Captain John Smith
The General Historie of Virginia, New England, and the Summer Isles
This excerpt tells of Smith's capture by Indians. He leaves out the
most famous part of the story - his rescue by Pocahontas. He does
tell us about his captors' first experience with "talking paper"
- writing. They were surprised because they had not been exposed
to writing before.
Smith reflects one of the various attitudes toward the New World.
The conquistadors had a swashbuckling attitude; they arrived looking for
riches. The Puritans were not opposed to getting rich, but their
first motive was to be good. Smith found that his men wanted to waste
their time hunting wealth; he turned their attention to creating wealth
through work.