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TUE ATLANTIC. f C H A T . IV . CHAP. IV.] ST. THOMAS TO BERMUDAS.
wandretli as a Vagrant witliout certaine habitation.
Those Islands lie in the huge maine Ocean, and
two hundred leagues from any continent, situated
in 32 degrees and 25 minutes of Northerly latitude,
and distant from Encjlcmd, West-South-AVest, ahout
3,300 miles, some twenty miles in length, and not
past two miles and a hälfe in breadth, enuironed with
Hocks, AA'hicli to the North-ward, AVest-ward, and
South-East extend further than they have been yet
well discouered: by reason of those Eocks the
Country is naturally very strong, for there is but
two places, and scarce two vulesse to them Avho
know them Avell, where shipping may safely come
iu, and those now are exceeding well fortified, hut
witliiu is roome to entertaine a Eoyall E lec t: the
Eocks 111 most places appeare at a low water, neither
are they much couered at a high, for it ebbs and
ilowes not past fine foot; the shore for most part is
a Eocke, so hardened ivith the sunne, wind and sea,
that it is not apt to be worne away rvith the wanes,
whose violence is also broke by the Eocks before
they can come to the shore: it is very rmeuen, distributed
into hills and dales, the mold is of diners
colours, neither clay nor sand, but a meane hetween;
the red which reseinhleth clay is the ivorst, the
whitest resembling sand and the blackest is good, but
tbe browue betwixt them both, which they call white,
because there is mingled ivith it a white meale, is the
best, vnder tbe mold tvyo or tliree foot deep, and
sometimes lesse, is a kinde of ivliite bard substance
wbicb they call the Eocke : tbe trees vsually fasten
tbeir roots in it, neither is it indeed Eocke or stone,
or so hard, though for most part more harder than
chalke; nor so Avhite, but pnmish-like and spungy,
easily recieuing and containing much water. In
some places Clay is found under it, it seemes to
he engendered with raine water draining through the
earth, and draAving with it of his substance vnto a
certaine depth Avhere it congeales ; the hardest kinde
of it lies under the red ground like quarries, as it
were thicke slates one upon another, through which
the water hath his passage, so that in such places-
there is scarce found any fresh Avater, for all or the
most part of the fresh Avater commeth out of the sea
draining through the sand, or that substance called
the Eocke leaving the salt behinde, it becomes
fresh.”
Eepresentative government Avas introduced in
Bermudas so early as the year 1620, and in 1621 the
Bermudas Company of London, in Avhom the government
was at that time vested, issued a liberal charter.
That charter remained in force only till 1685,^ when,
prohahly on account of the. importance of the islands
as a military station, it was annulled hy the Home
Government; and since then the governors have heen
appointed by the Crown, and the laws of the colony
have been enacted hy a legislature consisting of the
governor and nine members of council appointed by
the Crown, and thirty-six members of assembly elected
hy the nine parishes into which the islands are divided.
Slavery appears to have existed in Bermudas from
the first in a mitigated and patriarchal form. The
legislative bodies of Bermudas and of Antigua were the
only tAvo among our colonies Avhich abolished slavery
Avithout the intervention of apprenticeship. The proportion
received hy Bermudas of the compensation
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