In our reissue of the Relatio Rerum Gestarum (1613-14), we follow the original text and its pagination, as given on pp. 562-605 of the Annuæ Litteræ Societatis Jesu, for 1612, printed at Lyons in 1618, which we found at the Riggs Memorial Library, Georgetown University, Washington, D. C. This forms the text of O'Callaghan's Reprint, which is arbitrarily designated in the Lenox Catalogue as "no. 6." See references in Sabin, no. 69245; Winsor, p. 300; Lenox, p. 19; and Brown Catalogue, no, 170, and p. 166. Sales are noted in Barlow (no. 1272), Murphy (no. 2960), and O'Callaghan (no. 1250), sale catalogues.
Title-page. We closely imitate that of the O'Callaghan Reprint.
Collation of Reprint. Title, 1 p.; reverse of title, with inscription: "Editio viginti quinque exemplaria. O'C," 1 p.; Tabula Rerum, pp. iii., iv.; text, pp. 1-66; colophon (p. 67): "Albaniae Excvdebat Joel Munsellius | Mense Martis Anno | CIↃ IↃCCC LXXI," 1 p.
NOTES TO VOL. II
(Figures in parentheses, following number of note, refer to pages of English text.)
[1] (p. [7]).—Carayon prints neuf, but this is either a slip of the pen upon the part of Father Biard, or a misprint. The Fathers arrived at Port Royal, May 22, 1611, so that this portion of the letter was written just eight (huit) months after.
[2] (p. [27]).—Kennebec River. Sometimes written, also, Rimbegui, Kinibequi, Kinibeki, and Quinebequy. Maurault says that the Abenakis called this river Kanibesek, meaning "river that leads to the lake."—Histoire des Abenakis (Quebec, 1866), pp. iv., 5, and 89, note 2.
[3] (p. [27]).—Penobscot River. It was sometimes written, also, Pemptegoet and Potugoët.
[4] (p. [27]).—In their first voyage (1604), De Monts and Poutrincourt visited and named the river St. John; and at the mouth of the Rivière des Etechemins (so named by Champlain; by the Indians called Scoodick or Schoodic), they found an island which they called St. Croix, a name in later days given to the river itself. It lies in the middle of the river, opposite to the dividing line between Calais and Robbinston, Me. Here De Monts, Champlain, and their 77 fellows spent a miserable winter, while Poutrincourt returned to France for colonists and supplies to plant his proposed settlement at Port Royal. Thirty-five of the St. Croix party had died of scurvy before relieved in June, 1605, by Pontgravé, De Monts' lieutenant. In August, after a fruitless voyage along the New England coast, De Monts took his party to Port Royal, and there began a settlement before Pontgravé's arrival. Biard's letter, indicates that winter fur-trading posts were maintained both at St. Croix and on the St. John, for several years thereafter.—See Parkman's Pioneers, pp. 291-293.