BACKGROUND OF EARLY COLONIZATION 21 



dustry of the sea, many years before the Pilgrims started 

 from Leyden. The Pilgrims settled at a place that had 

 been visited previously by three different European ex- 

 plorers, and as many times given a different name. The 

 welcome accorded to them by the chieftain Samoset was 

 in English that he had learned from fishermen along the 

 coast. When their food supply became exhausted and 

 starvation was near at hand, these men from Leyden se- 

 cured their living from fishing, as they had intended be- 

 fore leaving the shores of Europe. 



While Spain was centering her attention, with good re- 

 turns, on the southern part of the new world, England, 

 France and Portugal were not idle in the northern part. 

 To England and France, in particular, belongs the credit 

 of discovering and exploring the coasts of this country 

 and Canada, of making attempts at settlement, of perma- 

 nent colonization, of developing the trans-Atlantic trade 

 in fish and furs, and of transplanting an old civilization 

 to a new world. John Cabot, born in Italy, but living in 

 Bristol, England, was the first to lead the way in 1497. 

 Sailing under a commission from Henry VII, he visited 

 the eastern coast of North America, and sailed along the 

 shores of Labrador, Newfoundland, and, possibly, Cape 

 Breton Island. He returned to England in August after 

 an absence of three months. 1 



Immediately after his return, Cabot made a chart and 

 globe on which he described his voyage. In conversation 

 with a writer of the day he stated that "the sea is covered 

 with fishes, which are caught not only with the net, but 

 in baskets, a stone being tied to them in order that the 

 baskets may sink in the water;" and further, "his com- 

 rades say that they will bring so many fishes that this 

 kingdom will no longer have need of Iceland, from which 

 country there comes a great store of fish which are called 



i Calendar of State Papers, Venetian, 1202-1509, p. 262. 



