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THE CONQUEST OF AMERICA CONSISTS OF A SERIES OF VIOLENT AND elaborate ceremonies of possession. Along with the obvious physical presence of the Europeans, these ceremonies inevitably involve discourses. In "Taking Possession and Reading Texts: Establishing the Authority of Overseas Empires," Patricia seed explains that after marking physical presence on the land, "[t]he second part of the Roman-derived concept of possession was manifesting intent to remain, which Columbus did, in his son's report, by 'appropriate ceremony and words'" (1993, 112). Later, the Crown derived its authority to impose rule over the Amerindian societies from the papal bull of 1493. The requerimiento, a judicial document that advised the Indians of their new religious and political obligations and gave them the option of accepting Christianity or being conquered, was required reading by the conquistadors before taking any action (a fifteenth-century procedural equivalent of the Miranda rights). In theory, the reaction of the Indians determined what kind of action would be taken, military or administrative. If discourse provided the initial procedure and justification for conquest, it also played an important role in the ongoing colonial attempt to apprehend and assimilate the newness of the Americas. Conquistador and historian alike expressed their experiences and observations through historiographical discourses in letters, chronicles, and histories. The analogous nature of this textual enterprise to the physical conquest has led scholars to label it the "intellectual conquest" and those who participated in it, "intellectual conquistadors" (Brading 1991, 32; Merrim 1989, 165).
The contact between the two continents might be termed a "dialogue," for both Europe and America affected the other, however lopsided the influence may have been. However, this dialogue was of a peculiar nature. The Europeans were active agents, attempting to interpret and understand what they saw as a "New World." Indigenous Americans were certainly capable of representing themselves, and they did so in many ways; but European perception was often blind to indigenous modes of representation.1 From the European viewpoint, therefore, the Indians played a passive role: the continent was made to speak by the European chroniclers. In New Worlds, Ancient Texts, Anthony Grafton explains that European knowledge was based not on empirical observation but rather authoritative texts: "the Bible, the philosophical, historical, and literary works of the Greeks and Romans;...