2 The French in Prince Edward Island

art of navigation in frequent excursions to the fish- ing grounds off Newfoundland before he ventured upon those voyages of discovery which made for him a place in history and gave to France a new outlet for her energies. It was the French who followed up his discoveries by attempting settlement both on the shores of the Gulf and on the banks of the River St. Lawrence. By settling the mouth of the river they hoped to make good their claim to all the hinterland through which it flowed. Hence it transpired that from Cartier’s first voyage in 1534 until the final expulsion of its inhabitants in 1758 the destinies of Isle Saint Jean were in the keeping of the French. With a Royal Commission in his pocket, master of two ships each of about sixty tons burden, Cartier set out from St. Malo on the twentieth of April, 1534, with a total crew of sixty-one men, which he had obtained only by the intervention of authority, —so keen was the interest in the Newfoundland fish- eries, so sceptical were the merchant kings of his daring idealism and of his hope of reaching Cathay. His voyage to Newfoundland was uneventful. He made land at Bonavista, refitted at Catalina, and on the twenty-first of May proceeded northward, reach- ing the Strait of Belle Isle on the twenty-seventh. He spent two weeks in exploring and traversing the Strait, reaching Brest (Bonne Espérance Harbor) on the tenth of June. Beyond Brest, he met a ship from La Rochelle which had overshot the harbor on the preceding night. As he merely mentions this fact, without showing any surprise, it would seem to indi-