Thomas Rolfe to re-embark on the "George" ship commanded by Samuel Argall when Rebecca (Pocahontas) was taken ill and died, at Gravesend in Kent. Thomas was not well enough to survive the long voyage back to Jamestown and Thomas was left in Plymouth, England, with Sir Lewis Stukley and later transferred into the care of his uncle, Henry Rolfe. His father, however, sailed to Virginia without him after being persuaded by Admiral Argall and other members of the journey that he was too sick to continue the voyage; this was the last time the two ever saw each other. Thomas remained in
Gravesend waylaying a regular steamer (whilst under way in the Lower Hope, off Gravesend) bound for Hamburg. (Gravesend also appears in "The Pickwick Papers"). Gravesend is briefly mentioned in the 1818 novel "Frankenstein" by Mary Shelley during Victor's travels through the United Kingdom with Clerval; ultimately culminating in Victor's residence in the Orkney Islands. Also in the 1902 novel "Heart of Darkness" by Joseph Conrad the narrator has dark aired Gravesend as the perspective from which we continue our gaze of a sky that is mournfully gloomy over London. Waiting for the tide near the shores of Gravesend is the setting