1786

Chastellux, Marquis de. Travels in North America in the Years 1780, 1781, and 1782. Paris, 1786. (Translated by George Grieve. Vol. 2, chap IV. London, 1787. 135-49.) (New York, 1827. 266-74.) (Translated and notes by Howard C. Rice, Jr. Chapel Hill: U of North Carolina P, 1963. 419-26.) The Marquis de Chastellux was one of the French Generals who aided the Revolutionary cause. He recounts a visit to the Bollings where he was surprised to find the descendant of Pocahontas -- whom he calls "the protectress of the English" and an "angel of peace" -- quite European looking. His version of Pocahontas's life -- very influential, quite colorful, much copied (even as late as Blake 1825) -- has some interesting touches: savages "more affected by the tears of infancy, than the voice of humanity," begging Smith to "spare her family" and "to terminate all their differences by a new treaty," bitterly deploring her fate as a captive, throwing herself into Smith's arms in England, living "several years" as model wife there. Chastellux also, like Beverley, raises the issue of intermarriage, nailing James I for being "so infatuated with the prerogatives of royalty" to be upset that one of his subjects married a princess (for other discussion of intermarriage in this early period, see Alexander, Oldmixon, Fontaine, Russell, etc.). Tilton 1994 believes Chastellux to be the "most important purveyor" of the Pocahontas narrative before John Davis.
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