From preface . . .

WHY set about writing yet another life of Captain John Smith? Every school child knows that Captain Smith was a hero, a historian, and Pocahontas's sweetheart — or that he was a dastard, a liar and, so far as Pocahontas was concerned, an ingrate. It depends on whose life of Smith you read.
Praise or abuse — both unstinted — has been Smith's fate. Rarely has he been approached dispassionately, if ever. But what was he really like, this man who has stirred such conflicting emotions, and so little sober inquiry?
Here is the sole justification for my attempting a new life of Captain John Smith. In this book, for the first time, I believe, use has been made of the hints and clues that have long been lurking in insignificant sidelights, in documents which do not mention Smith directly, in the place-names strewn on his maps, honoring those from whom he had, or hoped to have, this, that or the other favor.

Contents

Preface
PART I. ADVENTURER
1. John Smith, Yeoman
2. John Smith, Captain
3. Captain John Smith, Gentleman
4. Slave
5. Aftermath: Pirate

PART II. COLONIST
6. Enter Bartholomew Gosnold
7. Forming the Band
8. A Voyage Bound in Shallows and in Miseries
9 . Across a Hundred Centuries
10. Miseries More Than May Be Borne
11. Powhatan
12. A Portent of Broached Mischief
13. Brief Freedom from Malice
14. The First Voyage up Chesapeake Bay
15. The Second Chesapeake Voyage
16. President Smith: i. Newport's Return
17. President Smith: ii. The Indians
18. President Smith: iii. The English
19. President Smith: iv. Finale

PART III. PROMOTER
20. " 'Tis all in pieces .."
21. New England
22. "A Man Noted of Not Good Hap by Sea"
23. Crosses, Cares, and Griefs
24. The General History
25. "Freed from servile bands
26. The Sea Mark

Commentaries
Bibliography
Index

Plates

KING JAMES I OF ENGLAND, FRANCE, SCOTLAND, AND IRELAND Engraved in Cologne by Crispin van de Passe, father of the engravers who did so many portraits of James and his subjects. Crispin the elder may possibly have been in England in 1603 or 1604, but there is no record of his ever having seen King James. (Courtesy of the British Museum.)
SIR FRANCIS BACON, LORD KEEPER OF THE PRIVY SEAL
Engraved by Simon van de Passe. The titles point to the year 1617-1618. (Courtesy of the British Museum.)
SIR THOMAS SMYTHE, AGED ABOUT FIFTY-EIGHT
Engraved by Simon van de Passe. (Courtesy of the British Museum.)
FRANCES HOWARD, DUCHESS OF RICHMOND AND LENNOX, AGED FORTY-FIVE
Engraved by Francis Delaram. This portrait was inserted in some copies of the Generall Historie, although an engraving by William van de Passe was more common. Both were made in 1623, and this has been chosen as the better portrait. (Courtesy of the British Museum.)
CAPTAIN SAMUEL ARGALL HARANGUES THE CHICKAHOMINIES
From Americae Pars Decima .. . by Johann-Theodore de Bry. (Courtesy of the New York Public Library.)
POWHATAN RECEIVES RALPH HAMOR
From De Bry's Americae Pars Decima . . (Courtesy of the New York Public Library.)
IAPAZAWS AND HIS WIFE PERSUADE POCAHONTAS TO VISIT CAPTAIN ARGALL'S SHIP
From Americae Pars Decima . . . (Courtesy of the New York Public Library.)
POCAHONTAS IN HER TWENTY-FIRST YEAR
From an engraving by Simon van de Passe done at about the same time as his picture of John Smith. This engraving, however, was made from an oil portrait by an unknown painter. It was apparently added to, or inserted in, Smith's Generall Historie after the book was originally issued. (Courtesy of the British Museum.)
CAPTAIN JOHN SMITH ESCAPES FROM His FRENCH CAPTORS IN OCTOBER, 1615
This illustration, which is based on page 226 of Smith's Works, is also from De Bry's Americae Pars Decima . .. (Courtesy of the New York Public Library.)
DON DIEGO SARMIENTO DE ACUNA, CONDE DE GONDOMAR
Engraved in 1622 by Simon van de Passe. (Courtesy of the British Museum.)
THE PERILS FACED BY THE DOUGHTY CAPTAIN
From Pieter van der Aa's Naaukeurige versameling der gedenk-waardigste zee en land-reysen na Oast en West-Indien . . . , Vol. 25. (By permission of the New York Public Library.)

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