The Captive Princess Read online

  Her face lit up. “Yes. I will be here.”

  After he left she sat and thought about what he said. Talk to Him, Alexander Whitaker had said. “I have sinned against my father and against my people.” She was quiet, listening. She didn’t hear a voice, but she sensed a listening. “Will You forgive me even if I can’t ask my father to forgive?”

  She didn’t hear anything, but she felt a lightness she hadn’t felt after that night when John Smith held out a handful of beads.

  “I want to be Your child. Is that why You whispered amosens all those years ago?”

  She didn’t hear any voice, but she found a laughter bubbling up inside of her. “That was a question, wasn’t it? Are You giving me back my questions?” She wondered if He would be sorry. She already felt hundreds of questions forming inside. She picked up the Bible that the minister had left. Were some of the answers in here?

  Why did it take having to become a captive before she could know what it meant to be free?

  Oh, she had questions.

  Epilogue

  Pocahontas’s story did not end with her captivity and the freedom she found in the living God, Gitchee Manitou, and His Son, Jesus Christ. Her father never did ransom her, although he sent Nantaquaus to make certain she was treated well. She continued to learn to read and write and to study the Bible. After a year or two with the English, she asked to be baptized. Her name was changed to Rebecca and everyone called her Lady Rebecca in honor of her royal status. She adopted English dress, including corsets, crinolines, farthingales, and pointy leather shoes.

  As she grew in her faith and her understanding of the English language, she also grew to love one of the settlers. John Rolfe had become the most successful planter in the colony. He was fair and honest, a hard worker, respected by everyone. He had come to love Pocahontas as he watched the way she served his people and served his Lord. They married in Jamestown on a beautiful spring day in April 1614.

  A child, Thomas, was born to them a little more than a year later. Pocahontas loved her life—a beautiful home, a loving husband, and a precious baby.

  Remember when she first sighted the white bird boats of the English? How she longed to sail across the ocean on one? Her dream came true when her baby, Thomas, was only a year old. The men of the Virginia Company asked her to come to England to meet Queen Anne. Pocahontas, her husband John Rolfe, and the baby sailed across the Atlantic and landed at Plymouth in 1616. Matachanna accompanied her to help care for Thomas.

  By all accounts, her stay in London was a social success. The Lady De La Ware took Pocahontas under her wing and escorted her to balls and dinners and audiences with important people. Londoners first came to see her because she was a Powhatan and a princess, which sounded foreign and exciting. After they met her, though, they continued to seek her out because of her gentle, accepting manner. She was presented at court in an elegant court gown and hat and afterward had her portrait painted.

  John Smith had not died, as had been reported to Pocahontas. He managed to survive his trip to England. Pocahontas was surprised by a brief meeting with him in London. Too brief, however, to recapture that old comfortable friendship.

  Perhaps the whirl of parties became too much for the young mother. Perhaps the damp London climate took its toll. No one knows for sure, but Pocahontas fell ill on board the ship, waiting for the wind to come up that would carry her family home to America.

  Her husband knew she was too sick to sail, so he had the captain dock the ship at Gravesend. He moved Pocahontas and baby Thomas to an inn close by.

  It soon became apparent that Pocahontas would not be making the trip back to her country. The little girl who once turned somersaults in the lodge of one of the most powerful men in the New World turned to her husband as she took her last breaths and said, “All must die. It is enough that the child lives.”

  At her funeral, they read the words of her Lord from John 11: “I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live.”

  The story of Pocahontas laying down her life for that of John Smith has become the stuff of legends, but perhaps even more important is the knowledge that the young princess saved the struggling colony from starvation. Her bravery helped birth a new nation.

  Glossary of

  Powhatan wards

  Note: Most of the Powhatan language has been lost. John Smith, who recorded much of what we do know, often spelled the same word differently at different times, so alternate spellings can be found.

  Amosens. Daughter.

  Apasoum. Opossum. A word we get from the Powhatan.

  Apooke. Indian tobacco.

  Arakun. Raccoon—this is where we get our word raccoon.

  Cattapeuk. Spring.

  Cohattayough. Summer.

  Espaniuks. Spanish people.

  Gitchee Manitou. The God of creation, literally, the Great Spirit.

  Huskanaw. The ceremony in which boys move from childhood into manhood.

  Maraowanchesso. Boy.

  Mattassin. Copper.

  Nepinough. The time of ears of corn forming—a season between spring and summer.

  Okeus. The fearsome god believed by the Powhatans to govern the affairs of earth.

  Pemmenaw. Thread made of grass fibers.

  Ponepone. Cornbread.

  Popanow. Winter.

  Quintans. A dugout canoe.

  Quintansuk. (Plural) Canoes.

  Quiyoughsokuk. Medicine men or wise men.

  Roanoke. Shells used for beads.

  Suckhanna. Water.

  Taquitock. Fall (autumn).

  Tassantassa. A stranger or an outsider.

  Tassantassuk. (Plural) Outsiders.

  Waugh! Exclamation, pronounced “wow!” Linguists believe it is from the Powhatans that we get our exclamation, wow!

  Weghshaughes. Meat.

  Weroance. Local chief.

  Proper Names

  Note: Except for those characters noted as fictional, all these characters come from the pages of history.

  Alaqua. Fictional woman who added Nokomias to her family.

  Japazeus. Local weroance of the Patawomecks at the village of Passapatanzy.

  Mamanatowic. Paramount chief, greatest one—title of Powhatan, Pocahontas’s father.

  Matachanna. Pocahontas’s younger half-sister.

  Nantaquaus. Pocahontas’s older half-brother, also sometime referred to in Smith’s writings as Nantaquoud or Naukaquawis.

  Nauiraus. Appomattoc man who worked as a guide/language teacher to the English.

  Nokomias. Fictional Chesapeake captive who becomes Pocahontas’s friend.

  Pocahontas aka Amonute and Matoaka

  Powhatan. Name of the people, but also name of the ruler of the federation of Powhatan people and name of a village as well.

  Opechancanough. Powhatan’s younger, more aggressive brother.

  Rawhunt. Powhatan’s elderly trusted advisor and older brother.

  Wahunsunakuk. Powhatan’s given name.

  Place/Tribe

  Names

  Note: The names of tribes, chiefs, and places can be confusing because they often shared the same name.

  Chesapeake. The name of the tribe that Powhatan massacred just before the English landed. Many believe the last survivors of the Roanoke Colony—the “lost colony”—had been part of this tribe. Chesapeake is also the name of the bay and the region surrounding it.

  Chickhominy River. A tributary of the James River.

  Pamunkey River. Now called the York River.

  Paspahegh. The village and people nearest Jamestown. The Jamestown settlement was built on Paspahegh lands.

  Passapatanzy. A village of the Patawomeck people.

  Patawomeck. An independent tribe, not part of the Tsenacomoco, but connected with Powhatans, on the Patawomeck River.

  Patawomeck River. Now called the Potomac River. Powhatan. A village on the Powhatan River near the falls. Parahunt, one of Powhatan’s s
ons, was weroance at Powhatan. Pocahontas and the leaders of the Powhatan nation did not live at Powhatan but at Werowocomoco.

  Powhatan River. Now called the James River.

  Rasawrack. The camp where John Smith was taken after being captured. Rasawrack was also the name of the faraway main town of the Monacans—enemies of the Powhatans.

  Tsenacomoco. The federation of nations united by Powhatan covering 8,000 square miles and about 14,000 people.

  Werowocomoco. Pocahontas’s village—the seat of power for her father’s federation.

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