captain john smiths journals offer a compelling eyewitness view of the chesapeake bay in 1608. they describe his adventures in vivid detail, recounting where he went, what he saw and the people he met. there are successes and conflicts, wonder and worry, smooth sailing and storms, hospitality and hostility, and near starvation. his journals, published as a book in 1612, introduced this part of the world to the english for the first time and triggered a wave of colonization. the journals let people today see the chesapeake as it was four centuries ago.