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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/4069-h.zip b/4069-h.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..8712467 --- /dev/null +++ b/4069-h.zip diff --git a/4069-h/4069-h.htm b/4069-h/4069-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..675a937 --- /dev/null +++ b/4069-h/4069-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,2917 @@ +<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN"> +<HTML> +<HEAD> + +<META HTTP-EQUIV="Content-Type" CONTENT="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1"> + +<TITLE> +The Project Gutenberg E-text of The Dawn of Canadian History: A Chronicle of Aboriginal Canada, +by Stephen Leacock +</TITLE> + +<STYLE TYPE="text/css"> +BODY { color: Black; + background: White; + margin-right: 10%; + margin-left: 10%; + font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; + text-align: justify } + +P {text-indent: 4% } + +P.noindent {text-indent: 0% } + +P.poem {text-indent: 0%; + margin-left: 10%; + font-size: small } + +P.block {text-indent: 0%; + font-size: small ; + margin-left: 10% ; + margin-right: 10% } + +P.footnote {font-size: small ; + text-indent: 0% ; + margin-left: 0% ; + margin-right: 0% } + +P.finis { font-size: larger ; + text-align: center ; + text-indent: 0% ; + margin-left: 0% ; + margin-right: 0% } + +</STYLE> + +</HEAD> + +<BODY> + + +<pre> + +The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Dawn of Canadian History: A Chronicle +of Aboriginal Canada, by Stephen Leacock + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Dawn of Canadian History: A Chronicle of Aboriginal Canada + +Author: Stephen Leacock + +Editor: George M. Wrong + H. H. Langton + +Posting Date: June 13, 2009 [EBook #4069] +Release Date: March, 2003 +First Posted: November 3, 2001 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK DAWN OF CANADIAN HISTORY *** + + + + +Produced by Gardner Buchanan. HTML version by Al Haines. + + + + + +</pre> + + +<BR><BR> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHRONICLES OF CANADA +</H3> + +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +Edited by George M. Wrong and H. H. Langton +</H4> + +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +In thirty-two volumes +</H4> + +<BR><BR> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +Part I +</H3> + +<H2 ALIGN="center"> +The First European Visitors +</H2> + +<H1 ALIGN="center"> +THE DAWN OF CANADIAN HISTORY +</H1> + +<H2 ALIGN="center"> +A Chronicle of Aboriginal Canada +</H2> + +<BR> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +By +</H3> + +<H2 ALIGN="center"> +STEPHEN LEACOCK +</H2> + +<BR> + +<H5 ALIGN="center"> +TORONTO, 1915 +</H5> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<H2 ALIGN="center"> +CONTENTS +</H2> + +<TABLE ALIGN="center" WIDTH="80%"> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">I </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap01">BEFORE THE DAWN</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">II </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap02">MAN IN AMERICA</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">III </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap03">THE ABORIGINES OF CANADA</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">IV </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap04">THE LEGEND OF THE NORSEMEN</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">V </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap05">THE BRISTOL VOYAGES</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">VI </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap06">FORERUNNERS OF JACQUES CARTIER</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top"> </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#biblio">BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE</A></TD> +</TR> + +</TABLE> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap01"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER I +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +BEFORE THE DAWN +</H3> + +<P> +We always speak of Canada as a new country. In one sense, of course, +this is true. The settlement of Europeans on Canadian soil dates back +only three hundred years. Civilization in Canada is but a thing of +yesterday, and its written history, when placed beside the long +millenniums of the recorded annals of European and Eastern peoples, +seems but a little span. +</P> + +<P> +But there is another sense in which the Dominion of Canada, or at least +part of it, is perhaps the oldest country in the world. According to +the Nebular Theory the whole of our planet was once a fiery molten mass +gradually cooling and hardening itself into the globe we know. On its +surface moved and swayed a liquid sea glowing with such a terrific heat +that we can form no real idea of its intensity. As the mass cooled, +vast layers of vapour, great beds of cloud, miles and miles in +thickness, were formed and hung over the face of the globe, obscuring +from its darkened surface the piercing beams of the sun. Slowly the +earth cooled, until great masses of solid matter, rock as we call it, +still penetrated with intense heat, rose to the surface of the boiling +sea. Forces of inconceivable magnitude moved through the mass. The +outer surface of the globe as it cooled ripped and shrivelled like a +withering orange. Great ridges, the mountain chains of to-day, were +furrowed on its skin. Here in the darkness of the prehistoric night +there arose as the oldest part of the surface of the earth the great +rock bed that lies in a huge crescent round the shores of Hudson Bay, +from Labrador to the unknown wilderness of the barren lands of the +Coppermine basin touching the Arctic sea. The wanderer who stands +to-day in the desolate country of James Bay or Ungava is among the +oldest monuments of the world. The rugged rock which here and there +breaks through the thin soil of the infertile north has lain on the +spot from the very dawn of time. Millions of years have probably +elapsed since the cooling of the outer crust of the globe produced the +solid basis of our continents. +</P> + +<P> +The ancient formation which thus marks the beginnings of the solid +surface of the globe is commonly called by geologists the Archaean +rock, and the myriads of uncounted years during which it slowly took +shape are called the Archaean age. But the word 'Archaean' itself tells +us nothing, being merely a Greek term meaning 'very old.' This Archaean +or original rock must necessarily have extended all over the surface of +our sphere as it cooled from its molten form and contracted into the +earth on which we live. But in most places this rock lies deep under +the waters of the oceans, or buried below the heaped up strata of the +formations which the hand of time piled thickly upon it. Only here and +there can it still be seen as surface rock or as rock that lies but a +little distance below the soil. In Canada, more than anywhere else in +the world, is this Archaean formation seen. On a geological map it is +marked as extending all round the basin of Hudson Bay, from Labrador to +the shores of the Arctic. It covers the whole of the country which we +call New Ontario, and also the upper part of the province of Quebec. +Outside of this territory there was at the dawn of time no other 'land' +where North America now is, except a long island of rock that marks the +backbone of what are now the Selkirk Mountains and a long ridge that is +now the mountain chain of the Alleghanies beside the Atlantic slope. +</P> + +<P> +Books on geology trace out for us the long successive periods during +which the earth's surface was formed. Even in the Archaean age +something in the form of life may have appeared. Perhaps vast masses of +dank seaweed germinated as the earliest of plants in the steaming +oceans. The water warred against the land, tearing and breaking at its +rock formation and distributing it in new strata, each buried beneath +the next and holding fast within it the fossilized remains that form +the record of its history. Huge fern plants spread their giant fronds +in the dank sunless atmospheres, to be buried later in vast beds of +decaying vegetation that form the coal-fields of to-day. +</P> + +<P> +Animal life began first, like the plants, in the bosom of the ocean. +From the slimy depths of the water life crawled hideous to the land. +Great reptiles dragged their sluggish length through the tangled +vegetation of the jungle of giant ferns. +</P> + +<P> +Through countless thousands of years, perhaps, this gradual process +went on. Nature, shifting its huge scenery, depressed the ocean beds +and piled up the dry land of the continents. In place of the vast +'Continental Sea,' which once filled the interior of North America, +there arose the great plateau or elevated plain that now runs from the +Mackenzie basin to the Gulf of Mexico. Instead of the rushing waters of +the inland sea, these waters have narrowed into great rivers—the +Mackenzie, the Saskatchewan, the Mississippi—that swept the face of +the plateau and wore down the surface of the rock and mountain slopes +to spread their powdered fragments on the broad level soil of the +prairies of the west. With each stage in the evolution of the land the +forms of life appear to have reached a higher development. In place of +the seaweed and the giant ferns of the dawn of time there arose the +maples, the beeches, and other waving trees that we now see in the +Canadian woods. The huge reptiles in the jungle of the Carboniferous +era passed out of existence. In place of them came the birds, the +mammals,—the varied types of animal life which we now know. Last in +the scale of time and highest in point of evolution, there appeared man. +</P> + +<P> +We must not speak of the continents as having been made once and for +all in their present form. No doubt in the countless centuries of +geological evolution various parts of the earth were alternately raised +and depressed. Great forests grew, and by some convulsion were buried +beneath the ocean, covered deep as they lay there with a sediment of +earth and rock, and at length raised again as the waters retreated. The +coal-beds of Cape Breton are the remains of a forest buried beneath the +sea. Below the soil of Alberta is a vast jungle of vegetation, a dense +mass of giant fern trees. The Great Lakes were once part of a much +vaster body of water, far greater in extent than they now are. The +ancient shore-line of Lake Superior may be traced five hundred feet +above its present level. +</P> + +<P> +In that early period the continents and islands which we now see wholly +separated were joined together at various points. The British islands +formed a connected part of Europe. The Thames and the Rhine were one +and the same river, flowing towards the Arctic ocean over a plain that +is now the shallow sunken bed of the North Sea. It is probable that +during the last great age, the Quaternary, as geologists call it, the +upheaval of what is now the region of Siberia and Alaska, made a +continuous chain of land from Asia to America. As the land was +depressed again it left behind it the islands in the Bering Sea, like +stepping-stones from shore to shore. In the same way, there was perhaps +a solid causeway of land from Canada to Europe reaching out across the +Northern Atlantic. Baffin Island and other islands of the Canadian +North Sea, the great sub-continent of Greenland, Iceland, the Faroe +Islands, and the British Isles, all formed part of this continuous +chain. +</P> + +<P> +As the last of the great changes, there came the Ice Age, which +profoundly affected the climate and soil of Canada, and, when the ice +retreated, left its surface much as we see it now. During this period +the whole of Canada from the Atlantic to the Rocky Mountains lay buried +under a vast sheet of ice. Heaped up in immense masses over the frozen +surface of the Hudson Bay country, the ice, from its own dead weight, +slid sidewise to the south. As it went it ground down the surface of +the land into deep furrows and channels; it cut into the solid rock +like a moving plough, and carried with it enormous masses of loose +stone and boulders which it threw broadcast over the face of the +country. These stones and boulders were thus carried forty and fifty, +and in some cases many hundred miles before they were finally loosed +and dropped from the sheet of moving ice. In Ontario and Quebec and New +England great stones of the glacial drift are found which weigh from +one thousand to seven thousand tons. They are deposited in some cases +on what is now the summit of hills and mountains, showing how deep the +sheet of ice must have been that could thus cover the entire surface of +the country, burying alike the valleys and the hills. The mass of ice +that moved slowly, century by century, across the face of Southern +Canada to New England is estimated to have been in places a mile thick. +The limit to which it was carried went far south of the boundaries of +Canada. The path of the glacial drift is traced by geologists as far +down the Atlantic coast as the present site of New York, and in the +central plain of the continent it extended to what is now the state of +Missouri. +</P> + +<P> +Facts seem to support the theory that before the Great Ice Age the +climate of the northern part of Canada was very different from what it +is now. It is very probable that a warm if not a torrid climate +extended for hundreds of miles northward of the now habitable limits of +the Dominion. The frozen islands of the Arctic seas were once the seat +of luxurious vegetation and teemed with life. On Bathurst Island, which +lies in the latitude of 76 degrees, and is thus six hundred miles north +of the Arctic Circle, there have been found the bones of huge lizards +that could only have lived in the jungles of an almost tropical climate. +</P> + +<P> +We cannot tell with any certainty just how and why these great changes +came about. But geologists have connected them with the alternating +rise and fall of the surface of the northern continent and its altitude +at various times above the level of the sea. Thus it seems probable +that the glacial period with the ice sheet of which we have spoken was +brought about by a great elevation of the land, accompanied by a change +to intense cold. This led to the formation of enormous masses of ice +heaped up so high that they presently collapsed and moved of their own +weight from the elevated land of the north where they had been formed. +Later on, the northern continent subsided again and the ice sheet +disappeared, but left behind it an entirely different level and a +different climate from those of the earlier ages. The evidence of the +later movements of the land surface, and its rise and fall after the +close of the glacial epoch, may still easily be traced. At a certain +time after the Ice Age, the surface sank so low that land which has +since been lifted up again to a considerable height was once the beach +of the ancient ocean. These beaches are readily distinguished by the +great quantities of sea shells that lie about, often far distant from +the present sea. Thus at Nachvak in Labrador there is a beach fifteen +hundred feet above the ocean. Probably in this period after the Ice Age +the shores of Eastern Canada had sunk so low that the St Lawrence was +not a river at all, but a great gulf or arm of the sea. The ancient +shore can still be traced beside the mountain at Montreal and on the +hillsides round Lake Ontario. Later on again the land rose, the ocean +retreated, and the rushing waters from the shrunken lakes made their +own path to the sea. In their foaming course to the lower level they +tore out the great gorge of Niagara, and tossed and buffeted themselves +over the unyielding ledges of Lachine. +</P> + +<P> +Mighty forces such as these made and fashioned the continent on which +we live. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap02"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER II +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +MAN IN AMERICA +</H3> + +<P> +It was necessary to form some idea, if only in outline, of the +magnitude and extent of the great geological changes of which we have +just spoken, in order to judge properly the question of the antiquity +and origin of man in America. +</P> + +<P> +When the Europeans came to this continent at the end of the fifteenth +century they found it already inhabited by races of men very different +from themselves. These people, whom they took to calling 'Indians,' +were spread out, though very thinly, from one end of the continent to +the other. Who were these nations, and how was their presence to be +accounted for? +</P> + +<P> +To the first discoverers of America, or rather to the discoverers of +the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries (Columbus and his successors), +the origin of the Indians presented no difficulty. To them America was +supposed to be simply an outlying part of Eastern Asia, which had been +known by repute and by tradition for centuries past. Finding, +therefore, the tropical islands of the Caribbean sea with a climate and +plants and animals such as they imagined those of Asia and the Indian +ocean to be, and inhabited by men of dusky colour and strange speech, +they naturally thought the place to be part of Asia, or the Indies. The +name 'Indians,' given to the aborigines of North America, records for +us this historical misunderstanding. +</P> + +<P> +But a new view became necessary after Balboa had crossed the isthmus of +Panama and looked out upon the endless waters of the Pacific, and after +Magellan and his Spanish comrades had sailed round the foot of the +continent, and then pressed on across the Pacific to the real Indies. +It was now clear that America was a different region from Asia. Even +then the old error died hard. Long after the Europeans realized that, +at the south, America and Asia were separated by a great sea, they +imagined that these continents were joined together at the north. The +European ideas of distance and of the form of the globe were still +confused and inexact. A party of early explorers in Virginia carried a +letter of introduction with them from the King of England to the Khan +of Tartary: they expected to find him at the head waters of the +Chickahominy. Jacques Cartier, nearly half a century after Columbus, +was expecting that the Gulf of St Lawrence would open out into a +passage leading to China. But after the discovery of the North Pacific +ocean and Bering Strait the idea that America was part of Asia, that +the natives were 'Indians' in the old sense, was seen to be absurd. It +was clear that America was, in a large sense, an island, an island cut +off from every other continent. It then became necessary to find some +explanation for the seemingly isolated position of a portion of mankind +separated from their fellows by boundless oceans. +</P> + +<P> +The earlier theories were certainly naive enough. Since no known human +agency could have transported the Indians across the Atlantic or the +Pacific, their presence in America was accounted for by certain of the +old writers as a particular work of the devil. Thus Cotton Mather, the +famous Puritan clergyman of early New England, maintained in all +seriousness that the devil had inveigled the Indians to America to get +them 'beyond the tinkle of the gospel bells.' Others thought that they +were a washed-up remnant of the great flood. Roger Williams, the +founder of Rhode Island, wrote: 'From Adam and Noah that they spring, +it is granted on all hands.' Even more fantastic views were advanced. +As late as in 1828 a London clergyman wrote a book which he called 'A +View of the American Indians,' which was intended to 'show them to be +the descendants of the ten tribes of Israel.' +</P> + +<P> +Even when such ideas as these were set aside, historians endeavoured to +find evidence, or at least probability, of a migration of the Indians +from the known continents across one or the other of the oceans. It +must be admitted that, even if we supposed the form and extent of the +continents to have been always the same as they are now, such a +migration would have been entirely possible. It is quite likely that +under the influence of exceptional weather—winds blowing week after +week from the same point of the compass—even a primitive craft of +prehistoric times might have been driven across the Atlantic or the +Pacific, and might have landed its occupants still alive and well on +the shores of America. To prove this we need only remember that history +records many such voyages. It has often happened that Japanese junks +have been blown clear across the Pacific. In 1833 a ship of this sort +was driven in a great storm from Japan to the shores of the Queen +Charlotte Islands off the coast of British Columbia. In the same way a +fishing smack from Formosa, which lies off the east coast of China, was +once carried in safety across the ocean to the Sandwich Islands. +Similar long voyages have been made by the natives of the South Seas +against their will, under the influence of strong and continuous winds, +and in craft no better than their open canoes. Captain Beechey of the +Royal Navy relates that in one of his voyages in the Pacific he picked +up a canoe filled with natives from Tahiti who had been driven by a +gale of westerly wind six hundred miles from their own island. It has +happened, too, from time to time, since the discovery of America, that +ships have been forcibly carried all the way across the Atlantic. A +glance at the map of the world shows us that the eastern coast of +Brazil juts out into the South Atlantic so far that it is only fifteen +hundred miles distant from the similar projection of Africa towards the +west. The direction of the trade winds in the South Atlantic is such +that it has often been the practice of sailing vessels bound from +England to South Africa to run clear across the ocean on a long stretch +till within sight of the coast of Brazil before turning towards the +Cape of Good Hope. All, however, that we can deduce from accidental +voyages, like that of the Spaniard, Alvarez de Cabral, across the ocean +is that even if there had been no other way for mankind to reach +America they could have landed there by ship from the Old World. In +such a case, of course, the coming of man to the American continent +would have been an extremely recent event in the long history of the +world. It could not have occurred until mankind had progressed far +enough to make vessels, or at least boats of a simple kind. +</P> + +<P> +But there is evidence that man had appeared on the earth long before +the shaping of the continents had taken place. Both in Europe and +America the buried traces of primitive man are vast in antiquity, and +carry us much further back in time than the final changes of earth and +ocean which made the continents as they are; and, when we remember +this, it is easy to see how mankind could have passed from Asia or +Europe to America. The connection of the land surface of the globe was +different in early times from what it is to-day. Even still, Siberia +and Alaska are separated only by the narrow Bering Strait. From the +shore of Asia the continent of North America is plainly visible; the +islands which lie in and below the strait still look like +stepping-stones from continent to continent. And, apart from this, it +may well have been that farther south, where now is the Pacific ocean, +there was formerly direct land connection between Southern Asia and +South America. The continuous chain of islands that runs from the New +Hebrides across the South Pacific to within two thousand four hundred +miles of the coast of Chile is perhaps the remains of a sunken +continent. In the most easterly of these, Easter Island, have been +found ruined temples and remains of great earthworks on a scale so vast +that to believe them the work of a small community of islanders is +difficult. The fact that they bear some resemblance to the buildings +and works of the ancient inhabitants of Chile and Peru has suggested +that perhaps South America was once merely a part of a great Pacific +continent. Or again, turning to the other side of the continent, it may +be argued with some show of evidence that America and Africa were once +connected by land, and that a sunken continent is to be traced between +Brazil and the Guinea coast. +</P> + +<P> +Nevertheless, it appears to be impossible to say whether or not an +early branch of the human race ever 'migrated' to America. Conceivably +the race may have originated there. Some authorities suppose that the +evolution of mankind occurred at the same time and in the same fashion +in two or more distinct quarters of the globe. Others again think that +mankind evolved and spread over the surface of the world just as did +the various kinds of plants and animals. Of course, the higher +endowment of men enabled them to move with greater ease from place to +place than could beings of lesser faculties. Most writers of to-day, +however, consider this unlikely, and think it more probable that man +originated first in some one region, and spread from it throughout the +earth. But where this region was, they cannot tell. We always think of +the races of Europe as having come westward from some original home in +Asia. This is, of course, perfectly true, since nearly all the peoples +of Europe can be traced by descent from the original stock of the Aryan +family, which certainly made such a migration. But we know also that +races of men were dwelling in Europe ages before the Aryan migration. +What particular part of the globe was the first home of mankind is a +question on which we can only speculate. +</P> + +<P> +Of one thing we may be certain. If there was a migration, there must +have been long ages of separation between mankind in America and +mankind in the Old World; otherwise we should still find some trace of +kinship in language which would join the natives of America to the +great racial families of Europe, Asia, and Africa. But not the +slightest vestige of such kinship has yet been found. Everybody knows +in a general way how the prehistoric relationships among the peoples of +Europe and Asia are still to be seen in the languages of to-day. The +French and Italian languages are so alike that, if we did not know it +already, we could easily guess for them a common origin. We speak of +these languages, along with others, as Romance languages, to show that +they are derived from Latin, in contrast with the closely related +tongues of the English, Dutch, and German peoples, which came from +another common stock, the Teutonic. But even the Teutonic and the +Romance languages are not entirely different. The similarity in both +groups of old root words, like the numbers from one to ten, point again +to a common origin still more remote. In this way we may trace a whole +family of languages, and with it a kinship of descent, from Hindustan +to Ireland. Similarly, another great group of tongues—Arabic, Hebrew, +etc.—shows a branch of the human family spread out from Palestine and +Egypt to Morocco. +</P> + +<P> +Now when we come to inquire into the languages of the American Indians +for evidence of their relationship to other peoples we are struck with +this fact: we cannot connect the languages of America with those of any +other part of the world. This is a very notable circumstance. The +languages of Europe and Asia are, as it were, dovetailed together, and +run far and wide into Africa. From Asia eastward, through the Malay +tongues, a connection may be traced even with the speech of the Maori +of New Zealand, and with that of the remotest islanders of the Pacific. +But similar attempts to connect American languages with the outside +world break down. There are found in North America, from the Arctic to +Mexico, some fifty-five groups of languages still existing or recently +extinct. Throughout these we may trace the same affinities and +relationships that run through the languages of Europe and Asia. We can +also easily connect the speech of the natives of North America with +that of natives of Central and of South America. Even if we had not the +similarities of physical appearance, of tribal customs, and of general +manners to argue from, we should be able to say with certainty that the +various families of American Indians all belonged to one race. The +Eskimos of Northern Canada are not Indians, and are perhaps an +exception; it is possible that a connection may be traced between them +and the prehistoric cave-men of Northern Europe. But the Indians belong +to one great race, and show no connection in language or customs with +the outside world. They belong to the American continent, it has been +said, as strictly as its opossums and its armadillos, its maize and its +golden rod, or any other of its aboriginal animals and plants. +</P> + +<P> +But, here again, we must not conclude too much from the fact that the +languages of America have no relation to those of Europe and Asia. This +does not show that men originated separately on this continent. For +even in Europe and Asia, where no one supposes that different races +sprung from wholly separate beginnings, we find languages isolated in +the same way. The speech of the Basques in the Pyrenees has nothing in +common with the European families of languages. +</P> + +<P> +We may, however, regard the natives of America as an aboriginal race, +if any portion of mankind can be viewed as such. So far as we know, +they are not an offshoot, or a migration, from any people of what is +called the Old World, although they are, like the people of the other +continents, the descendants of a primitive human stock. +</P> + +<P> +We may turn to geology to find how long mankind has lived on this +continent. In a number of places in North and South America are found +traces of human beings and their work so old that in comparison the +beginning of the world's written history becomes a thing of yesterday. +Perhaps there were men in Canada long before the shores of its lakes +had assumed their present form; long before nature had begun to hollow +out the great gorge of the Niagara river or to lay down the outline of +the present Lake Ontario. Let us look at some of the notable evidence +in respect to the age of man in America. In Nicaragua, in Central +America, the imprints of human feet have been found, deeply buried over +twenty feet below the present surface of the soil, under repeated +deposits of volcanic rock. These impressions must have been made in +soft muddy soil which was then covered by some geological convulsion +occurring long ages ago. Even more striking discoveries have been made +along the Pacific coast of South America. Near the mouth of the +Esmeraldas river in Ecuador, over a stretch of some sixty miles, the +surface soil of the coast covers a bed of marine clay. This clay is +about eight feet thick. Underneath it is a stratum of sand and loam +such as might once have itself been surface soil. In this lower bed +there are found rude implements of stone, ornaments made of gold, and +bits of broken pottery. Again, if we turn to the northern part of the +continent we find remains of the same kind, chipped implements of stone +and broken fragments of quartz buried in the drift of the Mississippi +and Missouri valleys. These have sometimes been found lying beside or +under the bones of elephants and animals unknown in North America since +the period of the Great Ice. Not many years ago, some men engaged in +digging a well on a hillside that was once part of the beach of Lake +Ontario, came across the remains of a primitive hearth buried under the +accumulated soil. From its situation we can only conclude that the men +who set together the stones of the hearth, and lighted on it their +fires, did so when the vast wall of the northern glacier was only +beginning to retreat, and long before the gorge of Niagara had begun to +be furrowed out of the rock. +</P> + +<P> +Many things point to the conclusion that there were men in North and +South America during the remote changes of the Great Ice Age. But how +far the antiquity of man on this continent reaches back into the +preceding ages we cannot say. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap03"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER III +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +THE ABORIGINES OF CANADA +</H3> + +<P> +Of the uncounted centuries of the history of the red man in America +before the coming of the Europeans we know very little indeed. Very few +of the tribes possessed even a primitive art of writing. It is true +that the Aztecs of Mexico, and the ancient Toltecs who preceded them, +understood how to write in pictures, and that, by this means, they +preserved some record of their rulers and of the great events of their +past. The same is true of the Mayas of Central America, whose ruined +temples are still to be traced in the tangled forests of Yucatan and +Guatemala. The ancient Peruvians also had a system, not exactly of +writing, but of record by means of QUIPUS or twisted woollen cords of +different colours: it is through such records that we have some +knowledge of Peruvian history during about a hundred years before the +coming of the Spaniards, and some traditions reaching still further +back. But nowhere was the art of writing sufficiently developed in +America to give us a real history of the thoughts and deeds of its +people before the arrival of Columbus. +</P> + +<P> +This is especially true of those families of the great red race which +inhabited what is now Canada. They spent a primitive existence, living +thinly scattered along the sea-coast, and in the forests and open +glades of the district of the Great Lakes, or wandering over the +prairies of the west. In hardly any case had they any settled abode or +fixed dwelling-places. The Iroquois and some Algonquins built Long +Houses of wood and made stockade forts of heavy timber. But not even +these tribes, who represented the furthest advance towards civilization +among the savages of North America, made settlements in the real sense. +They knew nothing of the use of the metals. Such poor weapons and tools +as they had were made of stone, of wood, and of bone. It is true that +ages ago prehistoric men had dug out copper from the mines that lie +beside Lake Superior, for the traces of their operations there are +still found. But the art of working metals probably progressed but a +little way and then was lost,—overwhelmed perhaps in some ancient +savage conquest. The Indians found by Cartier and Champlain knew +nothing of the melting of metals for the manufacture of tools. Nor had +they anything but the most elementary form of agriculture. They planted +corn in the openings of the forest, but they did not fell trees to make +a clearing or plough the ground. The harvest provided by nature and the +products of the chase were their sole sources of supply, and in their +search for this food so casually offered they moved to and fro in the +depths of the forest or roved endlessly upon the plains. One great +advance, and only one, they had been led to make. The waterways of +North America are nature's highway through the forest. The bark canoe +in which the Indians floated over the surface of the Canadian lakes and +rivers is a marvel of construction and wonderfully adapted to its +purpose: This was their great invention. In nearly all other respects +the Indians of Canada had not emerged even from savagery to that stage +half way to civilization which is called barbarism. +</P> + +<P> +These Canadian aborigines seem to have been few in number. It is +probable that, when the continent was discovered, Canada, from the +Atlantic to the Pacific, contained about 220,000 natives—about half as +many people as are now found in Toronto. They were divided into tribes +or clans, among which we may distinguish certain family groups spread +out over great areas. +</P> + +<P> +Most northerly of all was the great tribe of the Eskimos, who were +found all the way from Greenland to Northern Siberia. The name Eskimo +was not given by these people to themselves. It was used by the Abnaki +Indians in describing to the whites the dwellers of the far north, and +it means 'the people who eat raw meat.' The Eskimo called and still +call themselves the Innuit, which means 'the people.' +</P> + +<P> +The exact relation of the Eskimo to the other races of the continent is +hard to define. From the fact that the race was found on both sides of +the Bering Sea, and that its members have dark hair and dark eyes, it +was often argued that they were akin to the Mongolians of China. This +theory, however, is now abandoned. The resemblance in height and colour +is only superficial, and a more careful view of the physical make-up of +the Eskimo shows him to resemble the other races of America far more +closely than he resembles those of Asia. A distinguished American +historian, John Fiske, believed that the Eskimos are the last remnants +of the ancient cave-men who in the Stone Age inhabited all the northern +parts of Europe. Fiske's theory is that at this remote period +continuous land stretched by way of Iceland and Greenland from Europe +to America, and that by this means the race of cave-men was able to +extend itself all the way from Norway and Sweden to the northern coasts +of America. In support of this view he points to the strangely +ingenious and artistic drawings of the Eskimos. These drawings are made +on ivory and bone, and are so like the ancient bone-pictures found +among the relics of the cave-men of Europe that they can scarcely be +distinguished. +</P> + +<P> +The theory is only a conjecture. It is certain that at one time the +Eskimo race extended much farther south than it did when the white men +came to America; in earlier days there were Eskimos far south of Hudson +Bay, and perhaps even south of the Great Lakes. +</P> + +<P> +As a result of their situation the Eskimos led a very different life +from that of the Indians to the south. They must rely on fishing and +hunting for food. In that almost treeless north they had no wood to +build boats or houses, and no vegetables or plants to supply them +either with food or with the materials of industry. But the very rigour +of their surroundings called forth in them a marvellous ingenuity. They +made boats of seal skins stretched tight over walrus bones, and clothes +of furs and of the skins and feathers of birds. They built winter +houses with great blocks of snow put together in the form of a bowl +turned upside down. They heated their houses by burning blubber or fat +in dish-like lamps chipped out of stones. They had, of course, no +written literature. They were, however, not devoid of art. They had +legends and folk-songs, handed down from generation to generation with +the utmost accuracy. In the long night of the Arctic winter they +gathered in their huts to hear strange monotonous singing by their +bards: a kind of low chanting, very strange to European ears, and +intended to imitate the sounds of nature, the murmur of running waters +and the sobbing of the sea. The Eskimos believed in spirits and +monsters whom they must appease with gifts and incantations. They +thought that after death the soul either goes below the earth to a +place always warm and comfortable, or that it is taken up into the cold +forbidding brightness of the polar sky. When the aurora borealis, or +Northern Lights, streamed across the heavens, the Eskimos thought it +the gleam of the souls of the dead visible in their new home. +</P> + +<P> +Farthest east of all the British North American Indians were the +Beothuks. Their abode was chiefly Newfoundland, though they wandered +also in the neighbourhood of the Strait of Belle Isle and along the +north shore of the Gulf of St Lawrence. They were in the lowest stage +of human existence and lived entirely by hunting and fishing. Unlike +the Eskimos they had no dogs, and so stern were the conditions of their +life that they maintained with difficulty the fight against the rigour +of nature. The early explorers found them on the rocky coasts of Belle +Isle, wild and half clad. They smeared their bodies with red ochre, +bright in colour, and this earned for them the name of Red Indians. +From the first, they had no friendly relations with the Europeans who +came to their shores, but lived in a state of perpetual war with them. +The Newfoundland fishermen and settlers hunted down the Red Indians as +if they were wild beasts, and killed them at sight. Now and again, a +few members of this unhappy race were carried home to England to be +exhibited at country fairs before a crowd of grinning yokels who paid a +penny apiece to look at the 'wild men.' +</P> + +<P> +Living on the mainland, next to the red men of Newfoundland lay the +great race of the Algonquins, spread over a huge tract of country, from +the Atlantic coast to the head of the Great Lakes, and even farther +west. The Algonquins were divided into a great many tribes, some of +whose names are still familiar among the Indians of to-day. The Micmacs +of Nova Scotia, the Malecite of New Brunswick, the Naskapi of Quebec, +the Chippewa of Ontario, and the Crees of the prairie, are of this +stock. It is even held that the Algonquins are to be considered typical +specimens of the American race. They were of fine stature, and in +strength and muscular development were quite on a par with the races of +the Old World. Their skin was copper-coloured, their lips and noses +were thin, and their hair in nearly all cases was straight and black. +When the Europeans first saw the Algonquins they had already made some +advance towards industrial civilization. They built huts of woven +boughs, and for defence sometimes surrounded a group of huts with a +palisade of stakes set up on end. They had no agriculture in the true +sense, but they cultivated Indian corn and pumpkins in the openings of +the forests, and also the tobacco plant, with the virtues of which they +were well acquainted. They made for themselves heavy and clumsy pottery +and utensils of wood, they wove mats out of rushes for their houses, +and they made clothes from the skin of the deer, and head-dresses from +the bright feathers of birds. Of the metals they knew, at the time of +the discovery of America, hardly anything. They made some use of +copper, which they chipped and hammered into rude tools and weapons. +But they knew nothing of melting the metals, and their arrow-heads and +spear-points were made, for the most part, not of metals, but of stone. +Like other Indians, they showed great ingenuity in fashioning bark +canoes of wonderful lightness. +</P> + +<P> +We must remember, however, that with nearly all the aborigines of +America, at least north of Mexico, the attempt to utilize the materials +and forces supplied by nature had made only slight and painful +progress. We are apt to think that it was the mere laziness of the +Indians which prevented more rapid advance. It may be that we do not +realize their difficulties. When the white men first came these rude +peoples were so backward and so little trained in using their faculties +that any advance towards art and industry was inevitably slow and +difficult. This was also true, no doubt, of the peoples who, long +centuries before, had been in the same degree of development in Europe, +and had begun the intricate tasks which a growth towards civilization +involved. The historian Robertson describes in a vivid passage the +backward state of the savage tribes of America. 'The most simple +operation,' he says, 'was to them an undertaking of immense difficulty +and labour. To fell a tree with no other implements than hatchets of +stone was employment for a month. ...Their operations in agriculture +were equally slow and defective. In a country covered with woods of the +hardest timber, the clearing of a small field destined for culture +required the united efforts of a tribe, and was a work of much time and +great toil.' +</P> + +<P> +The religion of the Algonquin Indians seems to have been a rude nature +worship. The Sun, as the great giver of warmth and light, was the +object of their adoration; to a lesser degree, they looked upon fire as +a superhuman thing, worthy of worship. The four winds of heaven, +bringing storm and rain from the unknown boundaries of the world, were +regarded as spirits. Each Indian clan or section of a tribe chose for +its special devotion an animal, the name of which became the +distinctive symbol of the clan. This is what is meant by the 'totems' +of the different branches of a tribe. +</P> + +<P> +The Algonquins knew nothing of the art of writing, beyond rude pictures +scratched or painted on wood. The Algonquin tribes, as we have seen, +roamed far to the west. One branch frequented the upper Saskatchewan +river. Here the ashes of the prairie fires discoloured their moccasins +and turned them black, and, in consequence, they were called the +Blackfeet Indians. Even when they moved to other parts of the country, +the name was still applied to them. +</P> + +<P> +Occupying the stretch of country to the south of the Algonquins was the +famous race known as the Iroquoian Family. We generally read of the +Hurons and the Iroquois as separate tribes. They really belonged, +however, to one family, though during the period of Canadian history in +which they were prominent they had become deadly enemies. When Cartier +discovered the St Lawrence and made his way to the island of Montreal, +Huron Indians inhabited all that part of the country. When Champlain +came, two generations later, they had vanished from that region, but +they still occupied a part of Ontario around Lake Simcoe and south and +east of Georgian Bay. We always connect the name Iroquois with that +part of the stock which included the allied Five Nations—the Mohawks, +Onondagas, Senecas, Oneidas, and Cayugas,—and which occupied the +country between the Hudson river and Lake Ontario. This proved to be +the strongest strategical position in North America. It lies in the gap +or break of the Alleghany ridge, the one place south of the St Lawrence +where an easy and ready access is afforded from the sea-coast to the +interior of the continent. Any one who casts a glance at the map of the +present Eastern states will realize this, and will see why it is that +New York, at the mouth of the Hudson, has become the greatest city of +North America. Now, the same reason which has created New York gave to +the position of the Five Nations its great importance in Canadian +history. But in reality the racial stock of the Iroquois extended much +farther than this, both west and south. It took in the well-known tribe +of the Eries, and also the Indians of Chesapeake Bay and the Potomac. +It included even the Tuscaroras of the Roanoke in North Carolina, who +afterwards moved north and changed the five nations into six. +</P> + +<P> +The Iroquois were originally natives of the plain, connected very +probably with the Dakotas of the west. But they moved eastwards from +the Mississippi valley towards Niagara, conquering as they went. No +other tribe could compare with them in either bravery or ferocity. They +possessed in a high degree both the virtues and the vices of Indian +character—the unflinching courage and the diabolical cruelty which +have made the Indian an object of mingled admiration and contempt. In +bodily strength and physical endurance they were unsurpassed. Even in +modern days the enervating influence of civilization has not entirely +removed the original vigour of the strain. During the American Civil +War of fifty years ago the five companies of Iroquois Indians recruited +in Canada and in the state of New York were superior in height and +measurement to any other body of five hundred men in the northern +armies. +</P> + +<P> +When the Iroquoian Family migrated, the Hurons settled in the western +peninsula of Ontario. The name of Lake Huron still recalls their abode. +But a part of the race kept moving eastward. Before the coming of the +whites, they had fought their way almost to the sea. But they were able +to hold their new settlements only by hard fighting. The great stockade +which Cartier saw at Hochelaga, with its palisades and fighting +platforms, bore witness to the ferocity of the struggle. At that place +Cartier and his companions were entertained with gruesome tales of +Indian fighting and of wholesale massacres. Seventy years later, in +Champlain's time, the Hochelaga stockade had vanished, and the Hurons +had been driven back into the interior. But for nearly two centuries +after Champlain the Iroquois retained their hold on the territory from +Lake Ontario to the Hudson. The conquests and wars of extermination of +these savages, and the terror which they inspired, have been summed up +by General Francis Walker in the saying: 'They were the scourge of God +upon the aborigines of the continent.' +</P> + +<P> +The Iroquois were in some respects superior to most of the Indians of +the continent. Though they had a limited agriculture, and though they +made hardly any use of metals, they had advanced further in other +directions than most savages. They built of logs, houses long enough to +be divided into several compartments, with a family in each +compartment. By setting a group of houses together, and surrounding +them with a palisade of stakes and trees set on end, the settlement was +turned into a kind of fort, and could bid defiance to the limited means +of attack possessed by their enemies. Inside their houses they kept a +good store of corn, pumpkins and dried meat, which belonged not to each +man singly but to the whole group in common. This was the type of +settlement seen at Quebec and at Hochelaga, and, later on, among the +Five Nations. Indeed, the Five Nations gave to themselves the +picturesque name of the Long House, for their confederation resembled, +as it were, the long wooden houses that held the families together. +</P> + +<P> +All this shows that the superiority of the Iroquois over their enemies +lay in organization. In this they were superior even to their kinsmen +the Hurons. All Indian tribes kept women in a condition which we should +think degrading. The Indian women were drudges; they carried the +burdens, and did the rude manual toil of the tribe. Among the Iroquois, +however, women were not wholly despised; sometimes, if of forceful +character, they had great influence in the councils of the tribe. Among +the Hurons, on the other hand, women were treated with contempt or +brutal indifference. The Huron woman, worn out with arduous toil, +rapidly lost the brightness of her youth. At an age when the women of a +higher culture are still at the height of their charm and +attractiveness the woman of the Hurons had degenerated into a +shrivelled hag, horrible to the eye and often despicable in character. +The inborn gentleness of womanhood had been driven from her breast by +ill-treatment. Not even the cruelest of the warriors surpassed the +unhallowed fiendishness of the withered squaw in preparing the torments +of the stake and in shrieking her toothless exultation beside the +torture fire. +</P> + +<P> +Where women are on such a footing as this it is always ill with the +community at large. The Hurons were among the most despicable of the +Indians in their manners. They were hideous gluttons, gorging +themselves when occasion offered with the rapacity of vultures. +Gambling and theft flourished among them. Except, indeed, for the +tradition of courage in fight and of endurance under pain we can find +scarcely anything in them to admire. +</P> + +<P> +North and west from the Algonquins and Huron-Iroquois were the family +of tribes belonging to the Athapascan stock. The general names of +Chipewyan and Tinne are also applied to the same great branch of the +Indian race. In a variety of groups and tribes, the Athapascans spread +out from the Arctic to Mexico. Their name has since become connected +with the geography of Canada alone, but in reality a number of the +tribes of the plains, like the well-known Apaches, as well as the Hupas +of California and the Navahos, belong to the Athapascans. In Canada, +the Athapascans roamed over the country that lay between Hudson Bay and +the Rocky Mountains. They were found in the basin of the Mackenzie +river towards the Arctic sea, and along the valley of the Fraser to the +valley of the Chilcotin. Their language was broken into a great number +of dialects which differed so widely that only the kindred groups could +understand one another's speech. But the same general resemblance ran +through the various branches of the Athapascans. They were a tall, +strong race, great in endurance, during their prime, though they had +little of the peculiar stamina that makes for long life and vigorous +old age. Their descendants of to-day still show the same facial +characteristics—the low forehead with prominent ridge bones, and the +eyes set somewhat obliquely so as to suggest, though probably without +reason, a kinship with Oriental peoples. +</P> + +<P> +The Athapascans stood low in the scale of civilization. Most of them +lived in a prairie country where a luxuriant soil, not encumbered with +trees, would have responded to the slightest labour. But the +Athapascans, in Canada at least, knew nothing of agriculture. With +alternations of starvation and rude plenty, they lived upon the unaided +bounty of tribes of the far north, degraded by want and indolence, were +often addicted to cannibalism. +</P> + +<P> +The Indians beyond the mountains, between the Rockies and the sea, were +for the most part quite distinct from those of the plains. Some tribes +of the Athapascans, as we have seen, penetrated into British Columbia, +but the greater part of the natives in that region were of wholly +different races. Of course, we know hardly anything of these Indians +during the first two centuries of European settlement in America. Not +until the eighteenth century, when Russian traders began to frequent +the Pacific coast and the Spanish and English pushed their voyages into +the North Pacific,—the Tlingit of the far north, the Salish, +Tsimshian, Haida, Kwakiutl-Nootka and Kutenai. It is thought, however, +that nearly all the Pacific Indians belong to one kindred stock. There +are, it is true, many distinct languages between California and Alaska, +but the physical appearance and characteristics of the natives show a +similarity throughout. +</P> + +<P> +The total number of the original Indian population of the continent can +be a matter of conjecture only. There is every reason, however, to +think that it was far less than the absurdly exaggerated figures given +by early European writers. Whenever the first explorers found a +considerable body of savages they concluded that the people they saw +were only a fraction of some large nation. The result was that the +Spaniards estimated the inhabitants of Peru at thirty millions. Las +Casas, the Spanish historian, said that Hispaniola, the present Hayti, +had a population of three millions; a more exact estimate, made about +twenty years after the discovery of the island, brought the population +down to fourteen thousand! In the same way Montezuma was said to have +commanded three million Mexican warriors—an obvious absurdity. The +early Jesuits reckoned the numbers of the Iroquois at about a hundred +thousand; in reality there seem to have been, in the days of Wolfe and +Montcalm, about twelve thousand. At the opening of the twentieth +century there were in America north of Mexico about 403,000 Indians, of +whom 108,000 were in Canada. Some writers go so far as to say that the +numbers of the natives were probably never much greater than they are +to-day. But even if we accept the more general opinion that the Indian +population has declined, there is no evidence to show that the +population was ever more than a thin scattering of wanderers over the +face of a vast country. Mooney estimates that at the coming of the +white man there were only about 846,000 aborigines in the United +States, 220,000 in British America, 72,000 in Alaska, and 10,000 in +Greenland, a total native population of 1,148,000 from the Mississippi +to the Atlantic. +</P> + +<P> +The limited means of support possessed by the natives, their primitive +agriculture, their habitual disinclination to settled life and +industry, their constant wars and the epidemic diseases which, even as +early as the time of Jacques Cartier, worked havoc among them, must +always have prevented the growth of a numerous population. The explorer +might wander for days in the depths of the American forest without +encountering any trace of human life. The continent was, in truth, one +vast silence, broken only by the roar of the waterfall or the cry of +the beasts and birds of the forest. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap04"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER IV +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +THE LEGEND OF THE NORSEMEN +</H3> + +<P> +There are many stories of the coming of white men to the coasts of +America and of their settlements in America long before the voyage of +Christopher Columbus. Even in the time of the Greeks and Romans there +were traditions and legends of sailors who had gone out into the 'Sea +of Darkness' beyond the Pillars of Hercules—the ancient name for the +Strait of Gibraltar—and far to the west had found inhabited lands. +Aristotle thought that there must be land out beyond the Atlantic, and +Plato tells us that once upon a time a vast island lay off the coasts +of Africa; he calls it Atlantis, and it was, he says, sunk below the +sea by an earthquake. The Phoenicians were wonderful sailors; their +ships had gone out of the Mediterranean into the other sea, and had +reached the British Isles, and in all probability they sailed as far +west as the Canaries. We find, indeed, in classical literature many +references to supposed islands and countries out beyond the Atlantic. +The ancients called these places the Islands of the Blessed and the +Fortunate Isles. It is, perhaps, not unnatural that in the earlier +writers the existence of these remote and mysterious regions should be +linked with the ideas of the Elysian Fields and of the abodes of the +dead. But the later writers, such as Pliny, and Strabo, the geographer, +talked of them as actual places, and tried to estimate how many Roman +miles they must be distant from the coast of Spain. +</P> + +<P> +There were similar legends among the Irish, legends preserved in +written form at least five hundred years before Columbus. They recount +wonderful voyages out into the Atlantic and the discovery of new land. +But all these tales are mixed up with obvious fable, with accounts of +places where there was never any illness or infirmity, and people lived +for ever, and drank delicious wine and laughed all day, and we cannot +certify to an atom of historic truth in them. +</P> + +<P> +Still more interesting, if only for curiosity's sake, are weird stories +that have been unearthed among the early records of the Chinese. These +are older than the Irish legends, and date back to about the sixth +century. According to the Chinese story, a certain Hoei-Sin sailed out +into the Pacific until he was four thousand miles east of Japan. There +he found a new continent, which the Chinese records called Fusang, +because of a certain tree—the fusang tree,—out of the fibres of which +the inhabitants made, not only clothes, but paper, and even food. Here +was truly a land of wonders. There were strange animals with branching +horns on their heads, there were men who could not speak Chinese but +barked like dogs, and other men with bodies painted in strange colours. +Some people have endeavoured to prove by these legends that the Chinese +must have landed in British Columbia, or have seen moose or reindeer, +since extinct, in the country far to the north. But the whole account +is so mixed up with the miraculous, and with descriptions of things +which certainly never existed on the Pacific coast of America, that we +can place no reliance whatever upon it. +</P> + +<P> +The only importance that we can attach to such traditions of the +discovery of unknown lands and peoples on a new continent is their +bearing as a whole, their accumulated effect, on the likelihood of such +discovery before the time of Columbus. They at least make us ready to +attach due weight to the circumstantial and credible records of the +voyages of the Norsemen. These stand upon ground altogether different +from that of the dim and confused traditions of the classical writers +and of the Irish and Chinese legends. In fact, many scholars are now +convinced that the eastern coast of Canada was known and visited by the +Norsemen five hundred years before Columbus. +</P> + +<P> +From time immemorial the Norsemen were among the most daring and +skilful mariners ever known. They built great wooden boats with tall, +sweeping bows and sterns. These ships, though open and without decks, +were yet stout and seaworthy. Their remains have been found, at times +lying deeply buried under the sand and preserved almost intact. One +such vessel, discovered on the shore of Denmark, measured 72 feet in +length. Another Viking ship, which was dug up in Norway, and which is +preserved in the museum at Christiania, was 78 feet long and 17 feet +wide. One of the old Norse sagas, or stories, tells how King Olaf +Tryggvesson built a ship, the keel of which, as it lay on the grass, +was 74 ells long; in modern measure, it would be a vessel of about 942 +tons burden. Even if we make allowance for the exaggeration or +ignorance of the writer of the saga, there is still a vast contrast +between this vessel and the little ship Centurion in which Anson sailed +round the world. +</P> + +<P> +It is needless, however, to prove that the Norsemen could have reached +America in their ships. The voyages from Iceland to Greenland which we +know they made continually for four hundred years were just as arduous +as a further voyage from Greenland to the coast of Canada. +</P> + +<P> +The story of the Norsemen runs thus. Towards the end of the ninth +century, or nearly two hundred years before the Norman conquest, there +was a great exodus or outswarming of the Norsemen from their original +home in Norway. A certain King Harold had succeeded in making himself +supreme in Norway, and great numbers of the lesser chiefs or jarls +preferred to seek new homes across the seas rather than submit to his +rule. So they embarked with their seafaring followers—Vikings, as we +still call them—often, indeed, with their wives and families, in great +open ships, and sailed away, some to the coast of England, others to +France, and others even to the Mediterranean, where they took service +under the Byzantine emperors. But still others, loving the cold rough +seas of the north, struck westward across the North Sea and beyond the +coasts of Scotland till they reached Iceland. This was in the year 874. +Here they made a settlement that presently grew to a population of +fifty thousand people, having flocks and herds, solid houses of stone, +and a fine trade in fish and oil with the countries of Northern Europe. +These settlers in Iceland attained to a high standard of civilization. +They had many books, and were fond of tales and stories, as are all +these northern peoples who spend long winter evenings round the +fireside. Some of the sagas, or stories, which they told were true +accounts of the voyages and adventures of their forefathers; others +were fanciful stories, like our modern romances, created by the +imagination; others, again, were a mixture of the two. Thus it is +sometimes hard to distinguish fact and fancy in these early tales of +the Norsemen. We have, however, means of testing the stories. Among the +books written in Iceland there was one called the 'National Name-Book,' +in which all the names of the people were written down, with an account +of their forefathers and of any notable things which they had done. +</P> + +<P> +It is from this book and from the old sagas that we learn how the +Norsemen came to the coast of America. It seems that about 900 a +certain man called Gunnbjorn was driven westward in a great storm and +thrown on the rocky shore of an ice-bound country, where he spent the +winter. Gunnbjorn reached home safely, and never tried again to find +this new land; but, long after his death, the story that there was land +farther west still lingered among the settlers in Iceland and the +Orkneys, and in other homes of the Norsemen. Some time after +Gunnbjorn's voyage it happened that a very bold and determined man +called Eric the Red, who lived in the Orkneys, was made an outlaw for +having killed several men in a quarrel. Eric fled westward over the +seas about the year 980, and he came to a new country with great rocky +bays and fjords as in Norway. There were no trees, but the slopes of +the hillsides were bright with grass, so he called the country +Greenland, as it is called to this day. Eric and his men lived in +Greenland for three years, and the ruins of their rough stone houses +are still to be seen, hard by one of the little Danish settlements of +to-day. When Eric and his followers went back to Iceland they told of +what they had seen, and soon he led a new expedition to Greenland. The +adventurers went in twenty-five ships; more than half were lost on the +way, but eleven ships landed safely and founded a colony in Greenland. +Other settlers came, and this Greenland colony had at one time a +population of about two thousand people. Its inhabitants embraced +Christianity when their kinsfolk in other places did so, and the ruins +of their stone churches still exist. The settlers raised cattle and +sheep, and sent ox hides and seal skins and walrus ivory to Europe in +trade for supplies. But as there was no timber in Greenland they could +not build ships, and thus their communication with the outside world +was more or less precarious. In spite of this, the colony lasted for +about four hundred years. It seems to have come to an end at about the +beginning of the fifteenth century. The scanty records of its history +can be traced no later than the year 1409. What happened to terminate +its existence is not known. Some writers, misled by the name +'Greenland,' have thought that there must have been a change of climate +by which the country lost its original warmth and verdure and turned +into an arctic region. There is no ground for this belief. The name +'Greenland' did not imply a country of trees and luxuriant vegetation, +but only referred to the bright carpet of grass still seen in the short +Greenland summer in the warmer hollows of the hillsides. It may have +been that the settlement, never strong in numbers, was overwhelmed by +the Eskimos, who are known to have often attacked the colony: very +likely, too, it suffered from the great plague, the Black Death, that +swept over all Europe in the fourteenth century. Whatever the cause, +the colony came to an end, and centuries elapsed before Greenland was +again known to Europe. +</P> + +<P> +This whole story of the Greenland settlement is historical fact which +cannot be doubted. Partly by accident and partly by design, the +Norsemen had been carried from Norway to the Orkneys and the Hebrides +and Iceland, and from there to Greenland. This having happened, it was +natural that their ships should go beyond Greenland itself. During the +four hundred years in which the Norse ships went from Europe to +Greenland, their navigators had neither chart nor compass, and they +sailed huge open boats, carrying only a great square sail. It is +evident that in stress of weather and in fog they must again and again +have been driven past the foot of Greenland, and must have landed +somewhere in what is now Labrador. It would be inconceivable that in +four centuries of voyages this never happened. In most cases, no doubt, +the storm-tossed and battered ships, like the fourteen vessels that +Eric lost, were never heard of again. But in other cases survivors must +have returned to Greenland or Iceland to tell of what they had seen. +</P> + +<P> +This is exactly what happened to a bold sailor called Bjarne, the son +of Herjulf, a few years after the Greenland colony was founded. In 986 +he put out from Iceland to join his father, who was in Greenland, the +purpose being that, after the good old Norse custom, they might drink +their Christmas ale together. Neither Bjarne nor his men had ever +sailed the Greenland sea before, but, like bold mariners, they relied +upon their seafaring instinct to guide them to its coast. As Bjarne's +ship was driven westward, great mists fell upon the face of the waters. +There was neither sun nor stars, but day after day only the thick wet +fog that clung to the cold surface of the heaving sea. To-day +travellers even on a palatial steamship, who spend a few hours +shuddering in the chill grey fog of the North Atlantic, chafing at +delay, may form some idea of voyages such as that of Bjarne Herjulf and +his men. These Vikings went on undaunted towards the west. At last, +after many days, they saw land, but when they drew near they saw that +it was not a rugged treeless region, such as they knew Greenland to be, +but a country covered with forests, a country of low coasts rising +inland to small hills, and with no mountains in sight. Accordingly, +Bjarne said that this was not Greenland, and he would not stop, but +turned the vessel to the north. After two days they sighted land again, +still on the left side, and again it was flat and thick with trees. The +sea had fallen calm, and Bjarne's men desired to land and see this new +country, and take wood and water into the ship. But Bjarne would not. +So they held on their course, and presently a wind from the south-west +carried them onward for three days and three nights. Then again they +saw land, but this time it was high and mountainous, with great shining +caps of snow. And again Bjarne said, 'This is not the land I seek.' +They did not go ashore, but sailing close to the coast they presently +found that the land was an island. When they stood out to sea again, +the south wind rose to a gale that swept them towards the north, with +sail reefed down and with their ship leaping through the foaming +surges. Three days and nights they ran before the gale. On the fourth +day land rose before them, and this time it was Greenland. There Bjarne +found his father, and there, when not at sea, he settled for the rest +of his days. +</P> + +<P> +Such is the story of Bjarne Herjulf, as the Norsemen have it. To the +unprejudiced mind there is every reason to believe that his voyage had +carried him to America, to the coast of the Maritime Provinces, or of +Newfoundland or Labrador. More than this one cannot say. True, it is +hard to fit the 'two days' and the 'three days' of Bjarne's narrative +into the sailing distances. But every one who has read any primitive +literature, or even the Homeric poems, will remember how easily times +and distances and numbers that are not exactly known are expressed in +loose phrases not to be taken as literal. +</P> + +<P> +The news of Bjarne's voyage and of his discovery of land seems to have +been carried presently to the Norsemen in Iceland and in Europe. In +fact, Bjarne himself made a voyage to Norway, and, on account of what +he had done, figured there as a person of some importance. But people +blamed Bjarne because he had not landed on the new coasts, and had +taken so little pains to find out more about the region of hills and +forests which lay to the south and west of Greenland. Naturally others +were tempted to follow the matter further. Among these was Leif, son of +Eric the Red. Leif went to Greenland, found Bjarne, bought his ship, +and manned it with a crew of thirty-five. Leif's father, Eric, now +lived in Greenland, and Leif asked him to take command of the +expedition. He thought, the saga says, that, since Eric had found +Greenland, he would bring good luck to the new venture. For the time, +Eric consented, but when all was ready, and he was riding down to the +shore to embark, his horse stumbled and he fell from the saddle and +hurt his foot. Eric took this as an omen of evil, and would not go; but +Leif and his crew of thirty-five set sail towards the south-west. This +was in the year 1000 A.D., or four hundred and ninety-two years before +Columbus landed in the West Indies. +</P> + +<P> +Leif and his men sailed on, the saga tells us, till they came to the +last land which Bjarne had discovered. Here they cast anchor, lowered a +boat, and rowed ashore. They found no grass, but only a great field of +snow stretching from the sea to the mountains farther inland; and these +mountains, too, glistened with snow. It seemed to the Norsemen a +forbidding place, and Leif christened it Helluland, or the country of +slate or flat stones. They did not linger, but sailed away at once. The +description of the snow-covered hills, the great slabs of stone, and +the desolate aspect of the coast conveys at least a very strong +probability that the land was Labrador. +</P> + +<P> +Leif and his men sailed away, and soon they discovered another land. +The chronicle does not say how many days they were at sea, so that we +cannot judge of the distance of this new country from the Land of +Stones. But evidently it was entirely different in aspect, and was +situated in a warmer climate. The coast was low, there were broad +beaches of white sand, and behind the beaches rose thick forests +spreading over the country. Again the Norsemen landed. Because of the +trees, they gave to this place the name of Markland, or the Country of +Forests. Some writers have thought that Markland must have been +Newfoundland, but the description also suggests Cape Breton or Nova +Scotia. The coast of Newfoundland is, indeed, for the most part, bold, +rugged, and inhospitable. +</P> + +<P> +Leif put to sea once more. For two days the wind was from the +north-east. Then again they reached land. This new region was the +famous country which the Norsemen called Vineland, and of which every +schoolboy has read. There has been so much dispute as to whether +Vineland—this warm country where grapes grew wild—was Nova Scotia or +New England, or some other region, that it is worth while to read the +account of the Norse saga, literally translated: +</P> + +<P CLASS="block"> + They came to an island, which lay on the north side + of the land, where they disembarked to wait for good + weather. There was dew upon the grass; and having + accidentally got some of the dew upon their hands and + put it to their mouths, they thought that they had + never tasted anything so sweet. Then they went on + board and sailed into a sound that was between the + island and a point that went out northwards from the + land, and sailed westward past the point. There was + very shallow water and ebb tide, so that their ship + lay dry; and there was a long way between their ship + and the water. They were so desirous to get to the + land that they would not wait till their ship floated, + but ran to the land, to a place where a river comes + out of a lake. As soon as their ship was afloat they + took the boats, rowed to the ship, towed her up the + river, and from thence into the lake, where they cast + anchor, carried their beds out of the ship, and set + up their tents. +</P> + +<P CLASS="block"> + They resolved to put things in order for wintering + there, and they erected a large house. They did not + want for salmon, in both the river and the lake; and + they thought the salmon larger than any they had ever + seen before. The country appeared to them to be of so + good a kind that it would not be necessary to gather + fodder for the cattle for winter. There was no frost + in winter, and the grass was not much withered. Day + and night were more equal than in Greenland and + Iceland. +</P> + +<P> +The chronicle goes on to tell how Leif and his men spent the winter in +this place. They explored the country round their encampment. They +found beautiful trees, trees big enough for use in building houses, +something vastly important to men from Greenland, where no trees grow. +Delighted with this, Leif and his men cut down some trees and loaded +their ship with the timber. One day a sailor, whose home had been in a +'south country,' where he had seen wine made from grapes, and who was +nicknamed the 'Turk,' found on the coast vines with grapes, growing +wild. He brought his companions to the spot, and they gathered grapes +sufficient to fill their ship's boat. It was on this account that Leif +called the country 'Vineland.' They found patches of supposed corn +which grew wild like the grapes and reseeded itself from year to year. +It is striking that the Norse chronicle should name these simple +things. Had it been a work of fancy, probably we should have heard, as +in the Chinese legends, of strange demons and other amazing creatures. +But we hear instead of the beautiful forest extending to the shore, the +mountains in the background, the tangled vines, and the bright patches +of wild grain of some kind ripening in the open glades-the very things +which caught the eye of Cartier when, five centuries later, he first +ascended the St Lawrence. +</P> + +<P> +Where Vineland was we cannot tell. If the men really found wild grapes, +and not some kind of cranberry, Vineland must have been in the region +where grapes will grow. The vine grows as far north as Prince Edward +Island and Cape Breton, and, of course, is found in plenty on the +coasts of Nova Scotia and New England. The chronicle says that the +winter days were longer in Vineland than in Greenland, and names the +exact length of the shortest day. Unfortunately, however, the Norsemen +had no accurate system for measuring time; otherwise the length of the +shortest winter day would enable us to know at what exact spot Leif's +settlement was made. +</P> + +<P> +Leif and his men stayed in Vineland all winter, and sailed home to +Greenland in the spring (1001 A.D.). As they brought timber, much +prized in the Greenland settlement, their voyage caused a great deal of +talk. Naturally others wished to rival Leif. In the next few years +several voyages to Vineland are briefly chronicled in the sagas. +</P> + +<P> +First of all, Thorwald, Leif's brother, borrowed his ship, sailed away +to Vineland with thirty men, and spent two winters there. During his +first summer in Vineland, Thorwald sent some men in a boat westward +along the coast. They found a beautiful country with thick woods +reaching to the shore, and great stretches of white sand. They found a +kind of barn made of wood, and were startled by this first indication +of the presence of man. Thorwald had, indeed, startling adventures. In +a great storm his ship was wrecked on the coast, and he and his men had +to rebuild it. He selected for a settlement a point of land thickly +covered with forest. Before the men had built their houses they fell in +with some savages, whom they made prisoners. These savages had bows and +arrows, and used what the Norsemen called 'skin boats.' One of the +savages escaped and roused his tribe, and presently a great flock of +canoes came out of a large bay, surrounded the Viking ship, and +discharged a cloud of arrows. The Norsemen beat off the savages, but in +the fight Thorwald received a mortal wound. As he lay dying he told his +men to bury him there in Vineland, on the point where he had meant to +build his home. This was done. Thorwald's men remained there for the +winter. In the spring they returned to Greenland, with the sad news for +Leif of his brother's death. +</P> + +<P> +Other voyages followed. A certain Thorfinn Karlsevne even tried to +found a permanent colony in Vineland. In the spring of 1007, he took +there a hundred and sixty men, some women, and many cattle. He and his +people remained in Vineland for nearly four years. They traded with the +savages, giving them cloth and trinkets for furs. Karlsevne's wife gave +birth there to a son, who was christened Snorre, and who was perhaps +the first white child born in America. The Vineland colony seems to +have prospered well enough, but unfortunately quarrels broke out +between the Norsemen and the savages, and so many of Karlsevne's people +were killed that the remainder were glad to sail back to Greenland. +</P> + +<P> +The Norse chronicles contain a further story of how one of Karlsevne's +companions, Thorward, and his wife Freydis, who was a daughter of Eric +the Red, made a voyage to Vineland. This expedition ended in tragedy. +One night the Norsemen quarrelled in their winter quarters, there was a +tumult and a massacre. Freydis herself killed five women with an axe, +and the little colony was drenched in blood. The survivors returned to +Greenland, but were shunned by all from that hour. +</P> + +<P> +After this story we have no detailed accounts of voyages to Vineland. +There are, however, references to it in Icelandic literature. There +does not seem any ground to believe that the Norsemen succeeded in +planting a lasting colony in Vineland. Some people have tried to claim +that certain ancient ruins on the New England coast—an old stone mill +at Newport, and so on—are evidences of such a settlement. But the +claim has no sufficient proof behind it. +</P> + +<P> +On the whole, however, there seems every ground to conclude that again +and again the Norsemen landed on the Atlantic coast of America. We do +not know where they made their winter quarters, nor does this matter. +Very likely there were temporary settlements in both 'Markland,' with +its thick woods bordering on the sea, and in other less promising +regions. It should be added that some writers of authority refuse even +to admit that the Norsemen reached America. Others, like Nansen, the +famous Arctic explorer, while admitting the probability of the voyages, +believe that the sagas are merely a sort of folklore, such as may be +found in the primitive literature of all nations. On the other hand, +John Fiske, the American historian, who devoted much patient study to +the question, was convinced that what is now the Canadian coast, with, +probably, part of New England too, was discovered, visited, and +thoroughly well known by the Norse inhabitants of Greenland. For +several centuries they appear to have made summer voyages to and from +this 'Vineland the Good' as they called it, and to have brought back +timber and supplies not found in their own inhospitable country. It is +quite possible that further investigation may throw new light on the +Norse discoveries, and even that undeniable traces of the buildings or +implements of the settlers in Vineland may be found. Meanwhile the +subject, interesting though it is, remains shrouded in mystery. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap05"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER V +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +THE BRISTOL VOYAGES +</H3> + +<P> +The discoveries of the Norsemen did not lead to the opening of America +to the nations of Europe. For this the time was not yet ripe. As yet +European nations were backward, not only in navigation, but in the +industries and commerce which supply the real motive for occupying new +lands. In the days of Eric the Red Europe was only beginning to emerge +from a dark period. The might and splendour of the Roman Empire had +vanished, and the great kingdoms which we know were still to rise. +</P> + +<P> +All this changed in the five hundred years between the foundation of +the Greenland colony and the voyage of Christopher Columbus. The +discovery of America took place as a direct result of the advancing +civilization and growing power of Europe. The event itself was, in a +sense, due to pure accident. Columbus was seeking Asia when he found +himself among the tropical islands of the West Indies. In another +sense, however, the discovery marks in world history a necessary stage, +for which the preceding centuries had already made the preparation. The +story of the voyages of Columbus forms no part of our present +narrative. But we cannot understand the background that lies behind the +history of Canada without knowing why such men as Christopher Columbus +and Vasco da Gama and the Cabots began the work of discovery. +</P> + +<P> +First, we have to realize the peculiar relations between Europe, +ancient and mediaeval, and the great empires of Eastern Asia. The two +civilizations had never been in direct contact. Yet in a sense they +were always connected. The Greeks and the Romans had at least vague +reports of peoples who lived on the far eastern confines of the world, +beyond even the conquests of Alexander the Great in Hindustan. It is +certain, too, that Europe and Asia had always traded with one another +in a strange and unconscious fashion. The spices and silks of the +unknown East passed westward from trader to trader, from caravan to +caravan, until they reached the Persian Gulf, the Red Sea, and, at +last, the Mediterranean. The journey was so slow, so tedious, the goods +passed from hand to hand so often, that when the Phoenician, Greek, or +Roman merchants bought them their origin had been forgotten. For +century after century this trade continued. When Rome fell, other +peoples of the Mediterranean continued the Eastern trade. Genoa and +Venice rose to greatness by this trade. As wealth and culture revived +after the Gothic conquest which overthrew Rome, the beautiful silks and +the rare spices of the East were more and more prized in a world of +increasing luxury. The Crusades rediscovered Egypt, Syria, and the East +for Europe. Gold and jewels, diamond-hilted swords of Damascus steel, +carved ivory, and priceless gems,—all the treasures which the warriors +of the Cross brought home, helped to impress on the mind of Europe the +surpassing riches of the East. +</P> + +<P> +Gradually a new interest was added. As time went on doubts increased +regarding the true shape of the earth. Early peoples had thought it a +great flat expanse, with the blue sky propped over it like a dome or +cover. This conception was giving way. The wise men who watched the sky +at night, who saw the sweeping circles of the fixed stars and the +wandering path of the strange luminous bodies called planets, began to +suspect a mighty secret,—that the observing eye saw only half the +heavens, and that the course of the stars and the earth itself rounded +out was below the darkness of the horizon. From this theory that the +earth was a great sphere floating in space followed the most +enthralling conclusions. If the earth was really a globe, it might be +possible to go round it and to reappear on the farther side of the +horizon. Then the East might be reached, not only across the deserts of +Persia and Tartary, but also by striking out into the boundless ocean +that lay beyond the Pillars of Hercules. For such an attempt an almost +superhuman courage was required. No man might say what awful seas, what +engulfing gloom, might lie across the familiar waters which washed the +shores of Europe. The most fearless who, at evening, upon the cliffs of +Spain or Portugal, watched black night settle upon the far-spreading +waters of the Atlantic, might well turn shuddering from any attempt to +sail into those unknown wastes. +</P> + +<P> +It was the stern logic of events which compelled the enterprise. +Barbarous Turks swept westward. Arabia, Syria, the Isles of Greece, +and, at last, in 1453, Constantinople itself, fell into their hands. +The Eastern Empire, the last survival of the Empire of the Romans, +perished beneath the sword of Mahomet. Then the pathway by land to +Asia, to the fabled empires of Cathay and Cipango, was blocked by the +Turkish conquest. Commerce, however, remained alert and enterprising, +and men's minds soon turned to the hopes of a western passage which +should provide a new route to the Indies. +</P> + +<P> +All the world knows the story of Christopher Columbus, his long years +of hardship and discouragement; the supreme conviction which sustained +him in his adversity; the final triumph which crowned his efforts. It +is no detraction from the glory of Columbus to say that he was only one +of many eager spirits occupied with new problems of discovery across +the sea. Not the least of these were John and Sebastian Cabot, father +and son. John Cabot, like Columbus, was a Genoese by birth; a long +residence in Venice, however, earned for him in 1476 the citizenship of +that republic. Like many in his time, he seems to have been both a +scientific geographer and a practical sea-captain. At one time he made +charts and maps for his livelihood. Seized with the fever for +discovery, he is said to have begged in vain from the sovereigns of +Spain and Portugal for help in a voyage to the West. About the time of +the great discovery of Columbus in 1492, John Cabot arrived in Bristol. +It may be that he took part in some of the voyages of the Bristol +merchants, before the achievements of Columbus began to startle the +world. +</P> + +<P> +At the close of the fifteenth century the town of Bristol enjoyed a +pre-eminence which it has since lost. It stood second only to London as +a British port. A group of wealthy merchants carried on from Bristol a +lively trade with Iceland and the northern ports of Europe. The town +was the chief centre for an important trade in codfish. Days of fasting +were generally observed at that time; on these the eating of meat was +forbidden by the church, and fish was consequently in great demand. The +merchants of Bristol were keen traders, and were always seeking the +further extension of their trade. Christopher Columbus himself is said +to have made a voyage for the Bristol merchants to Iceland in 1477. +There is even a tale that, before Columbus was known to fame, an +expedition was equipped there in 1480 to seek the 'fabulous islands' of +the Western Sea. Certain it is that the Spanish ambassador in England, +whose business it was to keep his royal master informed of all that was +being done by his rivals, wrote home in 1498: 'It is seven years since +those of Bristol used to send out, every year, a fleet of two, three, +or four caravels to go and search for the Isle of Brazil and the Seven +Cities, according to the fancy of the Genoese.' +</P> + +<P> +We can therefore realize that when Master John Cabot came among the +merchants of this busy town with his plans he found a ready hearing. +Cabot was soon brought to the notice of his august majesty Henry VII of +England. The king had been shortsighted enough to reject overtures made +to him by Bartholomew Columbus, brother of Christopher, and no doubt he +regretted his mistake. Now he was eager enough to act as the patron of +a new voyage. Accordingly, on March 5, 1496, he granted a royal licence +in the form of what was called Letters Patent, authorizing John Cabot +and his sons Lewis, Sebastian and Sancius to make a voyage of discovery +in the name of the king of England. The Cabots were to sail 'with five +ships or vessels of whatever burden or quality soever they be, and with +as many marines or men as they will have with them in the said ships +upon their own proper costs and charges.' It will be seen that Henry +VII, the most parsimonious of kings, had no mind to pay the expense of +the voyage. The expedition was 'to seek out, discover and find +whatsoever islands, countries, regions and provinces of the heathens or +infidels, in whatever part of the world they be, which before this time +have been unknown to all Christians.' It was to sail only 'to the seas +of the east and west and north,' for the king did not wish to lay any +claim to the lands discovered by the Spaniards and Portuguese. The +discoverers, however, were to raise the English flag over any new lands +that they found, to conquer and possess them, and to acquire 'for us +dominion, title, and jurisdiction over those towns, castles, islands, +and mainlands so discovered.' One-fifth of the profits from the +anticipated voyages to the new land was to fall to the king, but the +Cabots were to have a monopoly of trade, and Bristol was to enjoy the +right of being the sole port of entry for the ships engaged in this +trade. +</P> + +<P> +Not until the next year, 1497, did John Cabot set out. Then he embarked +from Bristol with a single ship, called in an old history the Matthew, +and a crew of eighteen men. First, he sailed round the south of +Ireland, and from there struck out westward into the unknown sea. The +appliances of navigation were then very imperfect. Sailors could reckon +the latitude by looking up at the North Star, and noting how high it +was above the horizon. Since the North Star stands in the sky due +north, and the axis on which the earth spins points always towards it, +it will appear to an observer in the northern hemisphere to be as many +degrees above the horizon as he himself is distant from the pole or top +of the earth. The old navigators, therefore, could always tell how far +north or south they were. Moreover, as long as the weather was clear +they could, by this means, strike, at night at least, a course due east +or west. But when the weather was not favourable for observations they +had to rely on the compass alone. Now the compass in actual fact does +not always and everywhere point due north. It is subject to variation, +and in different times and places points either considerably east of +north or west of it. In the path where Cabot sailed, the compass +pointed west of north; and hence, though he thought he was sailing +straight west from Ireland, he was really pursuing a curved path bent +round a little towards the south. This fact will become of importance +when we consider where it was that Cabot landed. For finding distance +east and west the navigators of the fifteenth century had no such +appliances as our modern chronometer and instruments of observation. +They could tell how far they had sailed only by 'dead reckoning'; this +means that if their ship was going at such and such a speed, it was +supposed to have made such and such a distance in a given time. But +when ships were being driven to and fro, and buffeted by adverse winds, +this reckoning became extremely uncertain. +</P> + +<P> +John Cabot and his men mere tossed about considerably in their little +ship. Though they seem to have set out early in May of 1497, it was not +until June 24 that they sighted land. What the land was like, and what +they thought of it, we know from letters written in England by various +persons after their return. Thus we learn that it was a 'very good and +temperate country,' and that 'Brazil wood and silks grow there.' 'The +sea,' they reported, 'is covered with fishes, which are caught not only +with the net, but with baskets, a stone being tied to them in order +that the baskets may sink in the water.' Henceforth, it was said, +England would have no more need to buy fish from Iceland, for the +waters of the new land abounded in fish. Cabot and his men saw no +savages, but they found proof that the land was inhabited. Here and +there in the forest they saw trees which had been felled, and also +snares of a rude kind set to catch game. They were enthusiastic over +their success. They reported that the new land must certainly be +connected with Cipango, from which all the spices and precious stones +of the world originated. Only a scanty stock of provisions, they +declared, prevented them from sailing along the coast as far as Cathay +and Cipango. As it was they planted on the land a great cross with the +flag of England and also the banner of St Mark, the patron saint of +Cabot's city of Venice. +</P> + +<P> +The older histories used always to speak as if John Cabot had landed +somewhere on the coast of Labrador, and had at best gone no farther +south than Newfoundland. Even if this were the whole truth about the +voyage, to Cabot and his men would belong the signal honour of having +been the first Europeans, since the Norsemen, to set foot on the +mainland of North America. Without doubt they were the first to unfurl +the flag of England, and to erect the cross upon soil which afterwards +became part of British North America. But this is not all. It is likely +that Cabot reached a point far south of Labrador. His supposed sailing +westward carried him in reality south of the latitude of Ireland. He +makes no mention of the icebergs which any voyager must meet on the +Labrador coast from June to August. His account of a temperate climate +suitable for growing dye-wood, of forest trees, and of a country so +fair that it seemed the gateway of the enchanted lands of the East, is +quite unsuited to the bare and forbidding aspect of Labrador. Cape +Breton island was probably the place of Cabot's landing. Its balmy +summer climate, the abundant fish of its waters, fit in with Cabot's +experiences. The evidence from maps, one of which was made by Cabot's +son Sebastian, points also to Cape Breton as the first landing-place of +English sailors in America. +</P> + +<P> +There is no doubt of the stir made by Cabot's discovery on his safe +return to England. He was in London by August of 1497, and he became at +once the object of eager curiosity and interest. 'He is styled the +Great Admiral,' wrote a Venetian resident in London, 'and vast honour +is paid to him. He dresses in silk, and the English run after him like +mad people.' The sunlight of royal favour broke over him in a flood: +even Henry VII proved generous. The royal accounts show that, on August +10, 1497, the king gave ten pounds 'to him that found the new isle.' A +few months later the king granted to his 'well-beloved John Cabot, of +the parts of Venice, an annuity of twenty pounds sterling,' to be paid +out of the customs of the port of Bristol. The king, too, was lavish in +his promises of help for a new expedition. Henry's imagination had +evidently been fired with the idea of an Oriental empire. A +contemporary writer tells us that Cabot was to have ten armed ships. At +Cabot's request, the king conceded to him all the prisoners needed to +man this fleet, saving only persons condemned for high treason. It is +one of the ironies of history that on the first pages of its annals the +beautiful new world is offered to the criminals of Europe. +</P> + +<P> +During the winter that followed, John Cabot was the hero of the hour. +Busy preparations went on for a new voyage. Letters patent were issued +giving Cabot power to take any six ships that he liked from the ports +of the kingdom, paying to their owners the same price only as if taken +for the king's service. The 'Grand Admiral' became a person of high +importance. On one friend he conferred the sovereignty of an island; to +others he made lavish promises; certain poor friars who offered to +embark on his coming voyage were to be bishops over the heathen of the +new land. Even the merchants of London ventured to send out goods for +trade, and brought to Cabot 'coarse cloth, caps, laces, points, and +other trifles.' +</P> + +<P> +The second expedition sailed from the port of Bristol in May of 1498. +John Cabot and his son Sebastian were in command; of the younger +brothers we hear no more. But the high hopes of the voyagers were +doomed to disappointment. On arriving at the coast of America Cabot's +ships seem first to have turned towards the north. The fatal idea, that +the empires of Asia might be reached through the northern seas already +asserted its sway. The search for a north-west passage, that +will-o'-the-wisp of three centuries, had already begun. Many years +later Sebastian Cabot related to a friend at Seville some details +regarding this unfortunate attempt of his father to reach the spice +islands of the East. The fleet, he said, with its three hundred men, +first directed its course so far to the north that, even in the month +of July, monstrous heaps of ice were found floating on the sea. 'There +was,' so Sebastian told his friend, 'in a manner, continual daylight.' +The forbidding aspect of the coast, the bitter cold of the northern +seas, and the boundless extent of the silent drifting ice, chilled the +hopes of the explorers. They turned towards the south. Day after day, +week after week, they skirted the coast of North America. If we may +believe Sebastian's friend, they reached a point as far south as +Gibraltar in Europe. No more was there ice. The cold of Labrador +changed to soft breezes from the sanded coast of Carolina and from the +mild waters of the Gulf Stream. But of the fabled empires of Cathay and +Cipango, and the 'towns and castles' over which the Great Admiral was +to have dominion, they saw no trace. Reluctantly the expedition turned +again towards Europe, and with its turning ends our knowledge of what +happened on the voyage. +</P> + +<P> +That the ships came home either as a fleet, or at least in part, we +have certain proof. We know that John Cabot returned to Bristol, for +the ancient accounts of the port show that he lived to draw at least +one or two instalments of his pension. But the sunlight of royal favour +no longer illumined his path. In the annals of English history the name +of John Cabot is never found again. +</P> + +<P> +The son Sebastian survived to continue a life of maritime adventure, to +be counted one of the great sea-captains of the day, and to enjoy an +honourable old age. In the year 1512 we hear of him in the service of +Ferdinand of Spain. He seems to have won great renown as a maker of +maps and charts. He still cherished the idea of reaching Asia by way of +the northern seas of America. A north-west expedition with Sebastian in +command had been decided upon, it is said, by Ferdinand, when the death +of that illustrious sovereign prevented the realization of the project. +After Ferdinand's death, Cabot fell out with the grandees of the +Spanish court, left Madrid, and returned for some time to England. Some +have it that he made a new voyage in the service of Henry VIII, and +sailed through Hudson Strait, but this is probably only a confused +reminiscence, handed down by hearsay, of the earlier voyages. Cabot +served Spain again under Charles V, and made a voyage to Brazil and the +La Plata river. He reappears later in England, and was made Inspector +of the King's Ships by Edward VI. He was a leading spirit of the +Merchant Adventurers who, in Edward's reign, first opened up trade by +sea with Russia. +</P> + +<P> +The voyages of the Bristol traders and the enterprise of England by no +means ended with the exploits of the Cabots. Though our ordinary +history books tell us nothing more of English voyages until we come to +the days of the great Elizabethan navigators, Drake, Frobisher, +Hawkins, and to the planting of Virginia, as a matter of fact many +voyages were made under Henry VII and Henry VIII. Both sovereigns seem +to have been anxious to continue the exploration of the western seas, +but they had not the good fortune again to secure such master-pilots as +John and Sebastian Cabot. +</P> + +<P> +In the first place, it seems that the fishermen of England, as well as +those of the Breton coast, followed close in the track of the Cabots. +As soon as the Atlantic passage to Newfoundland had been robbed of the +terrors of the unknown, it was not regarded as difficult. With strong +east winds a ship of the sixteenth century could make the run from +Bristol or St Malo to the Grand Banks in less than twenty days. Once a +ship was on the Banks, the fish were found in an abundance utterly +unknown in European waters, and the ships usually returned home with +great cargoes. During the early years of the sixteenth century English, +French, and Portuguese fishermen went from Europe to the Banks in great +numbers. They landed at various points in Newfoundland and Cape Breton, +and became well acquainted with the outline of the coast. It was no +surprise to Jacques Cartier, for instance, on his first voyage, to find +a French fishing vessel lying off the north shore of the Gulf of St +Lawrence. But these fishing crews thought nothing of exploration. The +harvest of the sea was their sole care, and beyond landing to cure fish +and to obtain wood and water they did nothing to claim or conquer the +land. +</P> + +<P> +There were, however, efforts from time to time to follow up the +discoveries of the Cabots. The merchants of Bristol do not seem to have +been disappointed with the result of the Cabot enterprises, for as +early as in 1501 they sent out a new expedition across the Atlantic. +The sanction of the king was again invoked, and Henry VII granted +letters patent to three men of Bristol—Richard Warde, Thomas +Ashehurst, and John Thomas—to explore the western seas. These names +have a homely English sound; but associated with them were three +Portuguese—John Gonzales, and two men called Fernandez, all of the +Azores, and probably of the class of master-pilots to which the Cabots +and Columbus belonged. We know nothing of the results of the +expedition, but it returned in safety in the same year, and the +parsimonious king was moved to pay out five pounds from his treasury +'to the men of Bristol that found the isle.' +</P> + +<P> +Francis Fernandez and John Gonzales remained in the English service and +became subjects of King Henry. Again, in the summer of 1502, they were +sent out on another voyage from Bristol. In September they brought +their ships safely back, and, in proof of the strangeness of the new +lands they carried home 'three men brought out of an Iland forre beyond +Irelond, the which were clothed in Beestes Skynnes and ate raw fflesh +and were rude in their demeanure as Beestes.' From this description +(written in an old atlas of the time), it looks as if the Fernandez +expedition had turned north from the Great Banks and visited the coast +where the Eskimos were found, either in Labrador or Greenland. This +time Henry VII gave Fernandez and Gonzales a pension of ten pounds +each, and made them 'captains' of the New Found Land. A sum of twenty +pounds was given to the merchants of Bristol who had accompanied them. +We must remember that at this time the New Found Land was the general +name used for all the northern coast of America. +</P> + +<P> +There is evidence that a further expedition went out from Bristol in +1503, and still another in 1504. Fernandez and Gonzales, with two +English associates, were again the leaders. They were to have a +monopoly of trade for forty years, but were cautioned not to interfere +with the territory of the king of Portugal. Of the fate of these +enterprises nothing is known. +</P> + +<P> +By the time of Henry VIII, who began to reign in 1509, the annual +fishing fleet of the English which sailed to the American coast had +become important. As early as in 1522, a royal ship of war was sent to +the mouth of the English Channel to protect the 'coming home of the New +Found Island's fleet.' Henry VIII and his minister, Cardinal Wolsey, +were evidently anxious to go on with the work of the previous reign, +and especially to enlist the wealthy merchants and trade companies of +London in the cause of western exploration. In 1521 the cardinal +proposed to the Livery Companies of London—the name given to the trade +organizations of the merchants—that they should send out five ships on +a voyage into the New Found Land. When the merchants seemed disinclined +to make such a venture, the king 'spake sharply to the Mayor to see it +put in execution to the best of his power.' But, even with this +stimulus, several years passed before a London expedition was sent out. +At last, in 1527, two little ships called the Samson and the Mary of +Guildford set out from London with instructions to find their way to +Cathay and the Indies by means of the passage to the north. The two +ships left London on May 10, put into Plymouth, and finally sailed +therefrom on June 10, 1527. They followed Cabot's track, striking +westward from the coast of Ireland. For three weeks they kept together, +making good progress across the Atlantic. Then in a great storm that +arose the Samson was lost with all on board. +</P> + +<P> +The Mary of Guildford pursued her way alone, and her crew had +adventures strange even for those days. Her course, set well to the +north, brought her into the drift ice and the giant icebergs which are +carried down the coast of America at this season (for the month was +July) from the polar seas. In fear of the moving ice, she turned to the +south, the sailors watching eagerly for the land, and sounding as they +went. Four days brought them to the coast of Labrador. They followed it +southward for some days. Presently they entered an inlet where they +found a good harbour, many small islands, and the mouth of a great +river of fresh water. The region was a wilderness, its mountains and +woods apparently untenanted by man. Near the shore they saw the +footmarks of divers great beasts, but, though they explored the country +for about thirty miles, they saw neither men nor animals. At the end of +July, they set sail again, and passed down the coast of Newfoundland to +the harbour of St John's, already a well-known rendezvous. Here they +found fourteen ships of the fishing fleet, mostly vessels from +Normandy. From Newfoundland the Mary of Guildford pursued her way +southward, and passed along the Atlantic coast of America. If she had +had any one on board capable of accurate observation, even after the +fashion of the time, or of making maps, the record of her voyage would +have added much to the general knowledge of the continent. +Unfortunately, the Italian pilot who directed the voyage was killed in +a skirmish with Indians during a temporary landing. Some have thought +that this pilot who perished on the Mary of Guildford may have been the +great navigator Verrazano, of whom we shall presently speak. +</P> + +<P> +The little vessel sailed down the coast to the islands of the West +Indies. She reached Porto Rico in the middle of November, and from that +island she made sail for the new Spanish settlements of San Domingo. +Here, as she lay at her anchorage, the Mary of Guildford was fired upon +by the Spanish fort which commanded the river mouth. At once she put +out into the open sea, and, heading eastward across the Atlantic, she +arrived safely at her port of London. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap06"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER VI +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +FORERUNNERS OF JACQUES CARTIER +</H3> + +<P> +We have seen that after the return of the second expedition of the +Cabots no voyages to the coasts of Canada of first-rate importance were +made by the English. This does not mean, however, that nothing was done +by other peoples to discover and explore the northern coasts of +America. The Portuguese were the first after the Cabots to continue the +search along the Canadian coast for the secret of the hidden East. At +this time, we must remember, the Portuguese were one of the leading +nations of Europe, and they were specially interested in maritime +enterprise. Thanks to Columbus, the Spaniards had, it is true, carried +off the grand prize of discovery. But the Portuguese had rendered +service not less useful. From their coasts, jutting far out into the +Atlantic, they had sailed southward and eastward, and had added much to +the knowledge of the globe. For generations, both before and after +Columbus, the pilots and sailors of Portugal were among the most +successful and daring in the world. +</P> + +<P> +For nearly a hundred years before the discovery of America the +Portuguese had been endeavouring to find an ocean route to the spice +islands of the East and to the great Oriental empires which, tradition +said, lay far off on a distant ocean, and which Marco Polo and other +travellers had reached by years of painful land travel across the +interior of Asia. Prince Henry of Portugal was busy with these tasks at +the middle of the fifteenth century. Even before this, Portuguese +sailors had found their way to the Madeiras and the Canary Islands, and +to the Azores, which lie a thousand miles out in the Atlantic. But +under the lead of Prince Henry they began to grope their way down the +coast of Africa, braving the torrid heats and awful calms of that +equatorial region, where the blazing sun, poised overhead in a +cloudless sky, was reflected on the bosom of a stagnant and glistening +ocean. It was their constant hope that at some point the land would be +found to roll back and disclose an ocean pathway round Africa to the +East, the goal of their desire. Year after year they advanced farther, +until at last they achieved a momentous result. In 1487, Bartholomew +Diaz sailed round the southern point of Africa, which received the +significant name of the 'Cape of Good Hope,' and entered the Indian +Ocean. Henceforth a water pathway to the Far East was possible. +Following Diaz, Vasco da Gama, leaving Lisbon in 1497, sailed round the +south of Africa, and, reaching the ports of Hindustan, made the +maritime route to India a definite reality. +</P> + +<P> +Thus at the moment when the Spaniards were taking possession of the +western world the Portuguese were establishing their trade in the +rediscovered East. The two nations agreed to divide between them these +worlds of the East and the West. They invoked the friendly offices of +the Pope as mediator, and, henceforth, an imaginary line drawn down the +Atlantic divided the realms. At first this arrangement seemed to give +Spain all the new regions in America, but the line of division was set +so far to the West that the discovery of Brazil, which juts out +eastward into the Atlantic, gave the Portuguese a vast territory in +South America. At the time of which we are now speaking, however, the +Portuguese were intent upon their interests in the Orient. Their great +aim was to pass beyond India, already reached by da Gama, to the +further empires of China and Japan. Like other navigators of the time, +they thought that these places might be reached not merely by southern +but also by the northern seas. Hence it came about that the Portuguese, +going far southward in Africa, went also far northward in America and +sailed along the coast of Canada. +</P> + +<P> +We find, in consequence, that when King Manoel of Portugal was fitting +out a fleet of twenty ships for a new expedition under da Gama, which +was to sail to the Indies by way of Africa, another Portuguese +expedition, setting out with the same object, was sailing in the +opposite direction. At its head was Gaspar Corte-Real, a nobleman of +the Azores, who had followed with eager interest the discoveries of +Columbus, Diaz, and da Gama. Corte-Real sailed from Lisbon in the +summer of 1500 with a single ship. He touched at the Azores. It is +possible that a second vessel joined him there, but this is not clear. +From the Azores his path lay north and west, till presently he reached +a land described as a 'cool region with great woods.' Corte-Real called +it from its verdure 'the Green Land,' but the similarity of name with +the place that we call Greenland is only an accident. In reality the +Portuguese captain was on the coast of Newfoundland. He saw a number of +natives. They appeared to the Portuguese a barbarous people, who +dressed in skins, and lived in caves. They used bows and arrows, and +had wooden spears, the points of which they hardened with fire. +</P> + +<P> +Corte-Real directed his course northward, until he found himself off +the coast of Greenland. He sailed for some distance along those rugged +and forbidding shores, a land of desolation, with jagged mountains and +furrowed cliffs, wrapped in snow and ice. No trace of the lost +civilization of the Norsemen met his eyes. The Portuguese pilot +considered Greenland at its southern point to be an outstanding +promontory of Asia, and he struggled hard to pass beyond it westward to +a more favoured region. But his path was blocked by 'enormous masses of +frozen snow floating on the sea, and moving under the influence of the +waves.' It is clear that he was met not merely by the field ice of the +Arctic ocean, but also by great icebergs moving slowly with the polar +current. The narrative tells how Corte-Real's crew obtained fresh water +from the icebergs. 'Owing to the heat of the sun, fresh and clear water +is melted on the summits, and, descending by small channels formed by +the water itself, it eats away the base where it falls. The boats were +sent in, and in that way as much was taken as was needed.' +</P> + +<P> +Corte-Real made his way as far as a place (which was in latitude 60 +degrees) where the sea about him seemed a flowing stream of snow, and +so he called it Rio Nevado, 'the river of snow.' Probably it was Hudson +Strait. +</P> + +<P> +Late in the same season, Corte-Real was back in Lisbon. He had +discovered nothing of immediate profit to the crown of Portugal, but +his survey of the coast of North America from Newfoundland to Hudson +Strait seems to have strengthened the belief that the best route to +India lay in this direction. In any case, on May 15, 1501, he was sent +out again with three ships. This time the Portuguese discovered a +region, so they said, which no one had before visited. The description +indicates that they were on the coast of Nova Scotia and the adjacent +part of New England. The land was wooded with fine straight timber, fit +for the masts of ships, and 'when they landed they found delicious +fruits of various kinds, and trees and pines of marvellous height and +thickness.' They saw many natives, occupied in hunting and fishing. +Following the custom of the time, they seized fifty or sixty natives, +and crowded these unhappy captives into the holds of their ships, to +carry home as evidence of the reality of their discoveries, and to be +sold as slaves. These savages are described by those who saw them in +Portugal as of shapely form and gentle manner, though uncouth and even +dirty in person. They wore otter skins, and their faces were marked +with lines. The description would answer to any of the Algonquin tribes +of the eastern coast. Among the natives seen on the coast there was a +boy who had in his ears two silver rings of Venetian make. The +circumstance led the Portuguese to suppose that they were on the coast +of Asia, and that a European ship had recently visited the same spot. +The true explanation, if the circumstance is correctly reported, would +seem to be that the rings were relics of Cabot's voyages and of his +trade in the trinkets supplied by the merchants. +</P> + +<P> +Gaspar Corte-Real sent his consort ships home, promising to explore the +coast further, and to return later in the season. The vessels duly +reached Lisbon, bringing their captives and the news of the voyage. +Corte-Real, however, never returned, nor is anything known of his fate. +</P> + +<P> +When a year had passed with no news of Gaspar Corte-Real, his brother +Miguel fitted out a new expedition of three ships and sailed westward +in search of him. On reaching the coast of Newfoundland, the ships of +Miguel Corte-Real separated in order to make a diligent search in all +directions for the missing Gaspar. They followed the deep indentations +of the island, noting its outstanding features. Here and there they +fell in with the natives and traded with them, but they found nothing +of value. To make matters worse, when the time came to assemble, as +agreed, in the harbour of St John's, only two ships arrived at the +rendezvous. That of Miguel was missing. After waiting some time the +other vessels returned without him to Portugal. +</P> + +<P> +Two Corte-Reals were now lost. King Manoel transferred the rights of +Gaspar and Miguel to another brother, and in the ensuing years sent out +several Portuguese expeditions to search for the lost leaders, but +without success. The Portuguese gained only a knowledge of the +abundance of fish in the region of the Newfoundland coast. This was +important, and henceforth Portuguese ships joined with the Normans, the +Bretons, and the English in fishing on the Grand Banks. Of the +Corte-Reals nothing more was ever heard. +</P> + +<P> +The next great voyage of discovery was that of Juan Verrazano, some +twenty years after the loss of the Corte-Reals. Like so many other +pilots of his time, Verrazano was an Italian. He had wandered much +about the world, had made his way to the East Indies by the new route +that the Portuguese had opened, and had also, so it is said, been a +member of a ship's company in one of the fishing voyages to +Newfoundland now made in every season. +</P> + +<P> +The name of Juan Verrazano has a peculiar significance in Canadian +history. In more ways than one he was the forerunner of Jacques +Cartier, 'the discoverer of Canada.' Not only did he sail along the +coast of Canada, but did so in the service of the king of France, the +first representative of those rising ambitions which were presently to +result in the foundation of New France and the colonial empire of the +Bourbon monarchy. Francis I, the French king, was a vigorous and +ambitious prince. His exploits and rivalries occupy the foreground of +European history in the earlier part of the sixteenth century. It was +the object of Francis to continue the work of Louis XI by consolidating +his people into a single powerful state. His marriage with the heiress +of Brittany joined that independent duchy, rich at least in the +seafaring bravery of its people, to the crown of France. But Francis +aimed higher still. He wished to make himself the arbiter of Europe and +the over-lord of the European kings. Having been defeated by the +equally famous king of Spain, Charles V, in his effort to gain the +position and title of Holy Roman Emperor and the leadership of Europe, +he set himself to overthrow the rising greatness of Spain. The history +of Europe for a quarter of a century turns upon the opposing ambitions +of the two monarchs. +</P> + +<P> +As a part of his great design, Francis I turned towards western +discovery and exploration, in order to rival if possible the +achievements of Columbus and Cortes and to possess himself of +territories abounding in gold and silver, in slaves and merchandise, +like the islands of Cuba and San Domingo and the newly conquered empire +of Montezuma, which Spain held. It was in this design that he sent out +Juan Verrazano; in further pursuit of it he sent Jacques Cartier ten +years later; and the result was that French dominion afterwards, +prevailed in the valley of the St Lawrence and seeds were planted from +which grew the present Dominion of Canada. +</P> + +<P> +At the end of the year 1523 Juan Verrazano set out from the port of +Dieppe with four ships. Beaten about by adverse storms, they put into +harbour at Madeira, so badly strained by the rough weather that only a +single seaworthy ship remained. In this, the Dauphine, Verrazano set +forth on January 17, 1524, for his western discovery. The voyage was +prosperous, except for one awful tempest in mid-Atlantic, 'as +terrible,' wrote Verrazano, 'as ever any sailors suffered.' After seven +weeks of westward sailing Verrazano sighted a coast 'never before seen +of any man either ancient or modern.' This was the shore of North +Carolina. From this point the French captain made his way northward, +closely inspecting the coast, landing here and there, and taking note +of the appearance, the resources, and the natives of the country. The +voyage was chiefly along the coast of what is now the United States, +and does not therefore immediately concern the present narrative. +Verrazano's account of his discoveries, as he afterwards wrote it down, +is full of picturesque interest, and may now be found translated into +English in Hakluyt's Voyages. He tells of the savages who flocked to +the low sandy shore to see the French ship riding at anchor. They wore +skins about their loins and light feathers in their hair, and they were +'of colour russet, and not much unlike the Saracens.' Verrazano said +that these Indians were of 'cheerful and steady look, not strong of +body, yet sharp-witted, nimble, and exceeding great runners.' As he +sailed northward he was struck with the wonderful vegetation of the +American coast, the beautiful forest of pine and cypress and other +trees, unknown to him, covered with tangled vines as prolific as the +vines of Lombardy. Verrazano's voyage and his landings can be traced +all the way from Carolina to the northern part of New England. He noted +the wonderful harbour at the mouth of the Hudson, skirted the coast +eastward from that point, and then followed northward along the shores +of Massachusetts and Maine. Beyond this Verrazano seems to have made no +landings, but he followed the coast of Nova Scotia and Newfoundland. He +sailed, so he says, as far as fifty degrees north, or almost to the +Strait of Belle Isle. Then he turned eastward, headed out into the +great ocean, and reached France in safety. Unfortunately, Verrazano did +not write a detailed account of that part of his voyage which related +to Canadian waters. But there is no doubt that his glowing descriptions +must have done much to stimulate the French to further effort. +Unhappily, at the moment of his return, his royal master was deeply +engaged in a disastrous invasion of Italy, where he shortly met the +crushing defeat at Pavia (1525) which left him a captive in the hands +of his Spanish rival. His absence crippled French enterprise, and +Verrazano's explorations were not followed up till a change of fortune +enabled Francis to send out the famous expedition of Jacques Cartier. +</P> + +<P> +One other expedition to Canada deserves brief mention before we come to +Cartier's crowning discovery of the St Lawrence river. This is the +voyage of Stephen Gomez, who was sent out in the year 1524. by Charles +V, the rival of Francis I. He spent about ten months on the voyage, +following much the same course as Verrazano, but examining with far +greater care the coast of Nova Scotia and the territory about the +opening of the Gulf of St Lawrence. His course can be traced from the +Penobscot river in Maine to the island of Cape Breton. He entered the +Bay of Fundy, and probably went far enough to realize from its tides, +rising sometimes to a height of sixty or seventy feet, that its farther +end could not be free, and that it could not furnish an open passage to +the Western Sea. Running north-east along the shore of Nova Scotia, +Gomez sailed through the Gut of Canso, thus learning that Cape Breton +was an island. He named it the Island of St John-or, rather, he +transferred to it this name, which the map-makers had already used. +Hence it came about that the 'Island of St John' occasions great +confusion in the early geography of Canada. The first map-makers who +used it secured their information indirectly, we may suppose, from the +Cabot voyages and the fishermen who frequented the coast. They marked +it as an island lying in the 'Bay of the Bretons,' which had come to be +the name for the open mouth of the Gulf of St Lawrence. Gomez, however, +used the name for Cape Breton island. Later on, the name was applied to +what is now Prince Edward Island. All this is only typical of the +difficulties in understanding the accounts of the early voyages to +America. Gomez duly returned to the port of Corunna in June 1525. +</P> + +<P> +We may thus form some idea of the general position of American +exploration and discovery at the time when Cartier made his momentous +voyages. The maritime nations of Europe, in searching for a passage to +the half-mythical empires of Asia, had stumbled on a great continent. +At first they thought it Asia itself. Gradually they were realizing +that this was not Asia, but an outlying land that lay between Europe +and Asia and that must be passed by the navigator before Cathay and +Cipango could rise upon the horizon. But the new continent was vast in +extent. It blocked the westward path from pole to pole. With each +voyage, too, the resources and the native beauty of the new land became +more apparent. The luxuriant islands of the West Indies, and the Aztec +empire of Mexico, were already bringing wealth and grandeur to the +monarchy of Spain. South of Mexico it had been already found that the +great barrier of the continent extended to the cold tempestuous seas of +the Antarctic region. Magellan's voyage (1519-22) had proved indeed +that by rounding South America the way was open to the spice islands of +the east. But the route was infinitely long and arduous. The hope of a +shorter passage by the north beckoned the explorer. Of this north +country nothing but its coast was known as yet. Cabot and the fishermen +had found a land of great forests, swept by the cold and leaden seas of +the Arctic, and holding its secret clasped in the iron grip of the +northern ice. The Corte-Reals, Verrazano, and Gomez had looked upon the +endless panorama of the Atlantic coast of North America—the glorious +forests draped with tangled vines extending to the sanded beaches of +the sea—the wide inlets round the mouths of mighty rivers moving +silent and mysterious from the heart of the unknown continent. Here and +there a painted savage showed the bright feathers of his headgear as he +lurked in the trees of the forest or stood, in fearless curiosity, +gazing from the shore at the white-winged ships of the strange +visitants from the sky. But for the most part all, save the sounds of +nature, was silence and mystery. The waves thundered upon the sanded +beach of Carolina and lashed in foam about the rocks of the iron coasts +of New England and the New Found Land. The forest mingled its murmurs +with the waves, and, as the sun sank behind the unknown hills, wafted +its perfume to the anchored ships that rode upon the placid bosom of +the evening sea. And beyond all this was mystery—the mystery of the +unknown East, the secret of the pathway that must lie somewhere hidden +in the bays and inlets of the continent of silent beauty, and above all +the mysterious sense of a great history still to come for this new land +itself—a sense of the murmuring of many voices caught as the undertone +of the rustling of the forest leaves, but rising at last to the mighty +sound of the vast civilization that in the centuries to come should +pour into the silent wildernesses of America. +</P> + +<P> +To such a land—to such a mystery—sailed forth Jacques Cartier, +discoverer of Canada. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="biblio"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE +</H3> + +<P> +The Icelandic sagas contain legends of a discovery of America before +Columbus. Benjamin de Costa, in his 'Pre-Columbian Discovery of +America', has given translations of a number of these legends. Other +works bearing on this mythical period are: A. M. Reeves's 'The Finding +of Wineland the Good'; J. E. Olson's 'The Voyages of the Northmen' in +Vol. I of the 'Original Narrative of Early American History', edited by +J. F. Jameson; Fridtjof Nansen's 'In Northern Mists'; and John Fiske's +'The Discovery of America'. A number of general histories have chapters +bearing on pre-Columbian discovery; the most accessible of these are: +Justin Winsor's 'Narrative and Critical History of America'; +Charlevoix's 'Histoire et description generale de la Nouvelle France' +(1744), translated with notes by J. G. Shea (1886); Henry Harrisse's +'Discovery of North America'; and the 'Conquest of Canada', by the +author of 'Hochelaga'. +</P> + +<P> +There are numerous works in the Spanish, French, Italian, and English +languages dealing with Columbus and his time. Pre-eminent among the +latter are: Irving's 'Life of Columbus'; Winsor's 'Christopher Columbus +and how he Received and Imparted the Spirit of Discovery'; Helps's +'Life of Columbus'; Prescott's 'History of Ferdinand and Isabella'; +Crompton's 'Life of Columbus'; St John's 'Life of Columbus'; and +Major's 'Select Letters of Columbus' (a Hakluyt Society publication). +Likewise in every important work which deals with the early history of +North or South America, Columbus and his voyages are discussed. +</P> + +<P> +The literature dealing with the Cabots is quite as voluminous as that +bearing on Columbus. Henry Harrisse's 'John Cabot, the Discoverer of +North America and Sebastian, his Son; a Chapter of the Maritime History +of England under the Tudors, 1496-1557', is a most exhaustive work. +Other authoritative works on the Cabots are Nichols's 'Remarkable Life, +Adventures, and Discoveries of Sebastian Cabot', in which an effort is +made to give the chief glory of the discovery of America not to John +Cabot, but to his son Sebastian; Dawson's 'The Voyages of the Cabots, +1497 and 1498', 'The Voyages of the Cabots, a Sequel', and 'The Voyages +of the Cabots, Latest Phases of the Controversy', in 'Transactions +Royal Society of Canada'; Biddle's 'Memoir of Sebastian Cabot'; +Beazley's 'John and Sebastian Cabot, The Discovery of North America'; +and Weare's 'Cabot's Discovery of America'. +</P> + +<P> +A number of European writers have made able studies of the work of +Verrazano, and two American scholars have contributed valuable works on +that explorer's life and achievements; these are, De Costa's 'Verrazano +the Explorer: a Vindication of his Letter and Voyage', and Murphy's +'The Voyage of Verrazano'. +</P> + +<P> +In addition to the general histories already mentioned, the following +works contain much information on the voyages of the forerunners of +Jacques Cartier: Parkman's 'Pioneers of France'; Kohl's 'Discovery of +Maine'; Woodbury's 'Relation of the Fisheries to the Discovery of North +America' (in this work it is claimed that the Basques antedated the +Cabots); Dawson's 'The St Lawrence Basin and Its Borderlands'; Weise's +'The Discoveries of America'; 'The Journal of Christopher Columbus', +and 'Documents relating to the Voyages of John Cabot and Gaspar +Corte-Real', translated with Notes and an Introduction by Sir Clements +R. Markham; and Biggar's 'The Precursors of Jacques Cartier, +1497-1534'. This last work is essential to the student of the early +voyages to America. It contains documents, many published for the first +time, in Latin, Portuguese, Spanish, Italian, and French dealing with +exploration. The notes are invaluable, and the documents, with the +exception of those in French, are carefully though freely translated. +</P> + +<P> +For the native tribes of America the reader would do well to consult +the 'Handbook of American Indians North of Mexico', published by the +Bureau of American Ethnology, and the 'Handbook of Indians of Canada', +reprinted by the Canadian Government, with additions and minor +alterations, from the preceding work, under the direction of James +White, F.R.G.S. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR><BR> + + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Dawn of Canadian History: A +Chronicle of Aboriginal Canada, by Stephen Leacock + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK DAWN OF CANADIAN HISTORY *** + +***** This file should be named 4069-h.htm or 4069-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/4/0/6/4069/ + +Produced by Gardner Buchanan. 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Dawn of Canadian History: A Chronicle of Aboriginal Canada + +Author: Stephen Leacock + +Editor: George M. Wrong + H. H. Langton + +Posting Date: June 13, 2009 [EBook #4069] +Release Date: March, 2003 +First Posted: November 3, 2001 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK DAWN OF CANADIAN HISTORY *** + + + + +Produced by Gardner Buchanan. HTML version by Al Haines. + + + + + + + + + +CHRONICLES OF CANADA + +Edited by George M. Wrong and H. H. Langton + +In thirty-two volumes + + + +Part I + +The First European Visitors + +THE DAWN OF CANADIAN HISTORY + +A Chronicle of Aboriginal Canada + + +By + +STEPHEN LEACOCK + + +TORONTO, 1915 + + + +CONTENTS + + I BEFORE THE DAWN + II MAN IN AMERICA + III THE ABORIGINES OF CANADA + IV THE LEGEND OF THE NORSEMEN + V THE BRISTOL VOYAGES + VI FORERUNNERS OF JACQUES CARTIER + BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE + + + +CHAPTER I + +BEFORE THE DAWN + +We always speak of Canada as a new country. In one sense, of course, +this is true. The settlement of Europeans on Canadian soil dates back +only three hundred years. Civilization in Canada is but a thing of +yesterday, and its written history, when placed beside the long +millenniums of the recorded annals of European and Eastern peoples, +seems but a little span. + +But there is another sense in which the Dominion of Canada, or at least +part of it, is perhaps the oldest country in the world. According to +the Nebular Theory the whole of our planet was once a fiery molten mass +gradually cooling and hardening itself into the globe we know. On its +surface moved and swayed a liquid sea glowing with such a terrific heat +that we can form no real idea of its intensity. As the mass cooled, +vast layers of vapour, great beds of cloud, miles and miles in +thickness, were formed and hung over the face of the globe, obscuring +from its darkened surface the piercing beams of the sun. Slowly the +earth cooled, until great masses of solid matter, rock as we call it, +still penetrated with intense heat, rose to the surface of the boiling +sea. Forces of inconceivable magnitude moved through the mass. The +outer surface of the globe as it cooled ripped and shrivelled like a +withering orange. Great ridges, the mountain chains of to-day, were +furrowed on its skin. Here in the darkness of the prehistoric night +there arose as the oldest part of the surface of the earth the great +rock bed that lies in a huge crescent round the shores of Hudson Bay, +from Labrador to the unknown wilderness of the barren lands of the +Coppermine basin touching the Arctic sea. The wanderer who stands +to-day in the desolate country of James Bay or Ungava is among the +oldest monuments of the world. The rugged rock which here and there +breaks through the thin soil of the infertile north has lain on the +spot from the very dawn of time. Millions of years have probably +elapsed since the cooling of the outer crust of the globe produced the +solid basis of our continents. + +The ancient formation which thus marks the beginnings of the solid +surface of the globe is commonly called by geologists the Archaean +rock, and the myriads of uncounted years during which it slowly took +shape are called the Archaean age. But the word 'Archaean' itself tells +us nothing, being merely a Greek term meaning 'very old.' This Archaean +or original rock must necessarily have extended all over the surface of +our sphere as it cooled from its molten form and contracted into the +earth on which we live. But in most places this rock lies deep under +the waters of the oceans, or buried below the heaped up strata of the +formations which the hand of time piled thickly upon it. Only here and +there can it still be seen as surface rock or as rock that lies but a +little distance below the soil. In Canada, more than anywhere else in +the world, is this Archaean formation seen. On a geological map it is +marked as extending all round the basin of Hudson Bay, from Labrador to +the shores of the Arctic. It covers the whole of the country which we +call New Ontario, and also the upper part of the province of Quebec. +Outside of this territory there was at the dawn of time no other 'land' +where North America now is, except a long island of rock that marks the +backbone of what are now the Selkirk Mountains and a long ridge that is +now the mountain chain of the Alleghanies beside the Atlantic slope. + +Books on geology trace out for us the long successive periods during +which the earth's surface was formed. Even in the Archaean age +something in the form of life may have appeared. Perhaps vast masses of +dank seaweed germinated as the earliest of plants in the steaming +oceans. The water warred against the land, tearing and breaking at its +rock formation and distributing it in new strata, each buried beneath +the next and holding fast within it the fossilized remains that form +the record of its history. Huge fern plants spread their giant fronds +in the dank sunless atmospheres, to be buried later in vast beds of +decaying vegetation that form the coal-fields of to-day. + +Animal life began first, like the plants, in the bosom of the ocean. +From the slimy depths of the water life crawled hideous to the land. +Great reptiles dragged their sluggish length through the tangled +vegetation of the jungle of giant ferns. + +Through countless thousands of years, perhaps, this gradual process +went on. Nature, shifting its huge scenery, depressed the ocean beds +and piled up the dry land of the continents. In place of the vast +'Continental Sea,' which once filled the interior of North America, +there arose the great plateau or elevated plain that now runs from the +Mackenzie basin to the Gulf of Mexico. Instead of the rushing waters of +the inland sea, these waters have narrowed into great rivers--the +Mackenzie, the Saskatchewan, the Mississippi--that swept the face of +the plateau and wore down the surface of the rock and mountain slopes +to spread their powdered fragments on the broad level soil of the +prairies of the west. With each stage in the evolution of the land the +forms of life appear to have reached a higher development. In place of +the seaweed and the giant ferns of the dawn of time there arose the +maples, the beeches, and other waving trees that we now see in the +Canadian woods. The huge reptiles in the jungle of the Carboniferous +era passed out of existence. In place of them came the birds, the +mammals,--the varied types of animal life which we now know. Last in +the scale of time and highest in point of evolution, there appeared man. + +We must not speak of the continents as having been made once and for +all in their present form. No doubt in the countless centuries of +geological evolution various parts of the earth were alternately raised +and depressed. Great forests grew, and by some convulsion were buried +beneath the ocean, covered deep as they lay there with a sediment of +earth and rock, and at length raised again as the waters retreated. The +coal-beds of Cape Breton are the remains of a forest buried beneath the +sea. Below the soil of Alberta is a vast jungle of vegetation, a dense +mass of giant fern trees. The Great Lakes were once part of a much +vaster body of water, far greater in extent than they now are. The +ancient shore-line of Lake Superior may be traced five hundred feet +above its present level. + +In that early period the continents and islands which we now see wholly +separated were joined together at various points. The British islands +formed a connected part of Europe. The Thames and the Rhine were one +and the same river, flowing towards the Arctic ocean over a plain that +is now the shallow sunken bed of the North Sea. It is probable that +during the last great age, the Quaternary, as geologists call it, the +upheaval of what is now the region of Siberia and Alaska, made a +continuous chain of land from Asia to America. As the land was +depressed again it left behind it the islands in the Bering Sea, like +stepping-stones from shore to shore. In the same way, there was perhaps +a solid causeway of land from Canada to Europe reaching out across the +Northern Atlantic. Baffin Island and other islands of the Canadian +North Sea, the great sub-continent of Greenland, Iceland, the Faroe +Islands, and the British Isles, all formed part of this continuous +chain. + +As the last of the great changes, there came the Ice Age, which +profoundly affected the climate and soil of Canada, and, when the ice +retreated, left its surface much as we see it now. During this period +the whole of Canada from the Atlantic to the Rocky Mountains lay buried +under a vast sheet of ice. Heaped up in immense masses over the frozen +surface of the Hudson Bay country, the ice, from its own dead weight, +slid sidewise to the south. As it went it ground down the surface of +the land into deep furrows and channels; it cut into the solid rock +like a moving plough, and carried with it enormous masses of loose +stone and boulders which it threw broadcast over the face of the +country. These stones and boulders were thus carried forty and fifty, +and in some cases many hundred miles before they were finally loosed +and dropped from the sheet of moving ice. In Ontario and Quebec and New +England great stones of the glacial drift are found which weigh from +one thousand to seven thousand tons. They are deposited in some cases +on what is now the summit of hills and mountains, showing how deep the +sheet of ice must have been that could thus cover the entire surface of +the country, burying alike the valleys and the hills. The mass of ice +that moved slowly, century by century, across the face of Southern +Canada to New England is estimated to have been in places a mile thick. +The limit to which it was carried went far south of the boundaries of +Canada. The path of the glacial drift is traced by geologists as far +down the Atlantic coast as the present site of New York, and in the +central plain of the continent it extended to what is now the state of +Missouri. + +Facts seem to support the theory that before the Great Ice Age the +climate of the northern part of Canada was very different from what it +is now. It is very probable that a warm if not a torrid climate +extended for hundreds of miles northward of the now habitable limits of +the Dominion. The frozen islands of the Arctic seas were once the seat +of luxurious vegetation and teemed with life. On Bathurst Island, which +lies in the latitude of 76 degrees, and is thus six hundred miles north +of the Arctic Circle, there have been found the bones of huge lizards +that could only have lived in the jungles of an almost tropical climate. + +We cannot tell with any certainty just how and why these great changes +came about. But geologists have connected them with the alternating +rise and fall of the surface of the northern continent and its altitude +at various times above the level of the sea. Thus it seems probable +that the glacial period with the ice sheet of which we have spoken was +brought about by a great elevation of the land, accompanied by a change +to intense cold. This led to the formation of enormous masses of ice +heaped up so high that they presently collapsed and moved of their own +weight from the elevated land of the north where they had been formed. +Later on, the northern continent subsided again and the ice sheet +disappeared, but left behind it an entirely different level and a +different climate from those of the earlier ages. The evidence of the +later movements of the land surface, and its rise and fall after the +close of the glacial epoch, may still easily be traced. At a certain +time after the Ice Age, the surface sank so low that land which has +since been lifted up again to a considerable height was once the beach +of the ancient ocean. These beaches are readily distinguished by the +great quantities of sea shells that lie about, often far distant from +the present sea. Thus at Nachvak in Labrador there is a beach fifteen +hundred feet above the ocean. Probably in this period after the Ice Age +the shores of Eastern Canada had sunk so low that the St Lawrence was +not a river at all, but a great gulf or arm of the sea. The ancient +shore can still be traced beside the mountain at Montreal and on the +hillsides round Lake Ontario. Later on again the land rose, the ocean +retreated, and the rushing waters from the shrunken lakes made their +own path to the sea. In their foaming course to the lower level they +tore out the great gorge of Niagara, and tossed and buffeted themselves +over the unyielding ledges of Lachine. + +Mighty forces such as these made and fashioned the continent on which +we live. + + + +CHAPTER II + +MAN IN AMERICA + +It was necessary to form some idea, if only in outline, of the +magnitude and extent of the great geological changes of which we have +just spoken, in order to judge properly the question of the antiquity +and origin of man in America. + +When the Europeans came to this continent at the end of the fifteenth +century they found it already inhabited by races of men very different +from themselves. These people, whom they took to calling 'Indians,' +were spread out, though very thinly, from one end of the continent to +the other. Who were these nations, and how was their presence to be +accounted for? + +To the first discoverers of America, or rather to the discoverers of +the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries (Columbus and his successors), +the origin of the Indians presented no difficulty. To them America was +supposed to be simply an outlying part of Eastern Asia, which had been +known by repute and by tradition for centuries past. Finding, +therefore, the tropical islands of the Caribbean sea with a climate and +plants and animals such as they imagined those of Asia and the Indian +ocean to be, and inhabited by men of dusky colour and strange speech, +they naturally thought the place to be part of Asia, or the Indies. The +name 'Indians,' given to the aborigines of North America, records for +us this historical misunderstanding. + +But a new view became necessary after Balboa had crossed the isthmus of +Panama and looked out upon the endless waters of the Pacific, and after +Magellan and his Spanish comrades had sailed round the foot of the +continent, and then pressed on across the Pacific to the real Indies. +It was now clear that America was a different region from Asia. Even +then the old error died hard. Long after the Europeans realized that, +at the south, America and Asia were separated by a great sea, they +imagined that these continents were joined together at the north. The +European ideas of distance and of the form of the globe were still +confused and inexact. A party of early explorers in Virginia carried a +letter of introduction with them from the King of England to the Khan +of Tartary: they expected to find him at the head waters of the +Chickahominy. Jacques Cartier, nearly half a century after Columbus, +was expecting that the Gulf of St Lawrence would open out into a +passage leading to China. But after the discovery of the North Pacific +ocean and Bering Strait the idea that America was part of Asia, that +the natives were 'Indians' in the old sense, was seen to be absurd. It +was clear that America was, in a large sense, an island, an island cut +off from every other continent. It then became necessary to find some +explanation for the seemingly isolated position of a portion of mankind +separated from their fellows by boundless oceans. + +The earlier theories were certainly naive enough. Since no known human +agency could have transported the Indians across the Atlantic or the +Pacific, their presence in America was accounted for by certain of the +old writers as a particular work of the devil. Thus Cotton Mather, the +famous Puritan clergyman of early New England, maintained in all +seriousness that the devil had inveigled the Indians to America to get +them 'beyond the tinkle of the gospel bells.' Others thought that they +were a washed-up remnant of the great flood. Roger Williams, the +founder of Rhode Island, wrote: 'From Adam and Noah that they spring, +it is granted on all hands.' Even more fantastic views were advanced. +As late as in 1828 a London clergyman wrote a book which he called 'A +View of the American Indians,' which was intended to 'show them to be +the descendants of the ten tribes of Israel.' + +Even when such ideas as these were set aside, historians endeavoured to +find evidence, or at least probability, of a migration of the Indians +from the known continents across one or the other of the oceans. It +must be admitted that, even if we supposed the form and extent of the +continents to have been always the same as they are now, such a +migration would have been entirely possible. It is quite likely that +under the influence of exceptional weather--winds blowing week after +week from the same point of the compass--even a primitive craft of +prehistoric times might have been driven across the Atlantic or the +Pacific, and might have landed its occupants still alive and well on +the shores of America. To prove this we need only remember that history +records many such voyages. It has often happened that Japanese junks +have been blown clear across the Pacific. In 1833 a ship of this sort +was driven in a great storm from Japan to the shores of the Queen +Charlotte Islands off the coast of British Columbia. In the same way a +fishing smack from Formosa, which lies off the east coast of China, was +once carried in safety across the ocean to the Sandwich Islands. +Similar long voyages have been made by the natives of the South Seas +against their will, under the influence of strong and continuous winds, +and in craft no better than their open canoes. Captain Beechey of the +Royal Navy relates that in one of his voyages in the Pacific he picked +up a canoe filled with natives from Tahiti who had been driven by a +gale of westerly wind six hundred miles from their own island. It has +happened, too, from time to time, since the discovery of America, that +ships have been forcibly carried all the way across the Atlantic. A +glance at the map of the world shows us that the eastern coast of +Brazil juts out into the South Atlantic so far that it is only fifteen +hundred miles distant from the similar projection of Africa towards the +west. The direction of the trade winds in the South Atlantic is such +that it has often been the practice of sailing vessels bound from +England to South Africa to run clear across the ocean on a long stretch +till within sight of the coast of Brazil before turning towards the +Cape of Good Hope. All, however, that we can deduce from accidental +voyages, like that of the Spaniard, Alvarez de Cabral, across the ocean +is that even if there had been no other way for mankind to reach +America they could have landed there by ship from the Old World. In +such a case, of course, the coming of man to the American continent +would have been an extremely recent event in the long history of the +world. It could not have occurred until mankind had progressed far +enough to make vessels, or at least boats of a simple kind. + +But there is evidence that man had appeared on the earth long before +the shaping of the continents had taken place. Both in Europe and +America the buried traces of primitive man are vast in antiquity, and +carry us much further back in time than the final changes of earth and +ocean which made the continents as they are; and, when we remember +this, it is easy to see how mankind could have passed from Asia or +Europe to America. The connection of the land surface of the globe was +different in early times from what it is to-day. Even still, Siberia +and Alaska are separated only by the narrow Bering Strait. From the +shore of Asia the continent of North America is plainly visible; the +islands which lie in and below the strait still look like +stepping-stones from continent to continent. And, apart from this, it +may well have been that farther south, where now is the Pacific ocean, +there was formerly direct land connection between Southern Asia and +South America. The continuous chain of islands that runs from the New +Hebrides across the South Pacific to within two thousand four hundred +miles of the coast of Chile is perhaps the remains of a sunken +continent. In the most easterly of these, Easter Island, have been +found ruined temples and remains of great earthworks on a scale so vast +that to believe them the work of a small community of islanders is +difficult. The fact that they bear some resemblance to the buildings +and works of the ancient inhabitants of Chile and Peru has suggested +that perhaps South America was once merely a part of a great Pacific +continent. Or again, turning to the other side of the continent, it may +be argued with some show of evidence that America and Africa were once +connected by land, and that a sunken continent is to be traced between +Brazil and the Guinea coast. + +Nevertheless, it appears to be impossible to say whether or not an +early branch of the human race ever 'migrated' to America. Conceivably +the race may have originated there. Some authorities suppose that the +evolution of mankind occurred at the same time and in the same fashion +in two or more distinct quarters of the globe. Others again think that +mankind evolved and spread over the surface of the world just as did +the various kinds of plants and animals. Of course, the higher +endowment of men enabled them to move with greater ease from place to +place than could beings of lesser faculties. Most writers of to-day, +however, consider this unlikely, and think it more probable that man +originated first in some one region, and spread from it throughout the +earth. But where this region was, they cannot tell. We always think of +the races of Europe as having come westward from some original home in +Asia. This is, of course, perfectly true, since nearly all the peoples +of Europe can be traced by descent from the original stock of the Aryan +family, which certainly made such a migration. But we know also that +races of men were dwelling in Europe ages before the Aryan migration. +What particular part of the globe was the first home of mankind is a +question on which we can only speculate. + +Of one thing we may be certain. If there was a migration, there must +have been long ages of separation between mankind in America and +mankind in the Old World; otherwise we should still find some trace of +kinship in language which would join the natives of America to the +great racial families of Europe, Asia, and Africa. But not the +slightest vestige of such kinship has yet been found. Everybody knows +in a general way how the prehistoric relationships among the peoples of +Europe and Asia are still to be seen in the languages of to-day. The +French and Italian languages are so alike that, if we did not know it +already, we could easily guess for them a common origin. We speak of +these languages, along with others, as Romance languages, to show that +they are derived from Latin, in contrast with the closely related +tongues of the English, Dutch, and German peoples, which came from +another common stock, the Teutonic. But even the Teutonic and the +Romance languages are not entirely different. The similarity in both +groups of old root words, like the numbers from one to ten, point again +to a common origin still more remote. In this way we may trace a whole +family of languages, and with it a kinship of descent, from Hindustan +to Ireland. Similarly, another great group of tongues--Arabic, Hebrew, +etc.--shows a branch of the human family spread out from Palestine and +Egypt to Morocco. + +Now when we come to inquire into the languages of the American Indians +for evidence of their relationship to other peoples we are struck with +this fact: we cannot connect the languages of America with those of any +other part of the world. This is a very notable circumstance. The +languages of Europe and Asia are, as it were, dovetailed together, and +run far and wide into Africa. From Asia eastward, through the Malay +tongues, a connection may be traced even with the speech of the Maori +of New Zealand, and with that of the remotest islanders of the Pacific. +But similar attempts to connect American languages with the outside +world break down. There are found in North America, from the Arctic to +Mexico, some fifty-five groups of languages still existing or recently +extinct. Throughout these we may trace the same affinities and +relationships that run through the languages of Europe and Asia. We can +also easily connect the speech of the natives of North America with +that of natives of Central and of South America. Even if we had not the +similarities of physical appearance, of tribal customs, and of general +manners to argue from, we should be able to say with certainty that the +various families of American Indians all belonged to one race. The +Eskimos of Northern Canada are not Indians, and are perhaps an +exception; it is possible that a connection may be traced between them +and the prehistoric cave-men of Northern Europe. But the Indians belong +to one great race, and show no connection in language or customs with +the outside world. They belong to the American continent, it has been +said, as strictly as its opossums and its armadillos, its maize and its +golden rod, or any other of its aboriginal animals and plants. + +But, here again, we must not conclude too much from the fact that the +languages of America have no relation to those of Europe and Asia. This +does not show that men originated separately on this continent. For +even in Europe and Asia, where no one supposes that different races +sprung from wholly separate beginnings, we find languages isolated in +the same way. The speech of the Basques in the Pyrenees has nothing in +common with the European families of languages. + +We may, however, regard the natives of America as an aboriginal race, +if any portion of mankind can be viewed as such. So far as we know, +they are not an offshoot, or a migration, from any people of what is +called the Old World, although they are, like the people of the other +continents, the descendants of a primitive human stock. + +We may turn to geology to find how long mankind has lived on this +continent. In a number of places in North and South America are found +traces of human beings and their work so old that in comparison the +beginning of the world's written history becomes a thing of yesterday. +Perhaps there were men in Canada long before the shores of its lakes +had assumed their present form; long before nature had begun to hollow +out the great gorge of the Niagara river or to lay down the outline of +the present Lake Ontario. Let us look at some of the notable evidence +in respect to the age of man in America. In Nicaragua, in Central +America, the imprints of human feet have been found, deeply buried over +twenty feet below the present surface of the soil, under repeated +deposits of volcanic rock. These impressions must have been made in +soft muddy soil which was then covered by some geological convulsion +occurring long ages ago. Even more striking discoveries have been made +along the Pacific coast of South America. Near the mouth of the +Esmeraldas river in Ecuador, over a stretch of some sixty miles, the +surface soil of the coast covers a bed of marine clay. This clay is +about eight feet thick. Underneath it is a stratum of sand and loam +such as might once have itself been surface soil. In this lower bed +there are found rude implements of stone, ornaments made of gold, and +bits of broken pottery. Again, if we turn to the northern part of the +continent we find remains of the same kind, chipped implements of stone +and broken fragments of quartz buried in the drift of the Mississippi +and Missouri valleys. These have sometimes been found lying beside or +under the bones of elephants and animals unknown in North America since +the period of the Great Ice. Not many years ago, some men engaged in +digging a well on a hillside that was once part of the beach of Lake +Ontario, came across the remains of a primitive hearth buried under the +accumulated soil. From its situation we can only conclude that the men +who set together the stones of the hearth, and lighted on it their +fires, did so when the vast wall of the northern glacier was only +beginning to retreat, and long before the gorge of Niagara had begun to +be furrowed out of the rock. + +Many things point to the conclusion that there were men in North and +South America during the remote changes of the Great Ice Age. But how +far the antiquity of man on this continent reaches back into the +preceding ages we cannot say. + + + +CHAPTER III + +THE ABORIGINES OF CANADA + +Of the uncounted centuries of the history of the red man in America +before the coming of the Europeans we know very little indeed. Very few +of the tribes possessed even a primitive art of writing. It is true +that the Aztecs of Mexico, and the ancient Toltecs who preceded them, +understood how to write in pictures, and that, by this means, they +preserved some record of their rulers and of the great events of their +past. The same is true of the Mayas of Central America, whose ruined +temples are still to be traced in the tangled forests of Yucatan and +Guatemala. The ancient Peruvians also had a system, not exactly of +writing, but of record by means of QUIPUS or twisted woollen cords of +different colours: it is through such records that we have some +knowledge of Peruvian history during about a hundred years before the +coming of the Spaniards, and some traditions reaching still further +back. But nowhere was the art of writing sufficiently developed in +America to give us a real history of the thoughts and deeds of its +people before the arrival of Columbus. + +This is especially true of those families of the great red race which +inhabited what is now Canada. They spent a primitive existence, living +thinly scattered along the sea-coast, and in the forests and open +glades of the district of the Great Lakes, or wandering over the +prairies of the west. In hardly any case had they any settled abode or +fixed dwelling-places. The Iroquois and some Algonquins built Long +Houses of wood and made stockade forts of heavy timber. But not even +these tribes, who represented the furthest advance towards civilization +among the savages of North America, made settlements in the real sense. +They knew nothing of the use of the metals. Such poor weapons and tools +as they had were made of stone, of wood, and of bone. It is true that +ages ago prehistoric men had dug out copper from the mines that lie +beside Lake Superior, for the traces of their operations there are +still found. But the art of working metals probably progressed but a +little way and then was lost,--overwhelmed perhaps in some ancient +savage conquest. The Indians found by Cartier and Champlain knew +nothing of the melting of metals for the manufacture of tools. Nor had +they anything but the most elementary form of agriculture. They planted +corn in the openings of the forest, but they did not fell trees to make +a clearing or plough the ground. The harvest provided by nature and the +products of the chase were their sole sources of supply, and in their +search for this food so casually offered they moved to and fro in the +depths of the forest or roved endlessly upon the plains. One great +advance, and only one, they had been led to make. The waterways of +North America are nature's highway through the forest. The bark canoe +in which the Indians floated over the surface of the Canadian lakes and +rivers is a marvel of construction and wonderfully adapted to its +purpose: This was their great invention. In nearly all other respects +the Indians of Canada had not emerged even from savagery to that stage +half way to civilization which is called barbarism. + +These Canadian aborigines seem to have been few in number. It is +probable that, when the continent was discovered, Canada, from the +Atlantic to the Pacific, contained about 220,000 natives--about half as +many people as are now found in Toronto. They were divided into tribes +or clans, among which we may distinguish certain family groups spread +out over great areas. + +Most northerly of all was the great tribe of the Eskimos, who were +found all the way from Greenland to Northern Siberia. The name Eskimo +was not given by these people to themselves. It was used by the Abnaki +Indians in describing to the whites the dwellers of the far north, and +it means 'the people who eat raw meat.' The Eskimo called and still +call themselves the Innuit, which means 'the people.' + +The exact relation of the Eskimo to the other races of the continent is +hard to define. From the fact that the race was found on both sides of +the Bering Sea, and that its members have dark hair and dark eyes, it +was often argued that they were akin to the Mongolians of China. This +theory, however, is now abandoned. The resemblance in height and colour +is only superficial, and a more careful view of the physical make-up of +the Eskimo shows him to resemble the other races of America far more +closely than he resembles those of Asia. A distinguished American +historian, John Fiske, believed that the Eskimos are the last remnants +of the ancient cave-men who in the Stone Age inhabited all the northern +parts of Europe. Fiske's theory is that at this remote period +continuous land stretched by way of Iceland and Greenland from Europe +to America, and that by this means the race of cave-men was able to +extend itself all the way from Norway and Sweden to the northern coasts +of America. In support of this view he points to the strangely +ingenious and artistic drawings of the Eskimos. These drawings are made +on ivory and bone, and are so like the ancient bone-pictures found +among the relics of the cave-men of Europe that they can scarcely be +distinguished. + +The theory is only a conjecture. It is certain that at one time the +Eskimo race extended much farther south than it did when the white men +came to America; in earlier days there were Eskimos far south of Hudson +Bay, and perhaps even south of the Great Lakes. + +As a result of their situation the Eskimos led a very different life +from that of the Indians to the south. They must rely on fishing and +hunting for food. In that almost treeless north they had no wood to +build boats or houses, and no vegetables or plants to supply them +either with food or with the materials of industry. But the very rigour +of their surroundings called forth in them a marvellous ingenuity. They +made boats of seal skins stretched tight over walrus bones, and clothes +of furs and of the skins and feathers of birds. They built winter +houses with great blocks of snow put together in the form of a bowl +turned upside down. They heated their houses by burning blubber or fat +in dish-like lamps chipped out of stones. They had, of course, no +written literature. They were, however, not devoid of art. They had +legends and folk-songs, handed down from generation to generation with +the utmost accuracy. In the long night of the Arctic winter they +gathered in their huts to hear strange monotonous singing by their +bards: a kind of low chanting, very strange to European ears, and +intended to imitate the sounds of nature, the murmur of running waters +and the sobbing of the sea. The Eskimos believed in spirits and +monsters whom they must appease with gifts and incantations. They +thought that after death the soul either goes below the earth to a +place always warm and comfortable, or that it is taken up into the cold +forbidding brightness of the polar sky. When the aurora borealis, or +Northern Lights, streamed across the heavens, the Eskimos thought it +the gleam of the souls of the dead visible in their new home. + +Farthest east of all the British North American Indians were the +Beothuks. Their abode was chiefly Newfoundland, though they wandered +also in the neighbourhood of the Strait of Belle Isle and along the +north shore of the Gulf of St Lawrence. They were in the lowest stage +of human existence and lived entirely by hunting and fishing. Unlike +the Eskimos they had no dogs, and so stern were the conditions of their +life that they maintained with difficulty the fight against the rigour +of nature. The early explorers found them on the rocky coasts of Belle +Isle, wild and half clad. They smeared their bodies with red ochre, +bright in colour, and this earned for them the name of Red Indians. +From the first, they had no friendly relations with the Europeans who +came to their shores, but lived in a state of perpetual war with them. +The Newfoundland fishermen and settlers hunted down the Red Indians as +if they were wild beasts, and killed them at sight. Now and again, a +few members of this unhappy race were carried home to England to be +exhibited at country fairs before a crowd of grinning yokels who paid a +penny apiece to look at the 'wild men.' + +Living on the mainland, next to the red men of Newfoundland lay the +great race of the Algonquins, spread over a huge tract of country, from +the Atlantic coast to the head of the Great Lakes, and even farther +west. The Algonquins were divided into a great many tribes, some of +whose names are still familiar among the Indians of to-day. The Micmacs +of Nova Scotia, the Malecite of New Brunswick, the Naskapi of Quebec, +the Chippewa of Ontario, and the Crees of the prairie, are of this +stock. It is even held that the Algonquins are to be considered typical +specimens of the American race. They were of fine stature, and in +strength and muscular development were quite on a par with the races of +the Old World. Their skin was copper-coloured, their lips and noses +were thin, and their hair in nearly all cases was straight and black. +When the Europeans first saw the Algonquins they had already made some +advance towards industrial civilization. They built huts of woven +boughs, and for defence sometimes surrounded a group of huts with a +palisade of stakes set up on end. They had no agriculture in the true +sense, but they cultivated Indian corn and pumpkins in the openings of +the forests, and also the tobacco plant, with the virtues of which they +were well acquainted. They made for themselves heavy and clumsy pottery +and utensils of wood, they wove mats out of rushes for their houses, +and they made clothes from the skin of the deer, and head-dresses from +the bright feathers of birds. Of the metals they knew, at the time of +the discovery of America, hardly anything. They made some use of +copper, which they chipped and hammered into rude tools and weapons. +But they knew nothing of melting the metals, and their arrow-heads and +spear-points were made, for the most part, not of metals, but of stone. +Like other Indians, they showed great ingenuity in fashioning bark +canoes of wonderful lightness. + +We must remember, however, that with nearly all the aborigines of +America, at least north of Mexico, the attempt to utilize the materials +and forces supplied by nature had made only slight and painful +progress. We are apt to think that it was the mere laziness of the +Indians which prevented more rapid advance. It may be that we do not +realize their difficulties. When the white men first came these rude +peoples were so backward and so little trained in using their faculties +that any advance towards art and industry was inevitably slow and +difficult. This was also true, no doubt, of the peoples who, long +centuries before, had been in the same degree of development in Europe, +and had begun the intricate tasks which a growth towards civilization +involved. The historian Robertson describes in a vivid passage the +backward state of the savage tribes of America. 'The most simple +operation,' he says, 'was to them an undertaking of immense difficulty +and labour. To fell a tree with no other implements than hatchets of +stone was employment for a month. ...Their operations in agriculture +were equally slow and defective. In a country covered with woods of the +hardest timber, the clearing of a small field destined for culture +required the united efforts of a tribe, and was a work of much time and +great toil.' + +The religion of the Algonquin Indians seems to have been a rude nature +worship. The Sun, as the great giver of warmth and light, was the +object of their adoration; to a lesser degree, they looked upon fire as +a superhuman thing, worthy of worship. The four winds of heaven, +bringing storm and rain from the unknown boundaries of the world, were +regarded as spirits. Each Indian clan or section of a tribe chose for +its special devotion an animal, the name of which became the +distinctive symbol of the clan. This is what is meant by the 'totems' +of the different branches of a tribe. + +The Algonquins knew nothing of the art of writing, beyond rude pictures +scratched or painted on wood. The Algonquin tribes, as we have seen, +roamed far to the west. One branch frequented the upper Saskatchewan +river. Here the ashes of the prairie fires discoloured their moccasins +and turned them black, and, in consequence, they were called the +Blackfeet Indians. Even when they moved to other parts of the country, +the name was still applied to them. + +Occupying the stretch of country to the south of the Algonquins was the +famous race known as the Iroquoian Family. We generally read of the +Hurons and the Iroquois as separate tribes. They really belonged, +however, to one family, though during the period of Canadian history in +which they were prominent they had become deadly enemies. When Cartier +discovered the St Lawrence and made his way to the island of Montreal, +Huron Indians inhabited all that part of the country. When Champlain +came, two generations later, they had vanished from that region, but +they still occupied a part of Ontario around Lake Simcoe and south and +east of Georgian Bay. We always connect the name Iroquois with that +part of the stock which included the allied Five Nations--the Mohawks, +Onondagas, Senecas, Oneidas, and Cayugas,--and which occupied the +country between the Hudson river and Lake Ontario. This proved to be +the strongest strategical position in North America. It lies in the gap +or break of the Alleghany ridge, the one place south of the St Lawrence +where an easy and ready access is afforded from the sea-coast to the +interior of the continent. Any one who casts a glance at the map of the +present Eastern states will realize this, and will see why it is that +New York, at the mouth of the Hudson, has become the greatest city of +North America. Now, the same reason which has created New York gave to +the position of the Five Nations its great importance in Canadian +history. But in reality the racial stock of the Iroquois extended much +farther than this, both west and south. It took in the well-known tribe +of the Eries, and also the Indians of Chesapeake Bay and the Potomac. +It included even the Tuscaroras of the Roanoke in North Carolina, who +afterwards moved north and changed the five nations into six. + +The Iroquois were originally natives of the plain, connected very +probably with the Dakotas of the west. But they moved eastwards from +the Mississippi valley towards Niagara, conquering as they went. No +other tribe could compare with them in either bravery or ferocity. They +possessed in a high degree both the virtues and the vices of Indian +character--the unflinching courage and the diabolical cruelty which +have made the Indian an object of mingled admiration and contempt. In +bodily strength and physical endurance they were unsurpassed. Even in +modern days the enervating influence of civilization has not entirely +removed the original vigour of the strain. During the American Civil +War of fifty years ago the five companies of Iroquois Indians recruited +in Canada and in the state of New York were superior in height and +measurement to any other body of five hundred men in the northern +armies. + +When the Iroquoian Family migrated, the Hurons settled in the western +peninsula of Ontario. The name of Lake Huron still recalls their abode. +But a part of the race kept moving eastward. Before the coming of the +whites, they had fought their way almost to the sea. But they were able +to hold their new settlements only by hard fighting. The great stockade +which Cartier saw at Hochelaga, with its palisades and fighting +platforms, bore witness to the ferocity of the struggle. At that place +Cartier and his companions were entertained with gruesome tales of +Indian fighting and of wholesale massacres. Seventy years later, in +Champlain's time, the Hochelaga stockade had vanished, and the Hurons +had been driven back into the interior. But for nearly two centuries +after Champlain the Iroquois retained their hold on the territory from +Lake Ontario to the Hudson. The conquests and wars of extermination of +these savages, and the terror which they inspired, have been summed up +by General Francis Walker in the saying: 'They were the scourge of God +upon the aborigines of the continent.' + +The Iroquois were in some respects superior to most of the Indians of +the continent. Though they had a limited agriculture, and though they +made hardly any use of metals, they had advanced further in other +directions than most savages. They built of logs, houses long enough to +be divided into several compartments, with a family in each +compartment. By setting a group of houses together, and surrounding +them with a palisade of stakes and trees set on end, the settlement was +turned into a kind of fort, and could bid defiance to the limited means +of attack possessed by their enemies. Inside their houses they kept a +good store of corn, pumpkins and dried meat, which belonged not to each +man singly but to the whole group in common. This was the type of +settlement seen at Quebec and at Hochelaga, and, later on, among the +Five Nations. Indeed, the Five Nations gave to themselves the +picturesque name of the Long House, for their confederation resembled, +as it were, the long wooden houses that held the families together. + +All this shows that the superiority of the Iroquois over their enemies +lay in organization. In this they were superior even to their kinsmen +the Hurons. All Indian tribes kept women in a condition which we should +think degrading. The Indian women were drudges; they carried the +burdens, and did the rude manual toil of the tribe. Among the Iroquois, +however, women were not wholly despised; sometimes, if of forceful +character, they had great influence in the councils of the tribe. Among +the Hurons, on the other hand, women were treated with contempt or +brutal indifference. The Huron woman, worn out with arduous toil, +rapidly lost the brightness of her youth. At an age when the women of a +higher culture are still at the height of their charm and +attractiveness the woman of the Hurons had degenerated into a +shrivelled hag, horrible to the eye and often despicable in character. +The inborn gentleness of womanhood had been driven from her breast by +ill-treatment. Not even the cruelest of the warriors surpassed the +unhallowed fiendishness of the withered squaw in preparing the torments +of the stake and in shrieking her toothless exultation beside the +torture fire. + +Where women are on such a footing as this it is always ill with the +community at large. The Hurons were among the most despicable of the +Indians in their manners. They were hideous gluttons, gorging +themselves when occasion offered with the rapacity of vultures. +Gambling and theft flourished among them. Except, indeed, for the +tradition of courage in fight and of endurance under pain we can find +scarcely anything in them to admire. + +North and west from the Algonquins and Huron-Iroquois were the family +of tribes belonging to the Athapascan stock. The general names of +Chipewyan and Tinne are also applied to the same great branch of the +Indian race. In a variety of groups and tribes, the Athapascans spread +out from the Arctic to Mexico. Their name has since become connected +with the geography of Canada alone, but in reality a number of the +tribes of the plains, like the well-known Apaches, as well as the Hupas +of California and the Navahos, belong to the Athapascans. In Canada, +the Athapascans roamed over the country that lay between Hudson Bay and +the Rocky Mountains. They were found in the basin of the Mackenzie +river towards the Arctic sea, and along the valley of the Fraser to the +valley of the Chilcotin. Their language was broken into a great number +of dialects which differed so widely that only the kindred groups could +understand one another's speech. But the same general resemblance ran +through the various branches of the Athapascans. They were a tall, +strong race, great in endurance, during their prime, though they had +little of the peculiar stamina that makes for long life and vigorous +old age. Their descendants of to-day still show the same facial +characteristics--the low forehead with prominent ridge bones, and the +eyes set somewhat obliquely so as to suggest, though probably without +reason, a kinship with Oriental peoples. + +The Athapascans stood low in the scale of civilization. Most of them +lived in a prairie country where a luxuriant soil, not encumbered with +trees, would have responded to the slightest labour. But the +Athapascans, in Canada at least, knew nothing of agriculture. With +alternations of starvation and rude plenty, they lived upon the unaided +bounty of tribes of the far north, degraded by want and indolence, were +often addicted to cannibalism. + +The Indians beyond the mountains, between the Rockies and the sea, were +for the most part quite distinct from those of the plains. Some tribes +of the Athapascans, as we have seen, penetrated into British Columbia, +but the greater part of the natives in that region were of wholly +different races. Of course, we know hardly anything of these Indians +during the first two centuries of European settlement in America. Not +until the eighteenth century, when Russian traders began to frequent +the Pacific coast and the Spanish and English pushed their voyages into +the North Pacific,--the Tlingit of the far north, the Salish, +Tsimshian, Haida, Kwakiutl-Nootka and Kutenai. It is thought, however, +that nearly all the Pacific Indians belong to one kindred stock. There +are, it is true, many distinct languages between California and Alaska, +but the physical appearance and characteristics of the natives show a +similarity throughout. + +The total number of the original Indian population of the continent can +be a matter of conjecture only. There is every reason, however, to +think that it was far less than the absurdly exaggerated figures given +by early European writers. Whenever the first explorers found a +considerable body of savages they concluded that the people they saw +were only a fraction of some large nation. The result was that the +Spaniards estimated the inhabitants of Peru at thirty millions. Las +Casas, the Spanish historian, said that Hispaniola, the present Hayti, +had a population of three millions; a more exact estimate, made about +twenty years after the discovery of the island, brought the population +down to fourteen thousand! In the same way Montezuma was said to have +commanded three million Mexican warriors--an obvious absurdity. The +early Jesuits reckoned the numbers of the Iroquois at about a hundred +thousand; in reality there seem to have been, in the days of Wolfe and +Montcalm, about twelve thousand. At the opening of the twentieth +century there were in America north of Mexico about 403,000 Indians, of +whom 108,000 were in Canada. Some writers go so far as to say that the +numbers of the natives were probably never much greater than they are +to-day. But even if we accept the more general opinion that the Indian +population has declined, there is no evidence to show that the +population was ever more than a thin scattering of wanderers over the +face of a vast country. Mooney estimates that at the coming of the +white man there were only about 846,000 aborigines in the United +States, 220,000 in British America, 72,000 in Alaska, and 10,000 in +Greenland, a total native population of 1,148,000 from the Mississippi +to the Atlantic. + +The limited means of support possessed by the natives, their primitive +agriculture, their habitual disinclination to settled life and +industry, their constant wars and the epidemic diseases which, even as +early as the time of Jacques Cartier, worked havoc among them, must +always have prevented the growth of a numerous population. The explorer +might wander for days in the depths of the American forest without +encountering any trace of human life. The continent was, in truth, one +vast silence, broken only by the roar of the waterfall or the cry of +the beasts and birds of the forest. + + + +CHAPTER IV + +THE LEGEND OF THE NORSEMEN + +There are many stories of the coming of white men to the coasts of +America and of their settlements in America long before the voyage of +Christopher Columbus. Even in the time of the Greeks and Romans there +were traditions and legends of sailors who had gone out into the 'Sea +of Darkness' beyond the Pillars of Hercules--the ancient name for the +Strait of Gibraltar--and far to the west had found inhabited lands. +Aristotle thought that there must be land out beyond the Atlantic, and +Plato tells us that once upon a time a vast island lay off the coasts +of Africa; he calls it Atlantis, and it was, he says, sunk below the +sea by an earthquake. The Phoenicians were wonderful sailors; their +ships had gone out of the Mediterranean into the other sea, and had +reached the British Isles, and in all probability they sailed as far +west as the Canaries. We find, indeed, in classical literature many +references to supposed islands and countries out beyond the Atlantic. +The ancients called these places the Islands of the Blessed and the +Fortunate Isles. It is, perhaps, not unnatural that in the earlier +writers the existence of these remote and mysterious regions should be +linked with the ideas of the Elysian Fields and of the abodes of the +dead. But the later writers, such as Pliny, and Strabo, the geographer, +talked of them as actual places, and tried to estimate how many Roman +miles they must be distant from the coast of Spain. + +There were similar legends among the Irish, legends preserved in +written form at least five hundred years before Columbus. They recount +wonderful voyages out into the Atlantic and the discovery of new land. +But all these tales are mixed up with obvious fable, with accounts of +places where there was never any illness or infirmity, and people lived +for ever, and drank delicious wine and laughed all day, and we cannot +certify to an atom of historic truth in them. + +Still more interesting, if only for curiosity's sake, are weird stories +that have been unearthed among the early records of the Chinese. These +are older than the Irish legends, and date back to about the sixth +century. According to the Chinese story, a certain Hoei-Sin sailed out +into the Pacific until he was four thousand miles east of Japan. There +he found a new continent, which the Chinese records called Fusang, +because of a certain tree--the fusang tree,--out of the fibres of which +the inhabitants made, not only clothes, but paper, and even food. Here +was truly a land of wonders. There were strange animals with branching +horns on their heads, there were men who could not speak Chinese but +barked like dogs, and other men with bodies painted in strange colours. +Some people have endeavoured to prove by these legends that the Chinese +must have landed in British Columbia, or have seen moose or reindeer, +since extinct, in the country far to the north. But the whole account +is so mixed up with the miraculous, and with descriptions of things +which certainly never existed on the Pacific coast of America, that we +can place no reliance whatever upon it. + +The only importance that we can attach to such traditions of the +discovery of unknown lands and peoples on a new continent is their +bearing as a whole, their accumulated effect, on the likelihood of such +discovery before the time of Columbus. They at least make us ready to +attach due weight to the circumstantial and credible records of the +voyages of the Norsemen. These stand upon ground altogether different +from that of the dim and confused traditions of the classical writers +and of the Irish and Chinese legends. In fact, many scholars are now +convinced that the eastern coast of Canada was known and visited by the +Norsemen five hundred years before Columbus. + +From time immemorial the Norsemen were among the most daring and +skilful mariners ever known. They built great wooden boats with tall, +sweeping bows and sterns. These ships, though open and without decks, +were yet stout and seaworthy. Their remains have been found, at times +lying deeply buried under the sand and preserved almost intact. One +such vessel, discovered on the shore of Denmark, measured 72 feet in +length. Another Viking ship, which was dug up in Norway, and which is +preserved in the museum at Christiania, was 78 feet long and 17 feet +wide. One of the old Norse sagas, or stories, tells how King Olaf +Tryggvesson built a ship, the keel of which, as it lay on the grass, +was 74 ells long; in modern measure, it would be a vessel of about 942 +tons burden. Even if we make allowance for the exaggeration or +ignorance of the writer of the saga, there is still a vast contrast +between this vessel and the little ship Centurion in which Anson sailed +round the world. + +It is needless, however, to prove that the Norsemen could have reached +America in their ships. The voyages from Iceland to Greenland which we +know they made continually for four hundred years were just as arduous +as a further voyage from Greenland to the coast of Canada. + +The story of the Norsemen runs thus. Towards the end of the ninth +century, or nearly two hundred years before the Norman conquest, there +was a great exodus or outswarming of the Norsemen from their original +home in Norway. A certain King Harold had succeeded in making himself +supreme in Norway, and great numbers of the lesser chiefs or jarls +preferred to seek new homes across the seas rather than submit to his +rule. So they embarked with their seafaring followers--Vikings, as we +still call them--often, indeed, with their wives and families, in great +open ships, and sailed away, some to the coast of England, others to +France, and others even to the Mediterranean, where they took service +under the Byzantine emperors. But still others, loving the cold rough +seas of the north, struck westward across the North Sea and beyond the +coasts of Scotland till they reached Iceland. This was in the year 874. +Here they made a settlement that presently grew to a population of +fifty thousand people, having flocks and herds, solid houses of stone, +and a fine trade in fish and oil with the countries of Northern Europe. +These settlers in Iceland attained to a high standard of civilization. +They had many books, and were fond of tales and stories, as are all +these northern peoples who spend long winter evenings round the +fireside. Some of the sagas, or stories, which they told were true +accounts of the voyages and adventures of their forefathers; others +were fanciful stories, like our modern romances, created by the +imagination; others, again, were a mixture of the two. Thus it is +sometimes hard to distinguish fact and fancy in these early tales of +the Norsemen. We have, however, means of testing the stories. Among the +books written in Iceland there was one called the 'National Name-Book,' +in which all the names of the people were written down, with an account +of their forefathers and of any notable things which they had done. + +It is from this book and from the old sagas that we learn how the +Norsemen came to the coast of America. It seems that about 900 a +certain man called Gunnbjorn was driven westward in a great storm and +thrown on the rocky shore of an ice-bound country, where he spent the +winter. Gunnbjorn reached home safely, and never tried again to find +this new land; but, long after his death, the story that there was land +farther west still lingered among the settlers in Iceland and the +Orkneys, and in other homes of the Norsemen. Some time after +Gunnbjorn's voyage it happened that a very bold and determined man +called Eric the Red, who lived in the Orkneys, was made an outlaw for +having killed several men in a quarrel. Eric fled westward over the +seas about the year 980, and he came to a new country with great rocky +bays and fjords as in Norway. There were no trees, but the slopes of +the hillsides were bright with grass, so he called the country +Greenland, as it is called to this day. Eric and his men lived in +Greenland for three years, and the ruins of their rough stone houses +are still to be seen, hard by one of the little Danish settlements of +to-day. When Eric and his followers went back to Iceland they told of +what they had seen, and soon he led a new expedition to Greenland. The +adventurers went in twenty-five ships; more than half were lost on the +way, but eleven ships landed safely and founded a colony in Greenland. +Other settlers came, and this Greenland colony had at one time a +population of about two thousand people. Its inhabitants embraced +Christianity when their kinsfolk in other places did so, and the ruins +of their stone churches still exist. The settlers raised cattle and +sheep, and sent ox hides and seal skins and walrus ivory to Europe in +trade for supplies. But as there was no timber in Greenland they could +not build ships, and thus their communication with the outside world +was more or less precarious. In spite of this, the colony lasted for +about four hundred years. It seems to have come to an end at about the +beginning of the fifteenth century. The scanty records of its history +can be traced no later than the year 1409. What happened to terminate +its existence is not known. Some writers, misled by the name +'Greenland,' have thought that there must have been a change of climate +by which the country lost its original warmth and verdure and turned +into an arctic region. There is no ground for this belief. The name +'Greenland' did not imply a country of trees and luxuriant vegetation, +but only referred to the bright carpet of grass still seen in the short +Greenland summer in the warmer hollows of the hillsides. It may have +been that the settlement, never strong in numbers, was overwhelmed by +the Eskimos, who are known to have often attacked the colony: very +likely, too, it suffered from the great plague, the Black Death, that +swept over all Europe in the fourteenth century. Whatever the cause, +the colony came to an end, and centuries elapsed before Greenland was +again known to Europe. + +This whole story of the Greenland settlement is historical fact which +cannot be doubted. Partly by accident and partly by design, the +Norsemen had been carried from Norway to the Orkneys and the Hebrides +and Iceland, and from there to Greenland. This having happened, it was +natural that their ships should go beyond Greenland itself. During the +four hundred years in which the Norse ships went from Europe to +Greenland, their navigators had neither chart nor compass, and they +sailed huge open boats, carrying only a great square sail. It is +evident that in stress of weather and in fog they must again and again +have been driven past the foot of Greenland, and must have landed +somewhere in what is now Labrador. It would be inconceivable that in +four centuries of voyages this never happened. In most cases, no doubt, +the storm-tossed and battered ships, like the fourteen vessels that +Eric lost, were never heard of again. But in other cases survivors must +have returned to Greenland or Iceland to tell of what they had seen. + +This is exactly what happened to a bold sailor called Bjarne, the son +of Herjulf, a few years after the Greenland colony was founded. In 986 +he put out from Iceland to join his father, who was in Greenland, the +purpose being that, after the good old Norse custom, they might drink +their Christmas ale together. Neither Bjarne nor his men had ever +sailed the Greenland sea before, but, like bold mariners, they relied +upon their seafaring instinct to guide them to its coast. As Bjarne's +ship was driven westward, great mists fell upon the face of the waters. +There was neither sun nor stars, but day after day only the thick wet +fog that clung to the cold surface of the heaving sea. To-day +travellers even on a palatial steamship, who spend a few hours +shuddering in the chill grey fog of the North Atlantic, chafing at +delay, may form some idea of voyages such as that of Bjarne Herjulf and +his men. These Vikings went on undaunted towards the west. At last, +after many days, they saw land, but when they drew near they saw that +it was not a rugged treeless region, such as they knew Greenland to be, +but a country covered with forests, a country of low coasts rising +inland to small hills, and with no mountains in sight. Accordingly, +Bjarne said that this was not Greenland, and he would not stop, but +turned the vessel to the north. After two days they sighted land again, +still on the left side, and again it was flat and thick with trees. The +sea had fallen calm, and Bjarne's men desired to land and see this new +country, and take wood and water into the ship. But Bjarne would not. +So they held on their course, and presently a wind from the south-west +carried them onward for three days and three nights. Then again they +saw land, but this time it was high and mountainous, with great shining +caps of snow. And again Bjarne said, 'This is not the land I seek.' +They did not go ashore, but sailing close to the coast they presently +found that the land was an island. When they stood out to sea again, +the south wind rose to a gale that swept them towards the north, with +sail reefed down and with their ship leaping through the foaming +surges. Three days and nights they ran before the gale. On the fourth +day land rose before them, and this time it was Greenland. There Bjarne +found his father, and there, when not at sea, he settled for the rest +of his days. + +Such is the story of Bjarne Herjulf, as the Norsemen have it. To the +unprejudiced mind there is every reason to believe that his voyage had +carried him to America, to the coast of the Maritime Provinces, or of +Newfoundland or Labrador. More than this one cannot say. True, it is +hard to fit the 'two days' and the 'three days' of Bjarne's narrative +into the sailing distances. But every one who has read any primitive +literature, or even the Homeric poems, will remember how easily times +and distances and numbers that are not exactly known are expressed in +loose phrases not to be taken as literal. + +The news of Bjarne's voyage and of his discovery of land seems to have +been carried presently to the Norsemen in Iceland and in Europe. In +fact, Bjarne himself made a voyage to Norway, and, on account of what +he had done, figured there as a person of some importance. But people +blamed Bjarne because he had not landed on the new coasts, and had +taken so little pains to find out more about the region of hills and +forests which lay to the south and west of Greenland. Naturally others +were tempted to follow the matter further. Among these was Leif, son of +Eric the Red. Leif went to Greenland, found Bjarne, bought his ship, +and manned it with a crew of thirty-five. Leif's father, Eric, now +lived in Greenland, and Leif asked him to take command of the +expedition. He thought, the saga says, that, since Eric had found +Greenland, he would bring good luck to the new venture. For the time, +Eric consented, but when all was ready, and he was riding down to the +shore to embark, his horse stumbled and he fell from the saddle and +hurt his foot. Eric took this as an omen of evil, and would not go; but +Leif and his crew of thirty-five set sail towards the south-west. This +was in the year 1000 A.D., or four hundred and ninety-two years before +Columbus landed in the West Indies. + +Leif and his men sailed on, the saga tells us, till they came to the +last land which Bjarne had discovered. Here they cast anchor, lowered a +boat, and rowed ashore. They found no grass, but only a great field of +snow stretching from the sea to the mountains farther inland; and these +mountains, too, glistened with snow. It seemed to the Norsemen a +forbidding place, and Leif christened it Helluland, or the country of +slate or flat stones. They did not linger, but sailed away at once. The +description of the snow-covered hills, the great slabs of stone, and +the desolate aspect of the coast conveys at least a very strong +probability that the land was Labrador. + +Leif and his men sailed away, and soon they discovered another land. +The chronicle does not say how many days they were at sea, so that we +cannot judge of the distance of this new country from the Land of +Stones. But evidently it was entirely different in aspect, and was +situated in a warmer climate. The coast was low, there were broad +beaches of white sand, and behind the beaches rose thick forests +spreading over the country. Again the Norsemen landed. Because of the +trees, they gave to this place the name of Markland, or the Country of +Forests. Some writers have thought that Markland must have been +Newfoundland, but the description also suggests Cape Breton or Nova +Scotia. The coast of Newfoundland is, indeed, for the most part, bold, +rugged, and inhospitable. + +Leif put to sea once more. For two days the wind was from the +north-east. Then again they reached land. This new region was the +famous country which the Norsemen called Vineland, and of which every +schoolboy has read. There has been so much dispute as to whether +Vineland--this warm country where grapes grew wild--was Nova Scotia or +New England, or some other region, that it is worth while to read the +account of the Norse saga, literally translated: + + They came to an island, which lay on the north side + of the land, where they disembarked to wait for good + weather. There was dew upon the grass; and having + accidentally got some of the dew upon their hands and + put it to their mouths, they thought that they had + never tasted anything so sweet. Then they went on + board and sailed into a sound that was between the + island and a point that went out northwards from the + land, and sailed westward past the point. There was + very shallow water and ebb tide, so that their ship + lay dry; and there was a long way between their ship + and the water. They were so desirous to get to the + land that they would not wait till their ship floated, + but ran to the land, to a place where a river comes + out of a lake. As soon as their ship was afloat they + took the boats, rowed to the ship, towed her up the + river, and from thence into the lake, where they cast + anchor, carried their beds out of the ship, and set + up their tents. + + They resolved to put things in order for wintering + there, and they erected a large house. They did not + want for salmon, in both the river and the lake; and + they thought the salmon larger than any they had ever + seen before. The country appeared to them to be of so + good a kind that it would not be necessary to gather + fodder for the cattle for winter. There was no frost + in winter, and the grass was not much withered. Day + and night were more equal than in Greenland and + Iceland. + +The chronicle goes on to tell how Leif and his men spent the winter in +this place. They explored the country round their encampment. They +found beautiful trees, trees big enough for use in building houses, +something vastly important to men from Greenland, where no trees grow. +Delighted with this, Leif and his men cut down some trees and loaded +their ship with the timber. One day a sailor, whose home had been in a +'south country,' where he had seen wine made from grapes, and who was +nicknamed the 'Turk,' found on the coast vines with grapes, growing +wild. He brought his companions to the spot, and they gathered grapes +sufficient to fill their ship's boat. It was on this account that Leif +called the country 'Vineland.' They found patches of supposed corn +which grew wild like the grapes and reseeded itself from year to year. +It is striking that the Norse chronicle should name these simple +things. Had it been a work of fancy, probably we should have heard, as +in the Chinese legends, of strange demons and other amazing creatures. +But we hear instead of the beautiful forest extending to the shore, the +mountains in the background, the tangled vines, and the bright patches +of wild grain of some kind ripening in the open glades-the very things +which caught the eye of Cartier when, five centuries later, he first +ascended the St Lawrence. + +Where Vineland was we cannot tell. If the men really found wild grapes, +and not some kind of cranberry, Vineland must have been in the region +where grapes will grow. The vine grows as far north as Prince Edward +Island and Cape Breton, and, of course, is found in plenty on the +coasts of Nova Scotia and New England. The chronicle says that the +winter days were longer in Vineland than in Greenland, and names the +exact length of the shortest day. Unfortunately, however, the Norsemen +had no accurate system for measuring time; otherwise the length of the +shortest winter day would enable us to know at what exact spot Leif's +settlement was made. + +Leif and his men stayed in Vineland all winter, and sailed home to +Greenland in the spring (1001 A.D.). As they brought timber, much +prized in the Greenland settlement, their voyage caused a great deal of +talk. Naturally others wished to rival Leif. In the next few years +several voyages to Vineland are briefly chronicled in the sagas. + +First of all, Thorwald, Leif's brother, borrowed his ship, sailed away +to Vineland with thirty men, and spent two winters there. During his +first summer in Vineland, Thorwald sent some men in a boat westward +along the coast. They found a beautiful country with thick woods +reaching to the shore, and great stretches of white sand. They found a +kind of barn made of wood, and were startled by this first indication +of the presence of man. Thorwald had, indeed, startling adventures. In +a great storm his ship was wrecked on the coast, and he and his men had +to rebuild it. He selected for a settlement a point of land thickly +covered with forest. Before the men had built their houses they fell in +with some savages, whom they made prisoners. These savages had bows and +arrows, and used what the Norsemen called 'skin boats.' One of the +savages escaped and roused his tribe, and presently a great flock of +canoes came out of a large bay, surrounded the Viking ship, and +discharged a cloud of arrows. The Norsemen beat off the savages, but in +the fight Thorwald received a mortal wound. As he lay dying he told his +men to bury him there in Vineland, on the point where he had meant to +build his home. This was done. Thorwald's men remained there for the +winter. In the spring they returned to Greenland, with the sad news for +Leif of his brother's death. + +Other voyages followed. A certain Thorfinn Karlsevne even tried to +found a permanent colony in Vineland. In the spring of 1007, he took +there a hundred and sixty men, some women, and many cattle. He and his +people remained in Vineland for nearly four years. They traded with the +savages, giving them cloth and trinkets for furs. Karlsevne's wife gave +birth there to a son, who was christened Snorre, and who was perhaps +the first white child born in America. The Vineland colony seems to +have prospered well enough, but unfortunately quarrels broke out +between the Norsemen and the savages, and so many of Karlsevne's people +were killed that the remainder were glad to sail back to Greenland. + +The Norse chronicles contain a further story of how one of Karlsevne's +companions, Thorward, and his wife Freydis, who was a daughter of Eric +the Red, made a voyage to Vineland. This expedition ended in tragedy. +One night the Norsemen quarrelled in their winter quarters, there was a +tumult and a massacre. Freydis herself killed five women with an axe, +and the little colony was drenched in blood. The survivors returned to +Greenland, but were shunned by all from that hour. + +After this story we have no detailed accounts of voyages to Vineland. +There are, however, references to it in Icelandic literature. There +does not seem any ground to believe that the Norsemen succeeded in +planting a lasting colony in Vineland. Some people have tried to claim +that certain ancient ruins on the New England coast--an old stone mill +at Newport, and so on--are evidences of such a settlement. But the +claim has no sufficient proof behind it. + +On the whole, however, there seems every ground to conclude that again +and again the Norsemen landed on the Atlantic coast of America. We do +not know where they made their winter quarters, nor does this matter. +Very likely there were temporary settlements in both 'Markland,' with +its thick woods bordering on the sea, and in other less promising +regions. It should be added that some writers of authority refuse even +to admit that the Norsemen reached America. Others, like Nansen, the +famous Arctic explorer, while admitting the probability of the voyages, +believe that the sagas are merely a sort of folklore, such as may be +found in the primitive literature of all nations. On the other hand, +John Fiske, the American historian, who devoted much patient study to +the question, was convinced that what is now the Canadian coast, with, +probably, part of New England too, was discovered, visited, and +thoroughly well known by the Norse inhabitants of Greenland. For +several centuries they appear to have made summer voyages to and from +this 'Vineland the Good' as they called it, and to have brought back +timber and supplies not found in their own inhospitable country. It is +quite possible that further investigation may throw new light on the +Norse discoveries, and even that undeniable traces of the buildings or +implements of the settlers in Vineland may be found. Meanwhile the +subject, interesting though it is, remains shrouded in mystery. + + + +CHAPTER V + +THE BRISTOL VOYAGES + +The discoveries of the Norsemen did not lead to the opening of America +to the nations of Europe. For this the time was not yet ripe. As yet +European nations were backward, not only in navigation, but in the +industries and commerce which supply the real motive for occupying new +lands. In the days of Eric the Red Europe was only beginning to emerge +from a dark period. The might and splendour of the Roman Empire had +vanished, and the great kingdoms which we know were still to rise. + +All this changed in the five hundred years between the foundation of +the Greenland colony and the voyage of Christopher Columbus. The +discovery of America took place as a direct result of the advancing +civilization and growing power of Europe. The event itself was, in a +sense, due to pure accident. Columbus was seeking Asia when he found +himself among the tropical islands of the West Indies. In another +sense, however, the discovery marks in world history a necessary stage, +for which the preceding centuries had already made the preparation. The +story of the voyages of Columbus forms no part of our present +narrative. But we cannot understand the background that lies behind the +history of Canada without knowing why such men as Christopher Columbus +and Vasco da Gama and the Cabots began the work of discovery. + +First, we have to realize the peculiar relations between Europe, +ancient and mediaeval, and the great empires of Eastern Asia. The two +civilizations had never been in direct contact. Yet in a sense they +were always connected. The Greeks and the Romans had at least vague +reports of peoples who lived on the far eastern confines of the world, +beyond even the conquests of Alexander the Great in Hindustan. It is +certain, too, that Europe and Asia had always traded with one another +in a strange and unconscious fashion. The spices and silks of the +unknown East passed westward from trader to trader, from caravan to +caravan, until they reached the Persian Gulf, the Red Sea, and, at +last, the Mediterranean. The journey was so slow, so tedious, the goods +passed from hand to hand so often, that when the Phoenician, Greek, or +Roman merchants bought them their origin had been forgotten. For +century after century this trade continued. When Rome fell, other +peoples of the Mediterranean continued the Eastern trade. Genoa and +Venice rose to greatness by this trade. As wealth and culture revived +after the Gothic conquest which overthrew Rome, the beautiful silks and +the rare spices of the East were more and more prized in a world of +increasing luxury. The Crusades rediscovered Egypt, Syria, and the East +for Europe. Gold and jewels, diamond-hilted swords of Damascus steel, +carved ivory, and priceless gems,--all the treasures which the warriors +of the Cross brought home, helped to impress on the mind of Europe the +surpassing riches of the East. + +Gradually a new interest was added. As time went on doubts increased +regarding the true shape of the earth. Early peoples had thought it a +great flat expanse, with the blue sky propped over it like a dome or +cover. This conception was giving way. The wise men who watched the sky +at night, who saw the sweeping circles of the fixed stars and the +wandering path of the strange luminous bodies called planets, began to +suspect a mighty secret,--that the observing eye saw only half the +heavens, and that the course of the stars and the earth itself rounded +out was below the darkness of the horizon. From this theory that the +earth was a great sphere floating in space followed the most +enthralling conclusions. If the earth was really a globe, it might be +possible to go round it and to reappear on the farther side of the +horizon. Then the East might be reached, not only across the deserts of +Persia and Tartary, but also by striking out into the boundless ocean +that lay beyond the Pillars of Hercules. For such an attempt an almost +superhuman courage was required. No man might say what awful seas, what +engulfing gloom, might lie across the familiar waters which washed the +shores of Europe. The most fearless who, at evening, upon the cliffs of +Spain or Portugal, watched black night settle upon the far-spreading +waters of the Atlantic, might well turn shuddering from any attempt to +sail into those unknown wastes. + +It was the stern logic of events which compelled the enterprise. +Barbarous Turks swept westward. Arabia, Syria, the Isles of Greece, +and, at last, in 1453, Constantinople itself, fell into their hands. +The Eastern Empire, the last survival of the Empire of the Romans, +perished beneath the sword of Mahomet. Then the pathway by land to +Asia, to the fabled empires of Cathay and Cipango, was blocked by the +Turkish conquest. Commerce, however, remained alert and enterprising, +and men's minds soon turned to the hopes of a western passage which +should provide a new route to the Indies. + +All the world knows the story of Christopher Columbus, his long years +of hardship and discouragement; the supreme conviction which sustained +him in his adversity; the final triumph which crowned his efforts. It +is no detraction from the glory of Columbus to say that he was only one +of many eager spirits occupied with new problems of discovery across +the sea. Not the least of these were John and Sebastian Cabot, father +and son. John Cabot, like Columbus, was a Genoese by birth; a long +residence in Venice, however, earned for him in 1476 the citizenship of +that republic. Like many in his time, he seems to have been both a +scientific geographer and a practical sea-captain. At one time he made +charts and maps for his livelihood. Seized with the fever for +discovery, he is said to have begged in vain from the sovereigns of +Spain and Portugal for help in a voyage to the West. About the time of +the great discovery of Columbus in 1492, John Cabot arrived in Bristol. +It may be that he took part in some of the voyages of the Bristol +merchants, before the achievements of Columbus began to startle the +world. + +At the close of the fifteenth century the town of Bristol enjoyed a +pre-eminence which it has since lost. It stood second only to London as +a British port. A group of wealthy merchants carried on from Bristol a +lively trade with Iceland and the northern ports of Europe. The town +was the chief centre for an important trade in codfish. Days of fasting +were generally observed at that time; on these the eating of meat was +forbidden by the church, and fish was consequently in great demand. The +merchants of Bristol were keen traders, and were always seeking the +further extension of their trade. Christopher Columbus himself is said +to have made a voyage for the Bristol merchants to Iceland in 1477. +There is even a tale that, before Columbus was known to fame, an +expedition was equipped there in 1480 to seek the 'fabulous islands' of +the Western Sea. Certain it is that the Spanish ambassador in England, +whose business it was to keep his royal master informed of all that was +being done by his rivals, wrote home in 1498: 'It is seven years since +those of Bristol used to send out, every year, a fleet of two, three, +or four caravels to go and search for the Isle of Brazil and the Seven +Cities, according to the fancy of the Genoese.' + +We can therefore realize that when Master John Cabot came among the +merchants of this busy town with his plans he found a ready hearing. +Cabot was soon brought to the notice of his august majesty Henry VII of +England. The king had been shortsighted enough to reject overtures made +to him by Bartholomew Columbus, brother of Christopher, and no doubt he +regretted his mistake. Now he was eager enough to act as the patron of +a new voyage. Accordingly, on March 5, 1496, he granted a royal licence +in the form of what was called Letters Patent, authorizing John Cabot +and his sons Lewis, Sebastian and Sancius to make a voyage of discovery +in the name of the king of England. The Cabots were to sail 'with five +ships or vessels of whatever burden or quality soever they be, and with +as many marines or men as they will have with them in the said ships +upon their own proper costs and charges.' It will be seen that Henry +VII, the most parsimonious of kings, had no mind to pay the expense of +the voyage. The expedition was 'to seek out, discover and find +whatsoever islands, countries, regions and provinces of the heathens or +infidels, in whatever part of the world they be, which before this time +have been unknown to all Christians.' It was to sail only 'to the seas +of the east and west and north,' for the king did not wish to lay any +claim to the lands discovered by the Spaniards and Portuguese. The +discoverers, however, were to raise the English flag over any new lands +that they found, to conquer and possess them, and to acquire 'for us +dominion, title, and jurisdiction over those towns, castles, islands, +and mainlands so discovered.' One-fifth of the profits from the +anticipated voyages to the new land was to fall to the king, but the +Cabots were to have a monopoly of trade, and Bristol was to enjoy the +right of being the sole port of entry for the ships engaged in this +trade. + +Not until the next year, 1497, did John Cabot set out. Then he embarked +from Bristol with a single ship, called in an old history the Matthew, +and a crew of eighteen men. First, he sailed round the south of +Ireland, and from there struck out westward into the unknown sea. The +appliances of navigation were then very imperfect. Sailors could reckon +the latitude by looking up at the North Star, and noting how high it +was above the horizon. Since the North Star stands in the sky due +north, and the axis on which the earth spins points always towards it, +it will appear to an observer in the northern hemisphere to be as many +degrees above the horizon as he himself is distant from the pole or top +of the earth. The old navigators, therefore, could always tell how far +north or south they were. Moreover, as long as the weather was clear +they could, by this means, strike, at night at least, a course due east +or west. But when the weather was not favourable for observations they +had to rely on the compass alone. Now the compass in actual fact does +not always and everywhere point due north. It is subject to variation, +and in different times and places points either considerably east of +north or west of it. In the path where Cabot sailed, the compass +pointed west of north; and hence, though he thought he was sailing +straight west from Ireland, he was really pursuing a curved path bent +round a little towards the south. This fact will become of importance +when we consider where it was that Cabot landed. For finding distance +east and west the navigators of the fifteenth century had no such +appliances as our modern chronometer and instruments of observation. +They could tell how far they had sailed only by 'dead reckoning'; this +means that if their ship was going at such and such a speed, it was +supposed to have made such and such a distance in a given time. But +when ships were being driven to and fro, and buffeted by adverse winds, +this reckoning became extremely uncertain. + +John Cabot and his men mere tossed about considerably in their little +ship. Though they seem to have set out early in May of 1497, it was not +until June 24 that they sighted land. What the land was like, and what +they thought of it, we know from letters written in England by various +persons after their return. Thus we learn that it was a 'very good and +temperate country,' and that 'Brazil wood and silks grow there.' 'The +sea,' they reported, 'is covered with fishes, which are caught not only +with the net, but with baskets, a stone being tied to them in order +that the baskets may sink in the water.' Henceforth, it was said, +England would have no more need to buy fish from Iceland, for the +waters of the new land abounded in fish. Cabot and his men saw no +savages, but they found proof that the land was inhabited. Here and +there in the forest they saw trees which had been felled, and also +snares of a rude kind set to catch game. They were enthusiastic over +their success. They reported that the new land must certainly be +connected with Cipango, from which all the spices and precious stones +of the world originated. Only a scanty stock of provisions, they +declared, prevented them from sailing along the coast as far as Cathay +and Cipango. As it was they planted on the land a great cross with the +flag of England and also the banner of St Mark, the patron saint of +Cabot's city of Venice. + +The older histories used always to speak as if John Cabot had landed +somewhere on the coast of Labrador, and had at best gone no farther +south than Newfoundland. Even if this were the whole truth about the +voyage, to Cabot and his men would belong the signal honour of having +been the first Europeans, since the Norsemen, to set foot on the +mainland of North America. Without doubt they were the first to unfurl +the flag of England, and to erect the cross upon soil which afterwards +became part of British North America. But this is not all. It is likely +that Cabot reached a point far south of Labrador. His supposed sailing +westward carried him in reality south of the latitude of Ireland. He +makes no mention of the icebergs which any voyager must meet on the +Labrador coast from June to August. His account of a temperate climate +suitable for growing dye-wood, of forest trees, and of a country so +fair that it seemed the gateway of the enchanted lands of the East, is +quite unsuited to the bare and forbidding aspect of Labrador. Cape +Breton island was probably the place of Cabot's landing. Its balmy +summer climate, the abundant fish of its waters, fit in with Cabot's +experiences. The evidence from maps, one of which was made by Cabot's +son Sebastian, points also to Cape Breton as the first landing-place of +English sailors in America. + +There is no doubt of the stir made by Cabot's discovery on his safe +return to England. He was in London by August of 1497, and he became at +once the object of eager curiosity and interest. 'He is styled the +Great Admiral,' wrote a Venetian resident in London, 'and vast honour +is paid to him. He dresses in silk, and the English run after him like +mad people.' The sunlight of royal favour broke over him in a flood: +even Henry VII proved generous. The royal accounts show that, on August +10, 1497, the king gave ten pounds 'to him that found the new isle.' A +few months later the king granted to his 'well-beloved John Cabot, of +the parts of Venice, an annuity of twenty pounds sterling,' to be paid +out of the customs of the port of Bristol. The king, too, was lavish in +his promises of help for a new expedition. Henry's imagination had +evidently been fired with the idea of an Oriental empire. A +contemporary writer tells us that Cabot was to have ten armed ships. At +Cabot's request, the king conceded to him all the prisoners needed to +man this fleet, saving only persons condemned for high treason. It is +one of the ironies of history that on the first pages of its annals the +beautiful new world is offered to the criminals of Europe. + +During the winter that followed, John Cabot was the hero of the hour. +Busy preparations went on for a new voyage. Letters patent were issued +giving Cabot power to take any six ships that he liked from the ports +of the kingdom, paying to their owners the same price only as if taken +for the king's service. The 'Grand Admiral' became a person of high +importance. On one friend he conferred the sovereignty of an island; to +others he made lavish promises; certain poor friars who offered to +embark on his coming voyage were to be bishops over the heathen of the +new land. Even the merchants of London ventured to send out goods for +trade, and brought to Cabot 'coarse cloth, caps, laces, points, and +other trifles.' + +The second expedition sailed from the port of Bristol in May of 1498. +John Cabot and his son Sebastian were in command; of the younger +brothers we hear no more. But the high hopes of the voyagers were +doomed to disappointment. On arriving at the coast of America Cabot's +ships seem first to have turned towards the north. The fatal idea, that +the empires of Asia might be reached through the northern seas already +asserted its sway. The search for a north-west passage, that +will-o'-the-wisp of three centuries, had already begun. Many years +later Sebastian Cabot related to a friend at Seville some details +regarding this unfortunate attempt of his father to reach the spice +islands of the East. The fleet, he said, with its three hundred men, +first directed its course so far to the north that, even in the month +of July, monstrous heaps of ice were found floating on the sea. 'There +was,' so Sebastian told his friend, 'in a manner, continual daylight.' +The forbidding aspect of the coast, the bitter cold of the northern +seas, and the boundless extent of the silent drifting ice, chilled the +hopes of the explorers. They turned towards the south. Day after day, +week after week, they skirted the coast of North America. If we may +believe Sebastian's friend, they reached a point as far south as +Gibraltar in Europe. No more was there ice. The cold of Labrador +changed to soft breezes from the sanded coast of Carolina and from the +mild waters of the Gulf Stream. But of the fabled empires of Cathay and +Cipango, and the 'towns and castles' over which the Great Admiral was +to have dominion, they saw no trace. Reluctantly the expedition turned +again towards Europe, and with its turning ends our knowledge of what +happened on the voyage. + +That the ships came home either as a fleet, or at least in part, we +have certain proof. We know that John Cabot returned to Bristol, for +the ancient accounts of the port show that he lived to draw at least +one or two instalments of his pension. But the sunlight of royal favour +no longer illumined his path. In the annals of English history the name +of John Cabot is never found again. + +The son Sebastian survived to continue a life of maritime adventure, to +be counted one of the great sea-captains of the day, and to enjoy an +honourable old age. In the year 1512 we hear of him in the service of +Ferdinand of Spain. He seems to have won great renown as a maker of +maps and charts. He still cherished the idea of reaching Asia by way of +the northern seas of America. A north-west expedition with Sebastian in +command had been decided upon, it is said, by Ferdinand, when the death +of that illustrious sovereign prevented the realization of the project. +After Ferdinand's death, Cabot fell out with the grandees of the +Spanish court, left Madrid, and returned for some time to England. Some +have it that he made a new voyage in the service of Henry VIII, and +sailed through Hudson Strait, but this is probably only a confused +reminiscence, handed down by hearsay, of the earlier voyages. Cabot +served Spain again under Charles V, and made a voyage to Brazil and the +La Plata river. He reappears later in England, and was made Inspector +of the King's Ships by Edward VI. He was a leading spirit of the +Merchant Adventurers who, in Edward's reign, first opened up trade by +sea with Russia. + +The voyages of the Bristol traders and the enterprise of England by no +means ended with the exploits of the Cabots. Though our ordinary +history books tell us nothing more of English voyages until we come to +the days of the great Elizabethan navigators, Drake, Frobisher, +Hawkins, and to the planting of Virginia, as a matter of fact many +voyages were made under Henry VII and Henry VIII. Both sovereigns seem +to have been anxious to continue the exploration of the western seas, +but they had not the good fortune again to secure such master-pilots as +John and Sebastian Cabot. + +In the first place, it seems that the fishermen of England, as well as +those of the Breton coast, followed close in the track of the Cabots. +As soon as the Atlantic passage to Newfoundland had been robbed of the +terrors of the unknown, it was not regarded as difficult. With strong +east winds a ship of the sixteenth century could make the run from +Bristol or St Malo to the Grand Banks in less than twenty days. Once a +ship was on the Banks, the fish were found in an abundance utterly +unknown in European waters, and the ships usually returned home with +great cargoes. During the early years of the sixteenth century English, +French, and Portuguese fishermen went from Europe to the Banks in great +numbers. They landed at various points in Newfoundland and Cape Breton, +and became well acquainted with the outline of the coast. It was no +surprise to Jacques Cartier, for instance, on his first voyage, to find +a French fishing vessel lying off the north shore of the Gulf of St +Lawrence. But these fishing crews thought nothing of exploration. The +harvest of the sea was their sole care, and beyond landing to cure fish +and to obtain wood and water they did nothing to claim or conquer the +land. + +There were, however, efforts from time to time to follow up the +discoveries of the Cabots. The merchants of Bristol do not seem to have +been disappointed with the result of the Cabot enterprises, for as +early as in 1501 they sent out a new expedition across the Atlantic. +The sanction of the king was again invoked, and Henry VII granted +letters patent to three men of Bristol--Richard Warde, Thomas +Ashehurst, and John Thomas--to explore the western seas. These names +have a homely English sound; but associated with them were three +Portuguese--John Gonzales, and two men called Fernandez, all of the +Azores, and probably of the class of master-pilots to which the Cabots +and Columbus belonged. We know nothing of the results of the +expedition, but it returned in safety in the same year, and the +parsimonious king was moved to pay out five pounds from his treasury +'to the men of Bristol that found the isle.' + +Francis Fernandez and John Gonzales remained in the English service and +became subjects of King Henry. Again, in the summer of 1502, they were +sent out on another voyage from Bristol. In September they brought +their ships safely back, and, in proof of the strangeness of the new +lands they carried home 'three men brought out of an Iland forre beyond +Irelond, the which were clothed in Beestes Skynnes and ate raw fflesh +and were rude in their demeanure as Beestes.' From this description +(written in an old atlas of the time), it looks as if the Fernandez +expedition had turned north from the Great Banks and visited the coast +where the Eskimos were found, either in Labrador or Greenland. This +time Henry VII gave Fernandez and Gonzales a pension of ten pounds +each, and made them 'captains' of the New Found Land. A sum of twenty +pounds was given to the merchants of Bristol who had accompanied them. +We must remember that at this time the New Found Land was the general +name used for all the northern coast of America. + +There is evidence that a further expedition went out from Bristol in +1503, and still another in 1504. Fernandez and Gonzales, with two +English associates, were again the leaders. They were to have a +monopoly of trade for forty years, but were cautioned not to interfere +with the territory of the king of Portugal. Of the fate of these +enterprises nothing is known. + +By the time of Henry VIII, who began to reign in 1509, the annual +fishing fleet of the English which sailed to the American coast had +become important. As early as in 1522, a royal ship of war was sent to +the mouth of the English Channel to protect the 'coming home of the New +Found Island's fleet.' Henry VIII and his minister, Cardinal Wolsey, +were evidently anxious to go on with the work of the previous reign, +and especially to enlist the wealthy merchants and trade companies of +London in the cause of western exploration. In 1521 the cardinal +proposed to the Livery Companies of London--the name given to the trade +organizations of the merchants--that they should send out five ships on +a voyage into the New Found Land. When the merchants seemed disinclined +to make such a venture, the king 'spake sharply to the Mayor to see it +put in execution to the best of his power.' But, even with this +stimulus, several years passed before a London expedition was sent out. +At last, in 1527, two little ships called the Samson and the Mary of +Guildford set out from London with instructions to find their way to +Cathay and the Indies by means of the passage to the north. The two +ships left London on May 10, put into Plymouth, and finally sailed +therefrom on June 10, 1527. They followed Cabot's track, striking +westward from the coast of Ireland. For three weeks they kept together, +making good progress across the Atlantic. Then in a great storm that +arose the Samson was lost with all on board. + +The Mary of Guildford pursued her way alone, and her crew had +adventures strange even for those days. Her course, set well to the +north, brought her into the drift ice and the giant icebergs which are +carried down the coast of America at this season (for the month was +July) from the polar seas. In fear of the moving ice, she turned to the +south, the sailors watching eagerly for the land, and sounding as they +went. Four days brought them to the coast of Labrador. They followed it +southward for some days. Presently they entered an inlet where they +found a good harbour, many small islands, and the mouth of a great +river of fresh water. The region was a wilderness, its mountains and +woods apparently untenanted by man. Near the shore they saw the +footmarks of divers great beasts, but, though they explored the country +for about thirty miles, they saw neither men nor animals. At the end of +July, they set sail again, and passed down the coast of Newfoundland to +the harbour of St John's, already a well-known rendezvous. Here they +found fourteen ships of the fishing fleet, mostly vessels from +Normandy. From Newfoundland the Mary of Guildford pursued her way +southward, and passed along the Atlantic coast of America. If she had +had any one on board capable of accurate observation, even after the +fashion of the time, or of making maps, the record of her voyage would +have added much to the general knowledge of the continent. +Unfortunately, the Italian pilot who directed the voyage was killed in +a skirmish with Indians during a temporary landing. Some have thought +that this pilot who perished on the Mary of Guildford may have been the +great navigator Verrazano, of whom we shall presently speak. + +The little vessel sailed down the coast to the islands of the West +Indies. She reached Porto Rico in the middle of November, and from that +island she made sail for the new Spanish settlements of San Domingo. +Here, as she lay at her anchorage, the Mary of Guildford was fired upon +by the Spanish fort which commanded the river mouth. At once she put +out into the open sea, and, heading eastward across the Atlantic, she +arrived safely at her port of London. + + + +CHAPTER VI + +FORERUNNERS OF JACQUES CARTIER + +We have seen that after the return of the second expedition of the +Cabots no voyages to the coasts of Canada of first-rate importance were +made by the English. This does not mean, however, that nothing was done +by other peoples to discover and explore the northern coasts of +America. The Portuguese were the first after the Cabots to continue the +search along the Canadian coast for the secret of the hidden East. At +this time, we must remember, the Portuguese were one of the leading +nations of Europe, and they were specially interested in maritime +enterprise. Thanks to Columbus, the Spaniards had, it is true, carried +off the grand prize of discovery. But the Portuguese had rendered +service not less useful. From their coasts, jutting far out into the +Atlantic, they had sailed southward and eastward, and had added much to +the knowledge of the globe. For generations, both before and after +Columbus, the pilots and sailors of Portugal were among the most +successful and daring in the world. + +For nearly a hundred years before the discovery of America the +Portuguese had been endeavouring to find an ocean route to the spice +islands of the East and to the great Oriental empires which, tradition +said, lay far off on a distant ocean, and which Marco Polo and other +travellers had reached by years of painful land travel across the +interior of Asia. Prince Henry of Portugal was busy with these tasks at +the middle of the fifteenth century. Even before this, Portuguese +sailors had found their way to the Madeiras and the Canary Islands, and +to the Azores, which lie a thousand miles out in the Atlantic. But +under the lead of Prince Henry they began to grope their way down the +coast of Africa, braving the torrid heats and awful calms of that +equatorial region, where the blazing sun, poised overhead in a +cloudless sky, was reflected on the bosom of a stagnant and glistening +ocean. It was their constant hope that at some point the land would be +found to roll back and disclose an ocean pathway round Africa to the +East, the goal of their desire. Year after year they advanced farther, +until at last they achieved a momentous result. In 1487, Bartholomew +Diaz sailed round the southern point of Africa, which received the +significant name of the 'Cape of Good Hope,' and entered the Indian +Ocean. Henceforth a water pathway to the Far East was possible. +Following Diaz, Vasco da Gama, leaving Lisbon in 1497, sailed round the +south of Africa, and, reaching the ports of Hindustan, made the +maritime route to India a definite reality. + +Thus at the moment when the Spaniards were taking possession of the +western world the Portuguese were establishing their trade in the +rediscovered East. The two nations agreed to divide between them these +worlds of the East and the West. They invoked the friendly offices of +the Pope as mediator, and, henceforth, an imaginary line drawn down the +Atlantic divided the realms. At first this arrangement seemed to give +Spain all the new regions in America, but the line of division was set +so far to the West that the discovery of Brazil, which juts out +eastward into the Atlantic, gave the Portuguese a vast territory in +South America. At the time of which we are now speaking, however, the +Portuguese were intent upon their interests in the Orient. Their great +aim was to pass beyond India, already reached by da Gama, to the +further empires of China and Japan. Like other navigators of the time, +they thought that these places might be reached not merely by southern +but also by the northern seas. Hence it came about that the Portuguese, +going far southward in Africa, went also far northward in America and +sailed along the coast of Canada. + +We find, in consequence, that when King Manoel of Portugal was fitting +out a fleet of twenty ships for a new expedition under da Gama, which +was to sail to the Indies by way of Africa, another Portuguese +expedition, setting out with the same object, was sailing in the +opposite direction. At its head was Gaspar Corte-Real, a nobleman of +the Azores, who had followed with eager interest the discoveries of +Columbus, Diaz, and da Gama. Corte-Real sailed from Lisbon in the +summer of 1500 with a single ship. He touched at the Azores. It is +possible that a second vessel joined him there, but this is not clear. +From the Azores his path lay north and west, till presently he reached +a land described as a 'cool region with great woods.' Corte-Real called +it from its verdure 'the Green Land,' but the similarity of name with +the place that we call Greenland is only an accident. In reality the +Portuguese captain was on the coast of Newfoundland. He saw a number of +natives. They appeared to the Portuguese a barbarous people, who +dressed in skins, and lived in caves. They used bows and arrows, and +had wooden spears, the points of which they hardened with fire. + +Corte-Real directed his course northward, until he found himself off +the coast of Greenland. He sailed for some distance along those rugged +and forbidding shores, a land of desolation, with jagged mountains and +furrowed cliffs, wrapped in snow and ice. No trace of the lost +civilization of the Norsemen met his eyes. The Portuguese pilot +considered Greenland at its southern point to be an outstanding +promontory of Asia, and he struggled hard to pass beyond it westward to +a more favoured region. But his path was blocked by 'enormous masses of +frozen snow floating on the sea, and moving under the influence of the +waves.' It is clear that he was met not merely by the field ice of the +Arctic ocean, but also by great icebergs moving slowly with the polar +current. The narrative tells how Corte-Real's crew obtained fresh water +from the icebergs. 'Owing to the heat of the sun, fresh and clear water +is melted on the summits, and, descending by small channels formed by +the water itself, it eats away the base where it falls. The boats were +sent in, and in that way as much was taken as was needed.' + +Corte-Real made his way as far as a place (which was in latitude 60 +degrees) where the sea about him seemed a flowing stream of snow, and +so he called it Rio Nevado, 'the river of snow.' Probably it was Hudson +Strait. + +Late in the same season, Corte-Real was back in Lisbon. He had +discovered nothing of immediate profit to the crown of Portugal, but +his survey of the coast of North America from Newfoundland to Hudson +Strait seems to have strengthened the belief that the best route to +India lay in this direction. In any case, on May 15, 1501, he was sent +out again with three ships. This time the Portuguese discovered a +region, so they said, which no one had before visited. The description +indicates that they were on the coast of Nova Scotia and the adjacent +part of New England. The land was wooded with fine straight timber, fit +for the masts of ships, and 'when they landed they found delicious +fruits of various kinds, and trees and pines of marvellous height and +thickness.' They saw many natives, occupied in hunting and fishing. +Following the custom of the time, they seized fifty or sixty natives, +and crowded these unhappy captives into the holds of their ships, to +carry home as evidence of the reality of their discoveries, and to be +sold as slaves. These savages are described by those who saw them in +Portugal as of shapely form and gentle manner, though uncouth and even +dirty in person. They wore otter skins, and their faces were marked +with lines. The description would answer to any of the Algonquin tribes +of the eastern coast. Among the natives seen on the coast there was a +boy who had in his ears two silver rings of Venetian make. The +circumstance led the Portuguese to suppose that they were on the coast +of Asia, and that a European ship had recently visited the same spot. +The true explanation, if the circumstance is correctly reported, would +seem to be that the rings were relics of Cabot's voyages and of his +trade in the trinkets supplied by the merchants. + +Gaspar Corte-Real sent his consort ships home, promising to explore the +coast further, and to return later in the season. The vessels duly +reached Lisbon, bringing their captives and the news of the voyage. +Corte-Real, however, never returned, nor is anything known of his fate. + +When a year had passed with no news of Gaspar Corte-Real, his brother +Miguel fitted out a new expedition of three ships and sailed westward +in search of him. On reaching the coast of Newfoundland, the ships of +Miguel Corte-Real separated in order to make a diligent search in all +directions for the missing Gaspar. They followed the deep indentations +of the island, noting its outstanding features. Here and there they +fell in with the natives and traded with them, but they found nothing +of value. To make matters worse, when the time came to assemble, as +agreed, in the harbour of St John's, only two ships arrived at the +rendezvous. That of Miguel was missing. After waiting some time the +other vessels returned without him to Portugal. + +Two Corte-Reals were now lost. King Manoel transferred the rights of +Gaspar and Miguel to another brother, and in the ensuing years sent out +several Portuguese expeditions to search for the lost leaders, but +without success. The Portuguese gained only a knowledge of the +abundance of fish in the region of the Newfoundland coast. This was +important, and henceforth Portuguese ships joined with the Normans, the +Bretons, and the English in fishing on the Grand Banks. Of the +Corte-Reals nothing more was ever heard. + +The next great voyage of discovery was that of Juan Verrazano, some +twenty years after the loss of the Corte-Reals. Like so many other +pilots of his time, Verrazano was an Italian. He had wandered much +about the world, had made his way to the East Indies by the new route +that the Portuguese had opened, and had also, so it is said, been a +member of a ship's company in one of the fishing voyages to +Newfoundland now made in every season. + +The name of Juan Verrazano has a peculiar significance in Canadian +history. In more ways than one he was the forerunner of Jacques +Cartier, 'the discoverer of Canada.' Not only did he sail along the +coast of Canada, but did so in the service of the king of France, the +first representative of those rising ambitions which were presently to +result in the foundation of New France and the colonial empire of the +Bourbon monarchy. Francis I, the French king, was a vigorous and +ambitious prince. His exploits and rivalries occupy the foreground of +European history in the earlier part of the sixteenth century. It was +the object of Francis to continue the work of Louis XI by consolidating +his people into a single powerful state. His marriage with the heiress +of Brittany joined that independent duchy, rich at least in the +seafaring bravery of its people, to the crown of France. But Francis +aimed higher still. He wished to make himself the arbiter of Europe and +the over-lord of the European kings. Having been defeated by the +equally famous king of Spain, Charles V, in his effort to gain the +position and title of Holy Roman Emperor and the leadership of Europe, +he set himself to overthrow the rising greatness of Spain. The history +of Europe for a quarter of a century turns upon the opposing ambitions +of the two monarchs. + +As a part of his great design, Francis I turned towards western +discovery and exploration, in order to rival if possible the +achievements of Columbus and Cortes and to possess himself of +territories abounding in gold and silver, in slaves and merchandise, +like the islands of Cuba and San Domingo and the newly conquered empire +of Montezuma, which Spain held. It was in this design that he sent out +Juan Verrazano; in further pursuit of it he sent Jacques Cartier ten +years later; and the result was that French dominion afterwards, +prevailed in the valley of the St Lawrence and seeds were planted from +which grew the present Dominion of Canada. + +At the end of the year 1523 Juan Verrazano set out from the port of +Dieppe with four ships. Beaten about by adverse storms, they put into +harbour at Madeira, so badly strained by the rough weather that only a +single seaworthy ship remained. In this, the Dauphine, Verrazano set +forth on January 17, 1524, for his western discovery. The voyage was +prosperous, except for one awful tempest in mid-Atlantic, 'as +terrible,' wrote Verrazano, 'as ever any sailors suffered.' After seven +weeks of westward sailing Verrazano sighted a coast 'never before seen +of any man either ancient or modern.' This was the shore of North +Carolina. From this point the French captain made his way northward, +closely inspecting the coast, landing here and there, and taking note +of the appearance, the resources, and the natives of the country. The +voyage was chiefly along the coast of what is now the United States, +and does not therefore immediately concern the present narrative. +Verrazano's account of his discoveries, as he afterwards wrote it down, +is full of picturesque interest, and may now be found translated into +English in Hakluyt's Voyages. He tells of the savages who flocked to +the low sandy shore to see the French ship riding at anchor. They wore +skins about their loins and light feathers in their hair, and they were +'of colour russet, and not much unlike the Saracens.' Verrazano said +that these Indians were of 'cheerful and steady look, not strong of +body, yet sharp-witted, nimble, and exceeding great runners.' As he +sailed northward he was struck with the wonderful vegetation of the +American coast, the beautiful forest of pine and cypress and other +trees, unknown to him, covered with tangled vines as prolific as the +vines of Lombardy. Verrazano's voyage and his landings can be traced +all the way from Carolina to the northern part of New England. He noted +the wonderful harbour at the mouth of the Hudson, skirted the coast +eastward from that point, and then followed northward along the shores +of Massachusetts and Maine. Beyond this Verrazano seems to have made no +landings, but he followed the coast of Nova Scotia and Newfoundland. He +sailed, so he says, as far as fifty degrees north, or almost to the +Strait of Belle Isle. Then he turned eastward, headed out into the +great ocean, and reached France in safety. Unfortunately, Verrazano did +not write a detailed account of that part of his voyage which related +to Canadian waters. But there is no doubt that his glowing descriptions +must have done much to stimulate the French to further effort. +Unhappily, at the moment of his return, his royal master was deeply +engaged in a disastrous invasion of Italy, where he shortly met the +crushing defeat at Pavia (1525) which left him a captive in the hands +of his Spanish rival. His absence crippled French enterprise, and +Verrazano's explorations were not followed up till a change of fortune +enabled Francis to send out the famous expedition of Jacques Cartier. + +One other expedition to Canada deserves brief mention before we come to +Cartier's crowning discovery of the St Lawrence river. This is the +voyage of Stephen Gomez, who was sent out in the year 1524. by Charles +V, the rival of Francis I. He spent about ten months on the voyage, +following much the same course as Verrazano, but examining with far +greater care the coast of Nova Scotia and the territory about the +opening of the Gulf of St Lawrence. His course can be traced from the +Penobscot river in Maine to the island of Cape Breton. He entered the +Bay of Fundy, and probably went far enough to realize from its tides, +rising sometimes to a height of sixty or seventy feet, that its farther +end could not be free, and that it could not furnish an open passage to +the Western Sea. Running north-east along the shore of Nova Scotia, +Gomez sailed through the Gut of Canso, thus learning that Cape Breton +was an island. He named it the Island of St John-or, rather, he +transferred to it this name, which the map-makers had already used. +Hence it came about that the 'Island of St John' occasions great +confusion in the early geography of Canada. The first map-makers who +used it secured their information indirectly, we may suppose, from the +Cabot voyages and the fishermen who frequented the coast. They marked +it as an island lying in the 'Bay of the Bretons,' which had come to be +the name for the open mouth of the Gulf of St Lawrence. Gomez, however, +used the name for Cape Breton island. Later on, the name was applied to +what is now Prince Edward Island. All this is only typical of the +difficulties in understanding the accounts of the early voyages to +America. Gomez duly returned to the port of Corunna in June 1525. + +We may thus form some idea of the general position of American +exploration and discovery at the time when Cartier made his momentous +voyages. The maritime nations of Europe, in searching for a passage to +the half-mythical empires of Asia, had stumbled on a great continent. +At first they thought it Asia itself. Gradually they were realizing +that this was not Asia, but an outlying land that lay between Europe +and Asia and that must be passed by the navigator before Cathay and +Cipango could rise upon the horizon. But the new continent was vast in +extent. It blocked the westward path from pole to pole. With each +voyage, too, the resources and the native beauty of the new land became +more apparent. The luxuriant islands of the West Indies, and the Aztec +empire of Mexico, were already bringing wealth and grandeur to the +monarchy of Spain. South of Mexico it had been already found that the +great barrier of the continent extended to the cold tempestuous seas of +the Antarctic region. Magellan's voyage (1519-22) had proved indeed +that by rounding South America the way was open to the spice islands of +the east. But the route was infinitely long and arduous. The hope of a +shorter passage by the north beckoned the explorer. Of this north +country nothing but its coast was known as yet. Cabot and the fishermen +had found a land of great forests, swept by the cold and leaden seas of +the Arctic, and holding its secret clasped in the iron grip of the +northern ice. The Corte-Reals, Verrazano, and Gomez had looked upon the +endless panorama of the Atlantic coast of North America--the glorious +forests draped with tangled vines extending to the sanded beaches of +the sea--the wide inlets round the mouths of mighty rivers moving +silent and mysterious from the heart of the unknown continent. Here and +there a painted savage showed the bright feathers of his headgear as he +lurked in the trees of the forest or stood, in fearless curiosity, +gazing from the shore at the white-winged ships of the strange +visitants from the sky. But for the most part all, save the sounds of +nature, was silence and mystery. The waves thundered upon the sanded +beach of Carolina and lashed in foam about the rocks of the iron coasts +of New England and the New Found Land. The forest mingled its murmurs +with the waves, and, as the sun sank behind the unknown hills, wafted +its perfume to the anchored ships that rode upon the placid bosom of +the evening sea. And beyond all this was mystery--the mystery of the +unknown East, the secret of the pathway that must lie somewhere hidden +in the bays and inlets of the continent of silent beauty, and above all +the mysterious sense of a great history still to come for this new land +itself--a sense of the murmuring of many voices caught as the undertone +of the rustling of the forest leaves, but rising at last to the mighty +sound of the vast civilization that in the centuries to come should +pour into the silent wildernesses of America. + +To such a land--to such a mystery--sailed forth Jacques Cartier, +discoverer of Canada. + + + +BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE + +The Icelandic sagas contain legends of a discovery of America before +Columbus. Benjamin de Costa, in his 'Pre-Columbian Discovery of +America', has given translations of a number of these legends. Other +works bearing on this mythical period are: A. M. Reeves's 'The Finding +of Wineland the Good'; J. E. Olson's 'The Voyages of the Northmen' in +Vol. I of the 'Original Narrative of Early American History', edited by +J. F. Jameson; Fridtjof Nansen's 'In Northern Mists'; and John Fiske's +'The Discovery of America'. A number of general histories have chapters +bearing on pre-Columbian discovery; the most accessible of these are: +Justin Winsor's 'Narrative and Critical History of America'; +Charlevoix's 'Histoire et description generale de la Nouvelle France' +(1744), translated with notes by J. G. Shea (1886); Henry Harrisse's +'Discovery of North America'; and the 'Conquest of Canada', by the +author of 'Hochelaga'. + +There are numerous works in the Spanish, French, Italian, and English +languages dealing with Columbus and his time. Pre-eminent among the +latter are: Irving's 'Life of Columbus'; Winsor's 'Christopher Columbus +and how he Received and Imparted the Spirit of Discovery'; Helps's +'Life of Columbus'; Prescott's 'History of Ferdinand and Isabella'; +Crompton's 'Life of Columbus'; St John's 'Life of Columbus'; and +Major's 'Select Letters of Columbus' (a Hakluyt Society publication). +Likewise in every important work which deals with the early history of +North or South America, Columbus and his voyages are discussed. + +The literature dealing with the Cabots is quite as voluminous as that +bearing on Columbus. Henry Harrisse's 'John Cabot, the Discoverer of +North America and Sebastian, his Son; a Chapter of the Maritime History +of England under the Tudors, 1496-1557', is a most exhaustive work. +Other authoritative works on the Cabots are Nichols's 'Remarkable Life, +Adventures, and Discoveries of Sebastian Cabot', in which an effort is +made to give the chief glory of the discovery of America not to John +Cabot, but to his son Sebastian; Dawson's 'The Voyages of the Cabots, +1497 and 1498', 'The Voyages of the Cabots, a Sequel', and 'The Voyages +of the Cabots, Latest Phases of the Controversy', in 'Transactions +Royal Society of Canada'; Biddle's 'Memoir of Sebastian Cabot'; +Beazley's 'John and Sebastian Cabot, The Discovery of North America'; +and Weare's 'Cabot's Discovery of America'. + +A number of European writers have made able studies of the work of +Verrazano, and two American scholars have contributed valuable works on +that explorer's life and achievements; these are, De Costa's 'Verrazano +the Explorer: a Vindication of his Letter and Voyage', and Murphy's +'The Voyage of Verrazano'. + +In addition to the general histories already mentioned, the following +works contain much information on the voyages of the forerunners of +Jacques Cartier: Parkman's 'Pioneers of France'; Kohl's 'Discovery of +Maine'; Woodbury's 'Relation of the Fisheries to the Discovery of North +America' (in this work it is claimed that the Basques antedated the +Cabots); Dawson's 'The St Lawrence Basin and Its Borderlands'; Weise's +'The Discoveries of America'; 'The Journal of Christopher Columbus', +and 'Documents relating to the Voyages of John Cabot and Gaspar +Corte-Real', translated with Notes and an Introduction by Sir Clements +R. Markham; and Biggar's 'The Precursors of Jacques Cartier, +1497-1534'. This last work is essential to the student of the early +voyages to America. It contains documents, many published for the first +time, in Latin, Portuguese, Spanish, Italian, and French dealing with +exploration. The notes are invaluable, and the documents, with the +exception of those in French, are carefully though freely translated. + +For the native tribes of America the reader would do well to consult +the 'Handbook of American Indians North of Mexico', published by the +Bureau of American Ethnology, and the 'Handbook of Indians of Canada', +reprinted by the Canadian Government, with additions and minor +alterations, from the preceding work, under the direction of James +White, F.R.G.S. + + + + + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Dawn of Canadian History: A +Chronicle of Aboriginal Canada, by Stephen Leacock + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK DAWN OF CANADIAN HISTORY *** + +***** This file should be named 4069.txt or 4069.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/4/0/6/4069/ + +Produced by Gardner Buchanan. 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Hart +and may be reprinted only when these Etexts are free of all fees.] +[Project Gutenberg is a TradeMark and may not be used in any sales +of Project Gutenberg Etexts or other materials be they hardware or +software or any other related product without express permission.] + +*END THE SMALL PRINT! FOR PUBLIC DOMAIN ETEXTS*Ver.10/04/01*END* + + + + + +This etext was produced by Gardner Buchanan + + + + + +CHRONICLES OF CANADA +Edited by George M. Wrong and H. H. Langton +In thirty-two volumes + +Part I +The First European Visitors + +THE DAWN OF CANADIAN HISTORY +A Chronicle of Aboriginal Canada + +By STEPHEN LEACOCK +TORONTO, 1915 + + + +CHAPTER I + +BEFORE THE DAWN + +We always speak of Canada as a new country. In one sense, +of course, this is true. The settlement of Europeans on +Canadian soil dates back only three hundred years. +Civilization in Canada is but a thing of yesterday, and +its written history, when placed beside the long millenniums +of the recorded annals of European and Eastern peoples, +seems but a little span. + +But there is another sense in which the Dominion of +Canada, or at least part of it, is perhaps the oldest +country in the world. According to the Nebular Theory +the whole of our planet was once a fiery molten mass +gradually cooling and hardening itself into the globe we +know. On its surface moved and swayed a liquid sea glowing +with such a terrific heat that we can form no real idea +of its intensity. As the mass cooled, vast layers of +vapour, great beds of cloud, miles and miles in thickness, +were formed and hung over the face of the globe, obscuring +from its darkened surface the piercing beams of the sun. +Slowly the earth cooled, until great masses of solid +matter, rock as we call it, still penetrated with intense +heat, rose to the surface of the boiling sea. Forces of +inconceivable magnitude moved through the mass. The outer +surface of the globe as it cooled ripped and shrivelled +like a withering orange. Great ridges, the mountain +chains of to-day, were furrowed on its skin. Here in the +darkness of the prehistoric night there arose as the +oldest part of the surface of the earth the great rock +bed that lies in a huge crescent round the shores of +Hudson Bay, from Labrador to the unknown wilderness of +the barren lands of the Coppermine basin touching the +Arctic sea. The wanderer who stands to-day in the desolate +country of James Bay or Ungava is among the oldest +monuments of the world. The rugged rock which here and +there breaks through the thin soil of the infertile north +has lain on the spot from the very dawn of time. Millions +of years have probably elapsed since the cooling of the +outer crust of the globe produced the solid basis of our +continents. + +The ancient formation which thus marks the beginnings of +the solid surface of the globe is commonly called by +geologists the Archaean rock, and the myriads of uncounted +years during which it slowly took shape are called the +Archaean age. But the word 'Archaean' itself tells us +nothing, being merely a Greek term meaning 'very old.' +This Archaean or original rock must necessarily have +extended all over the surface of our sphere as it cooled +from its molten form and contracted into the earth on +which we live. But in most places this rock lies deep +under the waters of the oceans, or buried below the heaped +up strata of the formations which the hand of time piled +thickly upon it. Only here and there can it still be seen +as surface rock or as rock that lies but a little distance +below the soil. In Canada, more than anywhere else in +the world, is this Archaean formation seen. On a geological +map it is marked as extending all round the basin of +Hudson Bay, from Labrador to the shores of the Arctic. +It covers the whole of the country which we call New +Ontario, and also the upper part of the province of +Quebec. Outside of this territory there was at the dawn +of time no other 'land' where North America now is, except +a long island of rock that marks the backbone of what +are now the Selkirk Mountains and a long ridge that is +now the mountain chain of the Alleghanies beside the +Atlantic slope. + +Books on geology trace out for us the long successive +periods during which the earth's surface was formed. Even +in the Archaean age something in the form of life may +have appeared. Perhaps vast masses of dank seaweed +germinated as the earliest of plants in the steaming +oceans. The water warred against the land, tearing and +breaking at its rock formation and distributing it in +new strata, each buried beneath the next and holding fast +within it the fossilized remains that form the record of +its history. Huge fern plants spread their giant fronds +in the dank sunless atmospheres, to be buried later in +vast beds of decaying vegetation that form the coal-fields +of to-day. + +Animal life began first, like the plants, in the bosom +of the ocean. From the slimy depths of the water life +crawled hideous to the land. Great reptiles dragged their +sluggish length through the tangled vegetation of the +jungle of giant ferns. + +Through countless thousands of years, perhaps, this +gradual process went on. Nature, shifting its huge scenery, +depressed the ocean beds and piled up the dry land of +the continents. In place of the vast 'Continental Sea,' +which once filled the interior of North America, there +arose the great plateau or elevated plain that now runs +from the Mackenzie basin to the Gulf of Mexico. Instead +of the rushing waters of the inland sea, these waters +have narrowed into great rivers--the Mackenzie, the +Saskatchewan, the Mississippi--that swept the face of +the plateau and wore down the surface of the rock and +mountain slopes to spread their powdered fragments on +the broad level soil of the prairies of the west. With +each stage in the evolution of the land the forms of life +appear to have reached a higher development. In place of +the seaweed and the giant ferns of the dawn of time there +arose the maples, the beeches, and other waving trees +that we now see in the Canadian woods. The huge reptiles +in the jungle of the Carboniferous era passed out of +existence. In place of them came the birds, the +mammals,--the varied types of animal life which we now +know. Last in the scale of time and highest in point of +evolution, there appeared man. + +We must not speak of the continents as having been made +once and for all in their present form. No doubt in the +countless centuries of geological evolution various parts +of the earth were alternately raised and depressed. Great +forests grew, and by some convulsion were buried beneath +the ocean, covered deep as they lay there with a sediment +of earth and rock, and at length raised again as the +waters retreated. The coal-beds of Cape Breton are the +remains of a forest buried beneath the sea. Below the +soil of Alberta is a vast jungle of vegetation, a dense +mass of giant fern trees. The Great Lakes were once part +of a much vaster body of water, far greater in extent +than they now are. The ancient shore-line of Lake Superior +may be traced five hundred feet above its present level. + +In that early period the continents and islands which we +now see wholly separated were joined together at various +points. The British islands formed a connected part of +Europe. The Thames and the Rhine were one and the same +river, flowing towards the Arctic ocean over a plain that +is now the shallow sunken bed of the North Sea. It is +probable that during the last great age, the Quaternary, +as geologists call it, the upheaval of what is now the +region of Siberia and Alaska, made a continuous chain of +land from Asia to America. As the land was depressed +again it left behind it the islands in the Bering Sea, +like stepping-stones from shore to shore. In the same +way, there was perhaps a solid causeway of land from +Canada to Europe reaching out across the Northern Atlantic. +Baffin Island and other islands of the Canadian North +Sea, the great sub-continent of Greenland, Iceland, the +Faroe Islands, and the British Isles, all formed part of +this continuous chain. + +As the last of the great changes, there came the Ice Age, +which profoundly affected the climate and soil of Canada, +and, when the ice retreated, left its surface much as we +see it now. During this period the whole of Canada from +the Atlantic to the Rocky Mountains lay buried under a +vast sheet of ice. Heaped up in immense masses over the +frozen surface of the Hudson Bay country, the ice, from +its own dead weight, slid sidewise to the south. As it +went it ground down the surface of the land into deep +furrows and channels; it cut into the solid rock like a +moving plough, and carried with it enormous masses of +loose stone and boulders which it threw broadcast over +the face of the country. These stones and boulders were +thus carried forty and fifty, and in some cases many +hundred miles before they were finally loosed and dropped +from the sheet of moving ice. In Ontario and Quebec and +New England great stones of the glacial drift are found +which weigh from one thousand to seven thousand tons. +They are deposited in some cases on what is now the summit +of hills and mountains, showing how deep the sheet of +ice must have been that could thus cover the entire +surface of the country, burying alike the valleys and +the hills. The mass of ice that moved slowly, century by +century, across the face of Southern Canada to New England +is estimated to have been in places a mile thick. The +limit to which it was carried went far south of the +boundaries of Canada. The path of the glacial drift is +traced by geologists as far down the Atlantic coast as +the present site of New York, and in the central plain +of the continent it extended to what is now the state of +Missouri. + +Facts seem to support the theory that before the Great +Ice Age the climate of the northern part of Canada was +very different from what it is now. It is very probable +that a warm if not a torrid climate extended for hundreds +of miles northward of the now habitable limits of the +Dominion. The frozen islands of the Arctic seas were once +the seat of luxurious vegetation and teemed with life. +On Bathurst Island, which lies in the latitude of 76 +degrees, and is thus six hundred miles north of the Arctic +Circle, there have been found the bones of huge lizards +that could only have lived in the jungles of an almost +tropical climate. + +We cannot tell with any certainty just how and why these +great changes came about. But geologists have connected +them with the alternating rise and fall of the surface +of the northern continent and its altitude at various +times above the level of the sea. Thus it seems probable +that the glacial period with the ice sheet of which we +have spoken was brought about by a great elevation of +the land, accompanied by a change to intense cold. This +led to the formation of enormous masses of ice heaped up +so high that they presently collapsed and moved of their +own weight from the elevated land of the north where they +had been formed. Later on, the northern continent subsided +again and the ice sheet disappeared, but left behind it +an entirely different level and a different climate from +those of the earlier ages. The evidence of the later +movements of the land surface, and its rise and fall +after the close of the glacial epoch, may still easily +be traced. At a certain time after the Ice Age, the +surface sank so low that land which has since been lifted +up again to a considerable height was once the beach of +the ancient ocean. These beaches are readily distinguished +by the great quantities of sea shells that lie about, +often far distant from the present sea. Thus at Nachvak +in Labrador there is a beach fifteen hundred feet above +the ocean. Probably in this period after the Ice Age the +shores of Eastern Canada had sunk so low that the St +Lawrence was not a river at all, but a great gulf or arm +of the sea. The ancient shore can still be traced beside +the mountain at Montreal and on the hillsides round Lake +Ontario. Later on again the land rose, the ocean retreated, +and the rushing waters from the shrunken lakes made their +own path to the sea. In their foaming course to the lower +level they tore out the great gorge of Niagara, and tossed +and buffeted themselves over the unyielding ledges of +Lachine. + +Mighty forces such as these made and fashioned the +continent on which we live. + + + +CHAPTER II + +MAN IN AMERICA + +It was necessary to form some idea, if only in outline, +of the magnitude and extent of the great geological +changes of which we have just spoken, in order to judge +properly the question of the antiquity and origin of man +in America. + +When the Europeans came to this continent at the end of +the fifteenth century they found it already inhabited by +races of men very different from themselves. These people, +whom they took to calling 'Indians,' were spread out, +though very thinly, from one end of the continent to the +other. Who were these nations, and how was their presence +to be accounted for? + +To the first discoverers of America, or rather to the +discoverers of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries +(Columbus and his successors), the origin of the Indians +presented no difficulty. To them America was supposed to +be simply an outlying part of Eastern Asia, which had +been known by repute and by tradition for centuries past. +Finding, therefore, the tropical islands of the Caribbean +sea with a climate and plants and animals such as they +imagined those of Asia and the Indian ocean to be, and +inhabited by men of dusky colour and strange speech, they +naturally thought the place to be part of Asia, or the +Indies. The name 'Indians,' given to the aborigines of +North America, records for us this historical +misunderstanding. + +But a new view became necessary after Balboa had crossed +the isthmus of Panama and looked out upon the endless +waters of the Pacific, and after Magellan and his Spanish +comrades had sailed round the foot of the continent, and +then pressed on across the Pacific to the real Indies. +It was now clear that America was a different region from +Asia. Even then the old error died hard. Long after the +Europeans realized that, at the south, America and Asia +were separated by a great sea, they imagined that these +continents were joined together at the north. The European +ideas of distance and of the form of the globe were still +confused and inexact. A party of early explorers in +Virginia carried a letter of introduction with them from +the King of England to the Khan of Tartary: they expected +to find him at the head waters of the Chickahominy. +Jacques Cartier, nearly half a century after Columbus, +was expecting that the Gulf of St Lawrence would open +out into a passage leading to China. But after the +discovery of the North Pacific ocean and Bering Strait +the idea that America was part of Asia, that the natives +were 'Indians' in the old sense, was seen to be absurd. +It was clear that America was, in a large sense, an +island, an island cut off from every other continent. It +then became necessary to find some explanation for the +seemingly isolated position of a portion of mankind +separated from their fellows by boundless oceans. + +The earlier theories were certainly naive enough. Since +no known human agency could have transported the Indians +across the Atlantic or the Pacific, their presence in +America was accounted for by certain of the old writers +as a particular work of the devil. Thus Cotton Mather, +the famous Puritan clergyman of early New England, +maintained in all seriousness that the devil had inveigled +the Indians to America to get them 'beyond the tinkle of +the gospel bells.' Others thought that they were a +washed-up remnant of the great flood. Roger Williams, +the founder of Rhode Island, wrote: 'From Adam and Noah +that they spring, it is granted on all hands.' Even more +fantastic views were advanced. As late as in 1828 a London +clergyman wrote a book which he called 'A View of the +American Indians,' which was intended to 'show them to +be the descendants of the ten tribes of Israel.' + +Even when such ideas as these were set aside, historians +endeavoured to find evidence, or at least probability, +of a migration of the Indians from the known continents +across one or the other of the oceans. It must be admitted +that, even if we supposed the form and extent of the +continents to have been always the same as they are now, +such a migration would have been entirely possible. It +is quite likely that under the influence of exceptional +weather--winds blowing week after week from the same +point of the compass--even a primitive craft of prehistoric +times might have been driven across the Atlantic or the +Pacific, and might have landed its occupants still alive +and well on the shores of America. To prove this we need +only remember that history records many such voyages. It +has often happened that Japanese junks have been blown +clear across the Pacific. In 1833 a ship of this sort +was driven in a great storm from Japan to the shores of +the Queen Charlotte Islands off the coast of British +Columbia. In the same way a fishing smack from Formosa, +which lies off the east coast of China, was once carried +in safety across the ocean to the Sandwich Islands. +Similar long voyages have been made by the natives of +the South Seas against their will, under the influence +of strong and continuous winds, and in craft no better +than their open canoes. Captain Beechey of the Royal Navy +relates that in one of his voyages in the Pacific he +picked up a canoe filled with natives from Tahiti who +had been driven by a gale of westerly wind six hundred +miles from their own island. It has happened, too, from +time to time, since the discovery of America, that ships +have been forcibly carried all the way across the Atlantic. +A glance at the map of the world shows us that the eastern +coast of Brazil juts out into the South Atlantic so far +that it is only fifteen hundred miles distant from the +similar projection of Africa towards the west. The +direction of the trade winds in the South Atlantic is +such that it has often been the practice of sailing +vessels bound from England to South Africa to run clear +across the ocean on a long stretch till within sight of +the coast of Brazil before turning towards the Cape of +Good Hope. All, however, that we can deduce from accidental +voyages, like that of the Spaniard, Alvarez de Cabral, +across the ocean is that even if there had been no other +way for mankind to reach America they could have landed +there by ship from the Old World. In such a case, of +course, the coming of man to the American continent would +have been an extremely recent event in the long history +of the world. It could not have occurred until mankind +had progressed far enough to make vessels, or at least +boats of a simple kind. + +But there is evidence that man had appeared on the earth +long before the shaping of the continents had taken place. +Both in Europe and America the buried traces of primitive +man are vast in antiquity, and carry us much further back +in time than the final changes of earth and ocean which +made the continents as they are; and, when we remember +this, it is easy to see how mankind could have passed +from Asia or Europe to America. The connection of the +land surface of the globe was different in early times +from what it is to-day. Even still, Siberia and Alaska +are separated only by the narrow Bering Strait. From the +shore of Asia the continent of North America is plainly +visible; the islands which lie in and below the strait +still look like stepping-stones from continent to continent. +And, apart from this, it may well have been that farther +south, where now is the Pacific ocean, there was formerly +direct land connection between Southern Asia and South +America. The continuous chain of islands that runs from +the New Hebrides across the South Pacific to within two +thousand four hundred miles of the coast of Chile is +perhaps the remains of a sunken continent. In the most +easterly of these, Easter Island, have been found ruined +temples and remains of great earthworks on a scale so +vast that to believe them the work of a small community +of islanders is difficult. The fact that they bear some +resemblance to the buildings and works of the ancient +inhabitants of Chile and Peru has suggested that perhaps +South America was once merely a part of a great Pacific +continent. Or again, turning to the other side of the +continent, it may be argued with some show of evidence +that America and Africa were once connected by land, and +that a sunken continent is to be traced between Brazil +and the Guinea coast. + +Nevertheless, it appears to be impossible to say whether +or not an early branch of the human race ever 'migrated' +to America. Conceivably the race may have originated +there. Some authorities suppose that the evolution of +mankind occurred at the same time and in the same fashion +in two or more distinct quarters of the globe. Others +again think that mankind evolved and spread over the +surface of the world just as did the various kinds of +plants and animals. Of course, the higher endowment of +men enabled them to move with greater ease from place to +place than could beings of lesser faculties. Most writers +of to-day, however, consider this unlikely, and think it +more probable that man originated first in some one +region, and spread from it throughout the earth. But +where this region was, they cannot tell. We always think +of the races of Europe as having come westward from some +original home in Asia. This is, of course, perfectly +true, since nearly all the peoples of Europe can be traced +by descent from the original stock of the Aryan family, +which certainly made such a migration. But we know also +that races of men were dwelling in Europe ages before +the Aryan migration. What particular part of the globe +was the first home of mankind is a question on which we +can only speculate. + +Of one thing we may be certain. If there was a migration, +there must have been long ages of separation between +mankind in America and mankind in the Old World; otherwise +we should still find some trace of kinship in language +which would join the natives of America to the great +racial families of Europe, Asia, and Africa. But not the +slightest vestige of such kinship has yet been found. +Everybody knows in a general way how the prehistoric +relationships among the peoples of Europe and Asia are +still to be seen in the languages of to-day. The French +and Italian languages are so alike that, if we did not +know it already, we could easily guess for them a common +origin. We speak of these languages, along with others, +as Romance languages, to show that they are derived from +Latin, in contrast with the closely related tongues of +the English, Dutch, and German peoples, which came from +another common stock, the Teutonic. But even the Teutonic +and the Romance languages are not entirely different. +The similarity in both groups of old root words, like +the numbers from one to ten, point again to a common +origin still more remote. In this way we may trace a +whole family of languages, and with it a kinship of +descent, from Hindustan to Ireland. Similarly, another +great group of tongues--Arabic, Hebrew, etc.--shows a +branch of the human family spread out from Palestine and +Egypt to Morocco. + +Now when we come to inquire into the languages of the +American Indians for evidence of their relationship to +other peoples we are struck with this fact: we cannot +connect the languages of America with those of any other +part of the world. This is a very notable circumstance. +The languages of Europe and Asia are, as it were, dovetailed +together, and run far and wide into Africa. From Asia +eastward, through the Malay tongues, a connection may be +traced even with the speech of the Maori of New Zealand, +and with that of the remotest islanders of the Pacific. +But similar attempts to connect American languages with +the outside world break down. There are found in North +America, from the Arctic to Mexico, some fifty-five groups +of languages still existing or recently extinct. Throughout +these we may trace the same affinities and relationships +that run through the languages of Europe and Asia. We +can also easily connect the speech of the natives of +North America with that of natives of Central and of +South America. Even if we had not the similarities of +physical appearance, of tribal customs, and of general +manners to argue from, we should be able to say with +certainty that the various families of American Indians +all belonged to one race. The Eskimos of Northern Canada +are not Indians, and are perhaps an exception; it is +possible that a connection may be traced between them +and the prehistoric cave-men of Northern Europe. But the +Indians belong to one great race, and show no connection +in language or customs with the outside world. They belong +to the American continent, it has been said, as strictly +as its opossums and its armadillos, its maize and its +golden rod, or any other of its aboriginal animals and +plants. + +But, here again, we must not conclude too much from the +fact that the languages of America have no relation to +those of Europe and Asia. This does not show that men +originated separately on this continent. For even in +Europe and Asia, where no one supposes that different +races sprung from wholly separate beginnings, we find +languages isolated in the same way. The speech of the +Basques in the Pyrenees has nothing in common with the +European families of languages. + +We may, however, regard the natives of America as an +aboriginal race, if any portion of mankind can be viewed +as such. So far as we know, they are not an offshoot, or +a migration, from any people of what is called the Old +World, although they are, like the people of the other +continents, the descendants of a primitive human stock. + +We may turn to geology to find how long mankind has lived +on this continent. In a number of places in North and +South America are found traces of human beings and their +work so old that in comparison the beginning of the +world's written history becomes a thing of yesterday. +Perhaps there were men in Canada long before the shores +of its lakes had assumed their present form; long before +nature had begun to hollow out the great gorge of the +Niagara river or to lay down the outline of the present +Lake Ontario. Let us look at some of the notable evidence +in respect to the age of man in America. In Nicaragua, +in Central America, the imprints of human feet have been +found, deeply buried over twenty feet below the present +surface of the soil, under repeated deposits of volcanic +rock. These impressions must have been made in soft muddy +soil which was then covered by some geological convulsion +occurring long ages ago. Even more striking discoveries +have been made along the Pacific coast of South America. +Near the mouth of the Esmeraldas river in Ecuador, over +a stretch of some sixty miles, the surface soil of the +coast covers a bed of marine clay. This clay is about +eight feet thick. Underneath it is a stratum of sand and +loam such as might once have itself been surface soil. +In this lower bed there are found rude implements of +stone, ornaments made of gold, and bits of broken pottery. +Again, if we turn to the northern part of the continent +we find remains of the same kind, chipped implements of +stone and broken fragments of quartz buried in the drift +of the Mississippi and Missouri valleys. These have +sometimes been found lying beside or under the bones of +elephants and animals unknown in North America since the +period of the Great Ice. Not many years ago, some men +engaged in digging a well on a hillside that was once +part of the beach of Lake Ontario, came across the remains +of a primitive hearth buried under the accumulated soil. +From its situation we can only conclude that the men who +set together the stones of the hearth, and lighted on it +their fires, did so when the vast wall of the northern +glacier was only beginning to retreat, and long before +the gorge of Niagara had begun to be furrowed out of the +rock. + +Many things point to the conclusion that there were men +in North and South America during the remote changes of +the Great Ice Age. But how far the antiquity of man on +this continent reaches back into the preceding ages we +cannot say. + + + +CHAPTER III + +THE ABORIGINES OF CANADA + +Of the uncounted centuries of the history of the red man +in America before the coming of the Europeans we know +very little indeed. Very few of the tribes possessed even +a primitive art of writing. It is true that the Aztecs +of Mexico, and the ancient Toltecs who preceded them, +understood how to write in pictures, and that, by this +means, they preserved some record of their rulers and of +the great events of their past. The same is true of the +Mayas of Central America, whose ruined temples are still +to be traced in the tangled forests of Yucatan and +Guatemala. The ancient Peruvians also had a system, not +exactly of writing, but of record by means of QUIPUS or +twisted woollen cords of different colours: it is through +such records that we have some knowledge of Peruvian +history during about a hundred years before the coming +of the Spaniards, and some traditions reaching still +further back. But nowhere was the art of writing +sufficiently developed in America to give us a real +history of the thoughts and deeds of its people before +the arrival of Columbus. + +This is especially true of those families of the great +red race which inhabited what is now Canada. They spent +a primitive existence, living thinly scattered along the +sea-coast, and in the forests and open glades of the +district of the Great Lakes, or wandering over the prairies +of the west. In hardly any case had they any settled +abode or fixed dwelling-places. The Iroquois and some +Algonquins built Long Houses of wood and made stockade +forts of heavy timber. But not even these tribes, who +represented the furthest advance towards civilization +among the savages of North America, made settlements in +the real sense. They knew nothing of the use of the +metals. Such poor weapons and tools as they had were made +of stone, of wood, and of bone. It is true that ages ago +prehistoric men had dug out copper from the mines that +lie beside Lake Superior, for the traces of their operations +there are still found. But the art of working metals +probably progressed but a little way and then was +lost,--overwhelmed perhaps in some ancient savage conquest. +The Indians found by Cartier and Champlain knew nothing +of the melting of metals for the manufacture of tools. +Nor had they anything but the most elementary form of +agriculture. They planted corn in the openings of the +forest, but they did not fell trees to make a clearing +or plough the ground. The harvest provided by nature and +the products of the chase were their sole sources of +supply, and in their search for this food so casually +offered they moved to and fro in the depths of the forest +or roved endlessly upon the plains. One great advance, +and only one, they had been led to make. The waterways +of North America are nature's highway through the forest. +The bark canoe in which the Indians floated over the +surface of the Canadian lakes and rivers is a marvel of +construction and wonderfully adapted to its purpose: This +was their great invention. In nearly all other respects +the Indians of Canada had not emerged even from savagery +to that stage half way to civilization which is called +barbarism. + +These Canadian aborigines seem to have been few in number. +It is probable that, when the continent was discovered, +Canada, from the Atlantic to the Pacific, contained about +220,000 natives--about half as many people as are now +found in Toronto. They were divided into tribes or clans, +among which we may distinguish certain family groups +spread out over great areas. + +Most northerly of all was the great tribe of the Eskimos, +who were found all the way from Greenland to Northern +Siberia. The name Eskimo was not given by these people +to themselves. It was used by the Abnaki Indians in +describing to the whites the dwellers of the far north, +and it means 'the people who eat raw meat.' The Eskimo +called and still call themselves the Innuit, which means +'the people.' + +The exact relation of the Eskimo to the other races of +the continent is hard to define. From the fact that the +race was found on both sides of the Bering Sea, and that +its members have dark hair and dark eyes, it was often +argued that they were akin to the Mongolians of China. +This theory, however, is now abandoned. The resemblance +in height and colour is only superficial, and a more +careful view of the physical make-up of the Eskimo shows +him to resemble the other races of America far more +closely than he resembles those of Asia. A distinguished +American historian, John Fiske, believed that the Eskimos +are the last remnants of the ancient cave-men who in the +Stone Age inhabited all the northern parts of Europe. +Fiske's theory is that at this remote period continuous +land stretched by way of Iceland and Greenland from Europe +to America, and that by this means the race of cave-men +was able to extend itself all the way from Norway and +Sweden to the northern coasts of America. In support of +this view he points to the strangely ingenious and artistic +drawings of the Eskimos. These drawings are made on ivory +and bone, and are so like the ancient bone-pictures found +among the relics of the cave-men of Europe that they can +scarcely be distinguished. + +The theory is only a conjecture. It is certain that at +one time the Eskimo race extended much farther south than +it did when the white men came to America; in earlier +days there were Eskimos far south of Hudson Bay, and +perhaps even south of the Great Lakes. + +As a result of their situation the Eskimos led a very +different life from that of the Indians to the south. +They must rely on fishing and hunting for food. In that +almost treeless north they had no wood to build boats or +houses, and no vegetables or plants to supply them either +with food or with the materials of industry. But the very +rigour of their surroundings called forth in them a +marvellous ingenuity. They made boats of seal skins +stretched tight over walrus bones, and clothes of furs +and of the skins and feathers of birds. They built winter +houses with great blocks of snow put together in the form +of a bowl turned upside down. They heated their houses +by burning blubber or fat in dish-like lamps chipped out +of stones. They had, of course, no written literature. +They were, however, not devoid of art. They had legends +and folk-songs, handed down from generation to generation +with the utmost accuracy. In the long night of the Arctic +winter they gathered in their huts to hear strange +monotonous singing by their bards: a kind of low chanting, +very strange to European ears, and intended to imitate +the sounds of nature, the murmur of running waters and +the sobbing of the sea. The Eskimos believed in spirits +and monsters whom they must appease with gifts and +incantations. They thought that after death the soul +either goes below the earth to a place always warm and +comfortable, or that it is taken up into the cold forbidding +brightness of the polar sky. When the aurora borealis, +or Northern Lights, streamed across the heavens, the +Eskimos thought it the gleam of the souls of the dead +visible in their new home. + +Farthest east of all the British North American Indians +were the Beothuks. Their abode was chiefly Newfoundland, +though they wandered also in the neighbourhood of the +Strait of Belle Isle and along the north shore of the +Gulf of St Lawrence. They were in the lowest stage of +human existence and lived entirely by hunting and fishing. +Unlike the Eskimos they had no dogs, and so stern were +the conditions of their life that they maintained with +difficulty the fight against the rigour of nature. The +early explorers found them on the rocky coasts of Belle +Isle, wild and half clad. They smeared their bodies with +red ochre, bright in colour, and this earned for them +the name of Red Indians. From the first, they had no +friendly relations with the Europeans who came to their +shores, but lived in a state of perpetual war with them. +The Newfoundland fishermen and settlers hunted down the +Red Indians as if they were wild beasts, and killed them +at sight. Now and again, a few members of this unhappy +race were carried home to England to be exhibited at +country fairs before a crowd of grinning yokels who paid +a penny apiece to look at the 'wild men.' + +Living on the mainland, next to the red men of Newfoundland +lay the great race of the Algonquins, spread over a huge +tract of country, from the Atlantic coast to the head of +the Great Lakes, and even farther west. The Algonquins +were divided into a great many tribes, some of whose +names are still familiar among the Indians of to-day. +The Micmacs of Nova Scotia, the Malecite of New Brunswick, +the Naskapi of Quebec, the Chippewa of Ontario, and the +Crees of the prairie, are of this stock. It is even held +that the Algonquins are to be considered typical specimens +of the American race. They were of fine stature, and in +strength and muscular development were quite on a par +with the races of the Old World. Their skin was +copper-coloured, their lips and noses were thin, and +their hair in nearly all cases was straight and black. +When the Europeans first saw the Algonquins they had +already made some advance towards industrial civilization. +They built huts of woven boughs, and for defence sometimes +surrounded a group of huts with a palisade of stakes set +up on end. They had no agriculture in the true sense, +but they cultivated Indian corn and pumpkins in the +openings of the forests, and also the tobacco plant, with +the virtues of which they were well acquainted. They made +for themselves heavy and clumsy pottery and utensils of +wood, they wove mats out of rushes for their houses, and +they made clothes from the skin of the deer, and +head-dresses from the bright feathers of birds. Of the +metals they knew, at the time of the discovery of America, +hardly anything. They made some use of copper, which they +chipped and hammered into rude tools and weapons. But +they knew nothing of melting the metals, and their +arrow-heads and spear-points were made, for the most +part, not of metals, but of stone. Like other Indians, +they showed great ingenuity in fashioning bark canoes of +wonderful lightness. + +We must remember, however, that with nearly all the +aborigines of America, at least north of Mexico, the +attempt to utilize the materials and forces supplied by +nature had made only slight and painful progress. We are +apt to think that it was the mere laziness of the Indians +which prevented more rapid advance. It may be that we do +not realize their difficulties. When the white men first +came these rude peoples were so backward and so little +trained in using their faculties that any advance towards +art and industry was inevitably slow and difficult. This +was also true, no doubt, of the peoples who, long centuries +before, had been in the same degree of development in +Europe, and had begun the intricate tasks which a growth +towards civilization involved. The historian Robertson +describes in a vivid passage the backward state of the +savage tribes of America. 'The most simple operation,' +he says, 'was to them an undertaking of immense difficulty +and labour. To fell a tree with no other implements than +hatchets of stone was employment for a month. ...Their +operations in agriculture were equally slow and defective. +In a country covered with woods of the hardest timber, +the clearing of a small field destined for culture required +the united efforts of a tribe, and was a work of much +time and great toil.' + +The religion of the Algonquin Indians seems to have been +a rude nature worship. The Sun, as the great giver of +warmth and light, was the object of their adoration; to +a lesser degree, they looked upon fire as a superhuman +thing, worthy of worship. The four winds of heaven, +bringing storm and rain from the unknown boundaries of +the world, were regarded as spirits. Each Indian clan or +section of a tribe chose for its special devotion an +animal, the name of which became the distinctive symbol +of the clan. This is what is meant by the 'totems' of +the different branches of a tribe. + +The Algonquins knew nothing of the art of writing, beyond +rude pictures scratched or painted on wood. The Algonquin +tribes, as we have seen, roamed far to the west. One +branch frequented the upper Saskatchewan river. Here the +ashes of the prairie fires discoloured their moccasins +and turned them black, and, in consequence, they were +called the Blackfeet Indians. Even when they moved to +other parts of the country, the name was still applied +to them. + +Occupying the stretch of country to the south of the +Algonquins was the famous race known as the Iroquoian +Family. We generally read of the Hurons and the Iroquois +as separate tribes. They really belonged, however, to +one family, though during the period of Canadian history +in which they were prominent they had become deadly +enemies. When Cartier discovered the St Lawrence and made +his way to the island of Montreal, Huron Indians inhabited +all that part of the country. When Champlain came, two +generations later, they had vanished from that region, +but they still occupied a part of Ontario around Lake +Simcoe and south and east of Georgian Bay. We always +connect the name Iroquois with that part of the stock +which included the allied Five Nations--the Mohawks, +Onondagas, Senecas, Oneidas, and Cayugas,--and which +occupied the country between the Hudson river and Lake +Ontario. This proved to be the strongest strategical +position in North America. It lies in the gap or break +of the Alleghany ridge, the one place south of the St +Lawrence where an easy and ready access is afforded from +the sea-coast to the interior of the continent. Any one +who casts a glance at the map of the present Eastern +states will realize this, and will see why it is that +New York, at the mouth of the Hudson, has become the +greatest city of North America. Now, the same reason +which has created New York gave to the position of the +Five Nations its great importance in Canadian history. +But in reality the racial stock of the Iroquois extended +much farther than this, both west and south. It took in +the well-known tribe of the Eries, and also the Indians +of Chesapeake Bay and the Potomac. It included even the +Tuscaroras of the Roanoke in North Carolina, who afterwards +moved north and changed the five nations into six. + +The Iroquois were originally natives of the plain, +connected very probably with the Dakotas of the west. +But they moved eastwards from the Mississippi valley +towards Niagara, conquering as they went. No other tribe +could compare with them in either bravery or ferocity. +They possessed in a high degree both the virtues and the +vices of Indian character--the unflinching courage and +the diabolical cruelty which have made the Indian an +object of mingled admiration and contempt. In bodily +strength and physical endurance they were unsurpassed. +Even in modern days the enervating influence of civilization +has not entirely removed the original vigour of the +strain. During the American Civil War of fifty years ago +the five companies of Iroquois Indians recruited in Canada +and in the state of New York were superior in height and +measurement to any other body of five hundred men in the +northern armies. + +When the Iroquoian Family migrated, the Hurons settled +in the western peninsula of Ontario. The name of Lake +Huron still recalls their abode. But a part of the race +kept moving eastward. Before the coming of the whites, +they had fought their way almost to the sea. But they +were able to hold their new settlements only by hard +fighting. The great stockade which Cartier saw at Hochelaga, +with its palisades and fighting platforms, bore witness +to the ferocity of the struggle. At that place Cartier +and his companions were entertained with gruesome tales +of Indian fighting and of wholesale massacres. Seventy +years later, in Champlain's time, the Hochelaga stockade +had vanished, and the Hurons had been driven back into +the interior. But for nearly two centuries after Champlain +the Iroquois retained their hold on the territory from +Lake Ontario to the Hudson. The conquests and wars of +extermination of these savages, and the terror which they +inspired, have been summed up by General Francis Walker +in the saying: 'They were the scourge of God upon the +aborigines of the continent.' + +The Iroquois were in some respects superior to most of +the Indians of the continent. Though they had a limited +agriculture, and though they made hardly any use of +metals, they had advanced further in other directions +than most savages. They built of logs, houses long enough +to be divided into several compartments, with a family +in each compartment. By setting a group of houses together, +and surrounding them with a palisade of stakes and trees +set on end, the settlement was turned into a kind of +fort, and could bid defiance to the limited means of +attack possessed by their enemies. Inside their houses +they kept a good store of corn, pumpkins and dried meat, +which belonged not to each man singly but to the whole +group in common. This was the type of settlement seen at +Quebec and at Hochelaga, and, later on, among the Five +Nations. Indeed, the Five Nations gave to themselves the +picturesque name of the Long House, for their confederation +resembled, as it were, the long wooden houses that held +the families together. + +All this shows that the superiority of the Iroquois over +their enemies lay in organization. In this they were +superior even to their kinsmen the Hurons. All Indian +tribes kept women in a condition which we should think +degrading. The Indian women were drudges; they carried +the burdens, and did the rude manual toil of the tribe. +Among the Iroquois, however, women were not wholly +despised; sometimes, if of forceful character, they had +great influence in the councils of the tribe. Among the +Hurons, on the other hand, women were treated with contempt +or brutal indifference. The Huron woman, worn out with +arduous toil, rapidly lost the brightness of her youth. +At an age when the women of a higher culture are still +at the height of their charm and attractiveness the woman +of the Hurons had degenerated into a shrivelled hag, +horrible to the eye and often despicable in character. +The inborn gentleness of womanhood had been driven from +her breast by ill-treatment. Not even the cruelest of +the warriors surpassed the unhallowed fiendishness of +the withered squaw in preparing the torments of the stake +and in shrieking her toothless exultation beside the +torture fire. + +Where women are on such a footing as this it is always +ill with the community at large. The Hurons were among +the most despicable of the Indians in their manners. They +were hideous gluttons, gorging themselves when occasion +offered with the rapacity of vultures. Gambling and theft +flourished among them. Except, indeed, for the tradition +of courage in fight and of endurance under pain we can +find scarcely anything in them to admire. + +North and west from the Algonquins and Huron-Iroquois +were the family of tribes belonging to the Athapascan +stock. The general names of Chipewyan and Tinne are also +applied to the same great branch of the Indian race. In +a variety of groups and tribes, the Athapascans spread +out from the Arctic to Mexico. Their name has since become +connected with the geography of Canada alone, but in +reality a number of the tribes of the plains, like the +well-known Apaches, as well as the Hupas of California +and the Navahos, belong to the Athapascans. In Canada, +the Athapascans roamed over the country that lay between +Hudson Bay and the Rocky Mountains. They were found in +the basin of the Mackenzie river towards the Arctic sea, +and along the valley of the Fraser to the valley of the +Chilcotin. Their language was broken into a great number +of dialects which differed so widely that only the kindred +groups could understand one another's speech. But the +same general resemblance ran through the various branches +of the Athapascans. They were a tall, strong race, great +in endurance, during their prime, though they had little +of the peculiar stamina that makes for long life and +vigorous old age. Their descendants of to-day still show +the same facial characteristics--the low forehead with +prominent ridge bones, and the eyes set somewhat obliquely +so as to suggest, though probably without reason, a +kinship with Oriental peoples. + +The Athapascans stood low in the scale of civilization. +Most of them lived in a prairie country where a luxuriant +soil, not encumbered with trees, would have responded to +the slightest labour. But the Athapascans, in Canada at +least, knew nothing of agriculture. With alternations of +starvation and rude plenty, they lived upon the unaided +bounty of tribes of the far north, degraded by want and +indolence, were often addicted to cannibalism. + +The Indians beyond the mountains, between the Rockies +and the sea, were for the most part quite distinct from +those of the plains. Some tribes of the Athapascans, as +we have seen, penetrated into British Columbia, but the +greater part of the natives in that region were of wholly +different races. Of course, we know hardly anything of +these Indians during the first two centuries of European +settlement in America. Not until the eighteenth century, +when Russian traders began to frequent the Pacific coast +and the Spanish and English pushed their voyages into +the North Pacific,--the Tlingit of the far north, the +Salish, Tsimshian, Haida, Kwakiutl-Nootka and Kutenai. +It is thought, however, that nearly all the Pacific +Indians belong to one kindred stock. There are, it is +true, many distinct languages between California and +Alaska, but the physical appearance and characteristics +of the natives show a similarity throughout. + +The total number of the original Indian population of +the continent can be a matter of conjecture only. There +is every reason, however, to think that it was far less +than the absurdly exaggerated figures given by early +European writers. Whenever the first explorers found a +considerable body of savages they concluded that the +people they saw were only a fraction of some large nation. +The result was that the Spaniards estimated the inhabitants +of Peru at thirty millions. Las Casas, the Spanish +historian, said that Hispaniola, the present Hayti, had +a population of three millions; a more exact estimate, +made about twenty years after the discovery of the island, +brought the population down to fourteen thousand! In the +same way Montezuma was said to have commanded three +million Mexican warriors--an obvious absurdity. The early +Jesuits reckoned the numbers of the Iroquois at about a +hundred thousand; in reality there seem to have been, in +the days of Wolfe and Montcalm, about twelve thousand. +At the opening of the twentieth century there were in +America north of Mexico about 403,000 Indians, of whom +108,000 were in Canada. Some writers go so far as to say +that the numbers of the natives were probably never much +greater than they are to-day. But even if we accept the +more general opinion that the Indian population has +declined, there is no evidence to show that the population +was ever more than a thin scattering of wanderers over +the face of a vast country. Mooney estimates that at the +coming of the white man there were only about 846,000 +aborigines in the United States, 220,000 in British +America, 72,000 in Alaska, and 10,000 in Greenland, a +total native population of 1,148,000 from the Mississippi +to the Atlantic. + +The limited means of support possessed by the natives, +their primitive agriculture, their habitual disinclination +to settled life and industry, their constant wars and +the epidemic diseases which, even as early as the time +of Jacques Cartier, worked havoc among them, must always +have prevented the growth of a numerous population. The +explorer might wander for days in the depths of the +American forest without encountering any trace of human +life. The continent was, in truth, one vast silence, +broken only by the roar of the waterfall or the cry of +the beasts and birds of the forest. + + + +CHAPTER IV + +THE LEGEND OF THE NORSEMEN + +There are many stories of the coming of white men to the +coasts of America and of their settlements in America +long before the voyage of Christopher Columbus. Even in +the time of the Greeks and Romans there were traditions +and legends of sailors who had gone out into the 'Sea of +Darkness' beyond the Pillars of Hercules--the ancient +name for the Strait of Gibraltar--and far to the west +had found inhabited lands. Aristotle thought that there +must be land out beyond the Atlantic, and Plato tells us +that once upon a time a vast island lay off the coasts +of Africa; he calls it Atlantis, and it was, he says, +sunk below the sea by an earthquake. The Phoenicians were +wonderful sailors; their ships had gone out of the +Mediterranean into the other sea, and had reached the +British Isles, and in all probability they sailed as far +west as the Canaries. We find, indeed, in classical +literature many references to supposed islands and +countries out beyond the Atlantic. The ancients called +these places the Islands of the Blessed and the Fortunate +Isles. It is, perhaps, not unnatural that in the earlier +writers the existence of these remote and mysterious +regions should be linked with the ideas of the Elysian +Fields and of the abodes of the dead. But the later +writers, such as Pliny, and Strabo, the geographer, talked +of them as actual places, and tried to estimate how many +Roman miles they must be distant from the coast of Spain. + +There were similar legends among the Irish, legends +preserved in written form at least five hundred years +before Columbus. They recount wonderful voyages out into +the Atlantic and the discovery of new land. But all these +tales are mixed up with obvious fable, with accounts of +places where there was never any illness or infirmity, +and people lived for ever, and drank delicious wine and +laughed all day, and we cannot certify to an atom of +historic truth in them. + +Still more interesting, if only for curiosity's sake, +are weird stories that have been unearthed among the +early records of the Chinese. These are older than the +Irish legends, and date back to about the sixth century. +According to the Chinese story, a certain Hoei-Sin sailed +out into the Pacific until he was four thousand miles +east of Japan. There he found a new continent, which the +Chinese records called Fusang, because of a certain +tree--the fusang tree,--out of the fibres of which the +inhabitants made, not only clothes, but paper, and even +food. Here was truly a land of wonders. There were strange +animals with branching horns on their heads, there were +men who could not speak Chinese but barked like dogs, +and other men with bodies painted in strange colours. +Some people have endeavoured to prove by these legends +that the Chinese must have landed in British Columbia, +or have seen moose or reindeer, since extinct, in the +country far to the north. But the whole account is so +mixed up with the miraculous, and with descriptions of +things which certainly never existed on the Pacific coast +of America, that we can place no reliance whatever upon +it. + +The only importance that we can attach to such traditions +of the discovery of unknown lands and peoples on a new +continent is their bearing as a whole, their accumulated +effect, on the likelihood of such discovery before the +time of Columbus. They at least make us ready to attach +due weight to the circumstantial and credible records of +the voyages of the Norsemen. These stand upon ground +altogether different from that of the dim and confused +traditions of the classical writers and of the Irish and +Chinese legends. In fact, many scholars are now convinced +that the eastern coast of Canada was known and visited +by the Norsemen five hundred years before Columbus. + +From time immemorial the Norsemen were among the most +daring and skilful mariners ever known. They built great +wooden boats with tall, sweeping bows and sterns. These +ships, though open and without decks, were yet stout and +seaworthy. Their remains have been found, at times lying +deeply buried under the sand and preserved almost intact. +One such vessel, discovered on the shore of Denmark, +measured 72 feet in length. Another Viking ship, which +was dug up in Norway, and which is preserved in the museum +at Christiania, was 78 feet long and 17 feet wide. One +of the old Norse sagas, or stories, tells how King Olaf +Tryggvesson built a ship, the keel of which, as it lay +on the grass, was 74 ells long; in modern measure, it +would be a vessel of about 942 tons burden. Even if we +make allowance for the exaggeration or ignorance of the +writer of the saga, there is still a vast contrast between +this vessel and the little ship Centurion in which Anson +sailed round the world. + +It is needless, however, to prove that the Norsemen could +have reached America in their ships. The voyages from +Iceland to Greenland which we know they made continually +for four hundred years were just as arduous as a further +voyage from Greenland to the coast of Canada. + +The story of the Norsemen runs thus. Towards the end of +the ninth century, or nearly two hundred years before +the Norman conquest, there was a great exodus or outswarming +of the Norsemen from their original home in Norway. A +certain King Harold had succeeded in making himself +supreme in Norway, and great numbers of the lesser chiefs +or jarls preferred to seek new homes across the seas +rather than submit to his rule. So they embarked with +their seafaring followers--Vikings, as we still call +them--often, indeed, with their wives and families, in +great open ships, and sailed away, some to the coast of +England, others to France, and others even to the +Mediterranean, where they took service under the Byzantine +emperors. But still others, loving the cold rough seas +of the north, struck westward across the North Sea and +beyond the coasts of Scotland till they reached Iceland. +This was in the year 874. Here they made a settlement +that presently grew to a population of fifty thousand +people, having flocks and herds, solid houses of stone, +and a fine trade in fish and oil with the countries of +Northern Europe. These settlers in Iceland attained to +a high standard of civilization. They had many books, +and were fond of tales and stories, as are all these +northern peoples who spend long winter evenings round +the fireside. Some of the sagas, or stories, which they +told were true accounts of the voyages and adventures of +their forefathers; others were fanciful stories, like +our modern romances, created by the imagination; others, +again, were a mixture of the two. Thus it is sometimes +hard to distinguish fact and fancy in these early tales +of the Norsemen. We have, however, means of testing the +stories. Among the books written in Iceland there was +one called the 'National Name-Book,' in which all the +names of the people were written down, with an account +of their forefathers and of any notable things which they +had done. + +It is from this book and from the old sagas that we learn +how the Norsemen came to the coast of America. It seems +that about 900 a certain man called Gunnbjorn was driven +westward in a great storm and thrown on the rocky shore +of an ice-bound country, where he spent the winter. +Gunnbjorn reached home safely, and never tried again to +find this new land; but, long after his death, the story +that there was land farther west still lingered among +the settlers in Iceland and the Orkneys, and in other +homes of the Norsemen. Some time after Gunnbjorn's voyage +it happened that a very bold and determined man called +Eric the Red, who lived in the Orkneys, was made an outlaw +for having killed several men in a quarrel. Eric fled +westward over the seas about the year 980, and he came +to a new country with great rocky bays and fjords as in +Norway. There were no trees, but the slopes of the +hillsides were bright with grass, so he called the country +Greenland, as it is called to this day. Eric and his men +lived in Greenland for three years, and the ruins of +their rough stone houses are still to be seen, hard by +one of the little Danish settlements of to-day. When Eric +and his followers went back to Iceland they told of what +they had seen, and soon he led a new expedition to +Greenland. The adventurers went in twenty-five ships; +more than half were lost on the way, but eleven ships +landed safely and founded a colony in Greenland. Other +settlers came, and this Greenland colony had at one time +a population of about two thousand people. Its inhabitants +embraced Christianity when their kinsfolk in other places +did so, and the ruins of their stone churches still exist. +The settlers raised cattle and sheep, and sent ox hides +and seal skins and walrus ivory to Europe in trade for +supplies. But as there was no timber in Greenland they +could not build ships, and thus their communication with +the outside world was more or less precarious. In spite +of this, the colony lasted for about four hundred years. +It seems to have come to an end at about the beginning +of the fifteenth century. The scanty records of its +history can be traced no later than the year 1409. What +happened to terminate its existence is not known. Some +writers, misled by the name 'Greenland,' have thought +that there must have been a change of climate by which +the country lost its original warmth and verdure and +turned into an arctic region. There is no ground for this +belief. The name 'Greenland' did not imply a country of +trees and luxuriant vegetation, but only referred to the +bright carpet of grass still seen in the short Greenland +summer in the warmer hollows of the hillsides. It may +have been that the settlement, never strong in numbers, +was overwhelmed by the Eskimos, who are known to have +often attacked the colony: very likely, too, it suffered +from the great plague, the Black Death, that swept over +all Europe in the fourteenth century. Whatever the cause, +the colony came to an end, and centuries elapsed before +Greenland was again known to Europe. + +This whole story of the Greenland settlement is historical +fact which cannot be doubted. Partly by accident and +partly by design, the Norsemen had been carried from +Norway to the Orkneys and the Hebrides and Iceland, and +from there to Greenland. This having happened, it was +natural that their ships should go beyond Greenland +itself. During the four hundred years in which the Norse +ships went from Europe to Greenland, their navigators +had neither chart nor compass, and they sailed huge open +boats, carrying only a great square sail. It is evident +that in stress of weather and in fog they must again and +again have been driven past the foot of Greenland, and +must have landed somewhere in what is now Labrador. It +would be inconceivable that in four centuries of voyages +this never happened. In most cases, no doubt, the +storm-tossed and battered ships, like the fourteen vessels +that Eric lost, were never heard of again. But in other +cases survivors must have returned to Greenland or Iceland +to tell of what they had seen. + +This is exactly what happened to a bold sailor called +Bjarne, the son of Herjulf, a few years after the Greenland +colony was founded. In 986 he put out from Iceland to +join his father, who was in Greenland, the purpose being +that, after the good old Norse custom, they might drink +their Christmas ale together. Neither Bjarne nor his men +had ever sailed the Greenland sea before, but, like bold +mariners, they relied upon their seafaring instinct to +guide them to its coast. As Bjarne's ship was driven +westward, great mists fell upon the face of the waters. +There was neither sun nor stars, but day after day only +the thick wet fog that clung to the cold surface of the +heaving sea. To-day travellers even on a palatial steamship, +who spend a few hours shuddering in the chill grey fog +of the North Atlantic, chafing at delay, may form some +idea of voyages such as that of Bjarne Herjulf and his +men. These Vikings went on undaunted towards the west. +At last, after many days, they saw land, but when they +drew near they saw that it was not a rugged treeless +region, such as they knew Greenland to be, but a country +covered with forests, a country of low coasts rising +inland to small hills, and with no mountains in sight. +Accordingly, Bjarne said that this was not Greenland, +and he would not stop, but turned the vessel to the north. +After two days they sighted land again, still on the left +side, and again it was flat and thick with trees. The +sea had fallen calm, and Bjarne's men desired to land +and see this new country, and take wood and water into +the ship. But Bjarne would not. So they held on their +course, and presently a wind from the south-west carried +them onward for three days and three nights. Then again +they saw land, but this time it was high and mountainous, +with great shining caps of snow. And again Bjarne said, +'This is not the land I seek.' They did not go ashore, +but sailing close to the coast they presently found that +the land was an island. When they stood out to sea again, +the south wind rose to a gale that swept them towards +the north, with sail reefed down and with their ship +leaping through the foaming surges. Three days and nights +they ran before the gale. On the fourth day land rose +before them, and this time it was Greenland. There Bjarne +found his father, and there, when not at sea, he settled +for the rest of his days. + +Such is the story of Bjarne Herjulf, as the Norsemen have +it. To the unprejudiced mind there is every reason to +believe that his voyage had carried him to America, to +the coast of the Maritime Provinces, or of Newfoundland +or Labrador. More than this one cannot say. True, it is +hard to fit the 'two days' and the 'three days' of Bjarne's +narrative into the sailing distances. But every one who +has read any primitive literature, or even the Homeric +poems, will remember how easily times and distances and +numbers that are not exactly known are expressed in loose +phrases not to be taken as literal. + +The news of Bjarne's voyage and of his discovery of land +seems to have been carried presently to the Norsemen in +Iceland and in Europe. In fact, Bjarne himself made a +voyage to Norway, and, on account of what he had done, +figured there as a person of some importance. But people +blamed Bjarne because he had not landed on the new coasts, +and had taken so little pains to find out more about the +region of hills and forests which lay to the south and +west of Greenland. Naturally others were tempted to follow +the matter further. Among these was Leif, son of Eric +the Red. Leif went to Greenland, found Bjarne, bought +his ship, and manned it with a crew of thirty-five. Leif's +father, Eric, now lived in Greenland, and Leif asked him +to take command of the expedition. He thought, the saga +says, that, since Eric had found Greenland, he would +bring good luck to the new venture. For the time, Eric +consented, but when all was ready, and he was riding down +to the shore to embark, his horse stumbled and he fell +from the saddle and hurt his foot. Eric took this as an +omen of evil, and would not go; but Leif and his crew of +thirty-five set sail towards the south-west. This was in +the year 1000 A.D., or four hundred and ninety-two years +before Columbus landed in the West Indies. + +Leif and his men sailed on, the saga tells us, till they +came to the last land which Bjarne had discovered. Here +they cast anchor, lowered a boat, and rowed ashore. They +found no grass, but only a great field of snow stretching +from the sea to the mountains farther inland; and these +mountains, too, glistened with snow. It seemed to the +Norsemen a forbidding place, and Leif christened it +Helluland, or the country of slate or flat stones. They +did not linger, but sailed away at once. The description +of the snow-covered hills, the great slabs of stone, and +the desolate aspect of the coast conveys at least a very +strong probability that the land was Labrador. + +Leif and his men sailed away, and soon they discovered +another land. The chronicle does not say how many days +they were at sea, so that we cannot judge of the distance +of this new country from the Land of Stones. But evidently +it was entirely different in aspect, and was situated in +a warmer climate. The coast was low, there were broad +beaches of white sand, and behind the beaches rose thick +forests spreading over the country. Again the Norsemen +landed. Because of the trees, they gave to this place +the name of Markland, or the Country of Forests. Some +writers have thought that Markland must have been +Newfoundland, but the description also suggests Cape +Breton or Nova Scotia. The coast of Newfoundland is, +indeed, for the most part, bold, rugged, and inhospitable. + +Leif put to sea once more. For two days the wind was from +the north-east. Then again they reached land. This new +region was the famous country which the Norsemen called +Vineland, and of which every schoolboy has read. There +has been so much dispute as to whether Vineland--this +warm country where grapes grew wild--was Nova Scotia or +New England, or some other region, that it is worth while +to read the account of the Norse saga, literally translated: + + They came to an island, which lay on the north side + of the land, where they disembarked to wait for good + weather. There was dew upon the grass; and having + accidentally got some of the dew upon their hands and + put it to their mouths, they thought that they had + never tasted anything so sweet. Then they went on + board and sailed into a sound that was between the + island and a point that went out northwards from the + land, and sailed westward past the point. There was + very shallow water and ebb tide, so that their ship + lay dry; and there was a long way between their ship + and the water. They were so desirous to get to the + land that they would not wait till their ship floated, + but ran to the land, to a place where a river comes + out of a lake. As soon as their ship was afloat they + took the boats, rowed to the ship, towed her up the + river, and from thence into the lake, where they cast + anchor, carried their beds out of the ship, and set + up their tents. + + They resolved to put things in order for wintering + there, and they erected a large house. They did not + want for salmon, in both the river and the lake; and + they thought the salmon larger than any they had ever + seen before. The country appeared to them to be of so + good a kind that it would not be necessary to gather + fodder for the cattle for winter. There was no frost + in winter, and the grass was not much withered. Day + and night were more equal than in Greenland and + Iceland. + +The chronicle goes on to tell how Leif and his men spent +the winter in this place. They explored the country round +their encampment. They found beautiful trees, trees big +enough for use in building houses, something vastly +important to men from Greenland, where no trees grow. +Delighted with this, Leif and his men cut down some trees +and loaded their ship with the timber. One day a sailor, +whose home had been in a 'south country,' where he had +seen wine made from grapes, and who was nicknamed the +'Turk,' found on the coast vines with grapes, growing +wild. He brought his companions to the spot, and they +gathered grapes sufficient to fill their ship's boat. It +was on this account that Leif called the country 'Vineland.' +They found patches of supposed corn which grew wild like +the grapes and reseeded itself from year to year. It is +striking that the Norse chronicle should name these simple +things. Had it been a work of fancy, probably we should +have heard, as in the Chinese legends, of strange demons +and other amazing creatures. But we hear instead of the +beautiful forest extending to the shore, the mountains +in the background, the tangled vines, and the bright +patches of wild grain of some kind ripening in the open +glades-the very things which caught the eye of Cartier +when, five centuries later, he first ascended the St +Lawrence. + +Where Vineland was we cannot tell. If the men really +found wild grapes, and not some kind of cranberry, Vineland +must have been in the region where grapes will grow. The +vine grows as far north as Prince Edward Island and Cape +Breton, and, of course, is found in plenty on the coasts +of Nova Scotia and New England. The chronicle says that +the winter days were longer in Vineland than in Greenland, +and names the exact length of the shortest day. +Unfortunately, however, the Norsemen had no accurate +system for measuring time; otherwise the length of the +shortest winter day would enable us to know at what exact +spot Leif's settlement was made. + +Leif and his men stayed in Vineland all winter, and sailed +home to Greenland in the spring (1001 A.D.). As they +brought timber, much prized in the Greenland settlement, +their voyage caused a great deal of talk. Naturally others +wished to rival Leif. In the next few years several +voyages to Vineland are briefly chronicled in the sagas. + +First of all, Thorwald, Leif's brother, borrowed his +ship, sailed away to Vineland with thirty men, and spent +two winters there. During his first summer in Vineland, +Thorwald sent some men in a boat westward along the coast. +They found a beautiful country with thick woods reaching +to the shore, and great stretches of white sand. They +found a kind of barn made of wood, and were startled by +this first indication of the presence of man. Thorwald +had, indeed, startling adventures. In a great storm his +ship was wrecked on the coast, and he and his men had to +rebuild it. He selected for a settlement a point of land +thickly covered with forest. Before the men had built +their houses they fell in with some savages, whom they +made prisoners. These savages had bows and arrows, and +used what the Norsemen called 'skin boats.' One of the +savages escaped and roused his tribe, and presently a +great flock of canoes came out of a large bay, surrounded +the Viking ship, and discharged a cloud of arrows. The +Norsemen beat off the savages, but in the fight Thorwald +received a mortal wound. As he lay dying he told his men +to bury him there in Vineland, on the point where he had +meant to build his home. This was done. Thorwald's men +remained there for the winter. In the spring they returned +to Greenland, with the sad news for Leif of his brother's +death. + +Other voyages followed. A certain Thorfinn Karlsevne even +tried to found a permanent colony in Vineland. In the +spring of 1007, he took there a hundred and sixty men, +some women, and many cattle. He and his people remained +in Vineland for nearly four years. They traded with the +savages, giving them cloth and trinkets for furs. +Karlsevne's wife gave birth there to a son, who was +christened Snorre, and who was perhaps the first white +child born in America. The Vineland colony seems to have +prospered well enough, but unfortunately quarrels broke +out between the Norsemen and the savages, and so many of +Karlsevne's people were killed that the remainder were +glad to sail back to Greenland. + +The Norse chronicles contain a further story of how one +of Karlsevne's companions, Thorward, and his wife Freydis, +who was a daughter of Eric the Red, made a voyage to +Vineland. This expedition ended in tragedy. One night +the Norsemen quarrelled in their winter quarters, there +was a tumult and a massacre. Freydis herself killed five +women with an axe, and the little colony was drenched in +blood. The survivors returned to Greenland, but were +shunned by all from that hour. + +After this story we have no detailed accounts of voyages +to Vineland. There are, however, references to it in +Icelandic literature. There does not seem any ground to +believe that the Norsemen succeeded in planting a lasting +colony in Vineland. Some people have tried to claim that +certain ancient ruins on the New England coast--an old +stone mill at Newport, and so on--are evidences of such +a settlement. But the claim has no sufficient proof behind +it. + +On the whole, however, there seems every ground to conclude +that again and again the Norsemen landed on the Atlantic +coast of America. We do not know where they made their +winter quarters, nor does this matter. Very likely there +were temporary settlements in both 'Markland,' with its +thick woods bordering on the sea, and in other less +promising regions. It should be added that some writers +of authority refuse even to admit that the Norsemen +reached America. Others, like Nansen, the famous Arctic +explorer, while admitting the probability of the voyages, +believe that the sagas are merely a sort of folklore, +such as may be found in the primitive literature of all +nations. On the other hand, John Fiske, the American +historian, who devoted much patient study to the question, +was convinced that what is now the Canadian coast, with, +probably, part of New England too, was discovered, visited, +and thoroughly well known by the Norse inhabitants of +Greenland. For several centuries they appear to have made +summer voyages to and from this 'Vineland the Good' as +they called it, and to have brought back timber and +supplies not found in their own inhospitable country. It +is quite possible that further investigation may throw +new light on the Norse discoveries, and even that undeniable +traces of the buildings or implements of the settlers in +Vineland may be found. Meanwhile the subject, interesting +though it is, remains shrouded in mystery. + + + +CHAPTER V + +THE BRISTOL VOYAGES + +The discoveries of the Norsemen did not lead to the +opening of America to the nations of Europe. For this +the time was not yet ripe. As yet European nations were +backward, not only in navigation, but in the industries +and commerce which supply the real motive for occupying +new lands. In the days of Eric the Red Europe was only +beginning to emerge from a dark period. The might and +splendour of the Roman Empire had vanished, and the great +kingdoms which we know were still to rise. + +All this changed in the five hundred years between the +foundation of the Greenland colony and the voyage of +Christopher Columbus. The discovery of America took place +as a direct result of the advancing civilization and +growing power of Europe. The event itself was, in a sense, +due to pure accident. Columbus was seeking Asia when he +found himself among the tropical islands of the West +Indies. In another sense, however, the discovery marks +in world history a necessary stage, for which the preceding +centuries had already made the preparation. The story of +the voyages of Columbus forms no part of our present +narrative. But we cannot understand the background that +lies behind the history of Canada without knowing why +such men as Christopher Columbus and Vasco da Gama and +the Cabots began the work of discovery. + +First, we have to realize the peculiar relations between +Europe, ancient and mediaeval, and the great empires of +Eastern Asia. The two civilizations had never been in +direct contact. Yet in a sense they were always connected. +The Greeks and the Romans had at least vague reports of +peoples who lived on the far eastern confines of the +world, beyond even the conquests of Alexander the Great +in Hindustan. It is certain, too, that Europe and Asia +had always traded with one another in a strange and +unconscious fashion. The spices and silks of the unknown +East passed westward from trader to trader, from caravan +to caravan, until they reached the Persian Gulf, the Red +Sea, and, at last, the Mediterranean. The journey was so +slow, so tedious, the goods passed from hand to hand so +often, that when the Phoenician, Greek, or Roman merchants +bought them their origin had been forgotten. For century +after century this trade continued. When Rome fell, other +peoples of the Mediterranean continued the Eastern trade. +Genoa and Venice rose to greatness by this trade. As +wealth and culture revived after the Gothic conquest +which overthrew Rome, the beautiful silks and the rare +spices of the East were more and more prized in a world +of increasing luxury. The Crusades rediscovered Egypt, +Syria, and the East for Europe. Gold and jewels, +diamond-hilted swords of Damascus steel, carved ivory, +and priceless gems,--all the treasures which the warriors +of the Cross brought home, helped to impress on the mind +of Europe the surpassing riches of the East. + +Gradually a new interest was added. As time went on doubts +increased regarding the true shape of the earth. Early +peoples had thought it a great flat expanse, with the +blue sky propped over it like a dome or cover. This +conception was giving way. The wise men who watched the +sky at night, who saw the sweeping circles of the fixed +stars and the wandering path of the strange luminous +bodies called planets, began to suspect a mighty +secret,--that the observing eye saw only half the heavens, +and that the course of the stars and the earth itself +rounded out was below the darkness of the horizon. From +this theory that the earth was a great sphere floating +in space followed the most enthralling conclusions. If +the earth was really a globe, it might be possible to go +round it and to reappear on the farther side of the +horizon. Then the East might be reached, not only across +the deserts of Persia and Tartary, but also by striking +out into the boundless ocean that lay beyond the Pillars +of Hercules. For such an attempt an almost superhuman +courage was required. No man might say what awful seas, +what engulfing gloom, might lie across the familiar waters +which washed the shores of Europe. The most fearless who, +at evening, upon the cliffs of Spain or Portugal, watched +black night settle upon the far-spreading waters of the +Atlantic, might well turn shuddering from any attempt to +sail into those unknown wastes. + +It was the stern logic of events which compelled the +enterprise. Barbarous Turks swept westward. Arabia, Syria, +the Isles of Greece, and, at last, in 1453, Constantinople +itself, fell into their hands. The Eastern Empire, the +last survival of the Empire of the Romans, perished +beneath the sword of Mahomet. Then the pathway by land +to Asia, to the fabled empires of Cathay and Cipango, +was blocked by the Turkish conquest. Commerce, however, +remained alert and enterprising, and men's minds soon +turned to the hopes of a western passage which should +provide a new route to the Indies. + +All the world knows the story of Christopher Columbus, +his long years of hardship and discouragement; the supreme +conviction which sustained him in his adversity; the +final triumph which crowned his efforts. It is no detraction +from the glory of Columbus to say that he was only one +of many eager spirits occupied with new problems of +discovery across the sea. Not the least of these were +John and Sebastian Cabot, father and son. John Cabot, +like Columbus, was a Genoese by birth; a long residence +in Venice, however, earned for him in 1476 the citizenship +of that republic. Like many in his time, he seems to have +been both a scientific geographer and a practical +sea-captain. At one time he made charts and maps for his +livelihood. Seized with the fever for discovery, he is +said to have begged in vain from the sovereigns of Spain +and Portugal for help in a voyage to the West. About the +time of the great discovery of Columbus in 1492, John +Cabot arrived in Bristol. It may be that he took part in +some of the voyages of the Bristol merchants, before the +achievements of Columbus began to startle the world. + +At the close of the fifteenth century the town of Bristol +enjoyed a pre-eminence which it has since lost. It stood +second only to London as a British port. A group of +wealthy merchants carried on from Bristol a lively trade +with Iceland and the northern ports of Europe. The town +was the chief centre for an important trade in codfish. +Days of fasting were generally observed at that time; on +these the eating of meat was forbidden by the church, +and fish was consequently in great demand. The merchants +of Bristol were keen traders, and were always seeking +the further extension of their trade. Christopher Columbus +himself is said to have made a voyage for the Bristol +merchants to Iceland in 1477. There is even a tale that, +before Columbus was known to fame, an expedition was +equipped there in 1480 to seek the 'fabulous islands' of +the Western Sea. Certain it is that the Spanish ambassador +in England, whose business it was to keep his royal master +informed of all that was being done by his rivals, wrote +home in 1498: 'It is seven years since those of Bristol +used to send out, every year, a fleet of two, three, or +four caravels to go and search for the Isle of Brazil +and the Seven Cities, according to the fancy of the +Genoese.' + +We can therefore realize that when Master John Cabot came +among the merchants of this busy town with his plans he +found a ready hearing. Cabot was soon brought to the +notice of his august majesty Henry VII of England. The +king had been shortsighted enough to reject overtures +made to him by Bartholomew Columbus, brother of Christopher, +and no doubt he regretted his mistake. Now he was eager +enough to act as the patron of a new voyage. Accordingly, +on March 5, 1496, he granted a royal licence in the form +of what was called Letters Patent, authorizing John Cabot +and his sons Lewis, Sebastian and Sancius to make a voyage +of discovery in the name of the king of England. The +Cabots were to sail 'with five ships or vessels of whatever +burden or quality soever they be, and with as many marines +or men as they will have with them in the said ships upon +their own proper costs and charges.' It will be seen that +Henry VII, the most parsimonious of kings, had no mind +to pay the expense of the voyage. The expedition was 'to +seek out, discover and find whatsoever islands, countries, +regions and provinces of the heathens or infidels, in +whatever part of the world they be, which before this +time have been unknown to all Christians.' It was to sail +only 'to the seas of the east and west and north,' for +the king did not wish to lay any claim to the lands +discovered by the Spaniards and Portuguese. The discoverers, +however, were to raise the English flag over any new +lands that they found, to conquer and possess them, and +to acquire 'for us dominion, title, and jurisdiction over +those towns, castles, islands, and mainlands so discovered.' +One-fifth of the profits from the anticipated voyages to +the new land was to fall to the king, but the Cabots were +to have a monopoly of trade, and Bristol was to enjoy +the right of being the sole port of entry for the ships +engaged in this trade. + +Not until the next year, 1497, did John Cabot set out. +Then he embarked from Bristol with a single ship, called +in an old history the Matthew, and a crew of eighteen +men. First, he sailed round the south of Ireland, and +from there struck out westward into the unknown sea. The +appliances of navigation were then very imperfect. Sailors +could reckon the latitude by looking up at the North +Star, and noting how high it was above the horizon. Since +the North Star stands in the sky due north, and the axis +on which the earth spins points always towards it, it +will appear to an observer in the northern hemisphere to +be as many degrees above the horizon as he himself is +distant from the pole or top of the earth. The old +navigators, therefore, could always tell how far north +or south they were. Moreover, as long as the weather was +clear they could, by this means, strike, at night at +least, a course due east or west. But when the weather +was not favourable for observations they had to rely on +the compass alone. Now the compass in actual fact does +not always and everywhere point due north. It is subject +to variation, and in different times and places points +either considerably east of north or west of it. In the +path where Cabot sailed, the compass pointed west of +north; and hence, though he thought he was sailing straight +west from Ireland, he was really pursuing a curved path +bent round a little towards the south. This fact will +become of importance when we consider where it was that +Cabot landed. For finding distance east and west the +navigators of the fifteenth century had no such appliances +as our modern chronometer and instruments of observation. +They could tell how far they had sailed only by 'dead +reckoning'; this means that if their ship was going at +such and such a speed, it was supposed to have made such +and such a distance in a given time. But when ships were +being driven to and fro, and buffeted by adverse winds, +this reckoning became extremely uncertain. + +John Cabot and his men mere tossed about considerably in +their little ship. Though they seem to have set out early +in May of 1497, it was not until June 24 that they sighted +land. What the land was like, and what they thought of +it, we know from letters written in England by various +persons after their return. Thus we learn that it was a +'very good and temperate country,' and that 'Brazil wood +and silks grow there.' 'The sea,' they reported, 'is +covered with fishes, which are caught not only with the +net, but with baskets, a stone being tied to them in +order that the baskets may sink in the water.' Henceforth, +it was said, England would have no more need to buy fish +from Iceland, for the waters of the new land abounded in +fish. Cabot and his men saw no savages, but they found +proof that the land was inhabited. Here and there in the +forest they saw trees which had been felled, and also +snares of a rude kind set to catch game. They were +enthusiastic over their success. They reported that the +new land must certainly be connected with Cipango, from +which all the spices and precious stones of the world +originated. Only a scanty stock of provisions, they +declared, prevented them from sailing along the coast as +far as Cathay and Cipango. As it was they planted on the +land a great cross with the flag of England and also the +banner of St Mark, the patron saint of Cabot's city of +Venice. + +The older histories used always to speak as if John Cabot +had landed somewhere on the coast of Labrador, and had +at best gone no farther south than Newfoundland. Even if +this were the whole truth about the voyage, to Cabot and +his men would belong the signal honour of having been +the first Europeans, since the Norsemen, to set foot on +the mainland of North America. Without doubt they were +the first to unfurl the flag of England, and to erect +the cross upon soil which afterwards became part of +British North America. But this is not all. It is likely +that Cabot reached a point far south of Labrador. His +supposed sailing westward carried him in reality south +of the latitude of Ireland. He makes no mention of the +icebergs which any voyager must meet on the Labrador +coast from June to August. His account of a temperate +climate suitable for growing dye-wood, of forest trees, +and of a country so fair that it seemed the gateway of +the enchanted lands of the East, is quite unsuited to +the bare and forbidding aspect of Labrador. Cape Breton +island was probably the place of Cabot's landing. Its +balmy summer climate, the abundant fish of its waters, +fit in with Cabot's experiences. The evidence from maps, +one of which was made by Cabot's son Sebastian, points +also to Cape Breton as the first landing-place of English +sailors in America. + +There is no doubt of the stir made by Cabot's discovery +on his safe return to England. He was in London by August +of 1497, and he became at once the object of eager +curiosity and interest. 'He is styled the Great Admiral,' +wrote a Venetian resident in London, 'and vast honour is +paid to him. He dresses in silk, and the English run +after him like mad people.' The sunlight of royal favour +broke over him in a flood: even Henry VII proved generous. +The royal accounts show that, on August 10, 1497, the +king gave ten pounds 'to him that found the new isle.' +A few months later the king granted to his 'well-beloved +John Cabot, of the parts of Venice, an annuity of twenty +pounds sterling,' to be paid out of the customs of the +port of Bristol. The king, too, was lavish in his promises +of help for a new expedition. Henry's imagination had +evidently been fired with the idea of an Oriental empire. +A contemporary writer tells us that Cabot was to have +ten armed ships. At Cabot's request, the king conceded +to him all the prisoners needed to man this fleet, saving +only persons condemned for high treason. It is one of +the ironies of history that on the first pages of its +annals the beautiful new world is offered to the criminals +of Europe. + +During the winter that followed, John Cabot was the hero +of the hour. Busy preparations went on for a new voyage. +Letters patent were issued giving Cabot power to take +any six ships that he liked from the ports of the kingdom, +paying to their owners the same price only as if taken +for the king's service. The 'Grand Admiral' became a +person of high importance. On one friend he conferred +the sovereignty of an island; to others he made lavish +promises; certain poor friars who offered to embark on +his coming voyage were to be bishops over the heathen of +the new land. Even the merchants of London ventured to +send out goods for trade, and brought to Cabot 'coarse +cloth, caps, laces, points, and other trifles.' + +The second expedition sailed from the port of Bristol in +May of 1498. John Cabot and his son Sebastian were in +command; of the younger brothers we hear no more. But +the high hopes of the voyagers were doomed to +disappointment. On arriving at the coast of America +Cabot's ships seem first to have turned towards the north. +The fatal idea, that the empires of Asia might be reached +through the northern seas already asserted its sway. The +search for a north-west passage, that will-o'-the-wisp +of three centuries, had already begun. Many years later +Sebastian Cabot related to a friend at Seville some +details regarding this unfortunate attempt of his father +to reach the spice islands of the East. The fleet, he +said, with its three hundred men, first directed its +course so far to the north that, even in the month of +July, monstrous heaps of ice were found floating on the +sea. 'There was,' so Sebastian told his friend, 'in a +manner, continual daylight.' The forbidding aspect of +the coast, the bitter cold of the northern seas, and the +boundless extent of the silent drifting ice, chilled the +hopes of the explorers. They turned towards the south. +Day after day, week after week, they skirted the coast +of North America. If we may believe Sebastian's friend, +they reached a point as far south as Gibraltar in Europe. +No more was there ice. The cold of Labrador changed to +soft breezes from the sanded coast of Carolina and from +the mild waters of the Gulf Stream. But of the fabled +empires of Cathay and Cipango, and the 'towns and castles' +over which the Great Admiral was to have dominion, they +saw no trace. Reluctantly the expedition turned again +towards Europe, and with its turning ends our knowledge +of what happened on the voyage. + +That the ships came home either as a fleet, or at least +in part, we have certain proof. We know that John Cabot +returned to Bristol, for the ancient accounts of the port +show that he lived to draw at least one or two instalments +of his pension. But the sunlight of royal favour no longer +illumined his path. In the annals of English history the +name of John Cabot is never found again. + +The son Sebastian survived to continue a life of maritime +adventure, to be counted one of the great sea-captains +of the day, and to enjoy an honourable old age. In the +year 1512 we hear of him in the service of Ferdinand of +Spain. He seems to have won great renown as a maker of +maps and charts. He still cherished the idea of reaching +Asia by way of the northern seas of America. A north-west +expedition with Sebastian in command had been decided +upon, it is said, by Ferdinand, when the death of that +illustrious sovereign prevented the realization of the +project. After Ferdinand's death, Cabot fell out with +the grandees of the Spanish court, left Madrid, and +returned for some time to England. Some have it that he +made a new voyage in the service of Henry VIII, and sailed +through Hudson Strait, but this is probably only a confused +reminiscence, handed down by hearsay, of the earlier +voyages. Cabot served Spain again under Charles V, and +made a voyage to Brazil and the La Plata river. He +reappears later in England, and was made Inspector of +the King's Ships by Edward VI. He was a leading spirit +of the Merchant Adventurers who, in Edward's reign, first +opened up trade by sea with Russia. + +The voyages of the Bristol traders and the enterprise of +England by no means ended with the exploits of the Cabots. +Though our ordinary history books tell us nothing more +of English voyages until we come to the days of the great +Elizabethan navigators, Drake, Frobisher, Hawkins, and +to the planting of Virginia, as a matter of fact many +voyages were made under Henry VII and Henry VIII. Both +sovereigns seem to have been anxious to continue the +exploration of the western seas, but they had not the +good fortune again to secure such master-pilots as John +and Sebastian Cabot. + +In the first place, it seems that the fishermen of England, +as well as those of the Breton coast, followed close in +the track of the Cabots. As soon as the Atlantic passage +to Newfoundland had been robbed of the terrors of the +unknown, it was not regarded as difficult. With strong +east winds a ship of the sixteenth century could make +the run from Bristol or St Malo to the Grand Banks in +less than twenty days. Once a ship was on the Banks, the +fish were found in an abundance utterly unknown in European +waters, and the ships usually returned home with great +cargoes. During the early years of the sixteenth century +English, French, and Portuguese fishermen went from Europe +to the Banks in great numbers. They landed at various +points in Newfoundland and Cape Breton, and became well +acquainted with the outline of the coast. It was no +surprise to Jacques Cartier, for instance, on his first +voyage, to find a French fishing vessel lying off the +north shore of the Gulf of St Lawrence. But these fishing +crews thought nothing of exploration. The harvest of the +sea was their sole care, and beyond landing to cure fish +and to obtain wood and water they did nothing to claim +or conquer the land. + +There were, however, efforts from time to time to follow +up the discoveries of the Cabots. The merchants of Bristol +do not seem to have been disappointed with the result of +the Cabot enterprises, for as early as in 1501 they sent +out a new expedition across the Atlantic. The sanction +of the king was again invoked, and Henry VII granted +letters patent to three men of Bristol--Richard Warde, +Thomas Ashehurst, and John Thomas--to explore the western +seas. These names have a homely English sound; but +associated with them were three Portuguese--John Gonzales, +and two men called Fernandez, all of the Azores, and +probably of the class of master-pilots to which the Cabots +and Columbus belonged. We know nothing of the results of +the expedition, but it returned in safety in the same +year, and the parsimonious king was moved to pay out five +pounds from his treasury 'to the men of Bristol that +found the isle.' + +Francis Fernandez and John Gonzales remained in the +English service and became subjects of King Henry. Again, +in the summer of 1502, they were sent out on another +voyage from Bristol. In September they brought their +ships safely back, and, in proof of the strangeness of +the new lands they carried home 'three men brought out +of an Iland forre beyond Irelond, the which were clothed +in Beestes Skynnes and ate raw fflesh and were rude in +their demeanure as Beestes.' From this description (written +in an old atlas of the time), it looks as if the Fernandez +expedition had turned north from the Great Banks and +visited the coast where the Eskimos were found, either +in Labrador or Greenland. This time Henry VII gave +Fernandez and Gonzales a pension of ten pounds each, and +made them 'captains' of the New Found Land. A sum of +twenty pounds was given to the merchants of Bristol who +had accompanied them. We must remember that at this time +the New Found Land was the general name used for all the +northern coast of America. + +There is evidence that a further expedition went out from +Bristol in 1503, and still another in 1504. Fernandez +and Gonzales, with two English associates, were again +the leaders. They were to have a monopoly of trade for +forty years, but were cautioned not to interfere with +the territory of the king of Portugal. Of the fate of +these enterprises nothing is known. + +By the time of Henry VIII, who began to reign in 1509, +the annual fishing fleet of the English which sailed to +the American coast had become important. As early as in +1522, a royal ship of war was sent to the mouth of the +English Channel to protect the 'coming home of the New +Found Island's fleet.' Henry VIII and his minister, +Cardinal Wolsey, were evidently anxious to go on with +the work of the previous reign, and especially to enlist +the wealthy merchants and trade companies of London in +the cause of western exploration. In 1521 the cardinal +proposed to the Livery Companies of London--the name +given to the trade organizations of the merchants--that +they should send out five ships on a voyage into the New +Found Land. When the merchants seemed disinclined to make +such a venture, the king 'spake sharply to the Mayor to +see it put in execution to the best of his power.' But, +even with this stimulus, several years passed before a +London expedition was sent out. At last, in 1527, two +little ships called the Samson and the Mary of Guildford +set out from London with instructions to find their way +to Cathay and the Indies by means of the passage to the +north. The two ships left London on May 10, put into +Plymouth, and finally sailed therefrom on June 10, 1527. +They followed Cabot's track, striking westward from the +coast of Ireland. For three weeks they kept together, +making good progress across the Atlantic. Then in a great +storm that arose the Samson was lost with all on board. + +The Mary of Guildford pursued her way alone, and her crew +had adventures strange even for those days. Her course, +set well to the north, brought her into the drift ice +and the giant icebergs which are carried down the coast +of America at this season (for the month was July) from +the polar seas. In fear of the moving ice, she turned to +the south, the sailors watching eagerly for the land, +and sounding as they went. Four days brought them to the +coast of Labrador. They followed it southward for some +days. Presently they entered an inlet where they found +a good harbour, many small islands, and the mouth of a +great river of fresh water. The region was a wilderness, +its mountains and woods apparently untenanted by man. +Near the shore they saw the footmarks of divers great +beasts, but, though they explored the country for about +thirty miles, they saw neither men nor animals. At the +end of July, they set sail again, and passed down the +coast of Newfoundland to the harbour of St John's, already +a well-known rendezvous. Here they found fourteen ships +of the fishing fleet, mostly vessels from Normandy. From +Newfoundland the Mary of Guildford pursued her way +southward, and passed along the Atlantic coast of America. +If she had had any one on board capable of accurate +observation, even after the fashion of the time, or of +making maps, the record of her voyage would have added +much to the general knowledge of the continent. +Unfortunately, the Italian pilot who directed the voyage +was killed in a skirmish with Indians during a temporary +landing. Some have thought that this pilot who perished +on the Mary of Guildford may have been the great navigator +Verrazano, of whom we shall presently speak. + +The little vessel sailed down the coast to the islands +of the West Indies. She reached Porto Rico in the middle +of November, and from that island she made sail for the +new Spanish settlements of San Domingo. Here, as she lay +at her anchorage, the Mary of Guildford was fired upon +by the Spanish fort which commanded the river mouth. At +once she put out into the open sea, and, heading eastward +across the Atlantic, she arrived safely at her port of +London. + + + +CHAPTER VI + +FORERUNNERS OF JACQUES CARTIER + +We have seen that after the return of the second expedition +of the Cabots no voyages to the coasts of Canada of +first-rate importance were made by the English. This does +not mean, however, that nothing was done by other peoples +to discover and explore the northern coasts of America. +The Portuguese were the first after the Cabots to continue +the search along the Canadian coast for the secret of +the hidden East. At this time, we must remember, the +Portuguese were one of the leading nations of Europe, +and they were specially interested in maritime enterprise. +Thanks to Columbus, the Spaniards had, it is true, carried +off the grand prize of discovery. But the Portuguese had +rendered service not less useful. From their coasts, +jutting far out into the Atlantic, they had sailed +southward and eastward, and had added much to the knowledge +of the globe. For generations, both before and after +Columbus, the pilots and sailors of Portugal were among +the most successful and daring in the world. + +For nearly a hundred years before the discovery of America +the Portuguese had been endeavouring to find an ocean +route to the spice islands of the East and to the great +Oriental empires which, tradition said, lay far off on +a distant ocean, and which Marco Polo and other travellers +had reached by years of painful land travel across the +interior of Asia. Prince Henry of Portugal was busy with +these tasks at the middle of the fifteenth century. Even +before this, Portuguese sailors had found their way to +the Madeiras and the Canary Islands, and to the Azores, +which lie a thousand miles out in the Atlantic. But under +the lead of Prince Henry they began to grope their way +down the coast of Africa, braving the torrid heats and +awful calms of that equatorial region, where the blazing +sun, poised overhead in a cloudless sky, was reflected +on the bosom of a stagnant and glistening ocean. It was +their constant hope that at some point the land would be +found to roll back and disclose an ocean pathway round +Africa to the East, the goal of their desire. Year after +year they advanced farther, until at last they achieved +a momentous result. In 1487, Bartholomew Diaz sailed +round the southern point of Africa, which received the +significant name of the 'Cape of Good Hope,' and entered +the Indian Ocean. Henceforth a water pathway to the Far +East was possible. Following Diaz, Vasco da Gama, leaving +Lisbon in 1497, sailed round the south of Africa, and, +reaching the ports of Hindustan, made the maritime route +to India a definite reality. + +Thus at the moment when the Spaniards were taking +possession of the western world the Portuguese were +establishing their trade in the rediscovered East. The +two nations agreed to divide between them these worlds +of the East and the West. They invoked the friendly +offices of the Pope as mediator, and, henceforth, an +imaginary line drawn down the Atlantic divided the +realms. At first this arrangement seemed to give Spain +all the new regions in America, but the line of division +was set so far to the West that the discovery of Brazil, +which juts out eastward into the Atlantic, gave the +Portuguese a vast territory in South America. At the +time of which we are now speaking, however, the +Portuguese were intent upon their interests in the +Orient. Their great aim was to pass beyond India, +already reached by da Gama, to the further empires of +China and Japan. Like other navigators of the time, they +thought that these places might be reached not merely by +southern but also by the northern seas. Hence it came +about that the Portuguese, going far southward in +Africa, went also far northward in America and sailed +along the coast of Canada. + +We find, in consequence, that when King Manoel of Portugal +was fitting out a fleet of twenty ships for a new expedition +under da Gama, which was to sail to the Indies by way of +Africa, another Portuguese expedition, setting out with +the same object, was sailing in the opposite direction. +At its head was Gaspar Corte-Real, a nobleman of the +Azores, who had followed with eager interest the discoveries +of Columbus, Diaz, and da Gama. Corte-Real sailed from +Lisbon in the summer of 1500 with a single ship. He +touched at the Azores. It is possible that a second vessel +joined him there, but this is not clear. From the Azores +his path lay north and west, till presently he reached +a land described as a 'cool region with great woods.' +Corte-Real called it from its verdure 'the Green Land,' +but the similarity of name with the place that we call +Greenland is only an accident. In reality the Portuguese +captain was on the coast of Newfoundland. He saw a number +of natives. They appeared to the Portuguese a barbarous +people, who dressed in skins, and lived in caves. They +used bows and arrows, and had wooden spears, the points +of which they hardened with fire. + +Corte-Real directed his course northward, until he found +himself off the coast of Greenland. He sailed for some +distance along those rugged and forbidding shores, a land +of desolation, with jagged mountains and furrowed cliffs, +wrapped in snow and ice. No trace of the lost civilization +of the Norsemen met his eyes. The Portuguese pilot +considered Greenland at its southern point to be an +outstanding promontory of Asia, and he struggled hard to +pass beyond it westward to a more favoured region. But +his path was blocked by 'enormous masses of frozen snow +floating on the sea, and moving under the influence of +the waves.' It is clear that he was met not merely by +the field ice of the Arctic ocean, but also by great +icebergs moving slowly with the polar current. The +narrative tells how Corte-Real's crew obtained fresh +water from the icebergs. 'Owing to the heat of the sun, +fresh and clear water is melted on the summits, and, +descending by small channels formed by the water itself, +it eats away the base where it falls. The boats were sent +in, and in that way as much was taken as was needed.' + +Corte-Real made his way as far as a place (which was in +latitude 60 degrees) where the sea about him seemed a +flowing stream of snow, and so he called it Rio Nevado, +'the river of snow.' Probably it was Hudson Strait. + +Late in the same season, Corte-Real was back in Lisbon. +He had discovered nothing of immediate profit to the +crown of Portugal, but his survey of the coast of North +America from Newfoundland to Hudson Strait seems to have +strengthened the belief that the best route to India lay +in this direction. In any case, on May 15, 1501, he was +sent out again with three ships. This time the Portuguese +discovered a region, so they said, which no one had before +visited. The description indicates that they were on the +coast of Nova Scotia and the adjacent part of New England. +The land was wooded with fine straight timber, fit for +the masts of ships, and 'when they landed they found +delicious fruits of various kinds, and trees and pines +of marvellous height and thickness.' They saw many natives, +occupied in hunting and fishing. Following the custom of +the time, they seized fifty or sixty natives, and crowded +these unhappy captives into the holds of their ships, to +carry home as evidence of the reality of their discoveries, +and to be sold as slaves. These savages are described by +those who saw them in Portugal as of shapely form and +gentle manner, though uncouth and even dirty in person. +They wore otter skins, and their faces were marked with +lines. The description would answer to any of the Algonquin +tribes of the eastern coast. Among the natives seen on +the coast there was a boy who had in his ears two silver +rings of Venetian make. The circumstance led the Portuguese +to suppose that they were on the coast of Asia, and that +a European ship had recently visited the same spot. The +true explanation, if the circumstance is correctly +reported, would seem to be that the rings were relics of +Cabot's voyages and of his trade in the trinkets supplied +by the merchants. + +Gaspar Corte-Real sent his consort ships home, promising +to explore the coast further, and to return later in the +season. The vessels duly reached Lisbon, bringing their +captives and the news of the voyage. Corte-Real, however, +never returned, nor is anything known of his fate. + +When a year had passed with no news of Gaspar Corte-Real, +his brother Miguel fitted out a new expedition of three +ships and sailed westward in search of him. On reaching +the coast of Newfoundland, the ships of Miguel Corte-Real +separated in order to make a diligent search in all +directions for the missing Gaspar. They followed the deep +indentations of the island, noting its outstanding +features. Here and there they fell in with the natives +and traded with them, but they found nothing of value. +To make matters worse, when the time came to assemble, +as agreed, in the harbour of St John's, only two ships +arrived at the rendezvous. That of Miguel was missing. +After waiting some time the other vessels returned without +him to Portugal. + +Two Corte-Reals were now lost. King Manoel transferred +the rights of Gaspar and Miguel to another brother, and +in the ensuing years sent out several Portuguese expeditions +to search for the lost leaders, but without success. The +Portuguese gained only a knowledge of the abundance of +fish in the region of the Newfoundland coast. This was +important, and henceforth Portuguese ships joined with +the Normans, the Bretons, and the English in fishing on +the Grand Banks. Of the Corte-Reals nothing more was ever +heard. + +The next great voyage of discovery was that of Juan +Verrazano, some twenty years after the loss of the +Corte-Reals. Like so many other pilots of his time, +Verrazano was an Italian. He had wandered much about the +world, had made his way to the East Indies by the new +route that the Portuguese had opened, and had also, so +it is said, been a member of a ship's company in one of +the fishing voyages to Newfoundland now made in every +season. + +The name of Juan Verrazano has a peculiar significance +in Canadian history. In more ways than one he was the +forerunner of Jacques Cartier, 'the discoverer of Canada.' +Not only did he sail along the coast of Canada, but did +so in the service of the king of France, the first +representative of those rising ambitions which were +presently to result in the foundation of New France and +the colonial empire of the Bourbon monarchy. Francis I, +the French king, was a vigorous and ambitious prince. +His exploits and rivalries occupy the foreground of +European history in the earlier part of the sixteenth +century. It was the object of Francis to continue the +work of Louis XI by consolidating his people into a single +powerful state. His marriage with the heiress of Brittany +joined that independent duchy, rich at least in the +seafaring bravery of its people, to the crown of France. +But Francis aimed higher still. He wished to make himself +the arbiter of Europe and the over-lord of the European +kings. Having been defeated by the equally famous king +of Spain, Charles V, in his effort to gain the position +and title of Holy Roman Emperor and the leadership of +Europe, he set himself to overthrow the rising greatness +of Spain. The history of Europe for a quarter of a century +turns upon the opposing ambitions of the two monarchs. + +As a part of his great design, Francis I turned towards +western discovery and exploration, in order to rival if +possible the achievements of Columbus and Cortes and to +possess himself of territories abounding in gold and +silver, in slaves and merchandise, like the islands of +Cuba and San Domingo and the newly conquered empire of +Montezuma, which Spain held. It was in this design that +he sent out Juan Verrazano; in further pursuit of it he +sent Jacques Cartier ten years later; and the result was +that French dominion afterwards, prevailed in the valley +of the St Lawrence and seeds were planted from which grew +the present Dominion of Canada. + +At the end of the year 1523 Juan Verrazano set out from +the port of Dieppe with four ships. Beaten about by +adverse storms, they put into harbour at Madeira, so +badly strained by the rough weather that only a single +seaworthy ship remained. In this, the Dauphine, Verrazano +set forth on January 17, 1524, for his western discovery. +The voyage was prosperous, except for one awful tempest +in mid-Atlantic, 'as terrible,' wrote Verrazano, 'as ever +any sailors suffered.' After seven weeks of westward +sailing Verrazano sighted a coast 'never before seen of +any man either ancient or modern.' This was the shore of +North Carolina. From this point the French captain made +his way northward, closely inspecting the coast, landing +here and there, and taking note of the appearance, the +resources, and the natives of the country. The voyage +was chiefly along the coast of what is now the United +States, and does not therefore immediately concern the +present narrative. Verrazano's account of his discoveries, +as he afterwards wrote it down, is full of picturesque +interest, and may now be found translated into English +in Hakluyt's Voyages. He tells of the savages who flocked +to the low sandy shore to see the French ship riding at +anchor. They wore skins about their loins and light +feathers in their hair, and they were 'of colour russet, +and not much unlike the Saracens.' Verrazano said that +these Indians were of 'cheerful and steady look, not +strong of body, yet sharp-witted, nimble, and exceeding +great runners.' As he sailed northward he was struck with +the wonderful vegetation of the American coast, the +beautiful forest of pine and cypress and other trees, +unknown to him, covered with tangled vines as prolific +as the vines of Lombardy. Verrazano's voyage and his +landings can be traced all the way from Carolina to the +northern part of New England. He noted the wonderful +harbour at the mouth of the Hudson, skirted the coast +eastward from that point, and then followed northward +along the shores of Massachusetts and Maine. Beyond this +Verrazano seems to have made no landings, but he followed +the coast of Nova Scotia and Newfoundland. He sailed, so +he says, as far as fifty degrees north, or almost to the +Strait of Belle Isle. Then he turned eastward, headed +out into the great ocean, and reached France in safety. +Unfortunately, Verrazano did not write a detailed account +of that part of his voyage which related to Canadian +waters. But there is no doubt that his glowing descriptions +must have done much to stimulate the French to further +effort. Unhappily, at the moment of his return, his royal +master was deeply engaged in a disastrous invasion of +Italy, where he shortly met the crushing defeat at Pavia +(1525) which left him a captive in the hands of his +Spanish rival. His absence crippled French enterprise, +and Verrazano's explorations were not followed up till +a change of fortune enabled Francis to send out the famous +expedition of Jacques Cartier. + +One other expedition to Canada deserves brief mention +before we come to Cartier's crowning discovery of the St +Lawrence river. This is the voyage of Stephen Gomez, who +was sent out in the year 1524. by Charles V, the rival +of Francis I. He spent about ten months on the voyage, +following much the same course as Verrazano, but examining +with far greater care the coast of Nova Scotia and the +territory about the opening of the Gulf of St Lawrence. +His course can be traced from the Penobscot river in +Maine to the island of Cape Breton. He entered the Bay +of Fundy, and probably went far enough to realize from +its tides, rising sometimes to a height of sixty or +seventy feet, that its farther end could not be free, +and that it could not furnish an open passage to the +Western Sea. Running north-east along the shore of Nova +Scotia, Gomez sailed through the Gut of Canso, thus +learning that Cape Breton was an island. He named it the +Island of St John-or, rather, he transferred to it this +name, which the map-makers had already used. Hence it +came about that the 'Island of St John' occasions great +confusion in the early geography of Canada. The first +map-makers who used it secured their information indirectly, +we may suppose, from the Cabot voyages and the fishermen +who frequented the coast. They marked it as an island +lying in the 'Bay of the Bretons,' which had come to be +the name for the open mouth of the Gulf of St Lawrence. +Gomez, however, used the name for Cape Breton island. +Later on, the name was applied to what is now Prince +Edward Island. All this is only typical of the difficulties +in understanding the accounts of the early voyages to +America. Gomez duly returned to the port of Corunna in +June 1525. + +We may thus form some idea of the general position of +American exploration and discovery at the time when +Cartier made his momentous voyages. The maritime nations +of Europe, in searching for a passage to the half-mythical +empires of Asia, had stumbled on a great continent. At +first they thought it Asia itself. Gradually they were +realizing that this was not Asia, but an outlying land +that lay between Europe and Asia and that must be passed +by the navigator before Cathay and Cipango could rise +upon the horizon. But the new continent was vast in +extent. It blocked the westward path from pole to pole. +With each voyage, too, the resources and the native beauty +of the new land became more apparent. The luxuriant +islands of the West Indies, and the Aztec empire of +Mexico, were already bringing wealth and grandeur to the +monarchy of Spain. South of Mexico it had been already +found that the great barrier of the continent extended +to the cold tempestuous seas of the Antarctic region. +Magellan's voyage (1519-22) had proved indeed that by +rounding South America the way was open to the spice +islands of the east. But the route was infinitely long +and arduous. The hope of a shorter passage by the north +beckoned the explorer. Of this north country nothing but +its coast was known as yet. Cabot and the fishermen had +found a land of great forests, swept by the cold and +leaden seas of the Arctic, and holding its secret clasped +in the iron grip of the northern ice. The Corte-Reals, +Verrazano, and Gomez had looked upon the endless panorama +of the Atlantic coast of North America--the glorious +forests draped with tangled vines extending to the sanded +beaches of the sea--the wide inlets round the mouths of +mighty rivers moving silent and mysterious from the heart +of the unknown continent. Here and there a painted savage +showed the bright feathers of his headgear as he lurked +in the trees of the forest or stood, in fearless curiosity, +gazing from the shore at the white-winged ships of the +strange visitants from the sky. But for the most part +all, save the sounds of nature, was silence and mystery. +The waves thundered upon the sanded beach of Carolina +and lashed in foam about the rocks of the iron coasts of +New England and the New Found Land. The forest mingled +its murmurs with the waves, and, as the sun sank behind +the unknown hills, wafted its perfume to the anchored +ships that rode upon the placid bosom of the evening sea. +And beyond all this was mystery--the mystery of the +unknown East, the secret of the pathway that must lie +somewhere hidden in the bays and inlets of the continent +of silent beauty, and above all the mysterious sense of +a great history still to come for this new land itself--a +sense of the murmuring of many voices caught as the +undertone of the rustling of the forest leaves, but rising +at last to the mighty sound of the vast civilization that +in the centuries to come should pour into the silent +wildernesses of America. + +To such a land--to such a mystery--sailed forth Jacques +Cartier, discoverer of Canada. + + + +BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE + +The Icelandic sagas contain legends of a discovery of +America before Columbus. Benjamin de Costa, in his +'Pre-Columbian Discovery of America', has given translations +of a number of these legends. Other works bearing on this +mythical period are: A. M. Reeves's 'The Finding of +Wineland the Good'; J. E. Olson's 'The Voyages of the +Northmen' in Vol. I of the 'Original Narrative of Early +American History', edited by J. F. Jameson; Fridtjof +Nansen's 'In Northern Mists'; and John Fiske's 'The +Discovery of America'. A number of general histories have +chapters bearing on pre-Columbian discovery; the most +accessible of these are: Justin Winsor's 'Narrative and +Critical History of America'; Charlevoix's 'Histoire et +description generale de la Nouvelle France' (1744), +translated with notes by J. G. Shea (1886); Henry Harrisse's +'Discovery of North America'; and the 'Conquest of Canada', +by the author of 'Hochelaga'. + +There are numerous works in the Spanish, French, Italian, +and English languages dealing with Columbus and his time. +Pre-eminent among the latter are: Irving's 'Life of +Columbus'; Winsor's 'Christopher Columbus and how he +Received and Imparted the Spirit of Discovery'; Helps's +'Life of Columbus'; Prescott's 'History of Ferdinand and +Isabella'; Crompton's 'Life of Columbus'; St John's 'Life +of Columbus'; and Major's 'Select Letters of Columbus' +(a Hakluyt Society publication). Likewise in every +important work which deals with the early history of +North or South America, Columbus and his voyages are +discussed. + +The literature dealing with the Cabots is quite as +voluminous as that bearing on Columbus. Henry Harrisse's +'John Cabot, the Discoverer of North America and Sebastian, +his Son; a Chapter of the Maritime History of England +under the Tudors, 1496-1557', is a most exhaustive work. +Other authoritative works on the Cabots are Nichols's +'Remarkable Life, Adventures, and Discoveries of Sebastian +Cabot', in which an effort is made to give the chief +glory of the discovery of America not to John Cabot, but +to his son Sebastian; Dawson's 'The Voyages of the Cabots, +1497 and 1498', 'The Voyages of the Cabots, a Sequel', +and 'The Voyages of the Cabots, Latest Phases of the +Controversy', in 'Transactions Royal Society of Canada'; +Biddle's 'Memoir of Sebastian Cabot'; Beazley's 'John +and Sebastian Cabot, The Discovery of North America'; +and Weare'S 'Cabot's Discovery of America'. + +A number of European writers have made able studies of +the work of Verrazano, and two American scholars have +contributed valuable works on that explorer's life and +achievements; these are, De Costa's 'Verrazano the +Explorer: a Vindication of his Letter and Voyage', and +Murphy's 'The Voyage of Verrazano'. + +In addition to the general histories already mentioned, +the following works contain much information on the +voyages of the forerunners of Jacques Cartier: Parkman's +'Pioneers of France'; Kohl's 'Discovery of Maine'; +Woodbury's 'Relation of the Fisheries to the Discovery +of North America' (in this work it is claimed that the +Basques antedated the Cabots); Dawson's 'The St Lawrence +Basin and Its Borderlands'; Weise's 'The Discoveries of +America'; 'The Journal of Christopher Columbus', and +'Documents relating to the Voyages of John Cabot and +Gaspar Corte-Real', translated with Notes and an +Introduction by Sir Clements R. Markham; and Biggar's +'The Precursors of Jacques Cartier, 1497-1534'. This last +work is essential to the student of the early voyages to +America. It contains documents, many published for the +first time, in Latin, Portuguese, Spanish, Italian, and +French dealing with exploration. The notes are invaluable, +and the documents, with the exception of those in French, +are carefully though freely translated. + +For the native tribes of America the reader would do well +to consult the 'Handbook of American Indians North of +Mexico', published by the Bureau of American Ethnology, +and the 'Handbook of Indians of Canada', reprinted by +the Canadian Government, with additions and minor +alterations, from the preceding work, under the direction +of James White, F.R.G.S. + + + +End of The Project Gutenberg Etext of The Dawn of Canadian +History: A Chronicle of Aboriginal Canada by Stephen Leacock + diff --git a/old/cca0110.zip b/old/cca0110.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..c2e5c2e --- /dev/null +++ b/old/cca0110.zip |