Читать книгу Bermuda Houses онлайн

7 страница из 10

Governor Tucker's rule was harsh. The colonists included many criminals and convicts from English jails, so a merciless discipline seemed to him necessary. The severest penalties were enforced, executions, brandings and whippings were frequent. Negro slaves were introduced from Virginia in the endeavor to make money for the proprietors, with the resultant vices leaving their trail to this day. Progress was made in building the town of St. George. Roads and fortifications were constructed and the land planted with tobacco and semi-tropical fruits.

Tucker was replaced by Nathaniel Butler in 1619, but after securing his title to property rather doubtfully acquired, returned to Bermuda where he died in 1632. It was probably during Butler's term that the first stone dwellings began to appear, replacing the earlier thatched roofed cedar houses.

"The history of the colony from 1620, when the first Assembly met, until 1684, or 1685, when the Company was ousted of its charter by quo warranto in the King's Bench in England, is made up of the struggles of the Company in London to make as much out of the colonists as possible; of the struggles of the colonists to remove restrictions on trade with others than the Company, imposed upon them by the proprietaries; and of the efforts of the Governors sent out to the islands to maintain order, enforce the rules of the Company and defend their authority and exercise too often arbitrary power."—(William Howard Taft.)