rrying, besides their crews, one hundred
and five colonists, started on the voyage across the ocean, under
command of Captain Christopher Newport. Among Newport's company was a
scarred and weather-beaten soldier, who was soon to assume control of
events through sheer fitness for the task, and who bore that commonest
of all English names, John Smith.

But John Smith's career had been anything but common. Born in
Lincolnshire in 1579, and early left an orphan, he had gone to the
Netherlands while still in his teens, and had spent three years there
fighting against the Spaniards. A year or two later, he had embarked
with a company of Catholic pilgrims for the Levant, intent on fighting
against the Turk, but a storm arose which all attributed to the presence
of the Huguenot heretic on board, and he was forthwith flung into the
sea. Whether the storm thereupon abated, history does not state, but
Smith managed to swim to a small island, from which he was rescued next
day. Journeying across Europe to Styria, he entered the service of
Emperor Rudolph II., and spent two or three years fighting against the
Turks, accomplishing feats so surprising that one would be inclined to
class them with those of Baron Munchausen, were they not, for the most
part, well authenticated. He was captured, at last, but managed to
escape, and made his way across the Styrian desert, through Russia,
Poland, Hungary, Bohemia, and finally back to England, just in time to
meet Captain Newport, and arrange to sail with him for Virginia.

It is not remarkable that a man tried by such experiences should, from
the first, have taken a prominent part in the enterprise. An unwelcome
part in the beginning, for scarcely had the voyage begun, when he was
accused of plotting mutiny, arrested and kept in irons until the ships
reached Virginia. Late in April, the fleet entered Hampton Roads, and
proceeding up the river, which was forthwith named the James, came at
last on May 13th, to a low peninsula which seemed suited for a
settlement. The next day they set to work building a fort, which they
called Fort James, but the settlement soon came to be known as
Jamestown.

Once the fort was finished, Captain Newport sailed back to England for
supplies, and the little settlement was soon in desperate straits for
food. Within three months, half of the colonists were in their graves,
and bitter feuds arose among the survivors. These were for the most part
"gentlemen adven