ABSTRACT
Let us return to Monsieur de Poutrincourt, whom we have left in the Isle Sainte-Croix. Having made there a review and cherished the savages that were there, he went in the space of four days to Pemtegoet, which is that place so famous under the name of Norombega. There needeth not so long a time in coming thither, but he tarried on the way to mend his barque, for to that end he had brought with him a smith and a carpenter and quantity of boards. He crossed the Isles, which be at the mouth of the river, and came to Kinibeki, where his barque was in danger by reason of the great Streams that the nature of the place pro-cureth there. This was the cause why he made there no stay but passed further to the Bay of Marchin, which is the name of a captain of the savages, who at the arrival of the said Monsieur de Poutrincourt began to cry out aloud: “Hé Hé”; whereunto the like answer was made unto him; He replied, asking in his language: “What are ye?” They answered him: “Friends”; and thereupon, Monsieur de Poutrincourt approaching, treated amity with him, and presented him with knives, hatchets and matachias, that is to say scarves, karkenets, 67 and bracelets made of beads, or quills made of white and blue glass; whereof he was very glad, as also for the confederacy that the said Monsieur de Poutrincourt made with him, knowing very well that the same would be a great aid and support unto him. He distributed to some men that were about him, among a great number of people, the presents that the said Monsieur de Poutrincourt gave him, to whom he brought store of orignac, or élan's flesh (for the Basques do call a stag or elan orignac), to refresh the company with victuals. That done, they set sails towards Chouakoet, where the river of Captain Olmechin is, and where the year following was made the war of the Souriquois and Etechemins, under the conduct of the Sagamos Membertou, which I have described in verses, which verses I have inserted among the Muses of New France. At the entry of the Bay of the said place of Chouakoet there is a great island, about half a league compass, wherein our men did first discover any vines (for, although there be some in the lands nearer to Port Royal, notwithstanding there was yet no knowledge had of them), which they found in great quantity, having the trunk three and four foot high, and as big as one's fist in the lower part; the grapes fair and great, and some as big as plums, other lesser, but as black that they left a stain where their liquor was spilled: those grapes, I say, lying over bushes and brambles that grow in the same island, where the trees are not so thick as in other where but are six or seven rods distant asunder, which causeth the grapes to be ripe the sooner; having besides a ground very fit for the same, gravelly and sandy. They tarried there but two hours; but they noted that there were no vines on the North side, even as in the Isle Sainte-Croix are no cedar-trees, but on the West side.
