CAETOGEAPHY TO CHAMPLAIN. 25 



E. — Allefonsce's Cosvwgraphie. 



There is but one' other contemporary account of the Gulf, or of voyages to it, which 

 throws any light upon our subject. Jean Allefonsce, who accompanied Roberval to Canada 

 as his pilot in 1542, wrote a work on cosmography, which is preserved in manuscript in the 

 National Library at Paris. It has never been reprinted in full, but the parts relating to 

 this region have been translated and published by Hakluyt, " Murphy ' and De Costa.' 

 Hakluyt's account is prefaced by a title which reads : " Here followeth the course from 

 Belle Isle, Carpout, and the Grand Bay in Newfoundland up the River of Canada for the 

 space of 230 leagues, observed by lohn Alphonsce of Xanctoigne chiefe Pilote to Monsieur 

 Eoberval, 1542." This would imply that Allefonsce acttially made the voyage along the 

 coast himself, and this receives some confirmation from the .statement of Le Clercq (in his 

 " Établissement de la Foy " ), mentioned by Murphy and De Costa, that Roberval sent 

 Allefonsce along the Labrador coast to search for a western passage. This statement is 

 also made by Champlain. '' He may have made the voyage, or he may not, but there is 

 very little, if anything, in his account of the Gulf, which is not in the narratives of Cartier, 

 and which, therefore, could not have been derived directly from Cartier himself (with 

 whom, of course, he had acquaintance), or from Cartier's maps. He has certainly used 

 Cartier's names almost exclusively, and if he did make a journey over the region he 

 describes, named no places himself The only differences between his place-names and 

 Cartier's are as follow^s : — He uses the name Belle Isle for the island north of Newfound- 

 land, still so-called, which Cartier had named St. Katherine's. He uses the name Grand 

 Bay for the Strait of Belleisle, which Cartier had called Bay of Castles, but extends the 

 term to include the eastern part of the Gulf also. He seems to apply the term Bay of 

 Castles to Cartier's Port of Castles. He mentions the Isles de la Demoiselle, 36 leagues 

 west-south-west of Blanc Sablou and 18 leagues north-east of Cape Thiennot. There are 

 no islands exactly corresponding to this position, but the group at the present Cape 

 Whittle, near St. Mary's Islands, seems to come nearest to them." It will be remembered 

 that in this vicinity Cartier named a group St. Germain. 



Allefonsce, in speaking of Anticosti, always calls it Ascension, instead of Assump- 

 tion, as Cartier named it. He uses also the names Mountains of Notre Dame and Cape 

 of the Mountains of Notre Dame, by the latter meaning probably Mount Louis." Cartier 

 undoubtedly gave these names, for he first saw them and described them both on 

 August ISth." Allefonsce uses the name Bay of Molues or Gaspé,'' which Cartier does 



' Hakluyt (iii. 168-170) gives an account of the voyage of M. Hore and others to Newfoundland and Cape 

 Breton, in 1.536. Hannay (Hist, of Acadia, p. 21) thinks they were on the west coast of Newfoundland. The 

 account contains no geographical information. 



'' Voyages, iii. 291-294 of 1810 ed. ^ Voyage of Verrazano, New York, 1875, pp. 38, 39. 



* America, iv. 69, 70, 74-76. 



^ Laverdière's ed. of his works, p. 692. 



''It is not unlikely that there is some misprint in Hakluyt here. Unfortunately there are many such, and 

 one should never depend upon his work in matters of detail when he can have the originals before him. In the 

 case of this part of Allefonsce's work I have been forced to use Hakluyt, as I can find no other version wliatever in 

 the libraries near Boston. 



' See antea, p. 23. * See post. p. 58. 



" The earliest use of the word of which I can find any record. 



Sec. II, 1889. 4. 



