CHAPTER V.
RECEPTION OF 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 éclat 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 Hève, 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 Hève 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, Estévan Gomez, Jean Alfonse, André 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 Gravé, 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.
Champlain, whose energy, zeal, and prudence had impressed themselves upon the mind of De Monts, was appointed lieutenant of the expedition, and intrusted with the civil administration, having a sufficient number of men for all needed defence against savage intruders, Basque fisher men, or interloping fur-traders.
On the 13th of April, 1608, Champlain left the port of Honfleur, and arrived at the harbor of Tadoussac on the 3d of June. Here he found Pont Gravé, who had preceded him by a few days in the voyage, in trouble with a Basque fur-trader. The latter had persisted in carrying on his traffic, notwithstanding the royal commission to the contrary, and had succeeded in disabling Pont Gravé, who had but little power of resistance, killing one of his men, seriously wounding Pont Gravé himself, as well as several others, and had forcibly taken possession of his whole armament.
When Champlain had made full inquiries into all the circumstances, he saw clearly that the difficulty must be compromised; that the exercise of force in overcoming the intruding Basque would effectually break up his plans for the year, and bring utter and final ruin upon his undertaking. He wisely decided to pocket the insult, and let justice slumber for the present. He consequently required the Basque, who began to see more clearly the illegality of his course, to enter into a written agreement with Pont Gravé that neither should interfere with the other while they remained in the country, and that they should leave their differences to be settled in the courts on their return to France.
Having thus poured oil upon the troubled waters, Champlain proceeded to carry out his plans for the location and establishment of his colony. The difficult navigation of the St. Lawrence above Tadoussac was well known to him. The dangers of its numberless rocks, sand-bars, and fluctuating channels had been made familiar to him by the voyage of 1603. He determined, therefore, to leave his vessel in the harbor of Tadoussac, and construct a small barque of twelve or fourteen tons, in which to ascend the river and fix upon a place of settlement.
While the work was in progress, Champlain reconnoitred the neighborhood, collecting much geographical information from the Indians relating to Lake St. John and a traditionary salt sea far to the north, exploring the Saguenay for some distance, of which he has given us a description so accurate and so carefully drawn that it needs little revision after the lapse of two hundred and seventy years.
On the last of June, the barque was completed, and Champlain, with a complement of men and material, took his departure. As he glided along in his little craft, he was exhilarated by the fragrance of the atmosphere, the bright coloring of the foliage, the bold, picturesque scenery that constantly revealed itself on both sides of the river. The lofty mountains, the expanding valleys, the luxuriant forests, the bold headlands, the enchanting little bays and inlets, and the numerous tributaries bursting into the broad waters of the St. Lawrence, were all carefully examined and noted in his journal. The expedition seemed more like a holiday excursion than the grave prelude to the founding of a city to be renowned in the history of the continent.
On the fourth day, they approached the site of the present city of Quebec. The expanse of the river had hitherto been from eight to thirteen miles. Here a lofty headland, approaching from the interior, advances upon the river and forces it into a narrow channel of three-fourths of a mile in width. The river St. Charles, a small stream flowing from the northwest, uniting here with the St. Lawrence, forms a basin below the promontory, spreading out two miles in one direction and four in another. The rocky headland, jutting out upon the river, rises up nearly perpendicularly, and to a height of three hundred and forty-five feet, commanding from its summit a view of water, forest and mountain of surpassing grandeur and beauty. A narrow belt of fertile land formed by the crumbling débris of ages, stretches along between the water's edge and the base of the precipice, and was then covered with a luxurious growth of nut-trees. The magnificent basin below, the protecting wall of the headland in the rear, the deep water of the river in front, rendered this spot peculiarly attractive. Here on this narrow plateau, Champlain resolved to place his settlement, and forthwith began the work of felling trees, excavating cellars, and constructing houses.
On the 3d day of July, 1608, Champlain laid the foundation of Quebec. The name which he gave to it had been applied to it by the savages long before. It is derived from the Algonquin word quebio, or quebec, signifying a narrowing, and was descriptive of the form which the river takes at that place, to which we have already referred.
A few days after their arrival, an event occurred of exciting interest to Champlain and his little colony. One of their number, Jean du Val, an abandoned wretch, who possessed a large share of that strange magnetic power which some men have over the minds of others, had so skilfully practised upon the credulity of his comrades that he had drawn them all into a scheme which, aside from its atrocity, was weak and ill-contrived at every point. It was nothing less than a plan to assassinate Champlain, seize the property belonging to the expedition, and sell it to the Basque fur-traders at Tadoussac, under the hallucination that they should be enriched by the pillage. They had even entered into a solemn compact, and whoever revealed the secret was to be visited by instant death. Their purpose was to seize Champlain in an unguarded moment and strangle him, or to shoot him in the confusion of a false alarm to be raised in the night by themselves. But before the plan was fully ripe for execution, a barque unexpectedly arrived from Tadoussac with an instalment of utensils and provisions for the colony. One of the men, Antoine Natel, who had entered into the conspiracy with reluctance, and had been restrained from a disclosure by fear, summoned courage to reveal the plot to the pilot of the boat, first securing from him the assurance that he should be shielded from the vengeance of his fellow-conspirators. The secret was forthwith made known to Champlain, who, by a stroke of finesse, placed himself beyond danger before he slept. At his suggestion, the four leading spirits of the plot were invited by one of the sailors to a social repast on the barque, at which two bottles of wine which he pretended had been given him at Tadoussac were to be uncorked. In the midst of the festivities, the "four worthy heads of the conspiracy," as Champlain satirically calls them, were suddenly clapped into irons. It was now late in the evening, but Champlain nevertheless summoned all the rest of the men into his presence, and offered them a full pardon, on condition that they would disclose the whole scheme and the motives which had induced them to engage in it. This they were eager to do, as they now began to comprehend the dangerous compact into which they had entered, and the peril which threatened their own lives. These preliminary investigations rendered it obvious to Champlain that grave consequences must follow, and he therefore proceeded with great caution.
The next day, he took the depositions of the pardoned men, carefully reducing them to writing. He then departed for Tadoussac, taking the four conspirators with him. On consultation, he decided to leave them there, where they could be more safely guarded until Pont Gravé and the principal men of the expedition could return with them to Quebec, where he proposed to give them a more public and formal trial. This was accordingly done. The prisoners were duly confronted with the witnesses. They denied nothing, but freely admitted their guilt. With the advice and concurrence of Pont Gravé, the pilot, surgeon, mate, boatswain, and others, Champlain condemned the four conspirators to be hung; three of them, however, to be sent home for a confirmation or revision of their sentence by the authorities in France, while the sentence of Jean Du Val, the arch-plotter of the malicious scheme, was duly executed in their presence, with all the solemn forms and ceremonies usual on such occasions. Agreeably to a custom of that period, the ghastly head of Du Val was elevated on the highest pinnacle of the fort at Quebec, looking down and uttering its silent warning to the busy colonists below; the grim signal to all beholders, that "the way of the transgressor is hard."
The catastrophe, had not the plot been nipped in the bud, would have been sure to take place. The final purpose of the conspirators might not have been realized; it must have been defeated at a later stage; but the hand of Du Val, prompted by a malignant nature, was nerved to strike a fatal blow, and the life of Champlain would have been sacrificed at the opening of the tragic scene.
The punishment of Du Val, in its character and degree, was not only agreeable to the civil policy of the age, but was necessary for the protection of life and the maintenance of order and discipline in the colony. A conspiracy on land, under the present circumstances, was as dangerous as a mutiny at sea; and the calm, careful, and dignified procedure of Champlain in firmly visiting upon the criminal a severe though merited punishment, reveals the wisdom, prudence, and humanity which were prominent elements in his mental and moral constitution.
ENDNOTES:
56. Membertou. See Pierre Biard's account of his death in 1611. Relations des Jésuites. Quebec ed, Vol. I. p. 32.
57. Had the distinguished navigators who early visited the coasts of North America illustrated their narratives by drawings and maps, it would have added greatly to their value. Capt. John Smith's map, though necessarily indefinite and general, is indispensable to the satisfactory study of his still more indefinite "Description of New England." It is, perhaps, a sufficient apology for the vagueness of Smith's statements, and therefore it ought to be borne in mind, that his work was originally written, probably, from memory, at least for the most part, while he was a prisoner on board a French man-of-war in 1615. This may be inferred from the following statement of Smith himself. In speaking of the movement of the French fleet, he says: "Still we spent our time about the Iles neere Fyall: where to keepe my perplexed thoughts from too much meditation of my miserable estate, I writ this discourse" Vide Description of New England by Capt. John Smith, London, 1616.
While the descriptions of our coast left by Champlain are invaluable to the historian and cannot well be overestimated, the process of making these surveys, with his profound love of such explorations and adventures, must have given him great personal satisfaction and enjoyment. It would be difficult to find any region of similar extent that could offer, on a summer's excursion, so much beauty to his eager and critical eye as this. The following description of the Gulf of Maine, which comprehends the major part of the field surveyed by Champlain, that lying between the headlands of Cape Sable and Cape Cod, gives an excellent idea of the infinite variety and the unexpected and marvellous beauties that are ever revealing themselves to the voyager as he passes along our coast.—
"This shoreland is also remarkable, being so battered and frayed by sea and storm, and worn perhaps by arctic currents and glacier beds, that its natural front of some 250 miles is multiplied to an extent of not less than 2,500 miles of salt-water line; while at an average distance of about three miles from the mainland, stretches a chain of outposts consisting of more than three hundred islands, fragments of the main, striking in their diversity on the west; low, wooded and grassy to the water's edge, and rising eastward through bolder types to the crowns and cliffs of Mount Desert and Quoddy Head, an advancing series from beauty to sublimity: and behind all these are deep basins and broad river-mouths, affording convenient and spacious harbors, in many of which the navies of nations might safely ride at anchor…. Especially attractive was the region between the Piscataqua and Penobscot in its marvellous beauty of shore and sea, of island and inlet, of bay and river and harbor, surpassing any other equally extensive portion of the Atlantic coast, and compared by travellers earliest and latest, with the famed archipelago of the Aegean." Vide Maine, Her Place in History, by Joshua L. Chamberlain, LL D, President of Bowdoin College, Augusta, 1877, pp. 4-5.
CHAPTER VI.
ERECTION OF BUILDINGS AT QUEBEC.—THE SCURVY AND THE STARVING SAVAGES.— DISCOVERY OF LAKE CHAMPLAIN, AND THE BATTLE AT TICONDEROGA.—CRUELTIES INFLICTED ON PRISONERS OF WAR, AND THE FESTIVAL AFTER VICTORY.— CHAMPLAIN'S RETURN TO FRANCE AND HIS INTERVIEW WITH HENRY IV.—VOYAGE TO NEW FRANCE AND PLANS OF DISCOVERY.—BATTLE WITH THE IROQUOIS NEAR THE MOUTH OF THE RICHELIEU.—REPAIR OF BUILDINGS AT QUEBEC.—NEWS OF THE ASSASSINATION OF HENRY IV.—CHAMPLAIN'S RETURN TO FRANCE AND HIS CONTRACT OF MARRIAGE.—VOYAGE TO QUEBEC IN 1611.
On the 18th of September, 1608, Pont Gravé, having obtained his cargo of furs and peltry, sailed for France.
The autumn was fully occupied by Champlain and his little band of colonists in completing the buildings and in making such other provisions as were needed against the rigors of the approaching winter. From the forest trees beams were hewed into shape with the axe, boards and plank were cut from the green wood with the saw, walls were reared from the rough stones gathered at the base of the cliff, and plots of land were cleared near the settlement, where wheat and rye were sown and grapevines planted, which successfully tested the good qualities of the soil and climate.
Three lodging-houses were erected on the northwest angle formed by the junction of the present streets St. Peter and Sous le Fort, near or on the site of the Church of Notre Dame. Adjoining, was a store-house. The whole was, surrounded by a moat fifteen feet wide and six feet deep, thus giving the settlement the character of a fort; a wise precaution against a sudden attack of the treacherous savages. [58]
At length the sunny days of autumn were gone, and the winter, with its fierce winds and its penetrating frosts and deep banks of snow, was upon them. Little occupation could be furnished for the twenty-eight men that composed the colony. Their idleness soon brought a despondency that hung like a pall upon their spirits. In February, disease made its approach. It had not been expected. Every defence within their knowledge had been provided against it. Their houses were closely sealed and warm; their clothing was abundant; their food nutritious and plenty. But a diet too exclusively of salt meat had, notwithstanding, in the opinion of Champlain, and we may add the want, probably, of exercise and the presence of bad air, induced the mal de la terre or scurvy, and it made fearful havoc with his men. Twenty, five out of each seven of their whole number, had been carried to their graves before the middle of April, and half of the remaining eight had been attacked by the loathsome scourge.
While the mind of Champlain was oppressed by the suffering and death that were at all times present in their abode, his sympathies were still further taxed by the condition of the savages, who gathered in great numbers about the settlement, in the most abject misery and in the last stages of starvation. As Champlain could only furnish them, from his limited stores, temporary and partial relief, it was the more painful to see them slowly dragging their feeble frames about in the snow, gathering up and devouring with avidity discarded meat in which the process of decomposition was far advanced, and which was already too potent with the stench of decay to be approached by his men.
Beyond the ravages of disease [59] and the starving Indians, Champlain adds nothing more to complete the gloomy picture of his first winter in Quebec. The gales of wind that swept round the wall of precipice that protected them in the rear, the drifts of snow that were piled up in fresh instalments with every storm about their dwelling, the biting frost, more piercing and benumbing than they had ever experienced before, the unceasing groans of the sick within, the semi-weekly procession bearing one after another of their diminishing numbers to the grave, the mystery that hung over the disease, and the impotency of all remedies, we know were prominent features in the picture. But the imagination seeks in vain for more than a single circumstance that could throw upon it a beam of modifying and softening light, and that was the presence of the brave Champlain, who bore all without a murmur, and, we may be sure, without a throb of unmanly fear or a sensation of cowardly discontent.
But the winter, as all winters do, at length melted reluctantly away, and the spring came with its verdure, and its new life. The spirits of the little remnant of a colony began to revive. Eight of the twenty-eight with which the winter began were still surviving. Four had escaped attack, and four were rejoicing convalescents.
On the 5th of June, news came that Pont Gravé had arrived from France, and was then at Tadoussac, whither Champlain immediately repaired to confer with him, and particularly to make arrangements at the earliest possible moment for an exploring expedition into the interior, an undertaking which De Monts had enjoined upon him, and which was not only agreeable to his own wishes, but was a kind of enterprise which had been a passion with him from his youth.
In anticipation of a tour of exploration during the approaching summer, Champlain had already ascertained from the Indians that, lying far to the southwest, was an extensive lake, famous among the savages, containing many fair islands, and surrounded by a beautiful and productive country. Having expressed a desire to visit this region, the Indians readily offered to act as guides, provided, nevertheless, that he would aid them in a warlike raid upon their enemies, the Iroquois, the tribe known to us as the Mohawks, whose homes were beyond the lake in question. Champlain without hesitation acceded to the condition exacted, but with little appreciation, as we confidently believe, of the bitter consequences that were destined to follow the alliance thus inaugurated; from which, in after years, it was inexpedient, if not impossible, to recede.
Having fitted out a shallop, Champlain left Quebec on his tour of exploration on the 18th of June, 1609, with eleven men, together with a party of Montagnais, a tribe of Indians who, in their hunting and fishing excursions, roamed over an indefinite region on the north side of the St. Lawrence, but whose headquarters were at Tadoussac. After ascending the St Lawrence about sixty miles, he came upon an encampment of two hundred or three hundred savages, Hurons [60] and Algonquins, the former dwelling on the borders of the lake of the same name, the latter on the upper waters of the Ottawa. They had learned something of the French from a son of one of their chiefs, who had been at Quebec the preceding autumn, and were now on their way to enter into an alliance with the French against the Iroquois. After formal negotiations and a return to Quebec to visit the French settlement and witness the effect of their firearms, of which they had heard and which greatly excited their curiosity, and after the usual ceremonies of feasting and dancing, the whole party proceeded up the river until they reached the mouth of the Richelieu. Here they remained two days, as guests of the Indians, feasting upon fish, venison, and water-fowl.
While these festivities were in progress, a disagreement arose among the savages, and the bulk of them, including the women, returned to their homes. Sixty warriors, however, some from each of the three allied tribes, proceeded up the Richelieu with Champlain. At the Falls of Chambly, finding it impossible for the shallop to pass them, he directed the pilot to return with it to Quebec, leaving only two men from the crew to accompany him on the remainder of the expedition. From this point, Champlain and his two brave companions entrusted themselves to the birch canoe of the savages. For a short distance, the canoes, twenty-four in all, were transported by land. The fall and rapids, extending as far as St. John, were at length passed. They then proceeded up the river, and, entering the lake which now bears the name of Champlain, crept along the western bank, advancing after the first few days only in the night, hiding themselves during the day in the thickets on the shore to avoid the observation of their enemies, whom they were now liable at any moment to meet.
On the evening of the 29th of July, at about ten o'clock, when the allies were gliding noiselessly along in restrained silence, as they approached the little cape that juts out into the lake at Ticonderoga, near where Fort Carillon was afterwards erected by the French, and where its ruins are still to be seen, [61] they discovered a flotilla of heavy canoes, of oaken bark, containing not far from two hundred Iroquois warriors, armed and impatient for conflict. A furor and frenzy as of so many enraged tigers instantly seized both parties. Champlain and his allies withdrew a short distance, an arrow's range from the shore, fastening their canoes by poles to keep them together, while the Iroquois hastened to the water's edge, drew up their canoes side by side, and began to fell trees and construct a barricade, which they were well able to accomplish with marvellous facility and skill. Two boats were sent out to inquire if the Iroquois desired to fight, to which they replied that they wanted nothing so much, and, as it was now dark, at sunrise the next morning they would give them battle. The whole night was spent by both parties in loud and tumultuous boasting, berating each other in the roundest terms which their savage vocabulary could furnish, insultingly charging each other with cowardice and weakness, and declaring that they would prove the truth of their assertions to their utter ruin the next morning.
When the sun began to gild the distant mountain-tops, the combatants were ready for the fray. Champlain and his two companions, each lying low in separate canoes of the Montagnais, put on, as best they could, the light armor in use at that period, and, taking the short hand-gun, or arquebus, went on shore, concealing themselves as much as possible from the enemy. As soon as all had landed, the two parties hastily approached each other, moving with a firm and determined tread. The allies, who had become fully aware of the deadly character of the hand-gun and were anxious to see an exhibition of its mysterious power, promptly opened their ranks, and Champlain marched forward in front, until he was within thirty paces of the Iroquois. When they saw him, attracted by his pale face and strange armor, they halted and gazed at him in a calm bewilderment for some seconds. Three Iroquois chiefs, tall and athletic, stood in front, and could be easily distinguished by the lofty plumes that waved above their heads. They began at once to make ready for a discharge of arrows. At the same instant, Champlain, perceiving this movement, levelled his piece, which had been loaded with four balls, and two chiefs fell dead, and another savage was mortally wounded by the same shot. At this, the allies raised a shout rivalling thunder in its stunning effect. From both sides the whizzing arrows filled the air. The two French arquebusiers, from their ambuscade in the thicket, immediately attacked in flank, pouring a deadly fire upon the enemy's right. The explosion of the firearms, altogether new to the Iroquois, the fatal effects that instantly followed, their chiefs lying dead at their feet and others fast falling, threw them into a tumultuous panic. They at once abandoned every thing, arms, provisions, boats, and camp, and without any impediment, the naked savages fled through the forest with the fleetness of the terrified deer. Champlain and his allies pursued them a mile and a half, or to the first fall in the little stream that connects Lake Champlain [62] and Lake George. [63] The victory was complete. The allies gathered at the scene of conflict, danced and sang in triumph, collected and appropriated the abandoned armor, feasted on the provisions left by the Iroquois, and, within three hours, with ten or twelve prisoners, were sailing down the lake on their homeward voyage.
After they had rowed about eight leagues, according to Champlain's estimate, they encamped for the night. A prevailing characteristic of the savages on the eastern coast, in the early history of America, was the barbarous cruelties which they inflicted upon their prisoners of war. [64] They did not depart from their usual custom in the present instance. Having kindled a fire, they selected a victim, and proceeded to excoriate his back with red-hot burning brands, and to apply live coals to the ends of his fingers, where they would give the most exquisite pain. They tore out his finger-nails, and, with sharp slivers of wood, pierced his wrists and rudely forced out the quivering sinews. They flayed off the skin from the top of his head, [65] and poured upon the bleeding wound a stream of boiling melted gum. Champlain remonstrated in vain. The piteous cries of the poor, tormented victim excited his unavailing compassion, and he turned away in anger and disgust. At length, when these inhuman tortures had been carried as far as they desired, Champlain was permitted, at his earnest request, with a musket-shot to put an end to his sufferings. But this was not the termination of the horrid performance. The dead victim was hacked in pieces, his heart severed into parts, and the surviving prisoners were ordered to eat it. This was too revolting to their nature, degraded as it was; they were forced, however, to take it into their mouths, but they would do no more, and their guard of more compassionate Algonquins allowed them to cast it into the lake.
This exhibition of savage cruelty was not extraordinary, but according to their usual custom. It was equalled, and, if possible, even surpassed, in the treatment of captives generally, and especially of the Jesuit missionaries in after years. [66]
When the party arrived at the Falls of Chambly, the Hurons and Algonquins left the river, in order to reach their homes by a shorter way, transporting their canoes and effects over land to the St. Lawrence near Montreal, while the rest continued their journey down the Richelieu and the St. Lawrence to Tadoussac, where their families were encamped, waiting to join in the usual ceremonies and rejoicings after a great victory.
When the returning warriors approached Tadoussac, they hung aloft on the prow of their canoes the scalped heads of those whom they had slain, decorated with beads which they had begged from the French for this purpose, and with a savage grace presented these ghastly trophies to their wives and daughters, who, laying aside their garments, eagerly swam out to obtain the precious mementoes, which they hung about their necks and bore rejoicing to the shore, where they further testified their satisfaction by dancing and singing.
After a few days, Champlain repaired to Quebec, and early in September decided to return with Pont Gravé to France. All arrangements were speedily made for that purpose. Fifteen men were left to pass the winter at Quebec, in charge of Captain Pierre Chavin of Dieppe. On the 5th of September they sailed from Tadoussac, and, lingering some days at Isle Percé, arrived at Honfleur on the 13th of October, 1609.
Champlain hastened immediately to Fontainebleau, to make a detailed report of his proceedings to Sieur de Monts, who was there in official attendance upon the king. [67] On this occasion he sought an audience also with Henry IV., who had been his friend and patron from the time of his first voyage to Canada in 1603. In addition to the new discoveries and observations which he detailed to him, he exhibited a belt curiously wrought and inlaid with porcupine-quills, the work of the savages, which especially drew forth the king's admiration. He also presented two specimens of the scarlet tanager, Pyranga rubra, a bird of great brilliancy of plumage and peculiar to this continent, and likewise the head of a gar-pike, a fish of singular characteristics, then known only in the waters of Lake Champlain. [68]
At this time De Monts was urgently seeking a renewal of his commission for the monopoly of the fur-trade. In this Champlain was deeply interested. But to this monopoly a powerful opposition arose, and all efforts at renewal proved utterly fruitless. De Monts did not, however, abandon the enterprise on which he had entered. Renewing his engagements with the merchants of Rouen with whom he had already been associated, he resolved to send out in the early spring, as a private enterprise and without any special privileges or monopoly, two vessels with the necessary equipments for strengthening his colony at Quebec and for carrying on trade as usual with the Indians.
Champlain was again appointed lieutenant, charged with the government and management of the colony, with the expectation of passing the next winter at Quebec, while Pont Gravé, as he had been before, was specially entrusted with the commercial department of the expedition.
They embarked at Honfleur, but were detained in the English Channel by bad weather for some days. In the mean time Champlain was taken seriously ill, the vessel needed additional ballast, and returned to port, and they did not finally put to sea till the 8th of April. They arrived at Tadoussac on the 26th of the same month, in the year 1610, and, two days later, sailed for Quebec, where they found the commander, Captain Chavin, and the little colony all in excellent health.
The establishment at Quebec, it is to be remembered, was now a private enterprise. It existed by no chartered rights, it was protected by no exclusive authority. There was consequently little encouragement for its enlargement beyond what was necessary as a base of commercial operations. The limited cares of the colony left, therefore, to Champlain, a larger scope for the exercise of his indomitable desire for exploration and adventure. Explorations could not, however, be carried forward without the concurrence and guidance of the savages by whom he was immediately surrounded. Friendly relations existed between the French and the united tribes of Montagnais, Hurons, and Algonquins, who occupied the northern shores of the St. Lawrence and the great lakes. A burning hatred existed between these tribes and the Iroquois, occupying the southern shores of the same river. A deadly warfare was their chief employment, and every summer each party was engaged either in repelling an invasion or in making one in the territory of the other. Those friendly to Champlain were quite ready to act as pioneers in his explorations and discoveries, but they expected and demanded in return that he should give them active personal assistance in their wars. Influenced, doubtless, by policy, the spirit of the age, and his early education in the civil conflicts of France, Champlain did not hesitate to enter into an alliance and an exchange of services on these terms.
In the preceding year, two journeys into distant regions had been planned for exploration and discovery. One beginning at Three Rivers, was to survey, under the guidance of the Montagnais, the river St. Maurice to its source, and thence, by different channels and portages, reach Lake St. John, returning by the Saguenay, making in the circuit a distance of not less than eight hundred miles. The other plan was to explore, under the direction of the Hurons and Algonquins, the vast country over which they were accustomed to roam, passing up the Ottawa, and reaching in the end the region of the copper mines on Lake Superior, a journey not less than twice the extent of the former.
Neither of these explorations could be undertaken the present year. Their importance, however, to the future progress of colonization in New France is sufficiently obvious. The purpose of making these surveys shows the breadth and wisdom of Champlain's views, and that hardships or dangers were not permitted to interfere with his patriotic sense of duty.
Soon after his arrival at Quebec, the savages began to assemble to engage in their usual summer's entertainment of making war upon the Iroquois. Sixty Montagnais, equipped in their rude armor, were hastening to the rendezvous which, by agreement made the year before, was to be at the mouth of the Richelieu. [69] Hither were to come the three allied tribes, and pass together up this river into Lake Champlain, the "gate" or war-path through which these hostile clans were accustomed to make their yearly pilgrimage to meet each other in deadly conflict. Sending forward four barques for trading purposes, Champlain repaired to the mouth of the Richelieu, and landed, in company with the Montagnais, on the Island St. Ignace, on the 19th of June. While preparations were making to receive their Algonquin allies from the region of the Ottawa, news came that they had already arrived, and that they had discovered a hundred Iroquois strongly barricaded in a log fort, which they had hastily thrown together on the brink of the river not far distant, and to capture them the assistance of all parties was needed without delay. Champlain, with four Frenchmen and the sixty Montagnais, left the island in haste, passed over to the mainland, where they left their canoes, and eagerly rushed through the marshy forest a distance of two miles. Burdened with their heavy armor, half consumed by mosquitoes which were so thick that they were scarcely able to breathe, covered with mud and water, they at length stood before the Iroquois fort. [70] It was a structure of logs laid one upon another, braced and held together by posts coupled by withes, and of the usual circular form. It offered a good protection in savage warfare. Even the French arquebus discharged through the crevices did slow execution.
It was obvious to Champlain that, to ensure victory, the fort must be demolished. Huge trees, severed at the base, falling upon it, did not break it down. At length, directed by Champlain, the savages approached under their shields, tore away the supporting posts, and thus made a breach, into which rushed the infuriated besiegers, and in hot haste finished their deadly work. Fifteen of the Iroquois were taken prisoners; a few plunged into the river and were drowned; the rest perished by musket-shots, arrow-wounds, the tomahawk, and the war-club. Of the allied savages three were killed and fifty wounded. Champlain himself did not escape altogether unharmed. An arrow, armed with a sharp point of stone, pierced his ear and neck, which he drew out with his own hand. One of his companions received a similar wound in the arm. The victors scalped the dead as usual, ornamenting the prows of their canoes with the bleeding heads of their enemies, while they severed one of the bodies into quarters, to eat, as they alleged, in revenge.
The canoes of the savages and a French shallop having come to the scene of this battle, all soon embarked and returned to the Island of St. Ignace. Here the allies, joined by eighty Huron warriors who had arrived too late to participate in the conflict, remained three days, celebrating their victory by dancing, singing, and the administration of the usual punishment upon their prisoners of war. This consisted in a variety of exquisite tortures, similar to those inflicted the year before, after the victory on Lake Champlain, horrible and sickening in all their features, and which need not be spread upon these pages. From these tortures Champlain would gladly have snatched the poor wretches, had it been in his power, but in this matter the savages would brook no interference. There was a solitary exception, however, in a fortunate young Iroquois who fell to him in the division of prisoners. He was treated with great kindness, but it did not overcome his excessive fear and distrust, and he soon sought an opportunity and escaped to his home. [71]
When the celebration of the victory had been completed, the Indians departed to their distant abodes. Champlain, however, before their departure, very wisely entered into an agreement that they should receive for the winter a young Frenchman who was anxious to learn their language, and, in return, he was himself to take a young Huron, at their special request, to pass the winter in France. This judicious arrangement, in which Champlain was deeply interested and which he found some difficulty in accomplishing, promised an important future advantage in extending the knowledge of both parties, and in strengthening on the foundation of personal experience their mutual confidence and friendship.
After the departure of the Indians, Champlain returned to Quebec, and proceeded to put the buildings in repair and to see that all necessary arrangements were made for the safety and comfort of the colony during the next winter.
On the 4th of July, Des Marais, in charge of the vessel belonging to De Monts and his company, which had been left behind and had been expected soon to follow, arrived at Quebec, bringing the intelligence that a small revolution had taken place in Brouage, the home of Champlain, that the Protestants had been expelled, and an additional guard of soldiers had been placed in the garrison. Des Marais also brought the startling news that Henry IV. had been assassinated on the 14th of May. Champlain was penetrated by this announcement with the deepest sorrow. He fully saw how great a public calamity had fallen upon his country. France had lost, by an ignominious blow, one of her ablest and wisest sovereigns, who had, by his marvellous power, gradually united and compacted the great interests of the nation, which had been shattered and torn by half a century of civil conflicts and domestic feuds. It was also to him a personal loss. The king had taken a special interest in his undertakings, had been his patron from the time of his first voyage to New France in 1603, had sustained him by an annual pension, and on many occasions had shown by word and deed that he fully appreciated the great value of his explorations in his American domains. It was difficult to see how a loss so great both to his country and himself could be repaired. A cloud of doubt and uncertainty hung over the future. The condition of the company, likewise, under whose auspices he was acting, presented at this time no very encouraging features. The returns from the fur-trade had been small, owing to the loss of the monopoly which the company had formerly enjoyed, and the excessive competition which free-trade had stimulated. Only a limited attention had as yet been given to the cultivation of the soil. Garden vegetables had been placed in cultivation, together with small fields of Indian corn, wheat, rye, and barley. These attempts at agriculture were doubtless experiments, while at the same time they were useful in supplementing the stores needed for the colony's consumption.
Champlain's personal presence was not required at Quebec during the winter, as no active enterprise could be carried forward in that inclement season, and he decided, therefore, to return to France. The little colony now consisted of sixteen men, which he placed in charge, during his absence, of Sieur Du Parc. He accordingly left Tadoussac on the 13th of August, and arrived at Honfleur in France on the 27th of September, 1610.
During the autumn of this year, while residing in Paris, Champlain became attached to Hélène Boullé, the daughter of Nicholas Boullé, secretary of the king's chamber. She was at that time a mere child, and of too tender years to act for herself, particularly in matters of so great importance as those which relate to marital relations. However, agreeably to a custom not infrequent at that period, a marriage contract [72] was entered into on the 27th of December with her parents, in which, nevertheless, it was stipulated that the nuptials should not take place within at least two years from that date. The dowry of the future bride was fixed at six thousand livres tournois, three fourths of which were paid and receipted for by Champlain two days after the signing of the contract. The marriage was afterward consummated, and Helen Boullé, as his wife, accompanied Champlain to Quebec, in 1620, as we shall see in the sequel.
Notwithstanding the discouragements of the preceding year and the small prospect of future success, De Monts and the merchants associated with him still persevered in sending another expedition, and Champlain left Honfleur for New France on the first day of March, 1611. Unfortunately, the voyage had been undertaken too early in the season for these northern waters, and long before they reached the Grand Banks, they encountered ice-floes of the most dangerous character. Huge blocks of crystal, towering two hundred feet above the surface of the water, floated at times near them, and at others they were surrounded and hemmed in by vast fields of ice extending as far as the eye could reach. Amid these ceaseless perils, momentarily expecting to be crushed between the floating islands wheeling to and fro about them, they struggled with the elements for nearly two months, when finally they reached Tadoussac on the 13th of May.
ENDNOTES:
58. The situation of Quebec and an engraved representation of the buildings may be seen by reference to Vol. II. pp. 175, 183.
59. Scurvy, or mal de la terre.—Vide Vol. II. note 105.
60. Hurons "The word Huron comes from the French, who seeing these
Indians with the hair cut very short, and standing up in a strange
fashion, giving them a fearful air, cried out, the first time they saw
them, Quelle hures! what boars' heads! and so got to call them
Hurons."—Charlevoix's His. New France, Shea's Trans Vol. II. p. 71.
Vide Relations des Jésuites, Quebec ed. Vol. I. 1639, P 51; also note
321, Vol. II. of this work, for brief notice of the Algonquins and
other tribes.
61. For the identification of the site of this battle, see Vol. II p. 223,
note 348. It is eminently historical ground. Near it Fort Carrillon was
erected by the French in 1756. Here Abercrombie was defeated by
Montcalm in 1758. Lord Amherst captured the fort in 1759 Again it was
taken from the English by the patriot Ethan Alien in 1775. It was
evacuated by St. Clair when environed by Burgoyne in 1777, and now for
a complete century it has been visited by the tourist as a ruin
memorable for its many historical associations.
62. This lake, discovered and explored by Champlain, is ninety miles in length. Through its centre runs the boundary line between the State of New York and that of Vermont. From its discovery to the present time it has appropriately borne the honored name of Champlain. For its Indian name, Caniaderiguarunte, see Vol. II. note 349. According to Mr. Shea the Mohawk name of Lake Champlain is Caniatagaronte.—Vide Shea's Charlevoix. Vol. II. p. 18.
Lake Champlain and the Hudson River were both discovered the same year, and were severally named after the distinguished navigators by whom they were explored. Champlain completed his explorations at Ticonderoga, on the 30th of July, 1609, and Hudson reached the highest point made by him on the river, near Albany, on the 22d of September of the same year.—Vide Vol. II. p. 219. Also The Third Voyage of Master Henry Hudson, written by Robert Ivet of Lime-house, Collections of New York His. Society, Vol. I. p. 140.
63. Lake George. The Jesuit Father, Isaac Jogues, having been summoned in 1646 to visit the Mohawks, to attend to the formalities of ratifying a treaty of peace which had been concluded with them, passing by canoe up the Richelieu, through Lake Champlain, and arriving at the end of Lake George on the 29th of May, the eve of Corpus Christi, a festival celebrated by the Roman Church on the Thursday after Trinity Sunday, in honor of the Holy Eucharist or the Lord's Supper, named this lake LAC DU SAINT SACREMENT. The following is from the Jesuit Relation of 1646 by Pere Hierosme Lalemant. Ils arriuèrent la veille du S. Sacrement au bout du lac qui est ioint au grand lac de Champlain. Les Iroquois le nomment Andiatarocté, comme qui diroit, là où le lac se ferme. Le Pere le nomma le lac du S. Sacrement—Relations des Jésuites, Quebec ed. Vol. II. 1646, p. 15.
Two important facts are here made perfectly plain; viz. that the original Indian name of the lake was Andtatarocté, and that the French named it Lac du Saint Sacrement because they arrived on its shores on the eve of the festival celebrated in honor of the Eucharist or the Lord's Supper. Notwithstanding this very plain statement, it has been affirmed without any historical foundation whatever, that the original Indian name of this lake was Horican, and that the Jesuit missionaries, having selected it for the typical purification of baptism on account of its limpid waters, named it Lac du Saint Sacrement. This perversion of history originated in the extraordinary declaration of Mr. James Fenimore Cooper, in his novel entitled "The Last of the Mohicans," in which these two erroneous statements are given as veritable history. This new discovery by Cooper was heralded by the public journals, scholars were deceived, and the bold imposition was so successful that it was even introduced into a meritorious poem in which the Horican of the ancient tribes and the baptismal waters of the limpid lake are handled with skill and effect. Twenty-five years after the writing of his novel, Mr. Cooper's conscience began seriously to trouble him, and he publicly confessed, in a preface to "The Last of the Mohicans," that the name Horican had been first applied to the lake by himself, and without any historical authority. He is silent as to the reason he had assigned for the French name of the lake, which was probably an assumption growing out of his ignorance of its meaning—Vide The Last of The Mohicans, by J. Fenimore Cooper, Gregory's ed., New York, 1864, pp ix-x and 12.
64. "There are certain general customs which mark the California Indians, as, the non-use of torture on prisoners of war," &c.—Vide The Tribes of California, by Stephen Powers, in Contributions to North American Ethnology, Vol. III. p. 15. Tribes of Washington and Oregon, by George Gibbs, idem, Vol. I. p. 192.
65. "It has been erroneously asserted that the practice of scalping did not prevail among the Indians before the advent of Europeans. In 1535, Cartier saw five scalps at Quebec, dried and stretched on hoops. In 1564, Laudonniere saw them among the Indians of Florida. The Algonquins of New England and Nova Scotia were accustomed to cut off and carry away the head, which they afterwards scalped. Those of Canada, it seems, sometimes scalped the dead bodies on the field. The Algonquin practice of carrying off heads as trophies is mentioned by Lalemant, Roger Williams, Lescarbot, and Champlain."—Vide Pioneers of France in the New World, by Francis Parkman, Boston, 1874, p. 322. The practice of the tribes on the Pacific coast is different "In war they do not take scalps, but decapitate the slain and bring in the heads as trophies."—Contributions to Am. Ethnology, by Stephen Powers, Washington, 1877, Vol. III. pp. 21, 221. Vide Vol. I. p. 192. The Yuki are an exception. Vol. III. p. 129.
66. For an account of the sufferings of Brébeuf, Lalemant, and Jogues, see History of Catholic Missions, by John Gilmary Shea, pp. 188, 189, 217.
67. He was gentleman in ordinary to the king's chamber. "Gentil-homme ordinaire de nôstre Chambre."—Vide Commission du Roy au Sieur de Monts, Histoire de la Nouvelle France, par Marc Lescarbot, Paris, 1612, p. 432.
68. Called by the Indians chaousarou. For a full account of this crustacean vide Vol. II. note 343.
69. The mouth of the Richelieu was the usual place of meeting. In 1603, the allied tribes were there when Champlain ascended the St Lawrence. They had a fort, which he describes.—Vide postea, p 243.
70. Champlain's description does not enable us to identify the place of this battle with exactness. It will be observed, if we refer to his text, that, leaving the island of St Ignace, and going half a league, crossing the river, they landed, when they were plainly on the mainland near the mouth of the Richelieu. They then went half a league, and finding themselves outrun by their Indian guides and lost, they called to two savages, whom they saw going through the woods, to guide them. Going a short distance, they were met by a messenger from the scene of conflict, to urge them to hasten forwards. Then, after going less than an eighth of a league, they were within the sound of the voices of the combatants at the fort. These distances are estimated without measurement, and, of course, are inexact: but, putting the distances mentioned altogether, the journey through the woods to the fort was apparently a little more than two miles. Had they followed the course of the river, the distance would probably have been somewhat more: perhaps nearly three miles. Champlain does not positively say that the fort was on the Richelieu, but the whole narrative leaves no doubt that such was the fact. This river was the avenue through which the Iroquois were accustomed to come, and they would naturally encamp here where they could choose their own ground, and where their enemies were sure to approach them. If we refer to Champlain's illustration of Fort des Iroquois, Vol. II. p. 241, we shall observe that the river is pictured as comparatively narrow, which could hardly be a true representation if it were intended for the St. Lawrence. The escaping Iroquois are represented as swimming towards the right, which was probably in the direction of their homes on the south, the natural course of their retreat. The shallop of Des Prairies, who arrived late, is on the left of the fort, at the exact point where he would naturally disembark if he came up the Richelieu from the St. Lawrence. From a study of the whole narrative, together with the map, we infer that the fort was on the western bank of the Richelieu, between two and three miles from its mouth. We are confident that its location cannot be more definitely fixed.
71. For a full account of the Indian treatment of prisoners, vide antea,
pp. 94,95. Also Vol. II. pp. 224-227, 244-246.
72. Vide Contrat de mariage de Samuel de Champlain, Oeuvres de Champlain,
Quebec ed. Vol. VI., Pièces Fustificatives, p. 33.
Among the early marriages not uncommon at that period, the following are examples. César, the son of Henry IV., was espoused by public ceremonies to the daughter of the Duke de Mercoeur in 1598. The bridegroom was four years old and the bride-elect had just entered her sixth year. The great Condé, by the urgency of his avaricious father, was unwillingly married at the age of twenty, to Claire Clemence de Maillé Brézé, the niece of Cardinal Richelieu, when she was but thirteen years of age.