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 adventurers," who had accompanied the expedition in the hope
of finding gold, and who were wholly unfitted to cope with the
conditions in which they found themselves. Of all of them, Smith was by
far the most competent, and he did valiant service in trading with the
Indians for corn and in conducting a number of expeditions in search of
game.