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diff --git a/old/old-2025-02-15/3721-h.zip b/old/old-2025-02-15/3721-h.zip Binary files differdeleted file mode 100644 index d556b52..0000000 --- a/old/old-2025-02-15/3721-h.zip +++ /dev/null diff --git a/old/old-2025-02-15/3721-h/3721-h.htm b/old/old-2025-02-15/3721-h/3721-h.htm deleted file mode 100644 index af0fc9e..0000000 --- a/old/old-2025-02-15/3721-h/3721-h.htm +++ /dev/null @@ -1,11479 +0,0 @@ -<?xml version="1.0" encoding="us-ascii"?> - -<!DOCTYPE html - PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" - "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd" > - -<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" lang="en"> - <head> - <title> - Pioneers of France in the New World: France and England in North America, Part First, by Francis Parkman - </title> - <style type="text/css" xml:space="preserve"> - - body { margin:5%; background:#faebd0; text-align:justify} - P { text-indent: 1em; margin-top: .25em; margin-bottom: .25em; } - H1,H2,H3,H4,H5,H6 { text-align: center; margin-left: 15%; margin-right: 15%; } - hr { width: 50%; text-align: center;} - .foot { margin-left: 20%; margin-right: 20%; text-align: justify; text-indent: -3em; font-size: 90%; } - blockquote {font-size: 97%; font-style: italic; margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%;} - .mynote {background-color: #DDE; color: #000; padding: .5em; margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 95%;} - .toc { margin-left: 10%; margin-bottom: .75em;} - .toc2 { margin-left: 20%;} - div.fig { display:block; margin:0 auto; text-align:center; } - div.middle { margin-left: 20%; margin-right: 20%; text-align: justify; } - .figleft {float: left; margin-left: 0%; margin-right: 1%;} - .figright {float: right; margin-right: 0%; margin-left: 1%;} - .pagenum {display:inline; font-size: 70%; font-style:normal; - margin: 0; padding: 0; position: absolute; right: 1%; - text-align: right;} - pre { font-style: italic; font-size: 90%; margin-left: 10%;} - -</style> - </head> - <body> -<pre xml:space="preserve"> - -The Project Gutenberg EBook of Pioneers Of France In The New World: -France and England in North America, Part First, by Francis Parkman, Jr. - -This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with -almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or -re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included -with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org - - -Title: Pioneers Of France In The New World: France and England in North America, Part First - -Author: Francis Parkman, Jr. - -Release Date: January 16, 2010 [EBook #3721] -Last Updated: December 7, 2018 - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: ASCII - -*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK PIONEERS OF FRANCE *** - - - - -Produced by An Anonymous Volunteer, and David Widger - - - - - - -</pre> - <p> - <br /><br /> - </p> -<h1> -FRANCE AND ENGLAND IN NORTH AMERICA—PART FIRST -</h1> - <h2> - <i>PIONEERS OF FRANCE IN THE NEW WORLD</i> - </h2> - <p> - <br /> - </p> - <h2> - By Francis Parkman - </h2> - <p> - <br /> <br /> - </p> - <hr /> - <p> - <br /> <br /> - </p> - <blockquote> - <p class="toc"> - <big><b>CONTENTS</b></big> - </p> - <p> - <br /> - </p> - <p class="toc"> - <a href="#link2H_INTR"> INTRODUCTION. </a> - </p> - <p> - <br /> - </p> - <p class="toc"> - <a href="#link2H_PART1"> <b>Part One</b> </a> - </p> - <p class="toc"> - <a href="#link2H_4_0003"> PREFATORY NOTE TO THE HUGUENOTS IN FLORIDA. - </a> - </p> - <p class="toc"> - <a href="#link2HCH0001"> CHAPTER I. -- 1512-1561.--EARLY SPANISH ADVENTURE. </a> - </p> - <p class="toc"> - <a href="#link2HCH0002"> CHAPTER II -- 1550-1558--VILLEGAGNON. </a> - </p> - <p class="toc"> - <a href="#link2HCH0003"> CHAPTER III. -- 1562-1563--JEAN RIBAUT. </a> - </p> - <p class="toc"> - <a href="#link2HCH0004"> CHAPTER IV. -- 1564--LAUDONNIERE. </a> - </p> - <p class="toc"> - <a href="#link2HCH0005"> CHAPTER V. -- 1564-1565--CONSPIRACY. </a> - </p> - <p class="toc"> - <a href="#link2HCH0006"> CHAPTER VI. -- 1564-1565--FAMINE. WAR. SUCCOR. </a> - </p> - <p class="toc"> - <a href="#link2HCH0007"> CHAPTER VII. -- 1565--MENENDEZ. </a> - </p> - <p class="toc"> - <a href="#link2HCH0008"> CHAPTER VIII -- 1565--MASSACRE OF THE HERETICS. </a> - </p> - <p class="toc"> - <a href="#link2HCH0009"> CHAPTER IX. -- 1565-1567--CHARLES IX. AND PHILLIP II. </a> - </p> - <p class="toc"> - <a href="#link2HCH0010"> CHAPTER X. -- 1567-1583--DOMINIQUE DE GOURGUES. </a> - </p> - <p> - <br /> - </p> - <p class="toc"> - <a href="#link2H_PART2"> <b>Part 2</b> </a> - </p> - <p class="toc"> - <a href="#link2H_4_0016"> SAMUEL DE CHAMPLAIN. </a> - </p> - <p class="toc"> - <a href="#link2HCH0011"> CHAPTER I. -- 1488-1543--EARLY FRENCH ADVENTURE IN NORTH AMERICA. </a> - </p> - <p class="toc"> - <a href="#link2HCH0012"> CHAPTER II. -- 1542-1604--LA ROCHE.—CHAMPLAIN.—DE MONTS. </a> - </p> - <p class="toc"> - <a href="#link2HCH0013"> CHAPTER III. -- 1604-1605--ACADIA OCCUPIED. </a> - </p> - <p class="toc"> - <a href="#link2HCH0014"> CHAPTER IV. -- 1605-1607--LESCARBOT AND CHAMPLAIN. </a> - </p> - <p class="toc"> - <a href="#link2HCH0015"> CHAPTER V. -- 1610-1611--THE JESUITS AND THEIR PATRONESS. </a> - </p> - <p class="toc"> - <a href="#link2HCH0016"> CHAPTER VI. -- 1611-1612--JESUITS IN ACADIA. </a> - </p> - <p class="toc"> - <a href="#link2HCH0017"> CHAPTER VII. -- 1613--LA SAUSSAYE.—ARGALL</a> - </p> - <p class="toc"> - <a href="#link2HCH0018"> CHAPTER VIII. -- 1613-1615--RUIN OF FRENCH ACADIA. </a> - </p> - <p class="toc"> - <a href="#link2HCH0019"> CHAPTER IX. -- 1608-1609--CHAMPLAIN AT QUEBEC. </a> - </p> - <p class="toc"> - <a href="#link2HCH0020"> CHAPTER X. -- 1609--LAKE CHAMPLAIN. </a> - </p> - <p class="toc"> - <a href="#link2HCH0021"> CHAPTER XI. -- 1610-1612--WAR.—TRADE.—DISCOVERY. </a> - </p> - <p class="toc"> - <a href="#link2HCH0022"> CHAPTER XII. -- 1612-1613--THE IMPOSTOR VIGNAU. </a> - </p> - <p class="toc"> - <a href="#link2HCH0023"> CHAPTER XIII. -- 1615--DISCOVERY OF LAKE HURON. </a> - </p> - <p class="toc"> - <a href="#link2HCH0024"> CHAPTER XIV. -- 1615-1616--THE GREAT WAR PARTY. </a> - </p> - <p class="toc"> - <a href="#link2HCH0025"> CHAPTER XV. -- 1616-1627--HOSTILE SECTS.—RIVAL INTERESTS. </a> - </p> - <p class="toc"> - <a href="#link2HCH0026"> CHAPTER XVI. -- 1628-1629--THE ENGLISH AT QUEBEC. </a> - </p> - <p class="toc"> - <a href="#link2HCH0027"> CHAPTER XVII. -- 1632-1635--DEATH OF CHAMPLAIN. </a> - </p> - <p class="toc"> - <a href="#link2H_END"> END NOTES: </a> - </p> - </blockquote> - <p> - <br /> <br /> - </p> - <hr /> - <p> - <br /> <br /> <a name="link2H_INTR" id="link2H_INTR"> - / <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> - </p> - <h2> - INTRODUCTION. - </h2> - <p> - The springs of American civilization, unlike those of the elder world, lie - revealed in the clear light of History. In appearance they are feeble; in - reality, copious and full of force. Acting at the sources of life, - instruments otherwise weak become mighty for good and evil, and men, lost - elsewhere in the crowd, stand forth as agents of Destiny. In their toils, - their sufferings, their conflicts, momentous questions were at stake, and - issues vital to the future world,—the prevalence of races, the - triumph of principles, health or disease, a blessing or a curse. On the - obscure strife where men died by tens or by scores hung questions of as - deep import for posterity as on those mighty contests of national - adolescence where carnage is reckoned by thousands. - </p> - <p> - The subject to which the proposed series will be devoted is that of - "France in the New World,"—the attempt of Feudalism, Monarchy, and - Rome to master a continent where, at this hour, half a million of bayonets - are vindicating the ascendency of a regulated freedom;—Feudalism - still strong in life, though enveloped and overborne by new-born - Centralization; Monarchy in the flush of triumphant power; Rome, nerved by - disaster, springing with renewed vitality from ashes and corruption, and - ranging the earth to reconquer abroad what she had lost at home. These - banded powers, pushing into the wilderness their indomitable soldiers and - devoted priests, unveiled the secrets of the barbarous continent, pierced - the forests, traced and mapped out the streams, planted their emblems, - built their forts, and claimed all as their own. New France was all head. - Under king, noble, and Jesuit, the lank, lean body would not thrive. Even - commerce wore the sword, decked itself with badges of nobility, aspired to - forest seigniories and hordes of savage retainers. - </p> - <p> - Along the borders of the sea an adverse power was strengthening and - widening, with slow but steadfast growth, full of blood and muscle,—a - body without a head. Each had its strength, each its weakness, each its - own modes of vigorous life: but the one was fruitful, the other barren; - the one instinct with hope, the other darkening with shadows of despair. - </p> - <p> - By name, local position, and character, one of these communities of - freemen stands forth as the most conspicuous representative of this - antagonism,—Liberty and Absolutism, New England and New France. The - one was the offspring of a triumphant government; the other, of an - oppressed and fugitive people: the one, an unflinching champion of the - Roman Catholic reaction; the other, a vanguard of the Reform. Each - followed its natural laws of growth, and each came to its natural result. - Vitalized by the principles of its foundation, the Puritan commonwealth - grew apace. New England was preeminently the land of material progress. - Here the prize was within every man's reach: patient industry need never - doubt its reward; nay, in defiance of the four Gospels, assiduity in - pursuit of gain was promoted to the rank of a duty, and thrift and - godliness were linked in equivocal wedlock. Politically she was free; - socially she suffered from that subtle and searching oppression which the - dominant opinion of a free community may exercise over the members who - compose it. As a whole, she grew upon the gaze of the world, a signal - example of expansive energy; but she has not been fruitful in those - salient and striking forms of character which often give a dramatic life - to the annals of nations far less prosperous. - </p> - <p> - We turn to New France, and all is reversed. Here was a bold attempt to - crush under the exactions of a grasping hierarchy, to stifle under the - curbs and trappings of a feudal monarchy, a people compassed by influences - of the wildest freedom,—whose schools were the forest and the sea, - whose trade was an armed barter with savages, and whose daily life a - lesson of lawless independence. But this fierce spirit had its vent. The - story of New France is from the first a story of war: of war—for so - her founders believed—with the adversary of mankind himself; war - with savage tribes and potent forest commonwealths; war with the - encroaching powers of Heresy and of England. Her brave, unthinking people - were stamped with the soldier's virtues and the soldier's faults; and in - their leaders were displayed, on a grand and novel stage, the energies, - aspirations, and passions which belong to hopes vast and vague, - ill-restricted powers, and stations of command. - </p> - <p> - The growth of New England was a result of the aggregate efforts of a busy - multitude, each in his narrow circle toiling for himself, to gather - competence or wealth. The expansion of New France was the achievement of a - gigantic ambition striving to grasp a continent. It was a vain attempt. - Long and valiantly her chiefs upheld their cause, leading to battle a - vassal population, warlike as themselves. Borne down by numbers from - without, wasted by corruption from within, New France fell at last; and - out of her fall grew revolutions whose influence to this hour is felt - through every nation of the civilized world. - </p> - <p> - The French dominion is a memory of the past; and when we evoke its - departed shades, they rise upon us from their graves in strange, romantic - guise. Again their ghostly camp-fires seem to burn, and the fitful light - is cast around on lord and vassal and black-robed priest, mingled with - wild forms of savage warriors, knit in close fellowship on the same stern - errand. A boundless vision grows upon us; an untamed continent; vast - wastes of forest verdure; mountains silent in primeval sleep; river, lake, - and glimmering pool; wilderness oceans mingling with the sky. Such was the - domain which France conquered for Civilization. Plumed helmets gleamed in - the shade of its forests, priestly vestments in its dens and fastnesses of - ancient barbarism. Men steeped in antique learning, pale with the close - breath of the cloister, here spent the noon and evening of their lives, - ruled savage hordes with a mild, parental sway, and stood serene before - the direst shapes of death. Men of courtly nurture, heirs to the polish of - a far-reaching ancestry, here, with their dauntless hardihood, put to - shame the boldest sons of toil. - </p> - <p> - This memorable but half-forgotten chapter in the book of human life can be - rightly read only by lights numerous and widely scattered. The earlier - period of New France was prolific in a class of publications which are - often of much historic value, but of which many are exceedingly rare. The - writer, however, has at length gained access to them all. Of the - unpublished records of the colonies, the archives of France are of course - the grand deposit; but many documents of important bearing on the subject - are to be found scattered in public and private libraries, chiefly in - France and Canada. The task of collection has proved abundantly irksome - and laborious. It has, however, been greatly lightened by the action of - the governments of New York, Massachusetts, and Canada, in collecting from - Europe copies of documents having more or less relation to their own - history. It has been greatly lightened, too, by a most kind co-operation, - for which the writer owes obligations too many for recognition at present, - but of which he trusts to make fitting acknowledgment hereafter. Yet he - cannot forbear to mention the name of Mr. John Gilmary Shea of New York, - to whose labors this department of American history has been so deeply - indebted, and that of the Hon. Henry Black of Quebec. Nor can he refrain - from expressing his obligation to the skilful and friendly criticism of - Mr. Charles Folsom. - </p> - <p> - In this, and still more must it be the case in succeeding volumes, the - amount of reading applied to their composition is far greater than the - citations represent, much of it being of a collateral and illustrative - nature. This was essential to a plan whose aim it was, while scrupulously - and rigorously adhering to the truth of facts, to animate them with the - life of the past, and, so far as might be, clothe the skeleton with flesh. - If, at times, it may seem that range has been allowed to fancy, it is so - in appearance only; since the minutest details of narrative or description - rest on authentic documents or on personal observation. - </p> - <p> - Faithfulness to the truth of history involves far more than a research, - however patient and scrupulous, into special facts. Such facts may be - detailed with the most minute exactness, and yet the narrative, taken as a - whole, may be unmeaning or untrue. The narrator must seek to imbue himself - with the life and spirit of the time. He must study events in their - bearings near and remote; in the character, habits, and manners of those - who took part in them, he must himself be, as it were, a sharer or a - spectator of the action he describes. - </p> - <p> - With respect to that special research which, if inadequate, is still in - the most emphatic sense indispensable, it has been the writer's aim to - exhaust the existing material of every subject treated. While it would be - folly to claim success in such an attempt, he has reason to hope that, so - far at least as relates to the present volume, nothing of much importance - has escaped him. With respect to the general preparation just alluded to, - he has long been too fond of his theme to neglect any means within his - reach of making his conception of it distinct and true. - </p> - <p> - To those who have aided him with information and documents, the extreme - slowness in the progress of the work will naturally have caused surprise. - This slowness was unavoidable. During the past eighteen years, the state - of his health has exacted throughout an extreme caution in regard to - mental application, reducing it at best within narrow and precarious - limits, and often precluding it. Indeed, for two periods, each of several - years, any attempt at bookish occupation would have been merely suicidal. - A condition of sight arising from kindred sources has also retarded the - work, since it has never permitted reading or writing continuously for - much more than five minutes, and often has not permitted them at all. A - previous work, "The Conspiracy of Pontiac," was written in similar - circumstances. - </p> - <p> - The writer means, if possible, to carry the present design to its - completion. Such a completion, however, will by no means be essential as - regards the individual volumes of the series, since each will form a - separate and independent work. The present work, it will be seen, contains - two distinct and completed narratives. Some progress has been made in - others. - </p> - <p> - Boston. January 1,1865. - </p> - <p> - <br /> <br /> - </p> - <hr /> - <p> - <br /> <br /> <a name="link2H_PART1" id="link2H_PART1"> - <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> - </p> - <div style="height: 4em;"> - <br /><br /><br /><br /> - </div> - <h1> - Part One - </h1> - <p> - HUGOENOTS IN FLORIDA <a name="link2H_4_0003" id="link2H_4_0003"> - <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> - </p> - <div style="height: 4em;"> - <br /><br /><br /><br /> - </div> - <h2> - PREFATORY NOTE TO THE HUGUENOTS IN FLORIDA. - </h2> - <p> - The story of New France opens with a tragedy. The political and religious - enmities which were soon to bathe Europe in blood broke out with an - intense and concentrated fury in the distant wilds of Florida. It was - under equivocal auspices that Coligny and his partisans essayed to build - up a Calvinist France in America, and the attempt was met by all the - forces of national rivalry, personal interest, and religious hate. - </p> - <p> - This striking passage of our early history is remarkable for the fullness - and precision of the authorities that illustrate it. The incidents of the - Huguenot occupation of Florida are recorded by eight eye-witnesses. Their - evidence is marked by an unusual accord in respect to essential facts, as - well as by a minuteness of statement which vividly pictures the events - described. The following are the principal authorities consulted for the - main body of the narrative. - </p> - <p> - Ribauld, 'The Whole and True Discovery of Terra Florida,' This is Captain - Jean Ribaut's account of his voyage to Florida in 1562. It was "prynted at - London," "newly set forthe in Englishe," in 1563, and reprinted by Hakluyt - in 1582 in his black-letter tract entitled 'Divers Voyages.' It is not - known to exist in the original French. - </p> - <p> - 'L'Histoire Notable de la Floride, mise en lumiere par M. Basanier' - (Paris, 1586). The most valuable portion of this work consists of the - letters of Rene de Laudonniere, the French commandant in Florida in - 1564-65. They are interesting, and, with necessary allowance for the - position and prejudices of the writer, trustworthy. - </p> - <p> - Challeux, Discours de l'Histoire de la Floride (Dieppe, 1566). Challeux - was a carpenter, who went to Florida in 1565. He was above sixty years of - age, a zealous Huguenot, and a philosopher in his way. His story is - affecting from its simplicity. Various editions of it appeared under - various titles. - </p> - <p> - Le Moyne, Brevis Narratio eorum qucs in Florida Americce Provincia Gallis - acciderunt. Le Moyne was Laudonniere's artist. His narrative forms the - Second Part of the Grands Voyages of De Bry (Frankfort, 1591). It is - illustrated by numerous drawings made by the writer from memory, and - accompanied with descriptive letter-press. - </p> - <p> - Coppie d'une Lettre venant de la Floride (Paris, 1565). This is a letter - from one of the adventurers under Laudonniere. It is reprinted in the - Recueil de Pieces sur la Floride of Ternaux.-Compans. Ternaux also prints - in the same volume a narrative called Histoire memorable du dernier Voyage - faict par le Capitaine Jean Ribaut. It is of no original value, being - compiled from Laudonniere and Challeux. - </p> - <p> - Une Bequete au Roy, faite en forme de Complainte (1566). This is a - petition for redress to Charles the Ninth from the relatives of the French - massacred in Florida by the Spaniards. It recounts many incidents of that - tragedy. - </p> - <p> - La Reprinse de la Floride par le Cappitaine Gourgue. This is a manuscript - in the Bibliotheque Nationale, printed in the Recueil of Ternaux-Compans. - It contains a detailed account of the remarkable expedition of Dominique - de Gourgues against the Spaniards in Florida in 1567-68. - </p> - <p> - Charlevoix, in his Histoire de la Nouvelle France, speaks of another - narrative of this expedition in manuscript, preserved in the Gourgues - family. A copy of it, made in 1831 by the Vicomte de Gourgues, has been - placed at the writer's disposal. - </p> - <p> - Popeliniere, De Thou, Wytfleit, D'Aubigne De Laet, Brantome, Lescarbot, - Champlain, and other writers of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, - have told or touched upon the story of the Huguenots in Florida; but they - all draw their information from one or more of the sources named above. - </p> - <p> - Lettres et Papiers d' Estat du Sieur de Forguevaulx (Bibliotheque - Nationale). These include the correspondence of the French and Spanish - courts concerning the massacre of the Huguenots. They are printed by - Gaffarel in his Histoire de le Floride Francaise. - </p> - <p> - The Spanish authorities are the following—Barcia (Cardenas y Cano), - Ensayo Cronologico para la Historia General de la Florida (Madrid, 1723). - This annalist had access to original documents of great interest. Some of - them are used as material for his narrative, others are copied entire. Of - these, the most remarkable is that of Solis de las Meras, Memorial de - todas las Jornadas de la Conquista de la Florida. - </p> - <p> - Francisco Lopez de Mendoza Grajales, Relacion de la Jornada de Pedro - Menendez de Aviles en la Florida (Documentos Ineditos del Archivo de - Indias, III. 441). A French translation of this journal will be found in - the Recueil de Pieces sur let Floride of Ternaux-Compans. Mendoza was - chaplain of the expedition commanded by Menendez de Aviles, and, like - Solfs, he was an eye-witness of the events which he relates. - </p> - <p> - Pedro Menendez de Aviles, Siete Cartas escritas al Rey, Anos de 1565 y - 1566, MSS. These are the despatches of the Adelantado Menendez to Philip - the Second. They were procured for the writer, together with other - documents, from the archives of Seville, and their contents are now for - the first time made public. They consist of seventy-two closely written - foolscap pages, and are of the highest interest and value as regards the - present subject, confirming and amplifying the statements of Solis and - Mendoza, and giving new and curious information with respect to the - designs of Spain upon the continent of North America. - </p> - <p> - It is unnecessary to specify the authorities for the introductory and - subordinate portions of the narrative. - </p> - <p> - The writer is indebted to Mr. Buckingham Smith, for procuring copies of - documents from the archives of Spain; to Mr. Bancroft, the historian of - the United States, for the use of the Vicomte de Gourgues's copy of the - journal describing the expedition of his ancestor against the Spaniards; - and to Mr. Charles Russell Lowell, of the Boston Athenaeum, and Mr. John - Langdon Sibley, Librarian of Harvard College, for obliging aid in - consulting books and papers. - </p> - <p> - <a name="link2H_4_0004" id="link2H_4_0004"> - <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> - </p> - <div style="height: 4em;"> - <br /><br /><br /><br /> - </div> - <h2> - HUGUENOTS IN FLORIDA. - </h2> - <p> - <a name="link2HCH0001" id="link2HCH0001"> - <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> - </p> - <div style="height: 4em;"> - <br /><br /><br /><br /> - </div> - <h2> - CHAPTER I. - </h2> - <h3> - 1512-1561. - </h3> - <p> - EARLY SPANISH ADVENTURE. - </p> - <p> - Towards the close of the fifteenth century, Spain achieved her final - triumph over the infidels of Granada, and made her name glorious through - all generations by the discovery of America. The religious zeal and - romantic daring which a long course of Moorish wars had called forth were - now exalted to redoubled fervor. Every ship from the New World came - freighted with marvels which put the fictions of chivalry to shame; and to - the Spaniard of that day America was a region of wonder and mystery, of - vague and magnificent promise. Thither adventurers hastened, thirsting for - glory and for gold, and often mingling the enthusiasm of the crusader and - the valor of the knight-errant with the bigotry of inquisitors and the - rapacity of pirates. They roamed over land and sea; they climbed unknown - mountains, surveyed unknown oceans, pierced the sultry intricacies of - tropical forests; while from year to year and from day to day new wonders - were unfolded, new islands and archipelagoes, new regions of gold and - pearl, and barbaric empires of more than Oriental wealth. The extravagance - of hope and the fever of adventure knew no bounds. Nor is it surprising - that amid such waking marvels the imagination should run wild in romantic - dreams; that between the possible and the impossible the line of - distinction should be but faintly drawn, and that men should be found - ready to stake life and honor in pursuit of the most insane fantasies. - </p> - <p> - Such a man was the veteran cavalier Juan Ponce de Leon. Greedy of honors - and of riches, he embarked at Porto Rico with three brigantines, bent on - schemes of discovery. But that which gave the chief stimulus to his - enterprise was a story, current among the Indians of Cuba and Hispaniola, - that on the island of Bimini, said to be one of the Bahamas, there was a - fountain of such virtue, that, bathing in its waters, old men resumed - their youth. <a href="#linknote-1" name="linknoteref-1" id="linknoteref-1">1</a> - It was said, moreover, that on a neighboring shore might be found a river - gifted with the same beneficent property, and believed by some to be no - other than the Jordan. <a href="#linknote-2" name="linknoteref-2" - id="linknoteref-2">2</a> Ponce de Leon found the island of Bimini, but not - the fountain. Farther westward, in the latitude of thirty degrees and - eight minutes, he approached an unknown land, which he named Florida, and, - steering southward, explored its coast as far as the extreme point of the - peninsula, when, after some farther explorations, he retraced his course - to Porto Rico. - </p> - <p> - Ponce de Leon had not regained his youth, but his active spirit was - unsubdued. - </p> - <p> - Nine years later he attempted to plant a colony in Florida; the Indians - attacked him fiercely; he was mortally wounded, and died soon afterwards - in Cuba. <a href="#linknote-3" name="linknoteref-3" id="linknoteref-3">3</a> - </p> - <p> - The voyages of Garay and Vasquez de Ayllon threw new light on the - discoveries of Ponce, and the general outline of the coasts of Florida - became known to the Spaniards. <a href="#linknote-4" name="linknoteref-4" - id="linknoteref-4">4</a> Meanwhile, Cortes had conquered Mexico, and the - fame of that iniquitous but magnificent exploit rang through all Spain. - Many an impatient cavalier burned to achieve a kindred fortune. To the - excited fancy of the Spaniards the unknown land of Florida seemed the seat - of surpassing wealth, and Pamphilo de Narvaez essayed to possess himself - of its fancied treasures. Landing on its shores, and proclaiming - destruction to the Indians unless they acknowledged the sovereignty of the - Pope and the Emperor, he advanced into the forests with three hundred men. - Nothing could exceed their sufferings. Nowhere could they find the gold - they came to seek. The village of Appalache, where they hoped to gain a - rich booty, offered nothing but a few mean wigwams. The horses gave out, - and the famished soldiers fed upon their flesh. The men sickened, and the - Indians unceasingly harassed their march. At length, after two hundred and - eighty leagues <a href="#linknote-5" name="linknoteref-5" - id="linknoteref-5">5</a> of wandering, they found themselves on the - northern shore of the Gulf of Mexico, and desperately put to sea in such - crazy boats as their skill and means could construct. Cold, disease, - famine, thirst, and the fury of the waves, melted them away. Narvaez - himself perished, and of his wretched followers no more than four escaped, - reaching by land, after years of vicissitude, the Christian settlements of - New Spain. <a href="#linknote-6" name="linknoteref-6" id="linknoteref-6">6</a> - </p> - <p> - The interior of the vast country then comprehended under the name of - Florida still remained unexplored. The Spanish voyager, as his caravel - ploughed the adjacent seas, might give full scope to his imagination, and - dream that beyond the long, low margin of forest which bounded his horizon - lay hid a rich harvest for some future conqueror; perhaps a second Mexico - with its royal palace and sacred pyramids, or another Cuzco with its - temple of the Sun, encircled with a frieze of gold. Haunted by such - visions, the ocean chivalry of Spain could not long stand idle. - </p> - <p> - Hernando de Soto was the companion of Pizarro in the conquest of Peru. He - had come to America a needy adventurer, with no other fortune than his - sword and target. But his exploits had given him fame and fortune, and he - appeared at court with the retinue of a nobleman. <a href="#linknote-7" - name="linknoteref-7" id="linknoteref-7">7</a> Still, his active energies - could not endure repose, and his avarice and ambition goaded him to fresh - enterprises. He asked and obtained permission to conquer Florida. While - this design was in agitation, Cabeca de Vaca, one of those who had - survived the expedition of Narvaez, appeared in Spain, and for purposes of - his own spread abroad the mischievous falsehood, that Florida was the - richest country yet discovered. De Soto's plans were embraced with - enthusiasm. Nobles and gentlemen contended for the privilege of joining - his standard; and, setting sail with an ample armament, he landed at the - bay of Espiritu Santo, now Tampa Bay, in Florida, with six hundred and - twenty chosen men, a band as gallant and well appointed, as eager in - purpose and audacious in hope, as ever trod the shores of the New World. - The clangor of trumpets, the neighing of horses, the fluttering of - pennons, the glittering of helmet and lance, startled the ancient forest - with unwonted greeting. Amid this pomp of chivalry, religion was not - forgotten. The sacred vessels and vestments with bread and wine for the - Eucharist were carefully provided; and De Soto himself declared that the - enterprise was undertaken for God alone, and seemed to be the object of - His especial care. These devout marauders could not neglect the spiritual - welfare of the Indians whom they had come to plunder; and besides fetters - to bind, and bloodhounds to hunt them, they brought priests and monks for - the saving of their souls. - </p> - <p> - The adventurers began their march. Their story has been often told. For - month after month and year after year, the procession of priests and - cavaliers, crossbowmen, arquebusiers, and Indian captives laden with the - baggage, still wandered on through wild and boundless wastes, lured hither - and thither by the ignis fatuus of their hopes. They traversed great - portions of Georgia, Alabama, and Mississippi, everywhere inflicting and - enduring misery, but never approaching their phantom El Dorado. At length, - in the third year of their journeying, they reached the banks of the - Mississippi, a hundred and thirty-two years before its second discovery by - Marquette. One of their number describes the great river as almost half a - league wide, deep, rapid, and constantly rolling down trees and drift-wood - on its turbid current. - </p> - <p> - The Spaniards crossed over at a point above the mouth of the Arkansas. - They advanced westward, but found no treasures,—nothing indeed but - hardships, and an Indian enemy, furious, writes one of their officers, "as - mad dogs." They heard of a country towards the north where maize could not - be cultivated because the vast herds of wild cattle devoured it. They - penetrated so far that they entered the range of the roving prairie - tribes; for, one day, as they pushed their way with difficulty across - great plains covered with tall, rank grass, they met a band of savages who - dwelt in lodges of skins sewed together, subsisting on game alone, and - wandering perpetually from place to place. Finding neither gold nor the - South Sea, for both of which they had hoped, they returned to the banks of - the Mississippi. - </p> - <p> - De Soto, says one of those who accompanied him, was a "stern man, and of - few words." Even in the midst of reverses, his will had been law to his - followers, and he had sustained himself through the depths of - disappointment with the energy of a stubborn pride. But his hour was come. - He fell into deep dejection, followed by an attack of fever, and soon - after died miserably. To preserve his body from the Indians, his followers - sank it at midnight in the river, and the sullen waters of the Mississippi - buried his ambition and his hopes. - </p> - <p> - The adventurers were now, with few exceptions, disgusted with the - enterprise, and longed only to escape from the scene of their miseries. - After a vain attempt to reach Mexico by land, they again turned back to - the Mississippi, and labored, with all the resources which their desperate - necessity could suggest, to construct vessels in which they might make - their way to some Christian settlement. Their condition was most forlorn. - Few of their horses remained alive; their baggage had been destroyed at - the burning of the Indian town of Mavila, and many of the soldiers were - without armor and without weapons. In place of the gallant array which, - more than three years before, had left the harbor of Espiritu Santo, a - company of sickly and starving men were laboring among the swampy forests - of the Mississippi, some clad in skins, and some in mats woven from a kind - of wild vine. - </p> - <p> - Seven brigantines were finished and launched; and, trusting their lives on - board these frail vessels, they descended the Mississippi, running the - gantlet between hostile tribes, who fiercely attacked them. Reaching the - Gulf, though not without the loss of eleven of their number, they made - sail for the Spanish settlement on the river Panuco, where they arrived - safely, and where the inhabitants met them with a cordial welcome. Three - hundred and eleven men thus escaped with life, leaving behind them the - bones of their comrades strewn broadcast through the wilderness. - </p> - <p> - De Soto's fate proved an insufficient warning, for those were still found - who begged a fresh commission for the conquest of Florida; but the Emperor - would not hear them. A more pacific enterprise was undertaken by Cancello, - a Dominican monk, who with several brother ecclesiastics undertook to - convert the natives to the true faith, but was murdered in the attempt. - Nine years later, a plan was formed for the colonization of Florida, and - Guido de las Bazares sailed to explore the coasts, and find a spot - suitable for the establishment. <a href="#linknote-8" name="linknoteref-8" - id="linknoteref-8">8</a> After his return, a squadron, commanded by Angel - de Villafane, and freighted with supplies and men, put to sea from San - Juan d'Ulloa; but the elements were adverse, and the result was a total - failure. Not a Spaniard had yet gained foothold in Florida. - </p> - <p> - That name, as the Spaniards of that day understood it, comprehended the - whole country extending from the Atlantic on the east to the longitude of - New Mexico on the west, and from the Gulf of Mexico and the River of Palms - indefinitely northward towards the polar sea. This vast territory was - claimed by Spain in right of the discoveries of Columbus, the grant of the - Pope, and the various expeditions mentioned above. England claimed it in - right of the discoveries of Cabot; while France could advance no better - title than might be derived from the voyage of Verazzano and vague - traditions of earlier visits of Breton adventurers. - </p> - <p> - With restless jealousy Spain watched the domain which she could not - occupy, and on France especially she kept an eye of deep distrust. When, - in 1541, Cartier and Roberval essayed to plant a colony in the part of - ancient Spanish Florida now called Canada, she sent spies and fitted out - caravels to watch that abortive enterprise. Her fears proved just. Canada, - indeed, was long to remain a solitude; but, despite the Papal bounty - gifting Spain with exclusive ownership of a hemisphere, France and Heresy - at length took root in the sultry forests of modern Florida. - </p> - <p> - <a name="link2HCH0002" id="link2HCH0002"> - <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> - </p> - <div style="height: 4em;"> - <br /><br /><br /><br /> - </div> - <h2> - CHAPTER II - </h2> - <h3> - 1550-1558. - </h3> - <p> - VILLEGAGNON. - </p> - <p> - In the middle of the sixteenth century, Spain was the incubus of Europe. - Gloomy and portentous, she chilled the world with her baneful shadow. Her - old feudal liberties were gone, absorbed in the despotism of Madrid. A - tyranny of monks and inquisitors, with their swarms of spies and - informers, their racks, their dungeons, and their fagots, crushed all - freedom of thought or speech; and, while the Dominican held his reign of - terror and force, the deeper Jesuit guided the mind from infancy into - those narrow depths of bigotry from which it was never to escape. - Commercial despotism was joined to political and religious despotism. The - hands of the government were on every branch of industry. Perverse - regulations, uncertain and ruinous taxes, monopolies, encouragements, - prohibitions, restrictions, cramped the national energy. Mistress of the - Indies, Spain swarmed with beggars. Yet, verging to decay, she had an - ominous and appalling strength. Her condition was that of an athletic man - penetrated with disease, which had not yet unstrung the thews and sinews - formed in his days of vigor. Philip the Second could command the service - of warriors and statesmen developed in the years that were past. The - gathered energies of ruined feudalism were wielded by a single hand. The - mysterious King, in his den in the Escorial, dreary and silent, and bent - like a scribe over his papers, was the type and the champion of arbitrary - power. More than the Pope himself, he was the head of Catholicity. In - doctrine and in deed, the inexorable bigotry of Madrid was ever in advance - of Rome. - </p> - <p> - Not so with France. She was full of life,—a discordant and - struggling vitality. Her monks and priests, unlike those of Spain, were - rarely either fanatics or bigots; yet not the less did they ply the rack - and the fagot, and howl for heretic blood. Their all was at stake: their - vast power, their bloated wealth, were wrapped up in the ancient faith. - Men were burned, and women buried alive. All was in vain. To the utmost - bounds of France, the leaven of the Reform was working. The Huguenots, - fugitives from torture and death, found an asylum at Geneva, their city of - refuge, gathering around Calvin, their great high-priest. Thence intrepid - colporteurs, their lives in their hands, bore the Bible and the psalm-book - to city, hamlet, and castle, to feed the rising flame. The scattered - churches, pressed by a common danger, began to organize. An ecclesiastical - republic spread its ramifications through France, and grew underground to - a vigorous life,—pacific at the outset, for the great body of its - members were the quiet bourgeoisie, by habit, as by faith, averse to - violence. Yet a potent fraction of the warlike noblesse were also of the - new faith; and above them all, preeminent in character as in station, - stood Gaspar de Coligny, Admiral of France. - </p> - <p> - The old palace of the Louvre, reared by the "Roi Chevalier" on the site of - those dreary feudal towers which of old had guarded the banks of the - Seine, held within its sculptured masonry the worthless brood of Valois. - Corruption and intrigue ran riot at the court. Factious nobles, bishops, - and cardinals, with no God but pleasure and ambition, contended around the - throne or the sick-bed of the futile King. Catherine de Medicis, with her - stately form, her mean spirit, her bad heart, and her fathomless depths of - duplicity, strove by every subtle art to hold the balance of power among - them. The bold, pitiless, insatiable Guise, and his brother the Cardinal - of Lorraine, the incarnation of falsehood, rested their ambition on the - Catholic party. Their army was a legion of priests, and the black swarms - of countless monasteries, who by the distribution of alms held in pay the - rabble of cities and starving peasants on the lands of impoverished - nobles. Montmorency, Conde, and Navarre leaned towards the Reform,—doubtful - and inconstant chiefs, whose faith weighed light against their interests. - Yet, amid vacillation, selfishness, weakness, treachery, one great man was - like a tower of trust, and this was Gaspar de Coligny. - </p> - <p> - Firm in his convictions, steeled by perils and endurance, calm, sagacious, - resolute, grave even to severity, a valiant and redoubted soldier, Coligny - looked abroad on the gathering storm and read its danger in advance. He - saw a strange depravity of manners; bribery and violence overriding - justice; discontented nobles, and peasants ground down with taxes. In the - midst of this rottenness, the Calvinistic churches, patient and stern, - were fast gathering to themselves the better life of the nation. Among and - around them tossed the surges of clerical hate. Luxurious priests and - libertine monks saw their disorders rebuked by the grave virtues of the - Protestant zealots. Their broad lands, their rich endowments, their - vessels of silver and of gold, their dominion over souls,—in itself - a revenue,—were all imperiled by the growing heresy. Nor was the - Reform less exacting, less intolerant, or, when its hour came, less - aggressive than the ancient faith. The storm was thickening, and it must - burst soon. - </p> - <p> - When the Emperor Charles the Fifth beleaguered Algiers, his camps were - deluged by a blinding tempest, and at its height the infidels made a - furious sally. A hundred Knights of Malta, on foot, wearing over their - armor surcoats of crimson blazoned with the white cross, bore the brunt of - the assault. Conspicuous among them was Nicolas Durand de Villegagnon. A - Moorish cavalier, rushing upon him, pierced his arm with a lance, and - wheeled to repeat the blow; but the knight leaped on the infidel, stabbed - him with his dagger, flung him from his horse, and mounted in his place. - Again, a Moslem host landed in Malta and beset the Cite Notable. The - garrison was weak, disheartened, and without a leader. Villegagnon with - six followers, all friends of his own, passed under cover of night through - the infidel leaguer, climbed the walls by ropes lowered from above, took - command, repaired the shattered towers, aiding with his own hands in the - work, and animated the garrison to a resistance so stubborn that the - besiegers lost heart and betook themselves to their galleys. No less was - he an able and accomplished mariner, prominent among that chivalry of the - sea who held the perilous verge of Christendom against the Mussuhuan. He - claimed other laurels than those of the sword. He was a scholar, a - linguist, a controversialist, potent with the tongue and with the pen, - commanding in presence, eloquent and persuasive in discourse. Yet this - Crichton of France had proved himself an associate nowise desirable. His - sleepless intellect was matched with a spirit as restless, vain, unstable, - and ambitious, as it was enterprising and bold. Addicted to dissent, and - enamoured of polemics, he entered those forbidden fields of inquiry and - controversy to which the Reform invited him. Undaunted by his monastic - vows, he battled for heresy with tongue and pen, and in the ear of - Protestants professed himself a Protestant. As a Commander of his Order, - he quarreled with the Grand Master, a domineering Spaniard; and, as - Vice-Admiral of Brittany, he was deep in a feud with the Governor of - Brest. Disgusted at home, his fancy crossed the seas. He aspired to build - for France and himself an empire amid the tropical splendors of Brazil. - Few could match him in the gift of persuasion; and the intrepid seamen - whose skill and valor had run the gantlet of the English fleet, and borne - Mary Stuart of Scotland in safety to her espousals with the Dauphin, might - well be intrusted with a charge of moment so far inferior. Henry the - Second was still on the throne. The lance of Montgomery had not yet rid - France of that infliction. To win a share in the rich domain of the New - World, of which Portuguese and Spanish arrogance claimed the monopoly, was - the end held by Villegagnon before the eyes of the King. Of the Huguenots, - he said not a word. For Coligny he had another language. He spoke of an - asylum for persecuted religion, a Geneva in the wilderness, far from - priests and monks and Francis of Guise. The Admiral gave him a ready ear; - if, indeed, he himself had not first conceived the plan. Yet to the King, - an active burner of Huguenots, Coligny too urged it as an enterprise, not - for the Faith, but for France. In secret, Geneva was made privy to it, and - Calvin himself embraced it with zeal. The enterprise, in fact, had a - double character, political as well as religious. It was the reply of - France, the most emphatic she had yet made, to the Papal bull which gave - all the western hemisphere to Portugal and Spain; and, as if to point her - answer, she sent, not Frenchmen only, but Protestant Frenchmen, to plant - the fleur-de-lis on the shores of the New World. - </p> - <p> - Two vessels were made ready, in the name of the King. The body of the - emigration was Huguenot, mingled with young nobles, restless, idle, and - poor, with reckless artisans, and piratical sailors from the Norman and - Breton seaports. They put to sea from Havre on the twelfth of July, 1555, - and early in November saw the shores of Brazil. Entering the harbor of Rio - Janeiro, then called Ganabara, Villegagnon landed men and stores on an - island, built huts, and threw up earthworks. In anticipation of future - triumphs, the whole continent, by a strange perversion of language, was - called Antarctic France, while the fort received the name of Coligny. - </p> - <p> - Villegagnon signalized his new-born Protestantism by an intolerable - solicitude for the manners and morals of his followers. The whip and the - pillory requited the least offence. The wild and discordant crew, starved - and flogged for a season into submission, conspired at length to rid - themselves of him; but while they debated whether to poison him, blow him - up, or murder him and his officers in their sleep, three Scotch soldiers, - probably Calvinists, revealed the plot, and the vigorous hand of the - commandant crushed it in the bud. - </p> - <p> - But how was the colony to subsist? Their island was too small for culture, - while the mainland was infested with hostile tribes, and threatened by the - Portuguese, who regarded the French occupancy as a violation of their - domain. - </p> - <p> - Meanwhile, in France, Huguenot influence, aided by ardent letters sent - home by Villegagnon in the returning ships, was urging on the work. Nor - were the Catholic chiefs averse to an enterprise which, by colonizing - heresy, might tend to relieve France of its presence. Another embarkation - was prepared, in the name of Henry the Second, under Bois-Lecomte, a - nephew of Villegagnon. Most of the emigrants were Huguenots. Geneva sent a - large deputation, and among them several ministers, full of zeal for their - land of promise and their new church in the wilderness. There were five - young women, also, with a matron to watch over them. Soldiers, emigrants, - and sailors, two hundred and ninety in all, were embarked in three - vessels; and, to the sound of cannon, drums, fifes, and trumpets, they - unfurled their sails at Honfleur. They were no sooner on the high seas - than the piratical character of the Norman sailors, in no way exceptional - at that day, began to declare itself. They hailed every vessel weaker than - themselves, pretended to be short of provisions, and demanded leave to buy - them; then, boarding the stranger, plundered her from stem to stern. After - a passage of four months, on the ninth of March, 1557, they entered the - port of Ganabara, and saw the fleur-de-lis floating above the walls of - Fort Coligny. Amid salutes of cannon, the boats, crowded with sea-worn - emigrants, moved towards the landing. It was an edifying scene when - Villegagnon, in the picturesque attire which marked the warlike nobles of - the period, came down to the shore to greet the sombre ministers of - Calvin. With hands uplifted and eyes raised to heaven, he bade them - welcome to the new asylum of the faithful; then launched into a long - harangue full of zeal and unction. His discourse finished, he led the way - to the dining-hall. If the redundancy of spiritual aliment had surpassed - their expectations, the ministers were little prepared for the meagre - provision which awaited their temporal cravings; for, with appetites - whetted by the sea, they found themselves seated at a board whereof, as - one of them complains the choicest dish was a dried fish, and the only - beverage rain-water. They found their consolation in the inward graces of - the commandant, whom they likened to the Apostle Paul. - </p> - <p> - For a time all was ardor and hope. Men of birth and station, and the - ministers themselves, labored with pick and shovel to finish the fort. - Every day exhortations, sermons, prayers, followed in close succession, - and Villegagnon was always present, kneeling on a velvet cushion brought - after him by a page. Soon, however, he fell into sharp controversy with - the ministers upon points of faith. Among the emigrants was a student of - the Sorbonne, one Cointac, between whom and the ministers arose a fierce - and unintermitted war of words. Is it lawful to mix water with the wine of - the Eucharist? May the sacramental bread be made of meal of Indian corn? - These and similar points of dispute filled the fort with wranglings, - begetting cliques, factions, and feuds without number. Villegagnon took - part with the student, and between them they devised a new doctrine, - abhorrent alike to Geneva and to Rome. The advent of this nondescript - heresy was the signal of redoubled strife. The dogmatic stiffness of the - Geneva ministers chafed Villegagnon to fury. He felt himself, too, in a - false position. On one side he depended on the Protestant, Coligny; on the - other, he feared the Court. There were Catholics in the colony who might - report him as an open heretic. On this point his doubts were set at rest; - for a ship from France brought him a letter from the Cardinal of Lorraine, - couched, it is said, in terms which restored him forthwith to the bosom of - the Church. Villegagnon now affirmed that he had been deceived in Calvin, - and pronounced him a "frightful heretic." He became despotic beyond - measure, and would bear no opposition. The ministers, reduced nearly to - starvation, found themselves under a tyranny worse than that from which - they had fled. - </p> - <p> - At length he drove them from the fort, and forced them to bivouac on the - mainland, at the risk of being butchered by Indians, until a vessel - loading with Brazil-wood in the harbor should be ready to carry them back - to France. Having rid himself of the ministers, he caused three of the - more zealous Calvinists to be seized, dragged to the edge of a rock, and - thrown into the sea. A fourth, equally obnoxious, but who, being a tailor, - could ill be spared, was permitted to live on condition of recantation. - Then, mustering the colonists, he warned them to shun the heresies of - Luther and Calvin; threatened that all who openly professed those - detestable doctrines should share the fate of their three comrades; and, - his harangue over, feasted the whole assembly, in token, says the - narrator, of joy and triumph. - </p> - <p> - Meanwhile, in their crazy vessel, the banished ministers drifted slowly on - their way. Storms fell upon them, their provisions failed, their - water-casks were empty, and, tossing in the wilderness of waves, or - rocking on the long swells of subsiding gales, they sank almost to - despair. In their famine they chewed the Brazil-wood with which the vessel - was laden, devoured every scrap of leather, singed and ate the horn of - lanterns, hunted rats through the hold, and sold them to each other at - enormous prices. At length, stretched on the deck, sick, listless, - attenuated, and scarcely able to move a limb, they descried across the - waste of sea the faint, cloud-like line that marked the coast of Brittany. - Their perils were not past; for, if we may believe one of them, Jean de - Lery, they bore a sealed letter from Villegagnon to the magistrates of the - first French port at which they might arrive. It denounced them as - heretics, worthy to be burned. Happily, the magistrates leaned to the - Reform, and the malice of the commandant failed of its victims. - </p> - <p> - Villegagnon himself soon sailed for France, leaving the wretched colony to - its fate. He presently entered the lists against Calvin, and engaged him - in a hot controversial war, in which, according to some of his - contemporaries, the knight often worsted the theologian at his own - weapons. Before the year 1558 was closed, Ganabara fell a prey to the - Portuguese. They set upon it in force, battered down the fort, and slew - the feeble garrison, or drove them to a miserable refuge among the - Indians. Spain and Portugal made good their claim to the vast domain, the - mighty vegetation, and undeveloped riches of "Antarctic France." - </p> - <p> - <a name="link2HCH0003" id="link2HCH0003"> - <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> - </p> - <div style="height: 4em;"> - <br /><br /><br /><br /> - </div> - <h2> - CHAPTER III. - </h2> - <h3> - 1562, 1563. - </h3> - <p> - JEAN RIBAUT. - </p> - <p> - In the year 1562 a cloud of black and deadly portent was thickening over - France. Surely and swiftly she glided towards the abyss of the religious - wars. None could pierce the future, perhaps none dared to contemplate it: - the wild rage of fanaticism and hate, friend grappling with friend, - brother with brother, father with son; altars profaned, hearth-stones made - desolate, the robes of Justice herself bedrenched with murder. In the - gloom without lay Spain, imminent and terrible. As on the hill by the - field of Dreux, her veteran bands of pikemen, dark masses of organized - ferocity, stood biding their time while the battle surged below, and then - swept downward to the slaughter,—so did Spain watch and wait to - trample and crush the hope of humanity. - </p> - <p> - In these days of fear, a second Huguenot colony sailed for the New World. - The calm, stern man who represented and led the Protestantism of France - felt to his inmost heart the peril of the time. He would fain build up a - city of refuge for the persecuted sect. Yet Gaspar de Coligny, too high in - power and rank to be openly assailed, was forced to act with caution. He - must act, too, in the name of the Crown, and in virtue of his office of - Admiral of France. A nobleman and a soldier,—for the Admiral of - France was no seaman,—he shared the ideas and habits of his class; - nor is there reason to believe him to have been in advance of his time in - a knowledge of the principles of successful colonization. His scheme - promised a military colony, not a free commonwealth. The Huguenot party - was already a political as well as a religious party. At its foundation - lay the religious element, represented by Geneva, the martyrs, and the - devoted fugitives who sang the psalms of Marot among rocks and caverns. - Joined to these were numbers on whom the faith sat lightly, whose hope was - in commotion and change. Of the latter, in great part, was the Huguenot - noblesse, from Conde, who aspired to the crown, - </p> -<pre xml:space="preserve"> - "Ce petit homme tant joli, - Qui toujours chante, toujours rit," -</pre> - <p> - to the younger son of the impoverished seigneur whose patrimony was his - sword. More than this, the restless, the factious, and the discontented, - began to link their fortunes to a party whose triumph would involve - confiscation of the wealth of the only rich class in France. An element of - the great revolution was already mingling in the strife of religions. - </p> - <p> - America was still a land of wonder. The ancient spell still hung unbroken - over the wild, vast world of mystery beyond the sea,—a land of - romance, adventure, and gold. - </p> - <p> - Fifty-eight years later the Puritans landed on the sands of Massachusetts - Bay. The illusion was gone,—the ignis fatuus of adventure, the dream - of wealth. The rugged wilderness offered only a stern and hard won - independence. In their own hearts, and not in the promptings of a great - leader or the patronage of an equivocal government, their enterprise found - its birth and its achievement. They were of the boldest and most earnest - of their sect. There were such among the French disciples of Calvin; but - no Mayflower ever sailed from a port of France. Coligny's colonists were - of a different stamp, and widely different was their fate. - </p> - <p> - An excellent seaman and stanch Protestant, Jean Ribaut of Dieppe, - commanded the expedition. Under him, besides sailors, were a band of - veteran soldiers, and a few young nobles. Embarked in two of those - antiquated craft whose high poops and tub-like porportions are preserved - in the old engravings of De Bry, they sailed from Havre on the eighteenth - of February, 1562. They crossed the Atlantic, and on the thirtieth of - April, in the latitude of twenty-nine and a half degrees, saw the long, - low line where the wilderness of waves met the wilderness of woods. It was - the coast of Florida. They soon descried a jutting point, which they - called French Cape, perhaps one of the headlands of Matanzas Inlet. They - turned their prows northward, coasting the fringes of that waste of - verdure which rolled in shadowy undulation far to the unknown West. - </p> - <p> - On the next morning, the first of May, they found themselves off the mouth - of a great river. Riding at anchor on a sunny sea, they lowered their - boats, crossed the bar that obstructed the entrance, and floated on a - basin of deep and sheltered water, "boyling and roaring," says Ribaut, - "through the multitude of all kind of fish." Indians were running along - the beach, and out upon the sand-bars, beckoning them to land. They pushed - their boats ashore and disembarked,—sailors, soldiers, and eager - young nobles. Corselet and morion, arquebuse and halberd, flashed in the - sun that flickered through innumerable leaves, as, kneeling on the ground, - they gave thanks to God, who had guided their voyage to an issue full of - promise. The Indians, seated gravely under the neighboring trees, looked - on in silent respect, thinking that they worshipped the sun. "They be all - naked and of a goodly stature, mightie, and as well shapen and - proportioned of body as any people in ye world; and the fore part of their - body and armes be painted with pretie deuised workes, of Azure, red, and - blacke, so well and so properly as the best Painter of Europe could not - amende it." With their squaws and children, they presently drew near, and, - strewing the earth with laurel boughs, sat down among the Frenchmen. Their - visitors were much pleased with them, and Ribaut gave the chief, whom he - calls the king, a robe of blue cloth, worked in yellow with the regal - fleur-de-lis. - </p> - <p> - But Ribaut and his followers, just escaped from the dull prison of their - ships, were intent on admiring the wild scenes around them. Never had they - known a fairer May-day. The quaint old narrative is exuberant with - delight. The tranquil air, the warm sun, woods fresh with young verdure, - meadows bright with flowers; the palm, the cypress, the pine, the - magnolia; the grazing deer; herons, curlews, bitterns, woodcock, and - unknown water-fowl that waded in the ripple of the beach; cedars bearded - from crown to root with long, gray moss; huge oaks smothering in the folds - of enormous grapevines;—such were the objects that greeted them in - their roamings, till their new-discovered land seemed "the fairest, - fruitfullest, and pleasantest of al the world." - </p> - <p> - They found a tree covered with caterpillars, and hereupon the ancient - black-letter says: "Also there be Silke wormes in meruielous number, a - great deale fairer and better then be our silk wormes. To bee short, it is - a thing vnspeakable to consider the thinges that bee seene there, and - shalbe founde more and more in this incomperable lande." <a - href="#linknote-9" name="linknoteref-9" id="linknoteref-9">9</a> - </p> - <p> - Above all, it was plain to their excited fancy that the country was rich - in gold and silver, turquoises and pearls. One of these last, "as great as - an Acorne at ye least," hung from the neck of an Indian who stood near - their boats as they re-embarked. They gathered, too, from the signs of - their savage visitors, that the wonderful land of Cibola, with its seven - cities and its untold riches, was distant but twenty days' journey by - water. In truth, it was two thousand miles westward, and its wealth a - fable. - </p> - <p> - They named the river the River of May. It is now the St. John's. "And on - the next morning," says Ribault, "we returned to land againe, accompanied - with the Captaines, Gentlemen, and Souldiers, and others of our small - troope, carrying with us a Pillour or columne of harde stone, our king's - armes graved therein, to plant and set the same in the enterie of the - Porte; and being come thither we espied on the south syde of the River a - place very fitte for that purpose upon a little hill compassed with - Cypres, Bayes, Paulmes, and other trees, with sweete smelling and pleasant - shrubbes." Here they set the column, and then, again embarking, held their - course northward, happy in that benign decree which locks from mortal eyes - the secrets of the future. - </p> - <p> - Next they anchored near Fernandina, and to a neighboring river, probably - the St. Mary's, gave the name of the Seine. Here, as morning broke on the - fresh, moist meadows hung with mists, and on broad reaches of inland - waters which seemed like lakes, they were tempted to land again, and soon - "espied an innumerable number of footesteps of great Hartes and Hindes of - a wonderfull greatnesse, the steppes being all fresh and new, and it - seemeth that the people doe nourish them like tame Cattell." By two or - three weeks of exploration they seem to have gained a clear idea of this - rich semi-aquatic region. Ribaut describes it as "a countrie full of - hauens, riuers, and Ilands, of such fruitfulnes as cannot with tongue be - expressed." Slowly moving northward, they named each river, or inlet - supposed to be a river, after some stream of France,—the Loire, the - Charente, the Garonne, the Gironde. At length, opening betwixt flat and - sandy shores, they saw a commodious haven, and named it Port Royal. - </p> - <p> - On the twenty-seventh of May they crossed the bar where the war-ships of - Dupont crossed three hundred years later, passed Hilton Head, and held - their course along the peaceful bosom of Broad River. <a - href="#linknote-10" name="linknoteref-10" id="linknoteref-10">10</a> On - the left they saw a stream which they named Libourne, probably Skull - Creek; on the right, a wide river, probably the Beaufort. When they - landed, all was solitude. The frightened Indians had fled, but they lured - them back with knives, beads, and looking-glasses, and enticed two of them - on board their ships. Here, by feeding, clothing, and caressing them, they - tried to wean them from their fears, thinking to carry them to France, in - obedience to a command of Catherine de Medicis; but the captive warriors - moaned and lamented day and night, and at length made their escape. - </p> - <p> - Ranging the woods, they found them full of game, wild turkeys and - partridges, bears and lynxes. Two deer, of unusual size, leaped from the - underbrush. Cross-bow and arquebuse were brought to the level; but the - Huguenot captain, "moved with the singular fairness and bigness of them," - forbade his men to shoot. - </p> - <p> - Preliminary exploration, not immediate settlement, had been the object of - the voyage; but all was still rose-color in the eyes of the voyagers, and - many of their number would gladly linger in the New Canaan. Ribaut was - more than willing to humor them. He mustered his company on deck, and made - them a harangue. He appealed to their courage and their patriotism, told - them how, from a mean origin, men rise by enterprise and daring to fame - and fortune, and demanded who among them would stay behind and hold Port - Royal for the King. The greater part came forward, and "with such a good - will and joly corage," writes the commander, "as we had much to do to stay - their importunitie." Thirty were chosen, and Albert de Pierria was named - to command them. - </p> - <p> - A fort was begun on a small stream called the Chenonceau, probably - Archer's Creek, about six miles from the site of Beaufort. <a - href="#linknote-11" name="linknoteref-11" id="linknoteref-11">11</a> They - named it Charlesfort, in honor of the unhappy son of Catherine de Medicis, - Charles the Ninth, the future hero of St. Bartholomew. Ammunition and - stores were sent on shore, and on the eleventh of June, with his - diminished company, Ribaut again embarked and spread his sails for France. - </p> - <p> - From the beach at Hilton Head, Albert and his companions might watch the - receding ships, growing less and less on the vast expanse of blue, - dwindling to faint specks, then vanishing on the pale verge of the waters. - They were alone in those fearful solitudes. From the north pole to Mexico - there was no Christian denizen but they. - </p> - <p> - The pressing question was how they were to subsist. Their thought was not - of subsistence, but of gold. Of the thirty, the greater number were - soldiers and sailors, with a few gentlemen; that is to say, men of the - sword, born within the pale of nobility, who at home could neither labor - nor trade without derogation from their rank. For a time they busied - themselves with finishing their fort, and, this done, set forth in quest - of adventures. - </p> - <p> - The Indians had lost fear of them. Ribaut had enjoined upon them to use - all kindness and gentleness in their dealing with the men of the woods; - and they more than obeyed him. They were soon hand and glove with chiefs, - warriors, and squaws; and as with Indians the adage that familiarity - breeds contempt holds with peculiar force, they quickly divested - themselves of the prestige which had attached at the outset to their - supposed character of children of the Sun. Good-will, however, remained, - and this the colonists abused to the utmost. - </p> - <p> - Roaming by river, swamp, and forest, they visited in turn the villages of - five petty chiefs, whom they called kings, feasting everywhere on hominy, - beans, and game, and loaded with gifts. One of these chiefs, named - Audusta, invited them to the grand religious festival of his tribe. When - they arrived, they found the village alive with preparation, and troops of - women busied in sweeping the great circular area where the ceremonies were - to take place. But as the noisy and impertinent guests showed a - disposition to undue merriment, the chief shut them all in his wigwam, - lest their Gentile eyes should profane the mysteries. Here, immured in - darkness, they listened to the howls, yelpings, and lugubrious songs that - resounded from without. One of them, however, by some artifice, contrived - to escape, hid behind a bush, and saw the whole solemnity,—the - procession of the medicinemen and the bedaubed and befeathered warriors; - the drumming, dancing, and stamping; the wild lamentation of the women as - they gashed the arms of the young girls with sharp mussel-shells, and - flung the blood into the air with dismal outcries. A scene of ravenous - feasting followed, in which the French, released from durance, were - summoned to share. - </p> - <p> - After the carousal they returned to Charlesfort, where they were soon - pinched with hunger. The Indians, never niggardly of food, brought them - supplies as long as their own lasted; but the harvest was not yet ripe, - and their means did not match their good-will. They told the French of two - other kings, Ouade and Couexis, who dwelt towards the south, and were rich - beyond belief in maize, beans, and squashes. The mendicant colonists - embarked without delay, and, with an Indian guide, steered for the wigwams - of these potentates, not by the open sea, but by a perplexing inland - navigation, including, as it seems, Calibogue Sound and neighboring - waters. Reaching the friendly villages, on or near the Savannah, they were - feasted to repletion, and their boat was laden with vegetables and corn. - They returned rejoicing; but their joy was short. Their store-house at - Charlesfort, taking fire in the night, burned to the ground, and with it - their newly acquired stock. - </p> - <p> - Once more they set out for the realms of King Ouade, and once more - returned laden with supplies. Nay, the generous savage assured them that, - so long as his cornfields yielded their harvests, his friends should not - want. - </p> - <p> - How long this friendship would have lasted may well be doubted. With the - perception that the dependants on their bounty were no demigods, but a - crew of idle and helpless beggars, respect would soon have changed to - contempt, and contempt to ill-will. But it was not to Indian war-clubs - that the infant colony was to owe its ruin. It carried within itself its - own destruction. The ill-assorted band of lands-men and sailors, - surrounded by that influence of the wilderness which wakens the dormant - savage in the breasts of men, soon fell into quarrels. Albert, a rude - soldier, with a thousand leagues of ocean betwixt him and responsibility, - grew harsh, domineering, and violent beyond endurance. None could question - or oppose him without peril of death. He hanged with his own hands a - drummer who had fallen under his displeasure, and banished a soldier, - named La Chore, to a solitary island, three leagues from the fort, where - he left him to starve. For a time his comrades chafed in smothered fury. - The crisis came at length. A few of the fiercer spirits leagued together, - assailed their tyrant, murdered him, delivered the famished soldier, and - called to the command one Nicolas Barre, a man of merit. Barre took the - command, and thenceforth there was peace. - </p> - <p> - Peace, such as it was, with famine, homesickness, and disgust. The rough - ramparts and rude buildings of Charlesfort, hatefully familiar to their - weary eyes, the sweltering forest, the glassy river, the eternal silence - of the lifeless wilds around them, oppressed the senses and the spirits. - They dreamed of ease, of home, of pleasures across the sea, of the evening - cup on the bench before the cabaret, and dances with kind wenches of - Dieppe. But how to escape? A continent was their solitary prison, and the - pitiless Atlantic shut them in. Not one of them knew how to build a ship; - but Ribaut had left them a forge, with tools and iron, and strong desire - supplied the place of skill. Trees were hewn down and the work begun. Had - they put forth to maintain themselves at Port Royal the energy and - resource which they exerted to escape from it, they might have laid the - cornerstone of a solid colony. - </p> - <p> - All, gentle and simple, labored with equal zeal. They calked the seams - with the long moss which hung in profusion from the neighboring trees; the - pines supplied them with pitch; the Indians made for them a kind of - cordage; and for sails they sewed together their shirts and bedding. At - length a brigantine worthy of Robinson Crusoe floated on the waters of the - Chenonceau. They laid in what provision they could, gave all that remained - of their goods to the Indians, embarked, descended the river, and put to - sea. A fair wind filled their patchwork sails and bore them from the hated - coast. Day after day they held their course, till at length the breeze - died away and a breathless calm fell on the waters. Florida was far - behind; France farther yet before. - </p> - <p> - Floating idly on the glassy waste, the craft lay motionless. Their - supplies gave out. Twelve kernels of maize a day were each man's portion; - then the maize failed, and they ate their shoes and leather jerkins. The - water-barrels were drained, and they tried to slake their thirst with - brine. Several died, and the rest, giddy with exhaustion and crazed with - thirst, were forced to ceaseless labor, bailing out the water that gushed - through every seam. Head-winds set in, increasing to a gale, and the - wretched brigantine, with sails close-reefed, tossed among the savage - billows at the mercy of the storm. A heavy sea rolled down upon her, and - burst the bulwarks on the windward side. The surges broke over her, and, - clinging with desperate grip to spars and cordage, the drenched voyagers - gave up all for lost. At length she righted. The gale subsided, the wind - changed, and the crazy, water-logged vessel again bore slowly towards - France. - </p> - <p> - Gnawed with famine, they counted the leagues of barren ocean that still - stretched before, and gazed on each other with haggard wolfish eyes, till - a whisper passed from man to man that one, by his death, might ransom all - the rest. The lot was cast, and it fell on La Chore, the same wretched man - whom Albert had doomed to starvation on a lonely island. They killed him, - and with ravenous avidity portioned out his flesh. The hideous repast - sustained them till the land rose in sight, when, it is said, in a - delirium of joy, they could no longer steer their vessel, but let her - drift at the will of the tide. A small English bark bore down upon them, - took them all on board, and, after landing the feeblest, carried the rest - prisoners to Queen Elizabeth. <a href="#linknote-12" name="linknoteref-12" - id="linknoteref-12">12</a> - </p> - <p> - Thus closed another of those scenes of woe whose lurid clouds are thickly - piled around the stormy dawn of American history. It was the opening act - of a wild and tragic drama. - </p> - <p> - <a name="link2HCH0004" id="link2HCH0004"> - <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> - </p> - <div style="height: 4em;"> - <br /><br /><br /><br /> - </div> - <h2> - CHAPTER IV. - </h2> - <h3> - 1564. - </h3> - <p> - LAUDONNIERE. - </p> - <p> - ON the twenty-fifth of June, 1564, a French squadron anchored a second - time off the mouth of the River of May. There were three vessels, the - smallest of sixty tons, the largest of one hundred and twenty, all crowded - with men. Rene de Laudonniere held command. He was of a noble race of - Poiton, attached to the house of Chatillon, of which Coligny was the head; - pious, we are told, and an excellent marine officer. An engraving, - purporting to be his likeness, shows us a slender figure, leaning against - the mast, booted to the thigh, with slouched hat and plume, slashed - doublet, and short cloak. His thin oval face, with curled moustache and - close-trimmed beard, wears a somewhat pensive look, as if already shadowed - by the destiny that awaited him. - </p> - <p> - The intervening year since Ribaut's voyage had been a dark year for - France. From the peaceful solitude of the River of May, that voyager - returned to a land reeking with slaughter. But the carnival of bigotry and - hate had found a pause. The Peace of Amboise had been signed. The fierce - monk choked down his venom; the soldier sheathed his sword, the assassin - his dagger; rival chiefs grasped hands, and masked their rancor under - hollow smiles. The king and the queen-mother, helpless amid the storm of - factions which threatened their destruction, smiled now on Conde, now on - Guise,—gave ear to the Cardinal of Lorraine, or listened in secret - to the emissaries of Theodore Beza. Coligny was again strong at Court. He - used his opportunity, and solicited with success the means of renewing his - enterprise of colonization. - </p> - <p> - Men were mustered for the work. In name, at least, they were all Huguenots - yet now, as before, the staple of the projected colony was unsound,—soldiers, - paid out of the royal treasury, hired artisans and tradesmen, with a swarm - of volunteers from the young Huguenot nobles, whose restless swords had - rusted in their scabbards since the peace. The foundation-stone was - forgotten. There were no tillers of the soil. Such, indeed, were rare - among the Huegonots; for the dull peasants who guided the plough clung - with blind tenacity to the ancient faith. Adventurous gentlemen, reckless - soldiers, discontented tradesmen, all keen for novelty and heated with - dreams of wealth,—these were they who would build for their country - and their religion an empire beyond the sea. - </p> - <p> - On Thursday, the twenty-second of June, Laudonniere saw the low coast-line - of Florida, and entered the harbor of St. Augustine, which he named the - River of Dolphins, "because that at mine arrival I saw there a great - number of Dolphins which were playing in the mouth thereof." Then he bore - northward, following the coast till, on the twenty-fifth, he reached the - mouth of the St. John's or River of May. The vessels anchored, the boats - were lowered, and he landed with his principal followers on the south - shore, near the present village of Mayport. It was the very spot where he - had landed with Ribaut two years before. They were scarcely on shore when - they saw an Indian chief, "which having espied us cryed very far off, - Antipola! Antipola! and being so joyful that he could not containe - himselfe, he came to meet us accompanied with two of his sonnes, as faire - and mightie persons as might be found in al the world. There was in their - trayne a great number of men and women which stil made very much of us, - and by signes made us understand how glad they were of our arrival. This - good entertainment past, the Paracoussy [chief] prayed me to goe see the - pillar which we had erected in the voyage of John Ribault." The Indians, - regarding it with mysterious awe, had crowned it with evergreens, and - placed baskets full of maize before it as an offering. - </p> - <p> - The chief then took Laudonniere by the hand, telling him that he was named - Satouriona, and pointed out the extent of his dominions, far up the river - and along the adjacent coasts. One of his sons, a man "perfect in beautie, - wisedome, and honest sobrietie," then gave the French commander a wedge of - silver, and received some trifles in return, after which the voyagers went - back to their ships. "I prayse God continually," says Laudonniere, "for - the great love I have found in these savages." - </p> - <p> - In the morning the French landed again, and found their new friends on the - same spot, to the number of eighty or more, seated under a shelter of - boughs, in festal attire of smoke-tanned deer-skins, painted in many - colors. The party then rowed up the river, the Indians following them - along the shore. As they advanced, coasting the borders of a great marsh - that lay upon their left, the St. John's spread before them in vast sheets - of glistening water, almost level with its flat, sedgy shores, the haunt - of alligators, and the resort of innumerable birds. Beyond the marsh, some - five miles from the mouth of the river, they saw a ridge of high ground - abutting on the water, which, flowing beneath in a deep, strong current, - had undermined it, and left a steep front of yellowish sand. This was the - hill now called St. John's Bluff. Here they landed and entered the woods, - where Laudonniere stopped to rest while his lieutenant, Ottigny, with a - sergeant and a few soldiers, went to explore the country. - </p> - <p> - They pushed their way through the thickets till they were stopped by a - marsh choked with reeds, at the edge of which, under a great laurel-tree, - they had seated themselves to rest, overcome with the summer heat, when - five Indians suddenly appeared, peering timidly at them from among the - bushes. Some of the men went towards them with signs of friendship, on - which, taking heart, they drew near, and one of them, who was evidently a - chief, made a long speech, inviting the strangers to their dwellings. The - way was across the marsh, through which they carried the lieutenant and - two or three of the soldiers on their backs, while the rest circled by a - narrow path through the woods. When they reached the lodges, a crowd of - Indians came out "to receive our men gallantly, and feast them after their - manner." One of them brought a large earthen vessel full of spring water, - which was served out to each in turn in a wooden cup. But what most - astonished the French was a venerable chief, who assured them that he was - the father of five successive generations, and that he had lived two - hundred and fifty years. Opposite sat a still more ancient veteran, the - father of the first, shrunken to a mere anatomy, and "seeming to be rather - a dead carkeis than a living body." "Also," pursues the history, "his age - was so great that the good man had lost his sight, and could not speak one - onely word but with exceeding great paine." In spite of his dismal - condition, the visitors were told that he might expect to live, in the - course of nature, thirty or forty years more. As the two patriarchs sat - face to face, half hidden with their streaming white hair, Ottigny and his - credulous soldiers looked from one to the other, lost in speechless - admiration. - </p> - <p> - One of these veterans made a parting present to his guests of two young - eagles, and Ottigny and his followers returned to report what they had - seen. Laudonniere was waiting for them on the side of the hill; and now, - he says, "I went right to the toppe thereof, where we found nothing else - but Cedars, Palme, and Baytrees of so sovereigne odour that Baulme - smelleth nothing like in comparison." From this high standpoint they - surveyed their Canaan. The unruffled river lay before them, with its - marshy islands overgrown with sedge and bulrushes; while on the farther - side the flat, green meadows spread mile on mile, veined with countless - creeks and belts of torpid water, and bounded leagues away by the verge of - the dim pine forest. On the right, the sea glistened along the horizon; - and on the left, the St. John's stretched westward between verdant shores, - a highway to their fancied Eldorado. "Briefly," writes Laudonniere, "the - place is so pleasant that those which are melancholicke would be inforced - to change their humour." - </p> - <p> - On their way back to the ships they stopped for another parley with the - chief Satouriona, and Laudonniere eagerly asked where he had got the wedge - of silver that he gave him in the morning. The chief told him by signs, - that he had taken it in war from a people called Thimagoas, who lived - higher up the River, and who were his mortal enemies; on which the French - captain had the folly to promise that he would join in an expedition - against them. Satouriona was delighted, and declared that, if he kept his - word, he should have gold and silver to his heart's content. - </p> - <p> - Man and nature alike seemed to mark the borders of the River of May as the - site of the new colony; for here, around the Indian towns, the harvests of - maize, beans, and pumpkins promised abundant food, while the river opened - a ready way to the mines of gold and silver and the stores of barbaric - wealth which glittered before the dreaming vision of the colonists. Yet, - the better to satisfy himself and his men, Laudonniere weighed anchor, and - sailed for a time along the neighboring coasts. Returning, confirmed in - his first impression, he set out with a party of officers and soldiers to - explore the borders of the chosen stream. The day was hot. The sun beat - fiercely on the woollen caps and heavy doublets of the men, till at length - they gained the shade of one of those deep forests of pine where the dead, - hot air is thick with resinous odors, and the earth, carpeted with fallen - leaves, gives no sound beneath the foot. Yet, in the stillness, deer - leaped up on all sides as they moved along. Then they emerged into - sunlight. A meadow was before them, a running brook, and a wall of - encircling forests. The men called it the Vale of Laudonniere. The - afternoon was spent, and the sun was near its setting, when they reached - the bank of the river. They strewed the ground with boughs and leaves, - and, stretched on that sylvan couch, slept the sleep of travel-worn and - weary men. - </p> - <p> - They were roused at daybreak by sound of trumpet, and after singing a - psalm they set themselves to their task. It was the building of a fort, - and the spot they chose was a furlong or more above St. John's Bluff, - where close to the water was a wide, flat knoll, raised a few feet above - the marsh and the river. <a href="#linknote-13" name="linknoteref-13" - id="linknoteref-13">13</a> Boats came up the stream with laborers, tents, - provisions, cannon, and tools. The engineers marked out the work in the - form of a triangle; and, from the noble volunteer to the meanest artisan, - all lent a hand to complete it. On the river side the defences were a - palisade of timber. On the two other sides were a ditch, and a rampart of - fascines, earth, and sods. At each angle was a bastion, in one of which - was the magazine. Within was a spacious parade, around it were various - buildings for lodging and storage, and a large house with covered - galleries was built on the side towards the river for Laudonniere and his - officers. <a href="#linknote-14" name="linknoteref-14" id="linknoteref-14">14</a>In - honor of Charles the Ninth the fort was named Fort Caroline. - </p> - <p> - Meanwhile Satouriona, "lord of all that country," as the narratives style - him, was seized with misgivings on learning these proceedings. The work - was scarcely begun, and all was din and confusion around the incipient - fort, when the startled Frenchmen saw the neighboring height of St. John's - swarming with naked warriors. Laudonniere set his men in array, and for a - season, pick and spade were dropped for arquebuse and pike. The savage - chief descended to the camp. The artist Le Moyne, who saw him, drew his - likeness from memory, a tall, athletic figure, tattooed in token of his - rank, plumed, bedecked with strings of beads, and girdled with tinkling - pieces of metal which hung from the belt which formed his only garment. He - came in regal state, a crowd of warriors around him, and, in advance, a - troop of young Indians armed with spears. Twenty musicians followed, - blowing hideous discord through pipes of reeds, while he seated himself on - the ground "like a monkey," as Le Moyne has it in the grave Latin of his - Brevis Narratio. A council followed, in which broken words were aided by - signs and pantomime; and a treaty of alliance was made, Laudonniere - renewing his rash promise to aid the chief against his enemies. - Satouriona, well pleased, ordered his Indians to help the French in their - work. They obeyed with alacrity, and in two days the buildings of the fort - were all thatched, after the native fashion, with leaves of the palmetto. - </p> - <p> - These savages belonged to one of the confederacies into which the native - tribes of Florida were divided, and with three of which the French came - into contact. The first was that of Satouriona; and the second was that of - the people called Thimagoas, who, under a chief named Outina, dwelt in - forty villages high up the St. John's. The third was that of the chief, - cacique, or paracoussy whom the French called King Potanou, and whose - dominions lay among the pine barrens, cypress swamps, and fertile hummocks - westward and northwestward of this remarkable river. These three - confederacies hated each other, and were constantly at war. Their social - state was more advanced than that of the wandering hunter tribes. They - were an agricultural people, and around all their villages were fields of - maize, beans, and pumpkins. The harvest was gathered into a public - granary, and they lived on it during three fourths of the year, dispersing - in winter to hunt among the forests. - </p> - <p> - They were exceedingly well formed; the men, or the principal among them, - were tattooed on the limbs and body, and in summer were nearly naked. Some - wore their straight black hair flowing loose to the waist; others gathered - it in a knot at the crown of the head. They danced and sang about the - scalps of their enemies, like the tribes of the North; and like them they - had their "medicine-men," who combined the functions of physicians, - sorcerers, and priests. The most prominent feature of their religion was - sun-worship. - </p> - <p> - Their villages were clusters of large dome-shaped huts, framed with poles - and thatched with palmetto leaves. In the midst was the dwelling of the - chief, much larger than the rest, and sometimes raised on an artificial - mound. They were enclosed with palisades, and, strange to say, some of - them were approached by wide avenues, artificially graded, and several - hundred yards in length. Traces of these may still be seen, as may also - the mounds in which the Floridians, like the Hurons and various other - tribes, collected at stated intervals the bones of their dead. - </p> - <p> - Social distinctions were sharply defined among them. Their chiefs, whose - office was hereditary, sometimes exercised a power almost absolute. Each - village had its chief, subordinate to the grand chief of the confederacy. - In the language of the French narratives, they were all kings or lords, - vassals of the great monarch Satouriona, Outina, or Potanou. All these - tribes are now extinct, and it is difficult to ascertain with precision - their tribal affinities. There can be no doubt that they were the authors - of the aboriginal remains at present found in various parts of Florida. - </p> - <p> - Having nearly finished the fort, Laudonniere declares that he "would not - lose the minute of an houre without employing of the same in some vertuous - exercise;" and he therefore sent his lieutenant, Ottigny, to spy out the - secrets of the interior, and to learn, above all, "what this Thimagoa - might be, whereof the Paracoussy Satouriona had spoken to us so often." As - Laudonniere stood pledged to attack the Thimagoas, the chief gave Ottigny - two Indian guides, who, says the record, were so eager for the fray that - they seemed as if bound to a wedding feast. - </p> - <p> - The lazy waters of the St. John's, tinged to coffee color by the - exudations of the swamps, curled before the prow of Ottigny's sail-boat as - he advanced into the prolific wilderness which no European eye had ever - yet beheld. By his own reckoning, he sailed thirty leagues up the river, - which would have brought him to a point not far below Palatka. Here, more - than two centuries later, the Bartrams, father and son, guided their skiff - and kindled their nightly bivouac-fire; and here, too, roamed Audubon, - with his sketch-book and his gun. It was a paradise for the hunter and the - naturalist. Earth, air, and water teemed with life, in endless varieties - of beauty and ugliness. A half-tropical forest shadowed the low shores, - where the palmetto and the cabbage palm mingled with the oak, the maple, - the cypress, the liquid-ambar, the laurel, the myrtle, and the broad - glistening leaves of the evergreen magnolia. Here was the haunt of bears, - wild-cats, lynxes, cougars, and the numberless deer of which they made - their prey. In the sedges and the mud the alligator stretched his brutish - length; turtles with outstretched necks basked on half-sunken logs; the - rattlesnake sunned himself on the sandy bank, and the yet more dangerous - moccason lurked under the water-lilies in inlets and sheltered coves. The - air and the water were populous as the earth. The river swarmed with fish, - from the fierce and restless gar, cased in his horny armor, to the lazy - cat-fish in the muddy depths. There were the golden eagle and the - white-headed eagle, the gray pelican and the white pelican, the blue heron - and the white heron, the egret, the ibis, ducks of various sorts, the - whooping crane, the black vulture, and the cormorant; and when at sunset - the voyagers drew their boat upon the strand and built their camp-fire - under the arches of the woods, the owls whooped around them all night - long, and when morning came the sultry mists that wrapped the river were - vocal with the clamor of wild turkeys. - </p> - <p> - When Ottigny was about twenty leagues from Fort Caroline, his two Indian - guides, who were always on the watch, descried three canoes, and in great - excitement cried, "Thimagoa! Thimagoa!" As they drew near, one of them - snatched up a halberd and the other a sword, and in their fury they seemed - ready to jump into the water to get at the enemy. To their great disgust, - Ottigny permitted the Thimagoas to run their canoes ashore and escape to - the woods. Far from keeping Laudonniere's senseless promise to light them, - he wished to make them friends; to which end he now landed with some of - his men, placed a few trinkets in their canoes, and withdrew to a distance - to watch the result. The fugitives presently returned, step by step, and - allowed the French to approach them; on which Ottigny asked, by signs, if - they had gold or silver. They replied that they had none, but that if he - would give them one of his men they would show him where it was to be - found. One of the soldiers boldly offered himself for the venture, and - embarked with them. As, however, he failed to return according to - agreement, Ottigny, on the next day, followed ten leagues farther up the - stream, and at length had the good luck to see him approaching in a canoe. - He brought little or no gold, but reported that he had heard of a certain - chief, named Mayrra, marvellously rich, who lived three days' journey up - the river; and with these welcome tidings Ottigny went back to Fort - Caroline. - </p> - <p> - A fortnight later, an officer named Vasseur went up the river to pursue - the adventure. The fever for gold had seized upon the French. As the - villages of the Thimagoas lay between them and the imagined treasures, - they shrank from a quarrel, and Laudonniere repented already of his - promised alliance with Satouriona. - </p> - <p> - Vasseur was two days' sail from the fort when two Indians hailed him from - the shore, inviting him to their dwellings. He accepted their guidance, - and presently saw before him the cornfields and palisades of an Indian - town. He and his followers were led through the wondering crowd to the - lodge of Mollua, the chief, seated in the place of honor, and plentifully - regaled with fish and bread. The repast over, Mollua made a speech. He - told them that he was one of the forty vassal chiefs of the great Outina, - lord of all the Thimagoas, whose warriors wore armor of gold and silver - plate. He told them, too, of Potanou, his enemy, "a man cruell in warre;" - and of the two kings of the distant Appalachian Mountains,—Onatheaqua - and Houstaqua, "great lords and abounding in riches." While thus, with - earnest pantomime and broken words, the chief discoursed with his guests, - Vasseur, intent and eager, strove to follow his meaning; and no sooner did - he hear of these Appalachian treasures than he promised to join Outina in - war against the two potentates of the mountains. Mollua, well pleased, - promised that each of Outina's vassal chiefs should requite their French - allies with a heap of gold and silver two feet high. Thus, while - Laudonniere stood pledged to Satouriona, Vasseur made alliance with his - mortal enemy. - </p> - <p> - On his return, he passed a night in the lodge of one of Satouriona's - chiefs, who questioned him touching his dealings with the Thimagoas. - Vasseur replied that he had set upon them and put them to utter rout. But - as the chief, seeming as yet unsatisfied, continued his inquiries, the - sergeant Francois de la Caille drew his sword, and, like Falstaff, - reenacted his deeds of valor, pursuing and thrusting at the imaginary - Thimagoas, as they fled before his fury. The chief, at length convinced, - led the party to his lodge, and entertained them with a decoction of the - herb called Cassina. - </p> - <p> - Satouriona, elated by Laudonniere's delusive promises of aid, had summoned - his so-called vassals to war. Ten chiefs and some five hundred warriors - had mustered at his call, and the forest was alive with their bivouacs. - When all was ready, Satouriona reminded the French commander of his - pledge, and claimed its fulfilment, but got nothing but evasions in - return, He stifled his rage, and prepared to go without his fickle ally. - </p> - <p> - A fire was kindled near the bank of the river, and two large vessels of - water were placed beside it. Here Satouriona took his stand, while his - chiefs crouched on the grass around him, and the savage visages of his - five hundred warriors filled the outer circle, their long hair garnished - with feathers, or covered with the heads and skins of wolves, cougars, - bears, or eagles. Satouriona, looking towards the country of his enemy, - distorted his features into a wild expression of rage and hate; then - muttered to himself; then howled an invocation to his god, the Sun; then - besprinkled the assembly with water from one of the vessels, and, turning - the other upon the fire, suddenly quenched it. "So," he cried, "may the - blood of our enemies be poured out, and their lives extinguished!" and the - concourse gave forth an explosion of responsive yells, till the shores - resounded with the wolfish din. - </p> - <p> - The rites over, they set out, and in a few days returned exulting, with - thirteen prisoners and a number of scalps. These last were hung on a pole - before the royal lodge; and when night came, it brought with it a - pandemonium of dancing and whooping, drumming and feasting. - </p> - <p> - A notable scheme entered the brain of Laudonniere. Resolved, cost what it - might, to make a friend of Outina, he conceived it to be a stroke of - policy to send back to him two of the prisoners. In the morning he sent a - soldier to Satouriona to demand them. The astonished chief gave a fiat - refusal, adding that he owed the French no favors, for they had shamefully - broken faith with him. On this, Laudonniere, at the head of twenty - soldiers, proceeded to the Indian town, placed a guard at the opening of - the great lodge, entered with his arquebusiers, and seated himself without - ceremony in the highest place. Here, to show his displeasure, he remained - in silence for half an hour. At length he spoke, renewing his demand. For - some moments Satouriona made no reply; then he coldly observed that the - sight of so many armed men had frightened the prisoners away. Laudonniere - grew peremptory, when the chief's son, Athore, went out, and presently - returned with the two Indians, whom the French led back to Fort Caroline. - </p> - <p> - Satouriona, says Laudonniere, "was wonderfully offended with his bravado, - and bethought himselfe by all meanes how he might be revenged of us." He - dissembled for the time, and presently sent three of his followers to the - fort with a gift of pumpkins; though under this show of good-will the - outrage rankled in his breast, and he never forgave it. The French had - been unfortunate in their dealings with the Indians. They had alienated - old friends in vain attempts to make new ones. - </p> - <p> - Vasseur, with the Swiss ensign Arlac, a sergeant, and ten soldiers, went - up the river early in September to carry back the two prisoners to Outina. - Laudonniere declares that they sailed eighty leagues, which would have - carried them far above Lake Monroe; but it is certain that his reckoning - is grossly exaggerated. Their boat crawled up the hazy St. John's, no - longer a broad lake like expanse, but a narrow and tortuous stream, - winding between swampy forests, or through the vast savanna, a verdant sea - of brushes and grass. At length they came to a village called Mayarqua, - and thence, with the help of their oars, made their way to another cluster - of wigwams, apparently on a branch of the main river. Here they found - Outina himself, whom, prepossessed with ideas of feudality, they regarded - as the suzerain of a host of subordinate lords and princes, ruling over - the surrounding swamps and pine barrens. Outina gratefully received the - two prisoners whom Laudonniere had sent to propitiate him, feasted the - wonderful strangers, and invited them to join him on a raid against his - rival, Potanou. Laudonniere had promised to join Satouriona against - Outina, and Vasseur now promised to join Outina against Potanon, the hope - of finding gold being in both cases the source of this impolitic - compliance. Vasseur went back to Fort Caroline with five of the men, and - left Arlac with the remaining five to fight the battles of Ontina. - </p> - <p> - The warriors mustered to the number of some two hundred, and the combined - force of white men and red took up their march. The wilderness through - which they passed has not yet quite lost its characteristic features,—the - bewildering monotony of the pine barrens, with their myriads of bare gray - trunks and their canopy of perennial green, through which a scorching sun - throws spots and streaks of yellow light, here on an undergrowth of dwarf - palmetto, and there on dry sands half hidden by tufted wire-grass, and - dotted with the little mounds that mark the burrows of the gopher; or - those oases in the desert, the "hummocks," with their wild, redundant - vegetation, their entanglement of trees, bushes, and vines, their scent of - flowers and song of birds; or the broad sunshine of the savanna, where - they waded to the neck in grass; or the deep swamp, where, out of the - black and root-encumbered slough, rise the huge buttressed trunks of the - Southern cypress, the gray Spanish moss drooping from every bough and - twig, wrapping its victims like a drapery of tattered cobwebs, and slowly - draining away their life, for even plants devour each other, and play - their silent parts in the universal tragedy of nature. - </p> - <p> - The allies held their way through forest, savanna, and swamp, with - Outina's Indians in the front, till they neared the hostile villages, when - the modest warriors fell to the rear, and yielded the post of honor to the - Frenchmen. - </p> - <p> - An open country lay before them, with rough fields of maize, beans, and - pumpkins, and the palisades of an Indian town. Their approach was seen, - and the warriors of Potanon swarmed out to meet them; but the sight of the - bearded strangers, the flash and report of the fire-arms, and the fall of - their foremost chief, shot through the brain by Arlac, filled them with - consternation, and they fled within their defences. Pursuers and pursued - entered pell-mell together. The place was pillaged and burned, its inmates - captured or killed, and the victors returned triumphant. - </p> - <p> - <a name="link2HCH0005" id="link2HCH0005"> - <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> - </p> - <div style="height: 4em;"> - <br /><br /><br /><br /> - </div> - <h2> - CHAPTER V. - </h2> - <h3> - 1564, 1565. - </h3> - <p> - CONSPIRACY. - </p> - <p> - In the little world of Fort Caroline, a miniature France, cliques and - parties, conspiracy and sedition, were fast stirring into life. Hopes had - been dashed, and wild expectations had come to naught. The adventurers had - found, not conquest and gold, but a dull exile in a petty fort by a hot - and sickly river, with hard labor, bad fare, prospective famine, and - nothing to break the weary sameness but some passing canoe or floating - alligator. Gathered in knots, they nursed each other's wrath, and - inveighed against the commandant. Why are we put on half-rations, when he - told us that provision should be made for a full year? Where are the - reinforcements and supplies that he said should follow us from France? And - why is he always closeted with Ottigny, Arlac, and this and that favorite, - when we, men of blood as good as theirs, cannot gain his ear for a moment? - </p> - <p> - The young nobles, of whom there were many, were volunteers, who had paid - their own expenses in expectation of a golden harvest, and they chafed in - impatience and disgust. The religious element in the colony—unlike - the former Huguenot emigration to Brazil—was evidently subordinate. - The adventurers thought more of their fortunes than of their faith; yet - there were not a few earnest enough in the doctrine of Geneva to complain - loudly and bitterly that no ministers had been sent with them. The burden - of all grievances was thrown upon Laudonniere, whose greatest errors seem - to have arisen from weakness and a lack of judgment,—fatal defects - in his position. - </p> - <p> - The growing discontent was brought to a partial head by one La Roquette, - who gave out that, high up the river, he had discovered by magic a mine of - gold and silver, which would give each of them a share of ten thousand - crowns, besides fifteen hundred thousand for the King. But for - Laudonniere, he said, their fortunes would all be made. He found an ally - in a gentleman named Genre, one of Laudonniere's confidants, who, while - still professing fast adherence to his interests, is charged by him with - plotting against his life. "This Genre," he says, "secretly enfourmed the - Souldiers that were already suborned by La Roquette, that I would deprive - them of this great game, in that I did set them dayly on worke, not - sending them on every side to discover the Countreys; therefore that it - were a good deede to dispatch mee out of the way, and to choose another - Captaine in my place." The soldiers listened too well. They made a flag of - an old shirt, which they carried with them to the rampart when they went - to their work, at the same time wearing their arms; and, pursues - Laudonniere, "these gentle Souldiers did the same for none other ende but - to have killed mee and my Lieutenant also, if by chance I had given them - any hard speeches." About this time, overheating himself, he fell ill, and - was confined to his quarters. On this, Genre made advances to the - apothecary, urging him to put arsenic into his medicine; but the - apothecary shrugged his shoulders. They next devised a scheme to blow him - up by hiding a keg of gunpowder under his bed; but here, too, they failed. - Hints of Genre's machinations reaching the ears of Laudonniere, the - culprit fled to the woods, whence he wrote repentant letters, with full - confession, to his commander. - </p> - <p> - Two of the ships meanwhile returned to France, the third, the "Breton," - remaining at anchor opposite the fort. The malcontents took the - opportunity to send home charges against Laudonniere of peculation, - favoritism, and tyranny. - </p> - <p> - On the fourth of September, Captain Bourdet, apparently a private - adventurer, had arrived from France with a small vessel. When he returned, - about the tenth of November, Laudonniere persuaded him to carry home seven - or eight of the malcontent soldiers. Bourdet left some of his sailors in - their place. The exchange proved most disastrous. These pirates joined - with others whom they had won over, stole Laudonniere's two pinnaces, and - set forth on a plundering excursion to the West Indies. They took a small - Spanish vessel off the coast of Cuba, but were soon compelled by famine to - put into Havana and give themselves up. Here, to make their peace with the - authorities, they told all they knew of the position and purposes of their - countrymen at Fort Caroline, and thus was forged the thunderbolt soon to - be hurled against the wretched little colony. - </p> - <p> - On a Sunday morning, Francois de la Caille came to Laudonniere's quarters, - and, in the name of the whole company, requested him to come to the parade - ground. He complied, and issuing forth, his inseparable Ottigny at his - side, he saw some thirty of his officers, soldiers, and gentlemen - volunteers waiting before the building with fixed and sombre countenances. - La Caille, advancing, begged leave to read, in behalf of the rest, a paper - which he held in his hand. It opened with protestations of duty and - obedience; next came complaints of hard work, starvation, and broken - promises, and a request that the petitioners should be allowed to embark - in the vessel lying in the river, and cruise along the Spanish Main, in - order to procure provisions by purchase "or otherwise." In short, the - flower of the company wished to turn buccaneers. - </p> - <p> - Laudonniere refused, but assured them that, as soon as the defences of the - fort should be completed, a search should be begun in earnest for the - Appalachian gold mine, and that meanwhile two small vessels then building - on the river should be sent along the coast to barter for provisions with - the Indians. With this answer they were forced to content themselves; but - the fermentation continued, and the plot thickened. Their spokesman, La - Caille, however, seeing whither the affair tended, broke with them, and, - except Ottigny, Yasseur, and the brave Swiss Arlac, was the only officer - who held to his duty. - </p> - <p> - A severe illness again seized Laudonniere, and confined him to his bed. - Improving their advantage, the malcontents gained over nearly all the best - soldiers in the fort. The ringleader was one Fourneaux, a man of good - birth, but whom Le Moyne calls an avaricious hypocrite. He drew up a - paper, to which sixty-six names were signed. La Caille boldly opposed the - conspirators, and they resolved to kill him. His room-mate, Le Moyne, who - had also refused to sign, received a hint of the design from a friend; - upon which he warned La Caille, who escaped to the woods. It was late in - the night. Fourneaux, with twenty men armed to the teeth, knocked fiercely - at the commandant's door. Forcing an entrance, they wounded a gentleman - who opposed them, and crowded around the sick man's bed. Fourneaux, armed - with steel cap and cuirass, held his arquebuse to Laudonniere's throat, - and demanded leave to go on a cruise among the Spanish islands. The latter - kept his presence of mind, and remonstrated with some firmness; on which, - with oaths and menaces, they dragged him from his bed, put him in fetters, - carried him out to the gate of the fort, placed him in a boat, and rowed - him to the ship anchored in the river. - </p> - <p> - Two other gangs at the same time visited Ottigny and Arlac, whom they - disarmed, and ordered to keep their rooms till the night following, on - pain of death. Smaller parties were busied, meanwhile, in disarming all - the loyal soldiers. The fort was completely in the hands of the - conspirators. Fourneaux drew up a commission for his meditated West India - cruise, which he required Laudonniere to sign. The sick commandant, - imprisoned in the ship with one attendant, at first refused; but receiving - a message from the mutineers, that, if he did not comply, they would come - on board and cut his throat, he at length yielded. - </p> - <p> - The buccaneers now bestirred themselves to finish the two small vessels on - which the carpenters had been for some time at work. In a fortnight they - were ready for sea, armed and provided with the King's cannon, munitions, - and stores. Trenchant, an excellent pilot, was forced to join the party. - Their favorite object was the plunder of a certain church on one of the - Spanish islands, which they proposed to assail during the midnight mass of - Christmas, whereby a triple end would be achieved: first, a rich booty; - secondly, the punishment of idolatry; thirdly, vengeance on the - arch-enemies of their party and their faith. They set sail on the eighth - of December, taunting those who remained, calling them greenhorns, and - threatening condign punishment if, on their triumphant return, they should - be refused free entrance to the fort. - </p> - <p> - They were no sooner gone than the unfortunate Laudonniere was gladdened in - his solitude by the approach of his fast friends Ottigny and Arlac, who - conveyed him to the fort and reinstated him. The entire command was - reorganized, and new officers appointed. The colony was wofully depleted; - but the bad blood had been drawn off, and thenceforth all internal danger - was at an end. In finishing the fort, in building two new vessels to - replace those of which they had been robbed, and in various intercourse - with the tribes far and near, the weeks passed until the twenty-fifth of - March, when an Indian came in with the tidings that a vessel was hovering - off the coast. Laudonniere sent to reconnoitre. The stranger lay anchored - at the mouth of the river. She was a Spanish brigantine, manned by the - returning mutineers, starving, downcast, and anxious to make terms. Yet, - as their posture seemed not wholly pacific, Landonniere sent down La - Caille, with thirty soldiers concealed at the bottom of his little vessel. - Seeing only two or three on deck, the pirates allowed her to come - alongside; when, to their amazement, they were boarded and taken before - they could snatch their arms. Discomfited, woebegone, and drunk, they were - landed under a guard. Their story was soon told. Fortune had flattered - them at the outset, and on the coast of Cuba they took a brigantine laden - with wine and stores. Embarking in her, they next fell in with a caravel, - which also they captured. Landing at a village in Jamaica, they plundered - and caroused for a week, and had hardly re-embarked when they met a small - vessel having on board the governor of the island. She made a desperate - fight, but was taken at last, and with her a rich booty. They thought to - put the governor to ransom but the astute official deceived them, and, on - pretence of negotiating for the sum demanded,—together with "four or - six parrots, and as many monkeys of the sort called sanguins, which are - very beautiful," and for which his captors had also bargained,—contrived - to send instructions to his wife. Hence it happened that at daybreak three - armed vessels fell upon them, retook the prize, and captured or killed all - the pirates but twenty-six, who, cutting the moorings of their brigantine, - fled out to sea. Among these was the ringleader Fourneaux, and also the - pilot Trenchant, who, eager to return to Fort Caroline, whence he had been - forcibly taken, succeeded during the night in bringing the vessel to the - coast of Florida. Great were the wrath and consternation of the pirates - when they saw their dilemma; for, having no provisions, they must either - starve or seek succor at the fort. They chose the latter course, and bore - away for the St. John's. A few casks of Spanish wine yet remained, and - nobles and soldiers, fraternizing in the common peril of a halter, joined - in a last carouse. As the wine mounted to their heads, in the mirth of - drink and desperation, they enacted their own trial. One personated the - judge, another the commandant; witnesses were called, with arguments and - speeches on either side. - </p> - <p> - "Say what you like," said one of them, after hearing the counsel for the - defence; "but if Laudonniere does not hang us all, I will never call him - an honest man." - </p> - <p> - They had some hope of getting provisions from the Indians at the month of - the river, and then putting to sea again; but this was frustrated by La - Caille's sudden attack. A court-martial was called near Fort Caroline, and - all were found guilty. Fourneaux and three others were sentenced to be - hanged. - </p> - <p> - "Comrades," said one of the condemned, appealing to the soldiers, "will - you stand by and see us butchered?" - </p> - <p> - "These," retorted Laudonniere, "are no comrades of mutineers and rebels." - </p> - <p> - At the request of his followers, however, he commuted the sentence to - shooting. - </p> - <p> - A file of men, a rattling volley, and the debt of justice was paid. The - bodies were hanged on gibbets, at the river's mouth, and order reigned at - Fort Caroline. - </p> - <p> - <a name="link2HCH0006" id="link2HCH0006"> - <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> - </p> - <div style="height: 4em;"> - <br /><br /><br /><br /> - </div> - <h2> - CHAPTER VI. 1564, 1565. - </h2> - <h3> - 1564, 1565. - </h3> - <p> - FAMINE. WAR. SUCCOR. - </p> - <p> - While the mutiny was brewing, one La Roche Ferriere had been sent out as - an agent or emissary among the more distant tribes. Sagacious, bold, and - restless, he pushed his way from town to town, and pretended to have - reached the mysterious mountains of Appalache. He sent to the fort mantles - woven with feathers, quivers covered with choice furs, arrows tipped with - gold, wedges of a green stone like beryl or emerald, and other trophies of - his wanderings. A gentleman named Grotaut took up the quest, and - penetrated to the dominions of Hostaqua, who, it was pretended, could - muster three or four thousand warriors, and who promised, with the aid of - a hundred arquebusiers, to conquer all the kings of the adjacent - mountains, and subject them and their gold mines to the rule of the - French. A humbler adventurer was Pierre Gambie, a robust and daring youth, - who had been brought up in the household of Coligny, and was now a soldier - under Laudonniere. The latter gave him leave to trade with the Indians,—a - privilege which he used so well that he grew rich with his traffic, became - prime favorite with the chief of the island of Edelano, married his - daughter, and, in his absence, reigned in his stead. But, as his sway - verged towards despotism, his subjects took offence, and split his head - with a hatchet. - </p> - <p> - During the winter, Indians from the neighborhood of Cape Canaveral brought - to the fort two Spaniards, wrecked fifteen years before on the - southwestern extremity of the peninsula. They were clothed like the - Indians,—in other words, were not clothed at all,—and their - uncut hair streamed loose down their backs. They brought strange tales of - those among whom they had dwelt. They told of the King of Cabs, on whose - domains they had been wrecked, a chief mighty in stature and in power. In - one of his villages was a pit, six feet deep and as wide as a hogshead, - filled with treasure gathered from Spanish wrecks on adjacent reefs and - keys. The monarch was a priest too, and a magician, with power over the - elements. Each year he withdrew from the public gaze to hold converse in - secret with supernal or infernal powers; and each year he sacrificed to - his gods one of the Spaniards whom the fortune of the sea had cast upon - his shores. The name of the tribe is preserved in that of the river - Caboosa. In close league with him was the mighty Oathcaqua, dwelling near - Cape Canaveral, who gave his daughter, a maiden of wondrous beauty, in - marriage to his great ally. But as the bride with her bridesmaids was - journeying towards Calos, escorted by a chosen band, they were assailed by - a wild and warlike race, inhabitants of an island called Sarrope, in the - midst of a lake, who put the warriors to flight, bore the maidens captive - to their watery fastness, espoused them all, and, we are assured, "loved - them above all measure." <a href="#linknote-15" name="linknoteref-15" - id="linknoteref-15">15</a> - </p> - <p> - Outina, taught by Arlac the efficacy of the French fire-arms, begged for - ten arquebusiers to aid him on a new raid among the villages of Potanou,—again - alluring his greedy allies by the assurance, that, thus reinforced, he - would conquer for them a free access to the phantom gold mines of - Appalache. Ottigny set forth on this fool's errand with thrice the force - demanded. Three hundred Thirnagoas and thirty Frenchmen took up their - march through the pine barrens. Outina's conjurer was of the number, and - had wellnigh ruined the enterprise. Kneeling on Ottigny's shield, that he - might not touch the earth, with hideous grimaces, howlings, and - contortions, he wrought himself into a prophetic frenzy, and proclaimed to - the astounded warriors that to advance farther would be destruction. <a - href="#linknote-16" name="linknoteref-16" id="linknoteref-16">16</a> - Outina was for instant retreat, but Ottigny's sarcasms shamed him into a - show of courage. Again they moved forward, and soon encountered Potanou - with all his host. <a href="#linknote-17" name="linknoteref-17" - id="linknoteref-17">17</a> The arquebuse did its work,—panic, - slaughter, and a plentiful harvest of scalps. But no persuasion could - induce Outina to follow up his victory. He went home to dance round his - trophies, and the French returned disgusted to Fort Caroline. - </p> - <p> - And now, in ample measure, the French began to reap the harvest of their - folly. Conquest, gold, and military occupation had alone been their aims. - Not a rod of ground had been stirred with the spade. Their stores were - consumed, and the expected supplies had not come. The Indians, too, were - hostile. Satouriona hated them as allies of his enemies; and his - tribesmen, robbed and maltreated by the lawless soldiers, exulted in their - miseries. Yet in these, their dark and subtle neighbors, was their only - hope. - </p> - <p> - May-day came, the third anniversary of the day when Ribaut and his - companions, full of delighted anticipation, had first explored the flowery - borders of the St. John's. The contrast was deplorable; for within the - precinct of Fort Caroline a homesick, squalid band, dejected and worn, - dragged their shrunken limbs about the sun-scorched area, or lay stretched - in listless wretchedness under the shade of the barracks. Some were - digging roots in the forest, or gathering a kind of sorrel upon the - meadows. If they had had any skill in hunting and fishing, the river and - the woods would have supplied their needs; but in this point, as in - others, they were lamentably unfit for the work they had taken in hand. - "Our miserie," says Laudonniere, "was so great that one was found that - gathered up all the fish-bones that he could finde, which he dried and - beate into powder to make bread thereof. The effects of this hideous - famine appeared incontinently among us, for our bones eftsoones beganne to - cleave so neere unto the skinne, that the most part of the souldiers had - their skinnes pierced thorow with them in many partes of their bodies." - Yet, giddy with weakness, they dragged themselves in turn to the top of - St. John's Bluff, straining their eyes across the sea to descry the - anxiously expected sail. - </p> - <p> - Had Coligny left them to perish? Or had some new tempest of calamity, let - loose upon France, drowned the memory of their exile? In vain the watchman - on the hill surveyed the solitude of waters. A deep dejection fell upon - them,—a dejection that would have sunk to despair could their eyes - have pierced the future. - </p> - <p> - The Indians had left the neighborhood, but from time to time brought in - meagre supplies of fish, which they sold to the famished soldiers at - exorbitant prices. Lest they should pay the penalty of their extortion, - they would not enter the fort, but lay in their canoes in the river, - beyond gunshot, waiting for their customers to come out to them. - "Oftentimes," says Laudonniere, "our poor soldiers were constrained to - give away the very shirts from their backs to get one fish. If at any time - they shewed unto the savages the excessive price which they tooke, these - villaines would answere them roughly and churlishly: If thou make so great - account of thy marchandise, eat it, and we will eat our fish: then fell - they out a laughing, and mocked us with open throat." - </p> - <p> - The spring wore away, and no relief appeared. One thought now engrossed - the colonists, that of return to France. Vasseur's ship, the "Breton," - still remained in the river, and they had also the Spanish brigantine - brought by the mutineers. But these vessels were insufficient, and they - prepared to build a new one. The energy of reviving hope lent new life to - their exhausted frames. Some gathered pitch in the pine forests; some made - charcoal; some cut and sawed timber. The maize began to ripen, and this - brought some relief; but the Indians, exasperated and greedy, sold it with - reluctance, and murdered two half-famished Frenchmen who gathered a - handful in the fields. - </p> - <p> - The colonists applied to Outina, who owed them two victories. The result - was a churlish message and a niggardly supply of corn, coupled with an - invitation to aid him against an insurgent chief, one Astina, the plunder - of whose villages would yield an ample supply. The offer was accepted. - Ottigny and Vasseur set out, but were grossly deceived, led against a - different enemy, and sent back empty-handed and half-starved. - </p> - <p> - They returned to the fort, in the words of Laudonniere, "angry and pricked - deepely to the quicke for being so mocked," and, joined by all their - comrades, fiercely demanded to be led against Outina, to seize him, punish - his insolence, and extort from his fears the supplies which could not be - looked for from his gratitude. The commandant was forced to comply. Those - who could bear the weight of their armor put it on, embarked, to the - number of fifty, in two barges, and sailed up the river under Laudonniere - himself. Having reached Outina's landing, they marched inland, entered his - village, surrounded his mud-plastered palace, seized him amid the yells - and howlings of his subjects, and led him prisoner to their boats. Here, - anchored in mid-stream, they demanded a supply of corn and beans as the - price of his ransom. - </p> - <p> - The alarm spread. Excited warriors, bedaubed with red, came thronging from - all his villages. The forest along the shore was full of them; and the - wife of the chief, followed by all the women of the place, uttered moans - and outcries from the strand. Yet no ransom was offered, since, reasoning - from their own instincts, they never doubted that, after the price was - paid, the captive would be put to death. - </p> - <p> - Laudonniere waited two days, and then descended the river with his - prisoner. In a rude chamber of Fort Caroline the sentinel stood his guard, - pike in hand, while before him crouched the captive chief, mute, - impassive, and brooding on his woes. His old enemy, Satouriona, keen as a - hound on the scent of prey, tried, by great offers, to bribe Laudonniere - to give Outina into his hands; but the French captain refused, treated his - prisoner kindly, and assured him of immediate freedom on payment of the - ransom. - </p> - <p> - Meanwhile his captivity was bringing grievous affliction on his tribesmen; - for, despairing of his return, they mustered for the election of a new - chief. Party strife ran high. Some were for a boy, his son, and some for - an ambitious kinsman. Outina chafed in his prison on learning these - dissentions; and, eager to convince his over-hasty subjects that their - chief still lived, he was so profuse of promises that he was again - embarked and carried up the river. - </p> - <p> - At no great distance from Lake George, a small affluent of the St. John's - gave access by water to a point within six French leagues of Outina's - principal town. The two barges, crowded with soldiers, and bearing also - the captive Outina, rowed up this little stream. Indians awaited them at - the landing, with gifts of bread, beans, and fish, and piteous prayers for - their chief, upon whose liberation they promised an ample supply of corn. - As they were deaf to all other terms, Laudonniere yielded, released his - prisoner, and received in his place two hostages, who were fast bound in - the boats. Ottigny and Arlac, with a strong detachment of arquebusiers, - went to receive the promised supplies, for which, from the first, full - payment in merchandise had been offered. On their arrival at the village, - they filed into the great central lodge, within whose dusky precincts were - gathered the magnates of the tribe. Council-chamber, forum, banquet-hall, - and dancing-hall all in one, the spacious structure could hold half the - population. Here the French made their abode. With armor buckled, and - arquebuse matches lighted, they watched with anxious eyes the strange, dim - scene, half revealed by the daylight that streamed down through the hole - at the apex of the roof. Tall, dark forms stalked to and fro, with quivers - at their backs, and bows and arrows in their hands, while groups, crouched - in the shadow beyond, eyed the hated guests with inscrutable visages, and - malignant, sidelong eyes. Corn came in slowly, but warriors mustered fast. - The village without was full of them. The French officers grew anxious, - and urged the chiefs to greater alacrity in collecting the promised - ransom. The answer boded no good: "Our women are afraid when they see the - matches of your guns burning. Put them out, and they will bring the corn - faster." - </p> - <p> - Outina was nowhere to be seen. At length they learned that he was in one - of the small huts adjacent. Several of the officers went to him, - complaining of the slow payment of his ransom. The kindness of his captors - at Fort Caroline seemed to have won his heart. He replied, that such was - the rage of his subjects that he could no longer control them; that the - French were in danger; and that he had seen arrows stuck in the ground by - the side of the path, in token that war was declared. The peril was - thickening hourly, and Ottigny resolved to regain the boats while there - was yet time. - </p> - <p> - On the twenty-seventh of July, at nine in the morning, he set his men in - order. Each shouldering a sack of corn, they marched through the rows of - huts that surrounded the great lodge, and out betwixt the overlapping - extremities of the palisade that encircled the town. Before them stretched - a wide avenue, three or four hundred paces long, flanked by a natural - growth of trees,—one of those curious monuments of native industry - to which allusion has already been made. Here Ottigny halted and formed - his line of march. Arlac, with eight matchlock men, was sent in advance, - and flanking parties were thrown into the woods on either side. Ottigny - told his soldiers that, if the Indians meant to attack them, they were - probably in ambush at the other end of the avenue. He was right. As - Arlac's party reached the spot, the whole pack gave tongue at once. The - war-whoop rose, and a tempest of stone-headed arrows clattered against the - breast-plates of the French, or, scorching like fire, tore through their - unprotected limbs. They stood firm, and sent back their shot so steadily - that several of the assailants were laid dead, and the rest, two or three - hundred in number, gave way as Ottigny came up with his men. - </p> - <p> - They moved on for a quarter of a mile through a country, as it seems, - comparatively open, when again the war-cry pealed in front, and three - hundred savages bounded to the assault. Their whoops were echoed from the - rear. It was the party whom Arlac had just repulsed, and who, leaping and - showering their arrows, were rushing on again with a ferocity restrained - only by their lack of courage. There was no panic among the French. The - men threw down their bags of corn, and took to their weapons. They blew - their matches, and, under two excellent officers, stood well to their - work. The Indians, on their part, showed good discipline after their - fashion, and were perfectly under the control of their chiefs. With cries - that imitated the yell of owls, the scream of cougars, and the howl of - wolves, they ran up in successive bands, let fly their arrows, and - instantly fell back, giving place to others. At the sight of the leveled - arquebuse, they dropped flat on the ground. Whenever the French charged - upon them, sword in hand, they fled through the woods like foxes; and - whenever the march was resumed, the arrows were showering again upon the - flanks and rear of the retiring band. As they fell, the soldiers picked - them up and broke them. Thus, beset with swarming savages, the handful of - Frenchmen pushed slowly onward, fighting as they went. - </p> - <p> - The Indians gradually drew off, and the forest was silent again. Two of - the French had been killed and twenty-two wounded, several so severely - that they were supported to the boats with the utmost difficulty. Of the - corn, two bags only had been brought off. - </p> - <p> - Famine and desperation now reigned at Fort Caroline. The Indians had - killed two of the carpenters; hence long delay in the finishing of the new - ship. They would not wait, but resolved to put to sea in the "Breton" and - the brigantine. The problem was to find food for the voyage; for now, in - their extremity, they roasted and ate snakes, a delicacy in which the - neighborhood abounded. - </p> - <p> - On the third of August, Laudonniere, perturbed and oppressed, was walking - on the hill, when, looking seaward, he saw a sight that sent a thrill - through his exhausted frame. A great ship was standing towards the river's - mouth. Then another came in sight, and another, and another. He despatched - a messenger with the tidings to the fort below. The languid forms of his - sick and despairing men rose and danced for joy, and voices shrill with - weakness joined in wild laughter and acclamation, insomuch, he says, "that - one would have thought them to bee out of their wittes." - </p> - <p> - A doubt soon mingled with their joy. Who were the strangers? Were they the - friends so long hoped for in vain? or were they Spaniards, their dreaded - enemies? They were neither. The foremost ship was a stately one, of seven - hundred tons, a great burden at that day. She was named the "Jesus;" and - with her were three smaller vessels, the "Solomon," the "Tiger," and the - "Swallow." Their commander was "a right worshipful and valiant knight,"—for - so the record styles him,—a pious man and a prudent, to judge him by - the orders he gave his crew when, ten months before, he sailed out of - Plymouth: "Serve God daily, love one another, preserve your victuals, - beware of fire, and keepe good companie." Nor were the crew unworthy the - graces of their chief; for the devout chronicler of the voyage ascribes - their deliverance from the perils of the sea to "the Almightie God, who - never suffereth his Elect to perish." - </p> - <p> - Who then were they, this chosen band, serenely conscious of a special - Providential care? They were the pioneers of that detested traffic - destined to inoculate with its infection nations yet unborn, the parent of - discord and death, filling half a continent with the tramp of armies and - the clash of fratricidal swords. Their chief was Sir John Hawkins, father - of the English slave-trade. - </p> - <p> - He had been to the coast of Guinea, where he bought and kidnapped a cargo - of slaves. These he had sold to the jealous Spaniards of Hispaniola, - forcing them, with sword, matchlock, and culverin, to grant him free - trade, and then to sign testimonials that he had borne himself as became a - peaceful merchant. Prospering greatly by this summary commerce, but - distressed by the want of water, he had put into the River of May to - obtain a supply. - </p> - <p> - Among the rugged heroes of the British marine, Sir John stood in the front - rank, and along with Drake, his relative, is extolled as "a man borne for - the honour of the English name.... Neither did the West of England yeeld - such an Indian Neptunian paire as were these two Ocean peeres, Hawkins and - Drake." So writes the old chronicler, Purchas, and all England was of his - thinking. A hardy and skilful seaman, a bold fighter, a loyal friend and a - stern enemy, overbearing towards equals, but kind, in his bluff way, to - those beneath him, rude in speech, somewhat crafty withal and avaricious, - he buffeted his way to riches and fame, and died at last full of years and - honor. As for the abject humanity stowed between the reeking decks of the - ship "Jesus," they were merely in his eyes so many black cattle tethered - for the market. <a href="#linknote-18" name="linknoteref-18" - id="linknoteref-18">18</a> - </p> - <p> - Hawkins came up the river in a pinnace, and landed at Fort Caroline, - accompanied, says Laudonniere, "with gentlemen honorably apparelled, yet - unarmed." Between the Huguenots and the English Puritans there was a - double tie of sympathy. Both hated priests, and both hated Spaniards. - Wakening from their apathetic misery, the starveling garrison hailed him - as a deliverer. Yet Hawkins secretly rejoiced when he learned their - purpose to abandon Florida; for although, not to tempt his cupidity, they - hid from him the secret of their Appalachian gold mine, he coveted for his - royal mistress the possession of this rich domain. He shook his head, - however, when he saw the vessels in which they proposed to embark, and - offered them all a free passage to France in his own ships. This, from - obvious motives of honor and prudence, Laudonniere declined, upon which - Hawkins offered to lend or sell to him one of his smaller vessels. - </p> - <p> - Laudonniere hesitated, and hereupon arose a great clamor. A mob of - soldiers and artisans beset his chamber, threatening loudly to desert him, - and take passage with Hawkins, unless the offer were accepted. The - commandant accordingly resolved to buy the vessel. The generous slaver, - whose reputed avarice nowhere appears in the transaction, desired him to - set his own price; and, in place of money, took the cannon of the fort, - with other articles now useless to their late owners. He sent them, too, a - gift of wine and biscuit, and supplied them with provisions for the - voyage, receiving in payment Laudonniere's note; "for which," adds the - latter, "untill this present I am indebted to him." With a friendly leave - taking, he returned to his ships and stood out to sea, leaving golden - opinions among the grateful inmates of Fort Caroline. - </p> - <p> - Before the English top-sails had sunk beneath the horizon, the colonists - bestirred themselves to depart. In a few days their preparations were - made. They waited only for a fair wind. It was long in coming, and - meanwhile their troubled fortunes assumed a new phase. - </p> - <p> - On the twenty eighth of August, the two captains Vasseur and Verdier came - in with tidings of an approaching squadron. Again the fort was wild with - excitement. Friends or foes, French or Spaniards, succor or death,—betwixt - these were their hopes and fears divided. On the following morning, they - saw seven barges rowing up the river, bristling with weapons, and crowded - with men in armor. The sentries on the bluff challenged, and received no - answer. One of them fired at the advancing boats, and still there was no - response. Laudonniere was almost defenceless. He had given his heavier - cannon to Hawkins, and only two field-pieces were left. They were levelled - at the foremost boats, and the word to fire was about to be given, when a - voice from among the strangers called out that they were French, commanded - by Jean Ribaut. - </p> - <p> - At the eleventh hour, the long looked for succors were come. Ribaut had - been commissioned to sail with seven ships for Florida. A disorderly - concourse of disbanded soldiers, mixed with artisans and their families, - and young nobles weary of a two years' peace, were mustered at the port of - Dieppe, and embarked, to the number of three hundred men, bearing with - them all things thought necessary to a prosperous colony. - </p> - <p> - No longer in dread of the Spaniards, the colonists saluted the new-comers - with the cannon by which a moment before they had hoped to blow them out - of the water. Laudonniere issued from his stronghold to welcome them, and - regaled them with what cheer he could. Ribaut was present, conspicuous by - his long beard, an astonishment to the Indians; and here, too, were - officers, old friends of Laudonniere. Why, then, had they approached in - the attitude of enemies? The mystery was soon explained; for they - expressed to the commandant their pleasure at finding that the charges - made against him had proved false. He begged to know more; on which - Ribaut, taking him aside, told him that the returning ships had brought - home letters filled with accusations of arrogance, tyranny, cruelty, and a - purpose of establishing an independent command,—accusations which he - now saw to be unfounded, but which had been the occasion of his unusual - and startling precaution. He gave him, too, a letter from Admiral Coligny. - In brief but courteous terms, it required him to resign his command, and - requested his return to France to clear his name from the imputations cast - upon it. Ribaut warmly urged him to remain; but Laudonniere declined his - friendly proposals. - </p> - <p> - Worn in body and mind, mortified and wounded, he soon fell ill again. A - peasant woman attended him, who was brought over, he says, to nurse the - sick and take charge of the poultry, and of whom Le Moyne also speaks as a - servant, but who had been made the occasion of additional charges against - him, most offensive to the austere Admiral. - </p> - <p> - Stores were landed, tents were pitched, women and children were sent on - shore, feathered Indians mingled in the throng, and the borders of the - River of May swarmed with busy life. "But, lo, how oftentimes misfortune - doth search and pursue us, even then when we thinke to be at rest!" - exclaims the unhappy Laudonniere. Amidst the light and cheer of renovated - hope, a cloud of blackest omen was gathering in the east. - </p> - <p> - At half-past eleven on the night of Tuesday, the fourth of September, the - crew of Ribaut's flag-ship, anchored on the still sea outside the bar, saw - a huge hulk, grim with the throats of cannon, drifting towards them - through the gloom; and from its stern rolled on the sluggish air the - portentous banner of Spain. - </p> - <p> - <a name="link2HCH0007" id="link2HCH0007"> - <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> - </p> - <div style="height: 4em;"> - <br /><br /><br /><br /> - </div> - <h2> - CHAPTER VII. - </h2> - <h3> - 1565. - </h3> - <p> - MENENDEZ. - </p> - <p> - The monk, the inquisitor, and the Jesuit were lords of Spain,—sovereigns - of her sovereign, for they had formed the dark and narrow mind of that - tyrannical recluse. They had formed the minds of her people, quenched in - blood every spark of rising heresy, and given over a noble nation to a - bigotry blind and inexorable as the doom of fate. Linked with pride, - ambition, avarice, every passion of a rich, strong nature, potent for good - and ill, it made the Spaniard of that day a scourge as dire as ever fell - on man. - </p> - <p> - Day was breaking on the world. Light, hope, and freedom pierced with - vitalizing ray the clouds and the miasma that hung so thick over the - prostrate Middle Age, once noble and mighty, now a foul image of decay and - death. Kindled with new life, the nations gave birth to a progeny of - heroes, and the stormy glories of the sixteenth century rose on awakened - Europe. But Spain was the citadel of darkness,—a monastic cell, an - inquisitorial dungeon, where no ray could pierce. She was the bulwark of - the Church, against whose adamantine wall the waves of innovation beat in - vain. <a href="#linknote-19" name="linknoteref-19" id="linknoteref-19">19</a> - In every country of Europe the party of freedom and reform was the - national party, the party of reaction and absolutism was the Spanish - party, leaning on Spain, looking to her for help. Above all, it was so in - France; and, while within her bounds there was for a time some semblance - of peace, the national and religious rage burst forth on a wilder theatre. - Thither it is for us to follow it, where, on the shores of Florida, the - Spaniard and the Frenchman, the bigot and the Huguenot, met in the grapple - of death. - </p> - <p> - In a corridor of his palace, Philip the Second was met by a man who had - long stood waiting his approach, and who with proud reverence placed a - petition in the hand of the pale and sombre King. - </p> - <p> - The petitioner was Pedro Menendez de Aviles, one of the ablest and most - distinguished officers of the Spanish marine. He was born of an ancient - Asturian family. His boyhood had been wayward, ungovernable, and fierce. - He ran off at eight years of age, and when, after a search of six months, - he was found and brought back, he ran off again. This time he was more - successful, escaping on board a fleet bound against the Barbary corsairs, - where his precocious appetite for blood and blows had reasonable - contentment. A few years later, he found means to build a small vessel, in - which he cruised against the corsairs and the French, and, though still - hardly more than a boy, displayed a singular address and daring. The - wonders of the New World now seized his imagination. He made a voyage - thither, and the ships under his charge came back freighted with wealth. - The war with France was then at its height. As captain-general of the - fleet, he was sent with troops to Flanders; and to their prompt arrival - was due, it is said, the victory of St. Quentin. Two years later, he - commanded the luckless armada which bore back Philip to his native shore. - On the way, the King narrowly escaped drowning in a storm off the port of - Laredo. This mischance, or his own violence and insubordination, wrought - to the prejudice of Menendez. He complained that his services were ill - repaid. Philip lent him a favoring ear, and despatched him to the Indies - as general of the fleet and army. Here he found means to amass vast - riches; and, in 1561, on his return to Spain, charges were brought against - him of a nature which his too friendly biographer does not explain. The - Council of the Indies arrested him. He was imprisoned and sentenced to a - heavy fine; but, gaining his release, hastened to court to throw himself - on the royal clemency. His petition was most graciously received. Philip - restored his command, but remitted only half his fine, a strong - presumption of his guilt. - </p> - <p> - Menendez kissed the royal hand; he had another petition in reserve. His - son had been wrecked near the Bermudas, and he would fain go thither to - find tidings of his fate. The pious King bade him trust in God, and - promised that he should be despatched without delay to the Bermudas and to - Florida, with a commission to make an exact survey of the neighboring seas - for the profit of future voyagers; but Menendez was not content with such - an errand. He knew, he said, nothing of greater moment to his Majesty than - the conquest and settlement of Florida. The climate was healthful, the - soil fertile; and, worldly advantages aside, it was peopled by a race sunk - in the thickest shades of infidelity. "Such grief," he pursued, "seizes - me, when I behold this multitude of wretched Indians, that I should choose - the conquest and settling of Florida above all commands, offices, and - dignities which your Majesty might bestow." Those who take this for - hypocrisy do not know the Spaniard of the sixteenth century. - </p> - <p> - The King was edified by his zeal. An enterprise of such spiritual and - temporal promise was not to be slighted, and Menendez was empowered to - conquer and convert Florida at his own cost. The conquest was to be - effected within three years. Menendez was to take with him five hundred - men, and supply them with five hundred slaves, besides horses, cattle, - sheep, and hogs. Villages were to be built, with forts to defend them, and - sixteen ecclesiastics, of whom four should be Jesuits, were to form the - nucleus of a Floridan church. The King, on his part, granted Menendez free - trade with Hispaniola, Porto Rico, Cuba, and Spain, the office of - Adelantado of Florida for life, with the right of naming his successor, - and large emoluments to be drawn from the expected conquest. - </p> - <p> - The compact struck, Menendez hastened to his native Asturias to raise - money among his relatives. Scarcely was he gone, when tidings reached - Madrid that Florida was already occupied by a colony of French - Protestants, and that a reinforcement, under Ribaut, was on the point of - sailing thither. A French historian of high authority declares that these - advices came from the Catholic party at the French court, in whom every - instinct of patriotism was lost in their hatred of Coligny and the - Huguenots. Of this there can be little doubt, though information also came - about this time from the buccaneer Frenchmen captured in the West Indies. - </p> - <p> - Foreigners had invaded the territory of Spain. The trespassers, too, were - heretics, foes of God, and liegemen of the Devil. Their doom was fixed. - But how would France endure an assault, in time of peace, on subjects who - had gone forth on an enterprise sanctioned by the Crown, and undertaken in - its name and under its commission? - </p> - <p> - The throne of France, in which the corruption of the nation seemed - gathered to a head, was trembling between the two parties of the Catholics - and the Huguenots, whose chiefs aimed at royalty. Flattering both, - caressing both, playing one against the other, and betraying both, - Catherine de Medicis, by a thousand crafty arts and expedients of the - moment, sought to retain the crown on the head of her weak and vicious - son. Of late her crooked policy had led her towards the Catholic party, in - other words the party of Spain; and she had already given ear to the - savage Duke of Alva, urging her to the course which, seven years later, - led to the carnage of St. Bartholomew. In short, the Spanish policy was in - the ascendant, and no thought of the national interest or honor could - restrain that basest of courts from abandoning by hundreds to the national - enemy those whom it was itself meditating to immolate by thousands. It - might protest for form's sake, or to quiet public clamor; but Philip of - Spain well knew that it would end in patient submission. - </p> - <p> - Menendez was summoned back in haste to the Spanish court. His force must - be strengthened. Three hundred and ninety-four men were added at the royal - charge, and a corresponding number of transport and supply ships. It was a - holy war, a crusade, and as such was preached by priest and monk along the - western coasts of Spain. All the Biscayan ports flamed with zeal, and - adventurers crowded to enroll themselves; since to plunder heretics is - good for the soul as well as the purse, and broil and massacre have double - attraction when promoted into a means of salvation. It was a fervor, deep - and hot, but not of celestial kindling; nor yet that buoyant and inspiring - zeal which, when the Middle Age was in its youth and prime, glowed in the - souls of Tancred, Godfrey, and St. Louis, and which, when its day was long - since past, could still find its home in the great heart of Columbus. A - darker spirit urged the new crusade,—born not of hope, but of fear, - slavish in its nature, the creature and the tool of despotism; for the - typical Spaniard of the sixteenth century was not in strictness a fanatic, - he was bigotry incarnate. - </p> - <p> - Heresy was a plague-spot, an ulcer to be eradicated with fire and the - knife, and this foul abomination was infecting the shores which the - Vicegerent of Christ had given to the King of Spain, and which the Most - Catholic King had given to the Adelantado. Thus would countless heathen - tribes be doomed to an eternity of flame, and the Prince of Darkness hold - his ancient sway unbroken; and for the Adelantado himself, the vast - outlays, the vast debts of his bold Floridan venture would be all in vain, - and his fortunes be wrecked past redemption through these tools of Satan. - As a Catholic, as a Spaniard, and as an adventurer, his course was clear. - </p> - <p> - The work assigned him was prodigious. He was invested with power almost - absolute, not merely over the peninsula which now retains the name of - Florida, but over all North America, from Labrador to Mexico; for this was - the Florida of the old Spanish geographers, and the Florida designated in - the commission of Menendez. It was a continent which he was to conquer and - occupy out of his own purse. The impoverished King contracted with his - daring and ambitious subject to win and hold for him the territory of the - future United States and British Provinces. His plan, as afterwards - exposed at length in his letters to Philip the Second, was, first, to - plant a garrison at Port Royal, and next to fortify strongly on Chesapeake - Bay, called by him St. Mary's. He believed that adjoining this bay was an - arm of the sea, running northward and eastward, and communicating with the - Gulf of St. Lawrence, thus making New England, with adjacent districts, an - island. His proposed fort on the Chesapeake, securing access by this - imaginary passage, to the seas of Newfoundland, would enable the Spaniards - to command the fisheries, on which both the French and the English had - long encroached, to the great prejudice of Spanish rights. Doubtless, too, - these inland waters gave access to the South Sea, and their occupation was - necessary to prevent the French from penetrating thither; for that - ambitious people, since the time of Cartier, had never abandoned their - schemes of seizing this portion of the dominions of the King of Spain. - Five hundred soldiers and one hundred sailors must, he urges, take - possession, without delay, of Port Royal and the Chesapeake. <a - href="#linknote-20" name="linknoteref-20" id="linknoteref-20">20</a> - </p> - <p> - Preparation for his enterprise was pushed with furious energy. His whole - force, when the several squadrons were united, amounted to two thousand - six hundred and forty-six persons, in thirty-four vessels, one of which, - the San Pelayo, bearing Menendez himself, was of nine hundred and - ninety-six tons burden, and is described as one of the finest ships - afloat. <a href="#linknote-21" name="linknoteref-21" id="linknoteref-21">21</a> - There were twelve Franciscans and eight Jesuits, besides other - ecclesiastics; and many knights of Galicia, Biscay, and the Asturias took - part in the expedition. With a slight exception, the whole was at the - Adelantado's charge. Within the first fourteen months, according to his - admirer, Barcia, the adventure cost him a million ducats. <a - href="#linknote-22" name="linknoteref-22" id="linknoteref-22">22</a> - </p> - <p> - Before the close of the year, Sancho do Arciniega was commissioned to join - Menendez with an additional force of fifteen hundred men. - </p> - <p> - Red-hot with a determined purpose, the Adelantado would brook no delay. To - him, says the chronicler, every day seemed a year. He was eager to - anticipate Ribaut, of whose designs and whose force he seems to have been - informed to the minutest particular, but whom he hoped to thwart and ruin - by gaining Fort Caroline before him. With eleven ships, therefore, he - sailed from Cadiz, on the twenty-ninth of June, 1565, leaving the smaller - vessels of his fleet to follow with what speed they might. He touched - first at the Canaries, and on the eighth of July left them, steering for - Dominica. A minute account of the voyage has come down to us, written by - Mendoza, chaplain of the expedition,—a somewhat dull and illiterate - person, who busily jots down the incidents of each passing day, and is - constantly betraying, with a certain awkward simplicity, how the cares of - this world and of the next jostle each other in his thoughts. - </p> - <p> - On Friday, the twentieth of July, a storm fell upon them with appalling - fury. The pilots lost their wits, and the sailors gave themselves up to - their terrors. Throughout the night, they beset Mendoza for confession and - absolution, a boon not easily granted, for the seas swept the crowded - decks with cataracts of foam, and the shriekings of the gale in the - rigging overpowered the exhortations of the half-drowned priest. Cannon, - cables, spars, water-casks, were thrown overboard, and the chests of the - sailors would have followed, had not the latter, in spite of their fright, - raised such a howl of remonstrance that the order was revoked. At length - day dawned, Plunging, reeling, half under water, quivering with the shock - of the seas, whose mountain ridges rolled down upon her before the gale, - the ship lay in deadly peril from Friday till Monday noon. Then the storm - abated; the sun broke out; and again she held her course. - </p> - <p> - They reached Dominica on Sunday, the fifth of August. The chaplain tells - us how he went on shore to refresh himself; how, while his Italian servant - washed his linen at a brook, he strolled along the beach and picked up - shells; and how he was scared, first, by a prodigious turtle, and next by - a vision of the cannibal natives, which caused his prompt retreat to the - boats. - </p> - <p> - On the tenth, they anchored in the harbor of Porto Rico, where they found - two ships of their squadron, from which they had parted in the storm. One - of them was the "San Pelayo," with Menendez on board. Mendoza informs us, - that in the evening the officers came on board the ship to which he was - attached, when he, the chaplain, regaled them with sweetmeats, and that - Menendez invited him not only to supper that night, but to dinner the next - day, "for the which I thanked him, as reason was," says the gratified - churchman. - </p> - <p> - Here thirty men deserted, and three priests also ran off, of which Mendoza - bitterly complains, as increasing his own work. The motives of the - clerical truants may perhaps be inferred from a worldly temptation to - which the chaplain himself was subjected. "I was offered the service of a - chapel where I should have got a peso for every mass I said, the whole - year round; but I did not accept it, for fear that what I hear said of the - other three would be said of me. Besides, it is not a place where one can - hope for any great advancement, and I wished to try whether, in refusing a - benefice for the love of the Lord, He will not repay me with some other - stroke of fortune before the end of the voyage; for it is my aim to serve - God and His blessed Mother." - </p> - <p> - The original design had been to rendezvous at Havana, but with the - Adelantado the advantages of despatch outweighed every other - consideration. He resolved to push directly for Florida. Five of his - scattered ships had by this time rejoined company, comprising, exclusive - of officers, a force of about five hundred soldiers, two hundred sailors, - and one hundred colonists. Bearing northward, he advanced by an unknown - and dangerous course along the coast of Hayti and through the intricate - passes of the Bahamas. On the night of the twenty-sixth, the "San Pelayo" - struck three times on the shoals; "but," says the chaplain, "inasmuch as - our enterprise was undertaken for the sake of Christ and His blessed - Mother, two heavy seas struck her abaft, and set her afloat again." - </p> - <p> - At length the ships lay becalmed in the Bahama Channel, slumbering on the - glassy sea, torpid with the heats of a West Indian August. Menendez called - a council of the commanders. There was doubt and indecision. Perhaps - Ribaut had already reached the French fort, and then to attack the united - force would be an act of desperation. Far better to await their lagging - comrades. But the Adelantado was of another mind; and, even had his enemy - arrived, ho was resolved that he should have no time to fortify himself. - </p> - <p> - "It is God's will," he said, "that our victory should be due, not to our - numbers, but to His all-powerful aid. Therefore has He stricken us with - tempests, and scattered our ships." And he gave his voice for instant - advance. - </p> - <p> - There was much dispute; even the chaplain remonstrated; but nothing could - bend the iron will of Menendez. Nor was a sign of celestial approval - wanting. At nine in the evening, a great meteor burst forth in mid-heaven, - and, blazing like the sun, rolled westward towards the coast of Florida. - The fainting spirits of the crusaders were revived. Diligent preparation - was begun. Prayers and masses were said; and, that the temporal arm might - not fail, the men were daily practised on deck in shooting at marks, in - order, says the chronicle, that the recruits might learn not to be afraid - of their guns. - </p> - <p> - The dead calm continued. "We were all very tired," says the chaplain, "and - I above all, with praying to God for a fair wind. To-day, at about two in - the afternoon, He took pity on us, and sent us a breeze." Before night - they saw land,—the faint line of forest, traced along the watery - horizon, that marked the coast of Florida. But where, in all this vast - monotony, was the lurking-place of the French? Menendez anchored, and sent - a captain with twenty men ashore, who presently found a band of Indians, - and gained from them the needed information. He stood northward, till, on - the afternoon of Tuesday, the fourth of September, he descried four ships - anchored near the mouth of a river. It was the river St. John's, and the - ships were four of Ribaut's squadron. The prey was in sight. The Spaniards - prepared for battle, and bore down upon the Lutherans; for, with them, all - Protestants alike were branded with the name of the arch-heretic. Slowly, - before the faint breeze, the ships glided on their way; but while, excited - and impatient, the fierce crews watched the decreasing space, and when - they were still three leagues from their prize, the air ceased to stir, - the sails flapped against the mast, a black cloud with thunder rose above - the coast, and the warm rain of the South descended on the breathless sea. - It was dark before the wind stirred again and the ships resumed their - course. At half-past eleven they reached the French. The "San Pelayo" - slowly moved to windward of Ribaut's flag-ship, the "Trinity," and - anchored very near her. The other ships took similar stations. While these - preparations were making, a work of two hours, the men labored in silence, - and the French, thronging their gangways, looked on in equal silence. - "Never, since I came into the world," writes the chaplain, "did I know - such a stillness." - </p> - <p> - It was broken at length by a trumpet from the deck of the "San Pelayo." A - French trumpet answered. Then Menendez, "with much courtesy," says his - Spanish eulogist, inquired, "Gentlemen, whence does this fleet come?" - </p> - <p> - "From France," was the reply. - </p> - <p> - "What are you doing here?" pursued the Adelantado. - </p> - <p> - "Bringing soldiers and supplies for a fort which the King of France has in - this country, and for many others which he soon will have." - </p> - <p> - "Are you Catholics or Lutherans?" - </p> - <p> - Many voices cried out together, "Lutherans, of the new religion." Then, in - their turn, they demanded who Menendez was, and whence he came. - </p> - <p> - He answered: "I am Pedro Menendez, General of the fleet of the King of - Spain, Don Philip the Second, who have come to this country to hang and - behead all Lutherans whom I shall find by land or sea, according to - instructions from my King, so precise that I have power to pardon none; - and these commands I shall fulfil, as you will see. At daybreak I shall - board your ships, and if I find there any Catholic, he shall be well - treated; but every heretic shall die." - </p> - <p> - The French with one voice raised a cry of wrath and defiance. - </p> - <p> - "If you are a brave man, don't wait till day. Come on now, and see what - you will get!" - </p> - <p> - And they assailed the Adelantado with a shower of scoffs and insults. - </p> - <p> - Menendez broke into a rage, and gave the order to board. The men slipped - the cables, and the sullen black hulk of the "San Pelayo" drifted down - upon the "Trinity." The French did not make good their defiance. Indeed, - they were incapable of resistance, Ribaut with his soldiers being ashore - at Fort Caroline. They cut their cables, left their anchors, made sail, - and fled. The Spaniards fired, the French replied. The other Spanish ships - had imitated the movement of the "San Pelayo;" "but," writes the chaplain, - Mendoza, "these devils are such adroit sailors, and maneuvred so well, - that we did not catch one of them." Pursuers and pursued ran out to sea, - firing useless volleys at each other. - </p> - <p> - In the morning Menendez gave over the chase, turned, and, with the "San - Pelayo" alone, ran back for the St. John's. But here a welcome was - prepared for him. He saw bands of armed men drawn up on the beach, and the - smaller vessels of Ribaut's squadron, which had crossed the bar several - days before, anchored behind it to oppose his landing. He would not - venture an attack, but, steering southward, sailed along the coast till he - came to an inlet which he named San Augustine, the same which Laudonniere - had named the River of Dolphins. - </p> - <p> - Here he found three of his ships already debarking their troops, guns, and - stores. Two officers, Patiflo and Vicente, had taken possession of the - dwelling of the Indian chief Seloy, a huge barn-like structure, strongly - framed of entire trunks of trees, and thatched with palmetto leaves. - Around it they were throwing up entrenchments of fascines and sand, and - gangs of negroes were toiling at the work. Such was the birth of St. - Augustine, the oldest town of the United States. - </p> - <p> - On the eighth, Menendez took formal possession of his domain. Cannon were - fired, trumpets sounded, and banners displayed, as he landed in state at - the head of his officers and nobles. Mendoza, crucifix in hand, came to - meet him, chanting Te Deum laudamus, while the Adelantado and all his - company, kneeling, kissed the crucifix, and the assembled Indians gazed in - silent wonder. - </p> - <p> - Meanwhile the tenants of Fort Caroline were not idle. Two or three - soldiers, strolling along the beach in the afternoon, had first seen the - Spanish ships, and hastily summoned Ribaut. He came down to the mouth of - the river, followed by an anxious and excited crowd; but, as they strained - their eyes through the darkness, they could see nothing but the flashes of - the distant guns. At length the returning light showed, far out at sea, - the Adelantado in hot chase of their flying comrades. Pursuers and pursued - were soon out of sight. The drums beat to arms. After many hours of - suspense, the "San Pelayo" reappeared, hovering about the mouth of the - river, then bearing away towards the south. More anxious hours ensued, - when three other sail came in sight, and they recognized three of their - own returning ships. Communication was opened, a boat's crew landed, and - they learned from Cosette, one of the French captains, that, confiding in - the speed of his ship, he had followed the Spaniards to St. Augustine, - reconnoitred their position, and seen them land their negroes and intrench - themselves. - </p> - <p> - Laudonniere lay sick in bed in his chamber at Fort Caroline when Ribaut - entered, and with him La Grange, Sainte Marie, Ottigny, Yonville, and - other officers. At the bedside of the displaced commandant, they held - their council of war. Three plans were proposed: first, to remain where - they were and fortify themselves; next, to push overland for St. Augustine - and attack the invaders in their intrenchments; and, finally, to embark - and assail them by sea. The first plan would leave their ships a prey to - the Spaniards; and so, too, in all likelihood, would the second, besides - the uncertainties of an overland march through an unknown wilderness. By - sea, the distance was short and the route explored. By a sudden blow they - could capture or destroy the Spanish ships, and master the troops on shore - before reinforcements could arrive, and before they had time to complete - their defences. - </p> - <p> - Such were the views of Ribaut, with which, not unnaturally, Laudonniere - finds fault, and Le Moyne echoes the censures of his chief. And yet the - plan seems as well conceived as it was bold, lacking nothing but success. - The Spaniards, stricken with terror, owed their safety to the elements, - or, as they say, to the special interposition of the Holy Virgin. Menendez - was a leader fit to stand with Cortes and Pizarro; but he was matched with - a man as cool, skilful, prompt, and daring as himself. The traces that - have come down to us indicate in Ribaut one far above the common stamp,—"a - distinguished man, of many high qualities," as even the fault-finding Le - Moyne calls him; devout after the best spirit of the Reform; and with a - human heart under his steel breastplate. - </p> - <p> - La Grange and other officers took part with Landonniere, and opposed the - plan of an attack by sea; but Ribaut's conviction was unshaken, and the - order was given. All his own soldiers fit for duty embarked in haste, and - with them went La Caille, Arlac, and, as it seems, Ottigny, with the best - of Laudonniere's men. Even Le Moyne, though wounded in the fight with - Outina's warriors, went on board to bear his part in the fray, and would - have sailed with the rest had not Ottigny, seeing his disabled condition, - ordered him back to the fort. - </p> - <p> - On the tenth, the ships, crowded with troops, set sail. Ribaut was gone, - and with him the bone and sinew of the colony. The miserable remnant - watched his receding sails with dreary foreboding,—a fore-boding - which seemed but too just, when, on the next day, a storm, more violent - than the Indians had ever known, howled through the forest and lashed the - ocean into fury. Most forlorn was the plight of these exiles, left, it - might be, the prey of a band of ferocious bigots more terrible than the - fiercest hordes of the wilderness; and when night closed on the stormy - river and the gloomy waste of pines, what dreams of terror may not have - haunted the helpless women who crouched under the hovels of Fort Caroline! - </p> - <p> - The fort was in a ruinous state, with the palisade on the water side - broken down, and three breaches in the rampart. In the driving rain, urged - by the sick Laudonniere, the men, bedrenched and disheartened, labored as - they could to strengthen their defences. Their muster-roll shows but a - beggarly array. "Now," says Laudonniere, "let them which have bene bold to - say that I had men ynough left me, so that I had meanes to defend my - selfe, give care a little now vnto mee, and if they have eyes in their - heads, let them see what men I had." Of Ribaut's followers left at the - fort, only nine or ten had weapons, while only two or three knew how to - use them. Four of them were boys, who kept Ribaut's dogs, and another was - his cook. Besides these, he had left a brewer, an old crossbow-maker, two - shoemakers, a player on the spinet, four valets, a carpenter of - threescore,—Challeux, no doubt, who has left us the story of his - woes,—with a crowd of women, children, and eighty-six - camp-followers. To these were added the remnant of Laudonniere's men, of - whom seventeen could bear arms, the rest being sick or disabled by wounds - received in the fight with Outina. - </p> - <p> - Laudonniere divided his force, such as it was, into two watches, over - which he placed two officers, Saint Cler and La Vigne, gave them lanterns - for going the rounds, and an hour-glass for setting the time; while he - himself, giddy with weakness and fever, was every night at the guard-room. - </p> - <p> - It was the night of the nineteenth of September, the season of tempests; - floods of rain drenched the sentries on the rampart, and, as day dawned on - the dripping barracks and deluged parade, the storm increased in violence. - What enemy could venture out on such a night? La Vigne, who had the watch, - took pity on the sentries and on himself, dismissed them, and went to his - quarters. He little knew what human energies, urged by ambition, avarice, - bigotry, and desperation, will dare and do. - </p> - <p> - To return to the Spaniards at St. Augustine. On the morning of the - eleventh, the crew of one of their smaller vessels, lying outside the bar, - with Menendez himself on board, saw through the twilight of early dawn two - of Ribaut's ships close upon them. Not a breath of air was stirring. There - was no escape, and the Spaniards fell on their knees in supplication to - Our Lady of Utrera, explaining to her that the heretics were upon them, - and begging her to send them a little wind. "Forthwith," says Mendoza, - "one would have said that Our Lady herself came down upon the vessel." A - wind sprang up, and the Spaniards found refuge behind the bar. The - returning day showed to their astonished eyes all the ships of Ribaut, - their decks black with men, hovering off the entrance of the port; but - Heaven had them in its charge, and again they experienced its protecting - care. The breeze sent by Our Lady of Utrera rose to a gale, then to a - furious tempest; and the grateful Adelantado saw through rack and mist the - ships of his enemy tossed wildly among the raging waters as they struggled - to gain an offing. With exultation in his heart, the skilful seaman read - their danger, and saw them in his mind's eye dashed to utter wreck among - the sand-bars and breakers of the lee shore. - </p> - <p> - A bold thought seized him. He would march overland with five hundred men, - and attack Fort Caroline while its defenders were absent. First he ordered - a mass, and then he called a council. Doubtless it was in that great - Indian lodge of Seloy, where he had made his headquarters; and here, in - this dim and smoky abode, nobles, officers, and priests gathered at his - summons. There were fears and doubts and murmurings, but Menendez was - desperate; not with the mad desperation that strikes wildly and at random, - but the still white heat that melts and burns and seethes with a steady, - unquenchable fierceness. "Comrades," he said, "the time has come to show - our courage and our zeal. This is God's war, and we must not flinch. It is - a war with Lutherans, and we must wage it with blood and fire." - </p> - <p> - But his hearers gave no response. They had not a million of ducats at - stake, and were not ready for a cast so desperate. A clamor of - remonstrance rose from the circle. Many voices, that of Mendoza among the - rest, urged waiting till their main forces should arrive. The excitement - spread to the men without, and the swarthy, black-bearded crowd broke into - tumults mounting almost to mutiny, while an officer was heard to say that - he would not go on such a hare-brained errand to be butchered like a - beast. But nothing could move the Adelantado. His appeals or his threats - did their work at last; the confusion was quelled, and preparation was - made for the march. - </p> - <p> - On the morning of the seventeenth, five hundred arquebusiers and pikemen - were drawn up before the camp. To each was given six pounds of biscuit and - a canteen filled with wine. Two Indians and a renegade Frenchman, called - Francois Jean, were to guide them, and twenty Biscayan axemen moved to the - front to clear the way. Through floods of driving rain, a hoarse voice - shouted the word of command, and the sullen march began. - </p> - <p> - With dismal misgiving, Mendoza watched the last files as they vanished in - the tempestuous forest. Two days of suspense ensued, when a messenger came - back with a letter from the Adelantado, announcing that he had nearly - reached the French fort, and that on the morrow, September the twentieth, - at sunrise, he hoped to assault it. "May the Divine Majesty deign to - protect us, for He knows that we have need of it," writes the scared - chaplain; "the Adelantado's great zeal and courage make us hope he will - succeed, but, for the good of his Majesty's service, he ought to be a - little less ardent in pursuing his schemes." - </p> - <p> - Meanwhile the five hundred pushed their march, now toiling across the - inundated savanrias, waist-deep in bulrushes and mud; now filing through - the open forest to the moan and roar of the storm-racked pines: now - hacking their way through palmetto thickets; and now turning from their - path to shun some pool, quagmire, cypress swamp, or "hummock," matted with - impenetrable bushes, brambles, and vines. As they bent before the tempest, - the water trickling from the rusty head-piece crept clammy and cold - betwixt the armor and the skin; and when they made their wretched bivouac, - their bed was the spongy soil, and the exhaustless clouds their tent. - </p> - <p> - The night of Wednesday, the nineteenth, found their vanguard in a deep - forest of pines, less than a mile from Fort Caroline, and near the low - hills which extended in its rear, and formed a continuation of St. John's - Bluff. All around was one great morass. In pitchy darkness, knee-deep in - weeds and water, half starved, worn with toil and lack of sleep, drenched - to the skin, their provisions spoiled, their ammunition wet, and their - spirit chilled out of them, they stood in shivering groups, cursing the - enterprise and the author of it. Menendez heard Fernando Perez, an ensign, - say aloud to his comrades: "This Asturian Corito, who knows no more of war - on shore than an ass, has betrayed us all. By God, if my advice had been - followed, he would have had his deserts, the day he set out on this cursed - journey!" - </p> - <p> - The Adelantado pretended not to hear. - </p> - <p> - Two hours before dawn he called his officers about him. All night, he - said, he had been praying to God and the Virgin. - </p> - <p> - "Senores, what shall we resolve on? Our ammunition and provisions are - gone. Our case is desperate." And he urged a bold rush on the fort. - </p> - <p> - But men and officers alike were disheartened and disgusted. They listened - coldly and sullenly; many were for returning at every risk; none were in - the mood for fight. Menendez put forth all his eloquence, till at length - the dashed spirits of his followers were so far revived that they - consented to follow him. - </p> - <p> - All fell on their knees in the marsh; then, rising, they formed their - ranks and began to advance, guided by the renegade Frenchman, whose hands, - to make sure of him, were tied behind his back. Groping and stumbling in - the dark among trees, roots, and underbrush, buffeted by wind and rain, - and lashed in the face by the recoiling boughs which they could not see, - they soon lost their way, fell into confusion, and came to a stand, in a - mood more savagely desponding than before. But soon a glimmer of returning - day came to their aid, and showed them the dusky sky, and the dark columns - of the surrounding pines. Menendez ordered the men forward on pain of - death. They obeyed, and presently, emerging from the forest, could dimly - discern the ridge of a low hill, behind which, the Frenchman told them, - was the fort. Menendez, with a few officers and men, cautiously mounted to - the top. Beneath lay Fort Caroline, three bow-shots distant; but the rain, - the imperfect light, and a cluster of intervening houses prevented his - seeing clearly, and he sent two officers to reconnoiter. As they - descended, they met a solitary Frenchman. They knocked him down with a - sheathed sword, wounded him, took him prisoner, kept him for a time, and - then stabbed him as they returned towards the top of the hill. Here, - clutching their weapons, all the gang stood in fierce expectancy. - </p> - <p> - "Santiago!" cried Menendez. "At them! God is with us! Victory!" And, - shouting their hoarse war-cries, the Spaniards rushed down the slope like - starved wolves. - </p> - <p> - Not a sentry was on the rampart. La Vigne, the officer of the guard, had - just gone to his quarters; but a trumpeter, who chanced to remain, saw, - through sheets of rain, the swarm of assailants sweeping down the hill. He - blew the alarm, and at the summons a few half-naked soldiers ran wildly - out of the barracks. It was too late. Through the breaches and over the - ramparts the Spaniards came pouring in, with shouts of "Santiago! - Santiago!" - </p> - <p> - Sick men leaped from their beds. Women and children, blind with fright, - darted shrieking from the houses. A fierce, gaunt visage, the thrust of a - pike, or blow of a rusty halberd,—such was the greeting that met all - alike. Laudonniere snatched his sword and target, and ran towards the - principal breach, calling to his soldiers. A rush of Spaniards met him; - his men were cut down around him; and he, with a soldier named - Bartholomew, was forced back into the yard of his house. Here stood a - tent, and, as the pursuers stumbled among the cords, he escaped behind - Ottigny's house, sprang through the breach in the western rampart, and - fled for the woods. - </p> - <p> - Le Moyne had been one of the guard. Scarcely had he thrown himself into a - hammock which was slung in his room, when a savage shout, and a wild - uproar of shrieks, outcries, and the clash of weapons, brought him to his - feet. He rushed by two Spaniards in the doorway, ran behind the - guard-house, leaped through an embrasure into the ditch, and escaped to - the forest. - </p> - <p> - Challeux, the carpenter, was going betimes to his work, a chisel in his - hand. He was old, but pike and partisan brandished at his back gave wings - to his flight. In the ecstasy of his terror, he leaped upward, clutched - the top of the palisade, and threw himself over with the agility of a boy. - He ran up the hill, no one pursuing, and, as he neared the edge of the - forest, turned and looked back. From the high ground where he stood, he - could see the butchery, the fury of the conquerors, and the agonizing - gestures of the victims. He turned again in horror, and plunged into the - woods. As he tore his way through the briers and thickets, he met several - fugitives escaped like himself. Others presently came up, haggard and - wild, like men broken loose from the jaws of death. They gathered together - and consulted. One of them, known as Master Robert, in great repute for - his knowledge of the Bible, was for returning and surrendering to the - Spaniards. "They are men," he said; "perhaps, when their fury is over, - they will spare our lives; and, even if they kill us, it will only be a - few moments' pain. Better so, than to starve here in the woods, or be torn - to pieces by wild beasts." - </p> - <p> - The greater part of the naked and despairing company assented, but - Challeux was of a different mind. The old Huguenot quoted Scripture, and - called the names of prophets and apostles to witness, that, in the direst - extremity, God would not abandon those who rested their faith in Him. Six - of the fugitives, however, still held to their desperate purpose. Issuing - from the woods, they descended towards the fort, and, as with beating - hearts their comrades watched the result, a troop of Spaniards rushed out, - hewed them down with swords and halberds, and dragged their bodies to the - brink of the river, where the victims of the massacre were already flung - in heaps. - </p> - <p> - Le Moyne, with a soldier named Grandehemin, whom he had met in his flight, - toiled all day through the woods and marshes, in the hope of reaching the - small vessels anchored behind the bar. Night found them in a morass. No - vessel could be seen, and the soldier, in despair, broke into angry - upbraidings against his companion,—saying that he would go back and - give himself up. Le Moyne at first opposed him, then yielded. But when - they drew near the fort, and heard the uproar of savage revelry that rose - from within, the artist's heart failed him. He embraced his companion, and - the soldier advanced alone. A party of Spaniards came out to meet him. He - kneeled, and begged for his life. He was answered by a death-blow; and the - horrified Le Moyne, from his hiding-place in the thicket, saw his limbs - hacked apart, stuck on pikes, and borne off in triumph. - </p> - <p> - Meanwhile, Menendez, mustering his followers, had offered thanks to God - for their victory; and this pious butcher wept with emotion as he - recounted the favors which Heaven had showered upon their enterprise. His - admiring historian gives it in proof of his humanity, that, after the rage - of the assault was spent, he ordered that women, infants, and boys under - fifteen should thenceforth be spared. Of these, by his own account, there - were about fifty. Writing in October to the King, he says that they cause - him great anxiety, since he fears the anger of God should he now put them - to death in cold blood, while, on the other hand, he is in dread lest the - venom of their heresy should infect his men. - </p> - <p> - A hundred and forty-two persons were slain in and around the fort, and - their bodies lay heaped together on the bank of the river. Nearly opposite - was anchored a small vessel, called the "Pearl," commanded by Jacques - Ribaut, son of the Admiral. The ferocious soldiery, maddened with victory - and drunk with blood, crowded to the water's edge, shouting insults to - those on board, mangling the corpses, tearing out their eyes, and throwing - them towards the vessel from the points of their daggers. Thus did the - Most Catholic Philip champion the cause of Heaven in the New World. - </p> - <p> - It was currently believed in France, and, though no eye-witness attests - it, there is reason to think it true, that among those murdered at Fort - Caroline there were some who died a death of peculiar ignominy. Menendez, - it is affirmed, hanged his prisoners on trees, and placed over them the - inscription, "I do this, not as to Frenchmen, but as to Lutherans." - </p> - <p> - The Spaniards gained a great booty in armor, clothing, and provisions. - "Nevertheless," says the devout Mendoza, after closing his inventory of - the plunder, "the greatest profit of this victory is the triumph which our - Lord has granted us, whereby His holy Gospel will be introduced into this - country, a thing so needful for saving so many souls from perdition." - Again he writes in his journal, "We owe to God and His Mother, more than - to human strength, this victory over the adversaries of the holy Catholic - religion." - </p> - <p> - To whatever influence, celestial or other, the exploit may best be - ascribed, the victors were not yet quite content with their success. Two - small French vessels, besides that of Jacques Ribaut, still lay within - range of the fort. When the storm had a little abated, the cannon were - turned on them. One of them was sunk, but Ribaut, with the others, escaped - down the river, at the mouth of which several light craft, including that - bought from the English, had been anchored since the arrival of his - father's squadron. - </p> - <p> - While this was passing, the wretched fugitives were flying from the scene - of massacre through a tempest, of whose persistent violence all the - narratives speak with wonder. Exhausted, starved, half naked,—for - most of them had escaped in their shirts,—they pushed their toilsome - way amid the ceaseless wrath of the elements. A few sought refuge in - Indian villages; but these, it is said, were afterwards killed by the - Spaniards. The greater number attempted to reach the vessels at the mouth - of the river. Among the latter was Le Moyne, who, notwithstanding his - former failure, was toiling through the mazes of tangled forests, when he - met a Belgian soldier, with the woman described as Laudonniere's - maid-servant, who was wounded in the breast; and, urging their flight - towards the vessels, they fell in with other fugitives, including - Laudonniere himself. As they struggled through the salt marsh, the rank - sedge cut their naked limbs, and the tide rose to their waists. Presently - they descried others, toiling like themselves through the matted - vegetation, and recognized Challeux and his companions, also in quest of - the vessels. The old man still, as he tells us, held fast to his chisel, - which had done good service in cutting poles to aid the party to cross the - deep creeks that channelled the morass. The united band, twenty-six in - all, were cheered at length by the sight of a moving sail. It was the - vessel of Captain Mallard, who, informed of the massacre, was standing - along shore in the hope of picking up some of the fugitives. He saw their - signals, and sent boats to their rescue; but such was their exhaustion, - that, had not the sailors, wading to their armpits among the rushes, borne - them out on their shoulders, few could have escaped. Laudonniere was so - feeble that nothing but the support of a soldier, who held him upright in - his arms, had saved him from drowning in the marsh. - </p> - <p> - On gaining the friendly decks, the fugitives counselled together. One and - all, they sickened for the sight of France. - </p> - <p> - After waiting a few days, and saving a few more stragglers from the marsh, - they prepared to sail. Young Ribaut, though ignorant of his father's fate, - assented with something more than willingness; indeed, his behavior - throughout had been stamped with weakness and poltroonery. On the - twenty-fifth of September they put to sea in two vessels; and, after a - voyage the privations of which were fatal to many of them, they arrived, - one party at Rochelle, the other at Swansea, in Wales. - </p> - <p> - <a name="link2HCH0008" id="link2HCH0008"> - <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> - </p> - <div style="height: 4em;"> - <br /><br /><br /><br /> - </div> - <h2> - CHAPTER VIII - </h2> - <h3> - 1565. - </h3> - <p> - MASSACRE OF THE HERETICS. - </p> - <p> - In suspense and fear, hourly looking seaward for the dreaded fleet of Jean - Ribaut, the chaplain Mendoza and his brother priests held watch and ward - at St. Augustine in the Adelantado's absence. Besides the celestial - guardians whom they ceased not to invoke, they had as protectors - Bartholomew Menendez, the brother of the Adelantado, and about a hundred - soldiers. Day and night they toiled to throw up earthworks and strengthen - their position. - </p> - <p> - A week elapsed, when they saw a man running towards them, shouting as he - ran. - </p> - <p> - Mendoza went to meet him. - </p> - <p> - "Victory! victory!" gasped the breathless messenger. "The French fort is - ours!" And he flung his arms about the chaplain's neck.' - </p> - <p> - "To-day," writes the priest in his journal, "Monday, the twenty-fourth, - came our good general himself, with fifty soldiers, very tired, Like all - those who were with him. As soon as they told me he was coming, I ran to - my lodging, took a new cassock, the best I had, put on my surplice, and - went out to meet him with a crucifix in my hand; whereupon he, like a - gentleman and a good Christian, kneeled down with all his followers, and - gave the Lord a thousand thanks for the great favors he had received from - Him." - </p> - <p> - In solemn procession, with four priests in front chanting Te Deum, the - victors entered St. Augustine in triumph. - </p> - <p> - On the twenty-eighth, when the weary Adelantado was taking his siesta - under the sylvan roof of Seloy, a troop of Indians came in with news that - quickly roused him from his slumbers. They had seen a French vessel - wrecked on the coast towards the south. Those who escaped from her were - four or six leagues off, on the banks of a river or arm of the sea, which - they could not cross. - </p> - <p> - Menendez instantly sent forty or fifty men in boats to reconnoitre. Next, - he called the chaplain,—for he would fain have him at his elbow to - countenance the deeds he meditated,—and, with him twelve soldiers - and two Indian guides, embarked in another boat. They rowed along the - channel between Anastasia Island and the main shore; then they landed, - struck across the island on foot, traversed plains and marshes, reached - the sea towards night, and searched along shore till ten o'clock to find - their comrades who had gone before. At length, with mutual joy, the two - parties met, and bivouacked together on the sands. Not far distant they - could see lights. These were the camp-fires of the shipwrecked French. - </p> - <p> - To relate with precision the fortunes of these unhappy men is impossible; - for henceforward the French narratives are no longer the narratives of - eye-witnesses. - </p> - <p> - It has been seen how, when on the point of assailing the Spaniards at St. - Augustine, Jean Ribaut was thwarted by a gale, which they hailed as a - divine interposition. The gale rose to a tempest of strange fury. Within a - few days, all the French ships were cast on shore, between Matanzas Inlet - and Cape Canaveral. According to a letter of Menendez, many of those on - hoard were lost; but others affirm that all escaped but a captain, La - Grange, an officer of high merit, who was washed from a floating mast. One - of the ships was wrecked at a point farther northward than the rest, and - it was her company whose campfires were seen by the Spaniards at their - bivouac on the sands of Anastasia Island. They were endeavoring to reach - Fort Caroline, of the fate of which they knew nothing, while Ribaut with - the remainder was farther southward, struggling through the wilderness - towards the same goal. What befell the latter will appear hereafter. Of - the fate of the former party there is no French record. What we know of it - is due to three Spanish eye-witnesses, Mendoza, Doctor Soils de las Meras, - and Menendez himself. Soils was a priest, and brother-in-law to Menendez. - Like Mendoza, he minutely describes what he saw, and, like him, was a - red-hot zealot, lavishing applause on the darkest deeds of his chief. But - the principal witness, though not the most minute or most trustworthy, is - Menendez, in his long despatches sent from Florida to the King, and now - first brought to light from the archives of Seville,—a cool record - of unsurpassed atrocities, inscribed on the back with the royal - indorsement, "Say to him that he has done well." - </p> - <p> - When the Adelantado saw the French fires in the distance, he lay close in - his bivouac, and sent two soldiers to reconnoitre. At two o'clock in the - morning they came back, and reported that it was impossible to get at the - enemy, since they were on the farther side of an arm of the sea (Matanzas - Inlet). Menendez, however, gave orders to march, and before daybreak - reached the hither bank, where he hid his men in a bushy hollow. Thence, - as it grew light, they could discern the enemy, many of whom were - searching along the sands and shallows for shell-fish, for they were - famishing. A thought struck Menendez, an inspiration, says Mendoza, of the - Holy Spirit. He put on the clothes of a sailor, entered a boat which had - been brought to the spot, and rowed towards the shipwrecked men, the - better to learn their condition. A Frenchman swam out to meet him. - Menendez demanded what men they were. - </p> - <p> - "Followers of Ribaut, Viceroy of the King of France," answered the - swimmer. - </p> - <p> - "Are you Catholics or Lutherans?" - </p> - <p> - "All Lutherans." - </p> - <p> - A brief dialogue ensued, during which the Adelantado declared his name and - character, and the Frenchman gave an account of the designs of Ribaut, and - of the disaster that had thwarted them. He then swam back to his - companions, but soon returned, and asked safe conduct for his captain and - four other gentlemen, who wished to hold conference with the Spanish - general. Menendez gave his word for their safety, and, returning to the - shore, sent his boat to bring them over. On their landing, he met them - very courteously. His followers were kept at a distance, so disposed - behind hills and among bushes as to give an exaggerated idea of their - force,—a precaution the more needful, as they were only about sixty - in number, while the French, says Solfs, were above two hundred. Menendez, - however, declares that they did not exceed a hundred and forty. The French - officer told him the story of their shipwreck, and begged him to lend them - a boat to aid them in crossing the rivers which lay between them and a - fort of their King, whither they were making their way. - </p> - <p> - Then came again the ominous question, - </p> - <p> - "Are you Catholics or Lutherans?" - </p> - <p> - "We are Lutherans." - </p> - <p> - "Gentlemen," pursued Menendez, "your fort is taken, and all in it are put - to the sword." And, in proof of his declaration, he caused articles - plundered from Fort Caroline to be shown to the unhappy petitioners. He - then left them, and went to breakfast with his officers, first ordering - food to be placed before them. Having breakfasted, he returned to them. - </p> - <p> - "Are you convinced now," he asked, "that what I have told you is true?" - </p> - <p> - The French captain assented, and implored him to lend them ships in which - to return home. Menendez answered that he would do so willingly if they - were Catholics, and if he had ships to spare, but he had none. The - supplicants then expressed the hope that at least they and their followers - would be allowed to remain with the Spaniards till ships could be sent to - their relief, since there was peace between the two nations, whose kings - were friends and brothers. - </p> - <p> - "All Catholics," retorted the Spaniard, "I will befriend; but as you are - of the New Sect, I hold you as enemies, and wage deadly war against you; - and this I will do with all cruelty [crueldad] in this country, where I - command as Viceroy and Captain-General for my King. I am here to plant the - Holy Gospel, that the Indians may be enlightened and come to the knowledge - of the Holy Catholic faith of our Lord Jesus Christ, as the Roman Church - teaches it. If you will give up your arms and banners, and place - yourselves at my mercy, you may do so, and I will act towards you as God - shall give me grace. Do as you will, for other than this you can have - neither truce nor friendship with me." - </p> - <p> - Such were the Adelantado's words, as reported by a bystanders his admiring - brother-in-law and that they contain an implied assurance of mercy has - been held, not only by Protestants, but by Catholics and Spaniards. The - report of Menendez himself is more brief, and sufficiently equivocal:— - </p> - <p> - "I answered, that they could give up their arms and place themselves under - my mercy,—that I should do with them what our Lord should order; and - from that I did not depart, nor would I, unless God our Lord should - otherwise inspire." - </p> - <p> - One of the Frenchmen recrossed to consult with his companions. In two - hours he returned, and offered fifty thousand ducats to secure their - lives; but Menendez, says his brother-in-law, would give no pledges. On - the other hand, expressions in his own despatches point to the inference - that a virtual pledge was given, at least to certain individuals. - </p> - <p> - The starving French saw no resource but to yield themselves to his mercy. - The boat was again sent across the river. It returned laden with banners, - arquebuses, swords, targets, and helmets. The Adelantado ordered twenty - soldiers to bring over the prisoners, ten at a time. He then took the - French officers aside behind a ridge of sand, two gunshots from the bank. - Here, with courtesy on his lips and murder at his heart, he said: - </p> - <p> - "Gentlemen, I have but few men, and you are so many that, if you were - free, it would be easy for you to take your satisfaction on us for the - people we killed when we took your fort. Therefore it is necessary that - you should go to my camp, four leagues from this place, with your hands - tied." - </p> - <p> - Accordingly, as each party landed, they were led out of sight behind the - sand-hill, and their hands tied behind their backs with the match-cords of - the arquebuses, though not before each had been supplied with food. The - whole day passed before all were brought together, bound and helpless, - under the eye of the inexorable Adelantado. But now Mendoza interposed. "I - was a priest," he says, "and had the bowels of a man." He asked that if - there were Christians—that is to say, Catholics—among the - prisoners, they should be set apart. Twelve Breton sailors professed - themselves to be such; and these, together with four carpenters and - calkers, "of whom," writes Menendez, "I was in great need," were put on - board the boat and sent to St. Augustine. The rest were ordered to march - thither by land. - </p> - <p> - The Adelantado walked in advance till he came to a lonely spot, not far - distant, deep among the bush-covered hills. Here he stopped, and with his - cane drew a line in the sand. The sun was set when the captive Huguenots, - with their escort, reached the fatal goal thus marked out. And now let the - curtain drop; for here, in the name of Heaven, the hounds of hell were - turned loose, and the savage soldiery, like wolves in a sheepfold, rioted - in slaughter. Of all that wretched company, not one was left alive. - </p> - <p> - "I had their hands tied behind their backs," writes the chief criminal, - "and themselves put to the knife. It appeared to me that, by thus - chastising them, God our Lord and your Majesty were served; whereby in - future this evil sect will leave us more free to plant the Gospel in these - parts." - </p> - <p> - Again Menendez returned triumphant to St. Augustine, and behind him - marched his band of butchers, steeped in blood to the elbows, but still - unsated. Great as had been his success, he still had cause for anxiety. - There was ill news of his fleet. Some of the ships were lost, others - scattered, or lagging tardily on their way. Of his whole force, less than - a half had reached Florida, and of these a large part were still at Fort - Caroline. Ribaut could not be far off; and, whatever might be the - condition of his shipwrecked company, their numbers would make them - formidable, unless taken at advantage. Urged by fear and fortified by - fanaticism, Menendez had well begun his work of slaughter; but rest for - him there was none,—a darker deed was behind. - </p> - <p> - On the tenth of October, Indians came with the tidings that, at the spot - where the first party of the shipwrecked French had been found, there was - now another party still larger. This murder-loving race looked with great - respect on Menendez for his wholesale butchery of the night before,—an - exploit rarely equalled in their own annals of massacre. On his part, he - doubted not that Ribaut was at hand. Marching with a hundred and fifty - men, he crossed the bush-covered sands of Anastasia Island, followed the - strand between the thickets and the sea, reached the inlet at midnight, - and again, like a savage, ambushed himself on the bank. Day broke, and he - could plainly see the French on the farther side. They had made a raft, - which lay in the water ready for crossing. Menendez and his men showed - themselves, when, forthwith, the French displayed their banners, sounded - drums and trumpets, and set their sick and starving ranks in array of - battle. But the Adelantado, regardless of this warlike show, ordered his - men to seat themselves at breakfast, while he with three officers walked - unconcernedly along the shore. His coolness had its effect. The French - blew a trumpet of parley, and showed a white flag. The Spaniards replied. - A Frenchman came out upon the raft, and, shouting across the water, asked - that a Spanish envoy should be sent over. - </p> - <p> - "You have a raft," was the reply; "come yourselves." - </p> - <p> - An Indian canoe lay under the bank on the Spanish side. A French sailor - swam to it, paddled back unmolested, and presently returned, bringing with - him La Caille, Ribaut's sergeant-major. He told Menendez that the French - were three hundred and fifty in all, and were on their way to Fort - Caroline; and, like the officers of the former party, he begged for boats - to aid them in crossing the river. - </p> - <p> - "My brother," said Menendez, "go and tell your general, that, if he wishes - to speak with me, he may come with four or six companions, and that I - pledge my word he shall go back safe." - </p> - <p> - La Caille returned; and Ribaut, with eight gentlemen, soon came over in - the canoe. Menendez met them courteously, caused wine and preserved fruits - to be placed before them,—he had come well provisioned on his errand - of blood,—and next led Ribaut to the reeking Golgotha, where, in - heaps upon the sand, lay the corpses of his slaughtered followers. Ribaut - was prepared for the spectacle,—La Caille had already seen it,—but - he would not believe that Fort Caroline was taken till a part of the - plunder was shown him. Then, mastering his despair, he turned to the - conqueror. "What has befallen us," he said, "may one day befall you." And, - urging that the kings of France and Spain were brothers and close friends, - he begged, in the name of that friendship, that the Spaniard would aid him - in conveying his followers home. Menendez gave him the same equivocal - answer that he had given the former party, and Ribaut returned to consult - with his officers. After three hours of absence, he came back in the - canoe, and told the Adelantado that some of his people were ready to - surrender at discretion, but that many refused. - </p> - <p> - "They can do as they please," was the reply. In behalf of those who - surrendered, Ribaut offered a ransom of a hundred thousand ducats. "It - would much grieve me," said Menendez, "not to accept it; for I have great - need of it." - </p> - <p> - Ribaut was much encouraged. Menendez could scarcely forego such a prize, - and he thought, says the Spanish narrator, that the lives of his followers - would now be safe. He asked to be allowed the night for deliberation, and - at sunset recrossed the river. In the morning he reappeared among the - Spaniards, and reported that two hundred of his men had retreated from the - spot, but that the remaining hundred and fifty would surrender. At the - same time he gave into the hands of Menendez the royal standard and other - flags, with his sword, dagger, helmet, buckler, and the official seal - given him by Coligny. Menendez directed an officer to enter the boat and - bring over the French by tens. He next led Ribaut among the bushes behind - the neighboring sand-hill, and ordered his hands to be bound fast. Then - the scales fell from the prisoner's eyes. Face to face his fate rose up - before him. He saw his followers and himself entrapped,—the dupes of - words artfully framed to lure them to their ruin. The day wore on; and, as - band after band of prisoners was brought over, they were led behind the - sand-hill out of sight from the farther shore, and bound like their - general. At length the transit was finished. With bloodshot eyes and - weapons bared, the Spaniards closed around their victims. - </p> - <p> - "Are you Catholics or Lutherans? and is there any one among you who will - go to confession?" - </p> - <p> - Ribaut answered, "I and all here are of the Reformed Faith." - </p> - <p> - And he recited the Psalm, "Domine, memento mei." - </p> - <p> - "We are of earth," he continued, "and to earth we must return; twenty - years more or less can matter little;" and, turning to the Adelantado, he - bade him do his will. - </p> - <p> - The stony-hearted bigot gave the signal; and those who will may paint to - themselves the horrors of the scene. - </p> - <p> - A few, however, were spared. "I saved," writes Menendez, "the lives of two - young gentlemen of about eighteen years of age, as well as of three - others, the fifer, the drummer, and the trumpeter; and I caused Juan Ribao - [Ribaut] with all the rest to be put to the knife, judging this to be - necessary for the service of God our Lord and of your Majesty. And I - consider it great good fortune that he [Juan Ribao] should be dead, for - the King of France could effect more with him and five hundred ducats than - with other men and five thousand; and he would do more in one year than - another in ten, for he was the most experienced sailor and naval commander - known, and of great skill in this navigation of the Indies and the coast - of Florida. He was, besides, greatly liked in England, in which kingdom - his reputation was such that he was appointed Captain-General of all the - English fleet against the French Catholics in the war between England and - France some years ago." - </p> - <p> - Such is the sum of the Spanish accounts,—the self-damning testimony - of the author and abettors of the crime; a picture of lurid and awful - coloring; and yet there is reason to believe that the truth was darker - still. Among those who were spared was one Christophe le Breton, who was - carried to Spain, escaped to France, and told his story to Challeux. Among - those struck down in the butchery was a sailor of Dieppe, stunned and left - for dead under a heap of corpses. In the night he revived, contrived to - draw his knife, cut the cords that bound his hands, and made his way to an - Indian village. The Indians, not without reluctance, abandoned him to the - Spaniards, who sold him as a slave; but, on his way in fetters to - Portugal, the ship was taken by the Huguenots, the sailor set free, and - his story published in the narrative of Le Moyne. When the massacre was - known in France, the friends and relatives of the victims sent to the - King, Charles the Ninth, a vehement petition for redress; and their - memorial recounts many incidents of the tragedy. From these three sources - is to be drawn the French version of the story. The following is its - substance. - </p> - <p> - Famished and desperate, the followers of Ribaut were toiling northward to - seek refuge at Fort Caroline, when they found the Spaniards in their path. - Some were filled with dismay; others, in their misery, almost hailed them - as deliverers. La Caille, the sergeant-major, crossed the river. Menendez - met him with a face of friendship, and protested that he would spare the - lives of the shipwrecked men, sealing the promise with an oath, a kiss, - and many signs of the cross. He even gave it in writing, under seal. - Still, there were many among the French who would not place themselves in - his power. The most credulous crossed the river in a boat. As each - successive party landed, their hands were bound fast at their backs; and - thus, except a few who were set apart, they were all driven towards the - fort, like cattle to the shambles, with curses and scurrilous abuse. Then, - at sound of drums and trumpets, the Spaniards fell upon them, striking - them down with swords, pikes, and halberds. Ribaut vainly called on the - Adelantado to remember his oath. By his order, a soldier plunged a dagger - into the French commander's heart; and Ottigny, who stood near, met a - similar fate. Ribaut's beard was cut off, and portions of it sent in a - letter to Philip the Second. His head was hewn into four parts, one of - which was displayed on the point of a lance at each corner of Fort St. - Augustine. Great fires were kindled, and the bodies of the murdered burned - to ashes. - </p> - <p> - Such is the sum of the French accounts. The charge of breach of faith - contained in them was believed by Catholics as well as Protestants; and it - was as a defence against this charge that the narrative of the - Adelantado's brother-in-law was published. That Ribaut, a man whose good - sense and courage were both reputed high, should have submitted himself - and his men to Menendez without positive assurance of safety, is scarcely - credible; nor is it lack of charity to believe that a bigot so savage in - heart and so perverted in conscience would act on the maxim, current among - certain casuists of the day, that faith ought not to be kept with - heretics. - </p> - <p> - It was night when the Adelantado again entered St. Augustine. There were - some who blamed his cruelty; but many applauded. "Even if the French had - been Catholics,"—such was their language,—"he would have done - right, for, with the little provision we have, they would all have - starved; besides, there were so many of them that they would have cut our - throats." - </p> - <p> - And now Menendez again addressed himself to the despatch, already begun, - in which he recounts to the King his labors and his triumphs, a deliberate - and business-like document, mingling narratives of butchery with - recommendations for promotions, commissary details, and petitions for - supplies,—enlarging, too, on the vast schemes of encroachment which - his successful generalship had brought to naught. The French, he says, had - planned a military and naval depot at Los Martires, whence they would make - a descent upon Havana, and another at the Bay of Ponce de Leon, whence - they could threaten Vera Cruz. They had long been encroaching on Spanish - rights at Newfoundland, from which a great arm of the sea—doubtless - meaning the St. Lawrence—would give them access to the Moluccas and - other parts of the East Indies. He adds, in a later despatch, that by this - passage they may reach the mines of Zacatecas and St. Martin, as well as - every part of the South Sea. And, as already mentioned, he urges immediate - occupation of Chesapeake Bay, which, by its supposed water communication - with the St. Lawrence, would enable Spain to vindicate her rights, control - the fisheries of Newfoundland, and thwart her rival in vast designs of - commercial and territorial aggrandizement. Thus did France and Spain - dispute the possession of North America long before England became a party - to the strife. <a href="#linknote-24" name="linknoteref-24" - id="linknoteref-24">24</a> - </p> - <p> - Some twenty days after Menendez returned to St. Augustine, the Indians, - enamoured of carnage, and exulting to see their invaders mowed down, came - to tell him that on the coast southward, near Cape Canaveral, a great - number of Frenchmen were intrenching themselves. They were those of - Ribaut's party who had refused to surrender. Having retreated to the spot - where their ships had been cast ashore, they were trying to build a vessel - from the fragments of the wrecks. - </p> - <p> - In all haste Menendez despatched messengers to Fort Caroline, named by him - San Mateo, ordering a reinforcement of a hundred and fifty men. In a few - days they came. He added some of his own soldiers, and, with a united - force of two hundred and fifty, set out, as he tells us, on the second of - November. A part of his force went by sea, while the rest pushed southward - along the shore with such merciless energy that several men dropped dead - with wading night and day through the loose sands. When, from behind their - frail defences, the French saw the Spanish pikes and partisans glittering - into view, they fled in a panic, and took refuge among the hills. Menendez - sent a trumpet to summon them, pledging his honor for their safety. The - commander and several others told the messenger that they would sooner be - eaten by the savages than trust themselves to Spaniards; and, escaping, - they fled to the Indian towns. The rest surrendered; and Menendez kept his - word. The comparative number of his own men made his prisoners no longer - dangerous. They were led back to St. Augustine, where, as the Spanish - writer affirms, they were well treated. Those of good birth sat at the - Adelantado's table, eating the bread of a homicide crimsoned with the - slaughter of their comrades. The priests essayed their pious efforts, and, - under the gloomy menace of the Inquisition, some of the heretics renounced - their errors. The fate of the captives may be gathered from the - endorsement, in the handwriting of the King, on one of the despatches of - Menendez. - </p> - <p> - "Say to him," writes Philip the Second, "that, as to those he has killed, - he has done well; and as to those he has saved, they shall be sent to the - galleys." - </p> - <p> - <a name="link2HCH0009" id="link2HCH0009"> - <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> - </p> - <div style="height: 4em;"> - <br /><br /><br /><br /> - </div> - <h2> - CHAPTER IX. - </h2> - <h3> - 1565-1567. - </h3> - <p> - CHARLES IX. AND PHILLIP II. - </p> - <p> - The state of international relations in the sixteenth century is hardly - conceivable at this day. The Puritans of England and the Huguenots of - France regarded Spain as their natural enemy, and on the high seas and in - the British Channel they joined hands with godless freebooters to rifle - her ships, kill her sailors, or throw them alive into the sea. Spain on - her side seized English Protestant sailors who ventured into her ports, - and burned them as heretics, or consigned them to a living death in the - dungeons of the Inquisition. Yet in the latter half of the century these - mutual outrages went on for years while the nations professed to be at - peace. There was complaint, protest, and occasional menace, but no - redress, and no declaration of war. - </p> - <p> - Contemporary writers of good authority have said that, when the news of - the massacres in Florida reached the court of France, Charles the Ninth - and Catherine de Medicis submitted to the insult in silence; but documents - lately brought to light show that a demand for redress was made, though - not insisted on. A cry of horror and execration had risen from the - Huguenots and many even of the Catholics had echoed it; yet the - perpetrators of the crime, and not its victims, were the first to make - complaint. Philip the Second resented the expeditions of Ribaut and - Laudonniere as an invasion of the American domains of Spain, and ordered - D'Alava, his ambassador at Paris, to denounce them to the French King. - Charles, thus put on the defensive, replied, that the country in question - belonged to France, having been discovered by Frenchmen a hundred years - before, and named by them Terre des Bretons. This alludes to the tradition - that the Bretons and Basques visited the northern coasts of America before - the voyage of Columbus. In several maps of the sixteenth century the - region of New England and the neighboring states and provinces is set down - as Terre des Bretons, or Tierra de los Bretones, and this name was assumed - by Charles to extend to the Gulf of Mexico, as the name of Florida was - assumed by the Spaniards to extend to the Gulf of St. Lawrence, and even - beyond it. Philip spurned the claim, asserted the Spanish right to all - Florida, and asked whether or not the followers of Ribaut and Laudonniere - had gone thither by authority of their King. The Queen Mother, Catherine - de Medicis, replied in her son's behalf, that certain Frenchmen had gone - to a country called Terre aux Bretons, discovered by French subjects, and - that in so doing they had been warned not to encroach on lands belonging - to the King of Spain. And she added, with some spirit, that the Kings of - France were not in the habit of permitting themselves to be threatened. - </p> - <p> - Philip persisted in his attitude of injured innocence; and Forquevaulx, - French ambassador at Madrid, reported that, as a reward for murdering - French subjects, Menendez was to receive the title of Marquis of Florida. - A demand soon followed from Philip, that Admiral Coligny should be - punished for planting a French colony on Spanish ground, and thus causing - the disasters that ensued. It was at this time that the first full account - of the massacres reached the French court, and the Queen Mother, greatly - moved, complained to the Spanish ambassador, saying that she could not - persuade herself that his master would refuse reparation. The ambassador - replied by again throwing the blame on Coligny and the Huguenots; and - Catherine de Medicis returned that, Huguenots or not, the King of Spain - had no right to take upon himself the punishment of French subjects. - Forquevaulx was instructed to demand redress at Madrid; but Philip only - answered that he was very sorry for what had happened, and again insisted - that Coligny should be punished as the true cause of it. - </p> - <p> - Forquevaulx, an old soldier, remonstrated with firmness, declared that no - deeds so execrable had ever been committed within his memory, and demanded - that Menendez and his followers should be chastised as they deserved. The - King said that he was sorry that the sufferers chanced to be Frenchmen, - but, as they were pirates also, they ought to be treated as such. The - ambassador replied, that they were no pirates, since they bore the - commission of the Admiral of France, who in naval affairs represented the - King; and Philip closed the conversation by saying that he would speak on - the subject with the Duke of Alva. This was equivalent to refusal, for the - views of the Duke were well known; "and so, Madame," writes the ambassador - to the Queen Mother, "there is no hope that any reparation will be made - for the aforesaid massacre." - </p> - <p> - On this, Charles wrote to Forquevaulx "It is my will that you renew your - complaint, and insist urgently that, for the sake of the union and - friendship between the two crowns, reparation be made for the wrong done - me and the cruelties committed on my subjects, to which I cannot submit - without too great loss of reputation." And, jointly with his mother, he - ordered the ambassador to demand once more that Menendez and his men - should be punished, adding, that he trusts that Philip will grant justice - to the King of France, his brother-in-law and friend, rather than pardon a - gang of brigands. "On this demand," concludes Charles, "the Sieur de - Forquevaulx will not fail to insist, be the answer what it may, in order - that the King of Spain shall understand that his Majesty of France has no - less spirit than his predecessors to repel an insult." The ambassador - fulfilled his commission, and Philip replied by referring him to the Duke - of Alva. "I have no hope," reports Forquevaulx, "that the Duke will give - any satisfaction as to the massacre, for it was he who advised it from the - first." A year passed, and then he reported that Menendez had returned - from Florida, that the King had given him a warm welcome, and that his - fame as a naval commander was such that he was regarded as a sort of - Neptune. - </p> - <p> - In spite of their brave words, Charles and the Queen Mother tamely - resigned themselves to the affront, for they would not quarrel with Spain. - To have done so would have been to throw themselves into the arms of the - Protestant party, adopt the principle of toleration, and save France from - the disgrace and blight of her later years. France was not so fortunate. - The enterprise of Florida was a national enterprise, undertaken at the - national charge, with the royal commission, and under the royal standard; - and it had been crushed in time of peace by a power professing the closest - friendship. Yet Huguenot influence had prompted and Huguenot hands - executed it. That influence had now ebbed low; Coligny's power had waned; - Charles, after long vacillation, was leaning more and more towards the - Guises and the Catholics, and fast subsiding into the deathly embrace of - Spain, for whom, at last, on the bloody eve of St. Bartholomew, he was to - become the assassin of his own best subjects. - </p> - <p> - In vain the relatives of the slain petitioned him for redress; and had the - honor of the nation rested in the keeping of its King, the blood of - hundreds of murdered Frenchmen would have cried from the ground in vain. - But it was not to be so. Injured humanity found an avenger, and outraged - France a champion. Her chivalrous annals may be searched in vain for a - deed of more romantic daring than the vengeance of Dominique de Gourgues. - </p> - <p> - <a name="link2HCH0010" id="link2HCH0010"> - <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> - </p> - <div style="height: 4em;"> - <br /><br /><br /><br /> - </div> - <h2> - CHAPTER X. - </h2> - <h3> - 1567-1583. - </h3> - <p> - DOMINIQUE DE GOURGUES. - </p> - <p> - There was a gentleman of Mont-de-Marsan, Dominique de Gourgues, a soldier - of ancient birth and high renown. It is not certain that he was a - Huguenot. The Spanish annalist calls him a "terrible heretic;" but the - French Jesuit, Charlevoix, anxious that the faithful should share the - glory of his exploits, affirms that, like his ancestors before him, he was - a good Catholic. If so, his faith sat lightly upon him; and, Catholic or - heretic, he hated the Spaniards with a mortal hate. Fighting in the - Italian wars,—for from boyhood he was wedded to the sword,—he - had been taken prisoner by them near Siena, where he had signalized - himself by a fiery and determined bravery. With brutal insult, they - chained him to the oar as a galley slave. After he had long endured this - ignominy the Turks captured the vessel and carried her to Constantinople. - It was but a change of tyrants but, soon after, while she was on a cruise, - Gourgues still at the oar, a galley of the knights of Malta hove in sight, - bore down on her, recaptured her, and set the prisoner free. For several - years after, his restless spirit found employment in voyages to Africa, - Brazil, and regions yet more remote. His naval repute rose high, but his - grudge against the Spaniards still rankled within him; and when, returned - from his rovings, he learned the tidings from Florida, his hot Gascon - blood boiled with fury. - </p> - <p> - The honor of France had been foully stained, and there was none to wipe - away the shame. The faction-ridden King was dumb. The nobles who - surrounded him were in the Spanish interest. Then, since they proved - recreant, he, Dominique de Gourgues, a simple gentleman, would take upon - him to avenge the wrong, and restore the dimmed lustre of the French name. - He sold his inheritance, borrowed money from his brother, who held a high - post in Guienne, and equipped three small vessels, navigable by sail or - oar. On board he placed a hundred arquebusiers and eighty sailors, - prepared to fight on land, if need were. The noted Blaise de Montluc, then - lieutenant for the King in Guienne, gave him a commission to make war on - the negroes of Benin,—that is, to kidnap them as slaves, an - adventure then held honorable. - </p> - <p> - His true design was locked within his own breast. He mustered his - followers,—not a few of whom were of rank equal to his own, feasted - them, and, on the twenty-second of August, 1567, sailed from the mouth of - the Charente. Off Cape Finisterre, so violent a storm buffeted his ships - that his men clamored to return; but Gourgues's spirit prevailed. He bore - away for Africa, and, landing at the Rio del Oro, refreshed and cheered - them as he best might. Thence he sailed to Cape Blanco, where the jealous - Portuguese, who had a fort in the neighborhoods set upon him three negro - chiefs. Gourgues beat them off, and remained master of the harbor; whence, - however, he soon voyaged onward to Cape Verd, and, steering westward, made - for the West Indies. Here, advancing from island to island, he came to - Hispaniola, where, between the fury of a hurricane at sea and the jealousy - of the Spaniards on shore, he was in no small jeopardy,—"the - Spaniards", exclaims the indignant journalist, "who think that this New - World was made for nobody but them, and that no other living man has a - right to move or breathe here!" Gourgues landed, however, obtained the - water of which he was in need, and steered for Cape San Antonio, at the - western end of Cuba. There he gathered his followers about him, and - addressed them with his fiery Gascon eloquence. For the first time, he - told them his true purpose, inveighed against Spanish cruelty, and - painted, with angry rhetoric, the butcheries of Fort Caroline and St. - Augustine. - </p> - <p> - "What disgrace," he cried, "if such an insult should pass unpunished! What - glory to us if we avenge it! To this I have devoted my fortune. I relied - on you. I thought you jealous enough of your country's glory to sacrifice - life itself in a cause like this. Was I deceived? I will show you the way; - I will be always at your head; I will bear the brunt of the danger. Will - you refuse to follow me?" - </p> - <p> - At first his startled hearers listened in silence; but soon the passions - of that adventurous age rose responsive to his words. The combustible - French nature burst into flame. The enthusiasm of the soldiers rose to - such a pitch that Gourgues had much ado to make them wait till the moon - was full before tempting the perils of the Bahama Channel. His time came - at length. The moon rode high above the lonely sea, and, silvered in its - light, the ships of the avenger held their course. - </p> - <p> - Meanwhile, it had fared ill with the Spaniards in Florida; the good-will - of the Indians had vanished. The French had been obtrusive and vexatious - guests; but their worst trespasses had been mercy and tenderness compared - to the daily outrage of the new-comers. Friendship had changed to - aversion, aversion to hatred, and hatred to open war. The forest paths - were beset; stragglers were cut off; and woe to the Spaniard who should - venture after nightfall beyond call of the outposts. - </p> - <p> - Menendez, however, had strengthened himself in his new conquest. St. - Augustine was well fortified; Fort Caroline, now Fort San Mateo, was - repaired; and two redoubts, or small forts, were thrown up to guard the - mouth of the River of May,—one of them near the present lighthouse - at Mayport, and the other across the river on Fort George Island. Thence, - on an afternoon in early spring, the Spaniards saw three sail steering - northward. They suspected no enemy, and their batteries boomed a salute. - Gourgues's ships replied, then stood out to sea, and were lost in the - shades of evening. - </p> - <p> - They kept their course all night, and, as day broke, anchored at the mouth - of a river, the St. Mary's, or the Santilla, by their reckoning fifteen - leagues north of the River of May. Here, as it grew light, Gourgues saw - the borders of the sea thronged with savages, armed and plumed for war. - They, too, had mistaken the strangers for Spaniards, and mustered to meet - their tyrants at the landing. But in the French ships there was a - trumpeter who had been long in Florida, and knew the Indians well. He went - towards them in a boat, with many gestures of friendship; and no sooner - was he recognized, than the naked crowd, with yelps of delight, danced for - joy along the sands. Why had he ever left them? they asked; and why had he - not returned before? The intercourse thus auspiciously begun was actively - kept up. Gourgues told the principal chief,—who was no other than - Satouriona, once the ally of the French,—that he had come to visit - them, make friendship with them, and bring them presents. At this last - announcement, so grateful to Indian ears the dancing was renewed with - double zeal. The next morning was named for a grand council, and - Satouriona sent runners to summon all Indians within call; while Gourgues, - for safety, brought his vessels within the mouth of the river. - </p> - <p> - Morning came, and the woods were thronged with warriors. Gourgues and his - soldiers landed with martial pomp. In token of mutual confidence, the - French laid aside their arquebuses, and the Indians their bows and arrows. - Satouriona came to meet the strangers, and seated their commander at his - side, on a wooden stool, draped and cushioned with the gray Spanish moss. - Two old Indians cleared the spot of brambles, weeds, and grass; and, when - their task was finished, the tribesmen took their places, ring within - ring, standing, sitting, and crouching on the ground,—a dusky - concourse, plumed in festal array, waiting with grave visages and intent - eyes. Gourgues was about to speak, when the chief, who, says the narrator, - had not learned French manners, anticipated him, and broke into a vehement - harangue, denouncing the cruelty of the Spaniards. - </p> - <p> - Since the French fort was taken, he said, the Indians had not had one - happy day. The Spaniards drove them from their cabins, stole their corn, - ravished their wives and daughters, and killed their children; and all - this they had endured because they loved the French. There was a French - boy who had escaped from the massacre at the fort; they had found him in - the woods and though the Spaniards, who wished to kill him, demanded that - they should give him up, they had kept him for his friends. - </p> - <p> - "Look!" pursued the chief, "here he is! "—and he brought forward a - youth of sixteen, named Pierre Debre, who became at once of the greatest - service to the French, his knowledge of the Indian language making him an - excellent interpreter. - </p> - <p> - Delighted as he was at this outburst against the Spaniards, Gourgues did - not see fit to display the full extent of his satisfaction. He thanked the - Indians for their good-will, exhorted them to continue in it, and - pronounced an ill-merited eulogy on the greatness and goodness of his - King. As for the Spaniards, he said, their day of reckoning was at hand; - and, if the Indians had been abused for their love of the French, the - French would be their avengers. Here Satouriona forgot his dignity, and - leaped up for joy. - </p> - <p> - "What!" he cried, "will you fight the Spaniards?" - </p> - <p> - "I came here," replied Gourgues, "only to reconnoitre the country and make - friends with you, and then go back to bring more soldiers; but, when I - hear what you are suffering from them, I wish to fall upon them this very - day, and rescue you from their tyranny." All around the ring a clamor of - applauding voices greeted his words. - </p> - <p> - "But you will do your part," pursued the Frenchman; "you will not leave us - all the honor." - </p> - <p> - "We will go," replied Satouriona, "and die with you, if need be." - </p> - <p> - "Then, if we fight, we ought to fight at once. How soon can you have your - warriors ready to march?" - </p> - <p> - The chief asked three days for preparation. Gourgues cautioned him to - secrecy, lest the Spaniards should take alarm. - </p> - <p> - "Never fear," was the answer; "we hate them more than you do." - </p> - <p> - Then came a distribution of gifts,—knives, hatchets, mirrors, bells, - and beads,—while the warrior rabble crowded to receive them, with - eager faces and outstretched arms. The distribution over, Gourgues asked - the chiefs if there was any other matter in which he could serve them. On - this, pointing to his shirt, they expressed a peculiar admiration for that - garment, and begged each to have one, to be worn at feasts and councils - during life, and in their graves after death. Gourgues complied; and his - grateful confederates were soon stalking about him, fluttering in the - spoils of his wardrobe. - </p> - <p> - To learn the strength and position of the Spaniards, Gourgues now sent out - three scouts; and with them went Olotoraca, Satourioria's nephew, a young - brave of great renown. - </p> - <p> - The chief, eager to prove his good faith, gave as hostages his only - surviving son and his favorite wife. They were sent on board the ships, - while the Indians dispersed to their encampments, with leaping, stamping, - dancing, and whoops of jubilation. - </p> - <p> - The day appointed came, and with it the savage army, hideous in war-paint, - and plumed for battle. The woods rang back their songs and yells, as with - frantic gesticulation they brandished their war-clubs and vaunted their - deeds of prowess. Then they drank the black drink, endowed with mystic - virtues against hardship and danger; and Gourgues himself pretended to - swallow the nauseous decoction. <a href="#linknote-25" - name="linknoteref-25" id="linknoteref-25">25</a> - </p> - <p> - These ceremonies consumed the day. It was evening before the allies filed - off into their forests, and took the path for the Spanish forts. The - French, on their part, were to repair by sea to the rendezvous. Gourgues - mustered and addressed his men. It was needless: their ardor was at fever - height. They broke in upon his words, and demanded to be led at once - against the enemy. Francois Bourdelais, with twenty sailors, was left with - the ships, and Gourgues affectionately bade him farewell. - </p> - <p> - "If I am slain in this most just enterprise," he said, "I leave all in - your charge, and pray you to carry back my soldiers to France." - </p> - <p> - There were many embracings among the excited Frenchmen,—many - sympathetic tears from those who were to stay behind,—many messages - left with them for wives, children, friends, and mistresses; and then this - valiant band pushed their boats from shore. It was a hare-brained venture, - for, as young Debre had assured them, the Spaniards on the River of May - were four hundred in number, secure behind their ramparts. - </p> - <p> - Hour after hour the sailors pulled at the oar. They glided slowly by the - sombre shores in the shimmering moonlight, to the sound of the surf and - the moaning pine-trees. In the gray of the morning, they came to the mouth - of a river, probably the Nassau; and here a northeast wind set in with a - violence that almost wrecked their boats. Their Indian allies were waiting - on the bank, but for a while the gale delayed their crossing. The bolder - French would lose no time, rowed through the tossing waves, and, landing - safely, left their boats, and pushed into the forest. Gourgues took the - lead, in breastplate and back-piece. At his side marched the young chief - Olotoraca, with a French pike in his hand; and the files of arquebuse-men - and armed sailors followed close behind. They plunged through swamps, - hewed their way through brambly thickets and the matted intricacies of the - forests, and, at five in the afternoon, almost spent with fatigue and - hunger, came to a river or inlet of the sea, not far from the first - Spanish fort. Here they found three hundred Indians waiting for them. - </p> - <p> - Tired as he was, Gourgues would not rest. He wished to attack at daybreak, - and with ten arquebusiers and his Indian guide he set out to reconnoitre. - Night closed upon him. It was a vain task to struggle on, in pitchy - darkness, among trunks of trees, fallen logs, tangled vines, and swollen - streams. Gourgues returned, anxious and gloomy. An Indian chief approached - him, read through the darkness his perturbed look, and offered to lead him - by a better path along the margin of the sea. Gourgues joyfully assented, - and ordered all his men to march. The Indians, better skilled in - wood-craft, chose the shorter course through the forest. - </p> - <p> - The French forgot their weariness, and pressed on with speed. At dawn they - and their allies met on the bank of a stream, probably Sister Creek, - beyond which, and very near, was the fort. But the tide was in, and they - tried in vain to cross. Greatly vexed,—for he had hoped to take the - enemy asleep,—Gourgues withdrew his soldiers into the forest, where - they were no sooner ensconced than a drenching rain fell, and they had - much ado to keep their gun-matches burning. The light grew fast. Gourgues - plainly saw the fort, the defences of which seemed slight and unfinished. - He even saw the Spaniards at work within. A feverish interval elapsed, - till at length the tide was out,—so far, at least, that the stream - was fordable. A little higher up, a clump of trees lay between it and the - fort. Behind this friendly screen the passage was begun. Each man tied his - powder-flask to his steel cap, held his arquebuse above his head with one - hand, and grasped his sword with the other. The channel was a bed of - oysters. The sharp shells cut their feet as they waded through. But the - farther bank was gained. They emerged from the water, drenched, lacerated, - and bleeding, but with unabated mettle. Gourgues set them in array under - cover of the trees. They stood with kindling eyes, and hearts throbbing, - but not with fear. Gourgues pointed to the Spanish fort, seen by glimpses - through the boughs. "Look I" he said, "there are the robbers who have - stolen this land from our King; there are the murderers who have butchered - our countrymen!" With voices eager, fierce, but half suppressed, they - demanded to be led on. - </p> - <p> - Gourgues gave the word. Cazenove, his lientenant, with thirty men, pushed - for the fort gate; he himself, with the main body, for the glacis. It was - near noon; the Spaniards had just finished their meal, and, says the - narrative, "were still picking their teeth," when a startled cry rang in - their ears:—"To arms! to arms! The French are coming! The French are - coming!" - </p> - <p> - It was the voice of a cannoneer who had that moment mounted the rampart - and seen the assailants advancing in unbroken ranks, with heads lowered - and weapons at the charge. He fired his cannon among them. He even had - time to load and fire again, when the light-limbed Olotoraca bounded - forward, ran up the glacis, leaped the unfinished ditch, and drove his - pike through the Spaniard from breast to back. Gourgues was now on the - glacis, when he heard Cazenove shouting from the gate that the Spaniards - were escaping on that side. He turned and led his men thither at a run. In - a moment, the fugitives, sixty in all, were enclosed between his party and - that of his lieutenant. The Indians, too, came leaping to the spot. Not a - Spaniard escaped. All were cut down but a few, reserved by Gourgues for a - more inglorious end. - </p> - <p> - Meanwhile the Spaniards in the other fort, on the opposite shore, - cannonaded the victors without ceasing. The latter turned four captured - guns against them. One of Gourgues's boats, a very large one, had been - brought along-shore, and, entering it with eighty soldiers, he pushed for - the farther bank. With loud yells, the Indians leaped into the river, - which is here about three fourths of a mile wide. Each held his bow and - arrows aloft in one hand, while he swam with the other. A panic seized the - garrison as they saw the savage multitude. They broke out of the fort and - fled into the forest. But the French had already landed; and, throwing - themselves in the path of the fugitives, they greeted them with a storm of - lead. The terrified wretches recoiled; but flight was vain. The Indian - whoop rang behind them, and war-clubs and arrows finished the work. - Gourgues's utmost efforts saved but fifteen, not out of mercy, but from a - refinement of vengeance. - </p> - <p> - The next day was Quasimodo Sunday, or the Sunday after Easter. Gourgues - and his men remained quiet, making ladders for the assault on Fort San - Mateo. Meanwhile the whole forest was in arms, and, far and near, the - Indians were wild with excitement. They beset the Spanish fort till not a - soldier could venture out. The garrison, aware of their danger, though - ignorant of its extent, devised an expedient to gain information; and one - of them, painted and feathered like an Indian, ventured within Gourgues's - outposts. He himself chanced to be at hand, and by his side walked his - constant attendant, Olotoraca. The keen-eyed young savage pierced the - cheat at a glance. The spy was seized, and, being examined, declared that - there were two hundred and sixty Spaniards in San Mateo, and that they - believed the French to be two thousand, and were so frightened that they - did not know what they were doing. - </p> - <p> - Gourgues, well pleased, pushed on to attack them. On Monday evening he - sent forward the Indians to ambush themselves on both sides of the fort. - In the morning he followed with his Frenchmen; and, as the glittering - ranks came into view, defiling between the forest and the river, the - Spaniards opened on them with culverins from a projecting bastion. The - French took cover in the woods with which the hills below and behind the - fort were densely overgrown. Here, himself unseen, Gourgues could survey - whole extent of the defences, and he presently descried a strong party of - Spaniards issuing from their works, crossing the ditch, and advancing to - reconnoitre. - </p> - <p> - On this, he sent Cazenove, with a detachment, to station himself at a - point well hidden by trees on the flank of the Spaniards, who, with - strange infatuation, continued their advance. Gourgues and his followers - pushed on through the thickets to meet them. As the Spaniards reached the - edge of the open ground, a deadly fire blazed in their faces, and, before - the smoke cleared, the French were among them, sword in hand. The - survivors would have fled; but Cazenove's detachment fell upon their rear, - and all were killed or taken. - </p> - <p> - When their comrades in the fort beheld their fate, a panic seized them. - Conscious of their own deeds, perpetrated on this very spot, they could - hope no mercy, and their terror multiplied immeasurably the numbers of - their enemy. They abandoned the fort in a body, and fled into the woods - most remote from the French. But here a deadlier foe awaited them; for a - host of Indians leaped up from ambush. Then rose those hideous war-cries - which have curdled the boldest blood and blanched the manliest cheek. The - forest warriors, with savage ecstasy, wreaked their long arrears of - vengeance, while the French hastened to the spot, and lent their swords to - the slaughter. A few prisoners were saved alive; the rest were slain; and - thus did the Spaniards make bloody atonement for the butchery of Fort - Caroline. - </p> - <p> - But Gourgues's vengeance was not yet appeased. Hard by the fort, the trees - were pointed out to him on which Menendez had hanged his captives, and - placed over them the inscription, "Not as to Frenchmen, but as to - Lutherans." - </p> - <p> - Gourgues ordered the Spanish prisoners to be led thither. - </p> - <p> - "Did you think," he sternly said, as the pallid wretches stood ranged - before him, "that so vile a treachery, so detestable a cruelty, against a - King so potent and a nation so generous, would go unpunished? I, one of - the humblest gentlemen among my King's subjects, have charged myself with - avenging it. Even if the Most Christian and the Most Catholic Kings had - been enemies, at deadly war, such perfidy and extreme cruelty would still - have been unpardonable. Now that they are friends and close allies, there - is no name vile enough to brand your deeds, no punishment sharp enough to - requite them. But though you cannot suffer as you deserve, you shall - suffer all that an enemy can honorably inflict, that your example may - teach others to observe the peace and alliance which you have so - perfidiously violated." - </p> - <p> - They were hanged where the French had hung before them; and over them was - nailed the inscription, burned with a hot iron on a tablet of pine, "Not - as to Spaniards, but as to Traitors, Robbers, and Murderers." - </p> - <p> - Gourgues's mission was fulfilled. To occupy the country had never been his - intention; nor was it possible, for the Spaniards were still in force at - St. Augustine. His was a whirlwind visitation,—to ravage, ruin, and - vanish. He harangued the Indians, and exhorted them to demolish the fort. - They fell to the work with eagerness, and in less than a day not one stone - was left on another. - </p> - <p> - Gourgues returned to the forts at the mouth of the river, destroyed them - also, and took up his march for his ships. It was a triumphal procession. - The Indians thronged around the victors with gifts of fish and game; and - an old woman declared that she was now ready to die, since she had seen - the French once more. - </p> - <p> - The ships were ready for sea. Gourgues bade his disconsolate allies - farewell, and nothing would content them but a promise to return soon. - Before embarking, he addressed his own men:—"My friends, let us give - thanks to God for the success He has granted us. It is He who saved us - from tempests; it is He who inclined the hearts of the Indians towards us; - it is He who blinded the understanding of the Spaniards. They were four to - one, in forts well armed and provisioned. Our right was our only strength; - and yet we have conquered. Not to our own swords, but to God only, we owe - our victory. Then let us thank Him, my friends; let us never forget His - favors; and let us pray that He may continue them, saving us from dangers, - and guiding us safely home. Let us pray, too, that He may so dispose the - hearts of men that our perils and toils may find favor in the eyes of our - King and of all France, since all we have done was done for the King's - service and for the honor of our country." - </p> - <p> - Thus Spaniards and Frenchmen alike laid their reeking swords on God's - altar. - </p> - <p> - Gourgues sailed on the third of May, and, gazing back along their foaming - wake, the adventurers looked their last on the scene of their exploits. - Their success had cost its price. A few of their number had fallen, and - hardships still awaited the survivors. Gourgues, however, reached Rochelle - on the day of Pentecost, and the Huguenot citizens greeted him with all - honor. At court it fared worse with him. The King, still obsequious to - Spain, looked on him coldly and askance. The Spanish minister demanded his - head. It was hinted to him that he was not safe, and he withdrew to Ronen, - where he found asylum among his friends. His fortune was gone; debts - contracted for his expedition weighed heavily on him; and for years he - lived in obscurity, almost in misery. - </p> - <p> - At length his prospects brightened. Elizabeth of England learned his - merits and his misfortunes, and invited him to enter her service. The - King, who, says the Jesuit historian, had always at heart been delighted - with his achievement, openly restored him to favor; while, some years - later, Don Antonio tendered him command of his fleet, to defend his right - to the crown of Portugal against Philip the Second. Gourgues, happy once - more to cross swords with the Spaniards, gladly embraced this offer; but - in 1583, on his way to join the Portuguese prince, he died at Tours of a - sudden illness. The French mourned the loss of the man who had wiped a - blot from the national scutcheon, and respected his memory as that of one - of the best captains of his time. And, in truth, if a zealous patriotism, - a fiery valor, and skilful leadership are worthy of honor, then is such a - tribute due to Dominique de Gourgues, slave-catcher and half-pirate as he - was, like other naval heroes of that wild age. - </p> - <p> - Romantic as was his exploit, it lacked the fullness of poetic justice, - since the chief offender escaped him. While Gourgues was sailing towards - Florida, Menendez was in Spain, high in favor at court, where he told to - approving ears how he had butchered the heretics. Borgia, the sainted - General of the Jesuits, was his fast friend; and two years later, when he - returned to America, the Pope, Paul the Fifth, regarding him as an - instrument for the conversion of the Indians, wrote him a letter with his - benediction. He re-established his power in Florida, rebuilt Fort San - Mateo, and taught the Indians that death or flight was the only refuge - from Spanish tyranny. They murdered his missionaries and spurned their - doctrine. "The Devil is the best thing in the world," they cried; "we - adore him; he makes men brave." Even the Jesuits despaired, and abandoned - Florida in disgust. - </p> - <p> - Menendez was summoned home, where fresh honors awaited him from the Crown, - though, according to the somewhat doubtful assertion of the heretical - Grotius, his deeds had left a stain upon his name among the people. He was - given command of the armada of three hundred sail and twenty thousand men, - which, in 1574, was gathered at Santander against England and Flanders. - But now, at the height of his fortunes, his career was abruptly closed. He - died suddenly, at the age of fifty-five. Grotius affirms that he killed - himself; but, in his eagerness to point the moral of his story, he seems - to have overstepped the bounds of historic truth. The Spanish bigot was - rarely a suicide; for the rites of Christian burial and repose in - consecrated ground were denied to the remains of the self-murderer. There - is positive evidence, too, in a codicil to the will of Menendez, dated at - Santander on the fifteenth of September, 1574, that he was on that day - seriously ill, though, as the instrument declares, "of sound mind." There - is reason, then, to believe that this pious cut-throat died a natural - death, crowned with honors, and soothed by the consolations of his - religion. - </p> - <p> - It was he who crushed French Protestantism in America. To plant religious - freedom on this western soil was not the mission of France. It was for her - to rear in northern forests the banner of absolutism and of Rome; while - among the rocks of Massachusetts England and Calvin fronted her in dogged - opposition, long before the ice-crusted pines of Plymouth had listened to - the rugged psalmody of the Puritan, the solitudes of Western New York and - the stern wilderness of Lake Huron were trodden by the iron heel of the - soldier and the sandalled foot of the Franciscan friar. France was the - true pioneer of the Great West. They who bore the fleur-de-lis were always - in the van, patient, daring, indomitable. And foremost on this bright roll - of forest chivalry stands the half-forgotten name of Samuel de Champlain. - </p> - <p> - <a name="link2H_PART2" id="link2H_PART2"> - <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> - </p> - <div style="height: 4em;"> - <br /><br /><br /><br /> - </div> - <h1> - Part 2 - </h1> - <h3> - SAMUEL DE CHAMPLAIN AND HIS ASSOCIATES; - </h3> - <p> - WITH A VIEW OF EARLIER FRENCH ADVENTURE IN AMERICA, AND THE LEGENDS OF THE - NORTHERN COASTS. - </p> - <p> - <a name="link2H_4_0016" id="link2H_4_0016"> - <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> - </p> - <div style="height: 4em;"> - <br /><br /><br /><br /> - </div> - <h2> - SAMUEL DE CHAMPLAIN. - </h2> - <p> - <a name="link2HCH0011" id="link2HCH0011"> - <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> - </p> - <div style="height: 4em;"> - <br /><br /><br /><br /> - </div> - <h2> - CHAPTER I. - </h2> - <h3> - 1488-1543. - </h3> - <p> - EARLY FRENCH ADVENTURE IN NORTH AMERICA. - </p> - <p> - When America was first made known to Europe, the part assumed by France on - the borders of that new world was peculiar, and is little recognized. - While the Spaniard roamed sea and land, burning for achievement, red-hot - with bigotry and avarice, and while England, with soberer steps and a less - dazzling result, followed in the path of discovery and gold-hunting, it - was from France that those barbarous shores first learned to serve the - ends of peaceful commercial industry. - </p> - <p> - A French writer, however, advances a more ambitious claim. In the year - 1488, four years before the first voyage of Columbus, America, he - maintains, was found by Frenchmen. Cousin, a navigator of Dieppe, being at - sea off the African coast, was forced westward, it is said, by winds and - currents to within sight of an unknown shore, where he presently descried - the mouth of a great river. On board his ship was one Pinzon, whose - conduct became so mutinous that, on his return to Dieppe, Cousin made - complaint to the magistracy, who thereupon dismissed the offender from the - maritime service of the town. Pinzon went to Spain, became known to - Columbus, told him the discovery, and joined him on his voyage of 1492. - </p> - <p> - To leave this cloudland of tradition, and approach the confines of - recorded history. The Normans, offspring of an ancestry of conquerors,—the - Bretons, that stubborn, hardy, unchanging race, who, among Druid monuments - changeless as themselves, still cling with Celtic obstinacy to the - thoughts and habits of the past,—the Basques, that primeval people, - older than history,—all frequented from a very early date the - cod-banks of Newfoundland. There is some reason to believe that this - fishery existed before the voyage of Cabot, in 1497; there is strong - evidence that it began as early as the year 1504; and it is well - established that, in 1517, fifty Castilian, French, and Portuguese vessels - were engaged in it at once; while in 1527, on the third of August, eleven - sail of Norman, one of Breton, and two of Portuguese fishermen were to be - found in the Bay of St. John. - </p> - <p> - From this time forth, the Newfoundland fishery was never abandoned. - French, English, Spanish, and Portuguese made resort to the Banks, always - jealous, often quarrelling, but still drawing up treasure from those - exhaustless mines, and bearing home bountiful provision against the season - of Lent. - </p> - <p> - On this dim verge of the known world there were other perils than those of - the waves. The rocks and shores of those sequestered seas had, so thought - the voyagers, other tenants than the seal, the walrus, and the screaming - sea-fowl, the bears which stole away their fish before their eyes, and the - wild natives dressed in seal-skins. Griffius—so ran the story—infested - the mountains of Labrador. Two islands, north of Newfoundland, were given - over to the fiends from whom they derived their name, the Isles of Demons. - An old map pictures their occupants at length,—devils rampant, with - wings, horns, and tail. The passing voyager heard the din of their - infernal orgies, and woe to the sailor or the fisherman who ventured alone - into the haunted woods. "True it is," writes the old cosmographer Thevet, - "and I myself have heard it, not from one, but from a great number of the - sailors and pilots with whom I have made many voyages, that, when they - passed this way, they heard in the air, on the tops and about the masts, a - great clamor of men's voices, confused and inarticulate, such as you may - hear from the crowd at a fair or market-place whereupon they well knew - that the Isle of Demons was not far off." And he adds, that he himself, - when among the Indians, had seen them so tormented by these infernal - persecutors, that they would fall into his arms for relief; on which, - repeating a passage of the Gospel of St. John, he had driven the imps of - darkness to a speedy exodus. They are comely to look upon, he further - tells us; yet, by reason of their malice, that island is of late - abandoned, and all who dwelt there have fled for refuge to the main. - </p> - <p> - While French fishermen plied their trade along these gloomy coasts, the - French government spent it's energies on a different field. The vitality - of the kingdom was wasted in Italian wars. Milan and Naples offered a more - tempting prize than the wilds of Baccalaos. Eager for glory and for - plunder, a swarm of restless nobles followed their knight-errant King, the - would-be paladin, who, misshapen in body and fantastic in mind, had yet - the power to raise a storm which the lapse of generations could not quell. - Under Charles the Eighth and his successor, war and intrigue ruled the - day; and in the whirl of Italian politics there was no leisure to think of - a new world. - </p> - <p> - Yet private enterprise was not quite benumbed. In 1506, one Denis of - Honfleur explored the Gulf of St. Lawrence; 2 two years later, Aubert of - Dieppe followed on his track; and in 1518, the Baron de Lery made an - abortive attempt at settlement on Sable Island, where the cattle left by - him remained and multiplied. - </p> - <p> - The crown passed at length to Francis of Angouleme. There were in his - nature seeds of nobleness,—seeds destined to bear little fruit. - Chivalry and honor were always on his lips; but Francis the First, a - forsworn gentleman, a despotic king, vainglorious, selfish, sunk in - debaucheries, was but the type of an era which retained the forms of the - Middle Age without its soul, and added to a still prevailing barbarism the - pestilential vices which hung fog-like around the dawn of civilization. - Yet he esteemed arts and letters, and, still more, coveted the eclat which - they could give. The light which was beginning to pierce the feudal - darkness gathered its rays around his throne. Italy was rewarding the - robbers who preyed on her with the treasures of her knowledge and her - culture; and Italian genius, of whatever stamp, found ready patronage at - the hands of Francis. Among artists, philosophers, and men of letters - enrolled in his service stands the humbler name of a Florentine navigator, - John Verrazzano. - </p> - <p> - He was born of an ancient family, which could boast names eminent in - Florentine history, and of which the last survivor died in 1819. He has - been called a pirate, and he was such in the same sense in which Drake, - Hawkins, and other valiant sea-rovers of his own and later times, merited - the name; that is to say, he would plunder and kill a Spaniard on the high - seas without waiting for a declaration of war. - </p> - <p> - The wealth of the Indies was pouring into the coffers of Charles the - Fifth, and the exploits of Cortes had given new lustre to his crown. - Francis the First begrudged his hated rival the glories and profits of the - New World. He would fain have his share of the prize; and Verrazzano, with - four ships, was despatched to seek out a passage westward to the rich - kingdom of Cathay. - </p> - <p> - Some doubt has of late been cast on the reality of this voyage of - Verrazzano, and evidence, mainly negative in kind, has been adduced to - prove the story of it a fabrication; but the difficulties of incredulity - appear greater than those of belief, and no ordinary degree of scepticism - is required to reject the evidence that the narrative is essentially true. - </p> - <p> - Towards the end of the year 1523, his four ships sailed from Dieppe; but a - storm fell upon him, and, with two of the vessels, he ran back in distress - to a port of Brittany. What became of the other two does not appear. - Neither is it clear why, after a preliminary cruise against the Spaniards, - he pursued his voyage with one vessel alone, a caravel called the - "Dauphine." With her he made for Madeira, and, on the seventeenth of - January, 1524, set sail from a barren islet in its neighborhood, and bore - away for the unknown world. In forty-nine days they neared a low shore, - not far from the site of Wilmington in North Carolina, "a newe land," - exclaims the voyager, "never before seen of any man, either auncient or - moderne." Verrazzano steered southward in search of a harbor, and, finding - none, turned northward again. Presently he sent a boat ashore. The - inhabitants, who had fled at first, soon came down to the strand in wonder - and admiration, pointing out a landing-place, and making gestures of - friendship. "These people," says Verrazzano, "goe altogether naked, except - only certain skinnes of beastes like unto marterns [martens], which they - fasten onto a narrowe girdle made of grasse. They are of colour russet, - and not much unlike the Saracens, their hayre blacke, thicke, and not very - long, which they tye togeather in a knot behinde, and weare it like a - taile." - </p> - <p> - He describes the shore as consisting of small low hillocks of fine sand, - intersected by creeks and inlets, and beyond these a country "full of - Palme [pine?] trees, Bay trees, and high Cypresse trees, and many other - sortes of trees, vnknowne in Europe, which yeeld most sweete sanours, - farre from the shore." Still advancing northward, Verrazzano sent a boat - for a supply of water. The surf ran high, and the crew could not land; but - an adventurous young sailor jumped overboard and swam shoreward with a - gift of beads and trinkets for the Indians, who stood watching him. His - heart failed as he drew near; he flung his gift among them, turned, and - struck out for the boat. The surf dashed him back, flinging him with - violence on the beach among the recipients of his bounty, who seized him - by the arms and legs, and, while he called lustily for aid, answered him - with outcries designed to allay his terrors. Next they kindled a great - fire,—doubtless to roast and devour him before the eyes of his - comrades, gazing in horror from their boat. On the contrary, they - carefully warmed him, and were trying to dry his clothes, when, recovering - from his bewilderment, he betrayed a strong desire to escape to his - friends; whereupon, "with great love, clapping him fast about, with many - embracings," they led him to the shore, and stood watching till he had - reached the boat. - </p> - <p> - It only remained to requite this kindness, and an opportunity soon - occurred; for, coasting the shores of Virginia or Maryland, a party went - on shore and found an old woman, a young girl, and several children, - hiding with great terror in the grass. Having, by various blandishments, - gained their confidence, they carried off one of the children as a - curiosity, and, since the girl was comely, would fain have taken her also, - but desisted by reason of her continual screaming. - </p> - <p> - Verrazzano's next resting-place was the Bay of New York. Rowing up in his - boat through the Narrows, under the steep heights of Staten Island, he saw - the harbor within dotted with canoes of the feathered natives, coming from - the shore to welcome him. But what most engaged the eyes of the white men - were the fancied signs of mineral wealth in the neighboring hills. - </p> - <p> - Following the shores of Long Island, they came to an island, which may - have been Block Island, and thence to a harbor, which was probably that of - Newport. Here they stayed fifteen days, most courteously received by the - inhabitants. Among others appeared two chiefs, gorgeously arrayed in - painted deer-skins,—kings, as Verrazzano calls them, with attendant - gentlemen; while a party of squaws in a canoe, kept by their jealous lords - at a safe distance from the caravel, figure in the narrative as the queen - and her maids. The Indian wardrobe had been taxed to its utmost to do the - strangers honor,—copper bracelets, lynx-skins, raccoon-skins, and - faces bedaubed with gaudy colors. - </p> - <p> - Again they spread their sails, and on the fifth of May bade farewell to - the primitive hospitalities of Newport, steered along the rugged coasts of - New England, and surveyed, ill pleased, the surf-beaten rocks, the - pine-tree and the fir, the shadows and the gloom of mighty forests. Here - man and nature alike were savage and repellent. Perhaps some plundering - straggler from the fishing-banks, some manstealer like the Portuguese - Cortereal, or some kidnapper of children and ravisher of squaws like - themselves, had warned the denizens of the woods to beware of the - worshippers of Christ. Their only intercourse was in the way of trade. - From the brink of the rocks which overhung the sea the Indians would let - down a cord to the boat below, demand fish-hooks, knives, and steel, in - barter for their furs, and, their bargain made, salute the voyagers with - unseemly gestures of derision and scorn. The French once ventured ashore; - but a war-whoop and a shower of arrows sent them back to their boats. - </p> - <p> - Verrazzano coasted the seaboard of Maine, and sailed northward as far as - Newfoundland, whence, provisions failing, he steered for France. He had - not found a passage to Cathay, but he had explored the American coast from - the thirty-fourth degree to the fiftieth, and at various points had - penetrated several leagues into the country. On the eighth of July, he - wrote from Dieppe to the King the earliest description known to exist of - the shores of the United States. - </p> - <p> - Great was the joy that hailed his arrival, and great were the hopes of - emolument and wealth from the new-found shores. The merchants of Lyons - were in a flush of expectation. For himself, he was earnest to return, - plant a colony, and bring the heathen tribes within the pale of the - Church. But the time was inauspicious. The year of his voyage was to - France a year of disasters,—defeat in Italy, the loss of Milan, the - death of the heroic Bayard; and, while Verrazzano was writing his - narrative at Dieppe, the traitor Bourbon was invading Provence. - Preparation, too, was soon on foot for the expedition which, a few months - later, ended in the captivity of Francis on the field of Pavia. Without a - king, without an army, without money, convulsed within, and threatened - from without, France after that humiliation was in no condition to renew - her Transatlantic enterprise. - </p> - <p> - Henceforth few traces remain of the fortunes of Verrazzano. Ramusio - affirms, that, on another voyage, he was killed and eaten by savages, in - sight of his followers; and a late writer hazards the conjecture that this - voyage, if made at all, was made in the service of Henry the Eighth of - England. But a Spanish writer affirms that, in 1527, he was hanged at - Puerto del Pico as a pirate, and this assertion is fully confirmed by - authentic documents recently brought to light. - </p> - <p> - The fickle-minded King, always ardent at the outset of an enterprise and - always flagging before its close, divided, moreover, between the smiles of - his mistresses and the assaults of his enemies, might probably have - dismissed the New World from his thoughts. But among the favorites of his - youth was a high-spirited young noble, Philippe de BrionChabot, the - partner of his joustings and tennis-playing, his gaming and gallantries. - He still stood high in the royal favor, and, after the treacherous escape - of Francis from captivity, held the office of Admiral of France. When the - kingdom had rallied in some measure from its calamnities, he conceived the - purpose of following up the path which Verrazzano had opened. - </p> - <p> - The ancient town of St. Malo—thrust out like a buttress into the - sea, strange and grim of aspect, breathing war front its walls and - battlements of ragged stone, a stronghold of privateers, the home of a - race whose intractable and defiant independence neither time nor change - has subdued—has been for centuries a nursery of hardy mariners. - Among the earliest and most eminent on its list stands the name of Jacques - Cartier. His portrait hangs in the town-hall of St. Malo,—bold, keen - features bespeaking a spirit not apt to quail before the wrath of man or - of the elements. In him Chabot found a fit agent of his design, if, - indeed, its suggestion is not due to the Breton navigator. - </p> - <p> - Sailing from St. Malo on the twentieth of April, 1534, Cartier steered for - Newfoundland, passed through the Straits of Belle Isle, entered the Gulf - of Chaleurs, planted a cross at Gaspe, and, never doubting that he was on - the high road to Cathay, advanced up the St. Lawrence till he saw the - shores of Anticosti. But autumnal storms were gathering. The voyagers took - counsel together, turned their prows eastward, and bore away for France, - carrying thither, as a sample of the natural products of the New World, - two young Indians, lured into their clutches by an act of villanous - treachery. The voyage was a mere reconnoissance. - </p> - <p> - The spirit of discovery was awakened. A passage to India could be found, - and a new France built up beyond the Atlantic. Mingled with such views of - interest and ambition was another motive scarcely less potent. The heresy - of Luther was convulsing Germany, and the deeper heresy of Calvin - infecting France. Devout Catholics, kindling with redoubled zeal, would - fain requite the Church for her losses in the Old World by winning to her - fold the infidels of the New. But, in pursuing an end at once so pious and - so politic, Francis the First was setting at naught the supreme Pontiff - himself, since, by the preposterous bull of Alexander the Sixth, all - America had been given to the Spaniards. - </p> - <p> - In October, 1534, Cartier received from Chabot another commission, and, in - spite of secret but bitter opposition from jealous traders of St. Malo, he - prepared for a second voyage. Three vessels, the largest not above a - hundred and twenty tons, were placed at his disposal, and Claude de - Pontbriand, Charles de la Pommeraye, and other gentlemen of birth, - enrolled themselves for the adventure. On the sixteenth of May, 1535, - officers and sailors assembled in the cathedral of St. Malo, where, after - confession and mass, they received the parting blessing of the bishop. - Three days later they set sail. The dingy walls of the rude old seaport, - and the white rocks that line the neighboring shores of Brittany, faded - from their sight, and soon they were tossing in a furious tempest. The - scattered ships escaped the danger, and, reuniting at the Straits of Belle - Isle, steered westward along the coast of Labrador, till they reached a - small bay opposite the island of Anticosti. Cartier called it the Bay of - St. Lawrence,—a name afterwards extended to the entire gulf, and to - the great river above. - </p> - <p> - To ascend this great river, and tempt the hazards of its intricate - navigation with no better pilots than the two young Indians kidnapped the - year before, was a venture of no light risk. But skill or fortune - prevailed; and, on the first of September, the voyagers reached in safety - the gorge of the gloomy Saguenay, with its towering cliffs and sullen - depth of waters. Passing the Isle aux Coudres, and the lofty promontory of - Cape Tourmente, they came to anchor in a quiet channel between the - northern shore and the margin of a richly wooded island, where the trees - were so thickly hung with grapes that Cartier named it the Island of - Bacchus. - </p> - <p> - Indians came swarming from the shores, paddled their canoes about the - ships, and clambered to the decks to gaze in bewilderment at the novel - scene, and listen to the story of their travelled countrymen, marvellous - in their ears as a visit to another planet. Cartier received them kindly, - listened to the long harangue of the great chief Donnacona, regaled him - with bread and wine; and, when relieved at length of his guests, set forth - in a boat to explore the river above. - </p> - <p> - As he drew near the opening of the channel, the Hochelaga again spread - before him the broad expanse of its waters. A mighty promontory, rugged - and bare, thrust its scarped front into the surging current. Here, clothed - in the majesty of solitude, breathing the stern poetry of the wilderness, - rose the cliffs now rich with heroic memories, where the fiery Count - Frontenac cast defiance at his foes, where Wolfe, Montcalm, and Montgomery - fell. As yet, all was a nameless barbarism, and a cluster of wigwams held - the site of the rock-built city of Quebec. Its name was Stadacone, and it - owned the sway of the royal Donnacona. - </p> - <p> - Cartier set out to visit this greasy potentate; ascended the river St. - Charles, by him called the St. Croix, landed, crossed the meadows, climbed - the rocks, threaded the forest, and emerged upon a squalid hamlet of bark - cabins. When, having satisfied their curiosity, he and his party were - rowing for the ships, a friendly interruption met them at the mouth of the - St. Charles. An old chief harangued them from the bank, men, boys, and - children screeched welcome from the meadow, and a troop of hilarious - squaws danced knee-deep in the water. The gift of a few strings of beads - completed their delight and redoubled their agility; and, from the - distance of a mile, their shrill songs of jubilation still reached the - ears of the receding Frenchmen. - </p> - <p> - The hamlet of Stadacone, with its king, Donnacona, and its naked lords and - princes, was not the metropolis of this forest state, since a town far - greater—so the Indians averred—stood by the brink of the - river, many days' journey above. It was called Hochelaga, and the great - river itself, with a wide reach of adjacent country, had borrowed its - name. Thither, with his two young Indians as guides, Cartier resolved to - go; but misgivings seized the guides as the time drew near, while - Donnacona and his tribesmen, jealous of the plan, set themselves to thwart - it. The Breton captain turned a deaf ear to their dissuasions; on which, - failing to touch his reason, they appealed to his fears. - </p> - <p> - One morning, as the ships still lay at anchor, the French beheld three - Indian devils descending in a canoe towards them, dressed in black and - white dog-skins, with faces black as ink, and horns long as a man's arm. - Thus arrayed, they drifted by, while the principal fiend, with fixed eyes, - as of one piercing the secrets of futurity, uttered in a loud voice a long - harangue. Then they paddled for the shore; and no sooner did they reach it - than each fell flat like a dead man in the bottom of the canoe. Aid, - however, was at hand; for Donnacona and his tribesmen, rushing pell-mell - from the adjacent woods, raised the swooning masqueraders, and, with - shrill clamors, bore them in their arms within the sheltering thickets. - Here, for a full half-hour, the French could hear them haranguing in - solemn conclave. Then the two young Indians whom Cartier had brought back - from France came out of the bushes, enacting a pantomime of amazement and - terror, clasping their hands, and calling on Christ and the Virgin; - whereupon Cartier, shouting from the vessel, asked what was the matter. - They replied, that the god Coudonagny had sent to warn the French against - all attempts to ascend the great river, since, should they persist, snows, - tempests, and drifting ice would requite their rashness with inevitable - ruin. The French replied that Coudonagny was a fool; that he could not - hurt those who believed in Christ; and that they might tell this to his - three messengers. The assembled Indians, with little reverence for their - deity, pretended great contentment at this assurance, and danced for joy - along the beach. - </p> - <p> - Cartier now made ready to depart. And, first, he caused the two larger - vessels to be towed for safe harborage within the mouth of the St. - Charles. With the smallest, a galleon of forty tons, and two open boats, - carrying in all fifty sailors, besides Pontbriand, La Pommeraye, and other - gentlemen, he set out for Hochelaga. - </p> - <p> - Slowly gliding on their way by walls of verdure brightened in the autumnal - sun, they saw forests festooned with grape-vines, and waters alive with - wild-fowl; they heard the song of the blackbird, the thrush, and, as they - fondly thought, the nightingale. The galleon grounded; they left her, and, - advancing with the boats alone, on the second of October neared the goal - of their hopes, the mysterious Hochelaga. - </p> - <p> - Just below where now are seen the quays and storehouses of Montreal, a - thousand Indians thronged the shore, wild with delight, dancing, singing, - crowding about the strangers, and showering into the boats their gifts of - fish and maize; and, as it grew dark, fires lighted up the night, while, - far and near, the French could see the excited savages leaping and - rejoicing by the blaze. - </p> - <p> - At dawn of day, marshalled and accoutred, they marched for Hochelaga. An - Indian path led them through the forest which covered the site of - Montreal. The morning air was chill and sharp, the leaves were changing - hue, and beneath the oaks the ground was thickly strewn with acorns. They - soon met an Indian chief with a party of tribesmen, or, as the old - narrative has it, "one of the principal lords of the said city," attended - with a numerous retinue. Greeting them after the concise courtesy of the - forest, he led them to a fire kindled by the side of the path for their - comfort and refreshment, seated them on the ground, and made them a long - harangue, receiving in requital of his eloquence two hatchets, two knives, - and a crucifix, the last of which he was invited to kiss. This done, they - resumed their march, and presently came upon open fields, covered far and - near with the ripened maize, its leaves rustling, and its yellow grains - gleaming between the parting husks. Before them, wrapped in forests - painted by the early frosts, rose the ridgy back of the Mountain of - Montreal, and below, encompassed with its corn-fields, lay the Indian - town. Nothing was visible but its encircling palisades. They were of - trunks of trees, set in a triple row. The outer and inner ranges inclined - till they met and crossed near the summit, while the upright row between - them, aided by transverse braces, gave to the whole an abundant strength. - Within were galleries for the defenders, rude ladders to mount them, and - magazines of stones to throw down on the heads of assailants. It was a - mode of fortification practised by all the tribes speaking dialects of the - Iroquois. - </p> - <p> - The voyagers entered the narrow portal. Within, they saw some fifty of - those large oblong dwellings so familiar in after years to the eyes of the - Jesuit apostles in Iroquois and Huron forests. They were about fifty yards - in length, and twelve or fifteen wide, framed of sapling poles closely - covered with sheets of bark, and each containing several fires and several - families. In the midst of the town was an open area, or public square, a - stone's throw in width. Here Cartier and his followers stopped, while the - surrounding houses of bark disgorged their inmates,—swarms of - children, and young women and old, their infants in their arms. They - crowded about the visitors, crying for delight, touching their beards, - feeling their faces, and holding up the screeching infants to be touched - in turn. The marvellous visitors, strange in hue, strange in attire, with - moustached lip and bearded chin, with arquebuse, halberd, helmet, and - cuirass, seemed rather demigods than men. - </p> - <p> - Due time having been allowed for this exuberance of feminine rapture, the - warriors interposed, banished the women and children to a distance, and - squatted on the ground around the French, row within row of swarthy forms - and eager faces, "as if," says Cartier, "we were going to act a play." - Then appeared a troop of women, each bringing a mat, with which they - carpeted the bare earth for the behoof of their guests. The latter being - seated, the chief of the nation was borne before them on a deerskin by a - number of his tribesmen, a bedridden old savage, paralyzed and helpless, - squalid as the rest in his attire, and distinguished only by a red fillet, - inwrought with the dyed quills of the Canada porcupine, encircling his - lank black hair. They placed him on the ground at Cartier's feet and made - signs of welcome for him, while he pointed feebly to his powerless limbs, - and implored the healing touch from the hand of the French chief. Cartier - complied, and received in acknowledgment the red fillet of his grateful - patient. Then from surrounding dwellings appeared a woeful throng, the - sick, the lame, the blind, the maimed, the decrepit, brought or led forth - and placed on the earth before the perplexed commander, "as if," he says, - "a god had come down to cure them." His skill in medicine being far behind - the emergency, he pronounced over his petitioners a portion of the Gospel - of St. John, made the sign of the cross, and uttered a prayer, not for - their bodies only, but for their miserable souls. Next he read the passion - of the Saviour, to which, though comprehending not a word, his audience - listened with grave attention. Then came a distribution of presents. The - squaws and children were recalled, and, with the warriors, placed in - separate groups. Knives and hatchets were given to the men, and beads to - the women, while pewter rings and images of the Agnus Dei were flung among - the troop of children, whence ensued a vigorous scramble in the square of - Hochelaga. Now the French trumpeters pressed their trumpets to their lips, - and blew a blast that filled the air with warlike din and the hearts of - the hearers with amazement and delight. Bidding their hosts farewells the - visitors formed their ranks and defiled through the gate once more, - despite the efforts of a crowd of women, who, with clamorous hospitality, - beset them with gifts of fish, beans, corn, and other viands of uninviting - aspect, which the Frenchmen courteously declined. - </p> - <p> - A troop of Indians followed, and guided them to the top of the neighboring - mountain. Cartier called it Mont Royal, Montreal; and hence the name of - the busy city which now holds the site of the vanished Iloclielaga. - Stadacone and Hochelaga, Quebec and Montreal, in the sixteenth century as - in the nineteenth, were the centres of Canadian population. - </p> - <p> - From the summit, that noble prospect met his eye which at this day is the - delight of tourists, but strangely changed, since, first of white men, the - Breton voyager gazed upon it. Tower and dome and spire, congregated roofs, - white sail, and gliding steamer, animate its vast expanse with varied - life. Cartier saw a different scene. East, west, and south, the mantling - forest was over all, and the broad blue ribbon of the great river - glistened amid a realm of verdure. Beyond, to the bounds of Mexico, - stretched a leafy desert, and the vast hive of industry, the mighty - battle-ground of later centuries, lay sunk in savage torpor, wrapped in - illimitable woods. - </p> - <p> - The French re-embarked, bade farewell to Hochelaga, retraced their lonely - course down the St. Lawrence, and reached Stadacone in safety. On the bank - of the St. Charles, their companions had built in their absence a fort of - palisades, and the ships, hauled up the little stream, lay moored before - it. Here the self-exiled company were soon besieged by the rigors of the - Canadian winter. The rocks, the shores, the pine-trees, the solid floor of - the frozen river, all alike were blanketed in snow beneath the keen cold - rays of the dazzling sun. The drifts rose above the sides of their ships; - masts, spars, and cordage were thick with glittering incrustations and - sparkling rows of icicles; a frosty armor, four inches thick, encased the - bulwarks. Yet, in the bitterest weather, the neighboring Indians, "hardy," - says the journal, "as so many beasts," came daily to the fort, wading, - half naked, waist-deep through the snow. At length, their friendship began - to abate; their visits grew less frequent, and during December had wholly - ceased, when a calamity fell upon the French. - </p> - <p> - A malignant scurvy broke out among them. Man after man went down before - the hideous disease, till twenty-five were dead, and only three or four - were left in health. The sound were too few to attend the sick, and the - wretched sufferers lay in helpless despair, dreaming of the sun and the - vines of France. The ground, hard as flint, defied their feeble efforts, - and, unable to bury their dead, they hid them in snow-drifts. Cartier - appealed to the saints; but they turned a deaf ear. Then he nailed against - a tree an image of the Virgin, and on a Sunday summoned forth his - woe-begone followers, who, haggard, reeling, bloated with their maladies, - moved in procession to the spot, and, kneeling in the snow, sang litanies - and psalms of David. That day died Philippe Rougemont, of Amboise, aged - twenty-two years. The Holy Virgin deigned no other response. - </p> - <p> - There was fear that the Indians, learning their misery, might finish the - work that scurvy had begun. None of them, therefore, were allowed to - approach the fort; and when a party of savages lingered within hearing, - Cartier forced his invalid garrison to beat with sticks and stones against - the walls, that their dangerous neighbors, deluded by the clatter, might - think them engaged in hard labor. These objects of their fear proved, - however, the instruments of their salvation. Cartier, walking one day near - the river, met an Indian, who not long before had been prostrate, like - many of his fellows, with the scurvy, but who was now, to all appearance, - in high health and spirits. What agency had wrought this marvellous - recovery? According to the Indian, it was a certain evergreen, called by - him ameda, a decoction of the leaves of which was sovereign against the - disease. The experiment was tried. The sick men drank copiously of the - healing draught,—so copiously indeed that in six days they drank a - tree as large as a French oak. Thus vigorously assailed, the distemper - relaxed its hold, and health and hope began to revisit the hapless - company. - </p> - <p> - When this winter of misery had worn away, and the ships were thawed from - their icy fetters, Cartier prepared to return. He had made notable - discoveries; but these were as nothing to the tales of wonder that had - reached his ear,—of a land of gold and rubies, of a nation white - like the French, of men who lived without food, and of others to whom - Nature had granted but one leg. Should he stake his credit on these - marvels? It were better that they who had recounted them to him should, - with their own lips, recount them also to the King, and to this end he - resolved that Donnacona and his chiefs should go with him to court. He - lured them therefore to the fort, and led them into an ambuscade of - sailors, who, seizing the astonished guests, hurried them on board the - ships. Having accomplished this treachery, the voyagers proceeded to plant - the emblem of Christianity. The cross was raised, the fleur-de-lis planted - near it, and, spreading their sails, they steered for home. It was the - sixteenth of July, 1536, when Cartier again cast anchor under the walls of - St. Malo. - </p> - <p> - A rigorous climate, a savage people, a fatal disease, and a soil barren of - gold were the allurements of New France. Nor were the times auspicious for - a renewal of the enterprise. Charles the Fifth, flushed with his African - triumphs, challenged the Most Christian King to single combat. The war - flamed forth with renewed fury, and ten years elapsed before a hollow - truce varnished the hate of the royal rivals with a thin pretence of - courtesy. Peace returned; but Francis the First was sinking to his - ignominious grave, under the scourge of his favorite goddess, and Chabot, - patron of the former voyages, was in disgrace. - </p> - <p> - Meanwhile the ominous adventure of New France had found a champion in the - person of Jean Francois de la Roque, Sieur de Roberval, a nobleman of - Picardy. Though a man of high account in his own province, his past honors - paled before the splendor of the titles said to have been now conferred on - him, Lord of Norembega, Viceroy and Lieutenant-General in Canada, - Hochelaga, Saguenay, Newfoundland, Belle Isle, Carpunt, Labrador, the - Great Bay, and Baccalaos. To this windy gift of ink and parchment was - added a solid grant from the royal treasury, with which five vessels were - procured and equipped; and to Cartier was given the post of - Captain-General. "We have resolved," says Francis, "to send him again to - the lands of Canada and Hochelaga, which form the extremity of Asia - towards the west." His commission declares the objects of the enterprise - to be discovery, settlement, and the conversion of the Indians, who are - described as "men without knowledge of God or use of reason,"—a - pious design, held doubtless in full sincerity by the royal profligate, - now, in his decline, a fervent champion of the Faith and a strenuous - tormentor of heretics. The machinery of conversion was of a character - somewhat questionable, since Cartier and Roberval were empowered to - ransack the prisons for thieves, robbers, and other malefactors, to - complete their crews and strengthen the colony. "Whereas," says the King, - "we have undertaken this voyage for the honor of God our Creator, desiring - with all our heart to do that which shall be agreeable to Him, it is our - will to perform a compassionate and meritorious work towards criminals and - malefactors, to the end that they may acknowledge the Creator, return - thanks to Him, and mend their lives. Therefore we have resolved to cause - to be delivered to our aforesaid lieutenant (Roberval), such and so many - of the aforesaid criminals and malefactors detained in our prisons as may - seem to him useful and necessary to be carried to the aforesaid - countries." Of the expected profits of the voyage the adventurers were to - have one third and the King another, while the remainder was to be - reserved towards defraying expenses. - </p> - <p> - With respect to Donnacona and his tribesmen, basely kidnapped at - Stadacone, their souls had been better cared for than their bodies; for, - having been duly baptized, they all died within a year or two, to the - great detriment, as it proved, of the expedition. - </p> - <p> - Meanwhile, from beyond the Pyrenees, the Most Catholic King, with alarmed - and jealous eye, watched the preparations of his Most Christian enemy. - America, in his eyes, was one vast province of Spain, to be vigilantly - guarded against the intruding foreigner. To what end were men mustered, - and ships fitted out in the Breton seaports? Was it for colonization, and - if so, where? Was it in Southern Florida, or on the frozen shores of - Baccalaos, of which Breton cod-fishers claimed the discovery? Or would the - French build forts on the Bahamas, whence they could waylay the gold ships - in the Bahama Channel? Or was the expedition destined against the Spanish - settlements of the islands or the Main? Reinforcements were despatched in - haste, and a spy was sent to France, who, passing from port to port, - Quimper, St. Malo, Brest, Morlaix, came back freighted with exaggerated - tales of preparation. The Council of the Indies was called. "The French - are bound for Baccalaos,"—such was the substance of their report; - "your Majesty will do well to send two caravels to watch their movements, - and a force to take possession of the said country. And since there is no - other money to pay for it, the gold from Peru, now at Panama, might be - used to that end." The Cardinal of Seville thought lightly of the danger, - and prophesied that the French would reap nothing from their enterprise - but disappointment and loss. The King of Portugal, sole acknowledged - partner with Spain in the ownership of the New World, was invited by the - Spanish ambassador to take part in an expedition against the encroaching - French. "They can do no harm at Baccalaos," was the cold reply; "and so," - adds the indignant ambassador, "this King would say if they should come - and take him here at Lisbon; such is the softness they show here on the - one hand, while, on the other, they wish to give law to the whole world." - </p> - <p> - The five ships, occasions of this turmoil and alarm, had lain at St. Malo - waiting for cannon and munitions from Normandy and Champagne. They waited - in vain, and as the King's orders were stringent against delay, it was - resolved that Cartier should sail at once, leaving Roberval to follow with - additional ships when the expected supplies arrived. - </p> - <p> - On the twenty-third of May, 1541, the Breton captain again spread his - canvas for New France, and, passing in safety the tempestuous Atlantic, - the fog-banks of Newfoundland, the island rocks clouded with screaming - sea-fowl, and the forests breathing piny odors from the shore, cast anchor - again beneath the cliffs of Quebec. Canoes came out from shore filled with - feathered savages inquiring for their kidnapped chiefs. "Donnacona," - replied Cartier, "is dead;" but he added the politic falsehood, that the - others had married in France, and lived in state, like great lords. The - Indians pretended to be satisfied; but it was soon apparent that they - looked askance on the perfidious strangers. - </p> - <p> - Cartier pursued his course, sailed three leagues and a half up the St. - Lawrence, and anchored off the mouth of the River of Cap Rouge. It was - late in August, and the leafy landscape sweltered in the sun. The - Frenchmen landed, picked up quartz crystals on the shore and thought them - diamonds, climbed the steep promontory, drank at the spring near the top, - looked abroad on the wooded slopes beyond the little river, waded through - the tall grass of the meadow, found a quarry of slate, and gathered scales - of a yellow mineral which glistened like gold, then returned to their - boats, crossed to the south shore of the St. Lawrence, and, languid with - the heat, rested in the shade of forests laced with an entanglement of - grape-vines. - </p> - <p> - Now their task began, and while some cleared off the woods and sowed - turnip-seed, others cut a zigzag road up the height, and others built two - forts, one at the summit, and one on the shore below. The forts finished, - the Vicomte de Beaupre took command, while Cartier went with two boats to - explore the rapids above Hochelaga. When at length he returned, the autumn - was far advanced; and with the gloom of a Canadian November came distrust, - foreboding, and homesickness. Roberval had not appeared; the Indians kept - jealously aloof; the motley colony was sullen as the dull, raw air around - it. There was disgust and ire at Charlesbourg-Royal, for so the place was - called. - </p> - <p> - Meanwhile, unexpected delays had detained the impatient Roberval; nor was - it until the sixteenth of April, 1542, that, with three ships and two - hundred colonists, he set sail from Rochelle. When, on the eighth of June, - he entered the harbor of St. John, he found seventeen fishing-vessels - lying there at anchor. Soon after, he descried three other sail rounding - the entrance of the haven, and, with anger and amazement, recognized the - ships of Jacques Cartier. That voyager had broken up his colony and - abandoned New France. What motives had prompted a desertion little - consonant with the resolute spirit of the man it is impossible to say,—whether - sickness within, or Indian enemies without, disgust with an enterprise - whose unripened fruits had proved so hard and bitter, or discontent at - finding himself reduced to a post of subordination in a country which he - had discovered and where he had commanded. The Viceroy ordered him to - return; but Cartier escaped with his vessels under cover of night, and - made sail for France, carrying with him as trophies a few quartz diamonds - from Cap Rouge, and grains of sham gold from the neighboring slate ledges. - Thus closed the third Canadian voyage of this notable explorer. His - discoveries had gained for him a patent of nobility, and he owned the - seigniorial mansion of Limoilou, a rude structure of stone still standing. - Here, and in the neighboring town of St. Malo, where also he had a house, - he seems to have lived for many years. - </p> - <p> - Roberval once more set sail, steering northward to the Straits of Belle - Isle and the dreaded Isles of Demons. And here an incident befell which - the all-believing Thevet records in manifest good faith, and which, - stripped of the adornments of superstition and a love of the marvellous, - has without doubt a nucleus of truth. I give the tale as I find it. - </p> - <p> - The Viceroy's company was of a mixed complexion. There were nobles, - officers, soldiers, sailors, adventurers, with women too, and children. Of - the women, some were of birth and station, and among them a damsel called - Marguerite, a niece of Roberval himself. In the ship was a young gentleman - who had embarked for love of her. His love was too well requited; and the - stern Viceroy, scandalized and enraged at a passion which scorned - concealment and set shame at defiance, cast anchor by the haunted island, - landed his indiscreet relative, gave her four arquebuses for defence, and, - with an old Norman nurse named Bastienne, who had pandered to the lovers, - left her to her fate. Her gallant threw himself into the surf, and by - desperate effort gained the shore, with two more guns and a supply of - ammunition. - </p> - <p> - The ship weighed anchor, receded, vanished, and they were left alone. Yet - not so, for the demon lords of the island beset them day and night, raging - around their hut with a confused and hungry clamoring, striving to force - the frail barrier. The lovers had repented of their sin, though not - abandoned it, and Heaven was on their side. The saints vouchsafed their - aid, and the offended Virgin, relenting, held before them her protecting - shield. In the form of beasts or other shapes abominably and unutterably - hideous, the brood of hell, howling in baffled fury, tore at the branches - of the sylvan dwelling; but a celestial hand was ever interposed, and - there was a viewless barrier which they might not pass. Marguerite became - pregnant. Here was a double prize, two souls in one, mother and child. The - fiends grew frantic, but all in vain. She stood undaunted amid these - horrors; but her lover, dismayed and heartbroken, sickened and died. Her - child soon followed; then the old Norman nurse found her unhallowed rest - in that accursed soil, and Marguerite was left alone. Neither her reason - nor her courage failed. When the demons assailed her, she shot at them - with her gun, but they answered with hellish merriment, and thenceforth - she placed her trust in Heaven alone. There were foes around her of the - upper, no less than of the nether world. Of these, the bears were the most - redoubtable; yet, being vulnerable to mortal weapons, she killed three of - them, all, says the story, "as white as an egg." - </p> - <p> - It was two years and five months from her landing on the island, when, far - out at sea, the crew of a small fishing-craft saw a column of smoke - curling upward from the haunted shore. Was it a device of the fiends to - lure them to their ruin? They thought so, and kept aloof. But misgiving - seized them. They warily drew near, and descried a female figure in wild - attire waving signals from the strand. Thus at length was Marguerite - rescued and restored to her native France, where, a few years later, the - cosmographer Thevet met her at Natron in Perigord, and heard the tale of - wonder from her own lips. - </p> - <p> - Having left his offending niece to the devils and bears of the Isles of - Demons, Roberval held his course up the St. Lawrence, and dropped anchor - before the heights of Cap Rouge. His company landed; there were bivouacs - along the strand, a hubbub of pick and spade, axe, saw, and hammer; and - soon in the wilderness uprose a goodly structure, half barrack, half - castle, with two towers, two spacious halls, a kitchen, chambers, - storerooms, workshops, cellars, garrets, a well, an oven, and two - watermills. Roberval named it France-Roy, and it stood on that bold - acclivity where Cartier had before intrenched himself, the St. Lawrence in - front, and on the right the River of Cap Rouge. Here all the colony housed - under the same roof, like one of the experimental communities of recent - days,—officers, soldiers, nobles, artisans, laborers, and convicts, - with the women and children in whom lay the future hope of New France. - </p> - <p> - Experience and forecast had both been wanting. There were storehouses, but - no stores; mills, but no grist; an ample oven, and a dearth of bread. It - was only when two of the ships had sailed for France that they took - account of their provision and discovered its lamentable shortcoming. - Winter and famine followed. They bought fish from the Indians, and dug - roots and boiled them in whale-oil. Disease broke out, and, before spring, - killed one third of the colony. The rest would have quarrelled, mutinied, - and otherwise aggravated their inevitable woes, but disorder was dangerous - under the iron rule of the inexorable Roberval. Michel Gaillon was - detected in a petty theft, and hanged. Jean de Nantes, for a more venial - offence, was kept in irons. The quarrels of men and the scolding of women - were alike requited at the whipping-post, "by which means," quaintly says - the narrative, "they lived in peace." - </p> - <p> - Thevet, while calling himself the intimate friend of the Viceroy, gives a - darker coloring to his story. He says that, forced to unceasing labor, and - chafed by arbitrary rules, some of the soldiers fell under Roberval's - displeasure, and six of them, formerly his favorites, were hanged in one - day. Others were banished to an island, and there kept in fetters; while, - for various light offences, several, both men and women, were shot. Even - the Indians were moved to pity, and wept at the sight of their woes. - </p> - <p> - And here, midway, our guide deserts us; the ancient narrative is broken, - and the latter part is lost, leaving us to divine as we may the future of - the ill-starred colony. That it did not long survive is certain. The King, - in great need of Roberval, sent Cartier to bring him home, and this voyage - seems to have taken place in the summer of 1543. It is said that, in after - years, the Viceroy essayed to repossess himself of his Transatlantic - domain, and lost his life in the attempt. Thevet, on the other hand, with - ample means of learning the truth, affirms that Roberval was slain at - night, near the Church of the Innocents, in the heart of Paris. - </p> - <p> - With him closes the prelude of the French-American drama. Tempestuous - years and a reign of blood and fire were in store for France. The - religious wars begot the hapless colony of Florida, but for more than half - a century they left New France a desert. Order rose at length out of the - sanguinary chaos; the zeal of discovery and the spirit of commercial - enterprise once more awoke, while, closely following, more potent than - they, moved the black-robed forces of the Roman Catholic reaction. - </p> - <p> - <a name="link2HCH0012" id="link2HCH0012"> - <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> - </p> - <div style="height: 4em;"> - <br /><br /><br /><br /> - </div> - <h2> - CHAPTER II. - </h2> - <h3> - 1542-1604. - </h3> - <p> - LA ROCHE.—CHAMPLAIN.—DE MONTS. - </p> - <p> - Years rolled on. France, long tossed among the surges of civil commotion, - plunged at last into a gulf of fratricidal war. Blazing hamlets, sacked - cities, fields steaming with slaughter, profaned altars, and ravished - maidens, marked the track of the tornado. There was little room for - schemes of foreign enterprise. Yet, far aloof from siege and battle, the - fishermen of the western ports still plied their craft on the Banks of - Newfoundland. Humanity, morality, decency, might be forgotten, but codfish - must still be had for the use of the faithful in Lent and on fast days. - Still the wandering Esquimaux saw the Norman and Breton sails hovering - around some lonely headland, or anchored in fleets in the harbor of St. - John; and still, through salt spray and driving mist, the fishermen - dragged up the riches of the sea. - </p> - <p> - In January and February, 1545, about two vessels a day sailed from French - ports for Newfoundland. In 1565, Pedro Menendez complains that the French - "rule despotically" in those parts. In 1578, there were a hundred and - fifty French fishing-vessels there, besides two hundred of other nations, - Spanish, Portuguese, and English. Added to these were twenty or thirty - Biscayan whalers. In 1607, there was an old French fisherman at Canseau - who had voyaged to these seas for forty-two successive years. - </p> - <p> - But if the wilderness of ocean had its treasures, so too had the - wilderness of woods. It needed but a few knives, beads, and trinkets, and - the Indians would throng to the shore burdened with the spoils of their - winter hunting. Fishermen threw up their old vocation for the more - lucrative trade in bear-skins and beaver-skins. They built rude huts along - the shores of Anticosti, where, at that day, the bison, it is said, could - be seen wallowing in the sands. They outraged the Indians; they quarrelled - with each other; and this infancy of the Canadian fur-trade showed rich - promise of the disorders which marked its riper growth. Others, meanwhile, - were ranging the gulf in search of walrus tusks; and, the year after the - battle of Ivry, St. Malo sent out a fleet of small craft in quest of this - new prize. - </p> - <p> - In all the western seaports, merchants and adventurers turned their eyes - towards America; not, like the Spaniards, seeking treasures of silver and - gold, but the more modest gains of codfish and train-oil, beaver-skins and - marine ivory. St. Malo was conspicuous above them all. The rugged Bretons - loved the perils of the sea, and saw with a jealous eye every attempt to - shackle their activity on this its favorite field. When in 1588 Jacques - Noel and Estienue Chaton—the former a nephew of Cartier and the - latter pretending to be so—gained a monopoly of the American - fur-trade for twelve year's, such a clamor arose within the walls of St. - Malo that the obnoxious grant was promptly revoked. - </p> - <p> - But soon a power was in the field against which all St. Malo might clamor - in vain. A Catholic nobleman of Brittany, the Marquis de la Roche, - bargained with the King to colonize New France. On his part, he was to - receive a monopoly of the trade, and a profusion of worthless titles and - empty privileges. He was declared Lieutenant-General of Canada, Hochelaga, - Newfoundland, Labrador, and the countries adjacent, with sovereign power - within his vast and ill-defined domain. He could levy troops, declare war - and peace, make laws, punish or pardon at will, build cities, forts, and - castles, and grant out lands in fiefs, seigniories, counties, viscounties, - and baronies. Thus was effete and cumbrous feudalism to make a lodgment in - the New World. It was a scheme of high-sounding promise, but in - performance less than contemptible. La Roche ransacked the prisons, and, - gathering thence a gang of thieves and desperadoes, embarked them in a - small vessel, and set sail to plant Christianity and civilization in the - West. Suns rose and set, and the wretched bark, deep freighted with - brutality and vice, held on her course. She was so small that the - convicts, leaning over her side, could wash their hands in the water. At - length, on the gray horizon they descried a long, gray line of ridgy sand. - It was Sable Island, off the coast of Nova Scotia. A wreck lay stranded on - the beach, and the surf broke ominously over the long, submerged arms of - sand, stretched far out into the sea on the right hand and on the left. - </p> - <p> - Here La Roche landed the convicts, forty in number, while, with his more - trusty followers, he sailed to explore the neighboring coasts, and choose - a site for the capital of his new dominion, to which, in due time, he - proposed to remove the prisoners. But suddenly a tempest from the west - assailed him. The frail vessel was forced to run before the gale, which, - howling on her track, drove her off the coast, and chased her back towards - France. - </p> - <p> - Meanwhile the convicts watched in suspense for the returning sail. Days - passed, weeks passed, and still they strained their eyes in vain across - the waste of ocean. La Roche had left them to their fate. Rueful and - desperate, they wandered among the sand-hills, through the stunted - whortleberry bushes, the rank sand-grass, and the tangled cranberry vines - which filled the hollows. Not a tree was to be seen; but they built huts - of the fragments of the wreck. For food they caught fish in the - surrounding sea, and hunted the cattle which ran wild about the island, - sprung, perhaps, from those left here eighty years before by the Baron de - Lery. They killed seals, trapped black foxes, and clothed themselves in - their skins. Their native instincts clung to them in their exile. As if - not content with inevitable miseries, they quarrelled and murdered one - another. Season after season dragged on. Five years elapsed, and, of the - forty, only twelve were left alive. Sand, sea, and sky,—there was - little else around them; though, to break the dead monotony, the walrus - would sometimes rear his half-human face and glistening sides on the reefs - and sand-bars. At length, on the far verge of the watery desert, they - descried a sail. She stood on towards the island; a boat's crew landed on - the beach, and the exiles were once more among their countrymen. - </p> - <p> - When La Roche returned to France, the fate of his followers sat heavy on - his mind. But the day of his prosperity was gone. A host of enemies rose - against him and his privileges, and it is said that the Due de Mercaeur - seized him and threw him into prison. In time, however, he gained a - hearing of the King; and the Norman pilot, Chefdhotel, was despatched to - bring the outcasts home. - </p> - <p> - He reached Sable Island in September, 1603, and brought back to France - eleven survivors, whose names are still preserved. When they arrived, - Henry the Fourth summoned them into his presence. They stood before him, - says an old writer, like river-gods of yore; for from head to foot they - were clothed in shaggy skins, and beards of prodigious length hung from - their swarthy faces. They had accumulated, on their island, a quantity of - valuable furs. Of these Chefdhotel had robbed them; but the pilot was - forced to disgorge his prey, and, with the aid of a bounty from the King, - they were enabled to embark on their own account in the Canadian trade. To - their leader, fortune was less kind. Broken by disaster and imprisonment, - La Roche died miserably. - </p> - <p> - In the mean time, on the ruin of his enterprise, a new one had been begun. - Pontgrave, a merchant of St. Malo, leagued himself with Chauvin, a captain - of the navy, who had influence at court. A patent was granted to them, - with the condition that they should colonize the country. But their only - thought was to enrich themselves. - </p> - <p> - At Tadoussac, at the mouth of the Saguenay, under the shadow of savage and - inaccessible rocks, feathered with pines, firs, and birch-trees, they - built a cluster of wooden huts and store-houses. Here they left sixteen - men to gather the expected harvest of furs. Before the winter was over, - several of them were dead, and the rest scattered through the woods, - living on the charity of the Indians. - </p> - <p> - But a new era had dawned on France. Exhausted with thirty years of - conflict, she had sunk at last to a repose, uneasy and disturbed, yet the - harbinger of recovery. The rugged soldier whom, for the weal of France and - of mankind, Providence had cast to the troubled surface of affairs, was - throned in the Louvre, composing the strife of factions and the quarrels - of his mistresses. The bear-hunting prince of the Pyrenees wore the crown - of France; and to this day, as one gazes on the time-worn front of the - Tuileries, above all other memories rises the small, strong finger, the - brow wrinkled with cares of love and war, the bristling moustache, the - grizzled beard, the bold, vigorous, and withal somewhat odd features of - the mountaineer of Warn. To few has human liberty owed so deep a gratitude - or so deep a grudge. He cared little for creeds or dogmas. Impressible, - quick in sympathy, his grim lip lighted often with a smile, and his - war-worn cheek was no stranger to a tear. He forgave his enemies and - forgot his friends. Many loved him; none but fools trusted him. Mingled of - mortal good and ill, frailty and force, of all the kings who for two - centuries and more sat on the throne of France Henry the Fourth alone was - a man. - </p> - <p> - Art, industry, and commerce, so long crushed and overborne, were stirring - into renewed life, and a crowd of adventurous men, nurtured in war and - incapable of repose, must seek employment for their restless energies in - fields of peaceful enterprise. - </p> - <p> - Two small, quaint vessels, not larger than the fishing-craft of Gloucester - and Marblehead,—one was of twelve, the other of fifteen tons,—held - their way across the Atlantic, passed the tempestuous headlands of - Newfoundland and the St. Lawrence, and, with adventurous knight-errantry, - glided deep into the heart of the Canadian wilderness. On board of one of - them was the Breton merchant, Pontgrave, and with him a man of spirit - widely different, a Catholic of good family,—Samuel de Champlain, - born in 1567 at the small seaport of Bronage on the Bay of Biscay. His - father was a captain in the royal navy, where he himself seems also to - have served, though during the war he had fought for the King in Brittany, - under the banners of D'Aumont, St. Luc, and Brissac. His purse was small, - his merit great; and Henry the Fourth out of his own slender revenues had - given him a pension to maintain him near his person. But rest was penance - to him. The war in Brittany was over. The rebellious Duc de Mercaeur was - reduced to obedience, and the royal army disbanded. Champlain, his - occupation gone, conceived a design consonant with his adventurous nature. - He would visit the West Indies, and bring back to the King a report of - those regions of mystery whence Spanish jealousy excluded foreigners, and - where every intruding Frenchman was threatened with death. Here much - knowledge was to be won and much peril to be met. The joint attraction was - resistless. - </p> - <p> - The Spaniards, allies of the vanquished Leaguers, were about to evacuate - Blavet, their last stronghold in Brittany. Thither Champlain repaired; and - here he found an uncle, who had charge of the French fleet destined to - take on board the Spanish garrison. Champlain embarked with them, and, - reaching Cadiz, succeeded, with the aid of his relative, who had just - accepted the post of Pilot-General of the Spanish marine, in gaining - command of one of the ships about to sail for the West Indies under Don - Francisco Colombo. - </p> - <p> - At Dieppe there is a curious old manuscript, in clear, decisive, and - somewhat formal handwriting of the sixteenth century, garnished with - sixty-one colored pictures, in a style of art which a child of ten might - emulate. Here one may see ports, harbors, islands, and rivers, adorned - with portraitures of birds, beasts, and fishes thereto pertaining. Here - are Indian feasts and dances; Indians flogged by priests for not going to - mass; Indians burned alive for heresy, six in one fire; Indians working - the silver mines. Here, too, are descriptions of natural objects, each - with its illustrative sketch, some drawn from life and some from memory,—as, - for example, a chameleon with two legs; others from hearsay, among which - is the portrait of the griffin said to haunt certain districts of Mexico,—a - monster with the wings of a bat, the head of an eagle, and the tail of an - alligator. - </p> - <p> - This is Champlain's journal, written and illustrated by his own hand, in - that defiance of perspective and absolute independence of the canons of - art which mark the earliest efforts of the pencil. - </p> - <p> - A true hero, after the chivalrous mediaeval type, his character was dashed - largely with the spirit of romance. Though earnest, sagacious, and - penetrating, he leaned to the marvellous; and the faith which was the life - of his hard career was somewhat prone to overstep the bounds of reason and - invade the domain of fancy. Hence the erratic character of some of his - exploits, and hence his simple faith in the Mexican griffin. - </p> - <p> - His West-Indian adventure occupied him more than two years. He visited the - principal ports of the islands, made plans and sketches of them all, after - his fashion, and then, landing at Vera Cruz, journeyed inland to the city - of Mexico. On his return he made his way to Panama. Here, more than two - centuries and a half ago, his bold and active mind conceived the plan of a - ship-canal across the isthmus, "by which," lie says, "the voyage to the - South Sea would be shortened by more than fifteen hundred leagues." - </p> - <p> - On reaching France he repaired to court, and it may have been at this time - that a royal patent raised him to the rank of the untitled nobility. He - soon wearied of the antechambers of the Louvre. It was here, however, that - his destiny awaited him, and the work of his life was unfolded. Aymar de - Chastes, Commander of the Order of St. John and Governor of Dieppe, a - gray-haired veteran of the civil wars, wished to mark his closing days - with some notable achievement for France and the Church. To no man was the - King more deeply indebted. In his darkest hour, when the hosts of the - League were gathering round him, when friends were falling off, and the - Parisians, exulting in his certain ruin, were hiring the windows of the - Rue St. Antoine to see him led to the Bastille, De Chastes, without - condition or reserve, gave up to him the town and castle of Dieppe. Thus - he was enabled to fight beneath its walls the battle of Arques, the first - in the series of successes which secured his triumph; and he had been - heard to say that to this friend in his adversity he owed his own - salvation and that of France. - </p> - <p> - De Chastes was one of those men who, amid the strife of factions and rage - of rival fanaticisms, make reason and patriotism their watchwords, and - stand on the firm ground of a strong and resolute moderation. He had - resisted the madness of Leaguer and Huguenot alike; yet, though a foe of - the League, the old soldier was a devout Catholic, and it seemed in his - eyes a noble consummation of his life to plant the cross and the - fleur-de-lis in the wilderness of New France. Chauvin had just died, after - wasting the lives of a score or more of men in a second and a third - attempt to establish the fur-trade at Tadoussac. De Chastes came to court - to beg a patent of henry the Fourth; "and," says his friend Champlain, - "though his head was crowned with gray hairs as with years, he resolved to - proceed to New France in person, and dedicate the rest of his days to the - service of God and his King." - </p> - <p> - The patent, costing nothing, was readily granted; and De Chastes, to meet - the expenses of the enterprise, and forestall the jealousies which his - monopoly would awaken among the keen merchants of the western ports, - formed a company with the more prominent of them. Pontgrave, who had some - knowledge of the country, was chosen to make a preliminary exploration. - </p> - <p> - This was the time when Champlain, fresh from the West Indies, appeared at - court. De Chastes knew him well. Young, ardent, yet ripe in experience, a - skilful seaman and a practised soldier, he above all others was a man for - the enterprise. He had many conferences with the veteran, under whom he - had served in the royal fleet off the coast of Brittany. De Chastes urged - him to accept a post in his new company; and Champlain, nothing loath, - consented, provided always that permission should be had from the King, - "to whom," he says, "I was bound no less by birth than by the pension with - which his Majesty honored me." To the King, therefore, De Chastes - repaired. The needful consent was gained, and, armed with a letter to - Pontgrave, Champlain set out for Honfleur. Here he found his destined - companion, and embarking with him, as we have seen, they spread their - sails for the west. - </p> - <p> - Like specks on the broad bosom of the waters, the two pygmy vessels held - their course up the lonely St. Lawrence. They passed abandoned Tadoussac, - the channel of Orleans, and the gleaming cataract of Montmorenci; the - tenantless rock of Quebec, the wide Lake of St. Peter and its crowded - archipelago, till now the mountain reared before them its rounded shoulder - above the forest-plain of Montreal. All was solitude. Hochelaga had - vanished; and of the savage population that Cartier had found here, - sixty-eight years before, no trace remained. In its place were a few - wandering Algonquins, of different tongue and lineage. In a skiff, with a - few Indians, Champlain essayed to pass the rapids of St. Louis. Oars, - paddles, and poles alike proved vain against the foaming surges, and he - was forced to return. On the deck of his vessel, the Indians drew rude - plans of the river above, with its chain of rapids, its lakes and - cataracts; and the baffled explorer turned his prow homeward, the objects - of his mission accomplished, but his own adventurous curiosity unsated. - When the voyagers reached Havre de Grace, a grievous blow awaited them. - The Commander de Chastes was dead. - </p> - <p> - His mantle fell upon Pierre du Guast, Sieur de Monts, gentleman in - ordinary of the King's chamber, and Governor of Polls. Undaunted by the - fate of La Roche, this nobleman petitioned the king for leave to colonize - La Cadie, or Acadie, a region defined as extending from the fortieth to - the forty-Sixth degree of north latitude, or from Philadelphia to beyond - Montreal. The King's minister, Sully, as he himself tells us, opposed the - plan, on the ground that the colonization of this northern wilderness - would never repay the outlay; but De Monts gained his point. He was made - Lieutenant-General in Acadia, with viceregal powers; and withered - Feudalism, with her antique forms and tinselled follies, was again to seek - a new home among the rocks and pine-trees of Nova Scotia. The foundation - of the enterprise was a monopoly of the fur-trade, and in its favor all - past grants were unceremoniously annulled. St. Malo, Rouen, Dieppe, and - Rochelle greeted the announcement with unavailing outcries. Patents - granted and revoked, monopolies decreed and extinguished, had involved the - unhappy traders in ceaseless embarrassment. De Monts, however, preserved - De Chastes's old company, and enlarged it, thus making the chief - malcontents sharers in his exclusive rights, and converting them from - enemies into partners. - </p> - <p> - A clause in his commission empowered him to impress idlers and vagabonds - as material for his colony,—an ominous provision of which he largely - availed himself. His company was strangely incongruous. The best and the - meanest of France were crowded together in his two ships. Here were - thieves and ruffians dragged on board by force; and here were many - volunteers of condition and character, with Baron de Poutrincourt and the - indefatigable Champlain. Here, too, were Catholic priests and Huguenot - ministers; for, though De Monts was a Calvinist, the Church, as usual, - displayed her banner in the van of the enterprise, and he was forced to - promise that he would cause the Indians to be instructed in the dogmas of - Rome. - </p> - <p> - <a name="link2HCH0013" id="link2HCH0013"> - <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> - </p> - <div style="height: 4em;"> - <br /><br /><br /><br /> - </div> - <h2> - CHAPTER III. - </h2> - <h3> - 1604, 1605. - </h3> - <p> - ACADIA OCCUPIED. - </p> - <p> - De Monts, with one of his vessels, sailed from Havre de Grace on the - seventh of April, 1604. Pontgrave, with stores for the colony, was to - follow in a few days. - </p> - <p> - Scarcely were they at sea, when ministers and priests fell first to - discussion, then to quarrelling, then to blows. "I have seen our cure and - the minister," says Champlain, "fall to with their fists on questions of - faith. I cannot say which had the more pluck, or which hit the harder; but - I know that the minister sometimes complained to the Sieur de Monts that - he had been beaten. This was their way of settling points of controversy. - I leave you to judge if it was a pleasant thing to see." - </p> - <p> - Sagard, the Franciscan friar, relates with horror, that, after their - destination was reached, a priest and a minister happening to die at the - same time, the crew buried them both in one grave, to see if they would - lie peaceably together. - </p> - <p> - De Monts, who had been to the St. Lawrence with Chauvin, and learned to - dread its rigorous winters, steered for a more southern, and, as he - flattered himself, a milder region. The first land seen was Cap la Heve, - on the southern coast of Nova Scotia. Four days later, they entered a - small bay, where, to their surprise, they saw a vessel lying at anchor. - here was a piece of good luck. The stranger was a fur-trader, pursuing her - traffic in defiance, or more probably in ignorance, of De Monts's - monopoly. The latter, as empowered by his patent, made prize of ship and - cargo, consoling the commander, one Rossignol, by giving his name to the - scene of his misfortune. It is now called Liverpool Harbor. - </p> - <p> - In an adjacent harbor, called by them Port Mouton, because a sheep here - leaped overboard, they waited nearly a month for Pontgrave's store-ship. - At length, to their great relief, she appeared, laden with the spoils of - four Basque fur-traders, captured at Cansean. The supplies delivered, - Pontgrave sailed for Tadoussac to trade with the Indians, while De Monts, - followed by his prize, proceeded on his voyage. - </p> - <p> - He doubled Cape Sable, and entered St. Mary's Bay, where he lay two weeks, - sending boats' crews to explore the adjacent coasts. A party one day went - on shore to stroll through the forest, and among them was Nicolas Aubry, a - priest from Paris, who, tiring of the scholastic haunts of the Rue de la - Sorbonne and the Rue d'Enfer, had persisted, despite the remonstrance of - his friends, in joining the expedition. Thirsty with a long walk, under - the sun of June, through the tangled and rock-encumbered woods, he stopped - to drink at a brook, laying his sword beside him on the grass. On - rejoining his companions, he found that he had forgotten it; and turning - back in search of it, more skilled in the devious windings of the Quartier - Latin than in the intricacies of the Acadian forest, he soon lost his way. - His comrades, alarmed, waited for a time, and then ranged the woods, - shouting his name to the echoing solitudes. Trumpets were sounded, and - cannon fired from the ships, but the priest did not appear. All now looked - askance on a certain Huguenot, with whom Aubry had often quarrelled on - questions of faith, and who was now accused of having killed him. In vain - he denied the charge. Aubry was given up for dead, and the ship sailed - from St. Mary's Bay; while the wretched priest roamed to and fro, famished - and despairing, or, couched on the rocky soil, in the troubled sleep of - exhaustion, dreamed, perhaps, as the wind swept moaning through the pines, - that he heard once more the organ roll through the columned arches of - Sainte Genevieve. - </p> - <p> - The voyagers proceeded to explore the Bay of Fundy, which De Monts called - La Baye Francoise. Their first notable discovery was that of Annapolis - Harbor. A small inlet invited them. They entered, when suddenly the narrow - strait dilated into a broad and tranquil basin, compassed by sunny hills, - wrapped in woodland verdure, and alive with waterfalls. Poutrincourt was - delighted with the scene. The fancy seized him of removing thither from - France with his family and, to this end, he asked a grant of the place - from De Monts, who by his patent had nearly half the continent in his - gift. The grant was made, and Poutrincourt called his new domain Port - Royal. - </p> - <p> - Thence they sailed round the head of the Bay of Fundy, coasted its - northern shore, visited and named the river St. John, and anchored at last - in Passamaquoddy Bay. - </p> - <p> - The untiring Champlain, exploring, surveying, sounding, had made charts of - all the principal roads and harbors; and now, pursuing his research, he - entered a river which he calls La Riviere des Etechemins, from the name of - the tribe of whom the present Passamaquoddy Indians are descendants. Near - its mouth he found an islet, fenced round with rocks and shoals, and - called it St. Croix, a name now borne by the river itself. With singular - infelicity this spot was chosen as the site of the new colony. It - commanded the river, and was well fitted for defence: these were its only - merits; yet cannon were landed on it, a battery was planted on a detached - rock at one end, and a fort begun on a rising ground at the other. - </p> - <p> - At St. Mary's Bay the voyagers thought they had found traces of iron and - silver; and Champdore, the pilot, was now sent back to pursue the search. - As he and his men lay at anchor, fishing, not far from land, one of them - heard a strange sound, like a weak human voice; and, looking towards the - shore, they saw a small black object in motion, apparently a hat waved on - the end of a stick. Rowing in haste to the spot, they found the priest - Aubry. For sixteen days he had wandered in the woods, sustaining life on - berries and wild fruits; and when, haggard and emaciated, a shadow of his - former self, Champdore carried him back to St. Croix, he was greeted as a - man risen from the grave. - </p> - <p> - In 1783 the river St. Croix, by treaty, was made the boundary between - Maine and New Brunswick. But which was the true St. Croix? In 1798, the - point was settled. De Monts's island was found; and, painfully searching - among the sand, the sedge, and the matted whortleberry bushes, the - commissioners could trace the foundations of buildings long crumbled into - dust; for the wilderness had resumed its sway, and silence and solitude - brooded once more over this ancient resting-place of civilization. - </p> - <p> - But while the commissioner bends over a moss-grown stone, it is for us to - trace back the dim vista of the centuries to the life, the zeal, the - energy, of which this stone is the poor memorial. The rock-fenced islet - was covered with cedars, and when the tide was out the shoals around were - dark with the swash of sea-weed, where, in their leisure moments, the - Frenchmen, we are told, amused themselves with detaching the limpets from - the stones, as a savory addition to their fare. But there was little - leisure at St. Croix. Soldiers, sailors, and artisans betook themselves to - their task. Before the winter closed in, the northern end of the island - was covered with buildings, surrounding a square, where a solitary tree - had been left standing. On the right was a spacious house, well built, and - surmounted by one of those enormous roofs characteristic of the time. This - was the lodging of De Monts. Behind it, and near the water, was a long, - covered gallery, for labor or amusement in foul weather. Champlain and the - Sieur d'Orville, aided by the servants of the latter, built a house for - themselves nearly opposite that of De Monts; and the remainder of the - square was occupied by storehouses, a magazine, workshops, lodgings for - gentlemen and artisans, and a barrack for the Swiss soldiers, the whole - enclosed with a palisade. Adjacent there was an attempt at a garden, under - the auspices of Champlain; but nothing would grow in the sandy soil. There - was a cemetery, too, and a small rustic chapel on a projecting point of - rock. Such was the "Habitation de l'Isle Saincte-Croix," as set forth by - Champlain in quaint plans and drawings, in that musty little quarto of - 1613, sold by Jean Berjon, at the sign of the Flying Horse, Rue St. Jean - de Beauvais. - </p> - <p> - Their labors over, Poutrincourt set sail for France, proposing to return - and take possession of his domain of Port Royal. Seventy-nine men remained - at St. Croix. Here was De Monts, feudal lord of half a continent in virtue - of two potent syllables, "Henri," scrawled on parchment by the rugged hand - of the Bearnais. Here were gentlemen of birth and breeding, Champlain, - D'Orville, Beaumont, Sourin, La Motte, Boulay, and Fougeray; here also - were the pugnacious cure and his fellow priests, with the Hugnenot - ministers, objects of their unceasing ire. The rest were laborers, - artisans, and soldiers, all in the pay of the company, and some of them - forced into its service. - </p> - <p> - Poutrincourt's receding sails vanished between the water and the sky. The - exiles were left to their solitude. From the Spanish settlements northward - to the pole, there was no domestic hearth, no lodgement of civilized men, - save one weak band of Frenchmen, clinging, as it were for life, to the - fringe of the vast and savage continent. The gray and sullen autumn sank - upon the waste, and the bleak wind howled down the St. Croix, and swept - the forest bare. Then the whirling snow powdered the vast sweep of - desolate woodland, and shrouded in white the gloomy green of pine-clad - mountains. Ice in sheets, or broken masses, swept by their island with the - ebbing and flowing tide, often debarring all access to the main, and - cutting off their supplies of wood and water. A belt of cedars, indeed, - hedged the island; but De Monts had ordered them to be spared, that the - north wind might spend something of its force with whistling through their - shaggy boughs. Cider and wine froze in the casks, and were served out by - the pound. As they crowded round their half-fed fires, shivering in the - icy currents that pierced their rude tenements, many sank into a desperate - apathy. - </p> - <p> - Soon the scurvy broke out, and raged with a fearful malignity. Of the - seventy-nine, thirty-five died before spring, and many more were brought - to the verge of death. In vain they sought that marvellous tree which had - relieved the followers of Cartier. Their little cemetery was peopled with - nearly half their number, and the rest, bloated and disfigured with the - relentless malady, thought more of escaping from their woes than of - building up a Transatlantic empire. Yet among them there was one, at - least, who, amid languor and defection, held to his purpose with - indomitable tenacity; and where Champlain was present, there was no room - for despair. - </p> - <p> - Spring came at last, and, with the breaking up of the ice, the melting of - the snow, and the clamors of the returning wild-fowl, the spirits and the - health of the woe-begone company began to revive. But to misery succeeded - anxiety and suspense. Where was the succor from France? Were they - abandoned to their fate like the wretched exiles of La Roche? In a happy - hour, they saw an approaching sail. Pontgrave, with forty men, cast anchor - before their island on the sixteenth of June; and they hailed him as the - condemned hails the messenger of his pardon. - </p> - <p> - Weary of St. Croix, De Monts resolved to seek out a more auspicious site, - on which to rear the capital of his wilderness dominion. During the - preceding September, Champlain had ranged the westward coast in a pinnace, - visited and named the island of Mount Desert, and entered the mouth of the - river Penobscot, called by him the Pemetigoet, or Pentegoet, and - previously known to fur-traders and fishermen as the Norembega, a name - which it shared with all the adjacent region. <a href="#linknote-27" - name="linknoteref-27" id="linknoteref-27">27</a> Now, embarking a second - time, in a bark of fifteen tons, with De Monts, several gentlemen, twenty - sailors, and an Indian with his squaw, he set forth on the eighteenth of - June on a second voyage of discovery. They coasted the strangely indented - shores of Maine, with its reefs and surf-washed islands, rocky headlands, - and deep embosomed bays, passed Mount Desert and the Penobscot, explored - the mouths of the Kennebec, crossed Casco Bay, and descried the distant - peaks of the White Mountains. The ninth of July brought them to Saco Bay. - They were now within the limits of a group of tribes who were called by - the French the Armouchiquois, and who included those whom the English - afterwards called the Massachusetts. They differed in habits as well as in - language from the Etechemins and Miemacs of Acadia, for they were tillers - of the soil, and around their wigwams were fields of maize, beans, - pumpkins, squashes, tobacco, and the so-called Jerusalem artichoke. Near - Pront's Neck, more than eighty of them ran down to the shore to meet the - strangers, dancing and yelping to show their joy. They had a fort of - palisades on a rising ground by the Saco, for they were at deadly war with - their neighbors towards the east. - </p> - <p> - On the twelfth, the French resumed their voyage, and, like some - adventurous party of pleasure, held their course by the beaches of York - and Wells, Portsmouth Harbor, the Isles of Shoals, Rye Beach, and Hampton - Beach, till, on the fifteenth, they descried the dim outline of Cape Ann. - Champlain called it Cap aux Isles, from the three adjacent islands, and in - a subsequent voyage he gave the name of Beauport to the neighboring harbor - of Gloucester. Thence steering southward and westward, they entered - Massachusetts Bay, gave the name of Riviere du Guast to a river flowing - into it, probably the Charles; passed the islands of Boston Harbor, which - Champlain describes as covered with trees, and were met on the way by - great numbers of canoes filled with astonished Indians. On Sunday, the - seventeenth, they passed Point Allerton and Nantasket Beach, coasted the - shores of Cohasset, Scituate, and Marshfield, and anchored for the night - near Brant Point. On the morning of the eighteenth, a head wind forced - them to take shelter in Port St. Louis, for so they called the harbor of - Plymouth, where the Pilgrims made their memorable landing fifteen years - later. Indian wigwams and garden patches lined the shore. A troop of the - inhabitants came down to the beach and danced; while others, who had been - fishing, approached in their canoes, came on board the vessel, and showed - Champlain their fish-hooks, consisting of a barbed bone lashed at an acute - angle to a slip of wood. - </p> - <p> - From Plymouth the party circled round the bay, doubled Cape Cod, called by - Champlain Cap Blanc, from its glistening white sands, and steered - southward to Nausett Harbor, which, by reason of its shoals and sand-bars, - they named Port Mallebarre. Here their prosperity deserted them. A party - of sailors went behind the sand-banks to find fresh water at a spring, - when an Indian snatched a kettle from one of them, and its owner, - pursuing, fell, pierced with arrows by the robber's comrades. The French - in the vessel opened fire. Champlain's arquebuse burst, and was near - killing him, while the Indians, swift as deer, quickly gained the woods. - Several of the tribe chanced to be on board the vessel, but flung - themselves with such alacrity into the water that only one was caught. - They bound him hand and foot, but soon after humanely set him at liberty. - </p> - <p> - Champlain, who we are told "delighted marvellously in these enterprises," - had busied himself throughout the voyage with taking observations, making - charts, and studying the wonders of land and sea. The "horse-foot crab" - seems to have awakened his special curiosity, and he describes it with - amusing exactness. Of the human tenants of the New England coast he has - also left the first precise and trustworthy account. They were clearly - more numerous than when the Puritans landed at Plymouth, since in the - interval a pestilence made great havoc among them. But Champlain's most - conspicuous merit lies in the light that he threw into the dark places of - American geography, and the order that he brought out of the chaos of - American cartography; for it was a result of this and the rest of his - voyages that precision and clearness began at last to supplant the - vagueness, confusion, and contradiction of the earlier map-makers. - </p> - <p> - At Nausett Harbor provisions began to fail, and steering for St. Croix the - voyagers reached that ill-starred island on the third of August. De Monts - had found no spot to his liking. He now bethought him of that inland - harbor of Port Royal which he had granted to Poutrincourt, and thither he - resolved to remove. Stores, utensils, even portions of the buildings, were - placed on board the vessels, carried across the Bay of Fundy, and landed - at the chosen spot. It was on the north side of the basin opposite Goat - Island, and a little below the mouth of the river Annapolis, called by the - French the Equille, and, afterwards, the Dauphin. The axe-men began their - task; the dense forest was cleared away, and the buildings of the infant - colony soon rose in its place. - </p> - <p> - But while De Monts and his company were struggling against despair at St. - Croix, the enemies of his monopoly were busy at Paris; and, by a ship from - France, he was warned that prompt measures were needed to thwart their - machinations. Therefore he set sail, leaving Pontgrave to command at Port - Royal: while Champlain, Champdore, and others, undaunted by the past, - volunteered for a second winter in the wilderness. - </p> - <p> - <a name="link2HCH0014" id="link2HCH0014"> - <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> - </p> - <div style="height: 4em;"> - <br /><br /><br /><br /> - </div> - <h2> - CHAPTER IV. - </h2> - <h3> - 1605-1607. - </h3> - <p> - LESCARBOT AND CHAMPLAIN. - </p> - <p> - Evil reports of a churlish wilderness, a pitiless climate, disease, - misery, and death, had heralded the arrival of De Monts. The outlay had - been great, the returns small; and when he reached Paris, he found his - friends cold, his enemies active and keen. Poutrincourt, however, was - still full of zeal; and, though his private affairs urgently called for - his presence in France, he resolved, at no small sacrifice, to go in - person to Acadia. He had, moreover, a friend who proved an invaluable - ally. This was Marc Lescarbot, "avocat en Parlement," who had been roughly - handled by fortune, and was in the mood for such a venture, being - desirous, as he tells us, "to fly from a corrupt world," in which he had - just lost a lawsuit. Unlike De Monts, Poutrincourt, and others of his - associates, he was not within the pale of the noblesse, belonging to the - class of "gens de robe," which stood at the head of the bourgeoisie, and - which, in its higher grades, formed within itself a virtual nobility. - Lescarbot was no common man,—not that his abundant gift of - verse-making was likely to avail much in the woods of New France, nor yet - his classic lore, dashed with a little harmless pedantry, born not of the - man, but of the times; but his zeal, his good sense, the vigor of his - understanding, and the breadth of his views, were as conspicuous as his - quick wit and his lively fancy. One of the best, as well as earliest, - records of the early settlement of North America is due to his pen; and it - has been said, with a certain degree of truth, that he was no less able to - build up a colony than to write its history. He professed himself a - Catholic, but his Catholicity sat lightly on him; and he might have passed - for one of those amphibious religionists who in the civil wars were called - "Les Politiques." - </p> - <p> - De Monts and Poutrincourt bestirred themselves to find a priest, since the - foes of the enterprise had been loud in lamentation that the spiritual - welfare of the Indians had been slighted. But it was Holy Week. All the - priests were, or professed to be, busy with exercises and confessions, and - not one could be found to undertake the mission of Acadia. They were more - successful in engaging mechanics and laborers for the voyage. These were - paid a portion of their wages in advance, and were sent in a body to - Rochelle, consigned to two merchants of that port, members of the company. - De Monts and Poutrincourt went thither by post. Lescarbot soon followed, - and no sooner reached Rochelle than he penned and printed his Adieu a la - France, a poem which gained for him some credit. - </p> - <p> - More serious matters awaited him, however, than this dalliance with the - Muse. Rochelle was the centre and citadel of Calvinism,—a town of - austere and grim aspect, divided, like Cisatlantic communities of later - growth, betwixt trade and religion, and, in the interest of both, exacting - a deportment of discreet and well-ordered sobriety. "One must walk a - strait path here," says Lescarbot, "unless he would hear from the mayor or - the ministers." But the mechanics sent from Paris, flush of money, and - lodged together in the quarter of St. Nicolas, made day and night hideous - with riot, and their employers found not a few of them in the hands of the - police. Their ship, bearing the inauspicious name of the "Jonas," lay - anchored in the stream, her cargo on board, when a sudden gale blew her - adrift. She struck on a pier, then grounded on the flats, bilged, - careened, and settled in the mud. Her captain, who was ashore, with - Poutrincourt, Lescarbot, and others, hastened aboard, and the pumps were - set in motion; while all Rochelle, we are told, came to gaze from the - ramparts, with faces of condolence, but at heart well pleased with the - disaster. The ship and her cargo were saved, but she must be emptied, - repaired, and reladen. Thus a month was lost; at length, on the thirteenth - of May, 1606, the disorderly crew were all brought on board, and the - "Jonas" put to sea. Poutrincourt and Lescarbot had charge of the - expedition, De Monts remaining in France. - </p> - <p> - Lescarbot describes his emotions at finding himself on an element so - deficient in solidity, with only a two-inch plank between him and death. - Off the Azores, they spoke a supposed pirate. For the rest, they beguiled - the voyage by harpooning porpoises, dancing on deck in calm weather, and - fishing for cod on the Grand Bank. They were two months on their way; and - when, fevered with eagerness to reach land, they listened hourly for the - welcome cry, they were involved in impenetrable fogs. Suddenly the mists - parted, the sun shone forth, and streamed fair and bright over the fresh - hills and forests of the New World, in near view before them. But the - black rocks lay between, lashed by the snow-white breakers. "Thus," writes - Lescarbot, "doth a man sometimes seek the land as one doth his beloved, - who sometimes repulseth her sweetheart very rudely. Finally, upon - Saturday, the fifteenth of July, about two o'clock in the afternoon, the - sky began to salute us as it were with cannon-shots, shedding tears, as - being sorry to have kept us so long in pain;... but, whilst we followed on - our course, there came from the land odors incomparable for sweetness, - brought with a warm wind so abundantly that all the Orient parts could not - produce greater abundance. We did stretch out our hands as it were to take - them, so palpable were they, which I have admired a thousand times since." - </p> - <p> - It was noon on the twenty-seventh when the "Jonas" passed the rocky - gateway of Port Royal Basin, and Lescarbot gazed with delight and wonder - on the calm expanse of sunny waters, with its amphitheatre of woody hills, - wherein he saw the future asylum of distressed merit and impoverished - industry. Slowly, before a favoring breeze, they held their course towards - the head of the harbor, which narrowed as they advanced; but all was - solitude,—no moving sail, no sign of human presence. At length, on - their left, nestling in deep forests, they saw the wooden walls and roofs - of the infant colony. Then appeared a birch canoe, cautiously coming - towards them, guided by an old Indian. Then a Frenchman, arquebuse in - hand, came down to the shore; and then, from the wooden bastion, sprang - the smoke of a saluting shot. The ship replied; the trumpets lent their - voices to the din, and the forests and the hills gave back unwonted - echoes. The voyagers landed, and found the colony of Port Royal dwindled - to two solitary Frenchmen. - </p> - <p> - These soon told their story. The preceding winter had been one of much - suffering, though by no means the counterpart of the woful experience of - St. Croix. But when the spring had passed, the summer far advanced, and - still no tidings of De Monts had come, Pontgrave grew deeply anxious. To - maintain themselves without supplies and succor was impossible. He caused - two small vessels to be built, and set out in search of some of the French - vessels on the fishing stations. This was but twelve days before the - arrival of the ship "Jonas." Two men had bravely offered themselves to - stay behind and guard the buildings, guns, and munitions; and an old - Indian chief, named Memberton, a fast friend of the French, and still a - redoubted warrior, we are told, though reputed to number more than a - hundred years, proved a stanch ally. When the ship approached, the two - guardians were at dinner in their room at the fort. Memberton, always on - the watch, saw the advancing sail, and, shouting from the gate, roused - them from their repast. In doubt who the new-comers might be, one ran to - the shore with his gun, while the other repaired to the platform where - four cannon were mounted, in the valorous resolve to show fight should the - strangers prove to be enemies. Happily this redundancy of mettle proved - needless. He saw the white flag fluttering at the masthead, and joyfully - fired his pieces as a salute. - </p> - <p> - The voyagers landed, and eagerly surveyed their new home. Some wandered - through the buildings; some visited the cluster of Indian wigwams hard by; - some roamed in the forest and over the meadows that bordered the - neighboring river. The deserted fort now swarmed with life; and, the - better to celebrate their prosperous arrival, Poutrincourt placed a - hogs-head of wine in the courtyard at the discretion of his followers, - whose hilarity, in consequence, became exuberant. Nor was it diminished - when Pontgrave's vessels were seen entering the harbor. A boat sent by - Pountrincourt, more than a week before, to explore the coasts, had met - them near Cape Sable, and they joyfully returned to Port Royal. - </p> - <p> - Pontgrave, however, soon sailed for France in the "Jonas," hoping on his - way to seize certain contraband fur-traders, reported to be at Canseau and - Cape Breton. Poutrincourt and Champlain, bent on finding a better site for - their settlement in a more southern latitude, set out on a voyage of - discovery, in an ill-built vessel of eighteen tons, while Lescarbot - remained in charge of Port Royal. They had little for their pains but - danger, hardship, and mishap. The autumn gales cut short their - exploration; and, after visiting Gloucester Harbor, doubling Monoinoy - Point, and advancing as far as the neighborhood of Hyannis, on the - southeast coast of Massachusetts, they turned back, somewhat disgusted - with their errand. Along the eastern verge of Cape Cod they found the - shore thickly studded with the wigwams of a race who were less hunters - than tillers of the soil. At Chatham Harbor—called by them Port - Fortune—five of the company, who, contrary to orders, had remained - on shore all night, were assailed, as they slept around their fire, by a - shower of arrows from four hundred Indians. Two were killed outright, - while the survivors fled for their boat, bristling like porcupines with - the feathered missiles,—a scene oddly portrayed by the untutored - pencil of Champlain. He and Poutrincourt, with eight men, hearing the - war-whoops and the cries for aid, sprang up from sleep, snatched their - weapons, pulled ashore in their shirts, and charged the yelling multitude, - who fled before their spectral assailants, and vanished in the woods. - "Thus," observes Lescarbot, "did thirty-five thousand Midianites fly - before Gideon and his three hundred." The French buried their dead - comrades; but, as they chanted their funeral hymn, the Indians, at a safe - distance on a neighboring hill, were dancing in glee and triumph, and - mocking them with unseemly gestures; and no sooner had the party - re-embarked, than they dug up the dead bodies, burnt them, and arrayed - themselves in their shirts. Little pleased with the country or its - inhabitants, the voyagers turned their prow towards Port Royal, though not - until, by a treacherous device, they had lured some of their late - assailants within their reach, killed them, and cut off their heads as - trophies. Near Mount Desert, on a stormy night, their rudder broke, and - they had a hair-breadth escape from destruction. The chief object of their - voyage, that of discovering a site for their colony under a more southern - sky, had failed. Pontgrave's son had his hand blown off by the bursting of - his gun; several of their number had been killed; others were sick or - wounded; and thus, on the fourteenth of November, with somewhat downcast - visages, they guided their helpless vessel with a pair of oars to the - landing at Port Royal. - </p> - <p> - "I will not," says Lescarbot, "compare their perils to those of Ulysses, - nor yet of Aeneas, lest thereby I should sully our holy enterprise with - things impure." - </p> - <p> - He and his followers had been expecting them with great anxiety. His alert - and buoyant spirit had conceived a plan for enlivening the courage of the - company, a little dashed of late by misgivings and forebodings. - Accordingly, as Poutrincourt, Champlain, and their weather-beaten crew - approached the wooden gateway of Port Royal, Neptune issued forth, - followed by his tritons, who greeted the voyagers in good French verse, - written in all haste for the occasion by Lescarbot. And, as they entered, - they beheld, blazoned over the arch, the arms of Prance, circled with - laurels, and flanked by the scuteheons of De Monts and Poutrincourt. - </p> - <p> - The ingenious author of these devices had busied himself, during the - absence of his associates, in more serious labors for the welfare of the - colony. He explored the low borders of the river Equille, or Annapolis. - Here, in the solitude, he saw great meadows, where the moose, with their - young, were grazing, and where at times the rank grass was beaten to a - pulp by the trampling of their hoofs. He burned the grass, and sowed crops - of wheat, rye, and barley in its stead. His appearance gave so little - promise of personal vigor, that some of the party assured him that he - would never see France again, and warned him to husband his strength; but - he knew himself better, and set at naught these comforting monitions. He - was the most diligent of workers. He made gardens near the fort, where, in - his zeal, he plied the hoe with his own hands late into the moonlight - evenings. The priests, of whom at the outset there had been no lack, had - all succumbed to the scurvy at St. Croix; and Lescarbot, so far as a - layman might, essayed to supply their place, reading on Sundays from the - Scriptures, and adding expositions of his own after a fashion not - remarkable for rigorous Catholicity. Of an evening, when not engrossed - with his garden, he was reading or writing in his room, perhaps preparing - the material of that History of New France in which, despite the - versatility of his busy brain, his good sense and capacity are clearly - made manifest. - </p> - <p> - Now, however, when the whole company were reassembled, Lescarbot found - associates more congenial than the rude soldiers, mechanics, and laborers - who gathered at night around the blazing logs in their rude hall. Port - Royal was a quadrangle of wooden buildings, enclosing a spacious court. At - the southeast corner was the arched gateway, whence a path, a few paces in - length, led to the water. It was flanked by a sort of bastion of - palisades, while at the southwest corner was another bastion, on which - four cannon were mounted. On the east side of the quadrangle was a range - of magazines and storehouses; on the west were quarters for the men; on - the north, a dining-hall and lodgings for the principal persons of the - company; while on the south, or water side, were the kitchen, the forge, - and the oven. Except the Garden-patches and the cemetery, the adjacent - ground was thickly studded with the Stumps of the newly felled trees. - </p> - <p> - Most bountiful provision had been made for the temporal wants of the - colonists, and Lescarbot is profuse in praise of the liberality of Du - Monte and two merchants of Rochelle, who had freighted the ship "Jonas." - Of wine, in particular, the supply was so generous, that every man in Port - Royal was served with three pints daily. - </p> - <p> - The principal persons of the colony sat, fifteen in number, at - Poutrincourt's table, which, by an ingenious device of Champlain, was - always well furnished. He formed the fifteen into a new order, christened - "L'Ordre de Bon-Temps." Each was Grand Master in turn, holding office for - one day. It was his function to cater for the company; and, as it became a - point of honor to fill the post with credit, the prospective Grand Master - was usually busy, for several days before coming to his dignity, in - hunting, fishing, or bartering provisions with the Indians. Thus did - Poutrincourt's table groan beneath all the luxuries of the winter forest,—flesh - of moose, caribou, and deer, beaver, otter, and hare, bears and wild-cats; - with ducks, geese, grouse, and plover; sturgeon, too, and trout, and fish - innumerable, speared through the ice of the Equille, or drawn from the - depths of the neighboring bay. "And," says Lescarbot, in closing his bill - of fare, "whatever our gourmands at home may think, we found as good cheer - at Port Royal as they at their Rue aux Ours in Paris, and that, too, at a - cheaper rate." For the preparation of this manifold provision, the Grand - Master was also answerable; since, during his day of office, he was - autocrat of the kitchen. - </p> - <p> - Nor did this bounteous repast lack a solemn and befitting ceremonial. When - the hour had struck, after the manner of our fathers they dined at noon, - the Grand Master entered the hall, a napkin on his shoulder, his staff of - office in his hand, and the collar of the Order—valued by Lescarbot - at four crowns—about his neck. The brotherhood followed, each - bearing a dish. The invited guests were Indian chiefs, of whom old - Memberton was daily present, seated at table with the French, who took - pleasure in this red-skin companionship. Those of humbler degree, - warriors, squaws, and children, sat on the floor, or crouched together in - the corners of the hall, eagerly waiting their portion of biscuit or of - bread, a novel and much coveted luxury. Being always treated with - kindness, they became fond of the French, who often followed them on their - moose-hunts, and shared their winter bivouac. - </p> - <p> - At the evening meal there was less of form and circumstance; and when the - winter night closed in, when the flame crackled and the sparks streamed up - the wide-throated chimney, and the founders of New France with their tawny - allies were gathered around the blaze, then did the Grand Master resign - the collar and the staff to the successor of his honors, and, with jovial - courtesy, pledge him in a cup of wine. Thus these ingenious Frenchmen - beguiled the winter of their exile. - </p> - <p> - It was an unusually mild winter. Until January, they wore no warmer - garment than their doublets. They made hunting and fishing parties, in - which the Indians, whose lodges were always to be seen under the friendly - shelter of the buildings, failed not to bear part. "I remember," says - Lescarbot, "that on the fourteenth of January, of a Sunday afternoon, we - amused ourselves with singing and music on the river Equille; and that in - the same month we went to see the wheat-fields two leagues from the fort, - and dined merrily in the sunshine." - </p> - <p> - Good spirits and good cheer saved them in great measure from the scurvy; - and though towards the end of winter severe cold set in, yet only four men - died. The snow thawed at last, and as patches of the black and oozy soil - began to appear, they saw the grain of their last autumn's sowing already - piercing the mould. The forced inaction of the winter was over. The - carpenters built a water-mill on the stream now called Allen's River; - others enclosed fields and laid out gardens; others, again, with - scoop-nets and baskets, caught the herrings and alewives as they ran up - the innumerable rivulets. The leaders of the colony set a contagious - example of activity. Poutrincourt forgot the prejudices of his noble - birth, and went himself into the woods to gather turpentine from the - pines, which he converted into tar by a process of his own invention; - while Lescarbot, eager to test the qualities of the soil, was again, hoe - in hand, at work all day in his garden. - </p> - <p> - All seemed full of promise; but alas for the bright hope that kindled the - manly heart of Champlain and the earnest spirit of the vivacions advocate! - A sudden blight fell on them, and their rising prosperity withered to the - ground. On a morning, late in spring, as the French were at breakfast, the - ever watchful Membertou came in with news of an approaching sail. They - hastened to the shore; but the vision of the centenarian sagamore put them - all to shame. They could see nothing. At length their doubts were - resolved. A small vessel stood on towards them, and anchored before the - fort. She was commanded by one Chevalier, a young man from St. Malo, and - was freighted with disastrous tidings. Dc Monts's monopoly was rescinded. - The life of the enterprise was stopped, and the establishment at Port - Royal could no longer be supported; for its expense was great, the body of - the colony being laborers in the pay of the company. Nor was the annulling - of the patent the full extent of the disaster; for, during the last - summer, the Dutch had found their way to the St. Lawrence, and carried - away a rich harvest of furs, while other interloping traders had plied a - busy traffic along the coasts, and, in the excess of their avidity, dug up - the bodies of buried Indians to rob them of their funeral robes. - </p> - <p> - It was to the merchants and fishermen of the Norman, Breton, and Biscayan - ports, exasperated at their exclusion from a lucrative trade, and at the - confiscations which had sometimes followed their attempts to engage in it, - that this sudden blow was due. Money had been used freely at court, and - the monopoly, unjustly granted, had been more unjustly withdrawn. De Monts - and his company, who had spent a hundred thousand livres, were allowed six - thousand in requital, to be collected, if possible, from the fur-traders - in the form of a tax. - </p> - <p> - Chevalier, captain of the ill-omened bark, was entertained with a - hospitality little deserved, since, having been intrusted with sundry - hams, fruits, spices, sweetmeats, jellies, and other dainties, sent by the - generous De Monts to his friends of New France, he with his crew had - devoured them on the voyage, alleging that, in their belief, the inmates - of Port Royal would all be dead before their arrival. - </p> - <p> - Choice there was none, and Port Royal must be abandoned. Built on a false - basis, sustained only by the fleeting favor of a government, the generous - enterprise had come to naught. Yet Poutrincourt, who in virtue of his - grant from De Monts owned the place, bravely resolved that, come what - might, he would see the adventure to an end, even should it involve - emigration with his family to the wilderness. Meanwhile, he began the - dreary task of abandonment, sending boat-loads of men and stores to - Canseau, where lay the ship "Jonas," eking out her diminished profits by - fishing for cod. - </p> - <p> - Membertou was full of grief at the departure of his friends. He had built - a palisaded village not far from Port Royal, and here were mustered some - four hundred of his warriors for a foray into the country of the - Armouchiquois, dwellers along the coasts of Massachusetts, New Hampshire, - and Western Maine. One of his tribesmen had been killed by a chief from - the Saco, and he was bent on revenge. He proved himself a sturdy beggar, - pursuing Pontrincourt with daily petitions,—now for a bushel of - beans, now for a basket of bread, and now for a barrel of wine to regale - his greasy crew. Memberton's long life had not been one of repose. In - deeds of blood and treachery he had no rival in the Acadian forest; and, - as his old age was beset with enemies, his alliance with the French had a - foundation of policy no less than of affection. In right of his rank of - Sagamore, he claimed perfect equality both with Poutrincourt and with the - King, laying his shrivelled forefingers together in token of friendship - between peers. Calumny did not spare him; and a rival chief intimated to - the French, that, under cover of a war with the Armouchiquois, the crafty - veteran meant to seize and plunder Port Royal. Precautions, therefore, - were taken; but they were seemingly needless; for, their feasts and dances - over, the warriors launched their birchen flotilla and set out. After an - absence of six weeks they reappeared with howls of victory, and their - exploits were commemorated in French verse by the muse of the - indefatigable Lescarbot. - </p> - <p> - With a heavy heart the advocate bade farewell to the dwellings, the - cornfields, the gardens, and all the dawning prosperity of Port Royal, and - sailed for Canseau in a small vessel on the thirtieth of July. - Pontrincourt and Champlain remained behind, for the former was resolved to - learn before his departure the results of his agricultural labors. - Reaching a harbor on the southern coast of Nova Scotia, six leagues west - of Cansean, Lescarbot found a fishing-vessel commanded and owned by an old - Basque, named Savalet, who for forty-two successive years had carried to - France his annual cargo of codfish. He was in great glee at the success of - his present venture, reckoning his profits at ten thousand francs. The - Indians, however, annoyed him beyond measure, boarding him from their - canoes as his fishing-boats came alongside, and helping themselves at will - to his halibut and cod. At Cansean—a harbor near the strait now - bearing the name—the ship Jonas still lay, her hold well stored with - fish; and here, on the twenty-seventh of August, Lescarbot was rejoined by - Poutrincourt and Champlain, who had come from Port Royal in an open boat. - For a few days, they amused themselves with gathering raspberries on the - islands; then they spread their sails for France, and early in October, - 1607, anchored in the harbor of St. Malo. - </p> - <p> - First of Europeans, they had essayed to found an agricultural colony in - the New World. The leaders of the enterprise had acted less as merchants - than as citizens; and the fur-trading monopoly, odious in itself, had been - used as the instrument of a large and generous design. There was a radical - defect, however, in their scheme of settlement. Excepting a few of the - leaders, those engaged in it had not chosen a home in the wilderness of - New France, but were mere hirelings, without wives or families, and - careless of the welfare of the colony. The life which should have pervaded - all the members was confined to the heads alone. In one respect, however, - the enterprise of De Monts was truer in principle than the Roman Catholic - colonization of Canada, on the one hand, or the Puritan colonization of - Massachusetts, on the other, for it did not attempt to enforce religions - exclusion. - </p> - <p> - Towards the fickle and bloodthirsty race who claimed the lordship of the - forests, these colonists, excepting only in the treacherous slaughter at - Port Fortune, bore themselves in a spirit of kindness contrasting brightly - with the rapacious cruelty of the Spaniards and the harshness of the - English settlers. When the last boat-load left Port Royal, the shore - resounded with lamentation; and nothing could console the afflicted - savages but reiterated promises of a speedy return. - </p> - <p> - <a name="link2HCH0015" id="link2HCH0015"> - <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> - </p> - <div style="height: 4em;"> - <br /><br /><br /><br /> - </div> - <h2> - CHAPTER V. - </h2> - <h3> - 1610, 1611. - </h3> - <p> - THE JESUITS AND THEIR PATRONESS. - </p> - <p> - Poutrincourt, we have seen, owned Port Royal in virtue of a grant from De - Monts. The ardent and adventurous baron was in evil case, involved in - litigation and low in purse; but nothing could damp his zeal. Acadia must - become a new France, and he, Poutrincourt, must be its father. He gained - from the King a confirmation of his grant, and, to supply the lack of his - own weakened resources, associated with himself one Robin, a man of family - and wealth. This did not save him from a host of delays and vexations; and - it was not until the spring of 1610 that he found himself in a condition - to embark on his new and doubtful venture. - </p> - <p> - Meanwhile an influence, of sinister omen as he thought, had begun to act - upon his schemes. The Jesuits were strong at court. One of their number, - the famous Father Coton, was confessor to Henry the Fourth, and, on - matters of this world as of the next, was ever whispering at the facile - ear of the renegade King. New France offered a fresh field of action to - the indefatigable Society of Jesus, and Coton urged upon the royal - convert, that, for the saving of souls, some of its members should be - attached to the proposed enterprise. The King, profoundly indifferent in - matters of religion, saw no evil in a proposal which at least promised to - place the Atlantic betwixt him and some of those busy friends whom at - heart he deeply mistrusted. Other influences, too, seconded the confessor. - Devout ladies of the court, and the Queen herself, supplying the lack of - virtue with an overflowing piety, burned, we are assured, with a holy zeal - for snatching the tribes of the West from the bondage of Satan. Therefore - it was insisted that the projected colony should combine the spiritual - with the temporal character,—or, in other words, that Poutrincourt - should take Jesuits with him. Pierre Biard, Professor of Theology at - Lyons, was named for the mission, and repaired in haste to Bordeaux, the - port of embarkation, where he found no vessel, and no sign of preparation; - and here, in wrath and discomfiture, he remained for a whole year. - </p> - <p> - That Poutrincourt was a good Catholic appears from a letter to the Pope, - written for him in Latin by Lescarbot, asking a blessing on his - enterprise, and assuring his Holiness that one of his grand objects was - the saving of souls. But, like other good citizens, he belonged to the - national party in the Church, those liberal Catholics, who, side by side - with the Huguenots, had made head against the League, with its Spanish - allies, and placed Henry the Fourth upon the throne. The Jesuits, an order - Spanish in origin and policy, determined champions of ultramontane - principles, the sword and shield of the Papacy in its broadest pretensions - to spiritual and temporal sway, were to him, as to others of his party, - objects of deep dislike and distrust. He feared them in his colony, evaded - what he dared not refuse, left Biarci waiting in solitude at Bordeax, and - sought to postpone the evil day by assuring Father Coton that, though Port - Royal was at present in no state to receive the missionaries, preparation - should be made to entertain them the next year after a befitting fashion. - </p> - <p> - Poutrincourt owned the barony of St. Just in Champagne, inherited a few - years before from his mother. Hence, early in February, 1610, he set out - in a boat loaded to the gunwales with provisions, furniture, goods, and - munitions for Port Royal, descended the rivers Aube and Seine, and reached - Dieppe safely with his charge. Here his ship was awaiting him; and on the - twenty-sixth of February he set sail, giving the slip to the indignant - Jesuit at Bordeaux. - </p> - <p> - The tedium of a long passage was unpleasantly broken by a mutiny among the - crew. It was suppressed, however, and Poutrincourt entered at length the - familiar basin of Port Royal. The buildings were still standing, whole and - sound save a partial falling in of the roofs. Even furniture was found - untouched in the deserted chambers. The centenarian Membertou was still - alive, his leathern, wrinkled visage beaming with welcome. - </p> - <p> - Pontrincourt set himself without delay to the task of Christianizing New - France, in an access of zeal which his desire of proving that Jesuit aid - was superfluous may be supposed largely to have reinforced. He had a - priest with him, one La Fleche, whom he urged to the pious work. No time - was lost. Membertou first was catechised, confessed his sins, and - renounced the Devil, whom we are told he had faithfully served during a - hundred and ten years. His squaws, his children, his grandchildren, and - his entire clan were next won over. It was in June, the day of St. John - the Baptist, when the naked proselytes, twenty-one in number, were - gathered on the shore at Port Royal. Here was the priest in the vestments - of his office; here were gentlemen in gay attire, soldiers, laborers, - lackeys, all the infant colony. The converts kneeled; the sacred rite was - finished, Te Deum was sung, and the roar of cannon proclaimed this triumph - over the powers of darkness. Membertou was named Henri, after the King; - his principal squaw, Marie, after the Queen. One of his sons received the - name of the Pope, another that of the Dauphin; his daughter was called - Marguerite, after the divorced Marguerite de Valois, and, in like manner, - the rest of the squalid company exchanged their barbaric appellatives for - the names of princes, nobles, and ladies of rank. - </p> - <p> - The fame of this chef-d'aeuvre of Christian piety, as Lescarbot gravely - calls it, spread far and wide through the forest, whose denizens,—partly - out of a notion that the rite would bring good luck, partly to please the - French, and partly to share in the good cheer with which the apostolic - efforts of Father La Fleche had been sagaciously seconded—came - flocking to enroll themselves under the banners of the Faith. Their zeal - ran high. They would take no refusal. Membertou was for war on all who - would not turn Christian. A living skeleton was seen crawling from hut to - hut in search of the priest and his saving waters; while another neophyte, - at the point of death, asked anxiously whether, in the realms of bliss to - which he was bound, pies were to be had comparable to those with which the - French regaled him. - </p> - <p> - A formal register of baptisms was drawn up to be carried to France in the - returning ship, of which Pontrincourt's son, Biencourt, a spirited youth - of eighteen, was to take charge. He sailed in July, his father keeping him - company as far as Port la Have, whence, bidding the young man farewell, he - attempted to return in an open boat to Port Royal. A north wind blew him - out to sea; and for six days he was out of sight of land, subsisting on - rain-water wrung from the boat's sail, and on a few wild-fowl which he had - shot on an island. Five weeks passed before he could rejoin his colonists, - who, despairing of his safety, were about to choose a new chief. - </p> - <p> - Meanwhile, young Biencourt, speeding on his way, heard dire news from a - fisherman on the Grand Bank. The knife of Ravaillac had done its work. - Henry the Fourth was dead. - </p> - <p> - There is an ancient street in Paris, where a great thoroughfare contracts - to a narrow pass, the Rue de la Ferronnerie. Tall buildings overshadow it, - packed from pavement to tiles with human life, and from the dingy front of - one of them the sculptured head of a man looks down on the throng that - ceaselessly defiles beneath. On the fourteenth of May, 1610, a ponderous - coach, studded with fleurs-de-lis and rich with gilding, rolled along this - street. In it was a small man, well advanced in life, whose profile once - seen could not be forgotten,—a hooked nose, a protruding chin, a - brow full of wrinkles, grizzled hair, a short, grizzled beard, and stiff, - gray moustaches, bristling like a cat's. One would have thought him some - whiskered satyr, grim from the rack of tumultuous years; but his alert, - upright port bespoke unshaken vigor, and his clear eye was full of buoyant - life. Following on the footway strode a tall, strong, and somewhat - corpulent man, with sinister, deep-set eyes and a red beard, his arm and - shoulder covered with his cloak. In the throat of the thoroughfare, where - the sculptured image of Henry the Fourth still guards the spot, a - collision of two carts stopped the coach. Ravaillac quickened his pace. In - an instant he was at the door. With his cloak dropped from his shoulders, - and a long knife in his hand, he set his foot upon a guardstone, thrust - his head and shoulders into the coach, and with frantic force stabbed - thrice at the King's heart. A broken exclamation, a gasping convulsion,—and - then the grim visage drooped on the bleeding breast. Henry breathed his - last, and the hope of Europe died with him. - </p> - <p> - The omens were sinister for Old France and for New. Marie de Medicis, - "cette grosse banquiere," coarse scion of a bad stock, false wife and - faithless queen, paramour of an intriguing foreigner, tool of the Jesuits - and of Spain, was Regent in the minority of her imbecile son. The - Huguenots drooped, the national party collapsed, the vigorous hand of - Sully was felt no more, and the treasure gathered for a vast and - beneficent enterprise became the instrument of despotism and the prey of - corruption. Under such dark auspices, young Biencourt entered the thronged - chambers of the Louvre. - </p> - <p> - He gained audience of the Queen, and displayed his list of baptisms; while - the ever present Jesuits failed not to seize him by the button, assuring - him, not only that the late King had deeply at heart the establishment of - their Society in Acadia, but that to this end he had made them a grant of - two thousand livres a year. The Jesuits had found an ally and the intended - mission a friend at court, whose story and whose character are too - striking to pass unnoticed. - </p> - <p> - This was a lady of honor to the Queen, Antoinette de Pons, Marquise de - Guercheville, once renowned for grace and beauty, and not less conspicuous - for qualities rare in the unbridled court of Henry's predecessor, where - her youth had been passed. When the civil war was at its height, the royal - heart, leaping with insatiable restlessness from battle to battle, from - mistress to mistress, had found a brief repose in the affections of his - Corisande, famed in tradition and romance; but Corisande was suddenly - abandoned, and the young widow, Madame de Guercheville, became the - load-star of his erratic fancy. It was an evil hour for the Bearnais. - Henry sheathed in rusty steel, battling for his crown and his life, and - Henry robed in royalty and throned triumphant in the Louvre, alike urged - their suit in vain. Unused to defeat, the King's passion rose higher for - the obstacle that barred it. On one occasion he was met with an answer not - unworthy of record:— - </p> - <p> - "Sire, my rank, perhaps, is not high enough to permit me to be your wife, - but my heart is too high to permit me to be your mistress." - </p> - <p> - She left the court and retired to her chateau of La Roche-Guyon, on the - Seine, ten leagues below Paris, where, fond of magnificence, she is said - to have lived in much expense and splendor. The indefatigable King, - haunted by her memory, made a hunting-party in the neighboring forests; - and, as evening drew near, separating himself from his courtiers, he sent - a gentleman of his train to ask of Madame de Guercheville the shelter of - her roof. The reply conveyed a dutiful acknowledgment of the honor, and an - offer of the best entertainment within her power. It was night when Henry - with his little band of horsemen, approached the chateau, where lights - were burning in every window, after a fashion of the day on occasions of - welcome to an honored guest. Pages stood in the gateway, each with a - blazing torch; and here, too, were gentlemen of the neighborhood, gathered - to greet their sovereign. Madame de Guercheville came forth, followed by - the women of her household; and when the King, unprepared for so benign a - welcome, giddy with love and hope, saw her radiant in pearls and more - radiant yet in a beauty enhanced by the wavy torchlight and the - surrounding shadows, he scarcely dared trust his senses:— - </p> - <p> - "Que vois-je, madame; est-ce bien vous, et suis-je ce roi meprise?" - </p> - <p> - He gave her his hand, and she led him within the chateau, where, at the - door of the apartment destined for him, she left him, with a graceful - reverence. The King, nowise disconcerted, did not doubt that she had gone - to give orders for his entertainment, when an attendant came to tell him - that she had descended to the courtyard and called for her coach. Thither - he hastened in alarm: - </p> - <p> - "What! am I driving you from your house?" - </p> - <p> - "Sire," replied Madame de Guercheville, "where a king is, he should be the - sole master; but, for my part, I like to preserve some little authority - wherever I may be." - </p> - <p> - With another deep reverence, she entered her coach and disappeared, - seeking shelter under the roof of a friend, some two leagues off, and - leaving the baffled King to such consolation as he might find in a - magnificent repast, bereft of the presence of the hostess. - </p> - <p> - Henry could admire the virtue which he could not vanquish; and, long - after, on his marriage, he acknowledged his sense of her worth by begging - her to accept an honorable post near the person of the Queen. - </p> - <p> - "Madame," he said, presenting her to Marie de Medicis, "I give you a lady - of honor who is a lady of honor indeed." - </p> - <p> - Some twenty years had passed since the adventure of La Roche-Guyon. Madame - de Guercheville had outlived the charms which had attracted her royal - suitor, but the virtue which repelled him was reinforced by a devotion no - less uncompromising. A rosary in her hand and a Jesuit at her side, she - realized the utmost wishes of the subtle fathers who had moulded and who - guided her. She readily took fire when they told her of the benighted - souls of New France, and the wrongs of Father Biard kindled her utmost - indignation. She declared herself the protectress of the American - missions; and the only difficulty, as a Jesuit writer tells us, was to - restrain her zeal within reasonable bounds. - </p> - <p> - She had two illustrious coadjutors. The first was the jealous Queen, whose - unbridled rage and vulgar clamor had made the Louvre a hell. The second - was Henriette d'Entragues, Marquise de Vernenil, the crafty and capricious - siren who had awakened these conjugal tempests. To this singular coalition - were joined many other ladies of the court; for the pious flame, fanned by - the Jesuits, spread through hall and boudoir, and fair votaries of the - Loves and Graces found it a more grateful task to win heaven for the - heathen than to merit it for themselves. - </p> - <p> - Young Biencourt saw it vain to resist. Biard must go with him in the - returning ship, and also another Jesuit, Enemond Masse. The two fathers - repaired to Dieppe, wafted on the wind of court favor, which they never - doubted would bear them to their journey s end. Not so, however. - Poutrincourt and his associates, in the dearth of their own resources, had - bargained with two Huguenot merchants of Dieppe, Du Jardin and Du Quesne, - to equip and load the vessel, in consideration of their becoming partners - in the expected profits. Their indignation was extreme when they saw the - intended passengers. They declared that they would not aid in building up - a colony for the profit of the King of Spain, nor risk their money in a - venture where Jesuits were allowed to intermeddle; and they closed with a - fiat refusal to receive them on board, unless, they added with patriotic - sarcasm, the Queen would direct them to transport the whole order beyond - sea. Biard and Masse insisted, on which the merchants demanded - reimbursement for their outlay, as they would have no further concern in - the business. - </p> - <p> - Biard communicated with Father Coton, Father Coton with Madame de - Guercheville. No more was needed. The zealous lady of honor, "indignant," - says Biard, "to see the efforts of hell prevail," and resolved "that Satan - should not remain master of the field," set on foot a subscription, and - raised an ample fund within the precincts of the court. Biard, in the name - of the "Province of France of the Order of Jesus," bought out the interest - of the two merchants for thirty-eight hundred livres, thus constituting - the Jesuits equal partners in business with their enemies. Nor was this - all; for, out of the ample proceeds of the subscription, he lent to the - needy associates a further sum of seven hundred and thirty-seven livres, - and advanced twelve hundred and twenty-five more to complete the outfit of - the ship. Well pleased, the triumphant priests now embarked, and friend - and foe set sail together on the twenty-sixth of January, 1611. - </p> - <p> - <a name="link2HCH0016" id="link2HCH0016"> - <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> - </p> - <div style="height: 4em;"> - <br /><br /><br /><br /> - </div> - <h2> - CHAPTER VI. - </h2> - <h3> - 1611, 1612. - </h3> - <p> - JESUITS IN ACADIA. - </p> - <p> - The voyage was one of inordinate length,—beset, too, with icebergs, - larger and taller, according to the Jesuit voyagers, than the Church of - Notre Dame; but on the day of Pentecost their ship, "The Grace of God," - anchored before Port Royal. Then first were seen in the wilderness of New - France the close black cap, the close black robe, of the Jesuit father, - and the features seamed with study and thought and discipline. Then first - did this mighty Proteus, this many-colored Society of Jesus, enter upon - that rude field of toil and woe, where, in after years, the devoted zeal - of its apostles was to lend dignity to their order and do honor to - humanity. - </p> - <p> - Few were the regions of the known world to which the potent brotherhood - had not stretched the vast network of its influence. Jesuits had disputed - in theology with the bonzes of Japan, and taught astronomy to the - mandarins of China; had wrought prodigies of sudden conversion among the - followers of Bralinra, preached the papal supremacy to Abyssinian - schismatics, carried the cross among the savages of Caffraria, wrought - reputed miracles in Brazil, and gathered the tribes of Paraguay beneath - their paternal sway. And now, with the aid of the Virgin and her votary at - court, they would build another empire among the tribes of New France. The - omens were sinister and the outset was unpropitious. The Society was - destined to reap few laurels from the brief apostleship of Biard and - Masse. - </p> - <p> - When the voyagers landed, they found at Port Royal a band of half-famished - men, eagerly expecting their succor. The voyage of four months had, - however, nearly exhausted their own very moderate stock of provisions, and - the mutual congratulations of the old colonists and the new were damped by - a vision of starvation. A friction, too, speedily declared itself between - the spiritual and the temporal powers. Pontgrave's son, then trading on - the coast, had exasperated the Indians by an outrage on one of their - women, and, dreading the wrath of Poutrincourt, had fled to the woods. - Biard saw fit to take his part, remonstrated for him with vehemence, - gained his pardon, received his confession, and absolved him. The Jesuit - says that he was treated with great consideration by Poutrincourt, and - that he should be forever beholden to him. The latter, however, chafed at - Biard's interference. - </p> - <p> - "Father," he said, "I know my duty, and I beg you will leave me to do it. - I, with my sword, have hopes of paradise, as well as you with your - breviary. Show me my path to heaven. I will show you yours on earth." - </p> - <p> - He soon set sail for France, leaving his son Biencourt in charge. This - hardy young sailor, of ability and character beyond his years, had, on his - visit to court, received the post of Vice-Admiral in the seas of New - France, and in this capacity had a certain authority over the - trading-vessels of St. Malo and Rochelle, several of which were upon the - coast. To compel the recognition of this authority, and also to purchase - provisions, he set out along with Biard in a boat filled with armed - followers. His first collision was with young Pontgrave, who with a few - men had built a trading-hut on the St. John, where he proposed to winter. - Meeting with resistance, Biencourt took the whole party prisoners, in - spite of the remonstrances of Biard. Next, proceeding along the coast, he - levied tribute on four or five traders wintering at St. Croix, and, - continuing his course to the Kennebec, found the Indians of that region - greatly enraged at the conduct of certain English adventurers, who three - or four years before had, as they said, set dogs upon them and otherwise - maltreated them. These were the colonists under Popham and Gilbert, who in - 1607 and 1608 made an abortive attempt to settle near the mouth of the - river. Nothing now was left of them but their deserted fort. The - neighboring Indians were Abenakis, one of the tribes included by the - French under the general name of Armouchiquois. Their disposition was - doubtful, and it needed all the coolness of young Biencourt to avoid a - fatal collision. On one occasion a curious incident took place. The French - met six canoes full of warriors descending the Kennebec, and, as neither - party trusted the other, the two encamped on opposite banks of the river. - In the evening the Indians began to sing and dance. Biard suspected these - proceedings to be an invocation of the Devil, and "in order," he says, "to - thwart this accursed tyrant, I made our people sing a few church hymns, - such as the Salve, the Ave Mans Stella, and others. But being once in - train, and getting to the end of their spiritual songs, they fell to - singing such others as they knew, and when these gave out they took to - mimicking the dancing and singing of the Armouchiquois on the other side - of the water; and as Frenchmen are naturally good mimics, they did it so - well that the Armouchiquols stopped to listen; at which our people stopped - too; and then the Indians began again. You would have laughed to hear - them, for they were like two choirs answering each other in concert, and - you would hardly have known the real Armouchiquois from the sham ones." - </p> - <p> - Before the capture of young Pontgrave, Biard made him a visit at his camp, - six leagues up the St. John. Pontgrave's men were sailors from St. Malo, - between whom and the other Frenchmen there was much ill blood, Biard had - hardly entered the river when he saw the evening sky crimsoned with the - dancing fires of a superb aurora borealis, and he and his attendants - marvelled what evil thing the prodigy might portend. Their Indian - companions said that it was a sign of war. In fact, the night after they - had joined Pontgrave a furious quarrel broke out in the camp, with - abundant shouting, gesticulating and swearing; and, says the father, "I do - not doubt that an accursed band of furious and sanguinary spirits were - hovering about us all night, expecting every moment to see a horrible - massacre of the few Christians in those parts; but the goodness of God - bridled their malice. No blood was shed, and on the next day the squall - ended in a fine calm." - </p> - <p> - He did not like the Indians, whom he describes as "lazy, gluttonous, - irreligious, treacherous, cruel, and licentious." He makes an exception in - favor of Memberton, whom he calls "the greatest, most renowned, and most - redoubted savage that ever lived in the memory of man," and especially - commends him for contenting himself with but one wife, hardly a - superlative merit in a centenarian. Biard taught him to say the Lord's - Prayer, though at the petition, "Give us this clay our daily bread," the - chief remonstrated, saying, "If I ask for nothing but bread, I shall get - no fish or moose meat." His protracted career was now drawing to a close, - and, being brought to the settlement in a dying state, he was placed in - Biard's bed and attended by the two Jesuits. He was as remarkable in - person as in character, for he was bearded like a Frenchman. Though, alone - among La Fleche's converts, the Faith seemed to have left some impression - upon him, he insisted on being buried with his heathen forefathers, but - was persuaded to forego a wish fatal to his salvation, and slept at last - in consecrated ground. - </p> - <p> - Another of the scanty fruits of the mission was a little girl on the point - of death, whom Biard had asked her parents to give him for baptism. "Take - her and keep her, if you like," was the reply, "for she is no better than - a dead dog." "We accepted the offer," says Biard, "in order to show them - the difference between Christianity and their impiety; and after giving - her what care we could, together with some instruction, we baptized her. - We named her after Madame the Marquise de Guercheville, in gratitude for - the benefits we have received from that lady, who can now rejoice that her - name is already in heaven; for, a few days after baptism, the chosen soul - flew to that place of glory." - </p> - <p> - Biard's greatest difficulty was with the Micmac language. Young Biencourt - was his best interpreter, and on common occasions served him well; but the - moment that religion was in question he was, as it were, stricken dumb,—the - reason being that the language was totally without abstract terms. Biard - resolutely set himself to the study of it,—a hard and thorny path, - on which he made small progress, and often went astray. Seated, pencil in - hand, before some Indian squatting on the floor, whom with the bribe of a - mouldy biscuit he had lured into the hut, he plied him with questions - which he often neither would nor could answer. What was the Indian word - for Faith, Hope, Charity, Sacrament, Baptism, Eucharist, Trinity, - Incarnation? The perplexed savage, willing to amuse himself, and impelled, - as Biard thinks, by the Devil, gave him scurrilous and unseemly phrases as - the equivalent of things holy, which, studiously incorporated into the - father's Indian catechism, produced on his pupils an effect the reverse of - that intended. Biard's colleague, Masse, was equally zealous, and still - less fortunate. He tried a forest life among the Indians 'with signal ill - success. Hard fare, smoke, filth, the scolding of squaws, and the cries of - children reduced him to a forlorn condition of body and mind, wore him to - a skeleton, and sent him back to Port Royal without a single convert. - </p> - <p> - The dark months wore slowly on. A band of half-famished men gathered about - the huge fires of their barn-like hall, moody, sullen, and quarrelsome. - Discord was here in the black robe of the Jesuit and the brown capote of - the rival trader. The position of the wretched little colony may well - provoke reflection. Here lay the shaggy continent, from Florida to the - Pole, outstretched in savage slumber along the sea, the stern domain of - Nature,—or, to adopt the ready solution of the Jesuits, a realm of - the powers of night, blasted beneath the sceptre of hell. On the banks of - James River was a nest of woe-begone Englishmen, a handful of Dutch - fur-traders at the mouth of the Hudson, and a few shivering Frenchmen - among the snow-drifts of Acadia; while deep within the wild monotony of - desolation, on the icy verge of the great northern river, the hand of - Champlain upheld the fleur-de-lis on the rock of Quebec. These were the - advance guard, the forlorn hope of civilization, messengers of promise to - a desert continent. Yet, unconscious of their high function, not content - with inevitable woes, they were rent by petty jealousies and miserable - feuds; while each of these detached fragments of rival nationalities, - scarcely able to maintain its own wretched existence on a few square - miles, begrudged to the others the smallest share in a domain which all - the nations of Europe could hardly have sufficed to fill. - </p> - <p> - One evening, as the forlorn tenants of Port Royal sat together - disconsolate, Biard was seized with a spirit of prophecy. He called upon - Biencourt to serve out the little of wine that remained,—a proposal - which met with high favor from the company present, though apparently with - none from the youthful Vice-Admiral. The wine was ordered, however, and, - as an unwonted cheer ran round the circle, the Jesuit announced that an - inward voice told him how, within a month, they should see a ship from - France. In truth, they saw one within a week. On the twentythird of - January, 1612, arrived a small vessel laden with a moderate store of - provisions and abundant seeds of future strife. - </p> - <p> - This was the expected succor sent by Poutrincourt. A series of ruinous - voyages had exhausted his resources but he had staked all on the success - of the colony, had even brought his family to Acadia, and he would not - leave them and his companions to perish. His credit was gone; his hopes - were dashed; yet assistance was proffered, and, in his extremity, he was - forced to accept it. It came from Madame de Guercheville and her Jesuit - advisers. She offered to buy the interest of a thousand crowns in the - enterprise. The ill-omened succor could not be refused; but this was not - all. The zealous protectress of the missions obtained from De Monts, whose - fortunes, like those of Poutrincouirt, had ebbed low, a transfer of all - his claims to the lands of Acadia; while the young King, Louis the - Thirteenth, was persuaded to give her, in addition, a new grant of all the - territory of North America, from the St. Lawrence to Florida. Thus did - Madame de Guercheville, or in other words, the Jesuits who used her name - as a cover, become proprietors of the greater part of the future United - States and British Provinces. The English colony of Virginia and the Dutch - trading-houses of New York were included within the limits of this - destined Northern Paraguay; while Port Royal, the seigniory of the - unfortunate Poutrincourt, was encompassed, like a petty island, by the - vast domain of the Society of Jesus. They could not deprive him of it, - since his title had been confirmed by the late King, but they flattered - themselves, to borrow their own language, that he would be "confined as in - a prison." His grant, however, had been vaguely worded, and, while they - held him restricted to an insignificant patch of ground, he claimed - lordship over a wide and indefinite territory. Here was argument for - endless strife. Other interests, too, were adverse. Poutrincourt, in his - discouragement, had abandoned his plan of liberal colonization, and now - thought of nothing but beaver-skins. He wished to make a trading-post; the - Jesuits wished to make a mission. - </p> - <p> - When the vessel anchored before Port Royal, Biencourt, with disgust and - anger, saw another Jesuit landed at the pier. This was Gilbert du Thet, a - lay brother, versed in affairs of this world, who had come out as - representative and administrator of Madame de Guercheville. Poutrincourt, - also, had his agent on board; and, without the loss of a day, the two - began to quarrel. A truce ensued; then a smothered feud, pervading the - whole colony, and ending in a notable explosion. The Jesuits, chafing - under the sway of Biencourt, had withdrawn without ceremony, and betaken - themselves to the vessel, intending to sail for France. Biencourt, - exasperated at such a breach of discipline, and fearing their - representations at court, ordered them to return, adding that, since the - Queen had commended them to his especial care, he could not, in - conscience, lose sight of them. The indignant fathers excommunicated him. - On this, the sagamore Louis, son of the grisly convert Membertou, begged - leave to kill them; but Biencourt would not countenance this summary mode - of relieving his embarrassment. He again, in the King's name, ordered the - clerical mutineers to return to the fort. Biard declared that he would - not, threatened to excommunicate any who should lay hand on him, and - called the Vice-Admiral a robber. His wrath, however, soon cooled; he - yielded to necessity, and came quietly ashore, where, for the next three - months, neither he nor his colleagues would say mass, or perform any - office of religion. At length a change came over him; he made advances of - peace, prayed that the past might be forgotten, said mass again, and - closed with a petition that Brother du Thet might be allowed to go to - France in a trading vessel then on the coast. His petition being granted, - he wrote to Poutrincourt a letter overflowing with praises of his son; - and, charged with this missive, Du Thet set sail. - </p> - <p> - <a name="link2HCH0017" id="link2HCH0017"> - <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> - </p> - <div style="height: 4em;"> - <br /><br /><br /><br /> - </div> - <h2> - CHAPTER VII. - </h2> - <h3> - 1613. - </h3> - <p> - LA SAUSSAYE.—ARGALL - </p> - <p> - Pending these squabbles, the Jesuits at home were far from idle. Bent on - ridding themselves of Poutrincourt, they seized, in satisfaction of debts - due them, all the cargo of his returning vessel, and involved him in a - network of litigation. If we accept his own statements in a letter to his - friend Lescarbot, he was outrageously misused, and indeed defrauded, by - his clerical copartners, who at length had him thrown into prison. Here, - exasperated, weary, sick of Acadia, and anxious for the wretched exiles - who looked to him for succor, the unfortunate man fell ill. Regaining his - liberty, he again addressed himself with what strength remained to the - forlorn task of sending relief to his son and his comrades. - </p> - <p> - Scarcely had Brother Gilbert du Thet arrived in France, when Madame de - Guercheville and her Jesuits, strong in court favor and in the charity of - wealthy penitents, prepared to take possession of their empire beyond sea. - Contributions were asked, and not in vain; for the sagacious fathers, - mindful of every spring of influence, had deeply studied the mazes of - feminine psychology, and then, as now, were favorite confessors of the - fair. It was on the twelfth of March, 1613, that the "Mayflower" of the - Jesuits sailed from Honfleur for the shores of New England. She was the - "Jonas," formerly in the service of De Monts, a small craft bearing - forty-eight sailors and colonists, including two Jesuits, Father Quentin - and Brother Du Thet. She carried horses, too, and goats, and was - abundantly stored with all things needful by the pious munificence of her - patrons. A courtier named La Saussaye was chief of the colony, Captain - Charles Fleury commanded the ship, and, as she winged her way across the - Atlantic, benedictions hovered over her from lordly halls and perfumed - chambers. - </p> - <p> - On the sixteenth of May, La Saussaye touched at La Heve, where he heard - mass, planted a cross, and displayed the scutcheon of Madame de - Guercheville. Thence, passing on to Port Royal, he found Biard, Masse, - their servant-boy, an apothecary, and one man beside. Biencourt and his - followers were scattered about the woods and shores, digging the tuberous - roots called ground-nuts, catching alewives in the brooks, and by similar - expedients sustaining their miserable existence. Taking the two Jesuits on - board, the voyagers steered for the Penobscot. A fog rose upon the sea. - They sailed to and fro, groping their way in blindness, straining their - eyes through the mist, and trembling each instant lest they should descry - the black outline of some deadly reef and the ghostly death-dance of the - breakers, But Heaven heard their prayers. At night they could see the - stars. The sun rose resplendent on a laughing sea, and his morning beams - streamed fair and full on the wild heights of the island of Mount Desert. - They entered a bay that stretched inland between iron-bound shores, and - gave it the name of St. Sauveur. It is now called Frenchman's Bay. They - saw a coast-line of weather-beaten crags set thick with spruce and fir, - the surf-washed cliffs of Great Head and Schooner Head, the rocky front of - Newport Mountain, patched with ragged woods, the arid domes of Dry - Mountain and Green Mountain, the round bristly backs of the Porcupine - Islands, and the waving outline of the Gouldsborough Hills. - </p> - <p> - La Saussaye cast anchor not far from Schooner Head, and here he lay till - evening. The jet-black shade betwixt crags and sea, the pines along the - cliff, pencilled against the fiery sunset, the dreamy slumber of distant - mountains bathed in shadowy purples—such is the scene that in this - our day greets the wandering artist, the roving collegian bivouacked on - the shore, or the pilgrim from stifled cities renewing his laded strength - in the mighty life of Nature. Perhaps they then greeted the adventurous - Frenchmen. There was peace on the wilderness and peace on the sea; but - none in this missionary bark, pioneer of Christianity and civilization. A - rabble of angry sailors clamored on her deck, ready to mutiny over the - terms of their engagement. Should the time of their stay be reckoned from - their landing at La Heve, or from their anchoring at Mount Desert? Fleury, - the naval commander, took their part. Sailor, courtier, and priest gave - tongue together in vociferous debate. Poutrincourt was far away, a ruined - man, and the intractable Vice-Admiral had ceased from troubling; yet not - the less were the omens of the pious enterprise sinister and dark. The - company, however, went ashore, raised a cross, and heard mass. - </p> - <p> - At a distance in the woods they saw the signal smoke of Indians, whom - Biard lost no time in visiting. Some of them were from a village on the - shore, three leagues westward. They urged the French to go with them to - their wigwams. The astute savages had learned already how to deal with a - Jesuit. - </p> - <p> - "Our great chief, Asticou, is there. He wishes for baptism. He is very - sick. He will die unbaptized. He will burn in hell, and it will be all - your fault." - </p> - <p> - This was enough. Biard embarked in a canoe, and they paddied him to the - spot, where he found the great chief, Asticou, in his wigwam, with a heavy - cold in the head. Disappointed of his charitable purpose, the priest - consoled himself with observing the beauties of the neighboring shore, - which seemed to him better fitted than St. Sauveur for the intended - settlement. It was a gentle slope, descending to the water, covered with - tall grass, and backed by rocky hills. It looked southeast upon a harbor - where a fleet might ride at anchor, sheltered from the gales by a cluster - of islands. - </p> - <p> - The ship was brought to the spot, and the colonists disembarked. First - they planted a cross; then they began their labors, and with their labors - their quarrels. La Saussaye, zealous for agriculture, wished to break - ground and raise crops immediately; the rest opposed him, wishing first to - be housed and fortified. Fleury demanded that the ship should be unladen, - and La Saussaye would not consent. Debate ran high, when suddenly all was - harmony, and the disputants were friends once more in the pacification of - a common danger. - </p> - <p> - Far out at sea, beyond the islands that sheltered their harbor, they saw - an approaching sail; and as she drew near, straining their anxious eyes, - they could descry the red flags that streamed from her masthead and her - stern; then the black muzzles of her cannon,—they counted seven on a - side; then the throng of men upon her decks. The wind was brisk and fair; - all her sails were set; she came on, writes a spectator, more swiftly than - an arrow. - </p> - <p> - Six years before, in 1607, the ships of Captain Newport had conveyed to - the banks of James River the first vital germ of English colonization on - the continent. Noble and wealthy speculators with Hispaniola, Mexico, and - Peru for their inspiration, had combined to gather the fancied golden - harvest of Virginia, received a charter from the Crown, and taken - possession of their El Dorado. From tavern, gaming-house, and brothel was - drawn the staple the colony,—ruined gentlemen, prodigal sons, - disreputable retainers, debauched tradesmen. Yet it would be foul slander - to affirm that the founders of Virginia were all of this stamp; for among - the riotous crew were men of worth, and, above them all, a hero disguised - by the homeliest of names. Again and again, in direst woe and jeopardy, - the infant settlement owed its life to the heart and hand of John Smith. - </p> - <p> - Several years had elapsed since Newport's voyage; and the colony, depleted - by famine, disease, and an Indian war, had been recruited by fresh - emigration, when one Samuel Argall arrived at Jamestown, captain of an - illicit trading-vessel. He was a man of ability and force,—one of - those compounds of craft and daring in which the age was fruitful; for the - rest, unscrupulous and grasping. In the spring of 1613 he achieved a - characteristic exploit,—the abduction of Pocahontas, that most - interesting of young squaws, or, to borrow the style of the day, of Indian - princesses. Sailing up the Potomac he lured her on board his ship, and - then carried off the benefactress of the colony a prisoner to Jamestown. - Here a young man of family, Rolfe, became enamoured of her, married her - with more than ordinary ceremony, and thus secured a firm alliance between - her tribesmen and the English. - </p> - <p> - Meanwhile Argall had set forth on another enterprise. With a ship of one - hundred and thirty tons, carrying fourteen guns and sixty men, he sailed - in May for islands off the coast of Maine to fish, as he says for cod. He - had a more important errand; for Sir Thomas Dale, Governor of Virginia, - had commissioned him to expel the French from any settlement they might - have made within the limits of King James's patents. Thick fogs involved - him; and when the weather cleared he found himself not far from the Bay of - Penobscot. Canoes came out from shore; the Indians climbed the ship's - side, and, as they gained the deck, greeted the astonished English with an - odd pantomime of bows and flourishes, which, in the belief of the latter, - could have been learned from none but Frenchmen. By signs, too, and by - often repeating the word Norman,—by which they always designated the - French,—they betrayed the presence of the latter. Argall questioned - them as well as his total ignorance of their language would permit, and - learned, by signs, the position and numbers of the colonists. Clearly they - were no match for him. Assuring the Indians that the Normans were his - friends, and that he longed to see them, he retained one of the visitors - as a guide, dismissed the rest with presents, and shaped his course for - Mount Desert. - </p> - <p> - Now the wild heights rose in view; now the English could see the masts of - a small ship anchored in the sound; and now, as they rounded the islands, - four white tents were visible on the grassy slope between the water and - the woods. They were a gift from the Queen to Madame de Guercheville and - her missionaries. Argall's men prepared for fight, while their Indian - guide, amazed, broke into a howl of lamentation. - </p> - <p> - On shore all was confusion. Bailleul, the pilot, went to reconnoitre, and - ended by hiding among the islands. La Saussaye lost presence of mind, and - did nothing for defence. La Motte, his lieutenant, with Captain Fleury, an - ensign, a sergeant, the Jesuit Du Thet, and a few of the bravest men, - hastened on board the vessel, but had no time to cast loose her cables. - Argall bore down on them, with a furious din of drums and trumpets, showed - his broadside, and replied to their hail with a volley of cannon and - musket shot. "Fire! Fire!" screamed Fleury. But there was no gunner to - obey, till Du Thet seized and applied the match. "The cannon made as much - noise as the enemy's," writes Biard; but, as the inexperienced artillerist - forgot to aim the piece, no other result ensued. Another storm of - musketry, and Brother Gilbert du Thet rolled helpless on the deck. - </p> - <p> - The French ship was mute. The English plied her for a time with shot, then - lowered a boat and boarded. Under the awnings which covered her, dead and - wounded men lay strewn about her deck, and among them the brave lay - brother, smothering in his blood. He had his wish; for, on leaving France, - he had prayed with uplifted hands that he might not return, but perish in - that holy enterprise. Like the Order of which he was a humble member, he - was a compound of qualities in appearance contradictory. La Motte, sword - in hand, showed fight to the last, and won the esteem of his captors. - </p> - <p> - The English landed without meeting any show of resistance, and ranged at - will among the tents, the piles of baggage and stores, and the buildings - and defences newly begun. Argall asked for the commander, but La Saussaye - had fled to the woods. The crafty Englishman seized his chests, caused the - locks to be picked, searched till he found the royal letters and - commissions, withdrew them, replaced everything else as he had found it, - and again closed the lids. In the morning, La Saussaye, between the - English and starvation, preferred the former, and issued from his hiding - place. Argall received him with studious courtesy. That country, he said, - belonged to his master, King James. Doubtless they had authority from - their own sovereign for thus encroaching upon it; and, for his part, he - was prepared to yield all respect to the commissions of the King of - France, that the peace between the two nations might not be disturbed. - Therefore he prayed that the commissions might be shown to him. La - Saussaye opened his chests. The royal signature was nowhere to be found. - At this, Argall's courtesy was changed to wrath. He denounced the - Frenchmen as robbers and pirates who deserved the gallows, removed their - property on board his ship, and spent the afternoon in dividing it among - his followers, The disconsolate French remained on the scene of their - woes, where the greedy sailors as they came ashore would snatch from them, - now a cloak, now a hat, and now a doublet, till the unfortunate colonists - were left half naked. In other respects the English treated their captives - well,—except two of them, whom they flogged; and Argall, whom Biard, - after recounting his knavery, calls "a gentleman of noble courage," having - gained his point, returned to his former courtesy. - </p> - <p> - But how to dispose of the prisoners? Fifteen of them, including La - Saussaye and the Jesuit Masse, were turned adrift in an open boat, at the - mercy of the wilderness and the sea. Nearly all were lands-men; but while - their unpractised hands were struggling with the oars, they were joined - among the islands by the fugitive pilot and his boat's crew. Worn and half - starved, the united bands made their perilous way eastward, stopping from - time to time to hear mass, make a procession, or catch codfish. Thus - sustained in the spirit and in the flesh, cheered too by the Indians, who - proved fast friends in need, they crossed the Bay of Fundy, doubled Cape - Sable, and followed the southern coast of Nova Scotia, till they happily - fell in with two French trading-vessels, which bore them in safety to St. - Malo. - </p> - <p> - <a name="link2HCH0018" id="link2HCH0018"> - <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> - </p> - <div style="height: 4em;"> - <br /><br /><br /><br /> - </div> - <h2> - CHAPTER VIII. - </h2> - <h3> - 1613-1615. - </h3> - <p> - RUIN OF FRENCH ACADIA. - </p> - <p> - "Praised be God, behold two thirds of our company safe in France, telling - their strange adventures to their relatives and friends. And now you will - wish to know what befell the rest of us." Thus writes Father Biard, who - with his companions in misfortune, fourteen in all, prisoners on board - Argall's ship and the prize, were borne captive to Virginia. Old Point - Comfort was reached at length, the site of Fortress Monroe; Hampton Roads, - renowned in our day for the sea-fight of the Titans; Sewell's Point; the - Rip Raps; Newport News,—all household words in the ears of this - generation. Now, far on their right, buried in the damp shade of - immemorial verdure, lay, untrodden and voiceless, the fields where - stretched the leaguering lines of Washington where the lilies of France - floated beside the banners of the new-born republic, and where in later - years embattled treason confronted the manhood of an outraged nation. And - now before them they could descry the mast of small craft at anchor, a - cluster of rude dwellings fresh from the axe, scattered tenements, and - fields green with tobacco. - </p> - <p> - Throughout the voyage the prisoners had been soothed with flattering tales - of the benignity of the Governor of Virginia, Sir Thomas Dale; of his love - of the French, and his respect for the memory of Henry the Fourth, to - whom, they were told, he was much beholden for countenance and favor. On - their landing at Jamestown, this consoling picture was reversed. The - Governor fumed and blustered, talked of halter and gallows, and declared - that he would hang them all. In vain Argall remonstrated, urging that he - had pledged his word for their lives. Dale, outraged by their invasion of - British territory, was deaf to all appeals; till Argall, driven to - extremity, displayed the stolen commissions, and proclaimed his stratagem, - of which the French themselves had to that moment been ignorant. As they - were accredited by their government, their lives at least were safe. Yet - the wrath of Sir Thomas Dale still burned high. He summoned his council, - and they resolved promptly to wipe off all stain of French intrusion from - shores which King James claimed as his own. - </p> - <p> - Their action was utterly unauthorized. The two kingdoms were at peace. - James the First, by the patents of 1606, had granted all North America, - from the thirty-fourth to the forty-fifth degree of latitude, to the two - companies of London and Plymouth,—Virginia being assigned to the - former, while to the latter were given Maine and Acadia, with adjacent - regions. Over these, though as yet the claimants had not taken possession - of them, the authorities of Virginia had no color of jurisdiction. England - claimed all North America, in virtue of the discovery of Cabot; and Sir - Thomas Dale became the self-constituted champion of British rights, not - the less zealous that his championship promised a harvest of booty. - </p> - <p> - Argall's ship, the captured ship of La Saussaye, and another smaller - vessel, were at once equipped and despatched on their errand of havoc. - Argall commanded; and Biard, with Quentin and several others of the - prisoners, were embarked with him. They shaped their course first for - Mount Desert. Here they landed, levelled La Saussaye's unfinished - defences, cut down the French cross, and planted one of their own in its - place. Next they sought out the island of St. Croix, seized a quantity of - salt, and razed to the ground all that remained of the dilapidated - buildings of De Monts. They crossed the Bay of Fundy to Port Royal, - guided, says Biard, by an Indian chief,—an improbable assertion, - since the natives of these coasts hated the English as much as they loved - the French, and now well knew the designs of the former. The unfortunate - settlement was tenantless. Biencourt, with some of his men, was on a visit - to neighboring bands of Indians, while the rest were reaping in the fields - on the river, two leagues above the fort. Succor from Poutrincourt had - arrived during the summer. The magazines were by no means empty, and there - were cattle, horses, and hogs in adjacent fields and enclosures. Exulting - at their good fortune, Argall's men butchered or carried off the animals, - ransacked the buildings, plundered them even to the locks and bolts of the - doors, and then laid the whole in ashes; "and may it please the Lord," - adds the pious Biard, "that the sins therein committed may likewise have - been consumed in that burning." - </p> - <p> - Having demolished Port Royal, the marauders went in boats up the river to - the fields where the reapers were at work. These fled, and took refuge - behind the ridge of a hill, whence they gazed helplessly on the - destruction of their harvest. Biard approached them, and, according to the - declaration of Poutrincourt made and attested before the Admiralty of - Guienne, tried to persuade them to desert his son, Biencourt, and take - service with Argall. The reply of one of the men gave little encouragement - for further parley:— - </p> -<pre xml:space="preserve"> - "Begone, or I will split your head with this hatchet." -</pre> - <p> - There is flat contradiction here between the narrative of the Jesuit and - the accounts of Poutrincourt and contemporary English writers, who agree - in affirming that Biard, "out of indigestible malice that he had conceived - against Biencourt," encouraged the attack on the settlements of St. Croix - and Port Royal, and guided the English thither. The priest himself admits - that both French and English regarded him as a traitor, and that his life - was in danger. While Argall's ship was at anchor, a Frenchman shouted to - the English from a distance that they would do well to kill him. The - master of the ship, a Puritan, in his abomination of priests, and above - all of Jesuits, was at the same time urging his commander to set Biard - ashore and leave him to the mercy of his countrymen. In this pass he was - saved, to adopt his own account, by what he calls his simplicity; for he - tells us, that, while—instigated, like the rest of his enemies, by - the Devil—the robber and the robbed were joining hands to ruin him, - he was on his knees before Argall, begging him to take pity on the French, - and leave them a boat, together with provisions to sustain their miserable - lives through the winter. This spectacle of charity, he further says, so - moved the noble heart of the commander, that he closed his ears to all the - promptings of foreign and domestic malice. - </p> - <p> - The English had scarcely re-embarked, when Biencourt arrived with his - followers, and beheld the scene of destruction. Hopelessly outnumbered, he - tried to lure Argall and some of his officers into an ambuscade, but they - would not be entrapped. Biencourt now asked for an interview. The word of - honor was mutually given, and the two chiefs met in a meadow not far from - the demolished dwellings. An anonymous English writer says that Biencourt - offered to transfer his allegiance to King James, on condition of being - permitted to remain at Port Royal and carry on the fur-trade under a - guaranty of English protection, but that Argall would not listen to his - overtures. The interview proved a stormy one. Biard says that the - Frenchmen vomited against him every species of malignant abuse. "In the - mean time," he adds, "you will considerately observe to what madness the - evil spirit exciteth those who sell themselves to him." - </p> - <p> - According to Pontrincourt, Argall admitted that the priest had urged him - to attack Port Royal. Certain it is that Biencourt demanded his surrender, - frankly declaring that he meant to hang him. "Whilest they were - discoursing together," says the old English writer above mentioned, "one - of the savages, rushing suddenly forth from the Woods, and licentiated to - come neere, did after his manner, with such broken French as he had, - earnestly mediate a peace, wondring why they that seemed to be of one - Country should vse others with such hostilitie, and that with such a forme - of habit and gesture as made them both to laugh." - </p> - <p> - His work done, and, as he thought, the French settlements of Acadia - effectually blotted out, Argall set sail for Virginia on the thirteenth of - November. Scarcely was he at sea when a storm scattered the vessels. Of - the smallest of the three nothing was ever heard. Argall, severely - buffeted, reached his port in safety, having first, it is said, compelled - the Dutch at Manhattan to acknowledge for a time the sovereignty of King - James. The captured ship of La Saussaye, with Biard and his colleague - Quentin on board, was forced to yield to the fury of the western gales and - bear away for the Azores. To Biard the change of destination was not - unwelcome. He stood in fear of the truculent Governor of Virginia, and his - tempest-rocked slumbers were haunted with unpleasant visions of a rope's - end. It seems that some of the French at Port Royal, disappointed in their - hope of hanging him, had commended him to Sir Thomas Dale as a proper - subject for the gallows drawing up a paper, signed by six of them, and - containing allegations of a nature well fitted to kindle the wrath of that - vehement official. The vessel was commanded by Turnel, Argall's - lieutenant, apparently an officer of merit, a scholar and linguist. He had - treated his prisoner with great kindness, because, says the latter, "he - esteemed and loved him for his naive simplicity and ingenuous candor." But - of late, thinking his kindness misplaced, he had changed it for an extreme - coldness, preferring, in the words of Biard himself, "to think that the - Jesuit had lied, rather than so many who accused him." - </p> - <p> - Water ran low, provisions began to fail, and they eked out their meagre - supply by butchering the horses taken at Port Royal. At length they came - within sight of Fayal, when a new terror seized the minds of the two - Jesuits. Might not the Englishmen fear that their prisoners would denounce - them to the fervent Catholics of that island as pirates and sacrilegious - kidnappers of priests? From such hazard the escape was obvious. What more - simple than to drop the priests into the sea? In truth, the English had no - little dread of the results of conference between the Jesuits and the - Portuguese authorities of Fayal; but the conscience or humanity of Turnel - revolted at the expedient which awakened such apprehension in the troubled - mind of Biard. He contented himself with requiring that the two priests - should remain hidden while the ship lay off the port: Biard does not say - that he enforced the demand either by threats or by the imposition of - oaths. He and his companion, however, rigidly complied with it, lying - close in the hold or under the boats, while suspicious officials searched - the ship, a proof, he triumphantly declares, of the audacious malice which - has asserted it as a tenet of Rome that no faith need be kept with - heretics. - </p> - <p> - Once more at sea, Turnel shaped his course for home, having, with some - difficulty, gained a supply of water and provisions at Fayal. All was now - harmony between him and his prisoners. When he reached Pembroke, in Wales, - the appearance of the vessel—a French craft in English hands—again - drew upon him the suspicion of piracy. The Jesuits, dangerous witnesses - among the Catholics of Fayal, could at the worst do little harm with the - Vice-Admiral at Pembroke. To him, therefore, he led the prisoners, in the - sable garb of their order, now much the worse for wear, and commended them - as persons without reproach, "wherein," adds the modest father, "he spoke - the truth." The result of their evidence was, we are told, that Turnel was - henceforth treated, not as a pirate, but, according to his deserts, as an - honorable gentleman. This interview led to a meeting with certain - dignitaries of the Anglican Church, who, much interested in an encounter - with Jesuits in their robes, were filled, says Biard, with wonder and - admiration at what they were told of their conduct. He explains that these - churchmen differ widely in form and doctrine from the English Calvinists, - who, he says, are called Puritans; and he adds that they are superior in - every respect to these, whom they detest as an execrable pest. - </p> - <p> - Biard was sent to Dover and thence to Calais, returning, perhaps, to the - tranquil honors of his chair of theology at Lyons. La Saussaye, La Motte, - Fleury, and other prisoners were at various times sent from Virginia to - England, and ultimately to France. Madame de Guercheville, her pious - designs crushed in the bud, seems to have gained no further satisfaction - than the restoration of the vessel. The French ambassador complained of - the outrage, but answer was postponed; and, in the troubled state of - France, the matter appears to have been dropped. - </p> - <p> - Argall, whose violent and crafty character was offset by a gallant bearing - and various traits of martial virtue, became Deputy-Governor of Virginia, - and, under a military code, ruled the colony with a rod of iron. He - enforced the observance of Sunday with an edifying rigor. Those who - absented themselves from church were, for the first offence, imprisoned - for the night, and reduced to slavery for a week; for the second offence, - enslaved a month and for the third, a year. Nor was he less strenuous in - his devotion to mammon. He enriched himself by extortion and wholesale - peculation; and his audacious dexterity, aided by the countenance of the - Earl of Warwick, who is said to have had a trading connection with him, - thwarted all the efforts of the company to bring him to account. In 1623, - he was knighted by the hand of King James. - </p> - <p> - Early in the spring following the English attack, Pontrincourt came to - Port Royal. He found the place in ashes, and his unfortunate son, with the - men under his command, wandering houseless in the forests. They had passed - a winter of extreme misery, sustaining their wretched existence with - roots, the buds of trees, and lichens peeled from the rocks. - </p> - <p> - Despairing of his enterprise, Poutrincourt returned to France. In the next - year, 1615, during the civil disturbances which followed the marriage of - the King, command was given him of the royal forces destined for the - attack on Mery; and here, happier in his death than in his life, he fell, - sword in hand. - </p> - <p> - In spite of their reverses, the French kept hold on Acadia. Biencourt, - partially at least, rebuilt Port Royal; while winter after winter the - smoke of fur traders' huts curled into the still, sharp air of these - frosty wilds, till at length, with happier auspices, plans of settlement - were resumed. - </p> - <p> - Rude hands strangled the "Northern Paraguay" in its birth. Its beginnings - had been feeble, but behind were the forces of a mighty organization, at - once devoted and ambitious, enthusiastic and calculating. Seven years - later the "Mayflower" landed her emigrants at Plymouth. What would have - been the issues had the zeal of the pious lady of honor preoccupied New - England with a Jesuit colony? - </p> - <p> - In an obscure stroke of lawless violence began the strife of France and - England, Protestantism and Rome, which for a century and a half shook the - struggling communities of North America, and closed at last in the - memorable triumph on the Plains of Abraham. - </p> - <p> - <a name="link2HCH0019" id="link2HCH0019"> - <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> - </p> - <div style="height: 4em;"> - <br /><br /><br /><br /> - </div> - <h2> - CHAPTER—IX. - </h2> - <h3> - 1608, 1609. - </h3> - <p> - CHAMPLAIN AT QUEBEC. - </p> - <p> - A LONELY ship sailed up the St. Lawrence. The white whales floundering in - the Bay of Tadoussac, and the wild duck diving as the foaming prow drew - near,—there was no life but these in all that watery solitude, - twenty miles from shore to shore. The ship was from Honfleur, and was - commanded by Samuel de Champlain. He was the AEneas of a destined people, - and in her womb lay the embryo life of Canada. - </p> - <p> - De Monts, after his exclusive privilege of trade was revoked and his - Acadian enterprise ruined, had, as we have seen, abandoned it to - Poutrincourt. Perhaps would it have been well for him had he abandoned - with it all Transatlantic enterprises; but the passion for discovery and - the noble ambition of founding colonies had taken possession of his mind. - These, rather than a mere hope of gain, seem to have been his controlling - motives; yet the profits of the fur-trade were vital to the new designs he - was meditating, to meet the heavy outlay they demanded, and he solicited - and obtained a fresh monopoly of the traffic for one year. - </p> - <p> - Champlain was, at the time, in Paris; but his unquiet thoughts turned - westward. He was enamoured of the New World, whose rugged charms had - seized his fancy and his heart; and as explorers of Arctic seas have pined - in their repose for polar ice and snow, so did his restless thoughts - revert to the fog-wrapped coasts, the piny odors of forests, the noise of - waters, the sharp and piercing sunlight, so dear to his remembrance. He - longed to unveil the mystery of that boundless wilderness, and plant the - Catholic faith and the power of France amid its ancient barbarism. - </p> - <p> - Five years before, he had explored the St. Lawrence as far as the rapids - above Montreal. On its banks, as he thought, was the true site for a - settlement,—a fortified post, whence, as from a secure basis, the - waters of the vast interior might be traced back towards their sources, - and a western route discovered to China and Japan. For the fur-trade, too, - the innumerable streams that descended to the great river might all be - closed against foreign intrusion by a single fort at some commanding - point, and made tributary to a rich and permanent commerce; while—and - this was nearer to his heart, for he had often been heard to say that the - saving of a soul was worth more than the conquest of an empire—countless - savage tribes, in the bondage of Satan, might by the same avenues be - reached and redeemed. - </p> - <p> - De Monts embraced his views; and, fitting out two ships, gave command of - one to the elder Pontgrave, of the other to Champlain. The former was to - trade with the Indians and bring back the cargo of furs which, it was - hoped, would meet the expense of the voyage. To Champlain fell the harder - task of settlement and exploration. - </p> - <p> - Pontgrave, laden with goods for the Indian trade of Tadoussac sailed from - Honfleur on the fifth of April, 1608. Champlain, with men, arms, and - stores for the colony, followed, eight days later. On the fifteenth of May - he was on the Grand Bank; on the thirtieth he passed Gaspe, and on the - third of June neared Tadoussac. No living thing was to be seen. He - anchored, lowered a boat, and rowed into the port, round the rocky point - at the southeast, then, from the fury of its winds and currents, called La - Pointe de Tous les Diables. There was life enough within, and more than he - cared to find. In the still anchorage under the cliffs lay Pontgrave's - vessel, and at her side another ship, which proved to be a Basque - furtrader. - </p> - <p> - Poutgrave, arriving a few days before, had found himself anticipated by - the Basques, who were busied in a brisk trade with bands of Indians - cabined along the borders of the cove. He displayed the royal letters, and - commanded a cessation of the prohibited traffic; but the Basques proved - refractory, declared that they would trade in spite of the King, fired on - Pontgrave with cannon and musketry, wounded him and two of his men, and - killed a third. They then boarded his vessel, and carried away all his - cannon, small arms, and ammunition, saying that they would restore them - when they had finished their trade and were ready to return home. - </p> - <p> - Champlain found his comrade on shore, in a disabled condition. The - Basques, though still strong enough to make fight, were alarmed for the - consequences of their conduct, and anxious to come to terms. A peace, - therefore, was signed on board their vessel; all differences were referred - to the judgment of the French courts, harmony was restored, and the - choleric strangers betook themselves to catching whales. - </p> - <p> - This port of Tadoussac was long the centre of the Canadian fur-trade. A - desolation of barren mountains closes round it, betwixt whose ribs of - rugged granite, bristling with savins, birches, and firs, the Saguenay - rolls its gloomy waters from the northern wilderness. Centuries of - civilization have not tamed the wildness of the place; and still, in grim - repose, the mountains hold their guard around the waveless lake that - glistens in their shadow, and doubles, in its sullen mirror, crag, - precipice, and forest. - </p> - <p> - Near the brink of the cove or harbor where the vessels lay, and a little - below the mouth of a brook which formed one of the outlets of this small - lake, stood the remains of the wooden barrack built by Chauvin eight years - before. Above the brook were the lodges of an Indian camp,—stacks of - poles covered with birch-bark. They belonged to an Algonquin horde, called - Montagnais, denizens of surrounding wilds, and gatherers of their only - harvest,—skins of the moose, caribou, and bear; fur of the beaver, - marten, otter, fox, wild-cat, and lynx. Nor was this all, for there were - intermediate traders betwixt the French and the shivering bands who roamed - the weary stretch of stunted forest between the head-waters of the - Saguenay and Hudson's Bay. Indefatigable canoe-men, in their birchen - vessels, light as eggshells, they threaded the devious tracks of countless - rippling streams, shady by-ways of the forest, where the wild duck - scarcely finds depth to swim; then descended to their mart along those - scenes of picturesque yet dreary grandeur which steam has made familiar to - modern tourists. With slowly moving paddles they glided beneath the cliff - whose shaggy brows frown across the zenith, and whose base the deep waves - wash with a hoarse and hollow cadence; and they passed the sepulchral Bay - of the Trinity, dark as the tide of Acheron,—a sanctuary of solitude - and silence: depths which, as the fable runs, no sounding line can fathom, - and heights at whose dizzy verge the wheeling eagle seems a speck. - </p> - <p> - Peace being established with the Basques, and the wounded Pontgrave - busied, as far as might be, in transferring to the hold of his ship the - rich lading of the Indian canoes, Champlain spread his sails, and again - held his course up the St. Lawrence. Far to the south, in sun and shadow, - slumbered the woody mountains whence fell the countless springs of the St. - John, behind tenantless shores, now white with glimmering villages,—La - Chenaic, Granville, Kamouraska, St. Roche, St. Jean, Vincelot, Berthier. - But on the north the jealous wilderness still asserts its sway, crowding - to the river's verge its walls, domes, and towers of granite; and, to this - hour, its solitude is scarcely broken. - </p> - <p> - Above the point of the Island of Orleans, a constriction of the vast - channel narrows it to less than a mile, with the green heights of Point - Levi on one side, and on the other the cliffs of Quebec. Here, a small - stream, the St. Charles, enters the St. Lawrence, and in the angle betwixt - them rises the promontory on two sides a natural fortress. Between the - cliffs and the river lay a strand covered with walnuts and other trees. - From this strand, by a rough passage gullied downward from the place where - Prescott Gate now guards the way, one might climb the height to the broken - plateau above, now burdened with its ponderous load of churches, convents, - dwellings, ramparts, and batteries. Thence, by a gradual ascent, the rock - sloped upward to its highest summit, Cape Diamond, looking down on the St. - Lawrence from a height of three hundred and fifty feet. Here the citadel - now stands; then the fierce sun fell on the bald, baking rock, with its - crisped mosses and parched lichens. Two centuries and a half have - quickened the solitude with swarming life, covered the deep bosom of the - river with barge and steamer and gliding sail, and reared cities and - villages on the site of forests; but nothing can destroy the surpassing - grandeur of the scene. - </p> - <p> - On the strand between the water and the cliffs Champlain's axemen fell to - their work. They were pioneers of an advancing host,—advancing, it - is true, with feeble and uncertain progress,—priests, soldiers, - peasants, feudal scutcheons, royal insignia: not the Middle Age, but - engendered of it by the stronger life of modern centralization, sharply - stamped with a parental likeness, heir to parental weakness and parental - force. - </p> - <p> - In a few weeks a pile of wooden buildings rose on the brink of the St. - Lawrence, on or near the site of the marketplace of the Lower Town of - Quebec. The pencil of Champlain, always regardless of proportion and - perspective, has preserved its likeness. A strong wooden wall, surmounted - by a gallery loop-holed for musketry, enclosed three buildings, containing - quarters for himself and his men, together with a courtyard, from one side - of which rose a tall dove-cot, like a belfry. A moat surrounded the whole, - and two or three small cannon were planted on salient platforms towards - the river. There was a large storehouse near at hand, and a part of the - adjacent ground was laid out as a garden. - </p> - <p> - In this garden Champlain was one morning directing his laborers, when - Tetu, his pilot, approached him with an anxious countenance, and muttered - a request to speak with him in private. Champlain assenting, they withdrew - to the neighboring woods, when the pilot disburdened himself of his - secret. One Antoine Natel, a locksmith, smitten by conscience or fear, had - revealed to him a conspiracy to murder his commander and deliver Quebec - into the hands of the Basques and Spaniards then at Tadoussac. Another - locksmith, named Duval, was author of the plot, and, with the aid of three - accomplices, had befooled or frightened nearly all the company into taking - part in it. Each was assured that he should make his fortune, and all were - mutually pledged to poniard the first betrayer of the secret. The critical - point of their enterprise was the killing of Champlain. Some were for - strangling him, some for raising a false alarm in the night and shooting - him as he came out from his quarters. - </p> - <p> - Having heard the pilot's story, Champlain, remaining in the woods, desired - his informant to find Antoine Natel, and bring him to the spot. Natel soon - appeared, trembling with excitement and fear, and a close examination left - no doubt of the truth of his statement. A small vessel, built by Pontgrave - at Tadoussac, had lately arrived, and orders were now given that it should - anchor close at hand. On board was a young man in whom confidence could be - placed. Champlain sent him two bottles of wine, with a direction to tell - the four ringleaders that they had been given him by his Basque friends at - Tadoussac, and to invite them to share the good cheer. They came aboard in - the evening, and were seized and secured. "Voyla done mes galants bien - estonnez," writes Champlain. - </p> - <p> - It was ten o'clock, and most of the men on shore were asleep. They were - wakened suddenly, and told of the discovery of the plot and the arrest of - the ringleaders. Pardon was then promised them, and they were dismissed - again to their beds, greatly relieved; for they had lived in trepidation, - each fearing the other. Duval's body, swinging from a gibbet, gave - wholesome warning to those he had seduced; and his head was displayed on a - pike, from the highest roof of the buildings, food for birds and a lesson - to sedition. His three accomplices were carried by Pontgrave to France, - where they made their atonement in the galleys. - </p> - <p> - It was on the eighteenth of September that Pontgrave set sail, leaving - Champlain with twenty-eight men to hold Quebec through the winter. Three - weeks later, and shores and hills glowed with gay prognostics of - approaching desolation,—the yellow and scarlet of the maples, the - deep purple of the ash, the garnet hue of young oaks, the crimson of the - tupelo at the water's edge, and the golden plumage of birch saplings in - the fissures of the cliff. It was a short-lived beauty. The forest dropped - its festal robes. Shrivelled and faded, they rustled to the earth. The - crystal air and laughing sun of October passed away, and November sank - upon the shivering waste, chill and sombre as the tomb. - </p> - <p> - A roving band of Montagnais had built their huts near the buildings, and - were busying themselves with their autumn eel-fishery, on which they - greatly relied to sustain their miserable lives through the winter. Their - slimy harvest being gathered, and duly smoked and dried, they gave it for - safe-keeping to Champlain, and set out to hunt beavers. It was deep in the - winter before they came back, reclaimed their eels, built their birch - cabins again, and disposed themselves for a life of ease, until famine or - their enemies should put an end to their enjoyments. These were by no - means without alloy. While, gorged with food, they lay dozing on piles of - branches in their smoky huts, where, through the crevices of the thin - birch bark, streamed in a cold capable at times of congealing mercury, - their slumbers were beset with nightmare visions of Iroquois forays, - scalpings, butcherings, and burnings. As dreams were their oracles, the - camp was wild with fright. They sent out no scouts and placed no guard; - but, with each repetition of these nocturnal terrors, they came flocking - in a body to beg admission within the fort. The women and children were - allowed to enter the yard and remain during the night, while anxious - fathers and jealous husbands shivered in the darkness without. - </p> - <p> - On one occasion, a group of wretched beings was seen on the farther bank - of the St. Lawrence, like wild animals driven by famine to the borders of - the settler's clearing. The river was full of drifting ice, and there was - no crossing without risk of life. The Indians, in their desperation, made - the attempt; and midway their canoes were ground to atoms among the - tossing masses. Agile as wild-cats, they all leaped upon a huge raft of - ice, the squaws carrying their children on their shoulders, a feat at - which Champlain marveled when he saw their starved and emaciated - condition. Here they began a wail of despair; when happily the pressure of - other masses thrust the sheet of ice against the northern shore. They - landed and soon made their appearance at the fort, worn to skeletons and - horrible to look upon. The French gave them food, which they devoured with - a frenzied avidity, and, unappeased, fell upon a dead dog left on the snow - by Champlain for two months past as a bait for foxes. They broke this - carrion into fragments, and thawed and devoured it, to the disgust of the - spectators, who tried vainly to prevent them. - </p> - <p> - This was but a severe access of the periodical famine which, during - winter, was a normal condition of the Algonquin tribes of Acadia and the - Lower St. Lawrence, who, unlike the cognate tribes of New England, never - tilled the soil, or made any reasonable provision against the time of - need. - </p> - <p> - One would gladly know how the founders of Quebec spent the long hours of - their first winter; but on this point the only man among them, perhaps, - who could write, has not thought it necessary to enlarge. He himself - beguiled his leisure with trapping foxes, or hanging a dead dog from a - tree and watching the hungry martens in their efforts to reach it. Towards - the close of winter, all found abundant employment in nursing themselves - or their neighbors, for the inevitable scurvy broke out with virulence. At - the middle of May, only eight men of the twenty-eight were alive, and of - these half were suffering from disease. - </p> - <p> - This wintry purgatory wore away; the icy stalactites that hung from the - cliffs fell crashing to the earth; the clamor of the wild geese was heard; - the bluebirds appeared in the naked woods; the water-willows were covered - with their soft caterpillar-like blossoms; the twigs of the swamp maple - were flushed with ruddy bloom; the ash hung out its black tufts; the - shad-bush seemed a wreath of snow; the white stars of the bloodroot - gleamed among dank, fallen leaves; and in the young grass of the wet - meadows the marsh-marigolds shone like spots of gold. - </p> - <p> - Great was the joy of Champlain when, on the fifth of June, he saw a - sailboat rounding the Point of Orleans, betokening that the spring had - brought with it the longed for succors. A son-in-law of Pontgrave, named - Marais, was on board, and he reported that Pontgrave was then at - Tadoussac, where he had lately arrived. Thither Champlain hastened, to - take counsel with his comrade. His constitution or his courage had defied - the scurvy. They met, and it was determined betwixt them, that, while - Pontgrave remained in charge of Quebec, Champlain should enter at once on - his long meditated explorations, by which, like La Salle seventy years - later, he had good hope of finding a way to China. - </p> - <p> - But there was a lion in the path. The Indian tribes, to whom peace was - unknown, infested with their scalping parties the streams and pathways of - the forest, and increased tenfold its inseparable risks. The after career - of Champlain gives abundant proof that he was more than indifferent to all - such chances; yet now an expedient for evading them offered itself, so - consonant with his instincts that he was glad to accept it. - </p> - <p> - During the last autumn, a young chief from the banks of the then unknown - Ottawa had been at Quebec; and, amazed at what he saw, he had begged - Champlain to join him in the spring against his enemies. These enemies - were a formidable race of savages,—the Iroquois, or Five Confederate - Nations, who dwelt in fortified villages within limits now embraced by the - State of New York, and who were a terror to all the surrounding forests. - They were deadly foes of their kindred the Hurons, who dwelt on the lake - which bears their name, and were allies of Algonquin bands on the Ottawa. - All alike were tillers of the soil, living at ease when compared with the - famished Algonquins of the Lower St. Lawrence. - </p> - <p> - By joining these Hurons and Algonquins against their Iroquois enemies, - Champlain might make himself the indispensable ally and leader of the - tribes of Canada, and at the same time fight his way to discovery in - regions which otherwise were barred against him. From first to last it was - the policy of France in America to mingle in Indian politics, hold the - balance of power between adverse tribes, and envelop in the network of her - power and diplomacy the remotest hordes of the wilderness. Of this policy - the Father of New France may perhaps be held to have set a rash and - premature example. Yet while he was apparently following the dictates of - his own adventurous spirit, it became evident, a few years later, that - under his thirst for discovery and spirit of knight-errantry lay a - consistent and deliberate purpose. That it had already assumed a definite - shape is not likely; but his after course makes it plain that, in - embroiling himself and his colony with the most formidable savages on the - continent, he was by no means acting so recklessly as at first sight would - appear. - </p> - <p> - <a name="link2HCH0020" id="link2HCH0020"> - <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> - </p> - <div style="height: 4em;"> - <br /><br /><br /><br /> - </div> - <h2> - CHAPTER X. - </h2> - <h3> - 1609. - </h3> - <p> - LAKE CHAMPLAIN. - </p> - <p> - It was past the middle of June, and the expected warriors from the upper - country had not come,—a delay which seems to have given Champlain - little concern, for, without waiting longer, he set out with no better - allies than a band of Montagnais. But, as he moved up the St. Lawrence, he - saw, thickly clustered in the bordering forest, the lodges of an Indian - camp, and, landing, found his Huron and Algonquin allies. Few of them had - ever seen a white man, and they surrounded the steel-clad strangers in - speechless wonder. Champlain asked for their chief, and the staring throng - moved with him towards a lodge where sat, not one chief, but two; for each - band had its own. There were feasting, smoking, and speeches; and, the - needful ceremony over, all descended together to Quebec; for the strangers - were bent on seeing those wonders of architecture, the fame of which had - pierced the recesses of their forests. - </p> - <p> - On their arrival, they feasted their eyes and glutted their appetites; - yelped consternation at the sharp explosions of the arquebuse and the roar - of the cannon; pitched their camps, and bedecked themselves for their - war-dance. In the still night, their fire glared against the black and - jagged cliff, and the fierce red light fell on tawny limbs convulsed with - frenzied gestures and ferocious stampings on contorted visages, hideous - with paint; on brandished weapons, stone war-clubs, stone hatchets, and - stone-pointed lances; while the drum kept up its hollow boom, and the air - was split with mingled yells. - </p> - <p> - The war-feast followed, and then all embarked together. Champlain was in a - small shallop, carrying, besides himself, eleven men of Pontgrave's party, - including his son-in-law Marais and the pilot La Routte. They were armed - with the arquebuse,—a matchlock or firelock somewhat like the modern - carbine, and from its shortness not ill suited for use in the forest. On - the twenty-eighth of June they spread their sails and held their course - against the current, while around them the river was alive with canoes, - and hundreds of naked arms plied the paddle with a steady, measured sweep. - They crossed the Lake of St. Peter, threaded the devious channels among - its many islands, and reached at last the mouth of the Riviere des - Iroquois, since called the Richelien, or the St. John. Here, probably on - the site of the town of Sorel, the leisurely warriors encamped for two - days, hunted, fished, and took their ease, regaling their allies with - venison and wildfowl. They quarrelled, too; three fourths of their number - seceded, took to their canoes in dudgeon, and paddled towards their homes, - while the rest pursued their course up the broad and placid stream. - </p> - <p> - Walls of verdure stretched on left and right. Now, aloft in the lonely air - rose the cliffs of Belceil, and now, before them, framed in circling - forests, the Basin of Chambly spread its tranquil mirror, glittering in - the sun. The shallop outsailed the canoes. Champlain, leaving his allies - behind, crossed the basin and tried to pursue his course; but, as he - listened in the stillness, the unwelcome noise of rapids reached his ear, - and, by glimpses through the dark foliage of the Islets of St. John he - could see the gleam of snowy foam and the flash of hurrying waters. - Leaving the boat by the shore in charge of four men, he went with Marais, - La Routte, and five others, to explore the wild before him. They pushed - their way through the damps and shadows of the wood, through thickets and - tangled vines, over mossy rocks and mouldering logs. Still the hoarse - surging of the rapids followed them; and when, parting the screen of - foliage, they looked out upon the river, they saw it thick set with rocks - where, plunging over ledges, gurgling under drift-logs, darting along - clefts, and boiling in chasms, the angry waters filled the solitude with - monotonous ravings. - </p> - <p> - Champlain retraced his steps. He had learned the value of an Indian's - word. His allies had promised him that his boat could pass unobstructed - throughout the whole journey. "It afflicted me," he says, "and troubled me - exceedingly to be obliged to return without having seen so great a lake, - full of fair islands and bordered with the fine countries which they had - described to me." - </p> - <p> - When he reached the boat, he found the whole savage crew gathered at the - spot. He mildly rebuked their bad faith, but added, that, though they had - deceived him, he, as far as might be, would fulfil his pledge. To this - end, he directed Marais, with the boat and the greater part of the men, to - return to Quebec, while he, with two who offered to follow him, should - proceed in the Indian canoes. - </p> - <p> - The warriors lifted their canoes from the water, and bore them on their - shoulders half a league through the forest to the smoother stream above. - Here the chiefs made a muster of their forces, counting twenty-four canoes - and sixty warriors. All embarked again, and advanced once more, by marsh, - meadow, forest, and scattered islands,—then full of game, for it was - an uninhabited land, the war-path and battleground of hostile tribes. The - warriors observed a certain system in their advance. Some were in front as - a vanguard; others formed the main body; while an equal number were in the - forests on the flanks and rear, hunting for the subsistence of the whole; - for, though they had a provision of parched maize pounded into meal, they - kept it for use when, from the vicinity of the enemy, hunting should - become impossible. - </p> - <p> - Late in the day they landed and drew up their canoes, ranging them - closely, side by side. Some stripped sheets of bark, to cover their camp - sheds; others gathered wood, the forest being full of dead, dry trees; - others felled the living trees, for a barricade. They seem to have had - steel axes, obtained by barter from the French; for in less than two hours - they had made a strong defensive work, in the form of a half-circle, open - on the river side, where their canoes lay on the strand, and large enough - to enclose all their huts and sheds. <a href="#linknote-28" - name="linknoteref-28" id="linknoteref-28">28</a> Some of their number had - gone forward as scouts, and, returning, reported no signs of an enemy. - This was the extent of their precaution, for they placed no guard, but - all, in full security, stretched themselves to sleep,—a vicious - custom from which the lazy warrior of the forest rarely departs. - </p> - <p> - They had not forgotten, however, to consult their oracle. The medicine-man - pitched his magic lodge in the woods, formed of a small stack of poles, - planted in a circle and brought together at the tops like stacked muskets. - Over these he placed the filthy deer-skins which served him for a robe, - and, creeping in at a narrow opening, hid himself from view. Crouched in a - ball upon the earth, he invoked the spirits in mumbling inarticulate - tones; while his naked auditory, squatted on the ground like apes, - listened in wonder and awe. Suddenly, the lodge moved, rocking with - violence to and fro,—by the power of the spirits, as the Indians - thought, while Champlain could plainly see the tawny fist of the - medicine-man shaking the poles. They begged him to keep a watchful eye on - the peak of the lodge, whence fire and smoke would presently issue; but - with the best efforts of his vision, he discovered none. Meanwhile the - medicine-man was seized with such convulsions, that, when his divination - was over, his naked body streamed with perspiration. In loud, clear tones, - and in an unknown tongue, he invoked the spirit, who was understood to be - present in the form of a stone, and whose feeble and squeaking accents - were heard at intervals, like the wail of a young puppy. - </p> - <p> - In this manner they consulted the spirit—as Champlain thinks, the - Devil—at all their camps. His replies, for the most part, seem to - have given them great content; yet they took other measures, of which the - military advantages were less questionable. The principal chief gathered - bundles of sticks, and, without wasting his breath, stuck them in the - earth in a certain order, calling each by the name of some warrior, a few - taller than the rest representing the subordinate chiefs. Thus was - indicated the position which each was to hold in the expected battle. All - gathered round and attentively studied the sticks, ranged like a child's - wooden soldiers, or the pieces on a chessboard; then, with no further - instruction, they formed their ranks, broke them, and reformed them again - and again with excellent alacrity and skill. - </p> - <p> - Again the canoes advanced, the river widening as they went. Great islands - appeared, leagues in extent,—Isle a la Motte, Long Island, Grande - Isle; channels where ships might float and broad reaches of water - stretched between them, and Champlain entered the lake which preserves his - name to posterity. Cumberland Head was passed, and from the opening of the - great channel between Grande Isle and the main he could look forth on the - wilderness sea. Edged with woods, the tranquil flood spread southward - beyond the sight. Far on the left rose the forest ridges of the Green - Mountains, and on the right the Adirondacks,—haunts in these later - years of amateur sportsmen from counting-rooms or college halls. Then the - Iroquois made them their hunting-ground; and beyond, in the valleys of the - Mohawk, the Onondaga, and the Genesce, stretched the long line of their - five cantons and palisaded towns. - </p> - <p> - At night they encamped again. The scene is a familiar one to many a - tourist; and perhaps, standing at sunset on the peaceful strand, Champlain - saw what a roving student of this generation has seen on those same - shores, at that same hour,—the glow of the vanished sun behind the - western mountains, darkly piled in mist and shadow along the sky; near at - hand, the dead pine, mighty in decay, stretching its ragged arms athwart - the burning heaven, the crow perched on its top like an image carved in - jet; and aloft, the nighthawk, circling in his flight, and, with a strange - whirring sound, diving through the air each moment for the insects he - makes his prey. - </p> - <p> - The progress of the party was becoming dangerous. They changed their mode - of advance and moved only in the night. All day they lay close in the - depth of the forest, sleeping, lounging, smoking tobacco of their own - raising, and beguiling the hours, no doubt, with the shallow banter and - obscene jesting with which knots of Indians are wont to amuse their - leisure. At twilight they embarked again, paddling their cautious way till - the eastern sky began to redden. Their goal was the rocky promontory where - Fort Ticonderoga was long afterward built. Thence, they would pass the - outlet of Lake George, and launch their canoes again on that Como of the - wilderness, whose waters, limpid as a fountain-head, stretched far - southward between their flanking mountains. Landing at the future site of - Fort William Henry, they would carry their canoes through the forest to - the river Hudson, and, descending it, attack perhaps some outlying town of - the Mohawks. In the next century this chain of lakes and rivers became the - grand highway of savage and civilized war, linked to memories of momentous - conflicts. - </p> - <p> - The allies were spared so long a progress. On the morning of the - twenty-ninth of July, after paddling all night, they hid as usual in the - forest on the western shore, apparently between Crown Point and - Ticonderoga. The warriors stretched themselves to their slumbers, and - Champlain, after walking till nine or ten o'clock through the surrounding - woods, returned to take his repose on a pile of spruce-boughs. Sleeping, - he dreamed a dream, wherein he beheld the Iroquois drowning in the lake; - and, trying to rescue them, he was told by his Algonquin friends that they - were good for nothing, and had better be left to their fate. For some time - past he had been beset every morning by his superstitious allies, eager to - learn about his dreams; and, to this moment, his unbroken slumbers had - failed to furnish the desired prognostics. The announcement of this - auspicious vision filled the crowd with joy, and at nightfall they - embarked, flushed with anticipated victories. - </p> - <p> - It was ten o'clock in the evening, when, near a projecting point of land, - which was probably Ticonderoga, they descried dark objects in motion on - the lake before them. These were a flotilla of Iroquois canoes, heavier - and slower than theirs, for they were made of oak bark. Each party saw the - other, and the mingled war-cries pealed over the darkened water. The - Iroquois, who were near the shore, having no stomach for an aquatic - battle, landed, and, making night hideous with their clamors, began to - barricade themselves. Champlain could see them in the woods, laboring like - beavers, hacking down trees with iron axes taken from the Canadian tribes - in war, and with stone hatchets of their own making. The allies remained - on the lake, a bowshot from the hostile barricade, their canoes made fast - together by poles lashed across. All night they danced with as much vigor - as the frailty of their vessels would permit, their throats making amends - for the enforced restraint of their limbs. It was agreed on both sides - that the fight should be deferred till daybreak; but meanwhile a commerce - of abuse, sarcasm, menace, and boasting gave unceasing exercise to the - lungs and fancy of the combatants, "much," says Champlain, "like the - besiegers and besieged in a beleaguered town." - </p> - <p> - As day approached, he and his two followers put on the light armor of the - time. Champlain wore the doublet and long hose then in vogue. Over the - doublet he buckled on a breastplate, and probably a back-piece, while his - thighs were protected by cuisses of steel, and his head by a plumed - casque. Across his shoulder hung the strap of his bandoleer, or - ammunition-box; at his side was his sword, and in his hand his arquebuse. - Such was the equipment of this ancient Indian-fighter, whose exploits date - eleven years before the landing of the Puritans at Plymouth, and sixty-six - years before King Philip's War. - </p> - <p> - Each of the three Frenchmen was in a separate canoe, and, as it grew - light, they kept themselves hidden, either by lying at the bottom, or - covering themselves with an Indian robe. The canoes approached the shore, - and all landed without opposition at some distance from the Iroquois, whom - they presently could see filing out of their barricade,-tall, strong men, - some two hundred in number, the boldest and fiercest warriors of North - America. They advanced through the forest with a steadiness which excited - the admiration of Champlain. Among them could be seen three chiefs, made - conspicuous by their tall plumes. Some bore shields of wood and hide, and - some were covered with a kind of armor made of tough twigs interlaced with - a vegetable fibre supposed by Champlain to be cotton. <a - href="#linknote-29" name="linknoteref-29" id="linknoteref-29">29</a> - </p> - <p> - The allies, growing anxious, called with loud cries for their champion, - and opened their ranks that he might pass to the front. He did so, and, - advancing before his red companions in arms, stood revealed to the gaze of - the Iroquois, who, beholding the warlike apparition in their path, stared - in mute amazement. "I looked at them," says Champlain, "and they looked at - me. When I saw them getting ready to shoot their arrows at us, I levelled - my arquebuse, which I had loaded with four balls, and aimed straight at - one of the three chiefs. The shot brought down two, and wounded another. - On this, our Indians set up such a yelling that one could not have heard a - thunder-clap, and all the while the arrows flew thick on both sides. The - Iroquois were greatly astonished and frightened to see two of their men - killed so quickly, in spite of their arrow-proof armor. As I was - reloading, one of my companions fired a shot from the woods, which so - increased their astonishment that, seeing their chiefs dead, they - abandoned the field and fled into the depth of the forest." The allies - dashed after them. Some of the Iroquois were killed, and more were taken. - Camp, canoes, provisions, all were abandoned, and many weapons flung down - in the panic flight. The victory was complete. - </p> - <p> - At night, the victors led out one of the prisoners, told him that he was - to die by fire, and ordered him to sing his death-song if he dared. Then - they began the torture, and presently scalped their victim alive, <a - href="#linknote-30" name="linknoteref-30" id="linknoteref-30">30</a> when - Champlain, sickening at the sight, begged leave to shoot him. They - refused, and he turned away in anger and disgust; on which they called him - back and told him to do as he pleased. He turned again, and a shot from - his arquebuse put the wretch out of misery. - </p> - <p> - The scene filled him with horror; but a few months later, on the Place de - la Greve at Paris, he might have witnessed tortures equally revolting and - equally vindictive, inflicted on the regicide Ravaillac by the sentence of - grave and learned judges. - </p> - <p> - The allies made a prompt retreat from the scene of their triumph. Three or - four days brought them to the mouth of the Richelien. Here they separated; - the Hurons and Algonquins made for the Ottawa, their homeward route, each - with a share of prisoners for future torments. At parting, they invited - Champlain to visit their towns and aid them again in their wars, an - invitation which this paladin of the woods failed not to accept. - </p> - <p> - The companions now remaining to him were the Montagnais. In their camp on - the Richelien, one of them dreamed that a war party of Iroquois was close - upon them; on which, in a torrent of rain, they left their huts, paddled - in dismay to the islands above the Lake of St. Peter, and hid themselves - all night in the rushes. In the morning they took heart, emerged from - their hiding-places, descended to Quebec, and went thence to Tadoussac, - whither Champlain accompanied them. Here the squaws, stark naked, swam out - to the canoes to receive the heads of the dead Iroquois, and, hanging them - from their necks, danced in triumph along the shore, One of the heads and - a pair of arms were then bestowed on Champlain,—touching memorials - of gratitude, which, however, he was by no means to keep for himself, but - to present to the King. - </p> - <p> - Thus did New France rush into collision with the redoubted warriors of the - Five Nations. Here was the beginning, and in some measure doubtless the - cause, of a long suite of murderous conflicts, bearing havoc and flame to - generations yet unborn. Champlain had invaded the tiger's den; and now, in - smothered fury, the patient savage would lie biding his day of blood. - </p> - <p> - <a name="link2HCH0021" id="link2HCH0021"> - <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> - </p> - <div style="height: 4em;"> - <br /><br /><br /><br /> - </div> - <h2> - CHAPTER XI. - </h2> - <h3> - 1610-1612. - </h3> - <p> - WAR.—TRADE.—DISCOVERY. - </p> - <p> - Champlain and Pontgrave returned to France, while Pierre Chauvin of Dieppe - held Quebec in their absence. The King was at Fontainebleau,—it was - a few months before his assassination,—and here Champlain recounted - his adventures, to the great satisfaction of the lively monarch. He gave - him also, not the head of the dead Iroquois, but a belt wrought in - embroidery of dyed quills of the Canada porcupine, together with two small - birds of scarlet plumage, and the skull of a gar-fish. - </p> - <p> - De Monts was at court, striving for a renewal of his monopoly. His efforts - failed; on which, with great spirit but little discretion, he resolved to - push his enterprise without it. Early in the spring of 1610, the ship was - ready, and Champlain and Pontgrave were on board, when a violent illness - seized the former, reducing him to the most miserable of all conflicts, - the battle of the eager spirit against the treacherous and failing flesh. - Having partially recovered, he put to sea, giddy and weak, in wretched - plight for the hard career of toil and battle which the New World offered - him. The voyage was prosperous, no other mishap occurring than that of an - ardent youth of St. Malo, who drank the health of Pontgrave with such - persistent enthusiasm that he fell overboard and was drowned. - </p> - <p> - There were ships at Tadoussac, fast loading with furs; and boats, too, - higher up the river, anticipating the trade, and draining De Monts's - resources in advance. Champlain, who was left free to fight and explore - wherever he should see fit, had provided, to use his own phrase, "two - strings to his bow." On the one hand, the Montagnais had promised to guide - him northward to Hudson's Bay; on the other, the Hurons were to show him - the Great Lakes, with the mines of copper on their shores; and to each the - same reward was promised,—to join them against the common foe, the - Iroquois. The rendezvous was at the mouth of the river Richelien. Thither - the Hurons were to descend in force, together with Algonquins of the - Ottawa; and thither Champlain now repaired, while around his boat swarmed - a multitude of Montagnais canoes, filled with warriors whose lank hair - streamed loose in the wind. - </p> - <p> - There is an island in the St. Lawrence near the mouth of the Richelien. On - the nineteenth of June it was swarming with busy and clamorous savages, - Champlain's Montagnais allies, cutting down the trees and clearing the - ground for a dance and a feast; for they were hourly expecting the - Algonquin warriors, and were eager to welcome them with befitting honors. - But suddenly, far out on the river, they saw an advancing canoe. Now on - this side, now on that, the flashing paddles urged it forward as if death - were on its track; and as it drew near, the Indians on board cried out - that the Algonquins were in the forest, a league distant, engaged with a - hundred warriors of the Iroquois, who, outnumbered, were fighting savagely - within a barricade of trees. The air was split with shrill outcries. The - Montagnais snatched their weapons,—shields, bows, arrows, war-clubs, - sword-blades made fast to poles,—and ran headlong to their canoes, - impeding each other in their haste, screeching to Champlain to follow, and - invoking with no less vehemence the aid of certain fur-traders, just - arrived in four boats from below. These, as it was not their cue to fight, - lent them a deaf ear; on which, in disgust and scorn, they paddled off, - calling to the recusants that they were women, fit for nothing but to make - war on beaver-skins. - </p> - <p> - Champlain and four of his men were in the canoes. They shot across the - intervening water, and, as their prows grated on the pebbles, each warrior - flung down his paddle, snatched his weapons, and ran into the woods. The - five Frenchmen followed, striving vainly to keep pace with the naked, - light-limbed rabble, bounding like shadows through the forest. They - quickly disappeared. Even their shrill cries grew faint, till Champlain - and his men, discomforted and vexed, found themselves deserted in the - midst of a swamp. The day was sultry, the forest air heavy, close, and - filled with hosts of mosquitoes, "so thick," says the chief sufferer, - "that we could scarcely draw breath, and it was wonderful how cruelly they - persecuted us." Through black mud, spongy moss, water knee-deep, over - fallen trees, among slimy logs and entangling roots, tripped by vines, - lashed by recoiling boughs, panting under their steel head-pieces and - heavy corselets, the Frenchmen struggled on, bewildered and indignant. At - length they descried two Indians running in the distance, and shouted to - them in desperation, that, if they wanted their aid, they must guide them - to the enemy. - </p> - <p> - At length they could hear the yells of the combatants; there was light in - the forest before them, and they issued into a partial clearing made by - the Iroquois axemen near the river. Champlain saw their barricade. Trees - were piled into a circular breastwork, trunks, boughs, and matted foliage - forming a strong defence, within which the Iroquois stood savagely at bay. - Around them flocked the allies, half hidden in the edges of the forest, - like hounds around a wild boar, eager, clamorous, yet afraid to rush in. - They had attacked, and had met a bloody rebuff. All their hope was now in - the French; and when they saw them, a yell arose from hundreds of throats - that outdid the wilderness voices whence its tones were borrowed,—the - whoop of the homed owl, the scream of the cougar, the howl of starved - wolves on a winter night. A fierce response pealed from the desperate band - within; and, amid a storm of arrows from both sides, the Frenchmen threw - themselves into the fray, firing at random through the fence of trunks, - boughs, and drooping leaves, with which the Iroquois had encircled - themselves. Champlain felt a stone-headed arrow splitting his ear and - tearing through the muscles of his neck, he drew it out, and, the moment - after, did a similar office for one of his men. But the Iroquois had not - recovered from their first terror at the arquebuse; and when the - mysterious and terrible assailants, clad in steel and armed with - thunder-bolts, ran up to the barricade, thrust their pieces through the - openings, and shot death among the crowd within, they could not control - their fright, but with every report threw themselves flat on the ground. - Animated with unwonted valor, the allies, covered by their large shields, - began to drag out the felled trees of the barricade, while others, under - Champlain's direction, gathered at the edge of the forest, preparing to - close the affair with a final rush. New actors soon appeared on the scene. - These were a boat's crew of the fur-traders under a young man of St. Malo, - one Des Prairies, who, when he heard the firing, could not resist the - impulse to join the fight. On seeing them, Champlain checked the assault, - in order, as he says, that the new-comers might have their share in the - sport. The traders opened fire, with great zest and no less execution; - while the Iroquois, now wild with terror, leaped and writhed to dodge the - shot which tore through their frail armor of twigs. Champlain gave the - signal; the crowd ran to the barricade, dragged down the boughs or - clambered over them, and bore themselves, in his own words, "so well and - manfully," that, though scratched and torn by the sharp points, they - quickly forced an entrance. The French ceased their fire, and, followed by - a smaller body of Indians, scaled the barricade on the farther side. Now, - amid howlings, shouts, and screeches, the work was finished. Some of the - Iroquois were cut down as they stood, hewing with their war-clubs, and - foaming like slaughtered tigers; some climbed the barrier and were killed - by the furious crowd without; some were drowned in the river; while - fifteen, the only survivors, were made prisoners. "By the grace of God," - writes Champlain, "behold the battle won!" Drunk with ferocious ecstasy, - the conquerors scalped the dead and gathered fagots for the living; while - some of the fur-traders, too late to bear part in the fight, robbed the - carcasses of their blood-bedrenched robes of beaver-skin amid the derision - of the surrounding Indians. - </p> - <p> - That night, the torture fires blazed along the shore. Champlain saved one - prisoner from their clutches, but nothing could save the rest. One body - was quartered and eaten. <a href="#linknote-31" name="linknoteref-31" - id="linknoteref-31">31</a> "As for the rest of the prisoners," says - Champlain, "they were kept to be put to death by the women and girls, who - in this respect are no less inhuman than the men, and, indeed, much more - so; for by their subtlety they invent more cruel tortures, and take - pleasure in it." - </p> - <p> - On the next day, a large band of Hurons appeared at the rendezvous, - greatly vexed that they had come too late. The shores were thickly studded - with Indian huts, and the woods were full of them. Here were warriors of - three designations, including many subordinate tribes, and representing - three grades of savage society,—the Hurons, the Algonquins of the - Ottawa, and the Montagnais; afterwards styled by a Franciscan friar, than - whom few men better knew them, the nobles, the burghers, and the peasantry - and paupers of the forest. Many of them, from the remote interior, had - never before seen a white man; and, wrapped like statues in their robes, - they stood gazing on the French with a fixed stare of wild and wondering - eyes. - </p> - <p> - Judged by the standard of Indian war, a heavy blow had been struck on the - common enemy. Here were hundreds of assembled warriors; yet none thought - of following up their success. Elated with unexpected fortune, they danced - and sang; then loaded their canoes, hung their scalps on poles, broke up - their camps, and set out triumphant for their homes. Champlain had fought - their battles, and now might claim, on their part, guidance and escort to - the distant interior. Why he did not do so is scarcely apparent. There - were cares, it seems, connected with the very life of his puny colony, - which demanded his return to France. Nor were his anxieties lessened by - the arrival of a ship from his native town of Brouage, with tidings of the - King's assassination. Here was a death-blow to all that had remained of De - Monts's credit at court; while that unfortunate nobleman, like his old - associate, Pontrincourt, was moving with swift strides toward financial - ruin. With the revocation of his monopoly, fur-traders had swarmed to the - St. Lawrence. Tadoussac was full of them, and for that year the trade was - spoiled. Far from aiding to support a burdensome enterprise of - colonization, it was in itself an occasion of heavy loss. - </p> - <p> - Champlain bade farewell to his garden at Quebec, where maize, wheat, rye, - and barley, with vegetables of all kinds, and a small vineyard of native - grapes,—for he was a zealous horticulturist,—held forth a - promise which he was not to see fulfilled. He left one Du Parc in command, - with sixteen men, and, sailing on the eighth of August, arrived at - Honfleur with no worse accident than that of running over a sleeping whale - near the Grand Bank. - </p> - <p> - With the opening spring he was afloat again. Perils awaited him worse than - those of Iroquois tomahawks; for, approaching Newfoundland, the ship was - entangled for days among drifting fields and bergs of ice. Escaping at - length, she arrived at Tadoussac on the thirteenth of May, 1611. She had - anticipated the spring. Forests and mountains, far and near, all were - white with snow. A principal object with Champlain was to establish such - relations with the great Indian communities of the interior as to secure - to De Monts and his associates the advantage of trade with them; and to - this end he now repaired to Montreal, a position in the gateway, as it - were, of their yearly descents of trade or war. On arriving, he began to - survey the ground for the site of a permanent post. - </p> - <p> - A few days convinced him, that, under the present system, all his efforts - would be vain. Wild reports of the wonders of New France had gone abroad, - and a crowd of hungry adventurers had hastened to the land of promise, - eager to grow rich, they scarcely knew how, and soon to return disgusted. - A fleet of boats and small vessels followed in Champlain's wake. Within a - few days, thirteen of them arrived at Montreal, and more soon appeared. He - was to break the ground; others would reap the harvest. Travel, discovery, - and battle, all must inure to the profit, not of the colony, but of a crew - of greedy traders. - </p> - <p> - Champlain, however, chose the site and cleared the ground for his intended - post. It was immediately above a small stream, now running under arches of - masonry, and entering the St. Lawrence at Point Callieres, within the - modern city. He called it Place Royale; and here, on the margin of the - river, he built a wall of bricks made on the spot, in order to measure the - destructive effects of the "ice-shove" in the spring. - </p> - <p> - Now, down the surges of St. Louis, where the mighty floods of the St. - Lawrence, contracted to a narrow throat, roll in fury among their sunken - rocks,—here, through foam and spray and the roar of the angry - torrent, a fleet of birch canoes came dancing like dry leaves on the froth - of some riotous brook. They bore a band of Hurons first at the rendezvous. - As they drew near the landing, all the fur-traders' boats blazed out a - clattering fusillade, which was designed to bid them welcome, but in fact - terrified many of them to such a degree that they scarcely dared to come - ashore. Nor were they reassured by the bearing of the disorderly crowd, - who, in jealous competition for their beaver-skins, left them not a - moment's peace, and outraged all their notions of decorum. More soon - appeared, till hundreds of warriors were encamped along the shore, all - restless, suspicious, and alarmed. Late one night they awakened Champlain. - On going with them to their camp, he found chiefs and warriors in solemn - conclave around the glimmering firelight. Though they were fearful of the - rest, their trust in him was boundless. "Come to our country, buy our - beaver, build a fort, teach us the true faith, do what you will, but do - not bring this crowd with you." The idea had seized them that these - lawless bands of rival traders, all well armed, meant to plunder and kill - them. Champlain assured them of safety, and the whole night was consumed - in friendly colloquy. Soon afterward, however, the camp broke up, and the - uneasy warriors removed to the borders of the Lake of St. Louis, placing - the rapids betwixt themselves and the objects of their alarm. Here - Champlain visited them, and hence these intrepid canoe-men, kneeling in - their birchen egg-shells, carried him homeward down the rapids, somewhat, - as he admits, to the discomposure of his nerves. <a href="#linknote-32" - name="linknoteref-32" id="linknoteref-32">32</a> - </p> - <p> - The great gathering dispersed: the traders descended to Tadoussac, and - Champlain to Quebec; while the Indians went, some to their homes, some to - fight the Iroquois. A few months later, Champlain was in close conference - with De Monts at Pons, a place near Rochelle, of which the latter was - governor. The last two years had made it apparent, that, to keep the - colony alive and maintain a basis for those discoveries on which his heart - was bent, was impossible without a change of system. De Monts, engrossed - with the cares of his government, placed all in the hands of his - associate; and Champlain, fully empowered to act as he should judge - expedient, set out for Paris. On the way, Fortune, at one stroke, wellnigh - crushed him and New France together; for his horse fell on him, and he - narrowly escaped with life. When he was partially recovered, he resumed - his journey, pondering on means of rescue for the fading colony. A - powerful protector must be had,—a great name to shield the - enterprise from assaults and intrigues of jealous rival interests. On - reaching Paris he addressed himself to a prince of the blood, Charles de - Bourbon, Comte de Soissons; described New France, its resources, and its - boundless extent; urged the need of unfolding a mystery pregnant perhaps - with results of the deepest moment; laid before him maps and memoirs, and - begged him to become the guardian of this new world. The royal consent - being obtained, the Comte de Soissons became Lieutenant-General for the - King in New France, with vice-regal powers. These, in turn, he conferred - upon Champlain, making him his lieutenant, with full control over the - trade in furs at and above Quebec, and with power to associate with - himself such persons as he saw fit, to aid in the exploration and - settlement of the country. - </p> - <p> - Scarcely was the commission drawn when the Comte de Soissons, attacked - with fever, died,—to the joy of the Breton and Norman traders, whose - jubilation, however, found a speedy end. Henri de Bourbon, Prince de - Conde, first prince of the blood, assumed the vacant protectorship. He was - grandson of the gay and gallant Conde of the civil wars, was father of the - great Conde, the youthful victor of Rocroy, and was husband of Charlotte - de Moutmorency, whose blond beauties had fired the inflammable heart of - Henry the Fourth. To the unspeakable wrath of that keen lover, the prudent - Conde fled with his bride, first to Brussels, and then to Italy; nor did - he return to France till the regicide's knife had put his jealous fears to - rest. After his return, he began to intrigue against the court. He was a - man of common abilities, greedy of money and power, and scarcely seeking - even the decency of a pretext to cover his mean ambition. His chief honor—an - honor somewhat equivocal—is, as Voltaire observes, to have been - father of the great Conde. Busy with his intrigues, he cared little for - colonies and discoveries; and his rank and power were his sole - qualifications for his new post. - </p> - <p> - In Champlain alone was the life of New France. By instinct and temperament - he was more impelled to the adventurous toils of exploration than to the - duller task of building colonies. The profits of trade had value in his - eyes only as means to these ends, and settlements were important chiefly - as a base of discovery. Two great objects eclipsed all others,—to - find a route to the Indies, and to bring the heathen tribes into the - embraces of the Church, since, while he cared little for their bodies, his - solicitude for their souls knew no bounds. - </p> - <p> - It was no part of his plan to establish an odious monopoly. He sought - rather to enlist the rival traders in his cause; and he now, in - concurrence with Du Monts, invited them to become sharers in the traffic, - under certain regulations, and on condition of aiding in the establishment - and support of the colony. The merchants of St. Malo and Rouen accepted - the terms, and became members of the new company; but the intractable - heretics of Rochelle, refractory in commerce as in religion, kept aloof, - and preferred the chances of an illicit trade. The prospects of New France - were far from flattering; for little could be hoped from this unwilling - league of selfish traders, each jealous of the rest. They gave the Prince - of Conde large gratuities to secure his countenance and support. The - hungry viceroy took them, and with these emoluments his interest in the - colony ended. - </p> - <p> - <a name="link2HCH0022" id="link2HCH0022"> - <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> - </p> - <div style="height: 4em;"> - <br /><br /><br /><br /> - </div> - <h2> - CHAPTER XII. - </h2> - <h3> - 1612, 1613. - </h3> - <p> - THE IMPOSTOR VIGNAU. - </p> - <p> - The arrangements just indicated were a work of time. In the summer of - 1612, Champlain was forced to forego his yearly voyage to New France; nor, - even in the following spring, were his labors finished and the rival - interests brought to harmony. Meanwhile, incidents occurred destined to - have no small influence on his movements. Three years before, after his - second fight with the Iroquois, a young man of his company had boldly - volunteered to join the Indians on their homeward journey, and winter - among them. Champlain gladly assented, and in the following summer the - adventurer returned. Another young man, one Nicolas de Vignan, next - offered himself; and he also, embarking in the Algonquin canoes, passed up - the Ottawa, and was seen no more for a twelvemonth. In 1612 he reappeared - in Paris, bringing a tale of wonders; for, says Champlain, "he was the - most impudent liar that has been seen for many a day." He averred that at - the sources of the Ottawa he had found a great lake; that he had crossed - it, and discovered a river flowing northward; that he had descended this - river, and reached the shores of the sea; that here he had seen the wreck - of an English ship, whose crew, escaping to land, had been killed by the - Indians; and that this sea was distant from Montreal only seventeen days - by canoe. The clearness, consistency, and apparent simplicity of his story - deceived Champlain, who had heard of a voyage of the English to the - northern seas, coupled with rumors of wreck and disaster, and was thus - confirmed in his belief of Vignau's honesty. The Marechal de Brissac, the - President Jeannin, and other persons of eminence about the court, greatly - interested by these dexterous fabrications, urged Champlain to follow up - without delay a discovery which promised results so important; while he, - with the Pacific, Japan, China, the Spice Islands, and India stretching in - flattering vista before his fancy, entered with eagerness on the chase of - this illusion. Early in the spring of 1613 the unwearied voyager crossed - the Atlantic, and sailed up the St. Lawrence. On Monday, the - twenty-seventh of May, he left the island of St. Helen, opposite Montreal, - with four Frenchmen, one of whom was Nicolas de Vignau, and one Indian, in - two small canoes. They passed the swift current at St. Ann's, crossed the - Lake of Two Mountains, and advanced up the Ottawa till the rapids of - Carillon and the Long Saut checked their course. So dense and tangled was - the forest, that they were forced to remain in the bed of the river, - trailing their canoes along the bank with cords, or pushing them by main - force up the current. Champlain's foot slipped; he fell in the rapids, two - boulders, against which he braced himself, saving him from being swept - down, while the cord of the canoe, twisted round his hand, nearly severed - it. At length they reached smoother water, and presently met fifteen - canoes of friendly Indians. Champlain gave them the most awkward of his - Frenchmen and took one of their number in return,—an exchange - greatly to his profit. - </p> - <p> - All day they plied their paddles, and when night came they made their - camp-fire in the forest. He who now, when two centuries and a half are - passed, would see the evening bivouac of Champlain, has but to encamp, - with Indian guides, on the upper waters of this same Ottawa, or on the - borders of some lonely river of New Brunswick or of Maine. - </p> - <p> - Day dawned. The east glowed with tranquil fire, that pierced with eyes of - flame the fir-trees whose jagged tops stood drawn in black against the - burning heaven. Beneath, the glossy river slept in shadow, or spread far - and wide in sheets of burnished bronze; and the white moon, paling in the - face of day, hung like a disk of silver in the western sky. Now a fervid - light touched the dead top of the hemlock, and creeping downward bathed - the mossy beard of the patriarchal cedar, unstirred in the breathless air; - now a fiercer spark beamed from the east; and now, half risen on the - sight, a dome of crimson fire, the sun blazed with floods of radiance - across the awakened wilderness. - </p> - <p> - The canoes were launched again, and the voyagers held their course. Soon - the still surface was flecked with spots of foam; islets of froth floated - by, tokens of some great convulsion. Then, on their left, the falling - curtain of the Rideau shone like silver betwixt its bordering woods, and - in front, white as a snowdrift, the cataracts of the Chaudiere barred - their way. They saw the unbridled river careering down its sheeted rocks, - foaming in unfathomed chasms, wearying the solitude with the hoarse outcry - of its agony and rage. - </p> - <p> - On the brink of the rocky basin where the plunging torrent boiled like a - caldron, and puffs of spray sprang out from its concussion like smoke from - the throat of a cannon, Champlain's two Indians took their stand, and, - with a loud invocation, threw tobacco into the foam,—an offering to - the local spirit, the Manitou of the cataract. - </p> - <p> - They shouldered their canoes over the rocks, and through the woods; then - launched them again, and, with toil and struggle, made their amphibious - way, pushing dragging, lifting, paddling, shoving with poles; till, when - the evening sun poured its level rays across the quiet Lake of the - Chaudiere, they landed, and made their camp on the verge of a woody - island. - </p> - <p> - Day by day brought a renewal of their toils. Hour by hour, they moved - prosperously up the long windings of the solitary stream; then, in quick - succession, rapid followed rapid, till the bed of the Ottawa seemed a - slope of foam. Now, like a wall bristling at the top with woody islets, - the Falls of the Chats faced them with the sheer plunge of their sixteen - cataracts; now they glided beneath overhanging cliffs, where, seeing but - unseen, the crouched wildcat eyed them from the thicket; now through the - maze of water-girded rocks, which the white cedar and the spruce clasped - with serpent-like roots, or among islands where old hemlocks darkened the - water with deep green shadow. Here, too, the rock-maple reared its verdant - masses, the beech its glistening leaves and clean, smooth stem, and - behind, stiff and sombre, rose the balsam-fir. Here in the tortuous - channels the muskrat swam and plunged, and the splashing wild duck dived - beneath the alders or among the red and matted roots of thirsty water - willows. Aloft, the white-pine towered above a sea of verdure; old - fir-trees, hoary and grim, shaggy with pendent mosses, leaned above the - stream, and beneath, dead and submerged, some fallen oak thrust from the - current its bare, bleached limbs, like the skeleton of a drowned giant. In - the weedy cove stood the moose, neck-deep in water to escape the flies, - wading shoreward, with glistening sides, as the canoes drew near, shaking - his broad antlers and writhing his hideous nostril, as with clumsy trot he - vanished in the woods. - </p> - <p> - In these ancient wilds, to whose ever verdant antiquity the pyramids are - young and Nineveh a mushroom of yesterday; where the sage wanderer of the - Odyssey, could he have urged his pilgrimage so far, would have surveyed - the same grand and stern monotony, the same dark sweep of melancholy - woods;—here, while New England was a solitude, and the settlers of - Virginia scarcely dared venture inland beyond the sound of a cannon-shot, - Champlain was planting on shores and islands the emblems of his faith. Of - the pioneers of the North American forests, his name stands foremost on - the list. It was he who struck the deepest and boldest strokes into the - heart of their pristine barbarism. At Chantilly, at Fontainebleau, Paris, - in the cabinets of princes and of royalty itself, mingling with the proud - vanities of the court; then lost from sight in the depths of Canada, the - companion of savages, sharer of their toils, privations, and battles, more - hardy, patient, and bold than they;—such, for successive years, were - the alternations of this man's life. - </p> - <p> - To follow on his trail once more. His Indians said that the rapids of the - river above were impassable. Nicolas de Vignan affirmed the contrary; but, - from the first, Vignau had been found always in the wrong. His aim seems - to have been to involve his leader in difficulties, and disgust him with a - journey which must soon result in exposing the imposture which had - occasioned it. Champlain took counsel of the Indians. The party left the - river, and entered the forest. - </p> - <p> - "We had a hard march," says Champlain. "I carried for my share of the - luggage three arquebuses, three paddles, my overcoat, and a few - bagatelles. My men carried a little more than I did, and suffered more - from the mosquitoes than from their loads. After we had passed four small - ponds and advanced two leagues and a half, we were so tired that we could - go no farther, having eaten nothing but a little roasted fish for nearly - twenty-four hours. So we stopped in a pleasant place enough by the edge of - a pond, and lighted a fire to drive off the mosquitoes, which plagued us - beyond all description; and at the same time we set our nets to catch a - few fish." - </p> - <p> - On the next day they fared still worse, for their way was through a pine - forest where a tornado had passed, tearing up the trees and piling them - one upon another in a vast "windfall," where boughs, roots, and trunks - were mixed in confusion. Sometimes they climbed over and sometimes crawled - through these formidable barricades, till, after an exhausting march, they - reached the banks of Muskrat Lake, by the edge of which was an Indian - settlement. - </p> - <p> - This neighborhood was the seat of the principal Indian population of the - river, and, as the canoes advanced, unwonted signs of human life could be - seen on the borders of the lake. Here was a rough clearing. The trees had - been burned; there was a rude and desolate gap in the sombre green of the - pine forest. Dead trunks, blasted and black with fire, stood grimly - upright amid the charred stumps and prostrate bodies of comrades half - consumed. In the intervening spaces, the soil had been feebly scratched - with hoes of wood or bone, and a crop of maize was growing, now some four - inches high. The dwellings of these slovenly farmers, framed of poles - covered with sheets of bark, were scattered here and there, singly or in - groups, while their tenants were running to the shore in amazement. The - chief, Nibachis, offered the calumet, then harangued the crowd: "These - white men must have fallen from the clouds. How else could they have - reached us through the woods and rapids which even we find it hard to - pass? The French chief can do anything. All that we have heard of him must - he true." And they hastened to regale the hungry visitors with a repast of - fish. - </p> - <p> - Champlain asked for guidance to the settlements above. It was readily - granted. Escorted by his friendly hosts, he advanced beyond the foot of - Muskrat Lake, and, landing, saw the unaccustomed sight of pathways through - the forest. They led to the clearings and cabins of a chief named - Tessonat, who, amazed at the apparition of the white strangers, exclaimed - that he must be in a dream. Next, the voyagers crossed to the neighboring - island, then deeply wooded with pine, elm, and oak. Here were more - desolate clearings, more rude cornfields and bark-built cabins. Here, too, - was a cemetery, which excited the wonder of Champlain, for the dead were - better cared for than the living. Each grave was covered with a double row - of pieces of wood, inclined like a roof till they crossed at the ridge, a - long which was laid a thick tablet of wood, meant apparently either to - bind the whole together or protect it from rain. At one end stood an - upright tablet, or flattened post, rudely carved with an intended - representation of the features of the deceased. If a chief, the head was - adorned with a plume. If a warrior, there were figures near it of a - shield, a lance, a war-club, and a bow and arrows; if a boy, of a small - bow and one arrow; and if a woman or a girl, of a kettle, an earthen pot, - a wooden spoon, and a paddle. The whole was decorated with red and yellow - paint; and beneath slept the departed, wrapped in a robe of skins, his - earthly treasures about him, ready for use in the land of souls. - </p> - <p> - Tessouat was to give a tabagie, or solemn feast, in honor of Champlain, - and the chiefs and elders of the island were invited. Runners were sent to - summon the guests from neighboring hamlets; and, on the morrow, Tessonat's - squaws swept his cabin for the festivity. Then Champlain and his Frenchmen - were seated on skins in the place of honor, and the naked guests appeared - in quick succession, each with his wooden dish and spoon, and each - ejaculating his guttural salute as he stooped at the low door. The - spacious cabin was full. The congregated wisdom and prowess of the nation - sat expectant on the bare earth. Each long, bare arm thrust forth its dish - in turn as the host served out the banquet, in which, as courtesy - enjoined, he himself was to have no share. First, a mess of pounded maize, - in which were boiled, without salt, morsels of fish and dark scraps of - meat; then, fish and flesh broiled on the embers, with a kettle of cold - water from the river. Champlain, in wise distrust of Ottawa cookery, - confined himself to the simpler and less doubtful viands. A few minutes, - and all alike had vanished. The kettles were empty. Then pipes were filled - and touched with fire brought in by the squaws, while the young men who - had stood thronged about the entrance now modestly withdrew, and the door - was closed for counsel. - </p> - <p> - First, the pipes were passed to Champlain. Then, for full half an hour, - the assembly smoked in silence. At length, when the fitting time was come, - he addressed them in a speech in which he declared, that, moved by - affection for them, he visited their country to see its richness and its - beauty, and to aid them in their wars; and he now begged them to furnish - him with four canoes and eight men, to convey him to the country of the - Nipissings, a tribe dwelling northward on the lake which bears their name. - </p> - <p> - His audience looked grave, for they were but cold and jealous friends of - the Nipissings. For a time they discoursed in murmuring tones among - themselves, all smoking meanwhile with redoubled vigor. Then Tessouat, - chief of these forest republicans, rose and spoke in behalf of all:—"We - always knew you for our best friend among the Frenchmen. We love you like - our own children. But why did you break your word with us last year when - we all went down to meet you at Montreal, to give you presents and go with - you to war? You were not there, but other Frenchmen were there who abused - us. We will never go again. As for the four canoes, you shall have them if - you insist upon it; but it grieves us to think of the hardships you must - endure. The Nipissings have weak hearts. They are good for nothing in war, - but they kill us with charms, and they poison us. Therefore we are on bad - terms with them. They will kill you, too." - </p> - <p> - Such was the pith of Tessouat's discourse, and at each clause the conclave - responded in unison with an approving grunt. - </p> - <p> - Champlain urged his petition; sought to relieve their tender scruples in - his behalf; assured them that he was charm-proof, and that he feared no - hardships. At length he gained his point. The canoes and the men were - promised, and, seeing himself as he thought on the highway to his phantom - Northern Sea, he left his entertainers to their pipes, and with a light - heart issued from the close and smoky den to breathe the fresh air of the - afternoon. He visited the Indian fields, with their young crops of - pumpkins, beans, and French peas,—the last a novelty obtained from - the traders. Here, Thomas, the interpreter, soon joined him with a - countenance of ill news. In the absence of Champlain, the assembly had - reconsidered their assent. The canoes were denied. - </p> - <p> - With a troubled mind he hastened again to the hall of council, and - addressed the naked senate in terms better suited to his exigencies than - to their dignity: - </p> - <p> - "I thought you were men; I thought you would hold fast to your word: but I - find you children, without truth. You call yourselves my friends, yet you - break faith with me. Still I would not incommode you; and if you cannot - give me four canoes, two will Serve." - </p> - <p> - The burden of the reply was, rapids, rocks, cataracts, and the wickedness - of the Nipissings. "We will not give you the canoes, because we are afraid - of losing you," they said. - </p> - <p> - "This young man," rejoined Champlain, pointing to Vignau, who sat by his - side, "has been to their country, and did not find the road or the people - so bad as you have said." - </p> - <p> - "Nicolas," demanded Tessouat, "did you say that you had been to the - Nipissings?" - </p> - <p> - The impostor sat mute for a time, and then replied, "Yes, I have been - there." - </p> - <p> - Hereupon an outcry broke from the assembly, and they turned their eyes on - him askance, "as if," says Champlain, "they would have torn and eaten - him." - </p> - <p> - "You are a liar," returned the unceremonious host; "you know very well - that you slept here among my children every night, and got up again every - morning; and if you ever went to the Nipissings, it must have been when - you were asleep. How can you be so impudent as to lie to your chief, and - so wicked as to risk his life among so many dangers? He ought to kill you - with tortures worse than those with which we kill our enemies." - </p> - <p> - Champlain urged him to reply, but he sat motionless and dumb. Then he led - him from the cabin, and conjured him to declare if in truth he had seen - this sea of the north. Vignan, with oaths, affirmed that all he had said - was true. Returning to the council, Champlain repeated the impostor's - story—how he had seen the sea, the wreck of an English ship, the - heads of eighty Englishmen, and an English boy, prisoner among the - Indians. - </p> - <p> - At this, an outcry rose louder than before, and the Indians turned in ire - upon Vignan. - </p> - <p> - "You are a liar." "Which way did you go?" "By what rivers?" "By what - lakes?" "Who went with you?" - </p> - <p> - Vignan had made a map of his travels, which Champlain now produced, - desiring him to explain it to his questioners; but his assurance failed - him, and he could not utter a word. - </p> - <p> - Champlain was greatly agitated. His heart was in the enterprise, his - reputation was in a measure at stake; and now, when he thought his triumph - so near, he shrank from believing himself the sport of an impudent - impostor. The council broke up,—the Indians displeased and moody, - and he, on his part, full of anxieties and doubts. - </p> - <p> - "I called Vignau to me in presence of his companions," he says. "I told - him that the time for deceiving me was ended; that he must tell me whether - or not he had really seen the things he had told of; that I had forgotten - the past, but that, if he continued to mislead me, I would have him hanged - without mercy." - </p> - <p> - Vignau pondered for a moment; then fell on his knees, owned his treachery, - and begged forgiveness. Champlain broke into a rage, and, unable, as he - says, to endure the sight of him, ordered him from his presence, and sent - the interpreter after him to make further examination. Vanity, the love of - notoriety, and the hope of reward, seem to have been his inducements; for - he had in fact spent a quiet winter in Tessonat's cabin, his nearest - approach to the northern sea; and he had flattered himself that he might - escape the necessity of guiding his commander to this pretended discovery. - The Indians were somewhat exultant. - </p> - <p> - "Why did you not listen to chiefs and warriors, instead of believing the - lies of this fellow?" And they counselled Champlain to have him killed at - once, adding, "Give him to us, and we promise you that he shall never lie - again." - </p> - <p> - No motive remaining for farther advance, the party set out on their - return, attended by a fleet of forty canoes bound to Montreal for trade. - They passed the perilous rapids of the Calumet, and were one night - encamped on an island, when an Indian, slumbering in an uneasy posture, - was visited with a nightmare. He leaped up with a yell, screamed, that - somebody was killing him, and ran for refuge into the river. Instantly all - his companions sprang to their feet, and, hearing in fancy the Iroquois - war-whoop, took to the water, splashing, diving, and wading up to their - necks, in the blindness of their fright. Champlain and his Frenchmen, - roused at the noise, snatched their weapons and looked in vain for an - enemy. The panic-stricken warriors, reassured at length, waded crestfallen - ashore, and the whole ended in a laugh. - </p> - <p> - At the Chaudiere, a contribution of tobacco was collected on a wooden - platter, and, after a solemn harangue, was thrown to the guardian Manitou. - On the seventeenth of June they approached Montreal, where the assembled - traders greeted them with discharges of small arms and cannon. Here, among - the rest, was Champlain's lieutenant, Du Parc, with his men, who had - amused their leisure with hunting, and were revelling in a sylvan - abundance, while their baffled chief, with worry of mind, fatigue of body, - and a Lenten diet of half-cooked fish, was grievously fallen away in flesh - and strength. He kept his word with DeVignau, left the scoundrel - unpunished, bade farewell to the Indians, and, promising to rejoin then - the next year, embarked in one of the trading-ships for France. - </p> - <p> - <a name="link2HCH0023" id="link2HCH0023"> - <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> - </p> - <div style="height: 4em;"> - <br /><br /><br /><br /> - </div> - <h2> - CHAPTER XIII. - </h2> - <h3> - 1615. - </h3> - <p> - DISCOVERY OF LAKE HURON. - </p> - <p> - In New France, spiritual and temporal interests were inseparably blended, - and, as will hereafter appear, the conversion of the Indians was used as a - means of commercial and political growth. But, with the single-hearted - founder of the colony, considerations of material advantage, though - clearly recognized, were no less clearly subordinate. He would fain rescue - from perdition a people living, as he says, "like brute beasts, without - faith, without law, without religion, without God." While the want of - funds and the indifference of his merchant associates, who as yet did not - fully see that their trade would find in the missions its surest ally, - were threatening to wreck his benevolent schemes, he found a kindred - spirit in his friend Houd, secretary to the King, and comptroller-general - of the salt-works of Bronage. Near this town was a convent of Recollet - friars, some of whom were well known to Houel. To them he addressed - himself; and several of the brotherhood, "inflamed," we are told, "with - charity," were eager to undertake the mission. But the Recollets, - mendicants by profession, were as weak in resources as Champlain himself. - He repaired to Paris, then filled with bishops, cardinals, and nobles, - assembled for the States-General. Responding to his appeal, they - subscribed fifteen hundred livres for the purchase of vestments, candles, - and ornaments for altars. The King gave letters patent in favor of the - mission, and the Pope gave it his formal authorization. By this instrument - the papacy in the person of Paul the Fifth virtually repudiated the action - of the papacy in the person of Alexander the Sixth, who had proclaimed all - America the exclusive property of Spain. - </p> - <p> - The Recollets form a branch of the great Franciscan Order, founded early - in the thirteenth century by Saint Francis of Assisi. Saint, hero, or - madman, according to the point of view from which he is regarded, he - belonged to an era of the Church when the tumult of invading heresies - awakened in her defence a band of impassioned champions, widely different - from the placid saints of an earlier age. He was very young when dreams - and voices began to reveal to him his vocation, and kindle his - high-wrought nature to sevenfold heat. Self-respect, natural affection, - decency, became in his eyes but stumbling-blocks and snares. He robbed his - father to build a church; and, like so many of the Roman Catholic saints, - confounded filth with humility, exchanged clothes with beggars, and walked - the streets of Assisi in rags amid the hootings of his townsmen. He vowed - perpetual poverty and perpetual beggary, and, in token of his renunciation - of the world, stripped himself naked before the Bishop of Assisi, and then - begged of him in charity a peasant's mantle. Crowds gathered to his fervid - and dramatic eloquence. His handful of disciples multiplied, till Europe - became thickly dotted with their convents. At the end of the eighteenth - century, the three Orders of Saint Francis numbered a hundred and fifteen - thousand friars and twenty-eight thousand nuns. Four popes, forty-five - cardinals, and forty-six canonized martyrs were enrolled on their record, - besides about two thousand more who had shed their blood for the faith. - Their missions embraced nearly all the known world; and, in 1621, there - were in Spanish America alone five hundred Franciscan convents. - </p> - <p> - In process of time the Franciscans had relaxed their ancient rigor; but - much of their pristine spirit still subsisted in the Recollets, a reformed - branch of the Order, sometimes known as Franciscans of the Strict - Observance. - </p> - <p> - Four of their number were named for the mission of New France,—Denis - Jamay, Jean Dolbean, Joseph le Caron, and the lay brother Pacifique du - Plessis. "They packed their church ornaments," says Champlain, "and we, - our luggage." All alike confessed their sins, and, embarking at Honfleur, - reached Quebec at the end of May, 1615. Great was the perplexity of the - Indians as the apostolic mendicants landed beneath the rock. Their garb - was a form of that common to the brotherhood of Saint Francis, consisting - of a rude garment of coarse gray cloth, girt at the waist with the knotted - cord of the Order, and furnished with a peaked hood, to be drawn over the - head. Their naked feet were shod with wooden sandals, more than an inch - thick. - </p> - <p> - Their first care was to choose a site for their convent, near the - fortified dwellings and storehouses built by Champlain. This done, they - made an altar, and celebrated the first mass ever said in Canada. Dolbean - was the officiating priest; all New France kneeled on the bare earth - around him, and cannon from the ship and the ramparts hailed the mystic - rite. Then, in imitation of the Apostles, they took counsel together, and - assigned to each his province in the vast field of their mission,—to - Le Caron the Hurons, and to Dolbean the Montagnais; while Jamay and Du - Plessis were to remain for the present near Quebec. - </p> - <p> - Dolbean, full of zeal, set out for his post, and in the next winter tried - to follow the roving hordes of Tadoussac to their frozen hunting-grounds. - He was not robust, and his eyes were weak. Lodged in a hut of birch bark, - full of abominations, dogs, fleas, stench, and all uncleanness, he - succumbed at length to the smoke, which had wellnigh blinded him, forcing - him to remain for several days with his eyes closed. After debating within - himself whether God required of him the sacrifice of his sight, he solved - his doubts with a negative, and returned to Quebec, only to depart again - with opening spring on a tour so extensive that it brought him in contact - with outlying bands of the Esquimaux. Meanwhile Le Caron had long been - absent on a more noteworthy mission. - </p> - <p> - While his brethren were building their convent and garnishing their altar - at Quebec, the ardent friar had hastened to the site of Montreal, then - thronged with a savage concourse come down for the yearly trade. he - mingled with them, studied their manners, tried to learn their languages, - and, when Champlain and Pontgrave arrived, declared his purpose of - wintering in their villages. Dissuasion availed nothing. "What," he - demanded, "are privations to him whose life is devoted to perpetual - poverty, and who has no ambition but to serve God?" - </p> - <p> - The assembled Indians were more eager for temporal than for spiritual - succor, and beset Champlain with clamors for aid against the Iroquois. He - and Pontgrave were of one mind. The aid demanded must be given, and that - from no motive of the hour, but in pursuance of a deliberate policy. It - was evident that the innumerable tribes of New France, otherwise divided, - were united in a common fear and hate of these formidable bands, who, in - the strength of their fivefold league, spread havoc and desolation through - all the surrounding wilds. It was the aim of Champlain, as of his - successors, to persuade the threatened and endangered hordes to live at - peace with each other, and to form against the common foe a virtual - league, of which the French colony would be the heart and the head, and - which would continually widen with the widening area of discovery. With - French soldiers to fight their battles, French priests to baptize them, - and French traders to supply their increasing wants, their dependence - would be complete. They would become assured tributaries to the growth of - New France. It was a triple alliance of soldier, priest, and trader. The - soldier might be a roving knight, and the priest a martyr and a saint; but - both alike were subserving the interests of that commerce which formed the - only solid basis of the colony. The scheme of English colonization made no - account of the Indian tribes. In the scheme of French colonization they - were all in all. - </p> - <p> - In one point the plan was fatally defective, since it involved the deadly - enmity of a race whose character and whose power were as yet but ill - understood,—the fiercest, boldest, most politic, and most ambitious - savages to whom the American forest has ever given birth. - </p> - <p> - The chiefs and warriors met in council,—Algonquins of the Ottawa, - and Hurons from the borders of the great Fresh-Water Sea. Champlain - promised to join them with all the men at his command, while they, on - their part, were to muster without delay twenty-five hundred warriors for - an inroad into the country of the Iroquois. He descended at once to Quebec - for needful preparation; but when, after a short delay, he returned to - Montreal, he found, to his chagrin, a solitude. The wild concourse had - vanished; nothing remained but the skeleton poles of their huts, the smoke - of their fires, and the refuse of their encampments. Impatient at his - delay, they had set out for their villages, and with them had gone Father - Joseph le Caron. - </p> - <p> - Twelve Frenchmen, well armed, had attended him. Summer was at its height, - and as his canoe stole along the bosom of the glassy river, and he gazed - about him on the tawny multitude whose fragile craft covered the water - like swarms of gliding insects, he thought, perhaps, of his whitewashed - cell in the convent of Brouage, of his book, his table, his rosary, and - all the narrow routine of that familiar life from which he had awakened to - contrasts so startling. That his progress up the Ottawa was far from being - an excursion of pleasure is attested by his letters, fragments of which - have come down to us. - </p> - <p> - "It would be hard to tell you," he writes to a friend, "how tired I was - with paddling all day, with all my strength, among the Indians; wading the - rivers a hundred times and more, through the mud and over the sharp rocks - that cut my feet; carrying the canoe and luggage through the woods to - avoid the rapids and frightful cataracts; and half starved all the while, - for we had nothing to eat but a little sagantite, a sort of porridge of - water and pounded maize, of which they gave us a very small allowance - every morning and night. But I must needs tell you what abundant - consolation I found under all my troubles; for when one sees so many - infidels needing nothing but a drop of water to make them children of God, - one feels an inexpressible ardor to labor for their conversion, and - sacrifice to it one's repose and life." - </p> - <p> - Another Recollet, Gabriel Sagard, followed the same route in similar - company a few years later, and has left an account of his experience, of - which Le Caron's was the counterpart. Sagard reckons from eighty to a - hundred waterfalls and rapids in the course of the journey, and the task - of avoiding them by pushing through the woods was the harder for him - because he saw fit to go barefoot, "in imitation of our seraphic father, - Saint Francis." "We often came upon rocks, mudholes, and fallen trees, - which we had to scramble over, and sometimes we must force our way with - head and hands through dense woods and thickets, without road or path. - When the time came, my Indians looked for a good place to pass the night. - Some went for dry wood; others for poles to make a shed; others kindled a - fire, and hung the kettle to a stick stuck aslant in the ground; and - others looked for two flat stones to bruise the Indian corn, of which they - make sagamite." - </p> - <p> - This sagamite was an extremely thin porridge; and, though scraps of fish - were now and then boiled in it, the friar pined away daily on this weak - and scanty fare, which was, moreover, made repulsive to him by the - exceeding filthiness of the cookery. Nevertheless, he was forced to - disguise his feelings. "One must always keep a smiling, modest, contented - face, and now and then sing a hymn, both for his own consolation and to - please and edify the savages, who take a singular pleasure in hearing us - sing the praises of our God." Among all his trials, none afflicted him so - much as the flies and mosquitoes. "If I had not kept my face wrapped in a - cloth, I am almost sure they would have blinded me, so pestiferous and - poisonous are the bites of these little demons. They make one look like a - leper, hideous to the sight. I confess that this is the worst martyrdom I - suffered in this country; hunger, thirst, weariness, and fever are nothing - to it. These little beasts not only persecute you all day, but at night - they get into your eyes and mouth, crawl under your clothes, or stick - their long stings through them, and make such a noise that it distracts - your attention, and prevents you from saying your prayers." He reckons - three or four kinds of them, and adds, that in the Montagnais country - there is still another kind, so small that they can hardly be seen, but - which "bite like devils' imps." The sportsman who has bivouacked in the - woods of Maine will at once recognize the minute tormentors there known as - "no-see-'ems." - </p> - <p> - While through tribulations like these Le Caron made his way towards the - scene of his apostleship, Champlain was following on his track. With two - canoes, ten Indians, Etienne Brule his interpreter, and another Frenchman, - he pushed up the Ottawa till he reached the Algonquin villages which had - formed the term of his former journeying. He passed the two lakes of the - Allumettes; and now, for twenty miles, the river stretched before him, - straight as the bee can fly, deep, narrow, and black, between its mountain - shores. He passed the rapids of the Joachims and the Caribou, the Rocher - Capitamne, and the Deux Rivieres, and reached at length the trihutary - waters of the Mattawan. He turned to the left, ascended this little stream - forty miles or more, and, crossing a portage track, well trodden, reached - the margin of Lake Nipissing. The canoes were launched again, and glided - by leafy shores and verdant islands till at length appeared signs of human - life and clusters of bark lodges, half hidden in the vastness of the - woods. It was the village of an Algonquin band, called the Nipissings,—a - race so beset with spirits, infested by demons, and abounding in - magicians, that the Jesuits afterwards stigmatized them as "the - Sorcerers." In this questionable company Champlain spent two days, feasted - on fish, deer, and bears. Then, descending to the outlet of the lake, he - steered his canoes westward down the current of French River. - </p> - <p> - Days passed, and no sign of man enlivened the rocky desolation. Hunger was - pressing them hard, for the ten gluttonous Indians had devoured already - nearly all their provision for the voyage, and they were forced to subsist - on the blueberries and wild raspberries that grew abundantly in the meagre - soil, when suddenly they encountered a troop of three hundred savages, - whom, from their strange and startling mode of wearing their hair, - Champlain named the Cheveux Releves. "Not one of our courtiers," he says, - "takes so much pains in dressing his locks." Here, however, their care of - the toilet ended; for, though tattooed on various parts of the body, - painted, and armed with bows, arrows, and shields of bison-hide, they wore - no clothing whatever. Savage as was their aspect, they were busied in the - pacific task of gathering blueberries for their winter store. Their - demeanor was friendly; and from them the voyager learned that the great - lake of the Hurons was close at hand. - </p> - <p> - Now, far along the western sky was traced the watery line of that inland - ocean, and, first of white men except the Friar Le Caron, Champlain beheld - the "Mer Douce," the Fresh-Water Sea of the Hurons. Before him, too far - for sight, lay the spirit-haunted Manitonalins, and, southward, spread the - vast bosom of the Georgian Bay. For more than a hundred miles, his course - was along its eastern shores, among islets countless as the sea-sands,—an - archipelago of rocks worn for ages by the wash of waves. He crossed Byng - Inlet, Franklin Inlet, Parry Sound, and the wider bay of Matchedash, and - seems to have landed at the inlet now called Thunder Bay, at the entrance - of the Bay of Matchedash, and a little west of the Harbor of - Penetanguishine. - </p> - <p> - An Indian trail led inland, through woods and thickets, across broad - meadows, over brooks, and along the skirts of green acclivities. To the - eye of Champlain, accustomed to the desolation he had left behind, it - seemed a land of beauty and abundance. He reached at last a broad opening - in the forest, with fields of maize, pumpkins ripening in the sun, patches - of sunflowers, from the seeds of which the Indians made hair-oil, and, in - the midst, the Huron town of Otonacha. In all essential points, it - resembled that which Cartier, eighty years before, had seen at Montreal,—the - same triple palisade of crossed and intersecting trunks, and the same long - lodges of bark, each containing several families. Here, within an area of - thirty or forty miles, was the seat of one of the most remarkable savage - communities on the continent. By the Indian standard, it was a mighty - nation; yet the entire Huron population did not exceed that of a third or - fourth class American city. - </p> - <p> - To the south and southeast lay other tribes of kindred race and tongue, - all stationary, all tillers of the soil, and all in a state of social - advancement when compared with the roving bands of Eastern Canada: the - Neutral Nation west of the Niagara, and the Eries and Andastes in Western - New York and Pennsylvania; while from the Genesee eastward to the Hudson - lay the banded tribes of the Iroquois, leading members of this potent - family, deadly foes of their kindred, and at last their destroyers. - </p> - <p> - In Champlain the Hurons saw the champion who was to lead them to victory. - There was bountiful feasting in his honor in the great lodge at Otonacha; - and other welcome, too, was tendered, of which the Hurons were ever - liberal, but which, with all courtesy, was declined by the virtuous - Champlain. Next, he went to Carmaron, a league distant, and then to - Tonagnainchain and Tequenonquihayc; till at length he reached Carhagouha, - with its triple palisade thirty-five feet high. Here he found Le Caron. - The Indians, eager to do him honor, were building for him a bark lodge in - the neighboring forest, fashioned like their own, but much smaller. In it - the friar made an altar, garnished with those indispensable decorations - which he had brought with him through all the vicissitudes of his painful - journeying; and hither, night and day, came a curious multitude to listen - to his annunciation of the new doctrine. It was a joyful hour when he saw - Champlain approach his hermitage; and the two men embraced like brothers - long sundered. - </p> - <p> - The twelfth of August was a day evermore marked with white in the friar's - calendar. Arrayed in priestly vestments, he stood before his simple altar; - behind him his little band of Christians,—the twelve Frenchmen who - had attended him, and the two who had followed Champlain. Here stood their - devout and valiant chief, and, at his side, that pioneer of pioneers, - Etienne Brule the interpreter. The Host was raised aloft; the worshippers - kneeled. Then their rough voices joined in the hymn of praise, Te Deum - laudamus; and then a volley of their guns proclaimed the triumph of the - faith to the okies, the manitous, and all the brood of anomalous devils - who had reigned with undisputed sway in these wild realms of darkness. The - brave friar, a true soldier of the Church, had led her forlorn hope into - the fastnesses of hell; and now, with contented heart, he might depart in - peace, for he had said the first mass in the country of the Hurons. - </p> - <p> - <a name="link2HCH0024" id="link2HCH0024"> - <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> - </p> - <div style="height: 4em;"> - <br /><br /><br /><br /> - </div> - <h2> - CHAPTER XIV. - </h2> - <h3> - 1615, 1616. - </h3> - <p> - THE GREAT WAR PARTY. - </p> - <p> - The lot of the favored guest of an Indian camp or village is idleness - without repose, for he is never left alone, with the repletion of - incessant and inevitable feasts. Tired of this inane routine, Champlain, - with some of his Frenchmen, set forth on a tour of observation. Journeying - at their ease by the Indian trails, they visited, in three days, five - palisaded villages. The country delighted them, with its meadows, its deep - woods, its pine and cedar thickets, full of hares and partridges, its wild - grapes and plums, cherries, crab-apples, nuts, and raspberries. It was the - seventeenth of August when they reached the Huron metropolis, Cahiague, in - the modern township of Orillia, three leagues west of the river Severn, by - which Lake Simcoe pours its waters into the bay of Matchedash. A shrill - clamor of rejoicing, the fixed stare of wondering squaws, and the - screaming flight of terrified children hailed the arrival of Champlain. By - his estimate, the place contained two hundred lodges; but they must have - been relatively small, since, had they been of the enormous capacity - sometimes found in these structures, Cahiague alone would have held the - whole Huron population. Here was the chief rendezvous, and the town - swarmed with gathering warriors. There was cheering news; for an allied - nation, called Carantonans, probably identical with the Andastes, had - promised to join the Hurons in the enemy's country, with five hundred men. - Feasts and the war-dance consumed the days, till at length the tardy bands - had all arrived; and, shouldering their canoes and scanty baggage, the - naked host set forth. - </p> - <p> - At the outlet of Lake Simcoe they all stopped to fish,—their simple - substitute for a commissariat. Hence, too, the intrepid Etienne Brule, at - his own request, was sent with twelve Indians to hasten forward the five - hundred allied warriors,—a dangerous venture, since his course must - lie through the borders of the Iroquois. - </p> - <p> - He set out on the eighth of September, and on the morning of the tenth, - Champlain, shivering in his blanket, awoke to see the meadows sparkling - with an early frost, soon to vanish under the bright autumnal sun. The - Huron fleet pursued its course along Lake Simcoe, across the portage to - Balsam or Sturgeon Lake, and down the chain of lakes which form the - sources of the river Trent. As the long line of canoes moved on its way, - no human life was seen, no sign of friend or foe; yet at times, to the - fancy of Champlain, the borders of the stream seemed decked with groves - and shrubbery by the hands of man, and the walnut trees, laced with - grape-vines, seemed decorations of a pleasure-ground. - </p> - <p> - They stopped and encamped for a deer-hunt. Five hundred Indians, in line, - like the skirmishers of an army advancing to battle, drove the game to the - end of a woody point; and the canoe-men killed them with spears and arrows - as they took to the river. Champlain and his men keenly relished the - sport, but paid a heavy price for their pleasure. A Frenchman, firing at a - buck, brought down an Indian, and there was need of liberal gifts to - console the sufferer and his friends. - </p> - <p> - The canoes now issued from the mouth of the Trent. Like a flock of - venturous wild-fowl, they put boldly out upon Lake Ontario, crossed it in - safety, and landed within the borders of New York, on or near the point of - land west of Hungry Bay. After hiding their light craft in the woods, the - warriors took up their swift and wary march, filing in silence between the - woods and the lake, for four leagues along the strand. Then they struck - inland, threaded the forest, crossed the outlet of Lake Oneida, and after - a march of four days, were deep within the limits of the Iroquois. On the - ninth of October some of their scouts met a fishing-party of this people, - and captured them,—eleven in number, men, women, and children. They - were brought to the camp of the exultant Hurons. As a beginning of the - jubilation, a chief cut off a finger of one of the women, but desisted - from further torturing on the angry protest of Champlain, reserving that - pleasure for a more convenient season. - </p> - <p> - On the next day they reached an open space in the forest. The hostile town - was close at hand, surrounded by rugged fields with a slovenly and savage - cultivation. The young Hurons in advance saw the Iroquois at work among - the pumpkins and maize, gathering their rustling harvest. Nothing could - restrain the hare-brained and ungoverned crew. They screamed their war-cry - and rushed in; but the Iroquois snatched their weapons, killed and wounded - five or six of the assailants, and drove back the rest discomfited. - Champlain and his Frenchmen were forced to interpose; and the report of - their pieces from the border of the woods stopped the pursuing enemy, who - withdrew to their defences, bearing with them their dead and wounded. - </p> - <p> - It appears to have been a fortified town of the Onondagas, the central - tribe of the Iroquois confederacy, standing, there is some reason to - believe, within the limits of Madison County, a few miles south of Lake - Oneida. Champlain describes its defensive works as much stronger than - those of the Huron villages. They consisted of four concentric rows of - palisades, formed of trunks of trees, thirty feet high, set aslant in the - earth, and intersecting each other near the top, where they supported a - kind of gallery, well defended by shot-proof timber, and furnished with - wooden gutters for quenching fire. A pond or lake, which washed one side - of the palisade, and was led by sluices within the town, gave an ample - supply of water, while the galleries were well provided with magazines of - stones. - </p> - <p> - Champlain was greatly exasperated at the desultory and futile procedure of - his Huron allies. Against his advice, they now withdrew to the distance of - a cannon-shot from the fort, and encamped in the forest, out of sight of - the enemy. "I was moved," he says, "to speak to them roughly and harshly - enough, in order to incite them to do their duty; for I foresaw that if - things went according to their fancy, nothing but harm could come of it, - to their loss and ruin. He proceeded, therefore, to instruct them in the - art of war." - </p> - <p> - In the morning, aided doubtless by his ten or twelve Frenchmen, they set - themselves with alacrity to their prescribed task. A wooden tower was - made, high enough to overlook the palisade, and large enough to shelter - four or five marksmen. Huge wooden shields, or movable parapets, like the - mantelets of the Middle Ages, were also constructed. Four hours sufficed - to finish the work, and then the assault began. Two hundred of the - strongest warriors dragged the tower forward, and planted it within a - pike's length of the palisade. Three arquebusiers mounted to the top, - where, themselves well sheltered, they opened a raking fire along the - galleries, now thronged with wild and naked defenders. But nothing could - restrain the ungovernable Hurons. They abandoned their mantelets, and, - deaf to every command, swarmed out like bees upon the open field, leaped, - shouted, shrieked their war-cries, and shot off their arrows; while the - Iroquois, yelling defiance from their ramparts, sent back a shower of - stones and arrows in reply. A Huron, bolder than the rest, ran forward - with firebrands to burn the palisade, and others followed with wood to - feed the flame. But it was stupidly kindled on the leeward side, without - the protecting shields designed to cover it; and torrents of water, poured - down from the gutters above, quickly extinguished it. The confusion was - redoubled. Champlain strove in vain to restore order. Each warrior was - yelling at the top of his throat, and his voice was drowned in the - outrageous din. Thinking, as he says, that his head would split with - shouting, he gave over the attempt, and busied himself and his men with - picking off the Iroquois along their ramparts. - </p> - <p> - The attack lasted three hours, when the assailants fell back to their - fortified camp, with seventeen warriors wounded. Champlain, too, had - received an arrow in the knee, and another in the leg, which, for the - time, disabled him. He was urgent, however, to renew the attack; while the - Hurons, crestfallen and disheartened, refused to move from their camp - unless the five hundred allies, for some time expected, should appear. - They waited five days in vain, beguiling the interval with frequent - skirmishes, in which they were always worsted; then began hastily to - retreat, carrying their wounded in the centre, while the Iroquois, - sallying from their stronghold, showered arrows on their flanks and rear. - The wounded, Champlain among the rest, after being packed in baskets made - on the spot, were carried each on the back of a strong warrior, "bundled - in a heap," says Champlain, "doubled and strapped together after such a - fashion that one could move no more than an infant in swaddling-clothes. - The pain is extreme, as I can truly say from experience, having been - carried several days in this way, since I could not stand, chiefly on - account of the arrow-wound I had got in the knee. I never was in such - torment in my life, for the pain of the wound was nothing to that of being - bound and pinioned on the back of one of our savages. I lost patience, and - as soon as I could bear my weight I got out of this prison, or rather out - of hell." - </p> - <p> - At length the dismal march was ended. They reached the spot where their - canoes were hidden, found them untouched, embarked, and recrossed to the - northern shore of Lake Ontario. The Hurons had promised Champlain an - escort to Quebec; but as the chiefs had little power, in peace or war, - beyond that of persuasion, each warrior found good reasons for refusing to - lend his canoe. Champlain, too, had lost prestige. The "man with the iron - breast" had proved not inseparably wedded to victory; and though the fault - was their own, yet not the less was the lustre of their hero tarnished. - There was no alternative. He must winter with the Hurons. The great war - party broke into fragments, each band betaking itself to its - hunting-ground. A chief named Durantal, or Darontal, offered Champlain the - shelter of his lodge, and he was glad to accept it. - </p> - <p> - Meanwhile, Etienne Brule had found cause to rue the hour when he undertook - his hazardous mission to the Carantonan allies. Three years passed before - Champlain saw him. It was in the summer of 1618, that, reaching the Saut - St. Louis, he there found the interpreter, his hands and his swarthy face - marked with traces of the ordeal he had passed. Brule then told him his - story. - </p> - <p> - He had gone, as already mentioned, with twelve Indians, to hasten the - march of the allies, who were to join the Hurons before the hostile town. - Crossing Lake Ontario, the party pushed onward with all speed, avoiding - trails, threading the thickest forests and darkest swamps, for it was the - land of the fierce and watchful Iroquois. They were well advanced on their - way when they saw a small party of them crossing a meadow, set upon them, - surprised them, killed four, and took two prisoners, whom they led to - Carantonan,—a palisaded town with a population of eight hundred - warriors, or about four thousand souls. The dwellings and defences were - like those of the Hurons, and the town seems to have stood on or near the - upper waters of the Susquehanna. They were welcomed with feasts, dances, - and an uproar of rejoicing. The five hundred warriors prepared to depart; - but, engrossed by the general festivity, they prepared so slowly, that, - though the hostile town was but three days distant, they found on reaching - it that the besiegers were gone. Brule now returned with them to - Carantonan, and, with enterprise worthy of his commander, spent the winter - in a tour of exploration. Descending a river, evidently the Susquehanna, - he followed it to its junction with the sea, through territories of - populous tribes, at war the one with the other. When, in the spring, he - returned to Carantonan, five or six of the Indians offered to guide him - towards his countrymen. Less fortunate than before, he encountered on the - way a band of Iroquois, who, rushing upon the party, scattered them - through the woods. Brule ran like the rest. The cries of pursuers and - pursued died away in the distance. The forest was silent around him. He - was lost in the shady labyrinth. For three or four days he wandered, - helpless and famished, till at length he found an Indian foot-path, and, - choosing between starvation and the Iroquois, desperately followed it to - throw himself on their mercy. He soon saw three Indians in the distance, - laden with fish newly caught, and called to them in the Huron tongue, - which was radically similar to that of the Iroquois. They stood amazed, - then turned to fly; but Brule, gaunt with famine, flung down his weapons - in token of friendship. They now drew near, listened to the story of his - distress, lighted their pipes, and smoked with him; then guided him to - their village, and gave him food. - </p> - <p> - A crowd gathered about him. "Whence do you come? Are you not one of the - Frenchmen, the men of iron, who make war on us?" - </p> - <p> - Brule answered that he was of a nation better than the French, and fast - friends of the Iroquois. - </p> - <p> - His incredulous captors tied him to a tree, tore out his beard by - handfuls, and burned him with fire-brands, while their chief vainly - interposed in his behalf. He was a good Catholic, and wore an Agnus Dei at - his breast. One of his torturers asked what it was, and thrust out his - hand to take it. - </p> - <p> - "If you touch it," exclaimed Brule, "you and all your race will die." - </p> - <p> - The Indian persisted. The day was hot, and one of those thunder-gusts - which often succeed the fierce heats of an American midsummer was rising - against the sky. Brule pointed to the inky clouds as tokens of the anger - of his God. The storm broke, and, as the celestial artillery boomed over - their darkening forests, the Iroquois were stricken with a superstitious - terror. They all fled from the spot, leaving their victim still bound - fast, until the chief who had endeavored to protect him returned, cut the - cords, led him to his lodge, and dressed his wounds. Thenceforth there was - neither dance nor feast to which Brule was not invited; and when he wished - to return to his countrymen, a party of Iroquois guided him four days on - his way. He reached the friendly Hurons in safety, and joined them on - their yearly descent to meet the French traders at Montreal. - </p> - <p> - Brule's adventures find in some points their counterpart in those of his - commander on the winter hunting-grounds of his Huron allies. As we turn - the ancient, worm-eaten page which preserves the simple record of his - fortunes, a wild and dreary scene rises before the mind,—a chill - November air, a murky sky, a cold lake, bare and shivering forests, the - earth strewn with crisp brown leaves, and, by the water-side, the bark - sheds and smoking camp-fires of a band of Indian hunters. Champlain was of - the party. There was ample occupation for his gun, for the morning was - vocal with the clamor of wild-fowl, and his evening meal was enlivened by - the rueful music of the wolves. It was a lake north or northwest of the - site of Kingston. On the borders of a neighboring river, twenty-five of - the Indians had been busied ten days in preparing for their annual - deer-hunt. They planted posts interlaced with boughs in two straight - converging lines, each extending mere than half a mile through forests and - swamps. At the angle where they met was made a strong enclosure like a - pound. At dawn of day the hunters spread themselves through the woods, and - advanced with shouts, clattering of sticks, and howlings like those of - wolves, driving the deer before them into the enclosure, where others lay - in wait to despatch them with arrows and spears. - </p> - <p> - Champlain was in the woods with the rest, when he saw a bird whose novel - appearance excited his attention; and, gun in hand, he went in pursuit. - The bird, flitting from tree to tree, lured him deeper and deeper into the - forest; then took wing and vanished. The disappointed sportsman tried to - retrace his steps. But the day was clouded, and he had left his - pocket-compass at the camp. The forest closed around him, trees mingled - with trees in endless confusion. Bewildered and lost, he wandered all day, - and at night slept fasting at the foot of a tree. Awaking, he wandered on - till afternoon, when he reached a pond slumbering in the shadow of the - woods. There were water-fowl along its brink, some of which he shot, and - for the first time found food to allay his hunger. He kindled a fire, - cooked his game, and, exhausted, blanketless, drenched by a cold rain, - made his prayer to Heaven, and again lay down to sleep. Another day of - blind and weary wandering succeeded, and another night of exhaustion. He - had found paths in the wilderness, but they were not made by human feet. - Once more roused from his shivering repose, he journeyed on till he heard - the tinkling of a little brook, and bethought him of following its - guidance, in the hope that it might lead him to the river where the - hunters were now encamped. With toilsome steps he followed the infant - stream, now lost beneath the decaying masses of fallen trunks or the - impervious intricacies of matted "windfalls," now stealing through swampy - thickets or gurgling in the shade of rocks, till it entered at length, not - into the river, but into a small lake. Circling around the brink, he found - the point where the brook ran out and resumed its course. Listening in the - dead stillness of the woods, a dull, hoarse sound rose upon his ear. He - went forward, listened again, and could plainly hear the plunge of waters. - There was light in the forest before him, and, thrusting himself through - the entanglement of bushes, he stood on the edge of a meadow. Wild animals - were here of various kinds; some skulking in the bordering thickets, some - browsing on the dry and matted grass. On his right rolled the river, wide - and turbulent, and along its bank he saw the portage path by which the - Indians passed the neighboring rapids. He gazed about him. The rocky hills - seemed familiar to his eye. A clew was found at last; and, kindling his - evening fire, with grateful heart he broke a long fast on the game he had - killed. With the break of day he descended at his ease along the bank, and - soon descried the smoke of the Indian fires curling in the heavy morning - air against the gray borders of the forest. The joy was great on both - sides. The Indians had searched for him without ceasing; and from that day - forth his host, Durantal, would never let him go into the forest alone. - </p> - <p> - They were thirty-eight days encamped on this nameless river, and killed in - that time a hundred and twenty deer. Hard frosts were needful to give them - passage over the land of lakes and marshes that lay between them and the - Huron towns. Therefore they lay waiting till the fourth of December; when - the frost came, bridged the lakes and streams, and made the oozy marsh as - firm as granite. Snow followed, powdering the broad wastes with dreary - white. Then they broke up their camp, packed their game on sledges or on - their shoulders, tied on their snowshoes, and began their march. Champlain - could scarcely endure his load, though some of the Indians carried a - weight fivefold greater. At night, they heard the cleaving ice uttering - its strange groans of torment, and on the morrow there came a thaw. For - four days they waded through slush and water up to their knees; then came - the shivering northwest wind, and all was hard again. In nineteen days - they reached the town of Cahiague, and, lounging around their smoky - lodge-fires, the hunters forgot the hardships of the past. - </p> - <p> - For Champlain there was no rest. A double motive urged him,—discovery, - and the strengthening of his colony by widening its circle of trade. - First, he repaired to Carhagouha; and here he found the friar, in his - hermitage, still praying, preaching, making catechisms, and struggling - with the manifold difficulties of the Huron tongue. After spending several - weeks together, they began their journeyings, and in three days reached - the chief village of the Nation of Tobacco, a powerful tribe akin to the - Hurons, and soon to be incorporated with them. The travellers visited - seven of their towns, and then passed westward to those of the people whom - Champlain calls the Cheveax Releves, and whom he commends for neatness and - ingenuity no less than he condemns them for the nullity of their summer - attire. As the strangers passed from town to town, their arrival was - everywhere the signal of festivity. Champlain exchanged pledges of amity - with his hosts, and urged them to come down with the Hurons to the yearly - trade at Montreal. - </p> - <p> - Spring was now advancing, and, anxious for his colony, he turned homeward, - following that long circuit of Lake Huron and the Ottawa which Iroquois - hostility made the only practicable route. Scarcely had he reached the - Nipissings, and gained from them a pledge to guide him to that delusive - northern sea which never ceased to possess his thoughts, when evil news - called him back in haste to the Huron towns. A band of those Algonquins - who dwelt on the great island in the Ottawa had spent the winter encamped - near Cahiague, whose inhabitants made them a present of an Iroquois - prisoner, with the friendly intention that they should enjoy the pleasure - of torturing him. The Algonquins, on the contrary, fed, clothed, and - adopted him. On this, the donors, in a rage, sent a warrior to kill the - Iroquois. He stabbed him, accordingly, in the midst of the Algonquin - chiefs, who in requital killed the murderer. Here was a casus belli - involving most serious issues for the French, since the Algonquins, by - their position on the Ottawa, could cut off the Hurons and all their - allies from coming down to trade. Already a fight had taken place at - Cahiague the principal Algonquin chief had been wounded, and his band - forced to purchase safety by a heavy tribute of wampum <a - href="#linknote-33" name="linknoteref-33" id="linknoteref-33">33</a> and a - gift of two female prisoners. - </p> - <p> - All eyes turned to Champlain as umpire of the quarrel. The great - council-house was filled with Huron and Algonquin cltiefs, smoking with - that immobility of feature beneath which their race often hide a more than - tiger-like ferocity. The umpire addressed the assembly, enlarged on the - folly of falling to blows between themselves when the common enemy stood - ready to devour them both, extolled the advantages of the French trade and - alliance, and, with zeal not wholly disinterested, urged them to shake - hands like brothers. The friendly counsel was accepted, the pipe of peace - was smoked, the storm dispelled, and the commerce of New France rescued - from a serious peril. - </p> - <p> - Once more Champlain turned homeward, and with him went his Huron host, - Durantal. Le Caron had preceded him; and, on the eleventh of July, the - fellow-travellers met again in the infant capital of Canada. The Indians - had reported that Champlain was dead, and he was welcomed as one risen - from the grave. The friars, who were all here, chanted lands in their - chapel, with a solemn mass and thanksgiving. To the two travelers, fresh - from the hardships of the wilderness, the hospitable board of Quebec, the - kindly society of countrymen and friends, the adjacent gardens,—always - to Champlain an object of especial interest,—seemed like the - comforts and repose of home. - </p> - <p> - The chief Durantal found entertainment worthy of his high estate. The - fort, the ship, the armor, the plumes, the cannon, the marvellous - architecture of the houses and barracks, the splendors of the chapel, and - above all the good cheer outran the boldest excursion of his fancy; and he - paddled back at last to his lodge in the woods, bewildered with - astonishment and admiration. - </p> - <p> - <a name="link2HCH0025" id="link2HCH0025"> - <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> - </p> - <div style="height: 4em;"> - <br /><br /><br /><br /> - </div> - <h2> - CHAPTER XV. - </h2> - <h3> - 1616-1627. - </h3> - <p> - HOSTILE SECTS.—RIVAL INTERESTS. - </p> - <p> - At Quebec the signs of growth were faint and few. By the water-side, under - the cliff, the so-called "habitation," built in haste eight years before, - was already tottering, and Champlain was forced to rebuild it. On the - verge of the rock above, where now are seen the buttresses of the - demolished castle of St. Louis, he began, in 1620, a fort, behind which - were fields and a few buildings. A mile or more distant, by the bank of - the St. Charles, where the General Hospital now stands, the Recollets, in - the same year, built for themselves a small stone house, with ditches and - outworks for defence; and here they began a farm, the stock consisting of - several hogs, a pair of asses, a pair of geese, seven pairs of fowls, and - four pairs of ducks. The only other agriculturist in the colony was Louis - Hebert, who had come to Canada in 1617 with a wife and three children, and - who made a house for himself on the rock, at a little distance from - Champlain's fort. - </p> - <p> - Besides Quebec, there were the three trading-stations of Montreal, Three - Rivers, and Tadoussac, occupied during a part of the year. Of these, - Tadoussac was still the most important. Landing here from France in 1617, - the Recollet Paul Huet said mass for the first time in a chapel built of - branches, while two sailors standing beside him waved green boughs to - drive off the mosquitoes. Thither afterward came Brother Gervais Mohier, - newly arrived in Canada; and meeting a crowd of Indians in festal attire, - he was frightened at first, suspecting that they might be demons. Being - invited by them to a feast, and told that he must not decline, he took his - place among a party of two hundred, squatted about four large kettles full - of fish, bear's meat, pease, and plums, mixed with figs, raisins, and - biscuit procured at great cost from the traders, the whole boiled together - and well stirred with a canoe-paddle. As the guest did no honor to the - portion set before him, his entertainers tried to tempt his appetite with - a large lump of bear's fat, a supreme luxury in their eyes. This only - increased his embarrassment, and he took a hasty leave, uttering the - ejaculation, "ho, ho, ho!" which, as he had been correctly informed, was - the proper mode of acknowledgment to the master of the feast. - </p> - <p> - A change had now begun in the life of Champlain. His forest rovings were - over. To battle with savages and the elements was more congenial with his - nature than to nurse a puny colony into growth and strength; yet to each - task he gave himself with the same strong devotion. - </p> - <p> - His difficulties were great. Quebec was half trading-factory, half - mission. Its permanent inmates did not exceed fifty or sixty persons,—fur-traders, - friars, and two or three wretched families, who had no inducement, and - little wish, to labor. The fort is facetiously represented as having two - old women for garrison, and a brace of hens for sentinels. All was discord - and disorder. Champlain was the nominal commander; but the actual - authority was with the merchants, who held, excepting the friars, nearly - everybody in their pay. Each was jealous of the other, but all were united - in a common jealousy of Champlain. The few families whom they brought over - were forbidden to trade with the Indians, and compelled to sell the fruits - of their labor to the agents of the company at a low, fixed price, - receiving goods in return at an inordinate valuation. Some of the - merchants were of Ronen, some of St. Malo; some were Catholics, some were - Huguenots. Hence unceasing bickerings. All exercise of the Reformed - religion, on land or water, was prohibited within the limits of New - France; but the Huguenots set the prohibition at naught, roaring their - heretical psalmody with such vigor from their ships in the river that the - unhallowed strains polluted the ears of the Indians on shore. The - merchants of Rochelle, who had refused to join the company, carried on a - bold illicit traffic along the borders of the St. Lawrence, endangering - the colony by selling fire-arms to the Indians, eluding pursuit, or, if - hard pressed, showing fight; and this was a source of perpetual irritation - to the incensed monopolists. - </p> - <p> - The colony could not increase. The company of merchants, though pledged to - promote its growth, did what they could to prevent it. They were - fur-traders, and the interests of the fur-trade are always opposed to - those of settlement and population. They feared, too, and with reason, - that their monopoly might be suddenly revoked, like that of De Monts, and - they thought only of making profit from it while it lasted. They had no - permanent stake in the country; nor had the men in their employ, who - formed nearly all the scanty population of Canada. Few, if any, of these - had brought wives to the colony, and none of them thought of cultivating - the soil. They formed a floating population, kept from starving by yearly - supplies from France. - </p> - <p> - Champlain, in his singularly trying position, displayed a mingled zeal and - fortitude. He went every year to France, laboring for the interests of the - colony. To throw open the trade to all competitors was a measure beyond - the wisdom of the times; and he hoped only to bind and regulate the - monopoly so as to make it subserve the generous purpose to which he had - given himself. The imprisonment of Conde was a source of fresh - embarrassment; but the young Duo de Montmorency assumed his place, - purchasing from him the profitable lieuteuancy of New France for eleven - thousand crowns, and continuing Champlain in command. Champlain had - succeeded in binding the company of merchants with new and more stringent - engagements; and, in the vain belief that these might not be wholly - broken, he began to conceive fresh hopes for the colony. In this faith he - embarked with his wife for Quebec in the spring of 1620; and, as the boat - drew near the landing, the cannon welcomed her to the rock of her - banishment. The buildings were falling to ruin; rain entered on all sides; - the courtyard, says Champlain, was as squalid and dilapidated as a grange - pillaged by soldiers. Madame de Champlain was still very young. If the - Ursuline tradition is to be trusted, the Indians, amazed at her beauty and - touched by her gentleness, would have worshipped her as a divinity. Her - husband had married her at the age of twelve when, to his horror, he - presently discovered that she was infected with the heresies of her - father, a disguised Huguenot. He addressed himself at once to her - conversion, and his pious efforts were something more than successful. - During the four years which she passed in Canada, her zeal, it is true, - was chiefly exercised in admonishing Indian squaws and catechising their - children; but, on her return to France, nothing would content her but to - become a nun. Champlain refused; but, as she was childless, he at length - consented to a virtual though not formal separation. After his death she - gained her wish, became an Ursuline nun, founded a convent of that order - at Meaux, and died with a reputation almost saintly. - </p> - <p> - At Quebec, matters grew from bad to worse. The few emigrants, with no - inducement to labor, fell into a lazy apathy, lounging about the - trading-houses, gaming, drinking when drink could be had, or roving into - the woods on vagabond hunting excursions. The Indians could not be - trusted. In the year 1617 they had murdered two men near the end of the - Island of Orleans. Frightened at what they had done, and incited perhaps - by other causes, the Montagnais and their kindred bands mustered at Three - Rivers to the number of eight hundred, resolved to destroy the French. The - secret was betrayed; and the childish multitude, naked and famishing, - became suppliants to their intended victims for the means of life. The - French, themselves at the point of starvation, could give little or - nothing. An enemy far more formidable awaited them; and now were seen the - fruits of Champlain's intermeddling in Indian wars. In the summer of 1622, - the Iroquois descended upon the settlement. A strong party of their - warriors hovered about Quebec, but, still fearful of the arquebuse, - forbore to attack it, and assailed the Recollet convent on the St. - Charles. The prudent friars had fortified themselves. While some prayed in - the chapel, the rest, with their Indian converts, manned the walls. The - Iroquois respected their palisades and demi-lunes, and withdrew, after - burning two Huron prisoners. - </p> - <p> - Yielding at length to reiterated complaints, the Viceroy Montmorency - suppressed the company of St. Malo and Rouen, and conferred the trade of - New France, burdened with similar conditions destined to be similarly - broken, on two Huguenots, William and emery de Caen. The change was a - signal for fresh disorders. The enraged monopolists refused to yield. The - rival traders filled Quebec with their quarrels; and Champlain, seeing his - authority set at naught, was forced to occupy his newly built fort with a - band of armed followers. The evil rose to such a pitch that he joined with - the Recollets and the better-disposed among the colonists in sending one - of the friars to lay their grievances before the King. The dispute was - compromised by a temporary union of the two companies, together with a - variety of arrets and regulations, suited, it was thought, to restore - tranquillity. - </p> - <p> - A new change was at hand. Montmorency, tired of his viceroyalty, which - gave him ceaseless annoyance, sold it to his nephew, Henri de Levis, Duc - de Ventadour. It was no worldly motive which prompted this young nobleman - to assume the burden of fostering the infancy of New France. He had - retired from the court, and entered into holy orders. For trade and - colonization he cared nothing; the conversion of infidels was his sole - care. The Jesuits had the keeping of his conscience, and in his eyes they - were the most fitting instruments for his purpose. The Recollets, it is - true, had labored with an unflagging devotion. The six friars of their - Order—for this was the number which the Calvinist Caen had bound - himself to support—had established five distinct missions, extending - from Acadia to the borders of Lake Huron; but the field was too vast for - their powers. Ostensibly by a spontaneous movement of their own, but in - reality, it is probable, under influences brought to bear on them from - without, the Recollets applied for the assistance of the Jesuits, who, - strong in resources as in energy, would not be compelled to rest on the - reluctant support of Huguenots. Three of their brotherhood—Charles - Lalemant, Enemond Masse, and Jean de Brebeuf—accordingly embarked; - and, fourteen years after Biard and Masse had landed in Acadia, Canada - beheld for the first time those whose names stand so prominent in her - annals,—the mysterious followers of Loyola. Their reception was most - inauspicious. Champlain was absent. Caen would not lodge them in the fort; - the traders would not admit them to their houses. Nothing seemed left for - them but to return as they came; when a boat, bearing several Recollets, - approached the ship to proffer them the hospitalities of the convent on - the St. Charles. They accepted the proffer, and became guests of the - charitable friars, who nevertheless entertained a lurking jealousy of - these formidable co-workers. - </p> - <p> - The Jesuits soon unearthed and publicly burnt a libel against their Order - belonging to some of the traders. Their strength was soon increased. The - Fathers Noirot and De la Noue landed, with twenty laborers, and the - Jesuits were no longer houseless. Brebeuf set forth for the arduous - mission of the Hurons; but on arriving at Trois Rivieres he learned that - one of his Franciscan predecessors, Nicolas Viel, had recently been - drowned by Indians of that tribe, in the rapid behind Montreal, known to - this day as the Saut au Recollet. Less ambitious for martyrdom than he - afterwards approved himself, he postponed his voyage to a more auspicious - season. In the following spring he renewed the attempt, in company with De - la Noue and one of the friars. The Indians, however, refused to receive - him into their canoes, alleging that his tall and portly frame would - overset them; and it was only by dint of many presents that their - pretended scruples could be conquered. Brebeuf embarked with his - companions, and, after months of toil, reached the barbarous scene of his - labors, his sufferings, and his death. - </p> - <p> - Meanwhile the Viceroy had been deeply scandalized by the contumacious - heresy of Emery de Caen, who not only assembled his Huguenot sailors at - prayers, but forced Catholics to join them. He was ordered thenceforth to - prohibit his crews from all praying and psalm-singing on the river St. - Lawrence. The crews revolted, and a compromise was made. It was agreed - that for the present they might pray, but not sing. "A bad bargain," says - the pious Champlain, "but we made the best of it we could." Caen, enraged - at the Viceroy's reproofs, lost no opportunity to vent his spleen against - the Jesuits, whom he cordially hated. - </p> - <p> - Eighteen years had passed since the founding of Quebec, and still the - colony could scarcely be said to exist but in the founder's brain. Those - who should have been its support were engrossed by trade or propagandism. - Champlain might look back on fruitless toils, hopes deferred, a life spent - seemingly in vain. The population of Quebec had risen to a hundred and - five persons, men, women, and children. Of these, one or two families only - had learned to support themselves from the products of the soil. All - withered under the monopoly of the Caens. Champlain had long desired to - rebuild the fort, which was weak and ruinous; but the merchants would not - grant the men and means which, by their charter, they were bound to - furnish. At length, however, his urgency in part prevailed, and the work - began to advance. Meanwhile the Caens and their associates had greatly - prospered, paying, it is said, an annual dividend of forty per cent. In a - single year they brought from Canada twenty-two thousand beaver skins, - though the usual number did not exceed twelve or fifteen thousand. - </p> - <p> - While infant Canada was thus struggling into a half-stifled being, the - foundation of a commonwealth destined to a marvellous vigor of development - had been laid on the Rock of Plymouth. In their character, as in their - destiny, the rivals were widely different; yet, at the outset, New England - was unfaithful to the principle of freedom. New England Protestantism - appealed to Liberty, then closed the door against her; for all - Protestantism is an appeal from priestly authority to the right of private - judgment, and the New England Puritan, after claiming this right for - himself, denied it to all who differed with him. On a stock of freedom he - grafted a scion of despotism; yet the vital juices of the root penetrated - at last to the uttermost branches, and nourished them to an irrepressible - strength and expansion. With New France it was otherwise. She was - consistent to the last. Root, stem, and branch, she was the nursling of - authority. Deadly absolutism blighted her early and her later growth. - Friars and Jesuits, a Ventadour and a Richelieu, shaped her destinies. All - that conflicted against advancing liberty—the centralized power of - the crown and the tiara, the ultramontane in religion, the despotic in - policy—found their fullest expression and most fatal exercise. Her - records shine with glorious deeds, the self-devotion of heroes and of - martyrs; and the result of all is disorder, imbecility, ruin. - </p> - <p> - The great champion of absolutism, Richelieu, was now supreme in France. - His thin frame, pale cheek, and cold, calm eye, concealed an inexorable - will and a mind of vast capacity, armed with all the resources of boldness - and of craft. Under his potent agency, the royal power, in the weak hands - of Louis the Thirteenth, waxed and strengthened daily, triumphing over the - factions of the court, the turbulence of the Huguenots, the ambitious - independence of the nobles, and all the elements of anarchy which, since - the death of Henry the Fourth, had risen into fresh life. With no friends - and a thousand enemies, disliked and feared by the pitiful King whom he - served, making his tool by turns of every party and of every principle, he - advanced by countless crooked paths towards his object,—the - greatness of France under a concentrated and undivided authority. - </p> - <p> - In the midst of more urgent cares, he addressed himself to fostering the - commercial and naval power. Montmorency then held the ancient charge of - Admiral of France. Richelieu bought it, suppressed it, and, in its stead, - constituted himself Grand Master and Superintendent of Navigation and - Commerce. In this new capacity, the mismanaged affairs of New France were - not long concealed from him; and he applied a prompt and powerful remedy. - The privileges of the Caens were annulled. A company was formed, to - consist of a hundred associates, and to be called the Company of New - France. Richelieu himself was the head, and the Marechal Deffiat and other - men of rank, besides many merchants and burghers of condition, were - members. The whole of New France, from Florida to the Arctic Circle, and - from Newfoundland to the sources of the—St. Lawrence and its - tributary waters, was conferred on them forever, with the attributes of - sovereign power. A perpetual monopoly of the fur-trade was granted them, - with a monopoly of all other commerce within the limits of their - government for fifteen years. The trade of the colony was declared free, - for the same period, from all duties and imposts. Nobles, officers, and - ecclesiastics, members of the Company, might engage in commercial pursuits - without derogating from the privileges of their order; and, in evidence of - his good-will, the King gave them two ships of war, armed and equipped. - </p> - <p> - On their part, the Company were bound to convey to New France during the - next year, 1628, two or three hundred men of all trades, and before the - year 1643 to increase the number to four thousand persons, of both sexes; - to lodge and support them for three years; and, this time expired, to give - them cleared lands for their maintenance. Every settler must be a - Frenchman and a Catholic; and for every new settlement at least three - ecclesiastics must be provided. Thus was New France to be forever free - from the taint of heresy. The stain of her infancy was to be wiped away. - Against the foreigner and the Huguenot the door was closed and barred. - England threw open her colonies to all who wished to enter,—to the - suffering and oppressed, the bold, active, and enterprising. France shut - out those who wished to come, and admitted only those who did not,—the - favored class who clung to the old faith and had no motive or disposition - to leave their homes. English colonization obeyed a natural law, and - sailed with wind and tide; French colonization spent its whole struggling - existence in futile efforts to make head against them. The English - colonist developed inherited freedom on a virgin soil; the French colonist - was pursued across the Atlantic by a paternal despotism better in - intention and more withering in effect than that which he left behind. If, - instead of excluding Huguenots, France had given them an asylum in the - west, and left them there to work out their own destinies, Canada would - never have been a British province, and the United States would have - shared their vast domain with a vigorous population of self-governing - Frenchmen. - </p> - <p> - A trading company was now feudal proprietor of all domains in North - America within the claim of France. Fealty and homage on its part, and on - the part of the Crown the appointment of supreme judicial officers, and - the confirmation of the titles of dukes, marquises, counts, and barons, - were the only reservations. The King heaped favors on the new corporation. - Twelve of the bourgeois members were ennobled; while artisans and even - manufacturers were tempted, by extraordinary privileges, to emigrate to - the New World. The associates, of whom Champlain was one, entered upon - their functions with a capital of three hundred thousand livres. - </p> - <p> - <a name="link2HCH0026" id="link2HCH0026"> - <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> - </p> - <div style="height: 4em;"> - <br /><br /><br /><br /> - </div> - <h2> - CHAPTER XVI. - </h2> - <h3> - 1628, 1629. - </h3> - <p> - THE ENGLISH AT QUEBEC. - </p> - <p> - The first care of the new Company was to succor Quebec, whose inmates were - on the verge of starvation. Four armed vessels, with a fleet of transports - commanded by Roquemont, one of the associates, sailed from Dieppe with - colonists and supplies in April, 1628; but nearly at the same time another - squadron, destined also for Quebec, was sailing from an English port. War - had at length broken out in France. The Huguenot revolt had come to a - head. Rochelle was in arms against the King; and Richelieu, with his royal - ward, was beleaguering it with the whole strength of the kingdom. Charles - the First of England, urged by the heated passions of Buckingham, had - declared himself for the rebels, and sent a fleet to their aid. At home, - Charles detested the followers of Calvin as dangerous to his own - authority; abroad, he befriended them as dangerous to the authority of a - rival. In France, Richelieu crushed Protestantism as a curb to the house - of Bourbon; in Germany, he nursed and strengthened it as a curb to the - house of Austria. - </p> - <p> - The attempts of Sir William Alexander to colonize Acadia had of late - turned attention in England towards the New World; and on the breaking out - of the war an expedition was set on foot, under the auspices of that - singular personage, to seize on the French possessions in North America. - It was a private enterprise, undertaken by London merchants, prominent - among whom was Gervase Kirke, an Englishman of Derbyshire, who had long - lived at Dieppe, and had there married a Frenchwoman. Gervase Kirke and - his associates fitted out three small armed ships, commanded respectively - by his sons David, Lewis, and Thomas. Letters of marque were obtained from - the King, and the adventurers were authorized to drive out the French from - Acadia and Canada. Many Huguenot refugees were among the crews. Having - been expelled from New France as settlers, the persecuted sect were - returning as enemies. One Captain Michel, who had been in the service of - the Caens, "a furious Calvinist," is said to have instigated the attempt, - acting, it is affirmed, under the influence of one of his former - employers. - </p> - <p> - Meanwhile the famished tenants of Quebec were eagerly waiting the expected - succor. Daily they gazed beyond Point Levi and along the channels of - Orleans, in the vain hope of seeing the approaching sails. At length, on - the ninth of July, two men, worn with struggling through forests and over - torrents, crossed the St. Charles and mounted the rock. They were from - Cape Tourmente, where Champlain had some time before established an - outpost, and they brought news that, according to the report of Indians, - six large vessels lay in the harbor of Tadoussac. The friar Le Caron was - at Quebec, and, with a brother Recollet, he went in a canoe to gain - further intelligence. As the missionary scouts were paddling along the - borders of the Island of Orleans, they met two canoes advancing in hot - haste, manned by Indians, who with shouts and gestures warned them to turn - back. - </p> - <p> - The friars, however, waited till the canoes came up, when they saw a man - lying disabled at the bottom of one of them, his moustaches burned by the - flash of the musket which had wounded him. He proved to be Foucher, who - commanded at Cape Tourmente. On that morning,—such was the story of - the fugitives,—twenty men had landed at that post from a small - fishing-vessel. Being to all appearance French, they were hospitably - received; but no sooner had they entered the houses than they began to - pillage and burn all before them, killing the cattle, wounding the - commandant, and making several prisoners. - </p> - <p> - The character of the fleet at Tadoussac was now sufficiently clear. Quebec - was incapable of defence. Only fifty pounds of gunpowder were left in the - magazine; and the fort, owing to the neglect and ill-will of the Caens, - was so wretchedly constructed, that, a few days before, two towers of the - main building had fallen. Champlain, however, assigned to each man his - post, and waited the result. On the next afternoon, a boat was seen - issuing from behind the Point of Orleans and hovering hesitatingly about - the mouth of the St. Charles. On being challenged, the men on board proved - to be Basque fishermen, lately captured by the English, and now sent by - Kirke unwilling messengers to Champlain. Climbing the steep pathway to the - fort, they delivered their letter,—a summons, couched in terms of - great courtesy, to surrender Quebec. There was no hope but in courage. A - bold front must supply the lack of batteries and ramparts; and Champlain - dismissed the Basques with a reply, in which, with equal courtesy, he - expressed his determination to hold his position to the last. - </p> - <p> - All now stood on the watch, hourly expecting the enemy; when, instead of - the hostile squadron, a small boat crept into sight, and one Desdames, - with ten Frenchmen, landed at the storehouses. He brought stirring news. - The French commander, Roquemont, had despatched him to tell Champlain that - the ships of the Hundred Associates were ascending the St. Lawrence, with - reinforcements and supplies of all kinds. But on his way Desdames had seen - an ominous sight,—the English squadron standing under full sail out - of Tadoussac, and steering downwards as if to intercept the advancing - succor. He had only escaped them by dragging his boat up the beach and - hiding it; and scarcely were they out of sight when the booming of cannon - told him that the fight was begun. - </p> - <p> - Racked with suspense, the starving tenants of Quebec waited the result; - but they waited in vain. No white sail moved athwart the green solitudes - of Orleans. Neither friend nor foe appeared; and it was not till long - afterward that Indians brought them the tidings that Roquemont's crowded - transports had been overpowered, and all the supplies destined to relieve - their miseries sunk in the St. Lawrence or seized by the victorious - English. Kirke, however, deceived by the bold attitude of Champlain, had - been too discreet to attack Quebec, and after his victory employed himself - in cruising for French fishing-vessels along the borders of the Gulf. - </p> - <p> - Meanwhile, the suffering at Quebec increased daily. Somewhat less than a - hundred men, women, and children were cooped up in the fort, subsisting on - a meagre pittance of pease and Indian corn. The garden of the Heberts, the - only thrifty settlers, was ransacked for every root or seed that could - afford nutriment. Months wore on, and in the spring the distress had risen - to such a pitch that Champlain had wellnigh resolved to leave to the - women, children, and sick the little food that remained, and with the - able-bodied men invade the Iroquois, seize one of their villages, fortify - himself in it, and sustain his followers on the buried stores of maize - with which the strongholds of these provident savages were always - furnished. - </p> - <p> - Seven ounces of pounded pease were now the daily food of each; and, at the - end of May, even this failed. Men, women, and children betook themselves - to the woods, gathering acorns and grubbing up roots. Those of the plant - called Solomon's seal were most in request. Some joined the Hurons or the - Algonquins; some wandered towards the Abenakis of Maine; some descended in - a boat to Gaspe, trusting to meet a French fishing-vessel. There was - scarcely one who would not have hailed the English as deliverers. But the - English had sailed home with their booty, and the season was so late that - there was little prospect of their return. Forgotten alike by friends and - foes, Quebec was on the verge of extinction. - </p> - <p> - On the morning of the nineteenth of July, an Indian, renowned as a fisher - of eels, who had built his hut on the St. Charles, hard by the new - dwelling of the Jesuits, came, with his usual imperturbability of visage, - to Champlain. He had just discovered three ships sailing up the south - channel of Orleans. Champlain was alone. All his followers were absent, - fishing or searching for roots. At about ten o'clock his servant appeared - with four small bags of roots, and the tidings that he had seen the three - ships a league off, behind Point Levi. As man after man hastened in, - Champlain ordered the starved and ragged band, sixteen in all, to their - posts, whence with hungry eyes, they watched the English vessels anchoring - in the basin below, and a boat with a white flag moving towards the shore. - A young officer landed with a summons to surrender. The terms of - capitulation were at length settled. The French were to be conveyed to - their own country, and each soldier was allowed to take with him his - clothes, and, in addition, a coat of beaver-skin. On this some murmuring - rose, several of those who had gone to the Hurons having lately returned - with peltry of no small value. Their complaints were vain; and on the - twentieth of July, amid the roar of cannon from the ships, Lewis Kirke, - the Admiral's brother, landed at the head of his soldiers, and planted the - cross of St. George where the followers of Wolfe again planted it a - hundred and thirty years later. After inspecting the worthless fort, he - repaired to the houses of the Recollets and Jesuits on the St. Charles. He - treated the former with great courtesy, but displayed against the latter a - violent aversion, expressing his regret that he could not have begun his - operations by battering their house about their ears. The inhabitants had - no cause to complain of him. He urged the widow and family of the settler - Hebert, the patriarch, as he has been styled, of New France, to remain and - enjoy the fruits of their industry under English allegiance; and, as - beggary in France was the alternative, his offer was accepted. - </p> - <p> - Champlain, bereft of his command, grew restless, and begged to be sent to - Tadoussac, where the Admiral, David Kirke, lay with his main squadron, - having sent his brothers Lewis and Thomas to seize Quebec. Accordingly, - Champlain, with the Jesuits, embarking with Thomas Kirke, descended the - river. Off Mal Bay a strange sail was seen. As she approached, she proved - to be a French ship, in fact, she was on her way to Quebec with supplies, - which, if earlier sent, would have saved the place. She had passed the - Admiral's squadron in a fog; but here her good fortune ceased. Thomas - Kirke bore down on her, and the cannonade began. The fight was hot and - doubtful; but at length the French struck, and Kirke sailed into Tadoussac - with his prize. Here lay his brother, the Admiral, with five armed ships. - </p> - <p> - The Admiral's two voyages to Canada were private ventures; and though he - had captured nineteen fishing-vessels, besides Roquemont's eighteen - transports and other prizes, the result had not answered his hopes. His - mood, therefore, was far from benign, especially as he feared, that, owing - to the declaration of peace, he would be forced to disgorge a part of his - booty; yet, excepting the Jesuits, he treated his captives with courtesy, - and often amused himself with shooting larks on shore in company with - Champlain. The Huguenots, however, of whom there were many in his ships, - showed an exceeding bitterness against the Catholics. Chief among them was - Michel, who had instigated and conducted the enterprise, the merchant - admiral being but an indifferent seaman. Michel, whose skill was great, - held a high command and the title of Rear-Admiral. He was a man of a - sensitive temperament, easily piqued on the point of honor. His morbid and - irritable nerves were wrought to the pitch of frenzy by the reproaches of - treachery and perfidy with which the French prisoners assailed him, while, - on the other hand, he was in a state of continual rage at the fancied - neglect and contumely of his English associates. He raved against Kirke, - who, as he declared, treated him with an insupportable arrogance. "I have - left my country," he exclaimed, "for the service of foreigners; and they - give me nothing but ingratitude and scorn." His fevered mind, acting on - his diseased body, often excited him to transports of fury, in which he - cursed indiscriminately the people of St. Malo, against whom he had a - grudge, and the Jesuits, whom he detested. On one occasion, Kirke was - conversing with some of the latter. - </p> - <p> - "Gentlemen," he said, "your business in Canada was to enjoy what belonged - to M. de Caen, whom you dispossessed." - </p> - <p> - "Pardon me, sir," answered Brebeuf, "we came purely for the glory of God, - and exposed ourselves to every kind of danger to convert the Indians." - </p> - <p> - Here Michel broke in: "Ay, ay, convert the Indians! You mean, convert the - beaver!" - </p> - <p> - "That is false!" retorted Brebeuf. - </p> - <p> - Michel raised his fist, exclaiming, "But for the respect I owe the - General, I would strike you for giving me the lie." - </p> - <p> - Brebeuf, a man of powerful frame and vehement passions, nevertheless - regained his practised self-command, and replied: "You must excuse me. I - did not mean to give you the lie. I should be very sorry to do so. The - words I used are those we use in the schools when a doubtful question is - advanced, and they mean no offence. Therefore I ask you to pardon me." - </p> - <p> - Despite the apology, Michel's frenzied brain harped the presumed insult, - and he raved about it without ceasing. - </p> - <p> - "Bon Dieu!" said Champlain, "you swear well for a Reformer!" - </p> - <p> - "I know it," returned Michel; "I should be content if I had but struck - that Jesuit who gave me the lie before my General." - </p> - <p> - At length, one of his transports of rage ended in a lethargy from which he - never awoke. His funeral was conducted with a pomp suited to his rank; - and, amid discharges of cannon whose dreary roar was echoed from the - yawning gulf of the Saguenay, his body was borne to its rest under the - rocks of Tadoussac. Good Catholics and good Frenchmen saw in his fate the - immediate finger of Providence. "I do not doubt that his soul is in - perdition," remarks Champlain, who, however, had endeavored to befriend - the unfortunate man during the access of his frenzy. - </p> - <p> - Having finished their carousings, which were profuse, and their trade with - the Indians, which was not lucrative, the English steered down the St. - Lawrence. Kirke feared greatly a meeting with Razilly, a naval officer of - distinction, who was to have sailed from France with a strong force to - succor Quebec; but, peace having been proclaimed, the expedition had been - limited to two ships under Captain Daniel. Thus Kirke, wilfully ignoring - the treaty of peace, was left to pursue his depredations unmolested. - Daniel, however, though too weak to cope with him, achieved a signal - exploit. On the island of Cape Breton, near the site of Louisburg, he - found an English fort, built two months before, under the auspices, - doubtless, of Sir William Alexander. Daniel, regarding it as a bold - encroachment on French territory, stormed it at the head of his pike-men, - entered sword in hand, and took it with all its defenders. - </p> - <p> - Meanwhile, Kirke with his prisoners was crossing the Atlantic. His - squadron at length reached Plymouth, whence Champlain set out for London. - Here he had an interview with the French ambassador, who, at his instance, - gained from the King a promise, that, in pursuance of the terms of the - treaty concluded in the previous April, New France should be restored to - the French Crown. - </p> - <p> - It long remained a mystery why Charles consented to a stipulation which - pledged him to resign so important a conquest. The mystery is explained by - the recent discovery of a letter from the King to Sir Isaac Wake, his - ambassador at Paris. The promised dowry of Queen Henrietta Maria, - amounting to eight hundred thousand crowns, had been but half paid by the - French government, and Charles, then at issue with his Parliament, and in - desperate need of money, instructs his ambassador, that, when he receives - the balance due, and not before, he is to give up to the French both - Quebec and Port Royal, which had also been captured by Kirke. The letter - was accompanied by "solemn instruments under our hand and seal" to make - good the transfer on fulfillment of the condition. It was for a sum equal - to about two hundred and forty thousand dollars that Charles entailed on - Great Britain and her colonies a century of bloody wars. The Kirkes and - their associates, who had made the conquest at their own cost, under the - royal authority, were never reimbursed, though David Kirke received the - honor of knighthood, which cost the King nothing. - </p> - <p> - <a name="link2HCH0027" id="link2HCH0027"> - <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> - </p> - <div style="height: 4em;"> - <br /><br /><br /><br /> - </div> - <h2> - CHAPTER XVII. - </h2> - <h3> - 1632-1635. - </h3> - <p> - DEATH OF CHAMPLAIN. - </p> - <p> - On Monday, the fifth of July, 1632, Emery de Caen anchored before Quebec. - He was commissioned by the French Crown to reclaim the place from the - English; to hold for one year a monopoly of the fur-trade, as an indemnity - for his losses in the war; and, when this time had expired, to give place - to the Hundred Associates of New France. - </p> - <p> - By the convention of Suza, New France was to be restored to the French - Crown; yet it had been matter of debate whether a fulfillment of this - engagement was worth the demanding. That wilderness of woods and savages - had been ruinous to nearly all connected with it. The Caens, successful at - first, had suffered heavily in the end. The Associates were on the verge - of bankruptcy. These deserts were useless unless peopled; and to people - them would depopulate France. Thus argued the inexperienced reasoners of - the time, judging from the wretched precedents of Spanish and Portuguese - colonization. The world had not as yet the example of an island kingdom, - which, vitalized by a stable and regulated liberty, has peopled a - continent and spread colonies over all the earth, gaining constantly new - vigor with the matchless growth of its offspring. - </p> - <p> - On the other hand, honor, it was urged, demanded that France should be - reinstated in the land which she had discovered and explored. Should she, - the centre of civilization, remain cooped up within her own narrow limits, - while rivals and enemies were sharing the vast regions of the West? The - commerce and fisheries of New France would in time become a school for - French sailors. Mines even now might be discovered; arid the fur-trade, - well conducted, could not but be a source of wealth. Disbanded soldiers - and women from the streets might be shipped to Canada. Thus New France - would be peopled and old France purified. A power more potent than reason - reinforced such arguments. Richelieu seems to have regarded it as an act - of personal encroachment that the subjects of a foreign crown should seize - on the domain of a company of which he was the head; and it could not be - supposed, that, with power to eject them, the arrogant minister would - suffer them to remain in undisturbed possession. - </p> - <p> - A spirit far purer and more generous was active in the same behalf. The - character of Champlain belonged rather to the Middle Age than to the - seventeenth century. Long toil and endurance had calmed the adventurous - enthusiasm of his youth into a steadfast earnestness of purpose; and he - gave himself with a loyal zeal and devotedness to the profoundly mistaken - principles which he had espoused. In his mind, patriotism and religion - were inseparably linked. France was the champion of Christianity, and her - honor, her greatness, were involved in her fidelity to this high function. - Should she abandon to perdition the darkened nations among whom she had - cast the first faint rays of hope? Among the members of the Company were - those who shared his zeal; and though its capital was exhausted, and many - of the merchants were withdrawing in despair, these enthusiasts formed a - subordinate association, raised a new fund, and embarked on the venture - afresh. - </p> - <p> - England, then, resigned her prize, and Caen was despatched to reclaim - Quebec from the reluctant hands of Thomas Kirke. The latter, obedient to - an order from the King of England, struck his flag, embarked his - followers, and abandoned the scene of his conquest. Caen landed with the - Jesuits, Paul le Jeune and Anne de la Noue. They climbed the steep - stairway which led up the rock, and, as they reached the top, the - dilapidated fort lay on their left, while farther on was the stone cottage - of the Heberts, surrounded with its vegetable gardens,—the only - thrifty spot amid a scene of neglect. But few Indians could be seen. True - to their native instincts, they had, at first, left the defeated French - and welcomed the conquerors. Their English partialities were, however, but - short-lived. Their intrusion into houses and store-rooms, the stench of - their tobacco, and their importunate begging, though before borne - patiently, were rewarded by the newcomers with oaths and sometimes with - blows. The Indians soon shunned Quebec, seldom approaching it except when - drawn by necessity or a craving for brandy. This was now the case; and - several Algonquin families, maddened with drink, were howling, screeching, - and fighting within their bark lodges. The women were frenzied like the - men, it was dangerous to approach the place unarmed. - </p> - <p> - In the following spring, 1633, on the twenty-third of May, Champlain, - commissioned anew by Richelieu, resumed command at Quebec in behalf of the - Company. Father le Jeune, Superior of the mission, was wakened from his - morning sleep by the boom of the saluting cannon. Before he could sally - forth, the convent door was darkened by the stately form of his brother - Jesuit, Brebeuf, newly arrived; and the Indians who stood by uttered - ejaculations of astonishment at the raptures of their greeting. The father - hastened to the fort, and arrived in time to see a file of musketeers and - pikemen mounting the pathway of the cliff below, and the heretic Caen - resigning the keys of the citadel into the Catholic hands of Champlain. Le - Jeune's delight exudes in praises of one not always a theme of Jesuit - eulogy, but on whom, in the hope of a continuance of his favors, no praise - could now be ill bestowed. "I sometimes think that this great man - [Richelieu], who by his admirable wisdom and matchless conduct of affairs - is so renowned on earth, is preparing for himself a dazzling crown of - glory in heaven by the care he evinces for the conversion of so many lost - infidel souls in this savage land. I pray affectionately for him every - day," etc. - </p> - <p> - For Champlain, too, he has praises which, if more measured, are at least - as sincere. Indeed, the Father Superior had the best reason to be pleased - with the temporal head of the colony. In his youth, Champlain had fought - on the side of that; more liberal and national form of Romanism of which - the Jesuits were the most emphatic antagonists. Now, as Le Jeune tells us, - with evident contentment, he chose him, the Jesuit, as director of his - conscience. In truth, there were none but Jesuits to confess and absolve - him; for the Recollets, prevented, to their deep chagrin, from returning - to the missions they had founded, were seen no more in Canada, and the - followers of Loyola were sole masters of the field. The manly heart of the - commandant, earnest, zealous, and direct, was seldom chary of its - confidence, or apt to stand too warily on its guard in presence of a - profound art mingled with a no less profound sincerity. - </p> - <p> - A stranger visiting the fort of Quebec would have been astonished at its - air of conventual decorum. Black Jesuits and scarfed officers mingled at - Champlain's table. There was little conversation, but, in its place, - histories and the lives of saints were read aloud, as in a monastic - refectory. Prayers, masses, and confessions followed one another with an - edifying regularity, and the bell of the adjacent chapel, built by - Champlain, rang morning, noon, and night. Godless soldiers caught the - infection, and whipped themselves in penance for their sins. Debauched - artisans outdid each other in the fury of their contrition. Quebec was - become a mission. Indians gathered thither as of old, not from the baneful - lure of brandy, for the traffic in it was no longer tolerated, but from - the less pernicious attractions of gifts, kind words, and politic - blandishments. To the vital principle of propagandism both the commercial - and the military character were subordinated; or, to speak more justly, - trade, policy, and military power leaned on the missions as their main - support, the grand instrument of their extension. The missions were to - explore the interior; the missions were to win over the savage hordes at - once to Heaven and to France. Peaceful, benign, beneficent, were the - weapons of this conquest. France aimed to subdue, not by the sword, but by - the cross; not to overwhelm and crush the nations she invaded, but to - convert, civilize, and embrace them among her children. - </p> - <p> - And who were the instruments and the promoters of this proselytism, at - once so devout and so politic? Who can answer? Who can trace out the - crossing and mingling currents of wisdom and folly, ignorance and - knowledge, truth and falsehood, weakness and force, the noble and the - base, can analyze a systematized contradiction, and follow through its - secret wheels, springs, and levers a phenomenon of moral mechanism? Who - can define the Jesuits? The story of their missions is marvellous as a - tale of chivalry, or legends of the lives of saints. For many years, it - was the history of New France and of the wild communities of her desert - empire. - </p> - <p> - Two years passed. The mission of the Hurons was established, and here the - indomitable Breheuf, with a band worthy of him, toiled amid miseries and - perils as fearful as ever shook the constancy of man; while Champlain at - Quebec, in a life uneventful, yet harassing and laborious, was busied in - the round of cares which his post involved. - </p> - <p> - Christmas day, 1635, was a dark day in the annals of New France. In a - chamber of the fort, breathless and cold, lay the hardy frame which war, - the wilderness, and the sea had buffeted so long in vain. After two months - and a half of illness, Champlain, stricken with paralysis, at the age of - sixty-eight, was dead. His last cares were for his colony and the succor - of its suffering families. Jesuits, officers, soldiers, traders, and the - few settlers of Quebec followed his remains to the church; Le Jeune - pronounced his eulogy, and the feeble community built a tomb to his honor. - </p> - <p> - The colony could ill spare him. For twenty-seven years he had labored hard - and ceaselessly for its welfare, sacrificing fortune, repose, and domestic - peace to a cause embraced with enthusiasm and pursued with intrepid - persistency. His character belonged partly to the past, partly to the - present. The preux chevalier, the crusader, the romance-loving explorer, - the curious, knowledge-seeking traveler, the practical navigator, all - claimed their share in him. His views, though far beyond those of the mean - spirits around him, belonged to his age and his creed. He was less - statesman than soldier. He leaned to the most direct and boldest policy, - and one of his last acts was to petition Richelieu for men and munitions - for repressing that standing menace to the colony, the Iroquois. His - dauntless courage was matched by an unwearied patience, proved by - life-long vexations, and not wholly subdued even by the saintly follies of - his wife. He is charged with credulity, from which few of his age were - free, and which in all ages has been the foible of earnest and generous - natures, too ardent to criticise, and too honorable to doubt the honor of - others. Perhaps the heretic might have liked him more if the Jesuit had - liked him less. The adventurous explorer of Lake Huron, the bold invader - of the Iroquois, befits but indifferently the monastic sobrieties of the - fort of Quebec, and his sombre environment of priests. Yet Champlain was - no formalist, nor was his an empty zeal. A soldier from his youth, in an - age of unbridled license, his life had answered to his maxims; and when a - generation had passed after his visit to the Hurons, their elders - remembered with astonishment the continence of the great French war-chief. - </p> - <p> - His books mark the man,—all for his theme and his purpose, nothing - for himself. Crude in style, full of the superficial errors of - carelessness and haste, rarely diffuse, often brief to a fault, they bear - on every page the palpable impress of truth. - </p> - <p> - With the life of the faithful soldier closes the opening period of New - France. Heroes of another stamp succeed; and it remains to tell the story - of their devoted lives, their faults, follies, and virtues. - </p> - <p> - <a name="link2H_END" id="link2H_END"> - <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> - </p> - <div style="height: 4em;"> - <br /><br /><br /><br /> - </div> - <h2> - END NOTES: - </h2> - <p> - <a name="linknote-1" id="linknote-1"> - <!-- Note --></a> - </p> - <p class="foot"> - 1 (<a href="#linknoteref-1">return</a>)<br /> [ Herrera, Hist. General, - Dec. I. Lib. LX. c. 11; De Laet, Novus Orbis, Lib. I. C. 16 Garcilaso, - Just. de la Florida, Part I. Lib. I. C. 3; Gomara, Ilist. Gin. des Indes - Occidentales, Lib. II. c. 10. Compare Peter Martyr, De Rebus Oceanicis, - Dec. VII. c. 7, who says that the fountain was in Florida. - </p> - <p class="foot"> - The story has an explanation sufficiently characteristic, having been - suggested, it is said, by the beauty of the native women, which none could - resist, and which kindled the fires of youth in the veins of age. - </p> - <p class="foot"> - The terms of Ponce de Leon's bargain with the King are set forth in the - MS. Gapitnincion con Juan Ponce sobre Biminy. He was to have exclusive - right to the island, settle it at his own cost, and be called Adelantado - of Bimini; but the King was to build and hold forts there, send agents to - divide the Indians among the settlers, and receive first a tenth, - afterwards a fifth, of the gold.] - </p> - <p> - <a name="linknote-2" id="linknote-2"> - <!-- Note --></a> - </p> - <p class="foot"> - 2 (<a href="#linknoteref-2">return</a>)<br /> [ Fontanedo in - Ternaux-Compans, Recueil sur la Floride, 18, 19, 42. Compare Herrera, Dec. - I. Lib. IX. c. 12. In allusion to this belief, the name Jordan was given - eight years afterwards by Ayllon to a river of South Carolina.] - </p> - <p> - <a name="linknote-3" id="linknote-3"> - <!-- Note --></a> - </p> - <p class="foot"> - 3 (<a href="#linknoteref-3">return</a>)<br /> [ Hakinyt, Voyaqes, V. 838; - Barcia, Ensayo Cronologico, 5.] - </p> - <p> - <a name="linknote-4" id="linknote-4"> - <!-- Note --></a> - </p> - <p class="foot"> - 4 (<a href="#linknoteref-4">return</a>)<br /> [ Peter Martyr in Hakinyt. V. - 333; De Laet, Lib. IV. c. 2.] - </p> - <p> - <a name="linknote-5" id="linknote-5"> - <!-- Note --></a> - </p> - <p class="foot"> - 5 (<a href="#linknoteref-5">return</a>)<br /> [ Their own exaggerated - reckoning. The journey was prohably from Tampa Bay to the Appalachicola, - by a circuitous route.] - </p> - <p> - <a name="linknote-6" id="linknote-6"> - <!-- Note --></a> - </p> - <p class="foot"> - 6 (<a href="#linknoteref-6">return</a>)<br /> [ Narrative of Alvar Nunez - Caheca de Vaca, second in command to Narvaez, translated by Buckingham - Smith. Cabeca do Vaca was one of the four who escaped, and, after living - for years among the tribes of Mississippi, crossed the river Mississippi - near Memphis, journeyed westward by the waters of the Arkansas and Red - River to New Mexico and Chihuahua, thence to Cinaloa on the Gulf of - California, and thence to Mexico. The narrative is one of the most - remarkable of the early relations. See also Ramusin, III. 310, and - Purchas, IV. 1499, where a portion of Cabeca de Vaca is given. Also, - Garcilaso, Part I. Lib. I. C. 3; Gomara, Lih. II. a. 11; De Laet, Lib. IV. - c. 3; Barcia, Ensayo Crenolegico, 19.] - </p> - <p> - <a name="linknote-7" id="linknote-7"> - <!-- Note --></a> - </p> - <p class="foot"> - 7 (<a href="#linknoteref-7">return</a>)<br /> [ I have followed the - accounts of Biedma and the Portuguese of Elvas, rejecting the romantic - narrative of Garcilaso, in which fiction is hopelessly mingled with - truth.] - </p> - <p> - <a name="linknote-8" id="linknote-8"> - <!-- Note --></a> - </p> - <p class="foot"> - 8 (<a href="#linknoteref-8">return</a>)<br /> [ The spirit of this and - other Spanish enterprises may be gathered from the following passage in an - address to the King, signed by Dr. Pedro do Santander, and dated 15 July, - 1557:- "It is lawful that your Majesty, like a good shepherd, appointed by - the hand of the Eternal Father, should tend and lead out your sheep, since - the Holy Spirit has shown spreading pastures whereon are feeding lost - sheep which have been snatched away by the dragon, the Demon. These - pastures are the New World, wherein is comprised Florida, now in - possession of the Demon, and here he makes himself adored and revered. - This is the Land of Promise, possessed by idolaters, the Amorite, - Ainalekite, Moabite, Cauaauite. This is the land promised by the Eternal - Father to the faithful, since we are commanded by God in the Holy - Scriptures to take it from them, being idolaters, and, by reason of their - idolatry and sin, to put them all to the knife, leaving no living thing - save maidens and children, their cities robbed and sacked, their walls and - houses levelled to the earth." - </p> - <p class="foot"> - The writer then goes into detail, proposing to occupy Florida at various - points with from one thousand to fifteen hundred colonists, found a city - to be called Philippina, also another at Tuscaloosa, to be called Cxsarea, - another at Tallahassee, and another at Tampa Bay, where he thinks many - slaves can be had. Carta del Doctor Pedro de Santander.] - </p> - <p> - <a name="linknote-9" id="linknote-9"> - <!-- Note --></a> - </p> - <p class="foot"> - 9 (<a href="#linknoteref-9">return</a>)<br /> [ The True and Last - Discoverie of Florida, made by Captian John Ribault, in the Yeere 1692, - dedicated to a great Nobleman in Fraunce, and translated into Englishe by - one Thomas Haclcit, This is Ribaut's journal, which seems not to exist in - the original. The translation is contained in the rare black-letter tract - of Hakinyt called Divers Voyages (London, 1582), a copy of which is in the - library of Harvard College. It has been reprinted by the Hakluyt Society. - The journal first appeared in 1563, under the title of The Whole and True - Discoverie of Terra Florida (Englished The Florishing Land). This edition - is of extreme rarity.] - </p> - <p> - <a name="linknote-10" id="linknote-10"> - <!-- Note --></a> - </p> - <p class="foot"> - 10 (<a href="#linknoteref-10">return</a>)<br /> [ Ribaut thinks that the - Broad River of Port Royal is the Jordan of the Spanish navigator Yasquez - de Ayllon, who was here in 1520, and gave the name of St. Helena to a - neighboring cape (Garcilaso, Florida del Inca). The adjacent district, now - called St. Helena, is the Chicora of the old Spanish maps.] - </p> - <p> - <a name="linknote-11" id="linknote-11"> - <!-- Note --></a> - </p> - <p class="foot"> - 11 (<a href="#linknoteref-11">return</a>)<br /> [ No trace of this fort has - been found. The old fort of which the remains may be seen a little below - Beaufort is of later date.] - </p> - <p> - <a name="linknote-12" id="linknote-12"> - <!-- Note --></a> - </p> - <p class="foot"> - 12 (<a href="#linknoteref-12">return</a>)<br /> [ For all the latter part - of the chapter, the authority is the first of the three long letters of - Rena de Laudonniere, Companion of Ribaut and his successor in command. - They are contained in the Histoire Notable de la Floride, compiled by - Basanier (Paris, 1586), and are also to he found, quaintly "done into - English," in the third volume of Hakluyt's great collection. In the main, - they are entitled to much confidence.] - </p> - <p> - <a name="linknote-13" id="linknote-13"> - <!-- Note --></a> - </p> - <p class="foot"> - 13 (<a href="#linknoteref-13">return</a>)<br /> [ Above St. John's Bluff - the shore curves in a semicircle, along which the water runs in a deep, - strong current, which has half cut away the flat knoll above mentioned, - and encroached greatly on the bluff itself. The formation of the ground, - joined to the indicatons furnished by Laudonniere and Le Moyne, leave - little doubt that the fort was built on the knoll.] - </p> - <p> - <a name="linknote-14" id="linknote-14"> - <!-- Note --></a> - </p> - <p class="foot"> - 14 (<a href="#linknoteref-14">return</a>)<br /> [ I La Caille, as before - mentioned, was Laudonniere's sergeant. The feudal rank of sergeant, it - will be remembered, was widely different from the modern grade so named, - and was held by men of noble birth. Le Moyne calls La Caille "Captain."] - </p> - <p> - <a name="linknote-15" id="linknote-15"> - <!-- Note --></a> - </p> - <p class="foot"> - 15 (<a href="#linknoteref-15">return</a>)<br /> [ Laudonniere in Hakinyt, - III. 406. Brinton, Floridian Peninsula, thinks there is truth in the - story, and that Lake Weir, in Marion County, is the Lake of Sarrope. I - give these romantic tales as I find them.] - </p> - <p> - <a name="linknote-16" id="linknote-16"> - <!-- Note --></a> - </p> - <p class="foot"> - 16 (<a href="#linknoteref-16">return</a>)<br /> [ This scene is the subject - of Plate XII. of Le Moyne.] - </p> - <p> - <a name="linknote-17" id="linknote-17"> - <!-- Note --></a> - </p> - <p class="foot"> - 17 (<a href="#linknoteref-17">return</a>)<br /> [ Le Moyne drew a picture - of the fight (Plate XIII.). In the foreground Ottigny is engaged in single - combat with a gigantic savage, who, with club upheaved, aims a deadly - stroke at the plumed helmet of his foe; but the latter, with target raised - to guard his head, darts under the arms of the naked Goliath, and - transfixes him with his sword.] - </p> - <p> - <a name="linknote-18" id="linknote-18"> - <!-- Note --></a> - </p> - <p class="foot"> - 18 (<a href="#linknoteref-18">return</a>)<br /> [ For Hawkins, see the - three narratives in Hakinyt, III. 594; Purchas, IV. 1177; Stow, Chron., - 807; Biog. Briton., Art. Hawkins; Anderson, History of Commerce, I. 400. - </p> - <p class="foot"> - He was not knighted until after the voyage of 1564-65; hence there is an - anachronism in the text. As he was held "to have opened a new trade," he - was entitled to bear as his crest a "Moor" or negro, bound with a cord. In - Fairhairn's Crests of Great Britain and Ireland, where it is figured, it - is described, not as a negro, but as a "naked man." In Burke's Landed - Gentry, it is said that Sir John obtained it in honor of a great victory - over the Moors! His only African victories were in kidnapping raids on - negro villages. In Letters on Certain Passages in the Life of Sir John - Hawkins, the coat is engraved in detail. The "demi-Moor" has the thick - lips, the flat nose, and the wool of the unequivocal negro. - </p> - <p class="foot"> - Sir John became Treasurer of the Royal Navy and Rear-Admiral, and founded - a marine hospital at Chatham.] - </p> - <p> - <a name="linknote-19" id="linknote-19"> - <!-- Note --></a> - </p> - <p class="foot"> - 19 (<a href="#linknoteref-19">return</a>)<br /> [ "Better a ruined kingdom, - true to itself and its king, than one left unharmed to the profit of the - Devil and the heretics."— Correspondance de Philippe II., cited by - Prescott, Philip IL, Book III. c. 2, note 36. - </p> - <p class="foot"> - "A prince can do nothing more shameful, or more hurtful to himself, than - to permit his people to live according to their conscience." The Duke of - Alva, in Davila, Lib. III. p. 341.] - </p> - <p> - <a name="linknote-20" id="linknote-20"> - <!-- Note --></a> - </p> - <p class="foot"> - 20 (<a href="#linknoteref-20">return</a>)<br /> [ Cartas escritas al Rep - per el General Pero Menendez de Aeilgs. These are the official despatches - of Menendez, of which the originals are preserved in the archives of - Seville. They are very voluminous and minute in detail. Copies of them - were ohtained by the aid of Buckiugham Smith, Esq., to whom the writer is - also indebted for various other documents from the same source, throwing - new light on the events descrihed. Menendez calls Port Royal St. Elena, "a - name afterwards applied to the sound which still retains it." Compare - Historical Magazine, IV. 320.] - </p> - <p> - <a name="linknote-21" id="linknote-21"> - <!-- Note --></a> - </p> - <p class="foot"> - 21 (<a href="#linknoteref-21">return</a>)<br /> [ This was not so - remarkable as it may appear. Charnock, History of Marine Architecture - gives the tonnage of the ships of the Invincible Armada. The flag-ship of - the Andalusian squadron was of fifteen hundred and fifty tons; several - were of about twelve hundred.] - </p> - <p> - <a name="linknote-22" id="linknote-22"> - <!-- Note --></a> - </p> - <p class="foot"> - 22 (<a href="#linknoteref-22">return</a>)<br /> [ Barcia, 69. The following - passage in one of the unpublished letters of Menendez seems to indicate - that the above is exaggerated: "Your Majesty may he assured by me, that, - had I a million, more or less, I would employ and spend the whole in this - undertaking, it being so greatly to the glory of the God our Lord, and the - increase of our Holy Catholic Faith, and the service and authority of your - Majesty and thus I have offered to our Lord whatever He shall give me in - this world, Whatever I shall possess, gain, or acquire shall be devoted to - the planting of the Gospel in this land, and the enlightenment of the - natives thereof, and this I do promise to your Majesty." This letter is - dated 11 Septemher, 1565. I have examined the country on the line of march - of Menendez. In many places it retains its original features.] - </p> - <p> - <a name="linknote-24" id="linknote-24"> - <!-- Note --></a> - </p> - <p class="foot"> - 24 (<a href="#linknoteref-24">return</a>)<br /> [ Amid all the confusion of - his geographical statements, it seems clear that Menendez believed that - Cheeapeake Bay communicated with the St. Lawrence, and thence with - Newfoundland on the one hand, and the South Sea on the other. The notion - that the St. Lawrence would give access to China survived till the time of - La Salle, or more than a century. In the map of Gastaldi, made, according - to Kohl, about 1550, a belt of water connecting the St. Lawrence and the - Atlantic is laid down. So also in the map of Ruscelli, 1561, and that of - Mactines, 1578, as well as in that of Michael Lok, 1582. In Munster's map, - 1545, the St. Lawrence is rudely indicated, with the words, "Per hoc - fretfl iter ad Molucas."] - </p> - <p> - <a name="linknote-25" id="linknote-25"> - <!-- Note --></a> - </p> - <p class="foot"> - 25 (<a href="#linknoteref-25">return</a>)<br /> [ The "black drink" was, - till a recent period, in use among the Creeks. It is a strong decoctiun of - the plant popularly called eassina, or nupon tea. Major Swan, deputy agent - for the Creeks in 1791, thus describes their belief in its properties: - "that it purifies them from all sin, and leaves them in a state of perfect - innocence; that it inspires them with an invincible prowess in war; and - that it is the only solid cement of friendship, benevolence, and - hospitality." Swan's account of their mode of drinking and ejecting it - corresponds perfectly with Le Moyne's picture in De Bry. See the United - States government publication, History, Condition, and Prospects of Indian - Tribes, V. 266.] - </p> - <p> - <a name="linknote-27" id="linknote-27"> - <!-- Note --></a> - </p> - <p class="foot"> - 27 (<a href="#linknoteref-27">return</a>)<br /> [ The earliest maps and - narratives indicate a city, also called Norembega, on the banks of the - Penobseot. The pilot, Jean Alphonse, of Saintonge, says that this fabulous - city is fifteen or twenty leagues from the sea, and that its inhabitants - are of small stature and dark complexion. As late as 1607 the fable was - repeated in the Histoire Unicerselle des Indes Occidentales.] - </p> - <p> - <a name="linknote-28" id="linknote-28"> - <!-- Note --></a> - </p> - <p class="foot"> - 28 (<a href="#linknoteref-28">return</a>)<br /> [ Such extempore works of - defence are still used among some tribes of the remote west. The author - has twice seen them, made of trees piled together as described by - Champlain, probably by war parties of the Crow or Snake Indians. - Champlain, usually too concise, is very minute in his description of the - march and encampment.] - </p> - <p> - <a name="linknote-29" id="linknote-29"> - <!-- Note --></a> - </p> - <p class="foot"> - 29 (<a href="#linknoteref-29">return</a>)<br /> [ According to Lafitan, - hoth bucklers and breastplates were in frequent use among the Iroquois. - The former were very large and made of cedar wood covered with interwoven - thongs of hide. The kindred nation of the Hurons, says Sagard (Voyage des - hlurens, 126-206), carried large shields, and wore greaves for the legs - and enirasses made of twigs interwoven with cords. His account corresponds - with that of Champlain, who gives a wood-cut of a warrior thus armed.] - </p> - <p> - <a name="linknote-30" id="linknote-30"> - <!-- Note --></a> - </p> - <p class="foot"> - 30 (<a href="#linknoteref-30">return</a>)<br /> [ It has been erroneously - asserted that the practice of scalping did not prevail among the Indians - before the advent of Europeans. In 1535, Cartier saw five scalps at - Quebec, dried and stretched on hoops. In 1564, Laudonniere saw them among - the Indians of Florida. The Algonquins of New England and Nova Scotia were - accustomed to cut off and carry away the head, which they afterwards - scalped. Those of Canada, it seems, sometimes scalped dead bodies on the - field. Thu Algonquin practice of carrying off heads as trophies is - mentioned by Lalemant, Roger Williams, Lescarbot, and Champlain. Compare - Historical Magazine, First Series, V. 233.] - </p> - <p> - <a name="linknote-31" id="linknote-31"> - <!-- Note --></a> - </p> - <p class="foot"> - 31 (<a href="#linknoteref-31">return</a>)<br /> [ Traces of cannibalism may - be found among most of the North American tribes, though they are rarely - very conspicuous. Sometimes the practice arose, as in the present - instance, from revenge or ferocity sometimes it bore a religious - character, as with the Miamis, among whom there existed a secret religions - fraternity of man-eaters sometimes the heart of a brave enemy was devoured - in the idea that it made the eater brave. This last practice was common. - The ferocious threat, used in speaking of an enemy, "I will eat his - heart," is by no means a mere figure of speech. The roving hunter-tribes, - in their winter wanderings, were not infrequently impelled to cannibalism - by famine.] - </p> - <p> - <a name="linknote-32" id="linknote-32"> - <!-- Note --></a> - </p> - <p class="foot"> - 32 (<a href="#linknoteref-32">return</a>)<br /> [ The first white man to - descend the rapids of St. Louis was a youth named Louis, who, on the 10th - of June, 1611, went with two Indians to shoot herons on an island, and was - drowned on the way down; the second was a young man who in the summer - before had gone with the Hurons to their country, and who returned with - them on the 18th of June; the third was Champlain himself.] - </p> - <p> - <a name="linknote-33" id="linknote-33"> - <!-- Note --></a> - </p> - <p class="foot"> - 33 (<a href="#linknoteref-33">return</a>)<br /> [ Wampum was a sort of - beads, of several colors, made originally by the Indians from the inner - portion of certain shells, and afterwards by the French of porcelain and - glass. It served a treble purpose,—that of currency, decoration, and - record, wrought into belts of various devices, each having its - significance, it preserved the substance of treaties and compacts from - generation to generation.] - </p> - <p> - <br /><br /><br /><br /> - </p> -<pre xml:space="preserve"> - - - - - -End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Pioneers Of France In The New World, by -Francis Parkman, Jr. - -*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK PIONEERS OF FRANCE *** - -***** This file should be named 3721-h.htm or 3721-h.zip ***** -This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: - http://www.gutenberg.org/3/7/2/3721/ - -Produced by An Anonymous Volunteer, and David Widger - - -Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions -will be renamed. - -Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no -one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation -(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without -permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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You may copy it, give it away or -re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included -with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org - - -Title: Pioneers Of France In The New World: France and England in North America, Part First - -Author: Francis Parkman, Jr. - -Release Date: February, 2003 [Etext #3721] -Posting Date: January 16, 2010 - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: ASCII - -*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK PIONEERS OF FRANCE *** - - - - -Produced by An Anonymous Volunteer - - - - - -FRANCE AND ENGLAND IN NORTH AMERICA, PART FIRST - -PIONEERS OF FRANCE IN THE NEW WORLD - -By Francis Parkman - - - - -INTRODUCTION. - - -The springs of American civilization, unlike those of the elder world, -lie revealed in the clear light of History. In appearance they are -feeble; in reality, copious and full of force. Acting at the sources of -life, instruments otherwise weak become mighty for good and evil, and -men, lost elsewhere in the crowd, stand forth as agents of Destiny. In -their toils, their sufferings, their conflicts, momentous questions -were at stake, and issues vital to the future world,--the prevalence -of races, the triumph of principles, health or disease, a blessing or -a curse. On the obscure strife where men died by tens or by scores hung -questions of as deep import for posterity as on those mighty contests of -national adolescence where carnage is reckoned by thousands. - -The subject to which the proposed series will be devoted is that of -"France in the New World,"--the attempt of Feudalism, Monarchy, and Rome -to master a continent where, at this hour, half a million of bayonets -are vindicating the ascendency of a regulated freedom;--Feudalism -still strong in life, though enveloped and overborne by new-born -Centralization; Monarchy in the flush of triumphant power; Rome, nerved -by disaster, springing with renewed vitality from ashes and corruption, -and ranging the earth to reconquer abroad what she had lost at home. -These banded powers, pushing into the wilderness their indomitable -soldiers and devoted priests, unveiled the secrets of the barbarous -continent, pierced the forests, traced and mapped out the streams, -planted their emblems, built their forts, and claimed all as their own. -New France was all head. Under king, noble, and Jesuit, the lank, lean -body would not thrive. Even commerce wore the sword, decked itself with -badges of nobility, aspired to forest seigniories and hordes of savage -retainers. - -Along the borders of the sea an adverse power was strengthening and -widening, with slow but steadfast growth, full of blood and muscle,--a -body without a head. Each had its strength, each its weakness, each its -own modes of vigorous life: but the one was fruitful, the other barren; -the one instinct with hope, the other darkening with shadows of despair. - -By name, local position, and character, one of these communities of -freemen stands forth as the most conspicuous representative of this -antagonism,--Liberty and Absolutism, New England and New France. The one -was the offspring of a triumphant government; the other, of an oppressed -and fugitive people: the one, an unflinching champion of the Roman -Catholic reaction; the other, a vanguard of the Reform. Each followed -its natural laws of growth, and each came to its natural result. -Vitalized by the principles of its foundation, the Puritan commonwealth -grew apace. New England was preeminently the land of material progress. -Here the prize was within every man's reach: patient industry need never -doubt its reward; nay, in defiance of the four Gospels, assiduity in -pursuit of gain was promoted to the rank of a duty, and thrift and -godliness were linked in equivocal wedlock. Politically she was free; -socially she suffered from that subtle and searching oppression which -the dominant opinion of a free community may exercise over the members -who compose it. As a whole, she grew upon the gaze of the world, a -signal example of expansive energy; but she has not been fruitful -in those salient and striking forms of character which often give a -dramatic life to the annals of nations far less prosperous. - -We turn to New France, and all is reversed. Here was a bold attempt to -crush under the exactions of a grasping hierarchy, to stifle under -the curbs and trappings of a feudal monarchy, a people compassed by -influences of the wildest freedom,--whose schools were the forest and -the sea, whose trade was an armed barter with savages, and whose daily -life a lesson of lawless independence. But this fierce spirit had its -vent. The story of New France is from the first a story of war: of -war--for so her founders believed--with the adversary of mankind -himself; war with savage tribes and potent forest commonwealths; -war with the encroaching powers of Heresy and of England. Her brave, -unthinking people were stamped with the soldier's virtues and the -soldier's faults; and in their leaders were displayed, on a grand and -novel stage, the energies, aspirations, and passions which belong to -hopes vast and vague, ill-restricted powers, and stations of command. - -The growth of New England was a result of the aggregate efforts of a -busy multitude, each in his narrow circle toiling for himself, to gather -competence or wealth. The expansion of New France was the achievement -of a gigantic ambition striving to grasp a continent. It was a vain -attempt. Long and valiantly her chiefs upheld their cause, leading to -battle a vassal population, warlike as themselves. Borne down by numbers -from without, wasted by corruption from within, New France fell at last; -and out of her fall grew revolutions whose influence to this hour is -felt through every nation of the civilized world. - -The French dominion is a memory of the past; and when we evoke its -departed shades, they rise upon us from their graves in strange, -romantic guise. Again their ghostly camp-fires seem to burn, and the -fitful light is cast around on lord and vassal and black-robed priest, -mingled with wild forms of savage warriors, knit in close fellowship -on the same stern errand. A boundless vision grows upon us; an untamed -continent; vast wastes of forest verdure; mountains silent in primeval -sleep; river, lake, and glimmering pool; wilderness oceans mingling with -the sky. Such was the domain which France conquered for Civilization. -Plumed helmets gleamed in the shade of its forests, priestly vestments -in its dens and fastnesses of ancient barbarism. Men steeped in antique -learning, pale with the close breath of the cloister, here spent the -noon and evening of their lives, ruled savage hordes with a mild, -parental sway, and stood serene before the direst shapes of death. Men -of courtly nurture, heirs to the polish of a far-reaching ancestry, -here, with their dauntless hardihood, put to shame the boldest sons of -toil. - -This memorable but half-forgotten chapter in the book of human life -can be rightly read only by lights numerous and widely scattered. The -earlier period of New France was prolific in a class of publications -which are often of much historic value, but of which many are -exceedingly rare. The writer, however, has at length gained access to -them all. Of the unpublished records of the colonies, the archives of -France are of course the grand deposit; but many documents of important -bearing on the subject are to be found scattered in public and private -libraries, chiefly in France and Canada. The task of collection has -proved abundantly irksome and laborious. It has, however, been greatly -lightened by the action of the governments of New York, Massachusetts, -and Canada, in collecting from Europe copies of documents having more or -less relation to their own history. It has been greatly lightened, too, -by a most kind co-operation, for which the writer owes obligations too -many for recognition at present, but of which he trusts to make fitting -acknowledgment hereafter. Yet he cannot forbear to mention the name of -Mr. John Gilmary Shea of New York, to whose labors this department of -American history has been so deeply indebted, and that of the Hon. Henry -Black of Quebec. Nor can he refrain from expressing his obligation to -the skilful and friendly criticism of Mr. Charles Folsom. - -In this, and still more must it be the case in succeeding volumes, the -amount of reading applied to their composition is far greater than the -citations represent, much of it being of a collateral and illustrative -nature. This was essential to a plan whose aim it was, while -scrupulously and rigorously adhering to the truth of facts, to animate -them with the life of the past, and, so far as might be, clothe the -skeleton with flesh. If, at times, it may seem that range has been -allowed to fancy, it is so in appearance only; since the minutest -details of narrative or description rest on authentic documents or on -personal observation. - -Faithfulness to the truth of history involves far more than a research, -however patient and scrupulous, into special facts. Such facts may be -detailed with the most minute exactness, and yet the narrative, taken -as a whole, may be unmeaning or untrue. The narrator must seek to imbue -himself with the life and spirit of the time. He must study events in -their bearings near and remote; in the character, habits, and manners of -those who took part in them, he must himself be, as it were, a sharer or -a spectator of the action he describes. - -With respect to that special research which, if inadequate, is still in -the most emphatic sense indispensable, it has been the writer's aim to -exhaust the existing material of every subject treated. While it would -be folly to claim success in such an attempt, he has reason to hope -that, so far at least as relates to the present volume, nothing of much -importance has escaped him. With respect to the general preparation just -alluded to, he has long been too fond of his theme to neglect any means -within his reach of making his conception of it distinct and true. - -To those who have aided him with information and documents, the -extreme slowness in the progress of the work will naturally have caused -surprise. This slowness was unavoidable. During the past eighteen years, -the state of his health has exacted throughout an extreme caution in -regard to mental application, reducing it at best within narrow and -precarious limits, and often precluding it. Indeed, for two periods, -each of several years, any attempt at bookish occupation would have been -merely suicidal. A condition of sight arising from kindred sources has -also retarded the work, since it has never permitted reading or -writing continuously for much more than five minutes, and often has not -permitted them at all. A previous work, "The Conspiracy of Pontiac," was -written in similar circumstances. - -The writer means, if possible, to carry the present design to its -completion. Such a completion, however, will by no means be essential -as regards the individual volumes of the series, since each will form -a separate and independent work. The present work, it will be seen, -contains two distinct and completed narratives. Some progress has been -made in others. - -Boston. January 1,1865. - - - - -Part One - - -HUGOENOTS IN FLORIDA - - - - -PREFATORY NOTE TO THE - -HUGUENOTS IN FLORIDA. - -The story of New France opens with a tragedy. The political and -religious enmities which were soon to bathe Europe in blood broke out -with an intense and concentrated fury in the distant wilds of Florida. -It was under equivocal auspices that Coligny and his partisans essayed -to build up a Calvinist France in America, and the attempt was met by -all the forces of national rivalry, personal interest, and religious -hate. - -This striking passage of our early history is remarkable for the -fullness and precision of the authorities that illustrate it. The -incidents of the Huguenot occupation of Florida are recorded by eight -eye-witnesses. Their evidence is marked by an unusual accord in respect -to essential facts, as well as by a minuteness of statement which -vividly pictures the events described. The following are the principal -authorities consulted for the main body of the narrative. - -Ribauld, 'The Whole and True Discovery of Terra Florida,' This is -Captain Jean Ribaut's account of his voyage to Florida in 1562. It -was "prynted at London," "newly set forthe in Englishe," in 1563, and -reprinted by Hakluyt in 1582 in his black-letter tract entitled 'Divers -Voyages.' It is not known to exist in the original French. - -'L'Histoire Notable de la Floride, mise en lumiere par M. Basanier' -(Paris, 1586). The most valuable portion of this work consists of the -letters of Rene de Laudonniere, the French commandant in Florida in -1564-65. They are interesting, and, with necessary allowance for the -position and prejudices of the writer, trustworthy. - -Challeux, Discours de l'Histoire de la Floride (Dieppe, 1566). Challeux -was a carpenter, who went to Florida in 1565. He was above sixty years -of age, a zealous Huguenot, and a philosopher in his way. His story is -affecting from its simplicity. Various editions of it appeared under -various titles. - -Le Moyne, Brevis Narratio eorum qucs in Florida Americce Provincia -Gallis acciderunt. Le Moyne was Laudonniere's artist. His narrative -forms the Second Part of the Grands Voyages of De Bry (Frankfort, 1591). -It is illustrated by numerous drawings made by the writer from memory, -and accompanied with descriptive letter-press. - -Coppie d'une Lettre venant de la Floride (Paris, 1565). This is a letter -from one of the adventurers under Laudonniere. It is reprinted in the -Recueil de Pieces sur la Floride of Ternaux.-Compans. Ternaux also -prints in the same volume a narrative called Histoire memorable du -dernier Voyage faict par le Capitaine Jean Ribaut. It is of no original -value, being compiled from Laudonniere and Challeux. - -Une Bequete au Roy, faite en forme de Complainte (1566). This is a -petition for redress to Charles the Ninth from the relatives of the -French massacred in Florida by the Spaniards. It recounts many incidents -of that tragedy. - -La Reprinse de la Floride par le Cappitaine Gourgue. This is a -manuscript in the Bibliotheque Nationale, printed in the Recueil of -Ternaux-Compans. It contains a detailed account of the remarkable -expedition of Dominique de Gourgues against the Spaniards in Florida in -1567-68. - -Charlevoix, in his Histoire de la Nouvelle France, speaks of another -narrative of this expedition in manuscript, preserved in the Gourgues -family. A copy of it, made in 1831 by the Vicomte de Gourgues, has been -placed at the writer's disposal. - -Popeliniere, De Thou, Wytfleit, D'Aubigne De Laet, Brantome, Lescarbot, -Champlain, and other writers of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, -have told or touched upon the story of the Huguenots in Florida; but -they all draw their information from one or more of the sources named -above. - -Lettres et Papiers d' Estat du Sieur de Forguevaulx (Bibliotheque -Nationale). These include the correspondence of the French and Spanish -courts concerning the massacre of the Huguenots. They are printed by -Gaffarel in his Histoire de le Floride Francaise. - -The Spanish authorities are the following--Barcia (Cardenas y Cano), -Ensayo Cronologico para la Historia General de la Florida (Madrid, -1723). This annalist had access to original documents of great interest. -Some of them are used as material for his narrative, others are copied -entire. Of these, the most remarkable is that of Solis de las Meras, -Memorial de todas las Jornadas de la Conquista de la Florida. - -Francisco Lopez de Mendoza Grajales, Relacion de la Jornada de Pedro -Menendez de Aviles en la Florida (Documentos Ineditos del Archivo de -Indias, III. 441). A French translation of this journal will be found -in the Recueil de Pieces sur let Floride of Ternaux-Compans. Mendoza was -chaplain of the expedition commanded by Menendez de Aviles, and, like -Solfs, he was an eye-witness of the events which he relates. - -Pedro Menendez de Aviles, Siete Cartas escritas al Rey, Anos de 1565 y -1566, MSS. These are the despatches of the Adelantado Menendez to Philip -the Second. They were procured for the writer, together with other -documents, from the archives of Seville, and their contents are now for -the first time made public. They consist of seventy-two closely written -foolscap pages, and are of the highest interest and value as regards the -present subject, confirming and amplifying the statements of Solis and -Mendoza, and giving new and curious information with respect to the -designs of Spain upon the continent of North America. - -It is unnecessary to specify the authorities for the introductory and -subordinate portions of the narrative. - -The writer is indebted to Mr. Buckingham Smith, for procuring copies of -documents from the archives of Spain; to Mr. Bancroft, the historian of -the United States, for the use of the Vicomte de Gourgues's copy of the -journal describing the expedition of his ancestor against the Spaniards; -and to Mr. Charles Russell Lowell, of the Boston Athenaeum, and Mr. -John Langdon Sibley, Librarian of Harvard College, for obliging aid in -consulting books and papers. - - - - - -HUGUENOTS IN FLORIDA. - - - -CHAPTER I. - -1512-1561. - -EARLY SPANISH ADVENTURE. - -Towards the close of the fifteenth century, Spain achieved her final -triumph over the infidels of Granada, and made her name glorious through -all generations by the discovery of America. The religious zeal and -romantic daring which a long course of Moorish wars had called forth -were now exalted to redoubled fervor. Every ship from the New World came -freighted with marvels which put the fictions of chivalry to shame; and -to the Spaniard of that day America was a region of wonder and mystery, -of vague and magnificent promise. Thither adventurers hastened, -thirsting for glory and for gold, and often mingling the enthusiasm -of the crusader and the valor of the knight-errant with the bigotry of -inquisitors and the rapacity of pirates. They roamed over land and sea; -they climbed unknown mountains, surveyed unknown oceans, pierced the -sultry intricacies of tropical forests; while from year to year and from -day to day new wonders were unfolded, new islands and archipelagoes, new -regions of gold and pearl, and barbaric empires of more than Oriental -wealth. The extravagance of hope and the fever of adventure knew -no bounds. Nor is it surprising that amid such waking marvels the -imagination should run wild in romantic dreams; that between the -possible and the impossible the line of distinction should be but -faintly drawn, and that men should be found ready to stake life and -honor in pursuit of the most insane fantasies. - -Such a man was the veteran cavalier Juan Ponce de Leon. Greedy of honors -and of riches, he embarked at Porto Rico with three brigantines, bent -on schemes of discovery. But that which gave the chief stimulus to -his enterprise was a story, current among the Indians of Cuba and -Hispaniola, that on the island of Bimini, said to be one of the Bahamas, -there was a fountain of such virtue, that, bathing in its waters, -old men resumed their youth. [1] It was said, moreover, that on a -neighboring shore might be found a river gifted with the same beneficent -property, and believed by some to be no other than the Jordan. [2] -Ponce de Leon found the island of Bimini, but not the fountain. Farther -westward, in the latitude of thirty degrees and eight minutes, he -approached an unknown land, which he named Florida, and, steering -southward, explored its coast as far as the extreme point of the -peninsula, when, after some farther explorations, he retraced his course -to Porto Rico. - -Ponce de Leon had not regained his youth, but his active spirit was -unsubdued. - -Nine years later he attempted to plant a colony in Florida; the Indians -attacked him fiercely; he was mortally wounded, and died soon afterwards -in Cuba. [3] - -The voyages of Garay and Vasquez de Ayllon threw new light on the -discoveries of Ponce, and the general outline of the coasts of Florida -became known to the Spaniards. [4] Meanwhile, Cortes had conquered -Mexico, and the fame of that iniquitous but magnificent exploit rang -through all Spain. Many an impatient cavalier burned to achieve a -kindred fortune. To the excited fancy of the Spaniards the unknown land -of Florida seemed the seat of surpassing wealth, and Pamphilo de Narvaez -essayed to possess himself of its fancied treasures. Landing on -its shores, and proclaiming destruction to the Indians unless they -acknowledged the sovereignty of the Pope and the Emperor, he advanced -into the forests with three hundred men. Nothing could exceed their -sufferings. Nowhere could they find the gold they came to seek. The -village of Appalache, where they hoped to gain a rich booty, offered -nothing but a few mean wigwams. The horses gave out, and the famished -soldiers fed upon their flesh. The men sickened, and the Indians -unceasingly harassed their march. At length, after two hundred and -eighty leagues [5] of wandering, they found themselves on the -northern shore of the Gulf of Mexico, and desperately put to sea in such -crazy boats as their skill and means could construct. Cold, disease, -famine, thirst, and the fury of the waves, melted them away. Narvaez -himself perished, and of his wretched followers no more than four -escaped, reaching by land, after years of vicissitude, the Christian -settlements of New Spain. [6] - -The interior of the vast country then comprehended under the name of -Florida still remained unexplored. The Spanish voyager, as his caravel -ploughed the adjacent seas, might give full scope to his imagination, -and dream that beyond the long, low margin of forest which bounded his -horizon lay hid a rich harvest for some future conqueror; perhaps a -second Mexico with its royal palace and sacred pyramids, or another -Cuzco with its temple of the Sun, encircled with a frieze of gold. -Haunted by such visions, the ocean chivalry of Spain could not long -stand idle. - -Hernando de Soto was the companion of Pizarro in the conquest of Peru. -He had come to America a needy adventurer, with no other fortune than -his sword and target. But his exploits had given him fame and fortune, -and he appeared at court with the retinue of a nobleman. [7] Still, -his active energies could not endure repose, and his avarice and -ambition goaded him to fresh enterprises. He asked and obtained -permission to conquer Florida. While this design was in agitation, -Cabeca de Vaca, one of those who had survived the expedition of Narvaez, -appeared in Spain, and for purposes of his own spread abroad the -mischievous falsehood, that Florida was the richest country yet -discovered. De Soto's plans were embraced with enthusiasm. Nobles and -gentlemen contended for the privilege of joining his standard; and, -setting sail with an ample armament, he landed at the bay of Espiritu -Santo, now Tampa Bay, in Florida, with six hundred and twenty chosen -men, a band as gallant and well appointed, as eager in purpose and -audacious in hope, as ever trod the shores of the New World. The clangor -of trumpets, the neighing of horses, the fluttering of pennons, the -glittering of helmet and lance, startled the ancient forest with -unwonted greeting. Amid this pomp of chivalry, religion was not -forgotten. The sacred vessels and vestments with bread and wine for the -Eucharist were carefully provided; and De Soto himself declared that the -enterprise was undertaken for God alone, and seemed to be the object -of His especial care. These devout marauders could not neglect the -spiritual welfare of the Indians whom they had come to plunder; and -besides fetters to bind, and bloodhounds to hunt them, they brought -priests and monks for the saving of their souls. - -The adventurers began their march. Their story has been often told. For -month after month and year after year, the procession of priests and -cavaliers, crossbowmen, arquebusiers, and Indian captives laden with -the baggage, still wandered on through wild and boundless wastes, lured -hither and thither by the ignis fatuus of their hopes. They traversed -great portions of Georgia, Alabama, and Mississippi, everywhere -inflicting and enduring misery, but never approaching their phantom El -Dorado. At length, in the third year of their journeying, they reached -the banks of the Mississippi, a hundred and thirty-two years before its -second discovery by Marquette. One of their number describes the great -river as almost half a league wide, deep, rapid, and constantly rolling -down trees and drift-wood on its turbid current. - -The Spaniards crossed over at a point above the mouth of the Arkansas. -They advanced westward, but found no treasures,--nothing indeed but -hardships, and an Indian enemy, furious, writes one of their officers, -"as mad dogs." They heard of a country towards the north where maize -could not be cultivated because the vast herds of wild cattle devoured -it. They penetrated so far that they entered the range of the roving -prairie tribes; for, one day, as they pushed their way with difficulty -across great plains covered with tall, rank grass, they met a band of -savages who dwelt in lodges of skins sewed together, subsisting on game -alone, and wandering perpetually from place to place. Finding neither -gold nor the South Sea, for both of which they had hoped, they returned -to the banks of the Mississippi. - -De Soto, says one of those who accompanied him, was a "stern man, and of -few words." Even in the midst of reverses, his will had been law to -his followers, and he had sustained himself through the depths of -disappointment with the energy of a stubborn pride. But his hour was -come. He fell into deep dejection, followed by an attack of fever, and -soon after died miserably. To preserve his body from the Indians, his -followers sank it at midnight in the river, and the sullen waters of the -Mississippi buried his ambition and his hopes. - -The adventurers were now, with few exceptions, disgusted with the -enterprise, and longed only to escape from the scene of their miseries. -After a vain attempt to reach Mexico by land, they again turned back -to the Mississippi, and labored, with all the resources which their -desperate necessity could suggest, to construct vessels in which they -might make their way to some Christian settlement. Their condition was -most forlorn. Few of their horses remained alive; their baggage had been -destroyed at the burning of the Indian town of Mavila, and many of the -soldiers were without armor and without weapons. In place of the gallant -array which, more than three years before, had left the harbor of -Espiritu Santo, a company of sickly and starving men were laboring among -the swampy forests of the Mississippi, some clad in skins, and some in -mats woven from a kind of wild vine. - -Seven brigantines were finished and launched; and, trusting their lives -on board these frail vessels, they descended the Mississippi, running -the gantlet between hostile tribes, who fiercely attacked them. Reaching -the Gulf, though not without the loss of eleven of their number, they -made sail for the Spanish settlement on the river Panuco, where they -arrived safely, and where the inhabitants met them with a cordial -welcome. Three hundred and eleven men thus escaped with life, leaving -behind them the bones of their comrades strewn broadcast through the -wilderness. [7] - -De Soto's fate proved an insufficient warning, for those were still -found who begged a fresh commission for the conquest of Florida; but the -Emperor would not hear them. A more pacific enterprise was undertaken -by Cancello, a Dominican monk, who with several brother ecclesiastics -undertook to convert the natives to the true faith, but was murdered in -the attempt. Nine years later, a plan was formed for the colonization of -Florida, and Guido de las Bazares sailed to explore the coasts, and -find a spot suitable for the establishment. [8] After his return, a -squadron, commanded by Angel de Villafane, and freighted with supplies -and men, put to sea from San Juan d'Ulloa; but the elements were -adverse, and the result was a total failure. Not a Spaniard had yet -gained foothold in Florida. - -That name, as the Spaniards of that day understood it, comprehended the -whole country extending from the Atlantic on the east to the longitude -of New Mexico on the west, and from the Gulf of Mexico and the River of -Palms indefinitely northward towards the polar sea. This vast territory -was claimed by Spain in right of the discoveries of Columbus, the -grant of the Pope, and the various expeditions mentioned above. England -claimed it in right of the discoveries of Cabot; while France could -advance no better title than might be derived from the voyage of -Verazzano and vague traditions of earlier visits of Breton adventurers. - -With restless jealousy Spain watched the domain which she could not -occupy, and on France especially she kept an eye of deep distrust. When, -in 1541, Cartier and Roberval essayed to plant a colony in the part of -ancient Spanish Florida now called Canada, she sent spies and fitted -out caravels to watch that abortive enterprise. Her fears proved just. -Canada, indeed, was long to remain a solitude; but, despite the Papal -bounty gifting Spain with exclusive ownership of a hemisphere, France -and Heresy at length took root in the sultry forests of modern Florida. - - - - - -CHAPTER II - -1550-1558. - -VILLEGAGNON. - -In the middle of the sixteenth century, Spain was the incubus of Europe. -Gloomy and portentous, she chilled the world with her baneful shadow. -Her old feudal liberties were gone, absorbed in the despotism of Madrid. -A tyranny of monks and inquisitors, with their swarms of spies and -informers, their racks, their dungeons, and their fagots, crushed all -freedom of thought or speech; and, while the Dominican held his reign -of terror and force, the deeper Jesuit guided the mind from infancy -into those narrow depths of bigotry from which it was never to escape. -Commercial despotism was joined to political and religious despotism. -The hands of the government were on every branch of industry. Perverse -regulations, uncertain and ruinous taxes, monopolies, encouragements, -prohibitions, restrictions, cramped the national energy. Mistress of the -Indies, Spain swarmed with beggars. Yet, verging to decay, she had an -ominous and appalling strength. Her condition was that of an athletic -man penetrated with disease, which had not yet unstrung the thews and -sinews formed in his days of vigor. Philip the Second could command the -service of warriors and statesmen developed in the years that were past. -The gathered energies of ruined feudalism were wielded by a single hand. -The mysterious King, in his den in the Escorial, dreary and silent, and -bent like a scribe over his papers, was the type and the champion -of arbitrary power. More than the Pope himself, he was the head of -Catholicity. In doctrine and in deed, the inexorable bigotry of Madrid -was ever in advance of Rome. - -Not so with France. She was full of life,--a discordant and struggling -vitality. Her monks and priests, unlike those of Spain, were rarely -either fanatics or bigots; yet not the less did they ply the rack and -the fagot, and howl for heretic blood. Their all was at stake: their -vast power, their bloated wealth, were wrapped up in the ancient faith. -Men were burned, and women buried alive. All was in vain. To the utmost -bounds of France, the leaven of the Reform was working. The Huguenots, -fugitives from torture and death, found an asylum at Geneva, their city -of refuge, gathering around Calvin, their great high-priest. Thence -intrepid colporteurs, their lives in their hands, bore the Bible and the -psalm-book to city, hamlet, and castle, to feed the rising flame. The -scattered churches, pressed by a common danger, began to organize. An -ecclesiastical republic spread its ramifications through France, and -grew underground to a vigorous life,--pacific at the outset, for the -great body of its members were the quiet bourgeoisie, by habit, as by -faith, averse to violence. Yet a potent fraction of the warlike noblesse -were also of the new faith; and above them all, preeminent in character -as in station, stood Gaspar de Coligny, Admiral of France. - -The old palace of the Louvre, reared by the "Roi Chevalier" on the site -of those dreary feudal towers which of old had guarded the banks of the -Seine, held within its sculptured masonry the worthless brood of Valois. -Corruption and intrigue ran riot at the court. Factious nobles, bishops, -and cardinals, with no God but pleasure and ambition, contended around -the throne or the sick-bed of the futile King. Catherine de Medicis, -with her stately form, her mean spirit, her bad heart, and her -fathomless depths of duplicity, strove by every subtle art to hold the -balance of power among them. The bold, pitiless, insatiable Guise, and -his brother the Cardinal of Lorraine, the incarnation of falsehood, -rested their ambition on the Catholic party. Their army was a legion -of priests, and the black swarms of countless monasteries, who by the -distribution of alms held in pay the rabble of cities and starving -peasants on the lands of impoverished nobles. Montmorency, Conde, and -Navarre leaned towards the Reform,--doubtful and inconstant chiefs, -whose faith weighed light against their interests. Yet, amid -vacillation, selfishness, weakness, treachery, one great man was like a -tower of trust, and this was Gaspar de Coligny. - -Firm in his convictions, steeled by perils and endurance, calm, -sagacious, resolute, grave even to severity, a valiant and redoubted -soldier, Coligny looked abroad on the gathering storm and read its -danger in advance. He saw a strange depravity of manners; bribery and -violence overriding justice; discontented nobles, and peasants ground -down with taxes. In the midst of this rottenness, the Calvinistic -churches, patient and stern, were fast gathering to themselves the -better life of the nation. Among and around them tossed the surges of -clerical hate. Luxurious priests and libertine monks saw their disorders -rebuked by the grave virtues of the Protestant zealots. Their broad -lands, their rich endowments, their vessels of silver and of gold, their -dominion over souls,--in itself a revenue,--were all imperiled by the -growing heresy. Nor was the Reform less exacting, less intolerant, or, -when its hour came, less aggressive than the ancient faith. The storm -was thickening, and it must burst soon. - -When the Emperor Charles the Fifth beleaguered Algiers, his camps were -deluged by a blinding tempest, and at its height the infidels made a -furious sally. A hundred Knights of Malta, on foot, wearing over their -armor surcoats of crimson blazoned with the white cross, bore the -brunt of the assault. Conspicuous among them was Nicolas Durand de -Villegagnon. A Moorish cavalier, rushing upon him, pierced his arm with -a lance, and wheeled to repeat the blow; but the knight leaped on the -infidel, stabbed him with his dagger, flung him from his horse, and -mounted in his place. Again, a Moslem host landed in Malta and beset the -Cite Notable. The garrison was weak, disheartened, and without a leader. -Villegagnon with six followers, all friends of his own, passed under -cover of night through the infidel leaguer, climbed the walls by ropes -lowered from above, took command, repaired the shattered towers, -aiding with his own hands in the work, and animated the garrison to -a resistance so stubborn that the besiegers lost heart and betook -themselves to their galleys. No less was he an able and accomplished -mariner, prominent among that chivalry of the sea who held the perilous -verge of Christendom against the Mussuhuan. He claimed other -laurels than those of the sword. He was a scholar, a linguist, a -controversialist, potent with the tongue and with the pen, commanding -in presence, eloquent and persuasive in discourse. Yet this Crichton of -France had proved himself an associate nowise desirable. His sleepless -intellect was matched with a spirit as restless, vain, unstable, and -ambitious, as it was enterprising and bold. Addicted to dissent, and -enamoured of polemics, he entered those forbidden fields of inquiry and -controversy to which the Reform invited him. Undaunted by his monastic -vows, he battled for heresy with tongue and pen, and in the ear of -Protestants professed himself a Protestant. As a Commander of his Order, -he quarreled with the Grand Master, a domineering Spaniard; and, as -Vice-Admiral of Brittany, he was deep in a feud with the Governor of -Brest. Disgusted at home, his fancy crossed the seas. He aspired to -build for France and himself an empire amid the tropical splendors of -Brazil. Few could match him in the gift of persuasion; and the intrepid -seamen whose skill and valor had run the gantlet of the English fleet, -and borne Mary Stuart of Scotland in safety to her espousals with -the Dauphin, might well be intrusted with a charge of moment so far -inferior. Henry the Second was still on the throne. The lance of -Montgomery had not yet rid France of that infliction. To win a share -in the rich domain of the New World, of which Portuguese and Spanish -arrogance claimed the monopoly, was the end held by Villegagnon before -the eyes of the King. Of the Huguenots, he said not a word. For Coligny -he had another language. He spoke of an asylum for persecuted religion, -a Geneva in the wilderness, far from priests and monks and Francis of -Guise. The Admiral gave him a ready ear; if, indeed, he himself had -not first conceived the plan. Yet to the King, an active burner of -Huguenots, Coligny too urged it as an enterprise, not for the Faith, but -for France. In secret, Geneva was made privy to it, and Calvin himself -embraced it with zeal. The enterprise, in fact, had a double character, -political as well as religious. It was the reply of France, the most -emphatic she had yet made, to the Papal bull which gave all the western -hemisphere to Portugal and Spain; and, as if to point her answer, -she sent, not Frenchmen only, but Protestant Frenchmen, to plant the -fleur-de-lis on the shores of the New World. - -Two vessels were made ready, in the name of the King. The body of the -emigration was Huguenot, mingled with young nobles, restless, idle, and -poor, with reckless artisans, and piratical sailors from the Norman -and Breton seaports. They put to sea from Havre on the twelfth of July, -1555, and early in November saw the shores of Brazil. Entering the -harbor of Rio Janeiro, then called Ganabara, Villegagnon landed men -and stores on an island, built huts, and threw up earthworks. In -anticipation of future triumphs, the whole continent, by a strange -perversion of language, was called Antarctic France, while the fort -received the name of Coligny. - -Villegagnon signalized his new-born Protestantism by an intolerable -solicitude for the manners and morals of his followers. The whip and -the pillory requited the least offence. The wild and discordant crew, -starved and flogged for a season into submission, conspired at length -to rid themselves of him; but while they debated whether to poison him, -blow him up, or murder him and his officers in their sleep, three Scotch -soldiers, probably Calvinists, revealed the plot, and the vigorous hand -of the commandant crushed it in the bud. - -But how was the colony to subsist? Their island was too small for -culture, while the mainland was infested with hostile tribes, and -threatened by the Portuguese, who regarded the French occupancy as a -violation of their domain. - -Meanwhile, in France, Huguenot influence, aided by ardent letters sent -home by Villegagnon in the returning ships, was urging on the work. Nor -were the Catholic chiefs averse to an enterprise which, by colonizing -heresy, might tend to relieve France of its presence. Another -embarkation was prepared, in the name of Henry the Second, under -Bois-Lecomte, a nephew of Villegagnon. Most of the emigrants were -Huguenots. Geneva sent a large deputation, and among them several -ministers, full of zeal for their land of promise and their new church -in the wilderness. There were five young women, also, with a matron -to watch over them. Soldiers, emigrants, and sailors, two hundred and -ninety in all, were embarked in three vessels; and, to the sound -of cannon, drums, fifes, and trumpets, they unfurled their sails at -Honfleur. They were no sooner on the high seas than the piratical -character of the Norman sailors, in no way exceptional at that -day, began to declare itself. They hailed every vessel weaker than -themselves, pretended to be short of provisions, and demanded leave to -buy them; then, boarding the stranger, plundered her from stem to -stern. After a passage of four months, on the ninth of March, 1557, they -entered the port of Ganabara, and saw the fleur-de-lis floating above -the walls of Fort Coligny. Amid salutes of cannon, the boats, crowded -with sea-worn emigrants, moved towards the landing. It was an edifying -scene when Villegagnon, in the picturesque attire which marked the -warlike nobles of the period, came down to the shore to greet the sombre -ministers of Calvin. With hands uplifted and eyes raised to heaven, he -bade them welcome to the new asylum of the faithful; then launched into -a long harangue full of zeal and unction. His discourse finished, he led -the way to the dining-hall. If the redundancy of spiritual aliment had -surpassed their expectations, the ministers were little prepared for -the meagre provision which awaited their temporal cravings; for, with -appetites whetted by the sea, they found themselves seated at a board -whereof, as one of them complains the choicest dish was a dried fish, -and the only beverage rain-water. They found their consolation in the -inward graces of the commandant, whom they likened to the Apostle Paul. - -For a time all was ardor and hope. Men of birth and station, and the -ministers themselves, labored with pick and shovel to finish the fort. -Every day exhortations, sermons, prayers, followed in close succession, -and Villegagnon was always present, kneeling on a velvet cushion brought -after him by a page. Soon, however, he fell into sharp controversy with -the ministers upon points of faith. Among the emigrants was a student of -the Sorbonne, one Cointac, between whom and the ministers arose a fierce -and unintermitted war of words. Is it lawful to mix water with the wine -of the Eucharist? May the sacramental bread be made of meal of -Indian corn? These and similar points of dispute filled the fort with -wranglings, begetting cliques, factions, and feuds without number. -Villegagnon took part with the student, and between them they devised a -new doctrine, abhorrent alike to Geneva and to Rome. The advent of this -nondescript heresy was the signal of redoubled strife. The dogmatic -stiffness of the Geneva ministers chafed Villegagnon to fury. He felt -himself, too, in a false position. On one side he depended on the -Protestant, Coligny; on the other, he feared the Court. There were -Catholics in the colony who might report him as an open heretic. On this -point his doubts were set at rest; for a ship from France brought him -a letter from the Cardinal of Lorraine, couched, it is said, in terms -which restored him forthwith to the bosom of the Church. Villegagnon -now affirmed that he had been deceived in Calvin, and pronounced him a -"frightful heretic." He became despotic beyond measure, and would -bear no opposition. The ministers, reduced nearly to starvation, found -themselves under a tyranny worse than that from which they had fled. - -At length he drove them from the fort, and forced them to bivouac on -the mainland, at the risk of being butchered by Indians, until a vessel -loading with Brazil-wood in the harbor should be ready to carry them -back to France. Having rid himself of the ministers, he caused three of -the more zealous Calvinists to be seized, dragged to the edge of a rock, -and thrown into the sea. A fourth, equally obnoxious, but who, being -a tailor, could ill be spared, was permitted to live on condition of -recantation. Then, mustering the colonists, he warned them to shun the -heresies of Luther and Calvin; threatened that all who openly professed -those detestable doctrines should share the fate of their three -comrades; and, his harangue over, feasted the whole assembly, in token, -says the narrator, of joy and triumph. - -Meanwhile, in their crazy vessel, the banished ministers drifted slowly -on their way. Storms fell upon them, their provisions failed, their -water-casks were empty, and, tossing in the wilderness of waves, or -rocking on the long swells of subsiding gales, they sank almost to -despair. In their famine they chewed the Brazil-wood with which the -vessel was laden, devoured every scrap of leather, singed and ate the -horn of lanterns, hunted rats through the hold, and sold them to each -other at enormous prices. At length, stretched on the deck, sick, -listless, attenuated, and scarcely able to move a limb, they descried -across the waste of sea the faint, cloud-like line that marked the coast -of Brittany. Their perils were not past; for, if we may believe one of -them, Jean de Lery, they bore a sealed letter from Villegagnon to the -magistrates of the first French port at which they might arrive. -It denounced them as heretics, worthy to be burned. Happily, the -magistrates leaned to the Reform, and the malice of the commandant -failed of its victims. - -Villegagnon himself soon sailed for France, leaving the wretched colony -to its fate. He presently entered the lists against Calvin, and engaged -him in a hot controversial war, in which, according to some of his -contemporaries, the knight often worsted the theologian at his own -weapons. Before the year 1558 was closed, Ganabara fell a prey to the -Portuguese. They set upon it in force, battered down the fort, and -slew the feeble garrison, or drove them to a miserable refuge among the -Indians. Spain and Portugal made good their claim to the vast domain, -the mighty vegetation, and undeveloped riches of "Antarctic France." - - - - - -CHAPTER III. - -1562, 1563. - -JEAN RIBAUT. - -In the year 1562 a cloud of black and deadly portent was thickening over -France. Surely and swiftly she glided towards the abyss of the religious -wars. None could pierce the future, perhaps none dared to contemplate -it: the wild rage of fanaticism and hate, friend grappling with friend, -brother with brother, father with son; altars profaned, hearth-stones -made desolate, the robes of Justice herself bedrenched with murder. In -the gloom without lay Spain, imminent and terrible. As on the hill -by the field of Dreux, her veteran bands of pikemen, dark masses of -organized ferocity, stood biding their time while the battle surged -below, and then swept downward to the slaughter,--so did Spain watch and -wait to trample and crush the hope of humanity. - -In these days of fear, a second Huguenot colony sailed for the New -World. The calm, stern man who represented and led the Protestantism -of France felt to his inmost heart the peril of the time. He would -fain build up a city of refuge for the persecuted sect. Yet Gaspar de -Coligny, too high in power and rank to be openly assailed, was forced -to act with caution. He must act, too, in the name of the Crown, and -in virtue of his office of Admiral of France. A nobleman and a -soldier,--for the Admiral of France was no seaman,--he shared the ideas -and habits of his class; nor is there reason to believe him to have been -in advance of his time in a knowledge of the principles of successful -colonization. His scheme promised a military colony, not a free -commonwealth. The Huguenot party was already a political as well as -a religious party. At its foundation lay the religious element, -represented by Geneva, the martyrs, and the devoted fugitives who -sang the psalms of Marot among rocks and caverns. Joined to these were -numbers on whom the faith sat lightly, whose hope was in commotion and -change. Of the latter, in great part, was the Huguenot noblesse, from -Conde, who aspired to the crown, - - "Ce petit homme tant joli, - Qui toujours chante, toujours rit," - -to the younger son of the impoverished seigneur whose patrimony was his -sword. More than this, the restless, the factious, and the discontented, -began to link their fortunes to a party whose triumph would involve -confiscation of the wealth of the only rich class in France. An element -of the great revolution was already mingling in the strife of religions. - -America was still a land of wonder. The ancient spell still hung -unbroken over the wild, vast world of mystery beyond the sea,--a land of -romance, adventure, and gold. - -Fifty-eight years later the Puritans landed on the sands of -Massachusetts Bay. The illusion was gone,--the ignis fatuus of -adventure, the dream of wealth. The rugged wilderness offered only a -stern and hard won independence. In their own hearts, and not in -the promptings of a great leader or the patronage of an equivocal -government, their enterprise found its birth and its achievement. They -were of the boldest and most earnest of their sect. There were such -among the French disciples of Calvin; but no Mayflower ever sailed from -a port of France. Coligny's colonists were of a different stamp, and -widely different was their fate. - -An excellent seaman and stanch Protestant, Jean Ribaut of Dieppe, -commanded the expedition. Under him, besides sailors, were a band of -veteran soldiers, and a few young nobles. Embarked in two of those -antiquated craft whose high poops and tub-like porportions are -preserved in the old engravings of De Bry, they sailed from Havre on -the eighteenth of February, 1562. They crossed the Atlantic, and on the -thirtieth of April, in the latitude of twenty-nine and a half degrees, -saw the long, low line where the wilderness of waves met the wilderness -of woods. It was the coast of Florida. They soon descried a jutting -point, which they called French Cape, perhaps one of the headlands of -Matanzas Inlet. They turned their prows northward, coasting the fringes -of that waste of verdure which rolled in shadowy undulation far to the -unknown West. - -On the next morning, the first of May, they found themselves off the -mouth of a great river. Riding at anchor on a sunny sea, they lowered -their boats, crossed the bar that obstructed the entrance, and floated -on a basin of deep and sheltered water, "boyling and roaring," says -Ribaut, "through the multitude of all kind of fish." Indians were -running along the beach, and out upon the sand-bars, beckoning them -to land. They pushed their boats ashore and disembarked,--sailors, -soldiers, and eager young nobles. Corselet and morion, arquebuse and -halberd, flashed in the sun that flickered through innumerable leaves, -as, kneeling on the ground, they gave thanks to God, who had guided -their voyage to an issue full of promise. The Indians, seated gravely -under the neighboring trees, looked on in silent respect, thinking that -they worshipped the sun. "They be all naked and of a goodly stature, -mightie, and as well shapen and proportioned of body as any people in ye -world; and the fore part of their body and armes be painted with pretie -deuised workes, of Azure, red, and blacke, so well and so properly as -the best Painter of Europe could not amende it." With their squaws and -children, they presently drew near, and, strewing the earth with laurel -boughs, sat down among the Frenchmen. Their visitors were much pleased -with them, and Ribaut gave the chief, whom he calls the king, a robe of -blue cloth, worked in yellow with the regal fleur-de-lis. - -But Ribaut and his followers, just escaped from the dull prison of their -ships, were intent on admiring the wild scenes around them. Never had -they known a fairer May-day. The quaint old narrative is exuberant with -delight. The tranquil air, the warm sun, woods fresh with young verdure, -meadows bright with flowers; the palm, the cypress, the pine, the -magnolia; the grazing deer; herons, curlews, bitterns, woodcock, and -unknown water-fowl that waded in the ripple of the beach; cedars bearded -from crown to root with long, gray moss; huge oaks smothering in the -folds of enormous grapevines;--such were the objects that greeted them -in their roamings, till their new-discovered land seemed "the fairest, -fruitfullest, and pleasantest of al the world." - -They found a tree covered with caterpillars, and hereupon the ancient -black-letter says: "Also there be Silke wormes in meruielous number, a -great deale fairer and better then be our silk wormes. To bee short, it -is a thing vnspeakable to consider the thinges that bee seene there, and -shalbe founde more and more in this incomperable lande." [9] - -Above all, it was plain to their excited fancy that the country was rich -in gold and silver, turquoises and pearls. One of these last, "as great -as an Acorne at ye least," hung from the neck of an Indian who stood -near their boats as they re-embarked. They gathered, too, from the signs -of their savage visitors, that the wonderful land of Cibola, with its -seven cities and its untold riches, was distant but twenty days' journey -by water. In truth, it was two thousand miles westward, and its wealth a -fable. - -They named the river the River of May. It is now the St. John's. "And -on the next morning," says Ribault, "we returned to land againe, -accompanied with the Captaines, Gentlemen, and Souldiers, and others of -our small troope, carrying with us a Pillour or columne of harde stone, -our king's armes graved therein, to plant and set the same in the -enterie of the Porte; and being come thither we espied on the south -syde of the River a place very fitte for that purpose upon a little -hill compassed with Cypres, Bayes, Paulmes, and other trees, with sweete -smelling and pleasant shrubbes." Here they set the column, and then, -again embarking, held their course northward, happy in that benign -decree which locks from mortal eyes the secrets of the future. - -Next they anchored near Fernandina, and to a neighboring river, probably -the St. Mary's, gave the name of the Seine. Here, as morning broke on -the fresh, moist meadows hung with mists, and on broad reaches of inland -waters which seemed like lakes, they were tempted to land again, and -soon "espied an innumerable number of footesteps of great Hartes and -Hindes of a wonderfull greatnesse, the steppes being all fresh and new, -and it seemeth that the people doe nourish them like tame Cattell." By -two or three weeks of exploration they seem to have gained a clear idea -of this rich semi-aquatic region. Ribaut describes it as "a countrie -full of hauens, riuers, and Ilands, of such fruitfulnes as cannot with -tongue be expressed." Slowly moving northward, they named each river, or -inlet supposed to be a river, after some stream of France,--the Loire, -the Charente, the Garonne, the Gironde. At length, opening betwixt flat -and sandy shores, they saw a commodious haven, and named it Port Royal. - -On the twenty-seventh of May they crossed the bar where the war-ships of -Dupont crossed three hundred years later, passed Hilton Head, and held -their course along the peaceful bosom of Broad River. [10] On the left -they saw a stream which they named Libourne, probably Skull Creek; on -the right, a wide river, probably the Beaufort. When they landed, all -was solitude. The frightened Indians had fled, but they lured them back -with knives, beads, and looking-glasses, and enticed two of them on -board their ships. Here, by feeding, clothing, and caressing them, they -tried to wean them from their fears, thinking to carry them to France, -in obedience to a command of Catherine de Medicis; but the captive -warriors moaned and lamented day and night, and at length made their -escape. - -Ranging the woods, they found them full of game, wild turkeys and -partridges, bears and lynxes. Two deer, of unusual size, leaped from the -underbrush. Cross-bow and arquebuse were brought to the level; but -the Huguenot captain, "moved with the singular fairness and bigness of -them," forbade his men to shoot. - -Preliminary exploration, not immediate settlement, had been the object -of the voyage; but all was still rose-color in the eyes of the voyagers, -and many of their number would gladly linger in the New Canaan. Ribaut -was more than willing to humor them. He mustered his company on deck, -and made them a harangue. He appealed to their courage and their -patriotism, told them how, from a mean origin, men rise by enterprise -and daring to fame and fortune, and demanded who among them would stay -behind and hold Port Royal for the King. The greater part came forward, -and "with such a good will and joly corage," writes the commander, "as -we had much to do to stay their importunitie." Thirty were chosen, and -Albert de Pierria was named to command them. - -A fort was begun on a small stream called the Chenonceau, probably -Archer's Creek, about six miles from the site of Beaufort. [11] -They named it Charlesfort, in honor of the unhappy son of Catherine -de Medicis, Charles the Ninth, the future hero of St. Bartholomew. -Ammunition and stores were sent on shore, and on the eleventh of June, -with his diminished company, Ribaut again embarked and spread his sails -for France. - -From the beach at Hilton Head, Albert and his companions might watch -the receding ships, growing less and less on the vast expanse of blue, -dwindling to faint specks, then vanishing on the pale verge of the -waters. They were alone in those fearful solitudes. From the north pole -to Mexico there was no Christian denizen but they. - -The pressing question was how they were to subsist. Their thought was -not of subsistence, but of gold. Of the thirty, the greater number were -soldiers and sailors, with a few gentlemen; that is to say, men of the -sword, born within the pale of nobility, who at home could neither labor -nor trade without derogation from their rank. For a time they busied -themselves with finishing their fort, and, this done, set forth in quest -of adventures. - -The Indians had lost fear of them. Ribaut had enjoined upon them to use -all kindness and gentleness in their dealing with the men of the woods; -and they more than obeyed him. They were soon hand and glove with -chiefs, warriors, and squaws; and as with Indians the adage that -familiarity breeds contempt holds with peculiar force, they quickly -divested themselves of the prestige which had attached at the outset -to their supposed character of children of the Sun. Good-will, however, -remained, and this the colonists abused to the utmost. - -Roaming by river, swamp, and forest, they visited in turn the villages -of five petty chiefs, whom they called kings, feasting everywhere on -hominy, beans, and game, and loaded with gifts. One of these chiefs, -named Audusta, invited them to the grand religious festival of his -tribe. When they arrived, they found the village alive with preparation, -and troops of women busied in sweeping the great circular area where the -ceremonies were to take place. But as the noisy and impertinent guests -showed a disposition to undue merriment, the chief shut them all in -his wigwam, lest their Gentile eyes should profane the mysteries. -Here, immured in darkness, they listened to the howls, yelpings, and -lugubrious songs that resounded from without. One of them, however, by -some artifice, contrived to escape, hid behind a bush, and saw the -whole solemnity,--the procession of the medicinemen and the bedaubed -and befeathered warriors; the drumming, dancing, and stamping; the wild -lamentation of the women as they gashed the arms of the young girls -with sharp mussel-shells, and flung the blood into the air with dismal -outcries. A scene of ravenous feasting followed, in which the French, -released from durance, were summoned to share. - -After the carousal they returned to Charlesfort, where they were soon -pinched with hunger. The Indians, never niggardly of food, brought them -supplies as long as their own lasted; but the harvest was not yet ripe, -and their means did not match their good-will. They told the French of -two other kings, Ouade and Couexis, who dwelt towards the south, and -were rich beyond belief in maize, beans, and squashes. The mendicant -colonists embarked without delay, and, with an Indian guide, steered -for the wigwams of these potentates, not by the open sea, but by a -perplexing inland navigation, including, as it seems, Calibogue Sound -and neighboring waters. Reaching the friendly villages, on or near the -Savannah, they were feasted to repletion, and their boat was laden with -vegetables and corn. They returned rejoicing; but their joy was short. -Their store-house at Charlesfort, taking fire in the night, burned to -the ground, and with it their newly acquired stock. - -Once more they set out for the realms of King Ouade, and once more -returned laden with supplies. Nay, the generous savage assured them -that, so long as his cornfields yielded their harvests, his friends -should not want. - -How long this friendship would have lasted may well be doubted. With the -perception that the dependants on their bounty were no demigods, but a -crew of idle and helpless beggars, respect would soon have changed to -contempt, and contempt to ill-will. But it was not to Indian war-clubs -that the infant colony was to owe its ruin. It carried within itself -its own destruction. The ill-assorted band of lands-men and sailors, -surrounded by that influence of the wilderness which wakens the dormant -savage in the breasts of men, soon fell into quarrels. Albert, a -rude soldier, with a thousand leagues of ocean betwixt him and -responsibility, grew harsh, domineering, and violent beyond endurance. -None could question or oppose him without peril of death. He hanged -with his own hands a drummer who had fallen under his displeasure, and -banished a soldier, named La Chore, to a solitary island, three leagues -from the fort, where he left him to starve. For a time his comrades -chafed in smothered fury. The crisis came at length. A few of the -fiercer spirits leagued together, assailed their tyrant, murdered him, -delivered the famished soldier, and called to the command one Nicolas -Barre, a man of merit. Barre took the command, and thenceforth there was -peace. - -Peace, such as it was, with famine, homesickness, and disgust. The rough -ramparts and rude buildings of Charlesfort, hatefully familiar to their -weary eyes, the sweltering forest, the glassy river, the eternal silence -of the lifeless wilds around them, oppressed the senses and the spirits. -They dreamed of ease, of home, of pleasures across the sea, of the -evening cup on the bench before the cabaret, and dances with kind -wenches of Dieppe. But how to escape? A continent was their solitary -prison, and the pitiless Atlantic shut them in. Not one of them knew how -to build a ship; but Ribaut had left them a forge, with tools and iron, -and strong desire supplied the place of skill. Trees were hewn down and -the work begun. Had they put forth to maintain themselves at Port Royal -the energy and resource which they exerted to escape from it, they might -have laid the cornerstone of a solid colony. - -All, gentle and simple, labored with equal zeal. They calked the seams -with the long moss which hung in profusion from the neighboring trees; -the pines supplied them with pitch; the Indians made for them a kind of -cordage; and for sails they sewed together their shirts and bedding. At -length a brigantine worthy of Robinson Crusoe floated on the waters of -the Chenonceau. They laid in what provision they could, gave all that -remained of their goods to the Indians, embarked, descended the river, -and put to sea. A fair wind filled their patchwork sails and bore them -from the hated coast. Day after day they held their course, till at -length the breeze died away and a breathless calm fell on the waters. -Florida was far behind; France farther yet before. - -Floating idly on the glassy waste, the craft lay motionless. Their -supplies gave out. Twelve kernels of maize a day were each man's -portion; then the maize failed, and they ate their shoes and leather -jerkins. The water-barrels were drained, and they tried to slake their -thirst with brine. Several died, and the rest, giddy with exhaustion -and crazed with thirst, were forced to ceaseless labor, bailing out the -water that gushed through every seam. Head-winds set in, increasing to a -gale, and the wretched brigantine, with sails close-reefed, tossed among -the savage billows at the mercy of the storm. A heavy sea rolled down -upon her, and burst the bulwarks on the windward side. The surges broke -over her, and, clinging with desperate grip to spars and cordage, the -drenched voyagers gave up all for lost. At length she righted. The gale -subsided, the wind changed, and the crazy, water-logged vessel again -bore slowly towards France. - -Gnawed with famine, they counted the leagues of barren ocean that still -stretched before, and gazed on each other with haggard wolfish eyes, -till a whisper passed from man to man that one, by his death, might -ransom all the rest. The lot was cast, and it fell on La Chore, the same -wretched man whom Albert had doomed to starvation on a lonely island. -They killed him, and with ravenous avidity portioned out his flesh. The -hideous repast sustained them till the land rose in sight, when, it is -said, in a delirium of joy, they could no longer steer their vessel, but -let her drift at the will of the tide. A small English bark bore down -upon them, took them all on board, and, after landing the feeblest, -carried the rest prisoners to Queen Elizabeth. [12] - -Thus closed another of those scenes of woe whose lurid clouds are -thickly piled around the stormy dawn of American history. It was the -opening act of a wild and tragic drama. - - - - - -CHAPTER IV. - -1564. - -LAUDONNIERE. - - - -ON the twenty-fifth of June, 1564, a French squadron anchored a second -time off the mouth of the River of May. There were three vessels, the -smallest of sixty tons, the largest of one hundred and twenty, all -crowded with men. Rene de Laudonniere held command. He was of a noble -race of Poiton, attached to the house of Chatillon, of which Coligny -was the head; pious, we are told, and an excellent marine officer. An -engraving, purporting to be his likeness, shows us a slender figure, -leaning against the mast, booted to the thigh, with slouched hat and -plume, slashed doublet, and short cloak. His thin oval face, with curled -moustache and close-trimmed beard, wears a somewhat pensive look, as if -already shadowed by the destiny that awaited him. - -The intervening year since Ribaut's voyage had been a dark year for -France. From the peaceful solitude of the River of May, that voyager -returned to a land reeking with slaughter. But the carnival of bigotry -and hate had found a pause. The Peace of Amboise had been signed. The -fierce monk choked down his venom; the soldier sheathed his sword, the -assassin his dagger; rival chiefs grasped hands, and masked their rancor -under hollow smiles. The king and the queen-mother, helpless amid the -storm of factions which threatened their destruction, smiled now on -Conde, now on Guise,--gave ear to the Cardinal of Lorraine, or listened -in secret to the emissaries of Theodore Beza. Coligny was again strong -at Court. He used his opportunity, and solicited with success the means -of renewing his enterprise of colonization. - -Men were mustered for the work. In name, at least, they were all -Huguenots yet now, as before, the staple of the projected colony was -unsound,--soldiers, paid out of the royal treasury, hired artisans and -tradesmen, with a swarm of volunteers from the young Huguenot nobles, -whose restless swords had rusted in their scabbards since the peace. The -foundation-stone was forgotten. There were no tillers of the soil. Such, -indeed, were rare among the Huegonots; for the dull peasants who guided -the plough clung with blind tenacity to the ancient faith. Adventurous -gentlemen, reckless soldiers, discontented tradesmen, all keen for -novelty and heated with dreams of wealth,--these were they who would -build for their country and their religion an empire beyond the sea. - -On Thursday, the twenty-second of June, Laudonniere saw the low -coast-line of Florida, and entered the harbor of St. Augustine, which he -named the River of Dolphins, "because that at mine arrival I saw there a -great number of Dolphins which were playing in the mouth thereof." Then -he bore northward, following the coast till, on the twenty-fifth, -he reached the mouth of the St. John's or River of May. The vessels -anchored, the boats were lowered, and he landed with his principal -followers on the south shore, near the present village of Mayport. It -was the very spot where he had landed with Ribaut two years before. -They were scarcely on shore when they saw an Indian chief, "which having -espied us cryed very far off, Antipola! Antipola! and being so joyful -that he could not containe himselfe, he came to meet us accompanied with -two of his sonnes, as faire and mightie persons as might be found in -al the world. There was in their trayne a great number of men and women -which stil made very much of us, and by signes made us understand -how glad they were of our arrival. This good entertainment past, the -Paracoussy [chief] prayed me to goe see the pillar which we had -erected in the voyage of John Ribault." The Indians, regarding it with -mysterious awe, had crowned it with evergreens, and placed baskets full -of maize before it as an offering. - -The chief then took Laudonniere by the hand, telling him that he was -named Satouriona, and pointed out the extent of his dominions, far up -the river and along the adjacent coasts. One of his sons, a man "perfect -in beautie, wisedome, and honest sobrietie," then gave the French -commander a wedge of silver, and received some trifles in return, after -which the voyagers went back to their ships. "I prayse God continually," -says Laudonniere, "for the great love I have found in these savages." - -In the morning the French landed again, and found their new friends on -the same spot, to the number of eighty or more, seated under a shelter -of boughs, in festal attire of smoke-tanned deer-skins, painted in many -colors. The party then rowed up the river, the Indians following them -along the shore. As they advanced, coasting the borders of a great marsh -that lay upon their left, the St. John's spread before them in vast -sheets of glistening water, almost level with its flat, sedgy shores, -the haunt of alligators, and the resort of innumerable birds. Beyond the -marsh, some five miles from the mouth of the river, they saw a ridge -of high ground abutting on the water, which, flowing beneath in a deep, -strong current, had undermined it, and left a steep front of yellowish -sand. This was the hill now called St. John's Bluff. Here they landed -and entered the woods, where Laudonniere stopped to rest while his -lieutenant, Ottigny, with a sergeant and a few soldiers, went to explore -the country. - -They pushed their way through the thickets till they were stopped by -a marsh choked with reeds, at the edge of which, under a great -laurel-tree, they had seated themselves to rest, overcome with the -summer heat, when five Indians suddenly appeared, peering timidly at -them from among the bushes. Some of the men went towards them with signs -of friendship, on which, taking heart, they drew near, and one of them, -who was evidently a chief, made a long speech, inviting the strangers -to their dwellings. The way was across the marsh, through which they -carried the lieutenant and two or three of the soldiers on their backs, -while the rest circled by a narrow path through the woods. When they -reached the lodges, a crowd of Indians came out "to receive our men -gallantly, and feast them after their manner." One of them brought a -large earthen vessel full of spring water, which was served out to -each in turn in a wooden cup. But what most astonished the French was -a venerable chief, who assured them that he was the father of five -successive generations, and that he had lived two hundred and fifty -years. Opposite sat a still more ancient veteran, the father of the -first, shrunken to a mere anatomy, and "seeming to be rather a dead -carkeis than a living body." "Also," pursues the history, "his age was -so great that the good man had lost his sight, and could not speak -one onely word but with exceeding great paine." In spite of his dismal -condition, the visitors were told that he might expect to live, in the -course of nature, thirty or forty years more. As the two patriarchs sat -face to face, half hidden with their streaming white hair, Ottigny and -his credulous soldiers looked from one to the other, lost in speechless -admiration. - -One of these veterans made a parting present to his guests of two young -eagles, and Ottigny and his followers returned to report what they had -seen. Laudonniere was waiting for them on the side of the hill; and now, -he says, "I went right to the toppe thereof, where we found nothing -else but Cedars, Palme, and Baytrees of so sovereigne odour that Baulme -smelleth nothing like in comparison." From this high standpoint they -surveyed their Canaan. The unruffled river lay before them, with its -marshy islands overgrown with sedge and bulrushes; while on the farther -side the flat, green meadows spread mile on mile, veined with countless -creeks and belts of torpid water, and bounded leagues away by the -verge of the dim pine forest. On the right, the sea glistened along -the horizon; and on the left, the St. John's stretched westward between -verdant shores, a highway to their fancied Eldorado. "Briefly," -writes Laudonniere, "the place is so pleasant that those which are -melancholicke would be inforced to change their humour." - -On their way back to the ships they stopped for another parley with the -chief Satouriona, and Laudonniere eagerly asked where he had got the -wedge of silver that he gave him in the morning. The chief told him by -signs, that he had taken it in war from a people called Thimagoas, who -lived higher up the River, and who were his mortal enemies; on which -the French captain had the folly to promise that he would join in an -expedition against them. Satouriona was delighted, and declared that, if -he kept his word, he should have gold and silver to his heart's content. - -Man and nature alike seemed to mark the borders of the River of May -as the site of the new colony; for here, around the Indian towns, the -harvests of maize, beans, and pumpkins promised abundant food, while the -river opened a ready way to the mines of gold and silver and the stores -of barbaric wealth which glittered before the dreaming vision of the -colonists. Yet, the better to satisfy himself and his men, Laudonniere -weighed anchor, and sailed for a time along the neighboring coasts. -Returning, confirmed in his first impression, he set out with a party of -officers and soldiers to explore the borders of the chosen stream. -The day was hot. The sun beat fiercely on the woollen caps and heavy -doublets of the men, till at length they gained the shade of one -of those deep forests of pine where the dead, hot air is thick with -resinous odors, and the earth, carpeted with fallen leaves, gives no -sound beneath the foot. Yet, in the stillness, deer leaped up on all -sides as they moved along. Then they emerged into sunlight. A meadow was -before them, a running brook, and a wall of encircling forests. The men -called it the Vale of Laudonniere. The afternoon was spent, and the -sun was near its setting, when they reached the bank of the river. They -strewed the ground with boughs and leaves, and, stretched on that sylvan -couch, slept the sleep of travel-worn and weary men. - -They were roused at daybreak by sound of trumpet, and after singing a -psalm they set themselves to their task. It was the building of a fort, -and the spot they chose was a furlong or more above St. John's Bluff, -where close to the water was a wide, flat knoll, raised a few feet above -the marsh and the river. [13] Boats came up the stream with laborers, -tents, provisions, cannon, and tools. The engineers marked out the work -in the form of a triangle; and, from the noble volunteer to the meanest -artisan, all lent a hand to complete it. On the river side the defences -were a palisade of timber. On the two other sides were a ditch, and a -rampart of fascines, earth, and sods. At each angle was a bastion, in -one of which was the magazine. Within was a spacious parade, around it -were various buildings for lodging and storage, and a large house -with covered galleries was built on the side towards the river for -Laudonniere and his officers. In honor of Charles the Ninth the fort was -named Fort Caroline. - -Meanwhile Satouriona, "lord of all that country," as the narratives -style him, was seized with misgivings on learning these proceedings. -The work was scarcely begun, and all was din and confusion around the -incipient fort, when the startled Frenchmen saw the neighboring height -of St. John's swarming with naked warriors. Laudonniere set his men in -array, and for a season, pick and spade were dropped for arquebuse and -pike. The savage chief descended to the camp. The artist Le Moyne, -who saw him, drew his likeness from memory, a tall, athletic figure, -tattooed in token of his rank, plumed, bedecked with strings of beads, -and girdled with tinkling pieces of metal which hung from the belt which -formed his only garment. He came in regal state, a crowd of warriors -around him, and, in advance, a troop of young Indians armed with spears. -Twenty musicians followed, blowing hideous discord through pipes of -reeds, while he seated himself on the ground "like a monkey," as Le -Moyne has it in the grave Latin of his Brevis Narratio. A council -followed, in which broken words were aided by signs and pantomime; and -a treaty of alliance was made, Laudonniere renewing his rash promise to -aid the chief against his enemies. Satouriona, well pleased, ordered his -Indians to help the French in their work. They obeyed with alacrity, -and in two days the buildings of the fort were all thatched, after the -native fashion, with leaves of the palmetto. - -These savages belonged to one of the confederacies into which the native -tribes of Florida were divided, and with three of which the French came -into contact. The first was that of Satouriona; and the second was that -of the people called Thimagoas, who, under a chief named Outina, dwelt -in forty villages high up the St. John's. The third was that of the -chief, cacique, or paracoussy whom the French called King Potanou, and -whose dominions lay among the pine barrens, cypress swamps, and fertile -hummocks westward and northwestward of this remarkable river. These -three confederacies hated each other, and were constantly at war. Their -social state was more advanced than that of the wandering hunter tribes. -They were an agricultural people, and around all their villages were -fields of maize, beans, and pumpkins. The harvest was gathered into a -public granary, and they lived on it during three fourths of the year, -dispersing in winter to hunt among the forests. - -They were exceedingly well formed; the men, or the principal among them, -were tattooed on the limbs and body, and in summer were nearly naked. -Some wore their straight black hair flowing loose to the waist; others -gathered it in a knot at the crown of the head. They danced and sang -about the scalps of their enemies, like the tribes of the North; and -like them they had their "medicine-men," who combined the functions of -physicians, sorcerers, and priests. The most prominent feature of their -religion was sun-worship. - -Their villages were clusters of large dome-shaped huts, framed with -poles and thatched with palmetto leaves. In the midst was the dwelling -of the chief, much larger than the rest, and sometimes raised on an -artificial mound. They were enclosed with palisades, and, strange to -say, some of them were approached by wide avenues, artificially graded, -and several hundred yards in length. Traces of these may still be seen, -as may also the mounds in which the Floridians, like the Hurons and -various other tribes, collected at stated intervals the bones of their -dead. - -Social distinctions were sharply defined among them. Their chiefs, whose -office was hereditary, sometimes exercised a power almost absolute. -Each village had its chief, subordinate to the grand chief of the -confederacy. In the language of the French narratives, they were all -kings or lords, vassals of the great monarch Satouriona, Outina, or -Potanou. All these tribes are now extinct, and it is difficult to -ascertain with precision their tribal affinities. There can be no doubt -that they were the authors of the aboriginal remains at present found in -various parts of Florida. - -Having nearly finished the fort, Laudonniere declares that he "would -not lose the minute of an houre without employing of the same in some -vertuous exercise;" and he therefore sent his lieutenant, Ottigny, to -spy out the secrets of the interior, and to learn, above all, "what this -Thimagoa might be, whereof the Paracoussy Satouriona had spoken to us so -often." As Laudonniere stood pledged to attack the Thimagoas, the chief -gave Ottigny two Indian guides, who, says the record, were so eager for -the fray that they seemed as if bound to a wedding feast. - -The lazy waters of the St. John's, tinged to coffee color by the -exudations of the swamps, curled before the prow of Ottigny's sail-boat -as he advanced into the prolific wilderness which no European eye had -ever yet beheld. By his own reckoning, he sailed thirty leagues up the -river, which would have brought him to a point not far below Palatka. -Here, more than two centuries later, the Bartrams, father and son, -guided their skiff and kindled their nightly bivouac-fire; and here, -too, roamed Audubon, with his sketch-book and his gun. It was a paradise -for the hunter and the naturalist. Earth, air, and water teemed with -life, in endless varieties of beauty and ugliness. A half-tropical -forest shadowed the low shores, where the palmetto and the cabbage palm -mingled with the oak, the maple, the cypress, the liquid-ambar, the -laurel, the myrtle, and the broad glistening leaves of the evergreen -magnolia. Here was the haunt of bears, wild-cats, lynxes, cougars, and -the numberless deer of which they made their prey. In the sedges and -the mud the alligator stretched his brutish length; turtles with -outstretched necks basked on half-sunken logs; the rattlesnake sunned -himself on the sandy bank, and the yet more dangerous moccason lurked -under the water-lilies in inlets and sheltered coves. The air and the -water were populous as the earth. The river swarmed with fish, from the -fierce and restless gar, cased in his horny armor, to the lazy cat-fish -in the muddy depths. There were the golden eagle and the white-headed -eagle, the gray pelican and the white pelican, the blue heron and the -white heron, the egret, the ibis, ducks of various sorts, the whooping -crane, the black vulture, and the cormorant; and when at sunset the -voyagers drew their boat upon the strand and built their camp-fire under -the arches of the woods, the owls whooped around them all night long, -and when morning came the sultry mists that wrapped the river were vocal -with the clamor of wild turkeys. - -When Ottigny was about twenty leagues from Fort Caroline, his two Indian -guides, who were always on the watch, descried three canoes, and in -great excitement cried, "Thimagoa! Thimagoa!" As they drew near, one of -them snatched up a halberd and the other a sword, and in their fury they -seemed ready to jump into the water to get at the enemy. To their great -disgust, Ottigny permitted the Thimagoas to run their canoes ashore and -escape to the woods. Far from keeping Laudonniere's senseless promise to -light them, he wished to make them friends; to which end he now landed -with some of his men, placed a few trinkets in their canoes, and -withdrew to a distance to watch the result. The fugitives presently -returned, step by step, and allowed the French to approach them; on -which Ottigny asked, by signs, if they had gold or silver. They replied -that they had none, but that if he would give them one of his men they -would show him where it was to be found. One of the soldiers boldly -offered himself for the venture, and embarked with them. As, however, -he failed to return according to agreement, Ottigny, on the next day, -followed ten leagues farther up the stream, and at length had the good -luck to see him approaching in a canoe. He brought little or no gold, -but reported that he had heard of a certain chief, named Mayrra, -marvellously rich, who lived three days' journey up the river; and with -these welcome tidings Ottigny went back to Fort Caroline. - -A fortnight later, an officer named Vasseur went up the river to pursue -the adventure. The fever for gold had seized upon the French. As the -villages of the Thimagoas lay between them and the imagined treasures, -they shrank from a quarrel, and Laudonniere repented already of his -promised alliance with Satouriona. - -Vasseur was two days' sail from the fort when two Indians hailed him -from the shore, inviting him to their dwellings. He accepted their -guidance, and presently saw before him the cornfields and palisades -of an Indian town. He and his followers were led through the wondering -crowd to the lodge of Mollua, the chief, seated in the place of honor, -and plentifully regaled with fish and bread. The repast over, Mollua -made a speech. He told them that he was one of the forty vassal chiefs -of the great Outina, lord of all the Thimagoas, whose warriors wore -armor of gold and silver plate. He told them, too, of Potanou, his -enemy, "a man cruell in warre;" and of the two kings of the distant -Appalachian Mountains,--Onatheaqua and Houstaqua, "great lords and -abounding in riches." While thus, with earnest pantomime and broken -words, the chief discoursed with his guests, Vasseur, intent and -eager, strove to follow his meaning; and no sooner did he hear of these -Appalachian treasures than he promised to join Outina in war against -the two potentates of the mountains. Mollua, well pleased, promised that -each of Outina's vassal chiefs should requite their French allies with -a heap of gold and silver two feet high. Thus, while Laudonniere stood -pledged to Satouriona, Vasseur made alliance with his mortal enemy. - -On his return, he passed a night in the lodge of one of Satouriona's -chiefs, who questioned him touching his dealings with the Thimagoas. -Vasseur replied that he had set upon them and put them to utter rout. -But as the chief, seeming as yet unsatisfied, continued his inquiries, -the sergeant Francois de la Caille drew his sword, and, like Falstaff, -reenacted his deeds of valor, pursuing and thrusting at the imaginary -Thimagoas, as they fled before his fury. The chief, at length convinced, -led the party to his lodge, and entertained them with a decoction of the -herb called Cassina. - -Satouriona, elated by Laudonniere's delusive promises of aid, had -summoned his so-called vassals to war. Ten chiefs and some five hundred -warriors had mustered at his call, and the forest was alive with their -bivouacs. When all was ready, Satouriona reminded the French commander -of his pledge, and claimed its fulfilment, but got nothing but evasions -in return, He stifled his rage, and prepared to go without his fickle -ally. - -A fire was kindled near the bank of the river, and two large vessels of -water were placed beside it. Here Satouriona took his stand, while his -chiefs crouched on the grass around him, and the savage visages of his -five hundred warriors filled the outer circle, their long hair garnished -with feathers, or covered with the heads and skins of wolves, cougars, -bears, or eagles. Satouriona, looking towards the country of his enemy, -distorted his features into a wild expression of rage and hate; then -muttered to himself; then howled an invocation to his god, the Sun; -then besprinkled the assembly with water from one of the vessels, and, -turning the other upon the fire, suddenly quenched it. "So," he -cried, "may the blood of our enemies be poured out, and their lives -extinguished!" and the concourse gave forth an explosion of responsive -yells, till the shores resounded with the wolfish din. - -The rites over, they set out, and in a few days returned exulting, with -thirteen prisoners and a number of scalps. These last were hung on a -pole before the royal lodge; and when night came, it brought with it a -pandemonium of dancing and whooping, drumming and feasting. - -A notable scheme entered the brain of Laudonniere. Resolved, cost what -it might, to make a friend of Outina, he conceived it to be a stroke of -policy to send back to him two of the prisoners. In the morning he sent -a soldier to Satouriona to demand them. The astonished chief gave a -fiat refusal, adding that he owed the French no favors, for they had -shamefully broken faith with him. On this, Laudonniere, at the head of -twenty soldiers, proceeded to the Indian town, placed a guard at the -opening of the great lodge, entered with his arquebusiers, and seated -himself without ceremony in the highest place. Here, to show his -displeasure, he remained in silence for half an hour. At length he -spoke, renewing his demand. For some moments Satouriona made no -reply; then he coldly observed that the sight of so many armed men had -frightened the prisoners away. Laudonniere grew peremptory, when the -chief's son, Athore, went out, and presently returned with the two -Indians, whom the French led back to Fort Caroline. - -Satouriona, says Laudonniere, "was wonderfully offended with his -bravado, and bethought himselfe by all meanes how he might be revenged -of us." He dissembled for the time, and presently sent three of his -followers to the fort with a gift of pumpkins; though under this show -of good-will the outrage rankled in his breast, and he never forgave it. -The French had been unfortunate in their dealings with the Indians. They -had alienated old friends in vain attempts to make new ones. - -Vasseur, with the Swiss ensign Arlac, a sergeant, and ten soldiers, -went up the river early in September to carry back the two prisoners -to Outina. Laudonniere declares that they sailed eighty leagues, which -would have carried them far above Lake Monroe; but it is certain that -his reckoning is grossly exaggerated. Their boat crawled up the hazy St. -John's, no longer a broad lake like expanse, but a narrow and tortuous -stream, winding between swampy forests, or through the vast savanna, -a verdant sea of brushes and grass. At length they came to a village -called Mayarqua, and thence, with the help of their oars, made their way -to another cluster of wigwams, apparently on a branch of the main -river. Here they found Outina himself, whom, prepossessed with ideas of -feudality, they regarded as the suzerain of a host of subordinate lords -and princes, ruling over the surrounding swamps and pine barrens. Outina -gratefully received the two prisoners whom Laudonniere had sent to -propitiate him, feasted the wonderful strangers, and invited them to -join him on a raid against his rival, Potanou. Laudonniere had promised -to join Satouriona against Outina, and Vasseur now promised to join -Outina against Potanon, the hope of finding gold being in both cases the -source of this impolitic compliance. Vasseur went back to Fort Caroline -with five of the men, and left Arlac with the remaining five to fight -the battles of Ontina. - -The warriors mustered to the number of some two hundred, and the -combined force of white men and red took up their march. The wilderness -through which they passed has not yet quite lost its characteristic -features,--the bewildering monotony of the pine barrens, with their -myriads of bare gray trunks and their canopy of perennial green, through -which a scorching sun throws spots and streaks of yellow light, here on -an undergrowth of dwarf palmetto, and there on dry sands half hidden -by tufted wire-grass, and dotted with the little mounds that mark the -burrows of the gopher; or those oases in the desert, the "hummocks," -with their wild, redundant vegetation, their entanglement of trees, -bushes, and vines, their scent of flowers and song of birds; or the -broad sunshine of the savanna, where they waded to the neck in grass; or -the deep swamp, where, out of the black and root-encumbered slough, rise -the huge buttressed trunks of the Southern cypress, the gray Spanish -moss drooping from every bough and twig, wrapping its victims like a -drapery of tattered cobwebs, and slowly draining away their life, -for even plants devour each other, and play their silent parts in the -universal tragedy of nature. - -The allies held their way through forest, savanna, and swamp, with -Outina's Indians in the front, till they neared the hostile villages, -when the modest warriors fell to the rear, and yielded the post of honor -to the Frenchmen. - -An open country lay before them, with rough fields of maize, beans, and -pumpkins, and the palisades of an Indian town. Their approach was seen, -and the warriors of Potanon swarmed out to meet them; but the sight of -the bearded strangers, the flash and report of the fire-arms, and the -fall of their foremost chief, shot through the brain by Arlac, filled -them with consternation, and they fled within their defences. Pursuers -and pursued entered pell-mell together. The place was pillaged and -burned, its inmates captured or killed, and the victors returned -triumphant. - - - - - -CHAPTER V. - -1564, 1565. - -CONSPIRACY. - -In the little world of Fort Caroline, a miniature France, cliques and -parties, conspiracy and sedition, were fast stirring into life. -Hopes had been dashed, and wild expectations had come to naught. The -adventurers had found, not conquest and gold, but a dull exile in -a petty fort by a hot and sickly river, with hard labor, bad fare, -prospective famine, and nothing to break the weary sameness but some -passing canoe or floating alligator. Gathered in knots, they nursed each -other's wrath, and inveighed against the commandant. Why are we put on -half-rations, when he told us that provision should be made for a full -year? Where are the reinforcements and supplies that he said should -follow us from France? And why is he always closeted with Ottigny, -Arlac, and this and that favorite, when we, men of blood as good as -theirs, cannot gain his ear for a moment? - -The young nobles, of whom there were many, were volunteers, who had paid -their own expenses in expectation of a golden harvest, and they chafed -in impatience and disgust. The religious element in the colony--unlike -the former Huguenot emigration to Brazil--was evidently subordinate. -The adventurers thought more of their fortunes than of their faith; -yet there were not a few earnest enough in the doctrine of Geneva to -complain loudly and bitterly that no ministers had been sent with them. -The burden of all grievances was thrown upon Laudonniere, whose greatest -errors seem to have arisen from weakness and a lack of judgment,--fatal -defects in his position. - -The growing discontent was brought to a partial head by one La Roquette, -who gave out that, high up the river, he had discovered by magic a -mine of gold and silver, which would give each of them a share of ten -thousand crowns, besides fifteen hundred thousand for the King. But for -Laudonniere, he said, their fortunes would all be made. He found an ally -in a gentleman named Genre, one of Laudonniere's confidants, who, while -still professing fast adherence to his interests, is charged by him with -plotting against his life. "This Genre," he says, "secretly enfourmed -the Souldiers that were already suborned by La Roquette, that I would -deprive them of this great game, in that I did set them dayly on worke, -not sending them on every side to discover the Countreys; therefore -that it were a good deede to dispatch mee out of the way, and to choose -another Captaine in my place." The soldiers listened too well. They made -a flag of an old shirt, which they carried with them to the rampart -when they went to their work, at the same time wearing their arms; and, -pursues Laudonniere, "these gentle Souldiers did the same for none other -ende but to have killed mee and my Lieutenant also, if by chance I had -given them any hard speeches." About this time, overheating himself, he -fell ill, and was confined to his quarters. On this, Genre made advances -to the apothecary, urging him to put arsenic into his medicine; but the -apothecary shrugged his shoulders. They next devised a scheme to blow -him up by hiding a keg of gunpowder under his bed; but here, too, they -failed. Hints of Genre's machinations reaching the ears of Laudonniere, -the culprit fled to the woods, whence he wrote repentant letters, with -full confession, to his commander. - -Two of the ships meanwhile returned to France, the third, the "Breton," -remaining at anchor opposite the fort. The malcontents took the -opportunity to send home charges against Laudonniere of peculation, -favoritism, and tyranny. - -On the fourth of September, Captain Bourdet, apparently a private -adventurer, had arrived from France with a small vessel. When he -returned, about the tenth of November, Laudonniere persuaded him to -carry home seven or eight of the malcontent soldiers. Bourdet left some -of his sailors in their place. The exchange proved most disastrous. -These pirates joined with others whom they had won over, stole -Laudonniere's two pinnaces, and set forth on a plundering excursion to -the West Indies. They took a small Spanish vessel off the coast of Cuba, -but were soon compelled by famine to put into Havana and give themselves -up. Here, to make their peace with the authorities, they told all they -knew of the position and purposes of their countrymen at Fort Caroline, -and thus was forged the thunderbolt soon to be hurled against the -wretched little colony. - -On a Sunday morning, Francois de la Caille [13] came to Laudonniere's -quarters, and, in the name of the whole company, requested him to come -to the parade ground. He complied, and issuing forth, his inseparable -Ottigny at his side, he saw some thirty of his officers, soldiers, and -gentlemen volunteers waiting before the building with fixed and sombre -countenances. La Caille, advancing, begged leave to read, in behalf -of the rest, a paper which he held in his hand. It opened with -protestations of duty and obedience; next came complaints of hard work, -starvation, and broken promises, and a request that the petitioners -should be allowed to embark in the vessel lying in the river, and cruise -along the Spanish Main, in order to procure provisions by purchase -"or otherwise." In short, the flower of the company wished to turn -buccaneers. - -Laudonniere refused, but assured them that, as soon as the defences of -the fort should be completed, a search should be begun in earnest for -the Appalachian gold mine, and that meanwhile two small vessels then -building on the river should be sent along the coast to barter for -provisions with the Indians. With this answer they were forced to -content themselves; but the fermentation continued, and the plot -thickened. Their spokesman, La Caille, however, seeing whither the -affair tended, broke with them, and, except Ottigny, Yasseur, and the -brave Swiss Arlac, was the only officer who held to his duty. - -A severe illness again seized Laudonniere, and confined him to his bed. -Improving their advantage, the malcontents gained over nearly all the -best soldiers in the fort. The ringleader was one Fourneaux, a man of -good birth, but whom Le Moyne calls an avaricious hypocrite. He drew up -a paper, to which sixty-six names were signed. La Caille boldly opposed -the conspirators, and they resolved to kill him. His room-mate, Le -Moyne, who had also refused to sign, received a hint of the design from -a friend; upon which he warned La Caille, who escaped to the woods. It -was late in the night. Fourneaux, with twenty men armed to the teeth, -knocked fiercely at the commandant's door. Forcing an entrance, they -wounded a gentleman who opposed them, and crowded around the sick man's -bed. Fourneaux, armed with steel cap and cuirass, held his arquebuse -to Laudonniere's throat, and demanded leave to go on a cruise among the -Spanish islands. The latter kept his presence of mind, and remonstrated -with some firmness; on which, with oaths and menaces, they dragged him -from his bed, put him in fetters, carried him out to the gate of the -fort, placed him in a boat, and rowed him to the ship anchored in the -river. - -Two other gangs at the same time visited Ottigny and Arlac, whom they -disarmed, and ordered to keep their rooms till the night following, on -pain of death. Smaller parties were busied, meanwhile, in disarming -all the loyal soldiers. The fort was completely in the hands of the -conspirators. Fourneaux drew up a commission for his meditated -West India cruise, which he required Laudonniere to sign. The sick -commandant, imprisoned in the ship with one attendant, at first refused; -but receiving a message from the mutineers, that, if he did not comply, -they would come on board and cut his throat, he at length yielded. - -The buccaneers now bestirred themselves to finish the two small vessels -on which the carpenters had been for some time at work. In a fortnight -they were ready for sea, armed and provided with the King's cannon, -munitions, and stores. Trenchant, an excellent pilot, was forced to join -the party. Their favorite object was the plunder of a certain church -on one of the Spanish islands, which they proposed to assail during -the midnight mass of Christmas, whereby a triple end would be achieved: -first, a rich booty; secondly, the punishment of idolatry; thirdly, -vengeance on the arch-enemies of their party and their faith. They set -sail on the eighth of December, taunting those who remained, calling -them greenhorns, and threatening condign punishment if, on their -triumphant return, they should be refused free entrance to the fort. - -They were no sooner gone than the unfortunate Laudonniere was gladdened -in his solitude by the approach of his fast friends Ottigny and Arlac, -who conveyed him to the fort and reinstated him. The entire command -was reorganized, and new officers appointed. The colony was wofully -depleted; but the bad blood had been drawn off, and thenceforth all -internal danger was at an end. In finishing the fort, in building two -new vessels to replace those of which they had been robbed, and in -various intercourse with the tribes far and near, the weeks passed until -the twenty-fifth of March, when an Indian came in with the tidings that -a vessel was hovering off the coast. Laudonniere sent to reconnoitre. -The stranger lay anchored at the mouth of the river. She was a Spanish -brigantine, manned by the returning mutineers, starving, downcast, and -anxious to make terms. Yet, as their posture seemed not wholly pacific, -Landonniere sent down La Caille, with thirty soldiers concealed at -the bottom of his little vessel. Seeing only two or three on deck, the -pirates allowed her to come alongside; when, to their amazement, they -were boarded and taken before they could snatch their arms. Discomfited, -woebegone, and drunk, they were landed under a guard. Their story was -soon told. Fortune had flattered them at the outset, and on the coast -of Cuba they took a brigantine laden with wine and stores. Embarking in -her, they next fell in with a caravel, which also they captured. Landing -at a village in Jamaica, they plundered and caroused for a week, and -had hardly re-embarked when they met a small vessel having on board the -governor of the island. She made a desperate fight, but was taken at -last, and with her a rich booty. They thought to put the governor -to ransom but the astute official deceived them, and, on pretence of -negotiating for the sum demanded,--together with "four or six parrots, -and as many monkeys of the sort called sanguins, which are very -beautiful," and for which his captors had also bargained,--contrived to -send instructions to his wife. Hence it happened that at daybreak three -armed vessels fell upon them, retook the prize, and captured or killed -all the pirates but twenty-six, who, cutting the moorings of their -brigantine, fled out to sea. Among these was the ringleader Fourneaux, -and also the pilot Trenchant, who, eager to return to Fort Caroline, -whence he had been forcibly taken, succeeded during the night in -bringing the vessel to the coast of Florida. Great were the wrath and -consternation of the pirates when they saw their dilemma; for, having -no provisions, they must either starve or seek succor at the fort. They -chose the latter course, and bore away for the St. John's. A few casks -of Spanish wine yet remained, and nobles and soldiers, fraternizing -in the common peril of a halter, joined in a last carouse. As the wine -mounted to their heads, in the mirth of drink and desperation, -they enacted their own trial. One personated the judge, another the -commandant; witnesses were called, with arguments and speeches on either -side. - -"Say what you like," said one of them, after hearing the counsel for the -defence; "but if Laudonniere does not hang us all, I will never call him -an honest man." - -They had some hope of getting provisions from the Indians at the month -of the river, and then putting to sea again; but this was frustrated -by La Caille's sudden attack. A court-martial was called near Fort -Caroline, and all were found guilty. Fourneaux and three others were -sentenced to be hanged. - -"Comrades," said one of the condemned, appealing to the soldiers, "will -you stand by and see us butchered?" - -"These," retorted Laudonniere, "are no comrades of mutineers and -rebels." - -At the request of his followers, however, he commuted the sentence to -shooting. - -A file of men, a rattling volley, and the debt of justice was paid. The -bodies were hanged on gibbets, at the river's mouth, and order reigned -at Fort Caroline. - - - - -CHAPTER VI. 1564, 1565. - -FAMINE. WAR. SUCCOR. - - -While the mutiny was brewing, one La Roche Ferriere had been sent out as -an agent or emissary among the more distant tribes. Sagacious, bold, -and restless, he pushed his way from town to town, and pretended to -have reached the mysterious mountains of Appalache. He sent to the fort -mantles woven with feathers, quivers covered with choice furs, arrows -tipped with gold, wedges of a green stone like beryl or emerald, and -other trophies of his wanderings. A gentleman named Grotaut took up -the quest, and penetrated to the dominions of Hostaqua, who, it was -pretended, could muster three or four thousand warriors, and who -promised, with the aid of a hundred arquebusiers, to conquer all the -kings of the adjacent mountains, and subject them and their gold mines -to the rule of the French. A humbler adventurer was Pierre Gambie, a -robust and daring youth, who had been brought up in the household of -Coligny, and was now a soldier under Laudonniere. The latter gave him -leave to trade with the Indians,--a privilege which he used so well that -he grew rich with his traffic, became prime favorite with the chief -of the island of Edelano, married his daughter, and, in his absence, -reigned in his stead. But, as his sway verged towards despotism, his -subjects took offence, and split his head with a hatchet. - -During the winter, Indians from the neighborhood of Cape Canaveral -brought to the fort two Spaniards, wrecked fifteen years before on the -southwestern extremity of the peninsula. They were clothed like the -Indians,--in other words, were not clothed at all,--and their uncut hair -streamed loose down their backs. They brought strange tales of those -among whom they had dwelt. They told of the King of Cabs, on whose -domains they had been wrecked, a chief mighty in stature and in power. -In one of his villages was a pit, six feet deep and as wide as a -hogshead, filled with treasure gathered from Spanish wrecks on adjacent -reefs and keys. The monarch was a priest too, and a magician, with power -over the elements. Each year he withdrew from the public gaze to hold -converse in secret with supernal or infernal powers; and each year he -sacrificed to his gods one of the Spaniards whom the fortune of the sea -had cast upon his shores. The name of the tribe is preserved in that of -the river Caboosa. In close league with him was the mighty Oathcaqua, -dwelling near Cape Canaveral, who gave his daughter, a maiden of -wondrous beauty, in marriage to his great ally. But as the bride with -her bridesmaids was journeying towards Calos, escorted by a chosen band, -they were assailed by a wild and warlike race, inhabitants of an island -called Sarrope, in the midst of a lake, who put the warriors to flight, -bore the maidens captive to their watery fastness, espoused them all, -and, we are assured, "loved them above all measure." [15] - -Outina, taught by Arlac the efficacy of the French fire-arms, begged -for ten arquebusiers to aid him on a new raid among the villages of -Potanou,--again alluring his greedy allies by the assurance, that, thus -reinforced, he would conquer for them a free access to the phantom gold -mines of Appalache. Ottigny set forth on this fool's errand with thrice -the force demanded. Three hundred Thirnagoas and thirty Frenchmen took -up their march through the pine barrens. Outina's conjurer was of the -number, and had wellnigh ruined the enterprise. Kneeling on Ottigny's -shield, that he might not touch the earth, with hideous grimaces, -howlings, and contortions, he wrought himself into a prophetic frenzy, -and proclaimed to the astounded warriors that to advance farther would -be destruction. [16] Outina was for instant retreat, but Ottigny's -sarcasms shamed him into a show of courage. Again they moved forward, -and soon encountered Potanou with all his host. [17] The arquebuse did -its work,--panic, slaughter, and a plentiful harvest of scalps. But no -persuasion could induce Outina to follow up his victory. He went home -to dance round his trophies, and the French returned disgusted to Fort -Caroline. - -And now, in ample measure, the French began to reap the harvest of their -folly. Conquest, gold, and military occupation had alone been their -aims. Not a rod of ground had been stirred with the spade. Their stores -were consumed, and the expected supplies had not come. The Indians, too, -were hostile. Satouriona hated them as allies of his enemies; and his -tribesmen, robbed and maltreated by the lawless soldiers, exulted in -their miseries. Yet in these, their dark and subtle neighbors, was their -only hope. - -May-day came, the third anniversary of the day when Ribaut and his -companions, full of delighted anticipation, had first explored the -flowery borders of the St. John's. The contrast was deplorable; for -within the precinct of Fort Caroline a homesick, squalid band, dejected -and worn, dragged their shrunken limbs about the sun-scorched area, or -lay stretched in listless wretchedness under the shade of the barracks. -Some were digging roots in the forest, or gathering a kind of sorrel -upon the meadows. If they had had any skill in hunting and fishing, the -river and the woods would have supplied their needs; but in this point, -as in others, they were lamentably unfit for the work they had taken in -hand. "Our miserie," says Laudonniere, "was so great that one was found -that gathered up all the fish-bones that he could finde, which he dried -and beate into powder to make bread thereof. The effects of this hideous -famine appeared incontinently among us, for our bones eftsoones beganne -to cleave so neere unto the skinne, that the most part of the souldiers -had their skinnes pierced thorow with them in many partes of their -bodies." Yet, giddy with weakness, they dragged themselves in turn to -the top of St. John's Bluff, straining their eyes across the sea to -descry the anxiously expected sail. - -Had Coligny left them to perish? Or had some new tempest of calamity, -let loose upon France, drowned the memory of their exile? In vain the -watchman on the hill surveyed the solitude of waters. A deep dejection -fell upon them,--a dejection that would have sunk to despair could their -eyes have pierced the future. - -The Indians had left the neighborhood, but from time to time brought -in meagre supplies of fish, which they sold to the famished soldiers at -exorbitant prices. Lest they should pay the penalty of their extortion, -they would not enter the fort, but lay in their canoes in the river, -beyond gunshot, waiting for their customers to come out to them. -"Oftentimes," says Laudonniere, "our poor soldiers were constrained to -give away the very shirts from their backs to get one fish. If at any -time they shewed unto the savages the excessive price which they tooke, -these villaines would answere them roughly and churlishly: If thou make -so great account of thy marchandise, eat it, and we will eat our fish: -then fell they out a laughing, and mocked us with open throat." - -The spring wore away, and no relief appeared. One thought now engrossed -the colonists, that of return to France. Vasseur's ship, the "Breton," -still remained in the river, and they had also the Spanish brigantine -brought by the mutineers. But these vessels were insufficient, and they -prepared to build a new one. The energy of reviving hope lent new life -to their exhausted frames. Some gathered pitch in the pine forests; some -made charcoal; some cut and sawed timber. The maize began to ripen, and -this brought some relief; but the Indians, exasperated and greedy, -sold it with reluctance, and murdered two half-famished Frenchmen who -gathered a handful in the fields. - -The colonists applied to Outina, who owed them two victories. The result -was a churlish message and a niggardly supply of corn, coupled with -an invitation to aid him against an insurgent chief, one Astina, the -plunder of whose villages would yield an ample supply. The offer was -accepted. Ottigny and Vasseur set out, but were grossly deceived, led -against a different enemy, and sent back empty-handed and half-starved. - -They returned to the fort, in the words of Laudonniere, "angry and -pricked deepely to the quicke for being so mocked," and, joined by all -their comrades, fiercely demanded to be led against Outina, to seize -him, punish his insolence, and extort from his fears the supplies which -could not be looked for from his gratitude. The commandant was forced -to comply. Those who could bear the weight of their armor put it on, -embarked, to the number of fifty, in two barges, and sailed up the river -under Laudonniere himself. Having reached Outina's landing, they marched -inland, entered his village, surrounded his mud-plastered palace, seized -him amid the yells and howlings of his subjects, and led him prisoner -to their boats. Here, anchored in mid-stream, they demanded a supply of -corn and beans as the price of his ransom. - -The alarm spread. Excited warriors, bedaubed with red, came thronging -from all his villages. The forest along the shore was full of them; and -the wife of the chief, followed by all the women of the place, uttered -moans and outcries from the strand. Yet no ransom was offered, since, -reasoning from their own instincts, they never doubted that, after the -price was paid, the captive would be put to death. - -Laudonniere waited two days, and then descended the river with his -prisoner. In a rude chamber of Fort Caroline the sentinel stood his -guard, pike in hand, while before him crouched the captive chief, mute, -impassive, and brooding on his woes. His old enemy, Satouriona, keen -as a hound on the scent of prey, tried, by great offers, to bribe -Laudonniere to give Outina into his hands; but the French captain -refused, treated his prisoner kindly, and assured him of immediate -freedom on payment of the ransom. - -Meanwhile his captivity was bringing grievous affliction on his -tribesmen; for, despairing of his return, they mustered for the election -of a new chief. Party strife ran high. Some were for a boy, his son, and -some for an ambitious kinsman. Outina chafed in his prison on learning -these dissentions; and, eager to convince his over-hasty subjects that -their chief still lived, he was so profuse of promises that he was again -embarked and carried up the river. - -At no great distance from Lake George, a small affluent of the St. -John's gave access by water to a point within six French leagues of -Outina's principal town. The two barges, crowded with soldiers, and -bearing also the captive Outina, rowed up this little stream. Indians -awaited them at the landing, with gifts of bread, beans, and fish, and -piteous prayers for their chief, upon whose liberation they promised an -ample supply of corn. As they were deaf to all other terms, Laudonniere -yielded, released his prisoner, and received in his place two hostages, -who were fast bound in the boats. Ottigny and Arlac, with a strong -detachment of arquebusiers, went to receive the promised supplies, for -which, from the first, full payment in merchandise had been offered. On -their arrival at the village, they filed into the great central lodge, -within whose dusky precincts were gathered the magnates of the tribe. -Council-chamber, forum, banquet-hall, and dancing-hall all in one, the -spacious structure could hold half the population. Here the French made -their abode. With armor buckled, and arquebuse matches lighted, they -watched with anxious eyes the strange, dim scene, half revealed by the -daylight that streamed down through the hole at the apex of the roof. -Tall, dark forms stalked to and fro, with quivers at their backs, and -bows and arrows in their hands, while groups, crouched in the shadow -beyond, eyed the hated guests with inscrutable visages, and malignant, -sidelong eyes. Corn came in slowly, but warriors mustered fast. The -village without was full of them. The French officers grew anxious, and -urged the chiefs to greater alacrity in collecting the promised ransom. -The answer boded no good: "Our women are afraid when they see the -matches of your guns burning. Put them out, and they will bring the corn -faster." - -Outina was nowhere to be seen. At length they learned that he was in -one of the small huts adjacent. Several of the officers went to him, -complaining of the slow payment of his ransom. The kindness of his -captors at Fort Caroline seemed to have won his heart. He replied, that -such was the rage of his subjects that he could no longer control them; -that the French were in danger; and that he had seen arrows stuck in -the ground by the side of the path, in token that war was declared. The -peril was thickening hourly, and Ottigny resolved to regain the boats -while there was yet time. - -On the twenty-seventh of July, at nine in the morning, he set his men in -order. Each shouldering a sack of corn, they marched through the rows -of huts that surrounded the great lodge, and out betwixt the overlapping -extremities of the palisade that encircled the town. Before them -stretched a wide avenue, three or four hundred paces long, flanked by -a natural growth of trees,--one of those curious monuments of native -industry to which allusion has already been made. Here Ottigny halted -and formed his line of march. Arlac, with eight matchlock men, was sent -in advance, and flanking parties were thrown into the woods on either -side. Ottigny told his soldiers that, if the Indians meant to attack -them, they were probably in ambush at the other end of the avenue. He -was right. As Arlac's party reached the spot, the whole pack gave -tongue at once. The war-whoop rose, and a tempest of stone-headed arrows -clattered against the breast-plates of the French, or, scorching like -fire, tore through their unprotected limbs. They stood firm, and sent -back their shot so steadily that several of the assailants were laid -dead, and the rest, two or three hundred in number, gave way as Ottigny -came up with his men. - -They moved on for a quarter of a mile through a country, as it seems, -comparatively open, when again the war-cry pealed in front, and three -hundred savages bounded to the assault. Their whoops were echoed from -the rear. It was the party whom Arlac had just repulsed, and who, -leaping and showering their arrows, were rushing on again with a -ferocity restrained only by their lack of courage. There was no panic -among the French. The men threw down their bags of corn, and took -to their weapons. They blew their matches, and, under two excellent -officers, stood well to their work. The Indians, on their part, showed -good discipline after their fashion, and were perfectly under the -control of their chiefs. With cries that imitated the yell of owls, the -scream of cougars, and the howl of wolves, they ran up in successive -bands, let fly their arrows, and instantly fell back, giving place to -others. At the sight of the leveled arquebuse, they dropped flat on the -ground. Whenever the French charged upon them, sword in hand, they fled -through the woods like foxes; and whenever the march was resumed, the -arrows were showering again upon the flanks and rear of the retiring -band. As they fell, the soldiers picked them up and broke them. Thus, -beset with swarming savages, the handful of Frenchmen pushed slowly -onward, fighting as they went. - -The Indians gradually drew off, and the forest was silent again. Two of -the French had been killed and twenty-two wounded, several so severely -that they were supported to the boats with the utmost difficulty. Of the -corn, two bags only had been brought off. - -Famine and desperation now reigned at Fort Caroline. The Indians had -killed two of the carpenters; hence long delay in the finishing of -the new ship. They would not wait, but resolved to put to sea in the -"Breton" and the brigantine. The problem was to find food for the -voyage; for now, in their extremity, they roasted and ate snakes, a -delicacy in which the neighborhood abounded. - -On the third of August, Laudonniere, perturbed and oppressed, was -walking on the hill, when, looking seaward, he saw a sight that sent a -thrill through his exhausted frame. A great ship was standing towards -the river's mouth. Then another came in sight, and another, and another. -He despatched a messenger with the tidings to the fort below. The -languid forms of his sick and despairing men rose and danced for joy, -and voices shrill with weakness joined in wild laughter and acclamation, -insomuch, he says, "that one would have thought them to bee out of their -wittes." - -A doubt soon mingled with their joy. Who were the strangers? Were they -the friends so long hoped for in vain? or were they Spaniards, their -dreaded enemies? They were neither. The foremost ship was a stately one, -of seven hundred tons, a great burden at that day. She was named the -"Jesus;" and with her were three smaller vessels, the "Solomon," the -"Tiger," and the "Swallow." Their commander was "a right worshipful -and valiant knight,"--for so the record styles him,--a pious man and a -prudent, to judge him by the orders he gave his crew when, ten months -before, he sailed out of Plymouth: "Serve God daily, love one another, -preserve your victuals, beware of fire, and keepe good companie." -Nor were the crew unworthy the graces of their chief; for the devout -chronicler of the voyage ascribes their deliverance from the perils of -the sea to "the Almightie God, who never suffereth his Elect to perish." - -Who then were they, this chosen band, serenely conscious of a special -Providential care? They were the pioneers of that detested traffic -destined to inoculate with its infection nations yet unborn, the parent -of discord and death, filling half a continent with the tramp of armies -and the clash of fratricidal swords. Their chief was Sir John Hawkins, -father of the English slave-trade. - -He had been to the coast of Guinea, where he bought and kidnapped -a cargo of slaves. These he had sold to the jealous Spaniards of -Hispaniola, forcing them, with sword, matchlock, and culverin, to grant -him free trade, and then to sign testimonials that he had borne himself -as became a peaceful merchant. Prospering greatly by this summary -commerce, but distressed by the want of water, he had put into the River -of May to obtain a supply. - -Among the rugged heroes of the British marine, Sir John stood in the -front rank, and along with Drake, his relative, is extolled as "a man -borne for the honour of the English name.... Neither did the West of -England yeeld such an Indian Neptunian paire as were these two Ocean -peeres, Hawkins and Drake." So writes the old chronicler, Purchas, and -all England was of his thinking. A hardy and skilful seaman, a bold -fighter, a loyal friend and a stern enemy, overbearing towards equals, -but kind, in his bluff way, to those beneath him, rude in speech, -somewhat crafty withal and avaricious, he buffeted his way to riches -and fame, and died at last full of years and honor. As for the abject -humanity stowed between the reeking decks of the ship "Jesus," they were -merely in his eyes so many black cattle tethered for the market. [18] - -Hawkins came up the river in a pinnace, and landed at Fort Caroline, -accompanied, says Laudonniere, "with gentlemen honorably apparelled, -yet unarmed." Between the Huguenots and the English Puritans there was -a double tie of sympathy. Both hated priests, and both hated Spaniards. -Wakening from their apathetic misery, the starveling garrison hailed -him as a deliverer. Yet Hawkins secretly rejoiced when he learned their -purpose to abandon Florida; for although, not to tempt his cupidity, -they hid from him the secret of their Appalachian gold mine, he coveted -for his royal mistress the possession of this rich domain. He shook his -head, however, when he saw the vessels in which they proposed to embark, -and offered them all a free passage to France in his own ships. This, -from obvious motives of honor and prudence, Laudonniere declined, upon -which Hawkins offered to lend or sell to him one of his smaller vessels. - -Laudonniere hesitated, and hereupon arose a great clamor. A mob of -soldiers and artisans beset his chamber, threatening loudly to desert -him, and take passage with Hawkins, unless the offer were accepted. The -commandant accordingly resolved to buy the vessel. The generous slaver, -whose reputed avarice nowhere appears in the transaction, desired him to -set his own price; and, in place of money, took the cannon of the fort, -with other articles now useless to their late owners. He sent them, too, -a gift of wine and biscuit, and supplied them with provisions for the -voyage, receiving in payment Laudonniere's note; "for which," adds the -latter, "untill this present I am indebted to him." With a friendly -leave taking, he returned to his ships and stood out to sea, leaving -golden opinions among the grateful inmates of Fort Caroline. - -Before the English top-sails had sunk beneath the horizon, the colonists -bestirred themselves to depart. In a few days their preparations were -made. They waited only for a fair wind. It was long in coming, and -meanwhile their troubled fortunes assumed a new phase. - -On the twenty eighth of August, the two captains Vasseur and Verdier -came in with tidings of an approaching squadron. Again the fort was -wild with excitement. Friends or foes, French or Spaniards, succor -or death,--betwixt these were their hopes and fears divided. On the -following morning, they saw seven barges rowing up the river, bristling -with weapons, and crowded with men in armor. The sentries on the bluff -challenged, and received no answer. One of them fired at the advancing -boats, and still there was no response. Laudonniere was almost -defenceless. He had given his heavier cannon to Hawkins, and only two -field-pieces were left. They were levelled at the foremost boats, and -the word to fire was about to be given, when a voice from among the -strangers called out that they were French, commanded by Jean Ribaut. - -At the eleventh hour, the long looked for succors were come. Ribaut had -been commissioned to sail with seven ships for Florida. A disorderly -concourse of disbanded soldiers, mixed with artisans and their families, -and young nobles weary of a two years' peace, were mustered at the port -of Dieppe, and embarked, to the number of three hundred men, bearing -with them all things thought necessary to a prosperous colony. - -No longer in dread of the Spaniards, the colonists saluted the -new-comers with the cannon by which a moment before they had hoped to -blow them out of the water. Laudonniere issued from his stronghold to -welcome them, and regaled them with what cheer he could. Ribaut was -present, conspicuous by his long beard, an astonishment to the Indians; -and here, too, were officers, old friends of Laudonniere. Why, then, -had they approached in the attitude of enemies? The mystery was soon -explained; for they expressed to the commandant their pleasure at -finding that the charges made against him had proved false. He begged -to know more; on which Ribaut, taking him aside, told him that the -returning ships had brought home letters filled with accusations -of arrogance, tyranny, cruelty, and a purpose of establishing an -independent command,--accusations which he now saw to be unfounded, but -which had been the occasion of his unusual and startling precaution. -He gave him, too, a letter from Admiral Coligny. In brief but courteous -terms, it required him to resign his command, and requested his return -to France to clear his name from the imputations cast upon it. Ribaut -warmly urged him to remain; but Laudonniere declined his friendly -proposals. - -Worn in body and mind, mortified and wounded, he soon fell ill again. A -peasant woman attended him, who was brought over, he says, to nurse the -sick and take charge of the poultry, and of whom Le Moyne also speaks -as a servant, but who had been made the occasion of additional charges -against him, most offensive to the austere Admiral. - -Stores were landed, tents were pitched, women and children were sent on -shore, feathered Indians mingled in the throng, and the borders of the -River of May swarmed with busy life. "But, lo, how oftentimes misfortune -doth search and pursue us, even then when we thinke to be at rest!" -exclaims the unhappy Laudonniere. Amidst the light and cheer of -renovated hope, a cloud of blackest omen was gathering in the east. - -At half-past eleven on the night of Tuesday, the fourth of September, -the crew of Ribaut's flag-ship, anchored on the still sea outside the -bar, saw a huge hulk, grim with the throats of cannon, drifting towards -them through the gloom; and from its stern rolled on the sluggish air -the portentous banner of Spain. - - - - -CHAPTER VII. 1565. - -MENENDEZ. - -The monk, the inquisitor, and the Jesuit were lords of -Spain,--sovereigns of her sovereign, for they had formed the dark and -narrow mind of that tyrannical recluse. They had formed the minds of her -people, quenched in blood every spark of rising heresy, and given over -a noble nation to a bigotry blind and inexorable as the doom of fate. -Linked with pride, ambition, avarice, every passion of a rich, strong -nature, potent for good and ill, it made the Spaniard of that day a -scourge as dire as ever fell on man. - -Day was breaking on the world. Light, hope, and freedom pierced with -vitalizing ray the clouds and the miasma that hung so thick over the -prostrate Middle Age, once noble and mighty, now a foul image of decay -and death. Kindled with new life, the nations gave birth to a progeny of -heroes, and the stormy glories of the sixteenth century rose on awakened -Europe. But Spain was the citadel of darkness,--a monastic cell, an -inquisitorial dungeon, where no ray could pierce. She was the bulwark of -the Church, against whose adamantine wall the waves of innovation beat -in vain. [19] In every country of Europe the party of freedom and -reform was the national party, the party of reaction and absolutism was -the Spanish party, leaning on Spain, looking to her for help. Above all, -it was so in France; and, while within her bounds there was for a time -some semblance of peace, the national and religious rage burst forth -on a wilder theatre. Thither it is for us to follow it, where, on the -shores of Florida, the Spaniard and the Frenchman, the bigot and the -Huguenot, met in the grapple of death. - -In a corridor of his palace, Philip the Second was met by a man who had -long stood waiting his approach, and who with proud reverence placed a -petition in the hand of the pale and sombre King. - -The petitioner was Pedro Menendez de Aviles, one of the ablest and most -distinguished officers of the Spanish marine. He was born of an ancient -Asturian family. His boyhood had been wayward, ungovernable, and fierce. -He ran off at eight years of age, and when, after a search of six -months, he was found and brought back, he ran off again. This time he -was more successful, escaping on board a fleet bound against the -Barbary corsairs, where his precocious appetite for blood and blows had -reasonable contentment. A few years later, he found means to build a -small vessel, in which he cruised against the corsairs and the French, -and, though still hardly more than a boy, displayed a singular address -and daring. The wonders of the New World now seized his imagination. -He made a voyage thither, and the ships under his charge came back -freighted with wealth. The war with France was then at its height. As -captain-general of the fleet, he was sent with troops to Flanders; and -to their prompt arrival was due, it is said, the victory of St. Quentin. -Two years later, he commanded the luckless armada which bore back Philip -to his native shore. On the way, the King narrowly escaped drowning in -a storm off the port of Laredo. This mischance, or his own violence and -insubordination, wrought to the prejudice of Menendez. He complained -that his services were ill repaid. Philip lent him a favoring ear, and -despatched him to the Indies as general of the fleet and army. Here he -found means to amass vast riches; and, in 1561, on his return to Spain, -charges were brought against him of a nature which his too friendly -biographer does not explain. The Council of the Indies arrested him. He -was imprisoned and sentenced to a heavy fine; but, gaining his release, -hastened to court to throw himself on the royal clemency. His petition -was most graciously received. Philip restored his command, but remitted -only half his fine, a strong presumption of his guilt. - -Menendez kissed the royal hand; he had another petition in reserve. His -son had been wrecked near the Bermudas, and he would fain go thither -to find tidings of his fate. The pious King bade him trust in God, and -promised that he should be despatched without delay to the Bermudas and -to Florida, with a commission to make an exact survey of the neighboring -seas for the profit of future voyagers; but Menendez was not content -with such an errand. He knew, he said, nothing of greater moment to his -Majesty than the conquest and settlement of Florida. The climate was -healthful, the soil fertile; and, worldly advantages aside, it was -peopled by a race sunk in the thickest shades of infidelity. "Such -grief," he pursued, "seizes me, when I behold this multitude of wretched -Indians, that I should choose the conquest and settling of Florida above -all commands, offices, and dignities which your Majesty might bestow." -Those who take this for hypocrisy do not know the Spaniard of the -sixteenth century. - -The King was edified by his zeal. An enterprise of such spiritual and -temporal promise was not to be slighted, and Menendez was empowered -to conquer and convert Florida at his own cost. The conquest was to be -effected within three years. Menendez was to take with him five hundred -men, and supply them with five hundred slaves, besides horses, cattle, -sheep, and hogs. Villages were to be built, with forts to defend them, -and sixteen ecclesiastics, of whom four should be Jesuits, were to -form the nucleus of a Floridan church. The King, on his part, granted -Menendez free trade with Hispaniola, Porto Rico, Cuba, and Spain, the -office of Adelantado of Florida for life, with the right of naming his -successor, and large emoluments to be drawn from the expected conquest. - -The compact struck, Menendez hastened to his native Asturias to raise -money among his relatives. Scarcely was he gone, when tidings reached -Madrid that Florida was already occupied by a colony of French -Protestants, and that a reinforcement, under Ribaut, was on the point -of sailing thither. A French historian of high authority declares that -these advices came from the Catholic party at the French court, in whom -every instinct of patriotism was lost in their hatred of Coligny and the -Huguenots. Of this there can be little doubt, though information also -came about this time from the buccaneer Frenchmen captured in the West -Indies. - -Foreigners had invaded the territory of Spain. The trespassers, too, -were heretics, foes of God, and liegemen of the Devil. Their doom was -fixed. But how would France endure an assault, in time of peace, on -subjects who had gone forth on an enterprise sanctioned by the Crown, -and undertaken in its name and under its commission? - -The throne of France, in which the corruption of the nation seemed -gathered to a head, was trembling between the two parties of the -Catholics and the Huguenots, whose chiefs aimed at royalty. Flattering -both, caressing both, playing one against the other, and betraying both, -Catherine de Medicis, by a thousand crafty arts and expedients of the -moment, sought to retain the crown on the head of her weak and vicious -son. Of late her crooked policy had led her towards the Catholic party, -in other words the party of Spain; and she had already given ear to the -savage Duke of Alva, urging her to the course which, seven years later, -led to the carnage of St. Bartholomew. In short, the Spanish policy was -in the ascendant, and no thought of the national interest or honor -could restrain that basest of courts from abandoning by hundreds to -the national enemy those whom it was itself meditating to immolate by -thousands. It might protest for form's sake, or to quiet public clamor; -but Philip of Spain well knew that it would end in patient submission. - -Menendez was summoned back in haste to the Spanish court. His force must -be strengthened. Three hundred and ninety-four men were added at the -royal charge, and a corresponding number of transport and supply ships. -It was a holy war, a crusade, and as such was preached by priest and -monk along the western coasts of Spain. All the Biscayan ports flamed -with zeal, and adventurers crowded to enroll themselves; since to -plunder heretics is good for the soul as well as the purse, and broil -and massacre have double attraction when promoted into a means of -salvation. It was a fervor, deep and hot, but not of celestial kindling; -nor yet that buoyant and inspiring zeal which, when the Middle Age was -in its youth and prime, glowed in the souls of Tancred, Godfrey, and St. -Louis, and which, when its day was long since past, could still find -its home in the great heart of Columbus. A darker spirit urged the new -crusade,--born not of hope, but of fear, slavish in its nature, the -creature and the tool of despotism; for the typical Spaniard of the -sixteenth century was not in strictness a fanatic, he was bigotry -incarnate. - -Heresy was a plague-spot, an ulcer to be eradicated with fire and the -knife, and this foul abomination was infecting the shores which the -Vicegerent of Christ had given to the King of Spain, and which the Most -Catholic King had given to the Adelantado. Thus would countless heathen -tribes be doomed to an eternity of flame, and the Prince of Darkness -hold his ancient sway unbroken; and for the Adelantado himself, the vast -outlays, the vast debts of his bold Floridan venture would be all in -vain, and his fortunes be wrecked past redemption through these tools -of Satan. As a Catholic, as a Spaniard, and as an adventurer, his course -was clear. - -The work assigned him was prodigious. He was invested with power almost -absolute, not merely over the peninsula which now retains the name of -Florida, but over all North America, from Labrador to Mexico; for -this was the Florida of the old Spanish geographers, and the Florida -designated in the commission of Menendez. It was a continent which he -was to conquer and occupy out of his own purse. The impoverished King -contracted with his daring and ambitious subject to win and hold for -him the territory of the future United States and British Provinces. -His plan, as afterwards exposed at length in his letters to Philip -the Second, was, first, to plant a garrison at Port Royal, and next -to fortify strongly on Chesapeake Bay, called by him St. Mary's. -He believed that adjoining this bay was an arm of the sea, running -northward and eastward, and communicating with the Gulf of St. Lawrence, -thus making New England, with adjacent districts, an island. His -proposed fort on the Chesapeake, securing access by this imaginary -passage, to the seas of Newfoundland, would enable the Spaniards to -command the fisheries, on which both the French and the English had long -encroached, to the great prejudice of Spanish rights. Doubtless, too, -these inland waters gave access to the South Sea, and their occupation -was necessary to prevent the French from penetrating thither; for that -ambitious people, since the time of Cartier, had never abandoned their -schemes of seizing this portion of the dominions of the King of Spain. -Five hundred soldiers and one hundred sailors must, he urges, take -possession, without delay, of Port Royal and the Chesapeake. [20] - -Preparation for his enterprise was pushed with furious energy. His whole -force, when the several squadrons were united, amounted to two thousand -six hundred and forty-six persons, in thirty-four vessels, one of -which, the San Pelayo, bearing Menendez himself, was of nine hundred -and ninety-six tons burden, and is described as one of the finest ships -afloat. [21] There were twelve Franciscans and eight Jesuits, besides -other ecclesiastics; and many knights of Galicia, Biscay, and the -Asturias took part in the expedition. With a slight exception, the -whole was at the Adelantado's charge. Within the first fourteen months, -according to his admirer, Barcia, the adventure cost him a million -ducats. [22] - -Before the close of the year, Sancho do Arciniega was commissioned to -join Menendez with an additional force of fifteen hundred men. - -Red-hot with a determined purpose, the Adelantado would brook no delay. -To him, says the chronicler, every day seemed a year. He was eager to -anticipate Ribaut, of whose designs and whose force he seems to have -been informed to the minutest particular, but whom he hoped to thwart -and ruin by gaining Fort Caroline before him. With eleven ships, -therefore, he sailed from Cadiz, on the twenty-ninth of June, 1565, -leaving the smaller vessels of his fleet to follow with what speed they -might. He touched first at the Canaries, and on the eighth of July left -them, steering for Dominica. A minute account of the voyage has come -down to us, written by Mendoza, chaplain of the expedition,--a somewhat -dull and illiterate person, who busily jots down the incidents of -each passing day, and is constantly betraying, with a certain awkward -simplicity, how the cares of this world and of the next jostle each -other in his thoughts. - -On Friday, the twentieth of July, a storm fell upon them with appalling -fury. The pilots lost their wits, and the sailors gave themselves up to -their terrors. Throughout the night, they beset Mendoza for confession -and absolution, a boon not easily granted, for the seas swept the -crowded decks with cataracts of foam, and the shriekings of the gale -in the rigging overpowered the exhortations of the half-drowned priest. -Cannon, cables, spars, water-casks, were thrown overboard, and the -chests of the sailors would have followed, had not the latter, in spite -of their fright, raised such a howl of remonstrance that the order was -revoked. At length day dawned, Plunging, reeling, half under water, -quivering with the shock of the seas, whose mountain ridges rolled down -upon her before the gale, the ship lay in deadly peril from Friday till -Monday noon. Then the storm abated; the sun broke out; and again she -held her course. - -They reached Dominica on Sunday, the fifth of August. The chaplain -tells us how he went on shore to refresh himself; how, while his Italian -servant washed his linen at a brook, he strolled along the beach and -picked up shells; and how he was scared, first, by a prodigious turtle, -and next by a vision of the cannibal natives, which caused his prompt -retreat to the boats. - -On the tenth, they anchored in the harbor of Porto Rico, where they -found two ships of their squadron, from which they had parted in the -storm. One of them was the "San Pelayo," with Menendez on board. Mendoza -informs us, that in the evening the officers came on board the ship -to which he was attached, when he, the chaplain, regaled them with -sweetmeats, and that Menendez invited him not only to supper that night, -but to dinner the next day, "for the which I thanked him, as reason -was," says the gratified churchman. - -Here thirty men deserted, and three priests also ran off, of which -Mendoza bitterly complains, as increasing his own work. The motives of -the clerical truants may perhaps be inferred from a worldly temptation -to which the chaplain himself was subjected. "I was offered the service -of a chapel where I should have got a peso for every mass I said, the -whole year round; but I did not accept it, for fear that what I hear -said of the other three would be said of me. Besides, it is not a -place where one can hope for any great advancement, and I wished to try -whether, in refusing a benefice for the love of the Lord, He will not -repay me with some other stroke of fortune before the end of the voyage; -for it is my aim to serve God and His blessed Mother." - -The original design had been to rendezvous at Havana, but with -the Adelantado the advantages of despatch outweighed every other -consideration. He resolved to push directly for Florida. Five of his -scattered ships had by this time rejoined company, comprising, exclusive -of officers, a force of about five hundred soldiers, two hundred -sailors, and one hundred colonists. Bearing northward, he advanced by -an unknown and dangerous course along the coast of Hayti and through the -intricate passes of the Bahamas. On the night of the twenty-sixth, the -"San Pelayo" struck three times on the shoals; "but," says the chaplain, -"inasmuch as our enterprise was undertaken for the sake of Christ and -His blessed Mother, two heavy seas struck her abaft, and set her afloat -again." - -At length the ships lay becalmed in the Bahama Channel, slumbering on -the glassy sea, torpid with the heats of a West Indian August. Menendez -called a council of the commanders. There was doubt and indecision. -Perhaps Ribaut had already reached the French fort, and then to attack -the united force would be an act of desperation. Far better to await -their lagging comrades. But the Adelantado was of another mind; and, -even had his enemy arrived, ho was resolved that he should have no time -to fortify himself. - -"It is God's will," he said, "that our victory should be due, not to our -numbers, but to His all-powerful aid. Therefore has He stricken us with -tempests, and scattered our ships." And he gave his voice for instant -advance. - -There was much dispute; even the chaplain remonstrated; but nothing -could bend the iron will of Menendez. Nor was a sign of celestial -approval wanting. At nine in the evening, a great meteor burst forth in -mid-heaven, and, blazing like the sun, rolled westward towards the coast -of Florida. The fainting spirits of the crusaders were revived. Diligent -preparation was begun. Prayers and masses were said; and, that the -temporal arm might not fail, the men were daily practised on deck in -shooting at marks, in order, says the chronicle, that the recruits might -learn not to be afraid of their guns. - -The dead calm continued. "We were all very tired," says the chaplain, -"and I above all, with praying to God for a fair wind. To-day, at about -two in the afternoon, He took pity on us, and sent us a breeze." Before -night they saw land,--the faint line of forest, traced along the watery -horizon, that marked the coast of Florida. But where, in all this vast -monotony, was the lurking-place of the French? Menendez anchored, and -sent a captain with twenty men ashore, who presently found a band -of Indians, and gained from them the needed information. He stood -northward, till, on the afternoon of Tuesday, the fourth of September, -he descried four ships anchored near the mouth of a river. It was the -river St. John's, and the ships were four of Ribaut's squadron. The prey -was in sight. The Spaniards prepared for battle, and bore down upon the -Lutherans; for, with them, all Protestants alike were branded with the -name of the arch-heretic. Slowly, before the faint breeze, the ships -glided on their way; but while, excited and impatient, the fierce crews -watched the decreasing space, and when they were still three leagues -from their prize, the air ceased to stir, the sails flapped against the -mast, a black cloud with thunder rose above the coast, and the warm rain -of the South descended on the breathless sea. It was dark before the -wind stirred again and the ships resumed their course. At half-past -eleven they reached the French. The "San Pelayo" slowly moved to -windward of Ribaut's flag-ship, the "Trinity," and anchored very near -her. The other ships took similar stations. While these preparations -were making, a work of two hours, the men labored in silence, and the -French, thronging their gangways, looked on in equal silence. "Never, -since I came into the world," writes the chaplain, "did I know such a -stillness." - -It was broken at length by a trumpet from the deck of the "San Pelayo." -A French trumpet answered. Then Menendez, "with much courtesy," says his -Spanish eulogist, inquired, "Gentlemen, whence does this fleet come?" - -"From France," was the reply. - -"What are you doing here?" pursued the Adelantado. - -"Bringing soldiers and supplies for a fort which the King of France has -in this country, and for many others which he soon will have." - -"Are you Catholics or Lutherans?" - -Many voices cried out together, "Lutherans, of the new religion." Then, -in their turn, they demanded who Menendez was, and whence he came. - -He answered: "I am Pedro Menendez, General of the fleet of the King of -Spain, Don Philip the Second, who have come to this country to hang -and behead all Lutherans whom I shall find by land or sea, according to -instructions from my King, so precise that I have power to pardon none; -and these commands I shall fulfil, as you will see. At daybreak I shall -board your ships, and if I find there any Catholic, he shall be well -treated; but every heretic shall die." - -The French with one voice raised a cry of wrath and defiance. - -"If you are a brave man, don't wait till day. Come on now, and see what -you will get!" - -And they assailed the Adelantado with a shower of scoffs and insults. - -Menendez broke into a rage, and gave the order to board. The men slipped -the cables, and the sullen black hulk of the "San Pelayo" drifted down -upon the "Trinity." The French did not make good their defiance. Indeed, -they were incapable of resistance, Ribaut with his soldiers being ashore -at Fort Caroline. They cut their cables, left their anchors, made sail, -and fled. The Spaniards fired, the French replied. The other Spanish -ships had imitated the movement of the "San Pelayo;" "but," writes the -chaplain, Mendoza, "these devils are such adroit sailors, and maneuvred -so well, that we did not catch one of them." Pursuers and pursued ran -out to sea, firing useless volleys at each other. - -In the morning Menendez gave over the chase, turned, and, with the -"San Pelayo" alone, ran back for the St. John's. But here a welcome was -prepared for him. He saw bands of armed men drawn up on the beach, and -the smaller vessels of Ribaut's squadron, which had crossed the bar -several days before, anchored behind it to oppose his landing. He would -not venture an attack, but, steering southward, sailed along the coast -till he came to an inlet which he named San Augustine, the same which -Laudonniere had named the River of Dolphins. - -Here he found three of his ships already debarking their troops, guns, -and stores. Two officers, Patiflo and Vicente, had taken possession -of the dwelling of the Indian chief Seloy, a huge barn-like structure, -strongly framed of entire trunks of trees, and thatched with palmetto -leaves. Around it they were throwing up entrenchments of fascines and -sand, and gangs of negroes were toiling at the work. Such was the birth -of St. Augustine, the oldest town of the United States. - -On the eighth, Menendez took formal possession of his domain. Cannon -were fired, trumpets sounded, and banners displayed, as he landed in -state at the head of his officers and nobles. Mendoza, crucifix in hand, -came to meet him, chanting Te Deum laudamus, while the Adelantado -and all his company, kneeling, kissed the crucifix, and the assembled -Indians gazed in silent wonder. - -Meanwhile the tenants of Fort Caroline were not idle. Two or three -soldiers, strolling along the beach in the afternoon, had first seen the -Spanish ships, and hastily summoned Ribaut. He came down to the mouth -of the river, followed by an anxious and excited crowd; but, as they -strained their eyes through the darkness, they could see nothing but the -flashes of the distant guns. At length the returning light showed, -far out at sea, the Adelantado in hot chase of their flying comrades. -Pursuers and pursued were soon out of sight. The drums beat to arms. -After many hours of suspense, the "San Pelayo" reappeared, hovering -about the mouth of the river, then bearing away towards the south. More -anxious hours ensued, when three other sail came in sight, and they -recognized three of their own returning ships. Communication was opened, -a boat's crew landed, and they learned from Cosette, one of the French -captains, that, confiding in the speed of his ship, he had followed the -Spaniards to St. Augustine, reconnoitred their position, and seen them -land their negroes and intrench themselves. - -Laudonniere lay sick in bed in his chamber at Fort Caroline when Ribaut -entered, and with him La Grange, Sainte Marie, Ottigny, Yonville, and -other officers. At the bedside of the displaced commandant, they held -their council of war. Three plans were proposed: first, to remain -where they were and fortify themselves; next, to push overland for St. -Augustine and attack the invaders in their intrenchments; and, finally, -to embark and assail them by sea. The first plan would leave their -ships a prey to the Spaniards; and so, too, in all likelihood, would -the second, besides the uncertainties of an overland march through -an unknown wilderness. By sea, the distance was short and the route -explored. By a sudden blow they could capture or destroy the Spanish -ships, and master the troops on shore before reinforcements could -arrive, and before they had time to complete their defences. - -Such were the views of Ribaut, with which, not unnaturally, Laudonniere -finds fault, and Le Moyne echoes the censures of his chief. And yet -the plan seems as well conceived as it was bold, lacking nothing but -success. The Spaniards, stricken with terror, owed their safety to the -elements, or, as they say, to the special interposition of the Holy -Virgin. Menendez was a leader fit to stand with Cortes and Pizarro; -but he was matched with a man as cool, skilful, prompt, and daring as -himself. The traces that have come down to us indicate in Ribaut one far -above the common stamp,--"a distinguished man, of many high qualities," -as even the fault-finding Le Moyne calls him; devout after the -best spirit of the Reform; and with a human heart under his steel -breastplate. - -La Grange and other officers took part with Landonniere, and opposed the -plan of an attack by sea; but Ribaut's conviction was unshaken, and the -order was given. All his own soldiers fit for duty embarked in haste, -and with them went La Caille, Arlac, and, as it seems, Ottigny, with the -best of Laudonniere's men. Even Le Moyne, though wounded in the fight -with Outina's warriors, went on board to bear his part in the fray, and -would have sailed with the rest had not Ottigny, seeing his disabled -condition, ordered him back to the fort. - -On the tenth, the ships, crowded with troops, set sail. Ribaut was gone, -and with him the bone and sinew of the colony. The miserable remnant -watched his receding sails with dreary foreboding,--a fore-boding which -seemed but too just, when, on the next day, a storm, more violent than -the Indians had ever known, howled through the forest and lashed the -ocean into fury. Most forlorn was the plight of these exiles, left, it -might be, the prey of a band of ferocious bigots more terrible than the -fiercest hordes of the wilderness; and when night closed on the stormy -river and the gloomy waste of pines, what dreams of terror may not -have haunted the helpless women who crouched under the hovels of Fort -Caroline! - -The fort was in a ruinous state, with the palisade on the water side -broken down, and three breaches in the rampart. In the driving rain, -urged by the sick Laudonniere, the men, bedrenched and disheartened, -labored as they could to strengthen their defences. Their muster-roll -shows but a beggarly array. "Now," says Laudonniere, "let them which -have bene bold to say that I had men ynough left me, so that I had -meanes to defend my selfe, give care a little now vnto mee, and if they -have eyes in their heads, let them see what men I had." Of Ribaut's -followers left at the fort, only nine or ten had weapons, while only two -or three knew how to use them. Four of them were boys, who kept Ribaut's -dogs, and another was his cook. Besides these, he had left a brewer, an -old crossbow-maker, two shoemakers, a player on the spinet, four valets, -a carpenter of threescore,--Challeux, no doubt, who has left us the -story of his woes,--with a crowd of women, children, and eighty-six -camp-followers. To these were added the remnant of Laudonniere's men, -of whom seventeen could bear arms, the rest being sick or disabled by -wounds received in the fight with Outina. - -Laudonniere divided his force, such as it was, into two watches, -over which he placed two officers, Saint Cler and La Vigne, gave them -lanterns for going the rounds, and an hour-glass for setting the time; -while he himself, giddy with weakness and fever, was every night at the -guard-room. - -It was the night of the nineteenth of September, the season of tempests; -floods of rain drenched the sentries on the rampart, and, as day dawned -on the dripping barracks and deluged parade, the storm increased in -violence. What enemy could venture out on such a night? La Vigne, who -had the watch, took pity on the sentries and on himself, dismissed them, -and went to his quarters. He little knew what human energies, urged by -ambition, avarice, bigotry, and desperation, will dare and do. - -To return to the Spaniards at St. Augustine. On the morning of the -eleventh, the crew of one of their smaller vessels, lying outside the -bar, with Menendez himself on board, saw through the twilight of early -dawn two of Ribaut's ships close upon them. Not a breath of air was -stirring. There was no escape, and the Spaniards fell on their knees in -supplication to Our Lady of Utrera, explaining to her that the heretics -were upon them, and begging her to send them a little wind. "Forthwith," -says Mendoza, "one would have said that Our Lady herself came down upon -the vessel." A wind sprang up, and the Spaniards found refuge behind the -bar. The returning day showed to their astonished eyes all the ships -of Ribaut, their decks black with men, hovering off the entrance of the -port; but Heaven had them in its charge, and again they experienced its -protecting care. The breeze sent by Our Lady of Utrera rose to a gale, -then to a furious tempest; and the grateful Adelantado saw through rack -and mist the ships of his enemy tossed wildly among the raging waters -as they struggled to gain an offing. With exultation in his heart, the -skilful seaman read their danger, and saw them in his mind's eye dashed -to utter wreck among the sand-bars and breakers of the lee shore. - -A bold thought seized him. He would march overland with five hundred -men, and attack Fort Caroline while its defenders were absent. First he -ordered a mass, and then he called a council. Doubtless it was in that -great Indian lodge of Seloy, where he had made his headquarters; -and here, in this dim and smoky abode, nobles, officers, and priests -gathered at his summons. There were fears and doubts and murmurings, but -Menendez was desperate; not with the mad desperation that strikes wildly -and at random, but the still white heat that melts and burns and seethes -with a steady, unquenchable fierceness. "Comrades," he said, "the time -has come to show our courage and our zeal. This is God's war, and we -must not flinch. It is a war with Lutherans, and we must wage it with -blood and fire." - -But his hearers gave no response. They had not a million of ducats -at stake, and were not ready for a cast so desperate. A clamor of -remonstrance rose from the circle. Many voices, that of Mendoza among -the rest, urged waiting till their main forces should arrive. The -excitement spread to the men without, and the swarthy, black-bearded -crowd broke into tumults mounting almost to mutiny, while an officer was -heard to say that he would not go on such a hare-brained errand to -be butchered like a beast. But nothing could move the Adelantado. -His appeals or his threats did their work at last; the confusion was -quelled, and preparation was made for the march. - -On the morning of the seventeenth, five hundred arquebusiers and pikemen -were drawn up before the camp. To each was given six pounds of biscuit -and a canteen filled with wine. Two Indians and a renegade Frenchman, -called Francois Jean, were to guide them, and twenty Biscayan axemen -moved to the front to clear the way. Through floods of driving rain, a -hoarse voice shouted the word of command, and the sullen march began. - -With dismal misgiving, Mendoza watched the last files as they vanished -in the tempestuous forest. Two days of suspense ensued, when a messenger -came back with a letter from the Adelantado, announcing that he had -nearly reached the French fort, and that on the morrow, September the -twentieth, at sunrise, he hoped to assault it. "May the Divine Majesty -deign to protect us, for He knows that we have need of it," writes the -scared chaplain; "the Adelantado's great zeal and courage make us hope -he will succeed, but, for the good of his Majesty's service, he ought to -be a little less ardent in pursuing his schemes." - -Meanwhile the five hundred pushed their march, now toiling across the -inundated savanrias, waist-deep in bulrushes and mud; now filing through -the open forest to the moan and roar of the storm-racked pines: now -hacking their way through palmetto thickets; and now turning from their -path to shun some pool, quagmire, cypress swamp, or "hummock," matted -with impenetrable bushes, brambles, and vines. As they bent before the -tempest, the water trickling from the rusty head-piece crept clammy and -cold betwixt the armor and the skin; and when they made their wretched -bivouac, their bed was the spongy soil, and the exhaustless clouds their -tent. - -The night of Wednesday, the nineteenth, found their vanguard in a deep -forest of pines, less than a mile from Fort Caroline, and near the -low hills which extended in its rear, and formed a continuation of -St. John's Bluff. All around was one great morass. In pitchy darkness, -knee-deep in weeds and water, half starved, worn with toil and lack of -sleep, drenched to the skin, their provisions spoiled, their ammunition -wet, and their spirit chilled out of them, they stood in shivering -groups, cursing the enterprise and the author of it. Menendez heard -Fernando Perez, an ensign, say aloud to his comrades: "This Asturian -Corito, who knows no more of war on shore than an ass, has betrayed -us all. By God, if my advice had been followed, he would have had his -deserts, the day he set out on this cursed journey!" - -The Adelantado pretended not to hear. - -Two hours before dawn he called his officers about him. All night, he -said, he had been praying to God and the Virgin. - -"Senores, what shall we resolve on? Our ammunition and provisions are -gone. Our case is desperate." And he urged a bold rush on the fort. - -But men and officers alike were disheartened and disgusted. They -listened coldly and sullenly; many were for returning at every risk; -none were in the mood for fight. Menendez put forth all his eloquence, -till at length the dashed spirits of his followers were so far revived -that they consented to follow him. - -All fell on their knees in the marsh; then, rising, they formed their -ranks and began to advance, guided by the renegade Frenchman, whose -hands, to make sure of him, were tied behind his back. Groping and -stumbling in the dark among trees, roots, and underbrush, buffeted by -wind and rain, and lashed in the face by the recoiling boughs which they -could not see, they soon lost their way, fell into confusion, and came -to a stand, in a mood more savagely desponding than before. But soon a -glimmer of returning day came to their aid, and showed them the dusky -sky, and the dark columns of the surrounding pines. Menendez ordered the -men forward on pain of death. They obeyed, and presently, emerging from -the forest, could dimly discern the ridge of a low hill, behind which, -the Frenchman told them, was the fort. Menendez, with a few officers -and men, cautiously mounted to the top. Beneath lay Fort Caroline, three -bow-shots distant; but the rain, the imperfect light, and a cluster -of intervening houses prevented his seeing clearly, and he sent -two officers to reconnoiter. As they descended, they met a solitary -Frenchman. They knocked him down with a sheathed sword, wounded him, -took him prisoner, kept him for a time, and then stabbed him as they -returned towards the top of the hill. Here, clutching their weapons, all -the gang stood in fierce expectancy. - -"Santiago!" cried Menendez. "At them! God is with us! Victory!" And, -shouting their hoarse war-cries, the Spaniards rushed down the slope -like starved wolves. - -Not a sentry was on the rampart. La Vigne, the officer of the guard, had -just gone to his quarters; but a trumpeter, who chanced to remain, saw, -through sheets of rain, the swarm of assailants sweeping down the hill. -He blew the alarm, and at the summons a few half-naked soldiers ran -wildly out of the barracks. It was too late. Through the breaches -and over the ramparts the Spaniards came pouring in, with shouts of -"Santiago! Santiago!" - -Sick men leaped from their beds. Women and children, blind with fright, -darted shrieking from the houses. A fierce, gaunt visage, the thrust of -a pike, or blow of a rusty halberd,--such was the greeting that met all -alike. Laudonniere snatched his sword and target, and ran towards the -principal breach, calling to his soldiers. A rush of Spaniards met -him; his men were cut down around him; and he, with a soldier named -Bartholomew, was forced back into the yard of his house. Here stood a -tent, and, as the pursuers stumbled among the cords, he escaped behind -Ottigny's house, sprang through the breach in the western rampart, and -fled for the woods. - -Le Moyne had been one of the guard. Scarcely had he thrown himself into -a hammock which was slung in his room, when a savage shout, and a wild -uproar of shrieks, outcries, and the clash of weapons, brought him to -his feet. He rushed by two Spaniards in the doorway, ran behind the -guard-house, leaped through an embrasure into the ditch, and escaped to -the forest. - -Challeux, the carpenter, was going betimes to his work, a chisel in -his hand. He was old, but pike and partisan brandished at his back gave -wings to his flight. In the ecstasy of his terror, he leaped upward, -clutched the top of the palisade, and threw himself over with the -agility of a boy. He ran up the hill, no one pursuing, and, as he neared -the edge of the forest, turned and looked back. From the high ground -where he stood, he could see the butchery, the fury of the conquerors, -and the agonizing gestures of the victims. He turned again in horror, -and plunged into the woods. As he tore his way through the briers -and thickets, he met several fugitives escaped like himself. Others -presently came up, haggard and wild, like men broken loose from the jaws -of death. They gathered together and consulted. One of them, known as -Master Robert, in great repute for his knowledge of the Bible, was for -returning and surrendering to the Spaniards. "They are men," he said; -"perhaps, when their fury is over, they will spare our lives; and, even -if they kill us, it will only be a few moments' pain. Better so, than to -starve here in the woods, or be torn to pieces by wild beasts." - -The greater part of the naked and despairing company assented, but -Challeux was of a different mind. The old Huguenot quoted Scripture, -and called the names of prophets and apostles to witness, that, in the -direst extremity, God would not abandon those who rested their faith -in Him. Six of the fugitives, however, still held to their desperate -purpose. Issuing from the woods, they descended towards the fort, and, -as with beating hearts their comrades watched the result, a troop of -Spaniards rushed out, hewed them down with swords and halberds, and -dragged their bodies to the brink of the river, where the victims of the -massacre were already flung in heaps. - -Le Moyne, with a soldier named Grandehemin, whom he had met in his -flight, toiled all day through the woods and marshes, in the hope of -reaching the small vessels anchored behind the bar. Night found them in -a morass. No vessel could be seen, and the soldier, in despair, broke -into angry upbraidings against his companion,--saying that he would go -back and give himself up. Le Moyne at first opposed him, then yielded. -But when they drew near the fort, and heard the uproar of savage revelry -that rose from within, the artist's heart failed him. He embraced his -companion, and the soldier advanced alone. A party of Spaniards came out -to meet him. He kneeled, and begged for his life. He was answered by -a death-blow; and the horrified Le Moyne, from his hiding-place in the -thicket, saw his limbs hacked apart, stuck on pikes, and borne off in -triumph. - -Meanwhile, Menendez, mustering his followers, had offered thanks to -God for their victory; and this pious butcher wept with emotion as he -recounted the favors which Heaven had showered upon their enterprise. -His admiring historian gives it in proof of his humanity, that, after -the rage of the assault was spent, he ordered that women, infants, and -boys under fifteen should thenceforth be spared. Of these, by his own -account, there were about fifty. Writing in October to the King, he -says that they cause him great anxiety, since he fears the anger of God -should he now put them to death in cold blood, while, on the other hand, -he is in dread lest the venom of their heresy should infect his men. - -A hundred and forty-two persons were slain in and around the fort, -and their bodies lay heaped together on the bank of the river. Nearly -opposite was anchored a small vessel, called the "Pearl," commanded by -Jacques Ribaut, son of the Admiral. The ferocious soldiery, maddened -with victory and drunk with blood, crowded to the water's edge, shouting -insults to those on board, mangling the corpses, tearing out their eyes, -and throwing them towards the vessel from the points of their daggers. -Thus did the Most Catholic Philip champion the cause of Heaven in the -New World. - -It was currently believed in France, and, though no eye-witness attests -it, there is reason to think it true, that among those murdered at -Fort Caroline there were some who died a death of peculiar ignominy. -Menendez, it is affirmed, hanged his prisoners on trees, and placed -over them the inscription, "I do this, not as to Frenchmen, but as to -Lutherans." - -The Spaniards gained a great booty in armor, clothing, and provisions. -"Nevertheless," says the devout Mendoza, after closing his inventory of -the plunder, "the greatest profit of this victory is the triumph which -our Lord has granted us, whereby His holy Gospel will be introduced -into this country, a thing so needful for saving so many souls from -perdition." Again he writes in his journal, "We owe to God and His -Mother, more than to human strength, this victory over the adversaries -of the holy Catholic religion." - -To whatever influence, celestial or other, the exploit may best be -ascribed, the victors were not yet quite content with their success. Two -small French vessels, besides that of Jacques Ribaut, still lay within -range of the fort. When the storm had a little abated, the cannon were -turned on them. One of them was sunk, but Ribaut, with the others, -escaped down the river, at the mouth of which several light craft, -including that bought from the English, had been anchored since the -arrival of his father's squadron. - -While this was passing, the wretched fugitives were flying from the -scene of massacre through a tempest, of whose persistent violence all -the narratives speak with wonder. Exhausted, starved, half naked,--for -most of them had escaped in their shirts,--they pushed their toilsome -way amid the ceaseless wrath of the elements. A few sought refuge in -Indian villages; but these, it is said, were afterwards killed by the -Spaniards. The greater number attempted to reach the vessels at the -mouth of the river. Among the latter was Le Moyne, who, notwithstanding -his former failure, was toiling through the mazes of tangled forests, -when he met a Belgian soldier, with the woman described as Laudonniere's -maid-servant, who was wounded in the breast; and, urging their flight -towards the vessels, they fell in with other fugitives, including -Laudonniere himself. As they struggled through the salt marsh, the -rank sedge cut their naked limbs, and the tide rose to their waists. -Presently they descried others, toiling like themselves through the -matted vegetation, and recognized Challeux and his companions, also in -quest of the vessels. The old man still, as he tells us, held fast to -his chisel, which had done good service in cutting poles to aid the -party to cross the deep creeks that channelled the morass. The united -band, twenty-six in all, were cheered at length by the sight of a -moving sail. It was the vessel of Captain Mallard, who, informed of the -massacre, was standing along shore in the hope of picking up some of -the fugitives. He saw their signals, and sent boats to their rescue; but -such was their exhaustion, that, had not the sailors, wading to their -armpits among the rushes, borne them out on their shoulders, few could -have escaped. Laudonniere was so feeble that nothing but the support of -a soldier, who held him upright in his arms, had saved him from drowning -in the marsh. - -On gaining the friendly decks, the fugitives counselled together. One -and all, they sickened for the sight of France. - -After waiting a few days, and saving a few more stragglers from the -marsh, they prepared to sail. Young Ribaut, though ignorant of his -father's fate, assented with something more than willingness; indeed, -his behavior throughout had been stamped with weakness and poltroonery. -On the twenty-fifth of September they put to sea in two vessels; and, -after a voyage the privations of which were fatal to many of them, they -arrived, one party at Rochelle, the other at Swansea, in Wales. - - - - -CHAPTER VIII - -1565. - -MASSACRE OF THE HERETICS. - -In suspense and fear, hourly looking seaward for the dreaded fleet of -Jean Ribaut, the chaplain Mendoza and his brother priests held watch and -ward at St. Augustine in the Adelantado's absence. Besides the celestial -guardians whom they ceased not to invoke, they had as protectors -Bartholomew Menendez, the brother of the Adelantado, and about a -hundred soldiers. Day and night they toiled to throw up earthworks and -strengthen their position. - -A week elapsed, when they saw a man running towards them, shouting as he -ran. - -Mendoza went to meet him. - -"Victory! victory!" gasped the breathless messenger. "The French fort is -ours!" And he flung his arms about the chaplain's neck.' - -"To-day," writes the priest in his journal, "Monday, the twenty-fourth, -came our good general himself, with fifty soldiers, very tired, Like all -those who were with him. As soon as they told me he was coming, I ran to -my lodging, took a new cassock, the best I had, put on my surplice, and -went out to meet him with a crucifix in my hand; whereupon he, like a -gentleman and a good Christian, kneeled down with all his followers, -and gave the Lord a thousand thanks for the great favors he had received -from Him." - -In solemn procession, with four priests in front chanting Te Deum, the -victors entered St. Augustine in triumph. - -On the twenty-eighth, when the weary Adelantado was taking his siesta -under the sylvan roof of Seloy, a troop of Indians came in with news -that quickly roused him from his slumbers. They had seen a French vessel -wrecked on the coast towards the south. Those who escaped from her were -four or six leagues off, on the banks of a river or arm of the sea, -which they could not cross. - -Menendez instantly sent forty or fifty men in boats to reconnoitre. -Next, he called the chaplain,--for he would fain have him at his elbow -to countenance the deeds he meditated,--and, with him twelve soldiers -and two Indian guides, embarked in another boat. They rowed along the -channel between Anastasia Island and the main shore; then they landed, -struck across the island on foot, traversed plains and marshes, reached -the sea towards night, and searched along shore till ten o'clock to -find their comrades who had gone before. At length, with mutual joy, the -two parties met, and bivouacked together on the sands. Not far distant -they could see lights. These were the camp-fires of the shipwrecked -French. - -To relate with precision the fortunes of these unhappy men is -impossible; for henceforward the French narratives are no longer the -narratives of eye-witnesses. - -It has been seen how, when on the point of assailing the Spaniards at -St. Augustine, Jean Ribaut was thwarted by a gale, which they hailed -as a divine interposition. The gale rose to a tempest of strange fury. -Within a few days, all the French ships were cast on shore, between -Matanzas Inlet and Cape Canaveral. According to a letter of Menendez, -many of those on hoard were lost; but others affirm that all escaped but -a captain, La Grange, an officer of high merit, who was washed from a -floating mast. One of the ships was wrecked at a point farther northward -than the rest, and it was her company whose campfires were seen by the -Spaniards at their bivouac on the sands of Anastasia Island. They were -endeavoring to reach Fort Caroline, of the fate of which they knew -nothing, while Ribaut with the remainder was farther southward, -struggling through the wilderness towards the same goal. What befell the -latter will appear hereafter. Of the fate of the former party there -is no French record. What we know of it is due to three Spanish -eye-witnesses, Mendoza, Doctor Soils de las Meras, and Menendez himself. -Soils was a priest, and brother-in-law to Menendez. Like Mendoza, he -minutely describes what he saw, and, like him, was a red-hot zealot, -lavishing applause on the darkest deeds of his chief. But the principal -witness, though not the most minute or most trustworthy, is Menendez, in -his long despatches sent from Florida to the King, and now first brought -to light from the archives of Seville,--a cool record of unsurpassed -atrocities, inscribed on the back with the royal indorsement, "Say to -him that he has done well." - -When the Adelantado saw the French fires in the distance, he lay close -in his bivouac, and sent two soldiers to reconnoitre. At two o'clock in -the morning they came back, and reported that it was impossible to get -at the enemy, since they were on the farther side of an arm of the sea -(Matanzas Inlet). Menendez, however, gave orders to march, and before -daybreak reached the hither bank, where he hid his men in a bushy -hollow. Thence, as it grew light, they could discern the enemy, many -of whom were searching along the sands and shallows for shell-fish, for -they were famishing. A thought struck Menendez, an inspiration, says -Mendoza, of the Holy Spirit. He put on the clothes of a sailor, entered -a boat which had been brought to the spot, and rowed towards the -shipwrecked men, the better to learn their condition. A Frenchman swam -out to meet him. Menendez demanded what men they were. - -"Followers of Ribaut, Viceroy of the King of France," answered the -swimmer. - -"Are you Catholics or Lutherans?" - -"All Lutherans." - -A brief dialogue ensued, during which the Adelantado declared his name -and character, and the Frenchman gave an account of the designs of -Ribaut, and of the disaster that had thwarted them. He then swam back -to his companions, but soon returned, and asked safe conduct for his -captain and four other gentlemen, who wished to hold conference with the -Spanish general. Menendez gave his word for their safety, and, returning -to the shore, sent his boat to bring them over. On their landing, he -met them very courteously. His followers were kept at a distance, so -disposed behind hills and among bushes as to give an exaggerated idea -of their force,--a precaution the more needful, as they were only about -sixty in number, while the French, says Solfs, were above two hundred. -Menendez, however, declares that they did not exceed a hundred and -forty. The French officer told him the story of their shipwreck, and -begged him to lend them a boat to aid them in crossing the rivers which -lay between them and a fort of their King, whither they were making -their way. - -Then came again the ominous question, - -"Are you Catholics or Lutherans?" - -"We are Lutherans." - -"Gentlemen," pursued Menendez, "your fort is taken, and all in it are -put to the sword." And, in proof of his declaration, he caused articles -plundered from Fort Caroline to be shown to the unhappy petitioners. He -then left them, and went to breakfast with his officers, first ordering -food to be placed before them. Having breakfasted, he returned to them. - -"Are you convinced now," he asked, "that what I have told you is true?" - -The French captain assented, and implored him to lend them ships in -which to return home. Menendez answered that he would do so willingly if -they were Catholics, and if he had ships to spare, but he had none. -The supplicants then expressed the hope that at least they and their -followers would be allowed to remain with the Spaniards till ships could -be sent to their relief, since there was peace between the two nations, -whose kings were friends and brothers. - -"All Catholics," retorted the Spaniard, "I will befriend; but as you are -of the New Sect, I hold you as enemies, and wage deadly war against you; -and this I will do with all cruelty [crueldad] in this country, where I -command as Viceroy and Captain-General for my King. I am here to plant -the Holy Gospel, that the Indians may be enlightened and come to the -knowledge of the Holy Catholic faith of our Lord Jesus Christ, as the -Roman Church teaches it. If you will give up your arms and banners, and -place yourselves at my mercy, you may do so, and I will act towards you -as God shall give me grace. Do as you will, for other than this you can -have neither truce nor friendship with me." - -Such were the Adelantado's words, as reported by a bystanders his -admiring brother-in-law and that they contain an implied assurance -of mercy has been held, not only by Protestants, but by Catholics -and Spaniards. The report of Menendez himself is more brief, and -sufficiently equivocal:-- - -"I answered, that they could give up their arms and place themselves -under my mercy,--that I should do with them what our Lord should order; -and from that I did not depart, nor would I, unless God our Lord should -otherwise inspire." - -One of the Frenchmen recrossed to consult with his companions. In two -hours he returned, and offered fifty thousand ducats to secure their -lives; but Menendez, says his brother-in-law, would give no pledges. On -the other hand, expressions in his own despatches point to the inference -that a virtual pledge was given, at least to certain individuals. - -The starving French saw no resource but to yield themselves to his -mercy. The boat was again sent across the river. It returned laden -with banners, arquebuses, swords, targets, and helmets. The Adelantado -ordered twenty soldiers to bring over the prisoners, ten at a time. He -then took the French officers aside behind a ridge of sand, two gunshots -from the bank. Here, with courtesy on his lips and murder at his heart, -he said: - -"Gentlemen, I have but few men, and you are so many that, if you were -free, it would be easy for you to take your satisfaction on us for the -people we killed when we took your fort. Therefore it is necessary that -you should go to my camp, four leagues from this place, with your hands -tied." - -Accordingly, as each party landed, they were led out of sight behind the -sand-hill, and their hands tied behind their backs with the match-cords -of the arquebuses, though not before each had been supplied with -food. The whole day passed before all were brought together, bound and -helpless, under the eye of the inexorable Adelantado. But now Mendoza -interposed. "I was a priest," he says, "and had the bowels of a man." -He asked that if there were Christians--that is to say, Catholics--among -the prisoners, they should be set apart. Twelve Breton sailors professed -themselves to be such; and these, together with four carpenters and -calkers, "of whom," writes Menendez, "I was in great need," were put on -board the boat and sent to St. Augustine. The rest were ordered to march -thither by land. - -The Adelantado walked in advance till he came to a lonely spot, not far -distant, deep among the bush-covered hills. Here he stopped, and with -his cane drew a line in the sand. The sun was set when the captive -Huguenots, with their escort, reached the fatal goal thus marked out. -And now let the curtain drop; for here, in the name of Heaven, the -hounds of hell were turned loose, and the savage soldiery, like wolves -in a sheepfold, rioted in slaughter. Of all that wretched company, not -one was left alive. - - -"I had their hands tied behind their backs," writes the chief criminal, -"and themselves put to the knife. It appeared to me that, by thus -chastising them, God our Lord and your Majesty were served; whereby in -future this evil sect will leave us more free to plant the Gospel in -these parts." - -Again Menendez returned triumphant to St. Augustine, and behind him -marched his band of butchers, steeped in blood to the elbows, but still -unsated. Great as had been his success, he still had cause for anxiety. -There was ill news of his fleet. Some of the ships were lost, others -scattered, or lagging tardily on their way. Of his whole force, less -than a half had reached Florida, and of these a large part were still at -Fort Caroline. Ribaut could not be far off; and, whatever might be the -condition of his shipwrecked company, their numbers would make them -formidable, unless taken at advantage. Urged by fear and fortified by -fanaticism, Menendez had well begun his work of slaughter; but rest for -him there was none,--a darker deed was behind. - -On the tenth of October, Indians came with the tidings that, at the spot -where the first party of the shipwrecked French had been found, there -was now another party still larger. This murder-loving race looked -with great respect on Menendez for his wholesale butchery of the night -before,--an exploit rarely equalled in their own annals of massacre. -On his part, he doubted not that Ribaut was at hand. Marching with a -hundred and fifty men, he crossed the bush-covered sands of Anastasia -Island, followed the strand between the thickets and the sea, reached -the inlet at midnight, and again, like a savage, ambushed himself on -the bank. Day broke, and he could plainly see the French on the farther -side. They had made a raft, which lay in the water ready for crossing. -Menendez and his men showed themselves, when, forthwith, the French -displayed their banners, sounded drums and trumpets, and set their sick -and starving ranks in array of battle. But the Adelantado, regardless -of this warlike show, ordered his men to seat themselves at breakfast, -while he with three officers walked unconcernedly along the shore. His -coolness had its effect. The French blew a trumpet of parley, and showed -a white flag. The Spaniards replied. A Frenchman came out upon the raft, -and, shouting across the water, asked that a Spanish envoy should be -sent over. - -"You have a raft," was the reply; "come yourselves." - -An Indian canoe lay under the bank on the Spanish side. A French sailor -swam to it, paddled back unmolested, and presently returned, bringing -with him La Caille, Ribaut's sergeant-major. He told Menendez that the -French were three hundred and fifty in all, and were on their way to -Fort Caroline; and, like the officers of the former party, he begged for -boats to aid them in crossing the river. - -"My brother," said Menendez, "go and tell your general, that, if he -wishes to speak with me, he may come with four or six companions, and -that I pledge my word he shall go back safe." - -La Caille returned; and Ribaut, with eight gentlemen, soon came over -in the canoe. Menendez met them courteously, caused wine and preserved -fruits to be placed before them,--he had come well provisioned on his -errand of blood,--and next led Ribaut to the reeking Golgotha, where, -in heaps upon the sand, lay the corpses of his slaughtered followers. -Ribaut was prepared for the spectacle,--La Caille had already seen -it,--but he would not believe that Fort Caroline was taken till a part -of the plunder was shown him. Then, mastering his despair, he turned -to the conqueror. "What has befallen us," he said, "may one day befall -you." And, urging that the kings of France and Spain were brothers -and close friends, he begged, in the name of that friendship, that the -Spaniard would aid him in conveying his followers home. Menendez gave -him the same equivocal answer that he had given the former party, and -Ribaut returned to consult with his officers. After three hours of -absence, he came back in the canoe, and told the Adelantado that some of -his people were ready to surrender at discretion, but that many refused. - -"They can do as they please," was the reply. In behalf of those who -surrendered, Ribaut offered a ransom of a hundred thousand ducats. "It -would much grieve me," said Menendez, "not to accept it; for I have -great need of it." - -Ribaut was much encouraged. Menendez could scarcely forego such a -prize, and he thought, says the Spanish narrator, that the lives of -his followers would now be safe. He asked to be allowed the night for -deliberation, and at sunset recrossed the river. In the morning he -reappeared among the Spaniards, and reported that two hundred of his men -had retreated from the spot, but that the remaining hundred and fifty -would surrender. At the same time he gave into the hands of Menendez the -royal standard and other flags, with his sword, dagger, helmet, buckler, -and the official seal given him by Coligny. Menendez directed an officer -to enter the boat and bring over the French by tens. He next led Ribaut -among the bushes behind the neighboring sand-hill, and ordered his hands -to be bound fast. Then the scales fell from the prisoner's eyes. Face -to face his fate rose up before him. He saw his followers and himself -entrapped,--the dupes of words artfully framed to lure them to their -ruin. The day wore on; and, as band after band of prisoners was brought -over, they were led behind the sand-hill out of sight from the farther -shore, and bound like their general. At length the transit was finished. -With bloodshot eyes and weapons bared, the Spaniards closed around their -victims. - -"Are you Catholics or Lutherans? and is there any one among you who will -go to confession?" - -Ribaut answered, "I and all here are of the Reformed Faith." - -And he recited the Psalm, "Domine, memento mei." - -"We are of earth," he continued, "and to earth we must return; twenty -years more or less can matter little;" and, turning to the Adelantado, -he bade him do his will. - -The stony-hearted bigot gave the signal; and those who will may paint to -themselves the horrors of the scene. - -A few, however, were spared. "I saved," writes Menendez, "the lives of -two young gentlemen of about eighteen years of age, as well as of three -others, the fifer, the drummer, and the trumpeter; and I caused Juan -Ribao [Ribaut] with all the rest to be put to the knife, judging this to -be necessary for the service of God our Lord and of your Majesty. And I -consider it great good fortune that he [Juan Ribao] should be dead, for -the King of France could effect more with him and five hundred ducats -than with other men and five thousand; and he would do more in one year -than another in ten, for he was the most experienced sailor and naval -commander known, and of great skill in this navigation of the Indies -and the coast of Florida. He was, besides, greatly liked in England, -in which kingdom his reputation was such that he was appointed -Captain-General of all the English fleet against the French Catholics in -the war between England and France some years ago." - -Such is the sum of the Spanish accounts,--the self-damning testimony -of the author and abettors of the crime; a picture of lurid and awful -coloring; and yet there is reason to believe that the truth was darker -still. Among those who were spared was one Christophe le Breton, who -was carried to Spain, escaped to France, and told his story to Challeux. -Among those struck down in the butchery was a sailor of Dieppe, stunned -and left for dead under a heap of corpses. In the night he revived, -contrived to draw his knife, cut the cords that bound his hands, and -made his way to an Indian village. The Indians, not without reluctance, -abandoned him to the Spaniards, who sold him as a slave; but, on his way -in fetters to Portugal, the ship was taken by the Huguenots, the sailor -set free, and his story published in the narrative of Le Moyne. When the -massacre was known in France, the friends and relatives of the victims -sent to the King, Charles the Ninth, a vehement petition for redress; -and their memorial recounts many incidents of the tragedy. From these -three sources is to be drawn the French version of the story. The -following is its substance. - -Famished and desperate, the followers of Ribaut were toiling northward -to seek refuge at Fort Caroline, when they found the Spaniards in their -path. Some were filled with dismay; others, in their misery, almost -hailed them as deliverers. La Caille, the sergeant-major, crossed the -river. Menendez met him with a face of friendship, and protested that he -would spare the lives of the shipwrecked men, sealing the promise -with an oath, a kiss, and many signs of the cross. He even gave it in -writing, under seal. Still, there were many among the French who would -not place themselves in his power. The most credulous crossed the river -in a boat. As each successive party landed, their hands were bound fast -at their backs; and thus, except a few who were set apart, they were all -driven towards the fort, like cattle to the shambles, with curses and -scurrilous abuse. Then, at sound of drums and trumpets, the Spaniards -fell upon them, striking them down with swords, pikes, and halberds. -Ribaut vainly called on the Adelantado to remember his oath. By his -order, a soldier plunged a dagger into the French commander's heart; and -Ottigny, who stood near, met a similar fate. Ribaut's beard was cut off, -and portions of it sent in a letter to Philip the Second. His head was -hewn into four parts, one of which was displayed on the point of a lance -at each corner of Fort St. Augustine. Great fires were kindled, and the -bodies of the murdered burned to ashes. - -Such is the sum of the French accounts. The charge of breach of faith -contained in them was believed by Catholics as well as Protestants; -and it was as a defence against this charge that the narrative of the -Adelantado's brother-in-law was published. That Ribaut, a man whose good -sense and courage were both reputed high, should have submitted himself -and his men to Menendez without positive assurance of safety, is -scarcely credible; nor is it lack of charity to believe that a bigot so -savage in heart and so perverted in conscience would act on the maxim, -current among certain casuists of the day, that faith ought not to be -kept with heretics. - -It was night when the Adelantado again entered St. Augustine. There were -some who blamed his cruelty; but many applauded. "Even if the French had -been Catholics,"--such was their language,--"he would have done right, -for, with the little provision we have, they would all have starved; -besides, there were so many of them that they would have cut our -throats." - -And now Menendez again addressed himself to the despatch, already -begun, in which he recounts to the King his labors and his triumphs, a -deliberate and business-like document, mingling narratives of butchery -with recommendations for promotions, commissary details, and petitions -for supplies,--enlarging, too, on the vast schemes of encroachment which -his successful generalship had brought to naught. The French, he says, -had planned a military and naval depot at Los Martires, whence they -would make a descent upon Havana, and another at the Bay of Ponce -de Leon, whence they could threaten Vera Cruz. They had long been -encroaching on Spanish rights at Newfoundland, from which a great arm of -the sea--doubtless meaning the St. Lawrence--would give them access to -the Moluccas and other parts of the East Indies. He adds, in a later -despatch, that by this passage they may reach the mines of Zacatecas -and St. Martin, as well as every part of the South Sea. And, as already -mentioned, he urges immediate occupation of Chesapeake Bay, which, by -its supposed water communication with the St. Lawrence, would enable -Spain to vindicate her rights, control the fisheries of Newfoundland, -and thwart her rival in vast designs of commercial and territorial -aggrandizement. Thus did France and Spain dispute the possession of -North America long before England became a party to the strife. [24] - -Some twenty days after Menendez returned to St. Augustine, the Indians, -enamoured of carnage, and exulting to see their invaders mowed down, -came to tell him that on the coast southward, near Cape Canaveral, a -great number of Frenchmen were intrenching themselves. They were those -of Ribaut's party who had refused to surrender. Having retreated to the -spot where their ships had been cast ashore, they were trying to build a -vessel from the fragments of the wrecks. - -In all haste Menendez despatched messengers to Fort Caroline, named by -him San Mateo, ordering a reinforcement of a hundred and fifty men. In -a few days they came. He added some of his own soldiers, and, with a -united force of two hundred and fifty, set out, as he tells us, on the -second of November. A part of his force went by sea, while the rest -pushed southward along the shore with such merciless energy that several -men dropped dead with wading night and day through the loose sands. -When, from behind their frail defences, the French saw the Spanish -pikes and partisans glittering into view, they fled in a panic, and took -refuge among the hills. Menendez sent a trumpet to summon them, pledging -his honor for their safety. The commander and several others told the -messenger that they would sooner be eaten by the savages than trust -themselves to Spaniards; and, escaping, they fled to the Indian towns. -The rest surrendered; and Menendez kept his word. The comparative number -of his own men made his prisoners no longer dangerous. They were led -back to St. Augustine, where, as the Spanish writer affirms, they were -well treated. Those of good birth sat at the Adelantado's table, eating -the bread of a homicide crimsoned with the slaughter of their comrades. -The priests essayed their pious efforts, and, under the gloomy menace of -the Inquisition, some of the heretics renounced their errors. The fate -of the captives may be gathered from the endorsement, in the handwriting -of the King, on one of the despatches of Menendez. - -"Say to him," writes Philip the Second, "that, as to those he has -killed, he has done well; and as to those he has saved, they shall be -sent to the galleys." - - - - -CHAPTER IX. - -1565-1567. - -CHARLES IX. AND PHILLIP II. - - -The state of international relations in the sixteenth century is hardly -conceivable at this day. The Puritans of England and the Huguenots of -France regarded Spain as their natural enemy, and on the high seas and -in the British Channel they joined hands with godless freebooters to -rifle her ships, kill her sailors, or throw them alive into the sea. -Spain on her side seized English Protestant sailors who ventured into -her ports, and burned them as heretics, or consigned them to a living -death in the dungeons of the Inquisition. Yet in the latter half of -the century these mutual outrages went on for years while the nations -professed to be at peace. There was complaint, protest, and occasional -menace, but no redress, and no declaration of war. - -Contemporary writers of good authority have said that, when the news of -the massacres in Florida reached the court of France, Charles the -Ninth and Catherine de Medicis submitted to the insult in silence; but -documents lately brought to light show that a demand for redress was -made, though not insisted on. A cry of horror and execration had risen -from the Huguenots and many even of the Catholics had echoed it; yet the -perpetrators of the crime, and not its victims, were the first to make -complaint. Philip the Second resented the expeditions of Ribaut and -Laudonniere as an invasion of the American domains of Spain, and ordered -D'Alava, his ambassador at Paris, to denounce them to the French -King. Charles, thus put on the defensive, replied, that the country -in question belonged to France, having been discovered by Frenchmen a -hundred years before, and named by them Terre des Bretons. This alludes -to the tradition that the Bretons and Basques visited the northern -coasts of America before the voyage of Columbus. In several maps of the -sixteenth century the region of New England and the neighboring states -and provinces is set down as Terre des Bretons, or Tierra de los -Bretones, and this name was assumed by Charles to extend to the Gulf of -Mexico, as the name of Florida was assumed by the Spaniards to extend to -the Gulf of St. Lawrence, and even beyond it. Philip spurned the claim, -asserted the Spanish right to all Florida, and asked whether or not the -followers of Ribaut and Laudonniere had gone thither by authority of -their King. The Queen Mother, Catherine de Medicis, replied in her son's -behalf, that certain Frenchmen had gone to a country called Terre aux -Bretons, discovered by French subjects, and that in so doing they had -been warned not to encroach on lands belonging to the King of Spain. And -she added, with some spirit, that the Kings of France were not in the -habit of permitting themselves to be threatened. - -Philip persisted in his attitude of injured innocence; and Forquevaulx, -French ambassador at Madrid, reported that, as a reward for murdering -French subjects, Menendez was to receive the title of Marquis of -Florida. A demand soon followed from Philip, that Admiral Coligny should -be punished for planting a French colony on Spanish ground, and thus -causing the disasters that ensued. It was at this time that the first -full account of the massacres reached the French court, and the Queen -Mother, greatly moved, complained to the Spanish ambassador, saying that -she could not persuade herself that his master would refuse reparation. -The ambassador replied by again throwing the blame on Coligny and the -Huguenots; and Catherine de Medicis returned that, Huguenots or not, the -King of Spain had no right to take upon himself the punishment of French -subjects. Forquevaulx was instructed to demand redress at Madrid; but -Philip only answered that he was very sorry for what had happened, and -again insisted that Coligny should be punished as the true cause of it. - -Forquevaulx, an old soldier, remonstrated with firmness, declared that -no deeds so execrable had ever been committed within his memory, and -demanded that Menendez and his followers should be chastised as they -deserved. The King said that he was sorry that the sufferers chanced to -be Frenchmen, but, as they were pirates also, they ought to be treated -as such. The ambassador replied, that they were no pirates, since they -bore the commission of the Admiral of France, who in naval affairs -represented the King; and Philip closed the conversation by saying that -he would speak on the subject with the Duke of Alva. This was equivalent -to refusal, for the views of the Duke were well known; "and so, Madame," -writes the ambassador to the Queen Mother, "there is no hope that any -reparation will be made for the aforesaid massacre." - -On this, Charles wrote to Forquevaulx "It is my will that you renew -your complaint, and insist urgently that, for the sake of the union and -friendship between the two crowns, reparation be made for the wrong done -me and the cruelties committed on my subjects, to which I cannot submit -without too great loss of reputation." And, jointly with his mother, -he ordered the ambassador to demand once more that Menendez and his -men should be punished, adding, that he trusts that Philip will grant -justice to the King of France, his brother-in-law and friend, rather -than pardon a gang of brigands. "On this demand," concludes Charles, -"the Sieur de Forquevaulx will not fail to insist, be the answer what it -may, in order that the King of Spain shall understand that his Majesty -of France has no less spirit than his predecessors to repel an insult." -The ambassador fulfilled his commission, and Philip replied by referring -him to the Duke of Alva. "I have no hope," reports Forquevaulx, "that -the Duke will give any satisfaction as to the massacre, for it was he -who advised it from the first." A year passed, and then he reported that -Menendez had returned from Florida, that the King had given him a warm -welcome, and that his fame as a naval commander was such that he was -regarded as a sort of Neptune. - -In spite of their brave words, Charles and the Queen Mother tamely -resigned themselves to the affront, for they would not quarrel with -Spain. To have done so would have been to throw themselves into the arms -of the Protestant party, adopt the principle of toleration, and save -France from the disgrace and blight of her later years. France was -not so fortunate. The enterprise of Florida was a national enterprise, -undertaken at the national charge, with the royal commission, and under -the royal standard; and it had been crushed in time of peace by a power -professing the closest friendship. Yet Huguenot influence had prompted -and Huguenot hands executed it. That influence had now ebbed low; -Coligny's power had waned; Charles, after long vacillation, was leaning -more and more towards the Guises and the Catholics, and fast subsiding -into the deathly embrace of Spain, for whom, at last, on the bloody -eve of St. Bartholomew, he was to become the assassin of his own best -subjects. - -In vain the relatives of the slain petitioned him for redress; and had -the honor of the nation rested in the keeping of its King, the blood of -hundreds of murdered Frenchmen would have cried from the ground in vain. -But it was not to be so. Injured humanity found an avenger, and outraged -France a champion. Her chivalrous annals may be searched in vain for -a deed of more romantic daring than the vengeance of Dominique de -Gourgues. - - - - -CHAPTER X. - -1567-1583. - -DOMINIQUE DE GOURGUES. - - -There was a gentleman of Mont-de-Marsan, Dominique de Gourgues, a -soldier of ancient birth and high renown. It is not certain that he was -a Huguenot. The Spanish annalist calls him a "terrible heretic;" but the -French Jesuit, Charlevoix, anxious that the faithful should share the -glory of his exploits, affirms that, like his ancestors before him, -he was a good Catholic. If so, his faith sat lightly upon him; and, -Catholic or heretic, he hated the Spaniards with a mortal hate. Fighting -in the Italian wars,--for from boyhood he was wedded to the sword,--he -had been taken prisoner by them near Siena, where he had signalized -himself by a fiery and determined bravery. With brutal insult, they -chained him to the oar as a galley slave. After he had long endured -this ignominy the Turks captured the vessel and carried her to -Constantinople. It was but a change of tyrants but, soon after, while -she was on a cruise, Gourgues still at the oar, a galley of the knights -of Malta hove in sight, bore down on her, recaptured her, and set -the prisoner free. For several years after, his restless spirit found -employment in voyages to Africa, Brazil, and regions yet more remote. -His naval repute rose high, but his grudge against the Spaniards still -rankled within him; and when, returned from his rovings, he learned the -tidings from Florida, his hot Gascon blood boiled with fury. - -The honor of France had been foully stained, and there was none to -wipe away the shame. The faction-ridden King was dumb. The nobles who -surrounded him were in the Spanish interest. Then, since they proved -recreant, he, Dominique de Gourgues, a simple gentleman, would take upon -him to avenge the wrong, and restore the dimmed lustre of the French -name. He sold his inheritance, borrowed money from his brother, who held -a high post in Guienne, and equipped three small vessels, navigable -by sail or oar. On board he placed a hundred arquebusiers and eighty -sailors, prepared to fight on land, if need were. The noted Blaise de -Montluc, then lieutenant for the King in Guienne, gave him a commission -to make war on the negroes of Benin,--that is, to kidnap them as slaves, -an adventure then held honorable. - -His true design was locked within his own breast. He mustered his -followers,--not a few of whom were of rank equal to his own, feasted -them, and, on the twenty-second of August, 1567, sailed from the mouth -of the Charente. Off Cape Finisterre, so violent a storm buffeted his -ships that his men clamored to return; but Gourgues's spirit prevailed. -He bore away for Africa, and, landing at the Rio del Oro, refreshed and -cheered them as he best might. Thence he sailed to Cape Blanco, where -the jealous Portuguese, who had a fort in the neighborhoods set upon him -three negro chiefs. Gourgues beat them off, and remained master of -the harbor; whence, however, he soon voyaged onward to Cape Verd, and, -steering westward, made for the West Indies. Here, advancing from island -to island, he came to Hispaniola, where, between the fury of a hurricane -at sea and the jealousy of the Spaniards on shore, he was in no small -jeopardy,--"the Spaniards", exclaims the indignant journalist, "who -think that this New World was made for nobody but them, and that no -other living man has a right to move or breathe here!" Gourgues landed, -however, obtained the water of which he was in need, and steered for -Cape San Antonio, at the western end of Cuba. There he gathered his -followers about him, and addressed them with his fiery Gascon eloquence. -For the first time, he told them his true purpose, inveighed against -Spanish cruelty, and painted, with angry rhetoric, the butcheries of -Fort Caroline and St. Augustine. - -"What disgrace," he cried, "if such an insult should pass unpunished! -What glory to us if we avenge it! To this I have devoted my fortune. I -relied on you. I thought you jealous enough of your country's glory to -sacrifice life itself in a cause like this. Was I deceived? I will show -you the way; I will be always at your head; I will bear the brunt of the -danger. Will you refuse to follow me?" - -At first his startled hearers listened in silence; but soon the passions -of that adventurous age rose responsive to his words. The combustible -French nature burst into flame. The enthusiasm of the soldiers rose to -such a pitch that Gourgues had much ado to make them wait till the moon -was full before tempting the perils of the Bahama Channel. His time came -at length. The moon rode high above the lonely sea, and, silvered in its -light, the ships of the avenger held their course. - -Meanwhile, it had fared ill with the Spaniards in Florida; the good-will -of the Indians had vanished. The French had been obtrusive and vexatious -guests; but their worst trespasses had been mercy and tenderness -compared to the daily outrage of the new-comers. Friendship had changed -to aversion, aversion to hatred, and hatred to open war. The forest -paths were beset; stragglers were cut off; and woe to the Spaniard who -should venture after nightfall beyond call of the outposts. - -Menendez, however, had strengthened himself in his new conquest. St. -Augustine was well fortified; Fort Caroline, now Fort San Mateo, was -repaired; and two redoubts, or small forts, were thrown up to guard the -mouth of the River of May,--one of them near the present lighthouse at -Mayport, and the other across the river on Fort George Island. Thence, -on an afternoon in early spring, the Spaniards saw three sail steering -northward. They suspected no enemy, and their batteries boomed a salute. -Gourgues's ships replied, then stood out to sea, and were lost in the -shades of evening. - -They kept their course all night, and, as day broke, anchored at the -mouth of a river, the St. Mary's, or the Santilla, by their reckoning -fifteen leagues north of the River of May. Here, as it grew light, -Gourgues saw the borders of the sea thronged with savages, armed and -plumed for war. They, too, had mistaken the strangers for Spaniards, and -mustered to meet their tyrants at the landing. But in the French ships -there was a trumpeter who had been long in Florida, and knew the Indians -well. He went towards them in a boat, with many gestures of friendship; -and no sooner was he recognized, than the naked crowd, with yelps of -delight, danced for joy along the sands. Why had he ever left them? -they asked; and why had he not returned before? The intercourse thus -auspiciously begun was actively kept up. Gourgues told the principal -chief,--who was no other than Satouriona, once the ally of the -French,--that he had come to visit them, make friendship with them, and -bring them presents. At this last announcement, so grateful to Indian -ears the dancing was renewed with double zeal. The next morning was -named for a grand council, and Satouriona sent runners to summon all -Indians within call; while Gourgues, for safety, brought his vessels -within the mouth of the river. - -Morning came, and the woods were thronged with warriors. Gourgues and -his soldiers landed with martial pomp. In token of mutual confidence, -the French laid aside their arquebuses, and the Indians their bows -and arrows. Satouriona came to meet the strangers, and seated their -commander at his side, on a wooden stool, draped and cushioned with the -gray Spanish moss. Two old Indians cleared the spot of brambles, weeds, -and grass; and, when their task was finished, the tribesmen took their -places, ring within ring, standing, sitting, and crouching on the -ground,--a dusky concourse, plumed in festal array, waiting with grave -visages and intent eyes. Gourgues was about to speak, when the chief, -who, says the narrator, had not learned French manners, anticipated -him, and broke into a vehement harangue, denouncing the cruelty of the -Spaniards. - -Since the French fort was taken, he said, the Indians had not had one -happy day. The Spaniards drove them from their cabins, stole their corn, -ravished their wives and daughters, and killed their children; and all -this they had endured because they loved the French. There was a French -boy who had escaped from the massacre at the fort; they had found him -in the woods and though the Spaniards, who wished to kill him, demanded -that they should give him up, they had kept him for his friends. - -"Look!" pursued the chief, "here he is! "--and he brought forward a -youth of sixteen, named Pierre Debre, who became at once of the greatest -service to the French, his knowledge of the Indian language making him -an excellent interpreter. - -Delighted as he was at this outburst against the Spaniards, Gourgues did -not see fit to display the full extent of his satisfaction. He thanked -the Indians for their good-will, exhorted them to continue in it, and -pronounced an ill-merited eulogy on the greatness and goodness of his -King. As for the Spaniards, he said, their day of reckoning was at hand; -and, if the Indians had been abused for their love of the French, the -French would be their avengers. Here Satouriona forgot his dignity, and -leaped up for joy. - -"What!" he cried, "will you fight the Spaniards?" - -"I came here," replied Gourgues, "only to reconnoitre the country and -make friends with you, and then go back to bring more soldiers; but, -when I hear what you are suffering from them, I wish to fall upon them -this very day, and rescue you from their tyranny." All around the ring a -clamor of applauding voices greeted his words. - -"But you will do your part," pursued the Frenchman; "you will not leave -us all the honor." - -"We will go," replied Satouriona, "and die with you, if need be." - -"Then, if we fight, we ought to fight at once. How soon can you have -your warriors ready to march?" - -The chief asked three days for preparation. Gourgues cautioned him to -secrecy, lest the Spaniards should take alarm. - -"Never fear," was the answer; "we hate them more than you do." - -Then came a distribution of gifts,--knives, hatchets, mirrors, bells, -and beads,--while the warrior rabble crowded to receive them, with eager -faces and outstretched arms. The distribution over, Gourgues asked the -chiefs if there was any other matter in which he could serve them. On -this, pointing to his shirt, they expressed a peculiar admiration for -that garment, and begged each to have one, to be worn at feasts -and councils during life, and in their graves after death. Gourgues -complied; and his grateful confederates were soon stalking about him, -fluttering in the spoils of his wardrobe. - -To learn the strength and position of the Spaniards, Gourgues now sent -out three scouts; and with them went Olotoraca, Satourioria's nephew, a -young brave of great renown. - -The chief, eager to prove his good faith, gave as hostages his only -surviving son and his favorite wife. They were sent on board the -ships, while the Indians dispersed to their encampments, with leaping, -stamping, dancing, and whoops of jubilation. - -The day appointed came, and with it the savage army, hideous in -war-paint, and plumed for battle. The woods rang back their songs and -yells, as with frantic gesticulation they brandished their war-clubs and -vaunted their deeds of prowess. Then they drank the black drink, endowed -with mystic virtues against hardship and danger; and Gourgues himself -pretended to swallow the nauseous decoction. [25] - -These ceremonies consumed the day. It was evening before the allies -filed off into their forests, and took the path for the Spanish forts. -The French, on their part, were to repair by sea to the rendezvous. -Gourgues mustered and addressed his men. It was needless: their ardor -was at fever height. They broke in upon his words, and demanded to be -led at once against the enemy. Francois Bourdelais, with twenty sailors, -was left with the ships, and Gourgues affectionately bade him farewell. - -"If I am slain in this most just enterprise," he said, "I leave all in -your charge, and pray you to carry back my soldiers to France." - -There were many embracings among the excited Frenchmen,--many -sympathetic tears from those who were to stay behind,--many messages -left with them for wives, children, friends, and mistresses; and then -this valiant band pushed their boats from shore. It was a hare-brained -venture, for, as young Debre had assured them, the Spaniards on the -River of May were four hundred in number, secure behind their ramparts. - -Hour after hour the sailors pulled at the oar. They glided slowly by the -sombre shores in the shimmering moonlight, to the sound of the surf and -the moaning pine-trees. In the gray of the morning, they came to the -mouth of a river, probably the Nassau; and here a northeast wind set -in with a violence that almost wrecked their boats. Their Indian -allies were waiting on the bank, but for a while the gale delayed -their crossing. The bolder French would lose no time, rowed through the -tossing waves, and, landing safely, left their boats, and pushed into -the forest. Gourgues took the lead, in breastplate and back-piece. At -his side marched the young chief Olotoraca, with a French pike in his -hand; and the files of arquebuse-men and armed sailors followed close -behind. They plunged through swamps, hewed their way through brambly -thickets and the matted intricacies of the forests, and, at five in -the afternoon, almost spent with fatigue and hunger, came to a river or -inlet of the sea, not far from the first Spanish fort. Here they found -three hundred Indians waiting for them. - -Tired as he was, Gourgues would not rest. He wished to attack at -daybreak, and with ten arquebusiers and his Indian guide he set out to -reconnoitre. Night closed upon him. It was a vain task to struggle on, -in pitchy darkness, among trunks of trees, fallen logs, tangled vines, -and swollen streams. Gourgues returned, anxious and gloomy. An Indian -chief approached him, read through the darkness his perturbed look, -and offered to lead him by a better path along the margin of the sea. -Gourgues joyfully assented, and ordered all his men to march. The -Indians, better skilled in wood-craft, chose the shorter course through -the forest. - -The French forgot their weariness, and pressed on with speed. At dawn -they and their allies met on the bank of a stream, probably Sister -Creek, beyond which, and very near, was the fort. But the tide was in, -and they tried in vain to cross. Greatly vexed,--for he had hoped to -take the enemy asleep,--Gourgues withdrew his soldiers into the forest, -where they were no sooner ensconced than a drenching rain fell, and they -had much ado to keep their gun-matches burning. The light grew fast. -Gourgues plainly saw the fort, the defences of which seemed slight -and unfinished. He even saw the Spaniards at work within. A feverish -interval elapsed, till at length the tide was out,--so far, at least, -that the stream was fordable. A little higher up, a clump of trees lay -between it and the fort. Behind this friendly screen the passage -was begun. Each man tied his powder-flask to his steel cap, held his -arquebuse above his head with one hand, and grasped his sword with the -other. The channel was a bed of oysters. The sharp shells cut their feet -as they waded through. But the farther bank was gained. They emerged -from the water, drenched, lacerated, and bleeding, but with unabated -mettle. Gourgues set them in array under cover of the trees. They stood -with kindling eyes, and hearts throbbing, but not with fear. Gourgues -pointed to the Spanish fort, seen by glimpses through the boughs. "Look -I" he said, "there are the robbers who have stolen this land from our -King; there are the murderers who have butchered our countrymen!" With -voices eager, fierce, but half suppressed, they demanded to be led on. - -Gourgues gave the word. Cazenove, his lientenant, with thirty men, -pushed for the fort gate; he himself, with the main body, for the -glacis. It was near noon; the Spaniards had just finished their meal, -and, says the narrative, "were still picking their teeth," when a -startled cry rang in their ears:--"To arms! to arms! The French are -coming! The French are coming!" - -It was the voice of a cannoneer who had that moment mounted the rampart -and seen the assailants advancing in unbroken ranks, with heads lowered -and weapons at the charge. He fired his cannon among them. He even had -time to load and fire again, when the light-limbed Olotoraca bounded -forward, ran up the glacis, leaped the unfinished ditch, and drove his -pike through the Spaniard from breast to back. Gourgues was now on the -glacis, when he heard Cazenove shouting from the gate that the Spaniards -were escaping on that side. He turned and led his men thither at a run. -In a moment, the fugitives, sixty in all, were enclosed between his -party and that of his lieutenant. The Indians, too, came leaping to the -spot. Not a Spaniard escaped. All were cut down but a few, reserved by -Gourgues for a more inglorious end. - -Meanwhile the Spaniards in the other fort, on the opposite shore, -cannonaded the victors without ceasing. The latter turned four captured -guns against them. One of Gourgues's boats, a very large one, had been -brought along-shore, and, entering it with eighty soldiers, he pushed -for the farther bank. With loud yells, the Indians leaped into the -river, which is here about three fourths of a mile wide. Each held his -bow and arrows aloft in one hand, while he swam with the other. A panic -seized the garrison as they saw the savage multitude. They broke out of -the fort and fled into the forest. But the French had already landed; -and, throwing themselves in the path of the fugitives, they greeted them -with a storm of lead. The terrified wretches recoiled; but flight -was vain. The Indian whoop rang behind them, and war-clubs and arrows -finished the work. Gourgues's utmost efforts saved but fifteen, not out -of mercy, but from a refinement of vengeance. - -The next day was Quasimodo Sunday, or the Sunday after Easter. Gourgues -and his men remained quiet, making ladders for the assault on Fort San -Mateo. Meanwhile the whole forest was in arms, and, far and near, the -Indians were wild with excitement. They beset the Spanish fort till not -a soldier could venture out. The garrison, aware of their danger, though -ignorant of its extent, devised an expedient to gain information; and -one of them, painted and feathered like an Indian, ventured within -Gourgues's outposts. He himself chanced to be at hand, and by his side -walked his constant attendant, Olotoraca. The keen-eyed young savage -pierced the cheat at a glance. The spy was seized, and, being examined, -declared that there were two hundred and sixty Spaniards in San Mateo, -and that they believed the French to be two thousand, and were so -frightened that they did not know what they were doing. - -Gourgues, well pleased, pushed on to attack them. On Monday evening he -sent forward the Indians to ambush themselves on both sides of the fort. -In the morning he followed with his Frenchmen; and, as the glittering -ranks came into view, defiling between the forest and the river, the -Spaniards opened on them with culverins from a projecting bastion. The -French took cover in the woods with which the hills below and behind the -fort were densely overgrown. Here, himself unseen, Gourgues could survey -whole extent of the defences, and he presently descried a strong party -of Spaniards issuing from their works, crossing the ditch, and advancing -to reconnoitre. - -On this, he sent Cazenove, with a detachment, to station himself at -a point well hidden by trees on the flank of the Spaniards, who, with -strange infatuation, continued their advance. Gourgues and his followers -pushed on through the thickets to meet them. As the Spaniards reached -the edge of the open ground, a deadly fire blazed in their faces, and, -before the smoke cleared, the French were among them, sword in hand. -The survivors would have fled; but Cazenove's detachment fell upon their -rear, and all were killed or taken. - -When their comrades in the fort beheld their fate, a panic seized them. -Conscious of their own deeds, perpetrated on this very spot, they could -hope no mercy, and their terror multiplied immeasurably the numbers of -their enemy. They abandoned the fort in a body, and fled into the woods -most remote from the French. But here a deadlier foe awaited them; for a -host of Indians leaped up from ambush. Then rose those hideous war-cries -which have curdled the boldest blood and blanched the manliest cheek. -The forest warriors, with savage ecstasy, wreaked their long arrears of -vengeance, while the French hastened to the spot, and lent their swords -to the slaughter. A few prisoners were saved alive; the rest were slain; -and thus did the Spaniards make bloody atonement for the butchery of -Fort Caroline. - -But Gourgues's vengeance was not yet appeased. Hard by the fort, the -trees were pointed out to him on which Menendez had hanged his captives, -and placed over them the inscription, "Not as to Frenchmen, but as to -Lutherans." - -Gourgues ordered the Spanish prisoners to be led thither. - -"Did you think," he sternly said, as the pallid wretches stood ranged -before him, "that so vile a treachery, so detestable a cruelty, against -a King so potent and a nation so generous, would go unpunished? I, one -of the humblest gentlemen among my King's subjects, have charged myself -with avenging it. Even if the Most Christian and the Most Catholic Kings -had been enemies, at deadly war, such perfidy and extreme cruelty -would still have been unpardonable. Now that they are friends and close -allies, there is no name vile enough to brand your deeds, no punishment -sharp enough to requite them. But though you cannot suffer as you -deserve, you shall suffer all that an enemy can honorably inflict, that -your example may teach others to observe the peace and alliance which -you have so perfidiously violated." - -They were hanged where the French had hung before them; and over them -was nailed the inscription, burned with a hot iron on a tablet of pine, -"Not as to Spaniards, but as to Traitors, Robbers, and Murderers." - -Gourgues's mission was fulfilled. To occupy the country had never been -his intention; nor was it possible, for the Spaniards were still in -force at St. Augustine. His was a whirlwind visitation,--to ravage, -ruin, and vanish. He harangued the Indians, and exhorted them to -demolish the fort. They fell to the work with eagerness, and in less -than a day not one stone was left on another. - -Gourgues returned to the forts at the mouth of the river, destroyed -them also, and took up his march for his ships. It was a triumphal -procession. The Indians thronged around the victors with gifts of fish -and game; and an old woman declared that she was now ready to die, since -she had seen the French once more. - -The ships were ready for sea. Gourgues bade his disconsolate allies -farewell, and nothing would content them but a promise to return soon. -Before embarking, he addressed his own men:--"My friends, let us give -thanks to God for the success He has granted us. It is He who saved us -from tempests; it is He who inclined the hearts of the Indians towards -us; it is He who blinded the understanding of the Spaniards. They were -four to one, in forts well armed and provisioned. Our right was our only -strength; and yet we have conquered. Not to our own swords, but to God -only, we owe our victory. Then let us thank Him, my friends; let us -never forget His favors; and let us pray that He may continue them, -saving us from dangers, and guiding us safely home. Let us pray, too, -that He may so dispose the hearts of men that our perils and toils may -find favor in the eyes of our King and of all France, since all we have -done was done for the King's service and for the honor of our country." - -Thus Spaniards and Frenchmen alike laid their reeking swords on God's -altar. - -Gourgues sailed on the third of May, and, gazing back along their -foaming wake, the adventurers looked their last on the scene of their -exploits. Their success had cost its price. A few of their number had -fallen, and hardships still awaited the survivors. Gourgues, however, -reached Rochelle on the day of Pentecost, and the Huguenot citizens -greeted him with all honor. At court it fared worse with him. The King, -still obsequious to Spain, looked on him coldly and askance. The Spanish -minister demanded his head. It was hinted to him that he was not safe, -and he withdrew to Ronen, where he found asylum among his friends. His -fortune was gone; debts contracted for his expedition weighed heavily on -him; and for years he lived in obscurity, almost in misery. - -At length his prospects brightened. Elizabeth of England learned his -merits and his misfortunes, and invited him to enter her service. The -King, who, says the Jesuit historian, had always at heart been delighted -with his achievement, openly restored him to favor; while, some years -later, Don Antonio tendered him command of his fleet, to defend his -right to the crown of Portugal against Philip the Second. Gourgues, -happy once more to cross swords with the Spaniards, gladly embraced this -offer; but in 1583, on his way to join the Portuguese prince, he died -at Tours of a sudden illness. The French mourned the loss of the man who -had wiped a blot from the national scutcheon, and respected his memory -as that of one of the best captains of his time. And, in truth, if a -zealous patriotism, a fiery valor, and skilful leadership are worthy -of honor, then is such a tribute due to Dominique de Gourgues, -slave-catcher and half-pirate as he was, like other naval heroes of that -wild age. - -Romantic as was his exploit, it lacked the fullness of poetic justice, -since the chief offender escaped him. While Gourgues was sailing towards -Florida, Menendez was in Spain, high in favor at court, where he told -to approving ears how he had butchered the heretics. Borgia, the sainted -General of the Jesuits, was his fast friend; and two years later, when -he returned to America, the Pope, Paul the Fifth, regarding him as an -instrument for the conversion of the Indians, wrote him a letter with -his benediction. He re-established his power in Florida, rebuilt Fort -San Mateo, and taught the Indians that death or flight was the only -refuge from Spanish tyranny. They murdered his missionaries and spurned -their doctrine. "The Devil is the best thing in the world," they cried; -"we adore him; he makes men brave." Even the Jesuits despaired, and -abandoned Florida in disgust. - -Menendez was summoned home, where fresh honors awaited him from the -Crown, though, according to the somewhat doubtful assertion of the -heretical Grotius, his deeds had left a stain upon his name among the -people. He was given command of the armada of three hundred sail and -twenty thousand men, which, in 1574, was gathered at Santander against -England and Flanders. But now, at the height of his fortunes, his career -was abruptly closed. He died suddenly, at the age of fifty-five. Grotius -affirms that he killed himself; but, in his eagerness to point the moral -of his story, he seems to have overstepped the bounds of historic truth. -The Spanish bigot was rarely a suicide; for the rites of Christian -burial and repose in consecrated ground were denied to the remains of -the self-murderer. There is positive evidence, too, in a codicil to -the will of Menendez, dated at Santander on the fifteenth of September, -1574, that he was on that day seriously ill, though, as the instrument -declares, "of sound mind." There is reason, then, to believe that this -pious cut-throat died a natural death, crowned with honors, and soothed -by the consolations of his religion. - -It was he who crushed French Protestantism in America. To plant -religious freedom on this western soil was not the mission of France. It -was for her to rear in northern forests the banner of absolutism and of -Rome; while among the rocks of Massachusetts England and Calvin fronted -her in dogged opposition, long before the ice-crusted pines of Plymouth -had listened to the rugged psalmody of the Puritan, the solitudes of -Western New York and the stern wilderness of Lake Huron were trodden by -the iron heel of the soldier and the sandalled foot of the Franciscan -friar. France was the true pioneer of the Great West. They who bore the -fleur-de-lis were always in the van, patient, daring, indomitable. -And foremost on this bright roll of forest chivalry stands the -half-forgotten name of Samuel de Champlain. - - - - - - -Part 2 - -SAMUEL DE CHAMPLAIN AND HIS ASSOCIATES; - -WITH A VIEW OF EARLIER FRENCH ADVENTURE IN AMERICA, AND THE LEGENDS OF -THE NORTHERN COASTS. - - - - - -SAMUEL DE CHAMPLAIN. - -CHAPTER I. - -1488-1543. - -EARLY FRENCH ADVENTURE IN NORTH AMERICA. - - -When America was first made known to Europe, the part assumed by France -on the borders of that new world was peculiar, and is little recognized. -While the Spaniard roamed sea and land, burning for achievement, red-hot -with bigotry and avarice, and while England, with soberer steps and -a less dazzling result, followed in the path of discovery and -gold-hunting, it was from France that those barbarous shores first -learned to serve the ends of peaceful commercial industry. - -A French writer, however, advances a more ambitious claim. In the -year 1488, four years before the first voyage of Columbus, America, he -maintains, was found by Frenchmen. Cousin, a navigator of Dieppe, being -at sea off the African coast, was forced westward, it is said, by winds -and currents to within sight of an unknown shore, where he presently -descried the mouth of a great river. On board his ship was one Pinzon, -whose conduct became so mutinous that, on his return to Dieppe, Cousin -made complaint to the magistracy, who thereupon dismissed the offender -from the maritime service of the town. Pinzon went to Spain, became -known to Columbus, told him the discovery, and joined him on his voyage -of 1492. - -To leave this cloudland of tradition, and approach the confines -of recorded history. The Normans, offspring of an ancestry of -conquerors,--the Bretons, that stubborn, hardy, unchanging race, who, -among Druid monuments changeless as themselves, still cling with Celtic -obstinacy to the thoughts and habits of the past,--the Basques, that -primeval people, older than history,--all frequented from a very early -date the cod-banks of Newfoundland. There is some reason to believe -that this fishery existed before the voyage of Cabot, in 1497; there is -strong evidence that it began as early as the year 1504; and it is -well established that, in 1517, fifty Castilian, French, and Portuguese -vessels were engaged in it at once; while in 1527, on the third of -August, eleven sail of Norman, one of Breton, and two of Portuguese -fishermen were to be found in the Bay of St. John. - -From this time forth, the Newfoundland fishery was never abandoned. -French, English, Spanish, and Portuguese made resort to the Banks, -always jealous, often quarrelling, but still drawing up treasure from -those exhaustless mines, and bearing home bountiful provision against -the season of Lent. - -On this dim verge of the known world there were other perils than those -of the waves. The rocks and shores of those sequestered seas had, so -thought the voyagers, other tenants than the seal, the walrus, and the -screaming sea-fowl, the bears which stole away their fish before their -eyes, and the wild natives dressed in seal-skins. Griffius--so ran -the story--infested the mountains of Labrador. Two islands, north of -Newfoundland, were given over to the fiends from whom they derived -their name, the Isles of Demons. An old map pictures their occupants -at length,--devils rampant, with wings, horns, and tail. The passing -voyager heard the din of their infernal orgies, and woe to the sailor or -the fisherman who ventured alone into the haunted woods. "True it is," -writes the old cosmographer Thevet, "and I myself have heard it, not -from one, but from a great number of the sailors and pilots with whom I -have made many voyages, that, when they passed this way, they heard -in the air, on the tops and about the masts, a great clamor of men's -voices, confused and inarticulate, such as you may hear from the crowd -at a fair or market-place whereupon they well knew that the Isle of -Demons was not far off." And he adds, that he himself, when among the -Indians, had seen them so tormented by these infernal persecutors, that -they would fall into his arms for relief; on which, repeating a passage -of the Gospel of St. John, he had driven the imps of darkness to a -speedy exodus. They are comely to look upon, he further tells us; yet, -by reason of their malice, that island is of late abandoned, and all who -dwelt there have fled for refuge to the main. - -While French fishermen plied their trade along these gloomy coasts, the -French government spent it's energies on a different field. The vitality -of the kingdom was wasted in Italian wars. Milan and Naples offered a -more tempting prize than the wilds of Baccalaos. Eager for glory and for -plunder, a swarm of restless nobles followed their knight-errant King, -the would-be paladin, who, misshapen in body and fantastic in mind, had -yet the power to raise a storm which the lapse of generations could -not quell. Under Charles the Eighth and his successor, war and intrigue -ruled the day; and in the whirl of Italian politics there was no leisure -to think of a new world. - -Yet private enterprise was not quite benumbed. In 1506, one Denis of -Honfleur explored the Gulf of St. Lawrence; 2 two years later, Aubert -of Dieppe followed on his track; and in 1518, the Baron de Lery made an -abortive attempt at settlement on Sable Island, where the cattle left by -him remained and multiplied. - -The crown passed at length to Francis of Angouleme. There were in -his nature seeds of nobleness,--seeds destined to bear little fruit. -Chivalry and honor were always on his lips; but Francis the First, a -forsworn gentleman, a despotic king, vainglorious, selfish, sunk in -debaucheries, was but the type of an era which retained the forms of the -Middle Age without its soul, and added to a still prevailing barbarism -the pestilential vices which hung fog-like around the dawn of -civilization. Yet he esteemed arts and letters, and, still more, coveted -the eclat which they could give. The light which was beginning to pierce -the feudal darkness gathered its rays around his throne. Italy was -rewarding the robbers who preyed on her with the treasures of her -knowledge and her culture; and Italian genius, of whatever stamp, found -ready patronage at the hands of Francis. Among artists, philosophers, -and men of letters enrolled in his service stands the humbler name of a -Florentine navigator, John Verrazzano. - -He was born of an ancient family, which could boast names eminent in -Florentine history, and of which the last survivor died in 1819. He has -been called a pirate, and he was such in the same sense in which Drake, -Hawkins, and other valiant sea-rovers of his own and later times, -merited the name; that is to say, he would plunder and kill a Spaniard -on the high seas without waiting for a declaration of war. - -The wealth of the Indies was pouring into the coffers of Charles the -Fifth, and the exploits of Cortes had given new lustre to his crown. -Francis the First begrudged his hated rival the glories and profits -of the New World. He would fain have his share of the prize; and -Verrazzano, with four ships, was despatched to seek out a passage -westward to the rich kingdom of Cathay. - -Some doubt has of late been cast on the reality of this voyage of -Verrazzano, and evidence, mainly negative in kind, has been adduced to -prove the story of it a fabrication; but the difficulties of incredulity -appear greater than those of belief, and no ordinary degree of -scepticism is required to reject the evidence that the narrative is -essentially true. - -Towards the end of the year 1523, his four ships sailed from Dieppe; -but a storm fell upon him, and, with two of the vessels, he ran back in -distress to a port of Brittany. What became of the other two does not -appear. Neither is it clear why, after a preliminary cruise against the -Spaniards, he pursued his voyage with one vessel alone, a caravel called -the "Dauphine." With her he made for Madeira, and, on the seventeenth -of January, 1524, set sail from a barren islet in its neighborhood, and -bore away for the unknown world. In forty-nine days they neared a low -shore, not far from the site of Wilmington in North Carolina, "a newe -land," exclaims the voyager, "never before seen of any man, either -auncient or moderne." Verrazzano steered southward in search of a -harbor, and, finding none, turned northward again. Presently he sent a -boat ashore. The inhabitants, who had fled at first, soon came down to -the strand in wonder and admiration, pointing out a landing-place, and -making gestures of friendship. "These people," says Verrazzano, "goe -altogether naked, except only certain skinnes of beastes like unto -marterns [martens], which they fasten onto a narrowe girdle made of -grasse. They are of colour russet, and not much unlike the Saracens, -their hayre blacke, thicke, and not very long, which they tye togeather -in a knot behinde, and weare it like a taile." - -He describes the shore as consisting of small low hillocks of fine sand, -intersected by creeks and inlets, and beyond these a country "full of -Palme [pine?] trees, Bay trees, and high Cypresse trees, and many other -sortes of trees, vnknowne in Europe, which yeeld most sweete sanours, -farre from the shore." Still advancing northward, Verrazzano sent a boat -for a supply of water. The surf ran high, and the crew could not land; -but an adventurous young sailor jumped overboard and swam shoreward with -a gift of beads and trinkets for the Indians, who stood watching him. -His heart failed as he drew near; he flung his gift among them, turned, -and struck out for the boat. The surf dashed him back, flinging him with -violence on the beach among the recipients of his bounty, who seized him -by the arms and legs, and, while he called lustily for aid, answered him -with outcries designed to allay his terrors. Next they kindled a -great fire,--doubtless to roast and devour him before the eyes of -his comrades, gazing in horror from their boat. On the contrary, -they carefully warmed him, and were trying to dry his clothes, when, -recovering from his bewilderment, he betrayed a strong desire to escape -to his friends; whereupon, "with great love, clapping him fast about, -with many embracings," they led him to the shore, and stood watching -till he had reached the boat. - -It only remained to requite this kindness, and an opportunity soon -occurred; for, coasting the shores of Virginia or Maryland, a party went -on shore and found an old woman, a young girl, and several children, -hiding with great terror in the grass. Having, by various blandishments, -gained their confidence, they carried off one of the children as a -curiosity, and, since the girl was comely, would fain have taken her -also, but desisted by reason of her continual screaming. - -Verrazzano's next resting-place was the Bay of New York. Rowing up in -his boat through the Narrows, under the steep heights of Staten Island, -he saw the harbor within dotted with canoes of the feathered natives, -coming from the shore to welcome him. But what most engaged the eyes -of the white men were the fancied signs of mineral wealth in the -neighboring hills. - -Following the shores of Long Island, they came to an island, which may -have been Block Island, and thence to a harbor, which was probably that -of Newport. Here they stayed fifteen days, most courteously received by -the inhabitants. Among others appeared two chiefs, gorgeously arrayed -in painted deer-skins,--kings, as Verrazzano calls them, with attendant -gentlemen; while a party of squaws in a canoe, kept by their jealous -lords at a safe distance from the caravel, figure in the narrative -as the queen and her maids. The Indian wardrobe had been taxed to -its utmost to do the strangers honor,--copper bracelets, lynx-skins, -raccoon-skins, and faces bedaubed with gaudy colors. - -Again they spread their sails, and on the fifth of May bade farewell to -the primitive hospitalities of Newport, steered along the rugged coasts -of New England, and surveyed, ill pleased, the surf-beaten rocks, the -pine-tree and the fir, the shadows and the gloom of mighty forests. Here -man and nature alike were savage and repellent. Perhaps some plundering -straggler from the fishing-banks, some manstealer like the Portuguese -Cortereal, or some kidnapper of children and ravisher of squaws like -themselves, had warned the denizens of the woods to beware of the -worshippers of Christ. Their only intercourse was in the way of trade. -From the brink of the rocks which overhung the sea the Indians would let -down a cord to the boat below, demand fish-hooks, knives, and steel, in -barter for their furs, and, their bargain made, salute the voyagers -with unseemly gestures of derision and scorn. The French once ventured -ashore; but a war-whoop and a shower of arrows sent them back to their -boats. - -Verrazzano coasted the seaboard of Maine, and sailed northward as far as -Newfoundland, whence, provisions failing, he steered for France. He had -not found a passage to Cathay, but he had explored the American coast -from the thirty-fourth degree to the fiftieth, and at various points had -penetrated several leagues into the country. On the eighth of July, he -wrote from Dieppe to the King the earliest description known to exist of -the shores of the United States. - -Great was the joy that hailed his arrival, and great were the hopes of -emolument and wealth from the new-found shores. The merchants of Lyons -were in a flush of expectation. For himself, he was earnest to return, -plant a colony, and bring the heathen tribes within the pale of the -Church. But the time was inauspicious. The year of his voyage was to -France a year of disasters,--defeat in Italy, the loss of Milan, the -death of the heroic Bayard; and, while Verrazzano was writing his -narrative at Dieppe, the traitor Bourbon was invading Provence. -Preparation, too, was soon on foot for the expedition which, a few -months later, ended in the captivity of Francis on the field of Pavia. -Without a king, without an army, without money, convulsed within, -and threatened from without, France after that humiliation was in no -condition to renew her Transatlantic enterprise. - -Henceforth few traces remain of the fortunes of Verrazzano. Ramusio -affirms, that, on another voyage, he was killed and eaten by savages, -in sight of his followers; and a late writer hazards the conjecture that -this voyage, if made at all, was made in the service of Henry the Eighth -of England. But a Spanish writer affirms that, in 1527, he was hanged -at Puerto del Pico as a pirate, and this assertion is fully confirmed by -authentic documents recently brought to light. - -The fickle-minded King, always ardent at the outset of an enterprise and -always flagging before its close, divided, moreover, between the smiles -of his mistresses and the assaults of his enemies, might probably have -dismissed the New World from his thoughts. But among the favorites of -his youth was a high-spirited young noble, Philippe de BrionChabot, the -partner of his joustings and tennis-playing, his gaming and gallantries. -He still stood high in the royal favor, and, after the treacherous -escape of Francis from captivity, held the office of Admiral of France. -When the kingdom had rallied in some measure from its calamnities, he -conceived the purpose of following up the path which Verrazzano had -opened. - -The ancient town of St. Malo--thrust out like a buttress into the -sea, strange and grim of aspect, breathing war front its walls and -battlements of ragged stone, a stronghold of privateers, the home of a -race whose intractable and defiant independence neither time nor change -has subdued--has been for centuries a nursery of hardy mariners. Among -the earliest and most eminent on its list stands the name of Jacques -Cartier. His portrait hangs in the town-hall of St. Malo,--bold, keen -features bespeaking a spirit not apt to quail before the wrath of man -or of the elements. In him Chabot found a fit agent of his design, if, -indeed, its suggestion is not due to the Breton navigator. - -Sailing from St. Malo on the twentieth of April, 1534, Cartier steered -for Newfoundland, passed through the Straits of Belle Isle, entered the -Gulf of Chaleurs, planted a cross at Gaspe, and, never doubting that he -was on the high road to Cathay, advanced up the St. Lawrence till he -saw the shores of Anticosti. But autumnal storms were gathering. The -voyagers took counsel together, turned their prows eastward, and bore -away for France, carrying thither, as a sample of the natural products -of the New World, two young Indians, lured into their clutches by an act -of villanous treachery. The voyage was a mere reconnoissance. - -The spirit of discovery was awakened. A passage to India could be found, -and a new France built up beyond the Atlantic. Mingled with such views -of interest and ambition was another motive scarcely less potent. The -heresy of Luther was convulsing Germany, and the deeper heresy of Calvin -infecting France. Devout Catholics, kindling with redoubled zeal, would -fain requite the Church for her losses in the Old World by winning to -her fold the infidels of the New. But, in pursuing an end at once -so pious and so politic, Francis the First was setting at naught the -supreme Pontiff himself, since, by the preposterous bull of Alexander -the Sixth, all America had been given to the Spaniards. - -In October, 1534, Cartier received from Chabot another commission, and, -in spite of secret but bitter opposition from jealous traders of St. -Malo, he prepared for a second voyage. Three vessels, the largest not -above a hundred and twenty tons, were placed at his disposal, and Claude -de Pontbriand, Charles de la Pommeraye, and other gentlemen of birth, -enrolled themselves for the adventure. On the sixteenth of May, 1535, -officers and sailors assembled in the cathedral of St. Malo, where, -after confession and mass, they received the parting blessing of the -bishop. Three days later they set sail. The dingy walls of the rude -old seaport, and the white rocks that line the neighboring shores -of Brittany, faded from their sight, and soon they were tossing in a -furious tempest. The scattered ships escaped the danger, and, reuniting -at the Straits of Belle Isle, steered westward along the coast -of Labrador, till they reached a small bay opposite the island of -Anticosti. Cartier called it the Bay of St. Lawrence,--a name afterwards -extended to the entire gulf, and to the great river above. - -To ascend this great river, and tempt the hazards of its intricate -navigation with no better pilots than the two young Indians kidnapped -the year before, was a venture of no light risk. But skill or fortune -prevailed; and, on the first of September, the voyagers reached in -safety the gorge of the gloomy Saguenay, with its towering cliffs and -sullen depth of waters. Passing the Isle aux Coudres, and the lofty -promontory of Cape Tourmente, they came to anchor in a quiet channel -between the northern shore and the margin of a richly wooded island, -where the trees were so thickly hung with grapes that Cartier named it -the Island of Bacchus. - -Indians came swarming from the shores, paddled their canoes about the -ships, and clambered to the decks to gaze in bewilderment at the novel -scene, and listen to the story of their travelled countrymen, marvellous -in their ears as a visit to another planet. Cartier received them -kindly, listened to the long harangue of the great chief Donnacona, -regaled him with bread and wine; and, when relieved at length of his -guests, set forth in a boat to explore the river above. - -As he drew near the opening of the channel, the Hochelaga again spread -before him the broad expanse of its waters. A mighty promontory, rugged -and bare, thrust its scarped front into the surging current. Here, -clothed in the majesty of solitude, breathing the stern poetry of the -wilderness, rose the cliffs now rich with heroic memories, where the -fiery Count Frontenac cast defiance at his foes, where Wolfe, Montcalm, -and Montgomery fell. As yet, all was a nameless barbarism, and a cluster -of wigwams held the site of the rock-built city of Quebec. Its name was -Stadacone, and it owned the sway of the royal Donnacona. - -Cartier set out to visit this greasy potentate; ascended the river -St. Charles, by him called the St. Croix, landed, crossed the meadows, -climbed the rocks, threaded the forest, and emerged upon a squalid -hamlet of bark cabins. When, having satisfied their curiosity, he and -his party were rowing for the ships, a friendly interruption met them at -the mouth of the St. Charles. An old chief harangued them from the bank, -men, boys, and children screeched welcome from the meadow, and a troop -of hilarious squaws danced knee-deep in the water. The gift of a few -strings of beads completed their delight and redoubled their agility; -and, from the distance of a mile, their shrill songs of jubilation still -reached the ears of the receding Frenchmen. - -The hamlet of Stadacone, with its king, Donnacona, and its naked lords -and princes, was not the metropolis of this forest state, since a town -far greater--so the Indians averred--stood by the brink of the river, -many days' journey above. It was called Hochelaga, and the great river -itself, with a wide reach of adjacent country, had borrowed its name. -Thither, with his two young Indians as guides, Cartier resolved to go; -but misgivings seized the guides as the time drew near, while Donnacona -and his tribesmen, jealous of the plan, set themselves to thwart it. The -Breton captain turned a deaf ear to their dissuasions; on which, failing -to touch his reason, they appealed to his fears. - -One morning, as the ships still lay at anchor, the French beheld three -Indian devils descending in a canoe towards them, dressed in black and -white dog-skins, with faces black as ink, and horns long as a man's arm. -Thus arrayed, they drifted by, while the principal fiend, with fixed -eyes, as of one piercing the secrets of futurity, uttered in a loud -voice a long harangue. Then they paddled for the shore; and no sooner -did they reach it than each fell flat like a dead man in the bottom of -the canoe. Aid, however, was at hand; for Donnacona and his tribesmen, -rushing pell-mell from the adjacent woods, raised the swooning -masqueraders, and, with shrill clamors, bore them in their arms within -the sheltering thickets. Here, for a full half-hour, the French could -hear them haranguing in solemn conclave. Then the two young Indians whom -Cartier had brought back from France came out of the bushes, enacting a -pantomime of amazement and terror, clasping their hands, and calling -on Christ and the Virgin; whereupon Cartier, shouting from the vessel, -asked what was the matter. They replied, that the god Coudonagny had -sent to warn the French against all attempts to ascend the great river, -since, should they persist, snows, tempests, and drifting ice would -requite their rashness with inevitable ruin. The French replied that -Coudonagny was a fool; that he could not hurt those who believed in -Christ; and that they might tell this to his three messengers. The -assembled Indians, with little reverence for their deity, pretended -great contentment at this assurance, and danced for joy along the beach. - -Cartier now made ready to depart. And, first, he caused the two larger -vessels to be towed for safe harborage within the mouth of the St. -Charles. With the smallest, a galleon of forty tons, and two open boats, -carrying in all fifty sailors, besides Pontbriand, La Pommeraye, and -other gentlemen, he set out for Hochelaga. - -Slowly gliding on their way by walls of verdure brightened in the -autumnal sun, they saw forests festooned with grape-vines, and waters -alive with wild-fowl; they heard the song of the blackbird, the thrush, -and, as they fondly thought, the nightingale. The galleon grounded; they -left her, and, advancing with the boats alone, on the second of October -neared the goal of their hopes, the mysterious Hochelaga. - -Just below where now are seen the quays and storehouses of Montreal, -a thousand Indians thronged the shore, wild with delight, dancing, -singing, crowding about the strangers, and showering into the boats -their gifts of fish and maize; and, as it grew dark, fires lighted up -the night, while, far and near, the French could see the excited savages -leaping and rejoicing by the blaze. - -At dawn of day, marshalled and accoutred, they marched for Hochelaga. -An Indian path led them through the forest which covered the site of -Montreal. The morning air was chill and sharp, the leaves were changing -hue, and beneath the oaks the ground was thickly strewn with acorns. -They soon met an Indian chief with a party of tribesmen, or, as the -old narrative has it, "one of the principal lords of the said city," -attended with a numerous retinue. Greeting them after the concise -courtesy of the forest, he led them to a fire kindled by the side of the -path for their comfort and refreshment, seated them on the ground, and -made them a long harangue, receiving in requital of his eloquence two -hatchets, two knives, and a crucifix, the last of which he was invited -to kiss. This done, they resumed their march, and presently came upon -open fields, covered far and near with the ripened maize, its leaves -rustling, and its yellow grains gleaming between the parting husks. -Before them, wrapped in forests painted by the early frosts, rose the -ridgy back of the Mountain of Montreal, and below, encompassed with its -corn-fields, lay the Indian town. Nothing was visible but its encircling -palisades. They were of trunks of trees, set in a triple row. The outer -and inner ranges inclined till they met and crossed near the summit, -while the upright row between them, aided by transverse braces, gave to -the whole an abundant strength. Within were galleries for the defenders, -rude ladders to mount them, and magazines of stones to throw down on the -heads of assailants. It was a mode of fortification practised by all the -tribes speaking dialects of the Iroquois. - -The voyagers entered the narrow portal. Within, they saw some fifty of -those large oblong dwellings so familiar in after years to the eyes of -the Jesuit apostles in Iroquois and Huron forests. They were about fifty -yards in length, and twelve or fifteen wide, framed of sapling poles -closely covered with sheets of bark, and each containing several fires -and several families. In the midst of the town was an open area, or -public square, a stone's throw in width. Here Cartier and his -followers stopped, while the surrounding houses of bark disgorged their -inmates,--swarms of children, and young women and old, their infants -in their arms. They crowded about the visitors, crying for delight, -touching their beards, feeling their faces, and holding up the -screeching infants to be touched in turn. The marvellous visitors, -strange in hue, strange in attire, with moustached lip and bearded chin, -with arquebuse, halberd, helmet, and cuirass, seemed rather demigods -than men. - -Due time having been allowed for this exuberance of feminine rapture, -the warriors interposed, banished the women and children to a distance, -and squatted on the ground around the French, row within row of swarthy -forms and eager faces, "as if," says Cartier, "we were going to act a -play." Then appeared a troop of women, each bringing a mat, with which -they carpeted the bare earth for the behoof of their guests. The -latter being seated, the chief of the nation was borne before them on a -deerskin by a number of his tribesmen, a bedridden old savage, paralyzed -and helpless, squalid as the rest in his attire, and distinguished only -by a red fillet, inwrought with the dyed quills of the Canada porcupine, -encircling his lank black hair. They placed him on the ground at -Cartier's feet and made signs of welcome for him, while he pointed -feebly to his powerless limbs, and implored the healing touch from -the hand of the French chief. Cartier complied, and received in -acknowledgment the red fillet of his grateful patient. Then from -surrounding dwellings appeared a woeful throng, the sick, the lame, the -blind, the maimed, the decrepit, brought or led forth and placed on the -earth before the perplexed commander, "as if," he says, "a god had -come down to cure them." His skill in medicine being far behind the -emergency, he pronounced over his petitioners a portion of the Gospel -of St. John, made the sign of the cross, and uttered a prayer, not -for their bodies only, but for their miserable souls. Next he read the -passion of the Saviour, to which, though comprehending not a word, his -audience listened with grave attention. Then came a distribution of -presents. The squaws and children were recalled, and, with the warriors, -placed in separate groups. Knives and hatchets were given to the men, -and beads to the women, while pewter rings and images of the Agnus -Dei were flung among the troop of children, whence ensued a vigorous -scramble in the square of Hochelaga. Now the French trumpeters pressed -their trumpets to their lips, and blew a blast that filled the air with -warlike din and the hearts of the hearers with amazement and delight. -Bidding their hosts farewells the visitors formed their ranks and -defiled through the gate once more, despite the efforts of a crowd of -women, who, with clamorous hospitality, beset them with gifts of fish, -beans, corn, and other viands of uninviting aspect, which the Frenchmen -courteously declined. - -A troop of Indians followed, and guided them to the top of the -neighboring mountain. Cartier called it Mont Royal, Montreal; and hence -the name of the busy city which now holds the site of the vanished -Iloclielaga. Stadacone and Hochelaga, Quebec and Montreal, in the -sixteenth century as in the nineteenth, were the centres of Canadian -population. - -From the summit, that noble prospect met his eye which at this day is -the delight of tourists, but strangely changed, since, first of white -men, the Breton voyager gazed upon it. Tower and dome and spire, -congregated roofs, white sail, and gliding steamer, animate its vast -expanse with varied life. Cartier saw a different scene. East, west, and -south, the mantling forest was over all, and the broad blue ribbon of -the great river glistened amid a realm of verdure. Beyond, to the bounds -of Mexico, stretched a leafy desert, and the vast hive of industry, -the mighty battle-ground of later centuries, lay sunk in savage torpor, -wrapped in illimitable woods. - -The French re-embarked, bade farewell to Hochelaga, retraced their -lonely course down the St. Lawrence, and reached Stadacone in safety. On -the bank of the St. Charles, their companions had built in their absence -a fort of palisades, and the ships, hauled up the little stream, lay -moored before it. Here the self-exiled company were soon besieged by the -rigors of the Canadian winter. The rocks, the shores, the pine-trees, -the solid floor of the frozen river, all alike were blanketed in snow -beneath the keen cold rays of the dazzling sun. The drifts rose above -the sides of their ships; masts, spars, and cordage were thick with -glittering incrustations and sparkling rows of icicles; a frosty armor, -four inches thick, encased the bulwarks. Yet, in the bitterest weather, -the neighboring Indians, "hardy," says the journal, "as so many beasts," -came daily to the fort, wading, half naked, waist-deep through the -snow. At length, their friendship began to abate; their visits grew less -frequent, and during December had wholly ceased, when a calamity fell -upon the French. - -A malignant scurvy broke out among them. Man after man went down before -the hideous disease, till twenty-five were dead, and only three or four -were left in health. The sound were too few to attend the sick, and the -wretched sufferers lay in helpless despair, dreaming of the sun and the -vines of France. The ground, hard as flint, defied their feeble efforts, -and, unable to bury their dead, they hid them in snow-drifts. Cartier -appealed to the saints; but they turned a deaf ear. Then he nailed -against a tree an image of the Virgin, and on a Sunday summoned forth -his woe-begone followers, who, haggard, reeling, bloated with their -maladies, moved in procession to the spot, and, kneeling in the snow, -sang litanies and psalms of David. That day died Philippe Rougemont, -of Amboise, aged twenty-two years. The Holy Virgin deigned no other -response. - -There was fear that the Indians, learning their misery, might finish -the work that scurvy had begun. None of them, therefore, were allowed to -approach the fort; and when a party of savages lingered within hearing, -Cartier forced his invalid garrison to beat with sticks and stones -against the walls, that their dangerous neighbors, deluded by the -clatter, might think them engaged in hard labor. These objects of their -fear proved, however, the instruments of their salvation. Cartier, -walking one day near the river, met an Indian, who not long before had -been prostrate, like many of his fellows, with the scurvy, but who was -now, to all appearance, in high health and spirits. What agency had -wrought this marvellous recovery? According to the Indian, it was a -certain evergreen, called by him ameda, a decoction of the leaves of -which was sovereign against the disease. The experiment was tried. The -sick men drank copiously of the healing draught,--so copiously indeed -that in six days they drank a tree as large as a French oak. Thus -vigorously assailed, the distemper relaxed its hold, and health and hope -began to revisit the hapless company. - -When this winter of misery had worn away, and the ships were thawed -from their icy fetters, Cartier prepared to return. He had made notable -discoveries; but these were as nothing to the tales of wonder that had -reached his ear,--of a land of gold and rubies, of a nation white like -the French, of men who lived without food, and of others to whom Nature -had granted but one leg. Should he stake his credit on these marvels? It -were better that they who had recounted them to him should, with their -own lips, recount them also to the King, and to this end he resolved -that Donnacona and his chiefs should go with him to court. He lured them -therefore to the fort, and led them into an ambuscade of sailors, who, -seizing the astonished guests, hurried them on board the ships. Having -accomplished this treachery, the voyagers proceeded to plant the emblem -of Christianity. The cross was raised, the fleur-de-lis planted near it, -and, spreading their sails, they steered for home. It was the sixteenth -of July, 1536, when Cartier again cast anchor under the walls of St. -Malo. - -A rigorous climate, a savage people, a fatal disease, and a soil -barren of gold were the allurements of New France. Nor were the times -auspicious for a renewal of the enterprise. Charles the Fifth, flushed -with his African triumphs, challenged the Most Christian King to single -combat. The war flamed forth with renewed fury, and ten years elapsed -before a hollow truce varnished the hate of the royal rivals with a thin -pretence of courtesy. Peace returned; but Francis the First was sinking -to his ignominious grave, under the scourge of his favorite goddess, and -Chabot, patron of the former voyages, was in disgrace. - -Meanwhile the ominous adventure of New France had found a champion in -the person of Jean Francois de la Roque, Sieur de Roberval, a nobleman -of Picardy. Though a man of high account in his own province, his past -honors paled before the splendor of the titles said to have been now -conferred on him, Lord of Norembega, Viceroy and Lieutenant-General -in Canada, Hochelaga, Saguenay, Newfoundland, Belle Isle, Carpunt, -Labrador, the Great Bay, and Baccalaos. To this windy gift of ink and -parchment was added a solid grant from the royal treasury, with which -five vessels were procured and equipped; and to Cartier was given the -post of Captain-General. "We have resolved," says Francis, "to send him -again to the lands of Canada and Hochelaga, which form the extremity -of Asia towards the west." His commission declares the objects of -the enterprise to be discovery, settlement, and the conversion of the -Indians, who are described as "men without knowledge of God or use of -reason,"--a pious design, held doubtless in full sincerity by the royal -profligate, now, in his decline, a fervent champion of the Faith and a -strenuous tormentor of heretics. The machinery of conversion was of -a character somewhat questionable, since Cartier and Roberval were -empowered to ransack the prisons for thieves, robbers, and other -malefactors, to complete their crews and strengthen the colony. -"Whereas," says the King, "we have undertaken this voyage for the honor -of God our Creator, desiring with all our heart to do that which shall -be agreeable to Him, it is our will to perform a compassionate and -meritorious work towards criminals and malefactors, to the end that they -may acknowledge the Creator, return thanks to Him, and mend their lives. -Therefore we have resolved to cause to be delivered to our aforesaid -lieutenant (Roberval), such and so many of the aforesaid criminals -and malefactors detained in our prisons as may seem to him useful and -necessary to be carried to the aforesaid countries." Of the expected -profits of the voyage the adventurers were to have one third and the -King another, while the remainder was to be reserved towards defraying -expenses. - -With respect to Donnacona and his tribesmen, basely kidnapped at -Stadacone, their souls had been better cared for than their bodies; for, -having been duly baptized, they all died within a year or two, to the -great detriment, as it proved, of the expedition. - -Meanwhile, from beyond the Pyrenees, the Most Catholic King, with -alarmed and jealous eye, watched the preparations of his Most Christian -enemy. America, in his eyes, was one vast province of Spain, to be -vigilantly guarded against the intruding foreigner. To what end were -men mustered, and ships fitted out in the Breton seaports? Was it for -colonization, and if so, where? Was it in Southern Florida, or on the -frozen shores of Baccalaos, of which Breton cod-fishers claimed the -discovery? Or would the French build forts on the Bahamas, whence they -could waylay the gold ships in the Bahama Channel? Or was the expedition -destined against the Spanish settlements of the islands or the Main? -Reinforcements were despatched in haste, and a spy was sent to France, -who, passing from port to port, Quimper, St. Malo, Brest, Morlaix, came -back freighted with exaggerated tales of preparation. The Council of the -Indies was called. "The French are bound for Baccalaos,"--such was -the substance of their report; "your Majesty will do well to send two -caravels to watch their movements, and a force to take possession of the -said country. And since there is no other money to pay for it, the gold -from Peru, now at Panama, might be used to that end." The Cardinal of -Seville thought lightly of the danger, and prophesied that the French -would reap nothing from their enterprise but disappointment and loss. -The King of Portugal, sole acknowledged partner with Spain in the -ownership of the New World, was invited by the Spanish ambassador to -take part in an expedition against the encroaching French. "They can do -no harm at Baccalaos," was the cold reply; "and so," adds the indignant -ambassador, "this King would say if they should come and take him here -at Lisbon; such is the softness they show here on the one hand, while, -on the other, they wish to give law to the whole world." - -The five ships, occasions of this turmoil and alarm, had lain at St. -Malo waiting for cannon and munitions from Normandy and Champagne. They -waited in vain, and as the King's orders were stringent against delay, -it was resolved that Cartier should sail at once, leaving Roberval to -follow with additional ships when the expected supplies arrived. - -On the twenty-third of May, 1541, the Breton captain again spread his -canvas for New France, and, passing in safety the tempestuous Atlantic, -the fog-banks of Newfoundland, the island rocks clouded with screaming -sea-fowl, and the forests breathing piny odors from the shore, cast -anchor again beneath the cliffs of Quebec. Canoes came out from shore -filled with feathered savages inquiring for their kidnapped chiefs. -"Donnacona," replied Cartier, "is dead;" but he added the politic -falsehood, that the others had married in France, and lived in state, -like great lords. The Indians pretended to be satisfied; but it was soon -apparent that they looked askance on the perfidious strangers. - -Cartier pursued his course, sailed three leagues and a half up the St. -Lawrence, and anchored off the mouth of the River of Cap Rouge. It -was late in August, and the leafy landscape sweltered in the sun. The -Frenchmen landed, picked up quartz crystals on the shore and thought -them diamonds, climbed the steep promontory, drank at the spring near -the top, looked abroad on the wooded slopes beyond the little river, -waded through the tall grass of the meadow, found a quarry of slate, -and gathered scales of a yellow mineral which glistened like gold, then -returned to their boats, crossed to the south shore of the St. Lawrence, -and, languid with the heat, rested in the shade of forests laced with an -entanglement of grape-vines. - -Now their task began, and while some cleared off the woods and sowed -turnip-seed, others cut a zigzag road up the height, and others built -two forts, one at the summit, and one on the shore below. The forts -finished, the Vicomte de Beaupre took command, while Cartier went with -two boats to explore the rapids above Hochelaga. When at length he -returned, the autumn was far advanced; and with the gloom of a Canadian -November came distrust, foreboding, and homesickness. Roberval had not -appeared; the Indians kept jealously aloof; the motley colony was -sullen as the dull, raw air around it. There was disgust and ire at -Charlesbourg-Royal, for so the place was called. - -Meanwhile, unexpected delays had detained the impatient Roberval; nor -was it until the sixteenth of April, 1542, that, with three ships and -two hundred colonists, he set sail from Rochelle. When, on the eighth -of June, he entered the harbor of St. John, he found seventeen -fishing-vessels lying there at anchor. Soon after, he descried three -other sail rounding the entrance of the haven, and, with anger and -amazement, recognized the ships of Jacques Cartier. That voyager had -broken up his colony and abandoned New France. What motives had prompted -a desertion little consonant with the resolute spirit of the man it is -impossible to say,--whether sickness within, or Indian enemies without, -disgust with an enterprise whose unripened fruits had proved so hard -and bitter, or discontent at finding himself reduced to a post of -subordination in a country which he had discovered and where he had -commanded. The Viceroy ordered him to return; but Cartier escaped with -his vessels under cover of night, and made sail for France, carrying -with him as trophies a few quartz diamonds from Cap Rouge, and grains -of sham gold from the neighboring slate ledges. Thus closed the third -Canadian voyage of this notable explorer. His discoveries had gained -for him a patent of nobility, and he owned the seigniorial mansion of -Limoilou, a rude structure of stone still standing. Here, and in the -neighboring town of St. Malo, where also he had a house, he seems to -have lived for many years. - -Roberval once more set sail, steering northward to the Straits of Belle -Isle and the dreaded Isles of Demons. And here an incident befell which -the all-believing Thevet records in manifest good faith, and which, -stripped of the adornments of superstition and a love of the marvellous, -has without doubt a nucleus of truth. I give the tale as I find it. - -The Viceroy's company was of a mixed complexion. There were nobles, -officers, soldiers, sailors, adventurers, with women too, and children. -Of the women, some were of birth and station, and among them a damsel -called Marguerite, a niece of Roberval himself. In the ship was a -young gentleman who had embarked for love of her. His love was too well -requited; and the stern Viceroy, scandalized and enraged at a passion -which scorned concealment and set shame at defiance, cast anchor by the -haunted island, landed his indiscreet relative, gave her four arquebuses -for defence, and, with an old Norman nurse named Bastienne, who had -pandered to the lovers, left her to her fate. Her gallant threw himself -into the surf, and by desperate effort gained the shore, with two more -guns and a supply of ammunition. - -The ship weighed anchor, receded, vanished, and they were left alone. -Yet not so, for the demon lords of the island beset them day and night, -raging around their hut with a confused and hungry clamoring, striving -to force the frail barrier. The lovers had repented of their sin, though -not abandoned it, and Heaven was on their side. The saints vouchsafed -their aid, and the offended Virgin, relenting, held before them her -protecting shield. In the form of beasts or other shapes abominably and -unutterably hideous, the brood of hell, howling in baffled fury, tore -at the branches of the sylvan dwelling; but a celestial hand was ever -interposed, and there was a viewless barrier which they might not pass. -Marguerite became pregnant. Here was a double prize, two souls in one, -mother and child. The fiends grew frantic, but all in vain. She stood -undaunted amid these horrors; but her lover, dismayed and heartbroken, -sickened and died. Her child soon followed; then the old Norman nurse -found her unhallowed rest in that accursed soil, and Marguerite was -left alone. Neither her reason nor her courage failed. When the demons -assailed her, she shot at them with her gun, but they answered with -hellish merriment, and thenceforth she placed her trust in Heaven alone. -There were foes around her of the upper, no less than of the nether -world. Of these, the bears were the most redoubtable; yet, being -vulnerable to mortal weapons, she killed three of them, all, says the -story, "as white as an egg." - -It was two years and five months from her landing on the island, when, -far out at sea, the crew of a small fishing-craft saw a column of smoke -curling upward from the haunted shore. Was it a device of the fiends to -lure them to their ruin? They thought so, and kept aloof. But misgiving -seized them. They warily drew near, and descried a female figure in wild -attire waving signals from the strand. Thus at length was Marguerite -rescued and restored to her native France, where, a few years later, the -cosmographer Thevet met her at Natron in Perigord, and heard the tale of -wonder from her own lips. - -Having left his offending niece to the devils and bears of the Isles of -Demons, Roberval held his course up the St. Lawrence, and dropped anchor -before the heights of Cap Rouge. His company landed; there were bivouacs -along the strand, a hubbub of pick and spade, axe, saw, and hammer; and -soon in the wilderness uprose a goodly structure, half barrack, half -castle, with two towers, two spacious halls, a kitchen, chambers, -storerooms, workshops, cellars, garrets, a well, an oven, and two -watermills. Roberval named it France-Roy, and it stood on that bold -acclivity where Cartier had before intrenched himself, the St. Lawrence -in front, and on the right the River of Cap Rouge. Here all the colony -housed under the same roof, like one of the experimental communities -of recent days,--officers, soldiers, nobles, artisans, laborers, and -convicts, with the women and children in whom lay the future hope of New -France. - -Experience and forecast had both been wanting. There were storehouses, -but no stores; mills, but no grist; an ample oven, and a dearth of -bread. It was only when two of the ships had sailed for France that -they took account of their provision and discovered its lamentable -shortcoming. Winter and famine followed. They bought fish from the -Indians, and dug roots and boiled them in whale-oil. Disease broke out, -and, before spring, killed one third of the colony. The rest would have -quarrelled, mutinied, and otherwise aggravated their inevitable woes, -but disorder was dangerous under the iron rule of the inexorable -Roberval. Michel Gaillon was detected in a petty theft, and hanged. Jean -de Nantes, for a more venial offence, was kept in irons. The quarrels of -men and the scolding of women were alike requited at the whipping-post, -"by which means," quaintly says the narrative, "they lived in peace." - -Thevet, while calling himself the intimate friend of the Viceroy, gives -a darker coloring to his story. He says that, forced to unceasing -labor, and chafed by arbitrary rules, some of the soldiers fell under -Roberval's displeasure, and six of them, formerly his favorites, were -hanged in one day. Others were banished to an island, and there kept in -fetters; while, for various light offences, several, both men and women, -were shot. Even the Indians were moved to pity, and wept at the sight of -their woes. - -And here, midway, our guide deserts us; the ancient narrative is broken, -and the latter part is lost, leaving us to divine as we may the future -of the ill-starred colony. That it did not long survive is certain. The -King, in great need of Roberval, sent Cartier to bring him home, and -this voyage seems to have taken place in the summer of 1543. It is said -that, in after years, the Viceroy essayed to repossess himself of his -Transatlantic domain, and lost his life in the attempt. Thevet, on -the other hand, with ample means of learning the truth, affirms that -Roberval was slain at night, near the Church of the Innocents, in the -heart of Paris. - -With him closes the prelude of the French-American drama. Tempestuous -years and a reign of blood and fire were in store for France. The -religious wars begot the hapless colony of Florida, but for more than -half a century they left New France a desert. Order rose at length -out of the sanguinary chaos; the zeal of discovery and the spirit of -commercial enterprise once more awoke, while, closely following, more -potent than they, moved the black-robed forces of the Roman Catholic -reaction. - - - - -CHAPTER II. - -1542-1604. - -LA ROCHE.--CHAMPLAIN.--DE MONTS. - - -Years rolled on. France, long tossed among the surges of civil -commotion, plunged at last into a gulf of fratricidal war. Blazing -hamlets, sacked cities, fields steaming with slaughter, profaned altars, -and ravished maidens, marked the track of the tornado. There was little -room for schemes of foreign enterprise. Yet, far aloof from siege and -battle, the fishermen of the western ports still plied their craft -on the Banks of Newfoundland. Humanity, morality, decency, might be -forgotten, but codfish must still be had for the use of the faithful in -Lent and on fast days. Still the wandering Esquimaux saw the Norman and -Breton sails hovering around some lonely headland, or anchored in fleets -in the harbor of St. John; and still, through salt spray and driving -mist, the fishermen dragged up the riches of the sea. - -In January and February, 1545, about two vessels a day sailed from -French ports for Newfoundland. In 1565, Pedro Menendez complains that -the French "rule despotically" in those parts. In 1578, there were a -hundred and fifty French fishing-vessels there, besides two hundred of -other nations, Spanish, Portuguese, and English. Added to these were -twenty or thirty Biscayan whalers. In 1607, there was an old French -fisherman at Canseau who had voyaged to these seas for forty-two -successive years. - -But if the wilderness of ocean had its treasures, so too had the -wilderness of woods. It needed but a few knives, beads, and trinkets, -and the Indians would throng to the shore burdened with the spoils of -their winter hunting. Fishermen threw up their old vocation for the more -lucrative trade in bear-skins and beaver-skins. They built rude huts -along the shores of Anticosti, where, at that day, the bison, it is -said, could be seen wallowing in the sands. They outraged the Indians; -they quarrelled with each other; and this infancy of the Canadian -fur-trade showed rich promise of the disorders which marked its riper -growth. Others, meanwhile, were ranging the gulf in search of walrus -tusks; and, the year after the battle of Ivry, St. Malo sent out a fleet -of small craft in quest of this new prize. - -In all the western seaports, merchants and adventurers turned their eyes -towards America; not, like the Spaniards, seeking treasures of -silver and gold, but the more modest gains of codfish and train-oil, -beaver-skins and marine ivory. St. Malo was conspicuous above them all. -The rugged Bretons loved the perils of the sea, and saw with a jealous -eye every attempt to shackle their activity on this its favorite field. -When in 1588 Jacques Noel and Estienue Chaton--the former a nephew of -Cartier and the latter pretending to be so--gained a monopoly of the -American fur-trade for twelve year's, such a clamor arose within the -walls of St. Malo that the obnoxious grant was promptly revoked. - -But soon a power was in the field against which all St. Malo might -clamor in vain. A Catholic nobleman of Brittany, the Marquis de la -Roche, bargained with the King to colonize New France. On his part, he -was to receive a monopoly of the trade, and a profusion of worthless -titles and empty privileges. He was declared Lieutenant-General of -Canada, Hochelaga, Newfoundland, Labrador, and the countries adjacent, -with sovereign power within his vast and ill-defined domain. He could -levy troops, declare war and peace, make laws, punish or pardon at -will, build cities, forts, and castles, and grant out lands in fiefs, -seigniories, counties, viscounties, and baronies. Thus was effete and -cumbrous feudalism to make a lodgment in the New World. It was a scheme -of high-sounding promise, but in performance less than contemptible. La -Roche ransacked the prisons, and, gathering thence a gang of thieves -and desperadoes, embarked them in a small vessel, and set sail to plant -Christianity and civilization in the West. Suns rose and set, and the -wretched bark, deep freighted with brutality and vice, held on her -course. She was so small that the convicts, leaning over her side, -could wash their hands in the water. At length, on the gray horizon they -descried a long, gray line of ridgy sand. It was Sable Island, off the -coast of Nova Scotia. A wreck lay stranded on the beach, and the surf -broke ominously over the long, submerged arms of sand, stretched far out -into the sea on the right hand and on the left. - -Here La Roche landed the convicts, forty in number, while, with his -more trusty followers, he sailed to explore the neighboring coasts, -and choose a site for the capital of his new dominion, to which, in due -time, he proposed to remove the prisoners. But suddenly a tempest from -the west assailed him. The frail vessel was forced to run before the -gale, which, howling on her track, drove her off the coast, and chased -her back towards France. - -Meanwhile the convicts watched in suspense for the returning sail. Days -passed, weeks passed, and still they strained their eyes in vain across -the waste of ocean. La Roche had left them to their fate. Rueful and -desperate, they wandered among the sand-hills, through the stunted -whortleberry bushes, the rank sand-grass, and the tangled cranberry -vines which filled the hollows. Not a tree was to be seen; but they -built huts of the fragments of the wreck. For food they caught fish -in the surrounding sea, and hunted the cattle which ran wild about the -island, sprung, perhaps, from those left here eighty years before by -the Baron de Lery. They killed seals, trapped black foxes, and clothed -themselves in their skins. Their native instincts clung to them in their -exile. As if not content with inevitable miseries, they quarrelled -and murdered one another. Season after season dragged on. Five years -elapsed, and, of the forty, only twelve were left alive. Sand, sea, -and sky,--there was little else around them; though, to break the -dead monotony, the walrus would sometimes rear his half-human face and -glistening sides on the reefs and sand-bars. At length, on the far verge -of the watery desert, they descried a sail. She stood on towards the -island; a boat's crew landed on the beach, and the exiles were once more -among their countrymen. - -When La Roche returned to France, the fate of his followers sat heavy on -his mind. But the day of his prosperity was gone. A host of enemies rose -against him and his privileges, and it is said that the Due de Mercaeur -seized him and threw him into prison. In time, however, he gained a -hearing of the King; and the Norman pilot, Chefdhotel, was despatched to -bring the outcasts home. - -He reached Sable Island in September, 1603, and brought back to France -eleven survivors, whose names are still preserved. When they arrived, -Henry the Fourth summoned them into his presence. They stood before him, -says an old writer, like river-gods of yore; for from head to foot they -were clothed in shaggy skins, and beards of prodigious length hung from -their swarthy faces. They had accumulated, on their island, a quantity -of valuable furs. Of these Chefdhotel had robbed them; but the pilot -was forced to disgorge his prey, and, with the aid of a bounty from the -King, they were enabled to embark on their own account in the Canadian -trade. To their leader, fortune was less kind. Broken by disaster and -imprisonment, La Roche died miserably. - -In the mean time, on the ruin of his enterprise, a new one had been -begun. Pontgrave, a merchant of St. Malo, leagued himself with Chauvin, -a captain of the navy, who had influence at court. A patent was granted -to them, with the condition that they should colonize the country. But -their only thought was to enrich themselves. - -At Tadoussac, at the mouth of the Saguenay, under the shadow of savage -and inaccessible rocks, feathered with pines, firs, and birch-trees, -they built a cluster of wooden huts and store-houses. Here they left -sixteen men to gather the expected harvest of furs. Before the winter -was over, several of them were dead, and the rest scattered through the -woods, living on the charity of the Indians. - -But a new era had dawned on France. Exhausted with thirty years of -conflict, she had sunk at last to a repose, uneasy and disturbed, yet -the harbinger of recovery. The rugged soldier whom, for the weal of -France and of mankind, Providence had cast to the troubled surface of -affairs, was throned in the Louvre, composing the strife of factions and -the quarrels of his mistresses. The bear-hunting prince of the Pyrenees -wore the crown of France; and to this day, as one gazes on the time-worn -front of the Tuileries, above all other memories rises the small, strong -finger, the brow wrinkled with cares of love and war, the bristling -moustache, the grizzled beard, the bold, vigorous, and withal somewhat -odd features of the mountaineer of Warn. To few has human liberty owed -so deep a gratitude or so deep a grudge. He cared little for creeds or -dogmas. Impressible, quick in sympathy, his grim lip lighted often with -a smile, and his war-worn cheek was no stranger to a tear. He forgave -his enemies and forgot his friends. Many loved him; none but fools -trusted him. Mingled of mortal good and ill, frailty and force, of all -the kings who for two centuries and more sat on the throne of France -Henry the Fourth alone was a man. - -Art, industry, and commerce, so long crushed and overborne, were -stirring into renewed life, and a crowd of adventurous men, nurtured -in war and incapable of repose, must seek employment for their restless -energies in fields of peaceful enterprise. - -Two small, quaint vessels, not larger than the fishing-craft of -Gloucester and Marblehead,--one was of twelve, the other of fifteen -tons,--held their way across the Atlantic, passed the tempestuous -headlands of Newfoundland and the St. Lawrence, and, with adventurous -knight-errantry, glided deep into the heart of the Canadian wilderness. -On board of one of them was the Breton merchant, Pontgrave, and with him -a man of spirit widely different, a Catholic of good family,--Samuel de -Champlain, born in 1567 at the small seaport of Bronage on the Bay of -Biscay. His father was a captain in the royal navy, where he himself -seems also to have served, though during the war he had fought for the -King in Brittany, under the banners of D'Aumont, St. Luc, and Brissac. -His purse was small, his merit great; and Henry the Fourth out of his -own slender revenues had given him a pension to maintain him near his -person. But rest was penance to him. The war in Brittany was over. The -rebellious Duc de Mercaeur was reduced to obedience, and the royal army -disbanded. Champlain, his occupation gone, conceived a design consonant -with his adventurous nature. He would visit the West Indies, and bring -back to the King a report of those regions of mystery whence Spanish -jealousy excluded foreigners, and where every intruding Frenchman was -threatened with death. Here much knowledge was to be won and much peril -to be met. The joint attraction was resistless. - -The Spaniards, allies of the vanquished Leaguers, were about to evacuate -Blavet, their last stronghold in Brittany. Thither Champlain repaired; -and here he found an uncle, who had charge of the French fleet destined -to take on board the Spanish garrison. Champlain embarked with them, -and, reaching Cadiz, succeeded, with the aid of his relative, who -had just accepted the post of Pilot-General of the Spanish marine, in -gaining command of one of the ships about to sail for the West Indies -under Don Francisco Colombo. - -At Dieppe there is a curious old manuscript, in clear, decisive, and -somewhat formal handwriting of the sixteenth century, garnished with -sixty-one colored pictures, in a style of art which a child of ten might -emulate. Here one may see ports, harbors, islands, and rivers, adorned -with portraitures of birds, beasts, and fishes thereto pertaining. Here -are Indian feasts and dances; Indians flogged by priests for not going -to mass; Indians burned alive for heresy, six in one fire; Indians -working the silver mines. Here, too, are descriptions of natural -objects, each with its illustrative sketch, some drawn from life and -some from memory,--as, for example, a chameleon with two legs; others -from hearsay, among which is the portrait of the griffin said to haunt -certain districts of Mexico,--a monster with the wings of a bat, the -head of an eagle, and the tail of an alligator. - -This is Champlain's journal, written and illustrated by his own hand, in -that defiance of perspective and absolute independence of the canons of -art which mark the earliest efforts of the pencil. - -A true hero, after the chivalrous mediaeval type, his character was -dashed largely with the spirit of romance. Though earnest, sagacious, -and penetrating, he leaned to the marvellous; and the faith which was -the life of his hard career was somewhat prone to overstep the bounds -of reason and invade the domain of fancy. Hence the erratic character of -some of his exploits, and hence his simple faith in the Mexican griffin. - -His West-Indian adventure occupied him more than two years. He visited -the principal ports of the islands, made plans and sketches of them all, -after his fashion, and then, landing at Vera Cruz, journeyed inland to -the city of Mexico. On his return he made his way to Panama. Here, more -than two centuries and a half ago, his bold and active mind conceived -the plan of a ship-canal across the isthmus, "by which," lie says, "the -voyage to the South Sea would be shortened by more than fifteen hundred -leagues." - -On reaching France he repaired to court, and it may have been at -this time that a royal patent raised him to the rank of the untitled -nobility. He soon wearied of the antechambers of the Louvre. It was -here, however, that his destiny awaited him, and the work of his life -was unfolded. Aymar de Chastes, Commander of the Order of St. John and -Governor of Dieppe, a gray-haired veteran of the civil wars, wished to -mark his closing days with some notable achievement for France and the -Church. To no man was the King more deeply indebted. In his darkest -hour, when the hosts of the League were gathering round him, when -friends were falling off, and the Parisians, exulting in his certain -ruin, were hiring the windows of the Rue St. Antoine to see him led to -the Bastille, De Chastes, without condition or reserve, gave up to him -the town and castle of Dieppe. Thus he was enabled to fight beneath its -walls the battle of Arques, the first in the series of successes which -secured his triumph; and he had been heard to say that to this friend in -his adversity he owed his own salvation and that of France. - -De Chastes was one of those men who, amid the strife of factions and -rage of rival fanaticisms, make reason and patriotism their watchwords, -and stand on the firm ground of a strong and resolute moderation. He had -resisted the madness of Leaguer and Huguenot alike; yet, though a foe of -the League, the old soldier was a devout Catholic, and it seemed in -his eyes a noble consummation of his life to plant the cross and the -fleur-de-lis in the wilderness of New France. Chauvin had just died, -after wasting the lives of a score or more of men in a second and a -third attempt to establish the fur-trade at Tadoussac. De Chastes came -to court to beg a patent of henry the Fourth; "and," says his friend -Champlain, "though his head was crowned with gray hairs as with years, -he resolved to proceed to New France in person, and dedicate the rest of -his days to the service of God and his King." - -The patent, costing nothing, was readily granted; and De Chastes, to -meet the expenses of the enterprise, and forestall the jealousies which -his monopoly would awaken among the keen merchants of the western ports, -formed a company with the more prominent of them. Pontgrave, who -had some knowledge of the country, was chosen to make a preliminary -exploration. - -This was the time when Champlain, fresh from the West Indies, appeared -at court. De Chastes knew him well. Young, ardent, yet ripe in -experience, a skilful seaman and a practised soldier, he above all -others was a man for the enterprise. He had many conferences with the -veteran, under whom he had served in the royal fleet off the coast of -Brittany. De Chastes urged him to accept a post in his new company; and -Champlain, nothing loath, consented, provided always that permission -should be had from the King, "to whom," he says, "I was bound no less -by birth than by the pension with which his Majesty honored me." To the -King, therefore, De Chastes repaired. The needful consent was gained, -and, armed with a letter to Pontgrave, Champlain set out for Honfleur. -Here he found his destined companion, and embarking with him, as we have -seen, they spread their sails for the west. - -Like specks on the broad bosom of the waters, the two pygmy vessels -held their course up the lonely St. Lawrence. They passed abandoned -Tadoussac, the channel of Orleans, and the gleaming cataract of -Montmorenci; the tenantless rock of Quebec, the wide Lake of St. Peter -and its crowded archipelago, till now the mountain reared before -them its rounded shoulder above the forest-plain of Montreal. All was -solitude. Hochelaga had vanished; and of the savage population that -Cartier had found here, sixty-eight years before, no trace remained. -In its place were a few wandering Algonquins, of different tongue and -lineage. In a skiff, with a few Indians, Champlain essayed to pass the -rapids of St. Louis. Oars, paddles, and poles alike proved vain against -the foaming surges, and he was forced to return. On the deck of his -vessel, the Indians drew rude plans of the river above, with its chain -of rapids, its lakes and cataracts; and the baffled explorer turned -his prow homeward, the objects of his mission accomplished, but his own -adventurous curiosity unsated. When the voyagers reached Havre de Grace, -a grievous blow awaited them. The Commander de Chastes was dead. - -His mantle fell upon Pierre du Guast, Sieur de Monts, gentleman in -ordinary of the King's chamber, and Governor of Polls. Undaunted by -the fate of La Roche, this nobleman petitioned the king for leave to -colonize La Cadie, or Acadie, a region defined as extending from -the fortieth to the forty-Sixth degree of north latitude, or from -Philadelphia to beyond Montreal. The King's minister, Sully, as he -himself tells us, opposed the plan, on the ground that the colonization -of this northern wilderness would never repay the outlay; but De -Monts gained his point. He was made Lieutenant-General in Acadia, with -viceregal powers; and withered Feudalism, with her antique forms and -tinselled follies, was again to seek a new home among the rocks and -pine-trees of Nova Scotia. The foundation of the enterprise was a -monopoly of the fur-trade, and in its favor all past grants were -unceremoniously annulled. St. Malo, Rouen, Dieppe, and Rochelle greeted -the announcement with unavailing outcries. Patents granted and revoked, -monopolies decreed and extinguished, had involved the unhappy traders in -ceaseless embarrassment. De Monts, however, preserved De Chastes's old -company, and enlarged it, thus making the chief malcontents sharers in -his exclusive rights, and converting them from enemies into partners. - -A clause in his commission empowered him to impress idlers and vagabonds -as material for his colony,--an ominous provision of which he largely -availed himself. His company was strangely incongruous. The best and -the meanest of France were crowded together in his two ships. Here -were thieves and ruffians dragged on board by force; and here were many -volunteers of condition and character, with Baron de Poutrincourt -and the indefatigable Champlain. Here, too, were Catholic priests and -Huguenot ministers; for, though De Monts was a Calvinist, the Church, -as usual, displayed her banner in the van of the enterprise, and he was -forced to promise that he would cause the Indians to be instructed in -the dogmas of Rome. - - - - -CHAPTER III. - -1604, 1605. - -ACADIA OCCUPIED. - -De Monts, with one of his vessels, sailed from Havre de Grace on the -seventh of April, 1604. Pontgrave, with stores for the colony, was to -follow in a few days. - -Scarcely were they at sea, when ministers and priests fell first to -discussion, then to quarrelling, then to blows. "I have seen our -cure and the minister," says Champlain, "fall to with their fists on -questions of faith. I cannot say which had the more pluck, or which hit -the harder; but I know that the minister sometimes complained to the -Sieur de Monts that he had been beaten. This was their way of settling -points of controversy. I leave you to judge if it was a pleasant thing -to see." - -Sagard, the Franciscan friar, relates with horror, that, after their -destination was reached, a priest and a minister happening to die at the -same time, the crew buried them both in one grave, to see if they would -lie peaceably together. - -De Monts, who had been to the St. Lawrence with Chauvin, and learned -to dread its rigorous winters, steered for a more southern, and, as he -flattered himself, a milder region. The first land seen was Cap la Heve, -on the southern coast of Nova Scotia. Four days later, they entered a -small bay, where, to their surprise, they saw a vessel lying at anchor. -here was a piece of good luck. The stranger was a fur-trader, pursuing -her traffic in defiance, or more probably in ignorance, of De Monts's -monopoly. The latter, as empowered by his patent, made prize of ship and -cargo, consoling the commander, one Rossignol, by giving his name to the -scene of his misfortune. It is now called Liverpool Harbor. - -In an adjacent harbor, called by them Port Mouton, because a sheep here -leaped overboard, they waited nearly a month for Pontgrave's store-ship. -At length, to their great relief, she appeared, laden with the spoils -of four Basque fur-traders, captured at Cansean. The supplies delivered, -Pontgrave sailed for Tadoussac to trade with the Indians, while De -Monts, followed by his prize, proceeded on his voyage. - -He doubled Cape Sable, and entered St. Mary's Bay, where he lay two -weeks, sending boats' crews to explore the adjacent coasts. A party -one day went on shore to stroll through the forest, and among them was -Nicolas Aubry, a priest from Paris, who, tiring of the scholastic haunts -of the Rue de la Sorbonne and the Rue d'Enfer, had persisted, despite -the remonstrance of his friends, in joining the expedition. Thirsty -with a long walk, under the sun of June, through the tangled and -rock-encumbered woods, he stopped to drink at a brook, laying his sword -beside him on the grass. On rejoining his companions, he found that he -had forgotten it; and turning back in search of it, more skilled in the -devious windings of the Quartier Latin than in the intricacies of the -Acadian forest, he soon lost his way. His comrades, alarmed, waited -for a time, and then ranged the woods, shouting his name to the echoing -solitudes. Trumpets were sounded, and cannon fired from the ships, but -the priest did not appear. All now looked askance on a certain Huguenot, -with whom Aubry had often quarrelled on questions of faith, and who was -now accused of having killed him. In vain he denied the charge. Aubry -was given up for dead, and the ship sailed from St. Mary's Bay; while -the wretched priest roamed to and fro, famished and despairing, or, -couched on the rocky soil, in the troubled sleep of exhaustion, dreamed, -perhaps, as the wind swept moaning through the pines, that he heard once -more the organ roll through the columned arches of Sainte Genevieve. - -The voyagers proceeded to explore the Bay of Fundy, which De Monts -called La Baye Francoise. Their first notable discovery was that -of Annapolis Harbor. A small inlet invited them. They entered, when -suddenly the narrow strait dilated into a broad and tranquil basin, -compassed by sunny hills, wrapped in woodland verdure, and alive with -waterfalls. Poutrincourt was delighted with the scene. The fancy seized -him of removing thither from France with his family and, to this end, he -asked a grant of the place from De Monts, who by his patent had nearly -half the continent in his gift. The grant was made, and Poutrincourt -called his new domain Port Royal. - -Thence they sailed round the head of the Bay of Fundy, coasted its -northern shore, visited and named the river St. John, and anchored at -last in Passamaquoddy Bay. - -The untiring Champlain, exploring, surveying, sounding, had made charts -of all the principal roads and harbors; and now, pursuing his research, -he entered a river which he calls La Riviere des Etechemins, from -the name of the tribe of whom the present Passamaquoddy Indians are -descendants. Near its mouth he found an islet, fenced round with rocks -and shoals, and called it St. Croix, a name now borne by the river -itself. With singular infelicity this spot was chosen as the site of -the new colony. It commanded the river, and was well fitted for defence: -these were its only merits; yet cannon were landed on it, a battery -was planted on a detached rock at one end, and a fort begun on a rising -ground at the other. - -At St. Mary's Bay the voyagers thought they had found traces of iron -and silver; and Champdore, the pilot, was now sent back to pursue the -search. As he and his men lay at anchor, fishing, not far from land, -one of them heard a strange sound, like a weak human voice; and, looking -towards the shore, they saw a small black object in motion, apparently a -hat waved on the end of a stick. Rowing in haste to the spot, they -found the priest Aubry. For sixteen days he had wandered in the woods, -sustaining life on berries and wild fruits; and when, haggard and -emaciated, a shadow of his former self, Champdore carried him back to -St. Croix, he was greeted as a man risen from the grave. - -In 1783 the river St. Croix, by treaty, was made the boundary between -Maine and New Brunswick. But which was the true St. Croix? In 1798, the -point was settled. De Monts's island was found; and, painfully searching -among the sand, the sedge, and the matted whortleberry bushes, the -commissioners could trace the foundations of buildings long crumbled -into dust; for the wilderness had resumed its sway, and silence -and solitude brooded once more over this ancient resting-place of -civilization. - -But while the commissioner bends over a moss-grown stone, it is for us -to trace back the dim vista of the centuries to the life, the zeal, the -energy, of which this stone is the poor memorial. The rock-fenced islet -was covered with cedars, and when the tide was out the shoals around -were dark with the swash of sea-weed, where, in their leisure moments, -the Frenchmen, we are told, amused themselves with detaching the limpets -from the stones, as a savory addition to their fare. But there was -little leisure at St. Croix. Soldiers, sailors, and artisans betook -themselves to their task. Before the winter closed in, the northern end -of the island was covered with buildings, surrounding a square, where a -solitary tree had been left standing. On the right was a spacious house, -well built, and surmounted by one of those enormous roofs characteristic -of the time. This was the lodging of De Monts. Behind it, and near -the water, was a long, covered gallery, for labor or amusement in foul -weather. Champlain and the Sieur d'Orville, aided by the servants of the -latter, built a house for themselves nearly opposite that of De Monts; -and the remainder of the square was occupied by storehouses, a magazine, -workshops, lodgings for gentlemen and artisans, and a barrack for the -Swiss soldiers, the whole enclosed with a palisade. Adjacent there was -an attempt at a garden, under the auspices of Champlain; but nothing -would grow in the sandy soil. There was a cemetery, too, and a small -rustic chapel on a projecting point of rock. Such was the "Habitation -de l'Isle Saincte-Croix," as set forth by Champlain in quaint plans and -drawings, in that musty little quarto of 1613, sold by Jean Berjon, at -the sign of the Flying Horse, Rue St. Jean de Beauvais. - -Their labors over, Poutrincourt set sail for France, proposing to -return and take possession of his domain of Port Royal. Seventy-nine -men remained at St. Croix. Here was De Monts, feudal lord of half -a continent in virtue of two potent syllables, "Henri," scrawled on -parchment by the rugged hand of the Bearnais. Here were gentlemen of -birth and breeding, Champlain, D'Orville, Beaumont, Sourin, La Motte, -Boulay, and Fougeray; here also were the pugnacious cure and his fellow -priests, with the Hugnenot ministers, objects of their unceasing ire. -The rest were laborers, artisans, and soldiers, all in the pay of the -company, and some of them forced into its service. - -Poutrincourt's receding sails vanished between the water and the sky. -The exiles were left to their solitude. From the Spanish settlements -northward to the pole, there was no domestic hearth, no lodgement of -civilized men, save one weak band of Frenchmen, clinging, as it were -for life, to the fringe of the vast and savage continent. The gray and -sullen autumn sank upon the waste, and the bleak wind howled down the -St. Croix, and swept the forest bare. Then the whirling snow powdered -the vast sweep of desolate woodland, and shrouded in white the gloomy -green of pine-clad mountains. Ice in sheets, or broken masses, swept -by their island with the ebbing and flowing tide, often debarring all -access to the main, and cutting off their supplies of wood and water. A -belt of cedars, indeed, hedged the island; but De Monts had ordered them -to be spared, that the north wind might spend something of its force -with whistling through their shaggy boughs. Cider and wine froze in the -casks, and were served out by the pound. As they crowded round their -half-fed fires, shivering in the icy currents that pierced their rude -tenements, many sank into a desperate apathy. - -Soon the scurvy broke out, and raged with a fearful malignity. Of the -seventy-nine, thirty-five died before spring, and many more were brought -to the verge of death. In vain they sought that marvellous tree which -had relieved the followers of Cartier. Their little cemetery was peopled -with nearly half their number, and the rest, bloated and disfigured with -the relentless malady, thought more of escaping from their woes than -of building up a Transatlantic empire. Yet among them there was one, -at least, who, amid languor and defection, held to his purpose with -indomitable tenacity; and where Champlain was present, there was no room -for despair. - -Spring came at last, and, with the breaking up of the ice, the melting -of the snow, and the clamors of the returning wild-fowl, the spirits -and the health of the woe-begone company began to revive. But to misery -succeeded anxiety and suspense. Where was the succor from France? Were -they abandoned to their fate like the wretched exiles of La Roche? In -a happy hour, they saw an approaching sail. Pontgrave, with forty men, -cast anchor before their island on the sixteenth of June; and they -hailed him as the condemned hails the messenger of his pardon. - -Weary of St. Croix, De Monts resolved to seek out a more auspicious -site, on which to rear the capital of his wilderness dominion. During -the preceding September, Champlain had ranged the westward coast in a -pinnace, visited and named the island of Mount Desert, and entered -the mouth of the river Penobscot, called by him the Pemetigoet, or -Pentegoet, and previously known to fur-traders and fishermen as the -Norembega, a name which it shared with all the adjacent region. [27] -Now, embarking a second time, in a bark of fifteen tons, with De Monts, -several gentlemen, twenty sailors, and an Indian with his squaw, he set -forth on the eighteenth of June on a second voyage of discovery. They -coasted the strangely indented shores of Maine, with its reefs and -surf-washed islands, rocky headlands, and deep embosomed bays, passed -Mount Desert and the Penobscot, explored the mouths of the Kennebec, -crossed Casco Bay, and descried the distant peaks of the White -Mountains. The ninth of July brought them to Saco Bay. They were now -within the limits of a group of tribes who were called by the French the -Armouchiquois, and who included those whom the English afterwards called -the Massachusetts. They differed in habits as well as in language from -the Etechemins and Miemacs of Acadia, for they were tillers of the -soil, and around their wigwams were fields of maize, beans, pumpkins, -squashes, tobacco, and the so-called Jerusalem artichoke. Near Pront's -Neck, more than eighty of them ran down to the shore to meet the -strangers, dancing and yelping to show their joy. They had a fort of -palisades on a rising ground by the Saco, for they were at deadly war -with their neighbors towards the east. - -On the twelfth, the French resumed their voyage, and, like some -adventurous party of pleasure, held their course by the beaches of -York and Wells, Portsmouth Harbor, the Isles of Shoals, Rye Beach, and -Hampton Beach, till, on the fifteenth, they descried the dim outline -of Cape Ann. Champlain called it Cap aux Isles, from the three adjacent -islands, and in a subsequent voyage he gave the name of Beauport to -the neighboring harbor of Gloucester. Thence steering southward and -westward, they entered Massachusetts Bay, gave the name of Riviere -du Guast to a river flowing into it, probably the Charles; passed the -islands of Boston Harbor, which Champlain describes as covered with -trees, and were met on the way by great numbers of canoes filled with -astonished Indians. On Sunday, the seventeenth, they passed Point -Allerton and Nantasket Beach, coasted the shores of Cohasset, Scituate, -and Marshfield, and anchored for the night near Brant Point. On the -morning of the eighteenth, a head wind forced them to take shelter in -Port St. Louis, for so they called the harbor of Plymouth, where the -Pilgrims made their memorable landing fifteen years later. Indian -wigwams and garden patches lined the shore. A troop of the inhabitants -came down to the beach and danced; while others, who had been fishing, -approached in their canoes, came on board the vessel, and showed -Champlain their fish-hooks, consisting of a barbed bone lashed at an -acute angle to a slip of wood. - -From Plymouth the party circled round the bay, doubled Cape Cod, called -by Champlain Cap Blanc, from its glistening white sands, and steered -southward to Nausett Harbor, which, by reason of its shoals and -sand-bars, they named Port Mallebarre. Here their prosperity deserted -them. A party of sailors went behind the sand-banks to find fresh water -at a spring, when an Indian snatched a kettle from one of them, and its -owner, pursuing, fell, pierced with arrows by the robber's comrades. The -French in the vessel opened fire. Champlain's arquebuse burst, and was -near killing him, while the Indians, swift as deer, quickly gained the -woods. Several of the tribe chanced to be on board the vessel, but flung -themselves with such alacrity into the water that only one was caught. -They bound him hand and foot, but soon after humanely set him at -liberty. - -Champlain, who we are told "delighted marvellously in these -enterprises," had busied himself throughout the voyage with taking -observations, making charts, and studying the wonders of land and sea. -The "horse-foot crab" seems to have awakened his special curiosity, and -he describes it with amusing exactness. Of the human tenants of the -New England coast he has also left the first precise and trustworthy -account. They were clearly more numerous than when the Puritans landed -at Plymouth, since in the interval a pestilence made great havoc among -them. But Champlain's most conspicuous merit lies in the light that he -threw into the dark places of American geography, and the order that he -brought out of the chaos of American cartography; for it was a result of -this and the rest of his voyages that precision and clearness began -at last to supplant the vagueness, confusion, and contradiction of the -earlier map-makers. - -At Nausett Harbor provisions began to fail, and steering for St. Croix -the voyagers reached that ill-starred island on the third of August. -De Monts had found no spot to his liking. He now bethought him of that -inland harbor of Port Royal which he had granted to Poutrincourt, and -thither he resolved to remove. Stores, utensils, even portions of the -buildings, were placed on board the vessels, carried across the Bay of -Fundy, and landed at the chosen spot. It was on the north side of the -basin opposite Goat Island, and a little below the mouth of the river -Annapolis, called by the French the Equille, and, afterwards, the -Dauphin. The axe-men began their task; the dense forest was cleared -away, and the buildings of the infant colony soon rose in its place. - -But while De Monts and his company were struggling against despair at -St. Croix, the enemies of his monopoly were busy at Paris; and, by a -ship from France, he was warned that prompt measures were needed to -thwart their machinations. Therefore he set sail, leaving Pontgrave to -command at Port Royal: while Champlain, Champdore, and others, undaunted -by the past, volunteered for a second winter in the wilderness. - - - - -CHAPTER IV. - -1605-1607. - -LESCARBOT AND CHAMPLAIN. - -Evil reports of a churlish wilderness, a pitiless climate, disease, -misery, and death, had heralded the arrival of De Monts. The outlay had -been great, the returns small; and when he reached Paris, he found his -friends cold, his enemies active and keen. Poutrincourt, however, was -still full of zeal; and, though his private affairs urgently called for -his presence in France, he resolved, at no small sacrifice, to go in -person to Acadia. He had, moreover, a friend who proved an invaluable -ally. This was Marc Lescarbot, "avocat en Parlement," who had been -roughly handled by fortune, and was in the mood for such a venture, -being desirous, as he tells us, "to fly from a corrupt world," in which -he had just lost a lawsuit. Unlike De Monts, Poutrincourt, and others of -his associates, he was not within the pale of the noblesse, belonging to -the class of "gens de robe," which stood at the head of the bourgeoisie, -and which, in its higher grades, formed within itself a virtual -nobility. Lescarbot was no common man,--not that his abundant gift of -verse-making was likely to avail much in the woods of New France, nor -yet his classic lore, dashed with a little harmless pedantry, born not -of the man, but of the times; but his zeal, his good sense, the vigor of -his understanding, and the breadth of his views, were as conspicuous -as his quick wit and his lively fancy. One of the best, as well as -earliest, records of the early settlement of North America is due to his -pen; and it has been said, with a certain degree of truth, that he -was no less able to build up a colony than to write its history. He -professed himself a Catholic, but his Catholicity sat lightly on him; -and he might have passed for one of those amphibious religionists who in -the civil wars were called "Les Politiques." - -De Monts and Poutrincourt bestirred themselves to find a priest, -since the foes of the enterprise had been loud in lamentation that the -spiritual welfare of the Indians had been slighted. But it was Holy -Week. All the priests were, or professed to be, busy with exercises -and confessions, and not one could be found to undertake the mission of -Acadia. They were more successful in engaging mechanics and laborers -for the voyage. These were paid a portion of their wages in advance, -and were sent in a body to Rochelle, consigned to two merchants of that -port, members of the company. De Monts and Poutrincourt went thither by -post. Lescarbot soon followed, and no sooner reached Rochelle than he -penned and printed his Adieu a la France, a poem which gained for him -some credit. - -More serious matters awaited him, however, than this dalliance with -the Muse. Rochelle was the centre and citadel of Calvinism,--a town of -austere and grim aspect, divided, like Cisatlantic communities of -later growth, betwixt trade and religion, and, in the interest of both, -exacting a deportment of discreet and well-ordered sobriety. "One must -walk a strait path here," says Lescarbot, "unless he would hear from -the mayor or the ministers." But the mechanics sent from Paris, flush of -money, and lodged together in the quarter of St. Nicolas, made day and -night hideous with riot, and their employers found not a few of them in -the hands of the police. Their ship, bearing the inauspicious name of -the "Jonas," lay anchored in the stream, her cargo on board, when a -sudden gale blew her adrift. She struck on a pier, then grounded on the -flats, bilged, careened, and settled in the mud. Her captain, who was -ashore, with Poutrincourt, Lescarbot, and others, hastened aboard, and -the pumps were set in motion; while all Rochelle, we are told, came -to gaze from the ramparts, with faces of condolence, but at heart well -pleased with the disaster. The ship and her cargo were saved, but -she must be emptied, repaired, and reladen. Thus a month was lost; at -length, on the thirteenth of May, 1606, the disorderly crew were all -brought on board, and the "Jonas" put to sea. Poutrincourt and Lescarbot -had charge of the expedition, De Monts remaining in France. - -Lescarbot describes his emotions at finding himself on an element so -deficient in solidity, with only a two-inch plank between him and -death. Off the Azores, they spoke a supposed pirate. For the rest, they -beguiled the voyage by harpooning porpoises, dancing on deck in calm -weather, and fishing for cod on the Grand Bank. They were two months on -their way; and when, fevered with eagerness to reach land, they listened -hourly for the welcome cry, they were involved in impenetrable fogs. -Suddenly the mists parted, the sun shone forth, and streamed fair and -bright over the fresh hills and forests of the New World, in near view -before them. But the black rocks lay between, lashed by the snow-white -breakers. "Thus," writes Lescarbot, "doth a man sometimes seek the land -as one doth his beloved, who sometimes repulseth her sweetheart very -rudely. Finally, upon Saturday, the fifteenth of July, about two -o'clock in the afternoon, the sky began to salute us as it were with -cannon-shots, shedding tears, as being sorry to have kept us so long in -pain;... but, whilst we followed on our course, there came from the land -odors incomparable for sweetness, brought with a warm wind so abundantly -that all the Orient parts could not produce greater abundance. We did -stretch out our hands as it were to take them, so palpable were they, -which I have admired a thousand times since." - -It was noon on the twenty-seventh when the "Jonas" passed the rocky -gateway of Port Royal Basin, and Lescarbot gazed with delight and wonder -on the calm expanse of sunny waters, with its amphitheatre of woody -hills, wherein he saw the future asylum of distressed merit and -impoverished industry. Slowly, before a favoring breeze, they held their -course towards the head of the harbor, which narrowed as they advanced; -but all was solitude,--no moving sail, no sign of human presence. At -length, on their left, nestling in deep forests, they saw the wooden -walls and roofs of the infant colony. Then appeared a birch canoe, -cautiously coming towards them, guided by an old Indian. Then a -Frenchman, arquebuse in hand, came down to the shore; and then, from the -wooden bastion, sprang the smoke of a saluting shot. The ship replied; -the trumpets lent their voices to the din, and the forests and the hills -gave back unwonted echoes. The voyagers landed, and found the colony of -Port Royal dwindled to two solitary Frenchmen. - -These soon told their story. The preceding winter had been one of much -suffering, though by no means the counterpart of the woful experience of -St. Croix. But when the spring had passed, the summer far advanced, and -still no tidings of De Monts had come, Pontgrave grew deeply anxious. -To maintain themselves without supplies and succor was impossible. He -caused two small vessels to be built, and set out in search of some of -the French vessels on the fishing stations. This was but twelve days -before the arrival of the ship "Jonas." Two men had bravely offered -themselves to stay behind and guard the buildings, guns, and munitions; -and an old Indian chief, named Memberton, a fast friend of the French, -and still a redoubted warrior, we are told, though reputed to number -more than a hundred years, proved a stanch ally. When the ship -approached, the two guardians were at dinner in their room at the fort. -Memberton, always on the watch, saw the advancing sail, and, shouting -from the gate, roused them from their repast. In doubt who the -new-comers might be, one ran to the shore with his gun, while the other -repaired to the platform where four cannon were mounted, in the valorous -resolve to show fight should the strangers prove to be enemies. Happily -this redundancy of mettle proved needless. He saw the white flag -fluttering at the masthead, and joyfully fired his pieces as a salute. - -The voyagers landed, and eagerly surveyed their new home. Some wandered -through the buildings; some visited the cluster of Indian wigwams hard -by; some roamed in the forest and over the meadows that bordered the -neighboring river. The deserted fort now swarmed with life; and, the -better to celebrate their prosperous arrival, Poutrincourt placed a -hogs-head of wine in the courtyard at the discretion of his followers, -whose hilarity, in consequence, became exuberant. Nor was it diminished -when Pontgrave's vessels were seen entering the harbor. A boat sent by -Pountrincourt, more than a week before, to explore the coasts, had met -them near Cape Sable, and they joyfully returned to Port Royal. - -Pontgrave, however, soon sailed for France in the "Jonas," hoping on his -way to seize certain contraband fur-traders, reported to be at Canseau -and Cape Breton. Poutrincourt and Champlain, bent on finding a better -site for their settlement in a more southern latitude, set out on a -voyage of discovery, in an ill-built vessel of eighteen tons, while -Lescarbot remained in charge of Port Royal. They had little for their -pains but danger, hardship, and mishap. The autumn gales cut short their -exploration; and, after visiting Gloucester Harbor, doubling Monoinoy -Point, and advancing as far as the neighborhood of Hyannis, on the -southeast coast of Massachusetts, they turned back, somewhat disgusted -with their errand. Along the eastern verge of Cape Cod they found the -shore thickly studded with the wigwams of a race who were less hunters -than tillers of the soil. At Chatham Harbor--called by them Port -Fortune--five of the company, who, contrary to orders, had remained on -shore all night, were assailed, as they slept around their fire, by a -shower of arrows from four hundred Indians. Two were killed outright, -while the survivors fled for their boat, bristling like porcupines with -the feathered missiles,--a scene oddly portrayed by the untutored -pencil of Champlain. He and Poutrincourt, with eight men, hearing the -war-whoops and the cries for aid, sprang up from sleep, snatched -their weapons, pulled ashore in their shirts, and charged the yelling -multitude, who fled before their spectral assailants, and vanished -in the woods. "Thus," observes Lescarbot, "did thirty-five thousand -Midianites fly before Gideon and his three hundred." The French buried -their dead comrades; but, as they chanted their funeral hymn, the -Indians, at a safe distance on a neighboring hill, were dancing in glee -and triumph, and mocking them with unseemly gestures; and no sooner had -the party re-embarked, than they dug up the dead bodies, burnt them, and -arrayed themselves in their shirts. Little pleased with the country -or its inhabitants, the voyagers turned their prow towards Port Royal, -though not until, by a treacherous device, they had lured some of their -late assailants within their reach, killed them, and cut off their heads -as trophies. Near Mount Desert, on a stormy night, their rudder broke, -and they had a hair-breadth escape from destruction. The chief object of -their voyage, that of discovering a site for their colony under a more -southern sky, had failed. Pontgrave's son had his hand blown off by the -bursting of his gun; several of their number had been killed; others -were sick or wounded; and thus, on the fourteenth of November, with -somewhat downcast visages, they guided their helpless vessel with a pair -of oars to the landing at Port Royal. - -"I will not," says Lescarbot, "compare their perils to those of Ulysses, -nor yet of Aeneas, lest thereby I should sully our holy enterprise with -things impure." - -He and his followers had been expecting them with great anxiety. His -alert and buoyant spirit had conceived a plan for enlivening the courage -of the company, a little dashed of late by misgivings and forebodings. -Accordingly, as Poutrincourt, Champlain, and their weather-beaten crew -approached the wooden gateway of Port Royal, Neptune issued forth, -followed by his tritons, who greeted the voyagers in good French -verse, written in all haste for the occasion by Lescarbot. And, as -they entered, they beheld, blazoned over the arch, the arms of Prance, -circled with laurels, and flanked by the scuteheons of De Monts and -Poutrincourt. - -The ingenious author of these devices had busied himself, during the -absence of his associates, in more serious labors for the welfare of the -colony. He explored the low borders of the river Equille, or Annapolis. -Here, in the solitude, he saw great meadows, where the moose, with their -young, were grazing, and where at times the rank grass was beaten to -a pulp by the trampling of their hoofs. He burned the grass, and sowed -crops of wheat, rye, and barley in its stead. His appearance gave so -little promise of personal vigor, that some of the party assured him -that he would never see France again, and warned him to husband his -strength; but he knew himself better, and set at naught these comforting -monitions. He was the most diligent of workers. He made gardens near the -fort, where, in his zeal, he plied the hoe with his own hands late into -the moonlight evenings. The priests, of whom at the outset there -had been no lack, had all succumbed to the scurvy at St. Croix; and -Lescarbot, so far as a layman might, essayed to supply their place, -reading on Sundays from the Scriptures, and adding expositions of his -own after a fashion not remarkable for rigorous Catholicity. Of an -evening, when not engrossed with his garden, he was reading or writing -in his room, perhaps preparing the material of that History of New -France in which, despite the versatility of his busy brain, his good -sense and capacity are clearly made manifest. - -Now, however, when the whole company were reassembled, Lescarbot -found associates more congenial than the rude soldiers, mechanics, and -laborers who gathered at night around the blazing logs in their rude -hall. Port Royal was a quadrangle of wooden buildings, enclosing a -spacious court. At the southeast corner was the arched gateway, whence a -path, a few paces in length, led to the water. It was flanked by a -sort of bastion of palisades, while at the southwest corner was another -bastion, on which four cannon were mounted. On the east side of the -quadrangle was a range of magazines and storehouses; on the west were -quarters for the men; on the north, a dining-hall and lodgings for the -principal persons of the company; while on the south, or water side, -were the kitchen, the forge, and the oven. Except the Garden-patches and -the cemetery, the adjacent ground was thickly studded with the Stumps of -the newly felled trees. - -Most bountiful provision had been made for the temporal wants of the -colonists, and Lescarbot is profuse in praise of the liberality of Du -Monte and two merchants of Rochelle, who had freighted the ship "Jonas." -Of wine, in particular, the supply was so generous, that every man in -Port Royal was served with three pints daily. - -The principal persons of the colony sat, fifteen in number, at -Poutrincourt's table, which, by an ingenious device of Champlain, -was always well furnished. He formed the fifteen into a new order, -christened "L'Ordre de Bon-Temps." Each was Grand Master in turn, -holding office for one day. It was his function to cater for the -company; and, as it became a point of honor to fill the post with -credit, the prospective Grand Master was usually busy, for several -days before coming to his dignity, in hunting, fishing, or bartering -provisions with the Indians. Thus did Poutrincourt's table groan beneath -all the luxuries of the winter forest,--flesh of moose, caribou, and -deer, beaver, otter, and hare, bears and wild-cats; with ducks, geese, -grouse, and plover; sturgeon, too, and trout, and fish innumerable, -speared through the ice of the Equille, or drawn from the depths of the -neighboring bay. "And," says Lescarbot, in closing his bill of fare, -"whatever our gourmands at home may think, we found as good cheer at -Port Royal as they at their Rue aux Ours in Paris, and that, too, at a -cheaper rate." For the preparation of this manifold provision, the Grand -Master was also answerable; since, during his day of office, he was -autocrat of the kitchen. - -Nor did this bounteous repast lack a solemn and befitting ceremonial. -When the hour had struck, after the manner of our fathers they dined at -noon, the Grand Master entered the hall, a napkin on his shoulder, his -staff of office in his hand, and the collar of the Order--valued by -Lescarbot at four crowns--about his neck. The brotherhood followed, -each bearing a dish. The invited guests were Indian chiefs, of whom old -Memberton was daily present, seated at table with the French, who -took pleasure in this red-skin companionship. Those of humbler degree, -warriors, squaws, and children, sat on the floor, or crouched together -in the corners of the hall, eagerly waiting their portion of biscuit -or of bread, a novel and much coveted luxury. Being always treated with -kindness, they became fond of the French, who often followed them on -their moose-hunts, and shared their winter bivouac. - -At the evening meal there was less of form and circumstance; and when -the winter night closed in, when the flame crackled and the sparks -streamed up the wide-throated chimney, and the founders of New France -with their tawny allies were gathered around the blaze, then did the -Grand Master resign the collar and the staff to the successor of his -honors, and, with jovial courtesy, pledge him in a cup of wine. Thus -these ingenious Frenchmen beguiled the winter of their exile. - -It was an unusually mild winter. Until January, they wore no warmer -garment than their doublets. They made hunting and fishing parties, -in which the Indians, whose lodges were always to be seen under -the friendly shelter of the buildings, failed not to bear part. "I -remember," says Lescarbot, "that on the fourteenth of January, of a -Sunday afternoon, we amused ourselves with singing and music on -the river Equille; and that in the same month we went to see the -wheat-fields two leagues from the fort, and dined merrily in the -sunshine." - -Good spirits and good cheer saved them in great measure from the scurvy; -and though towards the end of winter severe cold set in, yet only four -men died. The snow thawed at last, and as patches of the black and oozy -soil began to appear, they saw the grain of their last autumn's sowing -already piercing the mould. The forced inaction of the winter was over. -The carpenters built a water-mill on the stream now called Allen's -River; others enclosed fields and laid out gardens; others, again, with -scoop-nets and baskets, caught the herrings and alewives as they ran -up the innumerable rivulets. The leaders of the colony set a contagious -example of activity. Poutrincourt forgot the prejudices of his noble -birth, and went himself into the woods to gather turpentine from the -pines, which he converted into tar by a process of his own invention; -while Lescarbot, eager to test the qualities of the soil, was again, hoe -in hand, at work all day in his garden. - -All seemed full of promise; but alas for the bright hope that kindled -the manly heart of Champlain and the earnest spirit of the vivacions -advocate! A sudden blight fell on them, and their rising prosperity -withered to the ground. On a morning, late in spring, as the French -were at breakfast, the ever watchful Membertou came in with news of -an approaching sail. They hastened to the shore; but the vision of the -centenarian sagamore put them all to shame. They could see nothing. At -length their doubts were resolved. A small vessel stood on towards them, -and anchored before the fort. She was commanded by one Chevalier, a -young man from St. Malo, and was freighted with disastrous tidings. Dc -Monts's monopoly was rescinded. The life of the enterprise was stopped, -and the establishment at Port Royal could no longer be supported; for -its expense was great, the body of the colony being laborers in the pay -of the company. Nor was the annulling of the patent the full extent of -the disaster; for, during the last summer, the Dutch had found their -way to the St. Lawrence, and carried away a rich harvest of furs, while -other interloping traders had plied a busy traffic along the coasts, -and, in the excess of their avidity, dug up the bodies of buried Indians -to rob them of their funeral robes. - -It was to the merchants and fishermen of the Norman, Breton, and -Biscayan ports, exasperated at their exclusion from a lucrative trade, -and at the confiscations which had sometimes followed their attempts to -engage in it, that this sudden blow was due. Money had been used freely -at court, and the monopoly, unjustly granted, had been more unjustly -withdrawn. De Monts and his company, who had spent a hundred thousand -livres, were allowed six thousand in requital, to be collected, if -possible, from the fur-traders in the form of a tax. - -Chevalier, captain of the ill-omened bark, was entertained with a -hospitality little deserved, since, having been intrusted with sundry -hams, fruits, spices, sweetmeats, jellies, and other dainties, sent by -the generous De Monts to his friends of New France, he with his crew had -devoured them on the voyage, alleging that, in their belief, the inmates -of Port Royal would all be dead before their arrival. - -Choice there was none, and Port Royal must be abandoned. Built on a -false basis, sustained only by the fleeting favor of a government, the -generous enterprise had come to naught. Yet Poutrincourt, who in virtue -of his grant from De Monts owned the place, bravely resolved that, come -what might, he would see the adventure to an end, even should it involve -emigration with his family to the wilderness. Meanwhile, he began the -dreary task of abandonment, sending boat-loads of men and stores to -Canseau, where lay the ship "Jonas," eking out her diminished profits by -fishing for cod. - -Membertou was full of grief at the departure of his friends. He had -built a palisaded village not far from Port Royal, and here were -mustered some four hundred of his warriors for a foray into the country -of the Armouchiquois, dwellers along the coasts of Massachusetts, New -Hampshire, and Western Maine. One of his tribesmen had been killed by -a chief from the Saco, and he was bent on revenge. He proved himself a -sturdy beggar, pursuing Pontrincourt with daily petitions,--now for a -bushel of beans, now for a basket of bread, and now for a barrel of wine -to regale his greasy crew. Memberton's long life had not been one of -repose. In deeds of blood and treachery he had no rival in the Acadian -forest; and, as his old age was beset with enemies, his alliance with -the French had a foundation of policy no less than of affection. In -right of his rank of Sagamore, he claimed perfect equality both with -Poutrincourt and with the King, laying his shrivelled forefingers -together in token of friendship between peers. Calumny did not spare -him; and a rival chief intimated to the French, that, under cover of -a war with the Armouchiquois, the crafty veteran meant to seize and -plunder Port Royal. Precautions, therefore, were taken; but they were -seemingly needless; for, their feasts and dances over, the warriors -launched their birchen flotilla and set out. After an absence of six -weeks they reappeared with howls of victory, and their exploits were -commemorated in French verse by the muse of the indefatigable Lescarbot. - -With a heavy heart the advocate bade farewell to the dwellings, the -cornfields, the gardens, and all the dawning prosperity of Port Royal, -and sailed for Canseau in a small vessel on the thirtieth of July. -Pontrincourt and Champlain remained behind, for the former was resolved -to learn before his departure the results of his agricultural labors. -Reaching a harbor on the southern coast of Nova Scotia, six leagues west -of Cansean, Lescarbot found a fishing-vessel commanded and owned by -an old Basque, named Savalet, who for forty-two successive years had -carried to France his annual cargo of codfish. He was in great glee -at the success of his present venture, reckoning his profits at ten -thousand francs. The Indians, however, annoyed him beyond measure, -boarding him from their canoes as his fishing-boats came alongside, and -helping themselves at will to his halibut and cod. At Cansean--a harbor -near the strait now bearing the name--the ship Jonas still lay, her -hold well stored with fish; and here, on the twenty-seventh of August, -Lescarbot was rejoined by Poutrincourt and Champlain, who had come from -Port Royal in an open boat. For a few days, they amused themselves with -gathering raspberries on the islands; then they spread their sails for -France, and early in October, 1607, anchored in the harbor of St. Malo. - -First of Europeans, they had essayed to found an agricultural colony in -the New World. The leaders of the enterprise had acted less as merchants -than as citizens; and the fur-trading monopoly, odious in itself, had -been used as the instrument of a large and generous design. There was a -radical defect, however, in their scheme of settlement. Excepting a -few of the leaders, those engaged in it had not chosen a home in the -wilderness of New France, but were mere hirelings, without wives or -families, and careless of the welfare of the colony. The life which -should have pervaded all the members was confined to the heads alone. In -one respect, however, the enterprise of De Monts was truer in principle -than the Roman Catholic colonization of Canada, on the one hand, or -the Puritan colonization of Massachusetts, on the other, for it did not -attempt to enforce religions exclusion. - -Towards the fickle and bloodthirsty race who claimed the lordship of the -forests, these colonists, excepting only in the treacherous slaughter -at Port Fortune, bore themselves in a spirit of kindness contrasting -brightly with the rapacious cruelty of the Spaniards and the harshness -of the English settlers. When the last boat-load left Port Royal, -the shore resounded with lamentation; and nothing could console the -afflicted savages but reiterated promises of a speedy return. - - - - - -CHAPTER V. - -1610, 1611. - -THE JESUITS AND THEIR PATRONESS. - -Poutrincourt, we have seen, owned Port Royal in virtue of a grant from -De Monts. The ardent and adventurous baron was in evil case, involved -in litigation and low in purse; but nothing could damp his zeal. Acadia -must become a new France, and he, Poutrincourt, must be its father. He -gained from the King a confirmation of his grant, and, to supply the -lack of his own weakened resources, associated with himself one Robin, -a man of family and wealth. This did not save him from a host of delays -and vexations; and it was not until the spring of 1610 that he found -himself in a condition to embark on his new and doubtful venture. - -Meanwhile an influence, of sinister omen as he thought, had begun to act -upon his schemes. The Jesuits were strong at court. One of their number, -the famous Father Coton, was confessor to Henry the Fourth, and, on -matters of this world as of the next, was ever whispering at the facile -ear of the renegade King. New France offered a fresh field of action -to the indefatigable Society of Jesus, and Coton urged upon the royal -convert, that, for the saving of souls, some of its members should be -attached to the proposed enterprise. The King, profoundly indifferent in -matters of religion, saw no evil in a proposal which at least promised -to place the Atlantic betwixt him and some of those busy friends whom -at heart he deeply mistrusted. Other influences, too, seconded the -confessor. Devout ladies of the court, and the Queen herself, supplying -the lack of virtue with an overflowing piety, burned, we are assured, -with a holy zeal for snatching the tribes of the West from the bondage -of Satan. Therefore it was insisted that the projected colony should -combine the spiritual with the temporal character,--or, in other words, -that Poutrincourt should take Jesuits with him. Pierre Biard, Professor -of Theology at Lyons, was named for the mission, and repaired in haste -to Bordeaux, the port of embarkation, where he found no vessel, and no -sign of preparation; and here, in wrath and discomfiture, he remained -for a whole year. - -That Poutrincourt was a good Catholic appears from a letter to the -Pope, written for him in Latin by Lescarbot, asking a blessing on his -enterprise, and assuring his Holiness that one of his grand objects was -the saving of souls. But, like other good citizens, he belonged to the -national party in the Church, those liberal Catholics, who, side by side -with the Huguenots, had made head against the League, with its Spanish -allies, and placed Henry the Fourth upon the throne. The Jesuits, an -order Spanish in origin and policy, determined champions of ultramontane -principles, the sword and shield of the Papacy in its broadest -pretensions to spiritual and temporal sway, were to him, as to others of -his party, objects of deep dislike and distrust. He feared them in his -colony, evaded what he dared not refuse, left Biarci waiting in solitude -at Bordeax, and sought to postpone the evil day by assuring Father -Coton that, though Port Royal was at present in no state to receive the -missionaries, preparation should be made to entertain them the next year -after a befitting fashion. - -Poutrincourt owned the barony of St. Just in Champagne, inherited a few -years before from his mother. Hence, early in February, 1610, he set out -in a boat loaded to the gunwales with provisions, furniture, goods, -and munitions for Port Royal, descended the rivers Aube and Seine, and -reached Dieppe safely with his charge. Here his ship was awaiting him; -and on the twenty-sixth of February he set sail, giving the slip to the -indignant Jesuit at Bordeaux. - -The tedium of a long passage was unpleasantly broken by a mutiny among -the crew. It was suppressed, however, and Poutrincourt entered at length -the familiar basin of Port Royal. The buildings were still standing, -whole and sound save a partial falling in of the roofs. Even furniture -was found untouched in the deserted chambers. The centenarian Membertou -was still alive, his leathern, wrinkled visage beaming with welcome. - -Pontrincourt set himself without delay to the task of Christianizing New -France, in an access of zeal which his desire of proving that Jesuit -aid was superfluous may be supposed largely to have reinforced. He had a -priest with him, one La Fleche, whom he urged to the pious work. No -time was lost. Membertou first was catechised, confessed his sins, and -renounced the Devil, whom we are told he had faithfully served during a -hundred and ten years. His squaws, his children, his grandchildren, and -his entire clan were next won over. It was in June, the day of St. -John the Baptist, when the naked proselytes, twenty-one in number, -were gathered on the shore at Port Royal. Here was the priest in the -vestments of his office; here were gentlemen in gay attire, soldiers, -laborers, lackeys, all the infant colony. The converts kneeled; the -sacred rite was finished, Te Deum was sung, and the roar of cannon -proclaimed this triumph over the powers of darkness. Membertou was named -Henri, after the King; his principal squaw, Marie, after the Queen. One -of his sons received the name of the Pope, another that of the Dauphin; -his daughter was called Marguerite, after the divorced Marguerite de -Valois, and, in like manner, the rest of the squalid company exchanged -their barbaric appellatives for the names of princes, nobles, and ladies -of rank. - -The fame of this chef-d'aeuvre of Christian piety, as Lescarbot -gravely calls it, spread far and wide through the forest, whose -denizens,--partly out of a notion that the rite would bring good luck, -partly to please the French, and partly to share in the good cheer with -which the apostolic efforts of Father La Fleche had been sagaciously -seconded--came flocking to enroll themselves under the banners of the -Faith. Their zeal ran high. They would take no refusal. Membertou was -for war on all who would not turn Christian. A living skeleton was seen -crawling from hut to hut in search of the priest and his saving waters; -while another neophyte, at the point of death, asked anxiously whether, -in the realms of bliss to which he was bound, pies were to be had -comparable to those with which the French regaled him. - -A formal register of baptisms was drawn up to be carried to France in -the returning ship, of which Pontrincourt's son, Biencourt, a spirited -youth of eighteen, was to take charge. He sailed in July, his father -keeping him company as far as Port la Have, whence, bidding the young -man farewell, he attempted to return in an open boat to Port Royal. A -north wind blew him out to sea; and for six days he was out of sight of -land, subsisting on rain-water wrung from the boat's sail, and on a few -wild-fowl which he had shot on an island. Five weeks passed before he -could rejoin his colonists, who, despairing of his safety, were about to -choose a new chief. - -Meanwhile, young Biencourt, speeding on his way, heard dire news from a -fisherman on the Grand Bank. The knife of Ravaillac had done its work. -Henry the Fourth was dead. - -There is an ancient street in Paris, where a great thoroughfare -contracts to a narrow pass, the Rue de la Ferronnerie. Tall buildings -overshadow it, packed from pavement to tiles with human life, and from -the dingy front of one of them the sculptured head of a man looks down -on the throng that ceaselessly defiles beneath. On the fourteenth of -May, 1610, a ponderous coach, studded with fleurs-de-lis and rich with -gilding, rolled along this street. In it was a small man, well advanced -in life, whose profile once seen could not be forgotten,--a hooked nose, -a protruding chin, a brow full of wrinkles, grizzled hair, a short, -grizzled beard, and stiff, gray moustaches, bristling like a cat's. -One would have thought him some whiskered satyr, grim from the rack of -tumultuous years; but his alert, upright port bespoke unshaken vigor, -and his clear eye was full of buoyant life. Following on the footway -strode a tall, strong, and somewhat corpulent man, with sinister, -deep-set eyes and a red beard, his arm and shoulder covered with his -cloak. In the throat of the thoroughfare, where the sculptured image of -Henry the Fourth still guards the spot, a collision of two carts stopped -the coach. Ravaillac quickened his pace. In an instant he was at the -door. With his cloak dropped from his shoulders, and a long knife in his -hand, he set his foot upon a guardstone, thrust his head and shoulders -into the coach, and with frantic force stabbed thrice at the King's -heart. A broken exclamation, a gasping convulsion,--and then the grim -visage drooped on the bleeding breast. Henry breathed his last, and the -hope of Europe died with him. - -The omens were sinister for Old France and for New. Marie de Medicis, -"cette grosse banquiere," coarse scion of a bad stock, false wife -and faithless queen, paramour of an intriguing foreigner, tool of the -Jesuits and of Spain, was Regent in the minority of her imbecile son. -The Huguenots drooped, the national party collapsed, the vigorous hand -of Sully was felt no more, and the treasure gathered for a vast and -beneficent enterprise became the instrument of despotism and the prey -of corruption. Under such dark auspices, young Biencourt entered the -thronged chambers of the Louvre. - -He gained audience of the Queen, and displayed his list of baptisms; -while the ever present Jesuits failed not to seize him by the button, -assuring him, not only that the late King had deeply at heart the -establishment of their Society in Acadia, but that to this end he had -made them a grant of two thousand livres a year. The Jesuits had found -an ally and the intended mission a friend at court, whose story and -whose character are too striking to pass unnoticed. - -This was a lady of honor to the Queen, Antoinette de Pons, Marquise -de Guercheville, once renowned for grace and beauty, and not less -conspicuous for qualities rare in the unbridled court of Henry's -predecessor, where her youth had been passed. When the civil war was at -its height, the royal heart, leaping with insatiable restlessness from -battle to battle, from mistress to mistress, had found a brief repose -in the affections of his Corisande, famed in tradition and romance; -but Corisande was suddenly abandoned, and the young widow, Madame de -Guercheville, became the load-star of his erratic fancy. It was an evil -hour for the Bearnais. Henry sheathed in rusty steel, battling for his -crown and his life, and Henry robed in royalty and throned triumphant in -the Louvre, alike urged their suit in vain. Unused to defeat, the King's -passion rose higher for the obstacle that barred it. On one occasion he -was met with an answer not unworthy of record:-- - -"Sire, my rank, perhaps, is not high enough to permit me to be your -wife, but my heart is too high to permit me to be your mistress." - -She left the court and retired to her chateau of La Roche-Guyon, on the -Seine, ten leagues below Paris, where, fond of magnificence, she is -said to have lived in much expense and splendor. The indefatigable King, -haunted by her memory, made a hunting-party in the neighboring forests; -and, as evening drew near, separating himself from his courtiers, he -sent a gentleman of his train to ask of Madame de Guercheville the -shelter of her roof. The reply conveyed a dutiful acknowledgment of the -honor, and an offer of the best entertainment within her power. It -was night when Henry with his little band of horsemen, approached the -chateau, where lights were burning in every window, after a fashion of -the day on occasions of welcome to an honored guest. Pages stood in the -gateway, each with a blazing torch; and here, too, were gentlemen of the -neighborhood, gathered to greet their sovereign. Madame de Guercheville -came forth, followed by the women of her household; and when the King, -unprepared for so benign a welcome, giddy with love and hope, saw her -radiant in pearls and more radiant yet in a beauty enhanced by the wavy -torchlight and the surrounding shadows, he scarcely dared trust his -senses:-- - -"Que vois-je, madame; est-ce bien vous, et suis-je ce roi meprise?" - -He gave her his hand, and she led him within the chateau, where, at the -door of the apartment destined for him, she left him, with a graceful -reverence. The King, nowise disconcerted, did not doubt that she had -gone to give orders for his entertainment, when an attendant came to -tell him that she had descended to the courtyard and called for her -coach. Thither he hastened in alarm: - -"What! am I driving you from your house?" - -"Sire," replied Madame de Guercheville, "where a king is, he should -be the sole master; but, for my part, I like to preserve some little -authority wherever I may be." - -With another deep reverence, she entered her coach and disappeared, -seeking shelter under the roof of a friend, some two leagues off, and -leaving the baffled King to such consolation as he might find in a -magnificent repast, bereft of the presence of the hostess. - -Henry could admire the virtue which he could not vanquish; and, long -after, on his marriage, he acknowledged his sense of her worth by -begging her to accept an honorable post near the person of the Queen. - -"Madame," he said, presenting her to Marie de Medicis, "I give you a -lady of honor who is a lady of honor indeed." - -Some twenty years had passed since the adventure of La Roche-Guyon. -Madame de Guercheville had outlived the charms which had attracted her -royal suitor, but the virtue which repelled him was reinforced by a -devotion no less uncompromising. A rosary in her hand and a Jesuit at -her side, she realized the utmost wishes of the subtle fathers who had -moulded and who guided her. She readily took fire when they told her -of the benighted souls of New France, and the wrongs of Father Biard -kindled her utmost indignation. She declared herself the protectress of -the American missions; and the only difficulty, as a Jesuit writer tells -us, was to restrain her zeal within reasonable bounds. - -She had two illustrious coadjutors. The first was the jealous Queen, -whose unbridled rage and vulgar clamor had made the Louvre a hell. The -second was Henriette d'Entragues, Marquise de Vernenil, the crafty -and capricious siren who had awakened these conjugal tempests. To this -singular coalition were joined many other ladies of the court; for the -pious flame, fanned by the Jesuits, spread through hall and boudoir, and -fair votaries of the Loves and Graces found it a more grateful task to -win heaven for the heathen than to merit it for themselves. - -Young Biencourt saw it vain to resist. Biard must go with him in the -returning ship, and also another Jesuit, Enemond Masse. The two fathers -repaired to Dieppe, wafted on the wind of court favor, which they -never doubted would bear them to their journey s end. Not so, however. -Poutrincourt and his associates, in the dearth of their own resources, -had bargained with two Huguenot merchants of Dieppe, Du Jardin and Du -Quesne, to equip and load the vessel, in consideration of their becoming -partners in the expected profits. Their indignation was extreme when -they saw the intended passengers. They declared that they would not aid -in building up a colony for the profit of the King of Spain, nor risk -their money in a venture where Jesuits were allowed to intermeddle; and -they closed with a fiat refusal to receive them on board, unless, they -added with patriotic sarcasm, the Queen would direct them to transport -the whole order beyond sea. Biard and Masse insisted, on which the -merchants demanded reimbursement for their outlay, as they would have no -further concern in the business. - -Biard communicated with Father Coton, Father Coton with Madame -de Guercheville. No more was needed. The zealous lady of honor, -"indignant," says Biard, "to see the efforts of hell prevail," and -resolved "that Satan should not remain master of the field," set on foot -a subscription, and raised an ample fund within the precincts of the -court. Biard, in the name of the "Province of France of the Order of -Jesus," bought out the interest of the two merchants for thirty-eight -hundred livres, thus constituting the Jesuits equal partners in business -with their enemies. Nor was this all; for, out of the ample proceeds of -the subscription, he lent to the needy associates a further sum of -seven hundred and thirty-seven livres, and advanced twelve hundred and -twenty-five more to complete the outfit of the ship. Well pleased, the -triumphant priests now embarked, and friend and foe set sail together on -the twenty-sixth of January, 1611. - - - - -CHAPTER VI. - -1611, 1612. - -JESUITS IN ACADIA. - - -The voyage was one of inordinate length,--beset, too, with icebergs, -larger and taller, according to the Jesuit voyagers, than the Church of -Notre Dame; but on the day of Pentecost their ship, "The Grace of God," -anchored before Port Royal. Then first were seen in the wilderness of -New France the close black cap, the close black robe, of the Jesuit -father, and the features seamed with study and thought and discipline. -Then first did this mighty Proteus, this many-colored Society of Jesus, -enter upon that rude field of toil and woe, where, in after years, the -devoted zeal of its apostles was to lend dignity to their order and do -honor to humanity. - -Few were the regions of the known world to which the potent brotherhood -had not stretched the vast network of its influence. Jesuits had -disputed in theology with the bonzes of Japan, and taught astronomy to -the mandarins of China; had wrought prodigies of sudden conversion among -the followers of Bralinra, preached the papal supremacy to Abyssinian -schismatics, carried the cross among the savages of Caffraria, wrought -reputed miracles in Brazil, and gathered the tribes of Paraguay beneath -their paternal sway. And now, with the aid of the Virgin and her votary -at court, they would build another empire among the tribes of New -France. The omens were sinister and the outset was unpropitious. The -Society was destined to reap few laurels from the brief apostleship of -Biard and Masse. - -When the voyagers landed, they found at Port Royal a band of -half-famished men, eagerly expecting their succor. The voyage of four -months had, however, nearly exhausted their own very moderate stock of -provisions, and the mutual congratulations of the old colonists and the -new were damped by a vision of starvation. A friction, too, speedily -declared itself between the spiritual and the temporal powers. -Pontgrave's son, then trading on the coast, had exasperated the -Indians by an outrage on one of their women, and, dreading the wrath -of Poutrincourt, had fled to the woods. Biard saw fit to take his part, -remonstrated for him with vehemence, gained his pardon, received his -confession, and absolved him. The Jesuit says that he was treated with -great consideration by Poutrincourt, and that he should be forever -beholden to him. The latter, however, chafed at Biard's interference. - -"Father," he said, "I know my duty, and I beg you will leave me to do -it. I, with my sword, have hopes of paradise, as well as you with your -breviary. Show me my path to heaven. I will show you yours on earth." - -He soon set sail for France, leaving his son Biencourt in charge. This -hardy young sailor, of ability and character beyond his years, had, on -his visit to court, received the post of Vice-Admiral in the seas of -New France, and in this capacity had a certain authority over the -trading-vessels of St. Malo and Rochelle, several of which were upon the -coast. To compel the recognition of this authority, and also to purchase -provisions, he set out along with Biard in a boat filled with armed -followers. His first collision was with young Pontgrave, who with a -few men had built a trading-hut on the St. John, where he proposed -to winter. Meeting with resistance, Biencourt took the whole party -prisoners, in spite of the remonstrances of Biard. Next, proceeding -along the coast, he levied tribute on four or five traders wintering at -St. Croix, and, continuing his course to the Kennebec, found the -Indians of that region greatly enraged at the conduct of certain English -adventurers, who three or four years before had, as they said, set dogs -upon them and otherwise maltreated them. These were the colonists under -Popham and Gilbert, who in 1607 and 1608 made an abortive attempt to -settle near the mouth of the river. Nothing now was left of them but -their deserted fort. The neighboring Indians were Abenakis, one of the -tribes included by the French under the general name of Armouchiquois. -Their disposition was doubtful, and it needed all the coolness of young -Biencourt to avoid a fatal collision. On one occasion a curious incident -took place. The French met six canoes full of warriors descending the -Kennebec, and, as neither party trusted the other, the two encamped on -opposite banks of the river. In the evening the Indians began to sing -and dance. Biard suspected these proceedings to be an invocation of the -Devil, and "in order," he says, "to thwart this accursed tyrant, I made -our people sing a few church hymns, such as the Salve, the Ave Mans -Stella, and others. But being once in train, and getting to the end of -their spiritual songs, they fell to singing such others as they knew, -and when these gave out they took to mimicking the dancing and singing -of the Armouchiquois on the other side of the water; and as Frenchmen -are naturally good mimics, they did it so well that the Armouchiquols -stopped to listen; at which our people stopped too; and then the Indians -began again. You would have laughed to hear them, for they were like two -choirs answering each other in concert, and you would hardly have known -the real Armouchiquois from the sham ones." - -Before the capture of young Pontgrave, Biard made him a visit at his -camp, six leagues up the St. John. Pontgrave's men were sailors from -St. Malo, between whom and the other Frenchmen there was much ill blood, -Biard had hardly entered the river when he saw the evening sky crimsoned -with the dancing fires of a superb aurora borealis, and he and his -attendants marvelled what evil thing the prodigy might portend. Their -Indian companions said that it was a sign of war. In fact, the night -after they had joined Pontgrave a furious quarrel broke out in the -camp, with abundant shouting, gesticulating and swearing; and, says the -father, "I do not doubt that an accursed band of furious and sanguinary -spirits were hovering about us all night, expecting every moment to -see a horrible massacre of the few Christians in those parts; but the -goodness of God bridled their malice. No blood was shed, and on the next -day the squall ended in a fine calm." - -He did not like the Indians, whom he describes as "lazy, gluttonous, -irreligious, treacherous, cruel, and licentious." He makes an exception -in favor of Memberton, whom he calls "the greatest, most renowned, -and most redoubted savage that ever lived in the memory of man," and -especially commends him for contenting himself with but one wife, hardly -a superlative merit in a centenarian. Biard taught him to say the Lord's -Prayer, though at the petition, "Give us this clay our daily bread," the -chief remonstrated, saying, "If I ask for nothing but bread, I shall -get no fish or moose meat." His protracted career was now drawing to -a close, and, being brought to the settlement in a dying state, he -was placed in Biard's bed and attended by the two Jesuits. He was -as remarkable in person as in character, for he was bearded like a -Frenchman. Though, alone among La Fleche's converts, the Faith seemed to -have left some impression upon him, he insisted on being buried with -his heathen forefathers, but was persuaded to forego a wish fatal to his -salvation, and slept at last in consecrated ground. - -Another of the scanty fruits of the mission was a little girl on -the point of death, whom Biard had asked her parents to give him for -baptism. "Take her and keep her, if you like," was the reply, "for she -is no better than a dead dog." "We accepted the offer," says Biard, -"in order to show them the difference between Christianity and their -impiety; and after giving her what care we could, together with some -instruction, we baptized her. We named her after Madame the Marquise de -Guercheville, in gratitude for the benefits we have received from that -lady, who can now rejoice that her name is already in heaven; for, a few -days after baptism, the chosen soul flew to that place of glory." - -Biard's greatest difficulty was with the Micmac language. Young -Biencourt was his best interpreter, and on common occasions served him -well; but the moment that religion was in question he was, as it were, -stricken dumb,--the reason being that the language was totally without -abstract terms. Biard resolutely set himself to the study of it,--a hard -and thorny path, on which he made small progress, and often went astray. -Seated, pencil in hand, before some Indian squatting on the floor, whom -with the bribe of a mouldy biscuit he had lured into the hut, he plied -him with questions which he often neither would nor could answer. -What was the Indian word for Faith, Hope, Charity, Sacrament, Baptism, -Eucharist, Trinity, Incarnation? The perplexed savage, willing to -amuse himself, and impelled, as Biard thinks, by the Devil, gave him -scurrilous and unseemly phrases as the equivalent of things holy, which, -studiously incorporated into the father's Indian catechism, produced on -his pupils an effect the reverse of that intended. Biard's colleague, -Masse, was equally zealous, and still less fortunate. He tried a forest -life among the Indians 'with signal ill success. Hard fare, smoke, -filth, the scolding of squaws, and the cries of children reduced him to -a forlorn condition of body and mind, wore him to a skeleton, and sent -him back to Port Royal without a single convert. - -The dark months wore slowly on. A band of half-famished men gathered -about the huge fires of their barn-like hall, moody, sullen, and -quarrelsome. Discord was here in the black robe of the Jesuit and the -brown capote of the rival trader. The position of the wretched little -colony may well provoke reflection. Here lay the shaggy continent, from -Florida to the Pole, outstretched in savage slumber along the sea, the -stern domain of Nature,--or, to adopt the ready solution of the Jesuits, -a realm of the powers of night, blasted beneath the sceptre of hell. On -the banks of James River was a nest of woe-begone Englishmen, a handful -of Dutch fur-traders at the mouth of the Hudson, and a few shivering -Frenchmen among the snow-drifts of Acadia; while deep within the wild -monotony of desolation, on the icy verge of the great northern river, -the hand of Champlain upheld the fleur-de-lis on the rock of Quebec. -These were the advance guard, the forlorn hope of civilization, -messengers of promise to a desert continent. Yet, unconscious of their -high function, not content with inevitable woes, they were rent by petty -jealousies and miserable feuds; while each of these detached fragments -of rival nationalities, scarcely able to maintain its own wretched -existence on a few square miles, begrudged to the others the smallest -share in a domain which all the nations of Europe could hardly have -sufficed to fill. - -One evening, as the forlorn tenants of Port Royal sat together -disconsolate, Biard was seized with a spirit of prophecy. He called upon -Biencourt to serve out the little of wine that remained,--a proposal -which met with high favor from the company present, though apparently -with none from the youthful Vice-Admiral. The wine was ordered, however, -and, as an unwonted cheer ran round the circle, the Jesuit announced -that an inward voice told him how, within a month, they should see -a ship from France. In truth, they saw one within a week. On the -twentythird of January, 1612, arrived a small vessel laden with a -moderate store of provisions and abundant seeds of future strife. - -This was the expected succor sent by Poutrincourt. A series of ruinous -voyages had exhausted his resources but he had staked all on the success -of the colony, had even brought his family to Acadia, and he would not -leave them and his companions to perish. His credit was gone; his hopes -were dashed; yet assistance was proffered, and, in his extremity, he was -forced to accept it. It came from Madame de Guercheville and her Jesuit -advisers. She offered to buy the interest of a thousand crowns in the -enterprise. The ill-omened succor could not be refused; but this was -not all. The zealous protectress of the missions obtained from De Monts, -whose fortunes, like those of Poutrincouirt, had ebbed low, a transfer -of all his claims to the lands of Acadia; while the young King, Louis -the Thirteenth, was persuaded to give her, in addition, a new grant of -all the territory of North America, from the St. Lawrence to Florida. -Thus did Madame de Guercheville, or in other words, the Jesuits who -used her name as a cover, become proprietors of the greater part of -the future United States and British Provinces. The English colony of -Virginia and the Dutch trading-houses of New York were included within -the limits of this destined Northern Paraguay; while Port Royal, the -seigniory of the unfortunate Poutrincourt, was encompassed, like a -petty island, by the vast domain of the Society of Jesus. They could not -deprive him of it, since his title had been confirmed by the late King, -but they flattered themselves, to borrow their own language, that he -would be "confined as in a prison." His grant, however, had been vaguely -worded, and, while they held him restricted to an insignificant patch of -ground, he claimed lordship over a wide and indefinite territory. Here -was argument for endless strife. Other interests, too, were adverse. -Poutrincourt, in his discouragement, had abandoned his plan of liberal -colonization, and now thought of nothing but beaver-skins. He wished to -make a trading-post; the Jesuits wished to make a mission. - -When the vessel anchored before Port Royal, Biencourt, with disgust and -anger, saw another Jesuit landed at the pier. This was Gilbert du Thet, -a lay brother, versed in affairs of this world, who had come out -as representative and administrator of Madame de Guercheville. -Poutrincourt, also, had his agent on board; and, without the loss of a -day, the two began to quarrel. A truce ensued; then a smothered feud, -pervading the whole colony, and ending in a notable explosion. The -Jesuits, chafing under the sway of Biencourt, had withdrawn without -ceremony, and betaken themselves to the vessel, intending to sail for -France. Biencourt, exasperated at such a breach of discipline, and -fearing their representations at court, ordered them to return, adding -that, since the Queen had commended them to his especial care, he -could not, in conscience, lose sight of them. The indignant fathers -excommunicated him. On this, the sagamore Louis, son of the grisly -convert Membertou, begged leave to kill them; but Biencourt would not -countenance this summary mode of relieving his embarrassment. He again, -in the King's name, ordered the clerical mutineers to return to the -fort. Biard declared that he would not, threatened to excommunicate any -who should lay hand on him, and called the Vice-Admiral a robber. His -wrath, however, soon cooled; he yielded to necessity, and came quietly -ashore, where, for the next three months, neither he nor his colleagues -would say mass, or perform any office of religion. At length a change -came over him; he made advances of peace, prayed that the past might be -forgotten, said mass again, and closed with a petition that Brother du -Thet might be allowed to go to France in a trading vessel then on the -coast. His petition being granted, he wrote to Poutrincourt a letter -overflowing with praises of his son; and, charged with this missive, Du -Thet set sail. - - - - -CHAPTER VII. - -1613. - -LA SAUSSAYE.--ARGALL - - -Pending these squabbles, the Jesuits at home were far from idle. Bent -on ridding themselves of Poutrincourt, they seized, in satisfaction of -debts due them, all the cargo of his returning vessel, and involved him -in a network of litigation. If we accept his own statements in a -letter to his friend Lescarbot, he was outrageously misused, and indeed -defrauded, by his clerical copartners, who at length had him thrown into -prison. Here, exasperated, weary, sick of Acadia, and anxious for the -wretched exiles who looked to him for succor, the unfortunate man -fell ill. Regaining his liberty, he again addressed himself with what -strength remained to the forlorn task of sending relief to his son and -his comrades. - -Scarcely had Brother Gilbert du Thet arrived in France, when Madame de -Guercheville and her Jesuits, strong in court favor and in the charity -of wealthy penitents, prepared to take possession of their empire -beyond sea. Contributions were asked, and not in vain; for the sagacious -fathers, mindful of every spring of influence, had deeply studied the -mazes of feminine psychology, and then, as now, were favorite confessors -of the fair. It was on the twelfth of March, 1613, that the "Mayflower" -of the Jesuits sailed from Honfleur for the shores of New England. She -was the "Jonas," formerly in the service of De Monts, a small craft -bearing forty-eight sailors and colonists, including two Jesuits, Father -Quentin and Brother Du Thet. She carried horses, too, and goats, and was -abundantly stored with all things needful by the pious munificence -of her patrons. A courtier named La Saussaye was chief of the colony, -Captain Charles Fleury commanded the ship, and, as she winged her way -across the Atlantic, benedictions hovered over her from lordly halls and -perfumed chambers. - -On the sixteenth of May, La Saussaye touched at La Heve, where he -heard mass, planted a cross, and displayed the scutcheon of Madame de -Guercheville. Thence, passing on to Port Royal, he found Biard, Masse, -their servant-boy, an apothecary, and one man beside. Biencourt and -his followers were scattered about the woods and shores, digging the -tuberous roots called ground-nuts, catching alewives in the brooks, and -by similar expedients sustaining their miserable existence. Taking the -two Jesuits on board, the voyagers steered for the Penobscot. A fog rose -upon the sea. They sailed to and fro, groping their way in blindness, -straining their eyes through the mist, and trembling each instant lest -they should descry the black outline of some deadly reef and the ghostly -death-dance of the breakers, But Heaven heard their prayers. At night -they could see the stars. The sun rose resplendent on a laughing sea, -and his morning beams streamed fair and full on the wild heights of the -island of Mount Desert. They entered a bay that stretched inland between -iron-bound shores, and gave it the name of St. Sauveur. It is now called -Frenchman's Bay. They saw a coast-line of weather-beaten crags set thick -with spruce and fir, the surf-washed cliffs of Great Head and Schooner -Head, the rocky front of Newport Mountain, patched with ragged woods, -the arid domes of Dry Mountain and Green Mountain, the round bristly -backs of the Porcupine Islands, and the waving outline of the -Gouldsborough Hills. - -La Saussaye cast anchor not far from Schooner Head, and here he lay till -evening. The jet-black shade betwixt crags and sea, the pines along the -cliff, pencilled against the fiery sunset, the dreamy slumber of distant -mountains bathed in shadowy purples--such is the scene that in this our -day greets the wandering artist, the roving collegian bivouacked on the -shore, or the pilgrim from stifled cities renewing his laded strength -in the mighty life of Nature. Perhaps they then greeted the adventurous -Frenchmen. There was peace on the wilderness and peace on the sea; but -none in this missionary bark, pioneer of Christianity and civilization. -A rabble of angry sailors clamored on her deck, ready to mutiny over -the terms of their engagement. Should the time of their stay be reckoned -from their landing at La Heve, or from their anchoring at Mount Desert? -Fleury, the naval commander, took their part. Sailor, courtier, and -priest gave tongue together in vociferous debate. Poutrincourt was far -away, a ruined man, and the intractable Vice-Admiral had ceased from -troubling; yet not the less were the omens of the pious enterprise -sinister and dark. The company, however, went ashore, raised a cross, -and heard mass. - -At a distance in the woods they saw the signal smoke of Indians, whom -Biard lost no time in visiting. Some of them were from a village on the -shore, three leagues westward. They urged the French to go with them to -their wigwams. The astute savages had learned already how to deal with a -Jesuit. - -"Our great chief, Asticou, is there. He wishes for baptism. He is very -sick. He will die unbaptized. He will burn in hell, and it will be all -your fault." - -This was enough. Biard embarked in a canoe, and they paddied him to the -spot, where he found the great chief, Asticou, in his wigwam, with a -heavy cold in the head. Disappointed of his charitable purpose, the -priest consoled himself with observing the beauties of the neighboring -shore, which seemed to him better fitted than St. Sauveur for the -intended settlement. It was a gentle slope, descending to the water, -covered with tall grass, and backed by rocky hills. It looked southeast -upon a harbor where a fleet might ride at anchor, sheltered from the -gales by a cluster of islands. - -The ship was brought to the spot, and the colonists disembarked. First -they planted a cross; then they began their labors, and with their -labors their quarrels. La Saussaye, zealous for agriculture, wished to -break ground and raise crops immediately; the rest opposed him, wishing -first to be housed and fortified. Fleury demanded that the ship should -be unladen, and La Saussaye would not consent. Debate ran high, when -suddenly all was harmony, and the disputants were friends once more in -the pacification of a common danger. - -Far out at sea, beyond the islands that sheltered their harbor, they saw -an approaching sail; and as she drew near, straining their anxious eyes, -they could descry the red flags that streamed from her masthead and her -stern; then the black muzzles of her cannon,--they counted seven on -a side; then the throng of men upon her decks. The wind was brisk and -fair; all her sails were set; she came on, writes a spectator, more -swiftly than an arrow. - -Six years before, in 1607, the ships of Captain Newport had conveyed to -the banks of James River the first vital germ of English colonization -on the continent. Noble and wealthy speculators with Hispaniola, Mexico, -and Peru for their inspiration, had combined to gather the fancied -golden harvest of Virginia, received a charter from the Crown, and taken -possession of their El Dorado. From tavern, gaming-house, and brothel -was drawn the staple the colony,--ruined gentlemen, prodigal sons, -disreputable retainers, debauched tradesmen. Yet it would be foul -slander to affirm that the founders of Virginia were all of this stamp; -for among the riotous crew were men of worth, and, above them all, a -hero disguised by the homeliest of names. Again and again, in direst woe -and jeopardy, the infant settlement owed its life to the heart and hand -of John Smith. - -Several years had elapsed since Newport's voyage; and the colony, -depleted by famine, disease, and an Indian war, had been recruited by -fresh emigration, when one Samuel Argall arrived at Jamestown, captain -of an illicit trading-vessel. He was a man of ability and force,--one of -those compounds of craft and daring in which the age was fruitful; for -the rest, unscrupulous and grasping. In the spring of 1613 he achieved -a characteristic exploit,--the abduction of Pocahontas, that most -interesting of young squaws, or, to borrow the style of the day, of -Indian princesses. Sailing up the Potomac he lured her on board his -ship, and then carried off the benefactress of the colony a prisoner to -Jamestown. Here a young man of family, Rolfe, became enamoured of her, -married her with more than ordinary ceremony, and thus secured a firm -alliance between her tribesmen and the English. - -Meanwhile Argall had set forth on another enterprise. With a ship of one -hundred and thirty tons, carrying fourteen guns and sixty men, he sailed -in May for islands off the coast of Maine to fish, as he says for -cod. He had a more important errand; for Sir Thomas Dale, Governor of -Virginia, had commissioned him to expel the French from any settlement -they might have made within the limits of King James's patents. Thick -fogs involved him; and when the weather cleared he found himself not -far from the Bay of Penobscot. Canoes came out from shore; the Indians -climbed the ship's side, and, as they gained the deck, greeted the -astonished English with an odd pantomime of bows and flourishes, which, -in the belief of the latter, could have been learned from none but -Frenchmen. By signs, too, and by often repeating the word Norman,--by -which they always designated the French,--they betrayed the presence -of the latter. Argall questioned them as well as his total ignorance -of their language would permit, and learned, by signs, the position and -numbers of the colonists. Clearly they were no match for him. Assuring -the Indians that the Normans were his friends, and that he longed to -see them, he retained one of the visitors as a guide, dismissed the rest -with presents, and shaped his course for Mount Desert. - -Now the wild heights rose in view; now the English could see the masts -of a small ship anchored in the sound; and now, as they rounded the -islands, four white tents were visible on the grassy slope between -the water and the woods. They were a gift from the Queen to Madame de -Guercheville and her missionaries. Argall's men prepared for fight, -while their Indian guide, amazed, broke into a howl of lamentation. - -On shore all was confusion. Bailleul, the pilot, went to reconnoitre, -and ended by hiding among the islands. La Saussaye lost presence of -mind, and did nothing for defence. La Motte, his lieutenant, with -Captain Fleury, an ensign, a sergeant, the Jesuit Du Thet, and a few of -the bravest men, hastened on board the vessel, but had no time to cast -loose her cables. Argall bore down on them, with a furious din of drums -and trumpets, showed his broadside, and replied to their hail with a -volley of cannon and musket shot. "Fire! Fire!" screamed Fleury. But -there was no gunner to obey, till Du Thet seized and applied the match. -"The cannon made as much noise as the enemy's," writes Biard; but, as -the inexperienced artillerist forgot to aim the piece, no other result -ensued. Another storm of musketry, and Brother Gilbert du Thet rolled -helpless on the deck. - -The French ship was mute. The English plied her for a time with shot, -then lowered a boat and boarded. Under the awnings which covered her, -dead and wounded men lay strewn about her deck, and among them the brave -lay brother, smothering in his blood. He had his wish; for, on leaving -France, he had prayed with uplifted hands that he might not return, but -perish in that holy enterprise. Like the Order of which he was a humble -member, he was a compound of qualities in appearance contradictory. La -Motte, sword in hand, showed fight to the last, and won the esteem of -his captors. - -The English landed without meeting any show of resistance, and ranged at -will among the tents, the piles of baggage and stores, and the buildings -and defences newly begun. Argall asked for the commander, but La -Saussaye had fled to the woods. The crafty Englishman seized his chests, -caused the locks to be picked, searched till he found the royal letters -and commissions, withdrew them, replaced everything else as he had found -it, and again closed the lids. In the morning, La Saussaye, between the -English and starvation, preferred the former, and issued from his hiding -place. Argall received him with studious courtesy. That country, he -said, belonged to his master, King James. Doubtless they had authority -from their own sovereign for thus encroaching upon it; and, for his -part, he was prepared to yield all respect to the commissions of the -King of France, that the peace between the two nations might not be -disturbed. Therefore he prayed that the commissions might be shown to -him. La Saussaye opened his chests. The royal signature was nowhere to -be found. At this, Argall's courtesy was changed to wrath. He denounced -the Frenchmen as robbers and pirates who deserved the gallows, removed -their property on board his ship, and spent the afternoon in dividing -it among his followers, The disconsolate French remained on the scene -of their woes, where the greedy sailors as they came ashore would -snatch from them, now a cloak, now a hat, and now a doublet, till -the unfortunate colonists were left half naked. In other respects the -English treated their captives well,--except two of them, whom they -flogged; and Argall, whom Biard, after recounting his knavery, calls "a -gentleman of noble courage," having gained his point, returned to his -former courtesy. - -But how to dispose of the prisoners? Fifteen of them, including La -Saussaye and the Jesuit Masse, were turned adrift in an open boat, at -the mercy of the wilderness and the sea. Nearly all were lands-men; but -while their unpractised hands were struggling with the oars, they were -joined among the islands by the fugitive pilot and his boat's crew. Worn -and half starved, the united bands made their perilous way eastward, -stopping from time to time to hear mass, make a procession, or catch -codfish. Thus sustained in the spirit and in the flesh, cheered too by -the Indians, who proved fast friends in need, they crossed the Bay -of Fundy, doubled Cape Sable, and followed the southern coast of Nova -Scotia, till they happily fell in with two French trading-vessels, which -bore them in safety to St. Malo. - - - - - -CHAPTER VIII. - -1613-1615. - -RUIN OF FRENCH ACADIA. - - -"Praised be God, behold two thirds of our company safe in France, -telling their strange adventures to their relatives and friends. And now -you will wish to know what befell the rest of us." Thus writes Father -Biard, who with his companions in misfortune, fourteen in all, prisoners -on board Argall's ship and the prize, were borne captive to Virginia. -Old Point Comfort was reached at length, the site of Fortress Monroe; -Hampton Roads, renowned in our day for the sea-fight of the Titans; -Sewell's Point; the Rip Raps; Newport News,--all household words in the -ears of this generation. Now, far on their right, buried in the damp -shade of immemorial verdure, lay, untrodden and voiceless, the fields -where stretched the leaguering lines of Washington where the lilies of -France floated beside the banners of the new-born republic, and where -in later years embattled treason confronted the manhood of an outraged -nation. And now before them they could descry the mast of small craft -at anchor, a cluster of rude dwellings fresh from the axe, scattered -tenements, and fields green with tobacco. - -Throughout the voyage the prisoners had been soothed with flattering -tales of the benignity of the Governor of Virginia, Sir Thomas Dale; -of his love of the French, and his respect for the memory of Henry the -Fourth, to whom, they were told, he was much beholden for countenance -and favor. On their landing at Jamestown, this consoling picture -was reversed. The Governor fumed and blustered, talked of halter and -gallows, and declared that he would hang them all. In vain Argall -remonstrated, urging that he had pledged his word for their lives. -Dale, outraged by their invasion of British territory, was deaf to -all appeals; till Argall, driven to extremity, displayed the stolen -commissions, and proclaimed his stratagem, of which the French -themselves had to that moment been ignorant. As they were accredited by -their government, their lives at least were safe. Yet the wrath of -Sir Thomas Dale still burned high. He summoned his council, and they -resolved promptly to wipe off all stain of French intrusion from shores -which King James claimed as his own. - -Their action was utterly unauthorized. The two kingdoms were at peace. -James the First, by the patents of 1606, had granted all North America, -from the thirty-fourth to the forty-fifth degree of latitude, to the -two companies of London and Plymouth,--Virginia being assigned to the -former, while to the latter were given Maine and Acadia, with adjacent -regions. Over these, though as yet the claimants had not taken -possession of them, the authorities of Virginia had no color of -jurisdiction. England claimed all North America, in virtue of the -discovery of Cabot; and Sir Thomas Dale became the self-constituted -champion of British rights, not the less zealous that his championship -promised a harvest of booty. - -Argall's ship, the captured ship of La Saussaye, and another smaller -vessel, were at once equipped and despatched on their errand of havoc. -Argall commanded; and Biard, with Quentin and several others of the -prisoners, were embarked with him. They shaped their course first -for Mount Desert. Here they landed, levelled La Saussaye's unfinished -defences, cut down the French cross, and planted one of their own in its -place. Next they sought out the island of St. Croix, seized a quantity -of salt, and razed to the ground all that remained of the dilapidated -buildings of De Monts. They crossed the Bay of Fundy to Port Royal, -guided, says Biard, by an Indian chief,--an improbable assertion, since -the natives of these coasts hated the English as much as they loved the -French, and now well knew the designs of the former. The unfortunate -settlement was tenantless. Biencourt, with some of his men, was on a -visit to neighboring bands of Indians, while the rest were reaping -in the fields on the river, two leagues above the fort. Succor from -Poutrincourt had arrived during the summer. The magazines were by no -means empty, and there were cattle, horses, and hogs in adjacent fields -and enclosures. Exulting at their good fortune, Argall's men butchered -or carried off the animals, ransacked the buildings, plundered them even -to the locks and bolts of the doors, and then laid the whole in ashes; -"and may it please the Lord," adds the pious Biard, "that the sins -therein committed may likewise have been consumed in that burning." - -Having demolished Port Royal, the marauders went in boats up the river -to the fields where the reapers were at work. These fled, and took -refuge behind the ridge of a hill, whence they gazed helplessly on the -destruction of their harvest. Biard approached them, and, according to -the declaration of Poutrincourt made and attested before the Admiralty -of Guienne, tried to persuade them to desert his son, Biencourt, and -take service with Argall. The reply of one of the men gave little -encouragement for further parley:-- - - "Begone, or I will split your head with this hatchet." - -There is flat contradiction here between the narrative of the Jesuit and -the accounts of Poutrincourt and contemporary English writers, who -agree in affirming that Biard, "out of indigestible malice that he had -conceived against Biencourt," encouraged the attack on the settlements -of St. Croix and Port Royal, and guided the English thither. The priest -himself admits that both French and English regarded him as a traitor, -and that his life was in danger. While Argall's ship was at anchor, a -Frenchman shouted to the English from a distance that they would do well -to kill him. The master of the ship, a Puritan, in his abomination -of priests, and above all of Jesuits, was at the same time urging -his commander to set Biard ashore and leave him to the mercy of his -countrymen. In this pass he was saved, to adopt his own account, by what -he calls his simplicity; for he tells us, that, while--instigated, like -the rest of his enemies, by the Devil--the robber and the robbed were -joining hands to ruin him, he was on his knees before Argall, begging -him to take pity on the French, and leave them a boat, together with -provisions to sustain their miserable lives through the winter. This -spectacle of charity, he further says, so moved the noble heart of the -commander, that he closed his ears to all the promptings of foreign and -domestic malice. - -The English had scarcely re-embarked, when Biencourt arrived with his -followers, and beheld the scene of destruction. Hopelessly outnumbered, -he tried to lure Argall and some of his officers into an ambuscade, but -they would not be entrapped. Biencourt now asked for an interview. The -word of honor was mutually given, and the two chiefs met in a meadow not -far from the demolished dwellings. An anonymous English writer says that -Biencourt offered to transfer his allegiance to King James, on condition -of being permitted to remain at Port Royal and carry on the fur-trade -under a guaranty of English protection, but that Argall would not listen -to his overtures. The interview proved a stormy one. Biard says that the -Frenchmen vomited against him every species of malignant abuse. "In the -mean time," he adds, "you will considerately observe to what madness the -evil spirit exciteth those who sell themselves to him." - -According to Pontrincourt, Argall admitted that the priest had urged -him to attack Port Royal. Certain it is that Biencourt demanded his -surrender, frankly declaring that he meant to hang him. "Whilest they -were discoursing together," says the old English writer above mentioned, -"one of the savages, rushing suddenly forth from the Woods, and -licentiated to come neere, did after his manner, with such broken French -as he had, earnestly mediate a peace, wondring why they that seemed to -be of one Country should vse others with such hostilitie, and that with -such a forme of habit and gesture as made them both to laugh." - -His work done, and, as he thought, the French settlements of Acadia -effectually blotted out, Argall set sail for Virginia on the thirteenth -of November. Scarcely was he at sea when a storm scattered the vessels. -Of the smallest of the three nothing was ever heard. Argall, severely -buffeted, reached his port in safety, having first, it is said, -compelled the Dutch at Manhattan to acknowledge for a time the -sovereignty of King James. The captured ship of La Saussaye, with Biard -and his colleague Quentin on board, was forced to yield to the fury of -the western gales and bear away for the Azores. To Biard the change -of destination was not unwelcome. He stood in fear of the truculent -Governor of Virginia, and his tempest-rocked slumbers were haunted with -unpleasant visions of a rope's end. It seems that some of the French at -Port Royal, disappointed in their hope of hanging him, had commended -him to Sir Thomas Dale as a proper subject for the gallows drawing up -a paper, signed by six of them, and containing allegations of a nature -well fitted to kindle the wrath of that vehement official. The vessel -was commanded by Turnel, Argall's lieutenant, apparently an officer of -merit, a scholar and linguist. He had treated his prisoner with great -kindness, because, says the latter, "he esteemed and loved him for -his naive simplicity and ingenuous candor." But of late, thinking -his kindness misplaced, he had changed it for an extreme coldness, -preferring, in the words of Biard himself, "to think that the Jesuit had -lied, rather than so many who accused him." - -Water ran low, provisions began to fail, and they eked out their meagre -supply by butchering the horses taken at Port Royal. At length they came -within sight of Fayal, when a new terror seized the minds of the two -Jesuits. Might not the Englishmen fear that their prisoners would -denounce them to the fervent Catholics of that island as pirates and -sacrilegious kidnappers of priests? From such hazard the escape was -obvious. What more simple than to drop the priests into the sea? In -truth, the English had no little dread of the results of conference -between the Jesuits and the Portuguese authorities of Fayal; but -the conscience or humanity of Turnel revolted at the expedient which -awakened such apprehension in the troubled mind of Biard. He contented -himself with requiring that the two priests should remain hidden while -the ship lay off the port: Biard does not say that he enforced the -demand either by threats or by the imposition of oaths. He and his -companion, however, rigidly complied with it, lying close in the hold or -under the boats, while suspicious officials searched the ship, a proof, -he triumphantly declares, of the audacious malice which has asserted it -as a tenet of Rome that no faith need be kept with heretics. - -Once more at sea, Turnel shaped his course for home, having, with some -difficulty, gained a supply of water and provisions at Fayal. All was -now harmony between him and his prisoners. When he reached Pembroke, -in Wales, the appearance of the vessel--a French craft in English -hands--again drew upon him the suspicion of piracy. The Jesuits, -dangerous witnesses among the Catholics of Fayal, could at the worst do -little harm with the Vice-Admiral at Pembroke. To him, therefore, he led -the prisoners, in the sable garb of their order, now much the worse for -wear, and commended them as persons without reproach, "wherein," adds -the modest father, "he spoke the truth." The result of their evidence -was, we are told, that Turnel was henceforth treated, not as a pirate, -but, according to his deserts, as an honorable gentleman. This interview -led to a meeting with certain dignitaries of the Anglican Church, -who, much interested in an encounter with Jesuits in their robes, were -filled, says Biard, with wonder and admiration at what they were told -of their conduct. He explains that these churchmen differ widely in -form and doctrine from the English Calvinists, who, he says, are called -Puritans; and he adds that they are superior in every respect to these, -whom they detest as an execrable pest. - -Biard was sent to Dover and thence to Calais, returning, perhaps, to -the tranquil honors of his chair of theology at Lyons. La Saussaye, -La Motte, Fleury, and other prisoners were at various times sent from -Virginia to England, and ultimately to France. Madame de Guercheville, -her pious designs crushed in the bud, seems to have gained no further -satisfaction than the restoration of the vessel. The French ambassador -complained of the outrage, but answer was postponed; and, in the -troubled state of France, the matter appears to have been dropped. - -Argall, whose violent and crafty character was offset by a gallant -bearing and various traits of martial virtue, became Deputy-Governor -of Virginia, and, under a military code, ruled the colony with a rod of -iron. He enforced the observance of Sunday with an edifying rigor. -Those who absented themselves from church were, for the first offence, -imprisoned for the night, and reduced to slavery for a week; for the -second offence, enslaved a month and for the third, a year. Nor was -he less strenuous in his devotion to mammon. He enriched himself by -extortion and wholesale peculation; and his audacious dexterity, aided -by the countenance of the Earl of Warwick, who is said to have had a -trading connection with him, thwarted all the efforts of the company -to bring him to account. In 1623, he was knighted by the hand of King -James. - -Early in the spring following the English attack, Pontrincourt came to -Port Royal. He found the place in ashes, and his unfortunate son, with -the men under his command, wandering houseless in the forests. They had -passed a winter of extreme misery, sustaining their wretched existence -with roots, the buds of trees, and lichens peeled from the rocks. - -Despairing of his enterprise, Poutrincourt returned to France. In -the next year, 1615, during the civil disturbances which followed the -marriage of the King, command was given him of the royal forces destined -for the attack on Mery; and here, happier in his death than in his life, -he fell, sword in hand. - -In spite of their reverses, the French kept hold on Acadia. Biencourt, -partially at least, rebuilt Port Royal; while winter after winter the -smoke of fur traders' huts curled into the still, sharp air of these -frosty wilds, till at length, with happier auspices, plans of settlement -were resumed. - -Rude hands strangled the "Northern Paraguay" in its birth. Its -beginnings had been feeble, but behind were the forces of a mighty -organization, at once devoted and ambitious, enthusiastic and -calculating. Seven years later the "Mayflower" landed her emigrants at -Plymouth. What would have been the issues had the zeal of the pious lady -of honor preoccupied New England with a Jesuit colony? - -In an obscure stroke of lawless violence began the strife of France and -England, Protestantism and Rome, which for a century and a half shook -the struggling communities of North America, and closed at last in the -memorable triumph on the Plains of Abraham. - - - - - -CHAPTER--IX. - -1608, 1609. - -CHAMPLAIN AT QUEBEC. - -A LONELY ship sailed up the St. Lawrence. The white whales floundering -in the Bay of Tadoussac, and the wild duck diving as the foaming prow -drew near,--there was no life but these in all that watery solitude, -twenty miles from shore to shore. The ship was from Honfleur, and -was commanded by Samuel de Champlain. He was the AEneas of a destined -people, and in her womb lay the embryo life of Canada. - -De Monts, after his exclusive privilege of trade was revoked and -his Acadian enterprise ruined, had, as we have seen, abandoned it to -Poutrincourt. Perhaps would it have been well for him had he abandoned -with it all Transatlantic enterprises; but the passion for discovery -and the noble ambition of founding colonies had taken possession of -his mind. These, rather than a mere hope of gain, seem to have been his -controlling motives; yet the profits of the fur-trade were vital to the -new designs he was meditating, to meet the heavy outlay they demanded, -and he solicited and obtained a fresh monopoly of the traffic for one -year. - -Champlain was, at the time, in Paris; but his unquiet thoughts turned -westward. He was enamoured of the New World, whose rugged charms had -seized his fancy and his heart; and as explorers of Arctic seas have -pined in their repose for polar ice and snow, so did his restless -thoughts revert to the fog-wrapped coasts, the piny odors of forests, -the noise of waters, the sharp and piercing sunlight, so dear to -his remembrance. He longed to unveil the mystery of that boundless -wilderness, and plant the Catholic faith and the power of France amid -its ancient barbarism. - -Five years before, he had explored the St. Lawrence as far as the rapids -above Montreal. On its banks, as he thought, was the true site for -a settlement,--a fortified post, whence, as from a secure basis, the -waters of the vast interior might be traced back towards their sources, -and a western route discovered to China and Japan. For the fur-trade, -too, the innumerable streams that descended to the great river might all -be closed against foreign intrusion by a single fort at some commanding -point, and made tributary to a rich and permanent commerce; while--and -this was nearer to his heart, for he had often been heard to say -that the saving of a soul was worth more than the conquest of an -empire--countless savage tribes, in the bondage of Satan, might by the -same avenues be reached and redeemed. - -De Monts embraced his views; and, fitting out two ships, gave command of -one to the elder Pontgrave, of the other to Champlain. The former was -to trade with the Indians and bring back the cargo of furs which, it -was hoped, would meet the expense of the voyage. To Champlain fell the -harder task of settlement and exploration. - -Pontgrave, laden with goods for the Indian trade of Tadoussac sailed -from Honfleur on the fifth of April, 1608. Champlain, with men, arms, -and stores for the colony, followed, eight days later. On the fifteenth -of May he was on the Grand Bank; on the thirtieth he passed Gaspe, and -on the third of June neared Tadoussac. No living thing was to be seen. -He anchored, lowered a boat, and rowed into the port, round the rocky -point at the southeast, then, from the fury of its winds and currents, -called La Pointe de Tous les Diables. There was life enough within, and -more than he cared to find. In the still anchorage under the cliffs lay -Pontgrave's vessel, and at her side another ship, which proved to be a -Basque furtrader. - -Poutgrave, arriving a few days before, had found himself anticipated -by the Basques, who were busied in a brisk trade with bands of Indians -cabined along the borders of the cove. He displayed the royal letters, -and commanded a cessation of the prohibited traffic; but the Basques -proved refractory, declared that they would trade in spite of the King, -fired on Pontgrave with cannon and musketry, wounded him and two of his -men, and killed a third. They then boarded his vessel, and carried -away all his cannon, small arms, and ammunition, saying that they would -restore them when they had finished their trade and were ready to return -home. - -Champlain found his comrade on shore, in a disabled condition. The -Basques, though still strong enough to make fight, were alarmed for the -consequences of their conduct, and anxious to come to terms. A peace, -therefore, was signed on board their vessel; all differences were -referred to the judgment of the French courts, harmony was restored, and -the choleric strangers betook themselves to catching whales. - -This port of Tadoussac was long the centre of the Canadian fur-trade. -A desolation of barren mountains closes round it, betwixt whose ribs of -rugged granite, bristling with savins, birches, and firs, the Saguenay -rolls its gloomy waters from the northern wilderness. Centuries of -civilization have not tamed the wildness of the place; and still, in -grim repose, the mountains hold their guard around the waveless lake -that glistens in their shadow, and doubles, in its sullen mirror, crag, -precipice, and forest. - -Near the brink of the cove or harbor where the vessels lay, and a little -below the mouth of a brook which formed one of the outlets of this small -lake, stood the remains of the wooden barrack built by Chauvin eight -years before. Above the brook were the lodges of an Indian camp,--stacks -of poles covered with birch-bark. They belonged to an Algonquin horde, -called Montagnais, denizens of surrounding wilds, and gatherers of their -only harvest,--skins of the moose, caribou, and bear; fur of the beaver, -marten, otter, fox, wild-cat, and lynx. Nor was this all, for there -were intermediate traders betwixt the French and the shivering bands who -roamed the weary stretch of stunted forest between the head-waters of -the Saguenay and Hudson's Bay. Indefatigable canoe-men, in their -birchen vessels, light as eggshells, they threaded the devious tracks of -countless rippling streams, shady by-ways of the forest, where the wild -duck scarcely finds depth to swim; then descended to their mart along -those scenes of picturesque yet dreary grandeur which steam has made -familiar to modern tourists. With slowly moving paddles they glided -beneath the cliff whose shaggy brows frown across the zenith, and whose -base the deep waves wash with a hoarse and hollow cadence; and -they passed the sepulchral Bay of the Trinity, dark as the tide of -Acheron,--a sanctuary of solitude and silence: depths which, as the -fable runs, no sounding line can fathom, and heights at whose dizzy -verge the wheeling eagle seems a speck. - -Peace being established with the Basques, and the wounded Pontgrave -busied, as far as might be, in transferring to the hold of his ship the -rich lading of the Indian canoes, Champlain spread his sails, and -again held his course up the St. Lawrence. Far to the south, in sun and -shadow, slumbered the woody mountains whence fell the countless springs -of the St. John, behind tenantless shores, now white with glimmering -villages,--La Chenaic, Granville, Kamouraska, St. Roche, St. Jean, -Vincelot, Berthier. But on the north the jealous wilderness still -asserts its sway, crowding to the river's verge its walls, domes, and -towers of granite; and, to this hour, its solitude is scarcely broken. - -Above the point of the Island of Orleans, a constriction of the vast -channel narrows it to less than a mile, with the green heights of Point -Levi on one side, and on the other the cliffs of Quebec. Here, a small -stream, the St. Charles, enters the St. Lawrence, and in the angle -betwixt them rises the promontory on two sides a natural fortress. -Between the cliffs and the river lay a strand covered with walnuts and -other trees. From this strand, by a rough passage gullied downward from -the place where Prescott Gate now guards the way, one might climb the -height to the broken plateau above, now burdened with its ponderous load -of churches, convents, dwellings, ramparts, and batteries. Thence, by -a gradual ascent, the rock sloped upward to its highest summit, Cape -Diamond, looking down on the St. Lawrence from a height of three hundred -and fifty feet. Here the citadel now stands; then the fierce sun fell on -the bald, baking rock, with its crisped mosses and parched lichens. Two -centuries and a half have quickened the solitude with swarming life, -covered the deep bosom of the river with barge and steamer and gliding -sail, and reared cities and villages on the site of forests; but nothing -can destroy the surpassing grandeur of the scene. - -On the strand between the water and the cliffs Champlain's axemen fell -to their work. They were pioneers of an advancing host,--advancing, -it is true, with feeble and uncertain progress,--priests, soldiers, -peasants, feudal scutcheons, royal insignia: not the Middle Age, but -engendered of it by the stronger life of modern centralization, sharply -stamped with a parental likeness, heir to parental weakness and parental -force. - -In a few weeks a pile of wooden buildings rose on the brink of the St. -Lawrence, on or near the site of the marketplace of the Lower Town of -Quebec. The pencil of Champlain, always regardless of proportion -and perspective, has preserved its likeness. A strong wooden wall, -surmounted by a gallery loop-holed for musketry, enclosed three -buildings, containing quarters for himself and his men, together with a -courtyard, from one side of which rose a tall dove-cot, like a belfry. A -moat surrounded the whole, and two or three small cannon were planted on -salient platforms towards the river. There was a large storehouse near -at hand, and a part of the adjacent ground was laid out as a garden. - -In this garden Champlain was one morning directing his laborers, -when Tetu, his pilot, approached him with an anxious countenance, and -muttered a request to speak with him in private. Champlain assenting, -they withdrew to the neighboring woods, when the pilot disburdened -himself of his secret. One Antoine Natel, a locksmith, smitten by -conscience or fear, had revealed to him a conspiracy to murder his -commander and deliver Quebec into the hands of the Basques and Spaniards -then at Tadoussac. Another locksmith, named Duval, was author of the -plot, and, with the aid of three accomplices, had befooled or frightened -nearly all the company into taking part in it. Each was assured that he -should make his fortune, and all were mutually pledged to poniard the -first betrayer of the secret. The critical point of their enterprise was -the killing of Champlain. Some were for strangling him, some for raising -a false alarm in the night and shooting him as he came out from his -quarters. - -Having heard the pilot's story, Champlain, remaining in the woods, -desired his informant to find Antoine Natel, and bring him to the spot. -Natel soon appeared, trembling with excitement and fear, and a close -examination left no doubt of the truth of his statement. A small vessel, -built by Pontgrave at Tadoussac, had lately arrived, and orders were now -given that it should anchor close at hand. On board was a young man in -whom confidence could be placed. Champlain sent him two bottles of wine, -with a direction to tell the four ringleaders that they had been given -him by his Basque friends at Tadoussac, and to invite them to share -the good cheer. They came aboard in the evening, and were seized and -secured. "Voyla done mes galants bien estonnez," writes Champlain. - -It was ten o'clock, and most of the men on shore were asleep. They were -wakened suddenly, and told of the discovery of the plot and the arrest -of the ringleaders. Pardon was then promised them, and they were -dismissed again to their beds, greatly relieved; for they had lived -in trepidation, each fearing the other. Duval's body, swinging from a -gibbet, gave wholesome warning to those he had seduced; and his head was -displayed on a pike, from the highest roof of the buildings, food for -birds and a lesson to sedition. His three accomplices were carried by -Pontgrave to France, where they made their atonement in the galleys. - -It was on the eighteenth of September that Pontgrave set sail, leaving -Champlain with twenty-eight men to hold Quebec through the winter. -Three weeks later, and shores and hills glowed with gay prognostics of -approaching desolation,--the yellow and scarlet of the maples, the deep -purple of the ash, the garnet hue of young oaks, the crimson of the -tupelo at the water's edge, and the golden plumage of birch saplings -in the fissures of the cliff. It was a short-lived beauty. The forest -dropped its festal robes. Shrivelled and faded, they rustled to the -earth. The crystal air and laughing sun of October passed away, and -November sank upon the shivering waste, chill and sombre as the tomb. - -A roving band of Montagnais had built their huts near the buildings, -and were busying themselves with their autumn eel-fishery, on which -they greatly relied to sustain their miserable lives through the winter. -Their slimy harvest being gathered, and duly smoked and dried, they gave -it for safe-keeping to Champlain, and set out to hunt beavers. It was -deep in the winter before they came back, reclaimed their eels, built -their birch cabins again, and disposed themselves for a life of ease, -until famine or their enemies should put an end to their enjoyments. -These were by no means without alloy. While, gorged with food, they -lay dozing on piles of branches in their smoky huts, where, through the -crevices of the thin birch bark, streamed in a cold capable at times of -congealing mercury, their slumbers were beset with nightmare visions of -Iroquois forays, scalpings, butcherings, and burnings. As dreams were -their oracles, the camp was wild with fright. They sent out no scouts -and placed no guard; but, with each repetition of these nocturnal -terrors, they came flocking in a body to beg admission within the fort. -The women and children were allowed to enter the yard and remain during -the night, while anxious fathers and jealous husbands shivered in the -darkness without. - -On one occasion, a group of wretched beings was seen on the farther bank -of the St. Lawrence, like wild animals driven by famine to the borders -of the settler's clearing. The river was full of drifting ice, and there -was no crossing without risk of life. The Indians, in their desperation, -made the attempt; and midway their canoes were ground to atoms among the -tossing masses. Agile as wild-cats, they all leaped upon a huge raft of -ice, the squaws carrying their children on their shoulders, a feat -at which Champlain marveled when he saw their starved and emaciated -condition. Here they began a wail of despair; when happily the pressure -of other masses thrust the sheet of ice against the northern shore. They -landed and soon made their appearance at the fort, worn to skeletons and -horrible to look upon. The French gave them food, which they devoured -with a frenzied avidity, and, unappeased, fell upon a dead dog left -on the snow by Champlain for two months past as a bait for foxes. They -broke this carrion into fragments, and thawed and devoured it, to the -disgust of the spectators, who tried vainly to prevent them. - -This was but a severe access of the periodical famine which, during -winter, was a normal condition of the Algonquin tribes of Acadia and the -Lower St. Lawrence, who, unlike the cognate tribes of New England, never -tilled the soil, or made any reasonable provision against the time of -need. - -One would gladly know how the founders of Quebec spent the long hours of -their first winter; but on this point the only man among them, perhaps, -who could write, has not thought it necessary to enlarge. He himself -beguiled his leisure with trapping foxes, or hanging a dead dog from -a tree and watching the hungry martens in their efforts to reach it. -Towards the close of winter, all found abundant employment in nursing -themselves or their neighbors, for the inevitable scurvy broke out with -virulence. At the middle of May, only eight men of the twenty-eight were -alive, and of these half were suffering from disease. - -This wintry purgatory wore away; the icy stalactites that hung from -the cliffs fell crashing to the earth; the clamor of the wild geese was -heard; the bluebirds appeared in the naked woods; the water-willows -were covered with their soft caterpillar-like blossoms; the twigs of the -swamp maple were flushed with ruddy bloom; the ash hung out its black -tufts; the shad-bush seemed a wreath of snow; the white stars of the -bloodroot gleamed among dank, fallen leaves; and in the young grass of -the wet meadows the marsh-marigolds shone like spots of gold. - -Great was the joy of Champlain when, on the fifth of June, he saw a -sailboat rounding the Point of Orleans, betokening that the spring had -brought with it the longed for succors. A son-in-law of Pontgrave, -named Marais, was on board, and he reported that Pontgrave was then at -Tadoussac, where he had lately arrived. Thither Champlain hastened, -to take counsel with his comrade. His constitution or his courage had -defied the scurvy. They met, and it was determined betwixt them, that, -while Pontgrave remained in charge of Quebec, Champlain should enter at -once on his long meditated explorations, by which, like La Salle seventy -years later, he had good hope of finding a way to China. - -But there was a lion in the path. The Indian tribes, to whom peace was -unknown, infested with their scalping parties the streams and pathways -of the forest, and increased tenfold its inseparable risks. The -after career of Champlain gives abundant proof that he was more than -indifferent to all such chances; yet now an expedient for evading them -offered itself, so consonant with his instincts that he was glad to -accept it. - -During the last autumn, a young chief from the banks of the then unknown -Ottawa had been at Quebec; and, amazed at what he saw, he had begged -Champlain to join him in the spring against his enemies. These enemies -were a formidable race of savages,--the Iroquois, or Five Confederate -Nations, who dwelt in fortified villages within limits now embraced -by the State of New York, and who were a terror to all the surrounding -forests. They were deadly foes of their kindred the Hurons, who dwelt on -the lake which bears their name, and were allies of Algonquin bands -on the Ottawa. All alike were tillers of the soil, living at ease when -compared with the famished Algonquins of the Lower St. Lawrence. - -By joining these Hurons and Algonquins against their Iroquois enemies, -Champlain might make himself the indispensable ally and leader of the -tribes of Canada, and at the same time fight his way to discovery in -regions which otherwise were barred against him. From first to last it -was the policy of France in America to mingle in Indian politics, hold -the balance of power between adverse tribes, and envelop in the network -of her power and diplomacy the remotest hordes of the wilderness. Of -this policy the Father of New France may perhaps be held to have set a -rash and premature example. Yet while he was apparently following the -dictates of his own adventurous spirit, it became evident, a few years -later, that under his thirst for discovery and spirit of knight-errantry -lay a consistent and deliberate purpose. That it had already assumed a -definite shape is not likely; but his after course makes it plain that, -in embroiling himself and his colony with the most formidable savages on -the continent, he was by no means acting so recklessly as at first sight -would appear. - - - - - -CHAPTER X. - -1609. - -LAKE CHAMPLAIN. - -It was past the middle of June, and the expected warriors from the -upper country had not come,--a delay which seems to have given Champlain -little concern, for, without waiting longer, he set out with no better -allies than a band of Montagnais. But, as he moved up the St. Lawrence, -he saw, thickly clustered in the bordering forest, the lodges of an -Indian camp, and, landing, found his Huron and Algonquin allies. Few -of them had ever seen a white man, and they surrounded the steel-clad -strangers in speechless wonder. Champlain asked for their chief, and the -staring throng moved with him towards a lodge where sat, not one chief, -but two; for each band had its own. There were feasting, smoking, and -speeches; and, the needful ceremony over, all descended together -to Quebec; for the strangers were bent on seeing those wonders of -architecture, the fame of which had pierced the recesses of their -forests. - -On their arrival, they feasted their eyes and glutted their appetites; -yelped consternation at the sharp explosions of the arquebuse and the -roar of the cannon; pitched their camps, and bedecked themselves for -their war-dance. In the still night, their fire glared against the black -and jagged cliff, and the fierce red light fell on tawny limbs convulsed -with frenzied gestures and ferocious stampings on contorted visages, -hideous with paint; on brandished weapons, stone war-clubs, stone -hatchets, and stone-pointed lances; while the drum kept up its hollow -boom, and the air was split with mingled yells. - -The war-feast followed, and then all embarked together. Champlain was -in a small shallop, carrying, besides himself, eleven men of Pontgrave's -party, including his son-in-law Marais and the pilot La Routte. They -were armed with the arquebuse,--a matchlock or firelock somewhat like -the modern carbine, and from its shortness not ill suited for use in the -forest. On the twenty-eighth of June they spread their sails and held -their course against the current, while around them the river was alive -with canoes, and hundreds of naked arms plied the paddle with a steady, -measured sweep. They crossed the Lake of St. Peter, threaded the devious -channels among its many islands, and reached at last the mouth of the -Riviere des Iroquois, since called the Richelien, or the St. John. -Here, probably on the site of the town of Sorel, the leisurely warriors -encamped for two days, hunted, fished, and took their ease, regaling -their allies with venison and wildfowl. They quarrelled, too; three -fourths of their number seceded, took to their canoes in dudgeon, and -paddled towards their homes, while the rest pursued their course up the -broad and placid stream. - -Walls of verdure stretched on left and right. Now, aloft in the lonely -air rose the cliffs of Belceil, and now, before them, framed in circling -forests, the Basin of Chambly spread its tranquil mirror, glittering in -the sun. The shallop outsailed the canoes. Champlain, leaving his allies -behind, crossed the basin and tried to pursue his course; but, as he -listened in the stillness, the unwelcome noise of rapids reached his -ear, and, by glimpses through the dark foliage of the Islets of St. John -he could see the gleam of snowy foam and the flash of hurrying waters. -Leaving the boat by the shore in charge of four men, he went with -Marais, La Routte, and five others, to explore the wild before him. -They pushed their way through the damps and shadows of the wood, through -thickets and tangled vines, over mossy rocks and mouldering logs. Still -the hoarse surging of the rapids followed them; and when, parting the -screen of foliage, they looked out upon the river, they saw it thick -set with rocks where, plunging over ledges, gurgling under drift-logs, -darting along clefts, and boiling in chasms, the angry waters filled the -solitude with monotonous ravings. - -Champlain retraced his steps. He had learned the value of an Indian's -word. His allies had promised him that his boat could pass unobstructed -throughout the whole journey. "It afflicted me," he says, "and troubled -me exceedingly to be obliged to return without having seen so great a -lake, full of fair islands and bordered with the fine countries which -they had described to me." - -When he reached the boat, he found the whole savage crew gathered at the -spot. He mildly rebuked their bad faith, but added, that, though they -had deceived him, he, as far as might be, would fulfil his pledge. To -this end, he directed Marais, with the boat and the greater part of the -men, to return to Quebec, while he, with two who offered to follow him, -should proceed in the Indian canoes. - -The warriors lifted their canoes from the water, and bore them on their -shoulders half a league through the forest to the smoother stream above. -Here the chiefs made a muster of their forces, counting twenty-four -canoes and sixty warriors. All embarked again, and advanced once more, -by marsh, meadow, forest, and scattered islands,--then full of game, -for it was an uninhabited land, the war-path and battleground of hostile -tribes. The warriors observed a certain system in their advance. Some -were in front as a vanguard; others formed the main body; while an -equal number were in the forests on the flanks and rear, hunting for the -subsistence of the whole; for, though they had a provision of parched -maize pounded into meal, they kept it for use when, from the vicinity of -the enemy, hunting should become impossible. - -Late in the day they landed and drew up their canoes, ranging them -closely, side by side. Some stripped sheets of bark, to cover their camp -sheds; others gathered wood, the forest being full of dead, dry trees; -others felled the living trees, for a barricade. They seem to have had -steel axes, obtained by barter from the French; for in less than -two hours they had made a strong defensive work, in the form of a -half-circle, open on the river side, where their canoes lay on the -strand, and large enough to enclose all their huts and sheds. [28] -Some of their number had gone forward as scouts, and, returning, -reported no signs of an enemy. This was the extent of their precaution, -for they placed no guard, but all, in full security, stretched -themselves to sleep,--a vicious custom from which the lazy warrior of -the forest rarely departs. - -They had not forgotten, however, to consult their oracle. The -medicine-man pitched his magic lodge in the woods, formed of a small -stack of poles, planted in a circle and brought together at the tops -like stacked muskets. Over these he placed the filthy deer-skins which -served him for a robe, and, creeping in at a narrow opening, hid himself -from view. Crouched in a ball upon the earth, he invoked the spirits in -mumbling inarticulate tones; while his naked auditory, squatted on the -ground like apes, listened in wonder and awe. Suddenly, the lodge moved, -rocking with violence to and fro,--by the power of the spirits, as the -Indians thought, while Champlain could plainly see the tawny fist of the -medicine-man shaking the poles. They begged him to keep a watchful eye -on the peak of the lodge, whence fire and smoke would presently issue; -but with the best efforts of his vision, he discovered none. Meanwhile -the medicine-man was seized with such convulsions, that, when his -divination was over, his naked body streamed with perspiration. In loud, -clear tones, and in an unknown tongue, he invoked the spirit, who was -understood to be present in the form of a stone, and whose feeble and -squeaking accents were heard at intervals, like the wail of a young -puppy. - -In this manner they consulted the spirit--as Champlain thinks, the -Devil--at all their camps. His replies, for the most part, seem to have -given them great content; yet they took other measures, of which the -military advantages were less questionable. The principal chief gathered -bundles of sticks, and, without wasting his breath, stuck them in the -earth in a certain order, calling each by the name of some warrior, a -few taller than the rest representing the subordinate chiefs. Thus was -indicated the position which each was to hold in the expected battle. -All gathered round and attentively studied the sticks, ranged like a -child's wooden soldiers, or the pieces on a chessboard; then, with no -further instruction, they formed their ranks, broke them, and reformed -them again and again with excellent alacrity and skill. - -Again the canoes advanced, the river widening as they went. Great -islands appeared, leagues in extent,--Isle a la Motte, Long Island, -Grande Isle; channels where ships might float and broad reaches of water -stretched between them, and Champlain entered the lake which preserves -his name to posterity. Cumberland Head was passed, and from the opening -of the great channel between Grande Isle and the main he could look -forth on the wilderness sea. Edged with woods, the tranquil flood spread -southward beyond the sight. Far on the left rose the forest ridges of -the Green Mountains, and on the right the Adirondacks,--haunts in these -later years of amateur sportsmen from counting-rooms or college halls. -Then the Iroquois made them their hunting-ground; and beyond, in the -valleys of the Mohawk, the Onondaga, and the Genesce, stretched the long -line of their five cantons and palisaded towns. - -At night they encamped again. The scene is a familiar one to many -a tourist; and perhaps, standing at sunset on the peaceful strand, -Champlain saw what a roving student of this generation has seen on those -same shores, at that same hour,--the glow of the vanished sun behind the -western mountains, darkly piled in mist and shadow along the sky; near -at hand, the dead pine, mighty in decay, stretching its ragged arms -athwart the burning heaven, the crow perched on its top like an image -carved in jet; and aloft, the nighthawk, circling in his flight, and, -with a strange whirring sound, diving through the air each moment for -the insects he makes his prey. - -The progress of the party was becoming dangerous. They changed their -mode of advance and moved only in the night. All day they lay close in -the depth of the forest, sleeping, lounging, smoking tobacco of their -own raising, and beguiling the hours, no doubt, with the shallow banter -and obscene jesting with which knots of Indians are wont to amuse their -leisure. At twilight they embarked again, paddling their cautious -way till the eastern sky began to redden. Their goal was the rocky -promontory where Fort Ticonderoga was long afterward built. Thence, they -would pass the outlet of Lake George, and launch their canoes again on -that Como of the wilderness, whose waters, limpid as a fountain-head, -stretched far southward between their flanking mountains. Landing at the -future site of Fort William Henry, they would carry their canoes through -the forest to the river Hudson, and, descending it, attack perhaps some -outlying town of the Mohawks. In the next century this chain of lakes -and rivers became the grand highway of savage and civilized war, linked -to memories of momentous conflicts. - -The allies were spared so long a progress. On the morning of the -twenty-ninth of July, after paddling all night, they hid as usual in -the forest on the western shore, apparently between Crown Point and -Ticonderoga. The warriors stretched themselves to their slumbers, -and Champlain, after walking till nine or ten o'clock through -the surrounding woods, returned to take his repose on a pile of -spruce-boughs. Sleeping, he dreamed a dream, wherein he beheld the -Iroquois drowning in the lake; and, trying to rescue them, he was told -by his Algonquin friends that they were good for nothing, and had -better be left to their fate. For some time past he had been beset every -morning by his superstitious allies, eager to learn about his dreams; -and, to this moment, his unbroken slumbers had failed to furnish the -desired prognostics. The announcement of this auspicious vision filled -the crowd with joy, and at nightfall they embarked, flushed with -anticipated victories. - -It was ten o'clock in the evening, when, near a projecting point of -land, which was probably Ticonderoga, they descried dark objects in -motion on the lake before them. These were a flotilla of Iroquois -canoes, heavier and slower than theirs, for they were made of oak bark. -Each party saw the other, and the mingled war-cries pealed over the -darkened water. The Iroquois, who were near the shore, having no stomach -for an aquatic battle, landed, and, making night hideous with their -clamors, began to barricade themselves. Champlain could see them in the -woods, laboring like beavers, hacking down trees with iron axes taken -from the Canadian tribes in war, and with stone hatchets of their own -making. The allies remained on the lake, a bowshot from the hostile -barricade, their canoes made fast together by poles lashed across. All -night they danced with as much vigor as the frailty of their vessels -would permit, their throats making amends for the enforced restraint -of their limbs. It was agreed on both sides that the fight should be -deferred till daybreak; but meanwhile a commerce of abuse, sarcasm, -menace, and boasting gave unceasing exercise to the lungs and fancy of -the combatants, "much," says Champlain, "like the besiegers and besieged -in a beleaguered town." - -As day approached, he and his two followers put on the light armor of -the time. Champlain wore the doublet and long hose then in vogue. Over -the doublet he buckled on a breastplate, and probably a back-piece, -while his thighs were protected by cuisses of steel, and his head by a -plumed casque. Across his shoulder hung the strap of his bandoleer, -or ammunition-box; at his side was his sword, and in his hand his -arquebuse. Such was the equipment of this ancient Indian-fighter, -whose exploits date eleven years before the landing of the Puritans at -Plymouth, and sixty-six years before King Philip's War. - -Each of the three Frenchmen was in a separate canoe, and, as it grew -light, they kept themselves hidden, either by lying at the bottom, -or covering themselves with an Indian robe. The canoes approached the -shore, and all landed without opposition at some distance from -the Iroquois, whom they presently could see filing out of their -barricade,-tall, strong men, some two hundred in number, the boldest -and fiercest warriors of North America. They advanced through the forest -with a steadiness which excited the admiration of Champlain. Among them -could be seen three chiefs, made conspicuous by their tall plumes. Some -bore shields of wood and hide, and some were covered with a kind of -armor made of tough twigs interlaced with a vegetable fibre supposed by -Champlain to be cotton. [29] - -The allies, growing anxious, called with loud cries for their champion, -and opened their ranks that he might pass to the front. He did so, and, -advancing before his red companions in arms, stood revealed to the gaze -of the Iroquois, who, beholding the warlike apparition in their path, -stared in mute amazement. "I looked at them," says Champlain, "and they -looked at me. When I saw them getting ready to shoot their arrows at us, -I levelled my arquebuse, which I had loaded with four balls, and aimed -straight at one of the three chiefs. The shot brought down two, and -wounded another. On this, our Indians set up such a yelling that one -could not have heard a thunder-clap, and all the while the arrows flew -thick on both sides. The Iroquois were greatly astonished and frightened -to see two of their men killed so quickly, in spite of their arrow-proof -armor. As I was reloading, one of my companions fired a shot from the -woods, which so increased their astonishment that, seeing their chiefs -dead, they abandoned the field and fled into the depth of the forest." -The allies dashed after them. Some of the Iroquois were killed, and -more were taken. Camp, canoes, provisions, all were abandoned, and many -weapons flung down in the panic flight. The victory was complete. - -At night, the victors led out one of the prisoners, told him that he was -to die by fire, and ordered him to sing his death-song if he dared. Then -they began the torture, and presently scalped their victim alive, [20] -when Champlain, sickening at the sight, begged leave to shoot him. They -refused, and he turned away in anger and disgust; on which they called -him back and told him to do as he pleased. He turned again, and a shot -from his arquebuse put the wretch out of misery. - -The scene filled him with horror; but a few months later, on the Place -de la Greve at Paris, he might have witnessed tortures equally revolting -and equally vindictive, inflicted on the regicide Ravaillac by the -sentence of grave and learned judges. - -The allies made a prompt retreat from the scene of their triumph. Three -or four days brought them to the mouth of the Richelien. Here they -separated; the Hurons and Algonquins made for the Ottawa, their homeward -route, each with a share of prisoners for future torments. At parting, -they invited Champlain to visit their towns and aid them again in -their wars, an invitation which this paladin of the woods failed not to -accept. - -The companions now remaining to him were the Montagnais. In their camp -on the Richelien, one of them dreamed that a war party of Iroquois was -close upon them; on which, in a torrent of rain, they left their huts, -paddled in dismay to the islands above the Lake of St. Peter, and hid -themselves all night in the rushes. In the morning they took heart, -emerged from their hiding-places, descended to Quebec, and went thence -to Tadoussac, whither Champlain accompanied them. Here the squaws, stark -naked, swam out to the canoes to receive the heads of the dead Iroquois, -and, hanging them from their necks, danced in triumph along the -shore, One of the heads and a pair of arms were then bestowed on -Champlain,--touching memorials of gratitude, which, however, he was by -no means to keep for himself, but to present to the King. - -Thus did New France rush into collision with the redoubted warriors of -the Five Nations. Here was the beginning, and in some measure doubtless -the cause, of a long suite of murderous conflicts, bearing havoc and -flame to generations yet unborn. Champlain had invaded the tiger's den; -and now, in smothered fury, the patient savage would lie biding his day -of blood. - - - - -CHAPTER XI. - -1610-1612. - -WAR.--TRADE.--DISCOVERY. - -Champlain and Pontgrave returned to France, while Pierre Chauvin of -Dieppe held Quebec in their absence. The King was at Fontainebleau,--it -was a few months before his assassination,--and here Champlain recounted -his adventures, to the great satisfaction of the lively monarch. He -gave him also, not the head of the dead Iroquois, but a belt wrought -in embroidery of dyed quills of the Canada porcupine, together with two -small birds of scarlet plumage, and the skull of a gar-fish. - -De Monts was at court, striving for a renewal of his monopoly. His -efforts failed; on which, with great spirit but little discretion, he -resolved to push his enterprise without it. Early in the spring of 1610, -the ship was ready, and Champlain and Pontgrave were on board, when a -violent illness seized the former, reducing him to the most miserable -of all conflicts, the battle of the eager spirit against the treacherous -and failing flesh. Having partially recovered, he put to sea, giddy and -weak, in wretched plight for the hard career of toil and battle which -the New World offered him. The voyage was prosperous, no other mishap -occurring than that of an ardent youth of St. Malo, who drank the health -of Pontgrave with such persistent enthusiasm that he fell overboard and -was drowned. - -There were ships at Tadoussac, fast loading with furs; and boats, too, -higher up the river, anticipating the trade, and draining De Monts's -resources in advance. Champlain, who was left free to fight and explore -wherever he should see fit, had provided, to use his own phrase, "two -strings to his bow." On the one hand, the Montagnais had promised to -guide him northward to Hudson's Bay; on the other, the Hurons were to -show him the Great Lakes, with the mines of copper on their shores; and -to each the same reward was promised,--to join them against the -common foe, the Iroquois. The rendezvous was at the mouth of the river -Richelien. Thither the Hurons were to descend in force, together with -Algonquins of the Ottawa; and thither Champlain now repaired, while -around his boat swarmed a multitude of Montagnais canoes, filled with -warriors whose lank hair streamed loose in the wind. - -There is an island in the St. Lawrence near the mouth of the Richelien. -On the nineteenth of June it was swarming with busy and clamorous -savages, Champlain's Montagnais allies, cutting down the trees and -clearing the ground for a dance and a feast; for they were hourly -expecting the Algonquin warriors, and were eager to welcome them with -befitting honors. But suddenly, far out on the river, they saw an -advancing canoe. Now on this side, now on that, the flashing paddles -urged it forward as if death were on its track; and as it drew near, -the Indians on board cried out that the Algonquins were in the forest, -a league distant, engaged with a hundred warriors of the Iroquois, who, -outnumbered, were fighting savagely within a barricade of trees. The -air was split with shrill outcries. The Montagnais snatched their -weapons,--shields, bows, arrows, war-clubs, sword-blades made fast to -poles,--and ran headlong to their canoes, impeding each other in their -haste, screeching to Champlain to follow, and invoking with no less -vehemence the aid of certain fur-traders, just arrived in four boats -from below. These, as it was not their cue to fight, lent them a deaf -ear; on which, in disgust and scorn, they paddled off, calling to the -recusants that they were women, fit for nothing but to make war on -beaver-skins. - -Champlain and four of his men were in the canoes. They shot across -the intervening water, and, as their prows grated on the pebbles, each -warrior flung down his paddle, snatched his weapons, and ran into the -woods. The five Frenchmen followed, striving vainly to keep pace with -the naked, light-limbed rabble, bounding like shadows through the -forest. They quickly disappeared. Even their shrill cries grew faint, -till Champlain and his men, discomforted and vexed, found themselves -deserted in the midst of a swamp. The day was sultry, the forest air -heavy, close, and filled with hosts of mosquitoes, "so thick," says -the chief sufferer, "that we could scarcely draw breath, and it was -wonderful how cruelly they persecuted us." Through black mud, spongy -moss, water knee-deep, over fallen trees, among slimy logs and -entangling roots, tripped by vines, lashed by recoiling boughs, panting -under their steel head-pieces and heavy corselets, the Frenchmen -struggled on, bewildered and indignant. At length they descried two -Indians running in the distance, and shouted to them in desperation, -that, if they wanted their aid, they must guide them to the enemy. - -At length they could hear the yells of the combatants; there was light -in the forest before them, and they issued into a partial clearing made -by the Iroquois axemen near the river. Champlain saw their barricade. -Trees were piled into a circular breastwork, trunks, boughs, and matted -foliage forming a strong defence, within which the Iroquois stood -savagely at bay. Around them flocked the allies, half hidden in the -edges of the forest, like hounds around a wild boar, eager, clamorous, -yet afraid to rush in. They had attacked, and had met a bloody rebuff. -All their hope was now in the French; and when they saw them, a yell -arose from hundreds of throats that outdid the wilderness voices whence -its tones were borrowed,--the whoop of the homed owl, the scream of the -cougar, the howl of starved wolves on a winter night. A fierce response -pealed from the desperate band within; and, amid a storm of arrows from -both sides, the Frenchmen threw themselves into the fray, firing at -random through the fence of trunks, boughs, and drooping leaves, -with which the Iroquois had encircled themselves. Champlain felt a -stone-headed arrow splitting his ear and tearing through the muscles of -his neck, he drew it out, and, the moment after, did a similar office -for one of his men. But the Iroquois had not recovered from their -first terror at the arquebuse; and when the mysterious and terrible -assailants, clad in steel and armed with thunder-bolts, ran up to the -barricade, thrust their pieces through the openings, and shot death -among the crowd within, they could not control their fright, but with -every report threw themselves flat on the ground. Animated with unwonted -valor, the allies, covered by their large shields, began to drag out -the felled trees of the barricade, while others, under Champlain's -direction, gathered at the edge of the forest, preparing to close the -affair with a final rush. New actors soon appeared on the scene. These -were a boat's crew of the fur-traders under a young man of St. Malo, -one Des Prairies, who, when he heard the firing, could not resist -the impulse to join the fight. On seeing them, Champlain checked the -assault, in order, as he says, that the new-comers might have their -share in the sport. The traders opened fire, with great zest and no less -execution; while the Iroquois, now wild with terror, leaped and writhed -to dodge the shot which tore through their frail armor of twigs. -Champlain gave the signal; the crowd ran to the barricade, dragged -down the boughs or clambered over them, and bore themselves, in his own -words, "so well and manfully," that, though scratched and torn by the -sharp points, they quickly forced an entrance. The French ceased their -fire, and, followed by a smaller body of Indians, scaled the barricade -on the farther side. Now, amid howlings, shouts, and screeches, the work -was finished. Some of the Iroquois were cut down as they stood, hewing -with their war-clubs, and foaming like slaughtered tigers; some climbed -the barrier and were killed by the furious crowd without; some were -drowned in the river; while fifteen, the only survivors, were made -prisoners. "By the grace of God," writes Champlain, "behold the battle -won!" Drunk with ferocious ecstasy, the conquerors scalped the dead and -gathered fagots for the living; while some of the fur-traders, too -late to bear part in the fight, robbed the carcasses of their -blood-bedrenched robes of beaver-skin amid the derision of the -surrounding Indians. - -That night, the torture fires blazed along the shore. Champlain saved -one prisoner from their clutches, but nothing could save the rest. One -body was quartered and eaten. [31] "As for the rest of the prisoners," -says Champlain, "they were kept to be put to death by the women and -girls, who in this respect are no less inhuman than the men, and, -indeed, much more so; for by their subtlety they invent more cruel -tortures, and take pleasure in it." - -On the next day, a large band of Hurons appeared at the rendezvous, -greatly vexed that they had come too late. The shores were thickly -studded with Indian huts, and the woods were full of them. Here were -warriors of three designations, including many subordinate tribes, and -representing three grades of savage society,--the Hurons, the Algonquins -of the Ottawa, and the Montagnais; afterwards styled by a Franciscan -friar, than whom few men better knew them, the nobles, the burghers, and -the peasantry and paupers of the forest. Many of them, from the remote -interior, had never before seen a white man; and, wrapped like statues -in their robes, they stood gazing on the French with a fixed stare of -wild and wondering eyes. - -Judged by the standard of Indian war, a heavy blow had been struck on -the common enemy. Here were hundreds of assembled warriors; yet none -thought of following up their success. Elated with unexpected fortune, -they danced and sang; then loaded their canoes, hung their scalps on -poles, broke up their camps, and set out triumphant for their homes. -Champlain had fought their battles, and now might claim, on their part, -guidance and escort to the distant interior. Why he did not do so is -scarcely apparent. There were cares, it seems, connected with the very -life of his puny colony, which demanded his return to France. Nor were -his anxieties lessened by the arrival of a ship from his native town of -Brouage, with tidings of the King's assassination. Here was a death-blow -to all that had remained of De Monts's credit at court; while that -unfortunate nobleman, like his old associate, Pontrincourt, was moving -with swift strides toward financial ruin. With the revocation of his -monopoly, fur-traders had swarmed to the St. Lawrence. Tadoussac was -full of them, and for that year the trade was spoiled. Far from aiding -to support a burdensome enterprise of colonization, it was in itself an -occasion of heavy loss. - -Champlain bade farewell to his garden at Quebec, where maize, wheat, -rye, and barley, with vegetables of all kinds, and a small vineyard -of native grapes,--for he was a zealous horticulturist,--held forth -a promise which he was not to see fulfilled. He left one Du Parc in -command, with sixteen men, and, sailing on the eighth of August, arrived -at Honfleur with no worse accident than that of running over a sleeping -whale near the Grand Bank. - -With the opening spring he was afloat again. Perils awaited him worse -than those of Iroquois tomahawks; for, approaching Newfoundland, the -ship was entangled for days among drifting fields and bergs of ice. -Escaping at length, she arrived at Tadoussac on the thirteenth of May, -1611. She had anticipated the spring. Forests and mountains, far and -near, all were white with snow. A principal object with Champlain was -to establish such relations with the great Indian communities of the -interior as to secure to De Monts and his associates the advantage of -trade with them; and to this end he now repaired to Montreal, a position -in the gateway, as it were, of their yearly descents of trade or war. -On arriving, he began to survey the ground for the site of a permanent -post. - -A few days convinced him, that, under the present system, all his -efforts would be vain. Wild reports of the wonders of New France had -gone abroad, and a crowd of hungry adventurers had hastened to the land -of promise, eager to grow rich, they scarcely knew how, and soon -to return disgusted. A fleet of boats and small vessels followed -in Champlain's wake. Within a few days, thirteen of them arrived at -Montreal, and more soon appeared. He was to break the ground; others -would reap the harvest. Travel, discovery, and battle, all must inure to -the profit, not of the colony, but of a crew of greedy traders. - -Champlain, however, chose the site and cleared the ground for his -intended post. It was immediately above a small stream, now running -under arches of masonry, and entering the St. Lawrence at Point -Callieres, within the modern city. He called it Place Royale; and here, -on the margin of the river, he built a wall of bricks made on the spot, -in order to measure the destructive effects of the "ice-shove" in the -spring. - -Now, down the surges of St. Louis, where the mighty floods of the St. -Lawrence, contracted to a narrow throat, roll in fury among their sunken -rocks,--here, through foam and spray and the roar of the angry torrent, -a fleet of birch canoes came dancing like dry leaves on the froth of -some riotous brook. They bore a band of Hurons first at the rendezvous. -As they drew near the landing, all the fur-traders' boats blazed out -a clattering fusillade, which was designed to bid them welcome, but in -fact terrified many of them to such a degree that they scarcely dared -to come ashore. Nor were they reassured by the bearing of the disorderly -crowd, who, in jealous competition for their beaver-skins, left them not -a moment's peace, and outraged all their notions of decorum. More soon -appeared, till hundreds of warriors were encamped along the shore, -all restless, suspicious, and alarmed. Late one night they awakened -Champlain. On going with them to their camp, he found chiefs and -warriors in solemn conclave around the glimmering firelight. Though they -were fearful of the rest, their trust in him was boundless. "Come to our -country, buy our beaver, build a fort, teach us the true faith, do what -you will, but do not bring this crowd with you." The idea had seized -them that these lawless bands of rival traders, all well armed, meant to -plunder and kill them. Champlain assured them of safety, and the whole -night was consumed in friendly colloquy. Soon afterward, however, the -camp broke up, and the uneasy warriors removed to the borders of the -Lake of St. Louis, placing the rapids betwixt themselves and the objects -of their alarm. Here Champlain visited them, and hence these intrepid -canoe-men, kneeling in their birchen egg-shells, carried him homeward -down the rapids, somewhat, as he admits, to the discomposure of his -nerves. [32] - -The great gathering dispersed: the traders descended to Tadoussac, and -Champlain to Quebec; while the Indians went, some to their homes, -some to fight the Iroquois. A few months later, Champlain was in close -conference with De Monts at Pons, a place near Rochelle, of which the -latter was governor. The last two years had made it apparent, that, -to keep the colony alive and maintain a basis for those discoveries on -which his heart was bent, was impossible without a change of system. -De Monts, engrossed with the cares of his government, placed all in -the hands of his associate; and Champlain, fully empowered to act as he -should judge expedient, set out for Paris. On the way, Fortune, at one -stroke, wellnigh crushed him and New France together; for his horse -fell on him, and he narrowly escaped with life. When he was partially -recovered, he resumed his journey, pondering on means of rescue for the -fading colony. A powerful protector must be had,--a great name to shield -the enterprise from assaults and intrigues of jealous rival interests. -On reaching Paris he addressed himself to a prince of the blood, Charles -de Bourbon, Comte de Soissons; described New France, its resources, and -its boundless extent; urged the need of unfolding a mystery pregnant -perhaps with results of the deepest moment; laid before him maps and -memoirs, and begged him to become the guardian of this new world. -The royal consent being obtained, the Comte de Soissons became -Lieutenant-General for the King in New France, with vice-regal powers. -These, in turn, he conferred upon Champlain, making him his lieutenant, -with full control over the trade in furs at and above Quebec, and with -power to associate with himself such persons as he saw fit, to aid in -the exploration and settlement of the country. - -Scarcely was the commission drawn when the Comte de Soissons, attacked -with fever, died,--to the joy of the Breton and Norman traders, whose -jubilation, however, found a speedy end. Henri de Bourbon, Prince de -Conde, first prince of the blood, assumed the vacant protectorship. He -was grandson of the gay and gallant Conde of the civil wars, was father -of the great Conde, the youthful victor of Rocroy, and was husband of -Charlotte de Moutmorency, whose blond beauties had fired the inflammable -heart of Henry the Fourth. To the unspeakable wrath of that keen lover, -the prudent Conde fled with his bride, first to Brussels, and then to -Italy; nor did he return to France till the regicide's knife had put his -jealous fears to rest. After his return, he began to intrigue against -the court. He was a man of common abilities, greedy of money and power, -and scarcely seeking even the decency of a pretext to cover his mean -ambition. His chief honor--an honor somewhat equivocal--is, as Voltaire -observes, to have been father of the great Conde. Busy with his -intrigues, he cared little for colonies and discoveries; and his rank -and power were his sole qualifications for his new post. - -In Champlain alone was the life of New France. By instinct and -temperament he was more impelled to the adventurous toils of exploration -than to the duller task of building colonies. The profits of trade had -value in his eyes only as means to these ends, and settlements were -important chiefly as a base of discovery. Two great objects eclipsed all -others,--to find a route to the Indies, and to bring the heathen tribes -into the embraces of the Church, since, while he cared little for their -bodies, his solicitude for their souls knew no bounds. - -It was no part of his plan to establish an odious monopoly. He sought -rather to enlist the rival traders in his cause; and he now, in -concurrence with Du Monts, invited them to become sharers in the -traffic, under certain regulations, and on condition of aiding in the -establishment and support of the colony. The merchants of St. Malo and -Rouen accepted the terms, and became members of the new company; but the -intractable heretics of Rochelle, refractory in commerce as in religion, -kept aloof, and preferred the chances of an illicit trade. The prospects -of New France were far from flattering; for little could be hoped from -this unwilling league of selfish traders, each jealous of the rest. They -gave the Prince of Conde large gratuities to secure his countenance and -support. The hungry viceroy took them, and with these emoluments his -interest in the colony ended. - - - - - -CHAPTER XII. - -1612, 1613. - -THE IMPOSTOR VIGNAU. - -The arrangements just indicated were a work of time. In the summer of -1612, Champlain was forced to forego his yearly voyage to New France; -nor, even in the following spring, were his labors finished and the -rival interests brought to harmony. Meanwhile, incidents occurred -destined to have no small influence on his movements. Three years -before, after his second fight with the Iroquois, a young man of his -company had boldly volunteered to join the Indians on their homeward -journey, and winter among them. Champlain gladly assented, and in the -following summer the adventurer returned. Another young man, one Nicolas -de Vignan, next offered himself; and he also, embarking in the Algonquin -canoes, passed up the Ottawa, and was seen no more for a twelvemonth. -In 1612 he reappeared in Paris, bringing a tale of wonders; for, says -Champlain, "he was the most impudent liar that has been seen for many a -day." He averred that at the sources of the Ottawa he had found a great -lake; that he had crossed it, and discovered a river flowing northward; -that he had descended this river, and reached the shores of the sea; -that here he had seen the wreck of an English ship, whose crew, escaping -to land, had been killed by the Indians; and that this sea was distant -from Montreal only seventeen days by canoe. The clearness, consistency, -and apparent simplicity of his story deceived Champlain, who had heard -of a voyage of the English to the northern seas, coupled with rumors -of wreck and disaster, and was thus confirmed in his belief of Vignau's -honesty. The Marechal de Brissac, the President Jeannin, and other -persons of eminence about the court, greatly interested by these -dexterous fabrications, urged Champlain to follow up without delay -a discovery which promised results so important; while he, with the -Pacific, Japan, China, the Spice Islands, and India stretching in -flattering vista before his fancy, entered with eagerness on the chase -of this illusion. Early in the spring of 1613 the unwearied voyager -crossed the Atlantic, and sailed up the St. Lawrence. On Monday, -the twenty-seventh of May, he left the island of St. Helen, opposite -Montreal, with four Frenchmen, one of whom was Nicolas de Vignau, and -one Indian, in two small canoes. They passed the swift current at St. -Ann's, crossed the Lake of Two Mountains, and advanced up the Ottawa -till the rapids of Carillon and the Long Saut checked their course. So -dense and tangled was the forest, that they were forced to remain in the -bed of the river, trailing their canoes along the bank with cords, or -pushing them by main force up the current. Champlain's foot slipped; -he fell in the rapids, two boulders, against which he braced himself, -saving him from being swept down, while the cord of the canoe, twisted -round his hand, nearly severed it. At length they reached smoother -water, and presently met fifteen canoes of friendly Indians. Champlain -gave them the most awkward of his Frenchmen and took one of their number -in return,--an exchange greatly to his profit. - -All day they plied their paddles, and when night came they made their -camp-fire in the forest. He who now, when two centuries and a half are -passed, would see the evening bivouac of Champlain, has but to encamp, -with Indian guides, on the upper waters of this same Ottawa, or on the -borders of some lonely river of New Brunswick or of Maine. - -Day dawned. The east glowed with tranquil fire, that pierced with eyes -of flame the fir-trees whose jagged tops stood drawn in black against -the burning heaven. Beneath, the glossy river slept in shadow, or spread -far and wide in sheets of burnished bronze; and the white moon, paling -in the face of day, hung like a disk of silver in the western sky. Now a -fervid light touched the dead top of the hemlock, and creeping downward -bathed the mossy beard of the patriarchal cedar, unstirred in the -breathless air; now a fiercer spark beamed from the east; and now, half -risen on the sight, a dome of crimson fire, the sun blazed with floods -of radiance across the awakened wilderness. - -The canoes were launched again, and the voyagers held their course. -Soon the still surface was flecked with spots of foam; islets of froth -floated by, tokens of some great convulsion. Then, on their left, the -falling curtain of the Rideau shone like silver betwixt its bordering -woods, and in front, white as a snowdrift, the cataracts of the -Chaudiere barred their way. They saw the unbridled river careering down -its sheeted rocks, foaming in unfathomed chasms, wearying the solitude -with the hoarse outcry of its agony and rage. - -On the brink of the rocky basin where the plunging torrent boiled like -a caldron, and puffs of spray sprang out from its concussion like smoke -from the throat of a cannon, Champlain's two Indians took their stand, -and, with a loud invocation, threw tobacco into the foam,--an offering -to the local spirit, the Manitou of the cataract. - -They shouldered their canoes over the rocks, and through the woods; then -launched them again, and, with toil and struggle, made their amphibious -way, pushing dragging, lifting, paddling, shoving with poles; till, -when the evening sun poured its level rays across the quiet Lake of -the Chaudiere, they landed, and made their camp on the verge of a woody -island. - -Day by day brought a renewal of their toils. Hour by hour, they moved -prosperously up the long windings of the solitary stream; then, in quick -succession, rapid followed rapid, till the bed of the Ottawa seemed a -slope of foam. Now, like a wall bristling at the top with woody islets, -the Falls of the Chats faced them with the sheer plunge of their sixteen -cataracts; now they glided beneath overhanging cliffs, where, seeing but -unseen, the crouched wildcat eyed them from the thicket; now through the -maze of water-girded rocks, which the white cedar and the spruce clasped -with serpent-like roots, or among islands where old hemlocks darkened -the water with deep green shadow. Here, too, the rock-maple reared its -verdant masses, the beech its glistening leaves and clean, smooth stem, -and behind, stiff and sombre, rose the balsam-fir. Here in the tortuous -channels the muskrat swam and plunged, and the splashing wild duck dived -beneath the alders or among the red and matted roots of thirsty water -willows. Aloft, the white-pine towered above a sea of verdure; old -fir-trees, hoary and grim, shaggy with pendent mosses, leaned above the -stream, and beneath, dead and submerged, some fallen oak thrust from the -current its bare, bleached limbs, like the skeleton of a drowned giant. -In the weedy cove stood the moose, neck-deep in water to escape the -flies, wading shoreward, with glistening sides, as the canoes drew near, -shaking his broad antlers and writhing his hideous nostril, as with -clumsy trot he vanished in the woods. - -In these ancient wilds, to whose ever verdant antiquity the pyramids are -young and Nineveh a mushroom of yesterday; where the sage wanderer -of the Odyssey, could he have urged his pilgrimage so far, would have -surveyed the same grand and stern monotony, the same dark sweep of -melancholy woods;--here, while New England was a solitude, and the -settlers of Virginia scarcely dared venture inland beyond the sound of a -cannon-shot, Champlain was planting on shores and islands the emblems -of his faith. Of the pioneers of the North American forests, his name -stands foremost on the list. It was he who struck the deepest and -boldest strokes into the heart of their pristine barbarism. At -Chantilly, at Fontainebleau, Paris, in the cabinets of princes and of -royalty itself, mingling with the proud vanities of the court; then lost -from sight in the depths of Canada, the companion of savages, sharer of -their toils, privations, and battles, more hardy, patient, and bold than -they;--such, for successive years, were the alternations of this man's -life. - -To follow on his trail once more. His Indians said that the rapids -of the river above were impassable. Nicolas de Vignan affirmed the -contrary; but, from the first, Vignau had been found always in the -wrong. His aim seems to have been to involve his leader in difficulties, -and disgust him with a journey which must soon result in exposing -the imposture which had occasioned it. Champlain took counsel of the -Indians. The party left the river, and entered the forest. - -"We had a hard march," says Champlain. "I carried for my share of -the luggage three arquebuses, three paddles, my overcoat, and a few -bagatelles. My men carried a little more than I did, and suffered more -from the mosquitoes than from their loads. After we had passed four -small ponds and advanced two leagues and a half, we were so tired that -we could go no farther, having eaten nothing but a little roasted fish -for nearly twenty-four hours. So we stopped in a pleasant place enough -by the edge of a pond, and lighted a fire to drive off the mosquitoes, -which plagued us beyond all description; and at the same time we set our -nets to catch a few fish." - -On the next day they fared still worse, for their way was through a pine -forest where a tornado had passed, tearing up the trees and piling them -one upon another in a vast "windfall," where boughs, roots, and trunks -were mixed in confusion. Sometimes they climbed over and sometimes -crawled through these formidable barricades, till, after an exhausting -march, they reached the banks of Muskrat Lake, by the edge of which was -an Indian settlement. - -This neighborhood was the seat of the principal Indian population of the -river, and, as the canoes advanced, unwonted signs of human life could -be seen on the borders of the lake. Here was a rough clearing. The trees -had been burned; there was a rude and desolate gap in the sombre green -of the pine forest. Dead trunks, blasted and black with fire, stood -grimly upright amid the charred stumps and prostrate bodies of comrades -half consumed. In the intervening spaces, the soil had been feebly -scratched with hoes of wood or bone, and a crop of maize was growing, -now some four inches high. The dwellings of these slovenly farmers, -framed of poles covered with sheets of bark, were scattered here and -there, singly or in groups, while their tenants were running to the -shore in amazement. The chief, Nibachis, offered the calumet, then -harangued the crowd: "These white men must have fallen from the clouds. -How else could they have reached us through the woods and rapids which -even we find it hard to pass? The French chief can do anything. All -that we have heard of him must he true." And they hastened to regale the -hungry visitors with a repast of fish. - -Champlain asked for guidance to the settlements above. It was readily -granted. Escorted by his friendly hosts, he advanced beyond the foot -of Muskrat Lake, and, landing, saw the unaccustomed sight of pathways -through the forest. They led to the clearings and cabins of a chief -named Tessonat, who, amazed at the apparition of the white strangers, -exclaimed that he must be in a dream. Next, the voyagers crossed to the -neighboring island, then deeply wooded with pine, elm, and oak. Here -were more desolate clearings, more rude cornfields and bark-built -cabins. Here, too, was a cemetery, which excited the wonder of -Champlain, for the dead were better cared for than the living. Each -grave was covered with a double row of pieces of wood, inclined like -a roof till they crossed at the ridge, a long which was laid a thick -tablet of wood, meant apparently either to bind the whole together or -protect it from rain. At one end stood an upright tablet, or flattened -post, rudely carved with an intended representation of the features -of the deceased. If a chief, the head was adorned with a plume. If a -warrior, there were figures near it of a shield, a lance, a war-club, -and a bow and arrows; if a boy, of a small bow and one arrow; and if -a woman or a girl, of a kettle, an earthen pot, a wooden spoon, and a -paddle. The whole was decorated with red and yellow paint; and beneath -slept the departed, wrapped in a robe of skins, his earthly treasures -about him, ready for use in the land of souls. - -Tessouat was to give a tabagie, or solemn feast, in honor of Champlain, -and the chiefs and elders of the island were invited. Runners were -sent to summon the guests from neighboring hamlets; and, on the morrow, -Tessonat's squaws swept his cabin for the festivity. Then Champlain and -his Frenchmen were seated on skins in the place of honor, and the naked -guests appeared in quick succession, each with his wooden dish and -spoon, and each ejaculating his guttural salute as he stooped at the low -door. The spacious cabin was full. The congregated wisdom and prowess of -the nation sat expectant on the bare earth. Each long, bare arm thrust -forth its dish in turn as the host served out the banquet, in which, -as courtesy enjoined, he himself was to have no share. First, a mess of -pounded maize, in which were boiled, without salt, morsels of fish and -dark scraps of meat; then, fish and flesh broiled on the embers, with -a kettle of cold water from the river. Champlain, in wise distrust -of Ottawa cookery, confined himself to the simpler and less doubtful -viands. A few minutes, and all alike had vanished. The kettles were -empty. Then pipes were filled and touched with fire brought in by the -squaws, while the young men who had stood thronged about the entrance -now modestly withdrew, and the door was closed for counsel. - -First, the pipes were passed to Champlain. Then, for full half an hour, -the assembly smoked in silence. At length, when the fitting time was -come, he addressed them in a speech in which he declared, that, moved by -affection for them, he visited their country to see its richness and its -beauty, and to aid them in their wars; and he now begged them to furnish -him with four canoes and eight men, to convey him to the country of the -Nipissings, a tribe dwelling northward on the lake which bears their -name. - -His audience looked grave, for they were but cold and jealous friends -of the Nipissings. For a time they discoursed in murmuring tones among -themselves, all smoking meanwhile with redoubled vigor. Then Tessouat, -chief of these forest republicans, rose and spoke in behalf of all:--"We -always knew you for our best friend among the Frenchmen. We love you -like our own children. But why did you break your word with us last year -when we all went down to meet you at Montreal, to give you presents and -go with you to war? You were not there, but other Frenchmen were there -who abused us. We will never go again. As for the four canoes, you -shall have them if you insist upon it; but it grieves us to think of -the hardships you must endure. The Nipissings have weak hearts. They are -good for nothing in war, but they kill us with charms, and they poison -us. Therefore we are on bad terms with them. They will kill you, too." - -Such was the pith of Tessouat's discourse, and at each clause the -conclave responded in unison with an approving grunt. - -Champlain urged his petition; sought to relieve their tender scruples in -his behalf; assured them that he was charm-proof, and that he feared no -hardships. At length he gained his point. The canoes and the men were -promised, and, seeing himself as he thought on the highway to his -phantom Northern Sea, he left his entertainers to their pipes, and with -a light heart issued from the close and smoky den to breathe the fresh -air of the afternoon. He visited the Indian fields, with their young -crops of pumpkins, beans, and French peas,--the last a novelty obtained -from the traders. Here, Thomas, the interpreter, soon joined him with a -countenance of ill news. In the absence of Champlain, the assembly had -reconsidered their assent. The canoes were denied. - -With a troubled mind he hastened again to the hall of council, and -addressed the naked senate in terms better suited to his exigencies than -to their dignity: - -"I thought you were men; I thought you would hold fast to your word: but -I find you children, without truth. You call yourselves my friends, yet -you break faith with me. Still I would not incommode you; and if you -cannot give me four canoes, two will Serve." - -The burden of the reply was, rapids, rocks, cataracts, and the -wickedness of the Nipissings. "We will not give you the canoes, because -we are afraid of losing you," they said. - -"This young man," rejoined Champlain, pointing to Vignau, who sat by -his side, "has been to their country, and did not find the road or the -people so bad as you have said." - -"Nicolas," demanded Tessouat, "did you say that you had been to the -Nipissings?" - -The impostor sat mute for a time, and then replied, "Yes, I have been -there." - -Hereupon an outcry broke from the assembly, and they turned their eyes -on him askance, "as if," says Champlain, "they would have torn and eaten -him." - -"You are a liar," returned the unceremonious host; "you know very well -that you slept here among my children every night, and got up again -every morning; and if you ever went to the Nipissings, it must have -been when you were asleep. How can you be so impudent as to lie to your -chief, and so wicked as to risk his life among so many dangers? He -ought to kill you with tortures worse than those with which we kill our -enemies." - -Champlain urged him to reply, but he sat motionless and dumb. Then he -led him from the cabin, and conjured him to declare if in truth he had -seen this sea of the north. Vignan, with oaths, affirmed that all he -had said was true. Returning to the council, Champlain repeated the -impostor's story--how he had seen the sea, the wreck of an English ship, -the heads of eighty Englishmen, and an English boy, prisoner among the -Indians. - -At this, an outcry rose louder than before, and the Indians turned in -ire upon Vignan. - -"You are a liar." "Which way did you go?" "By what rivers?" "By what -lakes?" "Who went with you?" - -Vignan had made a map of his travels, which Champlain now produced, -desiring him to explain it to his questioners; but his assurance failed -him, and he could not utter a word. - -Champlain was greatly agitated. His heart was in the enterprise, his -reputation was in a measure at stake; and now, when he thought his -triumph so near, he shrank from believing himself the sport of an -impudent impostor. The council broke up,--the Indians displeased and -moody, and he, on his part, full of anxieties and doubts. - -"I called Vignau to me in presence of his companions," he says. "I -told him that the time for deceiving me was ended; that he must tell me -whether or not he had really seen the things he had told of; that I had -forgotten the past, but that, if he continued to mislead me, I would -have him hanged without mercy." - -Vignau pondered for a moment; then fell on his knees, owned his -treachery, and begged forgiveness. Champlain broke into a rage, and, -unable, as he says, to endure the sight of him, ordered him from -his presence, and sent the interpreter after him to make further -examination. Vanity, the love of notoriety, and the hope of reward, seem -to have been his inducements; for he had in fact spent a quiet winter in -Tessonat's cabin, his nearest approach to the northern sea; and he had -flattered himself that he might escape the necessity of guiding his -commander to this pretended discovery. The Indians were somewhat -exultant. - -"Why did you not listen to chiefs and warriors, instead of believing the -lies of this fellow?" And they counselled Champlain to have him killed -at once, adding, "Give him to us, and we promise you that he shall never -lie again." - -No motive remaining for farther advance, the party set out on their -return, attended by a fleet of forty canoes bound to Montreal for trade. -They passed the perilous rapids of the Calumet, and were one night -encamped on an island, when an Indian, slumbering in an uneasy posture, -was visited with a nightmare. He leaped up with a yell, screamed, that -somebody was killing him, and ran for refuge into the river. Instantly -all his companions sprang to their feet, and, hearing in fancy the -Iroquois war-whoop, took to the water, splashing, diving, and wading -up to their necks, in the blindness of their fright. Champlain and his -Frenchmen, roused at the noise, snatched their weapons and looked in -vain for an enemy. The panic-stricken warriors, reassured at length, -waded crestfallen ashore, and the whole ended in a laugh. - -At the Chaudiere, a contribution of tobacco was collected on a wooden -platter, and, after a solemn harangue, was thrown to the guardian -Manitou. On the seventeenth of June they approached Montreal, where the -assembled traders greeted them with discharges of small arms and cannon. -Here, among the rest, was Champlain's lieutenant, Du Parc, with his -men, who had amused their leisure with hunting, and were revelling in a -sylvan abundance, while their baffled chief, with worry of mind, fatigue -of body, and a Lenten diet of half-cooked fish, was grievously fallen -away in flesh and strength. He kept his word with DeVignau, left the -scoundrel unpunished, bade farewell to the Indians, and, promising to -rejoin then the next year, embarked in one of the trading-ships for -France. - - - - - -CHAPTER XIII. - -1615. - -DISCOVERY OF LAKE HURON. - -In New France, spiritual and temporal interests were inseparably -blended, and, as will hereafter appear, the conversion of the Indians -was used as a means of commercial and political growth. But, with -the single-hearted founder of the colony, considerations of material -advantage, though clearly recognized, were no less clearly subordinate. -He would fain rescue from perdition a people living, as he says, "like -brute beasts, without faith, without law, without religion, without -God." While the want of funds and the indifference of his merchant -associates, who as yet did not fully see that their trade would find in -the missions its surest ally, were threatening to wreck his benevolent -schemes, he found a kindred spirit in his friend Houd, secretary to the -King, and comptroller-general of the salt-works of Bronage. Near this -town was a convent of Recollet friars, some of whom were well known to -Houel. To them he addressed himself; and several of the brotherhood, -"inflamed," we are told, "with charity," were eager to undertake the -mission. But the Recollets, mendicants by profession, were as weak in -resources as Champlain himself. He repaired to Paris, then filled -with bishops, cardinals, and nobles, assembled for the States-General. -Responding to his appeal, they subscribed fifteen hundred livres for the -purchase of vestments, candles, and ornaments for altars. The King gave -letters patent in favor of the mission, and the Pope gave it his formal -authorization. By this instrument the papacy in the person of Paul the -Fifth virtually repudiated the action of the papacy in the person -of Alexander the Sixth, who had proclaimed all America the exclusive -property of Spain. - -The Recollets form a branch of the great Franciscan Order, founded early -in the thirteenth century by Saint Francis of Assisi. Saint, hero, or -madman, according to the point of view from which he is regarded, he -belonged to an era of the Church when the tumult of invading heresies -awakened in her defence a band of impassioned champions, widely -different from the placid saints of an earlier age. He was very young -when dreams and voices began to reveal to him his vocation, and kindle -his high-wrought nature to sevenfold heat. Self-respect, natural -affection, decency, became in his eyes but stumbling-blocks and snares. -He robbed his father to build a church; and, like so many of the Roman -Catholic saints, confounded filth with humility, exchanged clothes with -beggars, and walked the streets of Assisi in rags amid the hootings of -his townsmen. He vowed perpetual poverty and perpetual beggary, and, in -token of his renunciation of the world, stripped himself naked before -the Bishop of Assisi, and then begged of him in charity a peasant's -mantle. Crowds gathered to his fervid and dramatic eloquence. His -handful of disciples multiplied, till Europe became thickly dotted with -their convents. At the end of the eighteenth century, the three Orders -of Saint Francis numbered a hundred and fifteen thousand friars and -twenty-eight thousand nuns. Four popes, forty-five cardinals, and -forty-six canonized martyrs were enrolled on their record, besides about -two thousand more who had shed their blood for the faith. Their missions -embraced nearly all the known world; and, in 1621, there were in Spanish -America alone five hundred Franciscan convents. - -In process of time the Franciscans had relaxed their ancient rigor; -but much of their pristine spirit still subsisted in the Recollets, -a reformed branch of the Order, sometimes known as Franciscans of the -Strict Observance. - -Four of their number were named for the mission of New France,--Denis -Jamay, Jean Dolbean, Joseph le Caron, and the lay brother Pacifique du -Plessis. "They packed their church ornaments," says Champlain, "and -we, our luggage." All alike confessed their sins, and, embarking -at Honfleur, reached Quebec at the end of May, 1615. Great was the -perplexity of the Indians as the apostolic mendicants landed beneath the -rock. Their garb was a form of that common to the brotherhood of Saint -Francis, consisting of a rude garment of coarse gray cloth, girt at the -waist with the knotted cord of the Order, and furnished with a peaked -hood, to be drawn over the head. Their naked feet were shod with wooden -sandals, more than an inch thick. - -Their first care was to choose a site for their convent, near the -fortified dwellings and storehouses built by Champlain. This done, -they made an altar, and celebrated the first mass ever said in Canada. -Dolbean was the officiating priest; all New France kneeled on the bare -earth around him, and cannon from the ship and the ramparts hailed -the mystic rite. Then, in imitation of the Apostles, they took counsel -together, and assigned to each his province in the vast field of their -mission,--to Le Caron the Hurons, and to Dolbean the Montagnais; while -Jamay and Du Plessis were to remain for the present near Quebec. - -Dolbean, full of zeal, set out for his post, and in the next winter -tried to follow the roving hordes of Tadoussac to their frozen -hunting-grounds. He was not robust, and his eyes were weak. Lodged in -a hut of birch bark, full of abominations, dogs, fleas, stench, and all -uncleanness, he succumbed at length to the smoke, which had wellnigh -blinded him, forcing him to remain for several days with his eyes -closed. After debating within himself whether God required of him -the sacrifice of his sight, he solved his doubts with a negative, and -returned to Quebec, only to depart again with opening spring on a tour -so extensive that it brought him in contact with outlying bands of the -Esquimaux. Meanwhile Le Caron had long been absent on a more noteworthy -mission. - -While his brethren were building their convent and garnishing their -altar at Quebec, the ardent friar had hastened to the site of Montreal, -then thronged with a savage concourse come down for the yearly trade. -he mingled with them, studied their manners, tried to learn their -languages, and, when Champlain and Pontgrave arrived, declared his -purpose of wintering in their villages. Dissuasion availed nothing. -"What," he demanded, "are privations to him whose life is devoted to -perpetual poverty, and who has no ambition but to serve God?" - -The assembled Indians were more eager for temporal than for spiritual -succor, and beset Champlain with clamors for aid against the Iroquois. -He and Pontgrave were of one mind. The aid demanded must be given, -and that from no motive of the hour, but in pursuance of a deliberate -policy. It was evident that the innumerable tribes of New France, -otherwise divided, were united in a common fear and hate of these -formidable bands, who, in the strength of their fivefold league, spread -havoc and desolation through all the surrounding wilds. It was the -aim of Champlain, as of his successors, to persuade the threatened and -endangered hordes to live at peace with each other, and to form against -the common foe a virtual league, of which the French colony would be the -heart and the head, and which would continually widen with the widening -area of discovery. With French soldiers to fight their battles, French -priests to baptize them, and French traders to supply their increasing -wants, their dependence would be complete. They would become assured -tributaries to the growth of New France. It was a triple alliance of -soldier, priest, and trader. The soldier might be a roving knight, and -the priest a martyr and a saint; but both alike were subserving the -interests of that commerce which formed the only solid basis of the -colony. The scheme of English colonization made no account of the Indian -tribes. In the scheme of French colonization they were all in all. - -In one point the plan was fatally defective, since it involved the -deadly enmity of a race whose character and whose power were as yet but -ill understood,--the fiercest, boldest, most politic, and most ambitious -savages to whom the American forest has ever given birth. - -The chiefs and warriors met in council,--Algonquins of the Ottawa, and -Hurons from the borders of the great Fresh-Water Sea. Champlain promised -to join them with all the men at his command, while they, on their part, -were to muster without delay twenty-five hundred warriors for an inroad -into the country of the Iroquois. He descended at once to Quebec for -needful preparation; but when, after a short delay, he returned to -Montreal, he found, to his chagrin, a solitude. The wild concourse had -vanished; nothing remained but the skeleton poles of their huts, the -smoke of their fires, and the refuse of their encampments. Impatient at -his delay, they had set out for their villages, and with them had gone -Father Joseph le Caron. - -Twelve Frenchmen, well armed, had attended him. Summer was at its -height, and as his canoe stole along the bosom of the glassy river, and -he gazed about him on the tawny multitude whose fragile craft covered -the water like swarms of gliding insects, he thought, perhaps, of his -whitewashed cell in the convent of Brouage, of his book, his table, his -rosary, and all the narrow routine of that familiar life from which he -had awakened to contrasts so startling. That his progress up the Ottawa -was far from being an excursion of pleasure is attested by his letters, -fragments of which have come down to us. - -"It would be hard to tell you," he writes to a friend, "how tired I was -with paddling all day, with all my strength, among the Indians; wading -the rivers a hundred times and more, through the mud and over the sharp -rocks that cut my feet; carrying the canoe and luggage through the woods -to avoid the rapids and frightful cataracts; and half starved all the -while, for we had nothing to eat but a little sagantite, a sort of -porridge of water and pounded maize, of which they gave us a very -small allowance every morning and night. But I must needs tell you what -abundant consolation I found under all my troubles; for when one sees so -many infidels needing nothing but a drop of water to make them children -of God, one feels an inexpressible ardor to labor for their conversion, -and sacrifice to it one's repose and life." - -Another Recollet, Gabriel Sagard, followed the same route in similar -company a few years later, and has left an account of his experience, -of which Le Caron's was the counterpart. Sagard reckons from eighty to a -hundred waterfalls and rapids in the course of the journey, and the task -of avoiding them by pushing through the woods was the harder for him -because he saw fit to go barefoot, "in imitation of our seraphic father, -Saint Francis." "We often came upon rocks, mudholes, and fallen trees, -which we had to scramble over, and sometimes we must force our way with -head and hands through dense woods and thickets, without road or path. -When the time came, my Indians looked for a good place to pass the -night. Some went for dry wood; others for poles to make a shed; others -kindled a fire, and hung the kettle to a stick stuck aslant in the -ground; and others looked for two flat stones to bruise the Indian corn, -of which they make sagamite." - -This sagamite was an extremely thin porridge; and, though scraps of fish -were now and then boiled in it, the friar pined away daily on this -weak and scanty fare, which was, moreover, made repulsive to him by -the exceeding filthiness of the cookery. Nevertheless, he was forced -to disguise his feelings. "One must always keep a smiling, modest, -contented face, and now and then sing a hymn, both for his own -consolation and to please and edify the savages, who take a singular -pleasure in hearing us sing the praises of our God." Among all his -trials, none afflicted him so much as the flies and mosquitoes. "If I -had not kept my face wrapped in a cloth, I am almost sure they would -have blinded me, so pestiferous and poisonous are the bites of these -little demons. They make one look like a leper, hideous to the sight. -I confess that this is the worst martyrdom I suffered in this country; -hunger, thirst, weariness, and fever are nothing to it. These little -beasts not only persecute you all day, but at night they get into your -eyes and mouth, crawl under your clothes, or stick their long stings -through them, and make such a noise that it distracts your attention, -and prevents you from saying your prayers." He reckons three or four -kinds of them, and adds, that in the Montagnais country there is still -another kind, so small that they can hardly be seen, but which "bite -like devils' imps." The sportsman who has bivouacked in the woods -of Maine will at once recognize the minute tormentors there known as -"no-see-'ems." - -While through tribulations like these Le Caron made his way towards the -scene of his apostleship, Champlain was following on his track. With -two canoes, ten Indians, Etienne Brule his interpreter, and another -Frenchman, he pushed up the Ottawa till he reached the Algonquin -villages which had formed the term of his former journeying. He passed -the two lakes of the Allumettes; and now, for twenty miles, the river -stretched before him, straight as the bee can fly, deep, narrow, and -black, between its mountain shores. He passed the rapids of the Joachims -and the Caribou, the Rocher Capitamne, and the Deux Rivieres, and -reached at length the trihutary waters of the Mattawan. He turned to the -left, ascended this little stream forty miles or more, and, crossing a -portage track, well trodden, reached the margin of Lake Nipissing. -The canoes were launched again, and glided by leafy shores and verdant -islands till at length appeared signs of human life and clusters of bark -lodges, half hidden in the vastness of the woods. It was the village of -an Algonquin band, called the Nipissings,--a race so beset with spirits, -infested by demons, and abounding in magicians, that the Jesuits -afterwards stigmatized them as "the Sorcerers." In this questionable -company Champlain spent two days, feasted on fish, deer, and bears. -Then, descending to the outlet of the lake, he steered his canoes -westward down the current of French River. - -Days passed, and no sign of man enlivened the rocky desolation. Hunger -was pressing them hard, for the ten gluttonous Indians had devoured -already nearly all their provision for the voyage, and they were forced -to subsist on the blueberries and wild raspberries that grew abundantly -in the meagre soil, when suddenly they encountered a troop of three -hundred savages, whom, from their strange and startling mode of wearing -their hair, Champlain named the Cheveux Releves. "Not one of our -courtiers," he says, "takes so much pains in dressing his locks." Here, -however, their care of the toilet ended; for, though tattooed on various -parts of the body, painted, and armed with bows, arrows, and shields of -bison-hide, they wore no clothing whatever. Savage as was their aspect, -they were busied in the pacific task of gathering blueberries for their -winter store. Their demeanor was friendly; and from them the voyager -learned that the great lake of the Hurons was close at hand. - -Now, far along the western sky was traced the watery line of that inland -ocean, and, first of white men except the Friar Le Caron, Champlain -beheld the "Mer Douce," the Fresh-Water Sea of the Hurons. Before him, -too far for sight, lay the spirit-haunted Manitonalins, and, southward, -spread the vast bosom of the Georgian Bay. For more than a hundred -miles, his course was along its eastern shores, among islets countless -as the sea-sands,--an archipelago of rocks worn for ages by the wash of -waves. He crossed Byng Inlet, Franklin Inlet, Parry Sound, and the wider -bay of Matchedash, and seems to have landed at the inlet now called -Thunder Bay, at the entrance of the Bay of Matchedash, and a little west -of the Harbor of Penetanguishine. - -An Indian trail led inland, through woods and thickets, across broad -meadows, over brooks, and along the skirts of green acclivities. To the -eye of Champlain, accustomed to the desolation he had left behind, -it seemed a land of beauty and abundance. He reached at last a broad -opening in the forest, with fields of maize, pumpkins ripening in the -sun, patches of sunflowers, from the seeds of which the Indians -made hair-oil, and, in the midst, the Huron town of Otonacha. In all -essential points, it resembled that which Cartier, eighty years -before, had seen at Montreal,--the same triple palisade of crossed and -intersecting trunks, and the same long lodges of bark, each containing -several families. Here, within an area of thirty or forty miles, was the -seat of one of the most remarkable savage communities on the continent. -By the Indian standard, it was a mighty nation; yet the entire Huron -population did not exceed that of a third or fourth class American city. - -To the south and southeast lay other tribes of kindred race and tongue, -all stationary, all tillers of the soil, and all in a state of social -advancement when compared with the roving bands of Eastern Canada: -the Neutral Nation west of the Niagara, and the Eries and Andastes in -Western New York and Pennsylvania; while from the Genesee eastward to -the Hudson lay the banded tribes of the Iroquois, leading members of -this potent family, deadly foes of their kindred, and at last their -destroyers. - -In Champlain the Hurons saw the champion who was to lead them to -victory. There was bountiful feasting in his honor in the great lodge at -Otonacha; and other welcome, too, was tendered, of which the Hurons were -ever liberal, but which, with all courtesy, was declined by the virtuous -Champlain. Next, he went to Carmaron, a league distant, and then -to Tonagnainchain and Tequenonquihayc; till at length he reached -Carhagouha, with its triple palisade thirty-five feet high. Here he -found Le Caron. The Indians, eager to do him honor, were building for -him a bark lodge in the neighboring forest, fashioned like their own, -but much smaller. In it the friar made an altar, garnished with those -indispensable decorations which he had brought with him through all the -vicissitudes of his painful journeying; and hither, night and day, came -a curious multitude to listen to his annunciation of the new doctrine. -It was a joyful hour when he saw Champlain approach his hermitage; and -the two men embraced like brothers long sundered. - -The twelfth of August was a day evermore marked with white in the -friar's calendar. Arrayed in priestly vestments, he stood before his -simple altar; behind him his little band of Christians,--the twelve -Frenchmen who had attended him, and the two who had followed Champlain. -Here stood their devout and valiant chief, and, at his side, that -pioneer of pioneers, Etienne Brule the interpreter. The Host was raised -aloft; the worshippers kneeled. Then their rough voices joined in -the hymn of praise, Te Deum laudamus; and then a volley of their guns -proclaimed the triumph of the faith to the okies, the manitous, and all -the brood of anomalous devils who had reigned with undisputed sway in -these wild realms of darkness. The brave friar, a true soldier of the -Church, had led her forlorn hope into the fastnesses of hell; and now, -with contented heart, he might depart in peace, for he had said the -first mass in the country of the Hurons. - - - - - -CHAPTER XIV. - -1615, 1616. - -THE GREAT WAR PARTY. - -The lot of the favored guest of an Indian camp or village is idleness -without repose, for he is never left alone, with the repletion of -incessant and inevitable feasts. Tired of this inane routine, Champlain, -with some of his Frenchmen, set forth on a tour of observation. -Journeying at their ease by the Indian trails, they visited, in three -days, five palisaded villages. The country delighted them, with its -meadows, its deep woods, its pine and cedar thickets, full of hares and -partridges, its wild grapes and plums, cherries, crab-apples, nuts, -and raspberries. It was the seventeenth of August when they reached the -Huron metropolis, Cahiague, in the modern township of Orillia, three -leagues west of the river Severn, by which Lake Simcoe pours its waters -into the bay of Matchedash. A shrill clamor of rejoicing, the fixed -stare of wondering squaws, and the screaming flight of terrified -children hailed the arrival of Champlain. By his estimate, the place -contained two hundred lodges; but they must have been relatively small, -since, had they been of the enormous capacity sometimes found in these -structures, Cahiague alone would have held the whole Huron population. -Here was the chief rendezvous, and the town swarmed with gathering -warriors. There was cheering news; for an allied nation, called -Carantonans, probably identical with the Andastes, had promised to join -the Hurons in the enemy's country, with five hundred men. Feasts and -the war-dance consumed the days, till at length the tardy bands had all -arrived; and, shouldering their canoes and scanty baggage, the naked -host set forth. - -At the outlet of Lake Simcoe they all stopped to fish,--their simple -substitute for a commissariat. Hence, too, the intrepid Etienne Brule, -at his own request, was sent with twelve Indians to hasten forward the -five hundred allied warriors,--a dangerous venture, since his course -must lie through the borders of the Iroquois. - -He set out on the eighth of September, and on the morning of the tenth, -Champlain, shivering in his blanket, awoke to see the meadows sparkling -with an early frost, soon to vanish under the bright autumnal sun. The -Huron fleet pursued its course along Lake Simcoe, across the portage -to Balsam or Sturgeon Lake, and down the chain of lakes which form the -sources of the river Trent. As the long line of canoes moved on its way, -no human life was seen, no sign of friend or foe; yet at times, to the -fancy of Champlain, the borders of the stream seemed decked with groves -and shrubbery by the hands of man, and the walnut trees, laced with -grape-vines, seemed decorations of a pleasure-ground. - -They stopped and encamped for a deer-hunt. Five hundred Indians, in -line, like the skirmishers of an army advancing to battle, drove the -game to the end of a woody point; and the canoe-men killed them with -spears and arrows as they took to the river. Champlain and his men -keenly relished the sport, but paid a heavy price for their pleasure. A -Frenchman, firing at a buck, brought down an Indian, and there was need -of liberal gifts to console the sufferer and his friends. - -The canoes now issued from the mouth of the Trent. Like a flock of -venturous wild-fowl, they put boldly out upon Lake Ontario, crossed it -in safety, and landed within the borders of New York, on or near the -point of land west of Hungry Bay. After hiding their light craft in -the woods, the warriors took up their swift and wary march, filing -in silence between the woods and the lake, for four leagues along the -strand. Then they struck inland, threaded the forest, crossed the outlet -of Lake Oneida, and after a march of four days, were deep within the -limits of the Iroquois. On the ninth of October some of their scouts met -a fishing-party of this people, and captured them,--eleven in number, -men, women, and children. They were brought to the camp of the exultant -Hurons. As a beginning of the jubilation, a chief cut off a finger -of one of the women, but desisted from further torturing on the angry -protest of Champlain, reserving that pleasure for a more convenient -season. - -On the next day they reached an open space in the forest. The hostile -town was close at hand, surrounded by rugged fields with a slovenly and -savage cultivation. The young Hurons in advance saw the Iroquois at work -among the pumpkins and maize, gathering their rustling harvest. Nothing -could restrain the hare-brained and ungoverned crew. They screamed their -war-cry and rushed in; but the Iroquois snatched their weapons, killed -and wounded five or six of the assailants, and drove back the rest -discomfited. Champlain and his Frenchmen were forced to interpose; and -the report of their pieces from the border of the woods stopped the -pursuing enemy, who withdrew to their defences, bearing with them their -dead and wounded. - -It appears to have been a fortified town of the Onondagas, the central -tribe of the Iroquois confederacy, standing, there is some reason to -believe, within the limits of Madison County, a few miles south of Lake -Oneida. Champlain describes its defensive works as much stronger than -those of the Huron villages. They consisted of four concentric rows of -palisades, formed of trunks of trees, thirty feet high, set aslant -in the earth, and intersecting each other near the top, where they -supported a kind of gallery, well defended by shot-proof timber, and -furnished with wooden gutters for quenching fire. A pond or lake, which -washed one side of the palisade, and was led by sluices within the town, -gave an ample supply of water, while the galleries were well provided -with magazines of stones. - -Champlain was greatly exasperated at the desultory and futile procedure -of his Huron allies. Against his advice, they now withdrew to the -distance of a cannon-shot from the fort, and encamped in the forest, out -of sight of the enemy. "I was moved," he says, "to speak to them roughly -and harshly enough, in order to incite them to do their duty; for I -foresaw that if things went according to their fancy, nothing but harm -could come of it, to their loss and ruin. He proceeded, therefore, to -instruct them in the art of war." - -In the morning, aided doubtless by his ten or twelve Frenchmen, they set -themselves with alacrity to their prescribed task. A wooden tower was -made, high enough to overlook the palisade, and large enough to shelter -four or five marksmen. Huge wooden shields, or movable parapets, like -the mantelets of the Middle Ages, were also constructed. Four hours -sufficed to finish the work, and then the assault began. Two hundred of -the strongest warriors dragged the tower forward, and planted it within -a pike's length of the palisade. Three arquebusiers mounted to the top, -where, themselves well sheltered, they opened a raking fire along the -galleries, now thronged with wild and naked defenders. But nothing could -restrain the ungovernable Hurons. They abandoned their mantelets, -and, deaf to every command, swarmed out like bees upon the open field, -leaped, shouted, shrieked their war-cries, and shot off their arrows; -while the Iroquois, yelling defiance from their ramparts, sent back a -shower of stones and arrows in reply. A Huron, bolder than the rest, ran -forward with firebrands to burn the palisade, and others followed with -wood to feed the flame. But it was stupidly kindled on the leeward side, -without the protecting shields designed to cover it; and torrents of -water, poured down from the gutters above, quickly extinguished it. The -confusion was redoubled. Champlain strove in vain to restore order. Each -warrior was yelling at the top of his throat, and his voice was drowned -in the outrageous din. Thinking, as he says, that his head would split -with shouting, he gave over the attempt, and busied himself and his men -with picking off the Iroquois along their ramparts. - -The attack lasted three hours, when the assailants fell back to their -fortified camp, with seventeen warriors wounded. Champlain, too, had -received an arrow in the knee, and another in the leg, which, for the -time, disabled him. He was urgent, however, to renew the attack; while -the Hurons, crestfallen and disheartened, refused to move from their -camp unless the five hundred allies, for some time expected, should -appear. They waited five days in vain, beguiling the interval with -frequent skirmishes, in which they were always worsted; then began -hastily to retreat, carrying their wounded in the centre, while the -Iroquois, sallying from their stronghold, showered arrows on their -flanks and rear. The wounded, Champlain among the rest, after being -packed in baskets made on the spot, were carried each on the back of -a strong warrior, "bundled in a heap," says Champlain, "doubled and -strapped together after such a fashion that one could move no more than -an infant in swaddling-clothes. The pain is extreme, as I can truly say -from experience, having been carried several days in this way, since I -could not stand, chiefly on account of the arrow-wound I had got in the -knee. I never was in such torment in my life, for the pain of the wound -was nothing to that of being bound and pinioned on the back of one of -our savages. I lost patience, and as soon as I could bear my weight I -got out of this prison, or rather out of hell." - -At length the dismal march was ended. They reached the spot where their -canoes were hidden, found them untouched, embarked, and recrossed to -the northern shore of Lake Ontario. The Hurons had promised Champlain an -escort to Quebec; but as the chiefs had little power, in peace or war, -beyond that of persuasion, each warrior found good reasons for refusing -to lend his canoe. Champlain, too, had lost prestige. The "man with the -iron breast" had proved not inseparably wedded to victory; and though -the fault was their own, yet not the less was the lustre of their hero -tarnished. There was no alternative. He must winter with the Hurons. The -great war party broke into fragments, each band betaking itself to its -hunting-ground. A chief named Durantal, or Darontal, offered Champlain -the shelter of his lodge, and he was glad to accept it. - -Meanwhile, Etienne Brule had found cause to rue the hour when he -undertook his hazardous mission to the Carantonan allies. Three years -passed before Champlain saw him. It was in the summer of 1618, that, -reaching the Saut St. Louis, he there found the interpreter, his hands -and his swarthy face marked with traces of the ordeal he had passed. -Brule then told him his story. - -He had gone, as already mentioned, with twelve Indians, to hasten the -march of the allies, who were to join the Hurons before the hostile -town. Crossing Lake Ontario, the party pushed onward with all speed, -avoiding trails, threading the thickest forests and darkest swamps, -for it was the land of the fierce and watchful Iroquois. They were well -advanced on their way when they saw a small party of them crossing -a meadow, set upon them, surprised them, killed four, and took two -prisoners, whom they led to Carantonan,--a palisaded town with a -population of eight hundred warriors, or about four thousand souls. The -dwellings and defences were like those of the Hurons, and the town seems -to have stood on or near the upper waters of the Susquehanna. They -were welcomed with feasts, dances, and an uproar of rejoicing. The -five hundred warriors prepared to depart; but, engrossed by the general -festivity, they prepared so slowly, that, though the hostile town was -but three days distant, they found on reaching it that the besiegers -were gone. Brule now returned with them to Carantonan, and, with -enterprise worthy of his commander, spent the winter in a tour of -exploration. Descending a river, evidently the Susquehanna, he followed -it to its junction with the sea, through territories of populous tribes, -at war the one with the other. When, in the spring, he returned to -Carantonan, five or six of the Indians offered to guide him towards his -countrymen. Less fortunate than before, he encountered on the way a band -of Iroquois, who, rushing upon the party, scattered them through the -woods. Brule ran like the rest. The cries of pursuers and pursued died -away in the distance. The forest was silent around him. He was lost in -the shady labyrinth. For three or four days he wandered, helpless and -famished, till at length he found an Indian foot-path, and, choosing -between starvation and the Iroquois, desperately followed it to throw -himself on their mercy. He soon saw three Indians in the distance, laden -with fish newly caught, and called to them in the Huron tongue, which -was radically similar to that of the Iroquois. They stood amazed, then -turned to fly; but Brule, gaunt with famine, flung down his weapons in -token of friendship. They now drew near, listened to the story of his -distress, lighted their pipes, and smoked with him; then guided him to -their village, and gave him food. - -A crowd gathered about him. "Whence do you come? Are you not one of the -Frenchmen, the men of iron, who make war on us?" - -Brule answered that he was of a nation better than the French, and fast -friends of the Iroquois. - -His incredulous captors tied him to a tree, tore out his beard by -handfuls, and burned him with fire-brands, while their chief vainly -interposed in his behalf. He was a good Catholic, and wore an Agnus Dei -at his breast. One of his torturers asked what it was, and thrust out -his hand to take it. - -"If you touch it," exclaimed Brule, "you and all your race will die." - -The Indian persisted. The day was hot, and one of those thunder-gusts -which often succeed the fierce heats of an American midsummer was rising -against the sky. Brule pointed to the inky clouds as tokens of the anger -of his God. The storm broke, and, as the celestial artillery boomed over -their darkening forests, the Iroquois were stricken with a superstitious -terror. They all fled from the spot, leaving their victim still bound -fast, until the chief who had endeavored to protect him returned, cut -the cords, led him to his lodge, and dressed his wounds. Thenceforth -there was neither dance nor feast to which Brule was not invited; and -when he wished to return to his countrymen, a party of Iroquois guided -him four days on his way. He reached the friendly Hurons in safety, -and joined them on their yearly descent to meet the French traders at -Montreal. - -Brule's adventures find in some points their counterpart in those of his -commander on the winter hunting-grounds of his Huron allies. As we turn -the ancient, worm-eaten page which preserves the simple record of -his fortunes, a wild and dreary scene rises before the mind,--a chill -November air, a murky sky, a cold lake, bare and shivering forests, the -earth strewn with crisp brown leaves, and, by the water-side, the bark -sheds and smoking camp-fires of a band of Indian hunters. Champlain was -of the party. There was ample occupation for his gun, for the morning -was vocal with the clamor of wild-fowl, and his evening meal was -enlivened by the rueful music of the wolves. It was a lake north or -northwest of the site of Kingston. On the borders of a neighboring -river, twenty-five of the Indians had been busied ten days in preparing -for their annual deer-hunt. They planted posts interlaced with boughs -in two straight converging lines, each extending mere than half a mile -through forests and swamps. At the angle where they met was made -a strong enclosure like a pound. At dawn of day the hunters spread -themselves through the woods, and advanced with shouts, clattering of -sticks, and howlings like those of wolves, driving the deer before -them into the enclosure, where others lay in wait to despatch them with -arrows and spears. - -Champlain was in the woods with the rest, when he saw a bird whose novel -appearance excited his attention; and, gun in hand, he went in pursuit. -The bird, flitting from tree to tree, lured him deeper and deeper into -the forest; then took wing and vanished. The disappointed sportsman -tried to retrace his steps. But the day was clouded, and he had left his -pocket-compass at the camp. The forest closed around him, trees mingled -with trees in endless confusion. Bewildered and lost, he wandered all -day, and at night slept fasting at the foot of a tree. Awaking, he -wandered on till afternoon, when he reached a pond slumbering in the -shadow of the woods. There were water-fowl along its brink, some of -which he shot, and for the first time found food to allay his hunger. He -kindled a fire, cooked his game, and, exhausted, blanketless, drenched -by a cold rain, made his prayer to Heaven, and again lay down to sleep. -Another day of blind and weary wandering succeeded, and another night of -exhaustion. He had found paths in the wilderness, but they were not made -by human feet. Once more roused from his shivering repose, he journeyed -on till he heard the tinkling of a little brook, and bethought him of -following its guidance, in the hope that it might lead him to the river -where the hunters were now encamped. With toilsome steps he followed the -infant stream, now lost beneath the decaying masses of fallen trunks or -the impervious intricacies of matted "windfalls," now stealing through -swampy thickets or gurgling in the shade of rocks, till it entered at -length, not into the river, but into a small lake. Circling around -the brink, he found the point where the brook ran out and resumed its -course. Listening in the dead stillness of the woods, a dull, hoarse -sound rose upon his ear. He went forward, listened again, and could -plainly hear the plunge of waters. There was light in the forest before -him, and, thrusting himself through the entanglement of bushes, he stood -on the edge of a meadow. Wild animals were here of various kinds; some -skulking in the bordering thickets, some browsing on the dry and matted -grass. On his right rolled the river, wide and turbulent, and along its -bank he saw the portage path by which the Indians passed the neighboring -rapids. He gazed about him. The rocky hills seemed familiar to his eye. -A clew was found at last; and, kindling his evening fire, with grateful -heart he broke a long fast on the game he had killed. With the break of -day he descended at his ease along the bank, and soon descried the smoke -of the Indian fires curling in the heavy morning air against the gray -borders of the forest. The joy was great on both sides. The Indians -had searched for him without ceasing; and from that day forth his host, -Durantal, would never let him go into the forest alone. - -They were thirty-eight days encamped on this nameless river, and killed -in that time a hundred and twenty deer. Hard frosts were needful to give -them passage over the land of lakes and marshes that lay between them -and the Huron towns. Therefore they lay waiting till the fourth of -December; when the frost came, bridged the lakes and streams, and made -the oozy marsh as firm as granite. Snow followed, powdering the broad -wastes with dreary white. Then they broke up their camp, packed their -game on sledges or on their shoulders, tied on their snowshoes, and -began their march. Champlain could scarcely endure his load, though some -of the Indians carried a weight fivefold greater. At night, they heard -the cleaving ice uttering its strange groans of torment, and on the -morrow there came a thaw. For four days they waded through slush and -water up to their knees; then came the shivering northwest wind, and all -was hard again. In nineteen days they reached the town of Cahiague, -and, lounging around their smoky lodge-fires, the hunters forgot the -hardships of the past. - -For Champlain there was no rest. A double motive urged him,--discovery, -and the strengthening of his colony by widening its circle of trade. -First, he repaired to Carhagouha; and here he found the friar, in his -hermitage, still praying, preaching, making catechisms, and struggling -with the manifold difficulties of the Huron tongue. After spending -several weeks together, they began their journeyings, and in three days -reached the chief village of the Nation of Tobacco, a powerful -tribe akin to the Hurons, and soon to be incorporated with them. The -travellers visited seven of their towns, and then passed westward to -those of the people whom Champlain calls the Cheveax Releves, and whom -he commends for neatness and ingenuity no less than he condemns them for -the nullity of their summer attire. As the strangers passed from town -to town, their arrival was everywhere the signal of festivity. Champlain -exchanged pledges of amity with his hosts, and urged them to come down -with the Hurons to the yearly trade at Montreal. - -Spring was now advancing, and, anxious for his colony, he turned -homeward, following that long circuit of Lake Huron and the Ottawa which -Iroquois hostility made the only practicable route. Scarcely had he -reached the Nipissings, and gained from them a pledge to guide him to -that delusive northern sea which never ceased to possess his thoughts, -when evil news called him back in haste to the Huron towns. A band of -those Algonquins who dwelt on the great island in the Ottawa had spent -the winter encamped near Cahiague, whose inhabitants made them a present -of an Iroquois prisoner, with the friendly intention that they should -enjoy the pleasure of torturing him. The Algonquins, on the contrary, -fed, clothed, and adopted him. On this, the donors, in a rage, sent a -warrior to kill the Iroquois. He stabbed him, accordingly, in the midst -of the Algonquin chiefs, who in requital killed the murderer. Here was -a casus belli involving most serious issues for the French, since the -Algonquins, by their position on the Ottawa, could cut off the Hurons -and all their allies from coming down to trade. Already a fight had -taken place at Cahiague the principal Algonquin chief had been -wounded, and his band forced to purchase safety by a heavy tribute of -wampum [33] and a gift of two female prisoners. - -All eyes turned to Champlain as umpire of the quarrel. The great -council-house was filled with Huron and Algonquin cltiefs, smoking with -that immobility of feature beneath which their race often hide a more -than tiger-like ferocity. The umpire addressed the assembly, enlarged on -the folly of falling to blows between themselves when the common enemy -stood ready to devour them both, extolled the advantages of the French -trade and alliance, and, with zeal not wholly disinterested, urged them -to shake hands like brothers. The friendly counsel was accepted, the -pipe of peace was smoked, the storm dispelled, and the commerce of New -France rescued from a serious peril. - -Once more Champlain turned homeward, and with him went his Huron host, -Durantal. Le Caron had preceded him; and, on the eleventh of July, the -fellow-travellers met again in the infant capital of Canada. The Indians -had reported that Champlain was dead, and he was welcomed as one risen -from the grave. The friars, who were all here, chanted lands in their -chapel, with a solemn mass and thanksgiving. To the two travelers, fresh -from the hardships of the wilderness, the hospitable board of -Quebec, the kindly society of countrymen and friends, the adjacent -gardens,--always to Champlain an object of especial interest,--seemed -like the comforts and repose of home. - -The chief Durantal found entertainment worthy of his high estate. -The fort, the ship, the armor, the plumes, the cannon, the marvellous -architecture of the houses and barracks, the splendors of the chapel, -and above all the good cheer outran the boldest excursion of his fancy; -and he paddled back at last to his lodge in the woods, bewildered with -astonishment and admiration. - - - - - -CHAPTER XV. - -1616-1627. - -HOSTILE SECTS.--RIVAL INTERESTS. - -At Quebec the signs of growth were faint and few. By the water-side, -under the cliff, the so-called "habitation," built in haste eight years -before, was already tottering, and Champlain was forced to rebuild it. -On the verge of the rock above, where now are seen the buttresses of the -demolished castle of St. Louis, he began, in 1620, a fort, behind which -were fields and a few buildings. A mile or more distant, by the bank of -the St. Charles, where the General Hospital now stands, the Recollets, -in the same year, built for themselves a small stone house, with -ditches and outworks for defence; and here they began a farm, the stock -consisting of several hogs, a pair of asses, a pair of geese, seven -pairs of fowls, and four pairs of ducks. The only other agriculturist in -the colony was Louis Hebert, who had come to Canada in 1617 with a wife -and three children, and who made a house for himself on the rock, at a -little distance from Champlain's fort. - -Besides Quebec, there were the three trading-stations of Montreal, Three -Rivers, and Tadoussac, occupied during a part of the year. Of these, -Tadoussac was still the most important. Landing here from France in -1617, the Recollet Paul Huet said mass for the first time in a chapel -built of branches, while two sailors standing beside him waved green -boughs to drive off the mosquitoes. Thither afterward came Brother -Gervais Mohier, newly arrived in Canada; and meeting a crowd of Indians -in festal attire, he was frightened at first, suspecting that they might -be demons. Being invited by them to a feast, and told that he must not -decline, he took his place among a party of two hundred, squatted about -four large kettles full of fish, bear's meat, pease, and plums, mixed -with figs, raisins, and biscuit procured at great cost from the traders, -the whole boiled together and well stirred with a canoe-paddle. As the -guest did no honor to the portion set before him, his entertainers tried -to tempt his appetite with a large lump of bear's fat, a supreme luxury -in their eyes. This only increased his embarrassment, and he took a -hasty leave, uttering the ejaculation, "ho, ho, ho!" which, as he had -been correctly informed, was the proper mode of acknowledgment to the -master of the feast. - -A change had now begun in the life of Champlain. His forest rovings were -over. To battle with savages and the elements was more congenial with -his nature than to nurse a puny colony into growth and strength; yet to -each task he gave himself with the same strong devotion. - -His difficulties were great. Quebec was half trading-factory, -half mission. Its permanent inmates did not exceed fifty or sixty -persons,--fur-traders, friars, and two or three wretched families, who -had no inducement, and little wish, to labor. The fort is facetiously -represented as having two old women for garrison, and a brace of hens -for sentinels. All was discord and disorder. Champlain was the nominal -commander; but the actual authority was with the merchants, who held, -excepting the friars, nearly everybody in their pay. Each was jealous -of the other, but all were united in a common jealousy of Champlain. -The few families whom they brought over were forbidden to trade with the -Indians, and compelled to sell the fruits of their labor to the agents -of the company at a low, fixed price, receiving goods in return at an -inordinate valuation. Some of the merchants were of Ronen, some of -St. Malo; some were Catholics, some were Huguenots. Hence unceasing -bickerings. All exercise of the Reformed religion, on land or water, was -prohibited within the limits of New France; but the Huguenots set the -prohibition at naught, roaring their heretical psalmody with such vigor -from their ships in the river that the unhallowed strains polluted the -ears of the Indians on shore. The merchants of Rochelle, who had refused -to join the company, carried on a bold illicit traffic along the borders -of the St. Lawrence, endangering the colony by selling fire-arms to the -Indians, eluding pursuit, or, if hard pressed, showing fight; and this -was a source of perpetual irritation to the incensed monopolists. - -The colony could not increase. The company of merchants, though pledged -to promote its growth, did what they could to prevent it. They were -fur-traders, and the interests of the fur-trade are always opposed to -those of settlement and population. They feared, too, and with reason, -that their monopoly might be suddenly revoked, like that of De Monts, -and they thought only of making profit from it while it lasted. They had -no permanent stake in the country; nor had the men in their employ, who -formed nearly all the scanty population of Canada. Few, if any, of these -had brought wives to the colony, and none of them thought of cultivating -the soil. They formed a floating population, kept from starving by -yearly supplies from France. - -Champlain, in his singularly trying position, displayed a mingled zeal -and fortitude. He went every year to France, laboring for the interests -of the colony. To throw open the trade to all competitors was a measure -beyond the wisdom of the times; and he hoped only to bind and regulate -the monopoly so as to make it subserve the generous purpose to which -he had given himself. The imprisonment of Conde was a source of fresh -embarrassment; but the young Duo de Montmorency assumed his place, -purchasing from him the profitable lieuteuancy of New France for eleven -thousand crowns, and continuing Champlain in command. Champlain -had succeeded in binding the company of merchants with new and more -stringent engagements; and, in the vain belief that these might not be -wholly broken, he began to conceive fresh hopes for the colony. In this -faith he embarked with his wife for Quebec in the spring of 1620; and, -as the boat drew near the landing, the cannon welcomed her to the rock -of her banishment. The buildings were falling to ruin; rain entered on -all sides; the courtyard, says Champlain, was as squalid and dilapidated -as a grange pillaged by soldiers. Madame de Champlain was still very -young. If the Ursuline tradition is to be trusted, the Indians, amazed -at her beauty and touched by her gentleness, would have worshipped her -as a divinity. Her husband had married her at the age of twelve when, -to his horror, he presently discovered that she was infected with the -heresies of her father, a disguised Huguenot. He addressed himself at -once to her conversion, and his pious efforts were something more than -successful. During the four years which she passed in Canada, her zeal, -it is true, was chiefly exercised in admonishing Indian squaws and -catechising their children; but, on her return to France, nothing would -content her but to become a nun. Champlain refused; but, as she was -childless, he at length consented to a virtual though not formal -separation. After his death she gained her wish, became an Ursuline nun, -founded a convent of that order at Meaux, and died with a reputation -almost saintly. - -At Quebec, matters grew from bad to worse. The few emigrants, with -no inducement to labor, fell into a lazy apathy, lounging about the -trading-houses, gaming, drinking when drink could be had, or roving -into the woods on vagabond hunting excursions. The Indians could not be -trusted. In the year 1617 they had murdered two men near the end of the -Island of Orleans. Frightened at what they had done, and incited perhaps -by other causes, the Montagnais and their kindred bands mustered at -Three Rivers to the number of eight hundred, resolved to destroy the -French. The secret was betrayed; and the childish multitude, naked and -famishing, became suppliants to their intended victims for the means -of life. The French, themselves at the point of starvation, could give -little or nothing. An enemy far more formidable awaited them; and now -were seen the fruits of Champlain's intermeddling in Indian wars. In -the summer of 1622, the Iroquois descended upon the settlement. A strong -party of their warriors hovered about Quebec, but, still fearful of the -arquebuse, forbore to attack it, and assailed the Recollet convent on -the St. Charles. The prudent friars had fortified themselves. While some -prayed in the chapel, the rest, with their Indian converts, manned -the walls. The Iroquois respected their palisades and demi-lunes, and -withdrew, after burning two Huron prisoners. - -Yielding at length to reiterated complaints, the Viceroy Montmorency -suppressed the company of St. Malo and Rouen, and conferred the trade -of New France, burdened with similar conditions destined to be similarly -broken, on two Huguenots, William and emery de Caen. The change was a -signal for fresh disorders. The enraged monopolists refused to yield. -The rival traders filled Quebec with their quarrels; and Champlain, -seeing his authority set at naught, was forced to occupy his newly built -fort with a band of armed followers. The evil rose to such a pitch that -he joined with the Recollets and the better-disposed among the colonists -in sending one of the friars to lay their grievances before the King. -The dispute was compromised by a temporary union of the two companies, -together with a variety of arrets and regulations, suited, it was -thought, to restore tranquillity. - -A new change was at hand. Montmorency, tired of his viceroyalty, which -gave him ceaseless annoyance, sold it to his nephew, Henri de Levis, -Duc de Ventadour. It was no worldly motive which prompted this young -nobleman to assume the burden of fostering the infancy of New France. He -had retired from the court, and entered into holy orders. For trade and -colonization he cared nothing; the conversion of infidels was his sole -care. The Jesuits had the keeping of his conscience, and in his eyes -they were the most fitting instruments for his purpose. The Recollets, -it is true, had labored with an unflagging devotion. The six friars of -their Order--for this was the number which the Calvinist Caen had bound -himself to support--had established five distinct missions, extending -from Acadia to the borders of Lake Huron; but the field was too vast for -their powers. Ostensibly by a spontaneous movement of their own, but in -reality, it is probable, under influences brought to bear on them from -without, the Recollets applied for the assistance of the Jesuits, who, -strong in resources as in energy, would not be compelled to rest on -the reluctant support of Huguenots. Three of their brotherhood--Charles -Lalemant, Enemond Masse, and Jean de Brebeuf--accordingly embarked; and, -fourteen years after Biard and Masse had landed in Acadia, Canada -beheld for the first time those whose names stand so prominent in her -annals,--the mysterious followers of Loyola. Their reception was most -inauspicious. Champlain was absent. Caen would not lodge them in the -fort; the traders would not admit them to their houses. Nothing seemed -left for them but to return as they came; when a boat, bearing several -Recollets, approached the ship to proffer them the hospitalities of the -convent on the St. Charles. They accepted the proffer, and became -guests of the charitable friars, who nevertheless entertained a lurking -jealousy of these formidable co-workers. - -The Jesuits soon unearthed and publicly burnt a libel against their -Order belonging to some of the traders. Their strength was soon -increased. The Fathers Noirot and De la Noue landed, with twenty -laborers, and the Jesuits were no longer houseless. Brebeuf set forth -for the arduous mission of the Hurons; but on arriving at Trois Rivieres -he learned that one of his Franciscan predecessors, Nicolas Viel, had -recently been drowned by Indians of that tribe, in the rapid behind -Montreal, known to this day as the Saut au Recollet. Less ambitious for -martyrdom than he afterwards approved himself, he postponed his voyage -to a more auspicious season. In the following spring he renewed the -attempt, in company with De la Noue and one of the friars. The Indians, -however, refused to receive him into their canoes, alleging that his -tall and portly frame would overset them; and it was only by dint of -many presents that their pretended scruples could be conquered. Brebeuf -embarked with his companions, and, after months of toil, reached the -barbarous scene of his labors, his sufferings, and his death. - -Meanwhile the Viceroy had been deeply scandalized by the contumacious -heresy of Emery de Caen, who not only assembled his Huguenot sailors at -prayers, but forced Catholics to join them. He was ordered thenceforth -to prohibit his crews from all praying and psalm-singing on the river -St. Lawrence. The crews revolted, and a compromise was made. It was -agreed that for the present they might pray, but not sing. "A bad -bargain," says the pious Champlain, "but we made the best of it we -could." Caen, enraged at the Viceroy's reproofs, lost no opportunity to -vent his spleen against the Jesuits, whom he cordially hated. - -Eighteen years had passed since the founding of Quebec, and still the -colony could scarcely be said to exist but in the founder's brain. -Those who should have been its support were engrossed by trade or -propagandism. Champlain might look back on fruitless toils, hopes -deferred, a life spent seemingly in vain. The population of Quebec had -risen to a hundred and five persons, men, women, and children. Of these, -one or two families only had learned to support themselves from the -products of the soil. All withered under the monopoly of the Caens. -Champlain had long desired to rebuild the fort, which was weak and -ruinous; but the merchants would not grant the men and means which, -by their charter, they were bound to furnish. At length, however, his -urgency in part prevailed, and the work began to advance. Meanwhile the -Caens and their associates had greatly prospered, paying, it is said, -an annual dividend of forty per cent. In a single year they brought from -Canada twenty-two thousand beaver skins, though the usual number did not -exceed twelve or fifteen thousand. - -While infant Canada was thus struggling into a half-stifled being, -the foundation of a commonwealth destined to a marvellous vigor of -development had been laid on the Rock of Plymouth. In their character, -as in their destiny, the rivals were widely different; yet, at the -outset, New England was unfaithful to the principle of freedom. New -England Protestantism appealed to Liberty, then closed the door against -her; for all Protestantism is an appeal from priestly authority to the -right of private judgment, and the New England Puritan, after claiming -this right for himself, denied it to all who differed with him. On a -stock of freedom he grafted a scion of despotism; yet the vital juices -of the root penetrated at last to the uttermost branches, and nourished -them to an irrepressible strength and expansion. With New France it was -otherwise. She was consistent to the last. Root, stem, and branch, she -was the nursling of authority. Deadly absolutism blighted her early -and her later growth. Friars and Jesuits, a Ventadour and a Richelieu, -shaped her destinies. All that conflicted against advancing liberty--the -centralized power of the crown and the tiara, the ultramontane in -religion, the despotic in policy--found their fullest expression -and most fatal exercise. Her records shine with glorious deeds, the -self-devotion of heroes and of martyrs; and the result of all is -disorder, imbecility, ruin. - -The great champion of absolutism, Richelieu, was now supreme in France. -His thin frame, pale cheek, and cold, calm eye, concealed an inexorable -will and a mind of vast capacity, armed with all the resources of -boldness and of craft. Under his potent agency, the royal power, in -the weak hands of Louis the Thirteenth, waxed and strengthened daily, -triumphing over the factions of the court, the turbulence of the -Huguenots, the ambitious independence of the nobles, and all the -elements of anarchy which, since the death of Henry the Fourth, had -risen into fresh life. With no friends and a thousand enemies, disliked -and feared by the pitiful King whom he served, making his tool by turns -of every party and of every principle, he advanced by countless crooked -paths towards his object,--the greatness of France under a concentrated -and undivided authority. - -In the midst of more urgent cares, he addressed himself to fostering the -commercial and naval power. Montmorency then held the ancient charge -of Admiral of France. Richelieu bought it, suppressed it, and, in its -stead, constituted himself Grand Master and Superintendent of Navigation -and Commerce. In this new capacity, the mismanaged affairs of New France -were not long concealed from him; and he applied a prompt and powerful -remedy. The privileges of the Caens were annulled. A company was formed, -to consist of a hundred associates, and to be called the Company of New -France. Richelieu himself was the head, and the Marechal Deffiat and -other men of rank, besides many merchants and burghers of condition, -were members. The whole of New France, from Florida to the Arctic -Circle, and from Newfoundland to the sources of the--St. Lawrence and -its tributary waters, was conferred on them forever, with the attributes -of sovereign power. A perpetual monopoly of the fur-trade was granted -them, with a monopoly of all other commerce within the limits of their -government for fifteen years. The trade of the colony was declared free, -for the same period, from all duties and imposts. Nobles, officers, -and ecclesiastics, members of the Company, might engage in commercial -pursuits without derogating from the privileges of their order; and, in -evidence of his good-will, the King gave them two ships of war, armed -and equipped. - -On their part, the Company were bound to convey to New France during the -next year, 1628, two or three hundred men of all trades, and before -the year 1643 to increase the number to four thousand persons, of -both sexes; to lodge and support them for three years; and, this time -expired, to give them cleared lands for their maintenance. Every settler -must be a Frenchman and a Catholic; and for every new settlement at -least three ecclesiastics must be provided. Thus was New France to be -forever free from the taint of heresy. The stain of her infancy was -to be wiped away. Against the foreigner and the Huguenot the door was -closed and barred. England threw open her colonies to all who wished -to enter,--to the suffering and oppressed, the bold, active, and -enterprising. France shut out those who wished to come, and admitted -only those who did not,--the favored class who clung to the old -faith and had no motive or disposition to leave their homes. English -colonization obeyed a natural law, and sailed with wind and tide; French -colonization spent its whole struggling existence in futile efforts to -make head against them. The English colonist developed inherited freedom -on a virgin soil; the French colonist was pursued across the Atlantic -by a paternal despotism better in intention and more withering in effect -than that which he left behind. If, instead of excluding Huguenots, -France had given them an asylum in the west, and left them there to -work out their own destinies, Canada would never have been a British -province, and the United States would have shared their vast domain with -a vigorous population of self-governing Frenchmen. - -A trading company was now feudal proprietor of all domains in North -America within the claim of France. Fealty and homage on its part, and -on the part of the Crown the appointment of supreme judicial officers, -and the confirmation of the titles of dukes, marquises, counts, and -barons, were the only reservations. The King heaped favors on the -new corporation. Twelve of the bourgeois members were ennobled; -while artisans and even manufacturers were tempted, by extraordinary -privileges, to emigrate to the New World. The associates, of whom -Champlain was one, entered upon their functions with a capital of three -hundred thousand livres. - - - - - - -CHAPTER XVI. - -1628, 1629. - -THE ENGLISH AT QUEBEC. - -The first care of the new Company was to succor Quebec, whose inmates -were on the verge of starvation. Four armed vessels, with a fleet of -transports commanded by Roquemont, one of the associates, sailed from -Dieppe with colonists and supplies in April, 1628; but nearly at the -same time another squadron, destined also for Quebec, was sailing from -an English port. War had at length broken out in France. The Huguenot -revolt had come to a head. Rochelle was in arms against the King; and -Richelieu, with his royal ward, was beleaguering it with the whole -strength of the kingdom. Charles the First of England, urged by the -heated passions of Buckingham, had declared himself for the rebels, and -sent a fleet to their aid. At home, Charles detested the followers of -Calvin as dangerous to his own authority; abroad, he befriended them -as dangerous to the authority of a rival. In France, Richelieu crushed -Protestantism as a curb to the house of Bourbon; in Germany, he nursed -and strengthened it as a curb to the house of Austria. - -The attempts of Sir William Alexander to colonize Acadia had of late -turned attention in England towards the New World; and on the breaking -out of the war an expedition was set on foot, under the auspices of that -singular personage, to seize on the French possessions in North America. -It was a private enterprise, undertaken by London merchants, prominent -among whom was Gervase Kirke, an Englishman of Derbyshire, who had long -lived at Dieppe, and had there married a Frenchwoman. Gervase Kirke -and his associates fitted out three small armed ships, commanded -respectively by his sons David, Lewis, and Thomas. Letters of marque -were obtained from the King, and the adventurers were authorized to -drive out the French from Acadia and Canada. Many Huguenot refugees were -among the crews. Having been expelled from New France as settlers, the -persecuted sect were returning as enemies. One Captain Michel, who had -been in the service of the Caens, "a furious Calvinist," is said to have -instigated the attempt, acting, it is affirmed, under the influence of -one of his former employers. - -Meanwhile the famished tenants of Quebec were eagerly waiting the -expected succor. Daily they gazed beyond Point Levi and along the -channels of Orleans, in the vain hope of seeing the approaching sails. -At length, on the ninth of July, two men, worn with struggling through -forests and over torrents, crossed the St. Charles and mounted the rock. -They were from Cape Tourmente, where Champlain had some time before -established an outpost, and they brought news that, according to the -report of Indians, six large vessels lay in the harbor of Tadoussac. The -friar Le Caron was at Quebec, and, with a brother Recollet, he went in -a canoe to gain further intelligence. As the missionary scouts were -paddling along the borders of the Island of Orleans, they met two canoes -advancing in hot haste, manned by Indians, who with shouts and gestures -warned them to turn back. - -The friars, however, waited till the canoes came up, when they saw a man -lying disabled at the bottom of one of them, his moustaches burned by -the flash of the musket which had wounded him. He proved to be Foucher, -who commanded at Cape Tourmente. On that morning,--such was the story -of the fugitives,--twenty men had landed at that post from a small -fishing-vessel. Being to all appearance French, they were hospitably -received; but no sooner had they entered the houses than they began -to pillage and burn all before them, killing the cattle, wounding the -commandant, and making several prisoners. - -The character of the fleet at Tadoussac was now sufficiently clear. -Quebec was incapable of defence. Only fifty pounds of gunpowder were -left in the magazine; and the fort, owing to the neglect and ill-will of -the Caens, was so wretchedly constructed, that, a few days before, two -towers of the main building had fallen. Champlain, however, assigned to -each man his post, and waited the result. On the next afternoon, a -boat was seen issuing from behind the Point of Orleans and hovering -hesitatingly about the mouth of the St. Charles. On being challenged, -the men on board proved to be Basque fishermen, lately captured by -the English, and now sent by Kirke unwilling messengers to Champlain. -Climbing the steep pathway to the fort, they delivered their letter,--a -summons, couched in terms of great courtesy, to surrender Quebec. -There was no hope but in courage. A bold front must supply the lack -of batteries and ramparts; and Champlain dismissed the Basques with a -reply, in which, with equal courtesy, he expressed his determination to -hold his position to the last. - -All now stood on the watch, hourly expecting the enemy; when, instead of -the hostile squadron, a small boat crept into sight, and one Desdames, -with ten Frenchmen, landed at the storehouses. He brought stirring news. -The French commander, Roquemont, had despatched him to tell Champlain -that the ships of the Hundred Associates were ascending the St. -Lawrence, with reinforcements and supplies of all kinds. But on his way -Desdames had seen an ominous sight,--the English squadron standing under -full sail out of Tadoussac, and steering downwards as if to intercept -the advancing succor. He had only escaped them by dragging his boat up -the beach and hiding it; and scarcely were they out of sight when the -booming of cannon told him that the fight was begun. - -Racked with suspense, the starving tenants of Quebec waited the result; -but they waited in vain. No white sail moved athwart the green solitudes -of Orleans. Neither friend nor foe appeared; and it was not till long -afterward that Indians brought them the tidings that Roquemont's crowded -transports had been overpowered, and all the supplies destined to -relieve their miseries sunk in the St. Lawrence or seized by the -victorious English. Kirke, however, deceived by the bold attitude of -Champlain, had been too discreet to attack Quebec, and after his victory -employed himself in cruising for French fishing-vessels along the -borders of the Gulf. - -Meanwhile, the suffering at Quebec increased daily. Somewhat less than a -hundred men, women, and children were cooped up in the fort, subsisting -on a meagre pittance of pease and Indian corn. The garden of the -Heberts, the only thrifty settlers, was ransacked for every root or -seed that could afford nutriment. Months wore on, and in the spring the -distress had risen to such a pitch that Champlain had wellnigh resolved -to leave to the women, children, and sick the little food that remained, -and with the able-bodied men invade the Iroquois, seize one of their -villages, fortify himself in it, and sustain his followers on the buried -stores of maize with which the strongholds of these provident savages -were always furnished. - -Seven ounces of pounded pease were now the daily food of each; and, -at the end of May, even this failed. Men, women, and children betook -themselves to the woods, gathering acorns and grubbing up roots. Those -of the plant called Solomon's seal were most in request. Some joined the -Hurons or the Algonquins; some wandered towards the Abenakis of -Maine; some descended in a boat to Gaspe, trusting to meet a French -fishing-vessel. There was scarcely one who would not have hailed the -English as deliverers. But the English had sailed home with their booty, -and the season was so late that there was little prospect of their -return. Forgotten alike by friends and foes, Quebec was on the verge of -extinction. - -On the morning of the nineteenth of July, an Indian, renowned as a -fisher of eels, who had built his hut on the St. Charles, hard by the -new dwelling of the Jesuits, came, with his usual imperturbability of -visage, to Champlain. He had just discovered three ships sailing up the -south channel of Orleans. Champlain was alone. All his followers were -absent, fishing or searching for roots. At about ten o'clock his servant -appeared with four small bags of roots, and the tidings that he had -seen the three ships a league off, behind Point Levi. As man after man -hastened in, Champlain ordered the starved and ragged band, sixteen in -all, to their posts, whence with hungry eyes, they watched the English -vessels anchoring in the basin below, and a boat with a white flag -moving towards the shore. A young officer landed with a summons to -surrender. The terms of capitulation were at length settled. The French -were to be conveyed to their own country, and each soldier was allowed -to take with him his clothes, and, in addition, a coat of beaver-skin. -On this some murmuring rose, several of those who had gone to the Hurons -having lately returned with peltry of no small value. Their complaints -were vain; and on the twentieth of July, amid the roar of cannon from -the ships, Lewis Kirke, the Admiral's brother, landed at the head of -his soldiers, and planted the cross of St. George where the followers -of Wolfe again planted it a hundred and thirty years later. After -inspecting the worthless fort, he repaired to the houses of the -Recollets and Jesuits on the St. Charles. He treated the former with -great courtesy, but displayed against the latter a violent aversion, -expressing his regret that he could not have begun his operations by -battering their house about their ears. The inhabitants had no cause to -complain of him. He urged the widow and family of the settler Hebert, -the patriarch, as he has been styled, of New France, to remain and enjoy -the fruits of their industry under English allegiance; and, as beggary -in France was the alternative, his offer was accepted. - -Champlain, bereft of his command, grew restless, and begged to be -sent to Tadoussac, where the Admiral, David Kirke, lay with his main -squadron, having sent his brothers Lewis and Thomas to seize Quebec. -Accordingly, Champlain, with the Jesuits, embarking with Thomas Kirke, -descended the river. Off Mal Bay a strange sail was seen. As she -approached, she proved to be a French ship, in fact, she was on her way -to Quebec with supplies, which, if earlier sent, would have saved the -place. She had passed the Admiral's squadron in a fog; but here her good -fortune ceased. Thomas Kirke bore down on her, and the cannonade began. -The fight was hot and doubtful; but at length the French struck, and -Kirke sailed into Tadoussac with his prize. Here lay his brother, the -Admiral, with five armed ships. - -The Admiral's two voyages to Canada were private ventures; and though -he had captured nineteen fishing-vessels, besides Roquemont's eighteen -transports and other prizes, the result had not answered his hopes. His -mood, therefore, was far from benign, especially as he feared, that, -owing to the declaration of peace, he would be forced to disgorge a part -of his booty; yet, excepting the Jesuits, he treated his captives with -courtesy, and often amused himself with shooting larks on shore in -company with Champlain. The Huguenots, however, of whom there were many -in his ships, showed an exceeding bitterness against the Catholics. -Chief among them was Michel, who had instigated and conducted the -enterprise, the merchant admiral being but an indifferent seaman. -Michel, whose skill was great, held a high command and the title of -Rear-Admiral. He was a man of a sensitive temperament, easily piqued on -the point of honor. His morbid and irritable nerves were wrought to the -pitch of frenzy by the reproaches of treachery and perfidy with which -the French prisoners assailed him, while, on the other hand, he was in -a state of continual rage at the fancied neglect and contumely of his -English associates. He raved against Kirke, who, as he declared, treated -him with an insupportable arrogance. "I have left my country," he -exclaimed, "for the service of foreigners; and they give me nothing but -ingratitude and scorn." His fevered mind, acting on his diseased -body, often excited him to transports of fury, in which he cursed -indiscriminately the people of St. Malo, against whom he had a grudge, -and the Jesuits, whom he detested. On one occasion, Kirke was conversing -with some of the latter. - -"Gentlemen," he said, "your business in Canada was to enjoy what -belonged to M. de Caen, whom you dispossessed." - -"Pardon me, sir," answered Brebeuf, "we came purely for the glory -of God, and exposed ourselves to every kind of danger to convert the -Indians." - -Here Michel broke in: "Ay, ay, convert the Indians! You mean, convert -the beaver!" - -"That is false!" retorted Brebeuf. - -Michel raised his fist, exclaiming, "But for the respect I owe the -General, I would strike you for giving me the lie." - -Brebeuf, a man of powerful frame and vehement passions, nevertheless -regained his practised self-command, and replied: "You must excuse me. -I did not mean to give you the lie. I should be very sorry to do so. The -words I used are those we use in the schools when a doubtful question is -advanced, and they mean no offence. Therefore I ask you to pardon me." - -Despite the apology, Michel's frenzied brain harped the presumed insult, -and he raved about it without ceasing. - -"Bon Dieu!" said Champlain, "you swear well for a Reformer!" - -"I know it," returned Michel; "I should be content if I had but struck -that Jesuit who gave me the lie before my General." - -At length, one of his transports of rage ended in a lethargy from which -he never awoke. His funeral was conducted with a pomp suited to his -rank; and, amid discharges of cannon whose dreary roar was echoed from -the yawning gulf of the Saguenay, his body was borne to its rest under -the rocks of Tadoussac. Good Catholics and good Frenchmen saw in his -fate the immediate finger of Providence. "I do not doubt that his soul -is in perdition," remarks Champlain, who, however, had endeavored to -befriend the unfortunate man during the access of his frenzy. - -Having finished their carousings, which were profuse, and their trade -with the Indians, which was not lucrative, the English steered down -the St. Lawrence. Kirke feared greatly a meeting with Razilly, a naval -officer of distinction, who was to have sailed from France with a -strong force to succor Quebec; but, peace having been proclaimed, the -expedition had been limited to two ships under Captain Daniel. Thus -Kirke, wilfully ignoring the treaty of peace, was left to pursue his -depredations unmolested. Daniel, however, though too weak to cope with -him, achieved a signal exploit. On the island of Cape Breton, near the -site of Louisburg, he found an English fort, built two months before, -under the auspices, doubtless, of Sir William Alexander. Daniel, -regarding it as a bold encroachment on French territory, stormed it at -the head of his pike-men, entered sword in hand, and took it with all -its defenders. - -Meanwhile, Kirke with his prisoners was crossing the Atlantic. His -squadron at length reached Plymouth, whence Champlain set out for -London. Here he had an interview with the French ambassador, who, at -his instance, gained from the King a promise, that, in pursuance of the -terms of the treaty concluded in the previous April, New France should -be restored to the French Crown. - -It long remained a mystery why Charles consented to a stipulation which -pledged him to resign so important a conquest. The mystery is explained -by the recent discovery of a letter from the King to Sir Isaac Wake, -his ambassador at Paris. The promised dowry of Queen Henrietta Maria, -amounting to eight hundred thousand crowns, had been but half paid by -the French government, and Charles, then at issue with his Parliament, -and in desperate need of money, instructs his ambassador, that, when he -receives the balance due, and not before, he is to give up to the French -both Quebec and Port Royal, which had also been captured by Kirke. The -letter was accompanied by "solemn instruments under our hand and seal" -to make good the transfer on fulfillment of the condition. It was for a -sum equal to about two hundred and forty thousand dollars that Charles -entailed on Great Britain and her colonies a century of bloody wars. -The Kirkes and their associates, who had made the conquest at their own -cost, under the royal authority, were never reimbursed, though David -Kirke received the honor of knighthood, which cost the King nothing. - - - - - -CHAPTER XVII. - -1632-1635. - -DEATH OF CHAMPLAIN. - -On Monday, the fifth of July, 1632, Emery de Caen anchored before -Quebec. He was commissioned by the French Crown to reclaim the place -from the English; to hold for one year a monopoly of the fur-trade, as -an indemnity for his losses in the war; and, when this time had expired, -to give place to the Hundred Associates of New France. - -By the convention of Suza, New France was to be restored to the French -Crown; yet it had been matter of debate whether a fulfillment of this -engagement was worth the demanding. That wilderness of woods and savages -had been ruinous to nearly all connected with it. The Caens, successful -at first, had suffered heavily in the end. The Associates were on the -verge of bankruptcy. These deserts were useless unless peopled; and -to people them would depopulate France. Thus argued the inexperienced -reasoners of the time, judging from the wretched precedents of Spanish -and Portuguese colonization. The world had not as yet the example of an -island kingdom, which, vitalized by a stable and regulated liberty, -has peopled a continent and spread colonies over all the earth, gaining -constantly new vigor with the matchless growth of its offspring. - -On the other hand, honor, it was urged, demanded that France should be -reinstated in the land which she had discovered and explored. Should -she, the centre of civilization, remain cooped up within her own narrow -limits, while rivals and enemies were sharing the vast regions of the -West? The commerce and fisheries of New France would in time become a -school for French sailors. Mines even now might be discovered; arid -the fur-trade, well conducted, could not but be a source of wealth. -Disbanded soldiers and women from the streets might be shipped to -Canada. Thus New France would be peopled and old France purified. A -power more potent than reason reinforced such arguments. Richelieu seems -to have regarded it as an act of personal encroachment that the subjects -of a foreign crown should seize on the domain of a company of which he -was the head; and it could not be supposed, that, with power to eject -them, the arrogant minister would suffer them to remain in undisturbed -possession. - -A spirit far purer and more generous was active in the same behalf. The -character of Champlain belonged rather to the Middle Age than to the -seventeenth century. Long toil and endurance had calmed the adventurous -enthusiasm of his youth into a steadfast earnestness of purpose; and -he gave himself with a loyal zeal and devotedness to the profoundly -mistaken principles which he had espoused. In his mind, patriotism -and religion were inseparably linked. France was the champion of -Christianity, and her honor, her greatness, were involved in her -fidelity to this high function. Should she abandon to perdition the -darkened nations among whom she had cast the first faint rays of hope? -Among the members of the Company were those who shared his zeal; -and though its capital was exhausted, and many of the merchants -were withdrawing in despair, these enthusiasts formed a subordinate -association, raised a new fund, and embarked on the venture afresh. - -England, then, resigned her prize, and Caen was despatched to reclaim -Quebec from the reluctant hands of Thomas Kirke. The latter, obedient -to an order from the King of England, struck his flag, embarked his -followers, and abandoned the scene of his conquest. Caen landed with -the Jesuits, Paul le Jeune and Anne de la Noue. They climbed the steep -stairway which led up the rock, and, as they reached the top, the -dilapidated fort lay on their left, while farther on was the stone -cottage of the Heberts, surrounded with its vegetable gardens,--the only -thrifty spot amid a scene of neglect. But few Indians could be seen. -True to their native instincts, they had, at first, left the defeated -French and welcomed the conquerors. Their English partialities were, -however, but short-lived. Their intrusion into houses and store-rooms, -the stench of their tobacco, and their importunate begging, though -before borne patiently, were rewarded by the newcomers with oaths -and sometimes with blows. The Indians soon shunned Quebec, seldom -approaching it except when drawn by necessity or a craving for brandy. -This was now the case; and several Algonquin families, maddened with -drink, were howling, screeching, and fighting within their bark lodges. -The women were frenzied like the men, it was dangerous to approach the -place unarmed. - -In the following spring, 1633, on the twenty-third of May, Champlain, -commissioned anew by Richelieu, resumed command at Quebec in behalf of -the Company. Father le Jeune, Superior of the mission, was wakened from -his morning sleep by the boom of the saluting cannon. Before he could -sally forth, the convent door was darkened by the stately form of his -brother Jesuit, Brebeuf, newly arrived; and the Indians who stood by -uttered ejaculations of astonishment at the raptures of their greeting. -The father hastened to the fort, and arrived in time to see a file of -musketeers and pikemen mounting the pathway of the cliff below, and the -heretic Caen resigning the keys of the citadel into the Catholic hands -of Champlain. Le Jeune's delight exudes in praises of one not always a -theme of Jesuit eulogy, but on whom, in the hope of a continuance of -his favors, no praise could now be ill bestowed. "I sometimes think that -this great man [Richelieu], who by his admirable wisdom and matchless -conduct of affairs is so renowned on earth, is preparing for himself -a dazzling crown of glory in heaven by the care he evinces for the -conversion of so many lost infidel souls in this savage land. I pray -affectionately for him every day," etc. - -For Champlain, too, he has praises which, if more measured, are at -least as sincere. Indeed, the Father Superior had the best reason to be -pleased with the temporal head of the colony. In his youth, Champlain -had fought on the side of that; more liberal and national form of -Romanism of which the Jesuits were the most emphatic antagonists. -Now, as Le Jeune tells us, with evident contentment, he chose him, the -Jesuit, as director of his conscience. In truth, there were none but -Jesuits to confess and absolve him; for the Recollets, prevented, to -their deep chagrin, from returning to the missions they had founded, -were seen no more in Canada, and the followers of Loyola were sole -masters of the field. The manly heart of the commandant, earnest, -zealous, and direct, was seldom chary of its confidence, or apt to stand -too warily on its guard in presence of a profound art mingled with a no -less profound sincerity. - -A stranger visiting the fort of Quebec would have been astonished at its -air of conventual decorum. Black Jesuits and scarfed officers mingled -at Champlain's table. There was little conversation, but, in its place, -histories and the lives of saints were read aloud, as in a monastic -refectory. Prayers, masses, and confessions followed one another with -an edifying regularity, and the bell of the adjacent chapel, built by -Champlain, rang morning, noon, and night. Godless soldiers caught the -infection, and whipped themselves in penance for their sins. Debauched -artisans outdid each other in the fury of their contrition. Quebec -was become a mission. Indians gathered thither as of old, not from the -baneful lure of brandy, for the traffic in it was no longer tolerated, -but from the less pernicious attractions of gifts, kind words, and -politic blandishments. To the vital principle of propagandism both the -commercial and the military character were subordinated; or, to speak -more justly, trade, policy, and military power leaned on the missions -as their main support, the grand instrument of their extension. The -missions were to explore the interior; the missions were to win over -the savage hordes at once to Heaven and to France. Peaceful, benign, -beneficent, were the weapons of this conquest. France aimed to subdue, -not by the sword, but by the cross; not to overwhelm and crush the -nations she invaded, but to convert, civilize, and embrace them among -her children. - -And who were the instruments and the promoters of this proselytism, at -once so devout and so politic? Who can answer? Who can trace out the -crossing and mingling currents of wisdom and folly, ignorance and -knowledge, truth and falsehood, weakness and force, the noble and the -base, can analyze a systematized contradiction, and follow through its -secret wheels, springs, and levers a phenomenon of moral mechanism? Who -can define the Jesuits? The story of their missions is marvellous as a -tale of chivalry, or legends of the lives of saints. For many years, it -was the history of New France and of the wild communities of her desert -empire. - -Two years passed. The mission of the Hurons was established, and here -the indomitable Breheuf, with a band worthy of him, toiled amid -miseries and perils as fearful as ever shook the constancy of man; while -Champlain at Quebec, in a life uneventful, yet harassing and laborious, -was busied in the round of cares which his post involved. - -Christmas day, 1635, was a dark day in the annals of New France. In a -chamber of the fort, breathless and cold, lay the hardy frame which -war, the wilderness, and the sea had buffeted so long in vain. After two -months and a half of illness, Champlain, stricken with paralysis, at the -age of sixty-eight, was dead. His last cares were for his colony and the -succor of its suffering families. Jesuits, officers, soldiers, traders, -and the few settlers of Quebec followed his remains to the church; Le -Jeune pronounced his eulogy, and the feeble community built a tomb to -his honor. - -The colony could ill spare him. For twenty-seven years he had labored -hard and ceaselessly for its welfare, sacrificing fortune, repose, and -domestic peace to a cause embraced with enthusiasm and pursued with -intrepid persistency. His character belonged partly to the past, partly -to the present. The preux chevalier, the crusader, the romance-loving -explorer, the curious, knowledge-seeking traveler, the practical -navigator, all claimed their share in him. His views, though far beyond -those of the mean spirits around him, belonged to his age and his creed. -He was less statesman than soldier. He leaned to the most direct and -boldest policy, and one of his last acts was to petition Richelieu for -men and munitions for repressing that standing menace to the colony, the -Iroquois. His dauntless courage was matched by an unwearied patience, -proved by life-long vexations, and not wholly subdued even by the -saintly follies of his wife. He is charged with credulity, from which -few of his age were free, and which in all ages has been the foible of -earnest and generous natures, too ardent to criticise, and too honorable -to doubt the honor of others. Perhaps the heretic might have liked him -more if the Jesuit had liked him less. The adventurous explorer of Lake -Huron, the bold invader of the Iroquois, befits but indifferently the -monastic sobrieties of the fort of Quebec, and his sombre environment -of priests. Yet Champlain was no formalist, nor was his an empty zeal. -A soldier from his youth, in an age of unbridled license, his life had -answered to his maxims; and when a generation had passed after his visit -to the Hurons, their elders remembered with astonishment the continence -of the great French war-chief. - -His books mark the man,--all for his theme and his purpose, nothing for -himself. Crude in style, full of the superficial errors of carelessness -and haste, rarely diffuse, often brief to a fault, they bear on every -page the palpable impress of truth. - -With the life of the faithful soldier closes the opening period of New -France. Heroes of another stamp succeed; and it remains to tell the -story of their devoted lives, their faults, follies, and virtues. - - - - -END NOTES: - - - - -[Footnote 1: Herrera, Hist. General, Dec. I. Lib. LX. c. 11; De Laet, -Novus Orbis, Lib. I. C. 16 Garcilaso, Just. de la Florida, Part I. Lib. -I. C. 3; Gomara, Ilist. Gin. des Indes Occidentales, Lib. II. c. 10. -Compare Peter Martyr, De Rebus Oceanicis, Dec. VII. c. 7, who says that -the fountain was in Florida. - -The story has an explanation sufficiently characteristic, having been -suggested, it is said, by the beauty of the native women, which none -could resist, and which kindled the fires of youth in the veins of age. - -The terms of Ponce de Leon's bargain with the King are set forth in the -MS. Gapitnincion con Juan Ponce sobre Biminy. He was to have exclusive -right to the island, settle it at his own cost, and be called Adelantado -of Bimini; but the King was to build and hold forts there, send agents -to divide the Indians among the settlers, and receive first a tenth, -afterwards a fifth, of the gold.] - -[Footnote 2: Fontanedo in Ternaux-Compans, Recueil sur la Floride, 18, -19, 42. Compare Herrera, Dec. I. Lib. IX. c. 12. In allusion to this -belief, the name Jordan was given eight years afterwards by Ayllon to a -river of South Carolina.] - -[Footnote 3: Hakinyt, Voyaqes, V. 838; Barcia, Ensayo Cronologico, 5.] - -[Footnote 4: Peter Martyr in Hakinyt. V. 333; De Laet, Lib. IV. c. 2.] - -[Footnote 5: Their own exaggerated reckoning. The journey was prohably -from Tampa Bay to the Appalachicola, by a circuitous route.] - - -[Footnote 6: Narrative of Alvar Nunez Caheca de Vaca, second in command -to Narvaez, translated by Buckingham Smith. Cabeca do Vaca was one of -the four who escaped, and, after living for years among the tribes of -Mississippi, crossed the river Mississippi near Memphis, journeyed -westward by the waters of the Arkansas and Red River to New Mexico and -Chihuahua, thence to Cinaloa on the Gulf of California, and thence to -Mexico. The narrative is one of the most remarkable of the early -relations. See also Ramusin, III. 310, and Purchas, IV. 1499, where a -portion of Cabeca de Vaca is given. Also, Garcilaso, Part I. Lib. I. C. -3; Gomara, Lih. II. a. 11; De Laet, Lib. IV. c. 3; Barcia, Ensayo -Crenolegico, 19.] - -[Footnote 7: I have followed the accounts of Biedma and the Portuguese -of Elvas, rejecting the romantic narrative of Garcilaso, in which -fiction is hopelessly mingled with truth.] - -[Footnote 8: The spirit of this and other Spanish enterprises may be -gathered from the following passage in an address to the King, signed by -Dr. Pedro do Santander, and dated 15 July, 1557:- "It is lawful that -your Majesty, like a good shepherd, appointed by the hand of the Eternal -Father, should tend and lead out your sheep, since the Holy Spirit has -shown spreading pastures whereon are feeding lost sheep which have been -snatched away by the dragon, the Demon. These pastures are the New -World, wherein is comprised Florida, now in possession of the Demon, and -here he makes himself adored and revered. This is the Land of Promise, -possessed by idolaters, the Amorite, Ainalekite, Moabite, Cauaauite. -This is the land promised by the Eternal Father to the faithful, since -we are commanded by God in the Holy Scriptures to take it from them, -being idolaters, and, by reason of their idolatry and sin, to put them -all to the knife, leaving no living thing save maidens and children, -their cities robbed and sacked, their walls and houses levelled to the -earth." - -The writer then goes into detail, proposing to occupy Florida at various -points with from one thousand to fifteen hundred colonists, found a city -to be called Philippina, also another at Tuscaloosa, to be called -Cxsarea, another at Tallahassee, and another at Tampa Bay, where he -thinks many slaves can be had. Carta del Doctor Pedro de Santander.] - -[Footnote 9: The True and Last Discoverie of Florida, made by Captian -John Ribault, in the Yeere 1692, dedicated to a great Nobleman in -Fraunce, and translated into Englishe by one Thomas Haclcit, This is -Ribaut's journal, which seems not to exist in the original. The -translation is contained in the rare black-letter tract of Hakinyt -called Divers Voyages (London, 1582), a copy of which is in the library -of Harvard College. It has been reprinted by the Hakluyt Society. The -journal first appeared in 1563, under the title of The Whole and True -Discoverie of Terra Florida (Englished The Florishing Land). This -edition is of extreme rarity.] - -[Footnote 10: Ribaut thinks that the Broad River of Port Royal is the -Jordan of the Spanish navigator Yasquez de Ayllon, who was here in 1520, -and gave the name of St. Helena to a neighboring cape (Garcilaso, -Florida del Inca). The adjacent district, now called St. Helena, is the -Chicora of the old Spanish maps.] - -[Footnote 11: No trace of this fort has been found. The old fort of -which the remains may be seen a little below Beaufort is of later date.] - -[Footnote 12: For all the latter part of the chapter, the authority is -the first of the three long letters of Rena de Laudonniere, Companion of -Ribaut and his successor in command. They are contained in the Histoire -Notable de la Floride, compiled by Basanier (Paris, 1586), and are also -to he found, quaintly "done into English," in the third volume of -Hakluyt's great collection. In the main, they are entitled to much -confidence.] - -[Footnote 13: Above St. John's Bluff the shore curves in a semicircle, -along which the water runs in a deep, strong current, which has half cut -away the flat knoll above mentioned, and encroached greatly on the bluff -itself. The formation of the ground, joined to the indicatons furnished -by Laudonniere and Le Moyne, leave little doubt that the fort was built -on the knoll.] - -[Footnote 14: I La Caille, as before mentioned, was Laudonniere's -sergeant. The feudal rank of sergeant, it will be remembered, was widely -different from the modern grade so named, and was held by men of noble -birth. Le Moyne calls La Caille "Captain."] - -[Footnote 15: Laudonniere in Hakinyt, III. 406. Brinton, Floridian -Peninsula, thinks there is truth in the story, and that Lake Weir, in -Marion County, is the Lake of Sarrope. I give these romantic tales as I -find them.] - -[Footnote 16: This scene is the subject of Plate XII. of Le Moyne.] - -[Footnote 17: Le Moyne drew a picture of the fight (Plate XIII.). In the -foreground Ottigny is engaged in single combat with a gigantic savage, -who, with club upheaved, aims a deadly stroke at the plumed helmet of -his foe; but the latter, with target raised to guard his head, darts -under the arms of the naked Goliath, and transfixes him with his sword.] - -[Footnote 18: For Hawkins, see the three narratives in Hakinyt, III. -594; Purchas, IV. 1177; Stow, Chron., 807; Biog. Briton., Art. Hawkins; -Anderson, History of Commerce, I. 400. - -He was not knighted until after the voyage of 1564-65; hence there is an -anachronism in the text. As he was held "to have opened a new trade," he -was entitled to bear as his crest a "Moor" or negro, bound with a cord. -In Fairhairn's Crests of Great Britain and Ireland, where it is figured, -it is described, not as a negro, but as a "naked man." In Burke's Landed -Gentry, it is said that Sir John obtained it in honor of a great victory -over the Moors! His only African victories were in kidnapping raids on -negro villages. In Letters on Certain Passages in the Life of Sir John -Hawkins, the coat is engraved in detail. The "demi-Moor" has the thick -lips, the flat nose, and the wool of the unequivocal negro. - -Sir John became Treasurer of the Royal Navy and Rear-Admiral, and -founded a marine hospital at Chatham.] - -[Footnote 19: "Better a ruined kingdom, true to itself and its king, -than one left unharmed to the profit of the Devil and the heretics."-- -Correspondance de Philippe II., cited by Prescott, Philip IL, Book III. -c. 2, note 36. - -"A prince can do nothing more shameful, or more hurtful to himself, than -to permit his people to live according to their conscience." The Duke of -Alva, in Davila, Lib. III. p. 341.] - -[Footnote 20: Cartas escritas al Rep per el General Pero Menendez de -Aeilgs. These are the official despatches of Menendez, of which the -originals are preserved in the archives of Seville. They are very -voluminous and minute in detail. Copies of them were ohtained by the aid -of Buckiugham Smith, Esq., to whom the writer is also indebted for -various other documents from the same source, throwing new light on the -events descrihed. Menendez calls Port Royal St. Elena, "a name -afterwards applied to the sound which still retains it." Compare -Historical Magazine, IV. 320.] - -[Footnote 21: This was not so remarkable as it may appear. Charnock, -History of Marine Architecture gives the tonnage of the ships of the -Invincible Armada. The flag-ship of the Andalusian squadron was of -fifteen hundred and fifty tons; several were of about twelve hundred.] - -[Footnote 22: Barcia, 69. The following passage in one of the -unpublished letters of Menendez seems to indicate that the above is -exaggerated: "Your Majesty may he assured by me, that, had I a million, -more or less, I would employ and spend the whole in this undertaking, it -being so greatly to the glory of the God our Lord, and the increase of -our Holy Catholic Faith, and the service and authority of your Majesty -and thus I have offered to our Lord whatever He shall give me in this -world, [Footnote and whatever] I shall possess, gain, or acquire shall -be devoted to the planting of the Gospel in this land, and the -enlightenment of the natives thereof, and this I do promise to your -Majesty." This letter is dated 11 Septemher, 1565.] - -[Footnote 23: I have examined the country on the line of march of -Menendez. In many places it retains its original features.] - -[Footnote 24: Amid all the confusion of his geographical statements, it -seems clear that Menendez believed that Cheeapeake Bay communicated with -the St. Lawrence, and thence with Newfoundland on the one hand, and the -South Sea on the other. The notion that the St. Lawrence would give -access to China survived till the time of La Salle, or more than a -century. In the map of Gastaldi, made, according to Kohl, about 1550, a -belt of water connecting the St. Lawrence and the Atlantic is laid down. -So also in the map of Ruscelli, 1561, and that of Mactines, 1578, as -well as in that of Michael Lok, 1582. In Munster's map, 1545, the St. -Lawrence is rudely indicated, with the words, "Per hoc fretfl iter ad -Molucas."] - -[Footnote 25: The "black drink" was, till a recent period, in use among -the Creeks. It is a strong decoctiun of the plant popularly called -eassina, or nupon tea. Major Swan, deputy agent for the Creeks in 1791, -thus describes their belief in its properties: "that it purifies them -from all sin, and leaves them in a state of perfect innocence; that it -inspires them with an invincible prowess in war; and that it is the only -solid cement of friendship, benevolence, and hospitality." Swan's -account of their mode of drinking and ejecting it corresponds perfectly -with Le Moyne's picture in De Bry. See the United States government -publication, History, Condition, and Prospects of Indian Tribes, V. -266.] - -[Footnote 27: The earliest maps and narratives indicate a city, also -called Norembega, on the banks of the Penobseot. The pilot, Jean -Alphonse, of Saintonge, says that this fabulous city is fifteen or -twenty leagues from the sea, and that its inhabitants are of small -stature and dark complexion. As late as 1607 the fable was repeated in -the Histoire Unicerselle des Indes Occidentales.] - -[Footnote 28: Such extempore works of defence are still used among some -tribes of the remote west. The author has twice seen them, made of trees -piled together as described by Champlain, probably by war parties of the -Crow or Snake Indians. Champlain, usually too concise, is very minute in -his description of the march and encampment.] - -[Footnote 29: According to Lafitan, hoth bucklers and breastplates were -in frequent use among the Iroquois. The former were very large and made -of cedar wood covered with interwoven thongs of hide. The kindred nation -of the Hurons, says Sagard (Voyage des hlurens, 126-206), carried large -shields, and wore greaves for the legs and enirasses made of twigs -interwoven with cords. His account corresponds with that of Champlain, -who gives a wood-cut of a warrior thus armed.] - -[Footnote 30: It has been erroneously asserted that the practice of -scalping did not prevail among the Indians before the advent of -Europeans. In 1535, Cartier saw five scalps at Quebec, dried and -stretched on hoops. In 1564, Laudonniere saw them among the Indians of -Florida. The Algonquins of New England and Nova Scotia were accustomed -to cut off and carry away the head, which they afterwards scalped. Those -of Canada, it seems, sometimes scalped dead bodies on the field. Thu -Algonquin practice of carrying off heads as trophies is mentioned by -Lalemant, Roger Williams, Lescarbot, and Champlain. Compare Historical -Magazine, First Series, V. 233.] - -[Footnote 31: Traces of cannibalism may be found among most of the North -American tribes, though they are rarely very conspicuous. Sometimes the -practice arose, as in the present instance, from revenge or ferocity -sometimes it bore a religious character, as with the Miamis, among whom -there existed a secret religions fraternity of man-eaters sometimes the -heart of a brave enemy was devoured in the idea that it made the eater -brave. This last practice was common. The ferocious threat, used in -speaking of an enemy, "I will eat his heart," is by no means a mere -figure of speech. The roving hunter-tribes, in their winter wanderings, -were not infrequently impelled to cannibalism by famine.] - -[Footnote 32: 1 The first white man to descend the rapids of St. Louis -was a youth named Louis, who, on the 10th of June, 1611, went with two -Indians to shoot herons on an island, and was drowned on the way down; -the second was a young man who in the summer before had gone with the -Hurons to their country, and who returned with them on the 18th of June; -the third was Champlain himself.] - -[Footnote 33: Wampum was a sort of beads, of several colors, made -originally by the Indians from the inner portion of certain shells, and -afterwards by the French of porcelain and glass. It served a treble -purpose,--that of currency, decoration, and record, wrought into belts -of various devices, each having its significance, it preserved the -substance of treaties and compacts from generation to generation.] - - - - - - -End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Pioneers Of France In The New World, by -Francis Parkman, Jr. - -*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK PIONEERS OF FRANCE *** - -***** This file should be named 3721.txt or 3721.zip ***** -This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: - http://www.gutenberg.org/3/7/2/3721/ - -Produced by An Anonymous Volunteer - -Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions -will be renamed. - -Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no -one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation -(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without -permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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Hart -and may be reprinted only when these Etexts are free of all fees.] -[Project Gutenberg is a TradeMark and may not be used in any sales -of Project Gutenberg Etexts or other materials be they hardware or -software or any other related product without express permission.] - -*END THE SMALL PRINT! FOR PUBLIC DOMAIN ETEXTS*Ver.07/27/01*END* - - - - - -{etext creator's note: The original text has many footnotes, which have -been preserved in this extext version as 'End Notes', found at the end -of this file. End Notes are marked in the text as [FN#]. } - - - - - -PIONEERS OF FRANCE IN THE NEW WORLD - -By Francis Parkman - - - - -INTRODUCTION. - - -The springs of American civilization, unlike those of the elder world, -lie revealed in the clear light of History. In appearance they are -feeble; in reality, copious and full of force. Acting at the sources of -life, instruments otherwise weak become mighty for good and evil, and -men, lost elsewhere in the crowd, stand forth as agents of Destiny. In -their toils, their sufferings, their conflicts, momentous questions were -at stake, and issues vital to the future world,--the prevalence of -races, the triumph of principles, health or disease, a blessing or a -curse. On the obscure strife where men died by tens or by scores hung -questions of as deep import for posterity as on those mighty contests of -national adolescence where carnage is reckoned by thousands. - -The subject to which the proposed series will be devoted is that of -"France in the New World,"--the attempt of Feudalism, Monarchy, and -Rome to master a continent where, at this hour, half a million of -bayonets are vindicating the ascendency of a regulated freedom;-- -Feudalism still strong in life, though enveloped and overborne by -new-born Centralization; Monarchy in the flush of triumphant power; -Rome, nerved by disaster, springing with renewed vitality from ashes and -corruption, and ranging the earth to reconquer abroad what she had lost -at home. These banded powers, pushing into the wilderness their -indomitable soldiers and devoted priests, unveiled the secrets of the -barbarous continent, pierced the forests, traced and mapped out the -streams, planted their emblems, built their forts, and claimed all as -their own. New France was all head. Under king, noble, and Jesuit, the -lank, lean body would not thrive. Even commerce wore the sword, decked -itself with badges of nobility, aspired to forest seigniories and hordes -of savage retainers. - -Along the borders of the sea an adverse power was strengthening and -widening, with slow but steadfast growth, full of blood and muscle,--a -body without a head. Each had its strength, each its weakness, each its -own modes of vigorous life: but the one was fruitful, the other barren; -the one instinct with hope, the other darkening with shadows of despair. - -By name, local position, and character, one of these communities of -freemen stands forth as the most conspicuous representative of this -antagonism,--Liberty and Absolutism, New England and New France. The -one was the offspring of a triumphant government; the other, of an -oppressed and fugitive people: the one, an unflinching champion of the -Roman Catholic reaction; the other, a vanguard of the Reform. Each -followed its natural laws of growth, and each came to its natural -result. Vitalized by the principles of its foundation, the Puritan -commonwealth grew apace. New England was preeminently the land of -material progress. Here the prize was within every man's reach: patient -industry need never doubt its reward; nay, in defiance of the four -Gospels, assiduity in pursuit of gain was promoted to the rank of a -duty, and thrift and godliness were linked in equivocal wedlock. -Politically she was free; socially she suffered from that subtle and -searching oppression which the dominant opinion of a free community may -exercise over the members who compose it. As a whole, she grew upon the -gaze of the world, a signal example of expansive energy; but she has not -been fruitful in those salient and striking forms of character which -often give a dramatic life to the annals of nations far less prosperous. - -We turn to New France, and all is reversed. Here was a bold attempt to -crush under the exactions of a grasping hierarchy, to stifle under the -curbs and trappings of a feudal monarchy, a people compassed by -influences of the wildest freedom,--whose schools were the forest and -the sea, whose trade was an armed barter with savages, and whose daily -life a lesson of lawless independence. But this fierce spirit had its -vent. The story of New France is from the first a story of war: of war ---for so her founders believed--with the adversary of mankind -himself; war with savage tribes and potent forest commonwealths; war -with the encroaching powers of Heresy and of England. Her brave, -unthinking people were stamped with the soldier's virtues and the -soldier's faults; and in their leaders were displayed, on a grand and -novel stage, the energies, aspirations, and passions which belong to -hopes vast and vague, ill-restricted powers, and stations of command. - -The growth of New England was a result of the aggregate efforts of a -busy multitude, each in his narrow circle toiling for himself, to gather -competence or wealth. The expansion of New France was the achievement of -a gigantic ambition striving to grasp a continent. It was a vain -attempt. Long and valiantly her chiefs upheld their cause, leading to -battle a vassal population, warlike as themselves. Borne down by numbers -from without, wasted by corruption from within, New France fell at last; -and out of her fall grew revolutions whose influence to this hour is -felt through every nation of the civilized world. - -The French dominion is a memory of the past; and when we evoke its -departed shades, they rise upon us from their graves in strange, -romantic guise. Again their ghostly camp-fires seem to burn, and the -fitful light is cast around on lord and vassal and black-robed priest, -mingled with wild forms of savage warriors, knit in close fellowship on -the same stern errand. A boundless vision grows upon us; an untamed -continent; vast wastes of forest verdure; mountains silent in primeval -sleep; river, lake, and glimmering pool; wilderness oceans mingling with -the sky. Such was the domain which France conquered for Civilization. -Plumed helmets gleamed in the shade of its forests, priestly vestments -in its dens and fastnesses of ancient barbarism. Men steeped in antique -learning, pale with the close breath of the cloister, here spent the -noon and evening of their lives, ruled savage hordes with a mild, -parental sway, and stood serene before the direst shapes of death. Men -of courtly nurture, heirs to the polish of a far-reaching ancestry, -here, with their dauntless hardihood, put to shame the boldest sons of -toil. - -This memorable but half-forgotten chapter in the book of human life can -be rightly read only by lights numerous and widely scattered. The -earlier period of New France was prolific in a class of publications -which are often of much historic value, but of which many are -exceedingly rare. The writer, however, has at length gained access to -them all. Of the unpublished records of the colonies, the archives of -France are of course the grand deposit; but many documents of important -bearing on the subject are to be found scattered in public and private -libraries, chiefly in France and Canada. The task of collection has -proved abundantly irksome and laborious. It has, however, been greatly -lightened by the action of the governments of New York, Massachusetts, -and Canada, in collecting from Europe copies of documents having more or -less relation to their own history. It has been greatly lightened, too, -by a most kind co-operation, for which the writer owes obligations too -many for recognition at present, but of which he trusts to make fitting -acknowledgment hereafter. Yet he cannot forbear to mention the name of -Mr. John Gilmary Shea of New York, to whose labors this department of -American history has been so deeply indebted, and that of the Hon. Henry -Black of Quebec. Nor can he refrain from expressing his obligation to -the skilful and friendly criticism of Mr. Charles Folsom. - -In this, and still more must it be the case in succeeding volumes, the -amount of reading applied to their composition is far greater than the -citations represent, much of it being of a collateral and illustrative -nature. This was essential to a plan whose aim it was, while -scrupulously and rigorously adhering to the truth of facts, to animate -them with the life of the past, and, so far as might be, clothe the -skeleton with flesh. If, at times, it may seem that range has been -allowed to fancy, it is so in appearance only; since the minutest -details of narrative or description rest on authentic documents or on -personal observation. - -Faithfulness to the truth of history involves far more than a research, -however patient and scrupulous, into special facts. Such facts may be -detailed with the most minute exactness, and yet the narrative, taken as -a whole, may be unmeaning or untrue. The narrator must seek to imbue -himself with the life and spirit of the time. He must study events in -their bearings near and remote; in the character, habits, and manners of -those who took part in them, he must himself be, as it were, a sharer or -a spectator of the action he describes. - -With respect to that special research which, if inadequate, is still in -the most emphatic sense indispensable, it has been the writer's aim to -exhaust the existing material of every subject treated. While it would -be folly to claim success in such an attempt, he has reason to hope -that, so far at least as relates to the present volume, nothing of much -importance has escaped him. With respect to the general preparation just -alluded to, he has long been too fond of his theme to neglect any means -within his reach of making his conception of it distinct and true. - -To those who have aided him with information and documents, the extreme -slowness in the progress of the work will naturally have caused -surprise. This slowness was unavoidable. During the past eighteen years, -the state of his health has exacted throughout an extreme caution in -regard to mental application, reducing it at best within narrow and -precarious limits, and often precluding it. Indeed, for two periods, -each of several years, any attempt at bookish occupation would have been -merely suicidal. A condition of sight arising from kindred sources has -also retarded the work, since it has never permitted reading or writing -continuously for much more than five minutes, and often has not -permitted them at all. A previous work, "The Conspiracy of Pontiac," was -written in similar circumstances. - -The writer means, if possible, to carry the present design to its -completion. Such a completion, however, will by no means be essential as -regards the individual volumes of the series, since each will form a -separate and independent work. The present work, it will be seen, -contains two distinct and completed narratives. Some progress has been -made in others. - -Boston. January 1,1865. - - - - -Part One - - -HUGOENOTS IN FLORIDA - - - - -PREFATORY NOTE TO THE - -HUGUENOTS IN FLORIDA. - -The story of New France opens with a tragedy. The political and -religious enmities which were soon to bathe Europe in blood broke out -with an intense and concentrated fury in the distant wilds of Florida. -It was under equivocal auspices that Coligny and his partisans essayed -to build up a Calvinist France in America, and the attempt was met by -all the forces of national rivalry, personal interest, and religious -hate. - -This striking passage of our early history is remarkable for the -fullness and precision of the authorities that illustrate it. The -incidents of the Huguenot occupation of Florida are recorded by eight -eye-witnesses. Their evidence is marked by an unusual accord in respect -to essential facts, as well as by a minuteness of statement which -vividly pictures the events described. The following are the principal -authorities consulted for the main body of the narrative. - -Ribauld, 'The Whole and True Discovery of Terra Florida,' This is -Captain Jean Ribaut's account of his voyage to Florida in 1562. It was -"prynted at London," "newly set forthe in Englishe," in 1563, and -reprinted by Hakluyt in 1582 in his black-letter tract entitled 'Divers -Voyages.' It is not known to exist in the original French. - -'L'Histoire Notable de la Floride, mise en lumiere par M. Basanier' -(Paris, 1586). The most valuable portion of this work consists of the -letters of Rene de Laudonniere, the French commandant in Florida in -1564-65. They are interesting, and, with necessary allowance for the -position and prejudices of the writer, trustworthy. - -Challeux, Discours de l'Histoire de la Floride (Dieppe, 1566). Challeux -was a carpenter, who went to Florida in 1565. He was above sixty years -of age, a zealous Huguenot, and a philosopher in his way. His story is -affecting from its simplicity. Various editions of it appeared under -various titles. - -Le Moyne, Brevis Narratio eorum qucs in Florida Americce Provincia -Gallis acciderunt. Le Moyne was Laudonniere's artist. His narrative -forms the Second Part of the Grands Voyages of De Bry (Frankfort, 1591). -It is illustrated by numerous drawings made by the writer from memory, -and accompanied with descriptive letter-press. - -Coppie d'une Lettre venant de la Floride (Paris, 1565). This is a letter -from one of the adventurers under Laudonniere. It is reprinted in the -Recueil de Pieces sur la Floride of Ternaux.-Compans. Ternaux also -prints in the same volume a narrative called Histoire memorable du -dernier Voyage faict par le Capitaine Jean Ribaut. It is of no original -value, being compiled from Laudonniere and Challeux. - -Une Bequete au Roy, faite en forme de Complainte (1566). This is a -petition for redress to Charles the Ninth from the relatives of the -French massacred in Florida by the Spaniards. It recounts many incidents -of that tragedy. - -La Reprinse de la Floride par le Cappitaine Gourgue. This is a -manuscript in the Bibliotheque Nationale, printed in the Recueil of -Ternaux-Compans. It contains a detailed account of the remarkable -expedition of Dominique de Gourgues against the Spaniards in Florida in -1567-68. - -Charlevoix, in his Histoire de la Nouvelle France, speaks of another -narrative of this expedition in manuscript, preserved in the Gourgues -family. A copy of it, made in 1831 by the Vicomte de Gourgues, has been -placed at the writer's disposal. - -Popeliniere, De Thou, Wytfleit, D'Aubigne De Laet, Brantome, Lescarbot, -Champlain, and other writers of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, -have told or touched upon the story of the Huguenots in Florida; but -they all draw their information from one or more of the sources named -above. - -Lettres et Papiers d' Estat du Sieur de Forguevaulx (Bibliotheque -Nationale). These include the correspondence of the French and Spanish -courts concerning the massacre of the Huguenots. They are printed by -Gaffarel in his Histoire de le Floride Francaise. - -The Spanish authorities are the following--Barcia (Cardenas y Cano), -Ensayo Cronologico para la Historia General de la Florida (Madrid, -1723). This annalist had access to original documents of great interest. -Some of them are used as material for his narrative, others are copied -entire. Of these, the most remarkable is that of Solis de las Meras, -Memorial de todas las Jornadas de la Conquista de la Florida. - -Francisco Lopez de Mendoza Grajales, Relacion de la Jornada de Pedro -Menendez de Aviles en la Florida (Documentos Ineditos del Archivo de -Indias, III. 441). A French translation of this journal will be found in -the Recueil de Pieces sur let Floride of Ternaux-Compans. Mendoza was -chaplain of the expedition commanded by Menendez de Aviles, and, like -Solfs, he was an eye-witness of the events which he relates. - -Pedro Menendez de Aviles, Siete Cartas escritas al Rey, Anos de 1565 y -1566, MSS. These are the despatches of the Adelantado Menendez to Philip -the Second. They were procured for the writer, together with other -documents, from the archives of Seville, and their contents are now for -the first time made public. They consist of seventy-two closely written -foolscap pages, and are of the highest interest and value as regards the -present subject, confirming and amplifying the statements of Solis and -Mendoza, and giving new and curious information with respect to the -designs of Spain upon the continent of North America. - -It is unnecessary to specify the authorities for the introductory and -subordinate portions of the narrative. - -The writer is indebted to Mr. Buckingham Smith, for procuring copies of -documents from the archives of Spain; to Mr. Bancroft, the historian of -the United States, for the use of the Vicomte de Gourgues's copy of the -journal describing the expedition of his ancestor against the Spaniards; -and to Mr. Charles Russell Lowell, of the Boston Athenaeum, and Mr. John -Langdon Sibley, Librarian of Harvard College, for obliging aid in -consulting books and papers. - - - - - -HUGUENOTS IN FLORIDA. - - -CHAPTER I. - -1512-1561. - -EARLY SPANISH ADVENTURE. - -Towards the close of the fifteenth century, Spain achieved her final -triumph over the infidels of Granada, and made her name glorious through -all generations by the discovery of America. The religious zeal and -romantic daring which a long course of Moorish wars had called forth -were now exalted to redoubled fervor. Every ship from the New World came -freighted with marvels which put the fictions of chivalry to shame; and -to the Spaniard of that day America was a region of wonder and mystery, -of vague and magnificent promise. Thither adventurers hastened, -thirsting for glory and for gold, and often mingling the enthusiasm of -the crusader and the valor of the knight-errant with the bigotry of -inquisitors and the rapacity of pirates. They roamed over land and sea; -they climbed unknown mountains, surveyed unknown oceans, pierced the -sultry intricacies of tropical forests; while from year to year and from -day to day new wonders were unfolded, new islands and archipelagoes, new -regions of gold and pearl, and barbaric empires of more than Oriental -wealth. The extravagance of hope and the fever of adventure knew no -bounds. Nor is it surprising that amid such waking marvels the -imagination should run wild in romantic dreams; that between the -possible and the impossible the line of distinction should be but -faintly drawn, and that men should be found ready to stake life and -honor in pursuit of the most insane fantasies. - -Such a man was the veteran cavalier Juan Ponce de Leon. Greedy of honors -and of riches, he embarked at Porto Rico with three brigantines, bent on -schemes of discovery. But that which gave the chief stimulus to his -enterprise was a story, current among the Indians of Cuba and -Hispaniola, that on the island of Bimini, said to be one of the Bahamas, -there was a fountain of such virtue, that, bathing in its waters, old -men resumed their youth.[FN#1] It was said, moreover, that on a -neighboring shore might be found a river gifted with the same beneficent -property, and believed by some to be no other than the Jordan.[FN#2] -Ponce de Leon found the island of Bimini, but not the fountain. Farther -westward, in the latitude of thirty degrees and eight minutes, he -approached an unknown land, which he named Florida, and, steering -southward, explored its coast as far as the extreme point of the -peninsula, when, after some farther explorations, he retraced his course -to Porto Rico. - -Ponce de Leon had not regained his youth, but his active spirit was -unsubdued. - -Nine years later he attempted to plant a colony in Florida; the Indians -attacked him fiercely; he was mortally wounded, and died soon afterwards -in Cuba. [FN#3] - -The voyages of Garay and Vasquez de Ayllon threw new light on the -discoveries of Ponce, and the general outline of the coasts of Florida -became known to the Spaniards.[FN#4] Meanwhile, Cortes had conquered -Mexico, and the fame of that iniquitous but magnificent exploit rang -through all Spain. Many an impatient cavalier burned to achieve a -kindred fortune. To the excited fancy of the Spaniards the unknown land -of Florida seemed the seat of surpassing wealth, and Pamphilo de Narvaez -essayed to possess himself of its fancied treasures. Landing on its -shores, and proclaiming destruction to the Indians unless they -acknowledged the sovereignty of the Pope and the Emperor, he advanced -into the forests with three hundred men. Nothing could exceed their -sufferings. Nowhere could they find the gold they came to seek. The -village of Appalache, where they hoped to gain a rich booty, offered -nothing but a few mean wigwams. The horses gave out, and the famished -soldiers fed upon their flesh. The men sickened, and the Indians -unceasingly harassed their march. At length, after two hundred and -eighty leagues [FN#5] of wandering, they found themselves on the -northern shore of the Gulf of Mexico, and desperately put to sea in such -crazy boats as their skill and means could construct. Cold, disease, -famine, thirst, and the fury of the waves, melted them away. Narvaez -himself perished, and of his wretched followers no more than four -escaped, reaching by land, after years of vicissitude, the Christian -settlements of New Spain. [FN#6] - -The interior of the vast country then comprehended under the name of -Florida still remained unexplored. The Spanish voyager, as his caravel -ploughed the adjacent seas, might give full scope to his imagination, -and dream that beyond the long, low margin of forest which bounded his -horizon lay hid a rich harvest for some future conqueror; perhaps a -second Mexico with its royal palace and sacred pyramids, or another -Cuzco with its temple of the Sun, encircled with a frieze of gold. -Haunted by such visions, the ocean chivalry of Spain could not long -stand idle. - -Hernando de Soto was the companion of Pizarro in the conquest of Peru. -He had come to America a needy adventurer, with no other fortune than -his sword and target. But his exploits had given him fame and fortune, -and he appeared at court with the retinue of a nobleman.[FN#7] Still, -his active energies could not endure repose, and his avarice and -ambition goaded him to fresh enterprises. He asked and obtained -permission to conquer Florida. While this design was in agitation, -Cabeca de Vaca, one of those who had survived the expedition of Narvaez, -appeared in Spain, and for purposes of his own spread abroad the -mischievous falsehood, that Florida was the richest country yet -discovered. De Soto's plans were embraced with enthusiasm. Nobles and -gentlemen contended for the privilege of joining his standard; and, -setting sail with an ample armament, he landed at the bay of Espiritu -Santo, now Tampa Bay, in Florida, with six hundred and twenty chosen -men, a band as gallant and well appointed, as eager in purpose and -audacious in hope, as ever trod the shores of the New World. The clangor -of trumpets, the neighing of horses, the fluttering of pennons, the -glittering of helmet and lance, startled the ancient forest with -unwonted greeting. Amid this pomp of chivalry, religion was not -forgotten. The sacred vessels and vestments with bread and wine for the -Eucharist were carefully provided; and De Soto himself declared that the -enterprise was undertaken for God alone, and seemed to be the object of -His especial care. These devout marauders could not neglect the -spiritual welfare of the Indians whom they had come to plunder; and -besides fetters to bind, and bloodhounds to hunt them, they brought -priests and monks for the saving of their souls. - -The adventurers began their march. Their story has been often told. For -month after month and year after year, the procession of priests and -cavaliers, crossbowmen, arquebusiers, and Indian captives laden with the -baggage, still wandered on through wild and boundless wastes, lured -hither and thither by the ignis fatuus of their hopes. They traversed -great portions of Georgia, Alabama, and Mississippi, everywhere -inflicting and enduring misery, but never approaching their phantom El -Dorado. At length, in the third year of their journeying, they reached -the banks of the Mississippi, a hundred and thirty-two years before its -second discovery by Marquette. One of their number describes the great -river as almost half a league wide, deep, rapid, and constantly rolling -down trees and drift-wood on its turbid current. - -The Spaniards crossed over at a point above the mouth of the Arkansas. -They advanced westward, but found no treasures,--nothing indeed but -hardships, and an Indian enemy, furious, writes one of their officers, -"as mad dogs." They heard of a country towards the north where maize -could not be cultivated because the vast herds of wild cattle devoured -it. They penetrated so far that they entered the range of the roving -prairie tribes; for, one day, as they pushed their way with difficulty -across great plains covered with tall, rank grass, they met a band of -savages who dwelt in lodges of skins sewed together, subsisting on game -alone, and wandering perpetually from place to place. Finding neither -gold nor the South Sea, for both of which they had hoped, they returned -to the banks of the Mississippi. - -De Soto, says one of those who accompanied him, was a "stern man, and of -few words." Even in the midst of reverses, his will had been law to his -followers, and he had sustained himself through the depths of -disappointment with the energy of a stubborn pride. But his hour was -come. He fell into deep dejection, followed by an attack of fever, and -soon after died miserably. To preserve his body from the Indians, his -followers sank it at midnight in the river, and the sullen waters of the -Mississippi buried his ambition and his hopes. - -The adventurers were now, with few exceptions, disgusted with the -enterprise, and longed only to escape from the scene of their miseries. -After a vain attempt to reach Mexico by land, they again turned back to -the Mississippi, and labored, with all the resources which their -desperate necessity could suggest, to construct vessels in which they -might make their way to some Christian settlement. Their condition was -most forlorn. Few of their horses remained alive; their baggage had been -destroyed at the burning of the Indian town of Mavila, and many of the -soldiers were without armor and without weapons. In place of the gallant -array which, more than three years before, had left the harbor of -Espiritu Santo, a company of sickly and starving men were laboring among -the swampy forests of the Mississippi, some clad in skins, and some in -mats woven from a kind of wild vine. - -Seven brigantines were finished and launched; and, trusting their lives -on board these frail vessels, they descended the Mississippi, running -the gantlet between hostile tribes, who fiercely attacked them. Reaching -the Gulf, though not without the loss of eleven of their number, they -made sail for the Spanish settlement on the river Panuco, where they -arrived safely, and where the inhabitants met them with a cordial -welcome. Three hundred and eleven men thus escaped with life, leaving -behind them the bones of their comrades strewn broadcast through the -wilderness. [FN#7] - -De Soto's fate proved an insufficient warning, for those were still -found who begged a fresh commission for the conquest of Florida; but the -Emperor would not hear them. A more pacific enterprise was undertaken by -Cancello, a Dominican monk, who with several brother ecclesiastics -undertook to convert the natives to the true faith, but was murdered in -the attempt. Nine years later, a plan was formed for the colonization of -Florida, and Guido de las Bazares sailed to explore the coasts, and find -a spot suitable for the establishment.[FN#8] After his return, a -squadron, commanded by Angel de Villafane, and freighted with supplies -and men, put to sea from San Juan d'Ulloa; but the elements were -adverse, and the result was a total failure. Not a Spaniard had yet -gained foothold in Florida. - -That name, as the Spaniards of that day understood it, comprehended the -whole country extending from the Atlantic on the east to the longitude -of New Mexico on the west, and from the Gulf of Mexico and the River of -Palms indefinitely northward towards the polar sea. This vast territory -was claimed by Spain in right of the discoveries of Columbus, the grant -of the Pope, and the various expeditions mentioned above. England -claimed it in right of the discoveries of Cabot; while France could -advance no better title than might be derived from the voyage of -Verazzano and vague traditions of earlier visits of Breton adventurers. - -With restless jealousy Spain watched the domain which she could not -occupy, and on France especially she kept an eye of deep distrust. When, -in 1541, Cartier and Roberval essayed to plant a colony in the part of -ancient Spanish Florida now called Canada, she sent spies and fitted out -caravels to watch that abortive enterprise. Her fears proved just. -Canada, indeed, was long to remain a solitude; but, despite the Papal -bounty gifting Spain with exclusive ownership of a hemisphere, France -and Heresy at length took root in the sultry forests of modern Florida. - - - - - -CHAPTER II - -1550-1558. - -VILLEGAGNON. - -In the middle of the sixteenth century, Spain was the incubus of Europe. -Gloomy and portentous, she chilled the world with her baneful shadow. -Her old feudal liberties were gone, absorbed in the despotism of Madrid. -A tyranny of monks and inquisitors, with their swarms of spies and -informers, their racks, their dungeons, and their fagots, crushed all -freedom of thought or speech; and, while the Dominican held his reign of -terror and force, the deeper Jesuit guided the mind from infancy into -those narrow depths of bigotry from which it was never to escape. -Commercial despotism was joined to political and religious despotism. -The hands of the government were on every branch of industry. Perverse -regulations, uncertain and ruinous taxes, monopolies, encouragements, -prohibitions, restrictions, cramped the national energy. Mistress of the -Indies, Spain swarmed with beggars. Yet, verging to decay, she had an -ominous and appalling strength. Her condition was that of an athletic -man penetrated with disease, which had not yet unstrung the thews and -sinews formed in his days of vigor. Philip the Second could command the -service of warriors and statesmen developed in the years that were past. -The gathered energies of ruined feudalism were wielded by a single hand. -The mysterious King, in his den in the Escorial, dreary and silent, and -bent like a scribe over his papers, was the type and the champion of -arbitrary power. More than the Pope himself, he was the head of -Catholicity. In doctrine and in deed, the inexorable bigotry of Madrid -was ever in advance of Rome. - -Not so with France. She was full of life,--a discordant and struggling -vitality. Her monks and priests, unlike those of Spain, were rarely -either fanatics or bigots; yet not the less did they ply the rack and -the fagot, and howl for heretic blood. Their all was at stake: their -vast power, their bloated wealth, were wrapped up in the ancient faith. -Men were burned, and women buried alive. All was in vain. To the utmost -bounds of France, the leaven of the Reform was working. The Huguenots, -fugitives from torture and death, found an asylum at Geneva, their city -of refuge, gathering around Calvin, their great high-priest. Thence -intrepid colporteurs, their lives in their hands, bore the Bible and the -psalm-book to city, hamlet, and castle, to feed the rising flame. The -scattered churches, pressed by a common danger, began to organize. An -ecclesiastical republic spread its ramifications through France, and -grew underground to a vigorous life,--pacific at the outset, for the -great body of its members were the quiet bourgeoisie, by habit, as by -faith, averse to violence. Yet a potent fraction of the warlike noblesse -were also of the new faith; and above them all, preeminent in character -as in station, stood Gaspar de Coligny, Admiral of France. - -The old palace of the Louvre, reared by the "Roi Chevalier" on the site -of those dreary feudal towers which of old had guarded the banks of the -Seine, held within its sculptured masonry the worthless brood of Valois. -Corruption and intrigue ran riot at the court. Factious nobles, bishops, -and cardinals, with no God but pleasure and ambition, contended around -the throne or the sick-bed of the futile King. Catherine de Medicis, -with her stately form, her mean spirit, her bad heart, and her -fathomless depths of duplicity, strove by every subtle art to hold the -balance of power among them. The bold, pitiless, insatiable Guise, and -his brother the Cardinal of Lorraine, the incarnation of falsehood, -rested their ambition on the Catholic party. Their army was a legion of -priests, and the black swarms of countless monasteries, who by the -distribution of alms held in pay the rabble of cities and starving -peasants on the lands of impoverished nobles. Montmorency, Conde, and -Navarre leaned towards the Reform,--doubtful and inconstant chiefs, -whose faith weighed light against their interests. Yet, amid -vacillation, selfishness, weakness, treachery, one great man was like a -tower of trust, and this was Gaspar de Coligny. - -Firm in his convictions, steeled by perils and endurance, calm, -sagacious, resolute, grave even to severity, a valiant and redoubted -soldier, Coligny looked abroad on the gathering storm and read its -danger in advance. He saw a strange depravity of manners; bribery and -violence overriding justice; discontented nobles, and peasants ground -down with taxes. In the midst of this rottenness, the Calvinistic -churches, patient and stern, were fast gathering to themselves the -better life of the nation. Among and around them tossed the surges of -clerical hate. Luxurious priests and libertine monks saw their disorders -rebuked by the grave virtues of the Protestant zealots. Their broad -lands, their rich endowments, their vessels of silver and of gold, their -dominion over souls,--in itself a revenue,--were all imperiled by -the growing heresy. Nor was the Reform less exacting, less intolerant, -or, when its hour came, less aggressive than the ancient faith. The -storm was thickening, and it must burst soon. - -When the Emperor Charles the Fifth beleaguered Algiers, his camps were -deluged by a blinding tempest, and at its height the infidels made a -furious sally. A hundred Knights of Malta, on foot, wearing over their -armor surcoats of crimson blazoned with the white cross, bore the brunt -of the assault. Conspicuous among them was Nicolas Durand de -Villegagnon. A Moorish cavalier, rushing upon him, pierced his arm with -a lance, and wheeled to repeat the blow; but the knight leaped on the -infidel, stabbed him with his dagger, flung him from his horse, and -mounted in his place. Again, a Moslem host landed in Malta and beset the -Cite Notable. The garrison was weak, disheartened, and without a leader. -Villegagnon with six followers, all friends of his own, passed under -cover of night through the infidel leaguer, climbed the walls by ropes -lowered from above, took command, repaired the shattered towers, aiding -with his own hands in the work, and animated the garrison to a -resistance so stubborn that the besiegers lost heart and betook -themselves to their galleys. No less was he an able and accomplished -mariner, prominent among that chivalry of the sea who held the perilous -verge of Christendom against the Mussuhuan. He claimed other laurels -than those of the sword. He was a scholar, a linguist, a -controversialist, potent with the tongue and with the pen, commanding in -presence, eloquent and persuasive in discourse. Yet this Crichton of -France had proved himself an associate nowise desirable. His sleepless -intellect was matched with a spirit as restless, vain, unstable, and -ambitious, as it was enterprising and bold. Addicted to dissent, and -enamoured of polemics, he entered those forbidden fields of inquiry and -controversy to which the Reform invited him. Undaunted by his monastic -vows, he battled for heresy with tongue and pen, and in the ear of -Protestants professed himself a Protestant. As a Commander of his Order, -he quarreled with the Grand Master, a domineering Spaniard; and, as -Vice-Admiral of Brittany, he was deep in a feud with the Governor of -Brest. Disgusted at home, his fancy crossed the seas. He aspired to -build for France and himself an empire amid the tropical splendors of -Brazil. Few could match him in the gift of persuasion; and the intrepid -seamen whose skill and valor had run the gantlet of the English fleet, -and borne Mary Stuart of Scotland in safety to her espousals with the -Dauphin, might well be intrusted with a charge of moment so far -inferior. Henry the Second was still on the throne. The lance of -Montgomery had not yet rid France of that infliction. To win a share in -the rich domain of the New World, of which Portuguese and Spanish -arrogance claimed the monopoly, was the end held by Villegagnon before -the eyes of the King. Of the Huguenots, he said not a word. For Coligny -he had another language. He spoke of an asylum for persecuted religion, -a Geneva in the wilderness, far from priests and monks and Francis of -Guise. The Admiral gave him a ready ear; if, indeed, he himself had not -first conceived the plan. Yet to the King, an active burner of -Huguenots, Coligny too urged it as an enterprise, not for the Faith, but -for France. In secret, Geneva was made privy to it, and Calvin himself -embraced it with zeal. The enterprise, in fact, had a double character, -political as well as religious. It was the reply of France, the most -emphatic she had yet made, to the Papal bull which gave all the western -hemisphere to Portugal and Spain; and, as if to point her answer, she -sent, not Frenchmen only, but Protestant Frenchmen, to plant the -fleur-de-lis on the shores of the New World. - -Two vessels were made ready, in the name of the King. The body of the -emigration was Huguenot, mingled with young nobles, restless, idle, and -poor, with reckless artisans, and piratical sailors from the Norman and -Breton seaports. They put to sea from Havre on the twelfth of July, -1555, and early in November saw the shores of Brazil. Entering the -harbor of Rio Janeiro, then called Ganabara, Villegagnon landed men and -stores on an island, built huts, and threw up earthworks. In -anticipation of future triumphs, the whole continent, by a strange -perversion of language, was called Antarctic France, while the fort -received the name of Coligny. - -Villegagnon signalized his new-born Protestantism by an intolerable -solicitude for the manners and morals of his followers. The whip and the -pillory requited the least offence. The wild and discordant crew, -starved and flogged for a season into submission, conspired at length to -rid themselves of him; but while they debated whether to poison him, -blow him up, or murder him and his officers in their sleep, three Scotch -soldiers, probably Calvinists, revealed the plot, and the vigorous hand -of the commandant crushed it in the bud. - -But how was the colony to subsist? Their island was too small for -culture, while the mainland was infested with hostile tribes, and -threatened by the Portuguese, who regarded the French occupancy as a -violation of their domain. - -Meanwhile, in France, Huguenot influence, aided by ardent letters sent -home by Villegagnon in the returning ships, was urging on the work. Nor -were the Catholic chiefs averse to an enterprise which, by colonizing -heresy, might tend to relieve France of its presence. Another -embarkation was prepared, in the name of Henry the Second, under -Bois-Lecomte, a nephew of Villegagnon. Most of the emigrants were -Huguenots. Geneva sent a large deputation, and among them several -ministers, full of zeal for their land of promise and their new church -in the wilderness. There were five young women, also, with a matron to -watch over them. Soldiers, emigrants, and sailors, two hundred and -ninety in all, were embarked in three vessels; and, to the sound of -cannon, drums, fifes, and trumpets, they unfurled their sails at -Honfleur. They were no sooner on the high seas than the piratical -character of the Norman sailors, in no way exceptional at that day, -began to declare itself. They hailed every vessel weaker than -themselves, pretended to be short of provisions, and demanded leave to -buy them; then, boarding the stranger, plundered her from stem to stern. -After a passage of four months, on the ninth of March, 1557, they -entered the port of Ganabara, and saw the fleur-de-lis floating above -the walls of Fort Coligny. Amid salutes of cannon, the boats, crowded -with sea-worn emigrants, moved towards the landing. It was an edifying -scene when Villegagnon, in the picturesque attire which marked the -warlike nobles of the period, came down to the shore to greet the sombre -ministers of Calvin. With hands uplifted and eyes raised to heaven, he -bade them welcome to the new asylum of the faithful; then launched into -a long harangue full of zeal and unction. His discourse finished, he led -the way to the dining-hall. If the redundancy of spiritual aliment had -surpassed their expectations, the ministers were little prepared for the -meagre provision which awaited their temporal cravings; for, with -appetites whetted by the sea, they found themselves seated at a board -whereof, as one of them complains the choicest dish was a dried fish, -and the only beverage rain-water. They found their consolation in the -inward graces of the commandant, whom they likened to the Apostle Paul. - -For a time all was ardor and hope. Men of birth and station, and the -ministers themselves, labored with pick and shovel to finish the fort. -Every day exhortations, sermons, prayers, followed in close succession, -and Villegagnon was always present, kneeling on a velvet cushion brought -after him by a page. Soon, however, he fell into sharp controversy with -the ministers upon points of faith. Among the emigrants was a student of -the Sorbonne, one Cointac, between whom and the ministers arose a fierce -and unintermitted war of words. Is it lawful to mix water with the wine -of the Eucharist? May the sacramental bread be made of meal of Indian -corn? These and similar points of dispute filled the fort with -wranglings, begetting cliques, factions, and feuds without number. -Villegagnon took part with the student, and between them they devised a -new doctrine, abhorrent alike to Geneva and to Rome. The advent of this -nondescript heresy was the signal of redoubled strife. The dogmatic -stiffness of the Geneva ministers chafed Villegagnon to fury. He felt -himself, too, in a false position. On one side he depended on the -Protestant, Coligny; on the other, he feared the Court. There were -Catholics in the colony who might report him as an open heretic. On this -point his doubts were set at rest; for a ship from France brought him a -letter from the Cardinal of Lorraine, couched, it is said, in terms -which restored him forthwith to the bosom of the Church. Villegagnon now -affirmed that he had been deceived in Calvin, and pronounced him a -"frightful heretic." He became despotic beyond measure, and would bear -no opposition. The ministers, reduced nearly to starvation, found -themselves under a tyranny worse than that from which they had fled. - -At length he drove them from the fort, and forced them to bivouac on the -mainland, at the risk of being butchered by Indians, until a vessel -loading with Brazil-wood in the harbor should be ready to carry them -back to France. Having rid himself of the ministers, he caused three of -the more zealous Calvinists to be seized, dragged to the edge of a rock, -and thrown into the sea. A fourth, equally obnoxious, but who, being a -tailor, could ill be spared, was permitted to live on condition of -recantation. Then, mustering the colonists, he warned them to shun the -heresies of Luther and Calvin; threatened that all who openly professed -those detestable doctrines should share the fate of their three -comrades; and, his harangue over, feasted the whole assembly, in token, -says the narrator, of joy and triumph. - -Meanwhile, in their crazy vessel, the banished ministers drifted slowly -on their way. Storms fell upon them, their provisions failed, their -water-casks were empty, and, tossing in the wilderness of waves, or -rocking on the long swells of subsiding gales, they sank almost to -despair. In their famine they chewed the Brazil-wood with which the -vessel was laden, devoured every scrap of leather, singed and ate the -horn of lanterns, hunted rats through the hold, and sold them to each -other at enormous prices. At length, stretched on the deck, sick, -listless, attenuated, and scarcely able to move a limb, they descried -across the waste of sea the faint, cloud-like line that marked the coast -of Brittany. Their perils were not past; for, if we may believe one of -them, Jean de Lery, they bore a sealed letter from Villegagnon to the -magistrates of the first French port at which they might arrive. It -denounced them as heretics, worthy to be burned. Happily, the -magistrates leaned to the Reform, and the malice of the commandant -failed of its victims. - -Villegagnon himself soon sailed for France, leaving the wretched colony -to its fate. He presently entered the lists against Calvin, and engaged -him in a hot controversial war, in which, according to some of his -contemporaries, the knight often worsted the theologian at his own -weapons. Before the year 1558 was closed, Ganabara fell a prey to the -Portuguese. They set upon it in force, battered down the fort, and slew -the feeble garrison, or drove them to a miserable refuge among the -Indians. Spain and Portugal made good their claim to the vast domain, -the mighty vegetation, and undeveloped riches of "Antarctic France." - - - - - -CHAPTER III. - -1562, 1563. - -JEAN RIBAUT. - -In the year 1562 a cloud of black and deadly portent was thickening over -France. Surely and swiftly she glided towards the abyss of the religious -wars. None could pierce the future, perhaps none dared to contemplate -it: the wild rage of fanaticism and hate, friend grappling with friend, -brother with brother, father with son; altars profaned, hearth-stones -made desolate, the robes of Justice herself bedrenched with murder. In -the gloom without lay Spain, imminent and terrible. As on the hill by -the field of Dreux, her veteran bands of pikemen, dark masses of -organized ferocity, stood biding their time while the battle surged -below, and then swept downward to the slaughter,--so did Spain watch -and wait to trample and crush the hope of humanity. - -In these days of fear, a second Huguenot colony sailed for the New -World. The calm, stern man who represented and led the Protestantism of -France felt to his inmost heart the peril of the time. He would fain -build up a city of refuge for the persecuted sect. Yet Gaspar de -Coligny, too high in power and rank to be openly assailed, was forced to -act with caution. He must act, too, in the name of the Crown, and in -virtue of his office of Admiral of France. A nobleman and a soldier,-- -for the Admiral of France was no seaman,--he shared the ideas and -habits of his class; nor is there reason to believe him to have been in -advance of his time in a knowledge of the principles of successful -colonization. His scheme promised a military colony, not a free -commonwealth. The Huguenot party was already a political as well as a -religious party. At its foundation lay the religious element, -represented by Geneva, the martyrs, and the devoted fugitives who sang -the psalms of Marot among rocks and caverns. Joined to these were -numbers on whom the faith sat lightly, whose hope was in commotion and -change. Of the latter, in great part, was the Huguenot noblesse, from -Conde, who aspired to the crown, - -"Ce petit homme tant joli, -Qui toujours chante, toujours rit," - -to the younger son of the impoverished seigneur whose patrimony was his -sword. More than this, the restless, the factious, and the discontented, -began to link their fortunes to a party whose triumph would involve -confiscation of the wealth of the only rich class in France. An element -of the great revolution was already mingling in the strife of religions. - -America was still a land of wonder. The ancient spell still hung -unbroken over the wild, vast world of mystery beyond the sea,--a land -of romance, adventure, and gold. - -Fifty-eight years later the Puritans landed on the sands of -Massachusetts Bay. The illusion was gone,--the ignis fatuus of -adventure, the dream of wealth. The rugged wilderness offered only a -stern and hard won independence. In their own hearts, and not in the -promptings of a great leader or the patronage of an equivocal -government, their enterprise found its birth and its achievement. They -were of the boldest and most earnest of their sect. There were such -among the French disciples of Calvin; but no Mayflower ever sailed from -a port of France. Coligny's colonists were of a different stamp, and -widely different was their fate. - -An excellent seaman and stanch Protestant, Jean Ribaut of Dieppe, -commanded the expedition. Under him, besides sailors, were a band of -veteran soldiers, and a few young nobles. Embarked in two of those -antiquated craft whose high poops and tub-like porportions are preserved -in the old engravings of De Bry, they sailed from Havre on the -eighteenth of February, 1562. They crossed the Atlantic, and on the -thirtieth of April, in the latitude of twenty-nine and a half degrees, -saw the long, low line where the wilderness of waves met the wilderness -of woods. It was the coast of Florida. They soon descried a jutting -point, which they called French Cape, perhaps one of the headlands of -Matanzas Inlet. They turned their prows northward, coasting the fringes -of that waste of verdure which rolled in shadowy undulation far to the -unknown West. - -On the next morning, the first of May, they found themselves off the -mouth of a great river. Riding at anchor on a sunny sea, they lowered -their boats, crossed the bar that obstructed the entrance, and floated -on a basin of deep and sheltered water, "boyling and roaring," says -Ribaut, "through the multitude of all kind of fish." Indians were -running along the beach, and out upon the sand-bars, beckoning them to -land. They pushed their boats ashore and disembarked,--sailors, -soldiers, and eager young nobles. Corselet and morion, arquebuse and -halberd, flashed in the sun that flickered through innumerable leaves, -as, kneeling on the ground, they gave thanks to God, who had guided -their voyage to an issue full of promise. The Indians, seated gravely -under the neighboring trees, looked on in silent respect, thinking that -they worshipped the sun. "They be all naked and of a goodly stature, -mightie, and as well shapen and proportioned of body as any people in ye -world; and the fore part of their body and armes be painted with pretie -deuised workes, of Azure, red, and blacke, so well and so properly as -the best Painter of Europe could not amende it." With their squaws and -children, they presently drew near, and, strewing the earth with laurel -boughs, sat down among the Frenchmen. Their visitors were much pleased -with them, and Ribaut gave the chief, whom he calls the king, a robe of -blue cloth, worked in yellow with the regal fleur-de-lis. - -But Ribaut and his followers, just escaped from the dull prison of their -ships, were intent on admiring the wild scenes around them. Never had -they known a fairer May-day. The quaint old narrative is exuberant with -delight. The tranquil air, the warm sun, woods fresh with young verdure, -meadows bright with flowers; the palm, the cypress, the pine, the -magnolia; the grazing deer; herons, curlews, bitterns, woodcock, and -unknown water-fowl that waded in the ripple of the beach; cedars bearded -from crown to root with long, gray moss; huge oaks smothering in the -folds of enormous grapevines;--such were the objects that greeted them -in their roamings, till their new-discovered land seemed "the fairest, -fruitfullest, and pleasantest of al the world." - -They found a tree covered with caterpillars, and hereupon the ancient -black-letter says: "Also there be Silke wormes in meruielous number, a -great deale fairer and better then be our silk wormes. To bee short, it -is a thing vnspeakable to consider the thinges that bee seene there, and -shalbe founde more and more in this incomperable lande." [FN#9] - -Above all, it was plain to their excited fancy that the country was rich -in gold and silver, turquoises and pearls. One of these last, "as great -as an Acorne at ye least," hung from the neck of an Indian who stood -near their boats as they re-embarked. They gathered, too, from the signs -of their savage visitors, that the wonderful land of Cibola, with its -seven cities and its untold riches, was distant but twenty days' journey -by water. In truth, it was two thousand miles westward, and its wealth a -fable. - -They named the river the River of May. It is now the St. John's. "And on -the next morning," says Ribault, "we returned to land againe, -accompanied with the Captaines, Gentlemen, and Souldiers, and others of -our small troope, carrying with us a Pillour or columne of harde stone, -our king's armes graved therein, to plant and set the same in the -enterie of the Porte; and being come thither we espied on the south syde -of the River a place very fitte for that purpose upon a little hill -compassed with Cypres, Bayes, Paulmes, and other trees, with sweete -smelling and pleasant shrubbes." Here they set the column, and then, -again embarking, held their course northward, happy in that benign -decree which locks from mortal eyes the secrets of the future. - -Next they anchored near Fernandina, and to a neighboring river, probably -the St. Mary's, gave the name of the Seine. Here, as morning broke on -the fresh, moist meadows hung with mists, and on broad reaches of inland -waters which seemed like lakes, they were tempted to land again, and -soon "espied an innumerable number of footesteps of great Hartes and -Hindes of a wonderfull greatnesse, the steppes being all fresh and new, -and it seemeth that the people doe nourish them like tame Cattell." By -two or three weeks of exploration they seem to have gained a clear idea -of this rich semi-aquatic region. Ribaut describes it as "a countrie -full of hauens, riuers, and Ilands, of such fruitfulnes as cannot with -tongue be expressed." Slowly moving northward, they named each river, or -inlet supposed to be a river, after some stream of France,--the Loire, -the Charente, the Garonne, the Gironde. At length, opening betwixt flat -and sandy shores, they saw a commodious haven, and named it Port Royal. - -On the twenty-seventh of May they crossed the bar where the war-ships of -Dupont crossed three hundred years later, passed Hilton Head, and held -their course along the peaceful bosom of Broad River.[FN#10] On the left -they saw a stream which they named Libourne, probably Skull Creek; on -the right, a wide river, probably the Beaufort. When they landed, all -was solitude. The frightened Indians had fled, but they lured them back -with knives, beads, and looking-glasses, and enticed two of them on -board their ships. Here, by feeding, clothing, and caressing them, they -tried to wean them from their fears, thinking to carry them to France, -in obedience to a command of Catherine de Medicis; but the captive -warriors moaned and lamented day and night, and at length made their -escape. - -Ranging the woods, they found them full of game, wild turkeys and -partridges, bears and lynxes. Two deer, of unusual size, leaped from the -underbrush. Cross-bow and arquebuse were brought to the level; but the -Huguenot captain, "moved with the singular fairness and bigness of -them," forbade his men to shoot. - -Preliminary exploration, not immediate settlement, had been the object -of the voyage; but all was still rose-color in the eyes of the voyagers, -and many of their number would gladly linger in the New Canaan. Ribaut -was more than willing to humor them. He mustered his company on deck, -and made them a harangue. He appealed to their courage and their -patriotism, told them how, from a mean origin, men rise by enterprise -and daring to fame and fortune, and demanded who among them would stay -behind and hold Port Royal for the King. The greater part came forward, -and "with such a good will and joly corage," writes the commander, "as -we had much to do to stay their importunitie." Thirty were chosen, and -Albert de Pierria was named to command them. - -A fort was begun on a small stream called the Chenonceau, probably -Archer's Creek, about six miles from the site of Beaufort.[FN#11] They -named it Charlesfort, in honor of the unhappy son of Catherine de -Medicis, Charles the Ninth, the future hero of St. Bartholomew. -Ammunition and stores were sent on shore, and on the eleventh of June, -with his diminished company, Ribaut again embarked and spread his sails -for France. - -From the beach at Hilton Head, Albert and his companions might watch the -receding ships, growing less and less on the vast expanse of blue, -dwindling to faint specks, then vanishing on the pale verge of the -waters. They were alone in those fearful solitudes. From the north pole -to Mexico there was no Christian denizen but they. - -The pressing question was how they were to subsist. Their thought was -not of subsistence, but of gold. Of the thirty, the greater number were -soldiers and sailors, with a few gentlemen; that is to say, men of the -sword, born within the pale of nobility, who at home could neither labor -nor trade without derogation from their rank. For a time they busied -themselves with finishing their fort, and, this done, set forth in quest -of adventures. - -The Indians had lost fear of them. Ribaut had enjoined upon them to use -all kindness and gentleness in their dealing with the men of the woods; -and they more than obeyed him. They were soon hand and glove with -chiefs, warriors, and squaws; and as with Indians the adage that -familiarity breeds contempt holds with peculiar force, they quickly -divested themselves of the prestige which had attached at the outset to -their supposed character of children of the Sun. Good-will, however, -remained, and this the colonists abused to the utmost. - -Roaming by river, swamp, and forest, they visited in turn the villages -of five petty chiefs, whom they called kings, feasting everywhere on -hominy, beans, and game, and loaded with gifts. One of these chiefs, -named Audusta, invited them to the grand religious festival of his -tribe. When they arrived, they found the village alive with preparation, -and troops of women busied in sweeping the great circular area where the -ceremonies were to take place. But as the noisy and impertinent guests -showed a disposition to undue merriment, the chief shut them all in his -wigwam, lest their Gentile eyes should profane the mysteries. Here, -immured in darkness, they listened to the howls, yelpings, and -lugubrious songs that resounded from without. One of them, however, by -some artifice, contrived to escape, hid behind a bush, and saw the whole -solemnity,--the procession of the medicinemen and the bedaubed and -befeathered warriors; the drumming, dancing, and stamping; the wild -lamentation of the women as they gashed the arms of the young girls with -sharp mussel-shells, and flung the blood into the air with dismal -outcries. A scene of ravenous feasting followed, in which the French, -released from durance, were summoned to share. - -After the carousal they returned to Charlesfort, where they were soon -pinched with hunger. The Indians, never niggardly of food, brought them -supplies as long as their own lasted; but the harvest was not yet ripe, -and their means did not match their good-will. They told the French of -two other kings, Ouade and Couexis, who dwelt towards the south, and -were rich beyond belief in maize, beans, and squashes. The mendicant -colonists embarked without delay, and, with an Indian guide, steered for -the wigwams of these potentates, not by the open sea, but by a -perplexing inland navigation, including, as it seems, Calibogue Sound -and neighboring waters. Reaching the friendly villages, on or near the -Savannah, they were feasted to repletion, and their boat was laden with -vegetables and corn. They returned rejoicing; but their joy was short. -Their store-house at Charlesfort, taking fire in the night, burned to -the ground, and with it their newly acquired stock. - -Once more they set out for the realms of King Ouade, and once more -returned laden with supplies. Nay, the generous savage assured them -that, so long as his cornfields yielded their harvests, his friends -should not want. - -How long this friendship would have lasted may well be doubted. With the -perception that the dependants on their bounty were no demigods, but a -crew of idle and helpless beggars, respect would soon have changed to -contempt, and contempt to ill-will. But it was not to Indian war-clubs -that the infant colony was to owe its ruin. It carried within itself its -own destruction. The ill-assorted band of lands-men and sailors, -surrounded by that influence of the wilderness which wakens the dormant -savage in the breasts of men, soon fell into quarrels. Albert, a rude -soldier, with a thousand leagues of ocean betwixt him and -responsibility, grew harsh, domineering, and violent beyond endurance. -None could question or oppose him without peril of death. He hanged with -his own hands a drummer who had fallen under his displeasure, and -banished a soldier, named La Chore, to a solitary island, three leagues -from the fort, where he left him to starve. For a time his comrades -chafed in smothered fury. The crisis came at length. A few of the -fiercer spirits leagued together, assailed their tyrant, murdered him, -delivered the famished soldier, and called to the command one Nicolas -Barre, a man of merit. Barre took the command, and thenceforth there was -peace. - -Peace, such as it was, with famine, homesickness, and disgust. The rough -ramparts and rude buildings of Charlesfort, hatefully familiar to their -weary eyes, the sweltering forest, the glassy river, the eternal silence -of the lifeless wilds around them, oppressed the senses and the spirits. -They dreamed of ease, of home, of pleasures across the sea, of the -evening cup on the bench before the cabaret, and dances with kind -wenches of Dieppe. But how to escape? A continent was their solitary -prison, and the pitiless Atlantic shut them in. Not one of them knew how -to build a ship; but Ribaut had left them a forge, with tools and iron, -and strong desire supplied the place of skill. Trees were hewn down and -the work begun. Had they put forth to maintain themselves at Port Royal -the energy and resource which they exerted to escape from it, they might -have laid the cornerstone of a solid colony. - -All, gentle and simple, labored with equal zeal. They calked the seams -with the long moss which hung in profusion from the neighboring trees; -the pines supplied them with pitch; the Indians made for them a kind of -cordage; and for sails they sewed together their shirts and bedding. At -length a brigantine worthy of Robinson Crusoe floated on the waters of -the Chenonceau. They laid in what provision they could, gave all that -remained of their goods to the Indians, embarked, descended the river, -and put to sea. A fair wind filled their patchwork sails and bore them -from the hated coast. Day after day they held their course, till at -length the breeze died away and a breathless calm fell on the waters. -Florida was far behind; France farther yet before. - -Floating idly on the glassy waste, the craft lay motionless. Their -supplies gave out. Twelve kernels of maize a day were each man's -portion; then the maize failed, and they ate their shoes and leather -jerkins. The water-barrels were drained, and they tried to slake their -thirst with brine. Several died, and the rest, giddy with exhaustion and -crazed with thirst, were forced to ceaseless labor, bailing out the -water that gushed through every seam. Head-winds set in, increasing to a -gale, and the wretched brigantine, with sails close-reefed, tossed among -the savage billows at the mercy of the storm. A heavy sea rolled down -upon her, and burst the bulwarks on the windward side. The surges broke -over her, and, clinging with desperate grip to spars and cordage, the -drenched voyagers gave up all for lost. At length she righted. The gale -subsided, the wind changed, and the crazy, water-logged vessel again -bore slowly towards France. - -Gnawed with famine, they counted the leagues of barren ocean that still -stretched before, and gazed on each other with haggard wolfish eyes, -till a whisper passed from man to man that one, by his death, might -ransom all the rest. The lot was cast, and it fell on La Chore, the same -wretched man whom Albert had doomed to starvation on a lonely island. -They killed him, and with ravenous avidity portioned out his flesh. The -hideous repast sustained them till the land rose in sight, when, it is -said, in a delirium of joy, they could no longer steer their vessel, but -let her drift at the will of the tide. A small English bark bore down -upon them, took them all on board, and, after landing the feeblest, -carried the rest prisoners to Queen Elizabeth.[FN#12] - -Thus closed another of those scenes of woe whose lurid clouds are -thickly piled around the stormy dawn of American history. It was the -opening act of a wild and tragic drama. - - - - - -CHAPTER IV. - -1564. - -LAUDONNIERE. - - - -ON the twenty-fifth of June, 1564, a French squadron anchored a second -time off the mouth of the River of May. There were three vessels, the -smallest of sixty tons, the largest of one hundred and twenty, all -crowded with men. Rene de Laudonniere held command. He was of a noble -race of Poiton, attached to the house of Chatillon, of which Coligny was -the head; pious, we are told, and an excellent marine officer. An -engraving, purporting to be his likeness, shows us a slender figure, -leaning against the mast, booted to the thigh, with slouched hat and -plume, slashed doublet, and short cloak. His thin oval face, with curled -moustache and close-trimmed beard. wears a somewhat pensive look, as if -already shadowed by the destiny that awaited him. - -The intervening year since Ribaut's voyage had been a dark year for -France. From the peaceful solitude of the River of May, that voyager -returned to a land reeking with slaughter. But the carnival of bigotry -and hate had found a pause. The Peace of Amboise had been signed. The -fierce monk choked down his venom; the soldier sheathed his sword, the -assassin his dagger; rival chiefs grasped hands, and masked their rancor -under hollow smiles. The king and the queen-mother, helpless amid the -storm of factions which threatened their destruction, smiled now on -Conde, now on Guise,--gave ear to the Cardinal of Lorraine, or listened -in secret to the emissaries of Theodore Beza. Coligny was again strong -at Court. He used his opportunity, and solicited with success the means -of renewing his enterprise of colonization. - -Men were mustered for the work. In name, at least, they were all -Huguenots yet now, as before, the staple of the projected colony was -unsound,--soldiers, paid out of the royal treasury, hired artisans and -tradesmen, with a swarm of volunteers from the young Huguenot nobles, -whose restless swords had rusted in their scabbards since the peace. The -foundation-stone was forgotten. There were no tillers of the soil. Such, -indeed, were rare among the Huegonots; for the dull peasants who guided -the plough clung with blind tenacity to the ancient faith. Adventurous -gentlemen, reckless soldiers, discontented tradesmen, all keen for -novelty and heated with dreams of wealth,--these were they who would -build for their country and their religion an empire beyond the sea. - -On Thursday, the twenty-second of June, Laudonniere saw the low -coast-line of Florida, and entered the harbor of St. Augustine, which he -named the River of Dolphins, "because that at mine arrival I saw there a -great number of Dolphins which were playing in the mouth thereof." Then -he bore northward, following the coast till, on the twenty-fifth, he -reached the mouth of the St. John's or River of May. The vessels -anchored, the boats were lowered, and he landed with his principal -followers on the south shore, near the present village of Mayport. It -was the very spot where he had landed with Ribaut two years before. They -were scarcely on shore when they saw an Indian chief, "which having -espied us cryed very far off, Antipola! Antipola! and being so joyful -that he could not containe himselfe, he came to meet us accompanied with -two of his sonnes, as faire and mightie persons as might be found in al -the world. There was in their trayne a great number of men and women -which stil made very much of us, and by signes made us understand how -glad they were of our arrival. This good entertainment past, the -Paracoussy [chief] prayed me to goe see the pillar which we had erected -in the voyage of John Ribault." The Indians, regarding it with -mysterious awe, had crowned it with evergreens, and placed baskets full -of maize before it as an offering. - -The chief then took Laudonniere by the hand, telling him that he was -named Satouriona, and pointed out the extent of his dominions, far up -the river and along the adjacent coasts. One of his sons, a man "perfect -in beautie, wisedome, and honest sobrietie," then gave the French -commander a wedge of silver, and received some trifles in return, after -which the voyagers went back to their ships. "I prayse God continually," -says Laudonniere, "for the great love I have found in these savages." - -In the morning the French landed again, and found their new friends on -the same spot, to the number of eighty or more, seated under a shelter -of boughs, in festal attire of smoke-tanned deer-skins, painted in many -colors. The party then rowed up the river, the Indians following them -along the shore. As they advanced, coasting the borders of a great marsh -that lay upon their left, the St. John's spread before them in vast -sheets of glistening water, almost level with its flat, sedgy shores, -the haunt of alligators, and the resort of innumerable birds. Beyond the -marsh, some five miles from the mouth of the river, they saw a ridge of -high ground abutting on the water, which, flowing beneath in a deep, -strong current, had undermined it, and left a steep front of yellowish -sand. This was the hill now called St. John's Bluff. Here they landed -and entered the woods, where Laudonniere stopped to rest while his -lieutenant, Ottigny, with a sergeant and a few soldiers, went to explore -the country. - -They pushed their way through the thickets till they were stopped by a -marsh choked with reeds, at the edge of which, under a great -laurel-tree, they had seated themselves to rest, overcome with the -summer heat, when five Indians suddenly appeared, peering timidly at -them from among the bushes. Some of the men went towards them with signs -of friendship, on which, taking heart, they drew near, and one of them, -who was evidently a chief, made a long speech, inviting the strangers to -their dwellings. The way was across the marsh, through which they -carried the lieutenant and two or three of the soldiers on their backs, -while the rest circled by a narrow path through the woods. When they -reached the lodges, a crowd of Indians came out "to receive our men -gallantly, and feast them after their manner." One of them brought a -large earthen vessel full of spring water, which was served out to each -in turn in a wooden cup. But what most astonished the French was a -venerable chief, who assured them that he was the father of five -successive generations, and that he had lived two hundred and fifty -years. Opposite sat a still more ancient veteran, the father of the -first, shrunken to a mere anatomy, and "seeming to be rather a dead -carkeis than a living body." "Also," pursues the history, "his age was -so great that the good man had lost his sight, and could not speak one -onely word but with exceeding great paine." In spite of his dismal -condition, the visitors were told that he might expect to live, in the -course of nature, thirty or forty years more. As the two patriarchs sat -face to face, half hidden with their streaming white hair, Ottigny and -his credulous soldiers looked from one to the other, lost in speechless -admiration. - -One of these veterans made a parting present to his guests of two young -eagles, and Ottigny and his followers returned to report what they had -seen. Laudonniere was waiting for them on the side of the hill; and now, -he says, "I went right to the toppe thereof, where we found nothing else -but Cedars, Palme, and Baytrees of so sovereigne odour that Baulme -smelleth nothing like in comparison." From this high standpoint they -surveyed their Canaan. The unruffled river lay before them, with its -marshy islands overgrown with sedge and bulrushes; while on the farther -side the flat, green meadows spread mile on mile, veined with countless -creeks and belts of torpid water, and bounded leagues away by the verge -of the dim pine forest. On the right, the sea glistened along the -horizon; and on the left, the St. John's stretched westward between -verdant shores, a highway to their fancied Eldorado. "Briefly," writes -Laudonniere, "the place is so pleasant that those which are -melancholicke would be inforced to change their humour." - -On their way back to the ships they stopped for another parley with the -chief Satouriona, and Laudonniere eagerly asked where he had got the -wedge of silver that he gave him in the morning. The chief told him by -signs, that he had taken it in war from a people called Thimagoas, who -lived higher up the River, and who were his mortal enemies; on which the -French captain had the folly to promise that he would join in an -expedition against them. Satouriona was delighted, and declared that, if -he kept his word, he should have gold and silver to his heart's content. - -Man and nature alike seemed to mark the borders of the River of May as -the site of the new colony; for here, around the Indian towns, the -harvests of maize, beans, and pumpkins promised abundant food, while the -river opened a ready way to the mines of gold and silver and the stores -of barbaric wealth which glittered before the dreaming vision of the -colonists. Yet, the better to satisfy himself and his men, Laudonniere -weighed anchor, and sailed for a time along the neighboring coasts. -Returning, confirmed in his first impression, he set out with a party of -officers and soldiers to explore the borders of the chosen stream. The -day was hot. The sun beat fiercely on the woollen caps and heavy -doublets of the men, till at length they gained the shade of one of -those deep forests of pine where the dead, hot air is thick with -resinous odors, and the earth, carpeted with fallen leaves, gives no -sound beneath the foot. Yet, in the stillness, deer leaped up on all -sides as they moved along. Then they emerged into sunlight. A meadow was -before them, a running brook, and a wall of encircling forests. The men -called it the Vale of Laudonniere. The afternoon was spent, and the sun -was near its setting, when they reached the bank of the river. They -strewed the ground with boughs and leaves, and, stretched on that sylvan -couch, slept the sleep of travel-worn and weary men. - -They were roused at daybreak by sound of trumpet, and after singing a -psalm they set themselves to their task. It was the building of a fort, -and the spot they chose was a furlong or more above St. John's Bluff, -where close to the water was a wide, flat knoll, raised a few feet above -the marsh and the river.[FN#13] Boats came up the stream with laborers, -tents, provisions, cannon, and tools. The engineers marked out the work -in the form of a triangle; and, from the noble volunteer to the meanest -artisan, all lent a hand to complete it. On the river side the defences -were a palisade of timber. On the two other sides were a ditch, and a -rampart of fascines, earth, and sods. At each angle was a bastion, in -one of which was the magazine. Within was a spacious parade, around it -were various buildings for lodging and storage, and a large house with -covered galleries was built on the side towards the river for -Laudonniere and his officers. In honor of Charles the Ninth the fort was -named Fort Caroline. - -Meanwhile Satouriona, "lord of all that country," as the narratives -style him, was seized with misgivings on learning these proceedings. The -work was scarcely begun, and all was din and confusion around the -incipient fort, when the startled Frenchmen saw the neighboring height -of St. John's swarming with naked warriors. Laudonniere set his men in -array, and for a season, pick and spade were dropped for arquebuse and -pike. The savage chief descended to the camp. The artist Le Moyne, who -saw him, drew his likeness from memory, a tall, athletic figure, -tattooed in token of his rank, plumed, bedecked with strings of beads, -and girdled with tinkling pieces of metal which hung from the belt which -formed his only garment. He came in regal state, a crowd of warriors -around him, and, in advance, a troop of young Indians armed with spears. -Twenty musicians followed, blowing hideous discord through pipes of -reeds, while he seated himself on the ground "like a monkey," as Le -Moyne has it in the grave Latin of his Brevis Narratio. A council -followed, in which broken words were aided by signs and pantomime; and a -treaty of alliance was made, Laudonniere renewing his rash promise to -aid the chief against his enemies. Satouriona, well pleased, ordered his -Indians to help the French in their work. They obeyed with alacrity, and -in two days the buildings of the fort were all thatched, after the -native fashion, with leaves of the palmetto. - -These savages belonged to one of the confederacies into which the native -tribes of Florida were divided, and with three of which the French came -into contact. The first was that of Satouriona; and the second was that -of the people called Thimagoas, who, under a chief named Outina, dwelt -in forty villages high up the St. John's. The third was that of the -chief, cacique, or paracoussy whom the French called King Potanou, and -whose dominions lay among the pine barrens, cypress swamps, and fertile -hummocks westward and northwestward of this remarkable river. These -three confederacies hated each other, and were constantly at war. Their -social state was more advanced than that of the wandering hunter tribes. -They were an agricultural people, and around all their villages were -fields of maize, beans, and pumpkins. The harvest was gathered into a -public granary, and they lived on it during three fourths of the year, -dispersing in winter to hunt among the forests. - -They were exceedingly well formed; the men, or the principal among them, -were tattooed on the limbs and body, and in summer were nearly naked. -Some wore their straight black hair flowing loose to the waist; others -gathered it in a knot at the crown of the head. They danced and sang -about the scalps of their enemies, like the tribes of the North; and -like them they had their "medicine-men," who combined the functions of -physicians, sorcerers, and priests. The most prominent feature of their -religion was sun-worship. - -Their villages were clusters of large dome-shaped huts, framed with -poles and thatched with palmetto leaves. In the midst was the dwelling -of the chief, much larger than the rest, and sometimes raised on an -artificial mound. They were enclosed with palisades, and, strange to -say, some of them were approached by wide avenues, artificially graded, -and several hundred yards in length. Traces of these may still be seen, -as may also the mounds in which the Floridians, like the Hurons and -various other tribes, collected at stated intervals the bones of their -dead. - -Social distinctions were sharply defined among them. Their chiefs, whose -office was hereditary, sometimes exercised a power almost absolute. Each -village had its chief, subordinate to the grand chief of the -confederacy. In the language of the French narratives, they were all -kings or lords, vassals of the great monarch Satouriona, Outina, or -Potanou. All these tribes are now extinct, and it is difficult to -ascertain with precision their tribal affinities. There can be no doubt -that they were the authors of the aboriginal remains at present found in -various parts of Florida. - -Having nearly finished the fort, Laudonniere declares that he "would not -lose the minute of an houre without employing of the same in some -vertuous exercise;" and he therefore sent his lieutenant, Ottigny, to -spy out the secrets of the interior, and to learn, above all, "what this -Thimagoa might be, whereof the Paracoussy Satouriona had spoken to us so -often." As Laudonniere stood pledged to attack the Thimagoas, the chief -gave Ottigny two Indian guides, who, says the record, were so eager for -the fray that they seemed as if bound to a wedding feast. - -The lazy waters of the St. John's, tinged to coffee color by the -exudations of the swamps, curled before the prow of Ottigny's sail-boat -as he advanced into the prolific wilderness which no European eye had -ever yet beheld. By his own reckoning, he sailed thirty leagues up the -river, which would have brought him to a point not far below Palatka. -Here, more than two centuries later, the Bartrams, father and son, -guided their skiff and kindled their nightly bivouac-fire; and here, -too, roamed Audubon, with his sketch-book and his gun. It was a paradise -for the hunter and the naturalist. Earth, air, and water teemed with -life, in endless varieties of beauty and ugliness. A half-tropical -forest shadowed the low shores, where the palmetto and the cabbage palm -mingled with the oak, the maple, the cypress, the liquid-ambar, the -laurel, the myrtle, and the broad glistening leaves of the evergreen -magnolia. Here was the haunt of bears, wild-cats, lynxes, cougars, and -the numberless deer of which they made their prey. In the sedges and the -mud the alligator stretched his brutish length; turtles with -outstretched necks basked on half-sunken logs; the rattlesnake sunned -himself on the sandy bank, and the yet more dangerous moccason lurked -under the water-lilies in inlets and sheltered coves. The air and the -water were populous as the earth. The river swarmed with fish, from the -fierce and restless gar, cased in his horny armor, to the lazy cat-fish -in the muddy depths. There were the golden eagle and the white-headed -eagle, the gray pelican and the white pelican, the blue heron and the -white heron, the egret, the ibis, ducks of various sorts, the whooping -crane, the black vulture, and the cormorant; and when at sunset the -voyagers drew their boat upon the strand and built their camp-fire under -the arches of the woods, the owls whooped around them all night long, -and when morning came the sultry mists that wrapped the river were vocal -with the clamor of wild turkeys. - -When Ottigny was about twenty leagues from Fort Caroline, his two Indian -guides, who were always on the watch, descried three canoes, and in -great excitement cried, "Thimagoa! Thimagoa!" As they drew near, one of -them snatched up a halberd and the other a sword, and in their fury they -seemed ready to jump into the water to get at the enemy. To their great -disgust, Ottigny permitted the Thimagoas to run their canoes ashore and -escape to the woods. Far from keeping Laudonniere's senseless promise to -light them, he wished to make them friends; to which end he now landed -with some of his men, placed a few trinkets in their canoes, and -withdrew to a distance to watch the result. The fugitives presently -returned, step by step, and allowed the French to approach them; on -which Ottigny asked, by signs, if they had gold or silver. They replied -that they had none, but that if he would give them one of his men they -would show him where it was to be found. One of the soldiers boldly -offered himself for the venture, and embarked with them. As, however, he -failed to return according to agreement, Ottigny, on the next day, -followed ten leagues farther up the stream, and at length had the good -luck to see him approaching in a canoe. He brought little or no gold, -but reported that he had heard of a certain chief, named Mayrra, -marvellously rich, who lived three days' journey up the river; and with -these welcome tidings Ottigny went back to Fort Caroline. - -A fortnight later, an officer named Vasseur went up the river to pursue -the adventure. The fever for gold had seized upon the French. As the -villages of the Thimagoas lay between them and the imagined treasures, -they shrank from a quarrel, and Laudonniere repented already of his -promised alliance with Satouriona. - -Vasseur was two days' sail from the fort when two Indians hailed him -from the shore, inviting him to their dwellings. He accepted their -guidance, and presently saw before him the cornfields and palisades of -an Indian town. He and his followers were led through the wondering -crowd to the lodge of Mollua, the chief, seated in the place of honor, -and plentifully regaled with fish and bread. The repast over, Mollua -made a speech. He told them that he was one of the forty vassal chiefs -of the great Outina, lord of all the Thimagoas, whose warriors wore -armor of gold and silver plate. He told them, too, of Potanou, his -enemy, "a man cruell in warre;" and of the two kings of the distant -Appalachian Mountains,--Onatheaqua and Houstaqua, "great lords and -abounding in riches." While thus, with earnest pantomime and broken -words, the chief discoursed with his guests, Vasseur, intent and eager, -strove to follow his meaning; and no sooner did he hear of these -Appalachian treasures than he promised to join Outina in war against the -two potentates of the mountains. Mollua, well pleased, promised that -each of Outina's vassal chiefs should requite their French allies with a -heap of gold and silver two feet high. Thus, while Laudonniere stood -pledged to Satouriona, Vasseur made alliance with his mortal enemy. - -On his return, he passed a night in the lodge of one of Satouriona's -chiefs, who questioned him touching his dealings with the Thimagoas. -Vasseur replied that he had set upon them and put them to utter rout. -But as the chief, seeming as yet unsatisfied, continued his inquiries, -the sergeant Francois de la Caille drew his sword, and, like Falstaff, -reenacted his deeds of valor, pursuing and thrusting at the imaginary -Thimagoas, as they fled before his fury. The chief, at length convinced, -led the party to his lodge, and entertained them with a decoction of the -herb called Cassina. - -Satouriona, elated by Laudonniere's delusive promises of aid, had -summoned his so-called vassals to war. Ten chiefs and some five hundred -warriors had mustered at his call, and the forest was alive with their -bivouacs. When all was ready, Satouriona reminded the French commander -of his pledge, and claimed its fulfilment, but got nothing but evasions -in return, He stifled his rage, and prepared to go without his fickle -ally. - -A fire was kindled near the bank of the river, and two large vessels of -water were placed beside it. Here Satouriona took his stand, while his -chiefs crouched on the grass around him, and the savage visages of his -five hundred warriors filled the outer circle, their long hair garnished -with feathers, or covered with the heads and skins of wolves, cougars, -bears, or eagles. Satouriona, looking towards the country of his enemy, -distorted his features into a wild expression of rage and hate; then -muttered to himself; then howled an invocation to his god, the Sun; then -besprinkled the assembly with water from one of the vessels, and, -turning the other upon the fire, suddenly quenched it. "So," he cried, -"may the blood of our enemies be poured out, and their lives -extinguished!" and the concourse gave forth an explosion of responsive -yells, till the shores resounded with the wolfish din. - -The rites over, they set out, and in a few days returned exulting, with -thirteen prisoners and a number of scalps. These last were hung on a -pole before the royal lodge; and when night came, it brought with it a -pandemonium of dancing and whooping, drumming and feasting. - -A notable scheme entered the brain of Laudonniere. Resolved, cost what -it might, to make a friend of Outina, he conceived it to be a stroke of -policy to send back to him two of the prisoners. In the morning he sent -a soldier to Satouriona to demand them. The astonished chief gave a fiat -refusal, adding that he owed the French no favors, for they had -shamefully broken faith with him. On this, Laudonniere, at the head of -twenty soldiers, proceeded to the Indian town, placed a guard at the -opening of the great lodge, entered with his arquebusiers, and seated -himself without ceremony in the highest place. Here, to show his -displeasure, he remained in silence for half an hour. At length he -spoke, renewing his demand. For some moments Satouriona made no reply; -then he coldly observed that the sight of so many armed men had -frightened the prisoners away. Laudonniere grew peremptory, when the -chief's son, Athore, went out, and presently returned with the two -Indians, whom the French led back to Fort Caroline. - -Satouriona, says Laudonniere, "was wonderfully offended with his -bravado, and bethought himselfe by all meanes how he might be revenged -of us." He dissembled for the time, and presently sent three of his -followers to the fort with a gift of pumpkins; though under this show of -good-will the outrage rankled in his breast, and he never forgave it. -The French had been unfortunate in their dealings with the Indians. They -had alienated old friends in vain attempts to make new ones. - -Vasseur, with the Swiss ensign Arlac, a sergeant, and ten soldiers, went -up the river early in September to carry back the two prisoners to -Outina. Laudonniere declares that they sailed eighty leagues, which -would have carried them far above Lake Monroe; but it is certain that -his reckoning is grossly exaggerated. Their boat crawled up the hazy St. -John's, no longer a broad lake like expanse, but a narrow and tortuous -stream, winding between swampy forests, or through the vast savanna, a -verdant sea of brushes and grass. At length they came to a village -called Mayarqua, and thence, with the help of their oars, made their way -to another cluster of wigwams, apparently on a branch of the main river. -Here they found Outina himself, whom, prepossessed with ideas of -feudality, they regarded as the suzerain of a host of subordinate lords -and princes, ruling over the surrounding swamps and pine barrens. Outina -gratefully received the two prisoners whom Laudonniere had sent to -propitiate him, feasted the wonderful strangers, and invited them to -join him on a raid against his rival, Potanou. Laudonniere had promised -to join Satouriona against Outina, and Vasseur now promised to join -Outina against Potanon, the hope of finding gold being in both cases the -source of this impolitic compliance. Vasseur went back to Fort Caroline -with five of the men, and left Arlac with the remaining five to fight -the battles of Ontina. - -The warriors mustered to the number of some two hundred, and the -combined force of white men and red took up their march. The wilderness -through which they passed has not yet quite lost its characteristic -features,--the bewildering monotony of the pine barrens, with their -myriads of bare gray trunks and their canopy of perennial green, through -which a scorching sun throws spots and streaks of yellow light, here on -an undergrowth of dwarf palmetto, and there on dry sands half hidden by -tufted wire-grass, and dotted with the little mounds that mark the -burrows of the gopher; or those oases in the desert, the "hummocks," -with their wild, redundant vegetation, their entanglement of trees, -bushes, and vines, their scent of flowers and song of birds; or the -broad sunshine of the savanna, where they waded to the neck in grass; or -the deep swamp, where, out of the black and root-encumbered slough, rise -the huge buttressed trunks of the Southern cypress, the gray Spanish -moss drooping from every bough and twig, wrapping its victims like a -drapery of tattered cobwebs, and slowly draining away their life, for -even plants devour each other, and play their silent parts in the -universal tragedy of nature. - -The allies held their way through forest, savanna, and swamp, with -Outina's Indians in the front, till they neared the hostile villages, -when the modest warriors fell to the rear, and yielded the post of honor -to the Frenchmen. - -An open country lay before them, with rough fields of maize, beans, and -pumpkins, and the palisades of an Indian town. Their approach was seen, -and the warriors of Potanon swarmed out to meet them; but the sight of -the bearded strangers, the flash and report of the fire-arms, and the -fall of their foremost chief, shot through the brain by Arlac, filled -them with consternation, and they fled within their defences. Pursuers -and pursued entered pell-mell together. The place was pillaged and -burned, its inmates captured or killed, and the victors returned -triumphant. - - - - - -CHAPTER V. - -1564, 1565. - -CONSPIRACY. - -In the little world of Fort Caroline, a miniature France, cliques and -parties, conspiracy and sedition, were fast stirring into life. Hopes -had been dashed, and wild expectations had come to naught. The -adventurers had found, not conquest and gold, but a dull exile in a -petty fort by a hot and sickly river, with hard labor, bad fare, -prospective famine, and nothing to break the weary sameness but some -passing canoe or floating alligator. Gathered in knots, they nursed each -other's wrath, and inveighed against the commandant. Why are we put on -half-rations, when he told us that provision should be made for a full -year? Where are the reinforcements and supplies that he said should -follow us from France? And why is he always closeted with Ottigny, -Arlac, and this and that favorite, when we, men of blood as good as -theirs, cannot gain his ear for a moment? - -The young nobles, of whom there were many, were volunteers, who had paid -their own expenses in expectation of a golden harvest, and they chafed -in impatience and disgust. The religious element in the colony--unlike -the former Huguenot emigration to Brazil--was evidently subordinate. -The adventurers thought more of their fortunes than of their faith; yet -there were not a few earnest enough in the doctrine of Geneva to -complain loudly and bitterly that no ministers had been sent with them. -The burden of all grievances was thrown upon Laudonniere, whose greatest -errors seem to have arisen from weakness and a lack of judgment,--fatal -defects in his position. - -The growing discontent was brought to a partial head by one La Roquette, -who gave out that, high up the river, he had discovered by magic a mine -of gold and silver, which would give each of them a share of ten -thousand crowns, besides fifteen hundred thousand for the King. But for -Laudonniere, he said, their fortunes would all be made. He found an ally -in a gentleman named Genre, one of Laudonniere's confidants, who, while -still professing fast adherence to his interests, is charged by him with -plotting against his life. "This Genre," he says, "secretly enfourmed -the Souldiers that were already suborned by La Roquette, that I would -deprive them of this great game, in that I did set them dayly on worke, -not sending them on every side to discover the Countreys; therefore that -it were a good deede to dispatch mee out of the way, and to choose -another Captaine in my place." The soldiers listened too well. They made -a flag of an old shirt, which they carried with them to the rampart when -they went to their work, at the same time wearing their arms; and, -pursues Laudonniere, "these gentle Souldiers did the same for none other -ende but to have killed mee and my Lieutenant also, if by chance I had -given them any hard speeches." About this time, overheating himself, he -fell ill, and was confined to his quarters. On this, Genre made advances -to the apothecary, urging him to put arsenic into his medicine; but the -apothecary shrugged his shoulders. They next devised a scheme to blow -him up by hiding a keg of gunpowder under his bed; but here, too, they -failed. Hints of Genre's machinations reaching the ears of Laudonniere, -the culprit fled to the woods, whence he wrote repentant letters, with -full confession, to his commander. - -Two of the ships meanwhile returned to France, the third, the "Breton," -remaining at anchor opposite the fort. The malcontents took the -opportunity to send home charges against Laudonniere of peculation, -favoritism, and tyranny. - -On the fourth of September, Captain Bourdet, apparently a private -adventurer, had arrived from France with a small vessel. When he -returned, about the tenth of November, Laudonniere persuaded him to -carry home seven or eight of the malcontent soldiers. Bourdet left some -of his sailors in their place. The exchange proved most disastrous. -These pirates joined with others whom they had won over, stole -Laudonniere's two pinnaces, and set forth on a plundering excursion to -the West Indies. They took a small Spanish vessel off the coast of Cuba, -but were soon compelled by famine to put into Havana and give themselves -up. Here, to make their peace with the authorities, they told all they -knew of the position and purposes of their countrymen at Fort Caroline, -and thus was forged the thunderbolt soon to be hurled against the -wretched little colony. - -On a Sunday morning, Francois de la Caille[FN#13] came to Laudonniere's -quarters, and, in the name of the whole company, requested him to come -to the parade ground. He complied, and issuing forth, his inseparable -Ottigny at his side, he saw some thirty of his officers, soldiers, and -gentlemen volunteers waiting before the building with fixed and sombre -countenances. La Caille, advancing, begged leave to read, in behalf of -the rest, a paper which he held in his hand. It opened with -protestations of duty and obedience; next came complaints of hard work, -starvation, and broken promises, and a request that the petitioners -should be allowed to embark in the vessel lying in the river, and cruise -along the Spanish Main, in order to procure provisions by purchase "or -otherwise." In short, the flower of the company wished to turn -buccaneers. - -Laudonniere refused, but assured them that, as soon as the defences of -the fort should be completed, a search should be begun in earnest for -the Appalachian gold mine, and that meanwhile two small vessels then -building on the river should be sent along the coast to barter for -provisions with the Indians. With this answer they were forced to -content themselves; but the fermentation continued, and the plot -thickened. Their spokesman, La Caille, however, seeing whither the -affair tended, broke with them, and, except Ottigny, Yasseur, and the -brave Swiss Arlac, was the only officer who held to his duty. - -A severe illness again seized Laudonniere, and confined him to his bed. -Improving their advantage, the malcontents gained over nearly all the -best soldiers in the fort. The ringleader was one Fourneaux, a man of -good birth, but whom Le Moyne calls an avaricious hypocrite. He drew up -a paper, to which sixty-six names were signed. La Caille boldly opposed -the conspirators, and they resolved to kill him. His room-mate, Le -Moyne, who had also refused to sign, received a hint of the design from -a friend; upon which he warned La Caille, who escaped to the woods. It -was late in the night. Fourneaux, with twenty men armed to the teeth, -knocked fiercely at the commandant's door. Forcing an entrance, they -wounded a gentleman who opposed them, and crowded around the sick man's -bed. Fourneaux, armed with steel cap and cuirass, held his arquebuse to -Laudonniere's throat, and demanded leave to go on a cruise among the -Spanish islands. The latter kept his presence of mind, and remonstrated -with some firmness; on which, with oaths and menaces, they dragged him -from his bed, put him in fetters, carried him out to the gate of the -fort, placed him in a boat, and rowed him to the ship anchored in the -river. - -Two other gangs at the same time visited Ottigny and Arlac, whom they -disarmed, and ordered to keep their rooms till the night following, on -pain of death. Smaller parties were busied, meanwhile, in disarming all -the loyal soldiers. The fort was completely in the hands of the -conspirators. Fourneaux drew up a commission for his meditated West -India cruise, which he required Laudonniere to sign. The sick -commandant, imprisoned in the ship with one attendant, at first refused; -but receiving a message from the mutineers, that, if he did not comply, -they would come on board and cut his throat, he at length yielded. - -The buccaneers now bestirred themselves to finish the two small vessels -on which the carpenters had been for some time at work. In a fortnight -they were ready for sea, armed and provided with the King's cannon, -munitions, and stores. Trenchant, an excellent pilot, was forced to join -the party. Their favorite object was the plunder of a certain church on -one of the Spanish islands, which they proposed to assail during the -midnight mass of Christmas. whereby a triple end would be achieved: -first, a rich booty; secondly, the punishment of idolatry; thirdly, -vengeance on the arch-enemies of their party and their faith. They set -sail on the eighth of December, taunting those who remained, calling -them greenhorns, and threatening condign punishment if, on their -triumphant return, they should be refused free entrance to the fort. - -They were no sooner gone than the unfortunate Laudonniere was gladdened -in his solitude by the approach of his fast friends Ottigny and Arlac, -who conveyed him to the fort and reinstated him. The entire command was -reorganized, and new officers appointed. The colony was wofully -depleted; but the bad blood had been drawn off, and thenceforth all -internal danger was at an end. In finishing the fort, in building two -new vessels to replace those of which they had been robbed, and in -various intercourse with the tribes far and near, the weeks passed until -the twenty-fifth of March, when an Indian came in with the tidings that -a vessel was hovering off the coast. Laudonniere sent to reconnoitre. -The stranger lay anchored at the mouth of the river. She was a Spanish -brigantine, manned by the returning mutineers, starving, downcast, and -anxious to make terms. Yet, as their posture seemed not wholly pacific, -Landonniere sent down La Caille, with thirty soldiers concealed at the -bottom of his little vessel. Seeing only two or three on deck, the -pirates allowed her to come alongside; when, to their amazement, they -were boarded and taken before they could snatch their arms. Discomfited, -woebegone, and drunk, they were landed under a guard. Their story was -soon told. Fortune had flattered them at the outset, and on the coast of -Cuba they took a brigantine laden with wine and stores. Embarking in -her, they next fell in with a caravel, which also they captured. Landing -at a village in Jamaica, they plundered and caroused for a week, and had -hardly re-embarked when they met a small vessel having on board the -governor of the island. She made a desperate fight, but was taken at -last, and with her a rich booty. They thought to put the governor to -ransom but the astute official deceived them, and, on pretence of -negotiating for the sum demanded,--together with "four or six parrots, -and as many monkeys of the sort called sanguins, which are very -beautiful," and for which his captors had also bargained,--contrived to -send instructions to his wife. Hence it happened that at daybreak three -armed vessels fell upon them, retook the prize, and captured or killed -all the pirates but twenty-six, who, cutting the moorings of their -brigantine, fled out to sea. Among these was the ringleader Fourneaux, -and also the pilot Trenchant, who, eager to return to Fort Caroline, -whence he had been forcibly taken, succeeded during the night in -bringing the vessel to the coast of Florida. Great were the wrath and -consternation of the pirates when they saw their dilemma; for, having no -provisions, they must either starve or seek succor at the fort. They -chose the latter course, and bore away for the St. John's. A few casks -of Spanish wine yet remained, and nobles and soldiers, fraternizing in -the common peril of a halter, joined in a last carouse. As the wine -mounted to their heads, in the mirth of drink and desperation, they -enacted their own trial. One personated the judge, another the -commandant; witnesses were called, with arguments and speeches on either -side. - -"Say what you like," said one of them, after hearing the counsel for the -defence; "but if Laudonniere does not hang us all, I will never call him -an honest man." - -They had some hope of getting provisions from the Indians at the month -of the river, and then putting to sea again; but this was frustrated by -La Caille's sudden attack. A court-martial was called near Fort -Caroline, and all were found guilty. Fourneaux and three others were -sentenced to be hanged. - -"Comrades," said one of the condemned, appealing to the soldiers, "will -you stand by and see us butchered?" - -"These," retorted Laudonniere, "are no comrades of mutineers and -rebels." - -At the request of his followers, however, he commuted the sentence to -shooting. - -A file of men, a rattling volley, and the debt of justice was paid. The -bodies were hanged on gibbets, at the river's mouth, and order reigned -at Fort Caroline. - - - - - - -CHAPTER VI. -1564, 1565. - -FAMINE. WAR. SUCCOR. - - -While the mutiny was brewing, one La Roche Ferriere had been sent out as -an agent or emissary among the more distant tribes. Sagacious, bold, and -restless, he pushed his way from town to town, and pretended to have -reached the mysterious mountains of Appalache. He sent to the fort -mantles woven with feathers, quivers covered with choice furs, arrows -tipped with gold, wedges of a green stone like beryl or emerald, and -other trophies of his wanderings. A gentleman named Grotaut took up the -quest, and penetrated to the dominions of Hostaqua, who, it was -pretended, could muster three or four thousand warriors, and who -promised, with the aid of a hundred arquebusiers, to conquer all the -kings of the adjacent mountains, and subject them and their gold mines -to the rule of the French. A humbler adventurer was Pierre Gambie, a -robust and daring youth, who had been brought up in the household of -Coligny, and was now a soldier under Laudonniere. The latter gave him -leave to trade with the Indians,--a privilege which he used so well that -he grew rich with his traffic, became prime favorite with the chief of -the island of Edelano, married his daughter, and, in his absence, -reigned in his stead. But, as his sway verged towards despotism, his -subjects took offence, and split his head with a hatchet. - -During the winter, Indians from the neighborhood of Cape Canaveral -brought to the fort two Spaniards, wrecked fifteen years before on the -southwestern extremity of the peninsula. They were clothed like the -Indians,--in other words, were not clothed at all,--and their uncut -hair streamed loose down their backs. They brought strange tales of -those among whom they had dwelt. They told of the King of Cabs, on whose -domains they had been wrecked, a chief mighty in stature and in power. -In one of his villages was a pit, six feet deep and as wide as a -hogshead, filled with treasure gathered from Spanish wrecks on adjacent -reefs and keys. The monarch was a priest too, and a magician, with power -over the elements. Each year he withdrew from the public gaze to hold -converse in secret with supernal or infernal powers; and each year he -sacrificed to his gods one of the Spaniards whom the fortune of the sea -had cast upon his shores. The name of the tribe is preserved in that of -the river Caboosa. In close league with him was the mighty Oathcaqua, -dwelling near Cape Canaveral, who gave his daughter, a maiden of -wondrous beauty, in marriage to his great ally. But as the bride with -her bridesmaids was journeying towards Calos, escorted by a chosen band, -they were assailed by a wild and warlike race, inhabitants of an island -called Sarrope, in the midst of a lake, who put the warriors to flight, -bore the maidens captive to their watery fastness, espoused them all, -and, we are assured, "loved them above all measure."[FN#15] - -Outina, taught by Arlac the efficacy of the French fire-arms, begged for -ten arquebusiers to aid him on a new raid among the villages of Potanou, ---again alluring his greedy allies by the assurance, that, thus -reinforced, he would conquer for them a free access to the phantom gold -mines of Appalache. Ottigny set forth on this fool's errand with thrice -the force demanded. Three hundred Thirnagoas and thirty Frenchmen took -up their march through the pine barrens. Outina's conjurer was of the -number, and had wellnigh ruined the enterprise. Kneeling on Ottigny's -shield, that he might not touch the earth, with hideous grimaces, -howlings, and contortions, he wrought himself into a prophetic frenzy, -and proclaimed to the astounded warriors that to advance farther would -be destruction.[FN#16] Outina was for instant retreat, but Ottigny's -sarcasms shamed him into a show of courage. Again they moved forward, -and soon encountered Potanou with all his host.[FN#17] The arquebuse did -its work,--panic, slaughter, and a plentiful harvest of scalps. But no -persuasion could induce Outina to follow up his victory. He went home to -dance round his trophies, and the French returned disgusted to Fort -Caroline. - -And now, in ample measure, the French began to reap the harvest of their -folly. Conquest, gold, and military occupation had alone been their -aims. Not a rod of ground had been stirred with the spade. Their stores -were consumed, and the expected supplies had not come. The Indians, too, -were hostile. Satouriona hated them as allies of his enemies; and his -tribesmen, robbed and maltreated by the lawless soldiers, exulted in -their miseries. Yet in these, their dark and subtle neighbors, was their -only hope. - -May-day came, the third anniversary of the day when Ribaut and his -companions, full of delighted anticipation, had first explored the -flowery borders of the St. John's. The contrast was deplorable; for -within the precinct of Fort Caroline a homesick, squalid band, dejected -and worn, dragged their shrunken limbs about the sun-scorched area, or -lay stretched in listless wretchedness under the shade of the barracks. -Some were digging roots in the forest, or gathering a kind of sorrel -upon the meadows. If they had had any skill in hunting and fishing, the -river and the woods would have supplied their needs; but in this point, -as in others, they were lamentably unfit for the work they had taken in -hand. "Our miserie," says Laudonniere, "was so great that one was found -that gathered up all the fish-bones that he could finde, which he dried -and beate into powder to make bread thereof. The effects of this hideous -famine appeared incontinently among us, for our bones eftsoones beganne -to cleave so neere unto the skinne, that the most part of the souldiers -had their skinnes pierced thorow with them in many partes of their -bodies." Yet, giddy with weakness, they dragged themselves in turn to -the top of St. John's Bluff, straining their eyes across the sea to -descry the anxiously expected sail. - -Had Coligny left them to perish? Or had some new tempest of calamity, -let loose upon France, drowned the memory of their exile? In vain the -watchman on the hill surveyed the solitude of waters. A deep dejection -fell upon them,--a dejection that would have sunk to despair could -their eyes have pierced the future. - -The Indians had left the neighborhood, but from time to time brought in -meagre supplies of fish, which they sold to the famished soldiers at -exorbitant prices. Lest they should pay the penalty of their extortion, -they would not enter the fort, but lay in their canoes in the river, -beyond gunshot, waiting for their customers to come out to them. -"Oftentimes," says Laudonniere, "our poor soldiers were constrained to -give away the very shirts from their backs to get one fish. If at any -time they shewed unto the savages the excessive price which they tooke, -these villaines would answere them roughly and churlishly: If thou make -so great account of thy marchandise, eat it, and we will eat our fish: -then fell they out a laughing, and mocked us with open throat." - -The spring wore away, and no relief appeared. One thought now engrossed -the colonists, that of return to France. Vasseur's ship, the "Breton," -still remained in the river, and they had also the Spanish brigantine -brought by the mutineers. But these vessels were insufficient, and they -prepared to build a new one. The energy of reviving hope lent new life -to their exhausted frames. Some gathered pitch in the pine forests; some -made charcoal; some cut and sawed timber. The maize began to ripen, and -this brought some relief; but the Indians, exasperated and greedy, sold -it with reluctance, and murdered two half-famished Frenchmen who -gathered a handful in the fields. - -The colonists applied to Outina, who owed them two victories. The result -was a churlish message and a niggardly supply of corn, coupled with an -invitation to aid him against an insurgent chief, one Astina, the -plunder of whose villages would yield an ample supply. The offer was -accepted. Ottigny and Vasseur set out, but were grossly deceived, led -against a different enemy, and sent back empty-handed and half-starved. - -They returned to the fort, in the words of Laudonniere, "angry and -pricked deepely to the quicke for being so mocked," and, joined by all -their comrades, fiercely demanded to be led against Outina, to seize -him, punish his insolence, and extort from his fears the supplies which -could not be looked for from his gratitude. The commandant was forced to -comply. Those who could bear the weight of their armor put it on, -embarked, to the number of fifty, in two barges, and sailed up the river -under Laudonniere himself. Having reached Outina's landing, they marched -inland, entered his village, surrounded his mud-plastered palace, seized -him amid the yells and howlings of his subjects, and led him prisoner to -their boats. Here, anchored in mid-stream, they demanded a supply of -corn and beans as the price of his ransom. - -The alarm spread. Excited warriors, bedaubed with red, came thronging -from all his villages. The forest along the shore was full of them; and -the wife of the chief, followed by all the women of the place, uttered -moans and outcries from the strand. Yet no ransom was offered, since, -reasoning from their own instincts, they never doubted that, after the -price was paid, the captive would be put to death. - -Laudonniere waited two days, and then descended the river with his -prisoner. In a rude chamber of Fort Caroline the sentinel stood his -guard, pike in hand, while before him crouched the captive chief, mute, -impassive, and brooding on his woes. His old enemy, Satouriona, keen as -a hound on the scent of prey, tried, by great offers, to bribe -Laudonniere to give Outina into his hands; but the French captain -refused, treated his prisoner kindly, and assured him of immediate -freedom on payment of the ransom. - -Meanwhile his captivity was bringing grievous affliction on his -tribesmen; for, despairing of his return, they mustered for the election -of a new chief. Party strife ran high. Some were for a boy, his son, and -some for an ambitious kinsman. Outina chafed in his prison on learning -these dissentions; and, eager to convince his over-hasty subjects that -their chief still lived, he was so profuse of promises that he was again -embarked and carried up the river. - -At no great distance from Lake George, a small affluent of the St. -John's gave access by water to a point within six French leagues of -Outina's principal town. The two barges, crowded with soldiers, and -bearing also the captive Outina, rowed up this little stream. Indians -awaited them at the landing, with gifts of bread, beans, and fish, and -piteous prayers for their chief, upon whose liberation they promised an -ample supply of corn. As they were deaf to all other terms, Laudonniere -yielded, released his prisoner, and received in his place two hostages, -who were fast bound in the boats. Ottigny and Arlac, with a strong -detachment of arquebusiers, went to receive the promised supplies, for -which, from the first, full payment in merchandise had been offered. On -their arrival at the village, they filed into the great central lodge, -within whose dusky precincts were gathered the magnates of the tribe. -Council-chamber, forum, banquet-hall, and dancing-hall all in one, the -spacious structure could hold half the population. Here the French made -their abode. With armor buckled, and arquebuse matches lighted, they -watched with anxious eyes the strange, dim scene, half revealed by the -daylight that streamed down through the hole at the apex of the roof. -Tall, dark forms stalked to and fro, with quivers at their backs, and -bows and arrows in their hands, while groups, crouched in the shadow -beyond, eyed the hated guests with inscrutable visages, and malignant, -sidelong eyes. Corn came in slowly, but warriors mustered fast. The -village without was full of them. The French officers grew anxious, and -urged the chiefs to greater alacrity in collecting the promised ransom. -The answer boded no good: "Our women are afraid when they see the -matches of your guns burning. Put them out, and they will bring the corn -faster." - -Outina was nowhere to be seen. At length they learned that he was in one -of the small huts adjacent. Several of the officers went to him, -complaining of the slow payment of his ransom. The kindness of his -captors at Fort Caroline seemed to have won his heart. He replied, that -such was the rage of his subjects that he could no longer control them; -that the French were in danger; and that he had seen arrows stuck in the -ground by the side of the path, in token that war was declared. The -peril was thickening hourly, and Ottigny resolved to regain the boats -while there was yet time. - -On the twenty-seventh of July, at nine in the morning, he set his men in -order. Each shouldering a sack of corn, they marched through the rows of -huts that surrounded the great lodge, and out betwixt the overlapping -extremities of the palisade that encircled the town. Before them -stretched a wide avenue, three or four hundred paces long, flanked by a -natural growth of trees,--one of those curious monuments of native -industry to which allusion has already been made. Here Ottigny halted -and formed his line of march. Arlac, with eight matchlock men, was sent -in advance, and flanking parties were thrown into the woods on either -side. Ottigny told his soldiers that, if the Indians meant to attack -them, they were probably in ambush at the other end of the avenue. He -was right. As Arlac's party reached the spot, the whole pack gave tongue -at once. The war-whoop rose, and a tempest of stone-headed arrows -clattered against the breast-plates of the French, or, scorching like -fire, tore through their unprotected limbs. They stood firm, and sent -back their shot so steadily that several of the assailants were laid -dead, and the rest, two or three hundred in number, gave way as Ottigny -came up with his men. - -They moved on for a quarter of a mile through a country, as it seems, -comparatively open, when again the war-cry pealed in front, and three -hundred savages bounded to the assault. Their whoops were echoed from -the rear. It was the party whom Arlac had just repulsed, and who, -leaping and showering their arrows, were rushing on again with a -ferocity restrained only by their lack of courage. There was no panic -among the French. The men threw down their bags of corn, and took to -their weapons. They blew their matches, and, under two excellent -officers, stood well to their work. The Indians, on their part, showed -good discipline after their fashion, and were perfectly under the -control of their chiefs. With cries that imitated the yell of owls, the -scream of cougars, and the howl of wolves, they ran up in successive -bands, let fly their arrows, and instantly fell back, giving place to -others. At the sight of the leveled arquebuse, they dropped flat on the -ground. Whenever the French charged upon them, sword in hand, they fled -through the woods like foxes; and whenever the march was resumed, the -arrows were showering again upon the flanks and rear of the retiring -band. As they fell, the soldiers picked them up and broke them. Thus, -beset with swarming savages, the handful of Frenchmen pushed slowly -onward, fighting as they went. - -The Indians gradually drew off, and the forest was silent again. Two of -the French had been killed and twenty-two wounded, several so severely -that they were supported to the boats with the utmost difficulty. Of the -corn, two bags only had been brought off. - -Famine and desperation now reigned at Fort Caroline. The Indians had -killed two of the carpenters; hence long delay in the finishing of the -new ship. They would not wait, but resolved to put to sea in the -"Breton" and the brigantine. The problem was to find food for the -voyage; for now, in their extremity, they roasted and ate snakes, a -delicacy in which the neighborhood abounded. - -On the third of August, Laudonniere, perturbed and oppressed, was -walking on the hill, when, looking seaward, he saw a sight that sent a -thrill through his exhausted frame. A great ship was standing towards -the river's mouth. Then another came in sight, and another, and another. -He despatched a messenger with the tidings to the fort below. The -languid forms of his sick and despairing men rose and danced for joy, -and voices shrill with weakness joined in wild laughter and acclamation, -insomuch, he says, "that one would have thought them to bee out of their -wittes." - -A doubt soon mingled with their joy. Who were the strangers? Were they -the friends so long hoped for in vain? or were they Spaniards, their -dreaded enemies? They were neither. The foremost ship was a stately one, -of seven hundred tons, a great burden at that day. She was named the -"Jesus;" and with her were three smaller vessels, the "Solomon," the -"Tiger," and the "Swallow." Their commander was "a right worshipful and -valiant knight,"--for so the record styles him,--a pious man and a -prudent, to judge him by the orders he gave his crew when, ten months -before, he sailed out of Plymouth: "Serve God daily, love one another, -preserve your victuals, beware of fire, and keepe good companie." Nor -were the crew unworthy the graces of their chief; for the devout -chronicler of the voyage ascribes their deliverance from the perils of -the sea to "the Almightie God, who never suffereth his Elect to perish." - -Who then were they, this chosen band, serenely conscious of a special -Providential care? They were the pioneers of that detested traffic -destined to inoculate with its infection nations yet unborn, the parent -of discord and death, filling half a continent with the tramp of armies -and the clash of fratricidal swords. Their chief was Sir John Hawkins, -father of the English slave-trade. - -He had been to the coast of Guinea, where he bought and kidnapped a -cargo of slaves. These he had sold to the jealous Spaniards of -Hispaniola, forcing them, with sword, matchlock, and culverin, to grant -him free trade, and then to sign testimonials that he had borne himself -as became a peaceful merchant. Prospering greatly by this summary -commerce, but distressed by the want of water, he had put into the River -of May to obtain a supply. - -Among the rugged heroes of the British marine, Sir John stood in the -front rank, and along with Drake, his relative, is extolled as "a man -borne for the honour of the English name. . . . Neither did the West of -England yeeld such an Indian Neptunian paire as were these two Ocean -peeres, Hawkins and Drake." So writes the old chronicler, Purchas, and -all England was of his thinking. A hardy and skilful seaman, a bold -fighter, a loyal friend and a stern enemy, overbearing towards equals, -but kind, in his bluff way, to those beneath him, rude in speech, -somewhat crafty withal and avaricious, he buffeted his way to riches and -fame, and died at last full of years and honor. As for the abject -humanity stowed between the reeking decks of the ship "Jesus," they were -merely in his eyes so many black cattle tethered for the market.[FN#18] - -Hawkins came up the river in a pinnace, and landed at Fort Caroline, -accompanied, says Laudonniere, "with gentlemen honorably apparelled, yet -unarmed." Between the Huguenots and the English Puritans there was a -double tie of sympathy. Both hated priests, and both hated Spaniards. -Wakening from their apathetic misery, the starveling garrison hailed him -as a deliverer. Yet Hawkins secretly rejoiced when he learned their -purpose to abandon Florida; for although, not to tempt his cupidity, -they hid from him the secret of their Appalachian gold mine, he coveted -for his royal mistress the possession of this rich domain. He shook his -head, however, when he saw the vessels in which they proposed to embark, -and offered them all a free passage to France in his own ships. This, -from obvious motives of honor and prudence, Laudonniere declined, upon -which Hawkins offered to lend or sell to him one of his smaller vessels. - -Laudonniere hesitated, and hereupon arose a great clamor. A mob of -soldiers and artisans beset his chamber, threatening loudly to desert -him, and take passage with Hawkins, unless the offer were accepted. The -commandant accordingly resolved to buy the vessel. The generous slaver, -whose reputed avarice nowhere appears in the transaction, desired him to -set his own price; and, in place of money, took the cannon of the fort, -with other articles now useless to their late owners. He sent them, too, -a gift of wine and biscuit, and supplied them with provisions for the -voyage, receiving in payment Laudonniere's note; "for which," adds the -latter, "untill this present I am indebted to him." With a friendly -leave taking, he returned to his ships and stood out to sea, leaving -golden opinions among the grateful inmates of Fort Caroline. - -Before the English top-sails had sunk beneath the horizon, the colonists -bestirred themselves to depart. In a few days their preparations were -made. They waited only for a fair wind. It was long in coming, and -meanwhile their troubled fortunes assumed a new phase. - -On the twenty eighth of August, the two captains Vasseur and Verdier -came in with tidings of an approaching squadron. Again the fort was wild -with excitement. Friends or foes, French or Spaniards, succor or death, ---betwixt these were their hopes and fears divided. On the following -morning, they saw seven barges rowing up the river, bristling with -weapons, and crowded with men in armor. The sentries on the bluff -challenged, and received no answer. One of them fired at the advancing -boats, and still there was no response. Laudonniere was almost -defenceless. He had given his heavier cannon to Hawkins, and only two -field-pieces were left. They were levelled at the foremost boats, and -the word to fire was about to be given, when a voice from among the -strangers called out that they were French, commanded by Jean Ribaut. - -At the eleventh hour, the long looked for succors were come. Ribaut had -been commissioned to sail with seven ships for Florida. A disorderly -concourse of disbanded soldiers, mixed with artisans and their families, -and young nobles weary of a two years' peace, were mustered at the port -of Dieppe, and embarked, to the number of three hundred men, bearing -with them all things thought necessary to a prosperous colony. - -No longer in dread of the Spaniards, the colonists saluted the -new-comers with the cannon by which a moment before they had hoped to -blow them out of the water. Laudonniere issued from his stronghold to -welcome them, and regaled them with what cheer he could. Ribaut was -present, conspicuous by his long beard, an astonishment to the Indians; -and here, too, were officers, old friends of Laudonniere. Why, then, had -they approached in the attitude of enemies? The mystery was soon -explained; for they expressed to the commandant their pleasure at -finding that the charges made against him had proved false. He begged to -know more; on which Ribaut, taking him aside, told him that the -returning ships had brought home letters filled with accusations of -arrogance, tyranny, cruelty, and a purpose of establishing an -independent command,--accusations which he now saw to be unfounded, but -which had been the occasion of his unusual and startling precaution. He -gave him, too, a letter from Admiral Coligny. In brief but courteous -terms, it required him to resign his command, and requested his return -to France to clear his name from the imputations cast upon it. Ribaut -warmly urged him to remain; but Laudonniere declined his friendly -proposals. - -Worn in body and mind, mortified and wounded, he soon fell ill again. A -peasant woman attended him, who was brought over, he says, to nurse the -sick and take charge of the poultry, and of whom Le Moyne also speaks as -a servant, but who had been made the occasion of additional charges -against him, most offensive to the austere Admiral. - -Stores were landed, tents were pitched, women and children were sent on -shore, feathered Indians mingled in the throng, and the borders of the -River of May swarmed with busy life. "But, lo, how oftentimes misfortune -doth search and pursue us, even then when we thinke to be at rest!" -exclaims the unhappy Laudonniere. Amidst the light and cheer of -renovated hope, a cloud of blackest omen was gathering in the east. - -At half-past eleven on the night of Tuesday, the fourth of September, -the crew of Ribaut's flag-ship, anchored on the still sea outside the -bar, saw a huge hulk, grim with the throats of cannon, drifting towards -them through the gloom; and from its stern rolled on the sluggish air -the portentous banner of Spain. - - - - - - -CHAPTER VII. -1565. - -MENENDEZ. - -The monk, the inquisitor, and the Jesuit were lords of Spain,-- -sovereigns of her sovereign, for they had formed the dark and narrow -mind of that tyrannical recluse. They had formed the minds of her -people, quenched in blood every spark of rising heresy, and given over a -noble nation to a bigotry blind and inexorable as the doom of fate. -Linked with pride, ambition, avarice, every passion of a rich, strong -nature, potent for good and ill, it made the Spaniard of that day a -scourge as dire as ever fell on man. - -Day was breaking on the world. Light, hope, and freedom pierced with -vitalizing ray the clouds and the miasma that hung so thick over the -prostrate Middle Age, once noble and mighty, now a foul image of decay -and death. Kindled with new life, the nations gave birth to a progeny of -heroes, and the stormy glories of the sixteenth century rose on awakened -Europe. But Spain was the citadel of darkness,--a monastic cell, an -inquisitorial dungeon, where no ray could pierce. She was the bulwark of -the Church, against whose adamantine wall the waves of innovation beat -in vain.[FN#19] In every country of Europe the party of freedom and -reform was the national party, the party of reaction and absolutism was -the Spanish party, leaning on Spain, looking to her for help. Above all, -it was so in France; and, while within her bounds there was for a time -some semblance of peace, the national and religious rage burst forth on -a wilder theatre. Thither it is for us to follow it, where, on the -shores of Florida, the Spaniard and the Frenchman, the bigot and the -Huguenot, met in the grapple of death. - -In a corridor of his palace, Philip the Second was met by a man who had -long stood waiting his approach, and who with proud reverence placed a -petition in the hand of the pale and sombre King. - -The petitioner was Pedro Menendez de Aviles, one of the ablest and most -distinguished officers of the Spanish marine. He was born of an ancient -Asturian family. His boyhood had been wayward, ungovernable, and fierce. -He ran off at eight years of age, and when, after a search of six -months, he was found and brought back, he ran off again. This time he -was more successful, escaping on board a fleet bound against the Barbary -corsairs, where his precocious appetite for blood and blows had -reasonable contentment. A few years later, he found means to build a -small vessel, in which he cruised against the corsairs and the French, -and, though still hardly more than a boy, displayed a singular address -and daring. The wonders of the New World now seized his imagination. He -made a voyage thither, and the ships under his charge came back -freighted with wealth. The war with France was then at its height. As -captain-general of the fleet, he was sent with troops to Flanders; and -to their prompt arrival was due, it is said, the victory of St. Quentin. -Two years later, he commanded the luckless armada which bore back Philip -to his native shore. On the way, the King narrowly escaped drowning in a -storm off the port of Laredo. This mischance, or his own violence and -insubordination, wrought to the prejudice of Menendez. He complained -that his services were ill repaid. Philip lent him a favoring ear, and -despatched him to the Indies as general of the fleet and army. Here he -found means to amass vast riches; and, in 1561, on his return to Spain, -charges were brought against him of a nature which his too friendly -biographer does not explain. The Council of the Indies arrested him. He -was imprisoned and sentenced to a heavy fine; but, gaining his release, -hastened to court to throw himself on the royal clemency. His petition -was most graciously received. Philip restored his command, but remitted -only half his fine, a strong presumption of his guilt. - -Menendez kissed the royal hand; he had another petition in reserve. His -son had been wrecked near the Bermudas, and he would fain go thither to -find tidings of his fate. The pious King bade him trust in God, and -promised that he should be despatched without delay to the Bermudas and -to Florida, with a commission to make an exact survey of the neighboring -seas for the profit of future voyagers; but Menendez was not content -with such an errand. He knew, he said, nothing of greater moment to his -Majesty than the conquest and settlement of Florida. The climate was -healthful, the soil fertile; and, worldly advantages aside, it was -peopled by a race sunk in the thickest shades of infidelity. "Such -grief," he pursued, "seizes me, when I behold this multitude of wretched -Indians, that I should choose the conquest and settling of Florida above -all commands, offices, and dignities which your Majesty might bestow." -Those who take this for hypocrisy do not know the Spaniard of the -sixteenth century. - -The King was edified by his zeal. An enterprise of such spiritual and -temporal promise was not to be slighted, and Menendez was empowered to -conquer and convert Florida at his own cost. The conquest was to be -effected within three years. Menendez was to take with him five hundred -men, and supply them with five hundred slaves, besides horses, cattle, -sheep, and hogs. Villages were to be built, with forts to defend them, -and sixteen ecclesiastics, of whom four should be Jesuits, were to form -the nucleus of a Floridan church. The King, on his part, granted -Menendez free trade with Hispaniola, Porto Rico, Cuba, and Spain, the -office of Adelantado of Florida for life, with the right of naming his -successor, and large emoluments to be drawn from the expected conquest. - -The compact struck, Menendez hastened to his native Asturias to raise -money among his relatives. Scarcely was he gone, when tidings reached -Madrid that Florida was already occupied by a colony of French -Protestants, and that a reinforcement, under Ribaut, was on the point of -sailing thither. A French historian of high authority declares that -these advices came from the Catholic party at the French court, in whom -every instinct of patriotism was lost in their hatred of Coligny and the -Huguenots. Of this there can be little doubt, though information also -came about this time from the buccaneer Frenchmen captured in the West -Indies. - -Foreigners had invaded the territory of Spain. The trespassers, too, -were heretics, foes of God, and liegemen of the Devil. Their doom was -fixed. But how would France endure an assault, in time of peace, on -subjects who had gone forth on an enterprise sanctioned by the Crown, -and undertaken in its name and under its commission? - -The throne of France, in which the corruption of the nation seemed -gathered to a head, was trembling between the two parties of the -Catholics and the Huguenots, whose chiefs aimed at royalty. Flattering -both, caressing both, playing one against the other, and betraying both, -Catherine de Medicis, by a thousand crafty arts and expedients of the -moment, sought to retain the crown on the head of her weak and vicious -son. Of late her crooked policy had led her towards the Catholic party, -in other words the party of Spain; and she had already given ear to the -savage Duke of Alva, urging her to the course which, seven years later, -led to the carnage of St. Bartholomew. In short, the Spanish policy was -in the ascendant, and no thought of the national interest or honor could -restrain that basest of courts from abandoning by hundreds to the -national enemy those whom it was itself meditating to immolate by -thousands. It might protest for form's sake, or to quiet public clamor; -but Philip of Spain well knew that it would end in patient submission. - -Menendez was summoned back in haste to the Spanish court. His force must -be strengthened. Three hundred and ninety-four men were added at the -royal charge, and a corresponding number of transport and supply ships. -It was a holy war, a crusade, and as such was preached by priest and -monk along the western coasts of Spain. All the Biscayan ports flamed -with zeal, and adventurers crowded to enroll themselves; since to -plunder heretics is good for the soul as well as the purse, and broil -and massacre have double attraction when promoted into a means of -salvation. It was a fervor, deep and hot, but not of celestial kindling; -nor yet that buoyant and inspiring zeal which, when the Middle Age was -in its youth and prime, glowed in the souls of Tancred, Godfrey, and St. -Louis, and which, when its day was long since past, could still find its -home in the great heart of Columbus. A darker spirit urged the new -crusade,--born not of hope, but of fear, slavish in its nature, the -creature and the tool of despotism; for the typical Spaniard of the -sixteenth century was not in strictness a fanatic, he was bigotry -incarnate. - -Heresy was a plague-spot, an ulcer to be eradicated with fire and the -knife, and this foul abomination was infecting the shores which the -Vicegerent of Christ had given to the King of Spain, and which the Most -Catholic King had given to the Adelantado. Thus would countless heathen -tribes be doomed to an eternity of flame, and the Prince of Darkness -hold his ancient sway unbroken; and for the Adelantado himself, the vast -outlays, the vast debts of his bold Floridan venture would be all in -vain, and his fortunes be wrecked past redemption through these tools of -Satan. As a Catholic, as a Spaniard, and as an adventurer, his course -was clear. - -The work assigned him was prodigious. He was invested with power almost -absolute, not merely over the peninsula which now retains the name of -Florida, but over all North America, from Labrador to Mexico; for this -was the Florida of the old Spanish geographers, and the Florida -designated in the commission of Menendez. It was a continent which he -was to conquer and occupy out of his own purse. The impoverished King -contracted with his daring and ambitious subject to win and hold for him -the territory of the future United States and British Provinces. His -plan, as afterwards exposed at length in his letters to Philip the -Second, was, first, to plant a garrison at Port Royal, and next to -fortify strongly on Chesapeake Bay, called by him St. Mary's. He -believed that adjoining this bay was an arm of the sea, running -northward and eastward, and communicating with the Gulf of St. Lawrence, -thus making New England, with adjacent districts, an island. His -proposed fort on the Chesapeake, securing access by this imaginary -passage, to the seas of Newfoundland, would enable the Spaniards to -command the fisheries, on which both the French and the English had long -encroached, to the great prejudice of Spanish rights. Doubtless, too, -these inland waters gave access to the South Sea, and their occupation -was necessary to prevent the French from penetrating thither; for that -ambitious people, since the time of Cartier, had never abandoned their -schemes of seizing this portion of the dominions of the King of Spain. -Five hundred soldiers and one hundred sailors must, he urges, take -possession, without delay, of Port Royal and the Chesapeake.[FN#20] - -Preparation for his enterprise was pushed with furious energy. His whole -force, when the several squadrons were united, amounted to two thousand -six hundred and forty-six persons, in thirty-four vessels, one of which, -the San Pelayo, bearing Menendez himself, was of nine hundred and -ninety-six tons burden, and is described as one of the finest ships -afloat.[FN#21] There were twelve Franciscans and eight Jesuits, besides -other ecclesiastics; and many knights of Galicia, Biscay, and the -Asturias took part in the expedition. With a slight exception, the whole -was at the Adelantado's charge. Within the first fourteen months, -according to his admirer, Barcia, the adventure cost him a million -ducats.[FN#22] - -Before the close of the year, Sancho do Arciniega was commissioned to -join Menendez with an additional force of fifteen hundred men. - -Red-hot with a determined purpose, the Adelantado would brook no delay. -To him, says the chronicler, every day seemed a year. He was eager to -anticipate Ribaut, of whose designs and whose force he seems to have -been informed to the minutest particular, but whom he hoped to thwart -and ruin by gaining Fort Caroline before him. With eleven ships, -therefore, he sailed from Cadiz, on the twenty-ninth of June, 1565, -leaving the smaller vessels of his fleet to follow with what speed they -might. He touched first at the Canaries, and on the eighth of July left -them, steering for Dominica. A minute account of the voyage has come -down to us, written by Mendoza, chaplain of the expedition,--a somewhat -dull and illiterate person, who busily jots down the incidents of each -passing day, and is constantly betraying, with a certain awkward -simplicity, how the cares of this world and of the next jostle each -other in his thoughts. - -On Friday, the twentieth of July, a storm fell upon them with appalling -fury. The pilots lost their wits, and the sailors gave themselves up to -their terrors. Throughout the night, they beset Mendoza for confession -and absolution, a boon not easily granted, for the seas swept the -crowded decks with cataracts of foam, and the shriekings of the gale in -the rigging overpowered the exhortations of the half-drowned priest. -Cannon, cables, spars, water-casks, were thrown overboard, and the -chests of the sailors would have followed, had not the latter, in spite -of their fright, raised such a howl of remonstrance that the order was -revoked. At length day dawned, Plunging, reeling, half under water, -quivering with the shock of the seas, whose mountain ridges rolled down -upon her before the gale, the ship lay in deadly peril from Friday till -Monday noon. Then the storm abated; the sun broke out; and again she -held her course. - -They reached Dominica on Sunday, the fifth of August. The chaplain tells -us how he went on shore to refresh himself; how, while his Italian -servant washed his linen at a brook, he strolled along the beach and -picked up shells; and how he was scared, first, by a prodigious turtle, -and next by a vision of the cannibal natives, which caused his prompt -retreat to the boats. - -On the tenth, they anchored in the harbor of Porto Rico, where they -found two ships of their squadron, from which they had parted in the -storm. One of them was the "San Pelayo," with Menendez on board. Mendoza -informs us, that in the evening the officers came on board the ship to -which he was attached, when he, the chaplain, regaled them with -sweetmeats, and that Menendez invited him not only to supper that night, -but to dinner the next day, "for the which I thanked him, as reason -was," says the gratified churchman. - -Here thirty men deserted, and three priests also ran off, of which -Mendoza bitterly complains, as increasing his own work. The motives of -the clerical truants may perhaps be inferred from a worldly temptation -to which the chaplain himself was subjected. "I was offered the service -of a chapel where I should have got a peso for every mass I said, the -whole year round; but I did not accept it, for fear that what I hear -said of the other three would be said of me. Besides, it is not a place -where one can hope for any great advancement, and I wished to try -whether, in refusing a benefice for the love of the Lord, He will not -repay me with some other stroke of fortune before the end of the voyage; -for it is my aim to serve God and His blessed Mother." - -The original design had been to rendezvous at Havana, but with the -Adelantado the advantages of despatch outweighed every other -consideration. He resolved to push directly for Florida. Five of his -scattered ships had by this time rejoined company, comprising, exclusive -of officers, a force of about five hundred soldiers, two hundred -sailors, and one hundred colonists. Bearing northward, he advanced by an -unknown and dangerous course along the coast of Hayti and through the -intricate passes of the Bahamas. On the night of the twenty-sixth, the -"San Pelayo" struck three times on the shoals; "but," says the chaplain, -"inasmuch as our enterprise was undertaken for the sake of Christ and -His blessed Mother, two heavy seas struck her abaft, and set her afloat -again." - -At length the ships lay becalmed in the Bahama Channel, slumbering on -the glassy sea, torpid with the heats of a West Indian August. Menendez -called a council of the commanders. There was doubt and indecision. -Perhaps Ribaut had already reached the French fort, and then to attack -the united force would be an act of desperation. Far better to await -their lagging comrades. But the Adelantado was of another mind; and, -even had his enemy arrived, ho was resolved that he should have no time -to fortify himself. - -"It is God's will," he said, "that our victory should be due, not to our -numbers, but to His all-powerful aid. Therefore has He stricken us with -tempests, and scattered our ships." And he gave his voice for instant -advance. - -There was much dispute; even the chaplain remonstrated; but nothing -could bend the iron will of Menendez. Nor was a sign of celestial -approval wanting. At nine in the evening, a great meteor burst forth in -mid-heaven, and, blazing like the sun, rolled westward towards the coast -of Florida. The fainting spirits of the crusaders were revived. Diligent -preparation was begun. Prayers and masses were said; and, that the -temporal arm might not fail, the men were daily practised on deck in -shooting at marks, in order, says the chronicle, that the recruits might -learn not to be afraid of their guns. - -The dead calm continued. "We were all very tired," says the chaplain, -"and I above all, with praying to God for a fair wind. To-day, at about -two in the afternoon, He took pity on us, and sent us a breeze." Before -night they saw land,--the faint line of forest, traced along the watery -horizon, that marked the coast of Florida. But where, in all this vast -monotony, was the lurking-place of the French? Menendez anchored, and -sent a captain with twenty men ashore, who presently found a band of -Indians, and gained from them the needed information. He stood -northward, till, on the afternoon of Tuesday, the fourth of September, -he descried four ships anchored near the mouth of a river. It was the -river St. John's, and the ships were four of Ribaut's squadron. The prey -was in sight. The Spaniards prepared for battle, and bore down upon the -Lutherans; for, with them, all Protestants alike were branded with the -name of the arch-heretic. Slowly, before the faint breeze, the ships -glided on their way; but while, excited and impatient, the fierce crews -watched the decreasing space, and when they were still three leagues -from their prize, the air ceased to stir, the sails flapped against the -mast, a black cloud with thunder rose above the coast, and the warm rain -of the South descended on the breathless sea. It was dark before the -wind stirred again and the ships resumed their course. At half-past -eleven they reached the French. The "San Pelayo" slowly moved to -windward of Ribaut's flag-ship, the "Trinity," and anchored very near -her. The other ships took similar stations. While these preparations -were making, a work of two hours, the men labored in silence, and the -French, thronging their gangways, looked on in equal silence. "Never, -since I came into the world," writes the chaplain, "did I know such a -stillness." - -It was broken at length by a trumpet from the deck of the "San Pelayo." -A French trumpet answered. Then Menendez, "with much courtesy," says his -Spanish eulogist, inquired, "Gentlemen, whence does this fleet come?" - -"From France," was the reply. - -"What are you doing here?" pursued the Adelantado. - -"Bringing soldiers and supplies for a fort which the King of France has -in this country, and for many others which he soon will have." - -"Are you Catholics or Lutherans?" - -Many voices cried out together, "Lutherans, of the new religion." Then, -in their turn, they demanded who Menendez was, and whence he came. - -He answered: "I am Pedro Menendez, General of the fleet of the King of -Spain, Don Philip the Second, who have come to this country to hang and -behead all Lutherans whom I shall find by land or sea, according to -instructions from my King, so precise that I have power to pardon none; -and these commands I shall fulfil, as you will see. At daybreak I shall -board your ships, and if I find there any Catholic, he shall be well -treated; but every heretic shall die." - -The French with one voice raised a cry of wrath and defiance. - -"If you are a brave man, don't wait till day. Come on now, and see what -you will get!" - -And they assailed the Adelantado with a shower of scoffs and insults. - -Menendez broke into a rage, and gave the order to board. The men -slipped the cables, and the sullen black hulk of the "San Pelayo" -drifted down upon the "Trinity." The French did not make good their -defiance. Indeed, they were incapable of resistance, Ribaut with his -soldiers being ashore at Fort Caroline. They cut their cables, left -their anchors, made sail, and fled. The Spaniards fired, the French -replied. The other Spanish ships had imitated the movement of the "San -Pelayo;" "but," writes the chaplain, Mendoza, "these devils are such -adroit sailors, and maneuvred so well, that we did not catch one of -them." Pursuers and pursued ran out to sea, firing useless volleys at -each other. - -In the morning Menendez gave over the chase, turned, and, with the "San -Pelayo" alone, ran back for the St. John's. But here a welcome was -prepared for him. He saw bands of armed men drawn up on the beach, and -the smaller vessels of Ribaut's squadron, which had crossed the bar -several days before, anchored behind it to oppose his landing. He would -not venture an attack, but, steering southward, sailed along the coast -till he came to an inlet which he named San Augustine, the same which -Laudonniere had named the River of Dolphins. - -Here he found three of his ships already debarking their troops, guns, -and stores. Two officers, Patiflo and Vicente, had taken possession of -the dwelling of the Indian chief Seloy, a huge barn-like structure, -strongly framed of entire trunks of trees, and thatched with palmetto -leaves. Around it they were throwing up entrenchments of fascines and -sand, and gangs of negroes were toiling at the work. Such was the birth -of St. Augustine, the oldest town of the United States. - -On the eighth, Menendez took formal possession of his domain. Cannon -were fired, trumpets sounded, and banners displayed, as he landed in -state at the head of his officers and nobles. Mendoza, crucifix in hand, -came to meet him, chanting Te Deum laudamus, while the Adelantado and -all his company, kneeling, kissed the crucifix, and the assembled -Indians gazed in silent wonder. - -Meanwhile the tenants of Fort Caroline were not idle. Two or three -soldiers, strolling along the beach in the afternoon, had first seen the -Spanish ships, and hastily summoned Ribaut. He came down to the mouth of -the river, followed by an anxious and excited crowd; but, as they -strained their eyes through the darkness, they could see nothing but the -flashes of the distant guns. At length the returning light showed, far -out at sea, the Adelantado in hot chase of their flying comrades. -Pursuers and pursued were soon out of sight. The drums beat to arms. -After many hours of suspense, the "San Pelayo" reappeared, hovering -about the mouth of the river, then bearing away towards the south. More -anxious hours ensued, when three other sail came in sight, and they -recognized three of their own returning ships. Communication was opened, -a boat's crew landed, and they learned from Cosette, one of the French -captains, that, confiding in the speed of his ship, he had followed the -Spaniards to St. Augustine, reconnoitred their position, and seen them -land their negroes and intrench themselves. - -Laudonniere lay sick in bed in his chamber at Fort Caroline when Ribaut -entered, and with him La Grange, Sainte Marie, Ottigny, Yonville, and -other officers. At the bedside of the displaced commandant, they held -their council of war. Three plans were proposed: first, to remain where -they were and fortify themselves; next, to push overland for St. -Augustine and attack the invaders in their intrenchments; and, finally, -to embark and assail them by sea. The first plan would leave their ships -a prey to the Spaniards; and so, too, in all likelihood, would the -second, besides the uncertainties of an overland march through an -unknown wilderness. By sea, the distance was short and the route -explored. By a sudden blow they could capture or destroy the Spanish -ships, and master the troops on shore before reinforcements could -arrive, and before they had time to complete their defences. - -Such were the views of Ribaut, with which, not unnaturally, Laudonniere -finds fault, and Le Moyne echoes the censures of his chief. And yet the -plan seems as well conceived as it was bold, lacking nothing but -success. The Spaniards, stricken with terror, owed their safety to the -elements, or, as they say, to the special interposition of the Holy -Virgin. Menendez was a leader fit to stand with Cortes and Pizarro; but -he was matched with a man as cool, skilful, prompt, and daring as -himself. The traces that have come down to us indicate in Ribaut one far -above the common stamp,--"a distinguished man, of many high qualities," -as even the fault-finding Le Moyne calls him; devout after the best -spirit of the Reform; and with a human heart under his steel -breastplate. - -La Grange and other officers took part with Landonniere, and opposed the -plan of an attack by sea; but Ribaut's conviction was unshaken, and the -order was given. All his own soldiers fit for duty embarked in haste, -and with them went La Caille, Arlac, and, as it seems, Ottigny, with the -best of Laudonniere's men. Even Le Moyne, though wounded in the fight -with Outina's warriors, went on board to bear his part in the fray, and -would have sailed with the rest had not Ottigny, seeing his disabled -condition, ordered him back to the fort. - -On the tenth, the ships, crowded with troops, set sail. Ribaut was gone, -and with him the bone and sinew of the colony. The miserable remnant -watched his receding sails with dreary foreboding,--a fore-boding which -seemed but too just, when, on the next day, a storm, more violent than -the Indians had ever known, howled through the forest and lashed the -ocean into fury. Most forlorn was the plight of these exiles, left, it -might be, the prey of a band of ferocious bigots more terrible than the -fiercest hordes of the wilderness; and when night closed on the stormy -river and the gloomy waste of pines, what dreams of terror may not have -haunted the helpless women who crouched under the hovels of Fort -Caroline! - -The fort was in a ruinous state, with the palisade on the water side -broken down, and three breaches in the rampart. In the driving rain, -urged by the sick Laudonniere, the men, bedrenched and disheartened, -labored as they could to strengthen their defences. Their muster-roll -shows but a beggarly array. "Now," says Laudonniere, "let them which -have bene bold to say that I had men ynough left me, so that I had -meanes to defend my selfe, give care a little now vnto mee, and if they -have eyes in their heads, let them see what men I had." Of Ribaut's -followers left at the fort, only nine or ten had weapons, while only two -or three knew how to use them. Four of them were boys, who kept Ribaut's -dogs, and another was his cook. Besides these, he had left a brewer, an -old crossbow-maker, two shoemakers, a player on the spinet, four valets, -a carpenter of threescore,--Challeux, no doubt, who has left us the -story of his woes,--with a crowd of women, children, and eighty-six -camp-followers. To these were added the remnant of Laudonniere's men, of -whom seventeen could bear arms, the rest being sick or disabled by -wounds received in the fight with Outina. - -Laudonniere divided his force, such as it was, into two watches, over -which he placed two officers, Saint Cler and La Vigne, gave them -lanterns for going the rounds, and an hour-glass for setting the time; -while he himself, giddy with weakness and fever, was every night at the -guard-room. - -It was the night of the nineteenth of September, the season of tempests; -floods of rain drenched the sentries on the rampart, and, as day dawned -on the dripping barracks and deluged parade, the storm increased in -violence. What enemy could venture out on such a night? La Vigne, who -had the watch, took pity on the sentries and on himself, dismissed them, -and went to his quarters. He little knew what human energies, urged by -ambition, avarice, bigotry, and desperation, will dare and do. - -To return to the Spaniards at St. Augustine. On the morning of the -eleventh, the crew of one of their smaller vessels, lying outside the -bar, with Menendez himself on board, saw through the twilight of early -dawn two of Ribaut's ships close upon them. Not a breath of air was -stirring. There was no escape, and the Spaniards fell on their knees in -supplication to Our Lady of Utrera, explaining to her that the heretics -were upon them, and begging her to send them a little wind. "Forthwith," -says Mendoza, "one would have said that Our Lady herself came down upon -the vessel." A wind sprang up, and the Spaniards found refuge behind the -bar. The returning day showed to their astonished eyes all the ships of -Ribaut, their decks black with men, hovering off the entrance of the -port; but Heaven had them in its charge, and again they experienced its -protecting care. The breeze sent by Our Lady of Utrera rose to a gale, -then to a furious tempest; and the grateful Adelantado saw through rack -and mist the ships of his enemy tossed wildly among the raging waters as -they struggled to gain an offing. With exultation in his heart, the -skilful seaman read their danger, and saw them in his mind's eye dashed -to utter wreck among the sand-bars and breakers of the lee shore. - -A bold thought seized him. He would march overland with five hundred -men, and attack Fort Caroline while its defenders were absent. First he -ordered a mass, and then he called a council. Doubtless it was in that -great Indian lodge of Seloy, where he had made his headquarters; and -here, in this dim and smoky abode, nobles, officers, and priests -gathered at his summons. There were fears and doubts and murmurings, but -Menendez was desperate; not with the mad desperation that strikes wildly -and at random, but the still white heat that melts and burns and seethes -with a steady, unquenchable fierceness. "Comrades," he said, "the time -has come to show our courage and our zeal. This is God's war, and we -must not flinch. It is a war with Lutherans, and we must wage it with -blood and fire." - -But his hearers gave no response. They had not a million of ducats at -stake, and were not ready for a cast so desperate. A clamor of -remonstrance rose from the circle. Many voices, that of Mendoza among -the rest, urged waiting till their main forces should arrive. The -excitement spread to the men without, and the swarthy, black-bearded -crowd broke into tumults mounting almost to mutiny, while an officer was -heard to say that he would not go on such a hare-brained errand to be -butchered like a beast. But nothing could move the Adelantado. His -appeals or his threats did their work at last; the confusion was -quelled, and preparation was made for the march. - -On the morning of the seventeenth, five hundred arquebusiers and pikemen -were drawn up before the camp. To each was given six pounds of biscuit -and a canteen filled with wine. Two Indians and a renegade Frenchman, -called Francois Jean, were to guide them, and twenty Biscayan axemen -moved to the front to clear the way. Through floods of driving rain, a -hoarse voice shouted the word of command, and the sullen march began. - -With dismal misgiving, Mendoza watched the last files as they vanished -in the tempestuous forest. Two days of suspense ensued, when a messenger -came back with a letter from the Adelantado, announcing that he had -nearly reached the French fort, and that on the morrow, September the -twentieth, at sunrise, he hoped to assault it. "May the Divine Majesty -deign to protect us, for He knows that we have need of it," writes the -scared chaplain; "the Adelantado's great zeal and courage make us hope -he will succeed, but, for the good of his Majesty's service, he ought to -be a little less ardent in pursuing his schemes." - -Meanwhile the five hundred pushed their march, now toiling across the -inundated savanrias, waist-deep in bulrushes and mud; now filing through -the open forest to the moan and roar of the storm-racked pines: now -hacking their way through palmetto thickets; and now turning from their -path to shun some pool, quagmire, cypress swamp, or "hummock," matted -with impenetrable bushes, brambles, and vines. As they bent before the -tempest, the water trickling from the rusty head-piece crept clammy and -cold betwixt the armor and the skin; and when they made their wretched -bivouac, their bed was the spongy soil, and the exhaustless clouds their -tent. - -The night of Wednesday, the nineteenth, found their vanguard in a deep -forest of pines, less than a mile from Fort Caroline, and near the low -hills which extended in its rear, and formed a continuation of St. -John's Bluff. All around was one great morass. In pitchy darkness, -knee-deep in weeds and water, half starved, worn with toil and lack of -sleep, drenched to the skin, their provisions spoiled, their ammunition -wet, and their spirit chilled out of them, they stood in shivering -groups, cursing the enterprise and the author of it. Menendez heard -Fernando Perez, an ensign, say aloud to his comrades: "This Asturian -Corito, who knows no more of war on shore than an ass, has betrayed us -all. By God, if my advice had been followed, he would have had his -deserts, the day he set out on this cursed journey! " - -The Adelantado pretended not to hear. - -Two hours before dawn he called his officers about him. All night, he -said, he had been praying to God and the Virgin. - -"Senores, what shall we resolve on? Our ammunition and provisions are -gone. Our case is desperate." And he urged a bold rush on the fort. - -But men and officers alike were disheartened and disgusted. They -listened coldly and sullenly; many were for returning at every risk; -none were in the mood for fight. Menendez put forth all his eloquence, -till at length the dashed spirits of his followers were so far revived -that they consented to follow him. - -All fell on their knees in the marsh; then, rising, they formed their -ranks and began to advance, guided by the renegade Frenchman, whose -hands, to make sure of him, were tied behind his back. Groping and -stumbling in the dark among trees, roots, and underbrush, buffeted by -wind and rain, and lashed in the face by the recoiling boughs which they -could not see, they soon lost their way, fell into confusion, and came -to a stand, in a mood more savagely desponding than before. But soon a -glimmer of returning day came to their aid, and showed them the dusky -sky, and the dark columns of the surrounding pines. Menendez ordered the -men forward on pain of death. They obeyed, and presently, emerging from -the forest, could dimly discern the ridge of a low hill, behind which, -the Frenchman told them, was the fort. Menendez, with a few officers and -men, cautiously mounted to the top. Beneath lay Fort Caroline, three -bow-shots distant; but the rain, the imperfect light, and a cluster of -intervening houses prevented his seeing clearly, and he sent two -officers to reconnoiter. As they descended, they met a solitary -Frenchman. They knocked him down with a sheathed sword, wounded him, -took him prisoner, kept him for a time, and then stabbed him as they -returned towards the top of the hill. Here, clutching their weapons, all -the gang stood in fierce expectancy. - -"Santiago!" cried Menendez. "At them! God is with us! Victory!" And, -shouting their hoarse war-cries, the Spaniards rushed down the slope -like starved wolves. - -Not a sentry was on the rampart. La Vigne, the officer of the guard, had -just gone to his quarters; but a trumpeter, who chanced to remain, saw, -through sheets of rain, the swarm of assailants sweeping down the hill. -He blew the alarm, and at the summons a few half-naked soldiers ran -wildly out of the barracks. It was too late. Through the breaches and -over the ramparts the Spaniards came pouring in, with shouts of -"Santiago! Santiago!" - -Sick men leaped from their beds. Women and children, blind with fright, -darted shrieking from the houses. A fierce, gaunt visage, the thrust of -a pike, or blow of a rusty halberd,--such was the greeting that met all -alike. Laudonniere snatched his sword and target, and ran towards the -principal breach, calling to his soldiers. A rush of Spaniards met him; -his men were cut down around him; and he, with a soldier named -Bartholomew, was forced back into the yard of his house. Here stood a -tent, and, as the pursuers stumbled among the cords, he escaped behind -Ottigny's house, sprang through the breach in the western rampart, and -fled for the woods. - -Le Moyne had been one of the guard. Scarcely had he thrown himself into -a hammock which was slung in his room, when a savage shout, and a wild -uproar of shrieks, outcries, and the clash of weapons, brought him to -his feet. He rushed by two Spaniards in the doorway, ran behind the -guard-house, leaped through an embrasure into the ditch, and escaped to -the forest. - -Challeux, the carpenter, was going betimes to his work, a chisel in his -hand. He was old, but pike and partisan brandished at his back gave -wings to his flight. In the ecstasy of his terror, he leaped upward, -clutched the top of the palisade, and threw himself over with the -agility of a boy. He ran up the hill, no one pursuing, and, as he neared -the edge of the forest, turned and looked back. From the high ground -where he stood, he could see the butchery, the fury of the conquerors, -and the agonizing gestures of the victims. He turned again in horror, -and plunged into the woods. As he tore his way through the briers and -thickets, he met several fugitives escaped like himself. Others -presently came up, haggard and wild, like men broken loose from the jaws -of death. They gathered together and consulted. One of them, known as -Master Robert, in great repute for his knowledge of the Bible, was for -returning and surrendering to the Spaniards. "They are men," he said; -"perhaps, when their fury is over, they will spare our lives; and, even -if they kill us, it will only be a few moments' pain. Better so, than to -starve here in the woods, or be torn to pieces by wild beasts." - -The greater part of the naked and despairing company assented, but -Challeux was of a different mind. The old Huguenot quoted Scripture, and -called the names of prophets and apostles to witness, that, in the -direst extremity, God would not abandon those who rested their faith in -Him. Six of the fugitives, however, still held to their desperate -purpose. Issuing from the woods, they descended towards the fort, and, -as with beating hearts their comrades watched the result, a troop of -Spaniards rushed out, hewed them down with swords and halberds, and -dragged their bodies to the brink of the river, where the victims of the -massacre were already flung in heaps. - -Le Moyne, with a soldier named Grandehemin, whom he had met in his -flight, toiled all day through the woods and marshes, in the hope of -reaching the small vessels anchored behind the bar. Night found them in -a morass. No vessel could be seen, and the soldier, in despair, broke -into angry upbraidings against his companion,--saying that he would go -back and give himself up. Le Moyne at first opposed him, then yielded. -But when they drew near the fort, and heard the uproar of savage revelry -that rose from within, the artist's heart failed him. He embraced his -companion, and the soldier advanced alone. A party of Spaniards came out -to meet him. He kneeled, and begged for his life. He was answered by a -death-blow; and the horrified Le Moyne, from his hiding-place in the -thicket, saw his limbs hacked apart, stuck on pikes, and borne off in -triumph. - -Meanwhile, Menendez, mustering his followers, had offered thanks to God -for their victory; and this pious butcher wept with emotion as he -recounted the favors which Heaven had showered upon their enterprise. -His admiring historian gives it in proof of his humanity, that, after -the rage of the assault was spent, he ordered that women, infants, and -boys under fifteen should thenceforth be spared. Of these, by his own -account, there were about fifty. Writing in October to the King, he says -that they cause him great anxiety, since he fears the anger of God -should he now put them to death in cold blood, while, on the other hand, -he is in dread lest the venom of their heresy should infect his men. - -A hundred and forty-two persons were slain in and around the fort, and -their bodies lay heaped together on the bank of the river. Nearly -opposite was anchored a small vessel, called the "Pearl," commanded by -Jacques Ribaut, son of the Admiral. The ferocious soldiery, maddened -with victory and drunk with blood, crowded to the water's edge, shouting -insults to those on board, mangling the corpses, tearing out their eyes, -and throwing them towards the vessel from the points of their daggers. -Thus did the Most Catholic Philip champion the cause of Heaven in the -New World. - -It was currently believed in France, and, though no eye-witness attests -it, there is reason to think it true, that among those murdered at Fort -Caroline there were some who died a death of peculiar ignominy. -Menendez, it is affirmed, hanged his prisoners on trees, and placed over -them the inscription, "I do this, not as to Frenchmen, but as to -Lutherans." - -The Spaniards gained a great booty in armor, clothing, and provisions. -"Nevertheless," says the devout Mendoza, after closing his inventory of -the plunder, "the greatest profit of this victory is the triumph which -our Lord has granted us, whereby His holy Gospel will be introduced into -this country, a thing so needful for saving so many souls from -perdition." Again he writes in his journal, "We owe to God and His -Mother, more than to human strength, this victory over the adversaries -of the holy Catholic religion." - -To whatever influence, celestial or other, the exploit may best be -ascribed, the victors were not yet quite content with their success. Two -small French vessels, besides that of Jacques Ribaut, still lay within -range of the fort. When the storm had a little abated, the cannon were -turned on them. One of them was sunk, but Ribaut, with the others, -escaped down the river, at the mouth of which several light craft, -including that bought from the English, had been anchored since the -arrival of his father's squadron. - -While this was passing, the wretched fugitives were flying from the -scene of massacre through a tempest, of whose persistent violence all -the narratives speak with wonder. Exhausted, starved, half naked,--for -most of them had escaped in their shirts,--they pushed their toilsome -way amid the ceaseless wrath of the elements. A few sought refuge in -Indian villages; but these, it is said, were afterwards killed by the -Spaniards. The greater number attempted to reach the vessels at the -mouth of the river. Among the latter was Le Moyne, who, notwithstanding -his former failure, was toiling through the mazes of tangled forests, -when he met a Belgian soldier, with the woman described as Laudonniere's -maid-servant, who was wounded in the breast; and, urging their flight -towards the vessels, they fell in with other fugitives, including -Laudonniere himself. As they struggled through the salt marsh, the rank -sedge cut their naked limbs, and the tide rose to their waists. -Presently they descried others, toiling like themselves through the -matted vegetation, and recognized Challeux and his companions, also in -quest of the vessels. The old man still, as he tells us, held fast to -his chisel, which had done good service in cutting poles to aid the -party to cross the deep creeks that channelled the morass. The united -band, twenty-six in all, were cheered at length by the sight of a moving -sail. It was the vessel of Captain Mallard, who, informed of the -massacre, was standing along shore in the hope of picking up some of the -fugitives. He saw their signals, and sent boats to their rescue; but -such was their exhaustion, that, had not the sailors, wading to their -armpits among the rushes, borne them out on their shoulders, few could -have escaped. Laudonniere was so feeble that nothing but the support of -a soldier, who held him upright in his arms, had saved him from drowning -in the marsh. - -On gaining the friendly decks, the fugitives counselled together. One -and all, they sickened for the sight of France. - -After waiting a few days, and saving a few more stragglers from the -marsh, they prepared to sail. Young Ribaut, though ignorant of his -father's fate, assented with something more than willingness; indeed, -his behavior throughout had been stamped with weakness and poltroonery. -On the twenty-fifth of September they put to sea in two vessels; and, -after a voyage the privations of which were fatal to many of them, they -arrived, one party at Rochelle, the other at Swansea, in Wales. - - - - - - -CHAPTER VIII - -1565. - -MASSACRE OF THE HERETICS. - -In suspense and fear, hourly looking seaward for the dreaded fleet of -Jean Ribaut, the chaplain Mendoza and his brother priests held watch and -ward at St. Augustine in the Adelantado's absence. Besides the celestial -guardians whom they ceased not to invoke, they had as protectors -Bartholomew Menendez, the brother of the Adelantado, and about a hundred -soldiers. Day and night they toiled to throw up earthworks and -strengthen their position. - -A week elapsed, when they saw a man running towards them, shouting as -he ran. - -Mendoza went to meet him. - -"Victory! victory!" gasped the breathless messenger. "The French fort is -ours!" And he flung his arms about the chaplain's neck.' - -"To-day," writes the priest in his journal, "Monday, the twenty-fourth, -came our good general himself, with fifty soldiers, very tired, Like all -those who were with him. As soon as they told me he was coming, I ran to -my lodging, took a new cassock, the best I had, put on my surplice, and -went out to meet him with a crucifix in my hand; whereupon he, like a -gentleman and a good Christian, kneeled down with all his followers, and -gave the Lord a thousand thanks for the great favors he had received -from Him." - -In solemn procession, with four priests in front chanting Te Deum, the -victors entered St. Augustine in triumph. - -On the twenty-eighth, when the weary Adelantado was taking his siesta -under the sylvan roof of Seloy, a troop of Indians came in with news -that quickly roused him from his slumbers. They had seen a French vessel -wrecked on the coast towards the south. Those who escaped from her were -four or six leagues off, on the banks of a river or arm of the sea, -which they could not cross. - -Menendez instantly sent forty or fifty men in boats to reconnoitre. -Next, he called the chaplain,--for he would fain have him at his elbow -to countenance the deeds he meditated,--and, with him twelve soldiers -and two Indian guides, embarked in another boat. They rowed along the -channel between Anastasia Island and the main shore; then they landed, -struck across the island on foot, traversed plains and marshes, reached -the sea towards night, and. searched along shore till ten o'clock to -find their comrades who had gone before. At length, with mutual joy, the -two parties met, and bivouacked together on the sands. Not far distant -they could see lights. These were the camp-fires of the shipwrecked -French. - -To relate with precision the fortunes of these unhappy men is -impossible; for henceforward the French narratives are no longer the -narratives of eye-witnesses. - -It has been seen how, when on the point of assailing the Spaniards at -St. Augustine, Jean Ribaut was thwarted by a gale, which they hailed as -a divine interposition. The gale rose to a tempest of strange fury. -Within a few days, all the French ships were cast on shore, between -Matanzas Inlet and Cape Canaveral. According to a letter of Menendez, -many of those on hoard were lost; but others affirm that all escaped but -a captain, La Grange, an officer of high merit, who was washed from a -floating mast. One of the ships was wrecked at a point farther northward -than the rest, and it was her company whose campfires were seen by the -Spaniards at their bivouac on the sands of Anastasia Island. They were -endeavoring to reach Fort Caroline, of the fate of which they knew -nothing, while Ribaut with the remainder was farther southward, -struggling through the wilderness towards the same goal. What befell the -latter will appear hereafter. Of the fate of the former party there is -no French record. What we know of it is due to three Spanish -eye-witnesses, Mendoza, Doctor Soils de las Meras, and Menendez himself. -Soils was a priest, and brother-in-law to Menendez. Like Mendoza, he -minutely describes what he saw, and, like him, was a red-hot zealot, -lavishing applause on the darkest deeds of his chief. But the principal -witness, though not the most minute or most trustworthy, is Menendez, in -his long despatches sent from Florida to the King, and now first brought -to light from the archives of Seville,--a cool record of unsurpassed -atrocities, inscribed on the back with the royal indorsement, "Say to -him that he has done well." - -When the Adelantado saw the French fires in the distance, he lay close -in his bivouac, and sent two soldiers to reconnoitre. At two o'clock in -the morning they came back, and reported that it was impossible to get -at the enemy, since they were on the farther side of an arm of the sea -(Matanzas Inlet). Menendez, however, gave orders to march, and before -daybreak reached the hither bank, where he hid his men in a bushy -hollow. Thence, as it grew light, they could discern the enemy, many of -whom were searching along the sands and shallows for shell-fish, for -they were famishing. A thought struck Menendez, an inspiration, says -Mendoza, of the Holy Spirit. He put on the clothes of a sailor, entered -a boat which had been brought to the spot, and rowed towards the -shipwrecked men, the better to learn their condition. A Frenchman swam -out to meet him. Menendez demanded what men they were. - -"Followers of Ribaut, Viceroy of the King of France," answered the -swimmer. - -"Are you Catholics or Lutherans?" - -"All Lutherans." - -A brief dialogue ensued, during which the Adelantado declared his name -and character, and the Frenchman gave an account of the designs of -Ribaut, and of the disaster that had thwarted them. He then swam back to -his companions, but soon returned, and asked safe conduct for his -captain and four other gentlemen, who wished to hold conference with the -Spanish general. Menendez gave his word for their safety, and, returning -to the shore, sent his boat to bring them over. On their landing, he met -them very courteously. His followers were kept at a distance, so -disposed behind hills and among bushes as to give an exaggerated idea of -their force,--a precaution the more needful, as they were only about -sixty in number, while the French, says Solfs, were above two hundred. -Menendez, however, declares that they did not exceed a hundred and -forty. The French officer told him the story of their shipwreck, and -begged him to lend them a boat to aid them in crossing the rivers which -lay between them and a fort of their King, whither they were making -their way. - -Then came again the ominous question, - -"Are you Catholics or Lutherans?" - -"We are Lutherans." - -"Gentlemen," pursued Menendez, "your fort is taken, and all in it are -put to the sword." And, in proof of his declaration, he caused articles -plundered from Fort Caroline to be shown to the unhappy petitioners. He -then left them, and went to breakfast with his officers, first ordering -food to be placed before them. Having breakfasted, he returned to them. - -"Are you convinced now," he asked, "that what I have told you is true?" - -The French captain assented, and implored him to lend them ships in -which to return home. Menendez answered that he would do so willingly if -they were Catholics, and if he had ships to spare, but he had none. The -supplicants then expressed the hope that at least they and their -followers would be allowed to remain with the Spaniards till ships could -be sent to their relief, since there was peace between the two nations, -whose kings were friends and brothers. - -"All Catholics," retorted the Spaniard, "I will befriend; but as you are -of the New Sect, I hold you as enemies, and wage deadly war against you; -and this I will do with all cruelty [crueldad] in this country, where I -command as Viceroy and Captain-General for my King. I am here to plant -the Holy Gospel, that the Indians may be enlightened and come to the -knowledge of the Holy Catholic faith of our Lord Jesus Christ, as the -Roman Church teaches it. If you will give up your arms and banners, and -place yourselves at my mercy, you may do so, and I will act towards you -as God shall give me grace. Do as you will, for other than this you can -have neither truce nor friendship with me." - -Such were the Adelantado's words, as reported by a bystanders his -admiring brother-in-law and that they contain an implied assurance of -mercy has been held, not only by Protestants, but by Catholics and -Spaniards. The report of Menendez himself is more brief, and -sufficiently equivocal:-- - -"I answered, that they could give up their arms and place themselves -under my mercy,--that I should do with them what our Lord should order; -and from that I did not depart, nor would I, unless God our Lord should -otherwise inspire." - -One of the Frenchmen recrossed to consult with his companions. In two -hours he returned, and offered fifty thousand ducats to secure their -lives; but Menendez, says his brother-in-law, would give no pledges. On -the other hand, expressions in his own despatches point to the inference -that a virtual pledge was given, at least to certain individuals. - -The starving French saw no resource but to yield themselves to his -mercy. The boat was again sent across the river. It returned laden with -banners, arquebuses, swords, targets, and helmets. The Adelantado -ordered twenty soldiers to bring over the prisoners, ten at a time. He -then took the French officers aside behind a ridge of sand, two gunshots -from the bank. Here, with courtesy on his lips and murder at his heart, -he said: - -"Gentlemen, I have but few men, and you are so many that, if you were -free, it would be easy for you to take your satisfaction on us for the -people we killed when we took your fort. Therefore it is necessary that -you should go to my camp, four leagues from this place, with your hands -tied." - -Accordingly, as each party landed, they were led out of sight behind the -sand-hill, and their hands tied behind their backs with the match-cords -of the arquebuses, though not before each had been supplied with food. -The whole day passed before all were brought together, bound and -helpless, under the eye of the inexorable Adelantado. But now Mendoza -interposed. "I was a priest," he says, "and had the bowels of a man." He -asked that if there were Christians--that is to say, Catholics--among -the prisoners, they should be set apart. Twelve Breton sailors professed -themselves to be such; and these, together with four carpenters and -calkers, "of whom," writes Menendez, "I was in great need," were put on -board the boat and sent to St. Augustine. The rest were ordered to march -thither by land. - -The Adelantado walked in advance till he came to a lonely spot, not far -distant, deep among the bush-covered hills. Here he stopped, and with -his cane drew a line in the sand. The sun was set when the captive -Huguenots, with their escort, reached the fatal goal thus marked out. -And now let the curtain drop; for here, in the name of Heaven, the -hounds of hell were turned loose, and the savage soldiery, like wolves -in a sheepfold, rioted in slaughter. Of all that wretched company, not -one was left alive. - - -"I had their hands tied behind their backs," writes the chief criminal, -"and themselves put to the knife. It appeared to me that, by thus -chastising them, God our Lord and your Majesty were served; whereby in -future this evil sect will leave us more free to plant the Gospel in -these parts." - -Again Menendez returned triumphant to St. Augustine, and behind him -marched his band of butchers, steeped in blood to the elbows, but still -unsated. Great as had been his success, he still had cause for anxiety. -There was ill news of his fleet. Some of the ships were lost, others -scattered, or lagging tardily on their way. Of his whole force, less -than a half had reached Florida, and of these a large part were still at -Fort Caroline. Ribaut could not be far off; and, whatever might be the -condition of his shipwrecked company, their numbers would make them -formidable, unless taken at advantage. Urged by fear and fortified by -fanaticism, Menendez had well begun his work of slaughter; but rest for -him there was none,--a darker deed was behind. - -On the tenth of October, Indians came with the tidings that, at the spot -where the first party of the shipwrecked French had been found, there -was now another party still larger. This murder-loving race looked with -great respect on Menendez for his wholesale butchery of the night -before,--an exploit rarely equalled in their own annals of massacre. On -his part, he doubted not that Ribaut was at hand. Marching with a -hundred and fifty men, he crossed the bush-covered sands of Anastasia -Island, followed the strand between the thickets and the sea, reached -the inlet at midnight, and again, like a savage, ambushed himself on the -bank. Day broke, and he could plainly see the French on the farther -side. They had made a raft, which lay in the water ready for crossing. -Menendez and his men showed themselves, when, forthwith, the French -displayed their banners, sounded drums and trumpets, and set their sick -and starving ranks in array of battle. But the Adelantado, regardless of -this warlike show, ordered his men to seat themselves at breakfast, -while he with three officers walked unconcernedly along the shore. His -coolness had its effect. The French blew a trumpet of parley, and showed -a white flag. The Spaniards replied. A Frenchman came out upon the raft, -and, shouting across the water, asked that a Spanish envoy should be -sent over. - -"You have a raft," was the reply; "come yourselves." - -An Indian canoe lay under the bank on the Spanish side. A French sailor -swam to it, paddled back unmolested, and presently returned, bringing -with him La Caille, Ribaut's sergeant-major. He told Menendez that the -French were three hundred and fifty in all, and were on their way to -Fort Caroline; and, like the officers of the former party, he begged for -boats to aid them in crossing the river. - -"My brother," said Menendez, "go and tell your general, that, if he -wishes to speak with me, he may come with four or six companions, and -that I pledge my word he shall go back safe." - -La Caille returned; and Ribaut, with eight gentlemen, soon came over in -the canoe. Menendez met them courteously, caused wine and preserved -fruits to be placed before them,--he had come well provisioned on his -errand of blood,--and next led Ribaut to the reeking Golgotha, where, -in heaps upon the sand, lay the corpses of his slaughtered followers. -Ribaut was prepared for the spectacle,--La Caille had already seen it, ---but he would not believe that Fort Caroline was taken till a part of -the plunder was shown him. Then, mastering his despair, he turned to the -conqueror. "What has befallen us," he said, "may one day befall you." -And, urging that the kings of France and Spain were brothers and close -friends, he begged, in the name of that friendship, that the Spaniard -would aid him in conveying his followers home. Menendez gave him the -same equivocal answer that he had given the former party, and Ribaut -returned to consult with his officers. After three hours of absence, he -came back in the canoe, and told the Adelantado that some of his people -were ready to surrender at discretion, but that many refused. - -"They can do as they please," was the reply. In behalf of those who -surrendered, Ribaut offered a ransom of a hundred thousand ducats. -"It would much grieve me," said Menendez, "not to accept it; for I have -great need of it." - -Ribaut was much encouraged. Menendez could scarcely forego such a prize, -and he thought, says the Spanish narrator, that the lives of his -followers would now be safe. He asked to be allowed the night for -deliberation, and at sunset recrossed the river. In the morning he -reappeared among the Spaniards, and reported that two hundred of his men -had retreated from the spot, but that the remaining hundred and fifty -would surrender. At the same time he gave into the hands of Menendez the -royal standard and other flags, with his sword, dagger, helmet, buckler, -and the official seal given him by Coligny. Menendez directed an officer -to enter the boat and bring over the French by tens. He next led Ribaut -among the bushes behind the neighboring sand-hill, and ordered his hands -to be bound fast. Then the scales fell from the prisoner's eyes. Face to -face his fate rose up before him. He saw his followers and himself -entrapped,--the dupes of words artfully framed to lure them to their -ruin. The day wore on; and, as band after band of prisoners was brought -over, they were led behind the sand-hill out of sight from the farther -shore, and bound like their general. At length the transit was finished. -With bloodshot eyes and weapons bared, the Spaniards closed around their -victims. - -"Are you Catholics or Lutherans? and is there any one among you who will -go to confession?" - -Ribaut answered, "I and all here are of the Reformed Faith." - -And he recited the Psalm, "Domine, memento mei." - -"We are of earth," he continued, "and to earth we must return; twenty -years more or less can matter little;" and, turning to the Adelantado, -he bade him do his will. - -The stony-hearted bigot gave the signal; and those who will may paint to -themselves the horrors of the scene. - -A few, however, were spared. "I saved," writes Menendez, "the lives of -two young gentlemen of about eighteen years of age, as well as of three -others, the fifer, the drummer, and the trumpeter; and I caused Juan -Ribao [Ribaut] with all the rest to be put to the knife, judging this to -be necessary for the service of God our Lord and of your Majesty. And I -consider it great good fortune that he [Juan Ribao] should be dead, for -the King of France could effect more with him and five hundred ducats -than with other men and five thousand; and he would do more in one year -than another in ten, for he was the most experienced sailor and naval -commander known, and of great skill in this navigation of the Indies and -the coast of Florida. He was, besides, greatly liked in England, in -which kingdom his reputation was such that he was appointed -Captain-General of all the English fleet against the French Catholics in -the war between England and France some years ago." - -Such is the sum of the Spanish accounts,--the self-damning testimony of -the author and abettors of the crime; a picture of lurid and awful -coloring; and yet there is reason to believe that the truth was darker -still. Among those who were spared was one Christophe le Breton, who was -carried to Spain, escaped to France, and told his story to Challeux. -Among those struck down in the butchery was a sailor of Dieppe, stunned -and left for dead under a heap of corpses. In the night he revived, -contrived to draw his knife, cut the cords that bound his hands, and -made his way to an Indian village. The Indians, not without reluctance, -abandoned him to the Spaniards, who sold him as a slave; but, on his way -in fetters to Portugal, the ship was taken by the Huguenots, the sailor -set free, and his story published in the narrative of Le Moyne. When the -massacre was known in France, the friends and relatives of the victims -sent to the King, Charles the Ninth, a vehement petition for redress; -and their memorial recounts many incidents of the tragedy. From these -three sources is to be drawn the French version of the story. The -following is its substance. - -Famished and desperate, the followers of Ribaut were toiling northward -to seek refuge at Fort Caroline, when they found the Spaniards in their -path. Some were filled with dismay; others, in their misery, almost -hailed them as deliverers. La Caille, the sergeant-major, crossed the -river. Menendez met him with a face of friendship, and protested that he -would spare the lives of the shipwrecked men, sealing the promise with -an oath, a kiss, and many signs of the cross. He even gave it in -writing, under seal. Still, there were many among the French who would -not place themselves in his power. The most credulous crossed the river -in a boat. As each successive party landed, their hands were bound fast -at their backs; and thus, except a few who were set apart, they were all -driven towards the fort, like cattle to the shambles, with curses and -scurrilous abuse. Then, at sound of drums and trumpets, the Spaniards -fell upon them, striking them down with swords, pikes, and halberds. -Ribaut vainly called on the Adelantado to remember his oath. By his -order, a soldier plunged a dagger into the French commander's heart; and -Ottigny, who stood near, met a similar fate. Ribaut's beard was cut off, -and portions of it sent in a letter to Philip the Second. His head was -hewn into four parts, one of which was displayed on the point of a lance -at each corner of Fort St. Augustine. Great fires were kindled, and the -bodies of the murdered burned to ashes. - -Such is the sum of the French accounts. The charge of breach of faith -contained in them was believed by Catholics as well as Protestants; and -it was as a defence against this charge that the narrative of the -Adelantado's brother-in-law was published. That Ribaut, a man whose good -sense and courage were both reputed high, should have submitted himself -and his men to Menendez without positive assurance of safety, is -scarcely credible; nor is it lack of charity to believe that a bigot so -savage in heart and so perverted in conscience would act on the maxim, -current among certain casuists of the day, that faith ought not to be -kept with heretics. - -It was night when the Adelantado again entered St. Augustine. There were -some who blamed his cruelty; but many applauded. "Even if the French had -been Catholics,"--such was their language,--"he would have done right, -for, with the little provision we have, they would all have starved; -besides, there were so many of them that they would have cut our -throats." - -And now Menendez again addressed himself to the despatch, already begun, -in which he recounts to the King his labors and his triumphs, a -deliberate and business-like document, mingling narratives of butchery -with recommendations for promotions, commissary details, and petitions -for supplies,--enlarging, too, on the vast schemes of encroachment -which his successful generalship had brought to naught. The French, he -says, had planned a military and naval depot at Los Martires, whence -they would make a descent upon Havana, and another at the Bay of Ponce -de Leon, whence they could threaten Vera Cruz. They had long been -encroaching on Spanish rights at Newfoundland, from which a great arm of -the sea--doubtless meaning the St. Lawrence--would give them access to -the Moluccas and other parts of the East Indies. He adds, in a later -despatch, that by this passage they may reach the mines of Zacatecas and -St. Martin, as well as every part of the South Sea. And, as already -mentioned, he urges immediate occupation of Chesapeake Bay, which, by -its supposed water communication with the St. Lawrence, would enable -Spain to vindicate her rights, control the fisheries of Newfoundland, -and thwart her rival in vast designs of commercial and territorial -aggrandizement. Thus did France and Spain dispute the possession of -North America long before England became a party to the strife.[FN#24] - -Some twenty days after Menendez returned to St. Augustine, the Indians, -enamoured of carnage, and exulting to see their invaders mowed down, -came to tell him that on the coast southward, near Cape Canaveral, a -great number of Frenchmen were intrenching themselves. They were those -of Ribaut's party who had refused to surrender. Having retreated to the -spot where their ships had been cast ashore, they were trying to build a -vessel from the fragments of the wrecks. - -In all haste Menendez despatched messengers to Fort Caroline, named by -him San Mateo, ordering a reinforcement of a hundred and fifty men. In a -few days they came. He added some of his own soldiers, and, with a -united force of two hundred and fifty, set out, as he tells us, on the -second of November. A part of his force went by sea, while the rest -pushed southward along the shore with such merciless energy that several -men dropped dead with wading night and day through the loose sands. -When, from behind their frail defences, the French saw the Spanish pikes -and partisans glittering into view, they fled in a panic, and took -refuge among the hills. Menendez sent a trumpet to summon them, pledging -his honor for their safety. The commander and several others told the -messenger that they would sooner be eaten by the savages than trust -themselves to Spaniards; and, escaping, they fled to the Indian towns. -The rest surrendered; and Menendez kept his word. The comparative number -of his own men made his prisoners no longer dangerous. They were led -back to St. Augustine, where, as the Spanish writer affirms, they were -well treated. Those of good birth sat at the Adelantado's table, eating -the bread of a homicide crimsoned with the slaughter of their comrades. -The priests essayed their pious efforts, and, under the gloomy menace of -the Inquisition, some of the heretics renounced their errors. The fate -of the captives may be gathered from the endorsement, in the handwriting -of the King, on one of the despatches of Menendez. - -"Say to him," writes Philip the Second, "that, as to those he has -killed, he has done well; and as to those he has saved, they shall be -sent to the galleys." - - - - - - -CHAPTER IX. - -1565-1567. - -CHARLES IX. AND PHILLIP II. - - -The state of international relations in the sixteenth century is hardly -conceivable at this day. The Puritans of England and the Huguenots of -France regarded Spain as their natural enemy, and on the high seas and -in the British Channel they joined hands with godless freebooters to -rifle her ships, kill her sailors, or throw them alive into the sea. -Spain on her side seized English Protestant sailors who ventured into -her ports, and burned them as heretics, or consigned them to a living -death in the dungeons of the Inquisition. Yet in the latter half of the -century these mutual outrages went on for years while the nations -professed to be at peace. There was complaint, protest, and occasional -menace, but no redress, and no declaration of war. - -Contemporary writers of good authority have said that, when the news of -the massacres in Florida reached the court of France, Charles the Ninth -and Catherine de Medicis submitted to the insult in silence; but -documents lately brought to light show that a demand for redress was -made, though not insisted on. A cry of horror and execration had risen -from the Huguenots and many even of the Catholics had echoed it; yet the -perpetrators of the crime, and not its victims, were the first to make -complaint. Philip the Second resented the expeditions of Ribaut and -Laudonniere as an invasion of the American domains of Spain, and ordered -D'Alava, his ambassador at Paris, to denounce them to the French King. -Charles, thus put on the defensive, replied, that the country in -question belonged to France, having been discovered by Frenchmen a -hundred years before, and named by them Terre des Bretons. This alludes -to the tradition that the Bretons and Basques visited the northern -coasts of America before the voyage of Columbus. In several maps of the -sixteenth century the region of New England and the neighboring states -and provinces is set down as Terre des Bretons, or Tierra de los -Bretones, and this name was assumed by Charles to extend to the Gulf of -Mexico, as the name of Florida was assumed by the Spaniards to extend to -the Gulf of St. Lawrence, and even beyond it. Philip spurned the claim, -asserted the Spanish right to all Florida, and asked whether or not the -followers of Ribaut and Laudonniere had gone thither by authority of -their King. The Queen Mother, Catherine de Medicis, replied in her son's -behalf, that certain Frenchmen had gone to a country called Terre aux -Bretons, discovered by French subjects, and that in so doing they had -been warned not to encroach on lands belonging to the King of Spain. And -she added, with some spirit, that the Kings of France were not in the -habit of permitting themselves to be threatened. - -Philip persisted in his attitude of injured innocence; and Forquevaulx, -French ambassador at Madrid, reported that, as a reward for murdering -French subjects, Menendez was to receive the title of Marquis of -Florida. A demand soon followed from Philip, that Admiral Coligny should -be punished for planting a French colony on Spanish ground, and thus -causing the disasters that ensued. It was at this time that the first -full account of the massacres reached the French court, and the Queen -Mother, greatly moved, complained to the Spanish ambassador, saying that -she could not persuade herself that his master would refuse reparation. -The ambassador replied by again throwing the blame on Coligny and the -Huguenots; and Catherine de Medicis returned that, Huguenots or not, the -King of Spain had no right to take upon himself the punishment of French -subjects. Forquevaulx was instructed to demand redress at Madrid; but -Philip only answered that he was very sorry for what had happened, and -again insisted that Coligny should be punished as the true cause of it. - -Forquevaulx, an old soldier, remonstrated with firmness, declared that -no deeds so execrable had ever been committed within his memory, and -demanded that Menendez and his followers should be chastised as they -deserved. The King said that he was sorry that the sufferers chanced to -be Frenchmen, but, as they were pirates also, they ought to be treated -as such. The ambassador replied, that they were no pirates, since they -bore the commission of the Admiral of France, who in naval affairs -represented the King; and Philip closed the conversation by saying that -he would speak on the subject with the Duke of Alva. This was equivalent -to refusal, for the views of the Duke were well known; "and so, Madame," -writes the ambassador to the Queen Mother, "there is no hope that any -reparation will be made for the aforesaid massacre." - -On this, Charles wrote to Forquevaulx "It is my will that you renew your -complaint, and insist urgently that, for the sake of the union and -friendship between the two crowns, reparation be made for the wrong done -me and the cruelties committed on my subjects, to which I cannot submit -without too great loss of reputation." And, jointly with his mother, he -ordered the ambassador to demand once more that Menendez and his men -should be punished, adding, that he trusts that Philip will grant -justice to the King of France, his brother-in-law and friend, rather -than pardon a gang of brigands. "On this demand," concludes Charles, -"the Sieur de Forquevaulx will not fail to insist, be the answer what it -may, in order that the King of Spain shall understand that his Majesty -of France has no less spirit than his predecessors to repel an insult." -The ambassador fulfilled his commission, and Philip replied by referring -him to the Duke of Alva. "I have no hope," reports Forquevaulx, "that -the Duke will give any satisfaction as to the massacre, for it was he -who advised it from the first." A year passed, and then he reported that -Menendez had returned from Florida, that the King had given him a warm -welcome, and that his fame as a naval commander was such that he was -regarded as a sort of Neptune. - -In spite of their brave words, Charles and the Queen Mother tamely -resigned themselves to the affront, for they would not quarrel with -Spain. To have done so would have been to throw themselves into the arms -of the Protestant party, adopt the principle of toleration, and save -France from the disgrace and blight of her later years. France was not -so fortunate. The enterprise of Florida was a national enterprise, -undertaken at the national charge, with the royal commission, and under -the royal standard; and it had been crushed in time of peace by a power -professing the closest friendship. Yet Huguenot influence had prompted -and Huguenot hands executed it. That influence had now ebbed low; -Coligny's power had waned; Charles, after long vacillation, was leaning -more and more towards the Guises and the Catholics, and fast subsiding -into the deathly embrace of Spain, for whom, at last, on the bloody eve -of St. Bartholomew, he was to become the assassin of his own best -subjects. - -In vain the relatives of the slain petitioned him for redress; and had -the honor of the nation rested in the keeping of its King, the blood of -hundreds of murdered Frenchmen would have cried from the ground in vain. -But it was not to be so. Injured humanity found an avenger, and outraged -France a champion. Her chivalrous annals may be searched in vain for a -deed of more romantic daring than the vengeance of Dominique de -Gourgues. - - - - -CHAPTER X. - -1567-1583. - -DOMINIQUE DE GOURGUES. - - -There was a gentleman of Mont-de-Marsan, Dominique de Gourgues, a -soldier of ancient birth and high renown. It is not certain that he was -a Huguenot. The Spanish annalist calls him a "terrible heretic;" but the -French Jesuit, Charlevoix, anxious that the faithful should share the -glory of his exploits, affirms that, like his ancestors before him, he -was a good Catholic. If so, his faith sat lightly upon him; and, -Catholic or heretic, he hated the Spaniards with a mortal hate. Fighting -in the Italian wars,--for from boyhood he was wedded to the sword,--he -had been taken prisoner by them near Siena, where he had signalized -himself by a fiery and determined bravery. With brutal insult, they -chained him to the oar as a galley slave. After he had long endured this -ignominy the Turks captured the vessel and carried her to -Constantinople. It was but a change of tyrants but, soon after, while -she was on a cruise, Gourgues still at the oar, a galley of the knights -of Malta hove in sight, bore down on her, recaptured her, and set the -prisoner free. For several years after, his restless spirit found -employment in voyages to Africa, Brazil, and regions yet more remote. -His naval repute rose high, but his grudge against the Spaniards still -rankled within him; and when, returned from his rovings, he learned the -tidings from Florida, his hot Gascon blood boiled with fury. - -The honor of France had been foully stained, and there was none to wipe -away the shame. The faction-ridden King was dumb. The nobles who -surrounded him were in the Spanish interest. Then, since they proved -recreant, he, Dominique de Gourgues, a simple gentleman, would take upon -him to avenge the wrong, and restore the dimmed lustre of the French -name. He sold his inheritance, borrowed money from his brother, who held -a high post in Guienne, and equipped three small vessels, navigable by -sail or oar. On board he placed a hundred arquebusiers and eighty -sailors, prepared to fight on land, if need were. The noted Blaise de -Montluc, then lieutenant for the King in Guienne, gave him a commission -to make war on the negroes of Benin,--that is, to kidnap them as -slaves, an adventure then held honorable. - -His true design was locked within his own breast. He mustered his -followers,--not a few of whom were of rank equal to his own, feasted -them, and, on the twenty-second of August, 1567, sailed from the mouth -of the Charente. Off Cape Finisterre, so violent a storm buffeted his -ships that his men clamored to return; but Gourgues's spirit prevailed. -He bore away for Africa, and, landing at the Rio del Oro, refreshed and -cheered them as he best might. Thence he sailed to Cape Blanco, where -the jealous Portuguese, who had a fort in the neighborhoods set upon him -three negro chiefs. Gourgues beat them off, and remained master of the -harbor; whence, however, he soon voyaged onward to Cape Verd, and, -steering westward, made for the West Indies. Here, advancing from island -to island, he came to Hispaniola, where, between the fury of a hurricane -at sea and the jealousy of the Spaniards on shore, he was in no small -jeopardy,--"the Spaniards", exclaims the indignant journalist, "who -think that this New World was made for nobody but them, and that no -other living man has a right to move or breathe here!" Gourgues landed, -however, obtained the water of which he was in need, and steered for -Cape San Antonio, at the western end of Cuba. There he gathered his -followers about him, and addressed them with his fiery Gascon eloquence. -For the first time, he told them his true purpose, inveighed against -Spanish cruelty, and painted, with angry rhetoric, the butcheries of -Fort Caroline and St. Augustine. - -"What disgrace," he cried, "if such an insult should pass unpunished! -What glory to us if we avenge it! To this I have devoted my fortune. I -relied on you. I thought you jealous enough of your country's glory to -sacrifice life itself in a cause like this. Was I deceived? I will show -you the way; I will be always at your head; I will bear the brunt of the -danger. Will you refuse to follow me?" - -At first his startled hearers listened in silence; but soon the passions -of that adventurous age rose responsive to his words. The combustible -French nature burst into flame. The enthusiasm of the soldiers rose to -such a pitch that Gourgues had much ado to make them wait till the moon -was full before tempting the perils of the Bahama Channel. His time came -at length. The moon rode high above the lonely sea, and, silvered in its -light, the ships of the avenger held their course. - -Meanwhile, it had fared ill with the Spaniards in Florida; the good-will -of the Indians had vanished. The French had been obtrusive and vexatious -guests; but their worst trespasses had been mercy and tenderness -compared to the daily outrage of the new-comers. Friendship had changed -to aversion, aversion to hatred, and hatred to open war. The forest -paths were beset; stragglers were cut off; and woe to the Spaniard who -should venture after nightfall beyond call of the outposts. - -Menendez, however, had strengthened himself in his new conquest. St. -Augustine was well fortified; Fort Caroline, now Fort San Mateo, was -repaired; and two redoubts, or small forts, were thrown up to guard the -mouth of the River of May,--one of them near the present lighthouse at -Mayport, and the other across the river on Fort George Island. Thence, -on an afternoon in early spring, the Spaniards saw three sail steering -northward. They suspected no enemy, and their batteries boomed a salute. -Gourgues's ships replied, then stood out to sea, and were lost in the -shades of evening. - -They kept their course all night, and, as day broke, anchored at the -mouth of a river, the St. Mary's, or the Santilla, by their reckoning -fifteen leagues north of the River of May. Here, as it grew light, -Gourgues saw the borders of the sea thronged with savages, armed and -plumed for war. They, too, had mistaken the strangers for Spaniards, and -mustered to meet their tyrants at the landing. But in the French ships -there was a trumpeter who had been long in Florida, and knew the Indians -well. He went towards them in a boat, with many gestures of friendship; -and no sooner was he recognized, than the naked crowd, with yelps of -delight, danced for joy along the sands. Why had he ever left them? they -asked; and why had he not returned before? The intercourse thus -auspiciously begun was actively kept up. Gourgues told the principal -chief,--who was no other than Satouriona, once the ally of the French, ---that he had come to visit them, make friendship with them, and bring -them presents. At this last announcement, so grateful to Indian ears the -dancing was renewed with double zeal. The next morning was named for a -grand council, and Satouriona sent runners to summon all Indians within -call; while Gourgues, for safety, brought his vessels within the mouth -of the river. - -Morning came, and the woods were thronged with warriors. Gourgues and -his soldiers landed with martial pomp. In token of mutual confidence, -the French laid aside their arquebuses, and the Indians their bows and -arrows. Satouriona came to meet the strangers, and seated their -commander at his side, on a wooden stool, draped and cushioned with the -gray Spanish moss. Two old Indians cleared the spot of brambles, weeds, -and grass; and, when their task was finished, the tribesmen took their -places, ring within ring, standing, sitting, and crouching on the -ground,--a dusky concourse, plumed in festal array, waiting with grave -visages and intent eyes. Gourgues was about to speak, when the chief, -who, says the narrator, had not learned French manners, anticipated him, -and broke into a vehement harangue, denouncing the cruelty of the -Spaniards. - -Since the French fort was taken, he said, the Indians had not had one -happy day. The Spaniards drove them from their cabins, stole their corn, -ravished their wives and daughters, and killed their children; and all -this they had endured because they loved the French. There was a French -boy who had escaped from the massacre at the fort; they had found him in -the woods and though the Spaniards, who wished to kill him, demanded -that they should give him up, they had kept him for his friends. - -"Look!" pursued the chief, "here he is! "--and he brought forward a -youth of sixteen, named Pierre Debre, who became at once of the greatest -service to the French, his knowledge of the Indian language making him -an excellent interpreter. - -Delighted as he was at this outburst against the Spaniards, Gourgues did -not see fit to display the full extent of his satisfaction. He thanked -the Indians for their good-will, exhorted them to continue in it, and -pronounced an ill-merited eulogy on the greatness and goodness of his -King. As for the Spaniards, he said, their day of reckoning was at hand; -and, if the Indians had been abused for their love of the French, the -French would be their avengers. Here Satouriona forgot his dignity, and -leaped up for joy. - -"What!" he cried, "will you fight the Spaniards?" - -"I came here," replied Gourgues, "only to reconnoitre the country and -make friends with you, and then go back to bring more soldiers; but, -when I hear what you are suffering from them, I wish to fall upon them -this very day, and rescue you from their tyranny." All around the ring a -clamor of applauding voices greeted his words. - -"But you will do your part," pursued the Frenchman; "you will not leave -us all the honor." - -"We will go," replied Satouriona, "and die with you, if need be." - -"Then, if we fight, we ought to fight at once. How soon can you have -your warriors ready to march?" - -The chief asked three days for preparation. Gourgues cautioned him to -secrecy, lest the Spaniards should take alarm. - -"Never fear," was the answer; "we hate them more than you do." - -Then came a distribution of gifts,--knives, hatchets, mirrors, bells, -and beads,--while the warrior rabble crowded to receive them, with -eager faces and outstretched arms. The distribution over, Gourgues asked -the chiefs if there was any other matter in which he could serve them. -On this, pointing to his shirt, they expressed a peculiar admiration for -that garment, and begged each to have one, to be worn at feasts and -councils during life, and in their graves after death. Gourgues -complied; and his grateful confederates were soon stalking about him, -fluttering in the spoils of his wardrobe. - -To learn the strength and position of the Spaniards, Gourgues now sent -out three scouts; and with them went Olotoraca, Satourioria's nephew, a -young brave of great renown. - -The chief, eager to prove his good faith, gave as hostages his only -surviving son and his favorite wife. They were sent on board the ships, -while the Indians dispersed to their encampments, with leaping, -stamping, dancing, and whoops of jubilation. - -The day appointed came, and with it the savage army, hideous in -war-paint, and plumed for battle. The woods rang back their songs and -yells, as with frantic gesticulation they brandished their war-clubs and -vaunted their deeds of prowess. Then they drank the black drink, endowed -with mystic virtues against hardship and danger; and Gourgues himself -pretended to swallow the nauseous decoction.[FN#25] - -These ceremonies consumed the day. It was evening before the allies -filed off into their forests, and took the path for the Spanish forts. -The French, on their part, were to repair by sea to the rendezvous. -Gourgues mustered and addressed his men. It was needless: their ardor -was at fever height. They broke in upon his words, and demanded to be -led at once against the enemy. Francois Bourdelais, with twenty sailors, -was left with the ships, and Gourgues affectionately bade him farewell. - -"If I am slain in this most just enterprise," he said, "I leave all in -your charge, and pray you to carry back my soldiers to France." - -There were many embracings among the excited Frenchmen,--many -sympathetic tears from those who were to stay behind,--many messages -left with them for wives, children, friends, and mistresses; and then -this valiant band pushed their boats from shore. It was a hare-brained -venture, for, as young Debre had assured them, the Spaniards on the -River of May were four hundred in number, secure behind their ramparts. - -Hour after hour the sailors pulled at the oar. They glided slowly by the -sombre shores in the shimmering moonlight, to the sound of the surf and -the moaning pine-trees. In the gray of the morning, they came to the -mouth of a river, probably the Nassau; and here a northeast wind set in -with a violence that almost wrecked their boats. Their Indian allies -were waiting on the bank, but for a while the gale delayed their -crossing. The bolder French would lose no time, rowed through the -tossing waves, and, landing safely, left their boats, and pushed into -the forest. Gourgues took the lead, in breastplate and back-piece. At -his side marched the young chief Olotoraca, with a French pike in his -hand; and the files of arquebuse-men and armed sailors followed close -behind. They plunged through swamps, hewed their way through brambly -thickets and the matted intricacies of the forests, and, at five in the -afternoon, almost spent with fatigue and hunger, came to a river or -inlet of the sea, not far from the first Spanish fort. Here they found -three hundred Indians waiting for them. - -Tired as he was, Gourgues would not rest. He wished to attack at -daybreak, and with ten arquebusiers and his Indian guide he set out to -reconnoitre. Night closed upon him. It was a vain task to struggle on, -in pitchy darkness, among trunks of trees, fallen logs, tangled vines, -and swollen streams. Gourgues returned, anxious and gloomy. An Indian -chief approached him, read through the darkness his perturbed look, and -offered to lead him by a better path along the margin of the sea. -Gourgues joyfully assented, and ordered all his men to march. The -Indians, better skilled in wood-craft, chose the shorter course through -the forest. - -The French forgot their weariness, and pressed on with speed. At dawn -they and their allies met on the bank of a stream, probably Sister -Creek, beyond which, and very near, was the fort. But the tide was in, -and they tried in vain to cross. Greatly vexed,--for he had hoped to -take the enemy asleep,--Gourgues withdrew his soldiers into the forest, -where they were no sooner ensconced than a drenching rain fell, and they -had much ado to keep their gun-matches burning. The light grew fast. -Gourgues plainly saw the fort, the defences of which seemed slight and -unfinished. He even saw the Spaniards at work within. A feverish -interval elapsed, till at length the tide was out,--so far, at least, -that the stream was fordable. A little higher up, a clump of trees lay -between it and the fort. Behind this friendly screen the passage was -begun. Each man tied his powder-flask to his steel cap, held his -arquebuse above his head with one hand, and grasped his sword with the -other. The channel was a bed of oysters. The sharp shells cut their feet -as they waded through. But the farther bank was gained. They emerged -from the water, drenched, lacerated, and bleeding, but with unabated -mettle. Gourgues set them in array under cover of the trees. They stood -with kindling eyes, and hearts throbbing, but not with fear. Gourgues -pointed to the Spanish fort, seen by glimpses through the boughs. "Look -I" he said, "there are the robbers who have stolen this land from our -King; there are the murderers who have butchered our countrymen!" With -voices eager, fierce, but half suppressed, they demanded to be led on. - -Gourgues gave the word. Cazenove, his lientenant, with thirty men, -pushed for the fort gate; he himself, with the main body, for the -glacis. It was near noon; the Spaniards had just finished their meal, -and, says the narrative, "were still picking their teeth," when a -startled cry rang in their ears:--"To arms! to arms! The French are -coming! The French are coming!" - -It was the voice of a cannoneer who had that moment mounted the rampart -and seen the assailants advancing in unbroken ranks, with heads lowered -and weapons at the charge. He fired his cannon among them. He even had -time to load and fire again, when the light-limbed Olotoraca bounded -forward, ran up the glacis, leaped the unfinished ditch, and drove his -pike through the Spaniard from breast to back. Gourgues was now on the -glacis, when he heard Cazenove shouting from the gate that the Spaniards -were escaping on that side. He turned and led his men thither at a run. -In a moment, the fugitives, sixty in all, were enclosed between his -party and that of his lieutenant. The Indians, too, came leaping to the -spot. Not a Spaniard escaped. All were cut down but a few, reserved by -Gourgues for a more inglorious end. - -Meanwhile the Spaniards in the other fort, on the opposite shore, -cannonaded the victors without ceasing. The latter turned four captured -guns against them. One of Gourgues's boats, a very large one, had been -brought along-shore, and, entering it with eighty soldiers, he pushed -for the farther bank. With loud yells, the Indians leaped into the -river, which is here about three fourths of a mile wide. Each held his -bow and arrows aloft in one hand, while he swam with the other. A panic -seized the garrison as they saw the savage multitude. They broke out of -the fort and fled into the forest. But the French had already landed; -and, throwing themselves in the path of the fugitives, they greeted them -with a storm of lead. The terrified wretches recoiled; but flight was -vain. The Indian whoop rang behind them, and war-clubs and arrows -finished the work. Gourgues's utmost efforts saved but fifteen, not out -of mercy, but from a refinement of vengeance. - -The next day was Quasimodo Sunday, or the Sunday after Easter. Gourgues -and his men remained quiet, making ladders for the assault on Fort San -Mateo. Meanwhile the whole forest was in arms, and, far and near, the -Indians were wild with excitement. They beset the Spanish fort till not -a soldier could venture out. The garrison, aware of their danger, though -ignorant of its extent, devised an expedient to gain information; and -one of them, painted and feathered like an Indian, ventured within -Gourgues's outposts. He himself chanced to be at hand, and by his side -walked his constant attendant, Olotoraca. The keen-eyed young savage -pierced the cheat at a glance. The spy was seized, and, being examined, -declared that there were two hundred and sixty Spaniards in San Mateo, -and that they believed the French to be two thousand, and were so -frightened that they did not know what they were doing. - -Gourgues, well pleased, pushed on to attack them. On Monday evening he -sent forward the Indians to ambush themselves on both sides of the fort. -In the morning he followed with his Frenchmen; and, as the glittering -ranks came into view, defiling between the forest and the river, the -Spaniards opened on them with culverins from a projecting bastion. The -French took cover in the woods with which the hills below and behind the -fort were densely overgrown. Here, himself unseen, Gourgues could survey -whole extent of the defences, and he presently descried a strong party -of Spaniards issuing from their works, crossing the ditch, and advancing -to reconnoitre. - -On this, he sent Cazenove, with a detachment, to station himself at a -point well hidden by trees on the flank of the Spaniards, who, with -strange infatuation, continued their advance. Gourgues and his followers -pushed on through the thickets to meet them. As the Spaniards reached -the edge of the open ground, a deadly fire blazed in their faces, and, -before the smoke cleared, the French were among them, sword in hand. The -survivors would have fled; but Cazenove's detachment fell upon their -rear, and all were killed or taken. - -When their comrades in the fort beheld their fate, a panic seized them. -Conscious of their own deeds, perpetrated on this very spot, they could -hope no mercy, and their terror multiplied immeasurably the numbers of -their enemy. They abandoned the fort in a body, and fled into the woods -most remote from the French. But here a deadlier foe awaited them; for a -host of Indians leaped up from ambush. Then rose those hideous war-cries -which have curdled the boldest blood and blanched the manliest cheek. -The forest warriors, with savage ecstasy, wreaked their long arrears of -vengeance, while the French hastened to the spot, and lent their swords -to the slaughter. A few prisoners were saved alive; the rest were slain; -and thus did the Spaniards make bloody atonement for the butchery of -Fort Caroline. - -But Gourgues's vengeance was not yet appeased. Hard by the fort, the -trees were pointed out to him on which Menendez had hanged his captives, -and placed over them the inscription, "Not as to Frenchmen, but as to -Lutherans." - -Gourgues ordered the Spanish prisoners to be led thither. - -"Did you think," he sternly said, as the pallid wretches stood ranged -before him, "that so vile a treachery, so detestable a cruelty, against -a King so potent and a nation so generous, would go unpunished? I, one -of the humblest gentlemen among my King's subjects, have charged myself -with avenging it. Even if the Most Christian and the Most Catholic Kings -had been enemies, at deadly war, such perfidy and extreme cruelty would -still have been unpardonable. Now that they are friends and close -allies, there is no name vile enough to brand your deeds, no punishment -sharp enough to requite them. But though you cannot suffer as you -deserve, you shall suffer all that an enemy can honorably inflict, that -your example may teach others to observe the peace and alliance which -you have so perfidiously violated." - -They were hanged where the French had hung before them; and over them -was nailed the inscription, burned with a hot iron on a tablet of pine, -"Not as to Spaniards, but as to Traitors, Robbers, and Murderers." - -Gourgues's mission was fulfilled. To occupy the country had never been -his intention; nor was it possible, for the Spaniards were still in -force at St. Augustine. His was a whirlwind visitation,--to ravage, -ruin, and vanish. He harangued the Indians, and exhorted them to -demolish the fort. They fell to the work with eagerness, and in less -than a day not one stone was left on another. - -Gourgues returned to the forts at the mouth of the river, destroyed them -also, and took up his march for his ships. It was a triumphal -procession. The Indians thronged around the victors with gifts of fish -and game; and an old woman declared that she was now ready to die, since -she had seen the French once more. - -The ships were ready for sea. Gourgues bade his disconsolate allies -farewell, and nothing would content them but a promise to return soon. -Before embarking, he addressed his own men:--"My friends, let us give -thanks to God for the success He has granted us. It is He who saved us -from tempests; it is He who inclined the hearts of the Indians towards -us; it is He who blinded the understanding of the Spaniards. They were -four to one, in forts well armed and provisioned. Our right was our only -strength; and yet we have conquered. Not to our own swords, but to God -only, we owe our victory. Then let us thank Him, my friends; let us -never forget His favors; and let us pray that He may continue them, -saving us from dangers, and guiding us safely home. Let us pray, too, -that He may so dispose the hearts of men that our perils and toils may -find favor in the eyes of our King and of all France, since all we have -done was done for the King's service and for the honor of our country." - -Thus Spaniards and Frenchmen alike laid their reeking swords on God's -altar. - -Gourgues sailed on the third of May, and, gazing back along their -foaming wake, the adventurers looked their last on the scene of their -exploits. Their success had cost its price. A few of their number had -fallen, and hardships still awaited the survivors. Gourgues, however, -reached Rochelle on the day of Pentecost, and the Huguenot citizens -greeted him with all honor. At court it fared worse with him. The King, -still obsequious to Spain, looked on him coldly and askance. The Spanish -minister demanded his head. It was hinted to him that he was not safe, -and he withdrew to Ronen, where he found asylum among his friends. His -fortune was gone; debts contracted for his expedition weighed heavily on -him; and for years he lived in obscurity, almost in misery. - -At length his prospects brightened. Elizabeth of England learned his -merits and his misfortunes, and invited him to enter her service. The -King, who, says the Jesuit historian, had always at heart been delighted -with his achievement, openly restored him to favor; while, some years -later, Don Antonio tendered him command of his fleet, to defend his -right to the crown of Portugal against Philip the Second. Gourgues, -happy once more to cross swords with the Spaniards, gladly embraced this -offer; but in 1583, on his way to join the Portuguese prince, he died at -Tours of a sudden illness. The French mourned the loss of the man who -had wiped a blot from the national scutcheon, and respected his memory -as that of one of the best captains of his time. And, in truth, if a -zealous patriotism, a fiery valor, and skilful leadership are worthy of -honor, then is such a tribute due to Dominique de Gourgues, -slave-catcher and half-pirate as he was, like other naval heroes of that -wild age. - -Romantic as was his exploit, it lacked the fullness of poetic justice, -since the chief offender escaped him. While Gourgues was sailing towards -Florida, Menendez was in Spain, high in favor at court, where he told to -approving ears how he had butchered the heretics. Borgia, the sainted -General of the Jesuits, was his fast friend; and two years later, when -he returned to America, the Pope, Paul the Fifth, regarding him as an -instrument for the conversion of the Indians, wrote him a letter with -his benediction. He re-established his power in Florida, rebuilt Fort -San Mateo, and taught the Indians that death or flight was the only -refuge from Spanish tyranny. They murdered his missionaries and spurned -their doctrine. "The Devil is the best thing in the world," they cried; -"we adore him; he makes men brave." Even the Jesuits despaired, and -abandoned Florida in disgust. - -Menendez was summoned home, where fresh honors awaited him from the -Crown, though, according to the somewhat doubtful assertion of the -heretical Grotius, his deeds had left a stain upon his name among the -people. He was given command of the armada of three hundred sail and -twenty thousand men, which, in 1574, was gathered at Santander against -England and Flanders. But now, at the height of his fortunes, his career -was abruptly closed. He died suddenly, at the age of fifty-five. Grotius -affirms that he killed himself; but, in his eagerness to point the moral -of his story, he seems to have overstepped the bounds of historic truth. -The Spanish bigot was rarely a suicide; for the rites of Christian -burial and repose in consecrated ground were denied to the remains of -the self-murderer. There is positive evidence, too, in a codicil to the -will of Menendez, dated at Santander on the fifteenth of September, -1574, that he was on that day seriously ill, though, as the instrument -declares, "of sound mind." There is reason, then, to believe that this -pious cut-throat died a natural death, crowned with honors, and soothed -by the consolations of his religion. - -It was he who crushed French Protestantism in America. To plant -religious freedom on this western soil was not the mission of France. It -was for her to rear in northern forests the banner of absolutism and of -Rome; while among the rocks of Massachusetts England and Calvin fronted -her in dogged opposition, long before the ice-crusted pines of Plymouth -had listened to the rugged psalmody of the Puritan, the solitudes of -Western New York and the stern wilderness of Lake Huron were trodden by -the iron heel of the soldier and the sandalled foot of the Franciscan -friar. France was the true pioneer of the Great West. They who bore the -fleur-de-lis were always in the van, patient, daring, indomitable. And -foremost on this bright roll of forest chivalry stands the -half-forgotten name of Samuel de Champlain. - - - - - - - - -Part 2 - -SAMUEL DE CHAMPLAIN -AND -HIS ASSOCIATES; - -WITH A -VIEW OF EARLIER FRENCH ADVENTURE IN AMERICA, -AND THE -LEGENDS OF THE NORTHERN COASTS. - - - - - - - -SAMUEL DE CHAMPLAIN. - -CHAPTER I. - -1488-1543. - -EARLY FRENCH ADVENTURE IN NORTH AMERICA. - - -When America was first made known to Europe, the part assumed by France -on the borders of that new world was peculiar, and is little recognized. -While the Spaniard roamed sea and land, burning for achievement, red-hot -with bigotry and avarice, and while England, with soberer steps and a -less dazzling result, followed in the path of discovery and -gold-hunting, it was from France that those barbarous shores first -learned to serve the ends of peaceful commercial industry. - -A French writer, however, advances a more ambitious claim. In the year -1488, four years before the first voyage of Columbus, America, he -maintains, was found by Frenchmen. Cousin, a navigator of Dieppe, being -at sea off the African coast, was forced westward, it is said, by winds -and currents to within sight of an unknown shore, where he presently -descried the mouth of a great river. On board his ship was one Pinzon, -whose conduct became so mutinous that, on his return to Dieppe, Cousin -made complaint to the magistracy, who thereupon dismissed the offender -from the maritime service of the town. Pinzon went to Spain, became -known to Columbus, told him the discovery, and joined him on his voyage -of 1492. - -To leave this cloudland of tradition, and approach the confines of -recorded history. The Normans, offspring of an ancestry of conquerors,-- -the Bretons, that stubborn, hardy, unchanging race, who, among Druid -monuments changeless as themselves, still cling with Celtic obstinacy to -the thoughts and habits of the past,--the Basques, that primeval -people, older than history,--all frequented from a very early date the -cod-banks of Newfoundland. There is some reason to believe that this -fishery existed before the voyage of Cabot, in 1497; there is strong -evidence that it began as early as the year 1504; and it is well -established that, in 1517, fifty Castilian, French, and Portuguese -vessels were engaged in it at once; while in 1527, on the third of -August, eleven sail of Norman, one of Breton, and two of Portuguese -fishermen were to be found in the Bay of St. John. - -From this time forth, the Newfoundland fishery was never abandoned. -French, English, Spanish, and Portuguese made resort to the Banks, -always jealous, often quarrelling, but still drawing up treasure from -those exhaustless mines, and bearing home bountiful provision against -the season of Lent. - -On this dim verge of the known world there were other perils than those -of the waves. The rocks and shores of those sequestered seas had, so -thought the voyagers, other tenants than the seal, the walrus, and the -screaming sea-fowl, the bears which stole away their fish before their -eyes, and the wild natives dressed in seal-skins. Griffius--so ran the -story--infested the mountains of Labrador. Two islands, north of -Newfoundland, were given over to the fiends from whom they derived their -name, the Isles of Demons. An old map pictures their occupants at -length,--devils rampant, with wings, horns, and tail. The passing -voyager heard the din of their infernal orgies, and woe to the sailor or -the fisherman who ventured alone into the haunted woods. "True it is," -writes the old cosmographer Thevet, "and I myself have heard it, not -from one, but from a great number of the sailors and pilots with whom I -have made many voyages, that, when they passed this way, they heard in -the air, on the tops and about the masts, a great clamor of men's -voices, confused and inarticulate, such as you may hear from the crowd -at a fair or market-place whereupon they well knew that the Isle of -Demons was not far off." And he adds, that he himself, when among the -Indians, had seen them so tormented by these infernal persecutors, that -they would fall into his arms for relief; on which, repeating a passage -of the Gospel of St. John, he had driven the imps of darkness to a -speedy exodus. They are comely to look upon, he further tells us; yet, -by reason of their malice, that island is of late abandoned, and all who -dwelt there have fled for refuge to the main. - -While French fishermen plied their trade along these gloomy coasts, the -French government spent it's energies on a different field. The vitality -of the kingdom was wasted in Italian wars. Milan and Naples offered a -more tempting prize than the wilds of Baccalaos. Eager for glory and for -plunder, a swarm of restless nobles followed their knight-errant King, -the would-be paladin, who, misshapen in body and fantastic in mind, had -yet the power to raise a storm which the lapse of generations could not -quell. Under Charles the Eighth and his successor, war and intrigue -ruled the day; and in the whirl of Italian politics there was no leisure -to think of a new world. - -Yet private enterprise was not quite benumbed. In 1506, one Denis of -Honfleur explored the Gulf of St. Lawrence; 2 two years later, Aubert of -Dieppe followed on his track; and in 1518, the Baron de Lery made an -abortive attempt at settlement on Sable Island, where the cattle left by -him remained and multiplied. - -The crown passed at length to Francis of Angouleme. There were in his -nature seeds of nobleness,--seeds destined to bear little fruit. -Chivalry and honor were always on his lips; but Francis the First, a -forsworn gentleman, a despotic king, vainglorious, selfish, sunk in -debaucheries, was but the type of an era which retained the forms of the -Middle Age without its soul, and added to a still prevailing barbarism -the pestilential vices which hung fog-like around the dawn of -civilization. Yet he esteemed arts and letters, and, still more, coveted -the eclat which they could give. The light which was beginning to pierce -the feudal darkness gathered its rays around his throne. Italy was -rewarding the robbers who preyed on her with the treasures of her -knowledge and her culture; and Italian genius, of whatever stamp, found -ready patronage at the hands of Francis. Among artists, philosophers, -and men of letters enrolled in his service stands the humbler name of a -Florentine navigator, John Verrazzano. - -He was born of an ancient family, which could boast names eminent in -Florentine history, and of which the last survivor died in 1819. He has -been called a pirate, and he was such in the same sense in which Drake, -Hawkins, and other valiant sea-rovers of his own and later times, -merited the name; that is to say, he would plunder and kill a Spaniard -on the high seas without waiting for a declaration of war. - -The wealth of the Indies was pouring into the coffers of Charles the -Fifth, and the exploits of Cortes had given new lustre to his crown. -Francis the First begrudged his hated rival the glories and profits of -the New World. He would fain have his share of the prize; and -Verrazzano, with four ships, was despatched to seek out a passage -westward to the rich kingdom of Cathay. - -Some doubt has of late been cast on the reality of this voyage of -Verrazzano, and evidence, mainly negative in kind, has been adduced to -prove the story of it a fabrication; but the difficulties of incredulity -appear greater than those of belief, and no ordinary degree of -scepticism is required to reject the evidence that the narrative is -essentially true. - -Towards the end of the year 1523, his four ships sailed from Dieppe; but -a storm fell upon him, and, with two of the vessels, he ran back in -distress to a port of Brittany. What became of the other two does not -appear. Neither is it clear why, after a preliminary cruise against the -Spaniards, he pursued his voyage with one vessel alone, a caravel called -the "Dauphine." With her he made for Madeira, and, on the seventeenth of -January, 1524, set sail from a barren islet in its neighborhood, and -bore away for the unknown world. In forty-nine days they neared a low -shore, not far from the site of Wilmington in North Carolina, "a newe -land," exclaims the voyager, "never before seen of any man, either -auncient or moderne." Verrazzano steered southward in search of a -harbor, and, finding none, turned northward again. Presently he sent a -boat ashore. The inhabitants, who had fled at first, soon came down to -the strand in wonder and admiration, pointing out a landing-place, and -making gestures of friendship. "These people," says Verrazzano, "goe -altogether naked, except only certain skinnes of beastes like unto -marterns [martens], which they fasten onto a narrowe girdle made of -grasse. They are of colour russet, and not much unlike the Saracens, -their hayre blacke, thicke, and not very long, which they tye togeather -in a knot behinde, and weare it like a taile." - -He describes the shore as consisting of small low hillocks of fine sand, -intersected by creeks and inlets, and beyond these a country "full of -Palme [pine?] trees, Bay trees, and high Cypresse trees, and many other -sortes of trees, vnknowne in Europe, which yeeld most sweete sanours, -farre from the shore." Still advancing northward, Verrazzano sent a boat -for a supply of water. The surf ran high, and the crew could not land; -but an adventurous young sailor jumped overboard and swam shoreward with -a gift of beads and trinkets for the Indians, who stood watching him. -His heart failed as he drew near; he flung his gift among them, turned, -and struck out for the boat. The surf dashed him back, flinging him with -violence on the beach among the recipients of his bounty, who seized him -by the arms and legs, and, while he called lustily for aid, answered him -with outcries designed to allay his terrors. Next they kindled a great -fire,--doubtless to roast and devour him before the eyes of his -comrades, gazing in horror from their boat. On the contrary, they -carefully warmed him, and were trying to dry his clothes, when, -recovering from his bewilderment, he betrayed a strong desire to escape -to his friends; whereupon, "with great love, clapping him fast about, -with many embracings," they led him to the shore, and stood watching -till he had reached the boat. - -It only remained to requite this kindness, and an opportunity soon -occurred; for, coasting the shores of Virginia or Maryland, a party went -on shore and found an old woman, a young girl, and several children, -hiding with great terror in the grass. Having, by various blandishments, -gained their confidence, they carried off one of the children as a -curiosity, and, since the girl was comely, would fain have taken her -also, but desisted by reason of her continual screaming. - -Verrazzano's next resting-place was the Bay of New York. Rowing up in -his boat through the Narrows, under the steep heights of Staten Island, -he saw the harbor within dotted with canoes of the feathered natives, -coming from the shore to welcome him. But what most engaged the eyes of -the white men were the fancied signs of mineral wealth in the -neighboring hills. - -Following the shores of Long Island, they came to an island, which may -have been Block Island, and thence to a harbor, which was probably that -of Newport. here they stayed fifteen days, most courteously received by -the inhabitants. Among others appeared two chiefs, gorgeously arrayed in -painted deer-skins,--kings, as Verrazzano calls them, with attendant -gentlemen; while a party of squaws in a canoe, kept by their jealous -lords at a safe distance from the caravel, figure in the narrative as -the queen and her maids. The Indian wardrobe had been taxed to its -utmost to do the strangers honor,--copper bracelets, lynx-skins, -raccoon-skins, and faces bedaubed with gaudy colors. - -Again they spread their sails, and on the fifth of May bade farewell to -the primitive hospitalities of Newport, steered along the rugged coasts -of New England, and surveyed, ill pleased, the surf-beaten rocks, the -pine-tree and the fir, the shadows and the gloom of mighty forests. Here -man and nature alike were savage and repellent. Perhaps some plundering -straggler from the fishing-banks, some manstealer like the Portuguese -Cortereal, or some kidnapper of children and ravisher of squaws like -themselves, had warned the denizens of the woods to beware of the -worshippers of Christ. Their only intercourse was in the way of trade. -From the brink of the rocks which overhung the sea the Indians would let -down a cord to the boat below, demand fish-hooks, knives, and steel, in -barter for their furs, and, their bargain made, salute the voyagers with -unseemly gestures of derision and scorn. The French once ventured -ashore; but a war-whoop and a shower of arrows sent them back to their -boats. - -Verrazzano coasted the seaboard of Maine, and sailed northward as far as -Newfoundland, whence, provisions failing, he steered for France. He had -not found a passage to Cathay, but he had explored the American coast -from the thirty-fourth degree to the fiftieth, and at various points had -penetrated several leagues into the country. On the eighth of July, he -wrote from Dieppe to the King the earliest description known to exist of -the shores of the United States. - -Great was the joy that hailed his arrival, and great were the hopes of -emolument and wealth from the new-found shores. The merchants of Lyons -were in a flush of expectation. For himself, he was earnest to return, -plant a colony, and bring the heathen tribes within the pale of the -Church. But the time was inauspicious. The year of his voyage was to -France a year of disasters,--defeat in Italy, the loss of Milan, the -death of the heroic Bayard; and, while Verrazzano was writing his -narrative at Dieppe, the traitor Bourbon was invading Provence. -Preparation, too, was soon on foot for the expedition which, a few -months later, ended in the captivity of Francis on the field of Pavia. -Without a king, without an army, without money, convulsed within, and -threatened from without, France after that humiliation was in no -condition to renew her Transatlantic enterprise. - -Henceforth few traces remain of the fortunes of Verrazzano. Ramusio -affirms, that, on another voyage, he was killed and eaten by savages, in -sight of his followers; and a late writer hazards the conjecture that -this voyage, if made at all, was made in the service of Henry the Eighth -of England. But a Spanish writer affirms that, in 1527, he was hanged at -Puerto del Pico as a pirate, and this assertion is fully confirmed by -authentic documents recently brought to light. - -The fickle-minded King, always ardent at the outset of an enterprise and -always flagging before its close, divided, moreover, between the smiles -of his mistresses and the assaults of his enemies, might probably have -dismissed the New World from his thoughts. But among the favorites of -his youth was a high-spirited young noble, Philippe de BrionChabot, the -partner of his joustings and tennis-playing, his gaming and gallantries. -He still stood high in the royal favor, and, after the treacherous -escape of Francis from captivity, held the office of Admiral of France. -When the kingdom had rallied in some measure from its calamnities, he -conceived the purpose of following up the path which Verrazzano had -opened. - -The ancient town of St. Malo--thrust out like a buttress into the sea, -strange and grim of aspect, breathing war front its walls and -battlements of ragged stone, a stronghold of privateers, the home of a -race whose intractable and defiant independence neither time nor change -has subdued--has been for centuries a nursery of hardy mariners. Among -the earliest and most eminent on its list stands the name of Jacques -Cartier. His portrait hangs in the town-hall of St. Malo,--bold, keen -features bespeaking a spirit not apt to quail before the wrath of man or -of the elements. In him Chabot found a fit agent of his design, if, -indeed, its suggestion is not due to the Breton navigator. - -Sailing from St. Malo on the twentieth of April, 1534, Cartier steered -for Newfoundland, passed through the Straits of Belle Isle, entered the -Gulf of Chaleurs, planted a cross at Gaspe, and, never doubting that he -was on the high road to Cathay, advanced up the St. Lawrence till he saw -the shores of Anticosti. But autumnal storms were gathering. The -voyagers took counsel together, turned their prows eastward, and bore -away for France, carrying thither, as a sample of the natural products -of the New World, two young Indians, lured into their clutches by an act -of villanous treachery. The voyage was a mere reconnoissance. - -The spirit of discovery was awakened. A passage to India could be found, -and a new France built up beyond the Atlantic. Mingled with such views -of interest and ambition was another motive scarcely less potent. The -heresy of Luther was convulsing Germany, and the deeper heresy of Calvin -infecting France. Devout Catholics, kindling with redoubled zeal, would -fain requite the Church for her losses in the Old World by winning to -her fold the infidels of the New. But, in pursuing an end at once so -pious and so politic, Francis the First was setting at naught the -supreme Pontiff himself, since, by the preposterous bull of Alexander -the Sixth, all America had been given to the Spaniards. - -In October, 1534, Cartier received from Chabot another commission, and, -in spite of secret but bitter opposition from jealous traders of St. -Malo, he prepared for a second voyage. Three vessels, the largest not -above a hundred and twenty tons, were placed at his disposal, and Claude -de Pontbriand, Charles de la Pommeraye, and other gentlemen of birth, -enrolled themselves for the adventure. On the sixteenth of May, 1535, -officers and sailors assembled in the cathedral of St. Malo, where, -after confession and mass, they received the parting blessing of the -bishop. Three days later they set sail. The dingy walls of the rude old -seaport, and the white rocks that line the neighboring shores of -Brittany, faded from their sight, and soon they were tossing in a -furious tempest. The scattered ships escaped the danger, and, reuniting -at the Straits of Belle Isle, steered westward along the coast of -Labrador, till they reached a small bay opposite the island of -Anticosti. Cartier called it the Bay of St. Lawrence,--a name -afterwards extended to the entire gulf, and to the great river above. - -To ascend this great river, and tempt the hazards of its intricate -navigation with no better pilots than the two young Indians kidnapped -the year before, was a venture of no light risk. But skill or fortune -prevailed; and, on the first of September, the voyagers reached in -safety the gorge of the gloomy Saguenay, with its towering cliffs and -sullen depth of waters. Passing the Isle aux Coudres, and the lofty -promontory of Cape Tourmente, they came to anchor in a quiet channel -between the northern shore and the margin of a richly wooded island, -where the trees were so thickly hung with grapes that Cartier named it -the Island of Bacchus. - -Indians came swarming from the shores, paddled their canoes about the -ships, and clambered to the decks to gaze in bewilderment at the novel -scene, and listen to the story of their travelled countrymen, marvellous -in their ears as a visit to another planet. Cartier received them -kindly, listened to the long harangue of the great chief Donnacona, -regaled him with bread and wine; and, when relieved at length of his -guests, set forth in a boat to explore the river above. - -As he drew near the opening of the channel, the Hochelaga again spread -before him the broad expanse of its waters. A mighty promontory, rugged -and bare, thrust its scarped front into the surging current. Here, -clothed in the majesty of solitude, breathing the stern poetry of the -wilderness, rose the cliffs now rich with heroic memories, where the -fiery Count Frontenac cast defiance at his foes, where Wolfe, Montcalm, -and Montgomery fell. As yet, all was a nameless barbarism, and a cluster -of wigwams held the site of the rock-built city of Quebec. Its name was -Stadacone, and it owned the sway of the royal Donnacona. - -Cartier set out to visit this greasy potentate; ascended the river St. -Charles, by him called the St. Croix, landed, crossed the meadows, -climbed the rocks, threaded the forest, and emerged upon a squalid -hamlet of bark cabins. When, having satisfied their curiosity, he and -his party were rowing for the ships, a friendly interruption met them at -the mouth of the St. Charles. An old chief harangued them from the bank, -men, boys, and children screeched welcome from the meadow, and a troop -of hilarious squaws danced knee-deep in the water. The gift of a few -strings of beads completed their delight and redoubled their agility; -and, from the distance of a mile, their shrill songs of jubilation still -reached the ears of the receding Frenchmen. - -The hamlet of Stadacone, with its king, Donnacona, and its naked lords -and princes, was not the metropolis of this forest state, since a town -far greater--so the Indians averred--stood by the brink of the river, -many days' journey above. It was called Hochelaga, and the great river -itself, with a wide reach of adjacent country, had borrowed its name. -Thither, with his two young Indians as guides, Cartier resolved to go; -but misgivings seized the guides as the time drew near, while Donnacona -and his tribesmen, jealous of the plan, set themselves to thwart it. The -Breton captain turned a deaf ear to their dissuasions; on which, failing -to touch his reason, they appealed to his fears. - -One morning, as the ships still lay at anchor, the French beheld three -Indian devils descending in a canoe towards them, dressed in black and -white dog-skins, with faces black as ink, and horns long as a man's arm. -Thus arrayed, they drifted by, while the principal fiend, with fixed -eyes, as of one piercing the secrets of futurity, uttered in a loud -voice a long harangue. Then they paddled for the shore; and no sooner -did they reach it than each fell flat like a dead man in the bottom of -the canoe. Aid, however, was at hand; for Donnacona and his tribesmen, -rushing pell-mell from the adjacent woods, raised the swooning -masqueraders, and, with shrill clamors, bore them in their arms within -the sheltering thickets. Here, for a full half-hour, the French could -hear them haranguing in solemn conclave. Then the two young Indians whom -Cartier had brought back from France came out of the bushes, enacting a -pantomime of amazement and terror, clasping their hands, and calling on -Christ and the Virgin; whereupon Cartier, shouting from the vessel, -asked what was the matter. They replied, that the god Coudonagny had -sent to warn the French against all attempts to ascend the great river, -since, should they persist, snows, tempests, and drifting ice would -requite their rashness with inevitable ruin. The French replied that -Coudonagny was a fool; that he could not hurt those who believed in -Christ; and that they might tell this to his three messengers. The -assembled Indians, with little reverence for their deity, pretended -great contentment at this assurance, and danced for joy along the beach. - -Cartier now made ready to depart. And, first, he caused the two larger -vessels to be towed for safe harborage within the mouth of the St. -Charles. With the smallest, a galleon of forty tons, and two open boats, -carrying in all fifty sailors, besides Pontbriand, La Pommeraye, and -other gentlemen, he set out for Hochelaga. - -Slowly gliding on their way by walls of verdure brightened in the -autumnal sun, they saw forests festooned with grape-vines, and waters -alive with wild-fowl; they heard the song of the blackbird, the thrush, -and, as they fondly thought, the nightingale. The galleon grounded; they -left her, and, advancing with the boats alone, on the second of October -neared the goal of their hopes, the mysterious Hochelaga. - -Just below where now are seen the quays and storehouses of Montreal, a -thousand Indians thronged the shore, wild with delight, dancing, -singing, crowding about the strangers, and showering into the boats -their gifts of fish and maize; and, as it grew dark, fires lighted up -the night, while, far and near, the French could see the excited savages -leaping and rejoicing by the blaze. - -At dawn of day, marshalled and accoutred, they marched for Hochelaga. An -Indian path led them through the forest which covered the site of -Montreal. The morning air was chill and sharp, the leaves were changing -hue, and beneath the oaks the ground was thickly strewn with acorns. -They soon met an Indian chief with a party of tribesmen, or, as the old -narrative has it, "one of the principal lords of the said city," -attended with a numerous retinue. Greeting them after the concise -courtesy of the forest, he led them to a fire kindled by the side of the -path for their comfort and refreshment, seated them on the ground, and -made them a long harangue, receiving in requital of his eloquence two -hatchets, two knives, and a crucifix, the last of which he was invited -to kiss. This done, they resumed their march, and presently came upon -open fields, covered far and near with the ripened maize, its leaves -rustling, and its yellow grains gleaming between the parting husks. -Before them, wrapped in forests painted by the early frosts, rose the -ridgy back of the Mountain of Montreal, and below, encompassed with its -corn-fields, lay the Indian town. Nothing was visible but its encircling -palisades. They were of trunks of trees, set in a triple row. The outer -and inner ranges inclined till they met and crossed near the summit, -while the upright row between them, aided by transverse braces, gave to -the whole an abundant strength. Within were galleries for the defenders, -rude ladders to mount them, and magazines of stones to throw down on the -heads of assailants. It was a mode of fortification practised by all the -tribes speaking dialects of the Iroquois. - -The voyagers entered the narrow portal. Within, they saw some fifty of -those large oblong dwellings so familiar in after years to the eyes of -the Jesuit apostles in Iroquois and Huron forests. They were about fifty -yards in length, and twelve or fifteen wide, framed of sapling poles -closely covered with sheets of bark, and each containing several fires -and several families. In the midst of the town was an open area, or -public square, a stone's throw in width. Here Cartier and his followers -stopped, while the surrounding houses of bark disgorged their inmates,-- -swarms of children, and young women and old, their infants in their -arms. They crowded about the visitors, crying for delight, touching -their beards, feeling their faces, and holding up the screeching infants -to be touched in turn. The marvellous visitors, strange in hue, strange -in attire, with moustached lip and bearded chin, with arquebuse, -halberd, helmet, and cuirass, seemed rather demigods than men. - -Due time having been allowed for this exuberance of feminine rapture, -the warriors interposed, banished the women and children to a distance, -and squatted on the ground around the French, row within row of swarthy -forms and eager faces, "as if," says Cartier, "we were going to act a -play." Then appeared a troop of women, each bringing a mat, with which -they carpeted the bare earth for the behoof of their guests. The latter -being seated, the chief of the nation was borne before them on a -deerskin by a number of his tribesmen, a bedridden old savage, paralyzed -and helpless, squalid as the rest in his attire, and distinguished only -by a red fillet, inwrought with the dyed quills of the Canada porcupine, -encircling his lank black hair. They placed him on the ground at -Cartier's feet and made signs of welcome for him, while he pointed -feebly to his powerless limbs, and implored the healing touch from the -hand of the French chief. Cartier complied, and received in -acknowledgment the red fillet of his grateful patient. Then from -surrounding dwellings appeared a woeful throng, the sick, the lame, the -blind, the maimed, the decrepit, brought or led forth and placed on the -earth before the perplexed commander, "as if," he says, "a god had come -down to cure them." His skill in medicine being far behind the -emergency, he pronounced over his petitioners a portion of the Gospel of -St. John, made the sign of the cross, and uttered a prayer, not for -their bodies only, but for their miserable souls. Next he read the -passion of the Saviour, to which, though comprehending not a word, his -audience listened with grave attention. Then came a distribution of -presents. The squaws and children were recalled, and, with the warriors, -placed in separate groups. Knives and hatchets were given to the men, -and beads to the women, while pewter rings and images of the Agnus Dei -were flung among the troop of children, whence ensued a vigorous -scramble in the square of Hochelaga. Now the French trumpeters pressed -their trumpets to their lips, and blew a blast that filled the air with -warlike din and the hearts of the hearers with amazement and delight. -Bidding their hosts farewells the visitors formed their ranks and -defiled through the gate once more, despite the efforts of a crowd of -women, who, with clamorous hospitality, beset them with gifts of fish, -beans, corn, and other viands of uninviting aspect, which the Frenchmen -courteously declined. - -A troop of Indians followed, and guided them to the top of the -neighboring mountain. Cartier called it Mont Royal, Montreal; and hence -the name of the busy city which now holds the site of the vanished -Iloclielaga. Stadacone and Hochelaga, Quebec and Montreal, in the -sixteenth century as in the nineteenth, were the centres of Canadian -population. - -From the summit, that noble prospect met his eye which at this day is -the delight of tourists, but strangely changed, since, first of white -men, the Breton voyager gazed upon it. Tower and dome and spire, -congregated roofs, white sail, and gliding steamer, animate its vast -expanse with varied life. Cartier saw a different scene. East, west, and -south, the mantling forest was over all, and the broad blue ribbon of -the great river glistened amid a realm of verdure. Beyond, to the bounds -of Mexico, stretched a leafy desert, and the vast hive of industry, the -mighty battle-ground of later centuries, lay sunk in savage torpor, -wrapped in illimitable woods. - -The French re-embarked, bade farewell to Hochelaga, retraced their -lonely course down the St. Lawrence, and reached Stadacone in safety. On -the bank of the St. Charles, their companions had built in their absence -a fort of palisades, and the ships, hauled up the little stream, lay -moored before it. Here the self-exiled company were soon besieged by the -rigors of the Canadian winter. The rocks, the shores, the pine-trees, -the solid floor of the frozen river, all alike were blanketed in snow -beneath the keen cold rays of the dazzling sun. The drifts rose above -the sides of their ships; masts, spars, and cordage were thick with -glittering incrustations and sparkling rows of icicles; a frosty armor, -four inches thick, encased the bulwarks. Yet, in the bitterest weather, -the neighboring Indians, "hardy," says the journal, "as so many beasts," -came daily to the fort, wading, half naked, waist-deep through the snow. -At length, their friendship began to abate; their visits grew less -frequent, and during December had wholly ceased, when a calamity fell -upon the French. - -A malignant scurvy broke out among them. Man after man went down before -the hideous disease, till twenty-five were dead, and only three or four -were left in health. The sound were too few to attend the sick, and the -wretched sufferers lay in helpless despair, dreaming of the sun and the -vines of France. The ground, hard as flint, defied their feeble efforts, -and, unable to bury their dead, they hid them in snow-drifts. Cartier -appealed to the saints; but they turned a deaf ear. Then he nailed -against a tree an image of the Virgin, and on a Sunday summoned forth -his woe-begone followers, who, haggard, reeling, bloated with their -maladies, moved in procession to the spot, and, kneeling in the snow, -sang litanies and psalms of David. That day died Philippe Rougemont, of -Amboise, aged twenty-two years. The Holy Virgin deigned no other -response. - -There was fear that the Indians, learning their misery, might finish the -work that scurvy had begun. None of them, therefore, were allowed to -approach the fort; and when a party of savages lingered within hearing, -Cartier forced his invalid garrison to beat with sticks and stones -against the walls, that their dangerous neighbors, deluded by the -clatter, might think them engaged in hard labor. These objects of their -fear proved, however, the instruments of their salvation. Cartier, -walking one day near the river, met an Indian, who not long before had -been prostrate, like many of his fellows, with the scurvy, but who was -now, to all appearance, in high health and spirits. What agency had -wrought this marvellous recovery? According to the Indian, it was a -certain evergreen, called by him ameda, a decoction of the leaves of -which was sovereign against the disease. The experiment was tried. The -sick men drank copiously of the healing draught,--so copiously indeed -that in six days they drank a tree as large as a French oak. Thus -vigorously assailed, the distemper relaxed its hold, and health and hope -began to revisit the hapless company. - -When this winter of misery had worn away, and the ships were thawed from -their icy fetters, Cartier prepared to return. He had made notable -discoveries; but these were as nothing to the tales of wonder that had -reached his ear,--of a land of gold and rubies, of a nation white like -the French, of men who lived without food, and of others to whom Nature -had granted but one leg. Should he stake his credit on these marvels? It -were better that they who had recounted them to him should, with their -own lips, recount them also to the King, and to this end he resolved -that Donnacona and his chiefs should go with him to court. He lured them -therefore to the fort, and led them into an ambuscade of sailors, who, -seizing the astonished guests, hurried them on board the ships. Having -accomplished this treachery, the voyagers proceeded to plant the emblem -of Christianity. The cross was raised, the fleur-de-lis planted near it, -and, spreading their sails, they steered for home. It was the sixteenth -of July, 1536, when Cartier again cast anchor under the walls of St. -Malo. - -A rigorous climate, a savage people, a fatal disease, and a soil barren -of gold were the allurements of New France. Nor were the times -auspicious for a renewal of the enterprise. Charles the Fifth, flushed -with his African triumphs, challenged the Most Christian King to single -combat. The war flamed forth with renewed fury, and ten years elapsed -before a hollow truce varnished the hate of the royal rivals with a thin -pretence of courtesy. Peace returned; but Francis the First was sinking -to his ignominious grave, under the scourge of his favorite goddess, and -Chabot, patron of the former voyages, was in disgrace. - -Meanwhile the ominous adventure of New France had found a champion in -the person of Jean Francois de la Roque, Sieur de Roberval, a nobleman -of Picardy. Though a man of high account in his own province, his past -honors paled before the splendor of the titles said to have been now -conferred on him, Lord of Norembega, Viceroy and Lieutenant-General in -Canada, Hochelaga, Saguenay, Newfoundland, Belle Isle, Carpunt, -Labrador, the Great Bay, and Baccalaos. To this windy gift of ink and -parchment was added a solid grant from the royal treasury, with which -five vessels were procured and equipped; and to Cartier was given the -post of Captain-General. "We have resolved," says Francis, "to send him -again to the lands of Canada and Hochelaga, which form the extremity of -Asia towards the west." His commission declares the objects of the -enterprise to be discovery, settlement, and the conversion of the -Indians, who are described as "men without knowledge of God or use of -reason,"--a pious design, held doubtless in full sincerity by the royal -profligate, now, in his decline, a fervent champion of the Faith and a -strenuous tormentor of heretics. The machinery of conversion was of a -character somewhat questionable, since Cartier and Roberval were -empowered to ransack the prisons for thieves, robbers, and other -malefactors, to complete their crews and strengthen the colony. -"Whereas," says the King, "we have undertaken this voyage for the honor -of God our Creator, desiring with all our heart to do that which shall -be agreeable to Him, it is our will to perform a compassionate and -meritorious work towards criminals and malefactors, to the end that they -may acknowledge the Creator, return thanks to Him, and mend their lives. -Therefore we have resolved to cause to be delivered to our aforesaid -lieutenant (Roberval), such and so many of the aforesaid criminals and -malefactors detained in our prisons as may seem to him useful and -necessary to be carried to the aforesaid countries." Of the expected -profits of the voyage the adventurers were to have one third and the -King another, while the remainder was to be reserved towards defraying -expenses. - -With respect to Donnacona and his tribesmen, basely kidnapped at -Stadacone, their souls had been better cared for than their bodies; for, -having been duly baptized, they all died within a year or two, to the -great detriment, as it proved, of the expedition. - -Meanwhile, from beyond the Pyrenees, the Most Catholic King, with -alarmed and jealous eye, watched the preparations of his Most Christian -enemy. America, in his eyes, was one vast province of Spain, to be -vigilantly guarded against the intruding foreigner. To what end were men -mustered, and ships fitted out in the Breton seaports? Was it for -colonization, and if so, where? Was it in Southern Florida, or on the -frozen shores of Baccalaos, of which Breton cod-fishers claimed the -discovery? Or would the French build forts on the Bahamas, whence they -could waylay the gold ships in the Bahama Channel? Or was the expedition -destined against the Spanish settlements of the islands or the Main? -Reinforcements were despatched in haste, and a spy was sent to France, -who, passing from port to port, Quimper, St. Malo, Brest, Morlaix, came -back freighted with exaggerated tales of preparation. The Council of the -Indies was called. "The French are bound for Baccalaos,"--such was the -substance of their report; "your Majesty will do well to send two -caravels to watch their movements, and a force to take possession of the -said country. And since there is no other money to pay for it, the gold -from Peru, now at Panama, might be used to that end." The Cardinal of -Seville thought lightly of the danger, and prophesied that the French -would reap nothing from their enterprise but disappointment and loss. -The King of Portugal, sole acknowledged partner with Spain in the -ownership of the New World, was invited by the Spanish ambassador to -take part in an expedition against the encroaching French. "They can do -no harm at Baccalaos," was the cold reply; "and so," adds the indignant -ambassador, "this King would say if they should come and take him here -at Lisbon; such is the softness they show here on the one hand, while, -on the other, they wish to give law to the whole world." - -The five ships, occasions of this turmoil and alarm, had lain at St. -Malo waiting for cannon and munitions from Normandy and Champagne. They -waited in vain, and as the King's orders were stringent against delay, -it was resolved that Cartier should sail at once, leaving Roberval to -follow with additional ships when the expected supplies arrived. - -On the twenty-third of May, 1541, the Breton captain again spread his -canvas for New France, and, passing in safety the tempestuous Atlantic, -the fog-banks of Newfoundland, the island rocks clouded with screaming -sea-fowl, and the forests breathing piny odors from the shore, cast -anchor again beneath the cliffs of Quebec. Canoes came out from shore -filled with feathered savages inquiring for their kidnapped chiefs. -"Donnacona," replied Cartier, "is dead;" but he added the politic -falsehood, that the others had married in France, and lived in state, -like great lords. The Indians pretended to be satisfied; but it was soon -apparent that they looked askance on the perfidious strangers. - -Cartier pursued his course, sailed three leagues and a half up the St. -Lawrence, and anchored off the mouth of the River of Cap Rouge. It was -late in August, and the leafy landscape sweltered in the sun. The -Frenchmen landed, picked up quartz crystals on the shore and thought -them diamonds, climbed the steep promontory, drank at the spring near -the top, looked abroad on the wooded slopes beyond the little river, -waded through the tall grass of the meadow, found a quarry of slate, and -gathered scales of a yellow mineral which glistened like gold, then -returned to their boats, crossed to the south shore of the St. Lawrence, -and, languid with the heat, rested in the shade of forests laced with an -entanglement of grape-vines. - -Now their task began, and while some cleared off the woods and sowed -turnip-seed, others cut a zigzag road up the height, and others built -two forts, one at the summit, and one on the shore below. The forts -finished, the Vicomte de Beaupre took command, while Cartier went with -two boats to explore the rapids above Hochelaga. When at length he -returned, the autumn was far advanced; and with the gloom of a Canadian -November came distrust, foreboding, and homesickness. Roberval had not -appeared; the Indians kept jealously aloof; the motley colony was sullen -as the dull, raw air around it. There was disgust and ire at -Charlesbourg-Royal, for so the place was called. - -Meanwhile, unexpected delays had detained the impatient Roberval; nor -was it until the sixteenth of April, 1542, that, with three ships and -two hundred colonists, he set sail from Rochelle. When, on the eighth of -June, he entered the harbor of St. John, he found seventeen -fishing-vessels lying there at anchor. Soon after, he descried three -other sail rounding the entrance of the haven, and, with anger and -amazement, recognized the ships of Jacques Cartier. That voyager had -broken up his colony and abandoned New France. What motives had prompted -a desertion little consonant with the resolute spirit of the man it is -impossible to say,--whether sickness within, or Indian enemies without, -disgust with an enterprise whose unripened fruits had proved so hard and -bitter, or discontent at finding himself reduced to a post of -subordination in a country which he had discovered and where he had -commanded. The Viceroy ordered him to return; but Cartier escaped with -his vessels under cover of night, and made sail for France, carrying -with him as trophies a few quartz diamonds from Cap Rouge, and grains of -sham gold from the neighboring slate ledges. Thus closed the third -Canadian voyage of this notable explorer. His discoveries had gained for -him a patent of nobility, and he owned the seigniorial mansion of -Limoilou, a rude structure of stone still standing. Here, and in the -neighboring town of St. Malo, where also he had a house, he seems to -have lived for many years. - -Roberval once more set sail, steering northward to the Straits of Belle -Isle and the dreaded Isles of Demons. And here an incident befell which -the all-believing Thevet records in manifest good faith, and which, -stripped of the adornments of superstition and a love of the marvellous, -has without doubt a nucleus of truth. I give the tale as I find it. - -The Viceroy's company was of a mixed complexion. There were nobles, -officers, soldiers, sailors, adventurers, with women too, and children. -Of the women, some were of birth and station, and among them a damsel -called Marguerite, a niece of Roberval himself. In the ship was a young -gentleman who had embarked for love of her. His love was too well -requited; and the stern Viceroy, scandalized and enraged at a passion -which scorned concealment and set shame at defiance, cast anchor by the -haunted island, landed his indiscreet relative, gave her four arquebuses -for defence, and, with an old Norman nurse named Bastienne, who had -pandered to the lovers, left her to her fate. Her gallant threw himself -into the surf, and by desperate effort gained the shore, with two more -guns and a supply of ammunition. - -The ship weighed anchor, receded, vanished, and they were left alone. -Yet not so, for the demon lords of the island beset them day and night, -raging around their hut with a confused and hungry clamoring, striving -to force the frail barrier. The lovers had repented of their sin, though -not abandoned it, and Heaven was on their side. The saints vouchsafed -their aid, and the offended Virgin, relenting, held before them her -protecting shield. In the form of beasts or other shapes abominably and -unutterably hideous, the brood of hell, howling in baffled fury, tore at -the branches of the sylvan dwelling; but a celestial hand was ever -interposed, and there was a viewless barrier which they might not pass. -Marguerite became pregnant. Here was a double prize, two souls in one, -mother and child. The fiends grew frantic, but all in vain. She stood -undaunted amid these horrors; but her lover, dismayed and heartbroken, -sickened and died. Her child soon followed; then the old Norman nurse -found her unhallowed rest in that accursed soil, and Marguerite was left -alone. Neither her reason nor her courage failed. When the demons -assailed her, she shot at them with her gun, but they answered with -hellish merriment, and thenceforth she placed her trust in Heaven alone. -There were foes around her of the upper, no less than of the nether -world. Of these, the bears were the most redoubtable; yet, being -vulnerable to mortal weapons, she killed three of them, all, says the -story, "as white as an egg." - -It was two years and five months from her landing on the island, when, -far out at sea, the crew of a small fishing-craft saw a column of smoke -curling upward from the haunted shore. Was it a device of the fiends to -lure them to their ruin? They thought so, and kept aloof. But misgiving -seized them. They warily drew near, and descried a female figure in wild -attire waving signals from the strand. Thus at length was Marguerite -rescued and restored to her native France, where, a few years later, the -cosmographer Thevet met her at Natron in Perigord, and heard the tale of -wonder from her own lips. - -Having left his offending niece to the devils and bears of the Isles of -Demons, Roberval held his course up the St. Lawrence, and dropped anchor -before the heights of Cap Rouge. His company landed; there were bivouacs -along the strand, a hubbub of pick and spade, axe, saw, and hammer; and -soon in the wilderness uprose a goodly structure, half barrack, half -castle, with two towers, two spacious halls, a kitchen, chambers, -storerooms, workshops, cellars, garrets, a well, an oven, and two -watermills. Roberval named it France-Roy, and it stood on that bold -acclivity where Cartier had before intrenched himself, the St. Lawrence -in front, and on the right the River of Cap Rouge. Here all the colony -housed under the same roof, like one of the experimental communities of -recent days,--officers, soldiers, nobles, artisans, laborers, and -convicts, with the women and children in whom lay the future hope of New -France. - -Experience and forecast had both been wanting. There were storehouses, -but no stores; mills, but no grist; an ample oven, and a dearth of -bread. It was only when two of the ships had sailed for France that they -took account of their provision and discovered its lamentable -shortcoming. Winter and famine followed. They bought fish from the -Indians, and dug roots and boiled them in whale-oil. Disease broke out, -and, before spring, killed one third of the colony. The rest would have -quarrelled, mutinied, and otherwise aggravated their inevitable woes, -but disorder was dangerous under the iron rule of the inexorable -Roberval. Michel Gaillon was detected in a petty theft, and hanged. Jean -de Nantes, for a more venial offence, was kept in irons. The quarrels of -men and the scolding of women were alike requited at the whipping-post, -"by which means," quaintly says the narrative, "they lived in peace." - -Thevet, while calling himself the intimate friend of the Viceroy, gives -a darker coloring to his story. He says that, forced to unceasing labor, -and chafed by arbitrary rules, some of the soldiers fell under -Roberval's displeasure, and six of them, formerly his favorites, were -hanged in one day. Others were banished to an island, and there kept in -fetters; while, for various light offences, several, both men and women, -were shot. Even the Indians were moved to pity, and wept at the sight of -their woes. - -And here, midway, our guide deserts us; the ancient narrative is broken, -and the latter part is lost, leaving us to divine as we may the future -of the ill-starred colony. That it did not long survive is certain. The -King, in great need of Roberval, sent Cartier to bring him home, and -this voyage seems to have taken place in the summer of 1543. It is said -that, in after years, the Viceroy essayed to repossess himself of his -Transatlantic domain, and lost his life in the attempt. Thevet, on the -other hand, with ample means of learning the truth, affirms that -Roberval was slain at night, near the Church of the Innocents, in the -heart of Paris. - -With him closes the prelude of the French-American drama. Tempestuous -years and a reign of blood and fire were in store for France. The -religious wars begot the hapless colony of Florida, but for more than -half a century they left New France a desert. Order rose at length out -of the sanguinary chaos; the zeal of discovery and the spirit of -commercial enterprise once more awoke, while, closely following, more -potent than they, moved the black-robed forces of the Roman Catholic -reaction. - - - - - - -CHAPTER II. - -1542-1604. - -LA ROCHE.--CHAMPLAIN.--DE MONTS. - - -Years rolled on. France, long tossed among the surges of civil -commotion, plunged at last into a gulf of fratricidal war. Blazing -hamlets, sacked cities, fields steaming with slaughter, profaned altars, -and ravished maidens, marked the track of the tornado. There was little -room for schemes of foreign enterprise. Yet, far aloof from siege and -battle, the fishermen of the western ports still plied their craft on -the Banks of Newfoundland. Humanity, morality, decency, might be -forgotten, but codfish must still be had for the use of the faithful in -Lent and on fast days. Still the wandering Esquimaux saw the Norman and -Breton sails hovering around some lonely headland, or anchored in fleets -in the harbor of St. John; and still, through salt spray and driving -mist, the fishermen dragged up the riches of the sea. - -In January and February, 1545, about two vessels a day sailed from -French ports for Newfoundland. In 1565, Pedro Menendez complains that -the French "rule despotically" in those parts. In 1578, there were a -hundred and fifty French fishing-vessels there, besides two hundred of -other nations, Spanish, Portuguese, and English. Added to these were -twenty or thirty Biscayan whalers. In 1607, there was an old French -fisherman at Canseau who had voyaged to these seas for forty-two -successive years. - -But if the wilderness of ocean had its treasures, so too had the -wilderness of woods. It needed but a few knives, beads, and trinkets, -and the Indians would throng to the shore burdened with the spoils of -their winter hunting. Fishermen threw up their old vocation for the more -lucrative trade in bear-skins and beaver-skins. They built rude huts -along the shores of Anticosti, where, at that day, the bison, it is -said, could be seen wallowing in the sands. They outraged the Indians; -they quarrelled with each other; and this infancy of the Canadian -fur-trade showed rich promise of the disorders which marked its riper -growth. Others, meanwhile, were ranging the gulf in search of walrus -tusks; and, the year after the battle of Ivry, St. Malo sent out a fleet -of small craft in quest of this new prize. - -In all the western seaports, merchants and adventurers turned their eyes -towards America; not, like the Spaniards, seeking treasures of silver -and gold, but the more modest gains of codfish and train-oil, -beaver-skins and marine ivory. St. Malo was conspicuous above them all. -The rugged Bretons loved the perils of the sea, and saw with a jealous -eye every attempt to shackle their activity on this its favorite field. -When in 1588 Jacques Noel and Estienue Chaton--the former a nephew of -Cartier and the latter pretending to be so--gained a monopoly of the -American fur-trade for twelve year's, such a clamor arose within the -walls of St. Malo that the obnoxious grant was promptly revoked. - -But soon a power was in the field against which all St. Malo might -clamor in vain. A Catholic nobleman of Brittany, the Marquis de la -Roche, bargained with the King to colonize New France. On his part, he -was to receive a monopoly of the trade, and a profusion of worthless -titles and empty privileges. He was declared Lieutenant-General of -Canada, Hochelaga, Newfoundland, Labrador, and the countries adjacent, -with sovereign power within his vast and ill-defined domain. he could -levy troops, declare war and peace, make laws, punish or pardon at will, -build cities, forts, and castles, and grant out lands in fiefs, -seigniories, counties, viscounties, and baronies. Thus was effete and -cumbrous feudalism to make a lodgment in the New World. It was a scheme -of high-sounding promise, but in performance less than contemptible. La -Roche ransacked the prisons, and, gathering thence a gang of thieves and -desperadoes, embarked them in a small vessel, and set sail to plant -Christianity and civilization in the West. Suns rose and set, and the -wretched bark, deep freighted with brutality and vice, held on her -course. She was so small that the convicts, leaning over her side, could -wash their hands in the water. At length, on the gray horizon they -descried a long, gray line of ridgy sand. It was Sable Island, off the -coast of Nova Scotia. A wreck lay stranded on the beach, and the surf -broke ominously over the long, submerged arms of sand, stretched far out -into the sea on the right hand and on the left. - -Here La Roche landed the convicts, forty in number, while, with his more -trusty followers, he sailed to explore the neighboring coasts, and -choose a site for the capital of his new dominion, to which, in due -time, he proposed to remove the prisoners. But suddenly a tempest from -the west assailed him. The frail vessel was forced to run before the -gale, which, howling on her track, drove her off the coast, and chased -her back towards France. - -Meanwhile the convicts watched in suspense for the returning sail. Days -passed, weeks passed, and still they strained their eyes in vain across -the waste of ocean. La Roche had left them to their fate. Rueful and -desperate, they wandered among the sand-hills, through the stunted -whortleberry bushes, the rank sand-grass, and the tangled cranberry -vines which filled the hollows. Not a tree was to be seen; but they -built huts of the fragments of the wreck. For food they caught fish in -the surrounding sea, and hunted the cattle which ran wild about the -island, sprung, perhaps, from those left here eighty years before by the -Baron de Lery. They killed seals, trapped black foxes, and clothed -themselves in their skins. Their native instincts clung to them in their -exile. As if not content with inevitable miseries, they quarrelled and -murdered one another. Season after season dragged on. Five years -elapsed, and, of the forty, only twelve were left alive. Sand, sea, and -sky,--there was little else around them; though, to break the dead -monotony, the walrus would sometimes rear his half-human face and -glistening sides on the reefs and sand-bars. At length, on the far verge -of the watery desert, they descried a sail. She stood on towards the -island; a boat's crew landed on the beach, and the exiles were once more -among their countrymen. - -When La Roche returned to France, the fate of his followers sat heavy on -his mind. But the day of his prosperity was gone. A host of enemies rose -against him and his privileges, and it is said that the Due de Mercaeur -seized him and threw him into prison. In time, however, he gained a -hearing of the King; and the Norman pilot, Chefdhotel, was despatched to -bring the outcasts home. - -He reached Sable Island in September, 1603, and brought back to France -eleven survivors, whose names are still preserved. When they arrived, -Henry the Fourth summoned them into his presence. They stood before him, -says an old writer, like river-gods of yore; for from head to foot they -were clothed in shaggy skins, and beards of prodigious length hung from -their swarthy faces. They had accumulated, on their island, a quantity -of valuable furs. Of these Chefdhotel had robbed them; but the pilot was -forced to disgorge his prey, and, with the aid of a bounty from the -King, they were enabled to embark on their own account in the Canadian -trade. To their leader, fortune was less kind. Broken by disaster and -imprisonment, La Roche died miserably. - -In the mean time, on the ruin of his enterprise, a new one had been -begun. Pontgrave, a merchant of St. Malo, leagued himself with Chauvin, -a captain of the navy, who had influence at court. A patent was granted -to them, with the condition that they should colonize the country. But -their only thought was to enrich themselves. - -At Tadoussac, at the mouth of the Saguenay, under the shadow of savage -and inaccessible rocks, feathered with pines, firs, and birch-trees, -they built a cluster of wooden huts and store-houses. Here they left -sixteen men to gather the expected harvest of furs. Before the winter -was over, several of them were dead, and the rest scattered through the -woods, living on the charity of the Indians. - -But a new era had dawned on France. Exhausted with thirty years of -conflict, she had sunk at last to a repose, uneasy and disturbed, yet -the harbinger of recovery. The rugged soldier whom, for the weal of -France and of mankind, Providence had cast to the troubled surface of -affairs, was throned in the Louvre, composing the strife of factions and -the quarrels of his mistresses. The bear-hunting prince of the Pyrenees -wore the crown of France; and to this day, as one gazes on the time-worn -front of the Tuileries, above all other memories rises the small, strong -finger, the brow wrinkled with cares of love and war, the bristling -moustache, the grizzled beard, the bold, vigorous, and withal somewhat -odd features of the mountaineer of Warn. To few has human liberty owed -so deep a gratitude or so deep a grudge. He cared little for creeds or -dogmas. Impressible, quick in sympathy, his grim lip lighted often with -a smile, and his war-worn cheek was no stranger to a tear. He forgave -his enemies and forgot his friends. Many loved him; none but fools -trusted him. Mingled of mortal good and ill, frailty and force, of all -the kings who for two centuries and more sat on the throne of France -Henry the Fourth alone was a man. - -Art, industry, and commerce, so long crushed and overborne, were -stirring into renewed life, and a crowd of adventurous men, nurtured in -war and incapable of repose, must seek employment for their restless -energies in fields of peaceful enterprise. - -Two small, quaint vessels, not larger than the fishing-craft of -Gloucester and Marblehead,--one was of twelve, the other of fifteen -tons,--held their way across the Atlantic, passed the tempestuous -headlands of Newfoundland and the St. Lawrence, and, with adventurous -knight-errantry, glided deep into the heart of the Canadian wilderness. -On board of one of them was the Breton merchant, Pontgrave, and with him -a man of spirit widely different, a Catholic of good family,--Samuel de -Champlain, born in 1567 at the small seaport of Bronage on the Bay of -Biscay. His father was a captain in the royal navy, where he himself -seems also to have served, though during the war he had fought for the -King in Brittany, under the banners of D'Aumont, St. Luc, and Brissac. -His purse was small, his merit great; and Henry the Fourth out of his -own slender revenues had given him a pension to maintain him near his -person. But rest was penance to him. The war in Brittany was over. The -rebellious Duc de Mercaeur was reduced to obedience, and the royal army -disbanded. Champlain, his occupation gone, conceived a design consonant -with his adventurous nature. He would visit the West Indies, and bring -back to the King a report of those regions of mystery whence Spanish -jealousy excluded foreigners, and where every intruding Frenchman was -threatened with death. Here much knowledge was to be won and much peril -to be met. The joint attraction was resistless. - -The Spaniards, allies of the vanquished Leaguers, were about to evacuate -Blavet, their last stronghold in Brittany. Thither Champlain repaired; -and here he found an uncle, who had charge of the French fleet destined -to take on board the Spanish garrison. Champlain embarked with them, -and, reaching Cadiz, succeeded, with the aid of his relative, who had -just accepted the post of Pilot-General of the Spanish marine, in -gaining command of one of the ships about to sail for the West Indies -under Don Francisco Colombo. - -At Dieppe there is a curious old manuscript, in clear, decisive, and -somewhat formal handwriting of the sixteenth century, garnished with -sixty-one colored pictures, in a style of art which a child of ten might -emulate. Here one may see ports, harbors, islands, and rivers, adorned -with portraitures of birds, beasts, and fishes thereto pertaining. Here -are Indian feasts and dances; Indians flogged by priests for not going -to mass; Indians burned alive for heresy, six in one fire; Indians -working the silver mines. Here, too, are descriptions of natural -objects, each with its illustrative sketch, some drawn from life and -some from memory,--as, for example, a chameleon with two legs; others -from hearsay, among which is the portrait of the griffin said to haunt -certain districts of Mexico,--a monster with the wings of a bat, the -head of an eagle, and the tail of an alligator. - -This is Champlain's journal, written and illustrated by his own hand, in -that defiance of perspective and absolute independence of the canons of -art which mark the earliest efforts of the pencil. - -A true hero, after the chivalrous mediaeval type, his character was -dashed largely with the spirit of romance. Though earnest, sagacious, -and penetrating, he leaned to the marvellous; and the faith which was -the life of his hard career was somewhat prone to overstep the bounds of -reason and invade the domain of fancy. hence the erratic character of -some of his exploits, and hence his simple faith in the Mexican griffin. - -His West-Indian adventure occupied him more than two years. He visited -the principal ports of the islands, made plans and sketches of them all, -after his fashion, and then, landing at Vera Cruz, journeyed inland to -the city of Mexico. On his return he made his way to Panama. Here, more -than two centuries and a half ago, his bold and active mind conceived -the plan of a ship-canal across the isthmus, "by which," lie says, "the -voyage to the South Sea would be shortened by more than fifteen hundred -leagues." - -On reaching France he repaired to court, and it may have been at this -time that a royal patent raised him to the rank of the untitled -nobility. He soon wearied of the antechambers of the Louvre. It was -here, however, that his destiny awaited him, and the work of his life -was unfolded. Aymar de Chastes, Commander of the Order of St. John and -Governor of Dieppe, a gray-haired veteran of the civil wars, wished to -mark his closing days with some notable achievement for France and the -Church. To no man was the King more deeply indebted. In his darkest -hour, when the hosts of the League were gathering round him, when -friends were falling off, and the Parisians, exulting in his certain -ruin, were hiring the windows of the Rue St. Antoine to see him led to -the Bastille, De Chastes, without condition or reserve, gave up to him -the town and castle of Dieppe. Thus he was enabled to fight beneath its -walls the battle of Arques, the first in the series of successes which -secured his triumph; and he had been heard to say that to this friend in -his adversity he owed his own salvation and that of France. - -De Chastes was one of those men who, amid the strife of factions and -rage of rival fanaticisms, make reason and patriotism their watchwords, -and stand on the firm ground of a strong and resolute moderation. He had -resisted the madness of Leaguer and Huguenot alike; yet, though a foe of -the League, the old soldier was a devout Catholic, and it seemed in his -eyes a noble consummation of his life to plant the cross and the -fleur-de-lis in the wilderness of New France. Chauvin had just died, -after wasting the lives of a score or more of men in a second and a -third attempt to establish the fur-trade at Tadoussac. De Chastes came -to court to beg a patent of henry the Fourth; "and," says his friend -Champlain, "though his head was crowned with gray hairs as with years, -he resolved to proceed to New France in person, and dedicate the rest of -his days to the service of God and his King." - -The patent, costing nothing, was readily granted; and De Chastes, to -meet the expenses of the enterprise, and forestall the jealousies which -his monopoly would awaken among the keen merchants of the western ports, -formed a company with the more prominent of them. Pontgrave, who had -some knowledge of the country, was chosen to make a preliminary -exploration. - -This was the time when Champlain, fresh from the West Indies, appeared -at court. De Chastes knew him well. Young, ardent, yet ripe in -experience, a skilful seaman and a practised soldier, he above all -others was a man for the enterprise. He had many conferences with the -veteran, under whom he had served in the royal fleet off the coast of -Brittany. De Chastes urged him to accept a post in his new company; and -Champlain, nothing loath, consented, provided always that permission -should be had from the King, "to whom," he says, "I was bound no less by -birth than by the pension with which his Majesty honored me." To the -King, therefore, De Chastes repaired. The needful consent was gained, -and, armed with a letter to Pontgrave, Champlain set out for Honfleur. -Here he found his destined companion, and embarking with him, as we have -seen, they spread their sails for the west. - -Like specks on the broad bosom of the waters, the two pygmy vessels held -their course up the lonely St. Lawrence. They passed abandoned -Tadoussac, the channel of Orleans, and the gleaming cataract of -Montmorenci; the tenantless rock of Quebec, the wide Lake of St. Peter -and its crowded archipelago, till now the mountain reared before them -its rounded shoulder above the forest-plain of Montreal. All was -solitude. Hochelaga had vanished; and of the savage population that -Cartier had found here, sixty-eight years before, no trace remained. In -its place were a few wandering Algonquins, of different tongue and -lineage. In a skiff, with a few Indians, Champlain essayed to pass the -rapids of St. Louis. Oars, paddles, and poles alike proved vain against -the foaming surges, and he was forced to return. On the deck of his -vessel, the Indians drew rude plans of the river above, with its chain -of rapids, its lakes and cataracts; and the baffled explorer turned his -prow homeward, the objects of his mission accomplished, but his own -adventurous curiosity unsated. When the voyagers reached Havre de Grace, -a grievous blow awaited them. The Commander de Chastes was dead. - -His mantle fell upon Pierre du Guast, Sieur de Monts, gentleman in -ordinary of the King's chamber, and Governor of Polls. Undaunted by the -fate of La Roche, this nobleman petitioned the king for leave to -colonize La Cadie, or Acadie, a region defined as extending from the -fortieth to the forty-Sixth degree of north latitude, or from -Philadelphia to beyond Montreal. The King's minister, Sully, as he -himself tells us, opposed the plan, on the ground that the colonization -of this northern wilderness would never repay the outlay; but De Monts -gained his point. He was made Lieutenant-General in Acadia, with -viceregal powers; and withered Feudalism, with her antique forms and -tinselled follies, was again to seek a new home among the rocks and -pine-trees of Nova Scotia. The foundation of the enterprise was a -monopoly of the fur-trade, and in its favor all past grants were -unceremoniously annulled. St. Malo, Rouen, Dieppe, and Rochelle greeted -the announcement with unavailing outcries. Patents granted and revoked, -monopolies decreed and extinguished, had involved the unhappy traders in -ceaseless embarrassment. De Monts, however, preserved De Chastes's old -company, and enlarged it, thus making the chief malcontents sharers in -his exclusive rights, and converting them from enemies into partners. - -A clause in his commission empowered him to impress idlers and vagabonds -as material for his colony,--an ominous provision of which he largely -availed himself. His company was strangely incongruous. The best and the -meanest of France were crowded together in his two ships. Here were -thieves and ruffians dragged on board by force; and here were many -volunteers of condition and character, with Baron de Poutrincourt and -the indefatigable Champlain. Here, too, were Catholic priests and -Huguenot ministers; for, though De Monts was a Calvinist, the Church, as -usual, displayed her banner in the van of the enterprise, and he was -forced to promise that he would cause the Indians to be instructed in -the dogmas of Rome. - - - - - - -CHAPTER III. - -1604, 1605. - -ACADIA OCCUPIED. - -De Monts, with one of his vessels, sailed from Havre de Grace on the -seventh of April, 1604. Pontgrave, with stores for the colony, was to -follow in a few days. - -Scarcely were they at sea, when ministers and priests fell first to -discussion, then to quarrelling, then to blows. "I have seen our cure -and the minister," says Champlain, "fall to with their fists on -questions of faith. I cannot say which had the more pluck, or which hit -the harder; but I know that the minister sometimes complained to the -Sieur de Monts that he had been beaten. This was their way of settling -points of controversy. I leave you to judge if it was a pleasant thing -to see." - -Sagard, the Franciscan friar, relates with horror, that, after their -destination was reached, a priest and a minister happening to die at the -same time, the crew buried them both in one grave, to see if they would -lie peaceably together. - -De Monts, who had been to the St. Lawrence with Chauvin, and learned to -dread its rigorous winters, steered for a more southern, and, as he -flattered himself, a milder region. The first land seen was Cap la Heve, -on the southern coast of Nova Scotia. Four days later, they entered a -small bay, where, to their surprise, they saw a vessel lying at anchor. -here was a piece of good luck. The stranger was a fur-trader, pursuing -her traffic in defiance, or more probably in ignorance, of De Monts's -monopoly. The latter, as empowered by his patent, made prize of ship and -cargo, consoling the commander, one Rossignol, by giving his name to the -scene of his misfortune. It is now called Liverpool Harbor. - -In an adjacent harbor, called by them Port Mouton, because a sheep here -leaped overboard, they waited nearly a month for Pontgrave's store-ship. -At length, to their great relief, she appeared, laden with the spoils of -four Basque fur-traders, captured at Cansean. The supplies delivered, -Pontgrave sailed for Tadoussac to trade with the Indians, while De -Monts, followed by his prize, proceeded on his voyage. - -He doubled Cape Sable, and entered St. Mary's Bay, where he lay two -weeks, sending boats' crews to explore the adjacent coasts. A party one -day went on shore to stroll through the forest, and among them was -Nicolas Aubry, a priest from Paris, who, tiring of the scholastic haunts -of the Rue de la Sorbonne and the Rue d'Enfer, had persisted, despite -the remonstrance of his friends, in joining the expedition. Thirsty with -a long walk, under the sun of June, through the tangled and -rock-encumbered woods, he stopped to drink at a brook, laying his sword -beside him on the grass. On rejoining his companions, he found that he -had forgotten it; and turning back in search of it, more skilled in the -devious windings of the Quartier Latin than in the intricacies of the -Acadian forest, he soon lost his way. His comrades, alarmed, waited for -a time, and then ranged the woods, shouting his name to the echoing -solitudes. Trumpets were sounded, and cannon fired from the ships, but -the priest did not appear. All now looked askance on a certain Huguenot, -with whom Aubry had often quarrelled on questions of faith, and who was -now accused of having killed him. In vain he denied the charge. Aubry -was given up for dead, and the ship sailed from St. Mary's Bay; while -the wretched priest roamed to and fro, famished and despairing, or, -couched on the rocky soil, in the troubled sleep of exhaustion, dreamed, -perhaps, as the wind swept moaning through the pines, that he heard once -more the organ roll through the columned arches of Sainte Genevieve. - -The voyagers proceeded to explore the Bay of Fundy, which De Monts -called La Baye Francoise. Their first notable discovery was that of -Annapolis Harbor. A small inlet invited them. They entered, when -suddenly the narrow strait dilated into a broad and tranquil basin, -compassed by sunny hills, wrapped in woodland verdure, and alive with -waterfalls. Poutrincourt was delighted with the scene. The fancy seized -him of removing thither from France with his family and, to this end, he -asked a grant of the place from De Monts, who by his patent had nearly -half the continent in his gift. The grant was made, and Poutrincourt -called his new domain Port Royal. - -Thence they sailed round the head of the Bay of Fundy, coasted its -northern shore, visited and named the river St. John, and anchored at -last in Passamaquoddy Bay. - -The untiring Champlain, exploring, surveying, sounding, had made charts -of all the principal roads and harbors; and now, pursuing his research, -he entered a river which he calls La Riviere des Etechemins, from the -name of the tribe of whom the present Passamaquoddy Indians are -descendants. Near its mouth he found an islet, fenced round with rocks -and shoals, and called it St. Croix, a name now borne by the river -itself. With singular infelicity this spot was chosen as the site of the -new colony. It commanded the river, and was well fitted for defence: -these were its only merits; yet cannon were landed on it, a battery was -planted on a detached rock at one end, and a fort begun on a rising -ground at the other. - -At St. Mary's Bay the voyagers thought they had found traces of iron and -silver; and Champdore, the pilot, was now sent back to pursue the -search. As he and his men lay at anchor, fishing, not far from land, one -of them heard a strange sound, like a weak human voice; and, looking -towards the shore, they saw a small black object in motion, apparently a -hat waved on the end of a stick. Rowing in haste to the spot, they found -the priest Aubry. For sixteen days he had wandered in the woods, -sustaining life on berries and wild fruits; and when, haggard and -emaciated, a shadow of his former self, Champdore carried him back to -St. Croix, he was greeted as a man risen from the grave. - -In 1783 the river St. Croix, by treaty, was made the boundary between -Maine and New Brunswick. But which was the true St. Croix? In 1798, the -point was settled. De Monts's island was found; and, painfully searching -among the sand, the sedge, and the matted whortleberry bushes, the -commissioners could trace the foundations of buildings long crumbled -into dust; for the wilderness had resumed its sway, and silence and -solitude brooded once more over this ancient resting-place of -civilization. - -But while the commissioner bends over a moss-grown stone, it is for us -to trace back the dim vista of the centuries to the life, the zeal, the -energy, of which this stone is the poor memorial. The rock-fenced islet -was covered with cedars, and when the tide was out the shoals around -were dark with the swash of sea-weed, where, in their leisure moments, -the Frenchmen, we are told, amused themselves with detaching the limpets -from the stones, as a savory addition to their fare. But there was -little leisure at St. Croix. Soldiers, sailors, and artisans betook -themselves to their task. Before the winter closed in, the northern end -of the island was covered with buildings, surrounding a square, where a -solitary tree had been left standing. On the right was a spacious house, -well built, and surmounted by one of those enormous roofs characteristic -of the time. This was the lodging of De Monts. Behind it, and near the -water, was a long, covered gallery, for labor or amusement in foul -weather. Champlain and the Sieur d'Orville, aided by the servants of the -latter, built a house for themselves nearly opposite that of De Monts; -and the remainder of the square was occupied by storehouses, a magazine, -workshops, lodgings for gentlemen and artisans, and a barrack for the -Swiss soldiers, the whole enclosed with a palisade. Adjacent there was -an attempt at a garden, under the auspices of Champlain; but nothing -would grow in the sandy soil. There was a cemetery, too, and a small -rustic chapel on a projecting point of rock. Such was the "Habitation de -l'Isle Saincte-Croix," as set forth by Champlain in quaint plans and -drawings, in that musty little quarto of 1613, sold by Jean Berjon, at -the sign of the Flying Horse, Rue St. Jean de Beauvais. - -Their labors over, Poutrincourt set sail for France, proposing to return -and take possession of his domain of Port Royal. Seventy-nine men -remained at St. Croix. here was De Monts, feudal lord of half a -continent in virtue of two potent syllables, "Henri," scrawled on -parchment by the rugged hand of the Bearnais. Here were gentlemen of -birth and breeding, Champlain, D'Orville, Beaumont, Sourin, La Motte, -Boulay, and Fougeray; here also were the pugnacious cure and his fellow -priests, with the Hugnenot ministers, objects of their unceasing ire. -The rest were laborers, artisans, and soldiers, all in the pay of the -company, and some of them forced into its service. - -Poutrincourt's receding sails vanished between the water and the sky. -The exiles were left to their solitude. From the Spanish settlements -northward to the pole, there was no domestic hearth, no lodgement of -civilized men, save one weak band of Frenchmen, clinging, as it were for -life, to the fringe of the vast and savage continent. The gray and -sullen autumn sank upon the waste, and the bleak wind howled down the -St. Croix, and swept the forest bare. Then the whirling snow powdered -the vast sweep of desolate woodland, and shrouded in white the gloomy -green of pine-clad mountains. Ice in sheets, or broken masses, swept by -their island with the ebbing and flowing tide, often debarring all -access to the main, and cutting off their supplies of wood and water. A -belt of cedars, indeed, hedged the island; but De Monts had ordered them -to be spared, that the north wind might spend something of its force -with whistling through their shaggy boughs. Cider and wine froze in the -casks, and were served out by the pound. As they crowded round their -half-fed fires, shivering in the icy currents that pierced their rude -tenements, many sank into a desperate apathy. - -Soon the scurvy broke out, and raged with a fearful malignity. Of the -seventy-nine, thirty-five died before spring, and many more were brought -to the verge of death. In vain they sought that marvellous tree which -had relieved the followers of Cartier. Their little cemetery was peopled -with nearly half their number, and the rest, bloated and disfigured with -the relentless malady, thought more of escaping from their woes than of -building up a Transatlantic empire. Yet among them there was one, at -least, who, amid languor and defection, held to his purpose with -indomitable tenacity; and where Champlain was present, there was no room -for despair. - -Spring came at last, and, with the breaking up of the ice, the melting -of the snow, and the clamors of the returning wild-fowl, the spirits and -the health of the woe-begone company began to revive. But to misery -succeeded anxiety and suspense. Where was the succor from France? Were -they abandoned to their fate like the wretched exiles of La Roche? In a -happy hour, they saw an approaching sail. Pontgrave, with forty men, -cast anchor before their island on the sixteenth of June; and they -hailed him as the condemned hails the messenger of his pardon. - -Weary of St. Croix, De Monts resolved to seek out a more auspicious -site, on which to rear the capital of his wilderness dominion. During -the preceding September, Champlain had ranged the westward coast in a -pinnace, visited and named the island of Mount Desert, and entered the -mouth of the river Penobscot, called by him the Pemetigoet, or -Pentegoet, and previously known to fur-traders and fishermen as the -Norembega, a name which it shared with all the adjacent region.[FN#27] -Now, embarking a second time, in a bark of fifteen tons, with De Monts, -several gentlemen, twenty sailors, and an Indian with his squaw, he set -forth on the eighteenth of June on a second voyage of discovery. They -coasted the strangely indented shores of Maine, with its reefs and -surf-washed islands, rocky headlands, and deep embosomed bays, passed -Mount Desert and the Penobscot, explored the mouths of the Kennebec, -crossed Casco Bay, and descried the distant peaks of the White -Mountains. The ninth of July brought them to Saco Bay. They were now -within the limits of a group of tribes who were called by the French the -Armouchiquois, and who included those whom the English afterwards called -the Massachusetts. They differed in habits as well as in language from -the Etechemins and Miemacs of Acadia, for they were tillers of the soil, -and around their wigwams were fields of maize, beans, pumpkins, -squashes, tobacco, and the so-called Jerusalem artichoke. Near Pront's -Neck, more than eighty of them ran down to the shore to meet the -strangers, dancing and yelping to show their joy. They had a fort of -palisades on a rising ground by the Saco, for they were at deadly war -with their neighbors towards the east. - -On the twelfth, the French resumed their voyage, and, like some -adventurous party of pleasure, held their course by the beaches of York -and Wells, Portsmouth Harbor, the Isles of Shoals, Rye Beach, and -Hampton Beach, till, on the fifteenth, they descried the dim outline of -Cape Ann. Champlain called it Cap aux Isles, from the three adjacent -islands, and in a subsequent voyage he gave the name of Beauport to the -neighboring harbor of Gloucester. Thence steering southward and -westward, they entered Massachusetts Bay, gave the name of Riviere du -Guast to a river flowing into it, probably the Charles; passed the -islands of Boston Harbor, which Champlain describes as covered with -trees, and were met on the way by great numbers of canoes filled with -astonished Indians. On Sunday, the seventeenth, they passed Point -Allerton and Nantasket Beach, coasted the shores of Cohasset, Scituate, -and Marshfield, and anchored for the night near Brant Point. On the -morning of the eighteenth, a head wind forced them to take shelter in -Port St. Louis, for so they called the harbor of Plymouth, where the -Pilgrims made their memorable landing fifteen years later. Indian -wigwams and garden patches lined the shore. A troop of the inhabitants -came down to the beach and danced; while others, who had been fishing, -approached in their canoes, came on board the vessel, and showed -Champlain their fish-hooks, consisting of a barbed bone lashed at an -acute angle to a slip of wood. - -From Plymouth the party circled round the bay, doubled Cape Cod, called -by Champlain Cap Blanc, from its glistening white sands, and steered -southward to Nausett Harbor, which, by reason of its shoals and -sand-bars, they named Port Mallebarre. Here their prosperity deserted -them. A party of sailors went behind the sand-banks to find fresh water -at a spring, when an Indian snatched a kettle from one of them, and its -owner, pursuing, fell, pierced with arrows by the robber's comrades. The -French in the vessel opened fire. Champlain's arquebuse burst, and was -near killing him, while the Indians, swift as deer, quickly gained the -woods. Several of the tribe chanced to be on board the vessel, but flung -themselves with such alacrity into the water that only one was caught. -They bound him hand and foot, but soon after humanely set him at -liberty. - -Champlain, who we are told "delighted marvellously in these -enterprises," had busied himself throughout the voyage with taking -observations, making charts, and studying the wonders of land and sea. -The "horse-foot crab" seems to have awakened his special curiosity, and -he describes it with amusing exactness. Of the human tenants of the New -England coast he has also left the first precise and trustworthy -account. They were clearly more numerous than when the Puritans landed -at Plymouth, since in the interval a pestilence made great havoc among -them. But Champlain's most conspicuous merit lies in the light that he -threw into the dark places of American geography, and the order that he -brought out of the chaos of American cartography; for it was a result of -this and the rest of his voyages that precision and clearness began at -last to supplant the vagueness, confusion, and contradiction of the -earlier map-makers. - -At Nausett Harbor provisions began to fail, and steering for St. Croix -the voyagers reached that ill-starred island on the third of August. De -Monts had found no spot to his liking. He now bethought him of that -inland harbor of Port Royal which he had granted to Poutrincourt, and -thither he resolved to remove. Stores, utensils, even portions of the -buildings, were placed on board the vessels, carried across the Bay of -Fundy, and landed at the chosen spot. It was on the north side of the -basin opposite Goat Island, and a little below the mouth of the river -Annapolis, called by the French the Equille, and, afterwards, the -Dauphin. The axe-men began their task; the dense forest was cleared -away, and the buildings of the infant colony soon rose in its place. - -But while De Monts and his company were struggling against despair at -St. Croix, the enemies of his monopoly were busy at Paris; and, by a -ship from France, he was warned that prompt measures were needed to -thwart their machinations. Therefore he set sail, leaving Pontgrave to -command at Port Royal: while Champlain, Champdore, and others, undaunted -by the past, volunteered for a second winter in the wilderness. - - - - - - -CHAPTER IV. - -1605-1607. - -LESCARBOT AND CHAMPLAIN. - -Evil reports of a churlish wilderness, a pitiless climate, disease, -misery, and death, had heralded the arrival of De Monts. The outlay had -been great, the returns small; and when he reached Paris, he found his -friends cold, his enemies active and keen. Poutrincourt, however, was -still full of zeal; and, though his private affairs urgently called for -his presence in France, he resolved, at no small sacrifice, to go in -person to Acadia. He had, moreover, a friend who proved an invaluable -ally. This was Marc Lescarbot, "avocat en Parlement," who had been -roughly handled by fortune, and was in the mood for such a venture, -being desirous, as he tells us, "to fly from a corrupt world," in which -he had just lost a lawsuit. Unlike De Monts, Poutrincourt, and others of -his associates, he was not within the pale of the noblesse, belonging to -the class of "gens de robe," which stood at the head of the bourgeoisie, -and which, in its higher grades, formed within itself a virtual -nobility. Lescarbot was no common man,--not that his abundant gift of -verse-making was likely to avail much in the woods of New France, nor -yet his classic lore, dashed with a little harmless pedantry, born not -of the man, but of the times; but his zeal, his good sense, the vigor of -his understanding, and the breadth of his views, were as conspicuous as -his quick wit and his lively fancy. One of the best, as well as -earliest, records of the early settlement of North America is due to his -pen; and it has been said, with a certain degree of truth, that he was -no less able to build up a colony than to write its history. He -professed himself a Catholic, but his Catholicity sat lightly on him; -and he might have passed for one of those amphibious religionists who in -the civil wars were called "Les Politiques." - -De Monts and Poutrincourt bestirred themselves to find a priest, since -the foes of the enterprise had been loud in lamentation that the -spiritual welfare of the Indians had been slighted. But it was Holy -Week. All the priests were, or professed to be, busy with exercises and -confessions, and not one could be found to undertake the mission of -Acadia. They were more successful in engaging mechanics and laborers for -the voyage. These were paid a portion of their wages in advance, and -were sent in a body to Rochelle, consigned to two merchants of that -port, members of the company. De Monts and Poutrincourt went thither by -post. Lescarbot soon followed, and no sooner reached Rochelle than he -penned and printed his Adieu a la France, a poem which gained for him -some credit. - -More serious matters awaited him, however, than this dalliance with the -Muse. Rochelle was the centre and citadel of Calvinism,--a town of -austere and grim aspect, divided, like Cisatlantic communities of later -growth, betwixt trade and religion, and, in the interest of both, -exacting a deportment of discreet and well-ordered sobriety. "One must -walk a strait path here," says Lescarbot, "unless he would hear from the -mayor or the ministers." But the mechanics sent from Paris, flush of -money, and lodged together in the quarter of St. Nicolas, made day and -night hideous with riot, and their employers found not a few of them in -the hands of the police. Their ship, bearing the inauspicious name of -the "Jonas," lay anchored in the stream, her cargo on board, when a -sudden gale blew her adrift. She struck on a pier, then grounded on the -flats, bilged, careened, and settled in the mud. Her captain, who was -ashore, with Poutrincourt, Lescarbot, and others, hastened aboard, and -the pumps were set in motion; while all Rochelle, we are told, came to -gaze from the ramparts, with faces of condolence, but at heart well -pleased with the disaster. The ship and her cargo were saved, but she -must be emptied, repaired, and reladen. Thus a month was lost; at -length, on the thirteenth of May, 1606, the disorderly crew were all -brought on board, and the "Jonas" put to sea. Poutrincourt and Lescarbot -had charge of the expedition, De Monts remaining in France. - -Lescarbot describes his emotions at finding himself on an element so -deficient in solidity, with only a two-inch plank between him and death. -Off the Azores, they spoke a supposed pirate. For the rest, they -beguiled the voyage by harpooning porpoises, dancing on deck in calm -weather, and fishing for cod on the Grand Bank. They were two months on -their way; and when, fevered with eagerness to reach land, they listened -hourly for the welcome cry, they were involved in impenetrable fogs. -Suddenly the mists parted, the sun shone forth, and streamed fair and -bright over the fresh hills and forests of the New World, in near view -before them. But the black rocks lay between, lashed by the snow-white -breakers. "Thus," writes Lescarbot, "doth a man sometimes seek the land -as one doth his beloved, who sometimes repulseth her sweetheart very -rudely. Finally, upon Saturday, the fifteenth of July, about two o'clock -in the afternoon, the sky began to salute us as it were with -cannon-shots, shedding tears, as being sorry to have kept us so long in -pain; . . . but, whilst we followed on our course, there came from the -land odors incomparable for sweetness, brought with a warm wind so -abundantly that all the Orient parts could not produce greater -abundance. We did stretch out our hands as it were to take them, so -palpable were they, which I have admired a thousand times since." - -It was noon on the twenty-seventh when the "Jonas" passed the rocky -gateway of Port Royal Basin, and Lescarbot gazed with delight and wonder -on the calm expanse of sunny waters, with its amphitheatre of woody -hills, wherein he saw the future asylum of distressed merit and -impoverished industry. Slowly, before a favoring breeze, they held their -course towards the head of the harbor, which narrowed as they advanced; -but all was solitude,--no moving sail, no sign of human presence. At -length, on their left, nestling in deep forests, they saw the wooden -walls and roofs of the infant colony. Then appeared a birch canoe, -cautiously coming towards them, guided by an old Indian. Then a -Frenchman, arquebuse in hand, came down to the shore; and then, from the -wooden bastion, sprang the smoke of a saluting shot. The ship replied; -the trumpets lent their voices to the din, and the forests and the hills -gave back unwonted echoes. The voyagers landed, and found the colony of -Port Royal dwindled to two solitary Frenchmen. - -These soon told their story. The preceding winter had been one of much -suffering, though by no means the counterpart of the woful experience of -St. Croix. But when the spring had passed, the summer far advanced, and -still no tidings of De Monts had come, Pontgrave grew deeply anxious. To -maintain themselves without supplies and succor was impossible. He -caused two small vessels to be built, and set out in search of some of -the French vessels on the fishing stations. This was but twelve days -before the arrival of the ship "Jonas." Two men had bravely offered -themselves to stay behind and guard the buildings, guns, and munitions; -and an old Indian chief, named Memberton, a fast friend of the French, -and still a redoubted warrior, we are told, though reputed to number -more than a hundred years, proved a stanch ally. When the ship -approached, the two guardians were at dinner in their room at the fort. -Memberton, always on the watch, saw the advancing sail, and, shouting -from the gate, roused them from their repast. In doubt who the -new-comers might be, one ran to the shore with his gun, while the other -repaired to the platform where four cannon were mounted, in the valorous -resolve to show fight should the strangers prove to be enemies. Happily -this redundancy of mettle proved needless. He saw the white flag -fluttering at the masthead, and joyfully fired his pieces as a salute. - -The voyagers landed, and eagerly surveyed their new home. Some wandered -through the buildings; some visited the cluster of Indian wigwams hard -by; some roamed in the forest and over the meadows that bordered the -neighboring river. The deserted fort now swarmed with life; and, the -better to celebrate their prosperous arrival, Poutrincourt placed a -hogs-head of wine in the courtyard at the discretion of his followers, -whose hilarity, in consequence, became exuberant. Nor was it diminished -when Pontgrave's vessels were seen entering the harbor. A boat sent by -Pountrincourt, more than a week before, to explore the coasts, had met -them near Cape Sable, and they joyfully returned to Port Royal. - -Pontgrave, however, soon sailed for France in the "Jonas," hoping on his -way to seize certain contraband fur-traders, reported to be at Canseau -and Cape Breton. Poutrincourt and Champlain, bent on finding a better -site for their settlement in a more southern latitude, set out on a -voyage of discovery, in an ill-built vessel of eighteen tons, while -Lescarbot remained in charge of Port Royal. They had little for their -pains but danger, hardship, and mishap. The autumn gales cut short their -exploration; and, after visiting Gloucester Harbor, doubling Monoinoy -Point, and advancing as far as the neighborhood of Hyannis, on the -southeast coast of Massachusetts, they turned back, somewhat disgusted -with their errand. Along the eastern verge of Cape Cod they found the -shore thickly studded with the wigwams of a race who were less hunters -than tillers of the soil. At Chatham Harbor--called by them Port -Fortune--five of the company, who, contrary to orders, had remained on -shore all night, were assailed, as they slept around their fire, by a -shower of arrows from four hundred Indians. Two were killed outright, -while the survivors fled for their boat, bristling like porcupines with -the feathered missiles,--a scene oddly portrayed by the untutored -pencil of Champlain. He and Poutrincourt, with eight men, hearing the -war-whoops and the cries for aid, sprang up from sleep, snatched their -weapons, pulled ashore in their shirts, and charged the yelling -multitude, who fled before their spectral assailants, and vanished in -the woods. "Thus," observes Lescarbot, "did thirty-five thousand -Midianites fly before Gideon and his three hundred." The French buried -their dead comrades; but, as they chanted their funeral hymn, the -Indians, at a safe distance on a neighboring hill, were dancing in glee -and triumph, and mocking them with unseemly gestures; and no sooner had -the party re-embarked, than they dug up the dead bodies, burnt them, and -arrayed themselves in their shirts. Little pleased with the country or -its inhabitants, the voyagers turned their prow towards Port Royal, -though not until, by a treacherous device, they had lured some of their -late assailants within their reach, killed them, and cut off their heads -as trophies. Near Mount Desert, on a stormy night, their rudder broke, -and they had a hair-breadth escape from destruction. The chief object of -their voyage, that of discovering a site for their colony under a more -southern sky, had failed. Pontgrave's son had his hand blown off by the -bursting of his gun; several of their number had been killed; others -were sick or wounded; and thus, on the fourteenth of November, with -somewhat downcast visages, they guided their helpless vessel with a pair -of oars to the landing at Port Royal. - -"I will not," says Lescarbot, "compare their perils to those of Ulysses, -nor yet of Aeneas, lest thereby I should sully our holy enterprise with -things impure." - -He and his followers had been expecting them with great anxiety. His -alert and buoyant spirit had conceived a plan for enlivening the courage -of the company, a little dashed of late by misgivings and forebodings. -Accordingly, as Poutrincourt, Champlain, and their weather-beaten crew -approached the wooden gateway of Port Royal, Neptune issued forth, -followed by his tritons, who greeted the voyagers in good French verse, -written in all haste for the occasion by Lescarbot. And, as they -entered, they beheld, blazoned over the arch, the arms of Prance, -circled with laurels, and flanked by the scuteheons of De Monts and -Poutrincourt. - -The ingenious author of these devices had busied himself, during the -absence of his associates, in more serious labors for the welfare of the -colony. He explored the low borders of the river Equille, or Annapolis. -Here, in the solitude, he saw great meadows, where the moose, with their -young, were grazing, and where at times the rank grass was beaten to a -pulp by the trampling of their hoofs. He burned the grass, and sowed -crops of wheat, rye, and barley in its stead. His appearance gave so -little promise of personal vigor, that some of the party assured him -that he would never see France again, and warned him to husband his -strength; but he knew himself better, and set at naught these comforting -monitions. He was the most diligent of workers. He made gardens near the -fort, where, in his zeal, he plied the hoe with his own hands late into -the moonlight evenings. The priests, of whom at the outset there had -been no lack, had all succumbed to the scurvy at St. Croix; and -Lescarbot, so far as a layman might, essayed to supply their place, -reading on Sundays from the Scriptures, and adding expositions of his -own after a fashion not remarkable for rigorous Catholicity. Of an -evening, when not engrossed with his garden, he was reading or writing -in his room, perhaps preparing the material of that History of New -France in which, despite the versatility of his busy brain, his good -sense and capacity are clearly made manifest. - -Now, however, when the whole company were reassembled, Lescarbot found -associates more congenial than the rude soldiers, mechanics, and -laborers who gathered at night around the blazing logs in their rude -hall. Port Royal was a quadrangle of wooden buildings, enclosing a -spacious court. At the southeast corner was the arched gateway, whence a -path, a few paces in length, led to the water. It was flanked by a sort -of bastion of palisades, while at the southwest corner was another -bastion, on which four cannon were mounted. On the east side of the -quadrangle was a range of magazines and storehouses; on the west were -quarters for the men; on the north, a dining-hall and lodgings for the -principal persons of the company; while on the south, or water side, -were the kitchen, the forge, and the oven. Except the Garden-patches and -the cemetery, the adjacent ground was thickly studded with the Stumps of -the newly felled trees. - -Most bountiful provision had been made for the temporal wants of the -colonists, and Lescarbot is profuse in praise of the liberality of Du -Monte and two merchants of Rochelle, who had freighted the ship "Jonas." -Of wine, in particular, the supply was so generous, that every man in -Port Royal was served with three pints daily. - -The principal persons of the colony sat, fifteen in number, at -Poutrincourt's table, which, by an ingenious device of Champlain, was -always well furnished. He formed the fifteen into a new order, -christened "L'Ordre de Bon-Temps." Each was Grand Master in turn, -holding office for one day. It was his function to cater for the -company; and, as it became a point of honor to fill the post with -credit, the prospective Grand Master was usually busy, for several days -before coming to his dignity, in hunting, fishing, or bartering -provisions with the Indians. Thus did Poutrincourt's table groan beneath -all the luxuries of the winter forest,--flesh of moose, caribou, and -deer, beaver, otter, and hare, bears and wild-cats; with ducks, geese, -grouse, and plover; sturgeon, too, and trout, and fish innumerable, -speared through the ice of the Equille, or drawn from the depths of the -neighboring bay. "And," says Lescarbot, in closing his bill of fare, -"whatever our gourmands at home may think, we found as good cheer at -Port Royal as they at their Rue aux Ours in Paris, and that, too, at a -cheaper rate." For the preparation of this manifold provision, the Grand -Master was also answerable; since, during his day of office, he was -autocrat of the kitchen. - -Nor did this bounteous repast lack a solemn and befitting ceremonial. -When the hour had struck, after the manner of our fathers they dined at -noon, the Grand Master entered the hall, a napkin on his shoulder, his -staff of office in his hand, and the collar of the Order--valued by -Lescarbot at four crowns--about his neck. The brotherhood followed, -each bearing a dish. The invited guests were Indian chiefs, of whom old -Memberton was daily present, seated at table with the French, who took -pleasure in this red-skin companionship. Those of humbler degree, -warriors, squaws, and children, sat on the floor, or crouched together -in the corners of the hall, eagerly waiting their portion of biscuit or -of bread, a novel and much coveted luxury. Being always treated with -kindness, they became fond of the French, who often followed them on -their moose-hunts, and shared their winter bivouac. - -At the evening meal there was less of form and circumstance; and when -the winter night closed in, when the flame crackled and the sparks -streamed up the wide-throated chimney, and the founders of New France -with their tawny allies were gathered around the blaze, then did the -Grand Master resign the collar and the staff to the successor of his -honors, and, with jovial courtesy, pledge him in a cup of wine. Thus -these ingenious Frenchmen beguiled the winter of their exile. - -It was an unusually mild winter. Until January, they wore no warmer -garment than their doublets. They made hunting and fishing parties, in -which the Indians, whose lodges were always to be seen under the -friendly shelter of the buildings, failed not to bear part. "I -remember," says Lescarbot, "that on the fourteenth of January, of a -Sunday afternoon, we amused ourselves with singing and music on the -river Equille; and that in the same month we went to see the -wheat-fields two leagues from the fort, and dined merrily in the -sunshine." - -Good spirits and good cheer saved them in great measure from the scurvy; -and though towards the end of winter severe cold set in, yet only four -men died. The snow thawed at last, and as patches of the black and oozy -soil began to appear, they saw the grain of their last autumn's sowing -already piercing the mould. The forced inaction of the winter was over. -The carpenters built a water-mill on the stream now called Allen's -River; others enclosed fields and laid out gardens; others, again, with -scoop-nets and baskets, caught the herrings and alewives as they ran up -the innumerable rivulets. The leaders of the colony set a contagious -example of activity. Poutrincourt forgot the prejudices of his noble -birth, and went himself into the woods to gather turpentine from the -pines, which he converted into tar by a process of his own invention; -while Lescarbot, eager to test the qualities of the soil, was again, hoe -in hand, at work all day in his garden. - -All seemed full of promise; but alas for the bright hope that kindled -the manly heart of Champlain and the earnest spirit of the vivacions -advocate! A sudden blight fell on them, and their rising prosperity -withered to the ground. On a morning, late in spring, as the French were -at breakfast, the ever watchful Membertou came in with news of an -approaching sail. They hastened to the shore; but the vision of the -centenarian sagamore put them all to shame. They could see nothing. At -length their doubts were resolved. A small vessel stood on towards them, -and anchored before the fort. She was commanded by one Chevalier, a -young man from St. Malo, and was freighted with disastrous tidings. Dc -Monts's monopoly was rescinded. The life of the enterprise was stopped, -and the establishment at Port Royal could no longer be supported; for -its expense was great, the body of the colony being laborers in the pay -of the company. Nor was the annulling of the patent the full extent of -the disaster; for, during the last summer, the Dutch had found their way -to the St. Lawrence, and carried away a rich harvest of furs, while -other interloping traders had plied a busy traffic along the coasts, -and, in the excess of their avidity, dug up the bodies of buried Indians -to rob them of their funeral robes. - -It was to the merchants and fishermen of the Norman, Breton, and -Biscayan ports, exasperated at their exclusion from a lucrative trade, -and at the confiscations which had sometimes followed their attempts to -engage in it, that this sudden blow was due. Money had been used freely -at court, and the monopoly, unjustly granted, had been more unjustly -withdrawn. De Monts and his company, who had spent a hundred thousand -livres, were allowed six thousand in requital, to be collected, if -possible, from the fur-traders in the form of a tax. - -Chevalier, captain of the ill-omened bark, was entertained with a -hospitality little deserved, since, having been intrusted with sundry -hams, fruits, spices, sweetmeats, jellies, and other dainties, sent by -the generous De Monts to his friends of New France, he with his crew had -devoured them on the voyage, alleging that, in their belief, the inmates -of Port Royal would all be dead before their arrival. - -Choice there was none, and Port Royal must be abandoned. Built on a -false basis, sustained only by the fleeting favor of a government, the -generous enterprise had come to naught. Yet Poutrincourt, who in virtue -of his grant from De Monts owned the place, bravely resolved that, come -what might, he would see the adventure to an end, even should it involve -emigration with his family to the wilderness. Meanwhile, he began the -dreary task of abandonment, sending boat-loads of men and stores to -Canseau, where lay the ship "Jonas," eking out her diminished profits by -fishing for cod. - -Membertou was full of grief at the departure of his friends. He had -built a palisaded village not far from Port Royal, and here were -mustered some four hundred of his warriors for a foray into the country -of the Armouchiquois, dwellers along the coasts of Massachusetts, New -Hampshire, and Western Maine. One of his tribesmen had been killed by a -chief from the Saco, and he was bent on revenge. He proved himself a -sturdy beggar, pursuing Pontrincourt with daily petitions,--now for a -bushel of beans, now for a basket of bread, and now for a barrel of wine -to regale his greasy crew. Memberton's long life had not been one of -repose. In deeds of blood and treachery he had no rival in the Acadian -forest; and, as his old age was beset with enemies, his alliance with -the French had a foundation of policy no less than of affection. In -right of his rank of Sagamore, he claimed perfect equality both with -Poutrincourt and with the King, laying his shrivelled forefingers -together in token of friendship between peers. Calumny did not spare -him; and a rival chief intimated to the French, that, under cover of a -war with the Armouchiquois, the crafty veteran meant to seize and -plunder Port Royal. Precautions, therefore, were taken; but they were -seemingly needless; for, their feasts and dances over, the warriors -launched their birchen flotilla and set out. After an absence of six -weeks they reappeared with howls of victory, and their exploits were -commemorated in French verse by the muse of the indefatigable Lescarbot. - -With a heavy heart the advocate bade farewell to the dwellings, the -cornfields, the gardens, and all the dawning prosperity of Port Royal, -and sailed for Canseau in a small vessel on the thirtieth of July. -Pontrincourt and Champlain remained behind, for the former was resolved -to learn before his departure the results of his agricultural labors. -Reaching a harbor on the southern coast of Nova Scotia, six leagues west -of Cansean, Lescarbot found a fishing-vessel commanded and owned by an -old Basque, named Savalet, who for forty-two successive years had -carried to France his annual cargo of codfish. He was in great glee at -the success of his present venture, reckoning his profits at ten -thousand francs. The Indians, however, annoyed him beyond measure, -boarding him from their canoes as his fishing-boats came alongside, and -helping themselves at will to his halibut and cod. At Cansean--a harbor -near the strait now bearing the name--the ship Jonas still lay, her -hold well stored with fish; and here, on the twenty-seventh of August, -Lescarbot was rejoined by Poutrincourt and Champlain, who had come from -Port Royal in an open boat. For a few days, they amused themselves with -gathering raspberries on the islands; then they spread their sails for -France, and early in October, 1607, anchored in the harbor of St. Malo. - -First of Europeans, they had essayed to found an agricultural colony in -the New World. The leaders of the enterprise had acted less as merchants -than as citizens; and the fur-trading monopoly, odious in itself, had -been used as the instrument of a large and generous design. There was a -radical defect, however, in their scheme of settlement. Excepting a few -of the leaders, those engaged in it had not chosen a home in the -wilderness of New France, but were mere hirelings, without wives or -families, and careless of the welfare of the colony. The life which -should have pervaded all the members was confined to the heads alone. In -one respect, however, the enterprise of De Monts was truer in principle -than the Roman Catholic colonization of Canada, on the one hand, or the -Puritan colonization of Massachusetts, on the other, for it did not -attempt to enforce religions exclusion. - -Towards the fickle and bloodthirsty race who claimed the lordship of the -forests, these colonists, excepting only in the treacherous slaughter at -Port Fortune, bore themselves in a spirit of kindness contrasting -brightly with the rapacious cruelty of the Spaniards and the harshness -of the English settlers. When the last boat-load left Port Royal, the -shore resounded with lamentation; and nothing could console the -afflicted savages but reiterated promises of a speedy return. - - - - - - - -CHAPTER V. - -1610, 1611. - -THE JESUITS AND THEIR PATRONESS. - -Poutrincourt, we have seen, owned Port Royal in virtue of a grant from -De Monts. The ardent and adventurous baron was in evil case, involved in -litigation and low in purse; but nothing could damp his zeal. Acadia -must become a new France, and he, Poutrincourt, must be its father. He -gained from the King a confirmation of his grant, and, to supply the -lack of his own weakened resources, associated with himself one Robin, a -man of family and wealth. This did not save him from a host of delays -and vexations; and it was not until the spring of 1610 that he found -himself in a condition to embark on his new and doubtful venture. - -Meanwhile an influence, of sinister omen as he thought, had begun to act -upon his schemes. The Jesuits were strong at court. One of their number, -the famous Father Coton, was confessor to Henry the Fourth, and, on -matters of this world as of the next, was ever whispering at the facile -ear of the renegade King. New France offered a fresh field of action to -the indefatigable Society of Jesus, and Coton urged upon the royal -convert, that, for the saving of souls, some of its members should be -attached to the proposed enterprise. The King, profoundly indifferent in -matters of religion, saw no evil in a proposal which at least promised -to place the Atlantic betwixt him and some of those busy friends whom at -heart he deeply mistrusted. Other influences, too, seconded the -confessor. Devout ladies of the court, and the Queen herself, supplying -the lack of virtue with an overflowing piety, burned, we are assured, -with a holy zeal for snatching the tribes of the West from the bondage -of Satan. Therefore it was insisted that the projected colony should -combine the spiritual with the temporal character,--or, in other words, -that Poutrincourt should take Jesuits with him. Pierre Biard, Professor -of Theology at Lyons, was named for the mission, and repaired in haste -to Bordeaux, the port of embarkation, where he found no vessel, and no -sign of preparation; and here, in wrath and discomfiture, he remained -for a whole year. - -That Poutrincourt was a good Catholic appears from a letter to the Pope, -written for him in Latin by Lescarbot, asking a blessing on his -enterprise, and assuring his Holiness that one of his grand objects was -the saving of souls. But, like other good citizens, he belonged to the -national party in the Church, those liberal Catholics, who, side by side -with the Huguenots, had made head against the League, with its Spanish -allies, and placed Henry the Fourth upon the throne. The Jesuits, an -order Spanish in origin and policy, determined champions of ultramontane -principles, the sword and shield of the Papacy in its broadest -pretensions to spiritual and temporal sway, were to him, as to others of -his party, objects of deep dislike and distrust. He feared them in his -colony, evaded what he dared not refuse, left Biarci waiting in solitude -at Bordeax, and sought to postpone the evil day by assuring Father Coton -that, though Port Royal was at present in no state to receive the -missionaries, preparation should be made to entertain them the next year -after a befitting fashion. - -Poutrincourt owned the barony of St. Just in Champagne, inherited a few -years before from his mother. Hence, early in February, 1610, he set out -in a boat loaded to the gunwales with provisions, furniture, goods, and -munitions for Port Royal, descended the rivers Aube and Seine, and -reached Dieppe safely with his charge. Here his ship was awaiting him; -and on the twenty-sixth of February he set sail, giving the slip to the -indignant Jesuit at Bordeaux. - -The tedium of a long passage was unpleasantly broken by a mutiny among -the crew. It was suppressed, however, and Poutrincourt entered at length -the familiar basin of Port Royal. The buildings were still standing, -whole and sound save a partial falling in of the roofs. Even furniture -was found untouched in the deserted chambers. The centenarian Membertou -was still alive, his leathern, wrinkled visage beaming with welcome. - -Pontrincourt set himself without delay to the task of Christianizing New -France, in an access of zeal which his desire of proving that Jesuit aid -was superfluous may be supposed largely to have reinforced. He had a -priest with him, one La Fleche, whom he urged to the pious work. No time -was lost. Membertou first was catechised, confessed his sins, and -renounced the Devil, whom we are told he had faithfully served during a -hundred and ten years. His squaws, his children, his grandchildren, and -his entire clan were next won over. It was in June, the day of St. John -the Baptist, when the naked proselytes. twenty-one in number, were -gathered on the shore at Port Royal. Here was the priest in the -vestments of his office; here were gentlemen in gay attire, soldiers, -laborers, lackeys, all the infant colony. The converts kneeled; the -sacred rite was finished, Te Deum was sung, and the roar of cannon -proclaimed this triumph over the powers of darkness. Membertou was named -Henri, after the King; his principal squaw, Marie, after the Queen. One -of his sons received the name of the Pope, another that of the Dauphin; -his daughter was called Marguerite, after the divorced Marguerite de -Valois, and, in like manner, the rest of the squalid company exchanged -their barbaric appellatives for the names of princes, nobles, and ladies -of rank. - -The fame of this chef-d'aeuvre of Christian piety, as Lescarbot gravely -calls it, spread far and wide through the forest, whose denizens,-- -partly out of a notion that the rite would bring good luck, partly to -please the French, and partly to share in the good cheer with which the -apostolic efforts of Father La Fleche had been sagaciously seconded-- -came flocking to enroll themselves under the banners of the Faith. Their -zeal ran high. They would take no refusal. Membertou was for war on all -who would not turn Christian. A living skeleton was seen crawling from -hut to hut in search of the priest and his saving waters; while another -neophyte, at the point of death, asked anxiously whether, in the realms -of bliss to which he was bound, pies were to be had comparable to those -with which the French regaled him. - -A formal register of baptisms was drawn up to be carried to France in -the returning ship, of which Pontrincourt's son, Biencourt, a spirited -youth of eighteen, was to take charge. He sailed in July, his father -keeping him company as far as Port la Have, whence, bidding the young -man farewell, he attempted to return in an open boat to Port Royal. A -north wind blew him out to sea; and for six days he was out of sight of -land, subsisting on rain-water wrung from the boat's sail, and on a few -wild-fowl which he had shot on an island. Five weeks passed before he -could rejoin his colonists, who, despairing of his safety, were about to -choose a new chief. - -Meanwhile, young Biencourt, speeding on his way, heard dire news from a -fisherman on the Grand Bank. The knife of Ravaillac had done its work. -Henry the Fourth was dead. - -There is an ancient street in Paris, where a great thoroughfare -contracts to a narrow pass, the Rue de la Ferronnerie. Tall buildings -overshadow it, packed from pavement to tiles with human life, and from -the dingy front of one of them the sculptured head of a man looks down -on the throng that ceaselessly defiles beneath. On the fourteenth of -May, 1610, a ponderous coach, studded with fleurs-de-lis and rich with -gilding, rolled along this street. In it was a small man, well advanced -in life, whose profile once seen could not be forgotten,--a hooked -nose, a protruding chin, a brow full of wrinkles, grizzled hair, a -short, grizzled beard, and stiff, gray moustaches, bristling like a -cat's. One would have thought him some whiskered satyr, grim from the -rack of tumultuous years; but his alert, upright port bespoke unshaken -vigor, and his clear eye was full of buoyant life. Following on the -footway strode a tall, strong, and somewhat corpulent man, with -sinister, deep-set eyes and a red beard, his arm and shoulder covered -with his cloak. In the throat of the thoroughfare, where the sculptured -image of Henry the Fourth still guards the spot, a collision of two -carts stopped the coach. Ravaillac quickened his pace. In an instant he -was at the door. With his cloak dropped from his shoulders, and a long -knife in his hand, he set his foot upon a guardstone, thrust his head -and shoulders into the coach, and with frantic force stabbed thrice at -the King's heart. A broken exclamation, a gasping convulsion,--and then -the grim visage drooped on the bleeding breast. Henry breathed his last, -and the hope of Europe died with him. - -The omens were sinister for Old France and for New. Marie de Medicis, -"cette grosse banquiere," coarse scion of a bad stock, false wife and -faithless queen, paramour of an intriguing foreigner, tool of the -Jesuits and of Spain, was Regent in the minority of her imbecile son. -The Huguenots drooped, the national party collapsed, the vigorous hand -of Sully was felt no more, and the treasure gathered for a vast and -beneficent enterprise became the instrument of despotism and the prey of -corruption. Under such dark auspices, young Biencourt entered the -thronged chambers of the Louvre. - -He gained audience of the Queen, and displayed his list of baptisms; -while the ever present Jesuits failed not to seize him by the button, -assuring him, not only that the late King had deeply at heart the -establishment of their Society in Acadia, but that to this end he had -made them a grant of two thousand livres a year. The Jesuits had found -an ally and the intended mission a friend at court, whose story and -whose character are too striking to pass unnoticed. - -This was a lady of honor to the Queen, Antoinette de Pons, Marquise de -Guercheville, once renowned for grace and beauty, and not less -conspicuous for qualities rare in the unbridled court of Henry's -predecessor, where her youth had been passed. When the civil war was at -its height, the royal heart, leaping with insatiable restlessness from -battle to battle, from mistress to mistress, had found a brief repose in -the affections of his Corisande, famed in tradition and romance; but -Corisande was suddenly abandoned, and the young widow, Madame de -Guercheville, became the load-star of his erratic fancy. It was an evil -hour for the Bearnais. Henry sheathed in rusty steel, battling for his -crown and his life, and Henry robed in royalty and throned triumphant in -the Louvre, alike urged their suit in vain. Unused to defeat, the King's -passion rose higher for the obstacle that barred it. On one occasion he -was met with an answer not unworthy of record:-- - -"Sire, my rank, perhaps, is not high enough to permit me to be your -wife, but my heart is too high to permit me to be your mistress." - -She left the court and retired to her chateau of La Roche-Guyon, on the -Seine, ten leagues below Paris, where, fond of magnificence, she is said -to have lived in much expense and splendor. The indefatigable King, -haunted by her memory, made a hunting-party in the neighboring forests; -and, as evening drew near, separating himself from his courtiers, he -sent a gentleman of his train to ask of Madame de Guercheville the -shelter of her roof. The reply conveyed a dutiful acknowledgment of the -honor, and an offer of the best entertainment within her power. It was -night when Henry with his little band of horsemen, approached the -chateau, where lights were burning in every window, after a fashion of -the day on occasions of welcome to an honored guest. Pages stood in the -gateway, each with a blazing torch; and here, too, were gentlemen of the -neighborhood, gathered to greet their sovereign. Madame de Guercheville -came forth, followed by the women of her household; and when the King, -unprepared for so benign a welcome, giddy with love and hope, saw her -radiant in pearls and more radiant yet in a beauty enhanced by the wavy -torchlight and the surrounding shadows, he scarcely dared trust his -senses:-- - -"Que vois-je, madame; est-ce bien vous, et suis-je ce roi meprise?" - -He gave her his hand, and she led him within the chateau, where, at the -door of the apartment destined for him, she left him, with a graceful -reverence. The King, nowise disconcerted, did not doubt that she had -gone to give orders for his entertainment, when an attendant came to -tell him that she had descended to the courtyard and called for her -coach. Thither he hastened in alarm: - -"What! am I driving you from your house?" - -"Sire," replied Madame de Guercheville, "where a king is, he should be -the sole master; but, for my part, I like to preserve some little -authority wherever I may be." - -With another deep reverence, she entered her coach and disappeared, -seeking shelter under the roof of a friend, some two leagues off, and -leaving the baffled King to such consolation as he might find in a -magnificent repast, bereft of the presence of the hostess. - -Henry could admire the virtue which he could not vanquish; and, long -after, on his marriage, he acknowledged his sense of her worth by -begging her to accept an honorable post near the person of the Queen. - -"Madame," he said, presenting her to Marie de Medicis, "I give you a -lady of honor who is a lady of honor indeed." - -Some twenty years had passed since the adventure of La Roche-Guyon. -Madame de Guercheville had outlived the charms which had attracted her -royal suitor, but the virtue which repelled him was reinforced by a -devotion no less uncompromising. A rosary in her hand and a Jesuit at -her side, she realized the utmost wishes of the subtle fathers who had -moulded and who guided her. She readily took fire when they told her of -the benighted souls of New France, and the wrongs of Father Biard -kindled her utmost indignation. She declared herself the protectress of -the American missions; and the only difficulty, as a Jesuit writer tells -us, was to restrain her zeal within reasonable bounds. - -She had two illustrious coadjutors. The first was the jealous Queen, -whose unbridled rage and vulgar clamor had made the Louvre a hell. The -second was Henriette d'Entragues, Marquise de Vernenil, the crafty and -capricious siren who had awakened these conjugal tempests. To this -singular coalition were joined many other ladies of the court; for the -pious flame, fanned by the Jesuits, spread through hall and boudoir, and -fair votaries of the Loves and Graces found it a more grateful task to -win heaven for the heathen than to merit it for themselves. - -Young Biencourt saw it vain to resist. Biard must go with him in the -returning ship, and also another Jesuit, Enemond Masse. The two fathers -repaired to Dieppe, wafted on the wind of court favor, which they never -doubted would bear them to their journey s end. Not so, however. -Poutrincourt and his associates, in the dearth of their own resources, -had bargained with two Huguenot merchants of Dieppe, Du Jardin and Du -Quesne, to equip and load the vessel, in consideration of their becoming -partners in the expected profits. Their indignation was extreme when -they saw the intended passengers. They declared that they would not aid -in building up a colony for the profit of the King of Spain, nor risk -their money in a venture where Jesuits were allowed to intermeddle; and -they closed with a fiat refusal to receive them on board, unless, they -added with patriotic sarcasm, the Queen would direct them to transport -the whole order beyond sea. Biard and Masse insisted, on which the -merchants demanded reimbursement for their outlay, as they would have no -further concern in the business. - -Biard communicated with Father Coton, Father Coton with Madame de -Guercheville. No more was needed. The zealous lady of honor, -"indignant," says Biard, "to see the efforts of hell prevail," and -resolved "that Satan should not remain master of the field," set on foot -a subscription, and raised an ample fund within the precincts of the -court. Biard, in the name of the "Province of France of the Order of -Jesus," bought out the interest of the two merchants for thirty-eight -hundred livres, thus constituting the Jesuits equal partners in business -with their enemies. Nor was this all; for, out of the ample proceeds of -the subscription, he lent to the needy associates a further sum of seven -hundred and thirty-seven livres, and advanced twelve hundred and -twenty-five more to complete the outfit of the ship. Well pleased, the -triumphant priests now embarked, and friend and foe set sail together on -the twenty-sixth of January, 1611. - - - - - - -CHAPTER VI. - -1611, 1612. - -JESUITS IN ACADIA. - - -The voyage was one of inordinate length,--beset, too, with icebergs, -larger and taller, according to the Jesuit voyagers, than the Church of -Notre Dame; but on the day of Pentecost their ship, "The Grace of God," -anchored before Port Royal. Then first were seen in the wilderness of -New France the close black cap, the close black robe, of the Jesuit -father, and the features seamed with study and thought and discipline. -Then first did this mighty Proteus, this many-colored Society of Jesus, -enter upon that rude field of toil and woe, where, in after years, the -devoted zeal of its apostles was to lend dignity to their order and do -honor to humanity. - -Few were the regions of the known world to which the potent brotherhood -had not stretched the vast network of its influence. Jesuits had -disputed in theology with the bonzes of Japan, and taught astronomy to -the mandarins of China; had wrought prodigies of sudden conversion among -the followers of Bralinra, preached the papal supremacy to Abyssinian -schismatics, carried the cross among the savages of Caffraria, wrought -reputed miracles in Brazil, and gathered the tribes of Paraguay beneath -their paternal sway. And now, with the aid of the Virgin and her votary -at court, they would build another empire among the tribes of New -France. The omens were sinister and the outset was unpropitious. The -Society was destined to reap few laurels from the brief apostleship of -Biard and Masse. - -When the voyagers landed, they found at Port Royal a band of -half-famished men, eagerly expecting their succor. The voyage of four -months had, however, nearly exhausted their own very moderate stock of -provisions, and the mutual congratulations of the old colonists and the -new were damped by a vision of starvation. A friction, too, speedily -declared itself between the spiritual and the temporal powers. -Pontgrave's son, then trading on the coast, had exasperated the Indians -by an outrage on one of their women, and, dreading the wrath of -Poutrincourt, had fled to the woods. Biard saw fit to take his part, -remonstrated for him with vehemence, gained his pardon, received his -confession, and absolved him. The Jesuit says that he was treated with -great consideration by Poutrincourt, and that he should be forever -beholden to him. The latter, however, chafed at Biard's interference. - -"Father," he said, "I know my duty, and I beg you will leave me to do -it. I, with my sword, have hopes of paradise, as well as you with your -breviary. Show me my path to heaven. I will show you yours on earth." - -He soon set sail for France, leaving his son Biencourt in charge. This -hardy young sailor, of ability and character beyond his years, had, on -his visit to court, received the post of Vice-Admiral in the seas of New -France, and in this capacity had a certain authority over the -trading-vessels of St. Malo and Rochelle, several of which were upon the -coast. To compel the recognition of this authority, and also to purchase -provisions, he set out along with Biard in a boat filled with armed -followers. His first collision was with young Pontgrave, who with a few -men had built a trading-hut on the St. John, where he proposed to -winter. Meeting with resistance, Biencourt took the whole party -prisoners, in spite of the remonstrances of Biard. Next, proceeding -along the coast, he levied tribute on four or five traders wintering at -St. Croix, and, continuing his course to the Kennebec, found the Indians -of that region greatly enraged at the conduct of certain English -adventurers, who three or four years before had, as they said, set dogs -upon them and otherwise maltreated them. These were the colonists under -Popham and Gilbert, who in 1607 and 1608 made an abortive attempt to -settle near the mouth of the river. Nothing now was left of them but -their deserted fort. The neighboring Indians were Abenakis, one of the -tribes included by the French under the general name of Armouchiquois. -Their disposition was doubtful, and it needed all the coolness of young -Biencourt to avoid a fatal collision. On one occasion a curious incident -took place. The French met six canoes full of warriors descending the -Kennebec, and, as neither party trusted the other, the two encamped on -opposite banks of the river. In the evening the Indians began to sing -and dance. Biard suspected these proceedings to be an invocation of the -Devil, and "in order," he says, "to thwart this accursed tyrant, I made -our people sing a few church hymns, such as the Salve, the Ave Mans -Stella, and others. But being once in train, and getting to the end of -their spiritual songs, they fell to singing such others as they knew, -and when these gave out they took to mimicking the dancing and singing -of the Armouchiquois on the other side of the water; and as Frenchmen -are naturally good mimics, they did it so well that the Armouchiquols -stopped to listen; at which our people stopped too; and then the Indians -began again. You would have laughed to hear them, for they were like two -choirs answering each other in concert, and you would hardly have known -the real Armouchiquois from the sham ones." - -Before the capture of young Pontgrave, Biard made him a visit at his -camp, six leagues up the St. John. Pontgrave's men were sailors from St. -Malo, between whom and the other Frenchmen there was much ill blood, -Biard had hardly entered the river when he saw the evening sky crimsoned -with the dancing fires of a superb aurora borealis, and he and his -attendants marvelled what evil thing the prodigy might portend. Their -Indian companions said that it was a sign of war. In fact, the night -after they had joined Pontgrave a furious quarrel broke out in the camp, -with abundant shouting, gesticulating and swearing; and, says the -father, "I do not doubt that an accursed band of furious and sanguinary -spirits were hovering about us all night, expecting every moment to see -a horrible massacre of the few Christians in those parts; but the -goodness of God bridled their malice. No blood was shed, and on the next -day the squall ended in a fine calm." - -He did not like the Indians, whom he describes as "lazy, gluttonous, -irreligious, treacherous, cruel, and licentious." He makes an exception -in favor of Memberton, whom he calls "the greatest, most renowned, and -most redoubted savage that ever lived in the memory of man," and -especially commends him for contenting himself with but one wife, hardly -a superlative merit in a centenarian. Biard taught him to say the Lord's -Prayer, though at the petition, "Give us this clay our daily bread," the -chief remonstrated, saying, "If I ask for nothing but bread, I shall get -no fish or moose meat." His protracted career was now drawing to a -close, and, being brought to the settlement in a dying state, he was -placed in Biard's bed and attended by the two Jesuits. He was as -remarkable in person as in character, for he was bearded like a -Frenchman. Though, alone among La Fleche's converts, the Faith seemed to -have left some impression upon him, he insisted on being buried with his -heathen forefathers, but was persuaded to forego a wish fatal to his -salvation, and slept at last in consecrated ground. - -Another of the scanty fruits of the mission was a little girl on the -point of death, whom Biard had asked her parents to give him for -baptism. "Take her and keep her, if you like," was the reply, "for she -is no better than a dead dog." "We accepted the offer," says Biard, "in -order to show them the difference between Christianity and their -impiety; and after giving her what care we could, together with some -instruction, we baptized her. We named her after Madame the Marquise de -Guercheville, in gratitude for the benefits we have received from that -lady, who can now rejoice that her name is already in heaven; for, a few -days after baptism, the chosen soul flew to that place of glory." - -Biard's greatest difficulty was with the Micmac language. Young -Biencourt was his best interpreter, and on common occasions served him -well; but the moment that religion was in question he was, as it were, -stricken dumb,--the reason being that the language was totally without -abstract terms. Biard resolutely set himself to the study of it,--a -hard and thorny path, on which he made small progress, and often went -astray. Seated, pencil in hand, before some Indian squatting on the -floor, whom with the bribe of a mouldy biscuit he had lured into the -hut, he plied him with questions which he often neither would nor could -answer. What was the Indian word for Faith, Hope, Charity, Sacrament, -Baptism, Eucharist, Trinity, Incarnation? The perplexed savage, willing -to amuse himself, and impelled, as Biard thinks, by the Devil, gave him -scurrilous and unseemly phrases as the equivalent of things holy, which, -studiously incorporated into the father's Indian catechism, produced on -his pupils an effect the reverse of that intended. Biard's colleague, -Masse, was equally zealous, and still less fortunate. He tried a forest -life among the Indians 'with signal ill success. Hard fare, smoke, -filth, the scolding of squaws, and the cries of children reduced him to -a forlorn condition of body and mind, wore him to a skeleton, and sent -him back to Port Royal without a single convert. - -The dark months wore slowly on. A band of half-famished men gathered -about the huge fires of their barn-like hall, moody, sullen, and -quarrelsome. Discord was here in the black robe of the Jesuit and the -brown capote of the rival trader. The position of the wretched little -colony may well provoke reflection. Here lay the shaggy continent, from -Florida to the Pole, outstretched in savage slumber along the sea, the -stern domain of Nature,--or, to adopt the ready solution of the -Jesuits, a realm of the powers of night, blasted beneath the sceptre of -hell. On the banks of James River was a nest of woe-begone Englishmen, a -handful of Dutch fur-traders at the mouth of the Hudson, and a few -shivering Frenchmen among the snow-drifts of Acadia; while deep within -the wild monotony of desolation, on the icy verge of the great northern -river, the hand of Champlain upheld the fleur-de-lis on the rock of -Quebec. These were the advance guard, the forlorn hope of civilization, -messengers of promise to a desert continent. Yet, unconscious of their -high function, not content with inevitable woes, they were rent by petty -jealousies and miserable feuds; while each of these detached fragments -of rival nationalities, scarcely able to maintain its own wretched -existence on a few square miles, begrudged to the others the smallest -share in a domain which all the nations of Europe could hardly have -sufficed to fill. - -One evening, as the forlorn tenants of Port Royal sat together -disconsolate, Biard was seized with a spirit of prophecy. He called upon -Biencourt to serve out the little of wine that remained,--a proposal -which met with high favor from the company present, though apparently -with none from the youthful Vice-Admiral. The wine was ordered, however, -and, as an unwonted cheer ran round the circle, the Jesuit announced -that an inward voice told him how, within a month, they should see a -ship from France. In truth, they saw one within a week. On the -twentythird of January, 1612, arrived a small vessel laden with a -moderate store of provisions and abundant seeds of future strife. - -This was the expected succor sent by Poutrincourt. A series of ruinous -voyages had exhausted his resources but he had staked all on the success -of the colony, had even brought his family to Acadia, and he would not -leave them and his companions to perish. His credit was gone; his hopes -were dashed; yet assistance was proffered, and, in his extremity, he was -forced to accept it. It came from Madame de Guercheville and her Jesuit -advisers. She offered to buy the interest of a thousand crowns in the -enterprise. The ill-omened succor could not be refused; but this was not -all. The zealous protectress of the missions obtained from De Monts, -whose fortunes, like those of Poutrincouirt, had ebbed low, a transfer -of all his claims to the lands of Acadia; while the young King, Louis -the Thirteenth, was persuaded to give her, in addition, a new grant of -all the territory of North America, from the St. Lawrence to Florida. -Thus did Madame de Guercheville, or in other words, the Jesuits who used -her name as a cover, become proprietors of the greater part of the -future United States and British Provinces. The English colony of -Virginia and the Dutch trading-houses of New York were included within -the limits of this destined Northern Paraguay; while Port Royal, the -seigniory of the unfortunate Poutrincourt, was encompassed, like a petty -island, by the vast domain of the Society of Jesus. They could not -deprive him of it, since his title had been confirmed by the late King, -but they flattered themselves, to borrow their own language, that he -would be "confined as in a prison." His grant, however, had been vaguely -worded, and, while they held him restricted to an insignificant patch of -ground, he claimed lordship over a wide and indefinite territory. Here -was argument for endless strife. Other interests, too, were adverse. -Poutrincourt, in his discouragement, had abandoned his plan of liberal -colonization, and now thought of nothing but beaver-skins. He wished to -make a trading-post; the Jesuits wished to make a mission. - -When the vessel anchored before Port Royal, Biencourt, with disgust and -anger, saw another Jesuit landed at the pier. This was Gilbert du Thet, -a lay brother, versed in affairs of this world, who had come out as -representative and administrator of Madame de Guercheville. -Poutrincourt, also, had his agent on board; and, without the loss of a -day, the two began to quarrel. A truce ensued; then a smothered feud, -pervading the whole colony, and ending in a notable explosion. The -Jesuits, chafing under the sway of Biencourt, had withdrawn without -ceremony, and betaken themselves to the vessel, intending to sail for -France. Biencourt, exasperated at such a breach of discipline, and -fearing their representations at court, ordered them to return, adding -that, since the Queen had commended them to his especial care, he could -not, in conscience, lose sight of them. The indignant fathers -excommunicated him. On this, the sagamore Louis, son of the grisly -convert Membertou, begged leave to kill them; but Biencourt would not -countenance this summary mode of relieving his embarrassment. He again, -in the King's name, ordered the clerical mutineers to return to the -fort. Biard declared that he would not, threatened to excommunicate any -who should lay hand on him, and called the Vice-Admiral a robber. His -wrath, however, soon cooled; he yielded to necessity, and came quietly -ashore, where, for the next three months, neither he nor his colleagues -would say mass, or perform any office of religion. At length a change -came over him; he made advances of peace, prayed that the past might be -forgotten, said mass again, and closed with a petition that Brother du -Thet might be allowed to go to France in a trading vessel then on the -coast. His petition being granted, he wrote to Poutrincourt a letter -overflowing with praises of his son; and, charged with this missive, Du -Thet set sail. - - - - - - -CHAPTER VII. - -1613. - -LA SAUSSAYE.--ARGALL - - -Pending these squabbles, the Jesuits at home were far from idle. Bent on -ridding themselves of Poutrincourt, they seized, in satisfaction of -debts due them, all the cargo of his returning vessel, and involved him -in a network of litigation. If we accept his own statements in a letter -to his friend Lescarbot, he was outrageously misused, and indeed -defrauded, by his clerical copartners, who at length had him thrown into -prison. Here, exasperated, weary, sick of Acadia, and anxious for the -wretched exiles who looked to him for succor, the unfortunate man fell -ill. Regaining his liberty, he again addressed himself with what -strength remained to the forlorn task of sending relief to his son and -his comrades. - -Scarcely had Brother Gilbert du Thet arrived in France, when Madame de -Guercheville and her Jesuits, strong in court favor and in the charity -of wealthy penitents, prepared to take possession of their empire beyond -sea. Contributions were asked, and not in vain; for the sagacious -fathers, mindful of every spring of influence, had deeply studied the -mazes of feminine psychology, and then, as now, were favorite confessors -of the fair. It was on the twelfth of March, 1613, that the "Mayflower" -of the Jesuits sailed from Honfleur for the shores of New England. She -was the "Jonas," formerly in the service of De Monts, a small craft -bearing forty-eight sailors and colonists, including two Jesuits, Father -Quentin and Brother Du Thet. She carried horses, too, and goats, and was -abundantly stored with all things needful by the pious munificence of -her patrons. A courtier named La Saussaye was chief of the colony, -Captain Charles Fleury commanded. the ship, and, as she winged her way -across the Atlantic, benedictions hovered over her from lordly halls and -perfumed chambers. - -On the sixteenth of May, La Saussaye touched at La Heve, where he heard -mass, planted a cross, and displayed the scutcheon of Madame de -Guercheville. Thence, passing on to Port Royal, he found Biard, Masse, -their servant-boy, an apothecary, and one man beside. Biencourt and his -followers were scattered about the woods and shores, digging the -tuberous roots called ground-nuts, catching alewives in the brooks, and -by similar expedients sustaining their miserable existence. Taking the -two Jesuits on board, the voyagers steered for the Penobscot. A fog rose -upon the sea. They sailed to and fro, groping their way in blindness, -straining their eyes through the mist, and trembling each instant lest -they should descry the black outline of some deadly reef and the ghostly -death-dance of the breakers, But Heaven heard their prayers. At night -they could see the stars. The sun rose resplendent on a laughing sea, -and his morning beams streamed fair and full on the wild heights of the -island of Mount Desert. They entered a bay that stretched inland between -iron-bound shores, and gave it the name of St. Sauveur. It is now called -Frenchman's Bay. They saw a coast-line of weather-beaten crags set thick -with spruce and fir, the surf-washed cliffs of Great Head and Schooner -Head, the rocky front of Newport Mountain, patched with ragged woods, -the arid domes of Dry Mountain and Green Mountain, the round bristly -backs of the Porcupine Islands, and the waving outline of the -Gouldsborough Hills. - -La Saussaye cast anchor not far from Schooner Head, and here he lay till -evening. The jet-black shade betwixt crags and sea, the pines along the -cliff, pencilled against the fiery sunset, the dreamy slumber of distant -mountains bathed in shadowy purples--such is the scene that in this our -day greets the wandering artist, the roving collegian bivouacked on the -shore, or the pilgrim from stifled cities renewing his laded strength in -the mighty life of Nature. Perhaps they then greeted the adventurous -Frenchmen. There was peace on the wilderness and peace on the sea; but -none in this missionary bark, pioneer of Christianity and civilization. -A rabble of angry sailors clamored on her deck, ready to mutiny over the -terms of their engagement. Should the time of their stay be reckoned -from their landing at La Heve, or from their anchoring at Mount Desert? -Fleury, the naval commander, took their part. Sailor, courtier, and -priest gave tongue together in vociferous debate. Poutrincourt was far -away, a ruined man, and the intractable Vice-Admiral had ceased from -troubling; yet not the less were the omens of the pious enterprise -sinister and dark. The company, however, went ashore, raised a cross, -and heard mass. - -At a distance in the woods they saw the signal smoke of Indians, whom -Biard lost no time in visiting. Some of them were from a village on the -shore, three leagues westward. They urged the French to go with them to -their wigwams. The astute savages had learned already how to deal with a -Jesuit. - -"Our great chief, Asticou, is there. He wishes for baptism. He is very -sick. He will die unbaptized. He will burn in hell, and it will be all -your fault." - -This was enough. Biard embarked in a canoe, and they paddied him to the -spot, where he found the great chief, Asticou, in his wigwam, with a -heavy cold in the head. Disappointed of his charitable purpose, the -priest consoled himself with observing the beauties of the neighboring -shore, which seemed to him better fitted than St. Sauveur for the -intended settlement. It was a gentle slope, descending to the water, -covered with tall grass, and backed by rocky hills. It looked southeast -upon a harbor where a fleet might ride at anchor, sheltered from the -gales by a cluster of islands. - -The ship was brought to the spot, and the colonists disembarked. First -they planted a cross; then they began their labors, and with their -labors their quarrels. La Saussaye, zealous for agriculture, wished to -break ground and raise crops immediately; the rest opposed him, wishing -first to be housed and fortified. Fleury demanded that the ship should -be unladen, and La Saussaye would not consent. Debate ran high, when -suddenly all was harmony, and the disputants were friends once more in -the pacification of a common danger. - -Far out at sea, beyond the islands that sheltered their harbor, they saw -an approaching sail; and as she drew near, straining their anxious eyes, -they could descry the red flags that streamed from her masthead and her -stern; then the black muzzles of her cannon,--they counted seven on a -side; then the throng of men upon her decks. The wind was brisk and -fair; all her sails were set; she came on, writes a spectator, more -swiftly than an arrow. - -Six years before, in 1607, the ships of Captain Newport had conveyed to -the banks of James River the first vital germ of English colonization on -the continent. Noble and wealthy speculators with Hispaniola, Mexico, -and Peru for their inspiration, had combined to gather the fancied -golden harvest of Virginia, received a charter from the Crown, and taken -possession of their El Dorado. From tavern, gaming-house, and brothel -was drawn the staple the colony,--ruined gentlemen, prodigal sons, -disreputable retainers, debauched tradesmen. Yet it would be foul -slander to affirm that the founders of Virginia were all of this stamp; -for among the riotous crew were men of worth, and, above them all, a -hero disguised by the homeliest of names. Again and again, in direst woe -and jeopardy, the infant settlement owed its life to the heart and hand -of John Smith. - -Several years had elapsed since Newport's voyage; and the colony, -depleted by famine, disease, and an Indian war, had been recruited by -fresh emigration, when one Samuel Argall arrived at Jamestown, captain -of an illicit trading-vessel. He was a man of ability and force,--one -of those compounds of craft and daring in which the age was fruitful; -for the rest, unscrupulous and grasping. In the spring of 1613 he -achieved a characteristic exploit,--the abduction of Pocahontas, that -most interesting of young squaws, or, to borrow the style of the day, of -Indian princesses. Sailing up the Potomac he lured her on board his -ship, and then carried off the benefactress of the colony a prisoner to -Jamestown. Here a young man of family, Rolfe, became enamoured of her, -married her with more than ordinary ceremony, and thus secured a firm -alliance between her tribesmen and the English. - -Meanwhile Argall had set forth on another enterprise. With a ship of one -hundred and thirty tons, carrying fourteen guns and sixty men, he sailed -in May for islands off the coast of Maine to fish, as he says for cod. -He had a more important errand; for Sir Thomas Dale, Governor of -Virginia, had commissioned him to expel the French from any settlement -they might have made within the limits of King James's patents. Thick -fogs involved him; and when the weather cleared he found himself not far -from the Bay of Penobscot. Canoes came out from shore; the Indians -climbed the ship's side, and, as they gained the deck, greeted the -astonished English with an odd pantomime of bows and flourishes, which, -in the belief of the latter, could have been learned from none but -Frenchmen. By signs, too, and by often repeating the word Norman,--by -which they always designated the French,--they betrayed the presence of -the latter. Argall questioned them as well as his total ignorance of -their language would permit, and learned, by signs, the position and -numbers of the colonists. Clearly they were no match for him. Assuring -the Indians that the Normans were his friends, and that he longed to see -them, he retained one of the visitors as a guide, dismissed the rest -with presents, and shaped his course for Mount Desert. - -Now the wild heights rose in view; now the English could see the masts -of a small ship anchored in the sound; and now, as they rounded the -islands, four white tents were visible on the grassy slope between the -water and the woods. They were a gift from the Queen to Madame de -Guercheville and her missionaries. Argall's men prepared for fight, -while their Indian guide, amazed, broke into a howl of lamentation. - -On shore all was confusion. Bailleul, the pilot, went to reconnoitre, -and ended by hiding among the islands. La Saussaye lost presence of -mind, and did nothing for defence. La Motte, his lieutenant, with -Captain Fleury, an ensign, a sergeant, the Jesuit Du Thet, and a few of -the bravest men, hastened on board the vessel, but had no time to cast -loose her cables. Argall bore down on them, with a furious din of drums -and trumpets, showed his broadside, and replied to their hail with a -volley of cannon and musket shot. "Fire! Fire!" screamed Fleury. But -there was no gunner to obey, till Du Thet seized and applied the match. -"The cannon made as much noise as the enemy's," writes Biard; but, as -the inexperienced artillerist forgot to aim the piece, no other result -ensued. Another storm of musketry, and Brother Gilbert du Thet rolled -helpless on the deck. - -The French ship was mute. The English plied her for a time with shot, -then lowered a boat and boarded. Under the awnings which covered her, -dead and wounded men lay strewn about her deck, and among them the brave -lay brother, smothering in his blood. He had his wish; for, on leaving -France, he had prayed with uplifted hands that he might not return, but -perish in that holy enterprise. Like the Order of which he was a humble -member, he was a compound of qualities in appearance contradictory. La -Motte, sword in hand, showed fight to the last, and won the esteem of -his captors. - -The English landed without meeting any show of resistance, and ranged at -will among the tents, the piles of baggage and stores, and the buildings -and defences newly begun. Argall asked for the commander, but La -Saussaye had fled to the woods. The crafty Englishman seized his chests, -caused the locks to be picked, searched till he found the royal letters -and commissions, withdrew them, replaced everything else as he had found -it, and again closed the lids. In the morning, La Saussaye, between the -English and starvation, preferred the former, and issued from his hiding -place. Argall received him with studious courtesy. That country, he -said, belonged to his master, King James. Doubtless they had authority -from their own sovereign for thus encroaching upon it; and, for his -part, he was prepared to yield all respect to the commissions of the -King of France, that the peace between the two nations might not be -disturbed. Therefore he prayed that the commissions might be shown to -him. La Saussaye opened his chests. The royal signature was nowhere to -be found. At this, Argall's courtesy was changed to wrath. He denounced -the Frenchmen as robbers and pirates who deserved the gallows, removed -their property on board his ship, and spent the afternoon in dividing it -among his followers, The disconsolate French remained on the scene of -their woes, where the greedy sailors as they came ashore would snatch -from them, now a cloak, now a hat, and now a doublet, till the -unfortunate colonists were left half naked. In other respects the -English treated their captives well,--except two of them, whom they -flogged; and Argall, whom Biard, after recounting his knavery, calls "a -gentleman of noble courage," having gained his point, returned to his -former courtesy. - -But how to dispose of the prisoners? Fifteen of them, including La -Saussaye and the Jesuit Masse, were turned adrift in an open boat, at -the mercy of the wilderness and the sea. Nearly all were lands-men; but -while their unpractised hands were struggling with the oars, they were -joined among the islands by the fugitive pilot and his boat's crew. Worn -and half starved, the united bands made their perilous way eastward, -stopping from time to time to hear mass, make a procession, or catch -codfish. Thus sustained in the spirit and in the flesh, cheered too by -the Indians, who proved fast friends in need, they crossed the Bay of -Fundy, doubled Cape Sable, and followed the southern coast of Nova -Scotia, till they happily fell in with two French trading-vessels, which -bore them in safety to St. Malo. - - - - - - - -CHAPTER VIII. - -1613-1615. - -RUIN OF FRENCH ACADIA. - - -"Praised be God, behold two thirds of our company safe in France, -telling their strange adventures to their relatives and friends. And now -you will wish to know what befell the rest of us." Thus writes Father -Biard, who with his companions in misfortune, fourteen in all, prisoners -on board Argall's ship and the prize, were borne captive to Virginia. -Old Point Comfort was reached at length, the site of Fortress Monroe; -Hampton Roads, renowned in our day for the sea-fight of the Titans; -Sewell's Point; the Rip Raps; Newport News,--all household words in the -ears of this generation. Now, far on their right, buried in the damp -shade of immemorial verdure, lay, untrodden and voiceless, the fields -where stretched the leaguering lines of Washington where the lilies of -France floated beside the banners of the new-born republic, and where in -later years embattled treason confronted the manhood of an outraged -nation. And now before them they could descry the mast of small craft at -anchor, a cluster of rude dwellings fresh from the axe, scattered -tenements, and fields green with tobacco. - -Throughout the voyage the prisoners had been soothed with flattering -tales of the benignity of the Governor of Virginia, Sir Thomas Dale; of -his love of the French, and his respect for the memory of Henry the -Fourth, to whom, they were told, he was much beholden for countenance -and favor. On their landing at Jamestown, this consoling picture was -reversed. The Governor fumed and blustered, talked of halter and -gallows, and declared that he would hang them all. In vain Argall -remonstrated, urging that he had pledged his word for their lives. Dale, -outraged by their invasion of British territory, was deaf to all -appeals; till Argall, driven to extremity, displayed the stolen -commissions, and proclaimed his stratagem, of which the French -themselves had to that moment been ignorant. As they were accredited by -their government, their lives at least were safe. Yet the wrath of Sir -Thomas Dale still burned high. He summoned his council, and they -resolved promptly to wipe off all stain of French intrusion from shores -which King James claimed as his own. - -Their action was utterly unauthorized. The two kingdoms were at peace. -James the First, by the patents of 1606, had granted all North America, -from the thirty-fourth to the forty-fifth degree of latitude, to the two -companies of London and Plymouth,--Virginia being assigned to the -former, while to the latter were given Maine and Acadia, with adjacent -regions. Over these, though as yet the claimants had not taken -possession of them, the authorities of Virginia had no color of -jurisdiction. England claimed all North America, in virtue of the -discovery of Cabot; and Sir Thomas Dale became the self-constituted -champion of British rights, not the less zealous that his championship -promised a harvest of booty. - -Argall's ship, the captured ship of La Saussaye, and another smaller -vessel, were at once equipped and despatched on their errand of havoc. -Argall commanded; and Biard, with Quentin and several others of the -prisoners, were embarked with him. They shaped their course first for -Mount Desert. Here they landed, levelled La Saussaye's unfinished -defences, cut down the French cross, and planted one of their own in its -place. Next they sought out the island of St. Croix, seized a quantity -of salt, and razed to the ground all that remained of the dilapidated -buildings of De Monts. They crossed the Bay of Fundy to Port Royal, -guided, says Biard, by an Indian chief,--an improbable assertion, since -the natives of these coasts hated the English as much as they loved the -French, and now well knew the designs of the former. The unfortunate -settlement was tenantless. Biencourt, with some of his men, was on a -visit to neighboring bands of Indians, while the rest were reaping in -the fields on the river, two leagues above the fort. Succor from -Poutrincourt had arrived during the summer. The magazines were by no -means empty, and there were cattle, horses, and hogs in adjacent fields -and enclosures. Exulting at their good fortune, Argall's men butchered -or carried off the animals, ransacked the buildings, plundered them even -to the locks and bolts of the doors, and then laid the whole in ashes; -"and may it please the Lord," adds the pious Biard, "that the sins -therein committed may likewise have been consumed in that burning." - -Having demolished Port Royal, the marauders went in boats up the river -to the fields where the reapers were at work. These fled, and took -refuge behind the ridge of a hill, whence they gazed helplessly on the -destruction of their harvest. Biard approached them, and, according to -the declaration of Poutrincourt made and attested before the Admiralty -of Guienne, tried to persuade them to desert his son, Biencourt, and -take service with Argall. The reply of one of the men gave little -encouragement for further parley:-- - - "Begone, or I will split your head with this hatchet." - -There is flat contradiction here between the narrative of the Jesuit and -the accounts of Poutrincourt and contemporary English writers, who agree -in affirming that Biard, "out of indigestible malice that he had -conceived against Biencourt," encouraged the attack on the settlements -of St. Croix and Port Royal, and guided the English thither. The priest -himself admits that both French and English regarded him as a traitor, -and that his life was in danger. While Argall's ship was at anchor, a -Frenchman shouted to the English from a distance that they would do well -to kill him. The master of the ship, a Puritan, in his abomination of -priests, and above all of Jesuits, was at the same time urging his -commander to set Biard ashore and leave him to the mercy of his -countrymen. In this pass he was saved, to adopt his own account, by what -he calls his simplicity; for he tells us, that, while--instigated, like -the rest of his enemies, by the Devil--the robber and the robbed were -joining hands to ruin him, he was on his knees before Argall, begging -him to take pity on the French, and leave them a boat, together with -provisions to sustain their miserable lives through the winter. This -spectacle of charity, he further says, so moved the noble heart of the -commander, that he closed his ears to all the promptings of foreign and -domestic malice. - -The English had scarcely re-embarked, when Biencourt arrived with his -followers, and beheld the scene of destruction. Hopelessly outnumbered, -he tried to lure Argall and some of his officers into an ambuscade, but -they would not be entrapped. Biencourt now asked for an interview. The -word of honor was mutually given, and the two chiefs met in a meadow not -far from the demolished dwellings. An anonymous English writer says that -Biencourt offered to transfer his allegiance to King James, on condition -of being permitted to remain at Port Royal and carry on the fur-trade -under a guaranty of English protection, but that Argall would not listen -to his overtures. The interview proved a stormy one. Biard says that the -Frenchmen vomited against him every species of malignant abuse. "In the -mean time," he adds, "you will considerately observe to what madness the -evil spirit exciteth those who sell themselves to him." - -According to Pontrincourt, Argall admitted that the priest had urged him -to attack Port Royal. Certain it is that Biencourt demanded his -surrender, frankly declaring that he meant to hang him. "Whilest they -were discoursing together," says the old English writer above mentioned, -"one of the savages, rushing suddenly forth from the Woods, and -licentiated to come neere, did after his manner, with such broken French -as he had, earnestly mediate a peace, wondring why they that seemed to -be of one Country should vse others with such hostilitie, and that with -such a forme of habit and gesture as made them both to laugh." - -His work done, and, as he thought, the French settlements of Acadia -effectually blotted out, Argall set sail for Virginia on the thirteenth -of November. Scarcely was he at sea when a storm scattered the vessels. -Of the smallest of the three nothing was ever heard. Argall, severely -buffeted, reached his port in safety, having first, it is said, -compelled the Dutch at Manhattan to acknowledge for a time the -sovereignty of King James. The captured ship of La Saussaye, with Biard -and his colleague Quentin on board, was forced to yield to the fury of -the western gales and bear away for the Azores. To Biard the change of -destination was not unwelcome. He stood in fear of the truculent -Governor of Virginia, and his tempest-rocked slumbers were haunted with -unpleasant visions of a rope's end. It seems that some of the French at -Port Royal, disappointed in their hope of hanging him, had commended him -to Sir Thomas Dale as a proper subject for the gallows drawing up a -paper, signed by six of them, and containing allegations of a nature -well fitted to kindle the wrath of that vehement official. The vessel -was commanded by Turnel, Argall's lieutenant, apparently an officer of -merit, a scholar and linguist. He had treated his prisoner with great -kindness, because, says the latter, "he esteemed and loved him for his -naive simplicity and ingenuous candor." But of late, thinking his -kindness misplaced, he had changed it for an extreme coldness, -preferring, in the words of Biard himself, "to think that the Jesuit had -lied, rather than so many who accused him." - -Water ran low, provisions began to fail, and they eked out their meagre -supply by butchering the horses taken at Port Royal. At length they came -within sight of Fayal, when a new terror seized the minds of the two -Jesuits. Might not the Englishmen fear that their prisoners would -denounce them to the fervent Catholics of that island as pirates and -sacrilegious kidnappers of priests? From such hazard the escape was -obvious. What more simple than to drop the priests into the sea? In -truth, the English had no little dread of the results of conference -between the Jesuits and the Portuguese authorities of Fayal; but the -conscience or humanity of Turnel revolted at the expedient which -awakened such apprehension in the troubled mind of Biard. He contented -himself with requiring that the two priests should remain hidden while -the ship lay off the port: Biard does not say that he enforced the -demand either by threats or by the imposition of oaths. He and his -companion, however, rigidiy complied with it, lying close in the hold or -under the boats, while suspicious officials searched the ship, a proof, -he triumphantly declares, of the audacious malice which has asserted it -as a tenet of Rome that no faith need be kept with heretics. - -Once more at sea, Turnel shaped his course for home, having, with some -difficulty, gained a supply of water and provisions at Fayal. All was -now harmony between him and his prisoners. When he reached Pembroke, in -Wales, the appearance of the vessel--a French craft in English hands-- -again drew upon him the suspicion of piracy. The Jesuits, dangerous -witnesses among the Catholics of Fayal, could at the worst do little -harm with the Vice-Admiral at Pembroke. To him, therefore, he led the -prisoners, in the sable garb of their order, now much the worse for -wear, and commended them as persons without reproach, "wherein," adds -the modest father, "he spoke the truth." The result of their evidence -was, we are told, that Turnel was henceforth treated, not as a pirate, -but, according to his deserts, as an honorable gentleman. This interview -led to a meeting with certain dignitaries of the Anglican Church, who, -much interested in an encounter with Jesuits in their robes, were -filled, says Biard, with wonder and admiration at what they were told of -their conduct. He explains that these churchmen differ widely in form -and doctrine from the English Calvinists, who, he says, are called -Puritans; and he adds that they are superior in every respect to these, -whom they detest as an execrable pest. - -Biard was sent to Dover and thence to Calais, returning, perhaps, to the -tranquil honors of his chair of theology at Lyons. La Saussaye, La -Motte, Fleury, and other prisoners were at various times sent from -Virginia to England, and ultimately to France. Madame de Guercheville, -her pious designs crushed in the bud, seems to have gained no further -satisfaction than the restoration of the vessel. The French ambassador -complained of the outrage, but answer was postponed; and, in the -troubled state of France, the matter appears to have been dropped. - -Argall, whose violent and crafty character was offset by a gallant -bearing and various traits of martial virtue, became Deputy-Governor of -Virginia, and, under a military code, ruled the colony with a rod of -iron. He enforced the observance of Sunday with an edifying rigor. Those -who absented themselves from church were, for the first offence, -imprisoned for the night, and reduced to slavery for a week; for the -second offence, enslaved a month and for the third, a year. Nor was he -less strenuous in his devotion to mammon. He enriched himself by -extortion and wholesale peculation; and his audacious dexterity, aided -by the countenance of the Earl of Warwick, who is said to have had a -trading connection with him, thwarted all the efforts of the company to -bring him to account. In 1623, he was knighted by the hand of King -James. - -Early in the spring following the English attack, Pontrincourt came to -Port Royal. He found the place in ashes, and his unfortunate son, with -the men under his command, wandering houseless in the forests. They had -passed a winter of extreme misery, sustaining their wretched existence -with roots, the buds of trees, and lichens peeled from the rocks. - -Despairing of his enterprise, Poutrincourt returned to France. In the -next year, 1615, during the civil disturbances which followed the -marriage of the King, command was given him of the royal forces destined -for the attack on Mery; and here, happier in his death than in his life, -he fell, sword in hand. - -In spite of their reverses, the French kept hold on Acadia. Biencourt, -partially at least, rebuilt Port Royal; while winter after winter the -smoke of fur traders' huts curled into the still, sharp air of these -frosty wilds, till at length, with happier auspices, plans of settlement -were resumed. - -Rude hands strangled the "Northern Paraguay" in its birth. Its -beginnings had been feeble, but behind were the forces of a mighty -organization, at once devoted and ambitious, enthusiastic and -calculating. Seven years later the "Mayflower" landed her emigrants at -Plymouth. What would have been the issues had the zeal of the pious lady -of honor preoccupied New England with a Jesuit colony? - -In an obscure stroke of lawless violence began the strife of France and -England, Protestantism and Rome, which for a century and a half shook -the struggling communities of North America, and closed at last in the -memorable triumph on the Plains of Abraham. - - - - - -CHAPTER--IX. - -1608, 1609. - -CHAMPLAIN AT QUEBEC. - -A LONELY ship sailed up the St. Lawrence. The white whales floundering -in the Bay of Tadoussac, and the wild duck diving as the foaming prow -drew near,--there was no life but these in all that watery solitude, -twenty miles from shore to shore. The ship was from Honfleur, and was -commanded by Samuel de Champlain. He was the AEneas of a destined -people, and in her womb lay the embryo life of Canada. - -De Monts, after his exclusive privilege of trade was revoked and his -Acadian enterprise ruined, had, as we have seen, abandoned it to -Poutrincourt. Perhaps would it have been well for him had he abandoned -with it all Transatlantic enterprises; but the passion for discovery and -the noble ambition of founding colonies had taken possession of his -mind. These, rather than a mere hope of gain, seem to have been his -controlling motives; yet the profits of the fur-trade were vital to the -new designs he was meditating, to meet the heavy outlay they demanded, -and he solicited and obtained a fresh monopoly of the traffic for one -year. - -Champlain was, at the time, in Paris; but his unquiet thoughts turned -westward. He was enamoured of the New World, whose rugged charms had -seized his fancy and his heart; and as explorers of Arctic seas have -pined in their repose for polar ice and snow, so did his restless -thoughts revert to the fog-wrapped coasts, the piny odors of forests, -the noise of waters, the sharp and piercing sunlight, so dear to his -remembrance. He longed to unveil the mystery of that boundless -wilderness, and plant the Catholic faith and the power of France amid -its ancient barbarism. - -Five years before, he had explored the St. Lawrence as far as the rapids -above Montreal. On its banks, as he thought, was the true site for a -settlement,--a fortified post, whence, as from a secure basis, the -waters of the vast interior might be traced back towards their sources, -and a western route discovered to China and Japan. For the fur-trade, -too, the innumerable streams that descended to the great river might all -be closed against foreign intrusion by a single fort at some commanding -point, and made tributary to a rich and permanent commerce; while--and -this was nearer to his heart, for he had often been heard to say that -the saving of a soul was worth more than the conquest of an empire-- -countless savage tribes, in the bondage of Satan, might by the same -avenues be reached and redeemed. - -De Monts embraced his views; and, fitting out two ships, gave command of -one to the elder Pontgrave, of the other to Champlain. The former was to -trade with the Indians and bring back the cargo of furs which, it was -hoped, would meet the expense of the voyage. To Champlain fell the -harder task of settlement and exploration. - -Pontgrave, laden with goods for the Indian trade of Tadoussac sailed -from Honfleur on the fifth of April, 1608. Champlain, with men, arms, -and stores for the colony, followed, eight days later. On the fifteenth -of May he was on the Grand Bank; on the thirtieth he passed Gaspe, and -on the third of June neared Tadoussac. No living thing was to be seen. -He anchored, lowered a boat, and rowed into the port, round the rocky -point at the southeast, then, from the fury of its winds and currents, -called La Pointe de Tous les Diables. There was life enough within, and -more than he cared to find. In the still anchorage under the cliffs lay -Pontgrave's vessel, and at her side another ship, which proved to be a -Basque furtrader. - -Poutgrave, arriving a few days before, had found himself anticipated by -the Basques, who were busied in a brisk trade with bands of Indians -cabined along the borders of the cove. He displayed the royal letters, -and commanded a cessation of the prohibited traffic; but the Basques -proved refractory, declared that they would trade in spite of the King, -fired on Pontgrave with cannon and musketry, wounded him and two of his -men, and killed a third. They then boarded his vessel, and carried away -all his cannon, small arms, and ammunition, saying that they would -restore them when they had finished their trade and were ready to return -home. - -Champlain found his comrade on shore, in a disabled condition. The -Basques, though still strong enough to make fight, were alarmed for the -consequences of their conduct, and anxious to come to terms. A peace, -therefore, was signed on board their vessel; all differences were -referred to the judgment of the French courts, harmony was restored, and -the choleric strangers betook themselves to catching whales. - -This port of Tadoussac was long the centre of the Canadian fur-trade. A -desolation of barren mountains closes round it, betwixt whose ribs of -rugged granite, bristling with savins, birches, and firs, the Saguenay -rolls its gloomy waters from the northern wilderness. Centuries of -civilization have not tamed the wildness of the place; and still, in -grim repose, the mountains hold their guard around the waveless lake -that glistens in their shadow, and doubles, in its sullen mirror, crag, -precipice, and forest. - -Near the brink of the cove or harbor where the vessels lay, and a little -below the mouth of a brook which formed one of the outlets of this small -lake, stood the remains of the wooden barrack built by Chauvin eight -years before. Above the brook were the lodges of an Indian camp,-- -stacks of poles covered with birch-bark. They belonged to an Algonquin -horde, called Montagnais, denizens of surrounding wilds, and gatherers -of their only harvest,--skins of the moose, caribou, and bear; fur of -the beaver, marten, otter, fox, wild-cat, and lynx. Nor was this all, -for there were intermediate traders betwixt the French and the shivering -bands who roamed the weary stretch of stunted forest between the -head-waters of the Saguenay and Hudson's Bay. Indefatigable canoe-men, -in their birchen vessels, light as eggshells, they threaded the devious -tracks of countless rippling streams, shady by-ways of the forest, where -the wild duck scarcely finds depth to swim; then descended to their mart -along those scenes of picturesque yet dreary grandeur which steam has -made familiar to modern tourists. With slowly moving paddles they glided -beneath the cliff whose shaggy brows frown across the zenith, and whose -base the deep waves wash with a hoarse and hollow cadence; and they -passed the sepulchral Bay of the Trinity, dark as the tide of Acheron,-- -a sanctuary of solitude and silence: depths which, as the fable runs, no -sounding line can fathom, and heights at whose dizzy verge the wheeling -eagle seems a speck. - -Peace being established with the Basques, and the wounded Pontgrave -busied, as far as might be, in transferring to the hold of his ship the -rich lading of the Indian canoes, Champlain spread his sails, and again -held his course up the St. Lawrence. Far to the south, in sun and -shadow, slumbered the woody mountains whence fell the countless springs -of the St. John, behind tenantless shores, now white with glimmering -villages,--La Chenaic, Granville, Kamouraska, St. Roche, St. Jean, -Vincelot, Berthier. But on the north the jealous wilderness still -asserts its sway, crowding to the river's verge its walls, domes, and -towers of granite; and, to this hour, its solitude is scarcely broken. - -Above the point of the Island of Orleans, a constriction of the vast -channel narrows it to less than a mile, with the green heights of Point -Levi on one side, and on the other the cliffs of Quebec. Here, a small -stream, the St. Charles, enters the St. Lawrence, and in the angle -betwixt them rises the promontory on two sides a natural fortress. -Between the cliffs and the river lay a strand covered with walnuts and -other trees. From this strand, by a rough passage gullied downward from -the place where Prescott Gate now guards the way, one might climb the -height to the broken plateau above, now burdened with its ponderous load -of churches, convents, dwellings, ramparts, and batteries. Thence, by a -gradual ascent, the rock sloped upward to its highest summit, Cape -Diamond, looking down on the St. Lawrence from a height of three hundred -and fifty feet. Here the citadel now stands; then the fierce sun fell on -the bald, baking rock, with its crisped mosses and parched lichens. Two -centuries and a half have quickened the solitude with swarming life, -covered the deep bosom of the river with barge and steamer and gliding -sail, and reared cities and villages on the site of forests; but nothing -can destroy the surpassing grandeur of the scene. - -On the strand between the water and the cliffs Champlain's axemen fell -to their work. They were pioneers of an advancing host,--advancing, it -is true, with feeble and uncertain progress,--priests, soldiers, -peasants, feudal scutcheons, royal insignia: not the Middle Age, but -engendered of it by the stronger life of modern centralization, sharply -stamped with a parental likeness, heir to parental weakness and parental -force. - -In a few weeks a pile of wooden buildings rose on the brink of the St. -Lawrence, on or near the site of the marketplace of the Lower Town of -Quebec. The pencil of Champlain, always regardless of proportion and -perspective, has preserved its likeness. A strong wooden wall, -surmounted by a gallery loop-holed for musketry, enclosed three -buildings, containing quarters for himself and his men, together with a -courtyard, from one side of which rose a tall dove-cot, like a belfry. A -moat surrounded the whole, and two or three small cannon were planted on -salient platforms towards the river. There was a large storehouse near -at hand, and a part of the adjacent ground was laid out as a garden. - -In this garden Champlain was one morning directing his laborers, when -Tetu, his pilot, approached him with an anxious countenance, and -muttered a request to speak with him in private. Champlain assenting, -they withdrew to the neighboring woods, when the pilot disburdened -himself of his secret. One Antoine Natel, a locksmith, smitten by -conscience or fear, had revealed to him a conspiracy to murder his -commander and deliver Quebec into the hands of the Basques and Spaniards -then at Tadoussac. Another locksmith, named Duval, was author of the -plot, and, with the aid of three accomplices, had befooled or frightened -nearly all the company into taking part in it. Each was assured that he -should make his fortune, and all were mutually pledged to poniard the -first betrayer of the secret. The critical point of their enterprise was -the killing of Champlain. Some were for strangling him, some for raising -a false alarm in the night and shooting him as he came out from his -quarters. - -Having heard the pilot's story, Champlain, remaining in the woods, -desired his informant to find Antoine Natel, and bring him to the spot. -Natel soon appeared, trembling with excitement and fear, and a close -examination left no doubt of the truth of his statement. A small vessel, -built by Pontgrave at Tadoussac, had lately arrived, and orders were now -given that it should anchor close at hand. On board was a young man in -whom confidence could be placed. Champlain sent him two bottles of wine, -with a direction to tell the four ringleaders that they had been given -him by his Basque friends at Tadoussac, and to invite them to share the -good cheer. They came aboard in the evening, and were seized and -secured. "Voyla done mes galants bien estonnez," writes Champlain. - -It was ten o'clock, and most of the men on shore were asleep. They were -wakened suddenly, and told of the discovery of the plot and the arrest -of the ringleaders. Pardon was then promised them, and they were -dismissed again to their beds, greatly relieved; for they had lived in -trepidation, each fearing the other. Duval's body, swinging from a -gibbet, gave wholesome warning to those he had seduced; and his head was -displayed on a pike, from the highest roof of the buildings, food for -birds and a lesson to sedition. His three accomplices were carried by -Pontgrave to France, where they made their atonement in the galleys. - -It was on the eighteenth of September that Pontgrave set sail, leaving -Champlain with twenty-eight men to hold Quebec through the winter. Three -weeks later, and shores and hills glowed with gay prognostics of -approaching desolation,--the yellow and scarlet of the maples, the deep -purple of the ash, the garnet hue of young oaks, the crimson of the -tupelo at the water's edge, and the golden plumage of birch saplings in -the fissures of the cliff. It was a short-lived beauty. The forest -dropped its festal robes. Shrivelled and faded, they rustled to the -earth. The crystal air and laughing sun of October passed away, and -November sank upon the shivering waste, chill and sombre as the tomb. - -A roving band of Montagnais had built their huts near the buildings, and -were busying themselves with their autumn eel-fishery, on which they -greatly relied to sustain their miserable lives through the winter. -Their slimy harvest being gathered, and duly smoked and dried, they gave -it for safe-keeping to Champlain, and set out to hunt beavers. It was -deep in the winter before they came back, reclaimed their eels, built -their birch cabins again, and disposed themselves for a life of ease, -until famine or their enemies should put an end to their enjoyments. -These were by no means without alloy. While, gorged with food, they lay -dozing on piles of branches in their smoky huts, where, through the -crevices of the thin birch bark, streamed in a cold capable at times of -congealing mercury, their slumbers were beset with nightmare visions of -Iroquois forays, scalpings, butcherings, and burnings. As dreams were -their oracles, the camp was wild with fright. They sent out no scouts -and placed no guard; but, with each repetition of these nocturnal -terrors, they came flocking in a body to beg admission within the fort. -The women and children were allowed to enter the yard and remain during -the night, while anxious fathers and jealous husbands shivered in the -darkness without. - -On one occasion, a group of wretched beings was seen on the farther bank -of the St. Lawrence, like wild animals driven by famine to the borders -of the settler's clearing. The river was full of drifting ice, and there -was no crossing without risk of life. The Indians, in their desperation, -made the attempt; and midway their canoes were ground to atoms among the -tossing masses. Agile as wild-cats, they all leaped upon a huge raft of -ice, the squaws carrying their children on their shoulders, a feat at -which Champlain marveled when he saw their starved and emaciated -condition. Here they began a wail of despair; when happily the pressure -of other masses thrust the sheet of ice against the northern shore. They -landed and soon made their appearance at the fort, worn to skeletons and -horrible to look upon. The French gave them food, which they devoured -with a frenzied avidity, and, unappeased, fell upon a dead dog left on -the snow by Champlain for two months past as a bait for foxes. They -broke this carrion into fragments, and thawed and devoured it, to the -disgust of the spectators, who tried vainly to prevent them. - -This was but a severe access of the periodical famine which, during -winter, was a normal condition of the Algonquin tribes of Acadia and the -Lower St. Lawrence, who, unlike the cognate tribes of New England, never -tilled the soil, or made any reasonable provision against the time of -need. - -One would gladly know how the founders of Quebec spent the long hours of -their first winter; but on this point the only man among them, perhaps, -who could write, has not thought it necessary to enlarge. He himself -beguiled his leisure with trapping foxes, or hanging a dead dog from a -tree and watching the hungry martens in their efforts to reach it. -Towards the close of winter, all found abundant employment in nursing -themselves or their neighbors, for the inevitable scurvy broke out with -virulence. At the middle of May, only eight men of the twenty-eight were -alive, and of these half were suffering from disease. - -This wintry purgatory wore away; the icy stalactites that hung from the -cliffs fell crashing to the earth; the clamor of the wild geese was -heard; the bluebirds appeared in the naked woods; the water-willows were -covered with their soft caterpillar-like blossoms; the twigs of the -swamp maple were flushed with ruddy bloom; the ash hung out its black -tufts; the shad-bush seemed a wreath of snow; the white stars of the -bloodroot gleamed among dank, fallen leaves; and in the young grass of -the wet meadows the marsh-marigolds shone like spots of gold. - -Great was the joy of Champlain when, on the fifth of June, he saw a -sailboat rounding the Point of Orleans, betokening that the spring had -brought with it the longed for succors. A son-in-law of Pontgrave, named -Marais, was on board, and he reported that Pontgrave was then at -Tadoussac, where he had lately arrived. Thither Champlain hastened, to -take counsel with his comrade. His constitution or his courage had -defied the scurvy. They met, and it was determined betwixt them, that, -while Pontgrave remained in charge of Quebec, Champlain should enter at -once on his long meditated explorations, by which, like La Salle seventy -years later, he had good hope of finding a way to China. - -But there was a lion in the path. The Indian tribes, to whom peace was -unknown, infested with their scalping parties the streams and pathways -of the forest, and increased tenfold its inseparable risks. The after -career of Champlain gives abundant proof that he was more than -indifferent to all such chances; yet now an expedient for evading them -offered itself, so consonant with his instincts that he was glad to -accept it. - -During the last autumn, a young chief from the banks of the then unknown -Ottawa had been at Quebec; and, amazed at what he saw, he had begged -Champlain to join him in the spring against his enemies. These enemies -were a formidable race of savages,--the Iroquois, or Five Confederate -Nations, who dwelt in fortified villages within limits now embraced by -the State of New York, and who were a terror to all the surrounding -forests. They were deadly foes of their kindred the Hurons, who dwelt on -the lake which bears their name, and were allies of Algonquin bands on -the Ottawa. All alike were tillers of the soil, living at ease when -compared with the famished Algonquins of the Lower St. Lawrence. - -By joining these Hurons and Algonquins against their Iroquois enemies, -Champlain might make himself the indispensable ally and leader of the -tribes of Canada, and at the same time fight his way to discovery in -regions which otherwise were barred against him. From first to last it -was the policy of France in America to mingle in Indian politics, hold -the balance of power between adverse tribes, and envelop in the network -of her power and diplomacy the remotest hordes of the wilderness. Of -this policy the Father of New France may perhaps be held to have set a -rash and premature example. Yet while he was apparently following the -dictates of his own adventurous spirit, it became evident, a few years -later, that under his thirst for discovery and spirit of knight-errantry -lay a consistent and deliberate purpose. That it had already assumed a -definite shape is not likely; but his after course makes it plain that, -in embroiling himself and his colony with the most formidable savages on -the continent, he was by no means acting so recklessly as at first sight -would appear. - - - - - -CHAPTER X. - -1609. - -LAKE CHAMPLAIN. - -It was past the middle of June, and the expected warriors from the upper -country had not come,--a delay which seems to have given Champlain -little concern, for, without waiting longer, he set out with no better -allies than a band of Montagnais. But, as he moved up the St. Lawrence, -he saw, thickly clustered in the bordering forest, the lodges of an -Indian camp, and, landing, found his Huron and Algonquin allies. Few of -them had ever seen a white man, and they surrounded the steel-clad -strangers in speechless wonder. Champlain asked for their chief, and the -staring throng moved with him towards a lodge where sat, not one chief, -but two; for each band had its own. There were feasting, smoking, and -speeches; and, the needful ceremony over, all descended together to -Quebec; for the strangers were bent on seeing those wonders of -architecture, the fame of which had pierced the recesses of their -forests. - -On their arrival, they feasted their eyes and glutted their appetites; -yelped consternation at the sharp explosions of the arquebuse and the -roar of the cannon; pitched their camps, and bedecked themselves for -their war-dance. In the still night, their fire glared against the black -and jagged cliff, and the fierce red light fell on tawny limbs convulsed -with frenzied gestures and ferocious stampings on contorted visages, -hideous with paint; on brandished weapons, stone war-clubs, stone -hatchets, and stone-pointed lances; while the drum kept up its hollow -boom, and the air was split with mingled yells. - -The war-feast followed, and then all embarked together. Champlain was in -a small shallop, carrying, besides himself, eleven men of Pontgrave's -party, including his son-in-law Marais and the pilot La Routte. They -were armed with the arquebuse,--a matchlock or firelock somewhat like -the modern carbine, and from its shortness not ill suited for use in the -forest. On the twenty-eighth of June they spread their sails and held -their course against the current, while around them the river was alive -with canoes, and hundreds of naked arms plied the paddle with a steady, -measured sweep. They crossed the Lake of St. Peter, threaded the devious -channels among its many islands, and reached at last the mouth of the -Riviere des Iroquois, since called the Richelien, or the St. John. Here, -probably on the site of the town of Sorel, the leisurely warriors -encamped for two days, hunted, fished, and took their ease, regaling -their allies with venison and wildfowl. They quarrelled, too; three -fourths of their number seceded, took to their canoes in dudgeon, and -paddled towards their homes, while the rest pursued their course up the -broad and placid stream. - -Walls of verdure stretched on left and right. Now, aloft in the lonely -air rose the cliffs of Belceil, and now, before them, framed in circling -forests, the Basin of Chambly spread its tranquil mirror, glittering in -the sun. The shallop outsailed the canoes. Champlain, leaving his allies -behind, crossed the basin and tried to pursue his course; but, as he -listened in the stillness, the unwelcome noise of rapids reached his -ear, and, by glimpses through the dark foliage of the Islets of St. John -he could see the gleam of snowy foam and the flash of hurrying waters. -Leaving the boat by the shore in charge of four men, he went with -Marais, La Routte, and five others, to explore the wild before him. They -pushed their way through the damps and shadows of the wood, through -thickets and tangled vines, over mossy rocks and mouldering logs. Still -the hoarse surging of the rapids followed them; and when, parting the -screen of foliage, they looked out upon the river, they saw it thick set -with rocks where, plunging over ledges, gurgling under drift-logs, -darting along clefts, and boiling in chasms, the angry waters filled the -solitude with monotonous ravings. - -Champlain retraced his steps. He had learned the value of an Indian's -word. His allies had promised him that his boat could pass unobstructed -throughout the whole journey. "It afflicted me," he says, "and troubled -me exceedingly to be obliged to return without having seen so great a -lake, full of fair islands and bordered with the fine countries which -they had described to me." - -When he reached the boat, he found the whole savage crew gathered at the -spot. He mildly rebuked their bad faith, but added, that, though they -had deceived him, he, as far as might be, would fulfil his pledge. To -this end, he directed Marais, with the boat and the greater part of the -men, to return to Quebec, while he, with two who offered to follow him, -should proceed in the Indian canoes. - -The warriors lifted their canoes from the water, and bore them on their -shoulders half a league through the forest to the smoother stream above. -Here the chiefs made a muster of their forces, counting twenty-four -canoes and sixty warriors. All embarked again, and advanced once more, -by marsh, meadow, forest, and scattered islands,--then full of game, -for it was an uninhabited land, the war-path and battleground of hostile -tribes. The warriors observed a certain system in their advance. Some -were in front as a vanguard; others formed the main body; while an equal -number were in the forests on the flanks and rear, hunting for the -subsistence of the whole; for, though they had a provision of parched -maize pounded into meal, they kept it for use when, from the vicinity of -the enemy, hunting should become impossible. - -Late in the day they landed and drew up their canoes, ranging them -closely, side by side. Some stripped sheets of bark, to cover their camp -sheds; others gathered wood, the forest being full of dead, dry trees; -others felled the living trees, for a barricade. They seem to have had -steel axes, obtained by barter from the French; for in less than two -hours they had made a strong defensive work, in the form of a -half-circle, open on the river side, where their canoes lay on the -strand, and large enough to enclose all their huts and sheds.[FN#28] -Some of their number had gone forward as scouts, and, returning, -reported no signs of an enemy. This was the extent of their precaution, -for they placed no guard, but all, in full security, stretched -themselves to sleep,--a vicious custom from which the lazy warrior of -the forest rarely departs. - -They had not forgotten, however, to consult their oracle. The -medicine-man pitched his magic lodge in the woods, formed of a small -stack of poles, planted in a circle and brought together at the tops -like stacked muskets. Over these he placed the filthy deer-skins which -served him for a robe, and, creeping in at a narrow opening, hid himself -from view. Crouched in a ball upon the earth, he invoked the spirits in -mumbling inarticulate tones; while his naked auditory, squatted on the -ground like apes, listened in wonder and awe. Suddenly, the lodge moved, -rocking with violence to and fro,--by the power of the spirits, as the -Indians thought, while Champlain could plainly see the tawny fist of the -medicine-man shaking the poles. They begged him to keep a watchful eye -on the peak of the lodge, whence fire and smoke would presently issue; -but with the best efforts of his vision, he discovered none. Meanwhile -the medicine-man was seized with such convulsions, that, when his -divination was over, his naked body streamed with perspiration. In loud, -clear tones, and in an unknown tongue, he invoked the spirit, who was -understood to be present in the form of a stone, and whose feeble and -squeaking accents were heard at intervals, like the wail of a young -puppy. - -In this manner they consulted the spirit--as Champlain thinks, the -Devil--at all their camps. His replies, for the most part, seem to have -given them great content; yet they took other measures, of which the -military advantages were less questionable. The principal chief gathered -bundles of sticks, and, without wasting his breath, stuck them in the -earth in a certain order, calling each by the name of some warrior, a -few taller than the rest representing the subordinate chiefs. Thus was -indicated the position which each was to hold in the expected battle. -All gathered round and attentively studied the sticks, ranged like a -child's wooden soldiers, or the pieces on a chessboard; then, with no -further instruction, they formed their ranks, broke them, and reformed -them again and again with excellent alacrity and skill. - -Again the canoes advanced, the river widening as they went. Great -islands appeared, leagues in extent,--Isle a la Motte, Long Island, -Grande Isle; channels where ships might float and broad reaches of water -stretched between them, and Champlain entered the lake which preserves -his name to posterity. Cumberland Head was passed, and from the opening -of the great channel between Grande Isle and the main he could look -forth on the wilderness sea. Edged with woods, the tranquil flood spread -southward beyond the sight. Far on the left rose the forest ridges of -the Green Mountains, and on the right the Adirondacks,--haunts in these -later years of amateur sportsmen from counting-rooms or college halls. -Then the Iroquois made them their hunting-ground; and beyond, in the -valleys of the Mohawk, the Onondaga, and the Genesce, stretched the long -line of their five cantons and palisaded towns. - -At night they encamped again. The scene is a familiar one to many a -tourist; and perhaps, standing at sunset on the peaceful strand, -Champlain saw what a roving student of this generation has seen on those -same shores, at that same hour,--the glow of the vanished sun behind -the western mountains, darkly piled in mist and shadow along the sky; -near at hand, the dead pine, mighty in decay, stretching its ragged arms -athwart the burning heaven, the crow perched on its top like an image -carved in jet; and aloft, the nighthawk, circling in his flight, and, -with a strange whirring sound, diving through the air each moment for -the insects he makes his prey. - -The progress of the party was becoming dangerous. They changed their -mode of advance and moved only in the night. All day they lay close in -the depth of the forest, sleeping, lounging, smoking tobacco of their -own raising, and beguiling the hours, no doubt, with the shallow banter -and obscene jesting with which knots of Indians are wont to amuse their -leisure. At twilight they embarked again, paddling their cautious way -till the eastern sky began to redden. Their goal was the rocky -promontory where Fort Ticonderoga was long afterward built. Thence, they -would pass the outlet of Lake George, and launch their canoes again on -that Como of the wilderness, whose waters, limpid as a fountain-head, -stretched far southward between their flanking mountains. Landing at the -future site of Fort William Henry, they would carry their canoes through -the forest to the river Hudson, and, descending it, attack perhaps some -outlying town of the Mohawks. In the next century this chain of lakes -and rivers became the grand highway of savage and civilized war, linked -to memories of momentous conflicts. - -The allies were spared so long a progress. On the morning of the -twenty-ninth of July, after paddling all night, they hid as usual in the -forest on the western shore, apparently between Crown Point and -Ticonderoga. The warriors stretched themselves to their slumbers, and -Champlain, after walking till nine or ten o'clock through the -surrounding woods, returned to take his repose on a pile of -spruce-boughs. Sleeping, he dreamed a dream, wherein he beheld the -Iroquois drowning in the lake; and, trying to rescue them, he was told -by his Algonquin friends that they were good for nothing, and had better -be left to their fate. For some time past he had been beset every -morning by his superstitious allies, eager to learn about his dreams; -and, to this moment, his unbroken slumbers had failed to furnish the -desired prognostics. The announcement of this auspicious vision filled -the crowd with joy, and at nightfall they embarked, flushed with -anticipated victories. - -It was ten o'clock in the evening, when, near a projecting point of -land, which was probably Ticonderoga, they descried dark objects in -motion on the lake before them. These were a flotilla of Iroquois -canoes, heavier and slower than theirs, for they were made of oak bark. -Each party saw the other, and the mingled war-cries pealed over the -darkened water. The Iroquois, who were near the shore, having no stomach -for an aquatic battle, landed, and, making night hideous with their -clamors, began to barricade themselves. Champlain could see them in the -woods, laboring like beavers, hacking down trees with iron axes taken -from the Canadian tribes in war, and with stone hatchets of their own -making. The allies remained on the lake, a bowshot from the hostile -barricade, their canoes made fast together by poles lashed across. All -night they danced with as much vigor as the frailty of their vessels -would permit, their throats making amends for the enforced restraint of -their limbs. It was agreed on both sides that the fight should be -deferred till daybreak; but meanwhile a commerce of abuse, sarcasm, -menace, and boasting gave unceasing exercise to the lungs and fancy of -the combatants, "much," says Champlain, "like the besiegers and besieged -in a beleaguered town." - -As day approached, he and his two followers put on the light armor of -the time. Champlain wore the doublet and long hose then in vogue. Over -the doublet he buckled on a breastplate, and probably a back-piece, -while his thighs were protected by cuisses of steel, and his head by a -plumed casque. Across his shoulder hung the strap of his bandoleer, or -ammunition-box; at his side was his sword, and in his hand his -arquebuse. Such was the equipment of this ancient Indian-fighter, whose -exploits date eleven years before the landing of the Puritans at -Plymouth, and sixty-six years before King Philip's War. - -Each of the three Frenchmen was in a separate canoe, and, as it grew -light, they kept themselves hidden, either by lying at the bottom, or -covering themselves with an Indian robe. The canoes approached the -shore, and all landed without opposition at some distance from the -Iroquois, whom they presently could see filing out of their barricade, --tall, strong men, some two hundred in number, the boldest and fiercest -warriors of North America. They advanced through the forest with a -steadiness which excited the admiration of Champlain. Among them could -be seen three chiefs, made conspicuous by their tall plumes. Some bore -shields of wood and hide, and some were covered with a kind of armor -made of tough twigs interlaced with a vegetable fibre supposed by -Champlain to be cotton.[FN#29] - -The allies, growing anxious, called with loud cries for their champion, -and opened their ranks that he might pass to the front. He did so, and, -advancing before his red companions in arms, stood revealed to the gaze -of the Iroquois, who, beholding the warlike apparition in their path, -stared in mute amazement. "I looked at them," says Champlain, "and they -looked at me. When I saw them getting ready to shoot their arrows at us, -I levelled my arquebuse, which I had loaded with four balls, and aimed -straight at one of the three chiefs. The shot brought down two, and -wounded another. On this, our Indians set up such a yelling that one -could not have heard a thunder-clap, and all the while the arrows flew -thick on both sides. The Iroquois were greatly astonished and frightened -to see two of their men killed so quickly, in spite of their arrow-proof -armor. As I was reloading, one of my companions fired a shot from the -woods, which so increased their astonishment that, seeing their chiefs -dead, they abandoned the field and fled into the depth of the forest." -The allies dashed after them. Some of the Iroquois were killed, and more -were taken. Camp, canoes, provisions, all were abandoned, and many -weapons flung down in the panic flight. The victory was complete. - -At night, the victors led out one of the prisoners, told him that he was -to die by fire, and ordered him to sing his death-song if he dared. Then -they began the torture, and presently scalped their victim alive,[FN#20] -when Champlain, sickening at the sight, begged leave to shoot him. They -refused, and he turned away in anger and disgust; on which they called -him back and told him to do as he pleased. He turned again, and a shot -from his arquebuse put the wretch out of misery. - -The scene filled him with horror; but a few months later, on the Place -de la Greve at Paris, he might have witnessed tortures equally revolting -and equally vindictive, inflicted on the regicide Ravaillac by the -sentence of grave and learned judges. - -The allies made a prompt retreat from the scene of their triumph. Three -or four days brought them to the mouth of the Richelien. Here they -separated; the Hurons and Algonquins made for the Ottawa, their homeward -route, each with a share of prisoners for future torments. At parting, -they invited Champlain to visit their towns and aid them again in their -wars, an invitation which this paladin of the woods failed not to -accept. - -The companions now remaining to him were the Montagnais. In their camp -on the Richelien, one of them dreamed that a war party of Iroquois was -close upon them; on which, in a torrent of rain, they left their huts, -paddled in dismay to the islands above the Lake of St. Peter, and hid -themselves all night in the rushes. In the morning they took heart, -emerged from their hiding-places, descended to Quebec, and went thence -to Tadoussac, whither Champlain accompanied them. Here the squaws, stark -naked, swam out to the canoes to receive the heads of the dead Iroquois, -and, hanging them from their necks, danced in triumph along the shore, -One of the heads and a pair of arms were then bestowed on Champlain,-- -touching memorials of gratitude, which, however, he was by no means to -keep for himself, but to present to the King. - -Thus did New France rush into collision with the redoubted warriors of -the Five Nations. Here was the beginning, and in some measure doubtless -the cause, of a long suite of murderous conflicts, bearing havoc and -flame to generations yet unborn. Champlain had invaded the tiger's den; -and now, in smothered fury, the patient savage would lie biding his day -of blood. - - - - - - -CHAPTER XI. - -1610-1612. - -WAR.--TRADE.--DISCOVERY. - -Champlain and Pontgrave returned to France, while Pierre Chauvin of -Dieppe held Quebec in their absence. The King was at Fontainebleau,--it -was a few months before his assassination,--and here Champlain -recounted his adventures, to the great satisfaction of the lively -monarch. He gave him also, not the head of the dead Iroquois, but a belt -wrought in embroidery of dyed quills of the Canada porcupine, together -with two small birds of scarlet plumage, and the skull of a gar-fish. - -De Monts was at court, striving for a renewal of his monopoly. His -efforts failed; on which, with great spirit but little discretion, he -resolved to push his enterprise without it. Early in the spring of 1610, -the ship was ready, and Champlain and Pontgrave were on board, when a -violent illness seized the former, reducing him to the most miserable of -all conflicts, the battle of the eager spirit against the treacherous -and failing flesh. Having partially recovered, he put to sea, giddy and -weak, in wretched plight for the hard career of toil and battle which -the New World offered him. The voyage was prosperous, no other mishap -occurring than that of an ardent youth of St. Malo, who drank the health -of Pontgrave with such persistent enthusiasm that he fell overboard and -was drowned. - -There were ships at Tadoussac, fast loading with furs; and boats, too, -higher up the river, anticipating the trade, and draining De Monts's -resources in advance. Champlain, who was left free to fight and explore -wherever he should see fit, had provided, to use his own phrase, "two -strings to his bow." On the one hand, the Montagnais had promised to -guide him northward to Hudson's Bay; on the other, the Hurons were to -show him the Great Lakes, with the mines of copper on their shores; and -to each the same reward was promised,--to join them against the common -foe, the Iroquois. The rendezvous was at the mouth of the river -Richelien. Thither the Hurons were to descend in force, together with -Algonquins of the Ottawa; and thither Champlain now repaired, while -around his boat swarmed a multitude of Montagnais canoes, filled with -warriors whose lank hair streamed loose in the wind. - -There is an island in the St. Lawrence near the mouth of the Richelien. -On the nineteenth of June it was swarming with busy and clamorous -savages, Champlain's Montagnais allies, cutting down the trees and -clearing the ground for a dance and a feast; for they were hourly -expecting the Algonquin warriors, and were eager to welcome them with -befitting honors. But suddenly, far out on the river, they saw an -advancing canoe. Now on this side, now on that, the flashing paddles -urged it forward as if death were on its track; and as it drew near, the -Indians on board cried out that the Algonquins were in the forest, a -league distant, engaged with a hundred warriors of the Iroquois, who, -outnumbered, were fighting savagely within a barricade of trees. -The air was split with shrill outcries. The Montagnais snatched their -weapons,--shields, bows, arrows, war-clubs, sword-blades made fast to -poles,--and ran headlong to their canoes, impeding each other in their -haste, screeching to Champlain to follow, and invoking with no less -vehemence the aid of certain fur-traders, just arrived in four boats -from below. These, as it was not their cue to fight, lent them a deaf -ear; on which, in disgust and scorn, they paddled off, calling to the -recusants that they were women, fit for nothing but to make war on -beaver-skins. - -Champlain and four of his men were in the canoes. They shot across the -intervening water, and, as their prows grated on the pebbles, each -warrior flung down his paddle, snatched his weapons, and ran into the -woods. The five Frenchmen followed, striving vainly to keep pace with -the naked, light-limbed rabble, bounding like shadows through the -forest. They quickly disappeared. Even their shrill cries grew faint, -till Champlain and his men, discomforted and vexed, found themselves -deserted in the midst of a swamp. The day was sultry, the forest air -heavy, close, and filled with hosts of mosquitoes, "so thick," says the -chief sufferer, "that we could scarcely draw breath, and it was -wonderful how cruelly they persecuted us." Through black mud, spongy -moss, water knee-deep, over fallen trees, among slimy logs and -entangling roots, tripped by vines, lashed by recoiling boughs, panting -under their steel head-pieces and heavy corselets, the Frenchmen -struggled on, bewildered and indignant. At length they descried two -Indians running in the distance, and shouted to them in desperation, -that, if they wanted their aid, they must guide them to the enemy. - -At length they could hear the yells of the combatants; there was light -in the forest before them, and they issued into a partial clearing made -by the Iroquois axemen near the river. Champlain saw their barricade. -Trees were piled into a circular breastwork, trunks, boughs, and matted -foliage forming a strong defence, within which the Iroquois stood -savagely at bay. Around them flocked the allies, half hidden in the -edges of the forest, like hounds around a wild boar, eager, clamorous, -yet afraid to rush in. They had attacked, and had met a bloody rebuff. -All their hope was now in the French; and when they saw them, a yell -arose from hundreds of throats that outdid the wilderness voices whence -its tones were borrowed,--the whoop of the homed owl, the scream of the -cougar, the howl of starved wolves on a winter night. A fierce response -pealed from the desperate band within; and, amid a storm of arrows from -both sides, the Frenchmen threw themselves into the fray, firing at -random through the fence of trunks, boughs, and drooping leaves, with -which the Iroquois had encircled themselves. Champlain felt a -stone-headed arrow splitting his ear and tearing through the muscles of -his neck. he drew it out, and, the moment after, did a similar office -for one of his men. But the Iroquois had not recovered from their first -terror at the arquebuse; and when the mysterious and terrible -assailants, clad in steel and armed with thunder-bolts, ran up to the -barricade, thrust their pieces through the openings, and shot death -among the crowd within, they could not control their fright, but with -every report threw themselves flat on the ground. Animated with unwonted -valor, the allies, covered by their large shields, began to drag out the -felled trees of the barricade, while others, under Champlain's -direction, gathered at the edge of the forest, preparing to close the -affair with a final rush. New actors soon appeared on the scene. These -were a boat's crew of the fur-traders under a young man of St. Malo, one -Des Prairies, who, when he heard the firing, could not resist the -impulse to join the fight. On seeing them, Champlain checked the -assault, in order, as he says, that the new-comers might have their -share in the sport. The traders opened fire, with great zest and no less -execution; while the Iroquois, now wild with terror, leaped and writhed -to dodge the shot which tore through their frail armor of twigs. -Champlain gave the signal; the crowd ran to the barricade, dragged down -the boughs or clambered over them, and bore themselves, in his own -words, "so well and manfully," that, though scratched and torn by the -sharp points, they quickly forced an entrance. The French ceased their -fire, and, followed by a smaller body of Indians, scaled the barricade -on the farther side. Now, amid howlings, shouts, and screeches, the work -was finished. Some of the Iroquois were cut down as they stood, hewing -with their war-clubs, and foaming like slaughtered tigers; some climbed -the barrier and were killed by the furious crowd without; some were -drowned in the river; while fifteen, the only survivors, were made -prisoners. "By the grace of God," writes Champlain, "behold the battle -won!" Drunk with ferocious ecstasy, the conquerors scalped the dead and -gathered fagots for the living; while some of the fur-traders, too late -to bear part in the fight, robbed the carcasses of their -blood-bedrenched robes of beaver-skin amid the derision of the -surrounding Indians. - -That night, the torture fires blazed along the shore. Champlain saved -one prisoner from their clutches, but nothing could save the rest. One -body was quartered and eaten.[FN#31] "As for the rest of the prisoners," -says Champlain, "they were kept to be put to death by the women and -girls, who in this respect are no less inhuman than the men, and, -indeed, much more so; for by their subtlety they invent more cruel -tortures, and take pleasure in it." - -On the next day, a large band of Hurons appeared at the rendezvous, -greatly vexed that they had come too late. The shores were thickly -studded with Indian huts, and the woods were full of them. Here were -warriors of three designations, including many subordinate tribes, and -representing three grades of savage society,--the Hurons, the -Algonquins of the Ottawa, and the Montagnais; afterwards styled by a -Franciscan friar, than whom few men better knew them, the nobles, the -burghers, and the peasantry and paupers of the forest. Many of them, -from the remote interior, had never before seen a white man; and, -wrapped like statues in their robes, they stood gazing on the French -with a fixed stare of wild and wondering eyes. - -Judged by the standard of Indian war, a heavy blow had been struck on -the common enemy. Here were hundreds of assembled warriors; yet none -thought of following up their success. Elated with unexpected fortune, -they danced and sang; then loaded their canoes, hung their scalps on -poles, broke up their camps, and set out triumphant for their homes. -Champlain had fought their battles, and now might claim, on their part, -guidance and escort to the distant interior. Why he did not do so is -scarcely apparent. There were cares, it seems, connected with the very -life of his puny colony, which demanded his return to France. Nor were -his anxieties lessened by the arrival of a ship from his native town of -Brouage, with tidings of the King's assassination. Here was a death-blow -to all that had remained of De Monts's credit at court; while that -unfortunate nobleman, like his old associate, Pontrincourt, was moving -with swift strides toward financial ruin. With the revocation of his -monopoly, fur-traders had swarmed to the St. Lawrence. Tadoussac was -full of them, and for that year the trade was spoiled. Far from aiding -to support a burdensome enterprise of colonization, it was in itself an -occasion of heavy loss. - -Champlain bade farewell to his garden at Quebec, where maize, wheat, -rye, and barley, with vegetables of all kinds, and a small vineyard of -native grapes,--for he was a zealous horticulturist,--held forth a -promise which he was not to see fulfilled. He left one Du Parc in -command, with sixteen men, and, sailing on the eighth of August, arrived -at Honfleur with no worse accident than that of running over a sleeping -whale near the Grand Bank. - -With the opening spring he was afloat again. Perils awaited him worse -than those of Iroquois tomahawks; for, approaching Newfoundland, the -ship was entangled for days among drifting fields and bergs of ice. -Escaping at length, she arrived at Tadoussac on the thirteenth of May, -1611. She had anticipated the spring. Forests and mountains, far and -near, all were white with snow. A principal object with Champlain was to -establish such relations with the great Indian communities of the -interior as to secure to De Monts and his associates the advantage of -trade with them; and to this end he now repaired to Montreal, a position -in the gateway, as it were, of their yearly descents of trade or war. On -arriving, he began to survey the ground for the site of a permanent -post. - -A few days convinced him, that, under the present system, all his -efforts would be vain. Wild reports of the wonders of New France had -gone abroad, and a crowd of hungry adventurers had hastened to the land -of promise, eager to grow rich, they scarcely knew how, and soon to -return disgusted. A fleet of boats and small vessels followed in -Champlain's wake. Within a few days, thirteen of them arrived at -Montreal, and more soon appeared. He was to break the ground; others -would reap the harvest. Travel, discovery, and battle, all must inure to -the profit, not of the colony, but of a crew of greedy traders. - -Champlain, however, chose the site and cleared the ground for his -intended post. It was immediately above a small stream, now running -under arches of masonry, and entering the St. Lawrence at Point -Callieres, within the modern city. He called it Place Royale; and here, -on the margin of the river, he built a wall of bricks made on the spot, -in order to measure the destructive effects of the "ice-shove" in the -spring. - -Now, down the surges of St. Louis, where the mighty floods of the St. -Lawrence, contracted to a narrow throat, roll in fury among their sunken -rocks,--here, through foam and spray and the roar of the angry torrent, -a fleet of birch canoes came dancing like dry leaves on the froth of -some riotous brook. They bore a band of Hurons first at the rendezvous. -As they drew near the landing, all the fur-traders' boats blazed out a -clattering fusillade, which was designed to bid them welcome, but in -fact terrified many of them to such a degree that they scarcely dared to -come ashore. Nor were they reassured by the bearing of the disorderly -crowd, who, in jealous competition for their beaver-skins, left them not -a moment's peace, and outraged all their notions of decorum. More soon -appeared, till hundreds of warriors were encamped along the shore, all -restless, suspicious, and alarmed. Late one night they awakened -Champlain. On going with them to their camp, he found chiefs and -warriors in solemn conclave around the glimmering firelight. Though they -were fearful of the rest, their trust in him was boundless. "Come to our -country, buy our beaver, build a fort, teach us the true faith, do what -you will, but do not bring this crowd with you." The idea had seized -them that these lawless bands of rival traders, all well armed, meant to -plunder and kill them. Champlain assured them of safety, and the whole -night was consumed in friendly colloquy. Soon afterward, however, the -camp broke up, and the uneasy warriors removed to the borders of the -Lake of St. Louis, placing the rapids betwixt themselves and the objects -of their alarm. Here Champlain visited them, and hence these intrepid -canoe-men, kneeling in their birchen egg-shells, carried him homeward -down the rapids, somewhat, as he admits, to the discomposure of his -nerves.[FN#32] - -The great gathering dispersed: the traders descended to Tadoussac, and -Champlain to Quebec; while the Indians went, some to their homes, some -to fight the Iroquois. A few months later, Champlain was in close -conference with De Monts at Pons, a place near Rochelle, of which the -latter was governor. The last two years had made it apparent, that, to -keep the colony alive and maintain a basis for those discoveries on -which his heart was bent, was impossible without a change of system. De -Monts, engrossed with the cares of his government, placed all in the -hands of his associate; and Champlain, fully empowered to act as he -should judge expedient, set out for Paris. On the way, Fortune, at one -stroke, wellnigh crushed him and New France together; for his horse fell -on him, and he narrowly escaped with life. When he was partially -recovered, he resumed his journey, pondering on means of rescue for the -fading colony. A powerful protector must be had,--a great name to -shield the enterprise from assaults and intrigues of jealous rival -interests. On reaching Paris he addressed himself to a prince of the -blood, Charles de Bourbon, Comte de Soissons; described New France, its -resources, and its boundless extent; urged the need of unfolding a -mystery pregnant perhaps with results of the deepest moment; laid before -him maps and memoirs, and begged him to become the guardian of this new -world. The royal consent being obtained, the Comte de Soissons became -Lieutenant-General for the King in New France, with vice-regal powers. -These, in turn, he conferred upon Champlain, making him his lieutenant, -with full control over the trade in furs at and above Quebec, and with -power to associate with himself such persons as he saw fit, to aid in -the exploration and settlement of the country. - -Scarcely was the commission drawn when the Comte de Soissons, attacked -with fever, died,--to the joy of the Breton and Norman traders, whose -jubilation, however, found a speedy end. Henri de Bourbon, Prince de -Conde, first prince of the blood, assumed the vacant protectorship. He -was grandson of the gay and gallant Conde of the civil wars, was father -of the great Conde, the youthful victor of Rocroy, and was husband of -Charlotte de Moutmorency, whose blond beauties had fired the inflammable -heart of Henry the Fourth. To the unspeakable wrath of that keen lover, -the prudent Conde fled with his bride, first to Brussels, and then to -Italy; nor did he return to France till the regicide's knife had put his -jealous fears to rest. After his return, he began to intrigue against -the court. He was a man of common abilities, greedy of money and power, -and scarcely seeking even the decency of a pretext to cover his mean -ambition. His chief honor--an honor somewhat equivocal--is, as -Voltaire observes, to have been father of the great Conde. Busy with his -intrigues, he cared little for colonies and discoveries; and his rank -and power were his sole qualifications for his new post. - -In Champlain alone was the life of New France. By instinct and -temperament he was more impelled to the adventurous toils of exploration -than to the duller task of building colonies. The profits of trade had -value in his eyes only as means to these ends, and settlements were -important chiefly as a base of discovery. Two great objects eclipsed all -others,--to find a route to the Indies, and to bring the heathen tribes -into the embraces of the Church, since, while he cared little for their -bodies, his solicitude for their souls knew no bounds. - -It was no part of his plan to establish an odious monopoly. He sought -rather to enlist the rival traders in his cause; and he now, in -concurrence with Du Monts, invited them to become sharers in the -traffic, under certain regulations, and on condition of aiding in the -establishment and support of the colony. The merchants of St. Malo and -Rouen accepted the terms, and became members of the new company; but the -intractable heretics of Rochelle, refractory in commerce as in religion, -kept aloof, and preferred the chances of an illicit trade. The prospects -of New France were far from flattering; for little could be hoped from -this unwilling league of selfish traders, each jealous of the rest. They -gave the Prince of Conde large gratuities to secure his countenance and -support. The hungry viceroy took them, and with these emoluments his -interest in the colony ended. - - - - - - - -CHAPTER XII. - -1612, 1613. - -THE IMPOSTOR VIGNAU. - -The arrangements just indicated were a work of time. In the summer of -1612, Champlain was forced to forego his yearly voyage to New France; -nor, even in the following spring, were his labors finished and the -rival interests brought to harmony. Meanwhile, incidents occurred -destined to have no small influence on his movements. Three years -before, after his second fight with the Iroquois, a young man of his -company had boldly volunteered to join the Indians on their homeward -journey, and winter among them. Champlain gladly assented, and in the -following summer the adventurer returned. Another young man, one Nicolas -de Vignan, next offered himself; and he also, embarking in the Algonquin -canoes, passed up the Ottawa, and was seen no more for a twelvemonth. In -1612 he reappeared in Paris, bringing a tale of wonders; for, says -Champlain, "he was the most impudent liar that has been seen for many a -day." He averred that at the sources of the Ottawa he had found a great -lake; that he had crossed it, and discovered a river flowing northward; -that he had descended this river, and reached the shores of the sea; -that here he had seen the wreck of an English ship, whose crew, escaping -to land, had been killed by the Indians; and that this sea was distant -from Montreal only seventeen days by canoe. The clearness, consistency, -and apparent simplicity of his story deceived Champlain, who had heard -of a voyage of the English to the northern seas, coupled with rumors of -wreck and disaster, and was thus confirmed in his belief of Vignau's -honesty. The Marechal de Brissac, the President Jeannin, and other -persons of eminence about the court, greatly interested by these -dexterous fabrications, urged Champlain to follow up without delay a -discovery which promised results so important; while he, with the -Pacific, Japan, China, the Spice Islands, and India stretching in -flattering vista before his fancy, entered with eagerness on the chase -of this illusion. Early in the spring of 1613 the unwearied voyager -crossed the Atlantic, and sailed up the St. Lawrence. On Monday, the -twenty-seventh of May, he left the island of St. Helen, opposite -Montreal, with four Frenchmen, one of whom was Nicolas de Vignau, and -one Indian, in two small canoes. They passed the swift current at St. -Ann's, crossed the Lake of Two Mountains, and advanced up the Ottawa -till the rapids of Carillon and the Long Saut checked their course. So -dense and tangled was the forest, that they were forced to remain in the -bed of the river, trailing their canoes along the bank with cords, or -pushing them by main force up the current. Champlain's foot slipped; he -fell in the rapids, two boulders, against which he braced himself, -saving him from being swept down, while the cord of the canoe, twisted -round his hand, nearly severed it. At length they reached smoother -water, and presently met fifteen canoes of friendly Indians. Champlain -gave them the most awkward of his Frenchmen and took one of their number -in return,--an exchange greatly to his profit. - -All day they plied their paddles, and when night came they made their -camp-fire in the forest. He who now, when two centuries and a half are -passed, would see the evening bivouac of Champlain, has but to encamp, -with Indian guides, on the upper waters of this same Ottawa, or on the -borders of some lonely river of New Brunswick or of Maine. - -Day dawned. The east glowed with tranquil fire, that pierced with eyes -of flame the fir-trees whose jagged tops stood drawn in black against -the burning heaven. Beneath, the glossy river slept in shadow, or spread -far and wide in sheets of burnished bronze; and the white moon, paling -in the face of day, hung like a disk of silver in the western sky. Now a -fervid light touched the dead top of the hemlock, and creeping downward -bathed the mossy beard of the patriarchal cedar, unstirred in the -breathless air; now a fiercer spark beamed from the east; and now, half -risen on the sight, a dome of crimson fire, the sun blazed with floods -of radiance across the awakened wilderness. - -The canoes were launched again, and the voyagers held their course. Soon -the still surface was flecked with spots of foam; islets of froth -floated by, tokens of some great convulsion. Then, on their left, the -falling curtain of the Rideau shone like silver betwixt its bordering -woods, and in front, white as a snowdrift, the cataracts of the -Chaudiere barred their way. They saw the unbridled river careering down -its sheeted rocks, foaming in unfathomed chasms, wearying the solitude -with the hoarse outcry of its agony and rage. - -On the brink of the rocky basin where the plunging torrent boiled like a -caldron, and puffs of spray sprang out from its concussion like smoke -from the throat of a cannon, Champlain's two Indians took their stand, -and, with a loud invocation, threw tobacco into the foam,--an offering -to the local spirit, the Manitou of the cataract. - -They shouldered their canoes over the rocks, and through the woods; then -launched them again, and, with toil and struggle, made their amphibious -way, pushing dragging, lifting, paddling, shoving with poles; till, when -the evening sun poured its level rays across the quiet Lake of the -Chaudiere, they landed, and made their camp on the verge of a woody -island. - -Day by day brought a renewal of their toils. Hour by hour, they moved -prosperously up the long windings of the solitary stream; then, in quick -succession, rapid followed rapid, till the bed of the Ottawa seemed a -slope of foam. Now, like a wall bristling at the top with woody islets, -the Falls of the Chats faced them with the sheer plunge of their sixteen -cataracts; now they glided beneath overhanging cliffs, where, seeing but -unseen, the crouched wildcat eyed them from the thicket; now through the -maze of water-girded rocks, which the white cedar and the spruce clasped -with serpent-like roots, or among islands where old hemlocks darkened -the water with deep green shadow. Here, too, the rock-maple reared its -verdant masses, the beech its glistening leaves and clean, smooth stem, -and behind, stiff and sombre, rose the balsam-fir. Here in the tortuous -channels the muskrat swam and plunged, and the splashing wild duck dived -beneath the alders or among the red and matted roots of thirsty water -willows. Aloft, the white-pine towered above a sea of verdure; old -fir-trees, hoary and grim, shaggy with pendent mosses, leaned above the -stream, and beneath, dead and submerged, some fallen oak thrust from the -current its bare, bleached limbs, like the skeleton of a drowned giant. -In the weedy cove stood the moose, neck-deep in water to escape the -flies, wading shoreward, with glistening sides, as the canoes drew near, -shaking his broad antlers and writhing his hideous nostril, as with -clumsy trot he vanished in the woods. - -In these ancient wilds, to whose ever verdant antiquity the pyramids are -young and Nineveh a mushroom of yesterday; where the sage wanderer of -the Odyssey, could he have urged his pilgrimage so far, would have -surveyed the same grand and stern monotony, the same dark sweep of -melancholy woods;--here, while New England was a solitude, and the -settlers of Virginia scarcely dared venture inland beyond the sound of a -cannon-shot, Champlain was planting on shores and islands the emblems of -his faith. Of the pioneers of the North American forests, his name -stands foremost on the list. It was he who struck the deepest and -boldest strokes into the heart of their pristine barbarism. At -Chantilly, at Fontainebleau, Paris, in the cabinets of princes and of -royalty itself, mingling with the proud vanities of the court; then lost -from sight in the depths of Canada, the companion of savages, sharer of -their toils, privations, and battles, more hardy, patient, and bold than -they;--such, for successive years, were the alternations of this man's -life. - -To follow on his trail once more. His Indians said that the rapids of -the river above were impassable. Nicolas de Vignan affirmed the -contrary; but, from the first, Vignau had been found always in the -wrong. His aim seems to have been to involve his leader in difficulties, -and disgust him with a journey which must soon result in exposing the -imposture which had occasioned it. Champlain took counsel of the -Indians. The party left the river, and entered the forest. - -"We had a hard march," says Champlain. "I carried for my share of the -luggage three arquebuses, three paddles, my overcoat, and a few -bagatelles. My men carried a little more than I did, and suffered more -from the mosquitoes than from their loads. After we had passed four -small ponds and advanced two leagues and a half, we were so tired that -we could go no farther, having eaten nothing but a little roasted fish -for nearly twenty-four hours. So we stopped in a pleasant place enough -by the edge of a pond, and lighted a fire to drive off the mosquitoes, -which plagued us beyond all description; and at the same time we set our -nets to catch a few fish." - -On the next day they fared still worse, for their way was through a pine -forest where a tornado had passed, tearing up the trees and piling them -one upon another in a vast "windfall," where boughs, roots, and trunks -were mixed in confusion. Sometimes they climbed over and sometimes -crawled through these formidable barricades, till, after an exhausting -march, they reached the banks of Muskrat Lake, by the edge of which was -an Indian settlement. - -This neighborhood was the seat of the principal Indian population of the -river, and, as the canoes advanced, unwonted signs of human life could -be seen on the borders of the lake. Here was a rough clearing. The trees -had been burned; there was a rude and desolate gap in the sombre green -of the pine forest. Dead trunks, blasted and black with fire, stood -grimly upright amid the charred stumps and prostrate bodies of comrades -half consumed. In the intervening spaces, the soil had been feebly -scratched with hoes of wood or bone, and a crop of maize was growing, -now some four inches high. The dwellings of these slovenly farmers, -framed of poles covered with sheets of bark, were scattered here and -there, singly or in groups, while their tenants were running to the -shore in amazement. The chief, Nibachis, offered the calumet, then -harangued the crowd: "These white men must have fallen from the clouds. -How else could they have reached us through the woods and rapids which -even we find it hard to pass? The French chief can do anything. All that -we have heard of him must he true." And they hastened to regale the -hungry visitors with a repast of fish. - -Champlain asked for guidance to the settlements above. It was readily -granted. Escorted by his friendly hosts, he advanced beyond the foot of -Muskrat Lake, and, landing, saw the unaccustomed sight of pathways -through the forest. They led to the clearings and cabins of a chief -named Tessonat, who, amazed at the apparition of the white strangers, -exclaimed that he must be in a dream. Next, the voyagers crossed to the -neighboring island, then deeply wooded with pine, elm, and oak. Here -were more desolate clearings, more rude cornfields and bark-built -cabins. Here, too, was a cemetery, which excited the wonder of -Champlain, for the dead were better cared for than the living. Each -grave was covered with a double row of pieces of wood, inclined like a -roof till they crossed at the ridge, a long which was laid a thick -tablet of wood, meant apparently either to bind the whole together or -protect it from rain. At one end stood an upright tablet, or flattened -post, rudely carved with an intended representation of the features of -the deceased. If a chief, the head was adorned with a plume. If a -warrior, there were figures near it of a shield, a lance, a war-club, -and a bow and arrows; if a boy, of a small bow and one arrow; and if a -woman or a girl, of a kettle, an earthen pot, a wooden spoon, and a -paddle. The whole was decorated with red and yellow paint; and beneath -slept the departed, wrapped in a robe of skins, his earthly treasures -about him, ready for use in the land of souls. - -Tessouat was to give a tabagie, or solemn feast, in honor of Champlain, -and the chiefs and elders of the island were invited. Runners were sent -to summon the guests from neighboring hamlets; and, on the morrow, -Tessonat's squaws swept his cabin for the festivity. Then Champlain and -his Frenchmen were seated on skins in the place of honor, and the naked -guests appeared in quick succession, each with his wooden dish and -spoon, and each ejaculating his guttural salute as he stooped at the low -door. The spacious cabin was full. The congregated wisdom and prowess of -the nation sat expectant on the bare earth. Each long, bare arm thrust -forth its dish in turn as the host served out the banquet, in which, as -courtesy enjoined, he himself was to have no share. First, a mess of -pounded maize, in which were boiled, without salt, morsels of fish and -dark scraps of meat; then, fish and flesh broiled on the embers, with a -kettle of cold water from the river. Champlain, in wise distrust of -Ottawa cookery, confined himself to the simpler and less doubtful -viands. A few minutes, and all alike had vanished. The kettles were -empty. Then pipes were filled and touched with fire brought in by the -squaws, while the young men who had stood thronged about the entrance -now modestly withdrew, and the door was closed for counsel. - -First, the pipes were passed to Champlain. Then, for full half an hour, -the assembly smoked in silence. At length, when the fitting time was -come, he addressed them in a speech in which he declared, that, moved by -affection for them, he visited their country to see its richness and its -beauty, and to aid them in their wars; and he now begged them to furnish -him with four canoes and eight men, to convey him to the country of the -Nipissings, a tribe dwelling northward on the lake which bears their -name. - -His audience looked grave, for they were but cold and jealous friends of -the Nipissings. For a time they discoursed in murmuring tones among -themselves, all smoking meanwhile with redoubled vigor. Then Tessouat, -chief of these forest republicans, rose and spoke in behalf of all:--"We -always knew you for our best friend among the Frenchmen. We love you -like our own children. But why did you break your word with us last year -when we all went down to meet you at Montreal, to give you presents and -go with you to war? You were not there, but other Frenchmen were there -who abused us. We will never go again. As for the four canoes, you shall -have them if you insist upon it; but it grieves us to think of the -hardships you must endure. The Nipissings have weak hearts. They are -good for nothing in war, but they kill us with charms, and they poison -us. Therefore we are on bad terms with them. They will kill you, too." - -Such was the pith of Tessouat's discourse, and at each clause the -conclave responded in unison with an approving grunt. - -Champlain urged his petition; sought to relieve their tender scruples in -his behalf; assured them that he was charm-proof, and that he feared no -hardships. At length he gained his point. The canoes and the men were -promised, and, seeing himself as he thought on the highway to his -phantom Northern Sea, he left his entertainers to their pipes, and with -a light heart issued from the close and smoky den to breathe the fresh -air of the afternoon. He visited the Indian fields, with their young -crops of pumpkins, beans, and French peas,--the last a novelty obtained -from the traders. Here, Thomas, the interpreter, soon joined him with a -countenance of ill news. In the absence of Champlain, the assembly had -reconsidered their assent. The canoes were denied. - -With a troubled mind he hastened again to the hall of council, and -addressed the naked senate in terms better suited to his exigencies than -to their dignity: - -"I thought you were men; I thought you would hold fast to your word: but -I find you children, without truth. You call yourselves my friends, yet -you break faith with me. Still I would not incommode you; and if you -cannot give me four canoes, two will Serve." - -The burden of the reply was, rapids, rocks, cataracts, and the -wickedness of the Nipissings. "We will not give you the canoes. because -we are afraid of losing you," they said. - -"This young man," rejoined Champlain, pointing to Vignau, who sat by his -side, "has been to their country, and did not find the road or the -people so bad as you have said." - -"Nicolas," demanded Tessouat, "did you say that you had been to the -Nipissings?" - -The impostor sat mute for a time, and then replied, "Yes, I have been -there." - -Hereupon an outcry broke from the assembly, and they turned their eyes -on him askance, "as if," says Champlain, "they would have torn and eaten -him." - -"You are a liar," returned the unceremonious host; "you know very well -that you slept here among my children every night, and got up again -every morning; and if you ever went to the Nipissings, it must have been -when you were asleep. How can you be so impudent as to lie to your -chief, and so wicked as to risk his life among so many dangers? He ought -to kill you with tortures worse than those with which we kill our -enemies." - -Champlain urged him to reply. but he sat motionless and dumb. Then he -led him from the cabin, and conjured him to declare if in truth he had -seen this sea of the north. Vignan, with oaths, affirmed that all he had -said was true. Returning to the council, Champlain repeated the -impostor's story--how he had seen the sea, the wreck of an English -ship, the heads of eighty Englishmen, and an English boy, prisoner among -the Indians. - -At this, an outcry rose louder than before, and the Indians turned in -ire upon Vignan. - -"You are a liar." "Which way did you go?" "By what rivers?" "By what -lakes?" "Who went with you?" - -Vignan had made a map of his travels, which Champlain now produced, -desiring him to explain it to his questioners; but his assurance failed -him, and he could not utter a word. - -Champlain was greatly agitated. His heart was in the enterprise, his -reputation was in a measure at stake; and now, when he thought his -triumph so near, he shrank from believing himself the sport of an -impudent impostor. The council broke up,--the Indians displeased and -moody, and he, on his part, full of anxieties and doubts. - -"I called Vignau to me in presence of his companions," he says. "I told -him that the time for deceiving me was ended; that he must tell me -whether or not he had really seen the things he had told of; that I had -forgotten the past, but that, if he continued to mislead me, I would -have him hanged without mercy." - -Vignau pondered for a moment; then fell on his knees, owned his -treachery, and begged forgiveness. Champlain broke into a rage, and, -unable, as he says, to endure the sight of him, ordered him from his -presence, and sent the interpreter after him to make further -examination. Vanity, the love of notoriety, and the hope of reward, seem -to have been his inducements; for he had in fact spent a quiet winter in -Tessonat's cabin, his nearest approach to the northern sea; and he had -flattered himself that he might escape the necessity of guiding his -commander to this pretended discovery. The Indians were somewhat -exultant. - -"Why did you not listen to chiefs and warriors, instead of believing the -lies of this fellow?" And they counselled Champlain to have him killed -at once, adding, "Give him to us, and we promise you that he shall never -lie again." - -No motive remaining for farther advance, the party set out on their -return, attended by a fleet of forty canoes bound to Montreal for trade. -They passed the perilous rapids of the Calumet, and were one night -encamped on an island, when an Indian, slumbering in an uneasy posture, -was visited with a nightmare. He leaped up with a yell, screamed, that -somebody was killing him, and ran for refuge into the river. Instantly -all his companions sprang to their feet, and, hearing in fancy the -Iroquois war-whoop, took to the water, splashing, diving, and wading up -to their necks, in the blindness of their fright. Champlain and his -Frenchmen, roused at the noise, snatched their weapons and looked in -vain for an enemy. The panic-stricken warriors, reassured at length, -waded crestfallen ashore, and the whole ended in a laugh. - -At the Chaudiere, a contribution of tobacco was collected on a wooden -platter, and, after a solemn harangue, was thrown to the guardian -Manitou. On the seventeenth of June they approached Montreal, where the -assembled traders greeted them with discharges of small arms and cannon. -Here, among the rest, was Champlain's lieutenant, Du Parc, with his men, -who had amused their leisure with hunting, and were revelling in a -sylvan abundance, while their baffled chief, with worry of mind, fatigue -of body, and a Lenten diet of half-cooked fish, was grievously fallen -away in flesh and strength. He kept his word with DeVignau, left the -scoundrel unpunished, bade farewell to the Indians, and, promising to -rejoin then the next year, embarked in one of the trading-ships for -France. - - - - - - - -CHAPTER XIII. - -1615. - -DISCOVERY OF LAKE HURON. - -In New France, spiritual and temporal interests were inseparably -blended, and, as will hereafter appear, the conversion of the Indians -was used as a means of commercial and political growth. But, with the -single-hearted founder of the colony, considerations of material -advantage, though clearly recognized, were no less clearly subordinate. -He would fain rescue from perdition a people living, as he says, "like -brute beasts, without faith, without law, without religion, without -God." While the want of funds and the indifference of his merchant -associates, who as yet did not fully see that their trade would find in -the missions its surest ally, were threatening to wreck his benevolent -schemes, he found a kindred spirit in his friend Houd, secretary to the -King, and comptroller-general of the salt-works of Bronage. Near this -town was a convent of Recollet friars, some of whom were well known to -Houel. To them he addressed himself; and several of the brotherhood, -"inflamed," we are told, "with charity," were eager to undertake the -mission. But the Recollets, mendicants by profession, were as weak in -resources as Champlain himself. He repaired to Paris, then filled with -bishops, cardinals, and nobles, assembled for the States-General. -Responding to his appeal, they subscribed fifteen hundred livres for the -purchase of vestments, candles, and ornaments for altars. The King gave -letters patent in favor of the mission, and the Pope gave it his formal -authorization. By this instrument the papacy in the person of Paul the -Fifth virtually repudiated the action of the papacy in the person of -Alexander the Sixth, who had proclaimed all America the exclusive -property of Spain. - -The Recollets form a branch of the great Franciscan Order, founded early -in the thirteenth century by Saint Francis of Assisi. Saint, hero, or -madman, according to the point of view from which he is regarded, he -belonged to an era of the Church when the tumult of invading heresies -awakened in her defence a band of impassioned champions, widely -different from the placid saints of an earlier age. He was very young -when dreams and voices began to reveal to him his vocation, and kindle -his high-wrought nature to sevenfold heat. Self-respect, natural -affection, decency, became in his eyes but stumbling-blocks and snares. -He robbed his father to build a church; and, like so many of the Roman -Catholic saints, confounded filth with humility, exchanged clothes with -beggars, and walked the streets of Assisi in rags amid the hootings of -his townsmen. He vowed perpetual poverty and perpetual beggary, and, in -token of his renunciation of the world, stripped himself naked before -the Bishop of Assisi, and then begged of him in charity a peasant's -mantle. Crowds gathered to his fervid and dramatic eloquence. His -handful of disciples multiplied, till Europe became thickly dotted with -their convents. At the end of the eighteenth century, the three Orders -of Saint Francis numbered a hundred and fifteen thousand friars and -twenty-eight thousand nuns. Four popes, forty-five cardinals, and -forty-six canonized martyrs were enrolled on their record, besides about -two thousand more who had shed their blood for the faith. Their missions -embraced nearly all the known world; and, in 1621, there were in Spanish -America alone five hundred Franciscan convents. - -In process of time the Franciscans had relaxed their ancient rigor; but -much of their pristine spirit still subsisted in the Recollets, a -reformed branch of the Order, sometimes known as Franciscans of the -Strict Observance. - -Four of their number were named for the mission of New France,--Denis -Jamay, Jean Dolbean, Joseph le Caron, and the lay brother Pacifique du -Plessis. "They packed their church ornaments," says Champlain, "and we, -our luggage." All alike confessed their sins, and, embarking at -Honfleur, reached Quebec at the end of May, 1615. Great was the -perplexity of the Indians as the apostolic mendicants landed beneath the -rock. Their garb was a form of that common to the brotherhood of Saint -Francis, consisting of a rude garment of coarse gray cloth, girt at the -waist with the knotted cord of the Order, and furnished with a peaked -hood, to be drawn over the head. Their naked feet were shod with wooden -sandals, more than an inch thick. - -Their first care was to choose a site for their convent, near the -fortified dwellings and storehouses built by Champlain. This done, they -made an altar, and celebrated the first mass ever said in Canada. -Dolbean was the officiating priest; all New France kneeled on the bare -earth around him, and cannon from the ship and the ramparts hailed the -mystic rite. Then, in imitation of the Apostles, they took counsel -together, and assigned to each his province in the vast field of their -mission,--to Le Caron the Hurons, and to Dolbean the Montagnais; while -Jamay and Du Plessis were to remain for the present near Quebec. - -Dolbean, full of zeal, set out for his post, and in the next winter -tried to follow the roving hordes of Tadoussac to their frozen -hunting-grounds. He was not robust, and his eyes were weak. Lodged in a -hut of birch bark, full of abominations, dogs, fleas, stench, and all -uncleanness, he succumbed at length to the smoke, which had wellnigh -blinded him, forcing him to remain for several days with his eyes -closed. After debating within himself whether God required of him the -sacrifice of his sight, he solved his doubts with a negative, and -returned to Quebec, only to depart again with opening spring on a tour -so extensive that it brought him in contact with outlying bands of the -Esquimaux. Meanwhile Le Caron had long been absent on a more noteworthy -mission. - -While his brethren were building their convent and garnishing their -altar at Quebec, the ardent friar had hastened to the site of Montreal, -then thronged with a savage concourse come down for the yearly trade. he -mingled with them, studied their manners, tried to learn their -languages, and, when Champlain and Pontgrave arrived, declared his -purpose of wintering in their villages. Dissuasion availed nothing. -"What," he demanded, "are privations to him whose life is devoted to -perpetual poverty, and who has no ambition but to serve God?" - -The assembled Indians were more eager for temporal than for spiritual -succor, and beset Champlain with clamors for aid against the Iroquois. -He and Pontgrave were of one mind. The aid demanded must be given, and -that from no motive of the hour, but in pursuance of a deliberate -policy. It was evident that the innumerable tribes of New France, -otherwise divided, were united in a common fear and hate of these -formidable bands, who, in the strength of their fivefold league, spread -havoc and desolation through all the surrounding wilds. It was the aim -of Champlain, as of his successors, to persuade the threatened and -endangered hordes to live at peace with each other, and to form against -the common foe a virtual league, of which the French colony would be the -heart and the head, and which would continually widen with the widening -area of discovery. With French soldiers to fight their battles, French -priests to baptize them, and French traders to supply their increasing -wants, their dependence would be complete. They would become assured -tributaries to the growth of New France. It was a triple alliance of -soldier, priest, and trader. The soldier might be a roving knight, and -the priest a martyr and a saint; but both alike were subserving the -interests of that commerce which formed the only solid basis of the -colony. The scheme of English colonization made no account of the Indian -tribes. In the scheme of French colonization they were all in all. - -In one point the plan was fatally defective, since it involved the -deadly enmity of a race whose character and whose power were as yet but -ill understood,--the fiercest, boldest, most politic, and most -ambitious savages to whom the American forest has ever given birth. - -The chiefs and warriors met in council,--Algonquins of the Ottawa, and -Hurons from the borders of the great Fresh-Water Sea. Champlain promised -to join them with all the men at his command, while they, on their part, -were to muster without delay twenty-five hundred warriors for an inroad -into the country of the Iroquois. He descended at once to Quebec for -needful preparation; but when, after a short delay, he returned to -Montreal, he found, to his chagrin, a solitude. The wild concourse had -vanished; nothing remained but the skeleton poles of their huts, the -smoke of their fires, and the refuse of their encampments. Impatient at -his delay, they had set out for their villages, and with them had gone -Father Joseph le Caron. - -Twelve Frenchmen, well armed, had attended him. Summer was at its -height, and as his canoe stole along the bosom of the glassy river, and -he gazed about him on the tawny multitude whose fragile craft covered -the water like swarms of gliding insects, he thought, perhaps, of his -whitewashed cell in the convent of Brouage, of his book, his table, his -rosary, and all the narrow routine of that familiar life from which he -had awakened to contrasts so startling. That his progress up the Ottawa -was far from being an excursion of pleasure is attested by his letters, -fragments of which have come down to us. - -"It would be hard to tell you," he writes to a friend, "how tired I was -with paddling all day, with all my strength, among the Indians; wading -the rivers a hundred times and more, through the mud and over the sharp -rocks that cut my feet; carrying the canoe and luggage through the woods -to avoid the rapids and frightful cataracts; and half starved all the -while, for we had nothing to eat but a little sagantite, a sort of -porridge of water and pounded maize, of which they gave us a very small -allowance every morning and night. But I must needs tell you what -abundant consolation I found under all my troubles; for when one sees so -many infidels needing nothing but a drop of water to make them children -of God, one feels an inexpressible ardor to labor for their conversion, -and sacrifice to it one's repose and life." - -Another Recollet, Gabriel Sagard, followed the same route in similar -company a few years later, and has left an account of his experience, of -which Le Caron's was the counterpart. Sagard reckons from eighty to a -hundred waterfalls and rapids in the course of the journey, and the task -of avoiding them by pushing through the woods was the harder for him -because he saw fit to go barefoot, "in imitation of our seraphic father, -Saint Francis." "We often came upon rocks, mudholes, and fallen trees, -which we had to scramble over, and sometimes we must force our way with -head and hands through dense woods and thickets, without road or path. -When the time came, my Indians looked for a good place to pass the -night. Some went for dry wood; others for poles to make a shed; others -kindled a fire, and hung the kettle to a stick stuck aslant in the -ground; and others looked for two flat stones to bruise the Indian corn, -of which they make sagamite." - -This sagamite was an extremely thin porridge; and, though scraps of fish -were now and then boiled in it, the friar pined away daily on this weak -and scanty fare, which was, moreover, made repulsive to him by the -exceeding filthiness of the cookery. Nevertheless, he was forced to -disguise his feelings. "One must always keep a smiling, modest, -contented face, and now and then sing a hymn, both for his own -consolation and to please and edify the savages, who take a singular -pleasure in hearing us sing the praises of our God." Among all his -trials, none afflicted him so much as the flies and mosquitoes. "If I -had not kept my face wrapped in a cloth, I am almost sure they would -have blinded me, so pestiferous and poisonous are the bites of these -little demons. They make one look like a leper, hideous to the sight. I -confess that this is the worst martyrdom I suffered in this country; -hunger, thirst, weariness, and fever are nothing to it. These little -beasts not only persecute you all day, but at night they get into your -eyes and mouth, crawl under your clothes, or stick their long stings -through them, and make such a noise that it distracts your attention, -and prevents you from saying your prayers." He reckons three or four -kinds of them, and adds, that in the Montagnais country there is still -another kind, so small that they can hardly be seen, but which "bite -like devils' imps." The sportsman who has bivouacked in the woods of -Maine will at once recognize the minute tormentors there known as -"no-see-'ems." - -While through tribulations like these Le Caron made his way towards the -scene of his apostleship, Champlain was following on his track. With two -canoes, ten Indians, Etienne Brule his interpreter, and another -Frenchman, he pushed up the Ottawa till he reached the Algonquin -villages which had formed the term of his former journeying. He passed -the two lakes of the Allumettes; and now, for twenty miles, the river -stretched before him, straight as the bee can fly, deep, narrow, and -black, between its mountain shores. He passed the rapids of the Joachims -and the Caribou, the Rocher Capitamne, and the Deux Rivieres, and -reached at length the trihutary waters of the Mattawan. He turned to the -left, ascended this little stream forty miles or more, and, crossing a -portage track, well trodden, reached the margin of Lake Nipissing. The -canoes were launched again, and glided by leafy shores and verdant -islands till at length appeared signs of human life and clusters of bark -lodges, half hidden in the vastness of the woods. It was the village of -an Algonquin band, called the Nipissings,--a race so beset with -spirits, infested by demons, and abounding in magicians, that the -Jesuits afterwards stigmatized them as "the Sorcerers." In this -questionable company Champlain spent two days, feasted on fish, deer, -and bears. Then, descending to the outlet of the lake, he steered his -canoes westward down the current of French River. - -Days passed, and no sign of man enlivened the rocky desolation. Hunger -was pressing them hard, for the ten gluttonous Indians had devoured -already nearly all their provision for the voyage, and they were forced -to subsist on the blueberries and wild raspberries that grew abundantly -in the meagre soil, when suddenly they encountered a troop of three -hundred savages, whom, from their strange and startling mode of wearing -their hair, Champlain named the Cheveux Releves. "Not one of our -courtiers," he says, "takes so much pains in dressing his locks." Here, -however, their care of the toilet ended; for, though tattooed on various -parts of the body, painted, and armed with bows, arrows, and shields of -bison-hide, they wore no clothing whatever. Savage as was their aspect, -they were busied in the pacific task of gathering blueberries for their -winter store. Their demeanor was friendly; and from them the voyager -learned that the great lake of the Hurons was close at hand. - -Now, far along the western sky was traced the watery line of that inland -ocean, and, first of white men except the Friar Le Caron, Champlain -beheld the "Mer Douce," the Fresh-Water Sea of the Hurons. Before him, -too far for sight, lay the spirit-haunted Manitonalins, and, southward, -spread the vast bosom of the Georgian Bay. For more than a hundred -miles, his course was along its eastern shores, among islets countless -as the sea-sands,--an archipelago of rocks worn for ages by the wash of -waves. He crossed Byng Inlet, Franklin Inlet, Parry Sound, and the wider -bay of Matchedash, and seems to have landed at the inlet now called -Thunder Bay, at the entrance of the Bay of Matchedash, and a little west -of the Harbor of Penetanguishine. - -An Indian trail led inland, through woods and thickets, across broad -meadows, over brooks, and along the skirts of green acclivities. To the -eye of Champlain, accustomed to the desolation he had left behind, it -seemed a land of beauty and abundance. He reached at last a broad -opening in the forest, with fields of maize, pumpkins ripening in the -sun, patches of sunflowers, from the seeds of which the Indians made -hair-oil, and, in the midst, the Huron town of Otonacha. In all -essential points, it resembled that which Cartier, eighty years before, -had seen at Montreal,--the same triple palisade of crossed and -intersecting trunks, and the same long lodges of bark, each containing -several families. Here, within an area of thirty or forty miles, was the -seat of one of the most remarkable savage communities on the continent. -By the Indian standard, it was a mighty nation; yet the entire Huron -population did not exceed that of a third or fourth class American city. - -To the south and southeast lay other tribes of kindred race and tongue, -all stationary, all tillers of the soil, and all in a state of social -advancement when compared with the roving bands of Eastern Canada: the -Neutral Nation west of the Niagara, and the Eries and Andastes in Western -New York and Pennsylvania; while from the Genesee eastward to the Hudson -lay the banded tribes of the Iroquois, leading members of this potent -family, deadly foes of their kindred, and at last their destroyers. - -In Champlain the Hurons saw the champion who was to lead them to -victory. There was bountiful feasting in his honor in the great lodge at -Otonacha; and other welcome, too, was tendered, of which the Hurons were -ever liberal, but which, with all courtesy, was declined by the virtuous -Champlain. Next, he went to Carmaron, a league distant, and then to -Tonagnainchain and Tequenonquihayc; till at length he reached -Carhagouha, with its triple palisade thirty-five feet high. Here he -found Le Caron. The Indians, eager to do him honor, were building for -him a bark lodge in the neighboring forest, fashioned like their own, -but much smaller. In it the friar made an altar, garnished with those -indispensable decorations which he had brought with him through all the -vicissitudes of his painful journeying; and hither, night and day, came -a curious multitude to listen to his annunciation of the new doctrine. -It was a joyful hour when he saw Champlain approach his hermitage; and -the two men embraced like brothers long sundered. - -The twelfth of August was a day evermore marked with white in the -friar's calendar. Arrayed in priestly vestments, he stood before his -simple altar; behind him his little band of Christians,--the twelve -Frenchmen who had attended him, and the two who had followed Champlain. -Here stood their devout and valiant chief, and, at his side, that -pioneer of pioneers, Etienne Brule the interpreter. The Host was raised -aloft; the worshippers kneeled. Then their rough voices joined in the -hymn of praise, Te Deum laudamus; and then a volley of their guns -proclaimed the triumph of the faith to the okies, the manitous, and all -the brood of anomalous devils who had reigned with undisputed sway in -these wild realms of darkness. The brave friar, a true soldier of the -Church, had led her forlorn hope into the fastnesses of hell; and now, -with contented heart, he might depart in peace, for he had said the -first mass in the country of the Hurons. - - - - - -CHAPTER XIV. - -1615, 1616. - -THE GREAT WAR PARTY. - -The lot of the favored guest of an Indian camp or village is idleness -without repose, for he is never left alone, with the repletion of -incessant and inevitable feasts. Tired of this inane routine, Champlain, -with some of his Frenchmen, set forth on a tour of observation. -Journeying at their ease by the Indian trails, they visited, in three -days, five palisaded villages. The country delighted them, with its -meadows, its deep woods, its pine and cedar thickets, full of hares and -partridges, its wild grapes and plums, cherries, crab-apples, nuts, and -raspberries. It was the seventeenth of August when they reached the -Huron metropolis, Cahiague, in the modern township of Orillia, three -leagues west of the river Severn, by which Lake Simcoe pours its waters -into the bay of Matchedash. A shrill clamor of rejoicing, the fixed -stare of wondering squaws, and the screaming flight of terrified -children hailed the arrival of Champlain. By his estimate, the place -contained two hundred lodges; but they must have been relatively small, -since, had they been of the enormous capacity sometimes found in these -structures, Cahiague alone would have held the whole Huron population. -Here was the chief rendezvous, and the town swarmed with gathering -warriors. There was cheering news; for an allied nation, called -Carantonans, probably identical with the Andastes, had promised to join -the Hurons in the enemy's country, with five hundred men. Feasts and the -war-dance consumed the days, till at length the tardy bands had all -arrived; and, shouldering their canoes and scanty baggage, the naked -host set forth. - -At the outlet of Lake Simcoe they all stopped to fish,--their simple -substitute for a commissariat. Hence, too, the intrepid Etienne Brule, -at his own request, was sent with twelve Indians to hasten forward the -five hundred allied warriors,--a dangerous venture, since his course -must lie through the borders of the Iroquois. - -He set out on the eighth of September, and on the morning of the tenth, -Champlain, shivering in his blanket, awoke to see the meadows sparkling -with an early frost, soon to vanish under the bright autumnal sun. The -Huron fleet pursued its course along Lake Simcoe, across the portage to -Balsam or Sturgeon Lake, and down the chain of lakes which form the -sources of the river Trent. As the long line of canoes moved on its way, -no human life was seen, no sign of friend or foe; yet at times, to the -fancy of Champlain, the borders of the stream seemed decked with groves -and shrubbery by the hands of man, and the walnut trees, laced with -grape-vines, seemed decorations of a pleasure-ground. - -They stopped and encamped for a deer-hunt. Five hundred Indians, in -line, like the skirmishers of an army advancing to battle, drove the -game to the end of a woody point; and the canoe-men killed them with -spears and arrows as they took to the river. Champlain and his men -keenly relished the sport, but paid a heavy price for their pleasure. A -Frenchman, firing at a buck, brought down an Indian, and there was need -of liberal gifts to console the sufferer and his friends. - -The canoes now issued from the mouth of the Trent. Like a flock of -venturous wild-fowl, they put boldly out upon Lake Ontario, crossed it -in safety, and landed within the borders of New York, on or near the -point of land west of Hungry Bay. After hiding their light craft in the -woods, the warriors took up their swift and wary march, filing in -silence between the woods and the lake, for four leagues along the -strand. Then they struck inland, threaded the forest, crossed the outlet -of Lake Oneida, and after a march of four days, were deep within the -limits of the Iroquois. On the ninth of October some of their scouts met -a fishing-party of this people, and captured them,--eleven in number, -men, women, and children. They were brought to the camp of the exultant -Hurons. As a beginning of the jubilation, a chief cut off a finger of -one of the women, but desisted from further torturing on the angry -protest of Champlain, reserving that pleasure for a more convenient -season. - -On the next day they reached an open space in the forest. The hostile -town was close at hand, surrounded by rugged fields with a slovenly and -savage cultivation. The young Hurons in advance saw the Iroquois at work -among the pumpkins and maize, gathering their rustling harvest. Nothing -could restrain the hare-brained and ungoverned crew. They screamed their -war-cry and rushed in; but the Iroquois snatched their weapons, killed -and wounded five or six of the assailants, and drove back the rest -discomfited. Champlain and his Frenchmen were forced to interpose; and -the report of their pieces from the border of the woods stopped the -pursuing enemy, who withdrew to their defences, bearing with them their -dead and wounded. - -It appears to have been a fortified town of the Onondagas, the central -tribe of the Iroquois confederacy, standing, there is some reason to -believe, within the limits of Madison County, a few miles south of Lake -Oneida. Champlain describes its defensive works as much stronger than -those of the Huron villages. They consisted of four concentric rows of -palisades, formed of trunks of trees, thirty feet high, set aslant in -the earth, and intersecting each other near the top, where they -supported a kind of gallery, well defended by shot-proof timber, and -furnished with wooden gutters for quenching fire. A pond or lake, which -washed one side of the palisade, and was led by sluices within the town, -gave an ample supply of water, while the galleries were well provided -with magazines of stones. - -Champlain was greatly exasperated at the desultory and futile procedure -of his Huron allies. Against his advice, they now withdrew to the -distance of a cannon-shot from the fort, and encamped in the forest, out -of sight of the enemy. "I was moved," he says, "to speak to them roughly -and harshly enough, in order to incite them to do their duty; for I -foresaw that if things went according to their fancy, nothing but harm -could come of it, to their loss and ruin. He proceeded, therefore, to -instruct them in the art of war." - -In the morning, aided doubtless by his ten or twelve Frenchmen, they set -themselves with alacrity to their prescribed task. A wooden tower was -made, high enough to overlook the palisade, and large enough to shelter -four or five marksmen. Huge wooden shields, or movable parapets, like -the mantelets of the Middle Ages, were also constructed. Four hours -sufficed to finish the work, and then the assault began. Two hundred of -the strongest warriors dragged the tower forward, and planted it within -a pike's length of the palisade. Three arquebusiers mounted to the top, -where, themselves well sheltered, they opened a raking fire along the -galleries, now thronged with wild and naked defenders. But nothing could -restrain the ungovernable Hurons. They abandoned their mantelets, and, -deaf to every command, swarmed out like bees upon the open field, -leaped, shouted, shrieked their war-cries, and shot off their arrows; -while the Iroquois, yelling defiance from their ramparts, sent back a -shower of stones and arrows in reply. A Huron, bolder than the rest, ran -forward with firebrands to burn the palisade, and others followed with -wood to feed the flame. But it was stupidly kindled on the leeward side, -without the protecting shields designed to cover it; and torrents of -water, poured down from the gutters above, quickly extinguished it. The -confusion was redoubled. Champlain strove in vain to restore order. Each -warrior was yelling at the top of his throat, and his voice was drowned -in the outrageous din. Thinking, as he says, that his head would split -with shouting, he gave over the attempt, and busied himself and his men -with picking off the Iroquois along their ramparts. - -The attack lasted three hours, when the assailants fell back to their -fortified camp, with seventeen warriors wounded. Champlain, too, had -received an arrow in the knee, and another in the leg, which, for the -time, disabled him. He was urgent, however, to renew the attack; while -the Hurons, crestfallen and disheartened, refused to move from their -camp unless the five hundred allies, for some time expected, should -appear. They waited five days in vain, beguiling the interval with -frequent skirmishes, in which they were always worsted; then began -hastily to retreat, carrying their wounded in the centre, while the -Iroquois, sallying from their stronghold, showered arrows on their -flanks and rear. The wounded, Champlain among the rest, after being -packed in baskets made on the spot, were carried each on the back of a -strong warrior, "bundled in a heap," says Champlain, "doubled and -strapped together after such a fashion that one could move no more than -an infant in swaddling-clothes. The pain is extreme, as I can truly say -from experience, having been carried several days in this way, since I -could not stand, chiefly on account of the arrow-wound I had got in the -knee. I never was in such torment in my life, for the pain of the wound -was nothing to that of being bound and pinioned on the back of one of -our savages. I lost patience, and as soon as I could bear my weight I -got out of this prison, or rather out of hell." - -At length the dismal march was ended. They reached the spot where their -canoes were hidden, found them untouched, embarked, and recrossed to the -northern shore of Lake Ontario. The Hurons had promised Champlain an -escort to Quebec; but as the chiefs had little power, in peace or war, -beyond that of persuasion, each warrior found good reasons for refusing -to lend his canoe. Champlain, too, had lost prestige. The "man with the -iron breast" had proved not inseparably wedded to victory; and though -the fault was their own, yet not the less was the lustre of their hero -tarnished. There was no alternative. He must winter with the Hurons. The -great war party broke into fragments, each band betaking itself to its -hunting-ground. A chief named Durantal, or Darontal, offered Champlain -the shelter of his lodge, and he was glad to accept it. - -Meanwhile, Etienne Brule had found cause to rue the hour when he -undertook his hazardous mission to the Carantonan allies. Three years -passed before Champlain saw him. It was in the summer of 1618, that, -reaching the Saut St. Louis, he there found the interpreter, his hands -and his swarthy face marked with traces of the ordeal he had passed. -Brule then told him his story. - -He had gone, as already mentioned, with twelve Indians, to hasten the -march of the allies, who were to join the Hurons before the hostile -town. Crossing Lake Ontario, the party pushed onward with all speed, -avoiding trails, threading the thickest forests and darkest swamps, for -it was the land of the fierce and watchful Iroquois. They were well -advanced on their way when they saw a small party of them crossing a -meadow, set upon them, surprised them, killed four, and took two -prisoners, whom they led to Carantonan,--a palisaded town with a -population of eight hundred warriors, or about four thousand souls. The -dwellings and defences were like those of the Hurons, and the town seems -to have stood on or near the upper waters of the Susquehanna. They were -welcomed with feasts, dances, and an uproar of rejoicing. The five -hundred warriors prepared to depart; but, engrossed by the general -festivity, they prepared so slowly, that, though the hostile town was -but three days distant, they found on reaching it that the besiegers -were gone. Brule now returned with them to Carantonan, and, with -enterprise worthy of his commander, spent the winter in a tour of -exploration. Descending a river, evidently the Susquehanna, he followed -it to its junction with the sea, through territories of populous tribes, -at war the one with the other. When, in the spring, he returned to -Carantonan, five or six of the Indians offered to guide him towards his -countrymen. Less fortunate than before, he encountered on the way a band -of Iroquois, who, rushing upon the party, scattered them through the -woods. Brule ran like the rest. The cries of pursuers and pursued died -away in the distance. The forest was silent around him. He was lost in -the shady labyrinth. For three or four days he wandered, helpless and -famished, till at length he found an Indian foot-path, and, choosing -between starvation and the Iroquois, desperately followed it to throw -himself on their mercy. He soon saw three Indians in the distance, laden -with fish newly caught, and called to them in the Huron tongue, which -was radically similar to that of the Iroquois. They stood amazed, then -turned to fly; but Brule, gaunt with famine, flung down his weapons in -token of friendship. They now drew near, listened to the story of his -distress, lighted their pipes, and smoked with him; then guided him to -their village, and gave him food. - -A crowd gathered about him. "Whence do you come? Are you not one of the -Frenchmen, the men of iron, who make war on us?" - -Brule answered that he was of a nation better than the French, and fast -friends of the Iroquois. - -His incredulous captors tied him to a tree, tore out his beard by -handfuls, and burned him with fire-brands, while their chief vainly -interposed in his behalf. He was a good Catholic, and wore an Agnus Dei -at his breast. One of his torturers asked what it was, and thrust out -his hand to take it. - -"If you touch it," exclaimed Brule, "you and all your race will die." - -The Indian persisted. The day was hot, and one of those thunder-gusts -which often succeed the fierce heats of an American midsummer was rising -against the sky. Brule pointed to the inky clouds as tokens of the anger -of his God. The storm broke, and, as the celestial artillery boomed over -their darkening forests, the Iroquois were stricken with a superstitious -terror. They all fled from the spot, leaving their victim still bound -fast, until the chief who had endeavored to protect him returned, cut -the cords, led him to his lodge, and dressed his wounds. Thenceforth -there was neither dance nor feast to which Brule was not invited; and -when he wished to return to his countrymen, a party of Iroquois guided -him four days on his way. He reached the friendly Hurons in safety, and -joined them on their yearly descent to meet the French traders at -Montreal. - -Brule's adventures find in some points their counterpart in those of his -commander on the winter hunting-grounds of his Huron allies. As we turn -the ancient, worm-eaten page which preserves the simple record of his -fortunes, a wild and dreary scene rises before the mind,--a chill -November air, a murky sky, a cold lake, bare and shivering forests, the -earth strewn with crisp brown leaves, and, by the water-side, the bark -sheds and smoking camp-fires of a band of Indian hunters. Champlain was -of the party. There was ample occupation for his gun, for the morning -was vocal with the clamor of wild-fowl, and his evening meal was -enlivened by the rueful music of the wolves. It was a lake north or -northwest of the site of Kingston. On the borders of a neighboring -river, twenty-five of the Indians had been busied ten days in preparing -for their annual deer-hunt. They planted posts interlaced with boughs in -two straight converging lines, each extending mere than half a mile -through forests and swamps. At the angle where they met was made a -strong enclosure like a pound. At dawn of day the hunters spread -themselves through the woods, and advanced with shouts, clattering of -sticks, and howlings like those of wolves, driving the deer before them -into the enclosure, where others lay in wait to despatch them with -arrows and spears. - -Champlain was in the woods with the rest, when he saw a bird whose novel -appearance excited his attention; and, gun in hand, he went in pursuit. -The bird, flitting from tree to tree, lured him deeper and deeper into -the forest; then took wing and vanished. The disappointed sportsman -tried to retrace his steps. But the day was clouded, and he had left his -pocket-compass at the camp. The forest closed around him, trees mingled -with trees in endless confusion. Bewildered and lost, he wandered all -day, and at night slept fasting at the foot of a tree. Awaking, he -wandered on till afternoon, when he reached a pond slumbering in the -shadow of the woods. There were water-fowl along its brink, some of -which he shot, and for the first time found food to allay his hunger. He -kindled a fire, cooked his game, and, exhausted, blanketless, drenched -by a cold rain, made his prayer to Heaven, and again lay down to sleep. -Another day of blind and weary wandering succeeded, and another night of -exhaustion. He had found paths in the wilderness, but they were not made -by human feet. Once more roused from his shivering repose, he journeyed -on till he heard the tinkling of a little brook, and bethought him of -following its guidance, in the hope that it might lead him to the river -where the hunters were now encamped. With toilsome steps he followed the -infant stream, now lost beneath the decaying masses of fallen trunks or -the impervious intricacies of matted "windfalls," now stealing through -swampy thickets or gurgling in the shade of rocks, till it entered at -length, not into the river, but into a small lake. Circling around the -brink, he found the point where the brook ran out and resumed its -course. Listening in the dead stillness of the woods, a dull, hoarse -sound rose upon his ear. He went forward, listened again, and could -plainly hear the plunge of waters. There was light in the forest before -him, and, thrusting himself through the entanglement of bushes, he stood -on the edge of a meadow. Wild animals were here of various kinds; some -skulking in the bordering thickets, some browsing on the dry and matted -grass. On his right rolled the river, wide and turbulent, and along its -bank he saw the portage path by which the Indians passed the neighboring -rapids. He gazed about him. The rocky hills seemed familiar to his eye. -A clew was found at last; and, kindling his evening fire, with grateful -heart he broke a long fast on the game he had killed. With the break of -day he descended at his ease along the bank, and soon descried the smoke -of the Indian fires curling in the heavy morning air against the gray -borders of the forest. The joy was great on both sides. The Indians had -searched for him without ceasing; and from that day forth his host, -Durantal, would never let him go into the forest alone. - -They were thirty-eight days encamped on this nameless river, and killed -in that time a hundred and twenty deer. Hard frosts were needful to give -them passage over the land of lakes and marshes that lay between them -and the Huron towns. Therefore they lay waiting till the fourth of -December; when the frost came, bridged the lakes and streams, and made -the oozy marsh as firm as granite. Snow followed, powdering the broad -wastes with dreary white. Then they broke up their camp, packed their -game on sledges or on their shoulders, tied on their snowshoes, and -began their march. Champlain could scarcely endure his load, though some -of the Indians carried a weight fivefold greater. At night, they heard -the cleaving ice uttering its strange groans of torment, and on the -morrow there came a thaw. For four days they waded through slush and -water up to their knees; then came the shivering northwest wind, and all -was hard again. In nineteen days they reached the town of Cahiague, and, -lounging around their smoky lodge-fires, the hunters forgot the -hardships of the past. - -For Champlain there was no rest. A double motive urged him,--discovery, -and the strengthening of his colony by widening its circle of trade. -First, he repaired to Carhagouha; and here he found the friar, in his -hermitage, still praying, preaching, making catechisms, and struggling -with the manifold difficulties of the Huron tongue. After spending -several weeks together, they began their journeyings, and in three days -reached the chief village of the Nation of Tobacco, a powerful tribe -akin to the Hurons, and soon to be incorporated with them. The -travellers visited seven of their towns, and then passed westward to -those of the people whom Champlain calls the Cheveax Releves, and whom -he commends for neatness and ingenuity no less than he condemns them for -the nullity of their summer attire. As the strangers passed from town to -town, their arrival was everywhere the signal of festivity. Champlain -exchanged pledges of amity with his hosts, and urged them to come down -with the Hurons to the yearly trade at Montreal. - -Spring was now advancing, and, anxious for his colony, he turned -homeward, following that long circuit of Lake Huron and the Ottawa which -Iroquois hostility made the only practicable route. Scarcely had he -reached the Nipissings, and gained from them a pledge to guide him to -that delusive northern sea which never ceased to possess his thoughts, -when evil news called him back in haste to the Huron towns. A band of -those Algonquins who dwelt on the great island in the Ottawa had spent -the winter encamped near Cahiague, whose inhabitants made them a present -of an Iroquois prisoner, with the friendly intention that they should -enjoy the pleasure of torturing him. The Algonquins, on the contrary, -fed, clothed, and adopted him. On this, the donors, in a rage, sent a -warrior to kill the Iroquois. He stabbed him, accordingly, in the midst -of the Algonquin chiefs, who in requital killed the murderer. Here was a -casus belli involving most serious issues for the French, since the -Algonquins, by their position on the Ottawa, could cut off the Hurons -and all their allies from coming down to trade. Already a fight had -taken place at Cahiague the principal Algonquin chief had been wounded, -and his band forced to purchase safety by a heavy tribute of -wampum[FN#33] and a gift of two female prisoners. - -All eyes turned to Champlain as umpire of the quarrel. The great -council-house was filled with Huron and Algonquin cltiefs, smoking with -that immobility of feature beneath which their race often hide a more -than tiger-like ferocity. The umpire addressed the assembly, enlarged on -the folly of falling to blows between themselves when the common enemy -stood ready to devour them both, extolled the advantages of the French -trade and alliance, and, with zeal not wholly disinterested, urged them -to shake hands like brothers. The friendly counsel was accepted, the -pipe of peace was smoked, the storm dispelled, and the commerce of New -France rescued from a serious peril. - -Once more Champlain turned homeward, and with him went his Huron host, -Durantal. Le Caron had preceded him; and, on the eleventh of July, the -fellow-travellers met again in the infant capital of Canada. The Indians -had reported that Champlain was dead, and he was welcomed as one risen -from the grave. The friars, who were all here, chanted lands in their -chapel, with a solemn mass and thanksgiving. To the two travelers, fresh -from the hardships of the wilderness, the hospitable board of Quebec, -the kindly society of countrymen and friends, the adjacent gardens,-- -always to Champlain an object of especial interest,--seemed like the -comforts and repose of home. - -The chief Durantal found entertainment worthy of his high estate. The -fort, the ship, the armor, the plumes, the cannon, the marvellous -architecture of the houses and barracks, the splendors of the chapel, -and above all the good cheer outran the boldest excursion of his fancy; -and he paddled back at last to his lodge in the woods, bewildered with -astonishment and admiration. - - - - - - - -CHAPTER XV. - -1616-1627. - -HOSTILE SECTS.--RIVAL INTERESTS. - -At Quebec the signs of growth were faint and few. By the water-side, -under the cliff, the so-called "habitation," built in haste eight years -before, was already tottering, and Champlain was forced to rebuild it. -On the verge of the rock above, where now are seen the buttresses of the -demolished castle of St. Louis, he began, in 1620, a fort, behind which -were fields and a few buildings. A mile or more distant, by the bank of -the St. Charles, where the General Hospital now stands, the Recollets, -in the same year, built for themselves a small stone house, with ditches -and outworks for defence; and here they began a farm, the stock -consisting of several hogs, a pair of asses, a pair of geese, seven -pairs of fowls, and four pairs of ducks. The only other agriculturist in -the colony was Louis Hebert, who had come to Canada in 1617 with a wife -and three children, and who made a house for himself on the rock, at a -little distance from Champlain's fort. - -Besides Quebec, there were the three trading-stations of Montreal, Three -Rivers, and Tadoussac, occupied during a part of the year. Of these, -Tadoussac was still the most important. Landing here from France in -1617, the Recollet Paul Huet said mass for the first time in a chapel -built of branches, while two sailors standing beside him waved green -boughs to drive off the mosquitoes. Thither afterward came Brother -Gervais Mohier, newly arrived in Canada; and meeting a crowd of Indians -in festal attire, he was frightened at first, suspecting that they might -be demons. Being invited by them to a feast, and told that he must not -decline, he took his place among a party of two hundred, squatted about -four large kettles full of fish, bear's meat, pease, and plums, mixed -with figs, raisins, and biscuit procured at great cost from the traders, -the whole boiled together and well stirred with a canoe-paddle. As the -guest did no honor to the portion set before him, his entertainers tried -to tempt his appetite with a large lump of bear's fat, a supreme luxury -in their eyes. This only increased his embarrassment, and he took a -hasty leave, uttering the ejaculation, "ho, ho, ho!" which, as he had -been correctly informed, was the proper mode of acknowledgment to the -master of the feast. - -A change had now begun in the life of Champlain. His forest rovings were -over. To battle with savages and the elements was more congenial with -his nature than to nurse a puny colony into growth and strength; yet to -each task he gave himself with the same strong devotion. - -His difficulties were great. Quebec was half trading-factory, half -mission. Its permanent inmates did not exceed fifty or sixty persons,-- -fur-traders, friars, and two or three wretched families, who had no -inducement, and little wish, to labor. The fort is facetiously -represented as having two old women for garrison, and a brace of hens -for sentinels. All was discord and disorder. Champlain was the nominal -commander; but the actual authority was with the merchants, who held, -excepting the friars, nearly everybody in their pay. Each was jealous of -the other, but all were united in a common jealousy of Champlain. The -few families whom they brought over were forbidden to trade with the -Indians, and compelled to sell the fruits of their labor to the agents -of the company at a low, fixed price, receiving goods in return at an -inordinate valuation. Some of the merchants were of Ronen, some of St. -Malo; some were Catholics, some were Huguenots. Hence unceasing -bickerings. All exercise of the Reformed religion, on land or water, was -prohibited within the limits of New France; but the Huguenots set the -prohibition at naught, roaring their heretical psalmody with such vigor -from their ships in the river that the unhallowed strains polluted the -ears of the Indians on shore. The merchants of Rochelle, who had refused -to join the company, carried on a bold illicit traffic along the borders -of the St. Lawrence, endangering the colony by selling fire-arms to the -Indians, eluding pursuit, or, if hard pressed, showing fight; and this -was a source of perpetual irritation to the incensed monopolists. - -The colony could not increase. The company of merchants, though pledged -to promote its growth, did what they could to prevent it. They were -fur-traders, and the interests of the fur-trade are always opposed to -those of settlement and population. They feared, too, and with reason, -that their monopoly might be suddenly revoked, like that of De Monts, -and they thought only of making profit from it while it lasted. They had -no permanent stake in the country; nor had the men in their employ, who -formed nearly all the scanty population of Canada. Few, if any, of these -had brought wives to the colony, and none of them thought of cultivating -the soil. They formed a floating population, kept from starving by -yearly supplies from France. - -Champlain, in his singularly trying position, displayed a mingled zeal -and fortitude. He went every year to France, laboring for the interests -of the colony. To throw open the trade to all competitors was a measure -beyond the wisdom of the times; and he hoped only to bind and regulate -the monopoly so as to make it subserve the generous purpose to which he -had given himself. The imprisonment of Conde was a source of fresh -embarrassment; but the young Duo de Montmorency assumed his place, -purchasing from him the profitable lieuteuancy of New France for eleven -thousand crowns, and continuing Champlain in command. Champlain had -succeeded in binding the company of merchants with new and more -stringent engagements; and, in the vain belief that these might not be -wholly broken, he began to conceive fresh hopes for the colony. In this -faith he embarked with his wife for Quebec in the spring of 1620; and, -as the boat drew near the landing, the cannon welcomed her to the rock -of her banishment. The buildings were falling to ruin; rain entered on -all sides; the courtyard, says Champlain, was as squalid and dilapidated -as a grange pillaged by soldiers. Madame de Champlain was still very -young. If the Ursuline tradition is to be trusted, the Indians, amazed -at her beauty and touched by her gentleness, would have worshipped her -as a divinity. Her husband had married her at the age of twelve when, to -his horror, he presently discovered that she was infected with the -heresies of her father, a disguised Huguenot. He addressed himself at -once to her conversion, and his pious efforts were something more than -successful. During the four years which she passed in Canada, her zeal, -it is true, was chiefly exercised in admonishing Indian squaws and -catechising their children; but, on her return to France, nothing would -content her but to become a nun. Champlain refused; but, as she was -childless, he at length consented to a virtual though not formal -separation. After his death she gained her wish, became an Ursuline nun, -founded a convent of that order at Meaux, and died with a reputation -almost saintly. - -At Quebec, matters grew from bad to worse. The few emigrants, with no -inducement to labor, fell into a lazy apathy, lounging about the -trading-houses, gaming, drinking when drink could be had, or roving into -the woods on vagabond hunting excursions. The Indians could not be -trusted. In the year 1617 they had murdered two men near the end of the -Island of Orleans. Frightened at what they had done, and incited perhaps -by other causes, the Montagnais and their kindred bands mustered at -Three Rivers to the number of eight hundred, resolved to destroy the -French. The secret was betrayed; and the childish multitude, naked and -famishing, became suppliants to their intended victims for the means of -life. The French, themselves at the point of starvation, could give -little or nothing. An enemy far more formidable awaited them; and now -were seen the fruits of Champlain's intermeddling in Indian wars. In the -summer of 1622, the Iroquois descended upon the settlement. A strong -party of their warriors hovered about Quebec, but, still fearful of the -arquebuse, forbore to attack it, and assailed the Recollet convent on -the St. Charles. The prudent friars had fortified themselves. While some -prayed in the chapel, the rest, with their Indian converts, manned the -walls. The Iroquois respected their palisades and demi-lunes, and -withdrew, after burning two Huron prisoners. - -Yielding at length to reiterated complaints, the Viceroy Montmorency -suppressed the company of St. Malo and Rouen, and conferred the trade of -New France, burdened with similar conditions destined to be similarly -broken, on two Huguenots, William and emery de Caen. The change was a -signal for fresh disorders. The enraged monopolists refused to yield. -The rival traders filled Quebec with their quarrels; and Champlain, -seeing his authority set at naught, was forced to occupy his newly built -fort with a band of armed followers. The evil rose to such a pitch that -he joined with the Recollets and the better-disposed among the colonists -in sending one of the friars to lay their grievances before the King. -The dispute was compromised by a temporary union of the two companies, -together with a variety of arrets and regulations, suited, it was -thought, to restore tranquillity. - -A new change was at hand. Montmorency, tired of his viceroyalty, which -gave him ceaseless annoyance, sold it to his nephew, Henri de Levis, Duc -de Ventadour. It was no worldly motive which prompted this young -nobleman to assume the burden of fostering the infancy of New France. He -had retired from the court, and entered into holy orders. For trade and -colonization he cared nothing; the conversion of infidels was his sole -care. The Jesuits had the keeping of his conscience, and in his eyes -they were the most fitting instruments for his purpose. The Recollets, -it is true, had labored with an unflagging devotion. The six friars of -their Order--for this was the number which the Calvinist Caen had bound -himself to support--had established five distinct missions, extending -from Acadia to the borders of Lake Huron; but the field was too vast for -their powers. Ostensibly by a spontaneous movement of their own, but in -reality, it is probable, under influences brought to bear on them from -without, the Recollets applied for the assistance of the Jesuits, who, -strong in resources as in energy, would not be compelled to rest on the -reluctant support of Huguenots. Three of their brotherhood--Charles -Lalemant, Enemond Masse, and Jean de Brebeuf--accordingly embarked; -and, fourteen years after Biard and Masse had landed in Acadia, Canada -beheld for the first time those whose names stand so prominent in her -annals,--the mysterious followers of Loyola. Their reception was most -inauspicious. Champlain was absent. Caen would not lodge them in the -fort; the traders would not admit them to their houses. Nothing seemed -left for them but to return as they came; when a boat, bearing several -Recollets, approached the ship to proffer them the hospitalities of the -convent on the St. Charles. They accepted the proffer, and became guests -of the charitable friars, who nevertheless entertained a lurking -jealousy of these formidable co-workers. - -The Jesuits soon unearthed and publicly burnt a libel against their -Order belonging to some of the traders. Their strength was soon -increased. The Fathers Noirot and De la Noue landed, with twenty -laborers, and the Jesuits were no longer houseless. Brebeuf set forth -for the arduous mission of the Hurons; but on arriving at Trois Rivieres -he learned that one of his Franciscan predecessors, Nicolas Viel, had -recently been drowned by Indians of that tribe, in the rapid behind -Montreal, known to this day as the Saut au Recollet. Less ambitious for -martyrdom than he afterwards approved himself, he postponed his voyage -to a more auspicious season. In the following spring he renewed the -attempt, in company with De la Noue and one of the friars. The Indians, -however, refused to receive him into their canoes, alleging that his -tall and portly frame would overset them; and it was only by dint of -many presents that their pretended scruples could be conquered. Brebeuf -embarked with his companions, and, after months of toil, reached the -barbarous scene of his labors, his sufferings, and his death. - -Meanwhile the Viceroy had been deeply scandalized by the contumacious -heresy of Emery de Caen, who not only assembled his Huguenot sailors at -prayers, but forced Catholics to join them. He was ordered thenceforth -to prohibit his crews from all praying and psalm-singing on the river -St. Lawrence. The crews revolted, and a compromise was made. It was -agreed that for the present they might pray, but not sing. "A bad -bargain," says the pious Champlain, "but we made the best of it we -could." Caen, enraged at the Viceroy's reproofs, lost no opportunity to -vent his spleen against the Jesuits, whom he cordially hated. - -Eighteen years had passed since the founding of Quebec, and still the -colony could scarcely be said to exist but in the founder's brain. Those -who should have been its support were engrossed by trade or -propagandism. Champlain might look back on fruitless toils, hopes -deferred, a life spent seemingly in vain. The population of Quebec had -risen to a hundred and five persons, men, women, and children. Of these, -one or two families only had learned to support themselves from the -products of the soil. All withered under the monopoly of the Caens. -Champlain had long desired to rebuild the fort, which was weak and -ruinous; but the merchants would not grant the men and means which, by -their charter, they were bound to furnish. At length, however, his -urgency in part prevailed, and the work began to advance. Meanwhile the -Caens and their associates had greatly prospered, paying, it is said, an -annual dividend of forty per cent. In a single year they brought from -Canada twenty-two thousand beaver skins, though the usual number did not -exceed twelve or fifteen thousand. - -While infant Canada was thus struggling into a half-stifled being, the -foundation of a commonwealth destined to a marvellous vigor of -development had been laid on the Rock of Plymouth. In their character, -as in their destiny, the rivals were widely different; yet, at the -outset, New England was unfaithful to the principle of freedom. New -England Protestantism appealed to Liberty, then closed the door against -her; for all Protestantism is an appeal from priestly authority to the -right of private judgment, and the New England Puritan, after claiming -this right for himself, denied it to all who differed with him. On a -stock of freedom he grafted a scion of despotism; yet the vital juices -of the root penetrated at last to the uttermost branches, and nourished -them to an irrepressible strength and expansion. With New France it was -otherwise. She was consistent to the last. Root, stem, and branch, she -was the nursling of authority. Deadly absolutism blighted her early and -her later growth. Friars and Jesuits, a Ventadour and a Richelieu, -shaped her destinies. All that conflicted against advancing liberty-- -the centralized power of the crown and the tiara, the ultramontane in -religion, the despotic in policy--found their fullest expression and -most fatal exercise. Her records shine with glorious deeds, the -self-devotion of heroes and of martyrs; and the result of all is -disorder, imbecility, ruin. - -The great champion of absolutism, Richelieu, was now supreme in France. -His thin frame, pale cheek, and cold, calm eye, concealed an inexorable -will and a mind of vast capacity, armed with all the resources of -boldness and of craft. Under his potent agency, the royal power, in the -weak hands of Louis the Thirteenth, waxed and strengthened daily, -triumphing over the factions of the court, the turbulence of the -Huguenots, the ambitious independence of the nobles, and all the -elements of anarchy which, since the death of Henry the Fourth, had -risen into fresh life. With no friends and a thousand enemies, disliked -and feared by the pitiful King whom he served, making his tool by turns -of every party and of every principle, he advanced by countless crooked -paths towards his object,--the greatness of France under a concentrated -and undivided authority. - -In the midst of more urgent cares, he addressed himself to fostering the -commercial and naval power. Montmorency then held the ancient charge of -Admiral of France. Richelieu bought it, suppressed it, and, in its -stead, constituted himself Grand Master and Superintendent of Navigation -and Commerce. In this new capacity, the mismanaged affairs of New France -were not long concealed from him; and he applied a prompt and powerful -remedy. The privileges of the Caens were annulled. A company was formed, -to consist of a hundred associates, and to be called the Company of New -France. Richelieu himself was the head, and the Marechal Deffiat and -other men of rank, besides many merchants and burghers of condition, -were members. The whole of New France, from Florida to the Arctic -Circle, and from Newfoundland to the sources of the--St. Lawrence and -its tributary waters, was conferred on them forever, with the attributes -of sovereign power. A perpetual monopoly of the fur-trade was granted -them, with a monopoly of all other commerce within the limits of their -government for fifteen years. The trade of the colony was declared free, -for the same period, from all duties and imposts. Nobles, officers, and -ecclesiastics, members of the Company, might engage in commercial -pursuits without derogating from the privileges of their order; and, in -evidence of his good-will, the King gave them two ships of war, armed -and equipped. - -On their part, the Company were bound to convey to New France during the -next year, 1628, two or three hundred men of all trades, and before the -year 1643 to increase the number to four thousand persons, of both -sexes; to lodge and support them for three years; and, this time -expired, to give them cleared lands for their maintenance. Every settler -must be a Frenchman and a Catholic; and for every new settlement at -least three ecclesiastics must be provided. Thus was New France to be -forever free from the taint of heresy. The stain of her infancy was to -be wiped away. Against the foreigner and the Huguenot the door was -closed and barred. England threw open her colonies to all who wished to -enter,--to the suffering and oppressed, the bold, active, and -enterprising. France shut out those who wished to come, and admitted -only those who did not,--the favored class who clung to the old faith -and had no motive or disposition to leave their homes. English -colonization obeyed a natural law, and sailed with wind and tide; French -colonization spent its whole struggling existence in futile efforts to -make head against them. The English colonist developed inherited freedom -on a virgin soil; the French colonist was pursued across the Atlantic by -a paternal despotism better in intention and more withering in effect -than that which he left behind. If, instead of excluding Huguenots, -France had given them an asylum in the west, and left them there to work -out their own destinies, Canada would never have been a British -province, and the United States would have shared their vast domain with -a vigorous population of self-governing Frenchmen. - -A trading company was now feudal proprietor of all domains in North -America within the claim of France. Fealty and homage on its part, and -on the part of the Crown the appointment of supreme judicial officers, -and the confirmation of the titles of dukes, marquises, counts, and -barons, were the only reservations. The King heaped favors on the new -corporation. Twelve of the bourgeois members were ennobled; while -artisans and even manufacturers were tempted, by extraordinary -privileges, to emigrate to the New World. The associates, of whom -Champlain was one, entered upon their functions with a capital of three -hundred thousand livres. - - - - - - - - -CHAPTER XVI. - -1628, 1629. - -THE ENGLISH AT QUEBEC. - -The first care of the new Company was to succor Quebec, whose inmates -were on the verge of starvation. Four armed vessels, with a fleet of -transports commanded by Roquemont, one of the associates, sailed from -Dieppe with colonists and supplies in April, 1628; but nearly at the -same time another squadron, destined also for Quebec, was sailing from -an English port. War had at length broken out in France. The Huguenot -revolt had come to a head. Rochelle was in arms against the King; and -Richelieu, with his royal ward, was beleaguering it with the whole -strength of the kingdom. Charles the First of England, urged by the -heated passions of Buckingham, had declared himself for the rebels, and -sent a fleet to their aid. At home, Charles detested the followers of -Calvin as dangerous to his own authority; abroad, he befriended them as -dangerous to the authority of a rival. In France, Richelieu crushed -Protestantism as a curb to the house of Bourbon; in Germany, he nursed -and strengthened it as a curb to the house of Austria. - -The attempts of Sir William Alexander to colonize Acadia had of late -turned attention in England towards the New World; and on the breaking -out of the war an expedition was set on foot, under the auspices of that -singular personage, to seize on the French possessions in North America. -It was a private enterprise, undertaken by London merchants, prominent -among whom was Gervase Kirke, an Englishman of Derbyshire, who had long -lived at Dieppe, and had there married a Frenchwoman. Gervase Kirke and -his associates fitted out three small armed ships, commanded -respectively by his sons David, Lewis, and Thomas. Letters of marque -were obtained from the King, and the adventurers were authorized to -drive out the French from Acadia and Canada. Many Huguenot refugees were -among the crews. Having been expelled from New France as settlers, the -persecuted sect were returning as enemies. One Captain Michel, who had -been in the service of the Caens, "a furious Calvinist," is said to have -instigated the attempt, acting, it is affirmed, under the influence of -one of his former employers. - -Meanwhile the famished tenants of Quebec were eagerly waiting the -expected succor. Daily they gazed beyond Point Levi and along the -channels of Orleans, in the vain hope of seeing the approaching sails. -At length, on the ninth of July, two men, worn with struggling through -forests and over torrents, crossed the St. Charles and mounted the rock. -They were from Cape Tourmente, where Champlain had some time before -established an outpost, and they brought news that, according to the -report of Indians, six large vessels lay in the harbor of Tadoussac. The -friar Le Caron was at Quebec, and, with a brother Recollet, he went in a -canoe to gain further intelligence. As the missionary scouts were -paddling along the borders of the Island of Orleans, they met two canoes -advancing in hot haste, manned by Indians, who with shouts and gestures -warned them to turn back. - -The friars, however, waited till the canoes came up, when they saw a man -lying disabled at the bottom of one of them, his moustaches burned by -the flash of the musket which had wounded him. He proved to be Foucher, -who commanded at Cape Tourmente. On that morning,--such was the story -of the fugitives,--twenty men had landed at that post from a small -fishing-vessel. Being to all appearance French, they were hospitably -received; but no sooner had they entered the houses than they began to -pillage and burn all before them, killing the cattle, wounding the -commandant, and making several prisoners. - -The character of the fleet at Tadoussac was now sufficiently clear. -Quebec was incapable of defence. Only fifty pounds of gunpowder were -left in the magazine; and the fort, owing to the neglect and ill-will of -the Caens, was so wretchedly constructed, that, a few days before, two -towers of the main building had fallen. Champlain, however, assigned to -each man his post, and waited the result. On the next afternoon, a boat -was seen issuing from behind the Point of Orleans and hovering -hesitatingly about the mouth of the St. Charles. On being challenged, -the men on board proved to be Basque fishermen, lately captured by the -English, and now sent by Kirke unwilling messengers to Champlain. -Climbing the steep pathway to the fort, they delivered their letter,--a -summons, couched in terms of great courtesy, to surrender Quebec. There -was no hope but in courage. A bold front must supply the lack of -batteries and ramparts; and Champlain dismissed the Basques with a -reply, in which, with equal courtesy, he expressed his determination to -hold his position to the last. - -All now stood on the watch, hourly expecting the enemy; when, instead of -the hostile squadron, a small boat crept into sight, and one Desdames, -with ten Frenchmen, landed at the storehouses. He brought stirring news. -The French commander, Roquemont, had despatched him to tell Champlain -that the ships of the Hundred Associates were ascending the St. -Lawrence, with reinforcements and supplies of all kinds. But on his way -Desdames had seen an ominous sight,--the English squadron standing -under full sail out of Tadoussac, and steering downwards as if to -intercept the advancing succor. He had only escaped them by dragging his -boat up the beach and hiding it; and scarcely were they out of sight -when the booming of cannon told him that the fight was begun. - -Racked with suspense, the starving tenants of Quebec waited the result; -but they waited in vain. No white sail moved athwart the green solitudes -of Orleans. Neither friend nor foe appeared; and it was not till long -afterward that Indians brought them the tidings that Roquemont's crowded -transports had been overpowered, and all the supplies destined to -relieve their miseries sunk in the St. Lawrence or seized by the -victorious English. Kirke, however, deceived by the bold attitude of -Champlain, had been too discreet to attack Quebec, and after his victory -employed himself in cruising for French fishing-vessels along the -borders of the Gulf. - -Meanwhile, the suffering at Quebec increased daily. Somewhat less than a -hundred men, women, and children were cooped up in the fort, subsisting -on a meagre pittance of pease and Indian corn. The garden of the -Heberts, the only thrifty settlers, was ransacked for every root or seed -that could afford nutriment. Months wore on, and in the spring the -distress had risen to such a pitch that Champlain had wellnigh resolved -to leave to the women, children, and sick the little food that remained, -and with the able-bodied men invade the Iroquois, seize one of their -villages, fortify himself in it, and sustain his followers on the buried -stores of maize with which the strongholds of these provident savages -were always furnished. - -Seven ounces of pounded pease were now the daily food of each; and, at -the end of May, even this failed. Men, women, and children betook -themselves to the woods, gathering acorns and grubbing up roots. Those -of the plant called Solomon's seal were most in request. Some joined the -Hurons or the Algonquins; some wandered towards the Abenakis of Maine; -some descended in a boat to Gaspe, trusting to meet a French -fishing-vessel. There was scarcely one who would not have hailed the -English as deliverers. But the English had sailed home with their booty, -and the season was so late that there was little prospect of their -return. Forgotten alike by friends and foes, Quebec was on the verge of -extinction. - -On the morning of the nineteenth of July, an Indian, renowned as a -fisher of eels, who had built his hut on the St. Charles, hard by the -new dwelling of the Jesuits, came, with his usual imperturbability of -visage, to Champlain. He had just discovered three ships sailing up the -south channel of Orleans. Champlain was alone. All his followers were -absent, fishing or searching for roots. At about ten o'clock his servant -appeared with four small bags of roots, and the tidings that he had seen -the three ships a league off, behind Point Levi. As man after man -hastened in, Champlain ordered the starved and ragged band, sixteen in -all, to their posts, whence with hungry eyes, they watched the English -vessels anchoring in the basin below, and a boat with a white flag -moving towards the shore. A young officer landed with a summons to -surrender. The terms of capitulation were at length settled. The French -were to be conveyed to their own country, and each soldier was allowed -to take with him his clothes, and, in addition, a coat of beaver-skin. -On this some murmuring rose, several of those who had gone to the Hurons -having lately returned with peltry of no small value. Their complaints -were vain; and on the twentieth of July, amid the roar of cannon from -the ships, Lewis Kirke, the Admiral's brother, landed at the head of his -soldiers, and planted the cross of St. George where the followers of -Wolfe again planted it a hundred and thirty years later. After -inspecting the worthless fort, he repaired to the houses of the -Recollets and Jesuits on the St. Charles. He treated the former with -great courtesy, but displayed against the latter a violent aversion, -expressing his regret that he could not have begun his operations by -battering their house about their ears. The inhabitants had no cause to -complain of him. He urged the widow and family of the settler Hebert, -the patriarch, as he has been styled, of New France, to remain and enjoy -the fruits of their industry under English allegiance; and, as beggary -in France was the alternative, his offer was accepted. - -Champlain, bereft of his command, grew restless, and begged to be sent -to Tadoussac, where the Admiral, David Kirke, lay with his main -squadron, having sent his brothers Lewis and Thomas to seize Quebec. -Accordingly, Champlain, with the Jesuits, embarking with Thomas Kirke, -descended the river. Off Mal Bay a strange sail was seen. As she -approached, she proved to be a French ship. in fact. she was on her way -to Quebec with supplies, which, if earlier sent, would have saved the -place. She had passed the Admiral's squadron in a fog; but here her good -fortune ceased. Thomas Kirke bore down on her, and the cannonade began. -The fight was hot and doubtful; but at length the French struck, and -Kirke sailed into Tadoussac with his prize. here lay his brother, the -Admiral, with five armed ships. - -The Admiral's two voyages to Canada were private ventures; and though he -had captured nineteen fishing-vessels, besides Roquemont's eighteen -transports and other prizes, the result had not answered his hopes. His -mood, therefore, was far from benign, especially as he feared, that, -owing to the declaration of peace, he would be forced to disgorge a part -of his booty; yet, excepting the Jesuits, he treated his captives with -courtesy, and often amused himself with shooting larks on shore in -company with Champlain. The Huguenots, however, of whom there were many -in his ships, showed an exceeding bitterness against the Catholics. -Chief among them was Michel, who had instigated and conducted the -enterprise, the merchant admiral being but an indifferent seaman. -Michel, whose skill was great, held a high command and the title of -Rear-Admiral. He was a man of a sensitive temperament, easily piqued on -the point of honor. His morbid and irritable nerves were wrought to the -pitch of frenzy by the reproaches of treachery and perfidy with which -the French prisoners assailed him, while, on the other hand, he was in a -state of continual rage at the fancied neglect and contumely of his -English associates. He raved against Kirke, who, as he declared, treated -him with an insupportable arrogance. "I have left my country," he -exclaimed, "for the service of foreigners; and they give me nothing but -ingratitude and scorn." His fevered mind, acting on his diseased body, -often excited him to transports of fury, in which he cursed -indiscriminately the people of St. Malo, against whom he had a grudge, -and the Jesuits, whom he detested. On one occasion, Kirke was conversing -with some of the latter. - -"Gentlemen," he said, "your business in Canada was to enjoy what -belonged to M. de Caen, whom you dispossessed." - -"Pardon me, sir," answered Brebeuf, "we came purely for the glory of -God, and exposed ourselves to every kind of danger to convert the -Indians." - -Here Michel broke in: "Ay, ay, convert the Indians! You mean, convert -the beaver!" - -"That is false!" retorted Brebeuf. - -Michel raised his fist, exclaiming, "But for the respect I owe the -General, I would strike you for giving me the lie." - -Brebeuf, a man of powerful frame and vehement passions, nevertheless -regained his practised self-command, and replied: "You must excuse me. I -did not mean to give you the lie. I should be very sorry to do so. The -words I used are those we use in the schools when a doubtful question is -advanced, and they mean no offence. Therefore I ask you to pardon me." - -Despite the apology, Michel's frenzied brain harped the presumed insult, -and he raved about it without ceasing. - -"Bon Dieu!" said Champlain, "you swear well for a Reformer!" - -"I know it," returned Michel; "I should be content if I had but struck -that Jesuit who gave me the lie before my General." - -At length, one of his transports of rage ended in a lethargy from which -he never awoke. His funeral was conducted with a pomp suited to his -rank; and, amid discharges of cannon whose dreary roar was echoed from -the yawning gulf of the Saguenay, his body was borne to its rest under -the rocks of Tadoussac. Good Catholics and good Frenchmen saw in his -fate the immediate finger of Providence. "I do not doubt that his soul -is in perdition," remarks Champlain, who, however, had endeavored to -befriend the unfortunate man during the access of his frenzy. - -Having finished their carousings, which were profuse, and their trade -with the Indians, which was not lucrative, the English steered down the -St. Lawrence. Kirke feared greatly a meeting with Razilly, a naval -officer of distinction, who was to have sailed from France with a strong -force to succor Quebec; but, peace having been proclaimed, the -expedition had been limited to two ships under Captain Daniel. Thus -Kirke, wilfully ignoring the treaty of peace, was left to pursue his -depredations unmolested. Daniel, however, though too weak to cope with -him, achieved a signal exploit. On the island of Cape Breton, near the -site of Louisburg, he found an English fort, built two months before, -under the auspices, doubtless, of Sir William Alexander. Daniel, -regarding it as a bold encroachment on French territory, stormed it at -the head of his pike-men, entered sword in hand, and took it with all -its defenders. - -Meanwhile, Kirke with his prisoners was crossing the Atlantic. His -squadron at length reached Plymouth, whence Champlain set out for -London. Here he had an interview with the French ambassador, who, at his -instance, gained from the King a promise, that, in pursuance of the -terms of the treaty concluded in the previous April, New France should -be restored to the French Crown. - -It long remained a mystery why Charles consented to a stipulation which -pledged him to resign so important a conquest. The mystery is explained -by the recent discovery of a letter from the King to Sir Isaac Wake, his -ambassador at Paris. The promised dowry of Queen Henrietta Maria, -amounting to eight hundred thousand crowns, had been but half paid by -the French government, and Charles, then at issue with his Parliament, -and in desperate need of money, instructs his ambassador, that, when he -receives the balance due, and not before, he is to give up to the French -both Quebec and Port Royal, which had also been captured by Kirke. The -letter was accompanied by "solemn instruments under our hand and seal" -to make good the transfer on fulfillment of the condition. It was for a -sum equal to about two hundred and forty thousand dollars that Charles -entailed on Great Britain and her colonies a century of bloody wars. The -Kirkes and their associates, who had made the conquest at their own -cost, under the royal authority, were never reimbursed, though David -Kirke received the honor of knighthood, which cost the King nothing. - - - - - - - -CHAPTER XVII. - -1632-1635. - -DEATH OF CHAMPLAIN. - -On Monday, the fifth of July, 1632, Emery de Caen anchored before -Quebec. He was commissioned by the French Crown to reclaim the place -from the English; to hold for one year a monopoly of the fur-trade, as -an indemnity for his losses in the war; and, when this time had expired, -to give place to the Hundred Associates of New France. - -By the convention of Suza, New France was to be restored to the French -Crown; yet it had been matter of debate whether a fulfillment of this -engagement was worth the demanding. That wilderness of woods and savages -had been ruinous to nearly all connected with it. The Caens, successful -at first, had suffered heavily in the end. The Associates were on the -verge of bankruptcy. These deserts were useless unless peopled; and to -people them would depopulate France. Thus argued the inexperienced -reasoners of the time, judging from the wretched precedents of Spanish -and Portuguese colonization. The world had not as yet the example of an -island kingdom, which, vitalized by a stable and regulated liberty, has -peopled a continent and spread colonies over all the earth, gaining -constantly new vigor with the matchless growth of its offspring. - -On the other hand, honor, it was urged, demanded that France should be -reinstated in the land which she had discovered and explored. Should -she, the centre of civilization, remain cooped up within her own narrow -limits, while rivals and enemies were sharing the vast regions of the -West? The commerce and fisheries of New France would in time become a -school for French sailors. Mines even now might be discovered; arid the -fur-trade, well conducted, could not but be a source of wealth. -Disbanded soldiers and women from the streets might be shipped to -Canada. Thus New France would be peopled and old France purified. A -power more potent than reason reinforced such arguments. Richelieu seems -to have regarded it as an act of personal encroachment that the subjects -of a foreign crown should seize on the domain of a company of which he -was the head; and it could not be supposed, that, with power to eject -them, the arrogant minister would suffer them to remain in undisturbed -possession. - -A spirit far purer and more generous was active in the same behalf. The -character of Champlain belonged rather to the Middle Age than to the -seventeenth century. Long toil and endurance had calmed the adventurous -enthusiasm of his youth into a steadfast earnestness of purpose; and he -gave himself with a loyal zeal and devotedness to the profoundly -mistaken principles which he had espoused. In his mind, patriotism and -religion were inseparably linked. France was the champion of -Christianity, and her honor, her greatness, were involved in her -fidelity to this high function. Should she abandon to perdition the -darkened nations among whom she had cast the first faint rays of hope? -Among the members of the Company were those who shared his zeal; and -though its capital was exhausted, and many of the merchants were -withdrawing in despair, these enthusiasts formed a subordinate -association, raised a new fund, and embarked on the venture afresh. - -England, then, resigned her prize, and Caen was despatched to reclaim -Quebec from the reluctant hands of Thomas Kirke. The latter, obedient to -an order from the King of England, struck his flag, embarked his -followers, and abandoned the scene of his conquest. Caen landed with the -Jesuits, Paul le Jeune and Anne de la Noue. They climbed the steep -stairway which led up the rock, and, as they reached the top, the -dilapidated fort lay on their left, while farther on was the stone -cottage of the Heberts, surrounded with its vegetable gardens,--the -only thrifty spot amid a scene of neglect. But few Indians could be -seen. True to their native instincts, they had, at first, left the -defeated French and welcomed the conquerors. Their English partialities -were, however, but short-lived. Their intrusion into houses and -store-rooms, the stench of their tobacco, and their importunate begging, -though before borne patiently, were rewarded by the newcomers with oaths -and sometimes with blows. The Indians soon shunned Quebec, seldom -approaching it except when drawn by necessity or a craving for brandy. -This was now the case; and several Algonquin families, maddened with -drink, were howling, screeching, and fighting within their bark lodges. -The women were frenzied like the men. it was dangerous to approach the -place unarmed. - -In the following spring, 1633, on the twenty-third of May, Champlain, -commissioned anew by Richelieu, resumed command at Quebec in behalf of -the Company. Father le Jeune, Superior of the mission, was wakened from -his morning sleep by the boom of the saluting cannon. Before he could -sally forth, the convent door was darkened by the stately form of his -brother Jesuit, Brebeuf, newly arrived; and the Indians who stood by -uttered ejaculations of astonishment at the raptures of their greeting. -The father hastened to the fort, and arrived in time to see a file of -musketeers and pikemen mounting the pathway of the cliff below, and the -heretic Caen resigning the keys of the citadel into the Catholic hands -of Champlain. Le Jeune's delight exudes in praises of one not always a -theme of Jesuit eulogy, but on whom, in the hope of a continuance of his -favors, no praise could now be ill bestowed. "I sometimes think that -this great man [Richelieu], who by his admirable wisdom and matchless -conduct of affairs is so renowned on earth, is preparing for himself a -dazzling crown of glory in heaven by the care he evinces for the -conversion of so many lost infidel souls in this savage land. I pray -affectionately for him every day," etc. - -For Champlain, too, he has praises which, if more measured, are at least -as sincere. Indeed, the Father Superior had the best reason to be -pleased with the temporal head of the colony. In his youth, Champlain -had fought on the side of that; more liberal and national form of -Romanism of which the Jesuits were the most emphatic antagonists. Now, -as Le Jeune tells us, with evident contentment, he chose him, the -Jesuit, as director of his conscience. In truth, there were none but -Jesuits to confess and absolve him; for the Recollets, prevented, to -their deep chagrin, from returning to the missions they had founded, -were seen no more in Canada, and the followers of Loyola were sole -masters of the field. The manly heart of the commandant, earnest, -zealous, and direct, was seldom chary of its confidence, or apt to stand -too warily on its guard in presence of a profound art mingled with a no -less profound sincerity. - -A stranger visiting the fort of Quebec would have been astonished at its -air of conventual decorum. Black Jesuits and scarfed officers mingled at -Champlain's table. There was little conversation, but, in its place, -histories and the lives of saints were read aloud, as in a monastic -refectory. Prayers, masses, and confessions followed one another with an -edifying regularity, and the bell of the adjacent chapel, built by -Champlain, rang morning, noon, and night. Godless soldiers caught the -infection, and whipped themselves in penance for their sins. Debauched -artisans outdid each other in the fury of their contrition. Quebec was -become a mission. Indians gathered thither as of old, not from the -baneful lure of brandy, for the traffic in it was no longer tolerated, -but from the less pernicious attractions of gifts, kind words, and -politic blandishments. To the vital principle of propagandism both the -commercial and the military character were subordinated; or, to speak -more justly, trade, policy, and military power leaned on the missions as -their main support, the grand instrument of their extension. The -missions were to explore the interior; the missions were to win over the -savage hordes at once to Heaven and to France. Peaceful, benign, -beneficent, were the weapons of this conquest. France aimed to subdue, -not by the sword, but by the cross; not to overwhelm and crush the -nations she invaded, but to convert, civilize, and embrace them among -her children. - -And who were the instruments and the promoters of this proselytism, at -once so devout and so politic? Who can answer? Who can trace out the -crossing and mingling currents of wisdom and folly, ignorance and -knowledge, truth and falsehood, weakness and force, the noble and the -base, can analyze a systematized contradiction, and follow through its -secret wheels, springs, and levers a phenomenon of moral mechanism? Who -can define the Jesuits? The story of their missions is marvellous as a -tale of chivalry, or legends of the lives of saints. For many years, it -was the history of New France and of the wild communities of her desert -empire. - -Two years passed. The mission of the Hurons was established, and here -the indomitable Breheuf, with a band worthy of him, toiled amid miseries -and perils as fearful as ever shook the constancy of man; while -Champlain at Quebec, in a life uneventful, yet harassing and laborious, -was busied in the round of cares which his post involved. - -Christmas day, 1635, was a dark day in the annals of New France. In a -chamber of the fort, breathless and cold, lay the hardy frame which war, -the wilderness, and the sea had buffeted so long in vain. After two -months and a half of illness, Champlain, stricken with paralysis, at the -age of sixty-eight, was dead. His last cares were for his colony and the -succor of its suffering families. Jesuits, officers, soldiers, traders, -and the few settlers of Quebec followed his remains to the church; Le -Jeune pronounced his eulogy, and the feeble community built a tomb to -his honor. - -The colony could ill spare him. For twenty-seven years he had labored -hard and ceaselessly for its welfare, sacrificing fortune, repose, and -domestic peace to a cause embraced with enthusiasm and pursued with -intrepid persistency. His character belonged partly to the past, partly -to the present. The preux chevalier, the crusader, the romance-loving -explorer, the curious, knowledge-seeking traveler, the practical -navigator, all claimed their share in him. His views, though far beyond -those of the mean spirits around him, belonged to his age and his creed. -He was less statesman than soldier. He leaned to the most direct and -boldest policy, and one of his last acts was to petition Richelieu for -men and munitions for repressing that standing menace to the colony, the -Iroquois. His dauntless courage was matched by an unwearied patience, -proved by life-long vexations, and not wholly subdued even by the -saintly follies of his wife. He is charged with credulity, from which -few of his age were free, and which in all ages has been the foible of -earnest and generous natures, too ardent to criticise, and too honorable -to doubt the honor of others. Perhaps the heretic might have liked him -more if the Jesuit had liked him less. The adventurous explorer of Lake -Huron, the bold invader of the Iroquois, befits but indifferently the -monastic sobrieties of the fort of Quebec, and his sombre environment of -priests. Yet Champlain was no formalist, nor was his an empty zeal. A -soldier from his youth, in an age of unbridled license, his life had -answered to his maxims; and when a generation had passed after his visit -to the Hurons, their elders remembered with astonishment the continence -of the great French war-chief. - -His books mark the man,--all for his theme and his purpose, nothing for -himself. Crude in style, full of the superficial errors of carelessness -and haste, rarely diffuse, often brief to a fault, they bear on every -page the palpable impress of truth. - -With the life of the faithful soldier closes the opening period of New -France. Heroes of another stamp succeed; and it remains to tell the -story of their devoted lives, their faults, follies, and virtues. - - - - - - -END NOTES: - - -[FN#1] Herrera, Hist. General, Dec. I. Lib. LX. c. 11; De Laet, Novus -Orbis, Lib. I. C. 16 Garcilaso, Just. de la Florida, Part I. Lib. I. C. -3; Gomara, Ilist. Gin. des Indes Occidentales, Lib. II. c. 10. Compare -Peter Martyr, De Rebus Oceanicis, Dec. VII. c. 7, who says that the -fountain was in Florida. - -The story has an explanation sufficiently characteristic, having been -suggested, it is said, by the beauty of the native women, which none -could resist, and which kindled the fires of youth in the veins of age. - -The terms of Ponce de Leon's bargain with the King are set forth in the -MS. Gapitnincion con Juan Ponce sobre Biminy. He was to have exclusive -right to the island, settle it at his own cost, and be called Adelantado -of Bimini; but the King was to build and hold forts there, send agents -to divide the Indians among the settlers, and receive first a tenth, -afterwards a fifth, of the gold. - -[FN#2] Fontanedo in Ternaux-Compans, Recueil sur la Floride, 18, 19, 42. -Compare Herrera, Dec. I. Lib. IX. c. 12. In allusion to this belief, the -name Jordan was given eight years afterwards by Ayllon to a river of -South Carolina. - -[FN#3] Hakinyt, Voyaqes, V. 838; Barcia, Ensayo Cronologico, 5. - -[FN#4] Peter Martyr in Hakinyt. V. 333; De Laet, Lib. IV. c. 2. - -[FN#5] Their own exaggerated reckoning. The journey was prohably from -Tampa Bay to the Appalachicola, by a circuitous route. - - -[FN#6] Narrative of Alvar Nunez Caheca de Vaca, second in command to -Narvaez, translated by Buckingham Smith. Cabeca do Vaca was one of the -four who escaped, and, after living for years among the tribes of -Mississippi, crossed the river Mississippi near Memphis, journeyed -westward by the waters of the Arkansas and Red River to New Mexico and -Chihuahua, thence to Cinaloa on the Gulf of California, and thence to -Mexico. The narrative is one of the most remarkable of the early -relations. See also Ramusin, III. 310, and Purchas, IV. 1499, where a -portion of Cabeca de Vaca is given. Also, Garcilaso, Part I. Lib. I. C. -3; Gomara, Lih. II. a. 11; De Laet, Lib. IV. c. 3; Barcia, Ensayo -Crenolegico, 19. - -[FN#7] I have followed the accounts of Biedma and the Portuguese of -Elvas, rejecting the romantic narrative of Garcilaso, in which fiction -is hopelessly mingled with truth. - -[FN#8] The spirit of this and other Spanish enterprises may be gathered -from the following passage in an address to the King, signed by Dr. -Pedro do Santander, and dated 15 July, 1557:- - -"It is lawful that your Majesty, like a good shepherd, appointed by the -hand of the Eternal Father, should tend and lead out your sheep, since -the Holy Spirit has shown spreading pastures whereon are feeding lost -sheep which have been snatched away by the dragon, the Demon. These -pastures are the New World, wherein is comprised Florida, now in -possession of the Demon, and here he makes himself adored and revered. -This is the Land of Promise, possessed by idolaters, the Amorite, -Ainalekite, Moabite, Cauaauite. This is the land promised by the Eternal -Father to the faithful, since we are commanded by God in the Holy -Scriptures to take it from them, being idolaters, and, by reason of -their idolatry and sin, to put them all to the knife, leaving no living -thing save maidens and children, their cities robbed and sacked, their -walls and houses levelled to the earth." - -The writer then goes into detail, proposing to occupy Florida at various -points with from one thousand to fifteen hundred colonists, found a city -to be called Philippina, also another at Tuscaloosa, to be called -Cxsarea, another at Tallahassee, and another at Tampa Bay, where he -thinks many slaves can be had. Carta del Doctor Pedro de Santander. - -[PFN#9] The True and Last Discoverie of Florida, made by Captian John -Ribault, in the Yeere 1692, dedicated to a great Nobleman in Fraunce, -and translated into Englishe by one Thomas Haclcit, This is Ribaut's -journal, which seems not to exist in the original. The translation is -contained in the rare black-letter tract of Hakinyt called Divers -Voyages (London, 1582), a copy of which is in the library of Harvard -College. It has been reprinted by the Hakluyt Society. The journal first -appeared in 1563, under the title of The Whole and True Discoverie of -Terra Florida (Englished The Florishing Land). This edition is of -extreme rarity. - -[FN#10] Ribaut thinks that the Broad River of Port Royal is the Jordan -of the Spanish navigator Yasquez de Ayllon, who was here in 1520, and -gave the name of St. Helena to a neighboring cape (Garcilaso, Florida -del Inca). The adjacent district, now called St. Helena, is the Chicora -of the old Spanish maps. - -[FN#11] No trace of this fort has been found. The old fort of which the -remains may be seen a little below Beaufort is of later date. - -[FN#12] For all the latter part of the chapter, the authority is the -first of the three long letters of Rena de Laudonniere, Companion of -Ribaut and his successor in command. They are contained in the Histoire -Notable de la Floride, compiled by Basanier (Paris, 1586), and are also -to he found, quaintly "done into English," in the third volume of -Hakluyt's great collection. In the main, they are entitled to much -confidence. - -[FN#13] Above St. John's Bluff the shore curves in a semicircle, along -which the water runs in a deep, strong current, which has half cut away -the flat knoll above mentioned, and encroached greatly on the bluff -itself. The formation of the ground, joined to the indicatons furnished -by Laudonniere and Le Moyne, leave little doubt that the fort was built -on the knoll. - -[FN#14] I La Caille, as before mentioned, was Laudonniere's sergeant. - -The feudal rank of sergeant, it will be remembered, was widely different -from the modern grade so named, and was held by men of noble birth. - -Le Moyne calls La Caille "Captain." - -[FN#15] Laudonniere in Hakinyt, III. 406. Brinton, Floridian Peninsula, -thinks there is truth in the story, and that Lake Weir, in Marion -County, is the Lake of Sarrope. I give these romantic tales as I find -them. - -[FN#16] This scene is the subject of Plate XII. of Le Moyne. - -[FN#17] Le Moyne drew a picture of the fight (Plate XIII.). In the -foreground Ottigny is engaged in single combat with a gigantic savage, -who, with club upheaved, aims a deadly stroke at the plumed helmet of -his foe; but the latter, with target raised to guard his head, darts -under the arms of the naked Goliath, and transfixes him with his sword. - -[FN#18] For Hawkins, see the three narratives in Hakinyt, III. 594; -Purchas, IV. 1177 ; Stow, Chron., 807; Biog. Briton., Art. Hawkins; -Anderson, History of Commerce, I. 400. - -He was not knighted until after the voyage of 1564-65; hence there is an -anachronism in the text. As he was held "to have opened a new trade," he -was entitled to bear as his crest a "Moor" or negro, bound with a cord. -In Fairhairn's Crests of Great Britain and Ireland, where it is figured, -it is described, not as a negro, but as a "naked man." In Burke's Landed -Gentry, it is said that Sir John obtained it in honor of a great victory -over the Moors! His only African victories were in kidnapping raids on -negro villages. In Letters on Certain Passages in the Life of Sir John -Hawkins, the coat is engraved in detail. The "demi-Moor" has the thick -lips, the flat nose, and the wool of the unequivocal negro. - -Sir John became Treasurer of the Royal Navy and Rear-Admiral, and -founded a marine hospital at Chatham. - -[FN#19] "Better a ruined kingdom, true to itself and its king, than one -left unharmed to the profit of the Devil and the heretics."-- -Correspondance de Philippe II., cited by Prescott, Philip IL, Book III. -c. 2, note 36. - -"A prince can do nothing more shameful, or more hurtful to himself, than -to permit his people to live according to their conscience." -The Duke of Alva, in Davila, Lib. III. p. 341. - -[FN#20] Cartas escritas al Rep per el General Pero Menendez de Aeilgs. -These are the official despatches of Menendez, of which the originals -are preserved in the archives of Seville. They are very voluminous and -minute in detail. Copies of them were ohtained by the aid of Buckiugham -Smith, Esq., to whom the writer is also indebted for various other -documents from the same source, throwing new light on the events -descrihed. Menendez calls Port Royal St. Elena, "a name afterwards -applied to the sound which still retains it." Compare Historical -Magazine, IV. 320. - -[FN#21] This was not so remarkable as it may appear. Charnock, History -of Marine Architecture gives the tonnage of the ships of the Invincible -Armada. The flag-ship of the Andalusian squadron was of fifteen hundred -and fifty tons; several were of about twelve hundred. - -[FN#22] Barcia, 69. The following passage in one of the unpublished -letters of Menendez seems to indicate that the above is exaggerated: -"Your Majesty may he assured by me, that, had I a million, more or less, -I would employ and spend the whole in this undertaking, it being so -greatly to the glory of the God our Lord, and the increase of our Holy -Catholic Faith, and the service and authority of your Majesty and thus I -have offered to our Lord whatever He shall give me in this world, [and -whatever] I shall possess, gain, or acquire shall he devoted to the -planting of the Gospel in this land, and the enlightenment of the -natives thereof, and this I do promise to your Majesty." This letter is -dated 11 Septemher, 1565. - -[FN#23] I have examined the country on the line of march of Menendez. -In many places it retains its original features. - -[FN#24] Amid all the confusion of his geographical statements, it seems -clear that Menendez believed that Cheeapeake Bay communicated with the -St. Lawrence, and thence with Newfoundland on the one hand, and the -South Sea on the other. The notion that the St. Lawrence would give -access to China survived till the time of La Salle, or more than a -century. In the map of Gastaldi, made, according to Kohl, about 1550, a -belt of water connecting the St. Lawrence and the Atlantic is laid down. -So also in the map of Ruscelli, 1561, and that of Mactines, 1578, as -well as in that of Michael Lok, 1582. In Munster's map, 1545, the St. -Lawrence is rudely indicated, with the words, "Per hoc fretfl iter ad -Molucas." - -[FN#25] The "black drink" was, till a recent period, in use among the -Creeks. It is a strong decoctiun of the plant popularly called eassina, -or nupon tea. Major Swan, deputy agent for the Creeks in 1791, thus -describes their belief in its properties: "that it purifies them from -all sin, and leaves them in a state of perfect innocence; that it -inspires them with an invincible prowess in war; and that it is the only -solid cement of friendship, benevolence, and hospitality." Swan's -account of their mode of drinking and ejecting it corresponds perfectly -with Le Moyne's picture in De Bry. See the United States government -publication, History, Condition, and Prospects of Indian Tribes, V. 266. - -[FN#27] The earliest maps and narratives indicate a city, also called -Norembega, on the banks of the Penobseot. The pilot, Jean Alphonse, of -Saintonge, says that this fabulous city is fifteen or twenty leagues -from the sea, and that its inhabitants are of small stature and dark -complexion. As late as 1607 the fable was repeated in the Histoire -Unicerselle des Indes Occidentales. - -[FN#28] Such extempore works of defence are still used among some tribes -of the remote west. The author has twice seen them, made of trees piled -together as described by Champlain, probably by war parties of the Crow -or Snake Indians. - -Champlain, usually too concise, is very minute in his description of the -march and encampment. - -[FN#29] According to Lafitan, hoth bucklers and breastplates were in -frequent use among the Iroquois. The former were very large and made of -cedar wood covered with interwoven thongs of hide. The kindred nation of -the Hurons, says Sagard (Voyage des hlurens, 126-206), carried large -shields, and wore greaves for the legs and enirasses made of twigs -interwoven with cords. His account corresponds with that of Champlain, -who gives a wood-cut of a warrior thus armed. - -[FN#30] It has been erroneously asserted that the practice of scalping -did not prevail among the Indians before the advent of Europeans. In -1535, Cartier saw five scalps at Quebec, dried and stretched on hoops. -In 1564, Laudonniere saw them among the Indians of Florida. The -Algonquins of New England and Nova Scotia were accustomed to cut off and -carry away the head, which they afterwards scalped. Those of Canada, it -seems, sometimes scalped dead bodies on the field. Thu Algonquin -practice of carrying off heads as trophies is mentioned by Lalemant, -Roger Williams, Lescarbot, and Champlain. Compare Historical Magazine, -First Series, V. 233. - -[FN#31] Traces of cannibalism may be found among most of the North -American tribes, though they are rarely very conspicuous. Sometimes the -practice arose, as in the present instance, from revenge or ferocity -sometimes it bore a religious character, as with the Miamis, among whom -there existed a secret religions fraternity of man-eaters sometimes the -heart of a brave enemy was devoured in the idea that it made the eater -brave. This last practice was common. The ferocious threat, used in -speaking of an enemy, "I will eat his heart," is by no means a mere -figure of speech. The roving hunter-tribes, in their winter wanderings, -were not infrequently impelled to cannibalism by famine. - -[FN#32] 1 The first white man to descend the rapids of St. Louis was a -youth named Louis, who, on the 10th of June, 1611, went with two Indians -to shoot herons on an island, and was drowned on the way down; the -second was a young man who in the summer before had gone with the Hurons -to their country, and who returned with them on the 18th of June; the -third was Champlain himself. - -[FN#33] Wampum was a sort of beads, of several colors, made originally -by the Indians from the inner portion of certain shells, and afterwards -by the French of porcelain and glass. It served a treble purpose,--that -of currency, decoration, and record, wrought into belts of various -devices, each having its significance, it preserved the substance of -treaties and compacts from generation to generation. - - - - - -End of Project Gutenberg Pioneers Of France In The New World, by Parkman - diff --git a/old/pofnw10.zip b/old/pofnw10.zip Binary files differdeleted file mode 100644 index 6db549b..0000000 --- a/old/pofnw10.zip +++ /dev/null |