The New World in the North : 131 



exceptions, but for the most part explorers have not been very 

 wealthy or powerful people. The companies they have been able to 

 organize have not as a rule been financially strong and the support 

 that they have received from kings, princes and governments has 

 been grudgingly given. The ships in which the .early explorers 

 reached the American coast were not especially built for transatlantic 

 crossings. They were ordinary cargo vessels of their time — often not 

 even the best examples of such vessels. This accounts for the small 

 numbers of the crews and the small size of the ships in which Ver- 

 razano, Cartier and Hudson carried out their long voyages. 



