Henry Crout was Sir Percival Willougby’s first agent in Newfoundland. He arrived on the island, at Renews, in May 1612 and was forced to remain there most of the summer due to the threat posed by piracy. Crout arrived in Cupids in August of that year and between September 1, 1612 and May 13, 1613 he kept a journal.

Although the journal deals mostly with weather conditions on the island, Crout also recorded details of a number of important events in which he took part including the cutting of a trail from Conception Bay to Trinity Bay in September 1612 and the voyage of the Indeavour into Trinity Bay in October and November 1612.

September 1, 2012 marked the 400 anniversary of the start of Henry Crout’s journal, “Occurrents in Newfoundland.” To mark this important milestone, we posted each entry from the journal on the 400 anniversary of the day it was written. You can read all the entries in Henry Crout's journal by clicking on the "Entries to Date" icon to the right below.