Voyages of Samuel de Champlain, vol 1 | Page 8

Prince having possessed that passage
which is the only way to Brouage by land, and having shut up the
Defendants within the circuit of their walls, straightned the Siege very
closely on that side."--Davila, p. 582. See also, Histoire de Thou, à
Londres, 1734, Tom. IX., p. 383.
The blocking up the harbor at this time appears to have been more
effective than convenient. Twenty boats or rafts filled with earth and
stone were sunk with a purpose of destroying the harbor. De Saint Luc,
the governor, succeeded in removing only four or five. The entrance for
vessels afterward remained difficult except at high tide. Subsequently
Cardinal de Richelieu expended a hundred thousand francs to remove
the rest, but did not succeed in removing one of them.--Vide Histoire de
La Rochelle, par Arcere, Tom I. p. 121.
7. The Prince of Condé. "Leaving Monsieur de St. Mesmes with the
Infantry and Artillery at the Siege of Brouage, and giving order that the
Fleet should continue to block it up by sea, he departed upon the eight
of October to relieve the Castle of Angiers with 800 Gentlemen and
1400 Harquebuziers on horseback."--Davila, p. 583. See also Memoirs
of Sully, Phila., 1817, Vol. I., p 123; Histoire de Thou, à Londres, 1734,
Tom. IX, p. 385.
8. "_St. Luc_ sallying out of Brouage, and following those that were
scattered severall wayes, made a great slaughter of them in many places;
whereupon the Commander, despairing to rally the Army any more, got
away as well as they could possibly, to secure their own strong
holds."-- _His. Civ. Warres of France_, by Henrico Caterino Davila,

London, 1647, p 588.
9. An old writer gives us some idea of the vast quantities of salt
exported from France by the amount sent to a single country.
"Important denique sexies mille vel circiter centenarios salis, quorum
singuli constant centenis modiis, ducentenas ut minimum & vicenas
quinas, vel & tricenas, pro salis ipsius candore puritateque, libras
pondo pendentibus, sena igitur libras centenariorum millia, computatis
in singulos aureis nummis tricenis, centum & octoginta reserunt
aureorum millia."--Belguae Descrtptio, a Lud. Gvicciardino,
Amstelodami, 1652, p. 244.
TRANSLATION.--They import in fine 6000 centenarii of salt, each
one of which contains 100 bushels, weighing at least 225 or 230
pounds, according to the purity and whiteness of the salt; therefore six
thousand centenarii, computing each at thirty golden nummi, amount to
180,000 aurei.
It may not be easy to determine the value of this importation in money,
since the value of gold is constantly changing, but the quantity
imported may be readily determined, which was according to the above
statement, 67,500 tons.
A treaty of April 30, 1527, between Francis I. of France and Henry VIII.
of England, provided as follows:--"And, besides, should furnish unto
the said Henry, as long as hee lived, yearly, of the Salt of Brouage, the
value of fifteene thousand Crownes."--_Life and Raigne of Henry
VIII._, by Lord Herbert of Cherbury, London, 1649, p. 206.
Saintonge continued for a long time to be the source of large exports of
salt. De Witt, writing about the year 1658, says they received in
Holland of "salt, yearly, the lading of 500 or 600 ships, exported from
Rochel, Maran, Brouage, the Island of Oleron, and Ree."--Republick of
Holland, by John De Witt, London, 1702, p. 271. But it no longer holds
the pre-eminence which it did three centuries ago. Saintonge long since
yielded the palm to Brittany.

10. Vide Oeuvres de Champlain, Quebec ed, Tom. III. p. v.
11. In 1558, it was estimated that there were already 400,000 persons in
France who were declared adherents of the Reformation.--_Ranke's
Civil Wars in France_, Vol. I., p. 234.
"Although our assemblies were most frequently held in the depth of
midnight, and our enemies very often heard us passing through the
street, yet so it was, that God bridled them in such manner that we were
preserved under His protection."--Bernard Palissy, 1580. Vide
_Morlay's Life of Palissy_, Vol. II., p. 274.
When Henry IV. besieged Paris, its population was more than
200,000.-- _Malte-Brun_.
12. "Catherine de Médicis was of a large and, at the same time, firm
and powerful figure, her countenance had an olive tint, and her
prominent eyes and curled lip reminded the spectator of her great uncle,
Leo X" --Civil Wars in France, by Leopold Ranke, London, 1852, p
28.
13. Philippe Emanuel de Lorraine, Duc de Mercoeur, born at Nomény,
September 9, 1558, was the son of Nicolas, Count de Vaudemont, by
his second wife, Jeanne de Savoy, and was half-brother of Queen
Louise, the wife of Henry III. He was made governor of Brittany in
1582. He embraced the party of the League before the death of Henry
III., entered into an alliance with Philip II., and gave the Spaniards