fishes."

But "Master John" had set his heart on something greater. Constantly
hugging the shore of America, he expected to find the island of Cipango
(Japan) in the equinoctial region, where he should find all the spices
of the world and any amount of precious stones.

But after all this great promise Master John disappears from the pages
of history and his son Sebastian continues to sail across the Atlantic,
not always in the service of England, though in 1502 we find him
bringing to the King of England three men taken in the Newfoundland,
clothed in beasts' skins and eating raw flesh, and speaking a language
which no man could understand. They must have been kindly dealt with
by the King, for two years later the poor savages are "clothed like
Englishmen."

Though England claimed the discovery of this Newfoundland, the
Portuguese declared that one of their countrymen, Cortereal--a
gentleman of the royal household--had already discovered the "land
of the cod-fish" in 1463. But then had not the Vikings already
discovered this country five hundred years before?

CHAPTER XXXI

JACQUES CARTIER EXPLORES CANADA

All the nations of Europe were now straining westward for new lands
to conquer. French sailors had fished in the seas washing the western
coast of North America; Verazzano, a Florentine, in the service of
France, had explored the coast of the United States, and a good deal
was known when Jacques Cartier, a Frenchman, steps upon the scene and
wins for his country a large tract of land about the river St. Lawrence.
His object was to find a way across America to Cathay. With two little
ships of sixty tons and sixty-one "chosen men," Cartier left St. Malo
on 20th April 1534. With prosperous weather he tells us he made the
coast of Newfoundland in three weeks, which would mean sailing over
one hundred miles a day. He was a little too early in the season, for
the easterly winds which had helped him on his way had blocked the
east coast of the island with Arctic ice. Having named the point at
which he first touched land Cape Bona Vista, he cruised about till,
the ice having melted, he could sail down the straits of Belle Isle
between the mainland of Labrador and Newfoundland, already discovered
by Breton fishermen. Then he explored the now familiar Gulf of St.
Lawrence--the first European to report on it. All through June the
little French ships sailed about the Gulf, darting across from island
to island a