132 W. F. GANONG OJST 



gave it its name on July 2nd, it was upon the 1st, and, therefore, the day of St. Leonarius, 

 that he entered it. It was for this reason he named it St. Lunaire. ' 



Continuing on their course, they approached a cape towards the north, where they 

 found the water so shallow that for more than a league from shore there was but a fathom 

 of depth. This cape could only be the present Point Escumenac. The water on the north 

 side of it, as is shewn upon good charts, is very shallow, but the one fathom line is at 

 present not more than a mile from the shore. - Still, there is no room for doiibt as to the 

 identity of the cape, for there is no other in the region which it can possibly be. The 

 narrative continues : — " To the north-east of this cape, about seven or eight leagues, we 

 saw another cape of land, and between the two there is a bay in the fashion of a triangle, 

 which is very deep, ^ which as far as we could see, lies north-east, and it is all ranged 

 with sands, a low laud." 



Evidently the bay fashioned like a triangle, lying north-east, is Miramichi Bay; his 

 mention of its shallowness and sandbanks^ helps to confirm this conclusion. There is in 

 reality no cape to the north-east of Point Escumenac, even allowing for the greatest variation 

 of the compass ; Blackland Point, at the mouth of Tiibusintac Grully, which would seem 

 to be the cape meant, lies north. Still his subsequent course shews that this cape, or one 

 very near it, was the one referred to. Cartier goes on to say, " from this last cape even to 

 the said bank and cape of land there are fifteen leagues." Evidently he means by the " said 

 bank and cape " his Cape of the Savages. We are somewhat surprised that he should 

 have so much underestimated this di.stance, but it is, doubtless, merely an approximation. 

 His mistake in overestimating the breadth of the Bay of St. Luuario is quite a natural 

 one, for he had not then been to the western side of the entrance of his supposed bay. 



The next night was stormy, but they coasted along the land which lay N.N.E. until 

 the morning, July 3rd, when they entered a great open bay, fifty-five fathoms deep 

 in several places and about fifteen leagues broad. From its great size and the direction in 

 which it lay, they hoped to find the passage to the west they were seeking, and for that 

 reason named the cape they rounded in entering it, the Cape of Hope (cap d Espérance). ^ 



' The writer i.'i indebted for the followiiif; note to the kindne.s8 and learning of tlie Rev. C. Lecoq, Superior of 

 the Grand Seminary of St. Sulpice, Montreal : — " St. Limaire is the proper spelling, this being (along witli Lihiuer, 

 Lénor and Léoiior) tlie popular name of St. Leonarius, or, rather, Leonorius, who is believed to liave been a Bishop 

 in Brittany in the sixth century. As .Jacques Cartier was from Brittany, I liave no dtmlit lie gave tlie name of 

 this saint of his country to the bay." 



' " This .shoal [i.e., off Point Escumenac], as its Indian name implies, extends nearly three miles into the sea." 

 History of New Brunswick and Gaspé, by Robert Cooney, 1832. 



^ Cartier uses tliis expression frequently to signify not depth of the water, but tlie extension of a bay into the 

 land. 



* As there occurs here the only case noticed in a comparison of the Jlelation originate with the edition of 1598, 

 in which the latter gives a more satisfactory description of a locality than the former, it is worth mentioning. Tlie 

 former says: — "It [i.e. the triangular bay] is all ranged with sands, a low land; at ten leagues distance from shore 

 there are twenty fathoms of depth." The latter has : — "This gulf is surrounded with sands and low places for ten 

 leagues, and there are not more than two fathoms of depth." The statement in the former case is true ; so is that 

 in the latter, as well as much more natural under the circumstances, for he gives us no reason to suppose that he 

 went ten leagues from shore and measuretl tbe deptli of the water. 



* It is an interesting fact, illustrating the curious changes geographical names often undergo, that Cartier's 

 name, Cape of Hope, has been corrupted to Cape Despair, and moved from its proper place on the north of Miscou 

 Island to a cape in the Peninsula of Gaspé, a few leagues to the south of Percé. The transition both of name and 

 position can be easily followed on old maps. 



