[12] (p. [81]).—No map could be found in the archives of the Society at Rome, where the original of this letter is preserved.
[13] (p. [127]).—See vol. i., note [2].
[14] (p. [131]).—Casquet ("les Casquetes," on maps of that period): a dangerous group of rocks in the English Channel, seven miles west of Alderney.
[15] (p. [133]).—See notes [3], [6], ante; and vol. i., note [11].
[16] (p. [133]).—See note [4], ante.
[17] (p. [135]).—Matachias, or matachiats; described by Champlain, in Voyages (Prince Soc.), vol. i., p. 241, as "beads and braided strings, made of porcupine quills, which they dye in various colors." Lescarbot says that the Armouchiquois, like the Brazilians and Floridians, make ornaments from bits of shell, polished and strung together in bracelets, etc.; these are called bou-re in Brazil, and matachiaz among the Northern tribes:—See his Nouv. France, p. 732.
[18] (p. [137]).—Nuncio of Pope Paul V. to Henry IV. of France; was created a cardinal, December 2, 1615.—See Laverdière's Champlain, p. 492; also Faillon's Col. Fr., vol. i., p. 99. A fortification erected by Poutrincourt, at the entrance of Port Royal harbor, was named by him Fort d'Ubaldini.—See Lescarbot's chart of Port Royal, in vol. [i]. of this series.
[19] (p. [141]).—Named by Champlain, from its forked shape, now known as Cape Split; a promontory at entrance of Mines Bay, where it opens into the Bay of Fundy. Jean Blaeu's map Extrema Americæ (1620), shows it as C. de Poitrincourt; for explanation of this name, see Laverdière's Champlain, pp. 271, 272.
[20] (p. [141]).—Sable Island is thus described by Champlain, Voyages, (Prince Soc.), ii., p. 8: "This island is thirty leagues distant north and south from Cape Breton, and in length is about fifteen leagues. It contains a small lake. The island is very sandy, and there are no trees at all of considerable size, only copse and herbage, which serve as pasturage for the bullocks and cows which the Portuguese carried there more than sixty years ago."
The origin of the cattle here mentioned is thus explained by Edward Haies, in his report on Sir Humphrey Gilbert's voyage of 1583, in Goldsmid's Hakluyt, vol. xii., p. 345: "Sablon lieth to the seaward of Cape Briton about 25 leagues, whither we were determined to goe vpon intelligence we had of a Portugal—who was himselfe present when the Portugals (abotte thirty yeeres past) did put in the same Island both Neat and Swine to breede, which were since exceedingly multiplied." Lescarbot, however, says the cattle were landed there about 1528, by Baron de Léry; see his Nouv. France, p. 22. Sable Island is noted as the scene of La Roche's unfortunate attempt at colonization in 1598, for a graphic description of which see Parkman's Pioneers, pp. 231-235. See Dionne's note on "Les Sablons," in his Nouvelle France (Quebec, 1891), pp. 311-316.