There’s no doubt that John Smith was a self-promoter and definitely overplayed/overhyped his claims about his relationship with Pocahantas (who was probably age 9-11 at the time). But the modern-day university “historians” accuse Smith of brutality that was simply random, and it was anything but. People tend to get a little revenge-y after finding their friends have been spatchcocked alive and thrown into a fire piece by piece.
My ancestors lived at Basse’s Choyce on the James River and survived the 1622 Opechancanough massacre, so reading this book was extremely informative and I highly recommend it. He is a British author and utilized a ton of resources in the UK Archives that I had no idea existed.