There is no doubt that Smith was its author.  He was still in Virginia when it was printed, and the printers made sad work of parts of his manuscript.  The question has been raised, in view of the entire omission of the name of Pocahontas in connection with this voyage and captivity, whether the manuscript was not cut by those who published it.  The reason given for excision is that the promoters of the Virginia scheme were anxious that nothing should appear to discourage capitalists, or to deter emigrants, and that this story of the hostility and cruelty of Powhatan, only averted by the tender mercy of his daughter, would have an unfortunate effect.  The answer to this is that the hostility was exhibited by the captivity and the intimation that Smith was being fatted to be eaten, and this was permitted to stand.  It is wholly improbable that an incident so romantic, so appealing to the imagination, in an age when wonder-tales were eagerly welcomed, and which exhibited such tender pity in the breast of a savage maiden, and such paternal clemency in a savage chief, would have been omitted.  It was calculated to lend a lively interest to the narration, and would be invaluable as an advertisement of the adventure.

[For a full bibliographical discussion of this point the reader is referred to the reprint of “The True Relation,” by Charles Deane, Esq., Boston, 1864, the preface and notes to which are a masterpiece of critical analysis.]

That some portions of “The True Relation” were omitted is possible.  There is internal evidence of this in the abrupt manner in which it opens, and in the absence of allusions to the discords during the voyage and on the arrival.  Captain Smith was not the man to pass over such questions in silence, as his subsequent caustic letter sent home to the Governor and Council of Virginia shows.  And it is probable enough that the London promoters would cut out from the “Relation” complaints and evidence of the seditions and helpless state of the colony.  The narration of the captivity is consistent as it stands, and wholly inconsistent with the Pocahontas episode.

We extract from the narrative after Smith’s departure from Apocant, the highest town inhabited, between thirty and forty miles up the river, and below Orapaks, one of Powhatan’s seats, which also appears on his map.  He writes: 

“Ten miles higher I discovered with the barge; in the midway a great tree hindered my passage, which I cut in two:  heere the river became narrower, 8, 9 or 10 foote at a high water, and 6 or 7 at a lowe:  the stream exceeding swift, and the bottom hard channell, the ground most part a low plaine, sandy soyle, this occasioned me to suppose it might issue from some lake or some broad ford, for it could not be far to the head, but rather then I would endanger the barge, yet to have beene able to resolve this doubt, and to discharge the imputating malicious tungs, that halfe suspected I durst not for so long delaying,