CAPTAIN JOHN SMITH

By Charles Dudley Warner

PREFACE

When I consented to prepare this volume for a series, which shoulddeal with the notables of American history with some familiarity anddisregard of historic gravity, I did not anticipate the seriousness ofthe task. But investigation of the subject showed me that while CaptainJohn Smith would lend himself easily enough to the purely facetioustreatment, there were historic problems worthy of a different handling, and that if the life of Smith was to be written, an effort should bemade to state the truth, and to disentangle the career of the adventurerfrom the fables and misrepresentations that have clustered about it. 

The extant biographies of Smith, and the portions of the history ofVirginia that relate to him, all follow his own narrative, and accepthis estimate of himself, and are little more than paraphrases of hisstory as told by himself. But within the last twenty years some newcontemporary evidence has come to light, and special scholars haveexpended much critical research upon different portions of his career. The result of this modern investigation has been to discredit much ofthe romance gathered about Smith and Pocahontas, and a good deal toreduce his heroic proportions. A vague report of--these scholarlystudies has gone abroad, but no effort has been made to tell the realstory of Smith as a connected whole in the light of the new researches. 

This volume is an effort to put in popular form the truth about Smith'sadventures, and to estimate his exploits and character. For this purposeI have depended almost entirely upon original contemporary material, illumined as it now is by the labors of special editors. I believe thatI have read everything that is attributed to his pen, and have comparedhis own accounts with other contemporary narratives, and I think I haveomitted the perusal of little that could throw any light upon hislife or character. For the early part of his career--before he came toVirginia--there is absolutely no authority except Smith himself; butwhen he emerges from romance into history, he can be followed andchecked by contemporary evidence. If he was always and uniformlyuntrustworthy it would be less perplexing to follow him, but hisliability to tell the truth when vanity or prejudice does not interfereis annoying to the careful student. 

As far as possible I have endeavored to let the actors in these pagestell their own story, and I have quoted freely from Capt. Smith himself, because it is as a writer that he is to be judged no less than as anactor. His development of the Pocahontas legend has been carefullytraced, and all the known facts about that Indian--or Indese, as someof the old chroniclers call the female North Americans--have beenconsecutively set forth in separate chapters. The book is not a historyof early Virginia, nor of the times of Smith, but merely a study of hislife and writings. If my estimate of the character of Smith is not thatwhich his biographers have entertained, and differs from his own candidopinion, I can only plead that contemporary evidence and a collation ofhis own stories show that he was mistaken. I am not aware that there hasbeen before any systematic effort to collate his different accountsof his exploits. If he had ever undertaken the task, he might havedisturbed that serene opinion of himself which marks him as a man whorealized his own ideals. 

The works used in this study are, first, the writings of Smith, whichare as follows:

"A True Relation, " etc. , London, 1608. 

"A Map of Virginia, Description and Appendix, " Oxford, 1612. 

"A Description of New England, " etc. , London, 1616. 

"New England's Trials, " etc. , London, 1620. Second edition, enlarged, 1622. 

"The Generall Historie, " etc. , London, 1624. Reissued, with date oftitle-page altered, in 1626, 1627, and twice in 1632. 

"An Accidence: or, The Pathway to Experience, " etc. , London, 1626. 

"A Sea Grammar, " etc. , London, 1627. Also editions in 1653 and 1699. 

"The True Travels, " etc. , London, 1630. 

"Advertisements for the Unexperienced Planters of New England, " etc. , London, 1631. 

Other authorities are:

"The Historie of Travaile into Virginia, " etc. , by William Strachey, Secretary of the colony 1609 to 1612. First printed for the HakluytSociety, London, 1849. 

"Newport's Relatyon, " 1607. Am. Ant. Soc. , Vol. 4. 

"Wingfield's Discourse, " etc. , 1607. Am. Ant. Soc. , Vol. 4. 

"Purchas his Pilgrimage, " London, 1613. 

"Purchas his Pilgrimes, " London, 1625-6. 

"Ralph Hamor's True Discourse, " etc. , London, 1615. 

"Relation of Virginia, " by Henry Spelman, 1609. First printed by J. F. Hunnewell, London, 1872. 

"History of the Virginia Company in London, " by Edward D. Neill, Albany, 1869. 

"William Stith's History of Virginia, " 1753, has been consulted for thecharters and letters-patent. The Pocahontas discussion has been followedin many magazine papers. I am greatly indebted to the scholarly laborsof Charles Deane, LL. D. , the accomplished editor of the "True Relation, "and other Virginia monographs. I wish also to acknowledge the courtesyof the librarians of the Astor, the Lenox, the New York Historical, Yale, and Cornell libraries, and of Dr. J. Hammond Trumbull, thecustodian of the Brinley collection, and the kindness of Mr. S. L. M. Barlow of New York, who is ever ready to give students access to hisrich "Americana. "

C. D. W. HARTFORD, June, 1881

CAPTAIN JOHN SMITH

I. BIRTH AND TRAINING

Fortunate is the hero who links his name romantically with that of awoman. A tender interest in his fame is assured. Still more fortunateis he if he is able to record his own achievements and give to themthat form and color and importance which they assume in his own gallantconsciousness. Captain John Smith, the first of an honored name, hadthis double good fortune. 

We are indebted to him for the glowing picture of a knight-errant of thesixteenth century, moving with the port of a swash-buckler across thefield of vision, wherever cities were to be taken and heads cracked inEurope, Asia, and Africa, and, in the language of one of his laureates--

 "To see bright honor sparkled all in gore. "

But we are specially his debtor for adventures on our own continent, narrated with naivete and vigor by a pen as direct and clear-cutting asthe sword with which he shaved off the heads of the Turks, and for oneof the few romances that illumine our early history. 

Captain John Smith understood his good fortune in being the recorder ofhis own deeds, and he preceded Lord Beaconsfield (in "Endymion") in hisappreciation of the value of the influence of women upon the career of ahero. In the dedication of his "General Historie" to Frances, Duchess ofRichmond, he says:

"I have deeply hazarded myself in doing and suffering, and why should Isticke to hazard my reputation in recording? He that acteth two parts isthe more borne withall if he come short, or fayle in one of them. Whereshall we looke to finde a Julius Caesar whose atchievments shine ascleare in his owne Commentaries, as they did in the field? I confesse, my hand though able to wield a weapon among the Barbarous, yet well maytremble in handling a Pen among so many judicious; especially when I amso bold as to call so piercing and so glorious an Eye, as your Grace, to view these poore ragged lines. Yet my comfort is that heretoforehonorable and vertuous Ladies, and comparable but amongst themselves, have offered me rescue and protection in my greatest dangers: even inforraine parts, I have felt reliefe from that sex. The beauteous LadyTragabigzanda, when I was a slave to the Turks, did all she could tosecure me. When I overcame the Bashaw of Nalbrits in Tartaria, thecharitable Lady Callamata supplyed my necessities. In the utmost ofmy extremities, that blessed Pokahontas, the great King's daughter ofVirginia, oft saved my life. When I escaped the cruelties of Piratsand most furious stormes, a long time alone in a small Boat at Sea, anddriven ashore in France, the good Lady Chanoyes bountifully assistedme. "

It is stated in his "True Travels" that John Smith was born inWilloughby, in Lincolnshire. The year of his birth is not given, butit was probably in 1579, as it appears by the portrait prefixed to thatwork that he was aged 37 years in 1616. We are able to add also that therector of the Willoughby Rectory, Alford, finds in the register an entryof the baptism of John, son of George Smith, under date of Jan. 9, 1579. His biographers, following his account, represent him as of ancientlineage: "His father actually descended from the ancient Smiths ofCrudley in Lancashire, his mother from the Rickands at great Heck inYorkshire;" but the circumstances of his boyhood would indicate thatlike many other men who have made themselves a name, his origin washumble. If it had been otherwise he would scarcely have been bound as anapprentice, nor had so much difficulty in his advancement. But theboy was born with a merry disposition, and in his earliest years wasimpatient for adventure. The desire to rove was doubtless increased bythe nature of his native shire, which offered every inducement to thelad of spirit to leave it. 

Lincolnshire is the most uninteresting part of all England. It isfrequently water-logged till late in the summer: invisible a part ofthe year, when it emerges it is mostly a dreary flat. Willoughby is aconsiderable village in this shire, situated about three miles and ahalf southeastward from Alford. It stands just on the edge of thechalk hills whose drives gently slope down to the German Ocean, and thescenery around offers an unvarying expanse of flats. All the villages inthis part of Lincolnshire exhibit the same character. The name ends inby, the Danish word for hamlet or small village, and we can measure theprogress of the Danish invasion of England by the number of townswhich have the terminal by, distinguished from the Saxon thorpe, whichgenerally ends the name of villages in Yorkshire. The population may besaid to be Danish light-haired and blue-eyed. Such was John Smith. Thesea was the natural element of his neighbors, and John when a boy musthave heard many stories of the sea and enticing adventures told by thesturdy mariners who were recruited from the neighborhood of Willoughby, and whose oars had often cloven the Baltic Sea. 

Willoughby boasts some antiquity. Its church is a spacious structure, with a nave, north and south aisles, and a chancel, and a tower at thewest end. In the floor is a stone with a Latin inscription, in blackletter, round the verge, to the memory of one Gilbert West, who died in1404. The church is dedicated to St. Helen. In the village the WesleyanMethodists also have a place of worship. According to the parliamentaryreturns of 1825, the parish including the hamlet of Sloothby contained108 houses and 514 inhabitants. All the churches in Lincolnshireindicate the existence of a much larger population who were in the habitof attending service than exists at present. Many of these now emptyare of size sufficient to accommodate the entire population of severalvillages. Such a one is Willoughby, which unites in its church theadjacent village of Sloothby. 

The stories of the sailors and the contiguity of the salt water had moreinfluence on the boy's mind than the free, schools of Alford and Louthwhich he attended, and when he was about thirteen he sold his books andsatchel and intended to run away to sea: but the death of his fatherstayed him. Both his parents being now dead, he was left with, hesays, competent means; but his guardians regarding his estate more thanhimself, gave him full liberty and no money, so that he was forced tostay at home. 

At the age of fifteen he was bound apprentice to Mr. Thomas S. Tendallof Lynn. The articles, however, did not bind him very fast, for as hismaster refused to send him to sea, John took leave of his master and didnot see him again for eight years. These details exhibit in the boy theheadstrong independence of the man. 

At length he found means to attach himself to a young son of the greatsoldier, Lord Willoughby, who was going into France. The narrative isnot clear, but it appears that upon reaching Orleans, in a month or sothe services of John were found to be of no value, and he was sent backto his friends, who on his return generously gave him ten shillings (outof his own estate) to be rid of him. He is next heard of enjoying hisliberty at Paris and making the acquaintance of a Scotchman namedDavid Hume, who used his purse--ten shillings went a long ways in thosedays--and in return gave him letters of commendation to prefer him toKing James. But the boy had a disinclination to go where he was sent. Reaching Rouen, and being nearly out of money, he dropped down the riverto Havre de Grace, and began to learn to be a soldier. 

Smith says not a word of the great war of the Leaguers and Henry IV. , nor on which side he fought, nor is it probable that he cared. Buthe was doubtless on the side of Henry, as Havre was at this time inpossession of that soldier. Our adventurer not only makes no referenceto the great religious war, nor to the League, nor to Henry, but he doesnot tell who held Paris when he visited it. Apparently state affairs didnot interest him. His reference to a "peace" helps us to fix the dateof his first adventure in France. Henry published the Edict of Nantesat Paris, April 13, 1598, and on the 2d of May following, concluded thetreaty of France with Philip II. At Vervins, which closed the Spanishpretensions in France. The Duc de Mercoeur (of whom we shall hear lateras Smith's "Duke of Mercury" in Hungary), Duke of Lorraine, was alliedwith the Guises in the League, and had the design of holding Bretagneunder Spanish protection. However, fortune was against him and hesubmitted to Henry in February, 1598, with no good grace. Looking aboutfor an opportunity to distinguish himself, he offered his services tothe Emperor Rudolph to fight the Turks, and it is said led an army ofhis French followers, numbering 15, 000, in 1601, to Hungary, to raisethe siege of Coniza, which was beleaguered by Ibrahim Pasha with 60, 000men. 

Chance of fighting and pay failing in France by reason of the peace, he enrolled himself under the banner of one of the roving and fightingcaptains of the time, who sold their swords in the best market, andwent over into the Low Countries, where he hacked and hewed away at hisfellow-men, all in the way of business, for three or four years. Atthe end of that time he bethought himself that he had not delivered hisletters to Scotland. He embarked at Aucusan for Leith, and seems tohave been shipwrecked, and detained by illness in the "holy isle" inNorthumberland, near Barwick. On his recovery he delivered his letters, and received kind treatment from the Scots; but as he had no money, which was needed to make his way as a courtier, he returned toWilloughby. 

The family of Smith is so "ancient" that the historians of the countyof Lincoln do not allude to it, and only devote a brief paragraph to thegreat John himself. Willoughby must have been a dull place to him afterhis adventures, but he says he was glutted with company, and retiredinto a woody pasture, surrounded by forests, a good ways from any town, and there built himself a pavilion of boughs--less substantial than thecabin of Thoreau at Walden Pond--and there he heroically slept in hisclothes, studied Machiavelli's "Art of War, " read "Marcus Aurelius, " andexercised on his horse with lance and ring. This solitary conduct gothim the name of a hermit, whose food was thought to be more ofvenison than anything else, but in fact his men kept him supplied withprovisions. When John had indulged in this ostentatious seclusion for atime, he allowed himself to be drawn out of it by the charming discourseof a noble Italian named Theodore Palaloga, who just then was Rider toHenry, Earl of Lincoln, and went to stay with him at Tattershall. Thiswas an ancient town, with a castle, which belonged to the Earls ofLincoln, and was situated on the River Bane, only fourteen miles fromBoston, a name that at once establishes a connection between Smith'snative county and our own country, for it is nearly as certain that St. Botolph founded a monastery at Boston, Lincoln, in the year 654, as itis that he founded a club afterwards in Boston, Massachusetts. 

Whatever were the pleasures of Tattershall, they could not long contentthe restless Smith, who soon set out again for the Netherlands in searchof adventures. 

The life of Smith, as it is related by himself, reads like that of abelligerent tramp, but it was not uncommon in his day, nor is it inours, whenever America produces soldiers of fortune who are ready, fora compensation, to take up the quarrels of Egyptians or Chinese, or gowherever there is fighting and booty. Smith could now handle arms andride a horse, and longed to go against the Turks, whose anti-Christiancontests filled his soul with lamentations; and besides he was tired ofseeing Christians slaughter each other. Like most heroes, he had a vividimagination that made him credulous, and in the Netherlands he fell intothe toils of three French gallants, one of whom pretended to be a greatlord, attended by his gentlemen, who persuaded him to accompany them tothe "Duchess of Mercury, " whose lord was then a general of Rodolphusof Hungary, whose favor they could command. Embarking with these arrantcheats, the vessel reached the coast of Picardy, where his comradescontrived to take ashore their own baggage and Smith's trunk, containinghis money and goodly apparel, leaving him on board. When the captain, who was in the plot, was enabled to land Smith the next day, the noblelords had disappeared with the luggage, and Smith, who had only a singlepiece of gold in his pocket, was obliged to sell his cloak to pay hispassage. 

Thus stripped, he roamed about Normandy in a forlorn condition, occasionally entertained by honorable persons who had heard of hismisfortunes, and seeking always means of continuing his travels, wandering from port to port on the chance of embarking on a man-of-war. Once he was found in a forest near dead with grief and cold, and rescuedby a rich farmer; shortly afterwards, in a grove in Brittany, he chancedupon one of the gallants who had robbed him, and the two out swords andfell to cutting. Smith had the satisfaction of wounding the rascal, andthe inhabitants of a ruined tower near by, who witnessed the combat, were quite satisfied with the event. 

Our hero then sought out the Earl of Ployer, who had been brought up inEngland during the French wars, by whom he was refurnished better thanever. After this streak of luck, he roamed about France, viewing thecastles and strongholds, and at length embarked at Marseilles on a shipfor Italy. Rough weather coming on, the vessel anchored under the lee ofthe little isle St. Mary, off Nice, in Savoy. 

The passengers on board, among whom were many pilgrims bound for Rome, regarded Smith as a Jonah, cursed him for a Huguenot, swore that hisnation were all pirates, railed against Queen Elizabeth, and declaredthat they never should have fair weather so long as he was on board. Toend the dispute, they threw him into the sea. But God got him ashore onthe little island, whose only inhabitants were goats and a few kine. Thenext day a couple of trading vessels anchored near, and he was takenoff and so kindly used that he decided to cast in his fortune with them. Smith's discourse of his adventures so entertained the master of oneof the vessels, who is described as "this noble Britaine, his neighbor, Captaine la Roche, of Saint Malo, " that the much-tossed wanderer wasaccepted as a friend. They sailed to the Gulf of Turin, to Alessandria, where they discharged freight, then up to Scanderoon, and coastingfor some time among the Grecian islands, evidently in search of morefreight, they at length came round to Cephalonia, and lay to forsome days betwixt the isle of Corfu and the Cape of Otranto. Here itpresently appeared what sort of freight the noble Britaine, Captain laRoche, was looking for. 

An argosy of Venice hove in sight, and Captaine la Roche desiredto speak to her. The reply was so "untoward" that a man was slain, whereupon the Britaine gave the argosy a broadside, and then his stem, and then other broadsides. A lively fight ensued, in which the Britainelost fifteen men, and the argosy twenty, and then surrendered to saveherself from sinking. The noble Britaine and John Smith then proceededto rifle her. He says that "the Silkes, Velvets, Cloth of Gold, andTissue, Pyasters, Chiqueenes, and Suitanies, which is gold and silver, they unloaded in four-and-twenty hours was wonderful, whereof havingsufficient, and tired with toils, they cast her off with her company, with as much good merchandise as would have freighted another Britaine, that was but two hundred Tunnes, she four or five hundred. " Smith'sshare of this booty was modest. When the ship returned he was setashore at "the Road of Antibo in Piamon, " "with five hundred chiqueenes[sequins] and a little box God sent him worth neere as much more. " Healways devoutly acknowledged his dependence upon divine Providence, andtook willingly what God sent him. 

II. FIGHTING IN HUNGARY

Smith being thus "refurnished, " made the tour of Italy, satisfiedhimself with the rarities of Rome, where he saw Pope Clement the Eighthand many cardinals creep up the holy stairs, and with the fair city ofNaples and the kingdom's nobility; and passing through the north he cameinto Styria, to the Court of Archduke Ferdinand; and, introduced by anEnglishman and an Irish Jesuit to the notice of Baron Kisell, generalof artillery, he obtained employment, and went to Vienna with ColonelVoldo, Earl of Meldritch, with whose regiment he was to serve. 

He was now on the threshold of his long-desired campaign against theTurks. The arrival on the scene of this young man, who was scarcelyout of his teens, was a shadow of disaster to the Turks. They had beencarrying all before them. Rudolph II. , Emperor of Germany, was a weakand irresolute character, and no match for the enterprising Sultan, Mahomet III. , who was then conducting the invasion of Europe. TheEmperor's brother, the Archduke Mathias, who was to succeed him, andFerdinand, Duke of Styria, also to become Emperor of Germany, were muchabler men, and maintained a good front against the Moslems in LowerHungary, but the Turks all the time steadily advanced. They had longoccupied Buda (Pesth), and had been in possession of the strongholdof Alba Regalis for some sixty years. Before Smith's advent they hadcaptured the important city of Caniza, and just as he reached the groundthey had besieged the town of Olumpagh, with two thousand men. But theaddition to the armies of Germany, France, Styria, and Hungary of JohnSmith, "this English gentleman, " as he styles himself, put a new faceon the war, and proved the ruin of the Turkish cause. The Bashaw of Budawas soon to feel the effect of this re-enforcement. 

Caniza is a town in Lower Hungary, north of the River Drave, and justwest of the Platen Sea, or Lake Balatin, as it is also called. Due northof Caniza a few miles, on a bend of the little River Raab (which emptiesinto the Danube), and south of the town of Kerment, lay Smith's townof Olumpagh, which we are able to identify on a map of the period asOlimacum or Oberlymback. In this strong town the Turks had shut up thegarrison under command of Governor Ebersbraught so closely that it waswithout intelligence or hope of succor. 

In this strait, the ingenious John Smith, who was present in thereconnoitering army in the regiment of the Earl of Meldritch, cameto the aid of Baron Kisell, the general of artillery, with a plan ofcommunication with the besieged garrison. Fortunately Smith had madethe acquaintance of Lord Ebersbraught at Gratza, in Styria, and had (hesays) communicated to him a system of signaling a message by the useof torches. Smith seems to have elaborated this method of signals, and providentially explained it to Lord Ebersbraught, as if he had apresentiment of the latter's use of it. He divided the alphabet intotwo parts, from A to L and from M to Z. Letters were indicated andwords spelled by the means of torches: "The first part, from A to L, issignified by showing and holding one linke so oft as there is lettersfrom A to that letter you name; the other part, from M to Z, ismentioned by two lights in like manner. The end of a word is signifienby showing of three lights. "

General Kisell, inflamed by this strange invention, which Smithmade plain to him, furnished him guides, who conducted him to a highmountain, seven miles distant from the town, where he flashed historches and got a reply from the governor. Smith signaled that theywould charge on the east of the town in the night, and at the alarumEbersbraught was to sally forth. General Kisell doubted that he shouldbe able to relieve the town by this means, as he had only ten thousandmen; but Smith, whose fertile brain was now in full action, and whoseems to have assumed charge of the campaign, hit upon a stratagem forthe diversion and confusion of the Turks. 

On the side of the town opposite the proposed point of attack lay theplain of Hysnaburg (Eisnaburg on Ortelius's map). Smith fastened twoor three charred pieces of match to divers small lines of an hundredfathoms in length, armed with powder. Each line was tied to a stake ateach end. After dusk these lines were set up on the plain, and beingfired at the instant the alarm was given, they seemed to the Turks likeso many rows of musketeers. While the Turks therefore prepared to repela great army from that side, Kisell attacked with his ten thousand men, Ebersbraught sallied out and fell upon the Turks in the trenches, allthe enemy on that side were slain or drowned, or put to flight. And while the Turks were busy routing Smith's sham musketeers, theChristians threw a couple of thousand troops into the town. Whereuponthe Turks broke up the siege and retired to Caniza. For this exploitGeneral Kisell received great honor at Kerment, and Smith was rewardedwith the rank of captain, and the command of two hundred and fiftyhorsemen. From this time our hero must figure as Captain John Smith. Therank is not high, but he has made the title great, just as he has madethe name of John Smith unique. 

After this there were rumors of peace for these tormented countries; butthe Turks, who did not yet appreciate the nature of this force, calledJohn Smith, that had come into the world against them, did not intendpeace, but went on levying soldiers and launching them into Hungary. To oppose these fresh invasions, Rudolph II. , aided by the Christianprinces, organized three armies: one led by the Archduke Mathias andhis lieutenant, Duke Mercury, to defend Low Hungary; the second ledby Ferdinand, the Archduke of Styria, and the Duke of Mantua, hislieutenant, to regain Caniza; the third by Gonzago, Governor of HighHungary, to join with Georgio Busca, to make an absolute conquest ofTransylvania. 

In pursuance of this plan, Duke Mercury, with an army of thirtythousand, whereof nearly ten thousand were French, besiegedStowell-Weisenberg, otherwise called Alba Regalis, a place so strong byart and nature that it was thought impregnable. 

This stronghold, situated on the northeast of the Platen Sea, was, likeCaniza and Oberlympack, one of the Turkish advanced posts, by means ofwhich they pushed forward their operations from Buda on the Danube. 

This noble friend of Smith, the Duke of Mercury, whom Haylyn styles DukeMercurio, seems to have puzzled the biographers of Smith. In fact, thename of "Mercury" has given a mythological air to Smith's narration andaided to transfer it to the region of romance. He was, however, as wehave seen, identical with a historical character of some importance, forthe services he rendered to the Church of Rome, and a commander ofsome considerable skill. He is no other than Philip de Lorraine, Duc deMercceur. '

[So far as I know, Dr. Edward Eggleston was the first to identify him. There is a sketch of him in the "Biographie Universelle, " and a lifewith an account of his exploits in Hungary, entitled: Histoire de DucMercoeur, par Bruseles de Montplain Champs, Cologne, 1689-97]

At the siege of Alba Regalis, the Turks gained several successes bynight sallies, and, as usual, it was not till Smith came to the frontwith one of his ingenious devices that the fortune of war changed. TheEarl Meldritch, in whose regiment Smith served, having heard fromsome Christians who escaped from the town at what place there were thegreatest assemblies and throngs of people in the city, caused CaptainSmith to put in practice his "fiery dragons. " These instruments ofdestruction are carefully described: "Having prepared fortie or fiftieround-bellied earthen pots, and filled them with hand Gunpowder, thencovered them with Pitch, mingled with Brimstone and Turpentine, andquartering as many Musket-bullets, that hung together but only at thecenter of the division, stucke them round in the mixture about thepots, and covered them againe with the same mixture, over that a strongsear-cloth, then over all a goode thicknesse of Towze-match, welltempered with oyle of Linseed, Campheer, and powder of Brimstone, thesehe fitly placed in slings, graduated so neere as they could to theplaces of these assemblies. "

These missiles of Smith's invention were flung at midnight, when thealarum was given, and "it was a perfect sight to see the short flamingcourse of their flight in the air, but presently after their fall, thelamentable noise of the miserable slaughtered Turkes was most wonderfulto heare. "

While Smith was amusing the Turks in this manner, the Earl Roswormeplanned an attack on the opposite suburb, which was defended by a muddylake, supposed to be impassable. Furnishing his men with bundles ofsedge, which they threw before them as they advanced in the dark night, the lake was made passable, the suburb surprised, and the capturedguns of the Turks were turned upon them in the city to which they hadretreated. The army of the Bashaw was cut to pieces and he himselfcaptured. 

The Earl of Meldritch, having occupied the town, repaired the walls andthe ruins of this famous city that had been in the possession of theTurks for some threescore years. 

It is not our purpose to attempt to trace the meteoric course of CaptainSmith in all his campaigns against the Turks, only to indicate the largepart he took in these famous wars for the possession of Eastern Europe. The siege of Alba Regalis must have been about the year 1601--Smithnever troubles himself with any dates--and while it was undecided, Mahomet III. --this was the prompt Sultan who made his position secureby putting to death nineteen of his brothers upon his accession--raisedsixty thousand troops for its relief or its recovery. The Duc deMercoeur went out to meet this army, and encountered it in the plainsof Girke. In the first skirmishes the Earl Meldritch was very nearlycut off, although he made "his valour shine more bright than his armour, which seemed then painted with Turkish blood. " Smith himself was sorewounded and had his horse slain under him. The campaign, at firstfavorable to the Turks, was inconclusive, and towards winter the Bashawretired to Buda. The Duc de Mercoeur then divided his army. The Earl ofRosworme was sent to assist the Archduke Ferdinand, who was besiegingCaniza; the Earl of Meldritch, with six thousand men, was sent to assistGeorgio Busca against the Transylvanians; and the Duc de Mercoeur setout for France to raise new forces. On his way he received greathonor at Vienna, and staying overnight at Nuremberg, he was royallyentertained by the Archdukes Mathias and Maximilian. The next morningafter the feast--how it chanced is not known--he was found dead Hisbrother-inlaw died two days afterwards, and the hearts of both, withmuch sorrow, were carried into France. 

We now come to the most important event in the life of Smith before hebecame an adventurer in Virginia, an event which shows Smith's readinessto put in practice the chivalry which had in the old chroniclesinfluenced his boyish imagination; and we approach it with thesatisfaction of knowing that it loses nothing in Smith's narration. 

It must be mentioned that Transylvania, which the Earl of Meldritch, accompanied by Captain Smith, set out to relieve, had long been in adisturbed condition, owing to internal dissensions, of which the Turkstook advantage. Transylvania, in fact, was a Turkish dependence, andit gives us an idea of the far reach of the Moslem influence in Europe, that Stephen VI. , vaivode of Transylvania, was, on the commendation ofSultan Armurath III. , chosen King of Poland. 

To go a little further back than the period of Smith's arrival, John II. Of Transylvania was a champion of the Turk, and an enemy of Ferdinandand his successors. His successor, Stephen VI. , surnamed Battori, orBathor, was made vaivode by the Turks, and afterwards, as we have said, King of Poland. He was succeeded in 1575 by his brother ChristopherBattori, who was the first to drop the title of vaivode and assume thatof Prince of Transylvania. The son of Christopher, Sigismund Battori, shook off the Turkish bondage, defeated many of their armies, slew someof their pashas, and gained the title of the Scanderbeg of the timesin which he lived. Not able to hold out, however, against so potentan adversary, he resigned his estate to the Emperor Rudolph II. , andreceived in exchange the dukedoms of Oppelon and Ratibor in Silesia, with an annual pension of fifty thousand joachims. The pension not beingwell paid, Sigismund made another resignation of his principality to hiscousin Andrew Battori, who had the ill luck to be slain within theyear by the vaivode of Valentia. Thereupon Rudolph, Emperor and King ofHungary, was acknowledged Prince of Transylvania. But the Transylvaniasoldiers did not take kindly to a foreign prince, and behaved sounsoldierly that Sigismund was called back. But he was unable to settlehimself in his dominions, and the second time he left his country inthe power of Rudolph and retired to Prague, where, in 1615, he diedunlamented. 

It was during this last effort of Sigismund to regain his position thatthe Earl of Meldritch, accompanied by Smith, went to Transylvania, withthe intention of assisting Georgio Busca, who was the commander of theEmperor's party. But finding Prince Sigismund in possession of the mostterritory and of the hearts of the people, the earl thought it bestto assist the prince against the Turk, rather than Busca against theprince. Especially was he inclined to that side by the offer of freeliberty of booty for his worn and unpaid troops, of what they could getpossession of from the Turks. 

This last consideration no doubt persuaded the troops that Sigismund had"so honest a cause. " The earl was born in Transylvania, and the Turkswere then in possession of his father's country. In this distractedstate of the land, the frontiers had garrisons among the mountains, someof which held for the emperor, some for the prince, and some for theTurk. The earl asked leave of the prince to make an attempt to regainhis paternal estate. The prince, glad of such an ally, made himcamp-master of his army, and gave him leave to plunder the Turks. Accordingly the earl began to make incursions of the frontiers into whatSmith calls the Land of Zarkam--among rocky mountains, where were someTurks, some Tartars, but most Brandittoes, Renegadoes, and such like, which he forced into the Plains of Regall, where was a city of men andfortifications, strong in itself, and so environed with mountains thatit had been impregnable in all these wars. 

It must be confessed that the historians and the map-makers did notalways attach the importance that Smith did to the battles in which hewas conspicuous, and we do not find the Land of Zarkam or the city ofRegall in the contemporary chronicles or atlases. But the region issufficiently identified. On the River Maruch, or Morusus, was the townof Alba Julia, or Weisenberg, the residence of the vaivode or Princeof Transylvania. South of this capital was the town Millenberg, andsouthwest of this was a very strong fortress, commanding a narrow passleading into Transylvania out of Hungary, probably where the RiverMaruct: broke through the mountains. We infer that it was this passthat the earl captured by a stratagem, and carrying his army through it, began the siege of Regall in the plain. "The earth no sooner put on hergreen habit, " says our knight-errant, "than the earl overspread her withhis troops. " Regall occupied a strong fortress on a promontory and theChristians encamped on the plain before it. 

In the conduct of this campaign, we pass at once into the age ofchivalry, about which Smith had read so much. We cannot but recognizethat this is his opportunity. His idle boyhood had been soaked in oldromances, and he had set out in his youth to do what equally dreamy butless venturesome devourers of old chronicles were content to readabout. Everything arranged itself as Smith would have had it. Whenthe Christian army arrived, the Turks sallied out and gave it a livelywelcome, which cost each side about fifteen hundred men. Meldritch hadbut eight thousand soldiers, but he was re-enforced by the arrival ofnine thousand more, with six-and-twenty pieces of ordnance, under LordZachel Moyses, the general of the army, who took command of the whole. 

After the first skirmish the Turks remained within their fortress, theguns of which commanded the plain, and the Christians spent a month inintrenching themselves and mounting their guns. 

The Turks, who taught Europe the art of civilized war, behaved all thistime in a courtly and chivalric manner, exchanging with the besiegerswordy compliments until such time as the latter were ready to begin. TheTurks derided the slow progress of the works, inquired if their ordnancewas in pawn, twitted them with growing fat for want of exercise, andexpressed the fear that the Christians should depart without making anassault. 

In order to make the time pass pleasantly, and exactly in accordancewith the tales of chivalry which Smith had read, the Turkish Bashaw inthe fortress sent out his challenge: "That to delight the ladies, whodid long to see some courtlike pastime, the Lord Tubashaw did defy anycaptaine that had the command of a company, who durst combat with himfor his head. "

This handsome offer to swap heads was accepted; lots were cast for thehonor of meeting the lord, and, fortunately for us, the choice fellupon an ardent fighter of twenty-three years, named Captain John Smith. Nothing was wanting to give dignity to the spectacle. Truce was made;the ramparts of this fortress-city in the mountains (which we cannotfind on the map) were "all beset with faire Dames and men in Armes";the Christians were drawn up in battle array; and upon the theatre thusprepared the Turkish Bashaw, armed and mounted, entered with a flourishof hautboys; on his shoulders were fixed a pair of great wings, compacted of eagles' feathers within a ridge of silver richly garnishedwith gold and precious stones; before him was a janissary bearing hislance, and a janissary walked at each side leading his steed. 

This gorgeous being Smith did not keep long waiting. Riding into thefield with a flourish of trumpets, and only a simple page to bear hislance, Smith favored the Bashaw with a courteous salute, took position, charged at the signal, and before the Bashaw could say "Jack Robinson, "thrust his lance through the sight of his beaver, face, head and all, threw him dead to the ground, alighted, unbraced his helmet, and cut offhis head. The whole affair was over so suddenly that as a pastime forladies it must have been disappointing. The Turks came out and tookthe headless trunk, and Smith, according to the terms of the challenge, appropriated the head and presented it to General Moyses. 

This ceremonious but still hasty procedure excited the rage of oneGrualgo, the friend of the Bashaw, who sent a particular challenge toSmith to regain his friend's head or lose his own, together withhis horse and armor. Our hero varied the combat this time. The twocombatants shivered lances and then took to pistols; Smith received amark upon the "placard, " but so wounded the Turk in his left arm that hewas unable to rule his horse. Smith then unhorsed him, cut off his head, took possession of head, horse, and armor, but returned the rich appareland the body to his friends in the most gentlemanly manner. 

Captain Smith was perhaps too serious a knight to see the humor ofthese encounters, but he does not lack humor in describing them, andhe adopted easily the witty courtesies of the code he was illustrating. After he had gathered two heads, and the siege still dragged, he becamein turn the challenger, in phrase as courteously and grimly facetious aswas permissible, thus:

"To delude time, Smith, with so many incontradictible perswadingreasons, obtained leave that the Ladies might know he was not so muchenamored of their servants' heads, but if any Turke of their ranke wouldcome to the place of combat to redeem them, should have also his, uponlike conditions, if he could winne it. "

This considerate invitation was accepted by a person whom Smith, withhis usual contempt for names, calls "Bonny Mulgro. " It seems difficultto immortalize such an appellation, and it is a pity that we have notthe real one of the third Turk whom Smith honored by killing. ButBonny Mulgro, as we must call the worthiest foe that Smith's prowessencountered, appeared upon the field. Smith understands working upa narration, and makes this combat long and doubtful. The challengedparty, who had the choice of weapons, had marked the destructiveness ofhis opponent's lance, and elected, therefore, to fight with pistols andbattle-axes. The pistols proved harmless, and then the battle-axes camein play, whose piercing bills made sometime the one, sometime the other, to have scarce sense to keep their saddles. Smith received such a blowthat he lost his battle-axe, whereat the Turks on the ramparts set upa great shout. "The Turk prosecuted his advantage to the utmost ofhis power; yet the other, what by the readiness of his horse, andhis judgment and dexterity in such a business, beyond all men'sexpectations, by God's assistance, not only avoided the Turke'sviolence, but having drawn his Faulchion, pierced the Turke so under theCulets throrow backe and body, that although he alighted from his horse, he stood not long ere he lost his head, as the rest had done. "

There is nothing better than this in all the tales of chivalry, and JohnSmith's depreciation of his inability to equal Caesar in describing hisown exploits, in his dedicatory letter to the Duchess of Richmond, mustbe taken as an excess of modesty. We are prepared to hear that thesebeheadings gave such encouragement to the whole army that six thousandsoldiers, with three led horses, each preceded by a soldier bearing aTurk's head on a lance, turned out as a guard to Smith and conductedhim to the pavilion of the general, to whom he presented his trophies. General Moyses (occasionally Smith calls him Moses) took him in his armsand embraced him with much respect, and gave him a fair horse, richlyfurnished, a scimeter, and a belt worth three hundred ducats. And hiscolonel advanced him to the position of sergeant-major of his regiment. If any detail was wanting to round out and reward this knightlyperformance in strict accord with the old romances, it was supplied bythe subsequent handsome conduct of Prince Sigismund. 

When the Christians had mounted their guns and made a couple of breachesin the walls of Regall, General Moyses ordered an attack one dark night"by the light that proceeded from the murdering muskets and peace-makingcannon. " The enemy were thus awaited, "whilst their slothful governorlay in a castle on top of a high mountain, and like a valiant princeasketh what's the matter, when horrour and death stood amazed ateach other, to see who should prevail to make him victorious. " Thesedescriptions show that Smith could handle the pen as well as thebattleaxe, and distinguish him from the more vulgar fighters of histime. The assault succeeded, but at great cost of life. The Turks sent aflag of truce and desired a "composition, " but the earl, remembering thedeath of his father, continued to batter the town and when he took itput all the men in arms to the sword, and then set their heads uponstakes along the walls, the Turks having ornamented the walls withChristian heads when they captured the fortress. Although the townafforded much pillage, the loss of so many troops so mixed the sourwith the sweet that General Moyses could only allay his grief by sackingthree other towns, Veratis, Solmos, and Kapronka. Taking from these acouple of thousand prisoners, mostly women and children, Earl Moysesmarched north to Weisenberg (Alba Julia), and camped near the palace ofPrince Sigismund. 

When Sigismund Battori came out to view his army he was made acquaintedwith the signal services of Smith at "Olumpagh, Stowell-Weisenberg, andRegall, " and rewarded him by conferring upon him, according to the lawof--arms, a shield of arms with "three Turks' heads. " This was grantedby a letter-patent, in Latin, which is dated at "Lipswick, in Misenland, December 9, 1603" It recites that Smith was taken captive by theTurks in Wallachia November 18, 1602; that he escaped and rejoined hisfellow-soldiers. This patent, therefore, was not given at Alba Julia, nor until Prince Sigismund had finally left his country, and when theEmperor was, in fact, the Prince of Transylvania. Sigismund styleshimself, by the grace of God, Duke of Transylvania, etc. Appended tothis patent, as published in Smith's "True Travels, " is a certificateby William Segar, knight of the garter and principal king of arms ofEngland, that he had seen this patent and had recorded a copy of it inthe office of the Herald of Armes. This certificate is dated August 19, 1625, the year after the publication of the General Historie. 

Smith says that Prince Sigismund also gave him his picture in gold, andgranted him an annual pension of three hundred ducats. This promise ofa pension was perhaps the most unsubstantial portion of his reward, for Sigismund himself became a pensioner shortly after the events lastnarrated. 

The last mention of Sigismund by Smith is after his escape fromcaptivity in Tartaria, when this mirror of virtues had abdicated. Smithvisited him at "Lipswicke in Misenland, " and the Prince "gave himhis Passe, intimating the service he had done, and the honors he hadreceived, with fifteen hundred ducats of gold to repair his losses. "The "Passe" was doubtless the "Patent" before introduced, and we hear noword of the annual pension. 

Affairs in Transylvania did not mend even after the capture of Regall, and of the three Turks' heads, and the destruction of so many villages. This fruitful and strong country was the prey of faction, and becamelittle better than a desert under the ravages of the contending armies. The Emperor Rudolph at last determined to conquer the country forhimself, and sent Busca again with a large army. Sigismund findinghimself poorly supported, treated again with the Emperor and agreed toretire to Silicia on a pension. But the Earl Moyses, seeing no prospectof regaining his patrimony, and determining not to be under subjectionto the Germans, led his troops against Busca, was defeated, and fled tojoin the Turks. Upon this desertion the Prince delivered up all hehad to Busca and retired to Prague. Smith himself continued with theimperial party, in the regiment of Earl Meldritch. About this time theSultan sent one Jeremy to be vaivode of Wallachia, whose tyrannycaused the people to rise against him, and he fled into Moldavia. Buscaproclaimed Lord Rodoll vaivode in his stead. But Jeremy assembled anarmy of forty thousand Turks, Tartars, and Moldavians, and retiredinto Wallachia. Smith took active part in Rodoll's campaign to recoverWallachia, and narrates the savage war that ensued. When the armies wereencamped near each other at Raza and Argish, Rodoll cut off the heads ofparties he captured going to the Turkish camp, and threw them intothe enemy's trenches. Jeremy retorted by skinning alive the Christianparties he captured, hung their skins upon poles, and their carcassesand heads on stakes by them. In the first battle Rodoll was successfuland established himself in Wallachia, but Jeremy rallied and beganravaging the country. Earl Meldritch was sent against him, but theTurks' force was much superior, and the Christians were caught in atrap. In order to reach Rodoll, who was at Rottenton, Meldritch withhis small army was obliged to cut his way through the solid body of theenemy. A device of Smith's assisted him. He covered two or three hundredtrunks--probably small branches of trees--with wild-fire. These fixedupon the heads of lances and set on fire when the troops charged in thenight, so terrified the horses of the Turks that they fled in dismay. Meldritch was for a moment victorious, but when within three leaguesof Rottenton he was overpowered by forty thousand Turks, and the lastdesperate fight followed, in which nearly all the friends of the Princewere slain, and Smith himself was left for dead on the field. 

On this bloody field over thirty thousand lay headless, armless, legless, all cut and mangled, who gave knowledge to the world how dearthe Turk paid for his conquest of Transylvania and Wallachia--a conquestthat might have been averted if the three Christian armies had beenjoined against the "cruel devouring Turk. " Among the slain were manyEnglishmen, adventurers like the valiant Captain whom Smith names, menwho "left there their bodies in testimony of their minds. " And there, "Smith among the slaughtered dead bodies, and many a gasping soule withtoils and wounds lay groaning among the rest, till being found by thePillagers he was able to live, and perceiving by his armor and habit, his ransome might be better than his death, they led him prisonerwith many others. " The captives were taken to Axopolis and all sold asslaves. Smith was bought by Bashaw Bogall, who forwarded him by way ofAdrianople to Constantinople, to be a slave to his mistress. So chainedby the necks in gangs of twenty they marched to the city of Constantine, where Smith was delivered over to the mistress of the Bashaw, the youngCharatza Tragabigzanda. 

III. CAPTIVITY AND WANDERING

Our hero never stirs without encountering a romantic adventure. Nobleladies nearly always take pity on good-looking captains, and Smith wasfar from ill-favored. The charming Charatza delighted to talk with herslave, for she could speak Italian, and would feign herself too sick togo to the bath, or to accompany the other women when they went to weepover the graves, as their custom is once a week, in order to stay athome to hear from Smith how it was that Bogall took him prisoner, as theBashaw had written her, and whether Smith was a Bohemian lord conqueredby the Bashaw's own hand, whose ransom could adorn her with the glory ofher lover's conquests. Great must have been her disgust with Bogallwhen she heard that he had not captured this handsome prisoner, but hadbought him in the slave-market at Axopolis. Her compassion for her slaveincreased, and the hero thought he saw in her eyes a tender interest. But she had no use for such a slave, and fearing her mother would sellhim, she sent him to her brother, the Tymor Bashaw of Nalbrits in thecountry of Cambria, a province of Tartaria (wherever that may be). Ifall had gone on as Smith believed the kind lady intended, he might havebeen a great Bashaw and a mighty man in the Ottoman Empire, and we mightnever have heard of Pocahontas. In sending him to her brother, it washer intention, for she told him so, that he should only sojourn inNalbrits long enough to learn the language, and what it was to be aTurk, till time made her master of herself. Smith himself does notdissent from this plan to metamorphose him into a Turk and the husbandof the beautiful Charatza Tragabigzanda. He had no doubt that he wascommended to the kindest treatment by her brother; but Tymor "divertedall this to the worst of cruelty. " Within an hour of his arrival, he wasstripped naked, his head and face shaved as smooth as his hand, a ringof iron, with a long stake bowed like a sickle, riveted to his neck, andhe was scantily clad in goat's skin. There were many other slaves, butSmith being the last, was treated like a dog, and made the slave ofslaves. 

The geographer is not able to follow Captain Smith to Nalbrits. PerhapsSmith himself would have been puzzled to make a map of his own careerafter he left Varna and passed the Black Sea and came through thestraits of Niger into the Sea Disbacca, by some called the Lake Moetis, and then sailed some days up the River Bruapo to Cambria, and two daysmore to Nalbrits, where the Tyrnor resided. 

Smith wrote his travels in London nearly thirty years after, and it isdifficult to say how much is the result of his own observation and howmuch he appropriated from preceding romances. The Cambrians may havebeen the Cossacks, but his description of their habits and also thoseof the "Crym-Tartars" belongs to the marvels of Mandeville and otherwide-eyed travelers. Smith fared very badly with the Tymor. The Tymorand his friends ate pillaw; they esteemed "samboyses" and "musselbits""great dainties, and yet, " exclaims Smith, "but round pies, full of allsorts of flesh they can get, chopped with variety of herbs. " Their bestdrink was "coffa" and sherbet, which is only honey and water. The commonvictual of the others was the entrails of horses and "ulgries" (goats?)cut up and boiled in a caldron with "cuskus, " a preparation made fromgrain. This was served in great bowls set in the ground, and whenthe other prisoners had raked it thoroughly with their foul fists theremainder was given to the Christians. The same dish of entrails used tobe served not many years ago in Upper Egypt as a royal dish to entertaina distinguished guest. 

It might entertain but it would too long detain us to repeat Smith'sinformation, probably all secondhand, about this barbarous region. Wemust confine ourselves to the fortunes of our hero. All his hope ofdeliverance from thraldom was in the love of Tragabigzanda, whom hefirmly believed was ignorant of his bad usage. But she made no sign. Providence at length opened a way for his escape. He was employed inthrashing in a field more than a league from the Tymor's home. TheBashaw used to come to visit his slave there, and beat, spurn, andrevile him. One day Smith, unable to control himself under theseinsults, rushed upon the Tymor, and beat out his brains with a thrashingbat--"for they had no flails, " he explains--put on the dead man'sclothes, hid the body in the straw, filled a knapsack with corn, mountedhis horse and rode away into the unknown desert, where he wandered manydays before he found a way out. If we may believe Smith this wildernesswas more civilized in one respect than some parts of our own land, foron all the crossings of the roads were guide-boards. After travelingsixteen days on the road that leads to Muscova, Smith reached aMuscovite garrison on the River Don. The governor knocked off the ironfrom his neck and used him so kindly that he thought himself now risenfrom the dead. With his usual good fortune there was a lady to takeinterest in him--"the good Lady Callamata largely supplied all hiswants. "

After Smith had his purse filled by Sigismund he made a thorough tour ofEurope, and passed into Spain, where being satisfied, as he says, withEurope and Asia, and understanding that there were wars in Barbary, thisrestless adventurer passed on into Morocco with several comrades on aFrench man-of-war. His observations on and tales about North Africaare so evidently taken from the books of other travelers that theyadd little to our knowledge of his career. For some reason he found nofighting going on worth his while. But good fortune attended hisreturn. He sailed in a man-of-war with Captain Merham. They made a fewunimportant captures, and at length fell in with two Spanish men-of-war, which gave Smith the sort of entertainment he most coveted. A sort ofrunning fight, sometimes at close quarters, and with many boardings andrepulses, lasted for a couple of days and nights, when having batteredeach other thoroughly and lost many men, the pirates of both nationsseparated and went cruising, no doubt, for more profitable game. Ourwanderer returned to his native land, seasoned and disciplined for thepart he was to play in the New World. As Smith had traveled all overEurope and sojourned in Morocco, besides sailing the high seas, since hevisited Prince Sigismund in December, 1603, it was probably in theyear 1605 that he reached England. He had arrived at the manly age oftwenty-six years, and was ready to play a man's part in the wonderfuldrama of discovery and adventure upon which the Britons were thenengaged. 

IV. FIRST ATTEMPTS IN VIRGINIA

John Smith has not chosen to tell us anything of his life during theinterim--perhaps not more than a year and a half--between hisreturn from Morocco and his setting sail for Virginia. Nor do hiscontemporaries throw any light upon this period of his life. 

One would like to know whether he went down to Willoughby and had areckoning with his guardians; whether he found any relations or friendsof his boyhood; whether any portion of his estate remained of that"competent means" which he says he inherited, but which does not seemto have been available in his career. From the time when he set out forFrance in his fifteenth year, with the exception of a short sojourn inWilloughby seven or eight years after, he lived by his wits and by thestrong hand. His purse was now and then replenished by a lucky windfall, which enabled him to extend his travels and seek more adventures. This is the impression that his own story makes upon the reader in anarrative that is characterized by the boastfulness and exaggerationof the times, and not fuller of the marvelous than most others of thatperiod. 

The London to which Smith returned was the London of Shakespeare. Weshould be thankful for one glimpse of him in this interesting town. Didhe frequent the theatre? Did he perhaps see Shakespeare himself at theGlobe? Did he loaf in the coffee-houses, and spin the fine thread ofhis adventures to the idlers and gallants who resorted to them? If hedropped in at any theatre of an afternoon he was quite likely to hearsome allusion to Virginia, for the plays of the hour were full of chaff, not always of the choicest, about the attractions of the Virgin-land, whose gold was as plentiful as copper in England; where the prisonerswere fettered in gold, and the dripping-pans were made of it; andwhere--an unheard-of thing--you might become an alderman without havingbeen a scavenger. 

Was Smith an indulger in that new medicine for all ills, tobacco? Alas!we know nothing of his habits or his company. He was a man of pietyaccording to his lights, and it is probable that he may have had thethen rising prejudice against theatres. After his return from Virginiahe and his exploits were the subject of many a stage play and spectacle, but whether his vanity was more flattered by this mark of notoriety thanhis piety was offended we do not know. There is certainly no sort ofevidence that he engaged in the common dissipation of the town, nor gavehimself up to those pleasures which a man rescued from the hardships ofcaptivity in Tartaria might be expected to seek. Mr. Stith says thatit was the testimony of his fellow soldiers and adventurers that "theynever knew a soldier, before him, so free from those military vices ofwine, tobacco, debts, dice, and oathes. "

But of one thing we may be certain: he was seeking adventure accordingto his nature, and eager for any heroic employment; and it goes withoutsaying that he entered into the great excitement of the day--adventurein America. Elizabeth was dead. James had just come to the throne, andRaleigh, to whom Elizabeth had granted an extensive patent of Virginia, was in the Tower. The attempts to make any permanent lodgment in thecountries of Virginia had failed. But at the date of Smith's adventCaptain Bartholomew Gosnold had returned from a voyage undertaken in1602 under the patronage of the Earl of Southampton, and announced thathe had discovered a direct passage westward to the new continent, allthe former voyagers having gone by the way of the West Indies. Theeffect of this announcement in London, accompanied as it was withGosnold's report of the fruitfulness of the coast of New England whichhe explored, was something like that made upon New York by the discoveryof gold in California in 1849. The route by the West Indies, with itsincidents of disease and delay, was now replaced by the direct courseopened by Gosnold, and the London Exchange, which has always been quickto scent any profit in trade, shared the excitement of the distinguishedsoldiers and sailors who were ready to embrace any chance of adventurethat offered. 

It is said that Captain Gosnold spent several years in vain, afterhis return, in soliciting his friends and acquaintances to join himin settling this fertile land he had explored; and that at length heprevailed upon Captain John Smith, Mr. Edward Maria Wingfield, the Rev. Mr. Robert Hunt, and others, to join him. This is the first appearanceof the name of Captain John Smith in connection with Virginia. Probablyhis life in London had been as idle as unprofitable, and his purseneeded replenishing. Here was a way open to the most honorable, exciting, and profitable employment. That its mere profit would haveattracted him we do not believe; but its danger, uncertainty, and chanceof distinction would irresistibly appeal to him. The distinct object ofthe projectors was to establish a colony in Virginia. This proved toogreat an undertaking for private persons. After many vain projects thescheme was commended to several of the nobility, gentry, and merchants, who came into it heartily, and the memorable expedition of 1606 wasorganized. 

The patent under which this colonization was undertaken was obtainedfrom King James by the solicitation of Richard Hakluyt and others. Smith's name does not appear in it, nor does that of Gosnold nor ofCaptain Newport. Richard Hakluyt, then clerk prebendary of Westminster, had from the first taken great interest in the project. He was chaplainof the English colony in Paris when Sir Francis Drake was fitting outhis expedition to America, and was eager to further it. By his diligentstudy he became the best English geographer of his time; he was thehistoriographer of the East India Company, and the best informed man inEngland concerning the races, climates, and productions of all parts ofthe globe. It was at Hakluyt's suggestion that two vessels were sent outfrom Plymouth in 1603 to verify Gosnold's report of his new short route. A further verification of the feasibility of this route was madeby Captain George Weymouth, who was sent out in 1605 by the Earl ofSouthampton. 

The letters-patent of King James, dated April 10, 1606, licensed theplanting of two colonies in the territories of America commonly calledVirginia. The corporators named in the first colony were Sir Thos. Gates, Sir George Somers, knights, and Richard Hakluyt and Edward MariaWingfield, adventurers, of the city of London. They were permittedto settle anywhere in territory between the 34th and 41st degrees oflatitude. 

The corporators named in the second colony were Thomas Hankam, RaleighGilbert, William Parker, and George Popham, representing Bristol, Exeter, and Plymouth, and the west counties, who were authorized to makea settlement anywhere between the 38th and 48th degrees of latitude. 

The--letters commended and generously accepted this noble work ofcolonization, "which may, by the Providence of Almighty God, hereaftertend to the glory of his Divine Majesty, in propagating of Christianreligion to such people as yet live in darkness and miserable ignoranceof all true knowledge and worship of God, and may in time bring theinfidels and savages living in those parts to human civility and toa settled and quiet government. " The conversion of the Indians was asprominent an object in all these early adventures, English or Spanish, as the relief of the Christians has been in all the Russian campaignsagainst the Turks in our day. 

Before following the fortunes of this Virginia colony of 1606, towhich John Smith was attached, it is necessary to glance briefly at theprevious attempt to make settlements in this portion of America. 

Although the English had a claim upon America, based upon the discoveryof Newfoundland and of the coast of the continent from the 38th to the68th north parallel by Sebastian Cabot in 1497, they took no furtheradvantage of it than to send out a few fishing vessels, until SirHumphrey Gilbert, a noted and skillful seaman, took out letters-patentfor discovery, bearing date the 11th of January, 1578. Gilbert was thehalf-brother of Sir Walter Raleigh and thirteen years his senior. Thebrothers were associated in the enterprise of 1579, which had for itsmain object the possession of Newfoundland. It is commonly said, andin this the biographical dictionaries follow one another, that Raleighaccompanied his brother on this voyage of 1579 and went with him toNewfoundland. The fact is that Gilbert did not reach Newfoundland onthat voyage, and it is open to doubt if Raleigh started with him. InApril, 1579, when Gilbert took active steps under the charter of 1578, diplomatic difficulties arose, growing out of Elizabeth's policy withthe Spaniards, and when Gilbert's ships were ready to sail hewas stopped by an order from the council. Little is known of thisunsuccessful attempt of Gilbert's. He did, after many delays, put tosea, and one of his contemporaries, John Hooker, the antiquarian, saysthat Raleigh was one of the assured friends that accompanied him. Buthe was shortly after driven back, probably from an encounter with theSpaniards, and returned with the loss of a tall ship. 

Raleigh had no sooner made good his footing at the court of Elizabeththan he joined Sir Humphrey in a new adventure. But the Queenperemptorily retained Raleigh at court, to prevent his incurring therisks of any "dangerous sea-fights. " To prevent Gilbert from embarkingon this new voyage seems to have been the device of the council ratherthan the Queen, for she assured Gilbert of her good wishes, and desiredhim, on his departure, to give his picture to Raleigh for her, and shecontributed to the large sums raised to meet expenses "an anchor guardedby a lady, " which the sailor was to wear at his breast. Raleigh risked L2, 000 in the venture, and equipped a ship which bore his name, but whichhad ill luck. An infectious fever broke out among the crew, and the"Ark Raleigh" returned to Plymouth. Sir Humphrey wrote to his brotheradmiral, Sir George Peckham, indignantly of this desertion, the reasonfor which he did not know, and then proceeded on his voyage withhis four remaining ships. This was on the 11th of January, 1583. Theexpedition was so far successful that Gilbert took formal possessionof Newfoundland for the Queen. But a fatality attended his furtherexplorations: the gallant admiral went down at sea in a storm off ourcoast, with his crew, heroic and full of Christian faith to the last, uttering, it is reported, this courageous consolation to his comrades atthe last moment: "Be of good heart, my friends. We are as near to heavenby sea as by land. "

In September, 1583, a surviving ship brought news of the disaster toFalmouth. Raleigh was not discouraged. Within six months of this loss hehad on foot another enterprise. His brother's patent had expired. Onthe 25th of March, 1584, he obtained from Elizabeth a new charter withlarger powers, incorporating himself, Adrian Gilbert, brother ofSir Humphrey, and John Davys, under the title of "The College of theFellowship for the Discovery of the Northwest Passage. " But Raleigh'sobject was colonization. Within a few days after his charter was issuedhe despatched two captains, Philip Amadas and Arthur Barlow, who in Julyof that year took possession of the island of Roanoke. 

The name of Sir Walter Raleigh is intimately associated with Carolinaand Virginia, and it is the popular impression that he personallyassisted in the discovery of the one and the settlement of the other. But there is no more foundation for the belief that he ever visited theterritory of Virginia, of which he was styled governor, than that heaccompanied Sir Humphrey Gilbert to Newfoundland. An allusion by WilliamStrachey, in his "Historie of Travaile into Virginia, " hastily read, mayhave misled some writers. He speaks of an expedition southward, "to someparts of Chawonock and the Mangoangs, to search them there left by SirWalter Raleigh. " But his further sketch of the various prior expeditionsshows that he meant to speak of settlers left by Sir Ralph Lane andother agents of Raleigh in colonization. Sir Walter Raleigh never sawany portion of the coast of the United States. 

In 1592 he planned an attack upon the Spanish possessions of Panama, buthis plans were frustrated. His only personal expedition to the New Worldwas that to Guana in 1595. 

The expedition of Captain Amadas and Captain Barlow is described byCaptain Smith in his compilation called the "General Historie, " and byMr. Strachey. They set sail April 27, 1584, from the Thames. On the 2dof July they fell with the coast of Florida in shoal water, "wherethey felt a most delicate sweet smell, " but saw no land. Presently landappeared, which they took to be the continent, and coasted along to thenorthward a hundred and thirty miles before finding a harbor. Enteringthe first opening, they landed on what proved to be the Island ofRoanoke. The landing-place was sandy and low, but so productive ofgrapes or vines overrunning everything, that the very surge of the seasometimes overflowed them. The tallest and reddest cedars in the worldgrew there, with pines, cypresses, and other trees, and in the woodsplenty of deer, conies, and fowls in incredible abundance. 

After a few days the natives came off in boats to visit them, properpeople and civil in their behavior, bringing with them the King'sbrother, Granganameo (Quangimino, says Strachey). The name of the Kingwas Winginia, and of the country Wingandacoa. The name of thisKing might have suggested that of Virginia as the title of the newpossession, but for the superior claim of the Virgin Queen. Granganameowas a friendly savage who liked to trade. The first thing he took afancy was a pewter dish, and he made a hole through it and hung it abouthis neck for a breastplate. The liberal Christians sold it to him forthe low price of twenty deer-skins, worth twenty crowns, and theyalso let him have a copper kettle for fifty skins. They drove a livelytraffic with the savages for much of such "truck, " and the chief cameon board and ate and drank merrily with the strangers. His wife andchildren, short of stature but well-formed and bashful, also paid thema visit. She wore a long coat of leather, with a piece of leather abouther loins, around her forehead a band of white coral, and from herears bracelets of pearls of the bigness of great peas hung down to hermiddle. The other women wore pendants of copper, as did the children, five or six in an ear. The boats of these savages were hollowed trunksof trees. Nothing could exceed the kindness and trustfulness the Indiansexhibited towards their visitors. They kept them supplied with game andfruits, and when a party made an expedition inland to the residence ofGranganameo, his wife (her husband being absent) came running to theriver to welcome them; took them to her house and set them beforea great fire; took off their clothes and washed them; removed thestockings of some and washed their feet in warm water; set plenty ofvictual, venison and fish and fruits, before them, and took pains tosee all things well ordered for their comfort. "More love they couldnot express to entertain us. " It is noted that these savages drank winewhile the grape lasted. The visitors returned all this kindness withsuspicion. 

They insisted upon retiring to their boats at night instead of lodgingin the house, and the good woman, much grieved at their jealousy, sentdown to them their half-cooked supper, pots and all, and mats to coverthem from the rain in the night, and caused several of her men andthirty women to sit all night on the shore over against them. "A morekind, loving people cannot be, " say the voyagers. 

In September the expedition returned to England, taking specimens of thewealth of the country, and some of the pearls as big as peas, andtwo natives, Wanchese and Manteo. The "lord proprietary" obtained theQueen's permission to name the new lands "Virginia, " in her honor, andhe had a new seal of his arms cut, with the legend, Propria insigniaWalteri Ralegh, militis, Domini et Gubernatoris Virginia. 

The enticing reports brought back of the fertility of this land, and theamiability of its pearl-decked inhabitants, determined Raleigh at onceto establish a colony there, in the hope of the ultimate salvationof the "poor seduced infidell" who wore the pearls. A fleet of sevenvessels, with one hundred householders, and many things necessary tobegin a new state, departed from Plymouth in April, 1585. Sir RichardGrenville had command of the expedition, and Mr. Ralph Lane was madegovernor of the colony, with Philip Amadas for his deputy. Amongthe distinguished men who accompanied them were Thomas Hariot, the mathematician, and Thomas Cavendish, the naval discoverer. Theexpedition encountered as many fatalities as those that befell SirHumphrey Gilbert; and Sir Richard was destined also to an earlyand memorable death. But the new colony suffered more from its ownimprudence and want of harmony than from natural causes. 

In August, Grenville left Ralph Lane in charge of the colony andreturned to England, capturing a Spanish ship on the way. The colonistspushed discoveries in various directions, but soon found themselvesinvolved in quarrels with the Indians, whose conduct was less friendlythan formerly, a change partly due to the greed of the whites. In June, when Lane was in fear of a conspiracy which he had discovered againstthe life of the colony, and it was short of supplies, Sir Francis Drakeappeared off Roanoke, returning homeward with his fleet from the sackingof St. Domingo, Carthagena, and St. Augustine. Lane, without waiting forsuccor from England, persuaded Drake to take him and all the colony backhome. Meantime Raleigh, knowing that the colony would probably need aid, was preparing a fleet of three well appointed ships to accompany SirRichard Grenville, and an "advice ship, " plentifully freighted, to sendin advance to give intelligence of his coming. Great was Grenville'schagrin, when he reached Hatorask, to find that the advice boat hadarrived, and finding no colony, had departed again for England. However, he established fifteen men ("fifty, " says the "General Historie") on theisland, provisioned for two years, and then returned home. 

[Sir Richard Grenville in 1591 was vice-admiral of a fleet, undercommand of Lord Thomas Howard, at the Azores, sent against a SpanishPlate-fleet. Six English vessels were suddenly opposed by a Spanishconvoy of 53 ships of war. Left behind his comrades, in embarking froman island, opposed by five galleons, he maintained a terrible fightfor fifteen hours, his vessel all cut to pieces, and his men nearlyall slain. He died uttering aloud these words: "Here dies Sir RichardGrenville, with a joyful and quiet mind, for that I have ended mylife as a true soldier ought to do, fighting for his country, queen, religion, and honor. "]

Mr. Ralph Lane's colony was splendidly fitted out, much better furnishedthan the one that Newport, Wingfield, and Gosnold conducted to the RiverJames in 1607; but it needed a man at the head of it. If the governorhad possessed Smith's pluck, he would have held on till the arrival ofGrenville. 

Lane did not distinguish himself in the conduct of this governorship, but he nevertheless gained immortality. For he is credited with firstbringing into England that valuable medicinal weeds called tobacco, which Sir Walter Raleigh made fashionable, not in its capacity to drive"rheums" out of the body, but as a soother, when burned in the bowl of apipe and drawn through the stem in smoke, of the melancholy spirit. 

The honor of introducing tobacco at this date is so large that it hasbeen shared by three persons--Sir Francis Drake, who brought Mr. Lanehome; Mr. Lane, who carried the precious result of his sojourn inAmerica; and Sir Walter Raleigh, who commended it to the use of theladies of Queen Elizabeth's court. 

But this was by no means its first appearance in Europe. It was alreadyknown in Spain, in France, and in Italy, and no doubt had begun to makeits way in the Orient. In the early part of the century the Spaniardshad discovered its virtues. It is stated by John Neander, in his "TobacoLogia, " published in Leyden in 1626, that Tobaco took its name froma province in Yucatan, conquered by Fernando Cortez in 1519. The nameNicotiana he derives from D. Johanne Nicotino Nemansensi, of the councilof Francis II. , who first introduced the plant into France. At the dateof this volume (1626) tobacco was in general use all over Europe andin the East. Pictures are given of the Persian water pipes, anddescriptions of the mode of preparing it for use. There are reports andtraditions of a very ancient use of tobacco in Persia and in China, aswell as in India, but we are convinced that the substance supposed to betobacco, and to be referred to as such by many writers, and described as"intoxicating, " was really India hemp, or some plant very different fromthe tobacco of the New World. At any rate there is evidence that in theTurkish Empire as late as 1616 tobacco was still somewhat a novelty, andthe smoking of it was regarded as vile, and a habit only of the low. The late Hekekian Bey, foreign minister of old Mahomet Ali, possessed anancient Turkish MS which related an occurrence at Smyrna about the year1610, namely, the punishment of some sailors for the use of tobacco, which showed that it was a novelty and accounted a low vice at thattime. The testimony of the trustworthy George Sandys, an Englishtraveler into Turkey, Egypt, and Syria in 1610 (afterwards, 1621, treasurer of the colony in Virginia), is to the same effect as given inhis "Relation, " published in London in 1621. In his minute descriptionof the people and manners of Constantinople, after speaking of opium, which makes the Turks "giddy-headed" and "turbulent dreamers, " he says:"But perhaps for the self-same cause they delight in Tobacco: which theytake through reedes that have joyned with them great heads of wood tocontaine it, I doubt not but lately taught them as brought them by theEnglish; and were it not sometimes lookt into (for Morat Bassa [MuradIII. ?] not long since commanded a pipe to be thrust through the nose ofa Turke, and to be led in derision through the Citie), no question butit would prove a principal commodity. Nevertheless they will take it incorners; and are so ignorant therein, that that which in England is notsaleable, doth passe here among them for most excellent. "

Mr. Stith ("History of Virginia, " 1746) gives Raleigh credit for theintroduction of the pipe into good society, but he cautiously says, "Weare not informed whether the queen made use of it herself: but it iscertain she gave great countenance to it as a vegetable of singularstrength and power, which might therefore prove of benefit to mankind, and advantage to the nation. " Mr. Thomas Hariot, in his observations onthe colony at Roanoke, says that the natives esteemed their tobacco, ofwhich plenty was found, their "chief physicke. "

It should be noted, as against the claim of Lane, that Stowe in his"Annales" (1615) says: "Tobacco was first brought and made known inEngland by Sir John Hawkins, about the year 1565, but not used byEnglishmen in many years after, though at this time commonly used bymost men and many women. " In a side-note to the edition of 1631 we read:"Sir Walter Raleigh was the first that brought tobacco in use, when allmen wondered what it meant. " It was first commended for its medicinalvirtues. Harrison's "Chronologie, " under date of 1573, says: "In thesedaies the taking in of the smoke of the Indian herbe called 'Tabaco' byan instrument formed like a little ladell, whereby it passeth from themouth into the hed and stomach, is gretlie taken-up and used in England, against Rewmes and some other diseases ingendred in the longes andinward partes, and not without effect. " But Barnaby Rich, in "TheHonestie of this Age, " 1614, disagrees with Harrison about its benefit:"They say it is good for a cold, for a pose, for rewmes, for aches, fordropsies, and for all manner of diseases proceeding of moyst humours;but I cannot see but that those that do take it fastest are as much (ormore) subject to all these infirmities (yea, and to the poxe itself)as those that have nothing at all to do with it. " He learns that 7, 000shops in London live by the trade of tobacco-selling, and calculatesthat there is paid for it L 399, 375 a year, "all spent in smoake. " Everybase groom must have his pipe with his pot of ale; it "is vendiblein every taverne, inne, and ale-house; and as for apothecaries shops, grosers shops, chandlers shops, they are (almost) never without companythat, from morning till night, are still taking of tobacco. " Numbers ofhouses and shops had no other trade to live by. The wrath of King Jameswas probably never cooled against tobacco, but the expression of it wassomewhat tempered when he perceived what a source of revenue it became. 

The savages of North America gave early evidence of the possession ofimaginative minds, of rare power of invention, and of an amiable desireto make satisfactory replies to the inquiries of their visitors. Theygenerally told their questioners what they wanted to know, if they couldascertain what sort of information would please them. If they had knownthe taste of the sixteenth century for the marvelous they could not haveresponded more fitly to suit it. They filled Mr. Lane and Mr. Hariotfull of tales of a wonderful copper mine on the River Maratock(Roanoke), where the metal was dipped out of the stream in great bowls. The colonists had great hopes of this river, which Mr. Hariot thoughtflowed out of the Gulf of Mexico, or very near the South Sea. TheIndians also conveyed to the mind of this sagacious observer the notionthat they had a very respectably developed religion; that they believedin one chief god who existed from all eternity, and who made many godsof less degree; that for mankind a woman was first created, who byone of the gods brought forth children; that they believed in theimmortality of the soul, and that for good works a soul will be conveyedto bliss in the tabernacles of the gods, and for bad deeds to pokogusso, a great pit in the furthest part of the world, where the sun sets, and where they burn continually. The Indians knew this because two menlately dead had revived and come back to tell them of the other world. These stories, and many others of like kind, the Indians told ofthemselves, and they further pleased Mr. Hariot by kissing his Bible andrubbing it all over their bodies, notwithstanding he told them there wasno virtue in the material book itself, only in its doctrines. We mustdo Mr. Hariot the justice to say, however, that he had some littlesuspicion of the "subtiltie" of the weroances (chiefs) and the priests. 

Raleigh was not easily discouraged; he was determined to plant hiscolony, and to send relief to the handful of men that Grenville had lefton Roanoke Island. In May, 1587, he sent out three ships and a hundredand fifty householders, under command of Mr. John White, who wasappointed Governor of the colony, with twelve assistants as a Council, who were incorporated under the name of "The Governor and Assistantsof the City of Ralegh in Virginia, " with instructions to change theirsettlement to Chesapeake Bay. The expedition found there no one of thecolony (whether it was fifty or fifteen the writers disagree), nothingbut the bones of one man where the plantation had been; the houses wereunhurt, but overgrown with weeds, and the fort was defaced. CaptainStafford, with twenty men, went to Croatan to seek the lost colonists. He heard that the fifty had been set upon by three hundred Indians, and, after a sharp skirmish and the loss of one man, had taken boats and goneto a small island near Hatorask, and afterwards had departed no one knewwhither. 

Mr. White sent a band to take revenge upon the Indians who weresuspected of their murder through treachery, which was guided by Mateo, the friendly Indian, who had returned with the expedition from England. By a mistake they attacked a friendly tribe. In August of this yearMateo was Christianized, and baptized under the title of Lord of Roanokeand Dassomonpeake, as a reward for his fidelity. The same month Elinor, the daughter of the Govemor, the wife of Ananias Dare, gave birth to adaughter, the first white child born in this part of the continent, whowas named Virginia. 

Before long a dispute arose between the Governor and his Council as tothe proper person to return to England for supplies. White himself wasfinally prevailed upon to go, and he departed, leaving about a hundredsettlers on one of the islands of Hatorask to form a plantation. 

The Spanish invasion and the Armada distracted the attention of Europeabout this time, and the hope of plunder from Spanish vessels was moreattractive than the colonization of America. It was not until 1590that Raleigh was able to despatch vessels to the relief of the Hatoraskcolony, and then it was too late. White did, indeed, start out fromBiddeford in April, 1588, with two vessels, but the temptation to chaseprizes was too strong for him, and he went on a cruise of his own, andleft the colony to its destruction. 

In March, 1589-90, Mr. White was again sent out, with three ships, fromPlymouth, and reached the coast in August. Sailing by Croatan they wentto Hatorask, where they descried a smoke in the place they had left thecolony in 1587. Going ashore next day, they found no man, nor sign thatany had been there lately. Preparing to go to Roanoke next day, a boatwas upset and Captain Spicer and six of the crew were drowned. Thisaccident so discouraged the sailors that they could hardly be persuadedto enter on the search for the colony. At last two boats, with nineteenmen, set out for Hatorask, and landed at that part of Roanoke where thecolony had been left. When White left the colony three years before, themen had talked of going fifty miles into the mainland, and had agreed toleave some sign of their departure. The searchers found not a man ofthe colony; their houses were taken down, and a strong palisade had beenbuilt. All about were relics of goods that had been buried and dug upagain and scattered, and on a post was carved the name "CROATAN. " Thissignal, which was accompanied by no sign of distress, gave White hopethat he should find his comrades at Croatan. But one mischance oranother happening, his provisions being short, the expedition decided torun down to the West Indies and "refresh" (chiefly with a little Spanishplunder), and return in the spring and seek their countrymen; butinstead they sailed for England and never went to Croatan. The men ofthe abandoned colonies were never again heard of. Years after, in 1602, Raleigh bought a bark and sent it, under the charge of Samuel Mace, amariner who had been twice to Virginia, to go in search of the survivorsof White's colony. Mace spent a month lounging about the Hatorask coastand trading with the natives, but did not land on Croatan, or at anyplace where the lost colony might be expected to be found; but havingtaken on board some sassafras, which at that time brought a good pricein England, and some other barks which were supposed to be valuable, hebasely shirked the errand on which he was hired to go, and took himselfand his spicy woods home. 

The "Lost Colony" of White is one of the romances of the New World. Governor White no doubt had the feelings of a parent, but he did notallow them to interfere with his more public duties to go in search ofSpanish prizes. If the lost colony had gone to Croatan, it was probablethat Ananias Dare and his wife, the Governor's daughter, and the littleVirginia Dare, were with them. But White, as we have seen, had suchconfidence in Providence that he left his dear relatives to its care, and made no attempt to visit Croatan. 

Stith says that Raleigh sent five several times to search for thelost, but the searchers returned with only idle reports and frivolousallegations. Tradition, however, has been busy with the fate of thesedeserted colonists. One of the unsupported conjectures is that thecolonists amalgamated with the tribe of Hatteras Indians, and Indiantradition and the physical characteristics of the tribe are said toconfirm this idea. But the sporadic birth of children with whiteskins (albinos) among black or copper-colored races that have had nointercourse with white people, and the occurrence of light hair and blueeyes among the native races of America and of New Guinea, are facts sowell attested that no theory of amalgamation can be sustained by suchrare physical manifestations. According to Captain John Smith, who wroteof Captain Newport's explorations in 1608, there were no tidings ofthe waifs, for, says Smith, Newport returned "without a lump of gold, acertainty of the South Sea, or one of the lost company sent out by SirWalter Raleigh. "

In his voyage of discovery up the Chickahominy, Smith seem; to haveinquired about this lost colony of King Paspahegh, for he says, "what heknew of the dominions he spared not to acquaint me with, as of certainemen cloathed at a place called Ocanahonan, cloathcd like me. "

[Among these Hatteras Indians Captain Amadas, in 1584, saw children withchestnut-colored hair. ]

We come somewhat nearer to this matter in the "Historie of Travaileinto Virginia Britannia, " published from the manuscript by the HakluytSociety in 1849, in which it is intimated that seven of these desertedcolonists were afterwards rescued. Strachey is a first-rate authorityfor what he saw. He arrived in Virginia in 1610 and remained there twoyears, as secretary of the colony, and was a man of importance. His"Historie" was probably written between 1612 and 1616. In the firstportion of it, which is descriptive of the territory of Virginia, isthis important passage: "At Peccarecamek and Ochanahoen, by the relationof Machumps, the people have houses built with stone walls, and onestory above another, so taught them by those English who escaped theslaughter of Roanoke. At what time this our colony, under the conductof Captain Newport, landed within the Chesapeake Bay, where thepeople breed up tame turkies about their houses, and take apes in themountains, and where, at Ritanoe, the Weroance Eyanaco, preservedseven of the English alive--four men, two boys, and one young maid (whoescaped [that is from Roanoke] and fled up the river of Chanoke), tobeat his copper, of which he hath certain mines at the said Ritanoe, asalso at Pamawauk are said to be store of salt stones. "

This, it will be observed, is on the testimony of Machumps. Thispleasing story is not mentioned in Captain Newport's "Discoveries" (May, 1607). Machumps, who was the brother of Winganuske, one of the manywives of Powhatan, had been in England. He was evidently a livelyIndian. Strachey had heard him repeat the "Indian grace, " a sort ofincantation before meat, at the table of Sir Thomas Dale. If he didnot differ from his red brothers he had a powerful imagination, and wasready to please the whites with any sort of a marvelous tale. Newporthimself does not appear to have seen any of the "apes taken in themountains. " If this story is to be accepted as true we have to think ofVirginia Dare as growing up to be a woman of twenty years, perhaps asother white maidens have been, Indianized and the wife of a native. But the story rests only upon a romancing Indian. It is possible thatStrachey knew more of the matter than he relates, for in his history hespeaks again of those betrayed people, "of whose end you shall hereafterread in this decade. " But the possessed information is lost, for it isnot found in the remainder of this "decade" of his writing, which isimperfect. Another reference in Strachey is more obscure than the first. He is speaking of the merciful intention of King James towards theVirginia savages, and that he does not intend to root out the nativesas the Spaniards did in Hispaniola, but by degrees to change theirbarbarous nature, and inform them of the true God and the way toSalvation, and that his Majesty will even spare Powhatan himself. But, he says, it is the intention to make "the common people likewise tounderstand, how that his Majesty has been acquainted that the men, women, and children of the first plantation of Roanoke were by practiceof Powhatan (he himself persuaded thereunto by his priests) miserablyslaughtered, without any offense given him either by the first planted(who twenty and odd years had peaceably lived intermixed with thosesavages, and were out of his territory) or by those who are now come toinhabit some parts of his distant lands, " etc. 

Strachey of course means the second plantation and not the first, which, according to the weight of authority, consisted of only fifteen men andno women. 

In George Percy's Discourse concerning Captain Newport's explorationof the River James in 1607 (printed in Purchas's "Pilgrims") is thissentence: "At Port Cotage, in our voyage up the river, we saw a savageboy, about the age of ten years, which had a head of hair of a perfectyellow, and reasonably white skin, which is a miracle amongst allsavages. " Mr. Neill, in his "History of the Virginia Company, " says thatthis boy "was no doubt the offspring of the colonists left at Roanoke byWhite, of whom four men, two boys, and one young maid had been preservedfrom slaughter by an Indian Chief. " Under the circumstances, "no doubt"is a very strong expression for a historian to use. 

This belief in the sometime survival of the Roanoke colonists, and theiramalgamation with the Indians, lingered long in colonial gossip. Lawson, in his History, published in London in 1718, mentions a tradition amongthe Hatteras Indians, "that several of their ancestors were white peopleand could talk from a book; the truth of which is confirmed by gray eyesbeing among these Indians and no others. "

But the myth of Virginia Dare stands no chance beside that ofPocahontas. 

V. FIRST PLANTING OF THE COLONY

The way was now prepared for the advent of Captain John Smith inVirginia. It is true that we cannot give him his own title of itsdiscoverer, but the plantation had been practically abandoned, allthe colonies had ended in disaster, all the governors and captainshad lacked the gift of perseverance or had been early drawn into otheradventures, wholly disposed, in the language of Captain John White, "toseek after purchase and spoils, " and but for the energy and persistenceof Captain Smith the expedition of 1606 might have had no better fate. It needed a man of tenacious will to hold a colony together in one spotlong enough to give it root. Captain Smith was that man, and if we findhim glorying in his exploits, and repeating upon single big Indiansthe personal prowess that distinguished him in Transylvania and in themythical Nalbrits, we have only to transfer our sympathy from the Turksto the Sasquesahanocks if the sense of his heroism becomes oppressive. 

Upon the return of Samuel Mace, mariner, who was sent out in 1602 tosearch for White's lost colony, all Raleigh's interest in the Virginiacolony had, by his attainder, escheated to the crown. But he nevergave up his faith in Virginia: neither the failure of nine severalexpeditions nor twelve years imprisonment shook it. On the eve of hisfall he had written, "I shall yet live to see it an English nation:" andhe lived to see his prediction come true. 

The first or Virginian colony, chartered with the Plymouth colony inApril, 1606, was at last organized by the appointment of Sir ThomasSmith, the 'Chief of Raleigh's assignees, a wealthy London merchant, whohad been ambassador to Persia, and was then, or shortly after, governorof the East India Company, treasurer and president of the meetings ofthe council in London; and by the assignment of the transportation ofthe colony to Captain Christopher Newport, a mariner of experience invoyages to the West Indies and in plundering the Spaniards, who had thepower to appoint different captains and mariners, and the sole charge ofthe voyage. No local councilors were named for Virginia, but to CaptainNewport, Captain Bartholomew Gosnold, and Captain John Ratcliffe weredelivered sealed instructions, to be opened within twenty-four hoursafter their arrival in Virginia, wherein would be found the names of thepersons designated for the Council. 

This colony, which was accompanied by the prayers and hopes of London, left the Thames December 19, 1606, in three vessels--the Susan Constant, one hundred tons, Captain Newport, with seventy-one persons; theGod-Speed, forty tons, Captain Gosnold, with fifty-two persons; and apinnace of twenty tons, the Discovery, Captain Ratcliffe, with twentypersons. The Mercure Francais, Paris, 1619, says some of the passengerswere women and children, but there is no other mention of women. Of thepersons embarked, one hundred and five were planters, the rest crews. Among the planters were Edward Maria Wingfield, Captain John Smith, Captain John Martin, Captain Gabriel Archer, Captain George Kendall, Mr. Robert Hunt, preacher, and Mr. George Percie, brother of the Earl ofNorthumberland, subsequently governor for a brief period, and one of thewriters from whom Purchas compiled. Most of the planters were shippedas gentlemen, but there were four carpenters, twelve laborers, ablacksmith, a sailor, a barber, a bricklayer, a mason, a tailor, adrummer, and a chirurgeon. 

The composition of the colony shows a serious purpose of settlement, since the trades were mostly represented, but there were too manygentlemen to make it a working colony. And, indeed, the gentlemen, likethe promoters of the enterprise in London, were probably more solicitousof discovering a passage to the South Sea, as the way to increaseriches, than of making a state. They were instructed to explore everynavigable river they might find, and to follow the main branches, whichwould probably lead them in one direction to the East Indies or SouthSea, and in the other to the Northwest Passage. And they were forciblyreminded that the way to prosper was to be of one mind, for their ownand their country's good. 

This last advice did not last the expedition out of sight of land. Theysailed from Blackwell, December 19, 1606, but were kept six weeks on thecoast of England by contrary winds. A crew of saints cabined in thoselittle caravels and tossed about on that coast for six weeks wouldscarcely keep in good humor. Besides, the position of the captains andleaders was not yet defined. Factious quarrels broke out immediately, and the expedition would likely have broken up but for the wise conductand pious exhortations of Mr. Robert Hunt, the preacher. This faithfulman was so ill and weak that it was thought he could not recover, yetnotwithstanding the stormy weather, the factions on board, and althoughhis home was almost in sight, only twelve miles across the Downs, herefused to quit the ship. He was unmoved, says Smith, either by theweather or by "the scandalous imputations (of some few little betterthan atheists, of the greatest rank amongst us). " With "the water of hispatience" and "his godly exhortations" he quenched the flames of envyand dissension. 

They took the old route by the West Indies. George Percy notes that onthe 12th of February they saw a blazing star, and presently a storm. They watered at the Canaries, traded with savages at San Domingo, andspent three weeks refreshing themselves among the islands. The quarrelsrevived before they reached the Canaries, and there Captain Smith wasseized and put in close confinement for thirteen weeks. 

We get little light from contemporary writers on this quarrel. Smithdoes not mention the arrest in his "True Relation, " but in his "GeneralHistorie, " writing of the time when they had been six weeks in Virginia, he says: "Now Captain Smith who all this time from their departure fromthe Canaries was restrained as a prisoner upon the scandalous suggestionof some of the chiefs (envying his repute) who fancied he intended tousurp the government, murder the Council, and make himself King, thathis confedcrates were dispersed in all three ships, and that diversof his confederates that revealed it, would affirm it, for this he wascommitted a prisoner; thirteen weeks he remained thus suspected, and bythat time they should return they pretended out of their commiserations, to refer him to the Council in England to receive a check, rather thanby particulating his designs make him so odious to the world, as totouch his life, or utterly overthrow his reputation. But he so muchscorned their charity and publically defied the uttermost of theircruelty, he wisely prevented their policies, though he could notsuppress their envies, yet so well he demeaned himself in this business, as all the company did see his innocency, and his adversaries' malice, and those suborned to accuse him accused his accusers of subornation;many untruths were alleged against him; but being apparently disproved, begot a general hatred in the hearts of the company against such unjustCommanders, that the President was adjudged to give him L 200, sothat all he had was seized upon, in part of satisfaction, which Smithpresently returned to the store for the general use of the colony. "--

Neither in Newport's "Relatyon" nor in Mr. Wingfield's "Discourse" isthe arrest mentioned, nor does Strachey speak of it. 

About 1629, Smith, in writing a description of the Isle of Mevis (Nevis)in his "Travels and Adventures, " says: "In this little [isle] of Mevis, more than twenty years agone, I have remained a good time together, to wod and water--and refresh my men. " It is characteristic of Smith'svivid imagination, in regard to his own exploits, that he should speakof an expedition in which he had no command, and was even a prisoner, inthis style: "I remained, " and "my men. " He goes on: "Such factions herewe had as commonly attend such voyages, and a pair of gallows was made, but Captaine Smith, for whom they were intended, could not be persuadedto use them; but not any one of the inventors but their lives by justicefell into his power, to determine of at his pleasure, whom with muchmercy he favored, that most basely and unjustly would have betrayedhim. " And it is true that Smith, although a great romancer, was oftenmagnanimous, as vain men are apt to be. 

King James's elaborate lack of good sense had sent the expedition to seawith the names of the Council sealed up in a box, not to be openedtill it reached its destination. Consequently there was no recognizedauthority. Smith was a young man of about twenty-eight, vain and nodoubt somewhat "bumptious, " and it is easy to believe that Wingfieldand the others who felt his superior force and realized his experience, honestly suspected him of designs against the expedition. He was theablest man on board, and no doubt was aware of it. That he was not onlya born commander of men, but had the interest of the colony at heart, time was to show. 

The voyagers disported themselves among the luxuries of the West Indies. At Guadaloupe they found a bath so hot that they boiled their pork init as well as over the fire. At the Island of Monaca they took from thebushes with their hands near two hogsheads full of birds in three orfour hours. These, it is useless to say, were probably not the "barnaclegeese" which the nautical travelers used to find, and picturegrowing upon bushes and dropping from the eggs, when they were ripe, full-fledged into the water. The beasts were fearless of men. Wild birdsand natives had to learn the whites before they feared them. 

"In Mevis, Mona, and the Virgin Isles, " says the "General Historie, " "wespent some time, where with a lothsome beast like a crocodile, calleda gwayn [guana], tortoises, pellicans, parrots, and fishes, we feasteddaily. "

Thence they made sail-in search of Virginia, but the mariners lost theirreckoning for three days and made no land; the crews were discomfited, and Captain Ratcliffe, of the pinnace, wanted to up helm and return toEngland. But a violent storm, which obliged them "to hull all night, "drove them to the port desired. On the 26th of April they saw a bitof land none of them had ever seen before. This, the first land theydescried, they named Cape Henry, in honor of the Prince of Wales; as theopposite cape was called Cape Charles, for the Duke of York, afterwardsCharles I. Within these capes they found one of the most pleasant placesin the world, majestic navigable rivers, beautiful mountains, hills, andplains, and a fruitful and delightsome land. 

Mr. George Percy was ravished at the sight of the fair meadows andgoodly tall trees. As much to his taste were the large and delicateoysters, which the natives roasted, and in which were found many pearls. The ground was covered with fine and beautiful strawberries, four timesbigger than those in England. 

Masters Wingfield, Newport, and Gosnold. , with thirty men, went ashoreon Cape Henry, where they were suddenly set upon by savages, who camecreeping upon all-fours over the hills, like bears, with their bowsin their hands; Captain Archer was hurt in both hands, and a sailordangerously wounded in two places on his body. It was a bad omen. 

The night of their arrival they anchored at Point Comfort, now FortressMonroe; the box was opened and the orders read, which constituted EdwardMaria Wingfield, Bartholomew Gosnold, John Smith, Christopher Newport, John Ratcliffe, John Martin, and George Kendall the Council, with powerto choose a President for a year. Until the 13th of May they were slowlyexploring the River Powhatan, now the James, seeking a place for thesettlement. They selected a peninsula on the north side of the river, forty miles from its mouth, where there was good anchorage, and whichcould be readily fortified. This settlement was Jamestown. The Councilwas then sworn in, and Mr. Wingfield selected President. Smith beingunder arrest was not sworn in of the Council, and an oration was madesetting forth the reason for his exclusion. 

When they had pitched upon a site for the fort, every man set to work, some to build the fort, others to pitch the tents, fell trees and makeclapboards to reload the ships, others to make gardens and nets. Thefort was in the form of a triangle with a half-moon at each corner, intended to mount four or five guns. 

President Wingfield appears to have taken soldierly precautions, butSmith was not at all pleased with him from the first. He says "thePresident's overweening jealousy would admit of no exercise at arms, orfortifications but the boughs of trees cast together in the form of ahalf-moon by the extraordinary pains and diligence of Captain Kendall. "He also says there was contention between Captain Wingfield and CaptainGosnold about the site of the city. 

The landing was made at Jamestown on the 14th of May, according toPercy. Previous to that considerable explorations were made. On the 18thof April they launched a shallop, which they built the day before, and "discovered up the bay. " They discovered a river on the south siderunning into the mainland, on the banks of which were good storesof mussels and oysters, goodly trees, flowers of all colors, andstrawberries. Returning to their ships and finding the water shallow, they rowed over to a point of land, where they found from six to twelvefathoms of water, which put them in good comfort, therefore they namedthat part of the land Cape Comfort. On the 29th they set up a cross onChesapeake Bay, on Cape Henry, and the next day coasted to the Indiantown of Kecoughton, now Hampton, where they were kindly entertained. When they first came to land the savages made a doleful noise, layingtheir paws to the ground and scratching the earth with their nails. Thisceremony, which was taken to be a kind of idolatry, ended, mats werebrought from the houses, whereon the guests were seated, and givento eat bread made of maize, and tobacco to smoke. The savages alsoentertained them with dancing and singing and antic tricks and grimaces. They were naked except a covering of skins about the loins, and manywere painted in black and red, with artificial knots of lovely colors, beautiful and pleasing to the eye. The 4th of May they were entertainedby the chief of Paspika, who favored them with a long oration, makinga foul noise and vehement in action, the purport of which they did notcatch. The savages were full of hospitality. The next day the weroance, or chief, of Rapahanna sent a messenger to invite them to his seat. Hismajesty received them in as modest a proud fashion as if he had been aprince of a civil government. His body was painted in crimson and hisface in blue, and he wore a chain of beads about his neck and in hisears bracelets of pearls and a bird's claw. The 8th of May they went upthe river to the country Apomatica, where the natives received them inhostile array, the chief, with bow and arrows in one hand, and a pipe oftobacco in the other, offering them war or peace. 

These savages were as stout and able as any heathen or Christians inthe world. Mr. Percy said they bore their years well. He saw among thePamunkeys a savage reported to be 160, years old, whose eyes were sunkin his head, his teeth gone his hair all gray, and quite a big beard, white as snow; he was a lusty savage, and could travel as fast asanybody. 

The Indians soon began to be troublesome in their visits to theplantations, skulking about all night, hanging around the fort byday, bringing sometimes presents of deer, but given to theft of smallarticles, and showing jealousy of the occupation. They murmured, saysPercy, at our planting in their country. But worse than the dispositionof the savages was the petty quarreling in the colony itself. 

In obedience to the orders to explore for the South Sea, on the 22d ofMay, Newport, Percy, Smith, Archer, and twenty others were sent in theshallop to explore the Powhatan, or James River. 

Passing by divers small habitations, and through a land abounding intrees, flowers, and small fruits, a river full of fish, and of sturgeonsuch as the world beside has none, they came on the 24th, having passedthe town of Powhatan, to the head of the river, the Falls, where theyset up the cross and proclaimed King James of England. 

Smith says in his "General Historie" they reached Powhatan on the 26th. But Captain Newport's "Relatyon" agrees with Percy's, and with, Smith's"True Relation. " Captain Newport, says Percy, permitted no one to visitPowhatan except himself. 

Captain Newport's narration of the exploration of the James isinteresting, being the first account we have of this historic river. At the junction of the Appomattox and the James, at a place he callsWynauk, the natives welcomed them with rejoicing and entertained themwith dances. The Kingdom of Wynauk was full of pearl-mussels. The kingof this tribe was at war with the King of Paspahegh. Sixteen miles abovethis point, at an inlet, perhaps Turkey Point, they were met by eightsavages in a canoe, one of whom was intelligent enough to lay out thewhole course of the river, from Chesapeake Bay to its source, with apen and paper which they showed him how to use. These Indians kept themcompany for some time, meeting them here and there with presents ofstrawberries, mulberries, bread, and fish, for which they received pins, needles, and beads. They spent one night at Poore Cottage (the PortCotage of Percy, where he saw the white boy), probably now Haxall. Fivemiles above they went ashore near the now famous Dutch Gap, where KingArahatic gave them a roasted deer, and caused his women to bake cakesfor them. This king gave Newport his crown, which was of deer's hairdyed red. He was a subject of the great King Powhatan. While they satmaking merry with the savages, feasting and taking tobacco and seeingthe dances, Powhatan himself appeared and was received with great showof honor, all rising from their seats except King Arahatic, and shoutingloudly. To Powhatan ample presents were made of penny-knives, shears, and toys, and he invited them to visit him at one of his seats calledPowhatan, which was within a mile of the Falls, where now stands thecity of Richmond. All along the shore the inhabitants stood in clusters, offering food to the strangers. The habitation of Powhatan was situatedon a high hill by the water side, with a meadow at its foot where wasgrown wheat, beans, tobacco, peas, pompions, flax, and hemp. 

Powhatan served the whites with the best he had, and best of all witha friendly welcome and with interesting discourse of the country. Theymade a league of friendship. The next day he gave them six men as guidesto the falls above, and they left with him one man as a hostage. 

On Sunday, the 24th of May, having returned to Powhatan's seat, theymade a feast for him of pork, cooked with peas, and the Captain and Kingate familiarly together; "he eat very freshly of our meats, dranck ofour beere, aquavite, and sack. " Under the influence of this sack andaquavite the King was very communicative about the interior of thecountry, and promised to guide them to the mines of iron and copper; butthe wary chief seems to have thought better of it when he got sober, andput them off with the difficulties and dangers of the way. 

On one of the islets below the Falls, Captain Newport set up a crosswith the inscription "Jacobus, Rex, 1607, " and his own name beneath, andJames was proclaimed King with a great shout. Powhatan was displeasedwith their importunity to go further up the river, and departed with allthe Indians, except the friendly Navirans, who had accompanied them fromArahatic. Navirans greatly admired the cross, but Newport hit uponan explanation of its meaning that should dispel the suspicions ofPowhatan. He told him that the two arms of the cross signified KingPowhatan and himself, the fastening of it in the middle was theirunited league, and the shout was the reverence he did to Powhatan. Thisexplanation being made to Powhatan greatly contented him, and he cameon board and gave them the kindest farewell when they dropped down theriver. At Arahatic they found the King had provided victuals for them, but, says Newport, "the King told us that he was very sick and not ableto sit up long with us. " The inability of the noble red man to sit upwas no doubt due to too much Christian sack and aquavite, for on "Mondayhe came to the water side, and we went ashore with him again. He told usthat our hot drinks, he thought, caused him grief, but that he was wellagain, and we were very welcome. "

It seems, therefore, that to Captain Newport, who was a good sailorin his day, and has left his name in Virginia in Newport News, must begiven the distinction of first planting the cross in Virginia, with alie, and watering it, with aquavite. 

They dropped down the river to a place called Mulberry Shade, where theKing killed a deer and prepared for them another feast, at which theyhad rolls and cakes made of wheat. "This the women make and are verycleanly about it. We had parched meal, excellent good, sodd [cooked]beans, which eat as sweet as filbert kernels, in a manner, strawberries;and mulberries were shaken off the tree, dropping on our heads as wesat. He made ready a land turtle, which we ate; and showed that he washeartily rejoiced in our company. " Such was the amiable dispositionof the natives before they discovered the purpose of the whites todispossess them of their territory. That night they stayed at a placecalled "Kynd Woman's Care, " where the people offered them abundantvictual and craved nothing in return. 

Next day they went ashore at a place Newport calls Queen Apumatuc'sBower. This Queen, who owed allegiance to Powhatan, had much landunder cultivation, and dwelt in state on a pretty hill. This ancientrepresentative of woman's rights in Virginia did honor to her sex. Shecame to meet the strangers in a show as majestical as that of Powhatanhimself: "She had an usher before her, who brought her to the mattprepared under a faire mulberry-tree; where she sat down by herself, with a stayed countenance. She would permitt none to stand or sitt neareher. She is a fatt, lustie, manly woman. She had much copper about herneck, a coronet of copper upon her hed. She had long, black haire, whichhanged loose down her back to her myddle; which only part was coveredwith a deare's skyn, and ells all naked. She had her women attendingher, adorned much like herself (except they wanted the copper). Here wehad our accustomed eates, tobacco, and welcome. Our Captaine presentedher with guyfts liberally, whereupon shee cheered somewhat hercountenance, and requested him to shoote off a piece; whereat (we noted)she showed not near the like feare as Arahatic, though he be a goodlyman. "

The company was received with the same hospitality by King Pamunkey, whose land was believed to be rich in copper and pearls. The copper wasso flexible that Captain Newport bent a piece of it the thickness of hisfinger as if it had been lead. The natives were unwilling to part withit. The King had about his neck a string of pearls as big as peas, whichwould have been worth three or four hundred pounds, if the pearls hadbeen taken from the mussels as they should have been. 

Arriving on their route at Weanock, some twenty miles above the fort, they were minded to visit Paspahegh and another chief Jamestown lay inthe territory of Paspahegh--but suspicious signs among the natives madethem apprehend trouble at the fort, and they hastened thither to findtheir suspicions verified. The day before, May 26th, the colony had beenattacked by two hundred Indians (four hundred, Smith says), who wereonly beaten off when they had nearly entered the fort, by the use of theartillery. The Indians made a valiant fight for an hour; eleven whitemen were wounded, of whom one died afterwards, and a boy was killed onthe pinnace. This loss was concealed from the Indians, who for some timeseem to have believed that the whites could not be hurt. Four of theCouncil were hurt in this fight, and President Wingfield, who showedhimself a valiant gentleman, had a shot through his beard. They killedeleven of the Indians, but their comrades lugged them away on theirbacks and buried them in the woods with a great noise. For several daysalarms and attacks continued, and four or five men were cruelly wounded, and one gentleman, Mr. Eustace Cloville, died from the effects of fivearrows in his body. 

Upon this hostility, says Smith, the President was contented the fortshould be palisaded, and the ordnance mounted, and the men armed andexercised. The fortification went on, but the attacks continued, and itwas unsafe for any to venture beyond the fort. 

Dissatisfaction arose evidently with President Wingfield's management. Captain Newport says: "There being among the gentlemen and all thecompany a murmur and grudge against certain proceedings and inconvenientcourses [Newport] put up a petition to the Council for reformation. " TheCouncil heeded this petition, and urged to amity by Captain Newport, the company vowed faithful love to each other and obedience to thesuperiors. On the 10th of June, Captain Smith was sworn of the Council. In his "General Historie, " not published till 1624, he says: "Many werethe mischiefs that daily sprung from their ignorant (yet ambitious)spirits; but the good doctrine and exhortation of our preacher Mr. Hunt, reconciled them and caused Captain Smith to be admitted to the Council. "The next day they all partook of the holy communion. 

In order to understand this quarrel, which was not by any means appeasedby this truce, and to determine Captain Smith's responsibility for it, it is necessary to examine all the witnesses. Smith is unrestrainedin his expression of his contempt for Wingfield. But in the diary ofWingfield we find no accusation against Smith at this date. Wingfieldsays that Captain Newport before he departed asked him how he thoughthimself settled in the government, and that he replied "that nodisturbance could endanger him or the colony, but it must be wroughteither by Captain Gosnold or Mr. Archer, for the one was strong withfriends and followers and could if he would; and the other was troubledwith an ambitious spirit and would if he could. "

The writer of Newport's "Relatyon" describes the Virginia savages as avery strong and lusty race, and swift warriors. "Their skin is tawny;not so borne, but with dyeing and painting themselves, in which theydelight greatly. " That the Indians were born white was, as we shall seehereafter, a common belief among the first settlers in Virginia and NewEngland. Percy notes a distinction between maids and married women: "Themaids shave close the fore part and sides of their heads, and leave itlong behind, where it is tied up and hangs down to the hips. The marriedwomen wear their hair all of a length, but tied behind as that of maidsis. And the women scratch on their bodies and limbs, with a sharp iron, pictures of fowls, fish, and beasts, and rub into the 'drawings' livelycolors which dry into the flesh and are permanent. " The "Relatyon" saysthe people are witty and ingenious and allows them many good qualities, but makes this exception: "The people steal anything comes near them;yea, are so practiced in this art, that looking in our face, they wouldwith their foot, between their toes, convey a chisel, knife, percer, orany indifferent light thing, which having once conveyed, they hold itan injury to take the same from them. They are naturally given totreachery; howbeit we could not find it in our travel up the river, butrather a most kind and loving people. "

VI. QUARRELS AND HARDSHIPS

On Sunday, June 21st, they took the communion lovingly together. Thatevening Captain Newport gave a farewell supper on board his vessel. The22d he sailed in the Susan Constant for England, carrying specimens ofthe woods and minerals, and made the short passage of five weeks. DudleyCarleton, in a letter to John Chamberlain dated Aug. 18, 1607, writes"that Captain Newport has arrived without gold or silver, and that theadventurers, cumbered by the presence of the natives, have fortifiedthemselves at a place called Jamestown. " The colony left numbered onehundred and four. 

The good harmony of the colony did not last. There were other reasonswhy the settlement was unprosperous. The supply of wholesome provisionswas inadequate. The situation of the town near the Chickahominy swampswas not conducive to health, and although Powhatan had sent to makepeace with them, and they also made a league of amity with the chiefsPaspahegh and Tapahanagh, they evidently had little freedom of movementbeyond sight of their guns. Percy says they were very bare and scant ofvictuals, and in wars and dangers with the savages. 

Smith says in his "True Relation, " which was written on the spot, and ismuch less embittered than his "General Historie, " that they were ingood health and content when Newport departed, but this did not longcontinue, for President Wingfield and Captain Gosnold, with the most ofthe Council, were so discontented with each other that nothing was donewith discretion, and no business transacted with wisdom. This he chargesupon the "hard-dealing of the President, " the rest of the Council beingdiversely affected through his audacious command. "Captain Martin, though honest, was weak and sick; Smith was in disgrace through themalice of others; and God sent famine and sickness, so that the livingwere scarce able to bury the dead. Our want of sufficient good food, andcontinual watching, four or five each night, at three bulwarks, beingthe chief cause; only of sturgeon we had great store, whereon we wouldso greedily surfeit, as it cost many their lives; the sack, Aquavite, and other preservations of our health being kept in the President'shands, for his own diet and his few associates. "

In his "General Historie, " written many years later, Smith enlarges thisindictment with some touches of humor characteristic of him. He says:

"Being thus left to our fortunes, it fortuned that within ten daysscarce ten amongst us could either go, or well stand, such extremeweakness and sicknes oppressed us. And thereat none need marvaile ifthey consider the cause and reason, which was this: whilst the shipsstayed, our allowance was somewhat bettered, by a daily proportion ofBisket, which the sailors would pilfer to sell, give, or exchange withus for money, Saxefras, furres, or love. But when they departed, thereremained neither taverne, beere-house, nor place of reliefe, but thecommon Kettell. Had we beene as free from all sinnes as gluttony, anddrunkennesse, we might have been canonized for Saints. But our Presidentwould never have been admitted, for ingrissing to his private, Oatmeale, Sacke, Oyle, Aquavitz, Beef, Egges, or what not, but the Kettell: thatindeed he allowed equally to be distributed, and that was half a pintof wheat, and as much barley boyled with water for a man a day, and thisbeing fryed some twenty-six weeks in the ship's hold, contained as manywormes as graines; so that we might truly call it rather so much branthan corrne, our drinke was water, our lodgings Castles in the ayre;with this lodging and dyet, our extreme toile in bearing and plantingPallisadoes, so strained and bruised us, and our continual labour in theextremitie of the heat had so weakened us, as were cause sufficient tohave made us miserable in our native countrey, or any other place in theworld. "

Affairs grew worse. The sufferings of this colony in the summer equaledthat of the Pilgrims at Plymouth in the winter and spring. BeforeSeptember forty-one were buried, says Wingfield; fifty, says Smithin one statement, and forty-six in another; Percy gives a list oftwenty-four who died in August and September. Late in August Wingfieldsaid, "Sickness had not now left us seven able men in our town. " "Asyet, " writes Smith in September, "we had no houses to cover us, ourtents were rotten, and our cabins worse than nought. "

Percy gives a doleful picture of the wretchedness of the colony:"Our men were destroyed with cruel sickness, as swellings, fluxes, burning-fevers, and by wars, and some departed suddenly, but for themost part they died of mere famine.... We watched every three nights, lying on the cold bare ground what weather soever came, worked all thenext day, which brought our men to be most feeble wretches, our food wasbut a small can of barley, sod in water to five men a day, our drink butcold water taken out of the river, which was at the flood very salt, ata low tide full of shrimp and filth, which was the destruction of manyof our men. Thus we lived for the space of five months in this miserabledistress, but having five able men to man our bulwarks upon anyoccasion. If it had not pleased God to put a terror in the savagehearts, we had all perished by those wild and cruel Pagans, being inthat weak state as we were: our men night and day groaning in everycorner of the fort, most pitiful to hear. If there were any consciencein men, it would make their hearts to bleed to hear the pitifulmurmurings and outcries of our sick men, without relief, every night andday, for the space of six weeks: some departing out of the world; manytimes three or four in a night; in the morning their bodies trailed outof their cabins, like dogs, to be buried. In this sort did I see themortality of divers of our people. "

A severe loss to the colony was the death on the 22d of August ofCaptain Bartholomew Gosnold, one of the Council, a brave and adventurousmariner, and, says Wingfield, a "worthy and religious gentleman. " Hewas honorably buried, "having all the ordnance in the fort shot off withmany volleys of small shot. " If the Indians had known that those volleyssignified the mortality of their comrades, the colony would nodoubt have been cut off entirely. It is a melancholy picture, thisdisheartened and half-famished band of men quarreling among themselves;the occupation of the half-dozen able men was nursing the sick anddigging graves. We anticipate here by saying, on the authority of acontemporary manuscript in the State Paper office, that when CaptainNewport arrived with the first supply in January, 1608, "he found thecolony consisting of no more than forty persons; of those, ten only ablemen. "

After the death of Gosnold, Captain Kendall was deposed from the Counciland put in prison for sowing discord between the President and Council, says Wingfield; for heinous matters which were proved against him, says Percy; for "divers reasons, " says Smith, who sympathized with hisdislike of Wingfield. The colony was in very low estate at this time, and was only saved from famine by the providential good-will of theIndians, who brought them corn half ripe, and presently meat and fruitin abundance. 

On the 7th of September the chief Paspahegh gave a token of peace byreturning a white boy who had run away from camp, and other runawayswere returned by other chiefs, who reported that they had been well usedin their absence. By these returns Mr. Wingfield was convinced that theIndians were not cannibals, as Smith believed. 

On the 10th of September Mr. Wingfield was deposed from the presidencyand the Council, and Captain John Ratcliffe was elected President. Concerning the deposition there has been much dispute; but the accountsof it by Captain Smith and his friends, so long accepted as the truth, must be modified by Mr. Wingfield's "Discourse of Virginia, " morerecently come to light, which is, in a sense, a defense of his conduct. 

In his "True Relation" Captain Smith is content to say that "CaptainWingfield, having ordered the affairs in such sort that he was hatedof them all, in which respect he was with one accord deposed from thepresidency. "

In the "General Historie" the charges against him, which we have alreadyquoted, are extended, and a new one is added, that is, a purpose ofdeserting the colony in the pinnace: "the rest seeing the President'sprojects to escape these miseries in our pinnace by flight (who all thistime had neither felt want nor sickness), so moved our dead spirits wedeposed him. "

In the scarcity of food and the deplorable sickness and death, itwas inevitable that extreme dissatisfaction should be felt with theresponsible head. Wingfield was accused of keeping the best of thesupplies to himself. The commonalty may have believed this. Smithhimself must have known that the supplies were limited, but have beenwilling to take advantage of this charge to depose the President, whowas clearly in many ways incompetent for his trying position. It appearsby Mr. Wingfield's statement that the supply left with the colony wasvery scant, a store that would only last thirteen weeks and a half, and prudence in the distribution of it, in the uncertainty of Newport'sreturn, was a necessity. Whether Wingfield used the delicacies himselfis a question which cannot be settled. In his defense, in all we readof him, except that written by Smith and his friends, he seems to bea temperate and just man, little qualified to control the bold spiritsabout him. 

As early as July, "in his sickness time, the President did easilyfortell his own deposing from his command, " so much did he differ fromthe Council in the management of the colony. Under date of September 7thhe says that the Council demanded a larger allowance for themselves andfor some of the sick, their favorites, which he declined to give withouttheir warrants as councilors. Captain Martin of the Council was tillthen ignorant that only store for thirteen and a half weeks was inthe hands of the Cape Merchant, or treasurer, who was at that time Mr. Thomas Studley. Upon a representation to the Council of the lowness ofthe stores, and the length of time that must elapse before the harvestof grain, they declined to enlarge the allowance, and even ordered thatevery meal of fish or flesh should excuse the allowance of porridge. Mr. Wingfield goes on to say: "Nor was the common store of oyle, vinegar, sack, and aquavite all spent, saving two gallons of each: the sackreserved for the Communion table, the rest for such extremities asmight fall upon us, which the President had only made known to CaptainGosnold; of which course he liked well. The vessels wear, therefore, boonged upp. When Mr. Gosnold was dead, the President did acquaint therest of the Council with the said remnant; but, Lord, how they thenlonged for to supp up that little remnant: for they had now emptied alltheir own bottles, and all other that they could smell out. "

Shortly after this the Council again importuned the President for somebetter allowance for themselves and for the sick. He protested hisimpartiality, showed them that if the portions were distributedaccording to their request the colony would soon starve; he stilloffered to deliver what they pleased on their warrants, but would nothimself take the responsibility of distributing all the stores, and whenhe divined the reason of their impatience he besought them to bestowthe presidency among themselves, and he would be content to obey asa private. Meantime the Indians were bringing in supplies of corn andmeat, the men were so improved in health that thirty were able to work, and provision for three weeks' bread was laid up. 

Nevertheless, says Mr. Wingfield, the Council had fully plotted todepose him. Of the original seven there remained, besides Mr. Wingfield, only three in the Council. Newport was in England, Gosnold was dead, andKendall deposed. Mr. Wingfield charged that the three--Ratcliffe, Smith, and Martin--forsook the instructions of his Majesty, and set upa Triumvirate. At any rate, Wingfield was forcibly deposed from theCouncil on the 10th of September. If the object had been merely todepose him, there was an easier way, for Wingfield was ready to resign. But it appears, by subsequent proceedings, that they wished tofasten upon him the charge of embezzlement, the responsibility of thesufferings of the colony, and to mulct him in fines. He was arrested, and confined on the pinnace. Mr. Ratcliffe was made President. 

On the 11th of September Mr. Wingfield was brought before the Councilsitting as a court, and heard the charges against him. They were, as Mr. Wingfield says, mostly frivolous trifles. According to his report theywere these:

First, Mister President [Radcliffe] said that I had denied him a pennywhitle, a chicken, a spoonful of beer, and served him with foul corn;and with that pulled some grain out of a bag, showing it to the company. 

Then starts up Mr. Smith and said that I had told him plainly how helied; and that I said, though we were equal here, yet if we were inEngland, he [I] would think scorn his man should be my companion. 

Mr. Martin followed with: "He reported that I do slack the service inthe colony, and do nothing but tend my pot, spit, and oven; but he hathstarved my son, and denied him a spoonful of beer. I have friends inEngland shall be revenged on him, if ever he come in London. "

Voluminous charges were read against Mr. Wingfield by Mr. Archer, who had been made by the Council, Recorder of Virginia, the author, according to Wingfield, of three several mutinies, as "always hatchingof some mutiny in my time. "

Mr. Percy sent him word in his prison that witnesses were hired totestify against him by bribes of cakes and by threats. If Mr. Percy, who was a volunteer in this expedition, and a man of high character, didsend this information, it shows that he sympathized with him, and thisis an important piece of testimony to his good character. 

Wingfield saw no way of escape from the malice of his accusers, whosepurpose he suspected was to fine him fivefold for all the supplies whosedisposition he could not account for in writing: but he was finallyallowed to appeal to the King for mercy, and recommitted to the pinnace. In regard to the charge of embezzlement, Mr. Wingfield admitted that itwas impossible to render a full account: he had no bill of items fromthe Cape Merchant when he received the stores, he had used the storesfor trade and gifts with the Indians; Captain Newport had done the samein his expedition, without giving any memorandum. Yet he averred that henever expended the value of these penny whittles [small pocket-knives]to his private use. 

There was a mutinous and riotous spirit on shore, and the Councilprofessed to think Wingfield's life was in danger. He says: "In allthese disorders was Mr. Archer a ringleader. " Meantime the Indianscontinued to bring in supplies, and the Council traded up and down theriver for corn, and for this energy Mr. Wingfield gives credit to "Mr. Smith especially, " "which relieved the colony well. " To the report thatwas brought him that he was charged with starving the colony, he replieswith some natural heat and a little show of petulance, that may be takenas an evidence of weakness, as well as of sincerity, and exhibiting theundignified nature of all this squabbling:

"I did alwaises give every man his allowance faithfully, both of corne, oyle, aquivite, etc. , as was by the counsell proportioned: neyther wasit bettered after my tyme, untill, towards th' end of March, a bisketwas allowed to every working man for his breakfast, by means of theprovision brought us by Captn. Newport: as will appeare hereafter. It isfurther said, I did much banquit and ryot. I never had but one squirrelroasted; whereof I gave part to Mr. Ratcliffe then sick: yet was thatsquirrel given me. I did never heate a flesh pott but when the comonpott was so used likewise. Yet how often Mr. President's and theCounsellors' spitts have night and daye bene endaungered to break theirbackes-so, laden with swanns, geese, ducks, etc. ! how many times theirflesh potts have swelled, many hungrie eies did behold, to their greatlonging: and what great theeves and theeving thear hath been in thecomon stoare since my tyme, I doubt not but is already made knowne tohis Majesty's Councell for Virginia. "

Poor Wingfield was not left at ease in his confinement. On the 17th hewas brought ashore to answer the charge of Jehu [John?] Robinson thathe had with Robinson and others intended to run away with the pinnace toNewfoundland; and the charge by Mr. Smith that he had accused Smithof intending mutiny. To the first accuser the jury awarded one hundredpounds, and to the other two hundred pounds damages, for slander. "Seeing their law so speedy and cheap, " Mr. Wingfield thought he wouldtry to recover a copper kettle he had lent Mr. Crofts, worth half itsweight in gold. But Crofts swore that Wingfield had given it to him, andhe lost his kettle: "I told Mr. President I had not known the like law, and prayed they would be more sparing of law till we had more wittor wealthe. " Another day they obtained from Wingfield the key to hiscoffers, and took all his accounts, note-books, and "owne proper goods, "which he could never recover. Thus was I made good prize on all sides. 

During one of Smith's absences on the river President Ratcliffe did beatJames Read, the blacksmith. Wingfield says the Council were continuallybeating the men for their own pleasure. Read struck back. 

For this he was condemned to be hanged; but "before he turned of thelather, " he desired to speak privately with the President, and thereuponaccused Mr. Kendall--who had been released from the pinnace whenWingfield was sent aboard--of mutiny. Read escaped. Kendall wasconvicted of mutiny and shot to death. In arrest of judgment he objectedthat the President had no authority to pronounce judgment because hisname was Sicklemore and not Ratcliffe. This was true, and Mr. Martinpronounced the sentence. In his "True Relation, " Smith agrees with thisstatement of the death of Kendall, and says that he was tried by a jury. It illustrates the general looseness of the "General Historie, " writtenand compiled many years afterwards, that this transaction there appearsas follows: "Wingfield and Kendall being in disgrace, seeing all thingsat random in the absence of Smith, the company's dislike of theirPresident's weakness, and their small love to Martin's never-mendingsickness, strengthened themselves with the sailors and otherconfederates to regain their power, control, and authority, or atleast such meanes aboard the pinnace (being fitted to sail as Smith hadappointed for trade) to alter her course and to goe for England. Smithunexpectedly returning had the plot discovered to him, much trouble hehad to prevent it, till with store of sakre and musket-shot he forcedthem to stay or sink in the river, which action cost the life of CaptainKendall. "

In a following sentence he says: "The President [Ratcliffe] and CaptainArcher not long after intended also to have abandoned the country, which project also was curbed and suppressed by Smith. " Smith was alwayssuppressing attempts at flight, according to his own story, unconfirmedby any other writers. He had before accused President Wingfield of adesign to escape in the pinnace. 

Communications were evidently exchanged with Mr. Wingfield on thepinnace, and the President was evidently ill at ease about him. One dayhe was summoned ashore, but declined to go, and requested an interviewwith ten gentlemen. To those who came off to him he said that he haddetermined to go to England to make known the weakness of thecolony, that he could not live under the laws and usurpations of theTriumvirate; however, if the President and Mr. Archer would go, hewas willing to stay and take his fortune with the colony, or he wouldcontribute one hundred pounds towards taking the colony home. "They didlike none of my proffers, but made divers shott at uss in the pynnasse. "Thereupon he went ashore and had a conference. 

On the 10th of December Captain Smith departed on his famous expeditionup the Chickahominy, during which the alleged Pocahontas episodeoccurred. Mr. Wingfield's condensed account of this journey andcaptivity we shall refer to hereafter. In Smith's absence PresidentRatcliffe, contrary to his oath, swore Mr. Archer one of the Council;and Archer was no sooner settled in authority than he sought to takeSmith's life. The enmity of this man must be regarded as a long creditmark to Smith. Archer had him indicted upon a chapter in Leviticus (theyall wore a garb of piety) for the death of two men who were killed bythe Indians on his expedition. "He had had his trials the same daie ofhis retourne, " says Wingfield, "and I believe his hanging the same, orthe next daie, so speedy is our law there. But it pleased God to sendCaptain Newport unto us the same evening, to our unspeakable comfort;whose arrivall saved Mr. Smyth's leif and mine, because he took me outof the pynnasse, and gave me leave to lyve in the towne. Also by hiscomyng was prevented a parliament, which the newe counsailor, Mr. Recorder, intended thear to summon. "

Captain Newport's arrival was indeed opportune. He was the only one ofthe Council whose character and authority seem to have been generallyrespected, the only one who could restore any sort of harmony and curbthe factious humors of the other leaders. Smith should have all creditfor his energy in procuring supplies, for his sagacity in dealingwith the Indians, for better sense than most of the other colonistsexhibited, and for more fidelity to the objects of the plantation thanmost of them; but where ability to rule is claimed for him, at thisjuncture we can but contrast the deference shown by all to Newport withthe want of it given to Smith. Newport's presence at once quelled allthe uneasy spirits. 

Newport's arrival, says Wingfield, "saved Mr Smith's life and mine. "Smith's account of the episode is substantially the same. In his "TrueRelation" he says on his return to the fort "each man with truest signsof joy they could express welcomed me, except Mr. Archer, and some twoor three of his, who was then in my absence sworn councilor, though notwith the consent of Captain Martin; great blame and imputation was laidupon me by them for the loss of our two men which the Indians slew:insomuch that they purposed to depose me, but in the midst of mymiseries, it pleased God to send Captain Newport, who arriving there thesame night, so tripled our joy, as for a while those plots against mewere deferred, though with much malice against me, which Captain Newportin short time did plainly see. " In his "Map of Virginia, " the Oxfordtract of 1612, Smith does not allude to this; but in the "GeneralHistorie" it had assumed a different aspect in his mind, for at the timeof writing that he was the irresistible hero, and remembered himself asalways nearly omnipotent in Virginia. Therefore, instead of expressionsof gratitude to Newport we read this: "Now in Jamestown they were allin combustion, the strongest preparing once more to run away with thepinnace; which with the hazard of his life, with Sakre, falcon andmusket shot, Smith forced now the third time to stay or sink. Someno better than they should be, had plotted to put him to death by theLevitical law, for the lives of Robinson and Emry, pretending that thefault was his, that led them to their ends; but he quickly took suchorder with such Lawyers, that he laid them by the heels till he sentsome of them prisoners to England. "

Clearly Captain Smith had no authority to send anybody prisoner toEngland. When Newport returned, April 10th, Wingfield and Archer wentwith him. Wingfield no doubt desired to return. Archer was so insolent, seditious, and libelous that he only escaped the halter by theinterposition of Newport. The colony was willing to spare both thesemen, and probably Newport it was who decided they should go. As one ofthe Council, Smith would undoubtedly favor their going. He says in the"General Historie": "We not having any use of parliaments, plaises, petitions, admirals, recorders, interpreters, chronologers, courts ofplea, or justices of peace, sent Master Wingfield and Captain Archerhome with him, that had engrossed all those titles, to seek some betterplace of employment. " Mr. Wingfield never returned. Captain Archerreturned in 1609, with the expedition of Gates and Somers, as master ofone of the ships. 

Newport had arrived with the first supply on the 8th of January, 1608. The day before, according to Wingfield, a fire occurred which destroyednearly all the town, with the clothing and provisions. According toSmith, who is probably correct in this, the fire did not occur till fiveor six days after the arrival of the ship. The date is uncertain, andsome doubt is also thrown upon the date of the arrival of the ship. It was on the day of Smith's return from captivity: and that captivitylasted about four weeks if the return was January 8th, for he started onthe expedition December 10th. Smith subsequently speaks of his captivitylasting six or seven weeks. 

In his "General Historie" Smith says the fire happened after the returnof the expedition of Newport, Smith, and Scrivener to the Pamunkey:"Good Master Hunt, our Preacher, lost all his library, and all he hadbut the clothes on his back; yet none ever heard him repine at hisloss. " This excellent and devoted man is the only one of these firstpioneers of whom everybody speaks well, and he deserved all affectionand respect. 

One of the first labors of Newport was to erect a suitable church. Services had been held under many disadvantages, which Smith depicts inhis "Advertisements for Unexperienced Planters, " published in London in1631:

"When I first went to Virginia, I well remember, we did hang an awning(which is an old saile) to three or foure trees to shadow us from theSunne, our walls were rales of wood, our seats unhewed trees, till wecut plankes, our Pulpit a bar of wood nailed to two neighboring trees, in foule weather we shifted into an old rotten tent, for we had fewbetter, and this came by the way of adventure for me; this was ourChurch, till we built a homely thing like a barne, set upon Cratchets, covered with rafts, sedge and earth, so was also the walls: the bestof our houses of the like curiosity, but the most part farre much worseworkmanship, that could neither well defend wind nor raine, yet we haddaily Common Prayer morning and evening, every day two Sermons, andevery three moneths the holy Communion, till our Minister died, [RobertHunt] but our Prayers daily, with an Homily on Sundaies. "

It is due to Mr. Wingfield, who is about to disappear from Virginia, that something more in his defense against the charges of Smith and theothers should be given. It is not possible now to say how the suspicionof his religious soundness arose, but there seems to have been a notionthat he had papal tendencies. His grandfather, Sir Richard Wingfield, was buried in Toledo, Spain. His father, Thomas Maria Wingfield, waschristened by Queen Mary and Cardinal Pole. These facts perhaps gaverise to the suspicion. He answers them with some dignity and simplicity, and with a little querulousness:

"It is noised that I combyned with the Spanniards to the distruccion ofthe Collony; that I ame an atheist, because I carryed not a Bible withme, and because I did forbid the preacher to preache; that I affected akingdome; that I did hide of the comon provision in the ground. 

"I confesse I have alwayes admyred any noble vertue and prowesse, aswell in the Spanniards (as in other nations): but naturally I havealwayes distrusted and disliked their neighborhoode. I sorted manybookes in my house, to be sent up to me at my goeing to Virginia;amongst them a Bible. They were sent up in a trunk to London, withdivers fruite, conserves, and preserves, which I did sett in Mr. Croftshis house in Ratcliff. In my beeing at Virginia, I did understand mytrunk was thear broken up, much lost, my sweetmeates eaten at his table, some of my bookes which I missed to be seene in his hands: and whetheramongst them my Bible was so ymbeasiled or mislayed by my servants, andnot sent me, I knowe not as yet. 

"Two or three Sunday mornings, the Indians gave us allarums at ourtowne. By that tymes they weare answered, the place about us welldiscovered, and our devyne service ended, the daie was farr spent. Thepreacher did aske me if it were my pleasure to have a sermon: hee saidhee was prepared for it. I made answere, that our men were weary andhungry, and that he did see the time of the daie farr past (for at othertymes bee never made such question, but, the service finished he beganhis sermon); and that, if it pleased him, wee would spare him till someother tyme. I never failed to take such noates by wrighting out of hisdoctrine as my capacity could comprehend, unless some raynie day hindredmy endeavor. My mynde never swelled with such ympossible mountebankhumors as could make me affect any other kingdome than the kingdom ofheaven. 

"As truly as God liveth, I gave an ould man, then the keeper of theprivate store, 2 glasses with sallet oyle which I brought with me out ofEngland for my private stoare, and willed him to bury it in the ground, for that I feared the great heate would spoile it. Whatsoever was more, I did never consent unto or know of it, and as truly was it protestedunto me, that all the remaynder before mencioned of the oyle, wyne, &c. , which the President receyved of me when I was deposed they themselvespoored into their owne bellyes. 

"To the President's and Counsell's objections I saie that I doe knowecurtesey and civility became a governor. No penny whittle was asked me, but a knife, whereof I have none to spare The Indyans had long beforestoallen my knife. Of chickins I never did eat but one, and that in mysicknes. Mr. Ratcliff had before that time tasted Of 4 or 5. I had bymy owne huswiferie bred above 37, and the most part of them my ownepoultrye; of all which, at my comyng awaie, I did not see three living. I never denyed him (or any other) beare, when I had it. The corne was ofthe same which we all lived upon. 

"Mr. Smyth, in the time of our hungar, had spread a rumor in theCollony, that I did feast myself and my servants out of the comonstoare, with entent (as I gathered) to have stirred the discontentedcompany against me. I told him privately, in Mr. Gosnold's tent, thatindeede I had caused half a pint of pease to be sodden with a peeseof pork, of my own provision, for a poore old man, which in a sicknes(whereof he died) he much desired; and said, that if out of his malicehe had given it out otherwise, that hee did tell a leye. It was provedto his face, that he begged in Ireland like a rogue, without a lycence. To such I would not my nam should be a companyon. "

The explanation about the Bible as a part of his baggage is a littlefar-fetched, and it is evident that that book was not his dailycompanion. Whether John Smith habitually carried one about with him weare not informed. The whole passage quoted gives us a curious pictureof the mind and of the habits of the time. This allusion to John Smith'sbegging is the only reference we can find to his having been in Ireland. If he was there it must have been in that interim in his own narrativebetween his return from Morocco and his going to Virginia. He waslikely enough to seek adventure there, as the hangers-on of the court inRaleigh's day occasionally did, and perhaps nothing occurred duringhis visit there that he cared to celebrate. If he went to Ireland heprobably got in straits there, for that was his usual luck. 

Whatever is the truth about Mr. Wingfield's inefficiency andembezzlement of corn meal, Communion sack, and penny whittles, hisenemies had no respect for each other or concord among themselves. It isWingfield's testimony that Ratcliffe said he would not have beendeposed if he had visited Ratcliffe during his sickness. Smith saidthat Wingfield would not have been deposed except for Archer; that thecharges against him were frivolous. Yet, says Wingfield, "I do believehim the first and only practiser in these practices, " and he attributedSmith's hostility to the fact that "his name was mentioned in theintended and confessed mutiny by Galthrop. " Noother reference is made tothis mutiny. Galthrop was one of those who died in the previous August. 

One of the best re-enforcements of the first supply was MatthewScrivener, who was appointed one of the Council. He was a sensible man, and he and Smith worked together in harmony for some time. They wereintent upon building up the colony. Everybody else in the camp was crazyabout the prospect of gold: there was, says Smith, "no talk, no hope, nowork, but dig gold, wash gold, refine gold, load gold, such a bruit ofgold that one mad fellow desired to be buried in the sands, lest theyshould by their art make gold of his bones. " He charges that Newportdelayed his return to England on account of this gold fever, in order toload his vessel (which remained fourteen weeks when it might have sailedin fourteen days) with gold-dust. Captain Martin seconded Newport inthis; Smith protested against it; he thought Newport was no refiner, andit did torment him "to see all necessary business neglected, to fraughtsuch a drunken ship with so much gilded durt. " This was the famous loadof gold that proved to be iron pyrites. 

In speaking of the exploration of the James River as far as the Falls byNewport, Smith, and Percy, we have followed the statements of Percyand the writer of Newport's discovery that they saw the great Powhatan. There is much doubt of this. Smith in his "True Relation" does not sayso; in his voyage up the Chickahominy he seems to have seen Powhatan forthe first time; and Wingfield speaks of Powhatan, on Smith's returnfrom that voyage, as one "of whom before we had no knowledge. " It isconjectured that the one seen at Powhatan's seat near the Falls was ason of the "Emperor. " It was partly the exaggeration of the timesto magnify discoveries, and partly English love of high titles, thatattributed such titles as princes, emperors, and kings to the half-nakedbarbarians and petty chiefs of Virginia. 

In all the accounts of the colony at this period, no mention is madeof women, and it is not probable that any went over with the firstcolonists. The character of the men was not high. Many of them were"gentlemen" adventurers, turbulent spirits, who would not work, who weremuch better fitted for piratical maraudings than the labor of foundinga state. The historian must agree with the impression conveyed by Smith, that it was poor material out of which to make a colony. 

VII. SMITH TO THE FRONT

It is now time to turn to Smith's personal adventures among the Indiansduring this period. Almost our only authority is Smith himself, or suchpresumed writings of his companions as he edited or rewrote. Stracheyand others testify to his energy in procuring supplies for the colony, and his success in dealing with the Indians, and it seems likely thatthe colony would have famished but for his exertions. Whatever suspicionattaches to Smith's relation of his own exploits, it must never beforgotten that he was a man of extraordinary executive ability, and hadmany good qualities to offset his vanity and impatience of restraint. 

After the departure of Wingfield, Captain Smith was constrained to actas Cape Merchant; the leaders were sick or discontented, the rest werein despair, and would rather starve and rot than do anything fortheir own relief, and the Indian trade was decreasing. Under thesecircumstances, Smith says in his "True Relation, " "I was sent to themouth of the river, to Kegquoughtan [now Hampton], an Indian Towne, totrade for corn, and try the river for fish. " The Indians, thinking themnear famished, tantalized them with offers of little bits of bread inexchange for a hatchet or a piece of copper, and Smith offered triflesin return. The next day the Indians were anxious to trade. Smith sentmen up to their town, a display of force was made by firing four guns, and the Indians kindly traded, giving fish, oysters, bread, and deer. The town contained eighteen houses, and heaps of grain. Smith obtainedfifteen bushels of it, and on his homeward way he met two canoes withIndians, whom he accompanied to their villages on the south side of theriver, and got from them fifteen bushels more. 

This incident is expanded in the "General Historie. " After the lapse offifteen years Smith is able to remember more details, and to conceivehimself as the one efficient man who had charge of everything outsidethe fort, and to represent his dealings with the Indians in a much moreheroic and summary manner. He was not sent on the expedition, but wentof his own motion. The account opens in this way: "The new President[Ratcliffe] and Martin, being little beloved, of weake judgement indangers, and loose industrie in peace, committed the management of allthings abroad to Captain Smith; who by his own example, good words, andfair promises, set some to mow, others to binde thatch, some to buildehouses, others to thatch them, himselfe always bearing the greatesttaske for his own share, so that in short time he provided most ofthem with lodgings, neglecting any for himselfe. This done, seeing theSalvage superfluities beginne to decrease (with some of his workmen)shipped himself in the Shallop to search the country for trade. "

In this narration, when the Indians trifled with Smith he fired a volleyat them, ran his boat ashore, and pursued them fleeing towards theirvillage, where were great heaps of corn that he could with difficultyrestrain his soldiers [six or seven] from taking. The Indians thenassaulted them with a hideous noise: "Sixty or seventy of them, someblack, some red, some white, some particoloured, came in a square order, singing and dancing out of the woods, with their Okee (which is an Idolmade of skinnes, stuffed with mosse, and painted and hung with chainsand copper) borne before them; and in this manner being well armed withclubs, targets, bowes and arrowes, they charged the English that sokindly received them with their muskets loaden with pistol shot, thatdown fell their God, and divers lay sprawling on the ground; therest fled againe to the woods, and ere long sent men of theirQuiyoughkasoucks [conjurors] to offer peace and redeeme the Okee. " Goodfeeling was restored, and the savages brought the English "venison, turkies, wild fowl, bread all that they had, singing and dancing in signof friendship till they departed. " This fantastical account is much morereadable than the former bare narration. 

The supplies which Smith brought gave great comfort to the despairingcolony, which was by this time reasonably fitted with houses. But itwas not long before they again ran short of food. In his first narrativeSmith says there were some motions made for the President and CaptainArthur to go over to England and procure a supply, but it was with muchado concluded that the pinnace and the barge should go up the river toPowhatan to trade for corn, and the lot fell to Smith to command theexpedition. In his "General Historie" a little different complexion isput upon this. On his return, Smith says, he suppressed an attempt torun away with the pinnace to England. He represents that what food "hecarefully provided the rest carelessly spent, " and there is probablymuch truth in his charges that the settlers were idle and improvident. He says also that they were in continual broils at this time. It is inthe fall of 1607, just before his famous voyage up the Chickahominy, on which he departed December 10th--that he writes: "The President andCaptain Arthur intended not long after to have abandoned the country, which project was curbed and suppressed by Smith. The Spaniard nevermore greedily desired gold than he victual, nor his soldiers more toabandon the country than he to keep it. But finding plenty of corn inthe river of Chickahomania, where hundreds of salvages in divers placesstood with baskets expecting his coming, and now the winter approaching, the rivers became covered with swans, geese, ducks, and cranes, that wedaily feasted with good bread, Virginia peas, pumpions, and putchamins, fish, fowls, and divers sorts of wild beasts as fat as we couldeat them, so that none of our Tuftaffaty humorists desired to go toEngland. "

While the Chickahominy expedition was preparing, Smith made a voyage toPopohanock or Quiyoughcohanock, as it is called on his map, a townon the south side of the river, above Jamestown. Here the women andchildren fled from their homes and the natives refused to trade. Theyhad plenty of corn, but Smith says he had no commission to spoil them. On his return he called at Paspahegh, a town on the north side of theJames, and on the map placed higher than Popohanock, but evidentlynearer to Jamestown, as he visited it on his return. He obtained tenbushels of corn of the churlish and treacherous natives, who closelywatched and dogged the expedition. 

Everything was now ready for the journey to Powhatan. Smith had thebarge and eight men for trading and discovery, and the pinnace wasto follow to take the supplies at convenient landings. On the 9th ofNovember he set out in the barge to explore the Chickahominy, which isdescribed as emptying into the James at Paspahegh, eight miles above thefort. The pinnace was to ascend the river twenty miles to Point Weanock, and to await Smith there. All the month of November Smith toiled up anddown the Chickahominy, discovering and visiting many villages, findingthe natives kindly disposed and eager to trade, and possessing abundanceof corn. Notwithstanding this abundance, many were still mutinous. Atthis time occurred the President's quarrel with the blacksmith, who, for assaulting the President, was condemned to death, and released ondisclosing a conspiracy of which Captain Kendall was principal; and thelatter was executed in his place. Smith returned from a third voyage tothe Chickahominy with more supplies, only to find the matter of sendingthe pinnace to England still debated. 

This project, by the help of Captain Martin, he again quieted and atlast set forward on his famous voyage into the country of Powhatan andPocahontas. 

VIII. THE FAMOUS CHICKAHOMINY VOYAGE

We now enter upon the most interesting episode in the life of thegallant captain, more thrilling and not less romantic than the captivityin Turkey and the tale of the faithful love of the fair young mistressCharatza Tragabigzanda. 

Although the conduct of the lovely Charatza in despatching Smith to hercruel brother in Nalbrits, where he led the life of a dog, was neverexplained, he never lost faith in her. His loyalty to women was equalto his admiration of them, and it was bestowed without regard to race orcomplexion. Nor is there any evidence that the dusky Pocahontas, whois about to appear, displaced in his heart the image of the too partialTragabigzanda. In regard to women, as to his own exploits, seen in thelight of memory, Smith possessed a creative imagination. He did notcreate Pocahontas, as perhaps he may have created the beautiful mistressof Bashaw Bogall, but he invested her with a romantic interest whichforms a lovely halo about his own memory. 

As this voyage up the Chickahominy is more fruitful in its consequencesthan Jason's voyage to Colchis; as it exhibits the energy, daring, invention, and various accomplishments of Captain Smith, as warrior, negotiator, poet, and narrator; as it describes Smith's first and onlycaptivity among the Indians; and as it was during this absence of fourweeks from Jamestown, if ever, that Pocahontas interposed to prevent thebeating out of Smith's brains with a club, I shall insert the accountof it in full, both Smith's own varying relations of it, and suchcontemporary notices of it as now come to light. It is necessary here topresent several accounts, just as they stand, and in the order in whichthey were written, that the reader may see for himself how the story ofPocahontas grew to its final proportions. The real life of Pocahontaswill form the subject of another chapter. 

The first of these accounts is taken from "The True Relation, " writtenby Captain John Smith, composed in Virginia, the earliest published workrelating to the James River Colony. It covers a period of a little morethan thirteen months, from the arrival at Cape Henry on April 26, 1607, to the return of Captain Nelson in the Phoenix, June 2, 1608. The manuscript was probably taken home by Captain Nelson, and it waspublished in London in 1608. Whether it was intended for publicationis doubtful; but at that time all news of the venture in Virginia waseagerly sought, and a narrative of this importance would naturallyspeedily get into print. 

In the several copies of it extant there are variations in thetitlepage, which was changed while the edition was being printed. Insome the name of Thomas Watson is given as the author, in others "AGentleman of the Colony, " and an apology appears signed "T. H. , " for thewant of knowledge or inadvertence of attributing it to any one exceptCaptain Smith. 

There is no doubt that Smith was its author. He was still in Virginiawhen it was printed, and the printers made sad work of parts of hismanuscript. The question has been raised, in view of the entire omissionof the name of Pocahontas in connection with this voyage and captivity, whether the manuscript was not cut by those who published it. The reasongiven for excision is that the promoters of the Virginia scheme wereanxious that nothing should appear to discourage capitalists, or todeter emigrants, and that this story of the hostility and cruelty ofPowhatan, only averted by the tender mercy of his daughter, would havean unfortunate effect. The answer to this is that the hostility wasexhibited by the captivity and the intimation that Smith was beingfatted to be eaten, and this was permitted to stand. It is whollyimprobable that an incident so romantic, so appealing to theimagination, in an age when wonder-tales were eagerly welcomed, andwhich exhibited such tender pity in the breast of a savage maiden, andsuch paternal clemency in a savage chief, would have been omitted. Itwas calculated to lend a lively interest to the narration, and would beinvaluable as an advertisement of the adventure. 

[For a full bibliographical discussion of this point the reader isreferred to the reprint of "The True Relation, " by Charles Deane, Esq. , Boston, 1864, the preface and notes to which are a masterpiece ofcritical analysis. ]

That some portions of "The True Relation" were omitted is possible. There is internal evidence of this in the abrupt manner in which itopens, and in the absence of allusions to the discords during the voyageand on the arrival. Captain Smith was not the man to pass over suchquestions in silence, as his subsequent caustic letter sent home to theGovernor and Council of Virginia shows. And it is probable enough thatthe London promoters would cut out from the "Relation" complaintsand evidence of the seditions and helpless state of the colony. Thenarration of the captivity is consistent as it stands, and whollyinconsistent with the Pocahontas episode. 

We extract from the narrative after Smith's departure from Apocant, thehighest town inhabited, between thirty and forty miles up the river, andbelow Orapaks, one of Powhatan's seats, which also appears on his map. He writes:

"Ten miles higher I discovered with the barge; in the midway a greattree hindered my passage, which I cut in two: heere the river becamenarrower, 8, 9 or 10 foote at a high water, and 6 or 7 at a lowe: thestream exceeding swift, and the bottom hard channell, the ground mostpart a low plaine, sandy soyle, this occasioned me to suppose it mightissue from some lake or some broad ford, for it could not be far to thehead, but rather then I would endanger the barge, yet to have beene ableto resolve this doubt, and to discharge the imputating malicious tungs, that halfe suspected I durst not for so long delaying, some of thecompany, as desirous as myself, we resolved to hier a canow, and returnewith the barge to Apocant, there to leave the barge secure, and putourselves upon the adventure: the country onely a vast and wildewilderness, and but only that Towne: within three or foure mile we hireda canow, and 2 Indians to row us ye next day a fowling: having made suchprovision for the barge as was needfull, I left her there to ride, withexpresse charge not any to go ashore til my returne. Though some wisemen may condemn this too bould attempt of too much indiscretion, yet ifthey well consider the friendship of the Indians, in conducting me, the desolatenes of the country, the probabilitie of some lacke, and themalicious judges of my actions at home, as also to have some matters ofworth to incourage our adventurers in england, might well have causedany honest minde to have done the like, as wel for his own dischargeas for the publike good: having 2 Indians for my guide and 2 of our owncompany, I set forward, leaving 7 in the barge; having discovered 20miles further in this desart, the river stil kept his depth and bredth, but much more combred with trees; here we went ashore (being some 12miles higher than ye barge had bene) to refresh our selves, during theboyling of our vituals: one of the Indians I tooke with me, to see thenature of the soile, and to cross the boughts of the river, the otherIndian I left with M. Robbinson and Thomas Emry, with their matcheslight and order to discharge a peece, for my retreat at the first sightof any Indian, but within a quarter of an houre I heard a loud cry, anda hollowing of Indians, but no warning peece, supposing them surprised, and that the Indians had betraid us, presently I seazed him and boundhis arme fast to my hand in a garter, with my pistoll ready bent to berevenged on him: he advised me to fly and seemed ignorant of what wasdone, but as we went discoursing, I was struck with an arrow on theright thigh, but without harme: upon this occasion I espied 2 Indiansdrawing their bowes, which I prevented in discharging a french pistoll:by that I had charged again 3 or 4 more did the 'like, for the firstfell downe and fled: at my discharge they did the like, my hinde I mademy barricade, who offered not to strive, 20 or 30 arrowes were shot atme but short, 3 or 4 times I had discharged my pistoll ere the king ofPamauck called Opeckakenough with 200 men, environed me, each drawingtheir bowe, which done they laid them upon the ground, yet withoutshot, my hinde treated betwixt them and me of conditions of peace, hediscovered me to be the captaine, my request was to retire to ye boate, they demanded my armes, the rest they saide were slaine, onely me theywould reserve: the Indian importuned me not to shoot. In retiring beingin the midst of a low quagmire, and minding them more than my steps, Istept fast into the quagmire, and also the Indian in drawing me forth:thus surprised, I resolved to trie their mercies, my armes I caste fromme, till which none durst approch me: being ceazed on me, they drewme out and led me to the King, I presented him with a compasse diall, describing by my best meanes the use thereof, whereat he so amazedlyadmired, as he suffered me to proceed in a discourse of the roundnes ofthe earth, the course of the sunne, moone, starres and plannets, withkinde speeches and bread he requited me, conducting me where the canowlay and John Robinson slaine, with 20 or 30 arrowes in him. Emry I sawnot, I perceived by the abundance of fires all over the woods, at eachplace I expected when they would execute me, yet they used me with whatkindnes they could: approaching their Towne which was within 6 mileswhere I was taken, onely made as arbors and covered with mats, whichthey remove as occasion requires: all the women and children, beingadvertised of this accident came forth to meet, the King well guardedwith 20 bow men 5 flanck and rear and each flanck before him a sword anda peece, and after him the like, then a bowman, then I on each hand aboweman, the rest in file in the reare, which reare led forth amongstthe trees in a bishion, eache his bowe and a handfull of arrowes, aquiver at his back grimly painted: on eache flanck a sargeant, the onerunning alwaiss towards the front the other towards the reare, each atrue pace and in exceeding good order, this being a good time continued, they caste themselves in a ring with a daunce, and so eache man departedto his lodging, the captain conducting me to his lodging, a quarter ofVenison and some ten pound of bread I had for supper, what I left wasreserved for me, and sent with me to my lodging: each morning threewomen presented me three great platters of fine bread, more venison thanten men could devour I had, my gowne, points and garters, my compas anda tablet they gave me again, though 8 ordinarily guarded me, Iwanted not what they could devise to content me: and still our longeracquaintance increased our better affection: much they threatened toassault our forte as they were solicited by the King of Paspahegh, whoshewed at our fort great signs of sorrow for this mischance: the Kingtook great delight in understanding the manner of our ships and saylingthe seas, the earth and skies and of our God: what he knew of thedominions he spared not to acquaint me with, as of certaine men cloathedat a place called Ocanahonun, cloathed like me, the course of our river, and that within 4 or 5 daies journey of the falles, was a great turningof salt water: I desired he would send a messenger to Paspahegh, with aletter I would write, by which they should understand, how kindly theyused me, and that I was well, lest they should revenge my death; thishe granted and sent three men, in such weather, as in reason wereunpossible, by any naked to be indured: their cruell mindes towards thefort I had deverted, in describing the ordinance and the mines in thefields, as also the revenge Captain Newport would take of them at hisreturne, their intent, I incerted the fort, the people of Ocanahommand the back sea, this report they after found divers Indians thatconfirmed: the next day after my letter, came a salvage to my lodging, with his sword to have slaine me, but being by my guard intercepted, with a bowe and arrow he offred to have effected his purpose: the causeI knew not, till the King understanding thereof came and told me of aman a dying wounded with my pistoll: he tould me also of another I hadslayne, yet the most concealed they had any hurte: this was the fatherof him I had slayne, whose fury to prevent, the King presently conductedme to another kingdome, upon the top of the next northerly river, calledYoughtanan, having feasted me, he further led me to another branch ofthe river called Mattapament, to two other hunting townes they ledme, and to each of these Countries, a house of the great Emperor ofPewhakan, whom as yet I supposed to be at the Fals, to him I tolde himI must goe, and so returne to Paspahegh, after this foure or five dayesmarch we returned to Rasawrack, the first towne they brought me too, where binding the mats in bundles, they marched two dayes journey andcrossed the River of Youghtanan, where it was as broad as Thames: soconducting me too a place called Menapacute in Pamunke, where ye Kinginhabited; the next day another King of that nation called Kekataugh, having received some kindness of me at the Fort, kindly invited me tofeast at his house, the people from all places flocked to see me, eachshewing to content me. By this the great King hath foure or five houses, each containing fourscore or an hundred foote in length, pleasantlyseated upon an high sandy hill, from whence you may see westerly agoodly low country, the river before the which his crooked coursecauseth many great Marshes of exceeding good ground. An hundred houses, and many large plaines are here together inhabited, more abundance offish and fowle, and a pleasanter seat cannot be imagined: the King withfortie bowmen to guard me, intreated me to discharge my Pistoll, whichthey there presented me with a mark at six score to strike therewithbut to spoil the practice I broke the cocke, whereat they were muchdiscontented though a chaunce supposed. From hence this kind Kingconducted me to a place called Topahanocke, a kingdome upon anotherriver northward; the cause of this was, that the yeare before, a shippehad beene in the River of Pamunke, who having been kindly entertained byPowhatan their Emperour, they returned thence, and discovered the Riverof Topahanocke, where being received with like kindnesse, yet he sluethe King, and tooke of his people, and they supposed I were bee, but thepeople reported him a great man that was Captaine, and using mee kindly, the next day we departed. This River of Topahanock, seemeth in breadthnot much lesse than that we dwell upon. At the mouth of the River isa Countrey called Cuttata women, upwards is Marraugh tacum Tapohanock, Apparnatuck, and Nantaugs tacum, at Topmanahocks, the head issuing frommany Mountains, the next night I lodged at a hunting town of Powhatam's, and the next day arrived at Waranacomoco upon the river of Parnauncke, where the great king is resident: by the way we passed by the top ofanother little river, which is betwixt the two called Payankatank. Themost of this country though Desert, yet exceeding fertil, good timber, most hils and in dales, in each valley a cristall spring. 

"Arriving at Weramacomoco, their Emperour, proudly lying upon a Bedsteada foote high upon tenne or twelve Mattes, richly hung with manie Chaynesof great Pearles about his necke, and covered with a great covering ofRahaughcums: At heade sat a woman, at his feete another, on each sidesitting upon a Matte upon the ground were raunged his chiefe men on eachside the fire, tenne in a ranke and behinde them as many yong women, each a great Chaine of white Beades over their shoulders: their headespainted in redde and with such a grave and Majeslicall countenance, as drove me into admiration to see such state in a naked Salvage, beekindlv welcomed me with good wordes, and great Platters of sundrievictuals, asiuring mee his friendship and my libertie within fouredayes, bee much delighted in Opechan Conough's relation of what I haddescribed to him, and oft examined me upon the same. Hee asked me thecause of our comming, I tolde him being in fight with the Spaniards ourenemie, being over powred, neare put to retreat, and by extreme weatherput to this shore, where landing at Chesipiack, the people shot us, butat Kequoughtan they kindly used us, wee by signes demaunded fresh water, they described us up the River was all fresh water, at Paspahegh, alsothey kindly used us, our Pinnasse being leake wee were inforced to stayto mend her, till Captain Newport my father came to conduct us away. He demaunded why we went further with our Boate, I tolde him, in thatI would have occasion to talke of the backe Sea, that on the other sidethe maine, where was salt water, my father had a childe slaine, which wesupposed Monocan his enemie, whose death we intended to revenge. Aftergood deliberation, hee began to describe me the countreys beyond theFalles, with many of the rest, confirming what not only Opechancanoyes, and an Indian which had been prisoner to Pewhatan had before tolde mee, but some called it five days, some sixe, some eight, where the saydewater dashed amongst many stones and rocks, each storme which caused ofttymes the heade of the River to bee brackish: Anchanachuck he describedto bee the people that had slaine my brother, whose death hee wouldrevenge. Hee described also upon the same Sea, a mighty nation calledPocoughtronack, a fierce nation that did eate men and warred with thepeople of Moyaoncer, and Pataromerke, Nations upon the toppe of theheade of the Bay, under his territories, where the yeare before they hadslain an hundred, he signified their crownes were shaven, long haire inthe necke, tied on a knot, Swords like Pollaxes. 

"Beyond them he described people with short Coates, and Sleeves to theElbowes, that passed that way in Shippes like ours. Many Kingdomes heedescribed mee to the heade of the Bay, which seemed to bee a mightieRiver, issuing from mightie mountaines, betwixt the two seas; the peopleclothed at Ocamahowan. He also confirmed, and the Southerly Countriesalso, as the rest, that reported us to be within a day and a halfe ofMangoge, two dayes of Chawwonock, 6 from Roonock, to the South part ofthe backe sea: he described a countrie called Anone, where theyhave abundance of Brasse, and houses walled as ours. I requited hisdiscourse, seeing what pride he had in his great and spacious Dominions, seeing that all hee knewe were under his Territories. 

"In describing to him the territories of Europe which was subject to ourgreat King whose subject I was, the innumerable multitude of his ships, I gave him to understand the noyse of Trumpets and terrible manner offighting were under Captain Newport my father, whom I intituled theMeworames which they call King of all the waters, at his greatnesse beeadmired and not a little feared; he desired mee to forsake Paspahegh, and to live with him upon his River, a countrie called Capa Howasicke;he promised to give me corne, venison, or what I wanted to feede us, Hatchets and Copper wee should make him, and none should disturbeus. This request I promised to performe: and thus having with all thekindnes hee could devise, sought to content me, he sent me home with 4men, one that usually carried my Gonne and Knapsacke after me, two otherloded with bread, and one to accompanie me. "

The next extract in regard to this voyage is from President Wingfield's"Discourse of Virginia, " which appears partly in the form of a diary, but was probably drawn up or at least finished shortly after Wingfield'sreturn to London in May, 1608. He was in Jamestown when Smith returnedfrom his captivity, and would be likely to allude to the romantic storyof Pocahontas if Smith had told it on his escape. We quote:

"Decem. --The 10th of December, Mr. Smyth went up the ryver of theChechohomynies to trade for corne; he was desirous to see the heade ofthat river; and, when it was not passible with the shallop, he hired acannow and an Indian to carry him up further. The river the highergrew worse and worse. Then hee went on shoare with his guide, and leftRobinson and Emmery, and twoe of our Men, in the cannow; which werepresently slayne by the Indians, Pamaonke's men, and hee himself takenprysoner, and, by the means of his guide, his lief was saved; andPamaonche, haveing him prisoner, carryed him to his neybors wyroances, to see if any of them knew him for one of those which had bene, some twoor three eeres before us, in a river amongst them Northward, and takenawaie some Indians from them by force. At last he brought him to thegreat Powaton (of whome before wee had no knowledg), who sent him hometo our towne the 8th of January. "

The next contemporary document to which we have occasion to refer isSmith's Letter to the Treasurer and Council of Virginia in England, written in Virginia after the arrival of Newport there in September, 1608, and probably sent home by him near the close of that year. In thisthere is no occasion for a reference to Powhatan or his daughter, but hesays in it: "I have sent you this Mappe of the Bay and Rivers, with anannexed Relation of the Countryes and Nations that inhabit them asyou may see at large. " This is doubtless the "Map of Virginia, " witha description of the country, published some two or three years afterSmith's return to England, at Oxford, 1612. It is a description of thecountry and people, and contains little narrative. But with this waspublished, as an appendix, an account of the proceedings of the Virginiacolonists from 1606 to 1612, taken out of the writings of Thomas Studleyand several others who had been residents in Virginia. These severaldiscourses were carefully edited by William Symonds, a doctor ofdivinity and a man of learning and repute, evidently at the request ofSmith. To the end of the volume Dr. Symonds appends a note addressedto Smith, saying: "I return you the fruit of my labors, as Mr. Cranshawrequested me, which I bestowed in reading the discourses and hearing therelations of such as have walked and observed the land of Virginia withyou. " These narratives by Smith's companions, which he made a part ofhis Oxford book, and which passed under his eye and had his approval, are uniformly not only friendly to him, but eulogistic of him, andprobably omit no incident known to the writers which would do him honoror add interest to him as a knight of romance. Nor does it seem probablethat Smith himself would have omitted to mention the dramatic scene ofthe prevented execution if it had occurred to him. If there had been areason in the minds of others in 1608 why it should not appear in the"True Relation, " that reason did not exist for Smith at this time, whenthe discords and discouragements of the colony were fully known. Andby this time the young girl Pocahontas had become well known to thecolonists at Jamestown. The account of this Chickahominy voyage given inthis volume, published in 1612, is signed by Thomas Studley, and is asfollows:

"The next voyage he proceeded so farre that with much labour by cuttingof trees in sunder he made his passage, but when his Barge could passeno farther, he left her in a broad bay out of danger of shot, commandingnone should go ashore till his returne; himselfe with 2 English and twoSalvages went up higher in a Canowe, but he was not long absent, buthis men went ashore, whose want of government gave both occasion andopportunity to the Salvages to surprise one George Casson, and muchfailed not to have cut of the boat and all the rest. Smith littledreaming of that accident, being got to the marshes at the river's head, 20 miles in the desert, had his 2 men slaine (as is supposed) sleepingby the Canowe, whilst himselfe by fowling sought them victual, whofinding he was beset by 200 Salvages, 2 of them he slew, stil defendinghimselfe with the aid of a Salvage his guid (whome bee bound to hisarme and used as his buckler), till at last slipping into a bogmirethey tooke him prisoner: when this news came to the fort much wastheir sorrow for his losse, fewe expecting what ensued. A month thoseBarbarians kept him prisoner, many strange triumphs and conjurationsthey made of him, yet he so demeaned himselfe amongst them, as henot only diverted them from surprising the Fort, but procured his ownliberty, and got himselfe and his company such estimation amongst them, that those Salvages admired him as a demi-God. So returning safe to theFort, once more staied the pinnas her flight for England, which til hisreturne could not set saile, so extreme was the weather and so great thefrost. "

The first allusion to the salvation of Captain Smith by Pocahontasoccurs in a letter or "little booke" which he wrote to Queen Anne in1616, about the time of the arrival in England of the Indian Princess, who was then called the Lady Rebecca, and was wife of John Rolfe, bywhom she had a son, who accompanied them. Pocahontas had by thistime become a person of some importance. Her friendship had been ofsubstantial service to the colony. Smith had acknowledged this inhis "True Relation, " where he referred to her as the "nonpareil" ofVirginia. He was kind-hearted and naturally magnanimous, and would takesome pains to do the Indian convert a favor, even to the invention of anincident that would make her attractive. To be sure, he was vain as wellas inventive, and here was an opportunity to attract the attention ofhis sovereign and increase his own importance by connecting his namewith hers in a romantic manner. Still, we believe that the main motivethat dictated this epistle was kindness to Pocahontas. The sentence thatrefers to her heroic act is this: "After some six weeks [he was absentonly four weeks] fatting amongst those Salvage Countries, at the minuteof my execution she hazarded the beating out of her own braines to savemine, and not only that, but so prevailed with her father [of whomhe says, in a previous paragraph, 'I received from this great Salvageexceeding great courtesie'], that I was safely conducted to Jamestown. "

This guarded allusion to the rescue stood for all known account of it, except a brief reference to it in his "New England's Trials" of 1622, until the appearance of Smith's "General Historie" in London, 1624. Inthe first edition of "New England's Trials, " 1620, there is no referenceto it. In the enlarged edition of 1622, Smith gives a new version to hiscapture, as resulting from "the folly of them that fled, " and says: "Godmade Pocahontas, the King's daughter the means to deliver me. "

The "General Historie" was compiled--as was the custom in making up suchbooks at the time from a great variety of sources. Such parts of it asare not written by Smith--and these constitute a considerable portion ofthe history--bear marks here and there of his touch. It begins with hisdescription of Virginia, which appeared in the Oxford tract of 1612;following this are the several narratives by his comrades, which formedthe appendix of that tract. The one that concerns us here is thatalready quoted, signed Thomas Studley. It is reproduced here as "writtenby Thomas Studley, the first Cape Merchant in Virginia, Robert Fenton, Edward Harrington, and I. S. " [John Smith]. It is, however, considerablyextended, and into it is interjected a detailed account of the captivityand the story of the stones, the clubs, and the saved brains. 

It is worthy of special note that the "True Relation" is notincorporated in the "General Historie. " This is the more remarkablebecause it was an original statement, written when the occurrences itdescribes were fresh, and is much more in detail regarding many thingsthat happened during the period it covered than the narratives thatSmith uses in the "General Historie. " It was his habit to use overand over again his own publications. Was this discarded because itcontradicted the Pocahontas story--because that story could not befitted into it as it could be into the Studley relation?

It should be added, also, that Purchas printed an abstract of the Oxfordtract in his "Pilgrimage, " in 1613, from material furnished himby Smith. The Oxford tract was also republished by Purchas in his"Pilgrimes, " extended by new matter in manuscript supplied by Smith. The "Pilgrimes" did not appear till 1625, a year after the "GeneralHistorie, " but was in preparation long before. The Pocahontas legendappears in the "Pilgrimes, " but not in the earlier "Pilgrimage. "

We have before had occasion to remark that Smith's memory had thepeculiarity of growing stronger and more minute in details the furtherhe was removed in point of time from any event he describes. Therevamped narrative is worth quoting in full for other reasons. Itexhibits Smith's skill as a writer and his capacity for rising intopoetic moods. This is the story from the "General Historie":

"The next voyage hee proceeded so farre that with much labour by cuttingof trees in sunder he made his passage, but when his Barge could passno farther, he left her in a broad bay out of danger of shot, commandingnone should goe ashore till his return: himselfe with two English andtwo Salvages went up higher in a Canowe, but he was not long absent, buthis men went ashore, whose want of government, gave both occasion andopportunity to the Salvages to surprise one George Cassen, whom theyslew, and much failed not to have cut of the boat and all the rest. Smith little dreaming of that accident, being got to the marshes at theriver's head, twentie myles in the desert, had his two men slaine (as issupposed) sleeping by the Canowe, whilst himselfe by fowling sought themvictuall, who finding he was beset with 200 Salvages, two of them heeslew, still defending himself with the ayd of a Salvage his guide, whomhe bound to his arme with his garters, and used him as a buckler, yethe was shot in his thigh a little, and had many arrowes stucke in hiscloathes but no great hurt, till at last they tooke him prisoner. Whenthis newes came to Jamestowne, much was their sorrow for his losse, feweexpecting what ensued. Sixe or seven weekes those Barbarians kept himprisoner, many strange triumphes and conjurations they made of him, yethee so demeaned himselfe amongst them, as he not onely diverted themfrom surprising the Fort, but procured his owne libertie, and gothimself and his company such estimation amongst them, that thoseSalvages admired him more than their owne Quiyouckosucks. The manner howthey used and delivered him, is as followeth. 

"The Salvages having drawne from George Cassen whether Captaine Smithwas gone, prosecuting that opportunity they followed him with 300bowmen, conducted by the King of Pamaunkee, who in divisions searchingthe turnings of the river, found Robinson and Entry by the fireside, those they shot full of arrowes and slew. Then finding the Captaine asis said, that used the Salvage that was his guide as his shield (threeof them being slaine and divers others so gauld) all the rest would notcome neere him. Thinking thus to have returned to his boat, regardingthem, as he marched, more then his way, slipped up to the middle in anoasie creeke and his Salvage with him, yet durst they not come to himtill being neere dead with cold, he threw away his armes. Then accordingto their composition they drew him forth and led him to the fire, wherehis men were slaine. Diligently they chafed his benumbed limbs. Hedemanding for their Captaine, they shewed him Opechankanough, King ofPamaunkee, to whom he gave a round Ivory double compass Dyall. Much theymarvailed at the playing of the Fly and Needle, which they could see soplainly, and yet not touch it, because of the glass that covered them. But when he demonstrated by that Globe-like Jewell, the roundnesse ofthe earth and skies, the spheare of the Sunne, Moone, and Starres, andhow the Sunne did chase the night round about the world continually: thegreatnesse of the Land and Sea, the diversitie of Nations, varietie ofComplexions, and how we were to them Antipodes, and many other suchlike matters, they all stood as amazed with admiration. Notwithstandingwithin an houre after they tyed him to a tree, and as many as couldstand about him prepared to shoot him, but the King holding up theCompass in his hand, they all laid downe their Bowes and Arrowes, and ina triumphant manner led him to Orapaks, where he was after their mannerkindly feasted and well used. 

"Their order in conducting him was thus: Drawing themselves all in fyle, the King in the middest had all their Peeces and Swords borne beforehim. Captaine Smith was led after him by three great Salvages, holdinghim fast by each arme: and on each side six went in fyle with theirarrowes nocked. But arriving at the Towne (which was but onely thirtieor fortie hunting houses made of Mats, which they remove as they please, as we our tents) all the women and children staring to behold him, thesouldiers first all in file performe the forme of a Bissom so well ascould be: and on each flanke, officers as Serieants to see them keepetheir orders. A good time they continued this exercise, and then castthemselves in a ring, dauncing in such severall Postures, and singingand yelling out such hellish notes and screeches: being strangelypainted, every one his quiver of arrowes, and at his backe a club:on his arme a Fox or an Otters skinne, or some such matter for hisvambrace: their heads and shoulders painted red, with oyle and Poconesmingled together, which Scarlet like colour made an exceeding handsomeshew, his Bow in his hand, and the skinne of a Bird with her wingsabroad dryed, tyed on his head, a peece of copper, a white shell, a longfeather, with a small rattle growing at the tayles of their snaks tyedto it, or some such like toy. All this time Smith and the King stood inthe middest guarded, as before is said, and after three dances they alldeparted. Smith they conducted to a long house, where thirtie or fortietall fellowes did guard him, and ere long more bread and venison werebrought him then would have served twentie men. I thinke his stomacke atthat time was not very good; what he left they put in baskets and tyedover his head. About midnight they set the meat again before him, all this time not one of them would eat a bit with him, till the nextmorning they brought him as much more, and then did they eate all theold, and reserved the new as they had done the other, which made himthink they would fat him to eat him. Yet in this desperate estate todefend him from the cold, one Maocassater brought him his gowne, inrequitall of some beads and toyes Smith had given him at his firstarrival in Firginia. 

"Two days a man would have slaine him (but that the guard prevented it)for the death of his sonne, to whom they conducted him to recover thepoore man then breathing his last. Smith told them that at James townehe had a water would doe it if they would let him fetch it, but theywould not permit that: but made all the preparations they could toassault James towne, craving his advice, and for recompence he shouldhave life, libertie, land, and women. In part of a Table booke he writhis mind to them at the Fort, what was intended, how they should followthat direction to affright the messengers, and without fayle send himsuch things as he writ for. And an Inventory with them. The difficultieand danger he told the Salvaves, of the Mines, great gunnes, and otherEngins, exceedingly affrighted them, yet according to his request theywent to James towne in as bitter weather as could be of frost and snow, and within three days returned with an answer. 

"But when they came to James towne, seeing men sally out as he had toldthem they would, they fled: yet in the night they came again to the sameplace where he had told them they should receive an answer, and suchthings as he had promised them, which they found accordingly, and withwhich they returned with no small expedition, to the wonder of them allthat heard it, that he could either divine or the paper couldspeake. Then they led him to the Youthtanunds, the Mattapanients, thePayankatanks, the Nantaughtacunds and Onawmanients, upon the riversof Rapahanock and Patawomek, over all those rivers and backe againe bydivers other severall Nations, to the King's habitation at Pamaunkee, where they entertained him with most strange and fearefull conjurations;

 'As if neare led to hell, Amongst the Devils to dwell. '

"Not long after, early in a morning, a great fire was made in a longhouse, and a mat spread on the one side as on the other; on the onethey caused him to sit, and all the guard went out of the house, andpresently came skipping in a great grim fellow, all painted over withcoale mingled with oyle; and many Snakes and Wesels skins stuffed withmosse, and all their tayles tyed together, so as they met on the crowneof his head in a tassell; and round about the tassell was a Coronet offeathers, the skins hanging round about his head, backe, and shoulders, and in a manner covered his face; with a hellish voyce and a rattlein his hand. With most strange gestures and passions he began hisinvocation, and environed the fire with a circle of meale; which donethree more such like devils came rushing in with the like antiquetricks, painted halfe blacke, halfe red: but all their eyes were paintedwhite, and some red stroakes like Mutchato's along their cheekes: roundabout him those fiends daunced a pretty while, and then came in threemore as ugly as the rest; with red eyes and stroakes over their blackefaces, at last they all sat downe right against him; three of them onthe one hand of the chiefe Priest, and three on the other. Then all withtheir rattles began a song, which ended, the chiefe Priest layd downefive wheat cornes: then strayning his arms and hands with such violencethat he sweat, and his veynes swelled, he began a short Oration: atthe conclusion they all gave a short groane; and then layd downe threegraines more. After that began their song againe, and then anotherOration, ever laying down so many cornes as before, til they had twiceincirculed the fire; that done they tooke a bunch of little stickesprepared for that purpose, continuing still their devotion, and atthe end of every song and Oration they layd downe a sticke betwixt thedivisions of Corne. Til night, neither he nor they did either eate ordrinke, and then they feasted merrily, and with the best provisions theycould make. Three dayes they used this Ceremony: the meaning whereofthey told him was to know if he intended them well or no. The circle ofmeale signified their Country, the circles of corne the bounds of theSea, and the stickes his Country. They imagined the world to be flat andround, like a trencher, and they in the middest. After this they broughthim a bagge of gunpowder, which they carefully preserved till thenext spring, to plant as they did their corne, because they wouldbe acquainted with the nature of that seede. Opitchapam, the King'sbrother, invited him to his house, where with many platters of bread, foule, and wild beasts, as did environ him, he bid him wellcome: but notany of them would eate a bit with him, but put up all the remainder inBaskets. At his returne to Opechancanoughs, all the King's women andtheir children flocked about him for their parts, as a due by Custome, to be merry with such fragments. 

"But his waking mind in hydeous dreames did oft see wondrous shapes Ofbodies strange, and huge in growth, and of stupendious makes. "

"At last they brought him to Meronocomoco, where was Powhatan theirEmperor. Here more than two hundred of those grim Courtiers stoodwondering at him, as he had beene a monster, till Powhatan and histrayne had put themselves in their greatest braveries. Before a fireupon a seat like a bedstead, he sat covered with a great robe, made ofRarowcun skinnes and all the tayles hanging by. On either hand did sita young wench of sixteen or eighteen years, and along on each side thehouse, two rowes of men, and behind them as many women, with all theirheads and shoulders painted red; many of their heads bedecked with thewhite downe of Birds; but everyone with something: and a great chayne ofwhite beads about their necks. At his entrance before the King, all thepeople gave a great shout. The Queene of Appamatuck was appointed tobring him water to wash his hands, and another brought him a bunch offeathers, instead of a Towell to dry them: having feasted him aftertheir best barbarous manner they could. A long consultation was held, but the conclusion was two great stones were brought before Powhatan;then as many as could layd hands on him, dragged him to them, andthereon laid his head, and being ready with their clubs, to beate outhis braines. Pocahontas, the King's dearest daughter, when no entreatycould prevaile, got his head in her armes, and laid her owne upon his tosave him from death: whereat the Emperour was contented he should liveto make him hatchets, and her bells, beads, and copper: for they thoughthim as well of all occupations as themselves. For the King himselfe willmake his owne robes, shooes, bowes, arrowes, pots, plant, hunt, or doeany thing so well as the rest. 

 'They say he bore a pleasant shew, But sure his heart was sad For who can pleasant be, and rest, That lives in feare and dread. And having life suspected, doth If still suspected lead. '

"Two days after, Powhatan having disguised himselfe in the mostfearfullest manner he could, caused Capt. Smith to be brought forth toa great house in the woods and there upon a mat by the fire to be leftalone. Not long after from behinde a mat that divided the house, wasmade the most dolefullest noyse he ever heard: then Powhatan more like adevill than a man with some two hundred more as blacke as himseffe, cameunto him and told him now they were friends, and presently he should goeto James town, to send him two great gunnes, and a gryndstone, for whichhe would give him the country of Capahowojick, and for ever esteeme himas his sonn Nantaquoud. So to James towne with 12 guides Powhatan senthim. That night they quartered in the woods, he still expecting (as hehad done all this long time of his imprisonment) every houre to be putto one death or other; for all their feasting. But almightie God (by hisdivine providence) had mollified the hearts of those sterne Barbarianswith compassion. The next morning betimes they came to the Fort, whereSmith having used the salvages with what kindnesse he could, he shewedRawhunt, Powhatan's trusty servant, two demiculverings and a millstoneto carry Powhatan; they found them somewhat too heavie; but when theydid see him discharge them, being loaded with stones, among the boughsof a great tree loaded with Isickles, the yce and branches came sotumbling downe, that the poore Salvages ran away halfe dead with feare. But at last we regained some conference with them and gave them suchtoys: and sent to Powhatan, his women, and children such presents, andgave them in generall full content. Now in James Towne they were allin combustion, the strongest preparing once more to run away withthe Pinnace; which with the hazard of his life, with Sakre falcon andmusketshot, Smith forced now the third time to stay or sinke. Some nobetter then they should be had plotted with the President, the nextday to have put him to death by the Leviticall law, for the lives ofRobinson and Emry, pretending the fault was his that had led them totheir ends; but he quickly tooke such order with such Lawyers, thathe layed them by the heeles till he sent some of them prisoners forEngland. Now ever once in four or five dayes, Pocahontas with herattendants, brought him so much provision, that saved many of theirlives, that els for all this had starved with hunger. 

 'Thus from numbe death our good God sent reliefe, The sweete asswager of all other griefe. '

"His relation of the plenty he had scene, especially at Werawocomoco, and of the state and bountie of Powhatan (which till that time wasunknowne), so revived their dead spirits (especially the love ofPocahontas) as all men's feare was abandoned. "

We should like to think original, in the above, the fine passage, in which Smith, by means of a simple compass dial, demonstrated theroundness of the earth, and skies, the sphere of the sun, moon, andstars, and how the sun did chase the night round about the worldcontinually; the greatness of the land and sea, the diversity ofnations, variety of complexions, and how we were to them antipodes, sothat the Indians stood amazed with admiration. 

Captain Smith up to his middle in a Chickahominy swamp, discoursingon these high themes to a Pamunkey Indian, of whose language Smith waswholly ignorant, and who did not understand a word of English, is muchmore heroic, considering the adverse circumstances, and appeals more tothe imagination, than the long-haired Iopas singing the song of Atlas, at the banquet given to AEneas, where Trojans and Tyrians drained theflowing bumpers while Dido drank long draughts of love. Did Smith, when he was in the neighborhood of Carthage pick up some such literaltranslations of the song of Atlas' as this:

"He sang the wandering moon, and the labors of the Sun; From whencethe race of men and flocks; whence rain and lightning; Of Arcturus, therainy Hyades, and the twin Triones; Why the winter suns hasten somuch to touch themselves in the ocean, And what delay retards the slownights. "

The scene of the rescue only occupies seven lines and the reader feelsthat, after all, Smith has not done full justice to it. We cannot, therefore, better conclude this romantic episode than by quoting thedescription of it given with an elaboration of language that mustbe, pleasing to the shade of Smith, by John Burke in his History ofVirginia:

"Two large stones were brought in, and placed at the feet of theemperor; and on them was laid the head of the prisoner; next a largeclub was brought in, with which Powhatan, for whom, out of respect, was reserved this honor, prepared to crush the head of his captive. Theassembly looked on with sensations of awe, probably not unmixedwith pity for the fate of an enemy whose bravery had commandedtheir admiration, and in whose misfortunes their hatred was possiblyforgotten. 

"The fatal club was uplifted: the breasts of the company already byanticipation felt the dreadful crash, which was to bereave the wretchedvictim of life: when the young and beautiful Pocahontas, the beloveddaughter of the emperor, with a shriek of terror and agony threw herselfon the body of Smith; Her hair was loose, and her eyes streaming withtears, while her whole manner bespoke the deep distress and agony of herbosom. She cast a beseeching look at her furious and astonished father, deprecating his wrath, and imploring his pity and the life of hisprisoner, with all the eloquence of mute but impassioned sorrow. 

"The remainder of this scene is honorable to Powhatan. It will remaina lasting monument, that tho' different principles of action, and theinfluence of custom, have given to the manners and opinions of thispeople an appearance neither amiable nor virtuous, they still retain thenoblest property of human character, the touch of pity and the feelingof humanity. 

"The club of the emperor was still uplifted; but pity had touched hisbosom, and his eye was every moment losing its fierceness; he lookedaround to collect his fortitude, or perhaps to find an excuse for hisweakness in the faces of his attendants. But every eye was suffusedwith the sweetly contagious softness. The generous savage no longerhesitated. The compassion of the rude state is neither ostentatious nordilating: nor does it insult its object by the exaction of impossibleconditions. Powhatan lifted his grateful and delighted daughter, and thecaptive, scarcely yet assured of safety, from the earth.... "

"The character of this interesting woman, as it stands in the concurrentaccounts of all our historians, is not, it is with confidence affirmed, surpassed by any in the whole range of history; and for those qualitiesmore especially which do honor to our nature--an humane and feelingheart, an ardor and unshaken constancy in her attachments--she standsalmost without a rival. 

"At the first appearance of the Europeans her young heart was impressedwith admiration of the persons and manners of the strangers; but it isnot during their prosperity that she displays her attachment. She is notinfluenced by awe of their greatness, or fear of their resentment, in the assistance she affords them. It was during their severestdistresses, when their most celebrated chief was a captive in theirhands, and was dragged through the country as a spectacle for the sportand derision of their people, that she places herself between him anddestruction. 

"The spectacle of Pocahontas in an attitude of entreaty, with her hairloose, and her eyes streaming with tears, supplicating with her enragedfather for the life of Captain Smith when he was about to crush the headof his prostrate victim with a club, is a situation equal to the geniusof Raphael. And when the royal savage directs his ferocious glance for amoment from his victim to reprove his weeping daughter, when softened byher distress his eye loses its fierceness, and he gives his captive toher tears, the painter will discover a new occasion for exercising histalents. "

The painters have availed themselves of this opportunity. In one pictureSmith is represented stiffly extended on the greensward (of the woods), his head resting on a stone, appropriately clothed in a dresscoat, knee-breeches, and silk stockings; while Powhatan and the other savagesstand ready for murder, in full-dress parade costume; and Pocahontas, afull-grown woman, with long, disheveled hair, in the sentimental dressand attitude of a Letitia E. Landon of the period, is about to castherself upon the imperiled and well-dressed Captain. 

Must we, then, give up the legend altogether, on account of theexaggerations that have grown up about it, our suspicion of the creativememory of Smith, and the lack of all contemporary allusion to it? Itis a pity to destroy any pleasing story of the past, and especially todischarge our hard struggle for a foothold on this continent of the fewelements of romance. If we can find no evidence of its truth that standsthe test of fair criticism, we may at least believe that it hadsome slight basis on which to rest. It is not at all improbable thatPocahontas, who was at that time a precocious maid of perhaps twelveor thirteen years of age (although Smith mentions her as a child of tenyears old when she came to the camp after his release), was touched withcompassion for the captive, and did influence her father to treat himkindly. 

IX. SMITH'S WAY WITH THE INDIANS

As we are not endeavoring to write the early history of Virginia, butonly to trace Smith's share in it, we proceed with his exploits afterthe arrival of the first supply, consisting of near a hundred men, intwo ships, one commanded by Captain Newport and the other by CaptainFrancis Nelson. The latter, when in sight of Cape Henry, was driven bya storm back to the West Indies, and did not arrive at James River withhis vessel, the Phoenix, till after the departure of Newport for Englandwith his load of "golddust, " and Master Wingfield and Captain Arthur. 

In his "True Relation, " Smith gives some account of his exploration ofthe Pamunkey River, which he sometimes calls the "Youghtamand, " uponwhich, where the water is salt, is the town of Werowocomoco. It canserve no purpose in elucidating the character of our hero to attempt toidentify all the places he visited. 

It was at Werowocomoco that Smith observed certain conjurations of themedicine men, which he supposed had reference to his fate. From teno'clock in the morning till six at night, seven of the savages, withrattles in their hands, sang and danced about the fire, laying downgrains of corn in circles, and with vehement actions, casting cakes ofdeer suet, deer, and tobacco into the fire, howling without ceasing. One of them was "disfigured with a great skin, his head hung around withlittle skins of weasels and other vermin, with a crownlet of featherson his head, painted as ugly as the devil. " So fat they fed him thathe much doubted they intended to sacrifice him to the Quiyoughquosicke, which is a superior power they worship: a more uglier thing cannotbe described. These savages buried their dead with great sorrow andweeping, and they acknowledge no resurrection. Tobacco they offer to thewater to secure a good passage in foul weather. The descent of the crownis to the first heirs of the king's sisters, "for the kings have as manywomen as they will, the subjects two, and most but one. "

After Smith's return, as we have read, he was saved from a plot to takehis life by the timely arrival of Captain Newport. Somewhere about thistime the great fire occurred. Smith was now one of the Council; Martinand Matthew Scrivener, just named, were also councilors. Ratcliffewas still President. The savages, owing to their acquaintance with andconfidence in Captain Smith, sent in abundance of provision. Powhatansent once or twice a week "deer, bread, raugroughcuns (probably notto be confounded with the rahaughcuns [raccoons] spoken of before, butprobably 'rawcomens, ' mentioned in the Description of Virginia), halffor Smith, and half for his father, Captain Newport. " Smith had, in hisintercourse with the natives, extolled the greatness of Newport, so thatthey conceived him to be the chief and all the rest his children, andregarded him as an oracle, if not a god. 

Powhatan and the rest had, therefore, a great desire to see this mightyperson. Smith says that the President and Council greatly envied hisreputation with the Indians, and wrought upon them to believe, bygiving in trade four times as much as the price set by Smith, that theirauthority exceeded his as much as their bounty. 

We must give Smith the credit of being usually intent upon the buildingup of the colony, and establishing permanent and livable relations withthe Indians, while many of his companions in authority seemed to regardthe adventure as a temporary occurrence, out of which they would makewhat personal profit they could. The new-comers on a vessel alwaysdemoralized the trade with the Indians, by paying extravagant prices. Smith's relations with Captain Newport were peculiar. While he magnifiedhim to the Indians as the great power, he does not conceal his ownopinion of his ostentation and want of shrewdness. Smith's attitudewas that of a priest who puts up for the worship of the vulgar an idol, which he knows is only a clay image stuffed with straw. 

In the great joy of the colony at the arrival of the first supply, leavewas given to sailors to trade with the Indians, and the new-comers soonso raised prices that it needed a pound of copper to buy a quantityof provisions that before had been obtained for an ounce. Newportsent great presents to Powhatan, and, in response to the wish of the"Emperor, " prepared to visit him. "A great coyle there was to set himforward, " says Smith. Mr. Scrivener and Captain Smith, and a guard ofthirty or forty, accompanied him. On this expedition they found themouth of the Pamaunck (now York) River. Arriving at Werowocomoco, Newport, fearing treachery, sent Smith with twenty men to land andmake a preliminary visit. When they came ashore they found a network ofcreeks which were crossed by very shaky bridges, constructed of crotchedsticks and poles, which had so much the appearance of traps that Smithwould not cross them until many of the Indians had preceded him, whilehe kept others with him as hostages. Three hundred savages conductedhim to Powhatan, who received him in great state. Before his house wereranged forty or fifty great platters of fine bread. Entering his house, "with loude tunes they made all signs of great joy. " In the firstaccount Powhatan is represented as surrounded by his principal women andchief men, "as upon a throne at the upper end of the house, with suchmajesty as I cannot express, nor yet have often seen, either in Paganor Christian. " In the later account he is "sitting upon his bed of mats, his pillow of leather embroidered (after their rude manner with pearlsand white beads), his attire a fair robe of skins as large as an Irishmantel; at his head and feet a handsome young woman; on each side of hishouse sat twenty of his concubines, their heads and shoulders paintedred, with a great chain of white beads about each of their necks. Beforethose sat his chiefest men in like order in his arbor-like house. "This is the scene that figures in the old copper-plate engravings. TheEmperor welcomed Smith with a kind countenance, caused him to sit besidehim, and with pretty discourse they renewed their old acquaintance. Smith presented him with a suit of red cloth, a white greyhound, and ahat. The Queen of Apamatuc, a comely young savage, brought him water, a turkeycock, and bread to eat. Powhatan professed great content withSmith, but desired to see his father, Captain Newport. He inquired alsowith a merry countenance after the piece of ordnance that Smith hadpromised to send him, and Smith, with equal jocularity, replied that hehad offered the men four demi-culverins, which they found too heavyto carry. This night they quartered with Powhatan, and were liberallyfeasted, and entertained with singing, dancing, and orations. 

The next day Captain Newport came ashore. The two monarchs exchangedpresents. Newport gave Powhatan a white boy thirteen years old, namedThomas Savage. This boy remained with the Indians and served the colonymany years as an interpreter. Powhatan gave Newport in return a bag ofbeans and an Indian named Namontack for his servant. Three or four daysthey remained, feasting, dancing, and trading with the Indians. 

In trade the wily savage was more than a match for Newport. He affectedgreat dignity; it was unworthy such great werowances to dicker; itwas not agreeable to his greatness in a peddling manner to trade fortrifles; let the great Newport lay down his commodities all together, and Powhatan would take what he wished, and recompense him with a properreturn. Smith, who knew the Indians and their ostentation, told Newportthat the intention was to cheat him, but his interference was resented. The result justified Smith's suspicion. Newport received but fourbushels of corn when he should have had twenty hogsheads. Smith thentried his hand at a trade. With a few blue beads, which he representedas of a rare substance, the color of the skies, and worn by the greatestkings in the world, he so inflamed the desire of Powhatan that he washalf mad to possess such strange jewels, and gave for them 200 to 300bushels of corn, "and yet, " says Smith, "parted good friends. "

At this time Powhatan, knowing that they desired to invade or exploreMonacan, the country above the Falls, proposed an expedition, withmen and boats, and "this faire tale had almost made Captain Newportundertake by this means to discover the South Sea, " a project which theadventurers had always in mind. On this expedition they sojourned alsowith the King of Pamaunke. 

Captain Newport returned to England on the 10th of April. Mr. Scrivenerand Captain Smith were now in fact the sustainers of the colony. Theymade short expeditions of exploration. Powhatan and other chiefs stillprofessed friendship and sent presents, but the Indians grew more andmore offensive, lurking about and stealing all they could lay hands on. Several of them were caught and confined in the fort, and, guarded, were conducted to the morning and evening prayers. By threats and slighttorture, the captives were made to confess the hostile intentions ofPowhatan and the other chiefs, which was to steal their weapons and thenoverpower the colony. Rigorous measures were needed to keep the Indiansin check, but the command from England not to offend the savages was sostrict that Smith dared not chastise them as they deserved. The historyof the colony all this spring of 1608 is one of labor and discontent, ofconstant annoyance from the Indians, and expectations of attacks. On the20th of April, while they were hewing trees and setting corn, an alarmwas given which sent them all to their arms. Fright was turned into joyby the sight of the Phoenix, with Captain Nelson and his company, whohad been for three months detained in the West Indies, and given up forlost. 

Being thus re-enforced, Smith and Scrivener desired to explore thecountry above the Falls, and got ready an expedition. But this, Martin, who was only intent upon loading the return ship with "his phantasticalgold, " opposed, and Nelson did not think he had authority to allow it, unless they would bind themselves to pay the hire of the ships. The project was therefore abandoned. The Indians continued theirdepredations. Messages daily passed between the fort and the Indians, and treachery was always expected. About this time the boy Thomas Savagewas returned, with his chest and clothing. 

The colony had now several of the Indians detained in the fort. At thispoint in the "True Relation" occurs the first mention of Pocahontas. Smith says: "Powhatan, understanding we detained certain Salvages, senthis daughter, a child of tenne years old, which not only for feature, countenance, and proportion much exceeded any of his people, but for witand spirit, the only nonpareil of his country. " She was accompanied byhis trusty messenger Rawhunt, a crafty and deformed savage, who assuredSmith how much Powhatan loved and respected him and, that he should notdoubt his kindness, had sent his child, whom he most esteemed, to seehim, and a deer, and bread besides for a present; "desiring us that theboy might come again, which he loved exceedingly, his little daughterhe had taught this lesson also: not taking notice at all of the Indiansthat had been prisoners three days, till that morning that she saw theirfathers and friends come quietly and in good terms to entreat theirliberty. "

Opechancanough (the King of "Pamauk") also sent asking the release oftwo that were his friends; and others, apparently with confidence in thewhites, came begging for the release of the prisoners. "In the afternoonthey being gone, we guarded them [the prisoners] as before to thechurch, and after prayer gave them to Pocahuntas, the King's daughter, in regard to her father's kindness in sending her: after having well fedthem, as all the time of their imprisonment, we gave them their bows, arrows, or what else they had, and with much content sent them packing;Pocahuntas, also, we requited with such trifles as contented her, totell that we had used the Paspaheyans very kindly in so releasing them. "

This account would show that Pocahontas was a child of uncommon dignityand self-control for her age. In his letter to Queen Anne, written in1616, he speaks of her as aged twelve or thirteen at the time of hiscaptivity, several months before this visit to the fort. 

The colonists still had reasons to fear ambuscades from the savageslurking about in the woods. One day a Paspahean came with a glitteringmineral stone, and said he could show them great abundance of it. Smithwent to look for this mine, but was led about hither and thither in thewoods till he lost his patience and was convinced that the Indian wasfooling him, when he gave him twenty lashes with a rope, handed him hisbows and arrows, told him to shoot if he dared, and let him go. Smithhad a prompt way with the Indians. He always traded "squarely" withthem, kept his promises, and never hesitated to attack or punish themwhen they deserved it. They feared and respected him. 

The colony was now in fair condition, in good health, and contented; andit was believed, though the belief was not well founded, that they wouldhave lasting peace with the Indians. Captain Nelson's ship, the Phoenix, was freighted with cedar wood, and was despatched for England June 8, 1608. Captain Martin, "always sickly and unserviceable, and desirousto enjoy the credit of his supposed art of finding the gold mine, " tookpassage. Captain Nelson probably carried Smith's "True Relation. "

X. DISCOVERY OF THE CHESAPEAKE

On the same, day that Nelson sailed for England, Smith set out toexplore the Chesapeake, accompanying the Phoenix as far as Cape Henry, in a barge of about three tons. With him went Dr. Walter Russell, sixgentlemen, and seven soldiers. The narrative of the voyage is signedby Dr. Russell, Thomas Momford, gentleman, and Anas Todkill, soldier. Master Scrivener remained at the fort, where his presence was neededto keep in check the prodigal waste of the stores upon his parasites byPresident Ratcliffe. 

The expedition crossed the bay at "Smith's Isles, " named after theCaptain, touched at Cape Charles, and coasted along the eastern shore. Two stout savages hailed them from Cape Charles, and directed them toAccomack, whose king proved to be the most comely and civil savage theyhad yet encountered. 

He told them of a strange accident that had happened. The parents of twochildren who had died were moved by some phantasy to revisit their deadcarcasses, "whose benumbed bodies reflected to the eyes of the beholderssuch delightful countenances as though they had regained their vitalspirits. " This miracle drew a great part of the King's people to beholdthem, nearly all of whom died shortly afterward. These people spokethe language of Powhatan. Smith explored the bays, isles, and islets, searching for harbors and places of habitation. He was a born explorerand geographer, as his remarkable map of Virginia sufficientlytestifies. The company was much tossed about in the rough waves of thebay, and had great difficulty in procuring drinking-water. They enteredthe Wighcocomoco, on the east side, where the natives first threatenedand then received them with songs, dancing, and mirth. A point on themainland where they found a pond of fresh water they named "Poynt Ployerin honer of the most honorable house of Monsay, in Britaine, that inan extreme extremitie once relieved our Captain. " This reference to theEarl of Ployer, who was kind to Smith in his youth, is only an instanceof the care with which he edited these narratives of his own exploits, which were nominally written by his companions. 

The explorers were now assailed with violent storms, and at last tookrefuge for two days on some uninhabited islands, which by reason of theill weather and the hurly-burly of thunder, lightning, wind, and rain, they called "Limbo. " Repairing their torn sails with their shirts, they sailed for the mainland on the east, and ran into a river calledCuskarawook (perhaps the present Annomessie), where the inhabitantsreceived them with showers of arrows, ascending the trees and shootingat them. The next day a crowd came dancing to the shore, making friendlysigns, but Smith, suspecting villainy, discharged his muskets into them. Landing toward evening, the explorers found many baskets and much blood, but no savages. The following day, savages to the number, the accountwildly says, of two or three thousand, came to visit them, and were veryfriendly. These tribes Smith calls the Sarapinagh, Nause, Arseek, andNantaquak, and says they are the best merchants of that coast. They toldhim of a great nation, called the Massawomeks, of whom he set out insearch, passing by the Limbo, and coasting the west side of ChesapeakeBay. The people on the east side he describes as of small stature. 

They anchored at night at a place called Richard's Cliffs, north ofthe Pawtuxet, and from thence went on till they reached the firstriver navigable for ships, which they named the Bolus, and which by itsposition on Smith's map may be the Severn or the Patapsco. 

The men now, having been kept at the oars ten days, tossed about bystorms, and with nothing to eat but bread rotten from the wet, supposedthat the Captain would turn about and go home. But he reminded themhow the company of Ralph Lane, in like circumstances, importuned him toproceed with the discovery of Moratico, alleging that they had yet a dogthat boiled with sassafrks leaves would richly feed them. He could notthink of returning yet, for they were scarce able to say where they hadbeen, nor had yet heard of what they were sent to seek. He exhorted themto abandon their childish fear of being lost in these unknown, largewaters, but he assured them that return he would not, till he had seenthe Massawomeks and found the Patowomek. 

On the 16th of June they discovered the River Patowomek (Potomac), sevenmiles broad at the mouth, up which they sailed thirty miles beforethey encountered any inhabitants. Four savages at length appeared andconducted them up a creek where were three or four thousand in ambush, "so strangely painted, grimed, and disguised, shouting, yelling, and crying as so many spirits from hell could not have showed moreterrible. " But the discharge of the firearms and the echo in the forestso appeased their fury that they threw down their bows, exchangedhostages, and kindly used the strangers. The Indians told him thatPowhatan had commanded them to betray them, and the serious charge isadded that Powhatan, "so directed from the discontents at Jamestownbecause our Captain did cause them to stay in their country againsttheir wills. " This reveals the suspicion and thoroughly bad feelingexisting among the colonists. 

The expedition went up the river to a village called Patowomek, andthence rowed up a little River Quiyough (Acquia Creek?) in search of amountain of antimony, which they found. The savages put this antimonyup in little bags and sold it all over the country to paint theirbodies and faces, which made them look like Blackamoors dusted over withsilver. Some bags of this they carried away, and also collected a goodamount of furs of otters, bears, martens, and minks. Fish were abundant, "lying so thick with their heads above water, as for want of nets (ourbarge driving among them) we attempted to catch them with a frying-pan;but we found it a bad instrument to catch fish with; neither betterfish, more plenty, nor more variety for small fish, had any of us everseen in any place, so swimming in the water, but they are not to becaught with frying-pans. "

In all his encounters and quarrels with the treacherous savages Smithlost not a man; it was his habit when he encountered a body of themto demand their bows, arrows, swords, and furs, and a child or two ashostages. 

Having finished his discovery he returned. Passing the mouth of theRappahannock, by some called the Tappahannock, where in shoal water weremany fish lurking in the weeds, Smith had his first experience of theStingray. It chanced that the Captain took one of these fish fromhis sword, "not knowing her condition, being much the fashion of aThornbeck, but a long tayle like a riding rodde whereon the middest isa most poysonne sting of two or three inches long, bearded like a saw oneach side, which she struck into the wrist of his arme neare an inch anda half. " The arm and shoulder swelled so much, and the torment wasso great, that "we all with much sorrow concluded his funerale, andprepared his grave in an island by, as himself directed. " But it"pleased God by a precious oyle Dr. Russell applied to it that histormenting paine was so assuged that he ate of that fish to his supper. "

Setting sail for Jamestown, and arriving at Kecoughtan, the sight of thefurs and other plunder, and of Captain Smith wounded, led the Indians tothink that he had been at war with the Massawomeks; which opinion Smithencouraged. They reached Jamestown July 21st, in fine spirits, to findthe colony in a mutinous condition, the last arrivals all sick, and theothers on the point of revenging themselves on the silly President, whohad brought them all to misery by his riotous consumption of the stores, and by forcing them to work on an unnecessary pleasure-house for himselfin the woods. They were somewhat appeased by the good news of thediscovery, and in the belief that their bay stretched into the SouthSea; and submitted on condition that Ratclifte should be deposed andCaptain Smith take upon himself the government, "as by course it didbelong. " He consented, but substituted Mr. Scrivener, his dear friend, in the presidency, distributed the provisions, appointed honest mento assist Mr. Scrivener, and set out on the 24th, with twelve men, tofinish his discovery. 

He passed by the Patowomek River and hasted to the River Bolus, which hehad before visited. In the bay they fell in with seven or eight canoesfull of the renowned Massawomeks, with whom they had a fight, but atlength these savages became friendly and gave them bows, arrows, andskins. They were at war with the Tockwoghes. Proceeding up the RiverTockwogh, the latter Indians received them with friendship, because theyhad the weapons which they supposed had been captured in a fight withthe Massawomeks. These Indians had hatchets, knives, pieces of iron andbrass, they reported came from the Susquesahanocks, a mighty people, theenemies of the Massawomeks, living at the head of the bay. As Smith inhis barge could not ascend to them, he sent an interpreter to request avisit from them. In three or four days sixty of these giant-like peoplecame down with presents of venison, tobacco-pipes three feet in length, baskets, targets, and bows and arrows. Some further notice is necessaryof this first appearance of the Susquehannocks, who became afterwardsso well known, by reason of their great stature and their friendliness. Portraits of these noble savages appeared in De Bry's voyages, whichwere used in Smith's map, and also by Strachey. These beautifulcopperplate engravings spread through Europe most exaggerated ideas ofthe American savages. 

"Our order, " says Smith, "was daily to have prayers, with a psalm, at which solemnity the poor savages wondered. " When it was over theSusquesahanocks, in a fervent manner, held up their hands to the sun, and then embracing the Captain, adored him in like manner. With afurious manner and "a hellish voyce" they began an oration of theirloves, covered him with their painted bear-skins, hung a chain of whitebeads about his neck, and hailed his creation as their governor andprotector, promising aid and victuals if he would stay and help themfight the Massawomeks. Much they told him of the Atquanachuks, who liveon the Ocean Sea, the Massawomeks and other people living on a greatwater beyond the mountain (which Smith understood to be some great lakeor the river of Canada), and that they received their hatchets and othercommodities from the French. They moumed greatly at Smith's departure. Of Powhatan they knew nothing but the name. 

Strachey, who probably enlarges from Smith his account of the samepeople, whom he calls Sasquesahanougs, says they were well-proportionedgiants, but of an honest and simple disposition. Their language wellbeseemed their proportions, "sounding from them as it were a great voicein a vault or cave, as an ecco. " The picture of one of these chiefs isgiven in De Bry, and described by Strachey, " the calf of whose legwas three-quarters of a yard about, and all the rest of his limbs soanswerable to the same proportions that he seemed the goodliest man theyever saw. "

It would not entertain the reader to follow Smith in all the smalladventures of the exploration, during which he says he went about 3, 000miles (three thousand miles in three or four weeks in a rowboat isnothing in Smith's memory), "with such watery diet in these greatwaters and barbarous countries. " Much hardship he endured, alternatelyskirmishing and feasting with the Indians; many were the tribes hestruck an alliance with, and many valuable details he added to thegeographical knowledge of the region. In all this exploration Smithshowed himself skillful as he was vigorous and adventurous. 

He returned to James River September 7th. Many had died, some weresick, Ratcliffe, the late President, was a prisoner for mutiny, Master Scrivener had diligently gathered the harvest, but much of theprovisions had been spoiled by rain. Thus the summer was consumed, andnothing had been accomplished except Smith's discovery. 

XI. SMITH'S PRESIDENCY AND PROWESS

On the 10th of September, by the election of the Council and the requestof the company, Captain Smith received the letters-patent, and becamePresident. He stopped the building of Ratcliffe's "palace, " repairedthe church and the storehouse, got ready the buildings for the supplyexpected from England, reduced the fort to a "five square form, " set andtrained the watch and exercised the company every Saturday on a plaincalled Smithfield, to the amazement of the on-looking Indians. 

Captain Newport arrived with a new supply of seventy persons. Amongthem were Captain Francis West, brother to Lord Delaware, Captain PeterWinne, and Captain Peter Waldo, appointed on the Council, eight Dutchmenand Poles, and Mistress Forest and Anne Burrows her maid, the firstwhite women in the colony. 

Smith did not relish the arrival of Captain Newport nor the instructionsunder which he returned. He came back commanded to discover the countryof Monacan (above the Falls) and to perform the ceremony of coronationon the Emperor Powhatan. 

How Newport got this private commission when he had returned to Englandwithout a lump of gold, nor any certainty of the South Sea, or one ofthe lost company sent out by Raleigh; and why he brought a "fine peecedbarge" which must be carried over unknown mountains before it reachedthe South Sea, he could not understand. "As for the coronation ofPowhatan and his presents of basin and ewer, bed, bedding, clothes, andsuch costly novelties, they had been much better well spared than so illspent, for we had his favor and better for a plain piece of copper, tillthis stately kind of soliciting made him so much overvalue himself thathe respected us as much as nothing at all. " Smith evidently understoodthe situation much better than the promoters in England; and we canquite excuse him in his rage over the foolishness and greed of most ofhis companions. There was little nonsense about Smith in action, thoughhe need not turn his hand on any man of that age as a boaster. 

To send out Poles and Dutchmen to make pitch, tar, and glass would havebeen well enough if the colony had been firmly established and suppliedwith necessaries; and they might have sent two hundred colonists insteadof seventy, if they had ordered them to go to work collecting provisionsof the Indians for the winter, instead of attempting this strangediscovery of the South Sea, and wasting their time on a more strangecoronation. "Now was there no way, " asks Smith, "to make us miserable, "but by direction from England to perform this discovery and coronation, "to take that time, spend what victuals we had, tire and starve our men, having no means to carry victuals, ammunition, the hurt or the sick, buton their own backs?"

Smith seems to have protested against all this nonsense, but though hewas governor, the Council overruled him. Captain Newport decided to takeone hundred and twenty men, fearing to go with a less number and journeyto Werowocomoco to crown Powhatan. In order to save time Smith offeredto take a message to Powhatan, and induce him to come to Jamestown andreceive the honor and the presents. Accompanied by only four men hecrossed by land to Werowocomoco, passed the Pamaunkee (York) River ina canoe, and sent for Powhatan, who was thirty miles off. MeantimePocahontas, who by his own account was a mere child, and her womenentertained Smith in the following manner:

"In a fayre plaine they made a fire, before which, sitting upon a mat, suddenly amongst the woods was heard such a hydeous noise and shreekingthat the English betook themselves to their armes, and seized upon twoor three old men, by them supposing Powhatan with all his power was cometo surprise them. But presently Pocahontas came, willing him to kill herif any hurt were intended, and the beholders, which were men, women andchildren, satisfied the Captaine that there was no such matter. Thenpresently they were presented with this anticke: Thirty young women camenaked out of the woods, only covered behind and before with a few greeneleaves, their bodies all painted, some of one color, some of another, but all differing; their leader had a fayre payre of Bucks hornes onher head, and an Otters skinne at her girdle, and another at her arme, a quiver of arrows at her backe, a bow and arrows in her hand; thenext had in her hand a sword, another a club, another a pot-sticke:all horned alike; the rest every one with their several devises. Thesefiends with most hellish shouts and cries, rushing from among the trees, cast themselves in a ring about the fire, singing and dancing with mostexcellent ill-varietie, oft falling into their infernal passions, andsolemnly again to sing and dance; having spent nearly an hour in thisMascarado, as they entered, in like manner they departed. 

"Having reaccommodated themselves, they solemnly invited him to theirlodgings, where he was no sooner within the house, but all these Nymphsmore tormented him than ever, with crowding, pressing, and hanging abouthim, most tediously crying, 'Love you not me? Love you not me?' Thissalutation ended, the feast was set, consisting of all the Salvagedainties they could devise: some attending, others singing and dancingabout them: which mirth being ended, with fire brands instead of torchesthey conducted him to his lodging. "

The next day Powhatan arrived. Smith delivered up the Indian Namontuck, who had just returned from a voyage to England--whither it was suspectedthe Emperor wished him to go to spy out the weakness of the Englishtribe--and repeated Father Newport's request that Powhatan would come toJamestown to receive the presents and join in an expedition against hisenemies, the Monacans. 

Powhatan's reply was worthy of his imperial highness, and has beencopied ever since in the speeches of the lords of the soil to the palefaces: "If your king has sent me present, I also am a king, and this ismy land: eight days I will stay to receive them. Your father is to cometo me, not I to him, nor yet to your fort, neither will I bite at such abait; as for the Monacans, I can revenge my own injuries. "

This was the lofty potentate whom Smith, by his way of management, could have tickled out of his senses with a glass bead, and who wouldinfinitely have preferred a big shining copper kettle to the misplacedhonor intended to be thrust upon him, but the offer of which puffed himup beyond the reach of negotiation. Smith returned with his message. Newport despatched the presents round by water a hundred miles, and theCaptains, with fifty soldiers, went over land to Werowocomoco, whereoccurred the ridiculous ceremony of the coronation, which Smithdescribes with much humor. "The next day, " he says, "was appointed forthe coronation. Then the presents were brought him, his bason and ewer, bed and furniture set up, his scarlet cloke and apparel, with much adoeput on him, being persuaded by Namontuck they would not hurt him. But afoule trouble there was to make him kneel to receive his Crown; he notknowing the majesty nor wearing of a Crown, nor bending of the knee, endured so many persuasions, examples and instructions as tyred themall. At last by bearing hard on his shoulders, he a little stooped, andthree having the crown in their hands put it on his head, when by thewarning of a pistoll the boats were prepared with such a volley of shotthat the king start up in a horrible feare, till he saw all was well. Then remembering himself to congratulate their kindness he gave his oldshoes and his mantell to Captain Newport!"

The Monacan expedition the King discouraged, and refused to furnishfor it either guides or men. Besides his old shoes, the crowned monarchcharitably gave Newport a little heap of corn, only seven or eightbushels, and with this little result the absurd expedition returned toJamestown. 

Shortly after Captain Newport with a chosen company of one hundredand twenty men (leaving eighty with President Smith in the fort) andaccompanied by Captain Waldo, Lieutenant Percy, Captain Winne, Mr. West, and Mr. Scrivener, who was eager for adventure, set off for thediscovery of Monacan. The expedition, as Smith predicted, was fruitless:the Indians deceived them and refused to trade, and the company got backto Jamestown, half of them sick, all grumbling, and worn out with toil, famine, and discontent. 

Smith at once set the whole colony to work, some to make glass, tar, pitch, and soap-ashes, and others he conducted five miles down theriver to learn to fell trees and make clapboards. In this company werea couple of gallants, lately come over, Gabriel Beadle and John Russell, proper gentlemen, but unused to hardships, whom Smith has immortalizedby his novel cure of their profanity. They took gayly to the rough life, and entered into the attack on the forest so pleasantly that in a weekthey were masters of chopping: "making it their delight to hear thetrees thunder as they fell, but the axes so often blistered their tenderfingers that many times every third blow had a loud othe to drown theecho; for remedie of which sinne the President devised how to have everyman's othes numbered, and at night for every othe to have a Canne ofwater powred downe his sleeve, with which every offender was so washed(himself and all), that a man would scarce hear an othe in a weake. " Inthe clearing of our country since, this excellent plan has fallen intodesuetude, for want of any pious Captain Smith in the logging camps. 

These gentlemen, says Smith, did not spend their time in wood-logginglike hirelings, but entered into it with such spirit that thirty of themwould accomplish more than a hundred of the sort that had to be drivento work; yet, he sagaciously adds, "twenty good workmen had been betterthan them all. "

Returning to the fort, Smith, as usual, found the time consumed and noprovisions got, and Newport's ship lying idle at a great charge. WithPercy he set out on an expedition for corn to the Chickahominy, whichthe insolent Indians, knowing their want, would not supply. Perceivingthat it was Powhatan's policy to starve them (as if it was the businessof the Indians to support all the European vagabonds and adventurers whocame to dispossess them of their country), Smith gave out that he camenot so much for corn as to revenge his imprisonment and the death of hismen murdered by the Indians, and proceeded to make war. This high-handedtreatment made the savages sue for peace, and furnish, although theycomplained of want themselves, owing to a bad harvest, a hundred bushelsof corn. 

This supply contented the company, who feared nothing so much asstarving, and yet, says Smith, so envied him that they would ratherhazard starving than have him get reputation by his vigorous conduct. There is no contemporary account of that period except this which Smithindited. He says that Newport and Ratcliffe conspired not only to deposehim but to keep him out of the fort; since being President they couldnot control his movements, but that their horns were much too short toeffect it. 

At this time in the "old Taverne, " as Smith calls the fort, everybodywho had money or goods made all he could by trade; soldiers, sailors, and savages were agreed to barter, and there was more care to maintaintheir damnable and private trade than to provide the things necessaryfor the colony. In a few weeks the whites had bartered away nearly allthe axes, chisels, hoes, and picks, and what powder, shot, and pikeheadsthey could steal, in exchange for furs, baskets, young beasts and suchlike commodities. Though the supply of furs was scanty in Virginia, onemaster confessed he had got in one voyage by this private trade what hesold in England for thirty pounds. "These are the Saint-seemingWorthies of Virginia, " indignantly exclaims the President, "that have, notwithstanding all this, meate, drinke, and wages. " But now they beganto get weary of the country, their trade being prevented. "The loss, scorn, and misery was the poor officers, gentlemen and carelessgovernors, who were bought and sold. " The adventurers were cheated, andall their actions overthrown by false information and unwise directions. 

Master Scrivener was sent with the barges and pinnace to Werowocomoco, where by the aid of Namontuck he procured a little corn, though thesavages were more ready to fight than to trade. At length Newport'sship was loaded with clapboards, pitch, tar, glass, frankincense (?) andsoapashes, and despatched to England. About two hundred men were left inthe colony. With Newport, Smith sent his famous letter to the Treasurerand Council in England. It is so good a specimen of Smith's ability withthe pen, reveals so well his sagacity and knowledge of what a colonyneeded, and exposes so clearly the ill-management of the Londonpromoters, and the condition of the colony, that we copy it entire. It appears by this letter that Smith's "Map of Virginia, " and hisdescription of the country and its people, which were not published till1612, were sent by this opportunity. Captain Newport sailed for Englandlate in the autumn of 1608. The letter reads:

RIGHT HONORABLE, ETC. :

I received your letter wherein you write that our minds are so setupon faction, and idle conceits in dividing the country without yourconsents, and that we feed you but with ifs and ands, hopes and some fewproofes; as if we would keepe the mystery of the businesse to ourselves:and that we must expressly follow your instructions sent by CaptainNewport: the charge of whose voyage amounts to neare two thousandpounds, the which if we cannot defray by the ships returne we are likelyto remain as banished men. To these particulars I humbly intreat yourpardons if I offend you with my rude answer. 

For our factions, unless you would have me run away and leave thecountry, I cannot prevent them; because I do make many stay that wouldelse fly away whither. For the Idle letter sent to my Lord of Salisbury, by the President and his confederates, for dividing the country, &c. , what it was I know not, for you saw no hand of mine to it; nor everdream't I of any such matter. That we feed you with hopes, &c. ThoughI be no scholar, I am past a schoolboy; and I desire but to know whateither you and these here doe know, but that I have learned to tellyou by the continuall hazard of my life. I have not concealed from youanything I know; but I feare some cause you to believe much more than istrue. 

Expressly to follow your directions by Captain Newport, though they beperformed, I was directly against it; but according to our commission, I was content to be overouled by the major part of the Councill, I feareto the hazard of us all; which now is generally confessed when it istoo late. Onely Captaine Winne and Captaine Walclo I have sworne of theCouncill, and crowned Powhattan according to your instructions. 

For the charge of the voyage of two or three thousand pounds we have notreceived the value of one hundred pounds, and for the quartered boat tobe borne by the souldiers over the falls. Newport had 120 of the bestmen he could chuse. If he had burnt her to ashes, one might have carriedher in a bag, but as she is, five hundred cannot to a navigable placeabove the falls. And for him at that time to find in the South Seaa mine of gold; or any of them sent by Sir Walter Raleigh; at ourconsultation I told them was as likely as the rest. But during thisgreat discovery of thirtie miles (which might as well have been doneby one man, and much more, for the value of a pound of copper at aseasonable tyme), they had the pinnace and all the boats with them butone that remained with me to serve the fort. In their absence I followedthe new begun works of Pitch and Tarre, Glasse, Sope-ashes, Clapboord, whereof some small quantities we have sent you. But if you rightlyconsider what an infinite toyle it is in Russia and Swethland, where thewoods are proper for naught els, and though there be the helpe bothof man and beast in those ancient commonwealths, which many an hundredyears have used it, yet thousands of those poor people can scarce getnecessaries to live, but from hand to mouth, and though your factorsthere can buy as much in a week as will fraught you a ship, or as muchas you please, you must not expect from us any such matter, which arebut as many of ignorant, miserable soules, that are scarce able to getwherewith to live, and defend ourselves against the inconstant Salvages:finding but here and there a tree fit for the purpose, and want allthings else the Russians have. For the Coronation of Powhattan, by whoseadvice you sent him such presents, I know not; but this give me leave totell you, I feare they will be the confusion of us all ere we hearefrom you again. At your ships arrivall, the Salvages harvest was newlygathered, and we going to buy it, our owne not being halve sufficientfor so great a number. As for the two ships loading of corne Newportpromised to provide us from Powhattan, he brought us but fourteenbushels; and from the Monacans nothing, but the most of the men sickeand neare famished. From your ship we had not provision in victualsworth twenty pound, and we are more than two hundred to live uponthis, the one halfe sicke, the other little better. For the saylers (Iconfesse), they daily make good cheare, but our dyet is a little mealeand water, and not sufficient of that. Though there be fish in the Sea, fowles in the ayre, and beasts in the woods, their bounds are so large, they so wilde, and we so weake and ignorant, we cannot much troublethem. Captaine Newport we much suspect to be the Author of theseinventions. Now that you should know, I have made you as great adiscovery as he, for less charge than he spendeth you every meale; I hadsent you this mappe of the Countries and Nations that inhabit them, asyou may see at large. Also two barrels of stones, and such as I take tobe good. Iron ore at the least; so divided, as by their notes you maysee in what places I found them. The souldiers say many of your officersmaintaine their families out of that you sent us, and that Newport hathan hundred pounds a year for carrying newes. For every master you haveyet sent can find the way as well as he, so that an hundred pounds mightbe spared, which is more than we have all, that helps to pay him wages. Cap. Ratliffe is now called Sicklemore, a poore counterfeited Imposture. I have sent you him home least the Company should cut his throat. Whathe is, now every one can tell you: if he and Archer returne againe, theyare sufficient to keep us always in factions. When you send againe Ientreat you rather send but thirty carpenters, husbandmen, gardiners, fishermen, blacksmiths, masons, and diggers up of trees roots, wellprovided, then a thousand of such as we have; for except wee be ableboth to lodge them, and feed them, the most will consume with wantof necessaries before they can be made good for anything. Thus if youplease to consider this account, and the unnecessary wages toCaptaine Newport, or his ships so long lingering and staying here (fornotwithstanding his boasting to leave us victuals for 12 months, thoughwe had 89 by this discovery lame and sicke, and but a pinte of corne aday for a man, we were constrained to give him three hogsheads of thatto victuall him homeward), or yet to send into Germany or Polelandfor glassemen and the rest, till we be able to sustaine ourselves, andreleeve them when they come. It were better to give five hundred pound aton for those grosse Commodities in Denmarke, then send for them hither, till more necessary things be provided. For in over-toyling our weakeand unskilfull bodies, to satisfy this desire of present profit, we canscarce ever recover ourselves from one supply to another. And I humblyintreat you hereafter, let us have what we should receive, and notstand to the Saylers courtesie to leave us what they please, els youmay charge us what you will, but we not you with anything. These are thecauses that have kept us in Virginia from laying such a foundation thatere this might have given much better content and satisfaction, but asyet you must not look for any profitable returning. So I humbly rest. 

After the departure of Newport, Smith, with his accustomed resolution, set to work to gather supplies for the winter. Corn had to be extortedfrom the Indians by force. In one expedition to Nansemond, when theIndians refused to trade, Smith fired upon them, and then landed andburned one of their houses; whereupon they submitted and loaded histhree boats with corn. The ground was covered with ice and snow, and thenights were bitterly cold. The device for sleeping warm in the open airwas to sweep the snow away from the ground and build a fire; the firewas then raked off from the heated earth and a mat spread, upon whichthe whites lay warm, sheltered by a mat hung up on the windward side, until the ground got cold, when they builded a fire on another place. Many a cold winter night did the explorers endure this hardship, yetgrew fat and lusty under it. 

About this time was solemnized the marriage of John Laydon and AnneBurrows, the first in Virginia. Anne was the maid of Mistress Forrest, who had just come out to grow up with the country, and John was alaborer who came with the first colony in 1607. This was actually the"First Family of Virginia, " about which so much has been eloquentlysaid. 

Provisions were still wanting. Mr. Scrivener and Mr. Percy returned froman expedition with nothing. Smith proposed to surprise Powhatan, andseize his store of corn, but he says he was hindered in this project byCaptain Winne and Mr. Scrivener (who had heretofore been consideredone of Smith's friends), whom he now suspected of plotting his ruin inEngland. 

Powhatan on his part sent word to Smith to visit him, to send him mento build a house, give him a grindstone, fifty swords, some big guns, acock and a hen, much copper and beads, in return for which he would loadhis ship with corn. Without any confidence in the crafty savage, Smithhumored him by sending several workmen, including four Dutchmen, to build him a house. Meantime with two barges and the pinnace andforty-six men, including Lieutenant Percy, Captain Wirt, and CaptainWilliam Phittiplace, on the 29th of December he set out on a journey tothe Pamaunky, or York, River. 

The first night was spent at "Warraskogack, " the king of which warnedSmith that while Powhatan would receive him kindly he was only seekingan opportunity to cut their throats and seize their arms. Christmaswas kept with extreme winds, rain, frost and snow among the savages atKecoughton, where before roaring fires they made merry with plenty ofoysters, fish, flesh, wild fowls and good bread. The President andtwo others went gunning for birds, and brought down one hundred andforty-eight fowls with three shots. 

Ascending the river, on the 12th of January they reached Werowocomoco. The river was frozen half a mile from the shore, and when the bargecould not come to land by reason of the ice and muddy shallows, theyeffected a landing by wading. Powhatan at their request sent themvenison, turkeys, and bread; the next day he feasted them, and theninquired when they were going, ignoring his invitation to them to come. Hereupon followed a long game of fence between Powhatan and CaptainSmith, each trying to overreach the other, and each indulging profuselyin lies and pledges. Each professed the utmost love for the other. 

Smith upbraided him with neglect of his promise to supply them withcorn, and told him, in reply to his demand for weapons, that he had noarms to spare. Powhatan asked him, if he came on a peaceful errand, tolay aside his weapons, for he had heard that the English came not somuch for trade as to invade his people and possess his country, andthe people did not dare to bring in their corn while the English werearound. 

Powhatan seemed indifferent about the building. The Dutchmen who hadcome to build Powhatan a house liked the Indian plenty better than therisk of starvation with the colony, revealed to Powhatan the povertyof the whites, and plotted to betray them, of which plot Smith was notcertain till six months later. Powhatan discoursed eloquently on theadvantage of peace over war: "I have seen the death of all my peoplethrice, " he said, "and not any one living of those three generationsbut myself; I know the difference of peace and war better than any in mycountry. But I am now old and ere long must die. " He wanted to leave hisbrothers and sisters in peace. He heard that Smith came to destroyhis country. He asked him what good it would do to destroy them thatprovided his food, to drive them into the woods where they must feed onroots and acorns; "and be so hunted by you that I can neither rest, eatnor sleep, but my tired men must watch, and if a twig but break everyone crieth, there cometh Captain Smith!" They might live in peace, andtrade, if Smith would only lay aside his arms. Smith, in return, boasted of his power to get provisions, and said that he had only beenrestrained from violence by his love for Powhatan; that the Indians camearmed to Jamestown, and it was the habit of the whites to wear theirarms. Powhatan then contrasted the liberality of Newport, and told Smiththat while he had used him more kindly than any other chief, he hadreceived from him (Smith) the least kindness of any. 

Believing that the palaver was only to get an opportunity to cut histhroat, Smith got the savages to break the ice in order to bring up thebarge and load it with corn, and gave orders for his soldiers to landand surprise Powhatan; meantime, to allay his suspicions, telling himthe lie that next day he would lay aside his arms and trust Powhatan'spromises. But Powhatan was not to be caught with such chaff. Leaving twoor three women to talk with the Captain he secretly fled away with hiswomen, children, and luggage. When Smith perceived this treachery hefired into the "naked devils" who were in sight. The next day Powhatansent to excuse his flight, and presented him a bracelet and chain ofpearl and vowed eternal friendship. 

With matchlocks lighted, Smith forced the Indians to load the boats; butas they were aground, and could not be got off till high water, he wascompelled to spend the night on shore. Powhatan and the treacherousDutchmen are represented as plotting to kill Smith that night. Provisions were to be brought him with professions of friendship, andSmith was to be attacked while at supper. The Indians, with all themerry sports they could devise, spent the time till night, and thenreturned to Powhatan. 

The plot was frustrated in the providence of God by a strange means. "For Pocahuntas his dearest jewele and daughter in that dark night camethrough the irksome woods, and told our Captaine good cheer should besent us by and by; but Powhatan and all the power he could make wouldafter come and kill us all, if they that brought it could not kill uswith our own weapons when we were at supper. Therefore if we would liveshe wished us presently to be gone. Such things as she delighted in hewould have given her; but with the tears rolling down her cheeks shesaid she durst not to be seen to have any; for if Powhatan should knowit, she were but dead, and so she ran away by herself as she came. "

[This instance of female devotion is exactly paralleled in D'Albertis's"New Guinea. " Abia, a pretty Biota girl of seventeen, made her way tohis solitary habitation at the peril of her life, to inform him that themen of Rapa would shortly bring him insects and other presents, in orderto get near him without suspicion, and then kill him. He tried to rewardthe brave girl by hanging a gold chain about her neck, but she refusedit, saying it would betray her. He could only reward her with a ferventkiss, upon which she fled. Smith omits that part of the incident. ]

In less than an hour ten burly fellows arrived with great platters ofvictuals, and begged Smith to put out the matches (the smoke of whichmade them sick) and sit down and eat. Smith, on his guard, compelledthem to taste each dish, and then sent them back to Powhatan. All nightthe whites watched, but though the savages lurked about, no attackwas made. Leaving the four Dutchmen to build Powhatan's house, andan Englishman to shoot game for him, Smith next evening departed forPamaunky. 

No sooner had he gone than two of the Dutchmen made their way overlandto Jamestown, and, pretending Smith had sent them, procured arms, tools, and clothing. They induced also half a dozen sailors, "expert thieves, "to accompany them to live with Powhatan; and altogether they stole, besides powder and shot, fifty swords, eight pieces, eight pistols, andthree hundred hatchets. Edward Boynton and Richard Savage, who had beenleft with Powhatan, seeing the treachery, endeavored to escape, but wereapprehended by the Indians. 

At Pamaunky there was the same sort of palaver with Opechancanough, the king, to whom Smith the year before had expounded the mysteries ofhistory, geography, and astronomy. After much fencing in talk, Smith, with fifteen companions, went up to the King's house, where presentlyhe found himself betrayed and surrounded by seven hundred armed savages, seeking his life. His company being dismayed, Smith restored theircourage by a speech, and then, boldly charging the King with intent tomurder him, he challenged him to a single combat on an island in theriver, each to use his own arms, but Smith to be as naked as the King. The King still professed friendship, and laid a great present at thedoor, about which the Indians lay in ambush to kill Smith. But thishero, according to his own account, took prompt measures. He marched outto the King where he stood guarded by fifty of his chiefs, seized himby his long hair in the midst of his men, and pointing a pistol athis breast led, him trembling and near dead with fear amongst all hispeople. The King gave up his arms, and the savages, astonished thatany man dare treat their king thus, threw down their bows. Smith, stillholding the King by the hair, made them a bold address, offering peaceor war. They chose peace. 

In the picture of this remarkable scene in the "General Historie, " thesavage is represented as gigantic in stature, big enough to crushthe little Smith in an instant if he had but chosen. Having given thesavages the choice to load his ship with corn or to load it himself withtheir dead carcasses, the Indians so thronged in with their commoditiesthat Smith was tired of receiving them, and leaving his comrades totrade, he lay down to rest. When he was asleep the Indians, armed somewith clubs, and some with old English swords, entered into the house. Smith awoke in time, seized his arms, and others coming to his rescue, they cleared the house. 

While enduring these perils, sad news was brought from Jamestown. Mr. Scrivener, who had letters from England (writes Smith) urging him tomake himself Caesar or nothing, declined in his affection for Smith, andbegan to exercise extra authority. Against the advice of the others, heneeds must make a journey to the Isle of Hogs, taking with him inthe boat Captain Waldo, Anthony Gosnoll (or Gosnold, believed to be arelative of Captain Bartholomew Gosnold), and eight others. The boat wasoverwhelmed in a storm, and sunk, no one knows how or where. The savageswere the first to discover the bodies of the lost. News of this disasterwas brought to Captain Smith (who did not disturb the rest by makingit known) by Richard Wiffin, who encountered great dangers on the way. Lodging overnight at Powhatan's, he saw great preparations for war, andfound himself in peril. Pocahontas hid him for a time, and by her means, and extraordinary bribes, in three days' travel he reached Smith. 

Powhatan, according to Smith, threatened death to his followers ifthey did not kill Smith. At one time swarms of natives, unarmed, camebringing great supplies of provisions; this was to put Smith off hisguard, surround him with hundreds of savages, and slay him by an ambush. But he also laid in ambush and got the better of the crafty foe witha superior craft. They sent him poisoned food, which made his companysick, but was fatal to no one. Smith apologizes for temporizing withthe Indians at this time, by explaining that his purpose was to surprisePowhatan and his store of provisions. But when they stealthily stoleup to the seat of that crafty chief, they found that those "damnedDutchmen" had caused Powhatan to abandon his new house at Werowocomoco, and to carry away all his corn and provisions. 

The reward of this wearisome winter campaign was two hundred weightof deer-suet and four hundred and seventy-nine bushels of corn for thegeneral store. They had not to show such murdering and destroying as theSpaniards in their "relations, " nor heaps and mines of gold and silver;the land of Virginia was barbarous and ill-planted, and without preciousjewels, but no Spanish relation could show, with such scant means, somuch country explored, so many natives reduced to obedience, with solittle bloodshed. 

XII. TRIALS OF THE SETTLEMENT

Without entering at all into the consideration of the character of theearly settlers of Virginia and of Massachusetts, one contrast forcesitself upon the mind as we read the narratives of the differentplantations. In Massachusetts there was from the beginning a steadypurpose to make a permanent settlement and colony, and nearly all thosewho came over worked, with more or less friction, with this end beforethem. The attempt in Virginia partook more of the character of atemporary adventure. In Massachusetts from the beginning a commonwealthwas in view. In Virginia, although the London promoters desired a colonyto be fixed that would be profitable to themselves, and many of theadventurers, Captain Smith among them, desired a permanent planting, agreat majority of those who went thither had only in mind the advantagesof trade, the excitement of a free and licentious life, and theadventure of something new and startling. It was long before the moversin it gave up the notion of discovering precious metals or a short wayto the South Sea. The troubles the primitive colony endured resultedquite as much from its own instability of purpose, recklessness, andinsubordination as from the hostility of the Indians. The majority spenttheir time in idleness, quarreling, and plotting mutiny. 

The ships departed for England in December, 1608. When Smith returnedfrom his expedition for food in the winter of 1609, he found that allthe provision except what he had gathered was so rotted from the rain, and eaten by rats and worms, that the hogs would scarcely eat it. Yetthis had been the diet of the soldiers, who had consumed the victualsand accomplished nothing except to let the savages have the most of thetools and a good part of the arms. 

Taking stock of what he brought in, Smith found food enough to last tillthe next harvest, and at once organized the company into bands of ten orfifteen, and compelled them to go to work. Six hours a day were devotedto labor, and the remainder to rest and merry exercises. Even with thisliberal allowance of pastime a great part of the colony stillsulked. Smith made them a short address, exhibiting his power in theletters-patent, and assuring them that he would enforce discipline andpunish the idle and froward; telling them that those that did not workshould not eat, and that the labor of forty or fifty industrious menshould not be consumed to maintain a hundred and fifty idle loiterers. He made a public table of good and bad conduct; but even with thisinducement the worst had to be driven to work by punishment or the fearof it. 

The Dutchmen with Powhatan continued to make trouble, and confederatesin the camp supplied them with powder and shot, swords and tools. Powhatan kept the whites who were with him to instruct the Indians inthe art of war. They expected other whites to join them, and those notcoming, they sent Francis, their companion, disguised as an Indian, tofind out the cause. He came to the Glass house in the woods a mile fromJamestown, which was the rendezvous for all their villainy. Here theylaid an ambush of forty men for Smith, who hearing of the Dutchman, wentthither to apprehend him. The rascal had gone, and Smith, sending twentysoldiers to follow and capture him, started alone from the Glass houseto return to the fort. And now occurred another of those personaladventures which made Smith famous by his own narration. 

On his way he encountered the King of Paspahegh, "a most strong, stoutsavage, " who, seeing that Smith had only his falchion, attempted toshoot him. Smith grappled him; the savage prevented his drawing hisblade, and bore him into the river to drown him. Long they struggled inthe water, when the President got the savage by the throat and nearlystrangled him, and drawing his weapon, was about to cut off his head, when the King begged his life so pitifully, that Smith led him prisonerto the fort and put him in chains. 

In the pictures of this achievement, the savage is represented as abouttwice the size and stature of Smith; another illustration that thisheroic soul was never contented to take one of his size. 

The Dutchman was captured, who, notwithstanding his excuses that he hadescaped from Powhatan and did not intend to return, but was only walkingin the woods to gather walnuts, on the testimony of Paspahegh of histreachery, was also "laid by the heels. " Smith now proposed to Paspaheghto spare his life if he would induce Powhatan to send back the renegadeDutchmen. The messengers for this purpose reported that the Dutchmen, though not detained by Powhatan, would not come, and the Indians saidthey could not bring them on their backs fifty miles through the woods. Daily the King's wives, children, and people came to visit him, andbrought presents to procure peace and his release. While this was goingon, the King, though fettered, escaped. A pursuit only resulted in avain fight with the Indians. Smith then made prisoners of two Indianswho seemed to be hanging around the camp, Kemps and Tussore, "the twomost exact villains in all the country, " who would betray their ownking and kindred for a piece of copper, and sent them with a force ofsoldiers, under Percy, against Paspahegh. The expedition burned hishouse, but did not capture the fugitive. Smith then went against themhimself, killed six or seven, burned their houses, and took their boatsand fishing wires. Thereupon the savages sued for peace, and an amnestywas established that lasted as long as Smith remained in the country. 

Another incident occurred about this time which greatly raised Smith'scredit in all that country. The Chicahomanians, who always were friendlytraders, were great thieves. One of them stole a Pistol, and two properyoung fellows, brothers, known to be his confederates, were apprehended. One of them was put in the dungeon and the other sent to recover thepistol within twelve hours, in default of which his brother would behanged. The President, pitying the wretched savage in the dungeon, senthim some victuals and charcoal for a fire. "Ere midnight his brotherreturned with the pistol, but the poor savage in the dungeon was sosmothered with the smoke he had made, and so piteously burnt, that wefound him dead. The other most lamentably bewailed his death, and brokeforth in such bitter agonies, that the President, to quiet him, told himthat if hereafter they would not steal, he would make him alive again;but he (Smith) little thought he could be recovered. " Nevertheless, bya liberal use of aqua vitae and vinegar the Indian was brought again tolife, but "so drunk and affrighted that he seemed lunatic, the which asmuch tormented and grieved the other as before to see him dead. " Uponfurther promise of good behavior Smith promised to bring the Indian outof this malady also, and so laid him by a fire to sleep. In the morningthe savage had recovered his perfect senses, his wounds were dressed, and the brothers with presents of copper were sent away well contented. This was spread among the savages for a miracle, that Smith could makea man alive that was dead. He narrates a second incident which servedto give the Indians a wholesome fear of the whites: "Another ingenioussavage of Powhatan having gotten a great bag of powder and the back ofan armour at Werowocomoco, amongst a many of his companions, to showhis extraordinary skill, he did dry it on the back as he had seen thesoldiers at Jamestown. But he dried it so long, they peeping over it tosee his skill, it took fire, and blew him to death, and one or two more, and the rest so scorched they had little pleasure any more to meddlewith gunpowder. "

"These and many other such pretty incidents, " says Smith, "so amazedand affrighted Powhatan and his people that from all parts they desiredpeace;" stolen articles were returned, thieves sent to Jamestown forpunishment, and the whole country became as free for the whites as forthe Indians. 

And now ensued, in the spring of 1609, a prosperous period of threemonths, the longest season of quiet the colony had enjoyed, but only arespite from greater disasters. The friendship of the Indians and thetemporary subordination of the settlers we must attribute to Smith'svigor, shrewdness, and spirit of industry. It was much easier to managethe Indian's than the idle and vicious men that composed the majority ofthe settlement. 

In these three months they manufactured three or four lasts (fourteenbarrels in a last) of tar, pitch, and soap-ashes, produced somespecimens of glass, dug a well of excellent sweet water in the fort, which they had wanted for two years, built twenty houses, repairedthe church, planted thirty or forty acres of ground, and erected ablock-house on the neck of the island, where a garrison was stationedto trade with the savages and permit neither whites nor Indians to passexcept on the President's order. Even the domestic animals partook theindustrious spirit: "of three sowes in eighteen months increased 60 andod Pigs; and neare 500 chickings brought up themselves without havingany meat given them. " The hogs were transferred to Hog Isle, whereanother block house was built and garrisoned, and the garrison werepermitted to take "exercise" in cutting down trees and making clapboardsand wainscot. They were building a fort on high ground, intended foran easily defended retreat, when a woful discovery put an end to theirthriving plans. 

Upon examination of the corn stored in casks, it was found half-rotten, and the rest consumed by rats, which had bred in thousands from the fewwhich came over in the ships. The colony was now at its wits end, forthere was nothing to eat except the wild products of the country. Inthis prospect of famine, the two Indians, Kemps and Tussore, who hadbeen kept fettered while showing the whites how to plant the fields, were turned loose; but they were unwilling to depart from such congenialcompany. The savages in the neighborhood showed their love by bringingto camp, for sixteen days, each day at least a hundred squirrels, turkeys, deer, and other wild beasts. But without corn, the work offortifying and building had to be abandoned, and the settlers dispersedto provide victuals. A party of sixty or eighty men under Ensign Laxonwere sent down the river to live on oysters; some twenty went withLieutenant Percy to try fishing at Point Comfort, where for six weeksnot a net was cast, owing to the sickness of Percy, who had been burntwith gunpowder; and another party, going to the Falls with Master West, found nothing to eat but a few acorns. 

Up to this time the whole colony was fed by the labors of thirty orforty men: there was more sturgeon than could be devoured by dog andman; it was dried, pounded, and mixed with caviare, sorrel, and otherherbs, to make bread; bread was also made of the "Tockwhogh" root, andwith the fish and these wild fruits they lived very well. But there wereone hundred and fifty of the colony who would rather starve or eat eachother than help gather food. These "distracted, gluttonous loiterers"would have sold anything they had--tools, arms, and their houses--foranything the savages would bring them to eat. Hearing that there wasa basket of corn at Powhatan's, fifty miles away, they would haveexchanged all their property for it. To satisfy their factious humors, Smith succeeded in getting half of it: "they would have sold theirsouls, " he says, for the other half, though not sufficient to last thema week. 

The clamors became so loud that Smith punished the ringleader, one Dyer, a crafty fellow, and his ancient maligner, and then made one of hisconciliatory addresses. Having shown them how impossible it was to getcorn, and reminded them of his own exertions, and that he had alwaysshared with them anything he had, he told them that he should standtheir nonsense no longer; he should force the idle to work, and punishthem if they railed; if any attempted to escape to Newfoundland in thepinnace they would arrive at the gallows; the sick should not starve;every man able must work, and every man who did not gather as much in aday as he did should be put out of the fort as a drone. 

Such was the effect of this speech that of the two hundred only sevendied in this pinching time, except those who were drowned; no man diedof want. Captain Winne and Master Leigh had died before this famineoccurred. Many of the men were billeted among the savages, who used themwell, and stood in such awe of the power at the fort that they darednot wrong the whites out of a pin. The Indians caught Smith's humor, andsome of the men who ran away to seek Kemps and Tussore were mocked andridiculed, and had applied to them--Smith's law of "who cannot work mustnot eat;" they were almost starved and beaten nearly to death. Afteramusing himself with them, Kemps returned the fugitives, whom Smithpunished until they were content to labor at home, rather than adventureto live idly among the savages, "of whom, " says our shrewd chronicler, "there was more hope to make better christians and good subjects thanthe one half of them that counterfeited themselves both. " The Indianswere in such subjection that any who were punished at the fort would begthe President not to tell their chief, for they would be again punishedat home and sent back for another round. 

We hear now of the last efforts to find traces of the lost colony of SirWalter Raleigh. Master Sicklemore returned from the Chawwonoke (ChowanRiver) with no tidings of them; and Master Powell, and Anas Todkill whohad been conducted to the Mangoags, in the regions south of the James, could learn nothing but that they were all dead. The king of thiscountry was a very proper, devout, and friendly man; he acknowledgedthat our God exceeded his as much as our guns did his bows and arrows, and asked the President to pray his God for him, for all the gods of theMangoags were angry. 

The Dutchmen and one Bentley, another fugitive, who were with Powhatan, continued to plot against the colony, and the President employed aSwiss, named William Volday, to go and regain them with promises ofpardon. Volday turned out to be a hypocrite, and a greater rascal thanthe others. Many of the discontented in the fort were brought intothe scheme, which was, with Powhatan's aid, to surprise and destroyJamestown. News of this getting about in the fort, there was a demandthat the President should cut off these Dutchmen. Percy and Cuderington, two gentlemen, volunteered to do it; but Smith sent instead MasterWiffin and Jeffrey Abbot, to go and stab them or shoot them. But theDutchmen were too shrewd to be caught, and Powhatan sent a conciliatorymessage that he did not detain the Dutchmen, nor hinder the slaying ofthem. 

While this plot was simmering, and Smith was surrounded by treacheryinside the fort and outside, and the savages were being taught thatKing James would kill Smith because he had used the Indians so unkindly, Captain Argall and Master Thomas Sedan arrived out in a well-furnishedvessel, sent by Master Cornelius to trade and fish for sturgeon. Thewine and other good provision of the ship were so opportune to thenecessities of the colony that the President seized them. Argall losthis voyage; his ship was revictualed and sent back to England, butone may be sure that this event was so represented as to increasethe fostered dissatisfaction with Smith in London. For one reason oranother, most of the persons who returned had probably carried a badreport of him. Argall brought to Jamestown from London a report of greatcomplaints of him for his dealings with the savages and not returningships freighted with the products of the country. Misrepresented inLondon, and unsupported and conspired against in Virginia, Smith felthis fall near at hand. On the face of it he was the victim of envy andthe rascality of incompetent and bad men; but whatever his capacityfor dealing with savages, it must be confessed that he lacked somethingwhich conciliates success with one's own people. A new commission wasabout to be issued, and a great supply was in preparation under Lord DeLa Ware. 

XIII. SMITH'S LAST DAYS IN VIRGINIA

The London company were profoundly dissatisfied with the results of theVirginia colony. The South Sea was not discovered, no gold had turnedup, there were no valuable products from the new land, and the promotersreceived no profits on their ventures. With their expectations, itis not to be wondered at that they were still further annoyed by thequarreling amongst the colonists themselves, and wished to begin overagain. 

A new charter, dated May 23, 1609, with enlarged powers, was got fromKing James. Hundreds of corporators were named, and even thousands wereincluded in the various London trades and guilds that were joined in theenterprise. Among the names we find that of Captain John Smith. Buthe was out of the Council, nor was he given then or ever afterward anyplace or employment in Virginia, or in the management of its affairs. The grant included all the American coast two hundred miles north andtwo hundred miles south of Point Comfort, and all the territory from thecoast up into the land throughout from sea to sea, west and northwest. A leading object of the project still being (as we have seen it was withSmith's precious crew at Jamestown) the conversion and reduction of thenatives to the true religion, no one was permitted in the colony who hadnot taken the oath of supremacy. 

Under this charter the Council gave a commission to Sir ThomasWest, Lord Delaware, Captain-General of Virginia; Sir Thomas Gates, Lieutenant-General; Sir George Somers, Admiral; Captain Newport, Vice-Admiral; Sir Thomas Dale, High Marshal; Sir Frederick Wainman, General of the Horse, and many other officers for life. 

With so many wealthy corporators money flowed into the treasury, and agreat expedition was readily fitted out. Towards the end of May, 1609, there sailed from England nine ships and five hundred people, under thecommand of Sir Thomas Gates, Sir George Somers, and Captain Newport. Each of these commanders had a commission, and the one who arrived firstwas to call in the old commission; as they could not agree, they allsailed in one ship, the Sea Venture. 

This brave expedition was involved in a contest with a hurricane; onevessel was sunk, and the Sea Venture, with the three commanders, onehundred and fifty men, the new commissioners, bills of lading, all sortsof instructions, and much provision, was wrecked on the Bermudas. Withthis company was William Strachey, of whom we shall hear more hereafter. Seven vessels reached Jamestown, and brought, among other annoyances, Smith's old enemy, Captain Ratcliffe, alias Sicklemore, in command of aship. Among the company were also Captains Martin, Archer, Wood, Webbe, Moore, King, Davis, and several gentlemen of good means, and a crowdof the riff-raff of London. Some of these Captains whom Smith hadsent home, now returned with new pretensions, and had on the voyageprejudiced the company against him. When the fleet was first espied, thePresident thought it was Spaniards, and prepared to defend himself, theIndians promptly coming to his assistance. 

This hurricane tossed about another expedition still more famous, thatof Henry Hudson, who had sailed from England on his third voyage towardNova Zembla March 25th, and in July and August was beating down theAtlantic coast. On the 18th of August he entered the Capes of Virginia, and sailed a little way up the Bay. He knew he was at the mouth of theJames River, "where our Englishmen are, " as he says. The next day a galefrom the northeast made him fear being driven aground in the shallows, and he put to sea. The storm continued for several days. On the 21st "asea broke over the fore-course and split it;" and that night somethingmore ominous occurred: "that night [the chronicle records] our cat rancrying from one side of the ship to the other, looking overboard, whichmade us to wonder, but we saw nothing. " On the 26th they were again offthe bank of Virginia, and in the very bay and in sight of the islandsthey had seen on the 18th. It appeared to Hudson "a great bay withrivers, " but too shallow to explore without a small boat. Afterlingering till the 29th, without any suggestion of ascending the James, he sailed northward and made the lucky stroke of river exploration whichimmortalized him. 

It seems strange that he did not search for the English colony, but theadventurers of that day were independent actors, and did not care toshare with each other the glories of discovery. 

The first of the scattered fleet of Gates and Somers came in on the11th, and the rest straggled along during the three or four daysfollowing. It was a narrow chance that Hudson missed them all, and onemay imagine that the fate of the Virginia colony and of the New Yorksettlement would have been different if the explorer of the Hudson hadgone up the James. 

No sooner had the newcomers landed than trouble began. They would havedeposed Smith on report of the new commission, but they could show nowarrant. Smith professed himself willing to retire to England, but, seeing the new commission did not arrive, held on to his authority, andbegan to enforce it to save the whole colony from anarchy. He depictsthe situation in a paragraph: "To a thousand mischiefs these lewdCaptains led this lewd company, wherein were many unruly gallants, packed thither by their friends to escape ill destinies, and those woulddispose and determine of the government, sometimes to one, the next dayto another; today the old commission must rule, tomorrow the new, thenext day neither; in fine, they would rule all or ruin all; yet incharity we must endure them thus to destroy us, or by correcting theirfollies, have brought the world's censure upon us to be guilty of theirblouds. Happie had we beene had they never arrived, and we foreverabandoned, as we were left to our fortunes; for on earth for theirnumber was never more confusion or misery than their factionsoccasioned. " In this company came a boy, named Henry Spelman, whosesubsequent career possesses considerable interest. 

The President proceeded with his usual vigor: he "laid by the heels" thechief mischief-makers till he should get leisure to punish them; sentMr. West with one hundred and twenty good men to the Falls to make asettlement; and despatched Martin with near as many and their proportionof provisions to Nansemond, on the river of that name emptying into theJames, obliquely opposite Point Comfort. 

Lieutenant Percy was sick and had leave to depart for England when hechose. The President's year being about expired, in accordance withthe charter, he resigned, and Captain Martin was elected President. Butknowing his inability, he, after holding it three hours, resigned it toSmith, and went down to Nansemond. The tribe used him kindly, but he wasso frightened with their noisy demonstration of mirth that he surprisedand captured the poor naked King with his houses, and began fortifyinghis position, showing so much fear that the savages were emboldened toattack him, kill some of his men, release their King, and carry off athousand bushels of corn which had been purchased, Martin not offeringto intercept them. The frightened Captain sent to Smith for aid, whodespatched to him thirty good shot. Martin, too chicken-hearted to usethem, came back with them to Jamestown, leaving his company to theirfortunes. In this adventure the President commends the courage of oneGeorge Forrest, who, with seventeen arrows sticking into him and oneshot through him, lived six or seven days. 

Meantime Smith, going up to the Falls to look after Captain West, metthat hero on his way to Jamestown. He turned him back, and found that hehad planted his colony on an unfavorable flat, subject not only to theoverflowing of the river, but to more intolerable inconveniences. Toplace him more advantageously the President sent to Powhatan, offeringto buy the place called Powhatan, promising to defend him against theMonacans, to pay him in copper, and make a general alliance of trade andfriendship. 

But "those furies, " as Smith calls West and his associates, refusedto move to Powhatan or to accept these conditions. They contemned hisauthority, expecting all the time the new commission, and, regardingall the Monacans' country as full of gold, determined that no one shouldinterfere with them in the possession of it. Smith, however, was notintimidated from landing and attempting to quell their mutiny. In his"General Historie" it is written "I doe more than wonder to thinkhow onely with five men he either durst or would adventure as he did(knowing how greedy they were of his bloud) to come amongst them. " Helanded and ordered the arrest of the chief disturbers, but the crowdhustled him off. He seized one of their boats and escaped to the shipwhich contained the provision. Fortunately the sailors were friendly andsaved his life, and a considerable number of the better sort, seeing themalice of Ratcliffe and Archer, took Smith's part. 

Out of the occurrences at this new settlement grew many of the chargeswhich were preferred against Smith. According to the "General Historie"the company of Ratcliffe and Archer was a disorderly rabble, constantlytormenting the Indians, stealing their corn, robbing their gardens, beating them, and breaking into their houses and taking them prisoners. The Indians daily complained to the President that these "protectors"he had given them were worse enemies than the Monacans, and desiredhis pardon if they defended themselves, since he could not punish theirtormentors. They even proposed to fight for him against them. Smith saysthat after spending nine days in trying to restrain them, and showingthem how they deceived themselves with "great guilded hopes of the SouthSea Mines, " he abandoned them to their folly and set sail for Jamestown. 

No sooner was he under way than the savages attacked the fort, slewmany of the whites who were outside, rescued their friends who wereprisoners, and thoroughly terrified the garrison. Smith's ship happeningto go aground half a league below, they sent off to him, and were gladto submit on any terms to his mercy. He "put by the heels" six or sevenof the chief offenders, and transferred the colony to Powhatan, wherewere a fort capable of defense against all the savages in Virginia, dryhouses for lodging, and two hundred acres of ground ready to be planted. This place, so strong and delightful in situation, they called Non-such. The savages appeared and exchanged captives, and all became friendsagain. 

At this moment, unfortunately, Captain West returned. All the victualsand munitions having been put ashore, the old factious projects wererevived. The soft-hearted West was made to believe that the rebellionhad been solely on his account. Smith, seeing them bent on their ownway, took the row-boat for Jamestown. The colony abandoned the pleasantNon-such and returned to the open air at West's Fort. On his way down, Smith met with the accident that suddenly terminated his career inVirginia. 

While he was sleeping in his boat his powder-bag was accidentally fired;the explosion tore the flesh from his body and thighs, nine or teninches square, in the most frightful manner. To quench the tormentingfire, frying him in his clothes, he leaped into the deep river, where, ere they could recover him, he was nearly drowned. In this pitiablecondition, without either surgeon or surgery, he was to go nearly ahundred miles. 

It is now time for the appearance upon the scene of the boy HenrySpelman, with his brief narration, which touches this period of Smith'slife. Henry Spelman was the third son of the distinguished antiquarian, Sir Henry Spelman, of Coughan, Norfolk, who was married in 1581. It isreasonably conjectured that he could not have been over twenty-onewhen in May, 1609, he joined the company going to Virginia. Henry wasevidently a scapegrace, whose friends were willing to be rid of him. Such being his character, it is more than probable that he wasshipped bound as an apprentice, and of course with the conditions ofapprenticeship in like expeditions of that period--to be sold or boundout at the end of the voyage to pay for his passage. He remained forseveral years in Virginia, living most of the time among the Indians, and a sort of indifferent go between of the savages and the settlers. According to his own story it was on October 20, 1609, that he was takenup the river to Powhatan by Captain Smith, and it was in April, 1613, that he was rescued from his easy-setting captivity on the Potomac byCaptain Argall. During his sojourn in Virginia, or more probably shortlyafter his return to England, he wrote a brief and bungling narration ofhis experiences in the colony, and a description of Indian life. TheMS. Was not printed in his time, but mislaid or forgotten. By a strangeseries of chances it turned up in our day, and was identified andprepared for the press in 1861. Before the proof was read, the typewas accidentally broken up and the MS. Again mislaid. Lost sight of forseveral years, it was recovered and a small number of copies of it wereprinted at London in 1872, edited by Mr. James F. Hunnewell. 

Spelman's narration would be very important if we could trust it. Heappeared to have set down what he saw, and his story has a certainsimplicity that gains for it some credit. But he was a reckless boy, unaccustomed to weigh evidence, and quite likely to write as facts therumors that he heard. He took very readily to the ways of Indianlife. Some years after, Spelman returned to Virginia with the titleof Captain, and in 1617 we find this reference to him in the "GeneralHistorie": "Here, as at many other times, we are beholden to Capt. Henry Spilman, an interpreter, a gentleman that lived long time in thiscountry, and sometimes a prisoner among the Salvages, and done much goodservice though but badly rewarded. " Smith would probably not have leftthis on record had he been aware of the contents of the MS. That Spelmanhad left for after-times. 

Spelman begins his Relation, from which I shall quote substantially, without following the spelling or noting all the interlineations, withthe reason for his emigration, which was, "being in displeasure of myfriends, and desirous to see other countries. " After a brief account ofthe voyage and the joyful arrival at Jamestown, the Relation continues:

"Having here unloaded our goods and bestowed some senight or fortnightin viewing the country, I was carried by Capt. Smith, our President, tothe Falls, to the little Powhatan, where, unknown to me, he sold me tohim for a town called Powhatan; and, leaving me with him, the littlePowhatan, he made known to Capt. West how he had bought a town for themto dwell in. Whereupon Capt. West, growing angry because he had bestowedcost to begin a town in another place, Capt. Smith desiring thatCapt. West would come and settle himself there, but Capt. West, havingbestowed cost to begin a town in another place, misliked it, andunkindness thereupon arising between them, Capt. Smith at that timereplied little, but afterward combined with Powhatan to kill Capt. West, which plot took but small effect, for in the meantime Capt. Smith wasapprehended and sent aboard for England. "

That this roving boy was "thrown in" as a makeweight in the trade forthe town is not impossible; but that Smith combined with Powhatan tokill Captain West is doubtless West's perversion of the offer of theIndians to fight on Smith's side against him. 

According to Spelman's Relation, he stayed only seven or eight dayswith the little Powhatan, when he got leave to go to Jamestown, beingdesirous to see the English and to fetch the small articles thatbelonged to him. The Indian King agreed to wait for him at that place, but he stayed too long, and on his return the little Powhatan haddeparted, and Spelman went back to Jamestown. Shortly after, the greatPowhatan sent Thomas Savage with a present of venison to PresidentPercy. Savage was loath to return alone, and Spelman was appointed togo with him, which he did willingly, as victuals were scarce in camp. Hecarried some copper and a hatchet, which he presented to Powhatan, andthat Emperor treated him and his comrade very kindly, seating them athis own mess-table. After some three weeks of this life, Powhatan sentthis guileless youth down to decoy the English into his hands, promisingto freight a ship with corn if they would visit him. Spelman took themessage and brought back the English reply, whereupon Powhatan laid theplot which resulted in the killing of Captain Ratcliffe and thirty-eightmen, only two of his company escaping to Jamestown. Spelman givestwo versions of this incident. During the massacre Spelman says thatPowhatan sent him and Savage to a town some sixteen miles away. Smith's"General Historie" says that on this occasion "Pocahuntas saved a boynamed Henry Spilman that lived many years afterward, by her means, among the Patawomekes. " Spelman says not a word about Pocahuntas. Onthe contrary, he describes the visit of the King of the Patawomekesto Powhatan; says that the King took a fancy to him; that he and DutchSamuel, fearing for their lives, escaped from Powhatan's town; werepursued; that Samuel was killed, and that Spelman, after dodging aboutin the forest, found his way to the Potomac, where he lived with thisgood King Patomecke at a place called Pasptanzie for more than a year. Here he seems to have passed his time agreeably, for although he hadoccasional fights with the squaws of Patomecke, the King was always hisfriend, and so much was he attached to the boy that he would not givehim up to Captain Argall without some copper in exchange. 

When Smith returned wounded to Jamestown, he was physically in nocondition to face the situation. With no medical attendance, hisdeath was not improbable. He had no strength to enforce disciplinenor organize expeditions for supplies; besides, he was acting under acommission whose virtue had expired, and the mutinous spirits rebelledagainst his authority. Ratcliffe, Archer, and the others who wereawaiting trial conspired against him, and Smith says he would have beenmurdered in his bed if the murderer's heart had not failed him when hewent to fire his pistol at the defenseless sick man. However, Smith wasforced to yield to circumstances. No sooner had he given out that hewould depart for England than they persuaded Mr. Percy to stay and actas President, and all eyes were turned in expectation of favor upon thenew commanders. Smith being thus divested of authority, the most of thecolony turned against him; many preferred charges, and began to collecttestimony. "The ships were detained three weeks to get up proofs of hisill-conduct"--"time and charges, " says Smith, dryly, "that might muchbetter have been spent. "

It must have enraged the doughty Captain, lying thus helpless, to seehis enemies triumph, the most factious of the disturbers in the colonyin charge of affairs, and become his accusers. Even at this distance wecan read the account with little patience, and should have none at allif the account were not edited by Smith himself. His revenge was in hisgood fortune in setting his own story afloat in the current of history. The first narrative of these events, published by Smith in his Oxfordtract of 1612, was considerably remodeled and changed in his "GeneralHistorie" of 1624. As we have said before, he had a progressive memory, and his opponents ought to be thankful that the pungent Captain did notlive to work the story over a third time. 

It is no doubt true, however, that but for the accident to our hero, hewould have continued to rule till the arrival of Gates and Somers withthe new commissions; as he himself says, "but had that unhappy blast nothappened, he would quickly have qualified the heat of those humors andfactions, had the ships but once left them and us to our fortunes; andhave made that provision from among the salvages, as we neither fearedSpaniard, Salvage, nor famine: nor would have left Virginia nor ourlawful authority, but at as dear a price as we had bought it, and paidfor it. "

He doubtless would have fought it out against all comers; and whoshall say that he does not merit the glowing eulogy on himself which heinserts in his General History? "What shall I say but this, we left him, that in all his proceedings made justice his first guide, and experiencehis second, ever hating baseness, sloth, pride, and indignity, more thanany dangers; that upon no danger would send them where he would not leadthem himself; that would never see us want what he either had or couldby any means get us; that would rather want than borrow; or starve thannot pay; that loved action more than words, and hated falsehood andcovetousness worse than death; whose adventures were our lives, andwhose loss our deaths. "

A handsomer thing never was said of another man than Smith could say ofhimself, but he believed it, as also did many of his comrades, we mustsuppose. He suffered detraction enough, but he suffered also abundanteulogy both in verse and prose. Among his eulogists, of course, is notthe factious Captain Ratcliffe. In the English Colonial State papers, edited by Mr. Noel Sainsbury, is a note, dated Jamestown, October 4, 1609, from Captain "John Radclyffe comenly called, " to the Earl ofSalisbury, which contains this remark upon Smith's departure after thearrival of the last supply: "They heard that all the Council were deadbut Capt. [John] Smith, President, who reigned sole Governor, and is nowsent home to answer some misdemeanor. "

Captain Archer also regards this matter in a different light from thatin which Smith represents it. In a letter from Jamestown, written inAugust, he says:

"In as much as the President [Smith], to strengthen his authority, accorded with the variances and gave not any due respect to many worthygentlemen that were in our ships, wherefore they generally, with myconsent, chose Master West, my Lord De La Ware's brother, their Governoror President de bene esse, in the absence of Sir Thomas Gates, or ifhe be miscarried by sea, then to continue till we heard news from ourcounsell in England. This choice of him they made not to disturb the oldPresident during his term, but as his authority expired, then to takeupon him the sole government, with such assistants of the captains ordiscreet persons as the colony afforded. 

"Perhaps you shall have it blamed as a mutinie by such as retaine oldmalice, but Master West, Master Piercie, and all the respected gentlemenof worth in Virginia, can and will testify otherwise upon their oaths. For the King's patent we ratified, but refused to be governed by thePresident--that is, after his time was expired and only subjectedourselves to Master West, whom we labor to have next President. "

It is clear from this statement that the attempt was made to supersedeSmith even before his time expired, and without any authority (since thenew commissions were still with Gates and Somers in Bermuda), forthe reason that Smith did not pay proper respect to the newly arrived"gentlemen. " Smith was no doubt dictatorial and offensive, and from hispoint of view he was the only man who understood Virginia, and knew howsuccessfully to conduct the affairs of the colony. If this assumptionwere true it would be none the less disagreeable to the new-comers. 

At the time of Smith's deposition the colony was in prosperouscondition. The "General Historie" says that he left them "with threeships, seven boats, commodities ready to trade, the harvest newlygathered, ten weeks' provision in store, four hundred ninety andodd persons, twenty-four pieces of ordnance, three hundred muskets, snaphances and fire-locks, shot, powder, and match sufficient, curats, pikes, swords, and morrios, more than men; the Salvages, their languageand habitations well known to a hundred well-trained and expertsoldiers; nets for fishing; tools of all kinds to work; apparel tosupply our wants; six mules and a horse; five or six hundred swine; asmany hens and chickens; some goats; some sheep; what was brought or bredthere remained. " Jamestown was also strongly palisaded and containedsome fifty or sixty houses; besides there were five or six other fortsand plantations, "not so sumptuous as our succerers expected, they werebetter than they provided any for us. "

These expectations might well be disappointed if they were founded uponthe pictures of forts and fortifications in Virginia and in the SomersIslands, which appeared in De Bry and in the "General Historie, " wherethey appear as massive stone structures with all the finish and eleganceof the European military science of the day. 

Notwithstanding these ample provisions for the colony, Smith had smallexpectation that it would thrive without him. "They regarding nothing, "he says, "but from hand to mouth, did consume what we had, took care fornothing but to perfect some colorable complaint against Captain Smith. "

Nor was the composition of the colony such as to beget high hopes of it. There was but one carpenter, and three others that desired to learn, twoblacksmiths, ten sailors; those called laborers were for the most partfootmen, brought over to wait upon the adventurers, who did not knowwhat a day's work was--all the real laborers were the Dutchmen and Polesand some dozen others. "For all the rest were poor gentlemen, tradesmen, serving men, libertines, and such like, ten times more fit to spoil acommonwealth than either begin one or help to maintain one. For whenneither the fear of God, nor the law, nor shame, nor displeasure oftheir friends could rule them here, there is small hope ever to bringone in twenty of them to be good there. " Some of them proved moreindustrious than was expected; "but ten good workmen would have donemore substantial work in a day than ten of them in a week. "

The disreputable character of the majority of these colonists isabundantly proved by other contemporary testimony. In the letter of theGovernor and Council of Virginia to the London Company, dated Jamestown, July 7, 1610, signed by Lord De La Ware, Thomas Gates, George Percy, Ferd. Wenman, and William Strachey, and probably composed by Strachey, after speaking of the bountiful capacity of the country, the writerexclaims: "Only let me truly acknowledge there are not one hundred ortwo of deboisht hands, dropt forth by year after year, with penury andleysure, ill provided for before they come, and worse governed when theyare here, men of such distempered bodies and infected minds, whom noexamples daily before their eyes, either of goodness or punishment, can deterr from their habituall impieties, or terrifie from a shamefuldeath, that must be the carpenters and workmen in this so glorious abuilding. "

The chapter in the "General Historie" relating to Smith's last days inVirginia was transferred from the narrative in the appendix to Smith's"Map of Virginia, " Oxford, 1612, but much changed in the transfer. Inthe "General Historie" Smith says very little about the nature of thecharges against him. In the original narrative signed by Richard Potsand edited by Smith, there are more details of the charges. One omittedpassage is this: "Now all those Smith had either whipped or punished, or in any way disgraced, had free power and liberty to say or sweareanything, and from a whole armful of their examinations this wasconcluded. "

Another omitted passage relates to the charge, to which reference ismade in the "General Historie, " that Smith proposed to marry Pocahontas:

"Some propheticall spirit calculated he had the salvages in suchsubjection, he would have made himself a king by marrying Pocahuntas, Powhatan's daughter. It is true she was the very nonpareil of hiskingdom, and at most not past thirteen or fourteen years of age. Veryoft she came to our fort with what she could get for Capt. Smith, thatever loved and used all the country well, but her especially he evermuch respected, and she so well requited it, that when her fatherintended to have surprised him, she by stealth in the dark night camethrough the wild woods and told him of it. But her marriage could inno way have entitled him by any right to the kingdom, nor was it eversuspected he had such a thought, or more regarded her or any of themthan in honest reason and discretion he might. If he would he might havemarried her, or have done what he listed. For there were none that couldhave hindered his determination. "

It is fair, in passing, to remark that the above allusion to the nightvisit of Pocahontas to Smith in this tract of 1612 helps to confirmthe story, which does not appear in the previous narration of Smith'sencounter with Powhatan at Werowocomoco in the same tract, but iscelebrated in the "General Historie. " It is also hinted plainly enoughthat Smith might have taken the girl to wife, Indian fashion. 

XIV. THE COLONY WITHOUT SMITH

It was necessary to follow for a time the fortune of the Virginiacolony after the departure of Captain Smith. Of its disasters and speedydecline there is no more doubt than there is of the opinion of Smiththat these were owing to his absence. The savages, we read in hisnarration, no sooner knew he was gone than they all revolted and spoiledand murdered all they encountered. 

The day before Captain Smith sailed, Captain Davis arrived in a smallpinnace with sixteen men. These, with a company from the fort underCaptain Ratcliffe, were sent down to Point Comfort. Captain West andCaptain Martin, having lost their boats and half their men among thesavages at the Falls, returned to Jamestown. The colony now lived uponwhat Smith had provided, "and now they had presidents with all theirappurtenances. " President Percy was so sick he could neither go norstand. Provisions getting short, West and Ratcliffe went abroad totrade, and Ratcliffe and twenty-eight of his men were slain by an ambushof Powhatan's, as before related in the narrative of Henry Spelman. Powhatan cut off their boats, and refused to trade, so that Captain Westset sail for England. What ensued cannot be more vividly told than inthe "General Historie":

"Now we all found the losse of Capt. Smith, yea his greatest malignerscould now curse his losse; as for corne provision and contribution fromthe salvages, we had nothing but mortall wounds, with clubs andarrowes; as for our hogs, hens, goats, sheep, horse, or what lived, our commanders, officers and salvages daily consumed them, some smallproportions sometimes we tasted, till all was devoured; then swords, arms, pieces or anything was traded with the salvages, whose cruellfingers were so oft imbrued in our blouds, that what by their crueltie, our Governor's indiscretion, and the losse of our ships, of five hundredwithin six months after Capt. Smith's departure, there remained not pastsixty men, women and children, most miserable and poore creatures;and those were preserved for the most part, by roots, herbes, acorns, walnuts, berries, now and then a little fish; they that had starch inthese extremities made no small use of it, yea, even the very skinnesof our horses. Nay, so great was our famine, that a salvage we slew andburied, the poorer sort took him up again and eat him, and so did diversone another boyled, and stewed with roots and herbs. And one amongst therest did kill his wife, poudered her and had eaten part of her before itwas knowne, for which he was executed, as he well deserved; now whethershe was better roasted, boyled, or carbonaded, I know not, but of such adish as powdered wife I never heard of. This was that time, which stillto this day we called the starving time; it were too vile to say andscarce to be believed what we endured; but the occasion was our owne, for want of providence, industrie and government, and not the barrenessand defect of the country as is generally supposed. "

This playful allusion to powdered wife, and speculation as to how shewas best cooked, is the first instance we have been able to find of whatis called "American humor, " and Captain Smith has the honor of being thefirst of the "American humorists" who have handled subjects of this kindwith such pleasing gayety. 

It is to be noticed that this horrible story of cannibalism andwife-eating appears in Smith's "General Historie" of 1624, without aword of contradiction or explanation, although the company as early as1610 had taken pains to get at the facts, and Smith must have seen their"Declaration, " which supposes the story was started by enemies of thecolony. Some reported they saw it, some that Captain Smith said so, andsome that one Beadle, the lieutenant of Captain Davis, did relate it. In"A True Declaration of the State of the Colonie in Virginia, " publishedby the advice and direction of the Council of Virginia, London, 1610, weread:

"But to clear all doubt, Sir Thomas Yates thus relateth the tragedie:

"There was one of the company who mortally hated his wife, and thereforesecretly killed her, then cut her in pieces and hid her in divers partsof his house: when the woman was missing, the man suspected, his housesearched, and parts of her mangled body were discovered, to excusehimself he said that his wife died, that he hid her to satisfie hishunger, and that he fed daily upon her. Upon this his house was againsearched, when they found a good quantitie of meale, oatmeale, beanesand pease. Hee therefore was arraigned, confessed the murder, and wasburned for his horrible villainy. "

This same "True Declaration, " which singularly enough does not mentionthe name of Captain Smith, who was so prominent an actor in Virginiaduring the period to which it relates, confirms all that Smith saidas to the character of the colonists, especially the new supply whichlanded in the eight vessels with Ratcliffe and Archer. "Everyman overvalueing his own strength would be a commander; every manunderprizing another's value, denied to be commanded. " They werenegligent and improvident. "Every man sharked for his present bootie, but was altogether careless of succeeding penurie. " To idleness andfaction was joined treason. About thirty "unhallowed creatures, " in thewinter of 1610, some five months before the arrival of Captain Gates, seized upon the ship Swallow, which had been prepared to trade with theIndians, and having obtained corn conspired together and made a leagueto become pirates, dreaming of mountains of gold and happy robberies. Bythis desertion they weakened the colony, which waited for their returnwith the provisions, and they made implacable enemies of the Indians bytheir violence. "These are that scum of men, " which, after roving theseas and failing in their piracy, joined themselves to other piratesthey found on the sea, or returned to England, bound by a mutual oath todiscredit the land, and swore they were drawn away by famine. "These arethey that roared at the tragicall historie of the man eating up his deadwife in Virginia"--"scandalous reports of a viperous generation. "

If further evidence were wanting, we have it in "The New Life ofVirginia, " published by authority of the Council, London, 1612. This isthe second part of the "Nova Britannia, " published in London, 1609. Bothare prefaced by an epistle to Sir Thomas Smith, one of the Council andtreasurer, signed "R. I. " Neither document contains any allusion toCaptain John Smith, or the part he played in Virginia. The "New Life ofVirginia, " after speaking of the tempest which drove Sir Thomas Gateson Bermuda, and the landing of the eight ships at Jamestown, says:"By which means the body of the plantation was now augmented with suchnumbers of irregular persons that it soon became as so many memberswithout a head, who as they were bad and evil affected for the most partbefore they went hence; so now being landed and wanting restraint, theydisplayed their condition in all kinds of looseness, those chief andwisest guides among them (whereof there were not many) did nothing butbitterly contend who should be first to command the rest, the commonsort, as is ever seen in such cases grew factious and disordered outof measure, in so much as the poor colony seemed (like the Colledge ofEnglish fugitives in Rome) as a hostile camp within itself; in whichdistemper that envious man stept in, sowing plentiful tares in thehearts of all, which grew to such speedy confusion, that in few monthsambition, sloth and idleness had devoured the fruit of former labours, planting and sowing were clean given over, the houses decayed, thechurch fell to ruin, the store was spent, the cattle consumed, ourpeople starved, and the Indians by wrongs and injuries made ourenemies.... As for those wicked Impes that put themselves a shipboard, not knowing otherwise how to live in England; or those ungratious sonsthat daily vexed their fathers hearts at home, and were therefore thrustupon the voyage, which either writing thence, or being returned back tocover their own leudnes, do fill mens ears with false reports of theirmiserable and perilous life in Virginia, let the imputation of miserybe to their idleness, and the blood that was spilt upon their own headsthat caused it. "

Sir Thomas Gates affirmed that after his first coming there he had seensome of them eat their fish raw rather than go a stone's cast to fetchwood and dress it. 

The colony was in such extremity in May, 1610, that it would have beenextinct in ten days but for the arrival of Sir Thomas Gates and SirGeorge Somers and Captain Newport from the Bermudas. These gallantgentlemen, with one hundred and fifty souls, had been wrecked on theBermudas in the Sea Venture in the preceding July. The terrors of thehurricane which dispersed the fleet, and this shipwreck, were muchdwelt upon by the writers of the time, and the Bermudas became a sort ofenchanted islands, or realms of the imagination. For three nights, and three days that were as black as the nights, the water logged SeaVenture was scarcely kept afloat by bailing. We have a vivid picture ofthe stanch Somers sitting upon the poop of the ship, where he sat threedays and three nights together, without much meat and little or nosleep, conning the ship to keep her as upright as he could, until hehappily descried land. The ship went ashore and was wedged into therocks so fast that it held together till all were got ashore, and a goodpart of the goods and provisions, and the tackling and iron of the shipnecessary for the building and furnishing of a new ship. 

This good fortune and the subsequent prosperous life on the island andfinal deliverance was due to the noble Somers, or Sommers, after whomthe Bermudas were long called "Sommers Isles, " which was graduallycorrupted into "The Summer Isles. " These islands of Bermuda had everbeen accounted an enchanted pile of rocks and a desert inhabitation fordevils, which the navigator and mariner avoided as Scylla and Charybdis, or the devil himself. But this shipwrecked company found it the mostdelightful country in the world, the climate was enchanting, deliciousfruits abounded, the waters swarmed with fish, some of them big enoughto nearly drag the fishers into the sea, while whales could be heardspouting and nosing about the rocks at night; birds fat and tame andwilling to be eaten covered all the bushes, and such droves of wild hogscovered the island that the slaughter of them for months seemed not todiminish their number. The friendly disposition of the birds seemedmost to impress the writer of the "True Declaration of Virginia. " Heremembers how the ravens fed Elias in the brook Cedron; "so God providedfor our disconsolate people in the midst of the sea by foules; but withan admirable difference; unto Elias the ravens brought meat, unto ourmen the foules brought (themselves) for meate: for when they whistled, or made any strange noyse, the foules would come and sit on theirshoulders, they would suffer themselves to be taken and weighed by ourmen, who would make choice of the fairest and fattest and let flie theleane and lightest, an accident [the chronicler exclaims], I take it[and everybody will take it], that cannot be paralleled by any Historie, except when God sent abundance of Quayles to feed his Israel in thebarren wilderness. "

The rescued voyagers built themselves comfortable houses on the island, and dwelt there nine months in good health and plentifully fed. Sundaywas carefully observed, with sermons by Mr. Buck, the chaplain, anOxford man, who was assisted in the services by Stephen Hopkins, one ofthe Puritans who were in the company. A marriage was celebrated betweenThomas Powell, the cook of Sir George Somers, and Elizabeth Persons, the servant of Mrs. Horlow. Two children were also born, a boy who waschristened Bermudas and a girl Bermuda. The girl was the child of Mr. John Rolfe and wife, the Rolfe who was shortly afterward to becomefamous by another marriage. In order that nothing should be wanting tothe ordinary course of a civilized community, a murder was committed. Inthe company were two Indians, Machumps and Namontack, whose acquaintancewe have before made, returning from England, whither they had been sentby Captain Smith. Falling out about something, Machumps slew Namontack, and having made a hole to bury him, because it was too short he cut offhis legs and laid them by him. This proceeding Machumps concealed tillhe was in Virginia. 

Somers and Gates were busy building two cedar ships, the Deliverer, of eighty tons, and a pinnace called the Patience. When these werecompleted, the whole company, except two scamps who remained behind andhad adventures enough for a three-volume novel, embarked, and on the16th of May sailed for Jamestown, where they arrived on the 23d or 24th, and found the colony in the pitiable condition before described. A fewfamished settlers watched their coming. The church bell was rung inthe shaky edifice, and the emaciated colonists assembled and heard the"zealous and sorrowful prayer" of Chaplain Buck. The commission of SirThomas Gates was read, and Mr. Percy retired from the governorship. 

The town was empty and unfurnished, and seemed like the ruin of someancient fortification rather than the habitation of living men. Thepalisades were down; the ports open; the gates unhinged; the churchruined and unfrequented; the houses empty, torn to pieces or burnt;the people not able to step into the woods to gather fire-wood; and theIndians killing as fast without as famine and pestilence within. William Strachey was among the new-comers, and this is the story that hedespatched as Lord Delaware's report to England in July. On taking stockof provisions there was found only scant rations for sixteen days, andGates and Somers determined to abandon the plantation, and, taking allon board their own ships, to make their way to Newfoundland, in the hopeof falling in with English vessels. Accordingly, on the 7th of June theygot on board and dropped down the James. 

Meantime the news of the disasters to the colony, and the supposed lossof the Sea Venture, had created a great excitement in London, and apanic and stoppage of subscriptions in the company. Lord Delaware, a manof the highest reputation for courage and principle, determined to gohimself, as Captain-General, to Virginia, in the hope of saving thefortunes of the colony. With three ships and one hundred and fiftypersons, mostly artificers, he embarked on the 1st of April, 1610, andreached the Chesapeake Bay on the 5th of June, just in time to meet theforlorn company of Gates and Somers putting out to sea. 

They turned back and ascended to Jamestown, when landing on Sunday, the10th, after a sermon by Mr. Buck, the commission of Lord Delaware wasread, and Gates turned over his authority to the new Governor. He sworein as Council, Sir Thomas Gates, Lieutenant-General; Sir George Somers, Admiral; Captain George Percy; Sir Ferdinando Wenman, Marshal; CaptainChristopher Newport, and William Strachey, Esq. , Secretary and Recorder. 

On the 19th of June the brave old sailor, Sir George Somers, volunteeredto return to the Bermudas in his pinnace to procure hogs and othersupplies for the colony. He was accompanied by Captain Argall in theship Discovery. After a rough voyage this noble old knight reached theBermudas. But his strength was not equal to the memorable courage of hismind. At a place called Saint George he died, and his men, confounded atthe death of him who was the life of them all, embalmed his body andset sail for England. Captain Argall, after parting with his consort, without reaching the Bermudas, and much beating about the coast, wascompelled to return to Jamestown. 

Captain Gates was sent to England with despatches and to procure moresettlers and more supplies. Lord Delaware remained with the colony lessthan a year; his health failing, he went in pursuit of it, in March, 1611, to the West Indies. In June of that year Gates sailed again, withsix vessels, three hundred men, one hundred cows, besides other cattle, and provisions of all sorts. With him went his wife, who died on thepassage, and his daughters. His expedition reached the James in August. The colony now numbered seven hundred persons. Gates seated himself atHampton, a "delicate and necessary site for a city. "

Percy commanded at Jamestown, and Sir Thomas Dale went up the river tolay the foundations of Henrico. 

We have no occasion to follow further the fortunes of the Virginiacolony, except to relate the story of Pocahontas under her differentnames of Amonate, Matoaka, Mrs. Rolfe, and Lady Rebecca. 

XV. NEW ENGLAND ADVENTURES

Captain John Smith returned to England in the autumn of 1609, woundedin body and loaded with accusations of misconduct, concocted by hisfactious companions in Virginia. There is no record that these chargeswere ever considered by the London Company. Indeed, we cannot findthat the company in those days ever took any action on the charges madeagainst any of its servants in Virginia. Men came home in disgrace andappeared to receive neither vindication nor condemnation. Some sunk intoprivate life, and others more pushing and brazen, like Ratcliffe, theenemy of Smith, got employment again after a time. The affairs of thecompany seem to have been conducted with little order or justice. 

Whatever may have been the justice of the charges against Smith, he hadevidently forfeited the good opinion of the company as a desirable manto employ. They might esteem his energy and profit by his advice andexperience, but they did not want his services. And in time he came tobe considered an enemy of the company. 

Unfortunately for biographical purposes, Smith's life is pretty much ablank from 1609 to 1614. When he ceases to write about himself he passesout of sight. There are scarcely any contemporary allusions to hisexistence at this time. We may assume, however, from our knowledge ofhis restlessness, ambition, and love of adventure, that he was not idle. We may assume that he besieged the company with his plans for the properconduct of the settlement of Virginia; that he talked at large in allcompanies of his discoveries, his exploits, which grew by the relating, and of the prospective greatness of the new Britain beyond the Atlantic. That he wearied the Council by his importunity and his acquaintancesby his hobby, we can also surmise. No doubt also he was considered afanatic by those who failed to comprehend the greatness of his schemes, and to realize, as he did, the importance of securing the new empire tothe English before it was occupied by the Spanish and the French. Hisconceit, his boasting, and his overbearing manner, which no doubt wasone of the causes why he was unable to act in harmony with the otheradventurers of that day, all told against him. He was that mostuncomfortable person, a man conscious of his own importance, and out offavor and out of money. 

Yet Smith had friends, and followers, and men who believed in him. Thisis shown by the remarkable eulogies in verse from many pens, which heprefixes to the various editions of his many works. They seem to havebeen written after reading the manuscripts, and prepared to accompanythe printed volumes and tracts. They all allude to the envy anddetraction to which he was subject, and which must have amounted toa storm of abuse and perhaps ridicule; and they all tax the Englishvocabulary to extol Smith, his deeds, and his works. In putting forwardthese tributes of admiration and affection, as well as in his constantallusion to the ill requital of his services, we see a man fighting forhis reputation, and conscious of the necessity of doing so. He is everturning back, in whatever he writes, to rehearse his exploits and todefend his motives. 

The London to which Smith returned was the London of Shakespeare's day;a city dirty, with ill-paved streets unlighted at night, no sidewalks, foul gutters, wooden houses, gable ends to the street, set thickly withsmall windows from which slops and refuse were at any moment of the dayor night liable to be emptied upon the heads of the passers by; pettylittle shops in which were beginning to be displayed the silks andluxuries of the continent; a city crowded and growing rapidly, subjectto pestilences and liable to sweeping conflagrations. The Thames had nobridges, and hundreds of boats plied between London side and Southwark, where were most of the theatres, the bull-baitings, the bear-fighting, the public gardens, the residences of the hussies, and other amusementsthat Bankside, the resort of all classes bent on pleasure, furnishedhigh or low. At no time before or since was there such fantasticalfashion in dress, both in cut and gay colors, nor more sumptuousness incostume or luxury in display among the upper classes, and such squalorin low life. The press teemed with tracts and pamphlets, written inlanguage "as plain as a pikestaff, " against the immoralities of thetheatres, those "seminaries of vice, " and calling down the judgment ofGod upon the cost and the monstrosities of the dress of both menand women; while the town roared on its way, warned by sermons, andinstructed in its chosen path by such plays and masques as Ben Jonson's"Pleasure reconciled to Virtue. "

The town swarmed with idlers, and with gallants who wanted advancementbut were unwilling to adventure their ease to obtain it. There was muchlounging in apothecaries' shops to smoke tobacco, gossip, and hear thenews. We may be sure that Smith found many auditors for his adventuresand his complaints. There was a good deal of interest in the New World, but mainly still as a place where gold and other wealth might be gotwithout much labor, and as a possible short cut to the South Sea andCathay. The vast number of Londoners whose names appear in the secondVirginia charter shows the readiness of traders to seek profit inadventure. The stir for wider freedom in religion and governmentincreased with the activity of exploration and colonization, and onereason why James finally annulled the Virginia, charter was becausehe regarded the meetings of the London Company as opportunities ofsedition. 

Smith is altogether silent about his existence at this time. We do nothear of him till 1612, when his "Map of Virginia" with his descriptionof the country was published at Oxford. The map had been publishedbefore: it was sent home with at least a portion of the descriptionof Virginia. In an appendix appeared (as has been said) a series ofnarrations of Smith's exploits, covering the rime he was in Virginia, written by his companions, edited by his friend Dr. Symonds, andcarefully overlooked by himself. 

Failing to obtain employment by the Virginia company, Smith turned hisattention to New England, but neither did the Plymouth company availthemselves of his service. At last in 1614 he persuaded some Londonmerchants to fit him out for a private trading adventure to the coastof New England. Accordingly with two ships, at the charge of CaptainMarmaduke Roydon, Captain George Langam, Mr. John Buley, and WilliamSkelton, merchants, he sailed from the Downs on the 3d of March, 1614, and in the latter part of April "chanced to arrive in New England, a part of America at the Isle of Monahiggan in 43 1/2 of Northerlylatitude. " This was within the territory appropriated to the second (thePlymouth) colony by the patent of 1606, which gave leave of settlementbetween the 38th and 44th parallels. 

Smith's connection with New England is very slight, and mainly that ofan author, one who labored for many years to excite interest in it byhis writings. He named several points, and made a map of such portionof the coast as he saw, which was changed from time to time by otherobservations. He had a remarkable eye for topography, as is especiallyevident by his map of Virginia. This New England coast is roughlyindicated in Venazzani's Plot Of 1524, and better on Mercator's of a fewyears later, and in Ortelius's "Theatrum Orbis Terarum" of 1570; butin Smith's map we have for the first time a fair approach to the realcontour. 

Of Smith's English predecessors on this coast there is no room hereto speak. Gosnold had described Elizabeth's Isles, explorations andsettlements had been made on the coast of Maine by Popham and Weymouth, but Smith claims the credit of not only drawing the first fair map ofthe coast, but of giving the name "New England" to what had passed underthe general names of Virginia, Canada, Norumbaga, etc. 

Smith published his description of New England June 18, 1616, and it isin that we must follow his career. It is dedicated to the "high, hopefulCharles, Prince of Great Britain, " and is prefaced by an address tothe King's Council for all the plantations, and another to all theadventurers into New England. The addresses, as usual, call attentionto his own merits. "Little honey [he writes] hath that hive, where thereare more drones than bees; and miserable is that land where moreare idle than are well employed. If the endeavors of these vermin beacceptable, I hope mine may be excusable: though I confess it were moreproper for me to be doing what I say than writing what I know. Had Ireturned rich I could not have erred; now having only such food as cameto my net, I must be taxed. But, I would my taxers were as ready toadventure their purses as I, purse, life, and all I have; or as diligentto permit the charge, as I know they are vigilant to reap the fruits ofmy labors. " The value of the fisheries he had demonstrated by his catch;and he says, looking, as usual, to large results, "but because I speakso much of fishing, if any mistake me for such a devote fisher, as Idream of nought else, they mistake me. I know a ring of gold from agrain of barley as well as a goldsmith; and nothing is there to be hadwhich fishing doth hinder, but further us to obtain. "

John Smith first appears on the New England coast as a whale fisher. The only reference to his being in America in Josselyn's "ChronologicalObservations of America" is under the wrong year, 1608: "Capt. JohnSmith fished now for whales at Monhiggen. " He says: "Our plot there wasto take whales, and made tryall of a Myne of gold and copper;" thesefailing they were to get fish and furs. Of gold there had been littleexpectation, and (he goes on) "we found this whale fishing a costlyconclusion; we saw many, and spent much time in chasing them; but couldnot kill any; they being a kind of Jubartes, and not the whale thatyeeldes finnes and oyle as we expected. " They then turned theirattention to smaller fish, but owing to their late arrival and "longlingering about the whale"--chasing a whale that they could not killbecause it was not the right kind--the best season for fishing waspassed. Nevertheless, they secured some 40, 000 cod--the figure isnaturally raised to 60, 000 when Smith retells the story fifteen yearsafterwards. 

But our hero was a born explorer, and could not be content with notexamining the strange coast upon which he found himself. Leaving hissailors to catch cod, he took eight or nine men in a small boat, andcruised along the coast, trading wherever he could for furs, of whichhe obtained above a thousand beaver skins; but his chance to trade waslimited by the French settlements in the east, by the presence of one ofPopham's ships opposite Monhegan, on the main, and by a couple of Frenchvessels to the westward. Having examined the coast from Penobscot toCape Cod, and gathered a profitable harvest from the sea, Smith returnedin his vessel, reaching the Downs within six months after his departure. This was his whole experience in New England, which ever afterwardshe regarded as particularly his discovery, and spoke of as one of hischildren, Virginia being the other. 

With the other vessel Smith had trouble. He accuses its master, ThomasHunt, of attempting to rob him of his plots and observations, and toleave him "alone on a desolate isle, to the fury of famine, And allother extremities. " After Smith's departure the rascally Hunt decoyedtwenty-seven unsuspecting savages on board his ship and carried them offto Spain, where he sold them as slaves. Hunt sold his furs at a greatprofit. Smith's cargo also paid well: in his letter to Lord Bacon in1618 he says that with forty-five men he had cleared L 1, 500 in lessthan three months on a cargo of dried fish and beaver skins--a pound atthat date had five times the purchasing power of a pound now. 

The explorer first landed on Monhegan, a small island in sight of whichin the war of 1812 occurred the lively little seafight of the AmericanWasp and the British Frolic, in which the Wasp was the victor, butdirectly after, with her prize, fell into the hands of an Englishseventy-four. 

He made certainly a most remarkable voyage in his open boat. BetweenPenobscot and Cape Cod (which he called Cape James) he says he saw fortyseveral habitations, and sounded about twenty-five excellent harbors. Although Smith accepted the geographical notion of his time, and thoughtthat Florida adjoined India, he declared that Virginia was not anisland, but part of a great continent, and he comprehended somethingof the vastness of the country he was coasting along, "dominions whichstretch themselves into the main, God doth know how many thousand miles, of which one could no more guess the extent and products than a strangersailing betwixt England and France could tell what was in Spain, Italy, Germany, Bohemia, Hungary, and the rest. " And he had the propheticvision, which he more than once refers to, of one of the greatestempires of the world that would one day arise here. Contrary to theopinion that prevailed then and for years after, he declared also thatNew England was not an island. 

Smith describes with considerable particularity the coast, giving thenames of the Indian tribes, and cataloguing the native productions, vegetable and animal. He bestows his favorite names liberally uponpoints and islands--few of which were accepted. Cape Ann he called fromhis charming Turkish benefactor, "Cape Tragabigzanda"; the three islandsin front of it, the "Three Turks' Heads"; and the Isles of Shoals hesimply describes: "Smyth's Isles are a heape together, none neare them, against Acconimticus. " Cape Cod, which appears upon all the maps beforeSmith's visit as "Sandy" cape, he says "is only a headland of high hillsof sand, overgrown with shrubbie pines, hurts [whorts, whortleberries]and such trash; but an excellent harbor for all weathers. This Cape ismade by the maine Sea on the one side, and a great bay on the other inthe form of a sickle. "

A large portion of this treatise on New England is devoted to anargument to induce the English to found a permanent colony there, ofwhich Smith shows that he would be the proper leader. The main staplefor the present would be fish, and he shows how Holland has becomepowerful by her fisheries and the training of hardy sailors. The fisherywould support a colony until it had obtained a good foothold, andcontrol of these fisheries would bring more profit to England than anyother occupation. There are other reasons than gain that should inducein England the large ambition of founding a great state, reasons ofreligion and humanity, erecting towns, peopling countries, informing theignorant, reforming things unjust, teaching virtue, finding employmentfor the idle, and giving to the mother country a kingdom to attend her. But he does not expect the English to indulge in such noble ambitionsunless he can show a profit in them. 

"I have not [he says] been so ill bred but I have tasted of plenty andpleasure, as well as want and misery; nor doth a necessity yet, noroccasion of discontent, force me to these endeavors; nor am I ignorantthat small thank I shall have for my pains; or that many would have theworld imagine them to be of great judgment, that can but blemish thesemy designs, by their witty objections and detractions; yet (I hope) myreasons and my deeds will so prevail with some, that I shall notwant employment in these affairs to make the most blind see his ownsenselessness and incredulity; hoping that gain will make them affectthat which religion, charity and the common good cannot.... For I amnot so simple to think that ever any other motive than wealth will evererect there a Commonwealth; or draw company from their ease and humoursat home, to stay in New England to effect any purpose. "

But lest the toils of the new settlement should affright his readers, our author draws an idyllic picture of the simple pleasures which natureand liberty afford here freely, but which cost so dearly in England. Those who seek vain pleasure in England take more pains to enjoy it thanthey would spend in New England to gain wealth, and yet have not halfsuch sweet content. What pleasure can be more, he exclaims, when men aretired of planting vines and fruits and ordering gardens, orchards andbuilding to their mind, than "to recreate themselves before their ownedoore, in their owne boates upon the Sea, where man, woman and child, with a small hooke and line, by angling, may take divers sorts ofexcellent fish at their pleasures? And is it not pretty sport, to pullup two pence, six pence, and twelve pence as fast as you can hale andveere a line?... And what sport doth yield more pleasing content, andless hurt or charge than angling with a hooke, and crossing the sweetayre from Isle to Isle, over the silent streams of a calme Sea? whereinthe most curious may finde pleasure, profit and content. "

Smith made a most attractive picture of the fertility of the soiland the fruitfulness of the country. Nothing was too trivial to bementioned. "There are certain red berries called Alkermes which is worthten shillings a pound, but of these hath been sold for thirty or fortyshillings the pound, may yearly be gathered a good quantity. " JohnJosselyn, who was much of the time in New England from 1638 to 1671 andsaw more marvels there than anybody else ever imagined, says, "I havesought for this berry he speaks of, as a man should for a needle ina bottle of hay, but could never light upon it; unless that kind ofSolomon's seal called by the English treacle-berry should be it. "

Towards the last of August, 1614, Smith was back at Plymouth. He hadnow a project of a colony which he imparted to his friend Sir FerdinandGorges. It is difficult from Smith's various accounts to say exactlywhat happened to him next. It would appear that he declined to go withan expedition of four ship which the Virginia company despatched in1615, and incurred their ill-will by refusing, but he considered himselfattached to the western or Plymouth company. Still he experienced manydelays from them: they promised four ships to be ready at Plymouth;on his arrival "he found no such matter, " and at last he embarked ina private expedition, to found a colony at the expense of Gorges, Dr. Sutliffe, Bishop o Exeter, and a few gentlemen in London. In January1615, he sailed from Plymouth with a ship Of 20 tons, and another of 50. His intention was, after the fishing was over, to remain in New Englandwith only fifteen men and begin a colony. 

These hopes were frustrated. When only one hundred and twenty leaguesout all the masts of his vessels were carried away in a storm, and itwas only by diligent pumping that he was able to keep his craft afloatand put back to Plymouth. Thence on the 24th of June he made anotherstart in a vessel of sixty tons with thirty men. But ill-luck stillattended him. He had a queer adventure with pirates. Lest the enviousworld should not believe his own story, Smith had Baker, his steward, and several of his crew examined before a magistrate at Plymouth, December 8, 1615, who support his story by their testimony up to acertain point. 

It appears that he was chased two days by one Fry, an English pirate, in a greatly superior vessel, heavily armed and manned. By reason of thefoul weather the pirate could not board Smith, and his master, mate, and pilot, Chambers, Minter, and Digby, importuned him to surrender, and that he should send a boat to the pirate, as Fry had no boat. This singular proposal Smith accepted on condition Fry would not takeanything that would cripple his voyage, or send more men aboard(Smith furnishing the boat) than he allowed. Baker confessed thatthe quartermaster and Chambers received gold of the pirates, for whatpurpose it does not appear. They came on board, but Smith would not comeout of his cabin to entertain them, "although a great many of them hadbeen his sailors, and for his love would have wafted us to the Isle ofFlowers. "

Having got rid of the pirate Fry by this singular manner of receivinggold from him, Smith's vessel was next chased by two French pirates atFayal. Chambers, Minter, and Digby again desired Smith to yield, but hethreatened to blow up his ship if they did not stand to the defense; andso they got clear of the French pirates. But more were to come. 

At "Flowers" they were chased by four French men-of-war. Again Chambers, Minter, and Digby importuned Smith to yield, and upon the considerationthat he could speak French, and that they were Protestants of Rochelleand had the King's commission to take Spaniards, Portuguese, andpirates, Smith, with some of his company, went on board one of theFrench ships. The next day the French plundered Smith's vessel anddistributed his crew among their ships, and for a week employed his boatin chasing all the ships that came in sight. At the end of this boutthey surrendered her again to her crew, with victuals but no weapons. Smith exhorted his officers to proceed on their voyage for fish, eitherto New England or Newfoundland. This the officers declined to do atfirst, but the soldiers on board compelled them, and thereupon CaptainSmith busied himself in collecting from the French fleet and sending onboard his bark various commodities that belonged to her--powder, match, books, instruments, his sword and dagger, bedding, aquavite, hiscommission, apparel, and many other things. These articles Chambers andthe others divided among themselves, leaving Smith, who was still onboard the Frenchman, only his waistcoat and breeches. The next day, theweather being foul, they ran so near the Frenchman as to endanger theiryards, and Chambers called to Captain Smith to come aboard or he wouldleave him. Smith ordered him to send a boat; Chambers replied thathis boat was split, which was a lie, and told him to come off in theFrenchman's boat. Smith said he could not command that, and so theyparted. The English bark returned to Plymouth, and Smith was left onboard the French man-of-war. 

Smith himself says that Chambers had persuaded the French admiral thatif Smith was let to go on his boat he would revenge himself on theFrench fisheries on the Banks. 

For over two months, according to his narration, Smith was kept on boardthe Frenchman, cruising about for prizes, "to manage their fight againstthe Spaniards, and be in a prison when they took any English. " One oftheir prizes was a sugar caraval from Brazil; another was a West Indianworth two hundred thousand crowns, which had on board fourteen coffersof wedges of silver, eight thousand royals of eight, and six coffers ofthe King of Spain's treasure, besides the pillage and rich coffers ofmany rich passengers. The French captain, breaking his promise to putSmith ashore at Fayal, at length sent him towards France on the sugarcaravel. When near the coast, in a night of terrible storm, Smith seizeda boat and escaped. It was a tempest that wrecked all the vessels on thecoast, and for twelve hours Smith was drifting about in his open boat, in momentary expectation of sinking, until he was cast upon the oozyisle of "Charowne, " where the fowlers picked him up half dead withwater, cold, and hunger, and he got to Rochelle, where he made complaintto the Judge of Admiralty. Here he learned that the rich prize had beenwrecked in the storm and the captain and half the crew drowned. Butfrom the wreck of this great prize thirty-six thousand crowns' worth ofjewels came ashore. For his share in this Smith put in his claim withthe English ambassador at Bordeaux. The Captain was hospitably treatedby the Frenchmen. He met there his old friend Master Crampton, and hesays: "I was more beholden to the Frenchmen that escaped drowning inthe man-of-war, Madam Chanoyes of Rotchell, and the lawyers of Burdeaux, than all the rest of my countrymen I met in France. " While he waswaiting there to get justice, he saw the "arrival of the King's greatmarriage brought from Spain. " This is all his reference to the arrivalof Anne of Austria, eldest daughter of Philip III. , who had beenbetrothed to Louis XIII. In 1612, one of the double Spanish marriageswhich made such a commotion in France. 

Leaving his business in France unsettled (forever), Smith returned toPlymouth, to find his reputation covered with infamy and his clothes, books, and arms divided among the mutineers of his boat. The chiefestof these he "laid by the heels, " as usual, and the others confessed andtold the singular tale we have outlined. It needs no comment, exceptthat Smith had a facility for unlucky adventures unequaled among theuneasy spirits of his age. Yet he was as buoyant as a cork, and emergedfrom every disaster with more enthusiasm for himself and for newventures. Among the many glowing tributes to himself in verse that Smithprints with this description is one signed by a soldier, Edw. Robinson, which begins:

 "Oft thou hast led, when I brought up the Rere, In bloody wars where thousands have been slaine. "

This common soldier, who cannot help breaking out in poetry when hethinks of Smith, is made to say that Smith was his captain "in thefierce wars of Transylvania, " and he apostrophizes him:

 "Thou that to passe the worlds foure parts dost deeme No more, than ewere to goe to bed or drinke, And all thou yet hast done thou dost esteeme As nothing. 

 "For mee: I not commend but much admire Thy England yet unknown to passers by-her, For it will praise itselfe in spight of me: Thou, it, it, thou, to all posteritie. "

XVI. NEW ENGLAND'S TRIALS

Smith was not cast down by his reverses. No sooner had he laid hislatest betrayers by the heels than he set himself resolutely to obtainmoney and means for establishing a colony in New England, and to thisproject and the cultivation in England of interest in New England hedevoted the rest of his life. 

His Map and Description of New England was published in 1616, and hebecame a colporteur of this, beseeching everywhere a hearing for hisnoble scheme. It might have been in 1617, while Pocahontas was aboutto sail for Virginia, or perhaps after her death, that he was againin Plymouth, provided with three good ships, but windbound for threemonths, so that the season being past, his design was frustrated, andhis vessels, without him, made a fishing expedition to Newfoundland. 

It must have been in the summer of this year that he was at Plymouthwith divers of his personal friends, and only a hundred pounds amongthem all. He had acquainted the nobility with his projects, and wasafraid to see the Prince Royal before he had accomplished anything, "buttheir great promises were nothing but air to prepare the voyage againstthe next year. " He spent that summer in the west of England, visiting"Bristol, Exeter, Bastable? Bodman, Perin, Foy, Milborow, Saltash, Dartmouth, Absom, Pattnesse, and the most of the gentry in Cornwall andDevonshire, giving them books and maps, " and inciting them to help hisenterprise. 

So well did he succeed, he says, that they promised him twenty sail ofships to go with him the next year, and to pay him for his pains andformer losses. The western commissioners, in behalf of the company, contracted with him, under indented articles, "to be admiral of thatcountry during my life, and in the renewing of the letters-patent so tobe nominated"; half the profits of the enterprise to be theirs, and halfto go to Smith and his companions. 

Nothing seems to have come out of this promising induction except thetitle of "Admiral of New England, " which Smith straightway assumed andwore all his life, styling himself on the title-page of everything heprinted, "Sometime Governor of Virginia and Admiral of New England. "As the generous Captain had before this time assumed this title, thefailure of the contract could not much annoy him. He had about as goodright to take the sounding name of Admiral as merchants of the west ofEngland had to propose to give it to him. 

The years wore away, and Smith was beseeching aid, republishing hisworks, which grew into new forms with each issue, and no doubt makinghimself a bore wherever he was known. The first edition of "NewEngland's Trials"--by which he meant the various trials and attemptsto settle New England was published in 1620. It was to some extent arepetition of his "Description" of 1616. In it he made no reference toPocahontas. But in the edition of 1622, which is dedicated to Charles, Prince of Wales, and considerably enlarged, he drops into thisremark about his experience at Jamestown: "It Is true in our greatestextremitie they shot me, slue three of my men, and by the folly of themthat fled tooke me prisoner; yet God made Pocahontas the king'sdaughter the meanes to deliver me: and thereby taught me to know theirtreacheries to preserve the rest. [This is evidently an allusion to thewarning Pocahontas gave him at Werowocomoco. ] It was also my chance insingle combat to take the king of Paspahegh prisoner, and by keepinghim, forced his subjects to work in chains till I made all the countrypay contribution having little else whereon to live. "

This was written after he had heard of the horrible massacre of 1622at Jamestown, and he cannot resist the temptation to draw a contrastbetween the present and his own management. He explains that the Indiansdid not kill the English because they were Christians, but to get theirweapons and commodities. How different it was when he was in Virginia. "I kept that country with but 38, and had not to eat but what we hadfrom the savages. When I had ten men able to go abroad, our commonwealthwas very strong: with such a number I ranged that unknown country 14weeks: I had but 18 to subdue them all. " This is better than Sir JohnFalstaff. But he goes on: "When I first went to those desperate designesit cost me many a forgotten pound to hire men to go, and procrastinationcaused more run away than went. " "Twise in that time I was President. "[It will be remembered that about the close of his first year he gave upthe command, for form's sake, to Capt. Martin, for three hours, and thentook it again. ] "To range this country of New England in like manner, I had but eight, as is said, and amongst their bruite conditions I metmany of their silly encounters, and without any hurt, God be thanked. "The valiant Captain had come by this time to regard himself as theinventor and discoverer of Virginia and New England, which were exploredand settled at the cost of his private pocket, and which he is notashamed to say cannot fare well in his absence. Smith, with all his goodopinion of himself, could not have imagined how delicious his characterwould be to readers in after-times. As he goes on he warms up: "Thus youmay see plainly the yearly success from New England by Virginia, whichhath been so costly to this kingdom and so dear to me. 

"By that acquaintance I have with them I may call them my children [hespent between two and three months on the New England coast] for theyhave been my wife, my hawks, my hounds, my cards, my dice, and total mybest content, as indifferent to my heart as my left hand to my right.... Were there not one Englishman remaining I would yet begin again as Idid at the first; not that I have any secret encouragement for any Iprotest, more than lamentable experiences; for all their discoveries Ican yet hear of are but pigs of my sowe: nor more strange to me than tohear one tell me he hath gone from Billingate and discovered Greenwich!"

As to the charge that he was unfortunate, which we should think mighthave become current from the Captain's own narratives, he tells hismaligners that if they had spent their time as he had done, they wouldrather believe in God than in their own calculations, and peradventuremight have had to give as bad an account of their actions. It is strangethey should tax him before they have tried what he tried in Asia, Europe, and America, where he never needed to importune for a reward, nor ever could learn to beg: "These sixteen years I have spared neitherpains nor money, according to my ability, first to procure his majesty'sletters patent, and a Company here to be the means to raise a company togo with me to Virginia [this is the expedition of 1606 in which he waswithout command] as is said: which beginning here and there cost me nearfive years work, and more than 500 pounds of my own estate, besides allthe dangers, miseries and encumbrances I endured gratis, where I stayedtill I left 500 better provided than ever I was: from which blessedVirgin (ere I returned) sprung the fortunate habitation of Somer Isles. ""Ere I returned" is in Smith's best vein. The casual reader wouldcertainly conclude that the Somers Isles were somehow due to theprovidence of John Smith, when in fact he never even heard that Gatesand Smith were shipwrecked there till he had returned to England, senthome from Virginia. Neill says that Smith ventured L 9 in the Virginiacompany! But he does not say where he got the money. 

New England, he affirms, hath been nearly as chargeable to him and hisfriends: he never got a shilling but it cost him a pound. And now, whenNew England is prosperous and a certainty, "what think you I undertookwhen nothing was known, but that there was a vast land. " These aresome of the considerations by which he urges the company to fit out anexpedition for him: "thus betwixt the spur of desire and the bridle ofreason I am near ridden to death in a ring of despair; the reins are inyour hands, therefore I entreat you to ease me. "

The Admiral of New England, who since he enjoyed the title had hadneither ship, nor sailor, nor rod of land, nor cubic yard of salt waterunder his command, was not successful in his several "Trials. " And inthe hodge-podge compilation from himself and others, which he hadput together shortly after, --the "General Historie, " he patheticallyexclaims: "Now all these proofs and this relation, I now called NewEngland's Trials. I caused two or three thousand of them to be printed, one thousand with a great many maps both of Virginia and New England, I presented to thirty of the chief companies in London at their Halls, desiring either generally or particularly (them that would) to imbraceit and by the use of a stock of five thousand pounds to ease them of thesuperfluity of most of their companies that had but strength and healthto labor; near a year I spent to understand their resolutions, which wasto me a greater toil and torment, than to have been in New England aboutmy business but with bread and water, and what I could get by my labor;but in conclusion, seeing nothing would be effected I was contented aswell with this loss of time and change as all the rest. "

In his "Advertisements" he says that at his own labor, cost, and losshe had "divulged more than seven thousand books and maps, " in order toinfluence the companies, merchants and gentlemen to make a plantation, but "all availed no more than to hew Rocks with Oister-shels. "

His suggestions about colonizing were always sensible. But we canimagine the group of merchants in Cheapside gradually dissolving asSmith hove in sight with his maps and demonstrations. 

In 1618, Smith addressed a letter directly to Lord Bacon, to which thereseems to have been no answer. The body of it was a condensation ofwhat he had repeatedly written about New England, and the advantage toEngland of occupying the fisheries. "This nineteen years, " he writes, "Ihave encountered no few dangers to learn what here I write in these fewleaves:... Their fruits I am certain may bring both wealth and honor fora crown and a kingdom to his majesty's posterity. " With 5, 000, poundshe will undertake to establish a colony, and he asks of his Majesty apinnace to lodge his men and defend the coast for a few months, untilthe colony gets settled. Notwithstanding his disappointments and losses, he is still patriotic, and offers his experience to his country: "ShouldI present it to the Biskayners, French and Hollanders, they have mademe large offers. But nature doth bind me thus to beg at home, whomstrangers have pleased to create a commander abroad.... Though I canpromise no mines of gold, the Hollanders are an example of my project, whose endeavors by fishing cannot be suppressed by all the King ofSpain's golden powers. Worth is more than wealth, and industrioussubjects are more to a kingdom than gold. And this is so certain acourse to get both as I think was never propounded to any state forso small a charge, seeing I can prove it, both by example, reason andexperience. "

Smith's maxims were excellent, his notions of settling New England weresound and sensible, and if writing could have put him in command of NewEngland, there would have been no room for the Puritans. He addressedletter after letter to the companies of Virginia and Plymouth, givingthem distinctly to understand that they were losing time by not availingthemselves of his services and his project. After the Virginia massacre, he offered to undertake to drive the savages out of their country witha hundred soldiers and thirty sailors. He heard that most of the companyliked exceedingly well the notion, but no reply came to his overture. 

He laments the imbecility in the conduct of the new plantations. Atfirst, he says, it was feared the Spaniards would invade the plantationsor the English Papists dissolve them: but neither the councils ofSpain nor the Papists could have desired a better course to ruin theplantations than have been pursued; "It seems God is angry to seeVirginia in hands so strange where nothing but murder and indiscretioncontends for the victory. "

In his letters to the company and to the King's commissions for thereformation of Virginia, Smith invariably reproduces his own exploits, until we can imagine every person in London, who could read, was sickof the story. He reminds them of his unrequited services: "in neitherof those two countries have I one foot of land, nor the very house Ibuilded, nor the ground I digged with my own hands, nor ever any contentor satisfaction at all, and though I see ordinarily those two countriesshared before me by them that neither have them nor knows them, but bymy descriptions.... For the books and maps I have made, I will thank himthat will show me so much for so little recompense, and bear with theirerrors till I have done better. For the materials in them I cannot deny, but am ready to affirm them both there and here, upon such ground asI have propounded, which is to have but fifteen hundred men to subdueagain the Salvages, fortify the country, discover that yet unknown, andboth defend and feed their colony. "

There is no record that these various petitions and letters of advicewere received by the companies, but Smith prints them in his History, and gives also seven questions propounded to him by the commissioners, with his replies; in which he clearly states the cause of the disastersin the colonies, and proposes wise and statesman-like remedies. Heinsists upon industry and good conduct: "to rectify a commonwealth withdebauched people is impossible, and no wise man would throw himself intosuch society, that intends honestly, and knows what he understands, forthere is no country to pillage, as the Romans found; all you expect fromthence must be by labour. "

Smith was no friend to tobacco, and although he favored the productionto a certain limit as a means of profit, it is interesting to note histrue prophecy that it would ultimately be a demoralizing product. Heoften proposes the restriction of its cultivation, and speaks withcontempt of "our men rooting in the ground about tobacco like swine. "The colony would have been much better off "had they not so much doatedon their tobacco, on whose furnish foundation there is small stability. "

So long as he lived, Smith kept himself informed of the progress ofadventure and settlement in the New World, reading all relations andeagerly questioning all voyagers, and transferring their accounts to hisown History, which became a confused patchwork of other men's exploitsand his own reminiscences and reflections. He always regards the newplantations as somehow his own, and made in the light of his advice;and their mischances are usually due to the neglect of his counsel. Herelates in this volume the story of the Pilgrims in 1620 and the yearsfollowing, and of the settlement of the Somers Isles, making himselfappear as a kind of Providence over the New World. 

Out of his various and repetitious writings might be compiled quitea hand-book of maxims and wise saws. Yet all had in steady view onepurpose--to excite interest in his favorite projects, to shame thelaggards of England out of their idleness, and to give himself honorableemployment and authority in the building up of a new empire. "Who candesire, " he exclaims, "more content that hath small means, or but onlyhis merit to advance his fortunes, than to tread and plant that groundhe hath purchased by the hazard of his life; if he have but the tasteof virtue and magnanimity, what to such a mind can be more pleasant thanplanting and building a foundation for his posterity, got from the rudeearth by God's blessing and his own industry without prejudice to any;if he have any grace of faith or zeal in Religion, what can be morehealthful to any or more agreeable to God than to convert those poorsalvages to know Christ and humanity, whose labours and discretion willtriply requite any charge and pain. "

"Then who would live at home idly, " he exhorts his countrymen, "or thinkin himself any worth to live, only to eat, drink and sleep, and so die;or by consuming that carelessly his friends got worthily, or by usingthat miserably that maintained virtue honestly, or for being descendednobly, or pine with the vain vaunt of great kindred in penury, or tomaintain a silly show of bravery, toil out thy heart, soul and timebasely; by shifts, tricks, cards and dice, or by relating news of othermen's actions, sharke here and there for a dinner or supper, deceivethy friends by fair promises and dissimulations, in borrowing when thounever meanest to pay, offend the laws, surfeit with excess, burden thycountry, abuse thyself, despair in want, and then cozen thy kindred, yea, even thy own brother, and wish thy parent's death (I will not saydamnation), to have their estates, though thou seest what honors andrewards the world yet hath for them that will seek them and worthilydeserve them. "

"I would be sorry to offend, or that any should mistake my honestmeaning: for I wish good to all, hurt to none; but rich men for the mostpart are grown to that dotage through their pride in their wealth, asthough there were no accident could end it or their life. "

"And what hellish care do such take to make it their own misery andtheir countrie's spoil, especially when there is such need of theiremployment, drawing by all manner of inventions from the Prince and hishonest subjects, even the vital spirits of their powers and estates; asif their bags or brags were so powerful a defense, the malicious couldnot assault them, when they are the only bait to cause us not only tobe assaulted, but betrayed and smothered in our own security ere we willprevent it. "

And he adds this good advice to those who maintain their childrenin wantonness till they grow to be the masters: "Let this lamentableexample [the ruin of Constantinople] remember you that are rich (seeingthere are such great thieves in the world to rob you) not grudge to lendsome proportion to breed them that have little, yet willing to learn howto defend you, for it is too late when the deed is done. "

No motive of action did Smith omit in his importunity, for "Religionabove all things should move us, especially the clergy, if we arereligious. " "Honor might move the gentry, the valiant and industrious, and the hope and assurance of wealth all, if we were that we would seemand be accounted; or be we so far inferior to other nations, or ourspirits so far dejected from our ancient predecessors, or our mindsso upon spoil, piracy and such villainy, as to serve the Portugall, Spaniard, Dutch, French or Turke (as to the cost of Europe too many do), rather than our own God, our king, our country, and ourselves; excusingour idleness and our base complaints by want of employment, when hereis such choice of all sorts, and for all degrees, in the planting anddiscovering these North parts of America. "

It was all in vain so far as Smith's fortunes were concerned. Theplanting and subjection of New England went on, and Smith had no part init except to describe it. The Brownists, the Anabaptists, the Papists, the Puritans, the Separatists, and "such factious Humorists, " weretaking possession of the land that Smith claimed to have "discovered, "and in which he had no foothold. Failing to get employment anywhere, he petitioned the Virginia Company for a reward out of the treasury inLondon or the profits in Virginia. 

At one of the hot discussions in 1623 preceding the dissolution of theVirginia Company by the revocation of their charter, Smith was present, and said that he hoped for his time spent in Virginia he should receivethat year a good quantity of tobacco. The charter was revoked in 1624after many violent scenes, and King James was glad to be rid of what hecalled "a seminary for a seditious parliament. " The company had madeuse of lotteries to raise funds, and upon their disuse, in 1621, Smithproposed to the company to compile for its benefit a general history. This he did, but it does not appear that the company took any action onhis proposal. At one time he had been named, with three others, as afit person for secretary, on the removal of Mr. Pory, but as only threecould be balloted for, his name was left out. He was, however, commendedas entirely competent. 

After the dissolution of the companies, and the granting of newletters-patent to a company of some twenty noblemen, there seems to havebeen a project for dividing up the country by lot. Smith says: "All thisthey divided in twenty parts, for which they cast lots, but no lotfor me but Smith's Isles, which are a many of barren rocks, the mostovergrown with shrubs, and sharp whins, you can hardly pass them;without either grass or wood, but three or four short shrubby oldcedars. "

The plan was not carried out, and Smith never became lord of even thesebarren rocks, the Isles of Shoals. That he visited them when he sailedalong the coast is probable, though he never speaks of doing so. In theVirginia waters he had left a cluster of islands bearing his name also. 

In the Captain's "True Travels, " published in 1630, is a summary of thecondition of colonization in New England from Smith's voyage thence tillthe settlement of Plymouth in 1620, which makes an appropriate close toour review of this period:

"When I first went to the North part of Virginia, where the WesterlyColony had been planted, it had dissolved itself within a year, andthere was not one Christian in all the land. I was set forth at the solecharge of four merchants of London; the Country being then reputed byyour westerlings a most rocky, barren, desolate desart; but the goodreturn I brought from thence, with the maps and relations of theCountry, which I made so manifest, some of them did believe me, and theywere well embraced, both by the Londoners, and Westerlings, for whom Ihad promised to undertake it, thinking to have joyned them all together, but that might well have been a work for Hercules. Betwixt them longthere was much contention: the Londoners indeed went bravely forward:but in three or four years I and my friends consumed many hundred poundsamongst the Plimothians, who only fed me but with delays, promises, andexcuses, but no performance of anything to any purpose. In the interim, many particular ships went thither, and finding my relations true, andthat I had not taken that I brought home from the French men, as hadbeen reported: yet further for my pains to discredit me, and my callingit New England, they obscured it, and shadowed it, with the title ofCanada, till at my humble suit, it pleased our most Royal King Charles, whom God long keep, bless and preserve, then Prince of Wales, to confirmit with my map and book, by the title of New England; the gain thencereturning did make the fame thereof so increase that thirty, forty orfifty sail went yearly only to trade and fish; but nothing would be donefor a plantation, till about some hundred of your Brownists of England, Amsterdam and Leyden went to New Plimouth, whose humorous ignorances, caused them for more than a year, to endure a wonderful deal of misery, with an infinite patience; saying my books and maps were much bettercheap to teach them than myself: many others have used the likegood husbandry that have payed soundly in trying their self-willedconclusions; but those in time doing well, diverse others have in smallhandfulls undertaken to go there, to be several Lords and Kings ofthemselves, but most vanished to nothing. "

XVII. WRITINGS-LATER YEARS

If Smith had not been an author, his exploits would have occupieda small space in the literature of his times. But by his unweariednarrations he impressed his image in gigantic features on our plasticcontinent. If he had been silent, he would have had something lessthan justice; as it is, he has been permitted to greatly exaggerate hisrelations to the New World. It is only by noting the comparative silenceof his contemporaries and by winnowing his own statements that we canappreciate his true position. 

For twenty years he was a voluminous writer, working off his superfluousenergy in setting forth his adventures in new forms. Most of hiswritings are repetitions and recastings of the old material, with suchreflections as occur to him from time to time. He seldom writes a book, or a tract, without beginning it or working into it a resume of hislife. The only exception to this is his "Sea Grammar. " In 1626 hepublished "An Accidence or the Pathway to Experience, necessary to allYoung Seamen, " and in 1627 "A Sea Grammar, with the plain Exposition ofSmith's Accidence for Young Seamen, enlarged. " This is a technical work, and strictly confined to the building, rigging, and managing of a ship. He was also engaged at the time of his death upon a "History of theSea, " which never saw the light. He was evidently fond of the sea, andwe may say the title of Admiral came naturally to him, since he usedit in the title-page to his "Description of New England, " published in1616, although it was not till 1617 that the commissioners at Plymouthagreed to bestow upon him the title of "Admiral of that country. "

In 1630 he published "The True Travels, Adventures and Observations ofCaptain John Smith, in Europe, Asia, Affrica and America, from 1593 to1629. Together with a Continuation of his General History of Virginia, Summer Isles, New England, and their proceedings since 1624 to thispresent 1629: as also of the new Plantations of the great River of theAmazons, the Isles of St. Christopher, Mevis and Barbadoes in the WestIndies. " In the dedication to William, Earl of Pembroke, and Robert, Earl of Lindsay, he says it was written at the request of Sir RobertCotton, the learned antiquarian, and he the more willingly satisfiesthis noble desire because, as he says, "they have acted my fataltragedies on the stage, and racked my relations at their pleasure. Toprevent, therefore, all future misprisions, I have compiled this truediscourse. Envy hath taxed me to have writ too much, and done toolittle; but that such should know how little, I esteem them, I havewrit this more for the satisfaction of my friends, and all generousand well-disposed readers: To speak only of myself were intolerableingratitude: because, having had many co-partners with me, I cannotmake a Monument for myself, and leave them unburied in the fields, whoselives begot me the title of Soldier, for as they were companions with mein my dangers, so shall they be partakers with me in this Tombe. " In thesame dedication he spoke of his "Sea Grammar" caused to be printed byhis worthy friend Sir Samuel Saltonstall. 

This volume, like all others Smith published, is accompanied by a greatnumber of swollen panegyrics in verse, showing that the writers had beenfavored with the perusal of the volume before it was published. Valor, piety, virtue, learning, wit, are by them ascribed to the "great Smith, "who is easily the wonder and paragon of his age. All of them arestuffed with the affected conceits fashionable at the time. One of themost pedantic of these was addressed to him by Samuel Purchas when the"General Historie" was written. 

The portrait of Smith which occupies a corner in the Map of Virginiahas in the oval the date, "AEta 37, A. 1616, " and round the rim theinscription: "Portraictuer of Captaine John Smith, Admirall of NewEngland, " and under it these lines engraved:

 "These are the Lines that show thy face: but those That show thy Grace and Glory brighter bee: Thy Faire Discoveries and Fowle-Overthrowes Of Salvages, much Civilized by thee Best shew thy Spirit; and to it Glory Wyn; So, thou art Brasse without, but Golde within, If so, in Brasse (too soft smiths Acts to beare) I fix thy Fame to make Brasse steele outweare. 

"Thine as thou art Virtues

"JOHN DAVIES, Heref. "

In this engraving Smith is clad in armor, with a high starched collar, and full beard and mustache formally cut. His right hand rests on hiship, and his left grasps the handle of his sword. The face is open andpleasing and full of decision. 

This "true discourse" contains the wild romance with which this volumeopens, and is pieced out with recapitulations of his former writings andexploits, compilations from others' relations, and general comments. We have given from it the story of his early life, because there isabsolutely no other account of that part of his career. We may assumethat up to his going to Virginia he did lead a life of recklessadventure and hardship, often in want of a decent suit of clothes andof "regular meals. " That he took some part in the wars in Hungary isprobable, notwithstanding his romancing narrative, and he may have beencaptured by the Turks. But his account of the wars there, and of thepolitical complications, we suspect are cribbed from the old chronicles, probably from the Italian, while his vague descriptions of the lands andpeople in Turkey and "Tartaria" are evidently taken from the narrativesof other travelers. It seems to me that the whole of his story of hisoriental captivity lacks the note of personal experience. If it werenot for the "patent" of Sigismund (which is only produced and certifiedtwenty years after it is dated), the whole Transylvania legend wouldappear entirely apocryphal. 

The "True Travels" close with a discourse upon the bad life, qualities, and conditions of pirates. The most ancient of these was one Collis, "who most refreshed himself upon the coast of Wales, and Clinton andPursser, his companions, who grew famous till Queen Elizabeth of blessedmemory hanged them at Wapping. The misery of a Pirate (although many areas sufficient seamen as any) yet in regard of his superfluity, you shallfind it such, that any wise man would rather live amongst wild beasts, than them; therefore let all unadvised persons take heed how theyentertain that quality; and I could wish merchants, gentlemen, and allsetters-forth of ships not to be sparing of a competent pay, nor truepayment; for neither soldiers nor seamen can live without means; butnecessity will force them to steal, and when they are once entered intothat trade they are hardly reclaimed. "

Smith complains that the play-writers had appropriated his adventures, but does not say that his own character had been put upon the stage. InBen Jonson's "Staple of News, " played in 1625, there is a reference toPocahontas in the dialogue that occurs between Pick-lock and PennyboyCanter:

Pick. --A tavern's unfit too for a princess. 

P. Cant. --No, I have known a Princess and a great one, Come forth of atavern. 

Pick. --Not go in Sir, though. 

A Cant. --She must go in, if she came forth. The blessed Pocahontas, asthe historian calls her, And great King's daughter of Virginia, Hathbeen in womb of tavern. 

The last work of our author was published in 1631, the year of hisdeath. Its full title very well describes the contents: "Advertisementsfor the Unexperienced Planters of New England, or anywhere. Or, thePathway to Experience to erect a Plantation. With the yearly proceedingsof this country in fishing and planting since the year 1614 to theyear 1630, and their present estate. Also, how to prevent the greatestinconvenience by their proceedings in Virginia, and other plantations byapproved examples. With the countries armes, a description of the coast, harbours, habitations, landmarks, latitude and longitude: with the mapallowed by our Royall King Charles. "

Smith had become a trifle cynical in regard to the newsmongers of theday, and quaintly remarks in his address to the reader: "Apelles by theproportion of a foot could make the whole proportion of a man: werehe now living, he might go to school, for now thousands can by opinionproportion kingdoms, cities and lordships that never durst adventure tosee them. Malignancy I expect from these, have lived 10 or 12 yearsin those actions, and return as wise as they went, claiming time andexperience for their tutor that can neither shift Sun nor moon, nor saytheir compass, yet will tell you of more than all the world betwixt theExchange, Paul's and Westminster.... And tell as well what all Englandis by seeing but Mitford Haven as what Apelles was by the picture of hisgreat toe. "

This is one of Smith's most characteristic productions. Its material isill-arranged, and much of it is obscurely written; it runs backwardand forward along his life, refers constantly to his former works andrepeats them, complains of the want of appreciation of his services, andmakes himself the centre of all the colonizing exploits of the age. Yetit is interspersed with strokes of humor and observations full of goodsense. 

It opens with the airy remark: "The wars in Europe, Asia and Africa, taught me how to subdue the wild savages in Virginia and New England. "He never did subdue the wild savages in New England, and he never was inany war in Africa, nor in Asia, unless we call his piratical cruising inthe Mediterranean "wars in Asia. "

As a Church of England man, Smith is not well pleased with theoccupation of New England by the Puritans, Brownists, and such "factioushumorists" as settled at New Plymouth, although he acknowledges thewonderful patience with which, in their ignorance and willfulness, theyhave endured losses and extremities; but he hopes better things ofthe gentlemen who went in 1629 to supply Endicott at Salem, and werefollowed the next year by Winthrop. All these adventurers have, he says, made use of his "aged endeavors. " It seems presumptuous in them to tryto get on with his maps and descriptions and without him. They probablyhad never heard, except in the title-pages of his works, that he was"Admiral of New England. "

Even as late as this time many supposed New England to be an island, butSmith again asserts, what he had always maintained--that it was a partof the continent. The expedition of Winthrop was scattered by a storm, and reached Salem with the loss of threescore dead and many sick, to find as many of the colony dead, and all disconsolate. Of thediscouraged among them who returned to England Smith says: "Some couldnot endure the name of a bishop, others not the sight of a cross orsurplice, others by no means the book of common prayer. This absolutecrew, only of the Elect, holding all (but such as themselves) reprobatesand castaways, now made more haste to return to Babel, as they termedEngland, than stay to enjoy the land they called Canaan. " Somewhat theymust say to excuse themselves. Therefore, "some say they could see notimbers of ten foot diameter, some the country is all wood; others theydrained all the springs and ponds dry, yet like to famish for want offresh water; some of the danger of the ratell-snake. " To compel allthe Indians to furnish them corn without using them cruelly they sayis impossible. Yet this "impossible, " Smith says, he accomplished inVirginia, and offers to undertake in New England, with one hundred andfifty men, to get corn, fortify the country, and "discover them moreland than they all yet know. "

This homily ends--and it is the last published sentence of the "greatSmith"--with this good advice to the New England colonists:

"Lastly, remember as faction, pride, and security produces nothing butconfusion, misery and dissolution; so the contraries well practised willin short time make you happy, and the most admired people of all ourplantations for your time in the world. 

"John Smith writ this with his owne hand. "

The extent to which Smith retouched his narrations, as they grew in hisimagination, in his many reproductions of them, has been referred to, and illustrated by previous quotations. An amusing instance of his careand ingenuity is furnished by the interpolation of Pocahontas into hisstories after 1623. In his "General Historie" of 1624 he adopts, for theaccount of his career in Virginia, the narratives in the Oxford tractof 1612, which he had supervised. We have seen how he interpolated thewonderful story of his rescue by the Indian child. Some of his otherinsertions of her name, to bring all the narrative up to that level, are curious. The following passages from the "Oxford Tract" contain initalics the words inserted when they were transferred to the "GeneralHistorie":

"So revived their dead spirits (especially the love of Pocahuntas) asall anxious fears were abandoned. "

"Part always they brought him as presents from their king, orPocahuntas. "

In the account of the "masques" of girls to entertain Smith atWerowocomoco we read:

"But presently Pocahuntas came, wishing him to kill her if any hurt wereintended, and the beholders, which were women and children, satisfiedthe Captain there was no such matter. "

In the account of Wyffin's bringing the news of Scrivener's drowning, when Wyffin was lodged a night with Powhatan, we read:

"He did assure himself some mischief was intended. Pocahontas hid himfor a time, and sent them who pursued him the clean contrary way to seekhim; but by her means and extraordinary bribes and much trouble in threedays' travel, at length he found us in the middest of these turmoyles. "

The affecting story of the visit and warning from Pocahontas in thenight, when she appeared with "tears running down her cheeks, " is notin the first narration in the Oxford Tract, but is inserted in thenarrative in the "General Historie. " Indeed, the first account would byits terms exclude the later one. It is all contained in these few lines:

"But our barge being left by the ebb, caused us to staie till themidnight tide carried us safe aboord, having spent that half night withsuch mirth as though we never had suspected or intended anything, weleft the Dutchmen to build, Brinton to kill foule for Powhatan (as byhis messengers he importunately desired), and left directions with ourmen to give Powhatan all the content they could, that we might enjoy hiscompany on our return from Pamaunke. "

It should be added, however, that there is an allusion to some warningby Pocahontas in the last chapter of the "Oxford Tract. " But the fullstory of the night visit and the streaming tears as we have given itseems without doubt to have been elaborated from very slight materials. And the subsequent insertion of the name of Pocahontas--of which we havegiven examples above--into old accounts that had no allusion to her, adds new and strong presumptions to the belief that Smith invented whatis known as the Pocahontas legend. 

As a mere literary criticism on Smith's writings, it would appear thathe had a habit of transferring to his own career notable incidents andadventures of which he had read, and this is somewhat damaging to anestimate of his originality. His wonderful system of telegraphy by meansof torches, which he says he put in practice at the siege of Olympack, and which he describes as if it were his own invention, he had doubtlessread in Polybius, and it seemed a good thing to introduce into hisnarrative. 

He was (it must also be noted) the second white man whose life was savedby an Indian princess in America, who subsequently warned her favoriteof a plot to kill him. In 1528 Pamphilo de Narvaes landed at Tampa Bay, Florida, and made a disastrous expedition into the interior. Among theSpaniards who were missing as a result of this excursion was a soldiernamed Juan Ortiz. When De Soto marched into the same country in 1539 heencountered this soldier, who had been held in captivity by the Indiansand had learned their language. The story that Ortiz told was this:He was taken prisoner by the chief Ucita, bound hand and foot, andstretched upon a scaffold to be roasted, when, just as the flames wereseizing him, a daughter of the chief interposed in his behalf, andupon her prayers Ucita spared the life of the prisoner. Three yearsafterward, when there was danger that Ortiz would be sacrificed toappease the devil, the princess came to him, warned him of his danger, and led him secretly and alone in the night to the camp of a chieftainwho protected him. 

This narrative was in print before Smith wrote, and as he was fondof such adventures he may have read it. The incidents are curiouslyparallel. And all the comment needed upon it is that Smith seems to havebeen peculiarly subject to such coincidences. 

Our author's selection of a coat of arms, the distinguishing feature ofwhich was "three Turks' heads, " showed little more originality. It wasa common device before his day: on many coats of arms of the MiddleAges and later appear "three Saracens' heads, " or "three Moors'heads"--probably most of them had their origin in the Crusades. Smith'spatent to use this charge, which he produced from Sigismund, was dated1603, but the certificate appended to it by the Garter King at Arms, certifying that it was recorded in the register and office of theheralds, is dated 1625. Whether Smith used it before this latter date weare not told. We do not know why he had not as good right to assume itas anybody. 

[Burke's "Encyclopedia of Heraldry" gives it as granted to Capt. JohnSmith, of the Smiths of Cruffley, Co. Lancaster, in 1629, and describesit: "Vert, a chev. Gu. Betw. Three Turks' heads couped ppr. Turbaned or. Crest-an Ostrich or, holding in the mouth a horseshoe or. "]

XVIII. DEATH AND CHARACTER

Hardship and disappointment made our hero prematurely old, but couldnot conquer his indomitable spirit. The disastrous voyage of June, 1615, when he fell into the hands of the French, is spoken of by the Councilfor New England in 1622 as "the ruin of that poor gentleman, CaptainSmith, who was detained prisoner by them, and forced to suffer manyextremities before he got free of his troubles;" but he did not knowthat he was ruined, and did not for a moment relax his effortsto promote colonization and obtain a command, nor relinquish hissuperintendence of the Western Continent. 

His last days were evidently passed in a struggle for existence, whichwas not so bitter to him as it might have been to another man, for hewas sustained by ever-elating "great expectations. " That he was pinchedfor means of living, there is no doubt. In 1623 he issued a prospectusof his "General Historie, " in which he said: "These observations are allI have for the expenses of a thousand pounds and the loss of eighteenyears' time, besides all the travels, dangers, miseries and incumbrancesfor my countries good, I have endured gratis:... This is composed inless than eighty sheets, besides the three maps, which will stand menear in a hundred pounds, which sum I cannot disburse: nor shall thestationers have the copy for nothing. I therefore, humbly entreat yourHonour, either to adventure, or give me what you please towards theimpression, and I will be both accountable and thankful. "

He had come before he was fifty to regard himself as an old man, andto speak of his "aged endeavors. " Where and how he lived in his lateryears, and with what surroundings and under what circumstances hedied, there is no record. That he had no settled home, and was in meanlodgings at the last, may be reasonably inferred. There is a manuscriptnote on the fly-leaf of one of the original editions of "The Map ofVirginia.... " (Oxford, 1612), in ancient chirography, but which from itsreference to Fuller could not have been written until more than thirtyyears after Smith's death. It says: "When he was old he lived in Londonpoor but kept up his spirits with the commemoration of his formeractions and bravery. He was buried in St. Sepulcher's Church, as Fullertells us, who has given us a line of his Ranting Epitaph. "

That seems to have been the tradition of the man, buoyantly supportinghimself in the commemoration of his own achievements. To the end hisindustrious and hopeful spirit sustained him, and in the last year ofhis life he was toiling on another compilation, and promised his readersa variety of actions and memorable observations which they shall "findwith admiration in my History of the Sea, if God be pleased I live tofinish it. "

He died on the 21 St of June, 1631, and the same day made his last will, to which he appended his mark, as he seems to have been too feeble towrite his name. In this he describes himself as "Captain John Smithof the parish of St. Sepulcher's London Esquior. " He commends his soul"into the hands of Almighty God, my maker, hoping through the merits ofChrist Jesus my Redeemer to receive full remission of all my sins and toinherit a place in the everlasting kingdom"; his body he commits to theearth whence it came; and "of such worldly goods whereof it hath pleasedGod in his mercy to make me an unworthy receiver, " he bequeathes: first, to Thomas Packer, Esq. , one of his Majesty's clerks of the Privy Seal, "all my houses, lands, tenantements and hereditaments whatsoever, situate lying and being in the parishes of Louthe and Great Carleton, inthe county of Lincoln together with my coat of armes"; and charges himto pay certain legacies not exceeding the sum of eighty pounds, outof which he reserves to himself twenty pounds to be disposed of as hechooses in his lifetime. The sum of twenty pounds is to be disbursedabout the funeral. To his most worthy friend, Sir Samuel SaltonstallKnight, he gives five pounds; to Morris Treadway, five pounds; to hissister Smith, the widow of his brother, ten pounds; to his cousin StevenSmith, and his sister, six pounds thirteen shillings and fourpencebetween them; to Thomas Packer, Joane, his wife, and Eleanor, hisdaughter, ten pounds among them; to "Mr. Reynolds, the lay Mr of theGoldsmiths Hall, the sum of forty shillings"; to Thomas, the son ofsaid Thomas Packer, "my trunk standing in my chamber at Sir SamuelSaltonstall's house in St. Sepulcher's parish, together with my bestsuit of apparel of a tawny color viz. Hose, doublet jirkin and cloak, ""also, my trunk bound with iron bars standing in the house of RichardHinde in Lambeth, together--with half the books therein"; the other halfof the books to Mr. John Tredeskin and Richard Hinde. His much honoredfriend, Sir Samuel Saltonstall, and Thomas Packer, were joint executors, and the will was acknowledged in the presence "of Willmu Keble Snrcivitas, London, William Packer, Elizabeth Sewster, Marmaduke Walker, his mark, witness. "

We have no idea that Thomas Packer got rich out of the houses, lands andtenements in the county of Lincoln. The will is that of a poor man, andreference to his trunks standing about in the houses of his friends, andto his chamber in the house of Sir Samuel Saltonstall, may be taken asproof that he had no independent and permanent abiding-place. 

It is supposed that he was buried in St. Sepulcher's Church. Thenegative evidence of this is his residence in the parish at the time ofhis death, and the more positive, a record in Stow's "Survey of London, "1633, which we copy in full:

This Table is on the south side of the Quire in Saint Sepulchers, withthis Inscription:

To the living Memory of his deceased Friend, Captaine John Smith, whodeparted this mortall life on the 21 day of June, 1631, with his Armes, and this Motto, Accordamus, vincere est vivere. 

Here lies one conquer'd that hath conquer'd Kings, Subdu'd largeTerritories, and done things Which to the World impossible would seeme, But that the truth is held in more esteeme, Shall I report His formerservice done In honour of his God and Christendome: How that he diddivide from Pagans three, Their heads and Lives, types of his chivalry:For which great service in that Climate done, Brave Sigismundus (Kingof Hungarion) Did give him as a Coat of Armes to weare, Those conquer'dheads got by his Sword and Speare? Or shall I tell of his adventuressince, Done in Firginia, that large Continence: I-low that he subdu'dKings unto his yoke, And made those heathen flie, as wind doth smoke:And made their Land, being of so large a Station, A habitation for ourChristian Nation: Where God is glorifi'd, their wants suppli'd, Whichelse for necessaries might have di'd? But what avails his Conquest nowhe lyes Inter'd in earth a prey for Wormes & Flies?

O may his soule in sweet Mizium sleepe, Untill the Keeper that allsoules doth keepe, Returne to judgement and that after thence, WithAngels he may have his recompence. Captaine John Smith, sometimeGovernour of Firginia, and Admirall of New England. 

This remarkable epitaph is such an autobiographical record as Smithmight have written himself. That it was engraved upon a tablet and setup in this church rests entirely upon the authority of Stow. The presentpilgrim to the old church will find no memorial that Smith was buriedthere, and will encounter besides incredulity of the tradition that heever rested there. 

The old church of St. Sepulcher's, formerly at the confluence of SnowHill and the Old Bailey, now lifts its head far above the pompousviaduct which spans the valley along which the Fleet Ditch once flowed. All the registers of burial in the church were destroyed by the greatfire of 1666, which burnt down the edifice from floor to roof, leavingonly the walls and tower standing. Mr. Charles Deane, whose livelyinterest in Smith led him recently to pay a visit to St. Sepulcher's, speaks of it as the church "under the pavement of which the remains ofour hero were buried; but he was not able to see the stone placed overthose remains, as the floor of the church at that time was coveredwith a carpet.... The epitaph to his memory, however, it is understood, cannot now be deciphered upon the tablet, "--which he supposes to be theone in Stow. 

The existing tablet is a slab of bluish-black marble, which formerlywas in the chancel. That it in no way relates to Captain Smith a nearexamination of it shows. This slab has an escutcheon which indicatesthree heads, which a lively imagination may conceive to be those ofMoors, on a line in the upper left corner on the husband's side of ashield, which is divided by a perpendicular line. As Smith had no wife, this could not have been his cognizance. Nor are these his arms, whichwere three Turks' heads borne over and beneath a chevron. The cognizanceof "Moors' heads, " as we have said, was not singular in the Middle Ages, and there existed recently in this very church another tomb which borea Moor's head as a family badge. The inscription itself is in a style oflettering unlike that used in the time of James I. , and the letters arebelieved not to belong to an earlier period than that of the Georges. This bluish-black stone has been recently gazed at by many pilgrims fromthis side of the ocean, with something of the feeling with which theMoslems regard the Kaaba at Mecca. This veneration is misplaced, forupon the stone are distinctly visible these words:

 "Departed this life September.... .... Sixty-six.... Years.... .... Months.... "

As John Smith died in June, 1631, in his fifty-second year, this stoneis clearly not in his honor: and if his dust rests in this church, thefire of 1666 made it probably a labor of wasted love to look hereaboutsfor any monument of him. 

A few years ago some American antiquarians desired to place somemonument to the "Admiral of New England" in this church, and a memorialwindow, commemorating the "Baptism of Pocahontas, " was suggested. Wehave been told, however, that a custom of St. Sepulcher's requires ahandsome bonus to the rector for any memorial set up in the church whichthe kindly incumbent had no power to set aside (in his own case) fora foreign gift and act of international courtesy of this sort; and theproject was abandoned. 

Nearly every trace of this insatiable explorer of the earth hasdisappeared from it except in his own writings. The only monument to hismemory existing is a shabby little marble shaft erected on the southerlysummit of Star Island, one of the Isles of Shoals. By a kind of ironyof fortune, which Smith would have grimly appreciated, the only stone toperpetuate his fame stands upon a little heap of rocks in the sea; uponwhich it is only an inference that he ever set foot, and we can almosthear him say again, looking round upon this roomy earth, so much ofwhich he possessed in his mind, "No lot for me but Smith's Isles, whichare an array of barren rocks, the most overgrowne with shrubs and sharpewhins you can hardly passe them: without either grasse or wood but threeor foure short shrubby old cedars. "

Nearly all of Smith's biographers and the historians of Virginia have, with great respect, woven his romances about his career into theirnarratives, imparting to their paraphrases of his story suchan elevation as his own opinion of himself seemed to demand. Ofcontemporary estimate of him there is little to quote except thepanegyrics in verse he has preserved for us, and the inference from hisown writings that he was the object of calumny and detraction. Enemieshe had in plenty, but there are no records left of their opinion of hischaracter. The nearest biographical notice of him in point of time isfound in the "History of the Worthies of England, " by Thomas Fuller, D. D. , London, 1662. 

Old Fuller's schoolmaster was Master Arthur Smith, a kinsman of John, who told him that John was born in Lincolnshire, and it is probable thatFuller received from his teacher some impression about the adventurer. 

Of his "strange performances" in Hungary, Fuller says: "The scenewhereof is laid at such a distance that they are cheaper credited thanconfuted. "

"From the Turks in Europe he passed to the pagans in America, wheretowards the latter end of the reign of Queen Elizabeth [it was in thereign of James] such his perils, preservations, dangers, deliverances, they seem to most men above belief, to some beyond truth. Yet have wetwo witnesses to attest them, the prose and the pictures, both in hisown book; and it soundeth much to the diminution of his deeds that healone is the herald to publish and proclaim them. "

"Surely such reports from strangers carry the greater reputation. However, moderate men must allow Captain Smith to have been veryinstrumental in settling the plantation in Virginia, whereof he wasgovernor, as also Admiral of New England. "

"He led his old age in London, where his having a prince's mindimprisoned in a poor man's purse, rendered him to the contempt of suchas were not ingenuous. Yet he efforted his spirits with the remembranceand relation of what formerly he had been, and what he had done. "

Of the "ranting epitaph, " quoted above, Fuller says: "The orthography, poetry, history and divinity in this epitaph are much alike. "

Without taking Captain John Smith at his own estimate of himself, hewas a peculiar character even for the times in which he lived. He sharedwith his contemporaries the restless spirit of roving and adventurewhich resulted from the invention of the mariner's compass and thediscovery of the New World; but he was neither so sordid nor sorapacious as many of them, for his boyhood reading of romances hadevidently fired him with the conceits of the past chivalric period. Thisimported into his conduct something inflated and something elevated. And, besides, with all his enormous conceit, he had a stratum ofpractical good sense, a shrewd wit, and the salt of humor. 

If Shakespeare had known him, as he might have done, he would have hada character ready to his hand that would have added one of the mostamusing and interesting portraits to his gallery. He faintly suggestsa moral Falstaff, if we can imagine a Falstaff without vices. As anarrator he has the swagger of a Captain Dalghetty, but his actionsare marked by honesty and sincerity. He appears to have had none of thesmall vices of the gallants of his time. His chivalric attitude towardcertain ladies who appear in his adventures, must have been sufficientlyamusing to his associates. There is about his virtue a certain antiqueflavor which must have seemed strange to the adventurers and courthangers-on in London. Not improbably his assumptions were offensiveto the ungodly, and his ingenuous boastings made him the object ofamusement to the skeptics. Their ridicule would naturally appear to himto arise from envy. We read between the lines of his own eulogies ofhimself, that there was a widespread skepticism about his greatness andhis achievements, which he attributed to jealousy. Perhaps his obtrusivevirtues made him enemies, and his rectitude was a standing offense tohis associates. 

It is certain he got on well with scarcely anybody with whom he wasthrown in his enterprises. He was of common origin, and always carriedwith him the need of assertion in an insecure position. He appears to usalways self-conscious and ill at ease with gentlemen born. The captainsof his own station resented his assumptions of superiority, and whilehe did not try to win them by an affectation of comradeship, he probablyrepelled those of better breeding by a swaggering manner. No doubt hiswant of advancement was partly due to want of influence, which betterbirth would have given him; but the plain truth is that he had a talentfor making himself disagreeable to his associates. Unfortunately henever engaged in any enterprise with any one on earth who was so capableof conducting it as himself, and this fact he always made plain to hiscomrades. Skill he had in managing savages, but with his equals amongwhites he lacked tact, and knew not the secret of having his own waywithout seeming to have it. He was insubordinate, impatient of anyauthority over him, and unwilling to submit to discipline he did nothimself impose. 

Yet it must be said that he was less self-seeking than those who werewith him in Virginia, making glory his aim rather than gain always;that he had a superior conception of what a colony should be, and howit should establish itself, and that his judgment of what was best wasnearly always vindicated by the event. He was not the founder of theVirginia colony, its final success was not due to him, but it was owingalmost entirely to his pluck and energy that it held on and maintainedan existence during the two years and a half that he was with it atJamestown. And to effect this mere holding on, with the vagabondcrew that composed most of the colony, and with the extravagant andunintelligent expectations of the London Company, was a feat showingdecided ability. He had the qualities fitting him to be an explorerand the leader of an expedition. He does not appear to have had thecharacter necessary to impress his authority on a community. He wasquarrelsome, irascible, and quick to fancy that his full value was notadmitted. He shines most upon such small expeditions as the explorationof the Chesapeake; then his energy, self-confidence, shrewdness, inventiveness, had free play, and his pluck and perseverance arerecognized as of the true heroic substance. 

Smith, as we have seen, estimated at their full insignificance suchflummeries as the coronation of Powhatan, and the foolishness of taxingthe energies of the colony to explore the country for gold and chase thephantom of the South Sea. In his discernment and in his conceptions ofwhat is now called "political economy" he was in advance of his age. He was an advocate of "free trade" before the term was invented. In hisadvice given to the New England plantation in his "Advertisements" hesays:

"Now as his Majesty has made you custome-free for seven yeares, havea care that all your countrymen shall come to trade with you, be nottroubled with pilotage, boyage, ancorage, wharfage, custome, or any suchtricks as hath been lately used in most of our plantations, where theywould be Kings before their folly; to the discouragement of many, and ascorne to them of understanding, for Dutch, French, Biskin, or any willas yet use freely the Coast without controule, and why not English aswell as they? Therefore use all commers with that respect, courtesie, and liberty is fitting, which will in a short time much increase yourtrade and shipping to fetch it from you, for as yet it were not good toadventure any more abroad with factors till you bee better provided; nowthere is nothing more enricheth a Common-wealth than much trade, norno meanes better to increase than small custome, as Holland, Genua, Ligorne, as divers other places can well tell you, and doth most beggarthose places where they take most custome, as Turkie, the ArchipeleganIles, Cicilia, the Spanish ports, but that their officers will conniveto enrich themselves, though undo the state. "

It may perhaps be admitted that he knew better than the London or thePlymouth company what ought to be done in the New World, but it isabsurd to suppose that his success or his ability forfeited him theconfidence of both companies, and shut him out of employment. The simpletruth seems to be that his arrogance and conceit and importunity madehim unpopular, and that his proverbial ill luck was set off against hisability. 

Although he was fully charged with the piety of his age, and keptin mind his humble dependence on divine grace when he was plunderingVenetian argosies or lying to the Indians, or fighting anywhere simplyfor excitement or booty, and was always as devout as a modern Sicilianor Greek robber; he had a humorous appreciation of the value of thereligions current in his day. He saw through the hypocrisy of the LondonCompany, "making religion their color, when all their aim was nothingbut present profit. " There was great talk about Christianizingthe Indians; but the colonists in Virginia taught them chiefly thecorruptions of civilized life, and those who were despatched to Englandsoon became debauched by London vices. "Much they blamed us [he writes]for not converting the Salvages, when those they sent us were littlebetter, if not worse, nor did they all convert any of those we sent themto England for that purpose. "

Captain John Smith died unmarried, nor is there any record that he everhad wife or children. This disposes of the claim of subsequent JohnSmiths to be descended from him. He was the last of that race;the others are imitations. He was wedded to glory. That he was notinsensible to the charms of female beauty, and to the heavenly pityin their hearts, which is their chief grace, his writings abundantlyevince; but to taste the pleasures of dangerous adventure, to learn warand to pick up his living with his sword, and to fight wherever pietyshowed recompense would follow, was the passion of his youth, while hismanhood was given to the arduous ambition of enlarging the domainsof England and enrolling his name among those heroes who make anineffaceable impression upon their age. There was no time in his lifewhen he had leisure to marry, or when it would have been consistent withhis schemes to have tied himself to a home. 

As a writer he was wholly untrained, but with all his introversions andobscurities he is the most readable chronicler of his time, the mostamusing and as untrustworthy as any. He is influenced by his prejudices, though not so much by them as by his imagination and vanity. He had ahabit of accurate observation, as his maps show, and this trait givesto his statements and descriptions, when his own reputation is notconcerned, a value beyond that of those of most contemporary travelers. And there is another thing to be said about his writings. They areuncommonly clean for his day. Only here and there is coarsenessencountered. In an age when nastiness was written as well as spoken, andwhen most travelers felt called upon to satisfy a curiosity for prurientobservations, Smith preserved a tone quite remarkable for generalpurity. 

Captain Smith is in some respects a very good type of the restlessadventurers of his age; but he had a little more pseudo-chivalry at oneend of his life, and a little more piety at the other, than the rest. There is a decidedly heroic element in his courage, hardihood, andenthusiasm, softened to the modern observer's comprehension by thehumorous contrast between his achievements and his estimate of them. Between his actual deeds as he relates them, and his noble sentiments, there is also sometimes a contrast pleasing to the worldly mind. He isjust one of those characters who would be more agreeable on the stagethan in private life. His extraordinary conceit would be entertaining ifone did not see too much of him. Although he was such a romancer that wecan accept few of his unsupported statements about himself, there was, nevertheless, a certain verity in his character which showed somethingmore than loyalty to his own fortune; he could be faithful to anambition for the public good. Those who knew him best must have foundin him very likable qualities, and acknowledged the generosities of hisnature, while they were amused at his humorous spleen and his seriouscontemplation of his own greatness. There is a kind of simplicity inhis self-appreciation that wins one, and it is impossible for the candidstudent of his career not to feel kindly towards the "sometime Governorof Virginia and Admiral of New England. "