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The enigma of Cap Au Leste

29 October 2024

On August 23, 1731, Father Laure, a Jesuit missionary and geographer in New France, drew the first map of the King’s domain. Each mention of a name was the subject of an explanation based on historical fact.
However, that of Cap au Leste remains an enigma sustained by various hypotheses linked to navigation on the Saguenay River, or positioning in relation to another cape, that of Cap à l’Ouest. Father Laure’s reference on his 1731 map and the less-than-explicit accounts of explorers Louis Aubert de Lachenaye and Lauren Normandin, in 1731 and 1732, do not explain this toponym.

Various interpretations and attempts to solve the enigma have been explored by amateur and professional historians alike. A first hypothesis is that of a navigation stop intended to load ships with ballast. Like many contemporary ships, 18th-century vessels had to be ballasted to ensure stability during navigation. Ballast is used to correct a ship’s trim, to balance an unevenly distributed load. Typically, a transport ship lightened of its heavy cargo from Europe to the Americas had to be ballasted before resuming navigation.

Another version, put forward by historian Mgr Victoire Tremblay and columnist Yves Ouellet, suggests that the ships that came to pick up the wood “unloaded” before picking up their cargo at the sawmills along the Saguenay.

However, if we accept this explanation, how are we to understand the name Cap Au Leste, already used by explorers before 1740, when timber transport only began around 1838? The enigma remains…

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Sainte-Rose-du-Nord, Quebec
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