North America (United States of America), during this time has been

inhabited by the Native Americans (American Indians). When the

Englishmen arrived, there was resistance from the natives who originally
inhabit the land. The Americans we know now are actually great great
grandchildren of Englishmen settlers in America; the Americans we know
today are the Americans of the New World – as that is what England called
North America during those times of exploration and colonization.

Colonialism always tells two sides of the story – one of the colonizing
country, and another of the colonized country and people. As defined,
“colonialism is a practice of domination, which involves the subjugation of
one people to another” (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, 2017, par.
1). Subjugation implies the surrender of one person to another’s power, of
one nation to another more powerful nation. And so, naturally, harmonious
relationship between the colonizers and the colonized can never exist.
The Englishmen during those times already had a long history, they already
have an established government, they had literature, language,
religion. With this, we can totally agree with John Smith when he referred to
the Indians as savage, devil, grim, ugly—uncivilized people. These are
people who depend on rituals and their gods and goddesses for their
decision, people who still used ancient weapons in fighting, people who
haven’t seen a compass before as they were so amazed when the Capt.
showed it to them in explaining that the world is round and eventually gave
it to Opechancanough, King of Pamunkey.
The National Geographic discusses a number of signs of civilization as 1)
having a settlement, 2) class structure and government, 3) things that
indicate development such as language, art, trade, and
technology. Meanwhile, other sources also include religion to be one
indicating factors of civilization.
The journal itself implies what kind of society the Indians had upon the arrival
of the Englishmen. First, the Indians had settlements, they had villages,
tribes, cities. That is evident with the events that follow John Smith’s captivity
by the bowmen. He was initially brought to the village of Pamunkey led by
their King, Opechancanough. This also implies class structure and
government as the bowmen did not immediately kill him but brought him to
their leader for trial and sentencing. Opechancanough did not even
sentence him at once, the village had to do rituals for guidance from higher
beings – a sign of religion. When Opechancanough was left undecided,
thanks to John Smith bribing him with the compass (sign of trade), the Capt.
was brought from one village to another until he was presented to the highest
leader – Emperor Powhatan of Werowocomoco. This is yet another sign of
government, of justice system on the part of the Indians. Finally, these
people have their own language, and they also have their art, and
technology. Kayaks and rubber are just some of the technology credited to
the Indians even before Christopher Columbus accidentally discovered
America (Columbus wanted to go to India but landed on America which he
thought was India; hence, the natives were called American Indians). The
Indians have also mastered corn planting that they were the ones who taught
the English settlers how to grow them (History, 2020).
So why did Capt. John Smith depict an image of the Indians as savages and
uncivilized in his journal? This may be associated with the concept
of Orientalism—a concept put forward by Edward Saïd in his 1978 book,
which presents the distinction between the West and the East (Orient). This
distinction is brought about by the Western political ideology so that the West
could subjugate the East. In other words, Orientalism serves as a license for
the Western people (which they give themselves) to present themselves a
superior, while the Eastern people inferior. Specifically, the Western
ideology presents the West as strong, rational, masculine, civilized, while
presenting the East as weak, emotional, feminine, and
degenerate. Therefore, representation of the colonized people as the way
John Smith did is something that is expected in colonial literary pieces such
as What Happened till The First Supply.