin , a city of Germany; though 
fome attribute the invention of it to the Italians, and de¬ 
rive the word from berlina, a name given by them to a fort 
of ftage, whereon perfons are expofed to public fliame.] 
A fort of vehicle, of the chariot kind. It is a very con¬ 
venient machine to travel in, being lighter, and lefs apt 
to be overturned, than a chariot. The body of it is hung 
high, on fhafts, by leathern braces ; there being a kind of 
flirrup, or foot-ftool, for the conveniency of getting into 
it: inflead of lide-windows, fome have fereens to let down 
in bad, and draw up in good, weather. 
BERLIN'CHEN, a town of Germany, in the circle of 
Upper Saxony, and New Mark of Brandenburg: eighty 
miles eafb-north-eaft of Berlin, and thirty-fix north-north- 
•.eall of Kuftrin. 
BERLINEC'Z, a town of Poland, in the palatinate of 
Braclaw ; fifty-two miles weftof Brad aw. 
BERLOCH', a town of Bohemia, in the circle of Czaz- 
kui : nine miles north-eaft of Czazlau. 
BER'ME,yi in fortification, a fpace of ground left at 
the foot of the rampart, on the fide next the country, de- 
figned to receive the ruins of the rampart, and prevent 
their filling up the fofle. It is fometimes pallifadoed, for 
the greater fecurity ; and in Holland it is generally plant¬ 
ed with a quickfet hedge. It is alio called liziere, relais, 
foreland, letrait, pais defnuris, &c. 
BERME'O, or Vermeo, a feaport town of Spain, in 
the province of Bifcay, near cape Machicaca: five leagues 
north-weft of Bilbao. 
BERME'JO, an ifland and feaport in the Pacific Ocean, 
near the coaft of Peru, a little to the weft of Lima. 
BER'MONDSEY, [of Bermunds Ea, Sax. i. e. Ber- 
mund’s Kle.] A parifh in Southwark,, formerly famous 
for an abbey erefled by Bermund, either lord or abbot of 
that place. 
BERMU'DAS, or Somer.’s Islands, a clufter of 
fmall iflands, fituated on the Atlantic ocean. They are in 
number 400 or more; but not one eighth part is inhabited. 
The moll conliderable of thefe iflands are St. George, St. 
David, Cooper, Ireland, Somerfet, Long illand, Bird 
Ifland, and Nonefuch. The firft has a handfome town, 
which is the capital, called Georgc-town , the two following 
fome villages, the others only farms difperfed. It is un- 
B E R 
certain who were the firft difeoverers of thefe. iflands, 
John Bermudas, a Spaniard, is commonly laid to have 
difeovered them in 1527 ; hut this is dilputed, and the 
difeovery attributed to Henry May an Englifhman. As 
the iflands were without the reach of the Indian naviga¬ 
tion, the Bermudas were abfoiutely uninhabited when firft 
difeovered by the Europeans. May was Ihipwrecked u »on 
St. George’s ; and with the cedar which they felled there, 
afliffed by the wreck of their own Ihrp, he and his com¬ 
panions built another which carried them to-Europe, 
where they publilhed their accounts of the iflands. When 
lord Delawar was governor of Virginia, Sir Thomas Gates, 
Sir George Somers, and captain Newport, were appointed 
his deputy-governors ; but their (hip, being feparated by 
a dorm from the reft of the fquadron, was, in 3609, 
wrecked on the Bermudas; and the governors, difagreeinc 
among themfelves, built each of them a new fhip°of the 
cedar they found there, in which they feverally failed to 
Virginia. On their arrival there, the colony was in fuck 
diftrefs, that lord Delawar, upon the report which his 
deputy-governors made him of the plenty they found at 
the Bermudas, difpatched Sir George Somers to brin^ 
provifions from thence to Virginia in the fame (hip which 
brought him, and which had not an ounce of iron about 
her except one bolt in the keel. Sir George, after a te¬ 
dious voyage, reached the place of his deftination, where, 
loon after his arrival, he died, leaving his name to the 
iflands, and his orders to the crew to return with black 
hogs to the colony of Virginia. This part of his will, how¬ 
ever, the Tailors did not choofe to execute; but letting fail 
in their cedar fhip for England, landed fafely at Whit¬ 
church in Dorfetlhire. 
Notwithstanding this derelidlicn of the ifland, it was 
not without Englilh inhabitants. Two Tailors, Carter and 
Waters, being apprehenfive of punilhment fortheir crimes, 
had fecreted themfelves from their fellows when Sir George 
was firft wrecked, and had ever fince lived upon the na¬ 
tural productions of the foil. Upon the fecond arrival of 
Sir George, they enticed one Chard to remain with them ; 
but, differing about the fovereignty of the ifland, Chard 
and Waters were on the point of cutting one another’s 
throats, when they were prevented by the prudence of 
Carter. Soon after, they had the good fortune to find a 
large piece of ambergris, weighing about eighty pounds, 
betides other pieces, which in thole days were fufficient, 
if properly difpofed of, to have made their fortunes. 
Where they were, this ambergris was ufelefs; and there¬ 
fore they came to the defperate refolution of venturing in 
an open boat to Virginia or Newfoundland, where they 
hoped to difpofe of their treafure. In the mean time, 
however, the Virginia company claimed the property 
of the Bermudas iflands; and accordingly fold it to 120 
perfons of their own fociety, who obtained a charter from 
king James for pollening it. This New Bermudas Com¬ 
pany, as it was called, fitted out a fhip with lixty planters 
on board to fettle on the Bermudas, under the command 
of Mr. Richard Moor, a carpenter. The new colony ar¬ 
rived upon the ifland juft at the time the three Tailors were 
about to depart with their ambergris ; which Moor hav¬ 
ing difeovered, he immediately feized and difpofed of it for 
the benefit of the company. So valuable a booty gave 
fpirit to the new company; and the adventurers fettled 
upon St. George’s ifland, where they raifed cabins. Moor 
was indefatigable in his duty, and carried on the fortifying 
and planting the ifland with incredible diligence ; for he 
not only built eight or nine forts, or blockhoufes, but 
inured the fettlers to martial difeipline. He alfo received a 
fupply of provifions and planters from England, and plan¬ 
ned the town of St. George as it now Hands. The fame 
of this fettlement Toon awakened the jealoufy of the Spa¬ 
niards, who appeared off St. George’s with fome-veftels; 
but, being fired upon by the forts, they fheered off, though 
the Englilh had fcarce a barrel of gunpowder on the illand. 
During Moo*'s government the Bermudas were infefted' 
with rats, which had been imported into them by the 
Englilh' 
