Owing to the great demand for fish in a Catholic Europe, however, the shores of Newfoundland soon became the accustomed resort of English, French, and Portuguese.[51] The coast between Canada and Florida, nevertheless, remained practically unexplored, and the maps of the period either break the continent into islands, or connect the two known portions by a fanciful delineation, considered by some students to represent the eastern coast of Asia.[52] Where nothing is certain, all is possible, and it was thought that the passage to the East, so vainly sought elsewhere, might yet be found in this unknown part of the world. In 1524, Verrazano, under the flag of France, and, a year later, Gomez, under that of Spain, undertook again the task of finding a westward route to Zipangu and Cathay. The Frenchman, apparently, coasted northward from Carolina to Newfoundland, and the Spaniard seems to have covered part of the same range, though the limits are not known, nor even the direction in which he sailed.[53] Footnote 51: _Cf._ H. Harrisse, _The Discovery of North America_ (London, 1892), pp. 180 _ff._; and C. de la Roncière, _Histoire de la Marine Française_ (Paris, 1906), vol. II, p. 399. Footnote 52: _Cf._ H. Stevens, _Historical and Geographical Notes_; New Haven, 1869. Footnote 53: For the Verrazano voyage, _vide_ B. Smith, _An Enquiry into the Authenticity_, etc.; New York, 1864; J. C. Brevoort, _Verrazano the Navigator_; New York, 1874; H. C. Murphy, _The Voyage of Verrazano_; New York, 1875; B. F. deCosta, _Verrazano the Explorer_; New York, 1881. The Gomez voyage is important but very obscure. The statement by Fiske (_The Discovery of America_, vol. II, p. 491) is far too positive. Harrisse (_Discovery_, pp. 229-43) gives new documents.