BERMUDAS, or SONIERS' ISLANDS, are situated in the Atlantic ocean, in W. Long. 63° 28', N. Lat. 32° 35' ; and are between 200 and 300 leagues dis tant from the American continent, and the other West India islands. They were discovered in 1527 by John Bermudas, a Spaniard, who merely saw them at a distance, and gave them his name ; but who did not land upon them, or acquire any information con cerning them. About the same time, Henry May, an Englishman, was shipwrecked upon one of the largest of these islands; returned to Europe in a ves sel of cedar wood, which he bad found means to build there, by the help of materials collected from the wreck of his own ship ; and was the first who pub lished any account of the Bermudas. They were found, at their first discovery, to be entirely uninha bited ; and though, in 1572, the king of Spain made a grant of them to one of his subjects, no settlement was formed upon any of them by the Spaniards. In 1609, Sir George Somers, Sir, Thomas Gates, and Captain Newport, on their way to Virginia as deputy governors, were cast upon the Bermudas ;# and dis agreeing among themselves, each of them built a ship of the cedar growing upon the islands, in which they severally arrived at Virginia. Sir George Somers having returned to these islands in quest of provi sions for the in Virginia, died there soon after his arrival ; and from him they have been called by the name of Somers' or Summer islands. His com panions and crew, instead of returning as they had been commanded, with hogs to Virginia, sailed in their cedar ship to England ; and made so favourable a report of the beauty and fertility of the Bermudas, that the Virginia Company, who claimed the pro perty, sold them to 120 purchasers, and James I. granted them a charter. In 1612, this Bermudas as sociation fitted out a vessel, with sixty planters on board, under the government of a Mr Richard Moore. In the mean time, three English seamen, who had deserted from Sir George Somers, and remained in St George's island, had collected a considerable quan tity of ambergris, which they found on the coast ; and were preparing to convey their valuable cargo in an open boat to Virginia, or Newfoundland ; when governor Moore arrived from England, seized and sold the ambergris as the property of the Company. This great, though scarcely just acquisition of wealth, gave new spirit to the adventurers ; and, under the good conduct of Moore, the island was soon fortified with eight or nine block-houses, the town of St George planned as it now stands, and considerable returns made to the proprietors in England in drugs, ambergris, cedar, tobacco, and other commodities.
The infant settlement was alarmed by the threatening of an attack from some Spanish vessels, whicb appear ed of St George's, when there was not above one barrel of gunpowder in the whole island ; but they fortunately retired upon the first fire from the forts of the English. About the same time the Bermudas were greatly infested with rats, which had been im. ported in the European ships : They multiplied with astonishing rapidity ; made dreadful havock for se veral years among their fruits and grain ; and at length suddenly disappeared. In 1616, Moore was succeeded by Captain Daniel Tucker, who followed out the beneficial plans of his predecessor, kept the planters .under the strictest discipline, and greatly en couraged the culture of tobacco. In 1619 he was succeeded by Captain Butler, who brought with him 500 new settlers ; raised a monument to the memory of Sir George Somers; and established a new consti tution of government, resembling, as nearly as possi ble, that of the mother country. There were now above 3000 English residing in the Bermudas ; many of the first nobility had purchased plantations ; and it became fashionable in England to visit these islands from motives of curiosity and amusement. From exaggerated accounts of the advantages of the cli mate, many persons removed thither from the Lee ward islands for the restoration of their health ; and others, from the northern colonies, to enjoy their for tunes in a peaceful retirement. Numbers of royalists took refuge in the Bermudas, during the usurpation of Cromwell ; and, in 1643, the poet Waller, after Iris condemnation by the Parliament, spent several months in these islands, which lie has described in his poems, as enjoying a perpetual spring, and as furnish ing the most delightful residence in creation. De ceived by such flattering accounts of the serenity of the climate, and the manners of the inhabitants, the benevolent and ingenious Bishop Berkeley made a ge nerous, hut unsuccessful attempt in 1725, to establish a college in the Bermudas, for the joint purpose of propagating Christianity among the American In dian's, and of facilitating the _education of the British youth in that country. See BERKELEY.