John Cabot was the first explorer of the coasts of New England under
British auspices. After Columbus had discovered America, fabulous
tales were told of its outlying islands. The primitive maps
represented the Atlantic Ocean as full of islands, some being very
large, especially the Island of Brazil, and the fabled Island of the
Seven Cities. The latter was said by sailors to be inhabited by
Christians who years before had fled from seven cities of Asia, under
their seven bishops, taking refuge there. Bristol was then the leading
English seaport, and five years after the discovery by Columbus, John
Cabot started from it on a western voyage of exploration in search of
these famous islands. King Henry VII. encouraged the enterprise, and
in May, 1497, Cabot sailed in the little ship "Matthew," with a crew
of eighteen, and going westward he discovered one of these islands,
which he called the New Found Land. It was Cape Breton Island, but
being apparently unproductive and without inhabitants, although some
signs of people were seen, he soon returned to England. The greatest
excitement followed his arrival home, and the report got abroad that
he had discovered the Island of the Seven Cities and the coast of
Asia. Cabot became all the rage in England, and a writer of that time
records that Englishmen called him "the Great Admiral," followed him
about "like madmen," that he was "dressed in silks," and "treated like
a prince." Cabot, feeling his importance, wanted his friends to share
his good fortune, so he appointed some of them governors, and others
bishops over the new world he had discovered, while King Henry was so
delighted at the success of the voyage that he sent Cabot a letter of
thanks and the munificent present of £10. King Henry VII. was always
regarded as being "a little near."
In 1498, another and larger expedition was fitted out, Cabot planning
to sail westward until he reached the land he had discovered in the
previous year, and then he thought by turning south he would come to
the Island of Cipango (Japan), where he would fill his ships with
spices and jewels, a half-dozen small vessels making up the fleet.
They took a more northerly course than before, got among icebergs, and
where the summer days were so long there was very little night. They
reached Labrador, where the sailors were frightened at the amount of
ice, and turning south, Cabot sailed along the American coast nearly
to Florida, once trying to plant a colony, but being discouraged by
the barren soil, abandoning it. Yet sterile as the land might be, the
waters were filled with fish, so that Cabot called the country the
"Land of the Codfish," there was such an abundance of them. The
explorers recorded that the bears were harmless, they could so easily
get food, describing how they would swim out into the sea and catch
the fish. Then Cabot disappeared from view. Whether he died on the
homeward voyage or after he returned is unknown, as everything about
his subsequent career has faded from history. But his two voyages were
the foundation of the British claim to the Atlantic coast from
Labrador to Florida, and the basis of all the English grants for the
subsequently formed American colonies.
Bartholomew Gosnold planted the first English colony in the Old Bay
State. Upon Friday, May 14, 1602, after elaborate preparations, he
sailed from Falmouth, England, in the ship "Concord," his party
numbering thirty-two, of whom about a dozen expected to remain in the
new country as settlers. Crossing the ocean and coming into view of
the American coast, he steered south, soon finding his progress barred
by a bold headland, which encircled him about. He had got into the
bight of Cape Cod Bay, and thus discovered that great bended, sandy
peninsula, to which he gave the name from the abundance of codfish he
found disporting in the waters. Many whales were also seen, and vast
numbers of fish of all kinds. He tried to get out of the bay, and
coasting around the long and curiously hooked cape, emerged into the
Atlantic, and then coming down the outer side got into Vineyard Sound,
where he planted his colony on Cuttyhunk Island, but soon abandoned
it. Gosnold returned to England, and in 1607 sailed with Newport's
expedition, carrying Captain John Smith to Virginia.