On the Legendary Captain John Smith in the Establishment of the New Colony

John Smith’s story of colonization in Virginia presents his good or bad characteristics that enable him
to accomplish his deeds for the new colony’s establishment during the initial stage. He uses the third
person narrative style in this writing, and this make the story seem an objective historical account of he and
his comrades’ colonization initial stage.
In this The General history of Virginia, the writer strikingly demonstrates the good qualities of the
captain John Smith himself, such as commitment, courage, , consideration, good judgment, and so on. For
example, he and his comrades insisted on their goal of establishing their ideal and new commonwealth
even on the brink of running out of food supply; lacking in all kinds of necessities, he claimed that “the
infinite impediments” were “no discouragement” as the last paragraph on page 46. His consideration
always leads him to regard his men’s needs as matters of primary import. In addition, with good judgment,
he shot his muskets to repulse the native savages as he figured their malicious intentions and thus avoided
the potential crisis of a disastrous defeat as manifested on page 47.
However, there are also ambiguities and doubtful descriptions in this Smith’s writing which reduce the
credibility of his own account the colonial history and his adventures. For example, at the bottom of page
48, it is ambiguous that he could ”divert them from surprising the fort and procured his own liberty” just
with well-behavedness. Courtesy is very common and simple for most people, and it is also very doubtful
for Smith to win the savages’ admiration for him more than theirs for Quiyoughkasoucks. This is an overt
exaggeration. What is more, the description of Pocahontas’ rescue at the first complete paragraph on page
52 seems quite imaginary and false. It is unreasonable and irrational for a rescuer to risk his or her life to
save another one just at the critical point of danger; this kind of scene should happen just in imaginative
fictional stories.
My brief conclusion about John Smith’s The General history of Virginia is that part of this story about
his deeds sounds persuasive and demonstrates the good characteristics of the captain himself; however,
according to common sense, the writer also purposed to exaggerate and beautify the history of he and his
men’s colonization in order to shape a nicer image of himself and build up his fame which he enjoys in.
In A Description of New England, one main knowledge I gained is that quite a few idlers four centuries
ago, no matter children or parents, wished their parents’ or children’s death secretly in mind for money and
property. Dissolute people several centuries ago who lack proper education or moral self-cultivation did not
have genuine familial love or filial piety; they were aware of moral precepts, but in Smith’s estimation, they
know more about deception and superficiality and secretly regard them as rubbish. Poverty nurtures moral
depravity; in poverty, people’s ultimate concern in daily life is their own survival instead of any other high-
sounding moral principles. This also reflects that centuries ago before industrialization, most people were
poor and lived in an awful condition, just like that of Haiti’s today in which people contend for foodstuffs
and abandon morals which they had before the recent big earthquake. This point is not intended a key
message by the writer, but it is the most thought-provoking one for me in A Description of New England.
And government officials in a country should try to boost macroeconomic strength and fight and reduce
poverty, and each member in the society should also keep themselves away from poverty; if so, the welfare
of the commonwealth in the country can be reached as a matter of course.