Below is an excerpt from a collection of letters written in the early nineteenth century by Hugh Gray and published in London in 1809.

LETTER IV
River St. Lawrence, off Cape Chat,
Thirty-eight leagues from Anticosti, May, 1806.

We have been beating up against a contrary wind since yesterday, and have, in tacking, had an opportunity of approaching both sides of this immense river. The appearance of the country is very different from any thing you can see in Europe. The whole, to the very edge of the water, is one continued forest. The trees, however, appearing scraggy and dwarfish, present a most desert and melancholy aspect, without the least appearance of the country being thr residence of human beings.

Probably it looks pretty much the same now that it did to Jacques Cartier, when, in the year 1535, he sailed up the river St. Lawrence, and discovered Canada. The river has its name from his having entered it on St. Lawrence’s day. The etymology of the word Canada, or why the country received this name, are equally unknown. I have heard a definition, which is more whimsical, perhaps, than true. It is said that the Spaniards had visited the country before the French did; but finding it very barren, and without gold, the grand object of their pursuit, they frequently, on the eve of their departure, mentioned in the presence of the Indians, "aca nada," signifying, here is nothing. When the French visited the country, the Indians, in hopes of getting rid of them, and supposing them Spaniards, repeated frequently aca nada, which the French, not understanding, thought, might be the name of the country; hence they called it Canada. You may take this definition till you can find a better.