Page:American Historical Review vol. 6.djvu/693

This page needs to be proofread.

Marc Lescarbot 68 3 Roberval and his brother made a second expedition when the wars at home were over, and that in this they both lost their Hves.' He could also find no account of the expedition of de la Roche, which he places in the year 1596, so contented himself with printing his commission after the edition published at Rouen in 159S." The remainder of Book II. (Chap. XXXI.-XLVIII.) gives the history of de Monts's attempt to colonize Acadia. This, the only original part of the work, is also the most important, for it supple- ments in many places the account of the same given by Champ- lain.'* In Chapter XXXI. Lescarbot gives the commission of de Monts after an edition published in Paris in 1605 and of which a copy is preserved in the archives of the French Foreign Office. * Chapters XXXII. to XXXVIII. tell the story of the departure of the colonists from France, of the search for a suitable spot for set- tlement, of the choice of the Island of Ste. Croix, of the winter spent there and finally of the removal of the colony to Port Royal. Since during this period Lescarbot was still in France he must have received his information from some of those who took part in these events. Among the chief of these was probably de Poutrincourt, for we have a number of details of his voyage out ■' and back. The events in the colony during the year 1605, when de Poutrin- court was absent, were obtained doubtless from de Monts or from one of his men. ^ It is possible indeed that Lescarbot even had at his disposal a diary kept by some one on the voyage or otherwise he would not have been able to give the exact dates of so many events. ' Chapters XXXIX. to XLVIII. contain an account of que le Roy I'appelloit Le petit Roy de Vimeu, a ce que i'ay entendu du sieur De la Roque a present Prevot de Vimeu, qui se dit de la parente dudit sieur de Roberval." ' Ibid., p. 434: " Apres que les guerres eurent pris quelque interim par de(;a, ces deux champions . . . equipperent quelque navire pour continuer 1' entreprise et sont en- core a revenir. " For a good life of Roberval see Abbe E. Morel, Ji^uii Francois de la Roque, Seigneur de Roberval, in the Bulletin de Geographic Historique et Descriptive, Paris, 1S92, pp. 273-296. "^ Ibid., p. 431. " De la Roche duquel nous n'avons point de memoire qu'il ait rien fait, sinon d'avoir decharge quelques 40 hommes i Tile de Sable." Cf. also p. 18. Michelant et Rame, Voyage de Cartier an Canada en IS34, Paris, 1865, p. 3. " Ayant ces iours passez imprime 1' Edict du Roy contenant le pouvoir et commission donnee par sa Maieste au sieur Marquis de la Roche pour la conqueste des terres-neufves, de Norem- bergue," etc. Lescarbot uses the same title. Cf. Histoirc, p. 434. sLaverdi^re, CEuvres de C/iamplain, Tome III., Chap. II-XI. ^Amerique, Vol. IV. ^Histoire, pp. 473-499. 5 Ibid., pp. 499 et seqq. " Par ainsi les navires estans prets a partir pour le retour, de Poutrincourt se mit . . . dedans I'un d'iceux . . . Le voyage ne fut sans tour- mente et grands perils. Car entre autres i'en reciteray deux ou trois," etc. ■'Ibid., pp. 503-505. 525, 530-532, 534-539- ^ Ibid., pp. 474, " le septiiJme jour de Mars ;" p. 475, "le sixieme de May ;" p. 476, "la dixieme de Mars;" p. 486, " le vingt quatrieme Juin," etc.