The colony was in such extremity in May

　　The colony was in such extremity in May, 1610, that it would havebeen extinct in ten days but for the arrival of Sir Thomas Gates andSir George Somers and Captain Newport from the Bermudas. Thesegallant gentlemen,fake uggs, with one hundred and fifty souls, had been wreckedon the Bermudas in the Sea Venture in the preceding July. Theterrors of the hurricane which dispersed the fleet, and thisshipwreck, were much dwelt upon by the writers of the time, and theBermudas became a sort of enchanted islands, or realms of theimagination. For three nights, and three days that were as black asthe nights, the water logged Sea Venture was scarcely kept afloat bybailing. We have a vivid picture of the stanch Somers sitting uponthe poop of the ship, where he sat three days and three nightstogether, without much meat and little or no sleep, conning the shipto keep her as upright as he could, until he happily descried land.
　　The ship went ashore and was wedged into the rocks so fast that itheld together till all were got ashore, and a good part of the goodsand provisions, and the tackling and iron of the ship necessary forthe building and furnishing of a new ship.
　　This good fortune and the subsequent prosperous life on the islandand final deliverance was due to the noble Somers, or Sommers, afterwhom the Bermudas were long called "Sommers Isles," which wasgradually corrupted into "The Summer Isles." These islands ofBermuda had ever been accounted an enchanted pile of rocks and adesert inhabitation for devils, which the navigator and marineravoided as Scylla and Charybdis,chanel classic bags, or the devil himself. But thisshipwrecked company found it the most delightful country in theworld, the climate was enchanting, delicious fruits abounded, thewaters swarmed with fish,cheap retro jordan, some of them big enough to nearly drag thefishers into the sea, while whales could be heard spouting and nosingabout the rocks at night; birds fat and tame and willing to be eatencovered all the bushes, and such droves of wild hogs covered theisland that the slaughter of them for months seemed not to diminishtheir number. The friendly disposition of the birds seemed most toimpress the writer of the "True Declaration of Virginia." Heremembers how the ravens fed Elias in the brook Cedron; "so Godprovided for our disconsolate people in the midst of the sea byfoules; but with an admirable difference; unto Elias the ravensbrought meat, unto our men the foules brought (themselves) for meate:
　　for when they whistled, or made any strange noyse, the foules wouldcome and sit on their shoulders,moncler clerance, they would suffer themselves to betaken and weighed by our men, who would make choice of the fairestand fattest and let flie the leane and lightest, an accident [thechronicler exclaims], I take it [and everybody will take it], thatcannot be paralleled by any Historie, except when God sent abundanceof Quayles to feed his Israel in the barren wilderness."The rescued voyagers built themselves comfortable houses on theisland, and dwelt there nine months in good health and plentifullyfed. Sunday was carefully observed, with sermons by Mr. Buck, thechaplain, an Oxford man, who was assisted in the services by StephenHopkins, one of the Puritans who were in the company. A marriage wascelebrated between Thomas Powell, the cook of Sir George Somers, andElizabeth Persons, the servant of Mrs. Horlow. Two children werealso born, a boy who was christened Bermudas and a girl Bermuda. Thegirl was the child of Mr. John Rolfe and wife, the Rolfe who wasshortly afterward to become famous by another marriage. In orderthat nothing should be wanting to the ordinary course of a civilizedcommunity, a murder was committed. In the company were two Indians,Machumps and Namontack, whose acquaintance we have before made,returning from England, whither they had been sent by Captain Smith.