Nova Scotia by Lesley Choyce Read Free Book Online Page B

fishermen
were brave, industrious and willing to put up with the great
discomforts of a cold North Atlantic crossing for a catch of
seafood from the riches of the Grand Banks and beyond. Basque
fishermen may have found their way to Newfoundland as early as the
1300s, but the first real documentation shows them here in the
1520s. Port-aux-Basques in the southwest corner of the island bears
their name. Basque whaling ships in the fourteenth century would
have rivalled the size of even Columbus’s largest
vessels.
        Basque fishermen fished for whales and cod, both off the
shores of Nova Scotia and in the Gulf of St. Lawrence. Life aboard
a whaling ship would not have been a pretty picture. There were no
sleeping quarters, the provisions would often be rotting, a smell
of decaying whale fat would permeate the hold, and beyond that were
the dangers of icebergs, storms and pervasive
cold.
        Life ashore in the temporary colonies on Île de Bacaillau
(Island of Cod), as they referred to Newfoundland, must have
provided some respite to restore their health as the Basques dried
and salted their catch for return to their
homeland.
        The Basques seemed fairly unconcerned with holding down any
piece of geography. They wanted the fish and Newfoundland provided
a convenient place to go ashore and preserve the catch. The
surrender of Newfoundland to the English in 1713 by the Treaty of
Utrecht drove the Basques not only from Newfoundland but also from
the high seas as well. The more militant English, with their
weapons and their naval vessels, had by then discovered the great
profit to be made in whaling and wanted to have full reign to
plunder without competition.
    Henry Sinclair and the Holy
Grail
    St. Brendan, if he came this way at
all, was not alone in his quest for new land for religious reasons.
In recent years considerable ink has been spilled over the evidence
concerning the travels and religious quest of Prince Henry Sinclair
of the Orkney Islands. While reports of other adventures rest more
in legend than fact, there is a credible story here with shreds of
concrete evidence that cannot be dismissed.
        Prince Henry Sinclair was the son of King John I
and Philippa, daughter of John of Gaunt. In his 1974 book, Prince Henry Sinclair: His
Expedition to the New World in 1398 , Frederick J. Pohl writes with conviction of the
authenticity of Sinclair’s travels to Nova Scotia. The story goes
as follows.
        In 1398 Henry hears a tale about a fisherman who had
disappeared into the western sea for about twenty-five years and
then returned to tell of a strange but magnificent land where there
was plenty of fish but cannibals as well. Not fearing the
cannibals, but lured by the adventure, Henry and a sizeable crew
set sail and arrive at Newfoundland (called Esotilanda), where an
Icelander tells him of another island called Icaria that is ruled
by an Irish king. Henry travels there and goes ashore but is
attacked by Aboriginals and forced to leave. Sailing further along,
they spot smoke coming from a hillside, causing Sinclair to send a
hundred of his sailor/soldiers to see what was going on. The men
return after eight days to report that the smoke came from a
burning pitch-like substance that flowed up from a spring. They
also report having found many inhabitants who were small in
stature, timid and living in caves.
        Sinclair and some of his men decide to stay on here and send
the others back. He may have intended to eventually build another
sailing ship from the local trees for his own return voyage,
although this plan seems a curious, brazen move that may have left
him cut off from his home for good.
        There’s another facet of this story more
intriguing than the journey itself. Michael Bradley, in Holy Grail Across the
Atlantic , argues that
Sinclair’s journey was not purely for discovery. Henry Sinclair was
a supporter of the Templar movement in Europe and provided refuge
for those persecuted