actual occupancy that France sent out two great ex- 

 ploring expeditions which were not only thorough-going 

 in character but pregnant of consequences : that of Ver- 

 razano in 1524, which gave the name New France to these 

 North Atlantic shores, and that of Jacques Cartier ten 

 years later, wdiose remarkable observations and glowing 

 accounts deepened this nominal interest into the sense 

 and pride of ownership. France now asserted her sole 

 right to all the region north of Spanish Florida. 



Portugal, also, laid early claim to the vast, unbounded 

 region north of the Newfoundland waters, which she 

 named Corterealis after her great discoverer in the year 

 1500; the name Labrador preserves a record of her 

 passing hand. She commenced an occupancy, too, about 

 the Newfoundland shores, building a rendezvous or re- 

 cruiting station for her fishermen there which lasted a 

 long time. Portuguese names remain here, although in 

 disguised form ; Cape Eace, from Cavo Paso — Flat Cape; 

 and Bay of Fundy, replacing the name Bale Francoise 

 given by de Monts. On the oldest Portuguese and Span- 

 ish maps this is Rio Fundo, or Hondo — Deep River. 



England kept up some intercourse with these north- 

 eastern coasts in the way of fishing interests, but in this 

 she was far exceeded by others. In 1578 tlie fishing fleet 

 of England here numbered fifty; that of Portugal and 

 Spain twice that number; that of France three times as 

 many. And think of what strong, indomitable blood 

 those early Frenchmen were : Norman, Breton, Biscayan. 

 Strains of these inextinguishable essences remain in 

 those who follow the old vocation off those outlying, 

 storm-swept shores, and abiding tokens in the name and 

 character of Cape Breton, and in the stubborn contest 

 over treaty rights reserved in the islands of Miquelon. 



The inaction of England w^as practically abandonment 

 of claim. The middle of the sixteenth century saw the 

 new world in theory, in legal presumption and probable 

 fate, apportioned between France, Portugal and Spain. 



7 



