Smith Hunts Whales and Explores

John Smith Writes About New England

Apr 4, 2006

John Smith is captured by Indians. A warrior is ready to kill but the chief's young daughter, Pocahontas, supposedly saves him. Smith hunts whales and scouts the eastern

The story goes that a warrior stood ready to kill Smith by one means of another until the chief's young daughter, Pocahontas, interceded, supposedly embracing Smith and begging her father to spare his life, which evidently he did if the tale it true.

It is believed that only one man, Captain John Smith, held what was left of the colony together. But there was another disaster that Smith would have been powerless to halt had he not already returned to England. In 1609, a fire swept through Jamestown.

By the year 1614, Captain John Smith was a well-known figure in both America and England. That year some London merchants hired Smith to hunt whales along the North Atlantic coast of America. Being the adventurous soul he was known to be, Smith did a bit of exploring while watching for whales. On a return voyage the next year he was captured by pirates but did return to England, penniless.

The results of his exploring venture was his next claim to fame in the form of a book he wrote entitled A Description of New England. His book was an instant best seller and Smith is also credited with coining the name "New England."

This followed with Sir Ferdinando Gorges, a member of the Plymouth Company, applying to the king for a patent to explore and settle this area. The area in question, to be called New England, lay between 40ºN. and 48ºN. latitude. It also extended from the Atlantic to the Pacific, though no one had any clue at the time of the vast extent this entailed. This area, what we call New England today, became the landing area of the Mayflower when it reached the New World in 1620.

Athearn, Robert G. The New World: American Heritage New Illustrated History of the United States, Volume 1. Dell Publishing Co., Inc., New York, 1963.

Collier's Encyclopedia, Volume 21. Crowell-Collier Educational Corporation, 1968.

Comptons, The Complete Reference Collection. CD Rom, 1997, The Learning Company, Inc.

The copyright of the article Smith Hunts Whales and Explores in American History is owned by Mary Trotter Kion. Permission to republish Smith Hunts Whales and Explores in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.