Answer:
The idea that there was a romance between Pocahontas and John Smith has been around since the early 1800s, if not earlier. John Davis's publications, Travels in the United States of America and Captain Smith and Princess Pocahontas: an Indian tale, (1805) may have been the source of the apocryphal romance. Robert S. Tilton (Pocahontas: The Evolution of an American Narrative, 1994) said of Davis,
[John Davis] ... first recognized the potential of the narrative to be the germ of a great romance. Davis is also the first to subordinate Pocahontas's relationship with Rolfe to her more dramatic tie to Smith, and to posit that it was her love for the captain that accounted for her heroism. Tilton, p. 3
From that beginning, the love story angle really took off and had a 200-year run leading up to the 1995 Disney animated movie, Pocahontas, and the 2005 Terrence Malick movie, The New World, with Colin Farrell as an irresistible John Smith. But those movies are for entertainment purposes, and we should not expect to find within them a definitive response to the historical question of a romance that has stoutly resisted an answer for centuries. Today, historians may insist there was no romance, but since we can’t be 100% sure, movie-makers will always go with the most compelling story. That some Native Americans and a handful of ethnohistorians have a different opinion has so far not presented a roadblock to producers who smell a hit.
To be clear, historians today generally reject the idea of a romance between Pocahontas and John Smith. They usually point out the age gap - Pocahontas was about 11-13 during the two years of their interaction, while John Smith was around 28-30 during that time span. More to the point, there were no specific mentions of a romance in the words of the original chroniclers, and we certainly don’t have any words from Pocahontas on the matter (or any matter, unfortunately)..
However, many people interested in Pocahontas today are apt to be open to the idea of a romance largely because the movies present the story that way. And depending on which book on Pocahontas you open, and how old it is, the possibility of a romance is either weakened or strengthened by the imagination of the author.. Estimates of Pocahontas's age in books vary widely, ranging from 8 to 14, depending on the teller and how badly they want a romance to appear possible. John Davis, referenced above, made her 14, of which Tilton wrote, "He makes her fourteen to leave no doubt that a romantic attraction prompted her actions." p. 43. Frances Mossiker, whose 1976 book was THE Pocahontas biography for decades, also liked the idea of a romance. She cited Pocahontas’s participation in the fertility dance as evidence that Pocahontas had already reached puberty, which would make her of marriageable age. More recently, anthropologist Helen Rountree (2005) stated there was no evidence for., a romance” (p. 142).. Camilla Townsend (2004) suggested that Smith had sexual thoughts for Pocahontas, but that she would have had no romantic feelings for him (p. 76). James Horn (2005) dismissed a Smith-Pocahontas relationship as “overblown mythology.” p. 288.
While I favor the “no romance” answer to the question, I will nevertheless investigate the recorded information in detail and try to analyze what we know. Read on for author comments and for the complete story as told by John Smith himself. My conclusions about the possibility of a romance are near the bottom of the page.
Journalist David A. Price (2003) described their relationship thus:
"If [Pocahontas] had originally pictured [Smith] as a captive servant who would spend his days making her beads and jewelry, their relationship had evolved to give her something of greater value: friendship with someone who shared her inquisitive sensibility. She was curious about the English, and she enjoyed being among them; in Smith, she had found an Englishman who could speak her language and requite her curiosity about the foreigners. Although Smith had practical reasons to encourage the visits--honing his Algonquian, maintaining lines of communication with an ally in Powhatan's court--he also formed an admiration for the 'nonpareil' and took an avuncular interest in her." Love & Hate in Jamestown, p. 77
These lines are merely speculation on Price's part, but they're not unreasonable.
Camilla Townsend, in Pocahontas and the Powhatan Dilemma (2004), writes of Smith's possible sexual interest in Pocahontas and even hints at possible abuse. She writes:
Step-by-step explanation: