The islands were first discovered by Englishman William Weston, an associate of John Cabot, on an independent voyage in 1499, though it would remain unsettled and unexplored for over a hundred years. Though it was first settled by English Puritans in 1634, New England's eight main islands remained sparsely populated until 1766, when the British military established major encampments at the settlements of Firrey on modern-day Nashville Island, and New Bristol on modern-day Allegheny Island. At the outset of the American Revolution, a series of skirmishes ensued with local American guerrillas, and following years of stalemates on both sides, the British were forced to abandon the islands altogether in July 1779 when a combined French and Spanish fleet bombarded the main British encampment at