Quiz on John Smith’s Generall Historie of Virginia
1In late December, 1606, John Smith and the others set sail for Virginia from Blackwall,
England, stopping along the way in the Canary Islands. (true)
2Once in Virginia, they chose a site on a river and named the place Jamestown, where,
in May, they built a fort that received numerous attacks by the Indians. (true)
3In time all their provisions were spent. Smith blamed their hardships on Council for
their poor planning, not having foreseen the hardships that awaited the colonizers in
Virginia. (False. They only have themselves to blame.)
4Twenty miles up-river from Jamestown, two of Smith’s men were slain by the Indians
while he was hunting for food. Smith was also attacked and fought his attackers until he
was reduced and made a prisoner, not without having first killed two of his assailants.
(true)
5Smith was held prisoner for several weeks. In his captivity in The General History of
Virginia, he recounts that he so demeaned himself among them that he was able to
procure the liberty of his colleagues. (false, they had already been killed; his own
liberty)
6Smith impressed them with his magnifying glass, which could set grass ablaze with the
force of the sun. (false, he amazed them with his compass)
7Smith was put in a long house and fed till he couldn’t eat anymore. What he left
uneaten, his guards ate, bringing him fresh food after that. Smith was worried that they
wanted to fatten him up before eating him. (true)
8At last he was brought to Werowocomoco, where Powhatan, their emperor, received
him. After being fed sumptuously, Smith was seized and forced to lay his head on the
ground while a pair of hatchets were delivered to Powhatan, presumably to be used to
beat out Smith’s brains. (false, not hatchets but stones)
9But the chief’s niece Pochahontas intervened, and when no entreaty would prevail, she
put Smith’s head in her arms to save him from death, where upon, Powhatan is said to
have spared his life. Later the chief would discuss business matters with the young
Englishman. (False, his daughter)
10. Powhatan wanted Smith to get him a canon and a couple of millstones. But the
Indians who accompanied Smith to Jamestown found the millstones too heavy to carry,
and when they were treated to a demonstration of the cannon’s discharge, they fled in
terror back into the woods. (true)