Pocahontas, a daughter of Wahunsunacock (also known…

Pocahontas, a daughter of Wahunsunacock (also known as Chief or Emperor Powhatan), who rules an area encompassing almost all of the neighboring tribes in the Tidewater region of Virginia (called Tenakomakah at this time), is residing in March 1613 at Passapatanzy, a village of the Patawomecks, a Native American tribe that does some trading with Powhatans.

They live in present-day Stafford County on the Potomac River near Fredericksburg, about sixty-five miles (one hundred and five kilometers) from Werowocomoco, her home town.

John Smith writes in his Generall Historie she had been in the care of the Patawomec chief, Japazaws (or Japazeus), since 1611 or 1612.

According to William Strachey, Pocahontas married a Powhatan warrior called Kocoum at some point before 1612; nothing more is known about this marriage.

When two English colonists began trading with the Patawomec, they had discovered Pocahontas' presence.

With the help of Japazaws, they trick Pocahontas into captivity.

Their purpose, as they soon explain in a letter, is to ransom her for some English prisoners held by Chief Powhatan, along with various weapons and tools the Powhatans had stolen.

Powhatan returns the prisoners, but fails to satisfy the colonists with the amount of weapons and tools he returns, and a long standoff ensues.