^"""^^ -.^ 0^ ♦•*^% "^^ '^^ r .* . -,«^/ >'^^"** °^^*" /' v*^' .^^ .. .v"^ % '"^ .-^^ ^ ^<^.. ,/ ^l^lfe'- ^<' ^^ ^'-^ •-*°- -**\.i'^-.\^ ./..^^^.>o ./y^;^vS t^- V.'b* ^^-0, "V-^^/^^t?- o„ •.^■?^'\„, ' ^.j-^"^:- ^^^ o. o*. ♦•. i°-^* ^^<^^ ^^•n^. "^ o • % ^^ *:^ Letters from Colonial Children L E T T E E S from Colonial Children By EVA MARCH TAPPAIS^ BOSTON AND NEW YORK HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY MDCCCCVIII FIBBARY of WNGRtsSl I wo CoDles Receive* AUG 25 li*08 COPYRIGHT 1907 BY EVA MARCH TAPPAN ALL RIGHTS RESERVED Published September IQ08 PREFACE These letters are planned to give an idea of how life in some of the rej^resentative American colonies might have seemed to children, not necessarily the children of 1607 or 1733, as it may be, for, save in the case of one or two colonies, material for such precision of delineation is utterly lacking, but to the child mind rather than the adult mind. I have aimed at historical accuracy except in regard to the language employed. To sprinkle the pages with seventeenth-century phrases would have been a simple matter ; but to reproduce with any degree of verisimilitude the familiar parlance of the children of three centuries ago would have been impossible. It seemed Aviser, therefore, to trust to modern Enolish and not attempt Avhat must at best have been only an unsat- isfactory imitation. Eva March Tappan. Worcester, Massachusetts, Febi^avT/ 4. 1908. co:n^text8 I. A Letter written by Will Newton, an English boy in Virginia, to a boy friend in England . 1 The voyage to America — Captain John Smith — what hap- pened at the Canary Islands — the Western Islands — strange birds and beasts — new food — lost on the ocean — going ashore — an attack by the Indians — who shall be council- lors? — Indian courtesies — an invitation to dinner — a real chief — founding a city — treatment of Captain Smith — recompense. II. A Second Letter from Will Newton in Virginia to a boy friend in England . . . .20 A famine — Captain Smith gets food — the Okee — explor- ing the Chickahominy — Captain Smith is taken prisoner — sends a message to Jamestown — he is brought before Pow- hatan — is rescued by Pocahontas — returns to Jamestown — visits of Pocahontas — arrival of Captain Newport — trading with Powhatan — the blue beads — a search for gold — going home. III. A Letter written by Henri Lamotte in Canada to his little brother Guillaume in France . 40 Newfoundland — the demon of Pere^ Rock — trouble at Ta- dousac — the Saguenay — up the St. Lawrence to Quebec — "The Rock"" — choosing a place for a settlement — why cannon are needed — Champlain's three wishes — building vii CONTENTS the houses — the Indians and their eels — making ready for cohl weather — winter occupations — the Indians in the river Indian dreams — sickness at Quebec — visions of Brouage the eomino- of spring — stories of Port Royal — the arrival of Ponto-rave — Champlain's Indian visitors — the expedition against the Iroquois — the Indians' gift to Chaniplain — Indian beliefs — presents for the king and for Guillaume. TV. A Second Letter from Henri Lamotte in Canada to his brother Guillaume in France . .78 The visits of the white boy and the Indian boy — unwelcome fur traders — the Indians greet Champlain — good news for the two brothers. V. A Letter written at Plymouth by John Billing- ton to his Grandmother in England . . 85 An aggrieved boy — the Compact — kindness of Captain Miles Standish — searching for a place to settle — Corn Hill — the Place of the First Encounter — shipwreck — landing at Plymouth — building — fishing — the single man — Bil- lington Sea — lost in the woods — meeting wolves — sickness — signs of Indians — Samoset visits Plymouth — the coming of Massasoit's men — Squanto — Massasoit and Quadequina are entertained at Plymouth — catching eels — Mr. Billing- ton's troubles — an unwilling Pilgrim. VL A Second Letter from John Billington to his Grandmother in England . . . .113 Squanto's teachings — a visit to Massasoit — John starts for Virginia — visits the Indians at Nauset — taken home by the Pilgrims — greeting of the Governor — interview with Cap- tain Standish — discontent of John's parents. viii CONTENTS VII. A Third Letter from John Billington to his Grandmother in Enghmd . . . .123 An Indian declaration of war — a fortified village — the plague — Christmas games — good resolutions — an invitation. YIII. A Letter from Adelina Herrington, on her way to Mary hind, to Clarice Armitage in Paris 128 Leaving the convent — a new kind of English girl — to go to America or not? — the independence of Maryland — what to carry into a wilderness — a business girl — leaving Graves- end — called back — a terrible storm — the story of Father White — the three pirates — among the islands. IX. A Second Letter from Adelina Herrington of Maryland to Clarice Armitage in Paris . .141 The coming of the English ship — a visit to Virginia — the Potomac — landing on St. Clement's Island — building an altar — setting up a cross — reception at an American court — the visit of the emperor and other Indian guests — dedicat- ing a church — Aunt Alicia and the velvet gown — " Sup- posing?" X. A Letter from Harry Maxon of Naumkeag (Salem), in Massachusetts, to his Aunt Eleanor in England . . . . . . .156 Mr. Higginson's farewell — how Harry came to start for Massachusetts — he becomes an heir — friends on board — ocean sights — a discussion — the death of Nero — losing a ship — nearing Cape Ann — Harry finds a home. ix CONTENTS XL A Second Letter from Harry Maxon to his Aunt in England • -164 Harry seven years older — "a real merchant"' — starving- times — the coming of the charter — Morton of Merry Mount and his arrest — forming a church — shall the prayer-book be permitted ? — Governor Endicott cuts the cross from the flag — Roger Williams — Harry's plans. XI L A Letter written by Thomas Angell of Provi- dence to his Uncle in England . . .175 A search for Roger Williams — his house is discovered — Mr. Williams decides to found a settlement — where shall it be? — '• What cheer ! " — a Rhode Island feast — Roger Williams's visit to Canonicus — the coming of colonists — hard times in Providence — Mr. Winslow's visit — how Providence was named and laid out. XIIL A Letter written by Polly Bergen of New Amsterdam to her Aunt in England . .188 The will of Polly's father — first views of America — the Dutch people on the wharf — the coming of Uncle Pieter and Aunt Catarina — the houses of New Amsterdam — Governor Stuyvesant — " home." XIY. A Second Letter from Polly Bergen to her Aunt in England . . . . . .201 Polly's first night- in America — the cowherd — Polly's room — Dutch eatables — the kitchen — the dark parlor — the spinning-room — the sitting-room — the kos — no girl friends — the fireplace, cupboard, bookshelf, Bible, slaapbank — CONTENTS New Amsterdam girls and amusements — bees — reading Shakespeare. XY. A Third Letter from Polly Bergen to her Aunt in England 218 The i^incushion across the road — the Indians and their ways — Indian money — a false alarm — the coming of the English ships — the meeting of the council — Colonel Nicoll's letter — a strong-willed governor — the surrender of the town. XVI. A Fourth Letter from Polly Bergen to her Aunt in England 232 Polly's wish comes true. XYIL A Letter written by Judith March of New- bury, Massachusetts, to her cousin, Anna Mait- land, in England 233 A spoiled birthday — Judith's punishment — the coming of a stranger — great news — the opening of Albania — the silken hood and scarf — the reading of the proclamation. XVIIL A Second Letter from Judith March of Newbury to her cousin, Anna Maitland, in England 240 Judith's father goes to Albania — the new settlement — a good chance for colonists — a fertile land — catching her- ring — the sale of Albania — the coming of Philip Carteret — a tardy welcome — the new governor's pi'omises — a new name for the province. xi CONTENTS XIX. A Letter written by Timothy Holden of Pennsylvania to his Cousin Henry in England 249 How to begin a letter — Timothy longs to see London — a Quaker meeting — coming to America — Timothy's Indian playmate Tamaqua — catching wild turkeys — how to make a canoe — visiting Tamaqua's father — Timothy " conforms " — the plans of William Penn — Penn and the king — un- certainty of Penn's coming — the arrival of William Mark- ham — how Pennsylvania was named — Penn's letters to the colonists and to the Indians — choosing a site for the city — Timothy and Tamaqua go to meet the governor — taking seisin — the homes of the Swedish settlers — sailing up the river with the governor — celebrating as the " world's people " do — the two boys land at Chester — " worldly pride." XX. A Second Letter from Timothy Holden to his Cousin Henry 272 Some great news — a visit to Philadelphia — the governor and the Indians — the governor leaps higher than they — the plan of the town — building the house — how the boys went to market — the market of the Swedes and the Indians — pop-robins — the kindness of the Indians — the treaty at Shackamaxon — the wampum belt — the caves — the houses of Philadelphia — Pennsbury — the names of the streets — the boys rent a cave — going to school — the post rider. XXI. A Letter written by Bessie Clinton of London to '' Sister Margaret " 289 The make-believe sister — the country home — Bessie's homes in London — trying to find work — a meeting with Daniel Defoe — the baker's bill — Bessie's wish. CONTENTS XXII. A Second Letter from Bessie Clinton to " Sister Margaret " 296 Bessie's wish comes true — Bessie's old friend Alice — the day when " Robinson Crusoe " was sold — turned out of doors — the meeting- with Governor Oglethorpe — the new land — the debtors' prison — on shipboard. XXIII. A Third Letter from Bessie Clinton to " Sister Margaret" ..... 306 The first sight of land — going ashore — kindness of the people of Charleston and Beaufort — going to Savannah — putting up the first shelters — a busy morning — Governor Oglethorpe's visit to Tomo-chi-chi — the coming of the In- dians — the council — how Tomo-chi-chi managed his men — forgotten details — the silkworms. LETTERS FROM COLOmAL CHILDREN A Letter ivritten by Will Newton, an English boy in Virginia, to a boy friend in England Jamestown in Virginia, June 15, 1607. I LEANED over the gunwale and waved my cap and watched you wave yours till you looked like a post shaking its head. Then I could n't see any head. Then the post was only a dot. Then there was not even a dot. Somehow I had not realized till that minute that I could n't go to America without leaving England, and for a little while I almost wished I was a real wooden post on the wharf just to be back again. All that was nearly six months ago, and now I am a great traveler, colonist, and explorer. What do you think of that, Dicky boy ? I 've seen more strange sights in one day than you could see in England in a month of Sundays. There are three of us boys, and we stick together fairly well ; but I 'd give up the other two for you any time of day or night. Even those 1 LETTERS FROM COLONIAL CHILDREN first six weeks on the ship would n't have been so bad if you had been there. The wind blew from every point of the com- pass except the right one ; the water was so rough that more than half the men were seasick ; and the boat was so crowded that they were lucky if they could find an inch of room to lie down on deck. Master Hunt, our preacher, was so badly off that the doctor was afraid he would never see his home again — and all this time he could almost catch sight of his own chim- A SHIP OF THE PERIOD ney, for that whole six weeks we hung just off the coast of England. Sometimes there was only a bank of fog, but some- times we could see the cliffs ; and it is no wonder that we all began to feel sober. The worst of it was the day before Christ- 2 WILL NEWTON OF JAMESTOWN mas. We thought of the good times everybody would have on land while we were tossing about on the water, and not getting ahead any more than if we were tied to the bottom of the ocean. I don't know what we should have done if it had not been for Captain Smith. Captain Newport is the captain of our ship; Captain Gosnold, who made a voyage to the 'New World four years ago, is captain of the .other; Captain Ratcliffe com- Hi/J t^re£ fm^fe. Cewbalu Before rf. oaT.T. in TRAN^SHVANTA Hw Encounter with TVRBASIIAW CAPTAIN JOHN SMITH'S FIRST COMBAT WITH THE TURKS mands the pinnace; and Captain John Smith is a captain in the army. He is twenty-seven years old, only twelve years older than you and I; but he has been everywhere and seen everything. He has fought the Spaniards and the Turks; he 3 LETTERS FROM COLONIAL CHILDREN has been a slave in Turkey and worn around his neck an iron collar with a hook to it so it would be easier to catch him if he tried to run away. He says that he has had enough of fight- ing, and he has come to A^irginia to try his luck in the N'ew World. He does not put on any airs, and he is just as ready to talk to us boys as to the gentlemen. It is rather hard to get CAPTAIN JOHN SMITH'S SECOND COxVIBAT WITH THE TURKS him started to talking about his adventures; but when he has once begun, he '11 tell the best stories you ever heard. As I said, I don't know how we should ever have gone through Chi-istmas if it had not been for him. He went about from one to another, trying to cheer people up, and we boys followed on to hear what he would say. " Come, rouse up ! " he called 4 WILL NEWTON OF JAMESTOWN out to one man. "You're an Englishman, and wherever an Enghshman is, he must be jolly on Christmas." He cheered us up in spite of ourselves. He started some games, and we played them as well as we could on ship; and he pei'suaded the cook to make us a monstrous pudding and a plum cake; and so the day passed. CAPTAIN JOHN SMITH'S THIRD COMBAT WITH THE TURKS It was near the end of January before we were fairly away from England, and then we steered straight for the Canary Islands. Something happened there that made us boys pretty angry. You see. Captain Smith knew more than any one else. He had seen more and done more, and when nobody knew what to do, he could always suggest something. When the 5 LETTERS FROM COLONIAL CHILDREN other men quarreled, he and Master Hunt talked to them as if they were children, and tried to persuade them to behave. Anybody could see that Captain Smith and Master Hunt were two of the very best men on board. Some of the others were jealous and angry. They did not dare do anything to Master Hunt, because he was a minister; but they put their heads together and made up a fine story about Captain Smith. They said that he and some friends of his in the other two vessels were planning to murder the chief men and make him king of the country. Of course he never thought of any such thing; but they decided to keep him a prisoner till they came to Virginia, and then make up their minds what to do with him. We boys were angry enough, and some of the men were as angry as we. Captain Smith was cooler than all of us together. "Never mind, boys," he used to say; "I've been in worse places than this. Maybe they '11 even build a gallows for me, but they won't persuade me to use it." All this while we were sailing on, for we stayed at th-e Cana- ries only five days, and then we went pretty nearly west ; and for three whole weeks we were among the Western Islands. I tell you, Dick, they were worth seeing. The water was so clear and blue that Ave could see shells, I don't know how many feet down. The sand was so white that it fairly dazzled my eyes. The woods are not the least bit like ours in England. Most of the trees have hard, shiny leaves like ivy and holly, and the vines of all sorts fairly run wild. But when you come 6 WILL NEWTON OF JAMESTOWN to the birds — I tell you, Dick, I never saw anything like them. Of course the ducks and geese and pigeons are much like ours ; but there are bright green parrots — you ought to hear the noise they keep up in the trees! And just fancy a bird not much bigger than a goose, but mounted on stilts for legs and with a neck so long that it could stretch right over the head of the tallest man. That is the flamingo. It is all bright scarlet, and it is certainly the most gorgeous thing I ever saw except one other bird that lives in this wonderful country. This last bird is as small as the flamingo is large. We have seen some not so big as the end of my thumb. They are crimson or green or orange or all colors together. They eat honey from the flowers, but they do not alight to take it, — they only flutter their wings so fast that they keep up in the air. They make a soft little humming noise. There are all sorts of fruit, too. I can't begin to tell you the names of half the things that we had to eat. There were oranges and lemons and figs and a dozen other kinds of fruit that I never saw before. We tried everything that the natives ate. You ought to have seen me roasting a parrot and then eating it, as if I had eaten parrots every day of my life. There were tortoises like monstrous tur- tles, and we ate those, too. We ate all kinds of queer fishes; but the strangest creature of all was one that the natives call the iguana. It is the ugliest lizard that I ever saw. It is three feet long and covered with little scales. All down the ridge of its back is a row of prickles. Some of these monsters are gray 7 LETTERS FROM COLONIAL CHILDREN and some are green. I don't know which is the more hideous, but we ate both kinds. This strange country even cooked our food, for on one of the islands we found a spring so hot that we boiled our meat in it. I should have liked to sail around among those islands for a year; and I believe there would have been something new to see every day ; but after three weeks we set off for Roanoke Island. You know that is where Sir Walter Raleigh sent out his settlers twenty years ago. No one ever knew what became of them ; and it began to look as if no one would ever know what became of us, for we sailed on and on, but still we did not come to land. Everybody felt rather uneasy. The men began to whisper together, and before long some of them declared they did not believe the Captain had any idea where we were. After a while the truth came out. According to the reckoning we ought to have been at Roanoke Island three days before, and we were fairly lost. I '11 own up, Dick, and say honestly that I did wish I was at home again. I never said so, though ; but Captain Ratcliffe, who commands the pinnace, came out openly and declared there was no use in hunting for Roanoke, that the best thing we could do was to go straight back to England. " What a coward he is ! " the men said ; but I think more than one of them felt the same, though they Avouldn't admit it. We (lid n't feel any better when the sky grew dark and the wind l)egan to blow a gale, and we had to scud under bare poles all night long. It Avas a pretty good storm, though, after all; for 8 . Safyut/'ahattcyh PART OF DE LAET'S MAP OF VIRGINIA. 9 LETTERS FROM COLONIAL CHILDREN before it was really light in the morning, the watch called, " Land ahead ! " and there we were off the coast. This land proved to be a cape pointing to the north. We named it Cape Henry for the Prince of Wales. N"orth of it is another cape, as we learned afterwards, pointing south, and this we named Cape Charles for the king's second son. We were half wild to be on land, and before long Captain N'ewport and twenty-live or thirty others were ready to go ashore. I was fairly hungry to go with them. I would have given my head to go ; but I knew there would n't be any use in asking when every man on the ship wanted to go as much as I. I suppose I looked as if I was ready to jump overboard, and all at once Captain N^ewport turned to me and said, " You don't weigh much. In with you," and in two seconds I was on my way to land. It seemed strange enough to step on a shore where no white man had ever been; but nothing happened any more than it would if I had put my foot down in a London street, and I began to look around. There were meadows and brooks and tall trees. There were more flowers than I ever dreamed of before, and there were strawberries red as red and four times as big as they are in England. There was something else, too ; for while we were picking berries, one of the men cried, " Look over there on that hill ! " We looked, and there were five Indians creeping down hill on all fours like so many bears. They carried their bows in their mouths, and as soon as they found that we 10 LETTERS FROM COLONIAL CHILDREN had seen them, they jumped up and began to shoot at us. We had been too eager to get ashore to think much about arms, but there were a few muskets among us, and we fired. The Indians shot and then they ran; but two of our men were pretty badly hurt. We ran, too, for nobody knew how many Indians might be over the hills just out of sight; and we were not sorry when we were on the ship again. Something happened on shipboard that night that made us boys chuckle. You see, the Company in England that sent us over here did not say who were to be the members of the Coun- cil. They put it all on paper, shut the paper into a box, and sealed the box. Then they gave orders that it should be kept shut till we had come to Virginia. Well, it was opened that night. Captain Gosnold's name came first, and the second was John Smith ! We did not dare to say a word aloud, but we slipped off to the very bow of the boat and put our heads close together and whispered, " Hui'rah ! Hurrah ! Hurrah ! " and it sounded as loud to us as if we had shouted it. When we w^ent back, everybody was talking about the Com- pany's orders. You know it cost them a good deal of money to bring us over here, and the}^ expect us to find some gold mines at least; but the thing they really want most is that we should discover a passage to the South Sea. If we can find that, they can trade with China and Japan, and England will be rich enough to cover her houses with gold. The first thing to do was to find the right kind of place for a 12 WILL NEWTON OF JAMESTOWN settlement. And in foui* days we left Cape Heniy on our left and sailed straight into what some of the men think is a great bay and others think may be the Passage itself. Captain New- ])ort and some of the other men Avent ashore — and they took their muskets this time. Pretty soon they caught sight of five badly scared Indians — the red men seem to hunt in fives. The Captain wanted to make friends with them, and it must have been a funny sight to see him rubbing his hand on his heart and smiling and bowing to them like a Frenchman. The In- dians came up to the mark like white men and contrived some- how to invite our people to visit their town a little way off and eat dinner. The dinner was chiefiy corn bread, but they smoked tobacco afterwards, and then there Avas a dance. It must have been a sight worth seeing. The men said that one Indian stood in the middle with the others all around him. They howled and stamped and leaped and made up faces. I do hope I can see it some day; but I've seen something already worth two of that. Honestly, Dick, I do believe I am the luckiest boy in the colony. Indeed, I know I am, for there are just three of us, and I am the only one that went. You know we brought a shallop with us already to be put together. Now one day on the ship one of the gentlemen adventurers pushed me out of his way and growled, " Get out, you carpenter's youngster! " I felt pretty mad at the time, but I 've discovered that it is a fine thing to be a carpenter's youngster. You see, I had been helping father on the boat, and when he jumped in, some one 13 LETTERS FROM COLONIAL CHILDREN said, " Let the boy go, too; we have n't really tried the boat yet and his father may need help." You'd better believe it did n't take me long to get in, and I made myself as small as ever I conld for fear some one wonld say there was n't room enough. Xow open yonr eyes wide, Dicky boy, for we were going to pay a \nsit to a real chief. This was n't any " happening in to dinner" like the other time; we had been regularly invited, and the chief had sent one of his men to show us the way. Up the river we paddled. It winds about a good deal and the shores are rather low and marshy. The Lidians call it the Powhatan, but I heard some of the men talking about naming it the James in honor of the king, unless we find a river that is larger. We went more than fifty miles, and then our guide drew up to the shore and pointed up the bank; and I tell you, Dick, there was a sight away beyond the king and the lord mayor and the Globe Theatre all put together. I heard something that sounded like a flute, and in a minute or two the queerest-look- ing object you ever saw stood at the top of the bank. His head came in sight first, and that was a big show all by itself. His hair was done up in a knot, and around it was a sort of wreath made of some kind of hair colored bright red. This was on one side of his head. On the other was a flat plate of copper; but how it was made to stay there I don't know. Between the wreath and the plate, two long quills stuck straight up like horns. Ilis face was painted blue with bits of something sprinkled over it that looked like silver. There was a big hole 14 WILL NEWTON OF JAMESTOWN in each ear, and the claw of some kind of bird, set in either copper or gold, had been put through each hole. The ends of the claws kept catching in the long strings of pearls that were hung over his ears or else through some smaller holes, I could n't tell which. Shouldn't I like to see him on London Bridge, VIRGINIA INDIAN IN WINTER COSTUME, AND AN INDIAN VILLAGE though ! He stepped toward us and motioned us to come up the bank. Some of his men spread a big woven mat on the ground, and that comical creature sat down with as much dig- nity as if he had been a king opening Parliament. After a while he got up and beckoned to us to follow him to his village. 15 LETTERS FROM COLONIAL CHILDREN There he had had a feast made ready of fish and strawberries and a kind of bread made of corn. Was n't I glad that I was a carpenter's son ! But don't fancy that we spend all our time going visiting. Why, we have founded a city, Dick, just think of that ! It is on a little peninsula that extends into the James River. Caj)- tain Gosnold says it is too low and marshy, but President Wingfield likes it, and Captain Smith says it is a fine place for a big town some day. One thing is sure, — there won't be any trouble in miloading vessels, for the water is so deep that big ships can sail right up to the shore and tie to the trees. Every- body has worked hard. Some have been cutting down trees and clearing the ground for tents and gardens; some have been making nets ; and some have been splitting clapboards, for Ca^Dtain ^N^ewport expects to sail for home in three or four weeks, and he wants to carry a cargo of them. We have built a church, too. The walls are made of rails nailed to the trees. The roof is an old sail stretched overhead. A board fastened to two trees near together is the pulpit. The seats will never break down, for they are just bare logs laid in rows. Master Hunt reads prayers morning and evening, and on Sunday he preaches two sermons. We have to keep awake whether we want to or not, for it is n't easy to dream and sit on a log at the same time. The Indians made us friendly visits, but I noticed that Captain Smith kept his eye on them. It is shameful the way 16 WILL NEWTON OF JAMESTOWN GETTING SETTLED AT JA:MEST0WN he has been treated. We thought it would be all right Avheii we found that his name was in the box; but the other coun- cilors decided that he should not be in the Council. They called him a prisoner all this time, but they were not ashamed to make him work for them, and al)out two weeks ago they sent him off with Captain Newport and twenty others to explore the river. President Wingfield thought that there was not any need of a fort or a watch ; but while Captain Smith was gone the Lidians attacked us, and now we have the cannon mounted. There is always a guard, and we have regular drills and exercises. 17 LETTERS FROM COLONIAL CHILDREN Xow I '11 tell you something fine about Captain Smith. Presi- dent Wingfielcl and the other men who hated him just because he was so much brighter and cleverer than they put their heads together and thought out a plan. They said that they really pitied Captain Smith, because when they had told what they FIGHTING THE INDIANS. knew of his wickedness he w^ould be so despised by every man in the colony. They thought it would be far more kind to him to permit him to return to England and be tried there. Captain Smith saw straight through their tricks, and he said, " N^o, you have accused me and made me a prisoner, and I demand to be 18 WILL NEWTON OF JAMESTOWN tried here." They could n't be " kind " to him against his will, so they had to agree to have a trial. They brought up one charge after another, and Captain Smith proved that every one was false. Then what do you think the people did? They declared that President Wingfield and the others had tried to injure Captain Smith out of nothing but hatred and malice, and they sentenced the President to pay him £200 ! Was n't that a victory ! When the money, or as much of it as President Wingfield had, was given to him, he took it without a word; but after a little while he gave it to the treasurer to use for the whole colony. Then Master Hunt went about talking to one after another and persuading them to forgive and forget. They all like him, and they agreed to like one another as well as they could. Captain Smith is in the Council now, where he belongs, and we are as peaceful as a millpond. Even the Lidians sent messengers to say that they wanted to be good friends with us. There will not be any more trouble with them, and we can go on and make our city. Captain Newport is going to sail in a day or two ; but he is coming back in four or five months to bring us more provisions. I wish you were here, Dick. It is more fun to be a colonist than anything else in the world. I would n't give it up for all London. Your old friend. Will. P. S. I have n't written this letter all at once by any means, and you need n't think I shall ever write another as long. 11 A Second Letter from Will Newton, in Virginia^ to a hoy friend in Enfjland Jamestown in Virginia, August 26, 1608. CAPTAix Newport had not l^een gone a week before I wonld have given my pint of mouldy wheat and barley to be on the ocean with him in a ship headed for England. Yon need not laugh, Dick, for that is what each one of us had for his daily rations. The grain had lain in the ship so long that it was mouldy and full of weevils too. Every morning we put the daily allowance of us all into a great kettle and boiled it. Then it was given out, weevils and all ; and we were so nearly starved that the only thing we complained of was that there was so little of it. You see, when the ship was here, we could always get good food of the sailors, for most of us had a little money, and those who had none could swap sassafras or furs ; so we got on finely. The Indians promised to be friendly, and Captain Newport left us a quantity of the things they like best, — beads, looking-glasses, hatchets, copper kettles, toys, and red cloth, so we could trade with them. After the vessel 20 WILL NEWTON OF JAMESTOWN sailed, however, they were not so ready to trade; and we found that some of them had planned to starve us out. We did not dare to venture far away to hunt for game. We caught crabs and a sturgeon now and then; and that, together with the weevily corn, was all we had to eat. There were not tents enough to hold us all, and some slept in the trees. It grew frightfully hot. You have n't the least idea how hot America can be when it tries. We worked terribly hard, building the palisades and trying to put up some little huts for ourselves, and hoeing the corn. Oh, that corn ! We wanted it to grow so much that we almost stood over it and pulled to see if we could not help it along. There was nothing to drink but river water. When the tide was high, that Avas salt; and when it was low, it was nothing but slime. We had to drink one or the other or die of thirst. It is no wonder that almost every one was sick; and before autumn fifty of our men had died. Cap- tain Gosnold is dead, and for a long while Caj^tain Smith was so sick that we were afi'aid he would not get well either. Presi- dent Wingfield had charge of the provisions, and you may be sure he did not suffer. Then, too, the first thing we knew, he had it all nicely arranged for himself and a few of his friends to escape in the pinnace and leave us to starve or not, as Ave could. He ought to have been hanged, but he Avas only put out of the Council. It grcAV Avorsc and Avorse. I tell you, Dick, it is not com- fortable to be hungry. I can remember crying for more Chi'ist- 21 LETTERS FROM COLONIAL CHILDREN mas pudding in England, and I can remember saying that I was almost starved when dinner was late; but that was not being hungry. If you are really hungry, you can't look at a river without thinking of fried fish, and you can't look at a tree without thinking of squirrel soup. You see a field mouse, and you wish you were not any bigger than he, so a dozen grains of corn would give you a full meal. Your head feels queer and your feet kind of wobble. Your clothes are so big you are sure they must belong to some one else. You can't find any crabs. The sturgeon won't be caught. One minute you are ready to swallow a pine tree, and the next it makes you sick to think of tasting anything. That 's the way it felt to be hungry, Dick; and all this time the sun was growing hotter and the people were groaning and crying out and dying with the sickness. One while there were not more than five who could have fired a musket if the Indians had attacked us. If it had not been for Captain Smith, this letter would never have been written, that 's sure. I '11 tell you what he did. Our corn had been planted too late to come to anything, l)ut the Indians had plenty; and just as soon as he could stand, he started out in the boat to get them to sell us some. He knows almost everything, but he can't talk Indian, and he had to do it all by signs. He pointed to his mouth as if he were eating and held out his beads and needles and hatchets. Those red men knew that if they did not give us any food we should starve, and they would get the hatchets and things anyway ; so they 22 WILL NEWTON OF JAMESTOWN just grinned at him or held out a little handful of corn and pointed to a sword or a musket. Of course he would not give them arms to kill us with, but he did give them powder; for 23 LETTERS FROM COLONIAL CHILDREN he and his men fired their muskets and sprang ashore. The Indians ran for their hves, but it was not long before they came back with a great company of their friends. Of cours^e I was not there, but the men tokl me all about it, and they said it Avas a sight. Tliey heard the hoAvling that the Indians seem to think is singing; and then they saw the queerest monster that any one ever dreamed of. It was really a great rag baby made of skins and stuffed with moss. The Lidians had painted it so it looked almost as bad as themselves, and they had hung copper chains over it. It seemed to be a sort of idol, and they were not the least bit afraid now it was with them. They fired at our men, and our men fired at them and the monster, and took the monster prisoner. Then it was the Indians' turn to beg. They had lost their Ohee, as they called it, and they were ready to do anything to get it back. Captain Smith pointed to their heaps of corn, then to his boat and then to the hatchets and beads and things. Then he looked pleasant and held out his hand to them. They understood, and in no time at all they filled his boat with corn, and piled venison and turkeys on top of it. Captain Smith gave them copper and knives and beads and hatchets. The red men and the white men smiled at each other, and the red men danced for the white men to show them what good friends they were. Then the Indians took their Glee and Avent off singing, while Captain Smith came back Avith the corn ; and you 'd better believe he had a Avelcome. ^Ve had enough to eat for a good Avhile after that, for the 24 ^■'^^itim'i^' .i „ . .,,4 ^^^^^^^S=-^'^^ ^^ <-*- -5,^ IM>I\\ \ ILLAGE OF SECOTAN LETTERS FROM COLONIAL CHILDREN Indians brought com and beans and pumpkins ; and as it grew colder the wild geese and the ducks came back in great flocks. I suppose you think my letter is all about the Captain, but as I have said before, if it had not been for him there would not have been any letter. He was getting in food for the winter when the Council began to grumble that he ought to be explor- ing the Chickahominy River. " We are not going to stay here forever," they said. " We want to make our fortunes and go home. The Chickahominy comes from the northwest. Of course it rises in high land, and there is no reason why there should not be a river flowing down the other side into the South Sea." Captain Smith did not really beheve this, but he chose nine men to go with him and set out. He went in the barge as far as he could ; then he paddled on in a canoe ; then he and an Indian guide went still farther on foot. A large party of Indians came down upon him and took him prisoner. ISTow you won't think I 've said too much about him when I tell you what a clever thing he did. He had learned a few Indian words by this time, but he did not begin to beg for his life ; he knew Indians too well for that. I can fancy just how he looked — as if he did not care an oyster shell for any of them — and how he waved his hand as if he were sweeping them into the quagmire, and said, " Weromance." That means chief, and so they took him to their chief, Opechancanough. Captain Smith says that the Indians think whatever they do not understand is a god, and he pulled his compass out of his pocket and showed it to them. He told 26 WILL NEWTON OF JAMESTOWN them as well as he could how he could fiud his way through the woods by it; and they were as pleased as babies with sugar- CAPTAIN SMITH, A PRISONER, AMUSING THE INDIANS plums. It is not very easy to get Captain Smith to tell of his adventures, as I wrote in my other letter; but we found out 27 LETTERS FROM COLONIAL CHILDREN that the Indians wanted to kill him, and the chief would not let them, for he had a plan worth two of theirs. He gave the Captain no end of good things to eat and set a guard of forty men over him. After a while the chief contrived to say that he wanted to get rid of those people at Jamestown. " If you will help me," he ^aid as well as he could by signs and Avords that the Captain knew, " you shall be a big warrior among us. You shall live with us and have some land and some wives." " But those people are very strong," the Cai3tain said. " They can do wonderful things, and there is no way that you can take them." The chief looked so angry that the Captain almost ex- pected to be killed on the instant; but one of the Indians had a new idea. In the fight the Captain had wounded a brave, as they call their fighters. " Come and make him Avell," they said. ^Yhen the Captain looked at him, he saw that the man was not badly hurt, and he had an idea too, an idea that was worth a dozen of theirs. " I have some medicine at Jamestown that will cure him," he said. " Let some of your braves carry to the white men this bit of paper from my notebook, and then go at sunset to the big rock that overhangs the river above the settle- ment, and they will find the medicine." You 'd better believe he wrote more than one thing on that bit of paper. He told us to put the medicine beside the rock and to treat the messen- gers well and give them presents to bring back, Init to be sure and scare them half out of their wits. Did n't we, though ! We fired muskets and pistols and demi-culverins. Y^ou ought to 28 WILL NEWTON OF JAMESTOWN have seen those Indians run ! They carried back the medicine, however, and the brave got well. c^/t/ c/fc'sjlate 6LJ-a/7iim 'w/ien Cajp^ Smith ^-u'us deliiiered 6? /lini fri/cner Still those red men couldn't make up their minds what to do wdth the Captain. They were afraid to let him live and they 29 LETTERS FROxM COLONIAL CHILDREN did not really dare to kill him. At last they decided to carry him to Powhatan, who is a bigger chief than Opechancanough. That must have been a sight. You see, the Captain was a pris- oner, but he was a great man just the same, and Powhatan wanted to make it clear that he was a great man, too. Fancy a long, narrow hut made of branches of trees woven together and covered with bark. Inside the hut were two rows of women sitting next the wall. Their heads and shoulders were daubed with red paint, and pieces of white down were fastened in their hair. Chains of white beads were around their red necks and fell over their red shoulders. In front of the women were two rows of men, all in full dress; that is, with beads and feathers and birds' claws and such things. At the end of the room was a sort of platform covered with cushions. It looked as much like a bedstead as anything, the Captain said, but it was a throne; and there was Powhatan, all splendid in feathers and beads and raccoon skins. He sat up very straight and looked as if he was a king, the Captain told us. Two of his favorite daughters were with him, one on each side. When the Captain was brought in, all those people gave a yell. They brought him water to wash his hands and a great bunch of feathers to dry them on. They gave him the best food they had. Then they had a long talk together. He did not know what all this meant; ])ut when the talk stopped and two big stones were brought in and set down before Powhatan, and two of the strongest of the braves took their places beside them with clubs, then it did not 30 WILL NEWTON OF JAMESTOWN need a conjurer to tell what was coming. Even Captain Smith could not think of anything to do; and when he could not, you may be sure that no one else could. They laid him down Avith SMITH RESCUED BY POCAHONTAS his head on the stones and the men with the clubs were all ready to strike when something happened. He had noticed that when they were talking, the youngest daughter seemed to be begging her father to do something, but that he shook his head. 31 LETTERS FROM COLONIAL CHILDREN This little girl had no idea of giving up her own way, in spite of Powhatan and all his braves, and suddenly she jumped dow n from the bedstead and threw^ her arms about the Captain's neck. The old chief was not one bit afraid of his braves, but he could not make up his mind to cross his pet daughter. He gave a sort of growl, then he half smiled; and at last he said, ''Let her have him if she ^vants him. He can make bells and beads for her and hatchets for me." Two days later he said to the Cap- tain, " I shall call 3^ou my son now\ We are friends, and you are free to return to the white men. You may have land too. Give me two of those big w^onderful guns and a grindstone, and you ma}^ have the w^iole Capahowsie countr3^" Captain Smith was not sure even then that his guides would not kill him on the way back to Jamestown ; l3ut they Avere very good to him. You can imagine that we were glad when Ave saw him and his twelve Indians coming down the river, for Ave had thought he was dead. He made a feast for the Indians, and then he shoAved them a big grindstone and two demi-culverins. " Those are AA^hat your king Avanted," he said. " Can you carry them to him?" One lifted, and another lifted. Then they grunted and shook their heads; and no Avonder, for the guns Aveigh four or five thousand pounds apiece. " I Avill shoAV you hoAv to use them," said the Captain, and he fired one of them at a great tree loaded Avith icicles. You never heard such a racket and joii never saw such scared Indians. They did not want any more demi-culverins, and they Avere a little afraid of 32 (5l/<7/rf(JiS a& ^leoecka daiiy4t,T to l/ic niifjffity ^j'aiC£-> ycw/w'/an Empervur of ^ llanpur/ hf^icndfi a^ \Hr-(^inia LETTERS FROM COLONIAL CHILDREN the grindstone ; I suppose they thought that might go off, too. "If you do not want them, I will give you something instead," the Captain said; and they went away happy with some hatchets and bells and children's toys. Now whenever Captain Smith goes away there is sure to be trouble of some kind. They had sent him off to explore the Chickahominy when he wanted to get in food, and of course the food gave out. If it had notljeen for Powhatan's little daughter, I don't know what we should have done. The Indians told us to call her Pocahontas; they won't let us know her real name for fear we might bewitch her. That little girl was not any more afraid of us than I am of you, and every few days she came to visit us. I tell you, Dick, she was welcome, for she never came without a train of Indians, and every one of them was loaded with corn or venison or something else that was good to eat. We never laiew but each visit of Pocahontas would be the last, and we watched and watched for Captain N^ewj^ort and his vessel. At last he came, and some new settlers with him. He brought food as he had promised, and it did taste good ; but there Avas not half enough, for he stayed more than three months, and the sailors had to live on what he had brought for us. He let them trade with the Indians ; and now there were so many Avhite men to buy that the Indians kept putting their prices higher and higher. Captain N'ewport gave something to every red man that he saw and sent present after present to Powhatan, until the old 34 WILL NEWTON OF JAMESTOWN chief thought this new captain must be a very great man. '' Tell the gTeat white chief to come to visit me," Powhatan said; and Captain Xewport and thirty or forty men went to his village. They carried presents of course; and Captain ^Newport gave him a whole suit of red cloth, a hat, and a greyhound that he had brought from England. Then there was a dance and a feast — think of a feast three days long ! After the feast came the time for trading. Captain IS^ewport had said so many fine things to Powhatan and made him so many presents that the chief thought himself the greatest man in all Virginia and believed he could do whatever he chose with the white men. My father went with the company, and he told me all about it. He said PowKatan sat up as straight and dignified as you can imagine. He said to Captain Newport, " You are a great chief and I am a great chief. We cannot trade like these little men; that is not the Avay for us. You lay down what you wish to sell and I will lay down what I will give." Father said the old fellow looked so calm and stately that he really did not wonder that Captain ]!*^ewport was taken in. Captain Smith whispered, however, " Don't do it, Captain, he 's only trying to cheat you; " but Captain ^N^ewport did it just the same. He made a great display of the things that Lidians like, enough to buy corn to last us half the winter. Father said Powhatan's eyes sparkled, but in a moment he turned away and tried to look as if he did not care. When Captain IS^ewport had finished, Pow- hatan spoke to some of his men, and they brought up about four 35 LETTERS FROM COLONIAL CHILDREN bushels of corn. " That is yours," said the sly old fox, " and this is mine," and he motioned to his men to gather up the hatchets and red cloth and bells and other things. Captain Smith stood close by father, and father heard him mutter, " Those things were worth twenty hogsheads of corn. We could have bought it cheaper in Spain." Captain Smith was not the man to let himself be cheated, however, and pretty soon he got up a trick that brought us out even at least. He began to show Powhatan some of his lit- tle things, and he found that the old chief had taken a fancy to some blue beads that he had not seen before. " I don't want to sell those," the Captain said. " They are made of a rare sub- stance and are very precious. You see they are of the same color as the sky, and only the greatest kings in the world can wear them." The more he said he could not sell them, the more Pow- hatan was bound to have them. At last he offered two or three hundred bushels of corn for a pound or two of those blue beads. Captain Smith said no, but at last he yielded. The corn was loaded into the boats and Powhatan put some strings of beads around his neck, happy as a king with a new palace. Our people were happy, too, for now we had enough food to last for a good while. We needed all we could get, for Captain Newport stayed and stayed. He and his men were half wild about gold. You know that at home everybody thinks Virginia is full of gold, that all you have to do is to wash some sand or a spadeful of dirt to fill your ])ockets. The Captain was so sure 36 T R V E R. E lation of fuch occur^ rences and accidents of noateas hath hapned in Virginia fincc the firft planlingoftbatCollony.* which is now rendent in the South part thereof,till the laHrcturne from thence. Written hyCajXaweSmih cneofthefatdCollony, to a jrt^ipipfull kkndoihh in England. d ^DO 7^ Printcdfor/*?^;? Tapfe^ and arctobccfolde at the Greys hound in Paulcs Church yard hyW.fV. 1 5 o 8 TITLE OF CAPTAIN JOHN SMITH'S "TRUE RELATION' Being a letter written by him in 160S LETTERS FROM COLONIAL CHILDREN of finding it that he brought a jeweler and two goldsmiths and two refiners, and he had hardly stepped ashore before he began to talk about the quantity of gold that he hoped to cai-ry home with him. Captain Smith told him he did not believe there was an ounce of it in all Virginia; but Captain N'ewport only smiled and said, " I guess we '11 take a look around before we sail." I should think they did take a look around. They wandered about with shovels and picks ; and wherever they wandered they left holes in the ground. Father heard Captain Smith mutter to himself, " Pity that all this digging could not go into a cornfield next summer; " but it did not do any good to say a word. At last the sailors came upon a little stream that flowed over glit- tering sand. They were half wild about it, and the refiners set to work to see if the shiny bits were not really gold. I asked father if he did not mean to get some, but he said no, he rather thought Captain Smith knew more than those gold people, and he should keep on with his work. I think father is getting tired of the whole affair. He has worked hard cutting down cedar trees and getting out clapboards to send to England ; and now Captain Newport won't carry them because he wants every inch of room for this gold. And, honestly, Dick, I 've wished more than once that I was back in England. It's no use, though; we 're here, and here we must be. CTOod-b3% Dick. Maybe you won't hear f I'om me again. If the Phttuix does not come from England with provisions, we shall 38 WILL NEWTON OF JAMESTOWN have a hard time to get through the winter and spring till the corn is ripe. The Indians are not so much afraid of us as they were. Captain Newport gave Powhatan ever so many swords, and now they know that they can fight as well as we excei)t for our guns. Should you rather starve or be killed by an Indian, Dick? Your old friend, Will. P. S. O Dick, Dick, Dick, be sure to be on the wharf to meet us. N^o, I forgot that I shall carry my own letter. I don't know whether I am standing on my feet or my head, I am so happy. Captain N^ewport sails in the morning, and father and I are coming home with him. Ill A Letter writteu hy Henri Lamotte in Canada to Im little brother GuiUaume in Franee Quebec. Aiujust 31, 1609. YOU cried when I came away from old Bronage, but I am sure you will be happy when 3'ou see this letter, for it is written just to you and is going to be carried across the wide ocean in a great ship for nothing else but to please my little eio-ht-year-old brother. I know that vou cannot write me an answer yet; but never mind. Learn as fast as you can, and it will not be long before 3'Ou can send a letter to the Rock. " The Kock " is a great cliff, higher than the highest steeple that you ever saw. It would not be very easy to climb it if the rain had not gullied out a rough sort of path. Some day that cliff will have a fort on it, the Sieur de Champlain says,* and there will be a town, or at any rate a village. It does not look much like even a village now, though the Indians come from away back in the forest to see the wonderful houses that we have built. AVe did n't come here in a da}^; we Avere on the ocean six long weeks before we caught even a glimpse of land. This Avas New- foundland. And how do you think it looked ? It was not level 40 HENRI LAMOTTE OF CANADA and bright and sunny like Broiiage. First, it was nothing but a fogbank. Then the fog looked a little darker in one place than it did around it. Then all of a sudden it swept away, and there were cliffs, tall cliffs of dark red rock. We could see white lines running down some of the cliffs. AVhat do you think they could have been V They were brooks, all white and foamy because they ran so fast down the steep rocks. There were a few green patches, and those were grass. The biggest waves you can im- agine were breaking upon the base of the cliffs. It looked dark and gloomy and I was glad we were not to stop there. We sailed on past big islands and little islands. One looked just like a whale. Another Avas higher than a church steeple and more than twice as long as it Avas high. We heard this island before Ave saAv it. What do you think of that ? We heard shriekin.g and squalling and squaAvking and screaming and screeching. I crossed myself, for they say there are demons on some of these islands. We could not see anything, but after the fog blcAv aAvay, there Avas this immense rock. Two great passage Ava3^s Avere pierced through at the base large enough for a boat to go through. But you Avant to know about the noises, I am sure. Those did not stop, but Ave found out Avhat made them. It Avas nothing but birds, and there Avas not a demon to be seen. The gulls live on one end of the rock and the cormorants on the other. They quarrel CA^ery little Avhile, and then they fight and scream and squaAvk and make all the rest of the noises. They 41 LETTERS FROM COLONIAL CHILDREN kept up the din as long as we could see them or hear them. Our own fishermen come here to fish, so maybe you ate for your breakfast some salt fish from this very place. The pierced rock, or Perce Rock, was not where we were to stop. We passed that and sailed on and on into a mighty river. After a while we landed at a point that the Indians call Tadou- sac. Then we were surprised, for two ships were in the harbor. Of course you can guess who was on board one of them, for you saw it start from Honflenr eight days before I sailed. It was Captain Pontgrave. He had come to buy furs of the Indians ; but when he reached Tadousac, he found another ship there with Basques on board, and they were buying furs as fast as ever they could. Captain Pontgrave showed them the letter of the king. It said that for one year no one but the Captain should have the right to buy furs. The Basques said, " We don't care what the king says ; we are going to buy as many as we choose." Then they fired at Captain Pontgrave. They had more men and more guns than he, and he had to yield. The Basques took away all his guns and powder and said as saucily as you please, "When we are through buying furs, you may have these little things again." Pretty soon, however, they remembered that when they went back to France they would be in trouble ; for when the king and his oflficers knew that they had broken the law they would be put in prison. They began to feel frightened, and when Governor Champlain appeared they promised not to buy any more furs. They said they would catch whales instead; so 42 HENRI LAMOTTE OF CANADA they all went to work catching whales, and Captain Pontgrave bought furs. I know you are wondering of whom he bought them. They were Lidians, real Indians, and they were living in wigwams made of poles fastened together at the top and covered with A JJi ^4^ ^K 1^, *- -^ A. ^ it ^ K%- i-rrr l\»vi B.^por^ltf WtfU^AC TADOUSAC bark. They hunt in the winter and get beautiful furs. They are glad to sell them for such things as knives, hatchets, blankets, and beads. But the furs that they get would not fill the great ship ; so they buy more from tribes that live far to the northward and bring them down a deep, dark river called the Saguenay. They paddle down in little birch-bark canoes. Did you ever see 43 LETTERS FROM COLONIAL CHILDREN a waterfly skimming over the top of the water ? He looks as if it was easier to move than to keep still. That is the way the canoes go when they ^re not loaded. It must be hai'd work to paddle even a light canoe when it is full of furs; but the Indians know how to do it so Avell that it looks easy. We all wanted to go on to the place where we were to begin our settlement, but the Governor needed a sailboat to use after the ship had gone back, so he set the carpenters at work; and Avhile they were building it, we went up the cold, dark Saguenay one hundred and fifty miles. " Saguenay " means " a river with steep banks," and you would think these were steep, I know, for they are great black and gray cliffs, higher than any I ever saw before. Even Avhen they are not so high or so steep, they look dried and dead and as if nothing could possibly grow on them. AYe saw hardly a bird the whole way. I believe that even the birds are afraid of the river. Away up at the top of one of the great cliffs we did see an eagle, but it did not look any bigger than the head of a pin. We should never have known that it was an eagle if we had not watched it sweep down near the river. W^e tried to sound the Avater, but it Avas so deep that Ave could not find any bottom. It is not really black, but rather a dark liroAvn. The bubbles at the stern of the boat are not Avhite, as they are off Brouage, but pale gold color. It Avas all strange and unnatural. It was the most fearful place I ever saAv, and I Avas glad Avhen we were out of the Saguenay. The dark Avater made a broad black mark in the blue Saint LaAvrence; but beyond that 44 I'liiiiilli iii|ii,„i LETTERS FROM COLONIAL CHILDREN the river was bright and sunny. The big white wiiales were roll- ing and tumbling about, and their backs flashed in the sunshine. They have plenty of room to roll, and if there were thousands and thousands more of them, they would not be croAvded, the river is so wide. You know it is ten miles from Brouage to Rochefort, and that distance is just half way across the Saint Lawrence at Tadousac. Do you wonder that it seemed more like being on the ocean than in a river ? It was a river, however, and w hen the last day of June came, we left Tadousac and sailed on up stream toward the place where out* settlement was to be. We went past high black moimtains that looked as if they were not at all pleased at our coming into their country. There were miles and miles of forests, and once in a while a bright little meadow all fresh and green in the sun- shine. There was a beautiful waterfall too. At first it looked like a white ribbon floating doA\ai over the cliff; but when we came nearer, we saw that it was really a cataract. The sun was shining on the foam at the foot of the fall, and it looked as if there was a whole gulf full of rainbow^s. Do you remember how you tried when you were a very little boy to find the end of the bow and the pot of gold that nurse told you was under it ? Maybe if you had come here you would have found it. It looked as if there might be gold there or anything else that was bright and shining. The Sieur de Champlain has been here once before, and he is glad to come again. He gazes at every little point as if it was 46 HENRI LAMOTTE OF CANADA an old friend. " There 's the Isle aux Coudres ! " he cried. (You would like that, little brother, for it takes its name of island of hazel nuts because so many hazel bushes groAv on it.) Some time later he exclaimed, " My beautiful Isle d'Orleans ! " That is a long green island with groves and meadows and hills. When Jacques Cartier came here, many years before either you or I was born, he found larger grapevines than he had ever seen even in France, and so he called it the Isle de Bacchus. Can you find out why ? NTot much later it was named Isle d'Orleans in honor of the Duke of Orleans. Xo one took a very long look at this island, for about three miles up the river Avas something that was much moi-e in- teresting. We had come a long way to see it. We expected to see it all winter and perhaps much longer, but we stared as if we should never have another chance. It was big, ever so much bigger than the cathedral you saAv in Paris. It was gray, and I thought it looked almost as gloomy as the Sague- nay; but suddenly the sun broke through a cloud and shone upon it, and then it was warm and bright and glowing. Can you guess what it was ? It was " the Rock." You like to hear stories of giants, my Gruillaume, and if you had seen this, I am sure you Avould have fancied that the biggest giant in all the world had pushed his great shoulder out into the river. He is not the kind of giant that eats little boys, or big ones either, even in books, but he has given us some pretty hard times since we came. 47 LETTERS FROM COLONIAL CHILDREN ^ow, Guillaume, if you had been the Governor, what should you have done first ? I think even a ]3oy who is only eight could give a good answer to that. You would say, '' I must build a house to keep nie from the rain and the cold." That is exactly what the Governor meant to do. There was one thing that must be decided first, however, and that was where the house should be. Should you make a road wdiere the rains had washed out a gully and then put your house on top of the cliff ? ^o, for that would be a long and hard way to carry things up from the ship, and we had no horses or oxen. Then, too, up on the cliff would be a charming place for a picnic in summer, but when winter came it would be terribly cold. The winds would howl about it fearfully, and maybe the}^ would be strong enough to tear down any house that we could build and send the planks and the beams whirling down into the great river. The Governor was too Avise to build in any such place. He said, " Here is a fine strip of land close to the river. The cliff is behind it, and that will keep off some of the coldest winds. See how rich the ground looks and how finely the walnut trees are growing! Here is the place for oui- houses. By and by there shall be cannon on the top of the cliff and cannon at the base, and maybe just across the river." Do you see wdiy he wanted the cannon, little brother? It was so that, if any one tried to pass the city who had no right to go up the river, the canuon at the top of the cliff could go, "Pff! Boom!" The cannon at the base could go, "Pff! Boom!" and the cannon across the river could o-q, "Pff! 48 HENRI LAMOTTE OF CANADA JACQUES CARTIER Boom I " Do you think there "vvould be anything left of the ves- sel after that? I do not, and even if there ^vas, it would turn about and go down stream as fast as ever it could to get away 49 LETTERS FROM COLONIAL CHILDREN from those cannon. Then there is something more. Why should the king of France not be wilhng to let ships sail past the Rock as freely as they come into the harbor of Brouage ? That is a question which I don't beheve you can answer. I '11 tell you. The Indians are glad to sell beaver skins and other furs that they do not want for knives and hatchets and blankets that they do want. One can buy hatchets for a little money in France and sell the furs for a great deal of money. But if every one who would like to get rich should come and buy furs, the people whom our king wishes to buy them would not be able to get many. Then, too, it is hard for the Indians to come a long way through the forests and carry heavy loads of furs, but it is easy for them to pile the furs into a canoe and paddle down any little stream that flows into the Saint Lawrence, and so come to Quebec. That is why we do not want any strange vessels to be able to go past the Rock. The Saint Lawrence is so large that there must be a great many rivers flowing into it, or maybe there is a great lake. Even if we can follow up the river and find that there is no great lake, but that it rises somewhere in the mountains, we may discover that from another little spring a brook flows in the opposite direction which by and by becomes a river and empties into the water that is off the coast of China. Then France can trade with China, and no other nation will be able to do that because we shall have the shortest way. The Sieur de Champlain would Hke to find that way of course; but there are two other things that he wants to do quite as much. He does not care a 50 HENRI LAMOTTE OF CANADA very great deal to be rich, but he does care to found a village that will some time become a city; and he cares to teach the Indians about God. I heard him sa}^ once that it was greater to save one soul than to found an empire; and he ho23es to be friends with the Indians about here, not only so he can trade with them, but so he can teach them to be good Christians. I am sure that you know what Ave did next as well as I do. We went ashore and began to build our houses on the strip of land between the cliff and the river. I did one thing, however, that I haven't told you. When I first stepped on the land, I thought of my own little brother away off in France. I thought of the day when my father said, " In a little while Guillaume will have only you, and 3^ou must try to be father and mother to him." I thought of that, and then I said a little prayer in my heart that I might take good care of you and that 3^ou might be a good boy. Xow about building. You would have liked to see the work go on, I know, for every one was as busy as he could be. The Governor looked about and chose what he thought was the best place for the houses. Then we all set to work to cut dowii the trees and clear the ground. The cellars were marked out and some of the men began to dig. Others went to the base of the cliff for stone. They did not have to break it off, for quantities of it had fallen, and it was already broken into pieces of all shapes and sizes. They brought this and laid it down beside the cellars. We wanted beams and planks, of course. I know how 51 LETTERS FROM COLONIAL CHILDREN to use an axe and a saw well, so I helped in that part of the work. After we had cut down a tree, we hewed the trunk with the axes until it began to look as if it might be square if we worked long enough. Then we sawed it into pieces of the length that was needed for beams. There was so much sawing to do that I did not know but my shoulder would come off, for every plank used in building our houses had to be sawed out of one of those trees that were alive and growing when we came. We had whipsaws, and I pulled at one end while another man (don't let nurse laugh at me, Guillaume, and say I 'm not a man yet) worked at the other. After a while there was a great pile of planks, though the carpenters were making it smaller as fast as they could. I wish you could see the houses they built. There are three besides a storehouse. In one house are the guns and powder and cannon balls. That has a sun-dial on the roof. Li the second house is the blacksmith's forge, and in the third is the Governor's room. That is on the ground floor. Some of the men sleep in that house and some in each of the other houses. A gallery runs around the second floor. There is a palisade around the buildings and a moat fifteen feet wide and six feet deep. It has a drawbridge, and if you should come up to the gate some morning and say, " If you please, I want to come in," the man on guard would ask, " Are you a friend or an enemy ?" " I am a friend," you Avould reply. Then he Avould pull the ropes, down would go the drawl)ridge, and you would walk across the moat as easily as if you Avere crossing a floor. But now supposing you 52 HENRI LAMOTTE OF CANADA were an enemy ; the bridge would stay up, and unless you could jump more than six feet, you could not come to the door. You would not have a pleasant time waiting, either, for we have three THE BUILDINGS AT QUEBEC cannon and one at least would be aimed right at you. Then I think you would say, "■ Please excuse me. I don't want to come in. I 'd much rather run away." There 's one thing more which I have n't told you, and it is 53 LETTERS FROM COLONIAL CHILDREN that Ave have a dove-cote. It is so tall and slender that it looks like a little tower. There 's another pleasant thing, and that is the Governor's garden. He made one just beyond the moat. He loves flowers, and then, too, he wanted to try different kinds of seeds to find out what will grow here. We planted much more than just a garden, for we sowed wheat and rye and set out some grapevines that we brought with us. The Indians thought the buildings were wonderful, and they came from a long w ay off to see what amazing houses had been put up at " Kebec." That is what they call the place because the river narrows here, and " kebec " means a narrowing. Some of the Indians built their wigwams just outside of our palisade and went to work. What do you suppose red men do when they work ? In this case, it was catching eels. They smoked them and dried them. Then, when they thought they had enough to live on for a month or two, they went off into the forest to hunt beaver and other animals whose furs they could sell. They asked Governor Champlain if he would take care of their eels for them while they were on the hunt. He said yes, and they went away off and were gone a good many weeks. Captain Pontgrave went away too, for he had a good load of skins, and he sailed back to sell them for the Company. N'ow, little brother, how should you have liked to be in our wooden castle, far a^vay from home and the people that you love, to know that the cold, cold winter was coming down upon you, that the ship had gone back to France, and you must stay where 54 HENRI LAMOTTE OF CANADA yqu were till it came again? We had enough to eat, though there was none too much; We cut great piles of wood and brought it in, and we made the houses as tight and warm as we could. Then there was nothing for us to do but wait for the spring. One thing you would have liked to see, and that Avas the forests before the snow came. The trees were all aglow with bright colors, much brighter and more beautiful than they ever are in France. Some were deep, dark red; some were blazing scarlet ; some were almost purple ; and some of the maples and birches were of such a golden yellow that they looked as if they were great masses of sunshine. It would not have seemed half so gloomy if we could have kept the l)right leaves all winter; but in a little while they all fell off. Then the snow began to come. Everything was white with it except the river, and that was black and cold. Long be- .fore it froze, it crept along as if it was shivering. We shivered, you may be sure, in spite of the great fires that we ke]3t up. We burned logs so big that sometimes even two strong men could not bring them in w ithout help. The wind blew in through every tiny crack, even through the thick boards, we fancied. What should you have done, my Guillaume, all those long days V We looked our guns over and rubbed them again and again. We melted lead and made bullets. The blacksmith examined every spade and hoe and shovel and put in order each one that was the least bit broken. We set traps for foxes. AVe made our meals last as long as we could. We slept, we played games, we talked 55 LETTERS FROM COLONIAL CHILDREN about home, aiul ^\e told stories. The Sieiir de Champlam did everything for us that a man could do. He was always cheery and good-natured. He kept the best of provisions put away, and when we had a terrible storm and were all feeling as if we should never see our own country again, he would give us some- thing a little better than our e very-day fare; and then we felt just as you do when you are 023ening your Christmas box. He told better stories than anyone else. One day when it was fear- fully cold, he told us about trying to found a colony on Saint Croix Island five years ago. " This is nothing," he said, though he was shivering with cold, " just nothing at all compared with Saint Croix Island. Here we have big fires with plenty of wood. We have good wine to drink and good water. We don't have to drink our cider in chunks as we did there because we couldn't have fire enough to melt it. Just fancy how it would seem if over across the river there Avas a great forest, and you were perishing with cold for the lack of a little wood ! The river at Saint Croix was full of great cakes of ice. They were so heavy and came down so fast that no boat could have lived in it for a moment any more than it could live in the Saint Lawrence to- day." He looked toward the river, then he started, scraped off the frost from the window to see more clearly and cried, " See ! They are trying to cross ! " We all rushed to the Avindows. The river was not frozen over then, but it was full from shore to shore of masses of ice. They whirled and pitched and ground together and broke into bits and slid over one another. On the 56 HENRI LAMOTTE OF CANADA farther shore we could see some Indians getting into their canoes. " They are mad," some one cried, " no boat conld live there ! " But the poor people were in the canoes and were pad- dling for their lives. The squaws and the children were hud- dled together in the bottom of the boats. Some of the men wei-e ti-ying to push away the cakes of ice with poles and others were paddling Avhenever there w^as a bit of room to paddle. My lit- tle Guillaume, you think there is nothing that " big brother " cannot do; but even if you had been in one of those boats I could not have done any more than I did then — just to watch for the moment when they would be caught between heavy cakes of ice and crushed. The heavy cakes came. The men pushed with all their might, but they might as well have pushed against the Rock itself. We were gazing so eagerly that we almost fancied we could hear the sound when the canoes were crushed; for in a moment more they were ground into bits and were gone. But where do you think the people were, Guillaume ? Not one went down w^ith the canoes; they all jumped upon a monstrous cake of ice and were saved from that death. What should you have done then V Some of the men still had their paddles, but they were of no use. Some had their poles, l)ut only a giant would have been strong enough to thrust away the masses of ice that were coming down upon them. We had all hurried to the shore, and there we could hear them wail and lament. A little farther up the river we saw a thick sheet of ice sweeping down upon them. " That Avill carry them under," 57 LETTERS FROM COLONIAL CHILDREN some one said; but it did not. I think the good God himself must have helped them, heathen as they were, for when it was almost upon them another cake nearly as large as that struck it and pushed it a little toward the farther shore. It struck the cake on which the Lidians sat crouched together moaning; but it struck it on the farther side and gave it such a l)low that it whirled around, and the other masses following drove it toward our shore. Then we helped the poor people up the bank and brought them to the fort and gave them some bread and beans. You never saw any one so thin in your life. They were so weak that they could ha]"dly stand. I don't see how the squaws ever carried their little children and made such leaps from the canoes to the cake of ice. It must have been because they were starv- ing and their only hope was that, if they could only get to us, we would give them food. These were not the only red men who came to us for help. Do you remember that I told you, ever so many pages back in this long, long letter, about some Indians who asked the Governor to take care of their dried eels, and then went away into the forest to hunt? Late in the winter they came back and took their eels again. Their work was over, and now they wanted to eat and sleep till the rest of the cold weather had gone. They built some wigwams as close to the fort as we would let them, and stayed there all the rest of the winter. They were not very quiet neigh])ors, and the reason was that they believed their dreams would come true. These Indians are Algonquins, and 58 RECEIVING THE STARVING INDIANS LETTERS FROM COLONIAL CHILDREN tliey are tei-i'ibly afraid of the L'oquois, some other Indians who live to the south of ns. Some one of them often dreamed that the Iroquois were coming. Then they ran to the fort and woke us up and begged to come in where they would be safe. The Cxovernor was good to them ; and although he knew it was all foolishness, he always let the women and children come in and stay till morning. But I have n't told you the hardest, saddest j^art of the win- ter's story. That was the sickness which came down upon us. There were twenty-eight of us in the fall and only eight when the winter was over. Thank the good God, my Guillaume, for saving me, and pray Him that I may one day come back to you to live in our own beautiful France. I cannot tell you how much I thought of home during those dark, cold days of the winter. When I half shut my eyes I did not see the terrible snow, but the sunny marshes of Brouage and the square pools with the nar- row dikes between. I saAvthe blue salt water flowing into them. Then I saw the salt beginning to collect on the surface of the water. It was all white and creamy. I even fancied that I could smell the sweet violet fragrance that comes from it. Sometimes I thought of the place as it looks when the pools are dry and the salt is piled up in gleaming cones along the dikes. I know so well what a hurrying and rushing there is to get it safely stowed away into the ships before a rain comes, that I almost saw the men in their white frocks shoveling it into the white canvas bags and throwing them over the backs of the horses. I 60 HENRI LAMOTTE OF CANADA fancied I saw the boys leading the horses and running as fast as ever they could to the quays ; then returning on horseback at full gallop to get another load. I used to sit with my eyes half shut and fancy that I could see all this and that I had hold of your hand as I used to do when we walked on the dikes together. Once I thought you were slipping, and I called aloud, " Hold fast, Guillaume ! " Then I woke, and when I looked out, there was no sunny Brouage, but leagues and leagues of cold white snow. The masses of ice in the river were sfrindiuir to- gether and creaking and hissing and growling, and the cold gray sky was over us all. Do you wonder, Guillaume, that, sad and half sick as we were, we were joyful when the snow melted and we saw the first l)it of brown earth V It was only a wee l)it, not half so large as your little garden, but it meant that the horrible cold had almost gone. Monster icicles, two or three times as long as a man, rat- tled down from the Rock. The sky was not so gray and gloomy. The days were growing longer. The bit of brown earth became larger, the sunshine w^as warmer. We began to talk of what would be i^lanted in our garden. Then the Governor told us of his garden at Port Royal, where they moved w^hen the}^ had to leave Saint Croix. " There was a little summer-house," he said, " and when I sat in it, I could see the flowers in the garden and the wide ditches of water with trout swimming merrily about in them. Around all this were the green meadows with here and there a beautiful tree. It seemed as if the little birds round about 61 LETTERS FROM COLONIAL CHILDREN took pleasure in it, for they gathered there in large numbers, warbhng and chirping so pleasantly that I think I never heard the like." He told us, too, about the merry times they had at MERRY TIMES AT PORT ROYAL table. Each one provided the food for one day. He might shoot game, or catch fish or, if he was lazy, he might buy food of the Indians; but he must see to it that in some way there should be a good dinner. These men called themselves members of the Order of Mirth, and the one in charge for the day was Grand ]VIaster. When dinner came, he put on the glittering collar of the Order, threw a naj)kin over his shoulder, took the staff of 62 HENRI LAMOTTE OF CANADA his office in his hand, and led the way to the table. The others followed him, each one carrying some dish. They had a merry time eating their dinner, you may be sure. At night, the Grand Master put the collar around the neck of the man whose turn came next. Then each took a cup of wine and drank one an- other's health. " That's the way we did at Port Royal, but it is all gone now," the Governor said. Then he seemed to forget that he was not alone, and he muttered, "I do not believe that Poutrincourt will give it up. He will go back some day, and Port Koyal may yet be a town." He aroused himself and said, "•' But this is Quebec, the great fortress, the Queen of the Saint Law- rence. What shall we do for Quebec?" He planned where the seeds should be j)lanted, and we all set to work. The winter was over, the summer had come, the ice had long ago gone from the river, ^ow, Guillaume, which way should you have looked and what should you have hoped to see ? I know what you will say. It is this : " I should have looked and looked down the river to see if a ship from France was not on its way." That is just what we did. Every morning some one would say, ''Maybe there will be news of the ship to-day;" and at night we were sure to hear from some corner of the house, " She did u't come to-day, boys, but she is one day nearer than she was yesterday." At last, one bright June morning when the flowers were blooming and the birds were singing, we caught sight of a little white sail not far from the Isle d'Orleans. At first it did not look any bigger than one of the little paper boats 63 LETTERS FROM COLONIAL CHILDREN that you are so fond of sailing, but it brought us a joyful mes- sage. Think Iioay happy we were when we heard that Captain Pontgrave was at Tadousac ! We almost felt as if we were on our way home, for now we should know what had been going on in France and we should hear from our friends. You can guess what I said to myself, little bi'other. It was, " Xow I shall hear from Cxuillaume. From Guillaume, from Guillaume," I kept saying over and over in my mind as I went down to the boat with the Governor. In a little more than two da3's we were at Tadousac. There was the ship, there was the Captain with his men ; and, best of all, there was a long, long letter from nurse that told me all about you, that you were Avell and good, and that you did not forget the big brother far away over the sea, I am just twice as old as you, my little Guillaume. Do you think I am very aged? Sometimes I feel as if I were. The Governor treats me as if I were twenty-five. He is very kind and never seems to forget that our mothers were distant kin. He will put me ahead, I am sure, and do all he can. He said he was glad that our bit of money was invested in the Company, and he hoped it wotdd not be many years before I should be able to return to you. He has promised that I shall go with him on his hrst exploring trip. You won't understand all of this, I am afraid; but never mind, nurse will know what it means, and she will explain it to you. But I was telling you abo^it our going to Tadousac to meet 64 HENRI LAMOTTE OF CANADA Captain Pontgrave. Governor Champlain had a plan to go mnch farther than that and in a different direction. He asked the Captain to come to Quebec and stay while he was gone; then he set off on his journey, or rathei-, we set off, for I went with him. Do you remember that I told you there were three things which he wanted to do : to found a settlement, to teach the Indians to become Christians, and to explore the coun- try far to the west in the hope that he might perhaps discover the passage which every one believes there is somewhere leading to the ocean that washes the shores of China ? The settlement was well begun; and he hoped before very long to bring over some good priests who would teach the Indians. He wanted now to find out what lay to the west of us. He did not know the way, and how was he to find it? I am sure that when nurse reads you this you will say, "Ask the Indians to show him." That is just what he did do, and they were ready enough to say yes ; but they asked him if he would do them a favor in return. This is what the favor was : that he would take what they called his firestick with him and help them in a battle with the Iroquois. He promised to do this. The Indians were delighted, for they knew that the Governor would do just Avhat he agreed. They told the other tribes that are friends of theirs, and some of them came as fast as they could so as to go with them and help fight their enemies. The Governor and some of the Indians, together with two more of us white men, set out to sail up the river; but before 65 LETTERS FROM COLONIAL CHILDREN we had gone far, we came upon two or three hundred other Indians who had come a long way to meet us, for they had heard of the wonderful firestick and they wanted to join the party. Now do you suppose we all set off as fast as we could go? No, indeed; that is not the Lidian way. These strangers had never seen a white man before, and they gazed at the Governor and the other white man and me just as you gaze at a puppet show. They looked at our white skins and clothes and armor, and especially at the amazing firesticks. They asked questions about everything, and they felt of everything except the firesticks ; they were a little afraid of those. Then we all settled down to a sort of picnic. We smoked together, we made speeches to each other, and we feasted. Even after all that they were not quite ready to go on. " We have heard of the marvellous houses that you have made at Kebec," they said, "and before we go on the warpath, we want to go there to look at them." The Governor was eager to go on and see the great, strange country, but he did not get out of patience. He turned back and we all went together to Quebec. When the men there saw us coming, they thought the Governor must have given up his voyage, but he soon told them why he had returned. "The Indians are like little children," he said. "If we please them in small things, they will be willing to please us in great things. We want them to become our friends and good subjects of our king. Let them look as long as they like." It seemed as if they never would be through looking. They 66 HENRI LAMOTTE OF CANADA stared at the houses and wanted to feel of everythmg in them. They stood and watched the sun-dial an hour at a time to see the shadow creep around, and they would have gazed at the j;l.2-^t