40 THE GEOGRAPHICAL EVOLUTION OF LABRADOR. 



dor coast, for Scandinavian authors report their presence 

 on the Greenland coast. (Kohl, p. 190.) 



In a foot-^iote to p. 197 of his " Pioneers of France iq 

 the New World," Mr. Parkman remarks : " Labrador— 

 Labratoris Terra — is so called from the circumstance 

 that Cortereal in the year 1500 stole thence a cargo of 

 Indians for slaves." That the " Indians" were captured 

 on the Labrador coast, however, appears to be an in- 

 exact statement. There were probably then no red 

 Indians or timber on the Labrador coast, but Cor- 

 tereal must have entrapped them in Newfoundland or 

 some place southward. Kohl [p. 169] tells us that 

 " these aborigines, captured according to the custom of 

 the explorers of that day, are described, by an eye-wit- 

 ness who saw them in Lisbon, as tall, well built, and 

 admirably fit for labor. We infer from this statement 

 that they were not Esquimaux from the coast of Lal)ra- 

 dor, but Indians of the Micmac tribe, inhabitants of 

 Newfoundland and Nova Scotia." The editor of Kohl's 

 work adds a quotation from the Venetian Pasqualigo, 

 who says : " His serene majesty contemplates deriving 

 great advantage from the country not onl)' on account 

 of the timber, of which he has occasion, but of the in- 

 habitants, who are admirably calculatctl for labor, and 

 are the best slaves 1 have ever seen." 



The path opened by Sebastian Cabot was not only 

 trod by Portuguese, but the Spanish,* Basques, French 

 (Bretons and Normans), and English frequented the 

 rich fishing-banks of Newfoundland, and with Httle 



* " The voyage of Estevan Gomez produced in Spain the same effect which 

 those of the Cabots, of Cortereal, and of the men from Normandy and Brittany 

 had produced in England, Portugal, and France — it conducted the Spaniards to 

 the northwestern fisheries." (Henry Hudson, by Ashler, HaUluyt Soc. p. xcix.) 



