lain tells us little in their
praise. Of the Armouchiquois he says:

I cannot tell what government they have, but I think that in this
respect they resemble their neighbours, who have none at all. They
know not how to worship or pray; yet, like the other savages, they have
some superstitions, which I shall describe in their place. As for
weapons, they have only pikes, clubs, bows and arrows. It would seem
from their appearance that they have a good disposition, better than
those of the north, but they are all in fact of no great worth. Even a
slight intercourse with them gives you at once a knowledge of them.
They are great thieves, and if they cannot lay hold of any thing with
their hands, they try to do so with their feet, as we have oftentimes
learned by experience. I am of opinion that if they had any thing to
exchange with us they would not give themselves to thieving. They
bartered away to us their bows, arrows, and quivers for pins and
buttons; and if they had had any thing else better they would have done
the same with it. It is necessary to be on one's guard against this
people and live in a state of distrust of them, yet without letting
them perceive it.

{40} This passage at least shows that Champlain sought to be just to
the savages of the Atlantic. Though he found them thieves, he is
willing to conjecture that they would not steal if they had anything to
trade.

The thieving habits of the Cape Cod Indians led to a fight between them
and the French in which one Frenchman was killed, and Champlain
narrowly escaped death through the explosion of his own musket. At
Cape Cod De Monts turned back. Five of the six weeks allotted to the
voyage were over, and lack of food made it impossible to enter Long
Island Sound. Hence 'Sieur de Monts determined to return to the Island
of St Croix in order to find a place more favourable for our
settlement, as we had not been able to do on any of the coasts which he
had explored during this voyage.'

We now approach the picturesque episode of Port Royal. De Monts,
having regained St Croix at the beginning of August, lost no time in
transporting his people to the other side of the Bay of Fundy. The
consideration which weighed most with him in establishing his
headquarters was that of trade. Whatever his own preferences, he could
not forget that his partners in France expected a return {41} on their
investment. Had he been in a position to found an agricu