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Video Length: 1 minute, 16 seconds
Narration: Five hundred years ago, Europe’s great navigators sailed westward across the uncharted Atlantic. They sought a shorter trader route to the riches of the Orient. But 3000 miles from home, unknown land blocked their course to China. A land of mighty rivers. A land of forest-clad hills. A land of lakes and vast horizons. A new continent.
The first white man to set foot on these shores was John Cabot, who sailed from Bristol in 1497. He believed that what lay before him was some unknown part of Asia. “I saw no man,” he said, “but I walked in a silent green forest where there were man-made snares set to catch wild beasts.” Treasure moved though these forests. Furs to lure the explorers from their search for a western passage to the Orient.