MAJOR-GENERAL SIR WILLIAM PEPPERELL AT THE SIEGE OF LOUISBOURG This strong fortress on the Island of Cape Breton was taken from the French by 4000 Colonial troops under Pepperell, June 17, 1745 CHAPTER I Discoveries and Explorations LOATING down the stream of the ages have come many FLO interesting myths and traditions regarding the Continent of America and that half of its vast area which has since become the Dominion of Canada. Plato, the Greek, described a mighty island of Atlantis which was supposed to have been submerged by the waters of a boundless sea, but was far more probably shrouded from sight by passing centuries of ignorant indifference. Seneca, the Spanish teacher of the youthful Nero, taught his Imperial pupil of a great continent which should one day defy the darkness of unknown waters and appear beyond the ultimate bounds of Thule. A Chinese record of the fifth century indicates a possible Buddhist visit to Mexico; and Welsh traditions of a later date record the mythical voyage of Madoc, in the twelfth century, to a far western country where he saw many strange sights and scenes. The sifting influence of historic research has, however, left these and many other stories to take their place beside the romantic quest for the Golden Fleece and similar legends of an olden time. VOYAGES OF THE NORSEMEN More satisfactory, because more stable in basis, are the records of Norse invasion and Viking adventure. Sailing from out their rugged shores about the middle of the Christian era, these wandering ocean warriors played a great part in the history of lands bordering upon the sea. Brave to rashness, and sturdy and stubborn in pursuit of gold, or silver, or precious stones, they made piracy almost respectable in days when power belonged to him who could hold it, and There seems little reason to property to him who could take it. doubt that the small but strong wooden vessels of the sea-kings sighted the shores of America and beached their prows on the coast of Canada. Iceland and the Faroe Islands, we know, were settled by the Norsemen in the ninth century. Eric the Red, of Norway, occupied the coast of Greenland in A. D. 986, and one of his colonists was a little later swept by stormy seas into sight of unknown lands to the south and west. Leif Ericson, in the year 1000, undertook the exploration of these strange new regions, and appears to have touched the continent where Labrador now is. Other points which he claims to have seen were called Helluland, Markland and Vinland. Whether these places were really the Island of Newfoundland, the coast of Nova Scotia, and the shores of Massachusetts, as is respectively alleged, will probably remain a hopelessly disputed point. TALES OF VIKING HEROES There are strong reasons for believing in some measure the truth of the Icelandic Sagas, from whence these traditions are derived, and it is probable that the songs which thus sing weird tales of Viking heroes upon the Atlantic shores of Canada and the United States have a firmer ground of fact to support their swelling words than has many an accepted event of old-time Eastern and European history. Still, so far as the world at large was concerned, nothing but faint rumours and mythical tales had resulted from these passing settlements upon the soil of America or sweeping glimpses of its lonely shores. To really make this vast region known to humanity required a period of growing maritime commerce as well as of stirring adventure-a time when the Orient, with its wealth of mystery and romance, of silks and spices, of gold and silver and gems, was being brought closer to the eye and the mind of Europe. It required the discovery of the compass and the wider knowledge of navigation which grew so naturally out of that event. It was made imminent by the Portuguese discovery of the Cape of Good Hope, in 1486, and inevitable by the growth of British maritime ambitions and the sea-dog spirit of the sturdy islanders. It became a fact when Columbus, after imbibing the love of the sea from his birthplace of Genoa, sailed the Mediterranean and the nearer waters of the Atlantic for twenty years and then made up his mind to discover a direct route to the East Indies. For long after coming to this conclusion, he haunted the courts of Europe, and finally impressed his belief in these new lands, and his faith in a new route to the East, upon the generous Isabella of Castile. The discovery of San Salvador and other islands of the West India group which followed, in the memorable year 1492, opened the way not only to a new world in territorial magnitude but to the greatest empires of history and to newer civilizations and larger liberties. CABOT'S PLACE IN HISTORY It remained, however, for a Venetian, sailing under the flag of England, to first touch the mainland of the continent. John Cabot has only now, after lying in the silence of forgotten dust during four long centuries, come into recognized honour and deserved renown. Whether, in 1497, he touched the shores of Canada amid the cold and ice of Labrador, or in the wilder country of Nova Scotia, there seems every reason to believe that he did reach it somewhere between those two regions.* A monument at Bristol, from which he sailed, and a memorial at Halifax, which he made possible as a British seaport and city, agree in marking the great importance of his work. Columbus, of course, had preceded him in touching the island fringe of * Authorities differ greatly in opinion as to Cabot's landing place. Judge Prowse believes that he first touched the shores of Newfoundland, while Dr. Harvey favours the Cape Breton theory. Labrador is supported by H. Harrisse, and in earlier days by Humboldt and Biddle. But the bulk of modern opinion, including Sir Clements Markham, Signor Tarducci, R. G. Thwaites, and Sir J. G. Bourinot, is strongly in favour of Cape Breton as the landing place. This view has recently received almost conclusive support and proof at the hands of Dr. S. E. Dawson, of Ottawa, |