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diff --git a/3130-0.txt b/3130-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6b423c5 --- /dev/null +++ b/3130-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,7522 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Captain John Smith, by Charles Dudley Warner + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Captain John Smith + +Author: Charles Dudley Warner + +Release Date: August 20, 2016 [EBook #3130] +Last Updated: February 24, 2018 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: UTF-8 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CAPTAIN JOHN SMITH *** + + + +Produced by David Widger + + + + + +CAPTAIN JOHN SMITH + +By Charles Dudley Warner + + + + +PREFACE + +When I consented to prepare this volume for a series, which should +deal with the notables of American history with some familiarity and +disregard of historic gravity, I did not anticipate the seriousness of +the task. But investigation of the subject showed me that while Captain +John Smith would lend himself easily enough to the purely facetious +treatment, there were historic problems worthy of a different handling, +and that if the life of Smith was to be written, an effort should be +made to state the truth, and to disentangle the career of the adventurer +from the fables and misrepresentations that have clustered about it. + +The extant biographies of Smith, and the portions of the history of +Virginia that relate to him, all follow his own narrative, and accept +his estimate of himself, and are little more than paraphrases of his +story as told by himself. But within the last twenty years some new +contemporary evidence has come to light, and special scholars have +expended much critical research upon different portions of his career. +The result of this modern investigation has been to discredit much of +the romance gathered about Smith and Pocahontas, and a good deal to +reduce his heroic proportions. A vague report of--these scholarly +studies has gone abroad, but no effort has been made to tell the real +story 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's +adventures, and to estimate his exploits and character. For this purpose +I have depended almost entirely upon original contemporary material, +illumined as it now is by the labors of special editors. I believe that +I have read everything that is attributed to his pen, and have compared +his own accounts with other contemporary narratives, and I think I have +omitted the perusal of little that could throw any light upon his +life or character. For the early part of his career--before he came to +Virginia--there is absolutely no authority except Smith himself; but +when he emerges from romance into history, he can be followed and +checked by contemporary evidence. If he was always and uniformly +untrustworthy it would be less perplexing to follow him, but his +liability to tell the truth when vanity or prejudice does not interfere +is annoying to the careful student. + +As far as possible I have endeavored to let the actors in these pages +tell 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 an +actor. His development of the Pocahontas legend has been carefully +traced, and all the known facts about that Indian--or Indese, as some +of the old chroniclers call the female North Americans--have been +consecutively set forth in separate chapters. The book is not a history +of early Virginia, nor of the times of Smith, but merely a study of his +life and writings. If my estimate of the character of Smith is not that +which his biographers have entertained, and differs from his own candid +opinion, I can only plead that contemporary evidence and a collation of +his own stories show that he was mistaken. I am not aware that there has +been before any systematic effort to collate his different accounts +of his exploits. If he had ever undertaken the task, he might have +disturbed that serene opinion of himself which marks him as a man who +realized his own ideals. + +The works used in this study are, first, the writings of Smith, which +are 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 of +title-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 Hakluyt +Society, 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 the +charters and letters-patent. The Pocahontas discussion has been followed +in many magazine papers. I am greatly indebted to the scholarly labors +of Charles Deane, LL.D., the accomplished editor of the “True Relation,” + and other Virginia monographs. I wish also to acknowledge the courtesy +of the librarians of the Astor, the Lenox, the New York Historical, +Yale, and Cornell libraries, and of Dr. J. Hammond Trumbull, the +custodian 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 his +rich “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 a +woman. A tender interest in his fame is assured. Still more fortunate +is he if he is able to record his own achievements and give to them +that form and color and importance which they assume in his own gallant +consciousness. Captain John Smith, the first of an honored name, had +this double good fortune. + +We are indebted to him for the glowing picture of a knight-errant of the +sixteenth century, moving with the port of a swash-buckler across the +field of vision, wherever cities were to be taken and heads cracked in +Europe, 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 as +the sword with which he shaved off the heads of the Turks, and for one +of the few romances that illumine our early history. + +Captain John Smith understood his good fortune in being the recorder of +his own deeds, and he preceded Lord Beaconsfield (in “Endymion”) in his +appreciation of the value of the influence of women upon the career of a +hero. In the dedication of his “General Historie” to Frances, Duchess of +Richmond, he says: + +“I have deeply hazarded myself in doing and suffering, and why should I +sticke to hazard my reputation in recording? He that acteth two parts is +the more borne withall if he come short, or fayle in one of them. Where +shall we looke to finde a Julius Caesar whose atchievments shine as +cleare 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 may +tremble in handling a Pen among so many judicious; especially when I am +so 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 heretofore +honorable and vertuous Ladies, and comparable but amongst themselves, +have offered me rescue and protection in my greatest dangers: even in +forraine parts, I have felt reliefe from that sex. The beauteous Lady +Tragabigzanda, when I was a slave to the Turks, did all she could to +secure me. When I overcame the Bashaw of Nalbrits in Tartaria, the +charitable Lady Callamata supplyed my necessities. In the utmost of +my extremities, that blessed Pokahontas, the great King's daughter of +Virginia, oft saved my life. When I escaped the cruelties of Pirats +and most furious stormes, a long time alone in a small Boat at Sea, and +driven ashore in France, the good Lady Chanoyes bountifully assisted +me.” + + +It is stated in his “True Travels” that John Smith was born in +Willoughby, in Lincolnshire. The year of his birth is not given, but +it was probably in 1579, as it appears by the portrait prefixed to that +work that he was aged 37 years in 1616. We are able to add also that the +rector of the Willoughby Rectory, Alford, finds in the register an entry +of the baptism of John, son of George Smith, under date of Jan. 9, 1579. +His biographers, following his account, represent him as of ancient +lineage: “His father actually descended from the ancient Smiths of +Crudley in Lancashire, his mother from the Rickands at great Heck in +Yorkshire;” but the circumstances of his boyhood would indicate that +like many other men who have made themselves a name, his origin was +humble. If it had been otherwise he would scarcely have been bound as an +apprentice, nor had so much difficulty in his advancement. But the +boy was born with a merry disposition, and in his earliest years was +impatient for adventure. The desire to rove was doubtless increased by +the nature of his native shire, which offered every inducement to the +lad of spirit to leave it. + +Lincolnshire is the most uninteresting part of all England. It is +frequently water-logged till late in the summer: invisible a part of +the year, when it emerges it is mostly a dreary flat. Willoughby is a +considerable village in this shire, situated about three miles and a +half southeastward from Alford. It stands just on the edge of the +chalk hills whose drives gently slope down to the German Ocean, and the +scenery around offers an unvarying expanse of flats. All the villages in +this part of Lincolnshire exhibit the same character. The name ends in +by, the Danish word for hamlet or small village, and we can measure the +progress of the Danish invasion of England by the number of towns +which have the terminal by, distinguished from the Saxon thorpe, which +generally ends the name of villages in Yorkshire. The population may be +said to be Danish light-haired and blue-eyed. Such was John Smith. The +sea was the natural element of his neighbors, and John when a boy must +have heard many stories of the sea and enticing adventures told by the +sturdy 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 the +west end. In the floor is a stone with a Latin inscription, in black +letter, round the verge, to the memory of one Gilbert West, who died in +1404. The church is dedicated to St. Helen. In the village the Wesleyan +Methodists also have a place of worship. According to the parliamentary +returns of 1825, the parish including the hamlet of Sloothby contained +108 houses and 514 inhabitants. All the churches in Lincolnshire +indicate the existence of a much larger population who were in the habit +of attending service than exists at present. Many of these now empty +are of size sufficient to accommodate the entire population of several +villages. Such a one is Willoughby, which unites in its church the +adjacent village of Sloothby. + +The stories of the sailors and the contiguity of the salt water had more +influence on the boy's mind than the free, schools of Alford and Louth +which he attended, and when he was about thirteen he sold his books and +satchel and intended to run away to sea: but the death of his father +stayed him. Both his parents being now dead, he was left with, he +says, competent means; but his guardians regarding his estate more than +himself, gave him full liberty and no money, so that he was forced to +stay at home. + +At the age of fifteen he was bound apprentice to Mr. Thomas S. Tendall +of Lynn. The articles, however, did not bind him very fast, for as his +master refused to send him to sea, John took leave of his master and did +not see him again for eight years. These details exhibit in the boy the +headstrong independence of the man. + +At length he found means to attach himself to a young son of the great +soldier, Lord Willoughby, who was going into France. The narrative is +not clear, but it appears that upon reaching Orleans, in a month or so +the services of John were found to be of no value, and he was sent back +to his friends, who on his return generously gave him ten shillings (out +of his own estate) to be rid of him. He is next heard of enjoying his +liberty at Paris and making the acquaintance of a Scotchman named +David Hume, who used his purse--ten shillings went a long ways in those +days--and in return gave him letters of commendation to prefer him to +King 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 river +to 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. But +he was doubtless on the side of Henry, as Havre was at this time in +possession of that soldier. Our adventurer not only makes no reference +to the great religious war, nor to the League, nor to Henry, but he does +not tell who held Paris when he visited it. Apparently state affairs did +not interest him. His reference to a “peace” helps us to fix the date +of his first adventure in France. Henry published the Edict of Nantes +at Paris, April 13, 1598, and on the 2d of May following, concluded the +treaty of France with Philip II. at Vervins, which closed the Spanish +pretensions in France. The Duc de Mercoeur (of whom we shall hear later +as Smith's “Duke of Mercury” in Hungary), Duke of Lorraine, was allied +with the Guises in the League, and had the design of holding Bretagne +under Spanish protection. However, fortune was against him and he +submitted to Henry in February, 1598, with no good grace. Looking about +for an opportunity to distinguish himself, he offered his services to +the Emperor Rudolph to fight the Turks, and it is said led an army of +his French followers, numbering 15,000, in 1601, to Hungary, to raise +the siege of Coniza, which was beleaguered by Ibrahim Pasha with 60,000 +men. + +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 fighting +captains of the time, who sold their swords in the best market, and +went over into the Low Countries, where he hacked and hewed away at his +fellow-men, all in the way of business, for three or four years. At +the end of that time he bethought himself that he had not delivered his +letters to Scotland. He embarked at Aucusan for Leith, and seems to +have been shipwrecked, and detained by illness in the “holy isle” in +Northumberland, 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 to +Willoughby. + +The family of Smith is so “ancient” that the historians of the county +of Lincoln do not allude to it, and only devote a brief paragraph to the +great John himself. Willoughby must have been a dull place to him after +his adventures, but he says he was glutted with company, and retired +into a woody pasture, surrounded by forests, a good ways from any town, +and there built himself a pavilion of boughs--less substantial than the +cabin of Thoreau at Walden Pond--and there he heroically slept in his +clothes, studied Machiavelli's “Art of War,” read “Marcus Aurelius,” and +exercised on his horse with lance and ring. This solitary conduct got +him the name of a hermit, whose food was thought to be more of +venison than anything else, but in fact his men kept him supplied with +provisions. When John had indulged in this ostentatious seclusion for a +time, he allowed himself to be drawn out of it by the charming discourse +of a noble Italian named Theodore Palaloga, who just then was Rider to +Henry, Earl of Lincoln, and went to stay with him at Tattershall. This +was an ancient town, with a castle, which belonged to the Earls of +Lincoln, and was situated on the River Bane, only fourteen miles from +Boston, a name that at once establishes a connection between Smith's +native 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 it +is that he founded a club afterwards in Boston, Massachusetts. + +Whatever were the pleasures of Tattershall, they could not long content +the restless Smith, who soon set out again for the Netherlands in search +of adventures. + +The life of Smith, as it is related by himself, reads like that of a +belligerent tramp, but it was not uncommon in his day, nor is it in +ours, whenever America produces soldiers of fortune who are ready, for +a compensation, to take up the quarrels of Egyptians or Chinese, or go +wherever there is fighting and booty. Smith could now handle arms and +ride a horse, and longed to go against the Turks, whose anti-Christian +contests filled his soul with lamentations; and besides he was tired of +seeing Christians slaughter each other. Like most heroes, he had a vivid +imagination that made him credulous, and in the Netherlands he fell into +the toils of three French gallants, one of whom pretended to be a great +lord, attended by his gentlemen, who persuaded him to accompany them to +the “Duchess of Mercury,” whose lord was then a general of Rodolphus +of Hungary, whose favor they could command. Embarking with these arrant +cheats, the vessel reached the coast of Picardy, where his comrades +contrived to take ashore their own baggage and Smith's trunk, containing +his 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 noble +lords had disappeared with the luggage, and Smith, who had only a single +piece of gold in his pocket, was obliged to sell his cloak to pay his +passage. + +Thus stripped, he roamed about Normandy in a forlorn condition, +occasionally entertained by honorable persons who had heard of his +misfortunes, 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 rescued +by a rich farmer; shortly afterwards, in a grove in Brittany, he chanced +upon one of the gallants who had robbed him, and the two out swords and +fell to cutting. Smith had the satisfaction of wounding the rascal, and +the 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 in +England during the French wars, by whom he was refurnished better than +ever. After this streak of luck, he roamed about France, viewing the +castles and strongholds, and at length embarked at Marseilles on a ship +for Italy. Rough weather coming on, the vessel anchored under the lee of +the 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 his +nation were all pirates, railed against Queen Elizabeth, and declared +that they never should have fair weather so long as he was on board. To +end the dispute, they threw him into the sea. But God got him ashore on +the little island, whose only inhabitants were goats and a few kine. The +next day a couple of trading vessels anchored near, and he was taken +off 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 one +of the vessels, who is described as “this noble Britaine, his neighbor, +Captaine la Roche, of Saint Malo,” that the much-tossed wanderer was +accepted as a friend. They sailed to the Gulf of Turin, to Alessandria, +where they discharged freight, then up to Scanderoon, and coasting +for some time among the Grecian islands, evidently in search of more +freight, they at length came round to Cephalonia, and lay to for +some days betwixt the isle of Corfu and the Cape of Otranto. Here it +presently appeared what sort of freight the noble Britaine, Captain la +Roche, was looking for. + +An argosy of Venice hove in sight, and Captaine la Roche desired +to 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 Britaine +lost fifteen men, and the argosy twenty, and then surrendered to save +herself from sinking. The noble Britaine and John Smith then proceeded +to rifle her. He says that “the Silkes, Velvets, Cloth of Gold, and +Tissue, Pyasters, Chiqueenes, and Suitanies, which is gold and silver, +they unloaded in four-and-twenty hours was wonderful, whereof having +sufficient, 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's +share of this booty was modest. When the ship returned he was set +ashore at “the Road of Antibo in Piamon,” “with five hundred chiqueenes +[sequins] and a little box God sent him worth neere as much more.” He +always devoutly acknowledged his dependence upon divine Providence, and +took willingly what God sent him. + + + + +II. FIGHTING IN HUNGARY + +Smith being thus “refurnished,” made the tour of Italy, satisfied +himself with the rarities of Rome, where he saw Pope Clement the Eighth +and many cardinals creep up the holy stairs, and with the fair city of +Naples and the kingdom's nobility; and passing through the north he came +into Styria, to the Court of Archduke Ferdinand; and, introduced by an +Englishman and an Irish Jesuit to the notice of Baron Kisell, general +of artillery, he obtained employment, and went to Vienna with Colonel +Voldo, Earl of Meldritch, with whose regiment he was to serve. + +He was now on the threshold of his long-desired campaign against the +Turks. The arrival on the scene of this young man, who was scarcely +out of his teens, was a shadow of disaster to the Turks. They had been +carrying all before them. Rudolph II., Emperor of Germany, was a weak +and irresolute character, and no match for the enterprising Sultan, +Mahomet III., who was then conducting the invasion of Europe. The +Emperor's brother, the Archduke Mathias, who was to succeed him, and +Ferdinand, Duke of Styria, also to become Emperor of Germany, were much +abler men, and maintained a good front against the Moslems in Lower +Hungary, but the Turks all the time steadily advanced. They had long +occupied Buda (Pesth), and had been in possession of the stronghold +of Alba Regalis for some sixty years. Before Smith's advent they had +captured the important city of Caniza, and just as he reached the ground +they had besieged the town of Olumpagh, with two thousand men. But the +addition to the armies of Germany, France, Styria, and Hungary of John +Smith, “this English gentleman,” as he styles himself, put a new face +on the war, and proved the ruin of the Turkish cause. The Bashaw of Buda +was soon to feel the effect of this re-enforcement. + +Caniza is a town in Lower Hungary, north of the River Drave, and just +west of the Platen Sea, or Lake Balatin, as it is also called. Due north +of Caniza a few miles, on a bend of the little River Raab (which empties +into the Danube), and south of the town of Kerment, lay Smith's town +of Olumpagh, which we are able to identify on a map of the period as +Olimacum or Oberlymback. In this strong town the Turks had shut up the +garrison under command of Governor Ebersbraught so closely that it was +without intelligence or hope of succor. + +In this strait, the ingenious John Smith, who was present in the +reconnoitering army in the regiment of the Earl of Meldritch, came +to the aid of Baron Kisell, the general of artillery, with a plan of +communication with the besieged garrison. Fortunately Smith had made +the acquaintance of Lord Ebersbraught at Gratza, in Styria, and had (he +says) communicated to him a system of signaling a message by the use +of torches. Smith seems to have elaborated this method of signals, +and providentially explained it to Lord Ebersbraught, as if he had a +presentiment of the latter's use of it. He divided the alphabet into +two parts, from A to L and from M to Z. Letters were indicated and +words spelled by the means of torches: “The first part, from A to L, is +signified by showing and holding one linke so oft as there is letters +from A to that letter you name; the other part, from M to Z, is +mentioned by two lights in like manner. The end of a word is signifien +by showing of three lights.” + +General Kisell, inflamed by this strange invention, which Smith +made plain to him, furnished him guides, who conducted him to a high +mountain, seven miles distant from the town, where he flashed his +torches and got a reply from the governor. Smith signaled that they +would charge on the east of the town in the night, and at the alarum +Ebersbraught was to sally forth. General Kisell doubted that he should +be able to relieve the town by this means, as he had only ten thousand +men; but Smith, whose fertile brain was now in full action, and who +seems to have assumed charge of the campaign, hit upon a stratagem for +the diversion and confusion of the Turks. + +On the side of the town opposite the proposed point of attack lay the +plain of Hysnaburg (Eisnaburg on Ortelius's map). Smith fastened two +or three charred pieces of match to divers small lines of an hundred +fathoms in length, armed with powder. Each line was tied to a stake at +each end. After dusk these lines were set up on the plain, and being +fired at the instant the alarm was given, they seemed to the Turks like +so many rows of musketeers. While the Turks therefore prepared to repel +a great army from that side, Kisell attacked with his ten thousand men, +Ebersbraught sallied out and fell upon the Turks in the trenches, all +the enemy on that side were slain or drowned, or put to flight. +And while the Turks were busy routing Smith's sham musketeers, the +Christians threw a couple of thousand troops into the town. Whereupon +the Turks broke up the siege and retired to Caniza. For this exploit +General Kisell received great honor at Kerment, and Smith was rewarded +with the rank of captain, and the command of two hundred and fifty +horsemen. From this time our hero must figure as Captain John Smith. The +rank is not high, but he has made the title great, just as he has made +the name of John Smith unique. + +After this there were rumors of peace for these tormented countries; but +the Turks, who did not yet appreciate the nature of this force, called +John Smith, that had come into the world against them, did not intend +peace, but went on levying soldiers and launching them into Hungary. +To oppose these fresh invasions, Rudolph II., aided by the Christian +princes, organized three armies: one led by the Archduke Mathias and +his lieutenant, Duke Mercury, to defend Low Hungary; the second led +by Ferdinand, the Archduke of Styria, and the Duke of Mantua, his +lieutenant, to regain Caniza; the third by Gonzago, Governor of High +Hungary, to join with Georgio Busca, to make an absolute conquest of +Transylvania. + +In pursuance of this plan, Duke Mercury, with an army of thirty +thousand, whereof nearly ten thousand were French, besieged +Stowell-Weisenberg, otherwise called Alba Regalis, a place so strong by +art and nature that it was thought impregnable. + +This stronghold, situated on the northeast of the Platen Sea, was, like +Caniza and Oberlympack, one of the Turkish advanced posts, by means of +which they pushed forward their operations from Buda on the Danube. + +This noble friend of Smith, the Duke of Mercury, whom Haylyn styles Duke +Mercurio, seems to have puzzled the biographers of Smith. In fact, the +name of “Mercury” has given a mythological air to Smith's narration and +aided to transfer it to the region of romance. He was, however, as we +have seen, identical with a historical character of some importance, for +the services he rendered to the Church of Rome, and a commander of +some considerable skill. He is no other than Philip de Lorraine, Duc de +Mercceur.' + +[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 life +with an account of his exploits in Hungary, entitled: Histoire de Duc +Mercoeur, par Bruseles de Montplain Champs, Cologne, 1689-97] + +At the siege of Alba Regalis, the Turks gained several successes by +night sallies, and, as usual, it was not till Smith came to the front +with one of his ingenious devices that the fortune of war changed. The +Earl Meldritch, in whose regiment Smith served, having heard from +some Christians who escaped from the town at what place there were the +greatest assemblies and throngs of people in the city, caused Captain +Smith to put in practice his “fiery dragons.” These instruments of +destruction are carefully described: “Having prepared fortie or fiftie +round-bellied earthen pots, and filled them with hand Gunpowder, then +covered them with Pitch, mingled with Brimstone and Turpentine, and +quartering as many Musket-bullets, that hung together but only at the +center of the division, stucke them round in the mixture about the +pots, and covered them againe with the same mixture, over that a strong +sear-cloth, then over all a goode thicknesse of Towze-match, well +tempered with oyle of Linseed, Campheer, and powder of Brimstone, these +he fitly placed in slings, graduated so neere as they could to the +places of these assemblies.” + +These missiles of Smith's invention were flung at midnight, when the +alarum was given, and “it was a perfect sight to see the short flaming +course of their flight in the air, but presently after their fall, the +lamentable noise of the miserable slaughtered Turkes was most wonderful +to heare.” + +While Smith was amusing the Turks in this manner, the Earl Rosworme +planned an attack on the opposite suburb, which was defended by a muddy +lake, supposed to be impassable. Furnishing his men with bundles of +sedge, which they threw before them as they advanced in the dark night, +the lake was made passable, the suburb surprised, and the captured +guns of the Turks were turned upon them in the city to which they had +retreated. The army of the Bashaw was cut to pieces and he himself +captured. + +The Earl of Meldritch, having occupied the town, repaired the walls and +the ruins of this famous city that had been in the possession of the +Turks for some threescore years. + +It is not our purpose to attempt to trace the meteoric course of Captain +Smith in all his campaigns against the Turks, only to indicate the large +part he took in these famous wars for the possession of Eastern Europe. +The siege of Alba Regalis must have been about the year 1601--Smith +never troubles himself with any dates--and while it was undecided, +Mahomet III.--this was the prompt Sultan who made his position secure +by putting to death nineteen of his brothers upon his accession--raised +sixty thousand troops for its relief or its recovery. The Duc de +Mercoeur went out to meet this army, and encountered it in the plains +of Girke. In the first skirmishes the Earl Meldritch was very nearly +cut off, although he made “his valour shine more bright than his armour, +which seemed then painted with Turkish blood.” Smith himself was sore +wounded and had his horse slain under him. The campaign, at first +favorable to the Turks, was inconclusive, and towards winter the Bashaw +retired to Buda. The Duc de Mercoeur then divided his army. The Earl of +Rosworme was sent to assist the Archduke Ferdinand, who was besieging +Caniza; the Earl of Meldritch, with six thousand men, was sent to assist +Georgio Busca against the Transylvanians; and the Duc de Mercoeur set +out for France to raise new forces. On his way he received great +honor at Vienna, and staying overnight at Nuremberg, he was royally +entertained by the Archdukes Mathias and Maximilian. The next morning +after the feast--how it chanced is not known--he was found dead His +brother-inlaw died two days afterwards, and the hearts of both, with +much sorrow, were carried into France. + +We now come to the most important event in the life of Smith before he +became an adventurer in Virginia, an event which shows Smith's readiness +to put in practice the chivalry which had in the old chronicles +influenced his boyish imagination; and we approach it with the +satisfaction 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 a +disturbed condition, owing to internal dissensions, of which the Turks +took advantage. Transylvania, in fact, was a Turkish dependence, and +it gives us an idea of the far reach of the Moslem influence in Europe, +that Stephen VI., vaivode of Transylvania, was, on the commendation of +Sultan 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 Ferdinand +and his successors. His successor, Stephen VI., surnamed Battori, or +Bathor, was made vaivode by the Turks, and afterwards, as we have said, +King of Poland. He was succeeded in 1575 by his brother Christopher +Battori, who was the first to drop the title of vaivode and assume that +of Prince of Transylvania. The son of Christopher, Sigismund Battori, +shook off the Turkish bondage, defeated many of their armies, slew some +of their pashas, and gained the title of the Scanderbeg of the times +in which he lived. Not able to hold out, however, against so potent +an adversary, he resigned his estate to the Emperor Rudolph II., and +received in exchange the dukedoms of Oppelon and Ratibor in Silesia, +with an annual pension of fifty thousand joachims. The pension not being +well paid, Sigismund made another resignation of his principality to his +cousin Andrew Battori, who had the ill luck to be slain within the +year by the vaivode of Valentia. Thereupon Rudolph, Emperor and King of +Hungary, was acknowledged Prince of Transylvania. But the Transylvania +soldiers did not take kindly to a foreign prince, and behaved so +unsoldierly that Sigismund was called back. But he was unable to settle +himself in his dominions, and the second time he left his country in +the power of Rudolph and retired to Prague, where, in 1615, he died +unlamented. + +It was during this last effort of Sigismund to regain his position that +the Earl of Meldritch, accompanied by Smith, went to Transylvania, with +the intention of assisting Georgio Busca, who was the commander of the +Emperor's party. But finding Prince Sigismund in possession of the most +territory and of the hearts of the people, the earl thought it best +to assist the prince against the Turk, rather than Busca against the +prince. Especially was he inclined to that side by the offer of free +liberty of booty for his worn and unpaid troops, of what they could get +possession 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 Turks +were then in possession of his father's country. In this distracted +state of the land, the frontiers had garrisons among the mountains, some +of which held for the emperor, some for the prince, and some for the +Turk. The earl asked leave of the prince to make an attempt to regain +his paternal estate. The prince, glad of such an ally, made him +camp-master of his army, and gave him leave to plunder the Turks. +Accordingly the earl began to make incursions of the frontiers into what +Smith calls the Land of Zarkam--among rocky mountains, where were some +Turks, some Tartars, but most Brandittoes, Renegadoes, and such like, +which he forced into the Plains of Regall, where was a city of men and +fortifications, strong in itself, and so environed with mountains that +it had been impregnable in all these wars. + +It must be confessed that the historians and the map-makers did not +always attach the importance that Smith did to the battles in which he +was conspicuous, and we do not find the Land of Zarkam or the city of +Regall in the contemporary chronicles or atlases. But the region is +sufficiently identified. On the River Maruch, or Morusus, was the town +of Alba Julia, or Weisenberg, the residence of the vaivode or Prince +of Transylvania. South of this capital was the town Millenberg, and +southwest of this was a very strong fortress, commanding a narrow pass +leading into Transylvania out of Hungary, probably where the River +Maruct: broke through the mountains. We infer that it was this pass +that 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 her +green habit,” says our knight-errant, “than the earl overspread her with +his troops.” Regall occupied a strong fortress on a promontory and the +Christians encamped on the plain before it. + +In the conduct of this campaign, we pass at once into the age of +chivalry, about which Smith had read so much. We cannot but recognize +that this is his opportunity. His idle boyhood had been soaked in old +romances, and he had set out in his youth to do what equally dreamy but +less venturesome devourers of old chronicles were content to read +about. Everything arranged itself as Smith would have had it. When +the Christian army arrived, the Turks sallied out and gave it a lively +welcome, which cost each side about fifteen hundred men. Meldritch had +but eight thousand soldiers, but he was re-enforced by the arrival of +nine thousand more, with six-and-twenty pieces of ordnance, under Lord +Zachel Moyses, the general of the army, who took command of the whole. + +After the first skirmish the Turks remained within their fortress, the +guns of which commanded the plain, and the Christians spent a month in +intrenching themselves and mounting their guns. + +The Turks, who taught Europe the art of civilized war, behaved all this +time in a courtly and chivalric manner, exchanging with the besiegers +wordy compliments until such time as the latter were ready to begin. The +Turks derided the slow progress of the works, inquired if their ordnance +was in pawn, twitted them with growing fat for want of exercise, and +expressed the fear that the Christians should depart without making an +assault. + +In order to make the time pass pleasantly, and exactly in accordance +with the tales of chivalry which Smith had read, the Turkish Bashaw in +the fortress sent out his challenge: “That to delight the ladies, who +did long to see some courtlike pastime, the Lord Tubashaw did defy any +captaine that had the command of a company, who durst combat with him +for his head.” + +This handsome offer to swap heads was accepted; lots were cast for the +honor of meeting the lord, and, fortunately for us, the choice fell +upon 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 cannot +find 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 thus +prepared the Turkish Bashaw, armed and mounted, entered with a flourish +of hautboys; on his shoulders were fixed a pair of great wings, +compacted of eagles' feathers within a ridge of silver richly garnished +with gold and precious stones; before him was a janissary bearing his +lance, and a janissary walked at each side leading his steed. + +This gorgeous being Smith did not keep long waiting. Riding into the +field with a flourish of trumpets, and only a simple page to bear his +lance, 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 off +his head. The whole affair was over so suddenly that as a pastime for +ladies it must have been disappointing. The Turks came out and took +the 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 one +Grualgo, the friend of the Bashaw, who sent a particular challenge to +Smith to regain his friend's head or lose his own, together with +his horse and armor. Our hero varied the combat this time. The two +combatants shivered lances and then took to pistols; Smith received a +mark upon the “placard,” but so wounded the Turk in his left arm that he +was unable to rule his horse. Smith then unhorsed him, cut off his head, +took possession of head, horse, and armor, but returned the rich apparel +and the body to his friends in the most gentlemanly manner. + +Captain Smith was perhaps too serious a knight to see the humor of +these encounters, but he does not lack humor in describing them, and +he adopted easily the witty courtesies of the code he was illustrating. +After he had gathered two heads, and the siege still dragged, he became +in turn the challenger, in phrase as courteously and grimly facetious as +was permissible, thus: + +“To delude time, Smith, with so many incontradictible perswading +reasons, obtained leave that the Ladies might know he was not so much +enamored of their servants' heads, but if any Turke of their ranke would +come to the place of combat to redeem them, should have also his, upon +like conditions, if he could winne it.” + +This considerate invitation was accepted by a person whom Smith, with +his usual contempt for names, calls “Bonny Mulgro.” It seems difficult +to immortalize such an appellation, and it is a pity that we have not +the real one of the third Turk whom Smith honored by killing. But +Bonny Mulgro, as we must call the worthiest foe that Smith's prowess +encountered, appeared upon the field. Smith understands working up +a narration, and makes this combat long and doubtful. The challenged +party, who had the choice of weapons, had marked the destructiveness of +his opponent's lance, and elected, therefore, to fight with pistols and +battle-axes. The pistols proved harmless, and then the battle-axes came +in play, whose piercing bills made sometime the one, sometime the other, +to have scarce sense to keep their saddles. Smith received such a blow +that he lost his battle-axe, whereat the Turks on the ramparts set up +a great shout. “The Turk prosecuted his advantage to the utmost of +his power; yet the other, what by the readiness of his horse, and +his judgment and dexterity in such a business, beyond all men's +expectations, by God's assistance, not only avoided the Turke's +violence, but having drawn his Faulchion, pierced the Turke so under the +Culets 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 John +Smith's depreciation of his inability to equal Caesar in describing his +own exploits, in his dedicatory letter to the Duchess of Richmond, must +be taken as an excess of modesty. We are prepared to hear that these +beheadings gave such encouragement to the whole army that six thousand +soldiers, with three led horses, each preceded by a soldier bearing a +Turk's head on a lance, turned out as a guard to Smith and conducted +him to the pavilion of the general, to whom he presented his trophies. +General Moyses (occasionally Smith calls him Moses) took him in his arms +and embraced him with much respect, and gave him a fair horse, richly +furnished, a scimeter, and a belt worth three hundred ducats. And his +colonel advanced him to the position of sergeant-major of his regiment. +If any detail was wanting to round out and reward this knightly +performance in strict accord with the old romances, it was supplied by +the subsequent handsome conduct of Prince Sigismund. + +When the Christians had mounted their guns and made a couple of breaches +in the walls of Regall, General Moyses ordered an attack one dark night +“by the light that proceeded from the murdering muskets and peace-making +cannon.” The enemy were thus awaited, “whilst their slothful governor +lay in a castle on top of a high mountain, and like a valiant prince +asketh what's the matter, when horrour and death stood amazed at +each other, to see who should prevail to make him victorious.” These +descriptions show that Smith could handle the pen as well as the +battleaxe, and distinguish him from the more vulgar fighters of his +time. The assault succeeded, but at great cost of life. The Turks sent a +flag of truce and desired a “composition,” but the earl, remembering the +death of his father, continued to batter the town and when he took it +put all the men in arms to the sword, and then set their heads upon +stakes along the walls, the Turks having ornamented the walls with +Christian heads when they captured the fortress. Although the town +afforded much pillage, the loss of so many troops so mixed the sour +with the sweet that General Moyses could only allay his grief by sacking +three other towns, Veratis, Solmos, and Kapronka. Taking from these a +couple of thousand prisoners, mostly women and children, Earl Moyses +marched north to Weisenberg (Alba Julia), and camped near the palace of +Prince Sigismund. + +When Sigismund Battori came out to view his army he was made acquainted +with the signal services of Smith at “Olumpagh, Stowell-Weisenberg, and +Regall,” and rewarded him by conferring upon him, according to the law +of--arms, a shield of arms with “three Turks' heads.” This was granted +by a letter-patent, in Latin, which is dated at “Lipswick, in Misenland, +December 9, 1603” It recites that Smith was taken captive by the +Turks in Wallachia November 18, 1602; that he escaped and rejoined his +fellow-soldiers. This patent, therefore, was not given at Alba Julia, +nor until Prince Sigismund had finally left his country, and when the +Emperor was, in fact, the Prince of Transylvania. Sigismund styles +himself, by the grace of God, Duke of Transylvania, etc. Appended to +this patent, as published in Smith's “True Travels,” is a certificate +by William Segar, knight of the garter and principal king of arms of +England, that he had seen this patent and had recorded a copy of it in +the 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, and +granted him an annual pension of three hundred ducats. This promise of +a pension was perhaps the most unsubstantial portion of his reward, +for Sigismund himself became a pensioner shortly after the events last +narrated. + +The last mention of Sigismund by Smith is after his escape from +captivity in Tartaria, when this mirror of virtues had abdicated. Smith +visited him at “Lipswicke in Misenland,” and the Prince “gave him +his Passe, intimating the service he had done, and the honors he had +received, with fifteen hundred ducats of gold to repair his losses.” + The “Passe” was doubtless the “Patent” before introduced, and we hear no +word 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 became +little better than a desert under the ravages of the contending armies. +The Emperor Rudolph at last determined to conquer the country for +himself, and sent Busca again with a large army. Sigismund finding +himself poorly supported, treated again with the Emperor and agreed to +retire to Silicia on a pension. But the Earl Moyses, seeing no prospect +of regaining his patrimony, and determining not to be under subjection +to the Germans, led his troops against Busca, was defeated, and fled to +join the Turks. Upon this desertion the Prince delivered up all he +had to Busca and retired to Prague. Smith himself continued with the +imperial party, in the regiment of Earl Meldritch. About this time the +Sultan sent one Jeremy to be vaivode of Wallachia, whose tyranny +caused the people to rise against him, and he fled into Moldavia. Busca +proclaimed Lord Rodoll vaivode in his stead. But Jeremy assembled an +army of forty thousand Turks, Tartars, and Moldavians, and retired +into Wallachia. Smith took active part in Rodoll's campaign to recover +Wallachia, and narrates the savage war that ensued. When the armies were +encamped near each other at Raza and Argish, Rodoll cut off the heads of +parties he captured going to the Turkish camp, and threw them into +the enemy's trenches. Jeremy retorted by skinning alive the Christian +parties he captured, hung their skins upon poles, and their carcasses +and heads on stakes by them. In the first battle Rodoll was successful +and established himself in Wallachia, but Jeremy rallied and began +ravaging the country. Earl Meldritch was sent against him, but the +Turks' force was much superior, and the Christians were caught in a +trap. In order to reach Rodoll, who was at Rottenton, Meldritch with +his small army was obliged to cut his way through the solid body of the +enemy. A device of Smith's assisted him. He covered two or three hundred +trunks--probably small branches of trees--with wild-fire. These fixed +upon the heads of lances and set on fire when the troops charged in the +night, so terrified the horses of the Turks that they fled in dismay. +Meldritch was for a moment victorious, but when within three leagues +of Rottenton he was overpowered by forty thousand Turks, and the last +desperate fight followed, in which nearly all the friends of the Prince +were 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 dear +the Turk paid for his conquest of Transylvania and Wallachia--a conquest +that might have been averted if the three Christian armies had been +joined against the “cruel devouring Turk.” Among the slain were many +Englishmen, adventurers like the valiant Captain whom Smith names, men +who “left there their bodies in testimony of their minds.” And there, +“Smith among the slaughtered dead bodies, and many a gasping soule with +toils and wounds lay groaning among the rest, till being found by the +Pillagers he was able to live, and perceiving by his armor and habit, +his ransome might be better than his death, they led him prisoner +with many others.” The captives were taken to Axopolis and all sold as +slaves. Smith was bought by Bashaw Bogall, who forwarded him by way of +Adrianople to Constantinople, to be a slave to his mistress. So chained +by 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 young +Charatza Tragabigzanda. + + + + +III. CAPTIVITY AND WANDERING + +Our hero never stirs without encountering a romantic adventure. Noble +ladies nearly always take pity on good-looking captains, and Smith was +far from ill-favored. The charming Charatza delighted to talk with her +slave, for she could speak Italian, and would feign herself too sick to +go to the bath, or to accompany the other women when they went to weep +over the graves, as their custom is once a week, in order to stay at +home to hear from Smith how it was that Bogall took him prisoner, as the +Bashaw had written her, and whether Smith was a Bohemian lord conquered +by the Bashaw's own hand, whose ransom could adorn her with the glory of +her lover's conquests. Great must have been her disgust with Bogall +when she heard that he had not captured this handsome prisoner, but had +bought him in the slave-market at Axopolis. Her compassion for her slave +increased, 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 sell +him, she sent him to her brother, the Tymor Bashaw of Nalbrits in the +country of Cambria, a province of Tartaria (wherever that may be). If +all had gone on as Smith believed the kind lady intended, he might have +been a great Bashaw and a mighty man in the Ottoman Empire, and we might +never have heard of Pocahontas. In sending him to her brother, it was +her intention, for she told him so, that he should only sojourn in +Nalbrits long enough to learn the language, and what it was to be a +Turk, till time made her master of herself. Smith himself does not +dissent from this plan to metamorphose him into a Turk and the husband +of the beautiful Charatza Tragabigzanda. He had no doubt that he was +commended to the kindest treatment by her brother; but Tymor “diverted +all this to the worst of cruelty.” Within an hour of his arrival, he was +stripped naked, his head and face shaved as smooth as his hand, a ring +of iron, with a long stake bowed like a sickle, riveted to his neck, and +he was scantily clad in goat's skin. There were many other slaves, but +Smith being the last, was treated like a dog, and made the slave of +slaves. + +The geographer is not able to follow Captain Smith to Nalbrits. Perhaps +Smith himself would have been puzzled to make a map of his own career +after he left Varna and passed the Black Sea and came through the +straits 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 days +more to Nalbrits, where the Tyrnor resided. + +Smith wrote his travels in London nearly thirty years after, and it is +difficult to say how much is the result of his own observation and how +much he appropriated from preceding romances. The Cambrians may have +been the Cossacks, but his description of their habits and also those +of the “Crym-Tartars” belongs to the marvels of Mandeville and other +wide-eyed travelers. Smith fared very badly with the Tymor. The Tymor +and his friends ate pillaw; they esteemed “samboyses” and “musselbits” + “great dainties, and yet,” exclaims Smith, “but round pies, full of all +sorts of flesh they can get, chopped with variety of herbs.” Their best +drink was “coffa” and sherbet, which is only honey and water. The common +victual of the others was the entrails of horses and “ulgries” (goats?) +cut up and boiled in a caldron with “cuskus,” a preparation made from +grain. This was served in great bowls set in the ground, and when +the other prisoners had raked it thoroughly with their foul fists the +remainder was given to the Christians. The same dish of entrails used to +be served not many years ago in Upper Egypt as a royal dish to entertain +a distinguished guest. + +It might entertain but it would too long detain us to repeat Smith's +information, probably all secondhand, about this barbarous region. We +must confine ourselves to the fortunes of our hero. All his hope of +deliverance from thraldom was in the love of Tragabigzanda, whom he +firmly believed was ignorant of his bad usage. But she made no sign. +Providence at length opened a way for his escape. He was employed in +thrashing in a field more than a league from the Tymor's home. The +Bashaw used to come to visit his slave there, and beat, spurn, and +revile him. One day Smith, unable to control himself under these +insults, rushed upon the Tymor, and beat out his brains with a thrashing +bat--“for they had no flails,” he explains--put on the dead man's +clothes, hid the body in the straw, filled a knapsack with corn, mounted +his horse and rode away into the unknown desert, where he wandered many +days before he found a way out. If we may believe Smith this wilderness +was more civilized in one respect than some parts of our own land, for +on all the crossings of the roads were guide-boards. After traveling +sixteen days on the road that leads to Muscova, Smith reached a +Muscovite garrison on the River Don. The governor knocked off the iron +from his neck and used him so kindly that he thought himself now risen +from the dead. With his usual good fortune there was a lady to take +interest in him--“the good Lady Callamata largely supplied all his +wants.” + +After Smith had his purse filled by Sigismund he made a thorough tour of +Europe, and passed into Spain, where being satisfied, as he says, with +Europe and Asia, and understanding that there were wars in Barbary, this +restless adventurer passed on into Morocco with several comrades on a +French man-of-war. His observations on and tales about North Africa +are so evidently taken from the books of other travelers that they +add little to our knowledge of his career. For some reason he found no +fighting going on worth his while. But good fortune attended his +return. He sailed in a man-of-war with Captain Merham. They made a few +unimportant captures, and at length fell in with two Spanish men-of-war, +which gave Smith the sort of entertainment he most coveted. A sort of +running fight, sometimes at close quarters, and with many boardings and +repulses, lasted for a couple of days and nights, when having battered +each other thoroughly and lost many men, the pirates of both nations +separated and went cruising, no doubt, for more profitable game. Our +wanderer returned to his native land, seasoned and disciplined for the +part he was to play in the New World. As Smith had traveled all over +Europe and sojourned in Morocco, besides sailing the high seas, since he +visited Prince Sigismund in December, 1603, it was probably in the +year 1605 that he reached England. He had arrived at the manly age of +twenty-six years, and was ready to play a man's part in the wonderful +drama of discovery and adventure upon which the Britons were then +engaged. + + + + +IV. FIRST ATTEMPTS IN VIRGINIA + +John Smith has not chosen to tell us anything of his life during the +interim--perhaps not more than a year and a half--between his +return from Morocco and his setting sail for Virginia. Nor do his +contemporaries throw any light upon this period of his life. + +One would like to know whether he went down to Willoughby and had a +reckoning with his guardians; whether he found any relations or friends +of his boyhood; whether any portion of his estate remained of that +“competent means” which he says he inherited, but which does not seem +to have been available in his career. From the time when he set out for +France in his fifteenth year, with the exception of a short sojourn in +Willoughby seven or eight years after, he lived by his wits and by the +strong 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 a +narrative that is characterized by the boastfulness and exaggeration +of the times, and not fuller of the marvelous than most others of that +period. + +The London to which Smith returned was the London of Shakespeare. We +should be thankful for one glimpse of him in this interesting town. Did +he frequent the theatre? Did he perhaps see Shakespeare himself at the +Globe? Did he loaf in the coffee-houses, and spin the fine thread of +his adventures to the idlers and gallants who resorted to them? If he +dropped in at any theatre of an afternoon he was quite likely to hear +some 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 prisoners +were fettered in gold, and the dripping-pans were made of it; and +where--an unheard-of thing--you might become an alderman without having +been 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 piety +according to his lights, and it is probable that he may have had the +then rising prejudice against theatres. After his return from Virginia +he 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 than +his piety was offended we do not know. There is certainly no sort of +evidence that he engaged in the common dissipation of the town, nor gave +himself up to those pleasures which a man rescued from the hardships of +captivity in Tartaria might be expected to seek. Mr. Stith says that +it was the testimony of his fellow soldiers and adventurers that “they +never knew a soldier, before him, so free from those military vices of +wine, tobacco, debts, dice, and oathes.” + +But of one thing we may be certain: he was seeking adventure according +to his nature, and eager for any heroic employment; and it goes without +saying that he entered into the great excitement of the day--adventure +in America. Elizabeth was dead. James had just come to the throne, and +Raleigh, to whom Elizabeth had granted an extensive patent of Virginia, +was in the Tower. The attempts to make any permanent lodgment in the +countries of Virginia had failed. But at the date of Smith's advent +Captain Bartholomew Gosnold had returned from a voyage undertaken in +1602 under the patronage of the Earl of Southampton, and announced that +he had discovered a direct passage westward to the new continent, all +the former voyagers having gone by the way of the West Indies. The +effect of this announcement in London, accompanied as it was with +Gosnold's report of the fruitfulness of the coast of New England which +he explored, was something like that made upon New York by the discovery +of gold in California in 1849. The route by the West Indies, with its +incidents of disease and delay, was now replaced by the direct course +opened by Gosnold, and the London Exchange, which has always been quick +to scent any profit in trade, shared the excitement of the distinguished +soldiers and sailors who were ready to embrace any chance of adventure +that offered. + +It is said that Captain Gosnold spent several years in vain, after +his return, in soliciting his friends and acquaintances to join him +in settling this fertile land he had explored; and that at length he +prevailed upon Captain John Smith, Mr. Edward Maria Wingfield, the Rev. +Mr. Robert Hunt, and others, to join him. This is the first appearance +of the name of Captain John Smith in connection with Virginia. Probably +his life in London had been as idle as unprofitable, and his purse +needed replenishing. Here was a way open to the most honorable, +exciting, and profitable employment. That its mere profit would have +attracted him we do not believe; but its danger, uncertainty, and chance +of distinction would irresistibly appeal to him. The distinct object of +the projectors was to establish a colony in Virginia. This proved too +great an undertaking for private persons. After many vain projects the +scheme was commended to several of the nobility, gentry, and merchants, +who came into it heartily, and the memorable expedition of 1606 was +organized. + +The patent under which this colonization was undertaken was obtained +from King James by the solicitation of Richard Hakluyt and others. +Smith's name does not appear in it, nor does that of Gosnold nor of +Captain Newport. Richard Hakluyt, then clerk prebendary of Westminster, +had from the first taken great interest in the project. He was chaplain +of the English colony in Paris when Sir Francis Drake was fitting out +his expedition to America, and was eager to further it. By his diligent +study he became the best English geographer of his time; he was the +historiographer of the East India Company, and the best informed man in +England concerning the races, climates, and productions of all parts of +the globe. It was at Hakluyt's suggestion that two vessels were sent out +from Plymouth in 1603 to verify Gosnold's report of his new short route. +A further verification of the feasibility of this route was made +by Captain George Weymouth, who was sent out in 1605 by the Earl of +Southampton. + +The letters-patent of King James, dated April 10, 1606, licensed the +planting of two colonies in the territories of America commonly called +Virginia. The corporators named in the first colony were Sir Thos. +Gates, Sir George Somers, knights, and Richard Hakluyt and Edward Maria +Wingfield, adventurers, of the city of London. They were permitted +to settle anywhere in territory between the 34th and 41st degrees of +latitude. + +The corporators named in the second colony were Thomas Hankam, Raleigh +Gilbert, William Parker, and George Popham, representing Bristol, +Exeter, and Plymouth, and the west counties, who were authorized to make +a settlement anywhere between the 38th and 48th degrees of latitude. + +The--letters commended and generously accepted this noble work of +colonization, “which may, by the Providence of Almighty God, hereafter +tend to the glory of his Divine Majesty, in propagating of Christian +religion to such people as yet live in darkness and miserable ignorance +of all true knowledge and worship of God, and may in time bring the +infidels and savages living in those parts to human civility and to +a settled and quiet government.” The conversion of the Indians was as +prominent an object in all these early adventures, English or Spanish, +as the relief of the Christians has been in all the Russian campaigns +against the Turks in our day. + +Before following the fortunes of this Virginia colony of 1606, to +which John Smith was attached, it is necessary to glance briefly at the +previous attempt to make settlements in this portion of America. + +Although the English had a claim upon America, based upon the discovery +of Newfoundland and of the coast of the continent from the 38th to the +68th north parallel by Sebastian Cabot in 1497, they took no further +advantage of it than to send out a few fishing vessels, until Sir +Humphrey Gilbert, a noted and skillful seaman, took out letters-patent +for discovery, bearing date the 11th of January, 1578. Gilbert was the +half-brother of Sir Walter Raleigh and thirteen years his senior. The +brothers were associated in the enterprise of 1579, which had for its +main object the possession of Newfoundland. It is commonly said, and +in this the biographical dictionaries follow one another, that Raleigh +accompanied his brother on this voyage of 1579 and went with him to +Newfoundland. The fact is that Gilbert did not reach Newfoundland on +that voyage, and it is open to doubt if Raleigh started with him. In +April, 1579, when Gilbert took active steps under the charter of 1578, +diplomatic difficulties arose, growing out of Elizabeth's policy with +the Spaniards, and when Gilbert's ships were ready to sail he +was stopped by an order from the council. Little is known of this +unsuccessful attempt of Gilbert's. He did, after many delays, put to +sea, and one of his contemporaries, John Hooker, the antiquarian, says +that Raleigh was one of the assured friends that accompanied him. But +he was shortly after driven back, probably from an encounter with the +Spaniards, and returned with the loss of a tall ship. + +Raleigh had no sooner made good his footing at the court of Elizabeth +than he joined Sir Humphrey in a new adventure. But the Queen +peremptorily retained Raleigh at court, to prevent his incurring the +risks of any “dangerous sea-fights.” To prevent Gilbert from embarking +on this new voyage seems to have been the device of the council rather +than the Queen, for she assured Gilbert of her good wishes, and desired +him, on his departure, to give his picture to Raleigh for her, and she +contributed to the large sums raised to meet expenses “an anchor guarded +by a lady,” which the sailor was to wear at his breast. Raleigh risked L +2,000 in the venture, and equipped a ship which bore his name, but which +had ill luck. An infectious fever broke out among the crew, and the +“Ark Raleigh” returned to Plymouth. Sir Humphrey wrote to his brother +admiral, Sir George Peckham, indignantly of this desertion, the reason +for which he did not know, and then proceeded on his voyage with +his four remaining ships. This was on the 11th of January, 1583. The +expedition was so far successful that Gilbert took formal possession +of Newfoundland for the Queen. But a fatality attended his further +explorations: the gallant admiral went down at sea in a storm off our +coast, with his crew, heroic and full of Christian faith to the last, +uttering, it is reported, this courageous consolation to his comrades at +the last moment: “Be of good heart, my friends. We are as near to heaven +by sea as by land.” + +In September, 1583, a surviving ship brought news of the disaster to +Falmouth. Raleigh was not discouraged. Within six months of this loss he +had on foot another enterprise. His brother's patent had expired. On +the 25th of March, 1584, he obtained from Elizabeth a new charter with +larger powers, incorporating himself, Adrian Gilbert, brother of +Sir Humphrey, and John Davys, under the title of “The College of the +Fellowship for the Discovery of the Northwest Passage.” But Raleigh's +object was colonization. Within a few days after his charter was issued +he despatched two captains, Philip Amadas and Arthur Barlow, who in July +of that year took possession of the island of Roanoke. + +The name of Sir Walter Raleigh is intimately associated with Carolina +and Virginia, and it is the popular impression that he personally +assisted 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 the +territory of Virginia, of which he was styled governor, than that he +accompanied Sir Humphrey Gilbert to Newfoundland. An allusion by William +Strachey, in his “Historie of Travaile into Virginia,” hastily read, may +have misled some writers. He speaks of an expedition southward, “to some +parts of Chawonock and the Mangoangs, to search them there left by Sir +Walter Raleigh.” But his further sketch of the various prior expeditions +shows that he meant to speak of settlers left by Sir Ralph Lane and +other agents of Raleigh in colonization. Sir Walter Raleigh never saw +any portion of the coast of the United States. + +In 1592 he planned an attack upon the Spanish possessions of Panama, but +his plans were frustrated. His only personal expedition to the New World +was that to Guana in 1595. + +The expedition of Captain Amadas and Captain Barlow is described by +Captain Smith in his compilation called the “General Historie,” and by +Mr. Strachey. They set sail April 27, 1584, from the Thames. On the 2d +of July they fell with the coast of Florida in shoal water, “where +they felt a most delicate sweet smell,” but saw no land. Presently land +appeared, which they took to be the continent, and coasted along to the +northward a hundred and thirty miles before finding a harbor. Entering +the first opening, they landed on what proved to be the Island of +Roanoke. The landing-place was sandy and low, but so productive of +grapes or vines overrunning everything, that the very surge of the sea +sometimes overflowed them. The tallest and reddest cedars in the world +grew there, with pines, cypresses, and other trees, and in the woods +plenty of deer, conies, and fowls in incredible abundance. + +After a few days the natives came off in boats to visit them, proper +people and civil in their behavior, bringing with them the King's +brother, Granganameo (Quangimino, says Strachey). The name of the King +was Winginia, and of the country Wingandacoa. The name of this +King might have suggested that of Virginia as the title of the new +possession, but for the superior claim of the Virgin Queen. Granganameo +was a friendly savage who liked to trade. The first thing he took a +fancy was a pewter dish, and he made a hole through it and hung it about +his neck for a breastplate. The liberal Christians sold it to him for +the low price of twenty deer-skins, worth twenty crowns, and they +also let him have a copper kettle for fifty skins. They drove a lively +traffic with the savages for much of such “truck,” and the chief came +on board and ate and drank merrily with the strangers. His wife and +children, short of stature but well-formed and bashful, also paid them +a visit. She wore a long coat of leather, with a piece of leather about +her loins, around her forehead a band of white coral, and from her +ears bracelets of pearls of the bigness of great peas hung down to her +middle. The other women wore pendants of copper, as did the children, +five or six in an ear. The boats of these savages were hollowed trunks +of trees. Nothing could exceed the kindness and trustfulness the Indians +exhibited towards their visitors. They kept them supplied with game and +fruits, and when a party made an expedition inland to the residence of +Granganameo, his wife (her husband being absent) came running to the +river to welcome them; took them to her house and set them before +a great fire; took off their clothes and washed them; removed the +stockings of some and washed their feet in warm water; set plenty of +victual, venison and fish and fruits, before them, and took pains to +see all things well ordered for their comfort. “More love they could +not express to entertain us.” It is noted that these savages drank wine +while the grape lasted. The visitors returned all this kindness with +suspicion. + +They insisted upon retiring to their boats at night instead of lodging +in the house, and the good woman, much grieved at their jealousy, sent +down to them their half-cooked supper, pots and all, and mats to cover +them from the rain in the night, and caused several of her men and +thirty women to sit all night on the shore over against them. “A more +kind, loving people cannot be,” say the voyagers. + +In September the expedition returned to England, taking specimens of the +wealth of the country, and some of the pearls as big as peas, and +two natives, Wanchese and Manteo. The “lord proprietary” obtained the +Queen's permission to name the new lands “Virginia,” in her honor, and +he had a new seal of his arms cut, with the legend, Propria insignia +Walteri Ralegh, militis, Domini et Gubernatoris Virginia. + +The enticing reports brought back of the fertility of this land, and the +amiability of its pearl-decked inhabitants, determined Raleigh at once +to establish a colony there, in the hope of the ultimate salvation +of the “poor seduced infidell” who wore the pearls. A fleet of seven +vessels, with one hundred householders, and many things necessary to +begin a new state, departed from Plymouth in April, 1585. Sir Richard +Grenville had command of the expedition, and Mr. Ralph Lane was made +governor of the colony, with Philip Amadas for his deputy. Among +the distinguished men who accompanied them were Thomas Hariot, +the mathematician, and Thomas Cavendish, the naval discoverer. The +expedition encountered as many fatalities as those that befell Sir +Humphrey Gilbert; and Sir Richard was destined also to an early +and memorable death. But the new colony suffered more from its own +imprudence and want of harmony than from natural causes. + +In August, Grenville left Ralph Lane in charge of the colony and +returned to England, capturing a Spanish ship on the way. The colonists +pushed discoveries in various directions, but soon found themselves +involved in quarrels with the Indians, whose conduct was less friendly +than 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 against +the life of the colony, and it was short of supplies, Sir Francis Drake +appeared off Roanoke, returning homeward with his fleet from the sacking +of St. Domingo, Carthagena, and St. Augustine. Lane, without waiting for +succor from England, persuaded Drake to take him and all the colony back +home. Meantime Raleigh, knowing that the colony would probably need aid, +was preparing a fleet of three well appointed ships to accompany Sir +Richard Grenville, and an “advice ship,” plentifully freighted, to send +in advance to give intelligence of his coming. Great was Grenville's +chagrin, when he reached Hatorask, to find that the advice boat had +arrived, and finding no colony, had departed again for England. However, +he established fifteen men (“fifty,” says the “General Historie”) on the +island, provisioned for two years, and then returned home. + + +[Sir Richard Grenville in 1591 was vice-admiral of a fleet, under +command of Lord Thomas Howard, at the Azores, sent against a Spanish +Plate-fleet. Six English vessels were suddenly opposed by a Spanish +convoy of 53 ships of war. Left behind his comrades, in embarking from +an island, opposed by five galleons, he maintained a terrible fight +for fifteen hours, his vessel all cut to pieces, and his men nearly +all slain. He died uttering aloud these words: “Here dies Sir Richard +Grenville, with a joyful and quiet mind, for that I have ended my +life 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 furnished +than the one that Newport, Wingfield, and Gosnold conducted to the River +James in 1607; but it needed a man at the head of it. If the governor +had possessed Smith's pluck, he would have held on till the arrival of +Grenville. + +Lane did not distinguish himself in the conduct of this governorship, +but he nevertheless gained immortality. For he is credited with first +bringing 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 a +pipe and drawn through the stem in smoke, of the melancholy spirit. + +The honor of introducing tobacco at this date is so large that it has +been shared by three persons--Sir Francis Drake, who brought Mr. Lane +home; Mr. Lane, who carried the precious result of his sojourn in +America; and Sir Walter Raleigh, who commended it to the use of the +ladies of Queen Elizabeth's court. + +But this was by no means its first appearance in Europe. It was already +known in Spain, in France, and in Italy, and no doubt had begun to make +its way in the Orient. In the early part of the century the Spaniards +had discovered its virtues. It is stated by John Neander, in his “Tobaco +Logia,” published in Leyden in 1626, that Tobaco took its name from +a province in Yucatan, conquered by Fernando Cortez in 1519. The name +Nicotiana he derives from D. Johanne Nicotino Nemansensi, of the council +of Francis II., who first introduced the plant into France. At the date +of this volume (1626) tobacco was in general use all over Europe and +in the East. Pictures are given of the Persian water pipes, and +descriptions of the mode of preparing it for use. There are reports and +traditions of a very ancient use of tobacco in Persia and in China, as +well as in India, but we are convinced that the substance supposed to be +tobacco, and to be referred to as such by many writers, and described as +“intoxicating,” was really India hemp, or some plant very different from +the tobacco of the New World. At any rate there is evidence that in the +Turkish Empire as late as 1616 tobacco was still somewhat a novelty, and +the 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 an +ancient Turkish MS which related an occurrence at Smyrna about the year +1610, namely, the punishment of some sailors for the use of tobacco, +which showed that it was a novelty and accounted a low vice at that +time. The testimony of the trustworthy George Sandys, an English +traveler into Turkey, Egypt, and Syria in 1610 (afterwards, 1621, +treasurer of the colony in Virginia), is to the same effect as given in +his “Relation,” published in London in 1621. In his minute description +of 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 they +take through reedes that have joyned with them great heads of wood to +containe it, I doubt not but lately taught them as brought them by the +English; and were it not sometimes lookt into (for Morat Bassa [Murad +III.?] not long since commanded a pipe to be thrust through the nose of +a Turke, and to be led in derision through the Citie), no question but +it would prove a principal commodity. Nevertheless they will take it in +corners; and are so ignorant therein, that that which in England is not +saleable, doth passe here among them for most excellent.” + +Mr. Stith (“History of Virginia,” 1746) gives Raleigh credit for the +introduction of the pipe into good society, but he cautiously says, “We +are not informed whether the queen made use of it herself: but it is +certain she gave great countenance to it as a vegetable of singular +strength and power, which might therefore prove of benefit to mankind, +and advantage to the nation.” Mr. Thomas Hariot, in his observations on +the colony at Roanoke, says that the natives esteemed their tobacco, of +which 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 in +England by Sir John Hawkins, about the year 1565, but not used by +Englishmen in many years after, though at this time commonly used by +most 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 all +men wondered what it meant.” It was first commended for its medicinal +virtues. Harrison's “Chronologie,” under date of 1573, says: “In these +daies the taking in of the smoke of the Indian herbe called 'Tabaco' by +an instrument formed like a little ladell, whereby it passeth from the +mouth into the hed and stomach, is gretlie taken-up and used in England, +against Rewmes and some other diseases ingendred in the longes and +inward partes, and not without effect.” But Barnaby Rich, in “The +Honestie 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, for +dropsies, 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 (or +more) 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 7,000 +shops in London live by the trade of tobacco-selling, and calculates +that there is paid for it L 399,375 a year, “all spent in smoake.” Every +base groom must have his pipe with his pot of ale; it “is vendible +in every taverne, inne, and ale-house; and as for apothecaries shops, +grosers shops, chandlers shops, they are (almost) never without company +that, from morning till night, are still taking of tobacco.” Numbers of +houses and shops had no other trade to live by. The wrath of King James +was probably never cooled against tobacco, but the expression of it was +somewhat tempered when he perceived what a source of revenue it became. + +The savages of North America gave early evidence of the possession of +imaginative minds, of rare power of invention, and of an amiable desire +to make satisfactory replies to the inquiries of their visitors. They +generally told their questioners what they wanted to know, if they could +ascertain what sort of information would please them. If they had known +the taste of the sixteenth century for the marvelous they could not have +responded more fitly to suit it. They filled Mr. Lane and Mr. Hariot +full 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 thought +flowed out of the Gulf of Mexico, or very near the South Sea. The +Indians also conveyed to the mind of this sagacious observer the notion +that they had a very respectably developed religion; that they believed +in one chief god who existed from all eternity, and who made many gods +of less degree; that for mankind a woman was first created, who by +one of the gods brought forth children; that they believed in the +immortality of the soul, and that for good works a soul will be conveyed +to 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 men +lately dead had revived and come back to tell them of the other world. +These stories, and many others of like kind, the Indians told of +themselves, and they further pleased Mr. Hariot by kissing his Bible and +rubbing it all over their bodies, notwithstanding he told them there was +no virtue in the material book itself, only in its doctrines. We must +do Mr. Hariot the justice to say, however, that he had some little +suspicion of the “subtiltie” of the weroances (chiefs) and the priests. + +Raleigh was not easily discouraged; he was determined to plant his +colony, and to send relief to the handful of men that Grenville had left +on Roanoke Island. In May, 1587, he sent out three ships and a hundred +and fifty householders, under command of Mr. John White, who was +appointed Governor of the colony, with twelve assistants as a Council, +who were incorporated under the name of “The Governor and Assistants +of the City of Ralegh in Virginia,” with instructions to change their +settlement to Chesapeake Bay. The expedition found there no one of the +colony (whether it was fifty or fifteen the writers disagree), nothing +but the bones of one man where the plantation had been; the houses were +unhurt, but overgrown with weeds, and the fort was defaced. Captain +Stafford, 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 gone +to a small island near Hatorask, and afterwards had departed no one knew +whither. + +Mr. White sent a band to take revenge upon the Indians who were +suspected 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 year +Mateo was Christianized, and baptized under the title of Lord of Roanoke +and Dassomonpeake, as a reward for his fidelity. The same month Elinor, +the daughter of the Govemor, the wife of Ananias Dare, gave birth to a +daughter, the first white child born in this part of the continent, who +was named Virginia. + +Before long a dispute arose between the Governor and his Council as to +the proper person to return to England for supplies. White himself was +finally prevailed upon to go, and he departed, leaving about a hundred +settlers on one of the islands of Hatorask to form a plantation. + +The Spanish invasion and the Armada distracted the attention of Europe +about this time, and the hope of plunder from Spanish vessels was more +attractive than the colonization of America. It was not until 1590 +that Raleigh was able to despatch vessels to the relief of the Hatorask +colony, and then it was too late. White did, indeed, start out from +Biddeford in April, 1588, with two vessels, but the temptation to chase +prizes was too strong for him, and he went on a cruise of his own, and +left the colony to its destruction. + +In March, 1589-90, Mr. White was again sent out, with three ships, from +Plymouth, and reached the coast in August. Sailing by Croatan they went +to Hatorask, where they descried a smoke in the place they had left the +colony in 1587. Going ashore next day, they found no man, nor sign that +any had been there lately. Preparing to go to Roanoke next day, a boat +was upset and Captain Spicer and six of the crew were drowned. This +accident so discouraged the sailors that they could hardly be persuaded +to enter on the search for the colony. At last two boats, with nineteen +men, set out for Hatorask, and landed at that part of Roanoke where the +colony had been left. When White left the colony three years before, the +men had talked of going fifty miles into the mainland, and had agreed to +leave some sign of their departure. The searchers found not a man of +the colony; their houses were taken down, and a strong palisade had been +built. All about were relics of goods that had been buried and dug up +again and scattered, and on a post was carved the name “CROATAN.” This +signal, which was accompanied by no sign of distress, gave White hope +that he should find his comrades at Croatan. But one mischance or +another happening, his provisions being short, the expedition decided to +run down to the West Indies and “refresh” (chiefly with a little Spanish +plunder), and return in the spring and seek their countrymen; but +instead they sailed for England and never went to Croatan. The men of +the abandoned colonies were never again heard of. Years after, in 1602, +Raleigh bought a bark and sent it, under the charge of Samuel Mace, a +mariner who had been twice to Virginia, to go in search of the survivors +of White's colony. Mace spent a month lounging about the Hatorask coast +and trading with the natives, but did not land on Croatan, or at any +place where the lost colony might be expected to be found; but having +taken on board some sassafras, which at that time brought a good price +in England, and some other barks which were supposed to be valuable, he +basely shirked the errand on which he was hired to go, and took himself +and 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 not +allow them to interfere with his more public duties to go in search of +Spanish prizes. If the lost colony had gone to Croatan, it was probable +that Ananias Dare and his wife, the Governor's daughter, and the little +Virginia Dare, were with them. But White, as we have seen, had such +confidence 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 the +lost, but the searchers returned with only idle reports and frivolous +allegations. Tradition, however, has been busy with the fate of these +deserted colonists. One of the unsupported conjectures is that the +colonists amalgamated with the tribe of Hatteras Indians, and Indian +tradition and the physical characteristics of the tribe are said to +confirm this idea. But the sporadic birth of children with white +skins (albinos) among black or copper-colored races that have had no +intercourse with white people, and the occurrence of light hair and blue +eyes among the native races of America and of New Guinea, are facts so +well attested that no theory of amalgamation can be sustained by such +rare physical manifestations. According to Captain John Smith, who wrote +of Captain Newport's explorations in 1608, there were no tidings of +the waifs, for, says Smith, Newport returned “without a lump of gold, a +certainty of the South Sea, or one of the lost company sent out by Sir +Walter Raleigh.” + +In his voyage of discovery up the Chickahominy, Smith seem; to have +inquired about this lost colony of King Paspahegh, for he says, “what he +knew of the dominions he spared not to acquaint me with, as of certaine +men cloathed at a place called Ocanahonan, cloathcd like me.” + +[Among these Hatteras Indians Captain Amadas, in 1584, saw children with +chestnut-colored hair.] + +We come somewhat nearer to this matter in the “Historie of Travaile +into Virginia Britannia,” published from the manuscript by the Hakluyt +Society in 1849, in which it is intimated that seven of these deserted +colonists were afterwards rescued. Strachey is a first-rate authority +for what he saw. He arrived in Virginia in 1610 and remained there two +years, as secretary of the colony, and was a man of importance. His +“Historie” was probably written between 1612 and 1616. In the first +portion of it, which is descriptive of the territory of Virginia, is +this important passage: “At Peccarecamek and Ochanahoen, by the relation +of Machumps, the people have houses built with stone walls, and one +story above another, so taught them by those English who escaped the +slaughter of Roanoke. At what time this our colony, under the conduct +of Captain Newport, landed within the Chesapeake Bay, where the +people breed up tame turkies about their houses, and take apes in the +mountains, and where, at Ritanoe, the Weroance Eyanaco, preserved +seven of the English alive--four men, two boys, and one young maid (who +escaped [that is from Roanoke] and fled up the river of Chanoke), to +beat his copper, of which he hath certain mines at the said Ritanoe, as +also at Pamawauk are said to be store of salt stones.” + +This, it will be observed, is on the testimony of Machumps. This +pleasing story is not mentioned in Captain Newport's “Discoveries” (May, +1607). Machumps, who was the brother of Winganuske, one of the many +wives of Powhatan, had been in England. He was evidently a lively +Indian. Strachey had heard him repeat the “Indian grace,” a sort of +incantation before meat, at the table of Sir Thomas Dale. If he did +not differ from his red brothers he had a powerful imagination, and was +ready to please the whites with any sort of a marvelous tale. Newport +himself does not appear to have seen any of the “apes taken in the +mountains.” If this story is to be accepted as true we have to think of +Virginia Dare as growing up to be a woman of twenty years, perhaps as +other white maidens have been, Indianized and the wife of a native. +But the story rests only upon a romancing Indian. It is possible that +Strachey knew more of the matter than he relates, for in his history he +speaks again of those betrayed people, “of whose end you shall hereafter +read in this decade.” But the possessed information is lost, for it is +not found in the remainder of this “decade” of his writing, which is +imperfect. Another reference in Strachey is more obscure than the first. +He is speaking of the merciful intention of King James towards the +Virginia savages, and that he does not intend to root out the natives +as the Spaniards did in Hispaniola, but by degrees to change their +barbarous nature, and inform them of the true God and the way to +Salvation, and that his Majesty will even spare Powhatan himself. But, +he says, it is the intention to make “the common people likewise to +understand, how that his Majesty has been acquainted that the men, +women, and children of the first plantation of Roanoke were by practice +of Powhatan (he himself persuaded thereunto by his priests) miserably +slaughtered, without any offense given him either by the first planted +(who twenty and odd years had peaceably lived intermixed with those +savages, and were out of his territory) or by those who are now come to +inhabit 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 and +no women. + +In George Percy's Discourse concerning Captain Newport's exploration +of the River James in 1607 (printed in Purchas's “Pilgrims”) is this +sentence: “At Port Cotage, in our voyage up the river, we saw a savage +boy, about the age of ten years, which had a head of hair of a perfect +yellow, and reasonably white skin, which is a miracle amongst all +savages.” Mr. Neill, in his “History of the Virginia Company,” says that +this boy “was no doubt the offspring of the colonists left at Roanoke by +White, of whom four men, two boys, and one young maid had been preserved +from 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 their +amalgamation with the Indians, lingered long in colonial gossip. Lawson, +in his History, published in London in 1718, mentions a tradition among +the Hatteras Indians, “that several of their ancestors were white people +and could talk from a book; the truth of which is confirmed by gray eyes +being among these Indians and no others.” + +But the myth of Virginia Dare stands no chance beside that of +Pocahontas. + + + + +V. FIRST PLANTING OF THE COLONY + +The way was now prepared for the advent of Captain John Smith in +Virginia. It is true that we cannot give him his own title of its +discoverer, but the plantation had been practically abandoned, all +the colonies had ended in disaster, all the governors and captains +had lacked the gift of perseverance or had been early drawn into other +adventures, wholly disposed, in the language of Captain John White, “to +seek after purchase and spoils,” and but for the energy and persistence +of 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 spot +long enough to give it root. Captain Smith was that man, and if we find +him glorying in his exploits, and repeating upon single big Indians +the personal prowess that distinguished him in Transylvania and in the +mythical Nalbrits, we have only to transfer our sympathy from the Turks +to the Sasquesahanocks if the sense of his heroism becomes oppressive. + +Upon the return of Samuel Mace, mariner, who was sent out in 1602 to +search for White's lost colony, all Raleigh's interest in the Virginia +colony had, by his attainder, escheated to the crown. But he never +gave up his faith in Virginia: neither the failure of nine several +expeditions nor twelve years imprisonment shook it. On the eve of his +fall he had written, “I shall yet live to see it an English nation:” and +he lived to see his prediction come true. + +The first or Virginian colony, chartered with the Plymouth colony in +April, 1606, was at last organized by the appointment of Sir Thomas +Smith, the 'Chief of Raleigh's assignees, a wealthy London merchant, who +had been ambassador to Persia, and was then, or shortly after, governor +of the East India Company, treasurer and president of the meetings of +the council in London; and by the assignment of the transportation of +the colony to Captain Christopher Newport, a mariner of experience in +voyages to the West Indies and in plundering the Spaniards, who had the +power to appoint different captains and mariners, and the sole charge of +the voyage. No local councilors were named for Virginia, but to Captain +Newport, Captain Bartholomew Gosnold, and Captain John Ratcliffe were +delivered sealed instructions, to be opened within twenty-four hours +after their arrival in Virginia, wherein would be found the names of the +persons 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; the +God-Speed, forty tons, Captain Gosnold, with fifty-two persons; and a +pinnace of twenty tons, the Discovery, Captain Ratcliffe, with twenty +persons. The Mercure Francais, Paris, 1619, says some of the passengers +were women and children, but there is no other mention of women. Of the +persons 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 of +Northumberland, subsequently governor for a brief period, and one of the +writers from whom Purchas compiled. Most of the planters were shipped +as gentlemen, but there were four carpenters, twelve laborers, a +blacksmith, a sailor, a barber, a bricklayer, a mason, a tailor, a +drummer, and a chirurgeon. + +The composition of the colony shows a serious purpose of settlement, +since the trades were mostly represented, but there were too many +gentlemen to make it a working colony. And, indeed, the gentlemen, like +the promoters of the enterprise in London, were probably more solicitous +of discovering a passage to the South Sea, as the way to increase +riches, than of making a state. They were instructed to explore every +navigable river they might find, and to follow the main branches, which +would probably lead them in one direction to the East Indies or South +Sea, and in the other to the Northwest Passage. And they were forcibly +reminded that the way to prosper was to be of one mind, for their own +and their country's good. + +This last advice did not last the expedition out of sight of land. They +sailed from Blackwell, December 19, 1606, but were kept six weeks on the +coast of England by contrary winds. A crew of saints cabined in those +little caravels and tossed about on that coast for six weeks would +scarcely keep in good humor. Besides, the position of the captains and +leaders was not yet defined. Factious quarrels broke out immediately, +and the expedition would likely have broken up but for the wise conduct +and pious exhortations of Mr. Robert Hunt, the preacher. This faithful +man was so ill and weak that it was thought he could not recover, yet +notwithstanding the stormy weather, the factions on board, and although +his home was almost in sight, only twelve miles across the Downs, he +refused to quit the ship. He was unmoved, says Smith, either by the +weather or by “the scandalous imputations (of some few little better +than atheists, of the greatest rank amongst us).” With “the water of his +patience” and “his godly exhortations” he quenched the flames of envy +and dissension. + +They took the old route by the West Indies. George Percy notes that on +the 12th of February they saw a blazing star, and presently a storm. +They watered at the Canaries, traded with savages at San Domingo, and +spent three weeks refreshing themselves among the islands. The quarrels +revived before they reached the Canaries, and there Captain Smith was +seized and put in close confinement for thirteen weeks. + +We get little light from contemporary writers on this quarrel. Smith +does not mention the arrest in his “True Relation,” but in his “General +Historie,” writing of the time when they had been six weeks in Virginia, +he says: “Now Captain Smith who all this time from their departure from +the Canaries was restrained as a prisoner upon the scandalous suggestion +of some of the chiefs (envying his repute) who fancied he intended to +usurp the government, murder the Council, and make himself King, that +his confedcrates were dispersed in all three ships, and that divers +of his confederates that revealed it, would affirm it, for this he was +committed a prisoner; thirteen weeks he remained thus suspected, and by +that time they should return they pretended out of their commiserations, +to refer him to the Council in England to receive a check, rather than +by particulating his designs make him so odious to the world, as to +touch his life, or utterly overthrow his reputation. But he so much +scorned their charity and publically defied the uttermost of their +cruelty, he wisely prevented their policies, though he could not +suppress 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 unjust +Commanders, that the President was adjudged to give him L 200, so +that all he had was seized upon, in part of satisfaction, which Smith +presently returned to the store for the general use of the colony.”-- + +Neither in Newport's “Relatyon” nor in Mr. Wingfield's “Discourse” is +the 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's +vivid imagination, in regard to his own exploits, that he should speak +of an expedition in which he had no command, and was even a prisoner, in +this style: “I remained,” and “my men.” He goes on: “Such factions here +we had as commonly attend such voyages, and a pair of gallows was made, +but Captaine Smith, for whom they were intended, could not be persuaded +to use them; but not any one of the inventors but their lives by justice +fell into his power, to determine of at his pleasure, whom with much +mercy he favored, that most basely and unjustly would have betrayed +him.” And it is true that Smith, although a great romancer, was often +magnanimous, as vain men are apt to be. + +King James's elaborate lack of good sense had sent the expedition to sea +with the names of the Council sealed up in a box, not to be opened +till it reached its destination. Consequently there was no recognized +authority. Smith was a young man of about twenty-eight, vain and no +doubt somewhat “bumptious,” and it is easy to believe that Wingfield +and the others who felt his superior force and realized his experience, +honestly suspected him of designs against the expedition. He was the +ablest man on board, and no doubt was aware of it. That he was not only +a 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 in +it as well as over the fire. At the Island of Monaca they took from the +bushes with their hands near two hogsheads full of birds in three or +four hours. These, it is useless to say, were probably not the “barnacle +geese” which the nautical travelers used to find, and picture +growing upon bushes and dropping from the eggs, when they were ripe, +full-fledged into the water. The beasts were fearless of men. Wild birds +and natives had to learn the whites before they feared them. + +“In Mevis, Mona, and the Virgin Isles,” says the “General Historie,” “we +spent some time, where with a lothsome beast like a crocodile, called +a gwayn [guana], tortoises, pellicans, parrots, and fishes, we feasted +daily.” + +Thence they made sail-in search of Virginia, but the mariners lost their +reckoning for three days and made no land; the crews were discomfited, +and Captain Ratcliffe, of the pinnace, wanted to up helm and return to +England. 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 bit +of land none of them had ever seen before. This, the first land they +descried, they named Cape Henry, in honor of the Prince of Wales; as the +opposite cape was called Cape Charles, for the Duke of York, afterwards +Charles I. Within these capes they found one of the most pleasant places +in the world, majestic navigable rivers, beautiful mountains, hills, and +plains, and a fruitful and delightsome land. + +Mr. George Percy was ravished at the sight of the fair meadows and +goodly tall trees. As much to his taste were the large and delicate +oysters, which the natives roasted, and in which were found many pearls. +The ground was covered with fine and beautiful strawberries, four times +bigger than those in England. + +Masters Wingfield, Newport, and Gosnold., with thirty men, went ashore +on Cape Henry, where they were suddenly set upon by savages, who came +creeping upon all-fours over the hills, like bears, with their bows +in their hands; Captain Archer was hurt in both hands, and a sailor +dangerously wounded in two places on his body. It was a bad omen. + +The night of their arrival they anchored at Point Comfort, now Fortress +Monroe; the box was opened and the orders read, which constituted Edward +Maria Wingfield, Bartholomew Gosnold, John Smith, Christopher Newport, +John Ratcliffe, John Martin, and George Kendall the Council, with power +to choose a President for a year. Until the 13th of May they were slowly +exploring the River Powhatan, now the James, seeking a place for the +settlement. They selected a peninsula on the north side of the river, +forty miles from its mouth, where there was good anchorage, and which +could be readily fortified. This settlement was Jamestown. The Council +was then sworn in, and Mr. Wingfield selected President. Smith being +under arrest was not sworn in of the Council, and an oration was made +setting 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 make +clapboards to reload the ships, others to make gardens and nets. The +fort 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, but +Smith was not at all pleased with him from the first. He says “the +President's overweening jealousy would admit of no exercise at arms, or +fortifications but the boughs of trees cast together in the form of a +half-moon by the extraordinary pains and diligence of Captain Kendall.” + He also says there was contention between Captain Wingfield and Captain +Gosnold about the site of the city. + +The landing was made at Jamestown on the 14th of May, according to +Percy. Previous to that considerable explorations were made. On the 18th +of April they launched a shallop, which they built the day before, +and “discovered up the bay.” They discovered a river on the south side +running into the mainland, on the banks of which were good stores +of mussels and oysters, goodly trees, flowers of all colors, and +strawberries. Returning to their ships and finding the water shallow, +they rowed over to a point of land, where they found from six to twelve +fathoms of water, which put them in good comfort, therefore they named +that part of the land Cape Comfort. On the 29th they set up a cross on +Chesapeake Bay, on Cape Henry, and the next day coasted to the Indian +town of Kecoughton, now Hampton, where they were kindly entertained. +When they first came to land the savages made a doleful noise, laying +their paws to the ground and scratching the earth with their nails. This +ceremony, which was taken to be a kind of idolatry, ended, mats were +brought from the houses, whereon the guests were seated, and given +to eat bread made of maize, and tobacco to smoke. The savages also +entertained them with dancing and singing and antic tricks and grimaces. +They were naked except a covering of skins about the loins, and many +were painted in black and red, with artificial knots of lovely colors, +beautiful and pleasing to the eye. The 4th of May they were entertained +by the chief of Paspika, who favored them with a long oration, making +a foul noise and vehement in action, the purport of which they did not +catch. The savages were full of hospitality. The next day the weroance, +or chief, of Rapahanna sent a messenger to invite them to his seat. His +majesty received them in as modest a proud fashion as if he had been a +prince of a civil government. His body was painted in crimson and his +face in blue, and he wore a chain of beads about his neck and in his +ears bracelets of pearls and a bird's claw. The 8th of May they went up +the river to the country Apomatica, where the natives received them in +hostile array, the chief, with bow and arrows in one hand, and a pipe of +tobacco in the other, offering them war or peace. + +These savages were as stout and able as any heathen or Christians in +the world. Mr. Percy said they bore their years well. He saw among the +Pamunkeys a savage reported to be 160, years old, whose eyes were sunk +in 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 as +anybody. + +The Indians soon began to be troublesome in their visits to the +plantations, skulking about all night, hanging around the fort by +day, bringing sometimes presents of deer, but given to theft of small +articles, and showing jealousy of the occupation. They murmured, says +Percy, at our planting in their country. But worse than the disposition +of the savages was the petty quarreling in the colony itself. + +In obedience to the orders to explore for the South Sea, on the 22d of +May, Newport, Percy, Smith, Archer, and twenty others were sent in the +shallop to explore the Powhatan, or James River. + +Passing by divers small habitations, and through a land abounding in +trees, flowers, and small fruits, a river full of fish, and of sturgeon +such as the world beside has none, they came on the 24th, having passed +the town of Powhatan, to the head of the river, the Falls, where they +set 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 visit +Powhatan except himself. + +Captain Newport's narration of the exploration of the James is +interesting, being the first account we have of this historic river. +At the junction of the Appomattox and the James, at a place he calls +Wynauk, the natives welcomed them with rejoicing and entertained them +with dances. The Kingdom of Wynauk was full of pearl-mussels. The king +of this tribe was at war with the King of Paspahegh. Sixteen miles above +this point, at an inlet, perhaps Turkey Point, they were met by eight +savages in a canoe, one of whom was intelligent enough to lay out the +whole course of the river, from Chesapeake Bay to its source, with a +pen and paper which they showed him how to use. These Indians kept them +company for some time, meeting them here and there with presents of +strawberries, mulberries, bread, and fish, for which they received pins, +needles, and beads. They spent one night at Poore Cottage (the Port +Cotage of Percy, where he saw the white boy), probably now Haxall. Five +miles above they went ashore near the now famous Dutch Gap, where King +Arahatic gave them a roasted deer, and caused his women to bake cakes +for them. This king gave Newport his crown, which was of deer's hair +dyed red. He was a subject of the great King Powhatan. While they sat +making merry with the savages, feasting and taking tobacco and seeing +the dances, Powhatan himself appeared and was received with great show +of honor, all rising from their seats except King Arahatic, and shouting +loudly. To Powhatan ample presents were made of penny-knives, shears, +and toys, and he invited them to visit him at one of his seats called +Powhatan, which was within a mile of the Falls, where now stands the +city of Richmond. All along the shore the inhabitants stood in clusters, +offering food to the strangers. The habitation of Powhatan was situated +on a high hill by the water side, with a meadow at its foot where was +grown wheat, beans, tobacco, peas, pompions, flax, and hemp. + +Powhatan served the whites with the best he had, and best of all with +a friendly welcome and with interesting discourse of the country. They +made a league of friendship. The next day he gave them six men as guides +to 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, they +made a feast for him of pork, cooked with peas, and the Captain and King +ate familiarly together; “he eat very freshly of our meats, dranck of +our beere, aquavite, and sack.” Under the influence of this sack and +aquavite the King was very communicative about the interior of the +country, and promised to guide them to the mines of iron and copper; but +the wary chief seems to have thought better of it when he got sober, and +put them off with the difficulties and dangers of the way. + +On one of the islets below the Falls, Captain Newport set up a cross +with the inscription “Jacobus, Rex, 1607,” and his own name beneath, and +James was proclaimed King with a great shout. Powhatan was displeased +with their importunity to go further up the river, and departed with all +the Indians, except the friendly Navirans, who had accompanied them from +Arahatic. Navirans greatly admired the cross, but Newport hit upon +an explanation of its meaning that should dispel the suspicions of +Powhatan. He told him that the two arms of the cross signified King +Powhatan and himself, the fastening of it in the middle was their +united league, and the shout was the reverence he did to Powhatan. This +explanation being made to Powhatan greatly contented him, and he came +on board and gave them the kindest farewell when they dropped down the +river. 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 able +to sit up long with us.” The inability of the noble red man to sit up +was no doubt due to too much Christian sack and aquavite, for on “Monday +he came to the water side, and we went ashore with him again. He told us +that our hot drinks, he thought, caused him grief, but that he was well +again, and we were very welcome.” + +It seems, therefore, that to Captain Newport, who was a good sailor +in his day, and has left his name in Virginia in Newport News, must be +given the distinction of first planting the cross in Virginia, with a +lie, and watering it, with aquavite. + +They dropped down the river to a place called Mulberry Shade, where the +King killed a deer and prepared for them another feast, at which they +had rolls and cakes made of wheat. “This the women make and are very +cleanly 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 we +sat. He made ready a land turtle, which we ate; and showed that he was +heartily rejoiced in our company.” Such was the amiable disposition +of the natives before they discovered the purpose of the whites to +dispossess them of their territory. That night they stayed at a place +called “Kynd Woman's Care,” where the people offered them abundant +victual and craved nothing in return. + +Next day they went ashore at a place Newport calls Queen Apumatuc's +Bower. This Queen, who owed allegiance to Powhatan, had much land +under cultivation, and dwelt in state on a pretty hill. This ancient +representative of woman's rights in Virginia did honor to her sex. She +came to meet the strangers in a show as majestical as that of Powhatan +himself: “She had an usher before her, who brought her to the matt +prepared under a faire mulberry-tree; where she sat down by herself, +with a stayed countenance. She would permitt none to stand or sitt neare +her. She is a fatt, lustie, manly woman. She had much copper about her +neck, a coronet of copper upon her hed. She had long, black haire, which +hanged loose down her back to her myddle; which only part was covered +with a deare's skyn, and ells all naked. She had her women attending +her, adorned much like herself (except they wanted the copper). Here we +had our accustomed eates, tobacco, and welcome. Our Captaine presented +her with guyfts liberally, whereupon shee cheered somewhat her +countenance, and requested him to shoote off a piece; whereat (we noted) +she showed not near the like feare as Arahatic, though he be a goodly +man.” + +The company was received with the same hospitality by King Pamunkey, +whose land was believed to be rich in copper and pearls. The copper was +so flexible that Captain Newport bent a piece of it the thickness of his +finger as if it had been lead. The natives were unwilling to part with +it. The King had about his neck a string of pearls as big as peas, which +would have been worth three or four hundred pounds, if the pearls had +been 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 in +the territory of Paspahegh--but suspicious signs among the natives made +them apprehend trouble at the fort, and they hastened thither to find +their suspicions verified. The day before, May 26th, the colony had been +attacked by two hundred Indians (four hundred, Smith says), who were +only beaten off when they had nearly entered the fort, by the use of the +artillery. The Indians made a valiant fight for an hour; eleven white +men were wounded, of whom one died afterwards, and a boy was killed on +the pinnace. This loss was concealed from the Indians, who for some time +seem to have believed that the whites could not be hurt. Four of the +Council were hurt in this fight, and President Wingfield, who showed +himself a valiant gentleman, had a shot through his beard. They killed +eleven of the Indians, but their comrades lugged them away on their +backs and buried them in the woods with a great noise. For several days +alarms and attacks continued, and four or five men were cruelly wounded, +and one gentleman, Mr. Eustace Cloville, died from the effects of five +arrows in his body. + +Upon this hostility, says Smith, the President was contented the fort +should be palisaded, and the ordnance mounted, and the men armed and +exercised. The fortification went on, but the attacks continued, and it +was 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 the +company a murmur and grudge against certain proceedings and inconvenient +courses [Newport] put up a petition to the Council for reformation.” The +Council heeded this petition, and urged to amity by Captain Newport, +the company vowed faithful love to each other and obedience to the +superiors. On the 10th of June, Captain Smith was sworn of the Council. +In his “General Historie,” not published till 1624, he says: “Many were +the 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 appeased +by this truce, and to determine Captain Smith's responsibility for it, +it is necessary to examine all the witnesses. Smith is unrestrained +in his expression of his contempt for Wingfield. But in the diary of +Wingfield we find no accusation against Smith at this date. Wingfield +says that Captain Newport before he departed asked him how he thought +himself settled in the government, and that he replied “that no +disturbance could endanger him or the colony, but it must be wrought +either by Captain Gosnold or Mr. Archer, for the one was strong with +friends and followers and could if he would; and the other was troubled +with an ambitious spirit and would if he could.” + +The writer of Newport's “Relatyon” describes the Virginia savages as a +very strong and lusty race, and swift warriors. “Their skin is tawny; +not so borne, but with dyeing and painting themselves, in which they +delight greatly.” That the Indians were born white was, as we shall see +hereafter, a common belief among the first settlers in Virginia and New +England. Percy notes a distinction between maids and married women: “The +maids shave close the fore part and sides of their heads, and leave it +long behind, where it is tied up and hangs down to the hips. The married +women wear their hair all of a length, but tied behind as that of maids +is. And the women scratch on their bodies and limbs, with a sharp iron, +pictures of fowls, fish, and beasts, and rub into the 'drawings' lively +colors which dry into the flesh and are permanent.” The “Relatyon” says +the 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 would +with their foot, between their toes, convey a chisel, knife, percer, or +any indifferent light thing, which having once conveyed, they hold it +an injury to take the same from them. They are naturally given to +treachery; howbeit we could not find it in our travel up the river, but +rather a most kind and loving people.” + + + + +VI. QUARRELS AND HARDSHIPS + +On Sunday, June 21st, they took the communion lovingly together. That +evening Captain Newport gave a farewell supper on board his vessel. The +22d he sailed in the Susan Constant for England, carrying specimens of +the woods and minerals, and made the short passage of five weeks. Dudley +Carleton, in a letter to John Chamberlain dated Aug. 18, 1607, writes +“that Captain Newport has arrived without gold or silver, and that the +adventurers, cumbered by the presence of the natives, have fortified +themselves at a place called Jamestown.” The colony left numbered one +hundred and four. + +The good harmony of the colony did not last. There were other reasons +why the settlement was unprosperous. The supply of wholesome provisions +was inadequate. The situation of the town near the Chickahominy swamps +was not conducive to health, and although Powhatan had sent to make +peace with them, and they also made a league of amity with the chiefs +Paspahegh and Tapahanagh, they evidently had little freedom of movement +beyond sight of their guns. Percy says they were very bare and scant of +victuals, and in wars and dangers with the savages. + +Smith says in his “True Relation,” which was written on the spot, and is +much less embittered than his “General Historie,” that they were in +good health and content when Newport departed, but this did not long +continue, for President Wingfield and Captain Gosnold, with the most of +the Council, were so discontented with each other that nothing was done +with discretion, and no business transacted with wisdom. This he charges +upon the “hard-dealing of the President,” the rest of the Council being +diversely affected through his audacious command. “Captain Martin, +though honest, was weak and sick; Smith was in disgrace through the +malice of others; and God sent famine and sickness, so that the living +were scarce able to bury the dead. Our want of sufficient good food, and +continual watching, four or five each night, at three bulwarks, being +the chief cause; only of sturgeon we had great store, whereon we would +so greedily surfeit, as it cost many their lives; the sack, Aquavite, +and other preservations of our health being kept in the President's +hands, for his own diet and his few associates.” + +In his “General Historie,” written many years later, Smith enlarges this +indictment with some touches of humor characteristic of him. He says: + +“Being thus left to our fortunes, it fortuned that within ten days +scarce ten amongst us could either go, or well stand, such extreme +weakness and sicknes oppressed us. And thereat none need marvaile if +they consider the cause and reason, which was this: whilst the ships +stayed, our allowance was somewhat bettered, by a daily proportion of +Bisket, which the sailors would pilfer to sell, give, or exchange with +us for money, Saxefras, furres, or love. But when they departed, there +remained neither taverne, beere-house, nor place of reliefe, but the +common Kettell. Had we beene as free from all sinnes as gluttony, and +drunkennesse, we might have been canonized for Saints. But our President +would never have been admitted, for ingrissing to his private, Oatmeale, +Sacke, Oyle, Aquavitz, Beef, Egges, or what not, but the Kettell: that +indeed he allowed equally to be distributed, and that was half a pint +of wheat, and as much barley boyled with water for a man a day, and this +being fryed some twenty-six weeks in the ship's hold, contained as many +wormes as graines; so that we might truly call it rather so much bran +than corrne, our drinke was water, our lodgings Castles in the ayre; +with this lodging and dyet, our extreme toile in bearing and planting +Pallisadoes, so strained and bruised us, and our continual labour in the +extremitie of the heat had so weakened us, as were cause sufficient to +have made us miserable in our native countrey, or any other place in the +world.” + +Affairs grew worse. The sufferings of this colony in the summer equaled +that of the Pilgrims at Plymouth in the winter and spring. Before +September forty-one were buried, says Wingfield; fifty, says Smith +in one statement, and forty-six in another; Percy gives a list of +twenty-four who died in August and September. Late in August Wingfield +said, “Sickness had not now left us seven able men in our town.” “As +yet,” writes Smith in September, “we had no houses to cover us, our +tents 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 the +most part they died of mere famine.... We watched every three nights, +lying on the cold bare ground what weather soever came, worked all the +next day, which brought our men to be most feeble wretches, our food was +but a small can of barley, sod in water to five men a day, our drink but +cold water taken out of the river, which was at the flood very salt, at +a low tide full of shrimp and filth, which was the destruction of many +of our men. Thus we lived for the space of five months in this miserable +distress, but having five able men to man our bulwarks upon any +occasion. If it had not pleased God to put a terror in the savage +hearts, we had all perished by those wild and cruel Pagans, being in +that weak state as we were: our men night and day groaning in every +corner of the fort, most pitiful to hear. If there were any conscience +in men, it would make their hearts to bleed to hear the pitiful +murmurings and outcries of our sick men, without relief, every night and +day, for the space of six weeks: some departing out of the world; many +times three or four in a night; in the morning their bodies trailed out +of their cabins, like dogs, to be buried. In this sort did I see the +mortality of divers of our people.” + +A severe loss to the colony was the death on the 22d of August of +Captain Bartholomew Gosnold, one of the Council, a brave and adventurous +mariner, and, says Wingfield, a “worthy and religious gentleman.” He +was honorably buried, “having all the ordnance in the fort shot off with +many volleys of small shot.” If the Indians had known that those volleys +signified the mortality of their comrades, the colony would no +doubt have been cut off entirely. It is a melancholy picture, this +disheartened and half-famished band of men quarreling among themselves; +the occupation of the half-dozen able men was nursing the sick and +digging graves. We anticipate here by saying, on the authority of a +contemporary manuscript in the State Paper office, that when Captain +Newport arrived with the first supply in January, 1608, “he found the +colony consisting of no more than forty persons; of those, ten only able +men.” + +After the death of Gosnold, Captain Kendall was deposed from the Council +and 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 his +dislike of Wingfield. The colony was in very low estate at this time, +and was only saved from famine by the providential good-will of the +Indians, who brought them corn half ripe, and presently meat and fruit +in abundance. + +On the 7th of September the chief Paspahegh gave a token of peace by +returning a white boy who had run away from camp, and other runaways +were returned by other chiefs, who reported that they had been well used +in their absence. By these returns Mr. Wingfield was convinced that the +Indians were not cannibals, as Smith believed. + +On the 10th of September Mr. Wingfield was deposed from the presidency +and the Council, and Captain John Ratcliffe was elected President. +Concerning the deposition there has been much dispute; but the accounts +of it by Captain Smith and his friends, so long accepted as the truth, +must be modified by Mr. Wingfield's “Discourse of Virginia,” more +recently come to light, which is, in a sense, a defense of his conduct. + +In his “True Relation” Captain Smith is content to say that “Captain +Wingfield, having ordered the affairs in such sort that he was hated +of them all, in which respect he was with one accord deposed from the +presidency.” + +In the “General Historie” the charges against him, which we have already +quoted, are extended, and a new one is added, that is, a purpose of +deserting the colony in the pinnace: “the rest seeing the President's +projects to escape these miseries in our pinnace by flight (who all this +time had neither felt want nor sickness), so moved our dead spirits we +deposed him.” + +In the scarcity of food and the deplorable sickness and death, it +was inevitable that extreme dissatisfaction should be felt with the +responsible head. Wingfield was accused of keeping the best of the +supplies to himself. The commonalty may have believed this. Smith +himself must have known that the supplies were limited, but have been +willing to take advantage of this charge to depose the President, who +was clearly in many ways incompetent for his trying position. It appears +by Mr. Wingfield's statement that the supply left with the colony was +very scant, a store that would only last thirteen weeks and a half, +and prudence in the distribution of it, in the uncertainty of Newport's +return, was a necessity. Whether Wingfield used the delicacies himself +is a question which cannot be settled. In his defense, in all we read +of him, except that written by Smith and his friends, he seems to be +a temperate and just man, little qualified to control the bold spirits +about him. + +As early as July, “in his sickness time, the President did easily +fortell his own deposing from his command,” so much did he differ from +the Council in the management of the colony. Under date of September 7th +he says that the Council demanded a larger allowance for themselves and +for some of the sick, their favorites, which he declined to give without +their warrants as councilors. Captain Martin of the Council was till +then ignorant that only store for thirteen and a half weeks was in +the hands of the Cape Merchant, or treasurer, who was at that time Mr. +Thomas Studley. Upon a representation to the Council of the lowness of +the stores, and the length of time that must elapse before the harvest +of grain, they declined to enlarge the allowance, and even ordered that +every 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 sack +reserved for the Communion table, the rest for such extremities as +might fall upon us, which the President had only made known to Captain +Gosnold; of which course he liked well. The vessels wear, therefore, +boonged upp. When Mr. Gosnold was dead, the President did acquaint the +rest of the Council with the said remnant; but, Lord, how they then +longed for to supp up that little remnant: for they had now emptied all +their own bottles, and all other that they could smell out.” + +Shortly after this the Council again importuned the President for some +better allowance for themselves and for the sick. He protested his +impartiality, showed them that if the portions were distributed +according to their request the colony would soon starve; he still +offered to deliver what they pleased on their warrants, but would not +himself take the responsibility of distributing all the stores, and when +he divined the reason of their impatience he besought them to bestow +the presidency among themselves, and he would be content to obey as +a private. Meantime the Indians were bringing in supplies of corn and +meat, 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 to +depose him. Of the original seven there remained, besides Mr. Wingfield, +only three in the Council. Newport was in England, Gosnold was dead, and +Kendall deposed. Mr. Wingfield charged that the three--Ratcliffe, +Smith, and Martin--forsook the instructions of his Majesty, and set up +a Triumvirate. At any rate, Wingfield was forcibly deposed from the +Council on the 10th of September. If the object had been merely to +depose him, there was an easier way, for Wingfield was ready to resign. +But it appears, by subsequent proceedings, that they wished to +fasten upon him the charge of embezzlement, the responsibility of the +sufferings 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 Council +sitting as a court, and heard the charges against him. They were, as Mr. +Wingfield says, mostly frivolous trifles. According to his report they +were these: + +First, Mister President [Radcliffe] said that I had denied him a penny +whitle, 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 he +lied; and that I said, though we were equal here, yet if we were in +England, he [I] would think scorn his man should be my companion. + +Mr. Martin followed with: “He reported that I do slack the service in +the colony, and do nothing but tend my pot, spit, and oven; but he hath +starved my son, and denied him a spoonful of beer. I have friends in +England 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 hatching +of some mutiny in my time.” + +Mr. Percy sent him word in his prison that witnesses were hired to +testify 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, did +send this information, it shows that he sympathized with him, and this +is an important piece of testimony to his good character. + +Wingfield saw no way of escape from the malice of his accusers, whose +purpose he suspected was to fine him fivefold for all the supplies whose +disposition he could not account for in writing: but he was finally +allowed to appeal to the King for mercy, and recommitted to the pinnace. +In regard to the charge of embezzlement, Mr. Wingfield admitted that it +was impossible to render a full account: he had no bill of items from +the Cape Merchant when he received the stores, he had used the stores +for trade and gifts with the Indians; Captain Newport had done the same +in his expedition, without giving any memorandum. Yet he averred that he +never 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 Council +professed to think Wingfield's life was in danger. He says: “In all +these disorders was Mr. Archer a ringleader.” Meantime the Indians +continued to bring in supplies, and the Council traded up and down the +river for corn, and for this energy Mr. Wingfield gives credit to “Mr. +Smith especially,” “which relieved the colony well.” To the report that +was brought him that he was charged with starving the colony, he replies +with some natural heat and a little show of petulance, that may be taken +as an evidence of weakness, as well as of sincerity, and exhibiting the +undignified 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 was +it bettered after my tyme, untill, towards th' end of March, a bisket +was allowed to every working man for his breakfast, by means of the +provision brought us by Captn. Newport: as will appeare hereafter. It is +further said, I did much banquit and ryot. I never had but one squirrel +roasted; whereof I gave part to Mr. Ratcliffe then sick: yet was that +squirrel given me. I did never heate a flesh pott but when the comon +pott was so used likewise. Yet how often Mr. President's and the +Counsellors' spitts have night and daye bene endaungered to break their +backes-so, laden with swanns, geese, ducks, etc.! how many times their +flesh potts have swelled, many hungrie eies did behold, to their great +longing: and what great theeves and theeving thear hath been in the +comon stoare since my tyme, I doubt not but is already made knowne to +his Majesty's Councell for Virginia.” + +Poor Wingfield was not left at ease in his confinement. On the 17th he +was brought ashore to answer the charge of Jehu [John?] Robinson that +he had with Robinson and others intended to run away with the pinnace to +Newfoundland; and the charge by Mr. Smith that he had accused Smith +of intending mutiny. To the first accuser the jury awarded one hundred +pounds, and to the other two hundred pounds damages, for slander. +“Seeing their law so speedy and cheap,” Mr. Wingfield thought he would +try to recover a copper kettle he had lent Mr. Crofts, worth half its +weight in gold. But Crofts swore that Wingfield had given it to him, and +he 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 witt +or wealthe.” Another day they obtained from Wingfield the key to his +coffers, 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 beat +James Read, the blacksmith. Wingfield says the Council were continually +beating the men for their own pleasure. Read struck back. + +For this he was condemned to be hanged; but “before he turned of the +lather,” he desired to speak privately with the President, and thereupon +accused Mr. Kendall--who had been released from the pinnace when +Wingfield was sent aboard--of mutiny. Read escaped. Kendall was +convicted of mutiny and shot to death. In arrest of judgment he objected +that the President had no authority to pronounce judgment because his +name was Sicklemore and not Ratcliffe. This was true, and Mr. Martin +pronounced the sentence. In his “True Relation,” Smith agrees with this +statement of the death of Kendall, and says that he was tried by a jury. +It illustrates the general looseness of the “General Historie,” written +and compiled many years afterwards, that this transaction there appears +as follows: “Wingfield and Kendall being in disgrace, seeing all things +at random in the absence of Smith, the company's dislike of their +President's weakness, and their small love to Martin's never-mending +sickness, strengthened themselves with the sailors and other +confederates to regain their power, control, and authority, or at +least such meanes aboard the pinnace (being fitted to sail as Smith had +appointed for trade) to alter her course and to goe for England. Smith +unexpectedly returning had the plot discovered to him, much trouble he +had to prevent it, till with store of sakre and musket-shot he forced +them to stay or sink in the river, which action cost the life of Captain +Kendall.” + +In a following sentence he says: “The President [Ratcliffe] and Captain +Archer not long after intended also to have abandoned the country, +which project also was curbed and suppressed by Smith.” Smith was always +suppressing attempts at flight, according to his own story, unconfirmed +by any other writers. He had before accused President Wingfield of a +design to escape in the pinnace. + +Communications were evidently exchanged with Mr. Wingfield on the +pinnace, and the President was evidently ill at ease about him. One day +he was summoned ashore, but declined to go, and requested an interview +with ten gentlemen. To those who came off to him he said that he had +determined to go to England to make known the weakness of the +colony, that he could not live under the laws and usurpations of the +Triumvirate; however, if the President and Mr. Archer would go, he +was willing to stay and take his fortune with the colony, or he would +contribute one hundred pounds towards taking the colony home. “They did +like 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 expedition +up the Chickahominy, during which the alleged Pocahontas episode +occurred. Mr. Wingfield's condensed account of this journey and +captivity we shall refer to hereafter. In Smith's absence President +Ratcliffe, contrary to his oath, swore Mr. Archer one of the Council; +and Archer was no sooner settled in authority than he sought to take +Smith's life. The enmity of this man must be regarded as a long credit +mark to Smith. Archer had him indicted upon a chapter in Leviticus (they +all wore a garb of piety) for the death of two men who were killed by +the Indians on his expedition. “He had had his trials the same daie of +his retourne,” says Wingfield, “and I believe his hanging the same, or +the next daie, so speedy is our law there. But it pleased God to send +Captain Newport unto us the same evening, to our unspeakable comfort; +whose arrivall saved Mr. Smyth's leif and mine, because he took me out +of the pynnasse, and gave me leave to lyve in the towne. Also by his +comyng 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 of +the Council whose character and authority seem to have been generally +respected, the only one who could restore any sort of harmony and curb +the factious humors of the other leaders. Smith should have all credit +for his energy in procuring supplies, for his sagacity in dealing +with the Indians, for better sense than most of the other colonists +exhibited, and for more fidelity to the objects of the plantation than +most of them; but where ability to rule is claimed for him, at this +juncture we can but contrast the deference shown by all to Newport with +the want of it given to Smith. Newport's presence at once quelled all +the 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 “True +Relation” he says on his return to the fort “each man with truest signs +of joy they could express welcomed me, except Mr. Archer, and some two +or three of his, who was then in my absence sworn councilor, though not +with the consent of Captain Martin; great blame and imputation was laid +upon 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 my +miseries, it pleased God to send Captain Newport, who arriving there the +same night, so tripled our joy, as for a while those plots against me +were deferred, though with much malice against me, which Captain Newport +in short time did plainly see.” In his “Map of Virginia,” the Oxford +tract of 1612, Smith does not allude to this; but in the “General +Historie” it had assumed a different aspect in his mind, for at the time +of writing that he was the irresistible hero, and remembered himself as +always nearly omnipotent in Virginia. Therefore, instead of expressions +of gratitude to Newport we read this: “Now in Jamestown they were all +in combustion, the strongest preparing once more to run away with the +pinnace; which with the hazard of his life, with Sakre, falcon and +musket shot, Smith forced now the third time to stay or sink. Some +no better than they should be, had plotted to put him to death by the +Levitical law, for the lives of Robinson and Emry, pretending that the +fault was his, that led them to their ends; but he quickly took such +order with such Lawyers, that he laid them by the heels till he sent +some of them prisoners to England.” + +Clearly Captain Smith had no authority to send anybody prisoner to +England. When Newport returned, April 10th, Wingfield and Archer went +with him. Wingfield no doubt desired to return. Archer was so insolent, +seditious, and libelous that he only escaped the halter by the +interposition of Newport. The colony was willing to spare both these +men, and probably Newport it was who decided they should go. As one of +the 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 of +plea, or justices of peace, sent Master Wingfield and Captain Archer +home with him, that had engrossed all those titles, to seek some better +place of employment.” Mr. Wingfield never returned. Captain Archer +returned in 1609, with the expedition of Gates and Somers, as master of +one 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 destroyed +nearly all the town, with the clothing and provisions. According to +Smith, who is probably correct in this, the fire did not occur till five +or six days after the arrival of the ship. The date is uncertain, and +some 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 captivity +lasted about four weeks if the return was January 8th, for he started on +the expedition December 10th. Smith subsequently speaks of his captivity +lasting six or seven weeks. + +In his “General Historie” Smith says the fire happened after the return +of the expedition of Newport, Smith, and Scrivener to the Pamunkey: +“Good Master Hunt, our Preacher, lost all his library, and all he had +but the clothes on his back; yet none ever heard him repine at his +loss.” This excellent and devoted man is the only one of these first +pioneers of whom everybody speaks well, and he deserved all affection +and respect. + +One of the first labors of Newport was to erect a suitable church. +Services had been held under many disadvantages, which Smith depicts in +his “Advertisements for Unexperienced Planters,” published in London in +1631: + +“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 the +Sunne, our walls were rales of wood, our seats unhewed trees, till we +cut 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 few +better, and this came by the way of adventure for me; this was our +Church, till we built a homely thing like a barne, set upon Cratchets, +covered with rafts, sedge and earth, so was also the walls: the best +of our houses of the like curiosity, but the most part farre much worse +workmanship, that could neither well defend wind nor raine, yet we had +daily Common Prayer morning and evening, every day two Sermons, and +every three moneths the holy Communion, till our Minister died, [Robert +Hunt] 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 the +others should be given. It is not possible now to say how the suspicion +of his religious soundness arose, but there seems to have been a notion +that he had papal tendencies. His grandfather, Sir Richard Wingfield, +was buried in Toledo, Spain. His father, Thomas Maria Wingfield, was +christened by Queen Mary and Cardinal Pole. These facts perhaps gave +rise 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 of +the Collony; that I ame an atheist, because I carryed not a Bible with +me, and because I did forbid the preacher to preache; that I affected a +kingdome; that I did hide of the comon provision in the ground. + +“I confesse I have alwayes admyred any noble vertue and prowesse, as +well in the Spanniards (as in other nations): but naturally I have +alwayes distrusted and disliked their neighborhoode. I sorted many +bookes 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, with +divers fruite, conserves, and preserves, which I did sett in Mr. Crofts +his house in Ratcliff. In my beeing at Virginia, I did understand my +trunk 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 whether +amongst them my Bible was so ymbeasiled or mislayed by my servants, and +not sent me, I knowe not as yet. + +“Two or three Sunday mornings, the Indians gave us allarums at our +towne. By that tymes they weare answered, the place about us well +discovered, and our devyne service ended, the daie was farr spent. The +preacher did aske me if it were my pleasure to have a sermon: hee said +hee was prepared for it. I made answere, that our men were weary and +hungry, and that he did see the time of the daie farr past (for at other +tymes bee never made such question, but, the service finished he began +his sermon); and that, if it pleased him, wee would spare him till some +other tyme. I never failed to take such noates by wrighting out of his +doctrine as my capacity could comprehend, unless some raynie day hindred +my endeavor. My mynde never swelled with such ympossible mountebank +humors as could make me affect any other kingdome than the kingdom of +heaven. + +“As truly as God liveth, I gave an ould man, then the keeper of the +private store, 2 glasses with sallet oyle which I brought with me out of +England 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 protested +unto me, that all the remaynder before mencioned of the oyle, wyne, &c., +which the President receyved of me when I was deposed they themselves +poored into their owne bellyes. + +“To the President's and Counsell's objections I saie that I doe knowe +curtesey and civility became a governor. No penny whittle was asked me, +but a knife, whereof I have none to spare The Indyans had long before +stoallen my knife. Of chickins I never did eat but one, and that in my +sicknes. Mr. Ratcliff had before that time tasted Of 4 or 5. I had by +my owne huswiferie bred above 37, and the most part of them my owne +poultrye; 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 of +the same which we all lived upon. + +“Mr. Smyth, in the time of our hungar, had spread a rumor in the +Collony, that I did feast myself and my servants out of the comon +stoare, with entent (as I gathered) to have stirred the discontented +company against me. I told him privately, in Mr. Gosnold's tent, that +indeede I had caused half a pint of pease to be sodden with a peese +of 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 malice +he had given it out otherwise, that hee did tell a leye. It was proved +to 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 little +far-fetched, and it is evident that that book was not his daily +companion. Whether John Smith habitually carried one about with him we +are not informed. The whole passage quoted gives us a curious picture +of the mind and of the habits of the time. This allusion to John Smith's +begging 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 narrative +between his return from Morocco and his going to Virginia. He was +likely enough to seek adventure there, as the hangers-on of the court in +Raleigh's day occasionally did, and perhaps nothing occurred during +his visit there that he cared to celebrate. If he went to Ireland he +probably got in straits there, for that was his usual luck. + +Whatever is the truth about Mr. Wingfield's inefficiency and +embezzlement of corn meal, Communion sack, and penny whittles, his +enemies had no respect for each other or concord among themselves. It is +Wingfield's testimony that Ratcliffe said he would not have been +deposed if he had visited Ratcliffe during his sickness. Smith said +that Wingfield would not have been deposed except for Archer; that the +charges against him were frivolous. Yet, says Wingfield, “I do believe +him the first and only practiser in these practices,” and he attributed +Smith's hostility to the fact that “his name was mentioned in the +intended and confessed mutiny by Galthrop.” Noother reference is made to +this mutiny. Galthrop was one of those who died in the previous August. + +One of the best re-enforcements of the first supply was Matthew +Scrivener, who was appointed one of the Council. He was a sensible man, +and he and Smith worked together in harmony for some time. They were +intent upon building up the colony. Everybody else in the camp was crazy +about the prospect of gold: there was, says Smith, “no talk, no hope, no +work, but dig gold, wash gold, refine gold, load gold, such a bruit of +gold that one mad fellow desired to be buried in the sands, lest they +should by their art make gold of his bones.” He charges that Newport +delayed his return to England on account of this gold fever, in order to +load his vessel (which remained fourteen weeks when it might have sailed +in fourteen days) with gold-dust. Captain Martin seconded Newport in +this; Smith protested against it; he thought Newport was no refiner, and +it did torment him “to see all necessary business neglected, to fraught +such a drunken ship with so much gilded durt.” This was the famous load +of gold that proved to be iron pyrites. + +In speaking of the exploration of the James River as far as the Falls by +Newport, Smith, and Percy, we have followed the statements of Percy +and 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 say +so; in his voyage up the Chickahominy he seems to have seen Powhatan for +the first time; and Wingfield speaks of Powhatan, on Smith's return +from that voyage, as one “of whom before we had no knowledge.” It is +conjectured that the one seen at Powhatan's seat near the Falls was a +son of the “Emperor.” It was partly the exaggeration of the times +to magnify discoveries, and partly English love of high titles, that +attributed such titles as princes, emperors, and kings to the half-naked +barbarians and petty chiefs of Virginia. + +In all the accounts of the colony at this period, no mention is made +of women, and it is not probable that any went over with the first +colonists. The character of the men was not high. Many of them were +“gentlemen” adventurers, turbulent spirits, who would not work, who were +much better fitted for piratical maraudings than the labor of founding +a 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 Indians +during this period. Almost our only authority is Smith himself, or such +presumed writings of his companions as he edited or rewrote. Strachey +and others testify to his energy in procuring supplies for the colony, +and his success in dealing with the Indians, and it seems likely that +the colony would have famished but for his exertions. Whatever suspicion +attaches to Smith's relation of his own exploits, it must never be +forgotten that he was a man of extraordinary executive ability, and had +many good qualities to offset his vanity and impatience of restraint. + +After the departure of Wingfield, Captain Smith was constrained to act +as Cape Merchant; the leaders were sick or discontented, the rest were +in despair, and would rather starve and rot than do anything for +their own relief, and the Indian trade was decreasing. Under these +circumstances, Smith says in his “True Relation,” “I was sent to the +mouth of the river, to Kegquoughtan [now Hampton], an Indian Towne, to +trade for corn, and try the river for fish.” The Indians, thinking them +near famished, tantalized them with offers of little bits of bread in +exchange for a hatchet or a piece of copper, and Smith offered trifles +in return. The next day the Indians were anxious to trade. Smith sent +men 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 obtained +fifteen bushels of it, and on his homeward way he met two canoes with +Indians, whom he accompanied to their villages on the south side of the +river, and got from them fifteen bushels more. + +This incident is expanded in the “General Historie.” After the lapse of +fifteen years Smith is able to remember more details, and to conceive +himself as the one efficient man who had charge of everything outside +the fort, and to represent his dealings with the Indians in a much more +heroic and summary manner. He was not sent on the expedition, but went +of his own motion. The account opens in this way: “The new President +[Ratcliffe] and Martin, being little beloved, of weake judgement in +dangers, and loose industrie in peace, committed the management of all +things abroad to Captain Smith; who by his own example, good words, and +fair promises, set some to mow, others to binde thatch, some to builde +houses, others to thatch them, himselfe always bearing the greatest +taske for his own share, so that in short time he provided most of +them with lodgings, neglecting any for himselfe. This done, seeing the +Salvage 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 volley +at them, ran his boat ashore, and pursued them fleeing towards their +village, where were great heaps of corn that he could with difficulty +restrain his soldiers [six or seven] from taking. The Indians then +assaulted them with a hideous noise: “Sixty or seventy of them, some +black, some red, some white, some particoloured, came in a square order, +singing and dancing out of the woods, with their Okee (which is an Idol +made of skinnes, stuffed with mosse, and painted and hung with chains +and copper) borne before them; and in this manner being well armed with +clubs, targets, bowes and arrowes, they charged the English that so +kindly received them with their muskets loaden with pistol shot, that +down fell their God, and divers lay sprawling on the ground; the +rest fled againe to the woods, and ere long sent men of their +Quiyoughkasoucks [conjurors] to offer peace and redeeme the Okee.” Good +feeling was restored, and the savages brought the English “venison, +turkies, wild fowl, bread all that they had, singing and dancing in sign +of friendship till they departed.” This fantastical account is much more +readable than the former bare narration. + +The supplies which Smith brought gave great comfort to the despairing +colony, which was by this time reasonably fitted with houses. But it +was not long before they again ran short of food. In his first narrative +Smith says there were some motions made for the President and Captain +Arthur to go over to England and procure a supply, but it was with much +ado concluded that the pinnace and the barge should go up the river to +Powhatan to trade for corn, and the lot fell to Smith to command the +expedition. In his “General Historie” a little different complexion is +put upon this. On his return, Smith says, he suppressed an attempt to +run away with the pinnace to England. He represents that what food “he +carefully provided the rest carelessly spent,” and there is probably +much 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 in +the fall of 1607, just before his famous voyage up the Chickahominy, +on which he departed December 10th--that he writes: “The President and +Captain Arthur intended not long after to have abandoned the country, +which project was curbed and suppressed by Smith. The Spaniard never +more greedily desired gold than he victual, nor his soldiers more to +abandon the country than he to keep it. But finding plenty of corn in +the river of Chickahomania, where hundreds of salvages in divers places +stood with baskets expecting his coming, and now the winter approaching, +the rivers became covered with swans, geese, ducks, and cranes, that we +daily feasted with good bread, Virginia peas, pumpions, and putchamins, +fish, fowls, and divers sorts of wild beasts as fat as we could +eat them, so that none of our Tuftaffaty humorists desired to go to +England.” + +While the Chickahominy expedition was preparing, Smith made a voyage to +Popohanock or Quiyoughcohanock, as it is called on his map, a town +on the south side of the river, above Jamestown. Here the women and +children fled from their homes and the natives refused to trade. They +had 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 the +James, and on the map placed higher than Popohanock, but evidently +nearer to Jamestown, as he visited it on his return. He obtained ten +bushels of corn of the churlish and treacherous natives, who closely +watched and dogged the expedition. + +Everything was now ready for the journey to Powhatan. Smith had the +barge and eight men for trading and discovery, and the pinnace was +to follow to take the supplies at convenient landings. On the 9th of +November he set out in the barge to explore the Chickahominy, which is +described as emptying into the James at Paspahegh, eight miles above the +fort. 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 and +down the Chickahominy, discovering and visiting many villages, finding +the natives kindly disposed and eager to trade, and possessing abundance +of corn. Notwithstanding this abundance, many were still mutinous. At +this time occurred the President's quarrel with the blacksmith, who, +for assaulting the President, was condemned to death, and released on +disclosing a conspiracy of which Captain Kendall was principal; and the +latter was executed in his place. Smith returned from a third voyage to +the Chickahominy with more supplies, only to find the matter of sending +the pinnace to England still debated. + +This project, by the help of Captain Martin, he again quieted and at +last set forward on his famous voyage into the country of Powhatan and +Pocahontas. + + + + +VIII. THE FAMOUS CHICKAHOMINY VOYAGE + +We now enter upon the most interesting episode in the life of the +gallant captain, more thrilling and not less romantic than the captivity +in Turkey and the tale of the faithful love of the fair young mistress +Charatza Tragabigzanda. + +Although the conduct of the lovely Charatza in despatching Smith to her +cruel brother in Nalbrits, where he led the life of a dog, was never +explained, he never lost faith in her. His loyalty to women was equal +to his admiration of them, and it was bestowed without regard to race or +complexion. Nor is there any evidence that the dusky Pocahontas, who +is about to appear, displaced in his heart the image of the too partial +Tragabigzanda. In regard to women, as to his own exploits, seen in the +light of memory, Smith possessed a creative imagination. He did not +create Pocahontas, as perhaps he may have created the beautiful mistress +of Bashaw Bogall, but he invested her with a romantic interest which +forms a lovely halo about his own memory. + +As this voyage up the Chickahominy is more fruitful in its consequences +than 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 only +captivity among the Indians; and as it was during this absence of four +weeks from Jamestown, if ever, that Pocahontas interposed to prevent the +beating out of Smith's brains with a club, I shall insert the account +of it in full, both Smith's own varying relations of it, and such +contemporary notices of it as now come to light. It is necessary here to +present several accounts, just as they stand, and in the order in which +they were written, that the reader may see for himself how the story of +Pocahontas grew to its final proportions. The real life of Pocahontas +will form the subject of another chapter. + +The first of these accounts is taken from “The True Relation,” written +by Captain John Smith, composed in Virginia, the earliest published work +relating to the James River Colony. It covers a period of a little more +than 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 was +published in London in 1608. Whether it was intended for publication +is doubtful; but at that time all news of the venture in Virginia was +eagerly sought, and a narrative of this importance would naturally +speedily get into print. + +In the several copies of it extant there are variations in the +titlepage, which was changed while the edition was being printed. In +some the name of Thomas Watson is given as the author, in others “A +Gentleman of the Colony,” and an apology appears signed “T. H.,” for the +want of knowledge or inadvertence of attributing it to any one except +Captain Smith. + +There is no doubt that Smith was its author. He was still in Virginia +when it was printed, and the printers made sad work of parts of his +manuscript. The question has been raised, in view of the entire omission +of the name of Pocahontas in connection with this voyage and captivity, +whether the manuscript was not cut by those who published it. The reason +given for excision is that the promoters of the Virginia scheme were +anxious that nothing should appear to discourage capitalists, or to +deter emigrants, and that this story of the hostility and cruelty of +Powhatan, only averted by the tender mercy of his daughter, would have +an unfortunate effect. The answer to this is that the hostility was +exhibited by the captivity and the intimation that Smith was being +fatted to be eaten, and this was permitted to stand. It is wholly +improbable that an incident so romantic, so appealing to the +imagination, in an age when wonder-tales were eagerly welcomed, and +which exhibited such tender pity in the breast of a savage maiden, and +such paternal clemency in a savage chief, would have been omitted. It +was calculated to lend a lively interest to the narration, and would be +invaluable as an advertisement of the adventure. + + +[For a full bibliographical discussion of this point the reader is +referred to the reprint of “The True Relation,” by Charles Deane, +Esq., Boston, 1864, the preface and notes to which are a masterpiece of +critical analysis.] + + +That some portions of “The True Relation” were omitted is possible. +There is internal evidence of this in the abrupt manner in which it +opens, and in the absence of allusions to the discords during the voyage +and on the arrival. Captain Smith was not the man to pass over such +questions in silence, as his subsequent caustic letter sent home to the +Governor and Council of Virginia shows. And it is probable enough that +the London promoters would cut out from the “Relation” complaints +and evidence of the seditions and helpless state of the colony. The +narration of the captivity is consistent as it stands, and wholly +inconsistent with the Pocahontas episode. + +We extract from the narrative after Smith's departure from Apocant, the +highest town inhabited, between thirty and forty miles up the river, and +below 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 great +tree hindered my passage, which I cut in two: heere the river became +narrower, 8, 9 or 10 foote at a high water, and 6 or 7 at a lowe: the +stream exceeding swift, and the bottom hard channell, the ground most +part a low plaine, sandy soyle, this occasioned me to suppose it might +issue from some lake or some broad ford, for it could not be far to the +head, but rather then I would endanger the barge, yet to have beene able +to resolve this doubt, and to discharge the imputating malicious tungs, +that halfe suspected I durst not for so long delaying, some of the +company, as desirous as myself, we resolved to hier a canow, and returne +with the barge to Apocant, there to leave the barge secure, and put +ourselves upon the adventure: the country onely a vast and wilde +wilderness, and but only that Towne: within three or foure mile we hired +a canow, and 2 Indians to row us ye next day a fowling: having made such +provision for the barge as was needfull, I left her there to ride, with +expresse charge not any to go ashore til my returne. Though some wise +men may condemn this too bould attempt of too much indiscretion, yet if +they well consider the friendship of the Indians, in conducting me, +the desolatenes of the country, the probabilitie of some lacke, and the +malicious judges of my actions at home, as also to have some matters of +worth to incourage our adventurers in england, might well have caused +any honest minde to have done the like, as wel for his own discharge +as for the publike good: having 2 Indians for my guide and 2 of our own +company, I set forward, leaving 7 in the barge; having discovered 20 +miles further in this desart, the river stil kept his depth and bredth, +but much more combred with trees; here we went ashore (being some 12 +miles higher than ye barge had bene) to refresh our selves, during the +boyling of our vituals: one of the Indians I tooke with me, to see the +nature of the soile, and to cross the boughts of the river, the other +Indian I left with M. Robbinson and Thomas Emry, with their matches +light and order to discharge a peece, for my retreat at the first sight +of any Indian, but within a quarter of an houre I heard a loud cry, and +a hollowing of Indians, but no warning peece, supposing them surprised, +and that the Indians had betraid us, presently I seazed him and bound +his arme fast to my hand in a garter, with my pistoll ready bent to be +revenged on him: he advised me to fly and seemed ignorant of what was +done, but as we went discoursing, I was struck with an arrow on the +right thigh, but without harme: upon this occasion I espied 2 Indians +drawing 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 first +fell downe and fled: at my discharge they did the like, my hinde I made +my barricade, who offered not to strive, 20 or 30 arrowes were shot at +me but short, 3 or 4 times I had discharged my pistoll ere the king of +Pamauck called Opeckakenough with 200 men, environed me, each drawing +their bowe, which done they laid them upon the ground, yet without +shot, my hinde treated betwixt them and me of conditions of peace, he +discovered 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 they +would reserve: the Indian importuned me not to shoot. In retiring being +in the midst of a low quagmire, and minding them more than my steps, I +stept fast into the quagmire, and also the Indian in drawing me forth: +thus surprised, I resolved to trie their mercies, my armes I caste from +me, till which none durst approch me: being ceazed on me, they drew +me 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 amazedly +admired, as he suffered me to proceed in a discourse of the roundnes of +the earth, the course of the sunne, moone, starres and plannets, with +kinde speeches and bread he requited me, conducting me where the canow +lay and John Robinson slaine, with 20 or 30 arrowes in him. Emry I saw +not, I perceived by the abundance of fires all over the woods, at each +place I expected when they would execute me, yet they used me with what +kindnes they could: approaching their Towne which was within 6 miles +where I was taken, onely made as arbors and covered with mats, which +they remove as occasion requires: all the women and children, being +advertised of this accident came forth to meet, the King well guarded +with 20 bow men 5 flanck and rear and each flanck before him a sword and +a peece, and after him the like, then a bowman, then I on each hand a +boweman, the rest in file in the reare, which reare led forth amongst +the trees in a bishion, eache his bowe and a handfull of arrowes, a +quiver at his back grimly painted: on eache flanck a sargeant, the one +running alwaiss towards the front the other towards the reare, each a +true 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 departed +to his lodging, the captain conducting me to his lodging, a quarter of +Venison and some ten pound of bread I had for supper, what I left was +reserved for me, and sent with me to my lodging: each morning three +women presented me three great platters of fine bread, more venison than +ten men could devour I had, my gowne, points and garters, my compas and +a tablet they gave me again, though 8 ordinarily guarded me, I +wanted not what they could devise to content me: and still our longer +acquaintance increased our better affection: much they threatened to +assault our forte as they were solicited by the King of Paspahegh, who +shewed at our fort great signs of sorrow for this mischance: the King +took great delight in understanding the manner of our ships and sayling +the seas, the earth and skies and of our God: what he knew of the +dominions he spared not to acquaint me with, as of certaine men cloathed +at 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 turning +of salt water: I desired he would send a messenger to Paspahegh, with a +letter I would write, by which they should understand, how kindly they +used me, and that I was well, lest they should revenge my death; this +he granted and sent three men, in such weather, as in reason were +unpossible, by any naked to be indured: their cruell mindes towards the +fort I had deverted, in describing the ordinance and the mines in the +fields, as also the revenge Captain Newport would take of them at his +returne, their intent, I incerted the fort, the people of Ocanahomm +and the back sea, this report they after found divers Indians that +confirmed: 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 cause +I knew not, till the King understanding thereof came and told me of a +man a dying wounded with my pistoll: he tould me also of another I had +slayne, yet the most concealed they had any hurte: this was the father +of him I had slayne, whose fury to prevent, the King presently conducted +me to another kingdome, upon the top of the next northerly river, called +Youghtanan, having feasted me, he further led me to another branch of +the river called Mattapament, to two other hunting townes they led +me, and to each of these Countries, a house of the great Emperor of +Pewhakan, whom as yet I supposed to be at the Fals, to him I tolde him +I must goe, and so returne to Paspahegh, after this foure or five dayes +march we returned to Rasawrack, the first towne they brought me too, +where binding the mats in bundles, they marched two dayes journey and +crossed the River of Youghtanan, where it was as broad as Thames: so +conducting me too a place called Menapacute in Pamunke, where ye King +inhabited; the next day another King of that nation called Kekataugh, +having received some kindness of me at the Fort, kindly invited me to +feast at his house, the people from all places flocked to see me, each +shewing to content me. By this the great King hath foure or five houses, +each containing fourscore or an hundred foote in length, pleasantly +seated upon an high sandy hill, from whence you may see westerly a +goodly low country, the river before the which his crooked course +causeth many great Marshes of exceeding good ground. An hundred houses, +and many large plaines are here together inhabited, more abundance of +fish and fowle, and a pleasanter seat cannot be imagined: the King with +fortie bowmen to guard me, intreated me to discharge my Pistoll, which +they there presented me with a mark at six score to strike therewith +but to spoil the practice I broke the cocke, whereat they were much +discontented though a chaunce supposed. From hence this kind King +conducted me to a place called Topahanocke, a kingdome upon another +river northward; the cause of this was, that the yeare before, a shippe +had beene in the River of Pamunke, who having been kindly entertained by +Powhatan their Emperour, they returned thence, and discovered the River +of Topahanocke, where being received with like kindnesse, yet he slue +the King, and tooke of his people, and they supposed I were bee, but the +people reported him a great man that was Captaine, and using mee kindly, +the next day we departed. This River of Topahanock, seemeth in breadth +not much lesse than that we dwell upon. At the mouth of the River is +a Countrey called Cuttata women, upwards is Marraugh tacum Tapohanock, +Apparnatuck, and Nantaugs tacum, at Topmanahocks, the head issuing from +many 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 of +another little river, which is betwixt the two called Payankatank. The +most 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 Bedstead +a foote high upon tenne or twelve Mattes, richly hung with manie Chaynes +of great Pearles about his necke, and covered with a great covering of +Rahaughcums: At heade sat a woman, at his feete another, on each side +sitting upon a Matte upon the ground were raunged his chiefe men on each +side the fire, tenne in a ranke and behinde them as many yong women, +each a great Chaine of white Beades over their shoulders: their heades +painted in redde and with such a grave and Majeslicall countenance, +as drove me into admiration to see such state in a naked Salvage, bee +kindlv welcomed me with good wordes, and great Platters of sundrie +victuals, asiuring mee his friendship and my libertie within foure +dayes, bee much delighted in Opechan Conough's relation of what I had +described to him, and oft examined me upon the same. Hee asked me the +cause of our comming, I tolde him being in fight with the Spaniards our +enemie, being over powred, neare put to retreat, and by extreme weather +put to this shore, where landing at Chesipiack, the people shot us, but +at Kequoughtan they kindly used us, wee by signes demaunded fresh water, +they described us up the River was all fresh water, at Paspahegh, also +they kindly used us, our Pinnasse being leake wee were inforced to stay +to 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 that +I would have occasion to talke of the backe Sea, that on the other side +the maine, where was salt water, my father had a childe slaine, which we +supposed Monocan his enemie, whose death we intended to revenge. After +good deliberation, hee began to describe me the countreys beyond the +Falles, 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 sayde +water dashed amongst many stones and rocks, each storme which caused oft +tymes the heade of the River to bee brackish: Anchanachuck he described +to bee the people that had slaine my brother, whose death hee would +revenge. Hee described also upon the same Sea, a mighty nation called +Pocoughtronack, a fierce nation that did eate men and warred with the +people of Moyaoncer, and Pataromerke, Nations upon the toppe of the +heade of the Bay, under his territories, where the yeare before they had +slain an hundred, he signified their crownes were shaven, long haire in +the necke, tied on a knot, Swords like Pollaxes. + +“Beyond them he described people with short Coates, and Sleeves to the +Elbowes, that passed that way in Shippes like ours. Many Kingdomes hee +described mee to the heade of the Bay, which seemed to bee a mightie +River, issuing from mightie mountaines, betwixt the two seas; the people +clothed at Ocamahowan. He also confirmed, and the Southerly Countries +also, as the rest, that reported us to be within a day and a halfe of +Mangoge, two dayes of Chawwonock, 6 from Roonock, to the South part of +the backe sea: he described a countrie called Anone, where they +have abundance of Brasse, and houses walled as ours. I requited his +discourse, 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 our +great King whose subject I was, the innumerable multitude of his ships, +I gave him to understand the noyse of Trumpets and terrible manner of +fighting were under Captain Newport my father, whom I intituled the +Meworames which they call King of all the waters, at his greatnesse bee +admired 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 disturbe +us. This request I promised to performe: and thus having with all the +kindnes hee could devise, sought to content me, he sent me home with 4 +men, one that usually carried my Gonne and Knapsacke after me, two other +loded 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's +return to London in May, 1608. He was in Jamestown when Smith returned +from his captivity, and would be likely to allude to the romantic story +of Pocahontas if Smith had told it on his escape. We quote: + +“Decem.--The 10th of December, Mr. Smyth went up the ryver of the +Chechohomynies to trade for corne; he was desirous to see the heade of +that river; and, when it was not passible with the shallop, he hired a +cannow and an Indian to carry him up further. The river the higher +grew worse and worse. Then hee went on shoare with his guide, and left +Robinson and Emmery, and twoe of our Men, in the cannow; which were +presently slayne by the Indians, Pamaonke's men, and hee himself taken +prysoner, and, by the means of his guide, his lief was saved; and +Pamaonche, 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 two +or three eeres before us, in a river amongst them Northward, and taken +awaie some Indians from them by force. At last he brought him to the +great Powaton (of whome before wee had no knowledg), who sent him home +to our towne the 8th of January.” + + +The next contemporary document to which we have occasion to refer is +Smith'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 this +there is no occasion for a reference to Powhatan or his daughter, but he +says in it: “I have sent you this Mappe of the Bay and Rivers, with an +annexed Relation of the Countryes and Nations that inhabit them as +you may see at large.” This is doubtless the “Map of Virginia,” with +a description of the country, published some two or three years after +Smith's return to England, at Oxford, 1612. It is a description of the +country and people, and contains little narrative. But with this was +published, as an appendix, an account of the proceedings of the Virginia +colonists from 1606 to 1612, taken out of the writings of Thomas Studley +and several others who had been residents in Virginia. These several +discourses were carefully edited by William Symonds, a doctor of +divinity and a man of learning and repute, evidently at the request of +Smith. To the end of the volume Dr. Symonds appends a note addressed +to Smith, saying: “I return you the fruit of my labors, as Mr. Cranshaw +requested me, which I bestowed in reading the discourses and hearing the +relations of such as have walked and observed the land of Virginia with +you.” These narratives by Smith's companions, which he made a part of +his Oxford book, and which passed under his eye and had his approval, +are uniformly not only friendly to him, but eulogistic of him, and +probably omit no incident known to the writers which would do him honor +or add interest to him as a knight of romance. Nor does it seem probable +that Smith himself would have omitted to mention the dramatic scene of +the prevented execution if it had occurred to him. If there had been a +reason 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, when +the discords and discouragements of the colony were fully known. And +by this time the young girl Pocahontas had become well known to the +colonists at Jamestown. The account of this Chickahominy voyage given in +this volume, published in 1612, is signed by Thomas Studley, and is as +follows: + +“The next voyage he proceeded so farre that with much labour by cutting +of trees in sunder he made his passage, but when his Barge could passe +no farther, he left her in a broad bay out of danger of shot, commanding +none should go ashore till his returne; himselfe with 2 English and two +Salvages went up higher in a Canowe, but he was not long absent, but +his men went ashore, whose want of government gave both occasion and +opportunity to the Salvages to surprise one George Casson, 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 the river's head, +20 miles in the desert, had his 2 men slaine (as is supposed) sleeping +by the Canowe, whilst himselfe by fowling sought them victual, who +finding he was beset by 200 Salvages, 2 of them he slew, stil defending +himselfe with the aid of a Salvage his guid (whome bee bound to his +arme and used as his buckler), till at last slipping into a bogmire +they tooke him prisoner: when this news came to the fort much was +their sorrow for his losse, fewe expecting what ensued. A month those +Barbarians kept him prisoner, many strange triumphs and conjurations +they made of him, yet he so demeaned himselfe amongst them, as he +not only diverted them from surprising the Fort, but procured his own +liberty, and got himselfe and his company such estimation amongst them, +that those Salvages admired him as a demi-God. So returning safe to the +Fort, once more staied the pinnas her flight for England, which til his +returne could not set saile, so extreme was the weather and so great the +frost.” + +The first allusion to the salvation of Captain Smith by Pocahontas +occurs in a letter or “little booke” which he wrote to Queen Anne in +1616, 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, by +whom she had a son, who accompanied them. Pocahontas had by this +time become a person of some importance. Her friendship had been of +substantial service to the colony. Smith had acknowledged this in +his “True Relation,” where he referred to her as the “nonpareil” of +Virginia. He was kind-hearted and naturally magnanimous, and would take +some pains to do the Indian convert a favor, even to the invention of an +incident that would make her attractive. To be sure, he was vain as well +as inventive, and here was an opportunity to attract the attention of +his sovereign and increase his own importance by connecting his name +with hers in a romantic manner. Still, we believe that the main motive +that dictated this epistle was kindness to Pocahontas. The sentence that +refers to her heroic act is this: “After some six weeks [he was absent +only four weeks] fatting amongst those Salvage Countries, at the minute +of my execution she hazarded the beating out of her own braines to save +mine, and not only that, but so prevailed with her father [of whom +he says, in a previous paragraph, 'I received from this great Salvage +exceeding 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. In +the first edition of “New England's Trials,” 1620, there is no reference +to it. In the enlarged edition of 1622, Smith gives a new version to his +capture, as resulting from “the folly of them that fled,” and says: “God +made Pocahontas, the King's daughter the means to deliver me.” + +The “General Historie” was compiled--as was the custom in making up such +books at the time from a great variety of sources. Such parts of it as +are not written by Smith--and these constitute a considerable portion of +the history--bear marks here and there of his touch. It begins with his +description of Virginia, which appeared in the Oxford tract of 1612; +following this are the several narratives by his comrades, which formed +the appendix of that tract. The one that concerns us here is that +already quoted, signed Thomas Studley. It is reproduced here as “written +by Thomas Studley, the first Cape Merchant in Virginia, Robert Fenton, +Edward Harrington, and I. S.” [John Smith]. It is, however, considerably +extended, and into it is interjected a detailed account of the captivity +and the story of the stones, the clubs, and the saved brains. + +It is worthy of special note that the “True Relation” is not +incorporated in the “General Historie.” This is the more remarkable +because it was an original statement, written when the occurrences it +describes were fresh, and is much more in detail regarding many things +that happened during the period it covered than the narratives that +Smith uses in the “General Historie.” It was his habit to use over +and over again his own publications. Was this discarded because it +contradicted the Pocahontas story--because that story could not be +fitted into it as it could be into the Studley relation? + +It should be added, also, that Purchas printed an abstract of the Oxford +tract in his “Pilgrimage,” in 1613, from material furnished him +by 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 “General +Historie,” but was in preparation long before. The Pocahontas legend +appears in the “Pilgrimes,” but not in the earlier “Pilgrimage.” + +We have before had occasion to remark that Smith's memory had the +peculiarity of growing stronger and more minute in details the further +he was removed in point of time from any event he describes. The +revamped narrative is worth quoting in full for other reasons. It +exhibits Smith's skill as a writer and his capacity for rising into +poetic moods. This is the story from the “General Historie”: + +“The next voyage hee proceeded so farre that with much labour by cutting +of trees in sunder he made his passage, but when his Barge could pass +no farther, he left her in a broad bay out of danger of shot, commanding +none should goe ashore till his return: himselfe with two English and +two Salvages went up higher in a Canowe, but he was not long absent, but +his men went ashore, whose want of government, gave both occasion and +opportunity to the Salvages to surprise one George Cassen, whom they +slew, 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 the +river's head, twentie myles in the desert, had his two men slaine (as is +supposed) sleeping by the Canowe, whilst himselfe by fowling sought them +victuall, who finding he was beset with 200 Salvages, two of them hee +slew, still defending himself with the ayd of a Salvage his guide, whom +he bound to his arme with his garters, and used him as a buckler, yet +he was shot in his thigh a little, and had many arrowes stucke in his +cloathes but no great hurt, till at last they tooke him prisoner. When +this newes came to Jamestowne, much was their sorrow for his losse, fewe +expecting what ensued. Sixe or seven weekes those Barbarians kept him +prisoner, many strange triumphes and conjurations they made of him, yet +hee so demeaned himselfe amongst them, as he not onely diverted them +from surprising the Fort, but procured his owne libertie, and got +himself and his company such estimation amongst them, that those +Salvages admired him more than their owne Quiyouckosucks. The manner how +they used and delivered him, is as followeth. + +“The Salvages having drawne from George Cassen whether Captaine Smith +was gone, prosecuting that opportunity they followed him with 300 +bowmen, conducted by the King of Pamaunkee, who in divisions searching +the turnings of the river, found Robinson and Entry by the fireside, +those they shot full of arrowes and slew. Then finding the Captaine as +is said, that used the Salvage that was his guide as his shield (three +of them being slaine and divers others so gauld) all the rest would not +come neere him. Thinking thus to have returned to his boat, regarding +them, as he marched, more then his way, slipped up to the middle in an +oasie creeke and his Salvage with him, yet durst they not come to him +till being neere dead with cold, he threw away his armes. Then according +to their composition they drew him forth and led him to the fire, where +his men were slaine. Diligently they chafed his benumbed limbs. He +demanding for their Captaine, they shewed him Opechankanough, King of +Pamaunkee, to whom he gave a round Ivory double compass Dyall. Much they +marvailed at the playing of the Fly and Needle, which they could see so +plainly, and yet not touch it, because of the glass that covered them. +But when he demonstrated by that Globe-like Jewell, the roundnesse of +the earth and skies, the spheare of the Sunne, Moone, and Starres, and +how the Sunne did chase the night round about the world continually: the +greatnesse of the Land and Sea, the diversitie of Nations, varietie of +Complexions, and how we were to them Antipodes, and many other such +like matters, they all stood as amazed with admiration. Notwithstanding +within an houre after they tyed him to a tree, and as many as could +stand about him prepared to shoot him, but the King holding up the +Compass in his hand, they all laid downe their Bowes and Arrowes, and in +a triumphant manner led him to Orapaks, where he was after their manner +kindly 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 before +him. Captaine Smith was led after him by three great Salvages, holding +him fast by each arme: and on each side six went in fyle with their +arrowes nocked. But arriving at the Towne (which was but onely thirtie +or 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, the +souldiers first all in file performe the forme of a Bissom so well as +could be: and on each flanke, officers as Serieants to see them keepe +their orders. A good time they continued this exercise, and then cast +themselves in a ring, dauncing in such severall Postures, and singing +and yelling out such hellish notes and screeches: being strangely +painted, 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 his +vambrace: their heads and shoulders painted red, with oyle and Pocones +mingled together, which Scarlet like colour made an exceeding handsome +shew, his Bow in his hand, and the skinne of a Bird with her wings +abroad dryed, tyed on his head, a peece of copper, a white shell, a long +feather, with a small rattle growing at the tayles of their snaks tyed +to it, or some such like toy. All this time Smith and the King stood in +the middest guarded, as before is said, and after three dances they all +departed. Smith they conducted to a long house, where thirtie or fortie +tall fellowes did guard him, and ere long more bread and venison were +brought him then would have served twentie men. I thinke his stomacke at +that time was not very good; what he left they put in baskets and tyed +over 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 next +morning they brought him as much more, and then did they eate all the +old, and reserved the new as they had done the other, which made him +think they would fat him to eat him. Yet in this desperate estate to +defend him from the cold, one Maocassater brought him his gowne, in +requitall of some beads and toyes Smith had given him at his first +arrival 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 the +poore man then breathing his last. Smith told them that at James towne +he had a water would doe it if they would let him fetch it, but they +would not permit that: but made all the preparations they could to +assault James towne, craving his advice, and for recompence he should +have life, libertie, land, and women. In part of a Table booke he writ +his mind to them at the Fort, what was intended, how they should follow +that direction to affright the messengers, and without fayle send him +such things as he writ for. And an Inventory with them. The difficultie +and danger he told the Salvaves, of the Mines, great gunnes, and other +Engins, exceedingly affrighted them, yet according to his request they +went 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 told +them they would, they fled: yet in the night they came again to the same +place where he had told them they should receive an answer, and such +things as he had promised them, which they found accordingly, and with +which they returned with no small expedition, to the wonder of them all +that heard it, that he could either divine or the paper could +speake. Then they led him to the Youthtanunds, the Mattapanients, the +Payankatanks, the Nantaughtacunds and Onawmanients, upon the rivers +of Rapahanock and Patawomek, over all those rivers and backe againe by +divers 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 long +house, and a mat spread on the one side as on the other; on the one +they caused him to sit, and all the guard went out of the house, and +presently came skipping in a great grim fellow, all painted over with +coale mingled with oyle; and many Snakes and Wesels skins stuffed with +mosse, and all their tayles tyed together, so as they met on the crowne +of his head in a tassell; and round about the tassell was a Coronet of +feathers, the skins hanging round about his head, backe, and shoulders, +and in a manner covered his face; with a hellish voyce and a rattle +in his hand. With most strange gestures and passions he began his +invocation, and environed the fire with a circle of meale; which done +three more such like devils came rushing in with the like antique +tricks, painted halfe blacke, halfe red: but all their eyes were painted +white, and some red stroakes like Mutchato's along their cheekes: round +about him those fiends daunced a pretty while, and then came in three +more as ugly as the rest; with red eyes and stroakes over their blacke +faces, at last they all sat downe right against him; three of them on +the one hand of the chiefe Priest, and three on the other. Then all with +their rattles began a song, which ended, the chiefe Priest layd downe +five wheat cornes: then strayning his arms and hands with such violence +that he sweat, and his veynes swelled, he began a short Oration: at +the conclusion they all gave a short groane; and then layd downe three +graines more. After that began their song againe, and then another +Oration, ever laying down so many cornes as before, til they had twice +incirculed the fire; that done they tooke a bunch of little stickes +prepared for that purpose, continuing still their devotion, and at +the end of every song and Oration they layd downe a sticke betwixt the +divisions of Corne. Til night, neither he nor they did either eate or +drinke, and then they feasted merrily, and with the best provisions they +could make. Three dayes they used this Ceremony: the meaning whereof +they told him was to know if he intended them well or no. The circle of +meale signified their Country, the circles of corne the bounds of the +Sea, and the stickes his Country. They imagined the world to be flat and +round, like a trencher, and they in the middest. After this they brought +him a bagge of gunpowder, which they carefully preserved till the +next spring, to plant as they did their corne, because they would +be acquainted with the nature of that seede. Opitchapam, the King's +brother, invited him to his house, where with many platters of bread, +foule, and wild beasts, as did environ him, he bid him wellcome: but not +any of them would eate a bit with him, but put up all the remainder in +Baskets. At his returne to Opechancanoughs, all the King's women and +their 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 Of +bodies strange, and huge in growth, and of stupendious makes.” + +“At last they brought him to Meronocomoco, where was Powhatan their +Emperor. Here more than two hundred of those grim Courtiers stood +wondering at him, as he had beene a monster, till Powhatan and his +trayne had put themselves in their greatest braveries. Before a fire +upon a seat like a bedstead, he sat covered with a great robe, made of +Rarowcun skinnes and all the tayles hanging by. On either hand did sit +a young wench of sixteen or eighteen years, and along on each side the +house, two rowes of men, and behind them as many women, with all their +heads and shoulders painted red; many of their heads bedecked with the +white downe of Birds; but everyone with something: and a great chayne of +white beads about their necks. At his entrance before the King, all the +people gave a great shout. The Queene of Appamatuck was appointed to +bring him water to wash his hands, and another brought him a bunch of +feathers, instead of a Towell to dry them: having feasted him after +their 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, and +thereon laid his head, and being ready with their clubs, to beate out +his braines. Pocahontas, the King's dearest daughter, when no entreaty +could prevaile, got his head in her armes, and laid her owne upon his to +save him from death: whereat the Emperour was contented he should live +to make him hatchets, and her bells, beads, and copper: for they thought +him as well of all occupations as themselves. For the King himselfe will +make his owne robes, shooes, bowes, arrowes, pots, plant, hunt, or doe +any 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 most +fearfullest manner he could, caused Capt. Smith to be brought forth to +a great house in the woods and there upon a mat by the fire to be left +alone. Not long after from behinde a mat that divided the house, was +made the most dolefullest noyse he ever heard: then Powhatan more like a +devill than a man with some two hundred more as blacke as himseffe, came +unto him and told him now they were friends, and presently he should goe +to James town, to send him two great gunnes, and a gryndstone, for which +he would give him the country of Capahowojick, and for ever esteeme him +as his sonn Nantaquoud. So to James towne with 12 guides Powhatan sent +him. That night they quartered in the woods, he still expecting (as he +had done all this long time of his imprisonment) every houre to be put +to one death or other; for all their feasting. But almightie God (by his +divine providence) had mollified the hearts of those sterne Barbarians +with compassion. The next morning betimes they came to the Fort, where +Smith having used the salvages with what kindnesse he could, he shewed +Rawhunt, Powhatan's trusty servant, two demiculverings and a millstone +to carry Powhatan; they found them somewhat too heavie; but when they +did see him discharge them, being loaded with stones, among the boughs +of a great tree loaded with Isickles, the yce and branches came so +tumbling downe, that the poore Salvages ran away halfe dead with feare. +But at last we regained some conference with them and gave them such +toys: and sent to Powhatan, his women, and children such presents, and +gave them in generall full content. Now in James Towne they were all +in combustion, the strongest preparing once more to run away with +the Pinnace; which with the hazard of his life, with Sakre falcon and +musketshot, Smith forced now the third time to stay or sinke. Some no +better then they should be had plotted with the President, the next +day to have put him to death by the Leviticall law, for the lives of +Robinson and Emry, pretending the fault was his that had led them to +their ends; but he quickly tooke such order with such Lawyers, that +he layed them by the heeles till he sent some of them prisoners for +England. Now ever once in four or five dayes, Pocahontas with her +attendants, brought him so much provision, that saved many of their +lives, 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 was +unknowne), so revived their dead spirits (especially the love of +Pocahontas) 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 the +roundness of the earth, and skies, the sphere of the sun, moon, and +stars, and how the sun did chase the night round about the world +continually; the greatness of the land and sea, the diversity of +nations, variety of complexions, and how we were to them antipodes, so +that the Indians stood amazed with admiration. + +Captain Smith up to his middle in a Chickahominy swamp, discoursing +on these high themes to a Pamunkey Indian, of whose language Smith was +wholly ignorant, and who did not understand a word of English, is much +more heroic, considering the adverse circumstances, and appeals more to +the imagination, than the long-haired Iopas singing the song of Atlas, +at the banquet given to AEneas, where Trojans and Tyrians drained the +flowing bumpers while Dido drank long draughts of love. Did Smith, +when he was in the neighborhood of Carthage pick up some such literal +translations of the song of Atlas' as this: + +“He sang the wandering moon, and the labors of the Sun; From whence +the race of men and flocks; whence rain and lightning; Of Arcturus, the +rainy Hyades, and the twin Triones; Why the winter suns hasten so +much to touch themselves in the ocean, And what delay retards the slow +nights.” + + +The scene of the rescue only occupies seven lines and the reader feels +that, after all, Smith has not done full justice to it. We cannot, +therefore, better conclude this romantic episode than by quoting the +description of it given with an elaboration of language that must +be, pleasing to the shade of Smith, by John Burke in his History of +Virginia: + +“Two large stones were brought in, and placed at the feet of the +emperor; and on them was laid the head of the prisoner; next a large +club was brought in, with which Powhatan, for whom, out of respect, +was reserved this honor, prepared to crush the head of his captive. The +assembly looked on with sensations of awe, probably not unmixed +with pity for the fate of an enemy whose bravery had commanded +their admiration, and in whose misfortunes their hatred was possibly +forgotten. + +“The fatal club was uplifted: the breasts of the company already by +anticipation felt the dreadful crash, which was to bereave the wretched +victim of life: when the young and beautiful Pocahontas, the beloved +daughter of the emperor, with a shriek of terror and agony threw herself +on the body of Smith; Her hair was loose, and her eyes streaming with +tears, while her whole manner bespoke the deep distress and agony of her +bosom. She cast a beseeching look at her furious and astonished father, +deprecating his wrath, and imploring his pity and the life of his +prisoner, with all the eloquence of mute but impassioned sorrow. + +“The remainder of this scene is honorable to Powhatan. It will remain +a lasting monument, that tho' different principles of action, and the +influence of custom, have given to the manners and opinions of this +people an appearance neither amiable nor virtuous, they still retain the +noblest property of human character, the touch of pity and the feeling +of humanity. + +“The club of the emperor was still uplifted; but pity had touched his +bosom, and his eye was every moment losing its fierceness; he looked +around to collect his fortitude, or perhaps to find an excuse for his +weakness in the faces of his attendants. But every eye was suffused +with the sweetly contagious softness. The generous savage no longer +hesitated. The compassion of the rude state is neither ostentatious nor +dilating: nor does it insult its object by the exaction of impossible +conditions. Powhatan lifted his grateful and delighted daughter, and the +captive, scarcely yet assured of safety, from the earth....” + +“The character of this interesting woman, as it stands in the concurrent +accounts of all our historians, is not, it is with confidence affirmed, +surpassed by any in the whole range of history; and for those qualities +more especially which do honor to our nature--an humane and feeling +heart, an ardor and unshaken constancy in her attachments--she stands +almost without a rival. + +“At the first appearance of the Europeans her young heart was impressed +with admiration of the persons and manners of the strangers; but it is +not during their prosperity that she displays her attachment. She is not +influenced by awe of their greatness, or fear of their resentment, +in the assistance she affords them. It was during their severest +distresses, when their most celebrated chief was a captive in their +hands, and was dragged through the country as a spectacle for the sport +and derision of their people, that she places herself between him and +destruction. + +“The spectacle of Pocahontas in an attitude of entreaty, with her hair +loose, and her eyes streaming with tears, supplicating with her enraged +father for the life of Captain Smith when he was about to crush the head +of his prostrate victim with a club, is a situation equal to the genius +of Raphael. And when the royal savage directs his ferocious glance for a +moment from his victim to reprove his weeping daughter, when softened by +her distress his eye loses its fierceness, and he gives his captive to +her tears, the painter will discover a new occasion for exercising his +talents.” + + +The painters have availed themselves of this opportunity. In one picture +Smith 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 savages +stand ready for murder, in full-dress parade costume; and Pocahontas, a +full-grown woman, with long, disheveled hair, in the sentimental dress +and attitude of a Letitia E. Landon of the period, is about to cast +herself upon the imperiled and well-dressed Captain. + +Must we, then, give up the legend altogether, on account of the +exaggerations that have grown up about it, our suspicion of the creative +memory of Smith, and the lack of all contemporary allusion to it? It +is a pity to destroy any pleasing story of the past, and especially to +discharge our hard struggle for a foothold on this continent of the few +elements of romance. If we can find no evidence of its truth that stands +the test of fair criticism, we may at least believe that it had +some slight basis on which to rest. It is not at all improbable that +Pocahontas, who was at that time a precocious maid of perhaps twelve +or thirteen years of age (although Smith mentions her as a child of ten +years old when she came to the camp after his release), was touched with +compassion for the captive, and did influence her father to treat him +kindly. + + + + +IX. SMITH'S WAY WITH THE INDIANS + +As we are not endeavoring to write the early history of Virginia, but +only to trace Smith's share in it, we proceed with his exploits after +the arrival of the first supply, consisting of near a hundred men, in +two ships, one commanded by Captain Newport and the other by Captain +Francis Nelson. The latter, when in sight of Cape Henry, was driven by +a storm back to the West Indies, and did not arrive at James River with +his vessel, the Phoenix, till after the departure of Newport for England +with his load of “golddust,” and Master Wingfield and Captain Arthur. + +In his “True Relation,” Smith gives some account of his exploration of +the Pamunkey River, which he sometimes calls the “Youghtamand,” upon +which, where the water is salt, is the town of Werowocomoco. It can +serve no purpose in elucidating the character of our hero to attempt to +identify all the places he visited. + +It was at Werowocomoco that Smith observed certain conjurations of the +medicine men, which he supposed had reference to his fate. From ten +o'clock in the morning till six at night, seven of the savages, with +rattles in their hands, sang and danced about the fire, laying down +grains of corn in circles, and with vehement actions, casting cakes of +deer suet, deer, and tobacco into the fire, howling without ceasing. +One of them was “disfigured with a great skin, his head hung around with +little skins of weasels and other vermin, with a crownlet of feathers +on his head, painted as ugly as the devil.” So fat they fed him that +he much doubted they intended to sacrifice him to the Quiyoughquosicke, +which is a superior power they worship: a more uglier thing cannot +be described. These savages buried their dead with great sorrow and +weeping, and they acknowledge no resurrection. Tobacco they offer to the +water to secure a good passage in foul weather. The descent of the crown +is to the first heirs of the king's sisters, “for the kings have as many +women 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 take +his life by the timely arrival of Captain Newport. Somewhere about this +time the great fire occurred. Smith was now one of the Council; Martin +and Matthew Scrivener, just named, were also councilors. Ratcliffe +was still President. The savages, owing to their acquaintance with and +confidence in Captain Smith, sent in abundance of provision. Powhatan +sent once or twice a week “deer, bread, raugroughcuns (probably not +to be confounded with the rahaughcuns [raccoons] spoken of before, but +probably 'rawcomens,' mentioned in the Description of Virginia), half +for Smith, and half for his father, Captain Newport.” Smith had, in his +intercourse with the natives, extolled the greatness of Newport, so that +they conceived him to be the chief and all the rest his children, and +regarded him as an oracle, if not a god. + +Powhatan and the rest had, therefore, a great desire to see this mighty +person. Smith says that the President and Council greatly envied his +reputation with the Indians, and wrought upon them to believe, by +giving in trade four times as much as the price set by Smith, that their +authority exceeded his as much as their bounty. + +We must give Smith the credit of being usually intent upon the building +up of the colony, and establishing permanent and livable relations with +the Indians, while many of his companions in authority seemed to regard +the adventure as a temporary occurrence, out of which they would make +what personal profit they could. The new-comers on a vessel always +demoralized the trade with the Indians, by paying extravagant prices. +Smith's relations with Captain Newport were peculiar. While he magnified +him to the Indians as the great power, he does not conceal his own +opinion of his ostentation and want of shrewdness. Smith's attitude +was 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, leave +was given to sailors to trade with the Indians, and the new-comers soon +so raised prices that it needed a pound of copper to buy a quantity +of provisions that before had been obtained for an ounce. Newport +sent great presents to Powhatan, and, in response to the wish of the +“Emperor,” prepared to visit him. “A great coyle there was to set him +forward,” says Smith. Mr. Scrivener and Captain Smith, and a guard of +thirty or forty, accompanied him. On this expedition they found the +mouth of the Pamaunck (now York) River. Arriving at Werowocomoco, +Newport, fearing treachery, sent Smith with twenty men to land and +make a preliminary visit. When they came ashore they found a network of +creeks which were crossed by very shaky bridges, constructed of crotched +sticks and poles, which had so much the appearance of traps that Smith +would not cross them until many of the Indians had preceded him, while +he kept others with him as hostages. Three hundred savages conducted +him to Powhatan, who received him in great state. Before his house were +ranged forty or fifty great platters of fine bread. Entering his house, +“with loude tunes they made all signs of great joy.” In the first +account Powhatan is represented as surrounded by his principal women and +chief men, “as upon a throne at the upper end of the house, with such +majesty as I cannot express, nor yet have often seen, either in Pagan +or Christian.” In the later account he is “sitting upon his bed of mats, +his pillow of leather embroidered (after their rude manner with pearls +and white beads), his attire a fair robe of skins as large as an Irish +mantel; at his head and feet a handsome young woman; on each side of his +house sat twenty of his concubines, their heads and shoulders painted +red, with a great chain of white beads about each of their necks. Before +those sat his chiefest men in like order in his arbor-like house.” + This is the scene that figures in the old copper-plate engravings. The +Emperor welcomed Smith with a kind countenance, caused him to sit beside +him, and with pretty discourse they renewed their old acquaintance. +Smith presented him with a suit of red cloth, a white greyhound, and a +hat. The Queen of Apamatuc, a comely young savage, brought him water, +a turkeycock, and bread to eat. Powhatan professed great content with +Smith, but desired to see his father, Captain Newport. He inquired also +with a merry countenance after the piece of ordnance that Smith had +promised to send him, and Smith, with equal jocularity, replied that he +had offered the men four demi-culverins, which they found too heavy +to carry. This night they quartered with Powhatan, and were liberally +feasted, and entertained with singing, dancing, and orations. + +The next day Captain Newport came ashore. The two monarchs exchanged +presents. Newport gave Powhatan a white boy thirteen years old, named +Thomas Savage. This boy remained with the Indians and served the colony +many years as an interpreter. Powhatan gave Newport in return a bag of +beans and an Indian named Namontack for his servant. Three or four days +they remained, feasting, dancing, and trading with the Indians. + +In trade the wily savage was more than a match for Newport. He affected +great dignity; it was unworthy such great werowances to dicker; it +was not agreeable to his greatness in a peddling manner to trade for +trifles; let the great Newport lay down his commodities all together, +and Powhatan would take what he wished, and recompense him with a proper +return. Smith, who knew the Indians and their ostentation, told Newport +that the intention was to cheat him, but his interference was resented. +The result justified Smith's suspicion. Newport received but four +bushels of corn when he should have had twenty hogsheads. Smith then +tried his hand at a trade. With a few blue beads, which he represented +as of a rare substance, the color of the skies, and worn by the greatest +kings in the world, he so inflamed the desire of Powhatan that he was +half mad to possess such strange jewels, and gave for them 200 to 300 +bushels of corn, “and yet,” says Smith, “parted good friends.” + +At this time Powhatan, knowing that they desired to invade or explore +Monacan, the country above the Falls, proposed an expedition, with +men and boats, and “this faire tale had almost made Captain Newport +undertake by this means to discover the South Sea,” a project which the +adventurers had always in mind. On this expedition they sojourned also +with the King of Pamaunke. + +Captain Newport returned to England on the 10th of April. Mr. Scrivener +and Captain Smith were now in fact the sustainers of the colony. They +made short expeditions of exploration. Powhatan and other chiefs still +professed friendship and sent presents, but the Indians grew more and +more 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 slight +torture, the captives were made to confess the hostile intentions of +Powhatan and the other chiefs, which was to steal their weapons and then +overpower the colony. Rigorous measures were needed to keep the Indians +in check, but the command from England not to offend the savages was so +strict that Smith dared not chastise them as they deserved. The history +of the colony all this spring of 1608 is one of labor and discontent, of +constant annoyance from the Indians, and expectations of attacks. On the +20th of April, while they were hewing trees and setting corn, an alarm +was given which sent them all to their arms. Fright was turned into joy +by the sight of the Phoenix, with Captain Nelson and his company, who +had been for three months detained in the West Indies, and given up for +lost. + +Being thus re-enforced, Smith and Scrivener desired to explore the +country above the Falls, and got ready an expedition. But this, Martin, +who was only intent upon loading the return ship with “his phantastical +gold,” 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 their +depredations. Messages daily passed between the fort and the Indians, +and treachery was always expected. About this time the boy Thomas Savage +was returned, with his chest and clothing. + +The colony had now several of the Indians detained in the fort. At this +point in the “True Relation” occurs the first mention of Pocahontas. +Smith says: “Powhatan, understanding we detained certain Salvages, sent +his daughter, a child of tenne years old, which not only for feature, +countenance, and proportion much exceeded any of his people, but for wit +and spirit, the only nonpareil of his country.” She was accompanied by +his trusty messenger Rawhunt, a crafty and deformed savage, who assured +Smith how much Powhatan loved and respected him and, that he should not +doubt his kindness, had sent his child, whom he most esteemed, to see +him, and a deer, and bread besides for a present; “desiring us that the +boy might come again, which he loved exceedingly, his little daughter +he had taught this lesson also: not taking notice at all of the Indians +that had been prisoners three days, till that morning that she saw their +fathers and friends come quietly and in good terms to entreat their +liberty.” + +Opechancanough (the King of “Pamauk”) also sent asking the release of +two that were his friends; and others, apparently with confidence in the +whites, came begging for the release of the prisoners. “In the afternoon +they being gone, we guarded them [the prisoners] as before to the +church, and after prayer gave them to Pocahuntas, the King's daughter, +in regard to her father's kindness in sending her: after having well fed +them, 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, to +tell that we had used the Paspaheyans very kindly in so releasing them.” + +This account would show that Pocahontas was a child of uncommon dignity +and self-control for her age. In his letter to Queen Anne, written in +1616, he speaks of her as aged twelve or thirteen at the time of his +captivity, several months before this visit to the fort. + +The colonists still had reasons to fear ambuscades from the savages +lurking about in the woods. One day a Paspahean came with a glittering +mineral stone, and said he could show them great abundance of it. Smith +went to look for this mine, but was led about hither and thither in the +woods till he lost his patience and was convinced that the Indian was +fooling him, when he gave him twenty lashes with a rope, handed him his +bows and arrows, told him to shoot if he dared, and let him go. Smith +had a prompt way with the Indians. He always traded “squarely” with +them, kept his promises, and never hesitated to attack or punish them +when they deserved it. They feared and respected him. + +The colony was now in fair condition, in good health, and contented; and +it was believed, though the belief was not well founded, that they would +have 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 desirous +to enjoy the credit of his supposed art of finding the gold mine,” took +passage. 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 to +explore the Chesapeake, accompanying the Phoenix as far as Cape Henry, +in a barge of about three tons. With him went Dr. Walter Russell, six +gentlemen, and seven soldiers. The narrative of the voyage is signed +by Dr. Russell, Thomas Momford, gentleman, and Anas Todkill, soldier. +Master Scrivener remained at the fort, where his presence was needed +to keep in check the prodigal waste of the stores upon his parasites by +President Ratcliffe. + +The expedition crossed the bay at “Smith's Isles,” named after the +Captain, touched at Cape Charles, and coasted along the eastern shore. +Two stout savages hailed them from Cape Charles, and directed them to +Accomack, whose king proved to be the most comely and civil savage they +had yet encountered. + +He told them of a strange accident that had happened. The parents of two +children who had died were moved by some phantasy to revisit their dead +carcasses, “whose benumbed bodies reflected to the eyes of the beholders +such delightful countenances as though they had regained their vital +spirits.” This miracle drew a great part of the King's people to behold +them, nearly all of whom died shortly afterward. These people spoke +the language of Powhatan. Smith explored the bays, isles, and islets, +searching for harbors and places of habitation. He was a born explorer +and geographer, as his remarkable map of Virginia sufficiently +testifies. The company was much tossed about in the rough waves of the +bay, and had great difficulty in procuring drinking-water. They entered +the Wighcocomoco, on the east side, where the natives first threatened +and then received them with songs, dancing, and mirth. A point on the +mainland where they found a pond of fresh water they named “Poynt Ployer +in honer of the most honorable house of Monsay, in Britaine, that in +an extreme extremitie once relieved our Captain.” This reference to the +Earl of Ployer, who was kind to Smith in his youth, is only an instance +of 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 took +refuge for two days on some uninhabited islands, which by reason of the +ill 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 called +Cuskarawook (perhaps the present Annomessie), where the inhabitants +received them with showers of arrows, ascending the trees and shooting +at them. The next day a crowd came dancing to the shore, making friendly +signs, 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 account +wildly says, of two or three thousand, came to visit them, and were very +friendly. These tribes Smith calls the Sarapinagh, Nause, Arseek, and +Nantaquak, and says they are the best merchants of that coast. They told +him of a great nation, called the Massawomeks, of whom he set out in +search, passing by the Limbo, and coasting the west side of Chesapeake +Bay. The people on the east side he describes as of small stature. + +They anchored at night at a place called Richard's Cliffs, north of +the Pawtuxet, and from thence went on till they reached the first +river navigable for ships, which they named the Bolus, and which by its +position on Smith's map may be the Severn or the Patapsco. + +The men now, having been kept at the oars ten days, tossed about by +storms, and with nothing to eat but bread rotten from the wet, supposed +that the Captain would turn about and go home. But he reminded them +how the company of Ralph Lane, in like circumstances, importuned him to +proceed with the discovery of Moratico, alleging that they had yet a dog +that boiled with sassafrks leaves would richly feed them. He could not +think of returning yet, for they were scarce able to say where they had +been, nor had yet heard of what they were sent to seek. He exhorted them +to abandon their childish fear of being lost in these unknown, large +waters, but he assured them that return he would not, till he had seen +the Massawomeks and found the Patowomek. + +On the 16th of June they discovered the River Patowomek (Potomac), seven +miles broad at the mouth, up which they sailed thirty miles before +they encountered any inhabitants. Four savages at length appeared and +conducted 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 more +terrible.” But the discharge of the firearms and the echo in the forest +so appeased their fury that they threw down their bows, exchanged +hostages, and kindly used the strangers. The Indians told him that +Powhatan had commanded them to betray them, and the serious charge is +added that Powhatan, “so directed from the discontents at Jamestown +because our Captain did cause them to stay in their country against +their wills.” This reveals the suspicion and thoroughly bad feeling +existing among the colonists. + +The expedition went up the river to a village called Patowomek, and +thence rowed up a little River Quiyough (Acquia Creek?) in search of a +mountain of antimony, which they found. The savages put this antimony +up in little bags and sold it all over the country to paint their +bodies and faces, which made them look like Blackamoors dusted over with +silver. Some bags of this they carried away, and also collected a good +amount of furs of otters, bears, martens, and minks. Fish were abundant, +“lying so thick with their heads above water, as for want of nets (our +barge driving among them) we attempted to catch them with a frying-pan; +but we found it a bad instrument to catch fish with; neither better +fish, more plenty, nor more variety for small fish, had any of us ever +seen in any place, so swimming in the water, but they are not to be +caught with frying-pans.” + +In all his encounters and quarrels with the treacherous savages Smith +lost not a man; it was his habit when he encountered a body of them +to demand their bows, arrows, swords, and furs, and a child or two as +hostages. + +Having finished his discovery he returned. Passing the mouth of the +Rappahannock, by some called the Tappahannock, where in shoal water were +many fish lurking in the weeds, Smith had his first experience of the +Stingray. It chanced that the Captain took one of these fish from +his sword, “not knowing her condition, being much the fashion of a +Thornbeck, but a long tayle like a riding rodde whereon the middest is +a most poysonne sting of two or three inches long, bearded like a saw on +each side, which she struck into the wrist of his arme neare an inch and +a half.” The arm and shoulder swelled so much, and the torment was +so great, that “we all with much sorrow concluded his funerale, and +prepared his grave in an island by, as himself directed.” But it +“pleased God by a precious oyle Dr. Russell applied to it that his +tormenting paine was so assuged that he ate of that fish to his supper.” + +Setting sail for Jamestown, and arriving at Kecoughtan, the sight of the +furs and other plunder, and of Captain Smith wounded, led the Indians to +think that he had been at war with the Massawomeks; which opinion Smith +encouraged. They reached Jamestown July 21st, in fine spirits, to find +the colony in a mutinous condition, the last arrivals all sick, and the +others on the point of revenging themselves on the silly President, who +had brought them all to misery by his riotous consumption of the stores, +and by forcing them to work on an unnecessary pleasure-house for himself +in the woods. They were somewhat appeased by the good news of the +discovery, and in the belief that their bay stretched into the South +Sea; and submitted on condition that Ratclifte should be deposed and +Captain Smith take upon himself the government, “as by course it did +belong.” He consented, but substituted Mr. Scrivener, his dear friend, +in the presidency, distributed the provisions, appointed honest men +to assist Mr. Scrivener, and set out on the 24th, with twelve men, to +finish his discovery. + +He passed by the Patowomek River and hasted to the River Bolus, which he +had before visited. In the bay they fell in with seven or eight canoes +full of the renowned Massawomeks, with whom they had a fight, but at +length these savages became friendly and gave them bows, arrows, and +skins. They were at war with the Tockwoghes. Proceeding up the River +Tockwogh, the latter Indians received them with friendship, because they +had the weapons which they supposed had been captured in a fight with +the Massawomeks. These Indians had hatchets, knives, pieces of iron and +brass, they reported came from the Susquesahanocks, a mighty people, the +enemies of the Massawomeks, living at the head of the bay. As Smith in +his barge could not ascend to them, he sent an interpreter to request a +visit from them. In three or four days sixty of these giant-like people +came down with presents of venison, tobacco-pipes three feet in length, +baskets, targets, and bows and arrows. Some further notice is necessary +of this first appearance of the Susquehannocks, who became afterwards +so well known, by reason of their great stature and their friendliness. +Portraits of these noble savages appeared in De Bry's voyages, which +were used in Smith's map, and also by Strachey. These beautiful +copperplate engravings spread through Europe most exaggerated ideas of +the 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 the +Susquesahanocks, in a fervent manner, held up their hands to the sun, +and then embracing the Captain, adored him in like manner. With a +furious manner and “a hellish voyce” they began an oration of their +loves, covered him with their painted bear-skins, hung a chain of white +beads about his neck, and hailed his creation as their governor and +protector, promising aid and victuals if he would stay and help them +fight the Massawomeks. Much they told him of the Atquanachuks, who live +on the Ocean Sea, the Massawomeks and other people living on a great +water beyond the mountain (which Smith understood to be some great lake +or the river of Canada), and that they received their hatchets and other +commodities 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 same +people, whom he calls Sasquesahanougs, says they were well-proportioned +giants, but of an honest and simple disposition. Their language well +beseemed their proportions, “sounding from them as it were a great voice +in a vault or cave, as an ecco.” The picture of one of these chiefs is +given in De Bry, and described by Strachey,” the calf of whose leg +was three-quarters of a yard about, and all the rest of his limbs so +answerable to the same proportions that he seemed the goodliest man they +ever saw.” + +It would not entertain the reader to follow Smith in all the small +adventures of the exploration, during which he says he went about 3,000 +miles (three thousand miles in three or four weeks in a rowboat is +nothing in Smith's memory), “with such watery diet in these great +waters and barbarous countries.” Much hardship he endured, alternately +skirmishing and feasting with the Indians; many were the tribes he +struck an alliance with, and many valuable details he added to the +geographical knowledge of the region. In all this exploration Smith +showed himself skillful as he was vigorous and adventurous. + +He returned to James River September 7th. Many had died, some were +sick, Ratcliffe, the late President, was a prisoner for mutiny, +Master Scrivener had diligently gathered the harvest, but much of the +provisions had been spoiled by rain. Thus the summer was consumed, and +nothing 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 request +of the company, Captain Smith received the letters-patent, and became +President. He stopped the building of Ratcliffe's “palace,” repaired +the church and the storehouse, got ready the buildings for the supply +expected from England, reduced the fort to a “five square form,” set and +trained the watch and exercised the company every Saturday on a plain +called Smithfield, to the amazement of the on-looking Indians. + +Captain Newport arrived with a new supply of seventy persons. Among +them were Captain Francis West, brother to Lord Delaware, Captain Peter +Winne, and Captain Peter Waldo, appointed on the Council, eight Dutchmen +and Poles, and Mistress Forest and Anne Burrows her maid, the first +white women in the colony. + +Smith did not relish the arrival of Captain Newport nor the instructions +under which he returned. He came back commanded to discover the country +of Monacan (above the Falls) and to perform the ceremony of coronation +on the Emperor Powhatan. + +How Newport got this private commission when he had returned to England +without a lump of gold, nor any certainty of the South Sea, or one of +the lost company sent out by Raleigh; and why he brought a “fine peeced +barge” which must be carried over unknown mountains before it reached +the South Sea, he could not understand. “As for the coronation of +Powhatan and his presents of basin and ewer, bed, bedding, clothes, and +such costly novelties, they had been much better well spared than so ill +spent, for we had his favor and better for a plain piece of copper, till +this stately kind of soliciting made him so much overvalue himself that +he respected us as much as nothing at all.” Smith evidently understood +the situation much better than the promoters in England; and we can +quite excuse him in his rage over the foolishness and greed of most of +his companions. There was little nonsense about Smith in action, though +he 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 have +been well enough if the colony had been firmly established and supplied +with necessaries; and they might have sent two hundred colonists instead +of seventy, if they had ordered them to go to work collecting provisions +of the Indians for the winter, instead of attempting this strange +discovery of the South Sea, and wasting their time on a more strange +coronation. “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, but +on their own backs?” + +Smith seems to have protested against all this nonsense, but though he +was governor, the Council overruled him. Captain Newport decided to take +one hundred and twenty men, fearing to go with a less number and journey +to Werowocomoco to crown Powhatan. In order to save time Smith offered +to take a message to Powhatan, and induce him to come to Jamestown and +receive the honor and the presents. Accompanied by only four men he +crossed by land to Werowocomoco, passed the Pamaunkee (York) River in +a canoe, and sent for Powhatan, who was thirty miles off. Meantime +Pocahontas, who by his own account was a mere child, and her women +entertained 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 shreeking +that the English betook themselves to their armes, and seized upon two +or three old men, by them supposing Powhatan with all his power was come +to surprise them. But presently Pocahontas came, willing him to kill her +if any hurt were intended, and the beholders, which were men, women and +children, satisfied the Captaine that there was no such matter. Then +presently they were presented with this anticke: Thirty young women came +naked out of the woods, only covered behind and before with a few greene +leaves, their bodies all painted, some of one color, some of another, +but all differing; their leader had a fayre payre of Bucks hornes on +her 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; the +next had in her hand a sword, another a club, another a pot-sticke: +all horned alike; the rest every one with their several devises. These +fiends with most hellish shouts and cries, rushing from among the trees, +cast themselves in a ring about the fire, singing and dancing with most +excellent ill-varietie, oft falling into their infernal passions, and +solemnly again to sing and dance; having spent nearly an hour in this +Mascarado, as they entered, in like manner they departed. + +“Having reaccommodated themselves, they solemnly invited him to their +lodgings, where he was no sooner within the house, but all these Nymphs +more tormented him than ever, with crowding, pressing, and hanging about +him, most tediously crying, 'Love you not me? Love you not me?' This +salutation ended, the feast was set, consisting of all the Salvage +dainties they could devise: some attending, others singing and dancing +about them: which mirth being ended, with fire brands instead of torches +they 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 suspected +the Emperor wished him to go to spy out the weakness of the English +tribe--and repeated Father Newport's request that Powhatan would come to +Jamestown to receive the presents and join in an expedition against his +enemies, the Monacans. + +Powhatan's reply was worthy of his imperial highness, and has been +copied ever since in the speeches of the lords of the soil to the pale +faces: “If your king has sent me present, I also am a king, and this is +my land: eight days I will stay to receive them. Your father is to come +to me, not I to him, nor yet to your fort, neither will I bite at such a +bait; 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 would +infinitely have preferred a big shining copper kettle to the misplaced +honor intended to be thrust upon him, but the offer of which puffed him +up beyond the reach of negotiation. Smith returned with his message. +Newport despatched the presents round by water a hundred miles, and the +Captains, with fifty soldiers, went over land to Werowocomoco, where +occurred the ridiculous ceremony of the coronation, which Smith +describes with much humor. “The next day,” he says, “was appointed for +the coronation. Then the presents were brought him, his bason and ewer, +bed and furniture set up, his scarlet cloke and apparel, with much adoe +put on him, being persuaded by Namontuck they would not hurt him. But a +foule trouble there was to make him kneel to receive his Crown; he not +knowing the majesty nor wearing of a Crown, nor bending of the knee, +endured so many persuasions, examples and instructions as tyred them +all. At last by bearing hard on his shoulders, he a little stooped, and +three having the crown in their hands put it on his head, when by the +warning of a pistoll the boats were prepared with such a volley of shot +that the king start up in a horrible feare, till he saw all was well. +Then remembering himself to congratulate their kindness he gave his old +shoes and his mantell to Captain Newport!” + +The Monacan expedition the King discouraged, and refused to furnish +for it either guides or men. Besides his old shoes, the crowned monarch +charitably gave Newport a little heap of corn, only seven or eight +bushels, and with this little result the absurd expedition returned to +Jamestown. + +Shortly after Captain Newport with a chosen company of one hundred +and twenty men (leaving eighty with President Smith in the fort) and +accompanied by Captain Waldo, Lieutenant Percy, Captain Winne, Mr. +West, and Mr. Scrivener, who was eager for adventure, set off for the +discovery of Monacan. The expedition, as Smith predicted, was fruitless: +the Indians deceived them and refused to trade, and the company got back +to 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 the +river to learn to fell trees and make clapboards. In this company were +a couple of gallants, lately come over, Gabriel Beadle and John Russell, +proper gentlemen, but unused to hardships, whom Smith has immortalized +by 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 week +they were masters of chopping: “making it their delight to hear the +trees thunder as they fell, but the axes so often blistered their tender +fingers that many times every third blow had a loud othe to drown the +echo; for remedie of which sinne the President devised how to have every +man's othes numbered, and at night for every othe to have a Canne of +water 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.” In +the clearing of our country since, this excellent plan has fallen into +desuetude, for want of any pious Captain Smith in the logging camps. + +These gentlemen, says Smith, did not spend their time in wood-logging +like hirelings, but entered into it with such spirit that thirty of them +would accomplish more than a hundred of the sort that had to be driven +to work; yet, he sagaciously adds, “twenty good workmen had been better +than them all.” + +Returning to the fort, Smith, as usual, found the time consumed and no +provisions got, and Newport's ship lying idle at a great charge. With +Percy he set out on an expedition for corn to the Chickahominy, which +the insolent Indians, knowing their want, would not supply. Perceiving +that it was Powhatan's policy to starve them (as if it was the business +of the Indians to support all the European vagabonds and adventurers who +came to dispossess them of their country), Smith gave out that he came +not so much for corn as to revenge his imprisonment and the death of his +men murdered by the Indians, and proceeded to make war. This high-handed +treatment made the savages sue for peace, and furnish, although they +complained of want themselves, owing to a bad harvest, a hundred bushels +of corn. + +This supply contented the company, who feared nothing so much as +starving, and yet, says Smith, so envied him that they would rather +hazard starving than have him get reputation by his vigorous conduct. +There is no contemporary account of that period except this which Smith +indited. He says that Newport and Ratcliffe conspired not only to depose +him but to keep him out of the fort; since being President they could +not control his movements, but that their horns were much too short to +effect it. + +At this time in the “old Taverne,” as Smith calls the fort, everybody +who had money or goods made all he could by trade; soldiers, sailors, +and savages were agreed to barter, and there was more care to maintain +their damnable and private trade than to provide the things necessary +for the colony. In a few weeks the whites had bartered away nearly all +the axes, chisels, hoes, and picks, and what powder, shot, and pikeheads +they could steal, in exchange for furs, baskets, young beasts and such +like commodities. Though the supply of furs was scanty in Virginia, one +master confessed he had got in one voyage by this private trade what he +sold in England for thirty pounds. “These are the Saint-seeming +Worthies of Virginia,” indignantly exclaims the President, “that have, +notwithstanding all this, meate, drinke, and wages.” But now they began +to get weary of the country, their trade being prevented. “The loss, +scorn, and misery was the poor officers, gentlemen and careless +governors, who were bought and sold.” The adventurers were cheated, and +all 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 the +savages were more ready to fight than to trade. At length Newport's +ship was loaded with clapboards, pitch, tar, glass, frankincense (?) and +soapashes, and despatched to England. About two hundred men were left in +the colony. With Newport, Smith sent his famous letter to the Treasurer +and Council in England. It is so good a specimen of Smith's ability with +the pen, reveals so well his sagacity and knowledge of what a colony +needed, and exposes so clearly the ill-management of the London +promoters, and the condition of the colony, that we copy it entire. +It appears by this letter that Smith's “Map of Virginia,” and his +description of the country and its people, which were not published till +1612, were sent by this opportunity. Captain Newport sailed for England +late in the autumn of 1608. The letter reads: + +RIGHT HONORABLE, ETC.: + +I received your letter wherein you write that our minds are so set +upon faction, and idle conceits in dividing the country without your +consents, and that we feed you but with ifs and ands, hopes and some few +proofes; as if we would keepe the mystery of the businesse to ourselves: +and that we must expressly follow your instructions sent by Captain +Newport: the charge of whose voyage amounts to neare two thousand +pounds, the which if we cannot defray by the ships returne we are likely +to remain as banished men. To these particulars I humbly intreat your +pardons if I offend you with my rude answer. + +For our factions, unless you would have me run away and leave the +country, I cannot prevent them; because I do make many stay that would +else 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 ever +dream't I of any such matter. That we feed you with hopes, &c. Though +I be no scholar, I am past a schoolboy; and I desire but to know what +either you and these here doe know, but that I have learned to tell +you by the continuall hazard of my life. I have not concealed from you +anything I know; but I feare some cause you to believe much more than is +true. + +Expressly to follow your directions by Captain Newport, though they be +performed, I was directly against it; but according to our commission, +I was content to be overouled by the major part of the Councill, I feare +to the hazard of us all; which now is generally confessed when it is +too late. Onely Captaine Winne and Captaine Walclo I have sworne of the +Councill, and crowned Powhattan according to your instructions. + +For the charge of the voyage of two or three thousand pounds we have not +received the value of one hundred pounds, and for the quartered boat to +be borne by the souldiers over the falls. Newport had 120 of the best +men he could chuse. If he had burnt her to ashes, one might have carried +her in a bag, but as she is, five hundred cannot to a navigable place +above the falls. And for him at that time to find in the South Sea +a mine of gold; or any of them sent by Sir Walter Raleigh; at our +consultation I told them was as likely as the rest. But during this +great discovery of thirtie miles (which might as well have been done +by one man, and much more, for the value of a pound of copper at a +seasonable tyme), they had the pinnace and all the boats with them but +one that remained with me to serve the fort. In their absence I followed +the new begun works of Pitch and Tarre, Glasse, Sope-ashes, Clapboord, +whereof some small quantities we have sent you. But if you rightly +consider what an infinite toyle it is in Russia and Swethland, where the +woods are proper for naught els, and though there be the helpe both +of man and beast in those ancient commonwealths, which many an hundred +years have used it, yet thousands of those poor people can scarce get +necessaries to live, but from hand to mouth, and though your factors +there can buy as much in a week as will fraught you a ship, or as much +as you please, you must not expect from us any such matter, which are +but as many of ignorant, miserable soules, that are scarce able to get +wherewith to live, and defend ourselves against the inconstant Salvages: +finding but here and there a tree fit for the purpose, and want all +things else the Russians have. For the Coronation of Powhattan, by whose +advice you sent him such presents, I know not; but this give me leave to +tell you, I feare they will be the confusion of us all ere we heare +from you again. At your ships arrivall, the Salvages harvest was newly +gathered, and we going to buy it, our owne not being halve sufficient +for so great a number. As for the two ships loading of corne Newport +promised to provide us from Powhattan, he brought us but fourteen +bushels; and from the Monacans nothing, but the most of the men sicke +and neare famished. From your ship we had not provision in victuals +worth twenty pound, and we are more than two hundred to live upon +this, the one halfe sicke, the other little better. For the saylers (I +confesse), they daily make good cheare, but our dyet is a little meale +and 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 trouble +them. Captaine Newport we much suspect to be the Author of these +inventions. Now that you should know, I have made you as great a +discovery as he, for less charge than he spendeth you every meale; I had +sent you this mappe of the Countries and Nations that inhabit them, as +you may see at large. Also two barrels of stones, and such as I take to +be good. Iron ore at the least; so divided, as by their notes you may +see in what places I found them. The souldiers say many of your officers +maintaine their families out of that you sent us, and that Newport hath +an hundred pounds a year for carrying newes. For every master you have +yet sent can find the way as well as he, so that an hundred pounds might +be 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. What +he is, now every one can tell you: if he and Archer returne againe, they +are sufficient to keep us always in factions. When you send againe I +entreat you rather send but thirty carpenters, husbandmen, gardiners, +fishermen, blacksmiths, masons, and diggers up of trees roots, well +provided, then a thousand of such as we have; for except wee be able +both to lodge them, and feed them, the most will consume with want +of necessaries before they can be made good for anything. Thus if you +please to consider this account, and the unnecessary wages to +Captaine Newport, or his ships so long lingering and staying here (for +notwithstanding his boasting to leave us victuals for 12 months, though +we had 89 by this discovery lame and sicke, and but a pinte of corne a +day for a man, we were constrained to give him three hogsheads of that +to victuall him homeward), or yet to send into Germany or Poleland +for glassemen and the rest, till we be able to sustaine ourselves, and +releeve them when they come. It were better to give five hundred pound a +ton for those grosse Commodities in Denmarke, then send for them hither, +till more necessary things be provided. For in over-toyling our weake +and unskilfull bodies, to satisfy this desire of present profit, we can +scarce ever recover ourselves from one supply to another. And I humbly +intreat you hereafter, let us have what we should receive, and not +stand to the Saylers courtesie to leave us what they please, els you +may charge us what you will, but we not you with anything. These are the +causes that have kept us in Virginia from laying such a foundation that +ere this might have given much better content and satisfaction, but as +yet 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 extorted +from the Indians by force. In one expedition to Nansemond, when the +Indians refused to trade, Smith fired upon them, and then landed and +burned one of their houses; whereupon they submitted and loaded his +three boats with corn. The ground was covered with ice and snow, and the +nights were bitterly cold. The device for sleeping warm in the open air +was to sweep the snow away from the ground and build a fire; the fire +was then raked off from the heated earth and a mat spread, upon which +the 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, yet +grew fat and lusty under it. + +About this time was solemnized the marriage of John Laydon and Anne +Burrows, 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 a +laborer who came with the first colony in 1607. This was actually the +“First Family of Virginia,” about which so much has been eloquently +said. + +Provisions were still wanting. Mr. Scrivener and Mr. Percy returned from +an expedition with nothing. Smith proposed to surprise Powhatan, and +seize his store of corn, but he says he was hindered in this project by +Captain Winne and Mr. Scrivener (who had heretofore been considered +one of Smith's friends), whom he now suspected of plotting his ruin in +England. + +Powhatan on his part sent word to Smith to visit him, to send him men +to build a house, give him a grindstone, fifty swords, some big guns, a +cock and a hen, much copper and beads, in return for which he would load +his ship with corn. Without any confidence in the crafty savage, Smith +humored him by sending several workmen, including four Dutchmen, +to build him a house. Meantime with two barges and the pinnace and +forty-six men, including Lieutenant Percy, Captain Wirt, and Captain +William Phittiplace, on the 29th of December he set out on a journey to +the Pamaunky, or York, River. + +The first night was spent at “Warraskogack,” the king of which warned +Smith that while Powhatan would receive him kindly he was only seeking +an opportunity to cut their throats and seize their arms. Christmas +was kept with extreme winds, rain, frost and snow among the savages at +Kecoughton, where before roaring fires they made merry with plenty of +oysters, fish, flesh, wild fowls and good bread. The President and +two others went gunning for birds, and brought down one hundred and +forty-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 barge +could not come to land by reason of the ice and muddy shallows, they +effected a landing by wading. Powhatan at their request sent them +venison, turkeys, and bread; the next day he feasted them, and then +inquired when they were going, ignoring his invitation to them to come. +Hereupon followed a long game of fence between Powhatan and Captain +Smith, each trying to overreach the other, and each indulging profusely +in lies and pledges. Each professed the utmost love for the other. + +Smith upbraided him with neglect of his promise to supply them with +corn, and told him, in reply to his demand for weapons, that he had no +arms to spare. Powhatan asked him, if he came on a peaceful errand, to +lay aside his weapons, for he had heard that the English came not so +much for trade as to invade his people and possess his country, and +the people did not dare to bring in their corn while the English were +around. + +Powhatan seemed indifferent about the building. The Dutchmen who had +come to build Powhatan a house liked the Indian plenty better than the +risk of starvation with the colony, revealed to Powhatan the poverty +of the whites, and plotted to betray them, of which plot Smith was not +certain till six months later. Powhatan discoursed eloquently on the +advantage of peace over war: “I have seen the death of all my people +thrice,” he said, “and not any one living of those three generations +but myself; I know the difference of peace and war better than any in my +country. But I am now old and ere long must die.” He wanted to leave his +brothers and sisters in peace. He heard that Smith came to destroy +his country. He asked him what good it would do to destroy them that +provided his food, to drive them into the woods where they must feed on +roots and acorns; “and be so hunted by you that I can neither rest, eat +nor sleep, but my tired men must watch, and if a twig but break every +one crieth, there cometh Captain Smith!” They might live in peace, and +trade, if Smith would only lay aside his arms. Smith, in return, +boasted of his power to get provisions, and said that he had only been +restrained from violence by his love for Powhatan; that the Indians came +armed to Jamestown, and it was the habit of the whites to wear their +arms. Powhatan then contrasted the liberality of Newport, and told Smith +that while he had used him more kindly than any other chief, he had +received from him (Smith) the least kindness of any. + +Believing that the palaver was only to get an opportunity to cut his +throat, Smith got the savages to break the ice in order to bring up the +barge and load it with corn, and gave orders for his soldiers to land +and surprise Powhatan; meantime, to allay his suspicions, telling him +the lie that next day he would lay aside his arms and trust Powhatan's +promises. But Powhatan was not to be caught with such chaff. Leaving two +or three women to talk with the Captain he secretly fled away with his +women, children, and luggage. When Smith perceived this treachery he +fired into the “naked devils” who were in sight. The next day Powhatan +sent to excuse his flight, and presented him a bracelet and chain of +pearl and vowed eternal friendship. + +With matchlocks lighted, Smith forced the Indians to load the boats; but +as they were aground, and could not be got off till high water, he was +compelled to spend the night on shore. Powhatan and the treacherous +Dutchmen are represented as plotting to kill Smith that night. +Provisions were to be brought him with professions of friendship, and +Smith was to be attacked while at supper. The Indians, with all the +merry sports they could devise, spent the time till night, and then +returned 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 came +through the irksome woods, and told our Captaine good cheer should be +sent us by and by; but Powhatan and all the power he could make would +after come and kill us all, if they that brought it could not kill us +with our own weapons when we were at supper. Therefore if we would live +she wished us presently to be gone. Such things as she delighted in he +would have given her; but with the tears rolling down her cheeks she +said she durst not to be seen to have any; for if Powhatan should know +it, 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 to +his solitary habitation at the peril of her life, to inform him that the +men of Rapa would shortly bring him insects and other presents, in order +to get near him without suspicion, and then kill him. He tried to reward +the brave girl by hanging a gold chain about her neck, but she refused +it, saying it would betray her. He could only reward her with a fervent +kiss, upon which she fled. Smith omits that part of the incident.] + + +In less than an hour ten burly fellows arrived with great platters of +victuals, and begged Smith to put out the matches (the smoke of which +made them sick) and sit down and eat. Smith, on his guard, compelled +them to taste each dish, and then sent them back to Powhatan. All night +the whites watched, but though the savages lurked about, no attack +was made. Leaving the four Dutchmen to build Powhatan's house, and +an Englishman to shoot game for him, Smith next evening departed for +Pamaunky. + +No sooner had he gone than two of the Dutchmen made their way overland +to 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, and +three hundred hatchets. Edward Boynton and Richard Savage, who had been +left with Powhatan, seeing the treachery, endeavored to escape, but were +apprehended 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 of +history, geography, and astronomy. After much fencing in talk, Smith, +with fifteen companions, went up to the King's house, where presently +he found himself betrayed and surrounded by seven hundred armed savages, +seeking his life. His company being dismayed, Smith restored their +courage by a speech, and then, boldly charging the King with intent to +murder him, he challenged him to a single combat on an island in the +river, 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 the +door, about which the Indians lay in ambush to kill Smith. But this +hero, according to his own account, took prompt measures. He marched out +to the King where he stood guarded by fifty of his chiefs, seized him +by his long hair in the midst of his men, and pointing a pistol at +his breast led, him trembling and near dead with fear amongst all his +people. The King gave up his arms, and the savages, astonished that +any man dare treat their king thus, threw down their bows. Smith, still +holding the King by the hair, made them a bold address, offering peace +or war. They chose peace. + +In the picture of this remarkable scene in the “General Historie,” the +savage is represented as gigantic in stature, big enough to crush +the little Smith in an instant if he had but chosen. Having given the +savages the choice to load his ship with corn or to load it himself with +their dead carcasses, the Indians so thronged in with their commodities +that Smith was tired of receiving them, and leaving his comrades to +trade, he lay down to rest. When he was asleep the Indians, armed some +with 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 to +make himself Caesar or nothing, declined in his affection for Smith, and +began to exercise extra authority. Against the advice of the others, he +needs must make a journey to the Isle of Hogs, taking with him in +the boat Captain Waldo, Anthony Gosnoll (or Gosnold, believed to be a +relative of Captain Bartholomew Gosnold), and eight others. The boat was +overwhelmed in a storm, and sunk, no one knows how or where. The savages +were the first to discover the bodies of the lost. News of this disaster +was brought to Captain Smith (who did not disturb the rest by making +it known) by Richard Wiffin, who encountered great dangers on the way. +Lodging overnight at Powhatan's, he saw great preparations for war, and +found 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 if +they did not kill Smith. At one time swarms of natives, unarmed, came +bringing great supplies of provisions; this was to put Smith off his +guard, 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 with +a superior craft. They sent him poisoned food, which made his company +sick, but was fatal to no one. Smith apologizes for temporizing with +the Indians at this time, by explaining that his purpose was to surprise +Powhatan and his store of provisions. But when they stealthily stole +up to the seat of that crafty chief, they found that those “damned +Dutchmen” 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 weight +of deer-suet and four hundred and seventy-nine bushels of corn for the +general store. They had not to show such murdering and destroying as the +Spaniards in their “relations,” nor heaps and mines of gold and silver; +the land of Virginia was barbarous and ill-planted, and without precious +jewels, but no Spanish relation could show, with such scant means, so +much country explored, so many natives reduced to obedience, with so +little bloodshed. + + + + +XII. TRIALS OF THE SETTLEMENT + +Without entering at all into the consideration of the character of the +early settlers of Virginia and of Massachusetts, one contrast forces +itself upon the mind as we read the narratives of the different +plantations. In Massachusetts there was from the beginning a steady +purpose to make a permanent settlement and colony, and nearly all those +who came over worked, with more or less friction, with this end before +them. The attempt in Virginia partook more of the character of a +temporary adventure. In Massachusetts from the beginning a commonwealth +was in view. In Virginia, although the London promoters desired a colony +to be fixed that would be profitable to themselves, and many of the +adventurers, Captain Smith among them, desired a permanent planting, a +great majority of those who went thither had only in mind the advantages +of trade, the excitement of a free and licentious life, and the +adventure of something new and startling. It was long before the movers +in it gave up the notion of discovering precious metals or a short way +to the South Sea. The troubles the primitive colony endured resulted +quite as much from its own instability of purpose, recklessness, and +insubordination as from the hostility of the Indians. The majority spent +their time in idleness, quarreling, and plotting mutiny. + +The ships departed for England in December, 1608. When Smith returned +from his expedition for food in the winter of 1609, he found that all +the 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. Yet +this had been the diet of the soldiers, who had consumed the victuals +and accomplished nothing except to let the savages have the most of the +tools and a good part of the arms. + +Taking stock of what he brought in, Smith found food enough to last till +the next harvest, and at once organized the company into bands of ten or +fifteen, and compelled them to go to work. Six hours a day were devoted +to labor, and the remainder to rest and merry exercises. Even with this +liberal allowance of pastime a great part of the colony still +sulked. Smith made them a short address, exhibiting his power in the +letters-patent, and assuring them that he would enforce discipline and +punish the idle and froward; telling them that those that did not work +should not eat, and that the labor of forty or fifty industrious men +should not be consumed to maintain a hundred and fifty idle loiterers. +He made a public table of good and bad conduct; but even with this +inducement the worst had to be driven to work by punishment or the fear +of it. + +The Dutchmen with Powhatan continued to make trouble, and confederates +in the camp supplied them with powder and shot, swords and tools. +Powhatan kept the whites who were with him to instruct the Indians in +the art of war. They expected other whites to join them, and those not +coming, they sent Francis, their companion, disguised as an Indian, to +find out the cause. He came to the Glass house in the woods a mile from +Jamestown, which was the rendezvous for all their villainy. Here they +laid an ambush of forty men for Smith, who hearing of the Dutchman, went +thither to apprehend him. The rascal had gone, and Smith, sending twenty +soldiers to follow and capture him, started alone from the Glass house +to return to the fort. And now occurred another of those personal +adventures which made Smith famous by his own narration. + +On his way he encountered the King of Paspahegh, “a most strong, stout +savage,” who, seeing that Smith had only his falchion, attempted to +shoot him. Smith grappled him; the savage prevented his drawing his +blade, and bore him into the river to drown him. Long they struggled in +the water, when the President got the savage by the throat and nearly +strangled him, and drawing his weapon, was about to cut off his head, +when the King begged his life so pitifully, that Smith led him prisoner +to the fort and put him in chains. + +In the pictures of this achievement, the savage is represented as about +twice the size and stature of Smith; another illustration that this +heroic soul was never contented to take one of his size. + +The Dutchman was captured, who, notwithstanding his excuses that he had +escaped from Powhatan and did not intend to return, but was only walking +in the woods to gather walnuts, on the testimony of Paspahegh of his +treachery, was also “laid by the heels.” Smith now proposed to Paspahegh +to spare his life if he would induce Powhatan to send back the renegade +Dutchmen. The messengers for this purpose reported that the Dutchmen, +though not detained by Powhatan, would not come, and the Indians said +they could not bring them on their backs fifty miles through the woods. +Daily the King's wives, children, and people came to visit him, and +brought presents to procure peace and his release. While this was going +on, the King, though fettered, escaped. A pursuit only resulted in a +vain fight with the Indians. Smith then made prisoners of two Indians +who seemed to be hanging around the camp, Kemps and Tussore, “the two +most exact villains in all the country,” who would betray their own +king and kindred for a piece of copper, and sent them with a force of +soldiers, under Percy, against Paspahegh. The expedition burned his +house, but did not capture the fugitive. Smith then went against them +himself, killed six or seven, burned their houses, and took their boats +and fishing wires. Thereupon the savages sued for peace, and an amnesty +was established that lasted as long as Smith remained in the country. + +Another incident occurred about this time which greatly raised Smith's +credit in all that country. The Chicahomanians, who always were friendly +traders, were great thieves. One of them stole a Pistol, and two proper +young fellows, brothers, known to be his confederates, were apprehended. +One of them was put in the dungeon and the other sent to recover the +pistol within twelve hours, in default of which his brother would be +hanged. The President, pitying the wretched savage in the dungeon, sent +him some victuals and charcoal for a fire. “Ere midnight his brother +returned with the pistol, but the poor savage in the dungeon was so +smothered with the smoke he had made, and so piteously burnt, that we +found him dead. The other most lamentably bewailed his death, and broke +forth in such bitter agonies, that the President, to quiet him, told him +that if hereafter they would not steal, he would make him alive again; +but he (Smith) little thought he could be recovered.” Nevertheless, by +a liberal use of aqua vitae and vinegar the Indian was brought again to +life, but “so drunk and affrighted that he seemed lunatic, the which as +much tormented and grieved the other as before to see him dead.” Upon +further promise of good behavior Smith promised to bring the Indian out +of this malady also, and so laid him by a fire to sleep. In the morning +the 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 make +a man alive that was dead. He narrates a second incident which served +to give the Indians a wholesome fear of the whites: “Another ingenious +savage of Powhatan having gotten a great bag of powder and the back of +an armour at Werowocomoco, amongst a many of his companions, to show +his extraordinary skill, he did dry it on the back as he had seen the +soldiers at Jamestown. But he dried it so long, they peeping over it to +see 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 meddle +with gunpowder.” + +“These and many other such pretty incidents,” says Smith, “so amazed +and affrighted Powhatan and his people that from all parts they desired +peace;” stolen articles were returned, thieves sent to Jamestown for +punishment, and the whole country became as free for the whites as for +the Indians. + +And now ensued, in the spring of 1609, a prosperous period of three +months, the longest season of quiet the colony had enjoyed, but only a +respite from greater disasters. The friendship of the Indians and the +temporary subordination of the settlers we must attribute to Smith's +vigor, shrewdness, and spirit of industry. It was much easier to manage +the Indian's than the idle and vicious men that composed the majority of +the settlement. + +In these three months they manufactured three or four lasts (fourteen +barrels in a last) of tar, pitch, and soap-ashes, produced some +specimens of glass, dug a well of excellent sweet water in the fort, +which they had wanted for two years, built twenty houses, repaired +the church, planted thirty or forty acres of ground, and erected a +block-house on the neck of the island, where a garrison was stationed +to trade with the savages and permit neither whites nor Indians to pass +except on the President's order. Even the domestic animals partook the +industrious spirit: “of three sowes in eighteen months increased 60 and +od Pigs; and neare 500 chickings brought up themselves without having +any meat given them.” The hogs were transferred to Hog Isle, where +another block house was built and garrisoned, and the garrison were +permitted to take “exercise” in cutting down trees and making clapboards +and wainscot. They were building a fort on high ground, intended for +an easily defended retreat, when a woful discovery put an end to their +thriving 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 few +which came over in the ships. The colony was now at its wits end, for +there was nothing to eat except the wild products of the country. In +this prospect of famine, the two Indians, Kemps and Tussore, who had +been kept fettered while showing the whites how to plant the fields, +were turned loose; but they were unwilling to depart from such congenial +company. The savages in the neighborhood showed their love by bringing +to camp, for sixteen days, each day at least a hundred squirrels, +turkeys, deer, and other wild beasts. But without corn, the work of +fortifying and building had to be abandoned, and the settlers dispersed +to provide victuals. A party of sixty or eighty men under Ensign Laxon +were sent down the river to live on oysters; some twenty went with +Lieutenant Percy to try fishing at Point Comfort, where for six weeks +not a net was cast, owing to the sickness of Percy, who had been burnt +with 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 or +forty men: there was more sturgeon than could be devoured by dog and +man; it was dried, pounded, and mixed with caviare, sorrel, and other +herbs, to make bread; bread was also made of the “Tockwhogh” root, and +with the fish and these wild fruits they lived very well. But there were +one hundred and fifty of the colony who would rather starve or eat each +other than help gather food. These “distracted, gluttonous loiterers” + would have sold anything they had--tools, arms, and their houses--for +anything the savages would bring them to eat. Hearing that there was +a basket of corn at Powhatan's, fifty miles away, they would have +exchanged all their property for it. To satisfy their factious humors, +Smith succeeded in getting half of it: “they would have sold their +souls,” he says, for the other half, though not sufficient to last them +a 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 his +conciliatory addresses. Having shown them how impossible it was to get +corn, and reminded them of his own exertions, and that he had always +shared with them anything he had, he told them that he should stand +their nonsense no longer; he should force the idle to work, and punish +them if they railed; if any attempted to escape to Newfoundland in the +pinnace 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 a +day 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 seven +died in this pinching time, except those who were drowned; no man died +of want. Captain Winne and Master Leigh had died before this famine +occurred. Many of the men were billeted among the savages, who used them +well, and stood in such awe of the power at the fort that they dared +not wrong the whites out of a pin. The Indians caught Smith's humor, and +some of the men who ran away to seek Kemps and Tussore were mocked and +ridiculed, and had applied to them--Smith's law of “who cannot work must +not eat;” they were almost starved and beaten nearly to death. After +amusing himself with them, Kemps returned the fugitives, whom Smith +punished until they were content to labor at home, rather than adventure +to live idly among the savages, “of whom,” says our shrewd chronicler, +“there was more hope to make better christians and good subjects than +the one half of them that counterfeited themselves both.” The Indians +were in such subjection that any who were punished at the fort would beg +the President not to tell their chief, for they would be again punished +at home and sent back for another round. + +We hear now of the last efforts to find traces of the lost colony of Sir +Walter Raleigh. Master Sicklemore returned from the Chawwonoke (Chowan +River) with no tidings of them; and Master Powell, and Anas Todkill who +had been conducted to the Mangoags, in the regions south of the James, +could learn nothing but that they were all dead. The king of this +country was a very proper, devout, and friendly man; he acknowledged +that 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 the +Mangoags were angry. + +The Dutchmen and one Bentley, another fugitive, who were with Powhatan, +continued to plot against the colony, and the President employed a +Swiss, named William Volday, to go and regain them with promises of +pardon. Volday turned out to be a hypocrite, and a greater rascal than +the others. Many of the discontented in the fort were brought into +the scheme, which was, with Powhatan's aid, to surprise and destroy +Jamestown. News of this getting about in the fort, there was a demand +that the President should cut off these Dutchmen. Percy and Cuderington, +two gentlemen, volunteered to do it; but Smith sent instead Master +Wiffin and Jeffrey Abbot, to go and stab them or shoot them. But the +Dutchmen were too shrewd to be caught, and Powhatan sent a conciliatory +message that he did not detain the Dutchmen, nor hinder the slaying of +them. + +While this plot was simmering, and Smith was surrounded by treachery +inside the fort and outside, and the savages were being taught that +King James would kill Smith because he had used the Indians so unkindly, +Captain Argall and Master Thomas Sedan arrived out in a well-furnished +vessel, sent by Master Cornelius to trade and fish for sturgeon. The +wine and other good provision of the ship were so opportune to the +necessities of the colony that the President seized them. Argall lost +his voyage; his ship was revictualed and sent back to England, but +one may be sure that this event was so represented as to increase +the fostered dissatisfaction with Smith in London. For one reason or +another, most of the persons who returned had probably carried a bad +report of him. Argall brought to Jamestown from London a report of great +complaints of him for his dealings with the savages and not returning +ships freighted with the products of the country. Misrepresented in +London, and unsupported and conspired against in Virginia, Smith felt +his fall near at hand. On the face of it he was the victim of envy and +the rascality of incompetent and bad men; but whatever his capacity +for dealing with savages, it must be confessed that he lacked something +which conciliates success with one's own people. A new commission was +about to be issued, and a great supply was in preparation under Lord De +La Ware. + + + + +XIII. SMITH'S LAST DAYS IN VIRGINIA + +The London company were profoundly dissatisfied with the results of the +Virginia colony. The South Sea was not discovered, no gold had turned +up, there were no valuable products from the new land, and the promoters +received no profits on their ventures. With their expectations, it +is not to be wondered at that they were still further annoyed by the +quarreling amongst the colonists themselves, and wished to begin over +again. + +A new charter, dated May 23, 1609, with enlarged powers, was got from +King James. Hundreds of corporators were named, and even thousands were +included in the various London trades and guilds that were joined in the +enterprise. Among the names we find that of Captain John Smith. But +he was out of the Council, nor was he given then or ever afterward any +place or employment in Virginia, or in the management of its affairs. +The grant included all the American coast two hundred miles north and +two hundred miles south of Point Comfort, and all the territory from the +coast 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 with +Smith's precious crew at Jamestown) the conversion and reduction of the +natives to the true religion, no one was permitted in the colony who had +not taken the oath of supremacy. + +Under this charter the Council gave a commission to Sir Thomas +West, 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 a +great expedition was readily fitted out. Towards the end of May, 1609, +there sailed from England nine ships and five hundred people, under the +command of Sir Thomas Gates, Sir George Somers, and Captain Newport. +Each of these commanders had a commission, and the one who arrived first +was to call in the old commission; as they could not agree, they all +sailed in one ship, the Sea Venture. + +This brave expedition was involved in a contest with a hurricane; one +vessel was sunk, and the Sea Venture, with the three commanders, one +hundred and fifty men, the new commissioners, bills of lading, all sorts +of instructions, and much provision, was wrecked on the Bermudas. With +this 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 a +ship. Among the company were also Captains Martin, Archer, Wood, Webbe, +Moore, King, Davis, and several gentlemen of good means, and a crowd +of the riff-raff of London. Some of these Captains whom Smith had +sent home, now returned with new pretensions, and had on the voyage +prejudiced the company against him. When the fleet was first espied, the +President thought it was Spaniards, and prepared to defend himself, the +Indians promptly coming to his assistance. + +This hurricane tossed about another expedition still more famous, that +of Henry Hudson, who had sailed from England on his third voyage toward +Nova Zembla March 25th, and in July and August was beating down the +Atlantic 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 the +James River, “where our Englishmen are,” as he says. The next day a gale +from 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 “a +sea broke over the fore-course and split it;” and that night something +more ominous occurred: “that night [the chronicle records] our cat ran +crying from one side of the ship to the other, looking overboard, which +made us to wonder, but we saw nothing.” On the 26th they were again off +the bank of Virginia, and in the very bay and in sight of the islands +they had seen on the 18th. It appeared to Hudson “a great bay with +rivers,” but too shallow to explore without a small boat. After +lingering till the 29th, without any suggestion of ascending the James, +he sailed northward and made the lucky stroke of river exploration which +immortalized him. + +It seems strange that he did not search for the English colony, but the +adventurers of that day were independent actors, and did not care to +share with each other the glories of discovery. + +The first of the scattered fleet of Gates and Somers came in on the +11th, and the rest straggled along during the three or four days +following. It was a narrow chance that Hudson missed them all, and one +may imagine that the fate of the Virginia colony and of the New York +settlement would have been different if the explorer of the Hudson had +gone up the James. + +No sooner had the newcomers landed than trouble began. They would have +deposed Smith on report of the new commission, but they could show no +warrant. Smith professed himself willing to retire to England, but, +seeing the new commission did not arrive, held on to his authority, and +began to enforce it to save the whole colony from anarchy. He depicts +the situation in a paragraph: “To a thousand mischiefs these lewd +Captains led this lewd company, wherein were many unruly gallants, +packed thither by their friends to escape ill destinies, and those would +dispose and determine of the government, sometimes to one, the next day +to another; today the old commission must rule, tomorrow the new, the +next day neither; in fine, they would rule all or ruin all; yet in +charity we must endure them thus to destroy us, or by correcting their +follies, have brought the world's censure upon us to be guilty of their +blouds. Happie had we beene had they never arrived, and we forever +abandoned, as we were left to our fortunes; for on earth for their +number was never more confusion or misery than their factions +occasioned.” In this company came a boy, named Henry Spelman, whose +subsequent career possesses considerable interest. + +The President proceeded with his usual vigor: he “laid by the heels” the +chief mischief-makers till he should get leisure to punish them; sent +Mr. West with one hundred and twenty good men to the Falls to make a +settlement; and despatched Martin with near as many and their proportion +of provisions to Nansemond, on the river of that name emptying into the +James, obliquely opposite Point Comfort. + +Lieutenant Percy was sick and had leave to depart for England when he +chose. The President's year being about expired, in accordance with +the charter, he resigned, and Captain Martin was elected President. But +knowing his inability, he, after holding it three hours, resigned it to +Smith, and went down to Nansemond. The tribe used him kindly, but he was +so frightened with their noisy demonstration of mirth that he surprised +and captured the poor naked King with his houses, and began fortifying +his position, showing so much fear that the savages were emboldened to +attack him, kill some of his men, release their King, and carry off a +thousand bushels of corn which had been purchased, Martin not offering +to intercept them. The frightened Captain sent to Smith for aid, who +despatched to him thirty good shot. Martin, too chicken-hearted to use +them, came back with them to Jamestown, leaving his company to their +fortunes. In this adventure the President commends the courage of one +George Forrest, who, with seventeen arrows sticking into him and one +shot through him, lived six or seven days. + +Meantime Smith, going up to the Falls to look after Captain West, met +that hero on his way to Jamestown. He turned him back, and found that he +had planted his colony on an unfavorable flat, subject not only to the +overflowing of the river, but to more intolerable inconveniences. To +place him more advantageously the President sent to Powhatan, offering +to buy the place called Powhatan, promising to defend him against the +Monacans, to pay him in copper, and make a general alliance of trade and +friendship. + +But “those furies,” as Smith calls West and his associates, refused +to move to Powhatan or to accept these conditions. They contemned his +authority, expecting all the time the new commission, and, regarding +all the Monacans' country as full of gold, determined that no one should +interfere with them in the possession of it. Smith, however, was not +intimidated from landing and attempting to quell their mutiny. In his +“General Historie” it is written “I doe more than wonder to think +how 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.” He +landed and ordered the arrest of the chief disturbers, but the crowd +hustled him off. He seized one of their boats and escaped to the ship +which contained the provision. Fortunately the sailors were friendly and +saved his life, and a considerable number of the better sort, seeing the +malice of Ratcliffe and Archer, took Smith's part. + +Out of the occurrences at this new settlement grew many of the charges +which were preferred against Smith. According to the “General Historie” + the company of Ratcliffe and Archer was a disorderly rabble, constantly +tormenting 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 desired +his pardon if they defended themselves, since he could not punish their +tormentors. They even proposed to fight for him against them. Smith says +that after spending nine days in trying to restrain them, and showing +them how they deceived themselves with “great guilded hopes of the South +Sea Mines,” he abandoned them to their folly and set sail for Jamestown. + +No sooner was he under way than the savages attacked the fort, slew +many of the whites who were outside, rescued their friends who were +prisoners, and thoroughly terrified the garrison. Smith's ship happening +to go aground half a league below, they sent off to him, and were glad +to submit on any terms to his mercy. He “put by the heels” six or seven +of the chief offenders, and transferred the colony to Powhatan, where +were a fort capable of defense against all the savages in Virginia, dry +houses 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 friends +again. + +At this moment, unfortunately, Captain West returned. All the victuals +and munitions having been put ashore, the old factious projects were +revived. The soft-hearted West was made to believe that the rebellion +had been solely on his account. Smith, seeing them bent on their own +way, took the row-boat for Jamestown. The colony abandoned the pleasant +Non-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 in +Virginia. + +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 ten +inches square, in the most frightful manner. To quench the tormenting +fire, frying him in his clothes, he leaped into the deep river, where, +ere they could recover him, he was nearly drowned. In this pitiable +condition, without either surgeon or surgery, he was to go nearly a +hundred miles. + +It is now time for the appearance upon the scene of the boy Henry +Spelman, with his brief narration, which touches this period of Smith's +life. Henry Spelman was the third son of the distinguished antiquarian, +Sir Henry Spelman, of Coughan, Norfolk, who was married in 1581. It is +reasonably conjectured that he could not have been over twenty-one +when in May, 1609, he joined the company going to Virginia. Henry was +evidently a scapegrace, whose friends were willing to be rid of him. +Such being his character, it is more than probable that he was +shipped bound as an apprentice, and of course with the conditions of +apprenticeship in like expeditions of that period--to be sold or bound +out at the end of the voyage to pay for his passage. He remained for +several 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 taken +up 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 by +Captain Argall. During his sojourn in Virginia, or more probably shortly +after his return to England, he wrote a brief and bungling narration of +his experiences in the colony, and a description of Indian life. The +MS. was not printed in his time, but mislaid or forgotten. By a strange +series of chances it turned up in our day, and was identified and +prepared for the press in 1861. Before the proof was read, the type +was accidentally broken up and the MS. again mislaid. Lost sight of for +several years, it was recovered and a small number of copies of it were +printed at London in 1872, edited by Mr. James F. Hunnewell. + +Spelman's narration would be very important if we could trust it. He +appeared to have set down what he saw, and his story has a certain +simplicity that gains for it some credit. But he was a reckless boy, +unaccustomed to weigh evidence, and quite likely to write as facts the +rumors that he heard. He took very readily to the ways of Indian +life. Some years after, Spelman returned to Virginia with the title +of Captain, and in 1617 we find this reference to him in the “General +Historie”: “Here, as at many other times, we are beholden to Capt. +Henry Spilman, an interpreter, a gentleman that lived long time in this +country, and sometimes a prisoner among the Salvages, and done much good +service though but badly rewarded.” Smith would probably not have left +this on record had he been aware of the contents of the MS. that Spelman +had left for after-times. + +Spelman begins his Relation, from which I shall quote substantially, +without following the spelling or noting all the interlineations, with +the reason for his emigration, which was, “being in displeasure of my +friends, and desirous to see other countries.” After a brief account of +the voyage and the joyful arrival at Jamestown, the Relation continues: + +“Having here unloaded our goods and bestowed some senight or fortnight +in viewing the country, I was carried by Capt. Smith, our President, to +the Falls, to the little Powhatan, where, unknown to me, he sold me to +him for a town called Powhatan; and, leaving me with him, the little +Powhatan, he made known to Capt. West how he had bought a town for them +to dwell in. Whereupon Capt. West, growing angry because he had bestowed +cost to begin a town in another place, Capt. Smith desiring that +Capt. West would come and settle himself there, but Capt. West, having +bestowed cost to begin a town in another place, misliked it, and +unkindness thereupon arising between them, Capt. Smith at that time +replied little, but afterward combined with Powhatan to kill Capt. West, +which plot took but small effect, for in the meantime Capt. Smith was +apprehended and sent aboard for England.” + +That this roving boy was “thrown in” as a makeweight in the trade for +the town is not impossible; but that Smith combined with Powhatan to +kill Captain West is doubtless West's perversion of the offer of the +Indians to fight on Smith's side against him. + +According to Spelman's Relation, he stayed only seven or eight days +with the little Powhatan, when he got leave to go to Jamestown, being +desirous to see the English and to fetch the small articles that +belonged 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 had +departed, and Spelman went back to Jamestown. Shortly after, the great +Powhatan sent Thomas Savage with a present of venison to President +Percy. Savage was loath to return alone, and Spelman was appointed to +go with him, which he did willingly, as victuals were scarce in camp. He +carried some copper and a hatchet, which he presented to Powhatan, and +that Emperor treated him and his comrade very kindly, seating them at +his own mess-table. After some three weeks of this life, Powhatan sent +this guileless youth down to decoy the English into his hands, promising +to freight a ship with corn if they would visit him. Spelman took the +message and brought back the English reply, whereupon Powhatan laid the +plot which resulted in the killing of Captain Ratcliffe and thirty-eight +men, only two of his company escaping to Jamestown. Spelman gives +two versions of this incident. During the massacre Spelman says that +Powhatan sent him and Savage to a town some sixteen miles away. Smith's +“General Historie” says that on this occasion “Pocahuntas saved a boy +named Henry Spilman that lived many years afterward, by her means, +among the Patawomekes.” Spelman says not a word about Pocahuntas. On +the contrary, he describes the visit of the King of the Patawomekes +to Powhatan; says that the King took a fancy to him; that he and Dutch +Samuel, fearing for their lives, escaped from Powhatan's town; were +pursued; that Samuel was killed, and that Spelman, after dodging about +in the forest, found his way to the Potomac, where he lived with this +good King Patomecke at a place called Pasptanzie for more than a year. +Here he seems to have passed his time agreeably, for although he had +occasional fights with the squaws of Patomecke, the King was always his +friend, and so much was he attached to the boy that he would not give +him up to Captain Argall without some copper in exchange. + +When Smith returned wounded to Jamestown, he was physically in no +condition to face the situation. With no medical attendance, his +death was not improbable. He had no strength to enforce discipline +nor organize expeditions for supplies; besides, he was acting under a +commission whose virtue had expired, and the mutinous spirits rebelled +against his authority. Ratcliffe, Archer, and the others who were +awaiting trial conspired against him, and Smith says he would have been +murdered in his bed if the murderer's heart had not failed him when he +went to fire his pistol at the defenseless sick man. However, Smith was +forced to yield to circumstances. No sooner had he given out that he +would depart for England than they persuaded Mr. Percy to stay and act +as President, and all eyes were turned in expectation of favor upon the +new commanders. Smith being thus divested of authority, the most of the +colony turned against him; many preferred charges, and began to collect +testimony. “The ships were detained three weeks to get up proofs of his +ill-conduct”--“time and charges,” says Smith, dryly, “that might much +better have been spent.” + +It must have enraged the doughty Captain, lying thus helpless, to see +his enemies triumph, the most factious of the disturbers in the colony +in charge of affairs, and become his accusers. Even at this distance we +can read the account with little patience, and should have none at all +if the account were not edited by Smith himself. His revenge was in his +good fortune in setting his own story afloat in the current of history. +The first narrative of these events, published by Smith in his Oxford +tract of 1612, was considerably remodeled and changed in his “General +Historie” of 1624. As we have said before, he had a progressive memory, +and his opponents ought to be thankful that the pungent Captain did not +live to work the story over a third time. + +It is no doubt true, however, that but for the accident to our hero, he +would have continued to rule till the arrival of Gates and Somers with +the new commissions; as he himself says, “but had that unhappy blast not +happened, he would quickly have qualified the heat of those humors and +factions, had the ships but once left them and us to our fortunes; and +have made that provision from among the salvages, as we neither feared +Spaniard, Salvage, nor famine: nor would have left Virginia nor our +lawful authority, but at as dear a price as we had bought it, and paid +for it.” + +He doubtless would have fought it out against all comers; and who +shall say that he does not merit the glowing eulogy on himself which he +inserts in his General History? “What shall I say but this, we left 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 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 than +not pay; that loved action more than words, and hated falsehood and +covetousness worse than death; whose adventures were our lives, and +whose loss our deaths.” + +A handsomer thing never was said of another man than Smith could say of +himself, but he believed it, as also did many of his comrades, we must +suppose. He suffered detraction enough, but he suffered also abundant +eulogy both in verse and prose. Among his eulogists, of course, is not +the 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 of +Salisbury, which contains this remark upon Smith's departure after the +arrival of the last supply: “They heard that all the Council were dead +but Capt. [John] Smith, President, who reigned sole Governor, and is now +sent home to answer some misdemeanor.” + +Captain Archer also regards this matter in a different light from that +in which Smith represents it. In a letter from Jamestown, written in +August, 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 worthy +gentlemen that were in our ships, wherefore they generally, with my +consent, chose Master West, my Lord De La Ware's brother, their Governor +or President de bene esse, in the absence of Sir Thomas Gates, or if +he be miscarried by sea, then to continue till we heard news from our +counsell in England. This choice of him they made not to disturb the old +President during his term, but as his authority expired, then to take +upon him the sole government, with such assistants of the captains or +discreet persons as the colony afforded. + +“Perhaps you shall have it blamed as a mutinie by such as retaine old +malice, but Master West, Master Piercie, and all the respected gentlemen +of worth in Virginia, can and will testify otherwise upon their oaths. +For the King's patent we ratified, but refused to be governed by the +President--that is, after his time was expired and only subjected +ourselves to Master West, whom we labor to have next President.” + + +It is clear from this statement that the attempt was made to supersede +Smith even before his time expired, and without any authority (since the +new commissions were still with Gates and Somers in Bermuda), for +the reason that Smith did not pay proper respect to the newly arrived +“gentlemen.” Smith was no doubt dictatorial and offensive, and from his +point of view he was the only man who understood Virginia, and knew how +successfully to conduct the affairs of the colony. If this assumption +were true it would be none the less disagreeable to the new-comers. + +At the time of Smith's deposition the colony was in prosperous +condition. The “General Historie” says that he left them “with three +ships, seven boats, commodities ready to trade, the harvest newly +gathered, ten weeks' provision in store, four hundred ninety and +odd 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 language +and habitations well known to a hundred well-trained and expert +soldiers; nets for fishing; tools of all kinds to work; apparel to +supply our wants; six mules and a horse; five or six hundred swine; as +many hens and chickens; some goats; some sheep; what was brought or bred +there remained.” Jamestown was also strongly palisaded and contained +some fifty or sixty houses; besides there were five or six other forts +and plantations, “not so sumptuous as our succerers expected, they were +better than they provided any for us.” + +These expectations might well be disappointed if they were founded upon +the pictures of forts and fortifications in Virginia and in the Somers +Islands, which appeared in De Bry and in the “General Historie,” where +they appear as massive stone structures with all the finish and elegance +of the European military science of the day. + +Notwithstanding these ample provisions for the colony, Smith had small +expectation that it would thrive without him. “They regarding nothing,” + he says, “but from hand to mouth, did consume what we had, took care for +nothing 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, two +blacksmiths, ten sailors; those called laborers were for the most part +footmen, brought over to wait upon the adventurers, who did not know +what a day's work was--all the real laborers were the Dutchmen and Poles +and some dozen others. “For all the rest were poor gentlemen, tradesmen, +serving men, libertines, and such like, ten times more fit to spoil a +commonwealth than either begin one or help to maintain one. For when +neither the fear of God, nor the law, nor shame, nor displeasure of +their friends could rule them here, there is small hope ever to bring +one in twenty of them to be good there.” Some of them proved more +industrious than was expected; “but ten good workmen would have done +more substantial work in a day than ten of them in a week.” + +The disreputable character of the majority of these colonists is +abundantly proved by other contemporary testimony. In the letter of the +Governor 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 writer +exclaims: “Only let me truly acknowledge there are not one hundred or +two of deboisht hands, dropt forth by year after year, with penury and +leysure, ill provided for before they come, and worse governed when they +are here, men of such distempered bodies and infected minds, whom no +examples daily before their eyes, either of goodness or punishment, +can deterr from their habituall impieties, or terrifie from a shameful +death, that must be the carpenters and workmen in this so glorious a +building.” + +The chapter in the “General Historie” relating to Smith's last days in +Virginia was transferred from the narrative in the appendix to Smith's +“Map of Virginia,” Oxford, 1612, but much changed in the transfer. In +the “General Historie” Smith says very little about the nature of the +charges against him. In the original narrative signed by Richard Pots +and edited by Smith, there are more details of the charges. One omitted +passage is this: “Now all those Smith had either whipped or punished, +or in any way disgraced, had free power and liberty to say or sweare +anything, and from a whole armful of their examinations this was +concluded.” + +Another omitted passage relates to the charge, to which reference is +made in the “General Historie,” that Smith proposed to marry Pocahontas: + +“Some propheticall spirit calculated he had the salvages in such +subjection, he would have made himself a king by marrying Pocahuntas, +Powhatan's daughter. It is true she was the very nonpareil of his +kingdom, and at most not past thirteen or fourteen years of age. Very +oft she came to our fort with what she could get for Capt. Smith, that +ever loved and used all the country well, but her especially he ever +much respected, and she so well requited it, that when her father +intended to have surprised him, she by stealth in the dark night came +through the wild woods and told him of it. But her marriage could in +no way have entitled him by any right to the kingdom, nor was it ever +suspected he had such a thought, or more regarded her or any of them +than in honest reason and discretion he might. If he would he might have +married her, or have done what he listed. For there were none that could +have hindered his determination.” + + +It is fair, in passing, to remark that the above allusion to the night +visit of Pocahontas to Smith in this tract of 1612 helps to confirm +the story, which does not appear in the previous narration of Smith's +encounter with Powhatan at Werowocomoco in the same tract, but is +celebrated in the “General Historie.” It is also hinted plainly enough +that 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 Virginia +colony after the departure of Captain Smith. Of its disasters and speedy +decline there is no more doubt than there is of the opinion of Smith +that these were owing to his absence. The savages, we read in his +narration, no sooner knew he was gone than they all revolted and spoiled +and murdered all they encountered. + +The day before Captain Smith sailed, Captain Davis arrived in a small +pinnace with sixteen men. These, with a company from the fort under +Captain Ratcliffe, were sent down to Point Comfort. Captain West and +Captain Martin, having lost their boats and half their men among the +savages at the Falls, returned to Jamestown. The colony now lived upon +what Smith had provided, “and now they had presidents with all their +appurtenances.” President Percy was so sick he could neither go nor +stand. Provisions getting short, West and Ratcliffe went abroad to +trade, and Ratcliffe and twenty-eight of his men were slain by an ambush +of Powhatan's, as before related in the narrative of Henry Spelman. +Powhatan cut off their boats, and refused to trade, so that Captain West +set sail for England. What ensued cannot be more vividly told than in +the “General Historie”: + +“Now we all found the losse of Capt. Smith, yea his greatest maligners +could now curse his losse; as for corne provision and contribution from +the salvages, we had nothing but mortall wounds, with clubs and +arrowes; as for our hogs, hens, goats, sheep, horse, or what lived, +our commanders, officers and salvages daily consumed them, some small +proportions sometimes we tasted, till all was devoured; then swords, +arms, pieces or anything was traded with the salvages, whose cruell +fingers were so oft imbrued in our blouds, that what by their crueltie, +our Governor's indiscretion, and the losse of our ships, of five hundred +within six months after Capt. Smith's departure, there remained not past +sixty 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 in +these extremities made no small use of it, yea, even the very skinnes +of our horses. Nay, so great was our famine, that a salvage we slew and +buried, the poorer sort took him up again and eat him, and so did divers +one another boyled, and stewed with roots and herbs. And one amongst the +rest did kill his wife, poudered her and had eaten part of her before it +was knowne, for which he was executed, as he well deserved; now whether +she was better roasted, boyled, or carbonaded, I know not, but of such a +dish as powdered wife I never heard of. This was that time, which still +to this day we called the starving time; it were too vile to say and +scarce to be believed what we endured; but the occasion was our owne, +for want of providence, industrie and government, and not the barreness +and defect of the country as is generally supposed.” + +This playful allusion to powdered wife, and speculation as to how she +was best cooked, is the first instance we have been able to find of what +is called “American humor,” and Captain Smith has the honor of being the +first of the “American humorists” who have handled subjects of this kind +with such pleasing gayety. + +It is to be noticed that this horrible story of cannibalism and +wife-eating appears in Smith's “General Historie” of 1624, without a +word of contradiction or explanation, although the company as early as +1610 had taken pains to get at the facts, and Smith must have seen their +“Declaration,” which supposes the story was started by enemies of the +colony. Some reported they saw it, some that Captain Smith said so, and +some that one Beadle, the lieutenant of Captain Davis, did relate it. In +“A True Declaration of the State of the Colonie in Virginia,” published +by the advice and direction of the Council of Virginia, London, 1610, we +read: + +“But to clear all doubt, Sir Thomas Yates thus relateth the tragedie: + +“There was one of the company who mortally hated his wife, and therefore +secretly killed her, then cut her in pieces and hid her in divers parts +of his house: when the woman was missing, the man suspected, his house +searched, and parts of her mangled body were discovered, to excuse +himself he said that his wife died, that he hid her to satisfie his +hunger, and that he fed daily upon her. Upon this his house was again +searched, when they found a good quantitie of meale, oatmeale, beanes +and pease. Hee therefore was arraigned, confessed the murder, and was +burned for his horrible villainy.” + +This same “True Declaration,” which singularly enough does not mention +the name of Captain Smith, who was so prominent an actor in Virginia +during the period to which it relates, confirms all that Smith said +as to the character of the colonists, especially the new supply which +landed in the eight vessels with Ratcliffe and Archer. “Every +man overvalueing his own strength would be a commander; every man +underprizing another's value, denied to be commanded.” They were +negligent and improvident. “Every man sharked for his present bootie, +but was altogether careless of succeeding penurie.” To idleness and +faction was joined treason. About thirty “unhallowed creatures,” in the +winter of 1610, some five months before the arrival of Captain Gates, +seized upon the ship Swallow, which had been prepared to trade with the +Indians, and having obtained corn conspired together and made a league +to become pirates, dreaming of mountains of gold and happy robberies. By +this desertion they weakened the colony, which waited for their return +with the provisions, and they made implacable enemies of the Indians by +their violence. “These are that scum of men,” which, after roving the +seas and failing in their piracy, joined themselves to other pirates +they found on the sea, or returned to England, bound by a mutual oath to +discredit the land, and swore they were drawn away by famine. “These are +they that roared at the tragicall historie of the man eating up his dead +wife in Virginia”--“scandalous reports of a viperous generation.” + +If further evidence were wanting, we have it in “The New Life of +Virginia,” published by authority of the Council, London, 1612. This is +the second part of the “Nova Britannia,” published in London, 1609. Both +are prefaced by an epistle to Sir Thomas Smith, one of the Council and +treasurer, signed “R. I.” Neither document contains any allusion to +Captain John Smith, or the part he played in Virginia. The “New Life of +Virginia,” after speaking of the tempest which drove Sir Thomas Gates +on Bermuda, and the landing of the eight ships at Jamestown, says: +“By which means the body of the plantation was now augmented with such +numbers of irregular persons that it soon became as so many members +without a head, who as they were bad and evil affected for the most part +before they went hence; so now being landed and wanting restraint, they +displayed their condition in all kinds of looseness, those chief and +wisest guides among them (whereof there were not many) did nothing but +bitterly contend who should be first to command the rest, the common +sort, as is ever seen in such cases grew factious and disordered out +of measure, in so much as the poor colony seemed (like the Colledge of +English fugitives in Rome) as a hostile camp within itself; in which +distemper that envious man stept in, sowing plentiful tares in the +hearts of all, which grew to such speedy confusion, that in few months +ambition, sloth and idleness had devoured the fruit of former labours, +planting and sowing were clean given over, the houses decayed, the +church fell to ruin, the store was spent, the cattle consumed, our +people starved, and the Indians by wrongs and injuries made our +enemies.... As for those wicked Impes that put themselves a shipboard, +not knowing otherwise how to live in England; or those ungratious sons +that daily vexed their fathers hearts at home, and were therefore thrust +upon the voyage, which either writing thence, or being returned back to +cover their own leudnes, do fill mens ears with false reports of their +miserable and perilous life in Virginia, let the imputation of misery +be to their idleness, and the blood that was spilt upon their own heads +that caused it.” + +Sir Thomas Gates affirmed that after his first coming there he had seen +some of them eat their fish raw rather than go a stone's cast to fetch +wood and dress it. + +The colony was in such extremity in May, 1610, that it would have been +extinct in ten days but for the arrival of Sir Thomas Gates and Sir +George Somers and Captain Newport from the Bermudas. These gallant +gentlemen, with one hundred and fifty souls, had been wrecked on the +Bermudas in the Sea Venture in the preceding July. The terrors of the +hurricane which dispersed the fleet, and this shipwreck, were much +dwelt upon by the writers of the time, and the Bermudas became a sort of +enchanted islands, or realms of the imagination. For three nights, +and three days that were as black as the nights, the water logged Sea +Venture was scarcely kept afloat by bailing. We have a vivid picture of +the stanch Somers sitting upon the poop of the ship, where he sat three +days and three nights together, without much meat and little or no +sleep, conning the ship to keep her as upright as he could, until he +happily descried land. The ship went ashore and was wedged into the +rocks so fast that it held together till all were got ashore, and a good +part of the goods and provisions, and the tackling and iron of the ship +necessary for the building and furnishing of a new ship. + +This good fortune and the subsequent prosperous life on the island and +final deliverance was due to the noble Somers, or Sommers, after whom +the Bermudas were long called “Sommers Isles,” which was gradually +corrupted into “The Summer Isles.” These islands of Bermuda had ever +been accounted an enchanted pile of rocks and a desert inhabitation for +devils, which the navigator and mariner avoided as Scylla and Charybdis, +or the devil himself. But this shipwrecked company found it the most +delightful country in the world, the climate was enchanting, delicious +fruits abounded, the waters swarmed with fish, some of them big enough +to nearly drag the fishers into the sea, while whales could be heard +spouting and nosing about the rocks at night; birds fat and tame and +willing to be eaten covered all the bushes, and such droves of wild hogs +covered the island that the slaughter of them for months seemed not to +diminish their number. The friendly disposition of the birds seemed +most to impress the writer of the “True Declaration of Virginia.” He +remembers how the ravens fed Elias in the brook Cedron; “so God provided +for our disconsolate people in the midst of the sea by foules; but with +an admirable difference; unto Elias the ravens brought meat, unto our +men the foules brought (themselves) for meate: for when they whistled, +or made any strange noyse, the foules would come and sit on their +shoulders, they would suffer themselves to be taken and weighed by our +men, who would make choice of the fairest and fattest and let flie the +leane 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 the +barren wilderness.” + +The rescued voyagers built themselves comfortable houses on the island, +and dwelt there nine months in good health and plentifully fed. Sunday +was carefully observed, with sermons by Mr. Buck, the chaplain, an +Oxford man, who was assisted in the services by Stephen Hopkins, one of +the Puritans who were in the company. A marriage was celebrated between +Thomas Powell, the cook of Sir George Somers, and Elizabeth Persons, +the servant of Mrs. Horlow. Two children were also born, a boy who was +christened Bermudas and a girl Bermuda. The girl was the child of Mr. +John Rolfe and wife, the Rolfe who was shortly afterward to become +famous by another marriage. In order that nothing should be wanting to +the ordinary course of a civilized community, a murder was committed. In +the company were two Indians, Machumps and Namontack, whose acquaintance +we have before made, returning from England, whither they had been sent +by Captain Smith. Falling out about something, Machumps slew Namontack, +and having made a hole to bury him, because it was too short he cut off +his legs and laid them by him. This proceeding Machumps concealed till +he 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 were +completed, the whole company, except two scamps who remained behind and +had adventures enough for a three-volume novel, embarked, and on the +16th of May sailed for Jamestown, where they arrived on the 23d or 24th, +and found the colony in the pitiable condition before described. A few +famished settlers watched their coming. The church bell was rung in +the shaky edifice, and the emaciated colonists assembled and heard the +“zealous and sorrowful prayer” of Chaplain Buck. The commission of Sir +Thomas Gates was read, and Mr. Percy retired from the governorship. + +The town was empty and unfurnished, and seemed like the ruin of some +ancient fortification rather than the habitation of living men. The +palisades were down; the ports open; the gates unhinged; the church +ruined and unfrequented; the houses empty, torn to pieces or burnt; +the people not able to step into the woods to gather fire-wood; and the +Indians killing as fast without as famine and pestilence within. +William Strachey was among the new-comers, and this is the story that he +despatched as Lord Delaware's report to England in July. On taking stock +of provisions there was found only scant rations for sixteen days, and +Gates and Somers determined to abandon the plantation, and, taking all +on board their own ships, to make their way to Newfoundland, in the hope +of falling in with English vessels. Accordingly, on the 7th of June they +got on board and dropped down the James. + +Meantime the news of the disasters to the colony, and the supposed loss +of the Sea Venture, had created a great excitement in London, and a +panic and stoppage of subscriptions in the company. Lord Delaware, a man +of the highest reputation for courage and principle, determined to go +himself, as Captain-General, to Virginia, in the hope of saving the +fortunes of the colony. With three ships and one hundred and fifty +persons, mostly artificers, he embarked on the 1st of April, 1610, and +reached the Chesapeake Bay on the 5th of June, just in time to meet the +forlorn company of Gates and Somers putting out to sea. + +They turned back and ascended to Jamestown, when landing on Sunday, the +10th, after a sermon by Mr. Buck, the commission of Lord Delaware was +read, and Gates turned over his authority to the new Governor. He swore +in as Council, Sir Thomas Gates, Lieutenant-General; Sir George Somers, +Admiral; Captain George Percy; Sir Ferdinando Wenman, Marshal; Captain +Christopher Newport, and William Strachey, Esq., Secretary and Recorder. + +On the 19th of June the brave old sailor, Sir George Somers, volunteered +to return to the Bermudas in his pinnace to procure hogs and other +supplies for the colony. He was accompanied by Captain Argall in the +ship Discovery. After a rough voyage this noble old knight reached the +Bermudas. But his strength was not equal to the memorable courage of his +mind. At a place called Saint George he died, and his men, confounded at +the death of him who was the life of them all, embalmed his body and +set sail for England. Captain Argall, after parting with his consort, +without reaching the Bermudas, and much beating about the coast, was +compelled to return to Jamestown. + +Captain Gates was sent to England with despatches and to procure more +settlers and more supplies. Lord Delaware remained with the colony less +than 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, with +six vessels, three hundred men, one hundred cows, besides other cattle, +and provisions of all sorts. With him went his wife, who died on the +passage, and his daughters. His expedition reached the James in August. +The colony now numbered seven hundred persons. Gates seated himself at +Hampton, a “delicate and necessary site for a city.” + +Percy commanded at Jamestown, and Sir Thomas Dale went up the river to +lay the foundations of Henrico. + +We have no occasion to follow further the fortunes of the Virginia +colony, except to relate the story of Pocahontas under her different +names of Amonate, Matoaka, Mrs. Rolfe, and Lady Rebecca. + + + + + + +XV. NEW ENGLAND ADVENTURES + +Captain John Smith returned to England in the autumn of 1609, wounded +in body and loaded with accusations of misconduct, concocted by his +factious companions in Virginia. There is no record that these charges +were ever considered by the London Company. Indeed, we cannot find +that the company in those days ever took any action on the charges made +against any of its servants in Virginia. Men came home in disgrace and +appeared to receive neither vindication nor condemnation. Some sunk into +private life, and others more pushing and brazen, like Ratcliffe, the +enemy of Smith, got employment again after a time. The affairs of the +company seem to have been conducted with little order or justice. + +Whatever may have been the justice of the charges against Smith, he had +evidently forfeited the good opinion of the company as a desirable man +to employ. They might esteem his energy and profit by his advice and +experience, but they did not want his services. And in time he came to +be considered an enemy of the company. + +Unfortunately for biographical purposes, Smith's life is pretty much a +blank from 1609 to 1614. When he ceases to write about himself he passes +out of sight. There are scarcely any contemporary allusions to his +existence at this time. We may assume, however, from our knowledge of +his restlessness, ambition, and love of adventure, that he was not idle. +We may assume that he besieged the company with his plans for the proper +conduct of the settlement of Virginia; that he talked at large in all +companies 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 acquaintances +by his hobby, we can also surmise. No doubt also he was considered a +fanatic by those who failed to comprehend the greatness of his schemes, +and to realize, as he did, the importance of securing the new empire to +the English before it was occupied by the Spanish and the French. His +conceit, his boasting, and his overbearing manner, which no doubt was +one of the causes why he was unable to act in harmony with the other +adventurers of that day, all told against him. He was that most +uncomfortable person, a man conscious of his own importance, and out of +favor and out of money. + +Yet Smith had friends, and followers, and men who believed in him. This +is shown by the remarkable eulogies in verse from many pens, which he +prefixes to the various editions of his many works. They seem to have +been written after reading the manuscripts, and prepared to accompany +the printed volumes and tracts. They all allude to the envy and +detraction to which he was subject, and which must have amounted to +a storm of abuse and perhaps ridicule; and they all tax the English +vocabulary to extol Smith, his deeds, and his works. In putting forward +these tributes of admiration and affection, as well as in his constant +allusion to the ill requital of his services, we see a man fighting for +his reputation, and conscious of the necessity of doing so. He is ever +turning back, in whatever he writes, to rehearse his exploits and to +defend 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 with +small windows from which slops and refuse were at any moment of the day +or night liable to be emptied upon the heads of the passers by; petty +little shops in which were beginning to be displayed the silks and +luxuries of the continent; a city crowded and growing rapidly, subject +to pestilences and liable to sweeping conflagrations. The Thames had no +bridges, 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 amusements +that Bankside, the resort of all classes bent on pleasure, furnished +high or low. At no time before or since was there such fantastical +fashion in dress, both in cut and gay colors, nor more sumptuousness in +costume or luxury in display among the upper classes, and such squalor +in low life. The press teemed with tracts and pamphlets, written in +language “as plain as a pikestaff,” against the immoralities of the +theatres, those “seminaries of vice,” and calling down the judgment of +God upon the cost and the monstrosities of the dress of both men +and women; while the town roared on its way, warned by sermons, and +instructed 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 advancement +but were unwilling to adventure their ease to obtain it. There was much +lounging in apothecaries' shops to smoke tobacco, gossip, and hear the +news. We may be sure that Smith found many auditors for his adventures +and 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 got +without much labor, and as a possible short cut to the South Sea and +Cathay. The vast number of Londoners whose names appear in the second +Virginia charter shows the readiness of traders to seek profit in +adventure. The stir for wider freedom in religion and government +increased with the activity of exploration and colonization, and one +reason why James finally annulled the Virginia, charter was because +he regarded the meetings of the London Company as opportunities of +sedition. + +Smith is altogether silent about his existence at this time. We do not +hear of him till 1612, when his “Map of Virginia” with his description +of the country was published at Oxford. The map had been published +before: it was sent home with at least a portion of the description +of Virginia. In an appendix appeared (as has been said) a series of +narrations of Smith's exploits, covering the rime he was in Virginia, +written by his companions, edited by his friend Dr. Symonds, and +carefully overlooked by himself. + +Failing to obtain employment by the Virginia company, Smith turned his +attention to New England, but neither did the Plymouth company avail +themselves of his service. At last in 1614 he persuaded some London +merchants to fit him out for a private trading adventure to the coast +of New England. Accordingly with two ships, at the charge of Captain +Marmaduke Roydon, Captain George Langam, Mr. John Buley, and William +Skelton, 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 Northerly +latitude.” This was within the territory appropriated to the second (the +Plymouth) colony by the patent of 1606, which gave leave of settlement +between the 38th and 44th parallels. + +Smith's connection with New England is very slight, and mainly that of +an author, one who labored for many years to excite interest in it by +his writings. He named several points, and made a map of such portion +of the coast as he saw, which was changed from time to time by other +observations. He had a remarkable eye for topography, as is especially +evident by his map of Virginia. This New England coast is roughly +indicated in Venazzani's Plot Of 1524, and better on Mercator's of a few +years later, and in Ortelius's “Theatrum Orbis Terarum” of 1570; but +in Smith's map we have for the first time a fair approach to the real +contour. + +Of Smith's English predecessors on this coast there is no room here +to speak. Gosnold had described Elizabeth's Isles, explorations and +settlements 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 of +the coast, but of giving the name “New England” to what had passed under +the general names of Virginia, Canada, Norumbaga, etc. + +Smith published his description of New England June 18, 1616, and it is +in that we must follow his career. It is dedicated to the “high, hopeful +Charles, Prince of Great Britain,” and is prefaced by an address to +the King's Council for all the plantations, and another to all the +adventurers into New England. The addresses, as usual, call attention +to his own merits. “Little honey [he writes] hath that hive, where there +are more drones than bees; and miserable is that land where more +are idle than are well employed. If the endeavors of these vermin be +acceptable, I hope mine may be excusable: though I confess it were more +proper for me to be doing what I say than writing what I know. Had I +returned rich I could not have erred; now having only such food as came +to my net, I must be taxed. But, I would my taxers were as ready to +adventure their purses as I, purse, life, and all I have; or as diligent +to permit the charge, as I know they are vigilant to reap the fruits of +my labors.” The value of the fisheries he had demonstrated by his catch; +and he says, looking, as usual, to large results, “but because I speak +so much of fishing, if any mistake me for such a devote fisher, as I +dream of nought else, they mistake me. I know a ring of gold from a +grain of barley as well as a goldsmith; and nothing is there to be had +which 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 “Chronological +Observations of America” is under the wrong year, 1608: “Capt. John +Smith fished now for whales at Monhiggen.” He says: “Our plot there was +to take whales, and made tryall of a Myne of gold and copper;” these +failing they were to get fish and furs. Of gold there had been little +expectation, and (he goes on) “we found this whale fishing a costly +conclusion; we saw many, and spent much time in chasing them; but could +not kill any; they being a kind of Jubartes, and not the whale that +yeeldes finnes and oyle as we expected.” They then turned their +attention to smaller fish, but owing to their late arrival and “long +lingering about the whale”--chasing a whale that they could not kill +because it was not the right kind--the best season for fishing was +passed. Nevertheless, they secured some 40,000 cod--the figure is +naturally raised to 60,000 when Smith retells the story fifteen years +afterwards. + +But our hero was a born explorer, and could not be content with not +examining the strange coast upon which he found himself. Leaving his +sailors to catch cod, he took eight or nine men in a small boat, and +cruised along the coast, trading wherever he could for furs, of which +he obtained above a thousand beaver skins; but his chance to trade was +limited by the French settlements in the east, by the presence of one of +Popham's ships opposite Monhegan, on the main, and by a couple of French +vessels to the westward. Having examined the coast from Penobscot to +Cape Cod, and gathered a profitable harvest from the sea, Smith returned +in his vessel, reaching the Downs within six months after his departure. +This was his whole experience in New England, which ever afterwards +he regarded as particularly his discovery, and spoke of as one of his +children, Virginia being the other. + +With the other vessel Smith had trouble. He accuses its master, Thomas +Hunt, of attempting to rob him of his plots and observations, and to +leave him “alone on a desolate isle, to the fury of famine, And all +other extremities.” After Smith's departure the rascally Hunt decoyed +twenty-seven unsuspecting savages on board his ship and carried them off +to Spain, where he sold them as slaves. Hunt sold his furs at a great +profit. Smith's cargo also paid well: in his letter to Lord Bacon in +1618 he says that with forty-five men he had cleared L 1,500 in less +than three months on a cargo of dried fish and beaver skins--a pound at +that date had five times the purchasing power of a pound now. + +The explorer first landed on Monhegan, a small island in sight of which +in the war of 1812 occurred the lively little seafight of the American +Wasp and the British Frolic, in which the Wasp was the victor, but +directly after, with her prize, fell into the hands of an English +seventy-four. + +He made certainly a most remarkable voyage in his open boat. Between +Penobscot and Cape Cod (which he called Cape James) he says he saw forty +several habitations, and sounded about twenty-five excellent harbors. +Although Smith accepted the geographical notion of his time, and thought +that Florida adjoined India, he declared that Virginia was not an +island, but part of a great continent, and he comprehended something +of the vastness of the country he was coasting along, “dominions which +stretch themselves into the main, God doth know how many thousand miles, +of which one could no more guess the extent and products than a stranger +sailing betwixt England and France could tell what was in Spain, Italy, +Germany, Bohemia, Hungary, and the rest.” And he had the prophetic +vision, which he more than once refers to, of one of the greatest +empires of the world that would one day arise here. Contrary to the +opinion that prevailed then and for years after, he declared also that +New England was not an island. + +Smith describes with considerable particularity the coast, giving the +names of the Indian tribes, and cataloguing the native productions, +vegetable and animal. He bestows his favorite names liberally upon +points and islands--few of which were accepted. Cape Ann he called from +his charming Turkish benefactor, “Cape Tragabigzanda”; the three islands +in front of it, the “Three Turks' Heads”; and the Isles of Shoals he +simply describes: “Smyth's Isles are a heape together, none neare them, +against Acconimticus.” Cape Cod, which appears upon all the maps before +Smith's visit as “Sandy” cape, he says “is only a headland of high hills +of sand, overgrown with shrubbie pines, hurts [whorts, whortleberries] +and such trash; but an excellent harbor for all weathers. This Cape is +made by the maine Sea on the one side, and a great bay on the other in +the form of a sickle.” + +A large portion of this treatise on New England is devoted to an +argument to induce the English to found a permanent colony there, of +which Smith shows that he would be the proper leader. The main staple +for the present would be fish, and he shows how Holland has become +powerful by her fisheries and the training of hardy sailors. The fishery +would support a colony until it had obtained a good foothold, and +control of these fisheries would bring more profit to England than any +other occupation. There are other reasons than gain that should induce +in England the large ambition of founding a great state, reasons of +religion and humanity, erecting towns, peopling countries, informing the +ignorant, reforming things unjust, teaching virtue, finding employment +for 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 ambitions +unless he can show a profit in them. + +“I have not [he says] been so ill bred but I have tasted of plenty and +pleasure, as well as want and misery; nor doth a necessity yet, nor +occasion of discontent, force me to these endeavors; nor am I ignorant +that small thank I shall have for my pains; or that many would have the +world imagine them to be of great judgment, that can but blemish these +my designs, by their witty objections and detractions; yet (I hope) my +reasons and my deeds will so prevail with some, that I shall not +want employment in these affairs to make the most blind see his own +senselessness and incredulity; hoping that gain will make them affect +that which religion, charity and the common good cannot.... For I am +not so simple to think that ever any other motive than wealth will ever +erect there a Commonwealth; or draw company from their ease and humours +at 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 nature +and liberty afford here freely, but which cost so dearly in England. +Those who seek vain pleasure in England take more pains to enjoy it than +they would spend in New England to gain wealth, and yet have not half +such sweet content. What pleasure can be more, he exclaims, when men are +tired of planting vines and fruits and ordering gardens, orchards and +building to their mind, than “to recreate themselves before their owne +doore, in their owne boates upon the Sea, where man, woman and child, +with a small hooke and line, by angling, may take divers sorts of +excellent fish at their pleasures? And is it not pretty sport, to pull +up two pence, six pence, and twelve pence as fast as you can hale and +veere a line?... And what sport doth yield more pleasing content, and +less hurt or charge than angling with a hooke, and crossing the sweet +ayre from Isle to Isle, over the silent streams of a calme Sea? wherein +the most curious may finde pleasure, profit and content.” + +Smith made a most attractive picture of the fertility of the soil +and the fruitfulness of the country. Nothing was too trivial to be +mentioned. “There are certain red berries called Alkermes which is worth +ten shillings a pound, but of these hath been sold for thirty or forty +shillings the pound, may yearly be gathered a good quantity.” John +Josselyn, who was much of the time in New England from 1638 to 1671 and +saw more marvels there than anybody else ever imagined, says, “I have +sought for this berry he speaks of, as a man should for a needle in +a bottle of hay, but could never light upon it; unless that kind of +Solomon's seal called by the English treacle-berry should be it.” + +Towards the last of August, 1614, Smith was back at Plymouth. He had +now a project of a colony which he imparted to his friend Sir Ferdinand +Gorges. It is difficult from Smith's various accounts to say exactly +what happened to him next. It would appear that he declined to go with +an expedition of four ship which the Virginia company despatched in +1615, and incurred their ill-will by refusing, but he considered himself +attached to the western or Plymouth company. Still he experienced many +delays from them: they promised four ships to be ready at Plymouth; +on his arrival “he found no such matter,” and at last he embarked in +a private expedition, to found a colony at the expense of Gorges, Dr. +Sutliffe, Bishop o Exeter, and a few gentlemen in London. In January +1615, 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 England +with only fifteen men and begin a colony. + +These hopes were frustrated. When only one hundred and twenty leagues +out all the masts of his vessels were carried away in a storm, and it +was only by diligent pumping that he was able to keep his craft afloat +and put back to Plymouth. Thence on the 24th of June he made another +start in a vessel of sixty tons with thirty men. But ill-luck still +attended him. He had a queer adventure with pirates. Lest the envious +world 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 a +certain 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 the +foul 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 take +anything that would cripple his voyage, or send more men aboard +(Smith furnishing the boat) than he allowed. Baker confessed that +the quartermaster and Chambers received gold of the pirates, for what +purpose it does not appear. They came on board, but Smith would not come +out of his cabin to entertain them, “although a great many of them had +been his sailors, and for his love would have wafted us to the Isle of +Flowers.” + +Having got rid of the pirate Fry by this singular manner of receiving +gold from him, Smith's vessel was next chased by two French pirates at +Fayal. Chambers, Minter, and Digby again desired Smith to yield, but he +threatened to blow up his ship if they did not stand to the defense; and +so 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 consideration +that he could speak French, and that they were Protestants of Rochelle +and had the King's commission to take Spaniards, Portuguese, and +pirates, Smith, with some of his company, went on board one of the +French ships. The next day the French plundered Smith's vessel and +distributed his crew among their ships, and for a week employed his boat +in chasing all the ships that came in sight. At the end of this bout +they surrendered her again to her crew, with victuals but no weapons. +Smith exhorted his officers to proceed on their voyage for fish, either +to New England or Newfoundland. This the officers declined to do at +first, but the soldiers on board compelled them, and thereupon Captain +Smith busied himself in collecting from the French fleet and sending on +board his bark various commodities that belonged to her--powder, +match, books, instruments, his sword and dagger, bedding, aquavite, his +commission, apparel, and many other things. These articles Chambers and +the others divided among themselves, leaving Smith, who was still on +board the Frenchman, only his waistcoat and breeches. The next day, the +weather being foul, they ran so near the Frenchman as to endanger their +yards, and Chambers called to Captain Smith to come aboard or he would +leave him. Smith ordered him to send a boat; Chambers replied that +his boat was split, which was a lie, and told him to come off in the +Frenchman's boat. Smith said he could not command that, and so they +parted. The English bark returned to Plymouth, and Smith was left on +board the French man-of-war. + +Smith himself says that Chambers had persuaded the French admiral that +if Smith was let to go on his boat he would revenge himself on the +French fisheries on the Banks. + +For over two months, according to his narration, Smith was kept on board +the Frenchman, cruising about for prizes, “to manage their fight against +the Spaniards, and be in a prison when they took any English.” One of +their prizes was a sugar caraval from Brazil; another was a West Indian +worth two hundred thousand crowns, which had on board fourteen coffers +of wedges of silver, eight thousand royals of eight, and six coffers of +the King of Spain's treasure, besides the pillage and rich coffers of +many rich passengers. The French captain, breaking his promise to put +Smith ashore at Fayal, at length sent him towards France on the sugar +caravel. When near the coast, in a night of terrible storm, Smith seized +a boat and escaped. It was a tempest that wrecked all the vessels on the +coast, and for twelve hours Smith was drifting about in his open boat, +in momentary expectation of sinking, until he was cast upon the oozy +isle of “Charowne,” where the fowlers picked him up half dead with +water, cold, and hunger, and he got to Rochelle, where he made complaint +to the Judge of Admiralty. Here he learned that the rich prize had been +wrecked in the storm and the captain and half the crew drowned. But +from the wreck of this great prize thirty-six thousand crowns' worth of +jewels came ashore. For his share in this Smith put in his claim with +the English ambassador at Bordeaux. The Captain was hospitably treated +by the Frenchmen. He met there his old friend Master Crampton, and he +says: “I was more beholden to the Frenchmen that escaped drowning in +the 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 was +waiting there to get justice, he saw the “arrival of the King's great +marriage brought from Spain.” This is all his reference to the arrival +of Anne of Austria, eldest daughter of Philip III., who had been +betrothed to Louis XIII. in 1612, one of the double Spanish marriages +which made such a commotion in France. + +Leaving his business in France unsettled (forever), Smith returned to +Plymouth, to find his reputation covered with infamy and his clothes, +books, and arms divided among the mutineers of his boat. The chiefest +of these he “laid by the heels,” as usual, and the others confessed and +told the singular tale we have outlined. It needs no comment, except +that Smith had a facility for unlucky adventures unequaled among the +uneasy spirits of his age. Yet he was as buoyant as a cork, and emerged +from every disaster with more enthusiasm for himself and for new +ventures. Among the many glowing tributes to himself in verse that Smith +prints 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 he +thinks of Smith, is made to say that Smith was his captain “in the +fierce 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 his +latest betrayers by the heels than he set himself resolutely to obtain +money and means for establishing a colony in New England, and to this +project and the cultivation in England of interest in New England he +devoted the rest of his life. + +His Map and Description of New England was published in 1616, and he +became a colporteur of this, beseeching everywhere a hearing for his +noble scheme. It might have been in 1617, while Pocahontas was about +to sail for Virginia, or perhaps after her death, that he was again +in Plymouth, provided with three good ships, but windbound for three +months, so that the season being past, his design was frustrated, and +his vessels, without him, made a fishing expedition to Newfoundland. + +It must have been in the summer of this year that he was at Plymouth +with divers of his personal friends, and only a hundred pounds among +them all. He had acquainted the nobility with his projects, and was +afraid to see the Prince Royal before he had accomplished anything, “but +their great promises were nothing but air to prepare the voyage against +the 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 and +Devonshire, giving them books and maps,” and inciting them to help his +enterprise. + +So well did he succeed, he says, that they promised him twenty sail of +ships to go with him the next year, and to pay him for his pains and +former losses. The western commissioners, in behalf of the company, +contracted with him, under indented articles, “to be admiral of that +country during my life, and in the renewing of the letters-patent so to +be nominated”; half the profits of the enterprise to be theirs, and half +to go to Smith and his companions. + +Nothing seems to have come out of this promising induction except the +title of “Admiral of New England,” which Smith straightway assumed and +wore all his life, styling himself on the title-page of everything he +printed, “Sometime Governor of Virginia and Admiral of New England.” + As the generous Captain had before this time assumed this title, the +failure of the contract could not much annoy him. He had about as good +right to take the sounding name of Admiral as merchants of the west of +England had to propose to give it to him. + +The years wore away, and Smith was beseeching aid, republishing his +works, which grew into new forms with each issue, and no doubt making +himself a bore wherever he was known. The first edition of “New +England's Trials”--by which he meant the various trials and attempts +to settle New England was published in 1620. It was to some extent a +repetition of his “Description” of 1616. In it he made no reference to +Pocahontas. But in the edition of 1622, which is dedicated to Charles, +Prince of Wales, and considerably enlarged, he drops into this +remark about his experience at Jamestown: “It Is true in our greatest +extremitie they shot me, slue three of my men, and by the folly of them +that fled tooke me prisoner; yet God made Pocahontas the king's +daughter the meanes to deliver me: and thereby taught me to know their +treacheries to preserve the rest. [This is evidently an allusion to the +warning Pocahontas gave him at Werowocomoco.] It was also my chance in +single combat to take the king of Paspahegh prisoner, and by keeping +him, forced his subjects to work in chains till I made all the country +pay contribution having little else whereon to live.” + +This was written after he had heard of the horrible massacre of 1622 +at Jamestown, and he cannot resist the temptation to draw a contrast +between the present and his own management. He explains that the Indians +did not kill the English because they were Christians, but to get their +weapons 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 had +from the savages. When I had ten men able to go abroad, our commonwealth +was very strong: with such a number I ranged that unknown country 14 +weeks: I had but 18 to subdue them all.” This is better than Sir John +Falstaff. But he goes on: “When I first went to those desperate designes +it cost me many a forgotten pound to hire men to go, and procrastination +caused 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 up +the command, for form's sake, to Capt. Martin, for three hours, and then +took 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 met +many of their silly encounters, and without any hurt, God be thanked.” + The valiant Captain had come by this time to regard himself as the +inventor and discoverer of Virginia and New England, which were explored +and settled at the cost of his private pocket, and which he is not +ashamed to say cannot fare well in his absence. Smith, with all his good +opinion of himself, could not have imagined how delicious his character +would be to readers in after-times. As he goes on he warms up: “Thus you +may see plainly the yearly success from New England by Virginia, which +hath been so costly to this kingdom and so dear to me. + +“By that acquaintance I have with them I may call them my children [he +spent between two and three months on the New England coast] for they +have been my wife, my hawks, my hounds, my cards, my dice, and total my +best 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 I +did at the first; not that I have any secret encouragement for any I +protest, more than lamentable experiences; for all their discoveries I +can yet hear of are but pigs of my sowe: nor more strange to me than to +hear one tell me he hath gone from Billingate and discovered Greenwich!” + +As to the charge that he was unfortunate, which we should think might +have become current from the Captain's own narratives, he tells his +maligners that if they had spent their time as he had done, they would +rather believe in God than in their own calculations, and peradventure +might have had to give as bad an account of their actions. It is strange +they 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 neither +pains nor money, according to my ability, first to procure his majesty's +letters patent, and a Company here to be the means to raise a company to +go with me to Virginia [this is the expedition of 1606 in which he was +without command] as is said: which beginning here and there cost me near +five years work, and more than 500 pounds of my own estate, besides all +the dangers, miseries and encumbrances I endured gratis, where I stayed +till I left 500 better provided than ever I was: from which blessed +Virgin (ere I returned) sprung the fortunate habitation of Somer Isles.” + “Ere I returned” is in Smith's best vein. The casual reader would +certainly conclude that the Somers Isles were somehow due to the +providence of John Smith, when in fact he never even heard that Gates +and Smith were shipwrecked there till he had returned to England, sent +home from Virginia. Neill says that Smith ventured L 9 in the Virginia +company! But he does not say where he got the money. + +New England, he affirms, hath been nearly as chargeable to him and his +friends: he never got a shilling but it cost him a pound. And now, when +New England is prosperous and a certainty, “what think you I undertook +when nothing was known, but that there was a vast land.” These are +some of the considerations by which he urges the company to fit out an +expedition for him: “thus betwixt the spur of desire and the bridle of +reason I am near ridden to death in a ring of despair; the reins are in +your hands, therefore I entreat you to ease me.” + +The Admiral of New England, who since he enjoyed the title had had +neither ship, nor sailor, nor rod of land, nor cubic yard of salt water +under his command, was not successful in his several “Trials.” And in +the hodge-podge compilation from himself and others, which he had +put together shortly after,--the “General Historie,” he pathetically +exclaims: “Now all these proofs and this relation, I now called New +England'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 imbrace +it and by the use of a stock of five thousand pounds to ease them of the +superfluity of most of their companies that had but strength and health +to labor; near a year I spent to understand their resolutions, which was +to me a greater toil and torment, than to have been in New England about +my 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 as +well with this loss of time and change as all the rest.” + +In his “Advertisements” he says that at his own labor, cost, and loss +he had “divulged more than seven thousand books and maps,” in order to +influence 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 can +imagine the group of merchants in Cheapside gradually dissolving as +Smith hove in sight with his maps and demonstrations. + +In 1618, Smith addressed a letter directly to Lord Bacon, to which there +seems to have been no answer. The body of it was a condensation of +what he had repeatedly written about New England, and the advantage to +England of occupying the fisheries. “This nineteen years,” he writes, “I +have encountered no few dangers to learn what here I write in these few +leaves:... their fruits I am certain may bring both wealth and honor for +a crown and a kingdom to his majesty's posterity.” With 5,000, pounds +he will undertake to establish a colony, and he asks of his Majesty a +pinnace to lodge his men and defend the coast for a few months, until +the colony gets settled. Notwithstanding his disappointments and losses, +he is still patriotic, and offers his experience to his country: “Should +I present it to the Biskayners, French and Hollanders, they have made +me large offers. But nature doth bind me thus to beg at home, whom +strangers have pleased to create a commander abroad.... Though I can +promise no mines of gold, the Hollanders are an example of my project, +whose endeavors by fishing cannot be suppressed by all the King of +Spain's golden powers. Worth is more than wealth, and industrious +subjects are more to a kingdom than gold. And this is so certain a +course to get both as I think was never propounded to any state for +so small a charge, seeing I can prove it, both by example, reason and +experience.” + +Smith's maxims were excellent, his notions of settling New England were +sound and sensible, and if writing could have put him in command of New +England, there would have been no room for the Puritans. He addressed +letter after letter to the companies of Virginia and Plymouth, giving +them distinctly to understand that they were losing time by not availing +themselves of his services and his project. After the Virginia massacre, +he offered to undertake to drive the savages out of their country with +a hundred soldiers and thirty sailors. He heard that most of the company +liked exceedingly well the notion, but no reply came to his overture. + +He laments the imbecility in the conduct of the new plantations. At +first, he says, it was feared the Spaniards would invade the plantations +or the English Papists dissolve them: but neither the councils of +Spain nor the Papists could have desired a better course to ruin the +plantations than have been pursued; “It seems God is angry to see +Virginia in hands so strange where nothing but murder and indiscretion +contends for the victory.” + +In his letters to the company and to the King's commissions for the +reformation of Virginia, Smith invariably reproduces his own exploits, +until we can imagine every person in London, who could read, was sick +of the story. He reminds them of his unrequited services: “in neither +of those two countries have I one foot of land, nor the very house I +builded, nor the ground I digged with my own hands, nor ever any content +or satisfaction at all, and though I see ordinarily those two countries +shared before me by them that neither have them nor knows them, but by +my descriptions.... For the books and maps I have made, I will thank him +that will show me so much for so little recompense, and bear with their +errors 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 as +I have propounded, which is to have but fifteen hundred men to subdue +again the Salvages, fortify the country, discover that yet unknown, and +both defend and feed their colony.” + +There is no record that these various petitions and letters of advice +were 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 disasters +in the colonies, and proposes wise and statesman-like remedies. He +insists upon industry and good conduct: “to rectify a commonwealth with +debauched people is impossible, and no wise man would throw himself into +such society, that intends honestly, and knows what he understands, for +there is no country to pillage, as the Romans found; all you expect from +thence must be by labour.” + +Smith was no friend to tobacco, and although he favored the production +to a certain limit as a means of profit, it is interesting to note his +true prophecy that it would ultimately be a demoralizing product. He +often proposes the restriction of its cultivation, and speaks with +contempt of “our men rooting in the ground about tobacco like swine.” + The colony would have been much better off “had they not so much doated +on their tobacco, on whose furnish foundation there is small stability.” + +So long as he lived, Smith kept himself informed of the progress of +adventure and settlement in the New World, reading all relations and +eagerly questioning all voyagers, and transferring their accounts to his +own History, which became a confused patchwork of other men's exploits +and his own reminiscences and reflections. He always regards the new +plantations as somehow his own, and made in the light of his advice; +and their mischances are usually due to the neglect of his counsel. He +relates in this volume the story of the Pilgrims in 1620 and the years +following, and of the settlement of the Somers Isles, making himself +appear as a kind of Providence over the New World. + +Out of his various and repetitious writings might be compiled quite +a hand-book of maxims and wise saws. Yet all had in steady view one +purpose--to excite interest in his favorite projects, to shame the +laggards of England out of their idleness, and to give himself honorable +employment and authority in the building up of a new empire. “Who can +desire,” he exclaims, “more content that hath small means, or but only +his merit to advance his fortunes, than to tread and plant that ground +he hath purchased by the hazard of his life; if he have but the taste +of virtue and magnanimity, what to such a mind can be more pleasant than +planting and building a foundation for his posterity, got from the rude +earth 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 more +healthful to any or more agreeable to God than to convert those poor +salvages to know Christ and humanity, whose labours and discretion will +triply requite any charge and pain.” + +“Then who would live at home idly,” he exhorts his countrymen, “or think +in 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 using +that miserably that maintained virtue honestly, or for being descended +nobly, or pine with the vain vaunt of great kindred in penury, or to +maintain a silly show of bravery, toil out thy heart, soul and time +basely; by shifts, tricks, cards and dice, or by relating news of other +men's actions, sharke here and there for a dinner or supper, deceive +thy friends by fair promises and dissimulations, in borrowing when thou +never meanest to pay, offend the laws, surfeit with excess, burden thy +country, abuse thyself, despair in want, and then cozen thy kindred, +yea, even thy own brother, and wish thy parent's death (I will not say +damnation), to have their estates, though thou seest what honors and +rewards the world yet hath for them that will seek them and worthily +deserve them.” + +“I would be sorry to offend, or that any should mistake my honest +meaning: for I wish good to all, hurt to none; but rich men for the most +part are grown to that dotage through their pride in their wealth, as +though there were no accident could end it or their life.” + +“And what hellish care do such take to make it their own misery and +their countrie's spoil, especially when there is such need of their +employment, drawing by all manner of inventions from the Prince and his +honest subjects, even the vital spirits of their powers and estates; as +if their bags or brags were so powerful a defense, the malicious could +not assault them, when they are the only bait to cause us not only to +be assaulted, but betrayed and smothered in our own security ere we will +prevent it.” + +And he adds this good advice to those who maintain their children +in wantonness till they grow to be the masters: “Let this lamentable +example [the ruin of Constantinople] remember you that are rich (seeing +there are such great thieves in the world to rob you) not grudge to lend +some proportion to breed them that have little, yet willing to learn how +to defend you, for it is too late when the deed is done.” + +No motive of action did Smith omit in his importunity, for “Religion +above all things should move us, especially the clergy, if we are +religious.” “Honor might move the gentry, the valiant and industrious, +and the hope and assurance of wealth all, if we were that we would seem +and be accounted; or be we so far inferior to other nations, or our +spirits so far dejected from our ancient predecessors, or our minds +so 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; excusing +our idleness and our base complaints by want of employment, when here +is such choice of all sorts, and for all degrees, in the planting and +discovering these North parts of America.” + +It was all in vain so far as Smith's fortunes were concerned. The +planting and subjection of New England went on, and Smith had no part in +it except to describe it. The Brownists, the Anabaptists, the Papists, +the Puritans, the Separatists, and “such factious Humorists,” were +taking 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 in +London or the profits in Virginia. + +At one of the hot discussions in 1623 preceding the dissolution of the +Virginia Company by the revocation of their charter, Smith was present, +and said that he hoped for his time spent in Virginia he should receive +that year a good quantity of tobacco. The charter was revoked in 1624 +after many violent scenes, and King James was glad to be rid of what he +called “a seminary for a seditious parliament.” The company had made +use of lotteries to raise funds, and upon their disuse, in 1621, Smith +proposed 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 on +his proposal. At one time he had been named, with three others, as a +fit person for secretary, on the removal of Mr. Pory, but as only three +could be balloted for, his name was left out. He was, however, commended +as entirely competent. + +After the dissolution of the companies, and the granting of new +letters-patent to a company of some twenty noblemen, there seems to have +been a project for dividing up the country by lot. Smith says: “All this +they divided in twenty parts, for which they cast lots, but no lot +for me but Smith's Isles, which are a many of barren rocks, the most +overgrown with shrubs, and sharp whins, you can hardly pass them; +without either grass or wood, but three or four short shrubby old +cedars.” + +The plan was not carried out, and Smith never became lord of even these +barren rocks, the Isles of Shoals. That he visited them when he sailed +along the coast is probable, though he never speaks of doing so. In the +Virginia 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 the +condition of colonization in New England from Smith's voyage thence till +the settlement of Plymouth in 1620, which makes an appropriate close to +our review of this period: + +“When I first went to the North part of Virginia, where the Westerly +Colony had been planted, it had dissolved itself within a year, and +there was not one Christian in all the land. I was set forth at the sole +charge of four merchants of London; the Country being then reputed by +your westerlings a most rocky, barren, desolate desart; but the good +return I brought from thence, with the maps and relations of the +Country, which I made so manifest, some of them did believe me, and they +were well embraced, both by the Londoners, and Westerlings, for whom I +had promised to undertake it, thinking to have joyned them all together, +but that might well have been a work for Hercules. Betwixt them long +there was much contention: the Londoners indeed went bravely forward: +but in three or four years I and my friends consumed many hundred pounds +amongst the Plimothians, who only fed me but with delays, promises, and +excuses, but no performance of anything to any purpose. In the interim, +many particular ships went thither, and finding my relations true, and +that I had not taken that I brought home from the French men, as had +been reported: yet further for my pains to discredit me, and my calling +it New England, they obscured it, and shadowed it, with the title of +Canada, till at my humble suit, it pleased our most Royal King Charles, +whom God long keep, bless and preserve, then Prince of Wales, to confirm +it with my map and book, by the title of New England; the gain thence +returning did make the fame thereof so increase that thirty, forty or +fifty sail went yearly only to trade and fish; but nothing would be done +for 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 better +cheap to teach them than myself: many others have used the like +good husbandry that have payed soundly in trying their self-willed +conclusions; but those in time doing well, diverse others have in small +handfulls undertaken to go there, to be several Lords and Kings of +themselves, but most vanished to nothing.” + + + + + +XVII. WRITINGS-LATER YEARS + +If Smith had not been an author, his exploits would have occupied +a small space in the literature of his times. But by his unwearied +narrations he impressed his image in gigantic features on our plastic +continent. If he had been silent, he would have had something less +than justice; as it is, he has been permitted to greatly exaggerate his +relations to the New World. It is only by noting the comparative silence +of his contemporaries and by winnowing his own statements that we can +appreciate his true position. + +For twenty years he was a voluminous writer, working off his superfluous +energy in setting forth his adventures in new forms. Most of his +writings are repetitions and recastings of the old material, with such +reflections 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 his +life. The only exception to this is his “Sea Grammar.” In 1626 he +published “An Accidence or the Pathway to Experience, necessary to all +Young Seamen,” and in 1627 “A Sea Grammar, with the plain Exposition of +Smith'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 the +Sea,” which never saw the light. He was evidently fond of the sea, and +we may say the title of Admiral came naturally to him, since he used +it in the title-page to his “Description of New England,” published in +1616, although it was not till 1617 that the commissioners at Plymouth +agreed to bestow upon him the title of “Admiral of that country.” + +In 1630 he published “The True Travels, Adventures and Observations of +Captain John Smith, in Europe, Asia, Affrica and America, from 1593 to +1629. Together with a Continuation of his General History of Virginia, +Summer Isles, New England, and their proceedings since 1624 to this +present 1629: as also of the new Plantations of the great River of the +Amazons, the Isles of St. Christopher, Mevis and Barbadoes in the West +Indies.” In the dedication to William, Earl of Pembroke, and Robert, +Earl of Lindsay, he says it was written at the request of Sir Robert +Cotton, the learned antiquarian, and he the more willingly satisfies +this noble desire because, as he says, “they have acted my fatal +tragedies on the stage, and racked my relations at their pleasure. To +prevent, therefore, all future misprisions, I have compiled this true +discourse. Envy hath taxed me to have writ too much, and done too +little; but that such should know how little, I esteem them, I have +writ this more for the satisfaction of my friends, and all generous +and well-disposed readers: To speak only of myself were intolerable +ingratitude: because, having had many co-partners with me, I cannot +make a Monument for myself, and leave them unburied in the fields, whose +lives begot me the title of Soldier, for as they were companions with me +in my dangers, so shall they be partakers with me in this Tombe.” In the +same dedication he spoke of his “Sea Grammar” caused to be printed by +his worthy friend Sir Samuel Saltonstall. + +This volume, like all others Smith published, is accompanied by a great +number of swollen panegyrics in verse, showing that the writers had been +favored 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 are +stuffed with the affected conceits fashionable at the time. One of the +most 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 Virginia +has in the oval the date, “AEta 37, A. 1616,” and round the rim the +inscription: “Portraictuer of Captaine John Smith, Admirall of New +England,” 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 his +hip, and his left grasps the handle of his sword. The face is open and +pleasing and full of decision. + +This “true discourse” contains the wild romance with which this volume +opens, and is pieced out with recapitulations of his former writings and +exploits, compilations from others' relations, and general comments. +We have given from it the story of his early life, because there is +absolutely no other account of that part of his career. We may assume +that up to his going to Virginia he did lead a life of reckless +adventure and hardship, often in want of a decent suit of clothes and +of “regular meals.” That he took some part in the wars in Hungary is +probable, notwithstanding his romancing narrative, and he may have been +captured by the Turks. But his account of the wars there, and of the +political complications, we suspect are cribbed from the old chronicles, +probably from the Italian, while his vague descriptions of the lands and +people in Turkey and “Tartaria” are evidently taken from the narratives +of other travelers. It seems to me that the whole of his story of his +oriental captivity lacks the note of personal experience. If it were +not for the “patent” of Sigismund (which is only produced and certified +twenty years after it is dated), the whole Transylvania legend would +appear 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 and +Pursser, his companions, who grew famous till Queen Elizabeth of blessed +memory hanged them at Wapping. The misery of a Pirate (although many are +as sufficient seamen as any) yet in regard of his superfluity, you shall +find it such, that any wise man would rather live amongst wild beasts, +than them; therefore let all unadvised persons take heed how they +entertain that quality; and I could wish merchants, gentlemen, and all +setters-forth of ships not to be sparing of a competent pay, nor true +payment; for neither soldiers nor seamen can live without means; but +necessity will force them to steal, and when they are once entered into +that 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. In +Ben Jonson's “Staple of News,” played in 1625, there is a reference to +Pocahontas in the dialogue that occurs between Pick-lock and Pennyboy +Canter: + +Pick.--A tavern's unfit too for a princess. + +P. Cant.--No, I have known a Princess and a great one, Come forth of a +tavern. + +Pick.--Not go in Sir, though. + +A Cant.--She must go in, if she came forth. The blessed Pocahontas, as +the historian calls her, And great King's daughter of Virginia, Hath +been in womb of tavern. + +The last work of our author was published in 1631, the year of his +death. Its full title very well describes the contents: “Advertisements +for the Unexperienced Planters of New England, or anywhere. Or, the +Pathway to Experience to erect a Plantation. With the yearly proceedings +of this country in fishing and planting since the year 1614 to the +year 1630, and their present estate. Also, how to prevent the greatest +inconvenience by their proceedings in Virginia, and other plantations by +approved examples. With the countries armes, a description of the coast, +harbours, habitations, landmarks, latitude and longitude: with the map +allowed by our Royall King Charles.” + +Smith had become a trifle cynical in regard to the newsmongers of the +day, and quaintly remarks in his address to the reader: “Apelles by the +proportion of a foot could make the whole proportion of a man: were +he now living, he might go to school, for now thousands can by opinion +proportion kingdoms, cities and lordships that never durst adventure to +see them. Malignancy I expect from these, have lived 10 or 12 years +in those actions, and return as wise as they went, claiming time and +experience for their tutor that can neither shift Sun nor moon, nor say +their compass, yet will tell you of more than all the world betwixt the +Exchange, Paul's and Westminster.... and tell as well what all England +is by seeing but Mitford Haven as what Apelles was by the picture of his +great toe.” + +This is one of Smith's most characteristic productions. Its material is +ill-arranged, and much of it is obscurely written; it runs backward +and forward along his life, refers constantly to his former works and +repeats them, complains of the want of appreciation of his services, and +makes himself the centre of all the colonizing exploits of the age. Yet +it is interspersed with strokes of humor and observations full of good +sense. + +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 in +any war in Africa, nor in Asia, unless we call his piratical cruising in +the Mediterranean “wars in Asia.” + +As a Church of England man, Smith is not well pleased with the +occupation of New England by the Puritans, Brownists, and such “factious +humorists” as settled at New Plymouth, although he acknowledges the +wonderful patience with which, in their ignorance and willfulness, they +have endured losses and extremities; but he hopes better things of +the gentlemen who went in 1629 to supply Endicott at Salem, and were +followed the next year by Winthrop. All these adventurers have, he says, +made use of his “aged endeavors.” It seems presumptuous in them to try +to get on with his maps and descriptions and without him. They probably +had 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, but +Smith again asserts, what he had always maintained--that it was a part +of 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 the +discouraged among them who returned to England Smith says: “Some could +not endure the name of a bishop, others not the sight of a cross or +surplice, others by no means the book of common prayer. This absolute +crew, only of the Elect, holding all (but such as themselves) reprobates +and castaways, now made more haste to return to Babel, as they termed +England, than stay to enjoy the land they called Canaan.” Somewhat they +must say to excuse themselves. Therefore, “some say they could see no +timbers of ten foot diameter, some the country is all wood; others they +drained all the springs and ponds dry, yet like to famish for want of +fresh water; some of the danger of the ratell-snake.” To compel all +the Indians to furnish them corn without using them cruelly they say +is impossible. Yet this “impossible,” Smith says, he accomplished in +Virginia, and offers to undertake in New England, with one hundred and +fifty men, to get corn, fortify the country, and “discover them more +land than they all yet know.” + +This homily ends--and it is the last published sentence of the “great +Smith”--with this good advice to the New England colonists: + +“Lastly, remember as faction, pride, and security produces nothing but +confusion, misery and dissolution; so the contraries well practised will +in short time make you happy, and the most admired people of all our +plantations 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 his +imagination, in his many reproductions of them, has been referred to, +and illustrated by previous quotations. An amusing instance of his care +and ingenuity is furnished by the interpolation of Pocahontas into his +stories after 1623. In his “General Historie” of 1624 he adopts, for the +account of his career in Virginia, the narratives in the Oxford tract +of 1612, which he had supervised. We have seen how he interpolated the +wonderful story of his rescue by the Indian child. Some of his other +insertions of her name, to bring all the narrative up to that level, +are curious. The following passages from the “Oxford Tract” contain in +italics the words inserted when they were transferred to the “General +Historie”: + +“So revived their dead spirits (especially the love of Pocahuntas) as +all anxious fears were abandoned.” + +“Part always they brought him as presents from their king, or +Pocahuntas.” + +In the account of the “masques” of girls to entertain Smith at +Werowocomoco we read: + +“But presently Pocahuntas came, wishing him to kill her if any hurt were +intended, and the beholders, which were women and children, satisfied +the 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 him +for a time, and sent them who pursued him the clean contrary way to seek +him; but by her means and extraordinary bribes and much trouble in three +days' travel, at length he found us in the middest of these turmoyles.” + +The affecting story of the visit and warning from Pocahontas in the +night, when she appeared with “tears running down her cheeks,” is not +in the first narration in the Oxford Tract, but is inserted in the +narrative in the “General Historie.” Indeed, the first account would by +its 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 the +midnight tide carried us safe aboord, having spent that half night with +such mirth as though we never had suspected or intended anything, we +left the Dutchmen to build, Brinton to kill foule for Powhatan (as by +his messengers he importunately desired), and left directions with our +men to give Powhatan all the content they could, that we might enjoy his +company on our return from Pamaunke.” + +It should be added, however, that there is an allusion to some warning +by Pocahontas in the last chapter of the “Oxford Tract.” But the full +story of the night visit and the streaming tears as we have given it +seems without doubt to have been elaborated from very slight materials. +And the subsequent insertion of the name of Pocahontas--of which we have +given examples above--into old accounts that had no allusion to her, +adds new and strong presumptions to the belief that Smith invented what +is known as the Pocahontas legend. + +As a mere literary criticism on Smith's writings, it would appear that +he had a habit of transferring to his own career notable incidents and +adventures of which he had read, and this is somewhat damaging to an +estimate of his originality. His wonderful system of telegraphy by means +of 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 doubtless +read in Polybius, and it seemed a good thing to introduce into his +narrative. + +He was (it must also be noted) the second white man whose life was saved +by an Indian princess in America, who subsequently warned her favorite +of a plot to kill him. In 1528 Pamphilo de Narvaes landed at Tampa Bay, +Florida, and made a disastrous expedition into the interior. Among the +Spaniards who were missing as a result of this excursion was a soldier +named Juan Ortiz. When De Soto marched into the same country in 1539 he +encountered this soldier, who had been held in captivity by the Indians +and had learned their language. The story that Ortiz told was this: +He was taken prisoner by the chief Ucita, bound hand and foot, and +stretched upon a scaffold to be roasted, when, just as the flames were +seizing him, a daughter of the chief interposed in his behalf, and +upon her prayers Ucita spared the life of the prisoner. Three years +afterward, when there was danger that Ortiz would be sacrificed to +appease 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 chieftain +who protected him. + +This narrative was in print before Smith wrote, and as he was fond +of such adventures he may have read it. The incidents are curiously +parallel. And all the comment needed upon it is that Smith seems to have +been peculiarly subject to such coincidences. + +Our author's selection of a coat of arms, the distinguishing feature of +which was “three Turks' heads,” showed little more originality. It was +a common device before his day: on many coats of arms of the Middle +Ages and later appear “three Saracens' heads,” or “three Moors' +heads”--probably most of them had their origin in the Crusades. Smith's +patent to use this charge, which he produced from Sigismund, was dated +1603, but the certificate appended to it by the Garter King at Arms, +certifying that it was recorded in the register and office of the +heralds, is dated 1625. Whether Smith used it before this latter date we +are not told. We do not know why he had not as good right to assume it +as anybody. + +[Burke's “Encyclopedia of Heraldry” gives it as granted to Capt. John +Smith, of the Smiths of Cruffley, Co. Lancaster, in 1629, and describes +it: “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 could +not conquer his indomitable spirit. The disastrous voyage of June, 1615, +when he fell into the hands of the French, is spoken of by the Council +for New England in 1622 as “the ruin of that poor gentleman, Captain +Smith, who was detained prisoner by them, and forced to suffer many +extremities before he got free of his troubles;” but he did not know +that he was ruined, and did not for a moment relax his efforts +to promote colonization and obtain a command, nor relinquish his +superintendence of the Western Continent. + +His last days were evidently passed in a struggle for existence, which +was not so bitter to him as it might have been to another man, for he +was sustained by ever-elating “great expectations.” That he was pinched +for means of living, there is no doubt. In 1623 he issued a prospectus +of his “General Historie,” in which he said: “These observations are all +I have for the expenses of a thousand pounds and the loss of eighteen +years' time, besides all the travels, dangers, miseries and incumbrances +for my countries good, I have endured gratis:... this is composed in +less than eighty sheets, besides the three maps, which will stand me +near in a hundred pounds, which sum I cannot disburse: nor shall the +stationers have the copy for nothing. I therefore, humbly entreat your +Honour, either to adventure, or give me what you please towards the +impression, and I will be both accountable and thankful.” + +He had come before he was fifty to regard himself as an old man, and +to speak of his “aged endeavors.” Where and how he lived in his later +years, and with what surroundings and under what circumstances he +died, there is no record. That he had no settled home, and was in mean +lodgings at the last, may be reasonably inferred. There is a manuscript +note on the fly-leaf of one of the original editions of “The Map of +Virginia....” (Oxford, 1612), in ancient chirography, but which from its +reference to Fuller could not have been written until more than thirty +years after Smith's death. It says: “When he was old he lived in London +poor but kept up his spirits with the commemoration of his former +actions and bravery. He was buried in St. Sepulcher's Church, as Fuller +tells us, who has given us a line of his Ranting Epitaph.” + +That seems to have been the tradition of the man, buoyantly supporting +himself in the commemoration of his own achievements. To the end his +industrious and hopeful spirit sustained him, and in the last year of +his life he was toiling on another compilation, and promised his readers +a variety of actions and memorable observations which they shall “find +with admiration in my History of the Sea, if God be pleased I live to +finish 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 to +write his name. In this he describes himself as “Captain John Smith +of the parish of St. Sepulcher's London Esquior.” He commends his soul +“into the hands of Almighty God, my maker, hoping through the merits of +Christ Jesus my Redeemer to receive full remission of all my sins and to +inherit a place in the everlasting kingdom”; his body he commits to the +earth whence it came; and “of such worldly goods whereof it hath pleased +God 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, in +the county of Lincoln together with my coat of armes”; and charges him +to pay certain legacies not exceeding the sum of eighty pounds, out +of which he reserves to himself twenty pounds to be disposed of as he +chooses in his lifetime. The sum of twenty pounds is to be disbursed +about the funeral. To his most worthy friend, Sir Samuel Saltonstall +Knight, he gives five pounds; to Morris Treadway, five pounds; to his +sister Smith, the widow of his brother, ten pounds; to his cousin Steven +Smith, and his sister, six pounds thirteen shillings and fourpence +between them; to Thomas Packer, Joane, his wife, and Eleanor, his +daughter, ten pounds among them; to “Mr. Reynolds, the lay Mr of the +Goldsmiths Hall, the sum of forty shillings”; to Thomas, the son of +said Thomas Packer, “my trunk standing in my chamber at Sir Samuel +Saltonstall's house in St. Sepulcher's parish, together with my best +suit of apparel of a tawny color viz. hose, doublet jirkin and cloak,” + “also, my trunk bound with iron bars standing in the house of Richard +Hinde in Lambeth, together--with half the books therein”; the other half +of the books to Mr. John Tredeskin and Richard Hinde. His much honored +friend, Sir Samuel Saltonstall, and Thomas Packer, were joint executors, +and the will was acknowledged in the presence “of Willmu Keble Snr +civitas, London, William Packer, Elizabeth Sewster, Marmaduke Walker, +his mark, witness.” + +We have no idea that Thomas Packer got rich out of the houses, lands and +tenements in the county of Lincoln. The will is that of a poor man, and +reference to his trunks standing about in the houses of his friends, and +to his chamber in the house of Sir Samuel Saltonstall, may be taken as +proof that he had no independent and permanent abiding-place. + +It is supposed that he was buried in St. Sepulcher's Church. The +negative evidence of this is his residence in the parish at the time of +his 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, with +this Inscription: + +To the living Memory of his deceased Friend, Captaine John Smith, who +departed 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 large +Territories, and done things Which to the World impossible would seeme, +But that the truth is held in more esteeme, Shall I report His former +service done In honour of his God and Christendome: How that he did +divide from Pagans three, Their heads and Lives, types of his chivalry: +For which great service in that Climate done, Brave Sigismundus (King +of Hungarion) Did give him as a Coat of Armes to weare, Those conquer'd +heads got by his Sword and Speare? Or shall I tell of his adventures +since, Done in Firginia, that large Continence: I-low that he subdu'd +Kings 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 our +Christian Nation: Where God is glorifi'd, their wants suppli'd, Which +else for necessaries might have di'd? But what avails his Conquest now +he lyes Inter'd in earth a prey for Wormes & Flies? + +O may his soule in sweet Mizium sleepe, Untill the Keeper that all +soules doth keepe, Returne to judgement and that after thence, With +Angels he may have his recompence. Captaine John Smith, sometime +Governour of Firginia, and Admirall of New England. + + +This remarkable epitaph is such an autobiographical record as Smith +might have written himself. That it was engraved upon a tablet and set +up in this church rests entirely upon the authority of Stow. The present +pilgrim to the old church will find no memorial that Smith was buried +there, and will encounter besides incredulity of the tradition that he +ever rested there. + +The old church of St. Sepulcher's, formerly at the confluence of Snow +Hill and the Old Bailey, now lifts its head far above the pompous +viaduct which spans the valley along which the Fleet Ditch once flowed. +All the registers of burial in the church were destroyed by the great +fire of 1666, which burnt down the edifice from floor to roof, leaving +only the walls and tower standing. Mr. Charles Deane, whose lively +interest 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 of +our hero were buried; but he was not able to see the stone placed over +those remains, as the floor of the church at that time was covered +with a carpet.... The epitaph to his memory, however, it is understood, +cannot now be deciphered upon the tablet,”--which he supposes to be the +one in Stow. + +The existing tablet is a slab of bluish-black marble, which formerly +was in the chancel. That it in no way relates to Captain Smith a near +examination of it shows. This slab has an escutcheon which indicates +three heads, which a lively imagination may conceive to be those of +Moors, on a line in the upper left corner on the husband's side of a +shield, which is divided by a perpendicular line. As Smith had no wife, +this could not have been his cognizance. Nor are these his arms, which +were three Turks' heads borne over and beneath a chevron. The cognizance +of “Moors' heads,” as we have said, was not singular in the Middle Ages, +and there existed recently in this very church another tomb which bore +a Moor's head as a family badge. The inscription itself is in a style of +lettering unlike that used in the time of James I., and the letters are +believed not to belong to an earlier period than that of the Georges. +This bluish-black stone has been recently gazed at by many pilgrims from +this side of the ocean, with something of the feeling with which the +Moslems regard the Kaaba at Mecca. This veneration is misplaced, for +upon 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 stone +is clearly not in his honor: and if his dust rests in this church, the +fire of 1666 made it probably a labor of wasted love to look hereabouts +for any monument of him. + +A few years ago some American antiquarians desired to place some +monument to the “Admiral of New England” in this church, and a memorial +window, commemorating the “Baptism of Pocahontas,” was suggested. We +have been told, however, that a custom of St. Sepulcher's requires a +handsome bonus to the rector for any memorial set up in the church which +the kindly incumbent had no power to set aside (in his own case) for +a foreign gift and act of international courtesy of this sort; and the +project was abandoned. + +Nearly every trace of this insatiable explorer of the earth has +disappeared from it except in his own writings. The only monument to his +memory existing is a shabby little marble shaft erected on the southerly +summit of Star Island, one of the Isles of Shoals. By a kind of irony +of fortune, which Smith would have grimly appreciated, the only stone to +perpetuate his fame stands upon a little heap of rocks in the sea; upon +which it is only an inference that he ever set foot, and we can almost +hear him say again, looking round upon this roomy earth, so much of +which he possessed in his mind, “No lot for me but Smith's Isles, which +are an array of barren rocks, the most overgrowne with shrubs and sharpe +whins you can hardly passe them: without either grasse or wood but three +or 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 their +narratives, imparting to their paraphrases of his story such +an elevation as his own opinion of himself seemed to demand. Of +contemporary estimate of him there is little to quote except the +panegyrics in verse he has preserved for us, and the inference from his +own writings that he was the object of calumny and detraction. Enemies +he had in plenty, but there are no records left of their opinion of his +character. The nearest biographical notice of him in point of time is +found 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 that +Fuller received from his teacher some impression about the adventurer. + +Of his “strange performances” in Hungary, Fuller says: “The scene +whereof is laid at such a distance that they are cheaper credited than +confuted.” + +“From the Turks in Europe he passed to the pagans in America, where +towards the latter end of the reign of Queen Elizabeth [it was in the +reign of James] such his perils, preservations, dangers, deliverances, +they seem to most men above belief, to some beyond truth. Yet have we +two witnesses to attest them, the prose and the pictures, both in his +own book; and it soundeth much to the diminution of his deeds that he +alone 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 very +instrumental in settling the plantation in Virginia, whereof he was +governor, as also Admiral of New England.” + +“He led his old age in London, where his having a prince's mind +imprisoned in a poor man's purse, rendered him to the contempt of such +as were not ingenuous. Yet he efforted his spirits with the remembrance +and 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, he +was a peculiar character even for the times in which he lived. He shared +with his contemporaries the restless spirit of roving and adventure +which resulted from the invention of the mariner's compass and the +discovery of the New World; but he was neither so sordid nor so +rapacious as many of them, for his boyhood reading of romances had +evidently fired him with the conceits of the past chivalric period. This +imported into his conduct something inflated and something elevated. +And, besides, with all his enormous conceit, he had a stratum of +practical good sense, a shrewd wit, and the salt of humor. + +If Shakespeare had known him, as he might have done, he would have had +a character ready to his hand that would have added one of the most +amusing and interesting portraits to his gallery. He faintly suggests +a moral Falstaff, if we can imagine a Falstaff without vices. As a +narrator he has the swagger of a Captain Dalghetty, but his actions +are marked by honesty and sincerity. He appears to have had none of the +small vices of the gallants of his time. His chivalric attitude toward +certain ladies who appear in his adventures, must have been sufficiently +amusing to his associates. There is about his virtue a certain antique +flavor which must have seemed strange to the adventurers and court +hangers-on in London. Not improbably his assumptions were offensive +to the ungodly, and his ingenuous boastings made him the object of +amusement to the skeptics. Their ridicule would naturally appear to him +to arise from envy. We read between the lines of his own eulogies of +himself, that there was a widespread skepticism about his greatness and +his achievements, which he attributed to jealousy. Perhaps his obtrusive +virtues made him enemies, and his rectitude was a standing offense to +his associates. + +It is certain he got on well with scarcely anybody with whom he was +thrown in his enterprises. He was of common origin, and always carried +with him the need of assertion in an insecure position. He appears to us +always self-conscious and ill at ease with gentlemen born. The captains +of his own station resented his assumptions of superiority, and while +he did not try to win them by an affectation of comradeship, he probably +repelled those of better breeding by a swaggering manner. No doubt his +want of advancement was partly due to want of influence, which better +birth would have given him; but the plain truth is that he had a talent +for making himself disagreeable to his associates. Unfortunately he +never engaged in any enterprise with any one on earth who was so capable +of conducting it as himself, and this fact he always made plain to his +comrades. Skill he had in managing savages, but with his equals among +whites he lacked tact, and knew not the secret of having his own way +without seeming to have it. He was insubordinate, impatient of any +authority over him, and unwilling to submit to discipline he did not +himself impose. + +Yet it must be said that he was less self-seeking than those who were +with him in Virginia, making glory his aim rather than gain always; +that he had a superior conception of what a colony should be, and how +it should establish itself, and that his judgment of what was best was +nearly always vindicated by the event. He was not the founder of the +Virginia colony, its final success was not due to him, but it was owing +almost entirely to his pluck and energy that it held on and maintained +an existence during the two years and a half that he was with it at +Jamestown. And to effect this mere holding on, with the vagabond +crew that composed most of the colony, and with the extravagant and +unintelligent expectations of the London Company, was a feat showing +decided ability. He had the qualities fitting him to be an explorer +and the leader of an expedition. He does not appear to have had the +character necessary to impress his authority on a community. He was +quarrelsome, irascible, and quick to fancy that his full value was not +admitted. He shines most upon such small expeditions as the exploration +of the Chesapeake; then his energy, self-confidence, shrewdness, +inventiveness, had free play, and his pluck and perseverance are +recognized as of the true heroic substance. + +Smith, as we have seen, estimated at their full insignificance such +flummeries as the coronation of Powhatan, and the foolishness of taxing +the energies of the colony to explore the country for gold and chase the +phantom of the South Sea. In his discernment and in his conceptions of +what 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 his +advice given to the New England plantation in his “Advertisements” he +says: + +“Now as his Majesty has made you custome-free for seven yeares, have +a care that all your countrymen shall come to trade with you, be not +troubled with pilotage, boyage, ancorage, wharfage, custome, or any such +tricks as hath been lately used in most of our plantations, where they +would be Kings before their folly; to the discouragement of many, and a +scorne to them of understanding, for Dutch, French, Biskin, or any will +as yet use freely the Coast without controule, and why not English as +well as they? Therefore use all commers with that respect, courtesie, +and liberty is fitting, which will in a short time much increase your +trade and shipping to fetch it from you, for as yet it were not good to +adventure any more abroad with factors till you bee better provided; now +there is nothing more enricheth a Common-wealth than much trade, nor +no meanes better to increase than small custome, as Holland, Genua, +Ligorne, as divers other places can well tell you, and doth most beggar +those places where they take most custome, as Turkie, the Archipelegan +Iles, Cicilia, the Spanish ports, but that their officers will connive +to enrich themselves, though undo the state.” + +It may perhaps be admitted that he knew better than the London or the +Plymouth company what ought to be done in the New World, but it is +absurd to suppose that his success or his ability forfeited him the +confidence of both companies, and shut him out of employment. The simple +truth seems to be that his arrogance and conceit and importunity made +him unpopular, and that his proverbial ill luck was set off against his +ability. + +Although he was fully charged with the piety of his age, and kept +in mind his humble dependence on divine grace when he was plundering +Venetian argosies or lying to the Indians, or fighting anywhere simply +for excitement or booty, and was always as devout as a modern Sicilian +or Greek robber; he had a humorous appreciation of the value of the +religions current in his day. He saw through the hypocrisy of the London +Company, “making religion their color, when all their aim was nothing +but present profit.” There was great talk about Christianizing +the Indians; but the colonists in Virginia taught them chiefly the +corruptions of civilized life, and those who were despatched to England +soon became debauched by London vices. “Much they blamed us [he writes] +for not converting the Salvages, when those they sent us were little +better, if not worse, nor did they all convert any of those we sent them +to England for that purpose.” + +Captain John Smith died unmarried, nor is there any record that he ever +had wife or children. This disposes of the claim of subsequent John +Smiths to be descended from him. He was the last of that race; +the others are imitations. He was wedded to glory. That he was not +insensible to the charms of female beauty, and to the heavenly pity +in their hearts, which is their chief grace, his writings abundantly +evince; but to taste the pleasures of dangerous adventure, to learn war +and to pick up his living with his sword, and to fight wherever piety +showed recompense would follow, was the passion of his youth, while his +manhood was given to the arduous ambition of enlarging the domains +of England and enrolling his name among those heroes who make an +ineffaceable impression upon their age. There was no time in his life +when he had leisure to marry, or when it would have been consistent with +his schemes to have tied himself to a home. + +As a writer he was wholly untrained, but with all his introversions and +obscurities he is the most readable chronicler of his time, the most +amusing 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 a +habit of accurate observation, as his maps show, and this trait gives +to his statements and descriptions, when his own reputation is not +concerned, a value beyond that of those of most contemporary travelers. +And there is another thing to be said about his writings. They are +uncommonly clean for his day. Only here and there is coarseness +encountered. In an age when nastiness was written as well as spoken, and +when most travelers felt called upon to satisfy a curiosity for prurient +observations, Smith preserved a tone quite remarkable for general +purity. + +Captain Smith is in some respects a very good type of the restless +adventurers of his age; but he had a little more pseudo-chivalry at one +end of his life, and a little more piety at the other, than the rest. +There is a decidedly heroic element in his courage, hardihood, and +enthusiasm, softened to the modern observer's comprehension by the +humorous 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 is +just one of those characters who would be more agreeable on the stage +than in private life. His extraordinary conceit would be entertaining if +one did not see too much of him. Although he was such a romancer that we +can accept few of his unsupported statements about himself, there was, +nevertheless, a certain verity in his character which showed something +more than loyalty to his own fortune; he could be faithful to an +ambition for the public good. Those who knew him best must have found +in him very likable qualities, and acknowledged the generosities of his +nature, while they were amused at his humorous spleen and his serious +contemplation of his own greatness. There is a kind of simplicity in +his self-appreciation that wins one, and it is impossible for the candid +student of his career not to feel kindly towards the “sometime Governor +of Virginia and Admiral of New England.” + + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's Captain John Smith, by Charles Dudley Warner + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CAPTAIN JOHN SMITH *** + +***** This file should be named 3130-0.txt or 3130-0.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/3/1/3/3130/ + +Produced by David Widger + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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