This the Indian denied, James probably not coming up to his idea of a king, till by circumstances he was convinced he had seen him.Then he replied very sadly: "You gave Powhatan a white dog, which Powhatan fed as himself, but your king gave me nothing, and I am better than your white dog."Smith adds that he took several courtiers to see Pocahontas, and "they did think God had a great hand in her conversion, and they have seen many English ladies worse favoured, proportioned, and behavioured;" and he heard that it had pleased the King and Queen greatly to esteem her, as also Lord and Lady Delaware, and other persons of good quality, both at the masques and otherwise.
Much has been said about the reception of Pocahontas in London, but the contemporary notices of her are scant.The Indians were objects of curiosity for a time in London, as odd Americans have often been since, and the rank of Pocahontas procured her special attention.
She was presented at court.She was entertained by Dr.King, Bishop of London.At the playing of Ben Jonson's "Christmas his Mask" at court, January 6, 1616-17, Pocahontas and Tomocomo were both present, and Chamberlain writes to Carleton: "The Virginian woman Pocahuntas with her father counsellor have been with the King and graciously used, and both she and her assistant were pleased at the Masque.She is upon her return though sore against her will, if the wind would about to send her away."Mr.Neill says that "after the first weeks of her residence in England she does not appear to be spoken of as the wife of Rolfe by the letter writers," and the Rev.Peter Fontaine says that "when they heard that Rolfe had married Pocahontas, it was deliberated in council whether he had not committed high treason by so doing, that is marrying an Indian princesse."It was like James to think so.His interest in the colony was never the most intelligent, and apt to be in things trivial.Lord Southampton (Dec.15, 1609) writes to Lord Salisbury that he had told the King of the Virginia squirrels brought into England, which are said to fly.The King very earnestly asked if none were provided for him, and said he was sure Salisbury would get him one.Would not have troubled him, "but that you know so well how he is affected to these toys."There has been recently found in the British Museum a print of a portrait of Pocahontas, with a legend round it in Latin, which is translated: " Matoaka, alias Rebecka, Daughter of Prince Powhatan, Emperor of Virginia; converted to Christianity, married Mr.Rolff;died on shipboard at Gravesend 1617.This is doubtless the portrait engraved by Simon De Passe in 1616, and now inserted in the extant copies of the London edition of the "General Historie," 1624.It is not probable that the portrait was originally published with the "General Historie." The portrait inserted in the edition of 1624 has this inscription:
Round the portrait:
Matoaka als Rebecca Filia Potentiss Princ: Pohatani Imp: Virginim."In the oval, under the portrait:
"Aetatis suae 21 A.
1616"
Below:
"Matoaks als Rebecka daughter to the mighty Prince Powhatan Emprour of Attanoughkomouck als virginia converted and baptized in the Christian faith, and wife to the worth Mr.job Rolff.
i: Pass: sculp.Compton Holland excud."Camden in his "History of Gravesend" says that everybody paid this young lady all imaginable respect, and it was believed she would have sufficiently acknowledged those favors, had she lived to return to her own country, by bringing the Indians to a kinder disposition toward the English; " and that she died, "giving testimony all the time she lay sick, of her being a very good Christian."The Lady Rebecka, as she was called in London, died on shipboard at Gravesend after a brief illness, said to be of only three days, probably on the 21st of March, 1617.I have seen somewhere a statement, which I cannot confirm, that her disease was smallpox.
St.George's Church, where she was buried, was destroyed by fire in 1727.The register of that church has this record:
"1616, May 2j Rebecca Wrothe Wyff of Thomas Wroth gent A Virginia lady borne, here was buried in ye chaunncle."Yet there is no doubt, according to a record in the Calendar of State Papers, dated "1617 29 March, London," that her death occurred March 21, 1617.
John Rolfe was made Secretary of Virginia when Captain Argall became Governor, and seems to have been associated in the schemes of that unscrupulous person and to have forfeited the good opinion of the company.August 23, 1618, the company wrote to Argall: "We cannot imagine why you should give us warning that Opechankano and the natives have given the country to Mr.Rolfe's child, and that they reserve it from all others till he comes of years except as we suppose as some do here report it be a device of your own, to some special purpose for yourself." It appears also by the minutes of the company in 1621 that Lady Delaware had trouble to recover goods of hers left in Rolfe's hands in Virginia, and desired a commission directed to Sir Thomas Wyatt and Mr.George Sandys to examine what goods of the late "Lord Deleware had come into Rolfe's possession and get satisfaction of him." This George Sandys is the famous traveler who made a journey through the Turkish Empire in 1610, and who wrote, while living in Virginia, the first book written in the New World, the completion of his translation of Ovid's "Metamorphosis."John Rolfe died in Virginia in 1622, leaving a wife and children.
This is supposed to be his third wife, though there is no note of his marriage to her nor of the death of his first.October 7, 1622, his brother Henry Rolfe petitioned that the estate of John should be converted to the support of his relict wife and children and to his own indemnity for having brought up John's child by Powhatan's daughter.
