As far as possible I have endeavored to let the actors in these pages tell their own story, and I have quoted freely from Capt. Smith himself, because it is as a writer that he is to be judged no less than as an actor. His development of the Pocahontas legend has been carefully traced, and all the known facts about that Indian--or Indese, as some of the old 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 only plead that contemporary evidence and a collation of his own stories show that he was mistaken. I am not aware that there has been before any systematic effort to collate his different accounts of his exploits. If he had ever undertaken the task, he might have disturbed that serene opinion of himself which marks him as a man who realized his own ideals. The works used in this study are, first, the writings of Smith, which are as follows: “A True Relation,” etc., London, 1608. “A Map of Virginia, Description and Appendix,” Oxford, 1612. “A Description of New England,” etc., London, 1616. “New England's Trials,” etc., London, 1620. Second edition, enlarged, 1622. “The Generall Historie,” etc., London, 1624. Reissued, with date of title-page altered, in 1626, 1627, and twice in 1632. “An Accidence: or, The Pathway to Experience,” etc., London, 1626. “A Sea Grammar,” etc., London, 1627. Also editions in 1653 and 1699. “The True Travels,” etc., London, 1630. “Advertisements for the Unexperienced Planters of New England,” etc., London, 1631. Other authorities are: “The Historie of Travaile into Virginia,” etc., by William Strachey, Secretary of the colony 1609 to 1612. First printed for the Hakluyt Society, London, 1849. “Newport's Relatyon,” 1607. Am. Ant. Soc., Vol. 4. “Wingfield's Discourse,” etc., 1607. Am. Ant. Soc., Vol. 4. “Purchas his Pilgrimage,” London, 1613. “Purchas his Pilgrimes,” London, 1625-6. “Ralph Hamor's True Discourse,” etc., London, 1615. “Relation of Virginia,” by Henry Spelman, 1609. First printed by J. F. Hunnewell, London, 1872. “History of the Virginia Company in London,” by Edward D. Neill, Albany, 1869.