Captain John Smith | Page 5

for the
charters and letters-patent. The Pocahontas discussion has been
followed in many magazine papers. I am greatly indebted to the
scholarly labors of Charles Deane, LL.D., the accomplished editor of
the "True Relation," and other Virginia monographs. I wish also to
acknowledge the courtesy of the librarians of the Astor, the Lenox, the
New York Historical, Yale, and Cornell libraries, and of Dr. J.
Hammond Trumbull, the custodian of the Brinley collection, and the
kindness of Mr. S. L. M. Barlow of New York, who is ever ready to
give students access to his rich "Americana."
C. D. W. HARTFORD, June, 1881

CAPTAIN JOHN SMITH

BIRTH AND TRAINING
Fortunate is the hero who links his name romantically with that of a
woman. A tender interest in his fame is assured. Still more fortunate is
he if he is able to record his own achievements and give to them that
form and color and importance which they assume in his own gallant
consciousness. Captain John Smith, the first of an honored name, had
this double good fortune.
We are indebted to him for the glowing picture of a knight-errant of the
sixteenth century, moving with the port of a swash-buckler across the
field of vision, wherever cities were to be taken and heads cracked in
Europe, Asia, and Africa, and, in the language of one of his laureates
"To see bright honor sparkled all in gore."
But we are specially his debtor for adventures on our own continent,
narrated with naivete and vigor by a pen as direct and clear-cutting as
the sword with which he shaved off the heads of the Turks, and for one
of the few romances that illumine our early history.
Captain John Smith understood his good fortune in being the recorder
of his own deeds, and he preceded Lord Beaconsfield (in "Endymion")
in his appreciation of the value of the influence of women upon the

career of a hero. In the dedication of his "General Historie" to Frances,
Duchess of Richmond, he says:
"I have deeply hazarded myself in doing and suffering, and why should
I sticke to hazard my reputation in recording? He that acteth two parts
is the more borne withall if he come short, or fayle in one of them.
Where shall we looke to finde a Julius Caesar whose atchievments
shine as cleare in his owne Commentaries, as they did in the field? I
confesse, my hand though able to wield a weapon among the Barbarous,
yet well may tremble in handling a Pen among so many judicious;
especially when I am so bold as to call so piercing and so glorious an
Eye, as your Grace, to view these poore ragged lines. Yet my comfort
is that heretofore honorable and vertuous Ladies, and comparable but
amongst themselves, have offered me rescue and protection in my
greatest dangers: even in forraine parts, I have felt reliefe from that sex.
The beauteous Lady Tragabigzanda, when I was a slave to the Turks,
did all she could to secure me. When I overcame the Bashaw of
Nalbrits in Tartaria, the charitable Lady Callamata supplyed my
necessities. In the utmost of my extremities, that blessed Pokahontas,
the great King's daughter of Virginia, oft saved my life. When I
escaped the cruelties of Pirats and most furious stormes, a long time
alone in a small Boat at Sea, and driven ashore in France, the good
Lady Chanoyes bountifully assisted me."
It is stated in his "True Travels" that John Smith was born in
Willoughby, in Lincolnshire. The year of his birth is not given, but it
was probably in 1579, as it appears by the portrait prefixed to that work
that he was aged 37 years in 1616. We are able to add also that the
rector of the Willoughby Rectory, Alford, finds in the register an entry
of the baptism of John, son of George Smith, under date of Jan. 9, 1579.
His biographers, following his account, represent him as of ancient
lineage: "His father actually descended from the ancient Smiths of
Crudley in Lancashire, his mother from the Rickands at great Heck in
Yorkshire;" but the circumstances of his boyhood would indicate that
like many other men who have made themselves a name, his origin was
humble. If it had been otherwise he would scarcely have been bound as
an apprentice, nor had so much difficulty in his advancement. But the
boy was born with a merry disposition, and in his earliest years was
impatient for adventure. The desire to rove was doubtless increased by

the nature of his native shire, which offered every inducement to the lad
of spirit to leave it.
Lincolnshire is the most uninteresting part of all England. It is
frequently water-logged till late in the summer: invisible a