LONDON, SATURDAY, JANUARY 4, 1890.

CONTENTS.-N° 210.

bestow upon their subject.

Wanted, 9.

-

REPLIES:-The Couvade, 9-Teaching of the Twelve

Apostles-Sir J. Hawkwood-Tennyson-J. G. Holman, 10

-Flemish Brass-J. Hill-Brennus-"If I had a donkey,"

11—“Præfervidum ingenium Scotorum"-Park-Runes, 12

-Hurrah-Heraldic-Pigeon's Blood, 13-Compound Words

-Pigs Seeing the Wind-Human Leather -"Humanity

Martin," 14-Folk-lore-"To stay at home is best"-Arms

-Black Cap-Column on Calais Pier, 15-Robert Burns-

'Spotted Laddie'-Signs Sculptured in Stone-Corrigendum

-Skeleton-Provincial Publishing, 16-Horatia Nelson-

Zoroaster-'Arabiniana '-Old Scottish Ballad, 17-Foot-

prints in Snow-Seething Lane-Wellington-Heraldic, 18.

NOTES ON BOOKS:- Dictionary of National Biography,

Vol. XXI.-Moorsom's Historical Companion to Hymns

Ancient and Modern.'

Notices to Correspondents.

Notes.

CAPTAIN JOHN SMITH OF VIRGINIA.

"Prima lex historiæ, ne quid falsi dicat."

Modern research has stripped the protégé of

Princess Pocahontas of many of his self-conferred

laurels and dispelled much of the romance which

formerly clung to his name. The truth of a great

portion of his wonderful adventures and heroic

deeds has lately been questioned, nay, some

American writers have even gone so far as to

denounce him as a blustering braggadocio and

brand his autobiography as a collection of mere

traveller's tales and "the gasconades of a beggar."

Mr. Henry, the vice-president of the Virginia

Historical Society, referring to this subject in his

address in 1882, tells us that, "so persistent have

these assaults been [lately on our author] that it

seems to be the fashion now with those writers

who are content to act the part of copyists to

neer at the veracity of Smith."* Our experience

of the species of historians alluded to by Mr.

Henry does not agree with his, as, to use the words

of Fuller, "strange performances [such as related

by Capt. Smith]......are cheaper credited than

* Proceedings of the Virginia Hist. Soc. at the

Annual Meeting, February 24, 1882, with the Address

of W. W. Henry......with particular reference to the

late attacks upon Capt. John Smith. Richmond, 1882,

P. 12.

In performing my task I have, I believe, con-

scientiously followed the example set by Prof.
Arber, the able and painstaking editor of the last
edition of Capt. Smith's 'Works.'t Like him, I
have approached the text perfectly free from all
bias, scanned every assertion of fact most keenly;
but, I regret to state, the result arrived at vastly
differs from his, and is anything but satisfactory.

Prof. Arber seems to attach great importance
to the statement that the narrative which we are
about to consider was extracted and translated by
Purchas from a manuscript, written in a foreign
tongue, and is therefore not Smith's own account
of his own doings, but chiefly the narrative of a
foreigner with no possible motive for his lauda-
tion. I must join issue with the professor.
First of all, we have only the captain's word for
the assertion that the Hungarian, &c., travels
were extracted and translated by "Master
Purchas." The latter simply says that he gives
an account of them as they are "written" in the
Italian book referred to, and Prof. Arber's
argument could only hold good if Capt. Smith had
had no hand in the publication of them. But as
no one else but he was in a position to supply
Purchas with an account of his doings while in
captivity amongst the Tartars, the 'True Travels
were evidently published by some arrangement
with Smith, and he may have in various ways
assisted at the preparation of the "copy" for the
printers. Perhaps Smith made the translation
himself, but his modesty-the latest of virtues
discovered in him by recent authors-prevented
him from taking credit for the performance.
Whatever the shortcomings of Fuller may other-
wise be, in the present instance he seems to have
hit the nail on the head. Capt. Smith's
"perils, preservations, dangers, deliverances......seem to
most men beyond belief, to some beyond truth. Yet we
have two witnesses to attest them-the prose [the text]
much to the diminution of his deeds, that he alone is
and the pictures-both in his own book, and it soundeth
the herauld to publish and proclaim them."

The italics are mine. I shall now proceed to lay