no land of promise luxuriant with the vegetation of the
tropics such as had greeted the eyes of Columbus at his
first vision of the Indies. A storm-bound coast, a
relentless climate and a reluctant soil-these were the
treasures of the New World as first known to the discoverer
of Canada.

For a week Cartier and his men lay off the coast. The
headland of Cape Anguille marks the approximate southward
limit of their exploration. Great gales drove the water
in a swirl of milk-white foam among the rocks that line
the foot of this promontory. Beyond this point they saw
nothing of the Newfoundland shore, except that, as the
little vessels vainly tried to beat their way to the
south against the fierce storms, the explorers caught
sight of a second great promontory that appeared before
them through the mist. This headland Cartier called Cape
St John. In spite of the difficulty of tracing the
storm-set path of the navigators, it is commonly thought
that the point may be identified as Cape Anguille, which
lies about twenty-five miles north of Cape Ray, the
south-west 'corner' of Newfoundland.

Had Cartier been able to go forward in the direction that
he had been following, he would have passed out between
Newfoundland and Cape Breton island into the open Atlantic,
and would have realized that his New Land was, after all,
an island and not the mainland of the continent. But this
discovery was reserved for his later voyage. He seems,
indeed, when he presently came to the islands that lie