my mind upon; in short, that he believed respecting me all that the other
savages had told him. Aware that we were hungry, he gave us some fish,
which we ate, and after our meal I explained to him, through Thomas, our
interpreter, the pleasure I had in meeting them, that I had come to this
country to assist them in their wars, and that I desired to go still
farther to see some other chiefs for the same object, at which they were
glad and promised me assistance. They showed me their gardens and the
fields, where they had maize. Their soil is sandy, for which reason they
devote themselves more to hunting than to tillage, unlike the Ochateguins.
[63] When they wish to make a piece of land arable, they burn down the
trees, which is very easily done, as they are all pines, and filled with
rosin. The trees having been burned, they dig up the ground a little, and
plant their maize kernel by kernel, [64] like those in Florida. At the time
I was there it was only four fingers high.

ENDNOTES:

33. _Vide_ Vol. II. p. 171, note 297, for an account of Henry Hudson, to
whom this statement refers. De Vignau had undoubtedly heard rumors
concerning Hudson's expedition to the bay that bears his name in the
years 1610-11, out of which he fabricated the fine story of his
pretended discovery. Longitude at that time was reckoned from the
island of Ferro, one of the Canaries. Proceeding from west to east, the
290 deg. would pass through Hudson's Bay, as may be seen by consulting any
early French map. _Vide_ Bellin's _Carte du Globe Terrestre_, 1764.

34. Nicholas Brulart de Sillery, who was born at Sillery, in France, in
1544, and died in the same place in 1624. He rendered signal service to
Henry IV. Among other public acts he negotiated the peace of Vervins
between France and Spain in 1598. He was appointed grand chancellor of