iv. merchants of St. Malo. He was authorized to select in the ports of France such ships, masters, and sailors as he might require; to raise troops, to make war, and to build cities within the limits of his viceroyalty; to promulgate laws in the same, and cause them to be executed; to make grants of lands to noblemen, as fiefs, lordships, baronies, counties, etc.; in short, to regulate the commerce left now under his absolute control. Thus clothed with an authority as complete as despotic, he sailed for the New World with sixty men. No merchant dared to raise his voice against the monopoly of this nobleman, as had been done against the nephews of Cartier; his rank imposed silence on them; but other causes were destined to ruin his projects. "The Marquis de la Roche, fearing the desertion of his people, composed of malefactors and believing that place more convenient until he had found on the main-land a territory more suitable to his design, landed them at the Isle of Sable at the entrance of the Gulf of St. Lawrence. This island, in the form of a crescent, narrow, arid, and of wild aspect, produced neither trees nor fruits—nothing but a little grass and moss around a lake, situated in the centre. After having placed his colonists in this desolate place, surrounded by sand-banks, indented by the sea, La Roche passed into Acadia. On returning, he was surprised by a furious tempest, which in ten days chased him to the shores of France, where he had no sooner set foot than he found himself enveloped in a multitude of difficulties, in the midst of which the Duke de Mercœur, who commanded in Brittany, detained him for some time, as a prisoner. It was not until the end of five years that he had an opportunity of relating to the king, who happened to be at Rouen, what had befallen him in his voyage. The king, touched with the fate of the unfortunate men abandoned in the Isle of Sable, ordered that the pilot who had left them there should immediately proceed in search of them. Since left to themselves, these men, accustomed to give full scope to their passions, would no longer recognize any master. Discord had armed them against each other, and several had perished in quarrels, which rendered their miserable situation still more sad. At length, however, misery had subdued these fierce characters, so that they finally assumed habits more peaceable, and better calculated for their preservation. They constructed huts with the debris of a ship wrecked on the rocks of the shore; and they subsisted for some time on the animals which Baron de Lèry had disembarked there some twenty-four years previously, and which had propagated themselves in the island. They domesticated some which furnished them milk. But this resource had begun to fail; and all that remained for them now, as a means of subsistence, was to turn their attention to fasting. When their clothes were worn they replaced them by seal-skins. On their return, Henry IV. wished to see them dressed as they had been found. Their beard and hair, which they had allowed to grow, hung in disorder on their bosoms and shoulders. Their forms had already assumed a hairy and savage appearance, which made them resemble Indians rather than civilized men. The king caused fifty crowns to be distributed to each, and permitted them to return to their families with the privilege of being exempt from all punishment for their former offenses. "The Marquis de la Roche, who had invested all his fortune in this enterprise, lost it in consequence of misfortunes, which did not cease to oppress him. Ruined, and without any hope of being able to resume a project which he had always so much at heart, grier seized on him, and took him slowly to his grave. The history of the voyages, and misfortunes, of colonists which followed him to the Isle of Sable, form an episode worthy of exercising the pen of a romancer." There is in your narration the outline of a beautiful historical romance; I am happy to have responded to the appeal which serious literature has made to light literature; would that I could have suitably done it, and been able to secure for this book sufficient success to encourage me to dramatize the most remarkable episodes of the history of Canada! Accept, Monsieur, with my sentiments of high consideration, the assurance of my sincere friendship, H. EMILE CHEVALIER. Paris, January, 29 1860. |