CHAPTER VIII
The Hudson Bay Explorers and the British Conquest of all Canada
In a general way the discovery of the main features of the vast
Canadian Dominion may be thus apportioned amongst the different
European nations. First came the British, led by an Italian pilot.
They discovered Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia, and Newfoundland.
Then came the Portuguese, who discovered the north-east of
Newfoundland and the coast of Labrador, while a French expedition
under an Italian captain reached to Nova Scotia and southern
Newfoundland. A Spanish expedition under a Portuguese leader shortly
afterwards reached the coast of New Brunswick. After that the French
from Brittany, Normandy, and the west coast of France laid bare the
_west_ coast of Newfoundland, the Gulf of St. Lawrence, the River St.
Lawrence, and the Great Lakes.
Sir Francis Drake led the way in the exploration of the north-west
coast of North America. He reached, in 1579, as far north on that side
as the country of Oregon, which he christened New Albion. This action
stirred up the Spaniards, who explored the coast of California, and in
1591-2 sent an Ionian Island pilot, Apostolos Valeriano (commonly
called Juan de Fuca), in charge of an expedition to discover the
imagined Straits of Anian. He gave strength to this idea of a
continuous water route across temperate North America by entering (in
1592) the straits, since called Juan de Fuca, between Vancouver Island
and the modern State of Washington, and passing thence into the
Straits of Georgia, which bear a striking resemblance in their
features to the Straits of Magellan.
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