BERMUDA

BY COLONEL E. C. S. MOORE, R.E.

BERMUDA is represented on the map of the world by a very small dot in latitude 32° 15′ N. and longitude 64° 51' W.; the actual area of the land being about 19 square miles, the extreme length 25 miles, and greatest breadth, 2 miles : distance from England, 2970 miles. The restricted area of the island is, however, no criterion of its value to the Empire. For years this has been overlooked, but now that wiser counsels prevail and the enormous advantages conferred by the possession of sea-power have been so ably demonstrated by Admiral Colomb, R.N., Captain Mahan of the United States Navy, and other authorities, the present war in South Africa emphasises the teaching of the naval experts, for without the undisputed supremacy of England at sea it would have been impossible for her to have undertaken it with any prospect of final success. The nation has at last awoke to the fact that the possession of coaling stations capable of becoming secure bases for the operations of our fleets in all parts of the world, is a matter of real vital importance, not only for the maintenance of our supremacy for imperial purposes, but to secure the very existence of the nation as a separate unit in the great struggle for existence.

Amongst the numerous outposts of Great Britain all over the world in which a fresh interest has thus been aroused, the little island which is one of the oldest of our colonies has not passed unnoticed.

The geographical position of Bermuda in the Atlantic Ocean is one of extreme isolation, the nearest land being Cape Hatteras in North Carolina, which is 580 miles distant. Thus it stands in solitary grandeur quite distinct from either the West Indies or America. A very common mistake which is made is the addition of the words "West Indies" to the Bermuda address. This is liable to cause very considerable delay in transmission, as there is an island in that group called Barbuda, to which such letters are thus sometimes diverted. America is a still more common affix used to specify the locality of the island; but it is not only wrong but quite unnecessary. There are many people in America who, no doubt, would concur in viewing the island as a fragment of the States, as evidenced by a book entitled "Stolen America: A Story of Bermuda," by Isabel Henderson Floyd, New York; Cassell Publishing Co. Its history, however, from the earliest records establishes the claim of Bermuda to possession from the Old World rather than from the New.

The extraordinary strategic value of Bermuda as a naval and military station is evidenced by the very fact that it is so isolated, there being no other island within hundreds of miles of it that could be utilised as an offset to it, and its central position with reference to the whole of the North American coast from Newfoundland to Florida and the West Indies is quite unique; for if we take the island as a centre, and with a radius of from 700 to 1000 miles, we find it commands the whole of this enormous coast-line, washed by the Atlantic, as well as the outer fringe of the West Indies.

The discovery of Bermuda followed closely on that of America, but it is not very clear who was the original discoverer. It is known from records which exist that Juan de Bermudez visited the island in 1515, when conveying Gonzales Ferdinando d'Oviedo home from the West Indies, and it is generally assumed

that his name was given to the island on this occasion; but there is evidence which proves it to have been known before this date, as in one of the copies of a book printed in 1511, the "Legatio Babylonica" of Peter Martyr, is a map of these regions with an island named La Bermuda plainly inserted on it. Juan de Bermudez may have discovered it on some previous voyage, or its original discovery may have been due to some other navigator with a similar name, for it is very strange that Oviedo in his narrative says nothing about its discovery, but speaks of "the island of Bermuda, otherwise called Garza," on which some of his party apparently landed on the occasion of his homeward voyage with Juan de Bermudez, as already mentioned. His stay was apparently of short duration, and from his description he must have anchored in "five fathom hole" near St. George's, and gives the dimensions of the group fairly accurately.

Herrera in his "Historia General" (Madrid, first edition, 1601) says that an attempt to colonise the island of Bermuda was made in 1527 by Hermando or Ferdinando Camelo, a Portuguese, but it came to nothing. In Churchill's "Collection of Voyages" the date is given as 1552. There is a local belief that the figures 1543, and some initials which look like a monogram of F and T with a cross after them, which are to be seen cut on a rock facing the sea in Smith's Parish, are mementoes of this visit; the monogram certainly cannot stand for F.C., and the site chosen for the record seems scarcely suitable for commemorating such an event. The rock, in which the inscription must have been deeply cut in the first instance, is hard, but when seen by the writer showed evident signs of wear and tear from age and exposure.

As regards the name of the island, Herrera states that the "island was called Bermuda or La Garza (the Heron), because the captain who discovered it was

called Juan Bermudez, and his vessel La Garza (the Heron). It is a small island, and not very high, having a ridge in the middle, and a vast quantity of land and sea birds. It is in 33°, and always covered with clouds." The name La Garza must have soon died out, as it is scarcely met with anywhere else, so it could never have been widely adopted.

The hogs so often referred to as existing on the island may have been landed by Bermudez, or owe their origin to the numerous wrecks which took place on the coast.

Bermuda is constantly associated with shipwreck, and earned very early an evil reputation on account of the severe storms which occur in the neighbourhood, and the danger to navigation caused by the extensive reefs which encircle the islands. These reefs, which are only partly visible at low water, are entirely covered at high tide, and extend for about seven miles to the north of the island near St. George's, and seven miles to the westward of Wreck Hill on the west extremity of Somerset. The island also lies very low, so that it is often difficult to make the land; and ships even nowadays notwithstanding the improved means of navigation sometimes miss it, not discovering the mistake until they are fifty miles to the southward. In the case even of steamers constantly visiting the islands, the navigating officer spends many an anxious hour on the bridge before he picks up the Gibb's Hill light. Of course in the early days to which we are referring no lighthouses existed, and the ships voyaging between Europe and the West Indies found it necessary to give Bermuda a wide berth; the dread thus inspired caused the Spanish sailors to call the group the "Isles of Devils."

Numbers of wrecks no doubt took place on the reefs, involving total loss of all on board, and of which no trace would ever be found. A French ship is known

to have been wrecked there between 1560 and 1570, the greater part of the crew escaping safely to land, where they managed to build a boat from the materials of their ship, and escaped in it to Newfoundland. Another French ship, commanded by M. de la Barbotière, sailed from Laguna, in Hispaniola, on the 30th November 1593, and on its homeward voyage was "cast away upon the north-west part of the Isle of Bermuda about midnight, the pilots making themselves to noone to be to the southward of the island twelve leagues." The account of the wreck is given by an English seaman, Henry May, who was a passenger on board the French ship. He was about five months on the island, during which time "a small barke of some eighteen tons" was built with timber cut from the cedar trees in the island; the whole party managed to escape in it, and after many adventures they were taken on board an English ship near the banks of Newfoundland, and May landed safely at Falmouth in In his narrative May speaks of the August 1594. existence of high cliffs where the wreck took place as existing seven leagues from the mainland, and a map published in 1625 shows three distinct islands along the line of the northern reefs. The North Rock, which stands about 14 feet high, and a few smaller ones near it are the solitary survivors of these cliffs and islands, and these last vestiges will soon go the way of the rest unless something is done to preserve them, as from the evidence of sketches made about twenty years ago a great alteration has taken place in their shape, the action of the sea having undercut them very considerably. It has been suggested that the disappearance of these islands mentioned by May is due to gradual subsidence, but it is more than probable that they have fallen victims to the encroachments of the sea, as the heaviest seas roll in from the north and west; the preservation of the remainder now known as