Now if we (being thereto provoked by Spanish injuries) would either join with these savages or send or give them armor
Indigenous people here are being talked about like if they were pieces in a game of chess rather than actual people. It's a common theme I've seen throughout many of these passages.
Our General called this country Nova Albion.
It baffles me how they just arrive to a land and instantly claim ownership of it by giving it a name as if other might might not already be living there. If it were to happen to them, that someone arrived to their land and gave it a name and claimed it as theirs, they'd be livid. I wonder if anyone ever made that realization back then as they were colonizing lands.
obtained the town and put the inhabitants to flight. Where we took 250 persons, men, women, and children.
It's unsettling how calmly it is stated that they kidnapped women and children. It was so normalized...
They must be good servants and very intelligent, because I see that they repeat very quickly what I told them and it is my conviction that they would easily become Christians, for they seem not to have any sect. If it please our Lord, I will take six of them from here to your Highnesses on my departure, that they may learn to speak. I have seen here no beasts whatever, but parrots only.”
It's honestly a bit unsettling how quickly he reduces these people to potential servants instead of seeing them as human beings who deserve equal rights. As in, his first instinct was instantly control over these people to use them for his own benefits and beliefs. I can see now why disagreements arise in the future; there was lack of mutual respect from the very start.
Notwithstanding the great want that the Frenchmen had, the ground yields victuals sufficient if they would have taken pains to get the same. But they being soldiers desired to live by the sweat of other mens brows.
So what I'm getting here is that the the land /did/ provide enough but the Europeans were too lazy to put in the work to get anything out of the land. Sounds like a skill issue
Luis de Moscoso determined to conceal his death from the Indians, because Fernando de Soto had made them believe that the Christians were immortal.
The fact that they had to hide his body in order to keep the illusion of Christians being immortal is insane. Spreading misinformation just to hold authority on these people really is something.
Indeed there is profit in the buffalo ready to the hand
He seems to notice how much the land of these indigenous people has to offer and instantly thinks of a way to make profit off of it. I think this shows how the mind of a colonizer works: the goal is to exploit the land.
by change of air and alteration of diet the said Savage king died at Sea
I wonder how true this is. Yes, it is possible that he could have died on a long trip because of these things, but I suppose we would never really know considering we only get the side of the story from the Englishmen who would not want to blame themselves over this king's death.
These folk live like beasts without any reasonableness.
I come back to this line here to point out something; it's strange that he says this about the same people whom he points out have incredible knowledge to know how to fish, heal themselves with invented medicines, etc. It is almost like he pointed out the rest as a shock factor for this letter, because instead of even trying to understand their practices, he instantly points them out as beasts. It seems as though he is trying to paint them out to be less human. This whole passage seems to be more about shocking readers rather than helping them understand who the Indigenous people were.
In payment for some services which I hope to render you, I beg your Lordship to kindly write me about such matters
This letter seems overly polite, and it makes sense now since he is asking for information in return. It's almost as if he is doing this as a strategy to help benefit him because all in all he is basically saying he continues to be loyal to England but needs more information
presupposing the rotundity of the earth it must be that the last turn would be by the north towards the west. And it is said that in this way the route would not cost more than it costs now
It's interesting to me that he uses the logic of the Earth being round to know where to travel and understand the geography of the world. For this time period, I think it's impressive how he is using this scientific reasoning.
There they went ashore and looked about them, the weather being fine, and they observed that there was dew upon the grass, and it so happened that they touched the dew with their hands, and touched their hands to their mouths, and it seemed to them that they had never before tasted anything so sweet as this.
What's surprising is how it seems like they lacked a sense of fear when it came to the thought of something unfamiliar to them having the possibility of being poisonous. I guess this shows how differently people in the past interacted with nature compared to how we interact with it today, but I guess it is also because of modern common knowledge that has developed.
But they still didn’t understand that it had been the native people they had despised as lazy and unproductive, and had driven off the land, who had been responsible for its productivity.
It's frustrating to know that colonizers always took credit for things that natives worked hard to achieve and then proceed to erase the people who were responsible for creating and caring for this land in the first place. Let us not forget who this land had belonged to and who we need to keep in mind when we appreciate how beautiful of a land we have.
The Spanish first gave them this name, which means “town” or “village,” because they lived in towns or villages of permanent stone-and-mud buildings with thatched roofs.
I wonder if any of these original stone and mud buildings still exist today or if the ones we can see today are reconstructions of Spaniard settlements.
A ruling class of warrior nobles and priests performed ritual human sacrifice daily to sustain the sun on its long journey across the sky, to appease or feed the gods, and to stimulate agricultural production
I wonder if people ever ended up questioning these rituals, then again I understand that this wasn't just any tradition but one deeply rooted in the belief of it being necessary for survival. And I don't think they could have ever reached that point of being able to evolve their beliefs because of colonization.
Tenochtitlán invented Chinampas: floating gardens built on barges made of reeds and filled with fertile soil. Lake water constantly irrigated these chinampas, which are still in use and can be seen today in the Xochimilco district of Mexico City.
It's cool that chinampas were invented so long ago and yet are still being used today. I got to see one in real life, and it almost feels fairytale with how much beautiful greenery there is. It's incredible that they found this as a sustainable way to feed their population because it shows just how advanced their engineering was back then.
Among these were the Pyramid of the Sun (which is two hundred feet high) and the Pyramid of the Moon (one hundred and fifty feet high).
I got to climb the Pyramid of Cholula which is the biggest pyramid in volume in the world, and it was very difficult to climb albeit not being as tall as the Pyramid of the Sun. I could only imagine having to climb these pyramids instead on a scorching hot day!
cacao beans that were whipped into a chocolate drink formed the basis of commerce
Many people seem to think that chocolate started somewhere in Europe, but I'd like to highlight the fact that it actually came from Indigenous cultures in what is now present-day Mexico. It's super important to acknowledge this fact because of just how culturally significant it was for Mesoamericans. Present-day Mexico still makes chocolate that stands out from all competitors. Trust me on this; try a Mexican hot chocolate mix named Chocolate Abuelita. It will absolutely change your view on how chocolate should taste.