[s. B. DAWSOn] 



THE VOYAGES OF THE CABOTS 



257 



ages Hakluyt introduces by such headings as " a discovei-y of the island of 

 " Ramea " — not in any such sense as we now use the word, but " because 

 " they are the tirst for ought that hitherto is come to my knowledge, of 

 " our own nation, that have conducted English shij^s so farre within this 

 " gulf of St, Lawrence and have brought us true relation of the mani- 

 " fold gaine which the French, Britaynes, Baskes and Biscaines do yearly 

 " return from sayd partes." Would Hakluyt have said that if he had 

 thought that Cabot had sailed round the gulf, or if Cabot's maps hanging 





O 



Fig. 35.— Magdalen Islands, traced and reduced from the Admiralty chart. 



in the queen's gallery had given any hint of such a thing ? The Ian 

 guage excludes any such idea, and if it had been written for this contro- 

 versy it could not be more appropriate. 



Having so far discussed the maps, I would observe that there are 

 notices of the island of St. John found in the works of early writers 

 which prove conclusively that it was not within the gulf. In Appendix 

 p to my paper of 1894 1 called attention to the report of Estevan Gomez 

 in 1525, as contained in notices by Oviedo and Cespedes. From these it 

 appears, as indeed the map of Eibero shows, that he reported a continuous 



Sec. II., 1897. 14. 



