There must have been some error in regard to the voyage of Captain Georges. There is no printed account of a voyage at that time by any one of this name. There are two theories on which this statement may be explained. There may have been a voyage by a Captain Georges, which, for some unknown reason, was never reported; or, what is more likely, Champlain may refer to the voyage of Captain George Weymouth, undertaken in 1602 for the East Ind. Company, which was defeated by the icebergs which he encountered, and the mutiny of his men. It was not uncommon to omit part of a name at that period. Of Pont Gravé, the last name is frequently omitted by Champlain and by Lescarbot. The report of Weymouth's voyage was not printed till after Champlain wrote; and he might easily have mistaken the date.
6. The name of New France, Novus Francisca, appears on a map in Ptolemy published at Basle in 1530.
7. The controlling object of the numerous voyages to the north-east coast of America had hitherto been to discover a shorter course to India. In this respect, as Champlain states above, they had all proved failures. He here intimates that the settlements of the French on this coast were intended to facilitate this design. It is obvious that a colonial establishment would offer great advantages as a base in prosecuting searches for this desired passage to Cathay.
8. For some account of this disastrous expedition, see Memoir, Vol. I.
9. Vide Memoir, Vol. I.
10. It will be observed that Champlain does not mention the expedition sent out by Commander de Chastes, probably because its object was exploration, and not actual settlement.—Vide an account of De Chastes in the Memoir, Vol. I.
11. In Champlain's report of the voyage of 1603, after obtaining what information he could from the natives relating to the St. Lawrence and the chain of lakes, he says they informed him that the last lake in the chain was salt, and he therefore believed it to be the South Sea. He doubtless enlarged verbally before the king upon the feasibility of a passage to China in this way.
12. The commission here referred to was doubtless the one renewed to him in 1608, after he had made his searches on the shores of New England and Nova Scotia, and after the commission or charter of 1603 had been revoked.
Champlain is here stating the advantages of a settlement in the
interior, on the shores of the St. Lawrence, rather than on the
Atlantic coast.
13. In this chapter, Champlain speaks of events stretching through several years; but in the next he confines himself to the occurrences of 1603, when De Monts obtained his charter.