often said to them; "Learn our language quickly, for when you have learned it, you [163] will teach me; and when I am taught I will become a preacher like you, and we will convert the whole country." The Savages have no recollection of ever having had a greater or more powerful Sagamore. He was bearded like a Frenchman; and would to God that all the French were as circumspect and prudent as he was. Such is the true story of the sickness and death of Membertou. With it I shall no longer waste time in refuting the calumnies of the factionist, he being sufficiently convicted both here and elsewhere. Therefore I tell the truth of the thing, without losing time in fighting larvæ.[38] CHAPITRE XVIII. [i.e., xvii.] [164] LE VOYAGE À LA RIUIERE S. IEAN: & LA QUERELLE QUI Y SURUINT. I'AY dict cy deuant que le sieur de Biencourt auoit amené vne barque du Port aux Coquilles, à fin qu'auec icelle il peust faire vn voyage iusques aux Armouchiquois. Ainsi lon appelle les peuples, qui sont dés le quarentetroisiesme degré en bas vers le Sur-oüest. Leur commencem[~e]t est dés Chouacoët, & à ce qu'on dit, ils sont en grand nombre. La disette pressoit le sieur de Biencourt à ce voyage; parce que ces peuples labourãts, & faisants prouision de grains, il esperoit par le moyen de la trocque, ou autrement tirer d'eux quelque secours pour se munir contre la famine [165] qui nous attendoit au pas de l'Hiuer. Sa barque fut trop tard equippée pour vne si longue traicte: car nous ne fusmes prests qu'au troisiesme d'Octobre; & encores voulust-il aller à la riuiere Sainct Iean auant que de pr[~e]dre ceste route. CHAPTER XVIII. [i.e., xvii.] [164] THE VOYAGE TO THE ST. JOHN RIVER: AND THE QUARREL WHICH OCCURRED THERE. I SAID above that sieur de Biencourt took a barque away from Port aux Coquilles, that he might make a journey therewith to the Armouchiquois.[39] This is the name of the people who live below the forty-third parallel, toward the Southwest. They begin at Chouacoët, and are said to be very numerous. Lack of provisions urged sieur de Biencourt to make this voyage, because, as these people till the soil and put away stores of grain, he hoped, by means of trade or in some other way, to get help from them to provide against the famine [165] which awaited us in the course of the Winter. His barque was equipped too late for such a long journey, for we were not ready until the third of October, and he still wanted to go to the Saint John river before making this voyage.