Shakespeare's Gonzalo was entertaining a vision that belonged to a tradition of utopian imagery about island life that pervaded European colonial writings. Overseas posts strung along travel routes were an invitation to an “archipelagic imagination” already developed in medieval representations of islands as wild and holy places and as stopping points along spiritual itineraries. Islands served as settings for reveries about primitive communalism and a revival of ancient custom. European imaginings of colonial landscapes as enchanted idylls – wondrous prospects – influenced early colonial writings and took on new forms in the context of emerging representations of nature as both an object of scientific study and a setting for contemplation, leisure, and erotic pleasure.