In the beginning it was envy of Spain, a thirst for silver and gold, and the quest for a trade passage to Cathay that drove the English westward, just as it had the French before them. Colonization, except as an eventual means to an end, had no part in the French scheme--nor in the English. The primary objects other than the harassment of Spain were the discovery of mines and a northwest passage. Colonization was visualized, when at all, only as occupation--to hold the route to the mines or to Cathay against the possibility of foreign claims. Not until an English venturer in America by the name of John Smith challenged the wasteful search for gold and demanded the development of the country’s more obvious resources did it begin to dawn on the merchant adventurers of England that colonization might be a commercially desirable end in itself. And it was this same John Smith who demonstrated how trade with the natives could be employed to get the country planted with Englishmen. Along with the usual trade for pelts he bartered successfully for Indian corn and other food stuffs. This kept the colonists alive until they were “seasoned” to the new land; then came the profits from organized fur trading to maintain them until agricultural settlement could be effected with some degree of economic success. Prior to the coming of John Smith the English ventures in America had been one costly failure after another. Among the earliest of these were the expeditions led by that enigmatic Yorkshireman, Martin Frobisher. Reputedly a successful privateer, it was also said that he knew how to hold his tongue. Maybe what he did tell gained in importance thereby. It might account for the otherwise unaccountable backing he obtained for three successive voyages to America. Many thousands of pounds sterling were wasted on these ventures by a usually hard-headed merchant named Michael Lok. A large part of the expenditure was underwritten by the queen, herself, and Elizabeth was not normally one to squander her silver. Frobisher went out first in 1576 in search of a northwest passage. He succeeded only in discovering the bay, or “strait” as he called it, that bears his name before coming on “gold ore” in the form of bright, black rocks. Since the samples must have proved worthless on his return to England, his promise of a strait to Cathay was probably very impressive. Certainly the fur-clad Eskimo he brought back from the north side of the “strait” was accepted as an Asiatic. In any event, back he went to America the next year with three ships and the financial blessings of Lok’s newly formed Company of Cathay.