ON" cape;beeton. 2S9 



ment in the Gulf, and goes so far as to make them the builders of a fort the ruins of which 

 can still be traced about one hundred yards to the westward of the canal ;' but here we 

 enter into the realm of mere speculation and have really no facts before us except the 

 general knowledge that this was certainly a favourite resort of the early French, and was 

 probably visited by the Portuguese as early as, if not before, the Basques. We have to be 

 content with the iuformation given us by Champlain, who had the best means of knowing 

 something of the subject, that Inganiche was the scene of the abortive attempt of the 

 Portuguese to establish a settlement in Cape Breton, and we should probably be grateful 

 to the learned antiquarian who favours the claim of St Peter's that in his zeal for the Por- 

 tuguese he does not tax our ingenuity too far, but allows the Micmacs to retain the pos- 

 session of the word Inganis or Inganiche — uudoubtedly of Indian origin. But leaving 

 these interesting imaginings of the Old Mortalities of the countries on the Gulf, — and it is 

 amazingly easy to build up theories of the past on the slight evidence that remains to us 

 of the occupation of the island before the French — we come to the remarkable mediter- 

 ranean sea known in these times as the Bras d'Or lake. Here we can sail or steam for 

 many hours on the bosom of an arm of the sea ever widening, ever lessening, with the 

 highlands of the north always visible, and the lowlands of the south receding as we find 

 ourselves on one of its great expansions. Anon we pass through a narrow gorge or channel 

 cut by some convulsion of nature, or more probably worn by the action of the waves 

 since primeval times, and pass from one lake to another. From northeast to southwest, 

 in the coiu-se of untold centuries since the world was young, the ocean steadily forced its 

 way through the rocky hills of the interior of the island and formed a series of lakes, bays 

 and channels affording safe and uninterrupted navigation for ships of large size for at 

 least fifty miles from Point Aconi, the most easterly head of Boularderie island, to the 

 narrow isthmus which long barred progress to the Gut of Causo, but which, too, must in 

 some distant future have yielded to the never ceasing action of the sea. Here at last the 

 enterprise of man has come to the aid of these inland waters, and given them access to St. 

 Peter's Bay by means of the fine canal already mentioned. The lake divides Cape Breton 

 into two sections, each distinguished by diverse natural features The northern division 

 is remarkable for its lofty mountains and cliffs, which end at last in Capes Lawrence and 

 North. The southern division has îioue of the ruggcdness and grandeur of the country 

 on the other side of the lake, bi^t here we find the most spacious harbours — of which 

 Sydney and Louisbourg are the best — and the richest coal areas of the island. From Port 

 Hawkesbury to the Strait of Canso as far as Cape St. Lawrence, there are no good harbours 

 on the picturesque western coast comjiared with those on the southern and eastern shores 

 of the other division. Between the eastern entrances of the Bras d'Or and the storm-swept 



' Rev. Dr. Patterson in Trans, of Roy. Soc. of Can. vol. viii, 2 sec. Another Nova Scotian writer, R. G. 

 Haliburton, in ' Popular Science Montlily ' for May, 1S85, p. 4S, is also inclined to believe in a Portuguese colony 

 at St. Peter's. " Traditions " be writes, " as to an early settlement still linger among the Micmacs, who aver that 

 certain earth-mounds at St. Peter's, Cape Breton, were built by white men before the arrival of the French. This 

 belief received many years ago a confirmation by the discovery in one of these mounds of an archaic cannon 

 formed of bars of iron fastened with iron bands or hoops, those toward the breech being the strongest. This gun 

 attracted little attention at the time and was broken up. My knowledge of this circumstance is derived from the 

 historian of that province [his father Judge Haliburton] who, for more than twenty years was on circuit in Cape 

 Breton once, if not twice, a year. * * * An inquiry into the date of the manufacture of such guns showed 

 clearly that it must have been brought out before the arrival of the French in Cape Breton. Were these remains 

 at St. Peter's vestiges of this early Portuguese colony ?" See infra, sec. X, similar cannon at T..ouisbourg. 



