Narrative and Critical History of America, Vol. 4 (of 8): French Explorations and Settlements in North America and Those of the Portuguese, Dutch, and Swedes 1500-1700
History
Narrative and Critical History of America, Vol. 4 (of 8): French Explorations and Settlements in North America and Those of the Portuguese, Dutch, and Swedes 1500-1700
America -- Discovery and exploration; America -- History; United States -- History
The boats returned to the ships on the 13th, the leader reporting the
appearance of Labrador as forbidding, saying that this must be the
land that was allotted to Cain. In this region they found some savages
who were “wild and unruly,” and who had come “from the mainland out
of warmer regions” in bark canoes. They appear to have been the Red
Indians, or Boeotics, of Newfoundland, who were renowned as hunters,
and who excelled in the manufacture of instruments carved in ivory and
bone. Professor Dawson says that the Breton sailor here stood in the
presence of the precise equivalent of the Flint Folk of his own country.
From Port Brest the expedition crossed the Strait and “sailed toward
the south, to view the lands that we had there seen, that appeared to
us like two great islands; but when we were in the middle of the Gulf
we knew it that it was _terra firma_, where there was a great double
cape, one above the other, and on this account we called it Cape
Double.” This was Point Rich, Newfoundland. Coasting the land, amid
mists and storms, June 24 he reached a cape, which in honor of the day
he called Cape St. John,—now known as Anguille. From Anguille Cartier
sailed southwest into the Gulf, reaching the Isles aux Margoulx, the
present Bird Rocks, two of which were “steep and upright as any wall,”
where he was again impressed by the fowl, “innumerable as the flowers
on a meadow.” Twenty-five miles westward was another island, about
six miles long and as many wide, being fertile, and full of beautiful
trees, meadows, and flowers. There were sea-monsters on the shores,
which had tusks like elephants. This he called Brion Island, and the
name still remains.
At this point both Ramusio’s narrative of the voyage and the _Discovrs
dv voyage_ (1598) make Cartier say: “I think that there may be some
passage between Newfoundland and Brion Island;” but the text of the
_Relation originale_[167] reads, “between the New Land and the land of
the Bretons.” This has been accepted as teaching that Cartier at that
time did not know of the strait between Newfoundland and Cape Breton;
and it is argued that, as it afforded a shorter route from France to
Canada, he would have followed it, if he had known of its existence;
yet in 1541, when he certainly knew that strait, he took the route by
Belle Isle, as twice before. Again, on his second voyage, while passing
through the southern strait on his way to France, the narrative does
not speak of any discovery. The inference may be drawn that the passage
quoted misrepresents Cartier. Indeed, the portion of the narrative
covering the movements around Brion and Alezay Island is so confused
that one with difficulty takes in the situation. Dr. Kohl, in his
_Discovery of Maine_ (p. 326), represents Brion’s Island as the present
Prince Edward; though no map seems to bear out the statement.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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