I've got the full version of the game with manual now! I've read part of the manual, but there's a lot in it.
I've already found out so many things I wasn't able to guess about this game before.
I've installed the version from the disks with came with the package, but then I found there was at least one turn where I wasn't given the opportunity to do anything with my ships.
Luckily, I found out that the command View allows me to interrupt the turns from passing, then allows me to select one of my ships and regain control of it. I'm not sure this always works, though. I played another game in the "New World" (i.e. the continent doesn't look like North or South America) as a French discoverer, but then found I was unable to control my ships after 1566. After this, I started a similar game where I seem to have achieved a lot, such as artillery for all three colonies, a school, etc. I never bothered building a school before, because I thought it was just for kids, but there didn't seem to be any kids. One of my colonies has been occupied by English colonists, but I hope to take it back. The area where I've built my colonies has some very helpful Indians, including the Sioux who have often given me food, although they didn't give any when my colonists were starving almost to death. I found out that I'm near the southern tip of the "New World", where there's an island like Tierra del Fuego and I've discovered, then built a colony on the Pacific coast.
