We have not the space to follow Smith in all his bold adventures, although they are eminently interesting, and characterized by the noble bearing, courage, and disinterestedness of his chivalric nature. It must suffice that under his rule the colony became as prosperous as it was possible for it to become with such a strange population of worthless, ill-tempered, idle fellows. Quantities of tar, pitch, and soap ashes were collected; a successful experiment was made in the manufacture of glass; twenty new houses were built, with a more convenient church; and nets for fishing were manufactured. To defend themselves, the colonists also erected two or three wooden forts, or block-houses, and, to provide for the next year, planted nearly forty acres with vegetables and grain. Altogether the prospects were cheering to every one except the London speculators, who, not having received large cargoes of virgin gold or bags full of precious stones, were greatly dissatisfied with the way things had been managed. To such an extent did they carry their dissatisfaction, that in 1609 they obtained a new charter from the king, annulling the former one. Immediately afterward they dispatched nine ships, with 500 emigrants, to take possession of the colony, and regulate it according to the latest system of colonial wisdom. When the proper officers had arrived, Smith made preparations to return to England. The magnanimity of his character was illustrated in the cheerful assistance he rendered to his successors, many of whom were pigheaded and insolent, and very jealous of Smith's popularity. Those poor creatures who had worked and suffered in the colony were very sorry when they heard that their brave president was about to leave them, and they tried all they could to get him to stay; but Smith suffered severely from an accident he had met with, occasioned by the explosion of a bag of gunpowder, and felt sure that if he did not go back and get good medical advice he would infallibly die. So Captain John Smith, after a wonderfully active and wonderfully troubled career of more than two years, took his departure for the land of his fathers. Immediately afterward the colony sunk into a state of great confusion; "large parties were cut off by the savages; a division of authority produced entire disorganization; improvidence wasted the stores which had been accumulated, and the settlers fell into the last stage of abasement and misery. Within six months after the loss of their virtuous president, the number at Jamestown was not

more than sixty, including women and children. They had to feed on roots, herbs, acorns, walnuts, and berries, with now and then a scanty supply of fish. They ate their starch, and at last even the skins of their horses. 'Nay, so great,' says the narrator,' was our famine, that a salvage we slew and buried, the poorer sort took him up again and ate him, and so did divers one another, boyled and stewed with roots and herbs. And one among

the rest did kill his wife, powdered her, and had eaten part of her before it was known, for which he was executed, as he well deserved. Now, whether she was better roasted, boyled, or carbonadoed, I know not; but of such a dish as powdered wife I never heard."" Their miseries were fortunately terminated by the arrival of Sir Thomas Gates and Sir George Somers, with 150 men and a quantity of provisions.

We hear nothing of Captain John Smith for several years after his return to England. It is certain that he was much sought after by the lion-hunters, and that he became very famous for his strange adventures. It is also certain that some of the incidents of his strange life were worked into a dramatic form, and represented at the theatres, much to the annoyance of our hero. In 1614 we find him once more embarked for the New World, but not for Virginia. This time his enterprising spirit sought new laurels in the cold and barren ground of New England. There were two ships in the expedition, one commanded by himself, and the other by Captain Thomas Hunt. On the 30th of April they arrived at the coast of Maine, and immediately commenced looking for mines of gold. As they did not succeed in their search, they turned their attention to the next most improbable product of the country, and went about in boats to capture whales. Finally they abandoned both pursuits, and devoted their attention to the catching and curing of codfish. While the crew were thus employed, Captain Smith, with eight men in a small boat, surveyed and examined the whole coast from Penobscot to Cape Cod, trafficking with the Indians for furs, and twice fighting with them. He constructed a map of the country, and, after six months' absence, once more returned to England. In the following year our restless hero embarked once more for the Western World, but, when about a hundred and twenty leagues from port, he encountered a violent storm, which so shattered his vessel that he had to return and procure another one. On the 24th of June,

1615, he started once more in a small bark of sixty tons, manned by thirty men, and carrying with him sixteen settlers. Soon after his departure he was chased by an English pirate, but succeeded in getting away on friendly terms. Near Fayal he came across two French pirates. His crew were panic-stricken, and wanted him to surrender; but he scorned the idea, and told them that he would rather blow up the ship than yield while he had any powder left. So he blazed away with his four little guns, and contrived to make his escape. Near Flores he was chased, and, sad to say, overtaken by four French men-of-war. For some strange reason Smith was kidnapped, and kept on board the French frigate while she cruised about snapping up prizes. In the mean time the crew of his own vessel put about, and returned to the port whence they came. Smith had no opportunity of making his escape until one stormy night, while the vessel of his captors was lying at anchor in the harbor of Rochelle. When it was quite dark he dropped into a boat, and with the fragment of a handspike in place of oars, floated away on the fierce waters. A strong current carried him out to sea, and all night he was rocked about in one of the most fearful tempests that had been known on that coast for many years. A kind and watchful Providence surely shielded him on that sad night, for, when he was carried in by the morning tide, he discovered that the French ship from which he had escaped had been wrecked, and the captain and half the crew drowned; yet his poor little cockle-shell outlived the fury of the elements ! On landing at Rochelle he lodged a complaint with the judge of the Admiralty, but without any satisfactory result. Shortly afterward he returned to England, and in 1616 published the narrative of his two voyages to New England, which he had written, in a great measure, while a prisoner on board the French vessel. Although he made many efforts to return to the country in which he was so deeply interested, and which owed all its prosperity to his presence, and all its misfortunes to his absence, he was never able to do so. As a speculation, the New World had been ruinous to the capitalists who embarked in it, and there was no disposition to risk more. The remainder of his life was therefore passed in England, but in what way we know not. Mr. Hillard, in his Memoir, says, "The death of Captain Smith occurred in 1631, at London, in the fiftysecond year of his age. We know nothing of the circumstances

which attended it, and we are equally ignorant of his domestic and personal history, with whom he was related and connected, where he resided, what was the amount of his fortune, what were his habits, tastes, personal appearance, manners, and conversation, and, in general, of those personal details which modest men commonly do not record about themselves. From the fact that he expended so much money in the great objects of his life, and particularly in the publication and distribution of his pamphlets, we may infer that he was independent in his circumstances, if not wealthy. For his labors and sacrifices he never received any pecuniary recompense. In a statement addressed to his majesty's commissioners for the reformation of Virginia, and written, probably, about 1624, he says that he has spent five years, and more than five hundred pounds, in the service of Virginia and New England; 'yet,' he adds, 'in neither of those countries have I one foot of land, nor the very house I builded, nor the ground I digged with my own hands, nor ever any content or satisfaction at all, and though I see ordinarily those two countries shared before me by them that neither have them, nor know them but by my descriptions.'

To this individual the world is indebted for one of its most valuable and economical means of internal communication. James Brindley, a self-made man, was the founder of canal navigation. The first undertaking of the kind was projected in 1759, under the patronage of the Duke of Bridgewater, and the subject of this memoir was the man by whose talents the scheme was carried into execution.

James Brindley was born in 1716 at Tunstead, or at Thornsett, in Derbyshire. His father was a spendthrift, who cared more for his own enjoyment than for the prosperity of his family. Consequently, Brindley was denied the advantages of an education, and at an early age had to obtain employment on the neighboring farms. When he was seventeen he apprenticed himself to a millwright, and soon displayed so much expertness that he was frequently left for whole weeks to execute works concerning which he had received no instruction from his master. His mechanical ingenuity was great, and when he experienced a difficulty, his inventive genius assisted him to get out of it. In every thing he undertook, he displayed so much ready skill that the millers considered it a favor to obtain his services in preference to those of his master.