Long before settlers (= coloni) arrived in America, explorers reported (= raccontavano)on their voyages to the continent. The earliest literature about America consists of impressions of America recorded (= raccontati) by European explorers after they returned home.
The writings of the explorer Captain John Smith (A Description of New England ,1616) are the first accounts (= resoconti) that deal both with (= trattano)the terrors of the unknown (=ignoto) , and with sense of novelty in front of the new land and people.
Another important historian of early America was Thomas Morton, who in New English Canaan (1634-1635) used humour in portraying what he considered being the intolerant qualities of the Puritans.
Increase Mather, a prominent theologians, wrote a history of the first conflict between Native Americans and colonial settlers. The Sovereignty (= sovranità) and Goodness of God … A Narrative of the Captivity (= prigionia) and Restoration of Mary Rowlandson (1682) is an account by a colonist who was taken captive by Narragansett Indians during King Philip’s War. This story became the model for a new genre, the captivity narratives, and provides material for American fiction.
The Salem witch trials (=processi) of 1692 was another dark period in early American history: in a Massachusett’s town 14 women and 6 men were executed for witchcraft (= magia, stregoneria). One of the most famous report of these facts, Cotton Mather’s Memorable Providences, Relating to Witchcraft and Possessions (1689), indicates a growing (= crescente) interest in the occult on the part of religious leaders.