Voyages of Samuel De Champlain — Volume 02

by Samuel de Champlain

ENDNOTES:

293. The deepest sounding as laid down on Laurie's Chart is one hundred and
forty-six fathoms. The same authority says the banks of the river
throughout its course are very rocky, and vary in height from one
hundred and seventy to three hundred and forty yards above the stream.
Its current is broad, deep, and uncommonly vehement: in some places,
where precipices intervene, are falls from fifty to sixty feet in
height, down which the whole volume of water rushes with tremendous
fury and noise. The general breadth of the river is about two and a
half miles, but at its mouth its width is contracted to three-quarters
of a mile. The tide runs upward about sixty-five miles from its mouth.

294. If the Indians were three days in crossing Lake St. John here referred
to, whose length is variously stated to be from twenty-five to forty
miles, it could hardly have been the shortest time in which it were
possible to pass it. It may have been the usual time, some of which
they gave to fishing or hunting. "In 1647, Father Jean Duquen,
missionary at Tadoussac, ascending the Saguenay, discovered the Lake
St. John, and noted its Indian name, Picouagami, or Flat Lake. He was
the first European who beheld that magnificent expanse of inland
water."—Vide Transactions, Lit. and His. Soc. of Quebec, 1867-68,
p. 5.

295. The first of these three rivers, which the traveller will meet as he passes up the northern shore of the lake, is the Peribonca flowing from the north-east. The second is the Mistassina, represented by the Indians as coming from the salt sea. The third is the Chomouchonan, flowing from the north-west.

296. There was doubtless an Indian trail from the head-waters of the Mistassina to Mistassin Lake, and from thence to Rupert River, which flows into the lower part of Hudson's Bay.

297. The salt sea referred to by the Indians was undoubtedly Hudson's Bay. The discoverer of this bay, Henry Hudson, in the years 1607, 1608, and 1609, was in the northern ocean searching for a passage to Cathay. In 1610, he discovered the strait and bay which now bear his name. He passed the winter in the southern part of the bay; and the next year, 1611, his sailors in a mutiny forced him and his officers into a shallop and abandoned them to perish. Nothing was heard of them afterward. The fame of Hudson's discovery had reached Champlain before the publication of this volume in 1613. This will be apparent by comparing Champlain's small map with the TABULA NAUTICA of Hudson, published in 1612. It will be seen that the whole of the Carte Géographique de la Nouvelle France of Champlain, on the west of Lumley's Inlet, including Hudson's Strait and Bay, is a copy from the Tabula Nautica. Even the names are in English, a few characteristic ones being omitted, such as Prince Henry, the King's Forlant, and Cape Charles.—Vide Henry Hudson the Navigator, by G. M. Asher, LL.D., Hakluyt Society, 1860, p. xliv.

298. This was June 30, 1608.

299. Isle aux Lièvres, or hares. This name was given by Jacques Cartier, and it is still called Hare Island. It is about ten geographical miles long, and generally about half or three-quarters of a mile wide.

300. Rivière aux Saulmons. "From all appearances," says Laverdière, "this Salmon River is that which empties into the 'Port à l'Équilles,' eel harbor, also called 'Port aux Quilles,' Skittles Port. Its mouth is two leagues from Cape Salmon, with which it must not be confounded." It is now known as Black River.

301. Cap Dauphin, now called Cape Salmon, which is about three leagues from Black River.

302. Cap à l'Aigle, now known as Cap aux Oies, or Goose Cape. The Eagle Cape of to-day is little more than two leagues from Cape Salmon, while Goose Cape is about eight leagues, as stated in the text.

303. The bay stretching between Cape Salmon and Goose Cape is called Mal Bay, within which are Cape Eagle, Murray Bay, Point au Ries, White Cape, Red Cape, Black Cape, Point Père, Point Corneille, and Little Mal Bay. In the rear of Goose Cape are Les Éboulemens Mountains, 2,547 feet in height. On the opposite side of the river is Point Ouelle, and the river of the same name.

304. Isle aux Coudres, Hazel Island, so named by Jacques Cartier, still
retains its ancient appellation. Its distance from Goose Cape is about
two leagues. The description of it in the text is very accurate.

305. Rivière du Gouffre. This river still retains this name, signifying
whirlpool, and is the same that empties into St. Paul's Bay, opposite
Isle-aux Coudres.

306. Cap de Tourmente, cape of the tempest, is eight leagues from Isle
aux Coudres, but about two from the Isle of Orleans, as stated in the
text, which sufficiently identifies it.

307. Isle d'Orléans. Cartier discovered this island in 1635, and named it the Island of Bacchus, because he saw vines growing there, which he had not before seen in that region. He says, "Et pareillement y trouuasmes force vignes, ce que n'auyons veu par cy deuant à toute la terre, & par ce la nommasmes l'ysle de Bacchus."—Brief Récit de la Navigation Faite en MDXXXV., par Jacques Cartier, D'Avezac ed., Paris, 1863, pp. 14, 15. The grape found here was probably the Frost Grape, Vitis cordifolia. The "Island of Orleans" soon became the fixed name of this island, which it still retains. Its Indian name is said to have been Minigo.—Vide Laverdière's interesting note, Oeuvres de Champlain, Tome II, p. 24. Champlain's estimate of the size of the island is nearly accurate. It is, according to the Admiralty charts, seventeen marine miles in length, and four in its greatest width.

308. This was the river Montmorency, which rises in Snow Lake, some fifty miles in the interior.—Vide Champlain's reference on his map of Quebec and its environs. He gave this name to the river, which it still retains, in honor of the Admiral Montmorency, to whom he dedicated his notes on the voyage of 1603.—Vide Laverdière, in loco; also Champlain, ed. 1632; Chiarlevoix's Letters, London, 1763, p. 19. The following is Jean Alfonse's description of the fall of Montmorency: "When thou art come to the end of the Isle, thou shall see a great River, which falleth fifteene or twenty fathoms downe from a rocke, and maketh a terrible noyse."—_Hakluyt, Vol. III. p. 293. The perpendicular descent of the Montmorency at the falls is 240 feet.