CAETIER'S FIRST VOYAGE. 135 



It has always beer thought strange that Cartier, who was searching for a passage to 

 the west, should have crossed to Anticosti after leaving Gaspé, and have coasted along its 

 shore to the east instead of sailing directly up the St. Lawrence. The reason, however, 

 he himself tells us in part at least, and the rest can be readily inferred. The " Relation 

 originale" (and the edition of 1598 is substantially like it) reads : — "The next day, the 

 25th of the month, the wind was favourable and we left the harbour ; and [when] 

 we were outside of the said river, we laid our course to the east-north-east, because from 

 the land ' of the said river the laud ranges [around], makiug a bay in the fashion of a half 

 circle of which we had sight of the whole coast from our ships ; and in taking this course 

 we saw the said land which lies south-east and north-west [i. e. Anticosti] the passage of 

 which proved to have of distance from the said river, about twenty leagues." The reason 

 then that Cartier crossed to Anticosti was, as he himself tells us, because he thought he 

 was crossing the mouth of a great bay, the whole coast of which he could see from his 

 ships. The only conjecture that we can offer, as to what Cartier saw and mistook for land 

 where there is really open sea, is that he was deceived by fog-banks. Mariners have 

 beeu deceiA^ed before and since by the same cause." He naturally would afterwards coast 

 to the east in order to get out of his supposed bay as soon as possible to continue his search 

 to the west. 



The narrative makes no mention of where they passed the time between the 25th, and 

 the evening of the 2*7th, but it was possibly in the present Salt Lake Bay, as their course 

 would have taken them very near it. Coasting along the laud " which lay S. E. and N. W.," 

 they came to a cape where it began to turn to the east. Fifteen leagues further, the land 

 made an abrupt turn and, as the context shews, tended to the north. The latter cape was 

 named St. Louis {St. Loys), '■ and it would be Heath Point near East Cape of to-day. The 

 former cape to which no name was given, was undoubtedly the present South Poiut. The 

 latitude of Cape St. Louis in the narrative, 49°. 15', is 10' too far north; but the longitude 

 in the " Relation originale " {soixante et treize degrez et demy) is 11° 50' too far west. 



They now found the laud tending to the north for fifteeu leagues, where, at a cape 

 M^hich they named Cape Montmorency {rAtp de Memurancy), it bent towards the north-west. 

 The letter cape, though the distance as given is too great, can only be the present Fox 

 Point. The land between the two last-mentioned capes lies north and south as the com- 

 pass points in that region to-day. 



On Saturday, August 1st, while still following the shore of Anticosti, they 

 sighted wild and mountainous land to the north and north-east of them — evidently the 

 coast of Labrador. They did not leaA'e Anticosti, but kept on their course, still hoping to 

 find a passage to the west. In these five days they were able to go only twenty-five 

 leagues, so troublesome were the tides with the wind against them. They estimated the 

 distance of one land from the other to be about fifteen leagues, and the latitude of a point 

 halfway between at 50°, 20', an error of about 15' too far north. As they approached the 

 narrowest part of the strait, they noticed that the two shores previously converging, began 



' Edition of ] 598 reads " entrance." 



' "In the same manner in modern times Sir James Ross, in Lancaster Sound, believed lie saw mountains, 

 where there were but fogs, and depicted this Sound as land-locked, whilst it has the widest open water in the whole 

 world." J. G. Kohl, Coll. Maine Hist. Soc, vol. i, 1869. 



' S. Louys, ed. 1598 ; <S. Aluise, Hakluyt and Mercator's map of 1569. 



