Volume 17 , Issue 41

NW Okie's Journey

Since it is just a few weeks until Thanksgiving, we decided to do some research on John Rolfe and Pocahontas. In The Atlanta Constitution, out of Atlanta, Georgia, dated 15 March 1899, Wednesday, page 6, we found the following: "The Presentation of Pocahontas's Portrait," written by Jos. Ohl.

Found on Newspapers.com

Washington, March 12 (1899) - Special) Correspondence) - There has been meager mention of the presentation to the government of the welcome picture of Pocahontas, the speech being made by the eloquent Senator Daniel, of Virginia. It has been printed that Senator Daniel himself is a descendant of the Indian princess who figures so romantically in the history of the country, but the senator stated that this was not true. "No such honor is mine," he said, after telling of the princess and her life story.

The portrait, as he explained, is a copy of the famous painting which hangs at Bootin hall, the former seat of the Rolfe family. The original is from the brush of De Passe, an eminent artist of the sixteenth and early part of the seventeenth centuries. Upon the canvas of the original are painted these words:

"Matoaka Rebecka, filia potentis Prine: Powhatani Imp. Virginia."

On the space below:

"Motoake, alias Rebecka, daughter of the mighty Prince Powhatan, Emperor of Attanough Komouck, of Virginia; a Christian converted and married to the worshipful Mr. Thomas Rolff. Aged 21, 1616." There was a superstition amongst the Indians that concealed the true name, and Motoaka was the real Indian name of the princess, though they called her Pocahontas.

These facts about the painting were stated by Senator Daniel in his speech, and then he went on to recall briefly the facts concerning the early establishment of the colony at Jamestown and to tell in his own words the romantic story of Captain John Smith and his Indian princess.

"many times during the struggle of this little colony did she again attest her generous and gracious character."

"Once, when they were starving, she had suddenly appeared, bearing corn to their relief; and again, when they were about to be assailed and massacred, she gave the timely and sufficient note of warning.

"A few years rolled by; the fortunes of war became changed. In 1612 Pocahontas was taken prisoner by that rover of land and sea, Captain Samuel Argall, who had three years before brought the message deposing Smith from command. She was brought a disconsolate and weeping captive to Jamestown. There she seemed lovely in the eyes of Master John Rolfe, sometimes called Thomas, one of the colonists, and his attachment was reciprocated. But Rolfe was sorely troubled in spirit. The scriptures forbade the marrying of strange wives, and their mutual love caused a "mighty warfare in his meditations." But, like most colonists, the duty of Christianizing the heathen would seem from his own account to have been the moving impulse to his soul, for he reflected upon the question whether it was not his solemn duty to marry and convert 'this heathen creature Pocahontas.' As the historian relates, 'What most touched and decided himself was her desire to be taught and instructed in the knowledge of God, her capabilities of understanding, her aptness and willingness to receive any good impression, and also the "spiritual beside her own incitements stirring me up thereto;"' and so, according to the true poetic justice of romance, at the age of eighteen the lovely Indian maiden was married to John Rolfe in the old church at Jamestown and she was given the Christian name of Rebecca.

Three years later Rolfe carried his bride to London, where she was treated as the daughter of a king and where her arrival created a great sensation. In her native forests she was dressed in doeskin lined with down from the wool pigeon's breast; anklets and bracelets of coral were her adornments, with a white plume, the badge of royalty, floating over her hair. Now she shone in all the splendors of court apparel.

"She was the first lady of the new world to appear in the home country. She was presented at court by Lady Delaware and most 'graciously used' by the king and the queen. The bishop of London, delighted at her conversion to Christianity, gave a great entertainment in her honor; and for a time Pocahontas was all the fashion in the brilliant revels of the great metropolis.

"She died suddenly at Gravesend in March, 1617, at the age of twenty-two, when about to return to Virginia, making, as we are told, 'a godly end,' and being tried in the parish church, where her name was carelessly registered as Rebecca Wrothe. The church was afterwards burned, and in its ashes disappeared the earthly relics of Pocahontas.

The Rolfe's of Virginia

"From her marriage with John Rolfe was born a son, Thomas Rolfe, who was brought up in London; but he came to Virginia and was known as Lieutenant Rolfe, commanding Fort James, on the Chickahominy. He married a young lady in England, whom he brought to the new world, and there he became a gentleman of note and fortune. The only daughter of Lieutenant Rolfe was married to Colonel Robert Bolling, of a family widely connected and much respected in Virginia. As smith says in his history, 'This remnant of the imperial family of Virginia, which long ran in a single person, is now increased and branched out into a very numerous progeny.' Amongst the descendants of Pocahontas was that rare genius, Joh Randolph, of Roanoke, once a representative in congress, a senator in this body, and the minister of the Untied States at the court of Russia.

"The character and the worthy services of Pocahontas are fully attested and were appreciated and cherished by the colonists. Captain John Smith said of her 'as for features, countenance and expression, she much exceeded any of the fest,' and in his letter presenting and commending her to Queen Ann, he declared that:

"'During the time of two or three years she, next under God, was still the instrument to preserve this colony form death, famine and utter confusion, which if in those days had once been dissolved, Virginia might have been as it was at our first arrival to this day.'"

The Charm of Romance

"The charm of romance will ever hang over the story of Pocahontas; and that flower of the wilderness will ever shed its brightness and its fragrance over the rude, somber and cruel scenes of our people's earliest struggles to get a foothold in the land whose inhabitants are now as the stars of heaven, the leaves of the trees and the sands of the sea. but far beyond this, it should not be forgotten that she was indeed the guardian spirit of the great frontier captain, John Smith, and his feeble company; and who knowns but for her what had been the new world's destiny?

"It is meet that her portrait should hang here i remembrance of her lovely character and her po=ious deeds; and the myriads that gaze upon it wondering whence came the gentle spirit txt dwelt in the savage breast will be minded also that all men are brethren, and that even in dark shadows of the forest primeval there may shine a light from heaven, and be found, or find at least:

"'A spark of that immortal fire
By angels shared, by Allah given.
To lift from earth our low desire.'"

The donor, Mr. Wellcome, is an American chemist and druggist residing i London. He is a man of ample future who has ever taken the greatest interest in the Indians and their history.

Good Night! Good Luck!
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