On the fourteenth of the same month, as the ice was completely broken up, I embarked in a canoe with one of our Frenchmen and an Algonquain, to go and see the beautiful lake or pond of which I have spoken above, and which I had seen all frozen over during the winter. On the way, I saw a Muskrat hunt. Some of these animals are as large as rabbits; they have very long tails. When they appear upon the water, the Savages follow them in their little canoes; these Rats, upon seeing themselves pursued, immediately dive into the water, their enemies hurrying quickly to the place where they expect them to come up again to take breath; in short, they pursue them until they are tired out, so that they must remain above the water a little while, in order not to suffocate; then they [90] knock them down with their paddles, or kill them with arrows. When this animal has gained the land, it usually saves itself by hiding in its hole. It is called Muskrat because, in fact, a part of its body smells of musk, if caught in the Spring,--at other times, it has no odor. Le vingt-vniesme, ie partis des trois Riuieres pour venir à Kebec, afin de m'y trouuer, selon le desir de nos Peres, à la venuë des vaisseaux. Nous les attendions de bonne heure, ils sont venus bien tard, le mauuais temps leur a causé vne rude trauerse; nous esperions de les veoir sur la fin de May, & nous n'en auons eu nouuelle que le vingt-cinquiesme de Iuin; auquel temps arriua vn canot enuoyé de Tadoussac, qui rapporta qu'vn vaisseau estoit à l'Isle du Bic, & qu'il en venoit encore cinq ou six, auec bonne [91] deliberation de combattre tous ceux qu'ils trouueroient dans la Riuiere sans Commission. On the twenty-first, I left three Rivers to come to Kebec, in order to be there, according to the wish of the Fathers, at the coming of the ships. We expected them early, but they came very late, the bad weather having caused them to have a rough passage; we hoped to see them towards the end of May, and we had no news of them until the twenty-fifth of June, when a canoe arrived, sent from Tadoussac, which reported that a ship was at the Island of Bic, and that five or six more of them were coming, with the firm [91] determination to attack all those they found in the River without Commissions. Le quatriesme de Iuillet, vne chalouppe enuoyée de la part de Monsieur du Plessis Bochart, general de la flotte, resioüit tous nos Frãçois, & nous asseura de sa venuë, & qu'il estoit suiuy de huict forts nauires, six pour Tadoussac, & deux pour Mifcou, sans ce que l'on enuoyoit au Cap Breton, & coste de l'Acadie à Mr le Com. de Razilly.