Characteristics of Exploration Literature
Characteristics of Exploration Literature: • Explorers were first & foremost navigators, not writers. • Explorers had a specific audience in mind; they were reporting back to the main land • The American Dream is evident • Indians are always considered inferior • Reports were not always accurate
Verazzano: Verazzano’s Voyage • North Carolina up to Canada • Wrote to the King of France who funded the voyage; N.C. cedar trees • “The complexion of these people is black, not much different from that of the Ethiopians; their hair is black and thick, and not very long, it is worn tied back upon the head in the form of a little tail.” • “Our sailors in the boat seeing a great fire made up, and their companion placed very near it, full of fear, as is usual in all cases of novelty, imagined that the natives were about to roast him for food.” • “By searching around we discovered in the grass a very cold woman and a young girl of about eighteen or twenty, who had concealed themselves for the same reason; the old woman carried two infants on her shoulders, and behind her neck a little boy eight years of age; when we came up to them they began to shriek and make signs to the men who had fed to the woods.” • “We found them fairer than the others…” • American Dream: Resources that the land has & space.
Champlain: Voyages of Samuel de Champlain : The Voyages of 1604-1607 • Est. Quebec; compares in his writing • “We saw eighteen or twenty savages, who came to the shore and began to dance.” • “We did not wish them harm, although it was in our power to avenge ourselves.” • “As for weapons, they have only pikes, clubs, bows and arrows. It would seem from their appearance that they have a good disposition, better than those of the north, but they are all in face of no great worth. Even a slight intercourse with them gives you at once a knowledge of them. They are great thieves and, if they cannot lay hold
Verazzano: Verazzano’s Voyage • North Carolina up to Canada • Wrote to the King of France who funded the voyage; N.C. cedar trees • “The complexion of these people is black, not much different from that of the Ethiopians; their hair is black and thick, and not very long, it is worn tied back upon the head in the form of a little tail.” • “Our sailors in the boat seeing a great fire made up, and their companion placed very near it, full of fear, as is usual in all cases of novelty, imagined that the natives were about to roast him for food.” • “By searching around we discovered in the grass a very cold woman and a young girl of about eighteen or twenty, who had concealed themselves for the same reason; the old woman carried two infants on her shoulders, and behind her neck a little boy eight years of age; when we came up to them they began to shriek and make signs to the men who had fed to the woods.” • “We found them fairer than the others…” • American Dream: Resources that the land has & space.
Champlain: Voyages of Samuel de Champlain : The Voyages of 1604-1607 • Est. Quebec; compares in his writing • “We saw eighteen or twenty savages, who came to the shore and began to dance.” • “We did not wish them harm, although it was in our power to avenge ourselves.” • “As for weapons, they have only pikes, clubs, bows and arrows. It would seem from their appearance that they have a good disposition, better than those of the north, but they are all in face of no great worth. Even a slight intercourse with them gives you at once a knowledge of them. They are great thieves and, if they cannot lay hold