6 The French in Prince Edward Island

with pease, white and red gooseberry bushes, straw- berries, raspberries and wild oats like rye, which one would say had been sown there and tilled. It is the best-

tempered region one can possibly see and the heat is considerable. There are many turtle-doves, wood-

pigeons and other birds. Nothing is wanting but har- bours.”

The geographical vagueness of the above descrip- tion has led to much controversy as to the “two is- lands” first seen by Cartier. Mr. W. F. Tidmarsh of Charlottetown, who recently followed Cartier’s course in a schooner at the same time of the year and also saw what looked like two islands in the distance, identifies them as Campbell’s Point and Cape Syl- vester, which jut out from the north shore into the Gulf of St. Lawrence about five miles west of East Point ;? but Mr. Biggar still favors Cape Turner and Cape Tryon.* All authorities agree in identifying Cape Orleans as Kildare Cape and Indian Cape as North Cape. Mr. Biggar also identifies Canoe River as Cascumpeque Bay rather than Malpeque Bay.*

After the brief visit of Cartier in 1534, silence again settles over the land, only to be broken by the soft tread of the Indian hunter, the swish of his arrow through the trees, or the fierce yell of triumph at the fall of his quarry, until fishermen again fre- quent its shores and discover its insular conformation

2 Biggar, The Voyages of Jacques Cartier, pub. by Pub. Arch, of Can., pp. 39-43.

3 Warburton, A History of Prince Edward Island, p. 11.

4 Biggar, ibid., p. 39, note 3. 5 Ibid., p. 41, note 8.