The Colonizing of Jamestown

     Up until now I have written about many great and incredible things over a relatively short time period. The discovery of the Algonquian natives for one thing, was an immense find and a great thing as well for we as settlers learned a great many things for how to survive in the New World.

     The upbringings of the settlement know as Jamestown, the discovery of tobacco (courtesy of the Algonquians) and the sharing of knowledge between two great peoples were all very important happenings and turned out to be mutually beneficial to both the natives and the small group of settlers inhabiting Jamestown.

     But there was also the failure of this meeting of cultures (which saddened me to the very center of my being) that occurred shortly after, due to some petty misunderstandings and acts of selfishness. If I could go back to right my wrongs, you could safely bet all the money in your purse that I would, just so that I could have gotten the chance to learn more from the Algonquians and to maybe start a strong, withstanding union that would help the world in ways that are never even though of unless found through deep, deep thought. For the final and last time, farewell…

John Smith 

     We have not seen any trace of the Algonquians in a little over a month and I don’t think that we will ever see them again. And if we do, it will be as enemies on the field of battle. But who knows? There may be again a time when we Europeans and Natives like Powhatan will work and live side by side as friends. But that is a ways off still and it may not even be the case in the future, even though i wish it will be.

     As for me I am due to return to England, after a gun powder explosion on a hunting trip when a youth loaded to much gunpowder into his musket and it had backfired right  back into me. I would have much preferred to stay and live here but it is not to be so…

     I will write one last time when I get back to England, and then I think that will be the last time you will hear from me in this journal. Until the next time I am permitted to write,

John Smith  

     Now it is about a few years since the last time I saw Pocahontas. But I heard that John Rofle asked Pocahontas to marry him. She said “yes.” About a month after he asked her to marry her they got married in England and it made peace between the settlers and us. Now after they got married the settlers and us can go see each other and not have a big battle. It is a lot nicer now that is it like that because they don’t steel any of our stuff now.

     All I hope is for the best for my daughter and her new husband. Also that the peace with the settlers and us stay so we can be friend for ever. Also not to have any more battles between us. I just hope for the best.

     Now it has been about a month since the brutal battle. We have not even gone to Jamestown since then. I want to go there and get my daughter out of there and bring her back to our village. So we went to go to Jamestown with a few people of ours. When we got there we saw Pocahontas going on a walk by her self. So we took her into the bush so nobody could have seen us talking. When we started talking she said that she wanted to stay. She had fallen in love with John Smith and John Rofle. Some day she said that she would marry one of them. So we left her at Jamestown to get married with the person that she wanted to.

     After the brutal fight at Jamestown we had to restore order in our village. When we put out the fires we were able to see what they had all taken of ours. What they stole the most of ours was the food. When we were over there, I saw my daughter Pocahontas as she was being pushed into a building so that she could not escape when she saw us. All I hope is that my daughter is not going to be hurt. She is my life to me and, well, if she died I don’t know what I would do.     

     All I want to do is just kill all of those settlers and get them off our land. But that is going to be difficult because there are so many people that would be guarding the fort. It would be total suicide to go in there and just take them out.

  …Yesterday was a great loss of life and happiness for my encampment of men and Powhatan’s Tribe. What had happened to my knowledge was simply this. Right after I had sent my men out to subdue the natives before tragedy occurred, Powhatan sent out his force for revenge.      

     The two groups pasted within 20 to 30 feet of each other unknowingly and siege the opposite base, only to return to ruin. Our men had managed to capture a few more natives to aid in the building of the fence and gathered some more supplies without getting so much as a few minor bruises and scrapes though, which I am glad for.

     But what I was upset at hearing though was that the men had set fire to many of the buildings and crops that belonged to the natives.     My only hope this day is that something good will come out of all this madness and suffering. Pocahontas is doing fine and will probably stay with us for the next long while at least. I wish that there was some way that I could let Powhatan know that his daughter is safe and is in good hands… 

John Smith

   Yesterday, Powhatan again visited Jamestown and today sent his daughter, Pocahontas to see it for herself. I had never seen such a beautiful girl before in my life. So tonight I plan on going down to their village and taking Pocahontas along with some more supplies back here with me, for the natives have been getting very hard to deal with as of late and this would make our two groups even. I will write later on tonight again after I get back.    

     Ok, I have just returned from the Algonquian camp down in the valley about 2 1/2 Kilometers South East of here. I think it is a fare assumption that we can expect an attack late tomorrow night sometime, for we left two of their guards dead in the bush. My greatest worry though is that one section of wall that is still not complete. It would be easy prey to a group of angry natives looking for a fight. I think what I will do is send a group of men to go and attack their camp before they can attack mine.

     With any luck, we will be able to force them into an unconditional surrender and without too much bloodshed.    

John Smith

     Then when we got back from Jamestown, my daughter Pocahontas wanted to know what we did. So we told her about the fort and all the things that are in it. She wanted to go and see it for her self so I sent her to go with one of the natives so he could show her the way. So they went to Jamestown. When she got home she told me about how nice it was there and how she met some people. The people that she mostly talked about were John Smith, and John Rofle. She said that they were nice to her and that some day they might get married.

     Also she said that some of the workers were very sick and tired of working on the fort with out any help from us. Some of the workers said that they were complaining about planting the crops and building the fort. She got a weird sense that they were going to do something to our tribe. She got a bit scared. Then after she was all done talking it was late at night so we went to bed.

     When we awoke some of our people, my daughter Pocahontas, and some supplies were gone. So we made another trip over to Jamestown and what we saw got us very mad. We saw our people being treated like dirt. They were making our people plant a lot of tobacco crops and make them work on the fort. We got very made at what we saw so what we were doing to do was at night make an attack.

     We wanted to go and see what the settlers have all done since we have left Jamestown. So we went on a walk over to Jamestown. When we got there we saw even more of the houses built and more of the fence was up but in done yet, and this only a couple of days since we last came and saw their town.    

     But this time I brought over some tobacco, and I was smoking it. They were asking me what it was and where they could get some. All I said was it is tobacco and we grow it. They asked if they could have some too. So we gave some of it to them and some of the plants to grow some. So they got some crops and started to plant some. They said that they could take could this tobacco to different places and sell it for a lot of money, and that they would get rich. It seems like all they care about is money.