[39] (p. [201]).—Cf. vol. [iii]., note [22].
[40] (p. [201]).—See vol. [ii]., note [21].
[41] (p. [205]).—Cf. vol. [iii]., note [19].
[42] (p. [209]).—For value of écu, see vol. [i]., note [34]. The livre was a money of account, in value somewhat less than the modern franc; but in ordinary speech, both terms signified the same value; six livres = one crown. The livre of Tours was worth 20 sous; that of Paris, 25 sous. The pistole was a money of account, equal to ten livres tournois, and worth ten francs of the present currency.
[43] (p. [211]) Anti-Coton: a sarcastic pamphlet, published in September, 1610; it attacked the Jesuits, and especially Father Coton, the confessor of Henry IV., of whose murder the Jesuits had been accused by their enemies. Daurignac says (Hist. Soc. Jesus, vol. i., p. 205) that this pamphlet was attributed to Pierre Dumoulin, a Protestant minister of Charenton. This and other like attacks on the Jesuits had been circulated in Canada, and had prejudiced against them even many Catholics.
[44] (p. [233]).—This mention of Lalemant being at Pentegoët in 1613, has been copied by some later writers; but it is apparently an oversight. Biard would certainly have included Lalemant in his account of the Acadian missions, if the latter had been there.
[45] (p. [237]).—Alexander Vieuxpont was born Dec. 25, 1599, at Auxeville, Normandy. He became a Jesuit novice Sept. 13, 1620, at Rouen, and for seven years pursued his studies there, at Rennes, and at La Flèche. Thence he was sent to Alençon, and two years later (June, 1629), he went with Noyrot to Canada. Cast ashore near Canso, in the shipwreck wherein the latter perished, Vieuxpont went to Grand Cibou, to join Father Vimont, then laboring among the savages of Cape Breton. In 1630, recalled to France by his superiors, he became a traveling preacher in the rural districts near Rouen; he did not return to Canada.
[46] (p. [243]).—After the destruction of Port Royal (1613), the English took no immediate steps to secure possession of Acadia. Eight years later, Sir William Alexander (afterwards secretary of state for Scotland) obtained from James I. a grant of all the lands from the St. Croix River to the St. Lawrence, under the title of "Nova Scotia;" thus were ignored all French rights in that region. In 1625, this grant was renewed by Charles I., with considerable additions. Alexander, not having the necessary funds, was unable to establish any colonies there until 1627; when (having associated with himself Gervase Kirk and his sons, William Berkley, John Love, and others, under the title of "Merchant Adventurers of Canada"), he sent his son, as governor of Nova Scotia, with a few Scotch emigrants, to form a settlement at Port Royal. David Kirk, whose vessel had conveyed them, returned to England for reinforcements; and, in the following year, he seized Miscou, and all the French fishing vessels in the Gulf; threatened Quebec; and captured De Roquemont's squadron, sent by the Hundred Associates with supplies and artillery for Champlain's succor. In 1629, he captured Quebec. Early in that year, Sir James Stewart, who had purchased a tract of land from Alexander, brought a colony to Port Baleines, Cape Breton (near the present Louisburg); he also began to seize the French vessels fishing on that coast. This excited the anger of Captain Charles Daniel (one of the Hundred Associates, and a brother of the Jesuit Antoine Daniel), who had recently come from France; he seized and demolished Stewart's fort, and proceeded to erect another at Grand Cibou. (This name, meaning "the great river," was doubtless applied by the natives to the estuary now known as Great Bras d'Or; but Daniel's colony was planted at St. Anne's Bay,—thus named by him,—just north of the Bras d'Or). Charles Leigh, who made a voyage to Cape Breton in 1597, mentions "the harborow of Cibo;" see Goldsmid's Hakluyt, vol. xiii., p. 69. Here he left a garrison of forty men, with the two Jesuits Vimond and Vieuxpont, and took the English colonists back to their own country (except a few, whom he carried to France as prisoners). Champlain, arriving in Dieppe Dec. 31, 1629, met Daniel there, and obtained from him his "Relation" of the above enterprise, which is given in Champlain's Voyages (1632), part 2, pp. 271-275.
In the following year, Daniel returned to this fort, and settled certain disorders that had arisen during his absence. It is not definitely known how long the garrison was kept here; but, when De Caen took possession of Canada (1632), the Jesuits Davost and Antoine Daniel also came to Cape Breton (probably with Charles, the latter's brother), and carried on the mission begun by Vimont. Denys, a few years later, had an important settlement at St. Anne's.
[47] (p. [243]).—Vimont remained at Cape Breton but a year, and did not return to Canada until 1639. A sketch of his life will appear hereafter.