these charges
were ever considered by the London Company. Indeed, we cannot find
that the company in those days ever took any action on the charges made
against any of its servants in Virginia. Men came home in disgrace and
appeared to receive neither vindication nor condemnation. Some sunk into
private life, and others more pushing and brazen, like Ratcliffe, the
enemy of Smith, got employment again after a time. The affairs of the
company seem to have been conducted with little order or justice.

Whatever may have been the justice of the charges against Smith, he had
evidently forfeited the good opinion of the company as a desirable man
to employ. They might esteem his energy and profit by his advice and
experience, but they did not want his services. And in time he came to
be considered an enemy of the company.

Unfortunately for biographical purposes, Smith's life is pretty much a
blank from 1609 to 1614. When he ceases to write about himself he passes
out of sight. There are scarcely any contemporary allusions to his
existence at this time. We may assume, however, from our knowledge of
his restlessness, ambition, and love of adventure, that he was not idle.
We may assume that he besieged the company with his plans for the proper
conduct of the settlement of Virginia; that he talked at large in all
companies of his discoveries, his exploits, which grew by the relating,
and of the prospective greatness of the new Britain beyond the Atlantic.
That he wearied the Council by his importunity and his acquaintances
by his hobby, we can also surmise. No doubt also he was considered a
fanatic by those who failed to comprehend the greatness of his schemes,
and to realize, as he did, the importance of securing the new empire to
the English before it was occupied by the Spanish and the French. His
conceit, his boasting, and his overbearing manner, which no doubt was
one of the causes why he was unable to act in harmony with the other
adventurers of that day, all told against him. He was that most
uncomfortable person, a man conscious of his own importance, and out of
favor and out of money.

Yet Smith had friends, and followers, and men who believed in him. This
is shown by the remarkable eulogies in verse from many pens, which he
prefixes to the various editions of his many works. They seem to have
been written after reading the manuscripts, and prepared to accompany
the printed volumes and tracts. They all allude to the env