¦¦lA-.J'J! pmtm rrrr—j Yale Uiiiversilv Lihrary JNT PESERX 39002014769435 isio ..»*' * 1»>4 «1 <• ' *^|..'<'^^ V "/give tJtipt Bcaksi I ftr the /aiifiiUag if e Colhgi/ inthi^ Colony' Q^Cdvk. /"/- ,190^, MOUNT DESERT MOUNT DESERT By GEORGE E. STREET EDITED BY SAMUEL A. ELIOT WITH A MEMOBIAL INTRODUCTION BY WILBERT L. ANDEESON BOSTON AITD KEW YORK HOUGHTON, MIFFLIN AND COMPANY ®{ie Siibet^ide pre^^, Cambtibse 190S COPYRIGHT 1905 BY MARY A. STREET ALL RIGHTS RESERVED Published September iqos It' CONTENTS CHAP. PAGB Memoir of Dr. Street, ly Wilhert L. Anderson ix Editor's Preface, iy Samuel A. Eliot . . xv I. Saint Croix 1 II. Saint Sauveur 31 III. Pemetic 57 IV. The Tort and Refugee Proprietors . 101 V. Mount Desert Plantation .... 137 A/T. Mount Desert Townships .... 183 vn. Mount Desert Churches .... 227 Vin. Social and Industrial Conditions . . 281 IX. The Summer Colonies 321 Bibliographical Notes .... 347 Index 361 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS Samuel de Champlain .... Frontispiece Dr. George E. Street ix Map of Mount Desert ...... 1 Henrt IV 6 Due DE Sully 12 Title of De Monts's Commissions .... 14 Title of Champlain's Book 20 Madame de Guerchevillb 36 Otter Cliff 40 Fernald's Point (from Greening's Island) . . 44 Manchester's Podstt 66 Bear Island 82 Cadillac's Harbor (from Bear Island) . . 82 Sieur D'Iberville 86 At Ship Harbor 98 Facsimile of a Latin Description .... 114 Plan of Governor Bernard's Town Site . . 118 Facsimile of a De Gbegoire Deed .... 134 Somes Sound 144 Seal Cove 150 Entrance to Bar Harbor .... 190 viii LIST OF ILLUSTEATIONS somesville 190 At Norwood's Cove 216 Bishop Davis Wasgatt Clark 248 Congregational Church, Seal Harbor. . . 262 Unitarian Church, Bar Harbor .... 262 Union Church, Northeast Harbor . . . 276 Episcopal Church, Northeast Harbor . . . 276 Eben M. Hamor 302 First Hotel at Bar Harbor 334 First Cottage at Bar Harbor .... 334 From Sargent's Mountain 340 Northeast Harbor .... . 340 DR. GEORGE B. STREET GEORGE EDWARD STREET FoK a quarter of a century Dr. Street passed his summer vacations at Southwest Harbor. With delightful enthusiasm he was wont to speak of the beauty of this favored spot, the tonic of its breezes, the charm of its people, the wealth of its traditions. Having a genius for acquaintance, he easily came to know many of the permanent residents of Mount Desert and the surrounding islands, and to count among his friends many of those who return to this popular resort season after season. His sympathetic and active mind quickly appropriated whatever was of interest in the place, and as eagerly gathered up suggestions for local betterment. One who knew Dr. Street well per ceives why and how he organized the Southwest Village Improvement Society, and for what reason he was chosen to serve as its president, for he had an untiring interest in devising plans for public improvement and for the intellectual and moral development of communities. It is equally easy to understand how Dr. Street became the historian of Mount Desert, for an ancient legend was as dear to him as schemes of social advancement were fascinating. His was the enthusiasm to nm down every item of knowledge, to give every man. X GEOEGE EDWAED STEEET whether famous or obscure, his full significance, and to discern the ideal though duU masses of detail. The man who preserves the memory of others ought himself to be known. George Edward Street was born in Cheshire, Conn., June 18, 1835. His father was Col. Thaddeus Street, a descendant of the Rev. Nicholas Street, colleague and successor of the Rev. John Davenport, founder and minister of New Haven, Conn. On the side of his mother, Martha Davenport Rey nolds, his ancestry was equally distinguished, the Rev. John Davenport and Governor Roger Wol cott being among those from whom descent was traced. A nature open to culture, inclined toward public affairs, and adapted to the work of a cler gyman, was the heritage of this well-born boy. The schools and the academy of Cheshire gave him his preparation for his college course, which he completed at Yale in 1858. Two years of teaching in Stonington, Conn., followed. In 1860 he en tered Andover Theological Seminary and gradu ated three years later. This was the day of great teachers at Andover, — Stowe, Phelps, Park were there. In a tribute to Professor Park, Dr. Street himself wrote : " But for the sickening reports from the seat of war, our middle year would have been a succession of delights, as we came into close range of our great professor in the lecture- room. As it was, he turned the war into a fertile GEOEGE EDWAED STEEET xi source of illustrations of the sublime themes he handled." Under such influences as these, one inclined toward patriotism and philanthropy had an easy choice. Mr. Street served in the Christian Commission, mainly at Potomac Creek and Stone- man's Switch, near Fredericksburg, Va., from February to April, 1863. The chaplaincy of the Sixty-third Pennsylvania Infantry was offered him, but an attack of diphtheria prevented his accepting it. Mr. Street was ordained, April 6, 1864, as pas tor of the Congregational Church in Wiscasset, Me. Doubtless his interest in the history of the Maine coast dates from his life in this little sea port. After nearly eight years of service there, he was called to the pastorate of the Second Con gregational Church in Exeter, N. H., and was in stalled March 30, 1871. This position he held until December 31, 1899, when broken health compelled the surrender of the office, whose duties had been shared for some years by an associate pastor. He was pastor emeritus of this church until his death. His long and successful service and his personal worth were recognized by the degree of doctor of divinity, conferred by Dart mouth College, June 29, 1900. He habitually attended the important conferences of his denom ination. He was ever a strong supporter of mis sions at home and abroad, and from October 14, 1897, he served as a corporate member of the xii GEOEGE EDWAED STEEET American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions. Many of his memorial and historical sermons and addresses were published. The life of Dr. Street was greatly enriched by his union in marriage with Mary Evarts Ander son, who received a fine inheritance of character and a rare training for her position in the church, as the daughter of the Rev. Rufus Anderson, D. D., for more than a third of a century corre sponding secretary of the American Board of Foreign Missions. A son born of this marriage is in business in Boston, and a daughter is the wife of the Rev. William W. Ranney of Hart ford, Conn. Two daughters died in childhood. It was the hope of his friends that Dr. Street would never give up his residence in Exeter, but he found it necessary to escape the rigorous win ters of New Hampshire. Upon the marriage of his daughter the home, which he had occupied for brief periods only in the later years, was broken up. Death came suddenly two months later ; he died of angina pectoris in Hartford, December 26, 1903. His grave, as is most fitting, is in Exeter. The bare chronicle of the Ufe of Dr. Street is a far too meagre showing, for such a man could not pass through the ordinary routine of experi ence without transforming it. His fine presence and courtly manner gave him distinction in any society, and his broad culture and knowledge of GEOEGE EDWAED STEEET xiii the world, enriched by extensive travel in his own country and in foreign lands, sustained the im pression. His quick sympathy and his deep in terest in men of many kinds won a host of friends among his townsmen and in the world at large. As a pastor he illustrated the higher ideals of a spiritual leader, preaching the gospel simply and earnestly, and training his church in Christian service and benevolence. At the same time he had the impulses of a reformer, and again and again he took his place in front of the battle line. He was indefatigable in his efforts for tem perance, and from him came the incentive that finally drove the saloons from Exeter. He was an agitator for parks, and better streets, and every public improvement. The beautiful house of worship erected by his parish was his concep tion. Phillips Exeter Academy was ever in his mind, and over many of its students he exerted a formative influence. Enthusiasm for all good causes came to him by instinct, but the preaching passion was strongest in his soul. When failing health took him from the pulpit, he bore the trial with Christian resignation, yet he often remarked that he felt the uprising in his heart of a message that his physical strength was not competent to utter. At such times one discerned how hard it was for this alert and eager mind to accept the restraint upon its activity. A period of rest so far restored his health that xiv GEOEGE EDWAED STEEET he was able to make the preparations for writing this history of Mount Desert. It gave him plea sant employment, concentrated the energy that could not brook idleness, gratified his love for a locality that he had adopted with all his heart, and rounded out his life with fitting labors. May it keep his memory green in the place where he spent his holidays ; the community in which he wrought at his life task has other monuments to keep the remembrance of him alive. WiLBERT L. Anderson. EDITOR'S PREFACE The work of collecting the material for this book occupied the leisure of a busy and useful life for a considerable period. Dr. Street pos sessed a lively historical interest, and the scenery and associations of his summer home were greatly endeared to him. In the vacation intervals. Dr. Street talked with winsome enthusiasm with the representatives of the families longest settled on the island or with summer residents interested in his project. Happy in the sympathy and aid of his wife and daughter, he gathered references, coUected photographs, and persuaded his neigh bors to open to him their stores of local know ledge. In the winter evenings at Exeter or Hartford the notes and papers thus gathered were arranged and copied by the united indus try of Dr. and Mrs. Street. Dr. Street hoped to have the book in readiness for the three hun dredth anniversary of Champlain's discovery of the island, which was celebrated in September, 1904, but sickness came upon him and the task he loved lingered. His cheerful courage looked eagerly to the day when he could take up the work anew, but that day never came. The gen erous confidence of his family intrusted the xvi EDITOE'S PEEFACE incomplete task to another busy man who shared Dr. Street's enthusiasm for his summer home, and the collected material was placed in my hands in the spring of 1904. It has been pre pared for publication with as much promptness and care as the limited time at my command has permitted. I have ventured to depart from the original plan in so far as to make a continuous historical narrative out of the separate papers, by different authors, which Dr. Street had col lected. The original contributions are thus in corporated in the narrative and due acknow ledgment is made in the notes of the kind cooperation of the friends who sent their manu scripts to Dr. Street. Some new material has been added and the book enriched by further contributions from sources that have only re cently been made available. The merits of this book are due to the initiative, the discriminating insight, and the patient industry of Dr. Street and his family and friends. S. A. E. f" "' »iif . / / o .-- '/* ' ^ -' ,/ . s^ ^ji,^%# / / >jar'^ pq / < ,/ H ' ¦-> ,-L-53 - ,. , "" -.^'" / '4^ t^ A K 3 \ 5 r^a/-' I ?p SI r 1 '' Xr.:^''^' O If.' ' I i ( '¦'¦¦'^'^ilS"'^^" " " l"N.rt.."<^-" ..Ar, i^.-'->- ,-- ""'" «¦'=.,„ 0 r ^¦ D — ^>: -£°LE - ri o'^ ( v s gj/- : i-i '^ s ,/. ¦ai; — / ^ ro -- / 5 H / S, I'y^- r^ - ._^ i. -^/iil^ _^\ %'- -' 'O >''°' /'ml _y V \v I SAINT CEOIX Flawless bis heart and tempered to the core Who, beckoned by the forward-leaning wave, First left behind him the firm footed shore, And, urged by every nerve of sail and oar, Steered for the Unknown. Lowell SAINT CROIX. 1604 Do we not too often imagine that there is an absence of romance in the early history of our native land ? There is a widespread notion that the local history of America is commonplace and prosaic, if not trivial. No mist of distance ob scures the harsh outlines, no mirage of tradition Ufts Uves and events into importance. Literature and art and song have enriched the charm of Old World scenes and themes, until our sense of the interest and witchery of nearer things has been dimmed. Do we not need to shift our historical perspective and to realize that there is a charm in the records of our own historic past which is as entrancing as any in the annals of mankind ? The hUls and fields and islands of New England blossom with the sweet flowers of romance as richly as any meadows of Old World fame. One cause for Our feeling that America has a prosaic history is that we are wont to begin our historical observations with the permanent set tlements of Europeans on these shores, — with Jamestown and, Plymouth, New Amsterdam and Salem. We forget the years of discovery and exploration and futile effort at colonization that antedate the ultimately successive enterprises. We make our history the record of merely material 4 MOUNT DESEET advance, and so the noise of axe and hammer drowns out the poetry. Is there not always more romance in brave endeavors that fail than in the equally brave endeavors that succeed ? Shall we not do well to remind ourselves sometimes of the fortitude and zeal of the pioneers before the Pil grims ? Again, for the most part we inherit a purely English tradition of American history. We for get that the earliest settlements in America were not English, but Spanish and French, and there is somehow more poetry about the dashing cour tiers of Philip II and Henry of Navarre, about the black-robed priests and their adventurous companions, than about our grim Puritan fore fathers or about the sturdy traders of New Neth erlands. The oldest permanent settlement on our Atlantic coast, St. Augustine, is Spanish in its origin, and the two most interesting of the tem porary settlements were made, the one by French Huguenots in Florida, and the other by French Jesuits in Maine. The ruthless bigotry of Spanish Catholics exterminated the Huguenots in Florida, and the violence of English Protestants dispersed the Jesuits at Mount Desert. New England was caUed New France for fifty years before Captain John Smith gave it its pre sent name. Fifteen years before the Mayflower came to anchor in Plymouth Harbor its waters had been sounded and its outlines drawn by SAINT CEOIX 5 Frenchmen seeking a permanent home. The Pil grims, had they known of it, might have bought, ere they sailed, at the Uttle shop of Jean Bergon in the Rue St. Jean de Beauvais, at the sign of the Winged Horse, in Paris, a chart of Plymouth Harbor remarkable for its accuracy and skill. Twenty-five years before John Winthrop and his company landed on the Peninsula where they planted Boston, Frenchmen had mapped the bay, described its features with surprising fidelity, and named its points and rivers. It is not within the purpose of this history to teU of the exploits of the earUer French voyagers, for they only touched along the New England shores, and their courses cannot always be accu rately tiaced. As early as 1524 Verrazano passed along our Atlantic coast from Florida to New foundland, and his landfaUs in New York Bay, at Block Island, at Newport, and several other points can be fairly weU identified. He wrote the earUest description known to exist of the shores of the United States. But France, torn with wars, her king a captive, her treasury empty, was in no mood at that time for transatlantic enterprises, and the voyage was fruitless of result. Nor does it faU within my purpose to speak of the voyages of Jacques Cartier, the discovery of the St. Lawrence River, and the efforts toward colonization made by Roberval and La Roche. These enterprises are but the prelude of the drama 6 MOUNT DESEET of French colonization in America ; a half cen tury of silence rolls between them and the more persistent attempts of the later heroes. The New foundland banks were indeed visited every sum mer throughout the sixteenth century by the hardy Basque and Breton fishermen. The ports of Dieppe and Honfleur alone sent two hundred sail of fishing craft annually, and these venturesome Uttle vessels may at times have felt their way into the harbors of Cape Breton — a name which commemorates their visits — or even penetrated to the gulf of Maine ; but the fishermen left no record of their adventures.^ The romantic story of the exploration of our hundred-harbored New England shore begins when a quaint little vessel, no larger than a fish ing smack of to-day, glided one summer morning in 1604 under the frowning crags of the Grand Manan and held her way up the river which marks to-day the boundary of Maine and New Bruns wick and which thenceforth has borne the name of St. Croix. On board this little vessel was an organized French colony seeking a permanent home. The best and meanest of France were crowded on the deck. There were nobles from the court of Henry IV and thieves from the Paris prisons; there were Catholic priests and Huguenot ministers ; there were ruffians who were flying from justice, and there were young volun- ^ See Winsor's Cartier to Frontenac, p. 79. henrt it SAINT CEOIX 7 teers of high birth and character. What had led these men to tempt the perils of the uncharted seas and the unknown wilderness, and what was the origin and impulse of their enterprise ? One of the motives which stimulated all the first adventurers on the American coasts was doubtless the hope of material gain. To the inquisitive and credulous minds of the men of the sixteenth century the New World meant Eldorado. The Spaniards in the south were cer tainly spurred to their daring exploits by the expectation of finding gold, and their marvelous success in securing the treasures of the golden kingdoms of Central America stimulated all that came after them. Gold mines reported by Indians are all the time referred to by early voyagers even on the New England shore. The sanguine prospectors beUeved everything they were told about the hidden wealth of the regions they had come to explore, and the shivering poverty of the naked Indians who were the only inhabit ants of the new-found coasts did not undeceive them. National rivalry found a place among the motives that prompted effort. Was the land of boundless wonder and fertility to be abandoned to foreigners ? Frenchmen asked themselves if their English foes were to outdo them in the New World. Englishmen were eager to disprove the claim of the Spaniards to the continent by vir- 8 MOUNT DESEET tue of " a parchment signed by an Italian priest." Feeling often ran high, and it is well known that the adventurers of the different nations, though at peace at home, often came to blows in distant America. Next we should recognize the influence of missionary enthusiasm. Even the Spaniards were full of desire to convert the Indians, and some of their most ruthless tyrannies were undertaken in the name of religion. The priests were always important figures in the conquering armies of the Spanish in Central America. Most of the French adventurers were full of equal religious enthusiasm. The story of the Jesuit missions in Canada is a marvel of devotion and self-forget- fulness. The earliest seal of the Massachusetts Colony, granted in 1629, shows an Indian, with the motto " Come over and help us." The mis sionary zeal was in large measure kindled by the curiosity excited by the Indian captives who were brought at various times from America to the older lands. Here were people from beyond the bounds of Christendom who had never been baptized, " naked slaves of the Devil," as one annaUst described them. Christian people every where were eager to convert these subjects of Satan, not merely from philanthropic motives, but also, as we read, " to spite the Devil." The proselyting spirit was sometimes incongruously mixed up with the hope of commercial gain, as SAINT CEOIX 9 when one navigator wrote to the secretary of Queen Elizabeth that if the Indians " were once brought over to the Christian faith they might soon be brought to relish a more civiUzed kind of life and take off quantities of our coarser woolen manufactures." But the chief impulse was just the spirit of adventure that characterized all active-minded men in Europe at the opening of the seventeenth century. There was an intense curiosity about the New World. To men shut in by the narrow limits of mediaeval geographical knowledge the unveiling of a new continent was an unceasing marvel. The desire to investigate the marvel was irresistible, and adventure by sea became the favorite road to renown. The theory that the new-found shores must be a part of the golden empire of the great Khan was stUl enthroned in many men's imaginations. On almost all the maps of the period the coast Une of America is figured as very thin, with breaks in it here and there. Even when it became better known the coast was still regarded primarily as an obstruc tion on the voyage to Asia, and navigator after navigator sought the never-to-be-discovered strait into the Pacific. The hope of coming upon some short cut into the rich commerce of the Orient survived until late in the century. The value of the New World was dimmed before the glory of the Indies. The Pacific was always just behind 10 MOUNT DESEET the next point. It was a dream that stimulated discovery but retarded settlement. No better description of these nobler motives can be given than that written by one of the boldest and most skillful of the seventeenth cen tury navigators, the godfather of New England, Captain John Smith. " Who can desire," he wrote, "more content than to tread and plant the ground he hath purchased by the hazard of his life ? If he have but the taste of virtue and magnanimity, what to such a mind can be more pleasant than planting and building a foundation for his posterity, got from the rude earth by God's blessing and his own industry? If he have any grain of faith or zeal in reUgion, what can he do less hurtful to any or more agreeable to God than to seek to convert those poor sav ages to know Christ ? What so truly suits with honor as the discovering of things unknown, erecting towns, peopling countries, informing the ignorant, reforming things unjust, teaching vir tue, and gaining to our mother country a king dom to attend her. Then seeing we are not born for ourselves but each to help others, and our abilities are much aUke at the hour of our birth and the minute of our death — seeing honor is our life's ambition and our ambition after death to have an honorable memory of our Ufe — and seeing by no means we would be abated of the dignities and glories of our predecessors, let us SAINT CEOIX 11 imitate their virtues to be worthily their suc cessors." All of these motives, save missionary zeal, were of a nature to appeal to the temperament of Henry the Fourth of France. The French plans of colonization found their impulse in the grasp ing commercialism, the patriotic pride, the chiv alric spirit of that many-sided monarch. The origins of the St. Croix colony are connected with some of the chief events of his epoch-mak ing reign. Never were the justice and expediency of a poUtical measure more promptly vindicated than by the effects which followed the sign ing of the Edict of Nantes by Henry on the thii^ teenth of April, 1598. The publication of this royal decree meant nothing less than the speedy return of prosperity to France. "In one day," says Benoist, " the disasters of forty years were repaired." The civil wars had left the country in a deplorable condition. Everywhere the tiaces of the long and bitter struggle were to be seen in ruined viUages and dismantled castles, in farms laid waste, and cities impoverished. Under the Edict, which secured to the Protestants of France the enjoyment of their civil and religious rights, pubUc confidence revived, and trade and manu factures began again to flourish. For these advantages, the kingdom was largely indebted to the statesmanship of the Huguenot Due de Sully. It was the good fortune of Henry 12 MOUNT DESEET the Fourth to have for his trusty counselor a man of such stanch fideUty and of far-sighted wisdom. In administering the affairs of the coun try Sully's principal concern was for the devel opment of its internal resources. He brought a rigid economy into all the departments of gov ernment, he rapidly reduced the enormous debt which had accumulated during the civil wars; and at the same time he sought to encourage agriculture as the most assured means of national enrichment. By establishing peace and commer cial stabiUty at home, he provided the essential foundation for transatlantic adventure. Henry shared his minister's views ; but he had other plans also, into which Sully did not enter so cordially. The king favored foreign commerce and colonization. It was his ambition to possess a powerful navy, to promote adventure and dis covery and trade with distant lands, and especially to carry out the scheme which had originated with Coligny, his early teacher and companion in arms, for the establishment of a French colony in America. The time for this undertaking had come at last. In the year 1599, Pierre Chauvin, Seigneur de Tontuit,^ of Honfleur in Normandy, was commis sioned by Henry to colonize America. Chauvin 1 Nouvelles Gkmes historiques Normandes, puisees exclusivement dans des documents inedits. Par E. Gosselin, Greffler-Archiviste. Eouen, 1873. DUC DE SULLY SAINT CEOIX 13 was a captain in the royal navy, "very expert and well versed in matters of navigation," says Champlain.^ Several vessels were equipped, and with a considerable force Chauvin embarked and headed for the river of St. Lawrence, which Jacques Cartier had discovered and named more than half a century before. At Tadousac, where the Saguenay enters the St. Lawrence, Chauvin established a trading post, and, leaving sixteen of his men to gather furs, returned to France. The Uttle colony dragged out a miserable ex istence through the winter. Several of the men died, and the others were barely kept alive by the compassionate savages, who shared with them their slender provisions. Chauvin worked hard but unsuccessfuUy to make the settlement per manent, and when about to start upon his third voyage he died. In the foUowing year his com mission was transferred to a Roman Catholic gentleman, Aymar de Chastes, governor of Dieppe. But before the ships he sent out for the further exploration of the country returned, De Chastes too was dead. Henry then turned to one of his most loyal friends and commissioned a Huguenot gentleman Pierre Du Guast, Sieur de Monts, to possess and settle that part of North America lying between 1 " Homme tres expert et entendn an faiet de la navigation, qui avoit servi sa majesty anx gaerres pass^es, quoi qu'il fust de la religion pr^tendue reform^e." 14 MOUNT DESEET the 40th and the 46th degrees of north latitude, granting him the title of lieutenant-general in New France with vice-regal powers, and giving him a monopoly of trade. The king's commis sion was a characteristic document.^ It began by setting forth the king's favorite project for the enlargement of his dominions. "It has ever been," reads the preamble, "our principal con cern and endeavor, since our accession to this crown, to maintain and preserve it in its ancient dignity, greatness, and splendor, and to spread and augment, so far as may be legitimately done, the bounds and Umits thereof." But there was an object of still higher importance to be sought in the present enterprise. The king, " having long since informed himself of the situation and condition of the country and territory of Acadia," professed to be " moved above all things by a singular zeal, and by a devout and firm resolu tion " which he had taken, " with the help and assistance of God, who is the author, distributor, and protector of aU kingdoms and states, to seek the conversion, guidance, and instruction of the races that inhabit that country, from their bar barous and godless condition, and to rescue them from the ignorance and unbelief in which they now lie." For these purposes, secular as weU as ' This commission is printed in the French with an English version in the Appendix of Baird's Huguenot Fmigration to America, i, 341-347. COMMISSIONS Dr Hoj f0 de Manjeigncur h Admiral, aufieurde MoniSypour I'hahi- tation es terres de Lacadte Canada J ^ autres en droits m la nouiulU France. 7/f Enfemble lesdefcnfes premieres & fecon- des a tous autres , de trafiquer auec les Sauuages defdites terrcs» Kueclf)>mficttt'ion en UcottrdeVatiermntaVmb. A PARIS. 16 o J. vV.?;. title of de momts's " commissions ' „_J SAINT CEOIX 15 spiritual, Henry appointed the Sieur de Monts his viceroy and authorized him " to subject all the peoples of that country and of the surrounding parts to our authority ; and by aU lawful means to lead them to the knowledge of God and to the light of the Christian faith and reUgion, and to estabUsh them therein." All other inhabitants were to be maintained and protected in the exer cise and profession of the same Christian faith and religion, and in peace and tranquillity. Thus the foundations of New France were to be laid in religious freedom and toleration. If the plan was impracticable, it did honor, nevertheless, to the heart and mind that prompted and devised the Edict of Nantes. De Monts associated with himself the members of the company which had been organized for the conduct of the previous unsuccessful expedi tions ; and they added to their number other merchants of the principal seaports of the king dom who engaged in the adventure chiefly in hope of gain in the fur-trade. De Monts him self was weU fitted to be the leader of the enter prise. He had fought bravely under Henry in the late wars, and the king had made him one of the gentlemen of his bedchamber, and later appointed him governor of Pons in his native province of Saintonge. AU the early chroniclers agree in characterizing him as a man of integrity and the purest patriotism. In courage, energy. 16 MOUNT DESEET perseverance, in tact and firmness, he was ad mirably qualified for his mission.^ De Monts had accompanied Chauvin " for his own pleasure " on his first visit to the St. Law rence, and his impressions of the country watered by the great river were not favorable. His mind turned to the region lying farther to the south to which the name of Acadie was first given in the king's commission. The winter months were spent in getting vessels and stores in readiness. De Monts embarked in the larger of his two lit tle ships, one of one hundred and fifty tons, the other of one hundred and twenty tons. The smaller vessel, commanded by the Sieur du Pont- grave, one of the merchant partners who had made a voyage to the coast the previous summer, followed soon after. The band of adventurers numbered about one hundred and twenty per sons. De Monts's commission authorized him to impress for his expedition any " vagabonds, idlers, or vagrants," as well as any criminals condemned to banishment from the realm, whom he might see fit to employ. A like permission had been given to preceding adventurers, and more than 1 " Henry IV avoit une grande confiance (en lui) pour sa fide- lit^, comme il a toujours fait paroitre jusques h, sa mort." Voyages du Champlain, ou Journal es Decouvertes de la Nouvelle France. " C'^toit d'ailleurs un fort honnete homme, et qui avoit de z^le pour I'dtat et toute la capacity n^cessaire pour rtJussir dans I'enterprise dont il s'^toit chargd." Histoire de la Nouvelle France, par le P. de Charlevoix, i, 173. SAINT CEOIX 17 one of them had availed himself of it. It does not appear that the Huguenot leader found it necessary to form his entire company out of such materials. There went with him men of his own creed and severe moraUty, who were drawn by the highest motives into an enterprise so romantic and chivalrous.^ Conspicuous among these gentlemen were two of De Monts's former comrades in the service of Henry of Navarre, Jean de Biencourt, Baron de Poutrincourt, the future proprietor of Port Royal ; and the pilot, Samuel de Champlain. John Fiske in his " New France and New England " has said of this noble and charming man : " He was a tiue viking, who loved the tossing waves and the howling of the wind in the shrouds. His strength and agiUty seemed inexhaustible; in the moment of danger his calmness was unruffled as he stood with hand on tiller, caUing out his orders in cheery tones that were heard above the tempest. He was a strict disciplinarian, but courteous and merciful as weU as just and true ; and there was a blithe- ness of mood and quaintness of speech about him that made him a most lovable companion. In 1 The names of a few of these may be gathered from Cham plain's journal. Mention is made of les Sieurs de Geneston, Sou- rin, d'Oraille, Champdord, de Beaumont, la Motte Bourioli, Fougeray, la Taille, Miquelet ; the surgeons des Champs of Honfleur and Bonerme ; Messire Anbry, priest, and le Sieur Raleau, secretary of M. de Monts. 18 MOUNT DESEET the whole course of French history there are few personages so attractive." Samuel de Champlain was born in 1567, in the Uttle town of Brouage, on the Bay of Biscay, some twenty miles south of La RocheUe. His father was a captain in the royal navy, and one of his uncles was a pilot in the king's service. Champlain was famiUar with boats from boyhood, and the sea laid a strong hold upon his imagi nation. In the dedication of one of his books he says : " Among the most useful and excellent arts navigation has always seemed to me to take the first place. In the measure that it is dangerous and accompanied by a thousand perils, by so much is it honorable and lifted above all other arts, being in no wise suitable for those who lack courage and confidence. By this art we acquire knowledge of various lands, countries, and king doms. By it we bring home all sorts of riches, by it the idolatry of Paganism is overthrown and Christianity declared in all parts of the earth. It is this art that has from my childhood lured me to love it, and has caused me to expose myself almost all my life to the rude waves of the ocean." Champlain's boyhood fell in the season of the civil and reUgious wars that were desolating France. Brouage was a military post of impor tance, and it was captured, restored, recaptured, and frequently attacked from 1570 to 1589, so that all its inhabitants must have been familiar SAINT CEOIX 19 with war and trained to arms. There were peri ods of peace, however, and Champlain evidently received some good schooling, for he wrote in a clear, convincing style, was an expert map maker, and showed throughout his life a spirit of jus tice and tolerance far beyond the habit of his time. Brouage was a Huguenot town, but Champlain was all his life a stanch Roman Catholic. Never theless, he served in the army of Henry of Navarre against the CathoUc League. He loved his coun- tiy even better than his religion. History first mentions him as a quartermaster in Henry's army serving in Brittany. In 1598, when peace was made, Champlain went with his uncle in the fleet that carried the Spanish garrison home from the town of Port Louis. With this adventure his own narrative begins. Sailing to Spain, he spent several months at Cadiz and Seville, drawing rude pic tures of cities and harbors, as was his wont, and then found a coveted opportunity of going to the West Indies. Philip II had forbidden foreigners to trade with his American possessions or even to visit them under pain of heavy penalties. Never theless Champlain visited the West Indies and Mexico, penetrating as far as the City of Mexico itself. He paid close attention to everything he saw, making careful notes and rude drawings for a full report to the king of France. On the way home the ship stopped first at Panama and then 20 MOUNT DESEET at Havana, returning to Spain in 1601, after an absence of more than two years. Champlain's account of this voyage, entitled, " A Brief Narrative of the most remarkable things which Samuel Champlain of Brouage met in the West Indies on the voyage which he made there in the years 1599 and 1601," remained in manu script for more than two hundred and fifty years. In 1859 theHakluyt Society published an English translation of it, and in 1870 the Abbe Laver- diere of the Laval University in Quebec published the original. The report is a very straightforward story, and reveals the manly simplicity of Cham plain's character. Here was a man of thirty-three, confident in himself, but with no touch of self- conceit, eager to serve his king and his country, bearing himself so wisely that Spanish jealousy and suspicion were not aroused, an able sailor taking the dangers of the sea carelessly and ever curious for knowledge. Champlain had too a love of romantic adventure that carried him into many dangers, but never quite overcame his prudence. We discover in him courage, patience, resource fulness, calm self-control, and kindness of heart. For his services on this voyage Henry IV made Champlain royal geographer and granted him a pension. He was not content, however, to remain at court, and hailed with delight an opportunity to go to the northern shores of America with his friend Pontgrave, the merchant of Rouen. The SAVVAGES, O V, VOYAGE DE SAMVEL Champlain, de Brovage, fait en la France nouuelle, I'an mil fix cens rrois: CON TENANT les mccursj fa(jOn de viure, maciageSj gnerves^ & hab.-- tations des Sauuages dc Can.idar. De la defcouuerte de plus de quah'c ecus cinquaiuc lieuss dans le par's des Sauuages. Quels pcuples y ha- buenr, des animaui qui s'y trouuent, des riuicres^ lacs,ifles & te.rres & quels atbres & fruiifls elles pro- duifeat. De la cofted'Arcadie, des terres que I'on y a dcfcouuer- tes, &dc plufieurs mines quiy font, felon Ic rapport: