The Dawn of Canadian History : A Chronicle of Aboriginal Canada Part 3

We find, in consequence, that when King Manoel of Portugal was fitting out a fleet of twenty s.h.i.+ps 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 n.o.bleman 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 s.h.i.+p. 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 sh.o.r.es, a land of desolation, with jagged mountains and furrowed cliffs, wrapped in snow and ice. No trace of the lost civilization of the Nors.e.m.e.n met his eyes. The Portuguese pilot considered Greenland at its southern point to be an outstanding promontory of Asia, and he struggled hard to pa.s.s beyond it westward to a more favoured region. But his path was blocked by 'enormous ma.s.ses 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 lat.i.tude 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 s.h.i.+ps. 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 s.h.i.+ps, 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 fis.h.i.+ng.

Following the custom of the time, they seized fifty or sixty natives, and crowded these unhappy captives into the holds of their s.h.i.+ps, 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 circ.u.mstance led the Portuguese to suppose that they were on the coast of Asia, and that a European s.h.i.+p had recently visited the same spot.

The true explanation, if the circ.u.mstance 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 s.h.i.+ps 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 pa.s.sed with no news of Gaspar Corte-Real, his brother Miguel fitted out a new expedition of three s.h.i.+ps and sailed westward in search of him. On reaching the coast of Newfoundland, the s.h.i.+ps 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 a.s.semble, as agreed, in the harbour of St John's, only two s.h.i.+ps 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 s.h.i.+ps joined with the Normans, the Bretons, and the English in fis.h.i.+ng 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 s.h.i.+p's company in one of the fis.h.i.+ng 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 t.i.tle of Holy Roman Emperor and the leaders.h.i.+p 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 s.h.i.+ps. Beaten about by adverse storms, they put into harbour at Madeira, so badly strained by the rough weather that only a single seaworthy s.h.i.+p 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 sh.o.r.e 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 sh.o.r.e to see the French s.h.i.+p 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 sh.o.r.es of Ma.s.sachusetts 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 crus.h.i.+ng 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 Pen.o.bscot 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 pa.s.sage to the Western Sea. Running north-east along the sh.o.r.e 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 pa.s.sage 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 pa.s.sed by the navigator before Cathay and c.i.p.ango 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 pa.s.sage 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 sh.o.r.e at the white-winged s.h.i.+ps 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 anch.o.r.ed s.h.i.+ps 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 'Doc.u.ments 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 doc.u.ments, many published for the first time, in Latin, Portuguese, Spanish, Italian, and French dealing with exploration. The notes are invaluable, and the doc.u.ments, 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.