CAETOGEAPHY TO CHAMPLAIN. S 5 



An explanation which suggests itself is that the Indians whom Cartier met in different parts of 

 Bay Chaleur, told him that the land to the south was Megumaghee Micmac-land, and Cartier, 

 writing from memory, or not understanding their peculiarities of pronunciation, wrote it on his maps 

 Terra de Michalman or something similar. This might allervvards be corrupted into a very 

 different form by later map-makers. The objection to this view is that the word Micmac does not 

 aj)pear to be an aboriginal Indian word. It is usually given a French origin, being supposed to be 

 the word "micmac," meaning jugglery and af)plied to them because of the number if their 

 " autmoins " or medecine-men. No writer previous to 1696, so far as I can find, has ever used it, 

 the word " Souriquois" being universally applied to this people. Dr. Silas Eand writes me that the 

 Indians use it themselves, but know nothing of its origin. Such writers as Lescarbot and Champlain 

 would have heard it had it been used in those times by the Indians themselves. It is not impossible, 

 after all, that Miramichi is a greatly corrupted French or Spanish word, and not Indian at all. 



It is well known that the Miramichi was called also Biver of the Cross or M/'ver of the Holy Cross 

 in the seventeenth centmy. This was because of the veneration which the Indians were said to have 

 had for the cross, something which they claimed was very ancient. In this, some writers see the 

 influence of Christian Norsemen. Cartier however did not notice this (a statement in Standard 

 Natural History, VI, 140, to the contrary notwithstanding). He had too little communication with 

 the Indians at Miramichi. 



Magdalene Islands. — The name Magdalene does not appear to have been used at all before the 

 time of Champlain, and is not mentioned by him until the 1632 edition of his works and his map of 

 the same date. For half a century before this, and perhaps longei-, they had been known as Isles 

 Ramées, or Ramea. Champlain himself applied the name La Magdelene only to the present Amherst 

 Island, as did Denys in 1672, applying the names Isles Ramées to the remainder of the gi-ouj). There 

 appears to be nothing in Champlain's works to show where he obtained, or why he gave the name. 

 In reading his works we notice two or three occasions upon which he might possibly have been 

 at Amherst Island on the July 22nd, day of St. Mary Magdalene. In 1613 for instance, he left 

 Tadoussac July 8th, and reached St. Malo on August 26th, and it may have happened that, on the 

 22nd, he was at this place or in sight of it and honored this conspicuous island by the name of the 

 saint of the day. 



Cartier gave no name to the group as a whole, and the name Ramea aj^pears first, so far as I 

 know, in the accounts of voyages to them between 1590 and 1597, given by Hakluyt. In these 

 accounts are inti'oduced a number of new names, none of which have survived, and none of which are, 

 with certainty, identifiable. Isle Blanche and Isle Duoron appear to be the same, and to represent 

 the modern Entry Island. Cape du Chapt, Isle Hupp, Harbor of Halabolina, are others that appear. 

 It is worth noticing that the names all appear on the charts in Dudley's "Arcane del Mare," of 1647, 

 though they are thei-e certainly not applied as in the narratives given by Hakluyt. A group of small 

 islands on the south coast of Newfoundland at present bears the name " Eamea Isles," and this may 

 have been transferred from the Magdalenes to them. 



