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<title> Wilderness in The New Canaan </title>
I am in this essay going to describe how American settlers perceived nature in the 17th and 18th C. I will talk about the change in views over the years and how religion is related to how people looked upon nature. I am going to give an account for how three "representative" Americans looked upon nature, starting in 1612 with the first colonies and Captain John Smith's views on nature.
The first parts of America to be colonized were Virginia and New England, quite logically on the West Coast, since the colonists came from Europe. The first permanent colony was settled in Jamestown, Virginia in 1607. At first, the settlers were only impressed by the new country and its richness, however, after a few years had past, many colonists had died in deseases, Indian attacks and starvation. The colonists were badly prepared and not familiar with the conditions of Virginia.
Captain John Smith was one of the leaders of the first colony and he too was quite impressed by the greatness of the country. Smith wrote in 1612 A Map of Virginia where he thouroughly describes the landscape of Virginia with its herbs, plants and animal species. He often compares animals and plants with what he is used to from Europe, and according to him, everything is bigger and more peculiar in America. He, for example, describes that the squirrels in Virginia have the same size as European wilde rabbits. 
Although Smith was impressed by the richness of Virginia, he was also frightened by its wilderness, and very eager to cultivate the land. For example: "...by reason of the rancknesse of the ground; which will soon be amended by good husbandry." In other words; wilderness had to be defeated and turned into cultivated land. Furthermore it seems as if Smith was quite respectful concerning the native Americans. Being a man of the 17th C, he, quite inevitably, talks about the Native Americans as the Savages, but in the same time he is respectful in describing their customs, merely giving an account for, not judging, their habits.
One generation younger than John Smith was the English Royalist George Alsop. He sailed to Maryland in 1958 and served as an Indian trader before he returned to England in 1663. Alsop was, like Smith, very impressed by the New Country. In his essay from 1666, A Character of the Province of Maryland, he describes the country like this: "Neither do I think there is any place under the Heavenly altitude, ..., that can parallell this fertile and pleasant piece of ground in its multiplicity...". Alsop continues in his description of Mary-Land to emphasise how fertile and rich the land is, and that people just ought to "dwell there and become rich". The optimism of Alsop can be explained both by the fact that he actually was known for being constantly exaggurating, always mocking other people, also that he only lived in America for five years and never experienced any set-backs.
One century after John Smith wrote his tribute to Virginia and was eager to see the land cultivated by the colonists, Robert Beverly is being sceptical towards the cultivation in History and Present State of Virginia that he wrote in 1705. He concludes that the whites by their "improvements" are ruining the natural Eden that was America. He calls the colonists fools, since they don't appreciate the wilderness and its playfulness. Beverly was, in other words, one of the first Americans to criticize the progress of civilization. He, actually, regrets the loss of wilderness of the Indian's America.
Beverly is very much focused on the Indians, and he admires their way to go about things. He describes in detail their different fishing-methods, and admits frankly that whites could never have devised such "pretty inventions." Beverly also makes an interesting point when he discusses wild animals: "And tho' some of these Names [animal species] may seem frightful to the English, who here not of them in their own Country; yet they are not so there... which the Indians, never troubled themselves about." He simply explains that the English' fear for wilderness is based on ignorance. To sum up what he feels about the progress of civilization he says:"...the present state of the English there, and the Alterations, I can't call them Improvements, they have made at this day."
But how did the religion affect peoples view on nature? The pioneers saw America as the promised land, they even called it "The New Canaan". They believed that God himself had given them a new start, and by moving to America, they felt as if they were taking part of a new Exodus. They had to survive the wilderness, get through it, in order to reach the Promised Land. This was also explicitely explained by Cotton Mather, probably the most important representative for American Puritanism. The wilderness was an obstacle to get past, in which everything that could threaten the colonists in their search for the Promised Land could hide. In order to find the New Canaan all chaos must be turned into order, all evil into good. For the puritans the wilderness stood for everything that was evil and chaotic, including the Native Americans. Thus, wilderness had to be conquered to gain order and goodness, and become cultivated land and Christianity.
Since the pioneer associated wilderness with evil, it is no wonder that they never appreciated it, only wanted to turn it into cultivated land. This was experienced by the Frenchman Alexis de Tocqueville who in 1831 came to the United States with a desire to travel for pleasure into the wild forest. The Americans thought him mad since they never looked upon nature in that way. They saw nature merely in a utalitarian way, i.e; forest was lumber and prairies were farms. They considered wilderness to be a waste of resources, absolutely useless. However, wild country did always have the value of a potential civilization.
In brief, colonists were, when they arrived to America, immediately astounded and impressed with the magnificent landscape of the American West Coast. It did not take long, however, before they had to face several set-backs. Anyhow, colonists survived, and the work to cultivate the land and create a civilization started. Since then, there has been an ongoing war where wilderness, evil and Indians have been made enemies to colonists, civilization and Christianity. The pioneers were convinced that by conquering land from the wilderness (cultivate it) they could reach the Promised Land, the New Canaan. They were not fascinated by the nature in its wild condition, on the contrary, they wanted to annihilate wilderness since it, according to them, contained so much wickedness. However, there were people who saw it differently. For examle people like Robert Beverly who admired the Indian's way of living in the wilderness, and who regretted that the Europeans ever had settled in America.
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