as a slave to a cruel Turk, who put
a ring round his neck and made him work very hard.

One day his master came out where he was at work and struck him with his
whip. He soon found that John Smith was a bad man to whip. He hit the
Turk a hard blow with the flail he was using, and killed him on the
spot. Then he ran away, got to Russia, and in time made his way back to
England. But England was too quiet a place for him. A ship was about to
cross the sea to America and he volunteered to go in it. He had not half
enough of adventure yet. Some people think that Captain Smith bragged a
little, and did not do all he said. Well, that may be so. But it is
certain that he was a brave and bold man, and just the man to help
settle a new country where there were savage red men to deal with.

The English were in no hurry in sending out settlers to the New World
which Columbus had discovered. While the Spaniards were seeking gold and
empires in the south, and the French were catching fish and exploring
the rivers and lakes in the north, all the English did was to rob the
Spanish ships and settlements, and to bring them negroes from Africa for
slaves.

But the time came, a hundred years after America was discovered, when
some of the English tried to form a settlement on the coast of North
Carolina. Poor settlers! When the next ship came out they were all gone.
Not a soul of them could be found. Nothing was left but some letters
they had cut into the bark of a tree. What became of them nobody ever
knew. Likely enough they wandered away and were killed by the Indians.

Nothing more was done until the year 1607, when the ship in which
Captain John Smith had taken passage sailed up a bright and beautiful
river in Virginia. It was the month of May, and the banks were covered
with flowers.

The colonists thought this a very good place to live in, so they landed
and began to look around them. The river they called the James, and the
place they named Jamestown. But instead of building a town and preparing
for the future, as sensible men would have done, they began to seek for
gold, and soon they were in no end of trouble. In a short time their
food was all eaten. Then some of them were taken sick and died. Others
were killed by the Indians. It looked as if this colony would come to
grief as did the former one.

So it would if it had not been for Captain Smith. He was only one man
among a hundred, but he was worth more than all the rest