[dawsox] BREST ON THE QUEBEC LABRADOR 2& 



land in the shape of a bent arm. The water is deep and the land 

 rises in steep rocky hills 400 to 500 feet high on the left or western 

 side; but, on the eastern side, they are not higher tlian one hundred 

 feet. The shelter is good; for Old Fort island at the mouth of the 

 bny shuts it in. There are a large number of islands which render 

 navigation intricate and Bonne Espérance harbour is easier of access. 



Mr. Steams was thus in the very centre of the traditions of the 

 coast and he learned them from the residents. The fort or battery 

 was supposed by many to have been on the west point at the entrance 

 of the bay, but. though that miglit be, as a defence from the sea, tlie 

 best place for a fort, no trace could be found of any fort having ever 

 existed there. The residents stated that there had been ruins at a late 

 date; while others were of tlie o])inion the fort was further up the bay 

 on the same side. It is most probable that the latter supposition is 

 correct; for the fort would have been intended to protect the place 

 from the Esquimaux and Avould liave been near the sheltered spot where- 

 the boats were laid up for winter and the huts were doubtless built. 

 The " traditions " placed the old settlement on the western shore just 

 within the elbow. There, the residents asserted, niins had existed down 

 to a recent date; but there also the most diligent search could find 

 no trace of them. Mr. Stearns found there, however, a natural basin 

 showing signs of having been enlarged and deepened so as to make 

 a sort of dock for small boats. What seemed to be an embankment 

 could be seen and large stones apparently kept the earth in place. He 

 inclines to the belief that this- was the work of former settlers, although 

 of ruins of houses or forts he could find no vestiges. 



The chief facts accessible concerning the mythical city of Brest 

 are now set forth. It may seem tedious to devote so much time to tliis 

 subject but it is not unnecessary. Around such a letter as this of 

 the Sieur de Combes a mass of conjecture will probably gather, and 

 a new growth of mythology may be superadded at the sources of our 

 histor}'. The city of Brest on the strait of Belle-Isle can have been 

 nothing but a fishing establishment like those usual on the coast; the 

 city of Xorumbega on the Penobscot, with its broad streets of houses 

 pillared up with crystal and silver, was an encampment of Abenaquis 

 and the Seven Cities of Coronado's search were the dwellings of the 

 Pueblo Indians now visited by curious travellers on the Topeka and 

 Sante Fe railway. If, as Lord Bacon says, " a mixture of a lie doth 

 always add pleasure," we have a new and abundant source of pleasure 

 available in the stor}^ of the Sieur de Combes. The letter may be left 

 to the writers of romances, but what the object of the publication could 

 have been is by no means clear. It must be classed among works of th'> 



