[ ] [ [29] ] In 1604 Champlain published a relation of his first voyage to Canada; in it he mentions a strange and frightful monster called "gougou," giving at the same time the names of his authorities. This story, which, in a great measure, gave rise to the accusation of credulity, was suppressed in the general relation of his voyages in 1632. The "dragon," the two legs of the camelion, and the no-legs of the bird of Paradise, the mode of hatching the same, etc., described in the present manuscript, show that, however he may have got over extreme credulity in later years, in his first voyages he had a strong belief in the marvellous—but that quality belonged in a degree to the age in which he lived.
[ ] [ [30] ] Maréchal d'Aumont. Jean d'Aumont, born in 1522, of an ancient and noble family, entered the career of arms very early, and distinguished himself by his bravery during the Piedmontese war. Henry III created him Knight of the Saint Esprit in 1578, and Marshal of France in the following year. D'Aumont signalized himself at the battle of Ivry. He was named governor of Poitou by Henry IV, and by his prudent conduct kept that province from rising for the League. The king sent him to Brittany to oppose the Duke de Mercœur. He was killed by a musket-shot at the siege of Camper, on the 19th of August, 1595, aged seventy-three years.
[ ] [ [31] ] Maréchal de Brissac. Charles, second Duke de Cossé Brissac, peer and marshal of France. He gave up Paris, of which he was governor, to Henry IV, on the 22nd March, 1594. He served in the war in Brittany till its close, and died at Brissac, in Anjou, in 1621.
[ ] [ [32] ] "Maréchal de logis"—quarter-master.
[ ] [ [33] ] Reduction of Brittany. The greater part of Brittany held out for the League against the king (Henry IV), under the command of the Duke de Mercœur, aided by the Spaniards under the Archduke Albert of Austria.
Philippe Emanuel de Lorraine, Duke de Mercœur, was born at Nomény, in 1558. Attached to the Duke of Guise, he was about to be arrested at the States of Blois in 1588, but the queen, Louise de Lorraine, his sister, gave him timely warning, and he escaped. He then openly embraced the party of the League, withdrew to his government of Brittany, called in the aid of the Spaniards, and gave them possession of the port of Blavet in 1591. He made his submission to Henry IV in April, 1598, and was pardoned at the intercession of Gabrielle d'Estrées, lately created Duchess of Beaufort, who, however, previously stipulated that the duke should give his daughter, Françoise, one of the richest heiresses in France, in marriage to the son of Henry IV, César, Duke de Vendôme. In 1601 the Emperor Rodolph offered De Mercœur the command of his army in Hungary against the Turks. He endeavoured with only fifteen thousand men to raise the siege of Chanicha, which Ibrahim Pacha had invested with sixty thousand. He was forced to retire, but his retreat passed for one of the most skilful then known. Obliged in the following year to return to France, he died on the way, at Nuremberg, in 1602.
[ ] [ [34] ] Blavet, the last town held by the Spaniards in Brittany, was, together with all the places they possessed in Picardy, given up by the treaty of Vervins, in June 1598, and thus the whole province was submitted to the king's authority.
Blavet, or Port Louis, a fortified town with citadel and harbour in Brittany, department of the Morbihan, at the embouchure of the river Blavet; the town being ruined during the wars of the League, Louis XIII rebuilt it from the former materials, erected a fort, and gave it his name.
[ ] [ [35] ] "Patache"—advice-boat.
[ ] [ [36] ] Guadaloupe. The first settlement in Guadaloupe was established by the French in 1635, by Messrs. Du Plissis and Olive.