After two eventful voyages to the Northern coast, he wrote The Description of New England. His boyhood friend and patron, the present Lord Willoughby, lived with the royal family and Smith easily secured the help of Prince Charles. Smith indulgently let the Prince give English names to the coast which he had already decided to name "New England." On the title page of the book he was heralded as "Admirall of New England."
Just as his book appeared Smith heard in London that a letter from Sir Thomas Dale declared that Dale and his party from Virginia were in Plymouth awaiting a favorable wind before continuing to London. Captain Argall had brought them over on the Treasurer. So ... Smith's colorful past had caught up with him, and he recognized this as good luck. The exciting arrival from the other side of the world was a windfall for him, even if he could not get to either of the Virginias. Publicity would be opportune for the sale of his book.
He was not entirely mercenary, and he was deeply grateful to Pocahontas who had saved his life, and the perilous colony besides. Now it could all be told. He must advise Queen Anne, King James' wife, that it would help the Virginia plantation if Pocahontas was received like royalty. Londoners had known of the marriage for a year, but they had never heard of Pocahontas and John Smith—only of Pocahontas and John Rolfe. When the council for Virginia in London heard of that marriage they had debated solemnly whether Rolfe should be tried for treason. Smith was possibly jealous that Rolfe had hit upon a practical export from Virginia, if not because he had married Powhatan's daughter. An idealist, and a soldier-adventurer, he scorned financial success, at least when it was not his own, and that was usually.
Actually John Rolfe was the independent and industrious colonist for whom Smith had longed, wanting such a one to stay busy in Jamestown while he, Smith, did the exploring. Both had been essential to the colony, the one as path-finder, and the other as planter and producer. Pocahontas, who loved both, would have been baffled by their incompatibility had the two men been thrown together, but fate kept them out of each other's way, and denied both for long to hers, or to the colony's.
Smith found it easier to make England bow to the Rolfes than to himself. Pocahontas became the most distinguished visitor of the year in England. While she could not speak the King's English glibly, she could conduct herself as the daughter of a king. London gentlemen of the court sent engravings of her picture to friends around the world, as if to say with a flourish: "Look whom we have here!"
Uttamatomakkin preferred to impress the English with diabolic antics. People at the landing in Plymouth and also in London thought the savages a circus, but not so the stately Pocahontas.
From the moment she walked off the boat, she moved with a strange new majesty that baffled her own husband as much as others. How could a mere man explain the unaccountable poise which a clever woman could affect in the most unfamiliar setting?
In their own modest lodgings, Rolfe could scarcely keep off curiosity seekers, especially fine lords in elaborate dress who cantered into the cobblestone court and called for Madame Rolfe.
John Rolfe bowed low, contending that Madame was indisposed after her trip, and could not see strangers, no matter of what importance. He would not have them mocking his strange, proud wife. Yet when she met the same lords at balls, he was surprised to find himself in an humble, obscure place in the background. A snobbish Britisher, he was secretly proud of her, though his eyes smouldered occasionally with resentment at some snobbery to himself. It was enough to turn the impressionable woman's head, but he told himself she was at heart a sincere sweet thing.
John Rolfe heard that the King thought that he had aspirations to become Powhatan's heir, and as such James's rival over there, and for that reason was snubbing him to keep him in his place.