Sooner or later.

Sir John Smith, Admiral of New England—otherwise known, more famously, as Captain John Smith.

Most school children in the United States know the story of Captain Smith and the Jamestown Colony.  Most of us remember all the exciting details of the capture by Powhatan and the rescue by Pocahontas.

And most of us now know that the truth of those tales is somewhat suspect.

Captain Smith made a good few enemies.  His veracity has been questioned over the centuries.  Investigation is complicated by post-Civil War scholars attempts to give precedence to the New England colonies over Virginia’s early settlers.

And Captain Smith seems to have made a habit of being rescued by young girls, since he tells the same story about his time in Transylvania prior to the voyage to Jamestown.

So, who knows?

Did he embellish his memoirs?  Was he an ally or enemy to the Native Americans?  An honor to the Smith name or not?

We’ll never really know.

But he was an adventurer, a survivor, a leader, and an explorer.

We’ll have to settle for that.