IT is often remarked how ignorant many Bermudians are about their own past. For years, local history — if it was taught at all — consisted mostly of the Sea Venture wreck and not much besides.

There are signs, however, that this is beginning to change.

Tonight, at A Somers Evenin>, Bermudians will have a chance to discover some of their own remarkable history at the site where much of it occurred.

Indeed, there could be few better places for Bermudians to learn about their history. For in many ways, the story of St. George's is the story of Bermuda itself.

The early chapters of that story are well-known. In 1609, a fleet left from Plymouth with settlers bound for the fledgling colony of Virginia. Its flagship the Sea VentuI> encountered a hurricane several days in to the voyage on the open seas.

For three days it was blown miles off-course, began to leak rapidly and was nearly lost to the tempest. Then, on the morning of June 28 Admiral Sir George Somers spied land.

By afternoon, all 150 people, and one dog, were safely ashore. The island, christened the Somers Isles was claimed for the crown. The island has been continually inhabited ever since.

Three years later, the town of St. George's was founded. Named after England's patron saint, the town was located in a small sound, making it a natural place for settlement. For the next two centuries, St. George's was the centre of Bermudian life.

"It certainly was the most important settlement in Bermuda," says W.S. Zuill, "at least until the capital was moved to Hamilton."

During the English Civil War, orders came from the Bermuda Company in London — a mostly puritan body — appointing Richard Norwood as Governor.

Norwood was an 'independent', meaning he was sympathetic to the Puritans. The mostly royalist parliament in St. George's objected, and appointed Governor Thomas Turner, who was loyal to neither side. What happened next, according to Mr. Zuill, was the only 'revolution' in Bermuda's history.

"Then when Charles I was executed it triggered something of a revolt. The militia met and marched on St. George's where they removed Governor Turner from office. They ruled for a while until news came that Cromwell had sent a frigate to Barbados, where a similar uprising had occurred. They caved in soon thereafter."

St. George's also had the honour of making a crucial — and perhaps decisive — intervention in the American Revolution with a single act of treason.

A group of Bermudians sympathetic to the colonies stole gunpowder from forts protecting the island and smuggled it to Tobacco Bay and a waiting American ship.

After the war, according to Mr. Zuill, "fortifications were built in the St. George's area against a possible American attack — which, of course, is what they expected. Bermuda was called a 'pistol pointed at the heart of America' because of its strategic importance to the British."

Today, St. George's survives as something of a living relic. The force of the island's economic machinery has long since moved to Hamilton. It is there, and not St. George's, where most visiting ships call.

Yet, this has had its benefits too. The Old Town has changed little over the years, and is relatively untouched by the rapid development felt by the rest of the island.

Even today, when the only visiting seamen are the tourists from the docked megaships, one can still hear with a little imagination the echoes of a vanquished time and the echoes of our sea-faring past through those narrow, cobbled streets.

Tonight, that will be easier than ever.