There are two towns in the Bermudas, St George’s, founded in 1794, and Hamilton, founded in 1790, and incorporated in 1793. The former was the capital till the senate and courts of justice were removed by Sir James Cockburn to Hamilton, which being centrally situated, is much more convenient. The streets of St George’s are close and narrow, and the drainage bad. It is a military station, the barracks lying to the east of the town. The population is about 2000. Hamilton, in the Great Bermuda, at the bottom of a bay which is entered by Trenblin’s Narrows, consists of an irregular half-street fronting a line of wharves. Its principal buildings include a court-house, a legislative assembly house, a council room, a library (1839), a jail, and a large church. About a mile from the town is Langton, the governor’s residence. In Inland Island is situated the royal dockyard and naval establishment. A hospital stands on the highest point, and a lunatic asylum has also been built. The bay is defended by a breakwater. On Boaz Island there is a convict station. A causeway, opened in 1871, runs from St George’s through Longbird Island westward, across Castle Harbour. The harbour of St George’s has space enough to accommodate the whole British navy; yet, till deepened by blasting, the entrance was so narrow as to render it almost useless. A marine slip was constructed in 1865, with a capacity of 1200 tons. The chief military establishment is at Prospect Hill. The Government consists of a governor appointed by the Crown, and a privy council of nine members appointed by the governor. The House of Assembly consists of thirty-six members, who receive salaries. The Acts are usually passed for a definite period, and require to be renewed from time to time. Much of the judicial administration is left to unpaid magistrates. The currency of the colony, which had formerly twelve shillings to the pound sterling, was assimilated to that of England in 1842. The colony is ecclesiastically attached to the bishopric of Barbados. Both Presbyterians and Wesleyans are endowed. There are numerous schools, and in 1847 an educational board was established; but the general educational condition is unsatisfactory. Of 2600 children between the ages of five and six, only about 1500 attend school. Sunday schools are of much greater importance than in England, and most of them have libraries. The revenue of the islands in 1872 was £33,256, inclusive of £1500 raised by loan; the gross expenditure was £32,236; and the public debt amounted to £17,330. The population in 1850 was 11,092, of whom 4669 were whites; by the census of 1871 it had increased to 12,121.

The discovery of the Bermtιdas resulted from the shipwreck of Juan Bermudez, a Spaniard (whose name they now bear), when on a voyage from Spain to Cuba with a cargo of hogs, about the year 1522. Henry May, an Englishman, suffered the same fate in 1593; and lastly, Sir George Somers shared the destiny of the two preceding navigators in 1609. Sir George was the first who established a settlement upon them, but he died before he had fully accomplished his design. In 1612 the Bermudas were granted to an offshoot of the Virginia Company, which consisted of 120 persons, 60 of whom, under the command of Mr Henry More, proceeded to the islands; and an accession of inhabitants was gained during the civil wars, many having sought a refuge from the tyranny of the ruling party in this distant sanctuary. Into the details of the history we cannot enter, but the following items are important. The first source of colonial wealth was the growing of tobacco; and at a later period the produce of the salt-lagoons at Turk’s Island became a main article of trade. In 1726 Berkeley chose the Summer Islands as the seat of his projected missionary establishment. The first newspaper, the Bermuda Gazette, was published in 1784. See W. F. Williams, Hist, and Stat. Account of the Bermudas, 1848; Godet, Bermuda, its History, <L∙c., 1860.