University of Virginia Library

MARRIAGE OF ROLFE AND POCAHONTAS.

In the year 1613, Captain Samuel Argall, then cruising in the Chesapeake,
made a voyage up the Potomac, when he learned of the presence
of Pocahontas, whom he succeeded in enticing on his boat and then
carried her to Jamestown. The authorities detained her with expectation
that her father, Powhatan, would pay a ransom for her, but the
old chief became highly enraged and at once prepared for war, but before
hostilities began a Mr. John Rolfe, a highly respected young planter,
struck by her beauty and fascinated by her manners, wooed and won
her affections and the promise of her hand.

Powhatan gave his consent to the union, and sent her uncle and two
brothers to witness the ceremony, which was celebrated with great pomp,
according to the rites of the English Church. In 1616 she accompanied
her husband to England, but was very unhappy. Captain Smith, who
was then in London, called to see her, but appeared to be somewhat

reserved in his manner. This added to her burden of grief, and she
wept like a child. Smith inquired the cause of her grief. "Did I not
save thy life in America?" said she. "Didst thou not promise that if
I went into thy country thou wouldst be my father, and I shouldst
be thy daughter? Thou hast deceived me; behold her now a stranger
and an orphan." Pocahontas was warmly received. Lady Delaware
introduced her to Queen Anne, and many families of distinction paid
every attention to the modest daughter of this western wilderness; but
nothing could be done to dispel the gloom which surrounded her, and in
a short time she fell a victim to the dread disease, the small-pox, and
died just as she was about to re-embark for America.

One son, the issue of this union, became a man of prominence in the
affairs of the colony, and to him many of the first families of Virginia,
among whom were the Randolphs and the Bollings, trace their ancestry.

Early in the year 1616, Gates and Dale both sailed for England,
and left the government in the hands of Sir Thomas Yeardley, whose
administration was similar to those of his predecessors—Dale and Gates.
The colony increased in numbers, the social condition improved; obedience
on the part of the colonists and respect on the part of the savages
brought about a feeling of security and confidence hitherto unknown in
the history of the colony.

In 1617, Yeardley was succeeded by Captain Argall, who proved
himself to be the most tyrannical governor that had yet swayed the
scepter over Virginia. He was a sailor by profession, and accustomed
to the rigid discipline of the seas, where he had long held despotic sway
over the decks of his own vessel. Naturally tyrannical, cruel and
covetous, he was entirely unfit to administer the government as it then
existed in Virginia, and, as might have been expected, his administration
became a synonym for fraud, corruption and violence. When the news
of his high-handed oppression reached England, the London Company
requested Delaware to return to Virginia and again assume the government.
He yielded to their importunities and sailed for Virginia, but
died on the way. Argall continued his oppressive sway until 1619,
when he was superseded by Sir George Yeardley, who, through the
influence of Sir Edwyn Sandys, treasurer of the London Company, was
appointed to fill his place.