Early Voyages And Northern Approaches 1000 1632

Volume I of the Canadian Centenary Series Now available as e-books for the first time, the Canadian Centenary Series is a comprehensive nineteen-volume history of the peoples and lands which form Canada. Although the series is designed as a unified whole so that no part of the story is left untold, each volume is complete in itself. Professor Oleson rediscovers the journeys of the Norse people from Iceland towards Arctic Canada, five hundred years before Columbus’ exploits. These Christian Europeans settled with Indigenous Canadians, building stone settlements, trapping and exporting the prized white falcon and polar bear to the courts of medieval Europe, and producing the unique Thule people, ancestors of the modern Inuit. In fact, Professor Oleson’s research has traced the tall white “Tunnit” people of Inuit mythology to these Norse settlers. Despite the eventual fading of contact with Europe, the Norse had built an irrefutable North Atlantic route which explorers and traders of the 17th century would follow in their pursuit of the riches of Asia and their creation of a lasting bond with Europe. First published in 1963, Tryggvi J. Oleson’s important contribution to the Canadian Centenary Series is available here as an e-book for the first time.

The tale begins in sixteenth-century Venice, when explorer Juan de Fuca encountered English merchant Michael Lok and relayed a fantastic story of a marine passageway that connected the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans. This tale would be the catalyst for centuries of dreaming, and exacerbate English and Spanish rivalry. The search for the fabled Northwest Passage inspired explorers to seek out fame, adventure, knowledge and riches. Likewise, the empires of Spain and Great Britain were impelled by the hopes of finding a naval trade route that would connect Europe to Asia, thus securing their dominance over the other as an economic power. The story of the Northwest Passage is one of significant figures and great empires, jostling for a distant corner of North America. Gough provides meticulously researched insight, delving into diplomatic records, narratives of explorers and commercial aspirants, legal affidavits and court records to illuminate the journeys of Martin Frobisher, James Cook, Francis Drake, Manuel Quimper, José María Narváez, George Vancouver and Juan Francisco de la Bodega y Quadra, among others. A sea venture tied up with piracy, political loyalty and betrayal, all bound up in a web of international intrigue, Juan de Fuca’s Strait is an indispensable contribution to the history of discovery on the Northwest Coast.

Hailed as a landmark in Canadian literary scholarship when it was originally published in 1965, the Literary History of Canada is now being reissued, revised and enlarged, in three volumes. This major effort of a large group of scholars working in the field of English-language Canadian literature provides a comprehensive, up-to-date reference work. It has already proven itself invaluable as a source of information on authors, genres, and literary trends and influences. It represents a positive attempt to give a history of Canada in terms of writings which deserve attention because of significant thought, form, and use of language. Volume 3 has been newly written for this edition of the History, and covers the years from about 1960 to 1974. The contributors to this volume are Claude Bissell, Desmond Pacey, Lauriat Lane, jr, Michael S. Cross, Thomas A. Goudge, John Webster Grant, John H. Chapman, William E. Swinton, Henry B. Mayo, Malcolm Ross, Brandon Conron, Clara Thomas, Sheila A. Egoff, John Ripley, William H. New, George Woodcock, and Northrop Frye.

The Transactions of the Royal Society of Canada for the years from 1929 to 1937 included a series in nine parts of important papers on "Crucial Maps" which have been a frequent source of reference ever since for students of the history of discovery and of early cartography. Their author, William Francis Ganong, had a life-long interest in the natural and human history of his native province, New Brunswick. Although he was primarily a botanist, with four full-length books and an amazing number of articles to his credit, it was through his series of monographs in the Transactions of the Royal Society of Canada that the breadth of his interests became known. For over fifty years he contributed almost annually to the Transactions the results of his systematic investigations into New Brunswick's physiography, aborigines, early explorations, wars and settlements. Crucial Maps, which concluded in 1937, was the last series of articles. Ganong was the first investigator to employ a critical classification of maps based upon groupings by period and type, although the cartography of Canada's east coast had earlier been introduced by Baron Alexander von Humboldt. Ganong's contributions to cartography are enormous: for example, his reconstruction of Cabot's voyages, while all may not agree with it, is a masterpiece of inductive analysis which will remain a model in historical research; his chapters on Gomez, Verrazzano and Fagundes are still the chief secondary sources on these discoverers. There have been notable additions to the bibliography of discovery and maps since Ganong wrote; recently published works as well as the complete file of Ganong's correspondence with his fellow cartographer, G.R.F. Prowse, were consulted by Theodore E. Layng, Map Division, Public Archives of Canada, in preparing the commentaries which accompany this edition of Crucial Maps. These commentaries, with Mr. Layng's introduction, also provide an interesting sketch of Dr. Ganong and his work. Another important feature of this edition is the index prepared by William Morley of the John Carter Brown Library. In much of his work Ganong was a pioneer, and, while subsequent studies have reached different conclusions on some points, many of his results have seldom been challenged. Students of the present and future will still use and quote from Crucial Maps. Royal Society of Canada Special Publications No. 7

Much has been written about the history and the people of northern Manitoba, but until now this body of work has not been readily accessible to the researcher or teacher. This bibliography identifies published sources, such as books and magazine and journal articles, as well as unpublished sources that are available to the public, including academic theses and government pamphlets, reports, and studies. It includes primarily materials dealing with the area north of 53rd parallel of latitude, but it also includes material on the area east of Lake Winnipeg as far south as the 51st parallel, a region that is similar to the North. References are listed under seven topics: bibliographies and research aids; the fur trade; Aboriginal and Métis populations; exploration and travel accounts; church and mission histories; northern geography and resources; and community histories and twentieth century resource exploitation.

The European discovery of the Americas in 1492 was one of the most important events of the Renaissance, and with it Christopher Columbus changed the course of world history. Now, five hundred years later, this 2-volume reference work will chart new courses in the study and understanding of Columbus and the Age of Discovery. Much more than an account of the man and his voyages, The Christopher Columbus Encyclopedia is a complete A-Z look at the world during this momentous era. In two volumes, The Christopher Columbus Encyclopedia contains more than 350 signed original articles ranging from 250 to more than 10,000 words, written by nearly 150 contributors from around the world. The work includes cross-references, bibliographies for each article, and a comprehensive index. The work is fully illustrated, with hundreds of maps, drawings and photographs.