I
JOHN Smith was well worth rescue by Pocahontas for this country's sake, if not for her own. Americans halt before his statue—however tarnished and battered the brass. Still, he was no model lad in his lively day. He was the bold exception to the rules of the school at Louth, England, which he recommended for the other—and duller fellow. A duller fellow would have dug in the lush Lincolnshire countryside forever and a day.
His tenant-farmer father, George Smith, had relished the life, whether he was sitting as juror solemnly, or playing at bowls or horses right jollily. He died early, leaving his family comfortable feather beds and goodly pewter plates and candlesticks. His widow married too hastily to suit her sensitive son John, who now tucked away his memory of her, and deserted home, having already bolted his desk. Now that he was a free young man, his place as an apprentice did not detain him, for the call of salt and hemp in the port of Lynn had already lured him.
At this reckless point Lord Willoughby, his father's protector, stood him in good stead. The noble was touched by lowly George Smith's bequest of a two-year old mare. George could not have done better indirectly by his son John. It was as if he mounted him on a dashing steed, champing to be off for heroic travel. Willoughby lifted the fatherless young John Smith into a knightly sphere which was rare for a lad of his station. Besides being gratified by his friend's affection, he was mindful of John's resourceful and entertaining companionship for his own two gentler lads.
He invited him to "Grimothorpe," a rugged castle with a stone tower and twelve chimneys. Willoughby had fought with Sir Phillip Sydney and he, like Sydney, had ballads written about himself. John enjoyed his hospitality before setting out with the boys' tutors, servants and horses on a Continental journey. They went from northwestern to southeastern France, stopping at Orleans and at Turenne. After six weeks with the party, John continued on his own to Paris, Holland and Edinburgh.
Returning to his home-town John, feeling "glutted with too much company" took to the woods, where he studied the art of combat. After incredible exploits, he returned to London as a seasoned hero of twenty-four years, and was listed as "gent."
He was not ready to settle down yet by any manner of means and he pricked up his ears at the clarion call of the West. Agriculture and industry were bogging down and limiting commerce in England, and many wanted a new livelihood.
The old world's clutch on western shores had failed. The Roanoke Colony had filed valorously into oblivion to the South after Sir Walter Raleigh had tried three times to establish a permanent settlement. Attempts in the North at Elizabeth's Island and at St. George's Fort had been equally unsuccessful. It was recalled now that Hakluyt had advised Raleigh in 1586 that the present Virginian coast would be the most favorable point for colonization. But Raleigh himself was now a prisoner in the Tower of London, pacing back and forth on the narrow battlement which was assigned to him for exercise. Queen Elizabeth I herself, as a young prisoner there, had had but little more range—but she had reigned long, and had been dead for three years, and the colony which Raleigh had named Virginia for the Virgin Queen had disappeared.
Yet the men who now induced her successor, King James, to incorporate two Virginia companies had been associated with Raleigh. That John Smith should be included in their councils indicated how far he had gotten. Since he was a veteran traveller, his betters had deigned to include him in their enterprise, and he was to sail with the group sent by the company for South Virginia.