Note 1 — VOL. II THE PLANTING OF THE FIRST COLONIES: 1562—1733

From Smith's "General History of Virginia." Edward Arbor has contended that, had not John Smith "strove, fought and endured as he did the present United States of America might never have come into existence." Spaniards and French alike had failed in their attempts at colonization and so had the repeated expeditions sent out by Sir Walter Raleigh. Smith carried the Jamestown settlement through its difficulties.—Smith, the "self-denying, energetic, so full of resources, and so trained in dealing with the savage races." Had Jamestown failed the Pilgrim fathers "would not have gone to New England." Smith was not the sole author of the "History of Virginia." Others contributed to the work.