THE WHITE BEAR. 359 



son is somewhat uncertain. We should have unhesitat- 

 ingly referred the creature to the polar bear, were it not 

 that in Parmenius' account of Newfoundland, published 

 in 1583, it is said : " Bears also appear about the fishers' 

 stages of the countrey, and are sometimes killed, but they 

 seeme to be white, as I coniectured by their skinnes, 

 and somewhat lesse then ours." (Hakluyt.) 



The next explorer of this coast was Cortereal who, in 

 1500, landed on the Newfoundland coast, at or probably 

 near Cape Race. In an old Portuguese map of about 

 the year 1520 is a long Latin inscription, thus translated 

 by Kohl, a part of which we copy : " This country was 

 first discovered by Caspar Cortereal, a Portuguese, and 

 he brought from there wild and barbarous men and white 

 bears. There are to be found in it plenty of animals, 

 birds and fish." The land from which Cortereal brought 

 the white bears was evidently the same as that in which 

 he kidnapped fifty-seven of the aborigines. These were 

 Indians and not Eskimo, and must have been the inhabi- 

 tants either of Newfoundland or of Nova Scotia, for a per- 

 son who saw them in the streets of Lisbon described them 

 "as tall, well-built, and admirably fit for labor." That, 

 however, they were the aborigines of Newfoundland, 

 perhaps Bethuks, seems proved by the fact that a num- 

 ber of white bears were also captured and sent to Spain 

 with them. From these facts it seems reasonable ta infer 

 that the white or polar bear was a resident on the eastern 

 coast of Newfoundland. 



The next navigator to explore these seas was Jacques 

 Cartier, who arrived May loth, 1534, on the eastern 

 coast of Newfoundland. To this observing seaman we 

 owe our first accounts of the great auk or " penguin" on 



