MEANWHILE, the greatest desire of our brethren, zealously occupied with the performance of their duties, was at the start to know the language of the natives, which the Frenchmen--caring but little for it, with one exception--could not impart by rules, or teach with advantage; so only one method remained, to learn it from the stupid natives, not by lessons, but by constant practice. Consequently, after our associates had made various attempts to conciliate the Savages, by gifts, by friendliness, and by [574] every sort of service, they accomplished little or nothing. For, besides the fact that they employed teachers not at all fitted for instruction, from whom nothing could be obtained unless their stomachs were first liberally crammed, and who, being very impatient of even a short delay, would often be distracted and drawn away from one by earnest inquiry about any subject: the very nature of the language, also, so deficient in words suitable for the expression of even the most common ideas, evaded the eager pursuit of our men, and greatly disheartened them. Of those things, indeed, which fall under sight, touch, and the other senses, the names were obtained from the answers of the Savages in one way or another; but for those things which elude the senses, there is the greatest scarcity of names among that race, and also a profound ignorance of the things themselves. The knowledge of the latter class was despaired of, since the Savages either could not, or would not explain the former; one hope remained, in a young Frenchman, fluent in the native tongue, of remarkable kindness and affability, whom Father Biard also had laid under obligations to himself by no ordinary favors. This was Pontgravé, the son of Pontgravé,[71] an excellent man, who in former years, together with Champlain, represented Sieur de Monts in New France; and this youth, who was preparing to pass the winter no farther than eighteen leagues from Port Royal, at the river St. John, our brethren were anxious to meet, with his own ready consent, and with inconvenience to no one, for the sake of the aid of his instruction in acquiring the Canadian language. Although Biencourt was consulted about this expedition, and also requested by our comrades that they might be allowed by his kind permission [575] to make progress through Pontgravé in the foreign idiom, by their ignorance of which, they were losing all the fruits of their voyage to New France,[72] they did not succeed; because such intercourse with Pontgravé inspired suspicion in Biencourt. While our brethren therefore patiently endured their troubles, until some path more suitable to their plans should be revealed, God placed within their reach the desired opportunity, for doing a kindness to Henry Membertou, a Sagamore who was dangerously ill, by