The Seeding of New England 61 



his mines of gold and silver pay his debts, his friends and army 

 half as truly as the Hollanders still have done by this con- 

 temptible trade of fish. . . ." 



Five years after his departure from Virginia, the indomitable 

 Captain is cruising along the coasts of Massachusetts, explor- 

 ing the bays and rivers; entering in his voluminous "Notes" 

 comments on the weather, tides, coast line, the drafts of 

 mackerel and cod, and the appearance and habits of the 

 natives. 



In the ship's cabin, under the swinging lantern, John Smith 

 carefully drew with sextant and ruler his map of "New Eng- 

 land," which was to have so far-reaching an influence on 

 future events this side of the Atlantic. He gave names of his 

 own fancy to "Cape Cod" and "Cape Tragabigzonda" the 

 last after a lady who had befriended him in Constantinople in 

 the days of his captivity, and for whom the Captain has been 

 supposed to have felt more tenderly than for Powhatan's 

 daughter. Three little islands near by he named the Turks 

 Heads. 



John Smith's map was printed in London and widely cir- 

 culated. It was in a way a sensation. In an England that was 

 heavily in debt and floundering under Stuart rule, any sug- 

 gestions for increasing the revenue were taken under considera- 

 tion. "So Captain Smith believed, on the evidence of his own 

 eyes and nets, that the waters off Northern Virginia swarmed 

 with fish? And that these cod and herring and mackerel could 

 be salted down, and transported to London to give British 

 merchants a commodity with which to compete with the 

 Dutch?" Undoubtedly Captain Smith did so believe. "But," 

 the dubious inquired, "how were the fishermen to be fed while 

 so far from home? The settlers on the Kennebec reported 

 Northern Virginia an unfriendly land and one that offered no 

 generous supply of food." 



John Smith had an answer for that, too. "Let them eat 

 maize." 



Maize, he reported, grew in New England as well as in 



