"Wairarapa Daily" Supplement.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume 4, Issue 1049, 15 April 1882, Page 1 (Supplement)

"Wairarapa Daily" Supplement.

CAPTAIN. JOHN SMITH-POCA-, HONTAS-SIE WALTER RALEI&H.f The moat notable piece of romance to bo found in the early records of the U, S. Ropublic is that of Captain John Smith and Pocahontas. Wo have an historical painting of that 1 doughty warrior, lying in a dress-coat, rosettes on his shoes, on very green grass, his head on a stone, Powhatan braudishing his club to beat out his brains, and Pocahontas, with dishevelled hair, .rushing in between the victim and'his .executioner.. But if tho researches of Charles Dudley Warner, in tho history of Captain John %ith, just published, havo notWn one-sided and partial, no such scene—at least so far as the ini tcrcsting Indian Princess is concerned—ever happened. Captain John was a Very differ-' eut person from what he is generally supposed to have been. It is quite probable,, from tho examination, to which his life has been subjected, that ho said a great many more things than his prayers. Previous to his arrival in Virginia, he led a roving life in Europe. But there aro no means by which tho truth of his adventures can be tested-, Ho was tho author of several books about himself, and also a " Generalo Historic" of Virginia. Ho represents himself as having served under a Duke of Mercury—supposed by some commentators on his writings to bo the Due do Morcoeivr, in Hungary. Whatever successes were achieved were of course directly traceable to the ingenuity of Captain John Smith, He fell, however, into tho hands of the Turks, aud was sold as a slave. But' ho was at length delivered by a lovely woman-Oharatza Tragabigzanda, Sultana of the "Bashaw" Bogall; Lovely woman was, always coming to the relief of Captain John Smith when he found himself in a tight place. But notwithstahding these weaknesses, he was considerable, of a man. For a long time ho was the leading spirit of the colony at Jamestown. He could deliver hard blows as well as wheedle:thai savage with whom he had to deal, Historical pictures always represent him as contending with colossal Indians. The proof that tta interference of Pocahontas to save his life on the first occasion was perhaps only a figment of the imagination upon the Tragabigzanda model, is that on his return from his celebrated voyage up tho Chickahominy, he never said a word about the'apparition of that charming princess, There are also hopelessly irreconcilable statements respecting her age, The story of his second deliverance by a timely warning from the same good angel beta a . suspicious likeness to D'Albertis'adventures in "New Guinea," where Alba, a Biota girl, does precisely tho' •same thing, D'Albertis kissed the lovely being who had saved his life. Captain John Smith, Mr. Warner slyly remarks, omitted the kiss,

But the glimpses which wo get of the views, lives and purposes of the early colonists in Virginia are far more precious than tho adventures of Captain John Smith, They had anidea that Western exploration would lead thorn to the South Sea. Gold was tho metal of which they were especially in search. A ship was loaded with iron pyrites and sent to London, under; the belief that it was gold they were handling. The imagination of the colonists invested the savages in their vicinity with extraordinary powers. Powhatan, in time, grew into a great Emperor. The petty chiefs around him were all elevated to the kingly dignity, This peculiarity seems to follow the English down to the present day. Tho big savage, Cetewayo, only recently captured in South Africa, has been treated with all the deference due to a royal prisoner. A commission was actually sent to crown Powhatan after the orthodox fashion. PocaJiontas, leaving out Captain Smith's melodrama, was a veritable historical porsonage. But whether she was in all respects a dignified young lady is not determined. There is evidence that she was in the habit of romp-

ing. with the boys at the fort and of turning, handsprings with the best of them, Pocahontas was espoused by John Rolf, an unctious Saint, who had lost his wife in shipwreck at the Bermudas. He entered to that alliance as well out of love as a desire to promote Christianity. The young lady had been .known by various names, such as llatoaka and Amonata, In England, to which country she was carried shortly after her marriage by lier husband, she was known as the Princess Ueb'ecca. Her assumed blue blood caused Ik,;* to be the recipient-of very marked attention, She died in early life at Gravesend as she was returning to America, She left one son whtf again had an heir, who was the father of five daughters, who all married Virginia settlers, This is the genealogical tree of that royal blood of Powhatan, supposed subsequently to have overspread Virginia. But the myth of the, rescue of Captain Smith by Pocahontas is not the only one that-Mr, Warner demolishes. He was unable to find any reliable proof that Sir Walter Raleigh ever saw the territory that is now the United States of America. As a consequence, he was not the introducer of tobacco in England. The first tobacco was brought to that country in tho ship of Sir Francis Drake, and was in the possession of a man named Lane. Sir Walter Raleigh did all he could to make the use of the weed fashionable. Smoking was first called drinking, The effect, it was supposed, was to drive rheums from the body.

It is curious to note that the projection or | r ! nally given to Virginia so long held out. In the 'hipmentsof the early colonists the nrmwfcion "f gentlemon to workers was E°;tol>f ThoStatoWitafounaafirm was ton->vy. H"> fil ' at Mm had essentially commutfistie.bttt it bred nothing but mutiny. There always a conspiracy on foot to seize the pinnace.and return to England. It was not till property began to be held in severalty under the" Governorship of Sir Thomas Dale, that any degree of prosperity was attained. There is here a valuable lesson for the communistic dreamers who occasionally push themsolves to tho front, a is narrated of Sir Thomas Dale that when he found that Rolf had made such a success in his alliance with Pocahontas, he sent an embassy to Powhatan to secure her sistevm matrimony for himself, But the noble savage had sold her to a neighboring chief, a few days preceding the arrival of the embassy, for a bushel of corn, It is not narrated that Governor Dale informed his wife in England of this little episode, Among other curious things dug up by Mr, Warner, is that our word caucus comes from the Indian word cancorouse, which signifies a pow-wow. If so, we have made as bad a mess of it as the Indians did of English, which they aro supposed to have rendered Yenghees, whence the all-pervading and all-conquering Yankee, Most of the facts used in constructing the present biography have only been brought to light during the last twenty years. They tend largely to reduce the heroic proportions of Smith. Tho judgment of impartial criticism upon him is that he was in the habit of blending with his own stories whatever romantic incidents ho had picked up in reading or conversation. Among other possible sources of his inspection may be mentioned a romance similar in all respects to. that of Pocahontas, which is found in tho adventures of Juan Ortiz, who was a soldier under Pamphilo Narvaez in tho descent on Tamna Bay. There were two rescues, as in Smith's case j first from death and second from surprise/