diff --git "a/data/test/3129.txt" "b/data/test/3129.txt" --- "a/data/test/3129.txt" +++ "b/data/test/3129.txt" @@ -1,1352 +1,1352 @@ - - - -Produced by David Widger - - - - - -THE STORY OF POCAHONTAS - -By Charles Dudley Warner - - - -The simple story of the life of Pocahontas is sufficiently romantic -without the embellishments which have been wrought on it either by the -vanity of Captain Smith or the natural pride of the descendants of this -dusky princess who have been ennobled by the smallest rivulet of her red -blood. - -That she was a child of remarkable intelligence, and that she early -showed a tender regard for the whites and rendered them willing and -unwilling service, is the concurrent evidence of all contemporary -testimony. That as a child she was well-favored, sprightly, and -prepossessing above all her copper-colored companions, we can believe, -and that as a woman her manners were attractive. If the portrait taken -of her in London--the best engraving of which is by Simon de Passe--in -1616, when she is said to have been twenty-one years old, does her -justice, she had marked Indian features. - -The first mention of her is in "The True Relation," written by Captain -Smith in Virginia in 1608. In this narrative, as our readers have seen, -she is not referred to until after Smith's return from the captivity -in which Powhatan used him "with all the kindness he could devise." Her -name first appears, toward the close of the relation, in the following -sentence: - -"Powhatan understanding we detained certain salvages, sent his daughter, -a child of tenne yeares old, which not only for feature, countenance, -and proportion, much exceedeth any of the rest of his people, but for -wit and spirit the only nonpareil of his country: this hee sent by his -most trusty messenger, called Rawhunt, as much exceeding in deformitie -of person, but of a subtill wit and crafty understanding, he with a long -circumstance told mee how well Powhatan loved and respected mee, and in -that I should not doubt any way of his kindness, he had sent his child, -which he most esteemed, to see mee, a Deere, and bread, besides for -a present: desiring mee that the Boy [Thomas Savage, the boy given by -Newport to Powhatan] might come again, which he loved exceedingly, his -little Daughter he had taught this lesson also: not taking notice at all -of the Indians that had been prisoners three daies, till that morning -that she saw their fathers and friends come quietly, and in good termes -to entreate their libertie. - -"In the afternoon they [the friends of the prisoners] being gone, we -guarded them [the prisoners] as before to the church, and after prayer, -gave them to Pocahuntas the King's Daughter, in regard of her father's -kindness in sending her: after having well fed them, as all the time of -their imprisonment, we gave them their bows, arrowes, or what else -they had, and with much content, sent them packing: Pocahuntas, also we -requited with such trifles as contented her, to tel that we had used the -Paspaheyans very kindly in so releasing them." - -The next allusion to her is in the fourth chapter of the narratives -which are appended to the "Map of Virginia," etc. This was sent home by -Smith, with a description of Virginia, in the late autumn of 1608. It -was published at Oxford in 1612, from two to three years after Smith's -return to England. The appendix contains the narratives of several of -Smith's companions in Virginia, edited by Dr. Symonds and overlooked -by Smith. In one of these is a brief reference to the above-quoted -incident. - -This Oxford tract, it is scarcely necessary to repeat, contains no -reference to the saving of Smith's life by Pocahontas from the clubs of -Powhatan. - -The next published mention of Pocahontas, in point of time, is in -Chapter X. and the last of the appendix to the "Map of Virginia," and is -Smith's denial, already quoted, of his intention to marry Pocahontas. -In this passage he speaks of her as "at most not past 13 or 14 years of -age." If she was thirteen or fourteen in 1609, when Smith left Virginia, -she must have been more than ten when he wrote his "True Relation," -composed in the winter of 1608, which in all probability was carried to -England by Captain Nelson, who left Jamestown June 2d. - -The next contemporary authority to be consulted in regard to Pocahontas -is William Strachey, who, as we have seen, went with the expedition of -Gates and Somers, was shipwrecked on the Bermudas, and reached Jamestown -May 23 or 24, 1610, and was made Secretary and Recorder of the colony -under Lord Delaware. Of the origin and life of Strachey, who was a -person of importance in Virginia, little is known. The better impression -is that he was the William Strachey of Saffron Walden, who was married -in 1588 and was living in 1620, and that it was his grandson of the same -name who was subsequently connected with the Virginia colony. He was, -judged by his writings, a man of considerable education, a good deal of -a pedant, and shared the credulity and fondness for embellishment of the -writers of his time. His connection with Lord Delaware, and his part -in framing the code of laws in Virginia, which may be inferred from -the fact that he first published them, show that he was a trusted and -capable man. - -William Strachey left behind him a manuscript entitled "The Historie of -Travaile into Virginia Britanica, &c., gathered and observed as well by -those who went first thither, as collected by William Strachey, gent., -three years thither, employed as Secretaire of State." How long he -remained in Virginia is uncertain, but it could not have been "three -years," though he may have been continued Secretary for that period, for -he was in London in 1612, in which year he published there the laws of -Virginia which had been established by Sir Thomas Gates May 24, 1610, -approved by Lord Delaware June 10, 1610, and enlarged by Sir Thomas Dale -June 22, 1611. - -The "Travaile" was first published by the Hakluyt Society in 1849. When -and where it was written, and whether it was all composed at one time, -are matters much in dispute. The first book, descriptive of Virginia and -its people, is complete; the second book, a narration of discoveries in -America, is unfinished. Only the first book concerns us. That Strachey -made notes in Virginia may be assumed, but the book was no doubt written -after his return to England. - - -[This code of laws, with its penalty of whipping and death for what are -held now to be venial offenses, gives it a high place among the Black -Codes. One clause will suffice: - -"Every man and woman duly twice a day upon the first towling of the Bell -shall upon the working daies repaire unto the church, to hear divine -service upon pain of losing his or her allowance for the first omission, -for the second to be whipt, and for the third to be condemned to the -Gallies for six months. Likewise no man or woman shall dare to violate -the Sabbath by any gaming, publique or private, abroad or at home, but -duly sanctifie and observe the same, both himselfe and his familie, by -preparing themselves at home with private prayer, that they may be the -better fitted for the publique, according to the commandments of God, -and the orders of our church, as also every man and woman shall repaire -in the morning to the divine service, and sermons preached upon the -Sabbath day, and in the afternoon to divine service, and Catechism upon -paine for the first fault to lose their provision, and allowance for the -whole week following, for the second to lose the said allowance and also -to be whipt, and for the third to suffer death."] - - -Was it written before or after the publication of Smith's "Map and -Description" at Oxford in 1612? The question is important, because -Smith's "Description" and Strachey's "Travaile" are page after page -literally the same. One was taken from the other. Commonly at that time -manuscripts seem to have been passed around and much read before they -were published. Purchas acknowledges that he had unpublished manuscripts -of Smith when he compiled his narrative. Did Smith see Strachey's -manuscript before he published his Oxford tract, or did Strachey enlarge -his own notes from Smith's description? It has been usually assumed -that Strachey cribbed from Smith without acknowledgment. If it were a -question to be settled by the internal evidence of the two accounts, -I should incline to think that Smith condensed his description from -Strachey, but the dates incline the balance in Smith's favor. - -Strachey in his "Travaile" refers sometimes to Smith, and always with -respect. It will be noted that Smith's "Map" was engraved and published -before the "Description" in the Oxford tract. Purchas had it, for he -says, in writing of Virginia for his "Pilgrimage" (which was published -in 1613): - -"Concerning-the latter [Virginia], Capt. John Smith, partly by word -of mouth, partly by his mappe thereof in print, and more fully by a -Manuscript which he courteously communicated to mee, hath acquainted -me with that whereof himselfe with great perill and paine, had been -the discoverer." Strachey in his "Travaile" alludes to it, and pays a -tribute to Smith in the following: "Their severall habitations are more -plainly described by the annexed mappe, set forth by Capt. Smith, of -whose paines taken herein I leave to the censure of the reader to judge. -Sure I am there will not return from thence in hast, any one who hath -been more industrious, or who hath had (Capt. Geo. Percie excepted) -greater experience amongst them, however misconstruction may traduce -here at home, where is not easily seen the mixed sufferances, both of -body and mynd, which is there daylie, and with no few hazards and hearty -griefes undergon." - -There are two copies of the Strachey manuscript. The one used by the -Hakluyt Society is dedicated to Sir Francis Bacon, with the title of -"Lord High Chancellor," and Bacon had not that title conferred on him -till after 1618. But the copy among the Ashmolean manuscripts at Oxford -is dedicated to Sir Allen Apsley, with the title of "Purveyor to His -Majestie's Navie Royall"; and as Sir Allen was made "Lieutenant of -the Tower" in 1616, it is believed that the manuscript must have been -written before that date, since the author would not have omitted the -more important of the two titles in his dedication. - -Strachey's prefatory letter to the Council, prefixed to his "Laws" -(1612), is dated "From my lodging in the Black Friars. At your best -pleasures, either to return unto the colony, or pray for the success of -it heere." In his letter he speaks of his experience in the Bermudas and -Virginia: "The full storie of both in due time [I] shall consecrate unto -your view.... Howbit since many impediments, as yet must detaine such -my observations in the shadow of darknesse, untill I shall be able to -deliver them perfect unto your judgments," etc. - -This is not, as has been assumed, a statement that the observations were -not written then, only that they were not "perfect"; in fact, they -were detained in the "shadow of darknesse" till the year 1849. Our -own inference is, from all the circumstances, that Strachey began his -manuscript in Virginia or shortly after his return, and added to it and -corrected it from time to time up to 1616. - -We are now in a position to consider Strachey's allusions to Pocahontas. -The first occurs in his description of the apparel of Indian women: - -"The better sort of women cover themselves (for the most part) all over -with skin mantells, finely drest, shagged and fringed at the skyrt, -carved and coloured with some pretty work, or the proportion of beasts, -fowle, tortayses, or other such like imagry, as shall best please or -expresse the fancy of the wearer; their younger women goe not shadowed -amongst their owne companie, until they be nigh eleaven or twelve -returnes of the leafe old (for soe they accompt and bring about the -yeare, calling the fall of the leaf tagnitock); nor are thev much -ashamed thereof, and therefore would the before remembered Pocahontas, -a well featured, but wanton yong girle, Powhatan's daughter, sometymes -resorting to our fort, of the age then of eleven or twelve yeares, get -the boyes forth with her into the markett place, and make them wheele, -falling on their hands, turning up their heeles upwards, whome she would -followe and wheele so herself, naked as she was, all the fort over; -but being once twelve yeares, they put on a kind of semecinctum lethern -apron (as do our artificers or handycrafts men) before their bellies, -and are very shamefac't to be seene bare. We have seene some use -mantells made both of Turkey feathers, and other fowle, so prettily -wrought and woven with threeds, that nothing could be discerned but the -feathers, which were exceedingly warme and very handsome." - -Strachey did not see Pocahontas. She did not resort to the camp after -the departure of Smith in September, 1609, until she was kidnapped by -Governor Dale in April, 1613. He repeats what he heard of her. The -time mentioned by him of her resorting to the fort, "of the age then of -eleven or twelve yeares," must have been the time referred to by Smith -when he might have married her, namely, in 1608-9, when he calls her -"not past 13 or 14 years of age." The description of her as a "yong -girle" tumbling about the fort, "naked as she was," would seem to -preclude the idea that she was married at that time. - -The use of the word "wanton" is not necessarily disparaging, for -"wanton" in that age was frequently synonymous with "playful" and -"sportive"; but it is singular that she should be spoken of as "well -featured, but wanton." Strachey, however, gives in another place what is -no doubt the real significance of the Indian name "Pocahontas." He says: - -"Both men, women, and children have their severall names; at first -according to the severall humor of their parents; and for the men -children, at first, when they are young, their mothers give them a name, -calling them by some affectionate title, or perhaps observing their -promising inclination give it accordingly; and so the great King -Powhatan called a young daughter of his, whom he loved well, Pocahontas, -which may signify a little wanton; howbeyt she was rightly called -Amonata at more ripe years." - -The Indian girls married very young. The polygamous Powhatan had a large -number of wives, but of all his women, his favorites were a dozen "for -the most part very young women," the names of whom Strachey obtained -from one Kemps, an Indian a good deal about camp, whom Smith certifies -was a great villain. Strachey gives a list of the names of twelve of -them, at the head of which is Winganuske. This list was no doubt written -down by the author in Virginia, and it is followed by a sentence, -quoted below, giving also the number of Powhatan's children. The -"great darling" in this list was Winganuske, a sister of Machumps, -who, according to Smith, murdered his comrade in the Bermudas. Strachey -writes: - -"He [Powhatan] was reported by the said Kemps, as also by the Indian -Machumps, who was sometyme in England, and comes to and fro amongst us -as he dares, and as Powhatan gives him leave, for it is not otherwise -safe for him, no more than it was for one Amarice, who had his braynes -knockt out for selling but a baskett of corne, and lying in the English -fort two or three days without Powhatan's leave; I say they often -reported unto us that Powhatan had then lyving twenty sonnes and ten -daughters, besyde a young one by Winganuske, Machumps his sister, and a -great darling of the King's; and besides, younge Pocohunta, a daughter -of his, using sometyme to our fort in tymes past, nowe married to a -private Captaine, called Kocoum, some two years since." - -This passage is a great puzzle. Does Strachey intend to say that -Pocahontas was married to an Iniaan named Kocoum? She might have been -during the time after Smith's departure in 1609, and her kidnapping -in 1613, when she was of marriageable age. We shall see hereafter that -Powhatan, in 1614, said he had sold another favorite daughter of his, -whom Sir Thomas Dale desired, and who was not twelve years of age, to -be wife to a great chief. The term "private Captain" might perhaps be -applied to an Indian chief. Smith, in his "General Historie," says -the Indians have "but few occasions to use any officers more than one -commander, which commonly they call Werowance, or Caucorouse, which is -Captaine." It is probably not possible, with the best intentions, to -twist Kocoum into Caucorouse, or to suppose that Strachey intended to -say that a private captain was called in Indian a Kocoum. Werowance -and Caucorouse are not synonymous terms. Werowance means "chief," and -Caucorouse means "talker" or "orator," and is the original of our word -"caucus." - -Either Strachey was uninformed, or Pocahontas was married to an -Indian--a not violent presumption considering her age and the fact -that war between Powhatan and the whites for some time had cut off -intercourse between them--or Strachey referred to her marriage with -Rolfe, whom he calls by mistake Kocoum. If this is to be accepted, -then this paragraph must have been written in England in 1616, and have -referred to the marriage to Rolfe it "some two years since," in 1614. - -That Pocahontas was a gentle-hearted and pleasing girl, and, through her -acquaintance with Smith, friendly to the whites, there is no doubt; that -she was not different in her habits and mode of life from other Indian -girls, before the time of her kidnapping, there is every reason to -suppose. It was the English who magnified the imperialism of her father, -and exaggerated her own station as Princess. She certainly put on no -airs of royalty when she was "cart-wheeling" about the fort. Nor -does this detract anything from the native dignity of the mature, and -converted, and partially civilized woman. - -We should expect there would be the discrepancies which have been -noticed in the estimates of her age. Powhatan is not said to have kept -a private secretary to register births in his family. If Pocahontas gave -her age correctly, as it appears upon her London portrait in 1616, -aged twenty-one, she must have been eighteen years of age when she was -captured in 1613 This would make her about twelve at the time of Smith's -captivity in 1607-8. There is certainly room for difference of opinion -as to whether so precocious a woman, as her intelligent apprehension of -affairs shows her to have been, should have remained unmarried till the -age of eighteen. In marrying at least as early as that she would have -followed the custom of her tribe. It is possible that her intercourse -with the whites had raised her above such an alliance as would be -offered her at the court of Werowocomoco. - -We are without any record of the life of Pocahontas for some years. -The occasional mentions of her name in the "General Historie" are so -evidently interpolated at a late date, that they do not aid us. When -and where she took the name of Matoaka, which appears upon her London -portrait, we are not told, nor when she was called Amonata, as Strachey -says she was "at more ripe yeares." How she was occupied from the -departure of Smith to her abduction, we can only guess. To follow her -authentic history we must take up the account of Captain Argall and of -Ralph Hamor, Jr., secretary of the colony under Governor Dale. - -Captain Argall, who seems to have been as bold as he was unscrupulous -in the execution of any plan intrusted to him, arrived in Virginia -in September, 1612, and early in the spring of 1613 he was sent on an -expedition up the Patowomek to trade for corn and to effect a capture -that would bring Powhatan to terms. The Emperor, from being a friend, -had become the most implacable enemy of the English. Captain Argall -says: "I was told by certain Indians, my friends, that the great -Powhatan's daughter Pokahuntis was with the great King Potowomek, -whither I presently repaired, resolved to possess myself of her by any -stratagem that I could use, for the ransoming of so many Englishmen as -were prisoners with Powhatan, as also to get such armes and tooles as -he and other Indians had got by murther and stealing some others of our -nation, with some quantity of corn for the colonies relief." - -By the aid of Japazeus, King of Pasptancy, an old acquaintance and -friend of Argall's, and the connivance of the King of Potowomek, -Pocahontas was enticed on board Argall's ship and secured. Word was sent -to Powhatan of the capture and the terms on which his daughter would be -released; namely, the return of the white men he held in slavery, the -tools and arms he had gotten and stolen, and a great quantity of corn. -Powhatan, "much grieved," replied that if Argall would use his daughter -well, and bring the ship into his river and release her, he would accede -to all his demands. Therefore, on the 13th of April, Argall repaired to -Governor Gates at Jamestown, and delivered his prisoner, and a few days -after the King sent home some of the white captives, three pieces, one -broad-axe, a long whip-saw, and a canoe of corn. Pocahontas, however, -was kept at Jamestown. - -Why Pocahontas had left Werowocomoco and gone to stay with Patowomek -we can only conjecture. It is possible that Powhatan suspected her -friendliness to the whites, and was weary of her importunity, and it may -be that she wanted to escape the sight of continual fighting, ambushes, -and murders. More likely she was only making a common friendly visit, -though Hamor says she went to trade at an Indian fair. - -The story of her capture is enlarged and more minutely related by Ralph -Hamor, Jr., who was one of the colony shipwrecked on the Bermudas in -1609, and returned to England in 1614, where he published (London, 1615) -"A True Discourse of Virginia, and the Success of the Affairs there -till the 18th of June, 1614." Hamor was the son of a merchant tailor in -London who was a member of the Virginia company. Hamor writes: - -"It chanced Powhatan's delight and darling, his daughter Pocahuntas -(whose fame has even been spread in England by the title of Nonparella -of Firginia) in her princely progresse if I may so terme it, tooke some -pleasure (in the absence of Captaine Argall) to be among her friends at -Pataomecke (as it seemeth by the relation I had), implored thither as -shopkeeper to a Fare, to exchange some of her father's commodities for -theirs, where residing some three months or longer, it fortuned upon -occasion either of promise or profit, Captaine Argall to arrive there, -whom Pocahuntas, desirous to renew her familiaritie with the English, -and delighting to see them as unknown, fearefull perhaps to be -surprised, would gladly visit as she did, of whom no sooner had Captaine -Argall intelligence, but he delt with an old friend Iapazeus, how and -by what meanes he might procure her caption, assuring him that now or -never, was the time to pleasure him, if he intended indeede that love -which he had made profession of, that in ransome of hir he might redeeme -some of our English men and armes, now in the possession of her father, -promising to use her withall faire and gentle entreaty; Iapazeus well -assured that his brother, as he promised, would use her courteously, -promised his best endeavors and service to accomplish his desire, and -thus wrought it, making his wife an instrument (which sex have ever been -most powerful in beguiling inticements) to effect his plot which hee -had thus laid, he agreed that himself, his wife and Pocahuntas, would -accompanie his brother to the water side, whither come, his wife should -faine a great and longing desire to goe aboorde, and see the shippe, -which being there three or four times before she had never seene, and -should be earnest with her husband to permit her--he seemed angry with -her, making as he pretended so unnecessary request, especially being -without the company of women, which denial she taking unkindly, -must faine to weepe (as who knows not that women can command teares) -whereupon her husband seeming to pitty those counterfeit teares, gave -her leave to goe aboord, so that it would pleese Pocahuntas to accompany -her; now was the greatest labour to win her, guilty perhaps of her -father's wrongs, though not knowne as she supposed, to goe with her, yet -by her earnest persuasions, she assented: so forthwith aboord they went, -the best cheere that could be made was seasonably provided, to supper -they went, merry on all hands, especially Iapazeus and his wife, who to -expres their joy would ere be treading upon Captaine Argall's foot, as -who should say tis don, she is your own. Supper ended Pocahuntas was -lodged in the gunner's roome, but Iapazeus and his wife desired to have -some conference with their brother, which was onely to acquaint him by -what stratagem they had betraied his prisoner as I have already -related: after which discourse to sleepe they went, Pocahuntas nothing -mistrusting this policy, who nevertheless being most possessed with -feere, and desire of returne, was first up, and hastened Iapazeus to be -gon. Capt. Argall having secretly well rewarded him, with a small Copper -kittle, and some other les valuable toies so highly by him esteemed, -that doubtlesse he would have betraied his own father for them, -permitted both him and his wife to returne, but told him that for divers -considerations, as for that his father had then eigh [8] of our Englishe -men, many swords, peeces, and other tooles, which he hid at severall -times by trecherous murdering our men, taken from them which though -of no use to him, he would not redeliver, he would reserve Pocahuntas, -whereat she began to be exceeding pensive, and discontented, yet -ignorant of the dealing of Japazeus who in outward appearance was no les -discontented that he should be the meanes of her captivity, much adoe -there was to pursuade her to be patient, which with extraordinary -curteous usage, by little and little was wrought in her, and so to -Jamestowne she was brought." - -Smith, who condenses this account in his "General Historie," expresses -his contempt of this Indian treachery by saying: "The old Jew and his -wife began to howle and crie as fast as Pocahuntas." It will be noted -that the account of the visit (apparently alone) of Pocahontas and her -capture is strong evidence that she was not at this time married to -"Kocoum" or anybody else. - -Word was despatched to Powhatan of his daughter's duress, with a -demand made for the restitution of goods; but although this savage is -represented as dearly loving Pocahontas, his "delight and darling," it -was, according to Hamor, three months before they heard anything from -him. His anxiety about his daughter could not have been intense. He -retained a part of his plunder, and a message was sent to him that -Pocahontas would be kept till he restored all the arms. - -This answer pleased Powhatan so little that they heard nothing from him -till the following March. Then Sir Thomas Dale and Captain Argall, with -several vessels and one hundred and fifty men, went up to Powhatan's -chief seat, taking his daughter with them, offering the Indians a chance -to fight for her or to take her in peace on surrender of the stolen -goods. The Indians received this with bravado and flights of arrows, -reminding them of the fate of Captain Ratcliffe. The whites landed, -killed some Indians, burnt forty houses, pillaged the village, and went -on up the river and came to anchor in front of Matchcot, the Emperor's -chief town. Here were assembled four hundred armed men, with bows and -arrows, who dared them to come ashore. Ashore they went, and a palaver -was held. The Indians wanted a day to consult their King, after which -they would fight, if nothing but blood would satisfy the whites. - -Two of Powhatan's sons who were present expressed a desire to see their -sister, who had been taken on shore. When they had sight of her, and -saw how well she was cared for, they greatly rejoiced and promised to -persuade their father to redeem her and conclude a lasting peace. The -two brothers were taken on board ship, and Master John Rolfe and Master -Sparkes were sent to negotiate with the King. Powhatan did not show -himself, but his brother Apachamo, his successor, promised to use his -best efforts to bring about a peace, and the expedition returned to -Jamestown. - -"Long before this time," Hamor relates, "a gentleman of approved -behaviour and honest carriage, Master John Rolfe, had been in love with -Pocahuntas and she with him, which thing at the instant that we were -in parlee with them, myselfe made known to Sir Thomas Dale, by a letter -from him [Rolfe] whereby he entreated his advice and furtherance to his -love, if so it seemed fit to him for the good of the Plantation, and -Pocahuntas herself acquainted her brethren therewith." Governor Dale -approved this, and consequently was willing to retire without other -conditions. "The bruite of this pretended marriage [Hamor continues] -came soon to Powhatan's knowledge, a thing acceptable to him, as -appeared by his sudden consent thereunto, who some ten daies after sent -an old uncle of hirs, named Opachisco, to give her as his deputy in the -church, and two of his sonnes to see the mariage solemnized which was -accordingly done about the fifth of April [1614], and ever since we have -had friendly commerce and trade, not only with Powhatan himself, but -also with his subjects round about us; so as now I see no reason why the -collonie should not thrive a pace." - -This marriage was justly celebrated as the means and beginning of a firm -peace which long continued, so that Pocahontas was again entitled to the -grateful remembrance of the Virginia settlers. Already, in 1612, a plan -had been mooted in Virginia of marrying the English with the natives, -and of obtaining the recognition of Powhatan and those allied to him as -members of a fifth kingdom, with certain privileges. Cunega, the Spanish -ambassador at London, on September 22, 1612, writes: "Although some -suppose the plantation to decrease, he is credibly informed that there -is a determination to marry some of the people that go over to Virginia; -forty or fifty are already so married, and English women intermingle and -are received kindly by the natives. A zealous minister hath been wounded -for reprehending it." - -Mr. John Rolfe was a man of industry, and apparently devoted to the -welfare of the colony. He probably brought with him in 1610 his wife, -who gave birth to his daughter Bermuda, born on the Somers Islands at -the time of the shipwreck. We find no notice of her death. Hamor gives -him the distinction of being the first in the colony to try, in 1612, -the planting and raising of tobacco. "No man [he adds] hath labored to -his power, by good example there and worthy encouragement into England -by his letters, than he hath done, witness his marriage with Powhatan's -daughter, one of rude education, manners barbarous and cursed -generation, meerely for the good and honor of the plantation: and -least any man should conceive that some sinister respects allured him -hereunto, I have made bold, contrary to his knowledge, in the end of my -treatise to insert the true coppie of his letter written to Sir Thomas -Dale." - -The letter is a long, labored, and curious document, and comes nearer to -a theological treatise than any love-letter we have on record. It reeks -with unction. Why Rolfe did not speak to Dale, whom he saw every day, -instead of inflicting upon him this painful document, in which the -flutterings of a too susceptible widower's heart are hidden under a -great resolve of self-sacrifice, is not plain. - -The letter protests in a tedious preamble that the writer is moved -entirely by the Spirit of God, and continues: - -"Let therefore this my well advised protestation, which here I make -between God and my own conscience, be a sufficient witness, at the -dreadful day of judgment (when the secrets of all men's hearts shall be -opened) to condemne me herein, if my chiefest interest and purpose be -not to strive with all my power of body and mind, in the undertaking -of so weighty a matter, no way led (so far forth as man's weakness may -permit) with the unbridled desire of carnall affection; but for the good -of this plantation, for the honour of our countrie, for the glory of -God, for my owne salvation, and for the converting to the true knowledge -of God and Jesus Christ, an unbelieving creature, namely Pokahuntas. -To whom my heartie and best thoughts are, and have a long time bin so -entangled, and inthralled in so intricate a laborinth, that I was even -awearied to unwinde myself thereout." - -Master Rolfe goes on to describe the mighty war in his meditations on -this subject, in which he had set before his eyes the frailty of mankind -and his proneness to evil and wicked thoughts. He is aware of God's -displeasure against the sons of Levi and Israel for marrying strange -wives, and this has caused him to look about warily and with good -circumspection "into the grounds and principall agitations which should -thus provoke me to be in love with one, whose education hath bin rude, -her manners barbarous, her generation accursed, and so discrepant in -all nurtriture from myselfe, that oftentimes with feare and trembling, -I have ended my private controversie with this: surely these are -wicked instigations, fetched by him who seeketh and delighteth in man's -distruction; and so with fervent prayers to be ever preserved from such -diabolical assaults (as I looke those to be) I have taken some rest." - -The good man was desperately in love and wanted to marry the Indian, and -consequently he got no peace; and still being tormented with her image, -whether she was absent or present, he set out to produce an ingenious -reason (to show the world) for marrying her. He continues: - -"Thus when I thought I had obtained my peace and quietnesse, beholde -another, but more gracious tentation hath made breaches into my holiest -and strongest meditations; with which I have been put to a new triall, -in a straighter manner than the former; for besides the weary passions -and sufferings which I have dailey, hourely, yea and in my sleepe -indured, even awaking me to astonishment, taxing me with remissnesse, -and carelessnesse, refusing and neglecting to perform the duteie of a -good Christian, pulling me by the eare, and crying: Why dost thou not -indeavor to make her a Christian? And these have happened to my greater -wonder, even when she hath been furthest seperated from me, which -in common reason (were it not an undoubted work of God) might breede -forgetfulnesse of a far more worthie creature." - -He accurately describes the symptoms and appears to understand the -remedy, but he is after a large-sized motive: - -"Besides, I say the holy Spirit of God hath often demanded of me, why I -was created? If not for transitory pleasures and worldly vanities, but -to labour in the Lord's vineyard, there to sow and plant, to nourish and -increase the fruites thereof, daily adding with the good husband in the -gospell, somewhat to the tallent, that in the ends the fruites may be -reaped, to the comfort of the labourer in this life, and his salvation -in the world to come.... Likewise, adding hereunto her great appearance -of love to me, her desire to be taught and instructed in the knowledge -of God, her capablenesse of understanding, her aptness and willingness -to receive anie good impression, and also the spirituall, besides her -owne incitements stirring me up hereunto." - -The "incitements" gave him courage, so that he exclaims: "Shall I be of -so untoward a disposition, as to refuse to lead the blind into the right -way? Shall I be so unnatural, as not to give bread to the hungrie, or -uncharitable, as not to cover the naked?" - -It wasn't to be thought of, such wickedness; and so Master Rolfe screwed -up his courage to marry the glorious Princess, from whom thousands -of people were afterwards so anxious to be descended. But he made the -sacrifice for the glory of the country, the benefit of the plantation, -and the conversion of the unregenerate, and other and lower motive -he vigorously repels: "Now, if the vulgar sort, who square all men's -actions by the base rule of their own filthinesse, shall tax or taunt -mee in this my godly labour: let them know it is not hungry appetite, to -gorge myselfe with incontinency; sure (if I would and were so sensually -inclined) I might satisfy such desire, though not without a seared -conscience, yet with Christians more pleasing to the eie, and less -fearefull in the offense unlawfully committed. Nor am I in so desperate -an estate, that I regard not what becometh of me; nor am I out of hope -but one day to see my country, nor so void of friends, nor mean in -birth, but there to obtain a mach to my great con'tent.... But shall it -please God thus to dispose of me (which I earnestly desire to fulfill -my ends before set down) I will heartily accept of it as a godly taxe -appointed me, and I will never cease (God assisting me) untill I have -accomplished, and brought to perfection so holy a worke, in which I will -daily pray God to bless me, to mine and her eternal happiness." - -It is to be hoped that if sanctimonious John wrote any love-letters to -Amonata they had less cant in them than this. But it was pleasing to Sir -Thomas Dale, who was a man to appreciate the high motives of Mr. Rolfe. -In a letter which he despatched from Jamestown, June 18, 1614, to a -reverend friend in London, he describes the expedition when Pocahontas -was carried up the river, and adds the information that when she went on -shore, "she would not talk to any of them, scarcely to them of the best -sort, and to them only, that if her father had loved her, he would not -value her less than old swords, pieces, or axes; wherefore she would -still dwell with the Englishmen who loved her." - -"Powhatan's daughter [the letter continues] I caused to be carefully -instructed in Christian Religion, who after she had made some good -progress therein, renounced publically her countrey idolatry, openly -confessed her Christian faith, was, as she desired, baptized, and is -since married to an English Gentleman of good understanding (as by his -letter unto me, containing the reasons for his marriage of her you may -perceive), an other knot to bind this peace the stronger. Her father -and friends gave approbation to it, and her uncle gave her to him in -the church; she lives civilly and lovingly with him, and I trust will -increase in goodness, as the knowledge of God increaseth in her. She -will goe into England with me, and were it but the gayning of this one -soule, I will think my time, toile, and present stay well spent." - -Hamor also appends to his narration a short letter, of the same date -with the above, from the minister Alexander Whittaker, the genuineness -of which is questioned. In speaking of the good deeds of Sir Thomas Dale -it says: "But that which is best, one Pocahuntas or Matoa, the -daughter of Powhatan, is married to an honest and discreet English -Gentleman--Master Rolfe, and that after she had openly renounced her -countrey Idolatry, and confessed the faith of Jesus Christ, and was -baptized, which thing Sir Thomas Dale had laboured a long time to ground -her in." If, as this proclaims, she was married after her conversion, -then Rolfe's tender conscience must have given him another twist for -wedding her, when the reason for marrying her (her conversion) had -ceased with her baptism. His marriage, according to this, was a pure -work of supererogation. It took place about the 5th of April, 1614. It -is not known who performed the ceremony. - -How Pocahontas passed her time in Jamestown during the period of her -detention, we are not told. Conjectures are made that she was an inmate -of the house of Sir Thomas Dale, or of that of the Rev. Mr. Whittaker, -both of whom labored zealously to enlighten her mind on religious -subjects. She must also have been learning English and civilized ways, -for it is sure that she spoke our language very well when she went to -London. Mr. John Rolfe was also laboring for her conversion, and we may -suppose that with all these ministrations, mingled with her love of Mr. -Rolfe, which that ingenious widower had discovered, and her desire to -convert him into a husband, she was not an unwilling captive. Whatever -may have been her barbarous instincts, we have the testimony of Governor -Dale that she lived "civilly and lovingly" with her husband. - - - - - -STORY OF POCAHONTAS, CONTINUED - -Sir Thomas Dale was on the whole the most efficient and discreet -Governor the colony had had. One element of his success was no doubt the -change in the charter of 1609. By the first charter everything had -been held in common by the company, and there had been no division of -property or allotment of land among the colonists. Under the new regime -land was held in severalty, and the spur of individual interest began -at once to improve the condition of the settlement. The character of the -colonists was also gradually improving. They had not been of a sort -to fulfill the earnest desire of the London promoter's to spread vital -piety in the New World. A zealous defense of Virginia and Maryland, -against "scandalous imputation," entitled "Leah and Rachel; or, The -Two Fruitful Sisters," by Mr. John Hammond, London, 1656, considers -the charges that Virginia "is an unhealthy place, a nest of rogues, -abandoned women, dissolut and rookery persons; a place of intolerable -labour, bad usage and hard diet"; and admits that "at the first -settling, and for many years after, it deserved most of these -aspersions, nor were they then aspersions but truths.... There were -jails supplied, youth seduced, infamous women drilled in, the provision -all brought out of England, and that embezzled by the Trustees." - -Governor Dale was a soldier; entering the army in the Netherlands as a -private he had risen to high position, and received knighthood in 1606. -Shortly after he was with Sir Thomas Gates in South Holland. The States -General in 1611 granted him three years' term of absence in Virginia. -Upon his arrival he began to put in force that system of industry and -frugality he had observed in Holland. He had all the imperiousness of a -soldier, and in an altercation with Captain Newport, occasioned by some -injurious remarks the latter made about Sir Thomas Smith, the treasurer, -he pulled his beard and threatened to hang him. Active operations for -settling new plantations were at once begun, and Dale wrote to Cecil, -the Earl of Salisbury, for 2,000 good colonists to be sent out, for the -three hundred that came were "so profane, so riotous, so full of mutiny, -that not many are Christians but in name, their bodies so diseased and -crazed that not sixty of them may be employed." He served afterwards -with credit in Holland, was made commander of the East Indian fleet in -1618, had a naval engagement with the Dutch near Bantam in 1619, and -died in 1620 from the effects of the climate. He was twice married, and -his second wife, Lady Fanny, the cousin of his first wife, survived him -and received a patent for a Virginia plantation. - -Governor Dale kept steadily in view the conversion of the Indians to -Christianity, and the success of John Rolfe with Matoaka inspired -him with a desire to convert another daughter of Powhatan, of whose -exquisite perfections he had heard. He therefore despatched Ralph Hamor, -with the English boy, Thomas Savage, as interpreter, on a mission to -the court of Powhatan, "upon a message unto him, which was to deale with -him, if by any means I might procure a daughter of his, who (Pocahuntas -being already in our possession) is generally reported to be his delight -and darling, and surely he esteemed her as his owne Soule, for surer -pledge of peace." This visit Hamor relates with great naivete. - -At his town of Matchcot, near the head of York River, Powhatan -himself received his visitors when they landed, with great cordiality, -expressing much pleasure at seeing again the boy who had been presented -to him by Captain Newport, and whom he had not seen since he gave him -leave to go and see his friends at Jamestown four years before; he also -inquired anxiously after Namontack, whom he had sent to King James's -land to see him and his country and report thereon, and then led the way -to his house, where he sat down on his bedstead side. "On each hand of -him was placed a comely and personable young woman, which they called -his Queenes, the howse within round about beset with them, the outside -guarded with a hundred bowmen." - -The first thing offered was a pipe of tobacco, which Powhatan "first -drank," and then passed to Hamor, who "drank" what he pleased and then -returned it. The Emperor then inquired how his brother Sir Thomas Dale -fared, "and after that of his daughter's welfare, her marriage, his -unknown son, and how they liked, lived and loved together." Hamor -replied "that his brother was very well, and his daughter so well -content that she would not change her life to return and live with him, -whereat he laughed heartily, and said he was very glad of it." - -Powhatan then desired to know the cause of his unexpected coming, and -Mr. Hamor said his message was private, to be delivered to him without -the presence of any except one of his councilors, and one of the guides, -who already knew it. - -Therefore the house was cleared of all except the two Queens, who may -never sequester themselves, and Mr. Hamor began his palaver. First there -was a message of love and inviolable peace, the production of presents -of coffee, beads, combs, fish-hooks, and knives, and the promise of -a grindstone when it pleased the Emperor to send for it. Hamor then -proceeded: - -"The bruite of the exquesite perfection of your youngest daughter, being -famous through all your territories, hath come to the hearing of your -brother, Sir Thomas Dale, who for this purpose hath addressed me hither, -to intreate you by that brotherly friendship you make profession of, to -permit her (with me) to returne unto him, partly for the desire which -himselfe hath, and partly for the desire her sister hath to see her of -whom, if fame hath not been prodigall, as like enough it hath not, your -brother (by your favour) would gladly make his nearest companion, wife -and bed fellow [many times he would have interrupted my speech, which -I entreated him to heare out, and then if he pleased to returne me -answer], and the reason hereof is, because being now friendly and firmly -united together, and made one people [as he supposeth and believes] in -the bond of love, he would make a natural union between us, principally -because himself hath taken resolution to dwel in your country so long as -he liveth, and would not only therefore have the firmest assurance hee -may, of perpetuall friendship from you, but also hereby binde himselfe -thereunto." - -Powhatan replied with dignity that he gladly accepted the salute of love -and peace, which he and his subjects would exactly maintain. But as to -the other matter he said: "My daughter, whom my brother desireth, I sold -within these three days to be wife to a great Weroance for two bushels -of Roanoke [a small kind of beads made of oyster shells], and it is true -she is already gone with him, three days' journey from me." - -Hamor persisted that this marriage need not stand in the way; "that if -he pleased herein to gratify his Brother he might, restoring the Roanoke -without the imputation of injustice, take home his daughter again, the -rather because she was not full twelve years old, and therefore not -marriageable; assuring him besides the bond of peace, so much the -firmer, he should have treble the price of his daughter in beads, -copper, hatchets, and many other things more useful for him." - -The reply of the noble old savage to this infamous demand ought to have -brought a blush to the cheeks of those who made it. He said he loved his -daughter as dearly as his life; he had many children, but he delighted -in none so much as in her; he could not live if he did not see her -often, as he would not if she were living with the whites, and he -was determined not to put himself in their hands. He desired no other -assurance of friendship than his brother had given him, who had already -one of his daughters as a pledge, which was sufficient while she lived; -"when she dieth he shall have another child of mine." And then he broke -forth in pathetic eloquence: "I hold it not a brotherly part of your -King, to desire to bereave me of two of my children at once; further -give him to understand, that if he had no pledge at all, he should not -need to distrust any injury from me, or any under my subjection; there -have been too many of his and my men killed, and by my occasion there -shall never be more; I which have power to perform it have said it; no -not though I should have just occasion offered, for I am now old and -would gladly end my days in peace; so as if the English offer me any -injury, my country is large enough, I will remove myself farther from -you." - -The old man hospitably entertained his guests for a day or two, loaded -them with presents, among which were two dressed buckskins, white as -snow, for his son and daughter, and, requesting some articles sent him -in return, bade them farewell with this message to Governor Dale: "I -hope this will give him good satisfaction, if it do not I will go three -days' journey farther from him, and never see Englishmen more." It -speaks well for the temperate habits of this savage that after he had -feasted his guests, "he caused to be fetched a great glass of sack, some -three quarts or better, which Captain Newport had given him six or seven -years since, carefully preserved by him, not much above a pint in all -this time spent, and gave each of us in a great oyster shell some three -spoonfuls." - -We trust that Sir Thomas Dale gave a faithful account of all this to his -wife in England. - -Sir Thomas Gates left Virginia in the spring of 1614 and never returned. -After his departure scarcity and severity developed a mutiny, and six -of the settlers were executed. Rolfe was planting tobacco (he has the -credit of being the first white planter of it), and his wife was getting -an inside view of Christian civilization. - -In 1616 Sir Thomas Dale returned to England with his company and John -Rolfe and Pocahontas, and several other Indians. They reached Plymouth -early in June, and on the 20th Lord Carew made this note: "Sir Thomas -Dale returned from Virginia; he hath brought divers men and women of -thatt countrye to be educated here, and one Rolfe who married a daughter -of Pohetan (the barbarous prince) called Pocahuntas, hath brought his -wife with him into England." On the 22d Sir John Chamberlain wrote to -Sir Dudley Carlton that there were "ten or twelve, old and young, of -that country." - -The Indian girls who came with Pocahontas appear to have been a great -care to the London company. In May, 1620, is a record that the company -had to pay for physic and cordials for one of them who had been living -as a servant in Cheapside, and was very weak of a consumption. The same -year two other of the maids were shipped off to the Bermudas, after -being long a charge to the company, in the hope that they might there -get husbands, "that after they were converted and had children, they -might be sent to their country and kindred to civilize them." One of -them was there married. The attempt to educate them in England was not -very successful, and a proposal to bring over Indian boys obtained this -comment from Sir Edwin Sandys: - -"Now to send for them into England, and to have them educated here, he -found upon experience of those brought by Sir Thomas Dale, might be far -from the Christian work intended." One Nanamack, a lad brought over by -Lord Delaware, lived some years in houses where "he heard not much of -religion but sins, had many times examples of drinking, swearing and -like evils, ran as he was a mere Pagan," till he fell in with a -devout family and changed his life, but died before he was baptized. -Accompanying Pocahontas was a councilor of Powhatan, one Tomocomo, the -husband of one of her sisters, of whom Purchas says in his "Pilgrimes": -"With this savage I have often conversed with my good friend Master -Doctor Goldstone where he was a frequent geust, and where I have seen -him sing and dance his diabolical measures, and heard him discourse of -his country and religion.... Master Rolfe lent me a discourse which -I have in my Pilgrimage delivered. And his wife did not only accustom -herself to civility, but still carried herself as the daughter of a -king, and was accordingly respected, not only by the Company which -allowed provision for herself and her son, but of divers particular -persons of honor, in their hopeful zeal by her to advance Christianity. -I was present when my honorable and reverend patron, the Lord Bishop of -London, Doctor King, entertained her with festival state and pomp beyond -what I had seen in his great hospitality offered to other ladies. At -her return towards Virginia she came at Gravesend to her end and grave, -having given great demonstration of her Christian sincerity, as the -first fruits of Virginia conversion, leaving here a goodly memory, -and the hopes of her resurrection, her soul aspiring to see and enjoy -permanently in heaven what here she had joyed to hear and believe of her -blessed Saviour. Not such was Tomocomo, but a blasphemer of what he knew -not and preferring his God to ours because he taught them (by his own -so appearing) to wear their Devil-lock at the left ear; he acquainted me -with the manner of that his appearance, and believed that their Okee or -Devil had taught them their husbandry." - -Upon news of her arrival, Captain Smith, either to increase his own -importance or because Pocahontas was neglected, addressed a letter or -"little booke" to Queen Anne, the consort of King James. This letter is -found in Smith's "General Historie" ( 1624), where it is introduced -as having been sent to Queen Anne in 1616. Probably he sent her such a -letter. We find no mention of its receipt or of any acknowledgment of -it. Whether the "abstract" in the "General Historie" is exactly like -the original we have no means of knowing. We have no more confidence in -Smith's memory than we have in his dates. The letter is as follows: - -"To the most high and vertuous Princesse Queene Anne of Great Brittaine. - -"Most ADMIRED QUEENE. - -"The love I beare my God, my King and Countrie hath so oft emboldened me -in the worst of extreme dangers, that now honestie doth constraine mee -presume thus farre beyond my selfe, to present your Majestie this short -discourse: if ingratitude be a deadly poyson to all honest vertues, -I must be guiltie of that crime if I should omit any meanes to bee -thankful. So it is. - -"That some ten yeeres agoe being in Virginia, and taken prisoner by the -power of Powhaten, their chiefe King, I received from this great Salvage -exceeding great courtesie, especially from his sonne Nantaquaus, the -most manliest, comeliest, boldest spirit, I ever saw in a Salvage and -his sister Pocahontas, the Kings most deare and well-beloved daughter, -being but a childe of twelve or thirteen yeeres of age, whose -compassionate pitifull heart, of desperate estate, gave me much cause -to respect her: I being the first Christian this proud King and his grim -attendants ever saw, and thus enthralled in their barbarous power, I -cannot say I felt the least occasion of want that was in the power of -those my mortall foes to prevent notwithstanding al their threats. After -some six weeks fatting amongst those Salvage Courtiers, at the minute of -my execution, she hazarded the beating out of her owne braines to save -mine, and not onely that, but so prevailed with her father, that I was -safely conducted to Jamestowne, where I found about eight and thirty -miserable poore and sicke creatures, to keepe possession of all those -large territories of Virginia, such was the weaknesse of this poore -Commonwealth, as had the Salvages not fed us, we directly had starved. - -"And this reliefe, most gracious Queene, was commonly brought us by -this Lady Pocahontas, notwithstanding all these passages when inconstant -Fortune turned our Peace to warre, this tender Virgin would still not -spare to dare to visit us, and by her our jarres have been oft appeased, -and our wants still supplyed; were it the policie of her father thus to -imploy her, or the ordinance of God thus to make her his instrument, or -her extraordinarie affection to our Nation, I know not: but of this I am -sure: when her father with the utmost of his policie and power, sought -to surprize mee, having but eighteene with mee, the dark night could not -affright her from comming through the irksome woods, and with watered -eies gave me intilligence, with her best advice to escape his furie: -which had hee known hee had surely slaine her. Jamestowne with her wild -traine she as freely frequented, as her father's habitation: and during -the time of two or three yeares, she next under God, was still the -instrument to preserve this Colonie from death, famine and utter -confusion, which if in those times had once beene dissolved, Virginia -might have laine as it was at our first arrivall to this day. Since -then, this buisinesse having been turned and varied by many accidents -from that I left it at: it is most certaine, after a long and -troublesome warre after my departure, betwixt her father and our -Colonie, all which time shee was not heard of, about two yeeres longer, -the Colonie by that meanes was releived, peace concluded, and at last -rejecting her barbarous condition, was maried to an English Gentleman, -with whom at this present she is in England; the first Christian ever of -that Nation, the first Virginian ever spake English, or had a childe -in mariage by an Englishman, a matter surely, if my meaning bee truly -considered and well understood, worthy a Princes understanding. - -"Thus most gracious Lady, I have related to your Majestic, what at your -best leasure our approved Histories will account you at large, and done -in the time of your Majesties life, and however this might bee presented -you from a more worthy pen, it cannot from a more honest heart, as yet -I never begged anything of the State, or any, and it is my want of -abilitie and her exceeding desert, your birth, meanes, and authoritie, -her birth, vertue, want and simplicitie, doth make mee thus bold, humbly -to beseech your Majestic: to take this knowledge of her though it be -from one so unworthy to be the reporter, as myselfe, her husband's -estate not being able to make her fit to attend your Majestic: the most -and least I can doe, is to tell you this, because none so oft hath tried -it as myselfe: and the rather being of so great a spirit, however her -station: if she should not be well received, seeing this Kingdome -may rightly have a Kingdome by her meanes: her present love to us and -Christianitie, might turne to such scorne and furie, as to divert all -this good to the worst of evill, when finding so great a Queene should -doe her some honour more than she can imagine, for being so kinde to -your servants and subjects, would so ravish her with content, as endeare -her dearest bloud to effect that, your Majestic and all the Kings honest -subjects most earnestly desire: and so I humbly kisse your gracious -hands." - -The passage in this letter, "She hazarded the beating out of her owne -braines to save mine," is inconsistent with the preceding portion of the -paragraph which speaks of "the exceeding great courtesie" of Powhatan; -and Smith was quite capable of inserting it afterwards when he made up -his - -"General Historie." - -Smith represents himself at this time--the last half of 1616 and the -first three months of 1617--as preparing to attempt a third voyage to -New England (which he did not make), and too busy to do Pocahontas the -service she desired. She was staying at Branford, either from neglect -of the company or because the London smoke disagreed with her, and there -Smith went to see her. His account of his intercourse with her, the only -one we have, must be given for what it is worth. According to this she -had supposed Smith dead, and took umbrage at his neglect of her. He -writes: - -"After a modest salutation, without any word, she turned about, obscured -her face, as not seeming well contented; and in that humour, her husband -with divers others, we all left her two or three hours repenting myself -to have writ she could speak English. But not long after she began to -talke, remembering me well what courtesies she had done: saying, 'You -did promise Powhatan what was yours should be his, and he the like to -you; you called him father, being in his land a stranger, and by the -same reason so must I do you:' which though I would have excused, I -durst not allow of that title, because she was a king's daughter. With -a well set countenance she said: 'Were you not afraid to come into my -father's country and cause fear in him and all his people (but me), and -fear you have I should call you father; I tell you then I will, and -you shall call me childe, and so I will be forever and ever, your -contrieman. They did tell me alwaies you were dead, and I knew no other -till I came to Plymouth, yet Powhatan did command Uttamatomakkin to seek -you, and know the truth, because your countriemen will lie much."' - -This savage was the Tomocomo spoken of above, who had been sent by -Powhatan to take a census of the people of England, and report what they -and their state were. At Plymouth he got a long stick and began to make -notches in it for the people he saw. But he was quickly weary of that -task. He told Smith that Powhatan bade him seek him out, and get him -to show him his God, and the King, Queen, and Prince, of whom Smith had -told so much. Smith put him off about showing his God, but said he had -heard that he had seen the King. This the Indian denied, James probably -not coming up to his idea of a king, till by circumstances he was -convinced he had seen him. Then he replied very sadly: "You gave -Powhatan a white dog, which Powhatan fed as himself, but your king gave -me nothing, and I am better than your white dog." - -Smith adds that he took several courtiers to see Pocahontas, and "they -did think God had a great hand in her conversion, and they have seen -many English ladies worse favoured, proportioned, and behavioured;" and -he heard that it had pleased the King and Queen greatly to esteem her, -as also Lord and Lady Delaware, and other persons of good quality, both -at the masques and otherwise. - -Much has been said about the reception of Pocahontas in London, but -the contemporary notices of her are scant. The Indians were objects of -curiosity for a time in London, as odd Americans have often been since, -and the rank of Pocahontas procured her special attention. She was -presented at court. She was entertained by Dr. King, Bishop of London. -At the playing of Ben Jonson's "Christmas his Mask" at court, January -6, 1616-17, Pocahontas and Tomocomo were both present, and Chamberlain -writes to Carleton: "The Virginian woman Pocahuntas with her father -counsellor have been with the King and graciously used, and both she and -her assistant were pleased at the Masque. She is upon her return though -sore against her will, if the wind would about to send her away." - -Mr. Neill says that "after the first weeks of her residence in England -she does not appear to be spoken of as the wife of Rolfe by the letter -writers," and the Rev. Peter Fontaine says that "when they heard that -Rolfe had married Pocahontas, it was deliberated in council whether he -had not committed high treason by so doing, that is marrying an Indian -princesse." - -It was like James to think so. His interest in the colony was never -the most intelligent, and apt to be in things trivial. Lord Southampton -(Dec. 15, 1609) writes to Lord Salisbury that he had told the King of -the Virginia squirrels brought into England, which are said to fly. The -King very earnestly asked if none were provided for him, and said he was -sure Salisbury would get him one. Would not have troubled him, "but that -you know so well how he is affected to these toys." - -There has been recently found in the British Museum a print of a -portrait of Pocahontas, with a legend round it in Latin, which is -translated: "Matoaka, alias Rebecka, Daughter of Prince Powhatan, -Emperor of Virginia; converted to Christianity, married Mr. Rolff; died -on shipboard at Gravesend 1617." This is doubtless the portrait engraved -by Simon De Passe in 1616, and now inserted in the extant copies of the -London edition of the "General Historie," 1624. It is not probable that -the portrait was originally published with the "General Historie." The -portrait inserted in the edition of 1624 has this inscription: - -Round the portrait: - -"Matoaka als Rebecca Filia Potentiss Princ: Pohatani Imp: Virginim." - -In the oval, under the portrait: - - "Aetatis suae 21 A. - 1616" -Below: - -"Matoaks als Rebecka daughter to the mighty Prince Powhatan Emprour of -Attanoughkomouck als virginia converted and baptized in the Christian -faith, and wife to the worth Mr. job Rolff. i: Pass: sculp. Compton -Holland excud." - - -Camden in his "History of Gravesend" says that everybody paid this -young lady all imaginable respect, and it was believed she would have -sufficiently acknowledged those favors, had she lived to return to her -own country, by bringing the Indians to a kinder disposition toward the -English; and that she died, "giving testimony all the time she lay sick, -of her being a very good Christian." - -The Lady Rebecka, as she was called in London, died on shipboard at -Gravesend after a brief illness, said to be of only three days, probably -on the 21st of March, 1617. I have seen somewhere a statement, which -I cannot confirm, that her disease was smallpox. St. George's Church, -where she was buried, was destroyed by fire in 1727. The register of -that church has this record: - - - "1616, May 21 Rebecca Wrothe - Wyff of Thomas Wroth gent - A Virginia lady borne, here was buried - in ye chaunncle." - -Yet there is no doubt, according to a record in the Calendar of State -Papers, dated "1617, 29 March, London," that her death occurred March -21, 1617. - -John Rolfe was made Secretary of Virginia when Captain Argall became -Governor, and seems to have been associated in the schemes of that -unscrupulous person and to have forfeited the good opinion of the -company. August 23, 1618, the company wrote to Argall: "We cannot -imagine why you should give us warning that Opechankano and the natives -have given the country to Mr. Rolfe's child, and that they reserve it -from all others till he comes of years except as we suppose as some -do here report it be a device of your own, to some special purpose for -yourself." It appears also by the minutes of the company in 1621 that -Lady Delaware had trouble to recover goods of hers left in Rolfe's hands -in Virginia, and desired a commission directed to Sir Thomas Wyatt and -Mr. George Sandys to examine what goods of the late "Lord Deleware had -come into Rolfe's possession and get satisfaction of him." This George -Sandys is the famous traveler who made a journey through the Turkish -Empire in 1610, and who wrote, while living in Virginia, the first book -written in the New World, the completion of his translation of Ovid's -"Metamorphosis." - -John Rolfe died in Virginia in 1622, leaving a wife and children. -This is supposed to be his third wife, though there is no note of his -marriage to her nor of the death of his first. October 7, 1622, his -brother Henry Rolfe petitioned that the estate of John should be -converted to the support of his relict wife and children and to his own -indemnity for having brought up John's child by Powhatan's daughter. - -This child, named Thomas Rolfe, was given after the death of Pocahontas -to the keeping of Sir Lewis Stukely of Plymouth, who fell into evil -practices, and the boy was transferred to the guardianship of his uncle -Henry Rolfe, and educated in London. When he was grown up he returned -to Virginia, and was probably there married. There is on record his -application to the Virginia authorities in 1641 for leave to go into the -Indian country and visit Cleopatra, his mother's sister. He left an only -daughter who was married, says Stith (1753), "to Col. John Bolling; by -whom she left an only son, the late Major John Bolling, who was father -to the present Col. John Bolling, and several daughters, married to -Col. Richard Randolph, Col. John Fleming, Dr. William Gay, Mr. Thomas -Eldridge, and Mr. James Murray." Campbell in his "History of Virginia" -says that the first Randolph that came to the James River was an -esteemed and industrious mechanic, and that one of his sons, Richard, -grandfather of the celebrated John Randolph, married Jane Bolling, the -great granddaughter of Pocahontas. - -In 1618 died the great Powhatan, full of years and satiated with -fighting and the savage delights of life. He had many names and titles; -his own people sometimes called him Ottaniack, sometimes Mamauatonick, -and usually in his presence Wahunsenasawk. He ruled, by inheritance and -conquest, with many chiefs under him, over a large territory with not -defined borders, lying on the James, the York, the Rappahannock, the -Potomac, and the Pawtuxet Rivers. He had several seats, at which he -alternately lived with his many wives and guard of bowmen, the chief of -which at the arrival of the English was Werowomocomo, on the Pamunkey -(York) River. His state has been sufficiently described. He is said -to have had a hundred wives, and generally a dozen--the -youngest--personally attending him. When he had a mind to add to his -harem he seems to have had the ancient oriental custom of sending into -all his dominions for the fairest maidens to be brought from whom to -select. And he gave the wives of whom he was tired to his favorites. - -Strachey makes a striking description of him as he appeared about 1610: -"He is a goodly old man not yet shrincking, though well beaten with cold -and stormeye winters, in which he hath been patient of many necessityes -and attempts of his fortune to make his name and famely great. He is -supposed to be little lesse than eighty yeares old, I dare not saye how -much more; others saye he is of a tall stature and cleane lymbes, of a -sad aspect, rownd fatt visaged, with graie haires, but plaine and thin, -hanging upon his broad showlders; some few haires upon his chin, and so -on his upper lippe: he hath been a strong and able salvadge, synowye, -vigilant, ambitious, subtile to enlarge his dominions:... cruell he hath -been, and quarellous as well with his own wcrowanccs for trifles, and -that to strike a terrour and awe into them of his power and condicion, -as also with his neighbors in his younger days, though now delighted in -security and pleasure, and therefore stands upon reasonable conditions -of peace with all the great and absolute werowances about him, and is -likewise more quietly settled amongst his own." - -It was at this advanced age that he had the twelve favorite young wives -whom Strachey names. All his people obeyed him with fear and adoration, -presenting anything he ordered at his feet, and trembling if he frowned. -His punishments were cruel; offenders were beaten to death before him, -or tied to trees and dismembered joint by joint, or broiled to death on -burning coals. Strachey wondered how such a barbarous prince should put -on such ostentation of majesty, yet he accounted for it as belonging to -the necessary divinity that doth hedge in a king: "Such is (I believe) -the impression of the divine nature, and however these (as other -heathens forsaken by the true light) have not that porcion of the -knowing blessed Christian spiritt, yet I am perswaded there is an -infused kind of divinities and extraordinary (appointed that it shall -be so by the King of kings) to such as are his ymedyate instruments on -earth." - -Here is perhaps as good a place as any to say a word or two about the -appearance and habits of Powhatan's subjects, as they were observed -by Strachey and Smith. A sort of religion they had, with priests or -conjurors, and houses set apart as temples, wherein images were kept -and conjurations performed, but the ceremonies seem not worship, but -propitiations against evil, and there seems to have been no conception -of an overruling power or of an immortal life. Smith describes a -ceremony of sacrifice of children to their deity; but this is doubtful, -although Parson Whittaker, who calls the Indians "naked slaves of the -devil," also says they sacrificed sometimes themselves and sometimes -their own children. An image of their god which he sent to England -"was painted upon one side of a toadstool, much like unto a deformed -monster." And he adds: "Their priests, whom they call Quockosoughs, are -no other but such as our English witches are." This notion I believe -also pertained among the New England colonists. There was a belief -that the Indian conjurors had some power over the elements, but not a -well-regulated power, and in time the Indians came to a belief in the -better effect of the invocations of the whites. In "Winslow's Relation," -quoted by Alexander Young in his "Chronicles of the Pilgrim Fathers," -under date of July, 1623, we read that on account of a great drought -a fast day was appointed. When the assembly met the sky was clear. The -exercise lasted eight or nine hours. Before they broke up, owing to -prayers the weather was overcast. Next day began a long gentle rain. -This the Indians seeing, admired the goodness of our God: "showing the -difference between their conjuration and our invocation in the name -of God for rain; theirs being mixed with such storms and tempests, as -sometimes, instead of doing them good, it layeth the corn flat on the -ground; but ours in so gentle and seasonable a manner, as they never -observed the like." - -It was a common opinion of the early settlers in Virginia, as it was of -those in New England, that the Indians were born white, but that they -got a brown or tawny color by the use of red ointments, made of earth -and the juice of roots, with which they besmear themselves either -according to the custom of the country or as a defense against the -stinging of mosquitoes. The women are of the same hue as the men, says -Strachey; "howbeit, it is supposed neither of them naturally borne so -discolored; for Captain Smith (lyving sometymes amongst them) affirmeth -how they are from the womb indifferent white, but as the men, so doe the -women," "dye and disguise themselves into this tawny cowler, esteeming -it the best beauty to be nearest such a kind of murrey as a sodden -quince is of," as the Greek women colored their faces and the ancient -Britain women dyed themselves with red; "howbeit [Strachey slyly adds] -he or she that hath obtained the perfected art in the tempering of this -collour with any better kind of earth, yearb or root preserves it not -yet so secrett and precious unto herself as doe our great ladyes their -oyle of talchum, or other painting white and red, but they frindly -communicate the secret and teach it one another." - -Thomas Lechford in his "Plain Dealing; or Newes from New England," -London, 1642, says: "They are of complexion swarthy and tawny; their -children are borne white, but they bedawbe them with oyle and colors -presently." - -The men are described as tall, straight, and of comely proportions; no -beards; hair black, coarse, and thick; noses broad, flat, and full at -the end; with big lips and wide mouths', yet nothing so unsightly as -the Moors; and the women as having "handsome limbs, slender arms, pretty -hands, and when they sing they have a pleasant tange in their voices. -The men shaved their hair on the right side, the women acting as -barbers, and left the hair full length on the left side, with a lock an -ell long." A Puritan divine--"New England's Plantation, 1630"--says of -the Indians about him, "their hair is generally black, and cut before -like our gentlewomen, and one lock longer than the rest, much like to -our gentlemen, which fashion I think came from hence into England." - -Their love of ornaments is sufficiently illustrated by an extract from -Strachey, which is in substance what Smith writes: - -"Their eares they boare with wyde holes, commonly two or three, and in -the same they doe hang chaines of stayned pearle braceletts, of white -bone or shreeds of copper, beaten thinne and bright, and wounde up -hollowe, and with a grate pride, certaine fowles' legges, eagles, -hawkes, turkeys, etc., with beasts clawes, bears, arrahacounes, -squirrells, etc. The clawes thrust through they let hang upon the cheeke -to the full view, and some of their men there be who will weare in these -holes a small greene and yellow-couloured live snake, neere half a yard -in length, which crawling and lapping himself about his neck oftentymes -familiarly, he suffreeth to kisse his lippes. Others weare a dead ratt -tyed by the tayle, and such like conundrums." - -This is the earliest use I find of our word "conundrum," and the sense -it bears here may aid in discovering its origin. - -Powhatan is a very large figure in early Virginia history, and deserves -his prominence. He was an able and crafty savage, and made a good fight -against the encroachments of the whites, but he was no match for -the crafty Smith, nor the double-dealing of the Christians. There is -something pathetic about the close of his life, his sorrow for the death -of his daughter in a strange land, when he saw his territories overrun -by the invaders, from whom he only asked peace, and the poor privilege -of moving further away from them into the wilderness if they denied him -peace. - -In the midst of this savagery Pocahontas blooms like a sweet, wild rose. -She was, like the Douglas, "tender and true." Wanting apparently the -cruel nature of her race generally, her heroic qualities were all of the -heart. No one of all the contemporary writers has anything but gentle -words for her. Barbarous and untaught she was like her comrades, but of -a gentle nature. Stripped of all the fictions which Captain Smith has -woven into her story, and all the romantic suggestions which later -writers have indulged in, she appears, in the light of the few facts -that industry is able to gather concerning her, as a pleasing and -unrestrained Indian girl, probably not different from her savage sisters -in her habits, but bright and gentle; struck with admiration at the -appearance of the white men, and easily moved to pity them, and so -inclined to a growing and lasting friendship for them; tractable and apt -to learn refinements; accepting the new religion through love for those -who taught it, and finally becoming in her maturity a well-balanced, -sensible, dignified Christian woman. - -According to the long-accepted story of Pocahontas, she did something -more than interfere to save from barbarous torture and death a stranger -and a captive, who had forfeited his life by shooting those who -opposed his invasion. In all times, among the most savage tribes and in -civilized society, women have been moved to heavenly pity by the sight -of a prisoner, and risked life to save him--the impulse was as natural -to a Highland lass as to an African maid. Pocahontas went further than -efforts to make peace between the superior race and her own. When the -whites forced the Indians to contribute from their scanty stores to the -support of the invaders, and burned their dwellings and shot them on -sight if they refused, the Indian maid sympathized with the exposed -whites and warned them of stratagems against them; captured herself by a -base violation of the laws of hospitality, she was easily reconciled to -her situation, adopted the habits of the foreigners, married one of her -captors, and in peace and in war cast in her lot with the strangers. -History has not preserved for us the Indian view of her conduct. - -It was no doubt fortunate for her, though perhaps not for the colony, -that her romantic career ended by an early death, so that she always -remains in history in the bloom of youth. She did not live to be pained -by the contrast, to which her eyes were opened, between her own and her -adopted people, nor to learn what things could be done in the Christian -name she loved, nor to see her husband in a less honorable light than -she left him, nor to be involved in any way in the frightful massacre -of 1622. If she had remained in England after the novelty was over, she -might have been subject to slights and mortifying neglect. The struggles -of the fighting colony could have brought her little but pain. Dying -when she did, she rounded out one of the prettiest romances of all -history, and secured for her name the affection of a great nation, whose -empire has spared little that belonged to her childhood and race, except -the remembrance of her friendship for those who destroyed her people. - - - - - - -End of Project Gutenberg's The Story of Pocahantas, by Charles Dudley Warner - + + + +Produced by David Widger + + + + + +THE STORY OF POCAHONTAS + +By Charles Dudley Warner + + + +The simple story of the life of Pocahontas is sufficiently romantic +without the embellishments which have been wrought on it either by the +vanity of Captain Smith or the natural pride of the descendants of this +dusky princess who have been ennobled by the smallest rivulet of her red +blood. + +That she was a child of remarkable intelligence, and that she early +showed a tender regard for the whites and rendered them willing and +unwilling service, is the concurrent evidence of all contemporary +testimony. That as a child she was well-favored, sprightly, and +prepossessing above all her copper-colored companions, we can believe, +and that as a woman her manners were attractive. If the portrait taken +of her in London--the best engraving of which is by Simon de Passe--in +1616, when she is said to have been twenty-one years old, does her +justice, she had marked Indian features. + +The first mention of her is in "The True Relation," written by Captain +Smith in Virginia in 1608. In this narrative, as our readers have seen, +she is not referred to until after Smith's return from the captivity +in which Powhatan used him "with all the kindness he could devise." Her +name first appears, toward the close of the relation, in the following +sentence: + +"Powhatan understanding we detained certain salvages, sent his daughter, +a child of tenne yeares old, which not only for feature, countenance, +and proportion, much exceedeth any of the rest of his people, but for +wit and spirit the only nonpareil of his country: this hee sent by his +most trusty messenger, called Rawhunt, as much exceeding in deformitie +of person, but of a subtill wit and crafty understanding, he with a long +circumstance told mee how well Powhatan loved and respected mee, and in +that I should not doubt any way of his kindness, he had sent his child, +which he most esteemed, to see mee, a Deere, and bread, besides for +a present: desiring mee that the Boy [Thomas Savage, the boy given by +Newport to Powhatan] might come again, which he loved exceedingly, his +little Daughter he had taught this lesson also: not taking notice at all +of the Indians that had been prisoners three daies, till that morning +that she saw their fathers and friends come quietly, and in good termes +to entreate their libertie. + +"In the afternoon they [the friends of the prisoners] being gone, we +guarded them [the prisoners] as before to the church, and after prayer, +gave them to Pocahuntas the King's Daughter, in regard of her father's +kindness in sending her: after having well fed them, as all the time of +their imprisonment, we gave them their bows, arrowes, or what else +they had, and with much content, sent them packing: Pocahuntas, also we +requited with such trifles as contented her, to tel that we had used the +Paspaheyans very kindly in so releasing them." + +The next allusion to her is in the fourth chapter of the narratives +which are appended to the "Map of Virginia," etc. This was sent home by +Smith, with a description of Virginia, in the late autumn of 1608. It +was published at Oxford in 1612, from two to three years after Smith's +return to England. The appendix contains the narratives of several of +Smith's companions in Virginia, edited by Dr. Symonds and overlooked +by Smith. In one of these is a brief reference to the above-quoted +incident. + +This Oxford tract, it is scarcely necessary to repeat, contains no +reference to the saving of Smith's life by Pocahontas from the clubs of +Powhatan. + +The next published mention of Pocahontas, in point of time, is in +Chapter X. and the last of the appendix to the "Map of Virginia," and is +Smith's denial, already quoted, of his intention to marry Pocahontas. +In this passage he speaks of her as "at most not past 13 or 14 years of +age." If she was thirteen or fourteen in 1609, when Smith left Virginia, +she must have been more than ten when he wrote his "True Relation," +composed in the winter of 1608, which in all probability was carried to +England by Captain Nelson, who left Jamestown June 2d. + +The next contemporary authority to be consulted in regard to Pocahontas +is William Strachey, who, as we have seen, went with the expedition of +Gates and Somers, was shipwrecked on the Bermudas, and reached Jamestown +May 23 or 24, 1610, and was made Secretary and Recorder of the colony +under Lord Delaware. Of the origin and life of Strachey, who was a +person of importance in Virginia, little is known. The better impression +is that he was the William Strachey of Saffron Walden, who was married +in 1588 and was living in 1620, and that it was his grandson of the same +name who was subsequently connected with the Virginia colony. He was, +judged by his writings, a man of considerable education, a good deal of +a pedant, and shared the credulity and fondness for embellishment of the +writers of his time. His connection with Lord Delaware, and his part +in framing the code of laws in Virginia, which may be inferred from +the fact that he first published them, show that he was a trusted and +capable man. + +William Strachey left behind him a manuscript entitled "The Historie of +Travaile into Virginia Britanica, &c., gathered and observed as well by +those who went first thither, as collected by William Strachey, gent., +three years thither, employed as Secretaire of State." How long he +remained in Virginia is uncertain, but it could not have been "three +years," though he may have been continued Secretary for that period, for +he was in London in 1612, in which year he published there the laws of +Virginia which had been established by Sir Thomas Gates May 24, 1610, +approved by Lord Delaware June 10, 1610, and enlarged by Sir Thomas Dale +June 22, 1611. + +The "Travaile" was first published by the Hakluyt Society in 1849. When +and where it was written, and whether it was all composed at one time, +are matters much in dispute. The first book, descriptive of Virginia and +its people, is complete; the second book, a narration of discoveries in +America, is unfinished. Only the first book concerns us. That Strachey +made notes in Virginia may be assumed, but the book was no doubt written +after his return to England. + + +[This code of laws, with its penalty of whipping and death for what are +held now to be venial offenses, gives it a high place among the Black +Codes. One clause will suffice: + +"Every man and woman duly twice a day upon the first towling of the Bell +shall upon the working daies repaire unto the church, to hear divine +service upon pain of losing his or her allowance for the first omission, +for the second to be whipt, and for the third to be condemned to the +Gallies for six months. Likewise no man or woman shall dare to violate +the Sabbath by any gaming, publique or private, abroad or at home, but +duly sanctifie and observe the same, both himselfe and his familie, by +preparing themselves at home with private prayer, that they may be the +better fitted for the publique, according to the commandments of God, +and the orders of our church, as also every man and woman shall repaire +in the morning to the divine service, and sermons preached upon the +Sabbath day, and in the afternoon to divine service, and Catechism upon +paine for the first fault to lose their provision, and allowance for the +whole week following, for the second to lose the said allowance and also +to be whipt, and for the third to suffer death."] + + +Was it written before or after the publication of Smith's "Map and +Description" at Oxford in 1612? The question is important, because +Smith's "Description" and Strachey's "Travaile" are page after page +literally the same. One was taken from the other. Commonly at that time +manuscripts seem to have been passed around and much read before they +were published. Purchas acknowledges that he had unpublished manuscripts +of Smith when he compiled his narrative. Did Smith see Strachey's +manuscript before he published his Oxford tract, or did Strachey enlarge +his own notes from Smith's description? It has been usually assumed +that Strachey cribbed from Smith without acknowledgment. If it were a +question to be settled by the internal evidence of the two accounts, +I should incline to think that Smith condensed his description from +Strachey, but the dates incline the balance in Smith's favor. + +Strachey in his "Travaile" refers sometimes to Smith, and always with +respect. It will be noted that Smith's "Map" was engraved and published +before the "Description" in the Oxford tract. Purchas had it, for he +says, in writing of Virginia for his "Pilgrimage" (which was published +in 1613): + +"Concerning-the latter [Virginia], Capt. John Smith, partly by word +of mouth, partly by his mappe thereof in print, and more fully by a +Manuscript which he courteously communicated to mee, hath acquainted +me with that whereof himselfe with great perill and paine, had been +the discoverer." Strachey in his "Travaile" alludes to it, and pays a +tribute to Smith in the following: "Their severall habitations are more +plainly described by the annexed mappe, set forth by Capt. Smith, of +whose paines taken herein I leave to the censure of the reader to judge. +Sure I am there will not return from thence in hast, any one who hath +been more industrious, or who hath had (Capt. Geo. Percie excepted) +greater experience amongst them, however misconstruction may traduce +here at home, where is not easily seen the mixed sufferances, both of +body and mynd, which is there daylie, and with no few hazards and hearty +griefes undergon." + +There are two copies of the Strachey manuscript. The one used by the +Hakluyt Society is dedicated to Sir Francis Bacon, with the title of +"Lord High Chancellor," and Bacon had not that title conferred on him +till after 1618. But the copy among the Ashmolean manuscripts at Oxford +is dedicated to Sir Allen Apsley, with the title of "Purveyor to His +Majestie's Navie Royall"; and as Sir Allen was made "Lieutenant of +the Tower" in 1616, it is believed that the manuscript must have been +written before that date, since the author would not have omitted the +more important of the two titles in his dedication. + +Strachey's prefatory letter to the Council, prefixed to his "Laws" +(1612), is dated "From my lodging in the Black Friars. At your best +pleasures, either to return unto the colony, or pray for the success of +it heere." In his letter he speaks of his experience in the Bermudas and +Virginia: "The full storie of both in due time [I] shall consecrate unto +your view.... Howbit since many impediments, as yet must detaine such +my observations in the shadow of darknesse, untill I shall be able to +deliver them perfect unto your judgments," etc. + +This is not, as has been assumed, a statement that the observations were +not written then, only that they were not "perfect"; in fact, they +were detained in the "shadow of darknesse" till the year 1849. Our +own inference is, from all the circumstances, that Strachey began his +manuscript in Virginia or shortly after his return, and added to it and +corrected it from time to time up to 1616. + +We are now in a position to consider Strachey's allusions to Pocahontas. +The first occurs in his description of the apparel of Indian women: + +"The better sort of women cover themselves (for the most part) all over +with skin mantells, finely drest, shagged and fringed at the skyrt, +carved and coloured with some pretty work, or the proportion of beasts, +fowle, tortayses, or other such like imagry, as shall best please or +expresse the fancy of the wearer; their younger women goe not shadowed +amongst their owne companie, until they be nigh eleaven or twelve +returnes of the leafe old (for soe they accompt and bring about the +yeare, calling the fall of the leaf tagnitock); nor are thev much +ashamed thereof, and therefore would the before remembered Pocahontas, +a well featured, but wanton yong girle, Powhatan's daughter, sometymes +resorting to our fort, of the age then of eleven or twelve yeares, get +the boyes forth with her into the markett place, and make them wheele, +falling on their hands, turning up their heeles upwards, whome she would +followe and wheele so herself, naked as she was, all the fort over; +but being once twelve yeares, they put on a kind of semecinctum lethern +apron (as do our artificers or handycrafts men) before their bellies, +and are very shamefac't to be seene bare. We have seene some use +mantells made both of Turkey feathers, and other fowle, so prettily +wrought and woven with threeds, that nothing could be discerned but the +feathers, which were exceedingly warme and very handsome." + +Strachey did not see Pocahontas. She did not resort to the camp after +the departure of Smith in September, 1609, until she was kidnapped by +Governor Dale in April, 1613. He repeats what he heard of her. The +time mentioned by him of her resorting to the fort, "of the age then of +eleven or twelve yeares," must have been the time referred to by Smith +when he might have married her, namely, in 1608-9, when he calls her +"not past 13 or 14 years of age." The description of her as a "yong +girle" tumbling about the fort, "naked as she was," would seem to +preclude the idea that she was married at that time. + +The use of the word "wanton" is not necessarily disparaging, for +"wanton" in that age was frequently synonymous with "playful" and +"sportive"; but it is singular that she should be spoken of as "well +featured, but wanton." Strachey, however, gives in another place what is +no doubt the real significance of the Indian name "Pocahontas." He says: + +"Both men, women, and children have their severall names; at first +according to the severall humor of their parents; and for the men +children, at first, when they are young, their mothers give them a name, +calling them by some affectionate title, or perhaps observing their +promising inclination give it accordingly; and so the great King +Powhatan called a young daughter of his, whom he loved well, Pocahontas, +which may signify a little wanton; howbeyt she was rightly called +Amonata at more ripe years." + +The Indian girls married very young. The polygamous Powhatan had a large +number of wives, but of all his women, his favorites were a dozen "for +the most part very young women," the names of whom Strachey obtained +from one Kemps, an Indian a good deal about camp, whom Smith certifies +was a great villain. Strachey gives a list of the names of twelve of +them, at the head of which is Winganuske. This list was no doubt written +down by the author in Virginia, and it is followed by a sentence, +quoted below, giving also the number of Powhatan's children. The +"great darling" in this list was Winganuske, a sister of Machumps, +who, according to Smith, murdered his comrade in the Bermudas. Strachey +writes: + +"He [Powhatan] was reported by the said Kemps, as also by the Indian +Machumps, who was sometyme in England, and comes to and fro amongst us +as he dares, and as Powhatan gives him leave, for it is not otherwise +safe for him, no more than it was for one Amarice, who had his braynes +knockt out for selling but a baskett of corne, and lying in the English +fort two or three days without Powhatan's leave; I say they often +reported unto us that Powhatan had then lyving twenty sonnes and ten +daughters, besyde a young one by Winganuske, Machumps his sister, and a +great darling of the King's; and besides, younge Pocohunta, a daughter +of his, using sometyme to our fort in tymes past, nowe married to a +private Captaine, called Kocoum, some two years since." + +This passage is a great puzzle. Does Strachey intend to say that +Pocahontas was married to an Iniaan named Kocoum? She might have been +during the time after Smith's departure in 1609, and her kidnapping +in 1613, when she was of marriageable age. We shall see hereafter that +Powhatan, in 1614, said he had sold another favorite daughter of his, +whom Sir Thomas Dale desired, and who was not twelve years of age, to +be wife to a great chief. The term "private Captain" might perhaps be +applied to an Indian chief. Smith, in his "General Historie," says +the Indians have "but few occasions to use any officers more than one +commander, which commonly they call Werowance, or Caucorouse, which is +Captaine." It is probably not possible, with the best intentions, to +twist Kocoum into Caucorouse, or to suppose that Strachey intended to +say that a private captain was called in Indian a Kocoum. Werowance +and Caucorouse are not synonymous terms. Werowance means "chief," and +Caucorouse means "talker" or "orator," and is the original of our word +"caucus." + +Either Strachey was uninformed, or Pocahontas was married to an +Indian--a not violent presumption considering her age and the fact +that war between Powhatan and the whites for some time had cut off +intercourse between them--or Strachey referred to her marriage with +Rolfe, whom he calls by mistake Kocoum. If this is to be accepted, +then this paragraph must have been written in England in 1616, and have +referred to the marriage to Rolfe it "some two years since," in 1614. + +That Pocahontas was a gentle-hearted and pleasing girl, and, through her +acquaintance with Smith, friendly to the whites, there is no doubt; that +she was not different in her habits and mode of life from other Indian +girls, before the time of her kidnapping, there is every reason to +suppose. It was the English who magnified the imperialism of her father, +and exaggerated her own station as Princess. She certainly put on no +airs of royalty when she was "cart-wheeling" about the fort. Nor +does this detract anything from the native dignity of the mature, and +converted, and partially civilized woman. + +We should expect there would be the discrepancies which have been +noticed in the estimates of her age. Powhatan is not said to have kept +a private secretary to register births in his family. If Pocahontas gave +her age correctly, as it appears upon her London portrait in 1616, +aged twenty-one, she must have been eighteen years of age when she was +captured in 1613 This would make her about twelve at the time of Smith's +captivity in 1607-8. There is certainly room for difference of opinion +as to whether so precocious a woman, as her intelligent apprehension of +affairs shows her to have been, should have remained unmarried till the +age of eighteen. In marrying at least as early as that she would have +followed the custom of her tribe. It is possible that her intercourse +with the whites had raised her above such an alliance as would be +offered her at the court of Werowocomoco. + +We are without any record of the life of Pocahontas for some years. +The occasional mentions of her name in the "General Historie" are so +evidently interpolated at a late date, that they do not aid us. When +and where she took the name of Matoaka, which appears upon her London +portrait, we are not told, nor when she was called Amonata, as Strachey +says she was "at more ripe yeares." How she was occupied from the +departure of Smith to her abduction, we can only guess. To follow her +authentic history we must take up the account of Captain Argall and of +Ralph Hamor, Jr., secretary of the colony under Governor Dale. + +Captain Argall, who seems to have been as bold as he was unscrupulous +in the execution of any plan intrusted to him, arrived in Virginia +in September, 1612, and early in the spring of 1613 he was sent on an +expedition up the Patowomek to trade for corn and to effect a capture +that would bring Powhatan to terms. The Emperor, from being a friend, +had become the most implacable enemy of the English. Captain Argall +says: "I was told by certain Indians, my friends, that the great +Powhatan's daughter Pokahuntis was with the great King Potowomek, +whither I presently repaired, resolved to possess myself of her by any +stratagem that I could use, for the ransoming of so many Englishmen as +were prisoners with Powhatan, as also to get such armes and tooles as +he and other Indians had got by murther and stealing some others of our +nation, with some quantity of corn for the colonies relief." + +By the aid of Japazeus, King of Pasptancy, an old acquaintance and +friend of Argall's, and the connivance of the King of Potowomek, +Pocahontas was enticed on board Argall's ship and secured. Word was sent +to Powhatan of the capture and the terms on which his daughter would be +released; namely, the return of the white men he held in slavery, the +tools and arms he had gotten and stolen, and a great quantity of corn. +Powhatan, "much grieved," replied that if Argall would use his daughter +well, and bring the ship into his river and release her, he would accede +to all his demands. Therefore, on the 13th of April, Argall repaired to +Governor Gates at Jamestown, and delivered his prisoner, and a few days +after the King sent home some of the white captives, three pieces, one +broad-axe, a long whip-saw, and a canoe of corn. Pocahontas, however, +was kept at Jamestown. + +Why Pocahontas had left Werowocomoco and gone to stay with Patowomek +we can only conjecture. It is possible that Powhatan suspected her +friendliness to the whites, and was weary of her importunity, and it may +be that she wanted to escape the sight of continual fighting, ambushes, +and murders. More likely she was only making a common friendly visit, +though Hamor says she went to trade at an Indian fair. + +The story of her capture is enlarged and more minutely related by Ralph +Hamor, Jr., who was one of the colony shipwrecked on the Bermudas in +1609, and returned to England in 1614, where he published (London, 1615) +"A True Discourse of Virginia, and the Success of the Affairs there +till the 18th of June, 1614." Hamor was the son of a merchant tailor in +London who was a member of the Virginia company. Hamor writes: + +"It chanced Powhatan's delight and darling, his daughter Pocahuntas +(whose fame has even been spread in England by the title of Nonparella +of Firginia) in her princely progresse if I may so terme it, tooke some +pleasure (in the absence of Captaine Argall) to be among her friends at +Pataomecke (as it seemeth by the relation I had), implored thither as +shopkeeper to a Fare, to exchange some of her father's commodities for +theirs, where residing some three months or longer, it fortuned upon +occasion either of promise or profit, Captaine Argall to arrive there, +whom Pocahuntas, desirous to renew her familiaritie with the English, +and delighting to see them as unknown, fearefull perhaps to be +surprised, would gladly visit as she did, of whom no sooner had Captaine +Argall intelligence, but he delt with an old friend Iapazeus, how and +by what meanes he might procure her caption, assuring him that now or +never, was the time to pleasure him, if he intended indeede that love +which he had made profession of, that in ransome of hir he might redeeme +some of our English men and armes, now in the possession of her father, +promising to use her withall faire and gentle entreaty; Iapazeus well +assured that his brother, as he promised, would use her courteously, +promised his best endeavors and service to accomplish his desire, and +thus wrought it, making his wife an instrument (which sex have ever been +most powerful in beguiling inticements) to effect his plot which hee +had thus laid, he agreed that himself, his wife and Pocahuntas, would +accompanie his brother to the water side, whither come, his wife should +faine a great and longing desire to goe aboorde, and see the shippe, +which being there three or four times before she had never seene, and +should be earnest with her husband to permit her--he seemed angry with +her, making as he pretended so unnecessary request, especially being +without the company of women, which denial she taking unkindly, +must faine to weepe (as who knows not that women can command teares) +whereupon her husband seeming to pitty those counterfeit teares, gave +her leave to goe aboord, so that it would pleese Pocahuntas to accompany +her; now was the greatest labour to win her, guilty perhaps of her +father's wrongs, though not knowne as she supposed, to goe with her, yet +by her earnest persuasions, she assented: so forthwith aboord they went, +the best cheere that could be made was seasonably provided, to supper +they went, merry on all hands, especially Iapazeus and his wife, who to +expres their joy would ere be treading upon Captaine Argall's foot, as +who should say tis don, she is your own. Supper ended Pocahuntas was +lodged in the gunner's roome, but Iapazeus and his wife desired to have +some conference with their brother, which was onely to acquaint him by +what stratagem they had betraied his prisoner as I have already +related: after which discourse to sleepe they went, Pocahuntas nothing +mistrusting this policy, who nevertheless being most possessed with +feere, and desire of returne, was first up, and hastened Iapazeus to be +gon. Capt. Argall having secretly well rewarded him, with a small Copper +kittle, and some other les valuable toies so highly by him esteemed, +that doubtlesse he would have betraied his own father for them, +permitted both him and his wife to returne, but told him that for divers +considerations, as for that his father had then eigh [8] of our Englishe +men, many swords, peeces, and other tooles, which he hid at severall +times by trecherous murdering our men, taken from them which though +of no use to him, he would not redeliver, he would reserve Pocahuntas, +whereat she began to be exceeding pensive, and discontented, yet +ignorant of the dealing of Japazeus who in outward appearance was no les +discontented that he should be the meanes of her captivity, much adoe +there was to pursuade her to be patient, which with extraordinary +curteous usage, by little and little was wrought in her, and so to +Jamestowne she was brought." + +Smith, who condenses this account in his "General Historie," expresses +his contempt of this Indian treachery by saying: "The old Jew and his +wife began to howle and crie as fast as Pocahuntas." It will be noted +that the account of the visit (apparently alone) of Pocahontas and her +capture is strong evidence that she was not at this time married to +"Kocoum" or anybody else. + +Word was despatched to Powhatan of his daughter's duress, with a +demand made for the restitution of goods; but although this savage is +represented as dearly loving Pocahontas, his "delight and darling," it +was, according to Hamor, three months before they heard anything from +him. His anxiety about his daughter could not have been intense. He +retained a part of his plunder, and a message was sent to him that +Pocahontas would be kept till he restored all the arms. + +This answer pleased Powhatan so little that they heard nothing from him +till the following March. Then Sir Thomas Dale and Captain Argall, with +several vessels and one hundred and fifty men, went up to Powhatan's +chief seat, taking his daughter with them, offering the Indians a chance +to fight for her or to take her in peace on surrender of the stolen +goods. The Indians received this with bravado and flights of arrows, +reminding them of the fate of Captain Ratcliffe. The whites landed, +killed some Indians, burnt forty houses, pillaged the village, and went +on up the river and came to anchor in front of Matchcot, the Emperor's +chief town. Here were assembled four hundred armed men, with bows and +arrows, who dared them to come ashore. Ashore they went, and a palaver +was held. The Indians wanted a day to consult their King, after which +they would fight, if nothing but blood would satisfy the whites. + +Two of Powhatan's sons who were present expressed a desire to see their +sister, who had been taken on shore. When they had sight of her, and +saw how well she was cared for, they greatly rejoiced and promised to +persuade their father to redeem her and conclude a lasting peace. The +two brothers were taken on board ship, and Master John Rolfe and Master +Sparkes were sent to negotiate with the King. Powhatan did not show +himself, but his brother Apachamo, his successor, promised to use his +best efforts to bring about a peace, and the expedition returned to +Jamestown. + +"Long before this time," Hamor relates, "a gentleman of approved +behaviour and honest carriage, Master John Rolfe, had been in love with +Pocahuntas and she with him, which thing at the instant that we were +in parlee with them, myselfe made known to Sir Thomas Dale, by a letter +from him [Rolfe] whereby he entreated his advice and furtherance to his +love, if so it seemed fit to him for the good of the Plantation, and +Pocahuntas herself acquainted her brethren therewith." Governor Dale +approved this, and consequently was willing to retire without other +conditions. "The bruite of this pretended marriage [Hamor continues] +came soon to Powhatan's knowledge, a thing acceptable to him, as +appeared by his sudden consent thereunto, who some ten daies after sent +an old uncle of hirs, named Opachisco, to give her as his deputy in the +church, and two of his sonnes to see the mariage solemnized which was +accordingly done about the fifth of April [1614], and ever since we have +had friendly commerce and trade, not only with Powhatan himself, but +also with his subjects round about us; so as now I see no reason why the +collonie should not thrive a pace." + +This marriage was justly celebrated as the means and beginning of a firm +peace which long continued, so that Pocahontas was again entitled to the +grateful remembrance of the Virginia settlers. Already, in 1612, a plan +had been mooted in Virginia of marrying the English with the natives, +and of obtaining the recognition of Powhatan and those allied to him as +members of a fifth kingdom, with certain privileges. Cunega, the Spanish +ambassador at London, on September 22, 1612, writes: "Although some +suppose the plantation to decrease, he is credibly informed that there +is a determination to marry some of the people that go over to Virginia; +forty or fifty are already so married, and English women intermingle and +are received kindly by the natives. A zealous minister hath been wounded +for reprehending it." + +Mr. John Rolfe was a man of industry, and apparently devoted to the +welfare of the colony. He probably brought with him in 1610 his wife, +who gave birth to his daughter Bermuda, born on the Somers Islands at +the time of the shipwreck. We find no notice of her death. Hamor gives +him the distinction of being the first in the colony to try, in 1612, +the planting and raising of tobacco. "No man [he adds] hath labored to +his power, by good example there and worthy encouragement into England +by his letters, than he hath done, witness his marriage with Powhatan's +daughter, one of rude education, manners barbarous and cursed +generation, meerely for the good and honor of the plantation: and +least any man should conceive that some sinister respects allured him +hereunto, I have made bold, contrary to his knowledge, in the end of my +treatise to insert the true coppie of his letter written to Sir Thomas +Dale." + +The letter is a long, labored, and curious document, and comes nearer to +a theological treatise than any love-letter we have on record. It reeks +with unction. Why Rolfe did not speak to Dale, whom he saw every day, +instead of inflicting upon him this painful document, in which the +flutterings of a too susceptible widower's heart are hidden under a +great resolve of self-sacrifice, is not plain. + +The letter protests in a tedious preamble that the writer is moved +entirely by the Spirit of God, and continues: + +"Let therefore this my well advised protestation, which here I make +between God and my own conscience, be a sufficient witness, at the +dreadful day of judgment (when the secrets of all men's hearts shall be +opened) to condemne me herein, if my chiefest interest and purpose be +not to strive with all my power of body and mind, in the undertaking +of so weighty a matter, no way led (so far forth as man's weakness may +permit) with the unbridled desire of carnall affection; but for the good +of this plantation, for the honour of our countrie, for the glory of +God, for my owne salvation, and for the converting to the true knowledge +of God and Jesus Christ, an unbelieving creature, namely Pokahuntas. +To whom my heartie and best thoughts are, and have a long time bin so +entangled, and inthralled in so intricate a laborinth, that I was even +awearied to unwinde myself thereout." + +Master Rolfe goes on to describe the mighty war in his meditations on +this subject, in which he had set before his eyes the frailty of mankind +and his proneness to evil and wicked thoughts. He is aware of God's +displeasure against the sons of Levi and Israel for marrying strange +wives, and this has caused him to look about warily and with good +circumspection "into the grounds and principall agitations which should +thus provoke me to be in love with one, whose education hath bin rude, +her manners barbarous, her generation accursed, and so discrepant in +all nurtriture from myselfe, that oftentimes with feare and trembling, +I have ended my private controversie with this: surely these are +wicked instigations, fetched by him who seeketh and delighteth in man's +distruction; and so with fervent prayers to be ever preserved from such +diabolical assaults (as I looke those to be) I have taken some rest." + +The good man was desperately in love and wanted to marry the Indian, and +consequently he got no peace; and still being tormented with her image, +whether she was absent or present, he set out to produce an ingenious +reason (to show the world) for marrying her. He continues: + +"Thus when I thought I had obtained my peace and quietnesse, beholde +another, but more gracious tentation hath made breaches into my holiest +and strongest meditations; with which I have been put to a new triall, +in a straighter manner than the former; for besides the weary passions +and sufferings which I have dailey, hourely, yea and in my sleepe +indured, even awaking me to astonishment, taxing me with remissnesse, +and carelessnesse, refusing and neglecting to perform the duteie of a +good Christian, pulling me by the eare, and crying: Why dost thou not +indeavor to make her a Christian? And these have happened to my greater +wonder, even when she hath been furthest seperated from me, which +in common reason (were it not an undoubted work of God) might breede +forgetfulnesse of a far more worthie creature." + +He accurately describes the symptoms and appears to understand the +remedy, but he is after a large-sized motive: + +"Besides, I say the holy Spirit of God hath often demanded of me, why I +was created? If not for transitory pleasures and worldly vanities, but +to labour in the Lord's vineyard, there to sow and plant, to nourish and +increase the fruites thereof, daily adding with the good husband in the +gospell, somewhat to the tallent, that in the ends the fruites may be +reaped, to the comfort of the labourer in this life, and his salvation +in the world to come.... Likewise, adding hereunto her great appearance +of love to me, her desire to be taught and instructed in the knowledge +of God, her capablenesse of understanding, her aptness and willingness +to receive anie good impression, and also the spirituall, besides her +owne incitements stirring me up hereunto." + +The "incitements" gave him courage, so that he exclaims: "Shall I be of +so untoward a disposition, as to refuse to lead the blind into the right +way? Shall I be so unnatural, as not to give bread to the hungrie, or +uncharitable, as not to cover the naked?" + +It wasn't to be thought of, such wickedness; and so Master Rolfe screwed +up his courage to marry the glorious Princess, from whom thousands +of people were afterwards so anxious to be descended. But he made the +sacrifice for the glory of the country, the benefit of the plantation, +and the conversion of the unregenerate, and other and lower motive +he vigorously repels: "Now, if the vulgar sort, who square all men's +actions by the base rule of their own filthinesse, shall tax or taunt +mee in this my godly labour: let them know it is not hungry appetite, to +gorge myselfe with incontinency; sure (if I would and were so sensually +inclined) I might satisfy such desire, though not without a seared +conscience, yet with Christians more pleasing to the eie, and less +fearefull in the offense unlawfully committed. Nor am I in so desperate +an estate, that I regard not what becometh of me; nor am I out of hope +but one day to see my country, nor so void of friends, nor mean in +birth, but there to obtain a mach to my great con'tent.... But shall it +please God thus to dispose of me (which I earnestly desire to fulfill +my ends before set down) I will heartily accept of it as a godly taxe +appointed me, and I will never cease (God assisting me) untill I have +accomplished, and brought to perfection so holy a worke, in which I will +daily pray God to bless me, to mine and her eternal happiness." + +It is to be hoped that if sanctimonious John wrote any love-letters to +Amonata they had less cant in them than this. But it was pleasing to Sir +Thomas Dale, who was a man to appreciate the high motives of Mr. Rolfe. +In a letter which he despatched from Jamestown, June 18, 1614, to a +reverend friend in London, he describes the expedition when Pocahontas +was carried up the river, and adds the information that when she went on +shore, "she would not talk to any of them, scarcely to them of the best +sort, and to them only, that if her father had loved her, he would not +value her less than old swords, pieces, or axes; wherefore she would +still dwell with the Englishmen who loved her." + +"Powhatan's daughter [the letter continues] I caused to be carefully +instructed in Christian Religion, who after she had made some good +progress therein, renounced publically her countrey idolatry, openly +confessed her Christian faith, was, as she desired, baptized, and is +since married to an English Gentleman of good understanding (as by his +letter unto me, containing the reasons for his marriage of her you may +perceive), an other knot to bind this peace the stronger. Her father +and friends gave approbation to it, and her uncle gave her to him in +the church; she lives civilly and lovingly with him, and I trust will +increase in goodness, as the knowledge of God increaseth in her. She +will goe into England with me, and were it but the gayning of this one +soule, I will think my time, toile, and present stay well spent." + +Hamor also appends to his narration a short letter, of the same date +with the above, from the minister Alexander Whittaker, the genuineness +of which is questioned. In speaking of the good deeds of Sir Thomas Dale +it says: "But that which is best, one Pocahuntas or Matoa, the +daughter of Powhatan, is married to an honest and discreet English +Gentleman--Master Rolfe, and that after she had openly renounced her +countrey Idolatry, and confessed the faith of Jesus Christ, and was +baptized, which thing Sir Thomas Dale had laboured a long time to ground +her in." If, as this proclaims, she was married after her conversion, +then Rolfe's tender conscience must have given him another twist for +wedding her, when the reason for marrying her (her conversion) had +ceased with her baptism. His marriage, according to this, was a pure +work of supererogation. It took place about the 5th of April, 1614. It +is not known who performed the ceremony. + +How Pocahontas passed her time in Jamestown during the period of her +detention, we are not told. Conjectures are made that she was an inmate +of the house of Sir Thomas Dale, or of that of the Rev. Mr. Whittaker, +both of whom labored zealously to enlighten her mind on religious +subjects. She must also have been learning English and civilized ways, +for it is sure that she spoke our language very well when she went to +London. Mr. John Rolfe was also laboring for her conversion, and we may +suppose that with all these ministrations, mingled with her love of Mr. +Rolfe, which that ingenious widower had discovered, and her desire to +convert him into a husband, she was not an unwilling captive. Whatever +may have been her barbarous instincts, we have the testimony of Governor +Dale that she lived "civilly and lovingly" with her husband. + + + + + +STORY OF POCAHONTAS, CONTINUED + +Sir Thomas Dale was on the whole the most efficient and discreet +Governor the colony had had. One element of his success was no doubt the +change in the charter of 1609. By the first charter everything had +been held in common by the company, and there had been no division of +property or allotment of land among the colonists. Under the new regime +land was held in severalty, and the spur of individual interest began +at once to improve the condition of the settlement. The character of the +colonists was also gradually improving. They had not been of a sort +to fulfill the earnest desire of the London promoter's to spread vital +piety in the New World. A zealous defense of Virginia and Maryland, +against "scandalous imputation," entitled "Leah and Rachel; or, The +Two Fruitful Sisters," by Mr. John Hammond, London, 1656, considers +the charges that Virginia "is an unhealthy place, a nest of rogues, +abandoned women, dissolut and rookery persons; a place of intolerable +labour, bad usage and hard diet"; and admits that "at the first +settling, and for many years after, it deserved most of these +aspersions, nor were they then aspersions but truths.... There were +jails supplied, youth seduced, infamous women drilled in, the provision +all brought out of England, and that embezzled by the Trustees." + +Governor Dale was a soldier; entering the army in the Netherlands as a +private he had risen to high position, and received knighthood in 1606. +Shortly after he was with Sir Thomas Gates in South Holland. The States +General in 1611 granted him three years' term of absence in Virginia. +Upon his arrival he began to put in force that system of industry and +frugality he had observed in Holland. He had all the imperiousness of a +soldier, and in an altercation with Captain Newport, occasioned by some +injurious remarks the latter made about Sir Thomas Smith, the treasurer, +he pulled his beard and threatened to hang him. Active operations for +settling new plantations were at once begun, and Dale wrote to Cecil, +the Earl of Salisbury, for 2,000 good colonists to be sent out, for the +three hundred that came were "so profane, so riotous, so full of mutiny, +that not many are Christians but in name, their bodies so diseased and +crazed that not sixty of them may be employed." He served afterwards +with credit in Holland, was made commander of the East Indian fleet in +1618, had a naval engagement with the Dutch near Bantam in 1619, and +died in 1620 from the effects of the climate. He was twice married, and +his second wife, Lady Fanny, the cousin of his first wife, survived him +and received a patent for a Virginia plantation. + +Governor Dale kept steadily in view the conversion of the Indians to +Christianity, and the success of John Rolfe with Matoaka inspired +him with a desire to convert another daughter of Powhatan, of whose +exquisite perfections he had heard. He therefore despatched Ralph Hamor, +with the English boy, Thomas Savage, as interpreter, on a mission to +the court of Powhatan, "upon a message unto him, which was to deale with +him, if by any means I might procure a daughter of his, who (Pocahuntas +being already in our possession) is generally reported to be his delight +and darling, and surely he esteemed her as his owne Soule, for surer +pledge of peace." This visit Hamor relates with great naivete. + +At his town of Matchcot, near the head of York River, Powhatan +himself received his visitors when they landed, with great cordiality, +expressing much pleasure at seeing again the boy who had been presented +to him by Captain Newport, and whom he had not seen since he gave him +leave to go and see his friends at Jamestown four years before; he also +inquired anxiously after Namontack, whom he had sent to King James's +land to see him and his country and report thereon, and then led the way +to his house, where he sat down on his bedstead side. "On each hand of +him was placed a comely and personable young woman, which they called +his Queenes, the howse within round about beset with them, the outside +guarded with a hundred bowmen." + +The first thing offered was a pipe of tobacco, which Powhatan "first +drank," and then passed to Hamor, who "drank" what he pleased and then +returned it. The Emperor then inquired how his brother Sir Thomas Dale +fared, "and after that of his daughter's welfare, her marriage, his +unknown son, and how they liked, lived and loved together." Hamor +replied "that his brother was very well, and his daughter so well +content that she would not change her life to return and live with him, +whereat he laughed heartily, and said he was very glad of it." + +Powhatan then desired to know the cause of his unexpected coming, and +Mr. Hamor said his message was private, to be delivered to him without +the presence of any except one of his councilors, and one of the guides, +who already knew it. + +Therefore the house was cleared of all except the two Queens, who may +never sequester themselves, and Mr. Hamor began his palaver. First there +was a message of love and inviolable peace, the production of presents +of coffee, beads, combs, fish-hooks, and knives, and the promise of +a grindstone when it pleased the Emperor to send for it. Hamor then +proceeded: + +"The bruite of the exquesite perfection of your youngest daughter, being +famous through all your territories, hath come to the hearing of your +brother, Sir Thomas Dale, who for this purpose hath addressed me hither, +to intreate you by that brotherly friendship you make profession of, to +permit her (with me) to returne unto him, partly for the desire which +himselfe hath, and partly for the desire her sister hath to see her of +whom, if fame hath not been prodigall, as like enough it hath not, your +brother (by your favour) would gladly make his nearest companion, wife +and bed fellow [many times he would have interrupted my speech, which +I entreated him to heare out, and then if he pleased to returne me +answer], and the reason hereof is, because being now friendly and firmly +united together, and made one people [as he supposeth and believes] in +the bond of love, he would make a natural union between us, principally +because himself hath taken resolution to dwel in your country so long as +he liveth, and would not only therefore have the firmest assurance hee +may, of perpetuall friendship from you, but also hereby binde himselfe +thereunto." + +Powhatan replied with dignity that he gladly accepted the salute of love +and peace, which he and his subjects would exactly maintain. But as to +the other matter he said: "My daughter, whom my brother desireth, I sold +within these three days to be wife to a great Weroance for two bushels +of Roanoke [a small kind of beads made of oyster shells], and it is true +she is already gone with him, three days' journey from me." + +Hamor persisted that this marriage need not stand in the way; "that if +he pleased herein to gratify his Brother he might, restoring the Roanoke +without the imputation of injustice, take home his daughter again, the +rather because she was not full twelve years old, and therefore not +marriageable; assuring him besides the bond of peace, so much the +firmer, he should have treble the price of his daughter in beads, +copper, hatchets, and many other things more useful for him." + +The reply of the noble old savage to this infamous demand ought to have +brought a blush to the cheeks of those who made it. He said he loved his +daughter as dearly as his life; he had many children, but he delighted +in none so much as in her; he could not live if he did not see her +often, as he would not if she were living with the whites, and he +was determined not to put himself in their hands. He desired no other +assurance of friendship than his brother had given him, who had already +one of his daughters as a pledge, which was sufficient while she lived; +"when she dieth he shall have another child of mine." And then he broke +forth in pathetic eloquence: "I hold it not a brotherly part of your +King, to desire to bereave me of two of my children at once; further +give him to understand, that if he had no pledge at all, he should not +need to distrust any injury from me, or any under my subjection; there +have been too many of his and my men killed, and by my occasion there +shall never be more; I which have power to perform it have said it; no +not though I should have just occasion offered, for I am now old and +would gladly end my days in peace; so as if the English offer me any +injury, my country is large enough, I will remove myself farther from +you." + +The old man hospitably entertained his guests for a day or two, loaded +them with presents, among which were two dressed buckskins, white as +snow, for his son and daughter, and, requesting some articles sent him +in return, bade them farewell with this message to Governor Dale: "I +hope this will give him good satisfaction, if it do not I will go three +days' journey farther from him, and never see Englishmen more." It +speaks well for the temperate habits of this savage that after he had +feasted his guests, "he caused to be fetched a great glass of sack, some +three quarts or better, which Captain Newport had given him six or seven +years since, carefully preserved by him, not much above a pint in all +this time spent, and gave each of us in a great oyster shell some three +spoonfuls." + +We trust that Sir Thomas Dale gave a faithful account of all this to his +wife in England. + +Sir Thomas Gates left Virginia in the spring of 1614 and never returned. +After his departure scarcity and severity developed a mutiny, and six +of the settlers were executed. Rolfe was planting tobacco (he has the +credit of being the first white planter of it), and his wife was getting +an inside view of Christian civilization. + +In 1616 Sir Thomas Dale returned to England with his company and John +Rolfe and Pocahontas, and several other Indians. They reached Plymouth +early in June, and on the 20th Lord Carew made this note: "Sir Thomas +Dale returned from Virginia; he hath brought divers men and women of +thatt countrye to be educated here, and one Rolfe who married a daughter +of Pohetan (the barbarous prince) called Pocahuntas, hath brought his +wife with him into England." On the 22d Sir John Chamberlain wrote to +Sir Dudley Carlton that there were "ten or twelve, old and young, of +that country." + +The Indian girls who came with Pocahontas appear to have been a great +care to the London company. In May, 1620, is a record that the company +had to pay for physic and cordials for one of them who had been living +as a servant in Cheapside, and was very weak of a consumption. The same +year two other of the maids were shipped off to the Bermudas, after +being long a charge to the company, in the hope that they might there +get husbands, "that after they were converted and had children, they +might be sent to their country and kindred to civilize them." One of +them was there married. The attempt to educate them in England was not +very successful, and a proposal to bring over Indian boys obtained this +comment from Sir Edwin Sandys: + +"Now to send for them into England, and to have them educated here, he +found upon experience of those brought by Sir Thomas Dale, might be far +from the Christian work intended." One Nanamack, a lad brought over by +Lord Delaware, lived some years in houses where "he heard not much of +religion but sins, had many times examples of drinking, swearing and +like evils, ran as he was a mere Pagan," till he fell in with a +devout family and changed his life, but died before he was baptized. +Accompanying Pocahontas was a councilor of Powhatan, one Tomocomo, the +husband of one of her sisters, of whom Purchas says in his "Pilgrimes": +"With this savage I have often conversed with my good friend Master +Doctor Goldstone where he was a frequent geust, and where I have seen +him sing and dance his diabolical measures, and heard him discourse of +his country and religion.... Master Rolfe lent me a discourse which +I have in my Pilgrimage delivered. And his wife did not only accustom +herself to civility, but still carried herself as the daughter of a +king, and was accordingly respected, not only by the Company which +allowed provision for herself and her son, but of divers particular +persons of honor, in their hopeful zeal by her to advance Christianity. +I was present when my honorable and reverend patron, the Lord Bishop of +London, Doctor King, entertained her with festival state and pomp beyond +what I had seen in his great hospitality offered to other ladies. At +her return towards Virginia she came at Gravesend to her end and grave, +having given great demonstration of her Christian sincerity, as the +first fruits of Virginia conversion, leaving here a goodly memory, +and the hopes of her resurrection, her soul aspiring to see and enjoy +permanently in heaven what here she had joyed to hear and believe of her +blessed Saviour. Not such was Tomocomo, but a blasphemer of what he knew +not and preferring his God to ours because he taught them (by his own +so appearing) to wear their Devil-lock at the left ear; he acquainted me +with the manner of that his appearance, and believed that their Okee or +Devil had taught them their husbandry." + +Upon news of her arrival, Captain Smith, either to increase his own +importance or because Pocahontas was neglected, addressed a letter or +"little booke" to Queen Anne, the consort of King James. This letter is +found in Smith's "General Historie" ( 1624), where it is introduced +as having been sent to Queen Anne in 1616. Probably he sent her such a +letter. We find no mention of its receipt or of any acknowledgment of +it. Whether the "abstract" in the "General Historie" is exactly like +the original we have no means of knowing. We have no more confidence in +Smith's memory than we have in his dates. The letter is as follows: + +"To the most high and vertuous Princesse Queene Anne of Great Brittaine. + +"Most ADMIRED QUEENE. + +"The love I beare my God, my King and Countrie hath so oft emboldened me +in the worst of extreme dangers, that now honestie doth constraine mee +presume thus farre beyond my selfe, to present your Majestie this short +discourse: if ingratitude be a deadly poyson to all honest vertues, +I must be guiltie of that crime if I should omit any meanes to bee +thankful. So it is. + +"That some ten yeeres agoe being in Virginia, and taken prisoner by the +power of Powhaten, their chiefe King, I received from this great Salvage +exceeding great courtesie, especially from his sonne Nantaquaus, the +most manliest, comeliest, boldest spirit, I ever saw in a Salvage and +his sister Pocahontas, the Kings most deare and well-beloved daughter, +being but a childe of twelve or thirteen yeeres of age, whose +compassionate pitifull heart, of desperate estate, gave me much cause +to respect her: I being the first Christian this proud King and his grim +attendants ever saw, and thus enthralled in their barbarous power, I +cannot say I felt the least occasion of want that was in the power of +those my mortall foes to prevent notwithstanding al their threats. After +some six weeks fatting amongst those Salvage Courtiers, at the minute of +my execution, she hazarded the beating out of her owne braines to save +mine, and not onely that, but so prevailed with her father, that I was +safely conducted to Jamestowne, where I found about eight and thirty +miserable poore and sicke creatures, to keepe possession of all those +large territories of Virginia, such was the weaknesse of this poore +Commonwealth, as had the Salvages not fed us, we directly had starved. + +"And this reliefe, most gracious Queene, was commonly brought us by +this Lady Pocahontas, notwithstanding all these passages when inconstant +Fortune turned our Peace to warre, this tender Virgin would still not +spare to dare to visit us, and by her our jarres have been oft appeased, +and our wants still supplyed; were it the policie of her father thus to +imploy her, or the ordinance of God thus to make her his instrument, or +her extraordinarie affection to our Nation, I know not: but of this I am +sure: when her father with the utmost of his policie and power, sought +to surprize mee, having but eighteene with mee, the dark night could not +affright her from comming through the irksome woods, and with watered +eies gave me intilligence, with her best advice to escape his furie: +which had hee known hee had surely slaine her. Jamestowne with her wild +traine she as freely frequented, as her father's habitation: and during +the time of two or three yeares, she next under God, was still the +instrument to preserve this Colonie from death, famine and utter +confusion, which if in those times had once beene dissolved, Virginia +might have laine as it was at our first arrivall to this day. Since +then, this buisinesse having been turned and varied by many accidents +from that I left it at: it is most certaine, after a long and +troublesome warre after my departure, betwixt her father and our +Colonie, all which time shee was not heard of, about two yeeres longer, +the Colonie by that meanes was releived, peace concluded, and at last +rejecting her barbarous condition, was maried to an English Gentleman, +with whom at this present she is in England; the first Christian ever of +that Nation, the first Virginian ever spake English, or had a childe +in mariage by an Englishman, a matter surely, if my meaning bee truly +considered and well understood, worthy a Princes understanding. + +"Thus most gracious Lady, I have related to your Majestic, what at your +best leasure our approved Histories will account you at large, and done +in the time of your Majesties life, and however this might bee presented +you from a more worthy pen, it cannot from a more honest heart, as yet +I never begged anything of the State, or any, and it is my want of +abilitie and her exceeding desert, your birth, meanes, and authoritie, +her birth, vertue, want and simplicitie, doth make mee thus bold, humbly +to beseech your Majestic: to take this knowledge of her though it be +from one so unworthy to be the reporter, as myselfe, her husband's +estate not being able to make her fit to attend your Majestic: the most +and least I can doe, is to tell you this, because none so oft hath tried +it as myselfe: and the rather being of so great a spirit, however her +station: if she should not be well received, seeing this Kingdome +may rightly have a Kingdome by her meanes: her present love to us and +Christianitie, might turne to such scorne and furie, as to divert all +this good to the worst of evill, when finding so great a Queene should +doe her some honour more than she can imagine, for being so kinde to +your servants and subjects, would so ravish her with content, as endeare +her dearest bloud to effect that, your Majestic and all the Kings honest +subjects most earnestly desire: and so I humbly kisse your gracious +hands." + +The passage in this letter, "She hazarded the beating out of her owne +braines to save mine," is inconsistent with the preceding portion of the +paragraph which speaks of "the exceeding great courtesie" of Powhatan; +and Smith was quite capable of inserting it afterwards when he made up +his + +"General Historie." + +Smith represents himself at this time--the last half of 1616 and the +first three months of 1617--as preparing to attempt a third voyage to +New England (which he did not make), and too busy to do Pocahontas the +service she desired. She was staying at Branford, either from neglect +of the company or because the London smoke disagreed with her, and there +Smith went to see her. His account of his intercourse with her, the only +one we have, must be given for what it is worth. According to this she +had supposed Smith dead, and took umbrage at his neglect of her. He +writes: + +"After a modest salutation, without any word, she turned about, obscured +her face, as not seeming well contented; and in that humour, her husband +with divers others, we all left her two or three hours repenting myself +to have writ she could speak English. But not long after she began to +talke, remembering me well what courtesies she had done: saying, 'You +did promise Powhatan what was yours should be his, and he the like to +you; you called him father, being in his land a stranger, and by the +same reason so must I do you:' which though I would have excused, I +durst not allow of that title, because she was a king's daughter. With +a well set countenance she said: 'Were you not afraid to come into my +father's country and cause fear in him and all his people (but me), and +fear you have I should call you father; I tell you then I will, and +you shall call me childe, and so I will be forever and ever, your +contrieman. They did tell me alwaies you were dead, and I knew no other +till I came to Plymouth, yet Powhatan did command Uttamatomakkin to seek +you, and know the truth, because your countriemen will lie much."' + +This savage was the Tomocomo spoken of above, who had been sent by +Powhatan to take a census of the people of England, and report what they +and their state were. At Plymouth he got a long stick and began to make +notches in it for the people he saw. But he was quickly weary of that +task. He told Smith that Powhatan bade him seek him out, and get him +to show him his God, and the King, Queen, and Prince, of whom Smith had +told so much. Smith put him off about showing his God, but said he had +heard that he had seen the King. This the Indian denied, James probably +not coming up to his idea of a king, till by circumstances he was +convinced he had seen him. Then he replied very sadly: "You gave +Powhatan a white dog, which Powhatan fed as himself, but your king gave +me nothing, and I am better than your white dog." + +Smith adds that he took several courtiers to see Pocahontas, and "they +did think God had a great hand in her conversion, and they have seen +many English ladies worse favoured, proportioned, and behavioured;" and +he heard that it had pleased the King and Queen greatly to esteem her, +as also Lord and Lady Delaware, and other persons of good quality, both +at the masques and otherwise. + +Much has been said about the reception of Pocahontas in London, but +the contemporary notices of her are scant. The Indians were objects of +curiosity for a time in London, as odd Americans have often been since, +and the rank of Pocahontas procured her special attention. She was +presented at court. She was entertained by Dr. King, Bishop of London. +At the playing of Ben Jonson's "Christmas his Mask" at court, January +6, 1616-17, Pocahontas and Tomocomo were both present, and Chamberlain +writes to Carleton: "The Virginian woman Pocahuntas with her father +counsellor have been with the King and graciously used, and both she and +her assistant were pleased at the Masque. She is upon her return though +sore against her will, if the wind would about to send her away." + +Mr. Neill says that "after the first weeks of her residence in England +she does not appear to be spoken of as the wife of Rolfe by the letter +writers," and the Rev. Peter Fontaine says that "when they heard that +Rolfe had married Pocahontas, it was deliberated in council whether he +had not committed high treason by so doing, that is marrying an Indian +princesse." + +It was like James to think so. His interest in the colony was never +the most intelligent, and apt to be in things trivial. Lord Southampton +(Dec. 15, 1609) writes to Lord Salisbury that he had told the King of +the Virginia squirrels brought into England, which are said to fly. The +King very earnestly asked if none were provided for him, and said he was +sure Salisbury would get him one. Would not have troubled him, "but that +you know so well how he is affected to these toys." + +There has been recently found in the British Museum a print of a +portrait of Pocahontas, with a legend round it in Latin, which is +translated: "Matoaka, alias Rebecka, Daughter of Prince Powhatan, +Emperor of Virginia; converted to Christianity, married Mr. Rolff; died +on shipboard at Gravesend 1617." This is doubtless the portrait engraved +by Simon De Passe in 1616, and now inserted in the extant copies of the +London edition of the "General Historie," 1624. It is not probable that +the portrait was originally published with the "General Historie." The +portrait inserted in the edition of 1624 has this inscription: + +Round the portrait: + +"Matoaka als Rebecca Filia Potentiss Princ: Pohatani Imp: Virginim." + +In the oval, under the portrait: + + "Aetatis suae 21 A. + 1616" +Below: + +"Matoaks als Rebecka daughter to the mighty Prince Powhatan Emprour of +Attanoughkomouck als virginia converted and baptized in the Christian +faith, and wife to the worth Mr. job Rolff. i: Pass: sculp. Compton +Holland excud." + + +Camden in his "History of Gravesend" says that everybody paid this +young lady all imaginable respect, and it was believed she would have +sufficiently acknowledged those favors, had she lived to return to her +own country, by bringing the Indians to a kinder disposition toward the +English; and that she died, "giving testimony all the time she lay sick, +of her being a very good Christian." + +The Lady Rebecka, as she was called in London, died on shipboard at +Gravesend after a brief illness, said to be of only three days, probably +on the 21st of March, 1617. I have seen somewhere a statement, which +I cannot confirm, that her disease was smallpox. St. George's Church, +where she was buried, was destroyed by fire in 1727. The register of +that church has this record: + + + "1616, May 21 Rebecca Wrothe + Wyff of Thomas Wroth gent + A Virginia lady borne, here was buried + in ye chaunncle." + +Yet there is no doubt, according to a record in the Calendar of State +Papers, dated "1617, 29 March, London," that her death occurred March +21, 1617. + +John Rolfe was made Secretary of Virginia when Captain Argall became +Governor, and seems to have been associated in the schemes of that +unscrupulous person and to have forfeited the good opinion of the +company. August 23, 1618, the company wrote to Argall: "We cannot +imagine why you should give us warning that Opechankano and the natives +have given the country to Mr. Rolfe's child, and that they reserve it +from all others till he comes of years except as we suppose as some +do here report it be a device of your own, to some special purpose for +yourself." It appears also by the minutes of the company in 1621 that +Lady Delaware had trouble to recover goods of hers left in Rolfe's hands +in Virginia, and desired a commission directed to Sir Thomas Wyatt and +Mr. George Sandys to examine what goods of the late "Lord Deleware had +come into Rolfe's possession and get satisfaction of him." This George +Sandys is the famous traveler who made a journey through the Turkish +Empire in 1610, and who wrote, while living in Virginia, the first book +written in the New World, the completion of his translation of Ovid's +"Metamorphosis." + +John Rolfe died in Virginia in 1622, leaving a wife and children. +This is supposed to be his third wife, though there is no note of his +marriage to her nor of the death of his first. October 7, 1622, his +brother Henry Rolfe petitioned that the estate of John should be +converted to the support of his relict wife and children and to his own +indemnity for having brought up John's child by Powhatan's daughter. + +This child, named Thomas Rolfe, was given after the death of Pocahontas +to the keeping of Sir Lewis Stukely of Plymouth, who fell into evil +practices, and the boy was transferred to the guardianship of his uncle +Henry Rolfe, and educated in London. When he was grown up he returned +to Virginia, and was probably there married. There is on record his +application to the Virginia authorities in 1641 for leave to go into the +Indian country and visit Cleopatra, his mother's sister. He left an only +daughter who was married, says Stith (1753), "to Col. John Bolling; by +whom she left an only son, the late Major John Bolling, who was father +to the present Col. John Bolling, and several daughters, married to +Col. Richard Randolph, Col. John Fleming, Dr. William Gay, Mr. Thomas +Eldridge, and Mr. James Murray." Campbell in his "History of Virginia" +says that the first Randolph that came to the James River was an +esteemed and industrious mechanic, and that one of his sons, Richard, +grandfather of the celebrated John Randolph, married Jane Bolling, the +great granddaughter of Pocahontas. + +In 1618 died the great Powhatan, full of years and satiated with +fighting and the savage delights of life. He had many names and titles; +his own people sometimes called him Ottaniack, sometimes Mamauatonick, +and usually in his presence Wahunsenasawk. He ruled, by inheritance and +conquest, with many chiefs under him, over a large territory with not +defined borders, lying on the James, the York, the Rappahannock, the +Potomac, and the Pawtuxet Rivers. He had several seats, at which he +alternately lived with his many wives and guard of bowmen, the chief of +which at the arrival of the English was Werowomocomo, on the Pamunkey +(York) River. His state has been sufficiently described. He is said +to have had a hundred wives, and generally a dozen--the +youngest--personally attending him. When he had a mind to add to his +harem he seems to have had the ancient oriental custom of sending into +all his dominions for the fairest maidens to be brought from whom to +select. And he gave the wives of whom he was tired to his favorites. + +Strachey makes a striking description of him as he appeared about 1610: +"He is a goodly old man not yet shrincking, though well beaten with cold +and stormeye winters, in which he hath been patient of many necessityes +and attempts of his fortune to make his name and famely great. He is +supposed to be little lesse than eighty yeares old, I dare not saye how +much more; others saye he is of a tall stature and cleane lymbes, of a +sad aspect, rownd fatt visaged, with graie haires, but plaine and thin, +hanging upon his broad showlders; some few haires upon his chin, and so +on his upper lippe: he hath been a strong and able salvadge, synowye, +vigilant, ambitious, subtile to enlarge his dominions:... cruell he hath +been, and quarellous as well with his own wcrowanccs for trifles, and +that to strike a terrour and awe into them of his power and condicion, +as also with his neighbors in his younger days, though now delighted in +security and pleasure, and therefore stands upon reasonable conditions +of peace with all the great and absolute werowances about him, and is +likewise more quietly settled amongst his own." + +It was at this advanced age that he had the twelve favorite young wives +whom Strachey names. All his people obeyed him with fear and adoration, +presenting anything he ordered at his feet, and trembling if he frowned. +His punishments were cruel; offenders were beaten to death before him, +or tied to trees and dismembered joint by joint, or broiled to death on +burning coals. Strachey wondered how such a barbarous prince should put +on such ostentation of majesty, yet he accounted for it as belonging to +the necessary divinity that doth hedge in a king: "Such is (I believe) +the impression of the divine nature, and however these (as other +heathens forsaken by the true light) have not that porcion of the +knowing blessed Christian spiritt, yet I am perswaded there is an +infused kind of divinities and extraordinary (appointed that it shall +be so by the King of kings) to such as are his ymedyate instruments on +earth." + +Here is perhaps as good a place as any to say a word or two about the +appearance and habits of Powhatan's subjects, as they were observed +by Strachey and Smith. A sort of religion they had, with priests or +conjurors, and houses set apart as temples, wherein images were kept +and conjurations performed, but the ceremonies seem not worship, but +propitiations against evil, and there seems to have been no conception +of an overruling power or of an immortal life. Smith describes a +ceremony of sacrifice of children to their deity; but this is doubtful, +although Parson Whittaker, who calls the Indians "naked slaves of the +devil," also says they sacrificed sometimes themselves and sometimes +their own children. An image of their god which he sent to England +"was painted upon one side of a toadstool, much like unto a deformed +monster." And he adds: "Their priests, whom they call Quockosoughs, are +no other but such as our English witches are." This notion I believe +also pertained among the New England colonists. There was a belief +that the Indian conjurors had some power over the elements, but not a +well-regulated power, and in time the Indians came to a belief in the +better effect of the invocations of the whites. In "Winslow's Relation," +quoted by Alexander Young in his "Chronicles of the Pilgrim Fathers," +under date of July, 1623, we read that on account of a great drought +a fast day was appointed. When the assembly met the sky was clear. The +exercise lasted eight or nine hours. Before they broke up, owing to +prayers the weather was overcast. Next day began a long gentle rain. +This the Indians seeing, admired the goodness of our God: "showing the +difference between their conjuration and our invocation in the name +of God for rain; theirs being mixed with such storms and tempests, as +sometimes, instead of doing them good, it layeth the corn flat on the +ground; but ours in so gentle and seasonable a manner, as they never +observed the like." + +It was a common opinion of the early settlers in Virginia, as it was of +those in New England, that the Indians were born white, but that they +got a brown or tawny color by the use of red ointments, made of earth +and the juice of roots, with which they besmear themselves either +according to the custom of the country or as a defense against the +stinging of mosquitoes. The women are of the same hue as the men, says +Strachey; "howbeit, it is supposed neither of them naturally borne so +discolored; for Captain Smith (lyving sometymes amongst them) affirmeth +how they are from the womb indifferent white, but as the men, so doe the +women," "dye and disguise themselves into this tawny cowler, esteeming +it the best beauty to be nearest such a kind of murrey as a sodden +quince is of," as the Greek women colored their faces and the ancient +Britain women dyed themselves with red; "howbeit [Strachey slyly adds] +he or she that hath obtained the perfected art in the tempering of this +collour with any better kind of earth, yearb or root preserves it not +yet so secrett and precious unto herself as doe our great ladyes their +oyle of talchum, or other painting white and red, but they frindly +communicate the secret and teach it one another." + +Thomas Lechford in his "Plain Dealing; or Newes from New England," +London, 1642, says: "They are of complexion swarthy and tawny; their +children are borne white, but they bedawbe them with oyle and colors +presently." + +The men are described as tall, straight, and of comely proportions; no +beards; hair black, coarse, and thick; noses broad, flat, and full at +the end; with big lips and wide mouths', yet nothing so unsightly as +the Moors; and the women as having "handsome limbs, slender arms, pretty +hands, and when they sing they have a pleasant tange in their voices. +The men shaved their hair on the right side, the women acting as +barbers, and left the hair full length on the left side, with a lock an +ell long." A Puritan divine--"New England's Plantation, 1630"--says of +the Indians about him, "their hair is generally black, and cut before +like our gentlewomen, and one lock longer than the rest, much like to +our gentlemen, which fashion I think came from hence into England." + +Their love of ornaments is sufficiently illustrated by an extract from +Strachey, which is in substance what Smith writes: + +"Their eares they boare with wyde holes, commonly two or three, and in +the same they doe hang chaines of stayned pearle braceletts, of white +bone or shreeds of copper, beaten thinne and bright, and wounde up +hollowe, and with a grate pride, certaine fowles' legges, eagles, +hawkes, turkeys, etc., with beasts clawes, bears, arrahacounes, +squirrells, etc. The clawes thrust through they let hang upon the cheeke +to the full view, and some of their men there be who will weare in these +holes a small greene and yellow-couloured live snake, neere half a yard +in length, which crawling and lapping himself about his neck oftentymes +familiarly, he suffreeth to kisse his lippes. Others weare a dead ratt +tyed by the tayle, and such like conundrums." + +This is the earliest use I find of our word "conundrum," and the sense +it bears here may aid in discovering its origin. + +Powhatan is a very large figure in early Virginia history, and deserves +his prominence. He was an able and crafty savage, and made a good fight +against the encroachments of the whites, but he was no match for +the crafty Smith, nor the double-dealing of the Christians. There is +something pathetic about the close of his life, his sorrow for the death +of his daughter in a strange land, when he saw his territories overrun +by the invaders, from whom he only asked peace, and the poor privilege +of moving further away from them into the wilderness if they denied him +peace. + +In the midst of this savagery Pocahontas blooms like a sweet, wild rose. +She was, like the Douglas, "tender and true." Wanting apparently the +cruel nature of her race generally, her heroic qualities were all of the +heart. No one of all the contemporary writers has anything but gentle +words for her. Barbarous and untaught she was like her comrades, but of +a gentle nature. Stripped of all the fictions which Captain Smith has +woven into her story, and all the romantic suggestions which later +writers have indulged in, she appears, in the light of the few facts +that industry is able to gather concerning her, as a pleasing and +unrestrained Indian girl, probably not different from her savage sisters +in her habits, but bright and gentle; struck with admiration at the +appearance of the white men, and easily moved to pity them, and so +inclined to a growing and lasting friendship for them; tractable and apt +to learn refinements; accepting the new religion through love for those +who taught it, and finally becoming in her maturity a well-balanced, +sensible, dignified Christian woman. + +According to the long-accepted story of Pocahontas, she did something +more than interfere to save from barbarous torture and death a stranger +and a captive, who had forfeited his life by shooting those who +opposed his invasion. In all times, among the most savage tribes and in +civilized society, women have been moved to heavenly pity by the sight +of a prisoner, and risked life to save him--the impulse was as natural +to a Highland lass as to an African maid. Pocahontas went further than +efforts to make peace between the superior race and her own. When the +whites forced the Indians to contribute from their scanty stores to the +support of the invaders, and burned their dwellings and shot them on +sight if they refused, the Indian maid sympathized with the exposed +whites and warned them of stratagems against them; captured herself by a +base violation of the laws of hospitality, she was easily reconciled to +her situation, adopted the habits of the foreigners, married one of her +captors, and in peace and in war cast in her lot with the strangers. +History has not preserved for us the Indian view of her conduct. + +It was no doubt fortunate for her, though perhaps not for the colony, +that her romantic career ended by an early death, so that she always +remains in history in the bloom of youth. She did not live to be pained +by the contrast, to which her eyes were opened, between her own and her +adopted people, nor to learn what things could be done in the Christian +name she loved, nor to see her husband in a less honorable light than +she left him, nor to be involved in any way in the frightful massacre +of 1622. If she had remained in England after the novelty was over, she +might have been subject to slights and mortifying neglect. The struggles +of the fighting colony could have brought her little but pain. Dying +when she did, she rounded out one of the prettiest romances of all +history, and secured for her name the affection of a great nation, whose +empire has spared little that belonged to her childhood and race, except +the remembrance of her friendship for those who destroyed her people. + + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's The Story of Pocahantas, by Charles Dudley Warner + *** \ No newline at end of file