twenty-four years before the death of Elizabeth and thirty-seven before the
death of Shakespeare. Smith was a man of Elizabethan stamp,--active,
ingenious, imaginative, craving new experiences. While a mere boy, he could
not stand the tediousness of ordinary life, and so betook himself to the
forest where he could hunt and play knight.

In the first part of his young manhood he crossed the Channel, voyaged in
the Mediterranean, fought the Turks, killing three of them in single
combat, was taken prisoner and enslaved by the Tartars, killed his inhuman
master, escaped into Russia, went thence through Europe to Africa, was in
desperate naval battles, returned to England, sailing thence for Virginia,
which he reached at the age of twenty-eight.

He soon became president of the Jamestown colony and labored strenuously
for its preservation. The first product of his pen in America was _A True
Relation of Virginia_, written in 1608, the year in which John Milton was
born. The last work written by Smith in America is entitled: _A Map of
Virginia, with a Description of the Country, the Commodities, People,
Government, and Religion_. His description of the Indians shows his
capacity for quickly noting their traits:--

"They are inconstant in everything, but what fear constraineth them to
keep. Crafty, timorous, quick of apprehension and very ingenious. Some
are of disposition fearful, some bold, most cautious, all savage.
Generally covetous of copper, beads, and such like trash. They are soon
moved to anger, and so malicious that they seldom forget an injury: they
seldom steal one from another, lest their conjurors should reveal it, and
so they be pursued and punished. That they are thus feared is certain,
but that any can reveal their offences by conjuration I am doubtful."