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More About Captain John Smith

More About Captain John Smith

The two best things about Captain John Smith were that he was never idle and he never gave up. He was a good man to have in a colony, for he was always trying to find out something new or to accomplish some great thing. He had not found a way to China in the swamps on the Chickahominy River; he had only found a mudhole and got himself captured by the American Indians. But he thought he might find the Pacific Ocean by sailing up the Chesapeake Bay. So he went twice up this bay, exploring at last to the very head of it. Of course, he did not find a way into the Pacific Ocean. We know well enough nowadays that China is not anywhere in the neighborhood of Baltimore. But Smith made a good map of the great bay, and he bought corn from the Indians, and so kept the colony alive. This was better than finding a way to China, if he had only known it.

In living in an open boat and sailing among Indians that were very suspicious and unfriendly, Smith and his men had to suffer many hardships. They were sometimes nearly wrecked by storms, and once when their sail had been torn to pieces they patched it with the shirts off their backs. Their bread was spoiled by the splashing of the salt water, and they suffered so much with thirst that at one time they would have been willing to give a barrel of gold, if they had only had it, for a drink of puddle water. Sometimes when sleeping on the ground, they got so cold that they were forced to get up in the night and move their fire so that they could lie down on the warm earth where the fire had been.

At one place the Indians shot arrows at them from the trees. Then they tried to get the Englishmen to come on shore by dancing with baskets in their hands. Captain Smith says that he felt sure they had nothing in their baskets but villainy. So he had his men fire off their guns. The noise of the guns so frightened the Indians that they all dropped to the ground and then fled into the woods. Smith and his men now ventured ashore and left presents of beads, little bells, and looking-glasses in their wigwams. Pleased with these things, the Indians became friendly and fell to trading.

Once, when many of Captain Smith’s men were ill, the Indians attacked him. Smith put his sick men under a tarpaulin and mounted their hats on sticks among his well men, so that the boat appeared to have its full force. Having procured Indian shields of wickerwork, Captain Smith put them along the side of his boat, so as to fight from behind them. But he generally made friends with the Indian tribes, and he came back to Jamestown with plenty of corn and furs.

Powhatan, the greatest of the Indian chiefs, wanted to get the arms of the colonists. Muskets, swords, and pistols were now and then stolen by the Indians, and Captain Smith tried to put a stop to this thievery. Two Indians, who were brothers, stole a pistol. They were captured, and one of them was put in prison, while the other was sent to get the pistol. The one in the prison was allowed a fire of charcoal, to keep him from freezing. When his brother came back, the prisoner was found smothered by the gas from the charcoal-fire. The other poor fellow was heartbroken; but Captain Smith succeeded in reviving the one that had been smothered. From this, the Indians concluded that he was not only a great brave, but a great medicine-man as well, who could bring dead people to life.

At another time, an Indian stole a bag of gunpowder, which was a thing of wonder to the Indians. He also stole a piece of armor at the same time. He had seen the colonists dry their wet powder by putting it into a piece of armor and holding it over the fire. He tried to do the same thing; but the fire was too hot for the powder, and the Indian was treated to a very great surprise. This terrified the Indians for a time.

In 1609, there were many newcomers, and Captain Smith’s enemies got control of the colony. They sent Smith home, and he never saw Virginia again.

Captain Smith afterward sailed on a voyage to New England in 1014. While his men caught and salted fish to pay for the expense of the voyage, Smith sailed in an open boat along the New England coast. He traded with the Indians, giving them beads and other trinkets for furs, he also made the first good map of the coast. After he had returned to England with furs, Hunt, who was captain of his second ship, coaxed twenty-four Indians on board and then sailed away with them to Spain. Here he made sale of his shipload of salted fish and began to sell the poor Indians for slaves. Some good monks, finding out what he was doing stopped him and took the Indians into their convent to make Christians of them. One of these Indians, named Squanto [squon’-to], afterward found his way to England, and from there was taken back to America.

Captain Smith tried very hard to persuade English people to plant a colony in New England. He finally set out with only sixteen men to begin a settlement there, he had made friends with the New England Indians, and he was sure that with a few men he could still succeed in planting a colony. But he had very bad luck. He first lost the masts of his vessels in a storm. He returned to England again and set sail in a smaller ship. He was then chased by a pirate-vessel. Smith found, on hailing this ship, that some of the men on board had been soldiers under him in the Turkish wars. They proposed to him to be their captain, but he did not want to command such rogues.

Smith’s little vessel had no sooner got away from these villains, then he was chased by a French ship. He had to threaten to blow up his ship to get his men to fight. He escaped again, but the next time he was met by a fleet of French privateers. They made Smith come aboard one of their vessels to show his papers. After they had got him out of his ship, they held him prisoner and took possession of his cargo. They afterward agreed to let him have his vessel again, as he was still determined to sail to New England; but his men wanted to turn back. So, while Smith was on the French ship, his own men ran away with his vessel and got back to England. Thus, his plan for a colony failed.

Smith spent his summer on the French fleet. When the French privateers were fighting with an English vessel, they made Smith a prisoner in the cabin; but when they fought with Spanish ships they would put Smith at the guns and make him fight with them. Smith reached England at last and had the satisfaction of having some of his runaway sailors put in prison. He never tried to plant another colony, though he was very much pleased with the success of the Plymouth colony which settled in New England a few years later than this. This brave, roving, fighting, boasting captain died in 1631, when he was fifty-two years old.

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A First Book in American History, books, history

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Columbus After the Discovery of America

Columbus After the Discovery of America

Having got one of his vessels ashore on the coast of Haiti, which he called Hispaniola [his-pan-ee-o’-lah], Columbus built a fort of the timber from the wrecked vessel and left here a little colony.

But now he began to think of carrying home the good news of his great discovery. In January, 1493, he set sail for Spain. On the 12th of January, when all were looking forward to a joyful return, a terrific storm threatened the wreck of the ship and the burying in the sea all memory of the great discovery. Prayers were said and vows were made for the safety of the ship.

To preserve the memory of his discovery if all else should be lost, Columbus wrote two accounts of it, which he enclosed in cakes of wax and put into two barrels. One of these was thrown into the sea; the other was set upon the stern of the vessel, that it might float off if the ship should go down. He hoped that one of these barrels might drift to the coast of Europe and be found.

Columbus at length reached the islands called the Azores. Here, when the storm had abated, some of his men went ashore to perform their vows at a little chapel and were made prisoners by the Portuguese governor. Having got out of this difficulty, Columbus put to sea and met another gale, which split his sails and threatened to wreck the vessel. He finally came to anchor in a Portuguese port, where he no doubt felt some exultation in showing what Portugal had lost by refusing his offers.

In April, he reached Barcelona, a Spanish city, and made his entry in a triumphant procession. At the head marched the Indians whom he had brought back with him. These were well smeared with paint and decorated with the feathers of tropical birds and with golden ornaments. Then parrots and stuffed birds were borne in the procession with articles of gold. Columbus followed, escorted by Spanish knights proud to do him honor. Ferdinand and Isabella received him under a canopy of gold brocade. As a mark of special honor, they caused him to sit down while he related his discoveries.

This was the happiest moment of the troubled life of Columbus. He who had been thought insane was now the most honored man in Spain.

The rest of his story is mostly a story of misfortunes. The people in his first colony on the island of Hispaniola quarreled among themselves and maltreated the Indians, until the latter fell on them and killed them all. The second colony was also unfortunate. Columbus was not a wise governor, and he had many troubles in trying to settle a new country with unyielding and resisting people.

An officer sent out to inquire into the disorders in the colony sent Columbus home in chains. The people were shocked at this treatment of the great navigator, and so were the king and queen, who ordered the chains removed. When Columbus appeared before Isabella and saw tears in her eyes, he threw himself on his knees, while his utterance was choked by his sobs.

After this, he was not permitted to return to his colony; but in 1502 he made his fourth voyage to America, trying to find a way to get through the mainland of South America in order to reach India, which he thought must lie just beyond. He was at length forced to run his worm-eaten vessel aground near the shore of the island of Jamaica. Thatched cabins were built on the deck of the stranded ship, and here Columbus, a bedridden invalid, lived miserably for a year.

One faithful follower, named Diaz [dee’-ath], traded a brass basin, a coat, and his two shirts, to an Indian chief for a canoe, in which after horrible suffering, Diaz reached Hispaniola. Meantime the men on the wrecked ship got provisions from the Indians in exchange for trinkets. Some of the men ran away from Columbus and lived with the Indians.

The Indians now got tired of providing food in exchange for toys, and Columbus and his men were at the point of starvation. Knowing that an eclipse of the moon was about to take place, he told the Indians that a certain god would punish them if they did not provide for him, and, as a sign, he said the moon would lose its light and change color that very night. No sooner did the eclipse appear, then the Indians brought him all the provisions at hand, and the Spaniards did not lack after that.

Help at length reached Columbus, and he returned to Spain broken in health and spirits. Queen Isabella, who had been his best friend, died soon after his return. Columbus died on the 20th of May, 1506. He believed to the last that he had discovered the eastern parts of Asia. He never knew that he had found a new continent.

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A First Book in American History, books, history

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How Columbus Discovered America

Christopher Columbus was born in Genoa, in Italy. The date of his birth is uncertain. His father was a humble wool comber, but Columbus received a fair education. He knew Latin, wrote a good hand, and drew maps exceedingly well. He sometimes supported himself by making maps and charts. He was well informed in geography as it was then understood. At fourteen he went to sea, and before he sailed on his great voyage, he had been almost all over the known world. He had gone some distance down the newly discovered coast of Africa, with the Portuguese, and north as far as Iceland. Columbus married the daughter of a Portuguese navigator, and came into possession of his charts. He was a man of great perseverance, and he held to his idea of sailing to the west through many long years of discouragement. He made four voyages to America, setting out on the first in 1492, the second in 1493, the third in 1498, and the fourth in 1502. Though a great navigator, he was not a wise governor of the colonies he planted, and he had many enemies. In 1500 he was cruelly sent home to Spain in chains. But Ferdinand and Isabella, as well as the people, were shocked at this degradation, and he was at once set free. His last voyage was unfortunate, and when he returned to Spain, in November, 1504, the monarchs paid little attention to him. Queen Isabella died soon after his return, while Columbus lay sick, and when the great navigator came to court the king was deaf to his petitions. Worn out with fatigue, exposure, and anxiety, the great admiral died on the 20th of May, 1506.

It is now about four hundred years since Columbus discovered America. Before that time people in Europe knew nothing of any lands on the western side of the Atlantic. Trade with India was carried on by caravans, and travelers who had gone to China and Japan brought back wonderful stories of the riches of their cities, and of the curious people who lived in those far-away countries. In order to reach these lands of wonder and to open a trade with India by sea, the Portuguese had been for a long time pushing their discoveries down the western coast of Africa. But the seamen of that time sailed mostly in the Mediterranean, and they were timid in the Atlantic Ocean. The Portuguese sent out expedition after expedition, for seventy years, before they succeeded in discovering the Cape of Good Hope, and they had not yet got around that cape when Columbus offered to find a new and shorter way to India.

As learned men already believed the world to be round, Columbus asked: Why try to get to India and China by going around Africa? Why not sail straight to the west around the world to Asia? He did not know that America was in the way, and he thought that the world was smaller than it is, and he believed that he could reach the rich lands of gold and spices in Asia by sailing only two or three thousand miles to the westward. So that Columbus discovered America in consequence of two mistakes.

He first offered to make this discovery for the city of Genoa, in which he was born. Then he offered his plan to the King of Portugal. By a voyage on the great Atlantic Ocean seemed a dreadful thing in those days. It was called the “Sea of Darkness,” because no one knew anything about it and people believed that it was inhabited by hideous monsters. As the world was round, some thought that, if a ship sailed down the sides of it, it would find it impossible to get back tip again. They said that people could not live on the other side of the world because they would be upside down.

The King of Portugal was an enlightened man, and the ideas of Columbus made an impression on him after a while. But he did not like to grant the great rewards demanded by the navigator if he should find land; so he secretly sent out a ship under another commander to sail to the westward and see if there was any land there. The sailors on this ship were easily discouraged, and they returned laughing at Columbus and his notions. When Columbus found that he had been cheated, he left Portugal to offer his idea to the King and Queen of Spain, the celebrated Ferdinand and Isabella. The Spanish monarchs were very busy in their war with the Moors, and Columbus, who was poor and obscure, spent about seven years in trying to persuade them to furnish him ships and sailors. At length, after he had waited so long, they refused his terms, and he set out for France, but certain officers of Queen Isabella, who believed in Columbus’s theory, persuaded her to call him back and to send him on his own terms.

Columbus, King Ferdinand, and Queen Isabella

Columbus sailed from Spain, with three small vessels, on the 3rd of August, 1492, and was more than two and his discovery months on the voyage. The sailors were more and more frightened as they found themselves going farther and farther out of the known world. They sometimes threatened to pitch Columbus overboard and return. He kept their courage up by every means he could think of, even by concealing from them how far they had come. One night, Columbus saw a light, and at two o’clock the next morning, which was the 12th of October, 1492, a sailor on one of the vessels raised the cry “Land!” There was the wildest joy on the ships. Those who had hated Columbus, and wished to kill him, now reverenced him.

Instead of finding the rich cities of Asia, Columbus had come upon one of the smallest of the West India islands, which was inhabited by people entirely naked, and living in the rudest manner. He afterward discovered larger islands, and then sailed homeward.

He carried with him some gold and some of the inhabitants of the islands. He was received by Ferdinand and Isabella with the greatest honor. They even made him sit down in their presence, a favor never shown except to the greatest grandees. The people who had believed him a fool when he went away, followed him with cheers as he walked along the street.

Columbus, in his second voyage to America, planted a colony on the island of Hispaniola, or Haiti. In this and in two other voyages he discovered other islands and a portion of the coast of South America, which he first saw in 1498. He never knew that he had found a new world, but lived and died in the belief that the large island of Cuba was a part of the mainland of Asia.

DISCOVERIES BEFORE COLUMBUS

There is some reason to believe that America may have been visited from Europe before the time of Columbus. The inhabitants of Scandinavia (the country now divided into Denmark, Sweden, and Norway) were known as Norsemen. In the old romantic tales of Scandinavia there are stories which go to show that these Norsemen, under the command of Leif, the son of Eric, in the year 1001, and afterward, probably explored the coast of America from Labrador southward for some distance. Fanciful theories have been built on these stories, such as the notion that the old stone windmill at Newport, R. I., is a tower built by the Norsemen. There is also a tradition in Wales that one Madoc, a Welsh prince, in the year 1170, discovered land to the west of Ireland, and took a colony thither, which was never heard of afterward. If these stories of Leif and Madoc represent real voyages, the discoveries which they relate would probably never have been recalled to memory if Columbus had not opened a wide door at the right moment.

‘Leif Erikson Discovers America’ by Christian Krohg

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A History of the United States and its People, books, history

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