Then the ships sailed on rejoicing from the Island of Birds with six barrels full of salted provisions added to their stores.
Cartier's Island of Birds is the Funk Island of our present maps.
The ships now headed west and north to come into touch with land again.
To the great surprise of the company they presently met a huge polar bear swimming in the open sea, and evidently heading for the tempting shores of the Island of Birds.

The bear was 'as great as any cow and as white as a swan.' The sailors lowered boats in pursuit, and captured 'by main force' the bear, which supplied a noble supper for the captors.

'Its flesh,' wrote Cartier, 'was as good to eat as any heifer of two years.' The explorers sailed on westward, changing their course gradually to the north to follow the broad curve of the Atlantic coast of Newfoundland.

Jutting headlands and outlying capes must have alternately appeared and disappeared on the western horizon.

May 24, found the navigators off the entrance of Belle Isle.