ery show of
good faith. Champlain describes the plan in full. The shallop was to
leave the barque for shore, taking

the most robust and strong men we had, each one having a chain of beads
and a fathom of match on his arm; and there, while pretending to smoke
with them (each one having an end of his match lighted so as not to
excite suspicion, it being customary to have fire at the end of a cord
in order to light the tobacco), coax them with pleasing words so as to
draw them into the shallop; and if they should be unwilling to enter,
each one approaching should choose his man and, putting the beads round
his neck, should at the same time put the rope on him to draw him by
force. But if they should be too boisterous and it should not be
possible to succeed, they should be stabbed, the rope being firmly
held; and if by chance any of them should get away, there should be men
on land to charge upon them with swords. Meanwhile, the little cannon
on our barque was to be kept ready to fire upon their companions in
case they should come to assist them, under cover of which firearms the
shallop could withdraw in security.

This plot, though carefully planned, fell far short of the success
which was anticipated. To catch a redskin with a noose required more
skill than was available. Accordingly, {52} none were taken alive.
Champlain says: 'We retired to our barque after having done all we
could.' Lescarbot adds: 'Six or seven of the savages were hacked and
hewed in pieces, who could not run so lightly in the water as on shore,
and were caught as they came out by those of our men who had landed.'

Having thus taken an eye for an eye, Poutrincourt began his homeward
voyage, and, after three or four escapes from shipwreck, reached Port
Royal on November 14.

Champlain was now about to spend his last winter in Acadia. Mindful of
former experiences, he determined to fight scurvy by encouraging
exercise among the colonists and procuring for them an improved diet.
A third desideratum was cheerfulness. All these purposes he served
through founding the _Ordre de Bon Temps_, which proved to be in every
sense the life of the settlement. Champlain himself briefly describes
the procedure followed, but a far more graphic account is given by
Lescarbot, whose diffuse and lively style is illustrated to perfection
in the following passage:

To keep our table joyous and well provided, an order was established at
the board of t