X. European Contact and Impact

As early Europeans first stepped ashore in what they considered the "New World"-whether in San Salvador (West Indies), Roanoke Island (North Carolina), or Chaleur Bay (Baie des Chaleurs) (New Brunswick)-they usually were welcomed by the peoples indigenous to the Americas.

Native Americans seemed to regard their lighter-complexioned visitors as something of a marvel, not only for their dress, beards, and winged ships but even more for their technology-steel knives and swords, fire-belching arquebus (a portable firearm of the 15th and 16th centuries) and cannon, mirrors, hawkbells and earrings, copper and brass kettles, and other items unusual to the way of life of Native Americans.

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