![]() Misunderstanding was inevitable, says Peter Charles Hoffer, a historian at the University of Georgia who cites these incidents in his new book, ''Sensory Worlds in Early America'' (Johns Hopkins University Press). So went some of the culture clashes in the New World as Europeans and Native Americans encountered each other for the first time. The Indians, the English agreed with relief, would become docile subjects of King James. ![]() ![]() To his delighted guests, however, the gesture had another meaning: proof of willing subordination. When Powhatan, the powerful Chesapeake chief, offered food to the Jamestown settlers, it was to signal the visitors' dependent status, allies who required his protection. ![]() The English mistook the Indians' war chants for songs of welcome, while the Indians mistook the red wine the settlers offered them for blood. ![]()
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