Prescott journal. [volume] (Prescott, Wis.) 1861-1871, 1867-01-26

| ed. he was treated with the utmoS
kindness and speedily released. Their,
are other additions to the later nara
tive and several exaggerations. WheI
he was first captured according to In
- True Revelation'1 he was guarded bN
eight men, who increased lin his his
tory) to thirty or forty tall fellows hi
| four guides from Powhatan In 1908 be
come twelve in 1924; Smith, on his re
turn, in 1908, is grateful that the ARR
val of Captain Newport frustrated the
design of his enemies, who were pre-
pairing to depose him, whereas, In 162=
he states that he laid them by the
| heels"
"Now in Jamestowne they were all il
combustion, the strongest preparing
once more to run away with the Pin
mace, which, with the hazard of his
life. with Sabre falcon and musket shot
Smith forced now the third time to stay
or sinke. Some no better than they
should be, had plotted with the Presi.
dent, the next day to have put him tc
death by the Leviticall law, for the
lives of Robinson and Emry, pretend
ing the fault was his that had led them
20. their ends; but he quickly tOoke
such order with such lawyers, that he
layed them by the heeles till he sent
some of them prisoners for England. .
"The same character of exaggera'
tion," says the reviewer, ''marks the
whole account of the treatment he re-
ceived among the savages. According
to the story, written few months after
the event, people is described, saw
age. it is true, but neither cruel noI
bloOdthirsty; reckless, perhaps, OF life
l in battle, but kind, and even magnani-
nous, toward their captive. 1t is ex-
| pressly stated that no such demOnstra-
ton was made against Smith as that
which, III 1924, is affirmed to have
taken place within an hour after his
capture. Only few days after he was
taken prisoner, he represents himself
as giving orders to Opechankanough to
take him TO Powhatan, and even at
this time he knew that he was to be
allowed to go to jamestown. 10 him l
told must so, and so return to Pas
pabegh." The reviewer continues:
s'Powhatan received him with the
greatest cordially, and, having sought
to content him with all the kindness he
could devise, did actually send him
with a guard of honor, back to his
friends. IF the True Relation is real
lv true, the behavior Of these naked
bsrbarians towards Smith was far more
humane than that which he would have
received at the hands of any civilized
nation on the face of the globe. There
is not a trace of his having felt any
immediate fear for his life, except from
a savage whose son he had killed, and
from whom Opechankanough protected
him. There does, indeed, occur one
line to the effect that they fed him so
fat as TO make him much doubt they
meant TO sacrifice him; and this para
graph furnishes the most striking evil
dence of the kindness of the Indians,
and of the fact that he believed him
self to have been mistaken in having
entertained the suspicion. Yet, in
1924, we learn that all this long time
of his imprisonment he was still ex
pectirg every hour to be put TO one
death or another"
These wide variations in Captain
Smiths versions compel us either to
resist further inquiry OF to reject the
touching story of the Indian maiden
as q fable.
There is other evidence to show that
the new theory is correct. Wingfeld's
discourse of Virginia." the earliest
written records OF the Virginia colony,
mentions Smiths trip, his adventures;
the conspiracy to depose and execute
him on his return. But he is silent
about PocahOntas.
Smith failed as a cOlonizer. lie was
deposed, and sent to England under ar
ticles of complaint, in 1909. The Vir-
ginia Company refused all his apphca-
tlOns to be employed again.
As late as 1912 the story of POcahon-
tas had not been given to the public. In
that year Captain Smith published his
'Map of Virginia, " with a description
of the country, people, government and
religion. In this little volume he still
makes no mention of his brave Indian
girl, although he describes a custom
which would have naturally led him to
do so. He tells us that in the execu-
tons of criminals their heads were
placed upon an altar, while ''one with
clubbes beates out their brains" He
adds that he saw an Indian beaten in
his presence till he fell senseless with
out cry or complaint.
Here" says the reviewer, "we
have the whole idea of the story which
he afterwards made public. 1t may be
left to practiced lawyers TO decide wheth-
er under the ordinary rules of evidence
the passage does not amount TO a
practical assertion that he had himself
not been placed in the position describ-
ed. and 1t may perhaps be possible Tor
future students to explain why Smith
should have suppressed his own story,
suppOsing it to have been true"
There Is other testimony of a similar
nature. Strachey's g History of Ira
vale into Virginia" Q615), contains a
full account of Smith, and has some
curious references to .Pocahontas; but
there is no hint of heI agency in saving
the bold Captains life. In 1914 Raphe
Hamor, "late Secretarie of the Colon
ie," published a volume in which there
was an elaborate description of the cap
ture and christening of Pocahontas. 1t
contains letter from John Rolfe, Poca-
hontas's husband. No mention is made
by either writer of her celebrated girl
ish exploit.
Strachey gives this curious peep at
Pocahontas, before she sprang, clad in
a shining robe, into the pages of our
colonial history.
" Pocahontas, a well-featured but
wanton yong girle, Powhatan's dsugb-
ter, sometymes resorting to our fort, of
the age then of eleven or twelve yeares,
would get the boyes forth with her in
to the maIkett-place, and make them
wheele. falling on their hands. turning