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Correspondence from Charles E. Banks to Fannie Hardy Eckstorm ca. 1915-1930, Part 3

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   Last winter in the Mass. Archives, I was going over Ben: Perley [Poore s] [?] "Documents collected in France" and all their maps, and I came across this, Vol. I,p.333: 1506. A note says that the author of Navigateurs francais says a vessel of Honfleur, Capt. John Denis, and pilot Gemart of Rouen, visited New England and in 1506 Denis published a chart of all the country he had traversed.  Major Poore went to Harfleur and searched, but in vain, for the map in the Archives, there, but did find an old catalogue of charts in which Denys was named.  The map covered Canada, Acadia and Newfoundland.
   Now, curiously, Denys, Denis, Denny or Dana is an old and well established family name among our Indians.  It has been laid to old Capt. Nicolas Denys (see his definitive ed., [Ganong editor Ottawa] [?] ) who shows that the name could not have come from the old sailor, because in his day it was already established.  P. 195 he speaks of the chief at Richiboucti "named Denis.. a conceited and vicious Indian, cruel and much hated."  Memory says that Nicolas Denys went first to Canada in 1634
   A French map of 1533 shows ANOROBAGRA, river, running north and S. 1566, map shows La terra de Norombega west of Larcadie, S. of Canada, and E. of a mountain range.