52 GANONG- ON ST. LAWRENCE 



which shows the west coast^of Newfoundland at alL well, Cape Real is placed neai-ly in the position of 

 Cape Ray. On later maps, until the time of Lescarbot, it is either moved out of place to Cape 

 Breton, or omitted altogether. It is especially significant that the only map showing the west coast 

 of Newfoundland should place it nearly in the projier position. Some maps, after Lescarbot and 

 apparently independent of the latter, have Cape Rey. Lescarbot himself has 0. de Baye. Still, this 

 is but a possibility; there is little positive evidence to sustain it. Mr. Reade (Trans. Roy. Soc. Can., 

 VI. ii. 22) states that it is said to be derived from the Basque " arraico," pursuit or approach. I have 

 seen no maps whatever which support this. 



Notre Dame Mountains. — There can hardly be any question as to this name. Cartier gave it 

 on August 15th, 1535. See antea, p. 23. 



Chischedec. — Not now used, but frequently found in maps of about the time of Champlain. It 

 appears in DeMonts' Patent of 1603. It was applied, according to Hind (Labrador. II., 26) to Seven 

 Islands. Others have said it applied to the mouth of the St. John River. 



Lesqdemain. — This words appears in old documents. According to Laverdière, (Champlain, 

 p. 1090,) it is equivalent to " Les Escoumius," the present Esquamine in the St. Lawrence. 



Labrador. — This woi-d is not used in Cartier'a narratives, though it appears in the title of the 

 1598 edition of his first narrative. It is supposed to have been added by the translator. There are, 

 at least, six theories as to the origin of this word. 



(1) The generally accepted and altogether probable one, that given by Dr. Bouriuot, in ' Canadian 

 Monthly,' April, 1875, and by other writers, that it was originally " Terra Laboratoris," land of the 

 laborer, because Cortereal brought fifty men thence to Europe, who were described as well fitted for 

 slaves. This is sustained by all the evidence of old majis. 



(2) A tradition which says that Bradore Bay took its name from La Bradore, a Basque whaler, 

 who entered it before the sixteenth century, and that from the bay (called Bradore to-day) the name 

 rapidly extended to the whole country. Cartier did not use Bradore for the bay, though he entered it 

 and gave a name to its islands ; nor so far as I know does the name appear on any map of the sixteenth 

 century. Labradoi-, applied to the whole country, does appear, however, very early. There is no 

 cartographical evidence to sustain this theory. 



(3) That given by M. Jules Marcou in his " Sui' L'Origine du Nom D'Amérique" (Bull. Soc. Geo., 

 1888, p. 57 of the reprint), attributes to it an Indian origin. " Ce beau nom Brador ou Bradaur, sonore 

 et admirablement approprié, est un mot des Indiens des bords du golfe Saint-Laurent ; il signifie 'baie 

 étroite et profonde', s'avançant dans les terres et il correspond exactement au nom norvégien de fiord." 

 M. Marcou, however, does not give us any authority for his statement. 



(4) The latter wi'itcr mentions that some have thought the name was given in irony, because of 

 the sterility of the land, — a land of labor should be fertile, and here the name was given in derision. 



(5) Another interpretation, which seems to have escaped notice, is hinted at by John Ogilby, in 

 his " History of America" (1671). He say.s : " The denomination of Terra de Lahorador or Labora- 

 toris seems probably enough conjectured to be from the cultivability (if one may so term it) of the 

 soil, or its aptness for Cultivation or Tillage ; that is because, by the painful Hand of the Labourer or 

 Husband-man, it may be rendered so fertile as to yield all sorts of Grain and Fruits ; haply in Allusion 

 to the fruitful Countrey of Campania in Italy, vulgarly known by the name of Terra di Lavoro." A 

 very old Portuguese map of 1520, one of the earliest on which the name appears (given by Kohl, 

 "Discovery of Maine," p. 179), gives some authority for such a suggestion as Ogilby's, for the 

 region is there called Do Lavrador. Otherwise, there seems no ground for this theory. 



(6) That given by Mr. Reade, in these Transactions, VI. ii. 22. "Labrador is claimed to be a 

 remembrancer of the Labourdo district which gives a distinctive name to a dialect of the Basque 

 language." I have seen nothing on old maps to substantiate this. 



