21
BERMUDA.
PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE
Reference :-
TEC.O. 882
1
PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON
ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC- COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH-NOT TO
THESR islands were discovered in 1527 by a Spaniard, Juan Bermudez, hence their present name. They have also been called Somer Islands, from Sir George Somers, who was wrecked upon one of them in 1609.
In 1612 these islands were granted by James the First to the Virginia Company, from whom they were shortly afterwards purchased by certain of the Virginia proprietors, who formed themselves into a separate company, under the name and style of "The Governor and Company of the City of Lon- don for the Plantation of the Somer Islands," and about that time the first emigranta were sent out under the charge of a governor appointed by the
company.
In 1685 the company was abolished, and in 1687 a governor of Bermuda was, for the first time, appointed by the Crown.
*
Until the American Revolution these islands were considered to be an acquisition of little conse- quence to Great Britain, but after that event their importance became more apparent, and immense sums have since been expended in fortifying them.
The geographical position of these islands ren- ders them peculiarly advantageous as a site for a
naval station and a convict establishment.
They are 580 miles from the mainland of North America, and 645 miles from the Bahamas; they are, moreover, surrounded by a natural barrier of coral reefs,* impassable except by one or two narrow
• The latitude of these islands is the supposed limit at which the coral zoophytes work.
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