Page:Tourist's Maritime Provinces.djvu/358

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been validated.
300
THE TOURIST'S MARITIME PROVINCES

Sabbath, she could not refrain from paying some slight homage, however humble—to the Prince who represented Her of whom her sex had just reason to be proud."

In the roadstead opposite Irish Douglastown, the Hero which had on board the Prince of Wales ran aground on its way into Gaspé Basin, "an untoward event" which vastly chagrined the Gaspesians. After an anxious delay of upwards of an hour and a half the flag-ship was floated. During this time, continues our scribe, "boats filled with ladies and gentlemen who could command the services of small craft of any kind—from the birch canoe, fishing boat and ships boat to Messrs. Charles Robin & Company's 16 oared cutter, hovered round the Hero—all anxious to catch a glimpse of the Hero of the day"—who no doubt, from the deck of his stranded ship, returned with characteristic good humour the salutations of his mother's eager subjects.

Three and a half centuries before the arrival of British Edward, the Discoverer of Canada had touched shore at the mouth of the River St. Jean during the first of his voyages. From July fourth to twelfth he had stayed in the harbour now known as Port Daniel. Failing to find the passage hoped for, he set sail again, anchored for a night between Bonaventure Island and Cape Whitehead, and proceeding northward lay for two days near the site of Douglastown. A storm arising in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, he went "7 or