Image taken from page 99 of "The Pictorial History of the United States of America" by John Frost, 1843. Pocahontas saving the life of Captain John Smith. Pocahontas (1595-1617) was an Algonquian Indian remembered for her association with the colonial settlement at Jamestown, Virginia. She was the daughter of Chief Powhatan, the head of a network of tributary tribal nations in the Tidewater region of Virginia. She is said to have saved the life of an Indian captive, John Smith, in 1607 by placing her head upon his own when her father raised his war club to execute him. Captain John Smith (January 1580 - June 21, 1631) Admiral of New England was an English soldier, explorer, and author. He was considered to have played a important part in the establishment of the first permanent English settlement in North America. He was a leader of the Virginia Colony (based at Jamestown) between September 1608 and August 1609, and led an exploration along the rivers of Virginia and the Chesapeake Bay. Smith's books and maps are extremely important in the further colonization of the New World. He died in the year 1631 in London at the age of 51.