Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAPTER II. 1606-1607. VIRGINIA THE MOTHEB OF STATES THE LONDON COMPANY SENDS CAPTAIN SMITH TO AMERICA HIS EABLY LIFE LANDING AND SETTLEMENT AT JAMESTOWN WINGFIELD APPOINTED PRESIDENT. "The Mother of States."—I have given you an account of the earliest settlements in that part of America which Queen Elizabeth named Virginia, and which extended from the southern part of North Carolina to Canada in length and from the Atlantic to the Pacific in breadth. This was a great country, and the reason you often hear Virginia spoken of as the "Mother of States" is because she gave from herself the territory out of which were formed many of the States of the Union. In those early days all the country to the north of Chesapeake Bay was called North Virginia, and that to the south was called South Virginia. The first settlements carved out of North Virginia were the New England States, which were settled by the Puritans. The next slice taken out was New York, which was seized by the Dutch, the first discoverers; but it wad afterwards given to the Duke of York, after whom it was named. Next came the divisions of New Jersey and Delaware, and the last we shall mention was Pennsylvania, which was settled by the Quakers under their wise leader William Penn, in whose honor the State was named. But we must confine ourselves to that portion which through all these changes still retained the name of Virginia, and which was colonized by Captain John Smith and his companions in the year 1607. Captain John Smith.—Captain Smith, one of the bravest men that ever lived, has written a book in which he gives an account of his wonderful adventures. An Englishman by birth, he had, when quite young, a great desire to go to sea, and even sold his satchel, books, and all he had, intending secretly...