Now, after hearing from the pilot all these things, I asked him why the
Basque had come on board of our vessel. He told me that he came in behalf
of their master, named Darache, and his companions, to obtain assurance
from me that I would do them no harm, when our vessel entered the harbor.

I replied that I could not give any until I had seen Pont Grave. The Basque
said that, if I had need of any thing in their power, they would assist me
accordingly. What led them to use this language was simply their
recognition of having done wrong, as they confessed, and the fear that they
would not be permitted to engage in the whale-fishery. After talking at
length, I went ashore to see Pont Grave, in order to deliberate as to what
was to be done. I found him very ill. He related to me in detail all that
had happened. We concluded that we could only enter the harbor by force,
and that the settlement must not be given up for this year, so that we
considered it best, in order not to make a bad cause out of a just one, and
thus work our ruin, to give them assurances on my part so long as I should
remain there, and that Pont Grave should undertake nothing against them,
but that justice should be done in France, and their differences should be
settled there.

Darache, master of the vessel, begged me to go on board, where he gave me a
cordial reception. After a long conference, I secured an agreement between
Pont Grave and him, and required him to promise that he would undertake
nothing against Pont Grave, or what would be prejudicial to the King and
Sieur de Monts; that, if he did the contrary, I should regard my promise as
null and void. This was agreed to, and signed by each.

In this place were a number of savages who had come for traffic in furs,
several of whom came to our vessel with their canoes, which are from eight
to nine paces long, and about a pace or pace and a half broad in the