ENDNOTES:
33. Vide Vol. II. p. 171, note 297, for an account of Henry Hudson, to whom this statement refers. De Vignau had undoubtedly heard rumors concerning Hudson's expedition to the bay that bears his name in the years 1610-11, out of which he fabricated the fine story of his pretended discovery. Longitude at that time was reckoned from the island of Ferro, one of the Canaries. Proceeding from west to east, the 290° would pass through Hudson's Bay, as may be seen by consulting any early French map. Vide Bellin's Carte du Globe Terrestre, 1764.
34. Nicholas Brulart de Sillery, who was born at Sillery, in France, in 1544, and died in the same place in 1624. He rendered signal service to Henry IV. Among other public acts he negotiated the peace of Vervins between France and Spain in 1598. He was appointed grand chancellor of France in 1607. Henry IV. said of him, Avec mon chanclier qui ne fait pas le latin et mon connetable (Henri de Montmorency), qui ne fait ni lire ni écrire, je puis venir à bout des affairs les plus difficiles.
35. For some account of Marshal de Brissac, vide Vol. I. p. 17, note 16.
36. Vide Vol. I. p. 112, note 73. President Jeannin was a most suitable person to consult on this subject, as he was deeply interested in the discovery of a northwest passage to India. When minister at the Hague he addressed a letter bearing date January 21st, 1609, to Henry IV. of France, containing an account of his indirect negotiations with Henry Hudson, for a voyage to discover a shorter passage to India. A copy of this interesting letter, both in French and English, may be found in Henry Hudson the Navigator, by G. M. Asher, LL.D., Hakluyt Society, London, 1860, p. 244.
37. The festival of Whitsunday occurred on the 26th May. Laverdière in loco.
38. The Falls of St Louis.
39. Lake St. Louis.
40. Champlain is here speaking of the river St. Lawrence, which flows into Lake St. Louis slightly south of west.
41. Rivière de Loup, now known as the Chateauguay.
42. The River Ottawa or a branch of it flows into Lake St. Louis from the north, although its course is rather from the west. It was often called the River of the Algonquins. It approaches comparatively near to Lake Nipissing, the home of the Nipissirini. The sources of the Ottawa are northeast of Lake Nipissing, a distance of from one to three hundred miles. The distances here given by Champlain are only general estimates gathered from the Indians, and are necessarily inaccurate.
43. Rapide de Brussi, by which the river flows from the Lake of
Two Mountains into Lake St Louis.
44. Lac de Soissons, now called Lake of Two Mountains Vide Vol. I.
p. 294.
45. This is the first of a series of falls now known as the Long Fall.
46. Quenongebin. Laverdière makes, this the same as the Kinounchepiríni of Vimont. It was an Algonquin nation situated south of Allumette Island. Vide Jesuite Relations, Quebec ed, 1640, p. 34.
47. Ouescharini. These people, called Ouaouechkairini by Vimont, appear to have dwelt on the stream now known as the Rivière de Petite Nation, rising in a system of lakes, among which are Lake Simon, Whitefish Lake, Long Lake, and Lake Des Isles. Vide Jesuite Relations, 1640, p. 34. The tribe here mentioned was subsequently called the Little Nation of the Algonquins hence the name of the river. Laverdière.
48. This passage is exceedingly obscure. Laverdière supposes that part of a sentence was left out by the printer. If so it is remarkable that Champlain did not correct it in his edition of 1632. Laverdière thinks the river here spoken of is the Gatineau, and that the savages following up this stream went by a portage to the St. Maurice, and passing down reached the St. Lawrence thirty leagues, and not three, below the Falls of Saint Louis. The three rivers thus named inclose or form an island of about the extent described in the text. This explanation is plausible. The passage amended would read, "This river extends near another which falls into the great river St. Lawrence thirty leagues below the falls of St. Louis." We know of no other way in which the passage can be rationally explained.
49. Rideau, at the mouth of which is Green Island, referred to in the text below.
50. The fall in the Rideau is thirty-four feet, according to the Edinburgh Gazetteer of the World. The estimate of Champlain is so far out of the way that it seems not unlikely that feet were intended instead of fathoms. Vide Vol. I. pp. 301, 302.
51. The Chaudière Falls, just above the present city of Ottawa, the greatest height of which is about forty feet "Arrayed in every imaginable variety of form, in vast dark masses, in graceful cascades, or in tumbling spray, they have been well described as a hundred rivers struggling for a passage. Not the least interesting feature they present is the Lost Chaudière, where a large body of water is quietly sucked down, and disappears underground" Vide Canada by W. H Smith. Vol. I. p. 120. Also Vol I. p, 120 of this work.
52. The latitude of the Chaudière Falls is about 45° 27'.
53. Chaudière Lake, which was only an expansion of the River Ottawa.
54. Rapide des Chats.
55. This probably refers to that part of the fall which was more difficult to pass.
56. Lake des Chats. The name des chats appears to have been given to this Lake, the Rapids, and the Nation des chats, on account of the great number of the loup cervier, or wild cats, chats sauvages, found in this region. Cf. Le Grande Voyage du Pays des Hurons, par Sagard, Paris, 1632, p. 307.
57. Madawaskca River, an affluent of the Ottawa, uniting with it at Fitz Roy.
58. Probably an allusion to the River St. Lawrence.
59. This is the same tribe alluded to by Vimont under the name Mataouchkarmi, as dwelling south of Allumette Island. Vide Relations des Jésuites, 1640, Quebec ed., p. 34.
60. Cyprés, Red Cedar or Savin, Juniperus Virginiana. Vide Vol. II. note 168.
61. They were now, perhaps, two miles below Portage du Fort, at the point on the Ottawa nearest to the system of lakes through which they were to pass, and where, as stated in the text, the Ottawa, making an angle, begins to flow directly from the north. The latitude, as here given, is even more than usually incorrect, being too high by more than a degree. The true latitude is about 43° 37'. Vide Walker and Miles's Atlas of Dominion of Canada. Note 62 will explain the cause of this inexactness.
62. Muskrat Lake. On Champlain's map of 1632 will be seen laid down a succession of lakes or ponds, together with the larger one, now known as Muskrat Lake, on the borders of which are figured the dwellings of the savages referred to in the text. The pond which they passed is the last in the series before reaching Muskrat Lake. On the direct route between this pond and the lake, known as the Muskrat Portage road, the course undoubtedly traversed by Champlain, there was found in 1867, in the township of Ross, an astrolabe, an instrument used in taking latitudes, on which is the date, 1603. It is supposed to have been lost by Champlain on his present expedition. The reasons for this supposition have been stated in several brochures recently issued, one by Mr. O. H. Marshall of Buffalo, entitled Discovery of an Astrolabe supposed to have been left by Champlain in 1613, New York, 1879; reprinted from the Magazine of American History for March of that year. Another, Champlain's Astrolabe lost on the 7th of June, 1613, and found in August, 1867, by A. J Russell of Ottawa, Montreal, 1879. And a third entitled The Astrolabe of Samuel Champlain and Geoffrey Chaucer, by Henry Scadding, D.D., of Toronto, 1880. All of these writers agree in the opinion that the instrument was probably lost by Champlain on his expedition up the Ottawa in 1613. For the argument in extenso the reader is referred to the brochures above cited.
[Illustration of an astrolabe.]
Mr. Russell, who examined the astrolabe thus found with great care and had it photographed, describes it as a circular plate having a diameter of five inches and five eighths. "It is of place brass, very dark with age, one eighth of an inch thick above, increasing to six sixteenths of an inch below, to give it steadiness when suspended, which apparently was intended to be increased by hanging a weight on the little projecting ring at the bottom of it, in using it on ship-board. Its suspending ring is attached by a double hinge of the nature of a universal joint. Its circle is divided into single degrees, graduated from its perpendicular of suspension. The double-bladed index, the pivot of which passes through the centre of the astrolabe, has slits and eyelets in the projecting fights that are on it."
We give on the preceding page an engraving of this astrolabe from a photograph, which presents a sufficiently accurate outline of the instrument. The plate was originally made to illustrate Mr. Marshall's article in the Magazine of American History, and we are indebted to the courtesy of the proprietors of the Magazine, Messrs. A. S. Barnes and Company of New York, for its use for our present purpose.
The astrolabe, as an instrument for taking the altitude of the stars or the sun, had long been in use. Thomas Blundevile, who wrote in 1622, says he had seen three kinds, and that the astrolabe of Stofflerus had then been in use a hundred years. It had been improved by Gemma Frisius. Mr. Blagrave had likewise improved upon the last-mentioned, and his instrument was at that time in general use in England. The astrolabe continued to be employed in Great Britain in taking altitudes for more than a century subsequent to this, certainly till Hadley's Quadrant was invented, which was first announced in 1731.
The astrolabes which had the broadest disks were more exact, as they were projected on a larger scale, but as they were easily jostled by the wind or the movement of the ship at sea, they could with difficulty be employed. But Mr. Blundevile informs us that "the Spaniards doe commonly make their astrolabes narrow and weighty, which for the most part are not much above five inches broad, and yet doe weigh at the least foure pound, & to that end the lower part is made a great deale thicker than the upper part towards the ring or handle." Vide M. Blendeale his Exercises, London, 1622, pp. 595, 597. This Spanish instrument, it will be observed, is very similar to that found on the Old Portage road, and the latter may have been of Spanish make.
In order to take the latitude in Champlain's day, at least three distinct steps or processes were necessary, and the following directions might have been given.
I. Let the astrolabe be suspended so that it shall hang plumb. Direct the index or diopter to the sun at noon, so that the same ray of light may shine through both holes in the two tablets or pinules on the diopter, and the diopter will point to the degree of the sun's meridian altitude indicated on the outer rim of the astrolabe.
II. Ascertain the exact degree of the sun's declination for that day, by a table calculated for that purpose, which accompanies the astrolabe.
III. Subtract the declination, so found, if it be northerly, from the meridian altitude; or if the declination be southerly, add the declination to the meridian altitude, and the result, subtracted from 90°, will give the latitude.
In these several processes of taking the latitude there are numerous possibilities of inexactness. It does not appear that any correction was made for refraction of light, or the precession of the equinoxes. But the most important source of inaccuracy was in the use of the astrolabe whose disk was so small that its divisions could not be carried beyond degrees, and consequently minutes were arrived at by sheer estimation, and usually when the work was completed, the error was not less than one fourth or one half of a degree, and it was often much more.
This accounts fully for the inaccuracies of Champlain's latitudes from first to last throughout his entire explorations, as tested by the very exact instruments and tables now in use. No better method of determining the latitude existed at that day, and consequently the historian is warned not to rely upon the latitude alone as given by the early navigators and explorers in identifying the exact localities which they visited.
63. Subsequently called Hurons.
64. Vide Vol. I. p. 49; Vol. II. note 219.