42-2
Chapter One
Powhatan, Chief of the Powhatan Confederacy
To Captain John Smith
Jamestown, Virginia
1609
The first colonists in Jamestown, Virginia, arrived from England in 1607. Building
homes and finding food in the New World was difficult, and those who survived
the first winters owed their lives to the help they received from the many
tribes of the Powhatan Confederacy. However, the settlers took lands for their own
use that the Indians considered theirs, and disputes arose over the trading of
food and weapons. Chief Wahunsonacock (called Powhatan by the colonists), the
father of Pocahontas, warned Captain John Smith against abusing the Indians'
friendship.
I am now grown old, and must soon die; and the succession
must descend, in order, to my brothers, Opitchapan, Opekankanough,
and Catataugh, and then to my two sisters, and
their two daughters. I wish their experience was equal to
mine; and that your love to us might n ... read full excerpt from American Heritage Book of Great American Speeches for Young People ebook
