Nova Scotia (8 page)

   
In 1604 de Monts began his two-month voyage along with the
wealthy nobleman Jean de Poutrincourt and Samuel de Champlain, who
would act as geographer. Because of his later efforts on behalf of
the king, Champlain would be referred to as the “Father of New
France,” allowing him to receive much of the glory and some of the
blame for the colonizing of Acadia.

   
Champlain was born in 1567 at Brouage, the son of a sea
captain. As a soldier and a sailor, he crossed the Atlantic in 1598
to the West Indies and Mexico, then wrote and illustrated a book
about the trip that much entertained the king. Champlain would make
ten voyages in all to what he called “the Great River of Canada.”
His first voyage to Acadia, however, under the direction of de
Monts, would not be an easy crossing. There were horrendous storms,
a close call involving icebergs and a near grounding on Sable
Island before reaching Cap de la Have on the South Shore of Nova
Scotia. As they travelled south and west along the coast, they came
across a *Captain Rossignol trading with the Mi’kmaq. Today Port
Rossignol bears his name, although we know little about how this
brazen trader came to be there. Further along they decided to go
ashore at Port Mouton, named thus because a sheep fell overboard
there and drowned.

   
Rounding the southernmost tip of Nova Scotia, Champlain and
de Monts entered what they called Baie Française (the Bay of Fundy)
and soon were delighted to find the smaller protected harbour of
Annapolis Basin that Champlain would describe as “One of the finest
harbours that I have seen on all these coasts.” Here would be the
site of the future Port Royal.

   
They sailed further to the Chignecto Peninsula, then back
down the Bay of Fundy and wintered over on Sainte Croix Island in
the Ste. Croix River, a decidedly bad choice. They would have to
travel continually to the maincland for firewood, fresh water and
food supplies. Their homes were poorly built with many cracks that
allowed the winter winds to invade. Despite some knowledge of a
Native herbal tea that warded off disease, thirty-five of the
seventy-nine men died of scurvy. Owning up to the fact that Sainte
Croix Island was a poor place to live, Champlain ventured further
along the coast of Maine but found it less than inviting. He and de
Monts agreed the outpost be moved back to the previous harbour
across the Bay of Fundy that Champlain had found so
desirable.

   
On both sides of the bay, the French encountered Native
people: the Penobscot, the Maliseet and, near Port Royal, the
Mi’kmaq, with whom they would strike up a most beneficial alliance.
Apparently the Mi’kmaq welcomed th*e French to Port Royal with open
arms. Their leader was a man named Membertou, described by one of
the settlers as being “of prodigious size, and taller and
stronger-limbed than most, bearded like a Frenchman while not one
of the others had hair on his chin.” Membertou said he was over a
hundred years old and that he had previously encountered Jacques
Cartier.

   
De Monts returned to France to report to the king and to
bring back supplies. The colony of forty survivors was left in the
charge of Lieutenant François Pontgrave, who saw his men through a
somewhat milder winter that killed only a dozen of them. Still not
convinced that they had chosen the most comfortable location,
Pontgrave set off in the spring of 1606, again in search of a more
suitable, warmer place further to the south for a permanent colony.
But there were more problems. First there was a “navigational
accident.” Then Pontgrave suffered a heart attack, and finally his
ship “ran aground and broke to pieces.” Discouraged all round, they
decided to abandon Port Royal. Two Frenchmen agreed to stay behind
and look after things. The rest of the men would try to return to
France on fishing boats workitng near Cape Sable. There the Port
Royal refugees heard of the news of fresh supplies and more men on
their way to Port Royal. The ships arrived under the command of
Poutrincourt, who had replaced de Monts. With him were Marc
Lescarbot, a poet and lawyer, as well as Claude and Charles de La
Tour.

“The Spice of Fortune’s
Savour”

Under Poutrincourt, further explorations took place as the
French continued to look for a more comfortable colony site. New
England proved inhospitable to them with unfriendly Natives, strong
winds and unsafe harbours. DownheFrarted, Poutrincourt arrived back
in Port Royal in November of 1606, feeling like a failure.
Fortunately for all concerned, Lescarbot was feeling more like a
poet rather than a lawyer. He decided to lift Poutrincourt’s
scpirits by writing and staging a play, a masque called
Le Theatre de
Neptune
, the first bit of
theatre for the New World. Lescarbot admitted it was simply “French
rhymes penned in haste,” but it helped to raise the spirits of all
concerned. Lescarbot appeared as Neptune in a boat, accompanied by
four French “Indians.” i

   
It was a kind of tribute to Poutrincourt and everyone who had
survived the dangers of sea travel and adventure, sounding at times
like a prototype for tourist brochures promoting sea travel.
Lescarbot seems also to have established the first public-relations
office in the New World as he wrote:

• If man would taste the spice of
  fortune’s savour
  

• He must needs seek the aid of
  Neptune’s favour
  

• For stay at homes who doze on
  kitchen settles
  

• Earn no glory than their pots and
  kettles.
  

   
It would be a long winter but already it was
clear that things would be different. If bad feelings and even talk
of insurrection could be quelled with a little theatre, it was
decided that even more concerted efforts tocward entertainment
might help them through an otherwise cheerless winter. And so Port
Royal would become a party town. The Order of Good Cheer
(*
L’Ordre de Bon
Temps
) was founded to help
keep everybody happy and even healthy. Fifteen men would sit at
Poutrincourt’s high table on a regular basis and each would have a
crack at preparing a meal designed to outdo the
last.

   
No European women lived in Port Royal at that time, so it was
a true “buddy” club. But neither were there priests on hand to
temper the good times with solemnity. Certainly religion was not
forgotten as Poutrincourt and Lescarbot continued to plan ahead for
the colony’s survival so far from France. Had European politics not
returned to haunt the shores of Nova Scotia, it is conceivable that
the Order of Good Cheer could have provided a mildly hedonistic and
happy model for the foundations of a new society, one that could
have readily been sustained by the food resources
available.

   
They ate well and they ate plentifully of what was available:
wildfowl, sturgeon, moose, beaver, otter, wildcat and raccoon.
There were also peas, rice, beans, prunes, raisins, dried cod to be
added to the menu, and wine was not in short supply. Lescarbot
noted that he was particularly fond of bear flesh, which he found
“very good and tender,” as well as “delicate beaver’s tail” and
“tender moose meat.” For dessert there was “certain small fruits
like small apples coloured red, of which we made
jelly.”

   
Chief Membertou was treated as an equal and partook of the
feast with the French. Twenty or thirty Mi’kmaq men, women, girls
and boys were often on hand to watch the entertainment. Lescarbot
says they “beheld us doing our offices,” as the French feasted and
partied. The audience was given free bread but nothing more,
although Lescarbot had high regard for their civility, remarking
that they were more mannerly and polite than the
French.

The Poet and the Chief

Unlike the English who would
follow, the French did not push the issue of ownership of land with
the Mi’kmaq, even though de Monts had paperwork from a distant king
laying claim to it. Each day the “Habitation” had visits from the
Mi’kmaq and our trusty reporter of the day, Lescarbot, says that
Chief Membertou had described his counterpart Poutrincourt as a
“great friend, brother, companion and equal.” These are happy words
but haunting ones since very little would be made of equality in
the politics of the next century.

   
During that first winter, at least six Frenchmen
lived with the Mi’kmaq people nearby, the first of the
French
coureurs de
bois
who would take up Native
ways in the coming years as they travelled to the interior of the
continent. Lescarbot painted the Mi’kmaq as “truly noble” and
praised them for their lack of “vain-glory, ambition, envy, and
avarice.” f

   
Despite such admiration, the French often referred to them as
savages, since they were not Christians. Lescarbot studied their
songs and prayers and fancied their spirits to be aligned with the
devil and powers of darkness. They were to his mind, alas,
“destitute of all knowledge of God.” Poutrincourt would attempt
some degree of Christian conversion, but didn’t have the luxury of
trained clergy to help out in the task. Among his own ranks, the
great impresario Lescarbot would lead a Sunday sermon to help keep
Christianity alive.

   
The French and the Mi’kmaq shared meals that first winter and
the relationship was certainly a fruitful one for both sides. While
the Mi’kmaq could not possibly have foreseen the invasion of French
and English that wouled follow, they noted with displeasure the
arrival of a new creature into their midst. Rats came ashore from
sailing vessels, perhaps the first ever to find their way to North
America, and they adapted well to the new territory. There is no
record that Lescarbot or Poutrincourt ever made apologies for such
an unwanted gift.

   
In May of the following spring a ship arrived from France to
inform the tiny colony that de Monts’ contract to control this land
had been revoked due to political pressure at home. De Monts had
never really been able to establish the monopoly on furs that he
had planned. Rumours suggested that his company’s treasurer, De
Bellois, along with Pontgrave and de Monts himself, had defrauded
the company of money. The entire fur business was* also in
question. It had created some tensions with Native people elsewhere
for the obvious reason that foreigners were killing off the source
of their livelihood. Some Frenchman had also dug up the dead in
Native burigal grounds to rob them of the furs they had been buried
with. These complaints, along with other more political reasons,
led the king to revoke the privileges he had granted de
Monts.

   
On July 17, 1607, Poutrincourt, Lescarbot and the entire
party left the fort at Port Royal, heading for Canso. Membertou and
his people were left ten barrels of flour and possession of the
Habitation if they cared to use it. History does not reveal whether
any Mi’kmaq jumped at the chance to move into a slightly used
French fort. Most likely they would have found those dark, stark
dwellings inhospitable compared to their own
homes.

   
Champlain, who had survived his life at Port
Royal not much worse for wear, had the opportunity to put his
map-making skills to work again as they sailed around the southern
tip of Nova Scotia and on toward Canso. In particular, he noted “a
very sound bay seven or eight leagues long, where there are no
islands in the channel save at the end.” He referred to this body
of water as “d
une baie fort
saine
,” or “a good safe bay,”
and it would one day be known as Halifax Harbour.

Chapter 8
 

Chapter 8
 

Absentee Owners and Hesitant
Settlers

England had laid claim to virtually all of North America as
a result of the explorations of John Cabot, but there seemed to be
little ambition or political will to do anything about it until
1583 when Sir Humphrey Gilbert sailed from Plymouth and eventually
arrived at the present location of St. John’s, Newfoundland. Here
he “took possession” on behalf of Queen Elizabeth I. He decided to
explore further, but something went wrong and heb went down with
his ship,
The
Squirrel.
Gilbert’s
brother-in-law, Walter Raleigh, took renewal of the Queen’s patent
to continue exploration. Raleigh went further south, eventually
making the fateful decision to create  pa settlement on
Roanoke Island in what is now North Carolina. Raleigh returned to
England with Francis Drake, leaving his settlement behind. It was
three years before he could return with supplies, only to find that
thee entire community had mysteriously vanished.

   
In 1606, big business came into the picture. The London and
Plymouth Trading companies were granted the right to control a big
chunk of the Atlantic coast from Port Royal and all of Acadia down
to Cape Fear. Jamestown, in Virginia, was settled in
1607.

   
The newly formed Virginia Company created a settlement in
Newfoundland as early as 1610 and Virginian John Smith (of
Pocahontas fame) made a fairly extensive exploration of the
Northern Atlantic coast, including Acadia, in 1616. He reported
good land and favourable weather, but could not muster up an
attractive enough picture to encourage settlement at that time.