On the first of August, 1620, in conformity with instructions sent out by the company, the Governor summoned the first general assembly at St. George’s for the dispatch of public business.  It consisted of the Governor, Council, Bailiffs, Burgesses, Secretary, and Clerk.  It appears that they all sat in one house, which was probably the “State House” shown on Smith’s engraving.  Most of the Acts passed on this occasion were creditable to the new legislators.

Governor Butler, as Moore had done before him, turned his chief attention to the building of forts and magazines; he also finished the cedar Church at St. George’s, and caused the assembly to pass an Act for the building of three bridges, and then initiated the useful project of connecting together the principal islands.  When Governor Butler returned to England he left the islands in a greatly improved condition.  But in his time, also, there were such frequent mutinies and discontent, that at last “he longed for deliverance from his thankless and troublesome employment.”  It was probably during Governor Butler’s administration that Captain[A] John Smith had a map and illustrations of the “Summer Ils” made, for in it we find the three bridges, numerous well-constructed forts, and the State House at St. George’s.  The map and illustrations were published in “Smith’s General Historic of Virginia, New England and the Summer Ils” 1624; they are of the greatest value and importance, as they show accurately the class of buildings and forts erected on these islands at that early period; such details even are entered into as the showing of the stocks in the market place of St. George’s, and the architecture and the substantial manner in which the buildings were constructed is remarkable, especially so when it is considered that previous to 1620 the Puritans had not settled at Plymouth, and it was ten years from that date before the settlement of Boston:  in fact, with the exception of Jamestown in Virginia, the English had not secured a foot-hold in North America at the time these buildings and forts were constructed.  There are very few copies of this rare print in existence, even in Smith’s history it is usually found wanting, and it was only after considerable trouble and expense that the writer succeeded in obtaining a reproduction of it.

[Footnote A:  Captain John Smith was never in Bermuda.  He derived all his information from his opportunities as a member of the Virginia Company, and from correspondence or personal narratives of returned planters.  This was his habitual way, as is shown by the number of authorities that he quotes.  He probably obtained the sketches, from which these illustrations were made, from Richard Norwood, the schoolmaster.]

The early history of Bermuda is in many important points similar to that of New England.  Like motives had in most instances induced emigration, and the distinguished characteristics of those people were repeated here.