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Page 14
Two sketches of the coast by Alfonse accompany this description,
which are here reproduced united in one. The map in Ramusio (III,
fol. 424-5), prepared by Gastaldi, shows the Terra de Nurumbega, of
the same extent as here described, that is, from Cape Breton
westerly to a river running north from the Atlantic and connecting
with the St. Lawrence or river of Hochelaga. Gastaldi, or Gastaldo,
published previously an edition of Ptolemy's Geography (12mo.,
Venice, 1543), in which (map 56), Norumbega is similarly laid down,
without the river running to the St. Lawrence. Norumbega was
therefore a well defined district of country at that time.
The word was undoubtedly derived from the Indians, and is still in
use by those of the Penobscot, to denote certain portions of that
river. The missionary Vetromile, in his History of the Abnakis (New
York, 1866), observes (pp. 48-9): "Nolumbega means A STILL-WATER
BETWEEN FALLS, of which there are several in that river. At
different times, travelling in a canoe along the Penobscot, I have
heard the Indians calling those localities NOLUMBEGA."
That the country did not become known through Verrazzano is evident
from the letter, in which it is stated that he ran along the entire
coast, from the harbor to which they remained fifteen days, one
hundred and fifty leagues easterly, that is from Cape Cod to the
Island of Cape Breton, without landing, and consequently without
having any correspondence with the natives, so as to have acquired
the name.
When in particular Alfonse ran along the Atlantic coast is not
mentioned, though it is to be inferred that it was on the occasion
of Roberval's expedition. There is nothing stated, it is true, to
preclude the possibility of its having taken place on some other
voyage previously. It could not have been afterwards, as the
cosmography describing it was written in 1544-5. Some authors assert
that Roberval dispatched him towards Labrador with a view of finding
a passage to the East Indies, without mentioning his exploration
along Nova Scotia and New England. But Le Clerc, who seems to have
been the author of this statement (Premier Etablissement de la Foy
dans la Nouvelle France, I, 12-13. Paris, 1691), and who is followed
by Charlevoix, also alleges that on the occasion of his exploration
towards Labrador, he discovered the straits between it and
Newfoundland, in latitude 52, now known as the straits of Belle
Isle, which is not correct. Jacques Cartier sailed through that
passage in his first voyage to Canada, in 1534. Le Clerc either drew
false inferences or relied upon false information. He probably
derived his impression of the voyage to Labrador and the discovery
of the straits by Alfonse, from a cursory reading of the cosmography
of Alfonse, who describes these straits, but not as a discovery of
his own.
In the printed work, called Les voyages avantureux du Capitaine Jean
Alphonse, Saintongeois, which was first published in 1559, after the
death of Alfonse, it is expressly stated that the river of
Norumbega, was discovered by the Portuguese and Spaniards.
Describing the great bank, he says that it runs from Labrador, "au
nordest et suroest, une partie a oest-suroest, plus de huit cens
lieues, et passe bien quatre vingts lieues de la terre neufue, et de
la terre des Bretons trente ou quarante lieues. Et d'icy va tout au
long de la coste jusques a la riviere du Norembergue, QUI EST
NOUVELLEMENT DESCOUVERTE PAR LES PORTUGALOIS ET ESPAGNOLS," p. 53.
We quote from an edition of the work not mentioned by the
bibliographers (Brunet-Harrisse), printed at Rouen in 1602. This is
almost a contemporary denial by a French author, whether Alfonse
himself or a compiler, as it would rather appear, from his
cosmography, of the Verrazzano discovery of this country.]
No allusion is made, in these letters of de la Roche, to any
previous exploration, although an enormous recital, already alluded
to, is made to a purpose of Francis I, in his commission to
Roberval, to conquer the countries here indicated. [Footnote:
Lescarbot (ed. 1609), 434. Harrisse, Notes de la Nouvelle France, p.
243.] De la Roche made a miserable attempt to settle the island of
Sable, a sand bank in the ocean, two degrees south of Cape Breton,
with convicts taken from jails of France, but being repelled by
storm and tempest, after leaving that island, from landing on the
main coast, returned to France without any further attempt to
colonize the country, and abandoning the poor malefactors on the
island to a terrible fate. [Footnote: The story is told by Lescarbot
(p. 38, ed. 1609), which he subsequently embellished with some
fabulous additions in relation to a visit to the island of Sable by
Baron de Leri, in 1519 (Ed. 1611, p. 22), even before the date of
the Verrazzano letter.] There is therefore no acknowledgment, in the
history of this enterprise, of the pretended discovery. The next act
of the regal prerogative was a grant to the Sieur de Monts, by the
same monarch in 1603, authorizing him to take possession of the
country, coasts and confines of La Cadie, extending from latitude 40
Degrees N. to 46 Degrees N., that is, Nova Scotia and New England,
the situation of which, it is alleged, De Monts understood from his
previous voyages to the country. [Footnote: Lescarbot (ed. 1609),
452-3. La Cadie, or Acadie, as it was for a long time afterwards
known, appears for the first time on any chart on the map of Terra
Nova, No. 56, in Gastaldi's Ptolemy, and is there called Lacadia.]
This document also is utterly silent as to any particular discovery
of the country; but it distinctly affirms that the foundation of the
claim to this territory was the report of the captains of vessels,
pilots, merchants and others, who had for a long time frequented the
country and trafficked with its inhabitants. Accompanying these
letters patent was a license to De Monts to trade with the natives
of the St. Lawrence, and make settlements on that river. It was
under these authorisations to De Monts exclusively, that all the
permanent settlements of the French in Nova Scotia and Canada were
effected, beyond which countries none were ever attempted by them,
within the limits of the Verrazzano discovery, or any rights
asserted on behalf of the French crown.
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