The editor was extremely desirous of commencing this introduction with a short biographical notice of “William Strachey, the author of the following pages ; but notwithstanding that he has used his best exertions, he has been unsuccessful in discovering anything more respecting him, than such few points as connect him immediately with the subject of the work itself. The place and date of his birth, as well as those of his death, are unknown. That he was a person of importance in Virginia we shall hereafter show. But in the absence of sufficient materials to make even the slightest biographical sketch, the Editor has thought it better simply to introduce his name at those points of the following introductory outline of the progress of the colony, where it naturally falls in with the thread of the narrative.

It is presumed that the two following questions will most naturally suggest themselves, upon the perusal of our title-page. First, what is the period of this Historie of Travaile? and secondly, what degree of interest does the date of the narrative involve, with reference to the history of the country of which it treats?

The period referred to in our title-page, ranges over 1610, 1611, and 1612; and if we call to mind that the first definite settlement of Virginia, or in other words, the first permanent colonization of America by the British, took place only in 1607, it must be evident that this period is one of the highest interest to all who read with pleasure what Hakluyt calls “the industrious labors and painefull travels of our countrymen.