Early European Explorers

“Following the light of the sun, we left the Old World.”
Christopher Columbus

What encouraged men and women of the Old World to set out and seek new lands? There were many. The Norse were in search of livestock farmlands and homeland expansion. John Cabot, and some argue others before him, sought a shorter and safer route to Cathay and Cipango (China and Japan) to retrieve precious metals, and the much desired spices required for food preservation. The Basque sought the whale so as to render its oil and light the homes of Europe. Along with this, the unlimited supply of codfish, made the New-Founde-Lande a treasured possession for many early European cultures; one to fight for.

One of the defining features of the history of Newfoundland and Labrador, despite the great demand for its new found resources, or who actually first reached North America, is that it was not until the second half of the 18th century that a permanent population came to be and expanded by natural growth. It was the early part of the 19th century before formal institutions of church and government were even instated. And thus, sets the scene for early European exploration, exploitation, and occupation of Bird Cove and the surrounding communities, on the Great Northern Peninsula of the island of Newfoundland.

Norse
A little further up the coast from Bird Cove is the National Historic Site and UNESCO World Heritage Site, L’Anse aux Meadows. This is the only authenticated Norse site in North America. Here, at about the year 1000 A.D., Leif Eriksson, after having retraced native fellow Norse, Bjarni’s route from a previous voyage about ten years earlier, set up an encampment. Leif gave this land the name “Vinland”. On his return to his homeland, he aroused interest in further exploration. One such expedition was led by his brother, Thorvald, who succeeded in locating Leif’s wintering place. Thorvald was eventually killed by local natives, whom the Norse called “Skraelings”. Another of Leif’s brothers, Thorstein, made a futile attempt to sail to Vinland; he found himself battling contrary winds and seas. According to the Sagas, another Greenlander, Thorfinn, succeeded in setting up a livestock homestead in Vinland and remained for two to three years, but due to hostilities with natives, they finally abandoned their efforts. Thus, even though the Norse succeeded in discovering “Vinland” they did not settle and exploit the riches of the New World.

L’Anse aux Meadows appears to have been a small settlement of about eight buildings and no more than 75 people; mostly sailors, carpenters, blacksmiths, hired hands and perhaps even serfs or slaves. It is thought that it was possibly a base camp for repairing Norse ships. Today’s scholars feel that “Vinland” was not a specific site to the Norse, but actually a region. This region included Newfoundland and extended south into the Gulf of St. Lawrence as far as Nova Scotia and coastal New Brunswick. This being the case, Bird Cove would have been an area that these early adventurers would have explored. Would they have in fact encountered the Cow Head complex Recent Indian who inhabited the Peat Garden site 1100 years ago? We will probably never know.

L'Anse aux Meadows, a National Historic Site and
World Heritage UNESCO Site, is located just north of Bird Cove.

Basques
Another UNESCO World Heritage Site and National Historic Site, Red Bay, Labrador, across the Strait of Belle Isle from Bird Cove, is renowned for its Basque Whaling history. The Basque whalers and fishers from France and Spain were no strangers to this coast in the 16th century. Between 1530 and 1600, Basque whalers launched at least 15 ships and 600 men a season, to capture the right whales and bowhead whales migrating the Strait of Belle Isle between the Labrador coast and the island of Newfoundland. In the 1520’s, they had been fishing the nearby waters for the infamous cod.

The Bird Cove Interpretation Centre is located 5 km south of Plum Point, which was once known as Old Ferolle. Old Ferolle Harbour , which lies between Ferolle Island and the mainland of Old Ferolle, was a safe harbour for the Basques, with deep water in places where ships could tie up directly to the shore. Its name was probably received because it reminded Basque fishermen of Ferrol in Galicia (northwestern Spain), which was a deep water harbour as well. Close by is Ferolle Point, a peninsula the Basques once knew as “Amiux” or “Amiuxco Punta”, and later as “Ferrolgo Amiuxco Punta” to distinguish it from a more northern point by a similar name.

The area surrounding Bird Cove has an incredibly interesting Basque history. The Great Northern Peninsula Historical Society, founded by active Historian and summer resident, Dr. Selma Huxley Barkham, is a treasure chest of information. Through her research in Spain, Dr. Barkham was the first to bring attention to the Basque’s presence at Red Bay, Labrador.

Settlement Determined By Conflict
Following the discovery of the New-Founde-Lande, many had fished the waters of the west coast of Newfoundland; Portugese, French, English, and even Dutch. The politics at home in Europe, though, was the decisive factor in later years of who had the ‘rights’ to fish along the shores of specific areas of the island. French Basque fishermen had begun to overwinter in Placentia Bay on the south coast of the Newfoundland in the 1650’s, but when war broke out between France and England from 1689 to 1713, conflicts were common over the migratory fishery. Following the Treaty of Utrecht in 1713, the French had to abandon Placentia, and from here, many of the French soldiers and fishermen moved straight to Louisbourg in Cape Breton, Nova Scotia. Many of the French also moved to clandestine settlements in southwestern parts of the island, and had been given the ‘right’ to fish on a stretch of coast extending from Cape Bonavista up and around the Northern Peninsula as far south as Pointe Riche (just south of Bird Cove). Settlement was not allowed on this so called “French Shore”, but rather they were allowed to fish only.

And so it was for years after, war and conflict dictated French and English occupation of the island of Newfoundland. Following the War of the American Revolution (1783), the Treaty of Versailles between Britain and France, saw the French Shore extended from Cape St. John to Cape Ray.

Article 5. His majesty, the most Christian King, in order to prevent the quarrels which have hitherto arisen..consents to renounce the right of fishing, which belongs to him..from Cape Bonavista to Cape St. John, situated at the eastern coast of Newfoundland…; and His Majesty the King of Great Britain consents on His part, that the fishery assigned to the subjects of His most Christian Majesty, beginning at the said Cape St. John, passing to the North, and descending by the western coast of the Island of Newfoundland, shall extend to the place called Cape Ray…The French shall enjoy the fishery which is assigned to them by the present Article, as they had the right to enjoy that which was assigned to them by the Treaty of Utrecht.
(www.heritage.nf.ca/exploration/versailles.html)

Just as war and conflict had dictated the migratory fishing rights, so did it, in later years, have a major impact on the final settlement of the island of Newfoundland. Conflicts such as the Napoleonic Wars, and the War of American Independence, for many reasons, caused a shift from a migratory fishery to a resident fishery. The island went “from fishery to colony”. The number of “planters’ doubled and the Newfoundland population became more settled and permanent.

Increasing Interest
As early European explorers became more familiar with the waters surrounding Newfoundland, exploration turned to documentation. Interestingly, an Italian explorer, Giovanni da Verrazzano, following his 1524 voyage, proclaimed that Newfoundland was an extension of mainland North American, which was thought to be at that time, Asia. His major contribution was the first known exploration of the eastern seaboard, of what is now the United States, establishing that “New Spain” and the New-Founde-Lande were parts of one entire land mass. It took Jacques Cartier’s voyage of 1534, through the Strait of Belle Isle and along the Great Northern Peninsula, to establish that Newfoundland was indeed an island. Both Verrazzano and Cartier represented the King of France, and in doing so, laid basis for French claims in North America by ‘right of discovery’.

Captain James Cook
The earliest charts and maps depicting the area of Newfoundland in any detail and as a group of islands were produced in the early-mid 1500s, and by the end of the 17th century, the coastlines of Newfoundland and Labrador were generally known but imperfectly mapped. At the end of the Seven Years’ War in 1763, Britain found itself in control of northeastern America, and eager to control where the French could and could not fish. They therefore, set to task in surveying the waters around the south and west coast of the island. They appointed marine surveyor, Captain James Cook. Starting in 1763, Cook first surveyed St. Pierre and Miquelon, before the islands were handed over to the French. He then proceeded to work along the top of the Great Northern Peninsula. The following year he surveyed the area between Pistolet Bay, on the northern tip of Newfoundland, down to Point Ferrole, just south of Bird Cove. In the Early Explorer Room of the Bird Cove Interpretation Centre’s museum, one can study copies of authentic maps charted by Captain James Cook for the local waters. Also, if you venture with a guide out onto the Dog Peninsula, you can actually touch one of the large rock cairns Captain Cook used in his sightings when creating his charts.

Visit an 18th century navigational/chart making aid.

Settlement Patterns
In later years, especially after 1815, there was an extraordinary increase in immigration to Newfoundland from the ‘west country’. Deteriorating social and economic conditions caused by such things as the wars with France, crop failures, and inflation, made the ‘prosperity’ of Newfoundland very inviting. Still viewed as a ‘fishery’ rather than a ‘colony’ by British officials, passage was more affordable to the island. Whereas, the English had a strong hold on the eastern portion of the island for years, there came an incredible influx of Irish in a very short time frame. During the 1770s, the number of Irish residents on the island had averaged 3000 to 4000, but by 1815, it was over 19000.

The ethnic origins of newly established communities varied. Newfoundland was like an extension of their homeland. A large percentage of the immigrants settled on the east coast, but as communities became established, and depending on the main industries of the area, the coastal regions of the island became populated by various European cultures. The northern Seal Fishery was one such industry. It brought together men from different communities for several weeks at a time on board ships, living together in harsh conditions. From this common bond, many families would move to the Labrador, or the Straits of Belle Isle. As new areas became available for settlement along the former “French Shore”, internal migration on the island of Newfoundland gave birth to new communities that had links to established settlements. Although the French settled on the west coast of Newfoundland probably in the late 18th century, most French-speaking immigrants arrived during the 1800s, from Acadian mainland areas, France and St. Pierre. In the middle of the 19th century, a small number of Highland Scots migrated to the Codroy Valley on the southwestern coast, and some elements of the Scots Gaelic language is still preserved there today.

Settlement was well established in the late 1800s as noted by this headstone in Old Bird Cove.

And so, early European exploration and exploitation would eventually lead to settlement of the New-Founde-Lande. In Bird Cove, the Basques were the first of course, but the English and French had a presence since the 1700s. The Scottish followed by 1750, and the Irish by the mid 1800s. Gradually, residents of the settlements would begin to see themselves as Newfoundlanders rather than English, Irish or French.

The Meany's Point archaeological excavation has unearthed some beautiful early European finds, such as this Blue Willow patterned plate; AD 1785-1840.