Early American Encounters of 1600s
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Early American Encounters of 1600’s
Explorers like Christopher Columbus, Smith John, Vasco da Gama, Samuel de Champlain, Rene Caile, Sir Francis Dake and John Cadbot made a lot of explorations in the larger North and South America. In their descriptions they said that this was a very good land with lots of fertile soils suitable for agriculture. They also said that it had fishing grounds and beautiful sceneries in its flora and fauna worth viewing. Hence, they recommended it to be the best place for the settlement of the Europeans, who were willing to declare it as their new colony. This made it possible for Britain to fully conquer the whole of North and South America as their colonial territories.
On the other hand, they described the native tribes as barbaric people, who were stuck on outdated cultural practices that they could not adopt at any cost. This kind of disagreement made them having problems with such people, who organized frequent attacks against them. However, this came into a climax some years later when the majority of these natives decided to launch an operation to fight for their conquered land. For instance, Smith was forced into a ritual by a tribe called Puwhatan, who almost killed him. This was a very shocking experience.
Even if I am an adventurer who admires the kind of beautiful scenes enjoyed by these explorers in the new land, I would not accept to accompany them during such visits. This is because it was associated with a number of risks that would jeopardize my life. They had to face a lot of challenges including meeting totally strange people with a unique kind of worldview that would automatically not accommodate them in their midst. Besides, there were many storms that caused a lot of fear to them. For instance, in 1615, Smith’s voyage experienced a great storm that drowned one of his crew members.
At the same time, there were lots of problems, like hunger and attack by the natives and other enemies. I can’t imagine being held hostage for months just like smith had been by the French pirates. This can actually stress me and give me a lot of psychological torture. Many of them were also attacked by the indigenous communities who subjected them to lots of harassments, beatings and even killed some of them. This coupled with the ravaging hunger in these places. I could not make it possible for me to part of such adventurous voyages.
Question three
The most admirable aspect of the life of these people is the way they stuck to their traditional beliefs. Both the natives and the immigrant groups held a large portion of their culture that they were not willing to let go whatever the circumstances. The way they were preserving their culture using the various literary methods really perplexes me. They could use oral traditions passed from generation to another. This was indeed the most important thing that could help in classifying them into two distinct groups.
The natives used oral tradition and always remained vigilant, when fighting for their rights. They fought for freedom to own land, be freed from forced labor and look for political and economic freedom. These actions occupied most of their work during the whole period up to the later centuries.
The Europeans were keen using the written methods to keep data. Most of their literary work was based on the economic prosperity and how well they could establish and maintain a full and permanent control of this territory that they though would change the destiny of their prowess in the international scene.
