BACKGROUND OF EARLY COLONIZATION 31 



ings; his food was coarse, his clothing rough and heavy, 

 his bed a bundle of straw. He lived in the midst of tubs, 

 of hooks and lines, of salt, bait and fish. He bathed only 

 as the downpour of rain fell upon him at work or as the 

 splash of the breaking waves soaked through his garments. 

 His only preparation for sleep was to divest himself of his 

 heavy boots and oil clothes; if he "turned in' wet to the 

 skin it was with the expectation that the heat from his 

 body would dry his wet clothing during the night. Dur- 

 ing his sojourn in the New World he was separated for 

 months at a time from his home and family and from what- 

 ever refining influences his humble village life afforded. 

 His calling offered few relaxations, no amusements. What- 

 ever diversions he found ashore in the wilderness of Amer- 

 ica seem to have been used to the extreme. The results 

 were what naturally would follow under such circum- 

 stances, disregard for the rights of native men and 

 women, and lasting dishonor to himself. The pity of it 

 is that men possessing so many admirable traits of charac- 

 ter, ready to separate themselves from their families for 

 months, patient to endure the monotonous fare, the peril 

 and the hard work to be found on a codfisherman of the 

 Grand Bank of Newfoundland of that day, did not practice 

 that nobler virtue of self-restraint in the presence of law- 

 lessness and license. Instead they left, in their dealings 

 with the Indians, a record of cruelty, of debauchery and 

 of injustice that time will not efface, nor their good deeds 

 obliterate, nor the circumstances of the period or the con- 

 ditions of their calling excuse. 



While the French were engaged in colonizing in Acadia 

 and in exploring the adjacent coasts, the English, too, were 

 making explorations and discoveries for themselves on the 

 New England coast. Bartholomew Gosnold, in March, 

 1602, made the first direct voyage across the Atlantic to 

 New England and commenced the fisheries on these shores. 



