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Captain John Smith and
His Adventures
This man is one of the most interesting characters
in the early history of our country. He was a great boaster, and most of
his associates did not like him. He had been a wanderer in many parts of
the world, and had any number of stories to tell of his wonderful
adventures. Probably some of those stories were true and many fiction.
Be that as it may, he was an energetic and brave man, and the very one
to save the perishing settlers. He made every man work, and none wrought
harder than himself. As a consequence matters began to mend at once.
Obeying his orders in London, Captain Smith, when
it seemed prudent to do so, spent much of his time in exploring the
streams that flowed into the James. It must not be forgotten that it was
still believed in Europe that America formed a part of Asia, and that no
one needed to penetrate far into the interior to reach that country.
On one of these voyages Captain Smith was taken
prisoner by the Indians, who led him before their chief Powhatan. The
chief decided that he must be put to death, and, with his hands tied
together, he was placed on the ground, with his head resting on two big
stones. Then one of the warriors stepped forward to dash out his brains
with a club. At that moment Pocahontas, the young daughter of the chief,
ran forward, and, throwing her arms around the head of Smith, begged her
father to spare his life. The chief consented, and the prisoner was set
free and returned to Jamestown. Such is the story which Captain Smith
told after the death of Pocahontas in England, which she had visited
with her husband, an Englishman named Rolfe, and it can never be known
whether the incident was true or not. Some years later Smith was so
badly injured by the explosion of gunpowder that he had to return to
England for treatment. There he died in 1631. His invaluable services in
this country have led historians to regard him as the saviour of the
Virginia colony.
The most woeful blow that was struck the American
colonies was in August, 1619, when a Dutch ship sailed up the James and
sold twenty negroes, kidnapped in Africa, to the colonists as slaves. It
was thus that African slavery was introduced into this country, bringing
in its train more sorrow, suffering, desolation, and death than pen can
describe or imagination conceive. The institution became legal in all
the colonies, and the ships of New England, as well as those of old
England, were actively engaged for many years in the slave trade.
Source:
A New History of the United States, The Greater Republic by Charles
Morris, LL.D., W. E. Scull, 1899.
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