SMYTH, John Ferdinand D., British soldier, lived in the eighteenth century. He came to Virginia, and, after travelling in the west and south, settled in Maryland, where he cultivated a farm for several years. During a visit to the sons of Colonel Andrew Lewis in Virginia he joined the troops that were ordered out by Governor Dunmore, and accompanied Major Thomas Lewis to the Kanawha, participating in the action against the Indians in which Major Lewis was killed. On his return he found Maryland agitated by the beginning of the Revolution. He supported the British government so earnestly that his house was surrounded by armed troops, which threatened his capture. Es-raping twice, he fled to Virginia, hiding in the Dismal Swamp, passed the guards at Suffolk, and enlisted in the Queen's royal regiment in Norfolk. The officers were seized by a company of riflemen at Hagerstown and taken to Frederick, Maryland Smyth escaped, and travelled across the Alleghanies, but was recaptured and imprisoned in Philadelphia, and afterward in Baltimore. Escaping again, he gained with difficulty a British ship off Cape May, New Jersey, and visited New York and New England. Subsequently he published "A Tour in the United States of America" (2 vols., London and Dublin, 1784; in French, Paris, 1791). John Randolph of Roanoke said : "This book, although replete with falsehood and calumny, contains the truest picture of the state of society and manners in Virginia (such as it was half a century ago) extant."