Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1856-01-17

From the Home Journal.
The MARRIAGE OF POCAHONTAs
BY BENSON J. LOSING.


the autumn of 1908, there was marriage on
the banks of the Powhatan, where the English
had laid the cornerstone of the great fabric Of
Anglo-Saxon Empire in the New World. II
was celebrated in the second church which the
English settlers had erected there. Like their
first, which fire had devoured the previous win
ter, it was rude structure, whose roof rested
upon rough pine columns, fresh from the vir-
gin forest, and whose adornings were little in
debted to the hand of art. The officiating
priest was "good Master Hunter who had
lost all his books by the conhagration. History,
poetry, and song, have kept dutiful silence
respecting that first English marriage in Anne.
rica, because John Laydon and Anne Burrows
were common people. The bridegroom was q
carpenter, among the first adventures who as
cended the Powhatan, then named James in
honor of q bad king; and the bride vas wait,
ing-maid to "Mistress Forrest, wife ofThomas
Forrest, gentleman. These were the first
white women ever seen at the jamestown set
tlement.
Almost five years later, there was another
marriage at Old jamestown, in honor ofwhich
history, poetry, and song have been employed
The bridegroom was ssMaster John Rolfe, an
honest gentleman, and of good behavior %
from the realm of England and the bride was
princess royal, named Matoa, or Pocahontas,
the well-beloyed daughter of the Emperor OF
the great Powhatan confederacy, on the Vir-
ginian peninsula. The officiating priest was
Master Alexander Whitaker, noble apostle
of Christianity, who went to Virginia for the
cure of souls. Sir Thomas Dale, then Govern
or of the colony, thus briefly tells his masters
of the Company in London, the story Of Poca-
hontas: "Powhatan's daughter caused to
be carefully instructed in the Christian reli,
gion, who, after she had made a good progress
therein, renounced publicly her country s
idolatry, openly confessed her Christian faith,
was, as she desired, baptized, and is since
married to an English gentleman Of good un-
derstanding Gas by his letter unto me. contain
ing the reason of his marriage of her, you may
perceive another knot to bind this peace the
stronger Her father and friends gave appro-
baton to it, and her uncle gave her to him in
the church, She lives ciyilly and lovingly
with him, and, trust, will increase in good
ness, as the knowledge of God increasedin her.
She will go to England with me, and, were it
but the gaining of this one soul, l will think
my time, toll, and present stay, we'll spent"
So discoursed Sir Thomas Dale. Curiosity
would know more of the Princess and her mar
riage and curiosity may here be gratifed to the
extent of the revelations of recorded history
The finger of a special Providence, pointing
down the vista of ages, is seen in the character
and acts of Pocahontas. She was the daugh,
ter of a pagan king who had never heard Of
Jesus of Nazareth, yet her heart was overflow
ing with the cardinal virtues of Christian
life.
"She was landscape of mild earth,
Where all was harmony, and calm quiet,
Luxuriant, budding. g."-BTRoN.
When Captain Smith, the boldest and the
best of the early adventures in Virginia, pen
etrated the dense forest, he was made pris
oner, was conducted in triumph from village
to village, until he stood in the presence Of
Powhatan, the supreme ruler, and was then
condemned to die!
Upon the barren sand
A single captive stood;
Around him came, with bow and brand,
The red-men of the wood.
Like him of old his doom he hears,
Rock-bound on oceans rim:
The chieftains daughter knelt in tears,
And breathed prayer for him.
Above his head in air
The savage war-club swung:
The frantic girl, in wild despair,
Her arms around him flung
Then shook the warriors Of the shade,
Like leaves on aspen-limb-
Subdued by that heroic maid
Who breathed prayer for him.
"Unbind him." gaspcd the chief
He kissed away her tears of grief,
And set the captive free.
IT'S ever thus, when in lifes storm,
Hopes star to man grows dim,
An angel kneels in woman's form,
And breathes prayer for him.
GEORGE P. NORRIS
How could that stern old king deny
The angel plcadingin her eye?
How mock the sweet, imploring grace
That breathed in beauty from her face
And to her kneeling action gave
A power to soothe and still subdue,
Until, though humble as slave,
To more than queenly sway she grew.
WILLIAM G. SMas.
The Emperor yielded to the maid, and the
captive was set free.
Two years after that event, Pocahontas
again became an angel of deliverence She
fastened to jamestown during dark and
stormy night, informed the English of con-
spiracy to exterminate them, and was back to
her couch before dawn. Smith was grateful,
and the whole English colony regarded her as
their delivercr. But gratitude is often plant
of feeble root, and the canker of sclfshness
will destroy it altogether Smith went to En-
gland; the morals of the colonists became de-
praved; and Argall, a rough, halfpiratical
navigator, unmindful of her character, briocd
a savage, by the promise of copper kettle,
to betray Pocahontas into his hands, to be
kept as hostage while compelling Powhatan
to make restitution for injuries inflicted. The
Emperor loved his daughter ,enderly, agreed
to the terms of ransom gladly, and promised
unbroken friendship for the English.
Pocahontas was now free to return to her
forest home. But other bonds, more holy than
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