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The History of Venturilla


Under the Virginia Company based in London, 60 British settlers and Bermuda’s first Governor officially colonized the island of Bermuda in 1612. However, more than a century before, the island was encountered by the Spaniard Juan de Bermudez who, perhaps, was blown off course en route to Mexico from Cadiz, Spain with his crew. Bermuda was not a mystery to the Spaniards after Bermudez’s encounter with the island. However, it was encircled by so many treacherous reefs that it was not deemed worthy of efforts of colonization by the Spaniards.

Though the island was never claimed by the Spaniards, Spain’s stamp remains with the naming of the island after Juan de Bermudez. This would not be the last time that we hear of a Spanish encounter with the island, either.

The treacherous reefs made sailing hazardous for any mariner who dared to sail too close to the island or had the misfortune of being blown too close where damage to ships were inevitable. It is here in 1603 that we are introduced to the first slave that touched Bermuda’s shores. As he was a slave and not considered to be chattel, not much is known about Venturilla, whose name, when translated from Spanish means good luck. It is believed, however that Venturilla, although black was also of Spanish descent.

In 1603 Diego Ramirez, captain of a Spanish galleon found himself shipwrecked on the island by a storm. It stands to reason that since the land was unfamiliar to Ramirez and that he lived at a time when there were so many superstitions to explain things in nature, Ramirez would send the slave, Venturilla to do the exploring. Venturilla’s encounter with Bermuda’s endemic birds, the cahow, was no different than the encounter that other survivors encountered. Unlike today, the birds were not facing extinction and were multitudinous – so much so that the volume of sound was so cacophonous that the superstitious explanation of the crew members at the time could only label it as one thing – the cry of the Devil. The known moniker of the island came to be “The Devil’s Isles” as it was thought that the Devil took up residency on this island – a silly notion today but a very serious prospect back then.

Here is the actual account of Venturilla’s experience with the cahows according to Captain Ramirez:

One Venturilla, a negro, was sent ashore with lantern and axe

to cut a piece of cedar. The moment he landed and entered

the bush, he set up such a yell, that I shouted: The devil’s

carrying off the negro! Everybody ashore! The men jumped

into a boat and rushed to the spot, where the negro was

brandishing his fists against the birds (cahows) and mingling

his yells with theirs. The birds, meanwhile, attracted by the

light, dashed against him, so that he could not keep clear of

them even with a club. Neither could the men of the relief party.

More than 500 birds were brought off to the ship that night.

(Rosemary Jones, Bermuda Five Centuries p.19)

Venturilla’s encounter with the cahows (seabirds) was fortuitous as the food supply on the damaged boat was dwindling. The crew feasted on the clubbed cahows for several days. Venturilla’s stay in Bermuda was a brief one. The crew spent three weeks on the island repairing the damaged ship and then continued their journey. Nothing more was heard of Venturilla. His name lives on in one of Bermuda’s ferry boats.

The Cahow – part of the petrel (seabird) family


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