The times. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1890-1903, 1891-04-12

the work He says they are not Of personages
"of the period which Immediately preceded
the settlement Of North America" (Which is
my statement but chiefly of those instru-
mental in making that Sc ttlement" This Is
small matter But little examination will
show that nv designation is really moro accu-
rate than his What about Henry ~: of
Francey His portrait is among them. Was
he instrumental" in making the Virginia
settlement? What he did was all against it,
for he issued the commission TO DE Monis IN
1903, conveying territory from forty
10 forty-six degrees north which
was the immediate cause OF the
semi-piratical attack Of Dale and Argall
on the peaceful settlement Of the Jesuits at
Port Royal in Acadia Of Nova Scotia, and was
the germ from which finally grew all the
bloody French and Indian wars. What in
str1lmentality had Prince Maurice. of Mason,
in the settlement of Virginia. None OF delib-
crate purpose. What did Sir Edward Coke
unless his yituperative abuse of Sir
Walter Raleigh be counted as such. And
so with others represented by the portraits.
They all lived in THE period Immediately pre-
ceding the settlement Of North America"
though they also lived cotemporary with IT.
PECULIAR CHARACTERISTICS.
The editor of the Genesis" seems to OBJ
iect TO my view of the peculiar character of
the work" / have cheerfully recognized its
merits and the enthusiastic industry required
TO produce it, But the opinion that 1t mani
tests the genius of the antiquarian and the
bibliopOle rather than Of the historian" IL
fully borne out by the contents. Let single
illustration be given. In volume l., pages
42O-426 he reprints and rpublishes the News
from Virginia" which is chiefly so-called
poem Of twenty-five hobbling stanzas by one
X. Rich, gentleman, one of the ,voy-
age" This performance had been three
times printed and published before
il appeared in the Genesis" 1t has no his
toric value. for every one Of the interesting
and wondrous facts of the voyage Of Sir
George Somers-the storm. tho separation Of
the ships. the wreck aud the abode on the
Bermudas. had been fully stated in we'll
known histories But these stanzas wero so
sweet TO the taste of the antiquarians that
they could not be excluded from the Gen
esis" After saying that the wrecked crew
had only one 'dogge" the fifth stanza runs
rs follows:
To kill those swyne TO yield them food,
That little had TO cate,
Their store was spent, and all things scant,
Alas they wanted meate.
A Thousand hogges that dogge did Kill
Their hunger to sustalne,
And with such foodo did in that lie
Two and forty weekes RENAME.
On the word 'dogge" in this narrative the
genial editor of the Genesis perpetrates q
solemn pun worthy of an antiquarian. He
says we may safely class this document as
doggerel (p. 423).
JOHN SMITH AND PoCAHoSTAs.
We feel compelled to say few more words
as 10 the parts of this work coming from the
editor which relate TO John Smith and Poca-
hontas Those are the dead flies" which
cause the ointment of the apothcary" (per-
fumer in II. " 10 send forth an Odor neither
pleasant nor healthful He finds nothing
good nor redeeming in John Smith. No
critical student can read him closely without
having the impression that he sees this sub
ject through an atmospheric medium so re-
fracting and distorting that he does not see
it as it is in sound history. We know
whence this medium came. Ii was cOmpoun-
ded in the laboratories of old Andrew Fuller,
Charles Deane. Edward ID. Neill and Henry
Adams. We would not have expected a ma
tive and resident of Virginia voluntarily TO
have immersed himself in this atmosphere
The editor of the Genesis" repeats again
and again the abusive epithets applied 10
Smith by the vain and empty Edward Maria
Wingfield, a man who was found guilty Of
malicious SANDER against Smith and al
judged 20 pay him two hundred
pounds. which smith spent for the benefit
OF the Colony. And the reiterated charge
of Alexander Brown. that Smith was arrested
and sent away from Virginia in 1909 TO answer
to the London Council for misdemeanors. is
without foundation. except in letter from
the man who was 50 much an lmposter that
he went under three names-Ratclife. Rad
clyeffer and Sicklemore-who built an ex-
pensiye house and lived in luxury while the
other colonists were nearly starving. and
whose letter to the Earl of Salisbury contain
ing the statement derogatOry TO Smith had so
little attention paid TO it, that it was suffered
to lie dormant among the English State pa
pers until within a comparatively recent
period. The suppression Of all mention of the
accident TO Smith in the Genesis is strange
indeed.
have no wish nor intent TO continue this
discussion. And continuation seems un-
necessary because The TINES has already
given TO the reading public the mastery vim
dication of the truth us to John Smith and
the Indian Princess Pocahontas by William
Writ Henry, and first published in the April
number of The Magazine of American
History" II. X. HowIsoS.