of America ought to comprise.
Yet the history of general Washington, during his military command and
civil administration, is so much that of his country, that the work
appeared to the author to be most sensibly incomplete and
unsatisfactory, while unaccompanied by such a narrative of the
principal events preceding our revolutionary war, as would make the
reader acquainted with the genius, character, and resources of the
people about to engage in that memorable contest. This appeared the
more necessary as that period of our history is but little known to
ourselves. Several writers have detailed very minutely the affairs of
a particular colony, but the _desideratum_ is a composition which
shall present in one connected view, the transactions of all those
colonies which now form the United States.

CONTENTS

CHAPTER I.

Commission of Cabot.... His voyage to America.... Views of discovery
relinquished by Henry VII.... Resumed by Elizabeth.... Letters patent
to Sir Humphry Gilbert.... His voyages and death.... Patent to Sir
Walter Raleigh.... Voyage of Sir Richard Grenville.... Colonists
carried back to England by Drake.... Grenville arrives with other
colonists.... They are left on Roanoke Island.... Are destroyed by the
Indians.... Arrival of John White.... He returns to England for
succour.... Raleigh assigns his patent.... Patent to Sir Thomas Gates
and others.... Code of laws for the proposed colony drawn up by the
King.

CHAPTER II.

Voyage of Newport.... Settlement at Jamestown.... Distress of
colonists.... Smith.... He is captured by the Indians.... Condemned to
death, saved by Pocahontas.... Returns to Jamestown.... Newport
arrives with fresh settlers.... Smith explores the Chesapeake.... Is
chosen president.... New charter.... Third voyage of Newport.... Smith
sails for Europe.... Condition of the colony.... Colonists determine
to abandon the country.... Are stopped by Lord Delaware.... Sir Thomas
Dale.... New charter.... Capt. Argal seizes Pocahontas.... She marries
Mr. Rolf.... Separate property in lands and labour.... Expedition
against Port Royal.... Against Manhadoes.... Fifty acres of land for
each settler.... Tobacco.... Sir Thomas Dale.... Mr. Yeardley....
First assembly.... First arrival of females.... Of convicts.... Of
African slaves.... Two councils established.... Prosperity of the
colony.... Indians attempt to massacre the whites.... General war....
Dissolution of the company.... A