172 ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA 



Hudson, and the map would standalone — the first map to show America, 

 and containing features of enormous importance to be straightway for- 

 gotten for over a hundred years. It will stand out distinct from the 

 whole series of maps, nor, even then, will its contour be brought into har- 

 mony with modern maps, for the coast of Atlantic Labrador runs to the 

 northwest and not due north. 



Returning, however to the line of my argument, and to show that 

 Cavo de Ynglaterra is really no other than Cape Race, I give on the pre- 

 ceding page the outlines of the corresponding headlands on the maps 

 next succeeding in date until the cape is permanently named. 



It will be seen at once that from the very first this cape — the most 

 striking feature on the northeast coast — was recognized as the key-point 

 of the geography of the western continent. There is no headland to 

 compare with it in its commanding position. It is the nearest point to 

 England, and might well be called Cape of England, or Cape of Portugal, 

 according to the nationality of the namer. In the Cantino map, 1501-2, 

 there are no names on the coast, but the headland is there. The same 

 may be said of the Canerio map. In the King chart, 1502, it is named 

 C. Raso. In Ruysch's map, 1508, it is called C. de Portogesi. After 

 that, upon every map, the name is Cape Raso — there was never any 

 change. 



Sir Clements Markham, in his paper before the Royal Geographical 

 Society, identifies it as Cape Race ; Kohl had done so previously ; Judge 

 Pro wse points out that the name still survives on the coast. He saj^s : 

 " In 1500 we have unmistakable evidence, from Spanish sources, of English 

 " discoveries in the map of Juan de La Cosa. Cape Race, or possibly 

 " Cape English, in St. Mary's bay, is represented by Cavo de Ynglaterra 

 " (English cape)." " The judge was not then entangled in controversy, 

 but he now drops all notice of the map, excepting to say that La Cosa 

 was an old pilot who invented all the names, and thai, none of the names 

 he gave exist on the coast. Cape English is a precipitous bluff, forming 

 the eastern headland of St. Mary's bay, on the south coast of Newfound- 

 land, thirty miles west [of Cape Race," Humboldt took the Cavo de 

 Ynglaterra to be some cape near Belle Isle, and supposed that the coast 

 with flags was the Canadian Labrador inside the strait, and the long 

 shore of the north side of the Gulf and River St. Lawrence. J^Ie never 

 thought of altering its direction, for that, he says, is the one thing to be 

 observed in studying these old maps. 



I can only join with Kohl in wonder at a theory which opens up the 

 Gulf of St. Lawrence and still leaves it to be discovered by Cartier thirtj^- 

 five years later ; which suppresses the whole south side formed by the 

 peninsula of Gaspé and the provinces of Nova Scotia and New Brunswick, 

 and puts the north shore of the estuary of the St. Lawrence vis-à-vis to 

 Cuba across an open ocean. The opinion will not, I think, be shared by 



