The caption for this 1902 illustration reads: Pocahontas darted forward and thus prevented my death - from Captain John Smith's Narrative. English Captain John Smith guided the colonists through difficult times in the Jamestown settlement of 1607. Tradition (not authenticated) says that Pocahontas saved him from death at the hands of Native Americans. Pocahontas, c. 15951617, was the daughter of American Indian chief Powhatan. She married John Rolfe, an English colonist in Virginia.