Tradition? Salvation? Or mere Exaggeration?

"Captain Smith is saved by Pocohontas"

Will we ever know the truth to this well known tale?

The most general belief is that Smith had been saved during the the tribes Execution ceremony.

However, many historians have doubted the strength of Smith's observations, and seen his accounts as merely boastful, possibly even exaggerated.

Unfortunately, we will only ever have a handful of evidence to go by.

The idea that this moment of salvation was in fact part of a traditional tribal performance, may never be fully examined by historians.

In this picture, De Bry leaves little to the imagination in his attempt to show us the answer to this question. If John Smith was the only person to have given evidence to this ceremony, we may never know the tribes real insentives. It does however show us the general image that many Europeans held. Whether arriving back from the New World, or just the popular picture of the Natives, that was created even before the settlement.