Portrait of John Smith

This portrait of John Smith comes from his map of New England published in 1617. John Smith had explored the New England coast in 1614, and set up a fishing station on Monhegan (and named the region New England). His Description of New England published in 1616. It described his success fishing and declared that fish were the region's most valuable product. The Pilgrims used fishing as the primary economic reason for their settlement, but were not very good at it.