THE year was 1619, the date October 21, the place Castle Island, the occasion was the greeting of the new Governor, Nathaniel Butler, lately sent out from London. The party all went horribly wrong and Bermuda's only timber fort went up in smoke.

Seven years earlier, Bermuda was settled for the first time by humans; birds, turtles and a lizard or two had preceded them by half a million years or so. After almost 400 years of depredation by humans, the surviving indigenous occupants are the cahow, some skinks, snails and a dozen or so species of vegetation. It is likely that the first settlers would be shocked at the changes to the island, which they set in train in 1612, under the first Governor, Richard Moore.

One of the early settlers described Bermuda as many "small broken islands severed one from another by narrow breaches and inlets of sea, whereby are made many necessary sandy bays for the anchorage of boats . . . Lying thus together they become in form not much unlike a reaper's sickle, being in their whole longitude from east to west not above 20 miles English; in the latitude (where most extended) not fully two and a half . . . As for the soil, the innermost part of it is of two sorts, either a whitish soft rock, not much different from our English marl, or a craggy hard rock whereof lime is made."

Therein we have the earliest allusion to the burning of stone to make lime at Bermuda, the most necessary ingredient for the building of forts, which was the first occupation of the first Bermudians.

No doubt booting out some cahows and longtails from their age-old nests, Governor Moore went to town erecting fortifications at the mouths of the two important anchorages, St. George's Harbour and to the west, Castle Harbour.

With one exception, these early forts were built of Bermuda stone with lime mortars and likely painted with a red limewash. The unusual fortification was the only timber fort ever constructed here and of which all traces, excepting a few archival references, have vanished.

In his history which ended in 1622, the later Governor Butler said this in justification for writing his version of the Bermuda story: "Geography without history seemed a carcass without motion, so history without geography wander as a vagrant without certain habitation."

On the web, under an International Seminar on the History of the Atlantic World at Harvard University, this saying is attributed to Captain John Smith of Pocahontas fame, from his book published in 1624.

Thus, it is likely to be another item Captain Smith plagiarised from Butler's history, unaware of Harvard's later rule: "Since dishonesty harms the individual, all and the integrity of the university community, policies on scholastic dishonesty will be strictly enforced."

The saying, whoever said it first, epitomises the role of archaeological research, for ancient sites are but geographical monuments. Many cultures did not have a written language and therefore the archaeologist, by examining their archaeological remains, seeks to create a history.

CONVERSELY, where a history exists, such in the case of Bermuda's timber fort, the archaeologist seeks to anchor that story in geographical space, to give a physical, three-dimensional reality to the time dimensions of history.

In the instance of Governor Moore's wooden fort, we have been unable to do so, although some archaeological research has been carried out at the site, now occupied by the later Devonshire Redoubt.

There are only three historical references to the fort. In February 1614, Captain Domingo de Ulivarri left Santo Domingo for Spain with three ships, one of which sank south of Bermuda. On March 14, they awoke to find themselves off Castle Harbour and, knowing the wishes of their King, determined to check the place out.

They were dissuaded from the exercise by gunshot from "two forts about 100 paces apart, one appeared to be built of mortar and stone and the other of wood. They saw people going from one to the other wielding artillery. There were ten to 12 pieces in both forts."

Had the forts not existed, it is possible that the ships could have taken Bermuda and we would be speaking Spanish today.

The other two references come from Governor Butler, the first from events the day after he arrived from London on "the Earl of Warwick's ship, called also the Warwick" on October 20, 1619. Anchored in Castle Harbour, he had some difficulties with the locals, but eventually arranged for an inspection of the fortifications on Castle Island, which he found wanting, in the usually fashion of a new broom.

At the wooden fort, now termed Moore's Fort, a gunner "had made ready a piece of ordnance for his farewell, the which at his departure (Governor Butler's) he gave fire unto; this having done, and being over hasty to make after the Governor to the ship (for the party), he carelessly left his lintstock with a cole of match in it upon the platform, the which falling down upon the planks, which were of cedar and so apt to take fire, it began by little and little to kindle".

As the cocktail party (a new local tradition) was in full swing on board the Warwick, no one noticed the smoke until the fort was well on fire and was utterly destroyed. Butler records that he returned two years later to Castle Island to build Devonshire Redoubt on the site of the fort that had burnt down.

Devonshire Redoubt of 1621 has survived into our times and is now part of Bermuda's World Heritage Site. Captain Andrew Durnford added to its southern side in the 1790s, as the Royal Engineers took over the defence of Bermuda from the local forces after the American Revolution.

Between these two works, it is likely that most traces of Governor Moore's timber fort have been destroyed, but archaeological research may yet reveal some postholes or other traces of it. Until then, Moore's Fort "wandereth as a vagrant without a certain habitation".

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Dr. Edward Harris, MBE, JP, FSA, Bermudian, is the Executive Director of the Bermuda Maritime Museum. The views expressed here are his opinion and not necessarily those of the trustees or staff of the Museum. Comments can be sent to drharrislogic.bm, to PO Box MA 133, Sandys MABX, or by telephone at 734-1298.