ENDNOTES:
105. Mal de la terre. Champlain had bitter experiences of this disease in Quebec during the winter of 1608-9, when he was still ignorant of its character; and it was not till several years later that he learned that it was the old malady called scurbut, from the Sclavonic scorb. Latinized into scorbuticus. Lescarbot speaks of this disease as little understood in his time, but as known to Hippocrates. He quotes Olaus Magnus, who describes it as it appeared among the nations of the north, who called it sorbet, [Greek: kachexia], from [Greek: kakos], bad, and [Greek: exis], a habit. This undoubtedly expresses the true cause of this disease, now familiarly known as the scurvy. It follows exposure to damp, cold, and impure atmosphere, accompanied by the long-continued use of the same kind of food, particularly of salt meats, with bad water. All of these conditions existed at the Island of St. Croix. Champlain's description of the disease is remarkably accurate.
106. This passage might be read, "which is in this country in May:" lequel commence en ces pays là est en May. As Laverdière suggests, it looks as if Champlain wrote it first commence, and then, thinking that the winter he had experienced might have been exceptional, substituted est, omitting to erase commence, so that the sentence, as it stands, is faulty, containing two verbs instead of one, and being susceptible of a double sense.