The volume, now for the first time printed, forms part of the Sloane MSS. in the British Museum, No. 750, and consists in the original of 363 pages of closely written foolscap, exclusive of some documents bound up with it, but written in a different hand. There is no Title-page or date, and no clue to its authorship from beginning to end, except what is supported by a very sparing introduction of the personal pronoun, and by an amount of internal evidence which leaves no doubt in the Editor's mind that we have here an unpublished work of Captain John Smith, the historian of Virginia—the individual of whom it has been said, with much justice, that “he has for nearly three centuries maintained the unparalleled honour of being the most distinguished member of the most numerous family (patronymically speaking) of all the tribes of men”. Well established as Smith's reputation is, however it rests rather on the intrinsic interest of the subjects on which he wrote, and the debt of gratitude we owe to him as the editor, compiler, and preserver of the narratives of other men, than on the quantity of his own writings, any addition to which must be acceptable to his admirers.