The word "opossum" is borrowed from the Powhatan language and was first recorded between 1607 and 1611 by John Smith (as "opassom") and William Strachey (as "aposoum"). "Possum" was first recorded in 1613. Both men encountered the language at the British settlement of Jamestown, Virginia, which Smith helped to found and where Strachey later served as its first secretary. Strachey's notes describe the opossum as a "beast in bigness of a pig and in taste alike," while Smith recorded it "hath an head like a swine ... tail like a rat ... of the bigness of a cat." The Powhatan word ultimately derives from a Proto-Algonquian word ("*wa·p-aʔθemwa") meaning "white dog or dog-like beast."