Voyages of Samuel De Champlain — Volume 01

by Samuel de Champlain

48. Vide Vol. II. p 91, note 176.

49. The Horsefoot-crab, Limulus polyphemus. Champlain gives the Indian name, siguenoc. Hariot saw, while at Roanoke Island, in 1585, and described the same crustacean under the name of seekanauk. The Indian word is obviously the same, the differing French and English orthography representing the same sound. It thus appears that this shell-fish was at that time known by the aborigines under the same name for at least a thousand miles along the Atlantic coast, from the Kennebec, in Maine, to Roanoke Island, in North Carolina. Vide Hariot's Briefe and True Report of the New Found Land of Virginia, Hakluyt, Vol. III. p. 334. See also Vol. II. of this work, notes 171, 172, 173, for some account of the black skimmer and the wild turkey.

CHAPTER IV.

ARRIVAL OF SUPPLIES AND REMOVAL TO PORT ROYAL.—DE MONTS RETURNS TO FRANCE.—SEARCH FOR MINES.—WINTER.—SCURVY.—LATE ARRIVAL OF SUPPLIES AND EXPLORATIONS ON THE COAST OF MASSACHUSETTS.—GLOCESTER HARBOR, STAY AT CHATHAM AND ATTACK OF THE SAVAGES.—WOOD'S HOLL.—RETURN TO ANNAPOLIS BASIN.

On the 8th of August, the exploring party reached St. Croix. During their absence, Pont Gravé had arrived from France with additional men and provisions for the colony. As no satisfactory site had been found by De Monts in his recent tour along the coast, it was determined to remove the colony temporarily to Port Royal, situated within the bay now known as Annapolis Basin. The buildings at St. Croix, with the exception of the store-house, were taken down and transported to the bay. Champlain and Pont Gravé were sent forward to select a place for the settlement, which was fixed on the north side of the basin, directly opposite to Goat Island, near or upon the present site of Lower Granville. the situation was protected from the piercing and dreaded winds of the northwest by a lofty range of hills, [50] while it was elevated and commanded a charming view of the placid bay in front. The dwellings which they erected were arranged in the form of a quadrangle with an open court in the centre, as at St. Croix, while gardens and pleasure-grounds were laid out by Champlain in the immediate vicinity.

When the work of the new settlement was well advanced, De Monts, having appointed Pont Gravé as his lieutenant, departed for France, where he hoped to obtain additional privileges from the government in his enterprise of planting a colony in the New World. Champlain preferred to remain, with the purpose of executing more fully his office as geographer to the king, by making discoveries on the Atlantic coast still further to the south.

From the beginning, the patentee had cherished the desire of discovering valuable mines somewhere on his domains, whose wealth, as well as that of the fur-trade, might defray some part of the heavy expenses involved in his colonial enterprise. While several investigations for this purpose had proved abortive, it was hoped that greater success would be attained by searches along the upper part of the Bay of Fundy. Before the approach of winter, therefore, Champlain and the miner, Master Jaques, a Sclavonian, made a tour to St. John, where they obtained the services of the Indian chief, Secondon, to accompany them and point out the place where copper ore had been discovered at the Bay of Mines. The search, thorough as was practicable under the circumstances, was, in the main, unsuccessful; the few specimens which they found were meagre and insignificant.

The winter at Port Royal was by no means so severe as the preceding one at St. Croix. The Indians brought in wild game from the forests. The colony had no want of fuel and pure water. But experience, bitter as it had been, did not yield to them the fruit of practical wisdom. They referred their sufferings to the climate, but took too little pains to protect themselves against its rugged power. Their dwellings, hastily thrown together, were cold and damp, arising from the green, unseasoned wood of which they were doubtless in part constructed, and from the standing rainwater with which their foundations were at all times inundated, which was neither diverted by embankments nor drawn away by drainage. The dreaded mal de la terre, or scurvy, as might have been anticipated, made its appearance in the early part of the season, causing the death of twelve out of the forty-five comprising their whole number, while others were prostrated by this painful, repulsive, and depressing disease.

The purpose of making further discoveries on the southern coast, warmly cherished by Champlain, and entering fully into the plans of De Monts, had not been forgotten. Three times during the early part of the summer they had equipped their barque, made up their party, and left Port Royal for this undertaking, and as many times had been driven back by the violence of the winds and the waves.

In the mean time, the supplies which had been promised and expected from France had not arrived. This naturally gave to Pont Gravé, the lieutenant, great anxiety, as without them it was clearly inexpedient to venture upon another winter in the wilds of La Cadie. It had been stipulated by De Monts, the patentee, that if succors did not arrive before the middle of July, Pont Gravé should make arrangements for the return of the colony by the fishing vessels to be found at the Grand Banks. Accordingly, on the 17th of that month, Pont Gravé set sail with the little colony in two barques, and proceeded towards Cape Breton, to seek a passage home. But De Monts had not been remiss in his duty. He had, after many difficulties and delays, despatched a vessel of a hundred and fifty tons, called the "Jonas," with fifty men and ample provisions for the approaching winter. While Pont Gravé with his two barques and his retreating colony had run into Yarmouth Bay for repairs, the "Jonas" passed him unobserved, and anchored in the basin before the deserted settlement of Port Royal. An advice-boat had, however, been wisely despatched by the "Jonas" to reconnoitre the inlets along the shore, which fortunately intercepted the departing colony near Cape Sable, and, elated with fresh news from home, they joyfully returned to the quarters they had so recently abandoned.