Voyages of Samuel De Champlain — Volume 01

by Samuel de Champlain

124. In Placentia bay, on the southern coast of Newfoundland.

125. West of Placentia Bay.

126. Cape Ray is northwest of the islands of St. Peter.

127. Cape St. Lawrence, now called Cape North, is the northern extremity of the island of Cape Breton, and the island of St. Paul is a few miles north of it.

128. The Gulf or Bay of St. Lawrence. It was so named by Jacques Cartier on his second voyage, in 1535. Nous nommasmes la dicte baye la Sainct Laurens, Brief Recit, 1545, D'Avezac ed. p. 8. The northeastern part of it is called on De Laet's map, "Grand Baye."

129. "This island is about one hundred and forty miles long, thirty-five miles broad at its widest part, with an average breadth of twenty-seven and one-half miles."—Le Moine's Chronicles of the St. Lawrence, p.100. It was named by Cartier in 1535, the Island of the Assumption, having been discovered on the 15th of August, the festival of the Assumption. Nous auons nommes l'ysle de l'Assumption.—Brief Recit, 1545, D'Avenzac's ed. p. 9. Alfonse, in his report of his voyage of 1542, calls it the Isle de l'Ascension, probably by mistake. "The Isle of Ascension is a goodly isle and a goodly champion land, without any hills, standing all upon white rocks and Alabaster, all covered with wild beasts, as bears, Luserns, Porkespicks." Hakluyt, Vol. III. p. 292. Of this island De Laet says, "Elle est nommee el langage des Sauvages Natiscotec"—Hist. du Nouveau Monde, a Leyde, 1640, p.42. Vide also Wyet's Voyage in Hakluyt, Vol. III. p. 241. Laverdière says the Montagnais now call it Natascoueh, which signifies, where the bear is caught. He cites Thevet, who says it is called by the savages, Naticousti, by others Laisple. The use of the name Anticosty by Champlain, now spelled Anticosti, would imply that its corruption from the original, Natiscotec, took place at a very early date. Or it is possible that Champlain wrote it as he heard it pronounced by the natives, and his orthography may best represent the original.

130. Gachepé, so written in the text, subsequently written by the author Gaspey, but now generally Gaspé. It is supposed to have been derived from the Abnaquis word Katsepi8i, which means what is separated from the rest, and to have reference to a remarkable rock, three miles above Cape Gaspé, separated from the shore by the violence of the waves, the incident from which it takes its name.—Vide Voyages de Champlain, ed. 1632, p. 91; Chronicles of the St. Lawrence, by J. M. Le Moine, p. 9.

131. A river flowing into the St. Lawrence from the south in latitude 48 deg. 52' and in longitude west from Greenwich 67 deg. 32', now known as the Matane.

132. For Bic, Champlain has Pic, which is probably a typographical error. It seems probable that Bic is derived from the French word bicoque, which means a place of small consideration, a little paltry town. Near the site of the ancient Bic, we now have, on modern maps, Bicoque Rocks, Bicquette Light, Bic Island, Bic Channel, and Bic Anchorage. As suggested by Laverdière, this appears to be the identical harbor entered by Jacques Cartier, in 1535, who named if the Isles of Saint John, because he entered it on the day of the beheading of St. John, which was the 29th of August. Nous les nommasmes les Ysleaux sainct Jehan, parce que nous y entrasmes le jour de la decollation dudict sainct. Brief Récit, 1545, D'Avezac's ed. p. 11. Le Jeune speaks of the Isle du Bic in 1635. Vide Relation des Jésuites, p. 19.

133. Tadoussac, or Tadouchac, is derived from the word totouchac, which in Montagnais means breasts, and Saguenay signifies water which springs forth, from the Montagnais word saki-nip.—Vide Laverdière in loco. Tadoussac, or the breasts from which water springs forth, is naturally suggested by the rocky elevations at the base of which the Saguenay flows.