Thank you for posting this.
As a child in a Maryland Catholic school, I learned much about the Calverts and the founding of Maryland, but don’t recall the part about an attempt at a colony in Newfoundland. Now, my curiosity is aroused on that point.
BTW, we visited St. Mary’s City last spring. They have added a lot of recreated buildings since we were there about 15 years ago. Wonderful visit. I was particularly moved by the rebuilt church, which had been constructed almost exclusively using authentic building materials and practices. Beautiful place.
The Carvajal name is actually Breton and/or Cornish in origin but has been reduced to Spanish spelling conventions.
The precise reason for discontinuance of the colony at Newfoundland, or Baccalos as it was called by John Cabot (again, an Italian explorer), was simply that Spain had absorbed Portugual (again) and cut off the subsidies.
To get an idea of where this colony was in 1515 you'll want to look for St. John's ~ Bay of Conception. I'm not sure there are any actual remains ~
When looking at American history you have to keep in mind that there was a period dominated by Italian explorers. They saild for England, Scotland, Spain, France, etc. That came to a close when there were no more big discoveries to make ~ and during the middle half of the 1500s the Turks dominated the Mediterranean sufficiently that the Italians and French were up to their eyeballs in Turks. That rather slowed down their further entry into the New World.
King Philippe I/II finally gave up his Elizabethan adventures where he'd been Queen Mary's husband, and then sent several Armadas against England. He turned to the Mediterranean and founded The Catholic League. Their ships and Spain's ships were able to totally destroy Turkish presence on the Mediterranean. That gave the Mediterranean powers another century and a half of economic vitality ~ which explains the disappearance of Italian interest in the Americas!
Philippe himself didn't lose interest in America, and he may have tolerated more attempts at settlement in North America than the 1541 expedition by de'Soto, and a couple of other known ventures of questionable success.
NOTE: We know of Coligny's attempt to put a Protestant French colony in Carolana (North Carolina), but much less is known of the background of DeSoto's exploration. His financial sponsor was Europe's richest non-royal, Pizzarro, and he had more than a few connections to Spanish and French Protestant interests, including then Cardinal Carvajal (who gave up schism when Philippe let all the Catholic orders send missionaries to America)
Whatever was going on in terms of voyages to America under Philippe is not all that well known yet Old World Chickens, pigs, cows, goats, dogs and horses began showing up in great numbers. The Spanish didn't send a fleet West without a load of these animals.
There were great risks in crossing the Atlantic so most fleets left port with a wide variety of would-be adventurers abroad including more than their fair share of Protestants, Jews, Moslems, Gypsies, etc. These fellows knew to keep their mouths shut.
By the time other Europeans were officially allowed into North America (See Treaty of London ~ 1604) just all sorts of folks were already here, and everywhere they clustered too closely they were killed by the same plagues that were wiping out the Indians. However, the Spanish, or people allowed here under a Spanish flag, had actually begun moving up the Mississippi River, the Susquehanna River, the Hudson River, the Alabama River, the Red River, and a number of other rivers ~ whereupon they set up limited facilities for trade.
The big deal was gold. The Spanish found vast amounts of gold already in the hands of the Indians but not once did they ever find a gold mine ~ which suggests the Indians themselves were acquiring all their gold from limited deposits of gold flour "strained" out of vast amounts of ordinary dirt ~ but the Spanish did find lead mines, coal mines, silver deposits, and copper ~ native and in deeper deposits.
During this period ~ that of Spanish ascendancy ~ there were no significant numbers of Italians coming to America. That doesn't happen until the 20th century!
That's 4 centuries later!
I think that contributes a bit to the misunderstanding among many Catholics that America was irrationally biased against Catholics. The truth was America, all of it, started out as a Catholic domain ruled by Spain, and was carved up by Spain in the early 17th century whereupon the then King of Spain bought himself and Europe 20 years of peace (otherwise unknown in Europe for several thousand years) by carving out a Protestant enclave called Virginia, and a mixed religion enclave called New France (Quebec).
Not that Italians aren't bright guys ~ they are ~ but a lot of stuff happened from Columbus to Garibaldi's visit to my friend Boungiovanni's home in Brooklyn!
Remember Philippe I's trick of distracting the Italians with open trade opportunities in the Mediterranean, you just have to see his wisdom ~ he was truly a great man ~ he insured no Italian intrigue (no Guelphs and Ghibellines revival now that the Turkish threat was removed) would interfere with his peaceful enjoyment of his America!
I am sure everybody reading this material already has committed to heart an entirely different version ~ written by the French and English! In that story there are no Italians, no Venetians, no Turks, and best of all no Spanish! Yet, that first critical century of European entry into America is a Spanish story ~ and slowly a Hapsburgian story ~ and only at the end an English story.
The Indians could have been running huge steel mills and all of that would, by now, have been dissolved.
If you go back to that exhibit read all the archaeologists notes.