1805

Davis, John. Captain Smith and Princess Pocahontas, An Indian Tale. Philadelphia, 1805. Also contains the 1803 poem "Sonnet to Pocahontas" ["Where from the shore, I oft have view'd the sail"]: 92. Davis's third work on this topic, this one boasting Thomas Jefferson as subscriber. Tilton 1994 calls this the first admittedly fictional representation of Pocahontas's life. Same basic story of Pocahontas smitten with Smith who transfers her passion immediately to Rolfe when he is presumed dead as in the 1803 Travels, but there is considerable exotic and erotic elaboration in descriptions of Pocahontas (cherub lips, luxuriant tresses, filling bosom) and events (the happy couple's "first intercourse" and "conjugal endearments"). Pocahontas is even "hotter" than she was in 1803. (Appendices include accounts of Smith and Jamestown, a memoir of the author, as well as Smith's letter to the Queen introducing Pocahontas. A final note mentions the possibility of a sequel called Massacre of the Virginia Planters.) (Kribbs 1975 quotes a subscription appeal to "the Philadelphia ladies of tender sensibilities," who "will all come forward with alacrity as Patronesses to a volume that records the virtues, and develops the conscious flame of Pocahontas the lovely, the susceptible and artless!"
[illustrated; novel; poetry]
[Electronic Version]
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