124 W. F. GAISTONG ON 



Katherine {isle Saincle Katherine) aud his further location of it leaves no doubt that it 

 was the present Belle Isle. The only island that the first-mentioned can be is the present 

 Sacred Island. His distance from it to Belle Isle is too short, but he expresses it merely 

 as an approximation. 



It does not seem to have been noticed by commentators on this voyage, that Cartier 

 speaks both of a Bay of Castles' (the Strait of Belle Isle) aud a Port or Harbour of Castles. 

 Yet he undoubtedly referred to both, as several passages shew. " Ladite isle " [i.e. Belle 

 Isle] " est le liable des Chasteaulx gissent Nort Nordest et Su Surouaist, Et y a entreulx 

 quinze lieues ; et dudit hable des Chasteaulx au hable des Buttes, qui est la terre du 

 Nort de ladite baye [i. e. des Chasteaulx], gisante Est Nordest et Ouaist Surouaist,- y a 

 entr'elx doze lieues et demye," reads the " Relation originale " and the edition of 1598 

 substantially like it. Had Cartier simply used the terms port (liable) and bay (bai/e) 

 loosely and interchangeably for the Strait of Belle Isle, he would not have given us 

 definite distances and compass directions from the island of Belle Isle aud the Harbour of 

 Buttes (the present Greenish Bay in Labrador). These very distances and directions locate 

 the Harbour of Castles for us beyond question ; it was the present Pistolet Bay. 



The Harbour of Buttes (Rel. orig. aud Allefonsce ; Gouttes, ed. 1598 aud Hakl.) is 

 certainly Greenish Bay. Two leagues from this Port is Whale Harbour (hable de In Balaiiie, 

 Rel. orig.) or Port of Balances (port des Balances, ed. 1598 and Hakl.). This would be the 

 present Red Bay, south of Greenish Bay. 



Towards the W.S.W. of this harbour, at a distance of twenty-five leagues (ed. 1598 : Rel. 

 orig. has a blank here ; Hakl., 15 leagues) they entered the Port of White Sand (Blanc 

 Sablon) ; the latter name persists to the present day. South-west of this port are two 

 islands, one of which was named Wood Island (isle de Bouays, Rel. orig., bu.t Isle de Brest of ed. 

 1598) and the other Isle of Birds (isle des Ouaiseaulx.) These islands are called to-day, respec- 

 tively, Wood Island and Greenly Island ; but whether the former be a persistence of the 

 name given by Cartier is very doubtful. It is a name so commonly applied to islands that 

 it may be a mere coincidence. 



Passing a point one league from Blanc Sablon, the present Grand Point, but not 

 named by Cartier, they came to a harbour better than Blanc Sablon and a passage, which 

 together they named " the Islets " (les Mettes), to-day called Bradore Harbour. Ten leagues 

 further they found the Harbour of Brest, without doubt Old Fort Bay at the moxith of 

 Esquimaux River. The latitude of this place, as given by Cartier, 51^ 50', is about 20' too 

 far north. 



They entered the Port of Brest to take in wood and water. On St. Barnabas Day, 

 after hearing mass, they sailed towards the west, passing among islands too many to 

 number. These they called simply " the Islands " (Toutes Isles) and they noticed that they 

 extended for ten leagues past Brest. The next day they sailed beyond them aud entered a 



' Why called "cle.s Chasteaulx' ? Perhaps the reason is suggested by the following passage: — "The di.stance 

 from this Island [Green Island, Nfld.] to the opposite part of the coast of Labradore, called Castles or Red Cliffs. . . . 

 is the narrowest part of the Straits of Belle Isle." Pamphlet accompanying the North American Pilot for New- 

 foundland, Labradore, etc., London, 1779. (The latter work is an atlas of charts containing "36 arge copper plates "). 

 It is altogether probable that we have a survival of this name " Bay of Castles" in "Chateau Bay," on the coast 

 of Labrador to the west of Belle Isle. 



^ This phrase, of course, refers to the direction in which the bay lies, not to the Harbour of Buttes. 



