s when Divine says, carrying civilization to the peoples of the new world and opening a vast virgin land to economic development which one can see that the Garden of Eden was considered pure just like a virgin is considered to be pure, (Divine, p.2). Each document depicted a land made of only great things, it seems as though it was a type of pick-up-line, as to entice many to follow them to the new world. Columbus pointed this out by saying, This island is quite big and very flat and with very green trees and much water and a very large lake in the middle and without any mountains; and all of it so green that it is a pleasure to look at (Gorn p.9). In document two, the Spanish describe the new world as, The least felicitous of them were more fertile and beautiful than the gardens of the King of Seville. (Gorn, p.12), which also depicted a land of glorious magnitude. If this was how they viewed the new land, then how did the newcomers view the inhabitants of guardians of pristine virtue, as noble savages who were the friends and allies of the whites? The conflicting view then would put the natives morally inferior, violent and vengeful, and in direct contradiction to the European rules. A justification of exploitation that ties in with the above view is that the Indians were saw at the beginning as pure, this would deny the ethnocentric myth that Europeans were the superior culture on the earth. Our class discussion would coincide with this thought when professor Nashel said, they came out of hiding with nothing on but cloths to cover their privates, which could suggest Adam and Eve (lecture, 9/13/99). They then had no choice but to regard the Indians as a race of people that were not civilized or pure enough to be set on the same pedestal, in which the English placed themselves on. Religion played a large part in this chapter and in each document, and was also a factor in the exploitation if the Native American population. ...
