Farewell to Canada: Marc Lescarbot’s A-Dieu à la Nouvelle-France (1607) | Essay & Translation — Haijo Westra

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This poem in Alexandrine verses was written by a Parisian lawyer, Marc Lescarbot, who had joined the early French settlement at Port-Royal, near present-day Annapolis Royal on the Annapolis Basin of the Bay of Fundy in Nova Scotia. After a year of active engagement in its development he was obliged to leave again in July 1607, at which time he composed this extraordinary description of the country’s resources as an inducement for continued investment in the venture he so ardently supported. The reason for his departure and the abandonment of Port-Royal was the financial difficulty of Pierre du Gua, Sieur De Monts, and his associates, whose monopoly on the fur trade had been abruptly canceled by the King of France, Henry IV. The poem appears in a collection of similar occasional verse entitled Les Muses de la Nouvelle-France that was added to Lescarbot’s Histoire de la Nouvelle-France, written after his return to France. The writing of the poem was started just before departing the Port-Royal and continued at sea. It is, in effect, the first extensive poetic description of Canada. Whilst there are translations of the Histoire, I have yet to discover an English translation of this poem. The text of this translation is based on the third edition of the Histoire de la Nouvelle-France of 1617, published electronically in 2007 by the Gutenberg Project at www.gutenberg and produced by Rénald Lévesque.

Detail from Champlain map, Nova Scotia, Bay of Fundy, etc.

Why did Lescarbot decide to go overseas in the first place? The reason he gives for wanting to go to New-France is a set-back he suffered as a lawyer in court due to a corrupt judge. He was, therefore, personally predisposed to find a better, uncorrupted world.

The start of the poem (1-12) is highly rhetorical and polemical, with an expression of Lescarbot’s personal regret at having to leave this beautiful place (1, cf. 25, 33, 47, 59) and three indignant rhetorical questions intended to shame his compatriots for their lack of constancy in abandoning the new settlement and the investment and efforts already expended, as well as chiding them for their dishonorable failure in establishing a new province of France (2-12), combining personal, aesthetic, moral, economic, patriotic and imperial motives. The polemical element is raised to the highest level later on, when Lescarbot reminds the King of his duty as a Christian monarch to spread the faith (167-176); he even questions the Lord God directly as to why he left the Native peoples out of his divine plan (293-304). These are themes of the highest order in literature, the duty of Kings and the ways of God to man, typically treated in epic and drama, but here combined with the profit motive. Significantly, the religious mission of the King is linked directly to the bounty of the land specifically created by God, he maintains, to motivate the King and to attract the French to the exploitation of its resources (177-180), thus connecting commerce with the spread of the Christian faith. Moreover, Lescarbot expresses regret that his intended audience, i.e. the French generally but specifically present and potential investors, do not know the attractions of the country (13-16). The actual phrase used in line 14, the “attractive lures”, serves to whet the appetite by introducing the lure of profit to be gained from the exploitation of its resources. Admittedly, these investors had just suffered a great loss due to a Fleming (Flamen = Flamand, 15), who had acquired furs along the St. Lawrence ahead of the French and robbed theirs as well, along with their canon. Lescarbot suggests that the investors will make good on their losses with compound interest (usure, 16). These are the addressees referred as vous in lines 9, 10 and 13, whereas nous in lines 3, 5, and 7 refer to the French collectively, with all of them being accused of a lack of steadfastness (3).

After this highly charged opening aimed at the main addressees of the poem, and following a prayer for safe passage back to France that emphasises the danger of the journey and the physical as well as spiritual distance of the “new peoples”(19-24), Lescarbot launches into a description detailing all the attractive and productive features of Port-Royal and its topography: a secure harbour, protected on both sides by hills and mountains (25-26), alluvial flats along the shoreline providing grazing for the plentiful game (27-30), and springs and streams making for well-watered valleys (31-32), with plenty of rain mentioned later(351-354). The emphasis on the presence of water is significant, suggesting a frame of reference based on the Mediterranean, with a climate perennially short of sufficient moisture in summer. Significant also is the mention of an unnamed island hyperbolically said to be worthy of the greatest king on earth (54-55) and whose commanding role is foreseen through an epic simile (37-41) in that its elevated headland dominates the surrounding plain, again a Mediterranean and, more generally, European ideal for the location of a fortified city or citadel. This city is ready to be built from the rocks supplied by the sea shore (43-44). Lescarbot introduces here (53-56) and throughout a prospective element of development and a potential for growth seen in terms of urbanization and permanent occupation by married settlers (57-58), the physical, economic and social cornerstones of European society.

Next, he invokes the fertility of the place, based on his own experience in developing gardens and working the fields at Port-Royal (61-62). Working the soil seems to have endeared the country to him as well as giving him a sense of –collective- ownership. It is also rather unique for an early visitor-explorer to have actually mixed his sweat with the soil in this way to test its fertility. At the same time, there is an idyllic element in the description (47-52) of a lovely little stream amidst the young greenery of a little valley in the hollow of the island’s bosom to which he “has lent his side” many times because of its beauty. This is a gratuitous detail that escapes the preoccupation with turning nature into culture: it introduces, not just the literary commonplace of the locus amoenus, or plaisance, ultimately based on the description of the Vale of Tempe in ancient Greece, but also a personal and, in fact, sensuous experience. Lescarbot’s originality in this has been noted by the critics. Paolo Carile has pointed out that, whereas in Champlain, beauty of nature is identified with utility, in Lescarbot the natural environment is estheticised from personal experience. He notes other literary innovations as well. The Farewell poem was a known genre restricted to a sentimental good-bye to a woman loved: in Lescarbot’s version, the object of desire changes to a colony in North America, here personified by the lovely island. Similarly, regret at leaving a place is a known literary theme, usually combined with praise of its various features; Lescarbot extends this to the resources of the country and the profit to be gained from them. The new context, colonialism and mercantile capitalism, occasioned a novel and hybrid genre along with a new purpose. In terms of point of view, we may add here the novelty of a poetic eyewitness account based on first-hand experience, rather than an imaginary description of the New World with many fantastic features as we have them in earlier literature. The systematic observation of flora, fauna, and the four seasons, adds a scientific element.

After mentioning the products of nature that grow spontaneously (65-66) he starts his elaborate praise (los= laus in Latin, 63) of the natural resources with a catalogue of the countless types of fish providing nourishment in Spring (73-106), including well-known varieties such as herring (77-79), so plentiful, it alone could make a people rich (78) and, of course, cod, so abundant that it is said to provide sustenance for almost the entire universe (101-108). In all, 27 types are mentioned but there are a thousand more unknown varieties (99). Lescarbot’s catalogues have been linked by past commentators with the Natural History of Pliny the Elder and, more generally, with the encyclopedic tradition of Antiquity, Middle Ages and the Renaissance, with the enumeration of curiosities found in travel narratives, and with the scientific poets of the 16^th Century. The catalogues can also be linked to Adam’s naming of God’s creatures (Gen. 2.19) as a form of appropriation, of taking possession of the earth and having dominion “over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air”(Gen. 1. 26, 28). I would like to suggest yet another connection. We are now solidly in the territory of hyperbole and idealisation, recurring stylistic features that elevate this potentially pedestrian description of resources into the realm of the epic paragon or nul-pareil, ultimately serving the promotional purpose of the poem. The association with the epic is suggested as well by Lescarbot’s use of Alexandrine verse which is typically associated with elevated diction and grand and dramatic themes. The poet chose the same verse form for his heroicising account of the raid of the Micmac chief Membertou against the Armouchiquois across the Bay of Fundy also found in Les Muses de la Nouvelle-France.

All the desirable natural wealth enumerated here will make the future settler of this other (promised) land more blessed with a miraculous food supply than the manna of the Hebrews in the desert or the nectar of the blessed spirits of Greek myth (106-12). Throughout, Lescarbot easily mixes mythologies, pagan with Christian, as in lines 167-172 where he invokes the eagles of Jupiter to bring the decree of the King of Kings to the French Monarch, commanding him to spread the Christian faith. God’s omnipotence is demonstrated by the presence of the biggest sea creature of all, the whale (113-119) that comes into the bay daily. Winter provides shellfish, giving nourishment even to the poor and the improvident (125-128), as well as an opportunity for hunting large game and fur-bearing animals, especially the beaver, whose dens Lescarbot finds a thousand times more admirable in their construction than European palaces (135-140). It is remarkable, though, that Lescarbot does not make more of the fur trade at this point. It was the most profitable enterprise, but also the most contentious and problematic because of the competition from the English and the Dutch as well as the opposition from other French merchants to the monopoly of De Monts and his associates. In the final analysis, Lescarbot personally preferred agriculture over trade. This is followed by a catalogue of 37 birds (184-232), including a description of the previously unknown humming bird, seen as another example of God’s omnipotence in creating the smallest bird of all (205-232).

It is not only in his creatures that Lescarbot sees the hand of God. The very bounty of nature and its pleasures have been created by God to attract the French to this land where their labours will be rewarded in proportion to their desires (177-180), in order to propagate the faith which, moreover, is the God-given duty of the French King (173-176). Colonisation is ultimately justified by the religious imperative. Lescarbot himself gave religious instruction on Sundays to le petit peuple, the French workers and artisans of the colony; the leader of the colony, Poutrincourt, likewise instructed the Micmac (305-310). Autumn brings the harvest of the fields and gardens, in particular corn (blé d’Inde) that grows to prodigious heights (251-256), a harvest Lescarbot regrets not seeing because of his premature departure (257-266). Surprisingly, the climate is said to be not as cold as that of NW Europe (269-274), mainly because Lescarbot happened to experience only one mild winter (no snow until December 31, 1606 which promptly melted, and continuous snow cover only in February) and because of the varied impact of the Little Ice Age which saw the river Thames frozen over during the winter of 1607. Incidentally, there is a detailed and delightful recent description of the seasons on Annapolis Basin by Harold Horwood, a Newfoundlander who took up residence there and who mentions surprisingly mild winters, entitled Dancing on the Shore.

After this elaborate praise of the natural resources and the proven potential for agriculture, Lescarbot turns to the native inhabitants, the Micmac, whom he presents as in many respects superior to the French morally (329-340), while asserting their common humanity (297-298). He also makes an argument based on cultural relativism comparing the culture of the native population with that of nations of antiquity elaborated in Bk. 6 of his Histoire de la Nouvelle-France, entitled “Description des Moeurs Souriquoises Comparées A Celles d’Autres Peuples” (M.-C Pioffet, Marc Lescarbot: Voyages 2007, pp. 241-471) and comparing Micmac hospitality with that of the ancestors of the French themselves, the Gaulois. (321-322, 339-340). This comparative approach and the implicit transfer of the prestige of antiquity culminate in the work of the Jesuit Lafitau comparing the Iroquois with the early Greeks, Romans and Hebrews. Lescarbot’s cultural relativism even extends to language when he chooses to retain a Micmac word rather than imposing a “foreign” French name on a creature unknown to him (223-224). And he actually makes the now familiar ethnological distinction between hunter-gatherers and (semi-)sedentary cultivators of the earth, while privileging the latter way of life, as all Europeans did (285-290). The only respect in which their condition is deplorable is the fact that they lack the faith which –he maintains- they are eager to receive (291-314, cf. 166; by contrast, the first Jesuit missionary, Pierre Biard, relates a few years later that the Micmac listened to him politely but did not change their views one iota. The native people he has come into contact with (321-328), in particular the Micmac, are “subtle,” skillful or intelligent, possess good judgement, and are not lacking in understanding (321-324). They only require a “father” to teach them to cultivate the earth and the vine, and to live civilly in permanent habitations(321-328; cf. 287-290), thus combining paternalism with agriculture, viticulture and urbanism, the basis of Mediterranean culture. The main vice that he attributes to them is the desire for vengeance (341-342), a vice actually shared by the poet himself (390-393), and he criticises them for being improvident when it comes to securing an adequate food supply (125-131; 327). Clearly, the hunter-gathers’ apparent pattern of feast or famine appears to him as a moral failing: Lafontaine’s fable of the ant and the cricket comes to mind here. Overall Lescarbot’s presentation reflects, on the one hand, Montaigne’s notion of the bon sauvage unspoilt by civilisation, and, on the other, the largely positive first encounter between the French and the Micmac. It also serves the promotional discourse by stressing the duty of the French king and higher clergy to introduce the faith to these model catechumens. In fact, Lescarbot sees conversion not as a side benefit of colonisation; rather, the prospective harvest of souls is the ultimate goal (162-166), supported by the mercantile venture and the country’s resources. His religious and utopian motives, focused on an agricultural community of French settlers flanked by Native agriculturalists (287-290), become increasingly evident through sheer repetition as the poem progresses ( 59-64; 181-183; 251-264; 287-290; 321-329; 396-411), culminating at its conclusion in lines 423-426.

Significantly, mineral resources are only introduced briefly toward the end of the poem (385-388).   Clearly none of these had been developed (Lescarbot speaks of nurseries or breeding grounds of mines, 385) and the poet only gives a sketchy account of them, mentioning bronze (actually an alloy as he probably meant copper), iron, steel (a man-made product) and silver as well as coal. In an earlier farewell poem, he still expresses the hope that silver and gold will be discovered (Adieu aux François, August 25, 1606), the two most desirable get-rich- quick minerals universally sought after by European rulers and their explorers in the Americas. In the original charter issued by Henry IV in 1603, De Monts was specifically charged to bring home any gold and silver. Clearly, Lescarbot has given up on this prospect, hence the emphasis on agricultural produce and the potential for settlement of French colonists. As if to compensate, he does add, at the very end (412-422), almost as an afterthought, a luxury product, the high quality “silk” worthy of kings and produced by local hemp which could lead to a textile industry manned by Native(?) workers who have chosen to become sedentary.

On balance we can assume that French investors would not have been impressed by this prospectus that mainly emphasises agriculture and settlement. The cod fishery was already established in Newfoundland waters, a location much closer to Europe, and De Monts’ monopoly on the fur trade had been cancelled by the King, although a final one-year extension was granted after the colonists’ return. Lescarbot must have sensed the weakness of his case as he finished his poem by extolling, in compensation, the moral superiority of agriculture as a pure, untroubled way of life far from poverty, the madding crowd of his French homeland, and its deceit (423-426), possibly reflecting his own motives for leaving France in the first place and recalling the idealisation of the simple farmer by the Roman poet Virgil. And the “victory” attributed by Lescarbot to De Monts (363-384) is therefore only a moral victory to compensate for the failure of the enterprise as well as its disastrous first winter on the Ile de Sainte-Croix off the coast of New Brunswick, saluted by Lescarbot in passing on his return journey (363-384).

The Church did not rush in either to fund missionaries. The first Jesuit missionary, Pierre Biard, had to wait for years before he could sail for Port-Royal in 1611, not until a private sponsor was found in the Marquise de Guercheville, who raised funds through a subscription and had to buy into the commercial enterprise in order to secure passage for Biard and his companion, Énemond Massé. She actually had to buy out the two Huguenot merchants from Dieppe who were unwilling to take the two Jesuits on board; similarly Maria de Medici, the widow of the late King Henry, assisted financially in bringing about this first Jesuit mission to Canada. However, financial support was to remain problematic. The actual practice of supporting the missionary activity through profits from the fur trade made the Jesuit missionaries into competitors and led to conflict, in France and in Port-Royal. The whole concept of directly supporting religion through commerce was misguided.

In essence, Lescarbot’s account idealizes Port-Royal, but occasionally, less attractive aspects of the colony do make an appearance: its distance from France (21-22, 381), loneliness (162), the absence of female company (57), the need to improve the agricultural land (249-250), and the dangers of the North Atlantic (6, 21, 358, 380), in particular fog (349-350). Yet, despite these drawbacks, the poem testifies frequently to his profound personal disappointment at its abandonment (1-2, 160-161, 164, 170, 257-264, 344) arising from his own involvement and labour (61-62). The poet is a convert to his own cause. As such, the poem represents a final, almost desperate attempt to “sell” Port-Royal to his fellow Frenchmen by appealing at one and the same time to their financial, patriotic, imperial, as well their esthetic, moral and religious instincts, enhanced by the affective quality of his poetry and carried by the poetic licence of hyperbole in a variety of voices: from lament to praise, and from prayer to adhortation. The purpose is rhetorical, to persuade others of the lawyer’s cause. In terms of genre, we can add polemic, commercial prospectus, natural history and ethnography to the epic and idyllic elements already mentioned. Pioffet and Lachance speak of a “hymn to diversity and abundance” (cf. 106-108, 110-113, 158-159). The modification of the poetic genre of the Adieu from animate to inanimate addressee entails the figure of personification in the direct address of the island (55-57, 61, 109, 111, 158) and of the Earth itself (403-411), suggesting the pronounced symbolic value of the “New World”.

Lescarbot never returned to Canada but his little-known poem marks a unique text in comparison with other French explorers to Canada who all wrote in prose and hence, by definition, are far more prosaic in their ideas and expression, all the more so since they regarded the land purely in terms of its utility, as Carile has pointed out. At the same time, Lescarbot’s text throws into high relief a period of early European colonisation when the motives of imperialism, early mercantile capitalism, religion, and utopian idealism were joined uneasily. What is not unique is the fact that ownership of the land and its resources is not brought up in the poem. Lescarbot does address contemporary criticism of the appropriation of Native land at the end of the chapter “À la France” in the Introduction to the third edition of his Histoire de la Nouvelle-France where he provides the following theological justification: God has created the earth for man to possess; the Natives have not fulfilled this mission; Christians are the privileged children of God and hence, presumably, entitled to take possession. In other words, Native land use is seen as an underutilisation of its resources, creating a God-given opportunity for European colonists. Land and sea are presented as virtually crying out to be exploited. The underlying pattern is one of undervaluing Native culture and overvaluing one’s own claim, along with the local resources, which, even where modest, are presented as fabulous and there for the taking. One is reminded how persistent these attitudes are and how recent the realisation of their consequences.

—Haijo Westra

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NOTES ON THE TRANSLATION

Only a verse translation would do justice to the rapturous tone and persuasive impact of the French original. The prose translation presented here inevitably falls short in these respects but makes available a unique text that offers some surprises in terms of its own conceptions of language, translation, and authenticity. Specifically, Lescarbot makes a point of maintaining the Micmac words of creatures he is unfamiliar with: Poulamou (= tomcod, line 89); Nibachés (raccoon, 155); and Niridau (=hummingbird, l. 223). In the last case he even considers the imposition of a French name to be inauthentic and he is able to conceive of his own language as foreign in this context (223-4). It should be kept in mind that the French names Lescarbot gives to native plants, birds and fishes derive from the other side of the Atlantic and are not necessarily accurate. For example, the laurier (laurel) of line 67 is not native to North America. The Joubar of line 95 is not a fish but the fin(back) whale, according to Ganong. See also Saunders, Speck, and Wallis in Deal’s bibliography for nomenclature. The Rivière de l’Équille (Sand Eel River, 91-92) already had its name changed to Rivière du Dauphin by Champlain; today, it is called Annapolis River. For a running commentary on all matters of translation, see the footnotes to the edition by Pioffet and Lachance.

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SELECT BIBLIOGRAPHY

Carile, Paolo.   Le Regard entravé. Littérature et anthropologie dans les premiers textes sur la Nouvelle-France. Septentrion, Sillery (Québec) 2000, pp. 68-82.

Deal, Michael. “ Paleoethnobotanical Research in the Maritime Provinces.” North Atlantic Archaeology 1 (2008) 1-23.

Ganong, W.F.   “The Identity of the Animals and Plants mentioned by the early Voyagers to Eastern Canada and Newfoundland.” Proceedings and Transactions of the Royal Society of Canada, Series 3, vol. 4, section 2 (1909) 197-242.

Lachance, Isabelle.   La Rhétorique des origines dans l’Histoire de la Nouvelle-France de Marc Lescarbot. Thèse de Ph.D. Université de McGill 2004.

Pioffet, Marie-Christine and Isabelle Lachance.   Marc Lescarbot. Poésies et opuscules sur la Nouvelle-France. Editions Nota Bene 2014, pp. 27-37, 99-120.

Pioffet, Marie-Christine.   Marc Lescarbot. Voyages en Acadie (1604-1607) suivis de La Description des moeurs souriquoises compares à celles d’autres peuples. Presses de l’Université Laval, 2007.

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Detail from Champlain map

MARC LESCARBOT, A-DIEU A LA NOUVELLE-FRANCE du 30 Juillet 1607/ Farewell to New France, July 30, 1607: English translation

1. Must we abandon <all> the beauties of this place
2. And bid Port-Royal an eternal farewell?
3. Shall we then forever be accused of inconstancy
4. In the founding of [a] New France?
5. What use is it to us to have borne so many labours
6. To have battled the assault of the vexed waves
7. If our hope is in vain, and if this province
8. Does not bend under the laws of Henry, our Prince?
9. What use is it to you to have
10. Incurred useless costs, if you take no care
11. To harvest the fruit of a long-term expenditure
12. And the immortal honour of your patience?
13. Ah! How I regret that you do not know
14. The attractive lures of this land
15. And even though the Fleming has caused you damage,
16. Loss is often made good with compound interest.
17. So that is why we must leave and get ready <to sail>
18. And go to drop anchor in the harbour of Saint-Malo.

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19. FATHER OF THE UNIVERSE, who commands the waves,
20. And who can cause the deepest sea to dry up
21. Grant us to cross the watery abyss
22. By which you have separated all these new<found> peoples
23. From those who are baptized, and without shipwreck
24. To soon see the shore of France’s Kingdom.

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25. Farewell, thus, beautiful coasts and mountains as well
26. Which, with a double rampart, gird this harbor here.
27. Farewell grassy glens which Neptune’s flood
28. Bathes generously, twice with every moon,
29. And to the <wild> game as well, which in order to find pasture
30. Comes hither from all sides, there is so much vegetation.
31. Farewell my sweet pleasure, springs and brooks
32. Which water the valleys and the mountains with your moisture.
33. How can I forget you, beautiful forested isle
34. Rich ornament of this place and its basin?
35. I prize all the sweet beauties of your sister
36. Yet I prize even more your outstanding features.
37. For, just as it is fitting for him who holds command
38. To display a majesty more august and grand
39. Than his subordinate; just so, to command
40. You have an elevated headland which allows you oversight.
41. Around you is an undulating plain,
42. And the land in the vicinity <is> subject to your dominion.
43. Your shores consist of rocks <suitable> for your buildings
44. Or for laying the foundations of a city.
45. In other places there is a little beach,
46. Where a thousand times a day my spirit abides.
47. But amidst <all> your beauties I admire a little stream
48. Which presses gently the fresh herbage
49. Of a little valley that descends in the hollow of your breast
50. Plunging its course into the waves of the sea:
51. Little stream that has tempted me a hundred times with its waters,
52. Its charm forcing me to lie down beside it.
53. Having all that, Island high and deep,
54. Island worthy dwelling place of the greatest King on earth,
55. Having all that, I say, what more can be lacking
56. To create over there the city we need
57. Except for every man to have his sweetheart by his side
58. In the manner which God and the Church command?
59. For your soil is good and fertile and pleasing
60. And never its cultivator will be displeased with it.
61. We <ourselves> are in a position to speak of it who, of many seeds
62. Sown there have had first-hand experience.
63. What else can I say worthy of the praise of your beauty?
64. What shall I add here than that inside your domain
65. One finds in great measure products of Nature:
66. Raspberries, strawberries, peas, without any cultivation?
67. Or shall I mention as well your verdant laurel bushes
68. Your unknown medicinal herbs, your red currant bushes?
69. No, but without leaving your bounds,
70. I will touch upon the numerous armies
71. Of the scaly creatures that come every day
72. Following the tidal flow to bid you good day.

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73. As soon as the season of Spring returns
74. The Smelt comes in abundance, bringing news
75. That Phoebus, risen above your horizon
76. Has chased far from you the wintry season.
77. The Herring follows after with such multitude
78. That it alone can make a people rich.
79. My <own> eyes have witnessed this, and yours as well
80. Who have had the care of our nourishment
81. When, occupied elsewhere, your diligent hands
82. Were unable to cope with the pleasing catch
83. That the sluice of a mill sent into your nets.
84. The Bass follows in the wake of the Herring
85. And at the same time the little Sardine,
86. The Crab, <and> the Lobster follow the sea shore
87. With a similar result; the Dolphin, <and> the Sturgeon
88. Arrive among the multitude together with the Salmon
89. As do the Turbot, the Tomcod, <and> the Eel,
90. The Shad, the Halibut, the Loach, and the Sand Eel:
91. You, Sand Eel, although little, have impressed your name
92. On that river whose renown I sing.
93. But that is not all, for you have more
94. Multitudes that pay you homage every day,
95. The Pollock, the Finback Whale and the Squid and the Angler Fish,
96. The Porpoise, The Blower Dolphin, the Sea Urchin, the Mackerel,
97. You have the Grey Seal which, in a large pod
98. Wallow in the light of day on your muddy bottom,
99. You have the Dogfish, the Plaice , and a thousand other fish
100. Which I do not know, nurselings of your waters.

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101. Shall I not mention the happily fecund Cod
102. Which abound throughout that sea everywhere.
103. Cod, <even> if you are not one of those delicate dishes
104. With which gourmets spice their plates,
105. I will say nevertheless that by you is sustained
106. Almost the entire universe. O, how content will be
107. That person one day who will have at his doorstep
108. That which a distant world will come to seek from it!
109. Beautiful Isle, You therefore have that manna aplenty
110. Which I love more than Taprobane’s
111. Beauties that they deem worthy of the blessed ones
112. Who go about drinking the fragrant nectar of the Gods.
113. And to demonstrate one more time your supreme power
114. Whales honour you daily, and come of their own accord
115. To salute you every day, until the ebb leads them
116. Into the wide Ocean where they have their pleasure.
117. Of this I will render faithful testimony,
118. Having seen them many times visit this shore
119. And consort at their leisure inside this harbor.

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120. But all these animals, all these creatures <from> here
121. Depart when Phebus is about to approach the boundary
122. Of the celestial mansion, where dwells Capricorn,
123. And go in search of the shelter of Thetys’s depth
124. Or often seek out a milder region for their pasture.
125. In this harsh season there only remain close to you
126. Clams, Cockles, and Mussels
127. To sustain the one who will not, in a timely fashion,
128. (Either poor, or lazy) have done any harvesting,
129. Such as the people here who take no care to hunt
130. Until hunger constrains and pursues them,
131. And the weather is not always favorable for the hunter
132. Who actually does not wish for the mildness of good weather
133. But strong ice, or deep snow
134. When the Sauvage wants to catch from the watery depths
135. The industrious Beaver (that builds its home
136. On the lakeshore, where it fashions its lair
137. Vaulted in a way incredible to man,
138. And a thousand times more admirable than our palaces
139. Leaving it only one exit towards the lake
140. To cheer itself down in the watery element)
141. Or when he wants to spy in the woods the lair
142. Either of the Royal Moose or the fleet-footed Deer,
143. Of the Rabbit, Fox, Caribou, Bear,
144. Of the Squirrel, the Otter with its silken fur,
145. Of the Porcupine, <and> the so-called wild Cat
146. (Which rather has the body of a leopard)
147. Of the Mink with its soft fur in which Kings clothe themselves
148. Or the musk Rat, all dwellers of these woods,
149. Or of that animal which, loaded with fat,
150. Has the cunning skill to climb on high
151. Building its lodge on an elevated branch
152. To discourage the one who goes in pursuit of it
153. And lives, by that ruse, in the greatest security
154. Not fearing (as it seems) any violence:
155. Nibachés <raccoon> is its name. Not that in spring
156. He does not have occasion for that hunt
157. But the catch from fishing is more reliable then.

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158. Farewell, therefore, I say unto you, Isle of abundant beauty,
159. And you birds, too, of water and forest
160. That will be the witnesses of my sad regrets.
161. For it is with great regret, and I cannot pass over it in silence,
162. That I leave this place, although rather solitary.
163. For it is with great regret that now I see
164. Shaken the subject of introducing our Faith here
165. And the Name of our Great God hidden in silence,
166. Who had touched the conscience of this people.
167. Eagles that inhabit the tops of high pines
168. Since Jupiter has entrusted his secrets to you,
169. Go up to the heavens to announce this matter
170. And how much suffering I have of this inside my soul,
171. Then return swiftly to the French Monarch of France
172. To relate to him the decree of the mighty King of Kings.
173. For to him is given this inheritance from heaven
174. In order that in his name hereafter <and> forever
175. The Everlasting One be worshipped in a holy manner
176. And that his great name be revered by a hundred nations.
177. And to motivate him more to do this thing
178. <God> has wanted to attract him by a hundred kinds of profit
179. Having made our labours commensurate with our desires
180. And having completed them with ten thousand pleasures.
181. For the earth here is not as a fool would guess,
182. <As> she produces copiously for him who has experience
183. Of the pleasures of gardening and the labour of the fields.

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184. And if you want the sweet song of birds as well,
185. <This land> has the Nightingale, the Blackbird, the Linnet,
186. And many another not known that sings pleasantly
187. In Spring. If you want fowl
188. That go and feed on the water’s edge
189. <This land> has the Cormorant, the Mallow, the Seagull,
190. The Canada Goose, the Heron, the Crane, the Lark,
191. And the Goose , and the Duck. Six types of Duck,
192. Whose many colours make as many lures
193. That rivet my eyes. Do you want also
194. Those birds of prey with which the Nobleman distinguishes himself?
195. <This land> has the Eagle, the Owl, the Falcon, the Vulture,
196. The Saker Falcon, the Sparrow Hawk, the Merlin, the Goshawk,
197. And, in short, all the birds of noble hawking
198. And beyond these yet another infinite multitude
199. Which we do not have in common. But <this land> has the Curlew
200. The Egret, the Cuckoo, the Woodcock, and the Redwing,
201. The Dove, the Jay, the Owl, the Swallow,
202. The Woodpigeon, the Green Finch, with the Turtledove,
203. The Hoopoe, the lascivious Sparrow,
204. The multi-coloured Ptarmigan, and also the Crow.
205. What more shall I say? Will someone <at least> be able to believe
206. That God himself has wanted to manifest his glory
207. By creating a little bird similar to a butterfly
208. (That does not exceed the size of a cricket)
209. Displaying on its back a green-golden plumage
210. And a red and white colour on the rest of its chest.
211. Amazing little bird, why then, <as if> envious,
212. Have you made yourself invisible to my eyes a hundred times,
213. While passing lightly by my ear
214. You only left the marvel of a soft sound?
215. I would not have been cruel to your rare beauty
216. <Un>like others who have treated you fatally
217. If you had deemed me worthy to come and portray you.
218. But although you did not want to hear my wish
219. I will not give up celebrating your name nevertheless
220. And make that you be of great renown among us.
221. For I admire you as much in your smallness
222. As I do the elephant in its vast size.
223. Niridau is your name which I do not wish to change
224. In order to impose one that would be foreign:
225. Niridau, delicate little bird by nature,
226. That takes the sweet nourishment of bees
227. Syphoning the fragrant flowers of our gardens,
228. And the rarest sweets from the forest edge.

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229. To these dwellers of the sky may I add, without offending,
230. The excellence of a tiny winged folk?
231. These are fireflies, which at nightfall
232. Shine with brilliant clarity among the trees
233. Darting here and there in such great throngs
234. That the luminous band of starry sky
235. Itself seems to hold no greater wonder.
236. Therefore, commemorating here
237. <All> the beauties of this place, it is indeed reasonable
238. That you be included and hold a fitting place among them.

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239. But since our sails are already set
240. And <we> are going to see again those who believe us perished
241. I say Farewell once more to your beautiful gardens
242. That have nourished us with your medicinal herbs,
243. Nay also relieved our need
244. <And> more than the art of Paean have kept us healthy.
245. You have certainly given back to us in abundance
246. The fruit of our labours in accordance with our sowing.
247. So what does it matter if it ever happens
248. (And which it necessarily will do in the future)
249. That the soil here needs to be made more appealing
250. And improved sometimes by human labour?
251. Who will believe that the rye, and the hemp, and the peas
252. Have surpassed twice the height of a young man?
253. Who will believe that the so-called Indian corn
254. Rises up so high in this season
255. That it seems to be carried by insufferable pride
256. To make itself, haughty, resemble a woodland?
257. Ah! What great sadness it is for me not to be able to wait for
258. The fruit that in little time you promise to render!
259. How disturbing it is for me not to see the season
260. When the squash and the melon will ripen
261. And the cucumber as well: And <I> also grieve
262. At not seeing at all come to fruition my wheat, my oats,
263. And my barley and my millet, since the Sovereign
264. Has blessed me in this modest effort with his hand.
265. And yet, here it is the thirtieth day of the
266. Month that once used to be the fifth in rank.

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267. Nations of all parts far away from here
268. Do not marvel at this
269. And do not at all consider us as being in a cold region,
270. <As> this is not at all <like> Flanders, Scotland, nor Sweden,
271. The sea here does not freeze over, and the cold seasons
272. Have never forced me to save the half-burnt firewood.
273. And if in your country summer arrives earlier than here
274. You experience winter’s inclemency earlier.
275. But you are staying yet, Poutrincourt, waiting
276. Until your harvest is ready: And we, nevertheless,
277. We set sail for Canso where the ship awaits you
278. Which from there is due to convey all of us to France.
279. For now, beautiful ears of grain, ripen quickly,
280. May God the Almighty give you growth
281. In order that one day his glory may resound
282. When we shall commemorate his blessings
283. Among which we will count as well
284. The care which he will have taken to gather into his mercy
285. These vagabond peoples one calls Sauvages,
286. Dwellers of these forests and marine shores,
287. And a hundred peoples more who are located on all sides
288. To the south, West and North settled in one place
289. Who love to work and who cultivate the soil
290. And who, in freedom, live more contentedly from their produce than we
291. But their condition is deplorable in this respect
292. That they have not been instructed about the world to come.

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293. Why, o Almighty one, why then have you
294. Rejected this race from your face until now
295. And why do you leave to hell to devour,
296. So many human beings who ought to triumph over it,
297. Seeing that they are, like us, <of> your work and making
298. And have from you received our fragile nature?
299. Open therefore the treasuries of your compassion[s]
300. And pour out onto them your blessings
301. In order that soon they may be your blessed heritage
302. And intone aloud your goodness throughout all the ages.
303. As soon as your sun will shine on them
304. Just as soon we will see this people worship you.
305. Witness be the true conversations
306. Poutrincourt held with these pitiful people
307. When he taught them our Religion
308. And often showed them the ardent desire
309. He had to see them inside the fold
310. Which Christ has redeemed by the price of his life.
311. Clearly moved, they on their part gave witness
312. With their mouths and hearts of the desire they had
313. To be more amply instructed in the teaching
314. Within which it is proper for the faithful make their way.

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315. Where are you, Prelates, that you do not pity
316. This people that makes up half the world?
317. <Why> don’t you at least give aid to those whose zeal
318. Transports them so far as if under His wing
319. To establish here God’s holy law
320. With so much hardship, care and emotion?
321. These peoples are not brutal, barbaric or savage,
322. If you <choose> not to call by such names the men of yore,
323. They are subtle, clever and of very sound judgment
324. And <I> have not known a single one who lacked understanding
325. Only they need a father to teach them
326. To cultivate the earth, to cultivate the vine,
327. To live in an organized fashion, to be economical
328. And to dwell in fixed habitations from here on.
329. For the rest, in our opinion, they are full of innocence
330. If <only> they had knowledge of their creator.
331. <But> because they do not know Him, neither mouth nor heart
332. Ravishes God’s honour through blasphemy.
333. They do not know the work of the amorous potion
334. Nor have they knowledge of the use of aconite,
335. Their mouths do not vomit forth our curses
336. Their spirits are not given over to our inventions
337. For oppressing the other, <and> the cruel avarice
338. of an all-consuming preoccupation does not torment their souls.
339. But they have the hospitality of the Gaulois,
340. Who valued it so highly in their days of old.
341. Their greatest vice is the love of vengeance
342. When their enemy has offended them in some way.

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343. Farewell unto you, then, poor people, and <I> am incapable
344. To express the sadness I feel
345. In leaving you thus, without having seen as yet
346. One of you made to truly worship God.

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347. Let us depart, then, from this harbor, the East wind permitting,
348. For on these coasts the West wind is prevalent
349. <And> moreover, this sea is often covered by fog
350. Which causes the total loss of incautious men.

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351. Farewell for the last time, Rocks rearing high,
352. Proudly raising up your caverns
353. From whence pour forth without end abundant showers
354. Which are supplied by the waters coursing down the mountains.
355. Farewell, then, to you as well, Caves, that have pleased me
356. When beneath your halls in bright daylight I have seen outlined
357. The attractive colours of the Rainbow.

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358. Now that we are in sight of the awesome waves
359. Of the Ocean deep, will I be able to pass by
360. Without saluting from afar, or leaving <without> a Farewell
361. To the land that received our <country> France
362. When she first came to establish herself here?
363. Island, I salute you, Isle of Saint Croix,
364. Island that was the first dwelling place of our poor <fellow> French
365. Who suffered major hardships while dwelling with you,
366. But <it is> our bad habits that often cause us these injuries.
367. I revere, however, your pure antiquity,
368. The scented cedars on your side
369. Your workshops, your lodgings, your superb warehouse,
370. Your gardens choked by new weeds:
371. But I honour above all on account of our dead
372. The place that holds their bodies in its keeping
373. Which I have not been able to behold without a power of tears
374. So much did these terrible exploits sadden my heart.
375. Be at peace, then, and may you one day
376. Find yourselves in glory in the heavenly mansion.
377. But nevertheless, DE MONTS, you take with you the glory
378. Of having obtained victory over a thousand deaths,
379. A true witness to your great courage,
380. Be it when you battled the fury of the waves
381. While coming to visit this faraway province
382. In order to follow the will of HENRY, our Prince,
383. Or when in front of your eyes you watched <them> die
384. Those <buried> there who followed you to that fateful location.

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385. Far behind I leave you, mines to be
386. Which the massive rocks lodge deep in their veins,
387. Mines of bronze, iron and steel, and of silver,
388. And of pit coal, in order to salute the people
389. Who cultivate their land by hand, the Armouchiquois.
390. I salute you, then, quarrelsome nation
391. (For you have failed us on account of treason)
392. To say unto you that one day we will obtain satisfaction
393. And with greater effect, of your presumptuousness,
394. Just as your offspring will be accursed among us.
395. But your earth I want to salute in all its goodness
396. For she is sure to give us an ample return
397. When she will experience French cultivation.
398. For in her provident Nature has already
399. Implanted the vine so copiously
400. And with such beauty, that Bacchus himself,
401. If invoked, would not know how to improve on it.
402. But its people, unaware, do not know the use of its fruit.
403. Earth, you also have, with beans and grain,
404. Your subterranean silos filled in harvest time.
405. But although you give your produce abundantly
406. Producing other fruits without human assistance
407. Such as the hemp, squash and nuts we have seen,
408. Your beans, nor your grain, in any case, you do not
409. Produce without work, but your populace, in great number,
410. <Already> breaks you with a sharp cutting timber, and turns you over
411. To plant its seed there, in the Spring.

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412. But one more thing I must mention
413. Which obliges me to write about it because of its rarity,
414. <And> that is the product produced by the stalk of the hemp plant
415. <A> product worthy of being held precious by Kings
416. <And> most delicious for the repose of the body:
417. It is a white, thin and fine silk
418. Which Nature produces in the hollow of a shell,
419. Silk which one will be able to employ for many a use
420. And which workers will turn into cotton
421. When you <Earth>, inhabited by good artisans,
422. Will be controlled by a willed sedentarism.

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423. May I see that thing arrive soon,
424. And careful Frenchmen cultivate your fields,
425. Away from the cares of a life of hardship
426. Far from the noise of the common crowd, and from deceit.

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427. Seeking on Neptune’s bosom rest without rest,
428. I have fashioned these verses on the swell of his waves.
429. LESCARBOT

—Translated by Haijo Westra

Based on the Histoire de la Nouvelle-France, 1617 edition, produced by Rénald Lévesque and published by the Gutenberg Project (2007) at www. gutenberg

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Detail from Champlain map

A-DIEU A LA NOUVELLE-FRANCE
Du 30 Juillet 1607.

Cherchant dessus Neptune un repos sans repos
J’ay façonné ces vers au branle de ses flots.

—M. LESCARBOT.

(This eBook excerpt is from Project Gutenberg’s Les Muses de la Nouvelle France by Marc L’escarbot produced by Rénald Lévesque. This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org.)

Champlain map detail

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Haijo Westra has taught Classics at the University of Calgary and wrote about topics in Greek and Latin literature. More recently, he has turned to the early accounts of the East Coast written in Latin by the Jesuit Pierre Biard and the role of classical ethnography in the description of Native peoples, in particular the Micmac. The present article is his first venture into a French text of the period.

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