New-York tribune., 1901-12-13

THE TRUE STORY OF CAPTAIN 'Hfaa f1i1s
fre.ed. 0ciavo' pT Hv. ass Doubleday, Page
Co.
About that most delightful English scNehtuFef'
Captain John Smith. historians have mace fhueh
debate. and. as has been remarked. are still apt
10 lose their ternpers Miss Woods not only roses
no temper. but has written most interesting
hook fulI OF life movement and color, ana
sharp with the keen edge Of adventure she
avovs that her purpose is to Substantial
Smiths account Of himself. and to still the
voices that have lately been busy in aspersing
his memory. He not & liar and a oraggar''
he was horn Z r-entlernan. and entitled by his
birth TO bear arms. even before arms were
conferred upon him by Sigismund Of IransyI-
vania OF his early career the adventures ne
describes in the wars With the Turks have been
most doubted by historians; but Miss WOODS
expends much ingenuity in offering plausible
fdentffcatiors Of places and people he mentions
He wandered 20 France and thence to italy,
and reached Gr8tz. where he enlisted under
Sigisnund 81 the struggle against the ottoman
bower that was then in one Of its PERIODS OF
recrudescence. and was making its way toward
Austria His first brilliant service was achleFed
through an ingenious method Of conveying mes
sages at night with signal lights representing
letters OF the alphabet Left for dead on a
battlefield he was taken and sold for a slave
TO ? Turkish officer, by whom he was presented
10 a fair lady in Constantinople. She promptly
fell in love with hTn-at least, so Miss WOODS
reads the story-and sent him to her brother'
who held military command beyond the Sea
of Azov His last state was worse than his
first, there, and he escaped, having killed his
new master, and wandered through MuscoVy
to .sr1ewgrod in Siberia and thence came again
TO Transylvania. Then, satisfied with Europe
and Asia" this Unsuitable adventurer started
a<-=r hut -in3i he
fdious bloody murders rather than war, tried
rriysteering He returned to England In OIL
1rinished fortune, though he Indignantly denies
the charges made against him that he was re-
duced TO beggary-'I never needed TO De lln-
Fortunate nor Juld I ever learn 10 beg. An
important chapter IL American history Is hheo
by his next and greatest adventure, the part
be took in founding the English colony at James
town, and in fighting the Indians there ana
the hearts Of generations have been moved py
the story Of POcahontas:
This young princess as the English persisted IN
considering her, was at this time about twelVs
or ct the most. thirteen, years OF age. smith
was twenty-eight; and whether her aoopLon OF
him lover or 3 brother Is a htete uI-
certain. II Is most probable that she aaQ no
definite intentions; she seems to have oeen
child in feeling as we'll as in years ana heF
name for him Of father may well have repre-
sented her best defined feeling. That smith
considered her simply as a child, and had no
thought Of her that approached the equanty
even of friendship, is witnessed by his friends
and fellow soldiers. Pots and Phettplace
And then, too, he had enough Of the memory
of his beautiful Constantinopolitan mistress to
name after her, some years later. the point IN
Massachusetts that IS now known as Cape Anne.
instead Of Cape Tragabigzanda." When he
met Pocahontas again in England, after her
marriage with Rolfe, he says. after a modest
szluta1ion, without word she turned about. |
obscured her face, not seeming well contented.
AS TO her untimely death. Miss Woods expresses
the opinion thus:
1t is doubtful whether the undoubted influence
which she would have exercised for good among
her own people, had she survived would have
balanced the enormous harm which the example
Of this marriage would have worked among the
English. Few OF US need TO De convinced
at this late day that the purity Of our English
blood was cheaply bought at the price Of those
Indian wars and rnassecres which intermarriage
would have prevented.
Miss Woods has given a detailed account Of
this period OF Smiths career, and IS always
concerned, by citation Of documents and maps,
TO present her hero in the best Hght-and that
IS usually the light IN which he has presented
himself in his autobiography.