George Bancroft, History of the Colonization of the United States, Vol. 1, 17th edition.

[269] of the climate.¹ But the Plymouth company was

Chap VIII.}

dissatisfied with their pusillanimity; Gorges esteemed it a weakness to be frightened at a blast. The idea of a settlement in these northern latitudes was no longer terrific. The American fisheries also constituted a prosperous and well-established business. Three years had elapsed since the French had been settled in their huts at Port Royal; and the ships which carried the English from the Kennebec were on the ocean at the same time with the little squadron of the French, who succeeded in building Quebec, the very summer in which Maine was deserted.

The fisheries and the fur-trade were not relinquished; vessels were annually employed in traffic with the Indians; and once,² at least, perhaps oftener, a part of a ship's company remained during a winter on the American coast. But new hopes were awakened,

1614 April

when Smith,—who had already obtained distinction in Virginia, and who had, with rare sagacity, discovered, and, with unceasing firmness, asserted, that colonization was the true policy of England,—with two ships, set sail for the coast north of the lands granted by the Virginia patent. The expedition was a private³ adventure of ‘four merchants of London and himself,’ and was very successful. The freights were profitable; the health of the mariners did not suffer; and the whole voyage was accomplished in less than seven months. While the sailors were busy with their hooks and lines, Smith examined the shores from the Penobscot to Cape Cod, prepared a map of the coast,⁴