map-makers who used it secured their information indirectly,
we may suppose, from the Cabot voyages and the fishermen
who frequented the coast. They marked it as an island
lying in the 'Bay of the Bretons,' which had come to be
the name for the open mouth of the Gulf of St Lawrence.
Gomez, however, used the name for Cape Breton island.
Later on, the name was applied to what is now Prince
Edward Island. All this is only typical of the difficulties
in understanding the accounts of the early voyages to
America. Gomez duly returned to the port of Corunna in
June 1525.

We may thus form some idea of the general position of
American exploration and discovery at the time when
Cartier made his momentous voyages. The maritime nations
of Europe, in searching for a passage to the half-mythical
empires of Asia, had stumbled on a great continent. At
first they thought it Asia itself. Gradually they were
realizing that this was not Asia, but an outlying land
that lay between Europe and Asia and that must be passed
by the navigator before Cathay and Cipango could rise
upon the horizon. But the new continent was vast in
extent. It blocked the westward path from pole to pole.
With each voyage, too, the resources and the native beauty
of the new land became more apparent. The luxuriant
islands of the West Indies, and the Aztec empire of
Mexico, were already bringing wealth and grandeur to the
monarchy of Spain. South of Mexico it had been already
found that the great barrier of the continent extended
to the cold tempestuous seas of the Antarctic region.