144 ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA 



America.'" (Alas! that I have to use the past tense in writing of the 

 foremost scholar of the age in such questions as these.) Then we must 

 count in Mr. Nicholls, the librarian of Bristol ; Mr. J. Carson Brevooit, 

 in his lifetime of the Astor library ; Mr. J. F. Kidder, the Abbé Beaudoin 

 and Mr. Edward Eggleston. I need go no farther, for Dr. Winsor says 

 that the Cape Breton theory "is commonly held now."^^ None of these 

 were born in Cape Breton — and now I will add the name of one of our 

 leading Canadian writers, Dr. J. G. Bourinot, who was born there. 



But Judge Prowse states that ''all intelligent minds "^' concur in 

 his view that Bonavista was the landfall. Those, therefore, who have 

 advocated a landfall at Labrador must be classed as unintelligent. In 

 this class we must then include Pdchard Biddle, the first student to apply 

 critical methods to the subject; Baron Alexander von Humboldt, author 

 of '-Cosmos' and the " Examen Critique; " Dr. J. G-. Kohl, the traveller 

 and geographical scholar who traced the great series of American maps 

 now at Washington ; the late Henry Stevens — keenest of critics — whose 

 wide range of knowledge was utilized by the British Museum authorities 

 in collecting the American section of their great library ; and Mr. Henry 

 Harrisse, to whose invaluable writings we must constantly recur. Then 

 there is Mr. John Boyd Thacher, of Albany, author of " The Continent 

 of America, its discovery and its baptism," who favoured the society by 

 attending its meeting at Halifax, and is to contribute a paper to the pi'esent 

 volume. Among French Canadian authors of note are the Abbés Ferland 

 and Laverdière, scholars worthy of a place in the front rank in such 

 questions. Beyond all manner of doubt none of these gentlemen were 

 born in Labrador. It is a serious thing to count them among persons 

 destitute of intelligent minds. They are scholai'S, who probably have 

 not seen Newfoundland ; but it is wanting in precision for Judge Prowse 

 to say even that " all intelligent Newfoundlanders are on his side." '' 

 Mr. J. P. Howley, the Director of the Geological Survey of Newfound- 

 land, is a most intelligent and scientific Newfoundlander yet he holds to 

 Labrador ; and the Eev. Dr. Harvey, whose works on the History and 

 Physical Geography of Newfoundland are known and esteemed in 

 England and the United States, adheres to Cape Breton. Bishop Howley 

 has a landfall all to himself at Cape St. John and has written to disprove 

 the Bonavista theory. Saving Judge Prowse, these are the only writers 

 in Newfoundland Avho have taken part in this discussion; and so, in the 

 last analysis, Judge Prowse stands alone, among these foui-, for Cape 

 Bonavista. In his own words : " Alone, like Athanasius contra mundum, 

 " fighting for the creed of Christendom against the world." " The par- 

 allel is not exact, for Athanasius was fighting for the older faith. 



There was, beyond doubt, a polemical advantage in conducting the 

 controversy in Newfoundland as if the Cape Breton theory were new 

 and advanced solely by the Eev. Dr. Harvey and myself. It permitted a 



