Voyages of Samuel De Champlain Volume II Part 4

_B_. Mountains rising up from the main land, two leagues south of the river.

_C_. The fall in the river.

_D_. Shoals where vessels, when the tide is out, are liable to run aground.

_E_. Cabin where the savages fortify themselves.

_F_. A pebbly point where there is a cross.

_G_. An island at the entrance of the river. [Note: Partridge Island.]

_H_. A Small brook coming from a little pond. [Note: Mill Pond.]

_I_. Arm of the sea dry at low tide. [Note: Marsh Creek, very shallow but not entirely dry at low tide.]

_L_. Two little rocky islets. [Note: These islets are not now represented on the charts, and are probably rocks near the sh.o.r.e from which the soil may have been washed away since 1604.]

_M_. A small pond.

_N_. Two brooks.

_O_. Very dangerous shoals along the coast, which are dry at low tide.

_P_. Way by which the savages carry their canoes in pa.s.sing the falls.

_Q_. Place for anchoring where the river runs with full current.

From the river St. John we went to four islands, on one of which we landed, and found great numbers of birds called magpies,[82] of which we captured many small ones, which are as good as pigeons. Sieur de Poutrincourt came near getting lost here, but he came back to our barque at last, when we had already gone to search for him about the island, which is three leagues distant from the main land. Farther west are other islands; among them one six leagues in length, called by the savages Manthane,[83] south of which there are among the islands several good harbors for vessels. From the Magpie Islands we proceeded to a river on the main land called the river of the Etechemins,[84] a tribe of savages so called in their country. We pa.s.sed by so many islands that we could not ascertain their number, which were very fine. Some were two leagues in extent, others three, others more or less. All of these islands are in a bay,[85] having, in my estimation, a circuit of more than fifteen leagues. There are many good places capable of containing any number of vessels, and abounding in fish in the season, such as codfish, salmon, ba.s.s, herring, halibut, and other kinds in great numbers. Sailing west-north-west three leagues through the islands, we entered a river almost half a league in breadth at its mouth, sailing up which a league or two we found two islands: one very small near the western bank; and the other in the middle, having a circ.u.mference of perhaps eight or nine hundred paces, with rocky sides three or four fathoms high all around, except in one small place, where there is a sandy point and clayey earth adapted for making brick and other useful articles. There is another place affording a shelter for vessels from eighty to a hundred tons, but it is dry at low tide. The island is covered with firs, birches, maples, and oaks. It is by nature very well situated, except in one place, where for about forty paces it is lower than elsewhere: this, however, is easily fortified, the banks of the main land being distant on both sides some nine hundred to a thousand paces. Vessels could pa.s.s up the river only at the mercy of the cannon on this island, and we deemed the location the most advantageous, not only on account of its situation and good foil, but also on account of the intercourse which we proposed with the savages of these coasts and of the interior, as we should be in the midst of them. We hoped to pacify them in the course of time, and put an end to the wars which they carry on with one another, so as to derive service from them in future, and convert them to the Christian faith. This place was named by Sieur de Monts the Island of St. Croix. [86] Farther on, there is a great bay, in which are two islands, one high and the other flat; also three rivers, two of moderate size, one extending towards the east, the other towards the north, and the third of large size, towards the west. The latter is that of the Etechemins, of which we spoke before. Two leagues up this there is a waterfall, around which the savages carry their canoes some five hundred paces by land, and then re-enter the river. Pa.s.sing afterwards from the river a short distance overland, one reaches the rivers Norumbegue and St. John. But the falls are impa.s.sable for vessels, as there are only rocks and but four or five feet of water.[87] In May and June, so great a number of herring and ba.s.s are caught there that vessels could be loaded with them. The soil is of the finest sort, and there are fifteen or twenty acres of cleared land, where Sieur de Monts had some wheat sown, which flourished finely. The savages come here sometimes five or six weeks during the fis.h.i.+ng Season. All the rest of the country consists of very dense forests.

If the land were cleared up, grain would flourish excellently. This place is in lat.i.tude 45 20',[88] and 17 32' of the deflection of the magnetic needle.

CHAMPLAIN'S DESCRIPTION OF THE ACCOMPANYING MAP.

ISLE DE SAINTE CROIX.

_The figures indicate fathoms of water_.

_A_. A plan of our habitation.

_B_. Gardens.

_C_. Little islet serving as a platform for cannon. [Note: This refers to the southern end of the island, which was probably separated at high tide, where a cannon may be seen in position.]

_D_. Platform where cannon were placed.

_E_. The Cemetery.

_F_. The Chapel.

_G_. Rocky shoals about the Island Sainte Croix.

_H_. A little islet. [Note: Little De Monts's Island, Sometimes called Little Dochet's Island.]

_I_. Place where Sieur de Monts had a water-mill commenced.

_L_. Place where we made our coal.

_M_. Gardens on the western sh.o.r.e.

_N_. Other gardens on the eastern sh.o.r.e.

_O_. Very large and high mountain on the main land. [Note: This "mountain"

is now called Chamcook Hill. Its height is 627 feet. At the northern end of the island on the right there is an extensive sandy shoal, dry at low tide, of a triangular shape as formerly, and has apparently changed very little since the days of Champlain.]

_P_. River of the Etechemins flowing about the Island of St. Croix.

ENDNOTES:

53. For May read June. It could not have been in May, since Champlain Set out from Port Mouton on his exploring expedition on the 19th of May, which must have been a month previous to this.

54. What is now called the Pet.i.t Pa.s.sage, the narrow strait between Long Island and Digby Neck.

55. Gulliver's Hole, about two leagues south-west of Digby Strait.

56. Champlain here names the whole harbor or basin Port Royal, and not the place of habitation afterward so called. The first settlement was on the north side of the bay in the present hamlet of Lower Granville, not as often alleged at Annapolis.--_Vide_ Champlain's engraving or map of Port Royal.

57. "equille." A name, on the coasts between Caen and Havre, of the fish called lancon at Granville and St. Malo, a kind of malacopterygious fish living on sandy sh.o.r.es and hiding in the sand at low tide.-- _Littre_. A species of sand eel. This stream is now known as the Annapolis River. Lescarbot calls it Riviere du Dauphin.

58. This island is situated at the point where the Annapolis River flows into the bay, or about nine miles from Digby, straight. Champlain on his map gives it no name, but Lescarbot calls it Biencourville. It is now called Goat Island.

59. Lescarbot calls it Claudiane. It is now known as Bear Island. It was Sometimes called Ile d'Hebert, and likewise Imbert Island. Laverdiere suggests that the present name is derived from the French p.r.o.nunciation of the last syllable of Imbert.

60. At present known as Bear River; Lescarbot has it Hebert, and Charlevoix, Imbert.

61. On modern maps called Moose River, and sometimes Deep Brook. It is a few miles east of Bear River.

62. The lat.i.tude is here overstated: it should be 44 39' 30".

63. On the preceding year, M. Prevert of St. Malo had made a glowing report ostensively based on his own observations and information which he had obtained from the Indians, in regard to certain mines alleged to exist on the coast directly South of Northumberland Strait, and about the head of the Bay of Fundy. It was this report of Prevert that induced the present search.

64. Along the Bay of Fundy nearly parallel to the basin of Port Royal would better express the author's meaning.

65. Cape Chignecto, the point where the Bay of Fundy is bifurcated; the northern arm forming Chignecto Bay, and the southern, the Bay of Mines or Minas Basin.

66. Isle Haute, or high island.--_Vide Charlevoix's Map_. On Some maps this name has been strangely perverted into Isle Holt, Isle Har, &c. Its height is 320 feet.

67. This was Advocate's Harbor. Its distance from Cape Chignecto is greater than that stated in the text. Further on, Champlain calls it two leagues, which is nearly correct. Its lat.i.tude is about 45 20'. By comparing the Admiralty charts and Champlain's map of this harbor, it will be seen that important changes have taken place since 1604. The tongue of land extending in a south-easterly direction, covered with trees and shrubbery, which Champlain calls a sand-bank, has entirely disappeared. The ordinary tides rise here from thirty-three to thirty-nine feet, and on a sandy sh.o.r.e could hardly fail to produce important changes.

68. According to the Abbe Laverdiere, the lower part of the Gulf was sometimes called the Bay of St. Lawrence.

69. They had just crossed the Bay of Mines. From the place where they crossed it to its head it is not far from fifteen leagues, and it is about the same distance to Port Royal, from which he may here estimate the distance inland.

70. Read June.--_Vide antea_, note 53.

71. Chignecto Bay. Charlevoix has Chignitou _ou Beau Ba.s.sin_. On De Laet's Map of 1633, on Jacob von Meur's of 1673, and Homenn's of 1729, we have B. de Gennes. The Cape of Two Bays was Cape Chignecto.

72. The rivers are the c.u.mberland Basin with its tributaries coming from the east, and the Pet.i.tcoudiac (_pet.i.t_ and _coude_, little elbow, from the angle formed by the river at Moncton, called the Bend), which flows into Shepody Bay coming from the north or the direction of Gaspe.

Champlain mentions all these particulars, probably as answering to the description given to them by M. Prevert of the place where copper mines could be found.

73. Quaco River, at the mouth of which the water is shallow: the low cape extending out into the sea is that on which Quaco Light now stands, which reaches out quarter of a mile, and is comparatively low. The sh.o.r.e from Goose River, near where they made the coast, is very high, measuring at different points 783, 735, 650, 400, 300, 500, and 380 feet, while the "low cape" is only 250 feet, and near it on the west is an elevation of 400 feet. It would be properly represented as "rather a low cape" in contradistinction to the neighboring coast. Iron and manganese are found here, and the latter has been mined to some extent, but is now discontinued, as the expense is too great for the present times.

74. This mountain is an elevation, eight or ten miles inland from Quaco, which may be seen by vessels coasting along from St. Martin's Head to St. John: it is indicated on the charts as Mt. Theobald, and bears a striking resemblance, as Champlain suggests, to the _chapeau de Cardinal_.

75. McCoy's Head, four leagues west of Quaco: the "cove" may be that on the east into which Gardner's Creek flows, or that on the west at the mouth of Emmerson's Creek.

76. The Bay of St. John, which is four leagues south-west of McCoy's Head. The islands mentioned are Partridge Island at the mouth of the harbor, and two smaller ones farther west, one Meogenes, and the other s.h.a.g rock or some unimportant islet in its vicinity. The rock mentioned by Champlain is that on which Spit Beacon Light now stands.

77. The festival of St. John the Baptist occurs on the 24th of June; and, arriving on that day, they gave the name of St. John to the river, which has been appropriately given also to the city at its mouth, now the metropolis of the province of New Brunswick.

78. Champlain was under a missapprehension about pa.s.sing the fall at the mouth of the St. John at high tide. It can in fact only be pa.s.sed at about half tide. The waters of the river at low tide are about twelve feet higher than the waters of the sea. At high tide, the waters of the sea are about five feet higher than the waters of the river.