ESSAY CEMETERY

Summary He thanks the queen. He recounts how he was taken prisoner by Powhatan. His son Nantaquaus is the manliest Indian he'd ever seen. His daughter Pocahontas saved him at the risk of her own life. Furthermore, she provided food for the miserable sick settlers. Even when they began to war with the Indians Pocahontas saw to their needs and warned them of attacks. He has no idea why she helps them so. After she is taken captive (I guess by the settlers) she is returned and they achieve peace with the Indians. She marries an Englishman, goes to England, converts to Christianity, and learns English. Smith apologizes for being a lousy writer but says he's sincere. He apologizes for asking, but he does ask that the Queen be aware of Pocahontas and see that she's well-received. This is so that Pocahontas doesn't resent her having become a Christian and gone off to England. Themes Thanking and apologizing to the queen Pocahontas story Assimilation Conversion Immigration Pedo...

Columbus goes from Spain to Madeira, and then to the Canaries and then the Cape Verde islands. He goes below the equator and it's super hot there until God graces them with a fair wind. They go up to the equator and it becomes mild. Something about the pole and the stars. He has heard that the earth is a sphere but to him, it seems more like the shape of a pear or a nipple. When he sails in different directions stuff happens to the stars. Ptolemy had it wrong because he knew nothing of the Southern hemisphere. He reaches the island Cape Verde where the people are black. Then he reaches Trinidad where the people are whiter, shrewder, and less timid than the natives of the Indies. Christopher Columbus.  Image source

Click here  for a summary of Columbus's report on the first voyage Click here  for Columbus's original report text ------------- Themes Praising the king and queen Praising God and thanking God Naming islands Taking captives Natural descriptions Giving and receiving from the Indians Shy natives Generosity of natives Fostering trade and good relations Missionary desire Expectation of monstrosities Bragging and the eternal God, our Lord, Who gives to all those who walk in His way triumph over things which appear to be impossible, and this was notably one Importance of evidence Sexual imagery- the earth is a nipple (to be conquered) Scientific theorizing Style and devices First-person narrator (letter) Sucking up to the king and queen Run-on sentences And in it, although of all I have taken possession for their highnesses and all are more richly endowed than I know how, or am able, to say, and I hold them all for their highnesses, so that they may dispose of them as, and as absol...

Click here  for a summary of Columbus's report on the first voyage Click here  for a literary analysis of Columbus's report on the first voyage   ------------- Columbus's report letter Sir, As I know that you will be pleased at the great victory with which Our Lord has crowned my voyage, I write this to you, from which you will learn how in thirty-three days, I passed from the Canary Islands to the Indies with the fleet which the most illustrious king and queen, our sovereigns, gave to me. And there I found very many islands filled with people innumerable, and of them all I have taken possession for their highnesses, by proclamation made and with the royal standard un­furled, and no opposition was offered to me. To the first island which I found, I gave the name San Salvador, in remembrance of the Divine Majesty, Who has marvelously bestowed all this; the Indians call it "Guanahani." To the second, I gave the name Isla de Santa Maria de Conception; to the third, F...