That school of historians whose habit is to draw a blue pencil, as the trade says, across everything entertaining in history is fond of stamping John Smith as a liar wherever he goes outside Sandy Hook or Lincolnshire or the Strand. It is the fashion of to-day to throw the story of Pocahontas overboard and even Dr. Tyler, who is sympathetic, calls it the "fable of Pocahontas." But this is to be said, when 100 men trained like cockneys, embarked on an unknown sea, explored an unknown bay, tried the adventure of an unknown river, talked in an unknown language with a savage chief who has never heard of such people before, the in cidents of such acts when written by them will not be exactly like those of a London counting room or of a college lecture-room. The Hun garian gentlemen, I believe, find Smith's account of Hungary and its Turkish wars intelligible and reliable. Smith's surveys of Massachusetts Bay are entirely intelligible and show an ac curate acquaintance with the region which he describes. Now, it is hardly fair when you can verify an old author's personal narrative in nine cases out of ten, to say in the tenth case that he is a liar, simply because you have no material for verification, on the one hand, or contradiction on the other. Close after the little series of Virginian writers came the series of the Massachusetts historians. They also have been most carefully edited; and it is now only by a fortunate accident that a student of to-day is able to add any anecdote new to other students regarding the first generation of New England. The journal of William Bradford, one of the first governors of the Plymouth Colony, has a story which is dramatic. With a fortunate prescience of the value of every word which related to the Plymouth emigration, William Bradford wrote the 'History of Plymouth Plantation.' His sons and indeed all the people of the old colony knew of the exceeding worth of this volume. It was used by Morton, Prince and Hutchinson and the others of our earlier historians. A great part of it was copied and from the copy thus made it was consulted by our historians till the year 1855. In that year a quotation from it, which was not in our copies, appeared in Bishop Wil berforce's history of the English Church. On inquiry it proved that this gentleman had con sulted the original which was in the library of the bishop of London in Fulham Palace. He immediately gave permission that the whole should be copied on.the request of Mr. Charles Deane. Subsequently, as a result of the efforts of Senator Hoar, the various authorities in England gave back the precious manuscript to the State of Massachusetts, and it is now one of the treasures most sacredly preserved in the State House in Boston. As Dr. Tyler calls Drayton's ode the beginning of American liter ature, the Massachusetts people may well call William Bradford's chronicle the beginning of the literature of ,New England. It should not be forgotten, however, that the letters contain ing the accounts of Gosnold's unsuccessful colony in 1602 were written before the time when Bradford began to write his history.
When the larger colony of Massachusetts Bay was formed the general court of that colony, according to a very early record, directs that paper books shall be furnished for preserving all journals by the first settlers. Fortunately for their successors, Gov. John Winthrop in the midst of all his other cares used his manuscript books, and his notes made almost daily are now cited as Winthrop's tory of New England.' They cover the period from 29 March 1630, when he sailed from England, to 11 Nov. 1648. It is a convenient aid to memory that Winthrop's death followed close on the execution of Charles the First. Sadly enough all the other blank books thus furnished seem to have served other purposes from that for which they were intended. They were, perhaps, used for sermons now forgotten, or possibly for cartridges so soon as cartridges were invented. Such materials for the early history as have been preserved have generally been printed by the care of historical societies or similar agencies. There is a charm about them such as belongs to all fresh narrative where the writers are thinking of the thing done and not of the methods of expressing it.
This charm which hangs around Columbus' 'Letters' ; Sir Thomas More's 'Utopia' • De foe's 'Robinson Swift's 'Gulliver 's Travels,' is the same charm which is to be found in Purchas and Hakluyt and the early narratives of those who wrote by the light of a pine knot with pens made from a bird's wing. In such simple utterances we are to look for the first handiwork of American literature.
The first graduates of Harvard College made a class of nine young men, six of whom sought their fortunes in Europe. The year of their Commencement was 1642, and the theses are preserved in which according to the custom of their time, they offered to defend 54 proposi tions against all corners. It has been observed by modern critics that all these propositions are now known to be false. This is a somewhat cynical statement with regard to them. But when one learns that these young gentlemen were prepared to prove that Hebrew is the mother of languages, one looks with caution upon their courageous statements on other points with regard to the heavens or the earth, the sea or the skies. Four of the number be came clergymen. The name most distinguished in history is that of Sir George Downing, who did not distinguish himself for the courage of his convictions.
As early as 1639 the government of the colony had cared for its future education by the establishment at Cambridge of a printing plant. This was done almost simultaneously with the establishment of Harvard College by the same authority. And it was a good omen that the first publication accredited to the new printing house was the 'Freeman's as ordered by the general court, to be taken by those who were chosen into the company. Uni versal suffrage was not yet dreamed of even by Sir Thomas More. The first book from the press which can be called a book was the Psalm Book,' the work of Thomas Welde, John Eliot and Richard Mather.
John Eliot already looking forward to his work among the Indians was making his first studies of the language of the people for whom he cared. The modern students speak of this language as the Natick dialect of the Algonquin tongue. Eliot's work was of the first import ance, and before he died the publications in that language alone of books printed either in our Cambridge or in London makes a depart ment in literature of more than 30 volumes. These books were printed to be used in wig wams and log cabins. The copies which strayed into libraries were but few and those Indian books of that century which remain are among the rarest treasures of the collectors. Of Eliot's