<Table> <Tr> <Td> </Td> <Td> This article includes a list of references, related reading or external links, but its sources remain unclear because it lacks inline citations . Please help to improve this article by introducing more precise citations . (August 2014) (Learn how and when to remove this template message) </Td> </Tr> </Table> <Tr> <Td> </Td> <Td> This article includes a list of references, related reading or external links, but its sources remain unclear because it lacks inline citations . Please help to improve this article by introducing more precise citations . (August 2014) (Learn how and when to remove this template message) </Td> </Tr> <P> The Generall Historie of Virginia, New - England, and the Summer Isles is a book written by Captain John Smith, first published in 1624 . The book is one of the earliest, if not the earliest, histories of the territory administered by the Virginia Company of London . </P> <P> Originally, two English joint - stock companies had been created to settle North America, then known as Virginia . The London Company was given a charter for a swathe of the continent south of that given to the Plymouth Company . Both companies established settlements in 1607 (the London Company in Jamestown). Although its settlement wae term Virginia came to refer only to that part of North America covered by the London Company's original charters . The third charter, of 1612, extended its territory far enough across the Atlantic to include the Somers Isles (named for Admiral of the Virginia Company, Sir George Somers), or Bermuda, which the Virginia Company had been in unofficial possession of since the 1609 wreck of the Sea Venture . </P>

The general historie of virginia new england and the summer isles