It has the honor
of being the first of its kind written in the English tongue.
Did Pocahontas actually rescue Captain Smith? In his account of his
adventures, written in Virginia in 1608, he does not mention this rescue,
but in his later writings he relates it as an actual occurrence. When
Pocahontas visited London, this story was current, and there is no evidence
that she denied it. Professor Arber says, "To deny the truth of the
Pocahontas incident is to create more difficulties than are involved in its
acceptance." But literature does not need to ask whether the story of
Hamlet or of Pocahontas is true. If this unique story of American adventure
is a product of Captain Smith's creative imagination, the literary critic
must admit the captain's superior ability in producing a tale of such
vitality. If the story is true, then our literature does well to remember
whose pen made this truth one of the most persistent of our early romantic
heritages. He is as well known for the story of Pocahontas as for all of
his other achievements. The man who saved the Virginia colony and who first
suggested a new field to the writer of American romance is rightly
considered one of the most striking figures in our early history, even if
he did return to England in less than three years and end his days there in
1631.
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