Page:The Granite Monthly Volume 8.djvu/131

 Early History of the Bermuda Islands.

��"3

��Two children, a boy and girl, were bom during this period ; the for- mer was chris- tened Bermudas and the latter Ber- muda ; they were probably the first human beings born on these islands.

Before leaving the islands Gates caused a cross to be made of the wood saved from the wreck of his ship, which he se- cured to a large cedar ; a silver coin with the king's head was placed in the middle of it, to- gether with an inscrip- tion on a copper plate describing what had happened — That the cross was the remains of a ship ot three hundred tons, called the Sea Venture, bound with eight more to Virginia ; that she contained two knights, Sir Thomas Gates, governor of the colony, and Sir George Summers, admiral of the seas, who, together

���^Cathcrins forte

��Pcmbroks ■forte

K

���View of ancient forts. (Re-produced from Smith's engraving, 1614.)

��with her captain, Christopher Newport, and one hundred and fifty mariners and passengers besides, had got safe ashore, when she was lost, July 28, 1609.

On the tenth of May, 16 10, they sailed with a fair wind, and, before reaching the open sea, they struck on a rock and were nearly wrecked the sec- ond time. On the twenty-third they

��arrived safely at Jamestown. This set- tlement they found in a most destitute condition on their arrival, and it was de- termined to abandon the place, but Sir George Summers, "whose noble mind

��ever regarded the

��general

��good

��more

��than his own ends," offered to under- take a voyage to the Bermudas for the purpose of forming a settlement, from

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