12 PAST AND PRESENT OF but that there were sand-hills along the coast, He saw natives in their boats at a river, which he named the "River of Boats," and is sup¬ posed to be tbe entrance to Hay. He saw more natives towards the , near v which he also landed. He rounded the cape, where he noted the long and dangerous reef. The appearance of the whole country, with its fine woods, he great¬ ly admired. Sailing up the coast, after round¬ ing the cape, he saw the land apparently closing in on both sides, but could see no harbor, and then turned back. He did not know it was an island, but supposed it to be part of the mainland. It was not known to be an island until long afterwards, when it was named the Island of St. John.* St. John the Baptist seems to have been the cause of much of the confusion and doubt that exists, and has long existed, regarding the early history of this Island. His was a favorite name with the old navigators, and we find it in many places, hence the con¬ fusion. There were Cabot 's Island of St. John, off the east coast of ; Gomez 's Island of St. John, meaning itself; on Sebastian Cabot 's map of •In preparing this part of his paper, the writer has been much indebted to the excellent work of Dr. 8. E. Dawson , and In deference to his great authority, has adopted, in the text, Oapes Tnrner and Trvon as the parts of Prince Idward Island first seen by Oartier . He has also consulted Mr. Joseph Pope 's " Jacques Oartier ," in which the lands seen are placed farther west, and Kildare River is supposed to be the Hirer of Boats. Oartier , approaching the Island, saw two high lands which looked like islands in the distance. There ware formerly some Terr high sand hills, known as the Seven Sisters, to the eastward of or , off the shores of Township No. 11. These were swept away by storms some time in the mtddln of the last century. Till then they were most nrominent objects, particularly when ap¬ proached from the sea. These, the writer would suggest, were the two high islands seen by Oartier . If so. Rivi-r would be the River of Boats, and the Cape of the same name was Oape Orleans. The Kildare seem- to answer Car- tier's description better than . The writer, who spent his boyhood in thatpart of the Island, is person¬ ally inclined to agree with Mr. Pope . A very strong objec¬ tion to this view i « the distance (about forty leagues) which Oartier says he sailed to the westward after seeing the two ■apposed islands. From where the most eastern of the seven Sisters were to be »<<n to Kildare River would not be more than twenty leagues, even following the bends of the coast. Hence, Oartier s leagues do not apply to either. If the distance sailed is given with any degree of accuracy it would be more applicable to Oape Turner than to the Seven Uarttiis. Oan it Be that the distance of forty leagues sailed was an erroneous entry for a much shorter run? 1544 the Magdalens are called St. John; then there were St. John's, Newfoundland , the river St. John, and others. No wonder that, at a later date, Governor Patterson complained of mails going astray, and asked to have the name changed. Nothing further is known of the Island for a century. Not even that greatest of French explorers, Champlain, seems to have set foot on her shores, although he was aware of her existence. Carrier's discovery would certainly have conferred upon the first claim to the ownership of the Island, but it was long overlooked, or, probably, the French were too busily employed at home, where they had plenty of troubles to engage their attention, to give much thought to their possessions. The Bretons and Basques, as well as the Portu¬ guese, English and other nationalities, re¬ sorted more and more to the Newfoundland fisheries, which were carried on before Car- tier's time, and undoubtedly they would not neglect the rich fisheries of . It is also most unlikely that these hardy fisher¬ men did not seek their fares round the ¬ dalens, and in the teeming waters off the shores of Prince Edward Island . But their business was catching and curing fish; reap¬ ing the harvest of the sea, and not settlement or exploration. It is even likely that they would land and erect their flakes and shel¬ ters on the coasts of these different lands, but there is nothing to tell us of what they saw or did, or how the Island fared, or how her swarthy inhabitants occupied themselves during the long years when, after Jacques Carrier 's visit, she slumbered and slept in all the beauty of her forests and streams, her bright skies and splendid summer climate; or how the winter months of isolation sped away.