Foremost among such traits was that of religion, and indeed Columbus remained convinced that the natives of the New World did not have any religion at all. .
In his two noted works, Journal of the First Voyage to America (1492- 1493) and Narrative of the Third Voyage (1498- 1500), Columbus expresses the New World in terms that belittle the native peoples and expand on the wealth of the Americas. Columbus literally waxes poetic about the qualities of the land, the rich resources of the waters, and other descriptions of the new environment. However, it must be noted that Columbus was writing these journals not for his own sake, nor for the sake of prosperity, but rather for his benefactors Ferdinand and Isabella of Spain. As a result, the reader must consider whether Columbus was truly writing what he believed: All around him were signs of "civilization", where there was development of homesteads and evidence of culture. Yet Columbus belittled all of this and focused instead on presenting the natives as being fundamentally savage in a world of vast potential wealth. The reader questions as to whether Columbus accurately wrote what he believed true, or fabricated much of his "discoveries" in order to convince the King and Queen of Spain to continue investing in his expeditions to the Americas.
William Bradford.
William Bradford's Of Plymouth Plantation is perhaps the best source for addressing his initial experiences within the New World, as his journals were all written in retrospect and therefore the contents were potentially lost or altered in some manner. Of Plymouth Plantation, however, serves to showcase Bradford's personal beliefs when he first began working within the Americas. .
Where Columbus was biased towards believing that the native peoples had no religion, Bradford was adamant about converting the natives from their heathen ways and placed his Puritanical views upon their behaviors.
