The James River carries a heavy commerce below Richmond, and the
channel depths of the wayward and very crooked stream are maintained
by an elaborate system of jetties, constructed by the Government. Both
shores show the earthworks that are relics of the war, and Drewry's
Bluff, with Fort Darling, the citadel of the Confederate defence of
the river, is projected across the stream. Below is Dutch Gap, where
the winding river, flowing in a level plain, makes a double reverse
curve, going around a considerable surface without making much actual
progress. Here is the Dutch Gap Canal, which General Butler cut
through the narrowest part of the long neck of land, thus avoiding
Confederate batteries and saving a detour of five and a half miles; it
is now used for navigation. Just below is the large plantation of
Varina, where the Indian Princess Pocahontas lived after her marriage
with the Englishman, John Rolfe. Its fine brick colonial mansion was
the headquarters for the exchange of prisoners during the Civil War.
The brief career of Pocahontas is the great romance of the first
settlement of Virginia. She was the daughter and favorite child of
Powhatan, her name being taken from a running brook, and meaning the
"bright streamlet between the hills." When the Indians captured
Captain John Smith she was about twelve years of age. He made friends
of the Indian children, and whittled playthings for them, so that
Pocahontas became greatly interested in him, and the tale of her
saving his life is so closely interwoven with the early history of the
colony that those who declare it apocryphal have not yet been able to
obliterate it from our school-books. Smith being afterwards liberated,
Pocahontas always had a longing for him, was the medium of getting the
colonists food, warned them of plots, and took an interest in them
even after Smith returned to England. The tale was then told her that
Smith was dead. In 1614 Pocahontas, about nineteen years old, was
kidnapped and taken to Jamestown, in order to carry out a plan of the
Governor by which Powhatan, to save his daughter, would make
friendship with the colony, and it resulted as intended. Pocahontas
remained several weeks in the colony, made the acquaintance of the
younger people, and fell in love with Master John Rolfe. Pocahontas
returned to her father, who consented to the marriage; she was
baptized at Jamestown as Lady Rebecca, and her uncle and two brothers
afterwards attended the wedding, the uncle giving the Indian bride
away in the little church at Jamestown, April 5, 1614. A peace of
several years' duration was the consequence of this union. Two years
afterwards Pocahontas and her husband proceeded to England, where she
was an object of the greatest interest to all classes of people, and
was presented at Court, the Queen warmly receiving her. Captain Smith
visited her in London, and after saluting him she turned away her face
and hid it in her hands, thus continuing for over two hours. This was
due to her surprise at seeing Smith, for there is no doubt her husband
was a party to the deception, he probably thinking she would never
marry him while Smith was living. The winter climate of England was
too severe for her, and when about embarking to return to Virginia
she suddenly died at Gravesend, in March, 1617, aged about twenty-two.
She left one son, Thomas Rolfe, who was educated in London, and in
after life went to Virginia, where he became a man of note and
influence. From him are descended the famous children of
Pocahontas--the "First Families of Virginia"--the Randolph, Bolling,
Fleming and other families.