152 BISHOP HOWLEY ON 



wonderfal accuracy of Carder's descriptions: the marvellous correctness of his soundings as 

 shown by comparison with the latest and most scientific investigations. 



I have sometimes smiled, sometimes felt indignant, at the cool assumption with which 

 some writers, having, through their own ignorance, involved themselves in an inextricable 

 muddle, at once accuse Cartier of ignorance, inexactitude, and so forth. Thus, M. Paul de 

 Cazes, in the ' Transactions of the Royal Society of Canada, 1890,' page 26, writes, " L'in- 

 exactitude de ses observations astronomiques, le peu de précision de sa course, le vague de 

 ses descriptions, sur les lieux visités, &c., &c." I leave it confidently to the reader to say, 

 after he shall have perused these pages, on whose side is the ignorance and inexactitude. 



Acknowledging my great indebtedness to the Abbé Hospice Verreau, for his very 

 erudite and painstaking article in the same number of the Transactions on the questions of 

 the " Calendar, Civil and Ecclesiastical,'' also, to two most interesting articles by Professor 

 Ganong in the Transactions for 1887 and 1889, and to tlie prize essays of Mr. Joseph Pope 

 and M. Dicnine, I shall, without further preliminar}^ commence the consideration of the 

 itinerary. 



I have drawn a map which will help to throw light upon mj' observations. 



Cartier set sail on his tirst voyage from St. Male on Monday, 20th April, 1531, and, 

 after a favourable passage, arrived at Newfoundland on the 10th May. This gives a passage 

 of twenty days, which even at the present time would be a very fair inn indeed for a sailmg 

 vessel. He made land at Cape Bonavista, which, with his usual exactness and nautical pre- 

 cision, he tells us is in latitude 48J'^. It is in i-eality 48"^ 42' , so that he is only 12 minutes 

 out. But the fact of his making Bonavista so directly and securely from St. Malo shows a 

 knowledge of navigation quite equal to that possessed by the ordinarj' sea captain of the 

 present day. 



Cape Bonavista was, up to the date of Cartier and for years after, the goal of all the 

 northwestern navigators. Having made this point, tliey steered north or south as they 

 desired, and on returning to Europe this was the [loint they took to get a good departure 

 from. It was in the immediate neighbourhood of this point, namely, at Cape St. John, lat. 

 50^, that Cabot first made land in 1497. It was this point which was made by Gaspard 

 Cortereal, who, three years subsequently (1500), sailing from Lisbon via Terceira (Azores), 

 discovered and named this cape Buonavisf,a — a name already given by the Portuguese to the 

 principal island of the Cape Verde group. It was at this point that Giovanni Verrazano in 

 1523 took his course for Europe; having first struck land in lat. 34^ N. (Cape Fear, North 

 Carolina), he coasted northwardly many leagues, till they came to the land "that in times 

 past," says the "Chronicle," (namely 1497), "was discovered by the Britons (Cabot) which 

 is in lat. 50^," i. e., at Cape St. John, Newfoundland. (See map.) 



Catalina, St. Katherine's Harbour. 



On account of the course to the northward being beset with ice, Cartier went into a 

 harbour situated to the south-southwest of Cape Bonavista, about five leagues. He tells us 

 this harbour is named St. Katherine's. It retains the name ui> to the present day, but in 

 the modifted form of Catalina — " the soft Spanish word for Catherine, like Kathleen in Irish." 

 (Bishop Mullock's Lectures.) It does not appear that Cartier gave the name. He speaks 



