Most
admired Queen,
The
love I bear my God, my King and country, hath so oft emboldened
me in the worst of extreme dangers, that now honesty doth constrain
me to presume thus far beyond myself, to present your Majesty
this short discourse: if ingratitude be a deadly poison to all
honest virtues, I must be guilty of that crime if I should omit
any means to be thankful.
So
it is, that some ten years ago being in Virginia, and taken
prisoner by the power of Powhatan their chief King, I received
from this great Salvage exceeding great courtesy, especially
from his son Nantaquaus, the most manliest, comeliest, boldest
spirit, I ever saw in a Salvage, and his sister Pocahontas,
the Kings most dear and well-beloved daughter, being but a child
of twelve or thirteen years of age, whose compassionate pitiful
heart, of my desperate estate, gave me much cause to respect
her: I being the first Christian this proud King and his grim
attendants ever saw: and thus enthralled in their barbarous
power, I cannot say I felt the least occasion of want that was
in the power of those my mortal foes to prevent, notwithstanding
all their threats. After some six weeks fatting amongst those
Salvage courtiers, at the minute of my execution, she hazarded
the beating out of her own brains to save mine; and not only
that, but so prevailed with her father, that I was safely conducted
to Jamestown: where I found about eight and thirty miserable
poor and sick creatures, to keep possession of all those large
territories of Virginia; such was the weakness of this poor
commonwealth, as had the salvages not fed us, we directly had
starved. And this relief, most gracious Queen, was commonly
brought us by this Lady Pocahontas.
Notwithstanding
all these passages, when inconstant fortune turned our peace
to war, this tender virgin would still not spare to dare to
visit us, and by her our jars have been oft appeased, and our
wants still supplied; were it the policy of her father thus
to employ her, or the ordinance of God thus to make her his
instrument, or her extraordinary affection to our nation, I
know not: but of this I am sure; when her father with the utmost
of his policy and power, sought to surprise me, having but eighteen
with me, the dark night could not affright her from coming through
the irksome woods, and with watered eyes gave me intelligence,
with her best advice to escape his fury; which had he known,
he had surely slain her.
Jamestown
with her wild train she as freely frequented, as her fathers
habitation; and during the time of two or three years, she next
under God, was still the instrument to preserve this colony
from death, famine and utter confusion; which if in those times,
had once been dissolved, Virginia might have lain as it was
at our first arrival to this day.
Since
then, this business having been turned and varied by many accidents
from that I left it at: it is most certain, after a long and
troublesome war after my departure, betwixt her father and our
colony; all which time she was not heard of.
About
two years after she herself was taken prisoner, being so detained
near two years longer, the colony by that means was relieved,
peace concluded; and at last rejecting her barbarous condition,
she was married to an English Gentleman, with whom at this present
she is in England; the first Christian ever of that Nation,
the first Virginian ever spoke English, or had a child in marriage
by an Englishman: a matter surely, if my meaning be truly considered
and well understood, worthy a Princes understanding.
Thus,
most gracious Lady, I have related to your Majesty, what at
your best leisure our approved Histories will account you at
large, and done in the time of your Majesty's life; and however
this might be presented you from a more worthy pen, it cannot
from a more honest heart, as yet I never begged anything of
the state, or any: and it is my want of ability and her exceeding
desert; your birth, means, and authority; her birth, virtue,
want and simplicity, doth make me thus bold, humbly to beseech
your Majesty to take this knowledge of her, though it be from
one so unworthy to be the reporter, as myself, her husbands
estate not being able to make her fit to attend your Majesty.
The most and least I can do, is to tell you this, because none
so oft hath tried it as myself, and the rather being of so great
a spirit, however her stature: if she should not be well received,
seeing this Kingdom may rightly have a Kingdom by her means;
her present love to us and Christianity might turn to such scorn
and fury, as to divert all this good to the worst of evil; whereas
finding so great a Queen should do her some honor more than
she can imagine, for being so kind to your servants and subjects,
would so ravish her with content, as endear her dearest blood
to effect that, your Majesty and all the Kings honest subjects
most earnestly desire.
And
so I humbly kiss your gracious hands,
Captain John Smith, 1616
