Cabot to Cartier: Sources for a Historical Ethnography of Northeastern North America 1497-1550 by Hoffman, Bernard G - 1961

Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1961. Hardcover. xii, 287pp., illustrated with maps, good in a shelf & edge worn blue dj faded along the spine. From the dust jacket flap: "This study was prepared in an attempt to clarify seemingly contradictory interpretations of the early history of the discovery of North America, as well as to survey the early historical sources which may contribute to an ethno-historical study of the Indians of those coasts first explored. A major part of the book is devoted to a re-analysis of the cartographical materials and to an attempt to present a more logical interpretation of this material. In the course of this attempt the work discusses and rejects previously widely held viewpoints concerning the early exploration of North America and the development of North American cartography. A new hypothesis is presented in this respect and is shown to fit the available evidence more adequately. The study also reconsiders the documentary materials deriving from the Cartier voyages and develops new conclusions concerning their origin, particularly with respect to the so-called "Cartier vocabularies."