3rd Week Assignment

In “A Description of New-England,” Captaine John Smith speaks of the treasures the new land brought both the royalty of England and the peasants. This land was a place that anyone could prosper, and many voyaged across the ocean to have what we now refer to as “The American Dream.” They would prosper in ways they never could in England.
Smith writes about the lifestyle Pilgrims came to know: “If he have but the taste of virtue, and magnanimitie, what to such a minde can bee more pleasant, then planting and building a foundation for his Posteritie, gotte from the rude earth, by Gods blessing and his owne industrie, without prejudice to any?” (50) He then talks about spreading the word of God to the Indians: “If hee have any graine of faith or zeale in Religion, what can hee doe lesse hurtfull to any; or more agreeable to God, then to seeke to convert those poore Salvages to know Christ and humanitie…” (50) The Pilgrims came to a world so vast and incredible, with so much opportunity to thrive. He talks about hunting, fishing, planting, and you can hear the enthusiasm in his words. “…and yet you shall see the wilde haukes give you some pleasure, in seeing them stoope (six or seaven after one another) and houre or two together, at the skuls of fish in the faire harbours, as those ashore at a foule; and never trouble nor torment your selves, with watching, mewing, feeding, and attending them…” (51) He’s bursting with excitement about everything the “new world” has to offer. He literally tells everyone in England to make the voyage. “But that each parish, or village, in Citie, or Countrey, that will but apparell their fatherlesse children, of thirteene or fourteen years of age, or young married people, that have small wealth to live on; heere by their labour may live exceeding well: provided always that first there bee a sufficient power to command them, houses to receive them, meanes to defend them, and meet provisions for them.” (52) Smith is incredibly passionate