Cabot to Cartier: Sources for a Historical Ethnography of Northeastern North America 1497-1550 9781487599546

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CABOT TO CARTIER Sources for a Historical Ethnography of Northeastern North America 1497-1550

Bernard G. Hoffman

UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO PRESS

Copyright, Canada, 1961 by University of Toronto Press

University of Toronto Press

Diamond

Anniversary 1961

CABOT TO CARTIER This study was prepared in an attempt to clarify seemingly contradictory interpretations of the early history of the discovery of North America, as well as to survey the early historical sources which may contribute to an ethno-historical study of the Indians of those coasts first explored. A major part of the book is devoted to a re-analysis of the cartographical materials and to an attempt to present a more logical interpretation of this material. In the course of this attempt the work discusses and rejects previous widely held viewpoints concerning the early exploration of North America and the development of North American cartography. A new hypothesis is presented in this respect and is shown to fit the available evidence more adequately. The study also reconsiders the documentary materials deriving from the Cartier voyages and develops new conclusions concerning their origin, particularly with respect to the so-called “Cartier vocabularies.” This is a pioneer summary and original analysis based upon exhaustive research, and is the most comprehensive collation available to scholars; in combination with the recent map bibliography published by the Public Archives, it will be of great aid to research students. Dr. Hoffman’s hypotheses are brilliantly presented and highly stimulating. The line-cut illustrations and listing of nomenclature are most valuable. bernard g. hoffman is Professional Assistant in the Area Studies Program of the Foreign Science Information Program of the Office of Science Information Service of the National Science Foundation in Washington, D.C.

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In Loving Memory of My Sister MRS. EVELYN L. KASBERG and Her Son CARL

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PREFACE THIS STUDY of the earliest post-Viking ethnographic sources relating to North America represents an outcome of research inaugurated at the University of California at Berkeley on the historical ethnography of the northeastern Indians. It is the direct result of an attempt to resolve the numerous contradictions, errors, and confusions which came to light in the course of this investigation. While undoubtedly these will not have been clarified to the satisfaction of everyone, I feel that the study will have achieved its purpose if it leads to renewed interest in, and definition of, the problems relating to this early period. Since the completion of the manuscript in 1953 a number of revisions have been made to reduce the cost of publication. One of these needs to be mentioned here. The lengthy cartographical bibliography originally included in this work has been largely deleted and now appears as part of the bibliography published by the Public Archives of Canada in 1956, entitled, Sixteenth-Century Maps Relating to Canada: A Check-List and Bibliography. The reader is therefore referred to this bibliography for all such map references, these being here designated by the abbreviation PAC (Public Archives of Canada) and by the listing number. The world map by Nicolo de Canerio Januensis is thus identified as PAC 7. A word needs also to be said concerning the illustrations. It is my intention to present, insofar as possible, a series of comparable maps, that is, maps on nearly the same scale showing the same areas. Because of the very large scale of some of the materials and the reductions thereby necessary, photographic reproductions are unsatisfactory. Not only do they result in the closing up of the image, with a resulting loss of the nomenclature, but also in a decrease in contrast and clarity. Furthermore, photographic reproductions of comparable scale are very difficult to obtain, and in some cases this would necessitate the piecing together of sections into a mosaic. For these reasons uniformly shaded outline drawings, traced from photographs whenever possible, have been employed. To avoid the crowding of names which results from the reduction in scale most nomenclature has been omitted, as well as the loxodromic lines, all miniatures, most of the latitude and longitude lines, and most of the scales. The complete nomenclature for configurations vital to our discussion will be given in the text, but not necessarily on the illustration. These omissions may seem drastic, but are inevitable considering the scale employed. Any critical study of these charts must, by the very nature of the materials, refer back to the originals or to large-scale photographic reproductions. Among the many friends and colleagues who have contributed aid and advice to this study, I am particularly indebted to Dr. John H. Rowe of the Department

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PREFACE

of Anthropology of the University of California, who has given constant encouragement and counsel from the work's inception. I am most grateful to the staffs of the Bancroft Library and of the Doe Library of the University of California, and to the staff of the Map Division of the Library of Congress, for their invaluable aid and assistance; to Mr. T. E. Layng of the Map Division of the Public Archives of Canada for numerous helpful suggestions and comments; to the editorial staff of the University of Toronto Press; and to my wife, who retyped the final revision of the manuscript. Publication has been made possible through assistance from the Social Science Research Council of Canada with funds provided by the Canada Council, and from the Publications Fund of the University of Toronto Press. BERNARD G. HOFFMAN

CONTENTS PREFACE

I. Introduction II. The Voyages of John Cabot

vii

3 6

III. The Explorations of Fernandes

13

IV. The Voyage of Sebastian Cabot

16

V. The Voyages of the Cortereals

26

VI. Voyages from Cortereal to Verrazano VII. The Cartography of North America before Verrazano VIII. The Voyages of Verrazano, Cartier, Gomez, and the English IX. The Cartography of North America from Verrazano to Cartier X. The Cartier Voyages, 1534-43 XI. The Provenience of the Cartier Relations XII. The Provenience of the Cartier Vocabularies

30 36 105 122 131 148 156

XIII. The Cartography of the Cartier Voyages

161

XIV. Alphonse, Thevet, and Barcia

168

XV. The Abortive English Expedition of 1536: The Homem Cartography of Cape Breton XVI. Ethnographic Problems XVII. Conclusions

187 197 213

APPENDIX

217

BIBLIOGRAPHY

229

INDEX

265

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ILLUSTRATIONS 1. The mythical islands of the Atlantic, as shown on the map of the Pizigani brothers (1367) 2. Real and mythical islands off the Iberian Peninsula on the Pareto map of 1455 3. Ice conditions in the North Atlantic during July in a period of moderate conditions 4. The Cantino chart 5. The Canerio chart 6. The Waldseemüller Mappemonde of 1507 7. Section of the Schõner globe of 1520 8. The King chart 9. The Kunstmann No. 2 chart 10. The distribution of Fagundes placenames 11. The Contarini chart of 1506 12. American configurations according to Vesconte de Maggiolo, dated c. 1508 13. The Vesconte de Maggiolo chart of 1511 14. The Peter Martyr map of c. 1512 15. The Ruysch chart of c. 1508 16. The Oliveriana or Pesaro chart 17. The Freducci chart 18. The North American configuration on: (A) the Cantino; (B) the King; and (C) the Kunstmann No. 3 chart 19. The Newfoundland-Labrador configuration of eleven ancient charts compared with the modern representation 20. The representation of the southern and eastern Newfoundland coast on fifteen early maps 21. Diagram showing the relationships of the placenames appearing on the Pesaro chart with those of four other early maps 22. The Kunstmann No. 3 map 23. The Kunstmann No. 3 representation of Newfoundland-Labrador 24. The New World according to the La Cosa planisphere 25. Diagrammatic sketch of the La Cosa chart 26. Outline map comparing the Kunstmann No. 3 map with the La Cosa chart 27. Outline map comparing the northeastern configuration of the La Cosa map with the actual geographical configurations of the Gulf of St. Lawrence region

7 9

24 42 44 45 47 53 55 57 58 60 62 63 66 68 70

72 73 78 80 83 85 88 89 93 95

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ILLUSTRATIONS

28. Outline map comparing the Verrazano chart of 1529 with the La Cosa chart 29. The Pedro Reinel chart 30. The Portuguese-Munich map of "c. 1519" 31. Interrelationship of early cartographical traditions with respect to the Newfoundland configuration 32. Comparison of configurations on a modern chart with those on the Maggiolo map of 1527 and on the Verrazano map of 1529 33. Verrazano's voyage of 1524 34. Gomez's voyage to the New World in 1525 35. The Maggiolo map of 1527 36. The Verrazano chart of 1529 37. The Castiglioni map of c. 1525 38. The Weimar map of 1527 39. The Rome copy of the Ribero map of 1529 40. Copies of two Santa Cruz maps in the Islario of 1541 41. Comparison of the coastal configurations on a Santa Cruz map of 1541 with those of a modern map 42. Itinerary of Cartier's first voyage 43. Itinerary of Cartier's second voyage 44. The Jean Rotz map of c. 1535 45. The Harleian Mappemonde of c. 1536 46. The Desceliers map of 1546 47. The Desliens world map of 1541 48. The Anonymous-Real Academia map 49. The Desceliers map of 1550 50. The Lázaro Luiz map of 1563 51. The cartographical concepts of the New World held by Jean Alphonse 52. Photographic reproduction of folio 153v of the first volume of André Thevet's "Le Grand Insulaire" 53. The Lopo Homem chart of c. 1550 54. The Lopo Homem map of 1554 55. The Lopo Homem map of 1554 showing the nomenclature 56. The Diogo Homem map of 1558 57. Cape Breton as represented on the Lopo Homem map of 1554 showing the Indian placenames, compared with a modern map 58. The geography of the country of Canada at the time of Cartier

96 98 99 103 106 109 115 123 124 126 127 128 129 130 133 139 164 164 165 165 166 166 167 170 174 189 190 192 193 194 209

CABOT TO C A R T I E R

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CHAPTER I

Introduction O F THE MANY varied fields of study in North American ethnology, one of the

most neglected has been that of the native groups of the northeastern section of the continent—those found along the coastal region from Virginia to Labrador. The reasons for this neglect are varied and relatively obvious. This was the region in which the physical, economic, and cultural influences of European contact were first felt, influences which often resulted in the disintegration and annihilation of the groups in question, so that their memory now often exists only in incomplete and obscure archival sources. Those groups which did survive were widely scattered and heavily acculturated. During the long infancy of American anthropology, when the frontier still beckoned explorers, settlers, and scholars, and when the exploits and experiences of such men as Lewis and Clark, Catlin, Prince Maximilian of Wied, and Powell held the interest of the early students, these aboriginal fragments seemed drab and uninteresting. Despite the efforts of such men as Lewis Henry Morgan, Lucien M. Turner, Harían I. Smith, and Frank G. Speck, this attitude remained dominant throughout the formative period of North American ethnology and ethnography and still persists today. The northeastern area has received somewhat more attention, however, from linguists and historians, and has, in fact, served as a training ground for the pioneers in the field of linguistics. It was in the northeastern areas that such men as Edwards, Schoolcraft, Shea, Cuoq, and Hale first developed their systems of phonetic transcription, tested their theories of language affinities, and attempted the first studies of American Indian "grammar." Similarly, the field has always had a great interest for historians, and these have frequently used ethnographic materials in their researches. Unfortunately, neither the linguists nor the historians have been interested in the cultural materials for their own sake, and neither have used them in a way that now meets basic ethnographic standards. This inadequacy on the part of the linguists and historians has been more than matched by the neglect of the linguistic and historical materials on the part of anthropologists. Superb ethnographic sources, such as the Jesuit Relations, have remained virtually untouched. In many cases when reference was made to the historical literature, critical method and judgement were often lacking. This neglect

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is, perhaps, understandable, since historical sources, although overwhelmingly abundant, are sometimes difficult to locate and are hard to evaluate. It is the purpose of this study to attempt to fill this gap between the historical and ethnographic literature by providing at least a unified introduction to, and a summary of, the ethnographic documents deriving from this area and period. In this task of locating, analysing, and evaluating the ethnographic materials it is of major importance that we consider them against the background of contemporary historical events. Therefore we need to consider not only the primary textual materials, but also the cartographical evidence, since maps and charts often present clues to explorations for which all other evidence has vanished, and at the same time provide the best mirror of contemporary geographical concepts of the Europeans. An imaginary island, a missing river, a passage to Cathay— these were the goals that spurred and directed the European ventures. With the passage of time these goals faded into the mists of mythology, retired behind impenetrable inhospitable shores, or evaporated under the bright light of reality. Yet the records of the efforts, the discoveries, and the failures remain. For an introduction to this broad and complex field we may turn to an old work, obsolete in some sections, but nevertheless invaluable, Winsor's Narrative and Critical History of North America, particularly the first, third, and fourth volumes. This work presents a meaningful outline of the historical matrix in which the material is to be found; without such an outline the corpus of data presents only an aspect of chaos. Proceeding further, the major bibliographical aids include most of the works of Henri Harrisse—Bibliotheca Americana Vetustissima ... ; the first pages of Notes pour servir à l'histoire, à la bibliographie et à la cartographie de la Nouvelle-France . . . 1545-1700; The Discovery of North America ... ; and Découverte et évolution cartographique de Terre Neuve . . . 1497-15011769—which taken together cover the period in question. We may also note the bibliographic masterpiece by G. W. Cole, A Catalogue of Books Relating to the Discovery and Early History of North and South America . . . (vol. 1); the important catalogues issued by Maggs Bros., Ltd., of London, under the series heading Bibliotheca Americana, especially parts 1 (1922), and 6 (1927); and the Maggs Bros, catalogue entitled Canada, Newfoundland, Labrador, and the Canadian Arctic. . . . Unfortunately the Bibliography of Canadiana . . . published by the Toronto Public Library lists only a very few titles within this period. For collections of the source materials there are a number of valuable works. In the order of their appearance: the . . . De Orbe Nouo Decades ... by Pietro Martire d'Anghiera; the Tratado que compos o nobre & notauel capitâo Antonio Galuâo ... by Antonio Galvano; the Terzo volume délie navigationi et viaggi . . . by Ramusio; the collections made by Richard Hakluyt of Christ Church, Discourse concerning Western discoveries, Divers Voyages touching the discouerie of America ... ; and The Principal Navigations . .. ( the first edition of 1589, and vol. 3 of the second edition of 1599-1600), the work by Samuel Purchas, Hakluytus Posthumus or Purchas his Pilgrimes ... ; and Pinkerton's A General Collection of the Best and Most Interesting Voyages. . . . More recent, and with more adequate bibliographical and textual annotation, are Bergenroth's Calender of Letters,

INTRODUCTION

5

Despatches and State Papers Relating to the Negotiations between England and Spain . . . (during the reigns of Henry VII and Henry VIII), and the very important collections by Biggar, The Precursors of Jacques Cartier, 1497-1534 ... ; The Voyages of Jacques Cartier ... ; and A Collection of Documents Relating to Jacques Cartier and the Sieur de Roberval. . . . Biggar's Early Trading Companies of New France ... is in a class by itself, giving excellent bibliographical and biographical notes, except in a few cases which are noted. It deals largely with the French sources relating to New France from 1510 to 1700. As an introduction to the cartography of the period Harrisse's The Discovery of North America ... is still useful. The most important sources, however, are Stokes' The Iconography of Manhattan Island, 1498-1909 . . . (vol. 2), and the extremely valuable series of studies published by W. F. Ganong in the Transactions of the Royal Society of Canada between 1929 and 1937, entitled "Crucial Maps in the Early Cartography and Place-nomenclature of the Atlantic Coast of Canada. ..."

CHAPTER II

The Voyages of John Cabot W HILE JOHN CABOT may be credited with the rediscovery of North America, his achievement was actually only the culmination of a long series of ventures in the Atlantic by the Bristol seamen which had their roots in the age-old superstitions and legends relating to the Ocean Sea. These beliefs had many diverse originsMediterranean, Iberian, Irish, and Norse—and reached far back into ancient and pagan times. It is highly probable that they received verification and reinforcement from the Norse voyages; these, however, soon fell into obscurity, while the body of legend and myth continued to develop and expand, and eventually became woven into the early history of the New World. Out of the nebulous and changing currents of pre-Columbian beliefs relating to the Atlantic we can isolate three motifs which played a fateful role in the history of West European exploration. The first and oldest of these is that of Atlantis— the sunken land of wonder beyond the Pillars of Hercules. First recorded by Plato in his Timaeus (1949, pp. 9-10) and Critias (1929, pp. 110, 116-28) around 368-7 B.C., and supposedly deriving from Egyptian sources, the legend was known throughout the classical world and passed into the folklore of the "dark" and Middle Ages, and the Renaissance. In the late mediaeval period, therefore, we find the belief in the Fortunate Islands as expressed in the works of Isidorus of Seville (1483, book XIV, chap. 6, p. 72a and chap. 8), and Ranulf Higden (1865, pp. 320-1). Because of the widespread and ancient character of the Atlantis legend it is extremely difficult to establish the indigenous nature of other similar mythical beliefs which appear along the Atlantic coast. Those with the strongest claim to independence from the Atlantis motif come from Ireland. The earliest texts containing Irish folklore material unfortunately derive from the seventh and eighth centuries A.D.—long after the literature of the classical world had been admitted to the Irish monasteries. Nevertheless, the majority of the tales show every indication of deriving from pre-Christian sources, and display a complex of mythological and religious beliefs which are quite different from those of the Mediterranean area (see MacCulloch, 1918, pp. 114-23). Considering the Irish propensity for imaginative creation, and the influence the sea must have had upon a large part of the population, it is perhaps to be expected that an extensive folklore relating to the sea would have developed.

THE VOYAGES OF JOHN CABOT

7

In the earliest known Irish pagan literature we find the statement that the Irish heaven, whimsically known as the "Land of Youth" or the "Land of the Living," lay westward in the Ocean Sea. In the Irish Christian doctrine the land became known variously as the "Land of Promise," "The Land of the Promise of the Blessed," the "Kingdom of Heaven," the "Land of Truth," the "Land of Fair Women," and the "Land of the Living." This land, furthermore, was not alone— in the famous Ulster cycle of "Imrama" or sea-tales, it is surrounded by Islands of Women, of Weepers, of Hell, of Sheep, of Birds ( Westropp, 1912, pp. 225-32).

FIG. 1. The mythical islands of the Atlantic, as shown on the map of the Pizigani brothers (1367). Redrawn, with most nomenclature omitted and mythological figures, from Jomard (1862, pi. X:l).

8

CABOT TO CARTIER

The island that is of greatest interest—the Island of Brazil—first definitely appeared on such fourteenth-century maps as that of Dalorta (1325), and did not disappear from hydrographie charts until 1865 (Westropp, 1912, pp. 254r-7, pi. XX). The reason for this persistence seems to lie in the common occurrence of mirages and fogbanks off the southwestern coast of Ireland, where the island was always placed. The third mythological belief that played an important part in the early exploration of the New World was that of the Seven Cities of Cíbola. According to the legend, "in the year 734 of Christ, when the whole of Spain had been won by the heathen of Africa, the above island Antilia, called.Septe citade, was inhabited by an archbishop from the Porto in Portugal, with six other bishops, and other Christians, men and women, who had fled thither from Spain, by ship, together with their cattle, belongings, and goods . . ." ( Babcock, 1922, p. 71 ). With the extension of Spanish exploration the location of the legendary Seven Cities moved gradually westward, eventually becoming identified with the Spanish "Province of the Seven Cities" in the southwestern United States. With the development of the Renaissance these tales of fabulous lands acquired new meanings, especially among a group of English merchants situated in the town of Bristol. After their expulsion from the Icelandic cod-fisheries around 1478 the English had begun searching for new commercial enterprises along the coasts of Africa and westward into the Atlantic (Quinn, 1935, p. 279). Their motives were completely materialistic and unromantic—they wished to find the Island of Brazil so that they could establish a fishing station upon it. As early as 1480, therefore, various merchants of Bristol were sending out small parties of light ships in search of this Island of Brazil or of the Seven Cities. In the "Itinerary of William of Worcester" we read: On the 15th of July, 1480, a ship of ... [blank in original] . . . and John Jay the younger, of 80 ton, sailed from the roadstead of the Port of Bristol to seek the Island of Brasylle in the Atlantic west of Ireland by . . . , with Lloyd, the most scientific mariner in all England, as master; news was received in Bristol on Sept. 18th that she had sailed the seas for 9 month [weeks?] without finding the island, and had been driven by storms into the port of ... in Ireland, where the ship and crew were resting (c.1480; in Carus-Wilson, 1937, pp. 157-8).

The records of the Commission of the Exchequer ( 1483; in Carus-Wilson, 1937, p. 164) give evidence that the officials of the port were vitally interested in these activities : It is found amonges othir thynges that Thomas Croft of Bristowe Squier on' of our Custumers in oure said port of Bristowe the vjl day of July the xxj*1 yeere of our Reigne [that is in 1481] at Bristowe forsaid was possessid of the viijth part of a Shippe or Balynger callid the Trinité and of the viijth part of another shipp or Balinger callid the George and into every of the said Shippes or Balyngers the said Thomas the vjth day of July the foresaid xxj" yere of our Reigne at Bristow aforesaid shipped and putt xl bushel of salt to the value of xxs. for the repacion and sustentación of the said shippys or Balyngers and not by cause of merchaundise but the intent to serch and fynd a certaine Ile callid the Isle of Brasile.

THE VOYAGES OF JOHN CABOT

9

FIG. 2. Real and mythical islands off the Iberian Peninsula on the Pareto map of 1455. From north to south: the eight St. Brandan Islands, the Madeira group, and the Canaries (the latter with most nomenclature omitted). Antillia, or the Island of the Seven Cities, is to the left. Redrawn from Morison ( 1940, pi. facing p. 16 ).

Further support of this activity of the Bristol seamen is also forthcoming from the July 25, 1498, letter by Ayala (Biggar, 1911, pp. 27-9). The English were not the only people interested in the islands of the Western Sea, however. Las Casas, writing of pre-Columbian voyages into the Atlantic, gives some interesting information regarding the early Spanish ventures (Las Casas, 1927, lib. 1, cap. xiii, p. 69) : At the present time the opinion is that these Islands could be those of the Seven Cities. The tales of their fame and wealth has even reached to us, causing many to

10

CABOT TO CARTIEB

[attempt to] become conquerors of the country, and to spend enormous amounts of money without any practical purpose. Those who sailed to Ireland seem to have been more fortunate—fulfilling the expectations of the Irish legends: This agrees with the account given to Christopher Colom at the port of Santa Maria by a one-eyed [sailor], who stated that during a trip to Ireland he saw the land which the other sailors believed or imagined was Tartaria, and which stretched to the west. I believe that this land, which they could not reach because of the storm winds, was the one now called Bacallaos. Besides this, a sailor named Pedro de Velasco, from Galacia, told Christopher Colom in Murcia that during a voyage to Ireland [c.1450] they sailed towards the Northeast and saw land west of Ireland (p. 70). It was in such an atmosphere that Giovanni Caboto Montecataluña (Ballesteros-Gaibrois, 1943), commonly known as John Cabot, appeared, arriving "like Columbus for the purpose of inducing the King of England [Henry VII] to enter upon another undertaking like that of the Indies, without prejudice to Spain or to Portugal" (Ferdinand V and Isabella, March 28, 1496, in Biggar, 1911, pp. 10-11). Coming as he did from Spain, which had just acquired the beginnings of its overseas empire through the voyages of Columbus, and probably carrying considerable information concerning these new ventures, Cabot was undoubtedly welcomed by the Bristol merchants and aided by them in his negotiations with the English King for naturalization papers and letters-patent, the latter being granted in 1496 (Henry VII, March 5, 1496). These letters-patent authorized the grantees to equip at their own cost five ships, of any size and holding any number of men. From the entries in the "Privy Purse Expenses of Henry VII" (Anonymous, Aug. 10, 1497; see Biggar, 1911, pp. 12-13) we may fix the dates of Cabot's voyage as lying between April 1 and August 10, 1497, and we may confirm this from independent accounts of the exploration. According to the letter written by Raimondo di Soncino to the Duke of Milan on August 24, 1497, we know that some months ago his majesty the king sent out a Venetian who is a very good mariner and has considerable skill in discovering new islands, and he has returned safe, and has found two new very large and fertile islands, and also discovered the Seven Cities, 400 leagues from the island of England, on the western passage. This next spring his majesty the king means to send him out with fifteen or twenty ships. . . . In Soncino's second letter (Dec. 18, 1497, in Biggar, 1911, pp. 19-21), which is a little more informative, we are told that Cabot, seeing that the most serene kings, first of Portugal, then of Spain have occupied unknown islands, mediated the achievement of a similar acquisition for his majesty aforesaid [Henry VII], and having obtained royal grants securing to himself the profitable control of whatever he should discover, since the sovereignty was reserved to the crown, with a small ship and eighteen persons he committed himself to fortune and set out from Bristol, a western port of this kingdom, and having passed Ireland, which is still further to the west and then shaped a northerly course, he began to navigate to the eastern parts, leaving (during several days) the North star to the right; and having wandered about considerably, at length he fell in with terra firma, where he set up

THE VOYAGES OF JOHN CABOT

11

the royal standard, and having taken possession for this king and collected several tokins, he came back again. . . . From the account by Lorenzo Pasqualigo (Aug. 23, 1497; in Biggar, 1911, pp. 14-15) we learn how scant these "tokins" actually were—consisting of "certain snares which were spread to take game and a needle for making nets." The account of the voyageurs held promise of great things, however: They say that the land is excellent and [the air] temperate, and they think that Brazil wood and silks grow there; and they affirm that the sea is covered with fish which are caught not merely with nets but with baskets, a stone being attached to make the basket sink in the water, and this I heard the said Master Zoanne [Cabot] relate. And said Englishmen, his companions, say that they will fetch so many fish that this kingdom will have no more need of Iceland, from which country there comes a very great store of fish which are called stock-fish. But Master Zoanne has set his mind on something greater; for he expects to go from that place already occupied, constantly hugging the shore, further towards the east until he is opposite an island called by him Cipango, situated in the equinoctial region, where he thinks grow all the spices of the world and also the precious stones. . . . And it is said that in the spring his majesty aforesaid will fit out some ships, and besides will give him all the malefactors, and they will proceed to that country to form a colony, by means of which they hope to establish a greater dépôt for spices in London than there is at Alexandria. And the chief men in the enterprise belong to Bristol, great sailors, who now that they know where to go, say that it is not more than a fifteen days' voyage thither. . . . (Soncino, Dec. 18, 1497; in Biggar, 1911, pp. 20-1.) To render this vision of commerce with Cipango somewhat more concrete, Cabot prepared a map (now lost) showing the pathway to the Orient (Ayala, July 25, 1498; in Biggar, 1911, pp. 28-9). Thus, the spirit of discovery ran strong in the court circles and among the Merchants Adventurers, and the wealth of the Indies seemed already to be in English hands. Finally, Cabot sailed into the Ocean Sea with a small fleet of four or five ships (Ayala, July 25, 1498; in Biggar, 1911, pp. 28-9). His fortunes are completely unknown, the contemporary sources maintaining a mysterious silence with respect to the outcome of the exploration. Until recently this was taken to mean that Cabot and his ships had been lost at sea, but recently discovered references seem to imply that he returned to sail again. The first of these indications is to be found in an obscure manuscript recension of Polydore Vergil's "Anglica Historia," preserved in the Vatican Library and rediscovered by Cardinal Gasquet in 1902: . . . At the same time [c.1499] a rumor spread that certain sailors had seen an unknown land while sailing in the British Ocean. Since the kings of Spain had, during our century, discovered several formerly unknown islands, the matter was easily believed to be true and awakened confidence. Therefore, upon the request of a certain John Cabot, a Venetian and a great expert in naval affairs, king Henry equipped one ship with men and weapons and gave it to John, that he might go himself to investigate these islands. That very same year he set out to Ireland; he was first driven out of his course, then he sailed westward. But he is believed to have found new lands only at the bottom of the sea, where he is thought to have descended with one ship, carried away by the Ocean itself, since after this voyage he was never seen again. . . . (Vergil, 1512-13; in Hays, 1939.)

12

CABOT TO CARTIER

The puzzling item in this passage is the implied date of 1499. Also, Cabot is represented as sailing with only one vessel, while other sources tell us that he sailed in 1498 with five. Also who were the "certain sailors"? Some light is cast upon this impasse by two brief passages dealing with the voyages of the Portuguese sailor and explorer, Joâo Fernandes Lavrador, who will be discussed in greater detail in the next chapter. On the WolfenbüttelSpanish map of c.1527 (PAG 135) There is the legend: "Land of the Labrador [Greenland], which was discovered by the English of the town of Bristol. They gave it that name because he who gave [them] the directions was a lavrador of the Azores" (Morison, 1940, pp. 52-4). And in the "Islario general de todas las ilas del mundo" by Alonso de Santa Cruz there is the passage: ". . . This land [Greenland] was called Labrador because a Lavrador from the Azores gave information and intelligence of it to the King of England at the time he sent to explore it by Antonio Gaboto the English pilot and the father of Sebastian Gaboto, Your Majesty's present Pilot Major . . ." (Biggar, 1903a, p. 13). These accounts raise a difficulty in dates. Vergil implies that Cabot heard of the new lands, and sailed to discover them, sometime around 1499. The map legends associate Cabot with Fernandes, however, and we know that Fernandes did not make his voyage until 1500. A possible indication that this latter date may be more correct is to be found in a document in the Bristol Customs Office, paying Cabot his pension in 1499 (Bristol Customs, Sept. 29, 1499; in Biggar, 1911, pp. 29-30). The possibility therefore exists that Cabot sailed with the EnglishPortuguese expedition of 1501, and was lost on this voyage, just as Joâo Fernandes seems to have been.

CHAPTER III

The Explorations of Fernandes As WAS THE case with the Bristol merchants, the Portuguese of the Azores also

sent many expeditions westward into the Atlantic in late pre-Columbian times, but here the prize sought was not a mere fishing station, but a donatory captainship such as had been granted to the discoverers and colonizers of Madeira and the Azores (Morison, 1940, pp. 29-33). The most important of these early Portuguese trans-Alantic explorers was Joâo Fernandes Lavrador, who was apparently a sea-going landlord from the island of Terceira. The sources relating to the exploits of this Azorean are pitifully slender, consisting of letters-patent, some comments written years later, a few Unes in the English State Papers, and a few cartographical legends. Nevertheless, by a careful piecing together of these fragmentary materials it is possible (largely following the reconstruction of Morison, 1940, pp. 51-68) to obtain a picture of Fernandes' activities which has a high degree of plausibility. Fernandes obtained his letters-patent from King Dom Manuel of Portugal on October 28, 1499, the document reading, in part, as follows: D. Manuel... to Joâo Fernandes. The promise of the Captaincy of whatever island he may discover. D. Manuel, etc. To whomsoever may read this our letter we make known that Joâo Fernandes, an inhabitant of our island of Terceira, has informed us that, for the service of God and ourself, he wishes to make an effort to go in search of and discover (or explore) certain islands of our sphere of influence at his own expense, and . . . we shall grant him in fact, the captaincy of whatever Island or Islands inhabited or uninhabited that he may discover and newly find, together with all such revenues, honors, profits and privileges as we have granted to the captaincies of our islands of Madeira and the rest. . . (Emmanuel of Portugal, Oct. 28, 1499; in Morison, 1940, pp. 62-3).

This document would seem to indicate that Fernandes had not yet discovered land, but hoped to do so. Also, the inclusion of the phrase, "of our sphere of influence," gives rise to the suspicion that Fernandes and the King were aware of the discoveries of John Cabot, and were invoking the Treaty of Tordesillas to strengthen their hand against the English (Morison, 1940, p. 64). The pleito or brief deriving from a lawsuit conducted in 1506 by one Pedro de Barcelos of Terceira, against trespassers on his land on this island, contains

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evidence relating to the voyage: "being in possession of them [the lands] during the aforesaid, I received a license of our king our lord to go exploring, I and one Joâo Fernandes a lavrador, in which exploration we were gone a good three years and when I returned to the said island I found my people off of the said lands . . ." ( Barcelos, 1506; in Morison, 1940, p. 57 ). Since the letters-patent was granted to Fernandes in the fall of 1499, the voyage itself was possibly started in the spring of 1500. According to the statement made by Barcelos, therefore, the explorations would have lasted until 1502 or 1503. A passage in a document granting special privileges to the son of Pedro de Barcelos gives an indication of the regions under consideration: "To as many as shall see this grant of ours [we make known], that in consideration of the services we have received from Pedro de Barcelos, formerly an inhabitant of our island of Terceira, now deceased, in the expedition sent to discover in the northern parts; and being desirous on this account to show kindness and favor to his son . . ." (Emmanuel of Portugal, June 7, 1509; in Biggar, 1911, pp. 100-2). From this we may conclude that Fernandes' explorations were carried out in the North Atlantic. This is corroborated by a number of legends appearing on the early maps of the area—legends which are applied to the body of land now known as Greenland ( Morison, 1940, p. 52^ ) : [The Cantina Map, 1502 (PAG 6)]:This land was discovered by license of the most excellent prince D. Manuel King of Portugal, and is believed to be the peninsula of Asia. Those who discovered it went not ashore but viewed it and saw nothing but very rugged mountains, whence, according to the opinion of cosmographers it is believed to be the peninsula of Asia. [The Reinel Map, c.1519 (PAC 76)]: This land the Portuguese saw, but [they] did not go ashore.

[The Wolfenbüttel-Spanish Map, c. 1527 (PAC 135)]: Land of the Labrador, which

was discovered by trie English of the town of Bristol. They gave it that name because

he who gave [them] the directions was a lavrador of the Azores. [The Ribero Map (Rome), 1529 (PAC 121)]: Land of the Labrador; discovered by the English of the town of Bristol, wherein they found nothing profitable. Further evidence appears in the "Islario general de todas las islas del mundo," written by Alonso de Santa Cruz in 1541 (fol. 92; in Biggar, 1903a, p. 13): ". . . This land [Greenland] was called Labrador because a lavrador from the Azores gave information and intelligence of it to the King of England at the time he sent to explore it by Antonio Gaboto the English pilot and the father of Sebastian Gaboto, Your Majesty's present Pilot Major. . . ." From these accounts we may conclude that Fernandes and Barcellos discovered Greenland in 1500. Instead of returning to Portugal, however, they apparently proceeded to England, where they arranged a joint enterprise with the Bristol merchants. In the following spring Henry VII granted letters-patent, "to our well-beloved subjects Richard Warde, Thomas Ashehurst and John Thomas, merchants of our town of Bristol, and to our well-beloved John Fernandes, Francis Fernandes and John Cotízales, Esquires, of the Islands of the Azores in the dominions of the King of Portugal . . . to sail and transport themselves to

THE EXPLORATIONS OF FERNANDES

15

all parts, regions, and territories of the eastern, western, southern, arctic and northern seas . . ." (Henry VII, March 19, 1501; in Biggar, 1911, p. 50). In the following year Henry VII granted a second issue of letters-patent to the English-Portuguese expedition (Henry VII, Dec. 9, 1502; in Biggar, 1911, pp. 70-91). One name is conspicuously absent from this document—that of Joâo Fernandes. The dating of this paper implies that a voyage was undertaken in 1503, and later references in the English State Papers seem to indicate that it was successful (Henry VII, Dec. 6, 1503; in Biggar, 1911, p. 91).

CHAPTER IV

The Voyage of Sebastian Cabot THE SEQUENCE of voyages carried out by John Cabot and Fernandas is shown in the following list: 1. The first voyage of John Cabot-1497. 2. The second voyage of John Cabot—1498. 3. The first voyage of Joâo Fernandes—1500. 4. The English-Portuguese expedition of 1501, organized by Richard Warde, Thomas Ashehurst, John Thomas, John Fernandes, Francis Fernandes, and John Gonzales, with John Cabot probably acting as Captain. 5. The English-Portuguese expedition of 1503, organized by Francis Fernandes, John Gonzales, Hugh Eliot, and Thomas Ashehurst. From the sources at hand there is little evidence that John Cabot engaged in any extensive exploration of the lands which he discovered during his first voyage of 1497. But, as Winship (1900b, p. 422) has pointed out, there was no reason why he should have done so. Once he had reached land the purpose of his mission was accomplished, and the only thing necessary for him to do was to take possession of the region for the King, and to collect proof of his visit. The sources are just sufficient to place his landfall in the general Newfoundland region, but all other statements are speculation. Practically nothing is known about Cabot's second voyage. This absence of information has led many students to assume that Cabot was lost on this venture, but, as we have seen, evidence exists which seems to indicate that he returned and lived to sail in search of the land found by the lavrador from the Azores. With respect to Joâo Fernandes' first voyage we are unable to state whether this adventurer sailed from Portugal or from the Azores. The latter seems more likely, however. The textual materials indicate that he carried out his explorations on the Greenland coast, and the cartographical evidence (see chap. VII ) suggests that he confined his operations to the east coast. The conclusion that John Cabot participated in the first English-Portuguese expedition is based upon the statements by Polydore Vergil and Alonso de Santa Cruz, and upon the legends appearing on the early maps. The evidence admits the speculation that both Fernandes and Cabot were lost in the course of this endeavour, but actual proof is lacking. We may deduce that some

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17

members of the expedition returned to England from a passage appearing in the "Cronicón regum Angliae . . ." (Anonymous, c.1509; in Biggar, 1911, pp. 99-100) referring to the seventeenth year of the reign of Henry VII (Sept. 15, 1501, to Sept. 14, 1502 ) which tells us that in "this yere three men were brought out of an Ilande founde by merchauntes of Bristow forre beyonde Irelonde, the which were clothed in Beestes skynnes and ete raw fflessh, and rude in their demeanure as Beestes." The references indicate that the expedition went to explore the land of the lavrador, that is, Greenland. Other than the letters-patent issued in 1502, and the appropriation of a pension to Francis Fernandes and John Gonzales, only one document is known which refers to the English-Portuguese expedition of 1503. This is a note in the Privy Purse Expenses of Henry VII (Henry VII, Sept. 30, 1503; in Biggar, 1911, p. 12) which reads, "H. 7, Sept: 30th Item to the merchants of Bristoll that have bene to the Newfounde Launde. £.20 0 0." Again we can only presume that the sphere of operations was around Greenland. On the basis of the statements made by Anghiera, Contarini, and Best (see pp. 18-19 below), it is clear that the explorations of Sebastian Cabot were distinct from those of his father, and took place some time around 1507 or 1508. It is clear that writers and historians of even a few years later were confused and ignorant of the actual sequence of events although the reasons for this are not known. The confusion did not abate with the passing of time. Furthermore, owing to unfortunate complications and incidents in Cabotan historiography, earlier students such as Fiske, Biddle, Harrisse, and Ganong accepted the view that all the Cabot voyages occurred before 1500. The controversy which took place between these various historians was thus limited to the question of whether or not the statements attributed to Sebastian Cabot, are representing him as engaging in explorations in the Newfoundland area, were distortions, falsifications of fact, and misrepresentations. The problem is not aided by the lack of clarity on the part of Cabot's contemporaries, or by the "corrections" introduced into the texts by various historians. With the exception of Winship (1900a and 1900b) and Williamson (1929), those references which explicitly support a date of around 1508 for Sebastian's activities have been consistently ignored by Cabotan scholars. These omissions have impeded comprehension of the history of the voyages or of the resulting cartography. The earliest references to the voyage of Sebastian Cabot are to be found in the De Orbe Novo Decades, written by Pietro Matire d'Anghiera, commonly known as Peter Martyr. This gentleman, an Italian scholar living in Spain under the patronage of the Court, took advantage of his position to collect and sift all the available information pertaining to the New World, thus making himself the first American historian. Having gathered his materials, he cast them in the form of a series of letters, known as the Ocean Decades, which he sent to his royal and noble patrons and friends. This body of material, started in 1494 and continued until 1526, constitutes the earliest original collection of voyage accounts relating to the western lands. Peter Martyr's earliest comment concerning Sebastian's explorations was first

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published in the 1516 edition of his work (dec. Ill, lib. vi), and was reprinted in the 1530 edition covering all eight decades. The passage was first translated into English (rather verbosely) by Richard Eden (1555; see Arber, 1885, p. 161). The more recent translation by MacNutt (Anghiera, 1912, vol. 1, p. 347) contains serious errors. The passage, as written by Peter Martyr, reads as follows: . . . A certain Sebastian Cabot has examined those [frozen coasts], a Venetian by birth but carried by his parents whilst yet a child into the island of Britain, they going thither as the habit is of Venetians, who in the pursuit of trade are the guests of all lands. He equipped two ships at his own cost in Britain, and with three hundred men steered first for the north, until even in the month of July he found great icebergs floating in the sea and almost continuous daylight, yet with the land free by the melting of the ice. Wherefore he was obliged, as he says, to turn and make for the west. And he extended his course furthermore to the southward owing to the curve of the coastline, so that his latitude was almost that of the Straits of Gibraltar and he penetrated so far to the west that he had the island of Cuba on his left hand almost in the same longitude with himself. He, as he traversed those coasts, which he called the Bacallaos, says that he found the same flow of the waters to the west, although mild in force, as the Spaniards find in their passage to their southern possessions. .. . (Williamson, 1929, p. 71.)

Since, a few lines further on, Peter Martyr makes the statement that "Cabot frequents my house, and I have him sometimes at my table . . ." (Anghiera, 1574, p. 268; 1912, vol. 1, p. 348; and Williamson, 1929, p. 72), it has been commonly assumed that Peter Martyr derived this statement directly from Cabot himself (Harrisse, 1892, p. 10; 1896, p. 64; and Williamson, 1929, p. 230). Since Martyr knew Cabot personally this is possible and probable, but it is unfortunate that Martyr did not tell us specifically, "As I heard from Sebastian Cabot himself...." A second very interesting reference to the voyage of Cabot appears in the seventh decade of Peter Martyr's De Orbe Novo (Anghiera, 1530, fol. XCIIT; 1892, dec. VII, lib. 2, cap. ii, vol. 2, p. 287), and reads, "I believe this country is near that of Baccalaos discovered by Cabot in the service of England, some sixteen years ago." Since Peter Martyr is commonly supposed to have written this decade in 1524 (Winship, 1900b, p. 424n) this would give 1508 as the date of Cabot's exploration. This statement, contrary to the viewpoints of Hakluyt, Harrisse, and others, was long thought to be in error, however, and both Hakluyt (Anghiera, 1587, p. 471) and MacNutt (Anghiera, 1912, vol. 2, p. 257) corrected their texts to read, "twenty-six years ago," thus making Cabot sail in 1498. Nevertheless, the fact remains that Peter Martyr wrote, "vel Bacchalaos anno abhinc sextodecimo ex Anglia per Cabotü repertos"; furthermore, his date of 1508 receives support from other sources of the period. Thus, in his report of 1536 to the Venetian Senate, Marc Antonio Contarini stated, "He [Cabot] sailed so far with 300 men that he found the sea frozen, which made Cabot decide to return without having achieved his purpose, thinking that he could return to that undertaking when the sea was not frozen. He found the king dead, and the son little interested in such an undertaking." ( Winship, 1900b, p. 424n; and William-

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son, 1929, p. 74. ) Since Henry VII died on April 21, 1509, this would imply that Cabot sailed in 1508 or 1509. In his Trve Discourse of the Late Voyages of Discouerie, for the Finding of a passage to Cathaya by the Northwest. . . ( 1578; 1938, vol. 1, p. 24), George Best states: "for Sebastian Cabot, an Englishe man, borne in Bristow, was by commandement of King Henry the seauenth, in Anno. 1508, furnished with Snipping, munitions, and men, and sayled along all that tract, pretending to discouer the passage to Cataya, and went alande in many places, and brought home sundry of the people, and manye other things of that Countrey, in token of possession, beeing (I say) the firste Christians that euer there sette foote on land. . . ." Vrbain Chauveton, in his notes to his 1579 French translation of Girolamo Benzoni's La Historia del Mondo Nvovo . . . (1565), gives a slightly different version, having Cabot sail first to Newfoundland and then to the north, and gives the date as 1507 (Benzoni, 1579, lib. 1, cap. xiiii). This note, which will be discussed again later, was reprinted in De Bry's Latin translation of Benzoni (De Bry, 1594, p. 69). Still a third variant account of Sebastian's voyage may be derived from Peter Martyr, being found in the perplexing Summario contained in a collection of travel accounts published in Venice in 1534 (possibly by Ramusio) bearing the title, . . . Historia de ÏIndie Occidentali. . . . The reference is found on leaf 65 (incorrectly numbered 59) : and on account of that ice he [Cabot] was compelled to turn about, and make his way along the coast which at first ran for a ways toward the south, then changed to westward, and because he found vast numbers of very large fish in that region, which swam in shoals near the shore, and as he understood that the inhabitants called them Baccalai, he called that the country of the Baccalai [or codfish]. He had a little intercourse with those inhabitants, whom he found to be fairly intelligent and who covered their whole body with skins of different animals. In that place, and for the rest of the voyage, which he made along that coast towards the west he said that he found the waters always ran towards the west, toward the gulf that the mainland is said to make there. We must not omit a sport which Sebastian Cabot said he had seen together with his whole company, to their great amusement, when the numerous bears that are found in that country come to catch these baccalai fish in this way. All along the shore there are many large trees whose leaves fall down into the sea, and the Baccalai come in shoals to eat them. The bears, who like these fish better than anything else, hide themselves upon the banks, and when a lot of these fish, which are very large, and have the appearance of tunnies, have come near, they dash into the water and seize one of them, sticking their claws under their scales so as not to let them go, and strive to drag them on to the shore. But the Baccalai, which are very strong, rush about and plunge into the sea, so that, as the two creatures are fastened together, it is very great sport to see them, now one under the water and now the other above, splashing the water in the air. But in the end the bear drags the baccalao to the shore, where he eats it. This is thought to be the reason why such a large number of bears do not make any trouble for the people of the country. . . . (Winship, 1900b,p. 425n.) In this account, Cabot is definitely identified as the author of the name "Land of the Bacallaos." The account also contains the interesting hint that the southern coast possibly had been explored before him, for we are told of a "gulf that the mainland is said to make there," unless this information was

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obtained from the Indians or was supplied at a later date from Gómara's knowledge of the Cartier voyages. Vrbain Chauveton's account, given in his notes to the 1579 edition of Benzoni's La Historia del Mondo Nvovo, and translated into Latin by De Bry (Benzoni, 1594, lib. I, cap. xiiii, p. 69), although specifically credited to Peter Martyr, differs to some extent: Anno 1507. A certain Venetian ship-master in the service of Henry VII, King of England, who was named Sebastian Gabotto, wished to reach Cathay by way of the Northern Region. He was the first to describe Point Baccalaos (which the Breton and Norman sailors today call la coste des Moitiés, that is to say, the coast of the sea cod), and then proceeded as far as 67 degrees towards the North Pole; until he was stopped by the cold and by the thick ice of the Northern Sea, and was forced to turn back without reaching his goal. From Peter Martyr. This version does, however, seem to be related to Benzoni's original account of 1565 which begins to describe the exploration made by John Cabot, but then describes that of Sebastian instead. Chauveton's insertion in the later edition indicates that he, at least, was aware of the distinction beween the exploits of father and son: In the year 1496 a Venetian named Sebastian Cabot, being in England and having information of such a new discovery as this [that is, that by Columbus] was, and seeing by a globe that the islands above mentioned were almost in the same latitude as, and much nearer to, his country [England] than to Portugal or Castile, he explained the matter to King Henry VII, wherewith the king was so well pleased that he ordered two ships to be equipped. He [Cabot] sailed in the spring with three hundred companions, set his course to the west until he sighted land in forty-five degrees of north latitude, and went on by that land to sixty degrees, where the days are eighteen hours long and the nights are very clear and bright. They found great cold there and many icebergs, so that they had no bottom in seventy, eighty and a hundred fathoms, but found great cold, by which they were discommoded. And so from thence finding the coast to turn to the east, they passed along it on the other tack discovering every bay, river [and] creek to see if it passed to the other side, and so went on, diminishing the latitude, to thirty-eight degrees, whence they returned to England. Others say that he reached the cape of Florida, which is in twenty-five degrees. . . . (Williamson, 1929, p. 79.) The accounts given by Giovanni Ramusio follow this same general pattern but show a few minor variations between volumes and editions. In the Primo volume délie navigation et viaggi . . . (1550, fol. 415), for example, we are told that Sebastian Cabot sailed along the coast as far north as 56°, at which point, despairing of finding a passage to the west, he turned southward and reached Florida. In the Terzo volume délie navigationi et viaggi . . . (1565, fol. iiiT), this statement has been altered to the effect that Sebastian sailed northward as far as 67/2°, and was then forced to return home because of a mutiny. On folio 35d of the same volume—in Ramusio's recension of Peter Martyr—we are told that Cabot sailed only as far north as 55°, and that "as a small boy he [Sebastian Cabot] was taken to England by his father, and, at the death of the latter, finding himself very rich, and [being] of great courage, [he] deliberated whether he could do as Christopher Colombo had done, wishing likewise to discover some new part of the world. He equipped two ships at his own expense, and

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set sail in the month of July with the wind from the northwest and north. . . ." The account given by Francisco López de Gomara in his Historia General de las Indias . . . (1554, part 1, cap. xxxix, p. 31r) is more informative, a fact perhaps to be attributed to Sebastian Cabot's later position as Pilot Major of Spain. . . . The man who brought back the most information about this country was Sebastian Cabot, a Venetian; he fitted out two ships in England, where he had had business since his boyhood, at the cost of King Henry VII, who wanted to have commerce with the Land of Spice as did the King of Portugal. Others say that [Cabot did this] at his own cost, and that he promised King Henry to go to Cathay by the north and bring spices from these in less time than it took the Portuguese by the south. He also went to find what sort of country the Indies were for settlement; he took with him 300 men and went by the Iceland route upon (sobre) the Cape of the Labrador, until he was in 58 degrees. He himself says that he went even further north, reporting that even in July there was so much cold and so many pieces of ice that he did not dare to proceed; that the days were very long and almost without night, and the nights very clear [that is, not very dark]. It is true that at 60 degrees the days last eighteen hours. Cabot, observing the cold and [the] strangeness of the country, turned to the west, and, making repairs in the [land of the] Bacallaos, he ran along the coast to 38 degrees, and from thence went back to England... .(Translated by J. H. Rowe.) Richard Eden's translation of this passage follows the original closely (Eden, 1555, p. 318; in Arber, 1885, p. 345 ). However, the passage is ambiguous on one crucial point, the difficulty ocurring with the word sobre, which may mean either "over," "above," "towards," or "upon." The phrase in question, "i camino la buelta de Islandia sobre el Cabo del Labrador"—"and went by the Iceland route sobre the Cape of the Labrador"—therefore could mean that Cabot went "via" the Iceland route, "west" from Iceland, or "north" of Iceland. On this point the version published by André Thevet, Cosmographer Royal to the French King, in his Les Singvlaritez de la France Antarctique ( 1557 ) seems more specific. . . . They [the coasts of Baccalaos] were discovered for the first time by Sebastian Cabot—an Englishman—who persuaded the king of England, Henry VII, that he could easily travel from there to the country of Cathay, towards the North, and thus find spices and other things by this way, in the same way that the king of Portugal [gets them] from the Indies: at the same time he proposed to go to Peru and America in order to people the land with new inhabitants, and to establish there a New England. He did not carry this out; [although it] is true that he put 300 people on a land to the North of Ireland, where the cold caused the death of almost all of his company, although it was the month of July. . . . (Thevet, 1878, pp. 396-7.) However, in his manuscript cosmography, "Le Grand Insulaire et pilotage d'André Thevet . . . ," Thevet expresses the view that Sebastian Cabot reached 67° N. latitude ". . . Since this time [the voyage of Cortereal in 1500] a Venetian undertook this voyage by the authority of Henry, VII of this name, King of England, reaching as far as sixty-seven degrees, but both of these were forced to return without accomplishing anything, either because of the great cold, or because they did not have that which was necessary for them to accomplish their purpose and to stay among those people . . ." (Thevet, 1550-1590, MSS. français, no. 15452, fol. 143r). His statement "north of Ireland," therefore, could simply indicate higher latitude, and not that Cabot sailed north of Ireland ( or Iceland )

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upon the Greenland coast. At this early date, furthermore, the view existed that Greenland was a part of the land mass discovered by John Cabot further west, so that confusion could easily arise. André Thevet is the author of still another interesting reference to the Sebastian Cabot expedition which appears in the La Cosmographie Vniverselle ( 1575, vol. 2, fol. 1022): . . . Baccaleos, which by its appearance you would liken to the four fingers of a man extending with the hand open; and the isle of Fiche, which adjoins it springing from the northern side; and it is in these places that they have good fishing. Some eight leagues from there, reckoning always from the north, appears a great land called the land of Corte Real, discovered in the year 1501 by a captain named Gaspar Corte Real, a Portuguese; although it had been visited fourteen years before by certain captains of Rochelle, in the neighbourhood of the Gulf of Merosre, who went fairly deep into the said gulf. And it is in that place that the pilot of King Henry of England, with a good number of ships, thought to have found a strait to pass into the Pacific Ocean. But being in the latitude of fifty-nine degrees, having coasted these regions for a long time, not without difficulty on account of the continual cold, he found himself balked of his enterprise, and came to touch at the Isle of Carvelle, where he almost lost his life because of the breakers, rocks and perils that are there. Passing beyond he entered the river named of Torment for some ten or twelve leagues; where, perceiving the narrowing of the said river and the freshness of the water, he was compelled to turn about, as otherwise he would have been in greater danger than ever. In this manner they plyed in this gulf for two whole months and were obliged to withdraw from it. ... (Williamson, 1929, pp. 115-16.) Finally, there is another extremely interesting passage placed next to Newfoundland on an old chart published by Cornelis de Jode (PAC 707): "Baccalaos, A° 1507, a Sebastiano Gabotto, nomine Regis Angliae, detecta. Qui hiñe navigans vsq ad gradu Poli Arctici, propter glacië et frigus, in Angliam reuertitur . . ." (Van Ortroy, 1914, p. 98). From these textual sources it seems clear that Sebastian Cabot engaged in an expedition in arctic water sometime between 1507 and 1509, and that this voyage took him to the northern coast of North America. More specific deductions must be framed in terms of possibilities and probabilities. The wording of three of the earliest and most reliable sources—Peter Martyr in 1516 and 1534, and Gomara in 1554—indicate that Sebastian first encountered a region of ice and severe cold which forced him to turn to the west and south, where he discovered "Bacallaos." This route of discovery is reflected by Benzoni (1565), while Chauveton, in his 1579 note to Benzoni's account, has Sebastian first discovering "Bacallaos" and then sailing north. Ramusio (1550) adds a variation by having Sebastian first sail north from "Bacallaos" into the ice-fields, and then retire again to the south along the American coast. How this confusion concerning Sebastian's course came about is not clear, but it seems that the earlier accounts are more reliable, particularly in view of the wealth of circumstantial detail contained in Peter Martyr's 1534 description. Sebastian's experiences and difficulties may be elucidated somewhat through a consideration of sailing conditions in the North Atlantic, particularly along the east Greenland and Labrador coasts. Both of these coasts are bordered by

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south-flowing ocean currents—the east Greenland current and the Labrador current—which carry south with them, particularly during the winter and spring, two distinct ice streams—the east Greenland ice and the Baffin Bay ice. The greatest southern extension of these ice streams generally occurs between February and March, at which time the entire east coasts of Greenland and Labrador are bordered by broad sheets of winter and pack ice, with the Baffin Bay ice also extending southward along the entire eastern coast of Newfoundland and encountering Gulf of St. Lawrence ice at the Strait of Belle Isle. The ice sheets persist along these coasts into the early summer; thus, in years of average minimum ice conditions the Gulf of St. Lawrence is not generally clear until late May, the east Newfoundland coast until late June, and the Labrador and southeastern Greenland coasts until August. In years of severe ice the ice sheets may persist off the east Greenland coast throughout the year, and off the Labrador coast until September (Koch, 1945, pp. 23-4,154-5,162^3,173). These conditions impose severe limitation upon explorers attempting to sail in these waters in light unreinforced vessels ( we cannot assume that sailing vessels of the early sixteenth century were reinforced to withstand arctic ice) generally limiting the sailing season to the interval between June and October. In Sebastian Cabot's time ice conditions seem to have been relatively favourable; for the records indicate that from 1490 to 1515 the area around Iceland lacked severe ice conditions and generally resembled the period from 1920 to the present, and the conditions off Iceland are directly related to those off the east Greenland coast and indirectly to those off the Labrador coast. Within such a period of favourable ice conditions the normal extent of the ice sheets within the month of July is as illustrated in figure 3 (Koch, 1945, pp. 252-3, 257-8, 289). In the light of these sailing conditions Sebastian's difficulties gain significance. Peter Martyr reported that "even in the month of July he found great icebergs floating in the sea and almost continuous daylight, yet with the land free by the melting of the ice," while Gomara commented that "he took with him 300 men and went by the Iceland route upon the Cape of the Labrador, until he was in 58 degrees. He himself says that he went even further north, reporting that even in July there was so much cold and so many pieces of ice that he did not dare to proceed. . . ." If, as we have indicated earlier, the "Cape of the Labrador" refers to the southern tip of Greenland which was rediscovered by Joâo Fernandes in 1500, it is obvious why Sebastian would have encountered ice, and why he was in the latitude of 58° or 60°. The passage, "by the Iceland route upon the Cape of the Labrador," is open to varying interpretations. It may indicate that Sebastian (or possibly only Gomara) had become acquainted with the old sailing route from Norway or Iceland to Greenland which was used by the Norse during the thirteenth, fourteenth, and fifteenth centuries and is known to us from Ivar Bardson's account ( 1370; in Purchas, 1625, vol. 3, pp. 163-4; indicated by the letter A on fig. 3 ), or merely to the fact that Sebastian sailed from England towards Iceland until he was in 58° or 60° latitude, and then sailed westward until in the vicinity of the cape. Although Sebastian may have sailed further to the north, as he said he did, the latitudes given by later authors (for example, Thevet, 65° and

24

CABOT TO CARTIER

67°; Ramusio, 67°; Chauveton, 67°) may merely reflect the fact these thought Sebastian sailed north of Iceland, and that this island stands between 64° and 67°. The statements of Peter Martyr and Gomara seem to indicate that Sebastian withdrew southward from the ice fields, and then sailed west, eventually reaching "Bacallaos" or Newfoundland. It is possible that his ships first encountered the ice sheets off the Labrador coast and then turned south, but where this second landfall might have occurred is not described in the textual sources. Further considera-

FIG. 3. Ice conditions in the North Atlantic during the month of July in a period of moderate conditions. Black areas indicate impassable ice; stippled areas, ice navigable by heavily reinforced vessels; circles, limit of numerous icebergs and growlers; triangles, southern limit of icebergs and growlers. From U.S. Navy, Hydro. O. (1946, pp. 9, 33).

THE VOYAGE OF SEBASTIAN CABOT

25

tion of Sebastian's explorations on the Newfoundland coast must be deferred until the cartographical materials can be considered. There are two possible conclusions concerning the date of Sebastian's voyage: the summer of 1508, and the summer of 1509. Since it is stated that the expedition encountered ice fields in July, and if the statement by Contarini that Henry VII was dead when Sebastian returned is true it would appear that if the voyage was started in the early summer of 1508 it lasted for so many months that Sebastian did not return to London until late in April, 1509. If the expedition sailed in 1509 it most likely did not leave England until after the King died because of the sailing conditions in the North Atlantic. Whether or not Sebastian thus knew of the King's death before sailing is an open question, but regardless of when the expedition actually sailed, plans for later expeditions had to be abandoned under Henry VIII. Sebastian's experiences or losses on his 1508 or 1509 venture also seem to have discouraged or embittered some of his sponsors, for members of the Twelve Great Livery Companies of London raised strong objections in 1521 to a newly proposed venture by Sebastian, stating in a delegation to Henry VIII that we thynk it were to sore avenf to joperd V shipps w* men and goods vnto the said Hand [the Newe found Hand] vppon the singular trust of one man callyd as we vnderstond Sebastyan, whiche Sebastyan as we here say was neur in that land hym self, all if he makes reports of many things as he hath hard his Father and other men speke in tymes past . . . trusting to the said Sebastyan, we suppos it were no wysdom to aventr lyves and goods thider in suche man. . . . (Anonymous, March 1-April 9, 1521; in Harrisse, 1892, p. 749).

CHAPTER V

The Voyages of the Cortereals W HILE FEBNANDES and Cabot were carrying out their explorations, a neighbour

of Fernandas was making his own preparations to win a captaincy. Unlike Fernandes, Gasper Cortereal seems to have approached the King with the advantage of already having conducted voyages of exploration into the Ocean Sea, for his letters-patent read:

. . . To as many as shall see this grant of ours we make known, that forasmuch as Gasper Corte Real, a nobleman of our court, has made efforts in the past, on his own account and at his own expense, with ships and men, to search out, discover and find by dint of much labour and expenditure of his wealth and at the risk of his life, some islands and a mainland, and in consequence is now desirous of continuing this search . . . we do grant him by right and heredity for ever, the governorship of any islands or mainland he may thus discover or find afresh . . . (Emmanuel of Portugal, May 12, 1500; in Biggar, 1911, p. 35).

Thus equipped, Cortereal completed his arrangements and initiated his discovery of the "Newfound Land." To reconstruct the activities of this Portuguese nobleman we lean heavily upon four primary sources: two letters written by Pietro Pasqualigo from Lisbon, on October 18 and 19, 1501; a letter by Alberto Cantino, written from Lisbon on October 17, 1501; and a planisphere made for Cantino, and sent by him to the Duke of Ferrara in Italy. The earliest of these references—the Cantino letter—was discovered in the State Archives at Modena by Henri Harrisse, and was published in his Les Corte-Real et leurs voyages au Nouveau-monde . . . ( 1883, p. 204 ). The first English translation of this document was published by the Hakluyt Society in 1893 (Markham, 1893, pp. 232-4). The second document-the Pasqualigo letter of October 18, 1501—was first published in the I Diarii di Marino Sanuto . . . (1879-1903, vol. 4, pp. 200-1); reprinted by Harrisse in 1883 (p. 209); and published in translation by the Hakluyt Society in 1893 (Markham, 1893, pp. 235-6). Unlike these two documents, Pasqualigo's letter of October 19, written to his brother in Venice, was widely known among his contemporaries and was frequently referred to by the historians of his day. The document was first published in the collection of travel accounts known as Paesi nouamente retrouati. . . , written by Fracanzano da Montalboddo ( 1507, AUT; see also the facsimile of the 1508 edition—1916a, chap, cxxvi, pp. 145-7 ). It also appeared in the Historia General de

THE VOYAGES OF THE COHTEREALS

27

las Indias . . . by Francisco López de Gomara ( 1554, facing page 13 ) ; in the extremely rare Tratado que compos o nobre if notauel capitâo Antonio Galuâo . . . (1563, p. 29; see also Galvano, 1601 and 1862, pp. 96-7); in Ramusio's Terzo volvme dette navigationi et viaggi . . . ( 1565, p. 417A ) ; in the Chronica del felicissimo rei dom Emanvel... by Damiano de Goes ( 1566, p. 65; see also Markham, 1893, pp. 230-2); and in the De rebus Emmanuelis . . . by Hieronymus Osorius (1571, part 1, chap. 67, pp. 87-8). The Cantino planisphere, which was also known to the historians of the sixteenth century, will be discussed in the section on the cartography of the period (see chap. VII). Supplementing these materials with a few others we are able to reconstruct the outlines of Cortereal's voyages into the North Atlantic by recovering what we can from the textual accounts and checking this with the cartographic evidence. Damiano de Goes (in Morison, 1940, p. 70) states that Cortereal, equipped one ship with a good compliment of people and everything necessary, and departed from the port of Lisbon at the beginning of spring, year 1500. On this voyage he discovered, on that north side, a land that was very cool and with big trees, wherefore all the land that he saw on that side he named Terra Verde. The people whereof are very barbarous and wild . . . after he [Corte Real] discovered this land and coasted along a good part of it he returned to the kingdom, and set sail again in the year 1501, wishing to explore further this province. . . . This account is collaborated by that of Galvano, except for the detail that the latter author has Cortereal sail with two ships instead of one ( Markham, 1893, p. 229). Galvano also describes the "Terra Verde" as lying under 50° N. latitude. Gaspar Cortereal left Lisbon on his second voyage on May 15, 1501 with a fleet of three ships ( Markham, 1893, pp. 229, 231, 235 ) : . . . Setting sail as they did from the port of Lisbon, they made their way for four months continuously, always in the same direction and always towards the same pole, and never in all that time did they see anything at all. Nevertheless in the fifth month, still wishing to push on, they say that they met huge masses of solid snow floating on the sea and moving under the influence of the waves. . . . Since the ships lacked fresh water, the boats approached and took as much as was then needed. Fearing to remain in that region by reason of this present danger, they wished to turn back, but yet, spurred by hope, decided to go forward as best they could for a few days more, and having got under way, on the second day they again found the sea to be frozen, and were forced to give up the undertaking. They then began to turn towards the north-west and the west, in which direction they made their way for three months, always with favourable weather. And on the first day of the fourth month they caught sight between these two of a very large country which they approached with great delight. And since throughout this region numerous large rivers flowed into the sea, by one of these they made their way about a league inland, which on landing they found abundance of most luscious and varied fruits, and trees and pines of such measureless height and girth, that they would be too big as a mast for the largest ship that sails the sea. . . . This vessel [one of the two that returned—see the Pasqualigo letters] came home thence in one month and they say the distance is 2,800 miles. The other consort decided to make her way far enough along the coast to be able to learn whether it is island or yet mainland. And thus the king awaits with great eagerness both that one and others. . . . (Cantino, Oct. 17, 1501; mBiggar, 1911, pp. 63-5.) The second ship of the expedition had already arrived at Lisbon on October 9 (Pasqualigo, Oct. 18, 1501; in Biggar, 1911, pp. 66-7), Cantino's vessel having

28

CABOT TO CAKTIER

arrived on the eleventh. The vessel that remained to explore the coast—Cortereal's —disappeared, and no trace of it was ever found (Galvano and Goes; in Markham, 1893, pp. 231,299 ). On May 10, 1502, Caspar's brother Miguel set sail from Lisbon with three ships with the object of finding his brother. From this expedition Miguel never returned (Markham, 1893, pp. 231, 299). In the following year the King of Portugal sent out two more ships in search of the brothers, but nothing was found (Goes, in Markham, 1893, p. 231). From the descriptions of the "Terra Verde," or "Land of Cortereal," to be found in the Cantino and Pasqualigo letters, as well as in the accounts by Galvano and Goes, and in the "Islario general de todas las ilas del mundo" ( Santa Cruz, 1541; in Biggar, 1911, pp. 189-90), we may localize Cortereal's explorations as having taken place in the Newfoundland area. From consideration of the cartography, a number of students have come to the conclusion that Cortereal discovered the entire eastern coasts of Newfoundland and Labrador. These claims seem to be without foundation for a number of reasons. The early representations of Newfoundland do not specifically state that they are compiled exclusively from the observations of Cortereal. In the absence of such an explicit allegation we cannot be certain that the charts do not include materials from Cortereal's consorts (who may have explored in different sections), from Fernandos, from John Cabot ( since the Portuguese and English were apparently co-operating in the exploration of Newfoundland at this time, and an exchange of information may have taken place ), or from the English-Portuguese expedition of 1501. The assertion that Cortereal discovered the coastlines of Newfoundland and Labrador is also based upon the conclusion that these are represented upon the Cantino and Canerio charts. After a consideration of the cartographical evidence, this correlation does not appear valid. Instead, it can merely be stated that by 1502 only that section of Newfoundland lying between Cape Bonavista and the Strait of Belle Isle had been definitely discovered, and that no information exists which enables one to credit a specific segment of this coastline to a specific explorer ( see fig. 21 ). As the result of their 1501 explorations, the members of Cortereal's party came to the interesting conclusion that the above-mentioned land [Terra Verde] is mainland, and that it joins another land [Greenland] which was discovered last year in the north by other caravels belonging to this king. It seems that they could not land in that country as the sea there was frozen over with great masses of snow, like mountains. They are also of [the] opinion that this land is connected with the Antilles, which were discovered by the sovereigns of Spain, and with the land of Parrots [Brazil] recently found by this king's vessels on their way to Calicut. To this belief they are moved in the first place, because after ranging the coast of said land for the space of 600 miles and more, they did not find it come to an end. . . . (Pasqualigo, Oct. 18, 1501; in Biggar, 1911, pp. 66-7.) This geographical concept—that the "Terra Verde" was one with the land of the Lavrador—is not reflected on the Cantino or Canerio charts, but is evident on the Contarini of 1506, the Maggiolos of 1508 and 1511, and the Ruysch of 1508. The viewpoint that these lands were also connected with those of the West Indies and of Brazil must have been chilling to those individuals seeking

THE VOYAGES OF THE CORTEREALS

29

to find the strait to the Western Ocean. From the charts in hand it seems that the cartographers were not very anxious to accept this conclusion. From the southern regions of this "Terra Verde" (that is, Newfoundland) the Portuguese brought back not only fifty seven captive natives ( see the Pasqualigo letters in Markham, 1893, pp. 235, 237), but also the first ethnographic descriptions from this region : . . . No corn of any sort grows there, but the men of that country say they live altogether by fishing and hunting animals, in which the land abounds, such as very large deer, covered with extremely long hair, the skins of which they use for garments and also make houses and boats thereof and again wolves, foxes, tigers, and sables. They affirm that there are, what appears to me wonderful, as many falcons there as there are sparrows in our country, and I have seen some of them and they are extremely pretty. They forcibly kidnapped about fifty men and women of this country and have brought them to the king. I have seen, touched, and examined these people, and beginning with their stature, declare that they are somewhat taller than our average, with members corresponding and well-formed. The hair of the men is long, just as we wear ours, and they wear it in curls, and have their face marked with great signs, and these signs are like those of the [East] Indians. Their eyes are greenish and when they look at one, this gives an air of great boldness to their whole countenance. Their speech is unintelligible, but nevertheless is not harsh but rather human. Their manners and gestures are most gentle; they laugh considerably and manifest the greatest pleasure. So much for the men. The woman have small breasts and most beautiful bodies, and rather pleasant faces. The colour of these women may be said to be more white than otherwise, but the men are considerably darker. In fine, except for the terribly harsh look of the men, they appear to me to be in all else of the same form and image as ourselves. They go quite naked except for their privy members, which they cover with a skin of the above-mentioned deer. They have no arms nor iron, but whatever they work or fashion, they cut with very sharp stones, with which they split in two the very hardest substances. . . . (Cantino, Oct. 17, 1501; in Biggar, 1911, p. 64.) Pasqualigo, in his letter of October 19, 1501, agrees with this description, but adds some additional details. The houses are stated to have wooden frames; the clothes, besides the privy-covering fastened with fish sinew, consist of skins thrown over the arms and shoulders; the arrows are pointed with stone; and the natives wear their hair long and in plaited braids and wear silver ornaments made in Venice. Some material which may possibly refer to the fate of Miguel Cortereal has been presented by Edmund B. Delabarre (1932 p. 79, 88), and consists of an inscription appearing on the Dighton Rock of Narragansett Bay which reads as follows. 1511. MIGVfel] CORTERfeal] Vfolvntate] DE[i] HIC DVX IND [orvm] [1511. Miguel Cortereal, [of Portugal]. By the will of God, Lord of the natives of India in this place.] Delabarre also presents some Indian legends to the effect that a ship of white men had stopped there a long time ago, and that they had stayed (1932, pp. 90-1). This is entirely possible, but one wishes that more evidence, possibly of an archaeological nature, were available.

CHAPTER VI

Voyages from Cortereal to Verrazano A FTER THE initial explorations by the Cabots, Fernandas, and Cortereal, official interest in the "New Founde Land" declined. Much capital had been invested and lost in these expeditions, as well as many ships and men. All attempts to discover the sea passage to the Orient had been turned back by frozen seas, impenetrable ice, unbearable cold, and wild and savage lands. Between 1504 and 1518, therefore, only one adventurer remained in the field—Sebastian Cabot. Two other expeditions which were planned died in their initial stages. During this same period, however, more modest and practical ventures to the New World became commonplace. The new shores were rich in fish, and this fact had not escaped the eyes of the sailors of the official voyages. From all indications, commercial fishing in the new waters was almost certainly in progress by 1502, and shortly reached considerable proportions. With this shift in enterprise there comes, unfortunately, a virtual hiatus in the historical record, for official reports and diplomatic dispatches no longer occur. Instead, we are forced to rely upon chance and rare comments or remarks by contemporaries, and upon the following scattered legal notes. 1503. Note in the Privy Purse expenses of Henry VII, probably referring to the English-Portuguese expedition of 1503 (Henry VII, Sept. 30, 1503; in Biggar, 1911, p. 12): . . . H. 7, Sept: 30th Item to the merchants of Bristoll that have bene to the Newfounde Launde. £20 0 0. ... 1504. Note in the Privy Purse expenses of Henry VII (Henry VII, April 8, 1504in Biggar, 1911, p. 12) : . . . H. 7, Apr: 8th Item to a preste that goith to the new Ilande . . . £0 40 0.... Note in Biard (1616; in Thwaites, 1896-1901, vol. 3, p. 39) to the effect that: . . . This country [New France] was first discovered by French Bretons, in the year 1504... . 1505. Statement by Herrera y Tordesillas (1726-7, dec. I, lib. 6, cap. 16, p. 169, col. 2; in Harrisse, 1892, pp. 699-700) on voyages performed before Vespucius' visit to the Spanish Court in February of 1505: . . . Many have sailed towards the North, on the coasts of the Baccalaos and Labrador; but as in these voyages there was no appearance of wealth, there is no more account of them than of others who went to Paria. . . .

VOYAGES FROM COHTEBEAL TO VEBHAZANO

31

1506. Statement by Pierre Crignon in his "Discorso d'vn Gran Capitano . . ." (translated from Ramusio, 1565, p. 423V) : . . . The other part [of Newfoundland], which runs north and south, was discovered by the Portuguese. This extends from Cape Raz up to Cape Buena Vista for some 70 leagues. The remainder, up to the Baye des Chasteaux and beyond, was discovered by Bretons and Normands. Some 33 years have passed [that is between 1506 and 1539] since a ship from Onfleur, of which Jean Denys was captain and Gamart de Rouen the pilot, first visited them.. .. A royal ordinance of the Portuguese Crown, dated October 14, 1506, levying a tax on cod fish brought from Newfoundland (Emmanuel of Portugal, 1506). Statement by Herrera y Tordesillas (1726, dec. I, lib. 6, cap. 16, p. 169, col. 2; in Harrisse, 1892, p. 121) on Ferdinand of Aragon's desire to forestall the King of Portugal in 1506: . . . The Catholic King was very anxious to send [expeditions of] discovery. The reason was the diligence displayed by the King of Portugal in sending explorers for the Strait. . . . Many [such] sailed to the north, ranging the coast and making efforts thereupon. . . . 1507-8. Commentary by Marcus Benevantanus (1508; in Harrisse, 1892, p. 451) on the map by Ruysch: . . . Johannes Ruysch, who in my opinion is the most competent geographer, and the one who has best depicted the world, and upon whom we rely in this little work, says [that] he has navigated from the southern part of England to 53° north latitude, and that he sailed on the latter parallel as far as the eastern coast . . . [a reference to the voyage of Sebastian Cabot?]. Statement by Pierre Crignon (translated from Ramusio, 1565, p. 423T) : . . . And in the year 1508 a ship from Dieppe, called the Pensée, navigated by Jean Ango, father of Monsieur Captain, and Viscount of Dieppe, also visited these parts [the east coast of Newfoundland]. The master or owner of the said ship was Master Thomas Aubert, and he was the first to bring people here from the said country. . . . — Reference appearing in the Delia Historia Vinitiana . . . by Cardinal Pietro Bembo (1552; in 1809, vol. 62, p. 51), referring to the voyage of the Pensée: . . . A French ship sailing in the Ocean not far from England caught a little boat made of pieces of wicker covered with tree bark; in which boat were seven men of medium stature, of rather dark complexion, of wide and strong face marked with a violet scar. These men were dressed in the skins of various spotted fish, and they also wore headdresses of colored straw, with seven woven things like ears (con sette quasi orecchi tessute). They lived on raw meat, and they drank blood as we drink wine. It was impossible to understand their speech. Six of them died; one boy was taken alive to Aulercos, where the king was . . . 1509. Note attributed to Henri Estienne, appearing in the Chronique d'Eusèbe (Eusebius, 1512, p. 172; in Harrisse, 1900, pp. 162-3) : . . . Seven human savages have been brought from that island (which one calls the Terre-Neuve) to Rouen, along with their pirogue, their clothes, and their arms. They are of the color of soot, have very large lips, and have some tattooing on the face, running from the eyes to the middle of the chin, and across the jaw, in little streaks. The hair is black and coarse, resembling [that of] the mane of a mare. During their entire life they never have a beard, or any other hairy growth on any part of their body, excepting the head and the eyebrows. They wear a belt to which [fastened] a kind of a little bag to hide the genital parts. They talk with their lips and have no religion; their barque is made from the bark of a tree. With a single hand a man [can] place [one]

32

CABOT TO CABTIEB

on his shoulders. Their weapons consist of great bows, with the cords made from the guts or sinews of animals; their arrows are of reeds, pointed by a stone or by a fish-bone. Their food consists of broiled meat; their drink, of water. They have no use for bread, wine, or money. They walk naked, or covered with the skin of an animal, such as a bear, deer, sea-calf or something similar. Their country is on the 60th parallel, more in the West than the France above of this same West [sic]. . .. 1510. Reference in the Archives du Département de la Loire-Inférieure (Anonymous, 1513; in Biggar, 1911, pp. 116-17), referring to the ship La Jaquette, from Dahouet (now Pleneuf), which had gone to Rouen in September of 1510 to "sell the codfish which they had been searching and fishing for in parts of the New Land" (see also the reference for 1513). 1511. Correspondence between Queen Joanna of Castile, King Ferdinand of Spain, and John de Agramonte relating to a voyage to the "Tierra Nueva," and giving Agramonte permission to explore, and to take two Breton pilots (Queen Joanna, 1511a and b, and Ferdinand of Spain, 1511-12; in Biggar, 1911, pp. 102-15 and in Colección de Documentos Inéditos, 1864-84, vol. 30, pp. 393-402). 1513. Pardon given to the Mate of the Newfoundland vessel La Jaquette, who caused the death of a member of the crew by chasing him overboard during a dispute over wages (Anonymous, 1513; in Biggar, 1911, pp. 116-18). 1517. Reference in the papers of the Public Record Office, Courts of Requests (of England) to Rastell's attempted voyage to Newfoundland, which only got as far as Ireland (Public Record Office, 1519). 1520. Reference in the Archives Municipales de Bayonne to a ship from that port bound for Newfoundland (de Lande, 1520; in Biggar, 1911, pp. 124-5). Statement by the Sieur Jacques Savary (1721, vol. 1, p. 203; in Parmentier, 1883, p. ixn) to the effect that: . . . In 1520 three brothers called the Parmentiers discovered the island of Fernanbourg—near Cape Breton—where they loaded their ships with rich merchandise and then made still a voyage to Guiana and to the Molluccas. . . . 1521. Petition preserved in the Archives Municipales de Bayonne (de Biran, 1521; in Biggar, 1911, pp. 125-7) to the effect that: . . . Messrs. Michael de Segure and Matthew de Biran make humble petition, setting forth that they have decided, at God's pleasure, to send their vessel as far as Newfoundland to fish. . . . 1522. Vice Admiral Fitzwilliam reports the return of the English fishing fleet from Newfoundland to Cardinal Wolsey (in Biggar, 1911, pp. 142-3). From these meager accounts it is clear that during the second decade of the sixteenth century commercial voyages gradually became more and more common. The fishing fleets established their courses towards the west from Europe, located their landmarks and fishing grounds, selected the beaches for landings and, later, for drying their fish, and slowly gained the experience necessary to engage regularly in the long voyages across the North Atlantic. However, while this increase in the size of the fishing fleets is of considerable importance in attempting to evaluate European-Indian contact in North America in this early period, the ethnographic materials obtainable from this quarter are negligible. The remaining information on the size of the fishing fleet up to 1550 is summarized below; since the material in Table I derives almost completely from French records this actually represents the size of the French fleet at this date (Innis, 1940, p. 20).

VOYAGES FROM CORTEREAL TO VEHRAZANO

33

TABLE I Year of sailing

1523

1533 1534 1535 1536 1537

1538 1540 1541

1542 1543

1544 1546 1547

1548 1549 1556

Port of departure Croisic Beny (Binic) Pornic St. Brieuc Blavet Pleomur La Rochelle La Rochelle La Rochelle La Rochelle St. Jean de Luz Ascaing Bayonne La Rochelle St. Jean de Luz La Rochelle La Rochelle Ré Barfleur Normandie (?) St. Brieuc St. Jean de Luz Bayonne La Rochelle Ré St. Jean de Luz La Rochelle D'Olonne De Jard Brittany (?) Rouen La Rochelle St. Jean de Luz St. Pol de Léon La Rochelle La Rochelle De La F lotte (?) Arvert St. Just en Marennes Erquey St. Jean de Luz La Rochelle St. Jean de Luz St. Just Talmont sur Jard La Rochelle St. Brieuc Cap Breton

Number of vessels 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 2 1

4

2 1 1 2 1 1 2 1 1 1 3 3 2 1 2 1 1 2 2 1 1 1 1 1 2 2 1 1 1 1 1 2 1 1 1 1 1 1 66

Some time before 1521 a Portuguese explorer and gentleman by the name of Joam Alvares Fagundes decided to follow in the footsteps of Fernandes and Cortereal and to obtain for himself a donatory captainship in the "New Founde

34

CABOT TO CAETIEB

Land." Although the letters-patent obtained by him from King Manuel of Portugal has been lost, strong evidence exists that Fagundes actually discovered and claimed lands on the new shores, received royal confirmation of these discoveries, continued in his enterprise, and eventually attempted to establish a colony in the Cape Breton region. The first and most important of the Fagundes documents is the "Carta regia d'el-Rei D. Manuel que condedu a Joâo Alvares Fagundes a capitanía de todas as terras e ilhas que descobrisse; por nos parecer que ella responde precisamente ao ponto em questao" (Emmanuel of Portugal, 1521; in Bettencourt, 1881-2, vol. I, pp. 132-3; and in Biggar, 1911, pp. 127-31), an "authenticated copy made before a notary in Vianna Portugal, on May 22, 1521, of a confirmation of Letters Patent from King Emmanuel to Fagundes dated March 12 the same year" (Ganong, 1930, p. 136). The section of this letters-patent which concerns us here reads in translation as follows, with the original placenames given in parenthesis (Biggar, 1911, pp. 127-30): . . . To as many as shall see these our letters we make known, that we have granted to John Alvarez Fagundes, nobleman of our court, a charter of ours in which it is stated that . . . it is our pleasure . . . to give and grant him the governorship of all those islands and lands he may discover . . . and that this grant should not include or embrace the first land of Brazil from north to south, but towards the north, as we read in the said charter; by virtue of which he set off to discover lands and islands in the region therein stated, and he now proves to us by witnesses worthy of credence, that he has found the following lands and islands, namely: the land said to be mainland which stretches from the line of demarcation with Castille, which is contiguous in the south with our boundary, as far as the land that the Corte Reals discovered, which is in the north: the three islands in Watering-place bay (aas tres ilhas na baya d'auguoada), on the coast running north-east and south-west: and the islands named by him Fagundes are these, namely: St. John (sam Joam), St. Peter (sam Pedro), St. Anna (santa Ana), and St. Antonio (santo Antonio): the island of St. Panteliom's archipelago, with Pitiguem island (as ilhas do arçepelleguo de sam Panteliom com a ilha de Pitiguoem) : the islands of the Archipelago of the 11,000 Virgins (as ilhas do arçepelleguo das honze mill virgeens): the island of Santa Cruz (santa Cruz), which lies at the foot of the bank, and another island also named St. Anna (santa Ana), which was sighted but not put upon record. . . . This document thus presents a series of placenames which are stated to be original with Fagundes himself, and, as we shall see from consideration of the cartographical materials, the location of these names on a number of contemporary maps localizes the region of Fagundes' venture along the eastern and southern coast of Newfoundland. The other sources relating to Fagundes are much less satisfactory. An old genealogical manuscript quoted by Harrisse (1892, p. 184) states: ". . . Joam Alvarez Fagundes discovered Terra Nova, or the country now called Cabo Bretâo, which the king granted to him, and where he established cod fisheries, which became a large source of profit to Portugal. . . . " A similar reference appears in the "Tratados das Ilhas Novas . . ." written by Francisco de Souza in 1570 (Souza, 1884, p. 30; and Harrisse, 1892, p. 184). In this latter work we also find the reference that between 1520 and 1525:

VOYAGES FROM CORTEREAL TO VERRAZANO

35

certain gentlemen of Vianna associated themselves together and in view of the information in their possession regarding the Codfish-land of Newfoundland determined to settle some part thereof, as in truth they did in a ship and a caravel, but finding the region to which they were bound, very cold, they sailed along the coast from east to west until they reached that running northeast and southwest, and there they settled. And as they had lost their ships, nothing further was heard from them, save from the Basques who continue to visit that coast in search of the many articles to be obtained there, who bring out word of them and state that they [the settlers] asked them to let us know how they were, and to take out priests; for the natives are submissive and the soil very fertile and good. . . . This is at Cape Breton, at the beginning of the coast that runs north, in a beautiful bay, where there are many people. . . . (Souza, 1570; in Biggar, 1911, pp. 195-7.) We may suspect, although we have no proof, that Fagundes was involved in this enterprise. But whether this statement refers to Fagundes or not, we know that this latter explorer met financial failure, since the will of Dona Violante, the daughter of Fagundes, states that "after the said will was made, he went to explore Newfoundland, in which [endeavour] he suffered heavy expenses and borrowed money, whence he contracted many debts" (Violante, 1548; in Violante, 1878, p. 170). A passage which may possibly refer to Fagundes is to be found in the Les Voyage auantureux dv capitaine Ian Alfonce . . . (Alphonse de Saintonge, 1559; in Ganong, 1933, p. 157 ) : " . . . Formerly the Portuguese sought to settle the land which lies the lowest, but the natives of the country put an end to the attempt and killed all of those who came there. . . ." The land "which lies lowest" here designates Cape Breton and Nova Scotia. Besides the documents just reviewed, we may possibly have Fagundes material on the Lázaro Luiz map of 1563 (PAG 466), and on a number of maps by Diogo and Lopo Homem. On the first of these we find an inscription placed on Nova Scotia reading, "La Terra doo Laurador que descubrió Joam Aluerez." The important Lopo Homem map of 1554, however, has the most interesting factual information. This map, which will be discussed in a later chapter, derived its configurations for the Nova Scotian region from Portuguese exploration material which was probably preserved in the archives of the Torro do Tombo and destroyed there in the Lisbon earthquake of 1775 ( Ganong, 1930, pp. 162-4). It is usually assumed that these materials derived from a Fagundes expedition. The map presents the first definite representation of the Bay of Fundy and gives native American Indian placenames. The evidence thus seems to indicate an initial exploration by Fagundes of the eastern and southern coasts of Newfoundland. Sometime after 1521 Fagundes transferred his operations to Nova Scotian waters, but it cannot definitely be stated that he did this in conjunction with the "gentlemen of Vianna." The only clue as to the location of the colony established by these latter individuals derives from the statement that it was "in a beautiful bay, where there are many people," which seems to be reflected in a name which appears on a number of early maps in the form "R. de gemte" or "R. de mucho gemte." Eventually this colony was wiped out by the Indians, and no trace of it is now known. It would be of considerable interest, however, to locate it and to investigate it archaeologically.

CHAPTER VII

The Cartography of North America before Verrazano THE SUCCESSFUL use of cartographical data depends upon rigorous external and internal criticism. The first involves the determination of the origin, authenticity, and original state of the document, and depends upon knowledge of the author, the date of completion, the reason for its execution, its prototypes, and its history. The second deals with the validity and meaning of the information, and necessitates a knowledge of the cartographical prototypes, contemporary geographical sources of information, governmental policies of censorship, geographical "schools" of thought, and professional standards, conventions, and styles. For the cartographical materials now under consideration these conditions are rarely fulfilled. More often than not, one is confronted with charts of unknown origin, unknown dates, and unknown schools. This condition has not, however, prevented a large number of scholars from attempting to utilize these materials by creating a tenuous framework of assumptions to replace the missing evidence. Two common assumptions may be noted: that the maps under consideration are based upon sound geographical information (at least from the standpoint of their times); and that they are valid representations of a cartographical sequence. In other words, it is often prematurely assumed that each map is the product of a responsible cartographer who used the best sources available to him and that the configurations shown therefore accurately reflect a stage in the history of cartography; that the geographer kept abreast of the developments of his time and used a critical sense of judgment; and that the map is representative of the cartography of the period, and therefore may be given a relative position within a unilinear cartographical sequence. Having thus eliminated the possibility of spurious and confused representations little difficulty is encountered in determining each map's position within the cartographical sequence. Such a course of action is illustrated by the work of Henri Harrisse. This scholar postulated the theory that all early European cartography of the New World were represented by the sequence which he designated as the "LusitanoGermanic" cartography. This sequence was divided into five "types" or "stages,"

CARTOGRAPHY OF NORTH AMERICA BEFORE VERRAZANO

37

which exhibited "a progressive genesis" (Harrisse, 1892, p. 315), and which were defined by the treatment of the "Cuba" and "Florida" configurations. According to Harrisse (1892, p. 291): Those five types may be said to indicate a geographical evolution, the phases of which were apparently as follows: 1. A map with Cuba exhibited in an insular form, according to the first statements of Columbus himself, and without any continental region situated west of that island. 2. A map with Cuba (called "Isabella") represented together with a western continent close to it, but the latter extending southward only to about our 20° 30' north latitude. 3. A map resembling the preceding, but with its southwestern coast prolonged through a gulf, about five degrees southwardly. 4. A map prolonging that coast still further towards the south by about eleven degrees. 5. A map with a continuous coast line, connecting definitely both sections of the American continent. These five stages of the cartographical sequence were stated to be represented by the following charts (Harrisse, 1892, pp. 293, 295, 298, 308, 311): 1. Kunstmann No. 2 (PAG 9). 2. King (PAC 8); Cantino 1502 (PAC 6). 3. Ruysch, c.1508 (PAC 21). 4. Canerio (PAC 7); Waldseemiiller's of 1507 (PAC 19); Schôner's first, 1515 (PAC 51); Hauslab mounted globe (PAC 88); Boulengier gores (PAC 45); Nordenskiôld gores, c.1518 (PAG 66); Schôner of 1520 (PAG 71); Apianus,

1520 (PAG 70). 5. Waldseemuller's Tabula Terre Nove, 1513 (PAC 38); Margarita map,

1515

(PAG 50). Harrisse concluded: If, as we have endeavoured to demonstrate, the five types exhibit a progressive genesis, it may be considered illogical, taking the date when the specimens in existence are supposed to have been designed or engraved, to place them in the order given above. For instance, Ruysch's mappamundi, which is dated 1508, should be placed after that of Canerio, which is of no later year than 1504; the map of Stobnicza, printed in 1512, should take precedence over the earliest of Schoner's globes, constructed only in 1515, &c. The contradiction is only apparent, and springs from the fact that we possess no complete series of maps. Our collections contain merely a few broken links of the great chain of cartographical documents which originated during the first few years of the sixteenth century, and these are nearly all disconnected. To use a familiar illustration, the five types are not the offspring of the same parent, while the genealogical tree of each ascends to periods which are not the earliest they should show. Whatever conclusions may be drawn from the aspect of the case, a fact certainly results from the data above set forth: it is the belief in the existence of a continental land situated to the west and north-west of Cuba, which, as we hope to have demonstrated, was shared by all the leading geographers, long before the time when that continent first appeared on Spanish maps illustrating the explorations accomplished by Ponce de Leon, Vasquez de Ayllon, and Estevam Gomez. . . . (Harrisse, 1892, p. 315.) A careful examination of this reconstruction reveals a number of peculiarities. First and foremost, it is based completely upon the appearance and development of the so-called "Florida" configuration. This is, however, of unknown origin

38

CABOT TO CAKTTEB

since there are no other indications either of Portuguese or of Spanish voyages that discovered the insularity of Cuba and the westward mainland before 1506. This problem was resolved by Harrisse by the simple procedure of postulating voyages by unknown navigators : . . . Ever since the first news of the discovery accomplished by Columbus, a number of private and unlicensed expeditions to the New World were fitted out in Spain and Portugal, and sailed westward in search of new countries. The series of those clandestine voyages extends, without interruption, from 1493 until after the year 1502. . . . The regions thus visited by unknown adventurers embrace our east coast; now found to have been explored by Europeans (other than the Northmen), fourteen years, at least, before the Spanish official expeditions which are represented to have resulted in the discovery of the continent south of Newfoundland. . . . Such unknown mariners continued to range the coast and descended probably as far as Honduras at the beginning of the sixteenth century. . . . (Harrisse, 1892, p. 249.) Other students of these configurations have attempted to derive them from the explorations of Vespucius. Other considerations of Harrisse's classification give further cause for reflection. The majority of the maps listed are of Germanic origin, none are Spanish, and few may be suspected of having official origins. This means that the classification of New World cartography is based on the products of marginal schools of geography, and that this construction is used to postulate voyages and explorations which the Spanish sources seem to ignore, or indirectly deny. We are thus faced squarely with questions of the relative validity of the materialsquestions which, up to the present, have not been adequately dealt with. To which should we give greater credence: the German cartographers employing obscure, unknown, or secondary sources; or such historians as Peter Martyr, Gomara, or Oviedo y Valdes? And if these unknown mariners were so secretive as to have the results of their discoveries broadcast by Portuguese mapmakers, why did the Spanish neglect to investigate, or even to notice, the lead? Also, why were no Spanish or Italian maps used in the reconstruction despite the fact that many are known to exist—such as the La Cosa (PAC 5), Kunstmann No. 3 (PAG 11), Contarini of 1506 (PAG 18), Pesaro (PAG 16), Maggiolo of 1508 (PAG 22-3), Maggiolo of 1511 (PAG 30), Peter Martyr of c.1512 (PAG 32), Pedro Reinel (PAG 58), Miller I (PAG 59), Vallicelliana (PAG 60), Lopo Homem of 1519 (PAG 68), Jorge Reinel (PAG 76), and the Freducci (PAG 80) —and despite the fact that many of these are manuscript charts and therefore possibly closer to the cartographers' originals than the Germanic charts? Only nine maps from the above lists can be dated with reasonable certainty; Cantino, 1502; Contarini, 1506; Waldseemiiller, 1507; Maggiolo, c. 1508; Ruysch, c.1508; Maggiolo, 1511, Martyr, c.1512; Stobnicza, 1512; Schoner, 1520. This list could perhaps be extended by considering the Canerio chart to be a reproduction of the Cantino, or of a common prototype (Harrisse, 1892, pp. 428-30), or by considering the possible date of c.1519 to be adequate for the Jorge Reinel or Portuguese—Munich. A glance at the nine works included in this list shows that much is to be desired. Not only are the most important works, such as Kunstmann No. 2 and

CARTOGRAPHY OF NORTH AMERICA BEFORE VERRAZANO

39

No. 3, the La Cosa, Pesare, and Reinel, not included, but the series which is given is not homogeneous and the examples do not form a simple sequence. One obvious reason is that the maps derive from different regions of Europe, and therefore presumably reflect local schools of thought. One obvious way in which to test this hypothesis is to classify the charts by their places of origin or by their nationality. By place of origin is meant the locality in which a particular map was drawn, not the place of origin of its prototype. In the case of the Ruysch map its place of origin will be taken to be Germany, where it was drawn, instead of where it was engraved. The results of this approach are as follows: Spanish

Portuguese Cantino, 1502

Italian

Germanic

Contarini, 1506 Maggiolo, c. 1508 Maggiolo, 1511

Martyr, c. 1512

Waldseemiiller, 1507 Ruysch, 1508 Stobnicza, 1512 Schôner, 1520

Spain and Portugal are here both represented by only one dated map, and England is absent altogether. There are also other indications of difficulty. The Maggiolo of c.1508, for example, is strikingly different from that of 1511, or from the Contarini. Also, the Ruysch map, in its northern configurations, has little in common with other maps of the Germanic series. It is apparent that this classification of the dated charts into national groups, while an improvement, is not sufficient. A comparison of the entire series shows that groupings can be made, but that they often cross the narrow national lines. In these divisions, we are dealing with certain schools of thought—with distinct cartographical traditions. The recognition and identification of these traditions must form the basis of any cartographical classification. An analysis of the early cartographical materials between 1500 and 1525 reveals that the representations of North America fall into at least nine distinct traditions, which may be designated as the Cantino, King, Contarini, Maggiolo, PesaroFreducci or Cabotan, Kunstmann No. 3, La Cosa, Fagundes, and Miller. These traditions vary widely in their origins, accuracy of representation, and influence on later cartography. THE CANTINO TRADITION The Cantino tradition is represented by numerous maps, including the following: Cantino, 1502 (PAC 6) Canerio ( PAC 7 ) Waldseemüller, 1507 (PAC 19) Stobnicza, 1512 ( PAC 34 ) Waldseemüller, 1513 ( PAC 38 ) Schôner, 1515 (PAC 51)

Waldseemiiller, 1516 (PAC 55) Boulengier gores ( PAC 45 ) Nordenskiôld gores, c.1518 (PAC 66) Schôner, 1520 ( PAC 71 ) Apianus, 1520 ( PAC 70 )

40

CABOT TO CABTIEK

This tradition may be defined as a series of maps which: (a) designates the modern island of Haiti as "Spagnola," "Espagnola," or a derivation therefrom; ( b ) shows the modern island of Cuba in a peculiar "hooked" form, nameless, or with the name "Isabella" or a derivation therefrom; ( c ) shows a land to the west of the last named island, with coastlines which rapidly diverge from the easternmost point, the northward trending coast terminating at about 55° N. latitude; westward trending coast, if continued any distance, curving southward, and reaching to about 12° N. latitude; this configuration may be left without any general name, or it may be called "Terra ulteri incognito," "Cuba," or "Isabella"; (d) shows the Newfoundland configuration as an unattached island in the North Atlantic; (e) may or may not show the Greenland configuration; if it does, this feature is not associated with any continent. Except for the Canerio and Cantino charts, maps of this tradition were produced in the north European countries, and form the major part of what Harrisse has called the "Lusitano-Germanic" cartography (Harrisse, 1892, pp. 289-91 et seq.). Studies of the nomenclature, where it exists, have also been made by Harrisse, and give adequate proof of the internal derivations of the tradition (Harrisse, 1892, pp. 315-21). The "type specimen" for the tradition is the Cantino chart (PAC 6; fig. 4), which contains no name, date, or title, but does bear the legend, "Carta da nauigar per le Isole nouamte tr[ouate] in le parte de l'India: dono Alberto Cantino al S. Duca Hercole," which is in a different handwriting than the cartography. From this statement, from the known fact that Alberto Cantino was the envoy of Hercules d'Esté, Duke of Ferrara, to the Court of Portugal, and from the fact that a letter is known in which Cantino reports having ordered and paid for such a map for his employer in 1502, we conclude that this is in fact the map made for Cantino (Harrisse, 1892, p. 422; and Lowery, 1912, pp. 4-6). The letter reads as follows (Markham, 1893, pp. 238-9): To THE MOST ILLUSTRIOUS AND MOST EXCELLENT DuKE AND LORD, THE LORD HERCULES D'ESTE, DUKE OF FERRARA, AND MY LORD AND MOST RESPECTED BENEFACTOR. ROME, November 19th, 1502 MOST ILLUSTRIOUS AND MOST EXCELLENT DUKE AND LORD,—

I understood what your Excellency desired of me, by the letter sent to me in reply to one that I had previously addressed, especially as touching the nautical chart. By that humble reply I apprised your Excellency that I had left the said chart at Genoa, in the hands of Master Francesco Catanio, who has paid to me 20 [narrow] ducats, that is to say, of three pounds each. In truth, that chart cost me in Portugal, by contract, 12 golden ducats; but constrained by need, and having no one to whom to apply, I was obliged to accept that sum, and to do what I have explained to your Excellency. The chart is of such a sort that I trust it will be pleasing to your Excellency, and that your Excellency will not regret having disbursed that sum, and that your Excellency will further pay the twelve ducats that the said chart cost me; it will make me your Excellency's debtor.

CARTOGRAPHY OF NORTH AMERICA BEFORE VERRAZANO

41

Your Excellency will please to advise me what I ought to do in this matter; meanwhile, holding me to be of the number of the faithful servants of the most illustrious and most excellent Duke, the undersigned servant, ALBERTO CANTING.

The chart apparently reached its destination and remained in the archives of the House of Este, in Ferrara, until 1592. In that year it was removed by Pope Clement VIII to Modena, where it was used as a screen. After the sacking of the palace by a mob in 1859 it disappeared, to be relocated a few years later by the librarian of the Bibliotheca Esténse in a butcher shop, again being used as a screen. The map was then bought, restored, and presented to the Este Library (Harrisse, 1892, pp. 423-4). The map (fig. 4) shows Greenland as a point of land running roughly northnortheast to south-southwest, with the label, "A ponta d. . . ." Placed next to the southern tip of this landmark, within a scroll, is the inscription; "This land was discovered by order of the very excellent Prince Dom Manoel, King of Portugal, which it is believed is a point of Asia. Those who discovered it did not land, but they saw very rugged mountains, whence, according to the opinion of cosmographers it is believed to be the peninsula of Asia." (Harrisse, 1892, p. 67; and Markham, 1893, p. 240.) To the west is a land labelled, "Terra del Rey de Portuguall," with the inscription: "This land was discovered by order of the Most High and Excellent Prince King Dom Manoel of Portugall. It was found by Gaspar de Corte-Real, one of his noblemen, who, upon discovering it, sent [thence] a vessel with men and women of that country. He remained with the other vessel, but never returned [home], and the belief is that he was lost. The country contains much mast-timber." (Harrisse, 1892, p. 68.) To the south and west is the "Vespucian" configuration. Beginning in the north, and running around the eastern and southern coasts we find the following names: Costa del mar vçiano cabo d. licotu cansure cabo de boa ventura costa alta lago luncor las cabras

Rio de los Largarlos Cabo Santo Rio de los almadias Punta Roixa C. delgato Rio de do diego Cornejo

C. do fim de avrill el golfo bavo C. lurcar C. de mortinbo G. de lurcar C. arlear Rio do corno Rio de las palmas

To the east of this configuration we find the large island entitled "Ilha yssabella," with "Jamaigua" lying off its southeastern coast, and "Ilha espanholla" to the east (Nunn, 1924, pp. 103-4, fig. 14; and Harrisse, 1892, pi. VI). The Canerio chart (PAC 7), which is signed "Opus Nicolay de Canerio Januensis" but is not dated, shows almost identical configurations and is therefore also commonly dated from 1502. Greenland is depicted as a sharp southerlyextending peninsula (see fig. 5), running roughly north-northeast to southsouthwest. It bears no legend, but displays a Portuguese flag from its tip. A small island is placed immediately to the east and south. To the west is the

FIG. 4. The Cantino chart of c. 1502, drawn from Markham (1893, pi. VI, and pp. 239-40) and Bj0rnbo (1912, fig. 23), with most nomenclature omitted.

CARTOGRAPHY OF NORTH AMERICA BEFORE VERRAZANO

43

Newfoundland configuration, also unlabelled. Further to the west is the so-called "Florida" or "Vespucius" configuration which, on this map, extends south to about 12° N. latitude. The feature displays the following names from north to south: costa del mar vsiano cabo delliconria caninor cabo de bona ventura costa alta lago luncor lacabr . . . R . . .argartos

cabo santo Rio de las almadias ponta roixa C. delgato Rio de do diego comello cauo deffim de avrill el gofobazo

cauo lurcar cauo de moirinas Go . . . fo de lurcor cabo arlear Rio de corno Rio de las palmas lago del ladio

To the east we find the "insulla Issabella," with "iamaiqua" off its southeastern tip, and the "insulla spagnolla" to the east. On the South American continent we find a coast running from the Peninsula of Paraguana (here labelled "Arcay") to the mouth of the La Plata river, in 36° S. latitude. The Waldseemiiller of 1507 (PAC 19) constitutes a large map of the world engraved on wood and printed in twelve large folio sheets, bearing the tide, Vniversalis Cosmographia Secvndvm Ptholomaei Traditionem Et Americi Vespuvii Aliorvqve Lvstrationes. It was apparently prepared to be sold with Waldseemiiller's Cosmographiae Introductio, one copy of which sold in 1867 for 2,000 francs. This work exists in four editions, all apparently printed in 1507, which can be distinguished by the first line of the title and the date of the colophon (Harrisse, 1866, no. 44). It is explicitly stated in this work that the map incorporates the discoveries of Vespucius (Waldseemiiller, 1907, pp. 34, 79). An analysis of the chart convinced Fischer and Wieser (Waldseemiiller, 1907, pp. 20-1 ) that Waldseemiiller also employed a chart of the same type as the so-called King map, and the Canerio chart. Turning to the map itself (fig. 6) we note that the Greenland configuration does not appear. Newfoundland is shown with a Portuguese flag and the title "Litus incongnitum." To the west is the "Florida" or "Vespucius" configuration, with the prominent caption, "Terra vlteri incognita." A Spanish flag flies from the straight northern edge. Proceeding from north to south along the coast we find the following nomenclature (Waldseemiiller, 1907, facing p. 30; and Nunn, 1934, fig. 12): Terra vltri incognita Costa demari vñano C deli contir caninor Caput de bona ventura costa alta lagoluncos lacabras

Rio de los largados C sanctuin Rio delacalinaoias ponta baixo c delago Rio de dodiego co mello C • auo doffrin deabul

cano linaix cano de merlinas G. de imeor G. alear Rio de como Rio de larpermas lago dellodro

On the southern extension of the land is the word "Parias"; to the east "Isabella insvla," "iamaiaua," and "spagnolla ínsula," to list only the largest islands. To the south, the coast is shown from the Peninsula of Peraguana to about 45° S. latitude.

FIG. 5. The Canerio chart, drawn from Stevenson (1907), with most nomenclature omitted.

FIG. 6. The Waldseemüller Mappemonde of 1507, drawn from Waldseemüller (1907), with most nomenclature omitted.

46

CABOT TO CARTIER

After the appearance of the 1507 Waldseemuller, original development within the Cantino tradition comes to an end; thereafter every cartographer is satisfied only to reproduce the established configuration, with minor variations which have the effect of gradually corrupting the cartography. By the time the Schôner globe of 1520 (PAG 71) is reached this process has given the Cuban and South American coastlines innumerable fictitious harbours and bays. The northern part of the "Vespucian" configuration here is labelled "Terra de Cuba," while the southern part is termed "parias" (Harrisse, 1892, pp. 372, 506-7). Although the immediate origins and dates of the Cantino tradition are thus well established, trouble is almost immediately encountered when we attempt to determine the significance of its North American configurations. The earliest cartographical example seems to depict Cuba (Yssabella) as an island four years before its circumnavigation by Vicent Yáñez Pinzón and Juan de Solis in 1506 (Las Casas, 1927, lib. II, cap. xxxix, vol. 2, pp. 266-8; Vespucius, 1894, pp. 111-13; Anghiera, 1912, dec. 1, lib. 6, vol. 1, pp. 139-40 and dec. 2, lib. 7, vol. 1, pp. 252-3), and seems to show a mainland west of this Cuba configuration nine years before the discovery of Florida (Harrisse, 1892, pp. 134-41). This mainland has been regarded as representing Asia, Yucatan, Cuba, Florida, or to be entirely imaginary (Nunn, 1924, p. 92). Of all these theories the most widespread is the association of this land with Florida. The Cantino map has therefore been put forward as conclusive evidence for early and otherwise unknown explorations of North America. It should be noted, however, that there is no necessary association of the "Florida" landmass with the particular depiction of "Cuba" characteristic of the Cantino or Canerio charts. The representation is absent, for example, from the Contarini, La Cosa, and Pesaro charts, all of which picture "Cuba" in the manner described (the La Cosa map does not show a mainland configuration of the kind now under consideration). The opposite situation appears on the Ruysch map, which shows the mainland, but no "Cuba." Also, in no known case when the mainland configuration is shown, is "Cuba" given its proper name. The correct name does appear, however, on the Contarini, La Cosa, and Pesaro maps. Moreover, the maps of the Cantino tradition often designate this "Florida" configuration as "Terra de Cuba," or even as "Isabella" (for example, Schoner, Stobnicza). This combination of coincidences leads to the suspicion that this "mainland" and "Cuba" have in some way been related and confused. A study of this problem by George E. Nunn (1924, pp. 91-141) convinced him that this mainland configuration was, in fact, a confused representation of Cuba; and that this confusion arose from the nature of the source materials then available on the Columbus voyages. It is easy to see how this might have come about. In the Información y testimonio given by Ferdinand Perez de Luna in 1494, for example, we read: Dom Christopher Columbus . . . required me, Ferdinand Perez de Luna, one of the Public Notaries of the City of Isabella, on the part of their Highnesses: that inasmuch as he had left the said City of Isabella with three caravels to come and discover the continental land of the Indies, although he had already discovered part of it on the

CARTOGRAPHY OF NORTH AMERICA BEFORE VEHRAZANO

47

FIG. 7. Section of the Schóner globe of 1520, drawn from Harrisse (1892, p. 372). other voyage which he had first made here the past year of the Lord 1493, and had not been able to learn the truth in regard to it: because although he travelled a long distance beside it, he had not found persons on the seacoast who were able to give trustworthy account of it, because they were all naked people who did not possess property of their own nor trade, nor go outside their houses, nor did others come to them, according to what he learned from them: and on this account he did not declare that it was the continental land, except that he pronounced it doubtful, and had named it La ]tuma in memory of the Prince Don Juan, our Lord: and now he left the said city of Isabella the 24th day of the month of April and came to seek the land of the said Juana nearest to the island of Isabella, which is shaped like a triangle extending from east to west, and the point is the eastern part, twenty-two leagues from Isabella. . . . (Nunn, 1924, p. 109.) In this reference, "Cuba," here given the name "La Juana," is described as probably being mainland, and of the shape in which it appears on the Cantino and Canerio charts. The "City of Isabella" here mentioned was located on the northern coast of Haiti, while the "Island of Isabella" was one of the Bahamas north of Cuba (see Columbus, 1930, map 2 and p. 158). The possibilities for confusion are obvious, however.

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It may further be observed that a number of the names appearing on this mainland configuration can easily be derived from the voyages of Columbus, for example, the name which appears as "cansure" on the Cantino charts, as "caninor" on the Canerio, and as "camnor" on the Waldseemüller. In the Las Cases copy of Columbus' Journal we find the passage: Tuesday, 30 October [1492] He went from the Rio de Mares to the northwest and saw a cape full of palms, and he named it Cape de Palmas. After having gone fifteen leagues, the Indians who were in the caravel Pinta said that behind that cape there was a river, and that from the river to Cuba it was four days journey. The captain of the Pinta said that he understood that this Cuba was a city, and that land was a very extensive mainland which stretched far to the north, and that the king of that land was at war with the Grand Khan, whom they called "cami," and his land or city they called "Saba" and by many other names. The admiral resolved to go to that river and to send a present to the king of the land. . . . In the opinion of the admiral he was distant from the equinoctial line forty-two degrees to the north, if the text from which I have copied this is not corrupt; and he says that he must attempt to go to the Grand Khan, for he thought that he was in that neighborhood, or to the city of Catayo, which belongs to the Grand Khan. . . . (Columbus, 1930, p. 166.) As Las Casas opined, his text was indeed corrupt, and should have read "twentytwo." The error is very suggestive, however, particularly when we observe that the Cantino map places the name "cansure" at about 50° N. latitude. If "cansure" is a corruption from "canfu" (the "City of the Can"), as it very easily could be with a confusion of long s with /, we have here an explanation of why we find it placed so far to the north. One more name will suffice to illustrate the present point. On the easternmost tip of the "continental" land we find "C. do fim do abrill," or "Cape of the end of April." From the literature we know that the name first given by Columbus to the easternmost point of what he considered to be the mainland was "Cabo Alpha et Omega." We also know, however, that on his second voyage, when he sailed westward from Isabella to explore the "island which lies only seventy miles from Hispaniola, and which he believed to be a continent" (Anghiera, 1912, dec. 1, lib. 3, vol. 2, p. 91), Columbus reached the westernmost point of Haiti on April 29 and, "after standing off-and-on during the hours of darkness, the fleet on the morning of April 30 put the land to starboard, and began to range the southern coast of Cuba" (Morison, 1942, vol. 2, p. 119). We may now ask if it is coincidence that some cartographer gave the name "Cape of the end of April" to the "mainland" configuration? A number of other such examples are discussed by Nunn (1924, pp. 118-28). By referring to the original source materials on the discovery of America, we can without difficulty set up a hypothetical picture of how such a confusion may have arisen. In the first published announcement of the discovery of the New World—the "Spanish Letter" to Luis de Sant' Angel—Columbus stated that, "I understood sufficiently from other Indians whom I had already taken, that this [Cuba], in its continuousness, was an island . . ." (Feb. 15, 1493; in Young, 1893, pp. 19, 24, 38 ). We have already seen that at a later time Columbus tended to the opinion that Cuba—which he renamed La Juana—was a continental

CARTOGRAPHY OF NORTH AMERICA BEFORE VERRAZANO

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land, that it had a triangular shape, and extended far to the north. We have also seen one example of the confusion which was possible with respect to placenames. We can easily imagine the dilemma which arose when cartographers were first told that "Cuba" was an island; then that it was a continent, and called "La Juana"; that the largest islands of the Indies, from east to west, were "Hispanola" and "Cuba"; that Columbus sailed from "Isabella" to "Cuba," which lay seventy miles to the west; that "Isabella" was an island. We can, in fact, make a reasonable reconstruction of the chain of errors which may have led to the configurations of the Cantino chart. 1. After Columbus' second voyage a map was constructed which showed, from east to west, "Spagnola" and "Cuba." The representation of the latter landmark was a composite—the northern coast deriving from the First Voyage, and the southern coast, with a curve to the south, deriving from the Second Voyage. No attempt was made to fill in the unexplored and unknown shores. 2. A second map was made, with map ( 1 ) as prototype, on which "Cuba" was definitely shown as an island, in accord with Columbus' early views and statements. This was accomplished by running the northern coastline north and west of the known southern line, and joining them. This gave "Cuba" its "hooked" appearance. Examples of this type are the Contarini, La Cosa, and Pesaro maps. 3. A later cartographer, using a map of type (2) as prototype but also employing other materials—especially the statements that "Cuba" was mainland, that Columbus sailed from "Isabella," and that "Isabella" was an island—decided that a mistake had been made, and that the island labelled "Cuba" must be "Isabella." He then drew "Cuba" as a mainland to the west. Examples of this type are the Cantino and Canerio maps. 4. Other cartographers, working from a map of type (1), also decided that "Cuba" was a mainland, and indicated this by making the coastlines diverge sharply. They did not, however, place an island named "Isabella" between this mainland configuration and "spagnolla." An example of this type is the Ruysch map. It is to be stressed that this is a hypothetical reconstruction designed only as a guide and suggestion to further research. It has the advantages of explaining the observed confusion with fewer assumptions than the postulation of voyages which left no other memory. In this respect we may briefly summarize some of the more important points of this "unknown navigator" theory. We have already mentioned that Harrisse attributed the "Florida" configuration to unknown explorers, and also that Waldseemiiller gave Vespucius the credit for first having discovered and explored the New World. Following Harrisse's theory and Waldseemuller's hint, Stokes concluded that : . . . It is consequently clear that the coasts of America, as given by Waldseemiiller on this map, are based on information derived from Vespucius. And, as the coast-line of "Florida" closely resembles the representation of the Cantino and Canerio maps, at least as far as North America is concerned, these maps must also be considered as being based upon Vespucius. . . . On Waldseemüller's map, and also on the Canerio chart, that part of the coast which, it is claimed, represents Vespucius's explorations

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on his first voyage, forms a continuous line. We may, therefore, call the coast, as given on this map and its derivatives, the "Vespucius type," and recognize in it the Atlantic coast of the United States as far north as the Chesapeake. . . . (Stokes, 1916, vol. 2, p. 7.)

Recent developments in the field of Vespucius studies have rendered this viewpoint extremely unlikely, but have greatly clarified this aspect of the "early voyage problem." The first observation that may be made on the reputed Vespucius exploration of the Florida coast is that it is based upon only one source. This is the so-called Soderini Letter or Four Voyages Narrative, which comes to us in three different recensions, and which describes Vespucius as undertaking four voyages to the New World—in 1497-8, 1499, 1501-2, and 1503-4. Complications arise, however, from the fact that four other documents are known which directly relate to Vespucius's voyages, and which show Vespucius as having made only two—in 1499-1500 and 1501-2. These sources are: the Mundus Novus, the "Letter from Seville," the "Letter from Cape Verde," and the "Letter from Lisbon." A comparison of all of these materials shows that they may be classified into two groups, and that the documents within each of these groups are related. We may further determine that either the Soderini Letter is correct, and that the events of the four voyages are compressed into two in the letters; or that the letters are correct, and the material has been expanded to fabricate the Soderini Letter. A careful textual analysis of the Soderini Letter necessitates the study of three texts—the Magliabechiana manuscript, the Florentine text of 1505-6, and Waldseemiiller's text in the Cosmographiae Introductio—and the establishment of the correct version. Since the variations between these documents are not inconsiderable this is a difficult task. Nevertheless, such a reconstruction has been worked out by George Tylor Northup, who also determined the textual affiliations. The results are illustrated in the diagram below, with the asterisks indicating lost and missing texts ( Vespucius, 1916a, p. 16 ).

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The inexplicable Hispanizations appearing in these three versions, particularly in the Florentine text, betray an ultimate Spanish origin, but from the surviving forms it is difficult to deduce what the form of this prototype must have been (Vespucius, 1916a, p. 3). A comparison of the text of the Four Voyages Narrative with that of other documents is instructive. Marcondes de Souza ( 1949, pp. 60-8 ) found that it not only seemed to derive from the Mundus Novus account, but also from the "Letter from Seville," the Voyages of Marco Polo, the Paesi ñoñamente of Montalboddo (1916a, chap, cxii), and the Narrative of Michèle de Cuneo. In the light of this and other evidence it seems highly probable that the Four Voyages Narrative is a spurious account which was fabricated in Florence as a "true novel." A similar verdict can also be reached in the case of the Mundus Novus—a textual analysis revealing it to be an expanded, vulgarized, and distorted edition of the "Letter from Seville" ( Marcondes de Souza, 1949, pp. 32-51 ). We are therefore left only with the "Letter from Cape Verde," the "Letter from Seville," and the "Letter from Lisbon" as documents directly relating to the voyages of Vespucius, and possibly deriving from him. The first of these letters, which is also known as the Carta Bartolozzi and is preserved as Codex 1910 of the Biblioteca Riccardiana of Florence, describes Vespucius as sailing from Cadiz on May 18, 1499, in the service of the king of Spain. From other sources we know that this was the voyage organized and led by Hojeda and La Cosa, and these other materials also confirm the presence of Vespucius ( Marcondes de Souza, 1949, pp. 120-37; Vespucius, 1894, pp. 3H, 86-7; and Harrera y Tordesillas, 1601-15, dec. I, lib. iii, p. 123). This letter informs us that Vespucius first explored in the area of the mouth of the Amazon and along the coasts of Guianas and Venezuela, then sailed north to Hispaniola to rest his crews, proceeded northward through the Bahamas raiding for slaves, and returned to Cadiz in June of 1500. There is no indication in this or the other sources that any continental land was encountered. Since the remaining Vespucius letters deal with a voyage to southern South America ( Pohl, 1945, pp. 126-35; and Marcondes de Souza, 1949, pp. 138-56), we find no basis in fact for a Vespucian origin of the "Florida" configuration appearing on the early maps. The Newfoundland configuration of the Cantino tradition unfortunately bears no nomenclature except the title "Terra del Rey de Portuguall," or the even less committal "Litus incongnitum." Despite this the assumption has been usually made that this configuration can only derive from the voyages of Cortereal. As we have already indicated, it is possible that this assumption is not valid; however, no means exist by which we can subject it to the test. Previous students, such as Harrisse and Ganong, have assumed that the configuration shown upon the charts of the Cantino tradition represented the coasts of Newfoundland and Labrador, and have argued that these were therefore discovered by Cortereal. Some evidence may be brought to bear upon the question, since the representation of the Cantino and Canerio maps is reflected upon such charts as the Freducci, Miller I, Pedro Reinel, and Ribero (see fig. 19). On these latter maps, the configuration in question seems to include only the Newfound-

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land coasts from Cape Bonavista to the Strait of Belle Isle. An early exploration north of Newfoundland therefore finds no support. THE KING TRADITION The second cartographical group which we may consider is the King tradition— the "King Group" of Winter (1937, p. 62)—which is represented by the King chart (PAG 8), the Kunstmann No. 2 map (PAG 9), and the British Museum Additional MS. 31316 (PAG 10). It is characterized by: (a) the representation of Greenland as a narrow island running east and west; ( b ) the depiction of Newfoundland as a "half-moon" island immediately to the west, bearing some form of the name "Terra Cortereal"; (c) the depiction of both Cuba and Haiti as probable islands, although Cuba is shown long and thin, or cut off by the edge of the map; Cuba is labelled as "Cuba," and Haiti as "Isabella" or "Espagnola"; (d) the common depiction of the South American coast in two parts, with a gap in the Amazon area. These features are well illustrated on the King chart (fig. 8), although this map is somewhat unusual in displaying only six names on its New World configurations. These are compared in Table II to those appearing on the other maps as well as on the Kunstmann No. 3, with which the maps of the King tradition show many similarities. TABLE II King tradition

Kunstmann No. 2 Terra de Laurador terra dauens C. de sa. paulo C. de sea. spirito de sontedo damirla de farlla firme Terra de Corte Reall

King

Add. MS. 31316

Terra Laboratoris

Terra Laboratoris

Terra Cortereal

cauo de sam paulo cauo de santo spirito da sondedo da mirla de sarla firme Corte Real peseharias

capo raso

Kunstmann No. 3

ça: de sa. paulo c: de sptü. seto. c. de mirame et lexame Terra de Cortte Reall bayos de medo Ilha emcorporado Ilha de frey luis Rio de rosa cabo de sanantonio baya de santa cyria cabo de côçepicion

Madagascar is shown in the middle of the Indian Ocean, and indicates that this map, or its prototype, must have been made after the return of Cabrel's fleet in 1502 (Hamy, 1886, pp. 147,153; and Harrisse, 1892, p. 431). Since the letter "p" in the word "capo" does not occur in either Portuguese or Spanish, Harrisse ( 1892, p. 431 ) takes this to indicate a corruption by an Italian

FIG. 8. The King chart, drawn from Hamy ( 1886, pi. II ), with most nomenclature omitted. The stippling indicates the edge of the map.

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cartographer. The original seems to have been Portuguese, however. Other information concerning the origin of this chart seems to be lacking. On the Kunstmann No. 2 chart (fig. 9), the nomenclature on the "Terra de Laurador" is Portuguese, as is that on the South American continent except where corruptions into Italian occur (Harrisse, 1892, p. 427). It is therefore probable that this is an Italian copy of a Portuguese prototype, although other explanations can also be thought of. The South American configuration is an early one which seems to incorporate materials from the first three voyages of Columbus, the 1499-1500 voyage of Hojeda and Vespucius, the 1502 voyage of Vespucius, and Cabral's discovery of Brazil in 1500. The island of Madagascar does not appear, which would seem to indicate a date earlier than the return of Cabral's ships. The Newfoundland configuration seems to derive from Cortereal's explorations, but curiously displays no names. Harrisse takes this to indicate that the map gives information from Cortereal's first voyage, when the coastline had been rudely sketched but no names given (Harrisse, 1892, p. 428). On the basis of the South American delineations, which he attributed to Vespucius's fourth voyage, Harrisse considered the map to date from 1503-4 (Harrisse, 1892, p. 428). As we have seen, the evidence for such a Vespucius voyage is most tenuous. A comparison of the nomenclature and configurations appearing upon the Kunstmann No. 2, King, and Add. MS. 31316 charts, conclusively demonstrates their close relationships, and also indicates a tie with the Kunstmann No. 3 map. Because of its own special peculiarities, however, the latter map cannot be considered a member of the King tradition. The Newfoundland configuration of the King tradition is particularly close to that of the Kunstmann No. 3, but differs in many respects from that of the Cantino, Canerio, Freducci, Miller I, Pedro Reinel, Ribero, Verrazano, and other charts. If we take this variation to indicate separate origin the complexity of the problem is increased. The comparson if the King tradition with the Kunstmann No. 3 raises still another problem, however. On the latter map, the representation in question is apparently intended to portray Newfoundland and Labrador—this we deduce from a consideration of the latitudes. Does this imply that this configuration also represents Newfoundland and Labrador upon the maps of the King tradition? If it does, a serious question arises concerning the dating of the tradition, since there is no evidence of Labrador on the Cantino map, and it is not depicted in anything like its correct form even on the Maggiolo of 1508, the Ribero of 1529, or the Pedro Reinel (see fig. 19). Another solution which rises to mind is that the configuration of the King tradition also represents only the Newfoundland east coast, but that the cartographer of the Kuntsmann No. 3 stretched it to conform to a set of latitudes which he had obtained, adding names as best he could. An alternate hypothesis would be that the latitudes derived from the Kunstmann No. 3 coincide with those of the actual configurations due to mere coincidence or chance. This, however, seems statistically improbable. Recognizing the problems associated with this tradition, we must conclude that it requires considerable restudy. For the time being, however, we will employ

FIG. 9. The Kunstmann No. 2 chart, drawn from Kunstmann (1859, Atlas, pi. II) and from Hamy (1886, pi. IV), with most nomenclature omitted.

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the commonly recognized date of 1502—keeping in mind that future study may drastically revise it. One further point may be made concerning this group of charts. A consideration of the nomenclature and of the wind roses leads us to conclude that all the known examples of the King tradition are Italian copies from Portuguese prototypes (Winter, 1950, p. 39; Thompson, 1914, pp. 206-7; Harrisse, 1892, p. 431; British Museum, 1882, p. 179). The implications of this fact must be taken into account in any analysis of the maps in question. THE PROBLEM OF THE EARLY MAPS We are now faced with the difficult problem of dealing with, and explaining, the origins of such maps as the Kunstmann No. 3, the La Cosa, the Maggiolo of 1508, 1511, and 1527, the Pesaro, the Portuguese-Munich of c.1519, the Pedro Reinel, the Ruysch, and others; a group of charts long considered as enigmatic or contradictory, and whose origins have remained unsolved. As a first step in our analysis we may ask if any evidence exists by which we can make a preliminary clasification of these maps into an earlier and a later group. One possible method involves attempting to locate the placenames described in the letter-patent granted to Fagundes in 1521—placenames which, it is stated, originated with him (see p. 34). Ten names are listed, of which nine are "Fagundes" names: tres ilhas na baya d'auguoada sam Joam sam Pedro santa Ana santo Antonio

¡lhas do arçepelleguo de sam Panteliom ilha de Pitiguoem ilhas do arçepelleguo das honze mill virgeens santa Cruz santa Ana

The first of these apparently appears on only one chart—the so-called Riccardiana of c.1530. The word here is somewhat corrupted, being given as "B. dagoada," and appears in the centre of the east Newfoundland coast. A possible variation— "r. de aguea"—appears on the Miller I chart, placed near the southern tip of Newfoundland. The names "sarn Joam" and "sam Pedro" occur on the Pedro Reinel, the Diego Ribero (only one, in the same location as on the Pedro Reinel), on the Riccardiana, on the Miller I, and on the Wolfenbiittel-Spanish chart of 1527-30. All these maps agree in placing the islands on the northern coast of Newfoundland, south of the Strait of Belle Isle (see fig. 10). The island of "santa Ana" appears only on the Miller I. The name "santo Antonio" is to be found on a cape on the Kunstmann No. 3 and the Maggiolo of 1527. The "arçepelleguo de sam Penteliom" appears on the Rome-Ribero of 1529 (as "Arçipielago," on the Newfoundland south coast), while the "arçepelleguo das honze mill virgeens" is found on the Vallicelliana, the Miller I, the Maggiolo of 1527, and on the ChavesOviedo of 1536 (also on the Newfoundland south coast). The term "Santa Cruz" occurs on the Pedro Reinel and the Riccardiana, but on a number of other maps, such as the Miller I, the Portuguese "Lange," the Diego Ribero of 1529, the

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FIG. 10. The distribution of Fagundes placenames (black circles) and substitutes (black squares) on six early maps. See text for explanation.

Freducci, and the Castiglioni, it is replaced by a form of "ylha de Johâ estevês." The names "ilha de Pitguoem" and "santa Ana" (the second island) are not to be found on any known chart. We may note that a "p. da Cruz" is found on the Miller I and Maggiolo of 1527 near the southeastern tip of Newfoundland (Ganong, 1930, pp. 136-58; Harrisse, 1900, pp. 74-5, 81-2, 84-5, 97-8, 105-11; Stokes, 1916, vol. 2, CP1. 7a-13). An analysis of the distribution of these placenames as in figure 10, indicates that they are localized with a fair degree of consistency. Thus, in the light of this evidence and the nature of the Fagundes document, it seems incontrovertible that maps displaying these names must be dated after 1520. Two maps previously considered very early (that is, in the range of 1502-4) must now be considered much older; these are the Kunstmann No. 3 (PAG 11) and the Pedro Reinel (PAG 58). These must now be considered roughly contemporary with the Miller I (PAG 59) and the Portuguese-Munich of c.1519 (PAG 76). The elimination of these maps from the "early" category of charts enables us to concentrate our attention now on some seven survivors—the Contarini of 1506,

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the Maggiolos of 1508 and 1511; the Peter Martyr of c.1512, the Ruysch of c.1508, the Oliveriana or Pesaro, the Freducci, and the La Cosa. The Contarini The Contarini (PAG 18) constitutes the oldest known printed world chart, predating both the Ruysch and Waldseemiiller contenders. The work bears the following title in Latin in the original (Contarini, 1926, p. 8); "The geography of Ptolemy to 180 degrees with the addition to the other hemisphere in the same

FIG. 11. The Contarini chart of 1506, drawn from Heawood (1923) and Contarini (1926), with most nomenclature omitted.

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order also on a plane of 180 degrees, and if by folding together the two sets of degrees you form them into a circle you will perceive the whole spherical world combined into 360 degrees. Made known by the industry of Giovanni Matteo Contarini and by the art and ingenuity of Francesco Roselli, of Florence, in 1506." Other than this work, nothing is known about Contarini's contribution to cartography. The family was an important one in Venice, however, and there is some evidence that the map may have originated in this town ( Heawood, 1923 ). The Contarini chart is unusual in that, like the Ruysch of c.1508 and the Maggiolo of 1511, it employs a fan-like form of projection. The map is also unusual in that it attempts to relate, for the first time, the Far East to the Far West. Greenland and Newfoundland-Labrador are depicted as northern extensions of Asia, and part of "Tangvt Provincia Magna." Upon the Greenland configuration we find the inscription, "Terra de Caramella," which might possibly be translated as "Land of Icebergs" (Contarini, 1926, p. 16). To the Southwest is shown the "Rio da Rosa," below which is placed the legend, "Hanc terram inuenere naute Lusitanorum Regis." Past the southern tip of Newfoundland the coast sweeps to the west to "Provincia Kathay." To the south of this Asian promintory we find South America represented as a completely separate continent. Between these two land masses we find the West Indies and "Zipagu." The former are shown in a form closely resembling that of the Cantino, La Cosa, and Pesaro charts. The "Vespucius" configuration is absent, however. The eastern coast of the South American continent is drawn to about 20° S. latitude. The Contarini of 1506 is the only known example of a presumed Contarini tradition. The Maggiolo Charts Following closely after the Contarini chart, and displaying many affiliations to it, are the early maps drawn by Vesconte de Maggiolo. The earliest of these date from about 1508, and form part of an Atlas of ¥ ortolan Charts (Codex Egerton 2803; PAC 22, 23) purchased by the British Museum in 1895, New World configurations appearing both on the introductory world map (fol. Ib) and upon later detailed maps (fols. 7b, 8a-b, 9a). The representations from all of these sheets have been combined in figure 12. The atlas is unsigned and undated, but has usually been attributed, on stylistic considerations, to Vesconte de Maggiolo, a Genoese cartographer. Studies of the astronomical tables have suggested that they were computed in 1506-7 (Bj0rnbo, 1912, p. 192), or in 1508 (Stevenson, 1911a, p. iii). The New World configurations, the first to appear in any known Portolan atlas, display surprising detail and a wealth of placenames deriving from the Spanish explorations. This is also noticeable on Maggiolo's later works, and led Harrisse to comment that "the portolani of Vesconte de Maggiolo, particularly those of 1511, 1519, and 1527 show that he was a very conscientious cartographer, who took pains to procure the most recent and reliable geographical data" ( Harrisse, 1892, p. 501 ). The West Indies, and the northern coast of South America, are shown in a manner which is distinct from that of such charts as the Canerio, Cantino, Contarini of 1506, or Waldseemiiller of 1507. They resemble,

FIG. 12. American configurations according to Vesconte de Maggiolo, dated at about 1508. The solid and dashed lines are drawn from fols. 7b, 8a-b, and 9a of Codex Egerton 2803, the dotted line from folio Ib (Stevenson, 191 la).

CABTOGBAPHY OF NORTH AMERICA BEFORE VERRAZANO

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however, the configurations appearing on the Peter Martyr map of c.1512 and on the Reinel of c. 1519. This similarity has important implications, since Peter Martyr was attached to the Court of Spain and had access to official and primary sources. We may suspect that his map, although possibly censored and rudely executed, displays in broad outlines the features of the official Spanish chart of the Indies, the Padrón Real. This suspicion is strengthened when we compare the Peter Martyr chart with the oldest known Spanish maps. It is possible therefore that Maggiolo derived his information from the first Padrón Real ( drawn up in 1508) or from a prototype thereof. If this is the case this map is of great importance (see Davies, 1954, for a similar argument on different grounds). The Maggiolo chart represents both Cuba and "spagnola" as islands, but has no definite information to offer concerning a westward land—an important point in any consideration of the Cantino-Waldseemiiller type of map. Only two names appear on the Newfoundland-Labrador configurations, namely, "Terra de Labrados," and "Terra de los bachalaos." In the West Indies the major islands are, from west to east, "cuba ínsula," "Zamasha Ínsula" (Jamaica), and "isabella". The coast of South America is depicted from the Gulf of Honduras eastward and southward to about 30° S. latitude (on folio lb; Stevenson, 1911a). The Maggiolo chart of 1511 (PAG 30) forms part of another Atlas of Portolan Charts now preserved in the John Carter Brown Library. The atlas is identified by an inscription appearing upon the sixth map reading "Vesconte de maiolo civis Janue composuy in neapoli de anno 1.5.11 die xx January." The left-hand "page" of the first folding shows a frontispiece displaying the arms and devices of two distinct families. The right-hand page shows a map of Corsica. This is followed by a double-page chart of the west coast of Africa, a double-page chart of the north coast of Africa, one of the western coasts of Europe, one of the Aegean Sea, a map of the world showing the New World in the extreme left and bearing the identifying inscription, a map of the western and central sections of the Mediterranean, one of the eastern Mediterranean, and last a single page showing a planisphere having the terrestrial globe at its centre with the seven planetary circles around it. All these maps have been described by d'Avezac-Macaya (1870), and by Caraci (1937), whose authority we here follow. We note, however, that the latter article has been mistakenly entitled, "A Little Known Atlas by Vesconte Maggiolo, 1518." Of these charts, the one which now warrants our attention is the sixth, the world map. It is constructed with a fan-like or conical projection, like the Contarini-Roselli and the Ruysch. Unlike these last maps, the Vesconte chart includes only 190° of longitude, and a wide area extending from the western tip of Cuba (see fig. 13) to Central Asia is omitted. In this manner the author avoided committing himself on the question of eastern and western relationships. An analysis of the northern New World configurations confirms the existence of a connection between this map and those of Contarini and Ruysch, the general depictions being similar. The specific nomenclature used on the northern configurations comprises, from north to south, first the legend, "Terra de los Ingres," then "Terra de

FIG. 13. The Vesconte de Maggiolo chart of 1511, drawn from Caraci (1937, facing p. 37).

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lauoradore de rey de portugall," "terra de pescaría," "Terra de corte reale de rey de portugall," and last, to the west, "India ocidentalis." In the West Indies we find "Coba" cut off by the edge of the projection, and "izzabella." South America is enormously distorted by the map projection used. The Peter Martyr In contrast to the Maggiolo maps, the Peter Martyr chart of c.1512 (PAG 32)engraved on wood—depicts only the West Indies. It was inserted in a late issue of the first edition of Peter Martyr's Opera (1511), and is represented by one copy in the British Museum. The verso of the map contains a dedication which reads in part: . . . To the most illustrious and most reverend Lord Francis Ximenez, Archibishop of Toledo, Cardinal and Primate of the Spains. In order, Most Reverend empurpled [Lord], that the readers may more easily reach the recesses of our Nereids (I mean our small books, such as the Oceanic Decade), I have decided to add to the end of that decade the map herein engraved. Thus those who desire to have an idea of the said treatises, and retrace in the mind that navigation, find there the direction. . . . The land which is first seen to the west of Hispaniola, surrounded on all sides with islands (like a hen with her chickens), is Cuba, the large isle. On the left, near those two islands, is Jamaica, of which we have sufficiently spoken. At the north, marvellous lands and marvellous countries have been found, of which you can see the engraved representation on the right. . . . (Harrisse 1892, pp. 475-6.) From the reference given here, and from the name appearing on the chart itself— "Isla de beimeni parte"—we conclude that the map was executed after the discovery of this land in 1511. Bibliographic considerations, on the other hand,

FIG. 14. The Peter Martyr map of c.1512, drawn from Nordenskiôld (1889, p. 67 and fig. 38).

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CABOT TO CARTIER

indicate that the addition was probably made in 1512 (Harrisse, 1892, pp. 135. 140; and Nordenskiôld, 1889, p. 67).

The Ruysch The Ruysch chart of c.1508 (PAG 21) is an engraved and printed map of the world bearing the title, Universalior cogniti orbis Tabvla ex recentibvs confecta observationibvs, which may be translated as "A more universal map of the known world, constructed by means of recent observations." In the commentary associated with the chart we learn that it was constructed by one Johann Ruysch, a German geographer. Careful examination of different copies of the map have indicated the existence of at least five different states. These, as described by Bradford F. Swan (1951, p. 236) are summarized in Table III. TABLE III State

Left plate

I

LA DOMINICA does not appear, the island being wrongly labelled CANIBALI. Virgin Islands label above double line marking the Tropic of Cancer, printed as LE 11000 VIRGIE. Lacks all inscriptions mentioned below.

Lacks all inscriptions mentioned below.

Same as State I.

AGISIMBVS SINVS near African west coast; SINVS GAGETICVS in Bay of Bengal ; SINVS MAGNVS farther east. Letters A N v s spread through margin.

III

LA DOMINICA correctly labelled. CANIBALOS IN. from modern island of Trinidad, o c E spread through margin.

Same as State II.

IV

PLISACVS SINVS added near China coast; SINVS GRVENLANTEVS added farther east, between Greenland and Newfoundland.

Same as State II.

Same as State IV.

PELAGVS BONE SPERANZE added off Cape of Good Hope; SEYLLAN OCEANVS added near Sinur Magnus in upper right corner.

II

V

Right plate

The first of these states is represented by a single copy in the Princeton University Library, bound in the 1507 edition of the Rome Ptolemy entitled In hoc Opere Haec continentur Geographiae Cl. Ptolemaei. . . . The second state exists in the Taylor-Yale and N. P. Kraus copies of the 1508 edition; state III in the Library of Congress Copy A, in one of Mr. Beans' copies, in a copy at Yale, and in one at Princeton; state IV in the Rosenwald-Library of Congress copy; and state V in two copies in the Newberry Library, in the Thacher-Library of Congress copy, the John Carter Brown Library copy, two copies at the New York Public Library, the second of Mr. Beans' copies, the Harvard copy, and possibly others (Swan, 1951, p. 235). Most reproductions of the Ruysch map are from copies of the fourth or fifth states.

CARTOGBAPHY OF NOBTH AMERICA BEFORE VERBAZANO

65

The Ruysch map was apparently drawn up as a special feature of the Rome Ptolemy "which was in process of publication at Rome in 1507. Apparently, however, it was not ready in time for inclusion in the edition of that year—with one notable exception . . . —and in 1508 another issue of the book was brought out, composed largely of sheets remaining from the 1507 issue, with a new title-page and re-set preliminary matter, 14 leaves of commentary by Beneventanus on the map, and the map itself." (Swan, 1951, p. 220.) Nordenskiôld has described the commentary as "an exhibition of learning, now quite useless" (Nordenskiôld, 1889, p. 67). None the less, Beneventanus has left us a few important facts, one of them being that Ruysch said that "he has navigated from the southern part of England to 53° north latitude, and that he sailed on the latter parallel as far as the eastern coast" (Harrisse, 1892, p. 451). The map employs a fan-like or conical projection divided into two halves, each covering 180° of longitude. In latitude the map extends from 90° N. to 38° S. The prime meridian passes through the westernmost point of Fuerteventura in the Canary Islands. The map shows Greenland and Newfoundland as one large landmass forming a part of Asia. North of Iceland and east of the Greenland peninsula is the inscription, "Hie incipit Mare Sugenum. Hie compassus navium non tenet, nee naves quae ferrum tenent reverteré valent." West of Iceland is an island labelled, "ínsula haec in Anno Domini 1456 fuit totaliter combusta." Further west is Greenland, here labelled "Grvenlant." Along its northern shore is the legend "Bergi extrema." To the south is a sea or bay between Greenland and Newfoundland with the title, "Sanvs Grvenlantevs" (usually given by other authors as "Sinvs Grvenlantevs" ). In the middle of this sea are two islands placed close together, and the legend "Feiarvfeie alias cibes dicvt apvd has isvlas qvdo navte pervenivt illvdvtvr ademonibvs ita vt sine pericvlo non evadvnt," which in rough translation would read, "Feiarunfeia, alias Cibes, say that when sailors came to these islands, they were fooled by the demons, so that they did not escape without danger." Immediately below this are placed a series of names: C. Glaciate

In. Baccalavras

Barbatos In.

Baia de Rockas

C. de Portogesi

Biggetv In.

R. Grado

Terra Nova

From the last of these the coast sweeps westward to Cathay. This map shows the "Vespucius" configuration, with an inscription to the effect that it was discovered by ships of the King of Spain. The names appearing from north to south are: C. Elicontii Corveo C. de Fvndabril

Anterlinoi Cvlcar

lago de Loro C. S. Marci

Immediately to the east "Espagnola" is shown. South America is depicted from the area of Santa Marta in northeastern Columbia to 38° S. latitude. The configurations of the Near East are shown with reasonable accuracy. East of the Bay of Bengal the traditional Ptolemy representations again appear, however. "Taprobana" is shown to the west of the "Malay Peninsula" with an inscription

FIG. 15. The Ruysch chart of c.1508, drawn from Nordenskiôld (1889, fig. 32) with most nomenclature omitted.

CARTOGRAPHY OF NORTH AMERICA BEFORE VERRAZANO

67

to the effect that Portuguese ships reached this far in 1507 ( Nordenskiôld, 1889, pp. 63-7, pi. xxxii; and Swan, 1951, pp. 222-3, 228). This last notice—that Portuguese ships reached Taprobana in 1507—is of considerable interest and importance, since it establishes one limiting date for the map independently of bibliographic methods. What Portuguese expedition is referred to, and when did it return to Portugal? The only Portuguese expedition known by the author to have been in the neighbourhood of Taprobana at this time was that of Tristáo de Cunha. This navigator, after aiding Afonso d'Albuquerque in building the fortress of Sacotorá and in blockading the Red Sea, "shaped his course for India with four ships on the first of August, in the year '7, and arrived there in safety, and there took in cargo, and started to Portugal . . ." (Albuquerque, 1875-84, vol. 1, p. 55). Another source tells us that Tristáo de Cunha sailed from India on December 10, 1507 (Whiteway, 1899, p. 115). If this is the voyage referred to by the Ruysch chart it is difficult to see how we can give it a date earlier than 1508. The origins and relations of this map have long intrigued such students of cartography as Nordenskiôld (1889, pp. 63-7), Harrisse (1892, pp. 449-53; and 1900, pp. 56-64), and Caraci (1937, pp. 44-54). The arguments have been well summarized by Swan (1951, pp. 225-6), who states: . . . From these comparisons [between Ruysch, Contarini-Roselli, and Maggiolo of 1511] we are able to deduce that the three maps are indeed closely related, but that not one of them agrees in all important details with any other. My comparison of the maps leads me to the conclusion that Ruysch was best of all in his configuration of Newfoundland, indicating somewhat its insular character, and that he was the best in both his configuration and his nomenclature on the South American coast. As I have said earlier, he was far and away the best in his configuration of India; here the Contarini-Roselli Map bears little resemblance to Ruysch and is closer to Maggiolo. Yet another source on which Ruysch drew, according to Harrisse. was an English map, possibly even one of the Cabotian charts, to supplement his own knowledge of the Newfoundland area gained during his voyage. Harrisse based this surmise on one place-label on Ruysch's map: Bata de Rochas, on the east coast of Newfoundland. Harrisse pointed out that the letter k is not found in such a word in Portuguese, Italian, or Spanish. . . .

Whatever the nationality of the expedition which this map reflects, the names were recorded in Latin. Since the chart was engraved in Italy, some Italianizations appear, such as "C. Glaciato" and "Capo Formoso" (Harrisse, 1892, p. 449). The Ruysch chart of 1508, and The Maggiolo charts of 1508 and 1511 are all representative of the Maggiolo tradition. The Pesaro The so-called Oliveriana or Pesaro chart (PAC 16), preserved in the Biblioteca e Musei Oliveriani at Pesaro, Italy, forms a sharp contrast to the works previously considered and has caused much confusion. From a study of its configurations Harrisse dated it as being earlier than 1503 (1900, p. 54), Stevenson as 1508

FIG. 16. The Oliveriana or Pesaro chart, drawn from Harrisse (1900, pi. IV) and Bj0rnbo (1912, fig. 27).

CARTOGRAPHY OF NORTH AMERICA BEFORE VEHHAZANO

69

(1927, p. 51), and Pohl as 1505 (1950, p. 82). It has been reproduced in part by Harrisse ( 1900, pi. IV ), who described only the northern New World representation, and in toto by Pohl ( 1950 ). The most noticeable feature of the Pesaro chart is its unique representation of the northern sections of the New World. We find three distinct bodies of land (see fig. 16), which taken together indicate a belief in a northern land running east to west. In this the Pesaro chart is most like the La Cosa and Maggiolo maps. Greenland appears as a triangular body of land with undefined northerly boundaries and the apex pointed south. The following names appear from east to west. ponta de sampaulo tierra descubieri cauo de spignus (stignus?)

cauo agrut (agrar ?) cano de maraserba cauo larbadore

vufina Lentu Terra noba

South of the Greenland configuration we find an island labelled "ínsula de labardor." To the west we find a large landmass with the names: Baia de cos Riuo de la spera Cauo de la spera

riuo de bosas ( rosas ) Riuo de los bacalaos ponta del pa . . .

Terra de Corte ( Corte real? ) bonaventura Cauo del marco La serna

To the south, opposite the name "riuo de bosas" is an island labelled "Groga y." West of the name "La serna" is another island named "insulla stilla." Still further to the west, on a large body of land, appears "costa fermosa." ( Harrisse, 1900, p. 54). To the south "ínsula de cuba" is represented in a form closely resembling that of the Canerio, Cantino, Contarini, La Cosa, Schôner, and Waldseemüller maps. To the southeast "Jamaica y." appears, and to the east, "ínsula spagnola." The South American continent is shown from Honduras to the mouth of the La Plata river, and bears the name "Mundus nouus." Turning to other regions, we find that India is well represented, with Ceylon correctly placed but bearing the name "ínsula morachim." Past the Bombay region the coast is shown trending to the south, but the cartographer has avoided committing himself on its peninsular character. Numerous islands are shown in the Indian Ocean, and Madagascar is placed in approximately correct location (Pohl, 1950, pp. 82-3). The Freducci In contrast to the Pesaro, the Freducci chart preserved in the Archivo di Stato of Florence (PAG 80) is a manuscript of relatively late date but displaying relatively early configurations. It contains no actual title or date, but shows an inscription reading, "Yhs Ma Vgo Conte de Hectomano Freducci de Anchona la facta in Anchona nella. . . ." The nomenclature is Portuguese, but shows definite Hispanizations. The cartographical style closely resembles that of Grazioso Benincasa, also of Ancona. The chart is unusual in its Newfoundland representations and in the associated nomenclature; in its early-style depiction of Florida; and in its South American

FIG. 17. The Freducci chart, drawn from Casanova ( 1894 ), with most nomenclature omitted. Compare the West Indian and Florida configurations with those by Alonso de Santa Cruz of c.1541 (Wieser, 1908).

CARTOGRAPHY OF NORTH AMERICA BEFORE VERRAZANO

71

configurations, which closely resemble those of the Maggiolo of c.1508. The nomenclature appearing on the Newfoundland feature, from north to south, is as follows : Rio das gramas y.a de fuego c.° do marco

monte de trigo y.a de fre luixi y.a de becaliab

balia de concepçam c.° desperado c.° raxo y.e de luam esteveç

As will be seen, the forms of these names are closest to those of the Ribero series of maps, but are greatly corrupted. Interesting elements of the chart are: first, the representation of Florida, discovered around 1511; second, the island of Bermuda, discovered before 1511; third, the lack of any Yucatan configuration; last, the absence of Fagundes place names in the Newfoundland terminology. From these characteristics Casanova dated the map as made after 1511 and before 1520 or 1521. Caraci (1953), after a detailed comparison of the chart with other very similar Freducci maps dating from the 1550's, concluded that the map was executed around 1530, but that it was a rather servile reproduction of a prototype (hereafter termed the "Freducci Prototype") dating much earlier. PATTERNS OF RELATIONSHIP Similarities of Configurations The simplest method which may be used in the analysis of the various maps discussed so far is that of comparing gross configurations. Such an approach, illustrated in figures 18 and 19, enables us to group these charts into four large classes: (I) a group in which the Newfoundland configurations of the Cantino are largely reproduced without change (although a new nomenclature is introduced on the later maps), this group includes the Maggiolo of 1508 and 1527 (and possibly also that of 1511), the Pedro Reinel, and also the Verrazano of 1529 (PAG 119); (II) a group of maps on which the northern half of the Newfoundland configuration derives from the Cantino while the southern half displays an entirely new and more accurate representation, consisting of the Freducci, the Miller I, the Portuguese "Lange" (PAC 61), the Castiglioni of 1525 (PAC 101), the Ribero or Anonymous-Weimar of 1527 (PAC 108), and the Rome-Ribero of 1529 (PAC 121); (III) one map (the Kunstmann No. 3) showing derivation from the King tradition; and (IV) a group of maps which cannot easily be fitted into any of the above categories (the Contarini of 1506, the Ruysch of c.1508, the Pesaro, and the La Cosa). Despite the differences of representation on these various charts, one feature in particular seems to persist—a deep bay with two "rivers" running into the land, with a sharp promontory to the north. On figures 18 and 19 this landmark is indicated by an arrow. A consideration of its location relative to the "ya do fogo" (an island which retains the same name on modern charts) leads one to identify it with Notre Dame Bay. The point to the north would then be the modern Cape St. John, and the coast indicated to the north (from "C. fremoso" to "C. do marco" on the Miller I) would represent the coast of Newfoundland

72

CABOT TO CARTIER

from Cape St. John to Cape Bauld—the reach now known as White Bay having been entirely missed by the early explorers. This identification receives additional support from the representation of "C. do marco" on the Cantino, Pedro Reinel, Verrazano, Anonymous-Lange, and Harleian charts, which closely resembles that of the modern Cape Bauld. Furthermore, the islands designated as "Sam joham" and "San pedro" can be associated with the modern Grois and Bell Islands; the "ya da fortuna" may possibly be the modern Belle Isle; and the "ya da tormenta" may be the modern Quirpon Island off the tip of Cape Bauld.

FIG. 18. The North American configuration on: ( A ) the Cantino chart; (B) the King chart; and (C) the Kunstmann No. 3 chart. Note the persistence of the great bay or gulf (marked by an arrow ) on all the maps.

If we accept this identification we must conclude that the Cantino chart shows only the coast of Newfoundland, and that the modern geographical feature now known as Labrador had not been discovered by 1502. On the other hand, Labrador does seem to be shown upon the Maggiolo chart of c.1508, where it is represented as running eastward from a very large bay north of Newfoundland; and appears thereafter on a large number of charts as a land trending

FIG, 19. The Newfoundland-Labrador configuration of eleven ancient charts compared with the modern representation. Note the persistence of the feature indicated by the arrow on most of the maps, as well as the duplication and displacement of an entire coastline on the last map.

74

CABOT TO CARTIER

east and west above Newfoundland. On these maps it is the feature which earlier authors have consistently interpreted as Greenland—largely on the grounds that the lavrador of the Azores is known to have discovered the land we now know as Greenland (from the Cantino and Canerio charts), and this feature appearing on the Miller I, Ribero, Verrazano, and other charts is labelled as the "Land of the Labrador." If our identification of the configurations of the Cantino map is correct, and the similarities evident in figures 18 and 19 are our evidence that this is the case, we must conclude that the configuration in question is the modern Labrador, that the cartographers of the period 1508-50 did not distinguish between Greenland and Labrador, that Cortereal did not discover Labrador or explore into Davis Inlet, and that Davis Inlet was not entered until after 1540 (see figs. 43-6, 49, 53). Further investigation will probably indicate Jean Alphonse du Saintonge as the explorer of this latter region. This identification of the features on the early maps brings us to another important and interesting point, one that has caused considerable confusion among students of the cartographical materials. This problem is best approached by a consideration of the Newfoundland-Labrador configurations of three maps— the Harleian of 1536 (fig. 19), the Desceliers of 1546 (fig. 19), and the Lopo Homem of c.1550 (fig. 52). An analysis of the Harleian indicates that it continues the configuration appearing on the earlier maps, merely adding the discoveries within the Gulf of St. Lawrence. On the Desceliers, however, confusion is evident. Instead of associating the Strait of Belle Isle with the strait known to exist north of the "ya da fortuna," the cartographer has placed it to the south, apparently at Notre Dame Bay. The northern section of Newfoundland (the Petit Nord Peninsula) has thus been transferred to the coast of Labrador, and new names have been inserted to fill gaps. This transfer probably was affected after the Cartier voyages, although the Lopo Homem map of c.1550 may indicate otherwise. This cartographical aberration has caused unlimited confusion among recent students attempting to identify Labrador configurations on post-Cartier maps. Similarities of Nomenclature Consideration of the similarities which are evident among the names on the various charts enables us to sharpen and modify the picture already presented. First it must be noted that those maps which seem to derive their Newfoundland configurations only from the Cantino either lack placenames altogether, or display names which are not unique to the tradition. Thus, the Canerio chart lacks names completely; the Maggiolo of c.1508 displays the legend "Terra de los bachalaos," which, according to the textual sources, reflects the explorations of Sebastian Cabot about 1508; and the Maggiolo of 1511 contains the legend "Terra de pescaría," which must be compared with the "peseharias" of the Add. MS. 31316 of the King tradition. (It must be remembered in this respect that Portugal placed a tax upon Newfoundland codfish in 1506 [see p. 31].) The paucity of placenames on the Cantino configuration is only relieved after 1520,

CARTOGRAPHY OF NOBTH AMERICA BEFORE VERRAZANO

75

when, on the Pedro Reinel, we suddenly find a nomenclature derived partly from the Fagundes explorations, and partly from other, possibly earlier, sources. By contrast, the maps of the King tradition not only display a few names on the Newfoundland representation, but also show a detailed nomenclature on the Greenland coast. While some new names appear on the Kunstmann No. 3, the King representation is here almost completely retained (see fig. 18). The differences between the Newfoundland and Greenland configurations in the charts of the Cantino and King traditions and the evidence of the nomenclature (or lack of it), seem to indicate that the Cantino chart represents a preliminary summation of Fernandes' explorations of Greenland in 1500, and of Cortereal's explorations in 1500 and 1501. The charts of the King tradition seem to represent a modification or revision of this early North American cartography, the Greenland configuration being made to run east and west instead of north and south, the Newfoundland representation being completely revised, and numerous placenames being recorded for the first time; for example, "peseharias," "capo raso," "Rio da rosa," and possibly "Ilha emcorporado," "Ilha de frey luis," "cabo de sanantonio," "baya de santa cyria," "cabo de cócepicion" ). If thé nomenclature evident in the King tradition derives from explorations other than those which produced the Cantino, and if the occurrence of the name "rio da rosa" on the Contarini of 1506 can be taken to indicate that the rest of the nomenclature was also in existence at this time, the source of this new cartography would seem to be limited to the 1503 expedition in search of the Cortereal brothers, and to the English-Portuguese exploration of Greenland in the same year. The nomenclature appearing on the later maps of group I, and also on maps of groups II and IV, presents a more difficult problem. Some of these names can easily be shown to derive from Fagundes (see pp. 56-8 above); some, such as those on the Ruysch map, are obviously pre-Fagundes in date. Others, however, appear on maps lacking the Fagundes nomenclature (that is, those on the Pesaro and Freducci), and therefore also present us with the possibility that they may be pre-Fagundes in origin, although their dates are actually in question. This problem—the possible existence of a place-nomenclature which is preFagundes in origin, but not derivable from either the King or Cantino traditions —can most easily be attacked though a systematic analysis of the occurrence of non-Fagundes Newfoundland placenames on a number of the early maps, as in Table IV. Eliminating from this list all names which ( 1 ) appear only on "Fagundes maps," ( 2 ) appear on maps of the King tradition or on the Kunstmann No. 3, or (3) appear on the Contarini of 1506, we are left with a nomenclature consisting of ten words: C. Glaciate Y. do fuego (fogo) G. dos gamas (rio das gramas) R. Grado Baia de rockas Y. and c. de boâventura

C. do marco Y. de bacallaos C. da espera (despera) Johâ estevêz

The last of these names may instantly be attributed to a Portuguese (or

76

CABOT TO CARTIER

X

X

?

? X

X

X

? X

X X X X X

X X

X

X

X ? X ?

X X

X X X

X X

X

X X

X X X X X X X

X

X X

X X X X

X

X

X X X X X X X X X X X X X X

X X X X X X X X

X X

X X

X X

X

X

X X

X X

X

X X

X

X

X

X X

X

X X

X

Y. da fortuna Y. da tormenta C. do marco (baxos do medo-?) Terra de peseria (peseharias) X Ilha de frey luis Y. dos Sauos (savalos) C. hermosa (fremosa) Rio da rosa G. dos gamas (rio das gramas) Y. da fogo (fuego) Y. and c. de boâventura Y. de aves Monte de trigo C. do marco Y. de freluis (frey luis) Y. de siculuis C. de sanantonio Baia de santa ana B. de santo cyria (cizia) Y. de bacallaos Cabo de coçepicion C. da espera (despera, desperado) R. dos patas R. de sam joham R. de aguea (auguoada?) Farilhom R. de sam francisque C. rasso X P. da cruz k C. de s. m. C. destiago R. gramde C. and i. sam palo R. das ylhas C. fremosa Johà este vez

X

TABLE IV

X X X X

X X X X

X X

X X

X X

X

X X X

X

X X X

X X

X

X

X

X

*Maps displaying Fagundes placenames. NOTE: The following names, appearing on only one map, have not been listed above: Terra de caramella (Contarini, 1506); C. Glaciate, Baia de rockas, R. Grado (Ruysch, c. 1508).

Spanish) fisherman named Johâ Estevèz, for we are told by Alonso de Santa Cruz; . . . South of this land of the Bacallaos and of St. Mary's bay, at a distance of 50 leagues, lies an island named John Estevez's island which was so named in memory of the pilot who discovered it, when on his way there to fish. And others lying to

CARTOGRAPHY OF NOBTH AMERICA BEFORE VERRAZANO

77

the west of this one have also been accidentally discovered in this manner by those who were on their way to fish in these waters. All are uninhabited and are of little value. They lie in 46° latitude. . . . (1541; in Biggar, 1911, p. 186, incorrect translation on p. 192. )

There does not seem to be any support for the view sometimes expressed that Johâ Estevëz can be equated with Joam Alvares Fagundes. Not only are the names completely different, but the former appears on maps lacking any of the Fagundes placenames, as we have seen. One other name may be traced with relative certainty. The textual evidence deriving from Peter Martyr, Vrbain Chauveton, Francisco Lopez de Gomara, and Cornelis de Jode, to the effect that Sebastian Cabot discovered and named the "bacallaos," has already been shown. This assertion, which must be given substantial weight, is indirectly verified by the failure of the name to appear on any map which can be positively dated before 1508, and by the voyage alluded to in Beneventanus' commentary on the Ruysch map. The form of the name "Baia de Rockas" on the Ruysch map may also indicate derivation from an English voyage. The Pesaro-Freducci Nomenclature: Its Origin and Tradition Seven names thus remain to be traced. Consideration of their occurrence on maps indicates that these, together with the name "bacallaos," form a unit, may have a common origin, and define a tradition which we may designate as the Pesaro-Freducci, or Cabotan. The Freducci chart was apparently executed around 1530, but was a "rather servile reproduction" of a much earlier map, here designated as the Freducci Prototype. Since the Freducci map displays no Fagundes names, and shows no influences from cartographical developments after the Fagundes voyages, it is presumed that the Freducci Prototype was a non-Fagundes or even a preFagundes chart. This deduction is supported by the fact that the essential features of the Freducci map's representation of southern Newfoundland also appear on the Miller I ( an early Fagundes map ) and also possibly to some extent on the Maggiolo of C.1508 (see fig. 19). The southern Newfoundland representation of the Freducci is unusual in its accurate portrayal of the actual geography of the region. In this respect it seems to display for the first time information which persisted on such later maps as the Miller I, the Anonymous-Lange, the Castiglioni, the Ribero (Anonymous-Weimar) of 1527, and the Rome-Ribero of 1529. This representation of southern Newfoundland is much more accurate (or more correct) than that appearing on the Pedro Reinel (also a Fagundes map), the Verrazano of 1529, or the Riccardiana of c. 1534 (see figs. 19 and 20). Detailed examination of the Newfoundland representation of the Freducci (and Freducci Prototype) indicates that the configuration has the following essential elements: (a) the representation of a strait to the north of Newfoundland, to the north of which appears a land running east and west; (b) the representation of the southeastern tip of Newfoundland as a peninsula; (c) the depic-

FIG. 20. The representation of the southern and eastern Newfoundland coast on fifteen early maps, showing the differences between the traditions.

CARTOGRAPHY OF NORTH AMERICA BEFORE VERRAZANO

79

tion of a large bay or inlet on the western side of this peninsula corresponding to the modern Placentia Bay; ( d ) a section of relatively straight coast running west from this bay to a cape which apparently represents the Burin Peninsula; ( e ) an island or group of islands shown lying immediately west of this cape, representing the Miquelon group; ( f ) a strait running into the continent to the west of these islands; (g) a coastline on the western side of this strait, shown running north to south and then to the west. Reference to the maps shows us that not all of these elements appear at the same time, and not all of them appear together on some maps. Element (a), for example, first appears on the Maggiolo of c.1508, but is absent on the Freducci. The Ruysch seems to show only elements (£>) to (g); and these are in a somewhat distorted form. Nevertheless, the important conclusion which we may draw from the consideration of the cartography is that the configuration, in its essential aspects, is already present around 1508 and is therefore pre-Fagundes. Also, the cartographical representation derived from some expedition which conducted a detailed exploration of the southeast and south coasts of Newfoundland, discovering both the modern Cabot Strait and the northern shore of Cape Breton (see figs. 12, 17, 20). The crucial problem then becomes—from what early voyage did these names, and the associated cartography, derive? The Pesaro chart, with its peculiar mélange of error and fact, presents a number of unexpected clues. Greenland is shown there in a manner approaching reality; to the south and west, however, there are configurations bearing no similarity to any real features. But surprisingly, the nomenclature contains many terms with which we are already familiar. Analysis of other sections of the chart shows the cartographer to have been a careful worker, and to have followed closely the general features of maps of the period 1508 to 1520. How could a skilled and competent cartographer, possibly Italian, have committed a cartographical error of the type mentioned? A close examination of the names appearing on the "Newfoundland" representation of the Pesaro reveals that eleven (out of thirteen) are already known from our other charts and that these are all located on the east Newfoundland coast. A comparison of the locations of these names on the various maps (figure 21), brings out an extremely interesting point. These names, as numbered on figure 21, are as follows: 1. 2. 3. 4.

Baia de cos Riuo de la spera Cauo de la spera riuo de bosas

5. 6. 7. 8.

riuo de los bacalaos ponta del pa Terra de Corte bonaventura

9. 10. 11. 12. 13.

cauo del marco La serna Groga y. insulta stilla costa fermosa

They appear from east to west on the Pesaro, but from south to north on the Kunstmann No. 3, the Pedro Reinel, the Freducci, and the Miller I. The following derivations and affiliations may be made for the terms. The first might possibly be a contraction or corruption of "b. da comçeiçâ" or "cabo de côçepicion," which we have already encountered on numerous charts. "Riuo de

80

CABOT TO CABTIEB

FIG. 21. Diagram showing the relationships of the placenames appearing on the Pesaro chart with those of four other early maps.

CARTOGRAPHY OF NORTH AMERICA BEFORE VERRAZANO

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la spera" and "Cauo de la spera" may be related to the "C. deespera" of the Pedro Reinel or the "C. : del espera" of the Diego Ribero of 1529. "riuo de bosa" seems to be a corruption of the "Rio de rosa" of the Kunstmann No. 3. "Riuo de los bacalaos" may be taken to be in the same area as our "y. dos bacalhaos." "ponta del pa" possibly may be a variant of the "r. dos patas," which appears on the Pedro Reinel, Diego Ribero of 1529, and Anonymous-Lange, or of the "p. do padrâ" of the Riccardiana. "Terra de Corte" seems to be a contraction of "Terra de Corte Real," which is placed near the entrance to the central gulf on the Kunstmann No. 3, on the northern shore of Newfoundland on the Lange, and near Fogo Island on the Riccardiana. The name "bonaventura" can be associated with the "C. ( and Y. ) de boaventura" which appear on the Pedro Reinel a little to the south of the Ray of Exploits (see fig. 19). The "cauo del marco" is found in two locations: below the "C. de boaventura" near the "y. de frey luis," in the area of Cape Freels; and on the northern coast of Newfoundland near Cape Rauld. Names 10 and 11 do not occur on other charts in this specific form; we may speculate that they are corruptions of "dos cirnes" (on the Riccardiana) and of "fogo y.," respectively, "insulla stilla" cannot be traced. The name "costa fermosa" appears twice on the Miller I: once on the cape north of the Ray of Exploits (Cape. St. John?); and once on the south coast of Newfoundland near the entrance of Cabot Strait. The Pesaro chart thus seems to represent a cartographical error in which a number of placenames clearly originally applied to the east Newfoundland coast became applied to an east-west tending coast. The simplest explanation is that the drafter of the map had at his disposal an incomplete or sketchy account of some exploration on the Newfoundland coast which mentioned these placenames, and that the cartographer assumed (incorrectly) for some reason that these applied to a coast running east to west. The fact that one of these names contains the word "bacalaos" would seem to date this voyage after 1507 or 1508; the lack of Fagundes names, however, would seem to imply that it occurred before 1520. The only voyage known to us from this time period is that of Sebastian Cabot, and we have already seen that accounts of this voyage emphasize the fact that Cabot sailed west from the "Racallaos": . . . He was thus forced, he said, to turn his sails and follow the west . . . and he advanced so far towards the west that the Island of Cuba lay on his left, almost in the same degree of latitude. As he sailed by these coasts, which he called the Bacallaos, he says that he found there the same currents flowing towards the west . . . (Anghiera, 1574, p. 267.) . . . When Gaboto considered the cold and the strangeness of the land, he turned westward along the coast of the land of Baccalaos as far as 38 degrees . . . (Gomara, 1554, fol 31'). As we shall see, the Kunstmann No. 3 chart and the so-called La Cosa map also seem to reflect this, or a similar, error. If our attribution of the Pesaro nomenclature to an account of Sebastian Cabot's voyage is correct, we have here an important clue to the origin of our unexplained pre-Fagundes names. We have already stated that a striking feature of the topography associated with these terms—namely, the manner of representation of the

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southern coast of Newfoundland—first appears on the Ruysch chart of c.1508 (figs. 15, 19, and 20). We find that on this chart the representation of the southeastern tip of Newfoundland (the "In. Baccalavras"—"C. de Portogesi" area) closely resembles that of the Kunstmann No. 3, except that the island or land to the south is absent. To the west of the "G. de Portogesi" the Ruysch map shows a large bay, apparently representing Placentia Bay, then a relatively straight section of coast terminating in a cape which has a large island close by. The shoreline here seems to correspond to Burin Peninsula, and the island seems to be Miquelon Island. To the west, the mainland forms a large strait running into the continent; at its western entrance is another island, labelled "Biggetv In.," which may possibly be Cape Breton. This configuration is not shown on the Maggiolo maps, but it reappears on the map series beginning with the Freducci and Miller (fig. 20). In brief, our reasons for postulating a pre-Fagundes—Cabotan element in our maps are as follows: 1. The important features of the representation of the south and east Newfoundland coast are already present on the Ruysch chart. 2. The Freducci chart, which displays the representation of the south and east Newfoundland coast now under consideration and also displays a distinctive nomenclature, seems to be pre-Fagundes in that no Fagundes terms appear. It almost certainly is non-Fagundes. 3. The distinctive nomenclature of the Freducci appears on the Pesaro, which seems to date from before the discovery of Florida. Circumstantial evidence would also lead us to postulate some connection between the unusual cartographical error represented on this chart, and the Sebastian Cabot voyage of c.1507. There is also strong evidence that at least part of this nomenclature originated with Cabot. The final test of this hypothesis of a Cabotan origin for part of the Newfoundland nomenclature and cartography must await the discovery of new Cabot documents or of new maps from the period under consideration.

THE KUNSTMANN No. 3 TRADITION Of all the controversial early maps, the two most enigmatic are the Kunstmann No. 3 and the La Cosa. The Kunstmann No. 3 map (PAG 11), lacking name, date, or title, is "exclusively Portuguese, in so far as its delineations for the New World are made to embrace only the discoveries accomplished under the royal flag of Portugal; and it ... contains no data relative to the West Indies, nor to Spanish voyages to the mainland . . ." ( Harrisse, 1892, p. 373 ). These facts have greatly inconvenienced attempts at dating, which perforce must depend on the northern representations. On the assumption that these derive from Cortereal, Peschel dated the chart between 1502 and 1503; Kohl dated it at c.1504, as did Harrisse (Harrisse, 1892, p. 425, and 1900, p. 52). Bj0rnbo, on the other hand, did not consider it possible that the map was made before 1508 ( Bj0rnbo, 1912, pp. 209-11).

FIG. 22. The Kunstmann No. 3 map, drawn from Kunstmann ( 1859, Atlas, pi. Ill) with most nomenclature omitted. The stippling indicates the edge of the chart.

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The Kunstmann No. 3 chart is unusual for its accurate representation of Greenland, and for its Newfoundland-Labrador configurations. The map shows names only on the east coast of Greenland, and these are "ça: de sa paulo" (Coast of St. Paul), "c: de spü seto" (Cape of the Holy Spirit), and "c. de mírame et lexame" ( Cape look at me and avoid me ). The last name seems to be a singularly appropriate title for the landmark now known as Cape Farewell, and appears also on the Maggiolo of 1527. To the west, on the "Terra de Corte Real," we find another nomenclature reading from north to south: bayos do medo Ilha emcorporado Ilha de frey luis

Rio de rosa cabo de sanantonio

baya de santa cyria cabo de côçepicion

A survey of the remainder of the chart shows work of a uniform high quality. Strangely, however, the African coastline, which shows a very detailed nomenclature, is carried no further than the limit of exploration by Bartolomeu Diaz in 1487-8 (Stevenson, 1903, no. 3, sheet 3). The relationships of the Kunstmann No. 3 to the maps of the King tradition have already been discussed (see pp. 52-6 and fig. 18), and it has been seen that its Greenland and Newfoundland nomenclature and its Newfoundland representation all derive from this tradition. Like the maps of the King tradition, the Kunstmann No. 3 stands alone, and seems to have had relatively little influence upon later maps—the only exception being the Maggiolo of 1527, which reproduces its Greenland nomenclature. Kunstmann No. 3

Maggiolo of 1527

ça: de sa paulo c: de spu seto c. de mírame et lexame

S. paulo spiritu sto C. de meirella et leixela illè firme

A detailed scrutiny of the Newfoundland configuration on the Kunstmann No. 3 reveals the totally unexpected fact that while this configuration remains almost exactly that of the King tradition, it actually is intended to represent a much larger geographical unit. That is to say, while the configuration which appears on the Cantino map and the King tradition apparently represents only the east coast of Newfoundland from Cape Bauld to Cape Race (see figs. 18 and 19), that of the Kunstmann No. 3 depicts the coasts between Hamilton Inlet (Labrador) and southern Nova Scotia (fig. 23). The only conclusion that can be drawn from this is that the cartographer was attempting to reconcile the old King representation with a set of new latitudes. The accuracy of these latitudes is manifest not only from an inspection of figure 23, but also from detailed consideration of specific features. The landmark designated as "Cabo de côçepicion" on the Kunstmann may be identified with the modern Cape Bonavista not only by consideration of the latitude indicated, but also by the shape of the bay, which corresponds closely to that of Bonavista Bay (fig. 24). If this identification is valid, the land configuration placed immediately to the south, below the westward trending shore, must be the Avalon Peninsula.

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FIG. 23. The Kunstmann No. 3 representation of Newfoundland-Labrador traced from a microfilm enlargement of the Stevenson photocopy and superimposed on a modern Lambert conformai conic projection of the same region. The latitudes are aligned along the east Newfoundland-Labrador coast.

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The cape shown to the south of the "cabo de côçepicion," in 48° N. latitude, would then correspond to the modern Grates Point (in 48° 10'). The cape to the south, whose northern point stands in 47° 20' on the Kunstmann, would correspond to the modern Cape Francis (in 47° 50'). The southern side of this cape would then be Cape Race, shown in 46° 50' but actually standing in 46° 40'. Proceeding southward, we first find two small capes, then a larger one from which the coast turns southwestward into a large conventionalized bay or strait standing in 45° SO'. This is exactly the latitude of the modern Strait of Canso, between Cape Breton and Nova Scotia. We are therefore forced to the conclusion that the Kunstmann configurations between 46° 50' and 45° 5(Y represent Cape Breton, that the coast to the south is that of Nova Scotia, and that both have been shifted eastward by the cartographer to form an extension of the Newfoundland shore. This view finds support in the fact that the drafter of the chart terminated this "pseudo-Newfoundland" in 43° 20^ while the southern tip of Nova Scotia is in 43° 3(Y, This correspondence is too close to be mere coincidence (figure 23 does not show this latitude correspondence adequately since the two maps are aligned along the Newfoundland coasts and the conic projection results in a latitude divergence to the east or west). The significance of this with respect to the La Cosa chart will be discussed below. We must note one specific topographical element which the Kunstmann shares with the Ruysch chart of c. 1508—the peculiarly shaped "Cabo de côçepicion" ("C. de Portogesi" on the Ruysch), the bay to the north and west, and the island shown at the entrance to the bay ("In Baccalavras" on the Ruysch; compare fig. 23 and fig. 15 ). If this geographical feature on the Ruysch represents Cape Bonavista, as we have stated it does on the Kunstmann, we must conclude that the Avalon Peninsula is completely absent on the former chart. We may also make one further comparative comment. This is that the representation of a coastline running indefinitely westward (in the case of the Kunstmann, from "cabo de côçepicion") can hardly be considered as a diagnostic feature, since it appears on numerous charts from 1506 to 1536 or later: the Contarini of 1506 (fig. 11), the Ruysch of c. 1508 (fig. 15), the Schóner of 1523-4 (Wieder, 1925-33, vol. 1, pi. 3), the Maggiolos of c. 1508 and 1511 (figs. 12 and 13), the Juan Vespuccius of 1523 (Harrisse, 1892, pi. XX), the "Paris Gilt Globe" of c. 1528 (Harrisse, 1892, pi. XXI), the Borbone chart of 1528 (Bagrow, 1951, p. 95), the Schoner of 1533 (Harrisse, 1892, pi. XVII), the 1536 world map of Orontius Finaeus (Bagrow, 1951, p. 131), and the Pesaro and La Cosa charts. All evidence thus supports the conclusion that while the NewfoundlandLabrador configuration on the Kunstmann No. 3 is a survival of the King tradition it has undergone modification in terms of scale and location to reconcile it with newer geographic information. The origin of this newer information is open to question. The similarity of the "cabo de côçepicion" configuration to that of the Ruysch, and the additions to the south, may point to the voyage of Sebastian Cabot. On the other hand, the presence of the name "cabo de sanantonio" may point to the Fagundes explorations around 1520. The fact that

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other Fagundes names are not used weakens the case for this last argument, however. In conclusion, therefore it would seem that the Kunstmann No. 3 map reflects in some way the activities of Sebastian Cabot around 1507 or 1508, and that it probably dates from between this time and 1520. The uniqueness of its representations requires us to keep it separate from the other cartographical traditions of the period, and to consider it as constituting the sole surviving example of a tradition. THE LA COSA TRADITION Like the Kunstmann No. 3, the so-called La Cosa chart also constitutes the sole example of its type. Like the Kunstmann No. 3 it is also a manuscript map whose origin is (in actuality) unknown. It has been the centre of much controversy. Adequate reproductions of the complete map are rare, but are to be found in Jomard (1862, no. XVI) and Alba (1951, pi. II). Reproductions of the American sectors are more common, but many lack critical value. The best are those given by Jomard (1862), Stokes (1916, vol. 2, CP1. 1), and Alba (1951, pi. III). Ganong has discussed all the reproductions available as of 1929 critically (1929, pp. 140-2). The map contains no title, but under the miniature of St. Christopher carrying Christ we find the inscription, "Juan de la cosa la fizo en el puerto de S: mj a en año de 1500." The map has therefore been attributed to Juan de la Cosa, and has been given the date of 1500. La Cosa is well known from the early Spanish sources, and seems to have been of Basque origin—having been born in Santa Maria del Puerto (now Santoña) in the province of Santander, in about 1460. He seems to have belonged to a family of navigators, and to have sailed to Africa and Flanders in his youth. In 1492 he was the owner and captain of the caravel "Santa Maria," and when his ship became Columbus's flagship he remained its master and became pilot of the fleet. La Cosa's ship was lost in this first voyage, for which he was recompensed by Their Most Catholic Majesties. In 1493 La Cosa sailed with the second expedition as captain of the "Niña" and as "Master Chart Maker," accompanying Columbus on his exploration along the south coast of Cuba. Between 1496 and 1499 La Cosa engaged in private business along the Bay of Biscay. In the latter year Captain Alonso Hojeda commissioned him to act as chief pilot on the expedition which he was organizing to sail to the Indies, and on which Amerigo Vespucius had the office of cosmographer. This fleet sailed from the Puerto de Santa Maria to Paría, visited the island of La Margarita, and proceeded to Hispaniola, where an altercation arose with the major of the island which La Cosa successfully mediated. La Cosa returned to Spain in 1500, only to sail back to the Indies in 1501 in company with Rodrigo de Bastidas. Returning to Spain, La Cosa acted as pilot and cartographer, and as agent to the King, and took advantage of the interlude to present Her Majesty with two new charts of the Indies. In 1504 he sailed once more as Captain General of four ships and explored La Margarita, the Gulf of Cumaná, Cartagena, and the Gulf of Darien. La Cosa returned to Spain in

FIG. 24. The New World according to the La Cosa planisphere. The stippled areas indicate the edge of the map or holes in the vellum. Drawn from Harrisse ( 1892 pi. II and pp 412-15 ) Stokes (1916, vol. 2, CP1. 1), Ganong (1929, figs. 1 and 6), Nunn (1934), and Alba (1951, pis. II and III).

FIG. 25. Diagrammatic sketch of the La Cosa chart, showing gross differences in execution. Dark cross-hatch indicates configurations in white with green outline; vertical ruling indicates red outline; horizontal ruling, configurations in solid green; black, islands in solid colour other than green; stippling, holes in the vellum. Drawn from Jomard (1862, pi. XVI: 1) and Alba (1951, pis. II and III).

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1506; briefly busied himself with royal commissions; and then sailed again to the Indies in 1507—not, however, before he had "traced out the Royal Plan, or General Marine Chart, which under the direction of the Trading Department of Seville, was being carefully got up in view of every new particular being noted and brought home by the Exploring Expeditions." In 1509 La Cosa left on his last expedition, losing his life at Cartagena in 1510 (Traynor, 1912, pp. 546-55). Thus La Cosa, whose name is associated with the chart now under consideration, was one of the chief pilots and navigators of Spain, an explorer of the West Indies and of the Venezuelan coast, a contemporary and confrère of Columbus, a cartographer, and one of the founders and drafters of the first "Padrón Real." If the map and its configurations are his, we would expect it to be of great accuracy and importance, and to have been influential in cartographical circles. An analysis of the chart shows it to exhibit at least two different styles—one for the Old World and one for the New. The Old World configurations are drawn in the manner customary for the period, in white outlined by green or red ink, with detailed nomenclature, numerous loxodrome points with thirty-two radiants, and, away from coasts, various miniatures depicting churches, castles, sovereigns seated on their thrones, saints and other holy figures, as well as legendary beings. In contrast, the mainland of the New World is presented in a solid green broken only by conventionalized rivers. Placenames appear only along certain sectors of the coasts. The supposed strait between North and South America, best shown on the Maggiolo of 1508, is covered by a rectangle containing a miniature of St. Christopher bearing Christ. Immediately to the east of the West Indies, within a compass rose, is another miniature, albeit of a rather unusual nature, having been engraved, printed on paper, pasted within the furnished space, and illuminated in the appropriate colours. In South Africa is another such space, but here the printed paper has either been removed or fallen out. The compass roses represent at least five different styles (Traynor, 1912, p. 558; Ganong, 1929, fig. 1; and Alba, 1951, pi. II). Turning to the configurations themselves (figs. 24 and 25) we note that North America is represented with a continuous coastline, only the northern and eastern part of which contains names, however. From the arctic regions the coast runs south in two points, and then sweeps to the west. The nomenclature which appears here has suffered from the vicissitudes of time, and is therefore somewhat difficult to decipher. Three versons are given in Table V; that by Ganong is probably most accurate, though the others cannot be ignored. On the continent, to the north of the word "jusquei" (or "los sep . . .") are "two unintelligible and half-effaced words," placed upside-down, which Harrisse read as "cetra si terra" (Harrisse, 1892, p. 414). These do not appear in Alba's photographic reproduction (1951, pi. III). No more placenames appear to the west of the "Mar descubierto por inglese." After forming several capes the coast curves to the south, with red or blue islands scattered off-shore. To the south is Cuba represented as an island, with a shape similar to that given on the Canerio, Cantino, and Pesaro charts. Jamaica appears a little to the

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TABLE V Harrisse, 1892, p. 414

Ganong, 1929, pp. 150-67

Alba, 1951, p. 15

Y. verde S. grigor Cauo de ynglaterra C. Sastanatre Agron Cauo de S. iohan S. nicolas isla de la trenidat r° longo Forte (Fonte) Argare (Argair) meniste S. luzia C° de Usarte lusquei Requilia C" de S. luzia Ansre lago fori c. de s. Jorge Cauo descubierto Mar descubierto por inglese

Y. berde (verde) S: grigor Cauo de ynglaterra C. Fastanatre Agron cauo de s. iohan S. nicolas Isla de la trenidat Ro. longo Forte argare Meniste C° de usarte S Luzia Jusquei Requilea Co. de S. Luzia Ansro (Austo) lago fori C" de s: Jorge cauo descubierto mar descubierto por inglese

Y": verde C: grago Cauo de ynglaterra c . . . slin opon cauo de s. iohan S matias illa de la trenidat . . . longo fo.te meniste C° de Usarte S luys Los sep . . . . . . tias C° de S. luzia gosfica lago so ... C" de S: Jorge C° . . . s mar descubierto por inglese

southeast, and "laespanola" to the east. On the South American continent placenames first appear on the Peninsula de la Guajira and are found almost to the eastern tip of Bra/il. In its eastern configurations the map follows the conventional Ptolemies of the period, except that the islands of Zanzibar and Madagascar appear in the Indian Ocean. As we have already indicated, news of the discovery of Madagascar did not reach Europe until 1502. (Jomard, 1862, no. XVI; Ganong, 1929, fig. 1; and Alba, 1951, pis. II and III. ) Besides the incorrect date of 1500 given below the St. Christopher miniature, other problems arise in the course of any careful study of this map. Cuba, for example, is represented as an island, while the textual accounts tell us that Cuba was not determined to be an island until 1506 or 1508. However, since this also occurs on the Cantino, we cannot make too much of this. North America is shown to be a mainland stretching from the Arctic to the equator— but Florida was not discovered, as far as we know, until about 1511, and the coast was not explored until 1524. Why is the miniature of St. Christopher placed in the exact position where the Maggiolo of c.1508 depicts a strait to the "Western Ocean"? What is the origin of the northern coastline labelled as having been discovered by the English? Does this latter configuration reflect influence of the Pesaro? An understanding of the chart requires a critical consideration of these questions. Nunn, one of the few critical students of the La Cosa chart, concluded that: It has been shown above that the La Cosa map shows evidence of exploration of the coast of South America west of Cabot de la bêla to Central America. It makes of South America the peninsula of southeastern Asia, believed in by Behaim and other late fifteenth century geographers. It shows evidence of both the Cabot voyages. It shows evidence of exploration of southern Brazil after 1503 at least. It

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shows the island group in the South Atlantic Ocean which corresponds to the Tristan da Cunha islands. Some of this information was not available to La Cosa at the earliest before 1504, and some of it probably not before 1507 or 1508. In that case there is no difficulty in accounting for an Island Cuba on the La Cosa map. It is idle to endeavour to fix the date of the map through the activities of Juan de la Cosa himself because it is now a practical certainty that the copy of the map we now know is not the work of La Cosa himself. It is only a copy, maybe several times removed, from the original work of La Cosa. Harrisse wrote "When we see so many names (on the map) to which no meaning can be ascribed, although the letters in a number of instances are legible, and that this imperfect nomenclature is also seen in regions which we know to have been visited by the cartographer whose name figures on the map, it becomes a question whether the manuscript chart preserved in the National Museum at Madrid is really an autograph of Juan de la Cosa, or a mere copy of the time, made by some one else." The present writer holds that the La Cosa map in the National Museum at Madrid is a copy and not an original work of La Cosa and dates probably about 1508 instead of 1500. (Nunn, 1934, pp. 51-2.) Our observation of the occurrence of Madagascar on the chart is therefore one of many which indicate the commonly accepted attribution and date to be spurious. Consideration of the corruptions evident in the nomenclature, as well as of the various artistic styles, raises the question as to whether the various configurations and styles shown on this one map can be the work of one artist—or copyist—and whether all these styles are contemporary. Stated another way, we may ask whether the La Cosa not only is a copy of a copy, but also consists of additions of varying date. The test of such a theory would be to attempt to relate the configurations with those of other charts and to get some indication of the dates at which various additions may have been made. We may first look at that part of the American coast directly west of England and France which bears a nomenclature seemingly describing English explorations (fig. 24). The first problem which presents itself is whether the features of such a coastline are reproduced on any other charts. Such a westward sweeping configuration has already been discussed, however, in connection with the Kunstmann No. 3, and a list of other maps on which it appears has been given. To these we may add the Vesconte de Maggiolo chart of 1535 (Bean, 1950) and the Antonio Salamanca of 1538 ( Nunn, 1933 ). We need go no further, however, than the Kunstmann No. 3, as a glance at figure 26 will demonstrate. Here the Kunstmann configuration is placed on that of the La Cosa, the former rotated slightly clockwise. The relationships between the representations of the two maps thus become obvious, and include: (a) the correspondence of the Kunstmann's Newfoundland-Labrador coast with that of the La Cosa; ( b ) the correspondence of the Kunstmann's westward sweeping coast with that of the La Cosa; (c) the correspondence of the Kunstmann's Avalon Peninsula—Nova Scotia configuration with the La Cosa's "isla de la trenidat," placed opposite the "Cauo de S. iohan." These points of similarity seem to indicate a close relationship between these two maps, and possibly the existence of a common prototype for this configuration.

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FIG. 26. Outline map comparing the Kunstmann No. 3 map (cross-hatch, with small islands in black) with the La Cosa chart (stipple).

The correspondence of the "isla de la trenidat" of the La Cosa with the Avalon Peninsula—Nova Scotia representation of the Kunstmann No. 3 may be explored still further, for the La Cosa map shows many placenames in the vicinity of this configuration, and some of these are related to Newfoundland or Nova Scotian placenames found on other maps. Proceeding from east to west, the first name to appear on the La Cosa is "Y. berde" or "verde," placed below an island immediately east of the eastern tip of the Kunstmann-like representation. An "Ule verde" appears on the Jean Rotz map of 1542 ( PAG 234 ) west of the Miquelon group, while the Harleian (PAC 241) and the Desceliers of 1546 (PAG 293) show an "ya verde" in the same location (Harrisse, 1900, pp. 207-10, pi. XIII). Modern charts show a "Green I." between Miquelon and Burin Peninsula, and a "Bay de Verde" on Grates Point on the west side of Conception Bay. Immediately west of the "Y. berde" we find the name "S. grigor" or "c:grago," which may be related to the "Groga y" of the Pesaro. Next we find the legend "Cauo de ynglaterra" placed on the southeasternmost tip of the Kunstmann-like mainland, which seems to correspond to the modern "Cape English" west of Cape Race. And further to the west we find "Cauo de S. iohan," apparently referring to the mainland. On the Miller of c.1521 the passage between part of the Avalon Peninsula and the remainder of Newfoundland is designated the "R.: de sam johan" (Harrisse, 1900, p. 85). This name also appears in this location on the Desliens of 1541 (PAG 210) and the Joham Freiré of 1546 (PAG 294). On the Boulogne Atlas of the first part of the sixteenth century, on the Vatican Mural Map of c.1560, and on the Joan Martines maps

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of 1580 and 1583 we find in this location the name "G. de S. Joan" (Harrisse, 1900, pp. 254-59). On modern charts, of course, we find "St. John's Peninsula" east of Conception Bay above Cape Race on the Avalon Peninsula. The next name in the series—Harrisse's and Ganong's "S. nicolas" and Alba's "S. matias"—does not occur on other maps in these forms. If the second of these readings is the more correct we may postulate that it is a corruption of "S. Maria," which is placed immediately west of Cape Race on many early charts (see Harrisse, 1900, pp. 106, 110, 229, 230, 233-4, 241, 247, 259). The name of the island, "isla de la trenidat," may be related to a variant which first appears on the Hendrick Doncker map of the second part of the seventeenth century, and on an anonymous English-German chart of 1671-1711 (Harrisse, 1900, pp. 287-90). On these charts we find the name already in its modern location and referring to Trinity Bay between Cape Bonavista and the Avalon Peninsula. Immediately west of the "isla de la trenidat," placed off the mainland, we find V longo." On both the Miller of c.1521 and Diogo Homem of 1558 (PAC 423) we find a "R. grande" immediately west of the Avalon Peninsula (Harrisse, 1900, pp. 85, 243). From these correspondences in placenames and in locations we may deduce considerable probability for the thesis that the "Isla de la trenidat" of the La Cosa represents the Avalon Peninsula, and such a deduction has been advanced by both Ganong (1929) and Davis (1956). Both of these envisaged a correlation as represented on figure 27, with the "isla de la trenidat" area falling near the Avalon Peninsula (with minor variations in detail), and the east-west coast labelled as "discovered by the English" representing the south coast of Newfoundland. Ganong differs from Davis in identifying the extreme western end of this coast "discovered by the English" (A on fig. 27), with the northernmost tip of Cape Breton (B on fig. 27), since this latter location is designated by the legend "prima terra iusta" on the Sebastian Cabot map of 1544 which was thought to refer to John Cabot's first landfall (Ganong, 1929, pp. 150-61). Davis, on the other hand, while also considering this feature on the La Cosa map as reflecting the explorations of John Cabot, argued that the west end of the coast "discovered by the English" (A on fig. 27) actually represented the coast of New Brunswick, while the coastline between the points marked by "8" and "A" on figure 27 actually indicates "the track of the Matthew and it fits the sea passage between New Brunswick and Newfoundland" (Davis, 1956, pp. 28-9). While Davis' hypothesis is most ingenious, a consideration of other early cartographical sources indicates Ganong's proposal to be the more probable. The Kunstmann No. 3 is of crucial importance in this respect, for we have seen that the land configuration placed immediately to the south of the "cabo de côçepicion" can be identified not only as the Avalon Peninsula but as the east coast of Cape Breton and Nova Scotia as well! Furthermore, consideration of other maps such as the Ruysch and Maggiolo of c.1508, the Pesaro, and the Freducci Prototype (see fig. 20) would also seem to support the view that land was discovered somewhere south of Newfoundland. The Kunstmann No. 3 and the La Cosa seem to represent two extreme position taken by cartographers

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FIG. 27. Outline map comparing the northeastern configuration of the La Cosa map with the actual geographical configurations of the Gulf of St. Lawrence region, following Ganong and Davis. The scales are not the same. The numbers indicate important placenames on the La Cosa discussed in the text, as follows: (1) "y. berde (verde)": (2) "s grigor"; (3) "cauo de ynglaterra"; (4) "cauo de s. iohan"; (5) "isla de la trenidat": (6) "r° longo": (7) "C°: de S. luzia"; (8) "c: de s Jorge". "A" represents the westernmost end of the coast "discovered by the English," considered by Ganong to actually represent the northernmost point of Cape Breton, "B" where the legend "prima terra iusta" appears on the Sebastian Cabot map of 1544.

of the period as to whether this southern land was in the same longitude as the Avalon Peninsula, or to the west of it. The Pesaro chart seems to represent a rival hypothesis. The similarities existing between the La Cosa chart and the Kunstmann No. 3 imply that these two charts are roughly contemporaneous, and that the La Cosa actually, therefore, dates after 1508. This deduction concerning the late origin of the La Cosa receives even further support if we compare its configurations with those of the Verrazano (fig. 28), for we find a striking correspondence between the "central" coastline of the La Cosa and the "Luisa-Refugio" configuration of the latter chart. The similarities include the general curvature of the coast, the occurrence of features on the La Cosa resembling the "armelline sirtes" and "angolemme" of the Verrazano, and the appearance of a "Luisa"-like island (compare figs. 28 and 36). This correspondence is too striking to be

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FIG. 28. Outline map comparing the Verrazano chart of 1529 (cross-hatch) with the La Cosa chart (stipple). Notice the general similarity of configurations, especially that relating to the "Luisa-Refugio" region of the former map.

mere coincidence. If the representations of the Verrazano derive from the 1524 voyage of Verrazano—and there is very strong evidence for this, as will be seen— the configurations of the La Cosa resembling those of the Verrazano map must be more recent in origin. All these varied considerations of the La Cosa—the internal evidence, the evidence of the placenames, the similarities with the Kunstmann No. 3 and the Verrazano—all point to the same conclusion. The La Cosa map cannot be considered as an authentic and valid production. At the worst it would seem to be a forgery; at the least, a copy many times removed from a La Cosa original, and bearing many later additions of questionable origin. Its use in historical reconstruction of early exploration would seem to be inexcusable and evidence of extreme myopia. Unfortunately, such tendencies seem to be remarkably persistent, and have recently even led to the postulation of innumerable "unknown" voyages by John Cabot between 1490 and 1498, despite the known presence of John Cabot in Spain from 1491 to 1493 (True, 1956; Ballesteros-Gaibrois, 1943). The so-

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called La Cosa map does, in tact, preserve evidence of early English exploration on the coasts of North America, as has been claimed, but these voyages were those of Sebastian Cabot around 1508. The La Cosa map is not unique in this— much better sources exist and have already been discussed. THE FAGUNDES AND MILLER TRADITIONS Those maps which display Fagundes placenames, and which therefore may be taken as deriving from the Fagundes explorations, but at the same time predating the explorations of Verrazano and Gomez, seem to fall into two traditions: one constituted by the Pedro Reinel (PAG 58) and the Portuguese-Munich (PAG 76), which may be designated the Fagundes tradition; and one constituted by the Miller I (PAG 59) and the Lange (PAC 61), which may termed the Miller tradition. The first (and presumably oldest) of these traditions displays a Newfoundland configuration derived almost without change from the Cantino, although a new nomenclature is in evidence; the second, by contrast, displays many borrowings from the Pesaro-Freducci or Cabotan tradition as well as new features possibly original with Fagundes. The Pedro Reinel (see fig. 29) probably represents a stray sheet from some important atlas or portulano. The map is undated, but bears the legend "Pedro Reinel a fez." Pedro Reinel cannot, however, be identified. The chart displays only Portuguese discoveries. Newfoundland is represented by a rugged north and south trending coast, which is bracketed by straits running into the continent. To the north appears a nameless coast running east and west—which seems to represent modern Labrador and not Greenland, as usually asserted. The names appearing upon the Newfoundland configuration are, from north to south: y. dafintuna y. datonnenta C. demarco Sam joham Sam pedro y. dos saues C. das gamas

C. de bôaventura y. de bôaventura C. domarco y. de freyluis y. de sicyluis b. de santacizia y. des bacalhaos

b. da comçeiçâ C. deespera R. daspata R. de sam francisco C. Raso Santa Cruz Samjohâ

We may also note the close resemblance between the Newfoundland configuration as shown upon this chart and that of the Portuguese-Munich map of c.1519, as well as a number of others ( see fig. 22 ). The Portuguese-Munich map ( PAC 76 ) shown in figure 30 bears no name, date, or title. It shows Yucatan, usually considered to have been discovered in 1517, and the results of Balboa's discoveries in 1518, but does not show the results of Cortes' explorations in 1519 or of Magellan's voyage. It has therefore usually been considered to date from around 1519. It has sometimes been attributed to Jorge Reinel. The map shows, north of Mexico and "Terra Bimini" (Florida), a configuration which apparently represents Nova Scotia and Cape Breton, on the eastern corner of which is the legend, "Terra que foy descuberta por bertômes." To the north is a strait running into the continent, and another configuration en-

FIG. 29. The Pedro Reinel chart, drawn from Kunstmann (1859, Atlas, pi. I) and Winter (1937, p. 61).

FIG. 30. The Portuguese-Munich map of "c.1519," drawn from Kunstmann (1859, Atlas, pi. IV) with most nomenclature omitted on the southern configurations.

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titled "Bacalnaos." To the west is a long Latin inscription which reads, in translation: "This land was first discovered by Gaspar Cortereal, a Portuguese, and he brought from there wild and barbarous men and white bears. There are to be found in it many animals, birds, and fish. In the following year he was shipwrecked and did not return; the same happened to his brother Michael in the next year." To the north, across another strait running into the continent, we find the land "do lavrador," along with an inscription reading, "Terrain istam portugalensis viderüt átame nom intraverunt." The distinguishing and most important feature of these two maps is, as we have already seen, the presence of a nomenclature which is positively identified as deriving from an exploration by Fagundes in letters-patent dated May 22, 1521. The distribution of these placenames is shown in figure 10, in which the Fagundes names are indicated by black circles, and "substitutes" or related names ( such as "ylha de Johâ estevës," "p. da Cruz," and "r. de sam Johan" ) with black squares. This analysis indicates that Fagundes carried out his early explorations on the eastern and southern Newfoundland coasts, and not on the coasts of Cape Breton and Nova Scotia, as was concluded by both Harrisse and Ganong. This latter view derived from the basic assumption that Cortereal's grant applied to all of Newfoundland's east coast, which was therefore closed to other explorers. In Ganong (1930, p. 137) we find the passage, for example: the document does show that Fagundes, in the year 1520 or earlier, did explore, and give place-names, in a region between that visited by the Cortereals (i.e., Labrador and the east coast of Newfoundland), and the line of demarcation between the Portuguese and Spanish territories. The position of this line on the land had never been determined, and was so indefinite as to leave large leeway for exploration in its general vicinity. Everything in the document would therefore point to an exploration by Fagundes west and south of Cape Race,—or at least of Placentia Bay, where the Cortereals ended their mapping, as shown, with a reason therefore, in the preceding paper. .. . In the specified paper (Ganong, 1929, pp. 163-4) Ganong has identified the Newfoundland configuration as that shown on the Cantino chart, and has derived it from the explorations of Cortereal. From here, it is a simple step to consider this chart as defining the limits of the Cortereal grant. The tenuous nature of this association is obvious however. Not only is there no direct evidence deriving the configurations of the Cantino, Canerio, and other early maps from the explorations of the Cortereals—or at least exclusively from these explorations—but there is also no evidence directly relating to the Cortereal grant. Neither is there any evidence that the names "Terra Cortereal" or "Terra de Laurador" indicate anything other than Portuguese recognition of their Portuguese discoverers or explorers. Furthermore, whatever the limits of the early grants, we have no reason to assume that they would still be considered valid and binding eighteen or nineteen years later, and after the decease or default of the grantees. Both Harrisse and Ganong made another basic assumption: namely, that Fagundes' grant applied to the area of southern Newfoundland and Cape Breton, since the more northern regions were spoken for, and that the Fagundes names are therefore to be sought for only in this region. The influence of this assump-

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tion on the thinking of Harrisse and Ganong is illustrated by the fact that neither identified the Newfoundland east coast names with those stated as deriving from Fagundes, or even gave indications of having considered them in this light. Since such names as "baya d'auguoada," "sam Joam," "sam Pedro," "santa Ana," and "santo Antonio" occur only on the east coast, we may understand why Harrisse and Ganong encountered considerable difficulty in attempting to locate them in the Cape Breton sector (Harrisse, 1892, pp. 186-7; Ganong, 1930, pp. 150-4). This situation is even more astonishing in view of the fact that these east Newfoundland names often occur on the same charts as other Fagundes names that were noted by these writers. As we have seen in an earlier chapter, the Fagundes materials include not only the maps and placenames discussed here, but also statements to the effect that Fagundes discovered "Terra Nova" or "Cabo Bretâo," and established a colony there. Without casting doubts upon the validity of these claims we may note that the maps now under consideration give no indications of extensive explorations of the Cape Breton-Nova Scotia area before 1521. Cartographical evidence does exist which reflects such Portuguese activity in these waters, but it is later than the period now under consideration. The detailed cartography of the south Newfoundland coast which appears on such maps as the Freducci, Miller I, Lange, Castiglioni, and Ribero (both the 1527 and 1529 charts) seems to have other origins, as we have seen. It is the presence of this more detailed representation on the Miller I (PAC 59) and Lange (PAC 61) maps that requires us to place them in a separate cartographical tradition (see fig. 31). The nomenclature associated with this improved representation still derives in part from Fagundes' early voyages, however. The cartographical results of the explorations undertaken by him after 1521 are clearly portrayed for us only on the Homem maps of the 1550's (see chap. xv). CONCLUSIONS Turning from our detailed study of specific early charts to a consideration of the implications of this material for the history of cartographical development, it is obvious that the Harrisse hypothesis that the cartography of North America exploded into full flower within a few years of the initial discovery is invalid and without foundation. The European image of North America actually seems to have developed through a process of slow and painful accretion, with many maps representing abortive efforts to synthesize logical configurations out of fragmentary and confusing information. This seems to have been particularly true in the Newfoundland area, where a combination of rugged and complex coastlines, persistent fogbanks, and dangerous ice conditions caused the loss of many expeditions and kept the cartographers baffled for over a century. The cartographical history of North America begins, as far as we can tell, with the Cantino chart of 1502, which summarized what was then known in Portugal from the Spanish explorations in the Caribbean, Fernandes' explorations of Greenland in 1500, and Cortereal's explorations in 1500 and 1501. The influence of this map was very great, and its configurations were widely copied and dissemi-

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nated, becoming, in the process, associated with geographical concepts deriving from spurious Vespucius documents. The Cantino chart and its direct derivatives constitute the Cantino tradition. The birth of the Cantino tradition was soon followed by that of the King tradition, whose representatives seem to depict information deriving from the 1503 expedition in search of the Cortereal brothers, and possibly also from the joint English-Portuguese expedition to Greenland in the same year. In contrast to the maps of the Cantino tradition, those of the King tradition seem to have remained relatively unknown. The Contarini of 1506—the sole example of a presumed Contarini traditionseems to represent an attempt to reconcile the divergent cartographical representations of the Cantino and of the maps of the King tradition. The Newfoundland-Greenland representation follows that of the King tradition, but has been modified to constitute a solid landmass—a landmass which, furthermore, is depicted as a peninsula of Asia. The Caribbean-South American configuration seems more related to that of the Cantino, but the island of Cuba is correctly placed and designated, and the "Vespucius" configuration to the west has been replaced by "zïpàgu." The Newfoundland-Greenland hypothesis in evidence on the Contarini appears to be more or less directly antecedent to the representations which appear on the Maggiolo of 1508, the Ruysch of 1508, and the Maggiolo of 1511. Although these maps vary greatly in many respects their treatment of the Newfoundland-Greenland configuration not only shows derivation from, or affiliation with, that of the Contarini tradition, but also displays the first cartographical evidence of the Sebastian Cabot expedition of 1508. This evidence is most clearly portrayed on the Maggiolo of 1508, which carries the legend "Terra de los bachalaos" as well as a large bay or gulf to the west of Cape Race. The Ruysch does not display this legend in this form, but has instead "In Baccalavras." To the west of Cape Race ("C. de Portogesi") and at the entrance to the gulf, are two islands. These islands also seem to appear, in slightly variant form, on the Maggiolo of 1511. The Newfoundland-Greenland configurations shown on these three maps therefore share the distinction of seeming to portray new and unique cartographical features deriving from the Cabot exploration of around 1508. In this respect, therefore, these three maps may be considered representatives of a new tradition, here termed the Maggiolo. The maps of the Maggiolo tradition may either be considered as portraying tentative or preliminary drafts of the geographical discoveries of the Cabot expedition, or as portraying dim and confused echoes of these discoveries. The first of these alternatives is represented on figure 31, but both may actually be present on the materials. Thus, the Maggiolo of 1508, with its carefully detailed cartography of other sections of the New World and of Europe, probably displays a preliminary version of the new Cabotan cartography of Newfoundland; the Ruysch of 1508 and the Maggiolo of 1511 may possibly represent corruptions of this Cabotan cartography. With the Pesaro chart the evidence of corruption and confusion is unmistakable, but at the same time the use of a greatly expanded

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nomenclature reveals an ultimate derivation from a much more elaborate body of information. Comparison of the Pesaro with the Freducci, and inspection of the Freducci configurations, leads to the conclusion that the latter map is the sole surviving example of the cartography compiled during the 1508 voyage, and that the so-called Freducci Prototype may have been a Cabot map. Insofar as the Pesaro displays a close relationship to the Freducci through its nomenclature it may be considered to fall within the same cartographical tradition.

FIG. 31. Interrelationship of early cartographical traditions with respect to the Newfoundland configuration. Abbreviations: EXP., expedition; EXPL., exploration; EXPLS., explorations.

The cartographical information reflected most adequately in the Freducci chart seems to have greatly influenced later cartographers, for its nomenclature and configurations can be traced on the Portuguese-Munich and Pedro Reinel of the Fagundes tradition, the Miller I and Lange of the Miller tradition, on maps of the Ribero and later Spanish traditions, and also on the Kunstmann No. 3 and the La Cosa. Its influence upon the first of these traditions is the least pronounced, for, although this shows the great bay or gulf west of Cape Race as well as the Cabotan nomenclature, the Newfoundland representation is a very close copy of that on the Cantino chart. On the Miller tradition, however, the influence of the Cabotan discoveries has caused the revision of the entire southern Newfoundland configuration. The effects of the Cabotan discoveries are even more pronounced upon the charts of the Ribero tradition, which initiated a long line of

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well known Spanish maps. Only the charts of the Verrazano tradition constitute exceptions to this acceptance of the Cabotan cartography—the Newfoundland configuration here again following that first portrayed on the Cantino. This tradition, however, seems to represent the last time the Cantino configuration appears in an unmodified form. The cartographical controversy between the exponents of the Cantino, King, and Cabotan forms of the Newfoundland configuration which is illustrated in concrete form on the Pesaro chart as well as by the Maggiolo, Fagundes, and Miller traditions also seems to underlie the unique configurations of the Kunstmann No. 3 and the La Cosa. Both of these last charts seems to represent attempts to reconcile the Cabotan cartography with such older or competing concepts. Both, therefore, are much later than customarily dated, and evidence can even be brought forth indicating that the La Cosa underwent modification after 1524.

CHAPTER VIII

The Voyages of Verrazano, Cartier, Gomez, and the English I N THE YEAH 1523 France took her first official interest in the New World in

which her fishing fleets were so active, sending out an expedition of exploration under the leadership of one Giovanni da Verrazano, a Florentine. The sources relating to the voyage of this explorer derive largely from the letter which he wrote in 1524 to his employer, Francis I, King of France. Three versions of this paper are known: the Florentine recension, the Ramusio recension, and that appearing in the Caliere Codex. The Florentine version of the Verrazano voyage is represented by the Florentine manuscript, preserved in the National Library of Florence, and by a fragment derived from this manuscipt and preserved at the Academy of Cimento (Bacchiani, 1910, p. 141). The first of these is in a running hand of the late sixteenth century, apparently of one Antonio Petri, who copied the text from a manuscript letter apparently sent by Ferando Carli in Lyons to his father in Florence in 1524 (Brevoort, 1874, p. 32). The version was first published in English by Greene (Verrazano, 1841), was reprinted in the original Italian by Arcangeli (1853), and by Berchet (Verrazano, 1893). The Florentine version can be best described as a poor copy of an atrocious text. The manuscript is full of Latinisms and infiltrations of Tuscan; senseless words often appear; some sentences have no beginning and no end; and meanings are frequently lost sight of (Brevoort, 1874, p. 32; and Bacchiani, 1910, p. 156). With the Ramusio version the situation is somewhat different, the text being over-edited and over-polished, with subsequent loss of meaning. In some sections we even find that Ramusio added a few embellishments, some of which were of not a little importance. This text first appeared in Ramusio's Terzo Volume delle navigationi et viaggi... of 1565 (pp. 420-2), and was published in English translation by Richard Hakluyt in 1582 and 1600. In the case of the Cèllere Codex, however, the situation is radically different. Two handwritings appear on the manuscript. The text itself is in the hand of a secretary, and is elegant, clear, and of an elongated round style. In content it is generally similar to that of the Florentine version. The second hand employs the

FIG. 32. Comparison of configurations on a modern chart with those on the Maggiolo map of 1527 and on the Verrazano map of 1529. Notice the relative locations of ( A ) , New York Harbor, (B), Narragansett Bay, and ( C ) , Cape Cod.

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cursive style common among Tuscan merchants of the early sixteenth century, and is hurried and careless of blots and erasures; it adds marginal notes, particulars, episodes, and observations which are entirely new. It thus seems that it is an original manuscript (Bacchiani, 1910, p. 144). A note appearing on the last page states that the document was addressed to Tomaso Sartini and Bonaccorso Rucellai, the latter a close friend of the house of Verrazano ( Bacchiani, 1910, pp. 145-7). This and other clues lead to the conclusion that Cèllere Codex is a semiautographic manuscript, perhaps written before the official report was filed with Francis I. (Bacchiani, 1910, pp. 151,148; and Ganong, 1931, p. 171). The text itself shows that we are dealing with the work of a man of letters. The humanistic culture of the Renaissance is everywhere in evidence, particularly in the cosmographical appendix, in which Verrazano's empirical philosophy appears with great clarity: . . . My intention was in this navigation to reach Cathay and the extreme east of Asia, not expecting to find such an obstacle of new land, as I found; and if for some reason I expected to find it, I thought it to be not without some strait to penetrate to the Eastern Ocean. And this has been the opinion of all the ancients, believing certainly our Western Ocean to be one with the Eastern Ocean of India without interposition of land. This Aristotle affirms, arguing by many similitudes, which opinion is very contrary to the moderns and according to experience untrue. . . . (Bacchiani, 1910, p. 200.) The picture of Verrazano which thus emerges is in sharp contrast to the dim reflections to be found in the Florentine and Ramusio copies (Ganong, 1931, p. 172). The Cèllere Codex, which fundamentally changed previously held opinions concerning Verrazano, was discovered in the Cèllere collection in 1909 (Bacchiani, 1910, p. 142). It was reproduced in facsimile by Stokes in 1916 (vol. 2, pp. 166-71, and CP1. 60-81), first published by Bacchiani in 1909, and translated into English in 1910 (Bacchiani, 1910). The probable relations of this text with the others just discussed may be illustrated by the following diagram, where the asterisks indicate lost recensions (Bacchiani, 1910, p. 165).

The evidence for a Verrazano voyage as presented by these manuscripts is supported by numerous references from independent sources, such as the letters of the Portuguese ambassador to France ( da Silveira, 1523; and Andrada, 1613, part 1, chaps. 13-14, fol. 13, 14; in Harrisse, 1892, p. 223), and on the map made in 1529 by Giovanni's brother.

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With these considerations we may consider the authenticity of the Verrazano voyage sufficiently established for our purposes, and may proceed to the examination of the relation itself. Sailing from a deserted island of the Madeiras, Verrazano first made a landfall in the latitude of 34° N. finding a low-lying coast with no harbours. After sailing to the south for some 50 leagues (159 nautical miles), he turned to the north to avoid the Spaniards, and made port at his original landfall, where he found that the natives o nude of everything except that at the private parts they wear some skins of ñanimals ttle animals like martens, a girdle of fine grass woven with various tails of other which hang around the body as far as the knees; the rest nude; the head

likewise. Some wear certain garlands of feathers of birds. They are of dark color not much unlike the Ethiopians, and hair black and thick, and not very long, which they tie together back on the head in the shape of a little tail. As to the symmetry of the man, they are well proportioned, of medium stature, and rather exceed us. In the breast they are broad, their arms well built, the legs and other parts of the body well put together. There is nothing else, except that they incline somewhat to broadness in the face; but not all, for in more we saw the face clear-cut. The eyes black and large, the glance intent and quick. They are not of much strength, in craftiness acute, agile, and the greatest runners . . . (Bacchiani, 1910, pp. 180-1.) Near this land, which was named "Annunciata," "from the day of arrival," Verrazano "found an isthmus a mile in width and about 200 long, in which, from the ship, was seen the oriental sea between the west and north. . . . We navigated along the said isthums with the continual hope of finding some strait or true promontory at which the land would end toward the north in order to be able to penetrate to those blessed shores of Cathay. To which isthmus was given by the discoverer [the name Isthmus] Verrazanio: as all the land found was named Francesco for our Francis." (Bacchiani, 1910, p. 185.) Proceeding northward from this isthmus, which was undoubtedly the Carolina Cape, the expedition came "to another land which appeared much more beautiful and full of the largest forests" (Bacchiani, 1910, p. 186). The natives were here found to be lighter colored than those past, dressed in certain grasses which grow, pendent from the branches of the trees, which they weave with various ends of wild hemp. The head bare in the same form as the others. Their food in general is of pulse with which they abound, differing in color and size from ours, of excellent and delectable flavor; also, from hunting, fishes and birds, which they take with bows and with snares. They make [the bows] of tough wood, the arrows of reeds, placing at the extremities bones of fishes and of other animals. The beasts in this part are much wilder than in our Europe because they are continually molested by the hunters. We saw many of their barges constructed from a single tree twenty feet long, four wide, which are not fabricated with stones, iron or other kind of metals, because in all this land, in the space of two hundred leagues which we traveled, only one stone of any species was seen by us. They aid themselves with the fourth element, burning such part of the wood as suffices for the hollow of the barge, also of the stern and prow, so that, navigating, it is possible to plough the waves of the sea. . . . We did not learn about their habitations on account of their being within, inland. We think, on account of many signs we saw, they are composed of wood and grass, believing also from various

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FIG. 33. Verrazano's voyage of 1524, showing the course up the Atlantic coast of North America.

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conjectures and signs, that many of them, sleeping on the ground, have nothing for cover except the sky. We did not learn else of them. . . . (Bacchiani, 1910, pp. 186-7.)

Leaving this land, which they named "Arcadia" and which was probably in the area of the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay, the party proceeded up the coast some hundred leagues, until they came to "a very agreeable situation located within two small prominent hills, in the midst of which flowed to the sea a very great river, which was deep within the mouth; and from the sea to the hills of that [place] with the rising of the tides, which we found eight feet, any laden ship might have passed" (Bacchiani, 1910, pp. 188-9). Investigating this harbour with a small boat, Verrazano found an abundant aboriginal population, which greeted him with signs of joy. This locality has been identified as New York Harbour (Bacchiani, 1910, pp. 155, 189). Before the voyagers could complete their cursory examination of the new bay and river a storm arose, forcing the ship to sea. Sailing to the east, "as thus the land turned," some 80 leagues, they encountered an "island triangular in form, distant ten leagues from the continent, in size like the island of Rhodes, full of hills, covered with trees, much populated [judging] by the continuous fires along all the surrounding shore which we saw they made" ( Bacchiani, 1910, p. 189). This island ("Aloysia") is usually considered to be Block Island, directly east of Long Island. Stokes (1916, vol. 2, p. 14) disagrees, however. Fifteen leagues from this island of "Aloysia" Verrazano found another land, and a "very beautiful port," which he called "Refugio," situated in the parallel of Rome, in forty and two-thirds degrees, but somewhat colder on account of chance and not on account of nature. . . . The shore of said land runs from west to east. The mouth of the port looks toward the south, half a league wide, after entering which between east and north it extends XII leagues, where, widening itself, it makes an ample bay of about XX leagues in circuit. In which are five little islands of much fertility and beauty, full of high and spreading trees, among which any numerous fleet, without fear of tempest or other impediment of fortune, could rest securely. Turning thence toward the south to the entrance of the port, on one side and the other are very charming hills with many brooks, which from the height to the sea discharge clear waters. In the midst of the mouth is found a rock of Petra Viva produced by nature, adapted for the building of any desired engine or bulwark for its protection. . . . (Bacchiani, 1910, pp. 194-5.)

Since Narragansett Bay stands between 41° 30' and 41° 45' N. latitude and corresponds closely with the description given, we may perhaps consider the identity of "Refugio" to be established. Verrazano and his men stayed in this port for fifteen days, collecting water and other supplies, and fraternizing with the natives. We have, as a result, a rather good summary of the life of the natives in the year 1524. . . . Every day the people came to see us at the ship, bringing their women, of whom they are very careful; because, entering the ship themselves, remaining a long time, they made their women stay in the barges, and however many entreaties we made them, offering to give them various things, it was not possible that they would allow

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them to enter the ship. And one of the two Kings coming many times with the Queen and many attendants through their desire to see us, at first always stopped to inform us of their coming, saying they wished to see the ship; doing this for a kind of safety. And when they had the response from us, they came quickly, and having stood awhile to look, hearing the noisy clamour of the sailor crowd, sent the Queen with her damsels in a very light barge to stay on a little island distant from us a quarter of a league; himself remaining a very long time, discoursing by signs and gestures of various fanciful ideas, examining all the equipments of the ship, asking especially their purpose, imitating our manners, tasting our foods, then parted from us benignantly. . . . in that place the fields are from XXV to XXX leagues wide, open and devoid of every impediment of trees, of such fertility that any seed in them would produce the best crops. . . . Animals there are in very great number, stags, deer, lynx, and other species, which, in the way of the others, they capture with snares and bows which are their principal arms. The arrows of whom are worked with great beauty, placing at the end, instead of iron, emery, jasper, hard marble, and other sharp stones, by which they served themselves instead of iron in cutting trees, making their barges from a single trunk of a tree, hollowed with wonderful skill, in which from fourteen to XV men will go comfortably; the short oar, broad at the end, working it solely with the strength of the arms at sea without any peril with as much speed as pleases them. Going further, we saw their habitations, circular in form, of XIIII to XV paces compass, made from semi-circles of wood separated one from the other, without system of architecture, covered with mats of straw ingeniously worked, which protect them from rain and wind. . . . They change said houses from one place to another according to the opulence of the site and the season in which they live. Carrying away only the mats, immediately they have other habitations made. There live in each a father and family to a very large number, so that in some we saw XXV and XXX souls. Their food is like the others: of pulse (which they produce with more system of culture than the others, observing the full moon, the rising of the Pleiades, and many customs derived from the ancients,) also of the chase and fish. They live a long time and rarely incur illness; if they are oppressed with wounds, without crying they cure themselves by themselves with fire, their end being of old age. We judge they are very compassionate and charitable toward their relatives, making them great lamentations in their adversities, in their grief calling to mind all their good fortunes. The relatives, one with another, at the end of their life use the Sicilian lamentation, mingled with singing lasting a long time. This is as much as we were able to learn about them. . . . (Bacchiani, 1910, pp. 192-4.) Leaving "Refugio," Verrazano sailed to the east, passing around Cape Cod, which he termed the "Shoals of Armellino." Turning to the north, he came to the "Land of Bad People," which stood in 43M degrees N. latitude (that is) near the mouth of the Kennebec River, in Maine). Here he found a high land full of very thick forests, the trees of which were pines, cypresses and such as grow in cold regions. The people all different from the others, and as much as those passed were of cultivated manners, these were full of uncouthness and vices, so barbarous that we were never able, with howsoever many signs we made them, to have any intercourse with them. They dress with the skins of bear, lynxes, seawolves, and other animals. The food, according to that which we were able to learn through going many times to their habitations, we think is of the chase, fish and some products which are of a species of roots which the ground yields by its own self. They do not have pulse, nor did we see any signs of cultivation, nor would the ground, on account of its sterility, be adapted to produce fruit or any grain. If, trading at any time with them, we desired their things, they came to the shore of the

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sea upon some rock where it was very steep, and—we remaining in the small boat,— with a cord let down to us what they wished to give, continually crying on land that we should not approach, giving quickly the barter, not taking in exchange for it except knives, hooks for fishing, and sharp metal. They had no regard for courtesy, and when they had nothing more to exchange, at their departing the men made at us all the signs of contempt and shame which any brute creature could make. . . . We do not know any value of any moment in this land except the very great forests, with some hills which possibly have some metal, because on many natives we saw "paternosters" of copper in the ears. . . . (Bacchiani, 1910, pp. 196-7.) Skirting the entrance to the Bay of Fundy, Verrazano came at length "near the land which the Bretons found in the past, which stands in fifty degrees," and having exhausted all of his stores, he turned east and to France ( Bacchiani, 1910, p. 197). Viewed in perspective, Verrazano's achievement stands as an important one. He was the first to explore the gap between the Spanish ventures to the south and the English enterprises to the north; he was the first to establish the continental nature of the "New Founde Land"; and he was the first commander to bring back anything resembling a detailed account of the natives of North America. For his time this was a tremendous accomplishment. Unfortunately, the political situation in Europe made it impossible for the French to follow up the discovery. This was done in part, however, by the Spanish. Both Ayllon and Gomez engaged in explorations along the coast shortly thereafter, and it was undoubtedly these voyagers who established the nonexistence of the "Isthmus of Verrazano." Although French official interest in the "Terre Neuve" thus lagged, the year 1524 saw an important unofficial voyage which bore considerable fruit a decade later. This voyage was apparently conducted by a captain from St. Malo named Jacques Cartier, and served as a preliminary to his official expeditions for the King of France. The evidence for a 1524 voyage by Cartier was first presented by Lanctot (1944), and consists, first, of a mention in 1532 that Cartier had previously visited the "Terre Neuve"; second, the statement made by Father Biard in 1614 that Jacques Cartier discovered the country known as Canada in 1524; and third, the known dates of Cartier's presence at St. Malo. The first of these sources is a "Genealogical Extract of the House of Le Veneur, Counts de Tillieres de Carrouges . . ." written by Judge Henault (1685-1770), president of one of the courts in the Parliament of Paris, member of the French Academy and of the Académie des Inscriptions, and related, through the marriage of a niece, to the House of Le Veneur. This genealogical extract must therefore have been prepared from the archives of the Le Veneur family. The manuscript was preserved in the historical collection of the well-known Norman historian, M. Léon de la Sicotière, and was published in 1931 in Noua Francia, journal of the Société d'histoire du Canada, in Paris ( Henault, 1913; and Lanctot, 1944, pp. 238, 239-40). The passage referring to Cartier reads as follows: . . . Previously, in 1532, King Francis I had made a pilgrimage to Mont St. Michel. He was accompanied by the Dauphin and Cardinal Duprat, ambassador to the Pope.

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They were received by Jean Le Veneur in the double capacity of Grand Almoner of France and Abbot of Mont St. Michel. It was during this pilgrimage that Jean Le Veneur presented to the king sieur Jacques Cartier, Pilot Mariner of St. Malo, a relative of the Bursar of Mont St. Michel Abbey, as being capable, in consideration of his voyages to Brazil and Terre-Neuve, of conducting ships in the discovery of new lands in the New World for the king. Jean Le Veneur pledged himself, if the king consented to give this mission to Jacques Cartier, to furnish the chaplains and to contribute from his funds to the expenses of these voyages of discovery. His Majesty having accepted, Jacques Cartier made several voyages and gave to the king New France, called Canada. . . . (Lanctot, 1944, pp. 238-9.) The second source bears the title, Relation de la Novvelle France, de ses terres, natvrel dv País, 6- de ses Habitans . . . ; it was written by Father Pierre Biard in 1614 and published by the Société de Jesus in 1616. The information presented by Biard in the particular passage in which we are interested was very probably compiled during the Father's enforced stay at Dieppe, prior to sailing for New France. Here he undoubtedly searched the archives and libraries for information regarding the land in which he was to spread the gospel (Lanctot, 1944, pp. 242-3). The results of this labour are to be seen in the first chapter of his work, where in his historical introduction no errors are to be found. The relevant passage reads: this country [New France] was first discovered by French Bretons, in the year 1504, one hundred and eleven years ago, and since then they have not ceased to visit it. The Normans also assisted in these early discoveries; among whom we read that Captain Thomas Aubert, of Dieppe, sailed in the year 1508, and brought back from there some of the Natives, whom he exhibited to the wonder and applause of France. Two years before him, Captain Jean Denys, of Honfleur, had made the same discovery; but, as he brought back only some fish, and Geographical charts, he has not become so renowned as Thomas Aubert. After the year 1523, Jean Varazan skirted all the coast from Florida to Cape Breton, and took possession of it in the name of his master, Francis I. I believe it was Jean Verazan who was Godfather to this title of "New France"; for Canada (a name by which they also frequently call it) is not, properly speaking, all this extent of country which they now call New France; but it is only that part, which extends along the banks of the great River of Canada, and the Gulf of St. Lawrence; this being only the most Northern part of New France, as will be seen from the Geographical chart which we insert herein. Acadie, or the Souriquoys country farther South, is next to Canada, and still farther down, on the other side of French Bay, is Norambegue. Of these two words, Norambegue and Acadie, there no longer remains any remembrance in the country; yet there is of Canada, which was discovered principally by Jacques Cartier in 1524 and then in a second voyage ten years afterward in 1534 . . . (Biard, 1897, pp. 39-41.) This, and the earlier statement, would seem to indicate that Cartier engaged in exploration in the Newfoundland area in 1524, and would explain why he was selected by the king. Thanks to the existence of the registers of vital statistics and the records of the Court of Justice of St. Malo, and to Jacques Cartier's involvement in a large number of baptisms and court cases, we find references to his presence in St. Malo in over 100 documents covering a span of forty-seven years (published in Biggar, 1930). In the period in which we are now interested—from 1520 until

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Cartier's first voyage for the king—we find twenty-three documents recording Cartier's presence as follows : Feb. 26, 1520 April/May, 1520 May 13, 1520 Dec. 13, 1520 April 7, 1521 June 24, 1521 " April 18, 1522 April 19, 1522 °

Jan. 20, 1523 • Aug. 27, 1524 Oct. 26, 1524 March 11,1525 * Aug. 29, 1525 Nov. 15, 1525 Jan. 3, 1526 March 25, 1526

April 5, 1526 « April 29, 1529 • July 17, 1530 ° May 29, 1532 " Sept. 26, 1532 Sept. 29, 1532

We thus see that one of the gaps implying Cartier's absence falls in the early months of 1524, indirectly confirming Biard's statement. While Verrazano and Cartier were engaged in voyages along the eastern coast of North America, a similar undertaking was being prepared by the Spanish Crown, to be commanded by one Estevan Gomez. From the Archives of the Indies at Seville we have a series of orders from Charles V of Spain, dated 1523, related to the commissioning and fitting of Gomez's caravel ( Charles V of Spain, 1523a-e; in Biggar, 1911, pp. 145-51, 154-8). Most of this correspondence, however, is taken up with the attempts on the part of the Crown to encourage a more full-hearted co-operation with the organizers of the expedition. Other references to Gomez's voyage are scattered, meagre, and rather unsatisfactory. No official report, such as Verrazano sent to his king, is known to exist, and we are therefore dependent upon the comments of historians. In the Oviedo delà natural hystoria délas Indias . . . by Oviedo y Valdes, published in 1526, we find the statement that "Gomez went to the northern parts, where he discovered an extensive country, which is a continuation of the one called Baccalaos, and continued westward, reaching 40° and 41°, more or less. He brought from that country several Indians. . . ." (Oviedo y Valdes, 1526, vol. XIVT; translated from Harrisse, 1892, p. 232.) Oviedo then gives an undiagnostic description of the Indians (that is, they are great archers and wear furs). In a later work he wrote a description of the Atlantic seaboard, using as his guide materials from Alonso de Chaves. Here he frequently cited Gomez as the authority for his names (Oviedo y Valdes, 1851-5, lib. XXI, cap. ix-x, vol. 2, pp.143-50). In the sixth decade of his De Orbe Novo, Peter Martyr tells us that "It is also decreed that one Stephanus Gomez, who also himselfe is a skilled navigator, shal goe another way, whereby, between the Baccalaos and Florida . . . he saith he will find out a way to Cataia , . ." (Anghiera, 1812, dec. VI, chap, x, p. 615; and Anghiera, 1912, pp. 241-2). Later we learn that the expedition had failed in this goal, bringing only slaves (Anghiera, 1812, dec. VIII, chap, x, p. 687; and Anghiera, 1912, vol. 2, p. 419). These statements by Oviedo and Anghiera are repeated in Gómara's Historia General de las Indias . . . (Gomara, 1554, chap, xi, fol. 31¥-32r), are restated

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FIG. 34. Gomez's voyage to the New World in 1525, as reconstructed by Ganong (1932, pp. 164-6, 178-9).

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(incorrectly) in Galvano's Tratado . . . dos diuersos ir desuayrados caminhos . . . (Galvano, 1563; in Galvano, 1812, p. 34), and are somewhat added to by Herrera y Tordesillas in his Historia general de los hechos de los castellanos . . . , who writes: "He ran along that whole coast as far as Florida,—a great stretch of land which, up to that time, had not been traversed by other ships, although Sebastian Cabot, John Verrazano, and others had sailed along it. ... From Florida he passed to the island of Cuba, and entered the port of Santiago, where he refreshed. . . ." (Herrera y Tordesilla, 1601-15, dec. Ill, lib. viii, chap, viii, pp. 307-8; 1726-7, p. 241; translated from Dexter, 1884, p. 29.) The most fruitful source on the voyage of Gomez is the account by Alonso de Santa Cruz entitled "Islario general de todas las islas del mundo," which was written in 1541 and first published in 1918. This work gives considerable detail: It took him ten months, and he discovered on that coast a great many islands near the continent; and particularly a very large and deep river which he named Deer river [the Penobscot] on account of the number of these found there. The river was everywhere dotted with islands, on which in the summer the Indians from the mainland took up their quarters for the sake of the quantities of salmon, shad, pickerel and other varieties of fish found in those waters. Gomez sailed for some distance up this river, thinking it was the strait of which he was in search. From this fact an idea may be formed of the size and extent of that continent. . . . Returning to the islands in Deer river and those lying off the neighbouring continent, these, as I have already explained, are nearly all of them inhabited, principally in the summer by Indians like those of St. Domingo, of whom we shall speak presently; although these men and women have finer bodies. These sharpen the bows, arrows, and spears with which they fight by toasting them. Their land has a temperate climate and is covered with the trees common to those regions such as evergreens, oaks, and olives. Many wild vines are found which bear grapes, and many plants and herbs similar to those of Spain. There is much marcasite which they mistook for gold. They brought home to Spain in the galleon many Indians, whom they afterwards set at liberty. . . . (Alonso de Santa Cruz, 1541; in Harrisse, 1892, pp. 234—6; and in Biggar, 1911, pp. 193-4.) The account then proceeds with a description of Gomez's discoveries in the Nova Scotia district: . . . Beyond the said bay [the "bay of the Bretons"] and further to the west near a cape named Cape Breton lies an island named St. John's island, stretching east and west along the coast for some 56 leagues. It is 20 leagues in width at the widest part. Some pilots stated that this island did not lie here but was up in the bay named thé Breton's bay as already stated, and in the beginning when this land was first discovered it was so placed on the sailing charts, until Stephen Gomez, the pilot, brought back this information which was slightly different from that which then was known, which is that this island does not lie in the bay where they said it did, but along the coast, as is now stated. There is nothing to report about this island save that the said pilot Stephen Gomez states that when passing it, he saw many fires and signs of habitation. There is a passage between it and the mainland called St. Julian's channel, from five to six leagues in width. This island is said to present a pleasant appearance with many groves and rivers that flow down to the sea. In the neighbourhood are many small islands, all uninhabited. It stretches from 46° to 47° 30' and is in the eighth climate. Its longest day is 15 hours and 40 minutes. . . . (Biggar, 1911, pp. 192-3).

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Except for a number of charts which we will consider shortly, these references comprise the bulk of the materials relating to the voyage of Gomez. The official report to Charles V is apparently lost, and no trace of it has yet been found. If it ever does reappear, however, it is quite likely that it will contain considerable ethnographical data (Ganong, 1932, pp. 129-30). Between the voyages of Gomez and those of Cartier in 1534, references relating to explorations and other enterprises on the eastern coast of North America are few and far between. For the year 1527 we find, in the Archives Municipales de Bayonne, a petition for a Bayonne fishing vessel to go to Newfoundland (Montauser, 1527; in Biggar, 1911, pp. 163-5 ). A similar reference occurs for the year 1533 in the records of the Port of La Rochelle (Anonymous, 1533; in Biggar, 1911, pp. 181-2). For the year 1531 we have records of an English inquiry into the plundering of a French fishing vessel from Newfoundland (Anonymous, 1531; in Biggar, 1911, pp. 177-81). The most important voyage undertaken in this period was that of two English ships which sailed in 1527 under directives from the King of England. Six sources exist which directly pertain to this expedition—one from Halle, one from Hakluyt one from Purchas, one from Oviedo y Valdes, and two from the Archives of the Indies at Seville. Because of certain questions which arise in connection with the materials, it will be best to consider these in some detail. In Edward Halle's account we read merely that "This same moneth [May, 19 Henry VIII, 1527] the kyng sent two fayre shippes, well manned and vitailed, having in them divers connying men, to seke strange regions: and so furth thei set, out of the Thamis, the twentie day of May, if thei sped well you shall here at their retorne .. ." (Halle, 1548, Henry VIII, fol. CLIP; in Biggar, 1913, p. 459). Halle does not let us "here" of them again. The two documents in the Archives of the Indies are more informative: . . . That while he [Gines Navarro] was loading the said caravel [at the Island of Mona, Haiti] . . . the nineteenth of the present month of November, there arrived a vessel of 250 tons burden, and three maintops. . . . They came ofi in their pinnace manned by 25 or 30 men with as many as 25 men in the boat and the captain of the said ship in command. All were armed with corselets, bows and arrows and some cross-bows; and in the bow were two lombards, the matches of which were alight. . . . . . . He inquired from what country they came? They answered they were Englishmen from the city of London, and that the vessel belonged to the King of England. . . . They told him the king had fitted out that vessel and another to go and discover the land of the Great Khan, but that on the way, they met with a storm, during which they lost sight of their consort and had never seen her again. They held their course and reached the frozen sea where they met large islands of ice. Being unable to pass that way, they altered their course but ran into a sea as hot as water in a boiler. For fear lest that water should melt the pitch of their vessel, they turned about and came to explore Newfoundland, where they found some 50 Spanish, French, and Portuguese fishing-vessels. They desired to land there in order to have tidings of the Indians, but on reaching the shore the Indians killed the pilot, who they said was by birth a Piedmontese. Setting sail thence they made their way for some 400 leagues and more along the coast of the new land where Ayllon took his colony. Thence they crossed over and came to explore the island of St. John [Puerto Rico]. . . . (Anonymous, Nov. 1527; in Biggar, 1911, p. 167.)

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From Haiti, the English ship proceeded to the Port of Santo Domingo, arriving there on November 25 : . . . Yesterday a large ship, with three main-tops, belonging to the king of England, had arrived at the mouth of this harbour and river, and the captain with ten or twelve sailors had come on shore in a boat, and had informed them how the said ship belonged to the king of England, and that it and another, some nine months since, had set out together from England in order at the king's command to explore a certain region to the north, between the Labrador's land and the Cod-fish land, in the belief that they would find there a passage by which to sail to the discovery of Tartary; that they had sailed as far north as fifty degrees and more, where the cold had carried off some of their people, and having lost their pilot and consort, they had come to this island to obtain fresh water and provisions . . . (Anonymous, Nov. 26/Dec. 8, 1527; in Biggar, 1911, pp. 173-4). After some brief negotiations the fortress of the city fired upon the ship with a lombard, whereupon she set sail in an easterly direction. Oviedo y Valdes, who was in Santo Domingo in 1530, and who became commander of the fort in 1533, continues the account: Seeing the reception accorded them at San Domingo, they drew off in the direction of Puerto Rico [San Juan], and having entered into the bay of San German had speech with the people of that town and begged for provisions, complaining of the people of San Domingo, saying that they came not to annoy but to treat with their money and merchandise, if they would receive them: and some provisions were given them and their ship gave in payment pewter and other things, and went on her way in the direction of Europe, where it is supposed she never arrived, because no news was ever had of this ship . . . (Oviedo y Valdes, 1851-5, lib. XIX, cap. xiii, vol. 1, p. 611; in Biggar, 1913, pp. 470-1). The next by Richard Discoveries to have had

account of this English expedition of 1527 is a short section written Hakluyt for his The Principal Navigations, Voyages, Traffiqves, and of the English Nation . . . ( 1599-1600, vol. 3, p. 129 ). Hakluyt seems considerable difficulty in locating sources, for he tells us:

. . . I thought it good herewithall to put downe the testimonies of two of our Chroniclers, M. Hall, and M. Grafton, who both write in this sort. This same moneth (say they) King Henry the 8. sent two faire ships well manned and victualled, hauing in them diuers cunning men to seek strange regions, & so they set forth out of the Thames the 20 day of May in the 19 yeere of his raigne, which was the yere of our Lord 1527. And whereas master Hal and master Grafton say, that in those ships there were diuers cunning men, I have made great enquirie of such as by their yeers and delight in Navigation, might give me any light to know who those cunning men should be which were the directers in the aforesaid voyage. And it hath bene tolde mee by Sir Martin Frobisher, and master Richard Allen, a knight of the Sepulchre, that a Canon of S. Paul in London, which was a great Mathematician, and a man imbued with wealth, did much advance the action, and went therein in person, but what his name was, I can not learne of any. . . . What little Hakluyt did learn of this venture follows and differs in a number of details from other sources. . . . They told me that one of the ships was called the Dominus vobiscum, which is a name likely to bee given by a religious man of those daies: and that sailing very farre

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Northwestward, one of the ships was cast away as it entred into a dangerous gulph, about the great opening, betweene the North parts of Newfoundland, and the countrey lately called by her Maiestie, Meta Incognita. Whereupon the other ship shaping her course towards Cape Breton, and the coastes of Arambec, and oftentimes putting their men on land to search the state of those unknown regions, returned home about the beginning of October. . . . The next reference to this voyage appears in Purchas his Pilgrimage, and is of great interest and importance, since it presents a new document, with an introductory note by Purchas ( 1625, vol. 3, p. 809) : I mentioned before Master Thornes fathers finding Newfound Land, with Master Eliot. These animated King Henrie the eight to set forth two ships for discoverie, one of which perished in the North parts of Newfound Land. The Master of the other, John Rut, writ this Letter to King Henrie, in bad English and worse Writing. Over it was this superscription. Master Grubes two ships departed from Plymouth the 10. day of June, and arrived in the New-found Land in a good Harbour, called Cape de Bas, the 21. day of July: and after we had left the sight of Selle, we had never sight of any land, till we had sight of Cape de Bas. Pleasing your Honorable Grace to heare of your servant John Rut, with all his Company here, in good health, thanks be to God, and your Graces ship. The Mary of Gilford, with all her [blank in original] thanks be to God: And if it please your honorable Grace, we ranne in our course to the Northward, till we came into 53. degrees, and there we found many great Hands of Ice and deepe water, we found no sounding, and then we durst not goes no further to the Northward for fear of more Ice, and then we cast about to the Southward, and within foure dayes after we had one hundred and sixtie fathom, and then wee came into 52 degrees and fell with the mayne Land, and within ten leagues of the mayne Land we met with a great Hand of Ice, and came hard by her, for it was standing in deepe water, and so went in with Cape de Bas, a good Harbor, and many small Hands, and a great fresh River going up farre into the mayne Land, and the mayne Land all wildernesse and mountaines and woods, and no naturall ground but all mosse, and no inhabitation nor no people in these parts; and in the woods wee found footing of divers great beasts, but we saw none not in ten leagues. And please your Grace, the Sampson and wee kept company all the way till within two days before wee met with all the Hands of Ice, that was the first day of July at night, and there arose a great and a marvailous great storme, and much foule weather; I trust in Almightie Jesu to heare good newes of her. And please your Grace, we were considering and a writing of all our orders, how we would wash us and what course wee would draw and when God doe send foule weather, that with the Cape of Sper shee should goe, and he that came first should tarry the space of sixe weeks for another, and we watered at Cape de Bas ten days, ordering of your Graces ship and fishing, and so departed toward the Southward to seeke our fellow: the third day of August we entered into a good Haven, called Saint John, and there we found eleven saile of Normans, and one Brittaine, and two Portugall Barkes, and all a fishing, and so we are readie to depart toward Cape de Bas, and that is twentie five leagues, as shortly we may meete with our fellow, and so with all diligence that lyes in me toward parts to that Hands that we are commanded by the grace of God, as we were commanded at our departing: And thus Jesu save and keepe your honorable Grace, and all your honourable Reverence. In the Haven of Saint John, the third day of August, written in haste, 1527. By your servant John Rut, to the uttermost of his power.

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Purchas follows this with another comment: I have by me also Albert de Prato's originall letter, in Latin stile, almost as harsh as the former English, and bearing the same date, and was indorsed, Reverend, in Christo Patri Domino Domino Cardinali 6- Domino Legato Angliae: and began, Reverendissime in Christo Pater salutem. Reverendissime Pater, placeat Reverendissime paternitati vestra, scire. Deo favente postquam exivimus a Plemut quae fuit X. Junii ire. (the substance is the same with the former, and therefore omitted) Datum apud le Raya Saint Johan, in Terris Novis, die X. Augusti, 1527, Rever. Pair. vest, humilis servus, Albertus de froto, [the name written in the lowest corner of the sheet.] In these accounts contradictions and confusions seem to arise at almost every turn, but the following facts seem clear: 1. Two ships, the "Mary of Guildford" and the "Sampson," left the Thames on a voyage to the northern parts of Newfoundland on May 20, 1527. 2. The two ships proceeded to Plymouth where they stopped, presumably to complete preparations, and set sail on June 10. 3. From Lands End and the Scilly Islands, which stand in 50° N. latitude, the ships must have sailed almost due west, at most bearing only a few points to the north. 4. In 52° N. latitude, on July 1, the ships encountered a storm and became separated. 5. On July 3, in 53° N. latitude, the "Mary of Guildford" encountered the East Greenland or Labrador ice, and was forced southward; the unknown English ship at the West Indies reported that "they had sailed as far north as fifty degrees and more." 6. Between July 7 and July 21 the "Mary of Guildford" came into 52° and soundings, and fell in with the mainland, anchoring in "Cape de Bas"; the unknown English ship seems to have turned southward and to have become alarmed at the "steaming effect" of the Gulf Stream, and to have headed for Newfoundland. 7. The "Mary of Guildford" watered at "Cape de Bas" for ten days, and then proceeded southward, reaching the "Haven of St. John" on August 3, where they found eleven Norman fishing boats, one Breton, and two Portuguese; the unknown English ship first seems to have made a landfall near the fishing banks, where they found "50 Spanish, French, and Portuguese" ships. When they attempted to land the Indians killed their pilot. 8. The "Mary of Guildford" remained at St. John's from August 3 to August 10, during which time Rut wrote his letter, presumably for delivery by fishing boat. According to Rut all of his crew was in good health; the unknown English ship reported that they had lost some crew members from the cold. 9. From St. John's the "Mary of Guildford" was scheduled to sail back to "Cape de Bas"; the unknown English ship, after having lost the pilot, sailed southward "for some 400 leagues and more along the coast where Ayllon took his colony." 10. The unknown English ship reached Haiti on November 19, anchored off Santo Domingo on November 25, then sailed to Puerto Rico, and then left for England. Hakluyt reported that "the other ship shaping her course toward Cape

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Breton, and the coastes of Arambec, and oftentimes putting their men on land to search the state of those unknown regions, returned home about the beginning of October." The crucial question relating to this material is—What was the identity of the English ship which appeared in the West Indes? Was it the "Sampson" or the "Mary of Guildford"? One statement directly refers to this problem. Guies Navarro reported the English ship to be "a vessel of 250 tons burden, and three maintops." The "Privy Purse Expenses of Henry VIII" tells us, however, that the "Mary of Guildford" was built in 1524, and was of 160 tons burden (Biggar, 1913, p. 462). If this was the same "Mary of Guildford" which took part in the 1527 voyage, it could not have been the ship seen at Haiti. The question is confused by the fact that a ship is known named the "Mary Gwylford" which seems to have been lying in the Thames from June 7 to September 1 (Biggar, 1913, p. 471). A statement from some source to the effect that the "Sampson" was or was not of 250 tons would settle the question, but none such is known. Opinions on the English expedition of 1527 have usually been divided into two camps. One would make the "Mary of Guildford" the vessel which appeared in the West Indies, and would explain the contradictions in the sources as the result of their indirect derivation and corruption. The second would make the unknown English ship the "Sampson," and would postulate the loss of the "Mary of Guildford" after it sailed north from the "Haven of St. John." The sources on hand seem inadequate to settle this question either one way or the other. Whichever ship returned to England left no known reports or accounts ( unless Thevet's passage in his La Cosmographie Universelle, here quoted on page 22, refers to it), and no traces in the cartography, unless we consider the configuration which suddenly appears on the Riccardiana, which Ganong has described as possibly obtaining from some "skilled pre-1534 pilot" (Ganong, 1933, p. 178), and which shows such names as "C. do piloto" and "G.' do batall."

CHAPTER IX

The Cartography of North America from Verrazano to Cartier T HE CARTOGRAPHY of the eastern coast of North America between 1521 and the

voyages of Cartier is represented by a series of maps which may be divided into two classes depending on whether their information derives from the voyage of Verrazano or the voyage of Gomez, as follows: I. Deriving from the voyage of Verrazano: 1. Maggiolo map, 1527 (fig. 35; PAG 107) 2. Verrazano map, 1529 (fig. 36; PAG 119) II. Deriving from the voyage of Gomez: 1. The Ribero Group or Tradition: (a) Castiglioni map, 1525 (fig. 37; PAC 101) (b) Weimar-Spanish map, 1527 (fig. 38; PAG 108) (c) Weimar-Ribero map, 1529 (PAC 120) (d) Rome-Ribero map, 1529 (fig. 39; PAC 121) 2. The Chaves-Santa Cruz Group or Tradition: (a) The lost Chaves map, 1536 (b) Santa Cruz maps, 1541 (fig. 40) (c) Santa Cruz world map, 1542 (PAC 232) (d) Wolfenbüttel-Spanishmap, 1527-30 (PAG 135) ( e ) Salviati map, 1525-6 (PAG 100) (f) Agnese map, c.1530 (g) Dourado map, 1580 (PAG 604)

The two maps of the first class seem to derive from a common prototype containing Verrazano's geographical discoveries. The Maggiolo map, which is the better reproduction, was made by the famous Italian cartographer Vesconte de Maggiolo, and is preserved in the Biblioteca Ambrosiana in Milan. The Verrazano is a large and well-drawn sea chart which was formerly kept in the Library of the Propaganda and is now in the Library of the Vatican, in Rome. According to the signature, the maker was one Hyeronimus de Verrazano, known to have been the brother of the explorer. The map is dated by the statement that Verrazano's voy-

FIG. 35. The Maggiolo map of 1527, drawn from Stokes (1916, vol. 2, CP1. 12) and Ganong (1931, fig. 34), with most nomenclature omitted.

FIG. 36. The Verrazano chart of 1529, drawn from Stokes (1916, vol. 2, CP1. 13) and Ganong ( 1931, fig. 35), with most nomenclature omitted.

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age had been made five years before ( Ganong, 1931, pp. 174-5 ). The two maps are easily distinguishable by the difference in the form of the "Sea of Verrazano," in the representation of the coastline between New York and Cape Cod, and in the representation of the coastline between Cape Cod and Cape Breton ( Harrisse, 1892, p. 554). The earliest chart illustrating the discoveries of Gomez is the Castiglioni map, so named after the family which preserved it. Although anonymous, it undoubtedly derives from Diego Ribero himself, or from a prototype prepared by him (Ganong, 1932, pp. 133, 142). The map originally displayed only a coastal configuration of the Waldseemiiller type (see fig. 6). However, in the year 1525 the discoveries of Gomez were added, along with the legend, "Tierra que descubrió Estevam Gomez este año de 1525/pormandado de su magestad/" (Stokes, 1916, vol. 2, p. 19). The area around the large, island-studded river running northward between Cape Cod ("b. de s. xpoval") and Cape Breton shows a distinct and detailed topography. In contrast, the coast running eastward bears no relation to the actual conditions. This is also the case with the coast running southwestward to the Florida region (Ganong, 1932, p. 134). It would seem therefore that the river configuration derived from actual exploration on the part of Gomez, and probably represents the "River of Deer." An examination of the other three maps of the Ribero group shows that they all have an origin in common with Castiglioni chart. We may suspect that this prototype is the official pattern map or Padrón Real which Ribero was instructed to prepare in 1526, and which he undoubtedly based on one of his earlier drafts. The increase of detail in the later maps reflects the efforts of this cartographer to use all of the available Gomez data (Ganong, 1932, p. 142). In 1533, Charles V of Spain ordered Ribero's successor, Alonso de Chaves, to prepare a new standard map. This Padrón Real was completed in 1536, but neither original nor copies have come down to us (Ganong, 1932, p. 143). The geographical information employed by Chaves appears, however, in the manuscript document entitled, "Islario general. . . ," written by Alonso de Santa Cruz in 1541, and in the two maps appearing in this work (see fig. 40; Ganong, 1932, pp. 129-31, and figs. 47, 48 ). These maps, and their derivatives, differ significantly from those of the Ribero group in their representation of the "Island St. Juan," in the appearance of a broadened peninsula between the island-studded river and the "Arcipielago," and in the triangular shape of the northward-extending cape ( Ganong, 1932, p. 148 ). In general, the Chaves-Santa Cruz group of maps shows definite improvement over the Ribero series and reflects continual re-evaluation of Gomez's geographical material. These maps are therefore of crucial importance in the determination of Gomez's area of exploration. Ganong's careful comparative study of the maps deriving from the Gomez voyage enables us to establish Gomez's course on the northeastern coast with a fair degree of certainty. A variety of inconclusive references suggest that Gomez made his landfall near his "B. de S. Antonio" (near Casco Bay). He then seems to have explored along the Maine and New Brunswick coasts as far as the St. John River, and to have stayed some time in the Penobscot River. Turning

FIG. 37. The Castiglioni map of C.152S. The heavy outlines indicate the original state of the chart; the light line indicates the coast drawn in in 1525. From Stokes (1916, vol. 2, CP1. 7a and p. 19) and from Ganong (1932, fig. 42).

FIG. 38. The Weimar map of 1527, drawn from Stokes (1916, vol. 2, CP1. 9) and Ganong (1932, fig. 44), with most nomenclature omitted.

FIG. 39. The Rome copy of the Ribero map of 1529, drawn from Stokes ( 1916, vol. 2, CP1. lOb), with most nomenclature omitted.

FIG. 40. Copies of two Santa Cruz maps in the Islario of 1541, drawn from Wieser (1908). On the original the maps, here joined along the broken line, are separated by two degrees of latitude and thirteen of longitude—an error which is reflected in numerous later charts, especially of the Dieppe school.

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Fie. 41. Comparison of the coastal configurations on a Santa Cruz map of 1541 with those of a modern map of slightly smaller scale.

eastward, he encountered the western coast of Nova Scotia, which he mistook for an island and named "Isla de S. luán." He then returned to the mainland and to his landfall, and proceeded down the coast. Gomez seems to have sailed close to the land as far as Cape Cod and Nantucket Island—beyond this point the nomenclature appearing on the maps is very scant. While he may possibly have viewed the shore from a distance, we have no evidence that he actually explored or surveyed it. From Florida he went to the West Indies, and then sailed for Spain (Ganong, 1932, pp. 160-79). The charts derived from Gomez thus display a configuration between the "Rio de las gamas" (River of the Deer) and the "Cabo de las arenas" (Cape of Sands) which represents the American coast between the Penobscot and Cape Cod. By a distortion of scale, this was joined to that of the Florida coast, as mapped by Ayllon. The "Isla de S. luán" appearing on the Santa Cruz maps is nothing else than Nova Scotia, although on other maps, such as the Miller, Reinel, and Maggiolo, this name may designate other geographical units (Ganong, 1932, pp. 16fV77).

CHAPTER X

The Cartier Voyages, 1534-43 THE FIRST VOYAGE A N THE YEAR 1534 Jacques Cartier carried out the first of a series of official explorations of the New World which were to open a new phase in the history of the discovery of North America. As a result of his introduction to Francis I by Le Veneur Cartier became "Captain and Pilot for the King" ( Court of St. Malo, 1534; in Biggar, 1930, pp. 43-4 ), and undoubtedly sailed under royal commission, although the document stating this has not yet been found. This voyage of 1534 by Cartier was the second official French act contravening the Treaty of Tordesillas, by which Spain and Portugal had divided the undiscovered sections of the world among themselves, and was therefore taken seriously by these latter two countries, as is shown, by the letters of Bonvallot, the Council of the Indies, Sarmiento, and Tavero, all written in 1540 (in Biggar, 1930, pp. 102-3, 110-15, 11827). Three versions of the relation of the 1534 voyage exist. The earliest of these seems to be the Moreau manuscript, which was discovered by M. H. Michelant in the manuscript department of the Bibliothèque Nationale in Paris, where it was catalogued as "MS., Collection Moreau, Vol. 841, ff. 52-68." It was first published in 1867 (Cartier, 1867), and was reprinted, with collation and translation, by Biggar ( 1924, pp. 3-81 ). This manuscript seems to be identical with the one facsimiled and translated by Baxter (1906, pp. 261-96, 75-120), which is referred to as "Ms. No. 5, Portefeuille LVII de Fontette, Bibliothèque Impériale." The Moreau manuscript carries the date 1544 on its title page, which most authorities consider an error for 1534. The second version of the 1534 voyage appears in Ramusio's Terzo volume dette navigationi et viaggi . . . ( 1565, fol. 435-40 ) and bears the title, "Prima relatione di lacques Carthier." This version differs from that of the Moreau manuscript in containing chapter headings and a vocabulary (fol. 440D-E). Biggar collated this version with his translation of the Moreau manuscript, and reproduced the vocabulary (Biggar, 1924, pp. 80-1). Ramusio's version was first translated into English by John Florio (Cartier, 1580), and may have been used by Hakluyt (1600). The third version of Cartier's first official voyage appears in a work entitled, Discours dv voyage fait par le capitaine . . ., which was printed in Rouen in 1598,

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and is at present extremely rare. Formerly it was regarded merely as a translation from Ramusio, but there are indications that another unknown text was used ( De Costa, 1884, p. 63, fn. 8; Biggar, 1901, p. 212, does not agree). This seems to have been the account used and reprinted by Lescarbot in 1618 (see Lescarbot, 1911). These three versions constitute the major sources on Cartier's 1534 expedition known at present. In 1934 Victor Morin announced in a footnote that a 1538 edition of Cartier's First Relation had been discovered, as well as a relation of the 1541 expedition (Morin, 1934, pp. 67-8; and Ganong, 1935, p. 103). Ganong reported, however, that he had communicated with Biggar concerning it, who had in turn contacted the Bibliothèque Nationale and had learned that they knew nothing about it. The course of Cartier's 1534 voyage has been the subject of much careful study by such students as Baxter (1906, pp. 75-120, 421-3, and map facing p. 426) and Biggar ( 1924, pp. 3-79, pi. XVI ). It is therefore unnecessary to elaborate on this topic, and the results already obtained may be used as background for Cartier's ethnographic observations, which give the first relatively clear description of native life in the St. Lawrence valley. On April 20, 1534, Cartier left the harbour of St. Malo with two ships of about sixty tons' burden each and with a total of sixty-one men. On May 10 "cap de Bonne Viste" was sighted. After resting his men and refitting his ships at the harbour of "saínete Katherine," Cartier proceeded northward to the "baye des Chasteaulx" (the Strait of Belle Isle), which he entered (Biggar, 1924, pp. 4-10). After entering the strait Cartier sailed down the southern coast of Labrador to "Blanc Sablón," where the first natives were encountered: . . . There are people on this coast whose bodies are fairly well formed but they are wild and savage folk. They wear their hair tied up on the top of their heads like a handful of twisted hay, with a nail or something of the sort passed through the middle, and into it they weave a few bird's feathers. They clothe themselves with the furs of animals, both men as well as women; but the women are wrapped up more closely and snuggly in their furs; and have a belt about their waists. They [all] paint themselves with certain tan colours. They have canoes made of birchbark in which they go about, and from which they catch many seals. Since seeing them, I have been informed that their home is not at this place but that they come from warmer countries to catch these seals and to get other food for their sustenance. . . . (Biggar, 1924, pp. 22-3.) From "Brest" Cartier turned to the south and made his first contact with the northwestern shore of Newfoundland at "cap Double" (Rich Point). Continuing to the south he came to "cap Royal" (Bear Head), at which he left the coast and proceeded to the southwest across St. Lawrence Bay. In the course of this passage Cartier discovered the Bird Rocks ("isles de Margaulx"), Brion Island (Tille de Bryon"), Magdalen Island ("cap du Daulphin" and "cap saint Pierre"), Prince Edward Island ("cap d'Orléans" and "cap de Sauvaige"), and, finally, the coast of New Brunswick. Near the "cap d'Orléans" and the "cap de Sauvaige" natives were sighted, but no contact was established (Biggar, 1924, pp. 41-2). After reaching the mainland Cartier turned to the north and soon reached "la baye de Chaleur," which was thought to be a strait to the Western Ocean. At

FIG. 42. Itinerary of Cartier's first voyage for the French king in 1534, showing the coasts discovered during this voyage (heavily outlined), coasts known previously (lightly outlined), and unknown coasts (not outlined). Drawn after Biggar (1924, pi. XVI).

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its northern entrance, at "la conche sainct Martin," the explorers encountered natives: . . . We caught sight of two fleets of Indian canoes that were crossing from one side [of Chaleur bay] to the other, which numbered in all some forty or fifty canoes. Upon one of the fleets reaching this point, there sprang out and landed a large number in all some forty or fifty canoes. Upon one of the fleets reaching this point, there sprang out and landed a large number of Indians, who set up a great clamour and made frequent signs to us to come on shore, holding up to us some furs on sticks. But as we were only one boat we did not care to go, so we rowed towards the other fleet which was on the water. And they [on shore], seeing we were rowing away, made ready two of their largest canoes in order to follow us. These were joined by five more of those that were coming in from the sea, and all came after our long-boat, dancing and showing many signs of joy, and of their desire to be friends, saying to us in their language: Napou ton daman asurtat, and other words, we did not understand. But for the reason already stated, that we had only one of our long-boats, we did not care to trust to their signs and waved to them to go back, which they would not do but paddled so hard that they soon surrounded our long-boat with their seven canoes. And seeing that no matter how much we signed to them, they would not go back, we shot off over their heads two small cannon. On this they began to return towards the point, and set up a marvellously loud shout, after which they proceeded to come on again as before. And when they had come alongside our long-boat, we shot off two fire-lances which scattered among them and frightened them so much that they began to paddle off in very great haste, and did not follow us any more. . . . (Biggar, 1924, pp. 49-51.) On the following day, however, contact was established and trading began: The next day . . . some of these Indians came in nine canoes to the point at the mouth of the cove, where we lay ancored [sic] with our ships. And being informed of their arrival we went with our two long-boats to the point where they were, at the mouth of the cove. As soon as they saw us they began to run away, making signs to us that they had come to barter with us; and held up some furs of small value, with which they clothe themselves. We likewise made signs to them that we wished them no harm, and sent two men on shore, to offer them some knives and other iron goods, and a red cap to give to their chief. Seeing this, they sent on shore part of their people with some of their furs; and the two parties traded together. The savages showed a marvellously great pleasure in possessing and obtaining these iron wares and other commodities, dancing and going through many ceremonies, and throwing salt water over their heads with their hands. They bartered all they had to such an extent that all went back naked without anything on them; and they made signs to us that they would return on the morrow with more furs. . . . (Biggar, 1924, pp. 52-3.) The following day the French explored Chaleur Bay and had their hopes of a passage to the Western Ocean dashed. The day after, while returning to the open ocean, they again encountered the natives. . . . While making our way along the [north] shore, we caught sight of the Indians on the side of a lagoon and low beach, who were making many fires that smoked. We rowed over to the spot, and finding there was an entrance from the sea into the lagoon, we placed our long-boats on one side of the entrance. The savages came over in one of their canoes and brought us some strips of cooked seal, which they placed on bits of wood and then withdrew, making signs to us that they were making us a present of them. We sent two men on shore with hatchets, knives, beads and other wares, at which the Indians showed great pleasure. And at once they came over in

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a crowd in their canoes to the side where we were, bringing furs and whatever else they possessed, in order to obtain some of our wares. They numbered, both men, women and children, more than 300 persons. Some of their women, who did not come over, danced and sang, standing in the water up to their knees. The other women, who had come over to the side where we were, advanced freely towards us and rubbed our arms with their hands. Then they joined their hands together and raised them to heaven, exhibiting many signs of joy. And so much at ease did the savages feel in our presence, that at length we bartered with them, hand to hand, for everything they possessed, so that nothing was left to them but their naked bodies; for they offered us everything they owned, which was, all told, of little value. We perceived that they are people who would be easy to convert, who go from place to place maintaining themselves and catching fish in the fishing-season for food. . . . I am more than ever of opinion that these people would be easy to convert to our holy faith. They call a hatchet in their language, cochy, and a knife, bacán. . . . (Biggar, 1924, pp. 55-7.) Two days later, on July 12, Cartier continued his exploration along the southern coast of the Gaspé Peninsula. On July 13 the ships encountered such a strong head-wind that they had to take cover along the coast. On the fourteenth they reached Gaspé Bay, where they anchored because of fog and mist. On the sixteenth the wind again arose and one of the vessels lost its anchor, whereupon the expedition took refuge in Gaspé Harbour. . . . On account of the continuous bad weather with over-cast sky and mist, we remained in that harbour and river, without being able to leave, until [Saturday], the twenty-fifth of the said month [of July]. During that time there arrived a large number of savages, who had come to that river [Gaspe basin] to fish for mackerel, of which there is great abundance. They [the savages] numbered, as well men, women as [sic] children, more than 300 persons, with some forty canoes. When they had mixed with us a little on shore, they came freely in their canoes to the sides of our vessels. We gave them knives, glass beads, combs and other trinkets of small value, at which they showed many signs of joy, lifting up their hands to heaven and singing and dancing in their canoes. This people may well be called savage; for they are the sorriest folk there can be in the world, and the whole lot of them had not anything above the value of five sous, their canoes and fishing-nets excepted. They go quite naked, except for a small skin, with which they cover their privy parts, and for a few old furs which they throw over their shoulders. They are not at all of the same race or language as the first we met. They have their heads shaved all around in circles, except for a tuft on the top of the head, which they leave long like a horse's tail. This they do up upon their heads and tie in a knot with leather thongs. They have no other dwelling but their canoes, which they turn upside down and sleep on the ground underneath. They eat their meat almost raw, only warming it a little on the coals; and the same with their fish. On St. Magdalen's day, we rowed over in our long-boats to the spot on shore where they were, and went on land freely among them. At this they showed great joy, and the men all began to sing and to dance in two or three groups, exhibiting signs of great pleasure at our coming. But they had made all the young women retire into the woods, except two or three who remained, to whom we gave each a comb and a little tin bell, at which they showed great pleasure, thanking the captain by rubbing his arms and his breast with their hands. And the men, seeing we had given something to the women that had remained, made those come back who had fled to the woods, in order to receive the same as the others. These, who numbered some twenty, crowded about the captain and rubbed him with their hands, which is their way of showing welcome. He gave them each a little tin ring of small value; and at once they assembled together in a group to dance; and sang several songs. We saw a large quantity of mackerel which they had caught near the shore

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with the nets they use in fishing, which are made of hemp thread, that grows in the country where they ordinarily reside; for they only come down to the sea in the fishing-season, as I have been given to understand. Here likewise grows Indian corn like pease, the same as in Brazil, which they eat in place of bread, and of this they had a large quantity with them. They call it in their language, Kagaige. Furthermore, they have plums which they dry for the winter as we do, and these they call, honnesta; also figs, nuts, pears, apples and other fruits, and beans which they call, sake. They call nuts, caheya, figs, honnesta, apples. . . . If one shows them something they have not got and they know not what it is, they shake their heads and say, nouda, which means, they have none of it and know not what it is. Of the things they have, they showed us by signs the way they grow and how they prepare them. They never eat anything that has a taste of salt in it. They are wonderful thieves and steal everything they can carry off. ... (Biggar, 1924, pp. 60-3.) At the end of his sojourn at Gaspé Harbour Cartier erected a cross at the entrance which bore a shield with three fieurs-de-lys in relief, and a wooden board above it with the inscription, VIVE LE ROY DE FRANCE. After the ceremony, however, the chief, dressed in an old black bear-skin, arrived in a canoe with three of his sons and his brother; but they did not come so close to the ships as they had usually done. And pointing to the cross he [the chief] made us a long harangue, making the sign of the cross with two of his fingers; and then he pointed to the land all around about, as if he wished to say that all this region belonged to him, and that we ought not to have set up this cross without his permission. And when he had finished his harangue, we held up an axe to him, pretending we would barter it for his fur-skin. To this he nodded assent and little by little drew near the side of our vessel, thinking he would have the axe. But one of our men, who was in our dinghy, caught hold of his canoe, and at once two or three more stepped down into it and made the Indians come on board our vessel, at which they were greatly astonished. . . . And then we explained to them by signs that the cross had been set up to serve as a land-mark and guidepost on coming into the harbour, and that we would soon come back and would bring them iron wares and other goods; and that we wished to take two of his [the chief's] sons away with us and afterwards would bring them back again to that harbour. And we dressed up his two sons in shirts and ribbons and in red caps, and put a little chain round the neck of each, at which they were greatly pleased; and they proceeded to hand over their rags to those who were going back on shore. To each of these three, whom we sent back, we also gave a hatchet and two knives at which they showed great pleasure. When they had returned on shore, they told the others what had happened. About noon on that day six canoes came off the ships, in each of which were five or six Indians, who had come to say good-bye to the two we had detained, and to bring them some fish. These made signs to us that they would not pull down the cross, delivering at the same time several harangues which we did not understand. . . . (Biggar, 1924, pp. 64-7.) On July 25, the two ships set sail from Gaspé Harbour and headed to the east-northeast. Encountering Anticosti Island, they coasted it to the southeast and then to the northwest. Upon meeting with heavy tides in "le destroyt St. Pierre" (St. Peter's Strait), they decided to return home, for which purpose the ships turned eastward and sailed along the northern shore of the Gulf of St. Lawrence. As they passed by "le cap Thiennot" the expedition sighted smoke rising from fires that the inhabitants of the coast were making at that spot. But because the wind blew towards the shore, we did not approach it; and seeing we

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kept away, some twelve Indians set off in two canoes, and came as freely on board our vessels as if they had been Frenchmen. They gave us to understand that they had come from the Grand bay [Cartier's "baye des Chasteaulx"], and that they were Chief Thiennot's people, who himself was on the cape . . . , making signs to us that they were returning to their own country in the direction whence we were coming; and that the ships had all set sail from the [Grand] bay laden with fish. . . . (Biggar, 1924, pp. 76-7.) Proceeding eastward Cartier reached Newfoundland's west coast on August 8, turned northward, and soon passed through the "baye des Chasteaulx." On September 5, 1534, four and a half months after their departure, the two ships dropped anchor in the harbour of St. Malo. In this brief summary of the first relation a number of interesting points appear. The first of these is that the Moreau manuscript does not present a vocabulary list such as appears in the Ramusio text. The manuscript does, however, present a number of words which are of considerable interest, since they enable us to identify the linguistic relationships of the native groups encountered at Chaleur Bay and at Gaspé Harbour. The second point to be noted is that both of the groups described are apparently fishing parties carrying a minimum of cultural equipment. The ethnographic sketches are therefore necessarily limited to the most important portable items, to rude and makeshift types of habitation, and to details of clothes and hair-style. Since these traits are generally undiagnostic, identification of the tribal groups met by Cartier will have to await consideration of the linguistic evidence. THE SECOND VOYAGE Upon Cartier's successful return to France, preparations were immediately initiated for a second voyage. On October 31, 1534, Cartier received his commission for the next venture from Admiral Chabot (Chabot, 1534; in Biggar, 1930, pp. 44-5 ) ; on February 8, 1535, the commission was presented in St. Malo; by March the vessels for the second voyage had been selected, payments had been made, and the crews completed (Anonymous, Feb. 8, 1535; in Biggar, 1930, pp. 46-7; ibid., pp. 51-6). The primary sources specifically relating to the second voyage consist of a number of manuscript and printed versions of a single original relation of the voyage of 1535-6. The most important of these are as follows: 1. The so-called Manuscript B of the Bibliothèque Nationale of Paris ( Manuscript française 5589), which bears the title, "Seconde nauigation faicte par le commandement et voulloir du tresxpin Roy francois premier. . . ." This manuscript is usually considered to be the original relation itself, and has been reprinted as Cartier ( 1841 ) and used for the translations by Baxter ( 1906 ) and Biggar(1924). 2. The so-called Manuscript A of the Bibliothèque Nationale of Paris ( Manuscript française 5653). This is a copy of the B manuscript, is in the same hand, and bears the same title. It has been reprinted in Cartier ( 1843 ). 3. The so-called Manuscript C of the Bibliothèque Nationale (Manuscript

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française 5644). This is another copy of B, possibly in the same hand, and with the same title. Collated by Biggar (1924). 4. The Brief récit, 6- succincte narration. . . . This is the first published version of the second relation, being printed in Paris in 1545. The work is extremely rare—only one copy, in the British Museum, being known to exist for the last 300 years. This text was reprinted as Cartier (1863) and was collated with the A, B, and C manuscripts. It is this recension which was translated into Italian by Ramusio (Cartier, 1565a), and then translated from Ramusio's text into English by Florio (Cartier, 1580). This latter translation was reprinted by Hakluyt (Cartier, 1600b) and by Pinkerton (Cartier, 1812). Of all these versions, that of Manuscript B is the best; and it is this text which we will follow in our summary of the second voyage (as reprinted and translated in Biggar, 1924, pp. 83-246, and discussed by Ganong, 1934, pp. 205-64). Cartier sailed from the port of St. Malo on May 19, 1535, with three ships: the "Grand Hermyne," the "Petite Hermyne," and the "Hemerillon." After a cloudy voyage, during which the little fleet was separated, Cartier sighted Newfoundland on July 7, and landed on the "isle es Oyseaulx." Sailing northward, he passed through the "baye des Chasteaulx" and anchored at "Blanc Sablón," where he rendezvoused with his consorts ( Biggar, 1924, pp. 93-5 ). Setting sail again on July 29, the expedition proceeded westward along the northern shore of the Gulf of St. Lawrence and soon reached "l'isle de 1'Assumption." Here Cartier was informed by his two Indians that "to the south of it lay the route from Honguedo, where we had seized them when on our first voyage, to Canada; and that two days' journey from this cape and island, began the kingdom of the Saguenay, on the north shore as one made one's way towards this Canada . . ." (Biggar, 1924, p. 103). Sailing across the mouth of the St. Lawrence River to the shores of "Honguedo" (Gaspé Peninsula), Cartier further learned that this was the beginning of the Saguenay and of the inhabited region; and that thence came the copper they call caignetdaze. . . . The two Indians assured us that this was the way to the mouth of the great river of Hochelaga and the route towards Canada, and that the river grew narrower as one approached Canada; and also that farther up, the water became fresh, and that one could make one's way so far up the river that they had never heard of anyone reaching the head of it. Furthermore that one could only proceed along it in small boats. In view of these statements and of their assertion that no other passage existed, the Captain was unwilling to proceed further until he had explored the remainder of the north shore to see if there was a strait there; for on account of our passing over to the south shore, the coast from St. Lawrence's bay [Pillage Bay] onward had not been visited. . . . (Biggar, 1924, pp. 106-7.) Having followed the coast of the northern shore and having found only walruses (Biggar, 1924, p. 110), Cartier turned into the St. Lawrence and shortly came abreast of the Saguenay, . . . which is the river and route to the kingdom and country of the Saguenay, as we were informed by our two savages from Canada. . . . At the mouth of this river we

FIG. 43. Itinerary of Cartier's second voyage for the French king in 1535 and 1536, showing the coasts discovered during this voyage (heavily outlined), coasts known previously (lightly outlined), and unknown coasts (not outlined). Drawn from Biggar (1924, pi, XVI),

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found four canoes from Canada that had come there to fish for seals and other fish. And when we had anchored in that river, two of the canoes came towards our ships but in such great fear and trembling that one of them finally went back but the other approached near enough to hear one of our Indians who gave his name and told who he was and made them come alongside in all confidence. . . . (Biggar, 1924, pp. 114-15.) Proceeding up the river towards the country of Canada, they finally reached the "isle es Couldres" . . . This is the point where the province and territory of Canada begins. One of these islands [the island of Orleans] is large, being some ten leagues long and five leagues wide, and is inhabited by Indians who are much employed in fishing. . . . We came upon several people of the country who began to run away and would not come near, until our two Indians had spoken to them and told them that they were Taignoagny and Dom Agaya. And when they knew who it was, they began to welcome them, dancing and going through many ceremonies. And some of the headmen came to our long-boats, bringing us many eels and other fish, with two or three measures of Indian corn, which is their bread in that country, and many large melons. And during that day many canoes filled with the people of the country, both men as well as women, came to our ships to see and welcome our two Indians. . . . On the morrow, the lord of Canada, named Donnacona (but as chief they call him Agouhanna), came to our ships accompanied by many Indians in twelve canoes. He then sent back ten of these and came alongside our ships with only two canoes. And when he was opposite the smallest of our three ships [Emerillon], this Agouhanna began to make a speech and to harangue us, moving his body and his limbs in a marvellous manner, as is their custom when showing joy and contentment. . . . (Biggar, 1924, pp. 120-2.) Sailing a little further up the St. Lawrence, Cartier came to the western extremity of the Isle d'Orléans, near the present site of Quebec: "Near this spot lives a tribe of which this Donnacona is chief, and he himself resides there. The village is called Stadacona. . . ." (Biggar, 1924, p. 124.) Here Cartier anchored his ships and paused temporarily to rest and to gain information concerning the country (Biggar, 1924, pp. 131-40). On September 19 Cartier left Stadacona in the "Emerillon" and two long-boats and started up the river to the town of Hochelaga. . . . Along both shores we had sight of the finest and most beautiful land it is possible to see, being as level as a pond and covered with the most magnificent trees in the world. . . . We likewise noticed a large number of huts along the banks of the river, which are inhabited by Indians, who catch great quantities of the numerous good fish in the river, according to the season. These people came towards our boats in as friendly and familiar a manner as if we had been natives of the country, bringing us great store of fish and of whatever else they possessed, in order to obtain our wares, stretching forth their hands towards heaven and making many gestures and signs of joy (Biggar, 1924, pp. 141-2.) After sailing some twenty-five leagues up the river the captain came to the town of "Achelacy" (also spelled "Ochelay," "Achelayy," "Hochelay," and "Hagouchonda"), which was situated near some rapids and whose chief warned him of further navigational hazards and presented him with his daughter. At "le lac d'Angoulesme" (Lake St. Peter) Cartier was forced to leave his bark behind and to proceed in his long-boats (Biggar, 1924, pp. 142-9).

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On October 2 the party reached "Hochelaga," the French explorers being received like gods. After an exchange of greetings and an inspection of the palisaded village, the French climbed to the top of the nearby "mont Royal," from which they could view the surrounding land for a distance of thirty leagues. From here they had their first glimpse of the Ottawa River, and learned that the inhabitants of that region were Agojuda, which means bad people, who were armed to the teeth, [the natives] showing us the style of their armour, which is made with cords and wood, laced and plaited together. They also seemed to say that these Agojuda waged war continually, one tribe against the other, but through not understanding their language, we could not make out what the distance was to that country. The Captain showed them some copper, which they call caignetdaze, and pointing towards the said region, asked by signs if it came thence? They shook their heads to say no, showing us that it came from the Saguenay, which lies in the opposite direction. . . . (Biggar, 1924, p. 171.) The French then returned to their long-boats and began their journey back down the St. Lawrence. Arriving at their camp near Stadacona, the explorers found their comrades entrenched, and relations with the natives to be delicate, largely as the result of the ill-will of the two natives who had been kidnapped the year before. Despite the fears of the French, however, the winter passed without any attack being made, although the Europeans were in a weakened condition from scurvy. During this period more was learned about the ways of the natives, and of their neighbours: . . . Donnacona showed the Captain the scalps of five Indians, stretched on hoops like parchment, and told us they were Toudamans from the south, who waged war continually against his people. He informed us also that two years previously these Toudamans had come and attacked them in that very river, on an island which lies opposite to the Saguenay, where they were spending the night on their way to Honguedo, being on the war-path against the Toudamans with some two hundred men, women, and children, who were surprised when asleep in a fort they had thrown up, to which the Toudamans set fire round about and slew them all as they rushed out, except five who made their escape. Of this defeat they still continued to complain bitterly, making clear to us that they would have vengeance for the same. . . . (Biggar, 1924, pp. 177-8.) The French also added to their knowledge of the country: . . . Above this tributary [the Saguenay] lies the province of Canada where live several tribes [peuples] in open villages. Several large and small islands lie in the river within the limits of Canada, and among the rest is one more than ten leagues in length which is covered with fine high trees and with many vines upon it. There is a passage on both sides of this island but the better and safer one is on the south side. And at the western extremity of this island [of Orleans] there is a forking of the waters which is a fine pleasant spot for laying up vessels. . . . Opposite to this spot the shore rises to a good height in two ridges of cultivated land, and is as good soil as it is possible to find. There stands the village and abode of Chief Donnacona and of our two Indians [Taignoagny and Dom Agaya] whom we had seized on our first voyage. This village is called Stadacona. And before reaching this point, there are four tribes and villages, namely: Ajeaste, Starnatam, Tailla, which is on a mountain,

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and Sitadin. Then the village of Stadacona. . . . Beyond this point lies the abode of the people of Tequenonday and of Hochelay, the former on a mountain and the latter in a flat region. . . . (Biggar, 1924, pp. 195-6.) And, in speaking of the country of the middle St. Lawrence, Cartier tells us that "the whole country on both sides of this river up as far as Hochelaga and beyond, is as fine a land and as level as ever one beheld. . . . This land is everywhere covered and overrun with timber of several sorts and also with quantities of vines, except in the neighbourhood of the tribes, who have cleared the land for the villages and crops" (Biggar, 1924, pp. 197-8). At the close of winter the French buried those of their company that had died of scurvy during the winter months and prepared for their departure. When everything was ready they seized Chief Donnacona and his two sons Taignoagny and Dom Agaya, and two other tribal leaders. Despite the natives' attempts to ransom them, Cartier retained them and took them to France with him ( Biggar, 1924, pp. 204-30). On May 6 the French ships left their winter quarters at Stadacona and proceeded down the river. At the "isle es Couldres" the fleet met several of Donnacona's people who were returning from the Saguenay, and who gave their leader farewell presents. Passing between "Honguedo" and the "isle de l'Assumption" the ships headed for 'Tisle de Bryon." From here they passed to "cap de Lorraine" (Cape Breton), and then sailed northeastward to Newfoundland. At the "illes de sainct Pierre" Cartier encountered the first signs of fishing boats from France and Brittany. On July 16, 1536, he reached the harbour of St. Malo (Biggar, 1924, pp. 232-40). THE THIRD VOYAGE For Cartier's third voyage to Canada and the Saguenay the sources are of a rather different nature than for the previous explorations. The original reports and relations have all been lost, and we have only the collateral accounts of the state documents of the French, Spanish, Portuguese, and English crowns, and two incomplete relations preserved by Hakluyt. These independent references must be fitted together and reconciled as well as possible. When Cartier returned to France in 1536 he found that the War of Provence, between Francis I of France and Charles V of Spain, had just begun. Until the Treaty of Nice in 1538 there was no possibility of further exploration in Canada, although Francis I did reward Cartier for his services with the present of a ship (Francis I, of France, 1537; in Biggar, 1930, pp. 66-7). In 1538 the first payments were made to Cartier for his first two voyages (Francis I, of France, Sept. 14 and 22, 1538; in Biggar, 1930, pp. 69-70), and the first lists were drawn up for the men and equipment for the third voyage (Anonymous, Sept., 1538; in Biggar, 1930, pp. 70-4). In 1539 a Portuguese pilot in the service of Francis I reported to the king of Portugal: . . . And the following night the king again examined the charts [the pilot's], and conversed more than an hour with me, and showed me two other charts belonging

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to him, well painted and illuminated, but not very accurate; and he showed me a river in the land of Cod marked out and set down at his request; and he has sent there twice, and he has in this matter a great desire and longing. . . . And he spoke of this to me many times until I seemed to see it with his eyes; and he has despatched thither a Breton pilot named Jacques Cartier, who lives in Britanny, in a town called St. Malo; and in the two voyages he made thither, on the first he lost two ships out of three, and on the second one out of two, but always brought one home; and on the last voyage he brought back three Indians, two of whom are dead, the one who is left being king of three or four towns. . . . I believe he will again decide to send there a third time seeing his great desire. . . . (Lagarto, 1539; in Biggar, 1930, pp. 75-81.) The preparations which Francis I initiated during 1539 for this new expedition are unknown. In 1540, however, Charles V of Spain was informed by his ambassador to France of Francis I's ambitions to carry out further explorations and settlements in the New World (Bonvallot, Aug. 21, 1540; in Biggar, 1930, pp. 102-3). This intelligence precipitated an international crisis, Charles V taking the act as a violation of the Treaty of Tordesillas and the Treaty of Nice, and a threat to the Indies. He immediately notified the Cardinal of Toledo of the development, and instructed him to tender a protest to the French ambassador, to notify the Council of the Indies, and to prepare a fleet for the defence of the Indies (Tavera, Sept. 28, 1540; in Biggar, 1930, pp. 104-7). After a month of secret deliberations, negotiations, and communications (see, for example, Sarmiento, Oct. 6, 1540; Charles V, Oct. 9, 1540; and Tavera, Oct. 11, 1540; in Biggar, 1930, pp. 110-20), the Council of the Indies presented Charles V with "The Memorandum of the Council of the Indies" (before Oct. 11, 1540; in Biggar, 1930, pp. 120-7), in which they recommended: that spies be sent out to determine where the French fleet was being outfitted, what was the nature of its composition, and where was it bound; that negotiations be entered into with the King of Portugal respecting joint defence; that ships leaving Seville for the Indies be ordered to sail in convoy, and that a fleet be prepared; that the officials of Seville buy up 4,000 bushels of wheat in secrecy; that ships sailing for the Indies be armed; that the fortresses of the Indies be completed and strengthened; and that all Spanish citizens of the Indies be given arms. Despite the protests of the Spanish, Cartier received his commission from Francis I on October 17, 1540 (Francis I, of France, Oct. 17, 1540; in Biggar, 1930, pp. 12831). He was also authorized to take fifty prisoners suitable for settlers (Henry, Dauphin de Viennois, Oct. 20, 1540; in Biggar, 1930, pp. 131-2). Information concerning this action was sent by the Spanish ambassador in France to Charles V (Bonvallot, Nov. 8-10, 1540; in Biggar, 1930, pp. 135-7), who then sent a letter to the Cardinal of Toledo ordering his fleet prepared to sail, together with that of tlie Portuguese king, to destroy any ships of Cartier which could be found, and to kill all the sailors captured (Charles V, of Spain, Nov. 11-13, 1540; in Biggar, 1930, pp. 141-3). After a series of meetings of the Councils of State and of the Indies, the Cardinal of Toledo wrote the Emperor acknowledging his letter (Tavera, Dec. 13, 1540; in Biggar, 1930, pp. 155-7), and enclosed "The Memorandum of the Council of the Indies Sent to Christoval de Haro" ( Council of the Indies, before

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Dec. 13, 1540; in Biggar, 1930, pp. 158-62). This memorandum recommended; that a spy be sent to the French port of St. Malo to learn all possible information regarding the fleet being prepared; that the Seville officials make a survey of ships in Andalusian ports, so that an embargo might be placed upon them and those required seized; that the Seville officials prepare 1,000 men; that the commander of the fleet be chosen; and that the king of Portugal be asked to close his ports to French ships. On February 5, 1541, Charles V replied to the Cardinal of Toledo, approving of what had been done and reporting that he had sent a complaint of the French king's conduct to the Pope (Charles V, of Spain, Feb. 5, 1541; in Biggar, 1930, pp. 194-8). The Cardinal answered with a letter which stated that not too much could be expected from the Pope, and enclosed a new report from the Council of the Indies (Tavera, March 24, 1541; in Biggar, 1930, pp. 239-44). This latter body reported that the treasury was empty, and that all that could be done under the emergency was to send arms to the Indies ( Samano, before March 24, 1541; in Biggar, 1930, pp. 244-53). Meanwhile Francis I ordered the preparations to be expedited (Francis I, of France, Dec. 12, 1540; in Biggar, 1930, pp. 153-4), and appointed Roberval leader of the enterprise (Francis I, of France, 1541; in Biggar, 1930, pp. 178-85). Since volunteers for the voyage had not been forthcoming, another order was issued that any prisoners who might be useful be turned over to Roberval (Francis I, of France, Feb. 7, 1541; in Biggar, 1930, pp. 199-202). Early in April of 1541, a secret report reached the Spanish ambassador in France which finally gave his government some indication of the destination of the French fleet. In the words of the document: From Sainct Malloz to the Terres Neufves it is 760 leagues, and from the said Terres Neufves as far as Canada, where they intend to take the said army, another 600 leagues. It is necessary to pass by the Terres Neufves. The said Canada faces the Indies of the Emperor and is certainly a cape of these. And [at that place] where they wish to harbor the ships of the Very Christian King there flows a great river with gentle waters towards the said Indies. And this is well testified to by Jacques Quartier, as well as by Rolet Morin. . . . The letter went on to report that six ships were being prepared at St. Malo, and were to sail under Cartier; while four more were being provisioned at Rouen and Honfleur and were to sail under the command of Roberval. The expedition hoped to sail eight days after Easter (Anonymous, April, 1541; in Biggar, 1930, pp. 275-9). Acting upon this intelligence the Spanish Councils of State and of the Indies decided to send two caravels in search of Cartier: one to sail for the Cape Verde Islands, the other to go to Newfoundland (Councils of State and of the Indies, before June 26,1541; in Biggar, 1930, pp. 320-6). These caravels were immediately prepared and sent out (Samano, July 8a-b, 1541; Castro, July 25 and July 30, 1541; in Biggar, 1930, pp. 335-46, 350-69). The first of these sailed for the Cape Verde Islands on August 26, and there learned that four French ships had passed by and had sailed to the west-southwest. Proceeding in the same direction, the ship encountered a storm and was forced to Porto Rico (Sanchez, 1541-2; in

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Smith, 1857, vol. 1, pp. 116-18). The second ship left for Newfoundland on July 25, and there learned that Cartier had already passed into the St. Lawrence, whereupon it returned to Spain (Biggar, 1930, p. xxxii). A reconstruction of the history of this expedition now becomes very difficult. Besides the reports of the Spanish intelligence we have only the accounts printed by Hakluyt (1599-1600, vol. 3, pp. 232-6, 240-2), which were translated from incomplete, and now missing, French documents. The first of these, which deals with Cartier's part in the enterprise, is entitled, "The third voyage of discouery made by Captain laques Cartier, 1540. vnto the Countreys of Canada, Hochelaga, and Saguenay," while the second tells the story of Roberval's adventures, "The Voyage of John Francis de la Roche, Knight, Lord of Roberval, to the Countries of Canada, Saguenai, and Hochelaga, with Three Tall Ships, and Two Hundred Persons, Both Men, Women, and Children, Begun in April, 1542. In Which Parts He Remained the Same Summer and All the Next Winter." Combining all the statements we may set up the following sequence of events for this voyage. Cartier sailed from St. Malo on May 23, 1541, with five ships provisioned for two years (the Spanish sailors reported seven ships; see Ubilla, Sept. 22, 1542; in Biggar, 1930, pp. 455-7). Since Roberval did not yet have his guns and ammunition, it was agreed that he would sail later, as soon as all his preparations were completed. Cartier encountered bad weather and his ships were scattered, causing them to take three months to reach Newfoundland. Here they rendezvoused, waited for Roberval, and then proceeded through the Grand Bay to the River of Canada, arriving at the "Haven of Saínete Croix" (St. Charles River) on August 23. Here they were met by the natives and by the successor to Donnacona, who was named Agona. . . . And after the sayd Agona had inquired of the Captaine where Donacona and the rest were, the Captaine answered him, That Donacona was dead in France, and that his body rested in the earth, and that the rest stayed there as great Lords, and were maried, and would not returne backe into their Countrey: the said Agona made no shewe of anger at all these speeches: and I thinke he took it so well because he remained Lord and Gouernour of the Countrey by the death of the said Donacona . . . (Cartier, 1600; in Biggar, 1924, pp. 250-2). Cartier then had a large park built, surrounded by wooden stakes and other wooden fortifications, as well as a fort (Anonymous, Nov. 12, 1541; in Biggar, 1930, pp. 408), and started cultivating the soil. After seeing that everything was in order he journeyed to Hochelaga to survey the river, and distributed gifts to the natives there. On his return trip he found that one of the friendly chiefs of the river had gone to "Maisouna." . . . But in truth hee was gone to Canada to conclude with Agona, what they should doe against us. And when we were arrived at our Fort, wee understoode by our people, that the Savages of the Countrey came not any more about our Fort as they were accustomed, to bring us fish, and that they were in a wonderful doubt and feare of us. Wherefore our Captaine, having bene advertised by some of our men whiche had bene at Stadacona to visite them, that there were a wonderful number of the Countrey people assembled together, caused all things in our fortresse to bee set in good order: etc.

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To learn what happened after the abrupt termination of the above report (from Cartier, 1600e; in Biggar, 1924, pp. 256-9), we need to look at the reports of the Spanish and Portuguese fishermen, and the relation of Roberval. The report of Francois Bonvallot, the Spanish ambassador in France, to the Emperor states that Cartier "is at present ice-bound in a port waiting for the new season . . . " (Nov. 3, 1541; in Biggar, 1930, pp. 403-5). Martin de Actalecu, of the town of Fuenterrabia, Spain—a Newfoundland sailor questioned by Spanish officials regarding Cartier (Ubilla, Sept. 22, 1542; in Biggar, 1930, pp. 455-7)offers the information "That his [Cartier's] ships were in the form of an armada, and carried men and workmen to build houses and to form a settlement. And that later in Canada the carpenters working there were killed; for they found the Indians there fierce and valiant, and their arms were lances and bows and arrows; but that in the port of Grand Bay and several leagues farther on they found a more kindly people . . . " and that "The said Jacques told witness and other masters that the said Jacques had wintered with the three ships in Canada . . . and that he had put on shore some carpenters to build houses, whom the Indians had murdered. . . . " From the same official investigation we have the testimony given by Clemente de Odelica, of the town of Fuenterrabia (Ubilla, Sept. 23, 1542; in Biggar, 1930, pp. 460-4): . . . Asked who are the inhabitants of this Land of Grand Bay, and further up the river: said that many Indians came to his ship in Grand Bay, and they ate and drank together, and were very friendly, and the Indians gave them deer and wolf skins in exchange for axes and knives and other trifles; and for Indians dressed in skins they are men of skill, and he believes that farther up the river the inhabitants are much the same, for they gave them to understand that one of their number was Chief in Canada. And that they killed more than thirty-five of Jacques' men, and their arms are bows and arrows and pinewood shields; and they have many boats. . . . In answer to the important question of how Newfoundland fishermen could communicate well enough with the natives to learn all this, we are told by one Robert Lefant, of the town of Bayonne ( Ubilla, Sept. 23, 1542; in Biggar, 1930, pp. 453^): . . . Five years ago this witness was at the said harbour called Grand Bay, and fifty leagues farther on at a port called Brest, where he loaded his ship with a cargo of cod, and there are no houses but only huts made of the bark of trees; and there is an abundance of cattle and birds of all kinds, and skins, and the people trade in marten skins and other skins, and those who go there take all kinds of ironware. And that the Indians understand any language, French, English, and Gascon, and their own tongue... . While Cartier was thus besieged in Canada, Roberval was making preparations in his own manner. From the Spanish ambassador in France ( Bonvallot, Nov. 3, 1541; in Biggar, 1930, p. 404) we learn that this captain was encountering great difficulties in outfitting his vessels. The report of a spy to the Portuguese ambassador (Anonymous, Nov. 12, 1541; in Biggar, 1930, pp. 406-11) states that Roberval was engaging in piracy and that all ports were closed to him. This charge is confirmed by the letter sent by the French ambassador in England to

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Francis I (Marillac, Feb. 22, 1542; in Biggar, 1930, pp. 441-2), and by the report of the English ambassador in France to Henry VIII (Paget, March 13, 1542; in Biggar, 1930, pp. 443-4), this latter letter also describing Francis I's anger at Roberval. A month later, in April, Roberval finally directed his course towards Canada. After a stormy crossing the harbour of St. John, in Newfoundland, was reached. Here Roberval found seventeen fishing boats, and while he was anchored there the fleet of Jacques Cartier arrived, returning to England after their disastrous winter. " . . . Hee [Cartier] enformed the Generall that hee could not with his small company withstand the Savages, which went about dayly to annoy him: and that this was the cause of his return to France. Nevertheless, hee and his company commended the Countrey to bee very rich and fruitful. . . . " ( Roberval, 1600; in Biggar, 1924, pp. 264-5.) When Roberval commanded Cartier and his men to return to Canada with him, the latter slipped anchor at night and sailed away. In July Cartier's old fort was reoccupied and strengthened. After preprations for the winter had been made, it was discovered that the food supply was short, whereupon short rations were ordered. In the course of the winter scurvy broke out, resulting in the death of fifty of the company. In June Roberval departed with a number of his company towards Hochelaga, but his relation ends suddenly before we learn what happened ( Roberval, 1600; in Biggar, 1924, pp.265-70). When Roberval returned to France in 1543 he found that war had once more broken out between Francis I and Charles V. All thoughts of further expeditions and colonization of New France therefore had to be postponed and were not to go forward again for another sixty years.

CHAPTER XI

The Provenience of the Cartier Relations THE SOURCES relating to the Cartier voyages are important documents in the

ethnography of the region, and it is therefore incumbent to attempt to evaluate the evidence regarding their origin and history. There are some indications that the Moreau manuscript may not be the original account of the venture of 1534. First, the document bears the date 1544, which is usually and perhaps without sufficient basis explained as an error for 1534. Second, the text shows the unusual feature of having only one of the many chapter headings which appear in the Ramusio version (see Baxter, 1906, p. 266; and Biggar, 1901, p. 210), this latter text (Ramusio, 1565, pp. 435-40) presenting a complete set of chapter headings but otherwise giving a rather careless translation (Biggar, 1901, p. 211). If these chapter headings are original with Ramusio, as has sometimes been stated, it is difficult to understand why one of them should appear at all in the Moreau manuscript. It is also difficult to understand why this manuscript should only show one, and none of the others. The possibility therefore exists that the Ramusio headings are derived from an original manuscript of which the Moreau manuscript is a copy—accurate except for the general omission of headings. Alternately, the manuscript may represent an original document whose scribe belatedly decided to include headings, and did actually include such in later copies. In any case, the later editions of Cartier's first relation largely derive from Ramusio (that is, Cartier, 1580, by Florio; and Cartier, 1600a, by Hakluyt), although Hakluyt seems to have corrected his work somewhat by reference to the (or a) French manuscript. The probable relationships of the versions are shown in the accompanying diagram, where the asterisk indicates a missing version.

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An analysis of the manuscripts deriving from the second voyage shows, from internal evidence, that the so-called Manuscript B (Manuscript française 5589) is the oldest. Furthermore, all the other versions of the account derive from this same document—a fact which is usually taken as indicating it to be the original (Biggar, 1901, pp. 213-15).

The first copy to be made from Manuscript B was Manuscript A ( Manuscript française 5653), this being done so carefully that even the errors and corrections of the original were reproduced (Biggar, 1901, pp. 214-15). Next, a transcription of Manuscript B was made which was published in Paris in 1545. This time numerous errors were made—the most noticeable of which was the omission of two entire chapters. Upon the occasion of the preparation of Manuscript C, the copyist had available both Manuscript B and the Paris edition of 1545, and with a scholar's faith in the printed word often followed the Paris edition at the expense of the manuscript (Biggar, 1901, pp. 216-17). He also added several words to his Indian vocabulary which are found in neither of his sources —a matter which will be discussed in greater detail below. The later printed editions of Cartier's second voyage derive from the Paris publication of 1545. For the third voyage we have only the two accounts preserved by Hakluyt. These were apparently translated from the French, but no trace has ever been found of these originals and Hakluyt gives us no information as to the origin of his texts. Although the relations describing Cartier's voyages of 1534, 1535-6, and 1541-2 are usually ascribed to Cartier himself—and this practice has been continued in the Bibliography of this work—there are a number of indications to the contrary. The questions has often been raised whether Cartier could have written his relations in the lucid, literary French in which we find them. The argument has been made that he undoubtedly could keep log books and prepare charts, but that the writing of a literary narrative—such as the relations of 1544 and 1536 may be considered—would be beyond him (Barbeau, 1949, p. 227). Biggar (1924, pp. xii-xiii) has also noted that the relations still show some evidence of being worked out from a day-to-day ship's log, and therefore may constitute a highly edited text. With respect to the first of these observations we may observe, perhaps, a long-standing attitude of landlubbers and scholars towards sailors—an attitude which is brought in question by the known presence of literary circles in such ports as Dieppe and the participation in them of such sea-captains as Pierre Crignon and the Parmentier brothers. In the case of

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these latter mariners we have the picture, in fact, of captains whiling away the time during long voyages writing poetry and plays (see Parmentier, 1883, Introduction). In the light of this example we cannot assume that Cartier might not have had some literary talents. The second observation, that the relations show reworking and revision from the original travel account, can be substantiated in a number of ways. In particular, a study of the text reveals that a number of the descriptions of native life have been inserted into the travel narrative. This is especially obvious in the account of the approach of the French to Hochelaga given in the "Seconde nauigation . . . " ( 1536a; in Biggar, 1924, pp. 152-73), where we find a description of the Hochelagans inserted into the account of the French visit: . . . And after marching about a league and a half, we met on the trail one of the headmen of the village of Hochelaga, accompanied by several Indians, who made signs to us that we should rest at that spot near a fire they had lighted on the path; which we did. Thereupon this headman began to make a speech and to harangue us, which, as before mentioned, is their way of showing joy and friendliness, welcoming in this way the Captain and his company. The Captain presented him with a couple of hatchets and a couple of knives, as well as with a cross and a crucifix, which he made him kiss and then hung it about his neck. For these the headman thanked the Captain. When this was done we marched on, and about half a league thence, found that the land began to be cultivated. It was fine land with large fields covered with the corn of the country, which resembles Brazil millet, and is about as large or larger than a pea. They live on this as we do on wheat. And in the middle of these fields is situated and stands the village of Hochelaga, near and adjacent to a mountain, the slopes of which are fertile and are cultivated, and from the top of which one can see for a long distance. We named this mountain "Mount Royal". . . . [A description of the Hochelagans follows, covering the village, the fortifications, the houses, the food, the clothes, their esnoguy, and their labours. Then the narrative continues : ] . . . As we drew near to their village, great numbers of the inhabitants came out to greet us and gave us a hearty welcome, according to the custom of the country. And we were led by our guides and those who were conducting us into the middle of the village (Biggar, 1924, pp. 152-62.) From the narrative itself, however, we may conclude that the French were, at the most, only half a day in Hochelaga—and possibly only one or two hours. The text also tells us that the French had no translators along (Biggar, 1924, pp. 140, 169). The question then arises whether all the information that is presented could have been obtained during the short stop at Hochelaga, or whether parts of it might not have been obtained from the people of Stadacona. There is also the problem of whether or not the description of the way of life of the Stadaconians is a late insertion into the text, perhaps done in France from information given by the captives (Biggar, 1924, pp. 179-86). One clue as to the possible author of the relations is to be found in the Rouen edition of 1545, where the name of a certain Jehan Poullet is inserted in several places (Cartier, 1545, pp. 6a, 39b, 40b; in Biggar, 1901, p. 215). Since this name is not to be found in Manuscript B, and since Cartier was still alive in 1545 and would probably have objected to improper insertions, it has been argued that this Jehan Poullet was the author of the relations (Biggar, 1901, p. 215).

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It can be shown that Poullet had charge of the roll of Carrier's company in 1535, that he sailed with the company on the first voyage, and that he sailed in Cartier's ship on the second. Undoubtedly he had some capacity as secretary. It is of interest to note that his name was again omitted in Manuscript C. This would seem to imply that he was not the copyist in this case (Biggar, 1901, pp. 215-16). Despite this circumstantial evidence we cannot say that Jehan Poullet wrote the relations, since we know so little about his career that we are unable to gauge his possible literary a ility. We know only that he was, apparently, a Breton who had been to Bordeaux and possibly to Brazil, and that he was a fervent member of the Roman Catholic Church (Biggar, 1901, p. 216). One observation which we can make is that the Loire River French of the relations gives no indication of Breton influence (Barbeau, 1949, p. 227). After a study of the Cartier relations, Marius Barbeau (1949, p. 228) came to the conclusion that "Cartier may never have seen his Voyages in anything near their present form, still less the 'Langaige de la Terre Nouvellement 'Decouverte,' which may or may not at first have formed part of the Voyages. Every chance there is that a 'ghost writer' (as such is named today) served the King of France in preparing a formal report on his pilot's discoveries. . . . " This "ghost writer" serving the king of France is considered by Barbeau ( 1949, p. 228 ) to be none other than François Rabelais. That this is a possibility is shown by a statement in an obscure work by Jacques Doremet ( 1628 ) reprinted by Joiion des Longrais (1894) and quoted by Lefranc (1905a, p. 60): "Rabelais came to Saint-Malo to learn from this Cartier the marine and seafaring terms with which to embellish his humouristic satires and impious epicureanisms. . . ." This Jacques Doremet was a Breton historiographer with access to the archives and local traditions of St. Malo, and is generally regarded as a reliable source (Lefranc, 1905a, pp. 59-62). That Cartier exerted an important influence on the works of Rabelais is quickly apparent when one examines the third, fourth, and fifth books of the Lives, Heroic deeds, and sayings of Gargantua, and his Sonne Pantagruel (Rabelais, 1892a). Specifically, Cartier's influence appears in those sections of the work which deal with Pantagruel and Panurge's voyage to the "Oracle of the Holy Bottle." The navigational vocabulary appearing herein consists of approximately 124 words—about half of which appear to lexicographers for the first time—deriving from various seafaring groups (that is, Old French, Breton and Norman, West Coast, Provençaux, Catalan, and Italian) and containing a wealth of information regarding the art of navigation in the sixteenth century (Sainean, 1910). The pilot in Rabelais's story is none other than one Jamet Brayer (that is, Jacques Cartier), while the navigator carries the name of Xenomanes (that is, Alphonse de Saintongeois) (Rabelais, 1892a, vol. 2, pp. 139, 183; and Lefranc, 1905a, pp. 56-72). Furthermore, Rabelais's ships sail from the Port of Saint-Malo (Lefranc, 1905a, pp. 37-43) and follow the same course across the Atlantic as that taken by Cartier (Rabelais, 1892, vol. 2, p. 183; and Lefranc, 1905a, pp. 72-9). And to strengthen the comparison, various

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incidents occurring in the voyage of Pantagruel and Panurge can be shown to derive from the relations of Cartier, although no new material seems to appear (Barbeau, 1934, pp. 113-22). Arguing from these derivations from Cartier, and from the reported tutorship of Rabelais by Cartier, Abel Lefranc (1905a, pp. 63-5) took the position that these two men were close friends. Proceeding from this, and from the known fact of Rabelais's literary and linguistic abilities, Barbeau (1949, pp. 226-8) set up the hypothesis that it was Rabelais who rewrote the Cartier relations for the French King and compiled the vocabularies that were appended. Since it is these latter vocabularies which give the Cartier relations their unique importance, and which comprise the sole evidence for a number of controversial ethnographic problems, it is therefore necessary to examine his hypothesis with great care. In order to demonstrate circumstantially that Rabelais was involved in the preparation of Cartier's formal reports to Francis I, it is necessary to show that Rabelais was acquainted with the Cartier relations either immediately after 1534, 1536, or 1542; that Rabelais was in a geographical and social position to have had a hand in the rewriting; and that the Cartier relations show some trace of Rabelais. The only source of information relative to the first question comes from the works of Rabelais himself, in particular from the books of the GargantuaPantagruel epic. A cursory examination of the third book, as it appears in the Urquhart translation (Rabelais, 1892, vol. 1, p. 281; vol. 2, p. 156), which is derived largely from the 1552 Paris edition, shows it to be devoted almost entirely to a topic of common conversation in early sixteenth-century France—the question of whether or not women were suitable companions for men (see Lefranc, 1914, pp. 251-303). Rabelais discusses this vexing problem through the medium of Pantagruel's friend, Panurge, who is trying to decide whether or not to marry. It is only in the very last chapters of the book, after a consultation of signs, that Panurge decides to embark on a voyage to the Oracle of the Holy Bottle. Immediately thereafter the well-known "Pantagrueline Prognastication," which first appeared in the 1534 edition of the second book, is inserted, and the book closes. By an examination of the previous volumes and editions we are able to establish a date before which this plot of a voyage to the Oracle, which appeared in the third book, does not seem to have existed. In the conclusion to the 1532 edition of the second book, Rabelais presented the following schedule for the third book: "You shall hear the rest of this history of the Frankfort fair next coming: and you shall see how he found the philosopher's stone; how he passed over the Caspian Sea; how he sailed through the Atlantic Sea, defeated the cannibals, and conquered the isles of Pearls. How he married the daughter of the King of India, called Préster John. . . ." (Rabelais, 1532; in Plan, 1904, p. 36; and Saulnier, 1946, p. 177.) In the 1533 edition of this work, printed either in Paris or Potiers (Plan, 1904, p. 41), this passage has been changed somewhat to read: "You shall hear the rest of this history of the Frankfort fair next coming, and there you shall see how Panurge was married and made a

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cuckold within a month after his wedding, how Pantagruel found the philosopher's stone, how he passed over the Caspian Sea; how he sailed through the Atlantic Sea, defeated the Cannibals, and conquered the isles of Pearls. How he married the daughter of the King of India, called Préster John. . . . " (Lefranc, 1922, vol. 3, p. xxxvii.) It was this version of the schedule which was retained and reprinted in the 1542 Lyons edition of Rabelais's work—this edition forming the basis for the modern editions and translations (Lefranc, 1922, vol. 3, pp. xxxvii, Ixxiv, ciii; and Saulnier, 1946, p. li). From these passages it would seem that as late as 1542 Rabelais was taking his inspiration more from Marco Polo, Columbus, and Vespucius than from the more recent discoveries by Carrier (see Lefranc, 1922, vol. 3, pp. xxxvii-xxxix). This tentative conclusion receives some support from the 1538 work entitled Le voyage et nauigation que fist Panurge, disciple de Pantagruel, aux Isles incongneues . . . (Plan, 1904, pp. 107-9), which is generally considered to be a pirated edition of Rabelais's sequel to his second book (Plan 1904, p. 112; Lefranc, 1905a, pp. 31-2; and Plattard, 1930, p. 199), and which completely satisfies the schedule presented earlier (Lefranc, 1905a, p. 31). Assuming that we are correct in considering this work to be pirated, we have an indication that Rabelais had not yet, as of 1538, considered using the Cartier voyage as source material, and also have an explanation of why a complete recasting of the plot became necessary. The third book of the Gargantua-Pantagruel epic, first published in 1546, makes, therefore, an almost complete break with the earlier works. The pièce de resistance, as we have already stated, is a philosophical discussion of woman's place in human society. Only in the very last chapters is a journey to the "Oracle of the Holy Bottle" decided upon, and preparations started. This voyage plot is then expanded in the fourth book, which first appeared in 1548, and in the fifth book, published in 1562. On the basis of this analysis it would seem that the necessity for recasting the plot of the Gargantua-Pantagruel story did not arise until at least 1538. The schedule of 1542 gives us no indication that a substitute had yet been decided upon, and the edition of 1546 still appears almost as a play for time. At any rate, in this latter work we have no indication that Rabelais had yet decided to draw upon Cartier's experiences, and therefore no evidence that he was acquainted with the Cartier relations at this time. In brief, this phase of analysis gives no support for the theory that Rabelais had been involved in preparing the reports for the King. A study of Rabelais's whereabouts in the critical period from 1534 to 1545 gives evidence that he may have spent part of the year of 1530 studying law at the University of Poitiers. In this same year he may also have visited the universities of Bordeaux, Toulouse, Bourges, Orleans, and Paris, and on September 17, 1530, he enrolled at the University of Montpellier in medicine ( Plattard, 1927, pp. 30-3; and 1930, pp. 62-74, 76, 92, 94). In the spring of 1532 Rabelais was in Lyons where he shortly became attached to the hospital of Pont-du-Rhone. After the publication in Lyons of the first edition of Pantagruel, Rabelais came under the

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patronage of the Bishop of Paris, Jean du Bellay, and in 1534 he left Lyons for Rome in the capacity of private physician to the Bishop. Later in the same year he returned to his post in the hospital at Lyons and published the first edition of Gargantua (Plattard, 1930, pp. 105, 110-11, 144, 150-51). On the night of October 17-18, 1534, Reformist zealots posted posters denouncing the orthodox Catholic Mass, the Pope, and the Cardinals. Flamed by this incident a wave of religious repression and persecution broke out, directed not only to the Reformers, but also to the humanists and other "heretics." Since Rabelais was considered to be a notorious member of this latter group, he found it expedient to disappear temporarily. In 1535, however, we again find him in Lyons, and in the same year he again left Lyons for Rome as the private physician to Bellay, now a Cardinal (Plattard, 1930, pp. 169-73). In the following year Rabelais returned to Lyons, stayed briefly at the Benedictine monastery of St. Maur-les-Fosses, near Paris, and then re-enrolled at the University of Montpellier. After receiving his doctorate in 1537, Rabelais practised at Lyons, Montpellier, and Aiguës-Mortes, and finally returned to Lyons in the King's entourage. Here he remained until the fall of 1539. In the winter of 1540 he removed to Piedmont to become the physician to the Governor, in whose service he again visited Rome ( Plattard, 1930, pp. 178-97 ). In the spring of 1541 Rabelais passed through Turin, and later stopped at Lyons on his way to the French Court. In the spring of 1542 he was at Saint-Aye, between Meung and Orleans, and later at Turin. In January of 1543, Rabelais's employer, the Governor of Piedmont, died. Later in the year Rabelais lost still another patron, causing him to disappear once more for his health. We have no direct indications of his whereabouts until 1546, although indirect references in his works make it possible that he spent this time in the west of France. According to Plattard, Rabelais prepared his third book at this time in Poitou, or in nearby Chinonais, and it is in this work, first published in 1546, that we find our indication of Carrier's influence (Plattard, 1930, pp. 197-206). After the publication of this latter work and its condemnation by the Sorbonne, Rabelais repaired to Metz, where he stayed until 1548. At this latter date he was again summoned to become the private physician of Cardinal du Bellay of Paris. During his return to Paris in reply to this summons the writer stopped at Lyons long enough to give his printer the first manuscript version of the fourth book of Pantagruel (Plattard, 1930, pp. 226-31). It is clear that the information concerning Rabelais's travels and sojourns is insufficient to answer our specific question. The occasions of Rabelais's visits to Rome are, of course, automatically excluded from consideration. There remain, however, long periods during which the author's whereabouts are unknown or assumed. It is an assumption, for example, that he remained in Lyons throughout the periods 1532 to 1534 and 1537 to 1540; the sources give us no details of possible excursions. Furthermore, Rabelais's whereabouts during the periods 1534 to 1535 and 1543 to 1546 are completely unknown. One further method remains by which we may attack the problem—the internal and external analysis of the Cartier relations for traces of Rabelaisisms. That such

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are present is not immediately obvious. A detailed and careful comparative study of the Cartier relations is highly desirable, but this is a problem in explication de texte, and cannot be attempted in a work of this, nature. No evidence exists, therefore, to support the hypothesis of Rabelais's rewriting the Cartier relations. Cartier's formal reports to Francis I undoubtedly were prepared within a year after his voyages, and this fact renders Rabelais's participation unlikely, since he was not in official favour at these times. And since Rabelais was probably not acquainted with the voyages before 1538, and in view of the lack of any specific evidence that he was in the required localities at the required times, we must consider the hypothesis to be without adequate foundation.

CHAPTER XII

The Provenience of the Cartier Vocabularies I N THE DISCUSSION of the sources of the second voyage it was suggested that certain parts of the ethnographic descriptions were late additions to the body of the travel account. One reference exists which seems to imply that such insertions may have been made in France from the information given by the Indian captives. In his Les Singvlaritez de la France antarctique . . . André Thevet reports that the natives of Canada "believe that the soul is immortal, and if a man turns out badly [verse mal], after his death a great bird takes his soul and carries it away; otherwise the soul goes into a place adorned with many beautiful trees, and birds singing melodiously. This is what the Seigneur of the Country of Canada, called Donacona Aguanna, told us. This man died in France as a good Christian, speaking French, for he had lived there four years . . ." (Thevet, 1558, fol. 145; 1878, p. 407.) In the light of this statement we need to consider the possibility, first suggested by Barbeau (1949, pp. 226-8), that the important native wordlists of the relations were actually compiled in France after the completion of the explorations. From the historical data in hand, we can establish a date after which no compilation of the vocabularies could have taken place, and, given enough assumptions, we can even derive "possible" dates for the completion of the two lists. Thus, the terminal date for any work on the vocabularies would seem to fall between March 25, 1539, the date at which three "savages of Canada" were baptized at St. Malo (Anonymous, 1539; in Biggar, 1930, p. 82), and 1541, by which time they had all died (Hakluyt, 1599-1600, vol. 3, p. 23). Assuming that the first vocabulary was associated with the first voyage by virtue of having been completed before the 1535-36 expedition, we obtain another possible date. Of course, if it is assumed that the vocabularies were compiled in Canada there are no problems with respect to dates—although other difficulties arise. Considering for the moment only the first vocabulary, we must note that we know it only through the printed version of 1565. The native words contained in the Moreau manuscript are all to be found in the text. Yet, if the vocabulary was collected in Canada, it must have been in existence when the first relation was

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written. Why was it not included? Either the scribe of the Moreau manuscript did not have the vocabulary available to him, which would be peculiar if it had been compiled in Canada, or he did not care to reproduce it, which seems somewhat unlikely. The simplest explanation would seem to be that the vocabulary was made up separately from the relation, possibly in France. A comparison of the forms held in common between the Moreau manuscript and the Ramusio version yields slender results, since only five words are held in common, namely, those for: beans, Indian corn, figs, nuts, plums. The Moreau manuscript seems to give a general generic term covering both "figs" and "plums" —HONNESTA—while the Ramusio vocabulary gives ASCONDA for "figs" and HONNESTA for "plums." In this the Ramusio version is followed by the vocabularies from the second voyage. Other differences between the Moreau and Ramusio vocabularies seem explainable by ordinary processes of textual corruption. In the Ramusio vocabulary for the first voyage, twenty-five of the fifty-six words given are for meanings not appearing in the vocabularies deriving from the second voyage. Of the remaining thirty-one, at least twenty-six are significantly different, that is, the variation in the form cannot easily be explained as resulting from somewhat different transcriptions of the same phonetic elements. For example, the differences between CAHACOMY and CARRACONNY, YGATA and HEGATA, AGONAZÉ and AGGONOSY, and AGOHEDA and AGGOHEDA (see the complete listing of forms in the Appendix) seem to be the result of variant transcription. This does not seem to explain the differences between CACTA and QUAHETAN, KAGAIGE or KAPAIGE and OZISY, HONTASCO and AHONTASCON, ANSCÉ and HETQUENYASCON, CAMET and

QUEMHYA, ANOUDASCO and

AGOUGUENEHONDE, UNDO and

AQUEHAN, AIGLA

and ANHEMA, CONGUEDO and AGONHON, CANUT and CAHONA, and ENRASESCO and AGGOUETTÉ. Unfortunately, because of the undeveloped state of Iroquois linguistics, we cannot tell whether these forms represent different word roots with somewhat different meanings, or identical word roots differently inflected or compounded. Nevertheless it does seem evident that the first and second voyage vocabularies are the products of separate and independent compilations. Linguistically we are barely on the threshold of an understanding of the variations exhibited, but these variations may be of considerable interest in any study of the language of the St. Lawrence Iroquois. The collation of the vocabularies from the second voyage given in the Appendix gives evidence that the lists derive from more than one immediate prototype, although they may ultimately derive from a common source. One group which seems to constitute a unit comprises Manuscripts A, B, and C, which show twenty forms not found in any of the other wordlists. These include: chief, "common plant," my cousin, to cry, to dance, feathers, my friend, bush fruit, go and fetch some water, small nuts, to sing, skunks (?), "so and so is dead," that's no good, fresh water, when a person is so old . . . , whence come you?, when they wish to say . . . , where has he gone?, my wife. Among these three vocabularies, those of Manuscripts A and B form an especially tight unit; Manuscript C deviates in listing eight unique forms: come for a paddle, come and swim (according to Biggar, 1901, p. 217), earthern pot, day, evening, go and fetch someone, many

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thanks, and night. This observation warns us against applying the textual genealogy reconstructed for the relations proper to the vocabularies, for these terms do not appear in the A or B Manuscripts, or in the Brief récit. Still other complications appear, however. The vocabularies given by the Brief récit, by Hakluyt, and by Thevet seem to form another unit; this is ultimately but not closely related to that of the A, B, and C Manuscripts. Hakluyt and Thevet consistently lack words appearing in the manuscripts of the first group, but Thevet also gives us a form not found anywhere else, namely, the "nature of man." The problem therefore gives indications of being one of considerable complexity, and even a casual inspection of the collated vocabularies reveals the inadequacy of attempting to explain these variations through the textual genealogy reconstructed for the voyage account. Consideration of the collated vocabulary enables us to distinguish a number of degrees of relationship. These are as follows: 1. A relationship between Manuscripts A, B, and C, and the Brief récit, documented by the forms for three, four, beard, chin, Indian corn, ears, eyes, good-by, grapes, hot, large, to laugh, small nuts, olives, run, shirts, shut the door, small, snow, tobacco, and ugly. 2. A relationship between Manuscripts A, B, and C, documented by forms already presented. 3. A relationship between Manuscripts A and B, documented by an almost exact similarity of forms. 4. A relationship among Manuscripts A and B, the Brief récit, Hakluyt, and Thevet, documented by the common possession of at least 107 of the 187 words known from the second voyage. The larger part of these are also to be found in the C manuscript, but a few, such as "an eel" and "hair of phallus," are absent. 5. A relationship between the Brief récit, Hakluyt, and Thevet, evident not so much in the words held in common as in a similarity in form of specific words. In this respect, the Brief récit, Hakluyt, and Thevet form one unit, and the A, B, and C manuscripts another. For example: Manuscripts A, B, C Judaie Wadellon Adhadguyn Asista Quejón Cudonaguy Aigay Sonohamda Addogué Sahonigagoa Odayan, Odaian Quanocha Honga Agougasy Adassene Canysa Cahona Aggouette

Brief récit, Hakluyt, Thevet Indahir Madellon Addagnin, Addagrim Azista Queion Cudragny Aignaz, Aignag Sourhamda, Sourhanda Addogne Sahomgahoa ( MS C follows this ) Odazan, Odazani Conocha, Canoca Hoga Agogasy Adhoasseue Canisa, Camsa Cahoha Agrueste, Agruaste

( The problems raised by the variations here encountered will be taken up later. )

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6. A relationship between the Brief récit and Thevet, indicated by the forms for: a dog, good day, knife, the sea, the sides, and turtles. 7. A somewhat closer relationship between Hakluyt and Thevet, illustrated by the forms for: three, four, eight, the beard, a bow, my brother, a dog, the ears, an eel, the eyes, the hair, a hare, a hatchet, the head, hat, house, man, the mouth, nuts, phallus, a salmon, shirts, the teeth, the throat, the tongue, woman, and the womb. The Hakluyt and Thevet versions do not seem to be directly related, however, since words found in one are sometimes absent in the other. The complicated nature of these relationships makes it obvious that the lists cannot be arranged in any simple unilinear sequence, but that instead the possibility of multiple prototypes and multiple origin must be considered. Two different assumptions can be made: first, that the vocabularies ultimately derive from a single source, which was complete; or second, that our vocabularies represent various combinations of two or more original vocabularies. If we accept the first assumption our reconstruction necessarily becomes extremely complicated, since we must explain a complicated network of relationships and differing degrees of corruption. It is first necessary for us to make some sort of decision regarding the least corrupted or most corrupted state of the vocabularies, and here we are faced with the fact that we are dealing with an unknown language and that therefore we do not know the proper forms. Our knowledge that the language is Iroquois does not help us greatly, since the Iroquois languages as a whole are very poorly known. If we proceed from the assumption that the original vocabulary was complete, we need to consider the Thevet and Hakluyt versions as the most divergent. From this point of view it is difficult to explain those cases in which these lists seem to give forms closest to known Iroquois, or those cases in which these lists give forms not appearing in the other vocabularies. A reconstruction based upon this assumption may possibly take the form of the accompanying diagram.

On the other hand, it may be assumed that the Thevet-Hakluyt versions derive from an early simple prototype, while our other lists show progressive additions from unknown sources. This assumption may explain some of the highly different forms which appear, as well as why Manuscripts A, B, and C show almost twice as many words as the Thevet and Hakluyt versions. A reconstruction on this basis may take the form of the accompanying diagram.

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These reconstructions are most speculative, and will undoubtedly be extensively revised or even discarded in the light of further study, but they illustrate the manner of approach which must be taken towards the origin of the Canadian Iroquois vocabularies. One objection which may be raised is that Manuscript B has been described as being an "original," dating from around 1536. This deduction, however, is based on a series of assumptions; if these are not supported by an analysis of the vocabularies they must be discarded or revised. A more serious question is that of the origin of the second original vocabulary ("the additional vocabulary"). It may possibly also derive from the second voyage. But what if it represents an additional vocabulary obtained during the third voyage? If this is the case previously held viewpoints on the relationships of the Cartier voyage manuscripts will need to be extensively revised. At present we can only conclude that the vocabularies need a great deal of additional study. A further interesting point may be noted. In his study of the Huron cognates of the Canadian Iroquois vocabulary, Robinson (1948, pp. 127-46) postulated a possible omission and source of confusion. Listing the words of Manuscript C in the order in which they appeared and comparing them with the Huron equivalents, Robinson made the following table: English

Cartier's list

Huron equivalents

Evening Night [Dawn] Day

Angau Anhena

Omn'ekar, Omn'aaratie Asontha Ourhenha, Arhendi Mentahaon, ASentenhaon

Adegahan

Robinson suggested that the copyist of Manuscript C omitted the native word for "night" and the French word for "dawn" and then wrote the native equivalent for the latter opposite the French word "night"—probably corrupting it from AHHENA to ANHENA in the process. This argument is plausible, but a final judgment on the matter must await a more adequate linguistic consideration of the other Iroquois forms involved. Another such error of this nature may also be considered in the process. Robinson (1948, p. 145) gives: English

Cartier's list

Huron equivalents

Large Thin

Hougauda Houcquehin

EiakiiSoin, Oukihouen Hokaota

We here seem to have a simple case of inversion of terms.

CHAPTER XIII

The Cartography of the Cartier Voyages I

N GENERAL, the geographical information gained from the Cartier voyages resulted, not in changes in the cartographical configurations then currently in use, but in an addition to these representations. The Atlantic coast of North America continued to be drawn in the Gomez-Ribero-Chaves-Santa Cruz tradition, while the representations of Newfoundland continued to vacillate between a many-islanded prototype, first invented by Gastaldi, and a continental representation derived from the Portuguese materials. Only one chart is known which displays a configuration for the St. Lawrence derived solely from the materials of Cartier's 1534 voyage. This is the Jean Rotz chart (PAC 234), which was completed for Henry VIII of England in 1542, but which undoubtedly was prepared from prototypes dating back to 1534 or 1535. In this map, here pictured in outline in figure 44, the Atlantic coast follows the Ribero prototypes while Newfoundland shows the Gastaldi configuration (Ganong, 1934, pp. 202-3). To the west of Newfoundland in bold and exaggerated delineations are shown the landmarks discovered by Cartier's 1534 expedition. From internal evidence the map shows indications of having been prepared from a hastily drawn draft. Also, there are no names within the Gulf of St. Lawrence. These were added, however, on the Desceliers map of 1546, which follows the Jean Rotz configurations as far as they go (Ganong, 1934, pp. 203-^t). The maps presenting cartographical information from both the 1534 and 1535-6 voyages fall into two categories, as follows: I. Cartier group or tradition: (a) Harleian Mappemonde, c.1536 (fig. 45; PAC 241) (b) Desceliers map, 1546 (fig. 46; PAC 293) II. Portuguese-Cartier group or tradition: (a) Desliens world map, 1541 (fig. 47; PAC 210) (b) "Cabot"map, 1544 (PAC259) (c) Anonymous—Real Academia map, after 1536 (fig. 48) (d) Vallard map, 1547 (PAC 306) (e) Desceliers map, 1550 (fig. 49; PAC 323) ( / ) Desceliers map, 1553 (PAC 372) (g) Lopo Homem map, 1554 (figs. 54-5; PAC 385) (h) Le Testu map, 1566 (PAC 491)

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(i) Diogo Homem map, 1558 (fig. 56; PAG 423) ( / ) Velho map, 1561 (PAG 452) (fc) Lázaro Luiz map, 1563 (fig. 50; PAG 466) The first map of the first group—the so-called Harleian Mappemonde—is an anonymous work which may possibly derive from Pierre Desceliers. The Atlantic coast configurations display some interesting combinations. In the south, just above Florida, there is what seems to be the Sea of Verrazano, connecting with the Atlantic through a narrow strait; to the north, Cape Cod has been separated from the mainland by another narrow strait; still further to the north there is a coastal configuration very much like that of Alonso de Santa Cruz, but with the important addition of the St. John River to the west of the Island of St. John. Within the Gulf of St. Lawrence the Harleian map closely follows the Jean Rotz chart as far as the latter goes. To this base the artist has added the rest of Cartier's discoveries, but on a larger scale. Ganong theorizes that this latter representation follows a Cartier original (Ganong, 1934, pp. 237-8). In the 1546 map by Pierre Desceliers the distortions appearing on the Harleian are largely corrected. The St. Lawrence River is shown essentially the same, although on a smaller scale, and the configurations in the Gulf ( such as the Gaspé Peninsula) have become less exaggerated. There is some evidence to show that Cartier made these corrections himself, possibly on the immediate prototype (Ganong, 1934, pp. 240-1). The second group of maps representing the Cartier discoveries all show derivation from an unknown Portuguese prototype. This prototype is independently based upon the Cartier originals or explorations, and presents placenames and details which are not shown on the French maps or in the narratives. These maps are distinguished from those of the first groups, first, by their treatment of the Island of Anticosti, for while the Harleian shows only the eastern half of this island and the Desceliers of 1546 the entire island, the PortugueseCartier maps show only the western half (Ganong, 1934, p. 244); second, by their representation of Newfoundland, which appears in its continental configuration (Ganong, 1934, pp. 247, 252, 254, and figs.); third, by a depiction of Cape Breton following a Fagundes-Portuguese prototype; and fourth, by the occurrence of additions and Hispanizations in the nomenclature ( Ganong, 1934, p. 242 ). For the anthropologist, the primary importance of these maps lies in their localizations of the native towns described in the relations and in their appended vocabularies. A careful study of these, and of the other placenames, is indispensable for any ethnographic account of the natives of the St. Lawrence at the time of Cartier. A collation of these placenames as they appear on the maps is given in Table VI (Ganong, 1934, p. 229). The only significant contribution of Cartier's third voyage to cartography seems to have been the name "Tutonaguy," which appears on maps of the PortugueseCartier series. Less information derives directly from Roberval's venture. However his pilot, Jean Alphonse de Saintonge ( or Xanctoigne ), gave permanent form to the navigational material collected in his explorations for Roberval in his cosmographies.

TABLE VI Text 1544 Ajoaste Starnatam Tailla Sitadin j Stadacone ( Canada Tequenonday Achelacy Hochelay Hagouchonda Hochelaga Tutonaguy Saguenay Honguedo Anticosti (?) Maisouna (?) Canada Hochelaga Saguenay

List MSC Ajoaste Stagoattem Telia Sitadin Thegnignonde Stadacone Deganonda Thequenondahy Óchela Agouchonda Thoagahen Thegadechoalle

Ramusio 1565 Ayraste Starnatan Tailla Scitadin

Harleian c. 1536

Desceliers 1546

Stadin Aquechenunda Stadacone

Stadin Aquechenunda

Tequenondahi

Adeganoda Tequenonolay

Ochelai

Hochelay

Stadacone Canada

Canada Hochelaga Saguenay

Stadin Arque Chevonda

Adegenoada Ochelaga

Canoche

Hochelay

Ochelaga Totamagy

Hochelaga

Saquenay Onygnedo Canada Ochelaga Sagne

Mercator 1569

Stadin Agochonda Tadacone Canada Aquedonda

Hochelaga Saguenay (inay) Honguedo

Vallard 1547

Canada Ochelaga Le Sagnay

Saguenay Honnido

Canada Gueneda Tequondelay

Hunedo Canada Chilaga Saguenai

FIG. 44. The Jean Rotz map of c.1535 (completed in 1542), drawn from Biggar (1924, pi. V), Ganong (1933, fig. 70; 1934, fig. 83), and Stokes (1916, vol. 2, CP1. 18).

FIG. 45. The Harleian Mappemonde of c.1536, drawn, in reduction, from Biggar (1924, pi. VIII), with the nomenclature omitted. Notice that the Sea of Verrazano is still retained, and that Canada is continuous with Greenland, here still called Labrador.

FIG. 46. The Desceliers map of 1546, reduced from Biggar (1924, pi. XII), with the nomenclature omitted. This chart is unusual in depicting natives in canoes off both the New England and Newfoundland coasts. See Burland ( 1951 ) for discussion.

FIG. 47. The Desliens world map of 1541, redrawn from Ganong (1934, fig. 86) and Stokes ( 1916, vol. 2, CPl. 19), with the nomenclature omitted.

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FIG. 48. The Anonymous-Real Academia map, dating from after 1536, and preserved at the Real Academia de la Historia at Madrid. Drawn from Duro (1882, fig. facing p. 365), with the nomenclature omitted.

FIG. 49. The Desceliers map of 1550, drawn from Biggar (1924, pi. XIV), with the nomenclature omitted.

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FIG. 50. The Lázaro Luiz map of 1563, drawn from Bettencourt ( 1881-2, vol. 1, facsimile facing p. 146).

CHAPTER XIV

Alphonse, Thevet, and Barcia JEAN ALPHONSE DE SAINTONGE

A LTHOUGH

relatively unknown and unused, the works of Jean Alphonse de Saintonge, André Thevet, and Andrés González de Barcia Carballido y Zúñiga (usually known as Barcia) are nevertheless important in Cartier studies. Jean Alphonse, whose actual name was Jean Fonteneau, was a French sea captain originally hailing from the village of Saintonge, and usually sailing from the Port of La Rochelle (Biggar, 1901, p. 233). He sailed to Canada in the year 1542 as Roberval's navigator and pilot. Later, he engaged in piracy against the Spanish—an occupation which proved fatal (Biggar, 1901, p. 224). At his death, however, he left two geographical manuscripts of considerable historical interest, Les Voyages auantureux dv capitaine Ian Alfonce . . . and "La Cosmographie." The first of these works, which was first published in 1559 (a and b), and again in 1598, was written before the "Cosmographie," according to internal evidence; Les Voyages auantureux contains no Roberval material, while the "Cosmographie" does (Ganong, 1934, pp. 274-6). The statement made by a number of students that Les Voyages auantureux is merely an abridgement of the "Cosmographie" is therefore incorrect. Any discussion of the text and content of this work is rendered difficult by the fact that it has never been considered worthy of either reprinting or translation. Since Les Voyages auantureux contains much more interesting anthropological material than the "Cosmographie" this is unfortunate. Ganong's long quotations from the work, in translation, are therefore the only adequate sources in lieu of the original (Ganong, 1934, pp. 274-6). Despite its promising title, Les Voyages auantureux is little more than an outline of geographical facts, without maps (Ganong, 1933, p. 155). The section dealing with the Newfoundland area and of interest to anthropologists is as follows (Ganong, 1934, pp. 274-6): La Terre-neufve has the best ports & harbours of the entire sea, & great rivers, abundant fisheries. It is all covered with trees, pines, & others such. The coast runs North & South to Cap de Ras. The people are large, & somewhat dark. They have no more God than beasts, & are evil folk. On this coast are many islands & little islets. The people are named Tobias. They live on fish, flesh, & fruits of trees. . . . Beyond Cap de Ras the coast turns to the West as far as the gouffe de S. lehan.

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Before you approach this gulf is another which makes Terre-neufve an island, & merges with another of which we have already spoken. All these lands are high mountains. . . . At the gulf of S. lehan is an island which is named S. lehan, which has a good thirty or forty leagues of coast line, & 15 or 20 leagues of width, & is in the midst of the Strait. It is all inhabited by people who are like those of Terre-neufve. This island is of good soil, & fine rivers & trees are there, as in Spain. The land is about the same latitude. . . . Formerly the Portuguese sought to settle the land which lies the lowest, but the natives of the country put an end to the attempt, & killed all those who came there. . . . Now we return to the coast of the Estroict de Saint lehan. It runs to the Northwest & to the North more than three hundred leagues, & makes a turn to the Southwest, & South-southwest, a two hundred leagues. This coast has good ports, fine rivers, & good soil. Towns are there. They have a King as in the Indies. The people there are all of our size, darkish, & worship the Sun & the Moon. They have great store of peltry. . . . From this land it is not four hundred leagues to Tartary & the coast bends around to the South-southeast, & to the Southeast, & then turns to the East-northeast, to opposite the Isle saint lehan. . . . This sea seems to be green, although it is not so at all. In the midst of the gulf are some island & islets, & as in the case of the Terre des Bretons [they] constitute an island. . . . In this account we have not only the sole record of what was probably the Beothuk term for themselves, but also an account of the fate of the Portuguese colony in Cape Breton. In his study on the textual relations of Alphonse's "Cosmographie," Sainean (1912, p. 57) takes the position that Alphonse's description of America derives largely from the "Discorso d'vn Gran Capitano di mare Francese del Luoco di Dieppa . . . " published in Ramusio ( 1565, pp. 423-6F ). Since this latter work contains no Cartier material, and Alphonse's is based on his explorations in the service of Roberval (Ganong, 1934, pp. 276-90), it is difficult to consider this statement correct, unless it actually refers to Alphonse's earlier work. Even here, however, Sainean's viewpoint seems to be without basis. A comparison of the narrative of the "Discorso d'vn Gran Capitano" with that of the Navigation de Jean et Raoul Parmentier [of Dieppe, to Sumatra, in 1529, and to Santo-Domingo], usually attributed to Parmentier but actually written by Pierre Crignon, proves that the "Discorso d'vn Gran Capitano" deals with the voyages of Jean Parmentier. Internal evidence seems to indicate that the account was written in 1539; therefore it could not have been written by Parmentier himself, since he died on his 1529 voyage. The familiarity of the anonymous author with the Parmentier voyages leaves no doubt as to his identity—Pierre Crignon, of Dieppe, who accompanied the Parmentiers on all their voyages (Parmentier, 1883, pp. i-ii, xxiii-xxix). Crignon apparently wrote the relation at the request of Ramusio, who published it in his Navigationi et Viaggi. The Crignon description of the "Newfoundland" reads as follows: . . . The New land, of which the part now being considered is called Cape Ras, is situated to the west of our diametrical line or meridian . . . [and] is in 40° West longitude and 47° North latitude. . . . The New land extends toward the Arctic pole from the 40th to the 60th degree of latitude. . . . From the said Cape Ras to Cape de

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Brettoni, the coast stretches east and west for 100 leagues. . . . Between Cape Ras and Cape de Brettoni live a cruel and austere people, with whom it is impossible to deal or to converse. They are of large stature, dressed in seal skins and skins of other animals bound together. They are marked by certain lines made by applying fire to their faces, and are as if striped with a color between black and brown. In much regarding their face and neck they are like the inhabitants of Barbary. Their hair is long, like that of women, and is gathered on the top of their heads like the tail of a horse. Their weapons consist of bows which they know how to shoot very well, and their arrows are tipped with black stones and fish bones. . . . On the coast running north and south after Cape Ras, and up to the Baye des Chasteaux, there are great gulfs and great rivers and a large number of very large islands. This land is more sparsely inhabited than the coast mentioned above, and the inhabitants are more human and more friendly than the others. There is much fishing for molue [codfish], as on the other coast. And here no one has seen any houses, villages, or castles, except for a large wooden enclosure which was seen in the Baye des Chasteaux. The inhabitants live in small huts and houses which are covered with tree bark, and which they build to live in during the fishing season, which begins in the spring and lasts all summer. . . . They fish for seals, marsouini, and certain sea birds, called margaux, which they catch among the islands to dry. They make oil out of the fat of these fish. When the fishing season ends with the approach of winter, they return with their catch in boats made of the bark of certain trees called Buil, and go to warmer countries—we know not where. . . . (Crignon, 1565, p. 423r~T.) In this passage Crignon gives considerably more information than Alphonse. He does not, however, give the name "Tabios" for the inhabitants of Newfoundland, nor does he enter the Gulf of St. Lawrence, but he does give new and interesting information about the lands to the south of Cape Breton: Of the Land of Norumbega Going beyond Cape Brettoni, there is a land contiguous with the said Cape whose coast extends west and a quarter southwest to the land of Florida for some 500 leagues. This coast was discovered 15 years ago by Giovanni da Verrazano, in the name of the King of France and of Madame the Regent. This land is considered to be French even by the Portuguese themselves. The end of the land towards Florida is in 78° West longitude and 30° North latitude. The inhabitants of this country are tractable, friendly, and peaceful people. The land has a great abundance of fruitoranges, almonds, wild grapes, and many other kinds of aromatic trees grow there. This land is called Norumbega by its inhabitants, and between this land and that of Brazil is a great gulf, which extends westward. . . . (Crignon, 1565, p. 432T.) This account, which gives the origin of the name "Norumbega" in passing, can hardly be considered similar to that by Alphonse. Alphonse's second, and better known work is the manuscript "Cosmographie" preserved in the Bibliothèque Nationale as MS français, No. 676. As has been pointed out by Sainean (1912), this is largely a French translation of the Suma de geographia . . . by Martin Fernandez de Encisco (1519; 1530). In his section on Newfoundland and Canada, however, Alphonse gives a wealth of geographical information derived from the Cartier and Roberval voyages. This section was published in poor English translation by Hakluyt in 1589 and 1600 (1599-1600, vol. 3, pp. 237-40) and the translation reprinted by Baxter in 1906 (pp. 243-303). In 1934 Ganong published a careful analysis of it in his studies,

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FIG. 51. The cartographical concepts of the New World held by Jean Alphonse, reconstructed from the maps in his Cosmographie" (Alphonse, 1544b-f), assuming a Gomez-Ribero type of Atlantic coastline. See figs. 46-9, and Baxter (1906, pp. 243-60).

"Crucial Maps in the Early Cartography and Place-nomenclature of the Atlantic Coast of Canada." For the anthropologist this section is completely disappointing. Alphonse seems to have been so concerned with giving geographical descriptions and sailing directions that he had little space or time for the natives. The information on the natives of Newfoundland to be found in Les Voyages auantureux . . . has been deleted, and there are instead a few lines about the nomadic natives in the area of Carrier's fort, which tells us nothing new. ANDBÉ THEVET Of the French cosmographers contemporaneous with Cartier, the most important, the most misread, and the most condemned is André Thevet, at one time Cosmographer Royal. In part this condemnation has been the result of

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Thevet's somewhat unfortunate attempts at historical fiction, possibly an attempt to enlarge the marketing possibilities of his book. But in large measure, it has also been the result of careless, hasty, biased scholarship on the part of various students. It is true that Thevet wrote in large part from secondary sources; that in his later works he invented some incidents; and that he gave himself credit for some explorations not actually accomplished. Yet within the particular field which we are now considering he is extremely important. Whether we consider his voyage accounts as valid, or as being fictional adventure, we must give him credit for having used the best factual materials available. Specifically, Thevet's description of Canada contains original information obtained verbally from Cartier himself, which could not have been invented by any stretch of the imagination and which is subject to check. The best discussion of this material has been given by Ganong (1936, pp. 121-9). Thevet was born in Angouleme, France, in 1502, and entered the order of St. Francis at an early age. He soon became involved in missionary activity and was sent by Cardinal Jean de Lorraine to the Orient sometime around 1537 (Thevet, 1878, pp. ix-xii). From the materials collected in the course of this trip Thevet published his first work, the Cosmographie du Levant (1554). According to his own statements, Thevet first sailed to the New World with the Norman pilot Guillaume Testu in 1550 (Metraux, 1933, pp. 32-3). Biggar (1901, pp. 237-8) strenuously denies the validity of this claim, and his views have received general acceptance. At any rate from internal evidence we know that Thevet was collecting historical and geographical material on America at this time—some of it relating to South America and unknown from other sources —and had already interviewed Cartier. In the year 1555, Thevet became Almoner to the expedition to Brazil led by the vice-admiral of Brittainy, Villegaignon. The fleet sailed from Havre on May 6, coasted Spain, and sailed southward past the Madeiras, the Canaries, and the Cape Verde Islands until near the latitude of the Cape of Good Hope. Turning westward, the fleet reached Brazil in November. After a stay of two and a half months Thevet reembarked for France. According to his narrative the ships sailed past Haiti and Cuba, and were then driven by contrary winds to Florida and northward towards Canada. With clearing weather the fleet succeeded in reaching the Azores and France (Biggar, 1901, pp. 231-3). After this voyage Thevet seems to have remained in France, where he was appointed Almoner to the Queen Mother Catherine de Mediéis, and later became Historiographer and Cosmographer Royal. He died in Paris around 1590 (Biggar, 1901, p. 241). The first, and the most important, of the cosmographical works in which Thevet describes the New World is the manuscript "Le Grand Insulaire et pilotage d'André Thevet, Angoumois, cosmographe du Roy, dans lequel sont contenus plusieurs plants d'isles habitées, et deshabitées et description d'icelles," preserved as manuscripts 15452 and 15453 of the Bibliothèque Nationale (MSS français, ancien fonds), sections of which are also preserved in manuscript 17174 ("Description de plusieurs isles . . . "). According to internal statements,

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the work must have been begun around 1550 (Ganong, 1936, p. 122), and was continued until the time of Thevet's death (Biggar, 1901, p. 239). The work was never published, and our knowledge of its contents derives largely from Ganong (1936, pp. 121-6), who gives selected extracts. As indicated by its title, the work is largely geographical—Canada and adjacent lands being discussed on folios 143 to 159, and on folio 403. The section begins with a description of Newfoundland, which Biggar (1901, pp. 239-40) states to be the same as in Thevet's Cosmographie Universelle. After a description of Belle Isle and of the Straits of Belle Isle, he passes on to a description of Tile de l'Assumption" (Anticosti) and of its discovery by Cartier "just as he told me, being lodged at his home in St. Malo en L'ile . . . [and Cartier] gave to me 'le pion Le plan' of this island and of many others also, which he had made in the year [1550] . . . " (Ganong, 1936, p. 122). Proceeding, Thevet discusses the early discoverers of the country. At the beginning of his outline of its geography he identifies Cartier's "Le Cap ou promontoire de Lorraine" with Cape Breton and continues: "Near this cape is situated another island called HUBÉE situated on the northern side, being about five leagues in circumference and lying near the mainland. . . . Another island was seen which lies some two leagues from it, which is a triangle, and which is called CABBASSA by those of the country and l'Isle de Vierges by us. . . . " ( Ganong, 1936, p. 123; new native words capitalized here for emphasis.) Ganong notes that the first island is probably the modern St. Paul Island, which lies in Cabot Strait to the north of Cape Breton and which Cartier saw, and suggests that the second island may possibly be Scatari Island lying off the eastern point of Cape Breton some twenty leagues from St. Paul Island. The error in the distance may be textual—"2" having been written instead of "20"—and may indicate the use of a rutter or coastal pilot. There is no indication that Cartier saw the second island, and the names are completely new. Are they Micmac or St. Lawrence Iroquois? We now reach the most important section of the manuscript—folio 154— which contains the earliest known record of three well known Indian names of the Gulf of St. Lawrence—Tadoussac, Anticosti, and Miramichi. "Having traversed these dangerous passages [the northern shore of the Gulf of St. Lawrence] the pilot is in safe waters as far as the river and country of Saguenay, which the Savages call THADOYZEAU; and the pilot must take care to furl all of the sail from the Ile de l'Assumption, which the same natives call NATICOUSTI, unto the Baye de Chaleur, which the natives call MECHSAMECHT, because of the dangers along the coast from an infinite number of reefs and shoals, besides which the dangers of the sea pall . . . " (Ganong, 1936, pp. 123-4). We know of no source through which Thevet may have obtained these names except from Cartier; it is not clear, however, where Cartier became familiar with them. Possibly they derive from the third voyage. Whatever their origin, however, they give undeniable proof of the authenticity of Thevet's sources for Canada. Two other passages from folio 154 contain still other new native terms: "Those who sailed in this sea or gulf, which borders the land stretching to the north,

FIG. 52. Photographic reproduction of folio 153T of the first volume of André Thevet's "Le Grand Insulaire et pilotage d'André Thevet, Angoumoisin, cosmographe du Roy . . ." (MS français, ancien fonds, N° 15452, in thé Bibliothèque Nationale).

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found another land, shaped as a peninsula [and] called ATHANICQ, which lies to the right . . . [;] at the extremity of the Great River [of Canada] are rather sandy lands which they call in their language HANANYEB . . . " ; and, "an island called Orleans by the French and MINIGO by the savages is situated at the place where the river is narrowest. . . [confused passage mentioning l'isle des Vierges] which are near another river called Islec . . . " (Ganong, 1936, p. 124). It may be concluded that Minigo was the native name for the Isle d'Orléans at Quebec; however, later statements in the text seem to indicate that this name was a general one for islands. The text continues with a description of the upper St. Lawrence River. After mentioning the "Lac d'Angoulesme," Thevet tells us that there are many great rivers—among others, that one called ESTENDUE, which has its source in the high mountains of CHILAQUE and of TORTINAGE. To the left we have, similarly, the rivers of MONMORANCY which water the lands of CHAMBRIANT, and those of GOTIN which lies nearby near the promontory of RAGUINE and of PASSER. . . . Between this country and that of the MAGOTS is found a great lake about 27 leagues in circumference, called PATHNOS by those of the countries, having in it a beautiful island about three leagues in circumference which is peopled in the center by barbarians. The island is called MINIGO, and I have already discussed it in a preceding passage. This island of MINIGO serves as a refuge to the people of these lands and they return there when they are pursued by their enemies, and this is where they put those whom they have taken alive and keep them for several nights and days in order to execute them later. . . . All around this island is the best fishery in the entire Ocean and this is where the whales always have their haunts. . . . Those from Bayonne, the Spaniards, and others go to the fisheries there to catch these great monsters. . . . They catch them here every year in great numbers, principally at the "rivière de Saguenay". . . . (Ganong, 1936, pp. 124-5.) This is a passage of great interest, but it contains several confusions which require clarification. Fortunately, a number of the placenames appearing in it, including the terms "Chilaque," "Tortinage," "Monmorancy," and "Chambriant," also appear on a number of the charts of the period. The first name is to be found on the Mercator of 1569, placed at the junction of the St. Lawrence and Ottawa rivers. Both the Desceliers of 1550 and the Vallard of 1547 show "Tortinage" (in the textual variants of "Totnnagi" and "Totamagy") in the same position—at the junction of the St. Lawrence and the Ottawa. On the Mercator of 1569 we find "Monmorancy" placed immediately east of the junction of the Richelieu River and the St. Lawrence. The Harleian of 1536 and the Desceliers of 1546 place a "R. du memorâcy" on the northern shore of the Gaspé Peninsula, a rather unlikely location in the light of the reference. Some confusion here seems to have taken place, since the Mercator of 1569 places a "C. de Mommorancy" on the eastern tip of the same peninsula. And finally, the Mercator shows the name "Chambriant" on the Quebec-Montreal plain, east of "Monmorancy." From these cartographical materials we may make the following identifications: "Estendue" probably refers to the Ottawa River, and "Chilaque" and "Tortinage" to the hills bordering it on the north and south; "Gotin," "Raguine," and "Passer" remain unidentified, but may be associated possibly with the St. Francis or Chaudière rivers; "Monmorancy" seems to be the Richelieu,

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and the plain of "Chambriant" seems to be lower Quebec; and, finally, the lake "Pathnos" seems to be Lake Champlain. However, the name "Minigo" seems to refer to several different islands. The identification of "Pathnos" with Lake Champlain receives support from a few other sources. The lake is stated to lie between the land of "Gotin" and the land of the "Magots"; this latter term is strikingly close to the Algonquin name for the Mohawks—"Maqua" according to the journal of Arent Van Curler (1634-5), "Mohowaugsuck" or "Mauquauog" according to Roger Williams' Narragansett vocabulary of 1643 (the name derives from the stem "Moho" to eat), and "Maquaas" on the Johannes Vingboom map of c.1665. The association of the Mohawk with Lake Champlain is brought out in an extremely interesting passage by Champlain. This author (1613, p. 224) gives the following description of this lake: "On the following day we entered the lake which is some 80 or 100 leagues in length, in which I saw four beautiful islands about ten, twelve, and fifteen leagues in length, which, like the Iroquois river, were formerly inhabited by Indians: but have been abandoned, since they have been at war with one another. . . . " Thevet's passage describing an Indian occupancy of an island in the lake is therefore completely possible. The name of this island is another matter, however. It has been applied to three different islands: the island near the site of Quebec known as the Isle d'Orléans; the island in Lake "Pathnos"; and the island in the St. Lawrence River near the Saguenay. This latter island seems to be the same as the "isle de massacre" described by Cartier in his second relation. The name used to designate these islands, "Minigo," is of considerable interest since we can determine its origin. If we list the names used for "island" by the different tribes of the St. Lawrence region we get the following table. Tribe Hochelagan Mohawk Onondaga Huron Algonkin Micmac Delaware

Native word Cohena (Biggar, 1924, p. 244) Cayanoghe [plural] (Wilson, 1896, p. 100) Gachwechnot (Zeisberger, 1887, p. 106) AhSenda, ahoinda ( Robinson, 1948, p. 140 ) Minis (Ruttenber, 1872, p. 360) Münegoo ( Rand, 1888, p. 148 ) Minátey (Zeisberger, 1887, p. 106)

The word thus seems to belong to the Algonquin language family, and specifically to Micmac. Thevet's second work dealing with America was the Les Singularitez de la France Antarctique, autrement nommée Amérique . . . , which was first printed in 1557, and was reprinted in 1558, 1568 (an English translation), and 1878. It deals largely with Thevet's voyage to South America in 1555. In the course of the book, however, Thevet describes every country which he could possibly find reason to squeeze in; we thus find Newfoundland and Canada covered on folios 148 to 165. The centre of interest is the natives and their customs, and the material is greatly enlarged over that of "Le Grand Insulaire," and also somewhat different. Thevet begins his discussion with a description of the "Pays de Baccalos," and of their discovery by Sebastian Cabot. He then proceeds to the voyages and

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explorations of Cartier. The "Cap de Lorraine," he tells us (Thevet, 1878, p. 400), "is inhabited by many people, very stout and very malicious, usually carrying face masks (et portent ordinairement visage masqué), and disguised by lines of red and blue: which colors they take from certain fruits. . . . " As the Cartier expedition reached the "Baye de Chaleur," "The barbarians of this country showed them a good welcome, demonstrated a great affection towards them, and expressed great joy and congeniality at their arrival. [The barbarians and our people] practised friendship towards each other. After doing this, [and] passing on, they found other people, different from the first, in language as well as in their way of life: and they let it be known that they descended the Great River from CHELOGUA, in order to make war on those first seen. . . . " (Thevet, 1878, p. 401.) Thevet gives abundant ethnographic material about the people of Canada, considering in turn snowshoes, hunting techniques, medicines, marriage and religion, and shelters (Thevet, 1878, pp. 403-8): "They live in villages and hamlets, in certain houses, made in the fashion of a semi-circle, twenty or thirty paces long, ten in width, some covered with the bark of trees, others with sea rushes (iones marins). And God knows how the cold penetrates into these sad constructions, poorly covered, and [so] poorly supported that the pillars and rafters bend and break from the weight of the snow upon them. . . . " He tells of the frequent famines in Canada, of the division of labour among the natives, of their agriculture, dress, and hairdress. Then an interesting geographical and economic note appears: "The others [other men] wrap up and cover their loins with [the skins of] martres ZEBEHNES [i.e., sables], thus called from the name of the region to the north where the animal is common . . . " (Thevet, 1878, p. 415). The text continues with a discussion of feminine dress, marriage customs, the mourning practices of widows, treatment of infants, and manner of warfare, and then comes the important information (Thevet, 1878, p. 419): "The TONTANIENS, the GUADALPES, and the CHICORINS are usually at war against the CANADIENS, and the other various people, who descend from the great rivers of OCHELAGUA and SAGUENÉ. . . . " The discussion of warfare, of the natives' magical practices (including the use of the tambourine), and of the torture of prisoners concludes this section. From Canada, Thevet turns to a description of Newfoundland and its natives: This country is inhabited by barbarians dressed in the skins of wild beasts [who are] extremely inhuman and intractable: according to the experience of those who have gone there to fish for cod. . . . In the sea around the Terres Neuues is found another species of fish, which the natives call HEHEC, having a beak like a parrot, as well as other scaled fish. . . . The maritime people nourish themselves on fish, as we have said above. The others, a long distance from the sea, are content with the fruits of the land, which they get without cultivating it or working it. ... The remainder of these people are little prone to [engage in] warfare if their enemies do not search them out. Then they defend themselves completely in the fashion and manner of the Canadians. Their instruments for urging themselves to battle are [made of the] skins of animals stretched in the shape of a circle, with "fleustes" of the bones of deers, as are those of the Canadians. Having observed their enemy from a distance, they gird themselves for combat with their weapons, which are bows and arrows: and

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before the battle is joined, their principal guide, whom they consider as a king, being always the first, dressed with beautiful furs and feathers, sits on the shoulders of two powerful savages, so that all will recognize him, and will be prompt in obeying him in all that he commands. And when the victory is theirs, God knows how they caress him. And thus they return joyously to their huts, displaying their trophy banners— decorated with the feathers of swans fluttering in the air, and carrying the skin of the faces of their enemies, stretched in little circles, as signs of the victory. . . . (Thevet, 1878, pp. 438-44.) From this and the previous quotations we have a great deal of new, important, and very early ethnographic information concerning the natives of the Gulf of St. Lawrence region. A great deal of it undoubtedly derives from Cartier; but some, like that of Newfoundland, may come from other sources. We now come to Thevet's third and best-known work—La Cosmographie Vniverselle d'André Thevet Cosmographe dv Roy . . . (1575)—the Canadian section of which was translated in 1882. We are here considering the composition which is at the root of Thevet's ill-fame, and if we had not already considered his earlier works we could concur with the general decision. In the account dealing with northeast North America the narrative has been completely changed to TABLE VII THEVET Thevet translated

Thevet's vocabulary

Cartier's vocabulary

Cartier translated

Aiayascon

Arm

Addegesta Ame

Damga Azista Aniaquesta Canocha Quenhia Zysto Casign Quasigno casnouy Aguehan Assomaha Aguyase Damga Addgnin Casigno agnydahoa

Boy Water (fresh) Bread Earth Fire Girl House Heaven Lamprey Let us go Let us go to the canoe Man Moon My friend Earth My brother Let us go to bed

Ondacon Rabatatz Area somioppach

Ondaccon Aionasca

Salmon Skin (First Voyage)

Peragrus

Agrueste

Woman

Arm A little king calls himself Children Come to drink and to eat Earth Fire Girls House Heaven Lampreys Let us go Let us go on land

Aiayascon

My brother My friends, do not start from here: you shall sleep here this night with us Salmon Skins of wild animals We assure you upon oath, you will not fare worse than us Women

Addagrin Cazigno agynda hoa

Men Moon My friend

CARTIER

Peramich Adegestas Coaquoca ame couascon kazaconny Dangua Azista Aniasgestas Canoque Quenchia Zistoz Cazigno Casigno casnouy Aquehuns Assomaka Danga

Carraconny

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make it appear that Thevet sailed along the Atlantic coast from Florida to Newfoundland, stopping en route at the Grand River of Norumbegue and having intercourse there with the natives. The material presented derives from "Le Grand Insulaire" and Singularitez, but most of the important sections have been deleted. Some material appears, however, which may obtain from Cartier, or may be spurious. In at least one place Thevet seems to correct his earlier text; the passage referring to the natives of Cape Breton (see above p. 177) has been changed to read: "They are bad, artful and cruel, and masque their faces, not with masques or veils, but paint the face with divers colors, especially with blue and red, in order to appear most hideous to those who approach them. These men are large and strong and are clothed in skins. . . . " (Thevet, 1882, pp. 135-6.) The most interesting part of this relation, however, is that which gives the fictitious conversations of the natives of Norumbegue. These can easily be shown to be made up from Carrier's vocabulary. Knowing the validity of Thevet's material from Cartier, we may examine these conversations for words not to be found in the other Cartier sources. However, as can be seen from Table VII, all the vocabulary except for two phrases seems to derive from the 1545 edition of the Brief récit. Thevet's last work, the "Second Voyage d'André Thevet dans les Terres Australes et Occidentales," preserved in two manuscript recensions in the Bibliothèque Nationale (MSS français, ancien fonds, Nos. 17175 and 15454), gives nothing new except some fiction. The section on Newfoundland and Canada derives from the Singularitez and from the Cosmographie Vniverselle, with some material from Alphonse's "Cosmographie" added (Biggar, 1901, p. 239). Thevet thus appears to be an amazing source. He gives for the first time the aboriginal names for Tadoussac, Anticosti, Miramichi, and the Mohawk, all of which can be checked from more recent materials. From his statements we can identify Cartier's "Toudamans" as the inhabitants of Honguedo and the Baye de Chaleur (Thevet's "Tontaniens," "Toutaneens"), and we may therefore tentatively identify them as Micmacs or Gaspesians. Thevet's statements concerning the wars of the people of the St. Lawrence River against the "Tontaniens," "Guadalpes," and "Chicorins" are strikingly paralleled by those of Champlain (1613, fol. 5r T; 1922, p. 103), who witnessed a victory feast at Tadoussac: "Three nations had taken part in the war, the Etechemins, Algonquins, and Montagnais, to the number of a thousand, and these went on the warpath against the Iroquois. . . . " Ganong presents some evidence that the "Chicorins" may have been the Montagnais (1936, p. 127). Other names given by Thevet, such as "Lac d' Angoulesme," "Chilaque," "Tortinage," "Monmorancy," "Chambriant," "Passer," and "Raguine," all appear on the Portuguese-Cartier series of maps, there deriving from unknown sources (Ganong, 1934, p. 242). Finally, we may note that the Indian vocabulary reproduced in "Le Grand Insulaire" contains numerous important hints concerning the original forms of the words, and seems to have been employed, in part at least, by Hakluyt (see Appendix). Thevet's "Le Grand Insulaire" and the Singularitez are therefore invaluable sources for the early ethnography of the eastern Canadian area.

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CABOT TO CARTIER ANDRÉS GONZALEZ DE BARCIA CARBALLEDO Y ZÚÑIGA

The last author of this unusual trio—Andrés Gonzalez de Barcia Carballido y Zúñiga—is also in many aspects the most surprising. This writer is best known as the editor of most of the best reprints and editions of the classics of Spanish historical works on the New World. He was one of the sixteen founding members of the Spanish Academy (Academia Española o de la Lengua) and occupied Chair D from 1713 until his death in 1743. He was also a jurist, and served as a member of one of the country's military courts. In his role as government official he held such offices as Superintendent of the Royal Chamber; Juez particular y privativo de quiebras, intervenciones, alcances, y fianzas de Rentas Reales y Millones, y de los negocios pendientes en la Junta de la Visita de la Real Hacienda; Ministro del Supremo Consejo y Cámara de Castilla; and Gobernador de la Sala de Alcaldes de Casa y Corte (his post at his death). Besides compiling such histories as the Ensayo cronológico, para le Historia General de la Florida . . . , and thé Historiadores primitivos de las Indias Occidentales . . . , Barcia reprinted such classics as La Florida del Inca: Historia del Adelantado, Hernando de Soto by Garcilaso de la Vega (1723 edition), the Descripción de Indias Ocidentales by Herrera y Tordesillas (1726 edition), and the Historia general de los hechos de los Castellanos by the same author (1726-7 edition). As the result of these labours, and of the care which he put into his productions, Barcia's influence on the Spanish historical school was enormous. Despite this fact, Barcia is the most obscure of individuals. The work which is of interest to us is the Ensayo cronológico . . . 1723), which presents a history of the continent of Florida ( that is, North America ) from 1512 until 1722, and which has been published in translation by Anthony Kerrigan in 1951 (whose Introduction provides our information concerning Barcia). In this book Barcia presents information about the Cartier voyages which appears in no other sources. Barcia's first reference is to be found under the item for 1534, and deals with Cartier's first voyage: Jacques Cartier, French pilot, set sail from St. Malo on April 20 with two vessels of sixty tons, and with one hundred and forty men. On May 10 he arrived at Cape Bonavista, which lies in latitude 28 degrees. Then he sighted the land at latitude 49° 12', where the town of Quebec was later founded. So precisely did he reconnoiter the capes, coasts, and shores, to the north and south, and the mouth of the Canada, or St. Lawrence, River, that even today the French use his description and retain most of the names he affixed. He bartered with the Indians for some pelts, and brought back to France two sons of the cacique of Canada, who were named Taignoagni and Domagaya. On September 5 he returned to the port whence he had set forth. (Barcia, 1951, p. 13.) Under the year 1535, Barcia continues his account of the Cartier expeditions, following the Cartier relation closely, although in abstract. In a few cases, however, his text shows some interesting divergences. One of these occurs in the

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description of the incident in which the natives of Stadacona tried to persuade the French not to visit Hochelaga: The French were making ready to start their undertaking, and once the Indians realized that such human measures as they had used were not enough to dissuade them, they turned to an idol called Cudragni, which was their god. They were sure that if Cudragni ordered the French not to go to Hochelaga, they would not dare violate his precept. With this in mind, they arranged for three Indians to stain themselves black and to cover their heads with ugly hides over which there were very long horns. They cloaked their backs in white and black dogskins, making up the most horrible figures they could. With these and similar adornments, the trio set forth across the river, from one bank to the other near the ships, which they pretended not to notice. The center Indian was shrieking loudly and gesticulating so grotesquely that it caused considerable laughter among the French, who were not sure what it was all about. The French watched while the procession reached the opposite bank. Then Donacona and the Indians fell upon the maskers with loud cries, and they all repaired to a nearby wood where they gave vent to such howling and clamour that they could be heard from the ships. Not a few believed that the Indians intended war, so the French became somewhat wary. But after half an hour, during which the uproarious hullabaloo in the woods continued, Taignoagni and Domagaya came running out on the bank, crying with fright: Jesus, Jesus, Mary, Jacques Cartier! The latter, thinking they were calling, asked: What « the matter? Nothing good, the two answered in alarm, for the three ministers of [our] god, whom you saw passing by, came expressly from their region to tell Donacona and the people that if you dare go on to Hochelaga, you will all die in the ice and snow. The two continued telling of other dangers until they realized that instead of being afraid the French were mocking them. Cartier told them not to be so terrified, for the ministers of their god did not know what they were talking about. He protested that the French feared neither the cold nor the malevolence that clothed such hazards, for Jesus would deliver them from all danger. Now that the Indian god spoke against their trip, they were never more confident of success, because he was a devil incapable of telling the truth. (Barcia, 1951, pp. 14-15.) This should be compared with the following excerpt from the second relation: On the next day [Saturday], the eighteenth of the month, they devised a great ruse to prevent us still from going to Hochelaga. They dressed up three Indians as devils, arraying them in black and white dog-skins, with horns as long as one's arm and their faces coloured black as coal, and unknown to us put them into a canoe. They themselves then came towards our ships in a crowd as usual but remained some two hours in the wood without appearing, awaiting the moment when the tide would bring down the above-mentioned canoe. At that hour they all came out of the wood and showed themselves in front of our ships but without coming so near as they were in the habit of doing. And Taignoagny proceeded to greet the Captain, who asked him if he wished the ship's boat. Taignoagny answered that he did not wish it for the moment but that presently he would come on board the ships. Soon after arrived the canoe in which were the three Indians dressed as devils, with long horns on their heads. And as they drew near, the one in the middle made a wonderful harangue, but they passed by our ships without once turning their faces towards us, and proceeded to head for the shore and to run their canoe on land. Chief Donnacona and his people at once seized the canoe and the three Indians, who had let themselves fall to the bottom of it like dead men, and carried them, canoe and Indians, into the wood which was distant a stone's throw from our ships; and not a soul remained in sight but all retired into the wood. And there in the wood they began a preaching and a speechifying that

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could be heard from our ships, which lasted about half an hour. After that, Taignoagny and Dom Agaya came out of the wood, walking in our direction, with their hands joined, and their caps under their arms, pretending to be much astonished. And Taignoagny began to speak and repeated three times "Jesus," "Jesus," "Jesus," lifting his eyes towards heaven. Then Dom Agaya called out "Jesus," "Maria," "Jacques Cartier" looking up to heaven as the other had done. The Captain, seeing their grimaces and gesticulations, began to ask them, what was the matter, and what new event had happened? They replied that there was bad news, adding that indeed it was far from good. The Captain again asked them what was the trouble? They answered that their god, Cudouagny by name, had made an announcement at Hochelaga, and that the three above-mentioned Indians had come in his name to tell them the tidings, which were that there would be so much snow and ice that all would perish. At this we all began to laugh and to tell them that their god Cudouagny was a mere fool who did not know what he was saying; and that they should tell his messengers as much; and that Jesus would keep them safe from the cold if they would trust in him. . . . (Biggar, 1924, pp. 136-9.) More striking variations occur in the description of an incident on the trip to Hochelaga. Barcia's text reads : . . . Cartier sent out the launches, and along the river flowing from Hochelaga they discovered four or five arms, which formed as many islands. On one they found five Indians, who displayed no curiosity. One of them, however, seeing that Cartier wanted to come ashore, took him in his arms as if he were an infant and set him on land. There they embraced and entertained the party, and told them that at a moon's journey along a river running northwest, there was a land without ice or snow, despite the fact that its inhabitants dressed in furs and continually made war. And also that oranges, almonds, walnuts, acorns, and other fruits grew there. Cartier gathered, by means of signs and tokens, that this must be near Florida. (Barcia, 1951, p. 15.) However the Cartier text tells us : These various branches encircle and enclose five or six fine islands which form the terminus of the lake. Some fifteen leagues higher up, these branches all unite into one stream. The same day we visited one of these islands where we came across five Indians who were hunting for game. They came to meet our boats without fear or alarm, and in as familiar a manner as if they had seen us all their lives. And when our long-boats grounded, one of those Indians took the Captain in his arms and carried him on shore as easily as if he had been a six-year-old child, so strong and big was that Indian. We discovered that they had a great heap of musk-rats, which live in the water and are as large as rabbits and wonderfully good to eat. They made a present of these to the Captain who in return gave them some knives and some beads. We asked them by signs if this was the way to Hochelaga? They made clear to us that it was, and that we had still a three days' journey thither. (Biggar, 1924, pp. 146-7.) Much further on in the relation, in a chapter seemingly inserted as an afterthought, is the statement: They also informed us that the place where we had left our bark when on our way to Hochelaga, there is a river flowing from the south-west, and that along it they likewise journey in their canoes from Ste. Croix for one month to a land where ice and snow never come; but in which there are continual wars of one tribe against the other. In that country grow in great abundance oranges, almonds, walnuts, plums and other varieties of fruit. They also told us that the inhabitants of that land were dressed and clothed in furs, like themselves. On inquiring if gold and copper were to be found

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there, they said no. From these statements, and judging from their signs and the indications they gave us, I am of opinion that this land lies towards Florida. (Biggar, 1924, pp. 202-3.) These comparisons, which can be extended, show us that the variations between Barcia's text and that of the relation are merely the result of Barcia's abridgment and revision of the known source, and not the use of new documents. At the conclusion of the second relation, however, the situation changes, and Barcia seems to present information known from no other sources. The second relation reads as follows: . . . And we came to cape Race and entered a harbour called Rougnouse, where we took on board wood and fresh water for consumption at sea. Here we left one of our long-boats. And on Monday, the nineteenth of that month [of June], we set forth from this [Renewse] harbour and were favoured at sea with such good weather that we reached St. Malo on [Sunday] July 16, 1536, thanks be to God, whom we implore on bringing our voyage to an end, to give us His grace and His paradise hereafter. Amen. (Biggar, 1924, pp. 239-40.) The Barcia account, however, tells something more: . . . On the sixteenth he went on and reached Cape Ras, and at Rosoño Harbor he took on water and firewood. He set sail again on the tenth. By July 6, having no contrary winds nor serious mishaps, he put into St. Malo with his Indians, who were travelling contentedly in the hope of returning quickly to Canada with a good store of wealth. The French, however, showed the opposite attitude, perhaps of the fright the sickness had given them, their fear of the snow and ice, or the pitiful sight of their dying companions; or perhaps because they returned from their labors without gold, silver, or other riches. All they had taken was spent, and they had lost all hope of bringing anything back. Hardly were they in port before they began—Cartier more than anyone else—to spread word of their misfortunes. Cartier maintained the land was not fit for Europeans to live in, for even when there were no contagions such as they had suffered, the cold was intolerable. The few souls he brought back were proof of this fact, he said, and explained they had been forced to leave the place and to lose a ship. If they had remained another fifteen days, none would have returned. (Barcia, 1951, p. 20.) In his account of the third voyage, Barcia seems to be using source materials completely unknown, and somewhat different:

1541 While Hernando de Soto was busy investigating more closely the provinces of Florida, Roberval, a Frenchman, and a native of the Vimieux region, whom the King of France had named as his lieutenant general, set sail with five ships. Jacques [Jacobo] Cartier went as chief pilot. For although he had disapproved of the voyage and opposed returning to a country which had so badly treated him, he was induced to change his mind by the proffered emoluments. With a favorable wind, and without untoward incident, Roberval arrived at the mouth of the River Canada [Canada], or St. Lawrence [San Lorenzo]. On one of its banks he built a fort for defense against the winter's cold and possible Indian attacks. Leaving the party in what he considered reasonable security, he returned to France for supplies, while Cartier remained behind as captain. . . .

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1542

The French passed a bitterly cold winter, and everyone agreed it was impossible to colonize such an intemperate land. As an added vexation, the Indians kept them constantly under arms with incessant alarms and permitted them no rest. Such misfortune Cartier could not bear, for he knew that to persist longer in the conflict would only cause them to perish; so he proposed to his men that they leave the site and return to France. Over and above the discomfort of living there (he pointed out), they exposed their lives to Indian arrows every day. Scarcely had the men heard the proposal before they all departed the land in common accord, embarking in the ships Roberval had left. As they emerged from the river into the sea not far from the island of Newfoundland, they encountered Roberval who was en route with all the relief he had been able to muster. Seeing the care and travail of his two trips coming to naught, Roberval persuaded them with offers and rewards, and even threats in the name of the King, which the French could not reject, to return and reoccupy the abandoned site. So they cut short the voyage home and followed Roberval who once more entered the Canada River. He wintered at the same spot where he had stayed before. He intended to explore the land and colonize it as soon as the weather cleared. . . .

1543 . . . Each day Roberval became more determined to achieve his goal. He made some trips along the Saguenay and other rivers that flow into the Canada; and to an expert pilot named Alonso (a Galician or a Portuguese), he gave a completely equipped ship and sent him toward Labrador to find a passage to the East Indies. Then he returned to France for reinforcements. He also wanted to give an account of the new settlements he had made and to discuss the problem of thier maintenance and growth. He reached France after a good trip, and what he proposed was done with dispatch. The pilot Alonso voyaged many days, looking for the passage he had been charged to locate, but he never found it. He discovered only the passage between Newfoundland and the great territory of the north, in 52 degrees of latitude. Thereupon he returned to the Canada River fort and told Cartier what he had seen. . . . 1549 . . . Roberval promoted the settlement at the St. Lawrence River, doing everything he could for its advancement. Several times he had gone to France and had been successful in bringing back support. But this time, as he returned to Canada with a large cargo which he thought would assure the permanence of the French colonies, he was lost. It is believed he was shipwrecked, but to this day it is not known where; nor has there been any additional report of him, or of one of his brothers, or of the large party he carried. The French, who remained in the settlements without much enthusiasm, waited a long time for aid. When none arrived, they guessed what had happened. Seeing themselves about to perish, they again departed from the land with great speed and gusto. . . . (Barcia, 1951, pp. 23-5, 27.) A comparison of this relation with the reconstruction previously presented reveals striking differences which are not easy to reconcile. No mention is made of the second set of ships being prepared to sail under the command of Roberval; no mention is made of Roberval engaging in piracy; and Cartier is not represented as deserting Roberval and the King's venture by slipping away to France. Generally, the Barcia account seems to be more consistent with the behaviour one might expect from royal officials. However, the important question is whether or not this account is supported or contradicted by the other documents. The first important detail concerns the number of ships taken to Canada by

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Cartier, and whether or not Roberval accompanied them. In the letter written on September 28,1541, to Charles V, Christoval de Haro writes: . . . As to the thirteen ships being fitted out in St. Malo on the Island, which it was said were being fitted out by the King's order, in which was to sail Jacques Cartier, and another nobleman of importance, eight of these said ships had set sail under Jacques Cartier, and the other captain who was to have sailed in company with him did not go with him, but was in Honneur equipping five large ships, and it was said that these also were destined for Canada. The eight ships under Jacques Cartier left at the end of March, and it was said they were very well equipped. . . . As to the other five ships which were to have sailed in company with Jacques Cartier, these, he [the Spanish Spy] said, were equipped and ready to sail over a month and a half ago, the captain of which is a nobleman named Roberval, the which it is said are very well equipped, and are to sail directly to Canada, tither Jacques Cartier went. It is said that it was he who discovered this land, and gave it the name of Canada, whom the King had commissioned to go with the said fleet, because he had the experience of the navigation of the said country and had discovered it. At the same time Roberval prevailed upon the King to make him Commander-in-Chief of the fleet and of the land of Canada, and all that might be discovered in future, with a title, in view of the amount he had expended on the fleet over and above what the King had given, and had sold much property and pledged over eight thousand francs which he received in rents, and it is said that the King had given him the title of King of Canada, and his wife was called Queen of Nadaz [nowhere] wherever she went. . . . It is reported that three big ships are being constructed, by order of the King, in Honfleur and Havre du Grâce, and two are being repaired. These ships, it is said, are being got ready by the King's order to be despatched to Jacques Cartier (he who went to Canada) when news of him is received. . . . (Biggar, 1930, pp. 378-82.) On November 3, 1541, the Spanish ambassador in France ( the Abbot of St. Vincent) sent more information to his Emperor: . . . I have since learned [two of Cartier's ships returned home on Oct. 3] that in spite of the inclemency of the season Jacques Cartier set sail from the said port [of St. Malo] with a fair number of vessels and is at present in Terra Nova, dominion of the King of Portugal; and that the said Jacques [Cartier] is at present ice-bound in a port waiting for the new season, so cold is the route at this time. As to Captain Roberval, he was to set out a fortnight ago from Normandy with eight or nine well-equipped vessels. . . . (Biggar, 1930, pp. 403-4.) In a letter written by the Portuguese ambassador in France to the King of Portugal on November 12, 1541, there is even more interesting news: . . . I wrote to your Excellency on the 8th of October that I was leaving for St. Malo on the Island to see what was happening as regards the ships being fitted out to follow Jacques Cartier, and I found that in St. Malo six vessels were being equipped and calked, each to carry one hundred men, and this by the King's order. The Captain of St. Malo is commissioned to see that they are fitted out, and their destination is not yet known, as there are no captains of the said vessels; they are merely being got ready. Roberval came to the entrance of St. Malo, but only landed to buy meat and bread, and then re-embarked and put to sea with four vessels, with which he sails about as a fleet. From all whom he encounters he has captured many vessels, both Portuguese and English, and so with all others he comes across. He lives on the sea and dares not land, as in all ports watch is kept for him, because of the harm he has caused both to Frenchmen and to those of other nations . . . [he] will not go to Canada, nor return to France, as it is said that the King is angry with him. . . .

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It is said that three days before I came to St. Malo, which I did on October 6 [sic, see above], two of the ships which accompanied Jacques Cartier arrived there, the captain of these two ships being a brother of Cartier's wife, by name Jalobert, and one ship was called The Saint-Brieuc, and other The George. . . . This brother-in-law of Jacques Cartier has gone thither to inform the King of what the said Cartier has done. He expects to return during the months of February at latest, with other ships and many stores. . . . As to the vessels being fitted out at St. Malo, all are thus waiting the King's answer, to learn what they are to do with the coming of these vessels. . . . (Biggar, 1930, pp. 406-11.) From this letter it would appear that Barcia has confused the identities and activities of Roberval and Macé Jalobert, Cartier's brother-in-law. Whether or not Jalobert went back to Canada with the ships at St. Malo is not known. Considering the question as to whether or not Cartier returned to Canada with Roberval, there are a number of statements made by Spanish sailors under oath which are directly pertinent. These sworn statements were made in the town of Fuenterrabia on September 22,1542. . . . The said Robert Lefant, resident of the town of Bayonne, fifty years of age, a little more or less, was asked . . . whether he saw Jacques Cartier or Roberval, French captains, who sailed armed, or whether he knows when they set sail, and their destination, and what ships they had, and what men and provisions: said that this witness heard from a Breton master of a ship who was fishing in a port with witness for the men from Lianes, that Jacques left Honneur over a year ago with three ships bound for Terra Nova, and afterwards when he was with his ship in the harbor of Terra Nova, known as the island of Spear, the said Jacques came there and he had eleven barrels of gold ore and close on a fanega of precious stones, rubies, and diamonds. And he came alone with one vessel, and the other two he left in a port called Canada, with 300 men; and this is what the said Breton told him; and he also told him that the said Robert [val] went on to the said port and came up with the said Jacques on the way, and they spoke together, and Jacques told him that because Robert [val] told him to come back with him, he would not, but wished to go over to France; and so the said Jacques went to France and Robert [val] continued his course. . . . The said Martin de Actalecu, resident of the town of Fuenterrabia, forty years of age, or thereabouts, having taken the customary oath, being questioned answered as follows: . . . That about four months ago, when witness was fishing in a port of Terra Nova called the Spear Islands in the month of June, the said Jacques came there with three ships, for he sent back the other four the previous year to victual for this year, and he came back with the other three. . . . And the said Jacques, passing seven leagues from where this witness was, met with Roberval, who had two ships, and Lartigue had another, which made three ships; and that Lartigue went round by England, and was captured by the English with his ship, and the King of England held him prisoner. And the said Roberval wanted the said Jacques to come back with his ships and return to the said port of Canada with him; and the said Jacques would not; and the said Robert went on with his ships and the said Jacques returned to France. . . . (Biggar, 1930, pp. 449, 451-2, 454, 456-8.) From these and other comparisons we can conclude that the Barcia account does not agree with the fact as known which derive from contemporary diplomatic documents and sworn testimony. The statements of the Ensayo cronológico may have an ultimate basis of fact, but it is difficult to determine the source of Barcia's errors or confusions.

CHAPTER XV

The Abortive English Expedition of 1536: The Homem Cartography of Cape Breton FROM THE materials presented by Hakluyt in his Principal Navigations . . .

(1589, pp. 517-19) it has long been taken for granted that an English expedition sponsored by various of the Merchant Adventurers and Gentlemen of the Court of London, sailed to Newfoundland in the year 1536, the year of Cartier's second voyage to Canada. According to the statements made by Richard Hakluyt of Christ Church (the Younger), the account was first collected by his cousin, Richard Hakluyt of the Middle Temple (the Elder). The relation was supplemented and edited by the younger Hakluyt, was first published in the first edition of the Principal Navigations . . . (1589), and reappeared with some minor changes in the 1599-1600 edition ( vol. 3, pp. 129-31 ). The complete account was reprinted by Biggar in 1924 (pp. 273-7). According to this account, "One Master Hore of London, a man of goodly stature and of great courage, and given to the studie of Cosmographie, in the 28. yeere of King Henry the 8. and in the yeere of our Lord 1536, encouraged divers gentlemen and others, being assisted by the king's favour and good countenance, to accompany him in a voyage of discoverie upon the Northwest partes of America . . ." (Biggar, 1924, p. 273). One of these gentlemen was apparently John Rastell, son of the John Rastell who had attempted an abortive Newfoundland voyage some twenty years earlier in 1516 ( Reed, 1923, pp. 137-47 ). According to the narrative which Hakluyt collected from Thomas Butts, son of one of the royal physicians, and from Oliver Dawbeney, the ships engaged in the enterprise were the "Trinitie" and the "Minion" and the rolls included 120 members, of which thirty were gentlemen. Owing to bad weather the Atlantic crossing occupied two months, at the end of which Cape Breton was reached. From here the ships sailed northward to the east coast of Newfoundland, which they were unable to leave because of inadequate supplies. After starvation had reduced them to cannibalism, the explorers succeeded in capturing a French fishing boat carrying supplies, and returned to England (Biggar, 1924, pp. 273-7).

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This picture of gentlemen and sailors starving in the middle of the Newfoundland fishing grounds has always raised some mild scepticism, but in the absence of sources other than Hakluyt the validity of the account was not seriously questioned. In 1931, however, E. G. R. Taylor succeeded in uncovering a number of new documents relating to this voyage in the Public Record Office of England (H.C.A. Series 24, no. 2; and H.C.A. Series 30, no. 542). These papers derive from a lawsuit resulting from the 1536 venture, and inform us of its purpose and achievement, but not of the events which occurred on it. Richard Hore was evidently a citizen of London and a leather-seller, who chartered the "William of London" (not the "Minion") and possibly also the "Trinity" to go to Newfoundland to catch fish (Taylor, 1931, p. 469). These ships left England in April (Hakluyt says the end of April), reached Newfoundland safely, and returned in "September or October"—at the end of September or beginning of October (Hakluyt says the end of October). Since Hore failed to carry out some of the terms of his contract, the cargo was arrested and the case placed before the High Court of Admiralty (Hakluyt, 1599-1600, vol. 3, pp. 129-31; in Biggar, 1924, pp. 273-7; Taylor, 1931, p. 469). These documents tell nothing about the "gentlemen adventurers," about a "voyage of discovery," or starvation. Combining the groups of sources, it seems that "Hore planned an ordinary commercial venture to the Grand Banks, and had the wit to combine it with what looks very like an excursion for tourists" (Taylor, 1931, p. 470). The exaggerated and coloured narrative given to Hakluyt undoubtedly reflects the shock caused the courtly and gentlemenly tourists by the vicissitudes of an ordinary Newfoundland fishing trip. The return of the Hore expedition and the conclusion of the Cartier-Roberval endeavour mark the end of a long phase of official exploration activity on the northeastern shores of North America. Once again silence falls upon European activity in the area, much as happened during the interval between Sebastian Cabot's voyage and those by Gomez and Verrazano. The commercial ventures of fishermen and traders undoubtedly multiplied and expanded. Nevertheless they have remained most obscure, either because they were deemed of little account and not worthy of record, and the records have been destroyed, or because scholars have lacked interest in this later period. This situation is reflected in the cartography. Most maps of the northeastern region falling between the Cartier and the Champlain voyages merely portray reinterpretations or recombinations of old cartographical information. There are some maps which constitute an exception to this generalization. Of these a few seem to derive from voyages undertaken between 1543 and 1600, but these lie outside the scope of this study. Another group, which we will consider here, in some detail, seems to display information derived from the Fagundes voyages undertaken after 1521. In all probability these maps were prepared from Fagundes materials preserved in the Casa da India at Lisbon, and probably destroyed by fire and earthquake in 1755. The very earliest—the Lopo Homem of c.1550 (fig. 53; PAC 339)—shows a Newfoundland-Cape Breton configuration having no obvious relation to other representations and apparently dating from

ENGLISH EXPEDITION, 1536: HOMEM CARTOGRAPHY

189

FIG. 53. The Lopo Homem chart of c.1550, drawn from Baiâo (1935-40, vol. 2, pt. 2, p. 345). The chart seems to present pre-Cartier materials, and may possibly illustrate pre-Cartier explorations of the entrances into the Gulf of St. Lawrence. The stippling represents areas outside the borders of the map.

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before the Cartier voyages. Later maps illustrate various attempts to reconcile the discoveries of Gomez and Cartier with this earlier cartographical configuration. As Ganong has remarked: . . . The Homems, who were closet cartographers, though of the best, finding the great Gomez Penobscot on all the best maps of the time, and having the new sketch of the northeasterly extending Bay of Fundy in their hands, faced a dilemma; for to them it would seem utterly improbable that a second great gulf could exist in the same latitude, and moreover turning back northeast into parallelism with the outer coast, which indeed is a very unusual, and not a priori to be expected, geographical feature. The solution they chose was to consider the Penobscot of Gomez and the great bay of Fagundes as representing the same feature, with the latter giving the better form and the former the probably true direction, i.e., north and south. . . . (Ganong, 1930, pp. 180-2.)

The great bay reaching into Canada, which is the characteristic feature of the Homem series of maps, is the first known representation of the Bay of Fundy. The maps presenting this distinguishing configuration include the following: 1. The Lopo Homem map of 1554 (fig. 54-55; PAC 385) 2. The Diogo Homem map of 1558 (fig. 56; PAG 423) 3. The Ortelius world map of 1564 (PAG 473) 4. The Diogo Homem map of 1568 (PAG 503) 5. John Dee's map of 1578-80 (PAC 603) Of these, the most important are, first, the Lopo Homen map of 1554, discovered by F. C. Wieder about 1916 in the Museo degli Strumenti antichi in Florence

FIG. 54. The Lopo Homem map of 1554, drawn from Cortesâo (1935, vol. 2, pi. XIV), Ganong (1930, fig. 25), and Stokes (1916, vol. 2, CP1. 11), with the nomenclature omitted.

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191

and first reproduced by Stokes in his Iconography of Manhattan Island (1916, vol. 2, CP1. 11); second, the Diogo Homem map of 1558, preserved in the British Museum; and third, the Diogo Homem map of 1568 in the Royal Library of Dresden (Ganong, 1930, pp. 162-4). Besides giving the first representation of the Bay of Fundy, the Homem maps present an improved configuration for both the Newfoundland and Nova Scotian coasts. In the interior of the Gulf of St. Lawrence the Cartier configurations are largely followed, but enough differences and variations occur, especially in nomenclature, to raise the possibility of a pre-Cartier exploration of the St. Lawrence by Fagundes (see fig. 52; Ganong, 1930, pp. 186-7; and Patterson, 1891). The most important feature of the Homem maps is the presence of Indian placenames. These occur on the Atlantic coast of Cape Breton and northern Nova Scotia, and are as follows (Ganong's "Portolan, date?" is identified as a Lopo Homem of c.1550 [Ganong, 1930, p. 167] ) : L. Homem 1550 taesco macaracade pescagudique (C. des bertois) xoracede

L. Homem 1554 mededequa taesco magaracade pescagudique xaracada (C. dos bertois) argomis bretois

D. Homem 1558

D. Homem 1568

taesco macaracade pescagudique (C. dos bertôes) xoracade

taesco magaracadi pescagudiq (c. dos bertôes) xaracadi (c. fagundo)

(cap)

Ortelius 1664

John Dee 1578-80

magaracade Macaracade C. de pescago C. de Pescago (C. dos Bryton) Xarocade xorocade

Argomis

The location of these names is in modern ethnographic Micmac territory, and a convincing proof of the aboriginal nature of these terms would be to show that they are Micmac in linguistic form, and resemble or derive from Micmac placenames of the northeastern Cape Breton area. This is, unfortunately, not easily shown, for there are associations for only two of these terms. The first of these is "magaracade," which Ganong (1930, pp. 167-8) has related to the name "paguelouacadi" associated with a part of the Great Bras d'Or Lake, and appearing on the 1744 Bellin map of Cape Breton in Charlevoix's Histoire. These two terms are related in the following manner: 1. Name for part of the Great Bras d'Or Lake, 1744 paguelouacadi 2. The sound p and m, and r and I, in Micmac, are often confused by white hearers. Romance speakers usually write Micmac I as r. Therefore we have maguerouacadi 3. This name is to be compared to that appearing on the Lopo Homem map of 1544 magaracade

Fie. 55. The Lopo Homem map of 1554, drawn from Ganong (1930, fig. 25), and showing nomenclature along the shores of Nova Scotia and the Gulf of St. Lawrence. Notice the occurrence of Micmac placenames only on the eastern tip of Cape Breton; also the appearance of diagnostic Bay of Fundy landmarks within the large bay at the left bottom.

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193

FIG. 56. The Diogo Homem map of 1558, drawn from Ganong (1930, fig. 26), with the nomenclature omitted.

By a similar process, Rand's interpretation of the same name, "moglâcadik" (brant-goose-place), becomes (with omission of the final locative fc), "mogracadi." Pacifique's "mogolagatig" becomes "mogoracati" (Ganong, 1930, pp. 167-8). It is evident from the above development that the association of "magaracade" with more recent names depends heavily on statement 2 above. Phonetic studies of Micmac being practically nonexistent, this is not easily verified in the literature. A few observations can be made, however, from general phonetic and linguistic grounds. The first of these is that Ganong's statement is neither the only possible explanation, nor the most probable. It is just as possible that the sound cluster ma shifted to pa between 1530 or 1540 and 1744. This involves a mere nasalization of the consonant stop, and can easily occur. By the same token, an unskilled observer may confuse ma with pa. Direct evidence for such a consonant shift (ma to pa) is not available for Micmac, but both types of sound clusters occur very commonly, as can be seen from the following examples from Rand ( 1888 ) : Adown Arm Arrow Bank

MAKÚMEGEGAAL

'MPETÛNOGÎJM

MAJËÔKTÉLÏGUN

MEDUDÛNEGÈAK'

Beacon Bay Black Canopy

PIKSAAK BÂKTABÂ" MAKTÂWÂE POGWÔSUN, MOOSKOON

Ganong's second statement—that Romance speakers frequently write Micmac I as r—is confirmed indirectly by Rand (1888, under the item for "cheese"), who states; "Then there is no f and no r. For these letters they [the Micmac] invariably substitute b and 1. . . . " It would thus appear that Ganong's recon-

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FIG 57. Cape Breton as represented on the Lopo Homem map of 1554 (top) and showing the Indian placenames, compared with a modern map of the same island (bottom) and the location of two recent Micmac placenames. Drawn from Ganong (1930, fig. 25).

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struction can stand. A second independent fact supporting it is the application of both names to what seems to be the same geographical feature—the ocean entrance into the Bras d'Or system (see fig. 57). Ganong and Pacifique were able to establish associations for only one other name of the Lopo Homem map—"xaracada" or "xoracede." The argument here is as follows: 1. Micmac name for the Mira River soolacadie 2. Writing European r for Micmac I, and x for s, c, or ch, we have xooracadie 3. This is to be compared with the name appearing on the Lopo Homem map of 1544 xaracada and on the Diogo Homem map of 1558 xoracade The geographical associations again favour this reconstruction (see fig. 57). No such associations can be established for the names "taesco," "medadequa." and "pescagudique," although they can be compared to recent Micmac words and stems. They too, in all probability, are Micmac (Ganong, 1930, pp. 168-70). The appearance of these native terms on a set of Portuguese maps strengthens the impression derived from the Thevet manuscripts that European-Indian contact in this early period was much more extensive than previously realized. An additional feature of the Homem has not been noticed by previous authors, and was brought to the author's attention by Professor John H. Rowe. This is the fact that the nomenclature used on the Cape Breton and Nova Scotia coasts (see fig. 55) is not of Portuguese origin, but is French, except for the old traditional term of "C. des bertois." This becomes immediately apparent in Table VIII. TABLE VIII L. Homem, 1554 beu salon les Jardiz le beau baia golfo R. demôtas baia petis Ribejra de jardines C. de S. Jaquez b. desles alón R. de lêts beu sablón R. grant cap deilles baja Ribeira de S. Jean r. de paris rio de bestes b. delimare michiomaj chat (?) lomgue

French (modem)

Portuguese (modem)

blanc sablón les jardins (?) le beau baie golfe r. de monts petit baie rivière des jardins C. de S. Jacques b. des îles (?) sablón

areia blanca los jardins (?) baia bêla golfo r. de montes baia pequeña rio de jardins C. de Santiago (?) b. das ilhas (?) areia

blanc sablón grand rivière cap des îles baie rivière de St. Jean r. de Paris r. de bêtes

areia blanca rio grande cabo de ilhas baia rio de S. Joâo

chat I. longue

gato I. longa

r. das bêstas

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While some Portuguese influence is apparent, a number of terms occur which are unmistakenly French: "le beau baia," "G. de S. Jacquez, "beu sablón," "Ribeira de S. Jean," "r. de paris," "rio de bestes," and "lomgue." These names do not appear on the Lopo Homem of c.1550 (fig. 53), while the Micmac terms do. This may be interpreted to indicate separate origin for these two unusual features, but for the French placenames there is as little to go on as for the Micmac nomenclature. The names appear on no earlier maps—either French or Portuguese—and those that survive to a later date reappear only on French maps of the 1600's. It is possible that they represent popular French names used by the fishermen. If they derive from some French exploration there is no indication as to which one this could be. Perhaps material still exists in some French archive which will throw light upon the matter.

CHAPTER XVI

Ethnographic Problems J.T is no mean task to evaluate the ethnographic and ethnological implications of the materials which have been identified and investigated relating to the early exploration of northeastern North America. Yet, from these materials, some tentative conclusions can be formulated about the nature of the contacts between Europeans and the native peoples of the area, and about the native mode of life before this period. From the sources considered, we can conclude that the Newfoundland fishing fleet acquired considerable proportions at a very early date and many times in excess of the fragmentary indications still surviving in the port archives. In 1517, for example, John Rastell wrote (Williamson, 1929, p. 91): Nowe Frenchemen and others have founde the trade That yerely of fyshe there they lade Above an C. sayle.

Similarly, the documents relating to the English expedition of 1527 describe many more ships at St. John's than there are any other indications for. The importance of various fishing grounds undoubtedly varied greatly from year to year, and changed as new fields were discovered. The cartographical sources seem to indicate that the fishing grounds first exploited were those around Fogo Island—it is in this region that the name of "peseharias" first appears on the Grazioso Benincasa chart of c.1502 (PAC 10). Other scattered references seem to indicate exploration of the fishing resources east of Nova Scotia by Portuguese and Breton fishermen before 1510, but numerous independent statements also seem to signify that the rich fishing area of the "Bacallaos" was not discovered until the occasion of the Cabot expedition of 1508. In the years preceding 1520 both the east and south coasts of Newfoundland were reexplored by Fagundes and more new fishing grounds were opened up. The fishing banks to the south of Newfoundland also seem to have been first discovered and exploited during this period, although their full utilization probably hinged upon the development of large fishing vessels equipped to operate at considerable distances from land, and upon the establishment of economic institutions to finance them in the port cities of Europe.

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By 1534, judging from the indications of ports, harbours, watering places, and islands given upon the portulanos, the fisheries extended along the entire Atlantic coastline from southeastern Labrador to southern Nova Scotia. With the advent of Cartier's discovery the industry rapidly expanded into the Gulf of St. Lawrence and up the river. Although we can make some estimate of the size of the fishing fleet at different times, and of its distribution along the coast, it is much more difficult to evaluate the nature of the probable resulting Indian-European contact. We lack information concerning the fishing fleet itself—its constitution and nature, the types of ships used, the techniques of fishing, the time spent at sea and ashore, the attitudes of the fishermen towards the natives, the nature of the merchandise carried for trade and barter, the importance of fur-trading as a subsidiary to the fisheries, the religious practices and beliefs of the fishing crews, their folktales and stories, and the extent to which they carried Old World diseases. Some of these questions may be answered in part from the existing information: others can only be approached by inference and by extrapolation from other cases. Fundamental to any understanding of the early Newfoundland fishing fleet is the recognition of the importance of the distinction between the "wet" and "dry" fisheries. This division resulted partly from the nature of the codfish, and partly from the various methods and means of preservation employed by the different nationalities. The flesh of the cod "is rich and gelatinous without being fatty, and readily lends itself to a simple and efficient cure by salting and being dried in the sun" ( quoted in Innis, 1940, p. 6 ). Fish that are lightly salted and immediately cured come closest to the ideal of preservation—the fish is preserved by removing the water, but at the same time a product capable of being restored to its original form is provided when the water that has been removed is restored. A less ideal, but still satisfactory, cure may be attained by heavily salting the fish, transporting it to the home port, and drying it there. As the result of the variant requirements of these different modes of preparation, such factors as the availability of solar salt, hours of sunshine, proximity to land, ice conditions, and time required for the return voyage largely determined the type of fishery possible for the various nationalities and for the different fishing grounds. On the east and west coasts of Newfoundland, and "on the Labrador," the fisheries were confined to areas near the shore. Furthermore, the fishing season extended from the middle of June to the first of November, and the cod were of a smaller size suitable for a dry cure. Also, sunshine was relatively abundant in the northern sections of Newfoundland, and the humidity fairly low—conditions still further favouring a "dry" fishery. To the south of Newfoundland conditions were completely different. Here the important fishing areas—the Banks —were often great distances from land, and both the southern Newfoundland and eastern Nova Scotian shores are notorious for fogs, especially during the early spring and summer months. The fishing season fell within the middle of the fog season, lasting from April to July, and a "dry" fishery was therefore largely out of the question.

ETHNOGRAPHIC PROBLEMS

199

Besides these obvious factors, there are other factors deriving from European geography and patterns of commerce. The Mediterranean countries, with an abundance of solar salt, were at a distinct advantage in the prosecution of a "wet" fishery. England could obtain large quantities of salt only by trade with the Portuguese or French: this trade was usually carried out with the former either in Europe or on the fishing grounds. Furthermore, England was relatively close to the Newfoundland fishing grounds, and its ships spent relatively little time on the seas and could spend considerable time on the Newfoundland banks. In general, therefore, the English engaged largely in "dry" fishery activities on the east coast of Newfoundland and "on the Labrador," while the French, Spanish, and Portuguese largely engaged in "wet" fishery operations off the southern coast of Newfoundland and the eastern coast of Nova Scotia, although they could also extend their activities further to the north. . . . European nations with supplies of cheap salt, such as Portugal and France, that were weak in agricultural development, limited of technique in the production of transportable supplies of meat products (protein) for the navy and other purposes, and had a large Catholic population became actively engaged in the Newfoundland fishery. The Portuguese, sailing from a relatively small number of ports, concentrated on the Avalon Peninsula; and they probably attempted to drive vessels from the scattered, relatively independent ports of France, and especially of Brittany, to the more distant portions of the coast line farther north, and to the south and west. Breton ports and others relied on Rouen and La Rochelle for financial support and for markets. The expansion of the fishery, first carried on for the home market, was followed by the growth of an export trade, particularly to England. [By the first half of the sixteenth century] the resources of the Gulf of St. Lawrence, Newfoundland, and the Banks had been explored and in part developed. The technique of the industry had been mastered in so far as the green [that is, wet] fishery was concerned, with its reliance on abundant quantities of salt, and on animal life—for example, the birds of Baccalieu and the Funk Islands—for bait and food. . . . (Innis, 1940, p. 26.) While we may infer from later sources that the "dry" fishery was already in existence by the end of the first half of the sixteenth century, there is no indication of its exact nature and extent. The distinction between the "wet" and "dry" fishery, and the differing geography of the fishing areas, had important implications for the contact existing between Indians and Europeans. South of Newfoundland and east of Nova Scotia the fishing grounds were great distances from land, and the "wet" cure was dominant. Fishermen operating in these regions located the fishing areas by taking soundings, observing the bird life, and watching the surface of the water, instead of employing shore features and landmarks, as was done further to the north. Under these circumstances, a voyage to the coasts of Cape Breton or Nova Scotia was unnecessary, and wasted precious time and supplies. The restocking of the boats with fresh water and meat, if these were in short supply, was apparently done at St. John's and the "Bacallaos" before the ships proceeded westward to the scene of their operations. The cartographical documents for the period in question reflects this round of activity, showing the harbours, ports, and watering places of Newfoundland in considerable detail, but almost completely neglecting the more southerly and westerly shores.

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It was possible to "dry" cure the fish along the east coast of Newfoundland and "on the Labrador," although the "wet" method could also be practised if desired. The exact techniques employed by the early "dry" fishermen are unknown, but in the seventeenth century the process was accomplished by drying and sunning the cod on rocky beaches or on drying frames, and required several months' attention. Furthermore, it was necessary to find semi-permanent and safe anchorages for the boats, to provide living facilities ashore and afloat, to build landing stages and sheds, and to lumber the necessary wood. This latter activity was carried on with the greatest of waste, the woods along the shore being "so spoyled by the fishermen that it is a great pity to behold them, and without redresse undoubtedly [it] will be the ruine of this good land. For they wastfully barke, fell and leave more wood behinde them to rot then they use about their stages although they imploy a world of wood upon them." (Quoted in Innis, 1940, p. 63.) To add to the destruction, the fishermen occasionally fired the woods near the harbours to clear the land, the resulting conflagrations burning for weeks. The burned-over areas eventually may have provided the natives with berry patches, but the process would not have had favourable results for the fauna. What the Newfoundland natives thought of these activities on the part of fishermen is not known. They could hardly have taken the trespass upon their hunting and fishing grounds, the usurpation of their camping and watering sites, the wholesale slaughter of the food resources of the bird islands, and the burning and general destruction of the forests, with complete equanimity. Considering that their early experiences with the Europeans also included kidnapping, they had adequate cause and provocation to view the whites with suspicion and dislike. Whatever the native attitude actually was, however, the Europeans considered it to be unreasonable, reporting that "Between Cape Ras and Cape Breton live a cruel and austere people, with whom it is impossible to deal or to converse . . . " (Crignon, 1565, p. 423T), and that "This country is inhabited by barbarians dressed in the skins of wild beasts [who are] extremely inhuman and intractable: according to the experience of those who have gone there to fish for cod . . . " (Thevet, 1878, p. 438). Since Alphonse (1559; in Ganong, 1934, p. 274 ) also states that these were an "evil folk," the opinion seems to have been unanimous. A consideration of Beothuk history indicates that this pattern of mutual distrust and hatred persisted up to the extinction of the natives (see Howley, 1915). To the north, in the general region of "Le Grand Baye" or the Strait of Belle Isle, relations were somewhat friendlier. From the scanty information available it seems clear that the fishing boats operating in the strait regularly made port at "Blanc Sablón" or at "Brest"; and that the natives were familiar with this fact and travelled from as far as the country of Canada to trade with them, and to hunt seals and porpoises. According to Clemente de Odelica (Ubilla, Sept. 23, 1542; in Biggar, 1930, pp. 460-4), "Many Indians came to his ship in Grand Bay, and they ate and drank together, and were very friendly, and the Indians gave them deer and wolf skins in exchange for axes and knives and other

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trifles. . . . " The Spaniards do not seem to have been particularly perturbed when these same Indians told them that they came from Canada, where they had killed some thirty-five of Carder's men. The fact that the Indians did not hide these facts from the Spaniards also has its implications. The two available accounts which deal with the natives of the Strait of Belle Isle region—that written by Crignon and that deriving from Cartier— seem, upon internal evidence, to be related. It is difficult, however, to determine which of these is the "original," or closest to the "original." However, these two sources seem to refer only to a transient population of the Belle Isle region—to natives of the country of Canada who had come here to hunt seals and to trade with the fishermen. The documents are silent concerning more permanent residents of the area, although such a population is known from the later historical sources. These latter accounts picture these inhabitants as being extremely hostile to the fishermen and traders operating in the area. Two possible explanations may be advanced for this silence on the part of the early documents: either these permanent inhabitants, the so-called "Esquimeaux," were not present in the Strait of Belle Isle sector before about 1550; or they were present but not yet objectionable or notorious. Some evidence exists which seems to favour the latter possibility, but it has never been adequately studied. This is unfortunate, since the material touches on one of the enigmas of northeastern ethnology, namely, the origin of the name "Esquimeaux," the early tribal distribution in eastern Quebec and Labrador, the nature of the "Esquimeaux" culture, and their cultural affinities with the Beothuk of Newfoundland. These questions are too involved to be discussed here, but the basic literature on the topic includes Biard (1612, p. 9; in Thwaites, 1896-1901, vol. 2, p. 67), Biard (1616, pp. 33-4; in Thwaites, 1896-1901, vol. 3, p. 69), Lallemant (1660, pp. 42-5; in Thwaites, 1896-1901, vol. 45, pp. 65-8), Nicolas (1673, p. 1; in Thwaites, 1896-1901, vol. 59, p. 57), Barcia (1723, I, fll, 4; 1951, p. xl), Speck (1931; 1936), and Burgesse (1949). On the question of the nature, extent, and influence of the early fur trade, the most important conclusion from our sources is that trading for furs was closely associated with the first commercial fishing ventures, and began at least as early as 1503 or 1504. This trade must have been well established by 1519, for at this date Martin Fernandez de Encisco (1519, fol. 75r~v) reports: "This [land] of the Bacallaos lies to the west from Galacia, and part of them lie to the west, a quarter to the northwest. There are many ports there, much populated land, and many islands offshore, all inhabited. There is an abundance of skins yielding fine furs. . . . " After this date references to the fur trade become much more common. In pre-Cartier times it seems to have been carried out largely in "dry" fishery areas, especially in the vicinity of the Strait of Belle Isle. After the Cartier expeditions the trade expanded into the Gulf of St. Lawrence, and became much more extensive—so extensive in fact that Biard was moved to remark: All this New France is divided into different tribes, each one having its own separate language and country. They assemble in the summer to trade with us, princi-

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pally at the great river. To this place come also several other tribes from afar off. They barter their skins of beaver, otter, deer, marten, seal, etc., for bread, peas, beans, prunes, tobacco, etc.; kettles, hatchets, iron arrow-points, awls, puncheons, cloaks, blankets, and all other commodities as the French bring them . . . . (Biard, 1616, pp. 32-3; in Thwaites, 1896-1901, vol. 3, p. 69). Lescarbot commented that by 1606 the Basques had been on the coast so long "that the language of the coast tribes is half Basque" (Lescarbot, 1911, p. 24). The magnitude of European-Indian contact before the time of permanent French settlement in Canada, and the influence of the fur trade, have important implications for the ethnology of the region. Fundamentally, the problem is that our classical sources for the ethnology of the area, the works of Lescarbot, Champlain, Sagard-Theodat, Le Clerq, and the authors of the Jesuit Relations, all derive from a period in which the influence of the fur trade was at least seventy years old. The question thus arises whether the picture obtained from these materials truly reflects the "aboriginal" situation. In particular, do these documents adequately picture the native and pre-white cultural situation on the St. Lawrence River? This latter problem is complicated somewhat by the fact that the dominant pre-contact tribe on the St. Lawrence seems to have been the Canadian Iroquois, who disappeared before 1600. Linguistically, these people belonged to the Iroquoian family of languages; culturally they constituted the northernmost and easternmost outpost of Iroquois culture, which was characterized by an economy based on maize agriculture, by a sedentary pattern of settlement, by fortified villages containing matrilineal extended families living communally in longhouses, by a complex clan and moiety system which formed the foundations for an extensive governmental and religious structure, and by a well-developed pattern of warfare. These traits stand in sharp contrast to those of the surrounding Algonquian tribes, who were largely non-agricultural. The culture of the St. Lawrence or Canadian Iroquois was unusual in another respect, however. Situated as they were along the banks of the St. Lawrence River, at the very northern limit of maize agriculture, the Canadian Iroquois seem to have been strongly oriented, especially in the northern sections of their range, to the river and to the sea. This fact is of great importance in any study of the early ethnography of this area but has never been adequately stressed. A second important fact is that by the beginning of the seventeenth century this river-oriented culture was no longer in existence. And third, by that time all the tribes for which we have ethnographic descriptions were deeply involved in the fur trade, and in the associated economic pattern of bartering furs for European foods and implements. In other words, between the time of the St. Lawrence Iroquois and the beginning of the seventeenth century all the tribes of the area were subjected to a very strong force whose orientations were inland and directed towards fur-bearing mammals. The basic question which thus arises is whether the marine orientation of the Canadian Iroquois reflects a general pre-white condition along the St. Lawrence shores, and whether the reorientation implied by the nature of the fur trade (that is

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from a maritime culture to a hunting culture ) actually took place. This problem is of enough theoretical and general importance in the ethnology of the northeast to warrant fairly detailed consideration. Turning first to the problem of the disappearance of the Canadian Iroquois we may observe that a number of our sources specifically indicate that these people were no longer in existence at the beginning of the seventeenth century. In the 1618 edition of his Histoire de la Nouvelle France (1914, pp. 114, 117, 267-8), Lescarbot states: . . . Jacques Cartier has left us a kind of dictionary of the language of Canada, whereof, our Frenchmen who today frequent those parts understand nothing. . . . As to the cause of the change of language in Canada, whereof we have spoken, I think that it has been caused by the destruction of a tribe; for some years ago the Iroquois assembled themselves to the number of eight thousand men, and discomfited all their enemies, whom they surprised in their enclosures. . . . the Iroquois, to the number of eight thousand men, some time ago exterminated the Algonquins, the people of Hochelaga, and other bordering upon the great river.. . . In the earlier Erondelle translation of 1609 there is a slight, but important, variation in the text: . . . But concerning the cause of the change of the language in Canada whereof we have spoken, I think it hath happened by a destruction of people. For it is some eight years since the Iroquois did assemble themselves to the number of 8,000 men, and discomfited all their enemies, whom they surprised in their enclosures. . . . (Lescarbot, 1928, p. 182.) Since Lescarbot wrote his work during the year 1608 it would seem that he therefore placed the Iroquois attack in the year 1600 (Lescarbot, 1907, p. xiv). It is difficult to check this information. However, a manuscript map dated 1601, but apparently deriving from French traders operating in the St. Lawrence around 1590, still shows a number of the Cartier village names (see Ganong, 1937), but Champlain's account of his 1603 exploration of the St. Lawrence up to the present site of Montreal, indicates that at that time the entire area was uninhabited. Champlain specifically states, in fact, that a settlement at Three Rivers would be a boon for the freedom of some tribes who dare not come that way for fear of their enemies, the said Iroquois, who infest the banks all along the said river of Canada; but if this river were inhabited we might make friends with the Iroquois and with the other savages, or at the very least under the protection of the said settlement the savages might come freely without fear or danger, inasmuch as the said Three Rivers is a place of passage . . . (Champlain, 1603, fol. 18; 1922, p. 137). From the Cartier accounts we know that the Canadians (the people of Stadacona, Hochelaga, and others) were on "unfriendly" terms with a people living to the west and southwest from Hochelaga—a people whom we may assume to have been the Iroquois (Biggar, 1924, pp. 170-1). Some authors have attempted, on this basis, to identify the Toudamans with the Seneca (Tsonondowanen) (Bishop, 1948, p. 351). This identification seems to be without basis. The Cartier relations specifically state that "two years previously these Touda-

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mans had come and attacked them in that very river, on an island which lies opposite to the Saguenay, where they were spending the night on their way to Honguedo, being on the war-path against the Toudamans . . . " (Biggar, 1924, pp. 177-8). In the historic period the Micmac, not the Iroquois, lived in the region of Honguedo, or the Gaspé Peninsula. Furthermore, the existence of a warfare pattern between the Canadians and the natives of the Gaspé region is also confirmed by Thevet (1878, p. 401). It would therefore appear that the term "Toudaman" applies to the eastern Algonquians—perhaps specifically to the Micmac. Nevertheless, the Iroquois probably do appear in the Cartier account under the name "Agojuda," which cannot be associated with any modern term. We may glean one further fact concerning the warfare between the Canadians and the Toudamans (and/or Iroquois) from the sources. In Cartier's time the southern shore of the St. Lawrence was apparently uninhabited, for all the maps deriving from the Cartier explorations show the native villages to have been located on the north shore only. If this was the result of a warfare pattern, as seems likely, the St. Lawrence River of the sixteenth century was not such a peaceful scene as postulated by some authors (for example, Hunt, 1940, pp. 19-32). The evidence for the second important fact about the Canadian Iroquois— that their culture was river oriented, and that fishing played a major role in their subsistence economy—derived from the statements appearing in the Cartier sources, and becomes entirely plausible in the light of the known facts concerning the present-day faunal resources of the St. Lawrence River. The physiographic and océanographie conditions of the Gulf of St. Lawrence are extremely favourable for marine life. The greater part of the Gulf forms a shallow submerged plain of considerable area. This is divided into two sections by the deep St. Lawrence trench which runs from the mouth of the St. Lawrence River in a southeasterly direction to Cabot Strait, and continues from there to the edge of the continental shelf. This trench is continuous and uninterrupted throughout its course; it therefore differs considerably from glacial fjords in lacking a shallow lip of glacial debris. Since deep water can move in and out of the passage, the "dead zone" of hydrogen sulfide poisoning, so characteristic of fjords, is lacking, and the deeper reaches of the Gulf are open to deep-water pelagic species. One of the important factors in the existence of large populations of groundfishes and other pelagic forms within the Gulf is the presence of extensive shallow sections, as well as of oceanic banks. Also of crucial importance is the occurrence of oceanic currents which supply the region with nutrients deriving largely from the Arctic, where meteorological and océanographie conditions combine to favour large-scale mixing of the water column and redistribution of the dissolved nutrient salts. Within the Gulf of St. Lawrence the nutrient supply is supplemented by that brought down by the river. The net result of these current factors is an enormous seasonal production of phytoplankton, and the maintenance by these primary producers of very large numbers of members of higher trophic levels. For the native inhabitants the most important of the

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latter were the clupeid fish, mackerels, flounders, dolphins, porpoises, seals, and walruses. Of the marine fishes, a relatively large number were anadromous, running into freshwater in order to spawn. These included the following: the common sturgeon, alewife, shad, Atlantic salmon, saltwater brook trout, smelt, and striped bass. The common eel, on the other hand, was catadromous, ordinarily living in fresh water and running into salt water to spawn. Whether anadromous or catadromous, these fish provided the fishermen with unexcelled opportunities which seem to have been taken advantage of. To the long list of marine fish and mammals occurring in the Gulf of St. Lawrence may be added a number of freshwater and non-marine forms, including the rock sturgeon, northern long-nosed gar, northern pike, northern muskellung, common white sucker, northern sturgeon sucker, northern channel carfish, freshwater cod, bowfin, yellow perch, and walleyed pike. Most of these fish can be caught in freshwater lakes and streams throughout the year, and thus constitute a reserve in case of need. At the present time it is exceedingly difficult to estimate the size of the prewhite marine populations of the St. Lawrence. Not only has the fauna been seriously depleted, but the modern fishery methods which provide the materials for the modern fishery statistics sample different elements of the population ( even within the same species ) than those important in the aboriginal subsistence. These difficulties must be kept in mind in the following comparisons based upon modern figures. In his study of the freshwater fish of native North America, Rostlund (1952) includes a discussion and estimate of the aboriginal fish populations and annual yields. He concludes that the area of Atlantic anadromous fish yielded an average of eight or nine hundred pounds per square mile, with the figure rising to one thousand pounds per square mile in the lower Great Lakes drainage area ( Rostlund, 1952, pp. 52, 63-4, table 4 ). This estimate is placed in its proper perspective if we note that the average annual yield for the coastline between California and British Columbia is given as eight hundred pounds per square mile (Rostlund, 1952, pp. 50-2, 64, table 4). Rostlund notes: . . . The most important food fishes in this [Atlantic] province are anadromous: salmon (in the north only), shad, alewife, summer and fall herrings, sea lamprey, striped bass, sturgeon, smelt locally, and everywhere the catadromous eel. This list contains some of the best food fishes of North America; hence this resource ranks very high in quality, and in quantity of fish available per unit area during the annual runs the province is surpassed by no other on the continent. The best fishing season is naturally spring and early summer, when all these fishes (except the relatively unimportant smelt) enter the rivers. But fishing can be done with fair profit at any time of year, at least in the middle and southern parts of the province, because the resident freshwater fish fauna is not a poor one. Some freshwater forms occur throughout the province, such as bullheads, suckers, chubs, and certain sunfishes; and pickerel is found from Florida to southern New England. In terms of the other freshwater species, the Atlantic slope can be divided into a northern and a southern part with a dividing zone from about Cape Harteras to Chesapeake Bay. Brook trout, fallfish, white perch, yellow perch, and burbot are found only in the northern part. . . .

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Rostlund also makes the following comment on the estimation of aboriginal yield: . . . The Atlantic anadromous fishes entered streams from Florida to Ungava Bay. . . . The region from Maine to Florida is selected for computing yield, for both area and amount of fish can more readily be determined for that region than for the northern part; and from Maine to Florida the area visited by anadromous fishes, approximated by ruled squares, contains about 150,000 square miles of territory. That part of the area in which salmon occurred amounts to about 25,000 square miles. Fishing began very early in the eastern rivers. Although we have many old accounts of the abundance of salmon, shad, and other fishes, no exact data are available on the quantity of fish taken in colonial times or even as late as the middle of the nineteenth century. Later statistics, however, do contain information upon which an estimate can be based. A few reports are given below, all originally from the publications of the Bureau of Fisheries : In 1880 the estimated catch of the commercial river fishery from Maine to Florida was about 61,500,000 pounds of fish of all species. . . . In 1896 the catch of shad in the area was about 50,000,000 pounds. . . . The eastern alewife catch has been about 30,000,000 pounds a year. . . . In the Potomac River alone the average annual catch from 1896 to 1926 was 2,000,000 pounds of shad and 4,000,000 pounds of alewives. . . . In 1890 the catch of sturgeon in the Delaware River was 5,000,000 pounds.. . . The salmon fishery declined so early in history that reliable data on catches are not to be found, but if the Atlantic salmon ran in quantity per unit area somewhat like the Pacific salmon, about 14,000,000 or 15,000,000 pounds of salmon would represent the possible annual yield of the area from Housatonic River to the St. Croix River (580 pounds multiplied by 25,000 square miles); and presumably the yield per unit area was no less in the region north of Maine. In aboriginal time the possible yearly catch of fish in the rivers from Maine to Florida would surely have included about 40,000,000 pounds of shad, 40,000,000 pounds of alewives, 10,000,000 pounds of salmon, and 10,000,000 pounds of sturgeon, not to mention lampreys, eels, summer and fall herrings, smelt locally, and striped bass everywhere. The annual possible yield must have totaled at least 100,000,000 pounds of fish, amounting to 666 pounds of fish per average square mile of territory, since the area contains about 150,000 square miles. The estimated yield of anadromous fish in the East is thus somewhat higher than that in the West, and I think there is a good reason for believing that it should be. The western anadromous fauna consisted overwhelmingly of salmon, the numbers of which were limited by the capacity of the spawning beds, but in the East the run of fish consisted of several different species, many of which require no spawning beds; hence the eastern rivers were more intensively utilized by the fish than were the western salmon streams. The presence of the eel in the East and its absence in the West must also have made an appreciable difference. Finally, there is more acreage of water surface per average square mile of territory in the East than in the West, perhaps twice as much, and this fact alone might account for a higher yield in the eastern region. . . . (Rostlund, 1952, pp. 73-4, 52-3.)

From these estimates the annual yield of fresh water and anadromous fish in the St. Lawrence appears to be of the same order of magnitude as that of the northwest coast. In this latter area the importance of this yield is well documented ethnographically. Furthermore, such purely marine species as mackerel, skates, flounders, sculpins, belugas, walrus, and seals are not included in the reckoning. These could raise the total by a considerable amount. The magnitude of the

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ichthyological fauna of the St. Lawrence area was thus more than sufficient to provide the native residents with a substantial portion of their subsistence. The faunal wealth of the St. Lawrence River impressed the early French, and the Cartier sources reflect this fact. In the second relation, for example, there is the following statement: . . . This river, as has already been stated in the preceding chapters, is the richest in every kind of fish than any one remembers having ever seen or heard of; for from its mouth to the head of it, you will find in their season the majority of the [known] varieties and species of salt-and fresh-water fish. Up as far as Canada, you will meet with many whales, porpoises, sea-horses [seals], walruses and Adhothuys [belugas], which is a species of fish that we had never seen or heard of before. They are as white as snow and have a head like a greyhound's. Their habitat is between the ocean and the fresh-water that begins between the river Saguenay and Canada. Moreover you will find in this river in June, July, and August great numbers of mackerel, mullet, maigres, tunnies, large-sized eels and other fish. When their [spawning] season is over you will find as good smelts as in the river Seine. In Spring again there are quantities of lampreys and salmon. Up above Canada are many pike, trout, carp, breams, and other fresh-water fish. All these varieties are caught, each in its season, in considerable quantities by these people for their food and sustenance. The Roberval account present another summary of the food resources of the Canadians, listing aloses (common shad), salmon, sturgeons, mullets (probably a variety of sucker), surmullets (red mullets, another variety of sucker), barz or maigres (applied to the striped bass), carps, eels, "other fresh-water fish," and "store of porpoises" ( Biggar, 1924, p. 268 ). The sources yield comparatively abundant references to the "Adhothuys," probably because they were new to the French and attracted their attention. From the description given—"it is as large as a porpoise but has no fin. It is very similar to a greyhound about the body and head and is as white as snow, without a spot upon it. . ." (Biggar, 1924, p. 117)—it may be identified with considerable certainty as the beluga or white whale. It is described as occurring only in the waters between the mouth of the Saguenay and the fresh water about the Isle de Coudres, an area within which it is still to be found, as many as eight hundred having been seen in a single school (Biggar, 1924, p. 117; Cahalane, 1947, p. 644). Cartier mentions that the natives "fished" for these "Adhothuys" around Coudres Isle, and that they recommended them as very good eating (Biggar, 1924, pp. 117-18). This statement is of considerable interest, since it implies that the Indians were accustomed to harpooning large sea mammals, presumably from their canoes. This feat is also known from the Penobscot, for Rosier (1887, p. 158) reports: . . . One especiall thing is their manner of killing the Whale, which they call Powdawe; and will describe his forme; how he bloweth up the water; and that he is twelve fathoms long; and that they go in company with their King with a multitude of their boats, and strike him with a bone made in the fashion of a harping iron fastened to a rope which they make great and strong of the barke of trees, which they veare out after him, and as he riseth above the water, with their arrowes they shoot him to death; when they have killed him and dragged him to shore, they call all their chief lords together, and sing a song of joy. . . .

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Although this account applies to a tribe outside the St. Lawrence area, the hunting method described may well have been employed by the Canadians in their pursuit of the beluga. The Canadian practice of travelling to the Strait of Belle Isle in order to hunt seals and to trade with the fishermen has already been noted, but some aspects and implications of this custom should be considered. The area of the Strait of Belle Isle serves as an important stage in the life cycle of both the hooded seals and the harp seals. These leave their summer grounds on the eastern coast of Greenland and within Baffin Bay around the end of September and initiate their annual southward migration. By February they have reached the southernmost extension of their range, and are feeding on the banks to the southeast, south, and west of Newfoundland. They then move slightly northward, meeting the southward moving ice floes in three definite localities—one just southwest of the Strait of Belle Isle, between Anticosti Island and the west coast of Newfoundland; one on the ice floes around the Magdalen Islands; and one some fifty miles east of the Strait of Belle Isle—and establish their breeding and whelping grounds upon them. In the early part of the twentieth century some three hundred thousand whelped yearly at the first two localities within the Gulf, and another five hundred thousand at the latter locality. After the young have been born they must be cared for by their mothers for at least a month. At the end of this time they are introduced to the water, and deserted. The entire herd then proceeds northward to their summer haunts around Greenland and Baffin Bay ( Bartlett, 1927, pp. 20712; Cahalane, 1947, pp. 308-13; Ekman, 1935, pp. 199-200, 254, 258). The hooded and harp seals are thus most common in the Gulf of St. Lawrence between November (when they reach the Strait of Belle Isle) and March. The accounts describing the Canadian Iroquois as hunting seals in the area of the Strait derive from the codfishing season, however, which here lasted from June to November. We are thus left with the question of whether the Canadian Indians were able to utilize the hooded and harp seals to any extent whatsoever. If the natives described by Crignon remained in the region past the close of summer they possibly might have hunted this resource. Instead, Crignon states: "when the fishing season ends with the approach of winter, they return with their catch in boats made of the bark of certain trees called Bull, and go to warmer countries—we know not where . . ." ( Crignon, 1565, p. 423T ). It therefore seems probable that the Canadian Iroquois missed the mass migrations of hooded and harp seals, and caught only stragglers and harbour seals. While the seasonal cycle of the Canadians brought them into the Strait of Belle Isle sector at a time when the large herds of hooded and harp seals were probably absent, this was certainly not the case with the so-called "Esquimeaux." If this designation implies a people living according to an Arctic pattern—hunting caribou in the summer and sea mammals in the winter—they undoubtedly took advantage of the opportunities offered by the Strait sector. The Cartier sources also describe the Canadian Iroquois as hunting seals at the mouth of the Saguenay. The method is unfortunately not disclosed ( Biggar, 1924, pp. 114-15).

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FIG. 58. The geography of the country of Canada at the time of Cartier. Underlined names are those of Canadian towns or villages. Reconstructed from the textual and cartographical sources.

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The Canadian Iroquois not only travelled to the Strait of Belle Isle to hunt seals and to trade, but also went to Gaspé during July to catch mackerel with nets. According to the first relation: "We saw a large quantity of mackerel which they had caught near the shore with the nets they use for fishing, which are made of hemp thread, that grows in the country where they ordinarily reside . . ." (Biggar, 1924, p. 62). The hemp referred to is probably Indian hemp (Apocynum medium Greene, A. cannabinum Linnaeus, or A. sibiricum Jacquin), or hemp nettle (Galeopsis tetrahit Linnaeus, or G. ládanum Linnaeus) (Fernald, 1950, pp. 1168-9,1228-9). Numerous references occur in the accounts of the Cartier voyages which attest to the importance of marine food in the Canadian subsistence pattern. It was noted, for example, that upstream from Stadacona there were "a large number of huts along the banks of the river, which are inhabited by Indians, who catch great quantities of the numerous good fish in the river, according to the season. These people came towards our boats in as friendly and familiar a manner as if we had been natives of the country, bringing us great store of fish. . . ." ( Biggar, 1924, p. 142. ) The same source also tells us that at Hochelaga "They have in their houses also large vessels like puncheons, in which they place their fish, such as eels and others, that are smoked during the summer, and on these they live during the winter. They make great store of these.. .." ( Biggar, 1924, p. 158. ) And in the general description of the country of Canada we learn that "The women of this country work beyond comparison more than the men, both at fishing, which is much followed, as well as tilling the ground and other tasks. . . . They eat their meat quite raw, merely smoking it a little, and the same with their fish. . . ." (Biggar, 1924, pp. 185-6.) These statements would seem to indicate that fishing played a very important role in the life of the Canadian Indians. Considering the enormous resources available to them, the fish we know to have been utilized, and the methods employed, we may suspect that fishing was more important than hunting, and—in the northern sections of the country of Canada—more important than agriculture. We come to this latter conclusion in light of the foods which the Canadian Iroquois traded to Cartier's men, which seem to have been largely fish, as can be see from the following excerpts : [Sept. 7, 1535] . . . And some of the headmen [of Isle d'Orléans] came to our longboats, bringing us many eels and other fish, with two or three measures of Indian corn, which is their bread in that country, and many large melons.... [Sept. 17, 1535] . . . Donnacona and the others came back and brought a quantity of eels and other fish, which are caught in great numbers in this river. . . . [October, 1535] . . . After this, these people used to come day by day to our ships bringing us plenty of eels and other fish to get our wares. ... March, 1536 . . . Meanwhile every day there came to our ships as usual a considerable number of Indians with fresh meat, venison and all varieties of fresh fish, which they bartered for a good price or otherwise preferred to carry them away again; for they were themselves in need of provisions on account of the winter having been a long one, during which they had consumed their provisions and supplies. . . . (Biggar, 1924, pp. 120-1,132,187,217.)

ETHNOGRAPHIC PROBLEMS

211

The fact that the natives remained in settled villages throughout the winter also implies that they did not depend heavily upon hunting. This important fact, with its implications, has never been properly emphasized in discussions of the subsistence patterns of the northeast. The Canadian Iroquois cannot therefore properly be considered participants in the northern taiga culture which involves an annual cycle of summer fishing and winter hunting. One question which we may raise concerns the general importance of such a taiga culture in the total aboriginal picture. As far as can be determined from the historical sources, the Algonquian-speaking tribes known from the historic period were initially concentrated near the St. Lawrence River (see Speck, 1931), and moved into the interior under the influence of the fur trade, having virtually annihilated the fur-bearing fauna in their old haunts. We may wonder whether these Algonquian-speakers may not once have participated in the fishing and sea-mammal culture of the St. Lawrence. With the development of a European fishery in the St. Lawrence, the products of the native fishery would be of minimal value for barter. This fact would have caused a drastic reorientation in the native subsistence economy. In addition to the materials concerning the native ecology of the St. Lawrence region we have Cartier's linguistic materials, the so-called "Canadian vocabularies." Their relationships have long been recognized to lie with the Iroquoian group of languages, and many authors have attempted to exploit this fact when forming historical and ethnological hypotheses relating to the peoples of Stadacona and Hochelaga. These attempts have usually resulted, unfortunately, in violence to linguistic practice (for example, Bailey, 1933; Cuoq, 1869b; Lighthall, 1899; Shea, 1865; Squair, 1923; Wilson, 1885). In the comparative linguistic method as employed on the Indo-European languages, the emphasis is not merely upon indicating genetic relationships by the identification of extensive sound-shifts (for example, the sound-shifts of Rask and Grimm), but also upon the identification of significant similarities in the morphological structures. Because of the ever present possibility of linguistic borrowing between two otherwise dissimilar languages it has come to be argued that a demonstration of genetic relationship must go beyond a mere comparison of vocabulary and must reveal significant and systematic correlations between the respective phonetic, phonemic, syntactical, and morphological structures. By and large, students of the Hochelaga-Stadacona problem have limited their efforts to mere comparison of vocabulary—usually of statistically insignificant samples. They have also attempted to associate the Canadian vocabularies with those of some modern Iroquois group, usually either Huron or Mohawk. And in the absence of any adequate knowledge of Iroquois linguistic structure or change it has commonly been found necessary to make a number of perilous linguistic assumptions : ( a ) that the vocabularies are comparable, despite the differences in orthography and origin; ( b ) that the dialect situation of the recent Iroquois languages reflects the dialect situation existing in the sixteenth century; in other words, that the comparison of a sixteenth-century Iroquois dialect with recent dialects is meaningful. Stated still another way, linguistic change has been mini-

212

CABOT TO CARTIER

mal; (c) that the linguistic relationships may be determined by a mere comparison of vocabularies. The last of these assumptions has already been mentioned. With respect to the first, we know that the Iroquois-Canadian word lists were certainly recorded in non-phonetic orthographies. This is also true for most of the other Iroquois vocabularies available to us. A number of imponderables thereby enter the picture: the recorder's linguistic background; the national origin of his orthography; the sensitivity of his "ear." The validity of the first assumption is thus open to serious question, and comparisons must be made with utmost caution. The second assumption—that the dialectical situation in modern times accurately reflects the linguistic situation in the sixteenth century—is equivalent to assuming lack of linguistic change. In the light of recent linguistic study and theory this assumption is particularly difficult to defend. Some material relative to linguistic change in the Iroquois languages may be gleaned from historic sources, but this study can only be profitably carried out after the features of the Iroquois languages are adequately known—a condition not fulfilled at the present. It therefore appears that the assumptions underlying almost all of the past studies of the Canadian vocabularies are tenuous in the extreme, and cannot be seriously employed. Another route of attack remains open, however. The forms displayed by the vocabularies are undoubtedly open to useful interpretation if they are studied in the light of a solid foundation in Iroquois linguistics, including a knowledge of the reconstructed proto-Iroquois terms. An intelligent statement concerning the position of the Canadian language within the Iroquoian family cannot be made until this linguistic foundation is available. This condition has not been met by any past writers on the vocabularies. The desirability of new studies is high-lighted by an opinion expressed by a modern Iroquois linguist after a brief examination of the word lists, that the word roots appearing in the Canadian vocabularies show the Canadian language to have been more than a mere dialect of the Five Nations group, or of the Hurons; they sometimes display striking similarities with the word roots of the southern Iroquois languages, that is, with those of Cherokee and Tuscarora, and with those of reconstructed protoIroquois, forms now absent in the dialects of the Five Nations (verbal communication from F. G. Lounsbury). The problem clearly needs further study. Besides a knowledge of the modern Iroquois languages, a study of the Canadian vocabularies also requires a knowledge of the historical materials on these languages, especially the Huron. Such a comparative knowledge of the historical languages does not at present exist although the sources are abundant.

CHAPTER XVII

Conclusions AT is apparent from this study that the number of documentary sources of information relating to northeastern North America for the period 1497 to 1550 is much larger than has generally been recognized. Unfortunately, much of the earliest information is not localized and consequently it is not possible to identify the peoples or tribes to which it refers although in some cases we can make informed guesses. If it were not for this fact the ethnographic details preserved in the Cabot, Cortereal, and Aubert sources would be of much greater interest and importance. Not until the time of Verrazano and Gomez does the historical material become sufficiently localized to be of use in studies of tribal culture. One large and important category of sources deals with the Newfoundland fishery and with the associated aspects of fur trade and Indian-European contact. These documents, however, leave much to be desired. We do not have any clear idea of the composition of the fleet at different times; of the national backgrounds and characteristics of the sailors involved; of the different fishing practices and equipment, ports, harbours, and fishing grounds; of the nature of the trade goods, and what items were transferred in barter with the natives; of the philosophical and religious viewpoints of the fishermen and their attitudes towards the natives. The discovery of new sources may possibly answer some of these points, but most will have to be resolved only through the painstaking study of the existing archival materials. Until that is done the European fishing fleet must remain one of the little known factors in early culture contact in the northeast. A most interesting conclusion drawn from consideration of the textual materials and cartography (for example, fig. 51) is that Jean Alphonse de Saintonge must be considered the discoverer (or the first describer) of that part of the Atlantic between Labrador and Greenland, and the first to recognize that Greenland and Labrador were not continuous. Earlier cartographical representations of a separate Greenland and a separate Newfoundland-Labrador (such as the Cantino and the Kunstmann No. 3) do not seem to have been so much the result of actual exploration as of cartographical coincidence and theorizing. It is, of course, not known how far Jean Alphonse succeeded in penetrating towards Davis Strait (lying between Baffin Island and Greenland), but he did seem to penetrate far enough to determine that this sea, lying between the mainland and Greenland, was the source of the icebergs and floe ice running southward past Newfoundland.

214

CABOT TO CABTIER

The early Portuguese colony in Cape Breton provides a promising field of research for both the historian and the field archaeologist. If this colony existed, and there is every reason to think that it did, it may evenually be located and excavated. The European objects deriving from this site and from the colony in general should provide a useful horizon marker in native sites of the region. With good fortune we may discover new textual sources dealing with this hidden aspect of early American history. For the anthropologist the most important body of information deriving from this early period relates to the St. Lawrence Iroquois and their contemporaries. This material, almost all that remains to perpetuate the memory of this northeasternmost branch of the Iroquois-speaking people, has hardly been touched by historical ethnographers. The documents—including those of Alphonse de Saintonge, the Anonymous-Harleian map, Cartier, Crignon, the Desceliers maps, the Desliens map, Lescarbot, the Le Testu map, Roberval, Thevet, Ubilla, and the Vallard map—are sufficient to abstract the essential features of the tribal culture and to determine the broad cultural and linguistic affiliations. Unfortunately not all of these sources are easily accessible, and one urgent need is the publication and translation of the works of Thevet, as well as the translation of the accounts given by Alphonse de Saintonge and Crignon. The author is in possession of a translation of the Crignon account, and hopes to publish it in the not too distant future. As indicated previously, a substantial body of material within these sources points to the fact that the early cultures on the St. Lawrence River and Gulf were strongly oriented towards the sea and towards the exploitation of maritime resources. This is strongly confirmed by the early historical materials relating to the Micmac Indians of Nova Scotia and New Brunswick for the period 1604 to 1755, which have been studied in detail by the author. These materials all point to the conclusion that fish, sea mammals, and other marine products were basic to the Micmac economy, and that hunting activities became important and essential only during three months of the winter. The rise of the fur trade completely disrupted this ancient pattern, for in order to obain such valued trade items as axes, dried foods, clothes, and brandy, the Indians found it absolutely necessary to obtain furs when the coats were at their best, that is during the winter, in the period of heavy snowfall. Their removal from the sea coast at this time (which was contrary to the ancient practice) greatly reduced the subsistence base, resulted in frequent conditions of famine, and caused social disorganization and reorientation. Similar factors may have come to play on the St. Lawrence Iroquois, and may have contributed to their dispersal by the New York State Iroquois. The affiliations of the St. Lawrence Iroquois language constitutes a most important aspect of the study of this people, an aspect which has been handicapped by the previous lack of linguistic knowledge of the Iroquois languges in general. Within the last ten years some progress has been made in this direction, however, and it may be anticipated that the position of St. Lawrence Iroquois relative to the other Iroquois languages will soon be more adequately determined.

CONCLUSIONS

215

One puzzling item in the relations of the Cartier voyages is the occasional occurrence of Micmac words. The "God of the Canadians," for example, is described as being called CUDOUAGNY, CUDONAGUY, or CUDRAGNY. This form does not occur in any other Iroquois language, nor in the Algonquian languages (who use a form of MANITOU), with the exception of Micmac which has the word CUDOÜAGNE. We also find Thevet describing islands in Canadian Iroquois territory as being called MINIGO by the natives, and we have seen that this word is Algonquian and is matched most closely by the MUNEGOO of the Micmac. It is not clear where the early French picked up these terms. The existence of a previously unnoted description of the Newfoundland Beothuk within Thevet's Les Singularitez de la France Antarctique . . . (1557) should also be noted. The picture here given, with its details of martial ceremony, costume, and chiefs, is in strange contrast to the Beothuk as they are pictured shortly before their extermination. The passage implies considerable contact and familiarity between the natives and the Europeans. It is possible that other descriptions also exist. Finally, the information obtainable through detailed study of the documents relating to the period 1497-1550 provides a strong incentive for a similar careful study of the period 1550-1600, which at present remains most obscure. Once this is accomplished historians and ethnohistorians will have a firm foundation from which to evaluate properly the contact situation in the Gulf of St. Lawrence at the time of the French colonization in the early seventeenth century, and the corresponding processes of culture change.

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Appendix THE CABTTEB VOCABULABIES The principal Cartier vocabularies of the language of the people of Canada are arranged alphabetically and collated from the following sources: the Biggar collation (Biggar, 1924); the facsimile of the Moreau manuscript given by Baxter (1906); the transcription of the same manuscript by Biggar (1924); the vocabulary in Ramusio ( 1565 ) ; a microfilm copy of Manuscript B in the University of California Library; a microfilm copy of the Brief récit . . . ( 1545 ) in the author's possession; the Hakluyt version (Cartier, 1600b); and a microfilm copy of Thevet's "Le Grand Insulaire . . ." in the Bancroft Library of the University of California. It is to be noted that the original word order of the vocabularies is as follows: Vocabulary, First Voyage God Sun, the Star Heavens, the Day Night Water Sand Sail Head Throat Nose Teeth Nails Feet Legs Dead Skin That one Hatchet, a

Codfish Good to eat Flesh Almonds Figs Gold Phallus Bow, a Latón Forehead, the Feather, a Moon Earth Wind Rain Bread Sea Ship Man

Hair Eyes Mouth Ears Arm Woman 111 Shoes Skin to cover the privy parts a Red cloth Knife Mackerel Nuts Apples Beans Sword Arrow, an Green tree Earthern dish, an

Vocabulary, Second Voyage One Two Three Four Five

Six

Seven Eight Nine Ten Head, the Forehead, the

Eyes, the Ears, the Mouth, the Teeth, the Tongue, the Throat, the

218 Chin, the Face, the Hair, the Arms, the Armpits, the Sides, the Stomach, the Belly, the Thighs, the Knees, the Legs, the Feet, the Hands, the Fingers, the Nails, the Phallus Womb, the Beard, the Hair of phallus Testicles, the Man, a Woman, a Boy, a Girl, a Child, a small Dress, a Doublet, a Stockings Shoes Shirts Cap, a Corn, they call their Bread Water Flesh Fish Plums Figs Grapes Nuts Fruits, bush Nuts, small Hen, a Lamprey, a Salmon, a Whale, a Eel, an Squirrel, a Snake, a Turtles Olives

CABOT TO CARTIER

Wood, they call Leaves God, they call their Give me a drink Give me a breakfast Give me supper Let us go to bed Good-day Let us go and bet Come and speak to me Look at me Silence Let us go to the canoe That's no good Give me a knife Hatchet, a Bow, a Arrow, an Feathers Let us go a hunting Stag, a They speak of does as sheep and call them Hare, a Dog, a Geese Trail, they call a They call the seed of cucumbers and melons To-morrow, when they wish to say Good-by, when they wish to say

Sing, to Laugh, to Cry, to Dance, to Heavens, the Earth, the Sun, the Moon, the Stars, the Wind, the Sea, the Water, fresh Sea waves Island, an Mountain, a Ice, the Snow, the Cold

Hot Many thanks Friend, my Run Come for a paddle Fire Smoke Smoke hurts my eyes, the So and so is dead House, a Beans, they call their Earthern pot, the Town, they call a Chief Bad/treacherous Ugly Walk along Whence come you? Give that to someone Keep that for me Where has he gone? Shut the door Go and fech some water Go and fetch someone Tobacco Skunks (?) —there are large rats in their country, the size of rabbits, which smell of musk, and are called Common plant When a person is so old that he can no longer walk they call him Father, my Mother, my Brother, my Sister, my Cousin, my Nephew, my Wife, my Child, my Big Small Large Thin When they wish to make an exclamation they say Evening, the Night, the Day, the

First Voyage English

j3 ,22

One Two Three Four Five Six Seven Eight Nine Ten Apples Almonds Arm Armpits, the Arms, the Arrow, an Bad or Treacherous Beans Beard, the Belly, the Big Boy, a Bow, a Bread

Brother, my Cap, a

Moreau MS

Ramusio (1565)

Honesta Anougaza Agescu Cacta Sahé

Sahv

Caracomy

Second voyage MSB (no. 5589)

MSA (no. 5653)

MSC (no. 5644)

Brief récit. . . (1545)

Segada Tigneny Asche Hannacon Ouyscon Judaie Aiaga Addegué Wadellon Assem

Segada Tigneny Asche Hannacon Ouyscon Judaié Aiaga Addegué Wadellon Assem

Segada Tigneny Asche Hannacon Ouyscon Judayé Aiaga Addegué Wadellon Assen

Segada Tigneny Asche Hannacon Ouiscon Indahir Ayaga Addegué Madellon Assem

Hetnenda Ayaiascon Quahetan Agojuda Sahé Ostoné Eschehenda Estahezy Addegesta Ahena Carraconny

Hetnenda Ayaiascon Quahetan Agojuda Sahé Ostoné Eschehenda Estahezy Addegesta Ahena Carraconny

Hetnenda Ayaiascon Quahetan Agojuda Sahé Ostoné Eschehenda Estahezy Addegesta Ahena Carraconny

Hetnanda Aiayascon Quahetam Agouionda Sahe Ostoné Eschehenda

Adhadguyn Castrua or Gastona

Adhadguyn Castrua

Adhadguyn Castrua

Hakluyt (1600) Secada Tigneny Hasche Hannaion Ouiscon Indahir Ayaga Addigue Madellon Assem

Thevet "Le Grand Insulaire. . ."

Aiayascon Quahetan

Segada Tigneni Hasche Hannaion Ouiscon Indahir Aiaga Addigue Madellon Assem Honesta Anougasa Agescu (1). Aaiayascon Quahetan

Sahe Hebelim Eschehenda

Sahe Hebelim Eschehenda

Addegesta Ahena Carraconny

Addegesta Ahenca Carraconny

Addagnin Castrua

Addagrim Castrua

Addegesta (2) Ahenca Caracomy, Carraconny Addagrim Castrua (3)

Numbers within parentheses refer to notes following the word lists. 'Thevet gives HETNANDA for les aisnes. 'Thevet gives this for un enfant, writing it in over an error. 'Thevet originally gave this form for fourment, then crossed it out and replaced it by another word which cannot be read on the microfilm.

First voyage English

Moreau MS

Chief Child, a Child, a small Child, my Chin, the Codfish

Ramusio (1565)

Gadogourseré

Second voyage MS B (no. 5589)

MSA (no. 5653)

MSC (no. 5644)

Brief récit . . , (1545)

(Agouhanna)

Agouhanna

Exiasta Exiasta Aguo of Agno Aguo Hebbehin Hebbehin

Exiasta Aguo Hebbehin

Exiasta

Athau Asigny quadadya Cazigahoatte Hanneda

Hakluyt (1600)

Thevet "Le Grand Insulaire ..."

Exiasta

Addegesta Exiasta

Athau Casigno quaddadia

Athau Assigniquaddadia

Gadogouresere Athau Assign! quaddadia

Hebehin

Athau Asigny quadadya

Athau Asigny quadadya

Annedda

Annedda

Ozisy Hegay Agguenda Thegoaca

Ozisy Hegay Agguenda Thegoaca

Ozisy Hegay Agguenda Thegoaca Adegahon

Ozisy

Osizi

Hontasco

Aggayo Coza Cabata Ahontascon

Aggayo Coza Cabata Ahontascon

Aggayo Coza Cabata Ahontascon

Agayo Coioza Cabata Ahontascon

Agaya Caioza Cabata Abontascon

Earth, the

Conda

Daraga

Damga

Daniga

Damga

Damga

Earthern dish, an Earthern pot Eel, an Evening, the Eyes, the Face, the

Undaco

Esgneny

Esgueny

Esgueny

Hegata Hogouascon

Higata Hegouascon

Ygaxa, higata Hegouascon

Cold Come and speak to me Come for a paddle "Common plant" Conger eel Corn, Indian Cousin, my Cry, to Dance, to Day, the Dead Dog, a Doublet, a Dress, a Ears, the

4

Kagaige

Thevet gives this for vn juppon.

Kapaige

Amocdaza

Esgneny or Esgueny Ygata

Hegata Hegouascon

Hegata Hegouascon

Undaccon Angau Hetgata Hegouscon

Agedoneda

Amocdaza Agayo Caioza (4) Cabata Hontascon, abontascon Conda, damga

First voyage English

Moreau MS

Father, my Feather, a Feathers Feet, the Figs

to to

Ramusio (1565)

Fingers, the Fire Fish "Flanckes" Flesh Forehead, the Friend, my Fruits, bush Geese Girl, a Give me a drink Give me a knife Give me a breakfast Give me supper Give that to someone Go and fetch someone Go and fetch some water

MS B (no. 5589)

MSA (no. 5653)

MS C (no. 5644)

Brief récit . . . (1545)

Hakluyt (1600)

Thevet "Le Grand 1Insulaire . . ."

Addhaty

Addhaty

Addhaty

Addathy

Addathy

Ochedasco

Heccon Ouchidascon

Heccon Ouchidascon

Heccon Ouchidascon

Adatthy Yco

Onchidascon

Oncidascon

Asconda

Absconda

Absconda

Absconda

Absconda

Absconda

Agenoga Asista Quejón

Agenoga Asista Quejón

Agenoga Azista Queion

Ochedasco, onchidascon Asconda, absconda Agenoga Azista Queion (6)

Yco

Honnesta

Second voyage

Agenoga Azista Queion (5) Aissonne Quahouachon Quahouachon Quahoachon Quahouascon Quahouascon Quahonascon Hetguenyascon Hetguenyascon Hetguenyascon Hetguenyascon Hetgueniascon Ansce, herguenioscon Aguiase Aguiase Aguyase Aesquesgoua Aesquesgoua Aesquesgoa Sadeguenda Sadeguenda Agnyaquesta Agnyaquesta Agnyaquesta Agnyaquesta Agniaquesta Agnia questa Quazahoa Quazohoa Quazohoa Quazohoa Quaza hoa Quazahoa quea quea quea quea quea quea Quazahoa Quazahoa Quazahoa Quazahoa Buazahca Quazahca aggoheda agoheda agoheda aggoheda aggoheda agoheda Quazahoa Quazahoa Quazahoa Quazahoa Quazo hoa Quazahoaquascahoa quascahoa quascahoa quascahoa quascaboa guascoboa Quazahoa Quazahoa Quazahoa Quazahoa Quaza hoa Quazahoa quatfrean quatfream quatfrean quatfrean quatfriam quatfriam Taquenonde Taquenonde Taquenonde Achidascoué Sagithemmé Sagithemmé Sagithemmé Agenoga Asista Quejón

Anscé

'Hakluyt gives this term for reisens, which derives from the Old French word reisin meaning "a bunch of grapes." See Item 7. 'Thevet gives this for coryntes, after first writing Pe. . . and then crossing it out.

First voyage English

Moreau MS

Ramusio (1565)

God

Gold Good-by Good-day Good to eat Grapes Green tree Hair, the

Henyosco

Quesandé Haueda Hochosco

Second voyage MSB (no. 5589)

Hakluyt (1600)

MSC (no. 5644)

Cudonaguy

Cudonaguy

Cudonaguy

Cudragny

Cudragny

Hedgagnehanyga Aigay

Hedgagnehanyga Aigay

Sedgagnehanyga Aigay

Hedgagnehanyga Aignaz

Cudrani, cudrany Henyosco

Aignag

Aignaz

Ozaha

Ozaha

Ozaha

Ozaha

Ozoba

Aganyscon

Aganyscon

Aganiscon

Aganyscon

Aganiscon

Aggonsson Aignoascon Sonohamda Addogué

Ozoba (7) Honeda Hochosco (8), aganiscon

Aignoascon Sonohamda Addogué

Aignoascon Sourhamda Addogne

Aignoascon Sourhanda Adogne

Brief récit . . . (1545)

Hair of phallus Hands, the Hare, a Hatchet, a

Aggonsson Aignoascon Asogné

Aggonsson Aignoascon Sonohamda Addogué

Head, the

Agonazé

Aggonosy

Aggonosy

Agonozy

Aggourzy

Aggonzi

Heavens, the

Camet

Quemhya

Quemheya

Quenheya

Quenhia

Quenhia

Sahonigagoa Odayan Quanocha Honnesca

Sahonigagoa Odayan Quanocha Honnesca

Sahomgahoa Odaian Quanocha Honnesca

Sahomgahoa Odazan Canocha Honnesca

Sahomgahoa Odazani Canoca Honnesca

Cohena Sodanadegamesgamy

Cohena Sodanadegamesgamy

Cohena Sodanadegamesgamy

Cohena

Cohena

Hen, a Hot House Ice, the 111 Island, an Keep that for me

Alouedeché

'Thevet gives this form for vne grappe, instead of for the "raisin" of Manuscript B. Thevet gives this form for "hat." 'Thevet gives this for a "small hatchet."

8

Thevet "Le Grand Insulaire . . ."

MSA (no. 5653)

Aignoascon Sourhanda Ascogne (9), adogni Agonaze, agononzi Camet, quenhia Sahomgahoa Odazani Canoca Honnescha Alouedeché Cahena

First voyage English

Moreau MS

Ramusio (1565)

Knees, the Knife Lamprey, a Large Latón Laugh, to Leaves Legs

Agoheda Aignetazé

Anoudasco

Let us go hunting Let us go and bet Let us go to bed

Let us go to the canoe

Second voyage MSA (no. 5653)

MSC (no. 5644)

Brief récit . . . (1545)

Hakluyt (1600)

Agochinegodascon Aggoheda Zisto Hougauda

Agochinegodascon Aggoheda Zisto Hougauda

Agochinegodascon Aggoheda Zisto Hougneuda

Agochinegodasion Agoheda Zysto Hougauda

Agochinegodascon

Cahezem Honga or houga Agouguenehondé

Cahezem Honga or houga

Cahezen Honga

Cahezem Hoga

Hoga

Hoga

Agougenondé

Agouguenehonde

Agouguenehonde

Quasigno donassené Quasigno caudy Quasigno agnydahoa Quasigno quasnouy Quatgathoma

Quasigno donassené Quasigno caudy Quasigno agnydahoa Quasigno quasnouy Quatgathoma

Quasigno donassené Quasigno caudy Quasigno agnydahoa Quasigno quasnouy Quatgathoma

Quasigno donassent Casigno caudy Casigno agnydahoa Casigno casnouy Quatgathoma

Casigno donnascat Casigno caudy Casigno agnydahoa Casigno casnouy Quagathoma

Anoudasco, agouguenehonde Casigno donnascat Casigno caudy Casigno agnydahoa Casigno casnouy Quagathoma

Aguehan

Aguehan

Aguehan

Aguehum

Vndo, aguehum Casmogan, assomaha Aadanahoe Ogacha Heche, esahe, agonhon

Zisto

Agedoneta (10) Undo Aguehan

Many thanks Moon, the

Casmogan

Assomaha

Assomaha

Adgnyeusce Assommaha

Assomaha

Assomaha

Heché

Adhanahoé Ogacha Escahé

Adhanahoé Ogacha Escahé

Adhanahoé Ogacha Escahé

Adanahoe Ogacha Escahe

Adanahoe Agacha Esahe

'"Thevet gives this term for "conger-eel."

Agochinegodascon Agoheda Zisto Aignetase

Look at me Mackerel Man

Mother, my Mountain, a Mouth, the

Thevet "Le Grand Insulaire . . ."

MS B (no. 5589)

First voyage English

Moreau MS

Nails, the

Ramusio (1565) Agetascu

Nephew, my "Nature of the man" Night, the (11) Nose Nuts Nuts, small

Caheya or Daheya

Olives Phallus

I

Plums

Rain Red cloth Run Sail Salmon, a Sand Sea, the Sea waves Ship Shirts Shoes Shut the door Sides, the

Honesta or honnesta

Second voyage TVlAVjat1 HCVd

MSB (no. 5589)

MSA (no. 5653)

MSC (no. 5644)

Agedascon

Agedascon

Agedascon

Yuadin

Yuadin

Yuadin

Brief récit . . . (1545)

Hakluyt (1600)

"Le Grand Insulaire ..."

Agedascon

Agedascon

Agetascu, agedascon

Aiagla Hehonguesto Cahe(h)ya

Quaheya

Assegnaga

Undegonaha or Undegonaha or Undegonaha undegocaha undegocaha Honocohonda Honocohonda Honocohonda Agnascon Agnascon Agnascon

Honocohonda Aynoascon

Ainoascon

Honesta

Honnesta

Honnesta

Honnesta

Onnoscon Cahoneta Aganie Estogaz Amet Casaomy Atta

Anhema Quaheya

Honnesta

Quaheya

Honnesta

Quaheya

Quahoya

Undegonaha

Ouscozon uondico Aiagla Gehongnesto Caheya, quahoya

Assegnega, ainoascon Honnesta Onnoscon Cahoneta

Thodoathady

Thodoathady

Thodoathady

Thodoathady

Ondaccon

Ondaccon

Ondaccon

Ondaccon

Ondacon

Agougasy Coda

Agougasy Coda

Agogasi Coda

Agogasy Coda

Agogasy Coda

Anigoua or anigona Atha Asnodyan Aissonné

Anigoua or anigona Atha Asnodyan Aissonné

Anigoua or anigona Atha Asnodyan Aissonne

Anigoua

Amgoua

Aganie Ondacon Estoglaz Amet, agogasi Coda Casaomy Amgoua

Atha Asnodyan Aissonne

Atha

Atta, atha Aissone (12)

"Manuscript C might here give the Canadian Iroquois word for "dawn." See the discussion on page 160, and Robinson (1948, p. 146). 12 Thevet gives AISSONE for les flans. Hakluyt gives the same term for "flanckes "

First voyage English

Moreau MS

Silence Sing, to Sister, my Skin Skin to cover the privy parts, a Skunks (?) Small

Ramusio (1565)

Second voyage MS B (no. 5589)

MSA (no. 5653)

MS C (no. 5644)

Aista Thegnehoaca Adassene

Aista Thegnehoaca Adassene

Aista Thegnehoaca Adassene

Hoatthe Estahagao

Hoatthe Estahagao

Hoatthe Estahagoua or Estahagao estahagona

Quea Quea qanoagné egata Undegnesy Canysa Camedané Caiognen Ajonuesta or ajonnesta

Quea Quea quanoagné egata Undegnesy Canysa Camedané Caiognen Ajonuesta or ajonnesta

Quea Quea quanoagné egata Undeguezy Canysa Camedané Caiognen Ajonuesta or ajonnesta

Signehoan Henondoua Aggoascon Ysnay

Signehoan Henondoua Aggoascon Ysnay

Esgongay

Esgongay

Aionasca Ouscozon uondico

Small hatchet, a Smoke Smoke hurts my eyes, the Snake, a Snow, the "So and so is dead" Squirrel, a Stag, a Suroe

Star Stars, the Stockings Stomach, the Sun, the Sword Teeth, the

Isnez Achesco Hesangué

Testicles, the That one

Yea

"Hakluyt gives this term for "a snaile."

Xista

Brief reçu . . . (1545)

Hakluyt (1600)

Thevet "Le Grand I nsulaire ..."

Aista

Asita

Aista

Adhoasseue

Adhoasseue

Adhoassene Aionasca

Quea

Quea

Ascogne Quea

Undeguezy Canisa

Undeguezi (13) Undegnezi Camsa Camsa

Caiognem Aionnesta

Aionnesta

Signehoan Henondoa Aggoascon Ysnay

Siguehaham Henondoua Aggruascon Ysnay

Stagnehoham Hemondaha Aggruascon Ysmay

Esgongay

Esgougay

Esgongay

Aionnesta Suroe Signehoham Agruascon Isnez, ysmay Achesco Hesangue, escongai Yea

First voyage English

Moreau MS

Ramusio (1565)

That's no good

to

M

Conguedo

Tobacco Tomorrow Tongue, the Town, they call a Trail, they call a Turtles Ugly Walk along Water Water, fresh Whale, a When a person is so old he can no longer walk they call him

MS B (no. 5589)

MS A (no. 5653)

MS C (no. 5644)

Brief récit . . . (1545)

Sahauty qua- Sahauty qua- Sahauty quahonquey or honquey or honquey or sahauty sahauty sahauty quahouquey quahouquey quahouquey Casconda Cascouda or Cascouda or Cascouda or casconda casconda casconda Asquenondo Asquenondo Asquenondo Asquenondo

They call the seeds of cucumbers and melons They speak of does as sheep and call them Thighs, the Thin Throat, the

Second voyage

Ame

Hetnegoadascon Houcquehin Agonhon

Hetnegoadascon Houcquehin Agonhon

Hetnegoadascon Hocquehin Agonhon

Hetnegradascon Houcquehin Agouhon

Quyecta Quyecta Quiecta Quyecta Achidé Achidé Achidé Achidé Esnache Esnache Esnache Osuache Canada Canada Canada Canada Addé Addé Addé Addé Heuleuzonne or Heuleuzonne or Heulonzonne or Heuleuxime heulenzonne heulenzonne heulouzonne Aggousay Aggousay Aggousay Aggousey Quedaqué Quedaqué Quedaqué Quedaqué Ame Ame Ame Ame Amé Amé Amé Ajunehonné Ajunehonné Ainnehonne Ajunehonné Agondesta

"Thevet gives HETNEGRADASCON for le gonsier or le gousier. "Thevet gives this for vne terre.

Agondesta

Agondesta

Hakluyt (1600)

Thevet "Le Grand Insulaire . . ."

Casconda

Casconda

Asquenondo

Asquenondo

Hetnegradascon

Hetnegradascon (14)

Agonhon

Conguedo, agonhon

Achidé ûsnache Canada Addé Heuleuxima

Achidé Osnache Canada (15) Addé Heulexime

Quedaqué Ame

Quedaqué Ame

Ainne honne

Ainne honne

First voyage

Second voyage TflAVpfr í 11CVCL

English

Moreau MS

Ramusio (1565)

Whence come you?

When they wish to make an exclamation they say Where has he gone? Wife, my Wind, the Woman Womb, the (16) Wood

MS B (no. 5589)

MSA (no. 5653)

MS C (no. 5644)

Brief récit . . . (1545)

Hakluyt (1600)

"Le Grand Insulaire . . ."

Canada undag- Canada undag- Canada undagneny or neny or neny or canada canada canada undagneuy undagneuy undagneuy Aggondée Aggondée Aggondée

Canut Enrasesco

Quanehoesnon Ysaa Cahona Aggouetté

Quanehoesnon Ysaa Cahona Aggouetté

Quanehoesnon Ysaa Cahona Cahoha Aggouetté Agrueste

Cahoha Agruaste

Chastaigné Conda

Chastaigné Conda

Chastaigné Conda

Castaigne Conda

Chastaigné Conda

"The French here is le con, which Biggar translates as "the womb," but Hakluyt as "a women's member," that is, the vagina.

Canut, cahoha Enrasesco, agruaste Castaigne Conda

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1951. "A Map of Canada in 1546," Geographical Magazine, vol. 24, no. 2 (June), pp 103-10. London. CAHALANE, VICTOR H. 1947. Mammals of North America. The Macmillan Co., New York, x, 682 p. CAMPEAU, LUCIEN 1953. "Autour de la relation du P. Pierre Biard," Revue d'Histoire de l'Amérique Française, vol. 6, no. 4 (March), pp. 517-35. Ottawa. CANTINO, ALBERT 1501, Oct. 17." "Lettera originale, in data Lisbona, 17 ottobre 1501, di Alberto Can-

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tino a Ercole I Duca di Ferrara." Modena, R. Archivo di Stato; Segnatura: Cancellería Ducale, Estero: Dispacci dalla Spagna. (Biggar, 1911, pp. 61-5; Revelli, 1926, pp. 103-4.) 1502, Nov. 19." "Lettera originale, in data Roma, 19 Nov. 1502, di Alberto Cantino a Ercole I, Duca di Ferrara." Modena, R. Archivo di Stato; Segnatura: Cancellería Ducale, Estero: Dispacci dalla Spagna. (Revelli, 1926, pp. 105-6.) CARACI, GIUSEPPE 1937. "A Little Known Atlas by Vesconte Maggiolo, 1518 [sic]," Imago Mundi: A Periodical Review of Early Cartography, vol II, pp. 37-54. London. 1953. "The Italian Cartographers of the Benincasa and Freducci Families and the So-called Borgiana Map of the Vatican Library," Imago Mundi: A Periodical Review of Early Cartography, vol. X, pp. 23-49. Stockholm. CARTIER, JACQUES [1534?].° "The Moreau Manuscript." Discovered in the MSS of the Bibliothèque Impériale de Paris, N° 5, portefeuille LVII du fonds Fontette, maintenant fonds Morgan. Now known as the "Moreau Manuscrit," N° 841 (fol. 51-68) of the Moreau Collection, Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris. (Cartier, 1867; Baxter, 1906, pp. 75-120, 261-96; Biggar, 1924, pp. 3-81.) [I536]a.° "Seconde nauigation faicte par le commandement et voulloir du tresxpin Roy francois premier de ce nom au parachement [sic] de la descouverture des terres occidentalles estant soubz le climat et parallelles des terres et Royaulme dudict Sr. et par luy precedantement ja commencées a faire descouvrire. Icelle nauigation faicte par Jacques cartier natif de Sainct malo de lisie en Bretaigne, píllate dudict Sr. en lan mil cinq cens trente six." Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale, manuscrit français, N° 5589. (Manuscript B, thought to be the original.) [1536]b.* "Seconde nauigation faicte par le commandement et voulloir du tresxpin Roy francois premier. . . ." Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale, manuscrit français, N° 5653. (Manuscript A, a copy.) [1536]c.° "Seconde nauigation faicte par le commandement et voulloir du tresxpin Roy francois premier. . . ." Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale, manuscrit français, N° 5644. (Manuscript C, a copy.) 1545. Brief récit, îr succincte narration, de la nauigation faïcte es ysles de Canada, Hochelage 6- Saguenay