nt 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 attention to Central and South America.
Englishman John Rut, sailing for Henry VIII, was next along the coast in 1527. First probing northward in search of passage to the Orient, Rut returned to Cape Breton and sailed down along the American shores, "oftentimes putting [his] . . . men on land to search the state of those unknown regions." Rut sailed all the way to the West Indies before returning to England, but he found nothing really new, and his return coincided with mounting domestic problems in England. His efforts were of little import, and after Rut's voyage the Maine coast saw few European visitors for several decades.
At first glance, these early sixteenth-century voyages appear to be random and unrelated expeditions that passed by chance along the Maine coast. Each, however, was part of a broader pattern. The quarter century between the arrival of Cabot in 1497 and Rut in 1527 brought an explosion of new information about the Americas, as nation after nation sent expeditions westward. This was a period of high adventure and dizzying expansion of knowledge about the unknown western continent. But after Rut's voyage, the surge toward North America receded as quickly as it had developed. Failure to discover a Northwest Passage dampened enthusiasm for North America. Magellan's circumvention of the globe (1519--22) drove home the immense distance between Europe, America, and the Orient, and Portuguese explorers found easier passage to India by sailing eastward around Africa. Spain and Portugal were increasingly occupied in South and Central America, and neither England nor France, for the time being, retained much interest in the Gulf of Maine.
By the early seventeenth century, France was once again ready to move into Maine; but after Verrazano's voyage, French explorers had shifted their attention to the St. Lawrence region. French explorers returned to Maine, but the region would remain an outpost of the French North American empire that was centered to the north and east.
For the English, the sixteenth ce