PRINCE EDWARD ISLAND. ii is nothing to show that he went further than that, and, as already pointed out, the Gut of Canso, through which he might have sailed, was not yet known. As he sailed thence along the coast of Newfoundland, he could not have come within sight of Prince Ed ¬ ward Island. Another noted explorer was the Portu¬ guese, Stephen Gomez . Like so many of the sea-faring men of his country and day, he was a most skillful navigator. He had sailed with Magellan, when that great sailor dis¬ covered the strait which bears his name; but Gomez was of a jealous and treacherous nature, and, taking one of the ships, deserted his chief at the Strait and returned to Spain, in the service of which country the expedi¬ tion to the south had been made. Under the patronage and with the sup¬ port of the emperor, Charles V., Gomez , in 1525, fitted out a ship and made an explor¬ ing voyage to . A methodi¬ cal and skillful explorer, he minutely ex¬ amined the coast from somewhere near Florida to and He discovered the Gut of Canso, and that is an island. It had previously been thought to be part of the mainland. The name St. John had been given by John Cabot to the small island off the east coast of , discovered by him. Gomez gave it to itself, and the Gut was called the channel of St. John or St. Julian. But he did not go beyond that. He examined the coasts of Nova Scotia , and seems to have struck Hali¬ fax, as well as other harbours. The reports of his voyage, which are pretty full, give no hint of Prince Edward Island , or that he was ever in its immediate neigh¬ borhood. Had he seen an island the size of Prince Edward Island , there would surely have been some mention of it. He was too painstaking and methodical an investigator to omit so important a discovery. In fact, his explorations from the Gut were in a di¬ rection away from this Island. But, while it may now be safely asserted that none of these great explorers ever saw the "Garden of the Gulf ", there can be no doubt that Jacques Cartier did make its shores. He has left a record of his voyage, which was long lost, but has been found, and of which more than one translation was known. Car- tier was not only a great and skillful naviga¬ tor; he was also a most observant man. Thv localities he touched can frequently be recog¬ nized from his descriptions. Leaving his home port of St. Malo, in , in the spring of 1534, he directed his course towards Newfoundland , even then becoming noted for her great fisheries, to which European vessels were resorting. He made a very good run, and towards the end of April reached the strait of Belle Isle , where he was detained some days by ice, then got through the strait, and explored the coast of Labrador and the shores of New¬ foundland. Having navigated the waters of these coasts, he reached out into the Gulf of St. Lawrence , and discovered the , one of which he named , after the Sieur de Brion, who had assisted in the expedition. After a few days at the Magdalens, during which he visited the Bird Rocks , which he describes, as-well as all the other principal islands, he sailed on the 29th June, and the following day made the north shore of Prince Edward Island , at or near and , in New Lon¬ don. He coasted westwardly and landed in his boats at several places. He described the country as a beautiful one, and speaks of its woods, and says that there were no harbors,