Title: Voyages of Samuel De Champlain — Volume 01
Author: Samuel de Champlain
Translator: Charles P. Otis
Release date: October 1, 2004 [eBook #6653]
Most recently updated: February 3, 2016
Language: English
Credits: Produced by Karl Hagen, Juliet Sutherland, Charles Franks, and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team, from images generously made available by the Canadian Institute for Historical Microreproductions
Produced by Karl Hagen, Juliet Sutherland, Charles Franks,
and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team, from images generously made available by the Canadian Institute for Historical Microreproductions.
Transcriber's Notes:
The footnotes in the main portion of the original text, which are lengthy and numerous, have been converted to endnotes that appear at the end of each chapter. Their numeration is the same as in the original.
The original spelling remains unaltered, with the following exceptions:
1. This text was originally printed with tall-s. They have been replaced here with ordinary 's.'
2. Some quotations from the 17th-century French reproduce manuscript abbreviation marks (macrons over vowels). These represent 'n' or 'm' and have been expanded.
3. In the transcription of some words of the Algonquian languages, the original text of this edition uses a character that resembles an infinity sign. This is taken from the old system that the Jesuits used to record these languages, and represents a long, nasalized, unrounded 'o.' It is here represented with an '8.'
[Illustration: Champlain (Samuel De) d'après un portrait gravé par
Moncornet]
By CHARLES POMEROY OTIS, Ph.D.
WITH HISTORICAL ILLUSTRATIONS, and a MEMOIR
By the REV. EDMUND F. SLAFTER, A.M.
Editor: The REV EDMUND F SLAFTER, A.M.
The labors and achievements of the navigators and explorers, who visited our coasts between the last years of the fifteenth and the early years of the seventeenth centuries, were naturally enough not fully appreciated by their contemporaries, nor were their relations to the future growth of European interests and races on this continent comprehended in the age in which they lived. Numberless events in which they were actors, and personal characteristics which might have illustrated and enriched their history, were therefore never placed upon record. In intimate connection with the career of Cabot, Cartier, Roberval, Ribaut, Laudonnière, Gosnold, Pring, and Smith, there were vast domains of personal incident and interesting fact over which the waves of oblivion have passed forever. Nor has Champlain been more fortunate than the rest. In studying his life and character, we are constantly finding ourselves longing to know much where we are permitted to know but little. His early years, the processes of his education, his home virtues, his filial affection and duty, his social and domestic habits and mode of life, we know imperfectly; gathering only a few rays of light here and there in numerous directions, as we follow him along his lengthened career. The reader will therefore fail to find very much that he might well desire to know, and that I should have been but too happy to embody in this work. In the positive absence of knowledge, this want could only be supplied from the field of pure imagination. To draw from this source would have been alien both to my judgment and to my taste.
But the essential and important events of Champlain's public career are happily embalmed in imperishable records. To gather these up and weave them into an impartial and truthful narrative has been the simple purpose of my present attempt. If I have succeeded in marshalling the authentic deeds and purposes of his life into a complete whole, giving to each undertaking and event its true value and importance, so that the historian may more easily comprehend the fulness of that life which Champlain consecrated to the progress of geographical knowledge, to the aggrandizement of France, and to the dissemination of the Christian faith in the church of which he was a member, I shall feel that my aim has been fully achieved.
The annotations which accompany Dr. Otis's faithful and scholarly translation are intended to give to the reader such information as he may need for a full understanding of the text, and which he could not otherwise obtain without the inconvenience of troublesome, and, in many instances, of difficult and perplexing investigations. The sources of my information are so fully given in connection with the notes that no further reference to them in this place is required.
In the progress of the work, I have found myself under great obligations to numerous friends for the loan of rare books, and for valuable suggestions and assistance. The readiness with which historical scholars and the custodians of our great depositories of learning have responded to my inquiries, and the cordiality and courtesy with which they have uniformly proffered their assistance, have awakened my deepest gratitude. I take this opportunity to tender my cordial thanks to those who have thus obliged and aided me. And, while I cannot spread the names of all upon these pages, I hasten to mention, first of all, my friend, Dr. Otis, with whom I have been so closely associated, and whose courteous manner and kindly suggestions have rendered my task always an agreeable one. I desire, likewise, to mention Mr. George Lamb, of Boston, who has gratuitously executed and contributed a map, illustrating the explorations of Champlain; Mr. Justin Winsor, of the Library of Harvard College; Mr. Charles A. Cutter, of the Boston Athenaeum; Mr. John Ward Dean, of the Library of the New England Historic Genealogical Society; Mrs. John Carter Brown, of Providence, R. I.; Miss S. E. Dorr, of Boston; Monsieur L. Delisle, Directeur Général de la Bibliothèque Nationale, of Paris; M. Meschinet De Richemond, Archiviste de la Charente Inférieure, La Rochelle, France; the Hon. Charles H. Bell, of Exeter, N. H.; Francis Parkman, LL.D., of Boston; the Abbé H. R. Casgrain, of Rivière Ouelle, Canada; John G. Shea, LL.D., of New York; Mr. James M. LeMoine, of Quebec; and Mr. George Prince, of Bath, Maine.
I take this occasion to state for the information of the members of the Prince Society, that some important facts contained in the Memoir had not been received when the text and notes of the second volume were ready for the press, and, to prevent any delay in the completion of the whole work, Vol. II. was issued before Vol. I., as will appear by the dates on their respective title-pages.
BOSTON, 14 ARLINGTON STREET, November 10, 1880.
ENGRAVED PORTRAIT OF CHAMPLAIN ON WOOD, AFTER THE ENGRAVING OF
MONCORNET BY E. RONJAT, heliotype.
MAP ILLUSTRATING THE EXPLORATIONS OF CHAMPLAIN, heliotype.
ENGRAVED PORTRAIT OF CHAMPLAIN, AFTER A PAINTING BY TH. HAMEL FROM AN
ENGRAVING OF MONCORNET, steel.
ILLUMINATED TITLE-PAGE OF THE VOYAGE OF 1615 ET 1618, heliotype.
CARTE DE LA NOVVELLE FRANCE, 1632, heliotype.
Champlain was descended from an ancestry whose names are not recorded among the renowned families of France. He was the son of Antoine de Champlain, a captain in the marine, and his wife Marguerite LeRoy. They lived in the little village of Brouage, in the ancient province of Saintonge. Of their son Samuel, no contemporaneous record is known to exist indicating either the day or year of his birth. The period at which we find him engaged in active and responsible duties, such as are usually assigned to mature manhood, leads to the conjecture that he was born about the year 1567. Of his youth little is known. The forces that contributed to the formation of his character are mostly to be inferred from the abode of his early years, the occupations of those by whom he was surrounded, and the temper and spirit of the times in which he lived.
Brouage is situated in a low, marshy region, on the southern bank of an inlet or arm of the sea, on the southwestern shores of France, opposite to that part of the Island of Oleron where it is separated from the mainland only by a narrow channel. Although this little town can boast a great antiquity, it never at any time had a large population. It is mentioned by local historians as early as the middle of the eleventh century. It was a seigniory of the family of Pons. The village was founded by Jacques de Pons, after whose proper name it was for a time called Jacopolis, but soon resumed its ancient appellation of Brouage.
An old chronicler of the sixteenth century informs us that in his time it was a port of great importance, and the theatre of a large foreign commerce. Its harbor, capable of receiving large ships, was excellent, regarded, indeed, as the finest in the kingdom of France. [1] It was a favorite idea of Charles VIII. to have at all times several war-ships in this harbor, ready against any sudden invasion of this part of the coast.
At the period of Champlain's boyhood, the village of Brouage had two absorbing interests. First, it had then recently become a military post of importance; and second, it was the centre of a large manufacture of salt. To these two interests, the whole population gave their thoughts, their energy, and their enterprise.
In the reign of Charles IX., a short time before or perhaps a little after the birth of Champlain, the town was fortified, and distinguished Italian engineers were employed to design and execute the work. [2] To prevent a sudden attack, it was surrounded by a capacious moat. At the four angles formed by the moat were elevated structures of earth and wood planted upon piles, with bastions and projecting angles, and the usual devices of military architecture for the attainment of strength and facility of defence. [3]
During the civil wars, stretching over nearly forty years of the last half of the sixteenth century, with only brief and fitful periods of peace, this little fortified town was a post ardently coveted by both of the contending parties. Situated on the same coast, and only a few miles from Rochelle, the stronghold of the Huguenots, it was obviously exceedingly important to them that it should be in their possession, both as the key to the commerce of the surrounding country and from the very great annoyance which an enemy holding it could offer to them in numberless ways. Notwithstanding its strong defences, it was nevertheless taken and retaken several times during the struggles of that period. It was surrendered to the Huguenots in 1570, but was immediately restored on the peace that presently followed. The king of Navarre [4] took it by strategy in 1576, placed a strong garrison in it, repaired and strengthened its fortifications; but the next year it was forced to surrender to the royal army commanded by the duke of Mayenne. [5] In 1585, the Huguenots made another attempt to gain possession of the town. The Prince of Condé encamped with a strong force on the road leading to Marennes, the only avenue to Brouage by land, while the inhabitants of Rochelle co-operated by sending down a fleet which completely blocked up the harbor. [6] While the siege was in successful progress, the prince unwisely drew off a part of his command for the relief of the castle of Angiers; [7] and a month later the siege was abandoned and the Huguenot forces were badly cut to pieces by de Saint Luc, [8] the military governor of Brouage, who pursued them in their retreat.
The next year, 1586, the town was again threatened by the Prince of Condé, who, having collected another army, was met by De Saint Luc near the island of Oleron, who sallied forth from Brouage with a strong force; and a conflict ensued, lasting the whole day, with equal loss on both sides, but with no decisive results.
Thus until 1589, when the King of Navarre, the leader of the Huguenots, entered into a truce with Henry III., from Champlain's birth through the whole period of his youth and until he entered upon his manhood, the little town within whose walls he was reared was the fitful scene of war and peace, of alarm and conflict.
But in the intervals, when the waves of civil strife settled into the calm of a temporary peace, the citizens returned with alacrity to their usual employment, the manufacture of salt, which was the absorbing article of commerce in their port.
This manufacture was carried on more extensively in Saintonge than in any other part of France. The salt was obtained by subjecting water drawn from the ocean to solar evaporation. The low marsh-lands which were very extensive about Brouage, on the south towards Marennes and on the north towards Rochefort, were eminently adapted to this purpose. The whole of this vast region was cut up into salt basins, generally in the form of parallelograms, excavated at different depths, the earth and rubbish scooped out and thrown on the sides, forming a platform or path leading from basin to basin, the whole presenting to the eye the appearance of a vast chess-board. The argillaceous earth at the bottom of the pans was made hard to prevent the escape of the water by percolation. This was done in the larger ones by leading horses over the surface, until, says an old chronicler, the basins "would hold water as if they were brass." The water was introduced from the sea, through sluices and sieves of pierced planks, passing over broad surfaces in shallow currents, furnishing an opportunity for evaporation from the moment it left the ocean until it found its way into the numerous salt-basins covering the whole expanse of the marshy plains. The water once in the basins, the process of evaporation was carried on by the sun and the wind, assisted by the workmen, who agitated the water to hasten the process. The first formation of salt was on the surface, having a white, creamy appearance, exhaling an agreeable perfume, resembling that of violets. This was the finest and most delicate salt, while that precipitated, or falling to the bottom of the basin, was of a darker hue.
When the crystallization was completed, the salt was gathered up, drained, and piled in conical heaps on the platforms or paths along the sides of the basins. At the height of the season, which began in May and ended in September, when the whole marsh region was covered with countless white cones of salt, it presented an interesting picture, not unlike the tented camp of a vast army.
The salt was carried from the marshes on pack-horses, equipped each with a white canvas bag, led by boys either to the quay, where large vessels were lying, or to small barques which could be brought at high tide, by natural or artificial inlets, into the very heart of the marsh-fields.
When the period for removing the salt came, no time was to be lost, as a sudden fall of rain might destroy in an hour the products of a month. A small quantity only could be transported at a time, and consequently great numbers of animals were employed, which were made to hasten over the sinuous and angulated paths at their highest speed. On reaching the ships, the burden was taken by men stationed for the purpose, the boys mounted in haste, and galloped back for another.
The scene presented in the labyrinth of an extensive salt-marsh was lively and entertaining. The picturesque dress of the workmen, with their clean white frocks and linen tights; the horses in great numbers mantled in their showy salt-bags, winding their way on the narrow platforms, moving in all directions, turning now to the right hand and now to the left, doubling almost numberless angles, here advancing and again retreating, often going two leagues to make the distance of one, maintaining order in apparent confusion, altogether presented to the distant observer the aspect of a grand equestrian masquerade.
The extent of the works and the labor and capital invested in them were doubtless large for that period. A contemporary of Champlain informs us that the wood employed in the construction of the works, in the form of gigantic sluices, bridges, beam-partitions, and sieves, was so vast in quantity that, if it were destroyed, the forests of Guienne would not suffice to replace it. He also adds that no one who had seen the salt works of Saintonge would estimate the expense of forming them less than that of building the city of Paris itself.
The port of Brouage was the busy mart from which the salt of Saintonge was distributed not only along the coast of France, but in London and Antwerp, and we know not what other markets on the continent of Europe. [9]
The early years of Champlain were of necessity intimately associated with the stirring scenes thus presented in this prosperous little seaport. As we know that he was a careful observer, endowed by nature with an active temperament and an unusual degree of practical sense we are sure that no event escaped his attention, and that no mystery was permitted to go unsolved. The military and commercial enterprise of the place brought him into daily contact with men of the highest character in their departments. The salt-factors of Brouage were persons of experience and activity, who knew their business, its methods, and the markets at home and abroad. The fortress was commanded by distinguished officers of the French army, and was a rendezvous of the young nobility; like other similar places, a training-school for military command. In this association, whether near or remote, young Champlain, with his eagle eye and quick ear, was receiving lessons and influences which were daily shaping his unfolding capacities, and gradually compacting and crystallizing them into the firmness and strength of character which he so largely displayed in after years. His education, such as it was, was of course obtained during this period. He has himself given us no intimation of its character or extent. A careful examination of his numerous writings will, however, render it obvious that it was limited and rudimentary, scarcely extending beyond the fundamental branches which were then regarded as necessary in the ordinary transactions of business. As the result of instruction or association with educated men, he attained to a good general knowledge of the French language, but was never nicely accurate or eminently skilful in its use. He evidently gave some attention in his early years to the study and practice of drawing. While the specimens of his work that have come down to us are marked by grave defects, he appears nevertheless to have acquired facility and some skill in the art, which he made exceedingly useful in the illustration of his discoveries in the new world.
During Champlain's youth and the earlier years of his manhood, he appears to have been engaged in practical navigation. In his address to the Queen [10] he says, "this is the art which in my early years won my love, and has induced me to expose myself almost all my life to the impetuous waves of the ocean." That he began the practice of navigation at an early period may likewise be inferred from the fact that in 1599 he was put in command of a large French ship of 500 tons, which had been chartered by the Spanish authorities for a voyage to the West Indies, of which we shall speak more particularly in the sequel. It is obvious that he could not have been intrusted with a command so difficult and of so great responsibility without practical experience in navigation; and, as it will appear hereafter that he was in the army several years during the civil war, probably from 1592 to 1598, his experience in navigation must have been obtained anterior to that, in the years of his youth and early manhood.
Brouage offered an excellent opportunity for such an employment. Its port was open to the commerce of foreign nations, and a large number of vessels, as we have already seen, was employed in the yearly distribution of the salt of Saintonge, not only in the seaport towns of France, but in England and on the Continent. In these coasting expeditions, Champlain was acquiring skill in navigation which was to be of very great service to him in his future career, and likewise gathering up rich stores of experience, coming in contact with a great variety of men, observing their manners and customs, and quickening and strengthening his natural taste for travel and adventure. It is not unlikely that he was, at least during some of these years, employed in the national marine, which was fully employed in guarding the coast against foreign invasion, and in restraining the power of the Huguenots, who were firmly seated at Rochelle with a sufficient naval force to give annoyance to their enemies along the whole western coast of France.
In 1592, or soon after that date, Champlain was appointed quarter-master in the royal army in Brittany, discharging the office several years, until, by the peace of Vervins, in 1598, the authority of Henry IV. was firmly established throughout the kingdom. This war in Brittany constituted the closing scene of that mighty struggle which had been agitating the nation, wasting its resources and its best blood for more than half a century. It began in its incipient stages as far back as a decade following 1530, when the preaching of Calvin in the Kingdom of Navarre began to make known his transcendent power. The new faith, which was making rapid strides in other countries, easily awakened the warm heart and active temperament of the French. The principle of private judgment which lies at the foundation of Protestant teaching, its spontaneity as opposed to a faith imposed by authority, commended it especially to the learned and thoughtful, while the same principle awakened the quick and impulsive nature of the masses. The effort to put down the movement by the extermination of those engaged in it, proved not only unsuccessful, but recoiled, as usual in such cases, upon the hand that struck the blow. Confiscations, imprisonments, and the stake daily increased the number of those which these severe measures were intended to diminish. It was impossible to mark its progress. When at intervals all was calm and placid on the surface, at the same time, down beneath, where the eye of the detective could not penetrate, in the closet of the scholar and at the fireside of the artisan and the peasant, the new gospel, silently and without observation, was spreading like an all-pervading leaven. [11]
In 1562, the repressed forces of the Huguenots could no longer be restrained, and, bursting forth, assumed the form of organized civil war. With the exception of temporary lulls, originating in policy or exhaustion, there was no cessation of arms until 1598. Although it is usually and perhaps best described as a religious war, the struggle was not altogether between the Catholic and the Huguenot or Protestant. There were many other elements that came in to give their coloring to the contest, and especially to determine the course and policy of individuals.
The ultra-Catholic desired to maintain the old faith with all its ancient prestige and power, and to crush out and exclude every other. With this party were found the court, certain ambitious and powerful families, and nearly all the officials of the church. In close alliance with it were the Roman Pontiff, the King of Spain, and the Catholic princes of Germany.
The Huguenots desired what is commonly known as liberty of conscience; or, in other words, freedom to worship God according to their own views of the truth, without interference or restriction. And in close alliance with them were the Queen of England and the Protestant princes of Germany.
Personal motives, irrespective of principle, united many persons and families with either of these great parties which seemed most likely to subserve their private ambitions. The feudal system was nearly extinct in form, but its spirit was still alive. The nobles who had long held sway in some of the provinces of France desired to hold them as distinct and separate governments, and to transmit them as an inheritance to their children. This motive often determined their political association.
During the most of the period of this long civil war, Catherine de Médicis [12] was either regent or in the exercise of a controlling influence in the government of France. She was a woman of commanding person and extraordinary ability, skilful in intrigue, without conscience and without personal religion. She hesitated at no crime, however black, if through it she could attain the objects of her ambition. Neither of her three sons, Francis, Charles, and Henry, who came successively to the throne, left any legal heir to succeed him. The succession became, therefore, at an early period, a question of great interest. If not the potent cause, it was nevertheless intimately connected with most of the bloodshed of that bloody period.
A solemn league was entered into by a large number of the ultra-Catholic nobles to secure two avowed objects, the succession of a Catholic prince to the throne, and the utter extermination of the Huguenots. Henry, King of Navarre, afterwards Henry IV. of France, admitted to be the legal heir to the throne, was a Protestant, and therefore by the decree of the League disqualified to succeed. Around his standard, the Huguenots rallied in great numbers. With him were associated the princes of Condé, of royal blood, and many other distinguished nobles. They contended for the double purpose of securing the throne to its rightful heir and of emancipating and establishing the Protestant faith.
But there was another class, acting indeed with one or the other of these two great parties, nevertheless influenced by very different motives. It was composed of moderate Catholics, who cared little for the political schemes and civil power of the Roman Pontiff, who dreaded the encroachments of the King of Spain, who were firmly patriotic and desired the aggrandizement and glory of France.
The ultra-Catholic party was, for a long period, by far the most numerous and the more powerful; but the Huguenots were sufficiently strong to keep up the struggle with varying success for nearly forty years.
After the alliance of Henry of Navarre with Henry III. against the League, the moderate Catholics and the Huguenots were united and fought together under the royal standard until the close of the war in 1598.
Champlain was personally engaged in the war in Brittany for several years. This province on the western coast of France, constituting a tongue of land jutting out as it were into the sea, isolated and remote from the great centres of the war, was among the last to surrender to the arms of Henry IV. The Huguenots had made but little progress within its borders. The Duke de Mercoeur [13] had been its governor for sixteen years, and had bent all his energies to separate it from France, organize it into a distinct kingdom, and transmit its sceptre to his own family.
Champlain informs us that he was quarter-master in the army of the king under Marshal d'Aumont, de Saint Luc, and Marshal de Brissac, distinguished officers of the French army, who had been successively in command in that province for the purpose of reducing it into obedience to Henry IV.
Marshal d'Aumont [14] took command of the army in Brittany in 1592. He was then seventy years of age, an able and patriotic officer, a moderate Catholic, and an uncompromising foe of the League. He had expressed his sympathy for Henry IV. a long time before the death of Henry III., and when that event occurred he immediately espoused the cause of the new monarch, and was at once appointed to the command of one of the three great divisions of the French army. He received a wound at the siege of the Château de Camper, in Brittany, of which he died on the 19th of August, 1595.
De Saint Luc, already in the service in Brittany, as lieutenant-general under D'Aumont, continued, after the death of that officer, in sole command. [15] He raised the siege of the Château de Camper after the death of his superior, and proceeded to capture several other posts, marching through the lower part of the province, repressing the license of the soldiery, and introducing order and discipline. On the 5th of September, 1596, he was appointed grand-master of the artillery of France, which terminated his special service in Brittany.
The king immediately appointed in his place Marshal de Brissac, [16] an officer of broad experience, who added other great qualities to those of an able soldier. No distinguished battles signalized the remaining months of the civil war in this province. The exhausted resources and faltering courage of the people could no longer be sustained by the flatteries or promises of the Duke de Mercoeur. Wherever the squadrons of the marshal made their appearance the flag of truce was raised, and town, city, and fortress vied with each other in their haste to bring their ensigns and lay them at his feet.
On the seventh of June, 1598, the peace of Vervins was published in Paris, and the kingdom of France was a unit, with the general satisfaction of all parties, under the able, wise, and catholic sovereign, Henry the Fourth. [17]
1. The following from Marshal de Montluc refers to Brouage in 1568.
Speaking of the Huguenots he says:—"Or ils n'en pouvoient choisir un
plus à leur advantage, que celui de la Rochelle, duquel dépend celui de
Brouage, qui est le plus beau port de mer de la France." Commentaires,
Paris, 1760, Tom. III., p. 340.
2. "La Riviere Puitaillé qui en étoit Gouverneur, fut chargé de faire
travailler aux fortifications. Belarmat, Bephano, Castritio d'Urbin, &
le Cavalier Orlogio, tous Ingénieurs Italiens, présiderent aux
travaux."—Histoire La Rochelle, par Arcere, à la Rochelle, 1756, Tom.
I., p. 121.
3. Histioire de la Saintonge et de l'Aunis, 1152-1548, par M. D. Massion,
Paris. 1838, Vol. II., p. 406.
4. The King of Navarre "sent for Monsieur de Mirabeau under colour of
treating with him concerning other businesses, and forced him to deliver
up Brouage into his hands, a Fort of great importance, as well for that
it lies upon the Coast of the Ocean-sea, as because it abounds with such
store of salt-pits, which yeeld a great and constant revenue; he made
the Sieur de Montaut Governour, and put into it a strong Garrison of his
dependents, furnishing it with ammunition, and fortifying it with
exceeding diligence."—His. Civ. Warres of France, by Henrico Caterino
Davila, London, 1647, p. 455.
5. "The Duke of Mayenne, having without difficulty taken Thone-Charente,
and Marans, had laid siege to Brouage, a place, for situation, strength,
and the profit of the salt-pits, of very great importance; when the
Prince of Condé, having tryed all possible means to relieve the
besieged, the Hugonots after some difficulty were brought into such a
condition, that about the end of August they delivered it up, saving
only the lives of the Souldiers and inhabitants, which agreement the
Duke punctually observed."—His. Civ. Warres, by Davila, London, 1647,
p. 472. See also Memoirs of Sully, Phila., 1817, Vol. I., p. 69.
"Le Jeudi XXVIII Mars. Fut tenu Conseil au Cabinet de la Royne mère du Roy [pour] aviser ce que M. du Maine avoit à faire, & j'ai mis en avant l'enterprise de Brouage."—Journal de Henri III., Paris, 1744, Tom. III., p. 220.
6. "The Prince of Condé resolved to besiege Brouage, wherein was the Sieur de St. Luc, one of the League, with no contemptible number of infantry and some other gentlemen of the Country. The Rochellers consented to this Enterprise, both for their profit, and reputation which redounded by it; and having sent a great many Ships thither, besieged the Fortress by Sea, whilst the Prince having possessed that passage which is the only way to Brouage by land, and having shut up the Defendants within the circuit of their walls, straightned the Siege very closely on that side."—Davila, p. 582. See also, Histoire de Thou, à Londres, 1734, Tom. IX., p. 383.
The blocking up the harbor at this time appears to have been more effective than convenient. Twenty boats or rafts filled with earth and stone were sunk with a purpose of destroying the harbor. De Saint Luc, the governor, succeeded in removing only four or five. The entrance for vessels afterward remained difficult except at high tide. Subsequently Cardinal de Richelieu expended a hundred thousand francs to remove the rest, but did not succeed in removing one of them.—Vide Histoire de La Rochelle, par Arcere, Tom I. p. 121.
7. The Prince of Condé. "Leaving Monsieur de St. Mesmes with the Infantry and Artillery at the Siege of Brouage, and giving order that the Fleet should continue to block it up by sea, he departed upon the eight of October to relieve the Castle of Angiers with 800 Gentlemen and 1400 Harquebuziers on horseback."—Davila, p. 583. See also Memoirs of Sully, Phila., 1817, Vol. I., p 123; Histoire de Thou, à Londres, 1734, Tom. IX, p. 385.
8. "St. Luc sallying out of Brouage, and following those that were scattered severall wayes, made a great slaughter of them in many places; whereupon the Commander, despairing to rally the Army any more, got away as well as they could possibly, to secure their own strong holds."— His. Civ. Warres of France, by Henrico Caterino Davila, London, 1647, p 588.
9. An old writer gives us some idea of the vast quantities of salt exported from France by the amount sent to a single country.
"Important denique sexies mille vel circiter centenarios salis, quorum singuli constant centenis modiis, ducentenas ut minimum & vicenas quinas, vel & tricenas, pro salis ipsius candore puritateque, libras pondo pendentibus, sena igitur libras centenariorum millia, computatis in singulos aureis nummis tricenis, centum & octoginta reserunt aureorum millia."—Belguae Descrtptio, a Lud. Gvicciardino, Amstelodami, 1652, p. 244.
TRANSLATION.—They import in fine 6000 centenarii of salt, each one of which contains 100 bushels, weighing at least 225 or 230 pounds, according to the purity and whiteness of the salt; therefore six thousand centenarii, computing each at thirty golden nummi, amount to 180,000 aurei.
It may not be easy to determine the value of this importation in money, since the value of gold is constantly changing, but the quantity imported may be readily determined, which was according to the above statement, 67,500 tons.
A treaty of April 30, 1527, between Francis I. of France and Henry VIII. of England, provided as follows:—"And, besides, should furnish unto the said Henry, as long as hee lived, yearly, of the Salt of Brouage, the value of fifteene thousand Crownes."—Life and Raigne of Henry VIII., by Lord Herbert of Cherbury, London, 1649, p. 206.
Saintonge continued for a long time to be the source of large exports of salt. De Witt, writing about the year 1658, says they received in Holland of "salt, yearly, the lading of 500 or 600 ships, exported from Rochel, Maran, Brouage, the Island of Oleron, and Ree."—Republick of Holland, by John De Witt, London, 1702, p. 271. But it no longer holds the pre-eminence which it did three centuries ago. Saintonge long since yielded the palm to Brittany.
10. Vide Oeuvres de Champlain, Quebec ed, Tom. III. p. v.
11. In 1558, it was estimated that there were already 400,000 persons in France who were declared adherents of the Reformation.—Ranke's Civil Wars in France, Vol. I., p. 234.
"Although our assemblies were most frequently held in the depth of midnight, and our enemies very often heard us passing through the street, yet so it was, that God bridled them in such manner that we were preserved under His protection."—Bernard Palissy, 1580. Vide Morlay's Life of Palissy, Vol. II., p. 274.
When Henry IV. besieged Paris, its population was more than 200,000.— Malte-Brun.
12. "Catherine de Médicis was of a large and, at the same time, firm and powerful figure, her countenance had an olive tint, and her prominent eyes and curled lip reminded the spectator of her great uncle, Leo X" —Civil Wars in France, by Leopold Ranke, London, 1852, p 28.
13. Philippe Emanuel de Lorraine, Duc de Mercoeur, born at Nomény, September 9, 1558, was the son of Nicolas, Count de Vaudemont, by his second wife, Jeanne de Savoy, and was half-brother of Queen Louise, the wife of Henry III. He was made governor of Brittany in 1582. He embraced the party of the League before the death of Henry III., entered into an alliance with Philip II., and gave the Spaniards possession of the port of Blavet in 1591. He made his submission to Henry IV. in 1598, on which occasion his only daughter Françoise, probably the richest heiress in the kingdom, was contracted in marriage to César, Duc de Vendôme, the illegitimate son of Henry IV. by Gabrielle d'Estrées, the Duchess de Beaufort. The Duc de Mercoeur died at Nuremburg, February 19, 1602.—Vide Birch's Memoirs of Queen Elizabeth, Vol. I., p. 82; Davila's His. Civil Warres of France, p. 1476.
14. Jean d'Aumont, born in 1522, a Marshal of France who served under six kings, Francis I., Henry II., Francis II., Charles IX., Henry III., and Henry IV. He distinguished himself at the battles of Dreux, Saint-Denis, Montcontour, and in the famous siege of Rochelle in 1573. After the death of Henry III., he was the first to recognize Henry IV., whom he served with the same zeal as he had his five predecessors. He took part in the brilliant battle of Arques in 1589. In the following year, he so distinguished himself at Ivry that Henry IV., inviting him to sup with him after this memorable battle, addressed to him these flattering words, "Il est juste que vous soyez du festin, après m'avoir si bien servi à mes noces." At the siege of the Château de Camper, in Upper Brittany, he received a musket shot which fractured his arm, and died of the wound on the 19th of August, 1595, at the age of seventy-three years. "Ce grand capitaine qui avoit si bien mérité du Roi et de la nation, emporta dans le tombeau les regrets des Officiers & des soldats, qui pleurerent amérement la perte de leur Général. La Bretagne qui le regardoit comme son père, le Roi, tout le Royaume enfin, furent extrêmement touchez de sa mort. Malgré la haine mutuelle des factions qui divisoient la France, il étoit si estimé dans les deux partis, que s'il se fût agi de trouver un chevalier François sans reproche, tel que nos peres en ont autrefois eu, tout le monde auroit jette les yeux sur d'Aumont."—Histoire Universelle de Jacque-Auguste de Thou, à Londres, 1734, Tom. XII., p. 446—Vide also, Larousse; Camden's His. Queen Elizabeth, London, 1675 pp 486,487, Memoirs of Sully, Philadelphia, 1817, pp. 122, 210; Oeuvres de Brantôme, Tom. IV., pp. 46-49; Histoire de Bretagne, par M. Daru, Paris, 1826, Vol. III. p. 319; Freer's His. Henry IV., Vol. II, p. 70.
15. François d'Espinay de Saint-Luc, sometimes called Le Brave Saint Luc, was born in 1554, and was killed at the battle of Amiens on the 8th of September, 1597. He was early appointed governor of Saintonge, and of the Fortress of Brouage, which he successfully defended in 1585 against the attack of the King of Navarre and the Prince de Condé. He assisted at the battle of Coutras in 1587. He served as a lieutenant-general in Brittany from 1592 to 1596. In 1594, he planned with Brissac, his brother-in-law, then governor of Paris for the League, for the surrender of Paris to Henry IV. For this he was offered the baton of a Marshal of France by the king, which he modestly declined, and begged that it might be given to Brissac. In 1578, through the influence or authority of Henry III., he married the heiress, Jeanne de Cosse-Brissac, sister of Charles de Cosse-Brissac, postea, a lady of no personal attractions, but of excellent understanding and character. —Vide Courcelle's Histoire Généalogique des Pairs de France, Vol. II.; Birch's Memoirs of Queen Elizabeth, Vol. I., pp. 163, 191; Freer's Henry III., p. 162; De Mezeray's His. France, 1683, p. 861.
16. Charles de Cosse-Brissac, a Marshal of France and governor of Angiers. He was a member of the League as early as 1585. He conceived the idea of making France a republic after the model of ancient Rome. He laid his views before the chief Leaguers but none of them approved his plan. He delivered up Paris, of which he was governor, to Henry IV. in 1594, for which he received the Marshal's baton. He died in 1621, at the siege of Saint Jean d'Angely.—Vide Davila, pp. 538, 584, 585; Sully, Philadelphia, 1817, V. 61. Vol. I., p. 420; Brantôme, Vol. III., p. 84; His. Collections, London, 1598, p. 35; De Thou, à Londres, 1724, Tome XII., p. 449.
17. "By the Articles of this Treaty the king was to restore the County of Charolois to the king of Spain, to be by him held of the Crown of France; who in exchange restor'd the towns of Calice, Ardres, Montbulin, Dourlens, la Capelle, and le Catelet in Picardy, and Blavet in Britanny: which Articles were Ratifi'd and Sign'd by his Majesty the eleventh of June [1598]; who in his gayety of humour, at so happy a conclusion, told the Duke of Espernon, That with one dash of his Pen he had done greater things, than he could of a long time have perform'd with the best Swords of his Kingdom."—Life of the Duke of Espernon, London, 1670, p. 203; Histoire du Roy Henry le Grand, par Préfixe, Paris, 1681, p. 243.
The service of Champlain as quarter-master in the war in Brittany commenced probably with the appointment of Marshal d'Aumont to the command of the army in 1592, and, if we are right in this conjecture, it covered a period of not far from six years. The activity of the army, and the difficulty of obtaining supplies in the general destitution of the province, imposed upon him constant and perplexing duty. But in the midst of his embarrassments he was gathering up valuable experience, not only relating to the conduct of war, but to the transactions of business under a great variety of forms. He was brought into close and intimate relations with men of character, standing, and influence. The knowledge, discipline, and self-control of which he was daily becoming master were unconsciously fitting him for a career, humble though it might seem in its several stages, but nevertheless noble and potent in its relations to other generations.
At the close of the war, the army which it had called into existence was disbanded, the soldiers departed to their homes, the office of quarter-master was of necessity vacated, and Champlain was left without employment.
Casting about for some new occupation, following his instinctive love of travel and adventure, he conceived the idea of attempting an exploration of the Spanish West Indies, with the purpose of bringing back a report that should be useful to France. But this was an enterprise not easy either to inaugurate or carry out. The colonial establishments of Spain were at that time hermetically sealed against all intercourse with foreign nations. Armed ships, like watch-dogs, were ever on the alert, and foreign merchantmen entered their ports only at the peril of confiscation. It was necessary for Spain to send out annually a fleet, under a convoy of ships of war, for the transportation of merchandise and supplies for the colonies, returning laden with cargoes of almost priceless value. Champlain, fertile in expedient, proposed to himself to visit Spain, and there form such acquaintances and obtain such influence as would secure to him in some way a passage to the Indies in this annual expedition.
The Spanish forces, allies of the League in the late war, had not yet departed from the coast of France. He hastened to the port of Blavet, [18] where they were about to embark, and learned to his surprise and gratification that several French ships had been chartered, and that his uncle, a distinguished French mariner, commonly known as the Provençal Cappitaine, had received orders from Marshal de Brissac to conduct the fleet, on which the garrison of Blavet was embarked, to Cadiz in Spain. Champlain easily arranged to accompany his uncle, who was in command of the "St. Julian," a strong, well-built ship of five hundred tons.
Having arrived at Cadiz, and the object of the voyage having been accomplished, the French ships were dismissed, with the exception of the "St. Julian," which was retained, with the Provincial Captain, who had accepted the office of pilot-general for that year, in the service of the King of Spain.
After lingering a month at Cadiz, they proceeded to St. Lucar de Barameda, where Champlain remained three months, agreeably occupied in making observations and drawings of both city and country, including a visit to Seville, some fifty miles in the interior.
In the mean time, the fleet for the annual visit to the West Indies, to which we have already alluded, was fitting out at Saint Lucar, and about to sail under the command of Don Francisco Colombo, who, attracted by the size and good sailing qualities of the "Saint Julian," chartered her for the voyage. The services of the pilot-general were required in another direction, and, with the approbation of Colombo, he gave the command of the "Saint Julian" to Champlain. Nothing could have been more gratifying than this appointment, which assured to Champlain a visit to the more important Spanish colonies under the most favorable circumstances.
He accordingly set sail with the fleet, which left Saint Lucar at the beginning of January, 1599.
Passing the Canaries, in two months and six days they sighted the little island of Deseada, [19] the vestibule of the great Caribbean archipelago, touched at Guadaloupe, wound their way among the group called the Virgins, turning to the south made for Margarita, [20] then famous for its pearl fisheries, and from thence sailed to St. Juan de Porto-rico. Here the fleet was divided into three squadrons. One was to go to Porto-bello, on the Isthmus of Panama, another to the coast of South America, then called Terra Firma, and the third to Mexico, then known as New Spain. This latter squadron, to which Champlain was attached, coasted along the northern shore of the island of Saint Domingo, otherwise Hispaniola, touching at Porto Platte, Mancenilla, Mosquitoes, Monte Christo, and Saint Nicholas. Skirting the southern coast of Cuba, reconnoitring the Caymans, [21] they at length cast anchor in the harbor of San Juan d'Ulloa, the island fortress near Vera Cruz. While here, Champlain made an inland journey to the City of Mexico, where he remained a month. He also sailed in a patache, or advice-boat, to Porto-bello, when, after a month, he returned again to San Juan d'Ulloa. The squadron then sailed for Havana, from which place Champlain was commissioned to visit, on public business, Cartagena, within the present limits of New Grenada, on the coast of South America. The whole armada was finally collected together at Havana, and from thence took its departure for Spain, passing through the channel of Bahama, or Gulf of Florida, sighting Bermuda and the Azores, reaching Saint Lucar early in March, 1601, after an absence from that port of two years and two months. [22]
On Champlain's return to France, he prepared an elaborate report of his observations and discoveries, luminous with sixty-two illustrations sketched by his own hand. As it was his avowed purpose in making the voyage to procure information that should be valuable to his government, he undoubtedly communicated it in some form to Henry IV. The document remained in manuscript two hundred and fifty-seven years, when it was first printed at London in an English translation by the Hakluyt Society, in 1859. It is an exceedingly interesting and valuable tract, containing a lucid description of the peculiarities, manners, and customs of the people, the soil, mountains, and rivers, the trees, fruits, and plants, the animals, birds, and fishes, the rich mines found at different points, with frequent allusions to the system of colonial management, together with the character and sources of the vast wealth which these settlements were annually yielding to the Spanish crown.
The reader of this little treatise will not fail to see the drift and tendency of Champlain's mind and character unfolded on nearly every page. His indomitable perseverance, his careful observation, his honest purpose and amiable spirit are at all times apparent. Although a Frenchman, a foreigner, and an entire stranger in the Spanish fleet, he had won the confidence of the commander so completely, that he was allowed by special permission to visit the City of Mexico, the Isthmus of Panama, and the coast of South America, all of which were prominent and important centres of interest, but nevertheless lying beyond the circuit made by the squadron to which he was attached.
For the most part, Champlain's narrative of what he saw and of what he learned from others is given in simple terms, without inference or comment.
His views are, however, clearly apparent in his description of the Spanish method of converting the Indians by the Inquisition, reducing them to slavery or the horrors of a cruel death, together with the retaliation practised by their surviving comrades, resulting in a milder method. This treatment of the poor savages by their more savage masters Champlain illustrates by a graphic drawing, in which two stolid Spaniards are guarding half a dozen poor wretches who are burning for their faith. In another drawing he represents a miserable victim receiving, under the eye and direction of the priest, the blows of an uplifted baton, as a penalty for not attending church.
Champlain's forecast and fertility of mind may be clearly seen in his suggestion that a ship-canal across the Isthmus of Panama would be a work of great practical utility, saving, in the voyage to the Pacific side of the Isthmus, a distance of more than fifteen hundred leagues. [23]
As it was the policy of Spain to withhold as much as possible all knowledge of her colonial system and wealth in the West Indies, we may add, that there is probably no work extant, on this subject, written at that period, so full, impartial, and truthful as this tract by Champlain. It was undoubtedly written out from notes and sketches made on the spot, and probably occupied the early part of the two years that followed his return from this expedition, during which period we are not aware that he entered upon any other important enterprise. [24]
This tour among the Spanish colonies, and the description which Champlain gave of them, information so much desired and yet so difficult to obtain, appear to have made a strong and favorable impression upon the mind of Henry IV., whose quick comprehension of the character of men was one of the great qualities of this distinguished sovereign. He clearly saw that Champlain's character was made up of those elements which are indispensable in the servants of the executive will. He accordingly assigned him a pension to enable him to reside near his person, and probably at the same time honored him with a place within the charmed circle of the nobility. [25]
While Champlain was residing at court, rejoicing doubtless in his new honors and full of the marvels of his recent travels, he formed the acquaintance, or perhaps renewed an old one, with Commander de Chastes, [26] for many years governor of Dieppe, who had given a long life to the service of his country, both by sea [27] and by land, and was a warm and attached friend of Henry IV. The enthusiasm of the young voyager and the long experience of the old commander made their interviews mutually instructive and entertaining. De Chastes had observed and studied with great interest the recent efforts at colonization on the coast of North America. His zeal had been kindled and his ardor deepened doubtless by the glowing recitals of his young friend. It was easy for him to believe that France, as well as Spain, might gather in the golden fruits of colonization. The territory claimed by France was farther to the north, in climate and in sources of wealth widely different, and would require a different management. He had determined, therefore, to send out an expedition for the purpose of obtaining more definite information than he already possessed, with the view to surrender subsequently his government of Dieppe, take up his abode in the new world, and there dedicate his remaining years to the service of God and his king. He accordingly obtained a commission from the king, associating with himself some of the principal merchants of Rouen and other cities, and made preparations for despatching a pioneer fleet to reconnoitre and fix upon a proper place for settlement, and to determine what equipment would be necessary for the convenience and comfort of the colony. He secured the services of Pont Gravé, [28] a distinguished merchant and Canadian fur-trader, to conduct the expedition. Having laid his views open fully to Champlain, he invited him also to join the exploring party, as he desired the opinion and advice of so careful an observer as to a proper plan of future operations.
No proposition could have been more agreeable to Champlain than this, and he expressed himself quite ready for the enterprise, provided De Chastes would secure the consent of the king, to whom he was under very great obligations. De Chastes readily obtained the desired permission, coupled, however, with an order from the king to Champlain to bring back to him a faithful report of the voyage. Leaving Paris, Champlain hastened to Honfleur, armed with a letter of instructions from M. de Gesures, the secretary of the king, to Pont Gravé, directing him to receive Champlain and afford him every facility for seeing and exploring the country which they were about to visit. They sailed for the shores of the New World on the 15th of March, 1603.
The reader should here observe that anterior to this date no colonial settlement had been made on the northern coasts of America. These regions had, however, been frequented by European fishermen at a very early period, certainly within the decade after its discovery by John Cabot in 1497. But the Basques, Bretons, and Normans, [29] who visited these coasts, were intent upon their employment, and consequently brought home only meagre information of the country from whose shores they yearly bore away rich cargoes of fish.
The first voyage made by the French for the purpose of discovery in our northern waters of which we have any authentic record was by Jacques Cartier in 1534, and another was made for the same purpose by this distinguished navigator in 1535. In the former, he coasted along the shores of Newfoundland, entered and gave its present name to the Bay of Chaleur, and at Gaspé took formal possession of the country in the name of the king. In the second, he ascended the St. Lawrence as far as Montreal, then an Indian village known by the aborigines as Hochelaga, situated on an island at the base of an eminence which they named Mont-Royal, from which the present commercial metropolis of the Dominion derives its name. After a winter of great suffering, which they passed on the St. Charles, near Quebec, and the death of many of his company, Cartier returned to France early in the summer of 1536. In 1541, he made a third voyage, under the patronage of François de la Roque, Lord de Roberval, a nobleman of Picardy. He sailed up the St. Lawrence, anchoring probably at the mouth of the river Cap Rouge, about four leagues above Quebec, where he built a fort which he named Charlesbourg-Royal. Here he passed another dreary and disheartening winter, and returned to France in the spring of 1542. His patron, De Roberval, who had failed to fulfil his intention to accompany him the preceding year, met him at St. John, Newfoundland. In vain Roberval urged and commanded him to retrace his course; but the resolute old navigator had too recent an experience and saw too clearly the inevitable obstacles to success in their undertaking to be diverted from his purpose. Roberval proceeded up the Saint Lawrence, apparently to the fort just abandoned by Cartier, which he repaired and occupied the next winter, naming it Roy-Francois; [30] but the disasters which followed, the sickness and death of many of his company, soon forced him, likewise, to abandon the enterprise and return to France.
Of these voyages, Cartier, or rather his pilot-general, has left full and elaborate reports, giving interesting and detailed accounts of the mode of life among the aborigines, and of the character and products of the country.
The entire want of success in all these attempts, and the absorbing and wasting civil wars in France, paralyzed the zeal and put to rest all aspirations for colonial adventure for more than half a century.
But in 1598, when peace again began to dawn upon the nation, the spirit of colonization revived, and the Marquis de la Roche, a nobleman of Brittany, obtained a royal commission with extraordinary and exclusive powers of government and trade, identical with those granted to Roberval nearly sixty years before. Having fitted out a vessel and placed on board forty convicts gathered out of the prisons of France, he embarked for the northern coasts of America. The first land he made was Sable Island, a most forlorn sand-heap rising out of the Atlantic Ocean, some thirty leagues southeast of Cape Breton. Here he left these wretched criminals to be the strength and hope, the bone and sinew of the little kingdom which, in his fancy, he pictured to himself rising under his fostering care in the New World. While reconnoitring the mainland, probably some part of Nova Scotia, for the purpose of selecting a suitable location for his intended settlement, a furious gale swept him from the coast, and, either from necessity or inclination, he returned to France, leaving his hopeful colonists to a fate hardly surpassed by that of Selkirk himself, and at the same time dismissing the bright visions that had so long haunted his mind, of personal aggrandizement at the head of a colonial establishment.
The next year, 1599, Sieur de Saint Chauvin, of Normandy, a captain in the royal marine, at the suggestion of Pont Gravé, of Saint Malo, an experienced fur-trader, to whom we have already referred, and who had made several voyages to the northwest anterior to this, obtained a commission sufficiently comprehensive, amply providing for a colonial settlement and the propagation of the Christian faith, with, indeed, all the privileges accorded by that of the Marquis de la Roche. But the chief and present object which Chauvin and Pont Gravé hoped to attain was the monopoly of the fur trade, which they had good reason to believe they could at that time conduct with success. Under this commission, an expedition was accordingly fitted out and sailed for Tadoussac. Successful in its main object, with a full cargo of valuable furs, they returned to France in the autumn, leaving, however, sixteen men, some of whom perished during the winter, while the rest were rescued from the same fate by the charity of the Indians. In the year 1600, Chauvin made another voyage, which was equally remunerative, and a third had been projected on a much broader scale, when his death intervened and prevented its execution.
The death of Sieur de Chauvin appears to have vacated his commission, at least practically, opening the way for another, which was obtained by the Commander de Chastes, whose expedition, accompanied by Champlain, as we have already seen, left Honfleur on the 15th of March, 1603. It consisted of two barques of twelve or fifteen tons, one commanded by Pont Gravé, and the other by Sieur Prevert, of Saint Malo, and was probably accompanied by one or more advice-boats. They took with them two Indians who had been in France some time, doubtless brought over by De Chauvin on his last voyage. With favoring winds, they soon reached the banks of Newfoundland, sighted Cape Ray, the northern point of the Island of Cape Breton, Anticosti and Gaspé, coasting along the southern side of the river Saint Lawrence as far as the Bic, where, crossing over to the northern shore, they anchored in the harbor of Tadoussac. After reconnoitring the Saguenay twelve or fifteen leagues, leaving their vessels at Tadoussac, where an active fur trade was in progress with the Indians, they proceeded up the St. Lawrence in a light boat, passed Quebec, the Three Rivers, Lake St. Peter, the Richelieu, which they called the river of the Iroquois, making an excursion up this stream five or six leagues, and then, continuing their course, passing Montreal, they finally cast anchor on the northern side, at the foot of the Falls of St. Louis, not being able to proceed further in their boat.
Having previously constructed a skiff for the purpose, Pont Gravé and Champlain, with five sailors and two Indians with a canoe, attempted to pass the falls. But after a long and persevering trial, exploring the shores on foot for some miles, they found any further progress quite impossible with their present equipment. They accordingly abandoned the undertaking and set out on their return to Tadoussac. They made short stops at various points, enabling Champlain to pursue his investigations with thoroughness and deliberation. He interrogated the Indians as to the course and extent of the St. Lawrence, as well as that of the other large rivers, the location of the lakes and falls, and the outlines and general features of the country, making rude drawings or maps to illustrate what the Indians found difficult otherwise to explain. [31]
The savages also exhibited to them specimens of native copper, which they represented as having been obtained from the distant north, doubtless from the neighborhood of Lake Superior. On reaching Tadoussac, they made another excursion in one of the barques as far as Gaspé, observing the rivers, bays, and coves along the route. When they had completed their trade with the Indians and had secured from them a valuable collection of furs, they commenced their return voyage to France, touching at several important points, and obtaining from the natives some general hints in regard to the existence of certain mines about the head waters of the Bay of Fundy.
Before leaving, one of the Sagamores placed his son in charge of Pont Gravé, that he might see the wonders of France, thus exhibiting a commendable appreciation of the advantages of foreign travel. They also obtained the gift of an Iroquois woman, who had been taken in war, and was soon to be immolated as one of the victims at a cannibal feast. Besides these, they took with them also four other natives, a man from the coast of La Cadie, and a woman and two boys from Canada.
The two little barques left Gaspé on the 24th of August; on the 5th of September they were at the fishing stations on the Grand Banks, and on the 20th of the same month arrived at Havre de Grâce, having been absent six months and six days.
Champlain received on his arrival the painful intelligence that the Commander de Chastes, his friend and patron, under whose auspices the late expedition had been conducted, had died on the 13th of May preceding. This event was a personal grief as well as a serious calamity to him, as it deprived him of an intimate and valued friend, and cast a cloud over the bright visions that floated before him of discoveries and colonies in the New World. He lost no time in repairing to the court, where he laid before his sovereign, Henry IV., a map constructed by his own hand of the regions which he had just visited, together with a very particular narrative of the voyage.
This "petit discours," as Champlain calls it, is a clear, compact, well-drawn paper, containing an account of the character and products of the country, its trees, plants, fruits, and vines, with a description of the native inhabitants, their mode of living, their clothing, food and its preparation, their banquets, religion, and method of burying their dead, with many other interesting particulars relating to their habits and customs.
Henry IV. manifested a deep interest in Champlain's narrative. He listened to its recital with great apparent satisfaction, and by way of encouragement promised not to abandon the undertaking, but to continue to bestow upon it his royal favor and patronage.
There chanced at this time to be residing at court, a Huguenot gentleman who had been a faithful adherent of Henry IV. in the late war, Pierre du Guast, Sieur de Monts, gentleman ordinary to the king's chamber, and governor of Pons in Saintonge. This nobleman had made a trip for pleasure or recreation to Canada with De Chauvin, several years before, and had learned something of the country, and especially of the advantages of the fur trade with the Indians. He was quite ready, on the death of De Chastes, to take up the enterprise which, by this event, had been brought to a sudden and disastrous termination. He immediately devised a scheme for the establishment of a colony under the patronage of a company to be composed of merchants of Rouen, Rochelle, and of other places, their contributions for covering the expense of the enterprise to be supplemented, if not rendered entirely unnecessary, by a trade in furs and peltry to be conducted by the company.
In less than two months after the return of the last expedition, De Monts had obtained from Henry IV., though contrary to the advice of his most influential minister, [32] a charter constituting him the king's lieutenant in La Cadie, with all necessary and desirable powers for a colonial settlement. The grant included the whole territory lying between the 40th and 46th degrees of north latitude. Its southern boundary was on a parallel of Philadelphia, while its northern was on a line extended due west from the most easterly point of the Island of Cape Breton, cutting New Brunswick on a parallel near Fredericton, and Canada near the junction of the river Richelieu and the St. Lawrence. It will be observed that the parts of New France at that time best known were not included in this grant, viz., Lake St. Peter, Three Rivers, Quebec, Tadoussac, Gaspé, and the Bay Chaleur. These were points of great importance, and had doubtless been left out of the charter by an oversight arising from an almost total want of a definite geographical knowledge of our northern coast. Justly apprehending that the places above mentioned might not be included within the limits of his grant, De Monts obtained, the next month, an extension of the bounds of his exclusive right of trade, so that it should comprehend the whole region of the gulf and river of St. Lawrence. [33]
The following winter, 1603-4, was devoted by De Monts to organizing his company, the collection of a suitable band of colonists, and the necessary preparations for the voyage. His commission authorized him to seize any idlers in the city or country, or even convicts condemned to transportation, to make up the bone and sinew of the colony. To what extent he resorted to this method of filling his ranks, we know not. Early in April he had gathered together about a hundred and twenty artisans of all trades, laborers, and soldiers, who were embarked upon two ships, one of 120 tons, under the direction of Sieur de Pont Gravé, commanded, however, by Captain Morel, of Honfleur; another of 150 tons, on which De Monts himself embarked with several noblemen and gentlemen, having Captain Timothée, of Havre de Grâce, as commander.
De Monts extended to Champlain an invitation to join the expedition, which he readily accepted, but, nevertheless, on the condition, as in the previous voyage, of the king's assent, which was freely granted, nevertheless with the command that he should prepare a faithful report of his observations and discoveries.
18. Blavet was situated at the mouth of the River Blavet, on the southern coast of Brittany. Its occupation had been granted to the Spanish by the Duke de Mercoeur during the civil war, and, with other places held by the Spanish, was surrendered by the treaty of Vervins, in June, 1598. It was rebuilt and fortified by Louis XIII, and is now known as Port Louis.
19. Deseada, signifying in Spanish the desired land.
20. Margarita, a Spanish word from the Greek [Greek: margaritaes], signifying a pearl. The following account by an eye-witness will not be uninteresting: "Especially it yieldeth store of pearls, those gems which the Latin writers call Uniones, because nulli duo reperiuntur discreti, they always are found to grow in couples. In this Island there are many rich Merchants who have thirty, forty, fifty Blackmore slaves only to fish out of the sea about the rocks these pearls…. They are let down in baskets into the Sea, and so long continue under the water, until by pulling the rope by which they are let down, they make their sign to be taken up…. From Margarita are all the Pearls sent to be refined and bored to Carthagena, where is a fair and goodly street of no other shops then of these Pearl dressers. Commonly in the month of July there is a ship or two at most ready in the Island to carry the King's revenue, and the Merchant's pearls to Carthagena. One of these ships is valued commonly at three score thousand or four score thousand ducats and sometimes more, and therefore are reasonable well manned; for that the Spaniards much fear our English and the Holland ships."—Vide New Survey of the West Indies, by Thomas Gage, London, 1677, p. 174.
21. Caymans, Crocodiles.
22. For an interesting Account of the best route to and from the West Indies in order to avoid the vigilant French and English corsairs, see Notes on Giovanni da Verrazano, by J. C. Brevoort, New York, 1874, p. 101.
23. At the time that Champlain was at the isthmus, in 1599-1601, the gold and silver of Peru were brought to Panama, then transported on mules a distance of about four leagues to a river, known as the Rio Chagres, whence they were conveyed by water first to Chagres, and thence along the coast to Porto-bello, and there shipped to Spain.
Champlain refers to a ship-canal in the following words: "One might judge, if the territory four leagues in extent lying between Panama and this river were cut through, he could pass from the south sea to that on the other side, and thus shorten the route by more than fifteen hundred leagues. From Panama to the Straits of Magellan would constitute an island, and from Panama to New Foundland another, so that the whole of America would be in two islands."—Vide Brief Discours des Choses Plus Rémarquables, par Sammuel Champlain de Brovage, 1599, Quebec ed., Vol. I. p 141. This project of a ship canal across the isthmus thus suggested by Champlain two hundred and eighty years ago is now attracting the public attention both in this country and in Europe. Several schemes are on foot for bringing it to pass, and it will undoubtedly be accomplished, if it shall be found after the most careful and thorough investigation to be within the scope of human power, and to offer adequate commercial advantages.
Some of the difficulties to be overcome are suggested by Mr. Marsh in the following excerpt—
"The most colossal project of canalization ever suggested, whether we consider the physical difficulties of its execution, the magnitude and importance of the waters proposed to be united, or the distance which would be saved in navigation, is that of a channel between the Gulf of Mexico and the Pacific, across the Isthmus of Darien. I do not now speak of a lock-canal, by way of the Lake of Nicaragua, or any other route,—for such a work would not differ essentially from other canals and would scarcely possess a geographical character,—but of an open cut between the two seas. The late survey by Captain Selfridge, showing that the lowest point on the dividing ridge is 763 feet above the sea-level, must be considered as determining in the negative the question of the possibility of such a cut, by any means now at the control of man; and both the sanguine expectations of benefits, and the dreary suggestions of danger from the realization of this great dream, may now be dismissed as equally chimerical."—Vide The Earth as Modified by Human Action, by George P. Marsh, New York, 1874, p. 612.
24. A translation of Champlain's Voyage to the West Indies and Mexico was made by Alice Wilmere, edited by Norton Shaw, and published by the Hakluyt Society, London, 1859.
25. No positive evidence is known to exist as to the time when Champlain was ennobled. It seems most likely to have been in acknowledgment of his valuable report made to Henry IV. after his visit to the West Indies.
26. Amyar de Chastes died on the 13th of May, 1603, greatly respected and beloved by his fellow-citizens. He was charged by his government with many important and responsible duties. In 1583, he was sent by Henry III., or rather by Catherine de Médicis, to the Azores with a military force to sustain the claims of Antonio, the Prior of Crato, to the throne of Portugal. He was a warm friend and supporter of Henry IV., and took an active part in the battles of Ivry and Arques. He commanded the French fleet on the coasts of Brittany; and, during the long struggle of this monarch with internal enemies and external foes, he was in frequent communication with the English to secure their co-operation, particularly against the Spanish. He accompanied the Duke de Boullon, the distinguished Huguenot nobleman, to England, to be present and witness the oath of Queen Elizabeth to the treaty made with France.
On this occasion he received a valuable jewel as a present from the English queen. He afterwards directed the ceremonies and entertainment of the Earl of Shrewsbury, who was deputed to receive the ratification of the before-mentioned treaty by Henry IV. Vide Busk's His. Spain and Portugal, London, 1833, p. 129 et passim; Denis' His. Portugal, Paris, 1846, p. 296; Freer's Life of Henry IV., Vol. I. p. 121, et passim; Memoirs of Sully, Philadelphia, 1817, Vol. I. p. 204; Birch's Memoirs Queen Elizabeth, London, 1754, Vol. II. pp. 121, 145, 151, 154, 155; Asselini MSS. Chron., cited by Shaw in Nar Voyage to West Ind. and Mexico, Hakluyt Soc., 1859, p. xv.
27. "Au même tems les nouvelles vinrent…. que le Commandeur de Chastes
dressoit une grande Armée de Mer en Bretagne."—Journal de Henri III.
(1586), Paris, 1744, Tom. III. p. 279.
28. Du Pont Gravé was a merchant of St Malo. He had been associated with
Chauvin in the Canada trade, and continued to visit the St Lawrence for
this purpose almost yearly for thirty years.
He was greatly respected by Champlain, and was closely associated with
him till 1629. After the English captured Quebec, he appears to have
retired, forced to do so by the infirmities of age.
29. Jean Parmentier, of Dieppe, author of the Discorso d'un gran capitano in Ramusio, Vol. III., p. 423, wrote in the year 1539, and he says the Bretons and Normans were in our northern waters thirty-five years before, which would be in 1504. Vide Mr. Parkman's learned note and citations in Pioneers of France in the New World, pp. 171, 172. The above is doubtless the authority on which the early writers, such as Pierre Biard, Champlain, and others, make the year 1504 the period when the French voyages for fishing commenced.
30. Vide Voyage of Iohn Alphonse of Xanctoigne, Hakluyt, Vol. III., p. 293.
31. Compare the result of these inquiries as stated by Champlain, p.252 of this vol and New Voyages, by Baron La Hontan, 1684, ed. 1735, Vol I. p. 30.
32. The Duke of Sully's disapprobation is expressed in the following words: "The colony that was sent to Canada this year, was among the number of those things that had not my approbation; there was no kind of riches to be expected from all those countries of the new world, which are beyond the fortieth degree of latitude. His majesty gave the conduct of this expedition to the Sieur du Mont."—Memoirs of Sully, Philadelphia, 1817, Vol. III. p. 185.
33. "Frequenter, négocier, et communiquer durant ledit temps de dix ans, depuis le Cap de Raze jusques au quarantième degré, comprenant toute la côte de la Cadie, terre et Cap Breton, Bayes de Sainct-Cler, de Chaleur, Ile Percée, Gachepé, Chinschedec, Mesamichi, Lesquemin, Tadoussac, et la rivière de Canada, tant d'un côté que d'aurre, et toutes les Bayes et rivières qui entrent au dedans désdites côtes."— Extract of Commission, Histoire de la Nouvelle-France, par Lescarbot, Paris, 1866, Vol. II. p. 416.
De Monts, with Champlain and the other noblemen, left Havre de Grâce on the 7th April, 1604, while Pont Gravé, with the other vessel, followed three days later, to rendezvous at Canseau.
Taking a more southerly course than he had originally intended, De Monts came in sight of La Hève on the 8th of May, and on the 12th entered Liverpool harbor, where he found Captain Rossignol, of Havre de Grâce, carrying on a contraband trade in furs with the Indians, whom he arrested, and confiscated his vessel.
The next day they anchored at Port Mouton, where they lingered three or four weeks, awaiting news from Pont Gravé, who had in the mean time arrived at Canseau, the rendezvous agreed upon before leaving France. Pont Gravé had there discovered several Basque ships engaged in the fur-trade. Taking possession of them, he sent their masters to De Monts. The ships were subsequently confiscated and sent to Rochelle.
Captain Fouques was despatched to Canseau in the vessel which had been taken from Rossignol, to bring forward the supplies which had been brought over by Pont Gravé. Having transshipped the provisions intended for the colony, Pont Gravé proceeded through the Straits of Canseau up the St. Lawrence, to trade with the Indians, upon the profits of which the company relied largely for replenishing their treasury.
In the mean time Champlain was sent in a barque of eight tons, with the secretary Sieur Ralleau, Mr. Simon, the miner, and ten men, to reconnoitre the coast towards the west. Sailing along the shore, touching at numerous points, doubling Cape Sable, he entered the Bay of Fundy, and after exploring St. Mary's Bay, and discovering several mines of both silver and iron, returned to Port Mouton and made to De Monts a minute and careful report.
De Monts immediately weighed anchor and sailed for the Bay of St. Mary, where he left his vessel, and, with Champlain, the miner, and some others, proceeded to explore the Bay of Fundy. They entered and examined Annapolis harbor, coasted along the western shores of Nova Scotia, touching at the Bay of Mines, passing over to New Brunswick, skirting its whole southeastern coast, entering the harbor of St. John, and finally penetrating Passamaquoddy Bay as far as the mouth of the river St. Croix, and fixed upon De Monts's Island [34] as the seat of their colony. The vessel at St. Mary's with the colonists was ordered to join them, and immediately active measures were taken for laying out gardens, erecting dwellings and storehouses, and all the necessary preparations for the coming winter. Champlain was commissioned to design and lay out the town, if so it could be called.
When the work was somewhat advanced, he was sent in a barque of five or six tons, manned with nine sailors, to search for a mine of pure copper, which an Indian named Messamoüet had assured them he could point out to them on the coast towards the river St. John. Some twenty-five miles from the river St. Croix, they found a mine yielding eighteen per cent, as estimated by the miner; but they did not discover any pure copper, as they had hoped.
On the last day of August, 1604, the vessel which had brought out the colony, together with that which had been taken from Rossignol, took their departure for the shores of France. In it sailed Poutrincourt, Ralleau the secretary of De Monts, and Captain Rossignol.
From the moment of his arrival on the coast of America, Champlain employed his leisure hours in making sketches and drawings of the most important rivers, harbors, and Indian settlements which they had visited.
While the little colony at De Monts's Island was active in getting its appointments arranged and settled, De Monts wisely determined, though he could not accompany it himself, nevertheless to send out an expedition during the mild days of autumn, to explore the region still further to the south, then called by the Indians Norumbegue. Greatly to the satisfaction of Champlain, he was personally charged, with this important expedition. He set out on the 2d of September, in a barque of seventeen or eighteen tons, with twelve sailors and two Indian guides. The inevitable fogs of that region detained them nearly a fortnight before they were able to leave the banks of Passamaquoddy. Passing along the rugged shores of Maine, with its endless chain of islands rising one after another into view, which they called the Ranges, they at length came to the ancient Pemetiq, lying close in to the shore, having the appearance at sea of seven or eight mountains drawn together and springing from the same base. This Champlain named Monts Déserts, which we have anglicized into Mount Desert, [35] an appellation which has survived the vicissitudes of two hundred and seventy-five years, and now that the island, with its salubrious air and cool shades, its bold and picturesque scenery, is attracting thousands from the great cities during the heats of summer, the name is likely to abide far down into a distant and indefinite future.
Leaving Mount Desert, winding their way among numerous islands, taking a northerly direction, they soon entered the Penobscot, [36] known by the early navigators as the river Norumbegue. They proceeded up the river as far as the mouth of an affluent now known as the Kenduskeag, [37] which was then called, or rather the place where it made a junction with the Penobscot was called by the natives, Kadesquit, situated at the head of tide-water, near the present site of the city of Bangor. The falls above the city intercepted their further progress. The river-banks about the harbor were fringed with a luxurious growth of forest trees. On one side, lofty pines reared their gray trunks, forming a natural palisade along the shore. On the other, massive oaks alone were to be seen, lifting their sturdy branches to the skies, gathered into clumps or stretching out into long lines, as if a landscape gardener had planted them to please the eye and gratify the taste. An exploration revealed the whole surrounding region clothed in a similar wild and primitive beauty.
After a leisurely survey of the country, they returned to the mouth of the river. Contrary to what might have been expected, Champlain found scarcely any inhabitants dwelling on the borders of the Penobscot. Here and there they saw a few deserted wigwams, which were the only marks of human occupation. At the mouth of the river, on the borders of Penobscot Bay, the native inhabitants were numerous. They were of a friendly disposition, and gave their visitors a cordial welcome, readily entered into negotiations for the sale of beaver-skins, and the two parties mutually agreed to maintain a friendly intercourse in the future.
Having obtained from the Indians some valuable information as to the source of the Penobscot, and observed their mode of life, which did not differ from that which they had seen still further east, Champlain departed on the 20th of September, directing his course towards the Kennebec. But, encountering bad weather, he found it necessary to take shelter under the lee of the island of Monhegan.
After sailing three or four leagues farther, finding that his provisions would not warrant the continuance of the voyage, he determined, on the 23d of September, to return to the settlement at Saint Croix, or what is now known as De Monts's Island, where they arrived on the 2d day of October, 1604.
De Monts's Island, having an area of not more than six or seven acres, is situated in the river Saint Croix, midway between its opposite shores, directly upon the dividing line between the townships of Calais and Robinston in the State of Maine. At the northern end of the island, the buildings of the settlement were clustered together in the form of a quadrangle with an open court in the centre. First came the magazine and lodgings of the soldiers, then the mansion of the governor, De Monts, surmounted by the colors of France. Houses for Champlain and the other gentlemen, [38] for the curé, the artisans and workmen, filled up and completed the quadrangle. Below the houses, gardens were laid out for the several gentlemen, and at the southern extremity of the island cannon were mounted for protection against a sudden assault.
In the ample forests of Maine or New Brunswick, rich in oak and maple and pine, abounding in deer, partridge, and other wild game, watered by crystal fountains springing from every acre of the soil, we naturally picture for our colonists a winter of robust health, physical comfort, and social enjoyment. The little island which they had chosen was indeed a charming spot in a summer's day, but we can hardly comprehend in what view it could have been regarded as suitable for a colonial plantation. In space it was wholly inadequate; it was destitute of wood and fresh water, and its soil was sandy and unproductive. In fixing the location of their settlement and in the construction of their houses, it is obvious that they had entirely misapprehended the character of the climate. While the latitude was nearly the same, the temperature was far more rigorous than that of the sunny France which they had left. The snow began to fall on the 6th of October. On the 3d of December the ice was seen floating on the surface of the water. As the season advanced, and the tide came and went, huge floes of ice, day after day, swept by the island, rendering it impracticable to navigate the river or pass over to the mainland. They were therefore imprisoned in their own home. Thus cut off from the game with which the neighboring forests abounded, they were compelled to subsist almost exclusively upon salted meats. Nearly all the forest trees on the island had been used in the construction of their houses, and they had consequently but a meagre supply of fuel to resist the chilling winds and penetrating frosts. For fresh water, their only reliance was upon melted snow and ice. Their store-house had not been furnished with a cellar, and the frost left nothing untouched; even cider was dispensed in solid blocks. To crown the gloom and wretchedness of their situation, the colony was visited with disease of a virulent and fatal character. As the malady was beyond the knowledge, so it baffled the skill of the surgeons. They called it mal de la terre. Of the seventy-nine persons, composing the whole number of the colony, thirty-five died, and twenty others were brought to the verge of the grave. In May, having been liberated from the baleful influence of their winter prison and revived by the genial warmth of the vernal sun and by the fresh meats obtained from the savages, the disease abated, and the survivors gradually regained their strength.
Disheartened by the bitter experiences of the winter, the governor, having fully determined to abandon his present establishment, ordered two boats to be constructed, one of fifteen and the other of seven tons, in which to transport his colony to Gaspé, in case he received no supplies from France, with the hope of obtaining a passage home in some of the fishing vessels on that coast. But from this disagreeable alternative he was happily relieved. On the 15th of June, 1605, Pont Gravé arrived, to the great joy of the little colony, with all needed supplies. The purpose of returning to France was at once abandoned, and, as no time was to be lost, on the 18th of the same month, De Monts, Champlain, several gentlemen, twenty sailors, two Indians, Panounias and his wife, set sail for the purpose of discovering a more eligible site for his colony somewhere on the shores of the present New England. Passing slowly along the coast, with which Champlain was already familiar, and consequently without extensive explorations, they at length reached the waters of the Kennebec, [39] where the survey of the previous year had terminated and that of the present was about to begin.
On the 5th of July, they entered the Kennebec, and, bearing to the right, passed through Back River, [40] grazing their barque on the rocks in the narrow channel, and then sweeping down round the southern point of Jerremisquam Island, or Westport, they ascended along its eastern shores till they came near the present site of Wiscasset, from whence they returned on the western side of the island, through Monseag Bay, and threading the narrow passage between Arrowsick and Woolwich, called the Upper Hell-gate, and again entering the Kennebec, they finally reached Merrymeeting Bay. Lingering here but a short time, they returned through the Sagadahock, or lower Kennebec, to the mouth of the river.
This exploration did not yield to the voyagers any very interesting or important results. Several friendly interviews were held with the savages at different points along the route. Near the head waters of the Sheepscot, probably in Wiscasset Bay, they had an interview, an interesting and joyous meeting, with the chief Manthomerme and twenty-five or thirty followers, with whom they exchanged tokens of friendship. Along the shores of the Sheepscot their attention was attracted by several pleasant streams and fine expanses of meadow; but the soil observed on this expedition generally, and especially on the Sagadahock, [41] or lower Kennebec, was rough and barren, and offered, in the judgment of De Monts and Champlain, no eligible site for a new settlement.
Proceeding, therefore, on their voyage, they struck directly across Casco
Bay, not attempting, in their ignorance, to enter the fine harbor of
Portland.
On the 9th of July, they made the bay that stretches from Cape Elizabeth to Fletcher's Neck, and anchored under the lee of Stratton Island, directly in sight of Old Orchard Beach, now a famous watering place during the summer months.
The savages having seen the little French barque approaching in the distance, had built fires to attract its attention, and came down upon the shore at Prout's Neck, formerly known as Black Point, in large numbers, indicating their friendliness by lively demonstrations of joy. From this anchorage, while awaiting the influx of the tide to enable them to pass over the bar and enter a river which they saw flowing into the bay, De Monts paid a visit to Richmond's Island, about four miles distant, which he was greatly delighted, as he found it richly studded with oak and hickory, whose bending branches were wreathed with luxuriant grapevines loaded with green clusters of unripe fruit. In honor of the god of wine, they gave to the island the classic name of Bacchus. [42] At full tide they passed over the bar and cast anchor within the channel of the Saco.
The Indians whom they found here were called Almouchiquois, and differed in many respects from any which they had seen before, from the Sourequois of Nova Scotia and the Etechemins of the northern part of Maine and New Brunswick. They spoke a different language, and, unlike their neighbors on the east, did not subsist mainly by the chase, but upon the products of the soil, supplemented by fish, which were plentiful and of excellent quality, and which they took with facility about the mouth of the river. De Monts and Champlain made an excursion upon the shore, where their eyes were refreshed by fields of waving corn, and gardens of squashes, beans, and pumpkins, which were then bursting into flower. [43] Here they saw in cultivation the rank narcotic petun, or tobacco, [44] just beginning to spread out its broad velvet leaves to the sun, the sole luxury of savage life. The forests were thinly wooded, but were nevertheless rich in primitive oak, in lofty ash and elm, and in the more humble and sturdy beech. As on Richmond's Island so here, along the bank of the river they found grapes in luxurious growth, from which the sailors busied themselves in making verjuice, a delicious beverage in the meridian heats of a July sun. The natives were gentle and amiable, graceful in figure, agile in movement, and exhibited unusual taste, dressing their hair in a variety of twists and braids, intertwined with ornamental feathers.
Champlain observed their method of cultivating Indian corn, which the experience of two hundred and seventy-five years has in no essential point improved or even changed. They planted three or four seeds in hills three feet apart, and heaped the earth about them, and kept the soil clear of weeds. Such is the method of the successful New England farmer to-day. The experience of the savage had taught him how many individuals of the rank plant could occupy prolifically a given area, how the soil must be gathered about the roots to sustain the heavy stock, and that there must be no rival near it to draw away the nutriment on which the voracious plant feeds and grows. Civilization has invented implements to facilitate the processes of culture, but the observation of the savage had led him to a knowledge of all that is absolutely necessary to ensure a prolific harvest.
After lingering two days at Saco, our explorers proceeded on their voyage. When they had advanced not more than twenty miles, driven by a fierce wind, they were forced to cast anchor near the salt marshes of Wells. Having been driven by Cape Porpoise, on the subsidence of the wind, they returned to it, reconnoitred its harbor and adjacent islands, together with Little River, a few miles still further to the east. The shores were lined all along with nut-trees and grape-vines. The islands about Cape Porpoise were matted all over with wild currants, so that the eye could scarcely discern any thing else. Attracted doubtless by this fruit, clouds of wild pigeons had assembled there, and were having a midsummer's festival, fearless of the treacherous snare or the hunter's deadly aim. Large numbers of them were taken, which added a coveted luxury to the not over-stocked larder of the little French barque.
On the 15th of July, De Monts and his party left Cape Porpoise, keeping in and following closely the sinuosities of the shore. They saw no savages during the day, nor any evidences of any, except a rising smoke, which they approached, but found to be a lone beacon, without any surroundings of human life. Those who had kindled the fire had doubtless concealed themselves, or had fled in dismay. Possibly they had never seen a ship under sail. The fishermen who frequented our northern coast rarely came into these waters, and the little craft of our voyagers, moving without oars or any apparent human aid, seemed doubtless to them a monster gliding upon the wings of the wind. At the setting of the sun, they were near the flat and sandy coast, now known as Wallace's Sands. They fought in vain for a roadstead where they might anchor safely for the night. When they were opposite to Little Boar's Head, with the Isles of Shoals directly east of them, and the reflected rays of the sun were still throwing their light upon the waters, they saw in the distance the dim outline of Cape Anne, whither they directed their course, and, before morning, came to anchor near its eastern extremity, in sixteen fathoms of water. Near them were the three well-known islands at the apex of the cape, covered with forest-trees, and the woodless cluster of rocks, now called the Savages, a little further from the shore.
The next morning five or six Indians timidly approached them in a canoe, and then retired and set up a dance on the shore, as a token of friendly greeting. Armed with crayon and drawing-paper, Champlain was despatched to seek from the natives some important geographical information. Dispensing knives and biscuit as a friendly invitation, the savages gathered about him, assured by their gifts, when he proceeded to impart to them their first lesson in topographical drawing. He pictured to them the bay on the north side of Cape Anne, which he had just traversed, and signifying to them that he desired to know the course of the shore on the south, they immediately gave him an example of their apt scholarship by drawing with the same crayon an accurate outline of Massachusetts Bay, and finished up Champlain's own sketch by introducing the Merrimac River, which, not having been seen, owing to the presence of Plum Island, which stretches like a curtain before its mouth, he had omitted to portray. The intelligent natives volunteered a bit of history. By placing six pebbles at equal distances, they intimated that Massachusetts Bay was occupied by six tribes, and governed by as many chiefs. [45] He learned from them, likewise, that the inhabitants of this region subsisted by agriculture, as did those at the mouth of the Saco, and that they were very numerous.
Leaving Cape Anne on Saturday the 16th of July, De Monts entered Massachusetts Bay, sailed into Boston harbor, and anchored on the western side of Noddle's Island, now better known as East Boston. In passing into the bay, they observed large patches of cleared land, and many fields of waving corn both upon the islands and the mainland. The water and the islands, the open fields and lofty forest-trees, presented fine contrasts, and rendered the scenery attractive and beautiful. Here for the first time Champlain observed the log canoe. It was a clumsy though serviceable boat in still waters, nevertheless unstable and dangerous in unskilful hands. They saw, issuing into the bay, a large river, coming from the west, which they named River du Guast, in honor of Pierre du Guast, Sieur de Monts, the patentee of La Cadie, and the patron and director of this expedition. This was Charles River, seen, evidently just at its confluence with the Mystic. [46]
On Sunday, the 17th of July, 1605, they left Boston harbor, threading their way among the islands, passing leisurely along the south shore, rounding Point Allerton on the peninsula of Nantasket, gliding along near Cohasset and Scituate, and finally cast anchor at Brant Point, upon the southern borders of Marshfield. When they left the harbor of Boston, the islands and mainland were swarming with the native population. The Indians were, naturally enough, intensely interested in this visit of the little French barque. It may have been the first that had ever made its appearance in the bay. Its size was many times greater than any water-craft of their own. Spreading its white wings and gliding silently away without oarsmen, it filled them with surprise and admiration. The whole population was astir. The cornfields and fishing stations were deserted. Every canoe was manned, and a flotilla of their tiny craft came to attend, honor, and speed the parting guests, experiencing, doubtless, a sense of relief that they were going, and filled with a painful curiosity to know the meaning of this mysterious visit.
Having passed the night at Brant Point, they had not advanced more than two leagues along a sandy shore dotted with wigwams and gardens, when they were forced to enter a small harbor, to await a more favoring wind. The Indians flocked about them, greeted them with cordiality, and invited them to enter the little river which flows into the harbor, but this they were unable to do, as the tide was low and the depth insufficient. Champlain's attention was attracted by several canoes in the bay, which had just completed their morning's work in fishing for cod. The fish were taken with a primitive hook and line, apparently in a manner not very different from that of the present day. The line was made of a filament of bark stripped from the trunk of a tree; the hook was of wood, having a sharp bone, forming a barb, lashed to it with a cord of a grassy fibre, a kind of wild hemp, growing spontaneously in that region. Champlain landed, distributed trinkets among the natives, examined and sketched an outline of the place, which identifies it as Plymouth harbor, which captain John Smith visited in 1614, and where the May Flower, still six years later landed the first permanent colony planted upon New England soil.
After a day at Plymouth, the little bark weighed anchor, swept down Cape Cod, approaching near to the reefs of Billingsgate, describing a complete semicircle, and finally, with some difficulty, doubled the cape whose white sands they had seen in the distance glittering in the sunlight and which appropriately they named Cap Blanc. This cape, however, had been visited three years before by Bartholomew Gosnold, and named Cape Cod, which appellation it has retained to the present time. Passing down on the outside of the cape some distance, they came to anchor, sent explorers on the shore, who ascending on of the lofty sand-banks [47] which may still be seen there silently resisting the winds and waves, discovered further to the south, what is now known as Nauset harbor, entirely surrounded by Indian cabins. The next day, the 20th of July, 1605, they effected an entrance without much difficulty. The bay was spacious, being nine or ten miles in circumference. Along the borders, there were, here and there, cultivated patches, interspersed with dwellings of the natives. The wigwam was cone-shaped, heavily thatched with reeds, having an orifice at the apex for the emission of smoke. In the fields were growing Indian corn, Brazilian beans, pumpkins, radishes, and tobacco; and in the woods were oak and hickory and red cedar. During their stay in the harbor they encountered an easterly storm, which continued four days, so raw and chilling that they were glad to hug their winter cloaks about them on the 22d of July. The natives were friendly and cordial, and entered freely into conversation with Champlain; but, as the language of each party was not understood by the other, the information he obtained from them was mostly by signs, and consequently too general to be historically interesting or important.
The first and only act of hostility by the natives which De Monts and his party had thus far experienced in their explorations on the entire coast occurred in this harbor. Several of the men had gone ashore to obtain fresh water. Some of the Indians conceived an uncontrollable desire to capture the copper vessels which they saw in their hands. While one of the men was stooping to dip water from a spring, one of the savages darted upon him and snatched the coveted vessel from his hand. An encounter followed, and, amid showers of arrows and blows, the poor sailor was brutally murdered. The victorious Indian, fleet as the reindeer, escaped with his companions, bearing his prize with him into the depths of the forest. The natives on the shore, who had hitherto shown the greatest friendliness, soon came to De Monts, and by signs disowned any participation in the act, and assured him that the guilty parties belonged far in the interior. Whether this was the truth or a piece of adroit diplomacy, it was nevertheless accepted by De Monts, since punishment could only be administered at the risk of causing the innocent to suffer instead of the guilty.
The young sailor whose earthly career was thus suddenly terminated, whose name even has not come down to us, was doubtless the first European, if we except Thorvald, the Northman, whose mortal remains slumber in the soil of Massachusetts.
As this voyage of discovery had been planned and provisioned for only six weeks, and more than five had already elapsed, on the 25th of July De Monts and his party left Nauset harbor, to join the colony still lingering at St. Croix. In passing the bar, they came near being wrecked, and consequently gave to the harbor the significant appellation of Port de Mallebarre, a name which has not been lost, but nevertheless, like the shifting sands of that region, has floated away from its original moorings, and now adheres to the sandy cape of Monomoy.
On their return voyage, they made a brief stop at Saco, and likewise at the mouth of the Kennebec. At the latter point they had an interview with the sachem, Anassou, who informed them that a ship had been there, and that the men on board her had seized, under color of friendship, and killed five savages belonging to that river. From the description given by Anassou, Champlain was convinced that the ship was English, and subsequent events render it quite certain that it was the "Archangel," fitted out by the Earl of Southampton and Lord Arundel of Wardour, and commanded by Captain George Weymouth. The design of the expedition was to fix upon an eligible site for a colonial plantation, and, in pursuance of this purpose, Weymouth anchored off Monhegan on the 28th of May, 1605, new style, and, after spending a month in explorations of the region contiguous, left for England on the 26th of June. [48] He had seized and carried away five of the natives, having concealed them in the hold of his ship, and Anassou, under the circumstances, naturally supposed they had been killed. The statement of the sachem, that the natives captured belonged to the river where Champlain then was, namely, the Kennebec, goes far to prove that Weymouth's explorations were in the Kennebec, or at least in the network of waters then comprehended under that appellation, and not in the Penobscot or in any other river farther east, as some historical writers have supposed.
It would appear that while the French were carefully surveying the coasts of New England, in order to fix upon an eligible site for a permanent colonial settlement, the English were likewise upon the ground, engaged in a similar investigation for the same purpose. From this period onward, for more than a century and a half, there was a perpetual conflict and struggle for territorial possession on the northern coast of America, between these two great nations, sometimes active and violent, and at others subsiding into a semi-slumber, but never ceasing until every acre of soil belonging to the French had been transferred to the English by a solemn international compact.
On this exploration, Champlain noticed along the coast from Kennebec to Cape Cod, and described several objects in natural history unknown in Europe, such as the horse-foot crab, [49] the black skimmer, and the wild turkey, the latter two of which have long since ceased to visit this region.
34. De Monts's Island. Of this island Champlain says: "This place was named by Sieur De Monts the Island of St. Croix."—Vide Vol. II. p. 32, note 86. St. Croix has now for a long time been applied as the name of the river in which this island is found. The French denominated this stream the River of the Etechemins, after the name of the tribe of savages inhabiting its shores. Vide Vol. II. p. 31. It continued to be so called for a long time. Denys speaks of it under this name in 1672. "Depuis la riviere de Pentagouet, jusques à celle de saint Jean, il pent y avoir quarante à quarante cinq lieues; la première rivière que l'on rencontre le long de la coste, est celle des Etechemins, qui porte le nom du pays, depuis Baston jusques au Port royal, dont les Sauvages qui habitent toute cette étendue, portent aussi le mesme nom."—Description Géographique et Historique des Costes de L'Amerique Septentrionale, par Nicholas Denys, Paris, 1672, p. 29, et verso.
35. Champlain had, by his own explorations and by consulting the Indians, obtained a very full and accurate knowledge of this island at his first visit, on the 5th of September, 1604, when he named it Monts-déserts, which we preserve in the English form, MOUNT DESERT. He observed that the distance across the channel to the mainland on the north side was less than a hundred paces. The rocky and barren summits of this cluster of little mountains obviously induced him to give to the island its appropriate and descriptive name Vide Vol. II. p. 39. Dr. Edward Ballard derives the Indian name of this island, Pemetiq, from pemé'te, sloping, and ki, land. He adds that it probably denoted a single locality which was taken by Biard's company as the name of the whole island. Vide Report of U. S. Coast Survey for 1868, p. 253.
36. Penobscot is a corruption of the Abnaki pa'na8a'bskek. A nearly exact translation is "at the fall of the rock," or "at the descending rock." Vide Trumball's Ind. Geog. Names, Collections Conn. His. Society, Vol. II. p. 19. This name was originally given probably to some part of the river to which its meaning was particularly applicable. This may have been at the mouth of the river a Fort Point, a rocky elevation not less than eighty feet in height. Or it may have been the "fall of water coming down a slope of seven or eight feet," as Champlain expresses it, a short distance above the site of the present city of Bangor. That this name was first obtained by those who only visited the mouth of the river would seem to favor the former supposition.
37. Dr. Edward Ballard supposes the original name of this stream, Kadesquit, to be derived from kaht, a Micmac word, for eel, denoting eel stream, now corrupted into Kenduskeag. The present site of the city of Bangor is where Biard intended to establish his mission in 1613, but he was finally induced to fix it at Mount Desert—Vide Relations des Jésuites, Quebec ed., Vol. I. p. 44.
38. The other gentlemen whose names we have learned were Messieurs d'Orville, Champdoré, Beaumont, la Motte Bourioli, Fougeray or Foulgeré de Vitré, Genestou, Sourin, and Boulay. The orthography of the names, as they are mentioned from time to time, is various.
39. Kennebec. Biard, in the Relation, de la Nouvelle France, Relations des Jésuites, Quebec ed., Vol. I. p. 35, writes it Quinitequi, and Champlain writes it Quinibequy and Quinebequi; hence Mr. Trumball infers that it is probably equivalent in meaning to quin-ni-pi-ohke, meaning "long water place," derived from the Abnaki, K8 né-be-ki.—Vide Ind. Geog. Names, Col. Conn. His. Soc. Vol. II. p. 15.
40. Vide Vol. II. note 110.
41. Sagadahock. This name is particularly applied to the lower part of the Kennebec. It is from the Abnaki, sa'ghede'aki, "land at the mouth."—Vide Indian Geographical Names, by J. H. Trumball, Col. Conn. His. Society, Vol. II. p. 30. Dr. Edward Ballard derives it from sanktai-i-wi, to finish, and onk, a locative, "the finishing place," which means the mouth of a river.—Vide Report of U. S. Coast Survey, 1868, p. 258.
42. Bacchus Island. This was Richmond's Island, as we have stated in Vol. II. note 123. It will be admitted that the Bacchus Island of Champlain was either Richmond's Island or one of those in the bay of the Saco. Champlain does not give a specific name to any of the islands in the bay, as may be seen by referring to the explanations of his map of the bay, Vol. II p. 65. If one of them had been Bacchus Island, he would not have failed to refer to it, according to his uniform custom, under that name. Hence it is certain that his Bacchus Island was not one of those figured on his local map of the bay of the Saco. By reference to the large map of 1632, it will be seen that Bacchus Island is represented by the number 50, which is placed over against the largest island in the neighborhood and that farthest to the east, which, of course, must be Richmond's Island. It is, however, proper to state that these reference figures are not in general so carefully placed as to enable us to rely upon them in fixing a locality, particularly if unsupported by other evidence. But in this case other evidence is not wanting.
43. Vide Vol. II. pp. 64-67.
44. Nicotiana rustica. Vide, Vol. II. by Charles Pickering, M.D. Boston, note 130. Chronological His. Plants, 1879, p. 741, et passim.
45. Daniel Gookin, who wrote in 1674, speaks of the following subdivisions among the Massachusetts Indians: "Their chief sachem held dominion over many other petty governours; as those of Weechagafkas, Neponsitt, Punkapaog, Nonantam, Nashaway, and some of the Nipmuck people."—Vide Gookin's His. Col.
46. Vide Vol. II. note 159. Mushauiwomuk, which we have converted into Shawmut, means, "where there is going-by-boat." The French, if they heard the name and learned its meaning, could hardly have failed to see the appropriateness of it as applied by the aborigines to Boston harbor.—Vide Trumball in Connecticut Historical Society's Collections, Vol. II. p. 5.
47. It was probably on this very bluff from which was seen Nauset harbor on the 19th of July, 1605, and after the lapse of two hundred and seventy four years, on the 17th of November, 1879 the citizens of the United States, with the flags of America, France, and England gracefully waving over their heads, addressed their congratulations by telegraph to the citizens of France at Brest on the communication between the two countries that day completed through submarine wires under the auspices of the "Compagnie Française du Télégraph de Paris à New York."
48. Vide Vol. II. p 91, note 176.
49. The Horsefoot-crab, Limulus polyphemus. Champlain gives the Indian name, siguenoc. Hariot saw, while at Roanoke Island, in 1585, and described the same crustacean under the name of seekanauk. The Indian word is obviously the same, the differing French and English orthography representing the same sound. It thus appears that this shell-fish was at that time known by the aborigines under the same name for at least a thousand miles along the Atlantic coast, from the Kennebec, in Maine, to Roanoke Island, in North Carolina. Vide Hariot's Briefe and True Report of the New Found Land of Virginia, Hakluyt, Vol. III. p. 334. See also Vol. II. of this work, notes 171, 172, 173, for some account of the black skimmer and the wild turkey.
On the 8th of August, the exploring party reached St. Croix. During their absence, Pont Gravé had arrived from France with additional men and provisions for the colony. As no satisfactory site had been found by De Monts in his recent tour along the coast, it was determined to remove the colony temporarily to Port Royal, situated within the bay now known as Annapolis Basin. The buildings at St. Croix, with the exception of the store-house, were taken down and transported to the bay. Champlain and Pont Gravé were sent forward to select a place for the settlement, which was fixed on the north side of the basin, directly opposite to Goat Island, near or upon the present site of Lower Granville. the situation was protected from the piercing and dreaded winds of the northwest by a lofty range of hills, [50] while it was elevated and commanded a charming view of the placid bay in front. The dwellings which they erected were arranged in the form of a quadrangle with an open court in the centre, as at St. Croix, while gardens and pleasure-grounds were laid out by Champlain in the immediate vicinity.
When the work of the new settlement was well advanced, De Monts, having appointed Pont Gravé as his lieutenant, departed for France, where he hoped to obtain additional privileges from the government in his enterprise of planting a colony in the New World. Champlain preferred to remain, with the purpose of executing more fully his office as geographer to the king, by making discoveries on the Atlantic coast still further to the south.
From the beginning, the patentee had cherished the desire of discovering valuable mines somewhere on his domains, whose wealth, as well as that of the fur-trade, might defray some part of the heavy expenses involved in his colonial enterprise. While several investigations for this purpose had proved abortive, it was hoped that greater success would be attained by searches along the upper part of the Bay of Fundy. Before the approach of winter, therefore, Champlain and the miner, Master Jaques, a Sclavonian, made a tour to St. John, where they obtained the services of the Indian chief, Secondon, to accompany them and point out the place where copper ore had been discovered at the Bay of Mines. The search, thorough as was practicable under the circumstances, was, in the main, unsuccessful; the few specimens which they found were meagre and insignificant.
The winter at Port Royal was by no means so severe as the preceding one at St. Croix. The Indians brought in wild game from the forests. The colony had no want of fuel and pure water. But experience, bitter as it had been, did not yield to them the fruit of practical wisdom. They referred their sufferings to the climate, but took too little pains to protect themselves against its rugged power. Their dwellings, hastily thrown together, were cold and damp, arising from the green, unseasoned wood of which they were doubtless in part constructed, and from the standing rainwater with which their foundations were at all times inundated, which was neither diverted by embankments nor drawn away by drainage. The dreaded mal de la terre, or scurvy, as might have been anticipated, made its appearance in the early part of the season, causing the death of twelve out of the forty-five comprising their whole number, while others were prostrated by this painful, repulsive, and depressing disease.
The purpose of making further discoveries on the southern coast, warmly cherished by Champlain, and entering fully into the plans of De Monts, had not been forgotten. Three times during the early part of the summer they had equipped their barque, made up their party, and left Port Royal for this undertaking, and as many times had been driven back by the violence of the winds and the waves.
In the mean time, the supplies which had been promised and expected from France had not arrived. This naturally gave to Pont Gravé, the lieutenant, great anxiety, as without them it was clearly inexpedient to venture upon another winter in the wilds of La Cadie. It had been stipulated by De Monts, the patentee, that if succors did not arrive before the middle of July, Pont Gravé should make arrangements for the return of the colony by the fishing vessels to be found at the Grand Banks. Accordingly, on the 17th of that month, Pont Gravé set sail with the little colony in two barques, and proceeded towards Cape Breton, to seek a passage home. But De Monts had not been remiss in his duty. He had, after many difficulties and delays, despatched a vessel of a hundred and fifty tons, called the "Jonas," with fifty men and ample provisions for the approaching winter. While Pont Gravé with his two barques and his retreating colony had run into Yarmouth Bay for repairs, the "Jonas" passed him unobserved, and anchored in the basin before the deserted settlement of Port Royal. An advice-boat had, however, been wisely despatched by the "Jonas" to reconnoitre the inlets along the shore, which fortunately intercepted the departing colony near Cape Sable, and, elated with fresh news from home, they joyfully returned to the quarters they had so recently abandoned.
In addition to a considerable number of artisans and laborers for the colony, the "Jonas" had brought out Sieur De Poutrincourt, to remain as lieutenant of La Cadie, and likewise Marc Lescarbot, a young attorney of Paris, who had already made some scholarly attainments, and who subsequently distinguished himself as an author, especially by the publication of a history of New France.
De Poutrincourt immediately addressed himself to putting all things in order at Port Royal, where it was obviously expedient for the colony to remain, at least for the winter. As soon as the "Jonas" had been unladen, Pont Gravé and most of those who had shared his recent hardships, departed in her for the shores of France. When the tenements had been cleansed, refitted, and refurnished, and their provisions had been safely stored, De Poutrincourt, by way of experiment, to test the character of the climate and the capability of the soil, despatched a squad of gardeners and farmers five miles up the river, to the grounds now occupied by the village of Annapolis, [51] where the soil was open, clear of forest trees, and easy of cultivation. They planted a great variety of seeds, wheat, rye, hemp, flax, and of garden esculents, which grew with extraordinary luxuriance, but, as the season was too late for any of them to ripen, the experiment failed either as a test of the soil or the climate.
On a former visit in 1604, De Poutrincourt had conceived a great admiration for Annapolis basin, its protected situation, its fine scenery, and its rich soil. He had a strong desire to bring his family there and make it his permanent abode. With this design, he had requested and received from De Monts a personal grant of this region, which had also been confirmed to him [52] by Henry IV. But De Monts wished to plant his La Cadian colony in a milder and more genial climate. He had therefore enjoined upon De Poutrincourt, as his lieutenant, on leaving France, to continue the explorations for the selection of a site still farther to the south. Accordingly, on the 5th of September, 1606, De Poutrincourt left Annapolis Basin, which the French called Port Royal, in a barque of eighteen tons, to fulfil this injunction.
It was Champlain's opinion that they ought to sail directly for Nauset harbor, on Cape Cod, and commence their explorations where their search had terminated the preceding year, and thus advance into a new region, which had not already been surveyed. But other counsels prevailed, and a large part of the time which could be spared for this investigation was exhausted before they reached the harbor of Nauset. They made a brief visit to the island of St. Croix, in which De Monts had wintered in 1604-5, touched also at Saco, where the Indians had already completed their harvest, and the grapes at Bacchus Island were ripe and luscious. Thence sailing directly to Cape Anne, where, finding no safe roadstead, they passed round to Gloucester harbor, which they found spacious, well protected, with good depth of water, and which, for its great excellence and attractive scenery, they named Beauport, or the beautiful harbor. Here they remained several days. It was a native settlement, comprising two hundred savages, who were cultivators of the soil, which was prolific in corn, beans, melons, pumpkins, tobacco, and grapes. The harbor was environed with fine forest trees, as hickory, oak, ash, cypress, and sassafras. Within the town there were several patches of cultivated land, which the Indians were gradually augmenting by felling the trees, burning the wood, and after a few years, aided by the natural process of decay, eradicating the stumps. The French were kindly received and entertained with generous hospitality. Grapes just gathered from the vines, and squashes of several varieties, the trailing bean still well known in New England, and the Jerusalem artichoke crisp from the unexhausted soil, were presented as offerings of welcome to their guests. While these gifts were doubtless tokens of a genuine friendliness so far as the savages were capable of that virtue, the lurking spirit of deceit and treachery which had been inherited and fostered by their habits and mode of life, could not be restrained.
The French barque was lying at anchor a short distance northeast of Ten Pound Island. Its boat was undergoing repairs on a peninsula near by, now known as Rocky Neck, and the sailors were washing their linen just at the point where the peninsula is united to the mainland. While Champlain was walking on this causeway, he observed about fifty savages, completely armed, cautiously screening themselves behind a clump of bushes on the edge of Smith's Cove. As soon as they were aware that they were seen, they came forth, concealing their weapons as much as possible, and began to dance in token of a friendly greeting. But when they discovered De Poutrincourt in the wood near by, who had approached unobserved, with eight armed musketeers to disperse them in case of an attack, they immediately took to flight, and, scattering in all directions, made no further hostile demonstrations. [53] This serio-comic incident did not interfere with the interchange of friendly offices between the two parties, and when the voyagers were about to leave, the savages urged them with great earnestness to remain longer, assuring them that two thousand of their friends would pay them a visit the very next day. This invitation was, however, not heeded. In Champlain's opinion it was a ruse contrived only to furnish a fresh opportunity to attack and overpower them.
On the 30th of September, they left the harbor of Gloucester, and, during the following night, sailing in a southerly direction, passing Brant Point, they found themselves in the lower part of Cape Cod Bay. When the sun rose, a low, sandy shore stretched before them. Sending their boat forward to a place where the shore seemed more elevated, they found deeper water and a harbor, into which they entered in five or six fathoms. They were welcomed by three Indian canoes. They found oysters in such quantities in this bay, and of such excellent quality, that they named it Le Port aux Huistres, [54] or Oyster Harbor. After a few hours, they weighed anchor, and directing their course north, a quarter northeast, with a favoring wind, soon doubled Cape Cod. The next day, the 2d of October, they arrived off Nauset. De Poutrincourt, Champlain, and others entered the harbor in a small boat, where they were greeted by a hundred and fifty savages with singing and dancing, according to their usual custom. After a brief visit, they returned to the barque and continued their course along the sandy shore. When near the heel of the cape, off Chatham, they found themselves imperilled among breakers and sand-banks, so dangerous as to render it inexpedient to attempt to land, even with a small boat. The savages were observing them from the shore, and soon manned a canoe, and came to them with singing and demonstrations of joy. From them, they learned that lower down a harbor would be found, where their barque might ride in safety. Proceeding, therefore, in the same direction, after many difficulties, they succeeded in rounding the peninsula of Monomoy, and finally, in the gray of the evening, cast anchor in the offing near Chatham, now known as Old Stage Harbor. The next day they entered, passing between Harding's Beach Point and Morris Island, in two fathoms of water, and anchored in Stage Harbor. This harbor is about a mile long and half a mile wide, and at its western extremity is connected by tide-water with Oyster Pond, and with Mill Cove on the east by Mitchell's River. Mooring their barque between these two arms of the harbor, towards the westerly end, the explorers remained there about three weeks. It was the centre of an Indian settlement, containing five or six hundred persons. Although it was now well into October, the natives of both sexes were entirely naked, with the exception of a slight band about the loins. They subsisted upon fish and the products of the soil. Indian corn was their staple. It was secured in the autumn in bags made of braided grass, and buried in the sand-banks, and withdrawn as it was needed during the winter. The savages were of fine figure and of olive complexion. They adorned themselves with an embroidery skilfully interwoven with feathers and beads, and dressed their hair in a variety of braids, like those at Saco. Their dwellings were conical in shape, covered with thatch of rushes and corn-husks, and surrounded by cultivated fields. Each cabin contained one or two beds, a kind of matting, two or three inches in thickness, spread upon a platform on which was a layer of elastic staves, and the whole raised a foot from the ground. On these they secured refreshing repose. Their chiefs neither exercised nor claimed any superior authority, except in time of war. At all other times and in all other matters complete equality reigned throughout the tribe.
The stay at Chatham was necessarily prolonged in baking bread to serve the remainder of the voyage, and in repairing their barque, whose rudder had been badly shattered in the rough passage round the cape. For these purposes, a bakery and a forge were set up on shore, and a tent pitched for the convenience and protection of the workmen. While these works were in progress, De Poutrincourt, Champlain, and others made frequent excursions into the interior, always with a guard of armed men, sometimes making a circuit of twelve or fifteen miles. The explorers were fascinated with all they saw. The aroma of the autumnal forest and the balmy air of October stimulated their senses. The nut-trees were loaded with ripe fruit, and the rich clusters of grapes were hanging temptingly upon the vines. Wild game was plentiful and delicious. The fish of the bay were sweet, delicate, and of many varieties. Nature, unaided by art, had thus supplied so many human wants that Champlain gravely put upon record his opinion that this would be a most excellent place in which to lay the foundations of a commonwealth, if the harbor were deeper and better protected at its mouth.
After the voyagers had been in Chatham eight or nine days, the Indians, tempted by the implements which they saw about the forge and bakery, conceived the idea of taking forcible possession of them, in order to appropriate them to their own use. As a preparation for this, and particularly to put themselves in a favorable condition in case of an attack or reprisal, they were seen removing their women, children, and effects into the forests, and even taking down their cabins. De Poutrincourt, observing this, gave orders to the workmen to pass their nights no longer on shore, but to go on board the barque to assure their personal safety. This command, however, was not obeyed. The next morning, at break of day, four hundred savages, creeping softly over a hill in the rear, surrounded the tent, and poured such a volley of arrows upon the defenceless workmen that escape was impossible. Three of them were killed upon the spot; a fourth was mortally and a fifth badly wounded. The alarm was given by the sentinel on the barque. De Poutrincourt, Champlain, and the rest, aroused from their slumbers, rushed half-clad into the ship's boat, and hastened to the rescue. As soon as they touched the shore, the savages, fleet as the greyhound, escaped to the wood. Pursuit, under the circumstances, was not to be made; and, if it had been, would have ended in their utter destruction. Freed from immediate danger, they collected the dead and gave them Christian burial near the foot of a cross, which had been erected the day before. While the service of prayer and song was offered, the savages in the distance mocked them with derisive attitudes and hideous howls. Three hours after the French had retired to their barque, the miscreants returned, tore down the cross, disinterred the dead, and carried off the garments in which they had been laid to rest. They were immediately driven off by the French, the cross was restored to its place, and the dead reinterred.
Before leaving Chatham, some anxiety was felt in regard to their safety in leaving the harbor, as the little barque had scarcely been able to weather the rough seas of Monomoy on their inward voyage. A boat had been sent out in search of a safer and a better roadway, which, creeping along by the shore sixteen or eighteen miles, returned, announcing three fathoms of water, and neither bars nor reefs. On the 16th of October they gave their canvas to the breeze, and sailed out of Stage Harbor, which they had named Port Fortuné, [55] an appellation probably suggested by their narrow escape in entering and by the bloody tragedy to which we have just referred. Having gone eighteen or twenty miles, they sighted the island of Martha's Vineyard lying low in the distance before them, which they called La Soupçonneuse, the suspicious one, as they had several times been in doubt whether it were not a part of the mainland. A contrary wind forced them to return to their anchorage in Stage Harbor. On the 20th they set out again, and continued their course in a southwesterly direction until they reached the entrance of Vineyard Sound. The rapid current of tide water flowing from Buzzard's Bay into the sound through the rocky channel between Nonamesset and Wood's Holl, they took to be a river coming from the mainland, and named it Rivière de Champlain.
This point, in front of Wood's Holl, is the southern limit of the French explorations on the coast of New England, reached by them on the 20th of October, 1606.
Encountering a strong wind, approaching a gale, they were again forced to return to Stage Harbor, where they lingered two or three days, awaiting favoring winds for their return to the colony at the bay of Annapolis.
We regret to add that, while they were thus detained, under the very shadow of the cross they had recently erected, the emblem of a faith that teaches love and forgiveness, they decoyed, under the guise of friendship, several of the poor savages into their power, and inhumanly butchered them in cold blood. This deed was perpetrated on the base principle of lex talionis, and yet they did not know, much less were they able to prove, that their victims were guilty or took any part in the late affray. No form of trial was observed, no witnesses testified, and no judge adjudicated. It was a simple murder, for which we are sure any Christian's cheek would mantle with shame who should offer for it any defence or apology.
When this piece of barbarity had been completed, the little French barque made its final exit from Stage Harbor, passed successfully round the shoals of Monomoy, and anchored near Nauset, where they remained a day or two, leaving on the 28th of October, and sailing directly to Isle Haute in Penobscot Bay. They made brief stops at some of the islands at the mouth of the St. Croix, and at the Grand Manan, and arrived at Annapolis Basin on the 14th of November, after an exceedingly rough passage and many hair-breadth escapes.
50. On Lescarbot's map of 1609, this elevation is denominated Mont de la
Roque. Vide also Vol. II. note 180.
51. Lescarbot locates Poutrincourt's fort on the same spot which he called
Manefort, the site of the present village of Annapolis.
52. "Doncques l'an 1607, tous les François estans reuenus (ainsi qu'a esté dict) le Sieur de Potrincourt présenta à feu d'immortelle memorie Henry le Grand la donnation à luy faicte par le sieur de Monts, requérant humblement Sa Majesté de la ratifier. Le Roy eut pour agréable la dicte Requeste," &c. Relations des Jésuites, 1611, Quebec ed., Vol. I. p. 25. Vide Vol. II. of this work, p 37.
53. This scene is well represented on Champlain's map of Beauport or Gloucester Harbor. Vide Vol. II. p. 114.
54. Le Port aux Huistres, Barnstable Harbor. Vide Vol. II. Note 208.
55. Port Fortuné In giving this name there was doubtless an allusion to the goddess FORTUNA of the ancients, whose office it was to dispense riches and poverty, pleasures and pains, blessings and calamities. They had experienced good and evil at her fickle hand. They had entered the harbor in peril and fear, but nevertheless in safety. They had suffered by the attack of the savages, but fortunately had escaped utter annihilation, which they might well have feared. It had been to them eminently the port of hazard or chance. Vide Vol. II Note 231 La Soupçonneuse. Vide Vol. II, Note 227.
With the voyage which we have described in the last chapter, Champlain terminated his explorations on the coast of New England. He never afterward stepped upon her soil. But he has left us, nevertheless, an invaluable record of the character, manners, and customs of the aborigines as he saw them all along from the eastern borders of Maine to the Vineyard Sound, and carefully studied them during the period of three consecutive years. Of the value of these explorations we need not here speak at length. We shall refer to them again in the sequel.
The return of the explorers was hailed with joy by the colonists at Annapolis Basin. To give éclat to the occasion, Lescarbot composed a poem in French, which he recited at the head of a procession which marched with gay representations to the water's edge, to receive their returning friends. Over the gateway of the quadrangle formed by their dwellings, dignified by them as their fort, were the arms of France, wreathed in laurel, together with the motto of the king.—
Under this, the arms of De Monts were displayed, overlaid with evergreen, and bearing the following inscription:—
Then came the arms of Poutrincourt, crowned also with garlands, and inscribed:—
When the excitement of the return had passed, the little settlement subsided into its usual routine. The leisure of the winter was devoted to various objects bearing upon the future prosperity of the colony. Among others, a corn mill was erected at a fall on Allen River, four or five miles from the settlement, a little east of the present site of Annapolis. A road was commenced through the forest leading from Lower Granville towards the mouth of the bay. Two small barques were built, to be in readiness in anticipation of a failure to receive succors the next summer, and new buildings were erected for the accommodation of a larger number of colonists. Still, there was much unoccupied time, and, shut out as they were from the usual associations of civilized life, it was hardly possible that the winter should not seem long and dreary, especially to the gentlemen.
To break up the monotony and add variety to the dull routine of their life, Champlain contrived what he called L'ORDRE DE BON TEMPS, or The Rule of Mirth, which was introduced and carried out with spirit and success. The fifteen gentlemen who sat at the table of De Poutrincourt, the governor, comprising the whole number of the order, took turns in performing the duties of steward and caterer, each holding the office for a single day. With a laudable ambition, the Grand Master for the time being laid the forest and the sea under contribution, and the table was constantly furnished with the most delicate and well seasoned game, and the sweetest as well as the choicest varieties of fish. The frequent change of office and the ingenuity displayed, offered at every repast, either in the viands or mode of cooking, something new and tempting to the appetite. At each meal, a ceremony becoming the dignity of the order was strictly observed. At a given signal, the whole company marched into the dining-hall, the Grand Master at the head, with his napkin over his shoulder, his staff of office in his hand, and the glittering collar of the order about his neck, while the other members bore each in his hand a dish loaded and smoking with some part of the delicious repast. A ceremony of a somewhat similar character was observed at the bringing in of the fruit. At the close of the day, when the last meal had been served, and grace had been said, the master formally completed his official duty by placing the collar of the order upon the neck of his successor, at the same time presenting to him a cup of wine, in which the two drank to each other's health and happiness. These ceremonies were generally witnessed by thirty or forty savages, men, women, boys, and girls, who gazed in respectful admiration, not to say awe, upon this exhibition of European civilization. When Membertou, [56] the venerable chief of the tribe, or other sagamores were present, they were invited to a seat at the table, while bread was gratuitously distributed to the rest.
When the winter had passed, which proved to be an exceedingly mild one, all was astir in the little colony. The preparation of the soil, both in the gardens and in the larger fields, for the spring sowing, created an agreeable excitement and healthy activity.
On the 24th May, in the midst of these agricultural enterprises, a boat arrived in the bay, in charge of a young man from St. Malo, named Chevalier, who had come out in command of the "Jonas," which he had left at Canseau engaged in fishing for the purpose of making up a return cargo of that commodity. Chevalier brought two items of intelligence of great interest to the colonists, but differing widely in their character. The one was the birth of a French prince, the Duke of Orleans; the other, that the company of De Monts had been broken up, his monopoly of the fur-trade withdrawn, and his colony ordered to return to France. The birth of a prince demanded expressions of joy, and the event was loyally celebrated by bonfires and a Te Deum. It was, however, giving a song when they would gladly have hung their harps upon the willows.
While the scheme of De Monts's colonial enterprise was defective, containing in itself a principle which must sooner or later work its ruin, the disappointment occasioned by its sudden termination was none the less painful and humiliating. The monopoly on which it was based could only be maintained by a degree of severity and apparent injustice, which always creates enemies and engenders strife. The seizure and confiscation of several ships with their valuable cargoes on the shores of Nova Scotia, had awakened a personal hostility in influential circles in France, and the sufferers were able, in turn, to strike back a damaging blow upon the author of their losses. They easily and perhaps justly represented that the monopoly of the fur-trade secured to De Monts was sapping the national commerce and diverting to personal emolument revenues that properly belonged to the state. To an impoverished sovereign with an empty treasury this appeal was irresistible. The sacredness of the king's commission and the loss to the patentee of the property already embarked in the enterprise had no weight in the royal scales. De Monts's privilege was revoked, with the tantalizing salvo of six thousand livres in remuneration, to be collected at his own expense from unproductive sources.
Under these circumstances, no money for the payment of the workmen or provisions for the coming winter had been sent out, and De Poutrincourt, with great reluctance, proceeded to break up the establishment. The goods and utensils, as well as specimens of the grain which they had raised, were to be carefully packed and sent round to the harbor of Canseau, to be shipped by the "Jonas," together with the whole body of the colonists, as soon as she should have received her cargo of fish.
While these preparations were in progress, two excursions were made; one towards the west, and another northeasterly towards the head of the Bay of Fundy. Lescarbot accompanied the former, passing several days at St. John and the island of St. Croix, which was the westerly limit of his explorations and personal knowledge of the American coast. The other excursion was conducted by De Poutrincourt, accompanied by Champlain, the object of which was to search for ores of the precious metals, a species of wealth earnestly coveted and overvalued at the court of France. They sailed along the northern shores of Nova Scotia, entered Mines Channel, and anchored off Cape Fendu, now Anglicised into the uneuphonious name of Cape Split. De Poutrincourt landed on this headland, and ascended a steep and lofty summit which is not less than four hundred feet in height. Moss several feet in thickness, the growth of centuries, had gathered upon it, and, when he stood upon the pinnacle, it yielded and trembled like gelatine under his feet. He found himself in a critical situation. From this giddy and unstable height he had neither the skill or courage to return. After much anxiety, he was at length rescued by some of his more nimble sailors, who managed to put a hawser over the summit, by means of which he safely descended. They named it Cap de Poutrincourt.
They proceeded as far as the head of the Basin of Mines, but their search for mineral wealth was fruitless, beyond a few meagre specimens of copper. Their labors were chiefly rewarded by the discovery of a moss-covered cross in the last stages of decay, the relic of fishermen, or other Christian mariners, who had, years before, been upon the coast.
The exploring parties having returned to Port Royal, to their settlement in what is now known as Annapolis Basin, the bulk of the colonists departed in three barques for Canseau, on the 30th of July, while De Poutrincourt and Champlain, with a complement of sailors, remained some days longer, that they might take with them specimens of wheat still in the field and not yet entirely ripe.
On the 11th of August they likewise bade adieu to Port Royal amid the tears of the assembled savages, with whom they had lived in friendship, and who were disappointed and grieved at their departure. In passing round the peninsula of Nova Scotia in their little shallop, it was necessary to keep close in upon the shore, which enabled Champlain, who had not before been upon the coast east of La Hève, to make a careful survey from that point to Canseau, the results of which are fully stated in his notes, and delineated on his map of 1613.
On the 3d of September, the "Jonas," bearing away the little French colony, sailed out of the harbor of Canseau, and, directing its course towards the shores of France, arrived at Saint Malo on the 1st of October, 1607.
Champlain's explorations on what may be strictly called the Atlantic coast of North America were now completed. He had landed at La Hève in Nova Scotia on the 8th of May, 1604, and had consequently been in the country three years and nearly four months. During this period he had carefully examined the whole shore from Canseau, the eastern limit of Nova Scotia, to the Vineyard Sound on the southern boundaries of Massachusetts. This was the most ample, accurate, and careful survey of this region which was made during the whole period from the discovery of the continent in 1497 down to the establishment of the English colony at Plymouth in 1620. A numerous train of navigators had passed along the coast of New England: Sebastian Cabot, Estévan Gomez, Jean Alfonse, André Thevet, John Hawkins, Bartholomew Gosnold, Martin Pring, George Weymouth, Henry Hudson, John Smith, and the rest, but the knowledge of the coast which we obtain from them is exceedingly meagre and unsatisfactory, especially as compared with that contained in the full, specific, and detailed descriptions, maps, and drawings left us by this distinguished pioneer in the study and illustration of the geography of the New England coast. [57]
The winter of 1607-8 Champlain passed in France, where he was pleasantly occupied in social recreations which were especially agreeable to him after an absence of more than three years, and in recounting to eager listeners his experiences in the New World. He took an early opportunity to lay before Monsieur de Monts the results of the explorations which he had made in La Cadie since the departure of the latter from Annapolis Basin in the autumn of 1605, illustrating his narrative by maps and drawings which he had prepared of the bays and harbors on the coast of Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and New England.
While most men would have been disheartened by the opposition which he encountered, the mind of De Monts was, nevertheless, rekindled by the recitals of Champlain with fresh zeal in the enterprise which he had undertaken. The vision of building up a vast territorial establishment, contemplated by his charter of 1604, with his own personal aggrandizement and that of his family, had undoubtedly vanished. But he clung, nevertheless, with extraordinary tenacity to his original purpose of planting a colony in the New World. This he resolved to do in the face of many obstacles, and notwithstanding the withdrawment of the royal protection and bounty. The generous heart of Henry IV. was by no means insensible to the merits of his faithful subject, and, on his solicitation, he granted to him letters-patent for the exclusive right of trade in America, but for the space only of a single year. With this small boon from the royal hand, De Monts hastened to fit out two vessels for the expedition. One was to be commanded by Pont Gravé, who was to devote his undivided attention to trade with the Indians for furs and peltry; the other was to convey men and material for a colonial plantation.
Champlain, whose energy, zeal, and prudence had impressed themselves upon the mind of De Monts, was appointed lieutenant of the expedition, and intrusted with the civil administration, having a sufficient number of men for all needed defence against savage intruders, Basque fisher men, or interloping fur-traders.
On the 13th of April, 1608, Champlain left the port of Honfleur, and arrived at the harbor of Tadoussac on the 3d of June. Here he found Pont Gravé, who had preceded him by a few days in the voyage, in trouble with a Basque fur-trader. The latter had persisted in carrying on his traffic, notwithstanding the royal commission to the contrary, and had succeeded in disabling Pont Gravé, who had but little power of resistance, killing one of his men, seriously wounding Pont Gravé himself, as well as several others, and had forcibly taken possession of his whole armament.
When Champlain had made full inquiries into all the circumstances, he saw clearly that the difficulty must be compromised; that the exercise of force in overcoming the intruding Basque would effectually break up his plans for the year, and bring utter and final ruin upon his undertaking. He wisely decided to pocket the insult, and let justice slumber for the present. He consequently required the Basque, who began to see more clearly the illegality of his course, to enter into a written agreement with Pont Gravé that neither should interfere with the other while they remained in the country, and that they should leave their differences to be settled in the courts on their return to France.
Having thus poured oil upon the troubled waters, Champlain proceeded to carry out his plans for the location and establishment of his colony. The difficult navigation of the St. Lawrence above Tadoussac was well known to him. The dangers of its numberless rocks, sand-bars, and fluctuating channels had been made familiar to him by the voyage of 1603. He determined, therefore, to leave his vessel in the harbor of Tadoussac, and construct a small barque of twelve or fourteen tons, in which to ascend the river and fix upon a place of settlement.
While the work was in progress, Champlain reconnoitred the neighborhood, collecting much geographical information from the Indians relating to Lake St. John and a traditionary salt sea far to the north, exploring the Saguenay for some distance, of which he has given us a description so accurate and so carefully drawn that it needs little revision after the lapse of two hundred and seventy years.
On the last of June, the barque was completed, and Champlain, with a complement of men and material, took his departure. As he glided along in his little craft, he was exhilarated by the fragrance of the atmosphere, the bright coloring of the foliage, the bold, picturesque scenery that constantly revealed itself on both sides of the river. The lofty mountains, the expanding valleys, the luxuriant forests, the bold headlands, the enchanting little bays and inlets, and the numerous tributaries bursting into the broad waters of the St. Lawrence, were all carefully examined and noted in his journal. The expedition seemed more like a holiday excursion than the grave prelude to the founding of a city to be renowned in the history of the continent.
On the fourth day, they approached the site of the present city of Quebec. The expanse of the river had hitherto been from eight to thirteen miles. Here a lofty headland, approaching from the interior, advances upon the river and forces it into a narrow channel of three-fourths of a mile in width. The river St. Charles, a small stream flowing from the northwest, uniting here with the St. Lawrence, forms a basin below the promontory, spreading out two miles in one direction and four in another. The rocky headland, jutting out upon the river, rises up nearly perpendicularly, and to a height of three hundred and forty-five feet, commanding from its summit a view of water, forest and mountain of surpassing grandeur and beauty. A narrow belt of fertile land formed by the crumbling débris of ages, stretches along between the water's edge and the base of the precipice, and was then covered with a luxurious growth of nut-trees. The magnificent basin below, the protecting wall of the headland in the rear, the deep water of the river in front, rendered this spot peculiarly attractive. Here on this narrow plateau, Champlain resolved to place his settlement, and forthwith began the work of felling trees, excavating cellars, and constructing houses.
On the 3d day of July, 1608, Champlain laid the foundation of Quebec. The name which he gave to it had been applied to it by the savages long before. It is derived from the Algonquin word quebio, or quebec, signifying a narrowing, and was descriptive of the form which the river takes at that place, to which we have already referred.
A few days after their arrival, an event occurred of exciting interest to Champlain and his little colony. One of their number, Jean du Val, an abandoned wretch, who possessed a large share of that strange magnetic power which some men have over the minds of others, had so skilfully practised upon the credulity of his comrades that he had drawn them all into a scheme which, aside from its atrocity, was weak and ill-contrived at every point. It was nothing less than a plan to assassinate Champlain, seize the property belonging to the expedition, and sell it to the Basque fur-traders at Tadoussac, under the hallucination that they should be enriched by the pillage. They had even entered into a solemn compact, and whoever revealed the secret was to be visited by instant death. Their purpose was to seize Champlain in an unguarded moment and strangle him, or to shoot him in the confusion of a false alarm to be raised in the night by themselves. But before the plan was fully ripe for execution, a barque unexpectedly arrived from Tadoussac with an instalment of utensils and provisions for the colony. One of the men, Antoine Natel, who had entered into the conspiracy with reluctance, and had been restrained from a disclosure by fear, summoned courage to reveal the plot to the pilot of the boat, first securing from him the assurance that he should be shielded from the vengeance of his fellow-conspirators. The secret was forthwith made known to Champlain, who, by a stroke of finesse, placed himself beyond danger before he slept. At his suggestion, the four leading spirits of the plot were invited by one of the sailors to a social repast on the barque, at which two bottles of wine which he pretended had been given him at Tadoussac were to be uncorked. In the midst of the festivities, the "four worthy heads of the conspiracy," as Champlain satirically calls them, were suddenly clapped into irons. It was now late in the evening, but Champlain nevertheless summoned all the rest of the men into his presence, and offered them a full pardon, on condition that they would disclose the whole scheme and the motives which had induced them to engage in it. This they were eager to do, as they now began to comprehend the dangerous compact into which they had entered, and the peril which threatened their own lives. These preliminary investigations rendered it obvious to Champlain that grave consequences must follow, and he therefore proceeded with great caution.
The next day, he took the depositions of the pardoned men, carefully reducing them to writing. He then departed for Tadoussac, taking the four conspirators with him. On consultation, he decided to leave them there, where they could be more safely guarded until Pont Gravé and the principal men of the expedition could return with them to Quebec, where he proposed to give them a more public and formal trial. This was accordingly done. The prisoners were duly confronted with the witnesses. They denied nothing, but freely admitted their guilt. With the advice and concurrence of Pont Gravé, the pilot, surgeon, mate, boatswain, and others, Champlain condemned the four conspirators to be hung; three of them, however, to be sent home for a confirmation or revision of their sentence by the authorities in France, while the sentence of Jean Du Val, the arch-plotter of the malicious scheme, was duly executed in their presence, with all the solemn forms and ceremonies usual on such occasions. Agreeably to a custom of that period, the ghastly head of Du Val was elevated on the highest pinnacle of the fort at Quebec, looking down and uttering its silent warning to the busy colonists below; the grim signal to all beholders, that "the way of the transgressor is hard."
The catastrophe, had not the plot been nipped in the bud, would have been sure to take place. The final purpose of the conspirators might not have been realized; it must have been defeated at a later stage; but the hand of Du Val, prompted by a malignant nature, was nerved to strike a fatal blow, and the life of Champlain would have been sacrificed at the opening of the tragic scene.
The punishment of Du Val, in its character and degree, was not only agreeable to the civil policy of the age, but was necessary for the protection of life and the maintenance of order and discipline in the colony. A conspiracy on land, under the present circumstances, was as dangerous as a mutiny at sea; and the calm, careful, and dignified procedure of Champlain in firmly visiting upon the criminal a severe though merited punishment, reveals the wisdom, prudence, and humanity which were prominent elements in his mental and moral constitution.
56. Membertou. See Pierre Biard's account of his death in 1611. Relations des Jésuites. Quebec ed, Vol. I. p. 32.
57. Had the distinguished navigators who early visited the coasts of North America illustrated their narratives by drawings and maps, it would have added greatly to their value. Capt. John Smith's map, though necessarily indefinite and general, is indispensable to the satisfactory study of his still more indefinite "Description of New England." It is, perhaps, a sufficient apology for the vagueness of Smith's statements, and therefore it ought to be borne in mind, that his work was originally written, probably, from memory, at least for the most part, while he was a prisoner on board a French man-of-war in 1615. This may be inferred from the following statement of Smith himself. In speaking of the movement of the French fleet, he says: "Still we spent our time about the Iles neere Fyall: where to keepe my perplexed thoughts from too much meditation of my miserable estate, I writ this discourse" Vide Description of New England by Capt. John Smith, London, 1616.
While the descriptions of our coast left by Champlain are invaluable to the historian and cannot well be overestimated, the process of making these surveys, with his profound love of such explorations and adventures, must have given him great personal satisfaction and enjoyment. It would be difficult to find any region of similar extent that could offer, on a summer's excursion, so much beauty to his eager and critical eye as this. The following description of the Gulf of Maine, which comprehends the major part of the field surveyed by Champlain, that lying between the headlands of Cape Sable and Cape Cod, gives an excellent idea of the infinite variety and the unexpected and marvellous beauties that are ever revealing themselves to the voyager as he passes along our coast.—
"This shoreland is also remarkable, being so battered and frayed by sea and storm, and worn perhaps by arctic currents and glacier beds, that its natural front of some 250 miles is multiplied to an extent of not less than 2,500 miles of salt-water line; while at an average distance of about three miles from the mainland, stretches a chain of outposts consisting of more than three hundred islands, fragments of the main, striking in their diversity on the west; low, wooded and grassy to the water's edge, and rising eastward through bolder types to the crowns and cliffs of Mount Desert and Quoddy Head, an advancing series from beauty to sublimity: and behind all these are deep basins and broad river-mouths, affording convenient and spacious harbors, in many of which the navies of nations might safely ride at anchor…. Especially attractive was the region between the Piscataqua and Penobscot in its marvellous beauty of shore and sea, of island and inlet, of bay and river and harbor, surpassing any other equally extensive portion of the Atlantic coast, and compared by travellers earliest and latest, with the famed archipelago of the Aegean." Vide Maine, Her Place in History, by Joshua L. Chamberlain, LL D, President of Bowdoin College, Augusta, 1877, pp. 4-5.
On the 18th of September, 1608, Pont Gravé, having obtained his cargo of furs and peltry, sailed for France.
The autumn was fully occupied by Champlain and his little band of colonists in completing the buildings and in making such other provisions as were needed against the rigors of the approaching winter. From the forest trees beams were hewed into shape with the axe, boards and plank were cut from the green wood with the saw, walls were reared from the rough stones gathered at the base of the cliff, and plots of land were cleared near the settlement, where wheat and rye were sown and grapevines planted, which successfully tested the good qualities of the soil and climate.
Three lodging-houses were erected on the northwest angle formed by the junction of the present streets St. Peter and Sous le Fort, near or on the site of the Church of Notre Dame. Adjoining, was a store-house. The whole was, surrounded by a moat fifteen feet wide and six feet deep, thus giving the settlement the character of a fort; a wise precaution against a sudden attack of the treacherous savages. [58]
At length the sunny days of autumn were gone, and the winter, with its fierce winds and its penetrating frosts and deep banks of snow, was upon them. Little occupation could be furnished for the twenty-eight men that composed the colony. Their idleness soon brought a despondency that hung like a pall upon their spirits. In February, disease made its approach. It had not been expected. Every defence within their knowledge had been provided against it. Their houses were closely sealed and warm; their clothing was abundant; their food nutritious and plenty. But a diet too exclusively of salt meat had, notwithstanding, in the opinion of Champlain, and we may add the want, probably, of exercise and the presence of bad air, induced the mal de la terre or scurvy, and it made fearful havoc with his men. Twenty, five out of each seven of their whole number, had been carried to their graves before the middle of April, and half of the remaining eight had been attacked by the loathsome scourge.
While the mind of Champlain was oppressed by the suffering and death that were at all times present in their abode, his sympathies were still further taxed by the condition of the savages, who gathered in great numbers about the settlement, in the most abject misery and in the last stages of starvation. As Champlain could only furnish them, from his limited stores, temporary and partial relief, it was the more painful to see them slowly dragging their feeble frames about in the snow, gathering up and devouring with avidity discarded meat in which the process of decomposition was far advanced, and which was already too potent with the stench of decay to be approached by his men.
Beyond the ravages of disease [59] and the starving Indians, Champlain adds nothing more to complete the gloomy picture of his first winter in Quebec. The gales of wind that swept round the wall of precipice that protected them in the rear, the drifts of snow that were piled up in fresh instalments with every storm about their dwelling, the biting frost, more piercing and benumbing than they had ever experienced before, the unceasing groans of the sick within, the semi-weekly procession bearing one after another of their diminishing numbers to the grave, the mystery that hung over the disease, and the impotency of all remedies, we know were prominent features in the picture. But the imagination seeks in vain for more than a single circumstance that could throw upon it a beam of modifying and softening light, and that was the presence of the brave Champlain, who bore all without a murmur, and, we may be sure, without a throb of unmanly fear or a sensation of cowardly discontent.
But the winter, as all winters do, at length melted reluctantly away, and the spring came with its verdure, and its new life. The spirits of the little remnant of a colony began to revive. Eight of the twenty-eight with which the winter began were still surviving. Four had escaped attack, and four were rejoicing convalescents.
On the 5th of June, news came that Pont Gravé had arrived from France, and was then at Tadoussac, whither Champlain immediately repaired to confer with him, and particularly to make arrangements at the earliest possible moment for an exploring expedition into the interior, an undertaking which De Monts had enjoined upon him, and which was not only agreeable to his own wishes, but was a kind of enterprise which had been a passion with him from his youth.
In anticipation of a tour of exploration during the approaching summer, Champlain had already ascertained from the Indians that, lying far to the southwest, was an extensive lake, famous among the savages, containing many fair islands, and surrounded by a beautiful and productive country. Having expressed a desire to visit this region, the Indians readily offered to act as guides, provided, nevertheless, that he would aid them in a warlike raid upon their enemies, the Iroquois, the tribe known to us as the Mohawks, whose homes were beyond the lake in question. Champlain without hesitation acceded to the condition exacted, but with little appreciation, as we confidently believe, of the bitter consequences that were destined to follow the alliance thus inaugurated; from which, in after years, it was inexpedient, if not impossible, to recede.
Having fitted out a shallop, Champlain left Quebec on his tour of exploration on the 18th of June, 1609, with eleven men, together with a party of Montagnais, a tribe of Indians who, in their hunting and fishing excursions, roamed over an indefinite region on the north side of the St. Lawrence, but whose headquarters were at Tadoussac. After ascending the St Lawrence about sixty miles, he came upon an encampment of two hundred or three hundred savages, Hurons [60] and Algonquins, the former dwelling on the borders of the lake of the same name, the latter on the upper waters of the Ottawa. They had learned something of the French from a son of one of their chiefs, who had been at Quebec the preceding autumn, and were now on their way to enter into an alliance with the French against the Iroquois. After formal negotiations and a return to Quebec to visit the French settlement and witness the effect of their firearms, of which they had heard and which greatly excited their curiosity, and after the usual ceremonies of feasting and dancing, the whole party proceeded up the river until they reached the mouth of the Richelieu. Here they remained two days, as guests of the Indians, feasting upon fish, venison, and water-fowl.
While these festivities were in progress, a disagreement arose among the savages, and the bulk of them, including the women, returned to their homes. Sixty warriors, however, some from each of the three allied tribes, proceeded up the Richelieu with Champlain. At the Falls of Chambly, finding it impossible for the shallop to pass them, he directed the pilot to return with it to Quebec, leaving only two men from the crew to accompany him on the remainder of the expedition. From this point, Champlain and his two brave companions entrusted themselves to the birch canoe of the savages. For a short distance, the canoes, twenty-four in all, were transported by land. The fall and rapids, extending as far as St. John, were at length passed. They then proceeded up the river, and, entering the lake which now bears the name of Champlain, crept along the western bank, advancing after the first few days only in the night, hiding themselves during the day in the thickets on the shore to avoid the observation of their enemies, whom they were now liable at any moment to meet.
On the evening of the 29th of July, at about ten o'clock, when the allies were gliding noiselessly along in restrained silence, as they approached the little cape that juts out into the lake at Ticonderoga, near where Fort Carillon was afterwards erected by the French, and where its ruins are still to be seen, [61] they discovered a flotilla of heavy canoes, of oaken bark, containing not far from two hundred Iroquois warriors, armed and impatient for conflict. A furor and frenzy as of so many enraged tigers instantly seized both parties. Champlain and his allies withdrew a short distance, an arrow's range from the shore, fastening their canoes by poles to keep them together, while the Iroquois hastened to the water's edge, drew up their canoes side by side, and began to fell trees and construct a barricade, which they were well able to accomplish with marvellous facility and skill. Two boats were sent out to inquire if the Iroquois desired to fight, to which they replied that they wanted nothing so much, and, as it was now dark, at sunrise the next morning they would give them battle. The whole night was spent by both parties in loud and tumultuous boasting, berating each other in the roundest terms which their savage vocabulary could furnish, insultingly charging each other with cowardice and weakness, and declaring that they would prove the truth of their assertions to their utter ruin the next morning.
When the sun began to gild the distant mountain-tops, the combatants were ready for the fray. Champlain and his two companions, each lying low in separate canoes of the Montagnais, put on, as best they could, the light armor in use at that period, and, taking the short hand-gun, or arquebus, went on shore, concealing themselves as much as possible from the enemy. As soon as all had landed, the two parties hastily approached each other, moving with a firm and determined tread. The allies, who had become fully aware of the deadly character of the hand-gun and were anxious to see an exhibition of its mysterious power, promptly opened their ranks, and Champlain marched forward in front, until he was within thirty paces of the Iroquois. When they saw him, attracted by his pale face and strange armor, they halted and gazed at him in a calm bewilderment for some seconds. Three Iroquois chiefs, tall and athletic, stood in front, and could be easily distinguished by the lofty plumes that waved above their heads. They began at once to make ready for a discharge of arrows. At the same instant, Champlain, perceiving this movement, levelled his piece, which had been loaded with four balls, and two chiefs fell dead, and another savage was mortally wounded by the same shot. At this, the allies raised a shout rivalling thunder in its stunning effect. From both sides the whizzing arrows filled the air. The two French arquebusiers, from their ambuscade in the thicket, immediately attacked in flank, pouring a deadly fire upon the enemy's right. The explosion of the firearms, altogether new to the Iroquois, the fatal effects that instantly followed, their chiefs lying dead at their feet and others fast falling, threw them into a tumultuous panic. They at once abandoned every thing, arms, provisions, boats, and camp, and without any impediment, the naked savages fled through the forest with the fleetness of the terrified deer. Champlain and his allies pursued them a mile and a half, or to the first fall in the little stream that connects Lake Champlain [62] and Lake George. [63] The victory was complete. The allies gathered at the scene of conflict, danced and sang in triumph, collected and appropriated the abandoned armor, feasted on the provisions left by the Iroquois, and, within three hours, with ten or twelve prisoners, were sailing down the lake on their homeward voyage.
After they had rowed about eight leagues, according to Champlain's estimate, they encamped for the night. A prevailing characteristic of the savages on the eastern coast, in the early history of America, was the barbarous cruelties which they inflicted upon their prisoners of war. [64] They did not depart from their usual custom in the present instance. Having kindled a fire, they selected a victim, and proceeded to excoriate his back with red-hot burning brands, and to apply live coals to the ends of his fingers, where they would give the most exquisite pain. They tore out his finger-nails, and, with sharp slivers of wood, pierced his wrists and rudely forced out the quivering sinews. They flayed off the skin from the top of his head, [65] and poured upon the bleeding wound a stream of boiling melted gum. Champlain remonstrated in vain. The piteous cries of the poor, tormented victim excited his unavailing compassion, and he turned away in anger and disgust. At length, when these inhuman tortures had been carried as far as they desired, Champlain was permitted, at his earnest request, with a musket-shot to put an end to his sufferings. But this was not the termination of the horrid performance. The dead victim was hacked in pieces, his heart severed into parts, and the surviving prisoners were ordered to eat it. This was too revolting to their nature, degraded as it was; they were forced, however, to take it into their mouths, but they would do no more, and their guard of more compassionate Algonquins allowed them to cast it into the lake.
This exhibition of savage cruelty was not extraordinary, but according to their usual custom. It was equalled, and, if possible, even surpassed, in the treatment of captives generally, and especially of the Jesuit missionaries in after years. [66]
When the party arrived at the Falls of Chambly, the Hurons and Algonquins left the river, in order to reach their homes by a shorter way, transporting their canoes and effects over land to the St. Lawrence near Montreal, while the rest continued their journey down the Richelieu and the St. Lawrence to Tadoussac, where their families were encamped, waiting to join in the usual ceremonies and rejoicings after a great victory.
When the returning warriors approached Tadoussac, they hung aloft on the prow of their canoes the scalped heads of those whom they had slain, decorated with beads which they had begged from the French for this purpose, and with a savage grace presented these ghastly trophies to their wives and daughters, who, laying aside their garments, eagerly swam out to obtain the precious mementoes, which they hung about their necks and bore rejoicing to the shore, where they further testified their satisfaction by dancing and singing.
After a few days, Champlain repaired to Quebec, and early in September decided to return with Pont Gravé to France. All arrangements were speedily made for that purpose. Fifteen men were left to pass the winter at Quebec, in charge of Captain Pierre Chavin of Dieppe. On the 5th of September they sailed from Tadoussac, and, lingering some days at Isle Percé, arrived at Honfleur on the 13th of October, 1609.
Champlain hastened immediately to Fontainebleau, to make a detailed report of his proceedings to Sieur de Monts, who was there in official attendance upon the king. [67] On this occasion he sought an audience also with Henry IV., who had been his friend and patron from the time of his first voyage to Canada in 1603. In addition to the new discoveries and observations which he detailed to him, he exhibited a belt curiously wrought and inlaid with porcupine-quills, the work of the savages, which especially drew forth the king's admiration. He also presented two specimens of the scarlet tanager, Pyranga rubra, a bird of great brilliancy of plumage and peculiar to this continent, and likewise the head of a gar-pike, a fish of singular characteristics, then known only in the waters of Lake Champlain. [68]
At this time De Monts was urgently seeking a renewal of his commission for the monopoly of the fur-trade. In this Champlain was deeply interested. But to this monopoly a powerful opposition arose, and all efforts at renewal proved utterly fruitless. De Monts did not, however, abandon the enterprise on which he had entered. Renewing his engagements with the merchants of Rouen with whom he had already been associated, he resolved to send out in the early spring, as a private enterprise and without any special privileges or monopoly, two vessels with the necessary equipments for strengthening his colony at Quebec and for carrying on trade as usual with the Indians.
Champlain was again appointed lieutenant, charged with the government and management of the colony, with the expectation of passing the next winter at Quebec, while Pont Gravé, as he had been before, was specially entrusted with the commercial department of the expedition.
They embarked at Honfleur, but were detained in the English Channel by bad weather for some days. In the mean time Champlain was taken seriously ill, the vessel needed additional ballast, and returned to port, and they did not finally put to sea till the 8th of April. They arrived at Tadoussac on the 26th of the same month, in the year 1610, and, two days later, sailed for Quebec, where they found the commander, Captain Chavin, and the little colony all in excellent health.
The establishment at Quebec, it is to be remembered, was now a private enterprise. It existed by no chartered rights, it was protected by no exclusive authority. There was consequently little encouragement for its enlargement beyond what was necessary as a base of commercial operations. The limited cares of the colony left, therefore, to Champlain, a larger scope for the exercise of his indomitable desire for exploration and adventure. Explorations could not, however, be carried forward without the concurrence and guidance of the savages by whom he was immediately surrounded. Friendly relations existed between the French and the united tribes of Montagnais, Hurons, and Algonquins, who occupied the northern shores of the St. Lawrence and the great lakes. A burning hatred existed between these tribes and the Iroquois, occupying the southern shores of the same river. A deadly warfare was their chief employment, and every summer each party was engaged either in repelling an invasion or in making one in the territory of the other. Those friendly to Champlain were quite ready to act as pioneers in his explorations and discoveries, but they expected and demanded in return that he should give them active personal assistance in their wars. Influenced, doubtless, by policy, the spirit of the age, and his early education in the civil conflicts of France, Champlain did not hesitate to enter into an alliance and an exchange of services on these terms.
In the preceding year, two journeys into distant regions had been planned for exploration and discovery. One beginning at Three Rivers, was to survey, under the guidance of the Montagnais, the river St. Maurice to its source, and thence, by different channels and portages, reach Lake St. John, returning by the Saguenay, making in the circuit a distance of not less than eight hundred miles. The other plan was to explore, under the direction of the Hurons and Algonquins, the vast country over which they were accustomed to roam, passing up the Ottawa, and reaching in the end the region of the copper mines on Lake Superior, a journey not less than twice the extent of the former.
Neither of these explorations could be undertaken the present year. Their importance, however, to the future progress of colonization in New France is sufficiently obvious. The purpose of making these surveys shows the breadth and wisdom of Champlain's views, and that hardships or dangers were not permitted to interfere with his patriotic sense of duty.
Soon after his arrival at Quebec, the savages began to assemble to engage in their usual summer's entertainment of making war upon the Iroquois. Sixty Montagnais, equipped in their rude armor, were hastening to the rendezvous which, by agreement made the year before, was to be at the mouth of the Richelieu. [69] Hither were to come the three allied tribes, and pass together up this river into Lake Champlain, the "gate" or war-path through which these hostile clans were accustomed to make their yearly pilgrimage to meet each other in deadly conflict. Sending forward four barques for trading purposes, Champlain repaired to the mouth of the Richelieu, and landed, in company with the Montagnais, on the Island St. Ignace, on the 19th of June. While preparations were making to receive their Algonquin allies from the region of the Ottawa, news came that they had already arrived, and that they had discovered a hundred Iroquois strongly barricaded in a log fort, which they had hastily thrown together on the brink of the river not far distant, and to capture them the assistance of all parties was needed without delay. Champlain, with four Frenchmen and the sixty Montagnais, left the island in haste, passed over to the mainland, where they left their canoes, and eagerly rushed through the marshy forest a distance of two miles. Burdened with their heavy armor, half consumed by mosquitoes which were so thick that they were scarcely able to breathe, covered with mud and water, they at length stood before the Iroquois fort. [70] It was a structure of logs laid one upon another, braced and held together by posts coupled by withes, and of the usual circular form. It offered a good protection in savage warfare. Even the French arquebus discharged through the crevices did slow execution.
It was obvious to Champlain that, to ensure victory, the fort must be demolished. Huge trees, severed at the base, falling upon it, did not break it down. At length, directed by Champlain, the savages approached under their shields, tore away the supporting posts, and thus made a breach, into which rushed the infuriated besiegers, and in hot haste finished their deadly work. Fifteen of the Iroquois were taken prisoners; a few plunged into the river and were drowned; the rest perished by musket-shots, arrow-wounds, the tomahawk, and the war-club. Of the allied savages three were killed and fifty wounded. Champlain himself did not escape altogether unharmed. An arrow, armed with a sharp point of stone, pierced his ear and neck, which he drew out with his own hand. One of his companions received a similar wound in the arm. The victors scalped the dead as usual, ornamenting the prows of their canoes with the bleeding heads of their enemies, while they severed one of the bodies into quarters, to eat, as they alleged, in revenge.
The canoes of the savages and a French shallop having come to the scene of this battle, all soon embarked and returned to the Island of St. Ignace. Here the allies, joined by eighty Huron warriors who had arrived too late to participate in the conflict, remained three days, celebrating their victory by dancing, singing, and the administration of the usual punishment upon their prisoners of war. This consisted in a variety of exquisite tortures, similar to those inflicted the year before, after the victory on Lake Champlain, horrible and sickening in all their features, and which need not be spread upon these pages. From these tortures Champlain would gladly have snatched the poor wretches, had it been in his power, but in this matter the savages would brook no interference. There was a solitary exception, however, in a fortunate young Iroquois who fell to him in the division of prisoners. He was treated with great kindness, but it did not overcome his excessive fear and distrust, and he soon sought an opportunity and escaped to his home. [71]
When the celebration of the victory had been completed, the Indians departed to their distant abodes. Champlain, however, before their departure, very wisely entered into an agreement that they should receive for the winter a young Frenchman who was anxious to learn their language, and, in return, he was himself to take a young Huron, at their special request, to pass the winter in France. This judicious arrangement, in which Champlain was deeply interested and which he found some difficulty in accomplishing, promised an important future advantage in extending the knowledge of both parties, and in strengthening on the foundation of personal experience their mutual confidence and friendship.
After the departure of the Indians, Champlain returned to Quebec, and proceeded to put the buildings in repair and to see that all necessary arrangements were made for the safety and comfort of the colony during the next winter.
On the 4th of July, Des Marais, in charge of the vessel belonging to De Monts and his company, which had been left behind and had been expected soon to follow, arrived at Quebec, bringing the intelligence that a small revolution had taken place in Brouage, the home of Champlain, that the Protestants had been expelled, and an additional guard of soldiers had been placed in the garrison. Des Marais also brought the startling news that Henry IV. had been assassinated on the 14th of May. Champlain was penetrated by this announcement with the deepest sorrow. He fully saw how great a public calamity had fallen upon his country. France had lost, by an ignominious blow, one of her ablest and wisest sovereigns, who had, by his marvellous power, gradually united and compacted the great interests of the nation, which had been shattered and torn by half a century of civil conflicts and domestic feuds. It was also to him a personal loss. The king had taken a special interest in his undertakings, had been his patron from the time of his first voyage to New France in 1603, had sustained him by an annual pension, and on many occasions had shown by word and deed that he fully appreciated the great value of his explorations in his American domains. It was difficult to see how a loss so great both to his country and himself could be repaired. A cloud of doubt and uncertainty hung over the future. The condition of the company, likewise, under whose auspices he was acting, presented at this time no very encouraging features. The returns from the fur-trade had been small, owing to the loss of the monopoly which the company had formerly enjoyed, and the excessive competition which free-trade had stimulated. Only a limited attention had as yet been given to the cultivation of the soil. Garden vegetables had been placed in cultivation, together with small fields of Indian corn, wheat, rye, and barley. These attempts at agriculture were doubtless experiments, while at the same time they were useful in supplementing the stores needed for the colony's consumption.
Champlain's personal presence was not required at Quebec during the winter, as no active enterprise could be carried forward in that inclement season, and he decided, therefore, to return to France. The little colony now consisted of sixteen men, which he placed in charge, during his absence, of Sieur Du Parc. He accordingly left Tadoussac on the 13th of August, and arrived at Honfleur in France on the 27th of September, 1610.
During the autumn of this year, while residing in Paris, Champlain became attached to Hélène Boullé, the daughter of Nicholas Boullé, secretary of the king's chamber. She was at that time a mere child, and of too tender years to act for herself, particularly in matters of so great importance as those which relate to marital relations. However, agreeably to a custom not infrequent at that period, a marriage contract [72] was entered into on the 27th of December with her parents, in which, nevertheless, it was stipulated that the nuptials should not take place within at least two years from that date. The dowry of the future bride was fixed at six thousand livres tournois, three fourths of which were paid and receipted for by Champlain two days after the signing of the contract. The marriage was afterward consummated, and Helen Boullé, as his wife, accompanied Champlain to Quebec, in 1620, as we shall see in the sequel.
Notwithstanding the discouragements of the preceding year and the small prospect of future success, De Monts and the merchants associated with him still persevered in sending another expedition, and Champlain left Honfleur for New France on the first day of March, 1611. Unfortunately, the voyage had been undertaken too early in the season for these northern waters, and long before they reached the Grand Banks, they encountered ice-floes of the most dangerous character. Huge blocks of crystal, towering two hundred feet above the surface of the water, floated at times near them, and at others they were surrounded and hemmed in by vast fields of ice extending as far as the eye could reach. Amid these ceaseless perils, momentarily expecting to be crushed between the floating islands wheeling to and fro about them, they struggled with the elements for nearly two months, when finally they reached Tadoussac on the 13th of May.
58. The situation of Quebec and an engraved representation of the buildings may be seen by reference to Vol. II. pp. 175, 183.
59. Scurvy, or mal de la terre.—Vide Vol. II. note 105.
60. Hurons "The word Huron comes from the French, who seeing these
Indians with the hair cut very short, and standing up in a strange
fashion, giving them a fearful air, cried out, the first time they saw
them, Quelle hures! what boars' heads! and so got to call them
Hurons."—Charlevoix's His. New France, Shea's Trans Vol. II. p. 71.
Vide Relations des Jésuites, Quebec ed. Vol. I. 1639, P 51; also note
321, Vol. II. of this work, for brief notice of the Algonquins and
other tribes.
61. For the identification of the site of this battle, see Vol. II p. 223,
note 348. It is eminently historical ground. Near it Fort Carrillon was
erected by the French in 1756. Here Abercrombie was defeated by
Montcalm in 1758. Lord Amherst captured the fort in 1759 Again it was
taken from the English by the patriot Ethan Alien in 1775. It was
evacuated by St. Clair when environed by Burgoyne in 1777, and now for
a complete century it has been visited by the tourist as a ruin
memorable for its many historical associations.
62. This lake, discovered and explored by Champlain, is ninety miles in length. Through its centre runs the boundary line between the State of New York and that of Vermont. From its discovery to the present time it has appropriately borne the honored name of Champlain. For its Indian name, Caniaderiguarunte, see Vol. II. note 349. According to Mr. Shea the Mohawk name of Lake Champlain is Caniatagaronte.—Vide Shea's Charlevoix. Vol. II. p. 18.
Lake Champlain and the Hudson River were both discovered the same year, and were severally named after the distinguished navigators by whom they were explored. Champlain completed his explorations at Ticonderoga, on the 30th of July, 1609, and Hudson reached the highest point made by him on the river, near Albany, on the 22d of September of the same year.—Vide Vol. II. p. 219. Also The Third Voyage of Master Henry Hudson, written by Robert Ivet of Lime-house, Collections of New York His. Society, Vol. I. p. 140.
63. Lake George. The Jesuit Father, Isaac Jogues, having been summoned in 1646 to visit the Mohawks, to attend to the formalities of ratifying a treaty of peace which had been concluded with them, passing by canoe up the Richelieu, through Lake Champlain, and arriving at the end of Lake George on the 29th of May, the eve of Corpus Christi, a festival celebrated by the Roman Church on the Thursday after Trinity Sunday, in honor of the Holy Eucharist or the Lord's Supper, named this lake LAC DU SAINT SACREMENT. The following is from the Jesuit Relation of 1646 by Pere Hierosme Lalemant. Ils arriuèrent la veille du S. Sacrement au bout du lac qui est ioint au grand lac de Champlain. Les Iroquois le nomment Andiatarocté, comme qui diroit, là où le lac se ferme. Le Pere le nomma le lac du S. Sacrement—Relations des Jésuites, Quebec ed. Vol. II. 1646, p. 15.
Two important facts are here made perfectly plain; viz. that the original Indian name of the lake was Andtatarocté, and that the French named it Lac du Saint Sacrement because they arrived on its shores on the eve of the festival celebrated in honor of the Eucharist or the Lord's Supper. Notwithstanding this very plain statement, it has been affirmed without any historical foundation whatever, that the original Indian name of this lake was Horican, and that the Jesuit missionaries, having selected it for the typical purification of baptism on account of its limpid waters, named it Lac du Saint Sacrement. This perversion of history originated in the extraordinary declaration of Mr. James Fenimore Cooper, in his novel entitled "The Last of the Mohicans," in which these two erroneous statements are given as veritable history. This new discovery by Cooper was heralded by the public journals, scholars were deceived, and the bold imposition was so successful that it was even introduced into a meritorious poem in which the Horican of the ancient tribes and the baptismal waters of the limpid lake are handled with skill and effect. Twenty-five years after the writing of his novel, Mr. Cooper's conscience began seriously to trouble him, and he publicly confessed, in a preface to "The Last of the Mohicans," that the name Horican had been first applied to the lake by himself, and without any historical authority. He is silent as to the reason he had assigned for the French name of the lake, which was probably an assumption growing out of his ignorance of its meaning—Vide The Last of The Mohicans, by J. Fenimore Cooper, Gregory's ed., New York, 1864, pp ix-x and 12.
64. "There are certain general customs which mark the California Indians, as, the non-use of torture on prisoners of war," &c.—Vide The Tribes of California, by Stephen Powers, in Contributions to North American Ethnology, Vol. III. p. 15. Tribes of Washington and Oregon, by George Gibbs, idem, Vol. I. p. 192.
65. "It has been erroneously asserted that the practice of scalping did not prevail among the Indians before the advent of Europeans. In 1535, Cartier saw five scalps at Quebec, dried and stretched on hoops. In 1564, Laudonniere saw them among the Indians of Florida. The Algonquins of New England and Nova Scotia were accustomed to cut off and carry away the head, which they afterwards scalped. Those of Canada, it seems, sometimes scalped the dead bodies on the field. The Algonquin practice of carrying off heads as trophies is mentioned by Lalemant, Roger Williams, Lescarbot, and Champlain."—Vide Pioneers of France in the New World, by Francis Parkman, Boston, 1874, p. 322. The practice of the tribes on the Pacific coast is different "In war they do not take scalps, but decapitate the slain and bring in the heads as trophies."—Contributions to Am. Ethnology, by Stephen Powers, Washington, 1877, Vol. III. pp. 21, 221. Vide Vol. I. p. 192. The Yuki are an exception. Vol. III. p. 129.
66. For an account of the sufferings of Brébeuf, Lalemant, and Jogues, see History of Catholic Missions, by John Gilmary Shea, pp. 188, 189, 217.
67. He was gentleman in ordinary to the king's chamber. "Gentil-homme ordinaire de nôstre Chambre."—Vide Commission du Roy au Sieur de Monts, Histoire de la Nouvelle France, par Marc Lescarbot, Paris, 1612, p. 432.
68. Called by the Indians chaousarou. For a full account of this crustacean vide Vol. II. note 343.
69. The mouth of the Richelieu was the usual place of meeting. In 1603, the allied tribes were there when Champlain ascended the St Lawrence. They had a fort, which he describes.—Vide postea, p 243.
70. Champlain's description does not enable us to identify the place of this battle with exactness. It will be observed, if we refer to his text, that, leaving the island of St Ignace, and going half a league, crossing the river, they landed, when they were plainly on the mainland near the mouth of the Richelieu. They then went half a league, and finding themselves outrun by their Indian guides and lost, they called to two savages, whom they saw going through the woods, to guide them. Going a short distance, they were met by a messenger from the scene of conflict, to urge them to hasten forwards. Then, after going less than an eighth of a league, they were within the sound of the voices of the combatants at the fort. These distances are estimated without measurement, and, of course, are inexact: but, putting the distances mentioned altogether, the journey through the woods to the fort was apparently a little more than two miles. Had they followed the course of the river, the distance would probably have been somewhat more: perhaps nearly three miles. Champlain does not positively say that the fort was on the Richelieu, but the whole narrative leaves no doubt that such was the fact. This river was the avenue through which the Iroquois were accustomed to come, and they would naturally encamp here where they could choose their own ground, and where their enemies were sure to approach them. If we refer to Champlain's illustration of Fort des Iroquois, Vol. II. p. 241, we shall observe that the river is pictured as comparatively narrow, which could hardly be a true representation if it were intended for the St. Lawrence. The escaping Iroquois are represented as swimming towards the right, which was probably in the direction of their homes on the south, the natural course of their retreat. The shallop of Des Prairies, who arrived late, is on the left of the fort, at the exact point where he would naturally disembark if he came up the Richelieu from the St. Lawrence. From a study of the whole narrative, together with the map, we infer that the fort was on the western bank of the Richelieu, between two and three miles from its mouth. We are confident that its location cannot be more definitely fixed.
71. For a full account of the Indian treatment of prisoners, vide antea,
pp. 94,95. Also Vol. II. pp. 224-227, 244-246.
72. Vide Contrat de mariage de Samuel de Champlain, Oeuvres de Champlain,
Quebec ed. Vol. VI., Pièces Fustificatives, p. 33.
Among the early marriages not uncommon at that period, the following are examples. César, the son of Henry IV., was espoused by public ceremonies to the daughter of the Duke de Mercoeur in 1598. The bridegroom was four years old and the bride-elect had just entered her sixth year. The great Condé, by the urgency of his avaricious father, was unwillingly married at the age of twenty, to Claire Clemence de Maillé Brézé, the niece of Cardinal Richelieu, when she was but thirteen years of age.
Champlain lost no time in hastening to Quebec, where he found Du Parc, whom he had left in charge, and the colony in excellent health. The paramount and immediate object which now engaged his attention was to secure for the present season the fur-trade of the Indians. This furnished the chief pecuniary support of De Monts's company, and was absolutely necessary to its existence. He soon, therefore, took his departure for the Falls of St. Louis, situated a short distance above Montreal, and now better known as La Chine Rapids. In the preceding year, this place had been agreed upon as a rendezvous by the friendly tribes. But, as they had not arrived, Champlain proceeded to make a thorough exploration on both sides of the St. Lawrence, extending his journeys more than twenty miles through the forests and along the shores of the river, for the purpose of selecting a proper site for a trading-house, with doubtless an ultimate purpose of making it a permanent settlement. After a full survey, he finally fixed upon a point of land which he named La Place Royale, situated within the present city of Montreal, on the eastern side of the little brook Pierre, where it flows into the St. Lawrence, at Point à Callière. On the banks of this small stream there were found evidences that the land to the extent of sixty acres had at some former period been cleared up and cultivated by the savages, but more recently had been entirely abandoned on account of the wars, as he learned from his Indian guides, in which they were incessantly engaged.
Near the spot which had thus been selected for a future settlement, Champlain discovered a deposit of excellent clay, and, by way of experiment, had a quantity of it manufactured into bricks, of which he made a wall on the brink of the river, to test their power of resisting the frosts and the floods. Gardens were also made and seeds sown, to prove the quality of the soil. A weary month passed slowly away, with scarcely an incident to break the monotony, except the drowning of two Indians, who had unwisely attempted to pass the rapids in a bark canoe overloaded with heron, which they had taken on an island above. In the mean time, Champlain had been followed to his rendezvous by a herd of adventurers from the maritime towns of France, who, stimulated by the freedom of trade, had flocked after him in numbers out of all proportion to the amount of furs which they could hope to obtain from the wandering bands of savages that might chance to visit the St. Lawrence. The river was lined with these voracious cormorants, anxiously watching the coming of the savages, all impatient and eager to secure as large a share as possible of the uncertain and meagre booty for which they had crossed the Atlantic. Fifteen or twenty barques were moored along the shore, all seeking the best opportunity for the display of the worthless trinkets for which they had avariciously hoped to obtain a valuable cargo of furs.
A long line of canoes was at length seen far in the distance. It was a fleet of two hundred Hurons, who had swept down the rapids, and were now approaching slowly and in a dignified and impressive order. On coming near, they set up a simultaneous shout, the token of savage greeting, which made the welkin ring. This salute was answered by a hundred French arquebuses from barque and boat and shore. The unexpected multitude of the French, the newness of the firearms to most of them, filled the savages with dismay. They concealed their fear as well and as long as possible. They deliberately built their cabins on the shore, but soon threw up a barricade, then called a council at midnight, and finally, under pretence of a beaver-hunt, suddenly removed above the rapids, where they knew the French barques could not come. When they were thus in a place of safety, they confessed to Champlain that they had faith in him, which they confirmed by valuable gifts of furs, but none whatever in the grasping herd that had followed him to the rendezvous. The trade, meagre in the aggregate, divided among so many, had proved a loss to all. It was soon completed, and the savages departed to their homes. Subsequently, thirty-eight canoes, with eighty or a hundred Algonquin warriors, came to the rendezvous. They brought, however, but a small quantity of furs, which added little to the lucrative character of the summer's trade.
The reader will bear in mind that Champlain was not here merely as the superintendent and responsible agent of a trading expedition. This was a subordinate purpose, and the result of circumstances which his principal did not choose, but into which he had been unwillingly forced. It was necessary not to overlook this interest in the present exigency, nevertheless De Monts was sustained by an ulterior purpose of a far higher and nobler character. He still entertained the hope that he should yet secure a royal charter under which his aspirations for colonial enterprise should have full scope, and that his ambition would be finally crowned with the success which he had so long coveted, and for which he had so assiduously labored. Champlain, who had been for many years the geographer of the king, who had carefully reported, as he advanced into unexplored regions, his surveys of the rivers, harbors, and lakes, and had given faithful descriptions of the native inhabitants, knowledge absolutely necessary as a preliminary step in laying the foundation of a French empire in America, did not for a moment lose sight of this ulterior purpose. Amid the commercial operations to which for the time being he was obliged to devote his chief attention, he tried in vain to induce the Indians to conduct an exploring party up the St. Maurice, and thus reach the headwaters of the Saguenay, a journey which had been planned two years before. They had excellent excuses to offer, and the undertaking was necessarily deferred for the present. He, however, obtained much valuable information from them in conversations, in regard to the source of the St. Lawrence, the topography of the country which they inhabited, and even drawings were executed by them to illustrate to him other regions which they had personally visited.
On the 18th of July, Champlain left the rendezvous, and arrived at Quebec on the evening of the next day. Having ordered all necessary repairs at the settlement, and, not unmindful of its adornment, planted rose-bushes about it, and taking specimens of oak timber to exhibit in France, he left for Tadoussac, and finally for France on the 11th of August, and arrived at Rochelle on the 16th of September, 1611.
Immediately on his arrival, Champlain repaired to the city of Pons, in Saintonge, of which De Monts was governor, and laid before him the Situation of his affairs at Quebec. De Monts still clung to the hope of obtaining a royal commission for the exclusive right of trade, but his associates were wholly disheartened by the competition and consequent losses of the last year, and had the sagacity to see that there was no hope of a remedy in the future. They accordingly declined to continue further expenditures. De Monts purchased their interest in the establishment at Quebec, and, notwithstanding the obstacles which had been and were still to be encountered, was brave enough to believe that he could stem the tide unaided and alone. He hastened to Paris to secure the much coveted commission from the king. Important business, however, soon called him in another direction, and the whole matter was placed in the hands of Champlain, with the understanding that important modifications were to be introduced into the constitution and management of the company.
The burden thus unexpectedly laid upon Champlain was not a light one. His experience and personal knowledge led him to appreciate more fully than any one else the difficulties that environed the enterprise of planting a colony in New France. He saw very clearly that a royal commission merely, with whatever exclusive rights it conferred; would in itself be ineffectual and powerless in the present complications. It was obvious to him that the administration must be adapted to the state of affairs that had gradually grown up at Quebec, and that it must be sustained by powerful personal influence.
Champlain proceeded, therefore, to draw up certain rules and regulations which he deemed necessary for the management of the colony and the protection of its interests. The leading characteristics of the plan were, first, an association of which all who desired to carry on trade in New France might become members, sharing equally in its advantages and its burdens, its profits and its losses: and, secondly, that it should be presided over by a viceroy of high position and commanding influence. De Monts, who had thus far been at the head of the undertaking, was a gentleman of great respectability, zeal, and honesty, but his name did not, as society was constituted at that time in France, carry with it any controlling weight with the merchants or others whose views were adverse to his own. He was unable to carry out any plans which involved expense, either for the exploration of the country or for the enlargement and growth of the colony. It was necessary, in the opinion of Champlain, to place at the head of the company a man of such exalted official and social position that his opinions would be listened to with respect and his wishes obeyed with alacrity.
He submitted his plan to De Monts and likewise to President Jeannin, [73] a man venerable with age, distinguished for his wisdom and probity, and at this time having under his control the finances of the kingdom. They both pronounced it excellent and urged its execution.
Having thus obtained the cordial and intelligent assent of the highest authority to his scheme, his next step was to secure a viceroy whose exalted name and standing should conform to the requirements of his plan. This was an object somewhat difficult to attain. It was not easy to find a nobleman who possessed all the qualities desired. After careful consideration, however, the Count de Soissons [74] was thought to unite better than any other the characteristics which the office required. Champlain, therefore, laid before the Count, through a member of the king's council, a detailed exhibition of his plan and a map of New France executed by himself. He soon after received an intimation from this nobleman of his willingness to accept the office, if he should be appointed. A petition was sent by Champlain to the king and his council, and the appointment was made on the 8th of October, 1612, and on the 15th of the same month the Count issued a commission appointing Champlain his lieutenant.
Before this commission had been published in the ports and the maritime towns of France, as required by law, and before a month had elapsed, unhappily the death of the Count de Soissons suddenly occurred at his Château de Blandy. Henry de Bourbon, the Prince de Condé, [75] was hastily appointed his successor, and a new commission was issued to Champlain on the 22d of November of the same year.
The appointment of this prince carried with it the weight of high position and influence, though hardly the character which would have been most desirable under the circumstances. He was, however, a potent safeguard against the final success, though not indeed of the attempt on the part of enemies, to break up the company, or to interfere with its plans. No sooner had the publication of the commission been undertaken, than the merchants, who had schemes of trade in New France, put forth a powerful opposition. The Parliamentary Court at Rouen even forbade its publication in that city, and the merchants of St. Malo renewed their opposition, which had before been set forth, on the flimsy ground that Jacques Cartier, the discoverer of New France, was a native of their municipality, and therefore they had rights prior and superior to all others.
After much delay and several journeys by Champlain to Rouen, these difficulties were overcome. There was, indeed, no solid ground of opposition, as none were debarred from engaging in the enterprise who were willing to share in the burdens as well as the profits.
These delays prevented the complete organization of the company contemplated by Champlain's new plan, but it was nevertheless necessary for him to make the voyage to Quebec the present season, in order to keep up the continuity of his operations there, and to renew his friendly relations with the Indians, who had been greatly disappointed at not seeing him the preceding year. Four vessels, therefore, were authorized to sail under the commission of the viceroy, each of which was to furnish four men for the service of Champlain in explorations and in aid of the Indians in their wars, if it should be necessary.
He accordingly left Honfleur in a vessel belonging to his old friend Pont Gravé, on the 6th of March, 1613, and arrived at Tadoussac on the 29th of April. On the 7th of May he reached Quebec, where he found the little colony in excellent condition, the winter having been exceedingly mild, and agreeable, the river not having been frozen in the severest weather. He repaired at once to the trading rendezvous at Montreal, then commonly known as the Falls of St. Louis. He learned from a trading barque that had preceded him, that a small band of Algonquins had already been there on their return from a raid upon the Iroquois. They had, however, departed to their homes to celebrate a feast, at which the torture of two captives whom they had taken from the Iroquois was to form the chief element in the entertainment. A few days later, three Algonquin canoes arrived from the interior with furs, which were purchased by the French. From them they learned that the ill treatment of the previous year, and their disappointment at not having seen Champlain there as they had expected, had led the Indians to abandon the idea of again coming to the rendezvous, and that large numbers of them had gone on their usual summer's expedition against the Iroquois.
Under these circumstances, Champlain resolved, in making his explorations, to visit personally the Indians who had been accustomed to come to the Falls of St. Louis, to assure them of kind treatment in the future, to renew his alliance with them against their enemies, and, if possible, to induce them to come to the rendezvous, where there was a large quantity of French goods awaiting them.
It will be remembered that an ulterior purpose of the French, in making a settlement in North America, was to enable them better to explore the interior and discover an avenue by water to the Pacific Ocean. This shorter passage to Cathay, or the land of spicery, had been the day-dream of all the great navigators in this direction for more than a hundred years. Whoever should discover it would confer a boon of untold commercial value upon his country, and crown himself with imperishable honor. Champlain had been inspired by this dream from the first day that he set his foot upon the soil of New France. Every indication that pointed in this direction he watched with care and seized upon with avidity. In 1611, a young man in the colony, Nicholas de Vignan, had been allowed, after the trading season had closed, to accompany the Algonquins to their distant homes, and pass the winter with them. This was one of the methods which had before been successfully resorted to for obtaining important information. De Vignan returned to Quebec in the spring of 1612, and the same year to France. Having heard apparently something of Hudson's discovery and its accompanying disaster, he made it the basis of a story drawn wholly from his own imagination, but which he well knew must make a strong impression upon Champlain and all others interested in new discoveries. He stated that, during his abode with the Indians, he had made an excursion into the forests of the north, and that he had actually discovered a sea of salt water; that the river Ottawa had its source in a lake from which another river flowed into the sea in question; that he had seen on its shores the wreck of an English ship, from which eighty men had been taken and slain by the savages; and that they had among them an English boy, whom they were keeping to present to him.
As was expected, this story made a strong impression upon the mind of Champlain. The priceless object for which he had been in search so many years seemed now within his grasp. The simplicity and directness of the narrative, and the want of any apparent motive for deception, were a strong guaranty of its truth. But, to make assurance doubly sure, Vignan was cross-examined and tested in various ways, and finally, before leaving France, was made to certify to the truth of his statement in the presence of two notaries at Rochelle. Champlain laid the story before the Chancellor de Sillery, the President Jeannin, the old Marshal de Brissac, and others, who assured him that it was a question of so great importance, that he ought at once to test the truth of the narrative by a personal exploration. He resolved, therefore, to make this one of the objects of his summer's excursion.
With two bark canoes, laden with provisions, arms, and a few trifles as presents for the savages, an Indian guide, four Frenchmen, one of whom was the mendacious Vignan, Champlain left the rendezvous at Montreal on the 27th of May. After getting over the Lachine Rapids, they crossed Lake St. Louis and the Two Mountains, and, passing up the Ottawa, now expanding into a broad lake and again contracting into narrows, whence its pent-up waters swept over precipices and boulders in furious, foaming currents, they at length, after incredible labor, reached the island Allumette, a distance of not less than two hundred and twenty-five miles. In no expedition which Champlain had thus far undertaken had he encountered obstacles so formidable. The falls and rapids in the river were numerous and difficult to pass. Sometimes a portage was impossible on account of the denseness of the forests, in which case they were compelled to drag their canoes by ropes, wading along the edge of the water, or clinging to the precipitous banks of the river as best they could. When a portage could not be avoided, it was necessary to carry their armor, provisions, clothing, and canoes through the forests, over precipices, and sometimes over stretches of territory where some tornado had prostrated the huge pines in tangled confusion, through which a pathway was almost impossible. [76] To lighten their burdens, nearly every thing was abandoned but their canoes. Fish and wild-fowl were an uncertain reliance for food, and sometimes they toiled on for twenty-four hours with scarcely any thing to appease their craving appetites.
Overcome with fatigue and oppressed by hunger, they at length arrived at Allumette Island, the abode of the chief Tessoüat, by whom they were cordially entertained. Nothing but the hope of reaching the north sea could have sustained them amid the perils and sufferings through which they had passed in reaching this inhospitable region. The Indians had chosen this retreat not from choice, but chiefly on account of its great inaccessibility to their enemies. They were astonished to see Champlain and his company, and facetiously suggested that it must be a dream, or that these new-comers had fallen from the clouds. After the usual ceremonies of feasting and smoking, Champlain was permitted to lay before Tessoüat and his chiefs the object of his journey. When he informed them that he was in search of a salt sea far to the north of them, which had been actually seen two years before by one of his companions, he learned to his disappointment and mortification that the whole story of Vignan was a sheer fabrication. The miscreant had indeed passed a winter on the very spot where they then were, but had never been a league further north. The Indians themselves had no knowledge of the north sea, and were highly enraged at the baseness of Vignan's falsehood, and craved the opportunity of despatching him at once. They jeered at him, calling him a liar, and even the children took up the refrain, vociferating vigorously and heaping maledictions upon his head.
Indignant as he was, Champlain had too much philosophy in his composition to commit an indiscretion at such a moment as this. He accordingly restrained the savages and his own anger, bore his insult and disappointment with exemplary patience, giving up all hope of seeing the salt sea in this direction, as he humorously added, "except in imagination."
Before leaving Allumette Island on his return, Champlain invited Tessoüat to send a trading expedition to the Falls of St. Louis, where he would find an ample opportunity for an exchange of commodities. The invitation was readily accepted, and information was at once sent out to the neighboring chiefs, requesting them to join in the enterprise. The savages soon began to assemble, and when Champlain left, he was accompanied by forty canoes well laden with furs; others joined them at different points on the way, and on reaching Montreal the number had swollen to eighty.
An incident occurred on their journey down the river worthy of record. When the fleet of savage fur-traders had arrived at the foot of the Chaudière Falls, not a hundred rods distant from the site of the present city of Ottawa, having completed the portage, they all assembled on the shore, before relaunching their canoes, to engage in a ceremony which they never omitted when passing this spot. A wooden plate of suitable dimensions was passed round, into which each of the savages cast a small piece of tobacco. The plate was then placed on the ground, in the midst of the company, and all danced around it, singing at the same time. An address was then made by one of the chiefs, setting forth the great importance of this time-honored custom, particularly as a safeguard and protection against their enemies. Then, taking the plate, the speaker cast its contents into the boiling cauldron at the base of the falls, the act being accompanied by a loud shout from the assembled multitude. This fall, named the Chaudière, or cauldron, by Champlain, formed in fact the limit above which the Iroquois rarely if ever went in hostile pursuit of the Algonquins. The region above was exceedingly difficult of approach, and from which it was still more difficult, in case of an attack, to retreat. But the Iroquois often lingered here in ambush, and fell upon the unsuspecting inhabitants of the upper Ottawa as they came down the river. It was, therefore, a place of great danger; and the Indians, enslaved by their fears and superstitions, did not believe it possible to make a prosperous journey, without observing, as they passed, the ceremonies above described.
On reaching Montreal, three additional ships had arrived from France with a license to carry on trade from the Prince de Condé, the viceroy, making seven in all in port. The trade with the Indians for the furs brought in the eighty canoes, which had come with Champlain to Montreal, was soon despatched. Vignan was pardoned on the solemn promise, a condition offered by himself, that he would make a journey to the north sea and bring back a true report, having made a most humble confession of his offence in the presence of the whole colony and the Indians, who were purposely assembled to receive it. This public and formal administration of reproof was well adapted to produce a powerful effect upon the mind of the culprit, and clearly indicates the moderation and wisdom, so uniformly characteristic of Champlain's administration.
The business of the season having been completed, Champlain returned to France, arriving at St. Malo on the 26th of August, 1613. Before leaving, however, he arranged to send back with the Algonquins who had come from Isle Allumette two of his young men to pass the winter, for the purpose, as on former occasions, of learning the language and obtaining the information which comes only from an intimate and prolonged association.
73. Pierre Jeannin was born at Autun, in 1540, and died about 1622. He began the practice of law at Dijon, in 1569. Though a Catholic, he always counselled tolerant measures in the treatment of the Protestants. By his influence he prevented the massacre of the Protestants at Dijon in 1572. He was a Councillor, and afterward President, of the Parliament of Dijon. He was the private adviser of the Duke of Mayenne. He united himself with the party of the League in 1589. He negotiated the peace between Mayenne and Henry IV. The king became greatly attached to him, and appointed him a Councillor of State and Superintendent of Finances. He held many offices and did great service to the State. After the death of the king, Marie de Médicis, the regent, continued him as Superintendent of Finances.
74. Count de Soissons, Charles de Bourbon, was born at Nogent-le-Rotrou, in 1556, and died Nov. 1, 1612. He was educated in the Catholic religion. He acted for a time with the party of the League, but, falling in love with Catherine, the sister of Henry IV., better to secure his object he abandoned the League and took a military command under Henry III., and distinguished himself for bravery when the king was besieged in Tours. After the death of the king, he espoused the cause of Henry IV., was made Grand Master of France, and took part in the siege of Paris. He attempted a secret marriage with Catherine, but was thwarted; and the unhappy lovers were compelled, by the Duke of Sully, to renounce their matrimonial intentions. He had been Governor of Dauphiny, and, at the time of his death, was Governor of Normandy, with a pension of 50,000 crowns.
75. Prince de Condé, Henry de Bourbon II., the posthumous son of the first Henry de Bourbon, was born at Saint Jean d'Angely, in 1588. He married, in 1609, Charlotte Marguerite de Montmorency, the sister of Henry, the Duke de Montmorency, who succeeded him as the Viceroy of New France. To avoid the impertinent gallantries of Henry IV., who had fallen in love with this beautiful Princess, Condé and his wife left France, and did not return till the death of the king. He headed a conspiracy against the Regent, Marie de Médicis, and was thrown into prison on the first of September, 1616, where he remained three years. Influenced by ambition, and more particularly by his avarice, he forced his son Louis, Le Grand Condé, to marry the niece of Cardinal Richelieu, Claire Clémence de Maillé-Brézé. He did much to confer power and influence upon his family, largely through his avarice, which was his chief characteristic. The wit of Voltaire attributes his crowning glory to his having been the father of the great Condé. During the detention of the Prince de Condé in prison, the Mareschal de Thémins was Acting Viceroy of New France, having been appointed by Marie de Médicis, the Queen Regent.—Vide Voyages du Sieur de Champlain, Paris, 1632, p. 211.
76. In making the portage from what is now known as Portage du Fort to Muskrat Lake, a distance of about nine miles, Champlain, though less heavily loaded than his companions, carried three French arquebusses, three oars, his cloak, and some small articles, and was at the same time bitterly oppressed by swarms of hungry and insatiable mosquitoes. On the old portage road, traversed by Champlain and his party at this time, in 1613, an astrolabe, inscribed 1603, was found in 1867. The presumptive evidence that this instrument was lost by Champlain is stated in a brochure by Mr. O. H. Marshall.—Vide Magazine of American History for March, 1879.
During the whole of the year 1614, Champlain remained in France, occupied for the most part in adding new members to his company of associates, and in forming and perfecting such plans as were clearly necessary for the prosperity and success of the colony. His mind was particularly absorbed in devising means for the establishment of the Christian faith in the wilds of America. Hitherto nothing whatever had been done in this direction, if we except the efforts of Poutrincourt on the Atlantic coast, which had already terminated in disaster. [77] No missionary of any sort had hitherto set his foot upon that part of the soil of New France lying within the Gulf of St. Lawrence. [78] A fresh interest had been awakened in the mind of Champlain. He saw its importance in a new light. He sought counsel and advice from various persons whose wisdom commended them to his attention. Among the rest was Louis Houêl, an intimate friend, who held some office about the person of the king, and who was the chief manager of the salt works at Brouage. This gentleman took a hearty interest in the project, and assured Champlain that it would not be difficult to raise the means of sending out three or four Fathers, and, moreover, that he knew some of the order of the Recollects, belonging to a convent at Brouage, whose zeal he was sure would be equal to the undertaking. On communicating with them, he found them quite ready to engage in the work. Two of them were sent to Paris to obtain authority and encouragement from the proper sources. It happened that about this time the chief dignitaries of the church were in Paris, attending a session of the Estates. The bishops and cardinals were waited upon by Champlain, and their zeal awakened and their co-operation secured in raising the necessary means for sustaining the mission. After the usual negotiations and delays, the object was fully accomplished; fifteen hundred livres were placed in the hands of Champlain for outfit and expenses, and four Recollect friars embarked with him at Honfleur, on the ship "St. Étienne," on the 24th of April, 1615, viz., Denis Jamay, Jean d'Olbeau, Joseph le Caron, and the lay-brother Pacifique du Plessis. [79]
On their arrival at Quebec, Champlain addressed himself immediately to the preparation of lodgings for the missionaries and the erection of a chapel for the celebration of divine service. The Fathers were impatient to enter the fields of labor severally assigned to them. Joseph le Caron was appointed to visit the Hurons in their distant forest home, concerning which he had little or no information; but he nevertheless entered upon the duty with manly courage and Christian zeal. Jean d'Olbeau assumed the mission to the Montagnais, embracing the region about Tadoussac and the river Saguenay, while Denis Jamay and Pacifique du Plessis took charge of the chapel at Quebec.
At the earliest moment possible Champlain hastened to the rendezvous at Montreal, to meet the Indians who had already reached there on their annual visit for trade. The chiefs were in raptures of delight on seeing their old friend again, and had a grand scheme to propose. They had not forgotten that Champlain had often promised to aid them in their wars. They approached the subject, however, with moderation and diplomatic wisdom. They knew perfectly well that the trade in peltry was greatly desired, in fact that it was indispensable to the French. The substance of what they had to say was this. It had become now, if not impossible, exceedingly hazardous, to bring their furs to market. Their enemies, the Iroquois, like so many prowling wolves, were sure to be on their trail as they came down the Ottawa, and, incumbered with their loaded canoes, the struggle must be unequal, and it was nearly impossible for them ever to be winners. The only solution of the difficulty known to them, or which they cared to consider, as in all Indian warfare, was to annihilate their enemies utterly and wipe out their name for ever. Let this be done, and the fruits of peace would return, their commerce would be safe, prosperous, and greatly augmented.
Such were the reasons presented by the allies. But there were other considerations, likewise, which influenced the mind of Champlain. It was necessary to maintain a close and firm alliance with the Indians in order to extend the French discoveries and domain into new and more distant regions, and on this extension of French influence depended their hope of converting the savages to the Christian faith. The force of these considerations could not be resisted. Champlain decided that, under the circumstances, it was necessary to give them the desired assistance.
A general assembly was called, and the nature and extent of the campaign fully considered. It was to be of vastly greater proportions than any that had hitherto been proposed. The Indians offered to furnish two thousand five hundred and fifty men, but they were to be gathered together from different and distant points. The journey must, therefore, be long and perilous. The objective point, viz., a celebrated Iroquois fort, could not be reached by the only feasible route in a less distance than eight hundred or nine hundred miles, and it would require an absence of three or four months. Preparations for the journey were entered upon at once. Champlain visited Quebec to make arrangements for his long absence. On his return to Montreal, the Indians, impatient of delay, had already departed, and Father Joseph le Caron had gone with them to his distant field of missionary labor among the Hurons.
On the 9th of July, 1615, Champlain embarked, taking with him an interpreter, probably Etienne Brûlé, a French servant, and ten savages, who, with their equipments, were to be accommodated in two canoes. They entered the Rivière des Prairies, which flows into the St. Lawrence some leagues east of Montreal, crossing the Lake of the Two Mountains, passed up the Ottawa, taking the same route which he had traversed some years before, revisiting its long succession of reaches, its placid lakes, impetuous rapids, and magnificent falls, and at length arrived at the point where the river, by an abrupt angle, begins to flow from the northwest. Here, leaving the Ottawa, they entered the Mattawan, passing down this river into Lac du Talon, thence into Lac la Tortue, and by a short portage, into Lake Nipissing. After remaining here two days, entertained generously by the Nipissingian chiefs, they crossed the lake, and, following the channel of French River, entered Lake Huron, or rather the Georgian Bay. They coasted along until they reached the northern limits of the county of Simcoe. Here they disembarked and entered the territory of their old friends and allies, the Hurons.
The domain of this tribe consisted of a peninsula formed by the Georgian Bay, the river Severn, and Lake Simcoe, at the farthest, not more than forty by twenty-five miles in extent, but more generally cultivated by the native population, and of a richer soil than any region hitherto explored north of the St. Lawrence and the lakes. They visited four of their villages and were cordially received and feasted on Indian corn, squashes, and fish, with some variety in the methods of cooking. They then proceeded to Carhagouha, [80] a town fortified with a triple palisade of wood thirty-five feet in height. Here they found the Recollect Father Joseph Le Caron, who, having preceded them but a few days, and not anticipating the visit, was filled with raptures of astonishment and joy. The good Father was intent upon his pious work. On the 12th of August, surrounded by his followers, he formally erected a cross as a symbol of the faith, and on the same day they celebrated the mass and chanted TE DEUM LAUDAMUS for the first time.
Lingering but two days, Champlain and ten of the French, eight of whom had belonged to the suite of Le Caron, proceeded slowly towards Cahiagué, [81] the rendezvous where the mustering hosts of the savage warriors were to set forth together upon their hostile excursion into the country of the Iroquois. Of the Huron villages visited by them, six are particularly mentioned as fortified by triple palisades of wood. Cahiagué, the capital, encircled two hundred large cabins within its wooden walls. It was situated on the north of Lake Simcoe, ten or twelve miles from this body of water, surrounded by a country rich in corn, squashes, and a great variety of small fruits, with plenty of game and fish. When the warriors had mostly assembled, the motley crowd, bearing their bark canoes, meal, and equipments on their shoulders, moved down in a southwesterly direction till they reached the narrow strait that unites Lake Chouchiching with Lake Simcoe, where the Hurons had a famous fishing weir. Here they remained some time for other more tardy bands to join them. At this point they despatched twelve of the most stalwart savages, with the interpreter, Étienne Brûlé, on a dangerous journey to a distant tribe dwelling on the west of the Five Nations, to urge them to hasten to the fort of the Iroquois, as they had already received word from them that they would join them in this campaign.
Champlain and his allies soon left the fishing weir and coasted along the northeastern shore of Lake Simcoe until they reached its most eastern border, when they made a portage to Sturgeon Lake, thence sweeping down Pigeon and Stony Lakes, through the Otonabee into Rice Lake, the River Trent, the Bay of Quinté, and finally rounding the eastern point of Amherst Island, they were fairly on the waters of Lake Ontario, just as it merges into the great River St. Lawrence, and where the Thousand Islands begin to loom into sight. Here they crossed the extremity of the lake at its outflow into the river, pausing at this important geographical point to take the latitude, which, by his imperfect instruments, Champlain found to be 43 deg. north. [82]
Sailing down to the southern side of the lake, after a distance, by their estimate, of about fourteen leagues, they landed and concealed their canoes in a thicket near the shore. Taking their arms, they proceeded along the lake some ten miles, through a country diversified with meadows, brooks, ponds, and beautiful forests filled with plenty of wild game, when they struck inland, apparently at the mouth of Little Salmon River. Advancing in a southerly direction, along the course of this stream, they crossed Oneida River, an outlet of the lake of the same name. When within about ten miles of the fort which they intended to capture, they met a small party of savages, men, women, and children, bound on a fishing excursion. Although unarmed, nevertheless, according to their custom, they took them all prisoners of war, and began to inflict the usual tortures, but this was dropped on Champlain's indignant interference. The next day, on the 10th of October, they reached the great fortress of the Iroquois, after a journey of four days from their landing, a distance loosely estimated at from twenty-five to thirty leagues. Here they found the Iroquois in their fields, industriously gathering in their autumnal harvest of corn and squashes. A skirmish ensued, in which several were wounded on both sides.
The fort, a drawing of which has been left us by Champlain, was situated a few miles south of the eastern terminus of Oneida Lake, on a small stream that winds its way in a northwesterly direction, and finally loses itself in the same body of water. This rude military structure was hexagonal in form, one of its sides bordering immediately upon a small pond, while four of the other laterals, two on the right and two on the left were washed by a channel of water flowing along their bases. [83] The side opposite the pond alone had an unobstructed land approach. As an Indian military work, it was of great strength. It was made of the trunks of trees, as large as could be conveniently transported. These were set in the ground, forming four concentric palisades, not more than six inches apart, thirty feet in height, interlaced and bound together near the top, supporting a gallery of double paling extending around the whole enclosure, proof not only against the flint-headed arrows of the Indian, but against the leaden bullets of the French arquebus. Port-holes were opened along the gallery, through which effective service could be done upon assailants by hurling stones and other missiles with which they were well provided. Gutters were laid along between the palisades to conduct water to every part of the fortification for extinguishing fire, in case of need.
It was obvious to Champlain that this fort was a complete protection to the Iroquois, unless an opening could be made in its walls. This could not be easily done by any force which he and his allies had at their command. His only hope was in setting fire to the palisades on the land side. This required the dislodgement of the enemy, who were posted in large numbers on the gallery, and the protection of the men in kindling the fire, and shielding it, when kindled, against the extinguishing torrents which could be poured from the water-spouts and gutters of the fort. He consequently ordered two instruments to be made with which he hoped to overcome these obstacles. One was a wooden tower or frame-work, dignified by Champlain as a cavalier, somewhat higher than the palisades, on the top of which was an enclosed platform where three or four sharp-shooters could in security clear the gallery, and thus destroy the effective force of the enemy. The other was a large wooden shield, or mantelet, under the protection of which they could in safety approach and kindle a fire at the base of the fort, and protect the fire thus kindled from being extinguished by water coming from above.
When all was in readiness, two hundred savages bore the framed tower and planted it near the palisades. Three arquebusiers mounted it and poured a deadly fire upon the defenders on the gallery. The battle now began and raged fiercely for three hours, but Champlain strove in vain to carry out any plan of attack. The savages rushed to and fro in a frenzy of excitement, filling the air with their discordant yells, observing no method and heeding no commands. The wooden shields were not even brought forward, and the burning of the fort was undertaken with so little judgment and skill that the fire was instantly extinguished by the fountains of water let loose by the skilful defenders through the gutters and water-spouts of the fort.
The sharp-shooters on the tower killed and wounded a large number, but nevertheless no effective impression was made upon the fortress. Two chiefs and fifteen men of the allies were wounded, while one was killed, or died of wounds received in a skirmish before the formal attack upon the fort began. After a frantic and desultory fight of three hours, the attacking savages lost their courage and began to clamor for a retreat. No persuasions could induce them to renew the attack.
After lingering four days in vain expectation of the arrival of the allies to whom Brûlé had been sent, the retreat began. Champlain had been wounded in the knee and leg, and was unable to walk. Litters in the form of baskets were fabricated, into which the wounded were packed in a constrained and uncomfortable attitude, and carried on the shoulders of the men. As the task of the carriers was lightened by frequent relays, and, as there was little baggage to impede their progress, the march was rapid. In three days they had reached their canoes, which had remained in the place of their concealment near the shore of the lake, an estimated distance of twenty-five or thirty leagues from the fort.
Such was the character of a great battle among the contending savages, an undisciplined host, without plan or well-defined purpose, rushing in upon each other in the heat of a sudden frenzy of passion, striking an aimless blow, and following it by a hasty and cowardly retreat. They had, for the time being at least, no ulterior design. They fought and expected no substantial reward of their conflict. The sweetness of personal revenge and the blotting out a few human lives were all they hoped for or cared at this time to attain. The invading party had apparently destroyed more than they had themselves lost, and this was doubtless a suitable reward for the hazards and hardships of the campaign.
The retreating warriors lingered ten days on the shore of Lake Ontario, at the point where they had left their canoes, beguiling the time in preparing for hunting and fishing excursions, and for their journey to their distant homes. Champlain here took occasion to call the attention of the allies to their promise to conduct him safely to his home. The head of the St. Lawrence as it flows from the Ontario is less than two hundred miles from Montreal, a journey by canoes not difficult to make. Champlain desired to return this way, and demanded an escort. The chiefs were reluctant to grant his request. Masters in the art of making excuses, they saw many insuperable obstacles. In reality, they did not desire to part with him, but wished to avail themselves of his knowledge, counsel, and personal aid against their enemies. When one obstacle after another gave way, and when volunteers were found ready to accompany him, no canoes could be spared for the journey. This closed the debate. Champlain was not prepared for the exposure and hardship of a winter among the savages, but there was left to him no choice. He submitted as gracefully as he could, and with such patience as necessity made it possible for him to command.
The bark flotilla was at length ready to leave the borders of the present State of New York. According to their usual custom in canoe navigation, they crept along the shore of the Ontario, revisiting an island at the eastern extremity of the lake, not unlikely the same place where Champlain had stopped to take the latitude a few weeks before. Crossing over from the island to the mainland on the north, they appear to have continued up the Cataraqui Creek east of Kingston, and, after a short portage, entered Loughborough Lake, a sheet of water then renowned as a resort of waterfowl in vast numbers and varieties. Having bagged all they desired, they proceeded inland twenty or thirty miles, to the objective point of their excursion, which was a famous hunting-ground for wild game. Here they constructed a deer-trap, an enclosure into which the unsuspecting animals were beguiled and from which it was impossible for them to escape. Deer-hunting was of all pursuits, if we except war, the most exciting to the Indians. It not only yielded the richest returns to their larder, and supplied more fully other domestic wants, but it possessed the element of fascination, which has always given zest and inspiration to the sportsman.
They lingered here thirty-eight days, during which time they captured one hundred and twenty deer. They purposely prolonged their stay that the frost might seal up the marshes, ponds, and rivers over which they were to pass. Early in December they began to arrange into convenient packages their peltry and venison, the fat of which was to serve as butter in their rude huts during the icy months of winter. On the 4th of the month they broke camp and began their weary march, each savage bearing a burden of not less than a hundred pounds, while Champlain himself carried a package of about twenty. Some of them constructed rude sledges, on which they easily dragged their luggage over the ice and snow. During the progress of the journey, a warm current came sweeping up from the south, melted the ice, flooded the marshes, and for four days the overburdened and weary travellers struggled on, knee-deep in mud and water and slush. Without experience, a lively imagination alone can picture the toil, suffering, and exposure of a journey through the tangled forests and half-submerged bogs and marshes of Canada, in the most inclement season of the year.
At length, on the 23d of December, after nineteen days of excessive toil, they arrived at Cahiagué, the chief town of the Hurons, the rendezvous of the allied tribes, whence they had set forth on the first of September, nearly four months before, on what may seem to us a bootless raid. To the savage warriors, however, it doubtless seemed a different thing. They had been enabled to bring home valuable provisions, which were likely to be important to them when an unsuccessful hunt might, as it often did, leave them nearly destitute of food. They had lost but a single man, and this was less than they had anticipated, and, moreover, was the common fortune of war. They had invaded the territory and made their presence felt in the very home of their enemies, and could rejoice in having inflicted upon them more injury than they had themselves received. Though they had not captured or annihilated them, they had done enough to inspire and fully sustain their own grovelling pride.
To Champlain even, although the expedition had been accompanied by hardship and suffering and some disappointments, it was by no means a failure. He had explored an interesting and important region; he had gone where European feet had never trod, and had seen what European eyes had never seen; he had, moreover, planted the lilies of France in the chief Indian towns, and at all suitable and important points, and these were to be witnesses of possession and ownership in what his exuberant imagination saw as a vast French empire rising into power and opulence in the western world.
It was now the last week in December, and the deep snows and piercing cold rendered it impossible for Champlain or even the allied warriors to continue their journey further. The Algonquins and Nipissings became guests of the Hurons for the winter, encamping within their principal walled town, or perhaps in some neighboring village not far removed.
After the rest of a few days at Cahiagué, where he had been hospitably entertained, Champlain took his departure for Carhagouha, a smaller village, where his friend the Recollect Father, Joseph le Caron, had taken up his abode as the pioneer missionary to the Hurons. It was important for Le Caron to obtain all the information possible, not only of the Hurons, but of all the surrounding tribes, as he contemplated returning to France the next summer to report to his patrons upon the character, extent, and hopefulness of the missionary field which he had been sent out to explore. Champlain was happy to avail himself of his company in executing the explorations which he desired to make.
They accordingly set out together on the 15th of January, and penetrated the trackless and snow-bound forests, and, proceeding in a western direction, after a journey of two days reached a tribe called Petuns, an agricultural people, similar in habits and mode of life to the Hurons. By them they were hospitably received, and a great festival, in which all their neighbors participated, was celebrated in honor of their new guests. Having visited seven or eight of their villages, the explorers pushed forward still further west, when they came to the settlement of an interesting tribe, which they named Cheveux-Relevés, or the "lofty haired," an appellation suggested by the mode of dressing their hair.
On their return from this expedition, they found, on reaching the encampment of the Nipissings, who were wintering in the Huron territory, that a disagreement had arisen between the Hurons and their Algonquin guests, which had already assumed a dangerous character. An Iroquois captive taken in the late war had been awarded to the Algonquins, according to the custom of dividing the prisoners among the several bands of allies, and, finding him a skilful hunter, they resolved to spare his life, and had actually adopted him as one of their tribe. This had offended the Hurons, who expected he would be put to the usual torture, and they had commissioned one of their number, who had instantly killed the unfortunate prisoner by plunging a knife into his heart. The assassin, in turn, had been set upon by the Algonquins and put to death on the spot. The perpetrators of this last act had regretted the occurrence, and had done what they could to heal the breach by presents: but there was, nevertheless, a smouldering feeling of hostility still lingering in both parties, which might at any moment break out into open conflict.
It was obvious to Champlain that a permanent disagreement between these two important allies would be a great calamity to themselves as well as disastrous to his own plans. It was his purpose, therefore, to bring them, if possible, to a cordial pacification. Proceeding cautiously and with great deliberation, he made himself acquainted with all the facts of the quarrel, and then called an assembly of both parties and clearly set before them in all its lights the utter foolishness of allowing a circumstance of really small importance to interfere with an alliance between two great tribes; an alliance necessary to their prosperity, and particularly in the war they were carrying on against their common enemy, the Iroquois. This appeal of Champlain was so convincing that when the assembly broke up all professed themselves entirely satisfied, although the Algonquins were heard to mutter their determination never again to winter in the territory of the Hurons, a wise and not unnatural conclusion.
Champlain's constant intercourse with these tribes for many months in their own homes, his explorations, observations, and inquiries, enabled him to obtain a comprehensive, definite, and minute knowledge of their character, religion, government, and mode of life. As the fruit of these investigations, he prepared in the leisure of the winter an elaborate memoir, replete with discriminating details, which is and must always be an unquestionable authority on the subject of which it treats.
77. De Poutrincourt obtained a confirmation from Henry IV. of the gift to him of Port Royal by De Monts, and proceeded to establish a colony there in 1608. In 1611, a Jesuit mission was planted by the Fathers Pierre Biard and Enemond Massé. It was chiefly patronized by a bevy of ladies, under the leadership of the Marchioness de Guerchville, in close association with Marie de Médicis, the queen-regent, Madame de Verneuil, and Madame de Soudis. Although De Poutrincourt was a devout member of the Roman Church, the missionaries were received with reluctance, and between them and the patentee and his lieutenant there was a constant and irrepressible discord. The lady patroness, the Marchioness de Guerchville, determined to abandon Port Royal and plant a new colony at Kadesquit, on the site of the present city of Bangor, in the State of Maine. A colony was accordingly organized, which included the fathers, Quentin and Lalemant with the lay brother, Gilbert du Thet, and arrived at La Hève in La Cadie, on the 6th of May, 1613, under the conduct of Sieur de la Saussaye. From there they proceeded to Port Royal, took the two missionaries, Biard and Massé, on board, and coasted along the borders of Maine till they came to Mount Desert, and finally determined to plant their colony on that island. A short time after the arrival of the colony, before they were in any condition for defence, Captain Samuel Argall, from the English colony in Virginia, suddenly appeared, and captured and transported the whole colony, and subsequently that at Port Royal, on the alleged ground that they were intruders on English soil. Thus disastrously ended Poutrincourt's colony at Port Royal, and the Marchioness de Guerchville's mission at Mount Desert.—Vide Voyages par le Sr. de Champlain, Paris ed. 1632, pp. 98-114. Shea's Charlevoix, Vol. I. pp. 260-286.
78. Champlain had tried to induce Madame de Guerchville to send her missionaries to Quebec, to avoid the obstacles which they had encountered at Port Royal; but, for the simple reason that De Monts was a Calvinist, she would not listen to it.—Vide Shea's Charlevoix, Vol. I. p. 274; Voyages du Sieur de Champlain, Paris ed. 1632, pp. 112, 113.
79. Vide Histoire du Canada, par Gabriel Sagard, Paris, 1636, pp. 11-12.
80. Carhagouha, named by the French Saint Gabriel. Dr. J. C. Taché, of Ottawa, Canada, who has given much attention to the subject, fixes this village in the central part of the present township of Tiny, in the county of Simcoe.—MS. Letter, Feb. 11, 1880.
81. Cahiagué. Dr. Taché places this village on the extreme eastern limit of the township of Orillia, in the same county, in the bend of the river Severn, a short distance after it leaves Lake Couchiching. The Indian warriors do not appear to have launched their flotilla of bark canoes until they reached the fishing station at the outlet of Lake Simcoe. This village was subsequently known as Saint-Jean Baptiste.
82. The latitude of Champlain is here far from correct. It is not possible to determine the exact place at which it was taken. It could not, however have been at a point much below 44 deg. 7'.
83. There has naturally been some difficulty in fixing satisfactorily the site of the Iroquois fort attacked by Champlain and his allies.
The sources of information on which we are to rely in identifying the site of this fort are in general the same that we resort to in fixing any locality mentioned in his explorations, and are to be found in Champlain's journal of this expedition, the map contained in what is commonly called his edition of 1632, and the engraved picture of the fort executed by Champlain himself, which was published in connection with his journal. The information thus obtained is to be considered in connection with the natural features of the country through which the expedition passed, with such allowance for inexactness as the history, nature, and circumstances of the evidence render necessary.
The map of 1632 is only at best an outline, drafted on a very small scale, and without any exact measurements or actual surveys. It pictures general features, and in connection with the journal may be of great service.
Champlain's distances, as given in his journal, are estimates made under circumstances in which accuracy was scarcely possible. He was journeying along the border of lakes and over the face of the country, in company with some hundreds of wild savages, hunting and fishing by the way, marching in an irregular and desultory manner, and his statements of distances are wisely accompanied by very wide margins, and are of little service, taken alone, in fixing the site of an Indian town. But when natural features, not subject to change, are described, we can easily comprehend the meaning of the text.
The engraving of the fort may or may not have been sketched by Champlain on the spot: parts of it may have been and doubtless were supplied by memory, and it is decisive authority, not in its minor, but in its general features.
With these observations, we are prepared to examine the evidence that points to the site of the Iroquois fort.
When the expedition, emerging from Quinté Bay, arrived at the eastern end of Lake Ontario, at the point where the lake ends and the River St. Lawrence begins, they crossed over the lake, passing large and beautiful islands. Some of these islands will be found laid down on the map of 1632. They then proceeded, a distance, according to their estimation, of about fourteen leagues, to the southern side of Lake Ontario, where they landed and concealed their canoes. The distance to the southern side of the lake is too indefinitely stated, even if we knew at what precise point the measurement began, to enable us to fix the exact place of the landing.
They marched along the sandy shore about four leagues, and then struck inland. If we turn to the map of 1632, on which a line is drawn to rudely represent their course, we shall see that on striking inland they proceeded along the banks of a small river to which several small lakes or ponds are tributary. Little Salmon River being fed by numerous small ponds or lakes may well be the stream figured by Champlain. The text says they discovered an excellent country along the lake before they struck inland, with fine forest-trees, especially the chestnut, with abundance of vines. For several miles along Lake Ontario on the north-east of Little Salmon River the country answers to this description.—Vide MS. Letters of the Rev. James Cross, D.D., LL.D., and of S. D. Smith, Esq., of Mexico, N.Y.
The text says they continued their course about twenty-five or thirty leagues. This again is indefinite, allowing a margin of twelve or fifteen miles; but the text also says they crossed a river flowing from a lake in which were certain beautiful islands, and moreover that the river so crossed discharged into Lake Ontario. The lake here referred to must be the Oneida, since that is the only one in the region which contains any islands whatever, and therefore the river they crossed must be the Oneida River, flowing from the lake of the same name into Lake Ontario.
Soon after they crossed Oneida River, they met a band of savages who were going fishing, whom they made prisoners. This occurred, the text informs us, when they were about four leagues from the fort. They were now somewhere south of Oneida Lake. If we consult the map of 1632, we shall find represented on it an expanse of water from which a stream is represented as flowing into Lake Ontario, and which is clearly Oneida Lake, and south of this lake a stream is represented as flowing from the east in a northwesterly direction and entering this lake towards its western extremity, which must be Chittenango Creek or one of its branches. A fort or enclosed village is also figured on the map, of such huge dimensions that it subtends the angle formed by the creek and the lake, and appears to rest upon both. It is plain, however, from the text that the fort does not rest upon Oneida Lake; we may infer therefore that it rested upon the creek figured on the map, which from its course, as we have already seen, is clearly intended to represent Chittenango Creek or one of its branches. A note explanatory of the map informs us that this is the village where Champlain went to war against the "Antouhonorons," that is to say, the Iroquois. The text informs us that the fort was on a pond, which furnished a perpetual supply of water. We therefore look for the site of the ancient fort on some small body of water connected with Chittenango Creek.
If we examine Champlain's engraved representation of the fort, we shall see that it is situated on a peninsula, that one side rests on a pond, and that two streams pass it, one on the right and one on the left, and that one side only has an unobstructed land-approach. These channels of water coursing along the sides are such marked characteristics of the fort as represented by Champlain, that they must be regarded as important features in the identification of its ancient site.
On Nichols's Pond, near the northeastern limit of the township of Fenner in Madison County, N.Y., the site of an Indian fort was some years since discovered, identified as such by broken bits of pottery and stone implements, such as are usually found in localities of this sort. It is situated on a peculiarly formed peninsula, its northern side resting on Nichols's Pond, while a small stream flowing into the pond forms its western boundary, and an outlet of the pond about thirty-two rods east of the inlet, running in a south-easterly direction, forms the eastern limit of the fort. The outlet of this pond, deflecting to the east and then sweeping round to the north, at length finds its way in a winding course into Cowashalon Creek, thence into the Chittenango, through which it flows into Oneida Lake, at a point north-west of Nichols's Pond.
If we compare the geographical situation of Champlain's fort as figured on his map of 1632, particularly with reference to Oneida Lake, we shall observe a remarkable correspondence between it and the site of the Indian fort at Nichols's Pond. Both are on the south of Oneida Lake, and both are on streams which flow into that lake by running in a north-westerly direction. Moreover, the site of the old fort at Nichols's Pond is situated on a peninsula like that of Champlain; and not only so, but it is on a peninsula formed by a pond on one side, and by two streams of water on two other opposite sides; thus fulfilling in a remarkable degree the conditions contained in Champlain's drawing of the fort.
If the reader has carefully examined and compared the evidences referred to in this note, he will have seen that all the distinguishing circumstances contained in the text of Champlain's journal, on the map of 1632, and in his drawing of the fort, converge to and point out this spot on Nichols's Pond as the probable site of the palisaded Iroquois town attacked by Champlain in 1615.
We are indebted to General John S. Clark, of Auburn, N.Y., for pointing
out and identifying the peninsula at Nichols's Pond as the site of the
Iroquois fort.—Vide Shea's Notes on Champlain's Expedition into
Western New York in 1615, and the Recent Identification of the Fort,
by General John S Clark, Pennsylvania Magazine of History,
Philadelphia, Vol. II. pp. 103-108; also A Lost Point in History, by
L. W. Ledyard, Cazenovia Republican, Vol. XXV. No 47; Champlain's
Invasion of Onondaga, by the Rev. W. M. Beauchamp, Baldwinsville
Gazette, for June 27, 1879.
We are indebted to Orsamus H. Marshall, Esq., of Buffalo, N.Y., for proving the site of the Iroquois fort to be in the neighborhood of Oneida Lake, and not at a point farther west as claimed by several authors.—Vide Proceedings of the New York Historical Society for 1849, p. 96; Magazine of American History, New York, Vol. I. pp. 1-13, Vol. II. pp. 470-483.
About the 20th of May, Champlain, accompanied by the missionary, Le Caron, escorted by a delegation of savages, set out from the Huron capital, in the present county of Simcoe, on their return to Quebec. Pursuing the same circuitous route by which they had come, they were forty days in reaching the Falls of St. Louis, near Montreal, where they found Pont Gravé, just arrived from France, who, with the rest, was much rejoiced at seeing Champlain, since a rumor had gone abroad that he had perished among the savages.
The party arrived at Quebec on the 11th of July. A public service of thanksgiving was celebrated by the Recollect Fathers for their safe return. The Huron chief, D'Arontal, with whom Champlain had passed the winter and who had accompanied him to Quebec, was greatly entertained and delighted with the establishment of the French, the buildings and other accessories of European life, so different from his own, and earnestly requested Champlain to make a settlement at Montreal, that his whole tribe might come and reside near them, safe under their protection against their Iroquois enemies.
Champlain did not remain at Quebec more than ten days, during which he planned and put in execution the enlargement of their houses and fort, increasing their capacity by at least one third. This he found necessary to do for the greater convenience of the little colony, as well as for the occasional entertainment of strangers. He left for France on the 20th day of July, in company with the Recollect Fathers, Joseph le Caron and Denis Jamay, the commissary of the mission, taking with them specimens of French grain which had been produced near Quebec, to testify to the excellent quality of the soil. They arrived at Honfleur in France on the 10th of September, 1616.
The exploration in the distant Indian territories which we have just described in the preceding pages was the last made by Champlain. He had plans for the survey of other regions yet unexplored, but the favorable opportunity did not occur. Henceforth he directed his attention more exclusively than he had hitherto done to the enlargement and strengthening of his colonial plantation, without such success, we regret to say, as his zeal, devotion, and labors fitly deserved. The obstacles that lay in his way were insurmountable. The establishment or factory, we can hardly call it a plantation, at Quebec, was the creature of a company of merchants. They had invested considerable sums in shipping, buildings, and in the employment of men, in order to carry on a trade in furs and peltry with the Indians, and they naturally desired remunerative returns. This was the limit of their purpose in making the investment. The corporators saw nothing in their organization but a commercial enterprise yielding immediate results. They were inspired by no generosity, no loyalty, or patriotism that could draw from them a farthing to increase the wealth, power, or aggrandizement of France. Under these circumstances, Champlain struggled on for years against a current which he could barely direct, but by no means control.
Champlain made voyages to New France both in 1617 and in 1618. In the latter year, among the Indians who came to Quebec for the purpose of trade, appeared Étienne Brulé, the interpreter, who it will be remembered had been despatched in 1615, when Champlain was among the Hurons, to the Entouhonorons at Carantouan, to induce them to join in the attack of the Iroquois in central New York. During the three years that had intervened, nothing had been heard from him. Brulé related the story of his extraordinary adventures, which Champlain has preserved, and which may be found in the report of the voyage of 1618, in Volume III. of this work. [84]
At Quebec, he met numerous bands of Indians from remote regions, whom he had visited in former years, and who, in fulfilment of their promises, had come to barter their peltry for such commodities as suited their need or fancy, and to renew and strengthen their friendship with the French. By these repeated interviews, and the cordial reception and generous entertainment which he always gave them, the Indians dwelling on the upper waters of the Ottawa, along the borders of Lake Huron, or on the Georgian Bay, formed a strong personal attachment to Champlain, and yearly brought down their fleets of canoes heavily freighted with the valuable furs which they had diligently secured during the preceding winter. His personal influence with them, a power which he exercised with great delicacy, wisdom, and fidelity, contributed largely to the revenues annually obtained by the associated merchants.
But Champlain desired more than this. He was not satisfied to be the agent and chief manager of a company organized merely for the purpose of trade. He was anxious to elevate the meagre factory at Quebec into the dignity and national importance of a colonial plantation. For this purpose he had tested the soil by numerous experiments, and had, from time to time, forwarded to France specimens of ripened grain to bear testimony to its productive quality. He even laid the subject before the Council of State, and they gave it their cordial approbation. By these means giving emphasis to his personal appeals, he succeeded at length in extorting from the company a promise to enlarge the establishment to eighty persons, with suitable equipments, farming implements, all kinds of feeds and domestic animals, including cattle and sheep. But when the time came, this promise was not fulfilled. Differences, bickerings, and feuds sprang up in the company. Some wanted one thing, and some wanted another. Even religion cast in an apple of discord. The Catholics wished to extend the faith of their church into the wilds of Canada, while the Huguenots desired to prevent it, or at least not to promote it by their own contributions. The company, inspired by avarice and a desire to restrict the establishment to a mere trading post, raised an issue to discredit Champlain. It was gravely proposed that he should devote himself exclusively to exploration, and that the government and trade should henceforth be under the direction and control of Pont Gravé. But Champlain was not a man to be ejected from an official position by those who had neither the authority to give it to him or the power to take it away. Pont Gravé was his intimate, long-tried, and trusted friend; and, while he regarded him with filial respect and affection, he could not yield, even to him, the rights and honors which had been accorded to him as a recognition, if not a reward, for many years of faithful service, which he had rendered under circumstances of personal hardship and danger. The king addressed a letter to the company, in which he directed them to aid Champlain as much as possible in making explorations, in settling the country, and cultivating the soil, while with their agents in the traffic of peltry there should be no interference. But the spirit of avarice could not be subdued by the mandate of the king. The associated merchants were still, obstinate. Champlain had intended to take his family to Canada that year, but he declined to make the voyage under any implication of a divided authority. The vessel in which he was to sail departed without him, and Pont Gravé spent the winter in charge of the company's affairs at Quebec.
Champlain, in the mean time, took such active measures as seemed necessary to establish his authority as lieutenant of the viceroy, or governor of New France. He appeared before the Council of State at Tours, and after an elaborate argument and thorough discussion of the whole subject, obtained a decree ordering that he should have the command at Quebec and at all other settlements in New France, and that the company should abstain from any interference with him in the discharge of the duties of his office.
The Prince de Condé having recently been liberated from an imprisonment of three years, governed by his natural avarice, was not unwilling to part with his viceroyalty, and early in 1620 transferred it, for the consideration of eleven thousand crowns, or about five hundred and fifty pounds sterling, to his brother-in-law, the Duke de Montmorency, [85] at that time high-admiral of France. The new viceroy appointed Champlain his lieutenant, who immediately prepared to leave for Quebec. But when he arrived at Honfleur, the company, displeased at the recent change, again brought forward the old question of the authority which the lieutenant was to exercise in New France. The time for discussion had, however, passed. No further words were now to be wasted. The viceroy sent them a peremptory order to desist from further interferences, or otherwise their ships, already equipped for their yearly trade, would not be permitted to leave port. This message from the high-admiral of France came with authority and had the desired effect.
Early in May, 1620, Champlain sailed from Honfleur, accompanied by his wife and several Recollect friars, and, after a voyage of two months, arrived at Tadoussac, where he was cordially greeted by his brother-in-law, Eustache Boullé, who was very much astonished at the arrival of his sister, and particularly that she was brave enough to encounter the dangers of the ocean and take up her abode in a wilderness at once barren of both the comforts and refinements of European life.
On the 11th of July, Champlain left Tadoussac for Quebec, where he found the whole establishment, after an absence of two years, in a condition of painful neglect and disorder. He was cordially received, and becoming ceremonies were observed to celebrate his arrival. A sermon composed for the occasion was delivered by one of the Recollect Fathers, the commission of the king and that of the viceroy appointing him to the sole command of the colony were publicly read, cannon were discharged, and the little populace, from loyal hearts, loudly vociferated Vive le Roy!
The attention of the lieutenant was at first directed to restoration and repairs. The roof of the buildings no longer kept out the rain, nor the walls the piercing fury of the winds. The gardens were in a state of ruinous neglect, and the fields poorly and scantily cultivated. But the zeal, energy, and industry of Champlain soon put every thing in repair, and gave to the little settlement the aspect of neatness and thrift. When this was accomplished, he laid the foundations of a fortress, which he called the Fort Saint Louis, situated on the crest of the rocky elevation in the rear of the settlement, about a hundred and seventy-two feet above the surface of the river, a position which commanded the whole breadth of the St. Lawrence at that narrow point.
This work, so necessary for the protection and safety of the colony, involving as it did some expense, was by no means satisfactory to the Company of Associates. [86] Their general fault-finding and chronic discontent led the Duke de Montmorency to adopt heroic measures to silence their complaints. In the spring of 1621, he summarily dissolved the association of merchants, which he denominated the "Company of Rouen and St. Malo," and established another in its place. He continued Champlain in the office of lieutenant, but committed all matters relating to trade to William de Caen, a merchant of high standing, and to Émeric de Caen the nephew of the former, a good naval captain. This new and hasty reorganization, arbitrary if not illegal, however important it might seem to the prosperity and success of the colony, laid upon Champlain new responsibilities and duties at once delicate and difficult to discharge. Though in form suppressed, the company did not yield either its existence or its rights. Both the old and the new company were, by their agents, early in New France, clamoring for their respective interests. De Caen, in behalf of the new, insisted that the lieutenant ought to prohibit all trade with the Indians by the old company, and, moreover, that he ought to seize their property and hold it as security for their unpaid obligations. Champlain, having no written authority for such a proceeding, and De Caen, declining to produce any, did not approve the measure and declined to act. The threats of De Caen that he would take the matter into his own hands, and seize the vessel of the old company commanded by Pont Gravé and then in port, were so violent that Champlain thought it prudent to place a body of armed men in his little fort still unfinished, until the fury of the altercation should subside. [87] This decisive measure, and time, the natural emollient of irritated tempers, soon restored peace to the contending parties, and each was allowed to carry on its trade unmolested by the other. The prudence of Champlain's conduct was fully justified, and the two companies, by mutual consent, were, the next year, consolidated into one.
Champlain remained at Quebec four years before again returning to France. His time was divided between many local enterprises of great importance. His special attention was given to advancing the work on the unfinished fort, in order to provide against incursions of the hostile Iroquois, [88] who at one time approached the very walls of Quebec, and attacked unsuccessfully the guarded house of the Recollects on the St. Charles. [89] He undertook the reconstruction of the buildings of the settlement from their foundations. The main structure was enlarged to a hundred and eight feet [90] in length, with two wings of sixty feet each, having small towers at the four corners. In front and on the borders of the river a platform was erected, on which were placed cannon, while the whole was surrounded by a ditch spanned by drawbridges.
Having placed every thing at Quebec in as good order as his limited means would permit, and given orders for the completion of the works which he had commenced, leaving Émeric de Caen in command, Champlain determined to return to France with his wife, who, though devoted to a religious life, we may well suppose was not unwilling to exchange the rough, monotonous, and dreary mode of living at Quebec for the more congenial refinements to which she had always been accustomed in her father's family near the court of Louis XIII. He accordingly sailed on the 15th of August, and arrived at Dieppe on the 1st of October, 1624. He hastened to St. Germain, and reported to the king and the viceroy what had occurred and what had been done during the four years of his absence.
The interests of the two companies had not been adjusted and they were still in conflict. The Duke de Montmorency about this time negotiated a sale of his viceroyalty to his nephew, Henry de Levi, Duke de Ventadour. This nobleman, of a deeply religious cast of mind, had taken holy orders, and his chief purpose in obtaining the viceroyalty was to encourage the planting of Catholic missions in New France. As his spiritual directors were Jesuits, he naturally committed the work to them. Three fathers and two lay brothers of this order were sent to Canada in 1625, and others subsequently joined them. Whatever were the fruits of their labors, many of them perished in their heroic undertaking, manfully suffering the exquisite pains of mutilation and torture.
Champlain was reappointed lieutenant, but remained in France two years, fully occupied with public and private duties, and in frequent consultations with the viceroy as to the best method of advancing the future interests of the colony. On the 15th of April, 1626, with Eustache Boullé, his brother-in-law, who had been named his assistant or lieutenant, he again sailed for Quebec, where he arrived on the 5th of July. He found the colonists in excellent health, but nevertheless approaching the borders of starvation, having nearly exhausted their provisions. The work that he had laid out to be done on the buildings had been entirely neglected. One important reason for this neglect, was the necessary employment of a large number of the most efficient laborers, for the chief part of the summer in obtaining forage for their cattle in winter, collecting it at a distance of twenty-five or thirty miles from the settlement. To obviate this inconvenience, Champlain took an early opportunity to erect a farm-house near the natural meadows at Cape Tourmente, where the cattle could be kept with little attendance, appointing at the same time an overseer for the men, and making a weekly visit to this establishment for personal inspection and oversight.
The fort, which had been erected on the crest of the rocky height in the rear of the dwelling, was obviously too small for the protection of the whole colony in case of an attack by hostile savages. He consequently took it down and erected another on the same spot, with earthworks on the land side, where alone, with difficulty, it could be approached. He also made extensive repairs upon the storehouse and dwelling.
During the winter of 1626-27, the friendly Indians, the Montagnais, Algonquins, and others gave Champlain much anxiety by unadvisedly entering into an alliance, into which they were enticed by bribes, with a tribe dwelling near the Dutch, in the present State of New York, to assist them against their old enemies, the Iroquois, with whom, however, they had for some time been at peace. Champlain justly looked upon this foolish undertaking as hazardous not only to the prosperity of these friendly tribes, but to their very existence. He accordingly sent his brother-in-law to Three Rivers, the rendezvous of the savage warriors, to convince them of their error and avert their purpose. Boullé succeeded in obtaining a delay until all the tribes should be assembled and until the trading vessels should arrive from France. When Émeric de Caen was ready to go to Three Rivers, Champlain urged upon him the great importance of suppressing this impending conflict with the Iroquois. The efforts of De Caen were, however, ineffectual. He forthwith wrote to Champlain that his presence was necessary to arrest these hostile proceedings. On his arrival, a grand council was assembled, and Champlain succeeded, after a full statement of all the evils that must evidently follow, in reversing their decision, and messengers were sent to heal the breach. Some weeks afterward news came that the embassadors were inhumanly massacred.
Crimes of a serious nature were not unfrequently committed against the French by Indians belonging to tribes, with which they were at profound peace. On one occasion two men, who were conducting cattle by land from Cape Tourmente to Quebec, were assassinated in a cowardly manner. Champlain demanded of the chiefs that they should deliver to him the perpetrators of the crime. They expressed genuine sorrow for what had taken place, but were unable to obtain the criminals. At length, after consulting with the missionary, Le Caron, they offered to present to Champlain three young girls as pledges of their good faith, that he might educate them in the religion and manners of the French. The gift was accepted by Champlain, and these savage maidens became exceedingly attached to their foster-father, as we shall see in the sequel.
The end of the year 1627 found the colony, as usual, in a depressed state. As a colony, it had never prospered. The average number composing it had not exceeded about fifty persons. At this time it may have been somewhat more, but did not reach a hundred. A single family only appears to have subsisted by the cultivation of the soil. [91] The rest were sustained by supplies sent from France. From the beginning disputes and contentions had prevailed in the corporation. Endless bickerings sprung up between the Huguenots and Catholics, each sensitive and jealous of their rights. [92] All expenditures were the subject of censorious criticism. The necessary repairs of the fort, the enlargement and improvement of the buildings from time to time, were too often resisted as unnecessary and extravagant. The company, as a mere trading association, was doubtless successful. Large quantities of peltry were annually brought by the Indians for traffic to the Falls of St. Louis, Three Rivers, Quebec, and Tadoussac. The average number of beaver-skins annually purchased and transported to France was probably not far from fifteen thousand to twenty thousand, and in a most favorable year it mounted up to twenty-two thousand. [93] The large dividends that they were able to make, intimated by Champlain to be not far from forty per centum yearly, were, of course, highly satisfactory to the company. They desired not to impair this characteristic of their enterprise. They had, therefore, a prime motive for not wishing to lay out a single unnecessary franc on the establishment. Their policy was to keep the expenses at the minimum and the net income at the maximum. Under these circumstances, nearly twenty years had elapsed since the founding of Quebec, and it still possessed only the character of a trading post, and not that of a colonial plantation. This progress was satisfactory neither to Champlain, to the viceroy, nor the council of state. In the view of these several interested parties, the time had come for a radical change in the organization of the company. Cardinal de Richelieu had risen by his extraordinary ability as a statesman, a short time anterior to this, into supreme authority, and had assumed the office of grand master and chief of the navigation and commerce of France. His sagacious and comprehensive mind saw clearly the intimate and interdependent relations between these two great national interests and the enlargement and prosperity of the French colonies in America. He lost no time in organizing measures which should bring them into the closest harmony. The company of merchants whose finances had been so skilfully managed by the Caens was by him at once dissolved. A new one was formed, denominated La Compagnie de la Nouvelle-France, consisting of a hundred or more members, and commonly known as the Company of the Hundred Associates. It was under the control and management of Richelieu himself. Its members were largely gentlemen in official positions about the court, in Paris, Rouen, and other cities of France. Among them were the Marquis Deffiat, superintendent of finances, Claude de Roquemont, the Commander de Razilly, Captain Charles Daniel, Sébastien Cramoisy, the distinguished Paris printer, Louis Houêl, the controller of the salt works in Brouage, Champlain, and others well known in public circles.
The new company had many characteristics which seemed to assure the solid growth and enlargement of the colony. Its authority extended over the whole domain of New France and Florida. It provided in its organization for an actual capital of three hundred thousand livres. It entered into an obligation to send to Canada in 1628 from two to three hundred artisans of all trades, and within the space of fifteen years to transport four thousand colonists to New France. The colonists were to be wholly supported by the company for three years, and at the expiration of that period were to be assigned as much land as they needed for cultivation. The settlers were to be native-born Frenchmen, exclusively of the Catholic faith, and no foreigner or Huguenot was to be permitted to enter the country. [94] The charter accorded to the company the exclusive control of trade and all goods manufactured in New France were to be free of imposts on exportation. Besides these, it secured to the corporators other and various exclusive privileges of a semifeudal character, supposed, however, to contribute to the prosperity and growth of the colony.
The organization of the company, having received the formal approbation of Richelieu on the 29th of April, 1627, was ratified by the Council of State on the 6th of May, 1628.
84. The character of Étienne Brulé, either for honor or veracity, is not improved by his subsequent conduct. He appears in 1629 to have turned traitor, to have sold himself to the English, and to have piloted them up the river in their expedition against Quebec. Whether this conduct, base certainly it was, ought to affect the credibility of his story, the reader must judge. Champlain undoubtedly believed it when he first related it to him. He probably had no means then or afterwards of testing its truth. In the edition of 1632, Brulé's story is omitted. It does not necessarily follow that it was omitted because Champlain came to discredit the story, since many passages contained in his preceding publications are omitted in the edition of 1632, but they are not generally passages of so much geographical importance as this, if it be true. The map of 1632 indicates the country of the Carantouanais; but this information might have been obtained by Champlain from the Hurons, or the more western tribes which he visited during the winter of 1615-16.—Vide ed. 1632, p. 220.
85. Henry de Montmorency II was born at Chantilly in 1595, and was beheaded at Toulouse Oct 30, 1632. He was created admiral at the age of seventeen. He commanded the Dutch fleet at the siege of Rochelle. He made the campaigns of 1629 and 1630 in Piedmont, and was created a marshal of France after the victory of Veillane. He adopted the party of Gaston, the Duke of Orleans, and having excited the province of Languedoc of which he was governor to rebellion, he was defeated, and executed as guilty of high treason. He was the last scion of the elder branch of Montmorency and his death was a fatal blow to the reign of feudalism.
86. Among other annoyances which Champlain had to contend against was the contraband trade carried on by the unlicensed Rochellers, who not only carried off quantities of peltry, but even supplied the Indians with fire-arms and ammunition. This was illegal, and endangered the safety of the colony—Vide Voyages par De Champlain, Paris, 1632, Sec Partie, p 3.
87. Vide ed 1632, Sec Partie, Chap III.
88. Vide Hist. New France, by Charlevoix, Shea's. Trans., Vol. II. p. 32.
89. The house of the Recollects on the St. Charles was erected in 1620, and was called the Conuent de Nostre Dame Dame des Anges. The Father Jean d'Olbeau laid the first stone on the 3d of June of that year.—Vide Histoire du Canada par Gabriel Sagard, Paris, 1636, Tross ed., 1866, p. 67; Découvertes et Êtablissements des Français, dans l'ouest et dans le sud de L'Amerique Septentrionale 1637, par Pierre Margry, Paris, 1876, Vol. I. p. 7.
90. Hundred and eight feet, dix-huit toyses. The toise here estimated at six feet. Compare Voyages de Champlain, Laverdière's ed., Vol. I. p. lii, and ed. 1632, Paris, Partie Seconde, p. 63.
91. There was but one private house at Quebec in 1623, and that belonged to Madame Hébert, whose husband was the first to attempt to obtain a living by the cultivation of the soil.—Vide Sagard, Hist, du Canada, 1636, Tross ed. Vol. I. p. 163. There were fifty-one inhabitants at Quebec in 1624, including men, women, and children.—Vide Champlain, ed. 1632, p. 76.
92. Vide Champlain, ed. 1632, pp. 107, 108, for an account of the attempt on the part of the Huguenot, Émeric de Caen, to require his sailors to chaunt psalms and say prayers on board his ship after entering the River St. Lawrence, contrary to the direction of the Viceroy, the Duke de Ventadour. As two thirds of them were Huguenots, it was finally agreed that they should continue to say their prayers, but must omit their psalm-singing.
93. Father Lalemant enumerates the kind of peltry obtained by the French from the Indians, and the amount, as follows. "En eschange ils emportent des peaux d'Orignac, de Loup Ceruier, de Renard, de Loutre, et quelquefois il s'en rencontre de noires, de Martre, de Blaireau et de Rat Musqué, mais principalement de Castor qui est le plus grand de leur gain. On m'a dit que pour vne année ils en auoyent emporté iusques à 22000. L'ordinaire de chaque année est de 15000, ou 20000, à une pistole la pièce, ce n'est pas mal allé."—Vide Rélation de la Nouvelle France en l'Année 1626, Quebec ed. p. 5.
94. This exclusiveness was characteristic of the age. Cardinal Richelieu and his associates were not qualified by education or by any tendency of their natures to inaugurate a reformation in this direction. The experiment of amalgamating Catholic and Huguenot in the enterprises of the colony had been tried but with ill success. Contentions and bickerings had been incessant, and subversive of peace and good neighborhood. Neither party had the spirit of practical toleration as we understand it, and which we regard at the present day as a priceless boon. Nor was it understood anywhere for a long time afterward. Even the Puritans of Massachusetts Bay did not comprehend it, and took heroic measures to exclude from their commonwealth those who differed from them in their religious faith. We certainly cannot censure them for not being in advance of their times. It would doubtless have been more manly in them had they excluded all differing from them by plain legal enactment, as did the Society of the Hundred Associates, rather than to imprison or banish any on charges which all subsequent generations must pronounce unsustained.—Vide Memoir of the Rev. John Wheelwright, by Charles H. Bell, Prince Society, ed. 1876, pp. 9-31 et passim; Hutchinson Papers, Prince Society ed., 1865, Vol. I. pp. 79-113. American Criminal Trials, by Peleg W. Chandler, Boston, 1841, Vol. I. p. 29.
The Company of New France, or of the Hundred Associates, lost no time in carrying out the purpose of its organization. Even before the ratification of its charter by the council, four armed vessels had been fitted out and had already sailed under the command of Claude de Roquemont, a member of the company, to convoy a fleet of eighteen transports laden with emigrants and stores, together with one hundred and thirty-five pieces of ordnance to fortify their settlements in New France.
The company, thus composed of noblemen, wealthy merchants, and officials of great personal influence, with a large capital, and Cardinal Richelieu, who really controlled and shaped the policy of France at that period, at its head possessed so many elements of strength that, in the reasonable judgment of men, success was assured, failure impossible. [95]
To Champlain, the vision of a great colonial establishment in New France, that had so long floated before him in the distance, might well seem to be now almost within his grasp. But disappointment was near at hand. Events were already transpiring which were destined to cast a cloud over these brilliant hopes. A fleet of armed vessels was already crossing the Atlantic, bearing the English flag, with hostile intentions to the settlements in New France. Here we must pause in our narrative to explain the origin, character, and purpose of this armament, as unexpected to Champlain as it was unwelcome.
The reader must be reminded that no boundaries between the French and English territorial possessions in North America at this time existed. Each of these great nations was putting forth claims so broad and extensive as to utterly exclude the other. By their respective charters, grants, and concessions, they recognized no sovereignty or ownership but their own.
Henry IV. of France, made, in 1603, a grant to a favorite nobleman, De Monts, of the territory lying between the fortieth and the forty-sixth degrees of north latitude. James I. of England, three years later, in 1606, granted to the Virginia Companies the territory lying between the thirty-fourth and the forty-eighth degrees of north latitude, covering the whole grant made by the French three years before. Creuxius, a French historian of Canada, writing some years later than this, informs us that New France, that is, the French possessions in North America, then embraced the immense territory extending from Florida, or from the thirty-second degree of latitude, to the polar circle, and in longitude from Newfoundland to Lake Huron. It will, therefore, be seen that each nation, the English and the French, claimed at that time sovereignty over the same territory, and over nearly the whole of the continent of North America. Under these circumstances, either of these nations was prepared to avail itself of any favorable opportunity to dispossess the other.
The English, however, had, at this period, particular and special reasons for desiring to accomplish this important object. Sir William Alexander, [96] Secretary of State for Scotland at the court of England, had received, in 1621, from James I., a grant, under the name of New Scotland, of a large territory, covering the present province of Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and that part of the province of Quebec lying east of a line drawn from the head-waters of the River St. Croix in a northerly direction to the River St. Lawrence. He had associated with him a large number of Scottish noblemen and merchants, and was taking active measures to establish Scottish colonies on this territory. The French had made a settlement within its limits, which had been broken up and the colony dispersed in 1613, by Captain Samuel Argall, under the authority of Sir Thomas Dale, governor of the colony at Jamestown, Virginia. A desultory and straggling French population was still in occupation, under the nominal governorship of Claude La Tour. Sir William Alexander and his associates naturally looked for more or less inconvenience and annoyance from the claims of the French. It was, therefore, an object of great personal importance and particularly desired by him, to extinguish all French claims, not only to his own grant, but to the neighboring settlement at Quebec. If this were done, he might be sure of being unmolested in carrying forward his colonial enterprise.
A war had broken out between France and England the year before, for the ostensible purpose, on the part of the English, of relieving the Huguenots who were shut up in the city of Rochelle, which was beleaguered by the armies of Louis XIII, under the direction of his prime minister, Richelieu, who was resolved to reduce this last stronghold to obedience. The existence of this war offered an opportunity and pretext for dispossessing the French and extinguishing their claims under the rules of war. This object could not be attained in any other way. The French were too deeply rooted to be removed by any less violent or decisive means. No time was, therefore, lost in taking advantage of this opportunity.
Sir William Alexander applied himself to the formation of a company of London merchants who should bear the expense of fitting out an armament that should not only overcome and take possession of the French settlements and forts wherever they should be found, but plant colonies and erect suitable defences to hold them in the future. The company was speedily organized, consisting of Sir William Alexander, junior, Gervase Kirke, Robert Charlton, William Berkeley, and perhaps others, distinguished merchants of London. [97] Six ships were equipped with a suitable armament and letters of marque, and despatched on their hostile errand. Capt. David Kirke, afterwards Sir David, was appointed admiral of the fleet, who likewise commanded one of the ships. [98] His brothers, Lewis Kirke and Thomas Kirke, were in command of two others. They sailed under a royal patent executed in favor of Sir William Alexander, junior, son of the secretary, and others, granting exclusive authority to trade, seize, and confiscate French or Spanish ships and destroy the French settlements on the river and Gulf of St. Lawrence and parts adjacent.
Kirke sailed, with a part if not the whole of his fleet, to Annapolis Basin in the Bay of Fundy, and took possession of the desultory French settlement to which we have already referred. He left a Scotch colony there, under the command of Sir William Alexander, junior, as governor. The fleet finally rendezvoused at Tadoussac, capturing all the French fishing barques, boats, and pinnaces which fell in its way on the coast of Nova Scotia, including the Island of Cape Breton.
From Tadoussac, Kirke despatched a shallop to Quebec, in charge of six Basque fishermen whom he had recently captured. They were bearers of an official communication from the admiral of the English fleet to Champlain. About the same time he sent up the river, likewise, an armed barque, well manned, which anchored off Cape Tourmente, thirty miles below Quebec, near an outpost which had been established by Champlain for the convenience of forage and pasturage for cattle. Here a squad of men landed, took four men, a woman, and little girl prisoners, killed such of the cattle as they desired for use and burned the rest in the stables, as likewise two small houses, pillaging and laying waste every thing they could find. Having done this, the barque hastily returned to Tadoussac.
We must now ask the reader to return with us to the little settlement at Quebec. The proceedings which we have just narrated were as yet unknown to Champlain. The summer of 1628 was wearing on, and no supplies had arrived from France. It was obvious that some accident had detained the transports, and they might not arrive at all. His provisions were nearly exhausted. To subsist without a resupply was impossible. Each weary day added a new keenness to his anxiety. A winter of destitution, of starvation and death for his little colony of well on towards a hundred persons was the painful picture that now constantly haunted his mind. To avoid this catastrophe, if possible, he ordered a boat to be constructed, to enable him to communicate with the lower waters of the gulf, where he hoped he might obtain provisions from the fishermen on the coast, or transportation for a part or the whole of his colony to France.
On the 9th of July, two men came up from Cape Tourmente to announce that an Indian had brought in the news that six large ships had entered and were lying at anchor in the harbor of Tadoussac. The same day, not long after, two canoes arrived, in one of which was Foucher, the chief herds-man at Cape Tourmente, who had escaped from his captors, from whom Champlain first learned what had taken place at that outpost.
Sufficiently assured of the character of the enemy, Champlain hastened to put the unfinished fort in as good condition as possible, appointing to every man in the little garrison his post, so that all might be ready for duty at a moment's warning. On the afternoon of the next day a small sail came into the bay, evidently a stranger, directing its course not through the usual channel, but towards the little River St. Charles. It was too insignificant to cause any alarm. Champlain, however, sent a detachment of arquebusiers to receive it. It proved to be English, and contained the six Basque fishermen already referred to, charged by Kirke with despatches for Champlain. They had met the armed barque returning to Tadoussac, and had taken off and brought up with them the woman and little girl who had been captured the day before at Cape Tourmente.
The despatch, written two days before, and bearing date July 8th, 1628, was a courteous invitation to surrender Quebec into the hands of the English, assigning several natural and cogent reasons why it would be for the interest of all parties for them to do so. Under different circumstances, the reasoning might have had weight; but this English admiral had clearly conceived a very inadequate idea of the character of Champlain, if he supposed he would surrender his post, or even take it into consideration, while the enemy demanding it and his means of enforcing it were at a distance of at least a hundred miles. Champlain submitted the letter to Pont Gravé and the other gentlemen of the colony, and we concluded, he adds, that if the English had a desire to see us nearer, they must come to us, and not threaten us from so great a distance.
Champlain returned an answer declining the demand, couched in language of respectful and dignified politeness. It is easy, however, to detect a tinge of sarcasm running through it, so delicate as not to be offensive, and yet sufficiently obvious to convey a serene indifference on the part of the French commander as to what the English might think it best to do in the sequel. The tone of the reply, the air of confidence pervading it, led Kirke to believe that the French were in a far better condition to resist than they really were. The English admiral thought it prudent to withdraw. He destroyed all the French fishing vessels and boats at Tadoussac, and proceeded down the gulf, to do the same along the coast.
We have already alluded, in the preceding pages, to De Roquemont, the French admiral, who had been charged by the Company of the Hundred Associates to convoy a fleet of transports to Canada. Wholly ignorant of the importance of an earlier arrival at Quebec, he appears to have moved leisurely, and was now, with his whole fleet, lying at anchor in the Bay of Gaspé. Hearing that Kirke was in the gulf, he very unwisely prepared to give him battle, and moved out of the bay for that purpose. On the 18th of July the two armaments met. Kirke had six armed vessels under his command, while De Roquemont had but four. The conflict was unequal. The English vessels were unencumbered and much heavier than those of the French. De Roquemont [99] was soon overpowered and compelled to surrender his whole fleet of twenty-two vessels, with a hundred and thirty-five pieces of ordnance, together with supplies and colonists for Quebec, were all taken. Kirke returned to England laden with the rich spoils of his conquest, having practically accomplished, if not what he had intended, nevertheless that which satisfied the avarice of the London merchants under whose auspices the expedition had sailed. The capture of Quebec had from the beginning been the objective purpose of Sir William Alexander. The taking of this fleet and the cutting off their supplies was an important step in this undertaking. The conquest was thereby assured, though not completed.
Champlain, having despatched his reply to Kirke, naturally supposed he would soon appear before Quebec to carry out his threat. He awaited this event with great anxiety. About ten days after the messengers had departed, a young Frenchman, named Desdames, arrived in a small boat, having been sent by De Roquemont, the admiral of the new company, to inform Champlain that he was then at Gaspé with a large fleet, bringing colonists, arms, stores, and provisions for the settlement. Desdames also stated that De Roquemont intended to attack the English, and that on his way he had heard the report of cannon, which led him to believe that a conflict had already taken place. Champlain heard nothing more from the lower St. Lawrence until the next May, when an Indian from Tadoussac brought the story of De Roquemont's defeat.
In the mean time, Champlain resorted to every expedient to provide subsistence for his famishing colony. Even at the time when the surrender was demanded by the English, they were on daily rations of seven ounces each. The means of obtaining food were exceedingly slender. Fishing could not be prosecuted to any extent, for the want of nets, lines, and hooks. Of gunpowder they had less than fifty pounds, and a possible attack by treacherous savages rendered it inexpedient to expend it in hunting game. Moreover, they had no salt for curing or preserving the flesh of such wild animals as they chanced to take. The few acres cultivated by the missionaries and the Hébert family, and the small gardens about the settlement, could yield but little towards sustaining nearly a hundred persons for the full term of ten months, the shortest period in which they could reasonably expect supplies from France. A system of the utmost economy was instituted. A few eels were purchased by exchange of beaver-skins from the Indians. Pease were reduced to flour first by mortars and later by hand-mills constructed for the purpose, and made into a soup to add flavor to other less palatable food. Thus economising their resources, the winter finally wore away, but when the spring came, their scanty means were entirely exhausted. Henceforth their sole reliance was upon the few fish that could be taken from the river, and the edible roots gathered day by day from the fields and forests. An attempt was made to quarter some of the men upon the friendly Indians, but with little success. Near the last of June, thirty of the colony, men, women, and children, unwilling to remain longer at Quebec, were despatched to Gaspé, twenty of them to reside there with the Indians, the others to seek a passage to France by some of the foreign fishing-vessels on the coast. This detachment was conducted by Eustache Boullé, the brother-in-law of Champlain. The remnant of the little colony, disheartened by the gloomy prospect before them and exhausted by hunger, continued to drag out a miserable existence, gathering sustenance for the wants of each day, without knowing what was to supply the demands of the next.
On the 19th of July, 1629, three English vessels were seen from the fort at Quebec, distant not more than three miles, approaching under full sail. [100] Their purpose could not be mistaken. Champlain called a council, in which it was decided at once to surrender, but only on good terms; otherwise, to resist to their utmost with such slender means as they had. The little garrison of sixteen men, all his available force, hastened to their posts. A flag of truce soon brought a summons from the brothers, Lewis and Thomas Kirke, couched in courteous language, asking the surrender of the fort and settlement, and promising such honorable and reasonable terms as Champlain himself might dictate.
To this letter Champlain [101] replied that he had not, in his present circumstances, the power of resisting their demand, and that on the morrow he would communicate the conditions on which he would deliver up the settlement; but, in the mean time, he must request them to retire beyond cannon-shot, and not attempt to land. On the evening of the same day the articles of capitulation were delivered, which were finally, with very little variation, agreed to by both parties.
The whole establishment at Quebec, with all the movable property belonging to it, was to be surrendered into the hands of the English. The colonists were to be transported to France, nevertheless, by the way of England. The officers were permitted to leave with their arms, clothes, and the peltries belonging to them as personal property. The soldiers were allowed their clothes and a beaver-robe each; the missionaries, their robes and books. This agreement was subsequently ratified at Tadoussac by David Kirke, the admiral of the fleet, on the 19th of August, 1629.
On the 20th of July, Lewis Kirke, vice-admiral, at the head of two hundred armed men, [102] took formal possession of Quebec, in the name of Charles I., the king of England. The English flag was hoisted over the Fort of St. Louis. Drums beat and cannon were discharged in token of the accomplished victory.
The English demeaned themselves with exemplary courtesy and kindness towards their prisoners of war. Champlain was requested to continue to occupy his accustomed quarters until he should leave Quebec; the holy mass was celebrated at his request; and an inventory of what was found in the habitation and fort was prepared and placed in his hand, a document which proved to be of service in the sequel. The colonists were naturally anxious as to the disposition of their lands and effects; but their fears were quieted when they were all cordially invited to remain in the settlement, assured, moreover, that they should have the same privileges and security of person and property which they had enjoyed from their own government. This generous offer of the English, and their kind and considerate treatment of them, induced the larger part of the colonists to remain.
On the 24th of July, Champlain, exhausted by a year of distressing anxiety and care, and depressed by the adverse proceedings going on about him, embarked on the vessel of Thomas Kirke for Tadoussac, to await the departure of the fleet for England. Before reaching their destination, they encountered a French ship laden with merchandise and supplies, commanded by Émeric de Caen, who was endeavoring to reach Quebec for the purpose of trade and obtaining certain peltry and other property stored at that place, belonging to his uncle, William de Caen. A conflict was inevitable. The two vessels met. The struggle was severe, and, for a time, of doubtful result. At length the French cried for quarter. The combat ceased. De Caen asked permission to speak with Champlain. This was accorded by Kirke, who informed him, if another shot were fired, it would be at the peril of his life. Champlain was too old a soldier and too brave a man to be influenced by an appeal to his personal fears. He coolly replied, It will be an easy matter for you to take my life, as I am in your power, but it would be a disgraceful act, as you would violate your sacred promise. I cannot command the men in the ship, or prevent their doing their duty as brave men should; and you ought to commend and not blame them.
De Caen's ship was borne as a prize into the harbor of Tadoussac, and passed for the present into the vortex of general confiscation.
Champlain remained at Tadoussac until the fleet was ready to return to England. In the mean time, he was courteously entertained by Sir David Kirke. He was, however, greatly pained and disappointed that the admiral was unwilling that he should take with him to France two Indian girls who had been presented to him a year or two before, and whom he had been carefully instructing in religion and manners, and whom he loved as his own daughters. Kirke, however, was inexorable. Neither reason, entreaty, nor the tears of the unhappy maidens could move him. As he could not take them with him, Champlain administered to them such consolation as he could, counselling them to be brave and virtuous, and to continue to say the prayers that he had taught them. It was a relief to his anxiety at last to be able to obtain from Mr. Couillard, [103] one of the earliest settlers at Quebec, the promise that they should remain in the care of his wife, while the girls, on their part, assured him that they would be as daughters to their new foster-parents until his return to New France.
Quebec having been provisioned and garrisoned, the fleet sailed for England about the middle of September, and arrived at Plymouth on the 20th of November. On the 27th, the missionaries and others who wished to return to France, disembarked at Dover, while Champlain was taken to London, where he arrived on the 29th.
At Plymouth, Kirke learned that a peace between France and England had been concluded on the 24th of the preceding April, nearly three months before Quebec had been taken; consequently, every thing that had been done by this expedition must, sooner or later, be reversed. The articles of peace had provided that all conquests subsequent to the date of that instrument should be restored. It was evident that Quebec, the peltry, and other property taken there, together with the fishing-vessels and others captured in the gulf, must be restored to the French. To Kirke and the Company of London Merchants this was a bitter disappointment. Their expenditures had been large in the first instance; the prizes of the year before, the fleet of the Hundred Associates which they had captured, had probably all been absorbed in the outfit of the present expedition, comprising the six vessels and two pinnaces with which Kirke had sailed for the conquest of Quebec. Sir William Alexander had obtained, in the February preceding, from Charles I., a royal charter of THE COUNTRY AND LORDSHIP OF CANADA IN AMERICA, [104] embracing a belt of territory one hundred leagues in width, covering both sides of the St. Lawrence from its mouth to the Pacific Ocean. This charter with the most ample provisions had been obtained in anticipation of the taking of Quebec, and in order to pave the way for an immediate occupation and settlement of the country. Thus a plan for the establishment of an English colonial empire on the banks of the St. Lawrence had been deliberately formed, and down to the present moment offered every prospect of a brilliant success. But a cloud had now swept along the horizon and suddenly obscured the last ray of hope. The proceeds of their two years of incessant labor, and the large sums which they had risked in the enterprise, had vanished like a mist in the morning sun. But, as the cause of the English became more desperate, the hopes of the French revived. The losses of the latter were great and disheartening; but they saw, nevertheless, in the distance, the long-cherished New France of the past rising once more into renewed strength and beauty.
On his arrival at London, Champlain immediately put himself in communication with Monsieur de Châteauneuf, the French ambassador, laid before him the original of the capitulation, a map of the country, and such other memoirs as were needed to show the superior claims of the French to Quebec on the ground both of discovery and occupation. [105] Many questions arose concerning the possession and ownership of the peltry and other property taken by the English, and, during his stay, Champlain contributed as far as possible to the settlement of these complications. It is somewhat remarkable that during this time the English pretended to hold him as a prisoner of war, and even attempted to extort a ransom from him, [106] pressing the matter so far that Champlain felt compelled to remonstrate against a demand so extraordinary and so obviously unjust, as he was in no sense a prisoner of war, and likewise to state his inability to pay a ransom, as his whole estate in France did not exceed seven hundred pounds sterling.
After having remained a month in London, Champlain was permitted to depart for France, arriving on the last day of December.
At Dieppe he met Captain Daniel, from whom he learned that Richelieu and the Hundred Associates had not been unmindful of the pressing wants of their colony at Quebec. Arrangements had been made early in the year 1629 to send to Champlain succor and supplies, and a fleet had been organized to be conducted thither by the Commander Isaac de Razilly. While preparations were in progress, peace was concluded between France and England on the 24th of April. It was, consequently, deemed unnecessary to accompany the transports by an armed force, and thereupon Razilly's orders were countermanded, while Captain Daniel of Dieppe, [107] whose services had been engaged, was sent forward with four vessels and a barque belonging to the company, to carry supplies to Quebec. A storm scattered his fleet, but the vessel under his immediate command arrived on the coast of the Island of Cape Breton, and anchored on the 18th of September, novo stylo, in the little harbor of Baleine, situated about six miles easterly from the present site of Louisburgh, now famous in the annals of that island. Here he was surprised to find a British settlement. Lord Ochiltrie, better known as Sir James Stuart, a Scottish nobleman, had obtained a grant, through Sir William Alexander, of the Island of Cape Breton, and had, on the 10th of the July preceding, novo stylo, planted there a colony of sixty persons, men, women, and children, and had thrown up for their protection a temporary fort. Daniel considered this an intrusion upon French soil. He accordingly made a bloodless capture of the fortress at Baleine, demolished it, and, sailing to the north and sweeping round to the west, entered an estuary which he says the savages called Grand Cibou, [108] where he erected a fort and left a garrison of forty men, with provisions and all necessary means of defence. Having set up the arms of the King of France and those of Cardinal Richelieu, erected a house, chapel, and magazine, and leaving two Jesuit missionaries, the fathers Barthélémy Vimond and Alexander de Vieuxpont, he departed, taking with him the British colonists, forty-two of whom he landed near Falmouth in England, and eighteen, including Lord Ochiltrie, he carried into France. This settlement at the Bay of St. Anne, or Port Dauphin, accidentally established and inadequately sustained, lingered a few years and finally disappeared.
Having received the above narrative from Captain Daniel, Champlain soon after proceeded to Paris, and laid the whole subject of the unwarrantable proceedings of the English in detail before the king, Cardinal Richelieu, and the Company of New France, and urged the importance of regaining possession as early as possible of the plantation from which they had been unjustly ejected. The English king did not hesitate at an early day to promise the restoration of Quebec, and, in fact, after some delay, all places which were occupied by the French at the outbreak of the war. The policy of the English ministers appears, however, to have been to postpone the execution of this promise as long as possible, probably with the hope that something might finally occur to render its fulfilment unnecessary. Sir William Alexander, the Earl of Stirling, who had very great influence with Charles I, was particularly opposed to the restoration of the settlement on the shores of Annapolis Basin. This fell within the limits of the grant made to him in 1621, under the name of New Scotland, and a Scotch colony was now in occupation. He contended that no proper French plantation existed there at the opening of the war, and this was probably true; a few French people were, indeed, living there, but under no recognized, certainly no actual, authority or control of the crown of France, and consequently they were under no obligation to restore it. But Charles I had given his word that all places taken by the English should be restored as they were before the war, and no argument or persuasions could change his resolution to fulfil his promise. It was not, however, till after the lapse of more than two years, owing, chiefly, to the opposition of Sir William Alexander, that the restoration of Quebec and the plantation on Annapolis Basin was fully assured by the treaty of St Germain en Laye, bearing date March 29, 1632. The reader must be reminded that the text of the treaty just mentioned and numerous contemporary documents show that the restorations demanded by the French and granted by the English only related to the places occupied by the French before the outbreak of the war, and not to Canada or New France or to any large extent of provincial territory whatever. [109] When the restorations were completed, the boundary lines distinguishing the English and French possessions in America were still unsettled, the territorial rights of both nations were still undefined, and each continued, as they had done before the war, to claim the same territory as a part of their respective possessions. Historians, giving to this treaty a superficial examination, and not considering it in connection with contemporary documents, have, from that time to the present, fallen into the loose and unauthorized statement that, by the treaty of St. Germain en Laye, the whole domain of Canada or New France was restored to the French. Had the treaty of St. Germain en Laye, by which Quebec was restored to the French, fixed accurately the boundary lines between the two countries, it would probably have saved the expenditure of money and blood, which continued to be demanded from time to time until, after a century and a quarter, the whole of the French possessions were transferred, under the arbitration of war, to the English crown.
95. The association was a joint-stock company. Each corporator was bound to pay in three thousand livres, and as there were over a hundred, the quick capital amounted to over 300,000 livres.—Vide Mercure François, Paris, 1628, Tome XIV. p 250. For a full statement of the organization and constitution of the Company of New France, Vide Mercure Francois, Tome XIV pp 232-267 Vide also Charlevoix's Hist. New France, Shea's Trans Vol. II. pp. 39-44.
96. Vide Sir William Alexander and American Colonization, Prince Society, Boston, 1873.
97. Vide Colonial Papers, Vol. V. 87, III. We do not find the mention of any others as belonging to the Company of Merchant Adventurers to Canada.
98. Sir David Kirke was one of five brothers, the sons of Gervase or Gervais Kirke, a merchant of London, and his wife, Elizabeth Goudon of Dieppe in France. The grandfather of Sir David was Thurston Kirke of Norton, a small town in the northern part of the county of Derby, known as the birthplace of the sculptor Chantrey. This little hamlet had been the home of the Kirkes for several generations. Gervase Kirke had, in 1629, resided in Dieppe for the most of the forty years preceding, and his children were probably born there. Sir David Kirke was married to Sarah, daughter of Sir Joseph Andrews. In early life he was a wine- merchant at Bordeaux and Cognac. He was knighted by Charles I in 1633, in recognition of his services in taking Quebec. On the 13th of November, 1637, he received a grant of "the whole continent, island, or region called Newfoundland." In 1638, he took up his residence at Ferryland, Newfoundland, in the house built by Lord Baltimore. He was a friend and correspondent of Archbishop Laud, to whom he wrote, in 1639, "That the ayre of Newfoundland agrees perfectly well with all God's creatures, except Jesuits and schismatics." He remained in Newfoundland nearly twenty years, where he died in 1655-56, having experienced many disappointments occasioned by his loyalty to Charles I.—Vide Colonial Papers, Vol. IX. No. 76; The First English Conquest of Canada, by Henry Kirke, London, 1871, passim; Les Voyages du Sieur de Champlain, Paris ed. 1632, p. 257.
99. Champlain criticises with merited severity the conduct of De Roquemont, and closes in the following words "Le merite d'un bon Capitaine n'est pas seulement au courage, mais il doit estre accompagné de prudence, qui est ce qui les fait estimer, comme estant suiuy de ruses, stratagesmes, & d'inventions plusieurs auec peu ont beaucoup fait, & se sont rendus glorieux & redoutables"—Vide Les Voyages du Sieur de Champlain, ed 1632, part II p. 166.
100. On the 13th of March, 1629, letters of marque were issued to Capt. David Kirke, Thomas Kirke, and others, in favor of the "Abigail," 300 tons, the "William," 200 tons, the "George" of London, and the "Jarvis."
101. This correspondence is preserved by Champlain.—Vide Les Voyages par
le Sieur de Champlain, Paris, 1632, pp. 215-219.
102. Vide Abstract of the Deposition of Capt. David Kirke and others.
Calendar of State Papers, Colonial, 1574-1660, p. 103.
103. Couillard. Champlain writes Coulart. This appears to have been William Couillard, the son in-law of Madame Hébert and one of the five families which remained at Quebec after it was taken by the English.—Vide Laverdière's note, Oeuvres de Champlain, Quebec ed Vol. VI p. 249.
104. An English translation of this charter from the Latin original was published by the Prince Society in 1873 Vide Sir William Alexander and American Colonization, Prince Society, Boston, pp. 239-249.
105. Champlain published, in 1632, a brief argument setting forth the claims of the French, which he entitles. Abregé des Descouuertures de la Nouuelle France, tant de ce que nous auons descouuert comme aussi les Anglais, depuis les Virgines iusqu'au Freton Dauis, & de cequ'eux & nous pouuons pretendre suiuant le rapport des Historiens qui en ont descrit, que ie rapporte cy dessous, qui feront iuger à un chacun du tout sans passion.—Vide ed. 1632, p. 290. In this paper he narrates succinctly the early discoveries made both by the French and English navigators, and enforces the doctrine of the superior claims of the French with clearness and strength. It contains, probably, the substance of what Champlain placed at this time in the hands of the French embassador in London.
106. It is difficult to conceive on what ground this ransom was demanded since the whole proceedings of the English against Quebec were illegal, and contrary to the articles of peace which had just been concluded. That such a demand was made would be regarded as incredible, did not the fact rest upon documentary evidence of undoubted authority.—Vide Laverdière's citation from State Papers Office, Vol. V. No. 33. Oeuvres de Champlain, Quebec ed, Vol. VI. p 1413.
107. Vide Relation du Voyage fait par le Capitaine Daniel de Dieppe, année 1629, Les Voyages du Sieur de Champlain, Paris, 1632, p. 271. Captain Daniel was enrolled by Creuxius in the Society of New France or the Hundred Associates, as Carolus Daniel, nauticus Capitaneus. Vide Historia Canadensis for the names of the Society of the Hundred Associates.
108. Cibou. Sometimes written Chibou. "Cibou means," says Mr. J. Hammond Trumball, "simply river in all eastern Algonkin languages."—MS. letter. Nicholas Denys, in his very full itinerary of the coast of the island of Cape Breton speaks also of the entree du petit Chibou ou de Labrador. This petit Chibou, according to his description, is identical with what is now known as the Little Bras d'Or, or smaller passage to Bras d'Or Lake. It seems probable that the great Cibou of the Indians was applied originally by them to what we now call the Great Bras d'Or, or larger passage to Bras d'Or Lake. It is plain, however, that Captain Daniel and other early writers applied it to an estuary or bay a little further west than the Great Bras d'Or, separated from it by Cape Dauphin, and now known as St. Anne's Bay. It took the name of St. Anne's immediately on the planting of Captain Daniel's colony, as Champlain calls it, l'habitation saincte Anne en l'ile du Cap Breton in his relation of what took place in 1631.—Voyages, ed. 1632, p. 298. A very good description of it by Père Perrault may be found in Jesuit Relations, 1635, Quebec ed p. 42.—Vide, also, Description de l'Amerique Septentrionale par Monsieur Denys, Paris, 1672, p. 155, where is given an elaborate description of St Anne's Harbor. Gransibou may be seen on Champlain's map of 1632, but the map is too indefinite to aid us in fixing its exact location.
109. Vide Sir William Alexander and American Colonization, Prince Society, 1873, pp. 66-72.—Royal Letters, Charters, and Tracts relating to the Colonisation of New Scotland, Bannatyne Club, Edinburgh, 1867, p. 77 et passim.
In breaking up the settlement at Quebec, the losses of the De Caens were considerable, and it was deemed an act of justice to allow them an opportunity to retrieve them, at least in part; and, to enable them to do this, the monopoly of the fur-trade in the Gulf of St. Lawrence was granted to them for one year, and, on the retirement of the English, Émeric de Caen, as provisional governor for that period, took formal possession of Quebec on the 13th of July, 1632. In the mean time, Champlain remained in France, devoting himself with characteristic energy to the interests of New France. Beside the valuable counsel and aid which he gave regarding the expedition then fitting out and to be sent to Quebec by the Company of New France, he prepared and carried through the press an edition of his Voyages, comprising extended extracts from what he had already published, and a continuation of the narrative to 1631. He also published in the same volume a Treatise on Navigation, and a Catechism translated from the French by one of the Fathers into the language of the Montagnais. [110]
On the 23d of March, 1633, having again been commissioned as governor, Champlain sailed from Dieppe with a fleet of three vessels, the "Saint Pierre," the "Saint Jean," and the "Don de Dieu," belonging to the Company of New France, conveying to Quebec a large number of colonists, together with the Jesuit fathers, Enemond Massé and Jean de Brébeuf. The three vessels entered the harbor of Quebec on the 23d of May. On the announcement of Champlain's arrival, the little colony was all astir. The cannon at the Fort St. Louis boomed forth their hoarse welcome of his coming. The hearts of all, particularly of those who had remained at Quebec during the occupation of the English, were overflowing with joy. The three years' absence of their now venerable and venerated governor, and the trials, hardships, and discouragements through which they had in the mean time passed, had not effaced from their minds the virtues that endeared him to their hearts. The memory of his tender solicitude in their behalf, his brave example of endurance in the hour of want and peril, and the sweetness of his parting counsels, came back afresh to awaken in them new pulsations of gratitude. Champlain's heart was touched by his warm reception and the visible proofs of their love and devotion. This was a bright and happy day in the calendar of the little colony.
Champlain addressed himself with his old zeal and a renewed strength to every interest that promised immediate or future good results. He at once directed the renovation and improvement of the habitation and fort, which, after an occupation of three years by aliens, could not be delayed. He then instituted means, holding councils and creating a new trading-post, for winning back the traffic of the allied tribes, which had been of late drawn away by the English, who continued to steal into the waters of the St. Lawrence for that purpose. At an early day after his re-establishment of himself at Quebec, Champlain proceeded to build a memorial chapel in close proximity to the fort which he had erected some years before on the crest of the rocky eminence that overlooks the harbor. He gave it the appropriate and significant name, NOTRE DAME DE RECOUVRANCE, in grateful memory of the recent return of the French to New France. [111] It had long been an ardent desire of Champlain to establish a French settlement among the Hurons, and to plant a mission there for the conversion of this favorite tribe to the Christian faith. Two missionaries, De Brébeuf and De Nouë, were now ready for the undertaking. The governor spared no pains to secure for them a favorable reception, and vigorously urged the importance of their mission upon the Hurons assembled at Quebec. [112] But at the last, when on the eve of securing his purpose, complications arose and so much hostility was displayed by one of the chiefs, that he thought it prudent to advise its postponement to a more auspicious moment. With these and kindred occupations growing out of the responsibilities of his charge, two years soon passed away.
During the summer of 1635, Champlain addressed an interesting and important letter to Cardinal de Richelieu, whose authority at that time shaped both the domestic and foreign policy of France. In it the condition and imperative wants of New France are clearly set forth. This document was probably the last that Champlain ever penned, and is, perhaps, the only autograph letter of his now extant. His views of the richness and possible resources of the country, the vast missionary field which it offered, and the policy to be pursued, are so clearly stated that we need offer no apology for giving the following free translation of the letter in these pages. [113]
MONSEIGNEUR,—The honor of the commands that I have received from your Eminence has inspired me with greater courage to render to you every possible service with all the fidelity and affection that can be desired from a faithful servant. I shall spare neither my blood nor my life whenever the occasion shall demand them.
There are subjects enough in these regions, if your Eminence, after considering the character of the country, shall desire to extend your authority over them. This territory is more than fifteen hundred leagues in length, lying between the same parallels of latitude as our own France. It is watered by one of the finest rivers in the world, into which empty many tributaries more than four hundred leagues in length, beautifying a country inhabited by a vast number of tribes. Some of them are sedentary in their mode of life, possessing, like the Muscovites, towns and villages built of wood; others are nomadic, hunters and fishermen, all longing to welcome the French and religious fathers, that they may be instructed in our faith.
The excellence of this country cannot be too highly estimated or praised, both as to the richness of the soil, the diversity of the timber such as we have in France, the abundance of wild animals, game, and fish, which are of extraordinary magnitude. All this invites you, Monseigneur, and makes it seem as if God had created you above all your predecessors to do a work here more pleasing to Him than any that has yet been accomplished.
For thirty years I have frequented this country, and have acquired a thorough knowledge of it, obtained from my own observation and the information given me by the native inhabitants. Monseigneur, I pray you to pardon my zeal, if I say that, after your renown has spread throughout the East, you should end by compelling its recognition in the West.
Expelling the English from Quebec has been a very important beginning, but, nevertheless, since the treaty of peace between the two crowns, they have returned to carry on trade and annoy us in this river; declaring that it was enjoined upon them to withdraw, but not to remain away, and that they have their king's permission to come for the period of thirty years. But, if your Eminence wills, you can make them feel the power of your authority. This can, furthermore, be extended at your pleasure to him who has come here to bring about a general peace among these peoples, who are at war with a nation holding more than four hundred leagues in subjection, and who prevent the free use of the rivers and highways. If this peace were made, we should be in complete and easy enjoyment of our possessions. Once established in the country, we could expel our enemies, both English and Flemings, forcing them to withdraw to the coast, and, by depriving them of trade with the Iroquois, oblige them to abandon the country entirely. It requires but one hundred and twenty men, light-armed for avoiding arrows, by whose aid, together with two or three thousand savage warriors, our allies, we should be, within a year, absolute masters of all these peoples, and, by establishing order among them, promote religious worship and secure an incredible amount of traffic.
The country is rich in mines of copper, iron, steel, brass, silver, and other minerals which may be found here.
The cost, Monseigneur, of one hundred and twenty men is a trifling one to his Majesty, the enterprise the most noble that can be imagined.
All for the glory of God, whom I pray with my whole heart to grant you ever-increasing prosperity, and to make me, all my life, Monseigneur,
Your most humble,
Most faithful,
and Most obedient servant,
CHAMPLAIN.
AT QUEBEC, IN NEW FRANCE, the 15th of August, 1635.
In this letter will be found the key to Champlain's war-policy with the Iroquois, no where else so fully unfolded. We shall refer to this subject in the sequel.
Early in October, when the harvest of the year had ripened and been gathered in, and the leaves had faded and fallen, and the earth was mantled in the symbols of general decay, in sympathy with all that surrounded him, in his chamber in the little fort on the crest of the rocky promontory at Quebec, lay the manly form of Champlain, smitten with disease, which was daily breaking down the vigor and strength of his iron constitution. From loving friends he received the ministrations of tender and assiduous care. But his earthly career was near its end. The bowl had been broken at the fountain. Life went on ebbing away from week to week. At the end of two months and a half, on Christmas day, the 25th of December, 1635, his spirit passed to its final rest.
This otherwise joyous festival was thus clouded with a deep sorrow. No heart in the little colony was untouched by this event. All had been drawn to Champlain, so many years their chief magistrate and wise counsellor, by a spontaneous and irresistible respect, veneration, and love. It was meet, as it was the universal desire, to crown him, in his burial, with every honor which, in their circumstances, they could bestow. The whole population joined in a mournful procession. His spiritual adviser and friend, Father Charles Lalemant, performed in his behalf the last solemn service of the church. Father Paul Le Jeune pronounced a funeral discourse, reciting his virtues, his fidelity to the king and the Company of New France, his extraordinary love and devotion to the families of the colony, and his last counsels for their continued happiness and welfare. [114]
When these ceremonies were over his body was piously and tenderly laid to rest, and soon after a tomb was constructed for its reception expressly in his honor as the benefactor of New France. [115] The place of his burial [116] was within the little chapel subsequently erected, and which was reverently called La Chapelle de M. de Champlain, in grateful memory of him whose body reposed beneath its sheltering walls.
110. This catechism, bearing the following title, is contained on fifteen pages in the ed. of 1632: Doctrine Chrestienne, du R. P. Ledesme de la Compagnie de Jesus. Traduîte en Langage Canadois, autre que celuy des Montagnars, pour la Conversion des habitans dudit pays. Par le R. P. Breboeuf de la mesme Compagnie. It is in double columns, one side Indian and the other French.
111. The following extracts will show that the chapel was erected in 1633, that it was built by Champlain, and that it was called Notre Dame de Recouvrance.
Nous les menasmes en nostre petite chapelle, qui a commencé ceste année à l'embellir.—Vide Relations des Jésuites. Québec ed. 1633, p. 30.
La sage conduitte et la prudence de Monsieur de Champlain Gouuerneur de Kebec et du fleuve sainct Laurens, qui nous honore de sa bien- veillance, retenant vn chacun dans son devoir, a fait que nos paroles et nos prédications ayent esté bien receuens, et la Chapelle qu'il a fait dresser proche du fort a l'honneur de nostre Dame, &c.—Idem, 1634, p. 2.
La troisiéme, que nous allons habiter cette Autome, la Residence de
Nostre-dame de Recouvrance, à Kebec proche du Fort.—Idem, 1635, p.
3.
112. According to Père Le Jeune, from five to seven hundred Hurons had
assembled at Quebec in July, 1633, bringing their canoes loaded with
merchandise.—Vide Relations des Jésuites, Quebec ed. 1633, p. 34.
113. This letter was printed in oeuvres de Champlain, Quebec ed. Vol. VI.
Pièces Justificatives, p 35. The original is at Paris, in the
Archives of Foreign Affairs.
114. Vide Relations des Jésuites, Quebec ed. 1636, p. 56. Creuxius,
Historia Canadensis, pp. 183-4.
115. Monsieur le Gouverneur, qui estimoit sa vertu, desira qu'il fust enterré prés du corps de feu Monsieur de Champlain, qui est dans vn sepulchre particulier, erigé exprés pour honorer la memoire de ce signalé personnage qui a tant obligé la Nouuelle France.—Vide Relations des Jésuites, Quebec ed. 1643, p. 3.
116. The exact spot where Champlain was buried is at this time unknown. Historians and antiquaries have been much interested in its discovery. In 1866, the Abbés Laverdière and Casgrain were encouraged to believe that their searches had been crowned with success. They published a statement of their discovery. Their views were controverted in several critical pamphlets that followed. In the mean time, additional researches have been made. The theory then broached that his burial was in the Lower Town, and in the Recollect chapel built in 1615, has been abandoned. The Abbé Casgrain, in an able discussion of this subject, in which he cites documents hitherto unpublished, shows that Champlain was buried in a tomb within the walls of a chapel erected by his successor in the Upper Town, and that this chapel was situated somewhere within the court-yard of the present post-office. Père Le Jeune, who records the death of Champlain in his Relation of 1636, does not mention the place of his burial; but the Père Vimont, in his Relation of 1643, in speaking of the burial of Père Charles Raymbault, says, the "Governor desired that he should be buried near the body of the late Monsieur de Champlain, which is in a particular tomb erected expressly to honor the memory of that distinguished personage, who had placed New France under such great obligation." In the Parish Register of Notre Dame de Quebec, is the following entry: "The 22d of October (1642), was interred in the Chapel of M. De Champlain the Père Charles Rimbault." It is plain, therefore, that Champlain was buried in what was then commonly known as the Chapel of M. de Champlain. By reference to ancient documents or deeds (one bearing date Feb. 10, 1649, and another 22d April, 1652, and in one of which the Chapel of Champlain is mentioned as contiguous to a piece of land therein described), the Abbé Casgrain proves that the Chapel of M. de Champlain was within the square where is situated the present post-office at Quebec, and, as the tomb of Champlain was within the chapel, it follows that Champlain was buried somewhere within the post-office square above mentioned.
Excavations in this square have been made, but no traces of the walls or foundations of the chapel have been found. In the excavations for cellars of the houses constructed along the square, the foundations of the chapel may have been removed. It is possible that when the chapel was destroyed, which was at a very early period, as no reference to its existence is found subsequent to 1649, the body of Champlain and the others buried there may have been removed, and no record made of the removal. The Abbé Casgrain expresses the hope that other discoveries may hereafter be made that shall place this interesting question beyond all doubt.—Vide Documents Inédits Relatifs au Tombeau de Champlain, par l'Abbé H. R. Casgrain, L'Opinion Publique, Montreal, 4 Nov. 1875.
As Champlain had lived, so he died, a firm and consistent member of the Roman church. In harmony with his general character, his religious views were always moderate, never betraying him into excesses, or into any merely partisan zeal. Born during the profligate, cruel, and perfidious reign of Charles IX., he was, perhaps, too young to be greatly affected by the evils characteristic of that period, the massacre of St. Bartholomew's and the numberless vices that swept along in its train. His youth and early manhood, covering the plastic and formative period, stretched through the reign of Henry III., in which the standards of virtue and religion were little if in any degree improved. Early in the reign of Henry IV., when he had fairly entered upon his manhood, we find him closely associated with the moderate party, which encouraged and sustained the broad, generous, and catholic principles of that distinguished sovereign.
When Champlain became lieutenant-governor of New France, his attention was naturally turned to the religious wants of his distant domain. Proceeding cautiously, after patient and prolonged inquiry, he selected missionaries who were earnest, zealous, and fully consecrated to their work. And all whom he subsequently invited into the field were men of character and learning, whose brave endurance of hardship, and manly courage amid numberless perils, shed glory and lustre upon their holy calling.
Champlain's sympathies were always with his missionaries in their pious labors. Whether the enterprise were the establishment of a mission among the distant Hurons, among the Algonquins on the upper St. Lawrence, or for the enlargement of their accommodations at Quebec, the printing of a catechism in the language of the aborigines, or if the foundations of a college were to be laid for the education of the savages, his heart and hand were ready for the work.
On the establishment of the Company of New France, or the Hundred Associates, Protestants were entirely excluded. By its constitution no Huguenots were allowed to settle within the domain of the company. If this rule was not suggested by Champlain, it undoubtedly existed by his decided and hearty concurrence. The mingling of Catholics and Huguenots in the early history of the colony had brought with it numberless annoyances. By sifting the wheat before it was sown, it was hoped to get rid of an otherwise inevitable cause of irritation and trouble. The correctness of the principle of Christian toleration was not admitted by the Roman church then any more than it is now. Nor did the Protestants of that period believe in it, or practise it, whenever they possessed the power to do otherwise. Even the Puritans of Massachusetts Bay held that their charter conferred upon them the right and power of exclusion. It was not easy, it is true, to carry out this view by square legal enactment without coming into conflict with the laws of England; but they were adroit and skilful, endowed with a marvellous talent for finding some indirect method of laying a heavy hand upon Friend or Churchman, or the more independent thinkers among their own numbers, who desired to make their abode within the precincts of the bay. In the earlier years of the colony at Quebec, when Protestant and Catholic were there on equal terms, Champlain's religious associations led him to swerve neither to the right hand nor to the left. His administration was characterized by justice, firmness, and gentleness, and was deservedly satisfactory to all parties.
In his later years, the little colony upon whose welfare and Christian culture he had bestowed so much cheerful labor and anxious thought, became every day more and more dear to his heart. Within the ample folds of his charity were likewise encircled the numerous tribes of savages, spread over the vast domains of New France. He earnestly desired that all of them, far and near, friend and foe, might be instructed in the doctrines of the Christian faith, and brought into willing and loving obedience to the cross.
In its personal application to his own heart, the religion of Champlain was distinguished by a natural and gradual progress. His warmth, tenderness, and zeal grew deeper and stronger with advancing years. In his religious life there was a clearly marked seed-time, growth, and ripening for the harvest. After his return to Quebec, during the last three years of his life, his time was especially systematized and appropriated for intellectual and spiritual improvement. Some portion was given every morning by himself and those who constituted his family to a course of historical reading, and in the evening to the memoirs of the saintly dead whose lives he regarded as suitable for the imitation of the living, and each night for himself he devoted more or less time to private meditation and prayer.
Such were the devout habits of Champlain's life in his later years. We are not, therefore, surprised that the historian of Canada, twenty-five years after his death, should place upon record the following concise but comprehensive eulogy:—
"His surpassing love of justice, piety, fidelity to God, his king, and the Society of New France, had always been conspicuous. But in his death he gave such illustrious proofs of his goodness as to fill every one with admiration." [117]
The reader of these memoirs has doubtless observed with surprise and perhaps with disappointment, the readiness with which Champlain took part in the wars of the savages. On his first visit to the valley of the St Lawrence, he found the Indians dwelling on the northern shores of the river and the lakes engaged in a deadly warfare with those on the southern, the Iroquois tribes occupying the northern limits of the present State of New York, generally known as the Five Nations. The hostile relations between these savages were not of recent date. They reached back to a very early but indefinite period. They may have existed for several centuries. When Champlain planted his colony at Quebec, in 1608, he at once entered into friendly relations with all the tribes which were his immediate neighbors. This was eminently a suitable thing to do, and was, moreover, necessary for his safety and protection.
But a permanent and effective alliance with these tribes carried with it of necessity a solemn assurance of aid against their enemies. This Champlain promptly promised without hesitation, and the next year he fulfilled his promise by leading them to battle on the shores of Lake Champlain. At all subsequent periods he regarded himself as committed to aid his allies in their hostile expeditions against the Iroquois. In his printed journal, he offers no apology for his conduct in this respect, nor does he intimate that his views could be questioned either in morals or sound policy. He rarely assigns any reason whatever for engaging in these wars. In one or two instances he states that it seemed to him necessary to do so in order to facilitate the discoveries which he wished to make, and that he hoped it might in the end be the means of leading the savages to embrace Christianity. But he nowhere enters upon a full discussion of this point. It is enough to say, in explanation of this silence, that a private journal like that published by Champlain, was not the place in which to foreshadow a policy, especially as it might in the future be subject to change, and its success might depend upon its being known only to those who had the power to shape and direct it. But nevertheless the silence of Champlain has doubtless led some historians to infer that he had no good reasons to give, and unfavorable criticisms have been bestowed upon his conduct by those, who did not understand the circumstances which influenced him, or the motives which controlled his action.
The war-policy of Champlain was undoubtedly very plainly set forth in his correspondence and interviews with the viceroys and several companies under whose authority he acted. But these discussions, whether oral or written, do not appear in general to have been preserved. Fortunately a single document of this character is still extant, in which his views are clearly unfolded. In Champlain's remarkable letter to Cardinal de Richelieu, which we have introduced a few pages back, his policy is fully stated. It is undoubtedly the same that he had acted upon from the beginning, and explains the frankness and readiness with which, first and last, as a faithful ally, he had professed himself willing to aid the friendly tribes in their wars against the Iroquois. The object which he wished to accomplish by this tribal war was, as fully stated in the letter to which we have referred, first, to conquer the Iroquois or Five Nations; to introduce peaceful relations between them and the other surrounding tribes; and, secondly, to establish a grand alliance of all the savage tribes, far and near, with the French. This could only be done in the order here stated. No peace could be secured from the Iroquois, except by their conquest, the utter breaking down of their power. They were not susceptible to the influence of reason. They were implacable, and had been brutalized by long-inherited habits of cruelty. In the total annihilation of their power was the only hope of peace. This being accomplished, the surviving remnant would, according to the usual custom among the Indians, readily amalgamate with the victorious tribes, and then a general alliance with the French could be easily secured. This was what Champlain wished to accomplish. The pacification of all the tribes occupying both sides of the St. Lawrence and the chain of northern lakes would place the whole domain of the American continent, or as much of it as it would be desirable to hold, under the easy and absolute control of the French nation.
Such a pacification as this would secure two objects; objects eminently important, appealing strongly to all who desired the aggrandizement of France and the progress and supremacy of the Catholic faith. It would secure for ever to the French the fur-trade of the Indians, a commerce then important and capable of vast expansion. The chief strength and resources of the savages allied with the French, the Montagnais, Algonquins, and Hurons, were at that period expended in their wars. On the cessation of hostilities, their whole force would naturally and inevitably be given to the chase. A grand field lay open to them for this exciting occupation. The fur-bearing country embraced not only the region of the St. Lawrence and the lakes, but the vast and unlimited expanse of territory stretching out indefinitely in every direction. The whole northern half of the continent of North America, filled with the most valuable fur-producing mammalia, would be open to the enterprise of the French, and could not fail to pour into their treasury an incredible amount of wealth. This Champlain was far-sighted enough to see, and his patriotic zeal lead him to desire that France should avail herself of this opportunity. [118]
But the conquest of the Iroquois would not only open to France the prospect of exhaustless wealth, but it would render accessible a broad, extensive, and inviting field of missionary labor. It would remove all external and physical obstacles to the speedy transmission and offer of the Christian faith to the numberless tribes that would thus be brought within their reach.
The desire to bring about these two great ulterior purposes, the augmentation of the commerce of France in the full development of the fur-trade, and the gathering into the Catholic church the savage tribes of the wilderness, explains the readiness with which, from the beginning, Champlain encouraged his Indian allies and took part with them in their wars against the Five Nations. In the very last year of his life, he demanded of Richelieu the requisite military force to carry on this war, reminding him that the cost would be trifling to his Majesty, while the enterprise would be the most noble that could be imagined.
In regard to the domestic and social life of Champlain, scarcely any documents remain that can throw light upon the subject. Of his parents we have little information beyond that of their respectable calling and standing. He was probably an only child, as no others are on any occasion mentioned or referred to. He married, as we have seen, the daughter of the Secretary of the King's Chamber, and his wife, Hélène Boullé, accompanied him to Canada in 1620, where she remained four years. They do not appear to have had children, as the names of none are found in the records at Quebec, and, at his death, the only claimant as an heir, was a cousin, Marie Cameret, who, in 1639, resided at Rochelle, and whose husband was Jacques Hersant, controller of duties and imposts. After Champlain's decease, his wife, Hélène Boullé, became a novice in an Ursuline convent in the faubourg of St. Jacques in Paris. Subsequently, in 1648, she founded a religious house of the same order in the city of Meaux, contributing for the purpose the sum of twenty thousand livres and some part of the furnishing. She entered the house that she had founded, as a nun, under the name of Sister Hélène de St. Augustin, where, as the foundress, certain privileges were granted to her, such as a superior quality of food for herself, exemption from attendance upon some of the longer services, the reception into the convent, on her recommendation, of a young maiden to be a nun of the choir, with such pecuniary assistance as she might need, and the letters of her brother, the Father Eustache Boullé, were to be exempted from the usual inspection. She died at Meaux, on the 20th day of December, 1654, in the convent which she had founded. [119]
As an explorer, Champlain was unsurpassed by any who visited the northern coasts of America anterior to its permanent settlement. He was by nature endowed with a love of useful adventure, and for the discovery of new countries he had an insatiable thirst. It began with him as a child, and was fresh and irrepressible in his latest years. Among the arts, he assigned to navigation the highest importance. His broad appreciation of it and his strong attachment to it, are finely stated in his own compact and comprehensive description.
"Of all the most useful and excellent arts, that of navigation has always seemed to me to occupy the first place. For the more hazardous it is, and the more numerous the perils and losses by which it is attended, so much the more is it esteemed and exalted above all others, being wholly unsuited to the timid and irresolute. By this art we obtain a knowledge of different countries, regions, and realms. By it we attract and bring to our own land all kinds of riches; by it the idolatry of paganism is overthrown and Christianity proclaimed throughout all the regions of the earth. This is the art which won my love in my early years, and induced me to expose myself almost all my life to the impetuous waves of the ocean, and led me to explore the coasts of a part of America, especially those of New France, where I have always desired to see the Lily flourish, together with the only religion, catholic, apostolic, and Roman."
In addition to his natural love for discovery, Champlain had a combination of other qualities which rendered his explorations pre-eminently valuable. His interest did not vanish with seeing what was new. It was by no means a mere fancy for simple sight-seeing. Restlessness and volatility did not belong to his temperament. His investigations were never made as an end, but always as a means. His undertakings in this direction were for the most part shaped and colored by his Christian principle and his patriotic love of France. Sometimes one and sometimes the other was more prominent.
His voyage to the West Indies was undertaken under a twofold impulse. It gratified his love of exploration and brought back rare and valuable information to France. Spain at that time did not open her island-ports to the commerce of the world. She was drawing from them vast revenues in pearls and the precious metals. It was her policy to keep this whole domain, this rich archipelago, hermetically sealed, and any foreign vessel approached at the risk of capture and confiscation. Champlain could not, therefore, explore this region under a commission from France. He accordingly sought and obtained permission to visit these Spanish possessions under the authority of Spain herself. He entered and personally examined all the important ports that surround and encircle the Caribbean Sea, from the pearl-bearing Margarita on the south, Deseada on the east, to Cuba on the west, together with the city of Mexico, and the Isthmus of Panama on the mainland. As the fruit of these journeyings, he brought back a report minute in description, rich in details, and luminous with illustrations. This little brochure, from the circumstances attendant upon its origin, is unsurpassed in historical importance by any similar or competing document of that period. It must always remain of the highest value as a trustworthy, original authority, without which it is probable that the history of those islands, for that period, could not be accurately and truthfully written.
Champlain was a pioneer in the exploration of the Atlantic coast of New England and the eastern provinces of Canada, From the Strait of Canseau, at the northeastern extremity of Nova Scotia, to the Vineyard Sound, on the southern limits of Massachusetts, he made a thorough survey of the coast in 1605 and 1606, personally examining its most important harbors, bays, and rivers, mounting its headlands, penetrating its forests, carefully observing and elaborately describing its soil, its products, and its native inhabitants. Besides lucid and definite descriptions of the coast, he executed topographical drawings of numerous points of interest along our shores, as Plymouth harbor, Nauset Bay, Stage Harbor at Chatham, Gloucester Bay, the Bay of Baco, with the long stretch of Old Orchard Beach and its interspersed islands, the mouth of the Kennebec, and as many more on the coast of New Brunswick and Nova Scotia. To these he added descriptions, more or less definite, of the harbors of Barnstable, Wellfleet, Boston, of the headland of Cape Anne, Merrimac Bay, the Isles of Shoals, Cape Porpoise, Richmond's Island, Mount Desert, Isle Haute, Seguin, and the numberless other islands that adorn the exquisite sea-coast of Maine, as jewels that add a new lustre to the beauty of a peerless goddess.
Other navigators had coasted along our shores. Some of them had touched at single points, of which they made meagre and unsatisfactory surveys. Gosnold had, in 1602, discovered Savage Rock, but it was so indefinitely located and described that it cannot even at this day be identified. Resolving to make a settlement on one of the barren islands forming the group named in honor of Queen Elizabeth and still bearing her name; after some weeks spent in erecting a storehouse, and in collecting a cargo of "furrs, skyns, saxafras, and other commodities," the project of a settlement was abandoned and he returned to England, leaving, however, two permanent memorials of his voyage, in the names which he gave respectively to Martha's Vineyard and to the headland of Cape Cod.
Captain Martin Pring came to our shores in 1603, in search of a cargo of sassafras. There are indications that he entered the Penobscot. He afterward paid his respects to Savage Rock, the undefined bonanza of his predecessor. He soon found his desired cargo on the Vineyard Islands, and hastily returned to England.
Captain George Weymouth, in 1605, was on the coast of Maine concurrently, or nearly so, with Champlain, where he passed a month, explored a river, set up a cross, and took possession of the country in the name of the king. But where these transactions took place is still in dispute, so indefinitely does his journalist describe them.
Captain John Smith, eight years later than Champlain, surveyed the coast of New England while his men were collecting a cargo of furs and fish. He wrote a description of it from memory, part or all of it while a prisoner on board a French ship of war off Fayall, and executed a map, both valuable, but nevertheless exceedingly indefinite and general in their character.
These flying visits to our shores were not unimportant, and must not be undervalued. They were necessary steps in the progress of the grand historical events that followed. But they were meagre and hasty and superficial, when compared to the careful, deliberate, extensive, and thorough, not to say exhaustive, explorations made by Champlain.
In the Gulf of St. Lawrence, Cartier had preceded Champlain by a period of more than sixty years. During this long, dreary half-century the stillness of the primeval forest had not been disturbed by the woodman's axe. When Champlain's eyes fell upon it, it was still the same wild, unfrequented, unredeemed region that it had been to its first discoverer. The rivers, bays, and islands described by Cartier were identified by Champlain, and the names they had already received were permanently fixed by his added authority. The whole gulf and river were re-examined and described anew in his journal. The exploration of the Richelieu and of Lake Champlain was pushed into the interior three hundred miles from his base at Quebec. It reached into a wilderness and along gentle waters never before seen by any civilized race. It was at once fascinating and hazardous, environed as it was by vigilant and ferocious savages, who guarded its gates with the sleepless watchfulness of the fabled Cerberus.
The courage, endurance, and heroism of Champlain were tested in the still greater-exploration of 1615. It extended from Montreal, the whole length of the Ottawa, to Lake Nipissing, the Georgian Bay, Simcoe, the system of small lakes on the south, across the Ontario, and finally ending in the interior of the State of New York, a journey through tangled forests and broken water-courses of more than a thousand miles, occupying nearly a year, executed in the face of physical suffering and hardship before which a nature less intrepid and determined, less loyal to his great purpose, less generous and unselfish, would have yielded at the outset. These journeys into the interior, along the courses of navigable rivers and lakes, and through the primitive forests, laid open to the knowledge of the French a domain vast and indefinite in extent, on which an empire broader and far richer in resources than the old Gallic France might have been successfully reared.
The personal explorations of Champlain in the West Indies, on the Atlantic coast, in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, in the State of New York and of Vermont, and among the lakes in Canada and those that divide the Dominion from the United States, including the full, explicit, and detailed journals which he wrote concerning them, place Champlain undeniably not merely in the front rank, but at the head of the long list of explorers and navigators, who early visited this part of the continent of North America.
Champlain's literary labors are interesting and important. They were not professional, but incidental, and the natural outgrowth of the career to which he devoted his life. He had the sagacity to see that the fields which he entered as an explorer were new and important, that the aspect of every thing which he then saw would, under the influence and progress of civilization, soon be changed, and that it was historically important that a portrait Sketched by an eyewitness should be handed down to other generations. It was likewise necessary for the immediate and successful planting of colonies, that those who engaged in the undertaking should have before them full information of all the conditions on which they were to build their hopes of final success.
Inspired by such motives as these, Champlain wrote out an accurate journal of the events that transpired about him, of what he personally saw, and of the observations of others, authenticated by the best tests which, under the circumstances, he was able to apply. His natural endowments for this work were of the highest order. As an observer he was sagacious, discriminating, and careful. His judgment was cool, comprehensive, and judicious. His style is in general clear, logical, and compact. His acquired ability was not, however, extraordinary. He was a scholar neither by education nor by profession. His life was too full of active duties, or too remote from the centres of knowledge for acquisitions in the departments of elegant and refined learning. The period in which he lived was little distinguished for literary culture. A more brilliant day was approaching, but it had not yet appeared. The French language was still crude and unpolished. It had not been disciplined and moulded into the excellence to which it soon after arose in the reign of Louis XIV. We cannot in reason look for a grace, refinement, and flexibility which the French language had not at that time generally attained. But it is easy to see under the rude, antique, and now obsolete forms which characterize Champlain's narratives, the elements of a style which, under, early discipline, nicer culture, and a richer vocabulary, might have made it a model for all times. There are, here and there, some involved, unfinished, and obscure passages, which seem, indeed, to be the offspring of haste, or perhaps of careless and inadequate proof-reading. But in general his style is without ornament, simple, dignified, concise, and clear. While he was not a diffusive writer, his works are by no means limited in extent, as they occupy in the late erudite Laverdière's edition, six quarto volumes, containing fourteen hundred pages. In them are three large maps, delineating the whole northeastern part of the continent, executed with great care and labor by his own hand, together with numerous local drawings, picturing not only bays and harbors, Indian canoes, wigwams, and fortresses, but several battle scenes, conveying a clear idea, not possible by a mere verbal description, of the savage implements and mode of warfare. [120] His works include, likewise, a treatise on navigation, full of excellent suggestions to the practical seaman of that day, drawn from his own experience, stretching over a period of more than forty years.
The Voyages of Champlain, as an authority, must always stand in the front rank. In trustworthiness, in richness and fullness of detail, they have no competitor in the field of which they treat. His observations upon the character, manners, customs, habits, and utensils of the aborigines, were made before they were modified or influenced in their mode of life by European civilization. The intercourse of the strolling fur-trader and fishermen with them was so infrequent and brief at that early period, that it made upon them little or no impression. Champlain consequently pictures the Indian in his original, primeval simplicity. This will always give to his narratives, in the eye of the historian, the ethnologist, and the antiquary, a peculiar and pre-eminent importance. The result of personal observation, eminently truthful and accurate, their testimony must in all future time be incomparably the best that can be obtained relating to the aborigines on this part of the American continent.
In completing this memoir, the reader can hardly fail to be impressed, not to say disappointed, by the fact that results apparently insignificant should thus far have followed a life of able, honest, unselfish, heroic labor. The colony was still small in numbers, the acres subdued and brought into cultivation were few, and the aggregate yearly products were meagre. But it is to be observed that the productiveness of capital and labor and talent, two hundred and seventy years ago, cannot well be compared with the standards of to-day. Moreover, the results of Champlain's career are insignificant rather in appearance than in reality. The work which he did was in laying foundations, while the superstructure was to be reared in other years and by other hands. The palace or temple, by its lofty and majestic proportions, attracts the eye and gratifies the taste; but its unseen foundations, with their nicely adjusted arches, without which the superstructure would crumble to atoms, are not less the result of the profound knowledge and practical wisdom of the architect. The explorations made by Champlain early and late, the organization and planting of his colonies, the resistance of avaricious corporations, the holding of numerous savage tribes in friendly alliance, the daily administration of the affairs of the colony, of the savages, and of the corporation in France, to the eminent satisfaction of all generous and noble-minded patrons, and this for a period of more than thirty years, are proofs of an extraordinary combination of mental and moral qualities. Without impulsiveness, his warm and tender sympathies imparted to him an unusual power and influence over other men. He was wise, modest, and judicious in council, prompt, vigorous, and practical in administration, simple and frugal in his mode of life, persistent and unyielding in the execution of his plans, brave and valiant in danger, unselfish, honest, and conscientious in the discharge of duty. These qualities, rare in combination, were always conspicuous in Champlain, and justly entitle him to the respect and admiration of mankind.
117. Vide Creuxius, Historia Canadensis, pp 183, 184.
118. The justness of Champlain's conception of the value of the fur-trade has been verified by its subsequent history. The Hudson's Bay Company was organized for the purpose of carrying on this trade, under a charter granted by Charles II., in 1670. A part of the trade has at times been conducted by other associations. But this company is still in active and rigorous operation. Its capital is $10,000,000. At its reorganization in 1863, it was estimated that it would yield a net annual income, to be divided among the corporators, of $400,000. It employs twelve hundred servants beside its chief factors. It is easy to see what a vast amount of wealth in the shape of furs and peltry has been pouring into the European markets, for more than two hundred years, from this fur bearing region, and the sources of this wealth are probably little, if in any degree, diminished.
119. Vide Documents inédits sur Samuel de Champlain, par Étienne Charavay, archiviste-paléographe, Paris, 1875.
120. The later sketches made by Champlain are greatly superior to those which he executed to illustrate his voyage in the West Indies. They are not only accurate, but some of them are skilfully done, and not only do no discredit to an amateur, but discover marks of artistic taste and skill.
EUSTACHE BOULLÉ. A brother-in-law of Champlain, who made his first visit to
Canada in 1618. He was an active assistant of Champlain, and in 1625 was
named his lieutenant. He continued there until the taking of Quebec by the
English in 1629. He subsequently took holy orders.—Vide Doc. inédits sur
Samuel de Champlain, par Étienne Charavay. Paris, 1875, p. 8.
PONT GRAVÉ. The whole career of this distinguished merchant was closely associated with Canadian trade. He was in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, in the interest of Chauvin, in 1599. He commanded the expedition sent out by De Chaste in 1603, when Champlain made his first exploration of the River St. Lawrence. He was intrusted with the chief management of the trade carried on with the Indians by the various companies and viceroys under Champlain's lieutenancy until the removal of the colony by the English, when his active life was closed by the infirmities of age. He was always a warm and trusted friend of Champlain, who sought his counsel on all occasions of importance.
THE BIRTH OF CHAMPLAIN. All efforts to fix the exact date of his birth have been unsuccessful. M. De Richemond, author of a Biographie de la Charente Inférieure, instituted most careful searches, particularly with the hope of finding a record of his baptism. The records of the parish of Brouage extend back only to August 11, 1615. The duplicates, deposited at the office of the civil tribunal of Marennes anterior to this date, were destroyed by fire.—MS. letter of M. De Richemond, Archivist of the Dep. of Charente Inférieure, La Rochelle, July 17, 1875.
MARC LESCARBOT. We have cited the authority of this writer in this work on many occasions. He was born at Vervins, perhaps about 1585. He became an advocate, and a resident of Paris, and, according to Larousse, died in 1630. He came to America in 1606, and passed the winter of that year at the French settlement near the present site of Lower Granville, on the western bank of Annapolis Basin in Nova Scotia. In the spring of 1607 he crossed the Bay of Fundy, entered the harbor of St. John, N. B., and extended his voyage as far as De Monts's Island in the River St. Croix. He returned to France that same year, on the breaking up of De Monts's colony. He was the author of the following works: Histoire de la Nouvelle France, 1609; Les Muses de la Nouvelle France; Tableau de la Suisse, auquel sont décrites les Singularites des Alpes, Paris, 1618; La Chasse aux Anglais dans l'isle de Rhé et au Siége de la Rochelle, et la Réduction de cette Ville en 1628, Paris, 1629.
PLYMOUTH HARBOR. This note will modify our remarks on p. 78, Vol. II. Champlain entered this harbor on the 18th of July, 1605, and, lingering but a single day, sailed out of it on the 19th. He named it Port St. Louis, or Port du Cap St. Louis.—Vide antea, pp. 53, 54; Vol. II., pp. 76-78. As the fruit of his brief stay in the harbor of Plymouth, he made an outline sketch of the bay which preserves most of its important features. He delineates what is now called on our Coast Survey maps Long Beach and Duxbury Beach. At the southern extremity of the latter is the headland known as the Gurnet. Within the bay he figures two islands, of which he speaks also in the text. These two islands are mentioned in Mourt's Relation, printed in 1622.—Vide Dexter's ed. p. 60. They are also figured on an old map of the date of 1616, found by J. R. Brodhead in the Royal Archives at the Hague; likewise on a map by Lucini, without date, but, as it has Boston on it, it must have been executed after 1630. These maps may be found in Doc. His. of the State of New York, Vol. I.; Documents relating to the Colonial His. of the State of New York, Vol. I., p. 13. The reader will find these islands likewise indicated on the map of William Wood, entitled The South part of New-England, as it is Planted this yeare, 1634.—Vide New England Prospect, Prince Society ed. They appear also on Blaskowitz's "Plan of Plimouth," 1774.—Vide Changes in the Harbor of Plymouth, by Prof. Henry Mitchell, Chief of Physical Hydrography, U. S. Coast Survey, Report of 1876, Appendix No. 9. In the collections of the Mass. Historical Society for 1793, Vol. II., in an article entitled A Topographical Description of Duxborough, but without the author's name, the writer speaks of two pleasant islands within the harbor, and adds that Saquish was joined to the Gurnet by a narrow piece of land, but for several years the water had made its way across and insulated it.
From the early maps to which we have referred, and the foregoing citations, it appears that there were two islands in the harbor of Plymouth from the time of Champlain till about the beginning of the present century. A careful collation of Champlain's map of the harbor with the recent Coast Survey Charts will render it evident that one of these islands thus figured by Champlain, and by others later, is Saquish Head; that since his time a sand-bank has been thrown up and now become permanent, connecting it with the Gurnet by what is now called Saquish Neck. Prof. Mitchell, in the work already cited, reports that there are now four fathoms less of water in the deeper portion of the roadstead than when Champlain explored the harbor in 1605. There must, therefore, have been an enormous deposit of sand to produce this result, and this accounts for the neck of sand which has been thrown up and become fixed or permanent, now connecting Saquish Head with the Gurnet.
MOUNT DESERT. This island was discovered on the fifth day of September, 1604. Champlain having been comissioned by Sieur De Monts, the Patentee of La Cadie, to make discoveries on the coast southwest of the Saint Croix, left the mouth of that river in a small barque of seventeen or eighteen tons, with twelve sailors and two savages as guides, and anchored the same evening, apparently near Bar Harbor. While here, they explored Frenchman's Bay as far on the north as the Narrows, where Champlain says the distance across to the mainland is not more than a hundred paces. The next day, on the sixth of the month, they sailed two leagues, and came to Otter Creek Cove, which extends up into the island a mile or more, nestling between the spurs of Newport Mountain on the east and Green Mountain on the west. Champlain says this cove is "at the foot of the mountains," which clearly identifies it, as it is the only one in the neighborhood answering to this description. In this cove they discovered several savages, who had come there to hunt beavers and to fish. On a visit to Otter Cove Cliffs in June, 1880, we were told by an old fisherman ninety years of age, living on the borders of this cove, and the statement was confirmed by several others, that on the creek at the head of the cove, there was, within his memory, a well-known beaver dam.
The Indians whose acquaintance Champlain made at this place conducted him among the islands, to the mouth of the Penobscot, and finally up the river, to the site of the present city of Bangor. It was on this visit, on the fifth of September, 1604, that Champlain gave the island the name of Monts-déserts. The French generally gave to places names that were significant. In this instance they did not depart from their usual custom. The summits of most of the mountains on this island, then as now, were only rocks, being destitute of trees, and this led Champlain to give its significant name, which, in plain English, means the island of the desert, waste, or uncultivatable mountains. If we follow the analogy of the language, either French or English, it should be pronounced with the accent on the penult, Mount Désert, and not on the last syllable, as we sometimes hear it. This principle cannot be violated without giving to the word a meaning which, in this connection, would be obviously inappropriate and absurd.
CARTE DE LA NOUVELLE FRANCE, 1632. As the map of 1632 has often been referred to in this work, we have introduced into this volume a heliotype copy. The original was published in the year of its date, but it had been completed before Champlain left Quebec in 1629. The reader will bear in mind that it was made from Champlain's personal explorations, and from such other information as could be obtained from the meagre sources which existed at that early period, and not from any accurate or scientific surveys. The information which he obtained from others was derived from more or less doubtful sources, coming as it did from fishermen, fur-traders, and the native inhabitants. The two former undoubtedly constructed, from time to time, rude maps of the coast for their own use. From these Champlain probably obtained valuable hints, and he was thus able to supplement his own knowledge of the regions with which he was least familiar on the Atlantic coast and in the Gulf of St. Lawrence. Beyond the limits of his personal explorations on the west, his information was wholly derived from the savages. No European had penetrated into those regions, if we except his servant, Étienne Brûlé, whose descriptions could have been of very little service. The deficiencies of Champlain's map are here accordingly most apparent. Rivers and lakes farther west than the Georgian Bay, and south of it, are sometimes laid down where none exist, and, again, where they do exist, none are portrayed. The outline of Lake Huron, for illustration, was entirely misconceived. A river-like line only of water represents Lake Erie, while Lake Michigan does not appear at all.
The delineation of Hudson's Bay was evidently taken from the TABULA NAUTICA of Henry Hudson, as we have shown in Note 297, Vol. II., to which the reader is referred.
It will be observed that there is no recognition on the map of any English settlement within the limits of New England. In 1629, when the Carte de la Nouvelle France was completed, an English colony had been planted at Plymouth, Mass., nine years, and another at Piscataqua, or Portsmouth, N. H., six years. The Rev. William Blaxton had been for several years in occupation of the peninsula of Shawmut, or Boston. Salem had also been settled one or two years. These last two may not, it is true, have come to Champlain's knowledge. But none of these settlements are laid down on the map. The reason of these omissions is obvious. The whole territory from at least the 40th degree of north latitude, stretching indefinitely to the north, was claimed by the French. As possession was, at that day, the most potent argument for the justice of a territorial claim, the recognition, on a French map, of these English settlements, would have been an indiscretion which the wise and prudent Champlain would not be likely to commit.
There is, however, a distinct recognition of an English settlement farther
south. Cape Charles and Cape Henry appear at the entrance of Chesapeake
Bay. Virginia is inscribed in its proper place, while Jamestown and Point
Comfort are referred to by numbers.
On the borders of the map numerous fish belonging to these waters are figured, together with several vessels of different sizes and in different attitudes, thus preserving their form and structure at that period. The degrees of latitude and longitude are numerically indicated, which are convenient for the references found in Champlain's journals, but are necessarily too inaccurate to be otherwise useful. But notwithstanding its defects, when we take into account the limited means at his command, the difficulties which he had to encounter, the vast region which it covers, this map must be regarded as an extraordinary achievement. It is by far the most accurate in outline, and the most finished in detail, of any that had been attempted of this region anterior to this date.
THE PORTRAITS OF CHAMPLAIN.—Three engraved portraits of Champlain have come to our knowledge. All of them appear to have been after an original engraved portrait by Balthazar Moncornet. This artist was born in Rouen about 1615, and died not earlier than 1670. He practised his art in Paris, where he kept a shop for the sale of prints. Though not eminently distinguished as a skilful artist, he nevertheless left many works, particularly a great number of portraits. As he had not arrived at the age of manhood when Champlain died, his engraving of him was probably executed about fifteen or twenty years after that event. At that time Madame Champlain, his widow, was still living, as likewise many of Champlaln's intimate friends. From some of them it is probable Moncornet obtained a sketch or portrait, from which his engraving was made.
Of the portraits of Champlain which we have seen, we may mention first that in Laverdière's edition of his works. This is a half-length, with long, curling hair, moustache and imperial. The sleeves of the close-fitting coat are slashed, and around the neck is the broad linen collar of the period, fastened in front with cord and tassels. On the left, in the background, is the promontory of Quebec, with the representation of several turreted buildings both in the upper and lower town. On the border of the oval, which incloses the subject, is the legend, Moncornet Ex c. p. The engraving is coarsely executed, apparently on copper. It is alleged to have been taken from an original Moncornet in France. Our inquiries as to where the original then was, or in whose possession it then was or is now, have been unsuccessful. No original, when inquiries were made by Dr. Otis, a short time since, was found to exist in the department of prints in the Bibliothèque Nationale in Paris.
Another portrait of Champlain is found in Shea's translation of Charlevoix's History of New France. This was taken from the portrait of Champlain, which, with that of Cartier, Montcalm, Wolfe, and others, adorns the walls of the reception room of the Speaker of the House of Commons, in the Parliament House at Ottawa, in Canada, which was painted by Thomas Hamel, from a copy of Moncornet's engraving obtained in France by the late M. Faribault. From the costume and general features, it appears to be after the same as that contained in Laverdière's edition of Champlain's works, to which we have already referred. The artist has given it a youthful appearance, which suggests that the original sketch was made many years before Champlain's death. We are indebted to the politeness of Dr. Shea for the copies which accompany this work.
A third portrait of Champlain may be found in L'Histoire de France, par M. Guizot, Paris, 1876, Vol. v. p. 149. The inscription reads: "CHAMPLAIN [SAMUEL DE], d'après un portrait gravé par Moncornet." It is engraved on wood by E. Ronjat, and represents the subject in the advanced years of his life. In position, costume, and accessories it is widely different from the others, and Moncornet must have left more than one engraving of Champlain, or we must conclude that the modern artists have taken extraordinary liberties with their subject. The features are strong, spirited, and characteristic. A heliotype copy accompanies this volume.
The journals of Champlain, commonly called his Voyages, were written and published by him at intervals from 1603 to 1632. The first volume was printed in 1603, and entitled,—
1. Des Sauuages, ou, Voyage de Samuel Champlain, de Brouage, faict en la France Nouuelle, l'an mil six cens trois. A Paris, chez Claude de Monstr'oeil, tenant sa boutique en la Cour du Palais, au nom de Jesus. 1604. Auec privilege du Roy. 12mo. 4 preliminary leaves. Text 36 leaves. The title-page contains also a sub-title, enumerating in detail the subjects treated of in the work. Another copy with slight verbal changes has no date on the title-page, but in both the "privilège" is dated November 15, 1603. The copies which we have used are in the Library of Harvard College, and in that of Mrs. John Carter Brown, of Providence, R. I.
An English translation of this issue is contained in Purchas his
Pilgrimes. London, 1625, vol. iv., pp. 1605-1619.
The next publication appeared in 1613, with the following title:—
2. Les Voyages du Sieur de Champlain Xaintongeois, Capitaine ordinaire pour le Roy, en la marine. Divisez en deux livres. ou, journal tres-fidele des observations faites és descouuertures de la Nouuelle France: tant en la description des terres, costes, riuieres, ports, haures, leurs hauteurs, & plusieurs delinaisons de la guide-aymant; qu'en la creance des peuples, leur superslition, façon de viure & de guerroyer: enrichi de quantité de figures, A Paris, chez Jean Berjon, rue S. Jean de Beauuais, au Cheual volant, & en sa boutique au Palais, à la gallerie des prisonniers. M.DC.XIII. Avec privilege dv Roy. 4to. 10 preliminary leaves. Text, 325 pages; table 5 pp. One large folding map. One small map. 22 plates. The title-page contains, in addition, a sub-title in regard to the two maps.
The above-mentioned volume contains, also, the Fourth Voyage, bound in at the end, with the following title:—
Qvatriesme Voyage du Sr de Champlain Capitaine ordinaire povr le Roy en la marine, & Lieutenant de Monseigneur le Prince de Condé en la Nouuelle France, fait en l'année 1613. 52 pages. Whether this was also issued as a separate work, we are not informed.
The copy of this publication of 1613 which we have used is in the Library of Harvard College.
The next publication of Champlain was in 1619. There was a re-issue of the same in 1620 and likewise in 1627. The title of the last-mentioned issue is as follows:—
3. Voyages et Descovvertures faites en la Novvelle France, depuis l'année 1615. iusques à la fin de l'année 1618. Par le Sieur de Champlain, Cappitaine ordinaire pour le Roy en la Mer du Ponant. Seconde Edition. A Paris, chez Clavde Collet, au Palais, en la gallerie des Prisonniers. M.D.C.XXVII. Avec privilege dv Roy. 12mo. 8 preliminary leaves. Text 158 leaves, 6 plates. The title-page contains, in addition, a sub-title, giving an outline of the contents. The edition of 1627, belonging to the Library of Harvard College, contains likewise an illuminated title-page, which we here give in heliotype. As this illuminated title-page bears the date of 1619, it was probably that of the original edition of that date.
The next and last publication of Champlain was issued in 1632, with the following title:—
4. Les Voyages de la Novvelle France occidentale, dicte Canada, faits par le Sr de Champlain Xainctongeois, Capitaine pour le Roy en la Marine du Ponant, & toutes les Descouuertes qu'il a faites en ce païs depuis l'an 1603, iusques en l'an 1629. Où se voit comme ce pays a esté premierement descouuert par les François, sous l'authorité de nos Roys tres-Chrestiens, iusques au regne de sa Majesté à present regnante Louis XIII. Roy de France & de Navarre. A Paris. Chez Clavde Collet au Palais, en la Gallerie des Prisonniers, à l'Estoille d'Or. M.DC.XXXII. Avec Privilege du Roy.
There is also a long sub-title, with a statement that the volume contains what occurred in New France in 1631. The volume is dedicated to Cardinal Richelieu. 4to. 16 preliminary pages. Text 308 pages. 6 plates, which are the same as those in the edition of 1619. "Seconde Partie," 310 pages. One large general map; table explanatory of map, 8 pages. "Traitté de la Marine," 54 pages. 2 plates. "Doctrine Chrestienne" and "L'Oraison Dominicale," 20 pages. Another copy gives the name of Sevestre as publisher, and another that of Pierre Le Mvr.
The publication of 1632 is stated by Laverdière to have been reissued in 1640, with a new title and date, but without further changes. This, however, is not found in the National Library at Paris, which contains all the other editions and issues. The copies of the edition of 1632 which we have consulted are in the Harvard College Library and in the Boston Athenaeum.
It is of importance to refer, as we have done, to the particular copy used, for it appears to have been the custom in the case of books printed as early as the above, to keep the type standing, and print issues at intervals, sometimes without any change in the title-page or date, and yet with alterations to some extent in the text. For instance, the copy of the publication of 1613 in the Harvard College Library differs from that in Mrs. Brown's Library, at Providence, in minor points, and particularly in reference to some changes in the small map. The same is true of the publication of 1603. The variations are probably in part owing to the lack of uniformity in spelling at that period.
None of Champlain's works had been reprinted until 1830, when there appeared, in two volumes, a reprint of the publication of 1632, "at the expense of the government, in order to give work to printers." Since then there has been published the elaborate work, with extensive annotations, of the Abbé Laverdière, as follows:—
This contains all the works of Champlain above mentioned, and the text is a faithful reprint from the early Paris editions. It includes, in addition to this, Champlain's narrative of his voyage to the West Indies, in 1598, of which the following is the title:—
Brief Discovrs des choses plvs remarqvables qve Sammvel Champlain de Brovage a reconneues aux Indes Occidentalles au voiage qu'il en a faict en icelles en l'année mil v[c] iiij.[xx].xix. & en l'année mil vj[c] i. comme ensuit.
This had never before been published in French, although a translation of it had been issued by the Hakluyt Society in 1859. The MS. is the only one of Champlain's known to exist, excepting a letter to Richelieu, published by Laverdière among the "Pièces Justificatives." When used by Laverdière it was in the possession of M. Féret, of Dieppe, but has since been advertised for sale by the Paris booksellers, Maisonneuve & Co., at the price of 15,000 francs, and is now in the possession of M. Pinart.
The volume printed in 1632 has been frequently compared with that of 1613, as if the former were merely a second edition of the latter. But this conveys an erroneous idea of the relation between the two. In the first place, the volume of 1632 contains what is not given in any of the previous publications of Champlain. That is, it extends his narrative over the period from 1620 to 1632. It likewise goes over the same ground that is covered not only by the volume of 1613, but also by the other still later publications of Champlain, up to 1620. It includes, moreover, a treatise on navigation. In the second place, it is an abridgment, and not a second edition in any proper sense. It omits for the most part personal details and descriptions of the manners and customs of the Indians, so that very much that is essential to the full comprehension of Champlain's work as an observer and explorer is gone. Moreover, there seems a to be some internal evidence indicating that this abridgment was not made by Champlain himself, and Laverdière suggests that the work has been tampered with by another hand. Thus, all favorable allusions to the Récollets, to whom Champlain was friendly, are modified or expunged, while the Jesuits are made to appear in a prominent and favorable light. This question has been specially considered by Laverdière in his introduction to the issue of 1632, to which the reader is referred.
The language used by Champlain is essentially the classic French of the time of Henry IV. The dialect or patois of Saintonge, his native province, was probably understood and spoken by him; but we have not discovered any influence of it in his writings, either in respect to idiom or vocabulary. An occasional appearance at court, and his constant official intercourse with public men of prominence at Paris and elsewhere, rendered necessary strict attention to the language he used.
But though using in general the language of court and literature, he offends not unfrequently against the rules of grammar and logical arrangement. Probably his busy career did not allow him to read, much less study, at least in reference to their style, such masterpieces of literature as the "Essais" of Montaigne, the translations of Amyot, or the "Histoire Universelle" of D'Aubigné. The voyages of Cartier he undoubtedly read; but, although superior in point of literary merit to Champlaih's writings, they were, by no-means without their blemishes, nor were they worthy of being compared with the classical authors to which we have alluded. But Champlain's discourse is so straightforward, and the thought so simple and clear, that the meaning is seldom obscure, and his occasional violations of grammar and looseness of style are quite pardonable in one whose occupations left him little time for correction and revision. Indeed, one rather wonders that the unpretending explorer writes so well. It is the thought, not the words, which occupies his attention. Sometimes, after beginning a period which runs on longer than usual, his interest in what he has to narrate seems so completely to occupy him that he forgets the way in which he commenced, and concludes in a manner not in logical accordance with the beginning. We subjoin a passage or two illustrative of his inadvertencies in respect to language. They are from his narrative of the voyage of 1603, and the text of the Paris edition is followed:
1. "Au dit bout du lac, il y a des peuples qui sont cabannez, puis on entre dans trois autres riuieres, quelques trois ou quatre iournees dans chacune, où au bout desdites riuieres, il y a deux ou trois manières de lacs, d'où prend la source du Saguenay." Chap. iv.
2. "Cedit iour rengeant tousiours ladite coste du Nort, iusques à vn lieu où nous relachasmes pour les vents qui nous estoient contraires, où il y auoit force rochers & lieux fort dangereux, nous feusmes trois iours en attendant le beau temps" Chap. v.
3. "Ce seroit vn grand bien qui pourrait trouuer à la coste de la Floride quelque passage qui allast donner proche du & susdit grand lac." Chap. x.
4. "lesquelles [riuieres] vont dans les terres, où le pays y est tres-bon & fertille, & de fort bons ports." Chap. x.
5. "Il y a aussi vne autre petite riuiere qui va tomber comme à moitié chemin de celle par où reuint ledict sieur Preuert, où sont comme deux manières de lacs en ceste-dicte riuiere." Chap. xii.
The following passages are taken at random from the voyages of 1604-10, as illustrative of Champlain's style in general:
1. Explorations in the Bay of Fundy, Voyage of 1604-8. "De la riuiere sainct Iean nous fusmes à quatre isles, en l'vne desquelles nous mismes pied à terre, & y trouuasmes grande quantité d'oiseaux appeliez Margos, don't nous prismes force petits, qui sont aussi bons que pigeonneaux. Le sieur de Poitrincourt s'y pensa esgarer: Mais en fin il reuint à nostre barque comme nous l'allions cerchant autour de isle, qui est esloignee de la terre ferme trois lieues." Chap iii.
2. Explorations in the Vineyard Sound. Voyage of 1604-8. "Comme nous eusmes fait quelques six ou sept lieues nous eusmes cognoissance d'vne isle que nous nommasmes la soupçonneuse, pour auoir eu plusieurs fois croyance de loing que ce fut autre chose qu'vne isle, puis le vent nous vint contraire, qui nous fit relascher au lieu d'où nous estions partis, auquel nous fusmes deux on trois jours sans que durant ce temps il vint aucun sauuage se presenter à nous." Chap. xv.
3. Fight with the Indians on the Richelieu. Voyage of 1610.
"Les Yroquois s'estonnoient du bruit de nos arquebuses, & principalement de ce que les balles persoient mieux que leurs flesches; & eurent tellement l'espouuante de l'effet qu'elles faisoient, voyant plusieurs de leurs compaignons tombez morts, & blessez, que de crainte qu'ils auoient, croyans ces coups estre sans remede ils se iettoient par terre, quand ils entendoient le bruit: aussi ne tirions gueres à faute, & deux ou trois balles à chacun coup, & auios la pluspart du temps nos arquebuses appuyees sur le bord de leur barricade." Chap. ii.
The following words, found in the writings of Champlain, are to be noted as used by him in a sense different from the ordinary one, or as not found in the dictionaries. They occur in the voyages of 1603 and 1604-11. The numbers refer to the continuous pagination in the Quebec edition:
appoil, 159. A species of duck. (?)
catalougue, 266. A cloth used for wrapping up a dead body. Cf. Spanish catalogo.
déserter, 211, et passim. In the sense of to clear up a new country by removing the trees, &c.
esplan, 166. A small fish, like the équille of Normandy.
estaire, 250. A kind of mat. Cf. Spanish estera.
fleurir, 247. To break or foam, spoken of the waves of the sea.
legueux, 190. Watery.(?) Or for ligneux, fibrous.(?)
marmette, 159. A kind of sea-bird.
Matachias, 75, et passim. Indian word for strings of beads, used to ornament the person.
papesi, 381. Name of one of the sails of a vessel.
petunoir, 79. Pipe for smoking.
Pilotua, 82, et passim. Word used by the Indians for soothsayer or medicine-man.
souler, 252. In sense of, to be wont, accustomed.
truitière, 264. Trout-brook.
The first and main aim of the translator has been to give the exact sense of the original, and he has endeavored also to reproduce as far as possible the spirit and tone of Champlain's narrative. The important requisite in a translation, that it should be pure and idiomatic English, without any transfer of the mode of expression peculiar to the foreign language, has not, it is hoped, been violated, at least to any great extent. If, perchance, a French term or usage has been transferred to the translation, it is because it has seemed that the sense or spirit would be better conveyed in this way. At best, a translation comes short of the original, and it is perhaps pardonable at times to admit a foreign term, if by this means the sense or style seems to be better preserved. It is hoped that the present work has been done so as to satisfy the demands of the historian, who may find it convenient to use it in his investigations.
BOSTON, June 17, 1880
Made in New France in the year 1603.
The customs, mode of life, marriages, wars, and dwellings of the Savages of Canada. Discoveries for more than four hundred and fifty leagues in the country. The tribes, animals, rivers, lakes, islands, lands, trees, and fruits found there. Discoveries on the coast of La Cadie, and numerous mines existing there according to the report of the Savages.
Claude de Monstr'oeil, having his store in the Court of the Palace, under the name of Jesus.
To the very noble, high and powerful Lord Charles De Montmorency, Chevalier of the Orders of the King, Lord of Ampuille and of Meru, Count of Secondigny, Viscount of Melun, Baron of Chateauneuf and of Gonnort, Admiral of France and of Brittany.
_My Lord,
Although many have written about the country of Canada, I have nevertheless been unwilling to rest satisfied with their report, and have visited these regions expressly in order to be able to render a faithful testimony to the truth, which you will see, if it be your pleasure, in the brief narrative which I address to you, and which I beg you may find agreeable, and I pray God for your ever increasing greatness and prosperity, my Lord, and shall remain all my life,
Your most humble
and obedient servant,
S. CHAMPLAIN_.
By license of the King, given at Paris on the 15th of November, 1603, signed Brigard.
Permission is given to Sieur de Champlain to have printed by such printer as may seem good to him, a book which he has composed, entitled, "The Savages, or Voyage of Sieur de Champlain, made in the Year 1603;" and all book-sellers and printers of this kingdom are forbidden to print, sell, or distribute said book, except with the consent of him whom he shall name and choose, on penalty of a fine of fifty crowns, of confiscation, and all expenses, as is more fully stated in the license.
Said Sieur de Champlain, in accordance with his license, has chosen and given permission to Claude de Monstr'oeil, book-seller to the University of Paris, to print said book, and he has ceded and transferred to him his license, so that no other person can print or have printed, sell, or distribute it, during the time of five years, except with the consent of said Monstr'oeil, on the penalties contained in the said license.
We set out from Honfleur on the 15th of March, 1603. On the same day we put back to the roadstead of Havre de Grâce, the wind not being favorable. On Sunday following, the 16th, we set sail on our route. On the 17th, we sighted d'Orgny and Grenesey, [121] islands between the coast of Normandy and England. On the 18th of the same month, we saw the coast of Brittany. On the 19th, at 7 o'clock in the evening we reckoned that we were off Ouessant. [122] On the 21st, at 7 o'clock in the morning, we met seven Flemish vessels, coming, as we thought from the Indies. On Easter day, the 30th of the same month, we encountered a great tempest, which seemed to be more lightning than wind, and which lasted for seventeen days, though not continuing so severe as it was on the first two days. During this time, we lost more than we gained. On the 16th of April, to the delight of all, the weather began to be more favorable, and the sea calmer than it had been, so that we continued our course until the 18th, when we fell in with a very lofty iceberg. The next day we sighted a bank of ice more than eight leagues long, accompanied by an infinite number of smaller banks, which prevented us from going on. In the opinion of the pilot, these masses of ice were about a hundred or a hundred and twenty leagues from Canada. We were in latitude 45 deg. 40', and continued our course in 44 deg..
On the 2nd of May we reached the Bank at 11 o'clock in the forenoon, in 44 deg. 40'. On the 6th of the same month we had approached so near to land that we heard the sea beating on the shore, which, however, we could not see on account of the dense fog, to which these coasts are subject. [123] For this reason we put out to sea again a few leagues, until the next morning, when the weather being clear, we sighted land, which was Cape St. Mary. [124]
On the 12th we were overtaken by a severe gale, lasting two days. On the 15th we sighted the islands of St. Peter. [125] On the 17th we fell in with an ice-bank near Cape Ray, six leagues in length, which led us to lower sail for the entire night that we might avoid the danger to which we were exposed. On the next day we set sail and sighted Cape Ray, [126] the islands of St. Paul, and Cape St. Lawrence. [127] The latter is on the mainland lying to the south, and the distance from it to Cape Ray is eighteen leagues, that being the breadth of the entrance to the great bay of Canada. [128] On the same day, about ten o'clock in the morning, we fell in with another bank of ice, more than eight leagues in length. On the 20th, we sighted an island some twenty-five or thirty leagues long, called Anticosty, [129] which marks the entrance to the river of Canada. The next day, we sighted Gaspé, [130] a very high land, and began to enter the river of Canada, coasting along the south side as far as Montanne, [131] distant sixty-five leagues from Gaspé. Proceeding on our course, we came in sight of the Bic, [132] twenty leagues from Mantanne and on the southern shore; continuing farther, we crossed the river to Tadoussac, fifteen leagues from the Bic. All this region is very high, barren, and unproductive.
On the 24th of the month, we came to anchor before Tadoussac, [133] and on the 26th entered this port, which has the form of a cove. It is at the mouth of the river Saguenay, where there is a current and tide of remarkable swiftness and a great depth of water, and where there are sometimes troublesome winds, [134] in consequence of the cold they bring. It is stated that it is some forty-five or fifty leagues up to the first fall in this river, and that it flows from the northwest. The harbor of Tadoussac is small, in which only ten or twelve vessels could lie; but there is water enough on the east, sheltered from the river Saguenay, and along a little mountain, which is almost cut off by the river. On the shore there are very high mountains, on which there is little earth, but only rocks and sand, which are covered, with pine, cypress and fir, [135] and a smallish species of trees. There is a small pond near the harbor, enclosed by wood-covered mountains. At the entrance to the harbor, there are two points: the one on the west side extending a league out into the river, and called St. Matthew's Point; [136] the other on the southeast side extending out a quarter of a league, and called All-Devils' Point. This harbor is exposed to the winds from the south, southeast, and south-southwest. The distance from St. Matthew's Point to All-Devils' Point is nearly a league; both points are dry at low tide.
121. Alderney and Guernsey. French maps at the present day for Alderney
have d'Aurigny.
122. The islands lying off Finistère, on the western extremity of Brittany
in France.
123. The shore which they approached was probably Cape Pine, east of
Placentia Bay, Newfoundland.
124. In Placentia bay, on the southern coast of Newfoundland.
125. West of Placentia Bay.
126. Cape Ray is northwest of the islands of St. Peter.
127. Cape St. Lawrence, now called Cape North, is the northern extremity of the island of Cape Breton, and the island of St. Paul is a few miles north of it.
128. The Gulf or Bay of St. Lawrence. It was so named by Jacques Cartier on his second voyage, in 1535. Nous nommasmes la dicte baye la Sainct Laurens, Brief Recit, 1545, D'Avezac ed. p. 8. The northeastern part of it is called on De Laet's map, "Grand Baye."
129. "This island is about one hundred and forty miles long, thirty-five miles broad at its widest part, with an average breadth of twenty-seven and one-half miles."—Le Moine's Chronicles of the St. Lawrence, p.100. It was named by Cartier in 1535, the Island of the Assumption, having been discovered on the 15th of August, the festival of the Assumption. Nous auons nommes l'ysle de l'Assumption.—Brief Recit, 1545, D'Avenzac's ed. p. 9. Alfonse, in his report of his voyage of 1542, calls it the Isle de l'Ascension, probably by mistake. "The Isle of Ascension is a goodly isle and a goodly champion land, without any hills, standing all upon white rocks and Alabaster, all covered with wild beasts, as bears, Luserns, Porkespicks." Hakluyt, Vol. III. p. 292. Of this island De Laet says, "Elle est nommee el langage des Sauvages Natiscotec"—Hist. du Nouveau Monde, a Leyde, 1640, p.42. Vide also Wyet's Voyage in Hakluyt, Vol. III. p. 241. Laverdière says the Montagnais now call it Natascoueh, which signifies, where the bear is caught. He cites Thevet, who says it is called by the savages, Naticousti, by others Laisple. The use of the name Anticosty by Champlain, now spelled Anticosti, would imply that its corruption from the original, Natiscotec, took place at a very early date. Or it is possible that Champlain wrote it as he heard it pronounced by the natives, and his orthography may best represent the original.
130. Gachepé, so written in the text, subsequently written by the author Gaspey, but now generally Gaspé. It is supposed to have been derived from the Abnaquis word Katsepi8i, which means what is separated from the rest, and to have reference to a remarkable rock, three miles above Cape Gaspé, separated from the shore by the violence of the waves, the incident from which it takes its name.—Vide Voyages de Champlain, ed. 1632, p. 91; Chronicles of the St. Lawrence, by J. M. Le Moine, p. 9.
131. A river flowing into the St. Lawrence from the south in latitude 48 deg. 52' and in longitude west from Greenwich 67 deg. 32', now known as the Matane.
132. For Bic, Champlain has Pic, which is probably a typographical error. It seems probable that Bic is derived from the French word bicoque, which means a place of small consideration, a little paltry town. Near the site of the ancient Bic, we now have, on modern maps, Bicoque Rocks, Bicquette Light, Bic Island, Bic Channel, and Bic Anchorage. As suggested by Laverdière, this appears to be the identical harbor entered by Jacques Cartier, in 1535, who named if the Isles of Saint John, because he entered it on the day of the beheading of St. John, which was the 29th of August. Nous les nommasmes les Ysleaux sainct Jehan, parce que nous y entrasmes le jour de la decollation dudict sainct. Brief Récit, 1545, D'Avezac's ed. p. 11. Le Jeune speaks of the Isle du Bic in 1635. Vide Relation des Jésuites, p. 19.
133. Tadoussac, or Tadouchac, is derived from the word totouchac, which in Montagnais means breasts, and Saguenay signifies water which springs forth, from the Montagnais word saki-nip.—Vide Laverdière in loco. Tadoussac, or the breasts from which water springs forth, is naturally suggested by the rocky elevations at the base of which the Saguenay flows.
134. Impetueux, plainly intended to mean troublesome, as may be seen from the context.
135. Pine, pins. The white pine, Pinus strobus, or Strobus Americanus, grows as far north as Newfoundland, and as far south as Georgia. It was observed by Captain George Weymouth on the Kennebec, and hence deals afterward imported into England were called Weymouth pine—Vide Chronological History of Plants, by Charles Picketing, M.D., Boston, 1879, p. 809. This is probably the species here referred to by Champlain. Cypress, Cyprez. This was probably the American arbor vitæ. Thuja occidentalis, a species which, according to the Abbé Laverdière, is found in the neighborhood of the Saguenay. Champlain employed the same word to designate the American savin, or red cedar. Juniperus Virginiana, which he found on Cape Cod—Vide Vol. II. p. 82. Note 168.
Fir, sapins. The fir may have been the white spruce, Abies alba, or the black spruce, Abies nigra, or the balsam fir or Canada balsam, Abies balsamea, or yet the hemlock spruce, Abies Canadaisis.
136. St. Matthew's Point, now known as Point aux Allouettes, or Lack Point.—Vide Vol. II. p 165, note 292. All-Devils' Point, now called Pointe aux Vaches. Both of these points had changed their names before the publication of Champlain's ed., 1632.—Vide p. 119 of that edition. The last mentioned was called by Champlain, in 1632, pointe aux roches. Laverdière thinks _ro_ches was a typographical error, as Sagard, about the same time, writes vaches.—Vide Sagard. Histoire du Canada, 1636, Stross. ed., Vol I p. 150.
We naturally ask why it was called pointe aux vaches, or point of cows. An old French apothegm reads Le diable est aux vaches, the devil is in the cows, for which in English we say, "the devil is to pay." May not this proverb have suggested vaches as a synonyme of diables?
On the 27th, we went to visit the savages at St. Matthew's point, distant a league from Tadoussac, accompanied by the two savages whom Sieur du Pont Gravé took to make a report of what they had seen in France, and of the friendly reception the king had given them. Having landed, we proceeded to the cabin of their grand Sagamore [137] named Anadabijou, whom we found with some eighty or a hundred of his companions celebrating a tabagie, that is a banquet. He received us very cordially, and according to the custom of his country, seating us near himself, with all the savages arranged in rows on both sides of the cabin. One of the savages whom we had taken with us began to make an address, speaking of the cordial reception the king had given them, and the good treatment they had received in France, and saying they were assured that his Majesty was favorably disposed towards them, and was desirous of peopling their country, and of making peace with their enemies, the Iroquois, or of sending forces to conquer them. He also told them of the handsome manors, palaces, and houses they had seen, and of the inhabitants and our mode of living. He was listened to with the greatest possible silence. Now, after he had finished his address, the grand Sagamore, Anadabijou, who had listened to it attentively, proceeded to take some tobacco, and give it to Sieur du Pont Gravé of St. Malo, myself, and some other Sagamores, who were near him. After a long smoke, he began to make his address to all, speaking with gravity, stopping at times a little, and then resuming and saying, that they truly ought to be very glad in having his Majesty for a great friend. They all answered with one voice, Ho, ho, ho, that is to say yes, yes. He continuing his address said that he should be very glad to have his Majesty people their land, and make war upon their enemies; that there was no nation upon earth to which they were more kindly disposed than to the French. finally he gave them all to understand the advantage and profit they could receive from his Majesty. After he had finished his address, we went out of his cabin, and they began to celebrate their tabagie or banquet, at which they have elk's meat, which is similar to beef, also that of the bear, seal and beaver, these being their ordinary meats, including also quantities of fowl. They had eight or ten boilers full of meats, in the middle of this cabin, separated some six feet from each other, each one having its own fire. They were seated on both sides, as I stated before, each one having his porringer made of bark. When the meat is cooked, some one distributes to each his portion in his porringer, when they eat in a very filthy manner. For when their hands are covered with fat, they rub them on their heads or on the hair of their dogs of which they have large numbers for hunting. Before their meat was cooked, one of them arose, took a dog and hopped around these boilers from one end of the cabin to the other. Arriving in front of the great Sagamore, he threw his dog violently to the ground, when all with one voice exclaimed, Ho, ho, ho, after which he went back to his place. Instantly another arose and did the same, which performance was continued until the meat was cooked. Now after they had finished their tabagie, they began to dance, taking the heads of their enemies, which were slung on their backs, as a sign of joy. One or two of them sing, keeping time with their hands, which they strike on their knees: sometimes they stop, exclaiming, Ho, ho, ho, when they begin dancing again, puffing like a man out of breath. They were having this celebration in honor of the victory they had obtained over the Iroquois, several hundred of whom they had killed, whose heads they had cut off and had with them to contribute to the pomp of their festivity. Three nations had engaged in the war, the Etechemins, Algonquins, and Montagnais. [138] These, to the number of a thousand, proceeded to make war upon the Iroquois, whom they encountered at the mouth of the river of the Iroquois, and of whom they killed a hundred. They carry on war only by surprising their enemies; for they would not dare to do so otherwise, and fear too much the Iroquois, who are more numerous than the Montagnais, Etechemins, and Algonquins.
On the 28th of this month they came and erected cabins at the harbor of Tadoussac, where our vessel was. At daybreak their grand Sagamore came out from his cabin and went about all the others, crying out to them in a loud voice to break camp to go to Tadoussac, where their good friends were. Each one immediately took down his cabin in an incredibly short time, and the great captain was the first to take his canoe and carry it to the water, where he embarked his wife and children and a quantity of furs. Thus were launched nearly two hundred canoes, which go wonderfully fast; for, although our shallop was well manned, yet they went faster than ourselves. Two only do the work of propelling the boat, a man and a woman. Their canoes are some eight or nine feet long, and a foot or a foot and a half broad in the middle, growing narrower towards the two ends. They are very liable to turn over, if one does not understand how to manage them, for they are made of the bark of trees called bouille, [139] strengthened on the inside by little ribs of wood strongly and neatly made. They are so light that a man can easily carry one, and each canoe can carry the weight of a pipe. When they wish to go overland to some river where they have business, they carry their canoes with them.
Their cabins are low and made like tents, being covered with the same kind of bark as that before mentioned. The whole top for the space of about a foot they leave uncovered, whence the light enters; and they make a number of fires directly in the middle of the cabin, in which there are sometimes ten families at once. They sleep on skins, all together, and their dogs with them. [140]
They were in number a thousand persons, men, women and children. The place at St. Matthew's Point, where they were first encamped, is very pleasant. They were at the foot of a small slope covered with trees, firs and cypresses. At St. Matthew's Point there is a small level place, which is seen at a great distance. On the top of this hill there is a level tract of land, a league long, half a league broad, covered with trees. The soil is very sandy, and contains good pasturage. Elsewhere there are only rocky mountains, which are very barren. The tide rises about this slope, but at low water leaves it dry for a full half league out.
137. Sagamo, thus written in the French According to Laflèche, as cited by Laverdière, this word, in the Montagnais language, is derived from tchi, great and okimau, chief, and consequently signifies the Great Chief.
138. The Etechemins, may be said in general terms to have occupied the territory from St. John, N. B., to Mount Desert Island, in Maine, and perhaps still further west, but not south of Saco. The Algonquins here referred to were those who dwelt on the Ottawa River. The Montagnais occupied the region on both sides of the Saguenay, having their trading centre at Tadoussac. War had been carried on for a period we know not how long, perhaps for several centuries, between these allied tribes and the Iroquois.
139. Bouille for bouleau, the birch-tree. Betula papyracea, popularly known as the paper or canoe birch. It is a large tree, the bark white, and splitting into thin layers. It is common in New England, and far to the north The white birch, Betula alba, of Europe and Northern Asia, is used for boat-building at the present day.—Vide Chronological History of Plants, by Charles Pickering, M.D., Boston, 1879, p. 134.
140. The dog was the only domestic animal found among the aborigines of this country. "The Australians," says Dr. Pickering, "appear to be the only considerable portion of mankind destitute of the companionship of the dog. The American tribes, from the Arctic Sea to Cape Horn, had the companionship of the dog, and certain remarkable breeds had been developed before the visit of Columbus" (F. Columbus 25); further, according to Coues, the cross between the coyote and female dog is regularly procured by our northwestern tribes, and, according to Gabb, "dogs one-fourth coyote are pointed out; the fact therefore seems established that the coyote or American barking wolfe, Canis latrans, is the dog in its original wild state."—Vide Chronological History of Plants, etc., by Charles Pickering, M.D., Boston, 1879, p. 20.
"It was believed by some for a length of time that the wild dog was of recent introduction to Australia: this is not so."—Vide Aborigines of Victoria, by R. Brough Smyth, London, 1878, Vol. 1. p. 149. The bones of the wild dog have recently been discovered in Australia, at a depth of excavation, and in circumstances, which prove that his existence there antedates the introduction of any species of the dog by Europeans. The Australians appear, therefore, to be no exception to the universal companionship of the dog with man.
On the 9th of June the savages proceeded to have a rejoicing all together, and to celebrate their tabagie, which I have before described, and to dance, in honor of their victory over their enemies. Now, after they had feasted well, the Algonquins, one of the three nations, left their cabins and went by themselves to a public place. Here they arranged all their wives and daughters by the side of each other, and took position themselves behind them, all singing in the manner I have described before. Suddenly all the wives and daughters proceeded to throw off their robes of skins, presenting themselves stark naked, and exposing their sexual parts. But they were adorned with matachiats, that is beads and braided strings, made of porcupine quills, which they dye in various colors. After finishing their songs, they all said together, Ho, ho, ho: at the same instant all the wives and daughters covered themselves with their robes, which were at their feet. Then, after stopping a short time, all suddenly beginning to sing throw off their robes as before. They do not stir from their position while dancing, and make various gestures and movements of the body, lifting one foot and then the other, at the same time striking upon the ground. Now, during the performance of this dance, the Sagamore of the Algonquins, named Besouat, was seated before these wives and daughters, between two sticks, on which were hung the heads of their enemies. Sometimes he arose and went haranguing, and saying to the Montagnais and Etechemins: "Look! how we rejoice in the victory that we have obtained over our enemies; you must do the same, so that we may be satisfied." Then all said together, Ho, ho, ho. After returning to his position, the grand Sagamore together with all his companions removed their robes, making themselves stark naked except their sexual parts, which are covered with a small piece of skin. Each one took what seemed good to him, as matachiats, hatchets, swords, kettles, fat, elk flesh, seal, in a word each one had a present, which they proceeded to give to the Algonquins. After all these ceremonies, the dance ceased, and the Algonquins, men and women, carried their presents into their cabins. Then two of the most agile men of each nation were taken, whom they caused to run, and he who was the fastest in the race, received a present.
All these people have a very cheerful disposition, laughing often; yet at the same time they are somewhat phlegmatic. They talk very deliberately, as if desiring to make themselves well understood, and stopping suddenly, they reflect for a long time, when they resume their discourse. This is their usual manner at their harangues in council, where only the leading men, the elders, are present, the women and children not attending at all.
All these people suffer so much sometimes from hunger, on account of the severe cold and snow, when the animals and fowl on which they live go away to warmer countries, that they are almost constrained to eat one another. I am of opinion that if one were to teach them how to live, and instruct them in the cultivation of the soil and in other respects, they would learn very easily, for I can testify that many of them have good judgment and respond very appropriately to whatever question may be put to them. [141] They have the vices of taking revenge and of lying badly, and are people in whom it is not well to put much confidence, except with caution and with force at hand. They promise well, but keep their word badly.
Most of them have no law, so far as I have been able to observe or learn from the great Sagamore, who told me that they really believed there was a God, who created all things. Whereupon I said to him: that, "Since they believed in one sole God, how had he placed them in the world, and whence was their origin." He replied: that, "After God had made all things, he took a large number of arrows, and put them in the ground; whence sprang men and women, who had been multiplying in the world up to the present time, and that this was their origin." I answered that what he said was false, but that there really was one only God, who had created all things upon earth and in the heavens. Seeing all these things so perfect, but that there was no one to govern here on earth, he took clay from the ground, out of which he created Adam our first father. While Adam was sleeping, God took a rib from his side, from which he formed Eve, whom he gave to him as a companion, and, I told him, that it was true that they and ourselves had our origin in this manner, and not from arrows, as they suppose. He said nothing, except that he acknowledged what I said, rather than what he had asserted. I asked him also if he did not believe that there was more than one only God. He told me their belief was that there was a God, a Son, a Mother, and the Sun, making four; that God, however, was above all, that the Son and the Sun were good, since they received good things from them; but the Mother, he said, was worthless, and ate them up; and the Father not very good. I remonstrated with him on his error, and contrasted it with our faith, in which he put some little confidence. I asked him if they had never seen God, nor heard from their ancestors that God had come into the world. He said that they had never seen him; but that formerly there were five men who went towards the setting sun, who met God, who asked them: "Where are you going?" they answered: "We are going in search of our living." God replied to them: "You will find it here." They went on, without paying attention to what God had said to them, when he took a stone and touched two of them with it, whereupon they were changed to stones; and he said again to the three others: "Where are you going?" They answered as before, and God said to them again: "Go no farther, you will find it here." And seeing that nothing came to them, they went on; when God took two sticks, with which he touched the two first, whereupon they were transformed into sticks, when the fifth one stopped, not wishing to go farther. And God asked him again: "Where are you going?" "I am going in search of my living." "Stay and thou shalt find it." He staid without advancing farther, and God gave him some meat, which he ate. After making good cheer, he returned to the other savages, and related to them all the above.
He told me also that another time there was a man who had a large quantity of tobacco (a plant from which they obtain what they smoke), and that God came to this man, and asked him where his pipe was. The man took his pipe, and gave it to God, who smoked much. After smoking to his satisfaction, God broke the pipe into many pieces, and the man asked: "Why hast thou broken my pipe? thou seest in truth that I have not another." Then God took one that he had, and gave it to him, saying: "Here is one that I will give you, take it to your great Sagamore; let him keep it, and if he keep it well, he will not want for any thing whatever, neither he nor all his companions." The man took the pipe, and gave it to his great Sagamore; and while he kept it, the savages were in want of nothing whatever: but he said that afterwards the grand Sagamore lost this pipe, which was the cause of the severe famines they sometimes have. I asked him if he believed all that; he said yes, and that it was the truth. Now I think that this is the reason why they say that God is not very good. But I replied, "that God was in all respects good, and that it was doubtless the Devil who had manifested himself to those men, and that if they would believe as we did in God they would not want for what they had need of; that the sun which they saw, the moon and the stars, had been created by this great God, who made heaven and earth, but that they have no power except that which God has given them; that we believe in this great God, who by His goodness had sent us His dear Son who, being conceived of the Holy Spirit, was clothed with human flesh in the womb of the Virgin Mary, lived thirty years on earth, doing an infinitude of miracles, raising the dead, healing the sick, driving out devils, giving sight to the blind, teaching men the will of God his Father, that they might serve, honor and worship Him, shed his blood, suffered and died for us, and our sins, and ransomed the human race, that, being buried, he rose again, descended into hell, and ascended into heaven, where he is seated on the right hand of God his Father." [142] I told him that this was the faith of all Christians who believe in the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, that these, nevertheless, are not three Gods, but one the same and only God, and a trinity in which there is no before nor after, no greater nor smaller; that the Virgin Mary, mother of the Son of God, and all the men and women who have lived in this world doing the commandments of God, and enduring martyrdom for his name, and who by the permission of God have done miracles, and are saints in heaven in his paradise, are all of them praying this Great Divine Majesty to pardon us our errors and sins which we commit against His law and commandments. And thus, by the prayers of the saints in heaven and by our own prayers to his Divine Majesty, He gives what we have need of, and the devil has no power over us and can do us no harm. I told them that if they had this belief, they would be like us, and that the devil could no longer do them any harm, and that they would not lack what they had need of.
Then this Sagamore replied to me that he acknowledged what I said. I asked him what ceremonies they were accustomed to in praying to their God. He told me that they were not accustomed to any ceremonies, but that each prayed in his heart as he desired. This is why I believe that they have no law, not knowing what it is to worship and pray to God, and living, the most of them, like brute beasts. But I think that they would speedily become good Christians, if people were to colonize their country, of which most of them were desirous.
There are some savages among them whom they call Pilotoua, [143] who have personal communications with the devil. Such an one tells them what they are to do, not only in regard to war, but other things; and if he should command them to execute any undertaking, as to kill a Frenchman or one of their own nation, they would obey his command at once.
They believe, also, that all dreams which they have are real; and many of them, indeed, say that they have seen in dreams things which come to pass or will come to pass. But, to tell the truth in the matter, these are visions of the devil, who deceives and misleads them. This is all that I have been able to learn from them in regard to their matters of belief, which is of a low, animal nature.
All these people are well proportioned in body, without any deformity, and are also agile. The women are well-shaped, full and plump, and of a swarthy complexion, on account of the large amount of a certain pigment with which they rub themselves, and which gives them an olive color. They are clothed in skins, one part of their body being covered and the other left uncovered. In winter they provide for their whole body, for they are dressed in good furs, as those of the elk, otter, beaver, seal, stag, and hind, which they have in large quantities. In winter, when the snows are heavy, they make a sort of raquette [144] two or three times as large as those in France. These they attach to their feet, and thus walk upon the snow without sinking in; for without them, they could not hunt or make their way in many places.
Their manner of marriage is as follows: When a girl attains the age of fourteen or fifteen years, she may have several suitors and friends, and keep company with such as she pleases. At the end of some five or six years she may choose that one to whom her fancy inclines as her husband, and they will live together until the end of their life, unless, after living together a certain period, they fail to have children, when the husband is at liberty to divorce himself and take another wife, on the ground that his own is of no worth. Accordingly, the girls are more free than the wives; yet as soon as they are married they are chaste, and their husbands are for the most part jealous, and give presents to the father or relatives of the girl whom they marry. This is the manner of marriage, and conduct in the same.
In regard to their interments, when a man or woman dies, they make a trench, in which they put all their property, as kettles, furs, axes, bows and arrows, robes, and other things. Then they put the body in the trench, and cover it with earth, laying on top many large pieces of wood, and erecting over all a piece of wood painted red on the upper part. They believe in the immortality of the soul, and say that when they die themselves, they shall go to rejoice with their relatives and friends in other lands.
141. Vide Vol. II of this work, p 190.
142. This summary of the Christian faith is nearly in the words of the Apostles Creed.
143. On Pilotoua or Pilotois, vide Vol. II. note 341.
144. Une manière de raquette. The snow-shoe, which much resembles the racket or battledore, an instrument used for striking the ball in the game of tennis. This name was given for the want of one more specific.
On the 11th of June, I went some twelve or fifteen leagues up the Saguenay, which is a fine river, of remarkable depth. For I think, judging from what I have heard in regard to its source, that it comes from a very high place, whence a torrent of water descends with great impetuosity. But the water which proceeds thence is not capable of producing such a river as this, which, however, only extends from this torrent, where the first fall is, to the harbor Tadoussac, at the mouth of the Saguenay, a distance of some forty-five or fifty leagues, it being a good league and a half broad at the widest place, and a quarter of a league at the narrowest; for which reason there is a strong current. All the country, so far as I saw it, consisted only of rocky mountains, mostly covered with fir, cypress, and birch; a very unattractive region in which I did not find a level tract of land either on the one side or the other. There are some islands in the river, which are high and sandy. In a word, these are real deserts, uninhabitable for animals or birds. For I can testify that when I went hunting in places which seemed to me the most attractive, I found nothing whatever but little birds, like nightingales and swallows, which come only in summer, as I think, on account of the excessive cold there, this river coming from the northwest.
They told me that, after passing the first fall, whence this torrent comes, they pass eight other falls, when they go a day's journey without finding any; then they pass ten other falls and enter a lake [145] which it requires two days to cross, they being able to make easily from twelve to fifteen leagues a day. At the other extremity of the lake is found a people who live in cabins. Then you enter three other rivers, up each of which the distance is a journey of some three or four days. At the extremity of these rivers are two or three bodies of water, like lakes, in which the Saguenay has its source, from which to Tadoussac is a journey of ten days in their canoes. There is a large number of cabins on the border of these rivers, occupied by other tribes which come from the north to exchange with the Montagnais their beaver and marten skins for articles of merchandise, which the French vessels furnish to the Montagnais. These savages from the north say that they live within sight of a sea which is salt. If this is the case, I think that it is a gulf of that sea which flows from the north into the interior, and in fact it cannot be otherwise. [146] This is what I have learned in regard to the River Saguenay.
145. This was Lake St John. This description is given nearly verbatim in Vol. II. p. 169.—Vide notes in the same volume, 294, 295. 146. Champlain appears to have obtained from the Indians a very correct idea not only of the existence but of the character of Hudson's Bay, although that bay was not discovered by Hudson till about seven years later than this.
On Wednesday, the eighteenth day of June, we set out from Tadoussac for the Fall. [147] We passed near an island called Hare Island, [148] about two leagues, from the northern shore and some seven leagues from Tadoussac and five leagues from the southern shore. From Hare Island we proceeded along the northern coast about half a league, to a point extending out into the water, where one must keep out farther. This point is one league [149] from an island called Isle au Coudre, about two leagues wide, the distance from which to the northern shore is a league. This island has a pretty even surface, growing narrower towards the two ends. At the western end there are meadows and rocky points, which extend out some distance into the river. This island is very pleasant on account of the woods surrounding it. It has a great deal of slate-rock, and the soil is very gravelly; at its extremity there is a rock extending half a league out into the water. We went to the north of this island, [150] which is twelve leagues distant from Hare Island.
On the Thursday following, we set out from here and came to anchor in a dangerous cove on the northern shore, where there are some meadows and a little river, [151] and where the savages sometimes erect their cabins. The same day, continuing to coast along on the northern shore, we were obliged by contrary winds to put in at a place where there were many very dangerous rocks and localities. Here we stayed three days, waiting for fair weather. Both the northern and Southern shores here are very mountainous, resembling in general those of the Saguenay.
On Sunday, the twenty-second, we set out for the Island of Orleans, [152] in the neighborhood of which are many islands on the southern shore. These are low and covered with trees, Seem to be very pleasant, and, so far as I could judge, some of them are one or two leagues and others half a league in length. About these islands there are only rocks and shallows, so that the passage is very dangerous.
They are distant some two leagues from the mainland on the south. Thence we coasted along the Island of Orleans on the south. This is distant a league from the mainland on the north, is very pleasant and level, and eight leagues long. The coast on the south is low for some two leagues inland; the country begins to be low at this island which is perhaps two leagues distant from the southern shore. It is very dangerous passing on the northern shore, on account of the sand-banks and rocks between the island and mainland, and it is almost entirely dry here at low tide.
At the end of this island I saw a torrent of water [153] which descended from a high elevation on the River of Canada. Upon this elevation the land is uniform and pleasant, although in the interior high mountains are seen some twenty or twenty-five leagues distant, and near the first fall of the Saguenay.
We came to anchor at Quebec, a narrow passage in the River of Canada, which is here some three hundred paces broad. [154] There is, on the northern side of this passage, a very high elevation, which falls off on two sides. Elsewhere the country is uniform and fine, and there are good tracts full of trees, as oaks, cypresses, birches, firs, and aspens, also wild fruit-trees and vines which, if they were cultivated, would, in my opinion, be as good as our own. Along the shore of Quebec, there are diamonds in some slate-rocks, which are better than those of Alençon. From Quebec to Hare Island is a distance of twenty-nine leagues.
147. Saut de St Louis, about three leagues above Montreal.
148. Isle au Lieure Hare Island, so named by Cartier from the great number of hares which he found there. Le soir feusmes à ladicte ysle, ou trouuasmes grand nombre de lieures, desquelz eusmes quantité: & par ce la nommasmes l'ysle es lieures.—Brief Récit, par Jacques Cartier, 1545, D'Avezac ed p. 45.
The distances are here overestimated. From Hare Island to the northern shore the distance is four nautical miles, and to the southern six.
149. The point nearest to Hare Island is Cape Salmon, which is about six geographical miles from the Isle au Coudres, and we should here correct the error by reading not one but two leagues. The author did not probably intend to be exact.
150. Isle au Coudre.—Vide Brief Récit, par Jacques Cartier, 1545, D'Avezac ed. p. 44; also Vol. II. of this work, p. 172. Charlevoix says, whether from tradition or on good authority we know not, that "in 1663 an earthquake rooted up a mountain, and threw it upon the Isle au Coudres, which made it one-half larger than before."— Letters to the Duchess of Lesdiguieres, London, 1763, p. 15.
151. This was probably about two leagues from the Isle aux Coudres, where is a small stream which still bears the name La Petite Rivière.
152. Isle d'Orléans.—Vide Vol. II. p. 173.
153. On Champlain's map of the harbor of Quebec he calls this "torrent" le grand saut de Montmorency, the grand fall of Montmorency. It was named by Champlain himself, and in honor of the "noble, high, and powerful Charles de Montmorency," to whom the journal of this voyage is dedicated. The stream is shallow, "in some places," Charlevoix says, "not more than ankle deep." The grandeur or impressiveness of the fall, if either of these qualities can be attributed to it, arises from its height and not from the volume of water—Vide ed. 1632, p. 123. On Bellm's Atlas Maritime, 1764, its height is put down at sixty-five feet. Bayfield's Chart more correctly says 251 feet above high water spring tides—Vide Vol. II of this work, note 308.
154. Nous vinsmmes mouiller l'ancre à Quebec, qui est vn destroict de laditt riuiere de Canadas. These words very clearly define the meaning of Quebec, which is an Indian word, signifying a narrowing or a contraction.—Vide Vol. II. p. 175, note 309. The breadth of the river at this point is underestimated. It is not far from 1320 feet, or three-quarters of a mile.
On Monday, the 23d of this month, we set out from Quebec, where the river begins to widen, sometimes to the extent of a league, then a league and a half or two leagues at most. The country grows finer and finer; it is everywhere low, without rocks for the most part. The northern shore is covered with rocks and sand-banks; it is necessary to go along the southern one about half a league from the shore. There are some small rivers, not navigable, except for the canoes of the savages, and in which there are a great many falls. We came to anchor at St. Croix, fifteen leagues distant from Quebec; a low point rising up on both sides. [155] The country is fine and level, the soil being the best that I had seen, with extensive woods, containing, however, but little fir and cypress. There are found there in large numbers vines, pears, hazel-nuts, cherries, red and green currants, and certain little radishes of the size of a small nut, resembling truffles in taste, which are very good when roasted or boiled. All this soil is black, without any rocks, excepting that there a large quantity of slate. The soil is very soft, and, if well cultivated, would be very productive.
On the north shore there is a river called Batiscan, [156] extending a great distance into the interior, along which the Algonquins sometimes come. On the same shore there is another river, [157] three leagues below St. Croix, which was as far as Jacques Cartier went up the river at the time of his explorations. [158] The above-mentioned river is pleasant, extending a considerable distance inland. All this northern shore is very even and pleasing.
On Wednesday, [159] the 24th, we set out from St. Croix, where we had stayed over a tide and a half in order to proceed the next day by daylight, for this is a peculiar place on account of the great number of rocks in the river, which is almost entirely dry at low tide; but at half-flood one can begin to advance without difficulty, although it is necessary to keep a good watch, lead in hand. The tide rises here nearly three fathoms and a half.
The farther we advanced, the finer the country became. After going some five leagues and a half, we came to anchor on the northern shore. On the Wednesday following, we set out from this place, where the country is flatter than the preceding and heavily wooded, as at St. Croix. We passed near a small island covered with vines, and came to anchor on the southern shore, near a little elevation, upon ascending which we found a level country. There is another small island three leagues from St. Croix, near the southern shore. [160] We set out on the following Thursday from this elevation, and passed by a little island near the northern shore. Here I landed at six or more small rivers, up two of which boats can go for a considerable distance. Another is some three hundred feet broad, with some islands at its mouth. It extends far into the interior, and is the deepest of all. [161] These rivers are very pleasant, their shores being covered with trees which resemble nut-trees, and have the same odor; but, as I saw no fruit, I am inclined to doubt. The savages told me that they bear fruit like our own.
Advancing still farther, we came to an island called St. Éloi; [162] also another little island very near the northern shore. We passed between this island and the northern shore, the distance from one to the other being some hundred and fifty feet; that from the same island to the southern shore, a league and a half. We passed also near a river large enough for canoes. All the northern shore is very good, and one can sail along there without obstruction; but he should keep the lead in hand in order to avoid certain points. All this shore along which we coasted consists of shifting sands, but a short distance in the interior the land is good.
The Friday following, we set out from this island, and continued to coast along the northern shore very near the land, which is low and abundant in trees of good quality as far as the Trois Rivières. Here the temperature begins to be somewhat different from that of St. Croix, since the trees are more forward here than in any other place that I had yet seen. From the Trois Rivières to St. Croix the distance is fifteen leagues. In this river [163] there are six islands, three of which are very small, the others being from five to six hundred feet long, very pleasant, and fertile so far as their small extent goes. There is one of these in the centre of the above-mentioned river, confronting the River of Canada, and commanding a view of the others, which are distant from the land from four to five hundred feet on both sides. It is high on the southern side, but lower somewhat on the northern. This would be, in my judgment, a favorable place in which to make a settlement, and it could be easily fortified, for its situation is strong of itself, and it is near a large lake which is only some four leagues distant. This river extends close to the River Saguenay, according to the report of the savages, who go nearly a hundred leagues northward, pass numerous falls, go overland some five or six leagues, enter a lake from which principally the Saguenay has its source, and thence go to Tadoussac. [164] I think, likewise, that the settlement of the Trois Rivières would be a boon for the freedom of some tribes, who dare not come this way in consequence of their enemies, the Iroquois, who occupy the entire borders of the River of Canada; but, if it were settled, these Iroquois and other savages could be made friendly, or, at least, under the protection of this settlement, these savages would come freely without fear or danger, the Trois Rivières being a place of passage. All the land that I saw on the northern shore is sandy. We ascended this river for about a league, not being able to proceed farther on account of the strong current. We continued on in a skiff, for the sake of observation, but had not gone more than a league when we encountered a very narrow fall, about twelve feet wide, on account of which we could not go farther. All the country that I saw on the borders of this river becomes constantly more mountainous, and contains a great many firs and cypresses, but few trees of other kinds.
155. The Point of St. Croix, where they anchored, must have been what is now known as Point Platon. Champlain's distances are rough estimates, made under very unfavorable circumstances, and far from accurate. Point Platon is about thirty-five miles from Quebec.
156. Champlain does not mention the rivers precisely in their order. On his map of 1612, he has Contrée de Bassquan on the west of Trois Rivières. The river Batiscan empties into the St. Lawrence about four miles west of the St. Anne—Vide Atlas Maritime, by Bellin, 1764; Atlas of the Dominion of Canada, 1875.
157. River Jacques Cartier, which is in fact about five miles east of Point Platon.
158. Jacques Cartier did, in fact, ascend the St. Lawrence as far as Hochelaga, or Montreal. The Abbé Laverdière suggests that Champlain had not at this time seen the reports of Cartier. Had he seen them he would hardly have made this statement. Pont Gravé had been here several times, and may have been Champlain's incorrect informant. Vide Laverdière in loco.
159. Read Tuesday.
160. Richelieu Island, so called by the French, as early as 1635, nearly opposite Dechambeau Point.—Vide Laurie's Chart. It was called St Croix up to 1633. Laverdière in loco The Indians called it Ka ouapassiniskakhi.—Jésuit Relations, 1635, p. 13.
161. This river is now known as the Sainte Anne. Champlain says they named it Rivière Saincte Marie—Vide Quebec ed. Tome III. p. 175; Vol. II. p 201 of this work.
162. An inconsiderable island near Batiscan, not laid down on the charts.
163. The St. Maurice, anciently known as Trois Rivièrs, because two islands in its mouth divide it into three channels. Its Indian name, according to Père Le Jeune, was Metaberoutin. It appears to be the same river mentioned by Cartier in his second voyage, which he explored and reported as shallow and of no importance. He found in it four small islands, which may afterward have been subdivided into six. He named it La Riuiere die Fouez.—Brief Récit, par Jacques Cartier, D'Avezac ed. p. 28. Vide Relations des Jésuites, 1635, p. 13.
164. An eastern branch of the St Maurice River rises in a small lake, from which Lake St. John, which is an affluent of the Saguenay, may be reached by a land portage of not more than five or six leagues.
On the Saturday following, we set out from the Trois Rivières, and came to anchor at a lake four leagues distant. All this region from the Trois Rivières to the entrance to the lake is low and on a level with the water, though somewhat higher on the south side. The land is very good and the pleasantest yet seen by us. The woods are very open, so that one could easily make his way through them.
The next day, the 29th of June, [165] we entered the lake, which is some fifteen leagues long and seven or eight wide. [166] About a league from its entrance, and on the south side, is a river [167] of considerable size and extending into the interior some sixty or eighty leagues. Farther on, on the same side, there is another small river, extending about two leagues inland, and, far in, another little lake, which has a length of perhaps three or four leagues. [168] On the northern shore, where the land appears very high, you can see for some twenty leagues; but the mountains grow gradually smaller towards the west, which has the appearance of being a flat region. The savages say that on these mountains the land is for the most part poor. The lake above mentioned is some three fathoms deep where we passed, which was nearly in the middle. Its longitudinal direction is from east to west, and its lateral one from north to south. I think that it must contain good fish, and such varieties as we have at home. We passed through it this day, and came to anchor about two leagues up the river, which extends its course farther on, at the entrance to which there are thirty little islands. [169] From what I could observe, some are two leagues in extent, others a league and a half, and some less. They contain numerous nut-trees, which are but little different from our own, and, as I am inclined to think, the nuts are good in their season. I saw a great many of them under the trees, which were of two kinds, some small, and others an inch long; but they were decayed. There are also a great many vines on the shores of these islands, most of which, however, when the waters are high, are submerged. The country here is superior to any I have yet seen.
The last day of June, we set out from here and went to the entrance of the River of the Iroquois, [170] where the savages were encamped and fortified who were on their way to make war with the former. [171] Their fortress is made of a large number of stakes closely pressed against each other. It borders on one side on the shore of the great river, on the other on that of the River of the Iroquois. Their canoes are drawn up by the side of each other on the shore, so that they may be able to flee quickly in case of a surprise from the Iroquois; for their fortress is covered with oak bark, and serves only to give them time to take to their boats.
We went up the River of the Iroquois some five or six leagues, but, because of the strong current, could not proceed farther in our barque, which we were also unable to drag overland, on account of the large number of trees on the shore. Finding that we could not proceed farther, we took our skiff to see if the current were less strong above; but, on advancing some two leagues, we found it still stronger, and were unable to go any farther. [172] As we could do nothing else, we returned in our barque. This entire river is some three to four hundred paces broad, and very unobstructed. We saw there five islands, distant from each other a quarter or half a league, or at most a league, one of which, the nearest, is a league long, the others being very small. All this country is heavily wooded and low, like that which I had before seen; but there are more firs and cypresses than in other places. The soil is good, although a little sandy. The direction of this river is about southwest. [173]
The savages say that some fifteen leagues from where we had been there is a fall [174] of great length, around which they carry their canoes about a quarter of a league, when they enter a lake, at the entrance to which there are three islands, with others farther in. It may be some forty or fifty leagues long and some twenty-five wide, into which as many as ten rivers flow, up which canoes can go for a considerable distance. [175] Then, at the other end of this lake, there is another fall, when another lake is entered, of the same size as the former, [176] at the extremity of which the Iroquois are encamped. They say also that there is a river [177] extending to the coast of Florida, a distance of perhaps some hundred or hundred and forty leagues from the latter lake. All the country of the Iroquois is somewhat mountainous, but has a very good soil, the climate being moderate, without much winter.
165. They entered the lake on St. Peter's day, the 29th of June, and, for this reason doubtless, it was subsequently named Lake St. Peter, which name it still retains. It was at first called Lake Angouleme—Vide marginal note in Hakluyt. Vol. III. p. 271. Laverdière cites Thévet to the same effect.
166. From the point at which the river flows into the lake to its exit, the distance is about twenty-seven miles and its width about seven miles. Champlain's distances, founded upon rough estimates made on a first voyage of difficult navigation, are exceedingly inaccurate, and, independent of other data, cannot be relied upon for the identification of localities.
167. The author appears to have confused the relative situations of the two rivers here mentioned. The smaller one should, we think, have been mentioned first. The larger one was plainly the St Francis, and the smaller one the Nicolette.
168. This would seem to be the Baie la Vallure, at the southwestern extremity of Lake St. Peter.
169. The author here refers to the islands at the western extremity of Lake St. Peter, which are very numerous. On Charlevoix's Carte de la Rivière de Richelieu they are called Isles de Richelieu. The more prominent are Monk Island, Isle de Grace, Bear Island. Isle St Ignace, and Isle du Pas. Champlain refers to these islands again in 1609, with perhaps a fuller description—Vide Vol. II. p. 206.
170. The Richelieu, flowing from Lake Champlain to the St. Lawrence. For description of this river, see Vol. II. p. 210, note 337. In 1535 the Indians at Montreal pointed out this river as leading to Florida.— Vide Brief Récit, par Jacques Cartier, 1545, D'Avezac ed.
171. The Hurons, Algonquins, and Montagnais were at war with the Iroquois,
and the savages assembled here were composed of some or all of these
tribes.
172. The rapids in the river here were too strong for the French barque, or
even the skiff, but were not difficult to pass with the Indian canoe,
as was fully proved in 1609.—Vide Vol. II. p. 207 of this work.
173. The course of the Richelieu is nearly from the south to the north.
174. The rapids of Chambly.
175. Lake Champlain, discovered by him in 1609.—Vide Vol. II. ch. ix.
176. Lake George. Champlain either did not comprehend his Indian informants, or they greatly exaggerated the comparative size of this lake.
177. The Hudson River—Vide Vol. II. p. 218, note 347.
Setting out from the River of the Iroquois, we came to anchor three leagues from there, on the northern shore. All this country is low, and filled with the various kinds of trees which I have before mentioned.
On the first day of July we coasted along the northern shore, where the woods are very open; more so than in any place we had before seen. The soil is also everywhere favorable for cultivation.
I went in a canoe to the southern shore, where I saw a large number of islands, [178] which abound in fruits, such as grapes, walnuts, hazel-nuts, a kind of fruit resembling chestnuts, and cherries; also in oaks, aspens, poplar, hops, ash, maple, beech, cypress, with but few pines and firs. There were, moreover, other fine-looking trees, with which I am not acquainted. There are also a great many strawberries, raspberries, and currants, red, green, and blue, together with numerous small fruits which grow in thick grass. There are also many wild beasts, such as orignacs, stags, hinds, does, bucks, bears, porcupines, hares, foxes, bearers, otters, musk-rats, and some other kinds of animals with which I am not acquainted, which are good to eat, and on which the savages subsist. [179]
We passed an island having a very pleasant appearance, some four leagues long and about half a league wide. [180] I saw on the southern shore two high mountains, which appeared to be some twenty leagues in the interior. [181] The savages told me that this was the first fall of the River of the Iroquois.
On Wednesday following, we set out from this place, and made some five or six leagues. We saw numerous islands; the land on them was low, and they were covered with trees like those of the River of the Iroquois. On the following day we advanced some few leagues, and passed by a great number of islands, beautiful on account of the many meadows, which are likewise to be seen on the mainland as well as on the islands. [182] The trees here are all very small in comparison with those we had already passed.
We arrived finally, on the same day, having a fair wind, at the entrance to the fall. We came to an island almost in the middle of this entrance, which is a quarter of a league long. [183] We passed to the south of it, where there were from three to five feet of water only, with a fathom or two in some places, after which we found suddenly only three or four feet. There are many rocks and little islands without any wood at all, and on a level with the water. From the lower extremity of the above-mentioned island in the middle of the entrance, the water begins to come with great force. Although we had a very favorable wind, yet we could not, in spite of all our efforts, advance much. Still, we passed this island at the entrance of the fall. Finding that we could not proceed, we came to anchor on the northern shore, opposite a little island, which abounds in most of the fruits before mentioned. [184] We at once got our skiff ready, which had been expressly made for passing this fall, and Sieur Du Pont Gravé and myself embarked in it, together with some savages whom we had brought to show us the way. After leaving our barque, we had not gone three hundred feet before we had to get out, when some sailors got into the water and dragged our skiff over. The canoe of the savages went over easily. We encountered a great number of little rocks on a level with the water, which we frequently struck.
There are here two large islands; one on the northern side, some fifteen leagues long and almost as broad, begins in the River of Canada, some twelve leagues towards the River of the Iroquois, and terminates beyond the fall. [185] The island on the south shore is some four leagues long and half a league wide. [186] There is, besides, another island near that on the north, which is perhaps half a league long and a quarter wide. [187] There is still another small island between that on the north and the other farther south, where we passed the entrance to the fall. [188] This being passed, there is a kind of lake, in which are all these islands, and which is some five leagues long and almost as wide, and which contains a large number of little islands or rocks. Near the fall there is a mountain, [189] visible at a considerable distance, also a small river coming from this mountain and falling into the lake. [190] On the south, some three or four mountains are seen, which seem to be fifteen or sixteen leagues off in the interior. There are also two rivers; the one [191] reaching to the first lake of the River of the Iroquois, along which the Algonquins sometimes go to make war upon them, the other near the fall and extending some feet inland. [192]
On approaching this fall [193] with our little skiff and the canoe, I saw, to my astonishment, a torrent of water descending with an impetuosity such as I have never before witnessed, although it is not very high, there being in some places only a fathom or two, and at most but three. It descends as if by steps, and at each descent there is a remarkable boiling, owing to the force and swiftness with which the water traverses the fall, which is about a league in length. There are many rocks on all sides, while near the middle there are some very narrow and long islands. There are rapids not only by the side of those islands on the south shore, but also by those on the north, and they are so dangerous that it is beyond the power of man to pass through with a boat, however small. We went by land through the woods a distance of a league, for the purpose of seeing the end of the falls, where there are no more rocks or rapids; but the water here is so swift that it could not be more so, and this current continues three or four leagues; so that it is impossible to imagine one's being able to go by boats through these falls. But any one desiring to pass them, should provide himself with the canoe of the savages, which a man can easily carry. For to make a portage by boat could not be done in a sufficiently brief time to enable one to return to France, if he desired to winter there. Besides this first fall, there are ten others, for the most part hard to pass; so that it would be a matter of great difficulty and labor to see and do by boat what one might propose to himself, except at great cost, and the risk of working in vain. But in the canoes of the savages one can go without restraint, and quickly, everywhere, in the small as well as large rivers. So that, by using canoes as the savages do, it would be possible to see all there is, good and bad, in a year or two.
The territory on the side of the fall where we went overland consists, so far as we saw it, of very open woods, where one can go with his armor without much difficulty. The air is milder and the soil better than in any place I have before seen. There are extensive woods and numerous fruits, as in all the places before mentioned. It is in latitude 45 deg. and some minutes.
Finding that we could not advance farther, we returned to our barque, where we asked our savages in regard to the continuation of the river, which I directed them to indicate with their hands; so, also, in what direction its source was. They told us that, after passing the first fall, [194] which we had seen, they go up the river some ten or fifteen leagues with their canoes, [195] extending to the region of the Algonquins, some sixty leagues distant from the great river, and that they then pass five falls, extending, perhaps, eight leagues from the first to the last, there being two where they are obliged to carry their canoes. [196] The extent of each fall may be an eighth of a league, or a quarter at most. After this, they enter a lake, [197] perhaps some fifteen or sixteen leagues long. Beyond this they enter a river a league broad, and in which they go several leagues. [198] Then they enter another lake some four or five leagues long. [199] After reaching the end of this, they pass five other falls, [200] the distance from the first to the last being about twenty-five or thirty leagues. Three of these they pass by carrying their canoes, and the other two by dragging them in the water, the current not being so strong nor bad as in the case of the others. Of all these falls, none is so difficult to pass as the one we saw. Then they come to a lake some eighty leagues long, [201] with a great many islands; the water at its extremity being fresh and the winter mild. At the end of this lake they pass a fall, [202] somewhat high and with but little water flowing over. Here they carry their canoes overland about a quarter of a league, in order to pass the fall, afterwards entering another lake [203] some sixty leagues long, and containing very good water. Having reached the end, they come to a strait [204] two leagues broad and extending a considerable distance into the interior. They said they had never gone any farther, nor seen the end of a lake [205] some fifteen or sixteen leagues distant from where they had been, and that those relating this to them had not seen any one who had seen it; that since it was so large, they would not venture out upon it, for fear of being surprised by a tempest or gale. They say that in summer the sun sets north of this lake, and in winter about the middle; that the water there is very bad, like that of this sea. [206]
I asked them whether from this last lake, which they had seen, the water descended continuously in the river extending to Gaspé. They said no; that it was from the third lake only that the water came to Gaspé, but that beyond the last fall, which is of considerable extent, as I have said, the water was almost still, and that this lake might take its course by other rivers extending inland either to the north or south, of which there are a large number there, and of which they do not see the end. Now, in my judgment, if so many rivers flow into this lake, it must of necessity be that, having so small a discharge at this fall, it should flow off into some very large river. But what leads me to believe that there is no river through which this lake flows, as would be expected, in view of the large number of rivers that flow into it, is the fact that the savages have not seen any river taking its course into the interior, except at the place where they have been. This leads me to believe that it is the south sea which is salt, as they say. But one is not to attach credit to this opinion without more complete evidence than the little adduced.
This is all that I have actually seen respecting this matter, or heard from the savages in response to our interrogatories.
178. Isle Plat, and at least ten other islets along the share before reaching the Verchères.—Vide Laurie's Chart.
179. The reader will observe that the catalogue of fruits, trees, and animals mentioned above, include, only such as are important in commerce. They are, we think, without an exception, of American species, and, consequently, the names given by Champlain are not accurately descriptive. We notice them in order, and in italics give the name assigned by Champlain in the text.
Grapes. Vignes, probably the frost grape. Vitis cordifolia.—Pickering's Chronological History of Plants p. 875.
Walnuts. Noir, this name is given in France to what is known in commerce as the English or European walnut, Juglans rigia, a Persian fruit now cultivated in most countries in Europe. For want of a better, Champlain used this name to signify probably the butternut, Juglans cinerea, and five varieties of the hickory; the shag-bark. Carya alba, the mocker-nut, Carya tontentofa, the small-fruited Carya microcarpa, the pig-nut, Carya glatra, bitter-nut. Carya amara, all of which are exclusively American fruits, and are still found in the valley of the St Lawrence.—MS. Letter of J. M. Le Maine, of Quebec; Jeffrie's Natural History of French Dominions in America, London. 1760, p.41.
Hazel-nuts, noysettes. The American filbert or hazel-nut, Corylus
Americana. The flavor is fine, but the fruit is smaller and the shell
thicker than that of the European filbert.
"Kind of fruit resembling chestnuts." This was probably the chestnut,
Caftanea Americana. The fruit much resembles the European, but is
smaller and sweeter.
Cherries, cerises. Three kinds may here be included, the wild red cherry, Prunus Pennsylvanica, the choke cherry. Prunus Virginiana, and the wild black cherry, Prunus serotina.
Oaks, chesnes. Probably the more noticeable varieties, as the white oak, Quercus alba, and red oak, Quercus rubra.
Aspens, trembles. The American aspen, Populus tremuloides.
Poplar, pible. For piboule, as suggested by Laverdière. a variety
of poplar.
Hops, houblon. Humulus lupulus, found in northern climates,
differing from the hop of commerce, which was imported from Europe.
Ash. fresne. The white ash, Fraxinus Americana, and black ash,
Fraxinus sambucifolia.
Maple, érable. The tree here observed was probably the rock or sugar maple, Acer faccharinum. Several other species belong to this region.
Beech, hestre. The American beech, Fagus ferruginea, of which there is but one species.—Vide, Vol. II. p. 113, note 205.
Cypress, cyprez.—Vide antea note 35.
Strawberry, fraises. The wild strawberry, Fragaria vesca, and Fragaria Virginiana, both species, are found in this region.—Vide Pickering's Chronological History of Plants, p. 873.
Raspberries framboises. The American raspberry, Rubis strigosus.
Currants, red, green, and blue, groizelles rouges, vertes and bleues. The first mentioned is undoubtedly the red currant of our gardens. Ribes rubrum. The second may have been the unripe fruit of the former. The third doubtless the black currant, Ribes nigrum, which grows throughout Canada.—Vide Chronological History of Plants, Pickering. p. 871; also Vol. II. note 138.
Orignas, so written in the original text. This is, I think, the earliest mention of this animal under this Algonquin name. It was written, by the French, sometimes orignac, orignat, and orignal.—Vide Jesuit Relations, 1635, p. 16; 1636, p. 11, et passim; Sagard, Hist. du Canada, 1636, p. 749; Description de l'Amerique, par Denys. 1672, p. 27. Orignac was used interchangeably with élan, the name of the elk of northern Europe, regarded by some as the same spccies.—Vide Mammals, by Spenser F. Baird. But the orignac of Champlain was the moose. Alce Americanus, peculiar to the northern latitudes of America. Moose is derived from the Indian word moosoa. This animal is the largest of the Cervus family. The males are said to attain the weight of eleven or twelve hundred pounds. Its horns sometimes weigh fifty or sixty pounds. It is exceedingly shy and difficult to capture.
Stags, cerfs. This is undoubtedly a reference to the caribou, Cervus tarandus. Sagard (1636) calls it Caribou ou asne Sauuages, caribou or wilde ass.—Hist. du Canada, p. 750. La Hontan, 1686, says harts and caribous are killed both in summer and winter after the same manner with the elks (mooses), excepting that the caribous, which are a kind of wild asses, make an easy escape when the snow is hard by virtue of their broad feet (Voyages, p. 59). There are two varieties, the Cervus tarandus arcticus and the Cervus tarandus sylvestris. The latter is that here referred to and the larger and finer animal, and is still found in the forests of Canada.
Hinds, biches, the female of cerfs, and does, dains, the female of daim, the fallow deer. These may refer to the females of the two preceding species, or to additional species as the common red deer, Cervus Virginianus, and some other species or variety. La Hontan in the passage cited above speaks of three, the elk which we have shown to be the moose, the well-known caribou, and the hart, which was undoubtedly the common red deer of this region, Cervus Virginianus. I learn from Mr. J. M. LeMoine of Quebec, that the Wapiti, Elaphus Canadensis was found in the valley of the St. Lawrence a hundred and forty years ago, several horns and bones having been dug up in the forest, especially in the Ottawa district. It is now extinct here, but is still found in the neighborhood of Lake Winnipeg and further west. Cartier, in 1535, speaks of dains and cerfs, doubtless referring to different species.—Vide Brief Récit, D'Avezac ed. p. 31 verso.
Bears. ours. The American black bear, Ursus Americanus. The grisly
bear. Ursus ferox, was found on the Island of Anticosti.—Vide
Hist. du Canada, par Sagard, 1636, pp. 148, 750. La Hontan's
Voyages. 1687, p. 66.
Porcupines. porcs-espics. The Canada porcupine, Hystrix pilosus. A nocturnal rodent quadruped, armed with barbed quills, his chief defence when attacked by other animals.
Hares, lapins. The American hare, Lepus Americanus.
Foxes, reynards. Of the fox. Canis vulpes, there are several species in Canada. The most common is of a carroty red color, Vulpes fulvus. The American cross fox. Canis decussatus, and the black or silver fox. Canis argentatus, are varieties that may have been found there at that period, but are now rarely if ever seen.
Beavers, castors. The American beaver, Castor Americanus. The fur
of the beaver was of all others the most important in the commerce of
New France.
Otters, loutres. This has reference only to the river otter, Lutra
Canadensis. The sea otter, Lutra marina, is only found in America
on the north-west Pacific coast.
Muskrat, rats musquets. The musk-rat, Fiber zibethecus, sometimes called musquash from the Algonquin word, m8sk8éss8, is found in three varieties, the black, and rarely the pied and white. For a description of this animal vide Le Jeune, Jesuit Relations, 1635, pp. 18, 19.
180. The Verchères.
181. Summits of the Green Mountains.
182. From the Verchères to Montreal, the St. Lawrence is full of islands, among them St. Thérèse and nameless others.
183. This was the Island of St Hélène, a favorite name given to several other places. He subsequently called it St Hélène, probably from Hélène Boullé, his wife. Between it and the mainland on the north flows the Rapide de Ste. Marie.—Vide Lauru's Chart.
184. This landing was on the present site of the city of Montreal, and the
little island, according to Laverdière, is now joined to the mainland
by quays.
185. The island of Montreal, here referred to, not including the isle
Jésus, is about thirty miles long and nine miles in its greatest
width.
186. The Isle Perrot is about seven or eight miles long and about three miles wide.
187. Island of St Paul, sometimes called Nuns' Island.
188. Round Island, situated just below St. Hélène's, on the east, say about fifty yards distant.
189. The mountain in the rear of the city of Montreal, 700 feet in height, discovered in October, 1535. by Jacques Cartier, to which he gave the name after which the city is called. "Nous nomasmes la dicte montaigne le mont Royal."—Brief Récit, 1545, D'Avezac's ed. p. 23. When Cartier made his visit to this place in 1535, he found on or near the site of the present city of Montreal the famous Indian town called Hochelaga. Champlain does not speak of it in the text, and it had of course entirely disappeared.—Vide Cartier's description in Brief Récit, above cited.
190. Rivière St Pierre. This little river is formed by two small streams flowing one from the north and the other from the south side of the mountain. Bellin and Charlevoix denominate it La Petite Rivière. These small streams do not appear on modern maps, and have probably now entirely disappeared.—Vide Charlevoix's Carte de l'Isle de Montreal; Atlas Maritime, par Sieur Bellin; likewise Atlas of the Dominion of Canada, 1875.
191. The River St. Lambert, according to Laverdière, a small stream from which by a short portage the Indian with his canoe could easily reach Little River, which flows into the basin of Chambly, the lake referred to by Champlain. This was the route of the Algonquins, at least on their return from their raids upon the Iroquois.—Vide Vol. II. p. 225.
192. Laverdière supposes this insignificant stream to be La Rivière de la Tortue.
193. The Falls of St. Louis, or the Lachine rapids.
194. Lachine Rapids.
195. Passing through Lake St. Louis, they come to the River Ottawa, sometimes called the River of the Algonquins.
196. The Cascades, Cèdres and Rapids du Coteau du Lac with subdivisions. Laverdière. La Hontan mentions four rapids between Lake St. Louis and St Francis, as Cascades, Le Cataracte du Trou, Sauts des Cedres, and du Buisson.
197. Lake St. Francis, about twenty-five miles long.
198. Long Saut.
199. Hardly a lake but rather the river uninterrupted by falls or rapids.
200. The smaller rapids, the Galops, Point Cardinal, and others.—Vide La Hontan's description of his passage up this river, New Voyages to N. America, London, 1735. Vol. I. p. 30.
201. Lake Ontario. It is one hundred and eighty miles long.—Garneau.
202. Niagara Falls. Champlain does not appear to have obtained from the Indians any adequate idea of the grandeur and magnificence of this fall. The expression, qui est quelque peu éleué, où il y a peu d'eau, laquelle descend, would imply that it was of moderate if not of an inferior character. This may have arisen from the want of a suitable medium of communication, but it is more likely that the intensely practical nature of the Indian did not enable him to appreciate or even observe the beauties by which he was surrounded. The immense volume of water and the perpendicular fall of 160 feet render it unsurpassed in grandeur by any other cataract in the world. Although Champlain appears never to have seen this fall, he had evidently obtained a more accurate description of it before 1629.—Vide note No. 90 to map in ed. 1632.
203. Lake Erie, 250 miles long.—Garneau.
204. Detroit river, or the strait which connects Lake Erie and Lake St.
Clair.—Atlas of the Dominion of Canada.
205. Lake Huron, denominated on early maps Mer Douce, the sweet sea of
which the knowledge of the Indian guides was very imperfect.
206. The Indians with whom Champlain came in contact on this hasty visit in 1603 appear to have had some notion of a salt sea, or as they say water that is very bad like the sea, lying in an indefinite region, which neither they nor their friends had ever visited. The salt sea to which they occasionally referred was probably Hudson's Bay, of which some knowledge may have been transmitted from the tribes dwelling near it to others more remote, and thus passing from tribe to tribe till it reached, in rather an indefinite shape, those dwelling on the St. Lawrence.
We set out from the fall on Friday, the fourth of June, [207] and returned the same day to the river of the Iroquois. On Sunday, the sixth of June, we set out from here, and came to anchor at the lake. On Monday following, we came to anchor at the Trois Rivières. The same day, we made some four leagues beyond the Trois Rivières. The following Tuesday we reached Quebec, and the next day the end of the island of Orleans, where the Indians, who were encamped on the mainland to the north, came to us. We questioned two or three Algonquins, in order to ascertain whether they would agree with those whom we had interrogated in regard to the extent and commencement of the River of Canada.
They said, indicating it by signs, that two or three leagues after passing the fall which we had seen, there is, on the northern shore, a river in their territory; that, continuing in the said great river, they pass a fall, where they carry their canoes; that they then pass five other falls comprising, from the first to the last, some nine or ten leagues, and that these falls are not hard to pass, as they drag their canoes in the most of them, except at two, where they carry them. After that, they enter a river which is a sort of lake, comprising some six or seven leagues; and then they pass five other falls, where they drag their canoes as before, except at two, where they carry them as at the first; and that, from the first to the last, there are some twenty or twenty-five leagues. Then they enter a lake some hundred and fifty leagues in length, and some four or five leagues from the entrance of this lake there is a river [208] extending northward to the Algonquins, and another towards the Iroquois, [209] where the said Algonquins and the Iroquois make war upon each other. And a little farther along, on the south shore of this lake, there is another river, [210] extending towards the Iroquois; then, arriving at the end of this lake, they come to another fall, where they carry their canoes; beyond this, they enter another very large lake, as long, perhaps, as the first. The latter they have visited but very little, they said, and have heard that, at the end of it, there is a sea of which they have not seen the end, nor heard that any one has, but that the water at the point to which they have gone is not salt, but that they are not able to judge of the water beyond, since they have not advanced any farther; that the course of the water is from the west towards the east, and that they do not know whether, beyond the lakes they have seen, there is another watercourse towards the west; that the sun sets on the right of this lake; that is, in my judgment, northwest more or less; and that, at the first lake, the water never freezes, which leads me to conclude that the weather there is moderate. [211] They said, moreover, that all the territory of the Algonquins is low land, containing but little wood; but that on the side of the Iroquois the land is mountainous, although very good and productive, and better than in any place they had seen. The Iroquois dwell some fifty or sixty leagues from this great lake. This is what they told me they had seen, which differs but very little from the statement of the former savages.
On the same day we went about three leagues, nearly to the Isle aux Coudres. On Thursday, the tenth of the month, we came within about a league and a half of Hare Island, on the north shore, where other Indians came to our barque, among whom was a young Algonquin who had travelled a great deal in the aforesaid great lake. We questioned him very particularly, as we had the other savages. He told us that, some two or three leagues beyond the fall we had seen, there is a river extending to the place where the Algonquins dwell, and that, proceeding up the great river, there are five falls, some eight or nine leagues from the first to the last, past three of which they carry their canoes, and in the other two drag them; that each one of these falls is, perhaps, a quarter of a league long. Then they enter a lake some fifteen leagues in extent, after which they pass five other falls, extending from the first to the last some twenty to twenty-five leagues, only two of which they pass in their canoes, while at the three others they drag them. After this, they enter a very large lake, some three hundred leagues in length. Proceeding some hundred leagues in this lake, they come to a very large island, beyond which the water is good; but that, upon going some hundred leagues farther, the water has become somewhat bad, and, upon reaching the end of the lake, it is perfectly salt. That there is a fall about a league wide, where a very large mass of water falls into said lake; that, when this fall is passed, one sees no more land on either side, but only a sea so large that they have never seen the end of it, nor heard that any one has; that the sun sets on the right of this lake, at the entrance to which there is a river extending towards the Algonquins, and another towards the Iroquois, by way of which they go to war; that the country of the Iroquois is somewhat mountainous, though very fertile, there being there a great amount of Indian corn and other products which they do not have in their own country. That the territory of the Algonquins is low and fertile.
I asked them whether they had knowledge of any mines. They told us that there was a nation called the good Iroquois, [212] who come to barter for the articles of merchandise which the French vessels furnish the Algonquins, who say that, towards the north, there is a mine of pure copper, some bracelets made from which they showed us, which they had obtained from the good Iroquois; [213] that, if we wished to go there, they would guide those who might be deputed for this object.
This is all that I have been able to ascertain from all parties, their statements differing but little from each other, except that the second ones who were interrogated said that they had never drunk salt water; whence it appears that they had not proceeded so far in said lake as the others. They differ, also, but little in respect to the distance, some making it shorter and others longer; so that, according to their statement, the distance from the fall where we had been to the salt sea, which is possibly the South Sea, is some four hundred leagues. It is not to be doubted, then, according to their statement, that this is none other than the South Sea, the sun setting where they say.
On Friday, the tenth of this month, [214] we returned to Tadoussac, where our vessel lay.
207. As they were at Lake St Peter on the 29th of June, it is plain that
this should read July.
208. This river extending north from Lake Ontario is the river-like Bay of
Quinté.
209. The Oswego River.
210. The Genesee River, after which they come to Niagara Falls.
211. We, can easily recognize Lake Ontario, Lake Erie and Niagara Falls, although this account is exceedingly confused and inaccurate.
212. Reference is here made to the Hurons who were nearly related to the Iroquois. They were called by the French the good Iroquois in distinction from the Iroquois in the State of New York, with whom they were at war.
213. A specimen of pure copper was subsequently presented to Champlain.— Vol. II. p. 236: Vide a brochure on Prehistoric Copper Implements, by the editor, reprinted from the New England Historical and Genealogical Register for Jan. 1879; also reprinted in the Collections of Wis. Hist. Soc., Vol. VIII. 1880.
214. Friday, July 11th.
At once, after arriving at Tadoussac, we embarked for Gaspé, about a hundred leagues distant. On the thirteenth day of the month, we met a troop of savages encamped on the south shore, nearly half way between Tadoussac and Gaspé. The name of the Sagamore who led them is Armouchides, who is regarded as one of the most intelligent and daring of the savages. He was going to Tadoussac to barter their arrows and orignac meat [215] for beavers and martens [216] with the Montagnais, Etechemins, and Algonquins.
On the 15th day of the month we arrived at Gaspé, situated on the northern shore of a bay, and about a league and a half from the entrance. This bay is some seven or eight leagues long, and four leagues broad at its entrance. There is a river there extending some thirty leagues inland. [217] Then we saw another bay, called Moluës Bay [218] some three leagues long and as many wide at its entrance. Thence we come to Isle Percée, [219] a sort of rock, which is very high and steep on two sides, with a hole through which shallops and boats can pass at high tide. At low tide, you can go from the mainland to this island, which is only some four or five hundred feet distant. There is also another island, about a league southeast of Isle Percée, called the Island of Bonaventure, which is, perhaps, half a league long. Gaspé, Moluës Bay, and Isle Percée are all places where dry and green fishing is carried on.
Beyond Isle Percée there is a bay, called Baye de Chaleurs, [220] extending some eighty leagues west-southwest inland, and some fifteen leagues broad at its entrance. The Canadian savages say that some sixty leagues along the southern shore of the great River of Canada, there is a little river called Mantanne, extending some eighteen leagues inland, at the end of which they carry their canoes about a league by land, and come to the Baye de Chaleurs, [221] whence they go sometimes to Isle Percée. They also go from this bay to Tregate [222] and Misamichy. [223]
Proceeding along this coast, you pass a large number of rivers, and reach a place where there is one called Souricoua, by way of which Sieur Prevert went to explore a copper mine. They go with their canoes up this river for two or three days, when they go overland some two or three leagues to the said mine, which is situated on the seashore southward. At the entrance to the above-mentioned river there is an island [224] about a league out, from which island to Isle Percée is a distance of some sixty or seventy leagues. Then, continuing along this coast, which runs towards the east, you come to a strait about two leagues broad and twenty-five long. [225] On the east side of it is an island named St. Lawrence, [226] on which is Cape Breton, and where a tribe of savages called the Souriquois winter. Passing the strait of the Island of St. Lawrence, and coasting along the shore of La Cadie, you come to a bay [227] on which this copper mine is situated. Advancing still farther, you find a river [228] extending some sixty or eighty leagues inland, and nearly to the Lake of the Iroquois, along which the savages of the coast of La Cadie go to make war upon the latter.
One would accomplish a great good by discovering, on the coast of Florida, some passage running near to the great lake before referred to, where the water is salt; not only on account of the navigation of vessels, which would not then be exposed to so great risks as in going by way of Canada, but also on account of the shortening of the distance by more than three hundred leagues. And it is certain that there are rivers on the coast of Florida, not yet discovered, extending into the interior, where the land is very good and fertile, and containing very good harbors. The country and coast of Florida may have a different temperature and be more productive in fruits and other things than that which I have seen; but there cannot be there any lands more level nor of a better quality than those we have seen.
The savages say that, in this great Baye de Chaleurs, there is a river extending some twenty leagues into the interior, at the extremity of which is a lake [229] some twenty leagues in extent, but with very little water; that it dries up in summer, when they find in it, a foot or foot and a half under ground, a kind of metal resembling the silver which I showed them, and that in another place, near this lake, there is a copper mine.
This is what I learned from these savages.
215. Orignac. Moose.—Vide antea, note 179.
216. Martens, martres. This may include the pine-marten, Mustela martes, and the pecan or fisher, Mustela Canadenfis, both of which were found in large numbers in New France.
217. York River.
218. Molues Bay, Baye des Moluès. Now known as Mal-Bay, from morue, codfish, a corruption from the old orthography molue and baie, codfish bay, the name having been originally applied on account of the excellent fish of the neighborhood. The harbor of Mal-Bay is enclosed between two points, Point Peter on the north, and a high rocky promontory on the south, whose cliffs rise to the height of 666 feet.—Vide Charts of the St. Lawrence by Captain H. W. Bayfield.
219. Isle Percée.—Vide Vol. II, note 290.
220. Baye de Chaleurs. This bay was so named by Jacques Cartier on account of the excessive heat, chaleur, experienced there on his first voyage in 1634.—Vide Voyage de Jacques Cartier, Mechelant, ed. Paris, 1865, p. 50. The depth of the bay is about ninety miles and its width at the entrance is about eighteen. It receives the Ristigouche and other rivers.
221. By a portage of about three leagues from the river Matane to the
Matapedia, the Bay of Chaleur may be reached by water.
222. Tregaté, Tracadie. By a very short portage Between Bass River and
the Big Tracadie River, this place may be reached.
223. Misamichy, Miramichi. This is reached by a short portage from the
Nepisiguit to the head waters of the Miramichi.
224. It is obvious from this description that the island above mentioned is
Shediac Island, and the river was one of the several emptying into
Shediac Bay, and named Souricoua, as by it the Indians went to the
Souriquois or Micmacs in Nova Scotia.
225. The Strait of Canseau.
226. St. Lawrence. This island had then borne the name of the Island of Cape Breton for a hundred years.
227. The Bay of Fundy.
228. The River St John by which they reached the St Lawrence, and through the River Richelieu the lake of the Iroquois. It was named Lake Champlain in 1609. Vide Vol. II. p. 223.
229. By traversing the Ristigouche River, the Matapediac may be reached, the lake here designated.
We set out from Isle Percée on the nineteenth of the month, on our return to Tadoussac. When we were some three leagues from Cape Évêque [230] encountered a tempest, which lasted two days, and obliged us to put into a large cove and wait for fair weather. The next day we set out from there and again encountered another tempest. Not wishing to put back, and thinking that we could make our way, we proceeded to the north shore on the 28th of July, and came to anchor in a cove which is very dangerous on account of its rocky banks. This cove is in latitude 51 deg. and some minutes. [231]
The next day we anchored near a river called St. Margaret, where the depth is some three fathoms at full tide, and a fathom and a half at low tide. It extends a considerable distance inland. So far as I observed the eastern shore inland, there is a waterfall some fifty or sixty fathoms in extent, flowing into this river; from this comes the greater part of the water composing it. At its mouth there is a sand-bank, where there is, perhaps, at low tide, half a fathom of water. All along the eastern shore there is moving sand; and here there is a point some half a league from the above mentioned river, [232] extending out half a league, and on the western shore there is a little island. This place is in latitude 50 deg. All these lands are very poor, and covered with firs. The country is somewhat high, but not so much so as that on the south side.
After going some three leagues, we passed another river, [233] apparently very large, but the entrance is, for the most part, filled with rocks. Some eight leagues distant from there, is a point [234] extending out a league and a half, where there is only a fathom and a half of water. Some four leagues beyond this point, there is another, where there is water enough. [235] All this coast is low and sandy.
Some four leagues beyond there is a cove into which a river enters. [236] This place is capable of containing a large number of vessels on its western side. There is a low point extending out about a league. One must sail along the eastern side for some three hundred paces in order to enter. This is the best harbor along all the northern coast; yet it is very dangerous sailing there on account of the shallows and sandbanks along the greater part of the coast for nearly two leagues from the shore.
Some six leagues farther on is a bay, [237] where there is a sandy island. This entire bay is very shoal, except on the eastern side, where there are some four fathoms of water. In the channel which enters this bay, some four leagues from there, is a fine cove, into which a river flows. There is a large fall on it. All this coast is low and sandy. Some five leagues beyond, is a point extending out about half a league, [238] in which there is a cove; and from one point to the other is a distance of three leagues; which, however, is only shoals with little water.
Some two leagues farther on, is a strand with a good harbor and a little river, in which there are three islands, [239] and in which vessels could take shelter.
Some three leagues from there, is a sandy point, [240] extending out about a league, at the end of which is a little island. Then, going on to the Esquemin, [241] you come to two small, low islands and a little rock near the shore. These islands are about half a league from the Esquemin, which is a very bad harbor, surrounded by rocks and dry at low tide, and, in order to enter, one must tack and go in behind a little rocky point, where there is room enough for only one vessel. A little farther on, is a river extending some little distance into the interior; this is the place where the Basques carry on the whale-fishery. [242] To tell the truth, the harbor is of no account at all.
We went thence to the harbor of Tadoussac, on the third of August. All these lands above-mentioned along the shore are low, while the interior is high. They are not so attractive or fertile as those on the south shore, although lower.
This is precisely what I have seen of this northern shore.
230. Évesque This cape cannot be identified.
231. On passing to the northern shore of the St. Lawrence, they entered, according to the conjecture of Laverdière, Moisie Bay. It seems to us, however, more likely that they entered a cove somewhere among the Seven Islands, perhaps near the west channel to the Seven Islands Bay, between Point Croix and Point Chassé, where they might have found good anchorage and a rocky shore. The true latitude is say, about 50 deg. 9'. The latitude 51 deg., as given by Champlain, would cut the coast of Labrador, and is obviously an error.
232. This was probably the river still bearing the name of St. Margaret. There is a sandy point extending out on the east and a peninsula on the western shore, which may then have been an island formed by the moving sands.—Vide Bayfield's charts.
233. Rock River, in latitude 50 deg. 2'.
234. Point De Monts. The Abbé Laverdière, whose opportunities for knowing this coast were excellent, states that there is no other point between Rock River and Point De Monts of such extent, and where there is so little water. As to the distance, Champlain may have been deceived by the currents, or there may have been, as suggested by Laverdière, a typographical error. The distance to Point De Monts is, in fact, eighteen leagues.
235. Point St Nicholas.—Laverdière. This is probably the point referred to, although the distance is again three times too great.
236. The Manicouagan River.—Laverdière. The distance is still excessive, but in other respects the description in the text identifies this river. On Bellin's map this river is called Rivière Noire.
237. Outard Bay. The island does not now appear. It was probably an island of sand, which has since been swept away, unless it was the sandy peninsula lying between Outard and Manicouagan Rivers. The fall is laid down on Bayfield's chart.
238. Bersimis Point Walker and Miles have Betsiamites, Bellin,
Bersiamites Laverdière, Betsiams, and Bayfield, Bersemis. The
text describes the locality with sufficient accuracy.
239. Jeremy Island. Bellin, 1764, lays down three islands, but Bayfield,
1834, has but one. Two of them appear to have been swept away or
united in one.
240. Three leagues would indicate Point Colombier. But Laverdière suggests
Mille Vaches as better conforming to the description in the text,
although the distance is three times too great.
241. Esquemin. Walker and Miles have Esconmain, Bellin, Lesquemin,
Bayfield, Esquamine, and Laverdière, Escoumins. The river half a
league distant is now called River Romaine.
242. The River Lessumen, a short distance from which is Anse aux Basques, or Basque Cove. This is probably the locality referred to in the text.
Upon arriving at Tadoussac, we found the savages, whom we had met at the River of the Iroquois, and who had had an encounter at the first lake with three Iroquois canoes, there being ten of the Montagnais. The latter brought back the heads of the Iroquois to Tadoussac, there being only one Montagnais wounded, which was in the arm by an arrow; and in case he should have a dream, it would be necessary for all the ten others to execute it in order to satisfy him, they thinking, moreover, that his wound would thereby do better. If this savage should die, his relatives would avenge his death either on his own tribe or others, or it would be necessary for the captains to make presents to the relatives of the deceased, in order to content them, otherwise, as I have said, they would practise vengeance, which is a great evil among them.
Before these Montagnais set out for the war, they all gathered together in their richest fur garments of beaver and other skins, adorned with beads and belts of various colors. They assembled in a large public place, in the presence of a sagamore named Begourat, who led them to the war. They were arranged one behind the other, with their bows and arrows, clubs, and round shields with which they provide for fighting. They went leaping one after the other, making various gestures with their bodies, and many snail-like turns. Afterwards they proceeded to dance in the customary manner, as I have before described; then they had their tabagie, after which the women stripped themselves stark naked, adorned with their handsomest matachiats. Thus naked and dancing, they entered their canoes, when they put out upon the water, striking each other with their oars, and throwing quantities of water at one another. But they did themselves no harm, since they parried the blows hurled at each other. After all these ceremonies, the women withdrew to their cabins, and the men went to the war against the Iroquois.
On the sixteenth of August we set out from Tadoussac, and arrived on the eighteenth at Isle Percée, where we found Sieur Prevert of St. Malo, who came from the mine where he had gone with much difficulty, from the fear which the savages had of meeting their enemies, the Almouchicois, [243] who are savages of an exceedingly strange form, for their head is small and body short, their arms slender as those of a skeleton, so also the thighs, their legs big and long and of uniform size, and when they are seated on the ground, their knees extend more than half a foot above the head, something strange and seemingly abnormal. They are, however, very agile and resolute, and are settled upon the best lands all the coast of La Cadie; [244] so that the Souriquois fear them greatly. But with the assurance which Sieur de Prevert gave them, he took them to the mine, to which the savages guided him. [245] It is a very high mountain, extending somewhat seaward, glittering brightly in the sunlight, and containing a large amount of verdigris, which proceeds from the before-mentioned copper mine. At the foot of this mountain, he said, there was at low water a large quantity of bits of copper, such as he showed us, which fall from the top of the mountain. Going on three or four leagues in the direction of the coast of La Cadie one finds another mine; also a small river extending some distance in a Southerly direction, where there is a mountain containing a black pigment with which the savages paint themselves. Then, some six leagues from the second mine, going seaward about a league, and near the coast of La Cadie, you find an island containing a kind of metal of a dark brown color, but white when it is cut. This they formerly used for their arrows and knives, which they beat into shape with stones, which leads me to believe that it is neither tin nor lead, it being so hard; and, upon our showing them some silver, they said that the metal of this island was like it, which they find some one or two feet under ground. Sieur Prevert gave to the savages wedges and chisels and other things necessary to extract the ore of this mine, which they promised to do, and on the following year to bring and give the same to Sieur Prevert.
They say, also, that, some hundred or hundred and twenty leagues distant, there are other mines, but that they do not dare to go to them, unless accompanied by Frenchmen to make war upon their enemies, in whose possession the mines are.
This place where the mine is, which is in latitude 44 deg. and some minutes, [246] and some five or six leagues from the coast of La Cadie, is a kind of bay some leagues broad at its entrance, and somewhat more in length, where there are three rivers which flow into the great bay near the island of St John, [247] which is some thirty or thirty-five leagues long and some six leagues from the mainland on the south. There is also another small river emptying about half way from that by which Sieur Prevert returned, in which there are two lake-like bodies of water. There is also still another small river, extending in the direction of the pigment mountain. All these rivers fall into said bay nearly southeast of the island where these savages say this white mine is. On the north side of this bay are the copper mines, where there is a good harbor for vessels, at the entrance to which is a small island. The bottom is mud and sand, on which vessels can be run.
From this mine to the mouth of the above rivers is a distance of some sixty or eighty leagues overland. But the distance to this mine, along the seacoast, from the outlet between the Island of St. Lawrence and the mainland is, I should think, more than fifty or sixty leagues. [248]
All this country is very fair and flat, containing all the kinds of trees we saw on our way to the first fall of the great river of Canada, with but very little fir and cypress.
This is an exact statement of what I ascertained from Sieur Prevert.
243. Almouchiquois. Champlain here writes Armouchicois. The account here given to Prevert, by the Souriquois or Micmacs, as they have been more recently called, of the Almouchicois or Indians found south of Saco, on the coast of Massachusetts, if accurately reported, is far from correct. Vide Champlain's description of them, Vol. II. p. 63, et passim.
244. Coast of La Cadie. This extent given to La Cadie corresponds with the charter of De Monts, which covered the territory from 40 deg. north latitude to 46 deg. The charter was obtained in the autumn of this same year, 1603, and before the account of this voyage by Champlain was printed.—Vide Vol. 11. note 155.
245. Prevert did not make this exploration, personally, although he pretended that he did. He sent some of his men with Secondon, the chief of St. John, and others. His report is therefore second-hand, confused, and inaccurate. Champlain exposes Prevert's attempt to deceive in a subsequent reference to him. Compare Vol. II. pp. 26, 97, 98.
246. 44 deg. and some minutes. The Basin of Mines, the place where the copper was said to be, is about 45 deg. 30'.
247. Island of St. John. Prince Edward Island. It was named the island of St. John by Cartier, having been discovered by him on St. John's Day, the 24th of June, 1534.—Vide Voyage de Jacques Cartier, 1534, Michelant, ed. Paris, 1865, p. 33. It continued to be so called for the period of two hundred and sixty-five years, when it was changed to Prince Edward Island by an act of its legislature, in November, 1798, which was confirmed by the king in council, Feb. 1, 1799.
248. That is, from the Strait of Canseau round the coast of Nova Scotia to the Bay of Mines.
There is, moreover, a strange matter, worthy of being related, which several savages have assured me was true; namely, near the Bay of Chaleurs, towards the south, there is an island where a terrible monster resides, which the savages call Gougou, and which they told me had the form of a woman, though very frightful, and of such a size that they told me the tops of the masts of our vessel would not reach to his middle, so great do they picture him; and they say that he has often devoured and still continues to devour many savages; these he puts, when he can catch them, into a great pocket, and afterwards eats them; and those who had escaped the jaws of this wretched creature said that its pocket was so great that it could have put our vessel into it. This monster makes horrible noises in this island, which the savages call the Gougou; and when they speak of him, it is with the greatest possible fear, and several have assured me that they have seen him. Even the above-mentioned Prevert from St. Malo told me that, while going in search of mines, as mentioned in the previous chapter, he passed so near the dwelling-place of this frightful creature, that he and all those on board his vessel heard strange hissings from the noise it made, and that the savages with him told him it was the same creature, and that they were so afraid that they hid themselves wherever they could, for fear that it would come and carry them off. What makes me believe what they say is the fact that all the savages in general fear it, and tell such strange things about it that, if I were to record all they say, it would be regarded as a myth; but I hold that this is the dwelling-place of some devil that torments them in the above-mentioned manner. [249] This is what I have learned about this Gougou.
Before leaving Tadoussac on our return to France, one of the sagamores of the Montagnais, named Bechourat, gave his son to Sieur Du Pont Gravé to take to France, to whom he was highly commended by the grand sagamore, Anadabijou, who begged him to treat him well and have him see what the other two savages, whom we had taken home with us, had seen. We asked them for an Iroquois woman they were going to eat, whom they gave us, and whom, also, we took with this savage. Sieur de Prevert also took four savages: a man from the coast of La Cadie, a woman and two boys from the Canadians.
On the 24th of August, we set out from Gaspé, the vessel of Sieur Prevert and our own. On the 2d of September we calculated that we were as far as Cape Race, on the 5th, we came upon the bank where the fishery is carried on; on the 16th, we were on soundings, some fifty leagues from Ouessant; on the 20th we arrived, by God's grace, to the joy of all, and with a continued favorable wind, at the port of Havre de Grâce.
249. The description of this enchanted island is too indefinite to invite a conjecture of its identity or location. The resounding noise of the breaking waves, mingled with the whistling of the wind, might well lay a foundation for the fears of the Indians, and their excited imaginations would easily fill out and complete the picture. In Champlain's time, the belief in the active agency of good and evil spirits, particularly the latter, in the affairs of men, was universal. It culminated in this country in the tragedies of the Salem witchcraft in 1692. It has since been gradually subsiding, but nevertheless still exists under the mitigated form of spiritual communications. Champlain, sharing the credulity of his times, very naturally refers these strange phenomena reported by the savages, whose statements were fully accredited and corroborated by the testimony of his countryman, M. Prevert, to the agency of some evil demon, who had taken up his abode in that region in order to vex and terrify these unhappy Indians. As a faithful historian, he could not omit this story, but it probably made no more impression upon his mind than did the thousand others of a similar character with which he must have been familiar. He makes no allusion to it in the edition of 1613, when speaking of the copper mines in that neighborhood, nor yet in that of 1632, and it had probably passed from his memory.
1632.
A. Baye des Isles. [1]
B. Calesme. [2]
C. Baye des Trespasses.
D. Cap de Leuy. [3]
E. Port du Cap de Raye, where the cod-fishery is carried on.
F. The north-west coast of Newfoundland, but little known.
G. Passage to the north at the 52d degree. [4]
H. Isle St. Paul, near Cape St Lawrence
I. Isle de Sasinou, between Monts Déserts and Isles aux Corneilles. [5]
K. Isle de Mont-réal, at the Falls of St. Louis, some eight or nine leagues in circuit. [6]
L. Riuière Jeannin. [7]
M. Riuière St. Antoine, [8]
N. Kind of salt water discharging into the sea, with ebb and flood, abundance of fish and shell-fish, and in some places oysters of not very good flavor. [9]
P. Port aux Coquilles, an island at the mouth of the River St. Croix, with good fishing. [10]
Q. Islands where there is fishing. [11]
R. Lac de Soissons. [12]
S. Baye du Gouffre. [13]
T. Isle de Monts Déserts, very high.
V. Isle S. Barnabe, in the great river near the Bic.
X. Lesquemain, where there is a small river, abounding in salmon and trout, near which is a little rocky islet, where there was formerly a station for the whale fishery. [14]
Y. La Pointe aux Allouettes, where, in the month of September, there are numberless larks, also other kinds of game and shell-fish.
Z. Isle aux Liéures, so named because some hares were captured there when it was first discovered. [15]
2. Port à Lesquille, dry at low tide, where are two brooks coming from the mountains. [16]
3. Port au Saulmon, dry at low tide. There are two small islands here, abounding, in the season, with strawberries, raspberries, and bluets. [17] Near this place is a good roadstead for vessels, and two small brooks flowing into the harbor.
4. Riuière Platte, coming from the mountains, only navigable for canoes. It is dry here at low tide a long distance out. Good anchorage in the offing.
5. Isles aux Couldres, some league and a half long, containing in their season great numbers of rabbits, partridges, and other kinds of game. At the southwest point are meadows, and reefs seaward. There is anchorage here for vessels between this island and the mainland on the north.
6. Cap de Tourmente, a league from which Sieur de Champlain had a building erected, which was burned by the English in 1628. Near this place is Cap Bruslé, between which and Isle aux Coudres is a channel, with eight, ten, and twelve fathoms of water. On the south the shore is muddy and rocky. To the north are high lands, &c.
7. Isle d'Orléans, six leagues in length, very beautiful on account of its variety of woods, meadows, vines, and nuts. The western point of this island is called Cap de Condé.
8. Le Sault de Montmorency, twenty fathoms high, [18] formed by a river coming from the mountains, and discharging into the St. Lawrence, a league and a half from Quebec.
9. Rivière S. Charles, coming from Lac S. Joseph, [19] very beautiful with meadows at low tide. At full tide barques can go up as far as the first fall. On this river are built the churches and quarters of the reverend Jésuit and Récollect Fathers. Game is abundant here in spring and autumn.
10. Rivière des Etechemins, [20] by which the savages go to Quinebequi, crossing the country with difficulty, on account of the falls and little water. Sieur de Champlain had this exploration made in 1628, and found a savage tribe, seven days from Quebec, who till the soil, and are called the Abenaquiuoit.
11. Rivière de Champlain, near that of Batisquan, north-west of the Grondines.
12. Rivière de Sauvages [21]
13. Isle Verte, five or six leagues from Tadoussac. [22]
14. Isle de Chasse.
15. Rivière Batisquan, very pleasant, and abounding in fish.
16. Les Grondines, and some neighboring islands. A good place for hunting and fishing.
17. Rivière des Esturgeons & Saulmons, with a fall of water from fifteen to twenty feet high, two leagues from Saincte Croix, which descends into a small pond discharging into the great river St. Lawrence. [23]
18. Isle de St. Eloy, with a passage between the island and the mainland on the north. [24]
19. Lac S. Pierre, very beautiful, three to four fathoms in depth, and abounding in fish, surrounded by hills and level tracts, with meadows in places. Several small streams and brooks flow into it.
20. Rivière du Gast, very pleasant, yet containing but little water. [25]
21. Rivière Sainct Antoine. [26]
22. Rivière Saincte Suzanne. [27]
23. Rivière des Yrocois, very beautiful, with many islands and meadows. It comes from Lac de Champlain, five or fix days' journey in length, abounding in fish and game of different kinds. Vines, nut, plum, and chestnut trees abound in many places. There are meadows and very pretty islands in it. To reach it, it is necessary to pass one large and one small fall. [28]
24. Sault de Rivière du Saguenay, fifty leagues from Tadoussac, ten or twelve fathoms high. [29]
25. Grand Sault, which falls some fifteen feet, amid a large number of islands. It is half a league in length and three leagues broad. [30]
26. Port au Mouton.
27. Baye de Campseau.
28. Cap Baturier, on the Isle de Sainct Jean.
29. A river by way of which they go to the Baye Françoise. [31]
30. Chasse des Eslans. [32]
31. Cap de Richelieu, on the eastern part of the Isle d'Orléans. [33]
32. A small bank near Isle du Cap Breton.
33. Rivière des Puans, coming from a lake where there is a mine of pure red copper. [34]
34. Sault de Gaston, nearly two leagues broad, and discharging into the Mer Douce. It comes from another very large lake, which, with the Mer Douce, have an extent of thirty days' journey by canoe, according to the report of the savages. [35]
Returning to the Gulf of St. Lawrence and Coast of La Cadie.
35. Riuière de Gaspey. [36]
36. Riuière de Chaleu. [37]
37. Several Islands near Miscou and the harbor of Miscou, between two islands.
38. Cap de l'Isle Sainct Jean. [38]
39. Port au Rossignol.
40. Riuière Platte. [39]
41. Port du Cap Naigré. On the bay by this cape there is a French settlement, where Sieur de la Tour commands, from whom it was named Port la Tour. The Reverend Récollect Fathers dwelt here in 1630. [40]
42. Baye du Cap de Sable.
43. Baye Saine. [41]
44. Baye Courante, with many islands abounding in game, good fishing, and places favorable for vessels. [42]
45. Port du Cap Fourchu, very pleasant, but very nearly dry at low tide. Near this place are many islands, with good hunting.
47. Petit Passage de Isle Longue. Here there is good cod-fishing.
48. Cap des Deux Bayes. [43]
49. Port des Mines, where, at low tide, small pieces of very pure copper are to be found in the rocks along the shore. [44]
50. Isles de Bacchus, very pleasant, containing many vines, nut, plum, and other trees. [45]
51. Islands near the mouth of the river Chouacoet.
52. Isles Assez Hautes, three or four in number, two or three leagues distant from the land, at the mouth of Baye Longue. [46]
53. Baye aux Isles, with suitable harbors for vessels. The country is very good, and settled by numerous savages, who till the land. In these localities are numerous cypresses, vines, and nut-trees. [47]
54. La Soupçonneuse, an island nearly a league distant from the land. [48]
55. Baye Longue. [49]
56. Les Sept Isles. [50]
57. Riuière des Etechemins. [51] The Virginias, where the English are settled, between the 36th and 37th degrees of latitude. Captains Ribaut and Laudonnière made explorations 36 or 37 years ago along the coasts adjoining Florida, and established a settlement. [52]
58. Several rivers of the Virginias, flowing into the Gulf.
59. Coast inhabited by savages who till the soil, which is very good.
60. Poincte Confort. [53]
61. Immestan. [54]
62. Chesapeacq Bay.
63. Bedabedec, the coast west of the river Pemetegoet. [55]
64. Belles Prairies.
65. Place on Lac Champlain where the Yroquois were defeated by Sieur Champlain in 1606. [56]
66. Petit Lac, by way of which they go to the Yroquois, after passing over that of Champlain. [57]
67. Baye des Trespassez, on the island of Newfoundland.
68. Chappeau Rouge.
69. Baye du Sainct Esprit.
70. Les Vierges.
71. Port Breton, near Cap Sainct Laurent, on Isle du Cap Breton.
72. Les Bergeronnettes, three leagues from Tadoussac.
73. Le Cap d'Espoir, near Isle Percée. [58]
74. Forillon, at Poincte de Gaspey.
75. Isle de Mont-réal, at the Falls of St. Louis, in the River St. Lawrence. [59]
76. Riuière des Prairies, coming from a lake at the Falls of St. Louis, where there are two islands, one of which is Montreal. For several years this has been a station for trading with the savages. [60]
77. Sault de la Chaudière, on the river of the Algonquins, some eighteen feet high, and descending among rocks with a great roar. [61]
78. Lac de Nibachis, the name of a savage captain who dwells here and tills a little land, where he plants Indian corn. [62]
79. Eleven lakes, near each other, one, two, and three leagues in extent, and abounding in fish and game. Sometimes the savages go this way in order to avoid the Fall of the Calumets, which is very dangerous. Some of these localities abound in pines, yielding a great amount of resin. [63]
80. Sault des Pierres à Calunmet, which resemble alabaster.
81. Isle de Tesouac, an Algonquin captain (Tesouac) to whom the savages pay a toll for allowing them passage to Quebec. [64]
82. La Riuière de Tesouac, in which there are five falls. [65]
83. A river by which many savages go to the North Sea, above the Saguenay, and to the Three Rivers, going some distance overland. [66]
84. The lakes by which they go to the North Sea.
85. A river extending towards the North Sea.
86. Country of the Hurons, so called by the French, where there are numerous communities, and seventeen villages fortified by three palisades of wood, with a gallery all around in the form of a parapet, for defence against their enemies. This region is in latitude 44 deg. 30', with a fertile soil cultivated by the savages.
87. Passage of a league overland, where the canoes are carried.
88. A river discharging into the Mer Douce. [67]
89. Village fortified by four palisades, where Sieur de Champlain went in the war against the Antouhonorons, and where several savages were taken prisoners. [68]
90. Falls at the extremity of the Falls of St. Louis, very high, where many fish come down and are stunned. [69]
91. A small river near the Sault de la Chaudière, where there is a waterfall nearly twenty fathoms high, over which the water flows in such volume and with such velocity that a long arcade is made, beneath which the savages go for amusement, without getting wet. It is a fine sight. [70]
92. This river is very beautiful, with numerous islands of various sizes. It passes through many fine lakes, and is bordered by beautiful meadows. It abounds in deer and other animals, with fish of excellent quality. There are many cleared tracts of land upon it, with good soil, which have been abandoned by the savages on account of their wars. It discharges into Lake St. Louis, and many tribes come to these regions to hunt and obtain their provision for the winter. [71]
93. Chestnut forest, where there are great quantities of chestnuts, on the borders of Lac St Louis. Also many meadows, vines, and nut-trees. [72]
94. Lake-like bodies of salt water at the head of Baye François, where the tide ebbs and flows. Islands containing many birds, many meadows in different localities, small rivers flowing into these species of lakes, by which they go to the Gulf of St. Lawrence, near Isle S. Jean. [73]
95. Isle Haute, a league in circuit, and flat on top. It contains fresh water and much wood. It is a league distant from Port aux Mines and Cap des Deux Bayes. It is more than forty fathoms high on all sides, except in one place, where it slopes, and where there is a pebbly point of a triangular shape. In the centre is a pond with salt water. Many birds make their nests in this island.
96. La Riuière des Algommequins, extending from the Falls of St Louis nearly to the Lake of the Bissereni, containing more than eighty falls, large and small, which must be passed by going around, by rowing, or by hauling with ropes. Some of these falls are very dangerous, particularly in going down. [74]
Gens de Petun. This is a tribe cultivating this herb (tobacco), in which they carry on an extensive traffic with the other tribes. They have large towns, fortified with wood, and they plant Indian corn.
Cheveux Releuez. These are savages who wear nothing about the loins, and go stark naked, except in winter, when they clothe themselves in robes of skins, which they leave off when they quit their houses for the fields. They are great hunters, fishermen, and travellers, till the soil, and plant Indian corn. They dry bluets [75] and raspberries, in which they carry on an extensive traffic with the other tribes, taking in exchange skins, beads, nets, and other articles. Some of these people pierce the nose, and attach beads to it. They tattoo their bodies, applying black and other colors. They wear their hair very straight, and grease it, painting it red, as they do also the face.
La Nation Neutre. This is a people that maintains itself against all the others. They engage in war only with the Assistaqueronons. They are very powerful, having forty towns well peopled.
Les Antouhonorons. They consist of fifteen towns built in strong situations. They are enemies of all the other tribes, except Neutral nation. Their country is fine, with a good climate, and near the river St. Lawrence, the passage of which they forbid to all the other tribes, for which reason it is less visited by them. They till the soil, and plant their land. [76] Les Yroquois. They unite with the Antouhonorons in making war against all the other tribes, except the Neutral nation.
Carantouanis. This is a tribe that has moved to the south of the Antouhonorons, and dwells in a very fine country, where it is securely quartered. They are friends of all the other tribes, except the above named Antouhonorons, from whom they are only three days' journey distant. Once they took as prisoners some Flemish, but sent them back again without doing them any harm, supposing that they were French. Between Lac St. Louis and Sault St. Louis, which is the great river St Lawrence, there are five falls, numerous fine lakes, and pretty islands, with a pleasing country abounding in game and fish, favorable for settlement, were it not for the wars which the savages carry on with each other.
La Mer Douce is a very large lake, containing a countless number of islands. It is very deep, and abounds in fish of all varieties and of extraordinary size, which are taken at different times and seasons, as in the great sea. The southern shore is much pleasanter than the northern, where there are many rocks and great quantities of caribous.
Le Lac des Bisserenis is very beautiful, some twenty-five leagues in circuit, and containing numerous islands covered with woods and meadows. The savages encamp here, in order to catch in the river sturgeon, pike, and carp, which are excellent and of very great size, and taken in large numbers. Game is also abundant, although the country is not particularly attractive, it being for the most part rocky.
[NOTE.—The following are marked on the map as places where the French have
had settlements: 1. Grand Cibou; 2. Cap Naigre; 3. Port du Cap Fourchu; 4.
Port Royal; 5. St. Croix; 6. Isle des Monts Deserts; 7. Port de Miscou; 8.
Tadoussac; 9. Quebec; 10. St. Croix, near Quebec.]
1. It is to be observed that some of the letters and figures are not found on the map. Among the rest, the letter A is wanting. It is impossible of course to tell with certainty to what it refers, particularly as the places referred to do not occur in consecutive order. The Abbé Laverdière thinks this letter points to the bay of Boston or what we commonly call Massachusetts Bay, or to the Bay of all Isles as laid down by Champlain on the eastern coast of Nova Scotia.
2. On the southern coast of Newfoundland, now known as Placentia Bay.
3. Point Levi, opposite Quebec.
4. The letter G is wanting, but the reference is plainly to the Straits of Belle Isle, as may be seen by reference to the map.
5. This island was somewhere between Mount Desert and Jonesport; not unlikely it was that now known as Petit Manan. It was named after Sasanou, chief of the River Kennebec. Vide Vol. II. p. 58.
6. The underestimate is so great, that it is probable that the author
intended to say that the length of the island is eight or nine leagues.
7. The Boyer, east of Quebec. It appears to have been named after the
President Jeannin. Vide antea, p.112.
8. A river east of the Island of Orleans now called Rivière du Sud.
9. N is wanting.
10. A harbor at the north-eastern extremity of the island of Campobello. Vide Vol II. p. 100.
11. Q is wanting. The reference is perhaps to the islands in Penobscot Bay.
12. Lac de Soissons. So named after Charles de Bourbon, Count de Soissons, a Viceroy of New France in 1612. Vide antea, p 112. Now known as the Lake of Two Mountains.
13. A bay at the mouth of a river of this name now called St. Paul's Bay, near the Isle aux Coudres. Vide Vol. II. note 305.
14. Vide antea, note 241.
15. An island in the River St Lawrence west of Tadoussac, still called Hare
Island. Vide antea, note 148.
16. Figure 2 is not found on the map, and it is difficult to identify the
place referred to.
17. Bluets, Vaccinium Canadense, the Canada blueberry. Champlain says it is a small fruit very good for eating. Vide Quebec ed. Voyage of 1615, p. 509.
18. Vide Vol. II. p. 176.
19. For Lac S. Joseph, read Lac S. Charles.
20. Champlain here calls the Chaudière the River of the Etechemins, notwithstanding he had before given the name to that now known as the St. Croix. Vide Vol. II. pp. 30, 47, 60. There is still a little east of the Chaudière a river now known as the Etechemin; but the channel of the Chaudière would be the course which the Indians would naturally take to reach the head-waters of the Kennebec, where dwelt the Abenaquis.
21. River Verte, entering the St. Lawrence on the south of Green Island, opposite to Tadoussac.
22. Green Island.
23. Jacques Cartier River.
24. Near the Batiscan.
25. Nicolet. Vide Laverdière's note, Quebec ed. Vol. III. p. 328.
26. River St. Francis.
27. Rivière du Loup.
28. River Richelieu.
29. This number is wanting.
30. The Falls of St Louis, above Montreal. The figures are wanting.
31. One of the small rivers between Cobequid Bay and Cumberland Strait.
32. Moose Hunting, on the west of Gaspé.
33. Argentenay.—Laverdière.
34. Champlain had not been in this region, and consequently obtained his information from the savages. There is no such lake as he represents on his map, and this island producing pure copper may have been Isle Royale, in Lake Superior.
35. The Falls of St. Mary.
36. York River.
37. The Ristigouche.
38. Now called North Point.
39. Probably Gold River, flowing into Mahone Bay.
40. Still called Port La Tour.
41. Halifax Harbor. Vide Vol. II. note 266.
42. Vide Vol. II. note 192.
43. Now Cape Chignecto, in the Bay of Fundy.
44. Advocates' Harbor.
45. Richmond Island Vide note 42 Vol. I. and note 123 Vol. II. of this work.
46. The Isles of Shoals. Vide Vol. II. note 142.
47. Boston Bay.
48. Martha's Vineyard Vide Vol. II. note 227.
49. Merrimac Bay, as it may be appropriately called stretching from Little Boar's Head to Cape Anne.
50. These islands appear to be in Casco Bay.
51. The figures are not on the map. The reference is to the Scoudic,
commonly known as the River St Croix.
52. There is probably a typographical error in the figures. The passage
should read "66 or 67 years ago."
53. Now Old Point Comfort.
54. Jamestown, Virginia.
55. Vide Vol. II. note 95.
56. This should read 1609. Vide Vol. II. note 348.
57. Lake George Vide antea, note 63. p. 93.
58. This cape still bears the same name.
59. This number is wanting.
60. This river comes from the Lake of Two Mountains, is a branch of the Ottawa separating the Island of Montreal from the Isle Jésus and flows into the main channel of the Ottawa two or three miles before it reaches the eastern end of the Island of Montreal.
61. The Chaudière Falls are near the site of the city of Ottawa. Vide antea, p. 120.
62. Muskrat Lake.
63. This number is wanting on the map. Muscrat Lake is one of this
succession of lakes, which extends easterly towards the Ottawa.
64. Allumette Island, in the River Ottawa, about eighty-five miles above
the capital of the Dominion of Canada.
65. That part of the River Ottawa which, after its bifurcation, sweeps
around and forms the northern boundary of Allumette Island.
66. The Ottawa beyond its junction with the Matawan.
67. French River.
68. Vide antea, note 83, p. 130.
69. Plainly Lake St. Louis, now the Ontario, and not the Falls of St Louis. The reference is here to Niagara Falls.
70. The River Rideau.
71. The River Trent discharges into the Bay of Quinte, an arm of Lake Ontario or Lac St Louis.
72. On the borders of Lake Ontario in the State of New York.
73. The head-waters of the Bay of Fundy.
74. The River Ottawa, here referred to, extends nearly to Lake Nipissing, here spoken of as the lake of the Bissèreni.
75. The Canada blueberry, Vaccanium Canadense. The aborigines of New England were accustomed to dry the blueberry for winter's use. Vide Josselyn's Rarities, Tuckerman's ed., Boston, 1865, p. 113.
76. This reference is to the Antouoronons, as given on the map.
[Seal Inscription: In Memory of Thomas Prince]
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives, in General Court assembled, and by the authority of the same, as follows:
Approved March 18, 1874.
* * * * *
NOTE.—The Prince Society was organized on the 25th of May, 1858. What was undertaken as an experiment has proved successful. This ACT OF INCORPORATION has been obtained to enable the Society better to fulfil its object, in its expanding growth.
ARTICLE I.—This Society Shall be called THE PRINCE SOCIETY; and it Shall have for its object the publication of rare works, in print or manuscript, relating to America.
ARTICLE II—The officers of the Society shall be a President, four
Vice-Presidents, a Corresponding Secretary, a Recording Secretary, and a
Treasurer; who together shall form the Council of the Society.
ARTICLE III.—Members may be added to the Society on the recommendation of any member and a confirmatory vote of a majority of the Council.
Libraries and other Institutions may hold membership, and be represented by an authorized agent.
All members shall be entitled to and shall accept the volumes printed by the Society, as they are issued from time to time, at the prices fixed by the Council; and membership shall be forfeited by a refusal or neglect to accept the said volumes.
Any person may terminate his membership by resignation addressed in writing to the President; provided, however, that he shall have previously paid for all volumes issued by the Society after the date of his election as a member.
ARTICLE IV.—The management of the Society's affairs shall be vested in the Council, which shall keep a faithful record of its proceedings, and report the same to the Society annually, at its General Meeting in May.
ARTICLE V.—On the anniversary of the birth of the Rev. Thomas Prince,—namely, on the twenty-fifth day of May, in every year (but if this day shall fall on Sunday or a legal holiday, on the following day),—a General Meeting shall be held at Boston, in Massachusetts, for the purpose of electing officers, hearing the report of the Council, auditing the Treasurer's account, and transacting other business.
ARTICLE VI.—The officers shall be chosen by the Society annually, at the General Meeting; but vacancies occurring between the General Meetings may be filled by the Council.
ARTICLE VII.—By-Laws for the more particular government of the Society may be made or amended at any General Meeting.
ARTICLE VIII.—Amendments to the Constitution may be made at the General Meeting in May, by a three-fourths vote, provided that a copy of the same be transmitted to every member of the Society, at least two weeks previous to the time of voting thereon.
1. The Society shall be administered on the mutual principle, and solely in the interest of American history.
2. A volume shall be issued as often as practicable, but not more frequently than once a year.
3. An editor of each work to be issued shall be appointed, who shall be a member of the Society, whose duty it shall be to prepare, arrange, and conduct the same through the press; and, as he will necessarily be placed under obligations to scholars and others for assistance, and particularly for the loan of rare books, he shall be entitled to receive ten copies, to enable him to acknowledge and return any courtesies which he may have received.
4. All editorial work and official service shall be performed gratuitously.
5. All contracts connected with the publication of any work shall be laid before the Council in distinct specifications in writing, and be adopted by a vote of the Council, and entered in a book kept for that purpose; and, when the publication of a volume is completed, its whole expense shall be entered, with the items of its cost in full, in the same book. No member of the Council shall be a contractor for doing any part of the mechanical work of the publications.
6. The price of each volume shall be a hundredth part of the cost of the edition, or as near to that as conveniently may be; and there shall be no other assessments levied upon the members of the Society.
7. A sum, not exceeding one thousand dollars, may be set apart by the Council from the net receipts for publications, as a working capital; and when the said net receipts shall exceed that sum, the excess shall be divided, from time to time, among the members of the Society, by remitting either a part or the whole cost of a volume, as may be deemed expedient.
8. All moneys belonging to the Society shall be deposited in the New England Trust Company in Boston, unless some other banking institution shall be designated by a vote of the Council; and said moneys shall be entered in the name of the Society, subject to the order of the Treasurer.
9. It shall be the duty of the President to call the Council together, whenever it may be necessary for the transaction of business, and to preside at its meetings.
10. It shall be the duty of the Vice-Presidents to authorize all bills before their payment, to make an inventory of the property of the Society during the month preceding the annual meeting and to report the same to the Council, and to audit the accounts of the Treasurer.
11. It shall be the duty of the Corresponding Secretary to issue all general notices to the members, and to conduct the general correspondence of the Society.
12. It shall be the duty of the Recording Secretary to keep a complete record of the proceedings both of the Society and of the Council, in a book provided for that purpose.
13. It shall be the duty of the Treasurer to forward to the members bills for the volumes, as they are issued; to superintend the sending of the books; to pay all bills authorized and indorsed by at leaft two Vice-Presidents of the Society; and to keep an accurate account of all moneys received and disbursed.
14. No books shall be forwarded by the Treasurer to any member until the amount of the price fixed for the same shall have been received; and any member neglecting to forward the said amount for one month after his notification, shall forfeit his membership.
President.
Vice-Presidents.
Corresponding Secretary.
CHARLES W. TUTTLE, Ph.D. BOSTON, MASS.
Recording Secretary.
Treasurer.
1880.
The Hon. Charles Francis Adams, LL.D. Boston, Mass.
Samuel Agnew, Esq. Philadelphia, Pa.
Thomas Coffin Amory, A.M. Boston, Mass.
William Sumner Appleton, A.M. Boston, Mass.
Walter T. Avery, Esq. New York, N.Y.
George L. Balcom, Esq. Claremont, N.H.
Samuel L. M. Barlow, Esq. New York, N Y.
The Hon. Charles H. Bell, A.M. Exeter, N.H.
John J. Bell, A.M. Exeter, N.H.
Samuel Lane Boardman, Esq. Boston, Mass.
The Hon. James Ware Bradbury, LL.D. Augusta, Me.
J. Carson Brevoort, LL.D. Brooklyn, N.Y.
Sidney Brooks, A.M. Boston, Mass.
Mrs. John Carter Brown. Providence, R.I.
John Marshall Brown, A.M. Portland, Me.
Joseph O. Brown, Esq. New York, N.Y.
Philip Henry Brown, A.M. Portland, Me.
Thomas O. H. P. Burnham, Esq. Boston, Mass.
George Bement Butler, Esq. New York, N.Y.
The Hon. Mellen Chamberlain, A.M. Chelsea, Mass.
William Eaton Chandler, A.M. Concord, N.H.
George Bigelow Chase, A.M. Concord, Mass.
Clarence H. Clark, Esq. Philadelphia, Pa.
Gen. John S. Clark, Auburn, N.Y.
Ethan N. Coburn, Esq. Charlestown, Mass.
Jeremiah Colburn, A.M. Boston, Mass.
Joseph J. Cooke, Esq. Providence, R.I.
Deloraine P. Corey, Esq. Boston, Mass.
Erastus Corning, Esq. Albany, N.Y.
Ellery Bicknell Crane, Esq. Worcester, Mass.
Abram E. Cutter, Esq. Charlestown, Mass.
The Rev. Edwin A. Dalrymple, S.T.D. Baltimore, Md.
William M. Darlington, Esq. Pittsburg, Pa.
John Ward Dean, A.M. Boston, Mass.
Charles Deane, LL.D. Cambridge, Mass.
Edward Denham, Esq. New Bedford, Mass.
Prof. Franklin B. Dexter, A.M. New Haven, Ct.
The Rev. Henry Martyn Dexter, D.D. Boston, Mass.
Samuel Adams Drake, Esq. Melrose, Mass.
Henry Thayer Drowne, Esq. New York, N.Y.
Henry H. Edes, Esq. Charlestown, Mass.
Jonathan Edwards, A.B., M.D. New Haven, Ct.
Janus G. Elder, Esq. Lewiston, Me.,
Samuel Eliot, LL.D. Boston, Mass.
Alfred Langdon Elwyn, M.D. Philadelphia, Pa.
James Emott, Esq. New York, N.Y.
The Hon. William M. Evarts, LL.D. New York, N.Y.
Joseph Story Fay, Esq. Woods Holl, Mass.
John S. H. Fogg, M.D. Boston, Mass.
The Rev. Henry W. Foote, A.M. Boston, Mass.
Samuel P. Fowler, Esq. Danvers, Mass.
James E. Gale, Esq. Haverhill, Mass.
Marcus D. Gilman, Esq. Montpelier, Vt.
The Hon. John E. Godfrey Bangor, Me.
Abner C. Goodell, Jr., A.M. Salem, Mass.
Elbridge H. Goss, Esq. Boston, Mass.
The Hon. Chief Justice Horace Gray, L.L.D. Boston, Mass.
William W. Greenough, A.B. Boston, Mass.
Isaac J. Greenwood, A.M. New York, N.Y.
Charles H. Guild, Esq. Somerville, Mass.
The Hon. Robert S. Hale, LL.D. Elizabethtown, N.Y.
C. Fiske Harris, A.M. Providence, R.I.
David Greene Haskins, Jr., A.M. Cambridge, Mass.
The Hon. Francis B. Hayes, A.M. Boston, Mass.
Thomas Wentworth Higginson, A.M. Cambridge, Mass.
W. Scott Hill, M.D. Augusta, Me.
James F. Hunnewell, Esq. Charlestown, Mass.
Theodore Irwin, Esq. Oswego, N.Y.
The Hon. Clark Jillson Worcester, Mass.
Mr. Sawyer Junior Nashua, N.H.
George Lamb, Esq. Boston, Mass.
Edward F. de Lancey, Esq. New York, N.Y.
William B. Lapham, M.D. Augusta, Me.
Henry Lee, A.M. Boston, Mass.
John A. Lewis, Esq. Boston, Mass.
Orsamus H. Marshall, Esq. Buffalo, N.Y.
William T. R. Marvin, A.M. Boston, Mass.
William F. Matchett, Esq. Boston, Mass.
Frederic W. G. May, Esq. Boston, Mass.
The Rev. James H. Means, D.D. Boston, Mass.
George H. Moore, LL.D. New York, N.Y.
The Hon. Henry C. Murphy, LL.D. Brooklyn, N.Y.
The Rev. James De Normandie, A.M. Portsmouth, N.H.
The Hon. James W. North. Augusta, Me.
Prof. Charles E. Norton, A.M. Cambridge, Mass.
John H. Osborne, Esq. Auburn, N.Y.
George T. Paine, Esq. Providence, R.I.
The Hon. John Gorham Palfrey, LL.D. Cambridge, Mass.
Daniel Parish, Jr., Esq. New York, N. Y.
Francis Parkman, LL.D. Boston, Mass.
Augustus T. Perkins, A.M. Boston, Mass.
The Rt. Rev. William Stevens Perry, D.D., LL.D. Davenport, Iowa.
William Frederic Poole, A.M. Chicago, Ill.
George Prince, Esq. Bath, Me.
Capt. William Prince, U.S.A. New Orleans, La.
Samuel S. Purple, M.D. New York, N.Y.
The Hon. John Phelps Futnam, A.M. Boston, Mass.
Edward Ashton Rollins, A.M. Philadelphia, Pa.
The Hon. Mark Skinner Chicago, Ill.
The Rev. Carlos Slafter, A.M. Dedham, Mass.
The Rev. Edmund F. Slafter, A.M. Boston, Mass.
Charles C. Smith, Esq. Boston, Mass.
Samuel T. Snow, Esq. Boston, Mass.
Oliver Bliss Stebbins, Esq. Boston, Mass.
George Stevens, Esq. Lowell, Mass.
The Hon. Edwin W. Stoughton. New York, N.Y.
William B. Trask, Esq. Boston, Mass.
The Hon. William H. Tuthill. Tipton, Iowa.
Charles W. Tuttle, Ph.D. Boston, Mass.
The Rev. Alexander Hamilton Vinton, D.D. Pomfret, Ct.
Joseph B. Walker, A.M. Concord, N.H.
William Henry Wardwell, Esq. Boston, Mass.
Miss Rachel Wetherill Philadelphia, Pa.
Henry Wheatland, A.M., M.D. Salem, Mass.
John Gardner White, A.M. Cambridge, Mass.
William Adee Whitehead, A.M. Newark, N.J.
William H. Whitmore, A.M. Boston, Mass.
Henry Austin Whitney, A.M. Boston, Mass.
The Hon. Marshall P. Wilder, Ph.D. Boston, Mass.
Henry Winsor, Esq. Philadelphia, Pa.
The Hon. Robert C. Winthrop, LL.D. Boston, Mass.
Charles Levi Woodbury, Esq. Boston, Mass.
Ashbel Woodward, M.D. Franklin, Ct.
J. Otis Woodward, Esq. Albany, N.Y.
American Antiquarian Society Worcester, Mass.
Amherst College Library Amherst, Mass.
Astor Library New York, N.Y.
Boston Athenaeum Boston, Mass.
Boston Library Society Boston, Mass.
British Museum London, Eng.
Concord Public Library Concord, Mass.
Eben Dale Sutton Reference Library Peabody, Mass.
Free Public Library Worcester, Mass.
Grosvenor Library Buffalo, N.Y.
Harvard College Library Cambridge, Mass.
Historical Society of Pennfylvania Philadelphia, Pa.
Library Company of Philadelphia Philadelphia, Pa.
Library of Parliament Ottawa, Canada.
Library of the State Department Washington, D.C.
Long Island Historical Society Brooklyn, N.Y.
Maine Historical Society Brunswick, Me.
Maryland Historical Society Baltimore, Md.
Massachusetts Historical Society Boston, Mass.
Mercantile Library New York, N.Y.
Minnesota Historical Society St. Paul, Minn.
Newburyport Public Library, Peabody Fund Newburyport, Mass.
New England Historic Genealogical Society Boston, Mass.
Newton Free Library Newton, Mass.
New York Society Library New York, N.Y.
Plymouth Public Library Plymouth, Mass.
Portsmouth Athenaeum Portsmouth, N.H.
Public Library of the City of Boston Boston, Mass.
Redwood Library Newport, R.I.
State Library of Massachusetts Boston, Mass.
State Library of New York Albany, N.Y.
State Library of Rhode Island Providence, R.I.
State Library of Vermont Montpelier, Vt.
Williams College Library Williamstown, Mass.
Yale College Library New Haven, Ct.