Reading the book, it seems the colonists and adventurers set sail toward new wonderful lives, new countries and opportunities.
Literal
Book [object-を] read-[try-てみる]-[when-と], colonists [and-や] adventurers [subject-が] new [attributive-な] wonderful life, new countries [and-や] chances [etc.-など] [toward-に向かって] set-sail-[went-ていった]-[seems-ようである].
A long, dense sentence mixing several constructions. ~てみる ('try doing,' literally 'do and see'). ~と here is the conditional/when meaning 'when one does X.' や is the non-exhaustive list-joiner ('X, Y, and others'), distinct from conjunctive と which joins exhaustively. ~に向かって ('toward, facing') marks direction. 船出していった stacks 船出する ('set sail') with ていく (go away from the speaker, here marking a past departure into the distance). ようである is the literary form of ようだ ('it seems'). Overall register is essayistic, typical of historical or reflective prose.