Fishermen from Portugal, the Basque provinces of France and Spain, Northern France (perhaps Normandy) and West Country England are known to have frequented eastern Newfoundland during the first half of the 1600s, some as early as the first decade of the 16th century.
An article about the forge that was constructed at the Colony of Avalon, Newfoundland during the summer of 1622, and a look at some of the artifacts that were unearthed there.