His statue erected on Jamestown Island in 1909 portrays him in a resolute pose hand on sword, scanning the horizon for Spanish warships or much-needed provisions from England. John Smith still looks across the James River. Even if she had been older, his self-image as an English captain and Christian knight would have made it impossible for him to contemplate marrying an Indian, just as he was not the least tempted to by the offer to cast off his Englishness and join the Powhatans.Ĭapt. Yet he never had the slightest intention of marrying her. During her visits to the English fort over the next year she may have come to see him as a kind of father figure (he once called her his "dearest jewel and daughter"), while he saw her as an exceptionally talented young girl who had the ear of the chief. So, what of Smith and Pocahontas? They were certainly not lovers, but it is quite likely they became fond of one another. Combining European weapons with their own military prowess, the Powhatans would be able to expand their empire far beyond existing limits. If they could secure a regular supply of cannons, firearms and gunpowder they would not only prove a match for any further English arrivals, they would also be able to take on their Indian enemies to the west and north. In particular, what the Indians wanted were guns. Pocahontas merely played her part as instructed, very likely a far less dramatic role than Smith describes.Ĭhief Powhatan had decided to spare the lives of the rapidly dwindling settlers at Jamestown by absorbing them into his domains as one of his peoples because they might be useful in providing copper and other trade goods brought from across the ocean. What Smith initially thought was to be his execution was in fact a ceremony of adoption in which he was ritually killed and then reborn, marking a symbolic passage from his old existence as an English captain to his new life as an Indian chief and subject of Powhatan. No more than a girl of 11 at the time, such a public display of disobedience to her father in the presence of his great men would have been unthinkable. As far as we know, she had never met him before the ceremony. The event could not possibly have taken place as he described it because Pocahontas would not have acted on her own initiative to save him. At that moment, Smith says, Pocahontas "when no intreaty could prevaile, got his head in her armes, and laid her owne upon his to save him from death." His head was placed on two great stones, and the chief's warriors stood over him ready to beat out his brains with their war clubs.
He may have genuinely believed he was about to be executed. Smith was indeed captured by the Indians in the winter of 1607 and taken to Chief Powhatan's capital at Werowocomoco. Their "mad affair" might be a great story, but it never happened. Smith and Pocahontas were never in love, at least romantically, and never had the slightest intention of marrying. Well, sorry to spoil the party, but this is all wishful thinking.