268 J. G. BOUEINOT 



cipal home of the Acadian French in Cape Breton, provokes inquiry. Madame was the 

 title usually given to the eldest daughter of a French king or of a dauphin, or to the wife 

 of the king's brother. I have not been able to find the exact date, when, and consequently 

 the particular princess for whom, it was named. It must have been so called when 

 Louisbourg, Toulouse, Orleans, and other places received royal titles in honour of the new 

 importance that Cape Breton attained after the treaty of Utrecht. The old Indian name 

 was Nericka, but its origin is obscure. Hand giA'^es the present Micmac name as Neliksaak 

 which is probably the original form.' Many places on the coast have entirely changed 

 the names that appear in Belliu's and other Fn^uch maps. Morienne Bay, for instance, a 

 large sheet of water adjoining Mira Bay, on whose banks the French opened a coal mine 

 in 1720, has assumed the humble title of Cow Bay from some insignificant incident or 

 other in the life of the early English settlers. The aristocratic name Port Dauphin has long 

 since been forgotten in that of the saint who has been so favoured in the French nomen- 

 clature of the province of Quebec. The names of de Rouville, de Costabelle, de Beaucourt 

 and de Soubras, which were given during the French régime in honour of well known 

 officers and officials at Louisbourg to certain places around the noble bay have been 

 replaced by the names that attest the presence of the sturdy G-aelic people who till the 

 mountain slopes or toil on the sea that is visible from every point of the picturesque 

 country that surrounds that once famous bay. Point Dauphin, however, still clings to 

 the southern head of the bay in memory of French times. Port of Orleans, however, is 

 long since forgotten, and no one except the historical student will remember that it was 

 intended to replace the old Indian name of Niganis or Inganiche. 



As I write of Inganiche, amid the rocks of the stern northern coast of Cape Breton, I 

 recall the interest that was taken many years ago in a bell that was brought to Sydney 

 from the old port, where it had been discovered on the site of the chapel of the French 

 settlement. It had a remarkably clear tone and must have been often heard for a consid- 

 erable distance over sea and land when the wind was favourable. It had been baptized 

 in orthodox fashion as the following inscription showed : — 



" Pour la Paroisse de Inganiche jay été nommée Jean Françoisse par Joliannis Decarette et par Françoisse 

 Vrail, Parain et Jlaraine— la fosse Hvet de St. Malo m'a fait. An. 1729."-' 



This interesting relic may have found its way to New England, where the most of 

 such relics have gone, but its fate I have forgotten. How often in days gone by the 

 sailors of some passing ship, on its way to the St. Lawrence, must have heard with joy 

 the peal of this bell as it was borne over the water from the headlands of Inganiche to 

 I'emind them of their home across the seas. 



' Probably the evolution of Arichat from Nericka came about in the same way as Anticosti was developed from 

 the original Indian names of Naticousta or Natiseotic, which was corrupled in one of Cliamplain's maps to 

 Antiscoty, and eventually to Anticosti. This wor.ld seem to be so from the fact that in French maps of 1750 and 

 1779 the harbour is called Nérichac and Nérichat; the transformation to Arichat is easy- As to Anticosti, .see 

 Ganong on the " Cartography of the St. Lawrence," ' Trans. Roy. Soc. Can.,' vii, sec. 2, art. 2, App. I. 



■^ M. Faucher de Saint Maurice, in "Sept, Jours dans les Provinces Maritimes," states that in ISSG the barque 

 Moselle wintered at Charlottetown. Her watch bell wore the date of 1G74 and the following inscription : Franco 

 Nicolas Sol de Salvador Lorenzo. On each side there was a cross. In 1878 this bell was found among the ruins of 

 Louisbourg by the captain of the barque. No doubt it belonged to a vessel from the Spanish islands that traded 

 with Louisbourg. 



