CHAPTER V.
SEEDS AND VINES PLANTED AT QUEBEC.—COMMENCEMENT OF THE WINTER AND ICE.— EXTREME DESTITUTION OF CERTAIN INDIANS.
On the 1st of October, I had some wheat sown, and on the 15th some rye. On the 3d, there was a white frost in some places, and the leaves of the trees began to fall on the 15th. On the 24th, I had some native vines set out, which flourished very well. But, after leaving the settlement to go to France, they were all spoiled from lack of attention, at which I was much troubled on my return. On the 18th of November, there was a great fall of snow, which remained only two days on the ground, during which time there was a violent gale of wind. There died during this month a sailor and our locksmith [319] of dysentery, so also many Indians from eating eels badly cooked, as I think. On the 5th of February, it snowed violently, and the wind was high for two days. On the 20th, some Indians appeared on the other side of the river, calling to us to go to their assistance, which was beyond our power, on account of the large amount of ice drifting in the river. Hunger pressed upon these poor wretches so severely that, not knowing what to do, they resolved, men, women, and children, to cross the river or die, hoping that I should assist them in their extreme want. Having accordingly made this resolve, the men and women took the children and embarked in their canoes, thinking that they could reach our shore by an opening in the ice made by the wind; but they were scarcely in the middle of the stream when their canoes were caught by the ice and broken into a thousand pieces. But they were skilful enough to throw themselves with the children, which the women carried on their backs, on a large piece of ice. As they were on it, we heard them crying out so that it excited intense pity, as before them there seemed nothing but death. But fortune was so favorable to these poor wretches that a large piece of ice struck against the side of that on which they were, so violently as to drive them ashore. On seeing this favorable turn, they reached the shore with as much delight as they ever experienced, notwithstanding the great hunger from which they were suffering. They proceeded to our abode, so thin and haggard that they seemed like mere skeletons, most of them not being able to hold themselves up. I was astonished to see them, and observe the manner in which they had crossed, in view of their being so feeble and weak. I ordered some bread and beans to be given them. So great was their impatience to eat them, that they could not wait to have them cooked. I lent them also some bark, which other savages had given me, to cover their cabins. As they were making their cabin, they discovered a piece of carrion, which I had had thrown out nearly two months before to attract the foxes, of which we caught black and red ones, like those in France, but with heavier fur. This carrion consisted of a sow and a dog, which had sustained all the rigors of the weather, hot and cold. When the weather was mild, it stank so badly that one could not go near it. Yet they seized it and carried it off to their cabin, where they forthwith devoured it half cooked. No meat ever seemed to them to taste better. I sent two or three men to warn them not to eat it, unless they wanted to die: as they approached their cabin, they smelt such a stench from this carrion half warmed up, each one of the Indians holding a piece in his hand, that they thought they should disgorge, and accordingly scarcely stopped at all. These poor wretches finished their repast. I did not fail, however, to supply them according to my resources; but this was little, in view of the large number of them. In the space of a month, they would have eaten up all our provisions, if they had had them in their power, they are so gluttonous: for, when they have edibles, they lay nothing aside, but keep consuming them day and night without respite, afterwards dying of hunger. They did also another thing as disgusting as that just mentioned. I had caused a bitch to be placed on the top of a tree, which allured the martens [320] and birds of prey, from which I derived pleasure, since generally this carrion was attacked by them. These savages went to the tree, and, being too weak to climb it, cut it down and forthwith took away the dog, which was only skin and bones, the tainted head emitting a stench, but which was at once devoured.
This is the kind of enjoyment they experience for the most part in winter; for in summer they are able to support themselves, and to obtain provisions so as not to be assailed by such extreme hunger, the rivers abounding in fish, while birds and wild animals fill the country about. The soil is very good and well adapted for tillage, if they would but take pains to plant Indian corn, as all their neighbors do, the Algonquins, Ochastaiguins, [321] and Iroquois, who are not attacked by such extremes of hunger, which they provide against by their carefulness and foresight, so that they live happily in comparison with the Montagnais, Canadians, and Souriquois along the seacoast. This is in the main their wretched manner of life. The snow and ice last three months there, from January to the 8th of April, when it is nearly all melted: at the latest, it is only seldom that any is seen at the end of the latter month at our settlement. It is remarkable that so much snow and ice as there is on the river, and which is from two to three fathoms thick, is all melted in less than twelve days. From Tadoussac to Gaspé, Cape Breton, Newfoundland, and the Great Bay, the snow and ice continue in most places until the end of May, at which time the entire entrance of the great river is sealed with ice; although at Quebec there is none at all, showing a strange difference for one hundred and twenty leagues in longitude, for the entrance to the river is in latitude 49° 50' to 51°, and our settlement [322] in 46° 40'.