Spirit of the age. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1849-1865, 1856-07-30
CAPTAIN sMtrHAND PocAHoNrAs

SitAC 1OotCiQdt III u lCWSpdpils Luz 10 ~ -
a true story after all The progress of t
historical science, or rather historical in Q
quiry, is continually depriying US of beau II
titul legends in which our childhood de- B
lighted, which poets and painters have in
vested with the additional charms of song 1
and pictorial grace, and to which we have "a
chung through life with the most undoubt- a
ing faith. Who has not felt his blood tin l
gle and his heart beat high in reading the '
tale of the Swiss patriots unerring arrow
and the cleft apple? Who has not believ- S
ed, with all his soul, that Geisler and Wil-f <
liam Tell were as historically real as Wash
ington and George the Third !? Yet, now
we are assured .'by the best authority" ;
that the spirit-stirring narrative is a mere
fiction that the plumcd hat planted on
high for the reverence Of the indignant
Switzers, the second arrow hidden beneath
the coat Of the dauntless archer, the apple
on the boys head, all arc no better than
fg1nents-crcations of some lively fancy,
having no substantial relations of time and
place Of which authentic record can be
found.
Less universal, but held Of equally firm
crcdence,is the story of the faithful dog on
which Sir Walter built r his ballad d Of efcd Beth
and Irish, the fidelity of the noble hound
Is immortallized, with the erring wrath of
the stout baron. Gentle eyes have wept
as they hurried adown the page and read
how the faithful dog was lett to watch by
the cradle of the sleeping heir-how the
parents, on their return, found the cradle
empty and Beth Gelert with bloody jaws
how the father, in his anguish and fury,
believing that the dog had slain and de-
voured the child, with hasty hand smote
him to death-and how, on looking more
closely into the case, as they should have
done at first, they discovered that the child
was safe and sound, hidden away somewhere
under a table or a sofa, and that the ensan-
guined stain Of the good dogs jaws was
caused by the blood of a huge wolf which
had approached the cradle with felonious
intent, and which he had slain after a des-
perate battle. Childhood and manhood
have believed this legend; but Col. Fitz-
gerald showed me its original, years ago,
in the library Of the Royal Asiatic Society;
showed me that it was an oriental story,
current in the literq ture of the Hindoos long
before the Romans made their first visit to
the halt-naked barbarians of the British is
land the only difference being that in the
oriental tale the faithful animal was an
ichncumon and the invader Of the cradle 8
deadly serpent.
remember reading, in my y~oungerdays
a very ingenious r9umen to prove thar
there never was such a man as Napoleon
Bonaparte; or | should rather say to prov,
that tho evidence on which we believe il
his existence, and III all the wonderful
events that make up history, is not sufi
! cient to command belief. The pamphle
2 was written to meet the objections Of inf
: dels who cavil at the divine narratives 0
the New Testament, by showing that tin
same objections might be urged, with cqua
force, against the truth of events SO rccen
as those forming the career of the Frencl
k Emperor. The same course ~ofargumenta
y ton might be employed, with even create
: plausibility, against the verify of the stor
6 in which Pocahontas figures to such advaf
tage. In fact, it would puzzle the most il
% gcnious dialectician to proUe that there VIZ
he a Pocahontas, a Powhattan, or even a Cal
tie tain Smith. We have only to set out wit
the determination to believe nothing excel
n on the testimony of our own eyes and ca,
which is the method Of those who sec
Ar to iiupeach the New Testament, and v
havea position more impregnable than Gi
raltar. We need not even goso far as Thu
it will be enough to insist on the eyidenI
of credible witnesses whom we may eros
examine,as they do in the courts of ustic
Books may be false. Printers can nal
their types say what they please-wf
ne should we give more belief to the story
Captain Smith, because we find it in su
Y dry books, than we do to the story Of Ca
- tain CULVER Bring us somebody wi
has seen the lovely Indian princess-int
engraving. | regret to say, her ~loveline
RS is IA thing to dream of, not to see-bril
ne us Captain Smith himself, for, after all, Y
~ have only his evidence for the truth of t
n story which the engraving was designed
ca illustrate. Admitting that divers of |
companions certify to the existence Of z
cahontas and Powhattan; that books a
manuscripts, alleged to be contemporaries
records, speak CT her being in England,
her marriage to Mr.. Role, of her presen
ton at Court, and of her early death
hitting all this, we still have only Capt;
John Smiths word for the murderous
t~entions Of Powhattan, and for the her
interposition of Powhattan's gentle a
coppercolored daughter. The captain |
II fesses to have been alone in that adventu
the tale rests on his veracity alone; was
a man Of unquestionable v%eracity? |
not say that he was not, but who can
that he was? Who can give assurance
in this particular matter he did not d
upon his imagination, to magnify his p
in the service of the colony? Men
do such things, sometimes.
:. Perhaps the story is an allegory-a m
like the Pilgrims Progress of excel
old John Bunyan. Captain Smith,
example, may be taken as a representa-
or image, or embodiment, of European
i~lization struggling for the mastery '
the powers of barbarism Swallowed fortI
the person of the Indian monarch. P
b, hontas may represent the latent virtue
barbarism, coming to the aid and rescu
you civilization in the contest; or she
~ stand for the intelligence of the red pee
F. opposing itself to their %ferocity. The
ture of Smith and his condemnation
death may signify generally the perils
of a dent to the establishment of white me
the mong these sayages and under this
tea, position, Pocahontas may be conceive
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