CAETIER'S FIRST VOYAGE. 133 



From this time on, the course can be quite easily traced, but before briefly doing so, a few 

 words should be said about the different views which have been held in regard to the 

 identity of the places already visited. 



Dr. J. Gr. Kohl ' gives the following account of the voyage after leaving Newfound- 

 laud : "West of these Bird Rocks there was another island, about two leagues long, and 

 one league broad ; which, according to this description, must have been the present 'Byron 

 Island ' ; and then another, which was large, full of beautiful trees, woods, pleasant 

 meadows covered with spring flowers, and having large fertile tracts of land, interspersed 

 with great swamps. Along its shores were many sea-monsters, with two large tusks in the 

 mouth, like elephants ; and the forests were thronged with bears and wolves. This island 

 was four leagues from the continent and was named in honor of the admiral of France 

 who had favored this expedition, 'Isle de Briou.' According to this description, ' Brion's 

 Island ' must be our large ' Prince Edward Island,' though the name ' Isle de Brion,' on 

 some old maps, is given to a small islet, which we now call ' Byron Island.' 



" Cartier sailed along the north coast of Isle de Brion, giving now and then a name to 

 some cape or island ; for instance ' Cap d'Orleans ' and ' Isle Alezay,' names which are 

 still found on old maps, and which appear to have been placed near the ' North Point' of 

 Prince Edward Island. Thence he went over to the continent, entering a bay, which from 

 the great number of canoes filled with Indians, which he saw there, he named ' la baye 

 des Barcjues ' ; and another triangular gulf, in 4*7' N., which he named ' The Gulf of Santo 

 Luuario ' (the present Miramichi Bay). He hoped here to find a passage like the ' Strait 

 of the Chateaux ' (Belle Isle) and therefore, named one of the capes of the bay, ' the Cape of 

 Hope.' " 



How confused and altogether inconsistent with Cartier's narrative this account is, 

 must be evident to every reader who has followed Cartier's distances throiigh the prece- 

 ding pages. Dr. Kohl entirely ignores both distances and directions, and it seems as if he 

 must have written from memory and not with the narrative before him. It is not, how- 

 ever, for the sake of criticism that this minor piece of work of the great and lamented 

 scholar is quoted here, but for the reason that his authority has caused his views to be 

 accepted by other writers. The account in Winsor's " America " - is little less confused. 

 Rev. B. F. De Costa, who contributes the article on " Jacques Cartier and his Successors," 

 makes Cartier go from Brion's Island to " Alezay ", the present Prince Edward Island, of 

 which the first cape was called St. Peter's, in honor of the day. He reached the mainland 

 the last day of June, and named it Cape Orleans ; " next he found Miramichi Bay, or the 

 Bay of Boats, which he called St. Lunario." This article does not follow Cartier's account 

 either, in regard to the natives whom he saw, and one is forced to the conclusion that it 

 also was written from memory and not directly from Cartier's narrative. 



The evidence of old maps has been adduced by both writers in support of their posi- 

 tions, but the fact that they have drawn different conclusions from the same maps, shews 

 that such evidence is of very doubtful value. All of the old maps that the writer has been 

 able to examine, either in the original or in reproduction in the Harvard College and 

 Boston Public Libraries, are perfectly consistent with the interpretation of Cartier's course 



' History of the Discovery of Maine ; Coll. Maine Hist. Soc, vol. i, 1869. 

 '' Narrative and Critical History of America, edited by Justin Winsor, vol. iv. 



