quotes from F. Mowatt's 1998 book titled 'The Farfarers' page 336 & 337: (a) Caption between two photos of cairns, a close up and distant photo or perhaps the same scene...."Ancient beacons of unknown origin overlook the village of Cupids on Conception Bay, Newfoundland" (b) "Nothing seems to be known about the "cairns" origins, antiquity, or purpose. Local residents say they "have always been there." "Always" is a long time in Cupids, which is one of , if not the earliest of, the post-Columbian European settlements in North America, having been officially founded in 1610 by John Guy on behalf of the London and Bristol Society of Merchant Venturers. However, there is a persistant belief that a family by the name of Dawes homesteaded the cove as early as 1550." (c) page 425..."Because Cook was the first person to describe and chart Newfoundland's west coast I had already examined his journals, maps, and meticulously detailed notes. They told me that in 1766 when he surveyed the coast it had no permanent European inhabitants. Fishing vessels --mostly French -- worked the grounds seasonally, but seldom overwintered. Apart from such occasionals the only people Cook encountered were "a tribe of Indians" in St. George's Bay. Cook made no mention of having erected any cairns. If he had indeed gone to the considerable trouble of building two beacons big enough to be visible well to seaward, on top of a mountain seven airline miles from the shore (ten miles overland), surely he would have mentioned the fact. Although the first modern Europeans to settle at St. George's Bay, c. 1830, may have attributed the beacons to Cook. I could find no grounds for sharing that assumption." (d) page 427..."Ellis Parsons, eighty years of age, remembered working on the tower in 1953. He recalled that the remaining beacon stood eight or nine feet tall and had a circumference of at least ten feet. However, during the next few years it too was dismanteled to provide additional ballast. By the late 1950's both beacons had been reduced to the rubble heaps Len (Len Muise) and his cousin had used as forts." lghr notes: Some of us have seen historical records of early visits to NL by Sir Francis Russell Drake, Sir Bernard Drake and other British Admiralty mariners long before the famous Capt. Cook abt. 1760. Prior to Cook's time mariners were obsessed with finding a more reliable method for establishing one's longitude position on the high seas, when visibility was poor. I seem to recall that Capt. Cook was one of the persons intimately involved with this breakthrough in technology. Perhaps some of his notes about his efforts on the coast of NL was not for public knowledge at that time. Others have written about the 'secret voyage' of Sir Frances Drake to the Pacific Coast some 200 years before Cook arrived here. Just yesterday I listened to a voice, taped in 1977, of a Mr. Dawe who was born October 1885. He talked about his great grandparents who were perhaps born before 1799. Question: What is the measured distance 'as the plane flies in a straight line' between Cape Francis and Cape Bonavista? ===== A three year hobby of researching Surnames (and variations) /ancestors, recorded in BNA before 1835.....*Batten *Beauchamp, *Beecham, *Bishop, Bucham, Buchan, Buchanan, Churchill, *Dawe, Fitzpatrick, *French, **Lamb, **Russell, *Roswell, Rowell, *Rousell, Snow, *Sparks, Tucker In-law surnames of interest include Earle, **Babcock, etc. (*Timeline Docs. on file for these surnames and a history of Bay Roberts CB and St. Mary's PB. All subject related comments, contributions and questions are welcome. **Maritime L o y a l i s t surnames.) __________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? The New Yahoo! Shopping - with improved product search http://shopping.yahoo.com