357. In the title above, Champlain calls this his SECOND VOYAGE, by which he means doubtless to say that this is the second voyage which he had undertaken as lieutenant. The first and second voyages, of 1603 and of 1604, were not made under his direction.
358. Portland in Dorsetshire, England.
359. Isle d'Huy. This plainly refers to the Isle of Wight. On Ortelius's
carte of 1603. it is spelled Vigt: and the orthography, obtained
probably through the ear and not the eye, might easily have been
mistaken by Champlain.
360. La Hougue. There are two small islands laid down on the carte of
Ortelius. 1603, under the name Les Hougueaux, and a hamlet nearby
called Hougo, which is that, doubtless, to which Chaimplain here
refers.
361. Comparing this statement with the context, it will be clear that the
passage should read the 8th, and not the 18th of April. The "Islands
of St. Pierre," Isles S. Pierre, includes the Island of St. Peter
and the cluster surrounding it.
362. M. Ferland infers from this statement that the Basques, Normans, and Bretons had been accustomed for the last sixty years, from the last voyage of Roberval in 1549, to extend their fishing and fur-trading voyages as far as Tadoussac.—Vide Cours d'Hist. du Canada, as cited by Laverdière.
363. Captain Pierre Chavin, of Dieppe. Vide antea, p. 227.
CHAPTER II.
DEPARTURE FROM QUEBEC TO ASSIST OUR ALLIED SAVAGES IN THEIR WAR AGAINST THE IROQUOIS, THEIR ENEMIES; AND ALL THAT TRANSPIRED UNTIL OUR RETURN TO THE SETTLEMENT.
I set out from Quebec on the 14th of June, to meet the Montagnais, Algonquins, and Ochateguins, who were to be at the mouth of the river of the Iroquois. When I was eight leagues from Quebec, I met a canoe, containing two savages, one an Algonquin, and the other a Montagnais, who entreated me to advance as rapidly as possible, saying that the Algonquins and Ochateguins would in two days be at the rendezvous, to the number of two hundred, with two hundred others to come a little later, together with Yroquet, one of their chiefs. They asked me if I was satisfied with the coming of these savages. I told them I could not be displeased at it, since they had kept their word. They came on board my barque, where I gave them a good entertainment. Shortly after conferring with them about many matters concerning their wars, the Algonquin savage, one of their chiefs, drew from a sack a piece of copper a foot long, which he gave me. This was very handsome and quite pure. He gave me to understand that there were large quantities where he had taken this, which was on the bank of a river, near a great lake. He said that they gathered it in lumps, and, having melted it, spread it in sheets, smoothing it with stones. I was very glad of this present, although of small value. [364]