Notwithstanding a considerable dose of credulity, [ [29] ] he was endowed with rare penetration. His views were just, and no one knew better how to decide in difficulties, or to support them with more patience and constancy; no dangers daunted him, and he never lost sight of his object. His zeal for the interests of his country was ardent and disinterested. With a feeling heart he was always ready to succour the unfortunate, more careful of the welfare of others than of his own. A faithful narrator, an enterprising and active traveller; nothing escaped his attention and observation. He was a good geometrician and able navigator. The war to which he seems to have incited, or in which at least he joined, the Algonquins, Hurons, and other tribes against the Iroquois, can hardly be justified; but the result of his policy, if policy it was, proved favourable, in bringing to and confirming in his alliance the tribes more immediately surrounding the infant colony.
PEARL FISHERY.
BRIEF NARRATIVE OF THE MOST REMARKABLE THINGS THAT SAMUEL CHAMPLAIN OF BROUAGE, OBSERVED IN THE WESTERN INDIES;
DURING THE VOYAGE WHICH HE MADE TO THE SAME, IN THE
YEARS ONE THOUSAND FIVE HUNDRED AND NINETY-NINE
TO ONE THOUSAND SIX HUNDRED
AND TWO,—AS FOLLOWS.
Having been employed in the army of the king, which was in Brittany, under Messieurs the Maréchal d'Aumont de St. Luc, [ [30] ] and the Maréchal de Brissac, [ [31] ] during some years in the quality of maréchal de logis, [ [32] ] until his majesty, in the year one thousand five hundred and ninety-eight, had reduced the said country of Brittany to obedience, [ [33] ] and dismissed his army; and finding myself by this means without any charge or employment, I resolved, in order not to remain idle, to find means of making a voyage to Spain, and, being there, to acquire and cultivate acquaintance, in order, by their favour and interposition, to arrange so as to be able to embark in one of the ships of the fleet, which the king of Spain sends every year to the western Indies; to the end, in so embarking, to be able at my return to make a true report to his majesty (Henry IV) of the particularities which could not be known to any Frenchman, for the reason that they have not free access there.
In order, then, to accomplish my design, I went to Blavet, [ [34] ] where at that time was a garrison of Spaniards, in which place I found an uncle of mine called "the Provençal captain," considered to be one of the good mariners of France, and who, in that year, had been engaged by the king of Spain as Pilot-General of his sea armies.
My said uncle having received the commands of Monsieur le Maréchal de Brissac, to conduct the ships in which the Spaniards of the garrison of Blavet were embarked, in order to repass them to Spain, as it had been promised, I embarked with him, in a great ship of five hundred tons, named the "Saint Julian," which had been taken, and engaged for the said voyage; and having quitted Blavet in the beginning of the month of August, we arrived ten days afterwards near to Cape Finisterre, which we could not perceive on account of a great fog which arose from the sea, in consequence of which all our vessels were separated, and even our vessel-admiral (admirande), of the fleet was nearly lost, having touched upon a rock, and taken in much water, in which ship (and over the whole fleet) the General Soubriago commanded, having been sent by the king of Spain to Blavet for that purpose.
On the following day, the weather having cleared up, all our vessels rejoined, and we proceeded to the Isles of Bayona, in Galicia, in order to refit the admiral's ship which was much injured.
Having sojourned six days at these islands, we made sail, and three days after came in sight of Cape St. Vincent; having doubled the said cape, we proceeded to the port of Callix (Cadiz), which, having entered, the soldiers were disembarked; and after the landing, the French ships that had been engaged for the voyage, were dismissed, and sent back, each one to its port, excepting the said ship, the St. Julian, which, having been observed by the General Soubriago to be a strong vessel, and a good sailer, was engaged by him for the service of the king of Spain: and thus the "Provençal captain," my uncle, remained still in it; and we sojourned at the port of Callix an entire month, during which I had the opportunity of examining that city.