them; their tents were rotten. They were weakened by continual labor at the defences in the extremity of the heat; and they watched by turns every third night, lying on the cold. bare ground, what weather soever came. It made the heart bleed to hear the pitiful murmurings and outcries of sick men without relief, night and day, for six weeks; and sometimes three or four died in a night. Fifty men, one half of the colony, perished before autumn; among them Bartholomew Gosnold, a man of rare merit, worthy of perpetual memory in the plantation.

Incessant broils heightened the confusion. The only efficient member of the government was Smith, who went up and down the river trading with the natives for corn, which brought relief to the colony. Wingfield, the president, gave offence by caring too much for his own comfort; and, being wholly inefficient, was, on the tenth of September, by general consent, deposed. The faint-hearted man, so he records of himself, offered a hundred pounds toward fetching home the emigrants if the plan of a colony should be given over. The office of president fell to John Ratcliffe from his place in the council, but he proved a passionate man, without capacity to rule himself, and still less to rule others. Of the only three remaining councillors, one was deposed, and afterward shot to death for mutiny; another was an invalid, and there was no one left to guide in action but Smith, whose buoyant spirit alone inspired confidence. In boyhood, such is his own narrative, he had sought for the opportunity of "setting out on brave adventures;" and, though not yet thirty years of age, he was already famed for various service in foreign wars. On regaining England, his mind was wholly mastered by the general enthusiasm for planting states in America; and now the infant commonwealth of Virginia depended for its life on his firmness. For the time he was the cape merchant or treasurer, as well as the only active councillor. His first thought was to complete the building of Jamestown, and, setting the example of diligent labor, he pushed on the construction of houses with sucHe next renewed trade with the natives, and was most successful in his expeditions for the purchase of corn. On the approach of winter, when he had defeated a proposal to let

cess.

the pinnace go for England, and when the fear of famine was removed by good supplies from the Indian harvest of maize and by the abundance of game, he began the exploration of the country. Ascending the Chickahominy as far as it was navigable in a barge, he then, with two red men as guides and two of his own company, proceeded twelve miles further; but, while with one Indian he went on shore to examine the nature of the soil and the bendings of the stream, his two companions were killed, and he himself was surrounded in the wilderness by so many warriors that he cast himself upon their mercy.

The leader of his captors was Opechancanough, a brother and subordinate of Powhatan, the great chieftain of all the neighborhood. He knew the rank of the prisoner, "used him with kindness," and sent his letters to the English fort; and from the villages on the Chickahominy the Virginia councillor was escorted through Indian towns to an audience with Powhatan, who chanced to be on what is now York river. The "emperor," studded with ornaments, and clad in raccoon skins, showed a grave and majestical countenance as he welcomed him with good words and "great platters of sundrie" food, and gave assurance of friendship. After a few days, which Smith diligently used in inquiries respecting the country, especially the waters to the north-west, he was, early in January, 1608, sent home, attended by four men, of whom two were laden with maize.

The first printed "Newes from Virginia" spread abroad these adventures of Smith; and they made known to English readers the name of Pocahontas, the daughter of Powhatan, a child" of tenne," or more probably of twelve "years old, who not only for feature, countenance, and expression, much exceeded any of the rest of his people, but for wit and spirit was the only nonpareil of the country." The captivity of the bold explorer became a benefit to the colony; for he not only observed with care the country between the James and the Potomac and gained some knowledge of the language and manners of the natives, but he established a peaceful intercourse between the English and the tribes of Powhatan. The child, to whom in later days he attributed his rescue from

death, visited the fort with companions, bringing baskets of

corn.

Restored to Jamestown after an absence of but four weeks, Smith found the colony reduced to forty men; and, of these, the strongest were preparing to escape with the pinnace. This attempt at desertion he repressed at the hazard of his life.

Meantime the council in England, having received an increase of its numbers and its powers, determined to send out recruits and supplies; and Newport had hardly returned from his first voyage before he was again despatched with one hundred and twenty emigrants. Yet the joy in Virginia on their arrival in April was of short continuance; for the new comers were chiefly gentlemen and goldsmiths, who soon persuaded themselves that they had discovered grains of gold in a glittering soil which abounded near Jamestown; and "there was now no talk, no hope, no work, but dig gold, wash gold, refine gold, load gold." Martin, one of the council, promised himself honors in England as the discoverer of a mine; and Newport believed himself rich, as in April he embarked for England with a freight of worthless earth.

Disgusted at the follies which he vainly opposed, Smith undertook the perilous and honorable office of exploring the bay of the Chesapeake, and the rivers which it receives. Two voyages, in an open boat, with a few companions, over whom his superior courage, rather than his station as a magistrate, gave him authority, occupied him about three months of the summer. With slender means, but with persistency and skill, he surveyed the bay to the Susquehanna, and left only the borders of that remote river to remain for some years longer the fabled dwelling-place of a giant progeny. He was the first to publish to the English the power of the Mohawks, "who dwelt upon a great water, and had many boats, and many men," and, as it seemed to the feebler Algonkin tribes, "made war upon all the world;" in the Chesapeake he encountered a fleet of their canoes. The Patapsco was discovered and explored, and Smith probably entered the harbor of Baltimore. The Potomac especially invited curiosity; and he ascended to its lower falls. Nor did he merely

examine the rivers and inlets. He penetrated the territories, and laid the foundation for beneficial intercourse with the native tribes. The map which he prepared and sent to the company in London delineates correctly the great outlines of nature. The expedition was worthy the romantic age of American history; he had entered upon it in the beginning of June, and had pursued the discovery with inflexible constancy, except for three days in July, when at Jamestown Ratcliffe, for his pride and cruelty, was deposed. The government would then have devolved on Smith; but he substituted for the time "his good friend Matthew Scrivener," a new councillor, who had come over but a few months before.

On the tenth of September, 1608, three days after his return from his discoveries, Smith was formally constituted president of the council. Order and industry began to be established, when Newport entered the river with about seventy new emigrants, of whom two were women.

The London company had grown exceedingly impatient at receiving no returns for its outlays. Of themselves they were helpless in counsel, without rational plans, looking vaguely for a mine of gold, or a short route to India, and listening too favorably to the advice of Newport. By their orders a great company proceeded to York river to go through the senseless ceremony of crowning Powhatan as emperor of that country. A boat in five parts was sent over from England, to be borne above the falls, in the hope of reaching the waters which flow to the South sea, or by some chance of finding a mine of gold. For several weeks the store of provisions and the labor of one hundred and twenty of the best men that could be chosen were wasted in examining James river above the falls.

A few Germans and Poles were sent over to make pitch, tar, soap ashes, and glass, when the colony could not yet raise provisions enough for its support. "When you send again," Smith was obliged to reply, "I entreat you rather send but thirty carpenters, husbandmen, gardeners, fishermen, blacksmiths, masons, and diggers up of trees' roots, well provided, than a thousand of such as we have."

The charge of the voyage of Newport was more than two

thousand pounds; unless the ships should return full freighted with commodities, corresponding in value to the costs of the adventure, the colonists were threatened with being "left in Virginia as banished men." "We have not received the value of one hundred pounds," answered Smith. "From toiling to satisfy the desire of present profit, we can scarce ever recover ourselves from one supply to another. These causes stand in the way of laying in Virginia a proper foundation; as yet, you must not look for any profitable returning."

After the long delayed departure of the ships, the first care of Smith was to obtain supplies for the colony from the Indians. In the spring of 1610 he introduced the culture of maize, which was taught by two savages, and thirty or forty acres were "digged and planted." Authority was employed to enforce industry; he who would not work might not eat, and six hours in the day were spent in toil. The gentlemen learned the use of the axe, and became excellent wood-cutters. Jamestown assumed the appearance of a regular place of abode. It is worthy of remembrance that Smith proposed to plant a town near the falls of the river, where the city of Richmond. now stands. Eight months of good order under his rule gave to the colony a period of peace and industry, of order and health. The quiet of his administration was disturbed in its last days by the arrival of seven ships with emigrants, sent out from England under new auspices, so that they for the moment formed an element of anarchy. Smith maintained his authority until his year of office was over; and, under special arrangements, a little longer, until he was accidentally disabled by wounds which the medical skill of the colony could not relieve. He then delegated his office to Percy and embarked for England, never to see the Chesapeake again.

Captain John Smith united the strongest spirit of adventure with eminent powers of action. Full of courage and selfpossession, he was fertile in expedients, and prompt in execution. He had a just idea of the public good, and clearly discerned that it was not the true interest of England to seek in Virginia for gold and sudden wealth. "Nothing," said he, "is to be expected thence but by labor;" and as a public officer he excelled in its direction. The historians of Virginia