ENGLAND'S FIRST COLONY
Sir Humphrey Gilbert landed at St. John's, and there took formal possession of Newfoundland for the Crown, by receiving a rod and a turf of the soil, as the custom of England was.
He appointed men to repair and trim the ships, others to gather supplies and provisions, others to search the country round for account of what was most noteworthy. By his orders two maps were drawn of the coast, which were however lost at sea. The explorers came back full of enthusiasm for the new colony, having found no natives in the south part, but in the north many harmless savages.
Fish, trout, salmon, and cod were reported to be in incredible quantities; whales and turbot, lobsters and herrings and oysters abounded. They saw fir-trees, pine, and cypress, all yielding gum and turpentine; they were told that the grass would fatten sheep in three weeks, and were shown peas gathered in early August.
They found also large partridges, grey and white, and rough-footed like doves, red-deer, bears, and ounces, wolves and foxes and otters, rich in fur beyond price.
The General had brought to him a sable alive, which he sent to his brother, Sir John Gilbert, knight of Devonshire; but it was never delivered.
The narrator in Hakluyt bursts into a pæan of delight at the lavish gifts of a munificent God: "Though man hath not used a fifth part of the same, choosing to live very miserably within this realm pestered with inhabitants, rather than to adventure as becometh men."
Especially in the matter of minerals had Gilbert ordered his refiner, Daniel, to make diligent inquiry, who one day brought the admiral some ore and said, "If silver be the thing which may satisfy thee, seek no further."
Gilbert commanded him not to let others know of his discovery; he sent it on board for further assay when they should be on the high sea.