John Ferdinand Dalziel Smyth, it appears, changed his name in 1793 to Stuart. Smyth’s last published work was a poem in folio called “Destiny and Fortitude: An Heroic Poem on the Misfortunes of the House of Stuart.” His father, Wentworth Smyth, was killed in the Highlands of Scotland after being concerned in the attempt to bring in the Stuarts in 1745. J. F. D. Smyth studied medicine at the University of Edinburgh. He came to America possibly about 1769, and settled at first near Williamsburg as a physician. He was active in the Revolution, and for a time drew a pension of £300 a year for his losses sustained in America. He was killed accidentally in London in 1814. In this case there is nothing in a name, because in tracing Smyth from the title page of his best known work, his “Tour in the United States,” nothing can be discovered about him. It is only by chance that in looking up Smyth the eye falls upon Stuart. Although he was in most of the English colonies, and saw the greater part of the Spanish possessions in Louisiana and Florida, Captain Smyth preferred the Potomac region, and lived there, both peacefully and adventurously, until finally disturbed by the war. He was not a Tory, because he was not strictly an American. In 1778, his correspondence proves, he was a captain in the Queen’s Rifles. Two years before he had been ingeniously farming some six hundred acres of good land on the Maryland side of the Potomac. Captain John Ferdinand Dalziel Smyth, explorer, planter, fighter and author, was (from his own account) not unlike the more famous Smith, who, if he had chosen, could have spelled the name with a y as well. John F. D. Smyth came in sight of land on the 4th day of August (he neglects to give the year), “in the forenoon, in a fine day, with a clear, serene sky. We soon sailed within the capes of Virginia, Cape Henry and Cape Charles, which last is an island named Smith’s. We past Lynhaven Bay on our left, and the opening of the Chesapeak on the right, and in the evening anchored in Hampton Road, which appears to be very safe. The night being calm, we were assaulted by great numbers of musketoes, a very noxious fly.” After a day the ship proceeded to Jamestown, “passing a great number of most charming situations on each side of this beautiful river.” Jamestown still sent a member to the House of Burgesses, but there was only one voter, who was the proprietor of the borough and also the Burgess, Champion Travers, Esq. Making an excursion with a companion to Williamsburg, with which town Captain Smyth was well pleased, they “dined very agreeably at the Raleigh Tavern, where we had exceeding good Maderia.” What with pocket boroughs and good Maderia, the traveler must have felt as if he had scarcely left home.