Modern-day Greeks are a far different race than those of classical Greece. Neither are they Europeans, and certainly not Turks, for whom there is unalloyed aversion. The Turks subjugated the Greeks and ruled with an iron hand until 1826. Greeks still distrust Turks even though the Turkish influence remains in Greek cookery and otherwise. The Greeks are conscious of being Greek and proud of it. Nikos Kazantzakis, who wrote Zorba the Greek, is a modern-day Greek hero, expressing the Greek character so well. The epitaph on his grave in Crete says it well:
I expect nothing
I fear nothing
I am free.
One of the earliest proofs of such small swords being used in the colonies is a 1564 painting of Frenchman Jacques Le Moyne engaged in combat with Native Countrys in Florida. Greece Map Tourist Attractions In the 1597 account of Captain Don Luis de Velasco, who was serving with Don Juan de O±ate’s expedition, it was noted the he carried with him a sword and a gilded dagger with their waist belts. One would suppose that this was a rapier, as he also took with him one broadsword with shoulder belt. Samuel de Champlain gives us his own drawing of his famous combat in 1609 with Native Countrys; he is plainly wearing a swept-hilted sword, supported by a waist belt. Captain John Mason of Connecticut carried a 32-inch straight, double-edged blade during the Pequot War. His sword is 1¾ inches wide at the hilt and bears a badly worn inscription, recorded as Veni Vidi Vici. Another famous surviving sword, a cup-hilted rapier, belonged to Captain Miles Standish of the Plymouth Colony.
