# Chanco

> Mediated Wiki article. Canonical URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/Chanco
> Markdown URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/Chanco.md
> Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chanco
> Source revision: 1349733617
> License: Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/)

Famous Virginian Native American

For the town in Chile and its namesake cheese, see [Chanco, Chile](/source/Chanco%2C_Chile) and [Chanco cheese](/source/Chanco_cheese).

For the fighter nicknamed Chanco, see [Magomed Zaynukov](/source/Magomed_Zaynukov).

Chanco Memorial to Chanco outside the Surry County Courthouse Other names "Chauco", "Chancho", "Chacrow" (disputed) Known for Warning Richard Pace of a 1622 native attack

**Chanco** (fl. 1622) is a name traditionally assigned to a Native American who is said to have warned a Jamestown colonist, [Richard Pace](/source/Richard_Pace_(planter)), about an impending [Powhatan attack in 1622](/source/Indian_massacre_of_1622).[note 1]

## Unnamed Native

The Native American's warning to [Richard Pace](/source/Richard_Pace_(Jamestown)) is described in the [Virginia Company of London](/source/Virginia_Company_of_London)'s official account of the 1622 [Powhatan](/source/Powhatan) attack on Jamestown, but the Native American is not named.[1] He is described only as a converted Native American "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.*

The account later makes reference to other Native Americans who warned settlers of the impending attack:

*...it pleased God to vse some of them as instruments to saue many of their liues, whose soules they had formerly saued, as at Iames-Cittie, and other places, and the Pinnace trading in Pamounkey Riuer,[note 2] all whose liues were saued by a conuerted Indian, disclosing the plot in an instant.*[1]

All of the Native Americans who gave warnings are unnamed.

## Chauco

A Native American named Chauco is mentioned in a letter from the Council in Virginia to the Virginia Company of London, dated April 4, 1623:[2]

*May it please you to understande, yt since our laste Lre, there cam two Indians. to [m\[artins\] Hunndred](/source/Martin's_Hundred) 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.*[3]

## "Chauco" misread as "Chancho"

In 1740, [William Stith](/source/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](/source/Library_of_Congress) website, "William Stith compiled this detailed factual history of Virginia by culling material from the Records of the [Virginia Company](/source/Virginia_Company), a manuscript archive that Jefferson later owned and used in his own work."[4] The archive was subsequently acquired by the Library of Congress and is now available online [5]

Stith evidently read the letter in which Chauco's peace mission is mentioned and concluded that Chauco (misread by Stith as "Chanco") was the same person as the Native American who warned Pace. The identification is explicitly made by Stith in the following passage:

"I find... [Opechancanough], early the next Year, sending Chanco, Pace's Christian Convert, who discovered the Indian conspiracy, to assure Sir [Francis Wyatt](/source/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..."[6]

Whether Stith's identification was correct or mistaken remains undetermined. In *Pocahontas's People*, the historian Helen C. Rountree argues that Chauco and the Pace's Paines Native American have probably been wrongly conflated.[7]

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

## Appearance in modern culture

Chanco on the James (formerly Camp Chanco) is an outdoor events facility and summer camp in [Surry County, Virginia](/source/Surry_County%2C_Virginia), and is owned and operated by the [Episcopal Diocese of Southern Virginia](/source/Episcopal_Diocese_of_Southern_Virginia).[8]

## References

1. **[^](#cite_ref-1)** For a discussion of the various accounts of the Indian's warning, and its consequences for Jamestown, see [Richard Pace](/source/Richard_Pace_(Jamestown)).

1. **[^](#cite_ref-3)** The pinnace was later identified as that of Capt [Raleigh Croshaw](/source/Raleigh_Croshaw).

## Sources

1. ^ [***a***](#cite_ref-Waterhouse_2-0) [***b***](#cite_ref-Waterhouse_2-1) [""CCX. Edward Waterhouse. "A Declaration of the State of the Colony and . . . a Relation of the Barbarous Massacre." 1622." Susan Myra Kingsbury, editor. Records of the Virginia Company, 1606-26, Volume III: Miscellaneous Records, p. 292"](http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/ampage?collId=mtj8&fileName=mtj8pagevc03.db&recNum=586). *Memory.loc.gov*. Retrieved November 20, 2012.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-4)** Fausz, J. Frederick. ["Chauco (fl. 1622–1623)"](http://www.encyclopediavirginia.org/Chauco_fl_1622-1623). [Encyclopedia Virginia](/source/Encyclopedia_Virginia). Retrieved July 6, 2015.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-5)** ["CCCXIX. Council in Virginia. Letter to Virginia Company of London, April 4, 1623" Susan Myra Kingsbury, editor. Records of the Virginia Company, 1606-26, Volume IV: Miscellaneous Records, p. 98"](http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/ampage?collId=mtj8&fileName=mtj8pagevc04.db&recNum=119.gif). *Memory.loc.gov*. Retrieved November 20, 2012.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-6)** ["History of the Discovery and Settlement of Virginia - Exhibitions - myLOC.gov (Library of Congress)"](https://web.archive.org/web/20130427065730/http://myloc.gov/Exhibitions/jeffersonslibrary/Memory/ExhibitObjects/HistoryoftheDiscoveryandSettlementofVirginia.aspx). Myloc.gov. Archived from [the original](http://myloc.gov/Exhibitions/jeffersonslibrary/Memory/ExhibitObjects/HistoryoftheDiscoveryandSettlementofVirginia.aspx) on April 27, 2013. Retrieved November 20, 2012.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-7)** ["American Memory from the Library of Congress - Browse by"](http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/collections/jefferson_papers/mtjser8.html). Memory.loc.gov. Retrieved November 20, 2012.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-8)** *[ibid.](/source/Ibid.)*,[*[clarification needed](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Please_clarify)*] p.238

1. **[^](#cite_ref-9)** Rountree, Helen C. (1996). *Pocahontas's People: the Powhatan Indians of Virginia through four centuries*. University of Oklahoma Press. pp. 303 n69. [ISBN](/source/ISBN_(identifier)) [9780806128498](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:BookSources/9780806128498).

1. **[^](#cite_ref-10)** ["Chanco on the James | Where no child is left inside & adults gather to connect, learn and renew"](https://chanco.org/).

v t e Jamestown, Virginia Colony (1607–1624) Timeline of Jamestown, Virginia • History (1607–1699) Events Anglo-Spanish War (1585–1604) First Virginia Charter Second Virginia Charter Virginia Company/London Company Jamestown supply missions Starving Time Anglo-Powhatan Wars 1619 Jamestown craftsmen strike Indian massacre of 1622 Geography Belle Isle Cape Charles College Creek Dumpling Island Glass House Point Hog Island James River Jamestown Island Mulberry Island Stingray Point Tsenacommacah Werowocomoco Orapax Powhatan's Chimney Associated places (list) Blunt Poynt Kecoughtan Cape Henry First Landing State Park St. John's Episcopal Church Farrar's Island Henricus Beggars Bush (Jordan Point) Moysonec Old Point Comfort Fort Algernon Pagan River Passapatanzy Wolstenholme Towne 1619 incorporations James City Charles City Elizabeth City City of Henrico Colonists (list) Original Virginia Governor's Council members Edward Maria Wingfield (president) Bartholomew Gosnold Christopher Newport John Martin John Ratcliffe George Kendall John Smith Other notable original colonists Gabriel Archer Robert Beheathland Samuel Collier Robert Hunt George Percy Nathaniel Powell Thomas Studley Anas Todkill Thomas Wotton Notable colonists from supply missions First Supply Jonas Profit Thomas Savage Matthew Scrivener Michael Sicklemore William Spence Second Supply Anne Burras Raleigh Croshaw Thomas Dowse Mistress Forrest Thomas Forrest Thomas Graves Hugh Gwyn Ralph Hamor Daniel Tucker Francis West Jamestown Polish craftsmen Third Supply Richard Buck William Capps James Davis Temperance Flowerdew Thomas Gates Stephen Hopkins Samuel Jordan Silvester Jourdain William Peirce William Powell Robert Rich John Rolfe Samuel Sharpe William Sharpe George Somers Henry Spelman William Strachey Edward Waters George Yeardley Fourth Supply Samuel Argall Lawrence Bohun Thomas West, 3rd Baron De La Warr Fifth Supply John Clarke Thomas Dale Cecily Jordan Farrar William Spencer Alexander Whitaker Joan Wright Notable colonists 1611–1624 "Angela" Edward Bennett William Berkeley John Cheesman William Claiborne William Farrar Henry Fleete Anthony Johnson Christopher Lawne Elias Legarde Samuel Matthews Richard Pace John Pollington John Pott Edmund Rossingham George Sandys Walter Shelley Richard Stephens George Thorpe William Tucker John West Francis Wyatt Natives and native groups Accomac people Appomattoc Opossunoquonuske "Chanco" Chickahominy people Pamunkey (tribe) Opechancanough Patawomeck Powhatan (people) Powhatan (leader) Pocahontas Tackonekintaco Tomocomo Nemattanew Rappahannock people Other notables Ancient planter Women of Colonial Virginia Tobacco brides John Ferrar Nicholas Ferrar Virginia Laydon John Pory Nathaniel Rich Robert Rich, 2nd Earl of Warwick Edwin Sandys Thomas Smythe Robert Tyndall Pedro de Zúñiga y de la Cueva Written accounts "Dale's Code" (1612) A Description of New England (1616) The Historie of Travaile Into Virginia Britannia (1619) The Generall Historie of Virginia, New-England, and the Summer Isles (1619) True Reportory (1625) Pamiętnik handlowca (1625) The True Story of Pocahontas: The Other Side of History (2007) Cultural depictions Po-ca-hon-tas, or The Gentle Savage (1855) Pocahontas (1910 film) The Wives of Jamestown (1913) Johnny Smith and Poker-Huntas (1938) Captain John Smith and Pocahontas (1953) Argall: The True Story of Pocahontas and Captain John Smith (2001) The New World (2005 film) Jamestown: Legend of the Lost Colony (2011) Jamestown (2017) Associated ships Susan Constant Godspeed Discovery Mary and John Sea Venture Virginia Seaflower Treasurer White Lion Related Jamestown Rediscovery General Court of Virginia (colonial) House of Burgesses Virginia General Assembly Virginia Governor's Council "He who does not work, neither shall he eat" List of James River plantations Preservation Virginia Roanoke Colony Park: Historic Jamestowne • Museum: Jamestown Settlement (Jamestown Glasshouse) • Trail: Captain John Smith Chesapeake National Historic Trail

Authority control databases VIAF

---
Adapted from the Wikipedia article [Chanco](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chanco) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chanco?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.