d Rebecca. He left Capt. George Yardly
deputy-governor during his absence, the country being then entirely at
peace; and arrived at Plymouth the 12th of June.

Capt. John Smith was at that time in England, and hearing of the arrival
of Pocahontas at Portsmouth, used all the means he could to express his
gratitude to her, as having formerly preserved his life by the hazard of
her own; for, when by the command of her father, Capt. Smith's head was
upon the block to have his brains knocked out, she saved his head by
laying hers close upon it. He was at that time suddenly to embark for
New England, and fearing he should sail before she got to London, he
made an humble petition to the Queen in her behalf, which I here choose
to give you in his own words, because it will save me the story at
large.

Sec. 29. Capt. Smith's petition to her Majesty, in behalf of Pocahontas,
daughter to the Indian Emperor, Powhatan.

To the most high and virtuous princess, Queen Anne, of Great
Britain:

Most admired madam--

The love I bear my God, my king, and country, hath so often
emboldened me in the worst of extreme dangers, that now honestly
doth constrain me to presume thus far beyond myself, to present
your majesty this short discourse. If ingratitude be a deadly
poison to all honest virtues, I must be guilty of that crime, if I
should omit any means to be thankful.

So it was,

That about ten years ago, being in Virginia, and taken prisoner
by the power of Powhatan, their chief king, I received from this
great savage exceeding great courtesy, especially from his son,
Nantaquaus; the manliest, comeliest, boldest spirit I ever saw in
a savage; and his sister Pocahontas, the king's most dear and
well-beloved daughter, being but a child of twelve or thirteen
years of age, whose compassionate pitiful heart of my desperate
estate gave me much cause to respect her. I being the first
Christian this proud king and his grim attendants ever saw, and
thus enthralled in their barbarous power; I cannot say I felt the
least occasion of want, that was in the power of those my mortal
foes to prevent, notwithstanding all their threats. After some six
weeks fatting amongst those savage courtiers, at the minute of my
execution, she hazarded the beating out of her own brains to save
mine, and not only that, but so prevailed with her father, that I
was safely conducted to Jamestown, where I found a