50 ALL AFLOAT 



But the Grande Hermine had no mizzen, only 

 the square-rigged mainmast, foremast, and 

 bowsprit. The bowsprit of those days was a 

 mast set at an angle of forty-five ; and it 

 sometimes, as in the Grande Hermine, carried 

 a little upright branch mast of its own. 



Many important changes occurred in the 

 nautical world during the two generations 

 between the days of Jacques Cartier and those 

 of Champlain. The momentous change in 

 trimming sails, already referred to, came first, 

 when Fletcher succeeded in doing what no 

 one had ever done before. There can be no 

 doubt that the lateen sail, which goes back 

 at least to the early Egyptians, had the germ 

 of a fore-and-after in it. But the germ was 

 never evolved into a strong type fit for tacking ; 

 and no one before Fletcher ever seems to have 

 thought it possible to lay a course at all unless 

 the wind was somewhere abaft the beam. So 

 England can fairly claim this one epoch- 

 making nautical invention, which might be 

 taken as the most convenient dividing -line 

 between the sailing craft of ancient and of 

 modern times. 



The French had little to do with Canada for 

 the rest of the sixteenth century. Jacques 

 Caitier's best successor as a hydrographer was 



