This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1855 Excerpt: …sir Walter Rawley, sir John t Hawkins, and sir Francis Drake, was a great lover and encourager of plantations, himself being one of the most early adventurers in that of Virginia and the Somer1 Islands. A design, it must be acknowledged, the greatest and most honourable of its kind that ever was so generously embraced and undertaken by our English nobility, gentry, clergy, and the city of London. It was a project for the 1 common good, for the employment of unsettled people, for estates to younger brothers, for a supply 1 He and his sons J. F. and N. F. all appear as shareholders in the Somer Islands, A.D. 1618 (Smith’s Virginia, 188). N. F. was deputy of this company (and lord Cavendish treasurer) in 1622, but not in the following years (ib. 200). of those commodities which we were fain to fetch from other countries at intolerable rates1, and above all, for the conversion of the rude and miserable savages there to the Christian faith’. Many 1 How much hath Virginia the prerogative of all those flourishing kingdoms Muscovy, Poland, Sweden, France, Spain, Italy, Holland, for the benefit of our land, when as within one hundred miles all those their commodities are to be had…. So then here is a place, a nurse for soldiers, a practice for mariners, a trade for merchants, a reward for the good, and that which is most of all, a business most acceptable to God, to bring such poor infidels to the knowledge of God and His holy gospel. –Smith, 29. Cf. ibid. 163, 209, 111. Hakluyt, iii. 267 seq. 2 Mr. Anderson (Hist, of the Col. Church) has proved the truth of this statement. The gaining provinces, says Smith in his preface, addeth to the king’s crown: but the reducing heathen people to civility and true religion bringeth honour to the King of heaven. Ag…