OlSr CAPE BRETON. 179 



the gulf even as late as Juue from the great icefields of the north, brought with them 

 bears to the uortheru shores of Cape Breton in days when they were quite common 

 enough from the entrance of the St. Lawrence to the Straits of Belle Isle and beyond. 

 Much speculation has been indulged in whether Prince Edward Island was the island 

 adjacent to the new found land and named St. .John by Cabot in honour of the Saint 

 on whose festival he discovered it. An argument, however, might be advanced in favour 

 of the well-known cape, from which the island of Cape Breton derives its present name, 

 having been actually the first landfall of Cabot in American waters. All the European 

 sailors of old times naturally made for this easily reached landfall when they came to the 

 G-ulf, ' and eventiially it became like Cape Eace, one of the most important land-marks in 

 the waters of eastern America. Quite close to this noted cape, in fact adjacent to it and 

 in this respect answering to the description in the legend, — una isla grade que esta par la 

 dha tierra — is the barren, triangular island of Seatari, which in form much more resembles 

 the island given in the supposed mappe monde of Sebastian Cabot than does the present 

 Prince Edward Island. But against this theory, which certainly has some arguments in 

 its support, must be placed the fact that the position of Seatari, or in other words its rela- 

 tion to Cape Breton, does not correspond to that given to St. John's Island on the map. 

 As long as we accept the map as authentic, and its legends as entitled to credence, we 

 must give the priority to Cape North and Prince Edward Island. - Without dwelling 

 further on the point and perhaps adding to the perplexities of a sufficiently intricate 

 subject, we may come to one conclusion in which all will agree, that the voyages of the 

 Cabots commenced a new era in the history of North America. In the beginning of the 

 sixteenth century the Portuguese discovered Labrador to which they gave a name, and 

 probably explored a considerable portion of the coasts of Newfoundland, Cape Breton, 

 and Nova Scotia, and there are even those who in their enthusiasm advance the theory 

 that these European voyagers were the first to enter the Saint Lawrence f but whilst there 

 is no doubt that they sailed through the straits of Belle Isle and visited parts of the gulf 

 of Saint Lawrence, including Cape Breton, many years before Jacques Cartier found 

 his way to the same waters, no mere speculation can diminish the fame of the latter as 

 the discoverer of the noble country which must be always associated with the name of 

 the bold sailor of Saint Malo. As the Cabots laid the foundation of the claim of England 

 to a large portion of the Noj-th American continent from Cape Breton to Florida, so Cartier 

 gave to France the valley of the Saint Lawrence, and prepared the way for the courageous 



' Sir Humphrey Gilbert, for instance ; see infra, sec. XI. 



^ See App. II to Uiis work, where references are given to the principal .authors who have made the Cabot 

 voyages their special study, and have with more or less success worked out their respective theories. 



Dr. Kohl, in his work on the Discovery of Maine (' Hist. Soc. Coll., Portland,' 1869), expresses the opinion that the 

 " prima vista" of tlie Calwls " would not probably h.ave been the northern point of Cape Breton but the small island 

 of St. Paul near it which is generally the lir.st land made by sailors entering the Gulf of St. Lawrence." On the con- 

 trary, If "prima vista" waa»jiot the cape from which the island is named and generally the first point made in old 

 times, it was most likely Cape North, and not St. Paul, which is ten miles distant in adirection quite opposite from 

 the course clearly taken by John Cabot. After he sighted the northern head of the island, he made nest for St. 

 .Tohn island according to the inscription on the mappe monde. If he entered the southern entrance of the Gulf, 

 he must have made either Seatari or Cape Breton or Cape North— certainly the evidence so far as it goes sustains 

 the theory that his course took him to the latter point. 



■' For an able statement of tlie Portuguese claim, see Eev. Dr. Patterson's paper in the ' Trans Roy. Soc. of Can., 

 (1890), vol. viii, sec. 2. Also, ' Magazine of American History ' for May, 189! . See App. Ill to this work. 



