Author of the first English work written in America: A true Relation of Such Ocurrences and Accidents of Note as Hath Happened in Virginia (1608).
Not intended for publication: It was a letter to a friend, written while he was in Virginia.
This was the first of a series of books in which he chronicled the early days of the English Colonization in America.
He stood in the tradition of the Elizabethan voyagers whose works were very popular in Europe.

Born into a farmer´s family in Willoughby (Lincolnshire).
Start of his military career: at the age of sixteen, after his father´s death, he went to the Netherlands as a volunteer to fight for the independence of the Dutch against the troops of King Philip II. We know this because of his own lively accounts, whose authenticity many critics doubt. According to his autobiographical work entitled The True Travels, Adventures, and Observations of Captain John Smith, in Europe, Asia, Africa, and America (1630):

1600 he joined the Austrian army against the Turks, and was promoted to captain while fighting in Hungary. He was wounded in battle and sold as a slave to a Turk. He managed to escape and returned to transylvania.

1604-1605, on his return to England, he became involved with the Virginia Company, a joint stock corporation charged by King James I with the settlement of Virginia.

1606 he sailed with the Virginia Company´s first colonists as one of the seven councillors who were to govern the colony due to his rich experience and strong character. The main goal of the company was commercial, not religious: they wanted to accumulate wealth for their colonial investors in London through the discovery of gold and copper. They sailed in three ships and it took them 3 months to arrive.

1607 they landed on Jamestown.

From the start, Captain Smith had serious conflicts with his fellow travellers --he was placed under arrest and threatened with execution while on the ship. However:

1608 he was finally elected president of the council, a position equivalent of that to the colony´s governor.

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Resumen de los principales eventos relatados en cuanto a la vida de John Smith.

Biographical and historical context