The standard authorities for the history of Virginia are Robert Beverley, _History of Virginia_ (1722) (extends to Spotswood's administration); William Stith, _History of Virginia_ (1747) (period of the London Company); John D. Burk, _History of Virginia_ (4 vols., 1805); R.R. Howison, _History of Virginia_ (2 vols., 1846); Charles Campbell, _History of the Colony and Ancient Dominion of Virginia_ (1847); and Jonn Fiske, _Old Virginia and Her Neighbors_ (1900). For the period Stith is by far the most important. His work covers the duration of the London Company, and as he had access to manuscripts now destroyed the history has the value of an original document. As president of William and Mary College Stith was an accomplished scholar, and his work, pervaded with a broad, philosophic spirit, ranks perhaps first among colonial histories. As a mere collection of facts upon the whole colonial history of Virginia Campbell's work is the most useful. The greatest collection of original material bearing upon the first ten years of the colony's history is in Alexander Brown, _Genesis of the United States_ (2 vols., 1890). This remarkable work contains an introductory sketch of what has been done by Englishmen prior to 1606 in the way of discovery and colonization, and a catalogue of charters, letters, and pamphlets (many of them republished at length) through which the events attending the first foundation of an English colony in the New World are developed in order of time. Dr. Brown's other works, _The First Republic in America_ (1898), and _English Politics in America_ (1901) make excellent companion pieces to the _Genesis_, though the author has made a great mistake in not supporting his text with foot-notes and references.