Bermuda was first settled in 1609 by shipwrecked English colonists headed for Virginia. Tourism to the island to escape North American winters first developed in Victorian times. Tourism continues to be important to the island's economy, although international business has overtaken it in recent years. Bermuda has developed into a highly successful offshore financial center. A referendum on independence was soundly defeated in 1995.

Marine geologists say that 100 million years ago, this hook-shaped chain of little islands was part of the lip of a huge volcano, now long dormant. The submarine mount on which it's perched rises 15,000 feet from the bottom of the sea.

Some oceanographers say the Bermuda Rise juts up from the deep Atlantic Ocean floor in the form of three steep-sided mountains, the largest of which supports the Bermuda Islands we know today, on the southern margin of a shallow water platform, with Challenger and Argus (or Plantagenet) Banks to the southwest.

That part of Bermuda that is above the surface of the sea is surrounded by a wide platform of underwater coral reefs that protect it from stormy weather. This shallow platform gives the inshore seas colours that you won’t soon forget, stunning blues and greens that lap at the pink sand of it's beaches.

There are definitely not 365 islands as some inaccurate web sites and information sources allege. Going from northwest to east, the six principal islands or former islands are Ireland Island (north and south), Boaz Island, Somerset, Main, St. David's and St. George's, about 22 miles by road in total length.

They are the contiguous mass of Bermuda. The largest by far is Great Bermuda or Main Island, neither of which phrase is used locally. It is a mile wide on average, 14 miles long, 259 feet above sea level at its highest point, with hills and fertile depressions. All six principal islands are now joined together and to other accessible islands or former islands such as Coney Island and Cooper's Island - by 12 bridges and a causeway.

Most visitors confine themselves to these six principal islands without knowing they are going from one to the other (because there are no island signs) or are discouraged from seeing islands which are not among the principal group because there is no scheduled service to them. But some of the smaller ones are fascinating. The bridges linking the principal islands are less than 100 years old. Before then, ferries were used at most crossings. Some were mere rowboat ferries.

Most islands are in Castle Harbor, Great Sound, Little Sound, Hamilton Harbor and Harrington Sound (an internal lake, accessing the sea via Flatts Inlet). All islands have a limestone rock, with coral formation caps. On the north, west, and south they are surrounded by reefs.