What Were European's Looking for in North America

What I believe the European's were looking for in North America was the Northwest Passage. the Northwest passage was believed to run through North America, and lead to Asia. The Europeans believed it would have saved them a long round trip. According to Dale A. Lambert, when the Spanish came to North America, one of their objectives was to find the entrance to the Northwest passage. Dale A. Lambert also said that, an American captain, Robert Grey went looking for the Northwest passage as well. But both Captain Grey and the Spanish failed in finding the Northwest passage. Finally, a British Captain, named James Cook sailed all around the Pacific Northwest trying to find the passage. He concluded correctly that the Northwest passage did not exist at all.