196 TRANSACTIONS OF THE CANADIAN INSTITUTE. [ Vou. IIT. 
missionary to visit the St. John was Pierre Biard, of the Society of Jesus, 
who was sent to Acadia in 1610-11, through the exertions of the 
Duchess of Guercheville and other ladies of the French Court. Biard 
in a letter to Claude Aquavia says: “I beseech you by the merits of 
Jesus Christ to remember us and these most solitary countries, assuredly 
we are sowing in great poverty and tears, may the Lord deign some day 
to grant us a harvest of joy.’ In another: “Our days and nights flow 
sadly along, what consoles us is the hope that God who reanimates the 
downcast heart will shortly come in his mercy and assist us in our 
wretchedness.” 
In 1611 Biard ascended the St. John in company with Biancourt, and 
celebrated Mass on an island six leagues from its mouth. This island is 
probably one of those which are situated not far from what is now called 
Oak Point. According to Abbe J. A. Maurault, the Abenakis (men of 
the east) formerly inhabited what are now Maine, New Hampshire and 
New Brunswick, extending even as far as the shores of Nova Scotia. 
This tribe formerly consisted, according to him, of several divisions. He 
enumerates the following as being the chief: 
Ist. The Kanibesinnoaks, those who live near the lakes; these were 
called Canibas by the French. 
2nd. The Patsuikets, those of the Land of Fraud, because there were 
among them many New England savages, who according to the Aben- 
_akis had established themselves by fraud on the Merrimac River, and 
extended themselves as far as the Connecticut; they were only one 
division of the Sokokis. 
3rd. The Sokowakiakis, men of the south; these resided in the south- 
west part of Maine and in New Hampshire; the French called them 
Sokokis. 
4th. The Nurhantsuaks, those who travel by water, because they 
resided on the upper part of the Kennebec, and on the shores of the 
lakes. 
sth. The Pentagoets, who were also called Penaouabskets, those of the 
stony country ; these resided on the Penobscot, where the shores were in 
many places covered by stone. 
6th. The Etemankiaks, those of the country of snow-shoe hides; these 
resided on the River St. Croix and on the St. John. The Abenakis 
called this territory Etemandi, because there were here great quantities 
of moose and caribou, from whose hides excellent snowshoes were 
made. 
