[This code of laws, with its penalty of whipping and death for what are held now to be venial offenses, gives it a high place among the Black Codes.  One clause will suffice: 

“Every man and woman duly twice a day upon the first towling of the Bell shall upon the working daies repaire unto the church, to hear divine service upon pain of losing his or her allowance for the first omission, for the second to be whipt, and for the third to be condemned to the Gallies for six months.  Likewise no man or woman shall dare to violate the Sabbath by any gaming, publique or private, abroad or at home, but duly sanctifie and observe the same, both himselfe and his familie, by preparing themselves at home with private prayer, that they may be the better fitted for the publique, according to the commandments of God, and the orders of our church, as also every man and woman shall repaire in the morning to the divine service, and sermons preached upon the Sabbath day, and in the afternoon to divine service, and Catechism upon paine for the first fault to lose their provision, and allowance for the whole week following, for the second to lose the said allowance and also to be whipt, and for the third to suffer death.”]

Was it written before or after the publication of Smith’s “Map and Description” at Oxford in 1612?  The question is important, because Smith’s “Description” and Strachey’s “Travaile” are page after page literally the same.  One was taken from the other.  Commonly at that time manuscripts seem to have been passed around and much read before they were published.  Purchas acknowledges that he had unpublished manuscripts of Smith when he compiled his narrative.  Did Smith see Strachey’s manuscript before he published his Oxford tract, or did Strachey enlarge his own notes from Smith’s description?  It has been usually assumed that Strachey cribbed from Smith without acknowledgment.  If it were a question to be settled by the internal evidence of the two accounts, I should incline to think that Smith condensed his description from Strachey, but the dates incline the balance in Smith’s favor.

Strachey in his “Travaile” refers sometimes to Smith, and always with respect.  It will be noted that Smith’s “Map” was engraved and published before the “Description” in the Oxford tract.  Purchas had it, for he says, in writing of Virginia for his “Pilgrimage” (which was published in 1613): 

“Concerning-the latter [Virginia], Capt.  John Smith, partly by word of mouth, partly by his mappe thereof in print, and more fully by a Manuscript which he courteously communicated to mee, hath acquainted me with that whereof himselfe with great perill and paine, had been the discoverer.”  Strachey in his “Travaile” alludes to it, and pays a tribute to Smith in the following:  “Their severall habitations are more plainly described by the annexed mappe, set forth by Capt.  Smith, of whose paines taken herein I leave to the censure of the reader to judge.  Sure I am there will not return from thence in hast, any one who hath been more industrious, or who hath had (Capt.  Geo. Percie excepted) greater experience amongst them, however misconstruction may traduce here at home, where is not easily seen the mixed sufferances, both of body and mynd, which is there daylie, and with no few hazards and hearty griefes undergon.”