United States or Norfolk Island ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
It is reserved for Lescarbot to give us the picture which no one can forget the Atoctegic, or ruler of the feast, leading the procession to dinner 'napkin on shoulder, wand of office in hand, and around his neck the collar of the Order, which was worth more than four crowns; after him all the members of the Order, carrying each a dish. Around stand the savages, twenty or thirty of them, 'men, women, girls, and children, all waiting for scraps of food.
But when June came and De Monts had not returned from France with fresh supplies, there was general discouragement; so much so that plans for the entire abandonment of the place were on the eve of being carried out when a large vessel rounded the point on its way into the Basin. Aboard were Poutrincourt and Marc Lescarbot, together with more settlers and supplies.
The subsequent attempt of Poutrincourt and his family to re-establish the colony at Port Royal belongs to the history of Acadia rather than to the story of Champlain. But remembering the spirit in which he and De Monts strove, one feels glad that Lescarbot spoke his mind regarding the opponents who baffled their sincere and persistent efforts.
With him are grouped De Monts, Poutrincourt, Lescarbot, Pontgrave, and Louis Hebert, all men of capacity and enterprise, whose part in this valiant enterprise lent it a dignity which it has never since lost. As yet no English colony had been established in America. Under his commission De Monts could have selected for the site of his settlement either New York or Providence or Boston or Portland.
And with him sailed in 1604 Jean de Biencourt, Seigneur de Poutrincourt, whose ancestors had been illustrious in Picardy for five hundred years. Champlain made a third, joining the expedition as geographer rather than shipmaster. Lescarbot and Hébert came two years later. The company left Havre in two ships on March 7, 1604, according to Champlain, or just a month later, according to Lescarbot.
In the large cabin which served as a council chamber, they saw some 80 or 100 savages all nearly naked. They were having a feast, which they called "Tabagie." The chief Chkoudun made his warriors pass in review before his guests. Lescarbot describes the Indian sagamore as a man of great influence who loved the French and admired their civilization.
So it is throughout their respective narratives Champlain ever gaining force through compactness, and Lescarbot constantly illuminating with his gaiety or shrewdness matters which but for him would never have reached us. This difference of temperament and outlook, which is so plainly reflected on the printed page, also had its effect upon the personal relations of the two men.
If we accept his own statements in a letter to his friend Lescarbot, he was outrageously misused, and indeed defrauded, by his clerical copartners, who at length had him thrown into prison. Here, exasperated, weary, sick of Acadia, and anxious for the wretched exiles who looked to him for succor, the unfortunate man fell ill.
Bread was given them gratis, as one would do to the poor. But as for the Sagamos Membertou, and other chiefs who came from time to time, they sat at table eating and drinking like ourselves. And we were glad to see them, while, on the contrary, their absence saddened us. These citations bring into view the writer who has most copiously recorded the early annals of Acadia Marc Lescarbot.
He had under him Champlain and Pontegravé, also a French nobleman named Poutrincourt, who was going out to settle with his family in America, and the subsequently celebrated historian Lescarbot.
Word Of The Day