liking his work, he ran away and turned soldier. After many strange
adventures, he was captured by the Turks and sold as a slave. His
master, who was a Turk, riveted a heavy iron collar around his neck
and set him to thrashing grain with a big wooden bat like a ball-club.
One day the Turk rode up and struck his slave with his riding-whip.
This was more than Smith could bear; he rushed at his master, and
with one blow of his bat knocked his brains out. He then mounted the
dead man's horse and escaped. After a time he got back to England;
but as England seemed a little dull to Captain Smith, he resolved
to join some emigrants who were going to Virginia.

[Illustration: CAPTAIN JOHN SMITH.]


38. What happened to Captain Smith on the voyage; the landing at
Jamestown; what the settlers wanted to do; Smith's plan.--On the way
to America, Smith was accused of plotting to murder the chief men
among the settlers so that he might make himself "King of Virginia."
The accusation was false, but he was put in irons and kept a prisoner
for the rest of the voyage.

In the spring of 1607 the emigrants reached Chesapeake[1] Bay, and
sailed up a river which they named the James in honor of King James
of England; when they landed they named the settlement Jamestown for
the same reason. Here they built a log fort, and placed three or four
small cannon on its walls. Most of the men who settled Jamestown came
hoping to find mines of gold in Virginia, or else a way through to
the Pacific Ocean and to the Indies, which they thought could not
be very far away. But Captain Smith wanted to help his countrymen
to make homes here for themselves and their children.