170 ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA 
Our surgeons could not help suffering themselves in the same manner as 
the rest. Those who continued sick were healed by Spring, which commences 
in this country in May. ‘Tihat led us to believe that the change of season 
restored their health, rather than the remedies prescribed. 
During this winter all our liquors froze, except the Spanish wine. Cider 
was dispensed by the pound. The cause of this last was that there were no 
cellars under our storehouse, and that the air which entered by the cracks was 
sharper than that outside.’ We were obliged to use very bad water, and drink 
melted snow, as there were no springs nor brooks; for it was not possible to go 
to the mainland in consequence of the great pieces of ice drifted by the tide,’ 
which varies three fathoms between low and high water. Work on the hand 
mill was very fatiguing, since the most of us, having slept poorly, and suffer- 
ing from insufficiency of fuel, which we could not obtain on account of the! 
ice, had scarcely any strength, and also because we ate only salt meat and 
vegetables during the winter, which produced bad blood. The latter circum- 
stance was, in my opinion, a partial cause of these dreadful maladies.* All this 
produced discontent in Sieur de Monts and others of the settlement. 
It would be very difficult to ascertain the character of this region without 
spending a winter in it; for, on arrving here in summer, everything is very 
agreeable, in consequence of the woods, fine country, and many varieties of 
good fish which are found here. There are six months of winter in this 
country. 
Here follows an account of the customs of the Indians of this 
region, of much interest and value but not connected with our present 
subject. | 
[57] . . . . Au mois de Mars ensuiuant il vint quelques sauuages qui nous 
firent part de leur chasse en leur donnant du pain & autres choses en 
eschange. 
Nous attendions nos vaisseaux à la fin d’Auril lequel estant passé chacun 
commenca à auoir mauuaise opinion, craignant qu'il ne leur fust arrivé 

? Of course not a fact. 
? Compare earlier, page 138. 
* Aggravated by the enforced idleness of the men, no doubt. 
Father Biard, in his Relation of 1616 (Jesuit Relations, III., 52), says:— 
“ Que de toutes les gens du sieur de Monts, qui premierement hyuernerent 
“a Saincte Croix, onze seulement demeurent en santé. C’estoyent les chas- 
“seurs, qui en gaillards compagnons aimoyent mieux la picorée, que l’air du 
“foyer; courir vn estang, que de se renuerser pasesseusement dans vn lict, de 
“pestrin les neiges en abbattant le gibier, que non pas de deuiser de Paris & 
‘’ ses rotisseurs aupres de feu.” 
TRANSLATION. 
“Of all sieur de Monts’s people who wintered first at Sainte Croix, only 
“eleven remained well. These were a jolly company of hunters, who preferred 
“rabbit hunting, to the air of the fireside; skating on the ponds, to turning 
“over lazily in bed; making snowballs to bring down the game, to sitting 
‘around the fire talking about Paris and its good cooks.” 
These eleven doubiless included de Monts, Champlain, and the other gentle- 
men of the party, many of whom had come on the expedition in search of 
adventure. 
