[19] Hakluyt, op. cit., vol. iii.
[20] Cf. J. Latimer, "History of the Society of Merchant Venturers of Bristol" (1903).
[21] "A report of the voyage and successe thereof, attempted in the yeere of our Lord 1583 by Sir Humfrey Gilbert Knight, with other gentlemen assisting him in that action, intended to discover and to plant Christian inhabitants in place convenient, upon those large and ample countreys extended Northward from the cape of Florida, lying under very temperate climes, esteemed fertile and rich in minerals, yet not in the actuall possession of any Christian prince, written by M. Edward Haie gentleman, and principall actour in the same voyage, who alone continued unto the end, and by God's speciall assistance returned home with his retinue safe and entire." See Hakluyt (ed. 1904), vol. viii. pp. 34 seq.
[22] Rogers, op. cit., p. 40.
CHAPTER IV[ToC]
EARLY HISTORY (continued).
BEGINNING OF A PERFECT ENGLISH COLONY
We have seen that many nations shared in the profits of the Newfoundland trade, but the English and French soon distanced all other competitors. The explanation lies in the conflicting interests which these two great and diffusive Powers were gradually establishing on the American mainland. It is worth while anticipating a little in order to gain some landmarks. In 1609 the colonization of Virginia began in earnest; a few years later sailed the Pilgrim Fathers in the Mayflower, to found New England. In 1632 Lord Baltimore founded Maryland, to be a refuge for English Roman Catholics. Meanwhile, France had not been idle in the great northern continent. The intrepid Champlain trod boldly in the perilous footsteps of Cartier, and Port Royal was founded in 1604, Quebec in 1608. Later still came the splendid adventure of La Salle, who forced his way—a seventeenth century Marchand—from the sources of the Mississippi to the Gulf of Mexico, thus threatening to cut off the English settlers from expansion to the west. A glance at the map will reveal the immense strategic importance of Newfoundland to two Powers with the possessions and claims indicated above. No doubt a consciousness of deeper differences underlay the keenness of commercial rivalry.