The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1869-12-11
Tbe story OF rocalaonlas.

&c many characteristic habits which have
bade them 80 beloved throughout the world,
forget the very names of the races whom,
the course Of their destiny as God Al
kighty's ploughshare, they plough mp into
be soil. Not one in ten thousand of them
" the faintest recollection of the name of
by Irish sept, and il seems to them quite
Idicrous that the representative of an Irish
beftain should call himself The ODonoghue.
elsh pedigrees arc satirized by every cock
&ey and none but Anglo-Indians have an
bea whether any family in India is Hindoo or
hammedan-though the names are quite
unlike as those of Jews and Christians
Xhile no Red Indian, or Australian, or las
Ianian, or ,Dyak name is so much as pro
&ounceable. A sort of legendary halo has, how
Sver, preserved the word ''Pocahontas" as
be name of Red Indian lady who did some
Ming or other which was somehow romantic,
id who became the founder of a great Vir-
knia family
The kind of idea afoat among almost all
|lucated men is, we believe, that there was
zee Virsinian princess belonging to ma
70 tribe, and named Pocahontas, who mar
d an Englishman under most romantic cir
Instances, came over to England, and died
a broken heart for love of an Englishman
her than her husband, whom she believed
ad but found to be alive. With the legend
ere has foated down through two centuries
idea of the lady, the gentle savage-the
blessed Pocahontas and great kings daugh-
of Virginia, as Ben Jonson does not call
r., but says somebody else does-who was
. 3e embodiment in some way of the melan-
holy natural to her race, who was so beauti-
and SO refined, and from whom sprang one
the few aristocratic families of America,
10 Randolphs of Roanoke. Mr.. E. Neill,
bw United States Consul in Dublin, has
zen at some pains to examine the ground
Drk of this legend, and has written q mono
|aph upon it, which is, we fear, conclusive,
I'D which will destroy in the minds of most
len the illusions which have hitherto sur
unded the name of the ''Indian Princess"
She was Just savage of the ordinary Indian
hd who ran naked in the woods till she was
elve, lived at thirteen with an English
onist, and was married at fifteen by an
bbitious settler named Rolfe, for the good
the colony, and from secret hope of
ting good bargain out of her fathers
|< bds. Pocahontas, otherwise Matoa, was
IN in 59S, daughter to an Indian chief in
Fginis, named Powhatan, the Sachem of
be very much dreaded by the early settlers;
she was, in our English sense, neither
lncess nor Queen, and the effort to exalt
Anned fraud upon the British Government.
e popular story that while still child of
elve she saved an English settler, Captain
bith, by taking his head in her arms just as
brains were about to be beaten out, and
at she died of love for him, is an invention
the said Smith, who had originally written
very different report of the affair, given by
b. Neill, in which he describes Powhatan as
tremely kind to him. The truth seems to
that her father, Powhatan, chief who
tivated the English, used to send her in
ken of friendliness into the English fort,
here William Strachey, Secretary of the
blony, saw and described her in 1910.
Their younger women goe not shadowed
bongst their owne companie until they
nigh eleaven or twelve returnes of the
bfe old Qor soc they accompt and bring
out the yeare, calling the fall of the leafe
quitock); nor are they much ashamed
ereof, and therefore would the before re-
embered Pocahuntas, a well-featured but
anton young girle, Powhatan's daughter,
metymes resorting tosour fort, of the age
en of eleven OF twelve yeares, get the boyes
nth with her into the maIkett place, and
axe them wheele, falling on with their
nds, turning up their heeles upwards, whome
e would follow and wheele so herself, naked
she was all the fort over. The young
(dy who thus anticipated our city Arabs was
|e should mention, under twelve; after which
me Indian etiquettes imposed some measure
decorum, in the shape of q leather apron
Ike those worn by blacksmiths, or at that
|me other English handicraftsmen. 1t is
robable, from a casual notice by the same
trachey, that she lived for short time as
ife to a ''private captain named Kocoum,
bat is, volunteer captain named Cook
am, it being for the moment part of Vir
inian policy to encourage such unions in
rider to populate the colony, but there is be-
(pnd this casual notice no distinct proof Of
he fact.
In 1913, when Pocahontas was fifteen years
bd, Powhatan had, for reasons unknown
uarreled with the settlers, and held certain
I them prisoners, and Captain Argall, 6
Sold and unscrupulous man, considered that
he easiest way of recovering the men, and
obtaining some quantity of corne for the
oplonys reliefe," would be to seize Pocahon
as as hostage, and he accordingly
Oerced another chief, Patowomek (Poto
Aac p into betraying her into his hands
Ehich done, he sent a messenger to Powhatar
demanding the prisoners and great quan
ity of corne." Powhatan at once yielded
Eent in the seven prisoners, broad-axe, a
long whip-saw, both of them stolen, and ''ont
anow of corne," and Captain Argall, it il
lear, congratulated himself on a very bolt
nd successful warlike maneuYre.
The betrayal was effected by enticing hel
m board to see the ship, and bribing hel
guardian, Potomac, with "a small copper
Rettle and other less valuable TOTES, SO highly
by him esteemed that doubtless he woult
nave betrayed his own father for them, par
icularly to Captain Argal, whom he esteemed
bis brother" after the Indian fashion. Poca
lontas, however, was not restored, but re
ained by Sir Robert Dale, the Governor o.
he colony, as means of extorting still better
Conditions, which he was explaining to Pow
hstan, when it was suggested to him by Mr.