Smith was not cast down by his reverses. No sooner had he laid hislatest betrayers by the heels than he set himself resolutely toobtain money and means for establishing a colony in New England, andto this project and the cultivation in England of interest in NewEngland he devoted the rest of his life.

　　His Map and Description of New England was published in 1616, and hebecame a colporteur of this, beseeching everywhere a hearing for hisnoble scheme. It might have been in 1617, while Pocahontas was aboutto sail for Virginia, or perhaps after her death, that he was againin Plymouth, provided with three good ships, but windbound for threemonths, so that the season being past, his design was frustrated, andhis vessels, without him, made a fishing expedition to Newfoundland.

　　It must have been in the summer of this year that he was at Plymouthwith divers of his personal friends, and only a hundred pounds amongthem all. He had acquainted the nobility with his projects, and wasafraid to see the Prince Royal before he had accomplished anything,"but their great promises were nothing but air to prepare the voyageagainst the next year." He spent that summer in the west of England,visiting "Bristol, Exeter, Bastable? Bodman, Perin, Foy, Milborow,Saltash, Dartmouth, Absom, Pattnesse, and the most of the gentry inCornwall and Devonshire, giving them books and maps," and incitingthem to help his enterprise.

　　So well did he succeed, he says, that they promised him twenty sailof ships to go with him the next year, and to pay him for his painsand former losses. The western commissioners, in behalf of thecompany, contracted with him, under indented articles, "to be admiralof that country during my life, and in the renewing of the letters-patent so to be nominated"; half the profits of the enterprise to betheirs, and half to go to Smith and his companions.

　　Nothing seems to have come out of this promising induction except thetitle of "Admiral of New England," which Smith straightway assumedand wore all his life, styling himself on the title-page ofeverything he printed, "Sometime Governor of Virginia and Admiral ofNew England." As the generous Captain had before this time assumedthis title, the failure of the contract could not much annoy him. Hehad about as good right to take the sounding name of Admiral asmerchants of the west of England had to propose to give it to him.

　　The years wore away, and Smith was beseeching aid, republishing hisworks, which grew into new forms with each issue, and no doubt makinghimself a bore wherever he was known. The first edition of "NewEngland's Trials"--by which he meant the various trials and attemptsto settle New England was published in 1620. It was to some extent arepetition of his "Description" of 1616. In it he made no referenceto Pocahontas. But in the edition of 1622, which is dedicated toCharles, Prince of Wales, and considerably enlarged, he drops intothis remark about his experience at Jamestown: "It Is true in ourgreatest extremitie they shot me, slue three of my men, and by thefolly of them that fled tooke me prisoner; yet God made Pocahontasthe king's daughter the meanes to deliver me: and thereby taught meto know their treacheries to preserve the rest. [This is evidentlyan allusion to the warning Pocahontas gave him at Werowocomoco.] Itwas also my chance in single combat to take the king of Paspaheghprisoner, and by keeping him, forced his subjects to work in chainstill I made all the country pay contribution having little elsewhereon to live."This was written after he had heard of the horrible massacre of 1622at Jamestown, and he cannot resist the temptation to draw a contrastbetween the present and his own management. He explains that theIndians did not kill the English because they were Christians, but toget their weapons and commodities. How different it was when he wasin Virginia. "I kept that country with but 38, and had not to eatbut what we had from the savages. When I had ten men able to goabroad, our commonwealth was very strong: with such a number I rangedthat unknown country 14 weeks: I had but 18 to subdue them all."This is better than Sir John Falstaff. But he goes on: "When I firstwent to those desperate designes it cost me many a forgotten pound tohire men to go, and procrastination caused more run away than went.""Twise in that time I was President." [It will be remembered thatabout the close of his first year he gave up the command, for form'ssake, to Capt. Martin, for three hours, and then took it again.] "Torange this country of New England in like manner, I had but eight, asis said, and amongst their bruite conditions I met many of theirsilly encounters, and without any hurt, God be thanked." The valiantCaptain had come by this time to regard himself as the inventor anddiscoverer of Virginia and New England, which were explored andsettled at the cost of his private pocket, and which he is notashamed to say cannot fare well in his absence. Smith, with all hisgood opinion of himself, could not have imagined how delicious hischaracter would be to readers in after-times. As he goes on he warmsup: "Thus you may see plainly the yearly success from New England byVirginia, which hath been so costly to this kingdom and so dear tome.

　　"By that acquaintance I have with them I may call them my children [hespent between two and three months on the New England coast] for theyhave been my wife, my hawks, my hounds, my cards, my dice, and totalmy best content, as indifferent to my heart as my left hand to myright.... Were there not one Englishman remaining I would yet beginagain as I did at the first; not that I have any secret encouragementfor any I protest, more than lamentable experiences; for all theirdiscoveries I can yet hear of are but pigs of my sowe: nor morestrange to me than to hear one tell me he hath gone from Billingateand discovered Greenwich!"As to the charge that he was unfortunate, which we should think mighthave become current from the Captain's own narratives, he tells hismaligners that if they had spent their time as he had done, theywould rather believe in God than in their own calculations, andperadventure might have had to give as bad an account of theiractions. It is strange they should tax him before they have triedwhat he tried in Asia, Europe, and America, where he never needed toimportune for a reward, nor ever could learn to beg: "These sixteenyears I have spared neither pains nor money, according to my ability,first to procure his majesty's letters patent, and a Company here tobe the means to raise a company to go with me to Virginia [this isthe expedition of 1606 in which he was without command] as is said:

　　which beginning here and there cost me near five years work, and morethan 500 pounds of my own estate, besides all the dangers, miseriesand encumbrances I endured gratis, where I stayed till I left 500better provided than ever I was: from which blessed Virgin (ere Ireturned) sprung the fortunate habitation of Somer Isles." "Ere Ireturned" is in Smith's best vein. The casual reader would certainlyconclude that the Somers Isles were somehow due to the providence ofJohn Smith, when in fact he never even heard that Gates and Smithwere shipwrecked there till he had returned to England, sent homefrom Virginia. Neill says that Smith ventured L 9 in the Virginiacompany! But he does not say where he got the money.

　　New England, he affirms, hath been nearly as chargeable to him andhis friends: he never got a shilling but it cost him a pound. Andnow, when New England is prosperous and a certainty, "what think youI undertook when nothing was known, but that there was a vast land."These are some of the considerations by which he urges the company tofit out an expedition for him: "thus betwixt the spur of desire andthe bridle of reason I am near ridden to death in a ring of despair;the reins are in your hands, therefore I entreat you to ease me."The Admiral of New England, who since he enjoyed the title had hadneither ship, nor sailor, nor rod of land, nor cubic yard of saltwater under his command, was not successful in his several "Trials."And in the hodge-podge compilation from himself and others, which hehad put together shortly after,--the "General Historie," hepathetically exclaims: "Now all these proofs and this relation, I nowcalled New England's Trials. I caused two or three thousand of themto be printed, one thousand with a great many maps both of Virginiaand New England, I presented to thirty of the chief companies inLondon at their Halls, desiring either generally or particularly(them that would) to imbrace it and by the use of a stock of fivethousand pounds to ease them of the superfluity of most of theircompanies that had but strength and health to labor; near a year Ispent to understand their resolutions, which was to me a greater toiland torment, than to have been in New England about my business butwith bread and water, and what I could get by my labor; but inconclusion, seeing nothing would be effected I was contented as wellwith this loss of time and change as all the rest."In his "Advertisements" he says that at his own labor, cost, and losshe had "divulged more than seven thousand books and maps," in orderto influence the companies, merchants and gentlemen to make aplantation, but "all availed no more than to hew Rocks with Oister-shels."His suggestions about colonizing were always sensible. But we canimagine the group of merchants in Cheapside gradually dissolving asSmith hove in sight with his maps and demonstrations.

　　In 1618, Smith addressed a letter directly to Lord Bacon, to whichthere seems to have been no answer. The body of it was acondensation of what he had repeatedly written about New England, andthe advantage to England of occupying the fisheries. "This nineteenyears," he writes, "I have encountered no few dangers to learn whathere I write in these few leaves:... their fruits I am certain maybring both wealth and honor for a crown and a kingdom to hismajesty's posterity." With 5,000, pounds he will undertake toestablish a colony, and he asks of his Majesty a pinnace to lodge hismen and defend the coast for a few months, until the colony getssettled. Notwithstanding his disappointments and losses, he is stillpatriotic, and offers his experience to his country: "Should Ipresent it to the Biskayners, French and Hollanders, they have mademe large offers. But nature doth bind me thus to beg at home, whomstrangers have pleased to create a commander abroad.... Though I canpromise no mines of gold, the Hollanders are an example of myproject, whose endeavors by fishing cannot be suppressed by all theKing of Spain's golden powers. Worth is more than wealth, andindustrious subjects are more to a kingdom than gold. And this is socertain a course to get both as I think was never propounded to anystate for so small a charge, seeing I can prove it, both by example,reason and experience."Smith's maxims were excellent, his notions of settling New Englandwere sound and sensible, and if writing could have put him in commandof New England, there would have been no room for the Puritans. Headdressed letter after letter to the companies of Virginia andPlymouth, giving them distinctly to understand that they were losingtime by not availing themselves of his services and his project.

　　After the Virginia massacre, he offered to undertake to drive thesavages out of their country with a hundred soldiers and thirtysailors. He heard that most of the company liked exceedingly wellthe notion, but no reply came to his overture.

　　He laments the imbecil............