FOUNDING OF PLYMOUTH (1608-1630) After the disastrous failure of the Popham colony in 1608 the Plymouth Company for several years was inactive.

Its members were lacking in enthusiastic co-operation, and therefore did not attract, like the London Company, the money and energy of the nation.

After Sir John Popham's death, in 1607, his son Francis Popham was chiefly instrumental in sending out several vessels, which, though despatched for trade, served to keep up interest in the northern shores of America.
That coast threatened to be lost to Englishmen, for the French, in 1603, began to make settlements in Nova Scotia and in Mount Desert Island, near the mouth of the Penobscot, while their ships sailed southward along the New England shores.

The Dutch, too, explored the Hudson (1609) and prepared the way for a colony there.

It was, therefore, a great service to England when Captain Argall, under the authority of Sir Thomas Dale, in 1613, dislodged the French at Mount Desert, Port Royal, and St.Croix.
Shortly after Argall's visit John Smith sailed, in 1614, for the northern coast, with two ships fitted out by some private adventurers.
While the ships were taking a freight of fish, Smith, with a view to colonization, ranged the neighboring coast, collecting furs from the natives, taking notes of the shores and the islands, and making soundings of the water.