He had known sea-fights and shipwrecks
and had journeyed, with adventures galore, in Italy. Before Regal, in
Transylvania, he had challenged three Turks in succession, unhorsed them,
and cut off their heads, for which doughty deed Sigismund, a Prince of
Transylvania, had given him a coat of arms showing three Turks' heads in a
shield. Later he had been taken in battle and sold into slavery, whereupon
a Turkish lady, his master's sister, had looked upon him with favor. But at
last he slew the Turk and escaped, and after wandering many days in misery
came into Russia. "Here, too, I found, as I have always done when in
misfortune, kindly help from a woman." He wandered on into Germany and thence
into France and Spain. Hearing of wars in Barbary, he crossed from Gibraltar.
Here he met the captain of a French man-of-war. One day while he was with this
man there arose a great storm which drove the ship out to sea. They went
before the wind to the Canaries, and there put themselves to rights and began
to chase Spanish barks. Presently they had a great fight with two Spanish men-of-war, in which the French
ship and Smith came off victors. Returning to
Morocco, Smith bade the French captain good-bye and took ship for England, and
so reached home in 1604. Here he sought the company of like-minded men, and so
came upon those who had been to the New World--"and all their talk was of its
wonders." So Smith joined the Virginia undertaking, and so we find him headed
toward new adventures in the western world.
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