183. Champlain here gives the four species of the cervus family under names then known to him, viz, the moose, wapiti or elk, caribou, and the common deer.
184. Fouines, a quadruped known as the minx or mink, Mustela vison.
185. Martes, weasels, Mustela vulgaris.
186. The country on the north, &c. Having described the country along the
coast of the St Lawrence and the lakes he now refers to the country
still further north even to the southern borders of Hudson's Bay.
Vide small map.
187. Almouchiquois, so in the French for Almouchiquois. All the tribes at
and south of Chouacoet, or the mouth of the Saco River, were
denominated Almouchiquois by the French. Vide Vol II p 63, et
passim.
188. The country of the Attigouantans, sometimes written Attigouautans, the principal tribe of the Hurons, used by Champlain as including the whole, with whom the French were in close alliance, was from east to west not more than about twelve leagues. There must have been some error by which the author is made to say that it was two hundred and thirty leagues. Laverdière suggests that in the manuscript it might have been 23, or 20 to 30, and that the printer made it 230.
189. The author plainly means that the country of the Hurons was nearly surrounded by the Mer Douce; that is to say, by Lake Huron and the waters connected with it, viz., the River Severn, Lake Couchiching, and Lake Simcoe. As to the population, compare The Jesuits in North America, by Francis Parkman, LL.D., note p. xxv.
190. Vide antea, note 172, for the reason of these removals.
191. Febues du Brésil. This was undoubtedly the common trailing bean, Pliaseolus vulgaris, probably called the Brazilian bean, because it resembled a bean known under that name. It was found in cultivation in New England as mentioned by Champlain and the early English settlers. Bradford discoursing of the Indians, His. Plymouth Plantation, p. 83, speaks of "their beans of various collours." It is possible that the name, febues du Brésil, was given to it on account of its red color, as was that of the Brazil-wood, from the Portuguese word braza, a burning coal.
192. Vide antea, note 101.