The first European to visit the area was the Portuguese explorer Estêvão Gomes in 1525. Gomes, who worked for the Spanish Empire, reached the shores of Maine and mapped them. After that, Gomes sailed along the coast of North America (including New England). The first European settlement in New England was a French colony established by Samuel de Champlain on Saint Croix Island, Maine in 1604.As early as 1600, French, Dutch, and English traders began to trade metal, glass, and cloth for local beaver pelts.