Even with the hardships and difficulties facing early settlers in Virginia, writings in the form of diaries and journals appeared during the colonial period. George Percy describes his explorations in the New World in "Observations gathered out of a Discourse of the Southern Colonie in Virginia by the English." Captain John Smith, the leader of the early colony, is believed to have used both fact and fiction in his writings. "A True Relation of Virginia," which he wrote in Virginia and sent to England in an attempt to attract more settlers to the colony, describes his explorations up the James River. His "Map of Virginia" was based primarily upon observations which he made while exploring the Chesapeake Bay region. In 1624, he wrote "The General History of Virginia," which is considered his literary masterpiece. Under modern literary standards, he would probably be classed generally as a Romanticist. William Strachey, who left England as the first secretary of the Virginia Colony at Jamestown and who experienced in his journey separation of his ship from the rest of the small fleet, was shipwrecked on the Islands of Bermuda and eventually arrived at Jamestown. Strachey, who had written some poetry before coming to America, used his shipwrecked experiences described earlier as background for a most descriptive letter concerning a tempest at sea. The original title of Strachey's manuscript was "A True Repertory of the Wrecke, and Redemption of Sir Thomas Gates" (Gates, Governor of the colony, was also a passenger on the same ship with Strachey). It is believed by some literary critics that William Shakespeare who read this letter selected much of its contents as background material for his play, "The Tempest." Another writer who left a vivid description of his voyage from England to Virginia is Henry Norwood: his work entitled "A Voyage to Virginia" is regarded as one of the best realistic, detailed accounts of early voyages to America. Only two poets are remembered for their writings in Virginia during the early period: Richard Rich and George Sandys. Rich utilized his journey from England to the New World as the basis for his poem, "A Ballad of Virginia," sometimes entitled "Newes from Virginia." George Sandys, an Oxford gentleman, did not write concerning Virginia but while he was in Jamestown as the treasurer of the colony, he completed a most unusual translation of Ovid's "Metamorphoses." An anonymous elegy found in the "Burwell Papers" is considered one of the finest literary attempts during the colonial period: entitled "Bacon's Epitaph, Made by His Man," it eulogizes the courage and steadfastness of purpose of Nathaniel Bacon who dared to revolt against the autocratic rule of Governor Berkeley and to lead Bacon's Rebellion. Bacon's untimely death from fever caused many Virginia settlers to feel, as the author of this elegy felt, that the loss of the champion of their cause was a severe one.