Short article about John Smith

Excerpt:

Smith's Lincolnshire Childhood
John Smith was born in about the year 1579, in Willoughby, Lincolnshire, England. He was baptized there on January 9, 1579. After receiving a grammar school education he was apprenticed to a local merchant. In about 1600 he ran away from home and while traveling through France and at sea, survived some fantastic adventures. He later served in the army for four years on the European continent. Upon his return he made a brief visit to Scotland but returned to the Continent. There, he fought with the Austrians against the Turks in Transylvania.

Enslaved in Russia

According to Smith, he was taken prisoner and sent to Constantinople to be used as a present to the wife of a Turkish pasha. Evidently the wife of the pasha took a liking to the Englishman because she became fearful of his safety and sent him out of Turkey. Smith was sent into what became Georgia in the U. S. S. R. But still his troubles were not over. In Georgia he was made a slave.

But Smith, true to his brashness and his instinct to survive, killed the man that was his master and escaped to Western Europe. He returned from his extended ordeals to England in about 1604.