Pocahontas obituaries One of the earliest and most influential obituaries of Pocahontas was written by the English colonist John Smith, who claimed to have been saved from execution by Pocahontas in 1607. In his account, published in 1624, Smith described Pocahontas as "a child of twelve years old" who "by her delicate entreaties, would have saved him from death." Smith's account of Pocahontas's intervention on his behalf has been the subject of much debate and criticism, but it helped to establish her reputation as a heroic figure in the English imagination. In the decades following Smith's account, Pocahontas became a popular subject of ballads, plays, and other forms of popular culture in England. She was often portrayed as a noble savage, a virtuous and innocent victim of the brutal ways of the English colonizers. This romanticized image of Pocahontas was perpetuated by the English writer John Davis, who published a biography of Pocahontas in 1626, just two years after her death. Davis's account, which was based on interviews with Pocahontas's relatives and acquaintances, presented her as a virtuous and pious woman who had been corrupted and ultimately destroyed by her contact with the English. In the centuries that followed, Pocahontas's story continued to be told and retold in a variety of forms, from paintings and sculptures to novels and films. She became a symbol of the cultural exchange and conflict that characterized the early years of European colonization, and her image was often used to promote a variety of political and social agendas. In the United States, for example, Pocahontas was embraced as a symbol of Native American resistance to European domination, while in England she was celebrated as a symbol of the civilizing influence of English culture.