1875

Henry, William Wirt. "The Rescue of Captain John Smith by Pocahontas." Potter's American Monthly 4 (1875): 523-28, 591-97. William Wirt Henry (not to be confused with William Wirt; see 1803 and etc.), who was later president of the American Historical Association and the Virginia Historical Society, was a consistent defender of Smith and the Pocahontas rescue from the debunkers (see other entries up to 1893). Here he takes on Adams (Henry mentions both the North American Review and Chapters of Erie versions) in point-by-point fashion: arguing the possibility of omissions in the publication of the True Relation as well as reasons for silences; examining other works from Wingfield to Purchas; confronting seeming inconsistencies within Smith's accounts; and adducing the reliability of external evidence. Henry recognizes the seriousness of the attack: "If [Adams's] side be triumphant, then indeed we must blot out from the page of Virginia history this most beautiful instance of female devotion, doubly interesting because it was the act of a savage girl, who in thus saving the life of the master spirit of the Colony, at the risk of her own, saved the Colony." His conclusion: "It may be confidently claimed that the world will hereafter, as in the age he lived, recognize in Captain John Smith a hero, distinguished alike for valor and for virtue." So much for debunking.
[illustrated; debunking]
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