Elizabeth in 1585 for establishing coloRaleigh under his patent from nies north of the Spanish dominions in Florida were, according to Bancroft, a body of -broken-down gentlemen and libertines, more few mechanfitted to corrupt a republic than to found one,'1 with very ering advenics farmers, or laborers among them-- mere buccane turers, who carried fire and sword into the land and had no higher enslave the natives. It is object' before them than to plunder and fishermen of Nortrue that very early in the sixteenth century the mandy and Britanny began to seek the waters of Newfoundland for the legitimate ends of their vocation, and soon built up a gainful trade, which* stcadilv expanding and attracting other votaries, employed European fishing craft. But this in 1583 more 'than four hundred business was conducted almost exclusively for the profits of the fisheries, and although the vessels devoted to it ranged all along the New England coast, there was no consecutive occupation of the with a view to its earnest settlement until after the dawn of country the seventeenth century. Throughout the era of original American discovery and coast exploration, the returning mariners had agreed in describing the region to the north of the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea as utterly lacking in indications of accumulated riches, inhabited only by savage races who possessed no gold and silver or other valuable propexerty,*enjoyed no civilization, offered no commodities to commerce the chase, and could comcept the ordinary products of the soil and substanti farther wealth al municate nothing definite respecting more to the west. The ancient civilizations of Mexico, Central America, and rem having been subverted by the Spanish conquist adores, and their stores of precious metals largely absorbed, it was fondly hoped that the unpenetrated wilds of the north might contain new realms with similar abundant treasures.