_Festival of the Dead among the Hurons_, 25
_Canadian manner of honoring the dead_, 25
_Boats of the savages_, 6
_The Neutral Nation_, 38
_They revere a deity with no fixed form of worship_, 44
_Innumerable pigeons_, 14
_The armored fish_, 13
_Fathers of the Society of Jesus are cruelly tortured_, 31
_Religion of the Canadians_, 45
_Network bound under the feet, to walk over the snow_, 8
_St. Lawrence river_, 5, 6
_Sagamita, what it is_, 42
[54] _Water-falls, or cataracts, in the rivers_, 6
_Gulf of St. Lawrence_, 14
_Ignorant belief in dreams_, 46
_They expel noxious humors by sweating_, 19
_Tobacco, the nation of that name_, 38
_The trophy_, 32
_Isle of Birds_, 14
BIBLIOGRAPHICAL DATA: VOL. I
I
Our text of Lescarbot's _La Conversion_ follows, to the close of p.
44 (original pagination), the copy at Lenox Library: pp. 45, 46, the
"Regitre de Bapteme," follow the copy at John Carter Brown Library,
Providence, R. I., as the Lenox copy does not have these two pages.
It is a rare book; the two copies above cited are the only ones known
to us, in America. Leclerc, in _Bibliotheca Americana_ (Paris, 1867),
p. 206, says: "Cette pièce est plus rare que l'Histoire de la Nouvelle
France," referring to Lescarbot's better-known work. Sabin speaks of it
(vol. x., no. 40167), as "probably the rarest of Lescarbot's works."
See further references in the John Carter Brown Catalogue (Bartlett's
_Bibliotheca Americana_, Providence, 1882), vol. ii., no. 99: Graesse's
_Trésor de Livres Rares et Précieux_ (Dresden, 1863), vol. iv., p.
175; Harrisse's _Notes sur la Nouvelle France_ (Paris, 1872), no. 21;
Ternaux's _Bibliothèque Américaine_ (Paris, 1837), no. 330; Winsor's
_Narrative and Critical History of America_, vol. iv., p. 299; and
Lenox _Catalogue of Jesuit Relations_ (N. Y., 1879), p. 3.[XVII.]
_Title-page._ This is given in photographic facsimile, in this
reissue. The Lenox and Brown copies are alike, in this. It will be
noticed that there is no date of publication, this being established
from the Privilege.
_Collation._ Title, 1 p.; blank at back of title, 1 p.; dedication
"A LA ROYNE," 3 pp., signed "MARC LESCARBOT;" privilege, 1 p., dated
"Paris, 9 Sep., 1610," and signed "Brigard;" text, pp. 7-44. Page 7 is
misnumbered 1. (The Brown Catalogue says: Page 1 is misnumbered 7."
This is a misprint in the Catalogue.) "FIN," at end of p. 24; then
pp. 23 and 24 are reprinted, all except the last sentence on p. 24:
"Dieu vueille par sa | grace conduire le tout en sorte que la chose |
reüssisse à sa gloire & à l'édification de ce peu-| ple, pour lequel
tous Chrétiens doivent faire | continuelles prieres à sa divine bonté,
à ce qu'il | lui plaise confirmer & avancer l'oeuvre qu'il | lui a pleu
susciter en ce temps pour l'exaltation | de son nom, & le salut de ses
creatures. | FIN."
It is evident that the intention was to have the first leaf (pp. 23,
24) cut out. This duplication of pp. 23, 24 is in both the Brown and
Lenox copies.
The "Extrait du Regitre de Bapteme" in the Brown copy (it is not in the
Lenox Copy) forms 2 pages at the end of text. The first page of this
"Regitre" is not numbered; the second is numbered "-4-6" (intended for
46), and this ends the book. The same "Regitre" appears in somewhat
different order in Lescarbot's _Nouvelle France_, (1612 ed.), pp.
638-640, chap. 5, book v.; also, according to Harrisse's _Notes_, in
chap. 3, book v., of the 1611 ed.
II
In Bertrand's _Lettre Missive_, we follow the original Paris edition,
in Lenox. It is a rare publication, the Lenox copy being apparently
the only one in the United States; Brown has a manuscript copy, made
from that at Lenox. Sabin (vol. x., no. 40682), says: "It is a piece of
unusual rarity." Sabin has a previous reference in vol. ii., no. 5025,
under caption "Bertrand," wherein a misprint makes him cite the date of
the letter as "28 June, 1618" (eight years later than the actual date);
a further misprint causes Sabin to record the pamphlet as having "48
pages or less," the actual number being 8. In his _Notes_, Harrisse
omits a line-ending after the second "nouuelle" in his description of
the title-page. See, for further references: Ternaux, no. 329; Winsor,
p. 299; Lenox Catalogue, p. 3; Brown Catalogue, vol. ii., no. 103.
_Title-page._ Given in photographic facsimile, in present volume.
_Collation._ Title, 1 p.; blank at back of title, 1 p.; text, pp. 3-6;
dated on p. 6, "Port Royal xxviij. Iuin, 1610," and signed "Bertrand."
Blank leaf at end, completing 4 leaves = 8 pp.
III-VI
In these four letters, by Biard and Massé, we follow Carayon's
_Première Mission des Jésuites au Canada_ (Paris, 1864). It is a
scarce book, and brought $8 at the Barlow Sale, in New York, 1890.
See references in Harrisse, p. 285; Sabin, no. 10792; Winsor, pp. 151,
292, 300; and Lenox Catalogue, p. 15. The origin of the letters in the
volume is found at the top of the first page of each letter; and these
data, with accompanying notes by Carayon, are reproduced in the present
series, which will, in strict chronological order, contain all of the
papers given by that editor; although in many cases we shall follow the
original issues of the letters, whenever found. Documents III., V., and
VI. were written in Latin; and Document IV. in French.
_Collation._ Blank, 2 pp.; bastard title, 1 p.; blank, 1 p.; title
proper, 1 p.; blank, 1 p. Preface begins on p. vii. (not numbered), and
ends on p. xvi. Preface acknowledges indebtedness to F. Felix Martin,
S. J., for copying and translating into French (from the Latin) most of
the letters in the volume. Text, pp. 1-302; Table at end, 2 pp.; the
last of these is numbered 304.
VII
We follow the style and make-up of Dr. E. B. O'Callaghan's Reprint
(Albany, N. Y., 1871) of the _Canadicæ Missionis_, in Jouvency's
_Hist. Soc. Jesu_, part v., commencing p. 321. In the Lenox Catalogue,
it is designated "O'Callaghan's Reprint, No. 4." This numbering of
O'Callaghan's reprints, is merely a device peculiar to the Lenox
Catalogue, for sake of easy reference, and has been followed by Winsor;
the reprints themselves bear no numbers.
The text of this document, however, we have compared with the original
folio edition of Jouvency's work, in the library of St. Francis Xavier
College, New York, and the pagination thereof is indicated instead of
that of the O'Callaghan Reprint. The list, "Missiones Societatis Jesu
in America Septentrionali Anno M. DCC. X.," which O'Callaghan reprints
as if a part of the original _Canadicæ Missionis_, is on pp. 961, 962
of the same volume of Jouvency in which the latter appears (part v.).
_Title-page._ The O'Callaghan Reprint is closely imitated.
_Collation of O'Callaghan Reprint._ Title, 1 p.; reverse of title,
with inscription: "Editio viginti quinque exemplaria. O'C.," 1 p.;
Biardi Eulogium ac Vita, pp. i-v.; blank, 1 p.; Tabula, 1 p.; blank,
1 p.; text, pp. 5-33; colophon: "Albaniae Excvdebat Joel Munsellius
| Mense Aprilis Anno | CI[C=]. I[C=]CCC. LXXI.," 1 p.; half-title,
"Appendix," 1 p.; blank, 1 p.; "Missiones Societatis Iesu | in America
Septentrionali |Anno M.DCC.X.," 2 pp., the last of which is numbered 38.
VIII
We follow the style and make-up of O'Callaghan's Reprint (Albany,
1871), which is numbered 5 in the Lenox Catalogue. The text and
pagination follow the original, in Jouvency's _Hist. Soc. Jesu_, part
v., commencing p. 344.
_Title-page._ The O'Callaghan Reprint is closely imitated.
_Collation of O'Callaghan Reprint._ Title, 1 p.; reverse of title,
with inscription: "Editio viginti quinque exemplaria. O'C.," 1 p.;
Tabula Rerum, 1 p.; blank, 1 p.; text, pp. 5-49; blank, 1 p.; Rerum
Insigniorum Indiculus, 4 pp.; colophon: "Albaniae Excvdebat Joel
Munsellius | Mense Qvintilis Anno | CI[C=]. I[C=]CCC. LXXI.," 1 p.
FOOTNOTES:
[XVII.] In order to save needless repetition of long titles,
bibliographical works, when once cited in full, will thereafter be
referred to by the usual cut-shorts: e.g., the John Carter Brown
Catalogue will be hereafter known in our Bibliographical Data as
"Brown Catalogue;" the list of Jesuitica in Winsor's _Narrative and
Critical History_ vol. iv., as "Winsor;" the Lenox _Catalogue of
Jesuit Relations_, as "Lenox Catalogue;" Harrisse's _Notes sur la
Nouvelle France_, as "Harrisse's _Notes_," or simply as "Harrisse;"
etc., etc. The student who is familiar, in a general way, with these
bibliographical sources,--and it is presumed that those are, for whom
this series of reprints is designed,--will not be confused by the
customary method of brief citation.
NOTES TO VOL. I
(_Figures in parentheses, following number of note, refer to pages of
English text._)
1. (p. 55)--Marie de Médicis, queen regent, widow of Henry of Navarre;
appointed regent by the king, the day before his assassination, May 14,
1610. She was accused of having been privy to his murder.
2. (p. 55)--The reports of Champlain, and the maps and charts with
which, upon returning from his voyage of 1603, he entertained
Henry IV., so interested the latter that he vowed to encourage the
colonization of New France. To carry on this work he commissioned,
as his lieutenant-general in Acadia, Pierre du Gua, Sieur de Monts,
governor of Pons, a Huguenot resident at court, and, according to
Champlain, "a gentleman of great respectability, zeal, and honesty." De
Monts' commission is given at length in Baird's _Huguenot Emigration
to America_, vol. i., p. 341; his charter of "La Cadie" embraced the
country between the 40th and 46th degrees of latitude, and he held
therein a monopoly of the fur trade. J. G. Bourinot, in _Canadian
Monthly_, vol. vii., pp. 291, 292, says the name Acadia (also written
Acadie, and La Cadie) "comes from àk[^a]de, which is an affix used
by the Souriquois or MIC Macs ... to signify a place where there is
an abundance of some particular thing."--See, also, Laverdière's
_Oeuvres de Champlain_ (Quebec, 1870), p. 115. In 1604, De Monts
sailed from France with a colony composed of Catholics and Huguenots,
served by "a priest and a minister." Champlain and Poutrincourt were
with the expedition, and Pontgravé commanded one of the two ships.
The cancelling of his monopoly (1607), deprived De Monts of the means
to carry on his colonization schemes. The title to Port Royal he had
already ceded to Poutrincourt. The king renewed De Monts' monopoly
for one year, upon his undertaking to found a colony in the interior.
Thereupon De Monts sent Champlain to the St. Lawrence (1608), as
his lieutenant. Upon the death of Henry IV. (1610), De Monts, now
financially ruined, surrendered his commission, selling his proprietary
rights to the Jesuits.
"Jean de Biencourt, Baron de Poutrincourt, a gentleman of Picardy,
a brave chevalier, had carried arms against Henry IV. in the ranks
of the Catholics, during the wars of the League. Lescarbot tells how
'The king, holding him besieged in his castle of Beaumont, wished
to give him the dukedom of this place in order to attach him to his
service.' Poutrincourt refused. But, when the king had abjured his
faith, he served this prince loyally and followed him to battle, where
he accumulated more honor than fortune. In 1603, he lived in retirement
with his wife, Jeanne de Salazar, and his children, in his barony of
Saint-Just, in Champagne, struggling painfully against the difficulties
of an embarrassed situation, and striving to improve the tillage and
crops of his little domain. It was here that De Monts, his former
companion in arms, found him. He knew his courage, his intelligence,
and his activity, and did not doubt that a voyage to Canada and an
agricultural colony in these distant lands, so fertile and primeval,
would appeal to his ardent soul. Poutrincourt, in fact, received with
enthusiasm the plan of his old friend; however, before binding himself
definitely, he wished to find out, on his own account, something
about the state of the country, and for this purpose to make a trial
voyage."--Rochemonteix's _Les Jésuites et la Nouvelle France_ (Paris,
1896), vol. i., p. 11.
Pleased with Annapolis harbor, Poutrincourt decided to settle there
with his family, and De Monts gave him a grant of the place. In 1606,
Poutrincourt made a second voyage to Port Royal, exploring the coast
with Champlain and Lescarbot. After the abandonment of the colony
(1607), he went to France, returning to Acadia in 1610, inspired with
zeal to convert the savages, but without the aid of the Jesuits. See
Parkman's _Pioneers of France in the New World_ (ed. 1885, which will
hereafter be cited, unless otherwise noted), pp. 244-322; also Shea's
ed. of Charlevoix's _History of New France_, vol. i., p. 260. By the
destruction of Port Royal in 1613, he was the heaviest loser--the
total loss to the French, according to Charlevoix, being a hundred
thousand crowns. In 1614, Poutrincourt visited the ruins of Port Royal
for the last time, thence returning to France to engage in the service
of the king. He was fatally wounded by a treacherous shot after the
taking of Méry (1615). Baird (_Hug. Emig._, vol. i., p. 94), says:
"This nobleman, if nominally a Roman Catholic, appears to have been in
full sympathy with his Huguenot associates, De Monts and Lescarbot.
His hatred of the Jesuits was undisguised." Lescarbot's account of
Poutrincourt's dispute with them differs essentially from that given by
Biard, _post_.
3. (p. 55)--Marc Lescarbot (or L'Escarbot), parliamentary advocate,
was born at Vervins, France, between 1570 and 1580. He was more given
to literature than to law, and appears to have been a man of judgment,
tact, and intelligence. He spent the winter of 1606-07 at Port Royal,
which Slafter (Prince Soc. ed. of _Voyages of Samuel Champlain_, vol.
ii., p. 22, _note_ 56) locates "on the north side of the bay [Annapolis
Basin] in the present town of Lower Granville; not, as often alleged,
at Annapolis." See Bourinot's "Some Old Forts by the Sea," in _Trans.
Royal Society of Canada_, sec. ii, pp. 72-74, for description of Port
Royal, which he places on the site of the present Annapolis. In the
spring of 1607, Lescarbot explored the coast between the harbor of St.
John, N. B., and the River St. Croix. On the abandonment of De Monts'
colony, the same year, he returned to France, where he wrote much
on Acadia and in praise of Poutrincourt. Larousse gives the date of
his death as 1630. Parkman's _Pioneers_, pp. 258 _et seq._, gives a
lively account of Lescarbot's winter at the colony. Abbé Faillon, in
_Histoire de la Colonie Française en Canada_ (Montreal, 1865), vol. i,
p. 91, says he has given us the best accounts extant (in the present
document, his _Histoire de la Nouvelle France_, 1609, and his _Les
Muses de la Nouvelle France_, 1618) of the enterprises of De Monts and
Poutrincourt; and that while a Catholic in name, he was a Huguenot at
heart.
4. (p. 57)--_Clameur de Haro, Chartre Normand_, an expression used in
all the privileges or licenses granted by the king to booksellers.
The latter phrase refers to a deed containing numerous privileges or
concessions, accorded to the inhabitants of Normandy by Louis X., Mar.
19, 1313, and repeatedly confirmed afterward. _Haro_ is supposed to be
derived from, _Ha Rou!_ or _Ha Rollo!_ Hence an appeal to Rollo, the
first Duke of Normandy.
5. (p. 59)--The first attempt of the Huguenots to establish a colony in
America was at Rio Janeiro, under Villegagnon (1555). A reinforcement
was sent thither in 1557, and among its Calvinist preachers was Jean de
Léri, the historian of the disastrous undertaking. See his _Historia
Navigationis in Brasiliam_ (1586), quoted in Parkman's _Pioneers_, p.
28.
6. (p. 61)--The St. Lawrence; so named by Cartier (1535), but
frequently called "The Great River," "The River of the Great Bay,"
etc., by early annalists. In the account of his second voyage, Cartier
styles it _le grand fleuve de Hochelaga_. See Winsor's _Narrative and
Critical History of America_, vol. iv., p. 163; also his _Cartier to
Frontenac_, p. 28.
7. (p. 61)--Concerning early European acquaintance with American
Indians:
"In the yeere 1153 ... it is written, that there came to Lubec, a
citie of Germanie, one Canoa with certaine Indians, like vnto a long
barge: which seemed to haue come from the coast of Baccalaos, which
standeth in the same latitude that Germanie doth." (Antoine Galvano,
in Goldsmid's ed. of _Hakluyt's Voyages_, vol. xvi., p. 293.)
Harrisse (_Bibliotheca Americana Vetustissima_, no. 71) cites the
_Chronicon_ of Eusebius (Paris, 1512) as having, "under the date 1509,
a notice saying that there had been brought to Rouen seven Savages from
North America."
The Indians of Newfoundland, when first discovered by the French,
called codfish _bacalos_, which Lescarbot and other early French
writers say is identical with the Basque word for codfish. Many
evidences led Cartier, upon his first voyage (1534), to believe that
the natives had had previous intercourse with Europeans.
8. (p. 61)--Probably André Thevet. A translation of his description of
the Isles of Demons (now known as Belle Isle and Quirpon), is given
in Parkman's _Pioneers_, p. 191. Thevet's _Cosmographie Universelle_
(Paris, 1558), and _Singularitez de la France antarctique_ (Paris,
1558), must have been familiar to Lescarbot. De Costa gives a
translation of so much of the _Cosmographie_ as relates to New England,
in _Magazine of American History_, vol. viii., p. 130: "The production
of the mendacious monk, André Thevet." It seems clear that Thevet never
saw the American coast, that his imagination amplified the accounts of
navigators who had visited the region, particularly those of Cartier.
Priceless as are first editions of Thevet, he has a poor reputation for
veracity.
9. (p. 61)--The Armouchiquois (or Almouchiquois of Champlain)
were, according to Parkman (_Jesuits of N. America_, p. xxi.), the
Algonkin tribes of New England,--Mohicans, Pequots, Massachusetts,
Narragansetts, and others,--"in a chronic state of war with the tribes
of New Brunswick and Nova Scotia." Williamson, in _History of the
State of Maine_ (Hallowell, 1832, vol. i., p. 477), says they were an
Etchemin tribe, the Marechites of the St. John River; but Champlain,
who had, like Biard, visited the Armouchiquois country, says that it
lies beyond Choüacoet (Saco), and that the language is different from
those of the Souriquois and Etchemins. Laverdière affirms that "the
French called Almouchiquois several peoples or tribes that the English
included under the term Massachusetts;" and he conjectures that these
two names are etymologically allied.--See his _Champlain_, pp. 200,
205, 206.
10. (p. 61)--Lescarbot here refers to his _Histoire de la Nouvelle
France_. The first edition (Paris, 1609) is a rare prize to
collectors,--a London catalogue of 1878 pricing it at £45. The edition
of 1612 is followed in the Tross reprint (Paris, 1866); that of 1618
contains Lescarbot's assault upon the Jesuits. The fourth and sixth
books, only, were "translated out of the French into English" by P.
Erondelle, 1609. A German version of a brief summary of the work
appeared in 1613.
11. (p. 67)--The term Norembega, variously spelled, was applied
indifferently to the entire range of Acadian and New England coast;
but apparently the Penobscot is here meant. See Winsor's _N. and C.
Hist._, vol. iv., index; _Documentary History of State of Maine_, vol.
ii., pp. lii., liii.; Prince Society's ed. of _Champlain_, memoir and
index. The claim is made for Bangor, Me., that it is on the site of an
ancient town called Norumbega. Much information on this point is given
in _Maine Hist. Soc. Colls._, vols. ii., iv., v., vii., viii., and ix.
Sewall claims that the true form of Norumbegua is Arâmbec, and that it
was the name of a city of the savages, situated near the head-waters of
the Damariscotta, above Pemaquid.--_Ancient Dominions of Maine_, pp.
30-46. Horsford, in _Discovery of the Ancient City of Norembega_ and
_Defences of Norembega_ (Boston, 1890 and 1891), claims, on slender
evidence, that Watertown, Mass., occupies the site of an old town of
that name founded by Norse vikings in 1000 A. D.
12. (p. 67)--Bay of Fundy; first shown on map of Diego Homem (1558);
named by De Monts Grande Baye Française (shown on Lescarbot's chart of
Port Royal); appears as Argal's Bay, on Alexander's map (1624); Golfo
di S. Luize, on Dudley's (1647); Fundi Bay, on Moll's (1712); and Bay
of Fundy, or Argal, on that of the English and French Commissioners
(1755). Bourinot (_Canad. Mo._, vol. vii., p. 292) says that Fundy is
a corruption of _Fond de la Baie_, as the lower part of the bay was
called; he follows here Ferland's suggestion, in _Cours d'Histoire du
Canada_ (Quebec, 1861), vol. i., p. 65.
13. (p. 67)--The son of Pontgravé, who, according to Parkman
(_Pioneers_, p. 290) had exasperated the Indians by an outrage on one
of their women, and had fled to the woods.
14. (p. 69)--_Palourdes_ is Breton for a kind of shellfish.
15. (p. 73)--The Souriquois, or Micmacs, of Nova Scotia. Champlain's
map of 1632 places them east of Port Royal.
16. (p. 73)--Raphael Maffei, Maffeus Volaterranus, or Raffaello
Volterrano, savant and historian; born in Volterra 1451, died 1521 or
1522. Harrisse (_Bib. Amer. Vet._, p. 88) gives a catalogue of his
works, and says, "The _Commentary_ of Maffei has a peculiar interest
from the fact that it preceded the publication of Peter Martyr's
_Decades_" (1511-46).
Laverdière (_Champlain_, p. 70, _note_) says that _sagamo_ is a
Montagnais word; and he cites Laflèche as deriving it from _tchi_ and
_okimau_, meaning "great chief."
17. (p. 73)--Berosus (325-255 B. C., _circa_), a Chaldean priest,
astrologer, and historian. His best known work is the _Babylonica_,
a history of Babylonia; its remaining fragments have been reproduced
by several European writers, especially in Richter's _Berosi Chald.
Historiæ quae supersunt_ (Leipsic, 1825).
18. (p. 75)--The Tolosains were a tribe of the Volcæ of Gaul. Another
tribe of the Volcæ were the Tectosages--so called from their _sagum_
(frock or cloak).
19. (p. 75)--Membertou was chief of all the Micmac groups from Gaspé to
Cape Sable. Champlain writes, that he was "a friendly savage, although
he had the name of being the worst and most traitorous man of his
tribe." Lescarbot called him "the _chef d'oeuvre_ of Christian piety,"
and Biard had strong faith in him. He claimed to remember the first
visit of Cartier (1534).
20. (p. 77)--Biard, six years later, complains bitterly of this
overhaste in baptizing, declaring that these savages, when he went
among them in 1611, did not know the first principles of the Faith, and
had even forgotten their Christian names.
21. (p. 81)--In the original edition, pp. 25 and 26, apparently through
an error in make-up, are verbal repetitions of the two preceding pages.
This duplication has been omitted in the present edition.
22. (p. 105)--Marked changes occurred in the population of the St.
Lawrence valley, between the visits of Cartier (1535) and Champlain
(1603). Morgan, in _League of the Iroquois_ (Rochester, 1851), p. 5,
maintains the correctness of a tradition that the aborigines whom
Cartier found at Hochelaga were Iroquois, and that they then were
subject to the Algonkins, whom Champlain found in possession of the
valley. Cf. Parkman's _Pioneers_, p. 208, and Schoolcraft's _Hist.
of Indian Tribes of the U. S._, vol. vi., pp. 33, 188. For further
treatment of the migrations of the Iroquois, see Introduction to Hale's
_Iroquois Book of Rites_ (Phila., 1883), and Faillon's _Col. Fr._, vol.
i., pp. 524, _et seq._
23. (p. 107)--_Tabagie._ A feast described fully in one of the later
Relations.