John Smith and Pocahontas: Part I (Part of Heroes and Heroines of Early America, Book I)
Young love first love is filled true emotion, young love first love if filled with true devotion.
In the year of 1607 while the English colonial settlers were struggling to keep alive and not to die from starvation, a beautiful American Indian girl popped out from nowhere and began to assist the settlers with food and other commodities. That young American Indian beauty was Pocahontas.
Pocahontas later known as Rebecca , was a Virginia Indian chief’s daughter notable for having assisted colonial settlers at Jamestown. She did all that and saved many lives of the settlers, out of the goodness of her heart , but it was also the respect and the feeling of love for John Smith who opened up her heart and let the sunshine go in. Historians don’t want to accept that there was erotic love between John smith and Pocahontas, but the natives and some settlers reported that John Smith and Pocahontas played together, picked flower, planted trees and flirted many times and they also reported that John Smith and Pocahontas were seen relaxing in places away from all eyes and ears. Even though John Smith ten years older than Pocahontas, he had lived a full life while she only knew the primitive life of her people, but love conquers and forsakes all.
Susan Constant the biggest of the three ships that brought Captain John Smith to the New World
Captain John Smith (c. January 1580 – June 21, 1631) Admiral of New England was an English soldier, explorer, and author. At the age of 16 right after his father’s death John left home and roamed around Europe, not aimlessly but as good fate had with him he had accomplished many things, including becoming a captain of the army and fought the Ottoman Empire he was knighted for his services to Sigismund Bathory and having killed three Turkish commanders in three different duals, he gained the utmost respect from the Prince of Transylvania and friend Mózes Székely.
in 1602 he was wounded in a skirmish with the Tatars, captured and sold as a slave. As Smith describes it: “we all sold for slaves, like beasts in a market.” Smith claimed his master, a Turkish nobleman, sent him as a gift to his Greek mistress in Constantinople, who fell in love with Smith. He then was taken to Crimea, from where he escaped and traveled through Europe and Northern Africa, returning to England during 1604.
Smith, in1606 became involved with plans to colonize Virginia for profit by the Virginia Company of London, which had been granted a charter from King James I of England.
The expedition set sail in three small ships, the Discovery, the Susan Constant and the Godspeed. It started on December 20, 1606. Smith was apparently a troublemaker on the voyage, and Cap. Christopher Newport (in charge of the three ships) had planned to execute him upon arrival in Virginia. However, upon first landing at what is now Cape Henry on April 26, 1607, sealed orders from the Virginia Company were opened. They designated Smith to be one of the leaders of the new colony, that forced Newport to spare him, he intended to bring John Smith back to England to stand trial on mutiny.
Cape Henry April 26, 1607
On the voyage over, Smith had been placed under shipboard arrest, charged for “concealing a mutiny” by the aristocrat Wingfield. Smith had been scheduled to be sent back to Britain with Newport to answer this charge, but he stood trial the first trial in America and was found not guilty as charged and Captain John Smith became a member of the governing Council of the Colony. Newport left without John Smith on the two ships leaving the Discover. the smallest of the three back with the colonists.
Upon arrival, the group then proceeded in their ships into the Chesapeake Bay to what is now called Old Point Comfort in the City of Hampton. In the following days, the ships ventured inland upstream along the James River seeking a suitable location for their settlement as defined in their orders. The James River and the initial settlement they sought to establish, Jamestown (originally called “James Cittie”) were named in honor of King James I
Arriving in the New World, John Smith became the master of all the settlers in Jamestown and that is when he met the beautiful and young American Indian Pocahontas
Historians were not able to pinpoint her date of birth, but John Smith, in his early writings only mentions that the young American Indian girl was about thirteen years old. Because of that lack of information to connect John Smith romantically to Pocahontas, the historians refused to accept anything else but what John Smith had written. But Hollywood and many film companies made tons of movies basing them on love between Pocahontas and John smith. I can understand that, believing that most of the historians are careful of their writing being afraid of general criticism by the public, their works lack logic and theory. Logically speaking, John Smith not being a man of “Kiss and tell” he only touched lightly the subject of Pocahontas because his first writings were published in the year of 1614, while Pocahontas was back in Jamestown married to another man. Therefore John Smith, being a sensitive and sensible man of the World was not about to put in questions into Pocahontas’ husband’s head, so he left out much of his relationship with Pocahontas. John Smith, having lived around Pocahontas for over two years, learned and knew who Pocahontas was.
Pocahontas was the daughter of Powhatan, the paramount chief of Tsenacommacah, an alliance of about thirty Algonquian-speaking groups and petty chiefdoms in Tidewater Virginia. Her mother, whose name and specific group of origin are unknown, was one of dozens of wives taken by Powhatan; each wife gave him a single child and then was sent back to her village to be supported by the paramount chief until she found another husband. Pocahontas, fell for Captain John Smith the very first time she saw him, so she took him to her father saw John Smith as an honest Englishman. There was a good friendship that flourished between the Chief and John smith and the Indians helped the colonist to survive by donating food to them. John Smith and Pocahontas became an unsplit pair.
The historians claim and write only about reality, but novelists take facts and theory into consideration and mix it with fantasy. I often compare my writings to food. The Ancient Greeks believed that food satisfies all the senses except the hearing, and that is why they rang their glasses to wake up and please the hearing sense during meal time, I go one step further by trying with my writings to awaken all the passion of the human breast.
According to historians John Smith is remembered for his role in establishing the first permanent English settlement in North America at Jamestown, Virginia, and within his two year stay in the vicinity, had to establish a kind relation with the Virginia Indian through Pocahontas. He was a leader of the Virginia Colony (based at Jamestown) between September 1608 and August 1609. Being a writer and a map designer he conducted exploration around the area and most often he led explorations along the rivers of Virginia and the Chesapeake Bay.
While her friend John Smith was away exploring, Pocahontas stayed back and waited for him, sometimes on a hill, watching the road to the village. In the meantime she learned to read and write English and she began reading the Bible. She was her father’s favored child and gave her the name Pocahontas because of her frolicsome nature, according to the colonist William Strachey, it meant “Little Wanton”.
It was the year of 1609 when John Smith told Pocahontas that he was about to take an exploring trip around of over 3,000 miles.
“John, when you go away I sit on top of the hill waiting for you to come back. Forgive me, John, i may be out of line as a w0man by the my culture, but living with English people for more than 2 years I learned some of your culture. Why don’t you take me with you? I am a strong woman and I am almost 16 years old,” she said to him. Hearing this, John Smith did not look astonished because this was not the first time that Pocahontas pleaded with him to take her along. Captain john smith made no reply, but putting his hat on and gathering the skirts of his long-tailed throwing his rifle over his shoulder began to leave timidly. “John, my father loves you like a son and I heard you calling him “Father” which means you accepted him as your “Father” and he knows it”
“I know that too, but it was you who saved my head being split open by members of your tribe, it wasn’t your father who came to my aid. I remember your father standing above me, while I was stretched out on the ground, waiting to clubbed, he had a smile on his face.”
John was talking about the incident that happened two years before then. He remembered that In December 1607, while seeking food along the Chickahominy River, Smith was captured and taken to meet the chief of the Powhatans at Werowocomoco, the main village of the Powhatan Confederacy. The village was on the north shore of the York River about 15 miles due north of Jamestown and 25 miles downstream from where the river forms from the Pamunkey River and the Mattaponi River at West Point, Virginia. Although he feared for his life, “At the minute of my execution,” he continued, “You ran over to me and threw your body over mine to stop the clubs of your tribesmen from spilling my brains. I must admit, ever since then you father became like a “father” to me too.” “John,” uttered Pocahontas half entertained and half astonished, “That was my father’s ritual for you to die as an Englishman and be reborn as an Indian. Not really die.”
I threw my body over yours, welcoming you to our world” “Well, I thought my life was over.” “But, John, you didn’t look scared.” “Maybe not, but I was scared.” “If you remember, we had a celebration welcoming you to our world, after the ritual,” she continued. “To me it was the real thing and I am going to keep it that way; it’s more interesting when I tell people about the incident to leave the word “ritual” out.
“When I’ll return I shall make you properly mine,” said John. Having made this obliging promise, he turned to leave. “Will you take me to England, John?” Pocahontas pleaded, holding him by the arm staring at him with flooded eyes. “Pocahontas, as you know there is a war going on. The colonists are being attacked once they are outside of the area. We cannot live with what we have here, we must go out hunting for food, that is what I am going to do. If I don’t return it will only mean that I have died.” “Don’t speak of death, John. If you should die I shall not be able to live without you,” returned the American Indian maid, now crying with abundance of tears. “Now listen to me carefully. You must go on and live your live the best way you can. Even if am six feet under the ground I know I will hear your laughter.”
John Smith never returned to his love. He went to England.
The next part has to do with John’s reason for leaving Virginia, Pocahontas Baptism in Christianity, her marriage to John Rolfe an English gentleman who loved her very much, her visit to England and her death there.
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