Smith, Captain John

Captain John (1579-1632), a noted English adventurer, navigator, and soldier. He was the son of a thrifty farmer in Lincolnshire. While a mere schoolboy he sold his satchel and books, intending to run off to sea, but was delayed by his father's death. His guardian apprenticed him to a Lynn merchant, but finding that it was not his master's intention to send him to sea, Smith bade merchandising farewell. With money obtained from his father's estate he went abroad in 1596 in the retinue of a nobleman bound for Paris. He studied the art of war abroad, and saw service in the civil wars of France and in Holland. Returning to Lincolnshire by way of Scotland, he built himself a booth of boughs and took delight in living like a hermit, spending his time in hunting and in reading books on war. He then set out from home to seek the scene of warfare with the Turks, who were pressing their way up the valley of the Danube. His adventures read more like romance than fact. On his way from Marseilles to Italy, with a company of pilgrims on their way to Rome, he was thrown overboard, Jonah like, for his heresy. He swam to a little island and was taken off by a passing ship.

Having reached Hungary, Smith distinguished himself as the foremost champion of the Christians. On one occasion, fighting on horseback in the presence of both armies, he killed three Turkish warriors in succession. Finally he was wounded, taken captive, sent to Constantinople, and sold into slavery on the River Don. His master took delight in beating the Christian dog of a slave. One day, as he was employed flailing grain, the pasha began to beat him anew. Smith slew his master, hid him under the straw, filled a knapsack with grain, jumped on a horse and fled, all in irons, fourteen days to the confines of Russia. By 1605 he was back in England ready for new adventures. He was a member of the company that founded Jamestown, Virginia, in 1607. He was at the head of the colony in 1608-9. The colonists owed it to his energy and skill that they did not perish for want of food. From 1610 to 1617 he was employed in various surveys and explorations along New England to which he gave the name. He was interested in the possibilities of fishing for cod and of bartering for fur. In 1619 he offered his services to the Pilgrims and others, but his religious views did not suit them. They preferred Captain Standish. From this time on, Captain Smith employed his time in writing various works on Virginia, New England, and his travels. He was a vainglorious, energetic, courageous, generous, just man to whom the New World owes much. He lies buried beside Roger Ascham in St. Sepulchre's Church on High Holborn Street, London. His epitaph runs: "Here lies one conquer'd that hath conquer'd kings. Sometime Governour of Virginia and Admirall of New England."

See New England; Virginia; Pocahontas; Plymouth