Simon Van De Passe

The engraving on the next page, the only known contemporaraneous portrait of “Pocahontas,” was made in 1616 by Dutch engraver Simon van de Passe. It was commissioned by the Virginia Company, which was established by King James of England in 1606 to create settlements in America. The Latin words around the portrait may be translated as “Matoaka, alias Rebecca, daughter of the most powerful prince of the Powhatan Empire of Virginia.”