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JOHN SMITH

Born 1580— Died 1631

Bless then, our God, the new-yoked plow

And the good beasts that draw,

And the bread we eat in the sweat of our brow

According to thy Law.

After us cometh a multitude —

Prosper the work of our hands,

That we may feed with our land's food

The folk of all our lands.

— KIPLING'S "The Settler."

IT was more than a hundred years before an English settlement took root and flourished in the New World. This was at Jamestown, Virginia, and the year in which it was begun was 1607. Jamestown, therefore, was the first permanent settlement made by Englishmen in the United States. It survived a desperate struggle against starvation and Indian attacks, and the man who more than anyone else helped to keep it alive was John Smith.

The days of England's courtiers and adventurers were drawing to an end, and Smith was one of the last. His life was filled with so many bold exploits and hairbreadth escapes that he makes a picturesque and interesting figure in our early history.

John Smith was born in Lincolnshire, England, and, as he was early attracted by a life of activity and danger, he joined in the war then raging in Holland. It has been said of him that he could not hear of a fight going on anywhere in the world without taking a hand in it; so we are not surprised to find him next in Hungary fighting the Turks.

Once he was taken prisoner and thrown overboard from a ship, but escaped by swimming to land. At another time he was robbed, bound, and thrown into a deep wood to die, but again he managed to escape. When he finally reached England he heard that another attempt was to be made to do in America the work that Sir Walter Raleigh had failed in doing, and Smith at once became interested in the project.

The experiments made by Raleigh and others had proved that planting colonies in America would be a very expensive undertaking. England, however, was not willing to allow Spain to have all this new country; for the idea still prevailed that rich treasures might easily be found in America.

With this fond hope in mind a body of merchants in London in 1605 formed themselves into an organization known as the London Company. They procured from King James a charter giving them the right to establish colonies anywhere in America between Cape Fear and the Potomac River. This royal grant stated that the religion of the settlers must be that of the Church of England and that they were to treat the natives kindly, and "use all means in their power to draw them to the true knowledge and love of God."

In fitting out the first expedition of the London Company, Captain John Smith took an active part, and when in the winter of i6o6 three ships set sail from England, Smith was among the one hundred and five men who turned their faces toward Virginia.

The Atlantic was safely crossed and the colonists reached Virginia early in 1607. They entered Chesapeake Bay and before landing sailed for thirty miles up a broad and beautiful river. This they named the James in honor of their king, and for the same reason the little settlement was called Jamestown.

But England had not yet learned what kind of men were needed for a successful settlement in the wilderness, where trees must be cut down, houses built, and all kinds of rough work done. Instead of carpenters and laborers, the colony consisted largely of men who called themselves "gentlemen," who had been led to come over by the desire for gold.

The colonists lacked many tools that would have been of great service in tilling the soil, but there were plenty of pickaxes for digging precious metals. The settlers were so confident that these were plentiful in Virginia, that they sent a ship load of yellow dirt back to England in the vain hope that it might turn out to be gold.

At first Captain John Smith paid little attention to the management of the settlement, although he was one of the council selected to govern the colony. But as the months passed it became plain that somebody would have to take charge and make new laws, or all the colonists would perish from hunger and the hostility of the savages. As there seemed to be no one else willing or capable, Smith came forward, was chosen governor, and assumed full command.

One of his first acts was to make the wise rule, "He who will not work shall not eat." As all provisions were kept in a common storehouse, where each one had to apply for his food, this rule was easily enforced. It had been the custom for the men to help themselves to whatever remained of the scanty store, but now this was changed. Smith taught the "gentlemen "to use tools, and to cultivate the land; and he made them build log houses and fortifications for protection against assaults of the savages.

With a few of his men he explored the Chickahominy River, and traded beads and trinkets with the Indians for corn to feed the half-starved colonists. He still clung to a belief that the Pacific Ocean was not far away, and that he was likely at any time to find it.

While he was out on one of these trading and exploring trips, Smith fell into the hands of hostile savages who were ready to put him to death. But he had had too much experience in dangerous positions to lose his wits.

He quickly drew from his pocket a compass and showed his captors the trembling needle that always points to the north. This queer little instrument, so different from anything the natives had ever seen, aroused their childlike wonder. Their curiosity got the better of their thirst for blood, and Smith was taken from one Indian village to another and exhibited to the astonished savages.

One day, finding himself not far from Jamestown, John

Smith wrote on a piece of paper an account of his condition, and directed the Indians to carry it to the little settlement.

The savages learned to their great surprise that when the white people had looked at the paper they knew all that had happened. This "talking on paper "appeared to their simple minds as one of the greatest of wonders, and made them think more highly than ever of their captive.

The Indian tribes into whose hands Smith had fallen had a powerful chief called Powhatan. In one of the books that Captain Smith wrote long afterward, he told how his life was saved by Powhatan's daughter, Pocahontas, a little Indian maiden about twelve years of age. The savages had at last grown tired of their white prisoner and had decided to kill him. The head of the unhappy Englishman was placed on a block and an Indian stood over him ready to strike the fatal blow. Just at that moment Pocahontas rushed forward, and with tears streaming down her cheeks begged her father to spare the white man's life, and the old chieftain, with whom the little maid was a great favorite, ordered the prisoner to be released.

Smith finally succeeded in reaching Jamestown, which had suffered many hardships during his absence. The little settlement was to undergo much more suffering before it became established beyond fear of failure. This, as we have seen, was in a large measure due to the kind of men the settlers were. Smith says of them in his history that they were "better fitted to spoil a community than to begin or help maintain one."

Even with the aid of food that Captain Smith was able to get from the Indians, and the fish that could be caught, there were not enough provisions to go around. The river water was not fit to drink, and malaria lurked in the surrounding marshes. Fever broke out, many died, and one hard winter the colonists were forced to eat their horses and dogs.

Even by resorting to such extreme measures, there were times when the living were too ill and weak to bury the dead.

Fortunately for the new settlers, more and more people in England were beginning to take an interest in the project of founding a colony in America. At last the settlers were rejoiced to see a ship load of men sailing up the James River. Soon other ships came, and some of them brought women and children. More houses were built, more seeds were planted, and the little colony was firmly established.

In 1609 Captain Smith returned to England, partly because of an accident, and partly because some of the new arrivals were jealous of him, wishing to become governor in his place. So they invented charges against him and thus found an excuse for sending him back.

The charges came to nothing, but Smith never returned to the Jamestown settlement, though he made several voyages to America for the purpose of exploring the coast. He gave the name New England to the shores that he explored, and he carried on a profitable trade with the natives in fish and furs.

His maps of the coast of Chesapeake Bay and of New England were so nearly correct that they were in use for more than one hundred years.

The books written in his later days by this able Englishman are very interesting. His descriptions of America were so enthusiastic that they helped to attract many emigrants to these shores.

After a life crowded with adventure on land and sea, Captain John Smith died in London when not much more than fifty years of age, and his body lies buried in the church of St. Sepulchre.

In the year 1619 there were four thousand colonists in Virginia. The leaders in the colony, desiring to manage their own affairs, appealed to the London Company for permission to elect representatives or "burgesses," to form an assembly to make laws for the colony. The request was readily granted and in 1619, in the choir of the little church at Jamestown, the first law-making body in America met. This assembly was afterward called the House of Burgesses.

We shall learn a little later how this first settlement in America came to be burned to the ground. There is now nothing left of Jamestown but a crumbling wall, but the work that Captain Smith and his companions began did not perish. As we continue to study, we shall learn how from the humble beginning at Jamestown, Virginia grew into a rich and prosperous state, and of how much service the Virginians have been in the history of our country.

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