Moreover, in the four centuries that have passed since the birth of Pocahontas, numerous legends and myths have sprung up around her, which makes the efforts to bring the real Pocahontas into focus even more challenging. .
What we do know about the early years of Pocahontas comes from sources left by the English settlers of Jamestown. Born around 1596, Pocahontas was the favorite daughter of Powhatan, the leader of the Powhatan Confederacy, an alliance of Indian tribes and villages stretching from the Potomac River to the Tidewater region of Virginia. His actual name was Wahunsonacock, but the English simply called him Powhatan, after his village, and this name is also used in Disney's Pocahontas. Pocahontas was actually the girl's nickname, meaning frolicsome' , little wanton' or the willful one' , and her real name was Matoaba. .
In 1607, settlers founded the first permanent English settlement and called it Jamestown, after the then English monarch, King James I. Jamestown happened to be located in the middle of Powhatan's realm. According to the legends, Pocahontas helped save the Jamestown colony from extinction twice. The first time, she supposedly saved the life of Captain John Smith, one of the leaders of the Jamestown colony. According to Smith, he was captured by a band of Indian warriors while exploring the area along the Chickahominy River. The warriors led him to their village, where he was offered a feast by Powhatan. After the festivities, Powhatan ordered his men to place two large blocks of stone in front of him. Smith was forced to kneel before the stones and place his head on the top of them. The warriors surrounding him then raised their clubs, as though ready to beat him to death if ordered. It was Pocahontas, then about eleven years old, who interrupted the execution. Several years later, when he published his Generall Historie of Virginia in 1624, Smith told the account as follows: .
