John Smith was an early English explorer of North America. He is best known as one of the leaders of the Virginia Company that established Jamestown, the first permanent English settlement in North America, in 1607. This excerpt from his book The Generall Historie of Virginia tells the story of his leadership of the Jamestown colonists and his attempts to establish relations with the local Native Americans. The colonists were ill-equipped to survive in the wilds of Virginia. Many of them had no skills in raising their own food and desperately needed support from the Powhatan confederation to survive. Disease also thinned their ranks in the early days of Jamestown’s existence. Smith, placed in command, helped provide the discipline that allowed the colony to survive. Although Smith’s book offers a rare glimpse into early English colonization, it also represents one of the downfalls of a primary source: Smith does not contain his biases, which is perhaps one of the reasons his relationship with the Virginia Company became strained.