The Capture of Pocahontas

Pocahontas was a princess not only by birth, but also even through her deeds. The Walt Disney Cartoon Animation has made her more famous.

If you haven’t seen the movie, you must go and see it.

The story starts in autumn 1609, when Captain Smith was involved in a dangerous accident in which he was severely burnt and thereby chose to leave Virginia for good.

However he left behind him a sizable force, which comprised of four hundred and ninety colonists, three ships having seven boats and 24 cannon gun, enough provisions, tools and ammunitions as well as domestic animals.

However this force soon exhausted itself due to mismanagement of resources.

Thus the colonists even resorted to cannibalism when they had also eaten their horses.

At this point, which can be rated as the lowest ebb in the history of the colonists, Captain Ratcliffe lead a team of thirty men in trade with the Powhatan Indians.

To their misfortune, they were all brutally slain apart from a boy named Henry Spilman. He was saved at the timely intervention of Pocahontas.

He stayed with the Powhatan Indians or the Potomac’s for many years.

Apparently at this pint in time, according to Virginia colonist’s historians, Pocahontas left the clan of her father, some say she was disgusted of the massacres of the colonists by her father, and chose to stay with the Japazaws, the Potomac chief.

During her stay a certain Captain Argall chose to visit Japazaws in order to buy corn from him. Japazaws had been a friend of Smiths and Argall wanted the alliance to continue.

The Chief mentioned that Pocahontas was staying with him. Thus Captain Argall hit upon a very dubious and a treacherous plan.

He conspired with the Chief and his wife, the bribe being a Copper kettle and other precious toys and glass jewelery in exchange for delivering Pocahontas to them.

In this way, he thought he could buy peace with Powhantan, by holding his daughter to ransom.

Soon the unsuspecting Princess was taken to Argall’s ship by the Chief’s wife on the pretext of looking at the ship.

Here she was taken captive in the gunroom where Pocahontas wept bitterly. She was rather taken aback at the kind of treatment that had been meted out to her by the Colonists, which was the complete opposite to how she had treated them.

After the ship reached Jamestown, communication was dispatched to Powhantan, which said that he had to return the arms, ammunitions and other property that he had stolen from Colonists in return for his beloved Daughters return.

Though he was troubled deeply, Powhantan returned seven captives with as much as rusted tools and ammunition after a space of three months.

The captain was not amused and send word that all ammunitions, captives and tools must promptly be returned before the Princess can be returned.

The chief then gave up on Pocahontas and thus she came to live with the Colonists for ‘better or worse’.

The Princess transforms into an English Lady

Captain Argall took Pocahontas into captivity to force the Powhantan into peace. This never happened and Pocahontas continued to live with the English Colonists.

It seems that it was not so tough on Pocahontas after all. She became passionately involved in an affair with the Englishman, John Rolfe.

While she was still living with them, the President of Colonists - Sir Thomas Dale sailed up the river Werowocomoco to meet the Powhantans with an army of one hundred twenty four colonists who were well equipped to handle eventualities (she of course accompanied them).

The party was not at all welcomed.

In return the English burned their wigwams.

A truce was eventually brokered and Pocahontas’s brothers visited her, aboard the ship, where they found her happy and contented and not too keen to return back to her father. The colonists then returned to Jamestown.

Soon John asked for the permission to marry the Princess. The permission was readily granted as the Colonist saw it as a tremendous opportunity.

Within ten days, the marriage was solemnized with the blessings of both Pocahontas’s father as well as the colonists.

Pocahontas had already converted to Christianity and had taken the name ‘Rebecca’.

Her brothers gave her away as her father chose to stay away for the fear of been captured.

She was dressed in simple muslin cloth, which was richly embroidered and looked enchanting, while John Rolfe was dashingly attired in the robes of the English Cavalier of those days.

She lived in Jamestown with her husband and soon acquired the ways and language of her husband. After three years, she left with her husband and infant son as well as Sir Thomas Dale for England.

On reaching there, she was sought after, for her influence by people of the highest ranks. In fact she came to be known as Lady Rebecca.

They then retired Brentford to escape the din of the city.

Her husband, secretary and recorder-general of Virginia had already been made the secretary and recorder-general of Virginia and they were preparing to return to Virginia, when tragedy struck Pocahontas.

She fell sick with small pox and died after a brief illness before she even turned twenty-six. She was buried in the Church of the Parish of Gravesend on March 21, 1616.

However her grave can longer be seen as the present church was constructed after 1616.

Though the edifice in her still stands.