Oldal 217 [217]
SECOND CONTACT: PATTERNS OF “SECOND ENCOUNTERS”...
while a few “savages” would be seen only in the northern parts of it.?” Mason’s
Briefe discourse of the New-Found-Land supports this claim, and confirms
Parkhurst’s thesis about the perfect suitability of the soil for growing wheat,
rye, oats and herbs etc. “But of all,” he adds ingenuously, “the most admirable
is the Sea, so diuersified with seuerall sorts of Fishes abounding therein, the
consideration whereof is readie to swallow vp and drowne my senses not
being able to comprehend or expresse the riches therof.”*? Whitbourne, in
his relatively late Discourse and discovery of Newfoundland,” insists on the
“naturall fruitfulness of the earth,” and while he enlarges on the “superstitious
ignorance” of the Aboriginals he still appreciates “their ingenuous and subtile
dispositions.”” In the main, however, he further presses on the urgent need
to “plant seuerall Colonies of his Maiesties subiects in that Country,”** before
“some other Prince will step in, and vndertake the same.”?”
Piecing together the ideas these authors broached, it is safe to say that the
urgency with which they spurred the actual monarch to take possession was
due to their perception that in the North-Atlantic geopolitical chess game,
time was just ripe for setting foot in a territory they considered a terra nullius.
In this assessment, Aboriginals were perceived as no more than a faceless,
marginal phenomenon, not even viewed as enemies or a significant obstacle to
colonization but often thought of as a not yet fully human crowd that had to be
educated by the colonizers. It strikes the reader how the timber, cod, penguins,
and even bears of Newfoundland receive a disproportionately larger amount of
attention than its human inhabitants in the above-cited descriptions. Which
invites the remark that this island — and much of North America — was seen
as a manless place waiting to be humanized. But that the Indigenous peoples
were just as human and just as discerning as the new arrivals was proved by,
among other things, what happened to Hudson’s crew.
ended by July. That fish is large, alwayes wet, having no land neere to dry, and is called Corre
fish. During the time of fishing, a man shall know without sounding when he is upon the
banke, by the incredible multitude of sea foule hovering over the same, to prey upon the
offalles and garbish of fish throwen out by fishermen, and floting upon the sea.” (Hayes,
A report of the voyage, in Quinn [ed.], Voyages of Gilbert, Vol. 2, 397-398.)
“In the South parts we found no inhabitants, which by all likelihood have abandoned those
coastes, the same being so much frequented by Christians: but in the north are savages
altogether harmelesse.” (Ibid., 406.)
Unnumbered page towards the middle of the text.
In the title and the text alike, “discovery” may also mean literally “revelation” or “true
description.”
Whitbourne, Discourse and Discovery, first text part, 4-5 (pagination starts afresh in all
three text parts of the book).
Ibid., second text part, entitled “A Discovrse Containing a Loving Invitation,” 2. Whitbourne
adds on page 14 of the first text part that “it doth plainly appeare, that it is a Country not
only habitable and lying open, ready to receiue the first commers; but also for the goodnesse
thereof, worthy to be embraced, and made the habitation of Christians.”
2” Thid., first text part, 17.