[ DAWSON] BREST ON THE QUEBEC LABRADOR 21 



French Government under the administration of the Marshal de Castries, 

 in which we find, " I de Brest aujourd'hui I aux Bois." The compiler 

 of this map used the Chart of Cook and Lane as a basis, and inserted 

 what he conceived to be Cartier's names. "French though he was, ho 

 has followed some absurdities of the versions then existing. Thus Car- 

 tier's IlaUc de la BoUaine was twisted into (English) Port of Balances 

 and (French) Port des Balances. Cartier s Hahle de Buttes became 

 (English) Port of Gutte and (French) Port des Goûtes. In like man- 

 ner Cartier's Cap Delatte, named from a place in Bretagne, near St. 

 Malo, was converted into Cape of Milke by Hakluyt, Cap de Laict by 

 Petit Yal, and Cap de Lait is on the French chart, although the French 

 word latte expressed the local appearance and is used in the Marine 

 service. These are a few out of the many instances where writers upon 

 the Cartier voyages have been led astray l3ecause of the loss for 300 years 

 of Cartier's o^ti narrative. 



Mythology of Labrador. 



Few Canadians have heard of a Brest in Canada, and yet when 

 ■Cartier first arrived on the coast, in 1534, he found a fishing vessel 

 from La^Eochelle looking for it. She had sailed past it in the night 

 and indeed the islands close in against the mainland, so that from the 

 ■sea it is hard to distinguish them. Cartier knew the harbour and left 

 his ships there from the 10th to the 13th of June to take in wood and 

 water while he explored further in his boats. The name has disappeared 

 for more than two hundred years but here in the Sieur de -Combes' ^ 

 letter, we have a choice bit of mythology wherewith to adorn the thres- 

 hold of our history. IMexico has the fabled Seven Cities, the elusive 

 object of Coronado's venturous march; New England has the fabled 

 city of Norumbega, on the Penobscot, where David Ingram saw, in 

 1568, a street three-fourths of a mile long of houses supported by pillars 

 of silver and crystal, and where the women wore plates of gold like 

 armour; and now our hitherto unknown admirer the Sieur de Combes 

 has provided us with a mythical city of our own in our o^^^l province 

 of Quebec, with 50,000 inhabitants and many other adornments of the 

 imagination. 



* The name is De Combes on the title page and Des Combes in the 



signature on the last pag-e. 



