FISHERIES OF THE PROVINCE OF QUEBEC 13 



Herrera (ed. 1728, dec. iii., 1. x. cap. 9) says that in 1526 

 the Breton, Nicholas Don, pursued the fisheries at Baccalaos. 

 Purchas in his Pilgrimages says that Rut reports that in 1527 

 eleven sail of Normans and one of Bretons were at St. John. 

 Lescarbot says (Nouvelle France, 1612, page 22) that Baron 

 de Lery landed cattle on the Isle of Sable in 1528. Ramusio 

 (in Raccolta, 1556, iii., 424) says: "Li Brettoni and Nor- 

 mandi, per la qual causa e chiamata questa terra il capo delli 

 Brettoni," i.e., "the Bretons and Normans, for which reason 

 the land was named Cape Breton." The "discorso," from 

 which the above is taken, is that of the Gran Capitano Fran- 

 cese, of 1539, held by some writers to be Jean Parmentier of 

 Dieppe. This "discorso" states that the Bretons and Nor- 

 mans visited these coasts thirty-five years previously, that is 

 in 1504; also that Jean Denys, of Honfleur, and the pilot 

 Camarto (Gamort), of Rouen, sailed to this Cape Breton in 

 1506, and, in 1508, "un navilio di Dieppa detto la 'Pensee' ' 

 (a ship of Dieppe, the "Pensee), carried thither "Thomas 

 Aubert." 



Gosselin (Documents authentiques et inedits, etc., Rouen, 

 1876) says the following ships sailed to Newfoundland (which 

 name, as we have already seen, was then applied to all the 

 coasts of the Gulf of St. Lawrence) in 1508: " Bonne- Aven- 

 ture," "Sibille," "Michel," and "Marie de Bonne Nouvel- 

 les." Mr. George Dexter, writing of this period in an article 

 on "Cortereal, Verrazano, Gomez, Thevet," says : " The 

 coasts of Normandy and Brittany were peopled by a race 

 of adventurous mariners, some of them exercising consider- 

 able power, as, for instance, the Angos of Dieppe, one of 

 whom (Jean) was ennobled and created Viscount and Captain 

 of that town. Such places as Dieppe, Honfleur, St. Malo 

 and others had already furnished men and leaders for voy- 

 ages of exploration and discovery. These had made expedi- 

 tions to the Canaries and the African coast and the fishing 

 population of the French provinces were not unused to voy- 

 ages of considerable length. They were not slow, then, in 

 seeking a share in the advantages offered by the new coun- 



