Smith, John (1579-1631) Englishman who came to America as a soldier of
fortune in 1607. Smith served as president of the governing council of
Virginia and is recognized as that state's first historian. After a
return to England, he came back to America and became known as the
"Admirall of New England," where his plans to plant a colony were never
realized. A story-teller, posterity views many of Smith's supposedly
factual tales as inventions of the author.
Adventure on the Chickahominy (1608) From "A True Relation of Such
Occurrences and Accidents of Noate as Hath Hapned in Virginia since the
First Planting of that Collony," the first printed American book. Of
all of Smith's works, this is the one that posterity most esteems. Here
Smith relates the story of his not altogether unpleasant capture by
Indian's while traveling on the river Chickahominy.
