CAETIER'S COUESE. 167 



speaking of the coast between tlie two capes above mentioned but of the general trend of 

 the coast of Pleasant Bay ; and his description is most singularly exact. Bayfield thus 

 describes it : " Amherst Island is connected with Grindstone Island by a double line of sand- 

 bars, inclosing an extensive lagoon five or six miles long and from one to three miles wide." 

 Benjamin (p. 60) thus describes it, " we found a line of high and picturesque sand hills * 



* * running along the coast like a breastwork erected to protect the land from the 

 ravages of the sea." (Cartier's /ossé.) 



After having fully explored the Magdalens, Cartier again set out on his western journey. 



" The following day," he says, " the second last of the month, the wind came south- 

 west by south, and we ran till Tuesday, the last day of the month, at sunrise, without 

 seeing any land." 



It is to be noticed here that he speaks of the following day or the morrow {le lendemnw) 

 as the second last or penultimate 'peneultiyne jour du dit mays) day of the said month — that 

 is, the 29th of June — whereas he had already spoken of that day as if past. It was on that 

 day, the feast of St. Peter, that they had seen and named the first cape Red Cape. This is 

 a usual method of Cartier's, and until we become accustomed to his style it is a little con- 

 fusing. The explanation of it seems tome as follows: during his daily explorations he takes 

 notes of what he sees and does. And afterwards, when a time of leisure offers, perhaps 

 after a day or two, he sits down to write up his log or journal ; hence, in giving the account 

 of a certain day's proceedings, he sometimes throws in a piece of information which fills out 

 the narrative, though it belongs to a subsequent day's exploration ; he then returns to the 

 day he is writing up, and when he has finished with it, he commences usually with " Le 

 lendemain," etc. N"ow, in the present case he had made all his explorations about the Mag- 

 dalens before he began to write. He describes in regular order the proceedings of Saturday, 

 June 27th, and Sunday, June 28th, but he goes on, as if it were a jjart of the day's work of 

 Sunday, 28th, to say that tliey arrived at a red cape. (He afterwards tells us they did not 

 arrive at that cape till Monday, 29th ) Having thrown in this piece of information as a 

 kind of parenthesis, he continues to write down the observations of the 28th (Sunday). 

 When he has finished up that subject, he comes to describe the doings of Monday, 29th, and 

 commences with his usual phrase. Le lendemain. He does not say at what hour of the day 

 on Monday, 29th, he left the Magdalens, nor what course he took. He must, however, have 

 left in the evening, for we find that by daylight, or rather after sunrise [sollail à Vest), about 

 4.10 a.m., next day he saw land some ten leagues (saj- twenty-five miles) to the southwest. 

 This, as we shall see, was the north shore of Prince Edward Island, one hundred miles from 

 the Magdalens. He had then sailed some seventy-five miles, and as his average speed was 

 about six knots, he must have been twelve or thirteen hours out. Hence he would have 

 left the Magdalens about 4 or 5 p.m. He does not give his course, but it was no doubt 

 westward ; his whole object was to find the western passage ; he expressly states that on 

 the following day (Tuesday, June 30th) he sailed westwardly. On this morning (June 30th) 

 he saw land about nine or ten leagues to the west-southwest, which " appeared like two 

 isles," but afterwards he found it was mainland {terre ferme) : just as on a former occasion, 

 when he approached the shores of ÎTewfoundland towards Cap Double, he thought at first 

 it was two islands, but afterwards found it was mainland. 



The honour of being the first to identify this land seen by Cartier on June 30th as the 

 north shore of Prince Edward Island, and to locate carefully all the rest of the voyage 



