Granny's Notes ; Williams Painted Picture of 17th-Century America

Summary

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From my early school days, three textbook pictures stand out in my memory: the village smithy, The Gleaners, and Roger Williams' meeting with the naked American Indians who gathered on the shore to see those funny-looking people who were wearing clothes. Williams wore tight black pants, a matching fitted coat and wide-brimmed hat. This was frightening to the Indians, but the man was smiling and holding out his hand in friendship as he stepped from the landing boat to their shore.

Williams must have planned that moment well in advance. As a Baptist preacher, he intended to "save the soules" of these men. He probably said, "Hello, my name is Williams, what's yours?" The Indians uttered a string of syllables, all joined into one word, that sounded like "Npenowauntawaumen." Everyone must have laughed - Europeans and Indians alike - in great relief. Williams later learned that the long word was a sentence: "I don't speak your language." Williams soon learned to communicate with these natives and served as an interpreter.

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Granny's Notes ; Williams Painted Picture of 17th-Century America

To put their sounds on paper, he "translated" sounds into words that could be spelled with the English alphabet. Of course...

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