Comparing John Smith and Christopher Columbus would be like comparing a rusty sword to a bronze shield: one can only hurt you while the other can only help you. Both John Smith and Christopher Columbus were travelers from Europe, but both had starkly contrasting motivations for what to do when they arrived in the country now known as the United States of America. 'Today. Besides their contrasting motivations, their relationships with the natives were also extremely different. While Christopher Columbus demonstrated that he was a kind and competent explorer, John Smith showed the world that he was nothing more than a narcissistic jerk. Christopher Columbus knew how to handle problems, such as getting food for his crew and communicating with other people, upon his arrival. the new world due to his intense level of knowledge, while John Smith barely survived and would surely have died without the help of the natives he would later kill. To begin with, Christopher Columbus communicated effectively with the natives to establish strong relationships with them so that both parties could enjoy a mutually beneficial relationship. Upon his arrival, Christopher Columbus welcomed them by endowing them with gifts from Europe. In doing so, he gained favor with the natives and was able to flourish in the new world, and demonstrated to the world that he was extremely knowledgeable, even if he sometimes used this knowledge for the wrong reasons. In the other half of this mutually beneficial relationship, the natives gave some of their goods to the crew of the Columbus and instructed them on how to obtain foreign goods. John Smith, on the other hand, did almost the exact opposite. Upon his first arrival, he and his crew were almost dying from the hardness of the paper...... middle of paper ...... he said that living under the reign of John Smith was almost like living under a dictatorship. Columbus, on the contrary, ensured that his entire crew would have a say in how to run the colony. So now not only can we see how vain John Smith was, but we can also see that he was a cruel man. Ultimately, although one can see the apparent difference between John Smith and Christopher Columbus, it is difficult to compare John Smith with other explorers of his time because they were all basically doing the same thing. While John Smith used the natives as shields, Columbus gave them goods and new ideas for their advancement, as well as his own. Now, although John Smith was cruel, he was a tyrant on the playing field compared to the previously mentioned infamous explorer, William Bradford, who ordered the direct execution of over five thousand Native Americans..