Voyages of Samuel De Champlain Volume I Part 5

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 Fortune_ In giving this name there was doubtless an allusion to the G.o.ddess 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 Soupconneuse_. _Vide_ Vol. II, Note 227.

CHAPTER V.

RECEPTION OK THE EXPLORERS AT ANNAPOLIS BASIN.--A DREARY WINTER RELIEVED BY THE ORDER OF BON TEMPS.--NEWS FROM FRANCE.--BIRTH OF A PRINCE.--RUIN OF DE MONTS'S COMPANY--TWO EXCURSIONS AND DEPARTURE FOR FRANCE.--CHAMPLAIN'S EXPLORATIONS COMPARED.--DE MONTS'S NEW CHARTER FOR ONE YEAR AND CHAMPLAIN'S RETURN IN 1608 TO NEW FRANCE AND THE FOUNDING OF QUEBEC.--CONSPIRACY OF DU VAL AND HIS EXECUTION.

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 _eclat_ 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.--

DVO PROTEGIT VNVS.

Under this, the arms of De Monts were displayed, overlaid with evergreen, and bearing the following inscription:--

DABIT DEVS HIS QVOQVE FINEM.

Then came the arms of Poutrincourt, crowned also with garlands, and inscribed:--

IN VIA VIRTVTI NVLLA EST VIA.

When the excitement of the return had pa.s.sed, 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 antic.i.p.ation 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 a.s.sociations 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 appet.i.te. 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 pa.s.sed, 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 sh.o.r.es 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 circ.u.mstances, 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, pa.s.sing 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 sh.o.r.es of Nova Scotia, entered Mines Channel, and anch.o.r.ed 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 a.s.sembled savages, with whom they had lived in friendship, and who were disappointed and grieved at their departure. In pa.s.sing round the peninsula of Nova Scotia in their little shallop, it was necessary to keep close in upon the sh.o.r.e, which enabled Champlain, who had not before been upon the coast east of La Heve, 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 sh.o.r.es 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 Heve 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 sh.o.r.e from Canseau, the eastern limit of Nova Scotia, to the Vineyard Sound on the southern boundaries of Ma.s.sachusetts. 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 pa.s.sed along the coast of New England: Sebastian Cabot, Estevan Gomez, Jean Alfonse, Andre 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 ill.u.s.tration of the geography of the New England coast. [57]

The winter of 1607-8 Champlain pa.s.sed 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, ill.u.s.trating 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 s.p.a.ce 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 Grave, 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 Grave, 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 Grave, who had but little power of resistance, killing one of his men, seriously wounding Pont Grave himself, as well as several others, and had forcibly taken possession of his whole armament.

When Champlain had made full inquiries into all the circ.u.mstances, 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 Grave 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 surpa.s.sing grandeur and beauty. A narrow belt of fertile land formed by the crumbling _debris_ 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 a.s.sa.s.sinate 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 a.s.surance 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 Grave and the princ.i.p.al 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 Grave, 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 circ.u.mstances, 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 const.i.tution.

ENDNOTES:

56. _Membertou_. See Pierre Biard's account of his death in 1611.

_Relations des Jesuites_. Quebec ed, Vol. I. p. 32.

57. Had the distinguished navigators who early visited the coasts of North America ill.u.s.trated 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 pa.s.ses along our coast.--

"This sh.o.r.eland 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 gra.s.sy 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 s.p.a.cious harbors, in many of which the navies of nations might safely ride at anchor.... Especially attractive was the region between the Piscataqua and Pen.o.bscot in its marvellous beauty of sh.o.r.e and sea, of island and inlet, of bay and river and harbor, surpa.s.sing 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.