THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, July 26, 1995 TAG: 9507260053
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E6 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY MICHAEL KILIAN, CHICAGO TRIBUNE
LENGTH: Medium: 79 lines
WITH THEIR animated blockbuster ``Pocahontas,'' the movie moguls at Walt Disney have revived the legend of one of the most romantic heroines of all time - the Indian princess who saved the life of English Colonist Capt. John Smith by cradling his head in her arms when he was about to be clubbed to death on orders from her father.
But ``legend'' it is. As becomes readily apparent to visitors to Jamestown , the actual story of Pocahontas is quite different than the Disney version.
The true tale is also a love story, but the lover in it is not the handsome, blond Mel Gibson-voiced Capt. John Smith of the movie, and the ending is far from happy.
Pocahontas was - according to some contemporary reports - actually married to an Indian youth named Kocoum. (And John Smith, in reality, was something of a wild man, according to Dr. William Rasmussen, curator of art at the Virginia Historical Society in Richmond and co-author of ``Pocahontas: Her Life and Legend.'' Smith had beheaded Turks in battle and been enslaved for it. Set free by the amorous wife of a Turkish pasha, he was enslaved again by Russians and had to murder his way to freedom. Joining the ``Virginie'' expedition as that kind of ferocious adventurer, he was considered brash, erratic and unreliable by many of his fellow Colonists.)
Married or single, Pocahontas was kidnapped by the English in 1612 at age 16 and held hostage at Jamestown in return for food, cessions of land and English prisoners the Powhatans had taken. While in captivity, she converted to Christianity and was married to Colonial leader John Rolfe.
They had a son and in 1616 they journeyed to England, where Pocahontas - renamed Rebecca - was presented to the king and queen. Just before they were to return to America in 1617, she died.
Jamestown and its satellite settlements were subsequently attacked twice by the Indians in the 17th century, at great loss of life.
Jamestown has been maintained by the Association for the Preservation of Virginia Antiquities and the National Park Service in such an evocative state that you may well feel that the princess, Smith and Rolfe only just left it.
A centerpiece of this riverside restoration is a serene bronze statue of Pocahontas, which seems to capture the legend's spirit.
The old Jamestown fort that Smith helped erect is, of course, long gone. And there has been considerable debate recently over where on the grounds it was actually located. The Park Service has long maintained that the original foundation is now under the James River, but some archeologists believe it was so large that the remains of some portions still can be located on land.
A short distance from the actual Jamestown site is the replica Jamestown Settlement, a representative and interesting re-creation of the first fort and environs, including a facsimile Indian village and full-scale replicas of the ships that brought the Colonists from England.
Directly across the James River from Jamestown, on Virginia Highway 10 between Hopewell and Surry, is the remains of the Flowerdew Hundred settlement, dating back to the early 17th century, and modern-day archeological dig with a small museum. At Surry is Bacon's Castle, a 1665 fortified dwelling place, behind which down a short dirt road is ``Smith's Fort'' - an earthworks believed to have been constructed by John Smith.
Another excavation, at the site of the Wolstenholme Towne settlement wiped out by Indian attack, can be found 6 miles southeast of Williamsburg on Country Road at Carter's Grove Plantation, a 1750 manor house.
Also recommended for those interested in Pocahontas-era early America is North Carolina's Fort Raleigh National Historic Site, once home to the fabled ``Lost Colony'' that predated the 1607 founding of Jamestown by 22 years.
Located on Roanoke Island just west of the Outer Banks and 3 miles north of the town of Manteo on U.S. Hwy. 64, is where Walter Raleigh attempted to start a colony in 1585. The small settlement survived long enough for the first English baby in North America, Virginia Dare, to be born there in 1587. But the Colony's ships that sailed for England that year for resupply were unable to return until 1590, and they found the colony completely vanished, but for the word ``Croatan'' carved in a tree.
The Fort Raleigh facility has an excellent visitors center. At the nearby Waterside Theater the story of ``The Lost Colony'' is performed on an outdoor stage until late August. by CNB