Voyages of Samuel De Champlain Volume I Part 21

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 sh.o.r.e.

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 sh.o.r.e. 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 sh.o.r.e are low, while the interior is high. They are not so attractive or fertile as those on the south sh.o.r.e, although lower.

This is precisely what I have seen of this northern sh.o.r.e.

ENDNOTES:

230. _evesque_ This cape cannot be identified.

231. On pa.s.sing to the northern sh.o.r.e of the St. Lawrence, they entered, according to the conjecture of Laverdiere, 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 Cha.s.se, where they might have found good anchorage and a rocky sh.o.r.e. The true lat.i.tude is say, about 50 deg.

9'. The lat.i.tude 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 sh.o.r.e, which may then have been an island formed by the moving sands.--_Vide Bayfield's charts_.

233. Rock River, in lat.i.tude 50 deg. 2'.

234. Point De Monts. The Abbe Laverdiere, 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 Laverdiere, a typographical error. The distance to Point De Monts is, in fact, eighteen leagues.

235. Point St Nicholas.--_Laverdiere_. This is probably the point referred to, although the distance is again three times too great.

236. The Manicouagan River.--_Laverdiere_. 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 Riviere 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_ Laverdiere, _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 Laverdiere 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 Laverdiere, _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.

CHAPTER XII.

CEREMONIES OF THE SAVAGES BEFORE ENGAGING IN WAR--OF THE ALMOUCHICOIS SAVAGES AND THEIR STRANGE FORM--NARRATIVE OF SIEUR DE PREVERT OF ST. MALO ON THE EXPLORATION OF THE LA CADIAN COAST, WHAT MINES THERE ARE THERE; THE EXCELLENCE AND FERTILITY OF THE COUNTRY.

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 a.s.sembled 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 quant.i.ties 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 Percee, 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 a.s.surance 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 quant.i.ty 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 lat.i.tude 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.

ENDNOTES:

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 Ma.s.sachusetts, if accurately reported, is far from correct. _Vide_ Champlain's description of them, Vol. II. p. 63, _et pa.s.sim_.

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 lat.i.tude 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.

CHAPTER XIII.

A TERRIBLE MONSTER, WHICH THE SAVAGES CALL GOUGOU--OUR SHORT AND FAVORABLE VOYAGE BACK TO FRANCE

There is, moreover, a strange matter, worthy of being related, which several savages have a.s.sured 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 a.s.sured 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 pa.s.sed 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 Grave 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 Gaspe, 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 G.o.d's grace, to the joy of all, and with a continued favorable wind, at the port of Havre de Grace.

ENDNOTES:

249. The description of this enchanted island is too indefinite to invite a conjecture of its ident.i.ty 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 pa.s.sed from his memory.