GLOUCESTER, THE RESIDENCE OF POWHATAN AND POCAHONTAS.
We are now in the region where by general consent the chief
residence of King Powhatan has been placed, after discussion and
accurate investigation. Mr. Howe, in his laborious though sometimes
inaccurate History of Virginia, quotes from Captain John
Smith as saying that "twenty-five miles lower (than what is now West
Point, the junction of the Pamunkey and Mattapony) on the north
side of this river (York River) is Werowocomico, where their great
king inhabited when I was delivered to him a prisoner," and where
Smith in another place says "for the most part he was resident."
Mr. Howe says, "Upon a short visit made to that part of Gloucester
county a year or two ago, I was satisfied that Shelly, the
seat of Mrs. Mann Page, is the famous Werowocomico. Shelly
adjoins Rosewell, formerly the seat of John Page, (sometime Governor
of Virginia), and was originally part of the Rosewell plantation;
and I learned from Mrs. Page, of Shelly, that Governor
Page always held Shelly to be the ancient Werowocomico, and accordingly
he at first gave it that name, but afterward, on account
of the inconvenient length of the word, dropped it and adopted
the title of Shelly, on account of the extraordinary accumulation
of shells found there. The enormous beds of oyster-shells deposited
there, especially in front of the Shelly House, indicate it
to have been a place of great resort among the natives. The
situation is highly picturesque and beautiful; and, looking as it
does on the lovely and majestic York, it would seem of all others
to have been the befitting residence of the lordly Powhatan."
Our worthy fellow-citizen, Mr. Charles Campbell, of Petersburg,
after having adopted the above opinion, has renounced it in favour
of another place only two or three miles, I believe, lower down
York River. On paying a visit a few years since to Shelly and
the neighbourhood, for the purpose of examining the question, he
became satisfied that Timberneck Bay, in Gloucester, the ancient
seat of the Manns, only a mile from Shelly, is the famous spot.
Smith, he says, in his work "Newes from Virginia," says "the bay
where Powhatan dwelleth hath three creeks in it." "I have
visited," says Mr. Campbell, "that part of Gloucester county,
and am satisfied that Timberneck Bay is the one referred to by
Mr. Smith. On the east bank of this bay stands an old chimney
known as `Powhatan's chimney,' and its site corresponds with Werowocomico
as laid down in Smith's map." Mr. Campbell supposes
this to be the chimney of the house built by the Colonists to
propitiate the favour of Powhatan, and says he is supported by
tradition. May not the two opinions be reconciled in the following
manner? Shelly may have been the original place of his residence
or of his frequent residence; but when it was offered to build
him a house after the English fashion, he may have preferred a
situation a few miles off, for reasons best known to his royal
majesty. And now, although I have already introduced some
documents touching Powhatan and Pocahontas into my article on
Jamestown and Henrico, yet, as there is another most worthy of
preservation and use, I will do my part toward its perpetuity by
inserting it in this place. It is the famous letter of Captain Smith
to Queen Anne, soliciting her attention to Pocahontas when in
England,—a letter not easily surpassed by any one in any age.
"To the Most High and Virtuous Princess, Queen Anne,
of Great Britain:[96]
The love I bear my God, my King, and
my Church, hath so often emboldened me in the worst of extreme dangers,
that now honesty doth constrain me to presume thus far beyond myself,
to present to 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 was, that about ten years ago,
being in Virginia, and being taken prisoner by the power of Powhatan,
their chief king, I received from this great savage exceeding great courtesy,—especially
from his son, Nantiquaus, the manliest, comeliest, boldest
spirit I ever saw in a savage, and his sister Pocahontas, the king's most
dear and 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 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' fattening among these savage 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 in
Virginia. 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 the Lady Pocahontas.
"Notwithstanding all those 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 fears have been often 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 seen, he
had surely slain her.
"Jamestown, with her wild train, she as freely visited as her father's
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 in those times had once been dissolved, Virginia
might have lain as it was at our first arrival till this day. Since
then this business, having been turned and varied by many accidents from
what I left it, is most certain; after a long and troublesome war, since 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, the first Virginian who ever spake English,
or had a child in marriage by an Englishman,—a matter surely, if
my meaning be truly considered and well understood, well worthy a
prince's information. Thus, most gracious lady, I have related to your
Majesty what, at your best leisure, our approved histories will recount to
you at large, as done in 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 any thing of the State; and it is my want of
ability and her exceeding deserts, 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 husband's estate not being able
to make her fit to attend your Majesty. The most and least I can do is to
tell you this, and the rather of her 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;
when, finding that so great a Queen should do her more honour than she
imagines, for having been kind to her subjects and servants, would so
ravish her with content as to endear her dearest blood to effect that your
Majesty and all the King's most honest subjects most earnestly desire.
And so I humbly kiss your gracious hands, &c.
Since the above was in print, we have received the following
extract from one of our public papers:—
"Pocahontas.—An interesting link in the chain of American Documentary
History has just been given by the rector of Gravesend, in Kent,
to the Rev. R. Anderson, for his `Colonial Church History.' It is the
fac-simile copy of the entry of the death of Pocahontas, in the register
of that parish, where she died three years after her marriage, when on
the point of embarking to return to her native land with her husband,
who was appointed Secretary and Recorder-General for Virginia. It runs
thus:—`1616, March 21. Rebecca Rolfe, wyffe of Thomas Rolfe, gent.,
a Virginia lady borne, was buried in ye Chauncell.' The present church
at Gravesend is an erection later than the date of this entry; so that, in
all probability, it is the only tangible relic of the last resting-place of
one called by our forefathers `the first-fruit of the Gospel in America,' of
whom Sir Thomas Dale (Marshal of Virginia) wrote, `were it but the
gaining of this one soule, I think my time, toile, and present stay well
spent.' Poor Pocahontas! who shall say what emotions passed through
her mind, when, strong in affectionate confidence, she accompanied her
husband from the pleasant savannas of Virginia, which she was never to
see again, to the Court of England, and still (in the words of Purchas)
`did not onely accustom herselfe to civilitie, but carried herselfe as the
daughter of a king.' Every trait preserved of her in the records of the
time testifies to her `increasing in goodness as the knowledge of God increased
in her.' Her true story is one that can never become hackneyed
even with familiarity, and should be religiously kept free from burlesque
association."
