Volume 17 , Issue 41

A Sketch of the Life of Pocahontas

It is mid November with the thought of Thanksgiving just a few weeks away. That brings us to this 1809 news article that we found in The North Carolina Star, out of Raleigh, North Carolina, dated 29 Jun 1809, page 2: "Sketch of the Life of Pocahontas."

Found on Newspapers.com

Pocahontas, the daughter of Powhatan, with the color and charms of Eve, at the age of fifteen, when nature acts with all her powers, and fancy begins to wander, had a heart, that palpitated with warm affections. At this time, Captain Smith, one of the first settlers of Virginia, was brought a captive to her father's kingdom. Smith was by nature endowed with personal graces, that interest the female mind. He mingled feeling with heroism, and his countenance was an index of his soul.

Pocahontas had never before beheld such a human being, and her heart yielded homage to the empire of love. In the first interview she looked all she felt, and like Dido, hung entranced on the face and lips of the gallant man.

An interesting occurrence soon afforded an opportunity of exhibiting her affections. Powhatan and his council of Sachems had resolved on the death of Smith. A huge stone was rolled before the assembled chiefs. Smith was produced, and the executioners with knotty clubs surrounded him. The moment of his fate had arrived; his head was laid upon the rock, and the arms of cruelty were raised! At this moment Pocahontas darted through the band of warriors; she placed her cheek on Smith's, and the same blow would have decided both their destinies. The heart of an Indian is not made of coarser materials than ours. Powhatan caught the feelings of his daughter, and sympathy with Pocahontas procured a pardon for his prisoner. Charmed with her success she hung wildly on the neck of the reprieved victim, while excess of joy checked the utterance of her affections.

Smith indulged all the sentiments of gratitude. He had not a heart for love. With a spirit of enterprise, he aspired to great and laudable achievements. The pleasure of softer passions he relinquished to the imbecility of gentler natures. He coldly thought of the advantages to be derived from the ardent affections Pocahontas, and grounded his pretenses of mutual love on the calculations of interest.

After seven weeks' captivity, Smith returned to Jamestown, his settlement in Virginia. By his Indian guides he sent presents to Pocahontas, which the hopes of love regarded as the testimonial of returned affection. The constructions of the heart are governed by its wishes, and fancy is ready with its eloquence to gain faith to all the dreams of deluding goodness.

At the return of Smith to his colony, he found them in want and despair. He encouraged them by engaging descriptions of the country, and disconcerted a scheme for abandoning the wilds of Virginia. An interesting event strengthened the resolution he had inspired. Pocahontas appeared in the fort with the richest presence of benevolence. With all the charms of nature and the best fruits of the earth, she resembled the Goddess of Plenty with her cornucopia. Even Smith indulged for a while, his softer feelings; and, in the romantic recesses of uncultured walks,listened to the warm effusions of his Indian maid. She sighed, and she wept; and found solace in hi-tears of tenderness, which seemed to her the flow of love.

Soon after, Pocahontas gave a stronger proof of her affection. Powhatan had made war upon the colonists, and had laid his warriors in ambush, so artfully, that Smith and his party must have been destroyed. To save the man she loved, in a night of storm and thunder, Pocahontas wandered through he wilds and woods to the camp of Smith, and apprised him of his danger. Love seems the supreme arbiter of human conduct, and, like Hortensia, forgets the brother, and the father, when opposed to the fortunes of her favorite.

A dangerous wound, which Captain Smith accidentally received, rendered his return to England necessary. He felt the pangs his absence would inflict on the heart of his indian maid, and concerted a scheme for impressing her with full belief of his death. The next time Pocahontas visited the camp, she was led to the pretended grave of Smith, and deluded with the dying professions of her lover. Imagination will picture the sorrows of so fond a heart. Untutored nature knows none of the shackles of refinement, and violence of passion finds expression.

The grave of Smith was the favorite haunt of Pocahontas. Here she lingered away the hours, here she told her love, and scattered her favorite flowers. One evening, as she was reclining in melancholy on the turf, that covered her lover, she was surprised at the presence of a man. Rolfe and seen and gazed upon the charming nymph, and indulged for her all that ardor of romantic passion, which Smith had excited in her breast. He was pensively bewailing his hopeless love, when Pocahontas stole away in shade and silence to perform her duties to the dead. Surprise, terror, and sorrow suspended in her the powers of life, and she sunk lifeless into the arms of the fortunate admirer. Could he forbear a warm embrace to one he loved so well, or was eloquence wanted to charm away her blushes at the return of life? Affection had to often repeated her lessons to the woods and wilds to be dumb at such a crisis. Pocahontas listened with sympathy - he wiped away the tear, that swelled in her eye. Despair yielded to enlivened hopes, and she indulged him in the ardent caresses of contagious love. They talked down the moon, and the song of the mock-bird became faint, before Pocahontas could escape from he vows and arms of her lover to the cabin of her companions.

Powhatan had none of the partiality of his daughter for the English; and a stratagem was formed to seize Pocahontas in order to induce her father to adopt an equitable mode of conduct. Rolfe did not regret the success of this ungenerous scheme. Through wilds and woods, and at the hazard of his life, he had ventured to see her. He now enjoyed her smiles in safety, and received new confidence from being chosen by her, as her protector. He continued however always as respectful, as affectionate, and while he soothed her into tranquillity, gave but new proofs of fidelity.

At length Netanguss arrived at the fort with provisions to ransom his sister. He had saved the life of Rolfe in one of his excursions to meet Pocahontas; and to him the lover applied in the presence of his Indian maid, to gift Powhatan's consent to his union with his daughter. Pocahontas melted into softness at this declaration of the accomplished Englishmen, and her blushing acquiescence was sanctioned by the approbation of her father. Their marriage soon followed - Happy instance of the perseverance of virtuous affection! The prejudices of education yielded to the honest impulses of the heart. The raven tresses and the tawny cheek of Pocahontas were no disparagements to the dignity of her soul or the generosity of her nature. Through this veil Rolfe discovered a thousand virtues, and his love was rewarded with their possession.

For years Rolfe resided int he wilds of nature, and in society with his Indian princess. Fond of solitude, she became the dear companion of his retirement. In the moments of leisure he initiated her in the wonders of science, and the mysteries of religion. In return she respected him for his talents and his virtues; and added gratitude for improvement to love for love. A son was the sole fruit of their union, from whom descends the nobility of Virginia, the Randolphs and Bollings.

In 1616, Rolfe arrived in England with Pocahontas. At London, she was introduced to James I. The king rebuked her for descending from he dignity of royalty so far as to marry a plebeian. But the ladies of the court and the nobility of the kingdom regarded her with respect and affection; and sought to render her happy, by all the blandishments of refinement. She soon learned the manners of the great, and in her demeanor exhibited all the dignity and purity of her character, mingled with the tenderness of the heart.

Captain Smith called on Pocahontas soon after her arrival. Her astonishment was at first succeeded by contempt. But the resentment of wounded pride soon yielded to tender sentiments. In a private interview she heard his interesting explanation, and ever after caressed him with the fondness of a sister.

After remaining some time in England and traveling with Pocahontas through the country, he had so often described, Rolfe resolved to revisit America. But alas! Pocahontas had quitted her native wilds forever. She was taken sick at Gravesend and after a short illness, died. Religion cheered her through the hours of declining life, and her last faltering accents whispered praise to her Creator.

When we reflect that so much virtue, heroism, intellect and piety adorned so young a native of our country, we cannot but regard America as the natural clime of greatness, and consider Pocahontas, as exhibiting proof of the powers and capacity of savage nature, rather than as an exception to common degeneracy. - Anthology.
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