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The story of Pocahontas and Captain John Smith

Chapter 23: 23. THE MEETING OF POCAHONTAS AND CAPTAIN JOHN SMITH
By E. Boyd Smith
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AdventureAmerican LiteratureRomance

About This Book

A vividly illustrated narrative retells the early encounters between a young indigenous Virginian girl and an English adventurer as colonists establish a settlement along the river. It follows their separate origins, the arrival of the newcomers, escalating tensions and skirmishes, the explorer's capture and dramatic rescue by the girl, and her efforts to aid the struggling settlers. Later episodes cover her capture by other colonists, a marriage to an Englishman and a visit to the royal court in England, a reunion with the explorer, and her nostalgic longing for home, concluding with a sober reflection on the personal costs of cultural collision.

23. THE MEETING OF POCAHONTAS AND CAPTAIN JOHN SMITH

And now Captain John Smith, who, during all this time, had been on long voyages of exploration and adventure, hearing that Pocahontas had come to England, remembered the old times and all that the little Indian maid had done for him, and so, attended by some friends, he went down to Branford to greet her. When Pocahontas saw him a flood of recollection overcame her, and she was greatly moved. She turned from him, hiding her face in her hand, and for a long time could not speak. At last she said, “They told me you were dead.”

Then she reproached him for calling her the Lady Rebecca, the name given her since her marriage, and told him that he should call her child, as he used to do, and said, “You did promise Powhatan what was yours should be his, and he the like to you: you called him father, being in his land a stranger, and by the same reason so must I do you.”

But Captain John excused himself, saying, “I durst not now allow of that title, since the King commands that you be treated as a Princess.”

Then Pocahontas answered, “You were not afraid to come into my father’s country, and to cause fear in him and all his people but me, and fear you here I should call you father? I tell you then I will, and you shall call me child. And so I will be forever and ever your countryman.”

And then, when Pocahontas had grown calmer, these two, after years of separation, again sat together, and talked long of the old days in Virginia.

Uttamatomakkin, glad to see an old friend in this strange land, told how he had been commanded by Powhatan to seek out Captain John, to know the truth, if he still lived, for they could not believe all the rumors they heard concerning him.