for Charandry

John Smith's 1616 Letter to Queen Anne of Great Britain:

Most admired Queen,

The love I bear my God, my King and country, hath so oft emboldened me in the worst of

extreme dangers, that now honesty doth constrain me to presume thus far beyond myself,

to present your Majesty this short discourse: if ingratitude be a deadly poison to all honest

virtues, I must be guilty of that crime if I should omit any means to be thankful.

So it is, that some ten years ago being in Virginia, and taken prisoner by the power of

Powhatan their chief King, I received from this great Salvage exceeding great courtesy,

especially from his son Nantaquaus, the most manliest, comeliest, boldest spirit, I ever saw

in a Salvage, and his sister Pocahontas, the Kings most dear and well-beloved daughter,

being but a child of twelve or thirteen years of age, whose compassionate pitiful heart, of

my desperate estate, gave me much cause to respect her: I being the first Christian this

proud King and his grim attendants ever saw: and thus enthralled in their barbarous power,

I cannot say I felt the least occasion of want that was in the power of those my mortal foes

to prevent, notwithstanding all their threats. After some six weeks fatting amongst those

Salvage courtiers, at the minute of my execution, she hazarded the beating out of her own

brains to save mine; and not only that, but so prevailed with her father, that I was safely

conducted to Jamestown: where I found about eight and thirty miserable poor and sick

creatures, to keep possession of all those large territories of Virginia; such was the

weakness of this poor commonwealth, as had the salvages not fed us, we directly had

starved. And this relief, most gracious Queen, was commonly brought us by this Lady Pocahontas.

Notwithstanding all these passages, when inconstant fortune turned our peace to war, this

tender virgin would still not spare to dare to visit us, and by her our jars have been oft

appeased, and our wants still supplied; were it the policy of her father thus to employ her,

or the ordinance of God thus to make her his instrument, or her extraordinary affection to

our nation, I know not: but of this I am sure; when her father with the utmost of his policy

and power, sought to surprise me, having but eighteen with me, the dark night could not

affright her from coming through the irksome woods, and with watered eyes gave me

intelligence, with her best advice to escape his fury; which had he known, he had surely slain her.

Jamestown with her wild train she as freely frequented, as her fathers habitation; and

during the time of two or three years, she next under God, was still the instrument to

preserve this colony from death, famine and utter confusion; which if in those times, had

once been dissolved, Virginia might have lain as it was at our first arrival to this day.

Since then, this business having been turned and varied by many accidents from that I left

it at: it is most certain, after a long and troublesome war after my departure, betwixt her father and our colony; all which time she was not heard of.

About two years after she herself was taken prisoner, being so detained near two years

longer, the colony by that means was relieved, peace concluded; and at last rejecting her

barbarous condition, she was married to an English Gentleman, with whom at this present

she is in England; the first Christian ever of that Nation, the first Virginian ever spoke

English, or had a child in marriage by an Englishman: a matter surely, if my meaning be

truly considered and well understood, worthy a Princes understanding.

Thus, most gracious Lady, I have related to your Majesty, what at your best leisure our

approved Histories will account you at large, and done in the time of your Majesty's life; and

however this might be presented you from a more worthy pen, it cannot from a more

honest heart, as yet I never begged anything of the state, or any: and it is my want of

ability and her exceeding desert; your birth, means, and authority; her birth, virtue, want

and simplicity, doth make me thus bold, humbly to beseech your Majesty to take this

knowledge of her, though it be from one so unworthy to be the reporter, as myself, her

husbands estate not being able to make her fit to attend your Majesty. The most and least I

can do, is to tell you this, because none so oft hath tried it as myself, and the rather being

of so great a spirit, however her stature: if she should not be well received, seeing this

Kingdom may rightly have a Kingdom by her means; her present love to us and Christianity

might turn to such scorn and fury, as to divert all this good to the worst of evil; whereas

finding so great a Queen should do her some honor more than she can imagine, for being so

kind to your servants and subjects, would so ravish her with content, as endear her dearest blood to effect that, your Majesty and all the Kings honest subjects most earnestly desire.

And so I humbly kiss your gracious hands, Captain John Smith, 1616

http://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/learning_history/pocohontas/pocahontas_smith_letter.cfm