Captain John Smith

EF

e task. But investigation of the subject showed me that while Captain John Smith would lend himself easily enough to the purely facetious treatment, there were historic problems worthy of a different handling,

twenty years some new contemporary evidence has come to light, and special scholars have expended much critical research upon different portions of his career. The result of this modern investigation has been to discredit much of the romance gathered

t is attributed to his pen, and have compared his own accounts with other contemporary narratives, and I think I have omitted the perusal of little that could throw any light upon his life or character. For the early part of his career-before he came to Virginia-there is absolutely no authority except Smith him

chroniclers call the female North Americans-have been consecutively set forth in separate chapters. The book is not a history of early Virginia, nor of the times of Smith, but merely a study of his life and writings. If my estimate of the character of Smith is not that which his biographers have entertained, and differs from his own candid opinion, I can

are, first, the writings of

tion," etc.,

Description and Appe

New England," et

tc., London, 1620. Second

624. Reissued, with date of title-page a

Pathway to Experience

London, 1627. Also ed

vels," etc.,

xperienced Planters of New

uthorit

lliam Strachey, Secretary of the colony 1609 to 1612.

yon," 1607. Am.

rse," etc., 1607. A

Pilgrimage,"

Pilgrimes," L

ue Discourse," et

y Spelman, 1609. First printed

ompany in London," by Edwa

of Charles Deane, LL.D., the accomplished editor of the "True Relation," and other Virginia monographs. I wish also to acknowledge the courtesy of the librarians of the Astor, the Lenox, the New York Historical, Yale