ON CAPE BEBTOK 301 



cape of the Bretons. The Italian Ramusio, in his well known collection of voyages, (Raccolta, 1556, iii. 359) gives a 

 discourse of a gran capitano francese, generally known to be Jean Parmentier of Dieppe, and written in 1539, in 

 which the Bretons and Normans are mentioned as having frequented the northern parts of America thirty-five 

 years before (probably in 1504) and to have named the now famous cape of the island of Cape Breton. The best 

 evidence is adduced to show that Jean Deny s of Honfleur, and pilot Gomart of Rouen visited the gulf in 1G06 and 

 Thomas Aubert of Dieppe in the Pensée two years later. Gosselin (Documents, etc. 13) gives a list of several 

 vessels that made voyages to Newfoundland and the Gulf in 1508. Mr. De Costa, referring to these cumulative 

 facts in favour of the Breton claim, says, with obvious force, " how poor is the appearance of ihat scepticism which 

 has so long led visitors to look askance at the statements of Ramusio concerning Aubert and the Pensée." See 

 " Nar. & Crit. Hist, of Am.," iv. 63, 04 w. A number of authorities sre there cited in support of the Breton claim. 

 Consult also pp. 3, n, of the same volume; Forster, " Korthern Voyages,'' book iii. cc. ii, iv ; Estaneelin, " Naviga- 

 teurs Normands," (Paris, 1832) 216,240; Parkman, " Pioneers of France in the New World," 170-174, and notes 

 especially ; Justin Winsor, " Columbus," 555-556. In the Portuguese Portolano map, 1514 or 1520, we find added to 

 Nova Scotia and the island of Cape Breton the Portuguese inscription " terra que foj descuherta por bertomes " 

 (land discovered by the Bretons) " Nar. tt Crit. Hist of Am.," iii. 56. See also Kohl, " Doc. Hist of Maine," 201-205, 

 179-181. This map is a strong confirmation of the claim that Cape Breton was discovered by the Bretons before 

 the Portuguese themselves visited the island. See Harrisse's Cabots, 271. 



VII. Jacques Cartier off Cape Breton. 



Cartier appears on his return to Europe during his second voyage (1535-6) to have been within sight of the 

 northern coast of Cape Breton. One of these capes was Cape Loreine— which, one account says, he named — 

 and the other to the south of the former he called St. Paules. Much speculation has arisen whether cape Loreine 

 was Cape St. Lawrence or Cape North. Mr. Ganong in a carefully .'tudied paper on the cartography of the St. 

 Lawrence '(Trans. Roy. Soc. Can.,' vii. sec. 2) believes from the similarity of names, that Loreine was the 

 present St. Lawrence, but on the other hand, Mr. Pope- in his excellent monograph on Jacques Cartier (Ottawa, 

 1889, pp. 109, 110.) is an advocate of the claim of Cape North. Brown, on the other hand, (" Hist, of Cape Breton," 

 p. 30) states that Cape Loreine was Cape Ray, in Newfoundland, and St. Paul's cape. Cape North, in Cape Breton 

 Island. On Maiollo's map (1527) there is a rio de San Paulo near Cap de Bertoni, and also a c. do San Paulo 

 delineated. In the Viegas map (1534) we see a San Paulo, ou the western side of the gut of Canso, and Kohl (Doc. 

 Hist, of Maine, 349, 350) is of opinion tliat " S. Paulo is a name often met with on the east coast of Cape Breton," 

 and that " Cartier only adopted and confirmed the name previously given." Kohl also states, what is evident, 

 that S. Paulo, though appearing on tlie eastern coast of Nova Scotia, was " written by the map-maker on the place 

 where it stands, because there was more room for it than in the place where it belongs." Commenting on these 

 maps, Ganong points out that Cape S. Paulo in Maiollo's map is really in Newfoundland and a river St. Paul is 

 given to Cape Breton. He does not seem to agree with the conclusion to which Kohl comes why St. Paulo appears 

 on the mainland, though it is reasonable and likely. Ganong also believes that St. Paul's Cape was the present 

 St. Paul's Islau'l. That niy readers may see the difficulties surrounding tlie question I give the three f<jllo«ing 

 versions of Cartier's second voyage, so far as they relate to northern Cape Breton. 



I._Feom Haki.uyt, Navigations, America (Part ii), vol. siii., Goldsmid's Edition (EDiNnrKcn, 1889) pp. 142, 143. 



" Vpon Thur.^day being tlie twenty-sixe of the moneth, and the feast of the Ascension of our Lord, we coasted 

 oner to a land and shallow of lowe sa"ndes, which are about eight leagues Southwest from Brions Island, aboue 

 which are large Champaignes, full of trees and also an enclosed sea, whereas we could neither see, nor perceino any 

 gappe or way to enter thereinto. On Friday following, being the 27 of tlie moneth, because the wind <lid change 

 on the coast^ we came to Brion's Island acaine, where we stayed till the lieginning of lune, and toward the South- 

 east of this Island, wee sawe a lande, seeming vnto vs an Island, we coasted it about two leagues and a halfe and 

 by the way we had notice of three other hitrh Islands, lying toward the Sands : after wee had knowen tliesc thijigs 

 we returned to the Cape of tlie sayd land, which doeth diuide itselfe into two or three very high Capes : the waters 

 there are very deepe, and the flood of the sea runneth so swift, that it cannot possibly be swifter. That day we 

 came to Cape Loreine, which is in forty-seuen degrees and a halfe toward the South : on wliich Cape there is a 

 low land, and it seemeth that there is some entrance of a riuer, but there is no liauen of any worth. Aboiio these 

 lands we saw another cape towards the south we named it Saint Paules Cape, it is at 47 degrees and a quarter. 



''The Sunday following, being the fourth of lune, and Whitsunday, wee had notice of the coast lying East- 

 southeast, distant from the Newfoundland about two and twenty leagues : and because the wind was against vs, 

 we went to a Hauen, which wee named S. Spiritus Porte, where we stayed till Tewsday that we departed thence, 

 sayling along that coast vntil we came to Saint-Peters Islands. Wee found along the sayd coast many very 

 dangerous Islands and shelues, which lye all in the Eastsoutheast and Westnorthwest, about three and twenty 



