THE CODFISH FRONTIER 255 



the western world or around the northern bounds of it. In 

 1498, the year after Cabot's memorable voyage to Newfound- 

 land, the Spanish ambassador in England wrote this message 

 home to his king: 'Tt is seven years since those of Bristol used 

 to send out every year a fleet of two or three or four caravels to 

 go search for the Isle of Brazil and the Seven Cities, according 

 to the fancy of the Genoese." Here the fancy of the Genoese 

 comes obviously from Cabot, and was apparently in working 

 order as early as the fancy of that other Genoese, Columbus. 

 But another and still unresolved note is struck by Cabot 

 himself when he states: 'There are plenty of fish and those 

 very great, as seals and those which we commonly call salmons: 

 there are soles also a yard long, but especially there is a great 

 abundance of that kind which the savages call Baccalaos." 

 This was great news to governments which at this time com- 

 pelled people to eat fish as often as every third day; but of 

 greater interest historically is the bald statement that the 

 native Indians spoke of cod by the common Basque name of 

 ''Baccalaos." McFarland, in his basic history of the northeast 

 fisheries, writes: 'The conclusion has been made (by Park- 

 man) that the fishermen of France must have visited these 

 regions long before the voyage of Cabot. Local traditions have 

 laid claim to the discovery of the banks of Newfoundland by 

 the fishermen of Normandy and Brittany before 1492. . . . 

 Such ports as Dieppe, Saint Malo, Honfleur and others had 

 already furnished men and leaders for voyages of exploration 

 and discovery . . . they had already visited the Canaries and 

 the coast of Africa.'' To quote Parkman: 'Tf, in the original 

 Basque, baccalaos is the word for Codfish, and if Cabot found 

 it in use among the inhabitants of Newfoundland, it is hard 

 to escape the conclusion that the Basques had been there 

 before him." We have no specific proof to back up this likely- 

 seeming conjecture, but such proof may well exist in the early 

 microfilm records from French seaports now in the Library of 



