Voyages of Samuel De Champlain — Volume 02

by Samuel de Champlain

ENDNOTES:

210. Clearly a mistake. Champlain here says they "continued their course north," whereas, the whole context shows that they must have gone south.

211. "The sandy point" running out nearly three leagues was evidently the island of Monomoy, or its representative, which at that time may have been only a continuation of the main land. Champlain does not delineate on his map an island, but a sand-bank nearly in the shape of an isosceles triangle, which extends far to the south-east. Very great changes have undoubtedly taken place on this part of the coast since the visit of Champlain. The sand-bar figured by him has apparently been swept from the south-east round to the south-west, and is perhaps not very much changed in its general features except as to its position. "We know from our studies of such shoals," says Prof. Mitchell, Chief of Physical Hydrography, U. S. Coast Survey, "that the relative order of banks and beaches remains about the same, however the system as a whole may change its location."—Mass. Harbor Commissioners' Report. 1873, p. 99.

212. Batturier. This word is an adjective, formed with the proper termination from the noun, batture, which means a bank upon which the sea beats, reef or sand-bank. Cap Batturier may therefore be rendered sand-bank cape, or the cape of the sand-banks. Batturier does not appear in the dictionaries, and was doubtless coined by Champlain himself, as he makes, farther on, the adjective truitière, in the expression la rivière truitière, from the noun, truite.

213. The distances here given appear to be greatly overstated. From Nauset to the southern point of Monomoy, as it is to-day, the distance is not more than six leagues. But, as the sea was rough, and they were apparently much delayed, the distance might naturally enough be overestimated.

214. The anchorage was in Chatham Roads, or Old Stage Harbor.

215. Harding's Beach Point.

216. They were now in Stage Harbor, in Chatham, to which Champlain, farther on gives the name of Port Fortuné.

217. This is the narrow bay that stretches from Morris Island to the north, parallel with the sea, separated from it only by a sand-bank, and now reaching beyond Chatham into the town of Orleans. By comparing Champlain's map of Port Fortuné with modern charts, it will be seen that the "bay extending back on the north some three leagues" terminated, in 1606, a little below Chatham Old Harbor. The island on Champlain's map marked G. was a little above the harbor, but has been entirely swept away, together with the neck north of it, represented on Champlain's map as covered with trees. The bay now extends, as we have stated above, into the town of Orleans. The island G, known in modern times as Ram Island, disappeared in 1851, although it still continued to figure on Walling's map of 1858: The two other little bays mentioned in the text scarcely appear on Champlain's map; and he may have inadvertently included in this bay the two that are farther north, viz. Crow's Pond and Pleasant Bay, although they do not fall within the limits of his map.

218. Vide antea, notes 168, 204, 205.

219. Indian corn, Zea mays, is a plant of American origin. Columbus saw it among the natives of the West Indies, "a sort of grain they call Maiz, which was well tasted, bak'd, or dry'd and made into flour."— Vide History of the Life and Actions of Chris. Columbus by his Son Ferdinand Columbus, Churchill's Voyages, Vol. II. p. 510.

It is now cultivated more or less extensively in nearly every part of the world where the climate is suitable. Champlain is the first who has left a record of the method of its cultivation in New England, vide antea, p. 64, and of its preservation through the winter. The Pilgrims, in 1620, found it deposited by the Indians in the ground after the manner described in the text. Bradford says they found "heaps of sand newly padled with their hands, which they, digging up, found in them diverce faire Indean baskets filled with corne, and some in eares, faire and good, of diverce collours, which seemed to them a very goodly sight, haveing never seen any such before:"—His. Plym. Plantation, p. 82. Squanto taught the English how to "set it, and after how to dress and tend it"—Idem, p. 100.

"The women," says Roger Williams, "set or plant, weede and hill, and gather and barne all the corne and Fruites of the field," and of drying the corn, he adds, "which they doe carefully upon heapes and Mats many dayes, they barne it up, covering it up with Mats at night, and opening when the Sun is hot."

The following are testimonies as to the use made by the natives of the
Indian corn as food:—

"They brought with them in a thing like a Bow-case, which the principall of them had about his wast, a little of their Corne powdered to Powder, which put to a little water they eate."—Mourts Relation, London, 1622, Dexter's ed., p. 88.

"Giving us a kinde of bread called by them Maizium."—Idem, p. 101.

"They seldome or never make bread of their Indian corne, but seeth it whole like beanes, eating three or four cornes with a mouthfull of fish or flesh, sometimes eating meate first and cornes after, filling chinckes with their broth."—Wood's New Eng. Prospect, London, 1634. Prince Society's ed., pp. 75, 76.

"Nonkekich. Parch'd meal, which is a readie very wholesome, food, which they eate with a little water hot or cold: … With spoonfull of this meale and a spoonfull of water from the Brooke, have I made many a good dinner and supper."—Roger Williams's Key, London, 1643, Trumbull's ed., pp. 39, 40.

"Their food is generally boiled maize, or Indian corn, mixed with kidney beans or Sometimes without…. Also they mix with the said pottage several sorts of roots, as Jerusalem artichokes, and ground nuts, and other roots, and pompions, and squashes, and also several sorts of nuts or masts, as oak-acorns, chesnuts, walnuts: These husked and dried, and powdered, they thicken their pottage therewith."— Historical Collections of the Indians, by Daniel Gookin, 1674, Boston, 1792. p. 10.

220. The character of the Indian dress, as here described, does not differ widely from that of a later period.—Vide Mourt's Relation, 1622, Dexter's ed., p. 135: Roger Williams's Key, 1643, Trumbull's ed., p. 143, et seq.; History of New England, by Edward Johnson, 1654, Poole's ed., pp. 224, 225.

Champlain's observations were made in the autumn before the approach of the winter frosts.

Thomas Morton, writing in 1632, says that the mantle which the women "use to cover their nakednesse with is much longer then that which the men use; for as the men have one Deeres skinn, the women haue two soed together at the full length, and it is so lardge that it trailes after them, like a great Ladies trane, and in time," he sportively adds, "I thinke they may have their Pages to beare them up."—New Eng. Canaan, 1632, in Force's Tracts, Vol. II, p. 23.

221. This conclusion harmonizes with the opinion of Thomas Morton, who says that the natives of New England are "sine fide, sine lege, et sine rege, and that they have no worship nor religion at all."—New Eng. Canaan, 1632, in Force's Tracts, Vol. II. p. 21.

Winslow was at first of the same opinion, but afterward saw cause for changing his mind.—Vide Winslow's Relation, 1624, in Young's Chronicles, P 355. See also Roger Williams's Key, Trumbull's ed., p. 159.

222. "Their houses, or wigwams," says Gookin, "are built with small poles fixed in the ground, bent and fastened together with barks of trees, oval or arborwise on the top. The best sort of their houses are covered very neatly, tight, and warm with the bark of trees, stripped from their bodies at such seasons when the sap is up; and made into great flakes with pressures of weighty timbers, when they are green; and so becoming dry, they will retain a form suitable for the use they prepare them for. The meaner sort of wigwams are covered with mats they make of a kind of bulrush, which are also indifferent tight and warm, but not so good as the former."—Vide Historical Collections, 1674, Boston, 1792, p. 9.

223. The construction of the Indian couch, or bed, at a much later period may be seen by the following excerpts: "So we desired to goe to rest: he layd us on the bed with himselfe and his wife, they at one end and we at the other, it being only plancks layd a foot from the ground, and a thin mat upon them."—Mourt's Relation, London. 1622, Dexter's ed., pp. 107, 108. "In their wigwams, they make a kind of couch or mattresses, firm and strong, raised about a foot high from the earth; first covered with boards that they split out of trees; and upon the boards they spread mats generally, and sometimes bear skins and deer skins. These are large enough for three or four persons to lodge upon: and one may either draw nearer or keep at a more distance from the heat of the fire, as they please; for their mattresses are six or eight feet broad."—Gookin's Historical Collections, 1674, Boston, 1792, p. 10.

224. This exploration appears to have extended about as far as Point
Gammon, where, being "near the land," their Indian guide left them, as
stated in the text.

225. On the map of Port Fortuné, or Chatham, the course of one of these
excursions is marked by a dotted line, to which the reader is
referred.—Vide notes on the map of Port Fortuné.

226. Port Fortuné, perhaps here used, to signify the port of chance or hazard; referring particularly to the dangers they encountered in passing round Monomoy to reach it. The latitude of Stage Harbor in Chatham is 41° 40'. The distance from Mallebarre or Nauset to Port Fortuné, or Stage Harbor, by water round the Southern point of Monomoy is at the present time about nine leagues. The distance may possibly have been greater in 1606, or Champlain may have increased the distance by giving a wide berth to Monomoy in passing round it.