Cape Breton

“ 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. ”

“ 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 ”

“ In attributing to others the discovery of that large portion of the coast, east and north of Cape Breton, he must have considered the claim to that extent as unfounded. It is difficult therefore to account for his admitting its validity as regards the country south of Cape Breton as he apparently does; as it is a manifest inconsistency to reject so important a part as false, and affirm the rest of it to be true, when the whole depends upon the same evidence. ”

“ 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. ”

“ Cape Breton had been neglected since the days of Denys, though its harbours had been for over two centuries frequented by sailors of all nationalities. Plaisance, the Placentia of the Portuguese, had been for years the headquarters of the French fisheries in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, but when Newfoundland was ceded to the English, all the French officials and fishermen removed to English Harbour, on the eastern coast of Cape Breton, ever since known as Louisbourg. ”

“ CAPE BRETON, the north-east portion of Nova Scotia, Canada, separated from the mainland by a narrow strait, known as the Gut of Canceau or Canso. Its extreme length from north to south is about 110 m., greatest breadth about 87 m., and area 3120 sq. m. It juts out so far into the Atlantic that it has been called “the long wharf of Canada,” the distance to the west coast of Ireland being less by a thousand miles than from New York. A headland on the east coast is also known as Cape Breton, and is said by some to be the first land made by Cabot on his voyage in 1497–1498. ”

“ 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. ”

“ We are a very simple people, in this out-of-the-way Cape Breton parish, called mostly to be fishers, like Our Lord's apostles, and recking not a whit of the finer points of doctrine. Nevertheless, it is an hireling shepherd who is faithless only because the flock do not ask to be fed with the appointed manna; and I shall broach the sermon again, once I have set down the thing that is so heavy on my heart.
For all I can think of just now is that Renny and Suse, out there on Halibut Head, four miles away, are alone; alone for the first time in well-nigh thirty years. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ If we be driven back by contrary winds that we cannot pass the coast of Ireland, then the place of our assembly to be at Bere haven or Baltimore haven. If we shall not happen to meet at Cape Race, then the place of rendezvous to be at Cape Breton, or the nearest harbour unto the westward of Cape Breton. If by means of other shipping we may not safely stay there, then to rest at the very next safe port to the westward; every ship leaving their marks behind them for the more certainty of the after comers to know where to find them. ”

“ And so, without incident, the sea was reached, the island now known as Prince Edward Island sighted, and finally the bleak slopes of Cape Breton Island.
"If monsieur would allow us to escape in the boat within the next few hours we could reach our friends in Louisbourg," said the sailor who had spoken for his comrades before. "The wind is fair for us, and we should not have a long pull."
Steve and his friends at once agreed, the boat was pulled alongside, and food and water lowered. Then Mr. Mainwaring presented each of the six sailors with a small sum of money and sent them down to the boat. ”

“ I have often crossed an arm of the sea in order to visit other Micmacs who live in Cape Breton. This Cape is surrounded by little islands, and there is there a lake seven leagues in length and five or six in width; on which I was once shipwrecked. We were two priests in a bark canoe, paddled by two Indians, and were carrying the consolations of religion to many families of Indians who lived on the other side at the foot of a mountain. ”

“ In the north, the discoveries of the English under Cabot, and of the Portuguese under the Cortereals, soon led the Normans and Bretons from Dieppe and Saint Malo to follow in the wake of such predecessors. As early as 1504 the fishermen of these latter peoples seem to have been on the northern coasts, and we owe to them the name of Cape Breton, which is thought to be the oldest French name in our American geography. ”

“ 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. ”

“ The importance and advantage of Cape Breton, truly stated and impartially considered. With proper maps, London, 1746. (Carter-Brown, iii. [439] no. 823.) The maps follow those of Bellin in Charlevoix. Its authorship is usually ascribed to William Bollan. (Sabin, ii. 6,215.)
The great importance of Cape Breton demonstrated and exemplified by extracts from the best writers, French and English, London, 1746. This is a plea against the surrender of it to the French. It is dedicated to Governor Shirley, and contains Charlevoix’s map and plan. (Carter-Brown, iii. no. 821.) ”

“ As to Cape Breton, he said the agent of the Intercolonial could tell us all about that, and put us on the route. We repaired to the agent. The kindness of this person dwells in our memory. He entered at once into our longings and perplexities. He produced his maps and time- tables, and showed us clearly what we already knew. The Port Hawkesbury steamboat from Shediac for that week had gone, to be sure, but we could take one of another line which would leave us at Pictou, whence we could take another across to Port Hood, on Cape Breton. ”

“ There are thirteen in the group, sixty miles off the extremity of Cape Breton Island, the bleak Cape North. Acadian fishermen live there, the population being about three thousand, and New England fishery fleets visit them for cod, mackerel and seals, with lobsters and sea-trout also abundant, so that these islands have come to be called in the Provinces the "Kingdom of Fish." Amherst Island is the chief, having the village 318 and Custom House, the surface of this and other islands rising in high hills seen from afar. ”

“ 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 ”

“ The third, and ideal way to make the acquaintance of Cape Breton, is to hire an old horse and drive yourself, making leisurely trips in all directions, lingering wherever Fancy dictates, and putting up each night in any village, town or farmhouse which promises a comfortable night’s lodging. ”

“ By the treaty of Utrecht, France was left in undisputed possession of Cape Breton; and in order to establish a check on the English in Nova Scotia, the French immediately began to erect strong fortifications at Louisbourg, in Cape Breton, and invited to its protection the French inhabitants of Acadia and of Newfoundland, which latter had also been ceded to Great Britain. Placentia, the chief settlement in Newfoundland, was accordingly evacuated, and its inhabitants were transferred to Cape Breton ”

“ One of the dominating physical features of Cape Breton is Cape Smoky, towering a thousand feet above the waters where the Atlantic and Saint Ann’s Bay meet. Smoky is a personality. Because its stern, old brow is always softened by an ever-moving fog-wreath, the English-speaking people call it “Smoky”; the French folk “Enfumez”. It is worth travelling far to view Cape{40} Smoky after rain, especially in the afternoon when the westering sun turns the shifting fog into rainbows, flitting, flashing, jewel-like bits of colour, gone in a moment. ”

“ 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. ”

“ In this course we trended along the coast, which from Cape Race stretcheth into the north-west, making a bay which some called Trepassa. Then it goeth out again towards the west, and maketh a point, which with Cape Race lieth in manner east and west. But this point inclineth to the north, to the west of which goeth in the Bay of Placentia. We sent men on land to take view of the soil along this coast, whereof they made good report, and some of them had will to be planted there. They saw pease growing in great abundance everywhere.
The distance between Cape Race and Cape Breton is 87 leagues ”

“ They are rapidly becoming what nature evidently intended they should be—international vacation grounds for the people of the western hemisphere.
There are no fashionable resorts in Cape Breton. For the majority this is perhaps one of its strongest recommendations. There are luxuries in a few centres, and comforts in many more, with plain but substantial living in most of the smaller places. The railroad mileage is not very extensive, as yet, but it is supplemented by steamboat traffic along the east, west and south coasts, and over the waters of the Bras d’Or Lake. ”

“ Here, too, are many Acadian settlements, made up of the descendants of those who fled from the mainland while this land of refuge was still a French possession.
It would be difficult to find a summer climate more agreeable than that of Cape Breton. The days are bright and sunny, tempered by cool and refreshing sea-breezes. There is no scorching heat at any time, and it affords a delightful contrast with the torrid conditions that prevail in districts a few hundred miles to the south. ”