Voyages of Samuel de Champlain, vol 2 | Page 5

East Ind. Company, which was defeated by the icebergs which he encountered, and the mutiny of his men. It was not uncommon to omit part of a name at that period. Of Pont Gravé, the last name is frequently omitted by Champlain and by Lescarbot. The report of Weymouth's voyage was not printed till after Champlain wrote; and he might easily have mistaken the date.
6. The name of New France, Novus Francisca, appears on a map in Ptolemy published at Basle in 1530.
7. The controlling object of the numerous voyages to the north-east coast of America had hitherto been to discover a shorter course to India. In this respect, as Champlain states above, they had all proved failures. He here intimates that the settlements of the French on this coast were intended to facilitate this design. It is obvious that a colonial establishment would offer great advantages as a base in prosecuting searches for this desired passage to Cathay.
8. For some account of this disastrous expedition, see Memoir, Vol. I.
9. Vide Memoir, Vol. I.
10. It will be observed that Champlain does not mention the expedition sent out by Commander de Chastes, probably because its object was exploration, and not actual settlement.--Vide an account of De Chastes in the Memoir, Vol. I.
11. In Champlain's report of the voyage of 1603, after obtaining what information he could from the natives relating to the St. Lawrence and the chain of lakes, he says they informed him that the last lake in the chain was salt, and he therefore believed it to be the South Sea. He doubtless enlarged verbally before the king upon the feasibility of a passage to China in this way.
12. The commission here referred to was doubtless the one renewed to him in 1608, after he had made his searches on the shores of New England and Nova Scotia, and after the commission or charter of 1603 had been revoked.
Champlain is here stating the advantages of a settlement in the interior, on the shores of the St. Lawrence, rather than on the Atlantic coast.
13. In this chapter, Champlain speaks of events stretching through several years; but in the next he confines himself to the occurrences of 1603, when De Monts obtained his charter.

CHAPTER II.
DESCRIPTION OF SABLE ISLAND; CAPE BRETON; LA HèVE; PORT AU MOUTON; PORT CAPE NEGRE; SABLE BAY AND CAPE; CORMORANT ISLAND; CAPE FOURCHU; LONG ISLAND; BAY OF SAINT MARY; PORT SAINT MARGARET; AND OF ALL NOTEWORTHY OBJECTS ALONG THIS COAST.
Sieur de Monts, by virtue of his commission [14] having published in all the ports and harbors of this kingdom the prohibition against the violation of the monopoly of the fur-trade accorded him by his Majesty, gathered together about one hundred and twenty artisans, whom he embarked in two vessels: one of a hundred and twenty tons, commanded by Sieur de Pont Gravé; [15] another, of a hundred and fifty tons, in which he embarked himself, [16] together with several noblemen.
We set out from Havre de Grace April 7th, 1604, and Pont Gravé April 10th, to rendezvous at Canseau, [17] twenty leagues from Cape Breton. [18] But after we were in mid-ocean, Sieur de Monts changed his plan, and directed his course towards Port Mouton, it being more southerly and also more favorable for landing than Canseau.
On May 1st, we sighted Sable Island, where we ran a risk of being lost in consequence of the error of our pilots, who were deceived in their calculation, which they made forty leagues ahead of where we were.
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, and which were very serviceable to the party of the Marquis de la Roche. The latter, during their sojourn of several years there, captured a large number of very fine black foxes, [19] whose skins they carefully preserved. There are many sea-wolves [20] there, with the skins of which they clothed themselves since they had exhausted their own stock of garments. By order of the Parliamentary Court of Rouen, a vessel was sent there to recover them. [21] The directors of the enterprise caught codfish near the island, the neighborhood of which abounds in shoals.
On the 8th of the same month, we sighted Cap de la Hève, [22] to the east of which is a bay, containing several islands covered with fir-trees. On the main land are oaks, elms, and birches. It joins the coast of La Cadie at the latitude of 44° 5', and at 16° 15' of the deflection of the