A TRUE RELATION, BY CAPTAIN JOHN SMITH, 1608

This manuscript, originated by J Smith while living in Jamestown from 1607-1608 chronicles events as he perceived them as that time.  It serves as an important document of the early events in Jamestown.  Smith wrote other narratives after his return to England in subsequent years but this narrative has special importance in that it very close in time to these events.

There were many other writings from this period by other authors, and in general they serve to validate and expand upon what Smith wrote. 

It is  not to be forgotten that the editor of the True Relation expressly states that the published account does not include the entire manuscript as it came from Smith. Smith was often inaccurate in his estimates as to time and place and often very prejudiced in his judgments of others, but that is far from saying that he could mistake plain objects of sense or deliberately concoct a story having no foundation. The narrative in its essential features, is strongly supported by other contemporaneous documents, though for the reasons stated not much weight is to be attached to his opinions of the motives of Wingfield and the rest.   The True Relation was reprinted in 1866 at Boston, in a small edition, with an introduction and notes by Dr. Charles Deane. L, G. T

Source:  Narratives of Early Virginia.