Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume XV.djvu/127

 SMITH 119 resulted in his acquittal, and he was made a member of the council. Bad and scanty food brought on disease among the colonists and re- duced their number. The president, Wingfield, embezzled the stores and was deposed. Rat- clift'e was made his successor, but the real head was Smith, and to his efforts the salvation of the infant colony was owing. He set about the building of Jamestown, and after providing the settlers with lodgings made excursions into the neighboring country to obtain corn. On one of these expeditions he was taken prison- er by the Indians, and his life was saved, it is said, by the interference of Pocahontas. (See POCAIIONTAS.) Sent back to Jamestown by Powhatan after an absence of seven weeks, he found the colony reduced to 40 men, and the most of these had determined to return to Eng- land. This, however, Smith prevented, and the arrival of Newport with 120 men raised the spirits of the colonists. In June and July, 1608, Smith explored the coasts of Chesapeake bay as far as the mouth of the Patapsco. On July 24 he started on another expedition, and explored the head of the Chesapeake, returning to Jamestown on Sept. 7. In these two voy- ages Capt. Smith sailed, by his own computa- tion, about 3,000 m., and from his surveys con- structed a map of the bay and the country bor- dering upon it. Being now president of the colony, he administered its affairs with ener- gy ; and his influence restored quiet to the col- ony, which had been filled with dissensions and disturbed by fears of the Indians. Smith's administration, however, had not been satis- factory to the company in England, whose too brilliant hopes had been disappointed, and whose irritation Smith's soldierly bluntness did not conciliate. A new charter was granted, and the powers previously reserved to the king were transferred to the company. Lord Del- aware was made governor, and three com- missioners, Newport, Sir Thomas Gates, and Sir George Somers, were empowered to man- age the affairs of the colony till his arrival. They set sail with more than 500 emigrants, and a part of the fleet, in a shattered condi- tion, and without the commissioners, reached Virginia in August, 1609. The new emigrants were mostly " dissolute gallants, packed off to escape worse destinies at home, broken trades- men, gentlemen impoverished in spirit and in fortune, rakes and libertines, men more fitted to corrupt than found a commonwealth." Dis- orders quickly ensued, and Smith, at the re- quest of the better part of the colony, resumed the government. The refractory were put in prison, and new settlements established. Re- turning from one of them, he was severely in- jured by the explosion of a bag of gunpowder, and in September, 1609, returned to England. In 1614 he explored with two ships the New England coast, and on his return presented to Prince Charles a map of the country between the Penobscot and Cape Cod. In 1615 he sailed again to New England, to found a col- ony. His vessel was captured by a French man-of-war, and he was carried to La Ro- chelle. He escaped, and on his return home wrote an account of his voyages to New Eng- land, which was published in 1616. The re- mainder of his life was passed in retirement. He published several works, the most impor- tant of which are "The Generall Historie of Virginia, New England, and the Summer Isles" (1626), and "The True Travels, Adventures, and Observations of Captain John Smith, in Europe, Asia, Affrica, and America, from 1593 to 1629" (1630). These two works were re- printed at Richmond in 1819. In 1631 he published also " Advertisements for the Unex- perienced Planters of New England, or any- where, or the Pathway to Experience to Erect a Plantation." This has been reprinted with a facsimile of Smith's map of New England (4to, Boston, 1865); also the "Description of New England" (4to, 1865), and "A True Relation of Virginia," reprinted from the London edition of 1608, with an introduction and notes by Charles Deane (4to, 1866).^-See " Life of Capt. John Smith," by G. S. Hillard, in Sparks's "American Biography," vol. ii. SMITH, John Augustine, an American physi- cian, born in "Westmoreland co., Va., Aug. 29, 1782, died in New York, Feb. 9, 1865. He went in 1809 to New York, where he edited the "Medical and Physiological Journal,", and was a lecturer on anatomy in the college of physicians and surgeons. In 1814 he removed to Virginia, and was president of William and Mary college till 1826, when he resigned and returned to New York. He was president of the college of physicians and surgeons from 1831 to 1843, and editor of the "Medical and Physiological Journal." He published "Intro- ductory Discourse at the New Medical Col- lege in Crosby Street" (1827); "Select Dis- course on the Functions of the Nervous Sys- tem" (1840); "The Mutations of the Earth" (1846) ; " Monograph upon the Moral Sense, two Discourses " (1847) ; " Prelections on Mor- al and Physical Science" (1853); and numer- ous essays and lectures on moral philosophy, physical science, &c. SMITH, John Lawrence, an American chemist and mineralogist, born near Charleston, S. C., Dec. 16, 1818. He graduated at the universi- ty of Virginia and at the medical college of South Carolina, and for three years studied chemistry, physiology, physics, mineralogy, and geology in Europe. In 1844 he commenced the practice of medicine in Charleston, deliv- ered lectures on toxicology, paid attention to agricultural chemistry, and ascertained the character and value of the marl beds extend- ing 100 m. back of Charleston. In 1846 he was employed by the Turkish government to suggest improvements in the cotton culture in Asia Minor, and accepted the appointment of mining engineer. He remained four years, and in 1849 made a report on the "Thermal Waters of Asia Minor." His mining researches