Two of Virginia’s most unusual and
colorful characters were Captain John Smith and the Native American princess
Pocahontas.
Captain John Smith was an English soldier
of fortune who fought his way across Europe in wars being waged by the various
rulers in Slovenia, Hungary and Transylvania, earning many awards for
bravery. The Prince of Transylvania
awarded Smith with a title and his own coat of arms which displayed the heads
of three Turks killed and beheaded by Smith in individual combat. But Smith’s luck was about to run out. In 1602 he was wounded in battle and captured
by the Turks. He was sold into slavery
and marched six hundred miles to Constantinople. Here Smith was presented to his new master’s
fiancée as a gift. The woman promptly
fell in love with Smith and tried to convert him to Islam. When this didn’t work, she shipped him off to
her brother in Rostov in what was then Turkish occupied Russia.
The brother beat Smith frequently and put an
iron collar around his neck. John Smith
was a man that required a great deal of breaking, and his new master did not
succeed. In fact, Smith killed him and
escaped on his horse. With the help of
local Christians, Smith traversed Russia and Ukraine, making his way to
Germany, France, and finally England.
After travelling some eleven thousand miles between 1600 -1604, you
would think that Smith would be done with long journeys, but his longest
journey was just about to begin.
In April 1606, the Virginia Company was
granted a royal charter by King James I to establish a colony. In December, three ships carrying one hundred
and four settlers, including Captain John Smith, set sail for Virginia. Impressed by Smith’s military record, the
Virginia Company had invited Smith to join the enterprise as a member of the
new colony’s seven man ruling council.
Jamestown, the first permanent English
settlement in North America, named in honor of King James I, was founded on May
14, 1607. The early going was tough for
the colonists. The colony suffered from
food shortage, disease, and unhealthy drinking water, all in addition to
skirmishes with the local Powhatan tribe.
In the autumn of 1607, Captain Smith conducted trips to Powhatan
villages to secure much need food.
During one of these forays, Smith was taken prisoner by a large Powhatan
hunting party and ultimately brought before Wahunsenacawh, better known to history
as Chief Powhatan.
According to Smith, his head was placed on
two stones and as he was held down, a warrior prepared to smash in his skull
with a heavy club. Before the fatal blow
fell, however, Chief Powhatan’s daughter Pocahontas rushed to Smith’s side and
placed her head on his, preventing the attack. Thus was born the legend of the
beautiful princess saving the life of the intrepid English explorer.
It is easy to understand how Smith,
unfamiliar with Powhatan customs thought he was about to be murdered when, in
fact, he was being inducted into the tribe.
According to some anthropologists, Smith was undergoing a ritual
adoption ceremony, and after the ceremony was treated well and ultimately
returned to Jamestown. As for the Native
American princess, her real
name was Amonute (she also had the more private name Matoaka). Pocahontas was a nickname
which meant “playful one.” Did she
really save John Smith? Smith only wrote
of the incident years later when he was safely back in Europe and there was no
one around to contradict his version.
Some have suggested that he took the story of the hero being saved by
the beautiful daughter of a powerful lord from an old Scottish ballad.
Whatever the
truth of the rescue story, Pocahontas lived a remarkable life. While Smith was with the Powhatans he spent
time with Pocahontas and they taught each other rudimentary aspects of their
different languages. Pocahontas became
an important emissary to the Jamestown colony, negotiating the release of
prisoners and occasionally bringing food to the hungry settlers. Notwithstanding her efforts, relations
between the colonists and the Powhatans remained strained. In 1609, the starving colonists threatened to
burn Powhatan villages unless the tribe brought them food. Chief Powhatan offered to barter for food
with Captain John Smith. Supposedly the
chief intended to ambush and kill Smith, but Pocahontas warned Smith of the
plot and saved his life (again?). Smith
returned to England after this incident.
Pocahontas
avoided the English until 1613 when she was kidnapped. The English informed Chief Powhatan that
Pocahontas would not be returned unless a food ransom was paid and certain
stolen weapons returned. The ransom was
slow in coming and Pocahontas remained a prisoner in the settlement of Henricus
where she was under the care of a minister.
Here she learned how to speak English and learned about both Christianity
and European culture. Pocahontas
converted to Christianity and took a new name, Rebecca.
After she had been a prisoner for a year,
Sir Thomas Dale, with one hundred and fifty armed men, marched Pocahontas to
Chief Powhatan to demand the rest of the ransom. Along the way a number of villages were
burned and a skirmish occurred, but Pocahontas was able to secure peace when
she announced to Chief Powhatan that she wished to marry one of the colonists,
one John Rolfe, a tobacco planter. The
Chief agreed and on April 5, 1614 the marriage took place, cementing the
so-called “Peace of Pocahontas.”
In 1616, Sir
Thomas Dale sailed for England to raise money and to demonstrate that the goal
of converting Native Americans to Christianity was being met. John Rolfe, Pocahontas, their baby son Thomas
(born in 1615) and twelve Powhatan tribe members made the trip. In London, Pocahontas was hailed as a
princess and was presented to King James I.
The Virginia Company commissioned a portrait of Pocahontas in European
dress. The painting’s identifying plaque
reads, “Matoaka, alias Rebecca,
daughter of the most powerful prince of the Powhatan Empire of Virginia.”
In 1617, Pocahontas and her family set sail
for Virginia, but had hardly launched when she was overcome by a grave
illness. The party disembarked at
Gravesend, England, where she died. On
her deathbed she said, “All must die. But ‘tis enough that my child liveth.”
Virginia Legends and Lore
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