and knew not the secret of having his own way
without seeming to have it. He was insubordinate, impatient of any
authority over him, and unwilling to submit to discipline he did not
himself impose.

Yet it must be said that he was less self-seeking than those who were
with him in Virginia, making glory his aim rather than gain always;
that he had a superior conception of what a colony should be, and how
it should establish itself, and that his judgment of what was best was
nearly always vindicated by the event. He was not the founder of the
Virginia colony, its final success was not due to him, but it was owing
almost entirely to his pluck and energy that it held on and maintained
an existence during the two years and a half that he was with it at
Jamestown. And to effect this mere holding on, with the vagabond
crew that composed most of the colony, and with the extravagant and
unintelligent expectations of the London Company, was a feat showing
decided ability. He had the qualities fitting him to be an explorer
and the leader of an expedition. He does not appear to have had the
character necessary to impress his authority on a community. He was
quarrelsome, irascible, and quick to fancy that his full value was not
admitted. He shines most upon such small expeditions as the exploration
of the Chesapeake; then his energy, self-confidence, shrewdness,
inventiveness, had free play, and his pluck and perseverance are
recognized as of the true heroic substance.

Smith, as we have seen, estimated at their full insignificance such
flummeries as the coronation of Powhatan, and the foolishness of taxing
the energies of the colony to explore the country for gold and chase the
phantom of the South Sea. In his discernment and in his conceptions of
what is now called "political economy" he was in advance of his age.
He was an advocate of "free trade" before the term was invented. In his
advice given to the New England plantation in his "Advertisements" he
says:

"Now as his Majesty has made you custome-free for seven yeares, have
a care that all your countrymen shall come to trade with you, be not
troubled with pilotage, boyage, ancorage, wharfage, custome, or any such
tricks as hath been lately used in most of our plantations, where they
would be Kings before their folly; to the discouragement of many, and a
scorne to them of understanding, for Dutch, French, Biskin, or any will
as yet use freely the Coast without controule, and