Page:The part taken by women in American history.djvu/40

Rh delegates from the Sixth Nation, held at Lancaster, Pennsylvania, in 1744, and was made much of by the ladies of Philadelphia. During the Wyoming massacre the name of Mrs. Mary Gould, wife of James Gould, is mentioned for conspicuous heroism.

A noted character, and the one with which we are the most familiar, is Pocahontas, the daughter of Powhatan. Every one has read of her saving the life of John Smith. It remains a debatable question even to this day whether it was her love for him, or because she desired to adopt him as her brother—which was permitted in those days by the Indians to those captured—which made her exert herself so conspicuously in his behalf. Suspicion by many historians has been cast upon the wily chief Powhatan, who might through Smith's adoption have opened an avenue for the establishment of more friendly relations with the whites. Some years later Pocahontas was herself captured by one Captain Argall, who bought her from some Potomac Indians, and it is stated the price paid was a copper kettle. Soon after her capture she married John Rolfe, and was taken by him to England. Here she again met Captain Smith, who showed scant appreciation of her sacrifices for him. After she was presented at the Court of King James, she was given the name of Lady Rebecca. She died in England, in 1617, leaving one child, by Rolfe, and it is said that through this child her blood flows in the veins of some of the best families in Virginia.

In the Seminole War, Osceola, the great chieftain, was the son of an Indian woman by a white man by the name of Powell. Little is known of his mother except that she was a very remarkable character, and it is believed it was through her influence that her son was selected as chief.

Before the dawn of the last century the influence and power of these aboriginal women among their tribes was fast