Voyages of Samuel De Champlain — Volume 02

by Samuel de Champlain

ENDNOTES:

227. La Soupçonneuse, the doubtful, Martha's Vineyard. Champlain and Poutrincourt, in the little French barque, lying low on the water, creeping along the shore from Chatham to Point Gammon, could hardly fail to be doubtful whether Martha's Vineyard were an island or a part of the main land. Lescarbot, speaking of it, says, et fut appelée l'Ile Douteuse.

228. Nearly twelve leagues in a southwesterly direction from their anchorage at Stage Harbor in Chatham would bring them to Nobska Point, at the entrance of the Vineyard Sound. This was the limit of Champlain's explorations towards the south.

229. "Called after my own name." viz. Rivière de Champlain.—Vide map, 1612. This river appears to be a tidal passage connecting the Vineyard Sound and Buzzard's Bay, having Nouamesset and Uncatena Islands on the south-west, and Nobska Point, Wood's Boll, and Long Neck on the north-east. On our Coast Survey Charts, it is called Hadley River. Its length is nearly two miles, in a winding course. The mouth of this passage is full of boulders, and in a receding tide the current is rough and boisterous, and would answer well to the description in the text, as no other river does on the coast from Chatham to Wood's Holl. On the small French barque, elevated but a little above the surface of the water, its source in Buzzard's Bay could not be discovered, especially if they passed round Nobska Point, under the lee of which they probably obtained a view of the "shoals, and rocks" which they saw at the mouth of the river.

230. A fathom of match on his arm. This was a rope, made of the tow of hemp or flax, loosely twisted, and prepared to retain the fire, so that, when once lighted, it would burn till the whole was consumed. It was employed in connection with the match-lock, the arm then in common use. The wheel-lock followed in order of time, which was discharged by means of a notched wheel of steel, so arranged that its friction, when in motion, threw sparks of fire into the pan that contained the powder. The snaphance was a slight improvement upon the wheel-lock. The flint-lock followed, now half a century since superseded by the percussion lock and cap.

231. They did not capture any of the Indians, to be reduced to a species of slavery, as they intended; but, as will appear further on, inhumanly butchered several of them, which would seem to have been an act of revenge rather than of punishment. The intercourse of the French with the natives of Cape Cod was, on the whole, less satisfactory than that with the northern tribes along the shores of Maine, New Brunswick, and Nova Scotia. With the latter they had no hostile conflicts whatever, although the Indians were sufficiently implacable and revengeful towards their enemies. Those inhabiting the peninsula of Cape Cod, and as far north as Cape Anne, were more suspicious, and had apparently less clear conceptions of personal rights, especially the rights of property. Might and right were to them identical. Whatever they desired, they thought they had a right to have, if they had the power or wit to obtain it. The French came in contact with only two of the many subordinate tribes that were in possession of the peninsula; viz., the Monomoyicks at Chatham, and the Nausets at Eastham. The conflict in both instances grew out of an attempt on the part of the natives to commit a petty theft. But it is quite possible that the invasion of their territory by strangers, an unpardonable offence among civilized people, may have created a feeling of hostility that found a partial gratification in stealing their property; and, had not this occasion offered, the stifled feeling of hostility may have broken out in some other form. In general, they were not subsequently unfriendly in their intercourse with the English. The Nausets were, however, the same that sent a shower of arrows upon the Pilgrims in 1620, at the place called by them the "First Encounter," and not more than three miles from the spot where the same tribe, in 1605, had attacked the French, and Slain one of De Monts's men. It must, however, be said that, beside the invasion of their country, the Pilgrims had, some days before, rifled the granaries of the natives dwelling a few miles north of the Nausets, and taken away without leave a generous quantity of their winter's supply of corn; and this may have inspired them with a desire to be rid of visitors who helped themselves to their provisions, the fruit of their summer's toil, their dependence for the winter already upon them, with so little ceremony and such unscrupulous selfishness; for such it must have appeared to the Nausets in their savage and unenlightened state. It is to be regretted that these excellent men, the Pilgrims, did not more fully comprehend the moral character of their conduct in this instance. They lost at the outset a golden opportunity for impressing upon the minds of the natives the great practical principle enunciated by our Lord, the foundation of all good neighborhood, [Greek: Panta oun osa an thelaete ina poiosin hymin hoi anthropoi, houto kai hymeis poieite autois. Matth]. vii 12.—Vide Bradford's Hist. Plym. Plantation, pp. 82, 83; Mourt's Relation, London, 1622, Dexter's ed., pp. 21, 22, 30, 31, 55.

232. The latitude of Nobska Point, the most southern limit of their voyage, is 41° 31', while the latitude of Nauset Harbor, the southern limit of that of De Monts on the previous year, 1605, is 41° 49'. They consequently advanced but 18', or eighteen nautical miles, further south than they did the year before. Had they commenced this year's explorations where those of the preceding terminated, as Champlain had advised, they might have explored the whole coast as far as Long Island Sound. Vide antea, pp. 109, 110.

233. Between the Kennebec and Penobscot.

234. Vide antea, note 177.

235. Isles Rangées, the small islands along the coast south-west of Machias. Vide map of 1612.

236. Petit passage de la Rivière Saincte Croix, the southern strait leading into Eastport Harbor. This anchorage appears to have been in Quoddy Roads between Quoddy Head and Lubeck.

237. In reporting the stratagem resorted to for decoying the Indians into the hands of the French at Port Fortuné, Champlain passes over the details of the bloody encounter, doubtless to spare himself and the reader the painful record; but its results are here distinctly stated. Compare antea, pp. 132, 133.

238. Sailing from Quoddy Head to Annapolis Bay, they would in their course pass round the northern point of the Grand Manan; and they probably anchored in Whale Cove, or perhaps in Long Island Bay, a little further south. Champlain's map is so oriented that both of these bays would appear to be on the south of the Grand Manan. Vide map of 1612.

239. Champlain had now completed his survey south of the Bay of Fundy. He had traced the shore-line with its sinuosities and its numberless islands far beyond the two distinguished headlands, Cape Sable and Cape Cod, which respectively mark the entrance to the Gulf of Maine. The priority of these observations, particularly with reference to the habits, mode of life, and character of the aborigines, invests them with an unusual interest and value. Anterior to the visits of Champlain, the natives on this coast had come in contact with Europeans but rarely and incidentally, altogether too little certainly, if we except those residing on the southern coast of Nova Scotia, to have any modifying effect upon their manners, customs, or mode of life. What Champlain reports, therefore, of the Indians, is true of them in their purely savage state, untouched by any influences of European civilization. This distinguishes the record, and gives to it a special importance.