its neighbors, who were not “real” people. As the Spanish, French, and
English invaders quickly realized, these differences had given rise to bitter
and long-standing hostilities that made it virtually impossible for the
Indians to combine against Europeans. With their eyes firmly fixed on their
neighbors, time after time, group after group, Indians would welcome for-
eign invaders and attempt to use them in local struggles. This was also the
experience during the European conquest of Africa and Asia: European
military force often provided only “stiffening” to the mainly indigenous
armies that established European rule. Moreover, individual tribal societies
could never match the manpower that national consolidation in Europe
gave Britain, France, and Spain. Fragmented as the vast areas of Africa,
Asia, and the Americas in fact were, each was outnumbered as well as out-
gunned by the invaders.
While diverse and often mutually hostile, the societies also retained
many common features. Since no Native American society north of Mexico
produced or bequeathed to us its own record, we glimpse them only in the
blurred picture presented by European visitors. None of the first Europeans,
of course, spoke native languages; when a few did learn some dialect, they
rarely thought it worthwhile to try to capture the thoughts, fears, or hopes of
any Native Americans.
The most sophisticated of the observers, the Jesuit priests in the areas
controlled by Spain, learned more but also were more hostile to Indian cul-
ture. A striking example is given in the account of the Jesuit missionary
Juan Nentuig:
The ceremonies of their heathenish weddings are not fit to be described
in detail. I shall only mention the more decent. They gather together, old
and young, and the young men and marriageable women are placed in
two files. At a given signal the latter begin to run, and at another signal
the former to follow them. When the young men overtake the young
women each one must take his mate by the left nipple and the marriage is
made and confirmed. After this preliminary ceremony they devote them-
selves to dancing.... Then all at once they take mats of palm tree leaves,
which are prepared beforehand, and without further ceremony each cou-
ple is placed on a mat, and the rest of the people go on rejoicing.6 THE BIRTH OF AMERICA