Part 22

We follow the style and make-up of O'Callaghan's Reprint of Biard's _Missio Canadensis_, designated as "No. 1" in the Lenox Catalogue. According to Sommervogel's _Bibliothèque de la Campagnie de Jésus_ (Paris, 1890), vol. i., p. 1439, this document was originally published in the _Annuæ Litteræ Societatis Jesu_, an. 1611 (Dillingen, n. d.), pp. 121-143. The British Museum has a copy of this volume of _Annuæ Litteræ_, described in its catalogue as published at "Dilingæ [1615?]." Sommervogel adds, regarding _Missio Canadensis_: "Was it not published separately? I find it thus indicated in the catalogue of Mr. Parison, no. 1786." According to a letter written by Father Carrère (June 17, 1890) to Father Jones, of Montreal, the original MS. of this letter was then in the archives of Roder, France.

In Carayon's _Première Mission_ (pp. 77-105) there is given a French version of this letter.

It is internally evident that the letter was commenced January 22nd, and finished "vltimo die Januarÿ." In Father Martin's MS. (translated) copy, preserved in the Library of Parliament, at Ottawa, he wrote upon it the former date, and it is so calendared in the catalogue of that library. Carayon first applied to it the latter date. This of itself has led to some bibliographical confusion.

In Carayon's _Bibliographie Historique de la Compagnie de Jésus_ (Paris, 1864), p. 178, a notice of the original publication is thus given: "P. Biard.--Epistola ad R. P. Præpositum generalem, e Portu Regali in Nova Francia, data ultimo die Januarii anni 1611, qua regionem illam describit, et Patrum Societatis Jesu in eam profectionem.--'Ea inserta est annuis litteris Soc. Jesus ejusdem anni Provinc. Franc. ad finem.' (Sotwell.)."

O'Callaghan obtained the originals of some of his reprints from the _Annuæ Litteræ Societatis Jesu_, of which there are incomplete files in the libraries of John Carter Brown; Harvard College; St. John's, College, Fordham, N. Y.; St. Francis Xavier, New York City; the Jesuit colleges at Woodstock, Md., and Georgetown, D. C.; and St. Mary's College, Montreal. The Brown Library has the richest collection.

See references to the O'Callaghan Reprint of _Missio Canadensis_, in Harrisse's _Notes_, no. 405; Lenox Catalogue, p. 18; Sabin, vol. xvi., p. 542; Brown Catalogue, vol. ii., no. 119; Winsor, p. 300; Henry C. Murphy Sale Catalogue (N. Y., 1884), no. 2960; O'Callaghan Sale Catalogue (N. Y., 1882), nos. 178, 1205, 1250.

_Title-page._ O'Callaghan's Reprint is closely imitated.

_Collation of O'Callaghan Reprint._ Title, 1 p.; reverse of title, with inscription: "Editio ad xxv exemplaria restricta. O'C.", 1 p.; Lectori, pp. iii-iv.; text, pp. 5-37; blank, 1 p.; Index, pp. 39-45; colophon (p. 46): "Albaniae Excvdebat Joel Munsellius | Mense Septembri Anno | CIↃ.IↃCCC.LXX.," 1 p.

XI

The copy of Lescarbot's _Relation Dernière_ herein followed is in Harvard College Library, where it is bound in with the same author's _Les Muses de la Nouvelle France_ (Paris, 1612). The Harvard copy is the only original of which the present editor has knowledge; it is not listed in Gagnon's _Essai de Bibliographie Canadienne_ (Quebec, 1895), but reference to it will be found in Harrisse, no. 26; Sabin, no. 40178; and Winsor, p. 300. There is a reprint of it in Cimber (Lafaist) and Danjou's _Archives Curieuses de l'Histoire de France, depuis Louis XI. jusqu'à Louis XVIII._, first series, tome xv. (Paris, 1837), pp. 377-406, which, however, omits the list of names on pp. 21-24 of the original. The first series of this collection (15 vols.) was edited by L. Lafaist ("L. Cimber," _pseud._) and F. Danjou, assistants in the Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris; the second series (12 vols.), by Danjou alone, who, on the title of tome viii. of this series, is styled "Bibliothécaire de l'Arsenal." The 27 volumes were published at Paris between 1834 and 1840.

The orthography of the printed original of the _Relation Dernière_ is an interesting mixture of old and new styles. It has many instances of modern spellings not found even in the Cramoisy _Relation_ of 1632, which was printed twenty years later.

It will be noticed that the "Privilege" is that granted for the publication of Lescarbot's _Histoire de la Nouvelle France_ (1608).

_Title-page._ The one given in the present volume is a photographic facsimile of the Harvard original.

_Collation._ Title, 1 p.; blank, reverse of title, 1 p.; text, pp. 3-39; privilege, reverse of p. 39, 1 p.--making a total of 40 pp.

XII

In our reissue of the _Relatio Rerum Gestarum_ (1613-14), we follow the original text and its pagination, as given on pp. 562-605 of the _Annuæ Litteræ Societatis Jesu_, for 1612, printed at Lyons in 1618, which we found at the Riggs Memorial Library, Georgetown University, Washington, D. C. This forms the text of O'Callaghan's Reprint, which is arbitrarily designated in the Lenox Catalogue as "no. 6." See references in Sabin, no. 69245; Winsor, p. 300; Lenox, p. 19; and Brown Catalogue, no, 170, and p. 166. Sales are noted in Barlow (no. 1272), Murphy (no. 2960), and O'Callaghan (no. 1250), sale catalogues.

_Title-page._ We closely imitate that of the O'Callaghan Reprint.

_Collation of Reprint._ Title, 1 p.; reverse of title, with inscription: "Editio viginti quinque exemplaria. O'C," 1 p.; Tabula Rerum, pp. iii., iv.; text, pp. 1-66; colophon (p. 67): "Albaniae Excvdebat Joel Munsellius | Mense Martis Anno | CIↃ IↃCCC LXXI," 1 p.

NOTES TO VOL. II

(_Figures in parentheses, following number of note, refer to pages of English text._)

1 (p. 7).--Carayon prints _neuf_, but this is either a slip of the pen upon the part of Father Biard, or a misprint. The Fathers arrived at Port Royal, May 22, 1611, so that this portion of the letter was written just eight (_huit_) months after.

2 (p. 27).--Kennebec River. Sometimes written, also, Rimbegui, Kinibequi, Kinibeki, and Quinebequy. Maurault says that the Abenakis called this river Kanibesek, meaning "river that leads to the lake."--_Histoire des Abenakis_ (Quebec, 1866), pp. iv., 5, and 89, _note_ 2.

3 (p. 27).--Penobscot River. It was sometimes written, also, Pemptegoet and Potugoët.

4 (p. 27).--In their first voyage (1604), De Monts and Poutrincourt visited and named the river St. John; and at the mouth of the Rivière des Etechemins (so named by Champlain; by the Indians called Scoodick or Schoodic), they found an island which they called St. Croix, a name in later days given to the river itself. It lies in the middle of the river, opposite to the dividing line between Calais and Robbinston, Me. Here De Monts, Champlain, and their 77 fellows spent a miserable winter, while Poutrincourt returned to France for colonists and supplies to plant his proposed settlement at Port Royal. Thirty-five of the St. Croix party had died of scurvy before relieved in June, 1605, by Pontgravé, De Monts' lieutenant. In August, after a fruitless voyage along the New England coast, De Monts took his party to Port Royal, and there began a settlement before Pontgravé's arrival. Biard's letter, indicates that winter fur-trading posts were maintained both at St. Croix and on the St. John, for several years thereafter.--See Parkman's _Pioneers_, pp. 291-293.

Champlain's chart of the island may be found in his _Voyages_ (Prince Soc.), vol. ii., p. 32. Lescarbot, in _Nouv. France_ (Paris, 1612), p. 469, says of the soil: "It is very good, and delightfully prolific."

The identity of St. Croix Island was determined in 1798, by the commissioners appointed, under the treaty of 1783, to determine the boundary-line between New Brunswick and the territory of the United States. Holmes says, in _Annals of America_ (Cambridge, Mass., 1829), vol. i., p. 122, _note_ 1: "Professor (afterwards President) Webber, who accompanied the commissioners in 1798, informed me that they found an island in this river, corresponding to the French descriptions of the Island St. Croix, and, near the upper end of it, the remains of a very ancient fortification, overgrown with large trees; that the foundation stones were traced to a considerable extent; and that bricks (a specimen of which he showed me) were found there. These remains were, undoubtedly, the reliques of De Monts's fortification." Several cannon balls were also discovered while making excavations on this island, about 1853. The island has been known as Dochet's Island and Neutral Island; but in recent years it has been formally and appropriately named De Monts' Island. See Godfrey's _Centennial Discourse_ (Bangor, 1870), cited in _Champlain's Voyages_ (Prince Soc.), vol. ii., p. 33; also Williamson's _Maine_, vol. i., p. 88, and vol. ii., p. 578.

5 (p. 47).--George Weymouth, a Bristol navigator, entered Kennebec River in June, 1605. The stream was called by the natives Sagadahoc (sometimes spelled Sagadahock). Weymouth's enthusiastic reports led the Plymouth Company--of which Lord John Popham and Sir Ferdinando Gorges were leading members--to plant a colony in August, 1607, at first probably on Stage Island, but later on the shores of Atkins' Bay, ten miles up the Kennebec. Owing to the death of Popham, their chief patron, and other misfortunes, the colonists returned to England in 1608. For several years thereafter, Gorges and Sir Francis Popham--son of Lord John--fitted out trading and fishing expeditions to the region, but no permanent colony was again attempted on the Kennebec until 1630. Weymouth had serious difficulties with the natives (1605), and kidnapped several of them; the colonists themselves were, towards the close of their stay, cruel to their neighbors; the outrages in 1609 were doubtless the operations of visiting English traders. The boats and other English property seen by the French in 1611, at the Penobscot and Kennebec, of course belonged to traders, who were at this time numerous along the main shore. Cf. Williamson's _Maine_, vol. i., pp. 53, 191-239; and _Memorial Volume of Popham Celebration_, Aug. 29, 1862. (Portland, 1863).

6 (p. 49).--These Indians were the Tarratines (called Penobscots by the English), one of the three tribes of the Etchemins,--the other two being the Openangos (the Quoddy Indians of English chronicles) of New Brunswick, and the Marachites of Nova Scotia. For origin of their name, see _Maine Hist. Colls._, vol. vii., p. 100. The principal Tarratine village was, a half century later, near where Bangor now stands. The town visited by Biard was apparently at or near the present Castine, on Major-bigyduce Point (for derivation of this name see _Maine Hist. Colls._, vol. vi., pp. 107-109). See topographical description in Williamson's _Maine_, i., pp. 70, 71. The "Chiboctous" River, of Biard, was, apparently, but the "wide-spread" of the Penobscot, stretching eastward of Castine. French traders were at Castine at a very early date. The English built a trading fort there in 1625-26, which fell into the hands of the French in 1632. It was styled Pentagoët in those days; but in 1667, was rechristened Castine, after Baron de St. Castine, who for several years maintained a station there. The Dutch were in possession for a time,--indeed, Castine was continuously fortified by English, French, and Dutch, in turn, from about 1610 to 1783.

7 (p. 61).--This introductory note, "To the Reader," is furnished by Dr. O'Callaghan, in his Albany reprint of 1870, which we are here following.

The Jesuits had been banished from France by Henry IV., in 1595. He recalled them in 1603, making Father Coton, of their number, his confessor.

8 (p. 61).--It is internally evident that the document, like many others of our series, was written at intervals; this one was undoubtedly commenced in 1611 and closed in 1612. In a hurry to catch the home-returning vessel, the writer appears to have forgotten the change in the year.

9 (p. 67). It is possible that the Biscayans originally named what is still known as Placentia Bay, Newfoundland, after the city of that name in Spain. It was known to the English by that name in Biard's time;--see John Guy's letter, May 16, 1611, in Prowse's _History of Newfoundland_ (London, 1895), p. 127. Biard merely gallicizes the word. Placentia is the chief seat of French settlement in Southern Newfoundland.--See Howley's _Ecclesiastical History of Newfoundland_ (Boston, 1888), pp. 128, 129.

10 (p. 67).--Reference is here made to the Eskimos of Labrador. Says Prowse, (_Hist. N. F._, pp. 590, 591); "The name Esquimaux is a French corruption of the Abenaki word 'Eskimatsie,' an eater of raw flesh. The native word is 'Innuit,' meaning 'the people.' Eskimo is the Danish form of the name, and has now quite supplanted the old French name." They were probably dubbed "Excommunicated" in Biard's time, because of the marked hostility to them of all the other savage tribes in Canada; and the French early joined the latter in opposing them.--See Prowse, _ut supra_, p. 591. The missionaries found the Eskimos difficult material on which to work; although an occasional captive slave, brought to the St. Lawrence by the Indians, would yield to priestly ministrations.--See Shea's _Charlevoix_, vol. iii., p. 30.

11 (p. 69).--Reference is here made to the mouth of what is now Saco River. Choüacoët was the French rendering of a native word from which the modern Saco is derived.--_Champlain's Voyages_ (Prince Soc.), vol. ii., p. 64.

12 (p. 81).--No map could be found in the archives of the Society at Rome, where the original of this letter is preserved.

13 (p. 127).--See vol. i., _note_ 2.

14 (p. 131).--Casquet ("les Casquetes," on maps of that period): a dangerous group of rocks in the English Channel, seven miles west of Alderney.

15 (p. 133).--See _notes_ 3, 6, _ante_; and vol. i., _note_ 11.

16 (p. 133).--See _note_ 4, _ante_.

17 (p. 135).--_Matachias_, or _matachiats_; described by Champlain, in _Voyages_ (Prince Soc.), vol. i., p. 241, as "beads and braided strings, made of porcupine quills, which they dye in various colors." Lescarbot says that the Armouchiquois, like the Brazilians and Floridians, make ornaments from bits of shell, polished and strung together in bracelets, etc.; these are called _bou-re_ in Brazil, and _matachiaz_ among the Northern tribes:--See his _Nouv. France_, p. 732.

18 (p. 137).--Nuncio of Pope Paul V. to Henry IV. of France; was created a cardinal, December 2, 1615.--See Laverdière's _Champlain_, p. 492; also Faillon's _Col. Fr._, vol. i., p. 99. A fortification erected by Poutrincourt, at the entrance of Port Royal harbor, was named by him Fort d'Ubaldini.--See Lescarbot's chart of Port Royal, in vol. i. of this series.

19 (p. 141).--Named by Champlain, from its forked shape, now known as Cape Split; a promontory at entrance of Mines Bay, where it opens into the Bay of Fundy. Jean Blaeu's map _Extrema Americæ_ (1620), shows it as C. de Poitrincourt; for explanation of this name, see Laverdière's _Champlain_, pp. 271, 272.

20 (p. 141).--Sable Island is thus described by Champlain, _Voyages_, (Prince Soc.), ii., p. 8: "This island is thirty leagues distant north and south from Cape Breton, and in length is about fifteen leagues. It contains a small lake. The island is very sandy, and there are no trees at all of considerable size, only copse and herbage, which serve as pasturage for the bullocks and cows which the Portuguese carried there more than sixty years ago."

The origin of the cattle here mentioned is thus explained by Edward Haies, in his report on Sir Humphrey Gilbert's voyage of 1583, in Goldsmid's _Hakluyt_, vol. xii., p. 345: "Sablon lieth to the seaward of Cape Briton about 25 leagues, whither we were determined to goe vpon intelligence we had of a Portugal--who was himselfe present when the Portugals (abotte thirty yeeres past) did put in the same Island both Neat and Swine to breede, which were since exceedingly multiplied." Lescarbot, however, says the cattle were landed there about 1528, by Baron de Léry; see his _Nouv. France_, p. 22. Sable Island is noted as the scene of La Roche's unfortunate attempt at colonization in 1598, for a graphic description of which see Parkman's _Pioneers_, pp. 231-235. See Dionne's note on "Les Sablons," in his _Nouvelle France_ (Quebec, 1891), pp. 311-316.

21 (p. 141).--The name Bacallaos (see vol. i., _note_ 7) was long given to the region afterwards known as Canada. Peter Martyr says: "Sebastian Cabot him selfe, named those lands _Baccallaos_ bycause that in the seas thereabout he founde so great multitudes of certeyne bigge fysshes much like vnto tunies (which th[e] inhabitantes caule Baccallaos) that they sumtymes stayed his shippes."--See Eden's _Three English Books on America_ (Arber ed., Birmingham, 1885), pp. 161, 345. Fournier's _Hydrographie_ (Paris, 1667), cited in Browne's _History of Cape Breton_ (London, 1869), p. 13, says: "It cannot be doubted this name was given by the Basques, who alone in Europe call that fish Bacalaos, or Bacaleos; the aborigines term them Apagé." See also Lescarbot's _Nouv. France_, p. 237; and Dionne's _Nouv. France_, pp. 327-331. Cf. Prowse (_Hist. N. F._, p. 589); he says, in claiming the discovery of Newfoundland for the English, that _Baccalao_ was but "an ordinary trade word, in use at that period." For an interesting sketch of the Basque fisheries in Newfoundland, up to the end of the 17th century, see Prowse, _ut supra_, pp. 47-49.

That part of the mainland appears on Ribero's map (1529) as "Tiera de los Bacallaos," shown also by Agnese (1554), Zaltieri (1566), Martines (1578), and in map of "Nova Francia et Canada, 1597," in Wytfleit's _Descriptionis Ptolemaicæ Augmentum_. The name was restricted to the southern part of the island of Newfoundland, by Ramusio (1556); to the island of Cape Breton, by Lescarbot (1612); to an island east of Newfoundland by De Laet (1640). The name Baccalos "still clings to an islet about forty miles north of the capital [St. John's], in which multitudes of sea-birds now build their nests."--Bourinot, in _Canad. Mo._, vol. vii., p. 290. See also, Anspach's _Hist. N. F._, pp. 296, 297.

22 (p. 147).--A long, narrow inlet, nearly parallel to the sea on western coast of Digby County, N. S., and still known as St. Mary's Bay.

23 (p. 151).--A Basque word, meaning sorcerer, corresponding to the native _aoutmoin_. See Biard's _Relation_ of 1616, _post_. Champlain (Laverdière's ed., p. 82) calls them _Pilotoua_; and Sagard (_Canada_, pp. 98, 656), _Pirotois_.

24 (p. 157).--Henry II. of Bourbon; prince of Condé, born in 1588; nephew of and next in succession to Henry IV.; a leader in the Catholic League, and father of the great Condé. He married, in 1609, Charlotte de Montmorency, then fifteen years old, one of the most beautiful women of her day. The king fell in love with her, and his attempted intrigue led to complications that almost caused a war between France and Spain. Condé rebelled against Louis XIII., and in September, 1616, was captured and imprisoned; but he soon afterwards regained his power, which he retained until the ascendancy of Richelieu displaced it, in 1623; he died in 1646.

The house of Conti was a younger branch of the house of Condé; that of Soissons was also nearly related to the reigning family of Bourbon. Charles de Bourbon, count of Soissons, was born in 1556. He acted for a time with the League, but left it, in the hope of securing as his wife Catherine of Navarre, and became a military officer under both Henry III. and Henry IV.; Sully, however, compelled him to give up his proposed marriage with Catherine. He was Grand Master of France, under Henry IV.; later, was governor of Dauphiny, and, at his death, of Normandy. At Champlain's solicitation, he consented to become the head of De Monts's scheme for the colonization of Canada; and he was appointed (October 8, 1612) by the king lieutenant general and governor of New France, Champlain becoming commandant under him. But Soissons died, on November 1 following; and he was succeeded by Henry, prince of Condé, with the title of viceroy of New France. Mareschal de Thémins was appointed by Marie de Médicis, acting viceroy during Condé's imprisonment. Upon his liberation (1619), Condé sold his position as viceroy of Canada to Henry, duke of Montmorency, who in turn sold it (January, 1625) to his nephew, Henry de Lévis, duke of Ventadour.--See Rochemonteix's _Jésuites_, vol. i., pp. 126, 127, 134, 144, 149.

Champlain (see his map of 1632) named the lake at the mouth of the Ottawa River, Lac de Soissons, in honor of his viceroy; it is now called Lake of Two Mountains.

25 (p. 157).--Charles de Gonzague, duke of Nevers, was born about 1566; his father was a prominent chief in the Catholic League, and, in 1592, introduced the order of Récollets into France. His sister, Catherine de Gonzague, married Henry I., duke of Longueville, in 1588.

26 (p. 157).--Charles de Lorraine, duke of Guise, Grand Master of France, and governor of Champagne and Provence, was born in August, 1571, and died 1640. In 1615, he was the proxy of Louis XIII., in the marriage of the latter to the Spanish infanta, Anne of Austria.

27 (p. 157).--Sieur de Praslin was captain of the royal bodyguards, and lieutenant of Champagne.

28 (p. 157).--The Parliament of Paris originated in a division of the king's court, made necessary by the increase of its functions, consequent upon the progress of the royal power in France. Judicial affairs were allotted to the decision of Parliament; its organization was defined in 1302, by Philip the Fair, who ordained that it should assemble at Paris twice a year, for two months, exercising jurisdiction over the whole kingdom. Charles V. (1364-80) made the Parliament permanent. Its jurisdiction was much restricted, successively by Charles VII., Louis XI., and Francis I.; eight other provincial Parliaments had been formed, by the early part of the 16th century, which reduced that of Paris to little more than a municipal jurisdiction, and all had been thoroughly subjected to royal authority. The Parliament of Paris refused, from 1554 to 1662, to admit the Jesuits into the kingdom, and, later, opposed Henry IV.; but it was compelled to submit by Mazarin, and, later, by Louis XIV. and Louis XV. In 1762, however, it decreed the abolition of the order of Jesuits, and Louis XV. was obliged to confirm this action; though he exiled the Parliament, eight years later. Within four years, it was recalled by Louis XVI.; but supporting, in 1789, the privileged orders against the people, it lost all popularity, and in the following year was suppressed by the Constituent Assembly. It had been mainly composed of lawyers ever since Louis XII. forbade any to enter the Parliament, or to sit as judges, who were not "literate and graduate."

29 (p. 157).--The author of the _Lettre Missive_ (vol. i. of this series). He is again mentioned by Lescarbot, in this _Relation_.

30 (p. 157).--The original church of Ste. Genevieve (dedicated to the patron saint of Paris) was built by Clovis, about 510. Near the beginning of the 13th century, it was replaced by another building, erected by King Philippe Augustus; this having, in time, become almost a ruin, gave way to the present handsome edifice, which was begun in 1758, and built under the auspices of Louis XV. See Hunnewell's _Historic Monuments of France_ (Boston, 1884), pp. 195, 196.

31 (p. 159).--_Short robe._ A term used, at that time, to designate the military profession.

32 (p. 165).--Wheat (blé) is here used generically, but meaning maize; or, more probably, as a shortened form of _blé d'Inde_, the term applied by Champlain and other French explorers to the corn cultivated by the aborigines.