The True Story of Pocahontas As it began to sail on March 21, 1617, Pocahontas quickly became ill after dining with Rolfe and Argall. She returned to her room and vomited, telling Mattachanna that she thought something was put in her food. Mattachanna went to get Rolfe as she convulsed. When she returned, Pocahontas had died. She was quickly buried in Gravesend, where Thomas was left to the clergy until relatives arrived. Rolfe left immediately for Virginia. Upon return, Mattachanna and her husband, along with the rest of the Powhatans, reported that Pocahontas was poisoned before her departure, as she was in good health in
History of Jamestown, Virginia (1607–99) England several years earlier, which served to greatly improve relations between the Virginia Native Americans and the colonists for several years. However, when she and John Rolfe took their young son Thomas Rolfe on a public relations trip to England to help raise more investment money for the Virginia Company, she became ill and died just as they were leaving to return to Virginia. Her interment was at St George's Church in Gravesend. What became known as the "Starving Time" in the Virginia Colony occurred during the winter of 1609–10, when only 60 of 500 English colonists survived. The colonists,