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

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The French barque was lying at anchor a short distance northeast of Ten
Pound Island. Its boat was undergoing repairs on a peninsula near by, now
known as Rocky Neck, and the sailors were washing their linen just at the
point where the peninsula is united to the mainland. While Champlain was
walking on this causeway, he observed about fifty savages, completely
armed, cautiously screening themselves behind a clump of bushes on the edge
of Smith's Cove. As soon as they were aware that they were seen, they came
forth, concealing their weapons as much as possible, and began to dance in
token of a friendly greeting. But when they discovered De Poutrincourt in
the wood near by, who had approached unobserved, with eight armed
musketeers to disperse them in case of an attack, they immediately took to
flight, and, scattering in all directions, made no further hostile
demonstrations. [53] This serio-comic incident did not interfere with the
interchange of friendly offices between the two parties, and when the
voyagers were about to leave, the savages urged them with great earnestness
to remain longer, assuring them that two thousand of their friends would
pay them a visit the very next day. This invitation was, however, not
heeded. In Champlain's opinion it was a _ruse_ contrived only to furnish a
fresh opportunity to attack and overpower them.

On the 30th of September, they left the harbor of Gloucester, and, during
the following night, sailing in a southerly direction, passing Brant Point,
they found themselves in the lower part of Cape Cod Bay. When the sun rose,
a low, sandy shore stretched before them. Sending their boat forward to a
place where the shore seemed more elevated, they found deeper water and a
harbor, into which they entered in five or six fathoms. They were welcomed
by three Indian canoes. They found oysters in such quantities in this bay,
and of such excellent quality, that they named it _Le Port aux Huistres_,
[54] or Oyster Harbor. After a few hours, they weighed anchor, and
directing their course north, a quarter northeast, with a favoring wind,
soon doubled Cape Cod. The next day, the 2d of October, they arrived off
Nauset. De Poutrincourt, Champlain, and others entered the harbor in a
small boat, where they were greeted by a hundred and fifty savages with
singing and dancing, according to their usual custom. After a brief visit,
they returned to the barque and continued their course along the sandy
shore. When near the heel of the cape, off Chatham, they found themselves
imperilled among breakers and sand-banks, so dangerous as to render it
inexpedient to attempt to land, even with a small boat. The savages were
observing them from the shore, and soon manned a canoe, and came to them
with singing and demonstrations of joy. From them, they learned that lower
down a harbor would be found, where their barque might ride in safety.
Proceeding, therefore, in the same direction, after many difficulties, they
succeeded in rounding the peninsula of Monomoy, and finally, in the gray of
the evening, cast anchor in the offing near Chatham, now known as Old Stage
Harbor. The next day they entered, passing between Harding's Beach Point
and Morris Island, in two fathoms of water, and anchored in Stage Harbor.
This harbor is about a mile long and half a mile wide, and at its western
extremity is connected by tide-water with Oyster Pond, and with Mill Cove
on the east by Mitchell's River. Mooring their barque between these two
arms of the harbor, towards the westerly end, the explorers remained there
about three weeks. It was the centre of an Indian settlement, containing
five or six hundred persons. Although it was now well into October, the
natives of both sexes were entirely naked, with the exception of a slight
band about the loins. They subsisted upon fish and the products of the
soil. Indian corn was their staple. It was secured in the autumn in bags
made of braided grass, and buried in the sand-banks, and withdrawn as it
was needed during the winter. The savages were of fine figure and of olive
complexion. They adorned themselves with an embroidery skilfully interwoven
with feathers and beads, and dressed their hair in a variety of braids,
like those at Saco. Their dwellings were conical in shape, covered with
thatch of rushes and corn-husks, and surrounded by cultivated fields. Each
cabin contained one or two beds, a kind of matting, two or three inches in
thickness, spread upon a platform on which was a layer of elastic staves,
and the whole raised a foot from the ground. On these they secured
refreshing repose. Their chiefs neither exercised nor claimed any superior
authority, except in time of war. At all other times and in all other
matters complete equality reigned throughout the tribe.

The stay at Chatham was necessarily prolonged in baking bread to serve the
remainder of the voyage, and in repairing their barque, whose rudder had
been badly shattered in the rough passage round the cape. For these
purposes, a bakery and a forge were set up on shore, and a tent pitched for
the convenience and protection of the workmen. While these works were in
progress, De Poutrincourt, Champlain, and others made frequent excursions
into the interior, always with a guard of armed men, sometimes making a
circuit of twelve or fifteen miles. The explorers were fascinated with all
they saw. The aroma of the autumnal forest and the balmy air of October
stimulated their senses. The nut-trees were loaded with ripe fruit, and the
rich clusters of grapes were hanging temptingly upon the vines. Wild game
was plentiful and delicious. The fish of the bay were sweet, delicate, and
of many varieties. Nature, unaided by art, had thus supplied so many human
wants that Champlain gravely put upon record his opinion that this would be
a most excellent place in which to lay the foundations of a commonwealth,
if the harbor were deeper and better protected at its mouth.

After the voyagers had been in Chatham eight or nine days, the Indians,
tempted by the implements which they saw about the forge and bakery,
conceived the idea of taking forcible possession of them, in order to
appropriate them to their own use. As a preparation for this, and
particularly to put themselves in a favorable condition in case of an
attack or reprisal, they were seen removing their women, children, and
effects into the forests, and even taking down their cabins. De
Poutrincourt, observing this, gave orders to the workmen to pass their
nights no longer on shore, but to go on board the barque to assure their
personal safety. This command, however, was not obeyed. The next morning,
at break of day, four hundred savages, creeping softly over a hill in the
rear, surrounded the tent, and poured such a volley of arrows upon the
defenceless workmen that escape was impossible. Three of them were killed
upon the spot; a fourth was mortally and a fifth badly wounded. The alarm
was given by the sentinel on the barque. De Poutrincourt, Champlain, and
the rest, aroused from their slumbers, rushed half-clad into the ship's
boat, and hastened to the rescue. As soon as they touched the shore, the
savages, fleet as the greyhound, escaped to the wood. Pursuit, under the
circumstances, was not to be made; and, if it had been, would have ended in
their utter destruction. Freed from immediate danger, they collected the
dead and gave them Christian burial near the foot of a cross, which had
been erected the day before. While the service of prayer and song was
offered, the savages in the distance mocked them with derisive attitudes
and hideous howls. Three hours after the French had retired to their
barque, the miscreants returned, tore down the cross, disinterred the dead,
and carried off the garments in which they had been laid to rest. They were
immediately driven off by the French, the cross was restored to its place,
and the dead reinterred.

Before leaving Chatham, some anxiety was felt in regard to their safety in
leaving the harbor, as the little barque had scarcely been able to weather
the rough seas of Monomoy on their inward voyage. A boat had been sent out
in search of a safer and a better roadway, which, creeping along by the
shore sixteen or eighteen miles, returned, announcing three fathoms of
water, and neither bars nor reefs. On the 16th of October they gave their
canvas to the breeze, and sailed out of Stage Harbor, which they had named
_Port Fortune_, [55] an appellation probably suggested by their narrow
escape in entering and by the bloody tragedy to which we have just
referred. Having gone eighteen or twenty miles, they sighted the island of
Martha's Vineyard lying low in the distance before them, which they called
_La Soupconneuse_, the suspicious one, as they had several times been in
doubt whether it were not a part of the mainland. A contrary wind forced
them to return to their anchorage in Stage Harbor. On the 20th they set out
again, and continued their course in a southwesterly direction until they
reached the entrance of Vineyard Sound. The rapid current of tide water
flowing from Buzzard's Bay into the sound through the rocky channel between
Nonamesset and Wood's Holl, they took to be a river coming from the
mainland, and named it _Riviere de Champlain_.

This point, in front of Wood's Holl, is the southern limit of the French
explorations on the coast of New England, reached by them on the 20th of
October, 1606.

Encountering a strong wind, approaching a gale, they were again forced to
return to Stage Harbor, where they lingered two or three days, awaiting
favoring winds for their return to the colony at the bay of Annapolis.

We regret to add that, while they were thus detained, under the very shadow
of the cross they had recently erected, the emblem of a faith that teaches
love and forgiveness, they decoyed, under the guise of friendship, several
of the poor savages into their power, and inhumanly butchered them in cold
blood. This deed was perpetrated on the base principle of _lex talionis_,
and yet they did not know, much less were they able to prove, that their
victims were guilty or took any part in the late affray. No form of trial
was observed, no witnesses testified, and no judge adjudicated. It was a
simple murder, for which we are sure any Christian's cheek would mantle
with shame who should offer for it any defence or apology.

When this piece of barbarity had been completed, the little French barque
made its final exit from Stage Harbor, passed successfully round the shoals
of Monomoy, and anchored near Nauset, where they remained a day or two,
leaving on the 28th of October, and sailing directly to Isle Haute in
Penobscot Bay. They made brief stops at some of the islands at the mouth of
the St. Croix, and at the Grand Manan, and arrived at Annapolis Basin on
the 14th of November, after an exceedingly rough passage and many
hair-breadth escapes.

ENDNOTES:

50. On Lescarbot's map of 1609, this elevation is denominated _Mont de la
Roque_. _Vide_ also Vol. II. note 180.

51. Lescarbot locates Poutrincourt's fort on the same spot which he called
_Manefort_, the site of the present village of Annapolis.

52. "Doncques l'an 1607, tous les Francois estans reuenus (ainsi qu'a este
dict) le Sieur de Potrincourt presenta a feu d'immortelle memorie Henry
le Grand la donnation a luy faicte par le sieur de Monts, requerant
humblement Sa Majeste de la ratifier. Le Roy eut pour agreable la dicte
Requeste," &c. _Relations des Jesuites_, 1611, Quebec ed., Vol. I. p.
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 goddess 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 passed, 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 anticipation 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 associations 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 appetite. 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 passed, 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 shores 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 circumstances, 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, passing 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 shores of Nova Scotia, entered Mines Channel, and
anchored 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 assembled savages, with whom they had lived in friendship, and who
were disappointed and grieved at their departure. In passing round the
peninsula of Nova Scotia in their little shallop, it was necessary to keep
close in upon the shore, 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
shores 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 shore from Canseau, the eastern limit of Nova Scotia, to
the Vineyard Sound on the southern boundaries of Massachusetts. 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 passed 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
illustration of the geography of the New England coast. [57]

The winter of 1607-8 Champlain passed 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, illustrating 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 space 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.

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