Trails of the Pathfinders

Three centuries ago half a dozen tiny hamlets peopled by white men were scattered along the western shores of the North Atlantic Ocean. These little settlements owed allegiance to different nations of Europe each of which had thrust out a hand to grasp some share of the wealth which might lie in the unknown wilderness which stretched away from the seashore toward the west. The “Indies” had been discovered more than a hundred years before but though ships had sailed north and ships had sailed south little was known of the land through which men were seeking a passage to share the trade which the Portuguese long before had opened up with the mysterious East. That passage had not been found. To the north lay ice and snow to the south—vaguely known—lay the South Sea. What that South Sea was what its limits what its relations to lands already visited were still secrets.