Page:Economic History of Virginia Vol 1.djvu/72

 English sailors who annually visited the banks of Newfoundland to fish for cod. Sir Humphrey Gilbert, in his voyage to this coast in 1584, found it to be rich in a great variety of articles which England was in the habit of importing from foreign countries. Not only could turpentine, rosin, pitch, tar, soap ashes, masts, deal board, and wainscoting be manufactured in those lands in unlimited quantities on account of the vast extent of the pine forests, but there were unmistakable indications of iron, lead, and copper ores in the soil. It only required the skill of the refiner to convert these ores into salable bars. Copper at this time, as has been pointed out, was brought into England from Sweden and iron from Spain. The production of iron in England was limited, principally in consequence of the small area in the kingdom remaining in wood. There was no obstruction to smelting in North America on this account, the whole surface of the greater part of the country being covered with trees of enormous height and girth. Newfoundland was as rich in furs as Muscovy, otters, bears, beavers, martins, ounces, and foxes roaming the forests or haunting the streams in incalculable numbers. In procuring valuable skins from this region, there would be none of those difficulties which always impeded and sometimes put an end altogether to the trade with Russia and Poland in the same commodities.

The part of the continent next explored by the English offered still more reasonable ground for the expectation that the people of England would be able to rely upon American soil for an important proportion of the supplies which they then obtained from Northern and Southern Europe and the East. The first object to strike the attention of Captains Amadas and Barlow, whom Raleigh had