an account of his early adventures by the request of Sir Robert Cotton, "that most learned treasurer of antiquity," and that he was the more willing to comply with it, because they had become so notorious as to be publicly acted upon the stage. "To prevent therefore all future misprisions," he says, "I have compiled this true discourse." It is contained in the second volume of Churchill's Collection of Voyages and Travels.

This work, together with the " General History of Virginia," was reprinted in 1819, at Richmond, Virginia, in two octavo volumes, and in a manner very creditable to the printer and publisher. The value of this edition would, however, have been much enhanced, if there had been something in the way of preface, explanation, and description, giving an account of the original editions, &c. As it is, the reader is left without guide or assistance, thrown, as it were, upon a sea of heterogeneous materials without chart or compass. There are no notes, no prefatory remarks, nothing to supply breaks and chasms, nothing but the original works themselves, reprinted word for word. But notwithstanding this, we owe much to the publishers, who have thus given to the public in a cheap and accessible form, works interesting to every American, and indispensable to one who desires to be well acquainted with our early history, which in their original editions are very expensive and difficult to be obtained.

The last thirty or forty pages of the "General History" contained in this edition, are devoted to an account of the settlement at Plymouth; and in the "Continuation "(which is prefixed to his Travels, Adventures, &c., but forms the concluding portion of the Richmond edition) he gives a very brief sketch of their proceedings from 1624 to 1629. In this he says that New England had

always been represented as a rocky, barren country, till his account of it was published, which had raised its credit so high that forty or fifty sail had gone there every year to trade and fish; but that nothing had been done to establish a settlement, "till about some hundred of your Brownists of England, Amsterdam, and Leyden went to New Plymouth, whose humorous ignorances caused them, for more than a year, to endure a wonderful deal of misery with an infinite patience."

Captain Smith, a man of the world and a soldier, loyal in his feelings and probably a member of the Church of England, could not appreciate the motives which led to the settlement at Plymouth. The high religious enthusiasm, made morbid in some instances by persecution, could not appear to him as any thing else than wild fanaticism. But, though not capable of sympathizing with them, he regarded their settlement with lively interest, as is proved by the narrative of their proceedings for the first four years contained in his "General History," and the remarks he makes upon it. He is sanguine in his anticipations of their complete and final success, and says, that if there were not an Englishman left in America, he would begin the colonizing of the country again notwithstanding all he had lost and suffered.

In 1631 there appeared from his pen the following work. "Advertisements for the unexperienced Planters of New England, or any where. Or, the Pathway to Experience to erect a Plantation. With the yearely Proceedings of this Country in Fishing and Planting, since the Yeare 1614 to the Yeare 1630, and their present Estate. Also how to prevent the greatest Inconveniences, by their Proceedings in Virginia and other Plantations, by approved Examples. With the Countries Armes, a Description of the Coast, Harbours, Habitations, Land-markes, Latitude

and Longitude; with the Map, allowed by our Royall King Charles. By Captaine JOHN SMITH, sometimes Governor of Virginia and Admirall of New England.” I have quoted the title at length, since, like most of the titles of those days, it gives a tolerable abstract of the book itself.

This is a curious work, and in literary merit the most finished of his productions. It is rambling and desultory in its character, combining narrative, disquisition, advice, and apology without order or method. Here we have a paragraph in praise of a ship, another in reproof of religious dissensions; - here an account of the discoveries of former navigators, and, near to it, a sketch of the qualities requisite to form a good governor of a plantation. Many paragraphs are borrowed, some with a little alteration, others with none, from his former writings. He takes great pains to justify his own conduct and policy, when he was in Virginia, points out the errors and mistakes of those who had succeeded him, and alludes to the injudicious conduct of the council in England, and to the annoyance which they occasioned him while he was President.

He speaks occasionally in a disparaging and taunting manner of the "Brownists" of Plymouth, "the factious humorists" as he calls them. The pertinacity inspired by religious enthusiasm was offensive to his notions of military discipline, and irritated him not a little. And yet his sense of justice prompts him to do honor to the firmness and constancy, with which they endured their trials and sufferings. He speaks of Governor Winthrop in terms of the highest admiration and respect. He alludes to his "General History" occasionally, in which, he says, one may read of many "strange actions and accidents, that to an ordinary capacity might rather seem

miracles than wonders possibly to be effected; which though they are but wound up as bottoms of fine silk, which with a good needle might be flourished into a far larger work, yet the images of great things are best discerned, contracted into smaller glasses."

A further and more extended notice of this work would be superfluous, as it has lately been reprinted by the Massachusetts Historical Society, in their COLLECTIONS (Third Series, Vol. III.), and thus rendered accessible to all who feel an interest in the subject. There is a copy of the original edition of this work, in the Library of Harvard University.

It has been generally supposed that the literary labors of Captain Smith were confined to subjects connected either with his own personal adventures, or with America and the settlements established there; but such is not the fact. In 1626, he published "An Accidence, or the Pathway to Experience, necessary for all young Seamen ;" and, in 1627, "A Sea Grammar, with the plaine Exposition of Smith's Accidence for young Seamen, enlarged." Of this latter work a second edition was published in 1653, and a third, with additions, in 1692. He alludes to this work once or twice in his other writings. In his "Advertisements," &c., he says, "Of all fabrics a ship is the most excellent, requiring more art in building, rigging, sailing, trimming, defending, and mooring, with such a number of several terms and names in continual not understood of any landman, as none would think of, but some few that know them, for whose better instruction I writ my Sea Grammar." In the Dedication of his "Travels, Adventures, and Observations" to the Earl of Pembroke, he says, "My Sea Grammar (caused to be printed by my worthy friend Sir Samuel Saltonstall) hath found such good entertainment abroad, that I have been

importuned by many noble persons to let this also pass the press."

For the account of the two works last mentioned I am indebted to Lowndes's "Bibliographer's Manual." From a sentence in the "Advertisements," &c. (published in 1631, the year of his death,) it seems that Captain Smith was then engaged upon a work, which he calls the "History of the Sea," and which, as it was never published, was probably left unfinished at his death. There are two works ascribed to Captain Smith, in Watt's "Bibliotheca Britannica," (the two last in the list,) which were not written by him.

The extracts, which have been made from the writings of Captain Smith, will enable the reader to form a tolerably correct opinion of his merit as a writer. It will be seen, that he writes like a man of sense, observation, and talent, whose acquisitions are by no means contemptible, but who has been trained to the use of the sword and not of the pen. There is a rough vigor and energy in his style characteristic of the man, but it wants the clearness and polish of a practised writer. He betrays in it the irritability of his temperament, and he uses no silken phrases to express his displeasure and disgust. His own unbounded activity made him have no patience with sloth, imbecility, and procrastination. He could not see things going wrong, and be silent. But it is impossible to read any of his works without perceiving that he was largely endowed by nature, a man of lively sensibilities and of easily excited blood, with many of the elements which go to form the poetical character. His writings abound with picturesque and eloquent passages, and with expressions full of a native grace which Quinctilian himself could never have taught.