ON CAPE BRETON". 



177 



or tho northeastern cape of Cape Breton, or Cape Bouavista or some other headland on 

 the eastern shores of Newfouudhxiid — many paf>'es of speculation and argument have been, 

 and will probably continue to bi' advanced in support of these various theories ; and the 

 reader wlio wishes to come to some definite conclusion on this vexed subject only rises 

 from the study of these learned disquisitions with the feeling that a great mass of know- 

 ledge has been devoted to very little purpose except that purpoie be to leave the question 

 still open, and give employment to learned antiquarians for all time to come. One may, 

 however, easily arrive at the conclusion, after a perusal of these contradictory views of 



East coast of North America, from the Sebastian Cabot mappe monde, 1544. 



the Cabot voyages to Eastern America, that the claim of Cape North or of some other 

 part of the eastern coast of Cape Breton to have been the landfall of Cabot — the prima 

 tierra vista — is as strong as the claim of any part of Labrador or Newfoundland, to the 

 same distinction. Indeed unless we are prepared to reject the map of 1544 as a fabri- 

 cation — and certainly the evidence on the whole is to the contrary — we should give the 

 island of Cape Breton the benefit of the doubt and believe that it was the first laud that 



Sec. II, 1891. 23. 



