Note 438 — NEW ENGLISH CANAAN OR NEW CANAAN. (continued 2)

The two brothers, William and Emery de Caen, became prominent in the history of Canadian settlement in 1621, and remained so for a number of years. They did not, however, plant a colony of French in America, nor was the name of Canada, or of its famous river, derived from their name. On this point see Parkman’s Pioneers of France, pp. 184, note, and 391-5. Morton’s derivation of the name Canada is entitled to much the same weight as his derivation of the names Pantucket and Mattapan. (Supra, 124.) It was not, however, peculiar to him as, forty years later, Josselyn also speaks (Rarities, p. 5) of “the River Canada, (so called from Monsieur Cane).”