The Makers of Canada: Champlain Part 2

It is related also that there is a large, thickly-settled town of savages, who are adroit and skilful, and who have cotton yards. I am confident that most of those who mention it have not seen it, and speak of it because they have heard persons say so, who know no more about it than they themselves.... But that any one has ever entered it there is no evidence, for then they would have described it in another manner, in order to relieve the minds of many of this doubt."

Champlain's description is written from personal knowledge, because he had seen the Pentagouet River.[7] The country which it pa.s.ses through is agreeable, but there was no town or village, and no appearance of either, with the exception of a few deserted cabins of the Souriquois or Micmacs.

Here Champlain met two Souriquois chiefs, Bessabe and Cabahis, and succeeded in making them understand that he had been sent by de Monts to visit their country, and to a.s.sure them of the friendship of the French for the Souriquois. Champlain continued his journey southwards, and two days later he again met Cabahis, of whom he asked particulars as to the course of the river Norembegue. The chief replied "that they had already pa.s.sed the fall, which is situated at about twenty leagues from the mouth of the river Pen.o.bscot. Here it widens into a lake, by way of which the Indians pa.s.s to the river Ste. Croix, by going some distance overland and then entering the river Etchemin. Another river also enters the lake, along which they proceed for some days until they gain another lake and pa.s.s through it. Reaching the end of it they again make a land journey of some distance until they reach another small river, the mouth of which is within a league of Quebec." This little river is the Chaudiere, which the Indians follow to reach Quebec. On September 20th Champlain observed the mountains of Bedabedec, and after having proceeded for ten or twelve leagues further he decided to return to Ste.

Croix and wait until the following year to continue his explorations.

His opinion was that the region he had explored was quite as unfavourable for a settlement as Ste. Croix.

On June 18th, 1605, de Monts, at the head of an expedition consisting of Champlain, some gentlemen, twelve sailors and an Indian guide named Panonias and his wife, set out from the island of Ste. Croix to explore the country of the Armouchiquois, and reached the Pentagouet River in twelve days. On July 20th they made about twenty leagues between Bedabedec Point and the Kennebec River, at the mouth of which is an island which they named _La Tortue_.

Continuing their journey towards the south they observed some large mountains, the abode of an Indian chief named Aneda. "I was satisfied from the name," says Champlain, "that he was one of his tribe that had discovered the plant called _aneda_, which Jacques Cartier said was so powerful against the malady called scurvy, which hara.s.sed his company as well as our own when they wintered in Canada. The savages have no knowledge at all of this plant, and are not aware of its existence, although the above mentioned savage has the same name." This supposition was unfounded, because if this Indian had been of the same origin as the aborigines who acquainted Jacques Cartier with the virtue of the _aneda_ plant in cases of scurvy, he would have understood the meaning of the word. _Aneda_ is the Iroquois word for the spruce tree, but there is no evidence to prove that Champlain was ever aware that it was a specific. Had he known of its efficacy he would have certainly employed it.

At Chouacouet de Monts and Champlain received visits from many Indians, differing entirely from either the Etchemins or the Armouchiquois. They found the soil tilled and cultivated, and the corn in the gardens was about two feet in height. Beans, pumpkins and squash were also in flower. The place was very pleasant and agreeable at the time, but Champlain believed the weather was very severe in the winter.

The party proceeded still further south, in sight of the Cap aux Iles (Cape Porpoise), and on July 17th, 1605, they came to anchor at Cape St.

Louis,[8] where an Indian chief named Honabetha paid them a visit. To a small river which they found in the vicinity they gave the name of Gua, in honour of de Monts. The expedition pa.s.sed the night of the 18th in a small bay called Cape St. Louis. On the 19th they observed the cape of a large bay, which they distinguished by the t.i.tle of Ste. Suzanne du Cap Blanc, and on July 20th they entered a s.p.a.cious harbour, which proved to be very dangerous on account of shoals and banks; they therefore named it Mallebarre.

Five weeks had now elapsed since the expedition had left Ste. Croix, and no incident of importance had occurred. They had met many tribes of Indians, and on each occasion their intercourse was harmonious. It is true that they had not traversed more than three degrees of lat.i.tude, but, although their progress was slow, their time was well spent. De Monts was satisfied that it would be easier to colonize Acadia than this American coast, and Champlain was still convinced that Port Royal was the most favourable spot, unless de Monts preferred Quebec.

The expedition returned to Ste. Croix in nine days, arriving there on August 3rd. Here they found a vessel from France, under the command of Captain des Antons, laden with provisions, and many things suitable for winter use. There was now a chance of saving the settlers, although their position was not enviable.

De Monts was determined to try the climate of Port Royal, and to endeavour to establish a settlement there. Two barques were fitted out and laden with the frame work of the buildings at Ste. Croix. Champlain and Pont-Grave had set out before to select a favourable site around the bay, well sheltered from the north-west wind. They chose a place opposite an island at the mouth of the river de l'Equille, as being the most suitable. Every one was soon busily engaged in clearing the ground and in erecting houses. The plan of the settlement, says Champlain, was ten fathoms long and eight fathoms wide, making the distance around thirty-six fathoms. On the eastern side was a storehouse occupying the width of it, with a very fine cellar, from five to six feet deep. On the northern side were the quarters of Sieur de Monts, comfortably finished.

In the backyard were the dwellings of the workmen. At the corner of the western side was a platform, upon which four cannon were placed, and at the eastern corner a palisade was constructed in the shape of a platform. There was nothing pretentious or elegant about these buildings, but they were solid and useful.

The installation of the new settlement being now complete, de Monts returned to France, leaving Pont-Grave in command. During the absence of de Monts, Champlain determined to pursue his discoveries along the American coast, and in this design he was favoured by de Monts, as the latter had not altogether abandoned his idea of settling in Florida. The season, however, was too far advanced, and Champlain therefore stopped at the river St. John to meet Schoudon, with whom he agreed to set out in search of the famous copper mine. They were accompanied by a miner named Jacques, and a Slavonian very skilful in discovering minerals. He found some pieces of copper and what appeared to be a mine, but it was too difficult to work. Champlain accordingly returned to Port Royal, where several of the men were suffering from scurvy. Out of forty-five, twelve died during the winter. The surgeon from Honfleur, named Deschamps, performed an autopsy on some of the bodies, and found them affected in the same manner as those who had died at Ste. Croix. Snow did not fall until December 20th, and the winter was not so severe as the previous one.

On March 16th, 1606, Champlain resumed his explorations, and travelled eighteen leagues on that day. He anch.o.r.ed at an island to the south of Manan. During the night his barque ran ash.o.r.e and sustained injuries which it required four days to repair. Champlain then proceeded to Port aux Coquilles, seven or eight leagues distant, where he remained until the twenty-ninth. Pont-Grave, however, desired him to return to Port Royal, being anxious to obtain news of his companions whom he had left sick. Owing to indisposition, Champlain was obliged to delay his departure until April 8th.

Champlain and Pont-Grave intended to return to France during the summer of 1606. Seeing that the vessels promised by de Monts had not arrived, they set out from Port Royal to Cape Breton or Gaspe, in search of a vessel to cross the Atlantic, but when they were approaching Canseau, they met Ralleau, the secretary of de Monts, who informed them that a vessel had been despatched under the command of Poutrincourt, with fifty settlers for the country. They, therefore, returned to Port Royal, where they found Poutrincourt, who as lieutenant-general of de Monts intended to remain at Port Royal during the year.

On September 5th, Champlain left Port Royal on a voyage of discovery.

Poutrincourt joined the expedition, and they took with them a physician, the carpenter Champdore, and Robert Grave, the son of Francois. This last voyage, undertaken to please de Monts, did not result in anything remarkable. They first paid a visit to Ste. Croix, where everything remained unchanged, although the gardens were flourishing. From Ste.

Croix the expedition drifted southwards, and Champlain pointed out the same bays, harbours, capes and mountains that he had observed before.

Schoudon, chief of the Etchemins, and Messamouet, captain of the Micmacs, joined the party, and proceeded with them as far as Chouacouet, where they intended to form an alliance with Olmechin and Marchim, two Indian chiefs of this country.

On October 2nd, 1606, the expedition reached Mallebarre, and for a few days they anch.o.r.ed in a bay near Cape Batturier, which they named Port Fortune (Chatham). Five or six hundred savages were found at this place.

"It would be an excellent place," says Champlain, "to erect buildings, and lay the foundation of a state, if the harbour was somewhat deeper and the entrance safer." Poutrincourt stopped here for some days, and in the meantime visited all the surrounding country, from which he returned much pleased.

According to a custom peculiar to the French since the days of Jacques Cartier, de Monts had planted a large cross at the entrance of the Kennebec River, and also at Mallebarre. Poutrincourt did the same at Port Fortune. The Indians seemed annoyed at this ceremony, which they evidently considered as an encroachment upon their rights as proprietors. They exhibited symptoms of discontent, and during the night they killed four Frenchmen who had imprudently stayed ash.o.r.e. They were buried near the cross. This the Indians immediately threw down, but Poutrincourt ordered it to be restored to its former position.

On three different occasions the party attempted to pursue their discoveries southwards, but they were prevented each time by a contrary wind. They therefore resolved to return to Port Royal, which was rendered imperative both by the approach of winter and the scarcity of provisions. The result of the voyage was not altogether satisfactory.

Champlain had perhaps held a degree further south than on the former occasion, but he had not discovered anything of importance.

On their return to Port Royal, the voyagers were received with great ceremony. Lescarbot, a Parisian lawyer, who had arrived some time before, and some other Frenchmen, went to meet them and conducted them to the fort, which had been decorated with evergreens and inscriptions.

On the princ.i.p.al door they had placed the arms of France, surrounded with laurel crowns, and the king's motto: _Duo protegit unus_. Beneath the arms of de Monts was placed this inscription: _Dabit Deus his quoque finem_. The arms of Poutrincourt were wreathed with crowns of leaves, with his motto: _In via virtuti nulla est via_. Lescarbot had composed a short drama for the occasion, ent.i.tled, _Le Theatre de Neptune_.

The winter of 1606-07 was not very severe. The settlers lived happily in spite of the scurvy, from which some of them died. Hunting afforded them the means of providing a great variety of dishes, such as geese, ducks, bears, beavers, partridges, reindeer, bustards, etc. They also organized a society devoted to good cheer called, _Ordre du Bon Temps_, the by-laws of which were definite, and were fixed by Champlain himself. The Indians of the vicinity who were friendly towards the French colony were in need of food, so that each day loaves of bread were distributed amongst them. Their _sagamo_, named Membertou, was admitted as a guest to the table of Poutrincourt. This famous Souriquois, who was very old at that time--probably a hundred years, though he had not a single white hair--pretended to have known Jacques Cartier at the time of his first voyage, and claimed that in 1534 he was married, and the father of a young family.

Lescarbot, who was an able man and a good historian, records the particulars above related, besides many other interesting facts concerning Port Royal which appear to have escaped Champlain's observation. Lescarbot was an active spirit in the life of the first French colony in Acadia. He encouraged his companions to cultivate their land, and he worked himself in the gardens, sowing wheat, oats, beans, pease, and herbs, which he tended with care. He was also liked by the Indians, and he would have rejoiced to see them converted to Christianity. Lescarbot was a poet and a preacher, and had also a good knowledge of the arts and of medicine. Charlevoix says: "He daily invented something new for the public good. And there was never a stronger proof of what a new settlement might derive from a mind cultivated by study, and induced by patriotism to use its knowledge and reflections. We are indebted to this advocate for the best memoirs of what pa.s.sed before his eyes, and for a history of French Florida. We then behold an exact and judicious writer, a man with views of his own, and who would have been as capable of founding a colony as of writing its history."

With the departure of Lescarbot and Champlain the best page of the history of Port Royal is closed. The two men left on September 2nd, 1607, on board the _Jonas_, commanded by Nicholas Martin. They stopped at Roscoff in Ba.s.se-Bretagne, and the vessel arrived at Havre de Grace in the early days of October.

Poutrincourt, his son Biencourt, and Lescarbot made a pilgrimage to Mont St. Michel, and Champlain went to Brouage, his native country, having sojourned in America for three years and five months.

FOOTNOTES:

[5] Norembega was the name applied at that time to a vast tract of country whose limits were nearly unknown. There was a river and a cape called Norembega. The river is now the Pen.o.bscot, and the cape is the southern extremity of the Acadian peninsula.

[6] The Indians called this island _Pemetig_, which means _the island which is ahead_. The French settled here in 1613, and founded St.

Sauveur on the north-eastern coast, in a splendid harbour which is to-day known as Bar Harbour. The remains of many of the French who were killed during the contest with the English, were interred at Point Fernald. At the point nearest the mainland there is a bridge of seven hundred feet in length, which communicates with the town of Trenton.

[7] Champlain called the river _Peimtegouet_. This word means _the place of a river where rapids exist_. The English have given their preference to the word _Pen.o.bscot_, which comes from the Indian _Penaouasket, the place where the earth is covered with stones_.

[8] The Pilgrim Fathers, the founders of New England, landed at this place, which they named Plymouth, to preserve the name of the English city from which they had sailed.

CHAPTER III

THE FOUNDING OF QUEBEC

After his return to France, as before described, Champlain had an interview with de Monts, and laid before him the journal which he had prepared of his explorations in America, together with plans of the ports and coasts which he had minutely examined during his visits.

Champlain proposed to de Monts to continue his explorations, and advanced some reasons for prosecuting an enterprise upon which a large sum had been already expended, and which he was persuaded would ultimately afford the means of repairing their fortunes. De Monts, owing to the failure of his own efforts as a colonizer, was not at first inclined to listen to Champlain's proposals, but he was finally convinced of the wisdom of his suggestions, and appointed him lieutenant of an expedition to Quebec for the purpose of trading with the Indians.

The expedition was to return to France during the same year. De Monts obtained another commission from the king, dated at Paris, January 9th, 1608, which gave him the monopoly of the fur trade in the lands, ports and rivers of Canada for a period of one year. Two vessels were equipped for this expedition, the _Don de Dieu_, captain Henry Couillard, and the _Levrier_, captain Nicholas Marion. Champlain was given the command of the former vessel, and Pont-Grave was in command of the latter. The _Levrier_ sailed from France on April 5th, and the _Don de Dieu_ eight days later. The two vessels proceeded directly to Tadousac, without calling at Perce, according to the usual custom.

On the arrival of the _Don de Dieu_ at Tadousac, Champlain found that Pont-Grave had been attacked by Captain Darache, a Basque, who continued to trade furs with the Indians in spite of the king's commands. Darache had brought all his guns to bear upon the _Levrier_, and Pont-Grave being unable to defend himself, had offered no resistance, whereupon Darache's crew had boarded the vessel and carried off the cannon and arms, at the same time intimating that they would continue to trade as they pleased. The arrival of Champlain, however, altered the situation, and Darache was compelled to sign an agreement by which he pledged himself not to molest Pont-Grave, or to do anything prejudicial to the interest of the king or of de Monts. It was also agreed that all differences should be settled by the authorities in France. After this agreement was effected through Champlain's intervention, the carpenters of the expedition fitted out a small barque to convey to Quebec all the articles necessary for the use of the future settlement.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Building the _Habitation_, Quebec, 1608

From the painting by C.W. Jefferys]

In the meantime Champlain visited the river Saguenay, where he met some Indians from whom he gathered information concerning Lake St. John and its tributaries. The information did not differ greatly from that which he had obtained in the year 1603. Champlain set out from Tadousac on the last day of June and arrived at Quebec on July 3rd, "Where I searched,"

he says, "for a place suitable for our settlement, but I could find none more convenient or better situated than the point of Quebec, so called by the savages, which was covered with nut trees."

Champlain was accompanied by thirty men, amongst whom may be named Nicholas Marsolet, etienne Brle, Bonnerme, a doctor, Jean Duval, Antoine Natel and La Taille. These names are specially recorded.

Champlain immediately employed some workmen to fell trees in order to commence the construction of an _Habitation_. One party was engaged in sawing timber, another in digging a cellar and some ditches, while another party was sent to Tadousac with a barque to obtain supplies which had been retained in the ships. Such was the beginning of Champlain's city. Nothing great, it will be admitted, for a settlement which its founder hoped before long would become the great warehouse of New France.

Until this date the merchants had traded with the Indians only in those places where they could easily be met, and even Chauvin, who was mentioned in a previous chapter, had not gone further than Tadousac.

Neither Three Rivers, nor the islands of Sorel at the entrance of the Iroquois River, now called the Richelieu River, were known to French navigators at this period, and although these places were easily accessible to the aborigines, they were not so available as Quebec.

Champlain well understood the advantages of founding his city on a spot naturally fortified and where he could readily defend himself against the attack of an enemy, whose approach he expected sooner or later. The first foes, however, whom Champlain had to encounter were not the Indians, but his own countrymen, members of his crew who under various pretexts sought to kill their chief and give the command of the settlement to the Basques. Jean Duval, the king's locksmith, was the leader of this conspiracy against Champlain, and a.s.sociated with him were four vicious sailors to whom he promised a part of the reward which had been offered for this treason. The conspirators agreed to preserve secrecy, and fixed the night of the fourth day for the a.s.sa.s.sination of their chief.

On the day upon which the plot was to be put into execution, Captain Le Testu[9] arrived from Tadousac in command of a vessel laden with provisions, utensils, etc. After the vessel was unloaded, one of the conspirators, a locksmith named Natel, approached the captain and acquainted him with the details of the plot. Champlain also listened to the man's account and promised to observe secrecy, although he took precautions to frustrate the scheme by inviting the leader and the four conspirators to an entertainment on board Captain Le Testu's barque.

The men accepted the invitation, and as soon as they were on board they were seized and held in custody until the following day. The deposition of each man was then taken by Champlain in the presence of the pilot and sailors, and set down in writing, after which the "worthies" were sent to Tadousac, where Champlain requested Pont-Grave to guard them for a time. Some days after the men were returned to Quebec, where they were placed on trial for attempted murder.

The jury was composed of Champlain, Pont-Grave, Le Testu, Bonnerme, the mate and the second mate, and some sailors. The verdict was unanimous.

Duval was condemned to death on the spot as the instigator of the plot, and the others were also sentenced to death, but their sentence was to be carried out in France. Duval was strangled at Quebec, and his head was placed on a pike which was set up in the most conspicuous part of the fort. This was the second example of capital punishment in New France. The first case recorded was at Charlesbourg Royal, or Cap-Rouge, near Quebec, in the winter of 1542-3, when Michel Gaillon, one of Roberval's companions, was put to death.