AN OLD STORY OF THE NEW WOKLD. 23 



boktabaak, " the Biggest of Bays/' as the northern 

 boundary of the Micmac country, and Gaspe, the 

 Great Cape, or cape par excellence, which forms the 

 south portal of the St. Lawrence/ as the beginning of 

 Canada, a land inhabited by the hostile tribes of the 

 Kwedeches, with whom they waged long and bloody 

 wars, and whom in the struggles that succeeded the 

 French occupation they replaced in Gaspe. Here 

 accordingly Cartier found a different nation. They 

 were engaged in fishing mackerel with nets of their 

 own manufacture. The voyager here notes for the 

 first time the shaven head and scalp-lock so character- 

 istic of many of the American tribes. Here also he 

 notes in their possession Indian corn or maize, the 

 aboriginal bread-corn of America, with grains "as 

 large as peas/' and also beans and dried plums. They 

 rejoiced with great joy when Cartier gave them knives 

 and trinkets, and showed their delight by dancing 

 and songs, the universal language of gladness. The 

 erection of a cross by the French led to an official 

 visit from the chief, and a long speech in which this 

 aboriginal sovereign, clad in a bearskin, was under- 

 stood to assert his right to the country, and the 

 impropriety of setting up any such sign or token of 

 the white man without his permission. Neither party 

 in the scene understood the other's words, yet the 

 significant act was the same to both. To the French- 

 man it was the symbol of taking possession of the 

 new country for his sovereign. To the American it 

 was the setting up of the totem or national mark of a 



