Pamunkey most powerful. Powhatan and his daughter Matoaka (Pocahontas), who achieved historical fame, were Pamunkey Native Americans. Captain Samuel Argall abducted her as a hostage in an attempt to secure the release of some English prisoners and ammunitions held by her father. Initial contact with Europeans was around 1570. "And from [1570] on at ever briefer intervals until the first permanent English colony was established at Jamestown in 1607, the Powhatan Confederacy was visited by white men: Spanish, French, and English." (Barbour, 5). Scholars estimate that when the English arrived in 1607, this paramount chiefdom numbered about 14,000–21,000 people. Colonists of
Powhatan had with the Spanish prior to their arrival). Within two weeks of the English arrival at Jamestown, deaths had occurred. The settlers had hoped for friendly relations and had planned to trade with the Virginia Indians for food. Captain Christopher Newport led the first English exploration party up the James River in 1607, when he met Parahunt, "weroance" of the Powhatan proper. The English initially mistook him for the paramount Powhatan ("mamanatowick"), his father Wahunsunacawh, who ruled the confederacy. On a hunting and trade mission on the Chickahominy River in December 1607, Captain John Smith, later president of the colony,