MILITARY AND CIVIL. - 47

Kent. This change was considered necessary on account of letters and other articlesaddressed to the Island often being forwarded to other places bearing the same name as that of this

Province. But on’taking leave of‘the old familiar term,notwith- ..

standing various opinions and the enlightened source, perhaps,

from which those opinions have been derived, the question as to who bestowed upon the Island the name of St. John, may again be asked. It is an established fact that the Island’s first European occupants, the French, repudiated England’s claim to . having discovered the Gulf of St. Lawrence through the medium of their explorers, the Cabots, and as sole possessors of those

regions the French were not likely to adopta name given to

any section thereof by a foreign nation. St. Johns, Newfound-

land~as we are told —was discovered by John Cabot, on the' 24th of June, 1497, and during the following year his son

Sebastian, on his second voyage of discovery, sailed from

'England early in the summer, andon reaching the rugged coast

of Newfoundland directed the course of his ships nOrthward in

search of a northwest passage through to .India. . It was there-

fore impossible that an~ Island situated in the southwest of the

Gulf of St. Lawrence couldhave been discovered by either of

these celebratedvnaviga'tors 'on’ St. John’s day—as asserted by

Island historians—when the fact is recorded of them, that they,

the Cabots, were hundreds _of miles distant on that particular

date, and there is every r‘eason'to believe that the author of the

original name was the honored founder of Quebec, Samuel

Champlain. Under theappellation of St. Jean or St. John,

the Isle was cared for by the French‘ people, and was ceded

to the British Crown under the name supposed to. be given

to it by themselves, which certainly is the most likely.

In 1801 Thomas Chochran, Esq., received the appointment of Chief Justice, which he held for a few months, exchanging situations with Robert Throp, of Newfoundland, in 1802.

Queen Square about this time—though in a rugged and uncleared state——received the first series of public edifices, the site being between our present Colonial Building and Post Office. Here on this site the first St. Paul’s Episcopal Church was erected, and when completed in r802 was capable of>hold- ing over three hundred people, its tower, at the southwest end, was surmounted by a steeple and weathervane, and within hung a sweet toned bell. This was the first church built in the