Becoming America - An Exploration of American Literature from Precolonial to Post-Revolution, 2018a

BECOMING AMERICA
PRE- AND EARLY COLONIAL LITERATURE
BOOK III
Chapter V
Arrival of the author at Quebec, where he made his place of abode. Habits of the
savages of that country.
From the Island of Orleans to Quebec it is one league. When I arrived there
on July 3, I looked for a suitable place for our buildings, but I could not nd any
more convenient or better situated than the point of Quebec, so called by the
savages, which is lled with nut trees and vines. I immediately employed some of
our workmen in cutting them down, in order to put our buildings there. Some I set
to sawing boards, some to digging a cellar and making ditches, and others I sent
to Tadoussac with the boat to get our supplies. The rst thing that we made was
the storehouse in which to put our provisions under cover, which was promptly
nished through the diligence of each one and the care that I had of it. Near this
place is a pleasant river, where formerly Jacques Cartier passed the winter.
While the ship-carpenters, the woodsawers and other workmen, worked on
our lodging I set all the others at clearing the land about the building, in order to
make the garden-plots in which to sow grain and seeds, to see how they would all
turn out, for the soil appeared very good.
Meanwhile a great many savages were in cabins near us, shing for eels, which
begin to come about September 15 and go away on October 15. At this time all the
savages live on this manna and dry enough of it to last through the winter to the
month of February, when the snow is about two and a half feet deep, or three at the
most. And when the eels and other things that they collect have been prepared they
go to hunt the beaver, which they do until the beginning of January. They were not
very successful in the beaver hunt, for the water was too high and the rivers had
overowed, as they told us. When their eels give out they have recourse to hunting
the elk and other wild beasts, which they can nd, while waiting for the spring. At
that time I was able to supply them with several things. I made a special study of
their customs.
All these people are so much in want that sometimes they are driven to live
on certain kinds of shellsh and to eat their dogs and the skins with which they
protect themselves against the cold. If some one should show them how to live and
teach them how to till the soil, and other things, they would learn very easily, for
there are a good many of them who have good judgment and reply intelligently to
what is asked of them. There is an evil tendency among them to be revengeful, and
to be great liars, and one cannot rely upon them, except with caution and when one
is armed. They make promises enough, but keep few of them, most of them being
without law, as far as I could see, and, besides, full of false beliefs. I asked them
what ceremonies they employed in praying to their god; they told me that they
made use of none, except that each prayed in his heart as he wished. This is why
they have no law, and do not know what it is to worship God and pray to Him, but
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