Chanco

For the town in Chile, see Chanco, Chile.

Chanco is a name traditionally assigned to an Indian who is said to have warned a Jamestown colonist about an impending Powhatan attack in 1622. This article discusses how the Indian came to be known as Chanco. For a discussion of the various accounts of the Indian's warning, and its consequences for Jamestown, see the entry for Richard Pace (Jamestown).

The Unnamed Indian

The Indian's warning to Richard Pace is described in the London Company's official account of the 1622 attack, but the Indian is not named. He is described only as a converted Indian "belonging to one Perry":

That the slaughter had beene vniuersall, if God had not put it into the heart of an Indian belonging to one Perry, to disclose it, who liuing in the house of one Pace, was vrged by another Indian his Brother (who came the night before and lay with him) to kill Pace, (so commanded by their King as he declared) as hee would kill Perry: telling further that by such an houre in the morning a number would come from diuers places to finish the Execution, who failed not at the time: Perries Indian rose out of his bed and reueales it to Pace, that vsed him as a Sonne: And thus the rest of the Colony that had warning giuen them, by this meanes was saued. Such was (God bee thanked for it) the good fruit of an Infidel conuerted to Christianity; for though three hundred and more of ours died by many of these Pagan Infidels, yet thousands of ours were saued by the means of one of them alone which was made a Christian; Blessed be God for euer, whose mercy endureth for euer; Blessed bee God whose mercy is aboue his iustice, and farre aboue all his workes: who wrought this deliuerance whereby their soules escaped euen as a Bird out of the snare of the Fowler.

No contemporaneous account mentions a name for the Indian. The name "Chanco" does not appear until 1740.

First Use of the Name "Chanco"

In 1740, William Stith published his History of the first discovery and settlement of Virginia. According to a description of the book on the Library of Congress website, ""William Stith compiled this detailed factual history of Virginia by culling material from the Records of the Virginia Company, a manuscript archive that Jefferson later owned and used in his own work." The archive was subsequently acquired by the Library of Congress and is now available online

Stith includes the story of the warning passed to Richard Pace by the Indian. In Stith's version, the Indian is named as "Chanco":

This Slaughter was a deep and grievous Wound to the yet weak and Infant Colony; but it would have been much more general, and almost universal, if God had not put it into the Heart of a converted Indian, to make a Discovery. This Convert, whose name was Chanco, lived with one Richard Pace, who treated him, as his own Son. The Night before the Massacre, another Indian, his Brother, lay with him; and telling him the King's Command, and that the Execution would be performed the next Day, he urged him to rise and kill Pace, as he intended to do by Perry, his Friend. As soon as his Brother was gone, the Christian Indian rose, and went and revealed the whole matter to Pace; who immediately gave Notice thereof to Captain William Powel, and having secured his own House, rowed off before Day to James-Town, and informed the Governor of it."

Origin of the Name

Where did Stith get the name "Chanco"? Later in the book, he mentions the name again:

"As to the lawful Emperor, Opitchupan, he seems very greatly to have disapproved of the Massacre. For I find him, early the next Year, sending Chanco, Pace's Christian Convert, who discovered the Indian conspiracy, to assure Sir Francis Wyatt, that if he would send ten or twelve men, he would give up the rest of the English prisoners, that were in his Possession..."

This passage appears to refer to a letter written from the Council in Virginia to the Virginia Company of London, dated April 4, 1623. The letter includes the following:

May it please you to understande, yt since our laste Lre, there cam two Indians. to m[artins] Hunndred who accordinge to order were sent vp to James Cyttie, one of which (Chauco) who had lived much amongst the English, and by revealinge yt pl[ot] To divers vppon the day of Massacre, saued theire lives, was sent by the great Kinge, wth a messuage, the effect wherof was this, that blud inough had already been shedd one both sides, that many of his People were starued, by our takinge Away theire Corne and burninge theire howses, & that they desired, they might be suffred to plante at Pomunkie, and theire former Seates, wch yf they might Peaceablely do they would send home our People (beinge aboute twenty) whom they saued alive since the massacre, and would suffer us to plant quietly alsoe in all places, The other (called Comahum) an Actor in the Massacre at Martins Hundred, beinge a great man and not sent by the greate Kinge, Wee putt in Chaines, resolvinge to make such vse of him, as the tyme shall require.

Stith apparently read this letter, during the course of his research, and concluded that the Indian called "Chauco" (which Stith read as "Chanco") was the same person as the Indian who gave the warning to Richard Pace.

Whether Stith's identification was correct or mistaken, remains undetermined. It appears that Indians warned colonists in more than one location. In Pocahontas's People, Helen C. Rountree argues that Chauco and the Pace's Paines Indian have probably been wrongly conflated.

Whatever the truth, the name "Chanco" has by now been firmly established in folklore as the name of "the Indian who saved Jamestown," and seems unlikely ever to be dislodged.

Other uses

"Chanco" is also used in the name of "Chanco On the James," a retreat center on the banks of the James River in Surry County, Virginia, which is owned by the Episcopal Diocese of Southern Virginia. (http://www.chanco.org)