176 J. G. BOUKINOT 



many parts of the southern coast of Cape Breton and Nova Scotia, from the low island of 

 Scatari, to Halifax harbour and even as far vpest as Cape Sable, when sighted by sailors 

 in a passing ship. One learned searcher ' into American antiquities, while exercising his 

 ingenuity to trace the route of the Norse voyagers, ventures to go so far as to express the 

 opinion — a dreadful heresy no doubt to some American scholars — that Cape Breton was 

 the northern part of that Viuland to which Leif came at last, and where he and his 

 companions made a temporary settlement. So far it must be admitted that the most 

 thorough investigation made into this subject hardly bears out such a conclusion, but 

 rather points to Cape Breton having been comprised in the indefinite description given of 

 Markland,- and to some part of New England having been the land of vines and of sweet 

 honey-dew, of which the travellers told such pleasant tales on their return to G-reeuland. 

 A curious mound, or some rock with mysterious marks, a deep bay resembling the gloomy 

 fiords of the Scandinavian lands, low sandy shores, or snow-capped hills, are all so many 

 texts on which to build theories, and write elaborate treatises to connect the present with 

 the story of the sagas ; and one often rises thoroughly perplexed from the perusal of these 

 laboured disquisitions of some of the students of times so enshrouded in mist. Be that as 

 it may, the northern adventurers have left no memorials of their voyages on the shores of 

 Cape Breton, and the historian in these days must be content with the conjecture that 

 they were the first of Eirropeau voyagers to see the eastern portions of the wide expanse 

 of territory now known as the Dominion of Canada. 



Neither does history record the exact time when the adventurous Basque and Breton 

 fishermen first fished in the Gulf of Saint Lawrence and anchored their clumsy vessels in 

 the bays and harbours of the island which there is some reason to believe they visited even 

 before the voyages of the Cabots to the continent of America. It is not often that we 

 find evidence more conclusive in sui)port of early exploration than that which connects 

 the name of Baccalaos, the Basque for cod, with the countries in the gulf where that fish 

 is found in such abundance. It requires little or no imagination to suppose that these 

 brave Basque fishermen and sailors who, from time immemorial, have made their home 

 on the deep, should, at last, have found their way to the waters of eastern America. We 

 see the name of Baccalaos in the oldest maps of the sixteenth century, and it is claimed 

 that the Cabots heard the name among the Indians of the lands which they visited at the 

 close of the fifteenth century.'' 



In all probability the Cabots, John and Sebastian, were among the first Europeans 

 after Biarne and Leif Ericsson to coast along its shores. In a map of 1544, only dis- 

 covered in Germany in 1843, and attributed to Sebastian Cabot, but not accepted by all 

 historians as authentic, the northeastern point of the mainland of North America, pre- 

 sumably Cape North, is pat down as "prima tierra vista ;" and there are not a few his- 

 torical students who believe that this was actually the landfall seen by John Cabot in 

 his first memorable voyage to this continent. In the controversy which has gone on for 

 years as to the first land seen by Cabot and his son — whether the coast of Labrador, 



' Professor Giistav Storm, in the ' Mémoires de la Société Royale des Antiquaires du Nord ' for 1SS8. See App. 

 I to this work, where references are given to various writers on the Nortlimen anil their voyages. 



'' " The more general opinion," says b'iske, " Discovery of America," i. 1G4, favours Cape Breton or Nova Seotia. 



' See App. V to this work for the origin of the name Baccalaos, and its extended and uncertain use in old 

 maps of Eastern America. 



