Good Newes from Virginia (Dodo Press)

Alexander Whitaker (1585-1616) was a Christian theologian who settled in North America in Virginia Colony in 1611 and established two churches near the Jamestown colony. He was known as "The Apostle of Virginia" by contemporaries. Whitaker was a popular religious leader with both settlers and natives, for he was responsible for the baptism and conversion of Pocahontas. His relative tolerance of the Native American population that English colonists encountered can be found in his sermons, some of which were sent back to England to help win support for the new colonies in North America. The most famous of these sermons is Good Newes from Virginia (1613). It was a marked difference from the other reports such as those by Cotton Mather which described the native population as little more than beasts, deserving of extermination.