The Marriage of Pocahontas [pp. 81-91]

SOUTHERN LITERARY MESSENGER.
A MAGAZINE DEVOTED TO LITERATURE, SCIENCE AND ART.
RICHM!OND, AUGUST, 1860.
THE MARRIAGE OF POCAHONTAS.
NOTES ON THE DATE OF POCAHONTAS' MARRIAGE, AND SOME OTHER INCIDENTS OF HIER
LIFE.
RPead Before the Virginia Historical and -Pilosophical Society.
BY WYNDHAM ROBERTSON, ESQ,
be no room for mistake. We have the
letter of Capt. (Sir Samuel) Argall him self, its date June, 1613, in 4 Purchas, p.
1764, et seq. It is t her e stated that he
sailed from England " 23rd July, 1612;"
arrived in Virginia " 17th Sept.;" visited
Smith's Island " beginning of Nov.;"
wentto Pembrook River " 1st December;"
r etur ned to Jamestown "lst Janulary"
(necessarily 1613); " Iarrived at Poin t
Comfort 1st February;" returned to
Pembrook River "17th Mar ch," thence
to Patowameck; capt ured " Pokahuntis"
by treache ry; departed w ith her "13th
of April" fo r Jamestown, and delivered
her to Gov. Gate s:-a gain departe d in
his shallop, for discove ry, " th e first o f
May;" returned to his ship " May 12th,
1613," (in margin,) and was then when
he wrote, "June 1613," wai t ing for ai
"wind," to go on his "fishing voyage."'
There is nothing known to me a nywhere,
in conflict with any statement of this
letter, but it is entirely in accord With
every date and statement come down to
us from that period.
We have, then, the date of Pocahontas'
capture fixed a little before, and her deliivery
at Jamestown a little after, the thirteenth
April, 1613. Of course her marriage to
The date of this event, though of little
historic importance, yet as a point of
history, as well as for other reasons, is
not wholly devoid of some curiosity and
interest. Although the most incontestible
authorities exist whereby to fix it, it is yet
singular, that an error in regard to it
has been so often reproduced, as to seem,
now, almost imbedded in history. Al most all authorities concur in referring
it to April, 1613. Stith says "it was
in the beginning of April, 1613," (p.
130); Beverley says, " Pocahontas being
thus married in the year 1613," (p. 28);
Itowison has "1613. Early in April;"
Silms, (p. 335); "Spring of 1613;" Ililliard, in Sparks' Biography, " beginning
of April, 1613, (Vol. 2, p. 371,) and
Campbell, so late as the present year,
(1860), says " early in April, 1613,/' (p.
109.)
Yet it is demonstrable that it took
place about the 5th April, 1614.
These writers, doubtless, reposed on
the authority of Smitlh. But I will
shew, hereafter, that he was, probably,
under no mistake, and only seemed to
have been, by the (probably accidental)
misplacing of a marginal note.
About the time of her capture there can
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