[ganongI INDIAN PLACE-NOMENCLATURE. 277 



The name first appears, so far as I can find, as BEDEC, in 1744, apparently 

 applied to the Bay, upon Bellin's fine Carte de la Partie Orientale de la Nouvelle 

 France, although upon his larger scale Carte de VAcadie of the same year, he applies 

 the name to Dunk River. The very careful census of 1752 by the Sieur de la Roque, 

 gives BEDEC to the Harbour (not mentioning the Bay), while he gives Rivière de 

 BEDECQ to Dunk River {Report on Canadian Archives, 1905, II, Part 1, 159, 160). 



Pichon, in his well-known Memoirs relating to .... ■ Cape Breton, 1760, 86, also 



uses BEDEC. The form BEDEQUE I find first upon Captain Holland's map re- 

 sulting from his great survey of 1764-5 (copy in Munro's Acts of the Privy Council, V. 

 602-3), and the form was doubtless introduced by him. The name is applied on this 

 map to the Bay, but I am told by Mr. Thomas W. May, of the Land Office at Char- 

 lottetown, that a plan of 1782 or earlier, in that office, applies the name BEDEQUE 

 RIVER as an alternative for Dunk River. Purdy's fine Map of Cabotia, of 1814, 

 applies BEDEQUE to the Village as well as the Bay. Since then, so far as I have 

 found, all good maps use BEDEQUE for the Bay and the Village. The name is also 

 in good local use for the Harbour, as shown by the Sailing Directions, though it is 

 omitted from maps, doubtless to avoid overcrowding of names in the narrow space. 



As to the origin of the name, we have no direct, though some very good cir- 

 cumstantial evidence. All considerations point to an Indian origin, for while BEDE- 

 QUE has a French aspect, the records above-cited show that it was earlier BEDEC, 

 which looks Indian. I presume that the French spelling BEDEQUE was given by 

 Holland under the impression that the word, used by the French and associated with 

 their earlier settlement there, was in reality of French origin; and the immense 

 influence of his remarkably fine map, made from accurate surveys, was sufficient to 

 establish that form as the standard from his day to ours, — a phenomenon strictly 

 paralleled in Petitcodiac and some other names already considered (page 272). 



As to its original location, records also show clearly that the name applied to the 

 Harbour and its westerly extension Dunk River, at least as early as to the Bay; and 

 as Indian nomerclature was always specific rather than generic and given to definite 

 spots rather than general features, there can be little doubt that the name belonged 

 aboriginally to the Harbour and was extended to the Bay by Holland. Now this 

 form BEDEC bears so close a resemblance to BADDECK in Cape Breton as to 

 suggest a close relationship if not identity between the two, — a probability greatly 

 strengthened by the occurrence of some identical spellings, as shown under Baddeck 

 next considered. Furthermore, both words bear a striking resemblance to the root 

 PETK, in its common form PETEK, occurring in Petitcodiac, Paticake, and other 

 words just considered (page 271), — the root which means A TURN or BEND BACK- 

 WARDS. Acting upon this hint we ask of the maps whether any geographical 

 feature of BEDEQUE and BADDECK involves a backward turn, as in case of the 

 other names containing this root. The maps in fact do show such a feature. Thus, 

 so far as Bedeque is concerned, the Bay swings around to the Harbour, and then 

 to Dunk River, in such manner that the latter comes to lie parallel with the coast; 

 accordingly, with respect to travel along shore from the eastward, — the direction 

 of travel from the important Indian resorts centring in Chariot tet own and from the 

 New Brunswick coast via the crossing place at Cape Traverse, — this place did lie 

 at the end of a great TURN BACKWARDS, which had to be made to reach it; 

 that is, it was the place which is reached by a backward turn. And the maps show a 

 precisely similar feature for Baddeck, as will be noted below. So marked is this 

 feature, so consistent with the usage of the same root in other cases, and so reason- 

 able from the point of view of Indian nomenclature, that I have little doubt that 

 herein we have the explanation of the name. I do not take it that the root PETEK 



