As every one knows, the Bermudas are a cluster of small islands, in the Atlantic Ocean, nearly four hundred in number, but, for the greater part, diminutive and barren. They were discovered by Juan Bermudas, a Spaniard, about the year 1522; but were not inhabited till 1609, when Sir George Somers was cast away upon them, and established a small settlement. The length of the colony is less than thirty miles, and the population, even at the present day, is not more than ten thousand, one half of whom are black and coloured persons. The soil of the inhabited islands (about five in number) is exceedingly fertile; vegetation is rapid; spring may be said to be perpetual; and fields and forests are clad with unfading verdure. In these clustered islets Whitefield landed on March 15; and here he spent eleven weeks, generally preaching once, and often twice, a day. In England, it was reported that he was dead. The Gentleman’s Magazine, for the month of May, in its “List of Deaths,” had the following:—
“April.—Rev. Mr. Whitefield, the famous itinerant preacher, and founder of the Methodists in Georgia.”
Fortunately, the rumour had afterwards to be corrected.
Whitefield met with the greatest courtesy and kindness in Bermudas. The Rev. Mr. Holiday, clergyman of Spanish-Point, received him in the most affectionate manner, andbegged him to become his guest. The governor and the council invited him to dine with them. The Rev. Mr. Paul, an aged Presbyterian minister, offered him his pulpit. Colonels Butterfield, Corbusiers, and Gilbert, Captain Dorrel, and Judge Bascombe, gave him hospitable entertainments. He preached in the churches, in the Presbyterian meeting-house, in mansions, in cottages, and in the open air. Colonel Gilbert lent him his horse during his stay; and the gentlemen of the islands subscribed more than £100 sterling for his Orphan House. Some of the negroes were offended at him, because he reproved “their cursing, thieving, and lying,” and said, “their hearts were as black as their faces;” but, as a rule, they flocked to hear him, and were powerfully affected by his discourses.
Gillies gives extracts from the Journal which Whitefield wrote in Bermudas,—extracts filling fifteen printed pages; but the substance of the whole is contained in the following letter, addressed to a minister at Boston:—
“Bermudas, May 17, 1748.
“Rev. and dear Sir,—Nine weeks ago, I arrived here from Charleston. We had a safe and pleasant passage. We were nine days on board; and I do not remember hearing one single oath, from land to land.
“Mr. Holiday, a clergyman of the Church of England, received me with open heart and arms. The first Lord’s-day, after my arrival, I read prayers and preached in two of his parish churches; and the longer I stayed, the more kindly he behaved to me. The two other Church clergy chose to keep at a distance; but Mr. Paul, an aged Presbyterian minister, was very free to let me have the use of his meeting-house, and, as it was pretty large and in a central part of the island, I preached in it for eight Lord’s-days successively.
“His excellency, the governor, was pleased to come and hear me, when I preached in town, with most of the council and the principal gentlemen in the island. He treated me with great respect, and invited me more than once to dine with him. I have preached nearly seventy times; on the week-days chiefly in private houses, but sometimes in the open air, to larger assemblies, they tell me, than were ever seen upon the island before. The word has frequently been attended with Divine power, and many have been brought under convictions. I have spent nine happy weeks among them, and was never so little opposed, during so long a stay in any place. In a few days, I hope to embark, in the brig Betsy, (Captain Eastern,)for England.”[187]
Respecting his farewell sermon, Whitefield wrote:—