t the
great barrier of the continent extended to the cold tempestuous seas of
the Antarctic region. Magellan's voyage (1519-22) had proved indeed
that by rounding South America the way was open to the spice islands of
the east. But the route was infinitely long and arduous. The hope of a
shorter passage by the north beckoned the explorer. Of this north
country nothing but its coast was known as yet. Cabot and the fishermen
had found a land of great forests, swept by the cold and leaden seas of
the Arctic, and holding its secret clasped in the iron grip of the
northern ice. The Corte-Reals, Verrazano, and Gomez had looked upon the
endless panorama of the Atlantic coast of North America--the glorious
forests draped with tangled vines extending to the sanded beaches of
the sea--the wide inlets round the mouths of mighty rivers moving
silent and mysterious from the heart of the unknown continent. Here and
there a painted savage showed the bright feathers of his headgear as he
lurked in the trees of the forest or stood, in fearless curiosity,
gazing from the shore at the white-winged ships of the strange
visitants from the sky. But for the most part all, save the sounds of
nature, was silence and mystery. The waves thundered upon the sanded
beach of Carolina and lashed in foam about the rocks of the iron coasts
of New England and the New Found Land. The forest mingled its murmurs
with the waves, and, as the sun sank behind the unknown hills, wafted
its perfume to the anchored ships that rode upon the placid bosom of
the evening sea. And beyond all this was mystery--the mystery of the
unknown East, the secret of the pathway that must lie somewhere hidden
in the bays and inlets of the continent of silent beauty, and above all
the mysterious sense of a great history still to come for this new land
itself--a sense of the murmuring of many voices caught as the undertone
of the rustling of the forest leaves, but rising at last to the mighty
sound of the vast civilization that in the centuries to come should
pour into the silent wildernesses of America.

To such a land--to such a mystery--sailed forth Jacques Cartier,
discoverer of Canada.

BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE

The Icelandic sagas contain legends of a discovery of America before
Columbus. Benjamin de Costa, in his 'Pre-Columbian Discovery of
America', has given translations of a number of these legends. Other
works bearing on this mythical period are: A. M. Reeves's 'The Fi