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
John Smith (English poet) John Smith (English poet) John Smith (1662–1717) was an English poet and playwright. He was son of John Smith of Barton, Gloucestershire, and in 1676 became a chorister of Magdalen College, Oxford, matriculating on 10 July 1679. He graduated B.A. in 1683, M.A. in 1686; in 1682 he became a clerk of the college, in 1689 usher of the college school. Smith died at Oxford on 16 July 1717, and was buried in the college chape Smith was the author of: It is generally thought that Smith was the author of "Win her and take her, or Old Fools will