And opposite the magazine were the lodgings and dwellings of MM. d'Orville, Champlain, Champdoré, and other notable persons. Opposite the quarters of the said M. de Monts was a covered gallery, to be used either for sports or by the workmen in wet weather. And the whole space between the said fort and the battery was taken up with gardens, at which every man worked lightheartedly. Thus passed the whole autumn; and it was not bad progress to have built their houses and cleared the island before winter; while in these parts pamphlets were being circulated under the name of Master William, stuffed with all sorts of news, wherein among other things this prognosticator said that M. de Monts was pulling out thorns in Canada. And when all is well considered, it may truly be called pulling out thorns to take in hand such enterprises, full of toils and of continual danger, care, vexation and discomfort. But virtue and the courage which overcomes all such obstacles make these thorns to be but gilly-flowers and roses to those who set themselves to these heroic deeds in order to win glory in the memory of men, closing their eyes to the pleasures of those weaklings who are good for nothing but to stay at home.
Having done the things of greatest urgency, and grey-bearded father Winter being come, they needs must keep indoors, and live every man under his own roof-tree. During this time our friends had three special discomforts in this island, to wit, want of wood (for that on the said island had been used for the buildings), want of fresh water, and the night watch for fear of a surprise from the Indians who were encamped at the foot of the said island, or from some other enemy; for such is the evil disposition and fury of many Christians, that one must be more on one's guard against them than against the infidel. This it grieveth me to say; would indeed that I were a liar herein, and that I had no cause to speak it. Thus when water or wood was required they were constrained to cross the river, which on either side is more than three times as broad as the Seine at Paris. This was both painful and tedious; so that very often one had to bespeak the boat a day in advance before being able to get the use of it. On top of this came cold and snow and frost so hard that the cider froze in the casks, and each man was given his portion by weight. As for wine, it was only given out on certain days of the week. Some lazy fellows drank melted snow without troubling to cross the river. In short, unknown diseases broke out, like those which Captain Jacques Cartier has already described for us, of which for fear of vain repetition I shall therefore not give an account. No remedy could be found.
4. THE ANCIENT MARINER (1631).
Source.—The Strange and Dangerous Voyage of Captain Thomas James to Hudson Bay, 1631-2: which is believed to be the source of much of Coleridge's Ancient Mariner. Reprinted by the Hakluyt Society, 1894.
[Nov.] I lay ashore till the 17, all which time our miseries did increase. It did snow and freeze most extremely. At which time, we looking from the shore towards the ship, she did look like a piece of ice in the fashion of a ship, or a ship resembling a piece of ice. The snow was all frozen about her....
The three-and-twentieth, the ice did increase extraordinarily, and the snow lay on the water in flakes as it did fall; much ice withal drove by us, yet nothing hard all this while. In the evening, after the watch was set, a great piece came athwart our hawse, and four more followed after him, the least of them a quarter of a mile broad; which, in the dark, did very much astonish us, thinking it would have carried us out of the harbour upon the shoals Easter Point, which was full of rocks. It was newly congealed, a matter of two inches thick, and we broke thorough it, the cable and anchor enduring an incredible stress, sometimes stopping the whole ice....
[May.] The second, it did snow and blow, and was so cold that we were fain to keep house all day. This unexpected cold at this time of the year did so vex our sick men that they grew worse and worse. We cannot now take them out of their beds but they would swound, and we had much ado to fetch life in them.
The third, those that were able went aboard betimes to heave out the ice. The snow was now melted in many places upon the land, and stood in plashes. And now there came some cranes and geese to it.
The fourth, while the rest wrought aboard, I and the surgeon went with a couple of pieces to see if we could kill any of these fowl for our sick men; but never did I see such wild-fowl: they would not endure to see anything move....
[July.] ... We were continually till the 22 so pestered and tormented with ice that it would seem incredible to relate it. Sometimes we were so blinded with fog that we could not see about us; and, being now become wilful in our endeavours, we should so strike against the ice that the forepart of the ship would crack again, and make our cook and others to run up all amazed and think the ship had been beaten all to pieces. Indeed we did hourly strike such unavoidable blows that we did leave the hatches open; and, 20 times in a day, the men would run down into the hold to see if she were bulged.
Sometimes, when we had made her fast in the night to a great piece of ice, we should have such violent storms that our fastening would break, and then the storm would beat us from piece to piece most fearfully; other-while, we should be fast enclosed amongst great ice as high as our poop.
5. TWO ENGLISH EXPLORERS MEET IN HUDSON BAY (1631).
Source.—The North-West Fox, Captain Luke Fox's account of his voyage. Reprinted by the Hakluyt Society, 1894.
[30 Aug.] I was well entertained and feasted by Captain James with variety of such cheer as his sea provisions could afford, with some partridges; we dined betwixt decks, for the great cabin was not big enough to receive ourselves and followers; during which time the ship ... threw in so much water as we could not have wanted sauce if we had had roast mutton.
Whereat I began to ponder whether it were better for his company to be impounded amongst ice, where they might be kept from putrefaction by the piercing air; or in open sea, to be kept sweet by being thus daily pickled. However, they were to be pitied, the ship taking her liquor as kindly as ourselves, for her nose was no sooner out of the pitcher but her neb, like the duck's, was in it again. The gentleman could discourse of Art (as observations, calculations and the like), and shewed me many instruments, so that I did perceive him to be a practitioner in the mathematics; but, when I found that he was no seaman, I did blame those very much who had counselled him to make choice of that ship for a voyage of such importance....
And (being demanded) I did not think much for his keeping out his flag; for my ambition was [not so] ethereal, and my thoughts not so airy, so to set my sight towards the sky, but when I either called to God or made celestial observation. To this was replied that he was going to the Emperor of Japan with letters from his Majesty; and that, if it were a ship of his Majesty's of 40 pieces of ordnance, he could not strike his flag. "Keep it up then," quoth I, "but you are out of the way to Japan, for this is not it." He would have persuaded me to take harbour to winter in, telling me that Sir Thomas Button took harbour the 14 of this instant. Quoth I, "He is no precedent for me. I must parallel my poverty with poor Hudson's, who took no harbour before the first of November; and that then I durst not take harbour until the midst of the same; besides, I was not come to do so much as another man, but more than any, as I had already done...."
We parted not until the next morning's dawning, and this 17 hours was the worst spent of any time of my discovery. My men told me his men gave them some tobacco, a thing good for nothing.
6. THE BIRTHDAY OF MONTREAL (1642).
Source.—The
