Why did Pocahontas save Captain John Smith?
After looking up this question, I found that most historians believe that the story of Pocahontas saving Captain John Smith is false. Some simply believe Smith made it up and others think he combined the story of what happened to him at Powhatan’s, with a similar event of him being rescued by the intervention of a young girl after being captured by Turks in 1602.
“Professor J. A. Leo Lemay of the University of Delaware is the first scholar to have seriously studied the question.” To answer the question of whether Pocahontas really saved Smith, the historians had to first get proof. The first argument is that, “when smith first wrote about his captivity of December 1607, he generally presented a favorable picture of his captor, Pocahontas' father Powhatan, and he did not mention either having his life threatened or Pocahontas' saving him. Only after Pocahontas and her husband had died did Smith first mention the story in print, and when he did, these writings of 1622 and 1624 present a different picture of his captivity by mentioning Powhatan's general cruelty and specifically his attempt to kill Smith.”(http://vision.stanford.edu/-birch/pocahontas.html)
“Smith was known to go to great lengths to promote himself and his role in the early colony. In 1612, he writes of Pocahontas' affection for him, but his "True Relation" does not mention Pocahontas or an execution threat when he tells of his expedition and meeting of Powhatan. It is not until 1624 in his "Generall Historie" (Pocahontas died in 1617) that he writes of the threatened execution and Pocahontas' dramatic role in saving his life.” “Some historians believe that the story reflects Smith's mistaken interpretation of the "sacrifice." Apparently there was a ceremony in which young Indian males underwent a mock execution, with a sponsor "saving" the "victim." If Pocahontas was in the role of sponsor, this would explain much of her special relationship with the colonists and Smith, helping in times of crisis and even warning Smith and the colonists about a planned ambush by her father's warriors.” (Womanhistory.about.com/od../a/pocohantas.htm)
It is not known if this story is really true or not, but Smith and Pocahontas soon became friends. At first the white settlers had a friendly relationship with the Indians. Pocahontas often visited Jamestown and brought goods which she traded with the white people. (http://www.english-online.at/people/native-americans/pocahontas-indian-chiefs-daughter.htm)
