Champlain's chart of the island may be found in his Voyages (Prince Soc.), vol. ii., p. 32. Lescarbot, in Nouv. France (Paris, 1612), p. 469, says of the soil: "It is very good, and delightfully prolific."
The identity of St. Croix Island was determined in 1798, by the commissioners appointed, under the treaty of 1783, to determine the boundary-line between New Brunswick and the territory of the United States. Holmes says, in Annals of America (Cambridge, Mass., 1829), vol. i., p. 122, note 1: "Professor (afterwards President) Webber, who accompanied the commissioners in 1798, informed me that they found an island in this river, corresponding to the French descriptions of the Island St. Croix, and, near the upper end of it, the remains of a very ancient fortification, overgrown with large trees; that the foundation stones were traced to a considerable extent; and that bricks (a specimen of which he showed me) were found there. These remains were, undoubtedly, the reliques of De Monts's fortification." Several cannon balls were also discovered while making excavations on this island, about 1853. The island has been known as Dochet's Island and Neutral Island; but in recent years it has been formally and appropriately named De Monts' Island. See Godfrey's Centennial Discourse (Bangor, 1870), cited in Champlain's Voyages (Prince Soc.), vol. ii., p. 33; also Williamson's Maine, vol. i., p. 88, and vol. ii., p. 578.
[5] (p. [47]).—George Weymouth, a Bristol navigator, entered Kennebec River in June, 1605. The stream was called by the natives Sagadahoc (sometimes spelled Sagadahock). Weymouth's enthusiastic reports led the Plymouth Company—of which Lord John Popham and Sir Ferdinando Gorges were leading members—to plant a colony in August, 1607, at first probably on Stage Island, but later on the shores of Atkins' Bay, ten miles up the Kennebec. Owing to the death of Popham, their chief patron, and other misfortunes, the colonists returned to England in 1608. For several years thereafter, Gorges and Sir Francis Popham—son of Lord John—fitted out trading and fishing expeditions to the region, but no permanent colony was again attempted on the Kennebec until 1630. Weymouth had serious difficulties with the natives (1605), and kidnapped several of them; the colonists themselves were, towards the close of their stay, cruel to their neighbors; the outrages in 1609 were doubtless the operations of visiting English traders. The boats and other English property seen by the French in 1611, at the Penobscot and Kennebec, of course belonged to traders, who were at this time numerous along the main shore. Cf. Williamson's Maine, vol. i., pp. 53, 191-239; and Memorial Volume of Popham Celebration, Aug. 29, 1862. (Portland, 1863).
[6] (p. [49]).—These Indians were the Tarratines (called Penobscots by the English), one of the three tribes of the Etchemins,—the other two being the Openangos (the Quoddy Indians of English chronicles) of New Brunswick, and the Marachites of Nova Scotia. For origin of their name, see Maine Hist. Colls., vol. vii., p. 100. The principal Tarratine village was, a half century later, near where Bangor now stands. The town visited by Biard was apparently at or near the present Castine, on Major-bigyduce Point (for derivation of this name see Maine Hist. Colls., vol. vi., pp. 107-109). See topographical description in Williamson's Maine, i., pp. 70, 71. The "Chiboctous" River, of Biard, was, apparently, but the "wide-spread" of the Penobscot, stretching eastward of Castine. French traders were at Castine at a very early date. The English built a trading fort there in 1625-26, which fell into the hands of the French in 1632. It was styled Pentagoët in those days; but in 1667, was rechristened Castine, after Baron de St. Castine, who for several years maintained a station there. The Dutch were in possession for a time,—indeed, Castine was continuously fortified by English, French, and Dutch, in turn, from about 1610 to 1783.
[7] (p. [61]).—This introductory note, "To the Reader," is furnished by Dr. O'Callaghan, in his Albany reprint of 1870, which we are here following.
The Jesuits had been banished from France by Henry IV., in 1595. He recalled them in 1603, making Father Coton, of their number, his confessor.
[8] (p. [61]).—It is internally evident that the document, like many others of our series, was written at intervals; this one was undoubtedly commenced in 1611 and closed in 1612. In a hurry to catch the home-returning vessel, the writer appears to have forgotten the change in the year.
[9] (p. [67]). It is possible that the Biscayans originally named what is still known as Placentia Bay, Newfoundland, after the city of that name in Spain. It was known to the English by that name in Biard's time;—see John Guy's letter, May 16, 1611, in Prowse's History of Newfoundland (London, 1895), p. 127. Biard merely gallicizes the word. Placentia is the chief seat of French settlement in Southern Newfoundland.—See Howley's Ecclesiastical History of Newfoundland (Boston, 1888), pp. 128, 129.
[10] (p. [67]).—Reference is here made to the Eskimos of Labrador. Says Prowse, (Hist. N. F., pp. 590, 591); "The name Esquimaux is a French corruption of the Abenaki word 'Eskimatsie,' an eater of raw flesh. The native word is 'Innuit,' meaning 'the people.' Eskimo is the Danish form of the name, and has now quite supplanted the old French name." They were probably dubbed "Excommunicated" in Biard's time, because of the marked hostility to them of all the other savage tribes in Canada; and the French early joined the latter in opposing them.—See Prowse, ut supra, p. 591. The missionaries found the Eskimos difficult material on which to work; although an occasional captive slave, brought to the St. Lawrence by the Indians, would yield to priestly ministrations.—See Shea's Charlevoix, vol. iii., p. 30.
[11] (p. [69]).—Reference is here made to the mouth of what is now Saco River. Choüacoët was the French rendering of a native word from which the modern Saco is derived.—Champlain's Voyages (Prince Soc.), vol. ii., p. 64.