Smith, Captain John


An English adventurer and explorer of the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries. Smith was one of the original settlers of Jamestown in 1607. He was taken prisoner by the braves of the Native American chief Powhatan. By his own account, he was rescued through the intervention of Pocahontas, Powhatan's daughter.

The New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, Third Edition Copyright © 2005 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.