WHAT A STORY!!!!!! This should be NEW WORLD-EPISODE 1! Is it all true?
Randy Cabell
----- Original Message -----
From: <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Monday, January 09, 2006 9:02 PM
Subject: JOHN SMITH'S "LOVE LIFE"
> 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
>> >>
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>> >
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