|
||
|
|
|
|
Diplomacy in Colonial New England
An engraved depiction of the meeting between Ralph Hamor, secretary of the colony of Jamestown, and Powhatan, chief of the Powhatan Confederacy and father to Pocahontas. The scene shows Englishmen Ralph Hamor, Thomas Savage, and two native guides visiting Powhatan (shown embracing Hamor) along the Pamunkey River in 1614. This engraving depicts interaction and diplomatic gift-giving practiced between the two groups as natives offer a necklace to the English as another Englishman addresses a crowd of Powhatan. The meeting between the two groups involved negotiations to hopefully preserve peace among the groups which led to the marriage of Pocahontas to John Rolfe.
The village of the Powhatans is nicely illustrated, albeit with some artistic liberties like the inclusion of palm trees in Virginia or the design of the depicted houses. Engravers based their art on the descriptions of the Americas as written about by European explorers who often exaggerated their accounts. Similar errors can be seen in other depictions of early colonial Virginia.
This engraving was made for the 1617 German edition/translation of Hamor's A True Discourse of the Present State of Virginia which was published in English in 1615. German printer Abelius commissioned engraver Georg Keller to create this image as the original English version did not include any illustrations. Keller based his work on the 1590 Virginia Indians series by Theodore de Bry, hence some similarities.
A description from the Encylopedia Virginia.
![[St. Augustine, Florida] Oppidorum apud Floridenses structura. XXX](https://storage.googleapis.com/raremaps/img/small/98035.jpg)
![[ Florida Native Americans ] Mulierum, quarum maritivel in bello caesi, aut morbo sublati posulata a Rege. XVIII.](https://storage.googleapis.com/raremaps/img/small/98052.jpg)
