440 I;nY.\l, S( CIKTY OF CANADA 



accurately placed, ami some bold navi.irator must have gone far into its 

 recesses. • A com]>;irison of its size with that of the ^Mediterranean will 

 make this evident. 



This map tends to confirm the contention of those who maintain 

 the rortugucse entered the (jJulf in 1.500. Father Bres.sani, S.J., who 

 came to Quebec in 1642, in an abridged relation of some Jesuit Missions 

 in New France, says: "it is certain the French took possession of it 

 (New France) in 1504. They made several voyages to it in 1508, 1523, 

 1524, 1534, etc." Father Martin, S.J., who translated this account 

 into French, in an appendix says the Portuguese visited the River St. 

 Lawrence in 1500, and that in 1506 Jean Denis, of Honfleur, made a 

 map of the Gulf of St. Lawrence. " 1506, Jean Denis, liahiiant dc 

 Honfleiir, trace une Carte du Golfe St. Laurent"). True, we cannot 

 jiroducd that map, but who can tell how soon it may be unearthed ? 

 Bressani, in 1642, naturally had access to sources of inform'ation un- 

 known to us, and he could not have had any wish to mislead those at 

 whose instance he wrote. "Wlien therefore, he says, "it is cert^iin the 

 French took possession of New France in 1504," we have no reason to 

 doubt his word. Equally when his translator asserts in a note that in 

 a certain year a certain individual drew a map of the Gulf, we must 

 suppose he had good authority for his statement. 



We are now certain the Gulf had been entered through the Straits 

 of Belle Isle, which according to Dr. Dawson, are only twelve miles at 

 their mouth, at least thirty-five years before Cartier's time. We can 

 easily believe that Jean Denis entered by the wider straits (forty-two 

 miles, to take Dr. Dawson's restricted measurement) a few years earlier. 



That Cabot entered the Gulf (unwittingly we grant) in 149 T, is 

 placed beyond any reasonable doubt in the Address. It is scarcely a 

 refutation of the arguments therein produced from the letters of Pas- 

 qualigo and Da Soncino, to repeat that the Gulf was not opened up until 

 Cartier's time. The only proof attempted of this assertion, an asser- 

 tion utterly incredible to one who knows how the coast had been fre- 

 quented by Breton and lîasque and Portuguese, and who reads in writ- 

 ings of men contemporary with Oabot, that he searched every inlet and 

 bay and river of the northern coast line to find a passage across is, you 

 cannot produce a map which shows the Gulf. 



Let us understand terms and avoid equivocation. If it be meant 

 tlmt the Gulf was not accurately surveyed, islands, rivers and bays cor- 

 rectly located, we nuiy admit that proposition. No one, I presume, ever 

 asserted the conti*ary. But anyone not anxious to read his own view 

 into the maps of Maggiolo and Verazzano, will recognize that they 

 have opened up the (Juif very extensively. (Sec figures 3 and 4.) In 



