Every American schoolboy recognizes the scene: Pocahontas, young and beautiful daughter of Powhatan, chief of the Virginia tribes, throws herself across the body of Captain John Smith and begs her father to spare the life of the man she loves. Powhatan, touched by his daughter's fervent pleas, waves off the executioner, and the handsome English explorer and the stunning young Indian girl live happily ever after...

It is one of America's most attractive legends but the truth will probably never known. There is no mention of the incident in Smith's memoirs published shortly after his historic voyage nor in the recollections of his comrades who usually gave him full credit for any of his exploits. The tale first appears in General Historie, first published in 1624, after Pocahontas has been greeted in England as the daughter of an emperor and the first Indian convert to Christianity. Some historians believe that the temptation to make her a romantic heroine in connection with Smith, always the hero of his own chronicles, was more than either Smith or his publishers could resist.

Pocahontas real name was Matoaka (Matowaka). The sole Algonkian root from which the name is derived is Metaw, "to play", or "to amuse oneself." Fondness for playthings or her lighthearted manner may have been the reason for her name. "Pokahantes" was the name Powhatan used for "my favorite daughter."

She was decoyed aboard an English ship in the Potomac and taken to Jamestown in 1612 where the English and Powhatan met to agree on her ransom. While among the whites she fell in love with John Rolfe, "an honest gentleman and of good behaviour." In April 1613, they were married. Pocahontas became a Christian and was given the name "Lady Rebecca." The marriage was a great advantage for the struggling colonists; Powhatan kept peace with them until his death.

In 1616, the copper-skinned Lady Rebecca, her husband, and several Indians sailed for England with sir Thomas Dale. The following year in March, while aboard a ship in Gravesend waiting to return to America, she died of smallpox. She was about twenty-two. A son, Thomas Rolfe, later returned to Virginia and became one of its first citizens. Many of the great families of Virginia trace their ancestry to the son of Pocahontas: the Bollings (Mrs. Edith Bolling Galt married Presiident Woodrow Wilson in 1915), the Guys, Robertsons, Elbridges, and the John Randolphs.

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