[s. E. DAWSON] THE VOYAGES OF THE CABOTS 173 



many who know the gulf. They will recognize at once that all the Mari- 

 time provinces of the Dominion are effaced by it, and the whole Gulf of 

 St. Lawrence (inclosed from the ocean and entered by three straits, Belle 

 Isle, Cabot and ('anso) is thrown open, ceases to be a gulf, and its northern 

 shore, for it will have no southern one, lies open to the coast of South 

 America over a stretch of unbroken ocean. 



The theory of the jiresidential address is indeed original. It not only 

 opens up Hudson's bay, but it sweeps away all the eastern part of the 

 Dominion, for it draws a stï'aight north line from Cape Henry, in Vir- 

 ginia, to Cape Chidley. Let anyone draw such a line. It will be seen 

 to pass thi'ough Quebec and cut away jSTewfoundland, Nova Scotia, New 

 Brunswick, Eastern Quebec and all the New England States, and expose 

 a north and south line to the Atlantic ocean. Humboldt's line is at risfht 

 angles to this. This theory supposes a periplus of the gulf; but no gulf 

 is left to make a periplus in, for wheeling u]) the coast line does not make 

 a gulf there. The gulf began first to exist on the map of Yiegas, in 1534, 

 as is evident by the whole series of majis shown in my former papers. 

 The hypothesis fails also to comply with the requirements of the litur- 

 gical method, for Cabot could not have discovered the Cavo Descubierto 

 on June 2-t, and the Cavo de S. Jorge on April 23. He did not leave 

 Bristol until May. Again, the Cavo do S. Luzia is put down as Cape 

 Freels on the east coast of Newfoundland, and S. Luzia as Cape St. 

 Michael on Northern Labrador, while there is only one St. Lucy, and 

 her day is December 13. Then, St. Nicholas cannot be any other than 

 the benign Bishop of Myra — the ever-ready helper of all sailors and mer- 

 chants. The fort of St. Nicholas, on the Lido, guarded then, as now, the 

 approach to Venice from the sea, and the Abbey and Church of St. 

 Nicholas figure largely in Venetian history. Besides, he was the patron 

 saint of seaports, and had been for a thousand years before 1446, when 

 St. Nicholas of Tolentino was canonized. Then, at Bristol, a church of 

 much resort was dedicated to him. The original foundation was in the 

 time of Canute, and the parish still exists. The festival of this St. Nicho- 

 las was on December 6, as it is still, I do not know anything about the 

 festivals of the ordination of St. Gregory, or of St. John of Nicomedia, 

 but the dates of the festivals of St. Lucy, St. Nicholas and St. George 

 are sufficient to show how insecure a theory founded upon the calendar 

 may be. It seems, moreover, improbable that sailors would name a coast 

 after festivals not in the Breviary, and known only to those sj)ecially in- 

 structed in such subjects. 



The archbishop's "final proof" is in the very remarkable etymologies 

 of the names on La Cosa's map. The descriptions supposed to have 

 accompanied the hypothetical map of Cabot's second voyage, which La 

 Cosa is supposed to have grafted upon his work, were packed into single 

 words compounded from the resources of several languages. I shall not go 



