CARTIEE'S FIRST VOYAGE. 125 



good port which was named St. Anthony (Saint Anihoine). One or two leagues further 

 they found a little river forming a good harbour, to which they gave the name St. Servan 

 (Sainct Servan). The latter place Cartier describes for us as follows (Rel. orig.): — "It is 

 between two high lands. ... To the south-west of this harboiir and river, about a league, 

 is an island, round as an oven, surroixnded by several other smaller islands which give 

 notice of these harbours." In a work quoted above ' the following passage is found which 

 settles the identity of Port St. Servan : " Bowl Island lieth E. by N. 2 leagues from the 

 Island of Shecatica, and 1 mile from the Main ; it is a remarkable round island of a 

 moderate Height. About the Island, and between it and Shecatica, are a number of small 

 Islands and sunken Rocks. From Bowl Island to the entrance of the Bay D'omar, the 

 course is N. E. by N.| E. Distance 2 miles. This bay runneth up N. by E. nearly 3 

 miles with high land on both sides. . . . One mile to the Eastward of Bay D'omar lyeth 

 Little Bay in which is tolerable good anchorage for small vessels." Bay D'omar and 

 Little Bay of 1779, are respectively Lobster Bay and Rocky Bay on charts of to-day. The 

 correspondence of the description in this work with Cartier's is so close as to be very 

 remarkable, that especially of the appearance, distance and direction of the round island 

 being very striking. It settles beyond the possibility of question the identity of Port St. 

 Servan with Lobster Bay, and of Port St. Anthony with Rocky Bay. 



Beyond this they came to a great river {bonne ripuiere plus grande, Rel. orig. ; bon 

 fleuve plus grand, ed. 1598), where they caught many salmon ; they named it St. James 

 River {la ripuiere Sainct Jacques). There is, however, an important difference in dits is- 

 tance from St. Servan as given in the " Relation originale " and the edition of 1598. The 

 former reads ten, the latter tivo leagues. Now, there can hardly be a doubt that the river 

 meant is the present Shecatica Bay. It is the only one in the vicinity corresponding to 

 the description, in which it will be noticed its large size is insisted upon. The actual 

 distance from St. Servan is about five of Cartier's leagues ; but that it was probably dix 

 and not devx that he wrote, may be inferred from the fact that, for some unexplained 

 reason, all of his distances in this region are too great. He calls it, for instance, ten leagues 

 from Brest to the end of the islands, when in reality it is about five. He may have been 

 deceived by fog, or the tides, or confused by the number of the islands. 



But there is another cogent reason for considering his St. James River to be Shecatica 

 Bay. While there, they saw a ship from Rochelle which they directed to "another harbour 

 about a league more to the west than the said River St. James, which I consider one of the 

 best harbours in the world ; and it was named the Harbour of Jacques Cartier " (Rel. 

 orig., the same in ed. 1598). This is very high praise from a man who had seen so many 

 good harbours as Cartier. The harbour one league to the west is the Cumberland Harbour 

 of to-day in position, and here we have a partial description " of it : — " And anchor 

 where you please, from 20 to 7 fathom water,4n good ground, and an excellent roomy 

 harbour fit for any ships, and is the best harbour and the easiest of access on this coast." 

 This is very high praise for a harbour on a coast which has so many good ones as that of 

 Labrador. The correspondence in these descriptions can hardly allow us to doubt that 

 the Harbour of Jacques Cartier is our Cumberland Harbour. In this case the River St. 

 James must be Shecatica Bay. 



' Pamphlet accompanying the North American Pilot for Newfoundland, etc. - Ilnd. 



