154 BISHOP HOWLF.Y ON 



of it as if already well known like Bonavista. Shortly afterwards, however, Cartier did give 

 the name of St. Catherine, not to a harhour hut to an island near the Straits of Belle Isle. 

 It is the island known to-day as Schooner Island. " Je nomme icelle isle Saincte Katherine." 

 He says ^^ I name." M. D'Avezac, in his introduction to the Relation, presumes that this 

 may have been the name of Cartier's ship, but I prefer to attribute it to a higher motive. 

 In the first place, this was the name of his wife, Catherine des Grandies ; again, the festival 

 of the great St. Catherine of Siena (:30th April) occurred while he was in mid-ocean. He 

 maj' have resolved on that day to honour some place by her name. 



Isle des Ouaiseaulx. 



After a delay of ten days at Catalina he set out on Thursday, 21st May, with a westerly 

 breeze, and sailed N. by E. — '■^ NoH ung de nordeist" (qy., " TJng quart?") We have 

 here another example of the minute accuracy of Cartier's log. But on his second voyage 

 (1535) he describes still more exactly the position of these well-known Bird Islands, 

 known in our days as the " Funks." ""We made land," he says (second voyage, 1535), "at 

 the Bird Island, which is about fourteen leagues from the mainland, and is in elevation of 

 the pole" a. e., north latitude) "49° 40' ." Cartier's leagues were about two and two-thirds 

 of our nautical miles, which would give about thirty-six miles for the distance from the main- 

 land. Now, in the " Sailing Directions," 1876, we read : * * * "The Funk Islands lie 

 northeast by east about thirty-two miles from Cape Freels." Cartier mentions the bearing 

 not from Cape Fi'eels but from Catalina Head, and gives Î^T. by E., which is the correct 

 bearing from the latter point. "Its geographical position" — I am still quoting the 

 'Sailing Directions '—" is 49° 45' 29"." 



Cartier's description is wonderfully correct. This island was well known at the time of 

 Cartier's voj^age. It appears on all the maps previous to his time. Thus Majollo (1527) 

 gives it as Aves ; Verrazano (1528), Ya de Los Aves; Ribero (1529), Ya de Aves : Varresi, 

 Vatican map (1556), Isola degli Ucelli. When it assumed its present ineuphonious sobri- 

 quet, the Funks, I have not been able to discover. 



Baye des Chasteaulx. 



On Wednesday, 27th May, Cartier arrived at the entrance of the Bay of Châteaux ; 

 that is to say, at the Straits of Belle Isle, the entrance to the Gulf of St. Lawrence. But on 

 account of ice he could not enter the straits, and had to take refuge in the harbour of Car- 

 poon until the 9th of June. 



The voyage from the Funks to the harbour ot Cai'poon, or Kirpon, occupied six days, 

 from the 21st to the 27th of May, of which Cartier gives us no account ; but while making 

 up his log during his stay at Karpunt, or Quirpon, he gives us an idea of the intermediate 

 coast. He speaks of the "two Belle Isles which are near Red Cape." These islands are 

 called at the present day Groais or Groix Island (corrupted by the fishermen to Gray's 

 Island) and Belle Isle South. This latter name is rarely used by the people, who call the 

 group by the name of the Gray Islands. Tlie name of Belle Isle, without any qualification, 

 is now universally- given to the large and well known island lying off the straits of the same 

 name in lat. 52"^. The two islands, Groaix and Belle Isle South, off Cape Rouge, between lat. 

 50° and 51°, were evidently well known in Cartier's time. The names were doubtless given by 

 the Breton fishermen in memory of the two islands of the same name on their own coast of 



