190 ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA 
of; that the French remained long enough to load the ships with furs and 
then returned to France. That the next year they came again with four ships 
and went to the small island at the mouth of the Scoudiac River,; that this 
island was the place of resort for the Indians to deposit their articles both in 
going up and coming down the Scoudiac River, and has a name describing 
that as its use; that the French landed there and remained some months, but 
finding that the water upon the island was not good, and had a poisonous 
quality, and that a mortality as they supposed from that cause prevailed 
among them, they went away; that at this time they did not traffic; that all 
the adjacent country was full of Indians; that the French came to this small 
island because they could there defend themselves; that they did not go to 
any other island or remain on shore at any other place, from their fear of 
the Indians, who were not willing that they should land upon the main, or 
any large island, lest they should claim a right of possession. That this 
island was larger than it now is, and that the sea has washed it away from 
the rocks on the lower side. That the small hill or island towards the sea 
had always remained distinct by itself, and the water on the inside and near 
to it is very deep. 
In further conversation they said that after erecting the cross at the 
Magaguadavic, the French Priest went up to the forks of that river, and 
there put some earth in his handkerchief, and said ‘‘this is the place.”’ 
Another tradition of about the same time (given in the “ Courier 
Series,” No. XXIV.) states that the Indians used to lie in wait for 
the French as they landed from the island. 
These testimonies, in comparison with the known facts, do not 
allow us to entertain a very high regard for the accuracy of Indian 
tradition.. But it must be conceded that there is in them a certain 
substratum of truth, and that probably they are less accurate than they 
would be were 1t not for a confusion of several voyages in the minds 
of the Indians. It is possible, for instance, that the visits of other early 
French traders who entered this bay are here confused with those 
ef de Monts, and it is probable that the tradition about the naming 
of St. Andrews? may be substantially correct, though belonging to 
a much later period. 
We may next consider an erroneous supposition originated by 
Willis in the “New England Historical and Genealogical Register,” 
Vol. XV., 1861, 212, 213, that Protestant religious services, the first 
held in North America north of Florida, were held on the island in 
1604-1605. The evidence is based upon a combination of two 
passages in Lescarbot’s History. One, (page 461 of the 1612 edition), 
beginning “Je demanderois” (given earlier, page 174), Willis inter- 
prets as a protest by Lescarbot against the settlement, whence he 
infers that Lescarbot was at the island in 1604. But this is simply 
a mistranslation of demanderois, which means simply “I would ask,” 

1 Discussed in Acadiensis, II., 184. 
