The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1901-11-06

also Anthony Bagnall and Nathaniel
Powell, Richard Potts and William Tank
ard, thirsty names, complain of the
supplies sent, and especially of the kind
OF colonists-''for all the rest were poor
gentlemen, tradesmen, serving men, lib
ertines and such like, ten times more fit
to spoil commonwealth than to begin or
help to maintain one William Parker
and Ralph Hamor write about Powhatan:
Thomas Dale, Master Whitaker and sam
uel Argall about Pocahontas; Henry May
and John Evans about shipwrecks upon
the Bermudas or the "Ile of Devils that
all men did shun as hell and perdition."
These relations Smith adapts or adopts
as editor of the History of Virginia.
which finally expands to take in the
Trials and Profits of New England and
several other topics.
In addition to these occasional contrib
utors, a few colonists left longer men,
orials of their stay. George Sandys. son
of an archbishop of New York, turn
ed ten books OF Ovid into
English amid shades that were more
savage than classic. and Father Andrew
White rendered his English thoughts
about Maryland into Latin under SINH
lar conditions. Master Strachey, in his
'Wrack and Redemption Of Sir Thomas
Gates" anticipates Shakespeare's Ariel
passage in the Tempest if he dill not
suggest it, ard George Alsop addresses
the shade of Cromwell in lines that would
have made trouble for him in New Eng
land. More mournful verses are written
for Nathaniel Bacons epitaph, and po-
lemic prose growing out of his "Rebel-
lion Against Berkeley George Percy,
brother of the earl of Northumberland,
discoursed of the spring paradise of vir-
ginia and later of the summer pesi-
lence and wasting, and Alexander Whit
aker, son of the president of Cambridge
college and a devoted missionary to the
Indians attempts to interest English
men in their welfare.
Taken together, the writer's in the John
Smith company were the best of it in
those early years when every social grade
was represented in the motley crowd
that came over in the Susan Constant,
the God Speed and the Discovery. At
least it was the men of letters who made
for themselves a memorial which has
outlasted the fame of Dru Pickhouse,
adventursr, and Abram Ransack, refiner
of gold; Of Post Ginnat, surgeon, and
Rob Allerton, perfumer. Even the bar
barous compositions of John Smith, sol
der and pioneer, captain and councillor,
and governor have done more to pre-
serve his fame than his fighting and his
administration. There is barbario
strength and directness in them which
are preservative elements. and their rec
fermentation in times when such qualities
may be needed. Besides, these writings en-
shrine the beginnings of American his
tory in a form not unsuited to the
rough experience of it's earliest makers.
The same may be said of the half doz-
en- principal writer's of this primitive age
in Virginia and the sister colony of
Maryland.
If the reader should wish to explore
the literature of this early time he will
find the most of it in the printed records
Of historical societies. Some. of Smiths
writings are published In volumes by
themselves, but those of other writer's
here mentioned will be found in his
. History of Virginia" or in Purchas'
books. In Forces Historical Tracts
there are reprints of interesting MARIA
tiyes, also in tho magazine published
by the Virginia Historical society col
iections. Other references might be CIV
en-, but these may be sufficient for the
purpose of this article.
Copyright, 1901