3^5 



- 



the title " Des Sauvages : oil Voyage de Samuel Champlain de 

 Brouage fait en la Fiance Xouvelle Tan mille six cent trois," the 

 only edible tubers mentioned are " certaines petites racines de la 

 grossenr d'une petite nois ressemblant an gonst conime trefies 

 (sc. truffles) qui sont tres-bonnes roties et bouiliies."* These 

 were found on 23rd June, 1003, at Sainte Croix, some 15 leagues 



-i up the river from Quebec; but they are obviously ground-nuts, 



Ajnos tuberosa, Moeneh, which were already known from the 

 reports of earlier voyagers to Virginia. t 



Champlain sailed again from Havre — this lime under the 

 command of the Sieur de Monet — on April 7th, 1004, and 

 remained in New France till August 11th, 1007, reaching St.Malo 

 " on his return on the 1st or 2nd of October in that year. He sailed 

 for the third time on April 13th, 1008, and returned to Honfleur 

 on October 13th,, 1009. The account of these two later journeys 

 is contained in the cl Voyages du Sieur de Champlain Xainton- 



j geois," published in 1013. On i>. 83 of that work in the chapter 



I relating the " Continuation des descouvertes de la coste des 



Armouchiquois " he writes : " Ce lieu est tres beau . . . Nous 

 avons nomme ce lieu le port de Mallebarre.§ Le lendemain 21 



I du niois (July 1005) le Sieur de Mons prit resolution d'aller voir 



les habitations des sauvages . . . Nous vismes des racines qu'ils 



I cultivent, lesquelles ont un gout d'artichaut." Here the 



reference is unquestionably to the Jerusalem artichoke, some 

 tubers of which he may possibly have brought back with him in 

 1007 or 1009, but he makes no statement to that effect. 



It therefore seems that De I\Ions' party, of which Champlain was 



[ a member, were the first to observe these tubers; but before the 



above reference to them was published, they had already been 

 « mentioned in Lescarbot' s " Histoire de la Nonvelle France," 



which appeared in 1009. Marc Lescarbot, born at Yervins, near 



^ La on, about 1570, was a lawyer bv profession, who in 1000 was 



induced by one of his clients, Jean de Biencourt, Seigneur de 

 Poutrincourt,l| to accompany him on a voyage to Port Royal, 

 whither de Mons had transferred his headquarters from the He 

 de Sainte Croix in 1005. f They sailed in the ship Jonas from 

 La Eochelle on May 13th, and reached Port Royal on July 27th. 

 De Poutrincourt, with his companions, including Lescarbot, 

 started back with Champlain on August 11th, 1007, reaching 

 Roscou in Brittany on September 28th, and St. Malo a few days 

 later. Thus Lescarbot did not reach New France till just over 

 twelve months after Champlain had observed the cultivation of 

 Helianthvs tuberosus by the aborigines. If the tubers were 

 brought to France on this occasion, as seems probable, the merit 



[ *P. 16, but in reprint of 1870, p. 27. In Purchas iv. p. 160 nois is 



mistranslated ' nut ' instead of ' walnut,' and treffes 'mushrooms ' instead of 



' truffles/ 

 "** See below. 

 X Also spelt 

 § Now .Naus 



!l Also spelt Poitrincourt and Potrincotirfc. 



T Port Royal, now Annapolis in Xova Scotia, was so called, as Lescarbot 

 tells us, from its great beauty. 



