Voyage of FranÇois Pyrard.

The abundance of all kinds of wealth which France produces, and the favours which the bounty of Heaven hath so liberally poured upon her soil, may have been the cause why the French have so long neglected the sea. And this is so not only in their case, but with most of the nations who have enjoyed that felicity even in a less degree. They have-enough to do with the land, which supplies them with a sufficiency of wealth, and take no thought to seek more amid the perils of the treacherous sea. On the other hand, we see that nations whose territory is poor and sterile, or too confined, have sought a recompense in navigation, whereby, they have not only supplied their deficiencies, but have also made their cities in all respects rich and opulent. These are the peoples who have excelled in naval science. Yet in truth France, in neglecting trade, deprives herself of riches,, which nature offers in addition to her other wealth; for she is washed by two productive seas and furnished with many good harbours, by means of which she might communicate and negotiate with many nations far from her two coasts, as though they were her neighbours, on the east and west, and even with the most distant countries. It must be confessed,” too, that the trade of the sea is of the most noble and excellent kind, bringing, amid great risks, the riches and peculiar products of other lands to profit one’s own country, and carrying of her abundance to those that are in need. It 2is like depriving oneself of the use of a limb, for example, cutting off an arm. We are now seeing our mistake, for the French, alter neglecting countless fair opportunities (which the Portuguese and Spaniards have not only taken but eagerly sought), are constrained to receive from those nations, in retail, the gold, spices, and the curious things of the East, in place of having fetched them themselves, and distributing them to others. So at present the Portuguese and Spaniards are trying to keep to themselves those elements which are common to all, and by all manner of wrong-doing to chase from the seas the French and other nations who would voyage and traffic therein. This it was which principally induced a merchant company of St. Malo, Laval, and Vitré, in the year 1601, to sound the ford (sonder le gvay), and seeking a path to the Indies, to show the French the way; in short, to draw from the fountain-head. ¹ With this intent, they equipped two ships, the one of 400 tons, named the Croissant, ² the other of 200, named the Corhin, which were despatched 3under the command of the Sieur de la Bardeliere, ¹ a burgess of St. Malo, with François Grout, ² Sieur du Closneuf, Constable of St. Malo, as his vice-admiral and captain 4of the Corhin. ¹ I was of the number, being not less desirous of seeing the world than of getting rich, and embarked in the Corbin. This ship had a worse fate than the other, and was lost, ² and I have at last escaped, after many troubles. Since it has pleased God, contrary to all expectation, to bring me safe and sound to my native land after suffering so many hardships and running endless risks, not only having been borne about to most of the maritime regions and to the Indian islands, making almost a circuit of the world and visiting all four continents, but also having lived for the space of ten years among various races, and in my long sojourn learnt their manners, laws, and customs, perhaps better (as I may say without vanity) than any other Frenchman—nay than even any Portuguese or Hollander,— I have been constrained to put in writing whatever strange things I saw in my long travel, that so my countrymen may share them. My tale may also serve to give warning to those who would make the same voyage, to avoid the troubles into which I fell, or rather which I saw happen to others, so that by learning those mistakes in our navigation which caused our disaster, they may make the enterprise with more circumspection.