Voyages of Samuel De Champlain — Volume 01

by Samuel de Champlain

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.