ode away into the unknown desert, where he wandered many
days before he found a way out. If we may believe Smith this wilderness
was more civilized in one respect than some parts of our own land, for
on all the crossings of the roads were guide-boards. After traveling
sixteen days on the road that leads to Muscova, Smith reached a
Muscovite garrison on the River Don. The governor knocked off the iron
from his neck and used him so kindly that he thought himself now risen
from the dead. With his usual good fortune there was a lady to take
interest in him--"the good Lady Callamata largely supplied all his
wants."

After Smith had his purse filled by Sigismund he made a thorough tour of
Europe, and passed into Spain, where being satisfied, as he says, with
Europe and Asia, and understanding that there were wars in Barbary, this
restless adventurer passed on into Morocco with several comrades on a
French man-of-war. His observations on and tales about North Africa
are so evidently taken from the books of other travelers that they
add little to our knowledge of his career. For some reason he found no
fighting going on worth his while. But good fortune attended his
return. He sailed in a man-of-war with Captain Merham. They made a few
unimportant captures, and at length fell in with two Spanish men-of-war,
which gave Smith the sort of entertainment he most coveted. A sort of
running fight, sometimes at close quarters, and with many boardings and
repulses, lasted for a couple of days and nights, when having battered
each other thoroughly and lost many men, the pirates of both nations
separated and went cruising, no doubt, for more profitable game. Our
wanderer returned to his native land, seasoned and disciplined for the
part he was to play in the New World. As Smith had traveled all over
Europe and sojourned in Morocco, besides sailing the high seas, since he
visited Prince Sigismund in December, 1603, it was probably in the
year 1605 that he reached England. He had arrived at the manly age of
twenty-six years, and was ready to play a man's part in the wonderful
drama of discovery and adventure upon which the Britons were then
engaged.

IV. FIRST ATTEMPTS IN VIRGINIA

John Smith has not chosen to tell us anything of his life during the
interim--perhaps not more than a year and a half--between his
return from Morocco and his setting sail for Virginia. Nor do his
contemporaries throw any light upon this period of his li