America – Vista de las Bermudas

Title

America – Vista de las Bermudas

Description

View shows the city of Hamilton with sailing ships offshore on Bermuda Island.

ca. 1860

Artist

Anonymus

Historical Description

Bermuda was discovered in 1503 by the Spaniard Juan de Bermúdez, who did not go ashore due to the dangerous reefs that surround the island. In 1511, Petrus Martyr of Anghiera published one of the first maps on which the archipelago is drawn. It then bears the name la bermuda. In the same year, Spanish maps with Bermuda appeared. Spanish and Portuguese ships called Bermuda to deliver fresh water and meat. The fear of ghosts and the difficult sea conditions initially prevented Europeans from establishing settlements here. The first settlers were involuntarily English colonists on the way to Virginia. In a heavy storm, her ship Sea Venture climbed onto a Bermuda reef in 1609 and had to flee ashore. The group, led by Sir George Somers, spent ten months there. From the rubble of the Sea Venture and from wood found on site, they built two smaller ships with which they continued their journey to Virginia. Her reports about the island attracted great attention in England, so that Jacob I transferred the powers over the islands to the Bermuda Company in 1615. So Bermuda was claimed for the English Crown, and the charter of the Virginia Company was later extended to include them. In 1610, all but two of the remaining survivors of Sea Venture sailed on to Jamestown, among them was John Rolfe, one of the early English settlers of North America. He is credited with the first successful cultivation of tobacco as an export crop in the Colony of Virginia and was the married with Pocahontas. Saint George’s was founded in 1612 by about 60 British colonists. A deputy government was established in 1620, after which Bermuda became an independent colony. The Anglo-American name Somers Isles for Bermuda comes from this period. Because of the remoteness of the islands, their economy initially concentrated on trading in salt and on the wood of Bermuda juniper, which is well suited for shipbuilding. The centrally located port city of Hamilton, founded in 1790, became the capital in 1815.