Pocahontas has meanwhile been kept at Henricus.
Little is known about her life here during the yearlong wait, although colonist Ralph Hamor wrote she received "extraordinary courteous usage."
An English minister, Alexander Whitaker, teaches her about Christianity and helps to improve her English.
After she is baptized, her name is changed to Rebecca.
The standoff builds in March 1614 to a violent confrontation between hundreds of English and Powhatan men on the Pamunkey River.
At the Powhatan town of Matchcot, the English encounter a group that includes some of the senior Powhatan leaders (but not Chief Powhatan himself, who is away).
The English permit Pocahontas to talk to her countrymen; however, according to the deputy governor, Thomas Dale, Pocahontas rebukes her absent father for valuing her "less than old swords, pieces, or axes" and tells them she prefers to live with the English.
During her stay in Henricus, Pocahontas has met the widowed John Rolfe, who has fallen in love with her.
A pious man who agonizes over the potential moral repercussions of marrying a heathen, he writes a long letter to the governor requesting permission to wed her, expressing both his love for her and his belief he would be saving her soul.
They are married on April 5, 1614 and Pocahontas is christened Lady Rebecca.
Pocahontas's feelings about Rolfe and the marriage are unknown.
Their child, Thomas Rolfe, will be born on January 30, 1615.
Their marriage is unsuccessful in winning the English captives back, but it does create a climate of peace between the Jamestown colonists and Powhatan's tribes for the next several years.
