52 SAMUEL EDWARD DAWSON ON THE 



to them from boyhood under every aspect of sunshhie and storm. This is a most important 

 auxiliary to book-kuowledge and prevents many misconceptions. One instance may suffice 

 — Mr. Harrisse is arguing ' for a theory that the Portuguese Fagundes, possessed, in 1521, 

 an intinuite knowledge of the gulf of ISt. Lawrence, and he seizes upon the name Auguada 

 bay. This he translates by "Watering bay" from the "place where vessels went to till 

 their casks with fresh water at the entrance of the St. Lawrence river." Having made this 

 assumption, probably from a supposed analogy with the Amazon which is reported to 

 freshen the water out of sight of land, he naturally concludes that when Fagundes went u\> 

 the gulf for fresh water he would have seen Prince Edward island, the Magdalens, and 

 Anticosti. Probably he would ; but then before he could till his casks he must have gone 

 550 miles from the strait of Canso, because the St. Lawrence water is not fresh below Crane 

 island 34 miles from Quebec. To a Canadian the absurdity of vessels coming up from the 

 maritime provinces to Quebec for fresh water is palpable ; but, from want of that local 

 knowledge, the immense research of Mr. Harrisse is led into a false path. Canadians should 

 not quietly resign Cabot into other hands, for he is more to them than Columbus is to the 

 people of the United States. Cabot sailed in the service of the British crown and he landed 

 on territory which still owns allegiance to the queen of England. And then our own gulf 

 — all our own — we, who know it in all its moods — who have seen the gloomy forest steeps 

 of Cape North and the inaccessible cliôs of the Bird Rocks lit by the sun or when the ice 

 was grinding at their bases and the fog sullenl}- lifting from their summits — we who know 

 its waters when black with storm or rippling in inconstant beauty under the clear bhie of 

 our northern summer — we have a commentary on the books and charts which all the 

 learning of a Humboldt or the minute research of a Harrisse can never supply. 



It is not my intention to wander over all the debatable ground of the Cabot vo^-ages, 

 where every circumstance bristles with conflicting theories. The original authorities are 

 few and scanty, but mountains of hypotheses have been built upon them, and, too often, 

 the suppositions of one writer have been the facts of a succeeding one. Step by step the 

 learned students before alluded to have established certain propositions which appear to me 

 to be true and which I shall accept without further discussion. Among these I count the 

 following : " 



1. — That John Cabot was a Venetian, of Genoese birth, naturalized at Venice on 

 March 28th, 1476, after the customary fifteen years of residence ; and that he 

 subsequently settled in England with all his family. 



2. — That Sebastian, his second son, was born in Venice and when very 3-oung 

 was taken by his father to England with the rest of the family. 



3. — That on petition of John Cabot and his three sons, Lewis, Sebastian andSancio, 

 letters i>atent of king Henry VII. were issued, under date March 5, 1496, 

 empowering them, at their own expense, to discover and take possession for 

 England of new lands not before found by any Christian nation. 



4. — That John Cabot, accompanied perhaps by his son Sebastian, sailed from 

 Bristol early in May, 1497. He discovered and landed ujion some part of 

 America between Cape Cod, in Massachusetts, and Cape Chidle}-, in Labra- 

 dor; that he returned to Bristol before the end of July of the same year; that 

 whatever might have been the number of vessels which started, the discovery 

 was made by John Cabot's own vessel, the "Matthew of Bristol," with a crew 

 of eighteen men. 



