SMITH, John, English soldier and colonist, founder of Virginia: b. Willoughby, Lincoln shire, 1580; d. London, June 1631. In 1596 he enlisted in the French army to fight against Spain, but after the peace in 1598 transferred his services to the insurgents in the Nether lands, and there remained until about 1600. Af ter study of the theory of warfare and practice in the cavalry exercises of the time, he started on a career of marvelous adventure, performing very many exploits, for which his own narra tives are the only authority. Having shipped, he says, from France for Italy, he was thrown overboard as a Protestant, but ultimately was rescued by a pirate, and after receiving a share of booty from a Venetian prize, went through Italy and Dalmatia to Styria, and enlisted in the forces of the Archduke of Austria against the Turks. He places emphasis upon his in genuity in the device of a system of signaling by means of which the imperial army was en abled to communicate with the invested garri son of Limbach and thus raised the siege. After having killed three Turkish champions in a series of duels before the assembled armies, he was at last taken prisoner at Rotenturm, and sold as a slave. But he escaped, and finally got to Morocco, whence he returned in an English warship to England in 1605. Fuller ((Worthies of England') thought of these estrange performances)) that their scene was elaid at such a distance they are cheaper cred ited than confuted." Later investigators al low them some basis of truth. When Smith got back he busied himself in the schemes of colonization in the New World which were being undertaken in consequence of the recent discoveries. An enterprise with which he was identified for a settlement in Guiana fell through, and he then sailed from Blackwall, 19 Dec. 1606 among the 105 emigrants who, under royal patent, were to establish a colony in Virginia. In the passenger-list he is styled a planter. The expedition of three vessels went by way of the West Indies, reached the coast of Virginia on 26 April, and then opened the sealed instructions containing the list of mem bers of the council. Among them was Smith, who was not at first permitted to act because during the voyage for some reason unknown he had been placed under arrest by Captain New port, commander of the fleet. On 13 May 1607 the colonists landed about 50 miles from the mouth of the river they called the James, at a peninsula on its northern bank, where they built Jamestown. The site was strongly ap proved by Smith, though opposed by Bartholo mew Gosnold, another of the council. From the start Smith was active in the work of the colony, and on 10 June he was admitted to office. Fortifications were built, and then he made excursions into the suarounding region for food. He proved an excellent leader, and soon became virtually the director of the colony.
During one of his journeys he was taken pris oner by the Indians (December 1607), but later released on promise to furnish a ransom of etwo great guns and a grindstone." In an interpolation in his (Generalli Historie (1624), Smith says that it was during this captivity that he was saved from death by Pocahontas (q.v.). Charles Deane (q.v.), the antiquary, in
his edition (1860) of Wingfield's (Discourse,' was the first to point out that the story was at variance with Smith's narratives in the tracts composing the book when they were published contemporaneously with the events they re corded. But Smith has found many defenders, such as Arber in his memoir in the (Encyclo pmdia Britannica' (9th ed. 1887) and his edi tion (1884) of Smith's (Works,' and Poin dexter in 'Captain John Smith and his Critics' (1893). The matter, like Smith's general verac ity, remains an object of controversy. Wing field, the first elected president of the colony, was deposed in September 1607, Smith taking a leading hand in the business. Ratcliffe, the successor, held office a year, and 10 Sept. 1608 Smith was made formal head. He enforced discipline, strove to correct the unthrifty meth ods of the colonists, had them build a church, strengthen the defenses, and make some pro vision for agriculture and fishery. He made two voyages, covering in all, he reckoned, 3,000 miles, about the coasts of Chesapeake Bay, which he mapped with its environs. A new party of colonists arrived in August 1609. Smith refused to surrender the government of the colony, and the newcomers chose Francis West president. Smith's term having later ex pired, George Percy was elected and West made a councillor. About 29 September Smith left for England. He never returned to Jamestown. He left the colony in a most favorable condi tion. In 1614 he made a voyage of explora tion to New England and prepared a map of the coast from the Penobscot to Cape Cod, the first properly to indicate the outline of it. He made two attempts in 1615, being frustrated in the first by a storm and in the second by being taken prisoner by the French. In 1617 he started again, but bad weather kept him in port, and he retired to London where he made maps and wrote pamphlets. Smith was cer tainly a prominent figure of his time, and what ever his tendency to embellishment and imagi nation as a historian, he really achieved much in Virginia. He was a good example of Eliza bethan versatility, abookman, penman, swords man, diplomat, sailor, courtier, orator?' His service to America in the early 17th century remains the greatest part of his career. His most important works are 'True Relation) (1608; ed. by Deane, C., Boston 1867); 'Maps of Virginia' (1612); 'Description of New England) (1616); 'New England's Trials' (1620). Consult Arber, E., 'Complete Works of Captain. John Smith' (Birmingham 1884• London 1895); Ashton, J., 'Adventures and Discoveries of Captain John Smith' (New York 1883) ; Bradley, A. G, 'Captain John Smith' (New York 1905) ; Jenks, T., (Captain John Smith' (New York 1904); Smith, E. B., 'Pocahontas and Captain John Smith' (Bos ton 1914); Warner, C. D., (Life of Captain John Smith' (New York 1N1) ; Wertenbaker, T. J., (Virginia under the Stuarts' (Princeton 1914). See jA MESTOWN.