Voyages of Samuel De Champlain — Volume 01Champlain, Samuel de
History
Voyages of Samuel De Champlain — Volume 01
Champlain, Samuel de
America -- Discovery and exploration -- French; Indians of North America -- Canada; New France -- Discovery and exploration
Having passed the night at Brant Point, they had not advanced more than two
leagues along a sandy shore dotted with wigwams and gardens, when they were
forced to enter a small harbor, to await a more favoring wind. The Indians
flocked about them, greeted them with cordiality, and invited them to enter
the little river which flows into the harbor, but this they were unable to
do, as the tide was low and the depth insufficient. Champlain's attention
was attracted by several canoes in the bay, which had just completed their
morning's work in fishing for cod. The fish were taken with a primitive
hook and line, apparently in a manner not very different from that of the
present day. The line was made of a filament of bark stripped from the
trunk of a tree; the hook was of wood, having a sharp bone, forming a barb,
lashed to it with a cord of a grassy fibre, a kind of wild hemp, growing
spontaneously in that region. Champlain landed, distributed trinkets among
the natives, examined and sketched an outline of the place, which
identifies it as Plymouth harbor, which captain John Smith visited in 1614,
and where the May Flower, still six years later landed the first permanent
colony planted upon New England soil.
After a day at Plymouth, the little bark weighed anchor, swept down Cape
Cod, approaching near to the reefs of Billingsgate, describing a complete
semicircle, and finally, with some difficulty, doubled the cape whose white
sands they had seen in the distance glittering in the sunlight and which
appropriately they named _Cap Blanc_. This cape, however, had been visited
three years before by Bartholomew Gosnold, and named Cape Cod, which
appellation it has retained to the present time. Passing down on the
outside of the cape some distance, they came to anchor, sent explorers on
the shore, who ascending on of the lofty sand-banks [47] which may still be
seen there silently resisting the winds and waves, discovered further to
the south, what is now known as Nauset harbor, entirely surrounded by
Indian cabins. The next day, the 20th of July, 1605, they effected an
entrance without much difficulty. The bay was spacious, being nine or ten
miles in circumference. Along the borders, there were, here and there,
cultivated patches, interspersed with dwellings of the natives. The wigwam
was cone-shaped, heavily thatched with reeds, having an orifice at the apex
for the emission of smoke. In the fields were growing Indian corn,
Brazilian beans, pumpkins, radishes, and tobacco; and in the woods were oak
and hickory and red cedar. During their stay in the harbor they encountered
an easterly storm, which continued four days, so raw and chilling that they
were glad to hug their winter cloaks about them on the 22d of July. The
natives were friendly and cordial, and entered freely into conversation
with Champlain; but, as the language of each party was not understood by
the other, the information he obtained from them was mostly by signs, and
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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