VOYAGES OP THE CABOTS IN 1497 AND 1498. 79 



and Tormentine seem to inclose a large bay. It is not strange, then, that Cartier passed on 

 westward to the New Brunswick coast without suspecting the existence of Northumlierland 

 strait. Any one who has crossed to Siimmcrside and to Charlottetown will have observed 

 how the island lies, as it were, in the lap ot' the sister provinces, ami all sailors know, 

 what in tact is evident upon the chart, that it is far out of the way of vessels sailing 

 into the gulf by any entrance l)ut the strait of Canso. The entire coast is low and not 

 visible at any great distance, and it is not surprising that for sixt}' years after Cartier the 

 existence of the separating strait of Northumberland is unrecorded, and without donl)t was 

 unsuspected. 



Cartier's two voyages attracted no attention in Spain ; but the preparations of 

 Roberval in 1540 were jealously watched by spies and reported to the Emperor Charles V. 

 Finding that the expedition was destined for some part of Baccalaos, he endeavoured to in- 

 cite the Portuguese to follow''" and crush it. That part of America had fallen to Portugal 

 under the bull of demarcation, and the French were looked upon as trespassers ; but 

 Portugal was not in a position to take such high ground as Spain. Gomez, in 1525, is the 

 only Spaniard who is recorded as having sailed along our coasts in these early years. 



In 1536 the Spanish Padron Real, or standard official map, would seem to have fallen 

 into arrears, and Charles V. commissioned Alonzo de Chaves to include all the latest 

 discoveries and bring it down to date. The map which resulted from his labours has been 

 lost ; but Oviedo has given so detailed a description of it that it might almost be repro- 

 duced. It contained the results of Gomez' explorations, and upon it was traced the strait of 

 Canso under the name of the passage of St. Julian. The point of Cape Breton is noted as 

 being upon the island of St. John, and this transfer of the name St. John from the small 

 satellite island to the larger one Avill be found repeated later in several important maps. 

 Gomez gives the size of the island as 56 leagues long by 20 leagues wide, and in passing it 

 he said that he saw much smoke, which led him to think it was inhabited. This little 

 observation gives reality to the narrative ; for the appearance of Smoky Cape — Cape Enfumé 

 — (Baia des Fumos of the Portuguese) — is very remarkable, and might well mislead any 

 stranger sailing along the coast. With singular reiteration Harrisse insists, even against 

 this clear evidence, upon pronouncing the island of St. John to be lictitiouslike the islands of 

 Santa Cruz and St. Brandan. His objections are based, as pointed out previously, upon 

 misconceptions arising from want of local knowledge of the gulf and its approaches. 

 Enough is recorded of Be Chaves' map to show that, for him, the island of Cape Breton 

 was, itself, the island of St. John. 



Whatever the Portuguese (appendix E) may have done on the Atlantic coast, to the 

 French is due the entire credit of revealing the gulf of St. Lawrence. In the wake of 

 Cartier followed Bretons, Normans, and Basques, both French and Si>anish, but it was long 

 before his discoveries passed into the maps. The map of Agnese (1536), that of Munster 

 (1540), that of Mercator (1541), and the Ulpins globe of 1542 show no indication of the 

 gulf of St. Lawrence ; but all show the east point of Cape Breton and its satellite island in 

 the Atlantic, evidently the St. John of former and later maps. The delusion that America 

 was, at the north, a part of eastern Asia died hard. It lingered on until about 1548, when 

 it may still l>e found in Ptolemy. The great western ocean was supposed to wash the south- 

 ern shores of a vast northern continent stretching from Cathay to Baccalaos, and it was 

 therefore called the Great South sea.'^'' The name lingers still in our ordinary speech ; for 



