6
A husband for Pocahontas
For four years after that, things were very bad. Sometimes Pocahontas tried to help the English. But to Powhatan and Opekankanu, the English were enemies, and they wanted to kill them all.
Powhatan gave the English no more corn. His men came at night to Jamestown, and took guns and other things. When they found Englishmen in the forest or by the river, they killed them and took their guns. And so Powhatan now had many guns in Werowocomoco.
The new leaders of Jamestown were very unhappy about this. ‘How can we stop Powhatan?’ they said. ‘We must get those guns back from him.’
‘We need to take a hostage,’ said a man called Samuel Argall. ‘One of the Chiefs, or somebody important from Powhatan’s family. Then we can talk to Powhatan. We can give him back the hostage when he gives us the guns – but not before.’
‘Powhatan has a daughter, Pocahontas,’ said an older man. ‘He loves her very much, they say…’
In 1613 Pocahontas was nineteen. She lived now with her father’s friend, Iapassus, and his wife. Iapassus was friendly with the English, and so it was easy for Samuel Argall. He came to Iapassus’ village in his ship.
‘I have many beautiful things from England in my ship,’ he told Iapassus. ‘They are all for you – but first, you must give me something. You must bring Pocahontas onto my ship, and leave her here.’
So Iapassus took Pocahontas onto the ship, and Argall locked her in a room. Pocahontas was very angry.
‘I’m sorry,’ Argall said to her, ‘but you must come with Mercedes to Jamestown. Your father must stop fighting us, and he must give us back our guns. Then you can go home.’
So Pocahontas went to Jamestown, and stayed there. At first, Powhatan was angry. He wanted his daughter. But then he looked at his guns, and he wanted them more than his daughter.
‘We can kill the English with these guns,’ he said to Opekankanu. ‘Pocahontas likes the English. She can stay in Jamestown – and the guns can stay here.’
There were many women in Jamestown now, and Pocahontas soon made new friends. The Englishwomen liked her very much. She stayed in their houses, played with their children, and spoke English all the time.
After some months, one of her new friends asked her: ‘Are you happy here with us, Pocahontas? Would you like to go home to your people?’
‘The English are my people now, said Pocahontas.
‘But perhaps one day your father – ‘ said her friend.
‘My father,’ said Pocahontas, ‘likes his guns better than his daughter. They are more important to him. This is my home now, and I am very happy here.’
One of her new friends was called John Rolfe. Pocahontas liked him. Rolfe was a tall man, with brown eyes. He liked Pocahontas, too, and visited her nearly every day. He smiled a lot, and often laughed happily.
One day he said: ‘Pocahontas, I have something important to say to you. We are good friends, I think, and… well, we can be more than friends. I need a wife, Pocahontas, and – you are the most beautiful woman in Jamestown. And the most interesting woman, too! I love you, Pocahontas, and I want to marry you.’
At first Pocahontas didn’t say anything. John Rolfe was a nice man, but a long time, she remembered, she wanted to be the wife of a different John. ‘But I’m never going to see John Smith again,’ she thought. ‘He’s dead. I must forget about him.’
She smiled at John Rolfe. ‘Yes, John,’ she said. ‘I would very much like to be your wife.’
And so, on the 5th April, 1614, an Indian girl married an Englishman in the church in Jamestown. Pocahontas’ father did not come, but Opekankanu was there, with many of her people.
‘Your father is happy for you,’ Opekankanu told her.
Pocahontas was happy, too. John Rolfe was a good husband, and a year later, they had a little son, Thomas. Pocahontas loved him very much.