The Stronghold: A Story of Historic Northern Neck of Virginia and Its PeopleHaynie, Miriam
History
The Stronghold: A Story of Historic Northern Neck of Virginia and Its People
Haynie, Miriam
Northern Neck (Va.)
Powhatan did not respond to these demands as Captain Argall had planned.
His stand against the invaders was more important to him than his own
daughter.
In the meantime, fate took a hand--at Jamestown, Pocahontas and "Master
John Rolfe, an honest gentleman," fell in love and were married. In this
way peace was established, for a time, between the Indians and the
colonists.
As "Lady Rebecca," wife of John Rolfe, Pocahontas traveled to England
and had other adventures, but her last happy days as a free Indian
maiden were spent in the land between the Rappahannock and the Potomac,
later known as the Northern Neck. An Indian village called "Petomek,"
near the mouth of Potomac Creek, was the scene of her kidnapping.
Potomac Creek is located in Stafford County, three miles north of
Falmouth. Some believe that Captain Argall found Henry Spelman and
Pocahontas at the village of the Potomacs at the same time.
_THE INDIAN TRADER_
Henry Fleet was one of the expedition of twenty-six men aboard the
_Tiger_ who under Captain Spelman in March, 1623, went to trade for
beaver skins and corn with the Anacostan and other Indian tribes near
the head of the Potomac.
Fleet was with Spelman when he went ashore. After Spelman was killed and
his head tossed over the river bank, Fleet was taken prisoner and
carried to the village of the Anacostans. This is believed to have been
located not far from the present monument of Washington, in Washington,
D. C.
Fleet was about twenty-five years old and had but recently arrived in
Virginia. His father was William Fleet of the London Virginia Company,
which may have been the reason that Henry came to the New World. Henry
was adventurous, quick-witted and intelligent. He made good use of his
stay in the wilderness of the Northern Neck by studying his new
environment. Later he wrote down some of these observations:
"It aboundeth in all manner of fish. The Indians in one night will
commonly catch thirty sturgeons in a place where the river is not above
three fathom broad. And as for deer, buffaloes, bears, turkeys, the
woods do swarm with them, and the soil is exceedingly fertile." He also
wrote that he had seen "plenty of black fox, which of all others is the
richest fur." This animal was a large marten, so fierce that it was the
match for any forest animal up to the size of a deer.
Henry was kept in captivity for four years, when his friends managed to
ransom him. Small vessels were then trading with the Indians of the
Potomac and news of him was probably carried to Jamestown in this way.
During the year 1627 the London Merchants were surprised by the arrival
of Henry Fleet from Virginia. Startling tales of his adventures spread
abroad. It was said that he had lived with the Indians so long that he
had forgotten his own language, that he had often seen the South Sea;
that he had seen Indians "besprinkle their paintings with powder of
gold."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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