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

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Having passed the night at Brant Point, they had not advanced more than two
leagues along a sandy shore dotted with wigwams and gardens, when they were
forced to enter a small harbor, to await a more favoring wind. The Indians
flocked about them, greeted them with cordiality, and invited them to enter
the little river which flows into the harbor, but this they were unable to
do, as the tide was low and the depth insufficient. Champlain's attention
was attracted by several canoes in the bay, which had just completed their
morning's work in fishing for cod. The fish were taken with a primitive
hook and line, apparently in a manner not very different from that of the
present day. The line was made of a filament of bark stripped from the
trunk of a tree; the book was of wood, having a sharp bone, forming a barb,
lashed to it with a cord of a grassy fibre, a kind of wild hemp, growing
spontaneously in that region. Champlain landed, distributed trinkets among
the natives, examined and sketched an outline of the place, which
identifies it as Plymouth harbor, which captain John Smith visited in 1614,
and where the May Flower, still six years later landed the first permanent
colony planted upon New England soil.

After a day at Plymouth, the little bark weighed anchor, swept down Cape
Cod, approaching near to the reefs of Billingsgate, describing a complete
semicircle, and finally, with some difficulty, doubled the cape whose white
sands they had seen in the distance glittering in the sunlight and which
appropriately they named _Cap Blanc_. This cape, however, had been visited
three years before by Bartholomew Gosnold, and named Cape Cod, which
appellation it has retained to the present time. Passing down on the
outside of the cape some distance, they came to anchor, sent explorers on
the shore, who ascending on of the lofty sand-banks [47] which may still be
seen there silently resisting the winds and waves, discovered further to
the south, what is now known as Nauset harbor, entirely surrounded by
Indian cabins. The next day, the 20th of July, 1605, they effected an
entrance without much difficulty. The bay was spacious, being nine or ten
miles in circumference. Along the borders, there were, here and there,
cultivated patches, interspersed with dwellings of the natives. The wigwam
was cone-shaped, heavily thatched with reeds, having an orifice at the apex
for the emission of smoke. In the fields were growing Indian corn,
Brazilian beans, pumpkins, radishes, and tobacco; and in the woods were oak
and hickory and red cedar. During their stay in the harbor they encountered
an easterly storm, which continued four days, so raw and chilling that they
were glad to hug their winter cloaks about them on the 22d of July. The
natives were friendly and cordial, and entered freely into conversation
with Champlain; but, as the language of each party was not understood by
the other, the information he obtained from them was mostly by signs, and
consequently too general to be historically interesting or important.

The first and only act of hostility by the natives which De Monts and his
party had thus far experienced in their explorations on the entire coast
occurred in this harbor. Several of the men had gone ashore to obtain fresh
water. Some of the Indians conceived an uncontrollable desire to capture
the copper vessels which they saw in their hands. While one of the men was
stooping to dip water from a spring, one of the savages darted upon him and
snatched the coveted vessel from his hand. An encounter followed, and, amid
showers of arrows and blows, the poor sailor was brutally murdered. The
victorious Indian, fleet as the reindeer, escaped with his companions,
bearing his prize with him into the depths of the forest. The natives on
the shore, who had hitherto shown the greatest friendliness, soon came to
De Monts, and by signs disowned any participation in the act, and assured
him that the guilty parties belonged far in the interior. Whether this was
the truth or a piece of adroit diplomacy, it was nevertheless accepted by
De Monts, since punishment could only be administered at the risk of
causing the innocent to suffer instead of the guilty.

The young sailor whose earthly career was thus suddenly terminated, whose
name even has not come down to us, was doubtless the first European, if we
except Thorvald, the Northman, whose mortal remains slumber in the soil of
Massachusetts.

As this voyage of discovery had been planned and provisioned for only six
weeks, and more than five had already elapsed, on the 25th of July De Monts
and his party left Nauset harbor, to join the colony still lingering at St.
Croix. In passing the bar, they came near being wrecked, and consequently
gave to the harbor the significant appellation of _Port de Mallebarre_, a
name which has not been lost, but nevertheless, like the shifting sands of
that region, has floated away from its original moorings, and now adheres
to the sandy cape of Monomoy.

On their return voyage, they made a brief stop at Saco, and likewise at the
mouth of the Kennebec. At the latter point they had an interview with the
sachem, Anassou, who informed them that a ship had been there, and that the
men on board her had seized, under color of friendship, and killed five
savages belonging to that river. From the description given by Anassou,
Champlain was convinced that the ship was English, and subsequent events
render it quite certain that it was the "Archangel," fitted out by the Earl
of Southampton and Lord Arundel of Wardour, and commanded by Captain George
Weymouth. The design of the expedition was to fix upon an eligible site for
a colonial plantation, and, in pursuance of this purpose, Weymouth anchored
off Monhegan on the 28th of May, 1605, _new style_, and, after spending a
month in explorations of the region contiguous, left for England on the
26th of June. [48] He had seized and carried away five of the natives,
having concealed them in the hold of his ship, and Anassou, under the
circumstances, naturally supposed they had been killed. The statement of
the sachem, that the natives captured belonged to the river where Champlain
then was, namely, the Kennebec, goes far to prove that Weymouth's
explorations were in the Kennebec, or at least in the network of waters
then comprehended under that appellation, and not in the Penobscot or in
any other river farther east, as some historical writers have supposed.

It would appear that while the French were carefully surveying the coasts
of New England, in order to fix upon an eligible site for a permanent
colonial settlement, the English were likewise upon the ground, engaged in
a similar investigation for the same purpose. From this period onward, for
more than a century and a half, there was a perpetual conflict and struggle
for territorial possession on the northern coast of America, between these
two great nations, sometimes active and violent, and at others subsiding
into a semi-slumber, but never ceasing until every acre of soil belonging
to the French had been transferred to the English by a solemn international
compact.

On this exploration, Champlain noticed along the coast from Kennebec to
Cape Cod, and described several objects in natural history unknown in
Europe, such as the horse-foot crab, [49] the black skimmer, and the wild
turkey, the latter two of which have long since ceased to visit this
region.

ENDNOTES:

34. _De Monts's Island_. Of this island Champlain says: "This place was
named by Sieur De Monts the Island of St. Croix."--_Vide_ Vol. II. p.
32, note 86. St. Croix has now for a long time been applied as the name
of the river in which this island is found. The French denominated this
stream the River of the Etechemins, after the name of the tribe of
savages inhabiting its shores. _Vide_ Vol. II. p. 31. It continued to
be so called for a long time. Denys speaks of it under this name in
1672. "Depuis la riviere de Pentagouet, jusques a celle de saint Jean,
il pent y avoir quarante a quarante cinq lieues; la premiere riviere
que l'on rencontre le long de la coste, est celle des Etechemins, qui
porte le nom du pays, depuis Baston jusques au Port royal, dont les
Sauvages qui habitent toute cette etendue, portent aussi le mesme
nom."--_Description Geographique et Historique des Costes de L'Amerique
Septentrionale_, par Nicholas Denys, Paris, 1672, p. 29, _et verso_.

35. Champlain had, by his own explorations and by consulting the Indians,
obtained a very full and accurate knowledge of this island at his first
visit, on the 5th of September, 1604, when he named it _Monts-deserts_,
which we preserve in the English form, MOUNT DESERT. He observed that
the distance across the channel to the mainland on the north side was
less than a hundred paces. The rocky and barren summits of this cluster
of little mountains obviously induced him to give to the island its
appropriate and descriptive name _Vide_ Vol. II. p. 39. Dr. Edward
Ballard derives the Indian name of this island, _Pemetiq_, from
_peme'te_, sloping, and _ki_, land. He adds that it probably denoted a
single locality which was taken by Biard's company as the name of the
whole island. _Vide Report of U. S. Coast Survey_ for 1868, p. 253.

36. Penobscot is a corruption of the Abnaki _pa'na8a'bskek_. A nearly exact
translation is "at the fall of the rock," or "at the descending rock."
_Vide Trumball's Ind. Geog. Names_, Collections Conn. His. Society,
Vol. II. p. 19. This name was originally given probably to some part of
the river to which its meaning was particularly applicable. This may
have been at the mouth of the river a Fort Point, a rocky elevation not
less than eighty feet in height. Or it may have been the "fall of water
coming down a slope of seven or eight feet," as Champlain expresses it,
a short distance above the site of the present city of Bangor. That
this name was first obtained by those who only visited the mouth of the
river would seem to favor the former supposition.

37. Dr. Edward Ballard supposes the original name of this stream,
_Kadesquit_, to be derived from _kaht_, a Micmac word, for _eel_,
denoting _eel stream_, now corrupted into _Kenduskeag_. The present
site of the city of Bangor is where Biard intended to establish his
mission in 1613, but he was finally induced to fix it at Mount
Desert--_Vide Relations des Jesuites_, Quebec ed., Vol. I. p. 44.

38. The other gentlemen whose names we have learned were Messieurs
d'Orville, Champdore, Beaumont, la Motte Bourioli, Fougeray or Foulgere
de Vitre, Genestou, Sourin, and Boulay. The orthography of the names,
as they are mentioned from time to time, is various.

39. _Kennebec_. Biard, in the _Relation, de la Nouvelle France, Relations
des Jesuites_, Quebec ed., Vol. I. p. 35, writes it _Quinitequi_, and
Champlain writes it _Quinibequy_ and _Quinebequi_; hence Mr. Trumball
infers that it is probably equivalent in meaning to _quin-ni-pi-ohke_,
meaning "long water place," derived from the Abnaki, _K8
ne-be-ki_.--_Vide Ind. Geog. Names_, Col. Conn. His. Soc. Vol. II. p.
15.

40. _Vide_ Vol. II. note 110.

41. _Sagadahock_. This name is particularly applied to the lower part of
the Kennebec. It is from the Abnaki, _sa'ghede'aki_, "land at the
mouth."--_Vide Indian Geographical Names_, by J. H. Trumball, Col.
Conn. His. Society, Vol. II. p. 30. Dr. Edward Ballard derives it from
_sanktai-i-wi_, to finish, and _onk_, a locative, "the finishing
place," which means the mouth of a river.--_Vide Report of U. S. Coast
Survey_, 1868, p. 258.

42. _Bacchus Island_. This was Richmond's Island, as we have stated in Vol.
II. note 123. It will be admitted that the Bacchus Island of Champlain
was either Richmond's Island or one of those in the bay of the Saco.
Champlain does not give a specific name to any of the islands in the
bay, as may be seen by referring to the explanations of his map of the
bay, Vol. II p. 65. If one of them had been Bacchus Island, he would
not have failed to refer to it, according to his uniform custom, under
that name. Hence it is certain that his Bacchus Island was not one of
those figured on his local map of the bay of the Saco. By reference to
the large map of 1632, it will be seen that Bacchus Island is
represented by the number 50, which is placed over against the largest
island in the neighborhood and that farthest to the east, which, of
course, must be Richmond's Island. It is, however, proper to state that
these reference figures are not in general so carefully placed as to
enable us to rely upon them in fixing a locality, particularly if
unsupported by other evidence. But in this case other evidence is not
wanting.

43. _Vide_ Vol. II. pp. 64-67.

44. _Nicotiana rustica. Vide_, Vol. II. by Charles Pickering, M.D. Boston,
note 130. _Chronological His. Plants_, 1879, p. 741, _et passim_.

45. Daniel Gookin, who wrote in 1674, speaks of the following subdivisions
among the Massachusetts Indians: "Their chief sachem held dominion over
many other petty governours; as those of Weechagafkas, Neponsitt,
Punkapaog, Nonantam, Nashaway, and some of the Nipmuck people."--_Vide
Gookin's His. Col._

46. _Vide_ Vol. II. note 159. _Mushauiwomuk_, which we have converted into
_Shawmut, means_, "where there is going-by-boat." The French, if they
heard the name and learned its meaning, could hardly have failed to see
the appropriateness of it as applied by the aborigines to Boston
harbor.--_Vide Trumball_ in Connecticut Historical Society's
Collections, Vol. II. p. 5.

47. It was probably on this very bluff from which was seen Nauset harbor on
the 19th of July, 1605, and after the lapse of two hundred and seventy
four years, on the 17th of November, 1879 the citizens of the United
States, with the flags of America, France, and England gracefully
waving over their heads, addressed their congratulations by telegraph
to the citizens of France at Brest on the communication between the two
countries that day completed through submarine wires under the auspices
of the "Compagnie Francaise du Telegraph de Paris a New York."

48. _Vide_ Vol. II. p 91, note 176.

49. The Horsefoot-crab, _Limulus polyphemus_. Champlain gives the Indian
name, _siguenoc_. Hariot saw, while at Roanoke Island, in 1585, and
described the same crustacean under the name of _seekanauk_. The Indian
word is obviously the same, the differing French and English
orthography representing the same sound. It thus appears that this
shell-fish was at that time known by the aborigines under the same name
for at least a thousand miles along the Atlantic coast, from the
Kennebec, in Maine, to Roanoke Island, in North Carolina. _Vide
Hariot's Briefe and True Report of the New Found Land of Virginia_,
Hakluyt, Vol. III. p. 334. See also Vol. II. of this work, notes 171,
172, 173, for some account of the black skimmer and the wild turkey.

CHAPTER IV.

ARRIVAL OF SUPPLIES AND REMOVAL TO PORT ROYAL.--DE MONTS RETURNS TO
FRANCE.--SEARCH FOR MINES.--WINTER.--SCURVY.--LATE ARRIVAL OF SUPPLIES AND
EXPLORATIONS ON THE COAST OF MASSACHUSETTS.--GLOCESTER HARBOR, STAY AT
CHATHAM AND ATTACK OF THE SAVAGES.--WOOD'S HOLL.--RETURN TO ANNAPOLIS
BASIN.

On the 8th of August, the exploring party reached St. Croix. During their
absence, Pont Grave had arrived from France with additional men and
provisions for the colony. As no satisfactory site had been found by De
Monts in his recent tour along the coast, it was determined to remove the
colony temporarily to Port Royal, situated within the bay now known as
Annapolis Basin. The buildings at St. Croix, with the exception of the
store-house, were taken down and transported to the bay. Champlain and Pont
Grave were sent forward to select a place for the settlement, which was
fixed on the north side of the basin, directly opposite to Goat Island,
near or upon the present site of Lower Granville. The situation was
protected from the piercing and dreaded winds of the northwest by a lofty
range of hills, [50] while it was elevated and commanded a charming view of
the placid bay in front. The dwellings which they erected were arranged in
the form of a quadrangle with an open court in the centre, as at St. Croix,
while gardens and pleasure-grounds were laid out by Champlain in the
immediate vicinity.

When the work of the new settlement was well advanced, De Monts, having
appointed Pont Grave as his lieutenant, departed for France, where he hoped
to obtain additional privileges from the government in his enterprise of
planting a colony in the New World. Champlain preferred to remain, with the
purpose of executing more fully his office as geographer to the king, by
making discoveries on the Atlantic coast still further to the south.

From the beginning, the patentee had cherished the desire of discovering
valuable mines somewhere on his domains, whose wealth, as well as that of
the fur-trade, might defray some part of the heavy expenses involved in his
colonial enterprise. While several investigations for this purpose had
proved abortive, it was hoped that greater success would be attained by
searches along the upper part of the Bay of Fundy. Before the approach of
winter, therefore, Champlain and the miner, Master Jaques, a Sclavonian,
made a tour to St. John, where they obtained the services of the Indian
chief, Secondon, to accompany them and point out the place where copper ore
had been discovered at the Bay of Mines. The search, thorough as was
practicable under the circumstances, was, in the main, unsuccessful; the
few specimens which they found were meagre and insignificant.

The winter at Port Royal was by no means so severe as the preceding one at
St. Croix. The Indians brought in wild game from the forests. The colony
had no want of fuel and pure water. But experience, bitter as it had been,
did not yield to them the fruit of practical wisdom. They referred their
sufferings to the climate, but took too little pains to protect themselves
against its rugged power. Their dwellings, hastily thrown together, were
cold and damp, arising from the green, unseasoned wood of which they were
doubtless in part constructed, and from the standing rainwater with which
their foundations were at all times inundated, which was neither diverted
by embankments nor drawn away by drainage. The dreaded _mal de la terre_,
or scurvy, as might have been anticipated, made its appearance in the early
part of the season, causing the death of twelve out of the forty-five
comprising their whole number, while others were prostrated by this
painful, repulsive, and depressing disease.

The purpose of making further discoveries on the southern coast, warmly
cherished by Champlain, and entering fully into the plans of De Monts, had
not been forgotten. Three times during the early part of the summer they
had equipped their barque, made up their party, and left Port Royal for
this undertaking, and as many times had been driven back by the violence of
the winds and the waves.

In the mean time, the supplies which had been promised and expected from
France had not arrived. This naturally gave to Pont Grave, the lieutenant,
great anxiety, as without them it was clearly inexpedient to venture upon
another winter in the wilds of La Cadie. It had been stipulated by De
Monts, the patentee, that if succors did not arrive before the middle of
July, Pont Grave should make arrangements for the return of the colony by
the fishing vessels to be found at the Grand Banks. Accordingly, on the
17th of that month, Pont Grave set sail with the little colony in two
barques, and proceeded towards Cape Breton, to seek a passage home. But De
Monts had not been remiss in his duty. He had, after many difficulties and
delays, despatched a vessel of a hundred and fifty tons, called the
"Jonas," with fifty men and ample provisions for the approaching winter.
While Pont Grave with his two barques and his retreating colony had run
into Yarmouth Bay for repairs, the "Jonas" passed him unobserved, and
anchored in the basin before the deserted settlement of Port Royal. An
advice-boat had, however, been wisely despatched by the "Jonas" to
reconnoitre the inlets along the shore, which fortunately intercepted the
departing colony near Cape Sable, and, elated with fresh news from home,
they joyfully returned to the quarters they had so recently abandoned.

In addition to a considerable number of artisans and laborers for the
colony, the "Jonas" had brought out Sieur De Poutrincourt, to remain as
lieutenant of La Cadie, and likewise Marc Lescarbot, a young attorney of
Paris, who had already made some scholarly attainments, and who
subsequently distinguished himself as an author, especially by the
publication of a history of New France.

De Poutrincourt immediately addressed himself to putting all things in
order at Port Royal, where it was obviously expedient for the colony to
remain, at least for the winter. As soon as the "Jonas" had been unladen,
Pont Grave and most of those who had shared his recent hardships, departed
in her for the shores of France. When the tenements had been cleansed,
refitted, and refurnished, and their provisions had been safely stored, De
Poutrincourt, by way of experiment, to test the character of the climate
and the capability of the soil, despatched a squad of gardeners and farmers
five miles up the river, to the grounds now occupied by the village of
Annapolis, [51] where the soil was open, clear of forest trees, and easy of
cultivation. They planted a great variety of seeds, wheat, rye, hemp, flax,
and of garden esculents, which grew with extraordinary luxuriance, but, as
the season was too late for any of them to ripen, the experiment failed
either as a test of the soil or the climate.

On a former visit in 1604, De Poutrincourt had conceived a great admiration
for Annapolis basin, its protected situation, its fine scenery, and its
rich soil. He had a strong desire to bring his family there and make it his
permanent abode. With this design, he had requested and received from De
Monts a personal grant of this region, which had also been confirmed to him
[52] by Henry IV. But De Monts wished to plant his La Cadian colony in a
milder and more genial climate. He had therefore enjoined upon De
Poutrincourt, as his lieutenant, on leaving France, to continue the
explorations for the selection of a site still farther to the south.
Accordingly, on the 5th of September, 1606, De Poutrincourt left Annapolis
Basin, which the French called Port Royal, in a barque of eighteen tons, to
fulfil this injunction.

It was Champlain's opinion that they ought to sail directly for Nauset
harbor, on Cape Cod, and commence their explorations where their search had
terminated the preceding year, and thus advance into a new region, which
had not already been surveyed. But other counsels prevailed, and a large
part of the time which could be spared for this investigation was exhausted
before they reached the harbor of Nauset. They made a brief visit to the
island of St. Croix, in which De Monts had wintered in 1604-5, touched also
at Saco, where the Indians had already completed their harvest, and the
grapes at Bacchus Island were ripe and luscious. Thence sailing directly to
Cape Anne, where, finding no safe roadstead, they passed round to
Gloucester harbor, which they found spacious, well protected, with good
depth of water, and which, for its great excellence and attractive scenery,
they named _Beauport_, or the beautiful harbor. Here they remained several
days. It was a native settlement, comprising two hundred savages, who were
cultivators of the soil, which was prolific in corn, beans, melons,
pumpkins, tobacco, and grapes. The harbor was environed with fine forest
trees, as hickory, oak, ash, cypress, and sassafras. Within the town there
were several patches of cultivated land, which the Indians were gradually
augmenting by felling the trees, burning the wood, and after a few years,
aided by the natural process of decay, eradicating the stumps. The French
were kindly received and entertained with generous hospitality. Grapes just
gathered from the vines, and squashes of several varieties, the trailing
bean still well known in New England, and the Jerusalem artichoke crisp
from the unexhausted soil, were presented as offerings of welcome to their
guests. While these gifts were doubtless tokens of a genuine friendliness
so far as the savages were capable of that virtue, the lurking spirit of
deceit and treachery which had been inherited and fostered by their habits
and mode of life, could not be restrained.

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