17. The English lull before the French Storm
From 1499 to 1534, England had a golden opportunity to explore lands beyond New Found Land. They squandered it. The Portuguese and later the French filled the void.
The period between 1498 when John Cabot last saw Newfoundland and 1534 when Jacques Cartier entered the Gulf of St. Lawrence, silence reigned over the waters and lands broken only by the paddle of a canoe or the whisper of hunter in the forest. For the Indigenous peoples of the northeastern, life remained the same as it did for centuries. Soon this would change forever.
Although John Cabot landed for less than a day on an island he thought was part of Asia, it was sufficient for the English to claim it as territory of the King of England. For the Portuguese king, this had offended their claims to lands east of the latitude drawn up by the Treaty of Tordesillas. King Henry VII was quite unfazed by this. As far as he was concerned, no Portuguese ship had yet discovered any territory north of Brazil so it was free for the taking. And besides, between 1492 and 1496 the explorer Christopher Columbus sailing for Spain had only discovered a series of islands which he thought was part of Indi…
