On the 7th we arrived at Quebec, where we found in good condition those who had wintered there, they not having been sick; they told us that the winter had not been severe, and that the river had not frozen. The trees also were beginning to put forth leaves and the fields to be decked with flowers.
On the 13th we set out from Quebec for the Falls of St. Louis, where we arrived on the 21st, finding there one of, our barques which had set out after us from Tadoussac, and which had traded some with a small troop of Algonquins, who came from the war with the Iroquois, and had with them two prisoners. Those in the barque gave them to understand that I had come with a number of men to assist them in their wars, according to the promise I had made them in previous years; also that I desired to go to their country and enter into an alliance with all their friends, at which they were greatly pleased. And, inasmuch as they were desirous of returning to their country to assure their friends of their victory, see their wives, and put to death their prisoners in a festive tabagie, they left us pledges of their return, which they promised should be before the middle of the first moon, according to their reckoning, their shields made of wood and elk leather, and a part of their bows and arrows. I regretted very much that I was not prepared to go with them to their country.
Three days after, three canoes arrived with Algonquins, who had come from the interior, with some articles of merchandise which they bartered. They told me that the bad treatment which the savages had received the year before had discouraged them from coming any more, and that they did not believe that I would ever return to their country on account of the wrong impressions which those jealous of me had given them respecting me; wherefore twelve hundred men had gone to the war, having no more hope from the French, who, they did not believe, would return again to their country.
This intelligence greatly disheartened the merchants, as they had made a great purchase of merchandise, with the expectation that the savages would come, as they had been accustomed to. This led me to resolve, as I engaged in my explorations, to pass through their country, in order to encourage those who had stayed back, with an assurance of the good treatment they would receive, and of the large amount of good merchandise at the Fall, and also of the desire I had to assist them in their war. For carrying out this purpose I requested three canoes and three savages to guide us, but after much difficulty obtained only two and one savage, and this by means of some presents made them.
ENDNOTES:
30. The island refers to New Foundland. Cap de Raye, still known as Cape
Ray, was on the southwestern angle of New Foundland.
31. Now called Point aux Vaches. It was sometimes called All-Devils'
Point. Vide note 136, Vol. I. p. 235.
32. Outardes. Sometimes written houtardes, and Oltardes. The name outarde or bustard, the otis of ornithologists, a land bird of Europe, was applied to a species of goose in Canada at a very early period.
The outarde is mentioned by Cartier in 1535, and the name may have been originally applied by the fishermen and fur-traders at a much earlier period, doubtless on account of some fancied resemblance which they saw to the lesser bustard or outarde, which was about the size of the English pheasant. Vide Pennant's British Zoölogy, Vol. I. p. 379. Cartier, Champlain, Lescarbot, Baron La Hontan, Potherie, and Charlvoix mention the outarde in catalogues of water-fowl in which oye, the goose, is likewise mentioned. They very clearly distinguish it from the class which they commonly considered oyes, or geese. Cartier, for instance, says, Il y a aussi grand nombre d'oyseaulx, scauoir grues, signes, oltardes, oyes sauuages, blanches, & grises. Others speak of outardes et oyes. They do not generally describe it with particularity. Champlain, however, in describing the turkey, cocq d'Inde, on the coast of New England, says, aussi gros qu'vne outarde, qui est une espece d'oye. Father Pierre Biard writes, et au mesme temps les outardes arriuent du midy, qui sont grosses cannes au double des nostres. From these statements it is obvious that the outarde was a species of goose, but was so small that it could well be described as a large duck. In New France there were at least four species of the goose, which might have come under the observation of the early navigators and explorers. We give them in the order of their size, as described in Coues' Key to North American Birds.
1. Canada Goose, Branta Canadensis, SCOPOLI, 36 inches. 2. Snow Goose, Anser hyperboreus, LINNÆUS, 30 inches. 3. Am. White-fronted Goose, Anser albifrons, LINNÆUS, 27 inches. 4. Brant Goose, Branta bernicla, SCOPOLI, 24 inches.