Pocahontas

This is a captivating tale of the Powhatans and their Pocahontas, or Matoaka as she was known. Born the daughter of the powerful Powhatan, it's almost as though she were placed by providence at the juncture of the English and the eastern woodlands Indians.Just ten when the Jamestown settlers arrived in 1607, she became early known for her cheer and joy in seeking friends amongst the colonists. But clashes came, and her aging father sought to expel the settlers, and almost succeeded, with the help the colonists' starvation and disease. Three years after their arrival, the colony was abandoned, the departing ships at the mouth of the James waiting for the morning tide to carry them to England.The relief ships pulled into view at that instant, a miraculous event, and Jamestown survived, and in time established a firm foothold in Virginia. Clashes with the Powhatans continued, however, and the colonists captured Pocahontas as a hostage against the relief of the Indian-held English captives. In her captivity, which seems to have been a friendly one, she was converted to Christianity-- the stories of her memorizing the various church liturgies are dear-- and married the young colonist John Rolfe. Her father agreed to abandon his war against the settlers, and indeed touchingly sent a string of fresh water pearls for her wedding and deeded land to Rolfe. There were to be eight years of peace following their union.The Virginia Company saw advantage to her traveling to London with her new husband, and by then young Thomas Rolfe, their child. They arrived in England in 1616, and she was received as royalty by King James and Queen Ann, and met many of the English notables of the day. But the climate took its toll, and she succumbed to tuberculosis or smallpox on the very eve of their departure for Virginia. She died in Gravesend in Kent County, and lies today in the little St. George's Churchyard there.Her monument is the peace which allowed the English the final foothold in Virginia, in spite of its eventual price on the Indians. Barely twenty when she died, she is recalled as a sprightly girl, an evocation of an America long gone. Woodward's book is filled with details and documentation, and well worth a five-star read! What she omits, however, is that Pocahontas is survived by thousands of American descendants today, each carrying her memory in their blood as the 400th anniversary of that first north American colony nears.