The Story of NewfoundlandBirkenhead, Frederick Edwin Smith, Earl of
History
The Story of Newfoundland
Birkenhead, Frederick Edwin Smith, Earl of
America -- Discovery and exploration -- British; Newfoundland and Labrador -- History
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FOOTNOTES:
[14] Rogers, _op. cit._, pp. 18-19.
[15] The name Labrador is derived from the Portuguese word
"llavrador," which means a yeoman farmer. The name was at first given
to Greenland, and was afterwards transferred to the peninsula on the
assumption that it was part of the same territory as Greenland. The
origin of the name itself is due to the fact that the first
announcement of having seen Greenland was a farmer ("llavrador") from
the Azores.
[16] Compare such names of places as Frenchman's Arm, Harbour Breton,
Cape Breton, Spaniard's Bay, Biscay Bay, Portugal Cove, Cape Race,
Port-aux-Basques, etc.
[17] _Cf._ Purchas, "Pilgrims," vol. xiv. pp. 304-5.
[18] Hakluyt, "Principal Navigations," vol. viii. p. 3.
[19] Hakluyt, _op. cit._, vol. iii.
[20] _Cf._ J. Latimer, "History of the Society of Merchant Venturers
of Bristol" (1903).
[21] "A report of the voyage and successe thereof, attempted in the
yeere of our Lord 1583 by Sir Humfrey Gilbert Knight, with other
gentlemen assisting him in that action, intended to discover and to
plant Christian inhabitants in place convenient, upon those large and
ample countreys extended Northward from the cape of Florida, lying
under very temperate climes, esteemed fertile and rich in minerals,
yet not in the actuall possession of any Christian prince, written by
M. Edward Haie gentleman, and principall actour in the same voyage,
who alone continued unto the end, and by God's speciall assistance
returned home with his retinue safe and entire." See Hakluyt (ed.
1904), vol. viii. pp. 34 seq.
[22] Rogers, _op. cit._, p. 40.
CHAPTER IV
EARLY HISTORY (_continued_). BEGINNING OF A PERFECT ENGLISH COLONY
We have seen that many nations shared in the profits of the
Newfoundland trade, but the English and French soon distanced all
other competitors. The explanation lies in the conflicting interests
which these two great and diffusive Powers were gradually establishing
on the American mainland. It is worth while anticipating a little in
order to gain some landmarks. In 1609 the colonization of Virginia
began in earnest; a few years later sailed the Pilgrim Fathers in the
_Mayflower_, to found New England. In 1632 Lord Baltimore founded
Maryland, to be a refuge for English Roman Catholics. Meanwhile,
France had not been idle in the great northern continent. The intrepid
Champlain trod boldly in the perilous footsteps of Cartier, and Port
Royal was founded in 1604, Quebec in 1608. Later still came the
splendid adventure of La Salle, who forced his way--a seventeenth
century Marchand--from the sources of the Mississippi to the Gulf of
Mexico, thus threatening to cut off the English settlers from
expansion to the west. A glance at the map will reveal the immense
strategic importance of Newfoundland to two Powers with the
possessions and claims indicated above. No doubt a consciousness of
deeper differences underlay the keenness of commercial rivalry.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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