POCAHONTAS STORY

Greymouth Evening Star, 15 August 1933, Page 2

POCAHONTAS STORY

CAPT. SMITH’S IMAGINATION. 4 The difficulties of an iconoclast, are pointed out by Ernest D. Tyler, professor of history at the University of Kansas, in commenting on discussions aroused in the newspapers over a story he wrote about Captain .John Smith being a braggart, and martinet. Professor Tyler, who makes a hobby of delving deep in the pages of history to find inaccuracies in early American legends, recently offered the public his version of the rescue of Captain John Smith of Pocahontas. After tedious .study of history books, Tyler said the -story of Smith and his rescue by Pocahontas was but a. figment of Smith’s mind, written to gain money and political recognition. As a result newspapers ran half-column editorials to the effect that. Pocahontas was real, and referred to a volume of Fiske, in which the known fact, that some of| John Smith’s “True Relations” were omitted in the first translation was taken to indicate the Pocahontas incident was one of those incidents deleted for political reasons.

Professor Tyler, in support of his conclusion, submits the following references which he used in his study: — Charles Dean, president of the Massachusetts Historical Society, in his publication of the original “Wingfield Discourse,” said it contained an account which was the same as that of Smith’s first story of his capture and release as found in “True Relations.” In his first, account of his capture,{ Smith failed to mention Pocahontas. Dean edited “True Relations’ ’in ISGfi, and came Io the conclusion Smith was unreliable and he was supported by Justin Winsor in his “Critical and Narrative History.”

Alexander Brown, the Virginia historian and honorary member of the Massachusetts Historical Society, in his “Genesis of the United States” of 1890, has document after document discrediting the veracity of Smith, and he called attention to the story that women were falling in love with Smith wherever he went, in virtually every country, according to Smith. In 1897, John Fiske, a. graduate of Harvard, in his “Old Virginia and Her Neighbours” disposed of all previous historians’ arguments as "flimsy.” and tries to justify Smith in three or four pages on the ground that, the story had. been emitted purposely for political reasons. Smith’s “True Relations” was known to have been censored. but many atrocities still were left. in. such as the murder of .-ill of the members of Smith's party by the Indians. Woodrow Wilson, in his “History of America." said “Smith sounded like brass, but really there was some gold about him, but he probably spiced up tire dispatches for the home folks.” After furnishing the above references, Professor Tyler continued to enlighten. the American public on. the life of Pocahontas. He said she was virtually kidnapped in ItilJ by Governor

Argali of Virginia in order to compel Powhatan to hold peace. Powhatan met all the demands, and yet. Argali kept Pocahontas several years. Her marriage. to John Rolfe was more political Ilian for love, according Io the K.U. professor. , “The reason,” Professor Tyler said, that Pocahontas was.so well received, in England was that (he practicalminded English saw in her a, symbol of Indian peace.” /.