Granite, sandstone, limestone, marble, gypsum, salt, and other valuable materials, are found in great abundance and of excellent quality. For an account of these and other mineral products, see Gesner, already cited; also Statistical Year-Book, Report of Minister of Mines, and other Government publications.
[16] (p. [71]).—Betsabes: written also Bessabes (Champlain); the "sagamore of Kadesquit" (Biard); identical with the "Bashaba" of Gorges. The most powerful sachem in New England, ruling over many inferior sagamores in the country called Moasham (Gorges), or Mawooshen (Hakluyt), corresponding to the southern part of Maine and New Hampshire; Poor (in "Vindication of Gorges," Popham Memorial, p. 50) thinks his authority extended to Narragansett Bay. His residence is supposed to have been at Pemaquid, or the semi-mythical Arâmbec (see vol. i., note 11). Gorges says he was "killed by the Tarentines;" Lescarbot, in Nouv. France, p. 561, avers that he was slain by the English.—See Godfrey's "Bashaba and the Tarratines," Maine Hist. Colls., vol. vii., pp. 93-102.
Asticou: Lescarbot calls this chief "sober, valiant, and feared, who could at a moment's notice, gather a thousand Savages." He says that, after the death of Bessabes, Asticou was successor to the former's authority.—Nouv. France, p. 561. Champlain says (Laverdière's ed., p. 862) that the basin of the Falls of Chaudière, on the Ottawa River, was called by the natives Asticou, meaning "a boiling kettle." Maurault (Hist. Abenakis, p. 95, note 2) says that asticou is an Algonkin word, meaning "caribou." He adds (p. 111), that the chief of that name was probably an Algonkin who had migrated to the Abenaki country. A post office on Mt. Desert Island is called Asticou.
[17] (p. [79]).—Caribou: the American woodland reindeer (Cervus tarandus, or Rangifer caribou), inhabiting the northern regions as far as the timber line. Specimens are still found in Nova Scotia and New Brunswick; it is smaller than the moose or elk. Sagard (Canada, p. 750) calls it "caribou, or wild ass."
[18] (p. [83]).—Ponamo: Shea (Charlevoix, vol. vi., p. 124) translates this "dogfish," and cites J. H. Trumbull as authority for the statement that the ponamo is the "tom cod" (Morrhua pruinosa),—the apounanmesou of Rale, and the paponaumsu of Roger Williams.
[19] (p. [109]).—See Garneau's statement, in History of Canada (Bell's ed., Montreal, 1866), vol. i., p. 132: "As soon as the young attained nubile years, they were allowed all freedom,—'thought no harm of it,' to use the words of Lescarbot. From this early and unrestrained frequentation, we may deduce one cause of the limited fecundity of the native women; as well as from their practice of suckling their children for several years." Cf. Sagard's Canada, p. 324; in the same place (and on p. 342), he also describes the easy accouchements of the women.
[20] (p. [119]).—See vol. ii., note [23].
[21] (p. [131]).—The sagamore of St. John's river; called Secondon by Champlain; accompanied Poutrincourt on his expedition to Chouacoët, and (according to Lescarbot, who calls him Chkoudun) offered to oppose, single-handed, a hostile band of natives who attacked the French.—Nouv. France, p. 575.
[22] (p. [133]).—Cartier gives the native Canadian word for "sun" as Ysnay or Isnez.—Tross ed. of Discovrs dv Voyage par Iaques Cartier (Paris, 1865), vol. i., pp. 13, 69. Lescarbot says it was achtek.—Nouv. France, p. 691.
[23] (p. [145]).—Joseph de Acosta, born 1540, at Medina del Campo, near Valladolid, Spain, entered the Jesuit order in his fourteenth year, and devoted himself to the study of sacred and classical literature. In 1570, he sailed to the New World, with other Jesuit brethren, spending thirteen years in Peru, and nearly four in Mexico, in missionary and literary labors. In Peru, he resided partly at Lima, and partly at Juli, near Lake Titicaca, then the principal seat of the Jesuits, where a college was established, the native language studied, and a printing-press erected; here was printed, in 1611, Bertonio's Aymara dictionary. Acosta returned to Spain in 1587, and soon began the publication of his manuscripts. The most important of these is the Historia natural y moral de las Indias (Seville, 1590); two books of which were earlier published in Latin (Salamanca, 1588). This is considered by modern historians a valuable and authoritative account of the New World and of the Mexican and Peruvian nations. It was translated into Dutch, by Van Linschoten (Enckhuysen, 1598); into French, by Regnauld (Paris, 1597); into German, by De Bry (Frankfort, 1601); and into English, by Grimston (London, 1604).