But, happily for Virginia, there sailed with these reprobate founders of a new empire a man whom Providence had highly gifted with fitness to govern his fellow-men. His name was John Smith. No writer of romance would have given his hero this name. But, in spite of his name, the man was truly heroic. He was still under thirty, a strong-limbed, deep-chested, massively-built man. From boyhood he had been a soldier—roaming over the world in search of adventures, wherever hard blows were being exchanged.
但是值得庆幸的是，一起来到弗吉尼亚的一群恶棍之中有一个新帝国的缔造者，上帝赋予他管理同胞的权力，他的名字就是约翰·史密斯。虽然没有任何浪漫主义作家在其作品中为主人公起过这个名字，但是这个人的确是一位真正地英雄。他不到三十岁，四肢强健，胸膛结实，体格健壮。从少年时代就征兵入伍，他在世界各地游历，寻找冒险经历，无论在哪里，他总能克服险境。
Returning to England when the passion for colonizing was at its height, he caught at once the prevailing impulse. He joined the Virginian expedition. Ultimately be became its chief. His fitness was so manifest, that no reluctance on his own part, no jealousies on that of his companions, could bar him from the highest place. Men became kings of old by the same process which now made Smith a chief.
回到英国以后，他立刻被开拓殖民地这种盛行的思想所吸引，他的热情极度高涨，于是加入了弗吉尼亚远征队，最终成为了探险队的首领。他身体强壮，条件合适，不受任何阻挠，也不遭人嫉妒，所有这些让他众望所归成为了最高领导者。所以就像过去君主推选的方式一样，史密斯被推选为首领。
The "dissolute persons" sailed in their ships up the James river. Landing there, they proceeded to construct a little town, which they named Jamestown, in honour of the King. This was the first colony which struck its roots in American soil. The colonists were charmed with the climate, and with the luxuriant beauty of the wilderness on whose confines they had settled.
这群“堕落的人”坐船来到詹姆斯河。他们在一个小镇登陆，在那里建立了这座小镇并起名詹姆斯敦，此举是为了向他们的国王表达敬意。这是在北美建立的第一个殖民地。殖民者为这里的气候以及这片荒地的繁茂之美所深深着迷。
But as yet it was only a wilderness. The forest had to be cleared that food might be grown. The exiled gentlemen laboured manfully, but under grievous discouragements. "The axes so oft blistered their tender fingers that many times every third blow had a loud oath to drown the echo." Smith was a man upon whose soul there lay a becoming reverence for sacred things. He devised how to have every man's oaths numbered; "and at night for every oath, to have a can of water poured down his sleeve." Under this treatment the evil assuaged.
但是这里不过是一片荒野。森林中的林木被砍掉以后或许能长出农作物。流放的贵族们满怀壮志的开始劳作，但是结果却让他们气馁。“斧头让柔嫩的手指起了水泡，经常每砍三下，就会听到咒骂的声音，”史密斯对神圣的事情会心怀敬畏。他想办法给每个宣誓的人编号，“每天晚上拿一罐水倒在这些人的袖子上”。以这种方式人们受的苦终于得到了缓解。
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