de landfall after a month and spent four weeks exploring a rugged and hostile-looking coastline. The crew of the Matthew observed great trees, evidence of human habitation, and--a matter of great importance to later visitors--remarkably productive cod-fishing banks.
Historians are not certain where Cabot actually made landfall. Samuel Eliot Morison's authoritative history of the age of exploration favors the east coast of Newfoundland. James A. Williamson and David B. Quinn, eminent scholars who devoted substantial portions of their careers to the study of Cabot and his contemporaries, both feel he could have reached mainland America. Perhaps he and his crew were the first Europeans to set foot on the Maine coast.
The first clearly documented European visit to the Maine coast occurred in 1524. Italian explorer Giovanni da Verrazano sailed early that year for King Francis I of France seeking a passage to the Orient. He made landfall at or near Cape Fear, South Carolina, and then coasted northward along the Atlantic seaboard, providing the earliest known account northward along the Atlantic seaboard, providing the earliest known account of the area and its inhabitants. In early May he reached the Maine coast. Although pleased with the country, he found the Indians anything but cordial. Accustomed by Indians farther south to a warm reception, Verrazano paused to trade, perhaps at Bald Head at the tip of Cape Small. The Maine natives refused to allow the ship's crew to approach them. Ensconced on cliffs above the breakers and waving the small boat away from the land, they passed the items they saw fit to trade to Verrazano's crew using a rope, and accepted only a few items in return. "We found no courtesy in them," Verrrazano complained, "and when we had nothing more to exchange . . . the men made all the signs of scorn and shame that any brute creature would make . . . such as showing their buttocks and laughing immoderately."
Some commentators have suggested the hostile reception stemmed from some previous unpleasant experience with other Europeans. But at this time few Europeans had reached Maine shores, and few would for over a half century. It is far more probable that these natives had heard of or witnessed hostile encounters between Indians and Europeans along the lower St. Lawrence River. Another possibility is that their behavior reflected precontact patterns that differed from other Indians that Verrazano had met and that had little to do with European influences. Unlike their proto-agricultural contemporaries to the south, this group of hunter-gatherers may have long exhibited caution and antagonism toward unfamiliar visitors.
Taking leave of the "land of the bad people," as he called it, Verrazano completed a leisurely investigation of the Maine coast and set a course for home, arriving in France on July 8, 1524. His accomplishments were most impressive. According to historian Bernard G. Hoffman, "he was the first to explore the gap between the Spanish ventures to the south and the English enterprises to the north; he was the first to establish the continental nature of the 'New Founde Land,' and he was the first commander to bring back anything resembling a detailed account of the natives of North America."
Learning of Verrazano's voyage on behalf of France, Charles V of Spain commissioned Portuguese sailor Esteban Gómez to find a western passage to the Orient. A year after Verrazano's voyage, Gómez carefully threaded his way down along the Maine coast looking of "el Cathays oryental." Thinking the Penobscot River might be the "Northern Strait," Gómez sailed upriver to the head of navigation near present-day Bangor. Disappointed, he was nevertheless impressed with the country, especially the timber, and continued his explorations along the entire Maine coast. Gómez subsequently captured several Indians at Newport, Rhode Island. Returning to Spain, he was severely reprimanded and forced to release those still alive. Beyond that, Spanish administrators found little of interest in his explorations and turned their 