The Makers of Canada: ChamplainDionne, N.-E. (Narcisse-Eutrope)
History
The Makers of Canada: Champlain
Dionne, N.-E. (Narcisse-Eutrope)
Canada -- History -- To 1763 (New France); Champlain, Samuel de, 1574-1635
Lescarbot, who was an able man and a good historian, records the
particulars above related, besides many other interesting facts
concerning Port Royal which appear to have escaped Champlain's
observation. Lescarbot was an active spirit in the life of the first
French colony in Acadia. He encouraged his companions to cultivate their
land, and he worked himself in the gardens, sowing wheat, oats, beans,
pease, and herbs, which he tended with care. He was also liked by the
Indians, and he would have rejoiced to see them converted to
Christianity. Lescarbot was a poet and a preacher, and had also a good
knowledge of the arts and of medicine. Charlevoix says: "He daily
invented something new for the public good. And there was never a
stronger proof of what a new settlement might derive from a mind
cultivated by study, and induced by patriotism to use its knowledge and
reflections. We are indebted to this advocate for the best memoirs of
what passed before his eyes, and for a history of French Florida. We
then behold an exact and judicious writer, a man with views of his own,
and who would have been as capable of founding a colony as of writing
its history."
With the departure of Lescarbot and Champlain the best page of the
history of Port Royal is closed. The two men left on September 2nd,
1607, on board the _Jonas_, commanded by Nicholas Martin. They stopped
at Roscoff in Basse-Bretagne, and the vessel arrived at Havre de Grace
in the early days of October.
Poutrincourt, his son Biencourt, and Lescarbot made a pilgrimage to Mont
St. Michel, and Champlain went to Brouage, his native country, having
sojourned in America for three years and five months.
FOOTNOTES:
[5] Norembega was the name applied at that time to a vast tract of
country whose limits were nearly unknown. There was a river and a cape
called Norembega. The river is now the Penobscot, and the cape is the
southern extremity of the Acadian peninsula.
[6] The Indians called this island _Pemetig_, which means _the island
which is ahead_. The French settled here in 1613, and founded St.
Sauveur on the north-eastern coast, in a splendid harbour which is
to-day known as Bar Harbour. The remains of many of the French who were
killed during the contest with the English, were interred at Point
Fernald. At the point nearest the mainland there is a bridge of seven
hundred feet in length, which communicates with the town of Trenton.
[7] Champlain called the river _Peimtegoueet_. This word means _the place
of a river where rapids exist_. The English have given their preference
to the word _Penobscot_, which comes from the Indian _Penaouasket, the
place where the earth is covered with stones_.
[8] The Pilgrim Fathers, the founders of New England, landed at this
place, which they named Plymouth, to preserve the name of the English
city from which they had sailed.
CHAPTER III
THE FOUNDING OF QUEBEC
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