CAPTAIN JOHN SMITH.

DURING the early colonial period, the first writer in time, as, perhaps, in prominence, is Captain John Smith of Virginia. His personal history, which he has himself related in full, reads like a romance. Indeed, so interesting and remarkable are the incidents of his life, as given in his several volumes, that it is impossible to escape the suspicion that he has freely supplemented and embellished the facts from the resources of his ample imagination.

Yet, after all due abatement is made, the fact remains incontestable, that his career presented striking vicissitudes of fortune, and that in the midst of trials and dangers he showed himself fertile in resources, and dauntless in courage. In more than one emergency, the colony at Jamestown owed its preservation to his sagacity and courage; and though from the beginning his superior abilities made him an object of envy, he had the magnanimity to extinguish resentmert, and the unselfishness to labor for the good of his enemies.

John Smith was born in Lincolnshire, England, in 1580, the son of a well-to-do farmer. He received a moderate education in the schools of Alford and Louth. His parents died when he was a lad of fifteen; and though they left him a comfortable fortune, he was not content quietly to enjoy it. His youthful heart was set on adventures abroad; and only his father's death prevented his running away from home and going to sea. He was afterwards bound as an apprentice to Thomas Sendall, a prominent merchant of Lynn; but his restless disposition could not be satisfied with the unromantic duties of a counting-house, and hence he made his escape to give himself to a life of travel and adventure.

The next few years witnessed an astonishing amount of roving adventure. We find him in turn in Europe, Asia, and Africa, and everywhere encountering dangers and making mar

vellous escapes. He read military science, and disciplined himself to the use of arms. He served under Henry IV. of France, and then assisted the Dutch in their struggle against Philip II. of Spain. Afterwards, to use his own words, “He was desirous to see more of the world, and try his fortune against the Turks, both lamenting and repenting to have seen so many Christians slaughter one another."

Taking ship at Marseilles with a company of pilgrims going to Rome, he was angrily reproached for his Protestant heresy; and when a storm was encountered, his violent and superstitious fellow-travellers cast him, like another Jonah, into the sea. His good fortune did not desert him in this emergency. He succeeded in reaching a small, uninhabited island, from which he was shortly rescued and taken to Egypt. After other vicissitudes, including the capture of a rich Venetian argosy, he finally reached Vienna, and enlisted under the Emperor Rudolph II. against the Turks.

In the campaigns that followed, he won the confidence of his commanders. At Regal, in Transylvania, he distinguished himself in the presence of two armies by slaying in succession, in single combat, three Turkish champions. For this deed of prowess he received a patent of nobility, and a pension of three hundred ducats a year. Afterwards he had the misfortune to be wounded in battle, and was captured by the Turks. Having been sold as a slave, he was taken to Constantinople, where he touched the heart of his mistress by relating to her, like another Othello, the whole story of his adventures. Subsequently, after spending some time in Tartary, he made his escape through Russia, and at length returned to England in 1604. But his spirit of adventure was not yet satiated, and he at once threw himself into the schemes of colonization that were then engaging attention. He was one of the founders of the London Company.

The landing of the colony at Jamestown and their early difficulties and trials have already been spoken of. In the language of Smith, "There were never Englishmen left in a foreign country in such misery as we were in this new discovered Virginia. We watched every three nights, lying on the bare cold ground, what weather soever came, and warded all the next day, which brought our men to be most feeble wretches. Our food was but a small can of barley sodden in water to five men a day. Our drink, cold water taken out of the river, which was, at a flood, very salt, at a low tide, full of slime and filth, which was the destruction of many of our men." In less than six months, more than one-half of the colony had perished.

Smith encouraged the disheartened colonists, and wisely directed their labors, always bearing the heaviest part himself. Houses were built, and the land was tilled; and as often as supplies of food were needed, he succeeded in begging or bullying the Indians into furnishing what was needed. As opportunity presented itself, he diligently explored the country. It was on an expedition of discovery up the Chickahominy that he fell into the hands of Powhatan; and in spite of his fertility in resources, he escaped death only through the well-known intercession and protection of the noble-minded Pocahontas.

In recent years the truth of this story has been questioned; but an examination of the evidence hardly warrants us in pronouncing "the Pocahontas myth demolished." Until a stronger array of facts can be adduced, it must still stand as the most beautiful and most romantic incident connected with the founding of the American colonies.

While Smith had the direction of the colony as president, it prospered. The Indians were kept in subjection, and the colonists were wisely directed in their labors. But in 1609 a change took place. Five hundred new colonists arrived, and refused to acknowledge his authority. They robbed the Indians, and plotted the murder of Smith. While dangers were thus gathering, an accident changed the course of events. As

Smith lay sleeping in his boat, the powder bag at his side exploded, and frightfully burned his body. In his agony he leaped overboard, and narrowly escaped drowning. In his disabled condition and need of medical aid, he returned to England in October, 1609, and never visited Virginia again. His absence was sorely felt. The colonists soon fell into great disorder and distress. "The starving time" came on;

and in five months death reduced the number of colonists from four hundred and ninety to sixty.

Two of the survivors of "the starving time" have left a noble estimate of the character of Smith: "What shall I say? but thus we lost him that in all his proceedings made justice his first guide and experience his second; ever hating baseness, sloth, pride, and indignity more than any dangers; that never allowed more for himself than his soldiers with him; that upon no danger would send them where he would not lead them himself; that would never see us want what he either had, or could by any means get us; that would rather want than borrow, or starve and not pay; that loved actions more than words, and hated cozenage and falsehood more than death; whose adventures were our lives, and whose loss our death."

The next few years of his life, from 1610 to 1617, Smith spent in voyages to that section of our country which he named New England. While fishing for cod and bartering for furs, his principal object was to explore the coast, with a view to establish a settlement. He explored and mapped the country from the Penobscot to Cape Cod. His explorations in this region earned for him the title of " Admiral of New England." On his last expedition he was captured by a French pirate, and carried prisoner to Rochelle.

But soon

effecting his escape, he made his way back to England, which he seems never to have left again. The last years of his life were devoted to authorship. Among his numerous works may be mentioned the following: "A True Relation" (1608); “ A Description of New England" (1616); "The General History

of Virginia" (1624); and "The True Travels" (1630). He died June 21, 1631, and was buried in St. Sepulchre's Church, London.

He has left us an admirable summary of his remarkable life: "Having been a slave to the Turks; prisoner among the most barbarous savages; after my deliverance commonly discovering and ranging those large rivers and unknown nations with such a handful of ignorant companions that the wiser sort often gave me up for lost; always in mutinies, wants, and miseries; blown up with gunpowder; a long time a prisoner among the French pirates, from whom escaping in a little boat by myself. . . . And many a score of the worst winter months have I lived in the fields; yet to have lived thirty-seven years in the midst of wars, pestilences, and famine, by which many a hundred thousand have died about me, and scarce five living of them that went first with me to Virginia, and yet to see the fruits of my labors thus well begin to prosper (though I have but my labor for my pains), have I not much reason, both privately and publicly, to acknowledge it, and give God thanks?”

After all necessary abatement is made in the account he has given of his life, it is apparent that he was no ordinary man. He was great in word and deed. His voluminous writings are characterized by clearness, force, and dramatic energy. His intellect was cast in the large mould of the era to which he belonged. He was a man of broad views. As a leader he displayed courage and executive ability; and few American explorers have shown the same indomitable energy. Though restless, ambitious, and vain, he was noble in aim and generous in disposition. During the first quarter of the seventeenth century "he did more than any other Englishman to make an American nation and an American literature possible."