Excerpt from Makers of American History: Captain John Smith Whoever expects to find much that is new in the following biographical notice of Captain Smith, will probably be disappointed. My aim has been to give a lucid and simple narrative of the events in the life of one of the most remarkable men that ever lived in the tide of times, with the use of materials con tained in works which are familiar to those who have studied the early history of this country. My task has been the humble one of arranging, selecting from, condensing, and transposing these ample though confused materials, so as to form such a nar rative as would recommend itself to the popular taste. Captain Smith's own writings, which have fur nished me with nearly all my facts, are not easily accessible to the public at large, and would not be generally read if they were. Their obsolete diction and uncouth spelling would repel any but a professed antiquary. I have endeavored to translate them into a modern style, and to give them a modern garb, though I have permitted Captain Smith to speak for himself on many occasions. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.