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SMITH, JOHN (1579-1631)

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Originally appearing in Volume V25, Page 267 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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SMITH, See also:JOHN (1579-1631) , usually distinguished as See also:Captain John Smith, sometime See also:president of the See also:English See also:colony in See also:Virginia, was the See also:elder son of See also:George Smith, a well-to-do See also:tenant-See also:farmer on the See also:estate of See also:Lord See also:Willoughby d'Eresby at Willoughby; near See also:Alford in See also:Lincolnshire. The See also:life of this Virginian See also:hero falls conveniently into five periods. ' The first of these, up to 1596, that of his See also:early youth, is thus described by himself in his Travels: " He was See also:born (1579) in Willoughby in Lincolnshire, and was a See also:scholar in the two See also:free See also:schools of Alford and See also:Louth. ' The particulars of the authorship are given in the 18th edition (182o), and in the memoir of his See also:brother by See also:Horace prefixed to a collection of fugitive pieces (184o). See also:James contributed the first See also:stanza to the See also:imitation of See also:Byron, but otherwise they worked independently. His parents, dying (See also:April 1596) when he was thirteen (or rather sixteen) years of See also:age, See also:left him a competent means, which he, not being capable to See also:manage, little regarded. His mind being even then set upon brave adventures, he sold his satchel, books and all he had, intending secretly to get to See also:sea, but that his See also:father's See also:death stayed him. But now the guardians of his estate more regarding it than him, he had See also:liberty enough, though no means, to get beyond the sea. About the age of fifteen years, he was See also:bound an apprentice to See also:Master See also:Thomas Sendall of [See also:King's] See also:Lynn, the greatest See also:merchant of all those parts; but, because he would not presently send him to sea, he never saw his master in eight years after." The second See also:period, 1596-16o4, is that of his adventures in See also:Europe, See also:Asia and See also:Africa. He first went to See also:Orleans in attendance on the second son of Lord Willoughby. Thence he returned to See also:Paris, and so by See also:Rouen to See also:Havre, where, his See also:money being spent, he began to learn the life of a soldier under See also:Henry IV. of See also:France: On the conclusion,(1599) of See also:peace with the See also:League, he went with Captain See also:Joseph See also:Duxbury to See also:Holland and served there some See also:time, probably with the English troops in Dutch pay. By this time he had gained a wide experience in the See also:art of See also:war, not merely as an See also:infantry officer, but also in those more technical studies which are now followed by the Royal See also:Engineers.

At length he sailed from Enkhuisen to See also:

Scotland, and on the voyage had a narrow See also:escape from shipwreck upon See also:Holy See also:Island near See also:Berwick. After some stay in Scotland he returned See also:home to Willoughby, " where, within a See also:short time being glutted with too much See also:company, wherein he took small delight, he retired himself into a little woody pasture, a See also:good way from any See also:town, environed with many See also:hundred acres of other See also:woods. Here by a See also:fair See also:brook he built a See also:pavilion of boughs, where only in his clothes he See also:lay. His study was See also:Machiavelli's Art of War and See also:Marcus Aurelius; his exercise a good See also:horse with his See also:lance and See also:ring; his See also:food was thought to be more of See also:venison than anything else; what [else] he-wanted his See also:man brought him. The See also:country wondering at such a See also:hermit, his See also:friends persuaded one Signior Theadora Polaloga, rider to Henry, See also:earl of See also:Lincoln, an excellent horseman and a See also:noble See also:Italian See also:gentleman, to insinuate [himself] into his woodish acquaintances, whose See also:languages and good discourse and exercise of See also:riding See also:drew Smith to stay with him at Tattersall.... Thus—when France and the See also:Netherlands had taught him to. ride a horse and use his arms, with such rudiments of war as his See also:tender years, in those See also:martial schools, could attain unto, he was desirous to see more of the See also:world, and try his See also:fortune against the See also:Turks, both lamenting and repenting to have seen so many Christians slaughter one another." Next came his wanderings through France from See also:Picardy to See also:Marseilles. There he took See also:ship for See also:Italy in a See also:vessel full of pilgrims going to See also:Rome. These, cursing him for a heretic, and See also:swearing they would have no fair See also:weather so See also:long as he was on See also:board, threw him, like another See also:Jonah, into the sea. He was able to get to a little uninhabited island, from which he was taken off the next See also:morning by a See also:Breton ship of 200 tons going to See also:Alexandria, the captain of which, named La See also:Roche, treated him as a friend. In this ship he visited See also:Egypt and the See also:Levant. On its way back the Breton ship fought a Venetian See also:argosy of 400 tons and captured it. Reaching See also:Antibes (See also:Var) later on Captain La Roche put Smith ashore with 500 sequins, who then proceeded to see Italy as he had already seen France.

Passing through See also:

Tuscany he came to Rome, where he saw See also:Pope See also:Clement VIII. at See also:mass, and called on Father R. See also:Parsons. Wandering on to See also:Naples and hack to Rome, thence through Tuscany and See also:Venice, he came to Gratz in See also:Styria. There he received See also:information about the Turks who were then swarming through See also:Hungary, and, passing on to See also:Vienna, entered the See also:emperor's service. In this See also:Turkish war the years 16ot and 16o2 soon passed away; many desperate adventures does he narrate (unconfirmed by contemporary records, and doubted by some See also:modern critics), and one in particular covered him with See also:honour. At See also:Regal, in the presence of two armies, as the See also:champion of the Christians, he killed three Turkish champions in See also:succession. On' 8th See also:November 1602, at the See also:battle of Rothenthurm, a pass in Transylvania, JOHN 265 where the Christians fought desperately against an overpowering force of Crim See also:Tatars, Smith was left wounded on the See also:field of battle. His See also:rich See also:dress saved him, for it showed that he would be See also:worth a See also:ransom. As soon as his wounds were cured he was sold for a slave and then marched to See also:Constantinople, where he was presented to Charatza Tragabigzanda, who See also:fell in love with him. Fearing lest her See also:mother should sell him, she sent him to her brother See also:Timor, See also:pasha of Nalbrits, on the See also:Don, in Tatary. '' To her unkind brother this See also:kind See also:lady wrote so much for his good usage that he See also:half suspected as much as she intended; for she told him, he should there but sojourn to learn the See also:language, and what it was to be a Turk, till time made her master of herself. But the Timor, her brother, diverted all this to the worst of See also:cruelty.

For, within an See also:

hour after his arrival, he caused his drubman ' to See also:strip him naked, and shave his See also:head and See also:beard so See also:bare as his See also:hand. A See also:great ring of See also:iron, with a long stalk bowed like a sickle, was riveted about his See also:neck, and a coat [put on him] made of ulgry's See also:hair, guarded about with a piece of an undressed skin. There were many more See also:Christian slaves, and nearly a hundred forsados of Turks and See also:Moors, and he being the last was the slave of slaves to them all." While at Nalbrits the English captain kept his eyes open, and his See also:account of the Crim Tatars is careful and accurate. " So long he lived in this miserable estate, as he became a thresher at a See also:grange in a great field, more than a league from the Timor's See also:house. The pasha, as he oft used to visit his granges, visited him, and took occasion so to See also:beat, spurn and revile him, that forgetting all See also:reason Smith beat out the Timor's brains with his threshing See also:bat, for they have no flails, and, seeing his estate could be no worse than it was, clothed himself in the Timor's clothes, hid his See also:body under the See also:straw, filled his knapsack with See also:corn, shut the doors, mounted his horse and ran into the See also:desert at all See also:adventure." For eighteen or nineteen days he rode for very life until he reached a See also:Muscovite outpost on the See also:river Don; here his irons were taken off him, and the Lady Callamata largely supplied all his wants. Thence he passed, attracting all the sympathy of an escaped Christian slave, through Muscovy, Hungary and See also:Austria until he reached See also:Leipzig in See also:December 1603. There he met his old master, See also:Prince See also:Sigismund, who, in memory of his gallant fight at Regal, gave him a See also:grant of arms and 500 ducats of See also:gold. Thence he wandered on, sightseeing, through See also:Germany, France and See also:Spain, until he came to See also:Saffi, from which seaport he made an excursion to the See also:city of See also:Morocco and back. While at Saffi he was blown out to sea on board Captain Merham's ship, and had to go as far as the Canaries. There Merham fought two See also:Spanish See also:ships at once and beat them off. Smith came home to See also:England with him, having a thousand ducats in his See also:purse. The third period, 160 1609, is that of Captain Smith's experiences in Virginia.

Throwing himself into the colonizing projects which were then coming to the front, he first intended to have gone out to the colony on the Oyapok in See also:

South See also:America; but, Captain See also:Leigh dying, and the reinforcement miscarrying, " the See also:rest escaped as they could." Hence Smith did not leave England on this account. But he went heartily into the Virginian project with Captain See also:Bartholomew See also:Gosnold and others. He states that what he got in his travels he spent in colonizing. " When I went first to these desperate designs, it cost me many a forgotten See also:pound to hire men to go, and procrastination caused more to run away than went. I have spared neither pains nor money according to my ability, first to procure His See also:Majesty's letters See also:patents, and a company here, to be the means to raise a company to go with me to Virginia, which beginning here and there cost me nearly five years' [1604-1600] See also:work, and more than five hundred pounds of my own estate, besides all the dangers, miseries and incumbrances I endured gratis." Two colonizing associations were formed—the See also:London Company for South Virginia and the Western Company for See also:North Virginia. Smith was one of the patentees of the Virginia See also:charter of 1609. The colony which See also:Sir W. See also:Raleigh had established at See also:Roanoke island off the See also:American See also:coast had perished, mainly for want of supplies from England, so that really nothing at all was known of the Virginian coast-See also:line when the first expedition left London on igth December 16o6; and therefore the See also:attempt was bound to fail unless a convenient See also:harbour should be found. The expedition consisted of three ships (the " Susan See also:Constant," too tons, Captain C. See also:Newport; the " See also:God See also:Speed," 40 tons, Captain B. Gosnold; and a See also:pinnace of 20 tons, Captain J. Ratcliffe), with about 140 colonists and 40 sailors.

They made first for the See also:

West Indies, reaching See also:Dominica on 24th See also:March 1607. At See also:Nevis, their next stopping-See also:place, a gallows was erected to hang Captain Smith on the false See also:charge of See also:conspiracy; but he escaped, and, though afterwards the lives of all the men who plotted against him were at his See also:mercy, he spared them. Sailing northwards from the West Indies, not knowing where they were, the expedition was most fortunately, in a See also:gale, blown into the mouth of Chesapeake See also:Bay, discovering Iand on 26th April 16o7. Anchoring, they found the James river, and, having explored it, fixed upon a site for their See also:capital in the See also:district of the See also:chief or weroance of Paspaheh, its chief recommendation being that there were 6 fathoms of See also:water so near to the See also:shore that the ships could be tied to the trees. Orders had been sent out for the See also:government of the colony in a See also:box, which was opened on 26th April 1607. Captains B. Gosnold, E. M. See also:Wingfield, C. Newport, J. Smith, J. Ratcliffe, J.

See also:

Martin and G. See also:Kendall were named to be the See also:council to elect an See also:annual president, who, with the council, should govern. Wingfield was, on 13th May, elected the first president; and the next See also:day they landed at James Town and commenced the See also:settlement. All this while Smith was under See also:restraint, for thirteen See also:weeks in all. His enemies would have sent him home, out of a sham commiseration for him; but he challenged their charges, and so established his innocency that Wingfield was adjudged to give him £200 as See also:damages. After this, on loth See also:June 1607, Smith was admitted to the council. As in going to America in those days the great difficulty was want of water, so in those colonizing efforts the See also:paramount danger was from want of food. " There were never Englishmen left in a See also:foreign country in such misery as we were in this new discovered Virginia. We watched every three nights [every third See also:night], lying on the bare See also:cold ground, what weather soever came, and warded all the next day, which brought our men to be most feeble wretches. Our food was but a small can of See also:barley sodden in water to five men a day. Our drink, cold water taken out of the river, which was, at a See also:flood, very See also:salt, at a See also:low See also:tide, full of slime and filth, which was the destruction of many' of our men." So great was the mortality that out of 105 colonists living on the 22nd June 1607 67 died by the following 8th See also:January. The country they had settled in was sparsely populated by many small tribes of See also:Indians, who owned as their paramount chief, Powhatan, who then lived at Werowocomoco, a See also:village on the Pamunkey river, about 12 M. by See also:land from James Town.

Various See also:

boat expeditions left James Town, to buy food in See also:exchange for See also:copper. They generally had to fight the Indians first, to coerce them to See also:trade, but afterwards paid a fair See also:price for what they bought. On loth December 1607 Captain Smith, of whom it is said " the Spaniard never more greedily desired gold than he victail," with nine men in the See also:barge, left James Town to get more corn, and also to explore the upper See also:waters of the See also:Chickahominy. They got the barge up as far as Apocant. Seven men were left in it, with orders to keep in midstream. They disobeyed, went into the village, and one of them, George Cassen, was caught; the other six, barely escaping to the barge, brought it back to James Town. It so happened that Opecanchanough (the brother of Powhatan, whom he succeeded in 1618, and who carried out the great mass-See also:acre of the English on Good See also:Friday 1621) was in that See also:neighbour-See also:hood with two or three hundred Indians on a See also:hunting expedition. He ascertained from Cassen where Smith was, who, ignorant of all this, had, with John See also:Robinson and Thomas Emry, gone in a See also:canoe 20 M. farther up the river. The Indians killed Robinson and Emry while they were sleeping by the See also:camp See also:fire, and went after Smith, who was away getting food. They surprised him, and. though he bravely defended himself, he had at last to JOHN surrender. He then set his wits to confound them with his See also:superior knowledge, and succeeded. Opecanchanough led him about the country for a wonder, and finally, about 5th January i6o8, brought him to Powhatan at Werowocomoco.

"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 laid hands on Smith, dragged him to them, and thereon laid his head. And, being ready with their clubs to beat out his brains, Pocahontas, the king's dearest daughter, when no entreaty could prevail, got his head in her arms and laid her own upon his to See also:

save him from death. Whereat the emperor was contented Smith should live, to make him hatchets, and her bells, beads and copper; for they thought him as well of all occupations [handicrafts] as themselves." The truth of this See also:story was never doubted till 1859, when Dr See also:Charles See also:Deane of See also:Cambridge, Mass., edited Wingfield's Discourse; in reprinting Smith's True Relation of 1609, Deane pointed out that it contains no reference to this hairbreadth escape. Since then many American historians and scholars have concluded that it never happened at all; and, in See also:order to be consistent, they have tried to prove that Smith was a blustering braggadocio, which is the very last thing that could in truth be said of him. The See also:rescue of a See also:captive doomed to death by a woman is not such an unheard-of thing in See also:Indian stories. If the truth of this deliverance be denied, how then did Smith come back to James Town loaded with presents, when the other three men were killed, George Cassen in particular, in a•most horrible manner? And how is it, supposing Smith's account to be false, that Pocahontas afterwards frequently came to James Town, and was, next to Smith himself, the salvation of the colony? The fact is, nobody doubted the story in Smith's lifetime, and he had enemies enough.' Space fails to describe how splendidly Smith worked after his deliverance for the good of the colony, how he explored Chesapeake Bay and its influents, how (when 'all others had failed) the See also:presidency was forced on him on loth See also:September i6o8; how he tried to get corn from Powhatan at Werowocomoco on i2t.h January 1609, but he fled to Orapakes, 40 M. farther off; how with only eighteen men he cowed Opecanchanough in his own house at Pamunkey, in spite of the hundreds of Indians that were there, and made him sell corn; how well he administered the colony, making the lazy work or starve. Meanwhile the See also:establishment of this forlorn See also:hope in Virginia had stirred up a See also:general See also:interest in England, so that the London Company were able in June 16o9 to send out 9 ships with 500 colonists. Smith had now got the Indians into splendid order; but from the arrival on i 1th See also:August of the new-corners his authority came to an end. They refused to acknowledge him, and robbed and injured the Indians, who attacked them in turn. Smith did his best to smooth matters, while the rioters were plotting to shoot him in his See also:bed.

In the meantime he was away up the river. On his return, " sleeping in his boat, accidentally one fired his See also:

powder bag, which tore his flesh from his body and thighs, 9 or 10 in. square, in a most pitiful manner; but to quench the tormenting fire frying him in his clothes he leaped overboard into the deep river, where, ere they could recover him, he was nearly drowned." Thus disabled, he was sent home on 4th See also:October 16o9 and never set See also:foot in Virginia again. See also:Nemesis ' Pocahontas never visited James Town after Smith went to England in October 1609, until she was brought there a See also:state prisoner in April 1613 by Captain S. Argall, who had obtained See also:possession of her by treachery on the See also:Potomac river. The colony, while treating her well, used her as a means to secure peace with the Indians. In the meantime, believing Smith to be dead, she fell in love with an English gentleman, John Rolfe, apparently at that time a widower. They were married about 1st April 1614. Subsequently she em-braced See also:Christianity. Sir T. See also:Dale, with Rolfe and his wife, landed at See also:Plymouth on 12th June 1616. Before she reached London, Smith petitioned See also:Queen See also:Anne on her behalf; and it is in this See also:petition of June i6i6 that the account of his deliverance by the Indian girl first appears. After a pleasant sojourn of about seven months, being well received both by the See also:court and the See also:people, Pocahontas with her See also:husband embarked for Virginia in the George, Captain S.

Argall (her old captor), but she died off See also:

Gravesend about See also:February 1617. overtook the rioters the See also:winter after he left, which is known in Virginian story as " the starving time." Out of 490 persons in the colony in October 1609 all but 6o died by the following March. The rest of Smith's life can only be briefly touched upon. The See also:fourth period, 1610-1617, was chiefly spent in exploring Nusconcus, See also:Canada and Pemaquid or North Virginia, to which, at his solicitation, Prince Charles gave the name of New England. His first See also:object was to See also:fish for See also:cod and See also:barter for furs, his next, to discover the coast-line with the view to settlement. Two attempts, in 1615 and 1617, to See also:settle at Capawuck failed, but through no See also:fault of his. It was in connexion with these projects that the Western Company for North Virginia gave him the See also:title of See also:admiral of New England. We cannot better conclude this See also:sketch of his active operations than in his own words printed in 163r. " Having been a slave to the Turks; prisoner among the most barbarous savages; after my deliverance commonly discovering and ranging those large See also:rivers and unknown nations with such a handful of ignorant companions that the wiser sort often gave me up for lost; always in mutinies, wants and miseries; blown up with See also:gunpowder; a long time a prisoner among the See also:French pirates, from whom escaping in a little boat by myself, and adrift all such a stormy winter night, when their ships were split, more than £1oo,000 lost which they had taken at sea, and most of them drowned upon the Isle of Rhe—not far from whence I was driven on shore, in my little boat, &c. And many a See also:score of the worst winter months have [I] lived in the See also:fields; yet to have lived near See also:thirty-seven years [1593–1630] in the midst of See also:wars, pestilence and See also:famine, by which many a hundred thousand have died about me, and scarce five living of them that went first with me to Virginia, and yet to see the fruits of my labours thus well begin to prosper (though I have but my labour for my pains), have I not much reason, both privately and publicly to acknowledge it, and give God thanks? " The last period, 1618–1631, of Smith's life was chiefly devoted to authorship. In 1618 he applied (in vain) to See also:Francis See also:Bacon to be numbered among his servants.

In 1619 he offered to See also:

lead out the See also:Pilgrim Fathers to North Virginia; but they would not have him, he being a See also:Protestant and they Puritans. The charter of the London Virginia Company was annulled in 1624. A See also:list of his publications will be found at the end of this See also:article. Thus having done much, endured much and written much, while still contemplating a See also:History of the Sea, Captain John Smith died on 21St June 1631, and was buried in St See also:Sepulchre's See also:Church, London. Two of the sixty survivors of " the starving time," See also:Richard Potts and See also:William Phettiplace, thus nobly expressed in See also:print, so early as 1612, their estimate of Smith: " What shall I say? but-thus we lost him [4th October 1609] that in all his proceedings made See also:justice his first See also:guide and experience his second; ever hating baseness, See also:sloth, See also:pride and indignity more than any dangers; that never allowed more for himself than his souldiers with him; that upon no danger would send them where he would not lead them himself; that would never see us want what he either had, or could by any means get us; that would rather want than See also:borrow or starve than not pay; that loved actions more than words, and hated falsehood and cozenage than death; whose adventures were our lives, and whose loss our deaths." A fairly See also:complete bibliography will be found in See also:Professor See also:Edward See also:Arber's reprint of Smith's See also:Works (See also:Birmingham, 1884), 8vo. The order of their first See also:appearance is, A True Relation, &c. (16o8) (first attributed to a gentleman of the colony, next to Th. See also:Watson, and finally to Captain Smith) ; A See also:Map of Virginia, ed. by W[illiam] S[immonds] (See also:Oxford, 1612); A Description of New England (1616); New England's Trials (162o) ; New England's Trials, and ed. (1622) ; The General History of Virginia, New England and the Summer Isles (1624); An See also:Accidence for all See also:Young See also:Seamen (1626); the same work recast and enlarged as A Sea See also:Grammar (1627), both works continuing on See also:sale for years, See also:side by side; The True Travels, &c. (163o); Advertisements for the Unexperienced Planters, &c. (1631). Of some of the smaller texts limited 4to See also:editions have been published by Dr C.

Deane and J. See also:

Carter See also:Brown. See the M acLehose edition (1907) of the Generate Historie. True Travels and Sea Grammar; A. G. See also:Bradley's Captain John Smith (19o5), Charles Poindexter's Captain John Smith and his Critics (1893) , John See also:Fiske's Old Virginia (1897), and for See also:criticism of Smith's credibility L. L. Kropf in Notes and Queries for 1890, See also:Alexander Browp'sGenesis of the See also:United States (1890) and E. D. See also:Neill's History of the Virginia Company of London (1869). (E.

End of Article: SMITH, JOHN (1579-1631)

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