24 ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA 



rative indicates its position. It Avas not an island; it was a harbour 

 (Hable de Brest) and it was among islands (et est le dit Brestz en ilcs). 

 It was ten leagues west of Bradore bay and there were islands all the 

 way along. Cartier went to the place to lay in wood and water and 

 he left his vessels there for a few days to refit while he explored 

 along the coast westwards, and, while exploring, he found the 

 vessel from La Eochelle before spoken of. It is clear that there 

 was then no settlement anywhere upon the coast. The fishermen canu; 

 in the spring and went back as soon as they had opmpleted their catch. 

 It would be rash to assert a universal negative, but the A\Titer 

 has not been able to find any notice of Brest in the mass of archives 

 copied or calendared at Ottawa or referred to or quoted in any of the 

 books of hi^îtory. Jean Allefonce, in his " Eoutier," or course from 

 Belle-Isle to Quebec, passes the locality by without mention. Champlain 

 does not mention it nor is there any reference to the place in any of the 

 Jesuit Eclations. 



Later, in the collection of " Edits et Ordonnances," and in the 

 grants and leases along the coast as far as Hamilton Inlet the name 

 Brest is not found, nor does it occur in Charlevoix. If there had 

 been a settlement there it could not fail to have been noticed in some 

 of these authorities. 



In maps, however, the name occurs until comparatively recent times. 

 Not in all, not even in most, but in some; as, for instance, the Har- 

 leyan, 1536; Desliens, 1541; the Cabot map, 1544; Bertius, 1600; 

 Champlain, 1633; Sanson, 1636; Jaillot's Atlas, 1692; an English map, 

 circa IToO; Cary, 1807, and in the last is the explanation, for "Brest 

 port " is in Old Fort harbour. The name is not always in the same 

 place. It is sometimes on the mainland, sometimes on an island, and 

 sometimes outside the strait of Belle-isle; it even occurs as the name 

 of an entire district on the Labrador coast. From this we may con- 

 clude that it .was a fishing post once much frequented, but only 

 in summer; as, for instance, was Eogneuse on Newfoundland — a post 

 knowTi to Cartier and which, even as early as 1508, was a fishing 

 station where the stages and shallops of the fishermen were left from 

 summer to summer. The name Brest was copied from map to map, 

 as were the names of imaginary islands in the ocean. 



The first voyages to Canada were by the strait of Belle-isle, on the 

 return from his second expedition only did Cartier use the southern 

 passage by Cabot strait, but, after it was once discovered, the route by 

 the north was only used by fishermen. The strait was a famous place 

 for whales, as the Basques, Spanish and French soon found out; for 

 the whales followed down -the cold Labrador current in great numbers 



