Reading Guide for Gorn, Chapt. 1 �Contact and Conquest�

1. What are Columbus�s motives for keeping a journal?  How does he present himself in the journal?  How does he describe the Native Americans?  How does he compare the Americans to Africans?  How might his hopes have influenced how he saw the Native Americans? 

2. How does de las Casas describe the Native Americans?  How does his description compare w/Columbus�s description of the Native Americans?  How does he describe Spanish behavior toward the Native Americans?  On what grounds does he criticize the Spanish?

3. How does the anonymous Aztec narrator of the account of the Spanish conquest of the Aztecs describe the Spanish?  His own people?  How does he explain the conquest of his people by the Spanish?  What motives might consciously or unconsciously lead the narrator to present his story in this way?