246. Champlain does not inform us how many of Poutrincourt's party were killed in the affray at Chatham. He mentions one as killed on the spot. He speaks of carrying away the "dead bodies" for burial. He also says they made a "deadly assault" upon "five or six of our company;" and another appears to have died of his wounds after their return to Port Royal, as stated in the text.
247. Une petite barque. The French barque was a small vessel or large boat, rigged with two masts; and those employed by De Monts along our coast varied from six to eighteen tons burden, and must not be confounded with our modern bark, which is generally much larger.
The vaisseau, often mentioned by Champlain, included all large vessels, those used for fishing, the fur-trade, and the transportation of men and supplies for the colony.
The chaloupe was a row-boat of convenient size for penetrating shallow places, was dragged behind the barque in the explorations of our coast, and used for minor investigations of rivers and estuaries.
The patache, an advice-boat, is rarely used by Champlain, and then in the place of the shallop.
248. It seems that young Chevalier had come out in the "Jonas," the same ship that had brought out Poutrincourt, Lescarbot, and others, the year before. It had stopped at Canseau to fish for cod. It brought the unwelcome news that the company of De Monts had been broken up; that the Hollanders, conducted by a "French traitor named La Jeunesse," had destroyed the fur-trading establishments on the St. Lawrence, which rendered it impracticable to sustain, as heretofore, the expenses of the company. The monopoly of the fur-trade, granted to De Monts for ten years, had been rescinded by the King's Council. "We were very sad," says Lescarbot, "to see so fine and holy an undertaking broken off, and that so many labors and perils endured had resulted in nothing: and that the hope of establishing there the name of God and the Catholic Faith had disappeared. Notwithstanding, after M. de Poutrincourt had a long while mused hereupon, he said that, although he should have none to come with him, except his family, he would not forsake the enterprise."—His. Nou. France, par M. Lescarbot. Paris, 1612. pp. 591-2.
249. On the 16th of April, 1607, was born the second son of Henry IV. by Marie de Medicis, who received the title, Le Duc d'Orléans. In France, public rejoicings were universal. On the 22d of the month, he was invested with the insignia of the Order of St. Michael and the Holy Ghost with great pomp, on which occasion a banquet was given by the King in the great hall at Fontainebleau, and in the evening the park was illuminated by bonfires and a pyrotechnic display, which was witnessed by a vast concourse of people. The young prince was baptized privately by the Cardinal de Gondy, but the state ceremonies of his christening were delayed, and appear never to have taken place: he died in the fifth year of his age, never having received any Christian name.—Vide the Life of Marie de Medicis, by Miss Pardoe, London, 1852, Vol. I. p. 416; Memoirs of the Duke of Sully, Lennox, trans., Phila., 1817, Vol. IV. p. 140. In New France, the little colony at Port Royal attested their loyalty by suitable manifestations of joy. "As the day declined," Says Lescarbot, "we made bonfires to celebrate the birth of Monseigneur le Duc d'Orléans, and caused our cannon and falconets to thunder forth again, accompanied with plenty of musket-shots, having before for this purpose chanted a Te Deum." —Vide His. Nou. France, Paris, 1612, p.594.
250. Lescarbot says that about four hundred set out for the war against the Almouchiquois, at Choüacoet, or Saco. The savages were nearly two months in assembling themselves together. Mabretou had sent out his two sons, Actaudin and Actaudinech, to summon them to come to Port Royal as a rendezvous. They came from the river St. John, and from the region of Gaspé. Their purpose was accomplished, as will appear in the sequel.
251. At St. John, they visited the cabin of Secondon, the Sagamore, with whom they bartered for some furs. Lescarbot, who was in the expedition, says, "The town of Ouïgoudy was a great enclosure upon a hill, compassed about with high and small trees, tied one against another; and within it many cabins, great and small, one of which was as large as a market-hall, wherein many households resided." In the cabin of Secondon. they saw some eighty or a hundred savages, all nearly naked. They were celebrating a feast which they call Tabagie. Their chief made his warriors pass in review before his guests.—Vide His. Nou. France, par M. Lescarbot. Paris, 1612. p. 598.
252. They found sack at St. Croix that had been left there by De Monts's colony three years before, of which they drank. Casks were still lying in the deserted court-yard: and others had been used as fuel by mariners, who had chanced to come there.