On this day in 1613, Samuel Argall, having captured Pocahontas in Passapatanzy, Virginia, sets off with her to Jamestown with the intention of exchanging her for English prisoners held by her father.
Argall was an English sea captain and deputy governor of the Virginia Colony. As a sea captain, in 1609, Argall was the first to determine a shorter northern route from England across the Atlantic Ocean to the new English colony of Virginia, based at Jamestown, and made numerous voyages to the New World. He captained one of Lord De La Warr’s ships in the successful rescue mission to Virginia in 1610 which saved the colony from starvation. In 1610 he named Delaware Bay in honor of Lord De La Warr. Shortly afterwards Dutch settlers along the bay gave it a different name, but the name Delaware Bay was restored when the English took control of the area in 1665.
in March 1613, Argall, looking for food for the Jamestown settlement, sailed up the Potomac River. There, he traded with the Patawomeck, a Native American tribe who were affiliated with the Powhatan Confederacy. The Patawomeck lived at the village of Passapatanzy, as well as several other villages along the river. When two English colonists began trading with the Patawomeck, they discovered that Pocahontas, the daughter of Wahunsonacock, Chief of the Powhatan Confederacy, was living there.
Learning this, Argall resolved to capture Pocahontas to aid in negotiations with the Powhatan. Sending for the local chief, Japazaws, Argall told him he must bring her on board his ship, Treasurer and suggested luring her with the present of a copper kettle.
According to Patawomeck oral tradition, with the help of Japazaws, the colonists tricked Pocahontas into being captured. Their purpose, as Argall said in a letter, was to ransom her for English prisoners held by Chief Powhatan, along with various weapons and farming tools that the Powhatan people had stolen. Powhatan returned the captives, but failed to satisfy the colonists with the amount of weapons and tools he returned. A long standoff ensued.
During her captivity, she was encouraged to convert to Christianity and was baptized under the name Rebecca. She married the tobacco planter John Rolfe in April 1614 at the age of about 17 or 18, and she bore their son, Thomas Rolfe, in January 1615. In 1616, the Rolfes traveled to London, where Pocahontas was presented to English society as an example of the “civilized savage” in hopes of stimulating investment in Jamestown. Pocahontas died at Gravesend, Kent, England, of unknown causes, aged 20 or 21. She was buried in St George’s Church, Gravesend; her grave’s exact location is unknown because the church was rebuilt after being destroyed by a fire.
Pocahontas saves the life of John Smith in this chromolithograph, credited to the New England Chromo. Lith. Company around 1870. The scene is idealized; there are no mountains in Tidewater, Virginia, for example, and the Powhatans lived in thatched houses rather than tipis.
Not how numbers work….
Today is the birthday, in 1975, of German mambo musician Lou Bega who is most famous for ‘Mambo No. 5’, his 1999 UK No.1 hit which was a remake of the Pérez Prado instrumental from 1949. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EK_LN3XEcnw
