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<title> Instead of a Garden I Found a Wilderness </title>
In this essay I will present different ways in which the first generation of American colonists looked upon nature, from the 1600's to the nineteenth century. The fear of the wild and untamed nature follows man during all those years. The settlers look upon nature as an enemy, which is illustrated by the military vocabulary they use in their descriptions. Those who came to America to cultivate the land in the 1600's were frightened by the wilderness because their physical and moral survival depended on it. Yet, some were amazed by the rich and fertile wilderness. In the eighteenth century many immigrants were fooled to believe America was the earthly paradise of their dreams, and they were very disappointed when they faced reality: It took hard work to make an idyll out of the wild, but some saw it as their mission from God. The wilderness was a symbol for dark and evil powers, and creating a civilized garden out of it was seen as an improvement. In the nineteenth century the defeating of the savage life and nature was regarded as a good deed for mankind. Since all good men preferred civilization the frontiersmen's work had another purpose than only to provide them with food. They took pride in making order in the chaos that was nature.

In the beginning of the 1600's the immigrants were frightened by the wild nature that met them in America. Bradford, for example, said he hated the wild nature, and thus made his followers do the same. What caused this bias was mainly two things: The first was that the wild nature in America was a physical threat to man's survival. Savages and wild animals was a threat as well as the difficulties it meant to get food and shelter. The second cause to the dislike that the newcomers felt toward the wild nature was the fear of becoming savages themselves. But there were other opinions too, Alsop described America's nature as a fertile and rich woman. Also Smith was impressed by the profuse flora and fauna of the New World, and he gave a detailed description of the different species. 

Because of the first newcomers' descriptions of the New World people thought that paradise on earth had been found. America seemed to be a fertile garden, but the reality that met them was not at all like the Garden of Eden. The rough nature demanded hard work of those who wanted to cultivate it. People continued to be fooled, though. On the arrival of the Puritans Mather wrote, in the 1700's, that he who wanted a paradise had to make it himself, and that meant conquering the wilderness. The Puritans had fled from the depraved civilization to create a "city upon a hill", their mission was to make light out of the darkness that was nature. Their belief was that it was God's will for man to cultivate the land. They looked upon themselves as soldiers fighting against an enemy. This view of nature as an enemy was common among the pioneers. They did not at all appreciate it, instead they saw nature as a threat to their existence.

In the nineteenth century nature was still looked upon as an enemy. In their diaries the frontiersmen used a military vocabulary about the wild nature of the New World. When the settlers cultivated the land they did not only do it to get food. It also meant destroying the wilderness to make a civilized garden. They saw the defeating of the savage life as a good deed for mankind and it gave a purpose to the pioneers' lives. The controlled nature in a garden was still the ideal, and the settlers took great pride in making order in the wildness of America. De Toqueville, who came to America on a trip, wanted to travel in the wild nature for pleasure. The settlers could not understand why he wanted to do that. They saw nature only as something to subdue, as something that obstructed them in their attempts to make a living.

The way the frontiersmen looked upon nature when they reached America was very much influenced by their conditions. They depended on it for their survival, hence, they could not possibly admire the untouched nature as de Toqueville did when he came there traveling. The fear and hostility that the settlers felt towards nature had two sources. The first was the fact that cultivating the land was a very demanding work and, yet, in order to survive they had to do it. The other reason was that the pioneers were afraid of becoming a part of the wild and uncontrollable nature. Somehow the lack of order and conventions tempted them. As time went on people found more and more reasons for cultivating the land. From the first feeling of being physically and morally threatened by nature in the 1600's, to creating the Garden of Eden on God's demand, people in the 1800's believed their work had a great importance to the world.
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