[65] (p. [253]).—Sulte (Can.-Français, vol. ii., pp. 40, 54, 92) gives this information regarding him: "André de Malapart, a native of Paris, a soldier and a poet, wrote an account of this campaign [the expulsion of Stewart's colony from Cape Breton by Charles Daniel; see vol. [iv.] of this series, note [46]], which he addressed to M. Jean de Lauson, and which was published in 1630. In 1635, he was at Three Rivers, and four years later was commandant at that post. He was still in Canada in 1641." Tanguay (Dict. Généal., vol. i., p. 406) says: "In 1649, the registers designate him as 'arcis moderator' [commandant];" but the date here given is apparently a typographical error.
[66] (p. [253]).—M. de Maupertuis was in charge of the trading post at Three Rivers, in 1635-36.
[67] (p. [253]).—Capitanal, or Kepitanal (Creuxius, Hist. Canad., pp. 116, 182): a Montagnais chief of great ability. Le Jeune gives at length (vol. [v.], pp. [205-211]) the speech delivered by this man at a conference between Champlain and the Montagnais savages, May 24, 1633, and highly praises his intellect and eloquence. Capitanal died in the autumn of 1634: his traits of character, and his relations with the French, are described by Le Jeune in the Relation for 1635, ante, p. 55.
[68] (p. [259]).—Adrien du Chesne (Duchêne), a surgeon, came from Dieppe to Canada, probably about 1620. He remained with his wife at Quebec during the English occupation; and, after the return of the French, practised his profession at Quebec and Three Rivers. In October, 1645, he is mentioned by the Journ. des Jésu. (p. 9), in connection with his nephew Charles le Moyne, the father of the noted explorer Le Moyne d'Iberville.—See Sulte's Can.-Français, vol. ii., pp. 7, 144.
[69] (p. [267]).—Pierre de Launay (born 1616), a native of the province of Maine, France, is first mentioned in January, 1636, as an agent of the Hundred Associates; this position he seems to have retained at least until 1645; in that year he married Françoise Pinguet, at Quebec. Certain Indians from Tadoussac made complaints to the Quebec council (June, 1646) concerning De Launay's methods of trade, and the exorbitant prices charged by him. He was killed by the Iroquois, Nov. 28, 1654.
[70] (p. [269]).—Porcelain, which is the diamonds and pearls of this country: According to Littre, porcelain (a word of Italian origin; adopted, with slight variations, into nearly all European languages) was a name given, from very early times, to a univalvular, gastropodous mollusk, Cypræa; especially used for the species C. moneta, the money cowry of Africa and the East Indies, and for its shell. The same term was applied to the nacre (from which were made vases, ornaments, etc.) obtained from the shells of this and many other mollusks; and the enameled pottery brought from the Orient about the 16th century was also called "porcelain," from its resemblance to this nacre.
The early explorers on this continent found shells, or beads made therefrom, everywhere in use among the natives as currency. Cartier mentions this article as called "esurgny" by the Indians at Montreal; Champlain and other French writers applied the term already familiar to them, "porcelain;" the English colonists adopted the name in use among the natives of New England, "wampum" (from wompi, "white"); while the Dutch traders called it "sewan" (seawant, or zee-wand; a corruption of seah-whóun, "scattered, loose").
An interesting account of this Indian money is given by Roger Williams, in his Key into the Language of America (London, 1643),—reprinted, with careful and extensive annotations (mainly philological) by J. H. Trumbull, in Publications of the Narragansett Club, vol. i. (Providence, R. I., 1866). In chap. xxvi. of this work, pp. 173-178, "Concerning their Coyne," the author says: "The Indians are ignorant of Europes Coyne; yet they have given a name to ours, and call it Monêash from the English Money. Their own is of two sorts; one white, which they make of the stem or stocke of the Periwincle, which they call Meteaûhock, when all the shell is broken off: and of this sort six of their small beads (which they make with holes to string the bracelets) are currant with the English for a peny. The second is black, inclining to blew, which is made of the shell of a fish which some English call Hens, Poquaûhock, and of this sort three make an English peny.... This one fathom of this their stringed money, now worth of the English but five shillings (sometimes more), some few yeeres since was worth nine, and sometimes ten shillings per Fathome: the fall is occasioned by the fall of Beaver in England: the Natives are very impatient, when for English commodities they pay so much more of their money, and not understanding the cause of it; and many say the English cheat and deceive them, though I have laboured to make them understand the reason of it.... Their white they call Wompam (which signifies white): their black Suckduhock (Súcki signifying blacke). Both amongst themselves, as also the English and Dutch, the blacke peny is two pence white: the blacke fathom double, or two fathom of white. Before ever they had Awle blades from Europe, they made shift to bore this their shell money with stone, and so fell their trees with stone set in a wooden staff, and used wooden howes: which some old & poore women (fearfull to leave the old tradition) use to this day. They hang these strings of money about their necks and wrists, as also upon the necks and wrists of their wives and children." Trumbull (pp. 140, 175, ut supra) says that the Poquaûhock was the Venus mercenaria, the round clam, or quahaug; the Meteaûhock was probably the Pyrula carica or P. canaliculata, which have retained the name of "periwinkle" on the coast of New England. (The two latter species are also known as Fulgur carica and Scycotypus canaliculata.) From these shells were cut beads of cylindrical shape, through which holes were drilled; these beads were then strung upon cords, or the sinews of animals, and, when woven into plaits about as broad as the hand, made wampum "belts." In early times, various articles were used as substitutes for the shell beads—colored sticks of wood, porcupine quills, and glass or porcelain beads, brought from Europe by the traders.
The early traders readily adopted wampum as a medium of exchange in their transactions with the Indians, in both purchase and sale. Thus it "quickly became a standard of values, the currency of the colonists to a great extent in their transactions with each other, and even a legal tender." In Massachusetts, "wampampeag" was legal tender (Act of 1648) for all debts less than forty shillings, "except county rates to the treasurer,"—the white at eight for a penny, and the black at four for a penny. "So slow were the red men to relinquish this currency, that wampum continued to be fabricated until within fifty years in several towns of New York State (chiefly at Babylon, L. I.) to meet the demand for it by Western fur traders."—See Ingersoll's "Wampum and its History," in American Naturalist, vol. xvii. (1883), pp. 467-479.
Beauchamp says (N. Y. Iroquois): "I have mentioned the lack of wampum among the early New York Iroquois, as a proof that they had not reached the sea; but it was not abundant even on the coast in prehistoric times. On early Iroquois sites it is not found, nor anything resembling it.... A few stray, prehistoric, small wampum beads might be expected low down in the Mohawk valley, but I know of none; west of this, they are absolutely unknown. When, therefore, we are told of ancient wampum belts in New York, coeval with and recording the formation of the Iroquois league, we may settle it in our minds that such do not exist and never did. The most ancient Onondaga belt is modern, and it is doubtful if any one is much over a century old."