He entered the Bay
of Fundy, and probably went far enough to realize from
its tides, rising sometimes to a height of sixty or
seventy feet, that its farther end could not be free,
and that it could not furnish an open passage to the
Western Sea. Running north-east along the shore of Nova
Scotia, Gomez sailed through the Gut of Canso, thus
learning that Cape Breton was an island. He named it the
Island of St John-or, rather, he transferred to it this
name, which the map-makers had already used. Hence it
came about that the 'Island of St John' occasions great
confusion in the early geography of Canada. The first
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.
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