Children's Stories in American HistoryWright, Henrietta Christian
History
Children's Stories in American History
Wright, Henrietta Christian
America -- Discovery and exploration -- Juvenile literature; United States -- History -- Juvenile literature
You can well imagine that he would never forget this brave, beautiful
Indian maid who had saved his life. And many times after that he had
reason to be grateful to Pocahontas. At that time the Jamestown
settlement was in constant fear of attacks from the Indians, and more
than once Pocahontas came through the forest at night to warn the
English of danger, and Captain Smith said that, had it not been for her
help, the Jamestown colony would have died of starvation. The Indians
were very unfriendly and very unwilling to supply the English with food,
and if Pocahontas and her father had not brought them corn they could
not have gotten it anywhere else. Jamestown soon became as familiar to
Pocahontas as her own father's home. She often went there to offer help
and counsel to the colonists, and always showed the same fondness for
Smith that she had shown in early childhood. Smith was obliged to go
back to England after a while, to be treated for a wound, and after he
went away Pocahontas did not visit Jamestown any more. The English told
her that he was dead, and she could not bear to go there without seeing
him. But he was not dead, and the two friends were to meet once
more--not in Jamestown, it is true, but in England, where Pocahontas
went as the bride of the young Englishman John Rolfe.
Rolfe loved the young Indian maiden dearly, but he could not marry her,
as it was then considered very wrong for an Englishman to marry a
heathen; but after a time Pocahontas became a Christian and was baptized
under the name of Rebecca, and soon after she was married.
Powhatan and his chiefs were very glad of this marriage, as were also
the colonists, and for many years after the Indians were more friendly.
Pocahontas was taken by her husband to England, where she was received
with great delight by the English court. The king and queen grew very
fond of her and showed her every kindness that they could, and all the
great English lords and ladies wished to see the Indian girl who had
been so kind to their countrymen in Jamestown. As she was a princess she
was called Lady Pocahontas, and every one was surprised that a girl who
had been brought up in the society of cruel savages, should have such
beautiful and gentle manners. They said that she acted more like one of
their own English ladies than the daughter of an Indian chief, but
Pocahontas was gentle-mannered because her heart was kind and good; not
gentle birth but kind hearts make the truest ladies and gentlemen, and
no lady of the English court could say that she had saved another's life
at the risk of her own as could the Indian maid from across the sea.
Pocahontas was much surprised to find Captain Smith alive and in
England; she wept on seeing him, and begged him to let her call him
father.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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