"A Brief and True Report of the New Found Land of Virginia"

This blog post is comprised of my notes and thoughts about the excerpt of A Brief and True Report of the New Found Land of Virginia by Thomas Harriot as it appears in the seventh edition of The Norton Anthology of American Literature Volume A.

Text Notes:

• The entire excerpt presented is based on a single thesis-like statement that Harriot makes near the beginning:  The natives are not to be feared by the English because they (the natives) only have reason to "both fear and love" those who intend to colonize their land (49).
• Harriot first describes the Native American way of dressing, their proportions, and their weaponry.
• The purpose of this, no doubt, is to illustrate how easily the English may overpower and rule over the Native Americans.
• Harriot continues with the theme of describing the ease of colonizing by describing the towns.  He notes that most are comprised of a scant ten to twelve houses and that the largest town they encountered has thirty houses.  
• Just as he drove home the lack of defense that the Native Americans have in the first section, he drives home how little the houses should be regarded by equating them to English garden arbors. 
• Fences and walls, Harriot goes on to describe, are either made of tree bark and stakes or are palisade-style - again, easy to circumvent.
• Next, the government of the Native Americans is described.  Harriot notes that the governments over towns are highly varied.  Some chief Lords govern only one town while others govern many.
• Even those who have many towns are unable to call upon more than seven or eight hundred men to fight in battles.  This is yet another weakness that Harriot points out, and he furthers the explanation of this weakness by describing that Native Americans don't fight in open battles with one another, but instead use ambush attacks at night or meet in battle in forested areas where they can fight with the aid of trees as barricades and vantage points.
• Harriot finally drives the point he's making home by asserting that any attack made by the English against the Native Americans will be an English victory.
• Next, the descriptive text goes on to inspect the poverty of the Native Americans, who are described as being very poor compared to the English.  Furthermore, they are noted for lacking the ability to discern between that which is valuable and that which is merely a trifle.  
• Harriot tempers his criticism of the Native Americans by adding that they are clever and ingenious when it comes to things that they do understand.
• This temperance is used to postulate that perhaps the natives will be easily civilized and indoctrinated to Christianity.
•  Harriot uses this as a segue-way to discuss the Native American religious beliefs.  They already have religion, he asserts before going on to explain the important aspects for comparison.
• The Native Americans believe in the following order:  many gods called 'Mantoac,' but only one chief, great God.  
• God --> lesser gods --> sun, moon, and stars (or petty gods) --> waters --> creatures --> women --> men
• The fact that there is no timeline or idea of time wrapped into this order of creation is noted.
• Gods have human shape, so the natives have idols of them called 'Kewasowok' which are placed in temples; some see the Kewasowok as gods themselves, thus creating idolatry.
• The natives believe in the immortality of the soul which either goes to Heaven or to a great pit of torment called Popogusso.
• Harriet repeats in this section stories of two men who have risen from their graves to give accounts of journeys that they have taken when their souls left their bodies and wondered before returning and granting them another chance at life.
• Harriot notes that these religious beliefs keep the people easy to govern because they do not want to be condemned to Popogusso after death.
• Because the Native Americans already have religion, Harriot presents his experience in explaining Christianity to the Wiroance priests.  He states that they desire to learn more about Christianity and doubt their own religion when presented with the alternative.  Furthermore, the natives believe that God favors the English by giving them complex items or otherwise giving them the superior knowledge to create them.
• Harriet next describes times when the Native Americans entreat the English to pray for those who are sick and/or dying or for the crops that suffer from drought.  
• Finally, there is great detail given regarding illness and death in towns where altercations had arisen between the natives and the English.  Harriot describes the way in which the natives believe the English to be punishing them for their transgressions, and they thus entreat the British to strike down their enemies.
• Though the English refuse, the enemies to the Winoans fall ill anyway, so the English are given praise and credit for the event.
• The footnote that the anthology adds lets the reader know that neither the Native Americans nor Harriot properly understand the spread of infection, making this something of a mystery to both.

 My Thoughts:

• Based on the assumed thesis that Native Americans have reason to both fear and love the English, I believe each of the topics fall into each category:
• Native should fear the English because:
• The English have superior fighting ability and weaponry.
• The English have God on their side and can kill any who slight them.
• Natives should love the English because:
• The English can civilize them.
• The English can magically eliminate their enemies.
• The English can provide the natives with complex technologies and trinkets.
• Based on the fact that this descriptive work is known to be propaganda, it is easy to see the underlying purpose:  Virginia will be easy to settle because the natives cannot beat us on any front.
• This idea is heavily supported in what Harriot says, but the author headnote informs the reader that he omitted a lot of the difficulties that the first group of settlers encountered with the natives.
• I can only think that the propaganda-ish book must have met with some sense of humor when it was published after the second Roanoke colony simply vanished.