175 



1. The History of Cape Breton from its discovery until the Treaty of 



Utrecht in 1*713. 



"We have no title-dci'ds to house or lands 

 Owners and occupants of earlier dates 

 From gi-aves forgotten stretch their dusty hands 

 And liold in mortmain still their old estates." 



The words here quoted from the poet Lougfellow have more than a poetic meaning 

 to one who studies the nomenclature of Ihe island of Cape Breton in the light of the his- 

 toric past. Not only the name of the island itself, but its bold headlands, its spacious 

 bays, its broad estuaries and harboitrs, connect us in the present with those adventurous 

 fishermen and mariners who explored its coasts and waters centuries ago. Basques, 

 Bretons, Normans, Portuguese and Spaniards have made an impress on its geography 

 which its continuous English occupation for a hundred and thirty years has failed to 

 remove. Traditions of Norse voyagers hover around its shores, and we are carried into a 

 realm of mist and shadow when we endeavour to solve the secrets of its past It is quite 

 probable that Biarne Heriulfsson, a son of one of the Icelandic settlers of Greenland, found 

 himself ofi' the coast of Cape Breton during his voyage of 986, when, attempting to join 

 his father in his new home, he lost his course and was tossed by adverse winds into 

 unknown waters where he saw a land, which appeared from the sea Hat and covered 

 with trees, and may have been some part of the southern coast of Caj)e Breton which 

 presents features very different from those of the northeastern and northwestern coasts, 

 so remarkable for their lofty headlands and mountains. Fourteen years later Leif Ericsson, 

 a son of Eric the Red, an Icelandic jarl, who was the first coloniser of Grreenland, made 

 a voyage to find the lands of which Biarne had brought home vague reports. Learned 

 writers have devoted themselves with much enthusiasm to the study of the sagas which 

 are now generally admitted to show internal evidence that the brave adventurers of 

 the north of Europe have a strong claim to the honour of having first visited the continent 

 of America. But while these writers have given us ground for believing in the anti- 

 quity and authenticity of the sagas, they have not yet succeeded in satisfactorily solvin"- 

 the mysteries of these old manuscripts of the north and identifying beyond dispute the 

 countries and iilaces to which the Northmen gave a name. Labrador answers in a measure 

 to the description of the dreary land which all the way from the sea as far as snowy 

 mountains in the distance appeared one field of snow, and which the voyagers called Hellu- 

 land on accouut of the " flat stones which they saw in that country of no advantages." The 

 vague description given of Markland, or forest-clad land, to which Leif came next,— a 

 relatively level country, covered with trees, and having white sandy beaches — applies to 



