Draft Interpretive Plan Join the adventure! - Captain John Smith ...

what they knew about their homeland. They drew maps in the earth, described the distant
terrain up the rivers, and told Smith about other tribes.
From the information Smith gathered, he compiled a map of the Bay and wrote
extensively about what he had learned. Just before the voyages, Smith had sent to
England a sketch map of that part of the Bay and its river system that he had seen thus
far, as well as a letter to a friend. The letter and map were published later in 1608 as A
True Relation of such occurrences and accidents of noate as hath hapned in Virginia
since the first planting of that Collony. After the voyages, and after he returned to
England in 1609, Smith set about turning A True Relation and his notes and sketch maps
into a book. The result, A Map of Virginia, appeared in 1612. It consists of a book in
two parts, and the map, which was reissued in many “states” between then and 1632.
The first part of the book is Smith’s “Description of the Country,” which details the fauna
and flora of the Chesapeake region, as well as the American Indians who lived there. The
second part describes the history of the colony and has a separate title page: The
Proceedings of the English Colonie In Virginia since their first beginning from England
in the yeare of our Lord 1606, till this present 1612. Although Smith contributed to this
section, other authors’ names are on the title page. Interestingly, three of them—Anas
Todkill, Walter Russell, and Nathaniel Powell—accompanied Smith on one or both of his
Chesapeake Bay voyages. In 1624, Smith published his magnum opus, The Generall
Historie of Virginia, New-England, and the Summer Isles.
During his time in Virginia, and especially during the voyages on the Chesapeake Bay,
John Smith saw more with his own eyes or through the eyes of the Indians than any other
Englishman then in Virginia. He gathered data for a map that would guide English
explorers and settlers for decades to come. He journeyed a great distance for the time, in
an open boat with crews that were often ill; he faced storms and combat; and he brought
his men and his vessel safely home. He formed alliances with several American Indian
tribes. Regardless of the repercussions, Smith and his companions had survived a grand
adventure, and the voyages were a great accomplishment.
The expeditions had far-reaching consequences. Smith’s “discoveries,” recorded in his
maps and books, helped to change the Virginia Company policy toward private
landholding, and promoted the eventual transformation of the Bay’s environment through
the settlers’ farming and exploitation of natural resources. The subsequent large-scale
immigration from England increased the pressure on the native peoples and the Bay
itself. Smith’s model for settlement in the Bay region largely became the model for
English America from New England to the Carolinas. His maps served settlers and
colonial governments until late in the seventeenth century. And the stories of his exploits
continue to intrigue Americans today.
Chesapeake Bay Native Americans
The distribution of American Indian polities around the Chesapeake Bay, their internal
structures and hierarchies, their relationships with one another, and the relative levels of
power or authority among their leaders, have been subjects of much scholarly research,
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