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Voyages of Samuel de Champlain, Vol. 1 by Samuel de Champlain

S >> Samuel de Champlain >> Voyages of Samuel de Champlain, Vol. 1




ENDNOTES:

249. The description of this enchanted island is too indefinite to invite a
conjecture of its identity or location. The resounding noise of the
breaking waves, mingled with the whistling of the wind, might well lay
a foundation for the fears of the Indians, and their excited
imaginations would easily fill out and complete the picture. In
Champlain's time, the belief in the active agency of good and evil
spirits, particularly the latter, in the affairs of men, was
universal. It culminated in this country in the tragedies of the Salem
witchcraft in 1692. It has since been gradually subsiding, but
nevertheless still exists under the mitigated form of spiritual
communications. Champlain, sharing the credulity of his times, very
naturally refers these strange phenomena reported by the savages,
whose statements were fully accredited and corroborated by the
testimony of his countryman, M. Prevert, to the agency of some evil
demon, who had taken up his abode in that region in order to vex and
terrify these unhappy Indians. As a faithful historian, he could not
omit this story, but it probably made no more impression upon his mind
than did the thousand others of a similar character with which he must
have been familiar He makes no allusion to it in the edition of 1613,
when speaking of the copper mines in that neighborhood, nor yet in
that of 1632, and it had probably passed from his memory.




CHAMPLAIN'S EXPLANATION

OF THE

CARTE DE LA NOVVELLE FRANCE.

1632.

TABLE FOR FINDING THE PROMINENT PLACES ON THE MAP.

A. _Baye des Isles_. [1]

B. _Calesme_. [2]

C. _Baye des Trespasses_.

D. _Cap de Leuy_. [3]

E. _Port du Cap de Raye_, where the cod-fishery is carried on.

F. The north-west coast of Newfoundland, but little known.

G. Passage to the north at the 52d degree. [4]

H. _Isle St. Paul_, near Cape St Lawrence

I. _Isle de Sasinou_, between Monts Deserts and Isles aux Corneilles. [5]

K. _Isle de Mont-real_, at the Falls of St. Louis, some eight or nine
leagues in circuit. [6]

L. _Riuiere Jeannin_. [7]

M. _Riuiere St. Antoine_, [8]

N. Kind of salt water discharging into the sea, with ebb and flood,
abundance of fish and shell-fish, and in some places oysters of not very
good flavor. [9]

P. _Port aux Coquilles_, an island at the mouth of the River St. Croix,
with good fishing. [10]

Q. Islands where there is fishing. [11]

R. _Lac de Soissons_. [12]

S. _Baye du Gouffre_. [13]

T. _Isle de Monts Deserts_, very high.

V. _Isle S. Barnabe_, in the great river near the Bic.

X. _Lesquemain_, where there is a small river, abounding in salmon and
trout, near which is a little rocky islet, where there was formerly a
station for the whale fishery. [14]

Y. _La Pointe aux Allouettes_, where, in the month of September, there are
numberless larks, also other kinds of game and shell-fish.

Z. _Isle aux Lieures_, so named because some hares were captured there when
it was first discovered. [15]

2. _Port a Lesquille_, dry at low tide, where are two brooks coming from
the mountains. [16]

3. _Port au Saulmon_, dry at low tide. There are two small islands here,
abounding, in the season, with strawberries, raspberries, and _bluets_.
[17] Near this place is a good roadstead for vessels, and two small brooks
flowing into the harbor.

4. _Riuiere Platte_, coming from the mountains, only navigable for canoes.
It is dry here at low tide a long distance out. Good anchorage in the
offing.

5. _Isles aux Couldres_, some league and a half long, containing in their
season great numbers of rabbits, partridges, and other kinds of game. At
the southwest point are meadows, and reefs seaward. There is anchorage here
for vessels between this island and the mainland on the north.

6. _Cap de Tourmente_, a league from which Sieur de Champlain had a
building erected, which was burned by the English in 1628. Near this place
is Cap Brusle, between which and Isle aux Coudres is a channel, with eight,
ten, and twelve fathoms of water. On the south the shore is muddy and
rocky. To the north are high lands, &c.

7. _Isle d'Orleans_, six leagues in length, very beautiful on account of
its variety of woods, meadows, vines, and nuts. The western point of this
island is called Cap de Conde.

8. _Le Sault de Montmorency_, twenty fathoms high, [18] formed by a river
coming from the mountains, and discharging into the St. Lawrence, a league
and a half from Quebec.

9. _Riviere S. Charles_, coming from Lac S. Joseph, [19] very beautiful
with meadows at low tide. At full tide barques can go up as far as the
first fall. On this river are built the churches and quarters of the
reverend Jesuit and Recollect Fathers. Game is abundant here in spring and
autumn.

10. _Riviere des Etechemins_, [20] by which the savages go to Quinebequi,
crossing the country with difficulty, on account of the falls and little
water. Sieur de Champlain had this exploration made in 1628, and found a
savage tribe, seven days from Quebec, who till the soil, and are called the
Abenaquiuoit.

11. _Riviere de Champlain_, near that of Batisquan, north-west of the
Grondines.

12. _Riviere de Sauvages_ [21]

13. _Isle Verte_, five or six leagues from Tadoussac. [22]

14. _Isle de Chasse_.

15. _Riviere Batisquan_, very pleasant, and abounding in fish.

16. _Les Grondines_, and some neighboring islands. A good place for hunting
and fishing.

17. _Riviere des Esturgeons & Saulmons_, with a fall of water from fifteen
to twenty feet high, two leagues from Saincte Croix, which descends into a
small pond discharging into the great river St. Lawrence. [23]

18. _Isle de St. Eloy_, with a passage between the island and the mainland
on the north. [24]

19. _Lac S. Pierre_, very beautiful, three to four fathoms in depth, and
abounding in fish, surrounded by hills and level tracts, with meadows in
places. Several small streams and brooks flow into it.

20. _Riviere du Gast_, very pleasant, yet containing but little water. [25]

21. _Riviere Sainct Antoine_. [26]

22. _Riviere Saincte Suzanne_. [27]

23. _Riviere des Yrocois_, very beautiful, with many islands and meadows.
It comes from Lac de Champlain, five or fix days' journey in length,
abounding in fish and game of different kinds. Vines, nut, plum, and
chestnut trees abound in many places. There are meadows and very pretty
islands in it. To reach it, it is necessary to pass one large and one small
fall. [28]

24. _Sault de Riviere du Saguenay_, fifty leagues from Tadoussac, ten or
twelve fathoms high. [29]

25. _Grand Sault_, which falls some fifteen feet, amid a large number of
islands. It is half a league in length and three leagues broad. [30]

26. _Port au Mouton_.

27. _Baye de Campseau_.

28. _Cap Baturier_, on the Isle de Sainct Jean.

29. A river by way of which they go to the Baye Francoise. [31]

30. _Chasse des Eslans_. [32]

31. _Cap de Richelieu_, on the eastern part of the Isle d'Orleans. [33]

32. A small bank near Isle du Cap Breton.

33. _Riviere des Puans_, coming from a lake where there is a mine of pure
red copper. [34]

34. _Sault de Gaston_, nearly two leagues broad, and discharging into the
Mer Douce. It comes from another very large lake, which, with the Mer
Douce, have an extent of thirty days' journey by canoe, according to the
report of the savages. [35]

_Returning to the Gulf of St. Lawrence and Coast of La Cadie_.

35. _Riuiere de Gaspey_. [36]

36. _Riuiere de Chaleu_. [37]

37. Several Islands near Miscou and the harbor of Miscou, between two
islands.

38. _Cap de l'Isle Sainct Jean_. [38]

39. _Port au Rossignol_.

40. _Riuiere Platte_. [39]

41. _Port du Cap Naigre_. On the bay by this cape there is a French
settlement, where Sieur de la Tour commands, from whom it was named Port la
Tour. The Reverend Recollect Fathers dwelt here in 1630. [40]

42. _Baye du Cap de Sable_.

43. _Baye Saine_. [41]

44. _Baye Courante_, with many islands abounding in game, good fishing, and
places favorable for vessels. [42]

45. _Port du Cap Fourchu_, very pleasant, but very nearly dry at low tide.
Near this place are many islands, with good hunting.

47. _Petit Passage de Isle Longue_. Here there is good cod-fishing.

48. _Cap des Deux Bayes_. [43]

49. _Port des Mines_, where, at low tide, small pieces of very pure copper
are to be found in the rocks along the shore. [44]

50. _Isles de Bacchus_, very pleasant, containing many vines, nut,
plum, and other trees. [45]

51. Islands near the mouth of the river Chouacoet.

52. _Isles Assez Hautes_, three or four in number, two or three leagues
distant from the land, at the mouth of Baye Longue. [46]

53. _Baye aux Isles_, with suitable harbors for vessels. The country is
very good, and settled by numerous savages, who till the land. In these
localities are numerous cypresses, vines, and nut-trees. [47]

54. _La Soupconneuse_, an island nearly a league distant from the land.
[48]

55. _Baye Longue_. [49]

56. _Les Sept Isles_. [50]

57. _Riuiere des Etechemins_. [51] _The Virginias, where the English are
settled, between the 36th and 37th degrees of latitude. Captains Ribaut and
Laudonniere made explorations 36 or 37 years ago along the coasts adjoining
Florida, and established a settlement_. [52]

58. Several rivers of the Virginias, flowing into the Gulf.

59. Coast inhabited by savages who till the soil, which is very good.

60. _Poincte Confort_. [53]

61. _Immestan_. [54]

62. _Chesapeacq Bay_.

63. _Bedabedec_, the coast west of the river Pemetegoet. [55]

64. _Belles Prairies_.

65. Place on Lac Champlain where the Yroquois were defeated by Sieur
Champlain in 1606. [56]

66. _Petit Lac_, by way of which they go to the Yroquois, after passing
over that of Champlain. [57]

67. _Baye des Trespassez_, on the island of Newfoundland.

68. _Chappeau Rouge_.

69. _Baye du Sainct Esprit_.

70. _Les Vierges_.

71. _Port Breton_, near Cap Sainct Laurent, on Isle du Cap Breton.

72. _Les Bergeronnettes_, three leagues from Tadoussac.

73. _Le Cap d'Espoir_, near Isle Percee. [58]

74. _Forillon_, at Poincte de Gaspey.

75. _Isle de Mont-real_, at the Falls of St. Louis, in the River St.
Lawrence. [59]

76. _Riuiere des Prairies_, coming from a lake at the Falls of St. Louis,
where there are two islands, one of which is Montreal For several years
this has been a station for trading with the savages. [60]

77. _Sault de la Chaudiere_, on the river of the Algonquins, some
eighteen feet high, and descending among rocks with a great roar. [61]

78. _Lac de Nibachis_, the name of a savage captain who dwells here and
tills a little land, where he plants Indian corn. [62]

79. Eleven lakes, near each other, one, two, and three leagues in extent,
and abounding in fish and game. Sometimes the savages go this way in order
to avoid the Fall of the Calumets, which is very dangerous. Some of these
localities abound in pines, yielding a great amount of resin. [63]

80. _Sault des Pierres a Calunmet_, which resemble alabaster.

81. _Isle de Tesouac_, an Algonquin captain (_Tesouac_) to
whom the savages pay a toll for allowing them passage to Quebec. [64]

82. _La Riuiere de Tesouac_, in which there are five falls. [65]

83. A river by which many savages go to the North Sea, above the Saguenay,
and to the Three Rivers, going some distance overland. [66]

84. The lakes by which they go to the North Sea.

85. A river extending towards the North Sea.

86. Country of the Hurons, so called by the French, where there are
numerous communities, and seventeen villages fortified by three palisades
of wood, with a gallery all around in the form of a parapet, for defence
against their enemies. This region is in latitude 44 deg. 30', with a
fertile soil cultivated by the savages.

87. Passage of a league overland, where the canoes are carried.

88. A river discharging into the _Mer Douce_. [67]

89. Village fortified by four palisades, where Sieur de Champlain went in
the war against the Antouhonorons, and where several savages were taken
prisoners. [68]

90. Falls at the extremity of the Falls of St. Louis, very high, where many
fish come down and are stunned. [69]

91. A small river near the Sault de la Chaudiere, where there is a
waterfall nearly twenty fathoms high, over which the water flows in such
volume and with such velocity that a long arcade is made, beneath which the
savages go for amusement, without getting wet. It is a fine sight. [70]

92. This river is very beautiful, with numerous islands of various sizes.
It passes through many fine lakes, and is bordered by beautiful meadows. It
abounds in deer and other animals, with fish of excellent quality. There
are many cleared tracts of land upon it, with good soil, which have been
abandoned by the savages on account of their wars. It discharges into Lake
St. Louis, and many tribes come to these regions to hunt and obtain their
provision for the winter. [71]

93. Chestnut forest, where there are great quantities of chestnuts, on the
borders of Lac St Louis. Also many meadows, vines, and nut-trees. [72]

94. Lake-like bodies of salt water at the head of Baye Francois, where the
tide ebbs and flows. Islands containing many birds, many meadows in
different localities, small rivers flowing into these species of lakes, by
which they go to the Gulf of St. Lawrence, near Isle S. Jean. [73]

95. _Isle Haute_, a league in circuit, and flat on top. It contains fresh
water and much wood. It is a league distant from Port aux Mines and Cap des
Deux Bayes. It is more than forty fathoms high on all sides, except in one
place, where it slopes, and where there is a pebbly point of a triangular
shape. In the centre is a pond with salt water. Many birds make their nests
in this island.

96. _La Riuiere des Algommequins_, extending from the Falls of St Louis
nearly to the Lake of the Bissereni, containing more than eighty falls,
large and small, which must be passed by going around, by rowing, or by
hauling with ropes. Some of these falls are very dangerous, particularly in
going down. [74]

_Gens de Petun_. This is a tribe cultivating this herb (_tobacco_), in
which they carry on an extensive traffic with the other tribes. They have
large towns, fortified with wood, and they plant Indian corn.

_Cheveux Releuez_. These are savages who wear nothing about the loins, and
go stark naked, except in winter, when they clothe themselves in robes of
skins, which they leave off when they quit their houses for the fields.
They are great hunters, fishermen, and travellers, till the soil, and plant
Indian corn. They dry _bluets_ [75] and raspberries, in which they carry on
an extensive traffic with the other tribes, taking in exchange skins,
beads, nets, and other articles. Some of these people pierce the nose, and
attach beads to it They tattoo their bodies, applying black and other
colors. They wear their hair very straight, and grease it, painting it red,
as they do also the face.

_La Nation Neutre_. This is a people that maintains itself against all the
others. They engage in war only with the Assistaqueronons. They are very
powerful, having forty towns well peopled.

_Les Antouhonorons_. They consist of fifteen towns built in strong
situations. They are enemies of all the other tribes, except Neutral
nation. Their country is fine, with a good climate, and near the river St.
Lawrence, the passage of which they forbid to all the other tribes, for
which reason it is less visited by them. They till the soil, and plant
their land. [76] _Les Yroquois_. They unite with the Antouhonorons in
making war against all the other tribes, except the Neutral nation.

_Carantouanis_. This is a tribe that has moved to the south of the
Antouhonorons, and dwells in a very fine country, where it is securely
quartered. They are friends of all the other tribes, except the above named
Antouhonorons, from whom they are only three days' journey distant. Once
they took as prisoners some Flemish, but sent them back again without doing
them any harm, supposing that they were French. Between Lac St. Louis and
Sault St. Louis, which is the great river St Lawrence, there are five
falls, numerous fine lakes, and pretty islands, with a pleasing country
abounding in game and fish, favorable for settlement, were it not for the
wars which the savages carry on with each other.

_La Mer Douce_ is a very large lake, containing a countless number of
islands. It is very deep, and abounds in fish of all varieties and of
extraordinary size, which are taken at different times and seasons, as in
the great sea. The southern shore is much pleasanter than the northern,
where there are many rocks and great quantities of caribous.

_Le Lac des Bisserenis_ is very beautiful, some twenty-five leagues in
circuit, and containing numerous islands covered with woods and meadows.
The savages encamp here, in order to catch in the river sturgeon, pike, and
carp, which are excellent and of very great size, and taken in large
numbers. Game is also abundant, although the country is not particularly
attractive, it being for the most part rocky.

[NOTE.--The following are marked on the map as places where the French have
had settlements: 1. Grand Cibou; 2. Cap Naigre; 3. Port du Cap Fourchu; 4.
Port Royal; 5. St. Croix; 6. Isle des Monts Deserts; 7. Port de Miscou; 8.
Tadoussac; 9. Quebec; 10. St. Croix, near Quebec.]

ENDNOTES:

1. It is to be observed that some of the letters and figures are not found
on the map. Among the rest, the letter A is wanting. It is impossible of
course to tell with certainty to what it refers, particularly as the
places referred to do not occur in consecutive order. The Abbe
Laverdiere thinks this letter points to the bay of Boston or what we
commonly call Massachusetts Bay, or to the Bay of all Isles as laid down
by Champlain on the eastern coast of Nova Scotia.

2. On the southern coast of Newfoundland, now known as _Placentia Bay_.

3. Point Levi, opposite Quebec.

4. The letter G is wanting, but the reference is plainly to the Straits of
Belle Isle, as may be seen by reference to the map.

5. This island was somewhere between Mount Desert and Jonesport; not
unlikely it was that now known as Petit Manan. It was named after
Sasanou, chief of the River Kennebec. _Vide_ Vol. II. p. 58.

6. The underestimate is so great, that it is probable that the author
intended to say that the length of the island is eight or nine leagues.

7. The Boyer, east of Quebec. It appears to have been named after the
President Jeannin. _Vide antea_, p.112.

8. A river east of the Island of Orleans now called Riviere du Sud.

9. N is wanting.

10. A harbor at the north-eastern extremity of the island of Campobello.
_Vide_ Vol II. p. 100.

11. Q is wanting. The reference is perhaps to the islands in Penobscot Bay.

12. Lac de Soissons So named after Charles de Bourbon, Count de Soissons, a
Viceroy of New France in 1612. _Vide antea_, p 112. Now known as the
Lake of Two Mountains.

13. A bay at the mouth of a river of this name now called St. Paul's Bay,
near the Isle aux Coudres. _Vide_ Vol. II. note 305.

14. _Vide antea_, note 241.

15. An island in the River St Lawrence west of Tadoussac, still called Hare
Island. _Vide antea_, note 148.

16. Figure 2 is not found on the map, and it is difficult to identify the
place referred to.

17. Bluets, _Vaccinium Canadense_, the Canada blueberry. Champlain says it
is a small fruit very good for eating. _Vide_ Quebec ed. Voyage of
1615, p. 509.

18. _Vide_ Vol. II. p. 176.

19. For _Lac S. Joseph_, read Lac S. Charles.

20. Champlain here calls the Chaudiere the River of the Etechemins,
notwithstanding he had before given the name to that now known as the
St. Croix. _Vide_ Vol. II. pp. 30, 47, 60. There is still a little east
of the Chaudiere a river now known as the Etechemin; but the channel of
the Chaudiere would be the course which the Indians would naturally
take to reach the head-waters of the Kennebec, where dwelt the
Abenaquis.

21. River Verte, entering the St. Lawrence on the south of Green Island,
opposite to Tadoussac.

22. Green Island.

23. Jacques Cartier River.

24. Near the Batiscan.

25. Nicolet. _Vide_ Laverdiere's note, Quebec ed. Vol. III. p. 328.

26. River St. Francis.

27. Riviere du Loup.

28. River Richelieu.

29. This number is wanting.

30. The Falls of St Louis, above Montreal. The figures are wanting.

31. One of the small rivers between Cobequid Bay and Cumberland Strait.

32. Moose Hunting, on the west of Gaspe.

33. Argentenay.--_Laverdiere_.

34. Champlain had not been in this region, and consequently obtained his
information from the savages. There is no such lake as he represents on
his map, and this island producing pure copper may have been Isle
Royale, in Lake Superior.

35. The Falls of St. Mary.

36. York River.

37. The Ristigouche.

38. Now called North Point.

39. Probably Gold River, flowing into Mahone Bay.

40. Still called Port La Tour.

41. Halifax Harbor. _Vide_ Vol. II. note 266.

42. _Vide_ Vol. II. note 192.

43. Now Cape Chignecto, in the Bay of Fundy.

44. Advocates' Harbor.

45. Richmond Island _Vide_ note 42 Vol. I. and note 123 Vol. II. of this
work.

46. The Isles of Shoals. _Vide_ Vol. II. note 142.

47. Boston Bay.

48. Martha's Vineyard _Vide_ Vol. II. note 227.

49. Merrimac Bay, as it may be appropriately called stretching from Little
Boar's Head to Cape Anne.

50. These islands appear to be in Casco Bay.

51. The figures are not on the map. The reference is to the Scoudic,
commonly known as the River St Croix.

52. There is probably a typographical error in the figures. The passage
should read "66 or 67 years ago."

53. Now Old Point Comfort.

54. Jamestown, Virginia.

55. _Vide_ Vol. II. note 95.

56. This should read 1609. _Vide_ Vol. II. note 348.

57. Lake George _Vide antea_, note 63. p. 93.

58. This cape still bears the same name.

59. This number is wanting.

60. This river comes from the Lake of Two Mountains, is a branch of the
Ottawa separating the Island of Montreal from the Isle Jesus and flows
into the main channel of the Ottawa two or three miles before it
reaches the eastern end of the Island of Montreal.

61. The Chaudiere Falls are near the site of the city of Ottawa. _Vide
antea_, p. 120.

62. Muskrat Lake.

63. This number is wanting on the map. Muscrat Lake is one of this
succession of lakes, which extends easterly towards the Ottawa.

64. Allumette Island, in the River Ottawa, about eighty-five miles above
the capital of the Dominion of Canada.

65. That part of the River Ottawa which, after its bifurcation, sweeps
around and forms the northern boundary of Allumette Island.

66. The Ottawa beyond its junction with the Matawan.

67. French River.

68. _Vide antea_, note 83, p. 130.

69. Plainly Lake St. Louis, now the Ontario, and not the Falls of St Louis.
The reference is here to Niagara Falls.

70. The River Rideau.

71. The River Trent discharges into the Bay of Quinte, an arm of Lake
Ontario or Lac St Louis.

72. On the borders of Lake Ontario in the State of New York.

73. The head-waters of the Bay of Fundy.

74. The River Ottawa, here referred to, extends nearly to Lake Nipissing,
here spoken of as the lake of the _Bissereni_.

75. The Canada blueberry, Vaccanium Canadense. The aborigines of New
England were accustomed to dry the blueberry for winter's use. _Vide
Josselyn's Rarities_, Tuckerman's ed., Boston, 1865, p. 113.

76. This reference is to the Antouoronons, as given on the map.





THE PRINCE SOCIETY.

[Seal Inscription: In Memory of Thomas Prince]

COMMONWEALTH OF MASSACHUSETTS.

IN THE YEAR ONE THOUSAND EIGHT HUNDRED AND SEVENTY-FOUR.

AN ACT TO INCORPORATE THE PRINCE SOCIETY.

_Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives, in General
Court assembled, and by the authority of the same, as follows_:

SECTION I. John Ward Dean, J. Wingate Thornton, Edmund F. Slafter, and
Charles W. Tuttle, their associates and successors, are made a corporation
by the name of the PRINCE SOCIETY, for the purpose of preserving and
extending the knowledge of American History, by editing and printing such
manuscripts, rare tracts, and volumes as are mostly confined in their use
to historical students and public libraries.

SECTION 2. Said corporation may hold real and personal estate to an amount
not exceeding thirty thousand dollars.

SECTION 3. This act shall take effect upon its passage.

Approved March 18, 1874.

* * * * *

NOTE.--The Prince Society was organized on the 25th of May, 1858. What was
undertaken as an experiment has proved successful. This ACT OF
INCORPORATION has been obtained to enable the Society better to fulfil its
object, in its expanding growth.

THE PRINCE SOCIETY.

CONSTITUTION.

ARTICLE I.--This Society Shall be called THE PRINCE SOCIETY; and it Shall
have for its object the publication of rare works, in print or manuscript,
relating to America.

Fidel and Che: a revolutionary friendship

After last week's fairly open theme, I thought I'd go with something a bit more structured this time. As I type this, I'm listening to Steeleye Span and thinking about the great ballad traditions of Britain and Ireland. What is a ballad? I suppose the most inclusive definition would be that it's a singable narrative poem: that covers a multitude but will do for the moment.

Ballads in English stretch back to the middle ages, with fine examples to be found among the Scottish border ballads and the English Robin Hood poems. These early ballads are among the best-known poems and stories in the language, and form part of the common heritage of English speakers everywhere. They gave rise to a tradition of ballad-making that endures down to the present day.

In fact, most poets since have tried their hand at the ballad at one time or another, and the result has been to deny any definition more specific than the one I ventured in my first paragraph. If you look around the internet, you'll come up with a wide selection of poems that are called ballads but have little in common formally. Stanza length varies from two to 10 or more lines, and all sorts of metrical and rhyming patterns are used. A good number will be singable in only the loosest possible sense, and at times the narrative tends to get lost in a mesh of more-or-less successful verbal embroidery.

So, what should a ballad be? Well, "proper" ballad stanzas are quatrains in which the first and third lines have four stresses and the second and third have three. The lines will rhyme A-B-C-B or A-B-A-B. It's as simple, and as difficult, as that. Here's an example, from Robert Burns's extremely singable Comin Thro' the Rye:

Gin a body meet a body
          Comin thro' the rye,
Gin a body kiss a body –
          Need a body cry.

Burns wrote a good number of ballads, and his lead was followed by many 19th-century poets. Two examples that I particularly like are Robert Browning's Confessions and Christina Rossetti's Up-Hill, but you can find ballads by just about any Romantic or Victorian poet if you look for them.

There is a long, strong tradition of ballads and ballad singers in Ireland, too. It is hardly surprising, then, that the great appropriator of tradition, WB Yeats, tried his hand at the form. At least four of his poems have the word "ballad" in the title; the pick of the bunch, for my money, is The Ballad of Father Gilligan, which may have benefited from having been written with a specific tune in mind.

Ballads continued to be written in the 20th century; perhaps the most unexpected exponents were Ezra Pound, with his Ballad of the Goodly Fere, and WH Auden. In fact, the ballad The Quarry is probably my favourite Auden poem.

And so, this week I invite a chorus of balladeering. You may choose to go the whole hog and write in ballad stanzas or you might prefer to take a more liberal view of the formal requirements. Either way, sing up and – as they say at all the best Irish sessions when calling for a bit of hush for the singer – one voice please.

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Obituary: Donald Westlake

The disputed Holocaust memoir, written by Herman Rosenblat, which was dropped from Penguin Group's publication schedule at the end of December is now set to appear as a work of fiction.

Rosenblat's memoir - which Oprah Winfrey called "the single greatest love story" she had heard in two decades in television - recounted how as a teenage boy in a Nazi concentration camp, he was kept alive by the food which was thrown to him by a young girl, Roma Radzicky. Penguin's US imprint Berkley Books had planned to publish the story, which sees Rosenblat reunited with Radzicky on a blind date years later, as Angel at the Fence: the True Story of a Love That Survived, next month.

But a Holocaust historian said it would have been impossible to approach the fence in the Schlieben concentration camp to throw food over it, concluding that this part of the story was made-up. Berkley initially defended the book, saying it was a work of memory, but then decided to cancel its planned publication, and demanded the return of the advance it had made to Rosenblat. A $25m film based on the book, to be called The Flower of the Fence, is still going ahead, with production due to start this year.

Publisher York House Press based in White Plains, New York, has entered into a tentative agreement with the film production company to publish a novel based on the film script early this spring. It said the book would be "grounded in fact", and would rise "to the proper levels of artistic value, ethical conduct and social responsibility".

A spokesperson for York House Press condemned the attacks which were made on the 80-year-old Rosenblat after the veracity of his story was questioned, describing them as a "savage" response to what was otherwise "a credible, heart-wrenching, and verifiable account" of his time in the concentration camp.

"No deliberate untruth is permissible, but beneath any fabrication is motivation and intent. We believe Mr. Rosenblat's motivations were very human, understandable and forgivable," the spokesperson said. "It is beyond our expertise to know how Holocaust survivors cope with their trauma. Do they deny, try to forget, rationalise or fantasise and promote fiction along with truth? Perhaps the coping mechanisms are as individual as the survivors themselves."

The president of the company producing the film, Harris Salomon from Atlantic Overseas Productions, said the book, "regardless of its shortcomings", would "challenge, educate and enlighten" readers about the horrors of the Holocaust. "The documented fact, acknowledged by his critics, is that Herman is a survivor of concentration camps," he said.

But Rosenblat's agent, Andrea Hurst, said that neither she nor Rosenblat were involved with this version of his story. "Usually book rights from films come out after the movie is released," she told guardian.co.uk. "I think the timing on this is very insensitive."

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