VOYAGE FROM TADOUSSAC TO ISLE PERCÉE.--DESCRIPTION OF MOLUES BAY, THE
ISLAND OF BONAVENTURE, BAY OF CHALEUR: ALSO SEVERAL RIVERS, LAKES, AND
COUNTRIES WHERE THERE ARE VARIOUS KINDS OF MINES.
At once, after arriving at Tadoussac, we embarked for Gaspé, about a
hundred leagues distant. On the thirteenth day of the month, we met a troop
of savages encamped on the south shore, nearly half way between Tadoussac
and Gaspé. The name of the Sagamore who led them is Armouchides, who is
regarded as one of the most intelligent and daring of the savages. He was
going to Tadoussac to barter their arrows and orignac meat [215] for
beavers and martens [216] with the Montagnais, Etechemins, and Algonquins.
On the 15th day of the month we arrived at Gaspé, situated on the northern
shore of a bay, and about a league and a half from the entrance. This bay
is some seven or eight leagues long, and four leagues broad at its
entrance. There is a river there extending some thirty leagues inland.
[217] Then we saw another bay, called Moluës Bay [218] some three leagues
long and as many wide at its entrance. Thence we come to Isle Percée, [219]
a sort of rock, which is very high and steep on two sides, with a hole
through which shallops and boats can pass at high tide. At low tide, you
can go from the mainland to this island, which is only some four or five
hundred feet distant. There is also another island, about a league
southeast of Isle Percée, called the Island of Bonaventure, which is,
perhaps, half a league long. Gaspé, Moluës Bay, and Isle Percée are all
places where dry and green fishing is carried on.
Beyond Isle Percée there is a bay, called _Baye de Chaleurs_, [220]
extending some eighty leagues west-southwest inland, and some fifteen
leagues broad at its entrance. The Canadian savages say that some sixty
leagues along the southern shore of the great River of Canada, there is a
little river called Mantanne, extending some eighteen leagues inland, at
the end of which they carry their canoes about a league by land, and come
to the Baye de Chaleurs, [221] whence they go sometimes to Isle Percée.
They also go from this bay to Tregate [222] and Misamichy. [223]
Proceeding along this coast, you pass a large number of rivers, and reach a
place where there is one called _Souricoua_, by way of which Sieur Prevert
went to explore a copper mine. They go with their canoes up this river for
two or three days, when they go overland some two or three leagues to the
said mine, which is situated on the seashore southward. At the entrance to
the above-mentioned river there is an island [224] about a league out, from
which island to Isle Percée is a distance of some sixty or seventy leagues.
Then, continuing along this coast, which runs towards the east, you come to
a strait about two leagues broad and twenty-five long. [225] On the east
side of it is an island named _St. Lawrence_, [226] on which is Cape
Breton, and where a tribe of savages called the _Souriquois_ winter.
Passing the strait of the Island of St. Lawrence, and coasting along the
shore of La Cadie, you come to a bay [227] on which this copper mine is
situated. Advancing still farther, you find a river [228] extending some
sixty or eighty leagues inland, and nearly to the Lake of the Iroquois,
along which the savages of the coast of La Cadie go to make war upon the
latter.
One would accomplish a great good by discovering, on the coast of Florida,
some passage running near to the great lake before referred to, where the
water is salt; not only on account of the navigation of vessels, which
would not then be exposed to so great risks as in going by way of Canada,
but also on account of the shortening of the distance by more than three
hundred leagues. And it is certain that there are rivers on the coast of
Florida, not yet discovered, extending into the interior, where the land is
very good and fertile, and containing very good harbors. The country and
coast of Florida may have a different temperature and be more productive in
fruits and other things than that which I have seen; but there cannot be
there any lands more level nor of a better quality than those we have seen.
The savages say that, in this great Baye de Chaleurs, there is a river
extending some twenty leagues into the interior, at the extremity of which
is a lake [229] some twenty leagues in extent, but with very little water;
that it dries up in summer, when they find in it, a foot or foot and a half
under ground, a kind of metal resembling the silver which I showed them,
and that in another place, near this lake, there is a copper mine.
This is what I learned from these savages.
ENDNOTES:
215. _Orignac_. Moose.--_Vide antea_, note 179.
216. Martens, _martres_. This may include the pine-marten, _Mustela
martes_, and the pecan or fisher, _Mustela Canadenfis_, both of which
were found in large numbers in New France.
217. York River.
218. Molues Bay, _Baye des Moluès_. Now known as Mal-Bay, from _morue_,
codfish, a corruption from the old orthography _molue_ and _baie_,
codfish bay, the name having been originally applied on account of the
excellent fish of the neighborhood. The harbor of Mal-Bay is enclosed
between two points, Point Peter on the north, and a high rocky
promontory on the south, whose cliffs rise to the height of 666
feet.--_Vide Charts of the St. Lawrence by Captain H. W. Bayfield_.
219. _Isle Percée.--Vide_ Vol. II, note 290.
220. _Baye de Chaleurs_. This bay was so named by Jacques Cartier on
account of the excessive heat, _chaleur_, experienced there on his
first voyage in 1634.--_Vide Voyage de Jacques Cartier_, Mechelant,
ed. Paris, 1865, p. 50. The depth of the bay is about ninety miles and
its width at the entrance is about eighteen. It receives the
Ristigouche and other rivers.
221. By a portage of about three leagues from the river Matane to the
Matapedia, the Bay of Chaleur may be reached by water.
222. _Tregaté_, Tracadie. By a very short portage Between Bass River and
the Big Tracadie River, this place may be reached.
223. _Misamichy_, Miramichi. This is reached by a short portage from the
Nepisiguit to the head waters of the Miramichi.
224. It is obvious from this description that the island above mentioned is
Shediac Island, and the river was one of the several emptying into
Shediac Bay, and named _Souricoua_, as by it the Indians went to the
Souriquois or Micmacs in Nova Scotia.
225. The Strait of Canseau.
226. _St. Lawrence_. This island had then borne the name of the _Island of
Cape Breton_ for a hundred years.
227. The Bay of Fundy.
228. The River St John by which they reached the St Lawrence, and through
the River Richelieu the lake of the Iroquois. It was named Lake
Champlain in 1609. _Vide_ Vol. II. p. 223.
229. By traversing the Ristigouche River, the Matapediac may be reached,
the lake here designated.