CHAPTER I
EUROPEAN DISCOVERERS IN NORTH AMERICA TO THE END OF THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY
| The British possessions in North America. |
The British possessions in North America consist of Newfoundland and the Dominion of Canada. Under the Government of Newfoundland is a section of the mainland coast which forms part of Labrador, extending from the straits of Belle Isle on the south to Cape Chudleigh on the north.
The area of these possessions, together with the date and mode of their acquisition, is as follows:—
| Name. | How acquired. | Date. | Area in square miles. |
| Newfoundland and Labrador | Settlement | 1583-1623 | 40,200 120,000 |
| Canada | Cession [Quebec] | 1763 | 3,653,946 |
| British possessions in North America and West Indies contrasted. |
In the Introduction to a previous volume,1 it was pointed out that all the British possessions in the New World have one common feature; viz. that they have been, in the main, fields of European settlement, and not merely trading stations or conquered dependencies; but that, in other respects—in climate, in geography, and in what may be called the strata of colonization—the West Indian and North American provinces of the Empire stand at opposite poles to each other. It may be added that, in North America, European colonization was later in time and slower in development than in the central and southern parts of the continent; and, in order to understand why this was the case, some reference must be made to the geography of North America, more especially in its relation to Europe, and also to its first explorers, their motives, and their methods.
1 Vol. ii, West Indies, pp. 3, 4.