Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Age of European Discovery
Viking celebrity Leif Eriksson and his tribe of adventurous seafarers from Iceland and
Greenland were the first Europeans in North America. Around AD 1000 they poked
around the eastern shores of Canada, establishing winter settlements and way stations for
repairing ships and restocking supplies, such as at L'Anse aux Meadows in Newfound-
land. The local Canadian Aboriginal tribes did not exactly roll out the welcome mat for
these intruders, who eventually tired of the hostilities and withdrew.
The action didn't heat up again until after 1492 when Christopher Columbus stumbled
upon some small islands in the Bahamas. Other European monarchs, excited by his 'dis-
covery,' quickly sponsored expeditions of their own. In 1497 Giovanni Caboto, better
known as John Cabot, sailed under a British flag as far west as Newfoundland and Cape
Breton. Although there's no evidence of where he first made landfall, the village of
Bonavista in eastern Newfoundland usually gets the nod.
Cabot didn't find a passage to China but he did find cod, then a much-coveted com-
modity in Europe. Soon, hundreds of boats were shuttling between Europe and the fertile
new fishing grounds. Several were based at Red Bay in Labrador, which became the
world's biggest whaling port during the 16th century.
About this time, French explorer Jacques Cartier also was sniffing around Labrador.
He was looking for gold and precious metals, but found only 'stones and horrible rugged
rocks,' as he wrote in his journal in 1534. So he moved on to Québec - but not before be-
stowing Canada with its name. Scholars say it comes from
kanata,
a Huron-Iroquois
word for village or settlement, which was written in Cartier's journal and later trans-
formed by mapmakers to Canada.
AVAST! PIRATES ON THE HORIZON
Pirates began to ply and plunder Atlantic Canada's waters soon after Europeans
arrived to colonize the area.
Peter Easton was one of the region's most famous pirates. He started out as an
English naval officer in 1602. But when King James downsized the Royal Navy the
next year, stranding Easton and his men in Newfoundland without any money they,
perhaps understandably, got pissed off and decided to use the resources at hand
(ie boats and a bad attitude) to become pirates. By 1610 Easton was living large in
Harbour Grace, commanding a fleet of 40 ships and a crew of 5000 men. The
money piled in for several more years, until he eventually retired to France, married
a noblewoman and became the Marquis of Savoy.
Black Bart, aka Bartholomew Roberts, was another boatsman who made quite a
splash in the local plundering business. He became a pirate after being captured
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