CAETOGEAPHT TO CHAMPLAIN. 21 



after leaving Gaspé, for the narrative is here iDcrfectly clear. Yet more than one writer 

 has claimed that instead of crossilig to Anticosti he sailed up the St. Lawrence to near 

 Point des Monts. This is the view taken by Abbé Laverdière in M. Grénest's map.' In 

 the latter the course, as marked, follows the curve of the north shore of the Graspé pen- 

 insula to near the present River St. Anne, then crosses to near Seven Islands, recrosses to 

 near Matane, then runs nearly direct to the north of Anticosti, and along the Labrador 

 coast to the Strait of Belle Isle. This view is taken also by the very courteous author of a 

 short review ' of my paper on Cartier's first voyage. I cannot help believing, however, 

 that the latter has not examined the evidence in the light of facts, but has rather based it 

 iipou supposition. The chief reason advanced by the reviewer was, practically, that 

 Cartier would never have gone to the east along Anticosti, when the great St. Lawrence 

 was opening to him what would seem to him to be the western passage for which he was 

 seeking. It is not in the light of what Cartier would have done with a modern chart of 

 the Grulf before him, but in the light of what he, with his imperfect knowledge or want 

 of knowledge, did do, that we are to read the history of his voyage. This matter is so 

 clear that argument is hardly needed. There are at least three distinct lines of evidence 

 showing that he did not go up the St. Lawrence on this voyage, but to the eastward 

 around Anticosti. 



(1.) The narrative itself is quite clear on this point. It says that he sailed away to 

 the east-north-east ; that he thought he was crossing the mouth of a great bay, the coast 

 of which he could see from his ships ; that the land he approached lay sovrth-east and 

 north-west, and that the passage across was twenty leagues. This is all unmistakeable. 

 The " Relation originale " reads as follows : '' Le landemain, xxv© jour dudit moys, le 

 vent vyut bon et appareillasmes du liable ; et nous estaus hors de ladite ryuiere, fismes 

 porter à l'Est Nordest, pour ce que depuis la terre de ladite riuiere estoit la terre rengée, 

 faisant une l>aye en manière de demy cercle, dont auyons veues de toute la couste de noz 

 nauires ; Et en faisant la routte, vynmes cj[uerre ladite terre qui gisoit Suest et Nornoyst, 

 e paraige de laquelle il pouoyt auoir de. distance, depuys ladite riuiere, enuyron xx 

 lieues." The edition of 1598 is less clear here as elsewhere, but its meaning is the same. 

 His distances and directions from his landfall on Anticosti to East Cape, thence around 

 and up the northern coast of Anticosti, are quite correct and clear, and leave no doubt 

 that he reached North Cape and went but very little beyond it. Now, as to why he 

 thought he was crossing the mouth of a bay, the whole coast of which he could see from 

 his ship, when crossing to Anticosti, I can only siiggest that he was deceived by fog- 

 banks.' Why is it, I may ask, that the position of the Bay of Fundy is represented by 

 solid land upon nearly every known map up to the time of Lescarbot ? Navigators and 



' See antea, p. 20, note 1. 



" See Le Canada-Français, i. 6S9-690. 



^ " In the same manner, in modern times, Sir James Ross, in Lancaster Sound, believed he saw mountains 

 where there were but fogs, and depicted this sound as land-locked, whilst it has the widest open water in the 

 whole world." J. G. Kohl, Coll. Maine Hist. Soe., vol. i, 1S69. " The reports of lands seen at a distance in these 

 waters (i.e., Arctic Ocean, near Alaska) should be made with great circumspection, where clouds and fog-banks 

 are constantly appearing on the horizon, and are so very deceiving," etc., and examples of such deceptions. 

 W. H. Gilder, Ice-Pack and Tundra, p. 100. My friend. Dr. Benjamin Rand, of Cambridge, who has sailed in 

 schc oners in the GuLf and River St. Lawrence, tells me that the region we are considering is a famous one for 

 its mirages. 



