178 ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA 



While on the subject of this map, I would remark that Bishop 

 Howley uses it to support another argument in his lecture. At p. 21 he 

 quotes Soncino thus : " At 400 leagues he (Cabot) found terra firma ;" 

 and adds : "Now, on the map of Majollo (152*7), Cape Farewell, in Green- 

 "land, is quite distinctly given, as is named, Terra Firma." It is given 

 in the bishop's sketch (fig. 10), although not in the atlas of Kretschmer, 

 but I find in Winsor's and Harrisse's facsimiles, not Terra Firma (for the 

 land is named Lavoradore), but lUe Firme/^ referring to the islands on 

 the coast. That argument, therefore, falls to the ground. 



The claim of Bonavista rests almost solely upon a map attributed to 

 John Mason, governor of Newfoundland, first published in Vaughan's 

 " Golden Fleece," in 1625. Under the name Bonavista is printed a Cabota 

 primum reperta, and this is taken as proof that Bonavista was the land- 

 fall. The first serious attempt at a colony bad been made in 1610, and 

 Vaughan's " Golden Fleece " was published as a description of the island 

 to induce settlement. Any special authority resulting from Mason's name 

 is, howev^er, removed by a note at p. 106 of Judge Prowse's " History." 

 He says : " A close examination of this map shows that it was not con- 

 " structed by Mason, all its features being traceable in much older maps; 

 " the only contribution of Mason's being the great lake or sea (Fortune 

 " bay), which he probably saw from some hill in Placcntia bay on one of 

 " his exploring expeditions. The map probably belongs to the Anglo- 

 " Dutch group, and is mainly of French origin." It is difiicult to see 

 what importance a map published 128 years after the event in dispute 

 can have as evidence of an "immemorial tradition." It is proof merely 

 of the existence of an opinion in 1625. The same remark applies to the 

 only new contribution to the evidence for Bonavista that this discussion 

 has elicited — the Dupont map. Judge Prowse calls him " the celebrated 

 "explorer and geographer," ^^ and adds that his map was "published in 

 " 1625," but was " prepared much earlier." Later, however, he says that 

 it is dated in 1625, and is in the Déj)ôt de Cartes of the Ministry of Marine, 

 and that while the names on the map are in black ink. Bonne Viste is in 

 red, and opposite are the words prima invena, also in red ink. There is 

 a fair presumption that one refers to the other. Dupont was a carto- 

 grapher of Dieppe, A. D. 1625-1634. Mr. Harrisse mentions his name 

 once in a foot-note at p. 216 of his Jean et Sébastien Cabot, and it is found 

 in Lelewel and in the list of a great collection of maps exhibited at Paris. 

 He was not an explorer, but one of a school of cartographers at 

 Dieppe. The map is in manuscript, and was never published, and it is a 

 map of the Atlantic ocean, on parchment, in two pieces. It is inscribed 

 "par Jean JDu Pont de Biepe, 1625," and dedicated " à Monsieur le Frési. 

 dent de Lozon, 1625." No mention of Cabot is upon the map, but the 

 words prima inven(t)a are presumed to refer to his discovery of Bona- 

 vista. An extract from this map is given (fig. 12), and it will be seen to 



