Spirit of the age. [volume] (Woodstock, Vt.) 1845-1913, 1899-04-22
MYTH OF POCAH0NTAS.
THE BEAUTIFUL LEGEND BATTERED
BY GRIM lcoNOcLASTS.

tain John Smith the Charm OF Poetry
Can No Longer Iinger-WhRt History
shows -" the Facts in the Case.
The ironoclast is never popular
person least Of all when his irreverent
hammer assais the cherished heroines
of history. We are willing to give up,
if We must King Canute and William
Tell, the apple OF Newton and the
cherry ttec OF Washington, the hump
OF Richard III. and the cat of Whit
tiuSton, bat when the ruthless hand
of modern investigation strikes at
Lucretio Gnl Goliva, Jeanne dare
and Pocahontas, we are ready to cry,
"Vandal, stay thy impious hand.'
Around the story of Pocahontas and
her rescue OF Captain John Smith the
charm Of poetry and romance has ever
fingered. Every child is familiar with
it. In his recent speech in the Senate,
presenting to the United States nm oil
portrait of the Indian princess, Sena-
tor Daniel, OF Virginia, thus described
the incident which young Am erica has
always loved to believe rs gospel his
tony:
Wrapped in robe OF coon skins
sat the tall, gaunt, sour old Indian
Emperor, and Smith, who had slain
two of his Indian assailants i'll the
fight on the Chickahominy. was con-
demnpd to die. Two stones were
brought forth before Powbatan and
Smith was dragged to them. and clubs
were raised to beat out his brains,
when, 10, an Indian girl of twelve or
thirteen years of nge rushed upon the
scene, caught his head in her arms
and laid her own upon his to save him
from death. The sour old King re-
lentel and Smith was saved, for the
interressor was Powhatan (avorite
daughter, Pocahonas.
But, alas for faith in history and in
human nature, and alas for some Of
the first families of Virginia, modern
investigators have pronounced The in
cident myth, and have even furnished
the fair fame of the lovely Pocahontas,
declares the New York Mail and Ey-
press. One historian assures us that
the copper-colorel lady was mere
camp follower of the whites and Pro-
lessor Cooke in his "History Ct Nlr-
ginia,' gives an alleged interview be-
tween Smith and Pocahontas, then
Mrs. John Rolfe, in London, which
would indicate that she had the
stl ongest possible motive for rescuinS
the adventurous gallant from the club
of her father. had his head ever been
in any danger.
Unfortunately for the crelibility of.
the clubbing story, it rests upon the
unsupported testimony of Captain
Smith, VINO was notorious braggart
end liar, or, as historian Fuller more
euphemis tcally puts it, in the earliest
known biography of Smith, SIT
soundeth much to the dimiuution of
his deeds that he alone is the herald
to publish and proclaim them"
1t was on the 9TH OF January, 1908,
that Smith left jamestown for Wero-
wowocomoca, the Indian village, to
visit King Powhatar in his wigwam.
Three days later lie returned, escorted
by four Indians. OF what occurred
in the meantime there was no other
white witness than Smith himself, and
he tells two stories about it. In his
True Rention,' written soon after
his visit to Powhatan and published
IN London in June, 1908, there is no
mention whatever Of the romantic Po'
'ahontas incident. On the contrary,
he says The Powhatan treated me
most courteously, and sent me back
to Jamestown. Sixteen years later,
while in London, where Pecan ontas was
being feted 90 the daughter of king,
Smith published his "Generall His.
torie," in which he for the first time
recalls to his own mind the alleged
act that Powhatan's "courtesy' had
been administered with club, and
that the tawpy lady "hazarled the
beating ont Of her own brains to save
mine.
1t is n significant fact that Ban
croft, most accurate and conscien-
tions of historians, while lie mentions
the rescue incident, with a qualifying
annexation in the first edition of his
history, entirely omits it in the last.
Deauc. in note to his edition Of
Smiths works, attributes the legend
to Smiths "natural propensity for
establishment, as well as to desire
to feed the Interest felt in Pocahontas,
then visiting in England. Mr.. f. ID.
Neill, in his English Colonization in
America" rejects the clubbing Incl
dent entirely; follows Strachey's
statement of marriage Of Pocahon-
tas earlier than her union with Rolfe,
and seriously questions other charac-
ters than that OF the notorious gallant,
Captain Smith. Charles Dudley
Warner, in his "Study of the Life and
Writings of John Smith, treats the
rescue humorously and with obvious
skepticism. Henry Adams rejects it
entirely, as does Henry Cabot Lodge
in his "English Colonies in America"
Yet rs q beautiful idealization, the
portrait presented by Senator Daniel
IN the name of Mr.. Henry s. Well
come, an American citizen residing in
London, was properly accepted by
The Government, and it will worthily
adorn the new Library Of Congress.
That noble structure is full of ale
gorical representations, and among
them the De Passe portrait of the
lovely Pocahontas will ever remind
the beholder OF the romantic story
which he would like to believe a
True Relation"