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POLITICAL AND HISTORICAL

ACCOUNT

OF

LOWER CANADA.

CHAPTER I.

Discovery of the Country, and Origin of its Name-Passes into the Hands of the English-Boundaries-Object of the present Work.

IN the year 1497, Sebastian Cabot, holding a commission from Henry VII. of England, discovered the countries situated on the south-west of the river St. Lawrence. The appellation of CANADA was given to these territories, as well as to those afterwards discovered by Jacques Cartier, a subject of France. Of the origin of the word CANADA there are various accounts. It is by some asserted to be a word of the Iroquois language, signifying a collection of huts; others, however, give it a fanciful derivation from the Spanish. It is said that the Spaniards, long before Verazani was dispatched by Francis I. on a voyage of discovery, had disembarked in the bay now called Chaleurs, and, in their

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