sentences:  Located 640 miles off Cape Hatteras, North Carolina, Britain's oldest remaining colony, Bermuda, had been settled accidentally in 1609 as an extension of Virginia, with which it would long retain close ties of blood and trade, and from which Charleston and the Province of Carolina had been settled under William Sayle in 1670.Bermudians had also provided important cadres of skilled settlers to the settlement of other southern colonies, including Georgia and Florida.These close ties had led Bermudians to sympathize with the rebels during the American War of Independence, supplying them with ships and weapons in exchange for exemption from the embargo of the Continental Congress on trade with colonies not in revolt.