English plans to colonize New England began to take concrete form in the early to mid-1590s when Edward Hayes wrote a treatise to
Lord Burghley setting forth the rationale and procedure for settlement. The first expedition to set out from England to southern New England was fully in accord with Hayes's principles. Captain Gosnold obtained backing to attempt to found an
English colony in the
New World and in 1602 he sailed from
Falmouth, Cornwall, in a small Dartmouth
bark, the
Concord, with thirty-two on board. These included a friend of his
John Brereton whom he possibly knew from his days at
University of Cambridge as well as
Bartholomew Gilbert, and
Gabriel Archer. They intended to establish a colony in
New England. Gosnold pioneered a direct sailing route due west from the
Azores to what later became New England, arriving in May 1602 at
Cape Elizabeth in
Maine (Lat. 43 degrees). On 14 May 1602, Gosnold made landfall off the southern coast of Maine. with the purpose of setting up a small fishing outpost of 20 of the crew who would stay the winter. They were there hailed by a "Biscay shallop" containing eight men, who the English discovered were not "Christians" as they had supposed but "savages" of "swart" colour who had many European accoutrements and acted boldly among the English. The next day, on 15 May 1602, he sailed into
Provincetown Harbor, where he is credited with naming
Cape Cod, for the abundant fish. The captain explored the land and found a young Native boy, wearing copper ear decorations and an apparent willingness to help the Englishman. Continuing down the Atlantic coast of Cape Cod, pivoting on
Gilbert's Point, they coasted westward observing numerous Natives on shore, many running after them to gaze. Following the coastline for several days, he discovered
Martha's Vineyard which they explored but found seemingly uninhabited. Gosnold named it after his deceased daughter, Martha, and the wild grapes that covered much of the land. .Oil on canvas, 1858. New Bedford Whaling Museum. From there they sailed about the various islands now called
Elizabeth until they came upon
Cuttyhunk Island (which they called Elizabeth Island), where on 20 May they determined to establish the proposed settlement on the western part of the island. They selected the island in the middle of a large freshwater lake in the south of the island for which they made a flat-bottomed boat to transport from the island to larger island that encompassed it. Each time they encountered Natives, whether on their coasting expeditions or Gosnold's separate explorations while the others were building the fort, such as his visit to the mainland on 31 May, the Natives showed themselves ready to trade. Indeed, their metal ornaments and their supply of furs to offer show that they had already become acculturated to European ways and they were willing to accommodate. It became, from the Natives' point of view, the ritual that bonded the two cultures. Gosnold's men were interested, however, with the trade that would enrich them and their commercial underwriters in Europe so spent more time tending to the harvesting of sassafras root and cedar wood than daily encounters with the Natives. In fact, they made a conscious effort to prevent the Natives from finding out the location of their fort. It is unclear how the situation developed but by 11 June the relations had become so strained that a party of two Englishmen out hunting for shellfish for food were set upon by four Natives who shot one in the side with an arrow. Shortly thereafter, a dispute arose between those settlers who were supposed to remain and those who were returning to England, which resulted in the decision to end the settlement project. The post was abandoned when settlers decided to return on the ship to England since they feared they had insufficient provisions to carry them through the winter. All of the settlers embarked on the return voyage on 17 June. Over the next decade settlers would involve themselves in a series of increasingly hostile encounters, and by the time of the
Mayflower landing the amiable helpfulness that Gosnold first discovered among all the Ninnimissinuok had become open hostility. ==Virginia Company, Jamestown==