The first attempt at colonization of North America was by the Norse, from Greenland and Iceland. In 985, Bjarni Herjolfson sighted the coast of Newfoundland when sailing from Iceland to Greenland after having been blown off course by a storm. Leif Eiriksson, son of Eirik Raude or Raudi (Eric the Red, Eirik Thorvaldsson) bought Bjarni’s vessel and spent the winter (probably of 997–8) there, but never returned to the site. That began the legend of Leif’s Vinland. In about 1000 to 1002, an expedition set out to find Leif’s Vinland, but Leif was sulking, and would not tell them where it was. After a miserable winter, Thorfinn Karlsefni and his wife Gudrid Thorbjarnarsdóttir, along with their son Snorri, the first European child known to have been born in North America, attempted to set up a colony on the west coast of Newfoundland, along with Freydis Eiriksdóttir, the bastard daughter of Eirik Raudi. At first, they traded successfully with the Dorset culture natives, but when those people returned in the following spring, the Norse stupidly attacked them, and were driven off ignominiously by the natives, who then fled themselves, probably glad to see the last of the crazy white boys. Meanwhile, Thorvald Eiriksson had sailed north, still looking for Leif’s Vinland, and he and his crew killed some natives whom they conveniently described as outlaws. These people, though, were Thule culture natives, and very warlike. The Norse had allowed one of the natives to escape the slaughter, and the naives came back to attack them the following morning. Thorvald was fatally wounded, and his followers gave up their effort. Thorfinn Karlsefni attempted the east coast of Newfoundland, but once again, they encountered natives, and attacked them. Those people just ran away. Thorfinn was a trader, and he was only interested in getting a valuable cargo, and having filled his ship with timber—very scarce and valuable in Iceland—he returned to Greenland and then Iceland. Freydis Eiriksdóttir stayed around long enough to commit some grisly ax murders of some Icelandic women,and then she too returned to Greenland. So much for the Norse in North America. See Gwynn Jones, The Norse Atlantic Saga, Oxford University Press, 1964; and Farley Mowat, Westviking, Toronto and New York, 1965. Needless to say, the Norse didn’t try to learn anyone’s languages.
The first Europeans to settle on the North American continent were the Spanish at Veracruz in 1519. Cortés had a Nahua woman with him, whom they called Doña Marina, or La Malinche, who had been given or sold to a merchant fromTobasco in Maya territory. While there, the Spanish also found a Spaniard who had survived the wreck of a small colonial ship which had been blown off course on a voyage between Cuba and Jamaica. He could speak the Mayan dialect of Tobasco, and Doña Marina could translate that into Nahuatl. She eventually learned Spanish well enough to translate directly. See Bernal Diaz, The True History of the Conquest of New Spain (meaning Mexico), 1576; and William Prescott, The History of the Conquest of Mexico, Boston, 1843.
The next European nation to attempt to colonize North America was France. Jacques Cartier tried to set up colonies in the valley of the St. Laurent between 1534 and 1542. They did not prosper. They then set up a colony in what is now called Hilton Head in 1562, but the men left behind grew despondent, and so built a sloop and sailed back to France. In 1564, they established a colony near Cape Canaveral, which lasted for less than a year before the Spanish attacked. The details are sordid, and not germane to speaking with the natives. There were no French-speaking natives, but they got along well enough. In 1607, the French attempted a colony in what is now Nova Scotia, but it didn’t pan out—however, in 1608, one of their number, Samuel de Champlain successfully established a colony at what is today called Québec, Once again, there were no French-speaking natives, but everyone got along by signs and learning one another’s languages. See Francis Parkman, Pioneers of France in the New World, Boston, 1865.
The first English colonial attempt in North America was at Roanoke Island in 1585. Virginia Dare, the first English child born in North America, was born there. After the first winter, their ships returned to England, but were embargoed from sailing again because of the crisis of the Spanish Armada. In the meantime, the man left in charge stupidly attacked the local naives, and their food supplies were cut off. Another ship returned to England in 1587, and it, too was, embargoed. By the time they returned in 1590, the colonists had disappeared. The colonists had been told to leave a message if they had to leave, and the word CROATOAN was carved on a tree. That was the name of an island and a friendly tribe to the south. But Captain White, finding some shallow graves, decided the colonists had been killed, and returned to England, never returning to North America. There was a tantalizing account published in 1709 of a voyage to what we now call North Carolina, in which the author describes meeting Indians with blue and gray eyes, and some with auburn hair, and even one with blond hair. He said they spoke some words of English, and claimed to be of English descent. This story of what became of the “Lost Colony” is controversial, and not widely accepted by historians.
The next English settlement was at Jamestown in 1607, and it survived, although just barely. The so-called Pilgrims did not reach North America until late in 1620. William Bradford claimed to be the leader of the expedition, but many of the early colonists disputed this. He was seen by many of them as a notorious liar, but his account is the only surviving, complete account. Despite his penchant for burnishing his own reputation at the expense of the truth, the story of Squanto is probably genuine. Europeans had been fishing and whaling in North American waters since at least the 15th century. The earliest written account of which I know is that of a Dutch whaler who was driven ashore on the southern tip of Greenland in 1420. There, one of his crewmen found the body of a man who might have been the last surviving Greenland—he wore European-style clothing, and carried stone tools which he probably had made himself. Basque, Portuguese, French, Dutch and English fishermen and whalers landed and set up summer camps to smoke and salt their catches for centuries before colonies were established, so it is not surprising that some natives would learn European languages.
The sources for English colonization are legion, and often seriously unreliable. There is a theme in American history of what I think of as “New England-centric” narrative. If you listen to those boys, Roanoks Island and Jamestown might well have never existed. It is best to take those accounts, especailly the account of William Bradford, with a good deal of salt.
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