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Voyages of Samuel de Champlain, Vol. 1

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VOYAGE FROM TADOUSSAC TO ISLE PERCÉE.--DESCRIPTION OF MOLUES BAY, THE
ISLAND OF BONAVENTURE, BAY OF CHALEUR: ALSO SEVERAL RIVERS, LAKES, AND
COUNTRIES WHERE THERE ARE VARIOUS KINDS OF MINES.

At once, after arriving at Tadoussac, we embarked for Gaspé, about a
hundred leagues distant. On the thirteenth day of the month, we met a troop
of savages encamped on the south shore, nearly half way between Tadoussac
and Gaspé. The name of the Sagamore who led them is Armouchides, who is
regarded as one of the most intelligent and daring of the savages. He was
going to Tadoussac to barter their arrows and orignac meat [215] for
beavers and martens [216] with the Montagnais, Etechemins, and Algonquins.

On the 15th day of the month we arrived at Gaspé, situated on the northern
shore of a bay, and about a league and a half from the entrance. This bay
is some seven or eight leagues long, and four leagues broad at its
entrance. There is a river there extending some thirty leagues inland.
[217] Then we saw another bay, called Moluës Bay [218] some three leagues
long and as many wide at its entrance. Thence we come to Isle Percée, [219]
a sort of rock, which is very high and steep on two sides, with a hole
through which shallops and boats can pass at high tide. At low tide, you
can go from the mainland to this island, which is only some four or five
hundred feet distant. There is also another island, about a league
southeast of Isle Percée, called the Island of Bonaventure, which is,
perhaps, half a league long. Gaspé, Moluës Bay, and Isle Percée are all
places where dry and green fishing is carried on.

Beyond Isle Percée there is a bay, called _Baye de Chaleurs_, [220]
extending some eighty leagues west-southwest inland, and some fifteen
leagues broad at its entrance. The Canadian savages say that some sixty
leagues along the southern shore of the great River of Canada, there is a
little river called Mantanne, extending some eighteen leagues inland, at
the end of which they carry their canoes about a league by land, and come
to the Baye de Chaleurs, [221] whence they go sometimes to Isle Percée.
They also go from this bay to Tregate [222] and Misamichy. [223]

Proceeding along this coast, you pass a large number of rivers, and reach a
place where there is one called _Souricoua_, by way of which Sieur Prevert
went to explore a copper mine. They go with their canoes up this river for
two or three days, when they go overland some two or three leagues to the
said mine, which is situated on the seashore southward. At the entrance to
the above-mentioned river there is an island [224] about a league out, from
which island to Isle Percée is a distance of some sixty or seventy leagues.
Then, continuing along this coast, which runs towards the east, you come to
a strait about two leagues broad and twenty-five long. [225] On the east
side of it is an island named _St. Lawrence_, [226] on which is Cape
Breton, and where a tribe of savages called the _Souriquois_ winter.
Passing the strait of the Island of St. Lawrence, and coasting along the
shore of La Cadie, you come to a bay [227] on which this copper mine is
situated. Advancing still farther, you find a river [228] extending some
sixty or eighty leagues inland, and nearly to the Lake of the Iroquois,
along which the savages of the coast of La Cadie go to make war upon the
latter.

One would accomplish a great good by discovering, on the coast of Florida,
some passage running near to the great lake before referred to, where the
water is salt; not only on account of the navigation of vessels, which
would not then be exposed to so great risks as in going by way of Canada,
but also on account of the shortening of the distance by more than three
hundred leagues. And it is certain that there are rivers on the coast of
Florida, not yet discovered, extending into the interior, where the land is
very good and fertile, and containing very good harbors. The country and
coast of Florida may have a different temperature and be more productive in
fruits and other things than that which I have seen; but there cannot be
there any lands more level nor of a better quality than those we have seen.

The savages say that, in this great Baye de Chaleurs, there is a river
extending some twenty leagues into the interior, at the extremity of which
is a lake [229] some twenty leagues in extent, but with very little water;
that it dries up in summer, when they find in it, a foot or foot and a half
under ground, a kind of metal resembling the silver which I showed them,
and that in another place, near this lake, there is a copper mine.

This is what I learned from these savages.

ENDNOTES:

215. _Orignac_. Moose.--_Vide antea_, note 179.

216. Martens, _martres_. This may include the pine-marten, _Mustela
martes_, and the pecan or fisher, _Mustela Canadenfis_, both of which
were found in large numbers in New France.

217. York River.

218. Molues Bay, _Baye des Moluès_. Now known as Mal-Bay, from _morue_,
codfish, a corruption from the old orthography _molue_ and _baie_,
codfish bay, the name having been originally applied on account of the
excellent fish of the neighborhood. The harbor of Mal-Bay is enclosed
between two points, Point Peter on the north, and a high rocky
promontory on the south, whose cliffs rise to the height of 666
feet.--_Vide Charts of the St. Lawrence by Captain H. W. Bayfield_.

219. _Isle Percée.--Vide_ Vol. II, note 290.

220. _Baye de Chaleurs_. This bay was so named by Jacques Cartier on
account of the excessive heat, _chaleur_, experienced there on his
first voyage in 1634.--_Vide Voyage de Jacques Cartier_, Mechelant,
ed. Paris, 1865, p. 50. The depth of the bay is about ninety miles and
its width at the entrance is about eighteen. It receives the
Ristigouche and other rivers.

221. By a portage of about three leagues from the river Matane to the
Matapedia, the Bay of Chaleur may be reached by water.

222. _Tregaté_, Tracadie. By a very short portage Between Bass River and
the Big Tracadie River, this place may be reached.

223. _Misamichy_, Miramichi. This is reached by a short portage from the
Nepisiguit to the head waters of the Miramichi.

224. It is obvious from this description that the island above mentioned is
Shediac Island, and the river was one of the several emptying into
Shediac Bay, and named _Souricoua_, as by it the Indians went to the
Souriquois or Micmacs in Nova Scotia.

225. The Strait of Canseau.

226. _St. Lawrence_. This island had then borne the name of the _Island of
Cape Breton_ for a hundred years.

227. The Bay of Fundy.

228. The River St John by which they reached the St Lawrence, and through
the River Richelieu the lake of the Iroquois. It was named Lake
Champlain in 1609. _Vide_ Vol. II. p. 223.

229. By traversing the Ristigouche River, the Matapediac may be reached,
the lake here designated.




CHAPTER XI.

RETURN FROM ISLE PERCÉE TO TADOUSSAC.--DESCRIPTION OF THE COVES, HARBORS,
RIVERS, ISLANDS, ROCKS, FALLS, BAYS, AND SHALLOWS ALONG THE NORTHERN SHORE.


We set out from Isle Percée on the nineteenth of the month, on our return
to Tadoussac. When we were some three leagues from Cape Évêque [230]
encountered a tempest, which lasted two days, and obliged us to put into a
large cove and wait for fair weather. The next day we set out from there
and again encountered another tempest. Not wishing to put back, and
thinking that we could make our way, we proceeded to the north shore on the
28th of July, and came to anchor in a cove which is very dangerous on
account of its rocky banks. This cove is in latitude 51 deg. and some
minutes. [231]

The next day we anchored near a river called St. Margaret, where the depth
is some three fathoms at full tide, and a fathom and a half at low tide. It
extends a considerable distance inland. So far as I observed the eastern
shore inland, there is a waterfall some fifty or sixty fathoms in extent,
flowing into this river; from this comes the greater part of the water
composing it. At its mouth there is a sand-bank, where there is, perhaps,
at low tide, half a fathom of water. All along the eastern shore there is
moving sand; and here there is a point some half a league from the above
mentioned river, [232] extending out half a league, and on the western
shore there is a little island. This place is in latitude 50 deg. All these
lands are very poor, and covered with firs. The country is somewhat high,
but not so much so as that on the south side.

After going some three leagues, we passed another river, [233] apparently
very large, but the entrance is, for the most part, filled with rocks. Some
eight leagues distant from there, is a point [234] extending out a league
and a half, where there is only a fathom and a half of water. Some four
leagues beyond this point, there is another, where there is water enough.
[235] All this coast is low and sandy.

Some four leagues beyond there is a cove into which a river enters. [236]
This place is capable of containing a large number of vessels on its
western side. There is a low point extending out about a league. One must
sail along the eastern side for some three hundred paces in order to enter.
This is the best harbor along all the northern coast; yet it is very
dangerous sailing there on account of the shallows and sandbanks along the
greater part of the coast for nearly two leagues from the shore.

Some six leagues farther on is a bay, [237] where there is a sandy island.
This entire bay is very shoal, except on the eastern side, where there are
some four fathoms of water. In the channel which enters this bay, some four
leagues from there, is a fine cove, into which a river flows. There is a
large fall on it. All this coast is low and sandy. Some five leagues
beyond, is a point extending out about half a league, [238] in which there
is a cove; and from one point to the other is a distance of three leagues;
which, however, is only shoals with little water.

Some two leagues farther on, is a strand with a good harbor and a little
river, in which there are three islands, [239] and in which vessels could
take shelter.

Some three leagues from there, is a sandy point, [240] extending out about
a league, at the end of which is a little island. Then, going on to the
Esquemin, [241] you come to two small, low islands and a little rock near
the shore. These islands are about half a league from the Esquemin, which
is a very bad harbor, surrounded by rocks and dry at low tide, and, in
order to enter, one must tack and go in behind a little rocky point, where
there is room enough for only one vessel. A little farther on, is a river
extending some little distance into the interior; this is the place where
the Basques carry on the whale-fishery. [242] To tell the truth, the harbor
is of no account at all.

We went thence to the harbor of Tadoussac, on the third of August. All
these lands above-mentioned along the shore are low, while the interior is
high. They are not so attractive or fertile as those on the south shore,
although lower.

This is precisely what I have seen of this northern shore.

ENDNOTES:

230. _Évesque_ This cape cannot be identified.

231. On passing to the northern shore of the St. Lawrence, they entered,
according to the conjecture of Laverdière, Moisie Bay. It seems to us,
however, more likely that they entered a cove somewhere among the
Seven Islands, perhaps near the west channel to the Seven Islands Bay,
between Point Croix and Point Chassé, where they might have found good
anchorage and a rocky shore. The true latitude is say, about 50 deg.
9'. The latitude 51 deg., as given by Champlain, would cut the coast
of Labrador, and is obviously an error.

232. This was probably the river still bearing the name of St. Margaret.
There is a sandy point extending out on the east and a peninsula on
the western shore, which may then have been an island formed by the
moving sands.--_Vide Bayfield's charts_.

233. Rock River, in latitude 50 deg. 2'.

234. Point De Monts. The Abbé Laverdière, whose opportunities for knowing
this coast were excellent, states that there is no other point between
Rock River and Point De Monts of such extent, and where there is so
little water. As to the distance, Champlain may have been deceived by
the currents, or there may have been, as suggested by Laverdière, a
typographical error. The distance to Point De Monts is, in fact,
eighteen leagues.

235. Point St Nicholas.--_Laverdière_. This is probably the point referred
to, although the distance is again three times too great.

236. The Manicouagan River.--_Laverdière_. The distance is still excessive,
but in other respects the description in the text identifies this
river. On Bellin's map this river is called Rivière Noire.

237. Outard Bay. The island does not now appear. It was probably an island
of sand, which has since been swept away, unless it was the sandy
peninsula lying between Outard and Manicouagan Rivers. The fall is
laid down on Bayfield's chart.

238. Bersimis Point Walker and Miles have _Betsiamites_, Bellin,
_Bersiamites_ Laverdière, _Betsiams_, and Bayfield, _Bersemis_. The
text describes the locality with sufficient accuracy.

239. Jeremy Island. Bellin, 1764, lays down three islands, but Bayfield,
1834, has but one. Two of them appear to have been swept away or
united in one.

240. Three leagues would indicate Point Colombier. But Laverdière suggests
Mille Vaches as better conforming to the description in the text,
although the distance is three times too great.

241. _Esquemin_. Walker and Miles have _Esconmain_, Bellin, _Lesquemin_,
Bayfield, _Esquamine_, and Laverdière, _Escoumins_. The river half a
league distant is now called River Romaine.

242. The River Lessumen, a short distance from which is _Anse aux Basques_,
or Basque Cove. This is probably the locality referred to in the text.




CHAPTER XII.

CEREMONIES OF THE SAVAGES BEFORE ENGAGING IN WAR--OF THE ALMOUCHICOIS
SAVAGES AND THEIR STRANGE FORM--NARRATIVE OF SIEUR DE PREVERT OF ST. MALO
ON THE EXPLORATION OF THE LA CADIAN COAST, WHAT MINES THERE ARE THERE; THE
EXCELLENCE AND FERTILITY OF THE COUNTRY.

Upon arriving at Tadoussac, we found the savages, whom we had met at the
River of the Iroquois, and who had had an encounter at the first lake with
three Iroquois canoes, there being ten of the Montagnais. The latter
brought back the heads of the Iroquois to Tadoussac, there being only one
Montagnais wounded, which was in the arm by an arrow; and in case he should
have a dream, it would be necessary for all the ten others to execute it in
order to satisfy him, they thinking, moreover, that his wound would thereby
do better. If this savage should die, his relatives would avenge his death
either on his own tribe or others, or it would be necessary for the
captains to make presents to the relatives of the deceased, in order to
content them, otherwise, as I have said, they would practise vengeance,
which is a great evil among them.

Before these Montagnais set out for the war, they all gathered together in
their richest fur garments of beaver and other skins, adorned with beads
and belts of various colors. They assembled in a large public place, in the
presence of a sagamore named Begourat, who led them to the war. They were
arranged one behind the other, with their bows and arrows, clubs, and round
shields with which they provide for fighting. They went leaping one after
the other, making various gestures with their bodies, and many snail-like
turns. Afterwards they proceeded to dance in the customary manner, as I
have before described; then they had their _tabagie_, after which the women
stripped themselves stark naked, adorned with their handsomest
_matachiats_. Thus naked and dancing, they entered their canoes, when they
put out upon the water, striking each other with their oars, and throwing
quantities of water at one another. But they did themselves no harm, since
they parried the blows hurled at each other. After all these ceremonies,
the women withdrew to their cabins, and the men went to the war against the
Iroquois.

On the sixteenth of August we set out from Tadoussac, and arrived on the
eighteenth at Isle Percée, where we found Sieur Prevert of St. Malo, who
came from the mine where he had gone with much difficulty, from the fear
which the savages had of meeting their enemies, the Almouchicois, [243] who
are savages of an exceedingly strange form, for their head is small and
body short, their arms slender as those of a skeleton, so also the thighs,
their legs big and long and of uniform size, and when they are seated on
the ground, their knees extend more than half a foot above the head,
something strange and seemingly abnormal. They are, however, very agile and
resolute, and are settled upon the best lands all the coast of La Cadie;
[244] so that the Souriquois fear them greatly. But with the assurance
which Sieur de Prevert gave them, he took them to the mine, to which the
savages guided him. [245] It is a very high mountain, extending somewhat
seaward, glittering brightly in the sunlight, and containing a large amount
of verdigris, which proceeds from the before-mentioned copper mine. At the
foot of this mountain, he said, there was at low water a large quantity of
bits of copper, such as he showed us, which fall from the top of the
mountain. Going on three or four leagues in the direction of the coast of
La Cadie one finds another mine; also a small river extending some distance
in a Southerly direction, where there is a mountain containing a black
pigment with which the savages paint themselves. Then, some six leagues
from the second mine, going seaward about a league, and near the coast of
La Cadie, you find an island containing a kind of metal of a dark brown
color, but white when it is cut. This they formerly used for their arrows
and knives, which they beat into shape with stones, which leads me to
believe that it is neither tin nor lead, it being so hard; and, upon our
showing them some silver, they said that the metal of this island was like
it, which they find some one or two feet under ground. Sieur Prevert gave
to the savages wedges and chisels and other things necessary to extract the
ore of this mine, which they promised to do, and on the following year to
bring and give the same to Sieur Prevert.

They say, also, that, some hundred or hundred and twenty leagues distant,
there are other mines, but that they do not dare to go to them, unless
accompanied by Frenchmen to make war upon their enemies, in whose
possession the mines are.

This place where the mine is, which is in latitude 44 deg. and some
minutes, [246] and some five or six leagues from the coast of La Cadie, is
a kind of bay some leagues broad at its entrance, and somewhat more in
length, where there are three rivers which flow into the great bay near the
island of St John, [247] which is some thirty or thirty-five leagues long
and some six leagues from the mainland on the south. There is also another
small river emptying about half way from that by which Sieur Prevert
returned, in which there are two lake-like bodies of water. There is also
still another small river, extending in the direction of the pigment
mountain. All these rivers fall into said bay nearly southeast of the
island where these savages say this white mine is. On the north side of
this bay are the copper mines, where there is a good harbor for vessels, at
the entrance to which is a small island. The bottom is mud and sand, on
which vessels can be run.

From this mine to the mouth of the above rivers is a distance of some sixty
or eighty leagues overland. But the distance to this mine, along the
seacoast, from the outlet between the Island of St. Lawrence and the
mainland is, I should think, more than fifty or sixty leagues. [248]

All this country is very fair and flat, containing all the kinds of trees
we saw on our way to the first fall of the great river of Canada, with but
very little fir and cypress.

This is an exact statement of what I ascertained from Sieur Prevert.

ENDNOTES:

243. _Almouchiquois_. Champlain here writes _Armouchicois_. The account
here given to Prevert, by the Souriquois or Micmacs, as they have been
more recently called, of the Almouchicois or Indians found south of
Saco, on the coast of Massachusetts, if accurately reported, is far
from correct. _Vide_ Champlain's description of them, Vol. II. p. 63,
_et passim_.

244. _Coast of La Cadie_. This extent given to La Cadie corresponds with
the charter of De Monts, which covered the territory from 40 deg.
north latitude to 46 deg. The charter was obtained in the autumn of
this same year, 1603, and before the account of this voyage by
Champlain was printed.--_Vide_ Vol. 11. note 155.

245. Prevert did not make this exploration, personally, although he
pretended that he did. He sent some of his men with Secondon, the
chief of St. John, and others. His report is therefore second-hand,
confused, and inaccurate. Champlain exposes Prevert's attempt to
deceive in a subsequent reference to him. Compare Vol. II. pp. 26, 97,
98.

246. _44 deg. and some minutes_. The Basin of Mines, the place where the
copper was said to be, is about 45 deg. 30'.

247. _Island of St. John_. Prince Edward Island. It was named the island of
St. John by Cartier, having been discovered by him on St. John's Day,
the 24th of June, 1534.--_Vide Voyage de Jacques Cartier_, 1534,
Michelant, ed. Paris, 1865, p. 33. It continued to be so called for
the period of _two hundred and sixty-five_ years, when it was changed
to Prince Edward Island by an act of its legislature, in November,
1798, which was confirmed by the king in council, Feb. 1, 1799.

248. That is, from the Strait of Canseau round the coast of Nova Scotia to
the Bay of Mines.




CHAPTER XIII.

A TERRIBLE MONSTER, WHICH THE SAVAGES CALL GOUGOU--OUR SHORT AND FAVORABLE
VOYAGE BACK TO FRANCE

There is, moreover, a strange matter, worthy of being related, which
several savages have assured me was true; namely, near the Bay of Chaleurs,
towards the south, there is an island where a terrible monster resides,
which the savages call _Gougou_, and which they told me had the form of a
woman, though very frightful, and of such a size that they told me the tops
of the masts of our vessel would not reach to his middle, so great do they
picture him; and they say that he has often devoured and still continues to
devour many savages; these he puts, when he can catch them, into a great
pocket, and afterwards eats them; and those who had escaped the jaws of
this wretched creature said that its pocket was so great that it could have
put our vessel into it. This monster makes horrible noises in this island,
which the savages call the _Gougou_; and when they speak of him, it is with
the greatest possible fear, and several have assured me that they have seen
him. Even the above-mentioned Prevert from St. Malo told me that, while
going in search of mines, as mentioned in the previous chapter, he passed
so near the dwelling-place of this frightful creature, that he and all
those on board his vessel heard strange hissings from the noise it made,
and that the savages with him told him it was the same creature, and that
they were so afraid that they hid themselves wherever they could, for fear
that it would come and carry them off. What makes me believe what they say
is the fact that all the savages in general fear it, and tell such strange
things about it that, if I were to record all they say, it would be
regarded as a myth; but I hold that this is the dwelling-place of some
devil that torments them in the above-mentioned manner. [249] This is what
I have learned about this Gougou.

Before leaving Tadoussac on our return to France, one of the sagamores of
the Montagnais, named _Bechourat_, gave his son to Sieur Du Pont Gravé to
take to France, to whom he was highly commended by the grand sagamore,
Anadabijou, who begged him to treat him well and have him see what the
other two savages, whom we had taken home with us, had seen. We asked them
for an Iroquois woman they were going to eat, whom they gave us, and whom,
also, we took with this savage. Sieur de Prevert also took four savages: a
man from the coast of La Cadie, a woman and two boys from the Canadians.

On the 24th of August, we set out from Gaspé, the vessel of Sieur Prevert
and our own. On the 2d of September we calculated that we were as far as
Cape Race, on the 5th, we came upon the bank where the fishery is carried
on; on the 16th, we were on soundings, some fifty leagues from Ouessant; on
the 20th we arrived, by God's grace, to the joy of all, and with a
continued favorable wind, at the port of Havre de Grâce.

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