1613.

The Story of Lady Pocahontas.

79

hostile Indians. Smith ignored the Indians, and dared Opechancanough to a single combat. This so frightened and disconcerted the Indian that he had not the courage to order

his arrest. The chief of Paspahegh, a tribe near Jamestown,

once attempted to surprise and shoot Smith. seized him before he could use his weapons.

But the latter

The chief was

a very strong man, and he pushed his antagonist towards the

river, and, suddenly forcing him over the bank, attempted to drown him. But Smith was too nimble for him. He seized him by the throat, and, quickly drawing his sword, would have killed him had he not begun to beg and cry out for mercy. He led him a prisoner to Jamestown, and made war on the tribe and reduced them to submission.

Pocahontas twice saved the life of Smith at the risk of her own, and she is said to have loved him. She never visited Jamestown after he went away. They told her that he was dead.

Smith heard of the arrival of Pocahontas in England; he remembered her devotion with gratitude; he called on her and then sent an eloquent petition to the queen, asking that royal favor be shown her.

He said:

"Being in Virginia and taken prisoner by Powhatan, I received from this savage great courtesy, and from his son Nantaquans, and his sister Pocahontas, the king's 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 these savage countries, 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. . . .

"Such was the weakness of this poor commonwealth, as, had not the savages 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 unconstant 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