New England: Landscape

Last time in class, we spoke of how America was "un-tame" and "wild" when the Englanders first arrived. I like to think about what the colonists perceived when they first arrived to this new land.  In "The Puritan Reading of the New Landscape" I read some interesting paragraphs about their first thoughts.  The most interesting point for me was that two Puritans could regard the New England landscape so differently from one another.  Just as the article states, "William Bradford stepped off the Mayflower into what he described as a 'hideous and desolate wilderness.'"  This portrays New England as a sort of scary, unknown, and hopeless place.  But John Winthrop on the other hand, saw things in a completely different light.  "'There came a smell off the shore like the smell of a garden," he said.  What a promising and nice place he made it sound... I think this shows how each person's perception of landscape can be unique.  What is beautiful to one person, may be hideous to another.  Perhaps landscape's appeal is subjective to every person.