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.