he geographical notion of his time, and thought
that Florida adjoined India, he declared that Virginia was not an
island, but part of a great continent, and he comprehended something
of the vastness of the country he was coasting along, "dominions which
stretch themselves into the main, God doth know how many thousand miles,
of which one could no more guess the extent and products than a stranger
sailing betwixt England and France could tell what was in Spain, Italy,
Germany, Bohemia, Hungary, and the rest." And he had the prophetic
vision, which he more than once refers to, of one of the greatest
empires of the world that would one day arise here. Contrary to the
opinion that prevailed then and for years after, he declared also that
New England was not an island.

Smith describes with considerable particularity the coast, giving the
names of the Indian tribes, and cataloguing the native productions,
vegetable and animal. He bestows his favorite names liberally upon
points and islands--few of which were accepted. Cape Ann he called from
his charming Turkish benefactor, "Cape Tragabigzanda"; the three islands
in front of it, the "Three Turks' Heads"; and the Isles of Shoals he
simply describes: "Smyth's Isles are a heape together, none neare them,
against Acconimticus." Cape Cod, which appears upon all the maps before
Smith's visit as "Sandy" cape, he says "is only a headland of high hills
of sand, overgrown with shrubbie pines, hurts [whorts, whortleberries]
and such trash; but an excellent harbor for all weathers. This Cape is
made by the maine Sea on the one side, and a great bay on the other in
the form of a sickle."

A large portion of this treatise on New England is devoted to an
argument to induce the English to found a permanent colony there, of
which Smith shows that he would be the proper leader. The main staple
for the present would be fish, and he shows how Holland has become
powerful by her fisheries and the training of hardy sailors. The fishery
would support a colony until it had obtained a good foothold, and
control of these fisheries would bring more profit to England than any
other occupation. There are other reasons than gain that should induce
in England the large ambition of founding a great state, reasons of
religion and humanity, erecting towns, peopling countries, informing the
ignorant, reforming things unjust, teaching virtue, finding employment
for the idle, and giving to the mother country a