somewhat unscrupulous brain. He bribed Japazaws with a mighty gleaming
copper kettle, and by that chief's connivance took Pocahontas from the
village above the Potomac. He brought her captive in his boat down the
Chesapeake to the mouth of the James and so up the river to Jamestown, here
to be held hostage for an Indian peace. This was in 1613.

Pocahontas stayed by the James, in the rude settlers' town, which may have
seemed to the Indian girl stately and wonderful enough. Here Rolfe made her
acquaintance, here they talked together, and here, after some scruples on
his part as to "heathennesse," they were married. He writes of "her desire
to be taught and instructed in the knowledge of God; her capableness of
understanding; her aptnesse and willingnesse to recieve anie good
impression, and also the spiritual, besides her owne incitements stirring
me up hereunto." First she was baptized, receiving the name Rebecca, and
then she was married to Rolfe in the flower-decked church at Jamestown.
Powhatan was not there, but he sent young chiefs, her brothers, in his
place. Rolfe had lands and cabins thereupon up the river near Henricus. He
called this place Varina, the best Spanish tobacco being Varinas. Here he
and Pocahontas dwelled together "civilly and lovingly." When two years had
passed the couple went with their infant son upon a visit to England. There
court and town and country flocked to see the Indian "princess." After a
time she and Rolfe would go back to Virginia. But at Gravesend, before
their ship sailed, she was stricken with smallpox and died, making "a
religious and godly end," and there at Gravesend she is buried. Her son,
Thomas Rolfe, who was brought up in England, returned at last to Virginia
and lived out his life there with his wife and children. Today no small
host of Americans have for ancestress the daughter of Powhatan. In
England-in-America the immediate effect of the marriage was really to
procure an Indian peace outlasting Pocahontas's brief life.