Page:The Life of George Washington, Volume 1.djvu/73

 INTRODUCTION. 43 ledge respecting America, then possessed by chap, h. his countrymen ; Ave shall not hesitate to say 1608. that few voyages of discovery, undertaken at any time, reflect more honour on those engaged in them, than this does on captain Smith. " So full and exact," says Mr. Robertson, " are his accounts of that large portion of the American continent, comprehended in the two provinces of Virginia and Maryland,* that after the progress of information, and research for a century and a half, his map exhibits no inaccurate view of both countries, and is the original, on which all subsequent delineations, and descriptions, have been formed." It may not be entirely unworthy of remark, that about the bottom of the bay, Smith met with a party of Indians from the St. Lawrence coming to war with those of that neighbour- hood ; and that he found, among Indians on the Susquehanah, hatchets obtained originally from the French in Canada. On the 10th of September, immediately after Is chosen . . ' president, his return from this expedition, Smith was chosen president by the council, and, yielding to the general wish, he accepted the office. Soon after, Newport arrived with an additional supply of inhabitants, among whom were the two first females who adventured into the extensive parts of those states which border on the bay, and on the rivers emptying into it below their falls. g2
 * This must be understood, as applying to the very