100 ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA 



nization and we know by Champlain's writings that no resident, no 

 ''' habitant," tilled the soil during that quarter of a century. The men 

 who were employed at Quebec and elsewhere by the companies all belong- 

 ed to Xormandy and, after 1632, twelve or fifteen of them married the 

 daughters of the other Xormans recently arrived to settle for good. 

 Brittany remaind in the background after, as well as before, 1632, 

 This is confirmed by an examination of the parish registers where about 

 thirty Bretons only can be found during the last period of the 17th 

 Century. 



The men of Cartier and Eoberval (1535-44) were all Bretons and 

 unaccustomed to residence elsewhere than at home in Brittany. The 

 result was that most of them perished from the effect of cold, bad 

 nourishment, disease, and despair, whilst the present French Canadian 

 would not experience any hardship were he to find himself in the same 

 situation. 



When Champlain (1604-30) describes the miseries of life in Acadia 

 and the lower St. Lawrence, he merely state? for our information that 

 his men and himself had acquired very little knowledge in that sense 

 above that of previous explorers. They still persisted in depending 

 upon the provisions brought from France — salt pork, beans, flour, mostly 

 affected by the influence of weather, time, etc., and not always abundant 

 enough to cover the period at the end of which a fresh supply would be 

 sent. It was considered good fortune when one or two of the men could 

 handle a gun and shoot some game. As for the art of fishing, nobody 

 seems to have known anything of it, and these people starved in a world 

 of plenty, since they had the rivers, and lakes, and the forests lying all 

 around their miserable camps. 



The only superiority of the Champlain men over the crew of Cartier 

 consisted in the building of a house or two, but even at this they showed 

 a rather poor conception of comfort. Chauvin, in 1599, went to Tadou- 

 sac and left there sixteen of his followers to winter, without the elemen- 

 tary precautions of providing them with eatables and warm quarters. 

 In the spring of 1600 the place was found empty, and none of the men 

 are mentioned afterwards. The Indians had always been friendly to 

 them, but could not take such inexperienced folks to the woods. The 

 same thing happened to De Monts (1604-5) in Acadia, when nearly all 

 his party died of scorbutic disease and want of food during the rough 

 season. Champlain, who knew these facts recorded from the years of 

 Cartier, did not succeed any better in 1608, when he lost twenty men 

 out of twenty-eight. This was repeated yearly afterwards, but in smaller 

 proportions. 



