Exploration and Settlement The region of Newfoundland and
Labrador was the first stretch of North America's Atlantic
coastline to be explored by Europeans, but it was one of the
last to be settled in force and formally colonized. The Norse
arrived from Greenland about 1000 A.D. and established
settlements here during the following century. There is
legendary evidence that other Europeans chanced upon the island
during the Middle Ages. John Cabot certainly reconnoitered the
area and claimed it for the Tudor monarchs of England in 1497,
and West European fishermen began to visit the Grand Banks
during the summer months on a regular basis shortly An ocean-
going vessel, likely similar to other Portuguese ships which
visited the Grand Banks during the 16th century. Photo taken
from W. P. Cumming, R. A. Skelton and D. B. Quinn, The Discovery
of North America (Montreal: McClelland and Stewart Limited,
©1971) 24. Detail from the Livro das Armadas, a set of drawings
made after 1566, housed in the Academia das Ciências