ゲッツ・フォン・ベルリヒンゲン — Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Captain John Smith, by C. H. Forbes-Lindsay—A Project Gutenberg eBook. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org . If you are not located in the United States, you will have to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this eBook. Title : Captain John Smith Author : C. H. Forbes-Lindsay Illustrator : Harry Lachman Release date : September 2, 2017 [eBook #55475] Most recently updated: October 23, 2024 Language : English Other information and formats : www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/55475 Credits : Produced by Donald Cummings and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net *** START OF Each volume deals with the life and adventures of one of the great men who made that history, or with some one great event in which, perhaps, several heroic characters were involved. The stories, though based upon accurate historical fact, are rich in color, full of dramatic action, and appeal to the imagination of the red-blooded man or boy. Each volume illustrated in color and black and white 12mo. Cloth. LOST WITH LIEUTENANT PIKE GENERAL CROOK AND THE FIGHTING APACHES OPENING THE WEST WITH LEWIS AND CLARK WITH CARSON AND FREMONT DANIEL BOONE: BACKWOODSMAN BUFFALO BILL AND THE OVERLAND TRAIL CAPTAIN JOHN SMITH DAVID CROCKETT: SCOUT ON THE PLAINS WITH CUSTER GOLD SEEKERS OF ’49 WITH SAM HOUSTON IN TEXAS THE TERRIFIED FRENCHMAN DROPPED HIS SWORD AND FELL UPON HIS KNEES CAPTAIN JOHN SMITH BY C. H. FORBES-LINDSAY AUTHOR OF “INDIA: PAST AND PRESENT,” “AMERICA’S INSULAR POSSESSIONS,” “DANIEL BOONE, BACKWOODSMAN,” ETC. WITH ILLUSTRATIONS IN COLOR BY HARRY B. LACHMAN PHILADELPHIA & LONDON J. B. LIPPINCOTT COMPANY Copyright , 1907 By J. B. Lippincott Company Electrotyped and printed by J. B. Lippincott Company The Washington Square Press, Philadelphia, U. S. A. DEDICATED TO MY AMERICAN SON AND MY BRITISH NEPHEWS CONTENTS CHAPTER PAGE I Where There’s a Will There’s a Way 23 II London Town in Shakespeare’s Day 36 III The Soldier Apprentice 48 IV Duped and Robbed 60 V A Duel with a Dastard 72 VI Darkness and Dawn 83 VII Some Stratagems 95 VIII The Din of Battle 107 IX Guerilla Tactics 119 X The Three Turks 130 XI Brave Hearts and True 144 XII Slavery and a Sea-Fight 155 XIII A Bad Beginning 171 XIV Powhatan and His People 182 XV Treason and Treachery 193 XVI Captive to the Indians 204 XVII Pocahontas to the Rescue 215 XVIII Fire and Starvation 226 XIX A Turn in the Tide 238 XX Diamond Cut Diamond 250 XXI Some Ambuscades 262 XXII A Curious Combat 274 XXIII A Humbled Chieftain 285 XXIV A Dismal Tale 296 ILLUSTRATIONS PAGE The Terrified Frenchman Dropped His Sword and Fell upon His Knees Frontispiece He Hastened Down to the Water’s Edge and Shouted Lustily 85 The Settlers Had Been under the Sleepless Eye of Spies Lying Hidden 206 It Was in Vain that the Indian Struggled to Shake Off that Iron Grip 282 Captain John Smith, by C. H. Forbes-Lindsay—A Project Gutenberg eBook. FOREWORD The history of the world furnishes few lives so romantic and replete with stirring incident as that of John Smith, the founder of the first English colony in America—that settlement at Jamestown in Virginia, of which the United States of today is the outgrowth. John Smith began life in the year 1580, in the glorious reign of Good Queen Bess. It was a world of turmoil into which our hero came, but a most fitting field for so adventurous a spirit. In France, the gallant Henry of Navarre was fighting for a kingdom and his faith against the Catholic League. In the Low Countries, the sturdy Dutchmen, under Maurice of Orange, were defending their homes from the invasion of the arrogant and bigoted Spaniard, who deemed it his duty to punish every Protestant people. In the east of Europe, the Ottomans—Asiatics from Turkestan and other countries—maintained an incessant and savage warfare against the subjects of the Emperor of Germany. There was but one peaceful spot in all Christendom, and that the “right little, tight little island” of our forefathers. There were, however, thousands of Englishmen who, like John Smith, had no stomach for a life of ease and they were to be found in every army on the continent, fighting for gain or religion, and often for sheer love of the life of action. Moreover Cabot, the first on the coast of America, had started that movement which was to create the greatest colonial empire in the history of the world, and Raleigh had already made his first futile attempt to settle Virginia, where John Smith was destined to play a master part. On the seas, vessels of each nation preyed upon those of every other, for a tacit condition of enmity prevailed among them regardless of the status of their several countries. Navies were composed mainly of the merchant marine, for every ocean-going ship carried cannon and small arms. Commonly their captains were furnished with letters of marque, commissions issued by their sovereigns authorizing the holders to attack the sails of other countries hostile to their own and to take prizes and prisoners. The possession of letters of marque saved a captain and his crew from the disgrace and the penalty of piracy, but it was often no more than a cloak for the practice. Two ships flying different flags hardly ever met, but the stronger attacked the other and, if victorious, plundered her, and that without any consideration for the friendly relations that might at the time exist between their respective countries. The age of the robber barons had passed away, to be succeeded by a somewhat less immoral state of society in which the powerful refrained from preying upon their countrymen but recognized no law of justice in dealing with foreigners. Judged by our standards, Dampier and Drake were pirates; Pizzaro and Cortes, bandits. Smith, with a less acute sense of honor and a lower regard for right, might have amassed a ready fortune in the days when such qualities