deficiency of fresh springs throughout the colony renders
absolutely necessary. There are, indeed, wells dug upon the
beach, but the water in these is nothing more than sea-water,
filtered and rendered brackish in making its way through the
sand, and by no means fit to be used, at least in any quantity.
To supply this deficiency, the bad effects of which were
experienced in the unhealthiness of many of the crews upon the
American station, Government was induced to build these tanks;
consequently the water contained in them is the property of the
king, and none but king's ships, with the troops in garrison, are
permitted, except in extreme cases, to be supplied from thence.

The climate of Bermuda has been extolled by many, and among the
rest by Mr. Moore in his odes and epistles, as salubrious and
delightful. It is possible that he, and the rest of its
eulogists, may have visited these islands at a season of the year
different from that in which I visited them, but to me the heat
was beyond measure oppressive. Lying, as they do, under the
influence of a vertical sun, and abounding in all directions with
cliffs of white chalk, it is obvious that the constant reflection
of the sun's rays thereby occasioned must be quite overpowering.
If these panegyrists mean to say, that as long as you contrive to
keep in the shade, and take care not to stir abroad till after
sunset, you will find the Bermudas deserving of their title of
summer-islands, then I will agree with them; but I believe there
is no man who ever walked the street of St. George's at noon, or
any other spot where the sun-beams could reach him, that did not
consider the heat as anything rather than temperate.

But whatever may be thought of the climate, there can, I think,