A look back at Biddeford

While Columbus discovered the “New World” in 1492, and some guy named Cabots sailed along the east coast of the US in as early as 1497, no one settled the new world – or possibly even landed on the shores, until well into the latter portions of the 1500’s, and then only for surveying and for hunting. The discovery had been hailed in Europe as the most remarkable event in history up to that time, but by 1600, more than 100 years later, only Mexico had been successfully settled, and that by the Spanish.

Between 1497 and 1600, there were actually very few voyages north of Florida, and the knowledge of that portion of the New World was quite scarce. The area had been claimed by the British Crown, and named “Virginia”. The St Lawrence River was known, and a brief portion of the coast of Virginia had been surveyed, and a few colonies were even attempted, but nothing on a large scale, and nothing was successful in its attempt. The shores of the future USA lay devoid of European inhabitants; North of the Spanish providence of Mexico, from Florida to Greenland, not one European family could be found.

In 1602, an experiment was undertaken to find a faster, more northern, route to the new world… a route that would remove the importance of Spain’s location in Europe (as the “kick-off” point), and erode into the dominance Spain enjoyed exploiting the riches of the unfettered land. A Bartholomew Gosnold, a British Adventurer, left on March 26th to find a more direct route, and after “only” 7 weeks, reached the shores of the New World. He recorded making land at about 43 degrees North Latitude: It marked the first time that a European had laid eyes on the shores of Maine. 

He sailed south, and discovered the cape, and landed on an island there, naming it Elizabeth Island, which it retains to this day. He stayed there 6 weeks, building preparatory buildings for a permanent residence… the remains of a storehouse and a fort are still visible on the island… but a lack of provisions and warnings by the local natives that winter was not for the ill-prepared convinced them that they should push off and return to England. Considering that they had found a route that was nearly 1/3 the effort of the previous routes to the southern regions, the trip was a great success.