CHAPTER PAGE I WHERE THERE’S A WILL THERE’S A WAY 23 II LONDON TOWN IN SHAKESPEARE’S DAY 36 III THE SOLDIER APPRENTICE 48 IV DUPED AND ROBBED 60 V A DUEL WITH A DASTARD 72 VI DARKNESS AND DAWN 83 VII SOME STRATAGEMS 95 VIII THE DIN OF BATTLE 107 IX GUERILLA TACTICS 119 X THE THREE TURKS 130 XI BRAVE HEARTS AND TRUE 144 XII SLAVERY AND A SEA-FIGHT 155 XIII A BAD BEGINNING 171 XIV POWHATAN AND HIS PEOPLE 182 XV TREASON AND TREACHERY 193 XVI CAPTIVE TO THE INDIANS 204 XVII POCAHONTAS TO THE RESCUE 215 XVIII FIRE AND STARVATION 226 XIX A TURN IN THE TIDE 238 XX DIAMOND CUT DIAMOND 250 XXI SOME AMBUSCADES 262 XXII A CURIOUS COMBAT 274 XXIII A HUMBLED CHIEFTAIN 285 XXIV A DISMAL TALE 296 ILLUSTRATIONS PAGE THE TERRIFIED FRENCHMAN DROPPED HIS SWORD AND FELL UPON HIS KNEES _Frontispiece_ HE HASTENED DOWN TO THE WATER’S EDGE AND SHOUTED LUSTILY 85 THE SETTLERS HAD BEEN UNDER THE SLEEPLESS EYE OF SPIES LYING HIDDEN 206 IT WAS IN VAIN THAT THE INDIAN STRUGGLED TO SHAKE OFF THAT IRON GRIP 282 FOREWORD The history of the world furnishes few lives so romantic and replete with stirring incident as that of John Smith, the founder of the first English colony in America--that settlement at Jamestown in Virginia, of which the United States of today is the outgrowth. John Smith began life in the year 1580, in the glorious reign of Good Queen Bess. It was a world of turmoil into which our hero came, but a most fitting field for so adventurous a spirit. In France, the gallant Henry of Navarre was fighting for a kingdom and his faith against the Catholic League. In the Low Countries, the sturdy Dutchmen, under Maurice of Orange, were defending their homes from the invasion of the arrogant and bigoted Spaniard, who deemed it his duty to punish every Protestant people. In the east of Europe, the Ottomans--Asiatics from Turkestan and other countries--maintained an incessant and savage warfare against the subjects of the Emperor of Germany.