“ Never did any martyr suffer so patiently, so patriotically, as these devoted settlers did—a prey to Indian attack, martial law, and climatic diseases—influences which, as the records show, left but one settler alive at the end of a single year of residence, out of every five that came over. ”

“ VIRGINIA BIOGRAPHY
The successful planting of an English Colony at Jamestown in 1607; had the meaning that England had become the world power in the place of Spain. One hundred years previous, Spain became the head of the dominant religious influence and military power of Europe. She had the monopoly of America, and her treasury was filled with the gold and silver of Mexico and Peru. ”

“ The clearing away of the woods improved the health conditions, and men came no longer over to make tobacco, but to make homes for themselves and their families. Virginia continued to grow and improve until, at the beginning of the American Revolution, she was the leading and most powerful of all the colonies.
The priorities of Virginia may be briefly stated. As the first permanent British Colony. she may claim as her product not only the present Virginia and Southland, but all the other English colonies in America, and indeed all the colonies of the present wide-spreading British Empire. ”

“ The selection may not always have been wise, and some important persons have doubtless been omitted, but it is the best that could be done under the pressure of official work and the time allowed by the publishers. It is proper, however, to add that some names of important living persons were purposely omitted from the third volume because of their appearance in a more extended form in the fourth or fifth volumes prepared directly by the publishers. ”

“ LYON GARDINER TYLER, LL. D.
President of William and Mary College, Williamsburg; Author of "Parties and Patronage
in the United States," "The Cradle of the Republic," "Williamsburg, the Old
Colonial Capital," "England in America," "The Letters and Times of
the Tylers," etc.; Vice-President of the Virginia Historical
Society, Member of the Maryland Historical
Society, and various other societies. ”

“ Probably this was impossible under any circumstances. His labors are supplemented with volumes IV. and V., which will doubtless be generally regarded as a valuable adjunct to those which precede them. ”