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176 Indiana Magazine of History a human phenomenon, individual and social, Thompson is at once in- tensely interesting and maddeningly complex. Furthermore, an attempt to understand him can become a painful probing of ourselves as heirs of nineteenth-century America. The attempt is distinctly worth the effort. Wabash College Walter L. Fertig Matthew Elliott, British Indian Agent. By Reginald Horsman. (Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 1964. Pp xiii, 256. Map, notes, bibliographical note, index. $9.95.) Matthew Elliott was born in Ulster, and in 1761 he came to America. In 1763 he served under Colonel Henry Bouquet in raising the Indian siege of Fort Pitt. He became ressonably successful as a trader in the Shawnee country and gained the confidence of the Indians. The coming of war with England found Elliott, like many Ameri- cans, pulled in two directions. Although he later claimed that he had been a Loyalist from the beginning, it was not until the spring of 1778 that he fled from Pittsburgh to join the British at Detroit. When Henry Hamilton led an expedition against American-held Vincennes, Elliott was along as an Indian leader and scout. In June, 1780, he led some of the Indians who participated in Henry Bird's successful British in- vasion of Kentucky. In August, 1782, he took p:xt in the Battle of Blue Licks, the worst disaster suffered by Kentuckians during the Revolution. In the period between the wars Elliott, as assistant agent of Indian affairs at British-held Detroit, helped to furnish provisions for the tribes which repulsed American military expeditions under Josiah Harmar and Arthur St. Clair. The defeat of the Indians by Anthony Wayne in August, 1794, was a factor in bringing about the British agreement to evacuate American soil. In 1796 Elliott was appointed by Lord Dorchester to the position of superintendent of Indian affairs at Amherstburg, which soon became the British Indian department's most important post in Upper Canada. Although a dispute with the army brought about his dismissal in 1798, his popularity was so great that he soon was elected to the Legislative Assembly of Upper Canada. Here this illiterate frontiersman served creditably for many years. By 1807 deteriorating relations between Great Britain and the United States pointed to the importance to the British of having on the Canadian frontier officials who had the confidence of the Indians. In 1808 Matthew Elliott was restored to the superintendency at Amherstburg. He was handicapped by the British government's desire to have the Indians living at peace but ready for war, but Elliott did his work well. Although he was past seventy years of age, his contribu- tion as a leader of Indians in the early stages of the War of 1812 was comparable to that which he had rendered in the American Revolution. His activity, however, was cut short by illness, and death came to the old warrior on May 7, 1814. Although Professor Horsman received the major portion of his education in England, his objectivity has not bem affected. Both British Book Reviews 177 Indian policy and that of the United States are treated fairly, and the mistakes and weaknesses of Matthew Elliott are readily admitted. The footnotes and a bibliographical note indicate thorough research in both Canadian and American sources. Although the book is marred by an occasional typographical error, the author, whose literary style is excellent, seems to have achieved his objective: to rescue Matthew Elliott from semi-oblivion. Northern Community College University of Kentucky Charles G. Talbert The Three Worlds of Captain John Smith. By Philip L. Barbour. (Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1964. Pp. xix, 553. Notes, maps, illustrations, bibliography, index. $7.50.) Philip L. Barbour’s The Three Worlds of Captain John Smith comes close to being the definitive work on the remarkable career of a con- troversial man. The abundance of details, the meticulous scholarship, and the full description of the life of Smith compensate in part for the rather cumbersome style and the weak characterization of the central figure. It would be difficult to point to a significant event or an important relationship in Smith’s life that the author omitted. This encyclopedic approach of names, dates, genealogies, and marriage alliances does detract from the enjoyment of the volume as a biography. Smith, the man of action, is lost in the morass of factual evidence. The “first world” is that of Smith as a soldier of fortune fighting the Turks in Central Europe. This sets the stage for his later life and is an important segment in the structure of the biography. John Smith, of humble origins and limited formal education, was determined to succeed and to advance his position in society, and he early chose the life of an adventurer as the means of improving himself. Smith’s one immediate reward was that he received the rank of “captain” and the title of “gentleman” by virtue of his military and dueling skills. When Transylvanian Prince Zsigmond granted him the coat of arms of “Three Turks Heads,” Captain John Smith, Gentleman, achieved the status that would lead in a few years to his membership on the Virginia Council and finally to the presidency of the colony. The “second world” of Smith, that of colonist, is a carefully drawn picture of a latter-day Elizabethan who devoted his talents and energies to self-advancement and to the promotion of British colonization. The author answers the perplexing questions of why Smith emerged as a leader in Virginia and how he kept the colony intact. Smith’s pragmatic approach is in sharp contrast to the nayvet6 of the other leaders. He appears to stand alone in his awareness of the needs of the colonists, his understanding and application of techniques of survival, and his cleverness in dealing with the Indians. Above all, he was dedicated to colonization, and his practical and realistic policies made him a natural leader and a stabilizing force in Virginia’s early history. The confusion and dissension that beset the colony following Smith’s return to England attest to his unique abilities. .

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