a passage to the East Indies, without mentioning his exploration
along Nova Scotia and New England. But Le Clerc, who seems to have
been the author of this statement (Premier Etablissement de la Foy
dans la Nouvelle France, I, 12-13. Paris, 1691), and who is followed
by Charlevoix, also alleges that on the occasion of his exploration
towards Labrador, he discovered the straits between it and
Newfoundland, in latitude 52, now known as the straits of Belle
Isle, which is not correct. Jacques Cartier sailed through that
passage in his first voyage to Canada, in 1534. Le Clerc either drew
false inferences or relied upon false information. He probably
derived his impression of the voyage to Labrador and the discovery
of the straits by Alfonse, from a cursory reading of the cosmography
of Alfonse, who describes these straits, but not as a discovery of
his own.

In the printed work, called Les voyages avantureux du Capitaine Jean
Alphonse, Saintongeois, which was first published in 1559, after the
death of Alfonse, it is expressly stated that the river of
Norumbega, was discovered by the Portuguese and Spaniards.
Describing the great bank, he says that it runs from Labrador, "au
nordest et suroest, une partie a oest-suroest, plus de huit cens
lieues, et passe bien quatre vingts lieues de la terre neufue, et de
la terre des Bretons trente ou quarante lieues. Et d'icy va tout au
long de la coste jusques a la riviere du Norembergue, QUI EST
NOUVELLEMENT DESCOUVERTE PAR LES PORTUGALOIS ET ESPAGNOLS," p. 53.
We quote from an edition of the work not mentioned by the
bibliographers (Brunet-Harrisse), printed at Rouen in 1602. This is
almost a contemporary denial by a French author, whether Alfonse
himself or a compiler, as it would rather appear, from his
cosmography, of the Verrazzano discovery of this country.]