ON CAPE BRETON. 28S 



ologist has thought this memorial worthy of au elaborate paper,' iu which he indulges in 

 a good deal of iuteresting speculation as to its original ownership. Its workmanship 

 shows it to have been one of those forged pieces of ordnance common in the early part of 

 the sixteenth century, and not unfroquently used until, and perhaps even after, the begin- 

 ning of the seventeenth century, when oast metal guns came generally into use. The 

 gun in question is made of bars of malleable iron, encircled by ten rings or hoops in 

 accordance with the fashion of those early times. It has a length of about five feet, and 

 a diameter varying from four inches at the muzzle to nine inches at the shoulder, behind 

 which is a chamber for the reception of a breech block, which was kept in its place by iron 

 bolts, and was placed in or taken out of its chamber by either a leather or iron handle at 

 the top. The gun otherwise is in excellent preservation, despite the corroding rust that 

 has eaten into the iron that was forged by a cunning gunsmith centuries ago in some 

 foundry across the seas. In speculating on the history of this ancient weapon, one soon 

 finds himself launched upon a sea of doubt. Now it is a Portuguese vessel that iu the 

 early times of maritime adventure in eastern American waters carried this gun. Again it 

 belonged to an English ship, the Delight, the " Amiral " of the little fleet of three vessels 

 in which the gallant Englishman, Sir Humphrey Gilbert, sought to win honour and ter- 

 ritory for his country in those times when England was at last entering on that field of 

 maritime adventure which was to give her in the course of centuries the greatest colonial 

 empire the world has ever seen. The place where the Delight was lost is involved in 

 obscurity, though it has been hitherto generally supposed that she perished in " the flats 

 and dangers " of Sable Island, until the Nova Scotian antiquarian, already mentioned, 

 shipwrecked the " Amiral " in a sheltered part of Louisbourg harbour.- But if we study 

 the record of the voyage of the English adventurers we may admire the ingenuity of the 

 Nova Scotian writer, but can hardly come to the same conclusion."' We have no conclu- 

 sive evidence that the Englishmen ever reached and entered a port in Cape Breton, though 

 it appears in leaving Newfotiudland they shaped their " course unto the island of Sablon, 

 if conveniently it would so fall out, also directly to Cape Breton." They spent eight days 

 in the navigation between Cape Breton — that is to say the cape of that name — and Cape 

 Eace in Newfoundland, but they never got sight of any land all that time, seeing they 

 were " hindered by the current," and at last " fell into such flats and dangers that hardly 

 any of them escaped," and where they lost their "Amiral with all the men and provisions 

 not knowing certainly the place." They were entirely out of their course, and although 

 they have left us several reckonings they are so much at variance that even Dr. Patterson 

 despite his zeal to establish his point is obliged to admit the difficulty of coming to a 

 correct conclusion as to the exact situation of "the flats and dangers," and to fall back 

 on a series of surmises and probabilities to bring the Delight into Louisbourg harbour. 

 He would make us believe, for instance, when he is literally at sea, that the mate's 



^ This paper was read by Rev. Dr. Patterson before the Royal Society of Canada during its May meeting, 1891, 

 at Montreal, but lias not appeared in the ' Tr.insactions ' for that year, owing to the pressure of other papers. The 

 writer has kindly allowed me the privilege of studying this essay, whoso careful preparation all must admit, oven 

 while differing entirely from its conclusions. 



- In Ids paper on the Portuguese discoveries in 1890 ('Trans. Roy. Soc- Can., viii. sec. L') he thouglit it was 

 a Portuguese gun, but in 1891 he changed his mind. 



" The account of the voyage of Sir Humphrey Gilbert will be found in Hakluyt (Goldsmid's éd.), xii. 345-3.50, 

 363-367. 



