Voyages of Samuel de Champlain, Vol. 2 by Samuel de Champlain
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Samuel de Champlain >> Voyages of Samuel de Champlain, Vol. 2
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All these tidings gave great sorrow to the true French in these quarters.
As for myself, it was hard for me to believe it, on account of the
different reports about the matter, and which had not much appearance of
truth. Still, I was greatly troubled at hearing such mournful news.
Now, after having stayed three or four days longer at Tadoussac, I saw the
loss which many merchants must suffer, who had taken on board a large
quantity of merchandise, and fitted out a great number of vessels, in
expectation of doing a good business in the fur-trade, which was so poor on
account of the great number of vessels, that many will for a long time
remember the loss which they suffered this year.
Sieur de Pont Grave and I embarked, each of us in a barque, leaving Captain
Pierre on the vessel. We took Du Parc to Quebec, where we finished what
remained to be done at the settlement. After every thing was in good
condition, we resolved that Du Parc, who had wintered there with Captain
Pierre, should remain again, and that Captain Pierre should return to
France with us, on account of some business that called him there.
We accordingly left Du Parc in command there, with sixteen men, all of whom
we enjoined to live soberly, and in the fear of God, and in strict
observance of the obedience due to the authority of Du Parc, who was left
as their chief and commander, just as if one of us had remained. This they
all promised to do, and to live in peace with each other.
As to the gardens, we left them all well supplied with kitchen vegetables
of all sorts, together with fine Indian corn, wheat, rye, and barley, which
had been already planted. There were also vines which I had set out when I
spent the winter there, but these they made no attempt to preserve; for,
upon my return, I found them all in ruins, and I was greatly displeased
that they had given so little attention to the preservation of so fine and
good a plot, from which I had anticipated a favorable result.
After seeing that every thing was in good order, we set out from Quebec on
the 8th of August for Tadoussac, in order to prepare our vessel, which was
speedily done.
ENDNOTES:
364. This testimony of the Algonquin chief is interesting, and historically
important. We know of no earlier reference to the art of melting and
malleating copper in any of the reports of the navigators to our
northern coast. That the natives possessed this art is placed beyond
question by this passage, as well as by the recent discovery of copper
implements in Wisconsin, bearing the marks of mechanical fusion and
malleation. The specimens of copper in the possession of the natives
on the coast of New England, as referred to by Brereton and Archer,
can well be accounted for without supposing them to be of native
manufacture, though they may have been so. The Basques. Bretons,
English, and Portuguese had been annually on our northern coasts for
fishing and fur-trading for more than a century, and had distributed a
vast quantity of articles for savage ornament and use; and it would,
therefore, be difficult to prove that the copper chains and collars
and other trinkets mentioned by Brereton and Archer were not derived
from this source. But the testimony of the early navigators in the
less frequented region of the St. Lawrence is not open to this
interpretation. When Cartier advanced up the Gulf of Lawrence in 1535,
the savages pointed out the region of the Saguenay, which they
informed him was inhabited, and that from thence came the red copper
which they called _caignetdaze_.
"Et par les sauuaiges que auions, nous a esse dict que cestoit le
commencement du Saguenay & terre habitable. Et que de la ve noit le
cuyure rouge qu'ilz appellent caignetdaze."--_Brief Recit_, par
Jacques Cartier, 1545. D'Avezac ed., p. 9. _Vide idem_, p. 34.
When Cartier was at Isle Coudres, say fifty miles below Quebec, on his
return, the Indians from the Saguenay came on board his ship, and made
certain presents to their chief, Donnacona, whom Cartier had captured,
and was taking home with him to France. Among these gifts, they gave
him a great knife of red copper, which came from the Saguenay. The
words of Cartier are as follows:--
"Donnerent audict Donnaconan trois pacquetz de peaulx de byeures &
loups marins avec vng grand cousteau de cuyure rouge, qui vient du
Saguenay & autres choses."--_Idem_, p. 44.
This voyage of Cartier, made in 1535, was the earliest visit by any
navigator on record to this region. It was eighty years before the
Recollects or any other missionaries had approached the Gulf of
St. Lawrence. There was, therefore, no intercourse previous to this
that would be likely to furnish the natives with European utensils of
any kind, particularly knives of _red copper_. It is impossible to
suppose that this knife, seen by Cartier, and declared by the natives
to have come from the Saguenay, a term then covering an indefinite
region stretching we know not how far to the north and west, could be
otherwise than of Indian manufacture. In the text, Champlain
distinctly states on the testimony of an Algonquin chief that it was
the custom of the Indians to melt copper for the purpose of forming it
into sheets, and it is obvious that it would require scarcely greater
ingenuity to fabricate moulds in which to cast the various implements
which they needed in their simple arts. Some of these implements, with
indubitable marks of having been cast in moulds, have been recently
discovered, with a multitude of others, which may or may not have
passed through the same process. The testimony of Champlain in the
text, and the examples of moulded copper found in the lake region,
render the evidence, in our judgment, entirely conclusive that the art
of working copper both by fusion and malleation existed among the
Indians of America at the time of its first occupation by the French.
During the period of five years, beginning in 1871, an enthusiastic
antiquary, Mr. F. S. Perkins, of Wisconsin, collected, within the
borders of his own State, a hundred and forty-two copper implements,
of a great variety of forms, and designed for numerous uses, as axes,
hatchets, spear-heads, arrowheads, knives, gouges, chisels, adzes,
augers, gads, drills, and other articles of anomalous forms. These are
now deposited in the archives of the Historical Society of
Wisconsin. Other collections are gradually forming. The process is of
necessity slow, as they are not often found in groups, but singly,
here and there, as they are turned up by the plough or spade of other
implements of husbandry. The statement of Champlain in the text, and
the testimony of Carrier three-quarters of a century earlier, to which
we have referred, give a new historical significance to these recent
discoveries, and both together throw a fresh light upon the
prehistoric period.
365. This was the Island St. Ignace, which lies opposite the mouth of the
river Iroquois or Richelieu. Champlain's description is not
sufficiently definite to enable us to identify the exact location of
this conflict with the savages. It is, however, evident, from several
intimations found in the text, that it was about a league from the
mouth of the Richelieu, and was probably on the bank of that river.
366. For some account of Saint Luc, see Memoir, Vol. I. By those of the
religion, _ceux de la Religion_, are meant the Huguenots, or
Protestants.
367. The assassination of Henry IV. occurred on the 14th of May, 1610; but
the rumor of the death of the Duke of Sully was erroneous. Maximelien
de Bethune, the Duke of Sully, died on the 22d of December, 1641, at
the age of eighty-two years.
CHAPTER III.
RETURN TO FRANCE.--MEETING A WHALE;--THE MODE OF CAPTURING THEM.
On the 13th of the month, we set out from Tadoussac, arriving at Ile Percee
the next day, where we found a large number of vessels engaged in the
fishery, dry and green.
On the 18th of the month, we departed from Ile Percee, passing in latitude
42 deg., without sighting the Grand Bank, where the green fishery is carried
on, as it is too narrow at this altitude.
When we were about half way across, we encountered a whale, which was
asleep. The vessel, passing over him, awakening him betimes, made a great
hole in him near the tail, without damaging our vessel; but he threw out an
abundance of blood.
It has seemed to me not out of place to give here a brief description of
the mode of catching whales, which many have not witnessed, and suppose
that they are shot, owing to the false assertions about the matter made to
them in their ignorance by impostors, and on account of which such ideas
have often been obstinately maintained in my presence.
Those, then, most skilful in this fishery are the Basques, who, for the
purpose of engaging in it, take their vessels to a place of security, and
near where they think whales are plenty. Then they equip several shallops
manned by competent men and provided with hawsers, small ropes made of the
best hemp to be found, at least a hundred and fifty fathoms long. They are
also provided with many halberds of the length of a short pike, whose iron
is six inches broad; others are from a foot and a half to two feet long,
and very sharp. Each shallop has a harpooner, the most agile and adroit man
they have, whose pay is next highest to that of the masters, his position
being the most dangerous one. This shallop being outside of the port, the
men look in all quarters for a whale, tacking about in all directions. But,
if they see nothing, they return to the shore, and ascend the highest point
they can find, and from which they can get the most extensive view. Here
they station a man on the look-out. They are aided in catching sight of a
whale both by his size and the water he spouts through his blow-holes,
which is more than a puncheon at a time, and two lances high. From the
amount of this water, they estimate how much oil he will yield. From some
they get as many as one hundred and twenty puncheons, from others less.
Having caught sight of this monstrous fish, they hasten to embark in their
shallops, and by rowing or sailing they advance until they are upon him.
Seeing him under water, the harpooner goes at once to the prow of the
shallop with his harpoon, an iron two feet long and half a foot wide at the
lower part, and attached to a stick as long as a small pike, in the middle
of which is a hole to which the hawser is made fast. The harpooner,
watching his time, throws his harpoon at the whale, which enters him well
forward. As soon as he finds himself wounded, the whale goes down. And if
by chance turning about, as he does sometimes, his tail strikes the
shallop, it breaks it like glass. This is the only risk they run of being
killed in harpooning. As soon as they have thrown the harpoon into him,
they let the hawser run until the whale reaches the bottom. But sometimes
he does not go straight to the bottom, when he drags the shallop eight or
nine leagues or more, going as swiftly as a horse. Very often they are
obliged to cut their hawser, for fear that the whale will take them
underwater. But, when he goes straight to the bottom, he rests there
awhile, and then returns quietly to the surface, the men taking aboard
again the hawser as he rises. When he comes to the top, two or three
shallops are stationed around with halberds, with which they give him
several blows. Finding himself struck, the whale goes down again, leaving a
trail of blood, and grows weak to such an extent that he has no longer any
strength nor energy, and returning to the surface is finally killed. When
dead, he does not go down again; fastening stout ropes to him, they drag
him ashore to their head-quarters, the place where they try out the fat of
the whale, to obtain his oil. This is the way whales are taken, and not by
cannon-shots, which many suppose, as I have stated above.
To resume the thread of my narrative: after wounding the whale, as
mentioned, we captured a great many porpoises, which our mate harpooned to
our pleasure and amusement. We also caught a great many fish having a
large ear, with a hook and line, attaching to the hook a little fish
resembling a herring, and letting it trail behind the vessel. The large
ear, thinking it in fact a living fish, comes up to swallow it, thus
finding himself at once caught by the hook, which is concealed in the body
of the little fish. This fish is very good, and has certain tufts which are
very handsome, and resemble those worn on plumes.
On the 22d of September, we arrived on soundings. Here we saw twenty
vessels some four leagues to the west of us, which, as they appeared from
our vessel, we judged to be Flemish.
On the 25th of the month, we sighted the Isle de Greneze, [368] after
experiencing a strong blow, which lasted until noon.
On the 27th of the month, we arrived at Honfleur.
ENDNOTES:
368. Guernsey, which lay directly before them as they advanced up the
English Channel, and was the first large island that met the eye on
their way to Honfleur.
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