According to the book, THE GLORIOUS SCOUNDREL, by Noel B. Gerson, John Smith
was in Graz in southern Austria in 1602/3 looking for work as a mercenary.
He landed work with the Earl of Volda-Meldritch who was one of the Hungarian
Protestants taken into the service of Archduke Ferdinand. According to
Gerson, the Earl was impressed with John Smith's cunning and his facility
with other languages and hired him as his lieutenant on his personal staff.
With Meldritch, Smith ended up fighting Turks in Transylvania where he was
given the title of Captain by Meldritch in honor of his ferocity in fighting
the Turks. The way that Smith became a Turkish slave was this:
After their initial victories against the Turks Smith with Meldritch's corps
pressed further into Transylvania to scout out the enemy's territory.
They eventually got too far ahead of the rest of their army and got into
some skirmishes with some Crimean Tatar troops who were ferocious
descendents of of the Mongol hordes that had centuries before invaded
Finland and Hungary. Thousands of these men and three Turkish dragoons were
sent north to fight Meldritch.
Fighting with the Turks, interestingly,were two regiments of Janissaries
which were fighting units made up entirely of former Christian slaves that
had been subjected to such harsh and complex psychological stresses that (a
la Stockholm syndrome) had become completely converted to the
Islamic/Turkish cause. Meldritch and Smith were vastly outnumbered by the
Turks who had been stalking them as they crossed the Transylvanian Alps and
then trapped them at the narrow valleys of the Oltu River, a branch of the
Danube. Meldritch & Smith fought until they ran out of ammunition. They
were never able to take the offensive and finally attempted to escape.
Meldritch avoided capture but most of the corps were killed and a few were
taken captive. John Smith, of course, being one of those taken prisoner. The
prisoners were marched south, through the Alps, chained together, almost
naked, to Tchernavoda, a large town on the Danube at the southern border of
Transylvania which was the winter quarters for the Turkish army in Europe.
It was there that Smith was placed on the slave market and purchased by a
pasha named Timor for three gold pieces. He was chained and taken to
Adrianople.
In Adrianople Smith ended up as a gift to Lady Charatza Tragabigzanda, a
Turkish noblewomen betrothed to Timor.
Lady Charatza had some odd ideas, however, about what to do with John Smith
and one of the ways in which she amused herself was by having him dress as a
woman and perform the duties of a serving maid. Smith was relieved that he
had not been forced to join her staff of eunuchs. During this period he
became friends with another English slave: A woman named Elizabeth Rondee
who had become a slave when the sailing ship she and her parents had been
traveling aboard while returning to England from Portugal where her father
had been a British diplomat was attacked by Moslem pirates. She had seen
both of her parents murdered and she had ended up a slave in the house of
Lady Charatza.
OK. Now. The part about his love life. Apparently, Lady Charatza and John
SMith became lovers.
Fearful that they would be caught, they decided to part and John SMith was
sent back to Timor where he was treated like any other slave, that is, an
iron collar around his neck; living in slave pens and doing hard labor.
In February, 1604 after Timor caught him sleeping in a haystack and started
to thrash him, John Smith beat Timor to death and decided that the time to
escape was at hand. Dressed in Timor's clothing and with Timor's pistol,
scimitar, short knife and horse he rode toward Russia. Once inside Russia he
continued until the town of Rostov as seaport on the River Don where Tsar
Boris Godunov maintained a strong garrison. Upon entering Rostov Smith was
taken prisoner and marched to the Governor, Baron Reshdinski a fascinating
man who was both cultivated and contradictory....he spoke Greek, Turkish and
Latin as well as Russian and read French. A lover of music and fine food and
collector of portraits painted on porcelain, he also enjoyed entertaining
his dinner guests by having a serf tortured during dinner.
Luckily for John Smith, Reshdinski took a liking to him and took him under
his wing. Smith was treated as a guest and it was there that John Smith fell
in love. The object of his affection was the Governor's niece, Lady
Camallata whose likeness is still seen in the Kremlin where porcelain
portraits show her to be a delicate blonde beauty. She became Smith's
constant companion and during his three months in Rostov, she taught him to
speak Russian! John SMith claims in his writings, TRUE TRAVELS, that he lost
his heart to her. He claims that he asked her to marry him and return with
him to England. She was a true Russian, however, and could not leave her
homeland. Never forgetting her, John Smith dedicated the first edition of
his first book to her: A TRUE RELATION.
Jamestown and the kindly Powhatans must have been a piece of cake for
Captain John Smith after all of this.
Thus endeth the first lesson.
Deane Mills
----- Original Message -----
From: "Stephan A. Schwartz" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Sunday, January 08, 2006 9:44 PM
Subject: Re: New World Movie
> Your Smith characterization was fascinating. Thanks.
>
> -- Stephan
>
>
> On 8 Jan 2006, at 19:36, Melinda Skinner wrote:
>
> > There is so much wrong with the film from a historic point of view,
> > but John Smith was in his 20s.
> > From the age of 19, he had been a soldier who fought in wars in
> > eastern and western European (as a mercenary), was captured and a
> > slave to the Turks, escaped to travel and sail with pirates, and
> > was an all-around "adventurer" to say the least. By the time he
> > got to Jamestown, he may have been "old" as far as experience goes,
> > but he was only 27.
> > Pocahontas was probably 10 or 11-- most likely having a shaved head
> > and wearing little more than a few decorations on her body except
> > in cold weather; Smith never wrote nor claimed any "romance" with
> > Pocahontas. (As a matter of fact, one noted English historian
> > speculated that, since Smith had been captured by the Turks-- and
> > it was their general practice to castrate their adult, male
> > captives-- and there is no record of Smith having any relationship
> > with any female-- his sexual ability may well have been seriously
> > diminished, if not nonexistent.)
> > I have seen scenes of the film but haven't seen the whole thing. I
> > have heard
> > that it is beautiful to behold (and should help tourism to
> > Virginia) but WAY off the real story. Too bad they didn't cast a
> > heartthrob as John Rolfe so he could have had the steamy scenes
> > with Pocahontas.
> > -Melinda Skinner (educational writer/researcher, among other things)
> >
> > -------------- Original message ----------------------
> > From: Louise Bernikow <[log in to unmask]>
> >> In a message dated 1/3/06 1:25:46 PM Eastern Standard Time,
> >> [log in to unmask]
> >> writes:
> >>
> >>
> >>> From the previews, it is a perpetuation of the John Smith-Pocahontas
> >>> "romance" which never happened...she was a child and there are
> >>> indications
> >>> that
> >>> John Smith made up the story to make himself look like a hero! I
> >>> direct
> >>> interestedJoh
> >>
> >> From beginning to end, it's a dumb distortion of everything we know.
> >> Farrel/smith is in his early 20's! The "naturals" attack j-towne
> >> fort with
> >> pocahontas
> >> inside. they have bizarre body/face paint, unlike any pics i've
> >> ever seen. the
> >> "maids" who come-glimpsed mostly in the background-are middle-aged.
> >> pocahontas has a kind of english nanny (not the clergy) turning
> >> her into an
> >> english
> >> lass. she is received at court by king and queen. and on and on. i
> >> can't imagine
> >> why malick has done this- the history is so much more interesting,
> >> the
> >> story/characters here have no responses we can read (except for
> >> the mooning love
> >> story and I think p. looks polynesian, not native am. ) so there
> >> is no insight,
> >> no
> >> real emotion, no understanding.
> >> weren't there people on this list who worked as historical
> >> consultants on the
> >> film? would love to hear from them.
> >> it does look filmed at the Jamestown restoration. true?
> >> Louise Bernikow
> >>
> >> To subscribe, change options, or unsubscribe, please see the
> >> instructions
> >> at http://listlva.lib.va.us/archives/va-hist.html
> >
> > To subscribe, change options, or unsubscribe, please see the
> > instructions
> > at http://listlva.lib.va.us/archives/va-hist.html
>
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