Pocahontas pleading for the life of colonist Captain John Smith, after her father Chief Powhatan commands him to be flayed. In December 1607, while seeking food along the Chickahominy River, Smith was captured and taken to meet the chief of the Powhatans. Although he feared for his life, he was eventually released without harm and later attributed this in part to the chief's daughter, Pocahontas, who according to Smith, threw herself across his body, "at the minute of my execution, she hazarded the beating out of her own brains to save mine; and not only that, but so prevailed with her father, that I was safely conducted to Jamestown." 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 between September 1608 and August 1609, and led an exploration along the rivers of Virginia and the Chesapeake Bay. He gave the name New England to that region and encouraged people to migrate. He died in the year 1631 in London at the age of 51.