Cape Breton Island

“ Its greatest length is one hundred miles, and its greatest breadth eighty-five miles. The island is isolated from the mainland by the Strait of Canso, which is twenty-one miles long, and from one mile to one and a half in width. Cape North is about sixty miles from Cape Ray, Newfoundland.
[264] The representation of the coast of Cape Breton Island and of Nova Scotia as trending eastward and westward, as delineated on La Cosa’s map, evidently exemplifies the incorrect conjecture made by Giovanni Caboto respecting the situation of the first land seen by him. ”

“ 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. ”

“ This passage along the Island of Cape Breton is very narrow. Although there is water enough, large vessels do not pass there at all on account of the strong currents and the impetuosity of the tides which prevail. This we named Le Passage Courant, [278] and it is in latitude 45° 45'.
The Island of Cape Breton is of a triangular shape, with a circuit of about eighty leagues. Most of the country is mountainous, yet in some parts very pleasant. In the centre of it there is a kind of lake, [279] where the sea enters by the north a quarter north-west, and also by the south a quarter Southeast. ”

“ This may apply, as Storm points out, to the eastern side of Cape Breton Island; but in that case they must have steered west-south-west from the south-eastern promontory of Markland (Newfoundland) . Kjalarnes must then be Cape Breton itself. That they should have found a ship’s keel there sounds strange; if this is not an invention we must suppose that it was driven ashore from a wreck; no doubt it happened often enough that vessels were lost on the voyage to Greenland. When Eric, according to the Landnámabók, sailed with twenty-five ships, many of them were lost. ”

“ Now, in all the Atlantic Ocean and its shores there is one region, and one only, which thus incloses a sheet of water having islands in its expanse, and this region lies in the very direction indicated on the old maps for Brazil. I allude to the projecting elbow of northeastern North America, which most nearly approaches Europe and has Cape Race for its apex. Its front is made up of Newfoundland and Cape Breton Island. The remainder of the circuit is made up of what we now call southern Labrador, a portion of eastern Quebec province, New Brunswick, and Nova Scotia. ”

“ To the tourist that loves nature, and who, for the manifold beauties by hill and shore, by woods and waters, is happy to make small sacrifices of personal comfort, I would commend Cape Breton. Your fashionable, whose main object is company, dress, and frivolous pleasure with the gay, and whose only tolerable stopping-place is the grand hotel, had better content himself with reading of this Island. ”

“ This led us to bear off to the north for Cape Breton Island; but we had scarcely sailed two leagues when we encountered an ice bank on the northeast. Night coming on, we were obliged to put out to sea until the next day, when we sailed northeast, and encountered more ice, bearing east, east-southeast from us, along which we coasted heading northeast and north for more than fifteen leagues. At last we were obliged to sail towards the west, greatly to our regret, inasmuch as we could find no passage, and should be obliged to withdraw and sail back on our track. ”

“ It is believed that in the early years of the nineteenth century 25,000 Scottish peasants settled on Cape Breton Island alone, while great numbers were taken to the southern parts of Nova Scotia, and various counties in British Settlers in the East Upper and Lower Canada were peopled almost entirely from the same source. The members of a clan, or the inhabitants of a district, commonly emigrated together, and took up homes together in the New World, under leaders chosen or accepted by themselves. ”

“ I mean soldiers of course, and am not counting the crews of the ships."
"Of the ships there are nearly two hundred," answered Steve, for he had been busily counting them. Indeed, Mr. Mainwaring might well observe that this was a big affair, for on this sunny June morning those who patrolled the deck of the frigate could see numerous ships of war, sloops, frigates, and transports, all cruising backwards and forwards off Cape Breton Island. ”

“ In the south-west its distance from Cape Breton is less than 60 m., while only 1640 m. separate its most easterly point from the coast of Ireland. It is situated between 46° 36′ 50′′ and 51° 39′ N., and between 52° 37′ and 59° 24′ 50′′ W. The total area of the island is about 40,200 sq. m. or one-sixth larger than Ireland: its maximum length from Cape Ray to Cape Norman is 317 m., its maximum breadth from Cape Spear to Cape Anguille, 316 m. ”

“ On his father’s map he found an island of St. John off this promontory, or he knew it from the tradition of Reinel’s and later maps, and so placed his “Prima tierra vista” at Cape Breton. If the view that C. de Ynglaterra is Cape Race be regarded as correct, it might be assumed that Cauo descubierto was really the place where Cabot first made the land, perhaps in the neighbourhood of Cape Breton, and that from thence he sailed eastward, the supposed 300 leagues, along the south coast of Newfoundland. ”

“ And thus we find the possessions of France slowly being peopled, till in the year when Steve and his friends reached the Alleghanies, the colonists numbered some 60,000 souls, exclusive of some ten thousand living in Acadie, once French but now English, though the habitant who had filled that smiling land was French by birth and intensely French in thought and sympathy. We find Cape Breton, an island just north of Nova Scotia, a possession of France, with the formidable fortress of Louisbourg situated upon it, and its ramparts bristling with cannon. ”

“ Only those that have gone over the whole ground can realize the wealth of picturesque beauty and variety found in Eastern Quebec and the Maritime Provinces of Canada, and this variety is again exemplified in Cape Breton; for after passing from Quebec to New Brunswick, from New Brunswick to Prince Edward Island, and thence to southern and eastern Nova Scotia, and finding constant variety at almost every stage—here in Cape Breton the contrast is still maintained. The growing popularity of these provinces is perhaps only natural when their situation and advantages are considered. ”

“ S. E. Dawson there has been an increasing disposition to accept Cape Breton on Cape Breton Island as the most probable location. See Winship, Cabot Bibliography, for the literature.
423-3 The words “to starboard” have been inserted at this point in all English translations. Biggar has pointed out that the words al dreto so translated are Venetian dialect for addietro, which is an alternate form for the more common indietro, back. The earlier translators thought al dreto equivalent to al dritto, on the right. Al tornar al dreto means simply “in going back.” ”

“ The directors of the enterprise caught codfish near the island, the neighborhood of which abounds in shoals.
On the 8th of the same month, we sighted Cap de la Hève, [22] to the east of which is a bay, containing several islands covered with fir-trees. On the main land are oaks, elms, and birches. It joins the coast of La Cadie at the latitude of 44° 5', and at 16° 15' of the deflection of the magnetic needle, distant east-north-east eighty-five leagues from Cape Breton, of which we shall speak hereafter. ”

“ It appears that they sent a deputation to examine the island and report as to its adaptability for agricultural purposes, for one of their missionaries, addressing M. de Costabelle, the Governor, says that from the visits made they were satisfied there were no lands in Cape Breton suitable for the immediate maintenance of their families, since there were not meadows sufficient to nourish their cattle, from which they derived their principal support. ”

“ In the spring the rivers seldom break up till April, and the snow is not entirely off the ground until the middle of May. It ought to be observed that as Saint John is fortunately not troubled with fogs, as are the neighboring Islands of Cape Breton and Newfoundland, neither has it so settled and constant a climate as Canada. Here are frequent changes of weather, as rain, snow, hail, and hard frost.”
On the completion of the survey of the Island of Saint John, Captain Holland proceeded to prosecute that of Cape Breton. ”

“ The importance of Cape Breton to the British Nation, humbly represented by Robert Auckmuty [sic] , Judge, &c., in New England. N. B. Upon the plan laid down in this representation the island was taken by Commodore Warren and General Pepperill the 14th of June, 1745. London, 1745. [945]
It is claimed on behalf of William Vaughan that he suggested the expedition to Governor Wentworth, of New Hampshire, who in turn referred him to Governor Shirley. ”

“ Early map-makers designated present-day Nova Scotia, Cape Breton and Newfoundland as the "Baccalaos Landes."
After Cabot, Jean Denys discovered and explored the Gulf of St. Lawrence. Sable Island, off the Nova Scotian coast, was colonised in 1518 by de Léry, a French baron. In 1524, Verrazzano the Florentine visited the "Bretones' Country," and about this time a Portuguese expedition attempted the colonisation of Cape Breton. Ten years later, on the twentieth day of April, 1534, there sailed from the Brittany harbour of St. ”

“ In that year Reinel's map was made, and, although Newfoundland forms part of terra firma, the openings north and south of it are plainly indicated by unclosed lines. Cape Race has received its permanent name, "Raso" and, although only the east coast of Newfoundland is named, there is no possibility of mistaking the easternmost point of Cape Breton. Just opposite (ex adverso) is laid down and named the island of Sam Joha, in latitude 46°, the precise latitude of Scatari Island. Here, then, in 1505, is in this island of St. ”

“ The people of this coast and of Cape Breton are an ill-disposed race, powerful, great arrow-makers, and live on fish and on flesh, and are not talkative, and speak almost the same language as those of Canada, and are a great people. And those of Cape Breton go to make war upon those of the New Land when they are fishing, and not for any thing do they spare the life of any one when they take him, unless it is a young boy or a young girl ”

“ In other resorts, such as Baddeck, Whycocomagh, Louisbourg, St. Peter’s, Mabou and Ingonish, quite comfortable quarters may be found. In the Margaree, Middle River and North River districts, also, there are here and there little inns where very pleasant and comfortable days may be spent.
Whether seen on foot, or from train, steamboat or carriage, there can be no doubt that Cape Breton is one of the most enjoyable spots on earth. Gushing springs, dancing rills, plashing brooks, cascading rivulets, musical streams, murmuring rivers, everywhere. What a wealth of graceful ferns ”

“ And while the day shines and wanes, and the shades of evening, suffused with tender color, fall gently, and the Gulf to the west is deeply touched with veiled, but glowing crimson, when the sun is down, and on the other hand Cape-Breton Isle puts forth, close to our course, two small representative islands, red sandstone, charmingly ruddy under the sunset light,—while a mild wind, sinking, but not ceasing, bears us on through daylight, twilight, starlight, each perfect of its kind,—let me introduce our voyagers severally to the reader. ”

“ L'ISLE du Cap Breton est esloignée de nostre France d'enuiron neuf cens lieuës par mer. Elle en a soixante & dix ou quatre vingts de circuit. Les mõtagnes y sont fort hautes & en nombre, au pied desquelles [208] se voyent de grandes fondrieres & precipices affreux. La terre y est couuerte de toutes sortes d'arbres, comme de chaisnes, haistres, bouleaux, pins, sapins & autres. ”

“ I found the perfect pleasantness of summer in the air, and a coast-scenery with which that of New England in general cannot vie.
Cape-Breton Isle is worthy of respect. With a population, if I remember rightly, of some thirty thousand, and an area of more than three thousand square miles, embracing an inland sea, or salt lake, deep enough for ships-of-the-line, it has, in addition to its great mineral wealth, a soil capable of large crops. Wheat and corn do not thrive, but barley, oats, potatoes, and many root-crops grow abundantly. ”

“ Tadoussacus denique portus ad Saguenaij fluminis ostia Sacqéum ineuntis.
Numerous headlands meet those who approach New France by the Southern coast: Breton, at the very mouth of the great river St. Lawrence; next in order, La Hève, Mouton, Sable, Fourchu, St. Louis, Blanc, Ste. Hélène.62 Those who coast along the same shore from Cape Breton meet the harbors called Campseau, Sesambre, Port Royal, and Beaubassin.63 But those who wish to journey inland, beyond the borders of Canada, by way of the Sacqué river, must pass Cape Breton, at the mouth of the St. Lawrence ”