was also Secretary of the Colony, giving curious details in reference to Powhatan and Pocahontas. 7. "Good News from Virginia," by William Whitaker, who was parish minister at Varina, in the time of Sir Thomas Dale. 8. "Proceedings of the first Assembly of Virginia, 1619;" a valuable record discovered among the English archives. II. For the period of the Colony extending from the beginning of the reign of Charles I. to the Revolution, the chief works are: 1. "The Statutes at Large, being a Collection of all the Laws of Virginia," by William Waller Hening, in thirteen volumes, the most important authority on social affairs in Virginia. The unattractive title does not suggest the character of the work. It is full of interest, and of paramount value from its official accuracy. It is the touchstone verifying dates, events, and the minutest details in the life of the people for nearly two centuries. Where events are disputed, as in the case of the surrender to Parliament, and the restoration of the royal authority, it produces the original records, and establishes the facts. As a picture of the Colonial time it has no rival in American books; and the whole likeness of the early Virginians may be found in these laws made for the regulation of their private affairs. For the history of Bacon's Rebellion, the most remarkable American occurrence of the century, the authorities are, 2. "The Beginning, Progress, and Conclusion of Bacon's Rebellion in Virginia in the years 1675 and 1676," by one of the Burgesses, signing himself "T. M.," who witnessed the events. 3. "A Narrative of the Indian and Civil Wars in Virginia in the years 1675 and 1676," by an unknown writer. 4. "An Account of our late Troubles in Virginia," written in 1676 by Mrs. An. Cotton, of Q. Creeke. 5. "A Review, Breviarie and Conclusion," by Herbert Jeffreys, John Berry, and Francis Morrison, Royal Commissioners, who visited Virginia after the rebellion. 6. "A List of those who have been Executed for the late Rebellion in Virginia, by Sir William Berkeley, Governor of the Colony." 7. "The History of Virginia," by Robert Beverley, is often inaccurate, but contains a full and interesting account of the government and society of the Colony at the beginning of the eighteenth century. Stith's "History of Virginia" to the year 1624 is remarkable for its accuracy, but it is avowedly based on Smith's "General History." Keith's is of no original authority. 8. Coming to the eighteenth century we have, for the administration of Spotswood, one of the ablest of the early Governors, the official statement of his collisions with the Burgesses, printed in the "Virginia Historical Register;" for his march to the Blue Ridge with the Knights of the Horseshoe, Hugh Jones' "Present State of Virginia;" and for the personal picture of the man in private life, the "Progress to the Mines," by Colonel William Byrd of Westover. 9. For Braddock's Expedition, the Journal of Captain Orme, the letters of Washington at the time, and Mr. Winthrop Sargent's history of the Expedition from original documents. 10. For Dunmore's Expedition to the Ohio, and the Battle of Point Pleasant, the memoirs by Stuart and Campbell. 11. For the settlement of the Valley, and life on the frontier, Kercheval's "History of the Valley of Virginia." 12. For the struggle between the Establishment and the Non-conformists, Bishop Meade's "Old Churches, Ministers, and Families of Virginia," Dr. Hawks' "Ecclesiastical History," Dr. Rice's "Memoir of President Davies," Foote's "Sketches of Virginia," and Semple's "Virginia Baptists." III. For the period beginning with the middle of the eighteenth century and reaching to the present time, the authorities are the writings of Washington, Jefferson, the Lees, and other public men; books of travel and observation in America, like the work of the Marquis de Chastellux ; and memoirs of special occurrences. It seemed possible to the writer to draw, with the aid of this material, a faithful likeness, if only in outline, of the Virginians. He has written, above all, for the new generation, who, busy in keeping off the wolf of poverty, have had little time to study the history of their people. What this history will show them is the essential manhood of the race they spring from; the rooted conviction of the Virginians, that man was man of himself, and not by order of the king; and that this conviction was followed by the long and strenuous assertion of personal right against arbitrary government. Beginning in the earliest times, this protest continued through every generation, until the principle was firmly established by the armed struggle which resulted in the foundation of the American Republic. CONTENTS. The Reformation; Shakespeare; The Unrest of the Period; Aims of the English Adventurers. III. THE OLDEST AMERICAN CHARTER The Adventurers; Arrest of Smith; The Landing; The First Church; The Council; An Indian Attack; The Fever; Percy's Description of it; Wingfield At- The Virginia Savage; The Women; The One Alone, called Kiwassa; The Priesthood; A Future Life; Smith is Captured; Preserved by Pocahontas: His Re- turn to Jamestown; The Mutineers Again; The Newport Returns; Imperial Trading; The Gold Fe- ver; The Chesapeake Voyages: Ratcliffe Deposed and Smith President; Pocahontas and her Troop; King Powhatan I.; The Monacan March; Smith's Snow and Famine; The Raid on Powhatan; Smith is Warned by Pocahontas; Seizes Opechancanough; The Indians Subdued; Smith and the Idlers; The Stone House; The Fall of the House-Builders; Ar- The Old Disturbers Back; The Factions; Arrest of the Leaders; Despair of Smith; He Founds Nonsuch; Is Wounded; Returns to England. XII. THE FIRST AMERICAN RULER AND WRITER Smith's After-Life; Attacks on Him; The "General Jamestown at the End of 1609; What was Wanted; Ratcliffe's Death; The Starving Time; Cannibal- Virginia Under Delaware; His Splendor: Ceremonies at Church; He Returns to England; His Death. The Iron Hand; Breaking on the Wheel; An Alarm; Varina; The City and Life There. Capture of Pocahontas; Dale goes to the York; Poca- hontas and Her Brothers; Rolfe's Passion; His |
