Thomas gage (d. 1656) was a member of a prominent Catholic family. Against the wishes of his father, who wanted him to become a Jesuit, Thomas joined the Dominican order in Spain and set off for missionary work in the Philippines. Pausing en route in Mexico, he became disillusioned with the corruption of the Catholic church and made a cliff-hanging escape back to England. He was convinced that the Native Americans would welcome the English as liberators from Spanish oppression and was instrumental in encouraging Cromwell's largely unsuccessful Caribbean campaign of 1655. He served as chaplain on the expedition and died in Jamaica. Gage's work draws parallels between the cruel idolatry of the Aztecs and the practices of the Catholic church and interestingly shows how corrupt priests mingled Christianity and pagan superstition in order to extract money from the Native Americans. In a slight anticipation of Oroonoko, he describes the bravery of slaves in fighting with wild bulls and wrestling with alligators in rivers (129).

The charitable motives of Gage's dedication are somewhat contradicted by the ensuing commendatory poem by Thomas Chaloner (one of the signatories of Charles I's death sentence). It compares the colonial enterprise with Richard I's Crusade, and boasts

Gage, however, drew a more idealistic vindication of colonialism from the Quaker William Loddington (1626–1711), who stressed the missionary aspect of English expansion.