1838

"The Preservation of the Early Colonists from Massacre." [Richmond] Southern Literary Messenger 4.4 (April 1838): 228. A poem appended to the essay in the previous entry that commemorates the "signal service" of this "untutored child of the wilderness" in warning Smith of Powhatan's treacherous plot to murder him and his band (the subject of paintings by Chapman 1836 and White 1852). "I have saved thee before from his terrible ire, / When the club was uplifted, and kindled the fire, / And thy death was decreed by his oath; Thy head on the block as my arms did entwine, / Between it and the club I then interposed mine, / And I told them to strike at us both. / Then believe me, my Chieftain, and hasten away; / I return, or suspicion will blacken my stay, / And the morning my embassy tell. / May thy God e'er protect thee, and give thee his aid, -- / Oh, live mindful of me, tho' a poor Indian maid -- / Pocahontas now bids thee farewell."
[poetry]
[Electronic Version]