180 ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA 



land — a similar coast ; and, lastly, there is also a place near called King's 

 Cove, and it is thought the name signifies that there the royal standard 

 was set xiY».^ There is no evidence to support this view. 



I come now to the grand argument — the ancient immemorial tradi- 

 tion — of what ? Certainly it ought to be of the landfall of John Cabot 

 and an English crew in 1497. This tradition could not have existed in 

 Newfoundland, where for a long time there was no permanent settle- 

 ment, for the fishing fleet came in spring and went back in the fall. It 

 might have been that a few men would occasionally be left to cut wood 

 and build wharfs and boats, but there are no definite traces of that having 

 occurred. The stages and huts would, of course, remain from year to 

 year. Judge Prowse finds the earliest narrative about the island to be 

 Parkhurst's, in 1578. It is found in Hakluyt, and the passage is quoted 

 in the judge's " History." ^* We learn from it that at that time there were 

 fishing in the harbours 100 sail of Spaniards, 50 sail of Portuguese, 150 

 sail of French and Bretons, besides 20 to 30 Spanish whalers, "but of 

 " English only 50 sail." There is no mention of settlers, and indeed if there 

 had been any possession by settlement, the letters-patent of Queen Eliza- ■ 

 beth would have been unmeaning; for they applied to lands only "if 

 " they shall not be before planted or inhabited." Gilbert, in 1583, set up 

 the royal standard, and took possession for the crown of England, and, 

 in the contemporary report, it is expressly said that he " was the first of 

 " our nation that carried people to erect an habitation and government in 

 " these northern countries of America."*^ But 1583 was eighty-six years 

 after Cabot's voyage, and there were no people then on the island to have 

 carried a continuous tradition. In fact, it would seem, after all, that there 

 is not at the present moment a tradition ; for it has been shown by Bishop 

 Howley (p. 151, ante) that the tradition was for Cape St. John — a tradi- 

 tion existing in Yerazzano's mind ; for, beyond all question, there was no 

 one on the coast when Verazzano made his voyage ; therefore he must 

 have carried the tradition there, and, inasmuch as his voyage was the 

 foundation of the French claims by discovery, it is imjirobable he would 

 have commenced by establishing those of England. Nevertheless, the 

 bishop maintains that this " shows that at that early period the tradition 

 " was in favour of St. John as the landfall." 



Bishop Howley thinks there really was a tradition attached to Bona- 

 vista, not, however, a tradition of a landfall of English sailors, such as we 

 are looking for, but of Cortereal and the Portuguese ; and this was the way 

 it happened. " He [Cortereal] had doubtless made himself well informed 

 " of the whereabouts of Cabot's new lands. It is not at all improbable 

 " that he may have got possession of Cabot's papera, map, log and globe, 

 " so mysteriously lost. We have reason to believe that he made almost 

 " directly the headland of Newfoundland, which was situated in 48|- 

 " degrees north latitude, and which, being a most prominent and impor- 



