The winter of 1606-07 was not very severe. The settlers lived happily in spite of the scurvy, from which some of them died. Hunting afforded them the means of providing a great variety of dishes, such as geese, ducks, bears, beavers, partridges, reindeer, bustards, etc. They also organized a society devoted to good cheer called, Ordre du Bon Temps, the by-laws of which were definite, and were fixed by Champlain himself. The Indians of the vicinity who were friendly towards the French colony were in need of food, so that each day loaves of bread were distributed amongst them. Their sagamo, named Membertou, was admitted as a guest to the table of Poutrincourt. This famous Souriquois, who was very old at that time—probably a hundred years, though he had not a single white hair—pretended to have known Jacques Cartier at the time of his first voyage, and claimed that in 1534 he was married, and the father of a young family.
Lescarbot, who was an able man and a good historian, records the particulars above related, besides many other interesting facts concerning Port Royal which appear to have escaped Champlain's observation. Lescarbot was an active spirit in the life of the first French colony in Acadia. He encouraged his companions to cultivate their land, and he worked himself in the gardens, sowing wheat, oats, beans, pease, and herbs, which he tended with care. He was also liked by the Indians, and he would have rejoiced to see them converted to Christianity. Lescarbot was a poet and a preacher, and had also a good knowledge of the arts and of medicine. Charlevoix says: "He daily invented something new for the public good. And there was never a stronger proof of what a new settlement might derive from a mind cultivated by study, and induced by patriotism to use its knowledge and reflections. We are indebted to this advocate for the best memoirs of what passed before his eyes, and for a history of French Florida. We then behold an exact and judicious writer, a man with views of his own, and who would have been as capable of founding a colony as of writing its history."
With the departure of Lescarbot and Champlain the best page of the history of Port Royal is closed. The two men left on September 2nd, 1607, on board the Jonas, commanded by Nicholas Martin. They stopped at Roscoff in Basse-Bretagne, and the vessel arrived at Havre de Grâce in the early days of October.
Poutrincourt, his son Biencourt, and Lescarbot made a pilgrimage to Mont St. Michel, and Champlain went to Brouage, his native country, having sojourned in America for three years and five months.
[5] Norembega was the name applied at that time to a vast tract of country whose limits were nearly unknown. There was a river and a cape called Norembega. The river is now the Penobscot, and the cape is the southern extremity of the Acadian peninsula.
[6] The Indians called this island Pemetig, which means the island which is ahead. The French settled here in 1613, and founded St. Sauveur on the north-eastern coast, in a splendid harbour which is to-day known as Bar Harbour. The remains of many of the French who were killed during the contest with the English, were interred at Point Fernald. At the point nearest the mainland there is a bridge of seven hundred feet in length, which communicates with the town of Trenton.
[7] Champlain called the river Peimtegoüet. This word means the place of a river where rapids exist. The English have given their preference to the word Penobscot, which comes from the Indian Penaouasket, the place where the earth is covered with stones.
[8] The Pilgrim Fathers, the founders of New England, landed at this place, which they named Plymouth, to preserve the name of the English city from which they had sailed.