Voyages of Samuel De Champlain — Volume 03

by Samuel de Champlain

ENDNOTES:

4. This journey of eight leagues would take them as far as the Lake of Two Mountains.

5. This little river is mentioned by Champlain in his Voyage of 1603, Vol. I. p. 268. It is represented on early maps as formed by two small streams, flowing, one from the north or northeastern, and the other from the southern side of the mountain, in the rear of the city of Montreal, which unite some distance before they reach the St. Lawrence, flowing into that river at Point Callières. These little brooks are laid down on Champlain's local map, Le Grand Sault St. Louis, on Charlevoix's Carte de l'Isle de Montréal, 1744, and on Bellin's L'Isle de Montréal, 1764; but they have disappeared on modern maps, and probably are either extinct or are lost in the sewerage of the city, of which they have become a part. We have called the stream formed by these two brooks, note 190, Vol. I., Rivière St. Pierre. On Potherie's map, the only stream coming from the interior is so named. Vide Histoire de L'Amerique par M. de Bacqueville de la Potherie, 1722, p. 311. On a map in Greig's Hochelaga Depicta, 1839, it is called St. Peter's River. The same stream on Bouchette's map, 1830, is denominated Little River. It seems not unlikely that a part of it was called, at one time, Rivière St. Pierre, and another part Petite Rivière.

It is plain that on this stream was situated the sixty acres of cleared land alluded to in the text as formerly occupied by the savages.

It will be remembered that seventy-six years anterior to this, in 1535, Jacques Cartier discovered this place, which was then the seat of a large and flourishing Indian town. It is to be regretted that Champlain did not inform us more definitely as to the history of the former occupants of the soil. Some important, and we think conclusive, reasons have been assigned for supposing that they were a tribe of the Iroquois. Among others may be mentioned the similarity in the construction of their towns and houses or cabins, the identity of their language as determined by a collation of the words found in Cartier's journal with the language of the Iroquois; and to these may be added the traditions obtained by missionaries and others, as cited by Laverdière, to which we must not, however, attach too much value. Vide Laverdière in loco. While it seems probable that the former occupants were of the Iroquois family, it is impossible to determine whether on retiring they joined the Five Nations in the State of New York, or merged themselves with the Hurons, who were likewise of Iroquois origin.

6. I am unable to identify this plant. Its climbing propensity and the color of its fruit suggest Rhus radicans, but in other respects the similarity fails.

7. Cerfs, Daims, Cheureuls, Caribous. Champlain employs the names of the different species of the Cerf family as used in Europe; but as our species are different, this use of names creates some confusion. There were in Canada, the moose, the caribou, the wapiti, and the common red deer. Any enumeration by the early writers must include these, under whatever names they may be described. One will be found applying a name to a given species, while another will apply the same name to quite a different species. Charlevoix mentions the orignal (moose) caribou, the hart, and the roebuck. Under the name hart, he probably refers to the wapiti, elaphus Canadensis, and roe-buck, to the common red deer, Cervus Virginianus. Vide Charlevoix's Letters to the Dutchess of Lesdiguieres, 1763, pp. 64-69, also Vol. I. of this work, p. 265.

8. Lynxes, Loups-serviers. The compound word loup-cervier was significant, and was applied originally to the animal of which the stag was its natural prey, qui attaque les cerfs. In Europe it described the lynx, a large powerful animal of the feline race, that might well venture to attack the stag. But in Canada this species is not found. What is known as the Canadian lynx, Felis Canadensis, is only a large species of cat, which preys upon birds and the smaller quadrupeds. Champlain probably gives it the name loup-servier for the want of one more appropriate. It is a little remarkable that he does not in this list mention the American wolf, Lupus occidentalis, so common in every part of Canada, and which he subsequently refers to as the animal especially dreaded by the deer. Vide postea, pp. 139, 157.

9. The site of Place Royale was on Point Callières, so named in honor of Chevalier Louis Hector de Callières Bonnevue, governor of Montreal in 1684.

10. It seems most likely that the name of this island was suggested by the marriage which Champlain had contracted with Hélène Boullé, the year before. This name had been given to several other places. Vide Vol. I. pp. 104, 105.

11. Vide Vol. I. p. 268, note 191. Walker and Miles's Atlas, map 186.

12. The Lake of the Two Mountains. Vide antea, note 4.

13. On Champlain's local map of the Falls of St. Louis, the letter Q is wanting; but the expression, ceste isle est au milieu du faut, in the middle of the fall, as suggested by Laverdière, indicates that the island designated by the letter R is Heron Island. Vide postea, R on map at p. 18.

14. Grand Tibie, so in the original. This is a typographical error for grand terre. Vide Champlain, 1632, Quebec ed., p. 842.

15. The death of this young man may have suggested the name which was afterward given to the fall. He was, however, it is reasonable to suppose, hardly equal in sanctity of character to the Saint Louis of the French. Hitherto it had been called Le Grand Saut. But soon after this it began to be called Grand Saut S. Louys. Vide postea, pp. 38, 51, 59.