This study guide will focus on our narratives of exploration, including Mary Rowlandson's captivity narrative. These narratives were *very* popular in their day! We'll begin with Columbus' 1493 letter to Luis de Santangel, secretary to the royal court of Span.
The picture above is a 1906 illustration of one of Christopher Columbus' ships (probably the Pinta) on its way to the Americas. Note that Columbus' four voyages were limited to the Caribbean.
The Biography Channel recently did a show on Columbus. Here is a link to its extensive biography:
http://www.biography.com/articles/christopher-columbus-9254209
You may prefer its more interactive web site:
http://www.biography.com/columbus/#aChristopherColumbus
I wish that I had known about the above film about Cabeza de Vaca--even if it is in Spanish. Next on our list was the Spanish army officer Cabeza de Vaca's narrative of his travels through Florida, Texas, and Mexico. Here is a route of most of his travels. These took place from 1528 to 1536. The map below is from PBS' web site.
PBS also has a wonderful overview of Cabeza de Vaca's journey and its aftermath:
http://www.pbs.org/weta/thewest/people/a_c/cabezadevaca.htm
Note that, like Rowlandson, Cabeza de Vaca was a captive. Consider how he depicts the Native Americans and their landscape and how he presents his religion. What role(s) do gender, nationality, and one's reason for being in the Americas play?
Next we read an excerpt from French explorer Samuel de Champlain's Les Voyages du Sieur de Champlain (1613, 1619). Consider how this explorer represented his relationship to the Native Americans...at least from the excerpt we read! Above he is depicted meeting with Etienne Brule, a man who lived with the Algonquin and then with the Huron. Ultimately, the Huron killed Brule, believing that he had betrayed them.
Then we leaped ahead to 1804-1806 and the United States of America. Below is C.M. Russell's 1905 painting, "Lewis and Clark on the Lower Columbia."
Although our anthology does not include excerpts from the Lewis and Clark expedition, here are the sites we looked at. Note that these excerpts linked to below include journals from other members of the expedition such as Sergeant John Ordway and Private Joseph Whitehouse.
Here is a useful overview from the Lewis and Clark Trail Heritage Foundation:
http://www.lewisandclark.org/?
These excerpts concern the expeditions' encounters with the Salish of Montana:
http://www.nps.gov/archive/
These excerpts tell us about Sacagawea, their Shoshone guide:
http://www.mathcs.bethel.edu/~
Here is another sampling from the late fall of 1805 when the expedition was in Oregon (see the picture above):
http://www.lewisandclarktrail.
We finished this section with the captivity narrative (1682) of Mary Rowlandson, a minister's wife and mother of four who was seized by Narragansett, Wampanoag, and Nashaway/Nipmuc during a battle of King Philip's War. (A Wampanoag chief, "King Philip"'s actual name was Metacom.) The illustration above is from a 1770 edition of Rowlandson's narrative.
I also want to include some pictures of the places that Rowlandson went to in her nearly three-months' odyssey through central Massachusetts, southern Vermont, and southern New Hampshire. First is a picture of Lancaster, MA, where Rowlandson and her children were captured.
Next is the site of Metacom's encampment near Northfield, MA.
Below is an old photograph of Mount Wachusett, another stop on Rowlandson's odyssey.
For other, newer pictures of Mount Wachusett, see this link to Mark Cashman's web site on places to hike in New England:
http://www.newenglandtrailreview.com/images.asp?TID=109&index=33
As someone who grew up near Mt. Wachusett, I think of that "mountain" as a place where people go skiing, so it's nice to know that it's still a little wild and one could still have an idea of what Rowlandson saw.
Finally, here is the place where Rowlandson was ransomed.
Again, consider the impact that gender, religion, and reason for being in the Americas all have on Rowlandson's narrative. Also, consider the differences between the various Native American peoples. Think in terms of Native American peoples, literatures, and cultures.
I must not forget Capt. John Smith's narrative (1624) and Native American (Laguna) poet Paula Gunn Allen's poem "Pocahontas to Her English Husband, John Rolfe." Did you know that Smith was not the only author of his history? Also, the excerpts that we read take place in and around Jamestown, VA (pictured below--hurray for Wikimedia!)
Below is a picture of Pocahontas in Western dress.
