Voyages of Samuel De Champlain — Volume 01

by Samuel de Champlain

CHAPTER I.

BRIEF NARRATIVE OF THE VOYAGE FROM HONFLEUR IN NORMANDY TO THE PORT OF TADOUSSAC IN CANADA

We set out from Honfleur on the 15th of March, 1603. On the same day we put back to the roadstead of Havre de Grâce, the wind not being favorable. On Sunday following, the 16th, we set sail on our route. On the 17th, we sighted d'Orgny and Grenesey, [121] islands between the coast of Normandy and England. On the 18th of the same month, we saw the coast of Brittany. On the 19th, at 7 o'clock in the evening we reckoned that we were off Ouessant. [122] On the 21st, at 7 o'clock in the morning, we met seven Flemish vessels, coming, as we thought from the Indies. On Easter day, the 30th of the same month, we encountered a great tempest, which seemed to be more lightning than wind, and which lasted for seventeen days, though not continuing so severe as it was on the first two days. During this time, we lost more than we gained. On the 16th of April, to the delight of all, the weather began to be more favorable, and the sea calmer than it had been, so that we continued our course until the 18th, when we fell in with a very lofty iceberg. The next day we sighted a bank of ice more than eight leagues long, accompanied by an infinite number of smaller banks, which prevented us from going on. In the opinion of the pilot, these masses of ice were about a hundred or a hundred and twenty leagues from Canada. We were in latitude 45 deg. 40', and continued our course in 44 deg..

On the 2nd of May we reached the Bank at 11 o'clock in the forenoon, in 44 deg. 40'. On the 6th of the same month we had approached so near to land that we heard the sea beating on the shore, which, however, we could not see on account of the dense fog, to which these coasts are subject. [123] For this reason we put out to sea again a few leagues, until the next morning, when the weather being clear, we sighted land, which was Cape St. Mary. [124]

On the 12th we were overtaken by a severe gale, lasting two days. On the 15th we sighted the islands of St. Peter. [125] On the 17th we fell in with an ice-bank near Cape Ray, six leagues in length, which led us to lower sail for the entire night that we might avoid the danger to which we were exposed. On the next day we set sail and sighted Cape Ray, [126] the islands of St. Paul, and Cape St. Lawrence. [127] The latter is on the mainland lying to the south, and the distance from it to Cape Ray is eighteen leagues, that being the breadth of the entrance to the great bay of Canada. [128] On the same day, about ten o'clock in the morning, we fell in with another bank of ice, more than eight leagues in length. On the 20th, we sighted an island some twenty-five or thirty leagues long, called Anticosty, [129] which marks the entrance to the river of Canada. The next day, we sighted Gaspé, [130] a very high land, and began to enter the river of Canada, coasting along the south side as far as Montanne, [131] distant sixty-five leagues from Gaspé. Proceeding on our course, we came in sight of the Bic, [132] twenty leagues from Mantanne and on the southern shore; continuing farther, we crossed the river to Tadoussac, fifteen leagues from the Bic. All this region is very high, barren, and unproductive.

On the 24th of the month, we came to anchor before Tadoussac, [133] and on the 26th entered this port, which has the form of a cove. It is at the mouth of the river Saguenay, where there is a current and tide of remarkable swiftness and a great depth of water, and where there are sometimes troublesome winds, [134] in consequence of the cold they bring. It is stated that it is some forty-five or fifty leagues up to the first fall in this river, and that it flows from the northwest. The harbor of Tadoussac is small, in which only ten or twelve vessels could lie; but there is water enough on the east, sheltered from the river Saguenay, and along a little mountain, which is almost cut off by the river. On the shore there are very high mountains, on which there is little earth, but only rocks and sand, which are covered, with pine, cypress and fir, [135] and a smallish species of trees. There is a small pond near the harbor, enclosed by wood-covered mountains. At the entrance to the harbor, there are two points: the one on the west side extending a league out into the river, and called St. Matthew's Point; [136] the other on the southeast side extending out a quarter of a league, and called All-Devils' Point. This harbor is exposed to the winds from the south, southeast, and south-southwest. The distance from St. Matthew's Point to All-Devils' Point is nearly a league; both points are dry at low tide.

ENDNOTES:

121. Alderney and Guernsey. French maps at the present day for Alderney
have d'Aurigny.

122. The islands lying off Finistère, on the western extremity of Brittany
in France.

123. The shore which they approached was probably Cape Pine, east of
Placentia Bay, Newfoundland.

124. In Placentia bay, on the southern coast of Newfoundland.

125. West of Placentia Bay.

126. Cape Ray is northwest of the islands of St. Peter.

127. Cape St. Lawrence, now called Cape North, is the northern extremity of the island of Cape Breton, and the island of St. Paul is a few miles north of it.

128. The Gulf or Bay of St. Lawrence. It was so named by Jacques Cartier on his second voyage, in 1535. Nous nommasmes la dicte baye la Sainct Laurens, Brief Recit, 1545, D'Avezac ed. p. 8. The northeastern part of it is called on De Laet's map, "Grand Baye."

129. "This island is about one hundred and forty miles long, thirty-five miles broad at its widest part, with an average breadth of twenty-seven and one-half miles."—Le Moine's Chronicles of the St. Lawrence, p.100. It was named by Cartier in 1535, the Island of the Assumption, having been discovered on the 15th of August, the festival of the Assumption. Nous auons nommes l'ysle de l'Assumption.—Brief Recit, 1545, D'Avenzac's ed. p. 9. Alfonse, in his report of his voyage of 1542, calls it the Isle de l'Ascension, probably by mistake. "The Isle of Ascension is a goodly isle and a goodly champion land, without any hills, standing all upon white rocks and Alabaster, all covered with wild beasts, as bears, Luserns, Porkespicks." Hakluyt, Vol. III. p. 292. Of this island De Laet says, "Elle est nommee el langage des Sauvages Natiscotec"—Hist. du Nouveau Monde, a Leyde, 1640, p.42. Vide also Wyet's Voyage in Hakluyt, Vol. III. p. 241. Laverdière says the Montagnais now call it Natascoueh, which signifies, where the bear is caught. He cites Thevet, who says it is called by the savages, Naticousti, by others Laisple. The use of the name Anticosty by Champlain, now spelled Anticosti, would imply that its corruption from the original, Natiscotec, took place at a very early date. Or it is possible that Champlain wrote it as he heard it pronounced by the natives, and his orthography may best represent the original.

130. Gachepé, so written in the text, subsequently written by the author Gaspey, but now generally Gaspé. It is supposed to have been derived from the Abnaquis word Katsepi8i, which means what is separated from the rest, and to have reference to a remarkable rock, three miles above Cape Gaspé, separated from the shore by the violence of the waves, the incident from which it takes its name.—Vide Voyages de Champlain, ed. 1632, p. 91; Chronicles of the St. Lawrence, by J. M. Le Moine, p. 9.

131. A river flowing into the St. Lawrence from the south in latitude 48 deg. 52' and in longitude west from Greenwich 67 deg. 32', now known as the Matane.

132. For Bic, Champlain has Pic, which is probably a typographical error. It seems probable that Bic is derived from the French word bicoque, which means a place of small consideration, a little paltry town. Near the site of the ancient Bic, we now have, on modern maps, Bicoque Rocks, Bicquette Light, Bic Island, Bic Channel, and Bic Anchorage. As suggested by Laverdière, this appears to be the identical harbor entered by Jacques Cartier, in 1535, who named if the Isles of Saint John, because he entered it on the day of the beheading of St. John, which was the 29th of August. Nous les nommasmes les Ysleaux sainct Jehan, parce que nous y entrasmes le jour de la decollation dudict sainct. Brief Récit, 1545, D'Avezac's ed. p. 11. Le Jeune speaks of the Isle du Bic in 1635. Vide Relation des Jésuites, p. 19.

133. Tadoussac, or Tadouchac, is derived from the word totouchac, which in Montagnais means breasts, and Saguenay signifies water which springs forth, from the Montagnais word saki-nip.—Vide Laverdière in loco. Tadoussac, or the breasts from which water springs forth, is naturally suggested by the rocky elevations at the base of which the Saguenay flows.

134. Impetueux, plainly intended to mean troublesome, as may be seen from the context.

135. Pine, pins. The white pine, Pinus strobus, or Strobus Americanus, grows as far north as Newfoundland, and as far south as Georgia. It was observed by Captain George Weymouth on the Kennebec, and hence deals afterward imported into England were called Weymouth pine—Vide Chronological History of Plants, by Charles Picketing, M.D., Boston, 1879, p. 809. This is probably the species here referred to by Champlain. Cypress, Cyprez. This was probably the American arbor vitæ. Thuja occidentalis, a species which, according to the Abbé Laverdière, is found in the neighborhood of the Saguenay. Champlain employed the same word to designate the American savin, or red cedar. Juniperus Virginiana, which he found on Cape Cod—Vide Vol. II. p. 82. Note 168.

Fir, sapins. The fir may have been the white spruce, Abies alba, or the black spruce, Abies nigra, or the balsam fir or Canada balsam, Abies balsamea, or yet the hemlock spruce, Abies Canadaisis.

136. St. Matthew's Point, now known as Point aux Allouettes, or Lack Point.—Vide Vol. II. p 165, note 292. All-Devils' Point, now called Pointe aux Vaches. Both of these points had changed their names before the publication of Champlain's ed., 1632.—Vide p. 119 of that edition. The last mentioned was called by Champlain, in 1632, pointe aux roches. Laverdière thinks _ro_ches was a typographical error, as Sagard, about the same time, writes vaches.—Vide Sagard. Histoire du Canada, 1636, Stross. ed., Vol I p. 150.

We naturally ask why it was called pointe aux vaches, or point of cows. An old French apothegm reads Le diable est aux vaches, the devil is in the cows, for which in English we say, "the devil is to pay." May not this proverb have suggested vaches as a synonyme of diables?