Captain John Smith
“Let him not boast who puts his armor onAs he who puts it off, the battle done,”
“Let him not boast who puts his armor onAs he who puts it off, the battle done,”
“Let him not boast who puts his armor on
As he who puts it off, the battle done,”
says an American poet. To the credit of John Smith—soldier, leader, reformer, discoverer, author—be it remembered that he never “talked big” till he had “acted big,”—that his deeds ever went before his words.
CAPTAIN JOHN SMITH
CAPTAIN JOHN SMITH
CAPTAIN JOHN SMITH
He was the first Englishman who wrote a book in the United States. His “True Relation of Virginia” was written in the intervals between tree-cutting, house-building, exploration, and adventure, and sent by the vessel which returned to England in June, 1608. Much doubt has been cast—Fiske and other historiansassert that it has been unjustly cast—on Smith’s statements. In details—dates and figures—we may believe that the soldier-author was not always accurate. Had he misrepresented facts, or misstated essentials, however, we may be sure he would have been promptly and eagerly contradicted by the “gentlemen of rank” who were actors and eye-witnesses with him, and who never missed an opportunity to vent their jealous hate on plain John Smith who outshone them all.
John Smith was born in Lincolnshire, England, about 1580. As a child he longed for a life of adventure, and when he was thirteen he sold his school-books and planned to go to sea; however, he thought better of the matter and remained at home two years longer with his mother. After her death he went to the Continent and became a soldier. He served in France and in Holland and then drifted East to fight against the Turks. There, he tells us, he had wonderful adventures. During a siege he fought three Turkish soldiers, one after another, and killed them all. Later, he was taken prisoner and sold as a slave, but escaped. He made his way home, through Russia, Austria, Spain, and Morocco. When he reached England in 1605, he found an expedition being planned to settle the New World and he resolved to join it.
The first English expeditions to make settlements in America were sent out under the authority of Sir Humphrey Gilbert, Sir Walter Raleigh, and other individuals.Later on, the difficult and expensive work of colonization was undertaken by companies. These had regular trading agents and workmen, and expected rich profits from trade with the colonies. The colonies in the New World were encouraged by the sovereign, also, who regarded them as a check on the power of Spain to the south and on that of France to the north.
A band of about a hundred men sent out by the London Company, left England in December, 1606, in three little vessels, the Discovery, the Good Speed, and the Susan Constant. The party was led by Christopher Newport who had served under Raleigh and had himself captured Spanish treasure-ships. After a roundabout voyage by the West Indies, further delayed by contrary winds, in the spring of 1607 the colonists entered a noble bay. “The low shores were covered with flowers of divers colors; the goodly trees were in full foliage, and all nature seemed kind and benignant.”
The Englishmen called the capes on either side of the bay Cape Henry and Cape Charles, in honor of the king’s two sons; the river up which they sailed and the settlement they founded were named for King James. The landing at Jamestown was made May 13, 1607.
The band was ill fitted for the work before it. In it there were only a few workmen, carpenters, blacksmiths, and masons, and many “gentlemen”—men “that never did know what a day’s work was,” and that came for adventure or in search of gold. There hadbeen, it seems, jealous disputes on the way out, and John Smith had been put under arrest. After they landed, the settlers opened the sealed instructions given when they left England and found that Smith was appointed one of the directors of the colony; at first he was not allowed to take his place, but in course of time he became not only a director, but president, of the colony.
Some of the colonists busied themselves those spring days planting gardens as in England, and planting also cotton and orange trees, we are told. Others looked around for gold and set out to discover the Pacific Ocean, which they thought was near at hand. Unfortunately a malarial site had been chosen for the colony, and in the hot, wet summer, the men, unaccustomed to the climate, fell sick.
Their ill-health was increased by bad water and lack of food. By September half of the hundred colonists had died of famine and fever: there were not enough able-bodied men to bury the dead in decent fashion; the bodies were “trailed out of their cabins like dogs to be buried.” Fortunately the Indians did not choose this time for an attack; instead, they brought corn and game to trade for beads, bells, and other trinkets.
The Indians of this section were Algonquins, like those later encountered in Massachusetts, but these were stronger and more hostile. They attacked the white men, “creeping from the hills like bears, with theirbows in their mouths.” They were repulsed, but for many years there was the fear and danger of them for the colonists.
The Jamestown colony, like many of the other early ones, was managed by a “common-store system.” All food and supplies raised or bought were put into a common store-house and dealt out in equal portions. All articles collected for export were put into a common store and sent back to England. There was no reward for individual effort, and many of the colonists shirked work or labored in a half-hearted fashion.
There was one man who was always ready to do his part and do it well. This was John Smith. He helped cut trees, and build cabins, and erect a log palisade around the settlement. He was liked and feared by the Indians from whom he secured corn needed by the colonists. He was a sober and upright man and endeavored to establish law and order in the colony. In order to check the use of bad language, he had account kept of the oaths uttered by each man and at night for each one a can of cold water was poured down his sleeve. Strict as he was, he was always just and reasonable; he set the example of working hard, and never required of others more than he was willing to perform himself.
His chief relaxation was an adventurous journey in boat or afoot through the country, of which he gave a glowing description. “Here are mountains, hills,plains,” he said, “and rivers and brooks all running most pleasantly into a fair bay, compassed but for the mouth, with fruitful and delightsome land.... The vesture of the earth in most places doth manifestly prove the nature of the soil to be lusty and very rich.”
On one of the expeditions, in December, 1607, into Powhatan’s country he and the men with him were captured. He was carried to the chief Powhatan—an old man who was “well beaten with many cold and stormy winters,” said Captain Smith. Captain Smith tells us that he was released at the request of the chief’s daughter, Pocahontas, just as he was about to be killed. This story has been doubted. Nothing is said about it in the “True Relation” sent from Virginia in 1608. But this book was brought out by the directors of the Company. It was not to their interest to publish an incident which showed that the settlers had the hostility of the great Indian chief. The Company wished the colony to be thought successful and prosperous so as to induce men to go out. Later, settlers found it impossible to inform their friends at home of their sufferings.
In 1608 came more colonists, including some women and children. In this year Captain Smith set out in an open boat and explored Chesapeake Bay, of which he made a map that remained the authoritative one for over a hundred years. Smith returned to Jamestown in September, and was elected president of the colonywhich was in sore straits, needing a firm and able man at its head. “You must obey this now for a law,” he said, “He that will not work shall not eat.” Under this rule disorder was suppressed and idlers were forced to labor. Smith’s prudence and wisdom saved the colony from ruin.
In 1609 five hundred new colonists came out, commanded by men hostile to Smith. He seems to have been in frequent conflict with them, and finally he returned to England to defend himself against their charges and to have treatment for a painful wound. After his departure, took place the terrible “Starving Time.” The colonists refused to work, they were attacked by the Indians, and laid waste by disease. By famine, fever, and war, the colonists in a few months were reduced in numbers from five hundred to sixty. They embarked to leave the scene of misery, but met a ship containing food and supplies and turned back. Thus near failure came the colony which laid the foundation of English civilization, and religious and civil liberty in America. After a time the common-store system was abolished and each man was given land to cultivate for himself; then “three men did more than thirty before.” In 1612 John Rolfe began the cultivation of tobacco and this became the currency of the colony, the source of its wealth and prosperity.
Captain Smith never revisited the Jamestown colony. In 1614 he came as “Admiral of New England” toexplore North Virginia, as the northern part of America was called, and made a map of the country which he called New England. The next year Smith set out with the intention of planting a colony in New England. But he was taken prisoner by the French, and finally made his way back to England. There he spent quietly the sixteen years remaining to him. He wrote in 1616 a “Description of New England;” in 1624 he contributed a description of Virginia to a “General History of Virginia,” which was compiled at the request of the London Company. At the time of his death, in 1631, he was busy writing a “History of the Sea.”