Early settlers account Task wk 4

The quote is from Capt John Smith who is defending the men & state of Jamestown in reply to a dissapointed Capt Newport who has returned with supplies & a threat from the Crown in England. King James and the Virginia Company who financed the exploration & settlement wanted instant results, The king expected riches to be sent back from a new Kingdom, nobody in England had anticipated the hardships that had struck the New World settlement.

And yet the greedy corporation who had sent out such men for the founding of a state, disappointed and unreasonable, demanded impossibilities. They sent a message to the settlers by Newport, saying, in substance:

"Unless you shall send us back in these ships sufficient commodities to pay the charges of the voyage [Pound 2,000]; unless you shall also send us a lump of gold, the product of Virginia; assurances of having found a passage to the South Sea (Pacific Ocean), and also one of the lost colony sent to Roanoke by Raleigh, you shall be left in Virginia as banished men."

To this threat Smith replied with spirit, showing them the absurdity of their demand, assuring them that it was as much as the settlers could do to sustain life with the assistance of the Indians, and saying:

"I entreat you rather send but thirty carpenters, husbandmen, gardeners, fishermen, blacksmiths, masons and diggers of trees' roots, well provided, than a thousand such as we have."

"He who will not work shall not eat,"

This quote is from www.publicbookshelf.com/public...1/johnsmith_eb.html


The 2nd Quote from John Smith is to his men in Jamestown, & is an attempt to turn around the failure so far & try to produce something to send back to the Crown.

This clash in the Quotes between Capt. John Smith vs Capt. Newport & the Crown are what I find most revealing & is evidence of the lack of awareness to the obstacles that face the settlement & also of the qualities of Capt. John Smith. Because had It not been for his leadership & discipline over the settlement, the mortality rate would likely of been higher or worse no-one may have survived winter. Not forgetting his diplomatic skills with the Natives, which you could argue influenced them in saving the settlement from starvation when the natives brought food to the Fort one day.

Ref.
www.publicbookshelf.com/public...1/johnsmith_eb.html