[Footnote 78: "Carthier donna au golphe le nom de St. Laurent, ou plutot il le donna a une baye qui est entre l'isle d'Anticoste et la cote septentrionale, d'ou ce nom s'est etendu a tout le golphe dont cette baye fait partie."--_Hist. de la Nouvelle France_, tom. i., p. 15.] [Footnote 79: "Des sauvages l'appelloient Natiscotec, le nom d'Anticosti parait lui avoir ete donne par les Anglais."--Charlevoix, tom. i., p. 16. This island is one hundred and twenty-five miles long, and in its widest part thirty miles, dividing the River St. Lawrence into two channels. Throughout its whole extent it has neither bay nor harbor sufficiently safe to shelter ships. It is uncultivated, being generally of an unprofitable soil, upon which any attempted improvements have met with very unpromising results. Since the year 1809, establishments have been formed on the island for the relief of shipwrecked persons; two men reside there, at two different stations, all the year round, furnished with provisions for the use of those who may have the misfortune to need them. Boards are placed in different parts describing the distance and direction to these friendly spots; instances of the most flagrant inattention have, however, occurred, which were attended with the most distressing and fatal consequences."--Bonchette, vol. i., p. 169. "At present the whole island might be purchased for a few hundred pounds. It belongs to some gentlemen in Quebec; and you might, for a very small sum, become one of the greatest land-owners in the world, and a Canadian _seigneur_ into the bargain."--Grey's _Canada_.] [Footnote 80: This is the first discovery of the River St. Lawrence, called by the natives the River Hochelaga, or the River of Canada. Jacques Cartier accurately determined the breadth of its mouth ninety miles across. Cape Rosier, a small distance to the north of the point of Gaspe, is properly the place which marks the opening of the gigantic river. "V'e tra le terre d'ostro e quelle di tramontana la distantia di trenta leghe in circa, e piu di dugento braccia di fondo. Ci dissero anche i detti salvatichi e certificarono quivi essere il cammino e principio del gran fiume di Hochelaga e strada di Canada."--J. Cartier, in Ramusio, tom. iii., p. 442. J. Cartier always afterward speaks of the St. Lawrence as the River of Hochelaga, or Canada. Charlevoix says, "Parceque le fleuve qu'on appelloit auparavant la Riviere de Canada se decharge dans le Golphe de St. Laurent, il a insensiblement pris le nom de Fleuve de St. Laurent, qu'il porte aujourd'hui (1720)."] [Footnote 81: "Lorsque Jacques Carthier decouvrit cette ile, il la trouva toute remplie de vignes, et la nomma l'Ile de Bacchus. Ce navigateur etait Breton, apres lui sont venus des Normands qui ont arrache les vignes et a Bacchus ont substitute Pomone et Ceres. En effet elle produit de bon froment et d'excellent fruits."--_Journal Historique_, lettre ii., p. 102.