Sunbury American. [volume] (Sunbury, Pa.) 1848-1879, 1867-02-23
MISCELLANEOUS.
POcahOntas and Captain Smith-A
Romance Kudely Dispelled.

The remorselessness with which modern
criticism is sweeping away some of the
most popular historical traditions, find a
fresh illustration iE the famous story of
Pocahontas saving the life of Captain John
Smith, which for two hundred years has
excited the wonder and admiration of the
world. A Massachusetts, antiquarian, Mr.
Charles Deane, in some recently published
works of which the North american Repieu
for January gives summary, comes to the
conclusion that no such occurrence ever
took place. and that the story was invented
by Capt. Smith himself. 1t is alledged to
have taken place in December, 1GO7,-ye
in history written by Smith, and published
in London in 1908, called the True Relation,
though the account of his captivity and re-
lease by Powhatan is given, not a word is
said OF Pocahontas; nor in all the history of
the colonies published afterward-one writ.
ten by Wingtieid, the deposed Governor, in
l60S, another written by DR.. Simons, to ac.
company map of Virginia, by Smith him
sell, and published in 1912 nor third by
Thos. Strachey in 1915, a fourth by Raphael
Hamor, once Secretary of the colony, in
1915, and fifth by Purchas, derived from
Smith himself, 1917, is there the slightest
mention OF the celebrated incident in ques.
accounts of Pocahontas herself of her cap
ture and detention as a hostage by the colo
nists, of her conversion to the Christian
faith, her marriage to Captain Rolfe, her
visit to England and the interest she excited
there; but not a word of her having inter
posed to save the life of Capt. John Smith.
The first hint of that story seems 10 have
been given in a pamphlet published by
Smith himself in 1922, in which, speaking
of his captivity, be says, "God made Poca-
hontas, the Kings daughter, the means to
deliver me, and the full account as il has
ever since been received, is found in another
column made 6y Smith in 1924, sixteen
years after the alledged occurrence, entitled a
General Historic" In both these last works
Mr.. Deane detects sundry instances of ex-
aggeration and mendacity. They seem to
have been written by Smith mainly to en-
list public sentiment and sympathy in his
claims to reinstatement in the colony from
which he had been deposed and it is sug.
gested that this fiction was invented as
likely to greatly enhance his own impor-
tance, after the romantic visit, reception and
death of Pocahontas in England. To those
who know of the Indian maiden only
through the poetry, painting and sculpture
OF which she had been made the object, this
picture of her, when child of ten or twelve
years old, given by Strachey, may be curious.
"Pocahontas," he says. "a well featured but
wantUn young girl, Powhatan's daughter,
sometimes resorting to our fort, of the age
then of ten or twelve years, would get the
boys forth in the market place and make
them wheel, falling on their hands, turning
their heels upward, whom she would follow
and wheel herself, naked as she was, all the
fn ia ha a..
has generally been selected by the artists
who have employed their genius in illustra-
ting her history and character.