In the meantime, fate took a hand--at Jamestown, Pocahontas and "Master John Rolfe, an honest gentleman," fell in love and were married. In this way peace was established, for a time, between the Indians and the colonists.
As "Lady Rebecca," wife of John Rolfe, Pocahontas traveled to England and had other adventures, but her last happy days as a free Indian maiden were spent in the land between the Rappahannock and the Potomac, later known as the Northern Neck. An Indian village called "Petomek," near the mouth of Potomac Creek, was the scene of her kidnapping.
Potomac Creek is located in Stafford County, three miles north of Falmouth. Some believe that Captain Argall found Henry Spelman and Pocahontas at the village of the Potomacs at the same time.
Henry Fleet was one of the expedition of twenty-six men aboard the _Tiger_ who under Captain Spelman in March, 1623, went to trade for beaver skins and corn with the Anacostan and other Indian tribes near the head of the Potomac.
Fleet was with Spelman when he went ashore. After Spelman was killed and his head tossed over the river bank, Fleet was taken prisoner and carried to the village of the Anacostans. This is believed to have been located not far from the present monument of Washington, in Washington, D. C.
Fleet was about twenty-five years old and had but recently arrived in Virginia. His father was William Fleet of the London Virginia Company, which may have been the reason that Henry came to the New World. Henry was adventurous, quick-witted and intelligent. He made good use of his stay in the wilderness of the Northern Neck by studying his new environment. Later he wrote down some of these observations:
"It aboundeth in all manner of fish. The Indians in one night will commonly catch thirty sturgeons in a place where the river is not above three fathom broad. And as for deer, buffaloes, bears, turkeys, the woods do swarm with them, and the soil is exceedingly fertile." He also wrote that he had seen "plenty of black fox, which of all others is the richest fur." This animal was a large marten, so fierce that it was the match for any forest animal up to the size of a deer.
Henry was kept in captivity for four years, when his friends managed to ransom him. Small vessels were then trading with the Indians of the Potomac and news of him was probably carried to Jamestown in this way.