Captain John Smith’s 1612 map, 维吉尼亚Discoverd & 转基因植株, even to the casual eye presents our earliest picture of the Chesapeake Bay with uncanny accuracy. 但是其他的东西出现了. There are 27 “Maltese” crosses scattered over it right to left, top to bottom. Smith tells us in his map key:

Signification of these markes,/To the crosses hath bin discoverd/ what beyond is by relation.

Meaning downstream of the crosses his knowledge is first-h和, upstream from them second-h和. His books—The General History, 弗吉尼亚地图—tell us more:

In all those places 和 the furthest we came up the rivers, we cut in trees so many crosses as we would, 和 in many places made holes in trees wherein we writ notes, 和 in some places crosses of brasse to signifie to any [that] Englishmen had beene there.GH61

… wee sayled so high as our boat would float, there setting up crosses 和 graving our names in the trees.GH63

… in which map observe this: that as far as you see the little crosses on rivers, 山, 或者其他地方, have been discovered; the rest was had by information of the savages, 和 are set down according to their instructions.MV11

史密斯历史学家埃德·海尔说, with former Conservancy Chairman Charlie Stek, put together the Cross Project to restore 24 cross sites with granite markers right where Smith left the originals to be “waypoints of the water trail” in Virginia, 马里兰, 和特拉华州. Through the help of Ed 和 fellow project volunteer, 康妮Lapallo, they are working to mark each spot for modern day adventurers to visit.

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Captain John Smith Chesapeake National Historic Trail

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康妮Lapallo is an author, historian, 和 speaker. Her trilogy is based 在 true story of Jamestown’s first women 和 children: Dark Enough to See the Stars in a Jamestown Sky (1592-1611), When the Moon Has No More Silver (1610-1620), 和 The Sun is But a Morning Star (1621-1652). Connie has told the Jamestown story to hundreds of audiences across the country.