Voyages of Samuel De Champlain — Volume 01

by Samuel de Champlain

ARRIVAL AT THE FALL.—DESCRIPTION OF THE SAME AND ITS REMARKABLE CHARACTER.—REPORTS OF THE SAVAGES IN REGARD TO THE END OF THE GREAT RIVER.

Setting out from the River of the Iroquois, we came to anchor three leagues from there, on the northern shore. All this country is low, and filled with the various kinds of trees which I have before mentioned.

On the first day of July we coasted along the northern shore, where the woods are very open; more so than in any place we had before seen. The soil is also everywhere favorable for cultivation.

I went in a canoe to the southern shore, where I saw a large number of islands, [178] which abound in fruits, such as grapes, walnuts, hazel-nuts, a kind of fruit resembling chestnuts, and cherries; also in oaks, aspens, poplar, hops, ash, maple, beech, cypress, with but few pines and firs. There were, moreover, other fine-looking trees, with which I am not acquainted. There are also a great many strawberries, raspberries, and currants, red, green, and blue, together with numerous small fruits which grow in thick grass. There are also many wild beasts, such as orignacs, stags, hinds, does, bucks, bears, porcupines, hares, foxes, bearers, otters, musk-rats, and some other kinds of animals with which I am not acquainted, which are good to eat, and on which the savages subsist. [179]

We passed an island having a very pleasant appearance, some four leagues long and about half a league wide. [180] I saw on the southern shore two high mountains, which appeared to be some twenty leagues in the interior. [181] The savages told me that this was the first fall of the River of the Iroquois.

On Wednesday following, we set out from this place, and made some five or six leagues. We saw numerous islands; the land on them was low, and they were covered with trees like those of the River of the Iroquois. On the following day we advanced some few leagues, and passed by a great number of islands, beautiful on account of the many meadows, which are likewise to be seen on the mainland as well as on the islands. [182] The trees here are all very small in comparison with those we had already passed.

We arrived finally, on the same day, having a fair wind, at the entrance to the fall. We came to an island almost in the middle of this entrance, which is a quarter of a league long. [183] We passed to the south of it, where there were from three to five feet of water only, with a fathom or two in some places, after which we found suddenly only three or four feet. There are many rocks and little islands without any wood at all, and on a level with the water. From the lower extremity of the above-mentioned island in the middle of the entrance, the water begins to come with great force. Although we had a very favorable wind, yet we could not, in spite of all our efforts, advance much. Still, we passed this island at the entrance of the fall. Finding that we could not proceed, we came to anchor on the northern shore, opposite a little island, which abounds in most of the fruits before mentioned. [184] We at once got our skiff ready, which had been expressly made for passing this fall, and Sieur Du Pont Gravé and myself embarked in it, together with some savages whom we had brought to show us the way. After leaving our barque, we had not gone three hundred feet before we had to get out, when some sailors got into the water and dragged our skiff over. The canoe of the savages went over easily. We encountered a great number of little rocks on a level with the water, which we frequently struck.

There are here two large islands; one on the northern side, some fifteen leagues long and almost as broad, begins in the River of Canada, some twelve leagues towards the River of the Iroquois, and terminates beyond the fall. [185] The island on the south shore is some four leagues long and half a league wide. [186] There is, besides, another island near that on the north, which is perhaps half a league long and a quarter wide. [187] There is still another small island between that on the north and the other farther south, where we passed the entrance to the fall. [188] This being passed, there is a kind of lake, in which are all these islands, and which is some five leagues long and almost as wide, and which contains a large number of little islands or rocks. Near the fall there is a mountain, [189] visible at a considerable distance, also a small river coming from this mountain and falling into the lake. [190] On the south, some three or four mountains are seen, which seem to be fifteen or sixteen leagues off in the interior. There are also two rivers; the one [191] reaching to the first lake of the River of the Iroquois, along which the Algonquins sometimes go to make war upon them, the other near the fall and extending some feet inland. [192]

On approaching this fall [193] with our little skiff and the canoe, I saw, to my astonishment, a torrent of water descending with an impetuosity such as I have never before witnessed, although it is not very high, there being in some places only a fathom or two, and at most but three. It descends as if by steps, and at each descent there is a remarkable boiling, owing to the force and swiftness with which the water traverses the fall, which is about a league in length. There are many rocks on all sides, while near the middle there are some very narrow and long islands. There are rapids not only by the side of those islands on the south shore, but also by those on the north, and they are so dangerous that it is beyond the power of man to pass through with a boat, however small. We went by land through the woods a distance of a league, for the purpose of seeing the end of the falls, where there are no more rocks or rapids; but the water here is so swift that it could not be more so, and this current continues three or four leagues; so that it is impossible to imagine one's being able to go by boats through these falls. But any one desiring to pass them, should provide himself with the canoe of the savages, which a man can easily carry. For to make a portage by boat could not be done in a sufficiently brief time to enable one to return to France, if he desired to winter there. Besides this first fall, there are ten others, for the most part hard to pass; so that it would be a matter of great difficulty and labor to see and do by boat what one might propose to himself, except at great cost, and the risk of working in vain. But in the canoes of the savages one can go without restraint, and quickly, everywhere, in the small as well as large rivers. So that, by using canoes as the savages do, it would be possible to see all there is, good and bad, in a year or two.

The territory on the side of the fall where we went overland consists, so far as we saw it, of very open woods, where one can go with his armor without much difficulty. The air is milder and the soil better than in any place I have before seen. There are extensive woods and numerous fruits, as in all the places before mentioned. It is in latitude 45 deg. and some minutes.