Envisioning America and causes of the Pueblo Revolt

envisioning america & what caused the pueblo revolt?

Envisioning America

An English colonist describing life in North America

I left the port of London on the blessed day of 15 November, 1595, hoping to support bringing the light of our mother church of England to those poor savage Indians in the name of her Majesty. I was a carpenter and I knew they needed my labor and skills overseas to reinforce our first settlement, Jamestown, in the New Found land of Virginia. I had my doubts when it came to the natives I was about to encounter there, is the Lord would be so pitiful and shed his Grace upon me and those who set on this long voyage and brought us safe to this far away land. The monks at the monastery where I grew up and learned the art of carpentry taught me how to read and write and this is how I was able to read about the Spaniards and the French who went there and tamed the savages and baptized them. Although our kingdom is the greatest, it needs the commodities we may find there. The Spaniards are using the free labor they find there and they are already exploiting the riches of the soil and those beneath it for the glory of their majesty. but, as Richard Hakluyt the Younger wrote, there is none more entitled to the glory of reigning over the West Indies than our Majesty, Queen Elisabeth. I had every reason to hope that, if I got there safe and sound and survived the terrible diseases that sickened our people, I could find a chance to improve my life along with the benefits such a voyage would bring for the whole realm.

The natives I found here were savage only by their religious beliefs and not by manner. Their behavior to us, English settlers was rather submissive. They feared us to some degree and to another they revered us as they appeared to think of us as partly human and partly gods.

Their towns were scarce and their houses rather primitive and the knowledge of us carpenters and masons was to be of great help to those who decided to settle among these Indians. On the other hand, their soil was rich and the plants and trees were plenty and in larger quantities than at home, in England. The beasts were more numerous, the plants and trees were higher in number and there were many I have never seen or eaten before. The climate was better than in England and it appeared to be more favorable to growing all kinds of crops that we were only able to here about at home, as they were brought in from lands like Italy and Spain or Greece.

After we had found our way through all the islands along the coast, into the main land we encountered the natives who overcame their fears once they found out we were coming in peace and whom we won over with small gifts like knives, dolls, small mirrors and glass jewelry. They appeared to me like babies one is able make happy by the show of a simple colorful toy. They lack any iron or steel tools of weapons and yet they have wonderful skills in building up their boats which they sail then in their rivers full of fish. These people appear to live in a state as if at the beginning of the world when people were savage, did not care much for dresses or riches and lived on the offerings of the land and the rivers. They have no true knowledge of God, our Lord and his son, Jesus Christ. Several times a year, they gather and dance in a circle among poles whose ends are carved like heads. They embrace and sing in strange manners and this seems to be their way of celebrating their gods, which are many.

They are growing corn and tobacco in their gardens which they are watching in turns for the wild beasts that are coming and taking the fruits of the land away unless they are tightly kept under surveillance.

I am very happy that everywhere there are rich woods with good timber I will use for the construction of houses for our people. but, we are a long way from being able to build a solid foundation for a colony of her Majesty here. Our people are either suffering from illnesses or they are starving. There are innumerable riches here offered by nature beneath and above the ground, but it is hard to harvest them or to exploit them with a handful of people from who half are ill or starving. I hope that her Majesty's subjects and our compatriots will soon find out about what lies here as I was able to find out and join us in our efforts to spread the holly beliefs of our Mother Church of England among these savages oversees and bring the glory of conquering new territories and acquiring all the commodities this land has to offer in such great numbers. Just as the Spaniards have managed to do as they first reached these lands, we should also be able to achieve and even greater things because we are protected by Jesus Christ in the name of God, our father, whose house is the holly Church of England. Such enterprise should help us better our own lives while bringing the word of God and spreading Protestantism through these people who need our guidance and who are so easily conquered by means of gifts such as cheap jewelry and colorful toys.

Thomas Moore had written that a peaceful coexistence is possible between us colonists and the natives of these lands, while Sir William Herbert, the landholder thinks that the only way to settle our colonies here is to "destroy completely the habits and practices of the natives. Thus the natives will put on and embrace the habits and customs of the colonists" (Mancall, p.9)