Narrative of a Voyage to the West Indies and Mexico Part 1

Narrative of a Voyage to the West Indies and Mexico.

by Samuel de Champlain.

INTRODUCTION.

The ma.n.u.script, of which the following is a translation, as literal as the idioms of the two languages admit, is in the possession of Monsieur Feret, the learned and extremely obliging librarian of the Public Library at Dieppe. Of its originality and authenticity there can be no doubt; the internal evidence of similarity in style, diction, and orthography even, with the published account of Champlain's _Voyages in New France_, would alone suffice to establish those points.[1]

[1] Extract from "Histoire et Description Generale de la Nouvelle France, avec le Journal Historique d'un Voyage fait par ordre du Roi dans l'Amerique Septentrionnale. Par le P. De Charlevoix, de la Compagnie de Jesus." Tome Premier, 12o., Paris, 1744, p. 172.

"Le Commandeur de CHATTE, governeur de Dieppe, lui succeda, forma une Compagnie de Marchands de Rouen, avec lesquels plusieurs Personnes de condition entrerent en societe, et fit un Armement, dont il confia la conduite a Pontgrave, a qui le Roy avoit donne des Lettres Patentes, pour continuer les decouvertes dans le Fleuve du Canada, et pour y faire des Etabliss.e.m.e.ns. Dans le meme tems Samuel de CHAMPLAIN, Gentilhomme Saintongeois, Capitaine de Vaisseau, et en reputation d'Officier brave, habile et experimente, _arriva des Indes Occidentales, ou il avoit pa.s.se deux ans et demi._ Le Commandeur de Chatte lui proposa de faire le voyage de Canada, et il y consent.i.t avec l'agrement du Roy, etc."--ED.

M. Feret obtained this valuable doc.u.ment from a resident in Dieppe, where it has been for an unknown time; and it is more than probable that it had been in the possession of M. de Chastes, governor of the town and castle of Dieppe, who was Champlain's chief friend and protector, under whose auspices he had been employed in the war in Brittany against the League, and by whom, after his return from the West Indies, he was sent to Canada. To him, it is most likely that Champlain would present a narrative of his voyage. On M. de Chastes'

death, the ma.n.u.script probably pa.s.sed into the possession of the Convent of the Minimes at Dieppe, to which he was a great benefactor during his life, and by testament after his death. He was also, by his desire, buried in the church of the convent. The library of the Minime fathers was, with the rest of their property, and that of the other convents of the town, dispersed at the great Revolution; but most of the books remained at Dieppe, as may be seen by a reference to the numerous works which have gradually found their way, by gift or purchase, to the "Public Library" of that town, bearing inscriptions as having belonged to the convent.

The readers of Champlain's _Voyages in New France,_ will remember the allusion to the expedition which is the subject of the following narrative: "Sur ces entrefaites," he says, speaking of the projects of Monsieur de Chastes for the Canadian voyage, "je me trouvais en cour, venu fraischement des Indes Occidentales, ou j'avois ete pres de deux ans et demy apres que les Espagnols furent partis de Blavet, et la paix foict en France, ou pendant les guerres j'avais servi sa dicte majeste (Henry IV) souz Messeigneurs le Mareschal d'Aumont de St. Luc, et le Mareschal de Brissac."

The relation of this voyage was never published, and this should rather confirm the supposition that the ma.n.u.script had been presented to M.

Chastes. It was evidently finished in haste; as the omission of several drawings, which are mentioned but not inserted, and the character of the writing, shews. Champlain returned from this voyage early in 1602, and before the autumn of the year was occupied in making preparations for his first voyage to Canada, before his return from which in the next year, 1603, M. de Chastes had died. Had Champlain kept the ma.n.u.script of his West India voyage, he would surely have published it in 1604, at the same time that the account of his first expedition to Canada was printed, and to none is it so likely that he would have given his "Brief Discourse" as to his best friend and patron, at whose death (he died at Dieppe) it would pa.s.s into private hands, or the Minime Convent, and be lost sight of.

The narrative is highly interesting as exhibiting the state of some of the West India Islands two hundred and fifty years ago, many of them being then uninhabited by Europeans; and of the condition of Mexico, and of the Spanish policy there, where no foreigner was then permitted to set his foot. Gage, who travelled some five and twenty years after Champlain, bears witness to the difficulty of proceeding thither, being obliged to hide himself in an empty biscuit-cask to avoid the search of the Spanish officials, till the vessel in which he had embarked should sail.

The account of the capture of Porto-rico, by the Earl of c.u.mberland, and the state in which it appeared, after the English had abandoned the island, is curious; and the combat with the Anglo-Franco-Flemish fleet, amusing. The idea of the junction of the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans is also remarkable.

The accuracy of Champlain's observations of all that he saw, is evident; as to the hearsay descriptions, we may entertain doubts of the fidelity of his informant, but not of the good faith of the narrator.

He had a certain amount of credulity in his character, the more remarkable in a man of such natural penetration and sagacity; but the belief in strange monsters was prevalent before, during, and for a long time after, his epoch; and it was the more to be excused from the hermetically closed state of the Spanish colonies, and the strange stories to which the consequent mystery gave rise. The curious details of the "Brief Discourse" seemed worthy of the attention of the geographer, the naturalist, and of the inquiring general reader. As the founder of the capital of our princ.i.p.al North American colony, Champlain's name is, in some sort, a.s.sociated with English adventure.

With that idea, permission was requested of M. Feret, to translate this narrative into English, which was most kindly and unhesitatingly granted by him. In the translation, endeavour has been made to preserve Champlain's style, as much as possible. The drawings are fac-similes of those in the ma.n.u.script. Discoverers are general benefactors: after a time, all nations profit by their labours. In Champlain's case, we are the princ.i.p.al gainers; but for his indomitable courage, enterprise, and determination, Quebec might never have existed, the colonization of Canada have been indefinitely r.e.t.a.r.ded, and instead of a valuable country, advanced in civilization, and sufficing to itself, England might have conquered only a small colony struggling for existence, or scattered and insignificant settlements, feebly subsisting on a precarious and badly organized trade with native tribes. For nearly a century Champlain's predecessors had endeavoured, with all means and appliances, to found colonies in various parts of North America; all failed, and, for long after his time, Canada remained in a semi-torpid state. It required the solid foundations laid down by Champlain, to enable the young settlement to pa.s.s through the struggles of its infancy and arrive at maturity. None were found capable of carrying out his views for years after his death. Had he died earlier, no one could have replaced him; had he not lived, in all probability expedition after expedition would, as before, have been sent out with the same success which had attended all previous attempts, from Cartier to De la Roche.

Notes have been made on the various subjects which appear to require some explanation.

BIOGRAPHICAL NOTICE OF CHAMPLAIN.

It will be well, perhaps, to preface the notice of Champlain's career with a rapid sketch of the various expeditions, discoveries, and attempts at colonisation, of the French in North America, from the discoveries of Sebastian Cabot, in 1497, to the beginning of the seventeenth century.

The errors, disasters, and failures of his predecessors will throw out in stronger relief the sound common sense and sagacity, the determined courage and unfaltering resolution, and the prudent wariness, which enabled Champlain to note and avoid their errors, to meet and to overcome difficulties, to foresee and to prepare for possible evil contingencies.

It is certain that the French were among the first, if not the very first, who followed in the track, and profited by the discovery, of Cabot. The Basques, Bretons, and Normans, as early as 1504, practised the cod fishery along the coast and on the Great Bank of Newfoundland[2]--the ancestors, probably, of the Basques and Bretons who, a century later, so stoutly resisted the pretensions of the companies which were then forming, to the exclusive privilege of the fishery and trade in those parts.

[2] The Pere Fournier, in his _Hydrographie_, says that the Basques and Bretons had been there before 1504: "L'an 1504, ainsi qu'il est porte dans l'histoire de Niflet, et dans Magin, les Basques, Normands, et Bretons allerent en la coste des Morees, dit le Grand banc, vers le Cap Breton; voire, il semble qu'ils y ayent este bien auparavant, car dans une lettre ecrite par Sebastian Cavot a Henry VII, Roy d'Angleterre, l'an 1497, ces terres sont appelees du nom d'Isles de Bacaleos, comme d'un nom a.s.sez connu. On ne peut douter que ce nom ne leur ait este donne par les Basques, qui seuls en Europe appellent ce poisson Bacaleos, ou Bacallos: et les originaires l'appellent Apage."--Lib. vi, c. 12, Paris, 1643. Others say that Juan Vaz de Cortereal explored the northern seas and discovered the land of _Baccalhos_, or Codfishland, in 1463, either of which, if true, accounts for Cabot's mentioning the name as familiar, but overthrows his claim to its discovery.... Champlain also writes: "Ce furent les Bretons et les Normands qui en l'an 1504 descouvrirent, _les premiers des Chrestiens_, le Grand Banc des Moluques (Molues or Morues) et les Isles de Terre Neufve, ainsi qu'il se remarque es histoires de Niflet et d'Antoine Maginus."--_Voyages de la Nouvelle France_, Paris, 1632.

In 1506, Jean Denys, of Harfleur, published a map of the newly known country, and, two years after, a pilot of Dieppe, named Thomas Aubert, commanding a vessel named the "Pensee," belonging to Jean Ange, father of the celebrated Vicomte de Dieppe, brought a North American Indian with him to France.[3]

[3] Navarrete and Ramusio.

In the year 1518, the Baron de Lery undertook a voyage to North America with the intention of forming a settlement; but, being detained at sea for a long time, was obliged to return to France without accomplishing his object, leaving on the Isle des Sables (Sable Island) and at Campseau (Canso) his cattle and pigs, which multiplied considerably, and were subsequently of the greatest service to certain of the Marquis de la Roche's people, who, about eighty years later, were left on Sable Island, without any other resource but fish and the flesh of the cattle they found there.[4]

[4] Fournier.

In 1524, Francis I sent Giovanni Ferazzano, a Florentine, on an expedition of discovery to the coast of North America. The only doc.u.ment extant of this (first) voyage is a letter from Ferazzano to the king, dated the 8th July, 1524,[5] wherein he supposes that His Majesty is acquainted with his progress, the events of the voyage, and the success of this first attempt. In the following year he again sailed, and in March arrived at the coast of Florida. He ranged the coast from about the 30th to the 50th degree north lat.i.tude, as far as an island which the Bretons had before discovered.[6] Ferazzano took possession, in the name of the most Christian king, of all the country which he visited. The next year he undertook a third voyage, of which nothing authentic was ever known, save that he perished in it.[7]

[5] Ramusio. Mark Lescarbot, who wrote a history of New France (Paris, 1612), also gives a detailed account of the voyages of Ferazzano.

[6] Bruzen de la Martoniere, _Dictionnaire Geographique_, Paris, 1768.

[7] Fournier quaintly says: "Il avait l'intention d'aller jusques au Pole, mais il fust pris et mange par des sauvages."

In 1534, Jacques Cartier, of St. Malo,[8] sailed thence on the 20th April, with two vessels of the burthen of sixty tons each, furnished by Philippe Chabot, admiral of France, and the Comte de Brion, for the purpose of continuing the discoveries of Ferazzano, and on the 10th May arrived at Cape Bonavista, in Newfoundland. After some discoveries in that island he proceeded to the southward, and entering the great gulf, explored a bay, which he named La Baye des Chaleurs. The rigour of the season prevented his pursuing his discoveries that year, and he returned to France.

[8] Champlain says that he was "fort etendu et experimente au faict de la marine, autant qu'autre de son temps."

At the instance of Charles de Mory, sieur de la Mailleres, then vice-admiral of France, Cartier returned in the following year to the gulf, to which he gave the name of Saint Lawrence, subsequently extended to the great river which flows into it, and which the natives called the river of Canada. On the 15th August, he discovered the island of Naliscolet, calling it Isle de l'a.s.somption, now Anticosti.

On the 1st September he arrived at the Saguenay river, flowing into the St. Lawrence. He ascended the latter stream to an island about a hundred and twenty leagues from the sea, which he named Isle d'Orleans, and wintered at a little river which he called Ste. Croix, afterwards riviere St. Charles. He then continued his voyage up the St. Lawrence to a place called Hochelaga, a large Indian village on an island at the foot of a mountain which he called Mont Royal, and which, altered to Montreal, is now the name of the whole island. Finding it impossible (according to his report) to surmount the rapids (Sault St. Louis), he returned to his vessels, but was obliged again to winter on the banks of a small river falling into the Ste. Croix, and which he named "the river Jacques Cartier." The greater part of his people died of scurvy, and Cartier, discontented and disappointed at the little progress he had made, and grieved for the loss of his people, returned to France.

"And thinking the air was so contrary to our nature that we could hardly live there, having so suffered during the winter from the disease of the scurvy, which he called 'mal de terre,' he so made his relation to the king and the vice-admiral de Mailleres, who not looking deeply into the matter, the enterprise was fruitless. And, to say truth, those who have the conduct of discoveries are often the cause of the failure of the best plans, if their reports are too implicitly trusted; for in thus entirely confiding in them, enterprises are judged to be impossible, or so traversed by difficulties, that they cannot be carried out, save with almost insupportable expenses and pains."[9]

[9] Champlain, _Voyages en Nouvelle France_, etc.

In 1541, Jean Francois de la Roque, sieur de Roberval, a gentleman of Picardy, was named viceroy of Nouvelle France, and renewed the attempt to form a colony in Canada. He first sent out Cartier as his deputy, to commence a settlement in the island of Mont Royal, and despatched one of his pilots, Jean Alphonse, of Saintonge, one of the best French navigators of his time, to reconnoitre the coast beyond Labrador, and to endeavour to find a shorter pa.s.sage for Eastern commerce than round Cape Horn or the Straits of Magellan; but, meeting with great obstacles and risk from the ice, Alphonse was obliged to return. The proposed settlement had no better success. Cartier remained nearly eighteen months abandoned to his own resources, as De Roberval, who was to have shortly followed him, delayed his departure, and when at last he set out on his voyage, he met Cartier on his way back to France, having lost many of his people, and suffered extreme distress from famine. De Roberval wished to force him to return to Canada, but Cartier refused.

The next expedition was that of Jean Ribaut, of Dieppe, a Protestant, and one of the best sea captains in France. He was despatched under the auspices of the Admiral de Coligny to establish a colony in that part of Florida visited by Ferazzano in his second voyage. Ribaut set sail on the 18th February, 1562, and landed at a cape which he named Cape Francois. Pursuing his course towards the north, he disembarked at the "Riviere de Mai," setting up a stone pillar with the arms of France affixed, in token of taking possession of the country. Continuing about sixty leagues more to the northward, he built a fort, which he styled Charles fort, on about the spot where Charleston was subsequently founded by the English. The fort finished, Ribaut found that his provisions were running short, and that he could not that year make the purposed settlement. He therefore left eighteen men in the fort, under the command of a Captain Albert, with all the supplies that he could spare, and set sail for France in July, promising to return to revictual his people and establish the colony. Unfortunately, on his arrival in France he was employed in the war which had just broken out with Spain, and could not accomplish his promise.

Captain Albert and his men, trusting to Ribaut's coming back with ample stores, did not trouble themselves to clear and cultivate land, so as to be prepared in case of delay or accident, but consumed their provisions without order or care, so that in a short time they were reduced to great scarcity. The men mutinied, hung one of their comrades for some trifling cause, and becoming more violent from want and impunity, killed their commander Albert, electing in his place one Nicolas Barre, "a good sort of a man!" No succour arriving, they built a small vessel to endeavour to return to France, and put to sea with the scanty remains of their stock of provisions. In a very few days that was exhausted, and the famine became so terrible and reduced them to such extremity that they were obliged to cast lots which of them should be killed to support the others. "And," says Fournier, "what is greatly to be admired, the lot fell on the man who had been the cause of the mutiny against Captain Albert." Fortunately, the survivors were picked up by an English ship and carried to England.

In 1564 Rene de Laudonniere was sent to Florida by Admiral de Coligny.

He sailed on the 22nd of April, and duly arrived at the Riviere de Mai, where he built a fort, which he named La Caroline, rechristened by the Spaniards "San Matteo." As in the case of Captain Albert, a conspiracy was formed against Laudonniere, his men mutinied, and threatened to kill him if he would not allow them to go to sea and pillage the Virgin Islands and the coast of St. Domingo: Laudonniere was forced to consent. The mutineers fitted out a small vessel, captured and plundered some Spanish ships, but after cruising for some time were obliged to return to La Caroline, where Laudonniere, resuming his authority, had four of them hanged. In addition to these troubles, before the winter was past, their provisions began to fail, and after subsisting for more than six weeks on roots, and no supplies arriving from France, they determined to build a vessel, so as to be able to return there in August; but the famine becoming more and more severe, the men were too weak to finish their barque. Many went among the Indians, who mocked and ill treated them, upon which they attacked the savages and obtained some maize, which strengthened and gave them courage to work at their vessel. They then prepared to demolish the fort before setting sail for Europe; but while thus occupied, four ships were seen off the coast, which proved to be English, who, on seeing the extremity to which the French were reduced, a.s.sisted them with provisions, and helped them to complete their vessel. When ready to embark, Laudonniere again descried some ships approaching the coast; this time they were French, commanded by Ribaut, who was bringing succour and the means of increasing the settlement.

Ribaut had been again despatched by the Admiral de Coligny with six ships and about six hundred men, chiefly Protestants, to complete the establishment of the long-desired colony. He set sail from Dieppe in June, 1565, and arrived at his destination on the 25th August. The Spaniards had doubtless been informed of this expedition, as before Ribaut could disembark his men and stores, a squadron of large ships was seen in the offing. He sent his son to reconnoitre, following shortly with his other vessels. A violent tempest arose, his ships were driven on sh.o.r.e, and many of his men drowned. With the remainder he retired to his little fort, almost without arms or ammunition. The Spaniards (although then at peace with France) stormed it, and ma.s.sacred all in it, men, women, and children. Ribaut, although promised his life, was at last stabbed in cold blood by a Spanish captain, named Vallemande, and his body treated with atrocious barbarity,--his head and face were flayed; the skin, with the hair and beard attached, dried, and sent to the nearest Spanish colony. The Spaniards then hung the bodies of the slain, and all the French whom they could catch, on the nearest trees, with an inscription to the effect that "these men are not hung as Frenchmen, but as heretics."

Laudonniere with a few men escaped into the woods, and returned after some time to France. The son of Ribaut also, escaping both the storm and the Spanish squadron, arrived there in safety. The king of France made some remonstrances about this horrible affair to his brother sovereign, the king of Spain, who disavowed the deed, but gave no redress.

Ribaut was, however, well avenged by one of his own creed. In 1567, Dominique de Gourgues, a Calvinist gentleman of Gascony, fitted out two (some say three) ships, at his own cost, and proceeded to Florida.

a.s.sisted by the natives, with whom he formed an alliance, he attacked and took by a.s.sault the Spanish forts, treating the Spaniards as they had treated the French, by hanging them all on the same trees, altering the inscription to the purport that "these men are not hung as Spaniards, but as traitors, robbers, and murderers." He then demolished the forts, and returned to France in 1568, performing the voyage, it is said, in seventeen days.

The king of Spain in his turn complained, and De Gourgues, disavowed and threatened with condign punishment by his sovereign, was obliged to absent himself. He seems, however, to have kept his ire warm against the Spaniards, as in 1582 we find him in the service of Don Antonio, of Portugal, who named him admiral of the fleet which he was equipping against Spain; but, on the point of sailing, De Gourgues was seized with a mortal malady, and died,--thus disappointing the hopes of his old enemy the king of Spain, who had offered a large sum for his head.

In the year 1591, a voyage to Canada was undertaken by the sieur du Court Pre Ravillon, in a vessel called the Bonaventure, to endeavour to establish a trade in moose-skins and teeth. Whether he succeeded in his adventure or not, history is silent.

The Marquis de la Roche fitted out some vessels in 1591, embarking a number of men and a large quant.i.ty of stores of all kinds requisite for forming a colony in Canada. Not having, it appears, any personal knowledge of the country or of navigation, he engaged a Norman pilot, of the name of Chedotel, for the voyage. The details of this enterprise are not very clear, but it is certain that the expedition reached the Isle des Sables, and, for some reason or other, seventeen of the people were sent on sh.o.r.e and abandoned. The poor fellows remained there for seven years, living in holes in the ground, and subsisting on fish and the cattle which they found wild in considerable numbers--the descendants of those left there in 1518 by the Baron de Lery.[10]

[10] Champlain says, that the cattle had been saved from the wreck of a Spanish ship.

At the expiration of seven years, the pilot Chedotel was _condemned_ by the Parliament of Rouen to go and fetch away the unfortunate men,--with the condition, however, that he was to have half of all the property, hides, oil, seal and black fox skins, etc., which the wretched creatures might have collected during their banishment.

On their arrival in France, the poor men were presented to the king, Henry IV, who ordered the Duke de Sully to give them some relief,--which the worthy Duke did, to the amount of fifty crowns each, "to encourage them to return there!"