All thanks given to God

Gustavo Quintero
English 48A
October 4, 2007
Journal #7 Norton Anthology, William Bradford

Quote:
"Besides, what could they see but a hideous and desolate wilderness, full of wild beasts and wild men?...Neither could they, as it were, go up to the top of Pisgah, to view from this wilderness a more goodly country to feed their hopes."( Bradford 116)


Summary:
The Pilgrims upon reaching the newly "discovered" land have the wrong impression of the landscape that is far from the truth. When the pilgrims arrive at shore they see what to them seems to be an untamed wilderness unable to support any types of crops or people. The people they do encounter are seen as savages or beasts. These are very false description's of the Native Americans considering the condition they are in.

Response:
Once again we revisit the tired old stereotype that Native Americans have faced for hundreds of years. Upon arriving to land, William Bradford encounters along with others people he is not familiar with. The most ironic thing about calling these people "wild" is that they themselves were much more "wild" looking than the Native Americans. According to Loewens book the Native Americans were a taller, much healthier race of people than the general Europeans that came. The Native American men were in much better shape overall with a much more fit physique. On the other hand the Pilgrims were shorter people, who rarely bathed and who brought with them numerous amounts of diseases.They had bad teeth and were in a much less healthier state of being than the Native Americans. The Native Americans diet was also richer in vitamins and minerals and life sustenance. While the Europeans were accustomed to drinking beer. The point I am trying to paint here is that it is very ironic that the Native Americans were the people viewed as wild, when one could easily argue that it was the Europeans that were the wild ones.

All of our accounts of Native Americans come from their eyes and hands of the Europeans. The account taken from above reflects a typical European view. They all believe that they are on a holy quest from God in search of the promised land. William Bradford references Mount Pisgah in one of his journals. Pisgah was the mountain where Moses first saw the promised land. So in a way the Pilgrims who first began to arrive to this new land land saw themselves as a Moses type of being. When they arrive to land they have found what they believe is the holy, promised land that they have been in search of. By the will of God they find this promised land. Later after reading some investigative literature we find that some of these land discoveries had already been made by others and also were stumbled upon by accident. This reference to Mount Pisgah is an important one because it shows the amount of faith that these Puritans had in their religion. When things seem to be going your way you must credit it to somebody. By arriving at this Mountain that Bradford has dubbed Pisgah, the Pilgrims are empowered with more hope. This, as they see it, is what they have been in search of and with the help of God were able to find. Later they will attribute their findings of food and shelter to God also.

The point that is important to see is that the Pilgrims were a people with a lot of faith and belief in what they did. This may have been one of the factors that allowed them to endure so many hardships. Through William Bradfords Journals later generations can see the enormous impact that the Pilgrims had on America and its inhabitants