Voyages of Samuel de Champlain, Vol. 2 by Samuel de Champlain

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111. West Port, or Jerremisquam Island.

112. This was Wiscasset Harbor, as farther on it will be seen that from
this point they started down the river, taking another way than that
by which they had come.

113. Hockomock Point, a rocky precipitous bluff.

114. The movement of the waters about this "narrow waterfall" has been a
puzzle from the days of Champlain to the present time. The phenomena
have not changed. Having consulted the United States Coast Pilot and
likewise several persons who have navigated these waters and have a
personal knowledge of the "fall," the following is, we think, a
satisfactory explanation. The stream in which the fall occurs is
called the Sasanoa, and is a tidal current flowing from the Kennebec,
opposite the city of Bath, to the Sheepscot. It was up this tidal
passage that Champlain was sailing from the waters of the Sheepscot to
the Kennebec, and the "narrow waterfall" was what is now called the
upper Hell Gate, which is only fifty yards wide, hemmed in by walls of
rock on both sides. Above it the Sasanoa expands into a broad bay.
When the tide from the Kennebec has filled this bay, the water rushes
through this narrow gate with a velocity Sometimes of thirteen miles
an hour. There is properly no fall in the bed of the stream, but the
appearance of a fall is occasioned by the pent-up waters of the bay
above rushing through this narrow outlet, having accumulated faster
than they could be drained off. At half ebb, on a spring tide, a wall
of water from six inches to a foot stretches across the stream, and
the roar of the flood boiling over the rocks at the Gate can be heard
two miles below. The tide continues to flow up the Sasanoa from the
Sheepscot not only on the flood, but for some time on the ebb, as the
waters in the upper part of the Sheepscot and its bays, in returning,
naturally force themselves up this passage until they are sufficiently
drained off to turn the current in the Sasanoa in the other direction.
Champlain, sailing from the Sheepscot up the Sasanoa, arrived at the
Gate probably just as the tide was beginning to turn, and when there
was comparatively only a slight fall, but yet enough to make it
necessary to force their little barque up through the Gate by means of
hawsers as described in the text. After getting a short distance from
the narrows, he would be on the water ebbing back into the Kennebec,
and would be still moving with the tide, as he had been until he
reached the fall.

115. Merrymeeting Bay, so called from the meeting in this bay of the two
rivers mentioned in the text a little below, viz., the Kennebec and
the Androscoggin.

116. The latitude of Seguin, here called Tortoise Island, is 43 deg. 42' 25".

117. The head-waters of the Kennebec, as well as those of the Penobscot,
approach very near to the Chaudiere, which flows into the St.
Lawrence near Quebec.

118. Casco Bay, which stretches from Cape Small Point to Cape Elizabeth. It
has within it a hundred and thirty-six islands. They anchored and
passed the night somewhere within the limits of this bay, but did not
attempt its exploration.

119. These were the White Mountains in New Hampshire, towering above the
sea 6,225 feet. They are about sixty miles distant from Casco Bay, and
were observed by all the early voyagers as they sailed along the coast
of Maine. They are referred to on Ribero's Map of 1529 by the Spanish
word _montanas_, and were evidently seen by Estevan Gomez in 1525,
whose discoveries are delineated by this map. They will also be found
on the Mappe-Monde of about the middle of the sixteenth century, and
on Sebastian Cabot's map, 1544, both included in the "Monuments de la
Geographie" of Jomard, and they are also indicated on numerous other
early maps.

120. This conjecture is not sustained by any evidence beyond the similarity
of the names. There are numerous idle opinions as to the kind of plant
which was so efficacious a remedy for the scurvy, but they are utterly
without foundation. There does not appear to be any means of
determining what the healing plant was.

121. The four leagues of the previous day added to the eight of this bring
them from the Kennebec to Saco Bay.

122. The small island "proche de la grande terre" was Stratton Island: they
anchored on the northern side and nearly east of Bluff Island, which
is a quarter of a mile distant. The Indians came down to welcome them
from the promontory long known as Black Point, now called Prout's
Neck. Compare Champlain's local map and the United States Coast Survey
Charts.

123. Champlain's narrative, together with his sketch or drawing,
illustrating the mouth of the Saco and its environs, compared with the
United States Coast Survey Charts, renders it certain that this was
Richmond Island. Lescarbot describes it as a 'great island, about half
a league in compass, at the entrance of the bay of the said place of
Choueacoet It is about a mile long, and eight hundred yards in its
greatest width.--_Coast Pilot_. It received its present name at a very
early period. It was granted under the title of "a small island,
called Richmond," by the Council for New England to Walter Bagnall,
Dec. 2, 1631.--_Vide Calendar of Eng. State Papers_, Col. 1574-1660,
p. 137. Concerning the death of Bagnall on this island a short time
before the above grant was made, _vide Winthrop's Hist. New Eng._,
ed. 1853, Vol. I. pp. 75, 118.

124. Lescarbot calls him Olmechin.--_Histoire de la Nouvelle France_, par
M. Lescarbot, Paris, 1612, p. 558.

125. They had hoped that the wife of Panounias, their Indian guide, who was
said to have been born among the Almouchiquois, would be able to
interpret their language, but in this they appear to have been
disappointed.--_Vide antea_, p. 55.

126. From the Indian word, M'-foo-ah-koo-et, or, as the French pronounced
it, _Choueacoet_, which had been the name, applied by the aborigines to
this locality we know not how long, is derived the name Saco, now
given to the river and city in the same vicinity. The orthography
given to the original word is various, as Sawocotuck, Sowocatuck,
Sawakquatook, Sockhigones, and Choueacost. The variations in this, as
in other Indian words, may have arisen from a misapprehension of the
sound given by the aborigines, or from ignorance, on the part of
writers, of the proper method of representing sounds, joined to an
utter indifference to a matter which seemed to them of trifling
importance.

127. _Febues du Bresil_. This is the well-known trailing or bush-bean of
New England, _Phaseolus vulgaris_, called the "Brazilian bean" because
it resembled a bean known in France at that time under that name. It
is sometimes called the kidney-bean. It is indigenous to America.

128. _Citrouilles_, the common summer squash, _Cucurbita polymorpha_, as
may be seen by reference to Champlain's map of 1612, where its form is
delineated over the inscription, _la forme des sitroules_. It is
indigenous to America. Our word squash is derived from the Indian
_askutasquash_ or _isquoutersquash_. "In summer, when their corne is
spent, Isquoutersquashes is their best bread, a fruit like the young
Pumpion."--_Wood's New England Prospect_, 1634, Prince Society ed.,
p. 76. "_Askutasquash_, their Vine aples, which the _English_ from
them call _Squashes_, about the bignesse of Apples, of severall
colours, a sweet, light, wholesome refreshing."--_Roger Williams,
Key_, 1643, Narragansett Club ed., p. 125.

129. _Courges_, the pumpkin, _Cucurbita maxima_, indigenous to America. As
the pumpkin and likewise the squash were vegetables hitherto unknown
to Champlain, there was no French word by which he could accurately
identify them. The names given to them were such as he thought would
describe them to his countrymen more nearly than any others. Had he
been a botanist, he would probably have given them new names.

130. _Petum_. Tobacco, _Nicotiana rustica_, sometimes called wild tobacco.
It was a smaller and more hardy species than the _Nicotiana tabacum_,
now cultivated in warmer climates, but had the same qualities though
inferior in strength and aroma. It was found in cultivation by the
Indians all along our coast and in Canada. Cartier observed it growing
in Canada in 1535. Of it he says: "There groweth also a certain kind
of herbe, whereof in Sommer they make a great prouision for all the
yeere, making great account of it, and onely men vse of it, and first
they cause it to be dried in the Sunne, then weare it about their
neckes wrapped in a little beasts skinne made like a little bagge,
with a hollow peece of stone or wood like a pipe; then when they
please they make pouder of it, and then put it in one of the ends of
the said Cornet or pipe, and laying a cole of fire vpon it, at the
other ende sucke so long, that they fill their bodies full of smoke,
till that it commeth out of their mouth and nostrils, euen as out of
the Tonnell of a chimney. They say that this doth keepe them warme and
in health: they neuer goe without some of it about them. We ourselues
haue tryed the same smoke, and hauing put it in our mouthes, it seemed
almost as hot as Pepper."--_Jacques Cartier, 2 Voyage_, 1535;
_Hakluyt_, London, ed. 1810, Vol. III. p. 276.

We may here remark that the esculents found in cultivation at Saco,
beans, squashes, pumpkins, and corn, as well as the tobacco, are all
American tropical or subtropical plants, and must have been
transmitted from tribe to tribe, from more southern climates. The
Indian traditions would seem to indicate this. "They have a
tradition," says Roger Williams, "that the Crow brought them at first
an _Indian_ Graine of Corne in one Eare, and an _Indian_ or _French_
Beane in another, from the Great God _Kautantouwit's_ field in the
Southwest from whence they hold came all their Corne and Beanes."--
_Key to the Language of America_, London, 1643, Narragansett Club ed.,
p. 144.

Seventy years before Champlain, Jacques Cartier had found nearly the
same vegetables cultivated by the Indians in the valley of the
St. Lawrence. He says: "They digge their grounds with certaine peeces
of wood, as bigge as halfe a sword, on which ground groweth their
corne, which they call Ossici; it is as bigge as our small peason....
They haue also great store of Muske-milions. Pompions, Gourds,
Cucumbers, Peason, and Beanes of euery colour, yet differing from
ours."--_Hakluyt_, Vol. II. p. 276. For a full history of these
plants, the reader is referred to the History of Plants, a learned and
elaborate work now in press, by Charles Pickering, M.D. of Boston.

131. The latitude of Wood Island at the mouth of the Saco, where they were
at anchor, is 43 deg. 27' 23".

132. The site of this Indian fortification was a rocky bluff on the western
side of the river, now owned by Mr. John Ward, where from time to time
Indian relics have been found. The island at the mouth of the river,
which Champlain speaks of as a suitable location for a fortress, is
Ram Island, and is low and rocky, and about a hundred and fifty yards
in length.

133. For Sunday read Tuesday.--_Vide Shurtless's Calendar_.

134. This landing was probably near Wells Neck, and the meadows which they
saw were the salt marshes of Wells.

135. The Red-wing Blackbird, _Ageloeus phoeniceus_, of lustrous black, with
the bend of the wing red. They are still abundant in the same
locality, and indeed across the whole continent to the Pacific
Ocean.--_Vide Cones's Key_, Boston, 1872, p. 156; _Baird's Report_,
Washington, 1858, Part II. p. 526.

136. _Le Port aux Isles_. This Island Harbor is the present Cape Porpoise
Harbor.

137. This harbor is Goose Fair Bay, from one to two miles north-east of
Cape Porpoise, in the middle of which are two large ledges, "the
dangerous reefs" to which Champlain refers.

138. This was the common red currant of the gardens, _Ribes rubrum_, which
is a native of America. The fetid currant, _Ribes prostratum_, is also
indigenous to this country. It has a pale red fruit, which gives forth
a very disagreeable odor. Josselyn refers to the currant both in his
Voyages and in his Rarities. Tuckerman found it growing wild in the
White Mountains.

139. The passenger pigeon, _Ectopistes migratorius_, formerly numerous in
New England. Commonly known as the wild pigeon. Wood says they fly in
flocks of millions of millions.--_New England Prospect_, 1634; Prince
Society ed., p. 31.

140. Champlain's latitude is less inaccurate than usual. It is not possible
to determine the exact point at which he took it. But the latitude of
Cape Porpoise, according to the Coast Survey Charts, is 43 deg. 21' 43".

141. Cape Anne.

142. The point at which Champlain first saw Cape Anne, and "isles assez
hautes," the Isles of Shoals, was east of Little Boar's Head, and
three miles from the shore. Nine years afterward, Captain John Smith
visited these islands, and denominated them on his map of New England
Smith's Isles. They began at a very early date to be called the Isles
of Shoals. "Smith's Isles are a heape together, none neere them,
against Accominticus."--_Smith's Description of New England_. Rouge's
map, 1778, has Isles of Shoals, _ou des Ecoles_. For a full
description and history of these islands, the reader is referred to
"The Isles of Shoals," by John S. Jenness, New York, 1875.

143. Champlain has not been felicitous in his description of this bay. He
probably means to say that from the point where he then was, off
Little Boar's Head, to the point where it extends farthest into the
land, or to the west, it appeared to be about twelve miles, and that
the depth of the bay appeared to be six miles, and eight at the point
of greatest depth. As he did not explore the bay, it is obvious that
he intended to speak of it only as measured by the eye. No name has
been assigned to this expanse of water on our maps. It washes the
coast of Hampton, Salisbury, Newburyport, Ipswich, and Annisquam. It
might well be called Merrimac Bay, aster the name of the important
river that empties its waters into it, midway between its northern and
southern extremities.

144. It is to be observed that, starting from Cape Porpoise Harbor on the
morning of the 15th of July, they sailed twelve leagues before the
sail of the night commenced. This would bring them, allowing for the
sinuosities of the shore, to a point between Little Boar's Head and
the Isles of Shoals. In this distance, they had passed the sandy
shores of Wells Beach and York Beach in Maine, and Foss's Beach and
Rye Beach in New Hampshire, and still saw the white Sands of Hampton
and Salisbury Beaches stretching far into the bay on their right. The
excellent harbor of Portsmouth, land-locked by numerous islands, had
been passed unobserved. A sail of eighteen nautical miles brought them
to their anchorage at the extreme point of Cape Anne.

145. Straitsmouth, Thatcher, and Milk island. They were named by Captain
John Smith the "Three Turks' Heads," in memory of the three Turks'
heads cut off by him at the siege of Caniza, by which he acquired from
Sigismundus, prince of Transylvania, their effigies in his shield for
his arms.--_The true Travels, Adventures, and Observations of Captaine
John Smith_, London, 1629.

146. What Champlain here calls "le Cap aux Isles," Island Cape, is Cape
Anne, called Cape Tragabigzanda by Captain John Smith, the name of his
mistress, to whom he was given when a prisoner among the Turks. The
name was changed by Prince Charles, afterward Charles I., to Cape
Anne, in honor of his mother, who was Anne of Denmark.--_Vide
Description of New England_ by Capt. John Smith, London, 1616.

147. This was the bay west of a line drawn from Little Boar's Head to Cape
Anne, which may well be called Merrimac Bay.

148. Massachusetts Bay.

149. It is interesting to observe the agreement of the sign-writing of this
savage on the point of Cape Anne with the statement of the historian
Gookin, who in 1656 was superintendent of Indian affairs in
Massachusetts, and who wrote in 1674. He says: "Their chief sachem
held dominion over many other petty governours; as those of
Weechagaskas, Neponsitt, Punkapaog, Nonantam, Nashaway, and some of
the Nipmuck people, as far as Pokomtacuke, as the old men of
Massachusetts affirmed." Here we have the six tribes, represented by
the pebbles, recorded seventy years later as a tradition handed down
by the old men of the tribe. Champlain remarks further on, "I observed
in the bay all that the savages had described to me at Island Cape."

150. This was the Merrimac with its shoals at the mouth, which they had
passed without observing, having sailed from the offing near Little
Boar's Head directly to the head of Cape Anne, during the darkness of
the previous night.

151. The latitude of the Straitsmouth Island Light on the extreme point of
Cape Anne is 42 deg. 39' 43". A little east of it, where they probably
anchored, there are now sixteen fathoms of water.

152. Emmerson's Point, forming the eastern extremity of Cape Anne, twenty
or twenty-five feet high, fringed with a wall of bare rocks on the
sea.

153. Thatcher's Island, near the point just mentioned. It is nearly half a
mile long and three hundred and fifty yards wide, and about fifty feet
high.

154. It is not possible to determine with absolute certainty the place of
this anchorage. But as Champlain describes, at the end of this
chapter, what must have been Charles River coming from the country of
the Iroquois or the west, most likely as seen from his anchorage,
there can be little doubt that he anchored in Boston Harbor, near the
western limit of Noddle's Island, now known as East Boston.

155. The fishermen and fur-traders had visited these coasts from a very
early period.--_Vide antea_, note 18. From them they obtained the axe,
a most important implement in their rude mode of life, and it was
occasionally found in use among tribes far in the interior.

_La Cadie_. Carelessness or indifference in regard to the orthography
of names was general in the time of Champlain. The volumes written in
the vain attempt to settle the proper method of spelling the name of
Shakespeare, are the fruit of this indifference. La Cadie did not
escape this treatment. Champlain writes it Arcadie, Accadie, La Cadie,
Acadie, and L'Acadie; while Lescarbot uniformly, as far as we have
observed, La Cadie. We have also seen it written L'Arcadie and
L'Accadie, and in some, if not in all the preceding forms, with a
Latin termination in _ia_. It is deemed important to secure
uniformity, and to follow the French form in the translation of a
French work rather than the Latin. In this work, it is rendered LA
CADIE in all cases except in quotations. The history of the name
favors this form rather than any other. The commission or charter
given to De Monts by Henry IV. in 1603, a state paper or legal
document, drawn, we may suppose, with more than usual care, has La
Cadie, and repeats it four times without variation. It is a name of
Indian origin, as may be inferred by its appearing in composition in
such words as Passamacadie, Subenacadie, and Tracadie, plainly derived
from the language spoken by the Souriquois and Etechemins. Fifty-five
years before it was introduced into De Monts's commission, it appeared
written _Larcadia_ in Gastaldo's map of "Terra Nova del Bacalaos," in
the Italian translation of Ptolemy's Geography, by Pietro Andrea
Mattiolo, printed at Venice in 1548. The colophon bears date October,
1547. This rare work is in the possession of Henry C. Murphy, LL.D.,
to whom we are indebted for a very beautiful copy of the map. It
appeared again in 1561 on the map of Ruscelli, which was borrowed, as
well as the whole map, from the above work.--_Vide Ruscelli's map in
Dr. Kohl's Documentary History of Maine_, Maine Hist. Soc., Portland,
1869, p. 233. On this map, Larcadia stands on the coast of Maine, in
the midst of the vast territory included in De Monts's grant, between
the degrees of forty and forty-six north latitude. It will be
observed, if we take away the Latin termination, that the
pronunciation of this word as it first appeared in 1547, would not
differ in _sound_ from La Cadie. It seems, therefore, very clear that
the name of the territory stretching along the coast of Maine, we know
not how far north or south, as it was caught from the lips of the
natives at some time anterior 1547, was best represented by La Cadie,
as pronounced by the French. Whether De Monts had obtained the name of
his American domain from those who had recently visited the coast and
had caught its sound from the natives, or whether he had taken it from
this ancient map, we must remain uninformed. Several writers have
ventured to interpret the word, and give us its original meaning. The
following definitions have been offered: 1. The land of dogs; 2. Our
village; 3. The fish called pollock; 4. Place; 5. Abundance. We do not
undertake to decide between the disagreeing doctors. But it is obvious
to remark that a rich field lies open ready for a noble harvest for
any young scholar who has a genius for philology, and who is prepared
to make a life work of the study and elucidation of the original
languages of North America. The laurels in this field are still to be
gathered.

156. The islands in Boston Bay.

157. This attempt to land was in Marshfield near the mouth of South River.
Not succeeding, they sailed forward a league, and anchored at Brant
Point, which they named the Cape of St. Louis.

158. This purslane, _Portulaca oleracea_, still grows vigorously among the
Indian corn in New England, and is regarded with no more interest now
than in 1605. It is a tropical plant, and was introduced by the
Indians probably by accident with the seeds of tobacco or other
plants.

159. Here at the end of the chapter Champlain seems to be reminded that he
had omitted to mention the river of which he had learned, and had
probably seen in the bay. This was Charles River. From the western
side of Noddle's Island, or East Boston, where they were probably at
anchor, it appeared at its confluence with the Mystic River to come
from the west, or the country of the Iroquois. By reference to
Champlain's large map of 1612, this river will be clearly identified
as Charles River, in connection with Boston Bay and its numerous
islands. On that map it is represented as a long river flowing from
the west. This description of the river by Champlain was probably from
personal observation. Had he obtained his information from the
Indians, they would not have told him that it was broad or that it
came from the west, for such are not the facts; but they would have
represented to him that it was small, winding in its course, and that
it came from the south. We infer, therefore, that he not only saw it
himself, but probably from the deck of the little French barque, as it
was riding at anchor in our harbor near East Boston, where Charles
River, augmented by the tide, flows into the harbor from the west, in
a strong, broad, deep current. They named it in honor of Pierre du
Guast, Sieur de Monts, the commander of this expedition. Champlain
writes the name "du Gas;" De Laet has "de Gua;" while Charlevoix
writes "du Guast." This latter orthography generally prevails.

CHAPTER VIII.

CONTINUATION OF THE DISCOVERIES ALONG THE COAST OF THE ALMOUCHIQUOIS, AND
WHAT WE OBSERVED IN DETAIL.

The next day we doubled Cap St. Louis, [160] so named by Sieur de Monts, a
land rather low, and in latitude 42 deg. 45'. [161] The same day we sailed two
leagues along a sandy coast, as we passed along which we saw a great many
cabins and gardens. The wind being contrary, we entered a little bay to
await a time favorable for proceeding. There came to us two or three
canoes, which had just been fishing for cod and other fish, which are found
there in large numbers. These they catch with hooks made of a piece of
wood, to which they attach a bone in the shape of a spear, and fasten it
very securely. The whole has a fang-shape, and the line attached to it is
made out of the bark of a tree. They gave me one of their hooks, which I
took as a curiosity. In it the bone was fastened on by hemp, like that in
France, as it seemed to me, and they told me that they gathered this plant
without being obliged to cultivate it; and indicated that it grew to the
height of four or five feet. [162] This canoe went back on shore to give
notice to their fellow inhabitants, who caused columns of smoke to arise on
our account We saw eighteen or twenty savages, who came to the shore and
began to dance. Our canoe landed in order to give them some bagatelles, at
which they were greatly pleased. Some of them came to us and begged us to
go to their river. We weighed anchor to do so, but were unable to enter on
account of the small amount of water, it being low tide, and were
accordingly obliged to anchor at the mouth. I went ashore, where I saw many
others, who received us very cordially. I made also an examination of the
river, but saw only an arm of water extending a short distance inland,
where the land is only in part cleared up. Running into this is merely a
brook not deep enough for boats except at full tide. The circuit of the bay
is about a league. On one side of the entrance to this bay there is a point
which is almost an island, covered with wood, principally pines, and
adjoins sand-banks, which are very extensive. On the other side, the land
is high. There are two islets in this bay, which are not seen until one
has entered, and around which it is almost entirely dry at low tide. This
place is very conspicuous from the sea, for the coast is very low,
excepting the cape at the entrance to the bay. We named it the Port du Cap
St. Louis, [163] distant two leagues from the above cape, and ten from the
Island Cape. It is in about the same latitude as Cap St. Louis.

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