Original Sources: Internet
Thomas Hariot's "A Briefe and True Report of the New Found Land of Virginia"
Some scholars believe that the idea of Caliban's original helpfulness and the treachery that followed is based upon this account. In it Hariot, "servant to Sir Walter Raleigh," describes the natives and their initial helpfulness to the Europeans, which he says is followed by treachery.
This is difficult for students unused to the spelling of the period. Better students could get through the report, but poorer readers would probably just be frustrated.
Michel de Montaigne's "On Cannibals"
A translation of Montaigne's essay of 1580 Montaigne writes of the native inhabitants of Brazil, admiring their "pure and simple naivete." His description of the people "among whom there is no commerce at all, no knowledge of letters, no knowledge of numbers, nor any judges, or political superiority, no habit of services, riches, or poverty, no contracts, no inheritance, no divisions of property, no occupations but easy ones, no respect for any relationship except ordinary family ones..." is paraphrased by Gonzalo in Act II, scene ii.
The essay is accessible to high school students.
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