[PATTERSON] SIR HUMPHREY GILBERT'S EXPEDITION 119 



As to the credibility of this narrative we have to sav : 1. That 

 throughout it manifests a close acquaintance with the purposes and 

 intentions of Gilbert, and that all the circumstances of the case go to show 

 that the writer was in a position to be well informed. 2. He gives details 

 of the voyage, the courses and distances run, taken down at the time and 

 records their position as taken by observation and their soundings. '1 hese 

 may not be accurate, but such a narrative could not be fabricated. It 

 carries the impress of truthfulness on its face. Hence by most writers 

 it has been received with entire confidence. Clarke on the other hand 

 gives scarcely an}' details, must have written without his journals and 

 other papers, which were lost in the wreck of the -'Dehght," and was 

 writing with the design of defending himself — as he says '-in excuse 

 of that fault of casting away the ship and men imputed to his oversight.' 



Then the representation that while Gilbert intended visiting Sable 

 Island, his tirst point of destination was Cape Breton, bears all the marks 

 of probability. That island lies east and west with a breadth now of only 

 one and a half then perhaps three miles wide, with a bar extending from 

 the east point for fifteen miles or more, on which any vessel striking 

 would be involved in certain destruction. In any case no seaman, at all 

 acquainted with the dangei-s by which it is surrounded, would coming- 

 westward steer directly for it. He would sail either to the north or south 

 of it giving it a ^\ide berth, and then make his distance north or south as 

 the case might be. On the other hand Cape Breton was long known to 

 the Breton tishermen from whom it received its name, as well as to 

 mariners of other nations, and long formed an objective point for vessels 

 visiting these shores, and from which to take their departure on leaving 

 to return. 



This is corroborated by the account given of the first part of their 

 voyage. It is plain that they could not have intended to settle on Sable 

 Island. Their object was colonization of some part of the coast, and as 

 Hayes sa^-s, hearing of cattle having been placed upon it having multi- 

 plied, thejMntended to take advantage of the opportunity afforded of hav-- 

 ingin •' an island so neare the maine which we intended to plant upon, such 

 store of cattell." Exploration, however, must precede settlement, and 

 accordingly- this first engaged their attention. For the better prosecution 

 of this object Gilbert went in the '• Squirrel," the frigate as it was called. 

 In pursuance of this idea, they '• trended along " the ISTewfoundland 

 coast till near the entrance of Placentia Bay, where they landed. From 

 this point they did not see the land principall}' from the density of the 

 fog. 3'et on the evening previous to the wreck they still speak of •' bearing 

 along the land," and afterward they judged that they were near the land, 

 either part of the continent or some island. 



That it was the coast of the island of Cape Breton which they had 

 reached at 'the time of the wreck appears evident from the courses and 



