The real explanation
of the prosperity of the islands is probably to be found in the
wonderful fertility of the soil, which produces three crops a year, and
in the immense tourist traffic during the winter months.
The islands were originally settled in rather a curious way. Certain
families, my own amongst them, took shares in the "Bermuda Company,"
and each undertook to plant a little "tribe" there. These "tribes"
seem to have come principally from Norfolk and Lincolnshire, as is
shown by the names of the principal island families. The Triminghams,
the Tuckers, the Inghams, the Pennistones, and the Outerbridges have
all been there since the early sixteen hundreds. Probably nowhere in
the world is the colour-line drawn more rigidly than in Bermuda; white
and coloured never meet socially, and there are separate schools for
white and black children. This is, of course, due to the instinct of
self-preservation; in so small a community it would have been
impossible otherwise for the white settlers to keep their blood pure
for three hundred years. The names of the different parishes show the
families who originally took shares in the Bermuda Company; Pembroke,
Devonshire, Hamilton, Warwick, Paget, and Somerset amongst others.
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