MS. mainly in 1611-1612. If Mr. Arber and I are right, Strachey
must have had access to Smith's MS. before it was published in
1612, and we shall see how he used it. My point here is that
Strachey mentioned Ahone (in MS.) before Smith's book of 1612 was
published. This could not be gathered from the dedication to Bacon
prefixed to Strachey's MS., for that dedication cannot be earlier
that 1618.[3] I now ask leave to discuss the evidence for an early
pre-Christian belief in a primal Creator, held by the Indian tribes
from Plymouth, in New England, to Roanoke Island, off Southern
Virginia.


[1] Prim. Cult. ii. p. 342.

[2] Arber's Smith, p. cxxxiii.

[3] Hakluyt Society, Strachey, 1849, pp. xxi., xxii.


THE GOD AHONE.

An insertion by a manifest plagiary into the work of a detected
liar is not, usually, good evidence. Yet this is all the evidence,
it may be urged, which we have for the existence of a belief, in
early Virginia, as to a good Creator, named Ahone. The matter
stands thus: In 1607-1609 the famed Captain John Smith endured and
achieved in Virginia sufferings and adventures. In 1608 he sent to
the Council at home a MS. map and description of the colony. In
1609 he returned to England (October). In May, 1610, William
Strachey, gent., arrived in Virginia, where he was "secretary of