Speech by Powhatan, as recorded by John Smith, 1609

Why will you take by force what you may obtain by love? Why will you destroy us who supply you with food? What can you get by war? . . . We are unarmed, and willing to give you what you ask, if you come in a friendly manner. . . .
I am not so simple as not to know it is better to eat good meat, sleep comfortably, live quietly with my women and children, laugh and be merry with the English, and being their friend, trade for their copper and hatchets, than to run away from them. . . .
Take away your guns and swords, the cause of all our jealousy, or you may die in the same manner.

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This speech is written by chief Powhatan to the English settlers (recorded by John Smith). The story of John Smith his travels to America are most commonly recognised alongside Pocahontas who was actually chief Powhatan’s daughter, although the story of Pocahontas’s and John Smith’s relationship has been written stating very different views of the story. The speech above indicates that Powhatan and his tribe welcomed the English and were somewhat happy with sharing their land and resources with the travellers, however it seems that this did not go to plan. From the speech above it seems that Powhatan was shocked and could not understand why the English wanted to start a war with them as in the speech he says “why will you take by force what you may obtain by love? Why will you destroy us who supply you with food?” Some of the stories of Powhatan’s tribe and Pocahontas, talk about how the tribe had supplied the travellers with food as the English didn’t and couldn’t find or source their own and when the English wouldn’t trade their guns for the food the tribe stopped supplies and so the English started a war with the tribe. This speech written by the chief was to the English in a bid to stop the war. It seems that he was even willing on sharing everything the tribe had with the English in order to keep the peace and get to know these new people and culture in order to learn – which leads to part of the speech “take away your guns and swords, the cause of all our jealousy” The tribe were interested in these new tools (guns) and so if they were removed from the equation they would be able to live in harmony. However it seems that the English did not rise to the offer of chief Powhatan and so the war continued.