discovery,â Gosnold had âdiscoveredâ New England. Yes, it had been discovered before, but in more than seventy-five years no one had been interested in Pallavisino. Gosnoldâs name for it, Cape Cod, like the name El Dorado in the South, opened up this new territory.
In 1603, Bristol merchants checked out Gosnoldâs story and reported not only plentiful cod but excellent rocky coastline for drying fish in what is now Maine. One merchant, George Waymouth, after seeing the Maine coast, reported âhuge, plentiful codsâsome they measured to be five foot long and three foot about.â The fact that he also confirmed the presence of sassafras seemed to get lost.
The new area was called North Virginia. In 1607, an attempt to establish a settlement there, near what is today Brunswick, Maine, resulted in the first New England-built seagoing vessel, constructed by the colonists in order to flee for England after enduring one winter. North Virginia was âover-cold,â they explained, and uninhabitable.
Gosnoldâs map vanished, but John Smith either had seen it or at least knew some details of his voyage. By the time the Pilgrims were making their decision, Captain John Smith was already a well-known figure, in part for establishing a colony in the lower part of Virginia, but even more for his 1614 voyage to over-cold North Virginia, where he became rich from cod. Smith had actually hoped to get rich from whales, gold, and copper. He no more found any of these than Raleigh had found gold or Gosnold China. So Smith busied his crew filling the shipâs hold with salt cod. He openly disliked fishing and left his men to it while he went off with a small crew in a little open boat to explore the coast. He had previously done this over 3,000 miles of inlets in the Chesapeake Bay. He now charted the coastline from Penobscot Bay in Maine to Cape Cod, making a map that included twenty-five âexcellent good harborsâ that he had sounded. For some reason, Gloucesterâs harbor was not among them.
Smith did chart the cape on which Gloucester now sits and named it after a Turkish woman of whom he had fond memories from his days soldiering in Turkey. But when he returned to England with the map, Prince Charles renamed the cape after his own mother and it has been Cape Ann ever since. Smith named several spots after Turkish memories, though none of those names remains. His new name for North Virginia, New England, proved more enduring.
Smith returned with 7,000 green cod, which he sold in England, and 40,000 stockfish, which, now that England had opened up trade with Europe, he sold in Malaga. According to Massachusetts governor William Bradfordâs chronicles, the Pilgrims heard Smith had done even betterâthat he sold 60,000 cod. Not mentioned by any of the Puritans were Smithâs additional profits from twenty-seven native locals, whom he lured onto his ship and trapped in the hold until they could be sold as slaves in Spain.
In 1616, Smith published his map and a description of New England in the hope of interesting prospective settlers. And so, studying the famous captainâs map, the Pilgrims decided to ask England for a land grant to North Virginia, where there was this Cape Cod. Bradford wrote, âThe major part inclined to go to Plymouth, chiefly for the hope of present profit to be made by the fish that was found in that country.â When the British court asked them what profitable activity they could engage in with a land grant, they said fishing.
Of all the unlikely American success stories of the epoch, none is more improbable than that of the Pilgrims. They set sail to pursue their religion and live on fishing in a new world. The fact that they arrived at the onset of winter is the first hint of how little they knew about survival. Still, they had gone to New England for fishing and not farming, and though doubtless they had never thought about this, New
In 1603, Bristol merchants checked out Gosnoldâs story and reported not only plentiful cod but excellent rocky coastline for drying fish in what is now Maine. One merchant, George Waymouth, after seeing the Maine coast, reported âhuge, plentiful codsâsome they measured to be five foot long and three foot about.â The fact that he also confirmed the presence of sassafras seemed to get lost.
The new area was called North Virginia. In 1607, an attempt to establish a settlement there, near what is today Brunswick, Maine, resulted in the first New England-built seagoing vessel, constructed by the colonists in order to flee for England after enduring one winter. North Virginia was âover-cold,â they explained, and uninhabitable.
Gosnoldâs map vanished, but John Smith either had seen it or at least knew some details of his voyage. By the time the Pilgrims were making their decision, Captain John Smith was already a well-known figure, in part for establishing a colony in the lower part of Virginia, but even more for his 1614 voyage to over-cold North Virginia, where he became rich from cod. Smith had actually hoped to get rich from whales, gold, and copper. He no more found any of these than Raleigh had found gold or Gosnold China. So Smith busied his crew filling the shipâs hold with salt cod. He openly disliked fishing and left his men to it while he went off with a small crew in a little open boat to explore the coast. He had previously done this over 3,000 miles of inlets in the Chesapeake Bay. He now charted the coastline from Penobscot Bay in Maine to Cape Cod, making a map that included twenty-five âexcellent good harborsâ that he had sounded. For some reason, Gloucesterâs harbor was not among them.
Smith did chart the cape on which Gloucester now sits and named it after a Turkish woman of whom he had fond memories from his days soldiering in Turkey. But when he returned to England with the map, Prince Charles renamed the cape after his own mother and it has been Cape Ann ever since. Smith named several spots after Turkish memories, though none of those names remains. His new name for North Virginia, New England, proved more enduring.
Smith returned with 7,000 green cod, which he sold in England, and 40,000 stockfish, which, now that England had opened up trade with Europe, he sold in Malaga. According to Massachusetts governor William Bradfordâs chronicles, the Pilgrims heard Smith had done even betterâthat he sold 60,000 cod. Not mentioned by any of the Puritans were Smithâs additional profits from twenty-seven native locals, whom he lured onto his ship and trapped in the hold until they could be sold as slaves in Spain.
In 1616, Smith published his map and a description of New England in the hope of interesting prospective settlers. And so, studying the famous captainâs map, the Pilgrims decided to ask England for a land grant to North Virginia, where there was this Cape Cod. Bradford wrote, âThe major part inclined to go to Plymouth, chiefly for the hope of present profit to be made by the fish that was found in that country.â When the British court asked them what profitable activity they could engage in with a land grant, they said fishing.
Of all the unlikely American success stories of the epoch, none is more improbable than that of the Pilgrims. They set sail to pursue their religion and live on fishing in a new world. The fact that they arrived at the onset of winter is the first hint of how little they knew about survival. Still, they had gone to New England for fishing and not farming, and though doubtless they had never thought about this, New
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