In the peace and solitude of the pasture he studied Machiavelli's _Arte of Warre_ and the writings of Marcus Aurelius. He exercised with a good horse, a lance and a ring, and lived mostly on venison, which he took without worrying too much over the game laws. His other wants were supplied by a servant, his only contact with the world. Because of his unusual mode of life news of John Smith traveled around the countryside but it did not worry him because "he provoked the wonder of the peasantry." At length an Italian gentleman, who had become interested in what he had heard of John Smith, penetrated his forest hideout and persuaded him to come into society once more. After many more adventures and hairbreadth escapes in foreign lands he returned to England in 1604, in time for another adventure. He was still a young man, about twenty-five, but he was matured and hardened far beyond his years. When the little band of colonists set sail for America from Blackwall, England in December 1606, John Smith was with them. The voyage was a stormy one in more ways than one. By the time the little "sea-wagons" arrived in the West Indies Smith, who had been put in irons, came very near being hanged, according to tradition. It was April when the ships with their bedraggled passengers entered the Chesapeake Bay. The fragrance of "pyne" reached them from the virgin forest that covered the face of the land. It was a New World in every sense of the meaning--new, fresh, untouched. When the sealed orders of the King were opened it was found that John Smith had been named a member of the Council. He demanded trial for the charges preferred against him: "that he plotted on arrival in Virginia to murder the Council and make himself the king there." He was tried and acquitted by the first jury to serve in America. Smith was released but was not yet admitted to the Council. As it turned out John Smith was the only man among them who was prepared to build a new country. In the beginning he warned the colonists that "no man is entitled to a place in America, he must make his own." _POWHATAN'S EMPIRE_ When John Smith started exploring the region around the Chesapeake he found that it was inhabited by a number of small Indian tribes. These Indians were known as the Algonquians. These tribes made up a confederation under the iron rule of a powerful "king" called Powhatan. At his command there were about twenty-five hundred warriors. Smith made a map which shows a total of one hundred and sixty-one villages within Powhatan's "32 Kingdomes." Indian villages were owned in common. The hunting grounds, and pieces of cleared land used for the cultivation of corn, tobacco and vegetables belonged to the tribe. A warrior owned nothing except his garments, tomahawks, bows and arrows.