l82 FOLLOW THE WHALE 



pened in North America until the landing of the Huguenots in 

 Carolina in 1562. The British made abortive attempts at coloniza- 

 tion in Newfoundland in 1583 under Sir Humphrey Gilbert, and at 

 Roanoke in 1584 under Sir Walter Raleigh, but the century had 

 turned before the first lasting settlement was planted in Virginia 

 in 1607. The Mayflower did not reach Cape Cod until 1620. Thus 

 it was a full century after Europe became aware of the Western 

 Hemisphere before true colonization of the northern land mass be- 

 gan. 



During this time the Basques were still in the ascendancy in Euro- 

 pean whaling. As we have seen, their energy was ebbing and they 

 no longer had a monopoly of the trade, but they were still active. 

 Their ships came regularly and in fair numbers to the Newfound- 

 land fishing banks and to the Labrador Sea for both codfish and 

 whales up until the end of the seventeenth century. However, they 

 always remained in those frigid northern seas, and they did not play 

 any part in the invasion of the North American continent. During 

 the sixteenth century no other Europeans were whaling on the high 

 seas, and it was not until the end of the seventeenth century that, 

 as we have seen, the British and the Hollanders had learned the 

 business. Thus, when the gates to the Western world were opened 

 by the establishment of the colony of Virginia — which, it must not 

 be forgotten, included the whole seaboard from Maine to Florida — 

 and English-speaking settlers started pouring into the country, al- 

 though there were many sailors and some fishermen among them, 

 there were no whalers. 



However, one and all among the first immigrants fully appreci- 

 ated the value of a stranded whale because their lamps had to burn 

 oil and all oils were in those days both scarce and costly. Thus it is 

 that we find reference to whales in the very first records; one of 

 the principal aspects of the charter given to those aboard the May- 

 flower granted its company "all royal fishes, whales, balan, stur- 

 geons and other fishes."" The immigrants, moreover, almost chose 

 Cape Cod as the location of their initial settlement because, among 

 other things, "large whales of the best kind for oil and bone came 

 daily alongside and played about the ship." 



The colonists, however, knew nothing of how to go about catch- 

 ing these whales simply because, even if they were not inland farm- 



