>Actually, the evidence that Shakespeare did not set The Tempest in Bermuda
>is overwhelming. I did a bit of research--he read the Bermmuda accounts
>but the play is more based on continental north America.
Frances, thanks for the fascinating followup that I will crosspost. I guess I wasn't clear enough. I don't think the island is supposed to be Bermuda, only that accounts of a shipwreck on Bermuda were the inspiration for the play. It is probably true that Shakespeare pulled together pits and pieces from different travelogues about the New World and produced a composite roughly based on them. As your citation put it nicely, all these sources "set Shakespeare's fancy working."
Louis Proyect (http://www.panix.com/~lnp3/marxism.html)