PREFACE THE attempt to write the history of a place which the Poet Moore thought possessed no materials for the purpose may be considered a bold undertaking, and the best excuse I can offer is expressed in a phrase in constant use by the authorities of the Bermudas, that "though small, the islands form an important part of the British Empire." Besides this, Mr. Moore admits that Pinkerton thought "a good history and description of the Bermudas might afford a pleasing addition to the geographical library." If these considerations would not suffice, I may add that the land where "Ariel has warbled and Waller has strayed," must always possess sufficient attractions to render its history interesting.* It is generally thought that no history of the * The most fashionable excuse for a work at the present day, is that it was not at first intended for the public eye, but existed either in the Islands has ever before been written, but there is evidence among the records to show that a Mr. Perient Trott published a work of the kind during the seventeenth century, which so exasperated the Company of Adventurers that they ordered it to be collected and publicly burnt by the hangman. There is also some reason to believe that a similar work was published at a much later period. Until the American revolution, the Islands were of little consequence to Great Britain, but after that event their importance became every day more apparent, and immense sums have since been expended in fortifying them. The materials for this volume are to be found principally in the Public Records of the Colony, which, though much neglected, are still in a tolerable state of preservation, commencing with Governor Moore's Commission, in 1612. No record of the shape of private correspondence or careless memoranda, and that these materials would never have been given to the world, but for the solicitations of perhaps partial friends, &c. &c. &c. Generally speaking, these same private letters, or notes, are marvellously found to contain nothing but the matter in question to the subject history or fiction. For my own part, I claim no such protection, but honestly state that I sat deliberately down to write this history, and be my sins what they may, they were premeditated. proceedings of the Council of the Colony appears to have been kept until the year 1622, but from that date the chain is well connected. The curious papers respecting the enchanted treasure are contained in a manuscript book preserved in the Secretary's Office of the Islands, called "Treasure Trove," which contains likewise much other interesting matter connected with the early history of the Colony. The grant from the Earl of Warwick and his colleagues is among the papers preserved in the office of the Clerk of the Council. It is difficult, however, to decypher much of it now, as the injuries inflicted by time have almost destroyed it. Among the pages of these brief and noiseless annals, perhaps there is not a brighter one, or one more worthy of admiration than that which records the total emancipation from slavery on the 1st of August, 1834. Of the few slave colonies whose proper sense of liberality led them to decline the proffered six years' apprenticeship, Bermuda stood foremost, and it will for ever afford a gratifying retrospect, that its legislative deliberations, when called upon to pronounce the final issue of the struggle between justice and interest, did loudly proclaim in favour of the former. |