Portion of Figure de la terre . Neuve Grande Riviere de Canada, et cote de l'ocean de la Nouvelle France (1609) by Marc Lescarbot.
To me, Lescarbot has always seemed more human in his written
accounts than Champlain. He was a Parisian lawyer, disgusted with
court politics, who accepted the invitation of a client, to accompany
him to Port Royal. He was only there for a
single year, but gathered enough material to publish his history,
which recounted French successes in Quebec as well as Atlantic Canada.
Although he showed most points of interest in the latter region, he did
overlook Prince Edward Island on this map. Three editions
followed, all of which helped to attract French ffinancial interest in the New
World.
Here again, La Have is shown, as is Cape Sable, Port Mouton
and Port Rossignol, all of which which remain as small south shore
villages. On his only trip out of Port Royal, Lescarbot visited the
abandoned Ste. Croix Island settlement and Indian settlements here and
on the Saint John River.
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A bit later in the seventeenth century, Nicloas Denys emigrated to Acadie and lived there from 1633 until 1681. He was the first to take special note of the Bay of Mirligaiche
which is later identified by English authorities as Lunenburg
Harbour. But note that portion of an early map at right?
Denys says: "Setting out from La Haive, and having rounded Cape Dore,
about a league, one enters the Bay of Merigiache, which is about three
leagues in depth, and filled with numerous islands. Amongst others
there is one a quarter of alegueleague in circuit; it is only a rock covered
with little trees like heather. I was in this bay with Monsieur de
Razilly and some Indians who were guiding us; an interpreter told us,
as we were passing near this island, that the Indians never landed upon
it.We asked him the reason, he made an answer that when a man set foot
upon this island immediately a fire would seize upon his private parts,
and they would burn up. " (ca 1633-1635)
Merigiache Baie
is identified by historian Ruth Holmes Whitehead as "Mahone Bay" and
this seems correct considering the fact that Front
Lunenburg Harbour is without islands and they are not "numerous"
in either the Back Harbour or even the outer harbour. By contrast there
are more than a three hundred islands standing in the more expansive
Mahone Bay
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A close-up of an English map dated 1624. Of most
interest here is the fact that the "English"
settlement on Argals Bay now known as the Bay of Fundy is not indicated.
Lukesburgh
is quite obviously "Lunenburg" and the Scots are known to have considered
putting a settlement here, next door to the defunct French holdings at
La Have. In the end they seem to have regarded the south shore as too
exposed from a military point of view.
William Alexander, the Scot's landlord, head of the Baronets of Nova
Scotia, did retain the French names for Port Rosignol and Campseau on
his map but
anglicized everything else.
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