Captain John Smith

“ It was with feelings of curiosity and interest on either side that Captain John Smith, the leader of the colonists, and Opechancanough, the chief of the Pamaunkes, confronted each other. Both men of noble bearing and fearless character, they must have been mutually impressed at the first encounter. The chief’s erect and well-knit frame towered above the forms of his attendant warriors and, together with the dignity and intelligence of his countenance, marked him as a superior being. ”

“ Persecution drove numbers of Nonconformists to America, and the story of Captain John Smith shows how hardly society then pressed on the race of adventurers, even where the bitterness of the struggle did not produce religious enthusiasm.
Smith lived a generation too late. Born in 1579, he was a child of nine when the Armada perished, and only sixteen when Drake and Hawkins died at sea. ”

“ After all the abatements which a fair criticism must make from the praise of Captain John Smith either as a doer or as a narrator, his writings still make upon us the impression of a certain personal largeness in him, magnanimity, affluence, sense, and executive force. As a writer his merits are really great—clearness, force, vividness, picturesque and dramatic energy, a diction racy and crisp; and during the first two decades of the seventeenth century he did more than any other Englishman to make an American nation and an American literature possible. ”

“ The life of Captain John Smith reads like a chapter from "The Cloister and the Hearth." It abounds in incidents such as we call improbable in novels, although precedents enough for every one of them may be found in real life. ”

“ There are few names that excite more interest or awaken more romantic associations than that of Captain John Smith. He passed through a series of the most remarkable events in Europe; and coming to our country at a period which was favorable to the exercise of his peculiar genius, he became the hero of many stirring adventures.
He was born at Willoughby, in the county of Lincolnshire, England, in the year 1579, and was descended from an ancient family. He displayed a love of enterprise in his early childhood, and he says that at thirteen years old he was "set upon brave adventures." ”

“ We are seldom at a loss to fully understand him, and the only complaint that we feel disposed to make against Captain John Smith as a writer is that he too often fails to give an account of his own part in the stirring events which he records. In fact he combined with the modesty usually associated with true greatness, the self-confidence of the man whose ultimate reliance is upon an all-powerful Providence. ”

“ He had been the ruling spirit and the preserver of the Virginia colony. In fact, he has often and justly been called the "Father of Virginia." His strong hand had also opened wide the door of New England.
We must think of Captain John Smith as the hero of the first struggle of English civilization with the wilderness of America. Wherever he was, his genius and resolute will had made him a leader. There was never a braver man. After a life full of romantic adventures and daring exploits, he died in London in 1631 at the age of fifty-two. ”

“ Captain John Smith was a brave and wise man who came from England and settled in Virginia. One day some of his men disobeyed orders and got into a quarrel with the Indians. John Smith was taken prisoner and led into their camp. He showed them his compass, and told them how the needle always turned to the north, which so amused the Indians that, instead of killing him, they took him to their chief, Powhatan, who said, “The white man must die.” ”

“ Their leading spirit was Captain John Smith, an adventurous and able man, who in spite of jealousies put himself at the head of affairs and saved the colony. The men sent out were mainly gentlemen adventurers seeking to mend their fortunes, and even some of the real workers followed callings not required in the wilderness. ”

“ 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. ”

“ Inasmuch as that kept moving, he dallied with his paddle just enough to hold his graceful craft abreast. Captain John Smith, the famous navigator, Bartholomew Gosnold, Wingfield, Newport, Ratcliffe, Martin and Kendall-all 178of whom had been named as Councillors by King James-were at the rail of the Sarah Constant, looking off and down at the visitors, who, although they had come so close, hesitated to draw nearer to the vessel.
Captain Smith called in his bass, resonant welcome:
"Welcome! Welcome! Will you not come that we may shake hands with you and break bread together?" ”

“ Captain JOHN SMITH,
CHAP. I.
His Birth; Apprenticeship; Going into France; His beginning with Ten Shillings and three Pence; His Service in the Netherlands; His bad Passage into Scotland; His return to Willoughby, and how he lived in the Woods.
He was born in Willoughby in Lincoln-shire, and a Scholar in the two Free-Schools of Alford and Louth. His Father antiently descended from the ancient Smiths of Crudley in Lancashire; his Mother from the Rickards at Great Heck, in York-shire. ”

“ No man of them enjoys the advantage of knowing more than the others about those distant parts and their people. Rank and money will count for little in the new life. Each man’s worth will be measured by his character and his actions. Under such conditions, a man of Smith’s extraordinary ability must sooner or later become the leader, even among others much older than himself.
The foundation of Virginia and, as I have said, that of the United States was laid by Captain John Smith in spite of tremendous difficulties. ”

“ As John was about to go to his tent, his heart full of joy at the wonderful good fortune that had befallen him, Prince Moyses beckoned him to his [128] side. It was in the mind of the general to ask Smith to waive his right in favor of some older and better tried captain, but the first glance at the young man’s eager face convinced his commander that it would be useless to pursue the purpose. Instead he inquired whether Smith’s horse and equipment were all that he could desire and what weapons he would choose, having as the challenged the right of selection. ”

“ While I waited at Belshaw for the answer to my challenge, my friend gave me many particulars of the history of Captain John Smith, whom he thought one of the greatest men in the world, although the captain was his cousin.
"He is now in London," said John, "and in hope to lead another expedition. He will snap you up at a word. A tall fellow who has more lives than a cat, and relishes fighting better than his victuals, will suit him to admiration."
"There, indeed, you mistake me," I protested. "I am no lover of brawls, and would go far to avoid one." ”

“ Know that We have given Leave and Licence to John Smith an English Gentleman, Captain of 250 Soldiers, under the most Generous and Honourable Henry Volda, Earl of Meldritch, Salmaria, and Peldoia, Colonel of a thousand Horse, and fifteen hundred Foot, in the Wars of Hungary, and in the Provinces aforesaid under our Authority; whose Service doth deserve all praise, and perpetual Memory towards us, as a Man that did for God and his Country overcome his Enemies ”

“ 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.” ”

“ 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. ”

“ With a dozen men in an open boat, he performs a voyage of a thousand miles, surveying the shores of the great Chesapeake Bay and exploring its noble tributary streams, with thousands of the wild sons of the forest ready to meet{175} him at every turn. When, in the cabin of the powerful chief Opechancanough, five hundred warriors, armed with bow and club, surrounded him with a determination to seize him and put him to death, who but Captain John Smith would have extricated himself from his perilous situation? ”

“ There, sure enough, was the pinnace in mid-stream and Captain Kendall hoisting her sail to catch a stiff breeze which was blowing out of the river. The spectators stood open-mouthed in speechless dismay, or bewailed the escape that they seemed to consider accomplished. That was not the view of Captain Smith. He took in the situation at a glance and as quickly decided upon counteraction. Running back to the fort he had a gun trained on the pinnace in a trice and shouted to its occupant to come ashore or stay and sink and to make his decision instanter. ”

“ When Captain Samuel Argall, the privateer, turned up in July with letters from the Company criticizing Smith and telling of the third supply to be brought by Lord Delaware, Smith was embittered. A month later four ships of the supply came in early bearing—of all people—Smith's former enemies: Ratcliffe, Archer and Martin, all captains now. The Sea Venture and other ships had not been heard from, but Smith had had enough and he was hurt by lack of confidence in his command. He was thinking of returning to England anyhow before his enemies sped him on his way. ”

“ 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 ”

“ That night, in the midst of the gale, the wind hushed suddenly, as on the night of the sixteenth, while the sea was running high, and left us again struggling in a trough of the sea.
“At mercy of the waves, whose mercies are
As human beings’ during civil war.” However, it was soon blowing again, and the captain, who wanted to get across the Gulf Stream as soon as possible—for the sea is always more turbulent there than elsewhere—put the ship before the wind, determined to run her “as long as she would float.”
CHAPTER XLIII
John Smith’s End Imminent. ”

“ 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. ”

“ He then entered on board the Portsmouth galley and was rated by Captain (Sir) William Whetstone [q. v.] as a midshipman. His knowledge of the French coast proved useful, and Smith was led by Whetstone, and afterwards by Captain John Bridges, to expect promotion through their recommendation; but on Bridges being wounded and sent to hospital, Smith was put on shore by the first lieutenant, who was acting as captain, and received nothing but his pay ticket as midshipman. ”

“ 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. ”

“ Seeing himself so greatly overmatched, Merham endeavored to escape, and a running fight was maintained for hours. At length, towards sunset, the Spaniards damaged the Britisher’s rigging and coming up with him, boarded from either side. Merham’s ship must have been captured by the enemy, who greatly outnumbered his own men, but whilst the fight on deck was in progress, Captain Smith secured “divers bolts of iron”—cross-bars, probably—with which he loaded one of the guns. ”