VOYAGES OP THE CABOTS IN 1497 AND 1498. 73 



to examine being short of provisions. These islands would he St. Pierre and Miquelon ; for 

 there are two, and only two, important islands possible to be seen at the right on the south 

 coast of Newfoundland on the homeward course. La Cosa beside the two small islands 

 above noted has marked on his map three larger islands, I. de la Trinidad, S. Grigor, and I. 

 Verde Init they are not laid down on the map in the places of St. Pierre and Miquelon nor 

 are there any islands existing in the positions shown. I. de la Trinidad is doubtless the 

 peninsula of Burin, as would appear by its position almost in contact with the land and its 

 very peculiar shape. In coasting along it would appear as an island tor the isthmus is very 

 narrow, and St. Pierre and Miquelon would be clearly seen as islands on the right. As for 

 the bearings of the coast it will appear by a comparison with Champlain's large map that 

 they are compass liearings for they are the same on both. 



I have dwelt at length upon the map of La Cosa because, for our nnrtheni coasts, it is 

 in eftect John Cabot's map. • After the return of the second expedition, the English made a 

 few voyages but soon fell liack into the old rut of their Iceland trade. The expedition was 

 beyond question a commercial failure, and therefore, like the practical people they are, they 

 neglected that new continent which was destined to become the chief theatre for the expan- 

 sion of their race. Their fishermen were for many years to be found in small numbers only 

 on the coast, and, as before, their supply of codfish was drawn from Iceland where they 

 could sell goods in exchange. 



Meantime the Bretons and Normans, and the Basques of France and Sjiain, and the 

 Portuguese, grasped that which England practically abandoned. That landfall which Cabot 

 gave her in 1497 cost much blood and treasure to win back in 1758. The French fishermen 

 were on the coast as earl}' as 1504, and the names on La Cosa's map were displaced l)y 

 French names still surviving on the south coast and on what is called the French shore of 

 Newfoundland. Robert Thorne in 1527 (and no doubt others unrecorded) in vain urged 

 upon the English Government to vindicate its right. According to the papal bulls and the 

 treaty of Tordesillas the new lands were Portuguese east of a meridian 370 leagues west of 

 the Cape de Verde islands and Spanish to the west of it. Baccalaos and Lalirador were 

 considered to be Portuguese and, upon the maps, when any mention is made of English 

 discoveries they are accordingly relegated to Greenland or the far north of Labrador. The 

 whole claim of England went by abandonment and detault. The Portuguese as the Rev. Dr. 

 Patterson has shown, named all the east coast of Newfoundland and their traces are even 

 yet found on the coasts of Nova Scotia and of Cape Breton. 



Therefore it is that the maps we have now to refer to are not so much Spanish as 

 Portuguese. They will tell us nothing of the English, nor of Cabot, l)ut we shall be able to 

 follow his island of St. John — the only one of his names which survived. The outlines of 

 some verj' early maps are given by Kunstmann, Kretschmer and Winsor, l)ut until 1505 

 they have no bearing upon our problem. In that year Reinel's map was made, and although 

 Newfoundland forms part of terrd firma, the openings north and south of it are jilainly 

 indicated by unclosed lines. Cape Race has received its permanent name Baso and although 

 only the east coast of Newfoundland is named there is no possibility of mistaking the 

 . easternmost point of Cape Breton. Just opposite, {ex adrerso) is laid down and named the 

 island of Sam Joha, in lat. 46^, the precise latitude of Scatari island. Here, then, in 1505 is 

 in this island of St. John an independent testimony to the landfall of 1497 — not off Cape 

 North, which does not yet appear, nor inside the gulf for it is not even indicated — but in the 



Sec. II., 1894. 10. 



