Finally bought your book. Nice intro, I like the way you start Chapter 2; "Mining is a tough business.....Only one in thirty geologists will find an ore body in his lifetime." I question this statement; "Only one in 10,000 exploration companies will find and bring a mine into production." .....but maybe it's accurate and anyway a little prosaic license is in order. But then I get to page 23;
"In fact, the name "Canada" probably derives from two Spanish words, aca nada, or "here nothing". Conquistadores who explored Canada after conquering M‚xico would leave the message behind carved on trees so that their compadres would not waste their time reexploring a territory where there was nada, or nothing.
Aca nada my ass. Whoever thought this up was unaware of a few points;
1. De Soto never got that far north, he made it to Nebraska, but that's about it, he swung east from there and may or may not have seen the Appalachians. Coronado never left the Prairies. If there was a conquistador presence in what is now Canada, it will come as a great surprise to historians.
2. It is commonly agreed that the name "Canada" derives from the Huron-Algonquin kanata, meaning a village or settlement. On 13 Aug 1535, as Jacques Cartier was nearing Anticosti Island, two Indian youths he was bringing back from France informed him that the route to Canada ("chemin de Canada") lay to the south of the island. By Canada they meant the village of Stadacona, on the future site of Qu‚bec City. Cartier used the word in that sense, but it was soon applied to a much larger region. [source--Mel Hurtig's Can. Encyclopaedia]
3. The word "Canada" is spelled in Spanisch Canad , as we pronounce it Cah-nah-DAH, with the accent on the last syllable. This, imho, clearly shows that the word entered the language from the French language, and was not derived from a combination of words within the language. The accent marks in Spanisch are mostly used to reconcile foreign words to the very regular and simple rules of pronunciation. If De Soto had invented the word, it would be pronounced Cah-NAH-dah.
I can see how this fits in with where you're going so far, but hey.......you can't just make stuff up. That would make it fiction....or promotion....<g>
I'll try page 24 now ............ cheers ........ marcos
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