Long before the discovery of the islands by Jacques Cartier, long before the Basques, Normands, Bretons and English fishermen found wealth around the islands, long before Columbus discovered North America and the Vikings explored this area, the Micmac tribe came to the islands, in their canoe-like boats, to fish the mackerel and fall herring and to hunt the seal. In others words, prior to a thousand years ago, the islands were occupied by humans, if only seasonally.

The Vikings arrived in L’Anse aux Meadows on the northern tip of Newfoundland about a thousand years ago. They made a small encampment and stayed at least ten years. They explored the area and came south on the western side of the island province. It is known that they did battle with the natives and their leader, Leif Ericson’s brother was lost.

It is also known that honey nuts were found at the encampment which meant that they had to have traveled the Gulf of Saint Lawrence to reach Nova Scotia, the only know place where they could have harvested the nuts. It is difficult to imagine that the Vikings would have by-passed the Magdalens without so much as landing on them for fresh water. No trace of these explorers has been found, as of yet.

coloring by Emma

It is believed that the French fishermen found the Grand Banks around six hundred years ago, which eventually led them into the Gulf and to the migrating fish banks around the islands. The English were also on the seas looking for the best fishing grounds and suspected to be here. There is no real proof that they were here, but then again it is widely known that a fisherman will never tells where his favorite fishing hole is. The fishermen did not record the information.

Then in 1534, Jacques Cartier arrived with two ships from the north and 61 crew members, following the Viking trail through the Strait of Belle Isles. He recorded that they spotted the three Bird Rocks and stopped on the second to retrieve eggs and fresh meat of the birds. His men took the Great Auk, a marine bird and only Northern hemisphere penguin species, which has been extinct to the world for the past hundred years or so.

He then visited Brion Island which he named in honor of the principal financial backer of his expedition, Philippe Chabot, Admiral de Brion, “The island in question is the best land we have seen, as one acre of this land is worth more than all of Newfoundland. We found lots of beautiful trees, meadows, fields of wild wheat and flowering peas, as many kinds and as beautiful as any I have ever seen in Brittany, and it looked as if they had been planted there by man’s hand. There are many currants, strawberries and roses, parsley and other sweet-smelling herbs.”

To be continued in later posts…