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
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 historians assert 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 had been, 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.