PRINT THE LEGEND - John Smith & Pocahontas

Real Life can be much more interesting than fiction.  Sometimes, however, the more interesting truth doesn't match the legend...

John Smith created the legend of Pocahontas as part of his ongoing self-aggrandisement...

1602: John Smith claims he is captured in Wallachia and made a slave, but his master's mistress fell in love with him allowing him to escape back to England in 1904.

April 1607:  Arrives in the New World, under threat of death for mutiny, but saved by sealed orders declaring him one of the leaders of the new colony.

Early 1608:  With the arrival of 100 new tourists and the settlement in ruins due to an accidental fire, Smith wrote "more than half of us died" and they had to rely on food supplied by the native Americans.  Smith was captured by Native American, but makes no mention of meeting Pocahontas until a couple of months later.  At the time, the 28 year old Smith described her as a child of 10.

1613:  Pocahontas is captured during hostilities between the colonists and natives.  She refused to return to her people and took the name Rebecca.

1614:  Rebecca married Tobacco planter John Rolfe in first recorded interracial married in North America.

1615:  Rebecca and John had a son Thomas.

1616:  The Rolfes travelled to England where Rebecca became a celebrity.  In a letter, Smith retconned the age Pocahontas was when they met as "twelve or thirteen".

1617:  Soon after they set out to return to Virginia, Rebecca died and was buried in England.

1624:  In his book "General Historie of Virginia" Smith first mentions Pocahontas's risking her life he to save his.

~ DUG.