174 BISHOP HOWLEY ON 



This name of Cape de Pratto has given rise to manj^ strange surmises. It is evidently 

 not a French name, and Cartier does not make any pretense of having given it. He speaks 

 of it when he first saw it (12th July, 1534) as if it already had the name and were well 

 known '■'■ Fysmes couriz. . . .jusques au Cap de Pratto." Mr. Joseph Pope, in his very excel- 

 lent study on Cartier, p. 49, says it was called hy him (Cartier) Le Cap de Pratto, probably 

 after Du Pratt, the chancellor of the French king. He is certainly in error as to the first 

 part, for Cartier does not give it the name, and as to the second part. De Pratto or De Prato, 

 both which spellings are found in Cartier, is certainly not Du Prat. ISTor is it at all a 

 French nomenclature. 



M. d'Avezac, in his learned introduction to the Bref JRecit, seems to see in it some 

 allusion to the learned ecclesiastic and mathematician, Alberto de Prato, a Piedmontese, 

 who was on board the ship with John Rut on his expedition of 1527. He wrote a letter in 

 Latin, dated from the harbour of St. .John's, Aug. 3rd, 1527, to Cardinal Wolsey. He was 

 a Canon of old St. Paul's, London. D'Avezac says that among the writings of the. Spanish 

 historians of the Indies we find some vague accounts of an English expedition about this 

 time penetrating the Gulf of St. Lawrence, their pilot, a Piedmontese, having been killed 

 by the Indians, who, he suggests, may have been this same De Prato. But all this, of 

 course, is very unsatisfactory. 



The Rev. Dr. Patterson, in a learned and very closely reasoned article on " The Portu- 

 guese in America" ('Transactions' for 1890), makes an elaborate and erudite effort to 

 prove that the Portuguese had known and explored the gulf previous to Cartier's time ; 

 but to an impartial reader his arguments are not convincing. One of his proofs is drawn 

 from the fact of the familiarity and nonchalance with which the savages received Cartier, 

 which, he says, is "simply inexplicable except on the supposition that from previous inter- 

 course with white men they had experienced benefits which led them to entertain a lively 

 sense of others to come " (p. 158). So far we agree with the learned writer, but when he 

 comes to draw his conclusion that it could be no other than Portuguese with whom they had 

 intercourse, we must difl:er from him. Cartier himself notices this familiarity, when speak- 

 ing of the Indians who came aboard of him at Cape Thiennot. They were not Esquimaux, 

 but Indians from far up the river of Canada. " They came as coolly as if they were French- 

 men " (Aussi franchement, comme s'ilz eussent esté froncoys). "They were returning to their 

 own country, which was in the direction whence w^e (Cartier and crew) were coming " [Ilz s'en 

 retournoyent en leur pays, deuers là, où nous venyons) ; that is, up the river ; and they were 

 coming from the fishing establishments of the French at Blanc Sablon, Brest, etc. (Ilz 

 venoyeni de la Grant Baye^. They were able to give Cartier all the latest news about the 

 departure of the fishermen for France, with full cargoes of fish, etc. (Ilz nous firent entendre 

 que les navyres estoient appareillez de la dite baye, tous charyez de poisson). AU this shows a 

 most friendly intercourse with the French and a wonderful knowledge of their proceedings, 

 commerce, etc. So it is not necessary to go back to Portuguese influence to account for 

 this fact. 



The Rev. Dr. Patterson produces the map of Caspar de Viegas, which shows the Gulf of 

 St. Lawrence. It is dated 1534, but although this is anterior to the publication of Cartier's 

 voyage (1542), it is not anterior to the voyage itself And we cannot tell how the news of 

 Cartiei"'s voyage may have spread immediately on his return. So this cannot be accepted as 

 a historical proof of a knowledge of the gulf prior to Cartier's time. Abbé Beaudouin says 



