211. "The sandy point" running out nearly three leagues was evidently the island of Monomoy, or its representative, which at that time may have been only a continuation of the main land. Champlain does not delineate on his map an island, but a sand-bank nearly in the shape of an isosceles triangle, which extends far to the south-east. Very great changes have undoubtedly taken place on this part of the coast since the visit of Champlain. The sand-bar figured by him has apparently been swept from the south-east round to the south-west, and is perhaps not very much changed in its general features except as to its position. "We know from our studies of such shoals," says Prof. Mitchell, Chief of Physical Hydrography, U. S. Coast Survey, "that the relative order of banks and beaches remains about the same, however the system as a whole may change its location."—Mass. Harbor Commissioners' Report. 1873, p. 99.
212. Batturier. This word is an adjective, formed with the proper termination from the noun, batture, which means a bank upon which the sea beats, reef or sand-bank. Cap Batturier may therefore be rendered sand-bank cape, or the cape of the sand-banks. Batturier does not appear in the dictionaries, and was doubtless coined by Champlain himself, as he makes, farther on, the adjective truitière, in the expression la rivière truitière, from the noun, truite.
213. The distances here given appear to be greatly overstated. From Nauset to the southern point of Monomoy, as it is to-day, the distance is not more than six leagues. But, as the sea was rough, and they were apparently much delayed, the distance might naturally enough be overestimated.
214. The anchorage was in Chatham Roads, or Old Stage Harbor.
215. Harding's Beach Point.
216. They were now in Stage Harbor, in Chatham, to which Champlain, farther on gives the name of Port Fortuné.
217. This is the narrow bay that stretches from Morris Island to the north, parallel with the sea, separated from it only by a sand-bank, and now reaching beyond Chatham into the town of Orleans. By comparing Champlain's map of Port Fortuné with modern charts, it will be seen that the "bay extending back on the north some three leagues" terminated, in 1606, a little below Chatham Old Harbor. The island on Champlain's map marked G. was a little above the harbor, but has been entirely swept away, together with the neck north of it, represented on Champlain's map as covered with trees. The bay now extends, as we have stated above, into the town of Orleans. The island G, known in modern times as Ram Island, disappeared in 1851, although it still continued to figure on Walling's map of 1858: The two other little bays mentioned in the text scarcely appear on Champlain's map; and he may have inadvertently included in this bay the two that are farther north, viz. Crow's Pond and Pleasant Bay, although they do not fall within the limits of his map.
218. Vide antea, notes 168, 204, 205.
219. Indian corn, Zea mays, is a plant of American origin. Columbus saw it among the natives of the West Indies, "a sort of grain they call Maiz, which was well tasted, bak'd, or dry'd and made into flour."— Vide History of the Life and Actions of Chris. Columbus by his Son Ferdinand Columbus, Churchill's Voyages, Vol. II. p. 510.
It is now cultivated more or less extensively in nearly every part of the world where the climate is suitable. Champlain is the first who has left a record of the method of its cultivation in New England, vide antea, p. 64, and of its preservation through the winter. The Pilgrims, in 1620, found it deposited by the Indians in the ground after the manner described in the text. Bradford says they found "heaps of sand newly padled with their hands, which they, digging up, found in them diverce faire Indean baskets filled with corne, and some in eares, faire and good, of diverce collours, which seemed to them a very goodly sight, haveing never seen any such before:"—His. Plym. Plantation, p. 82. Squanto taught the English how to "set it, and after how to dress and tend it"—Idem, p. 100.