ter of the Ordnance, Commander of the Forces, Marshal, Secretary, Governor of the Fort, and Revenue Officer. Lilliput had its type in the stately littleness of Fort St. George. The adventurers dug wells, and built huts. More than half of the number became discouraged, and returned with the ships to England. Forty-five remained through the winter, which proved to be very long and severe. In the midst of it their storehouse took fire, and was consumed, with great part of the provisions. And when the President sickened and died, and, presently after, a vessel despatched to them with supplies brought intelligence of the death of Sir John Popham, and of Sir John Gilbert, -the latter event calling for the presence of the Admiral, Gilbert's brother and heir, in England, - they were ready to avail themselves of the excuses thus afforded for retreating from the distasteful enterprise. All yielded to their homesickness, and embarked on board of the returning ship, taking with them a small vessel which they had built, and some furs and other products of the country. Statesmen, merchants, and soldiers had not learned the conditions of a settlement in New England.' "The country was branded by the return of the plantation, as being over cold, and in respect of that not habitable by Englishmen." Still the son of the Chief Justice, "Sir Francis Popham, could not so give it over, but continued to send thither several years after, in hope of better fortunes, but found it fruitless, and was necessitated at 1 Of Popham's colonists Sir William Alexander says (Map and Description of New England, p. 30), that they were easily discouraged, because they "went thither, being pressed to the enterprise, as endangered by the law or by their own necessities, no enforced thing proving pleasant; discontented persons suffering whileas they act, they can seldom have good success, and never satisfaction." Strachey (History of Travaile, 162-180) has a detailed journal-the only one, I suppose, in existence of the transactions of this colony. That part which is subject to a comparison with other authorities contains some manifest inaccuracies. But they relate to transactions previous to the sailing of the fleet. last to sit down with the loss he had already undergone." Sir Francis Popham's enterprises were merely commercial. Gorges alone, "not doubting but God would effect that which man despaired of," persevered in cherishing the project of a colony. Chance having thrown in his way a native who had been kidnapped from Martha's Vineyard, and "been shown in London for a wonder," 1614. he sent him out in a trading-vessel as another June. medium of communication. The savage, who, to secure his return, had told seductive stories of a gold mine which he could point out, no sooner touched the shore than he absconded, though Gorges had given strict orders that he should be closely watched, beside "clothing him with long garments fitly to be laid hold on, if occasion should require." 1 visit. 1609. The coast still remained open to the occupation of Englishmen. Henry Hudson had visited it in the Hudson's service of the Dutch East India Company; but though he landed on Cape Cod, it had not de- August. tained him from his explorations in Delaware Bay and the river which bears his name. A party of The French French, who had intrenched themselves on Mount on the PeDesert, near the mouth of the Penobscot, had, 1613. after a few weeks' occupancy, been dislodged by Argal, Governor of Virginia, on a chance visit of his to that neighborhood. nobscot. Meanwhile, by strange experiences in other parts of the world, an extraordinary man had been pre- Captain paring himself for co-operation with Gorges; and John Smith. a movement was made towards New England not less energetic than any that has been described, though destined to scarcely better fortune. John Smith 1614. sailed from London for this coast with two ships, April 1. fitted out by some private adventurers. The history of Smith is of that description that its 1 Gorges, Briefe Narration, &c., in Mass. Hist. Coll., XXVI. 56, 60. 1592. place would seem to be rather among the legends of a mythical age, than in the annals of the prosaic seventeenth century. He was of a good family in Lincolnshire. His father's death, when he was thirteen years old, left him competently provided for, and at the same time interrupted a plan which he had meditated. "His mind being even then set upon brave adventures," he had "sold his satchel, books, and all he had, intending secretly to get to sea." His guardians apprenticed him to a merchant, from whose service he soon found his way to France; his friends "liberally gave him, but out of his own estate, ten shillings to be rid of him." An English neighbor fell in with him at Orleans, and furnished him with money for his journey home. But he had another use for it; and, going to Holland, he took service in the Netherlands army. After three or four years thus disposed of, he returned to Willoughby, his native place, and, being glutted with too much company, wherein he took small delight, he retired himself into a little woodland pasture, a good way from any town, environed with many hundred acres of other woods. Here by a fair brook he built a pavilion of boughs, where only in his clothes he lay," and employed himself in studying the science of war, and practising military exercises. Smith's adventures in Europe. His next appearance in public was in some connection, which he does not explain, with Tattersall's in London, to which establishment he was attracted by his passion for horses. "Desirous to see more of the world, and to try his fortune against the Turks," he bent his course towards the Imperial camp, which he found before the fortress of Lymbach in Hungary. On the way, he had met with various adventures. He had been robbed of all his effects by his companions on the passage to France. "In a forest, near dead with grief and cold," he had been found and relieved by a peasant. He had refilled his empty purse by a share in the prize-money of a rich Venetian argosy captured by the French vessel in which he had embarked from Marseilles for the Levant. He had hardly saved his life by swimming to an island, after being thrown into the Mediterranean by a company of pilgrims whom he had joined, and who attributed a storm which had overtaken them to their having received a heretic on board. Arrived at the army, Smith speedily recommended himself by the ingenious management of a telegraph,' establishing a communication with the garrison which there was an endeavor to relieve. Next he invented two or three new sorts of fireworks, one of them called "fiery dragons," which did good execution. Lymbach was relieved, the Turks withdrew, and Smith was made a captain of horse. The belligerent hosts being intrenched opposite to each other, three Turkish champions, "to delight the ladies," successively challenged some cavalier of the Christian army to mortal combat. The adventure fell by lot to Smith, who encountered them one after another, and cut off their heads. Made prisoner by a Tartar prince, with many of his countrymen, after a bloody battle, he was sold in a slave-market near Adrianople. A Pacha bought him for his mistress, "the young Charatza Tragabigzanda." Taking compassion on him, and fearing that he might be sold out of her reach, she sent him for Smith in safe-keeping to her brother in a fortress by the Asia. Black Sea. A letter bespeaking for him indulgent treatment produced the opposite effect. The Pacha suspected his sister of a tenderer sentiment than pity, and wreaked his displeasure on the captive. "He caused his drubman to strip him naked, and shave his head and beard so bare as his hand, a great ring of iron, with a long 1 Smith's method was hardly an invention. He was probably indebted for it to his early classical reading. It is the same as that described in the fragment of the tenth book of Polybius (cap. 43-47). stalk bowed like a sickle, riveted about his neck, and a coat made of Ulgries hair, guarded about with a piece of an undressed skin. There were many more Christian slaves, and near an hundred forçados of Turks and Moors, and he, being the last, was slave of slaves to them all. Among these slavish fortunes there was no great choice; for the best was so bad, a dog could hardly have lived to endure, and yet, for all their pains and labors, no more regarded than a beast." Smith was not a man to despair in the worst of times. Day by day he performed his task, took his beatings, made his observations, and mused on the means of escape. "All the hope he had ever to be delivered from his thraldom was only the love of Tragabigzanda." But "God beyond man's expectation or imagination helpeth his servants, when they least think of help, as it happened to him." Profiting by the opportunity of an unwitnessed interview, "he beat out the Tymor's brains with his threshing-bat, for they have no flails, and, seeing his estate could be no worse than it was, clothed himself in his clothes, hid his body under the straw, filled his knapsack with corn, shut the doors, mounted his horse, and ran into the desert at all adventure, two or three days thus fearfully wandering he knew not whither. And well it was he met not any to ask the way, being even as taking leave of this miserable world. God did direct him to the great way of Castragan, as they call it, which doth cross these large territories." He got back among Christians, and indulged his ruling passion by long wanderings in Russia, Poland, the Austrian and other German states, France, and Spain. "Being thus satisfied with Europe and Asia, understanding of the wars in Barbary, he went from Gibraltar to Guta [Ceuta] and Tangier." Here he acted the part of only a peaceable traveller, being disinclined to take his usual stirring part in affairs, "by reason Smith in |