CAETOGEAPHT TO CHAMPLAIN. 43 



what ones he should adopt and what omit. It seems probable that Cartier's maps were 

 on a much larger scale than any of the copies, and that they contained many 

 more names than any of the latter. It is altogether likely, also, that they contained 

 many short legends describing the character of the country, its natural productions, 

 inhabitants, etc., and it is parts of these legends which appear on some maps as names of 

 places which were not given by Cartier. Of this character are " numinas salinas " of the 

 Cabot map, "le beau pais" of the Homem map, "coste du oist," "banc lormine " of the 

 Vallard map, and many others. In nearly all cases there is some corresponding descrip- 

 tion in Cartier's narratives, applying exactly to ihese places. If they were not taken from 

 legends on the maps of Cartier, it is necessary to suppose that the cartographers had 

 access to Cartier's narratives — a highly improbable supposition, as the narratives were not 

 published until after most of these maps were made, and we can hardly suppose his 

 manuscripts to have been in the hands of so many map-makers. 



I believe also that certain parts of the coast were left undefined on the maps showing 

 his first voyage, which parts were filled in after the second. His first map was probably 

 not unlike that of Rotz, given above, except that the Magdalenes and Cape Breton coast 

 may not have been joined as in that map, but left undefined, the former on the south and 

 the latter on the north. After the second voyage Anticosti was shown as an island, the 

 Eiver St. Lawrence appeared, and the Magdalenes and Cape Breton assumed distinct 

 coast-lines. Upon these maps, doubtless, the west coast of Newfoundland was clearly 

 laid down, though it does not so appear in any later maps of the century. 



III. 



Caetographical Questions Stjggested. 



In the preceding pages there are three questions which I left for later discussion. 

 They were the poor representation or want of representation of the west coast of New- 

 foundland, the identity of the part of the map of Rotz which I think represents the 

 Magdalene group, and the identity of Isle St. John. For the discussion of these points 

 we need to understand our whole series of maps. 



A. — Early Cartograph// of the West Coast of Newfoundland. 



The Henri II is the only map which gives the west coast of Newfoundland with any 

 approach to accuracy. Even it gives but three names to this whole coast, to which 

 Cartier applied two or three times as many. The Cabot, Mercator and Vallard maps give a 

 totally incorrect coast line with no names, while those of Homem and Freire give no coast 

 line at all, but instead represent the land shading off into the sea, as in a region totally un- 

 known. Even Champlain, as late as 1632, in his explanation of his map of that year, 

 says that the west coast of Newfoundland "n'est bien recognuë." The only reason I can 

 think of for this is that Cartier's map of this coast was inaccessible to all of the makers of 

 these maps, except to the first, and possibly even to him. It may have been destroyed by 

 accident or for business reasons unknown to us. All of these maps appear to have been 



