[o'brikn] CABOT'S LANDFALL AND CHART 44S 



terra de Pcscaria," "To the Bay of Padian/ the country of fisheries." 

 He knew, therefore, the Straits of Belle Isle led into the great Gulf 

 where so m'any fishermen plied their trade. Yet he has not traced the 

 Gulf for us at its northern entrance. Wliilst the lines of this map do 

 not reveal his knowledge of the vast sea behind ISTewfoimdland, his 

 Avords proclaim it unmistakably. Dr. Dawson cannot find any trace of 

 P. E. Island, the St. John of Cabot, on any map prior to Champlain's 

 second one. Two reasons m^y be assigned for this. First, he began 

 his studies of the landfall with the intention of proving (as he lets us 

 know in his pa|>er of 189-1) that P. E. Island was not Cabot's St. John. 

 Secondly, whilst he can make all possible "allowance for displacement 

 both as regards latitude and longitude in the case of the Magdalen 

 Islands, he insists on finding P. E. Island laid doAvii with modern ac- 

 curacy, or he will have none of it. This mental attitude is less than 

 judicial. A glance at Verazzano's map, especially after reading what 

 we have proved regarding the Avay it opens up the Gulf, will reveal be- 

 yond doubt P. E. Island called by its old name, St. John. 



Yiegas' and Kretschmer's maps give it more accurately located 

 in many respects, yet brought too far out of the Gulf. This manner 

 of displacing islands is quite common on old maps. Kr^tschmer names 

 it St. John. It is idle to pretend that this island is Cape Breton. We 

 have in both instances Cape Breton marked on the mainland. For 

 scores of years Cape Breton denoted now the whole island, now the 

 northern part, of it. On both maps under consideration it indicates 

 Cape North unduly easted. This can be seen from its bearings to Cape 

 Eay on the Newfoundland coast. 



Again, consider the length of the Straits dividing this island from 

 the mainland. Both in relative length and their crescent form, they 

 agree exactly with the Straits of Northumberland, whilst by no stretch 

 of the imagination can they be made to bear any resemblance to the 

 Straits of Canso. The latter are only eighteen miles long, they begin 

 and end in deep bays of which there is not the faintest indication on 

 the maps. Moreover the northern end of San Joa will be seen to agree 

 fairly well in its bearings to Bio de Gente (Baie de Chaleur). 



The shape too, of San Joa resembles that of P. E. Island, especially 

 as given on maps of the seventeenth century, whilst it bears no likeness 

 to Cape Breton. 



If San Joa be Cape Breton Island, we are asked to believe that the 

 old name of the Bretons Cape seen on Yerazzano^s and Maggiolo's 

 maps,, and other early ones, was carried west to the shores of Nova 

 Scotia. Neither Yiegas nor Kretschmer was so ignorant as to be guilty 



