Captain Smith is in some respects a very good type of the restless adventurers of his age; but he had a little more pseudo-chivalry at one end of his life, and a little more piety at the other, than the rest.  There is a decidedly heroic element in his courage, hardihood, and enthusiasm, softened to the modern observer’s comprehension by the humorous contrast between his achievements and his estimate of them.  Between his actual deeds as he relates them, and his noble sentiments, there is also sometimes a contrast pleasing to the worldly mind.  He is just one of those characters who would be more agreeable on the stage than in private life.  His extraordinary conceit would be entertaining if one did not see too much of him.  Although he was such a romancer that we can accept few of his unsupported statements about himself, there was, nevertheless, a certain verity in his character which showed something more than loyalty to his own fortune; he could be faithful to an ambition for the public good.  Those who knew him best must have found in him very likable qualities, and acknowledged the generosities of his nature, while they were amused at his humorous spleen and his serious contemplation of his own greatness.  There is a kind of simplicity in his self-appreciation that wins one, and it is impossible for the candid student of his career not to feel kindly towards the “sometime Governor of Virginia and Admiral of New England.”

THE STORY OF POCAHONTAS

By Charles Dudley Warner

The simple story of the life of Pocahontas is sufficiently romantic without the embellishments which have been wrought on it either by the vanity of Captain Smith or the natural pride of the descendants of this dusky princess who have been ennobled by the smallest rivulet of her red blood.

That she was a child of remarkable intelligence, and that she early showed a tender regard for the whites and rendered them willing and unwilling service, is the concurrent evidence of all contemporary testimony.  That as a child she was well-favored, sprightly, and prepossessing above all her copper-colored companions, we can believe, and that as a woman her manners were attractive.  If the portrait taken of her in London—­the best engraving of which is by Simon de Passe—­in 1616, when she is said to have been twenty-one years old, does her justice, she had marked Indian features.

The first mention of her is in “The True Relation,” written by Captain Smith in Virginia in 1608.  In this narrative, as our readers have seen, she is not referred to until after Smith’s return from the captivity in which Powhatan used him “with all the kindness he could devise.”  Her name first appears, toward the close of the relation, in the following sentence: