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rived at the place which Cartier had quitted. There he erected a fort on a commanding eminence, and another at its foot, in which were deposited all the provision, ammunition, artillery, implements of husbandry, and other materials for the intended colony.*

In September, two vessels were sent back to France, to carry specimens of crystal and fetch provisions for the next year, the stores which they had brought being much reduced. By the help of the fish which they took in the river, and the game which they procured from the savages, and by well husbanding their provisions, they lingered out a tedious winter, having suffered much from the scurvy, of which about fifty of them died. In addi tion to this distress, Roberval exercised such

* [Near the present site of Quebec. The fortifications of what is now the Gibraltar of America are thus described in the narrative of Roberval: "The saide generall, at his first arrival, built a fayre fort, which is very beautiful to behold and of great force,.. situated upon an high mountain, wherein were two courtes of buyldings, a great tower, and another of fortie or fiftie foot long: wherein there were divers chambers, an hall, a kitchen, houses of office, sellers, high and lowe, and neere unto it were an oven and milles, and a stove to warm men in, and a well before the house. There was also at the foote of the mountaine another lodging, part whereof was a great tower of two stories high, two courtes of good buyldings." Such was it in 1542.-H.]

severity in his government, that one man was hanged, several were laid in irons, and some of both sexes underwent the discipline of the whip.

In April the ice began to break up, and on the fifth of June he proceeded up the river, leaving De Royeze, his lieutenant, to command in his absence, with orders to embark for France if he should not return by the middle of July.

As the account of the expedition ends here, we can only remark that the colony was broken up, and no farther attempt was made by the French to establish themselves in Canada till after the expiration of half a century. The last account of Roberval is that, in 1549, he sailed with his brother on some voyage of discovery, and never returned.*

In this first visit which the natives of Canada received from the Europeans, we have a striking instance of their primitive manners. Suspecting no danger, and influenced by no fear, they embraced the stranger with unaffected joy. Their huts were open to receive him, their fires and furs to give warmth and rest to his weary limbs; their food was shared with him, or given in exchange for his tri

* [Bosman, History of Maryland, p. 41, says to the St Lawrence.-H.]

fles; they were ready with their simple medicines to heal his diseases and his wounds; they would wade through rivers, and climb rocks and mountains to guide him in his way, and they would remember and requite his kindness more than it deserved.

Unhappily for them, they set too high a value on their new guest. Imagining him to be of a heavenly origin, they were extravagant and unguarded in their first attachment, and, from some specimens of his superiority, obvious to their senses, they expected more than ought ever to be expected from beings. of the same species. But when the mistake was discovered, and the stranger whom they had adored proved to be no more than human, having the same inferior desires and passions with themselves-especially when they found their confidence misplaced and their generous friendship ill requited—then the rage of jealousy extinguished the virtue of benevolence, and they struggled to rid themselves of him as an enemy whom they had received into their bosom as a friend.

On the other hand, it was too common for the European adventurer to regard the man of nature as an inferior being; and, while he availed himself of his strength and experience,

to abuse his confidence, and repay his kindness with insult and injury, to stigmatize him as a heathen and a savage, and to bestow on him the epithets of deceitful, treacherous, and cruel, though he himself had first set the example of these detestable vices. Y 2

VI. FERDINANDO DE SOTO.*

THE travels and transactions of this adventurer are of so little importance in the history of America, that I should not have thought them worthy of much notice had it not been that some gentlemen of ingenuity and learning have had recourse to the expedition of this Spaniard as a means of solving the question respecting the mounds and fortifications of a regular construction which, within a few years past, have been discovered in the thickest shades of the American forest.† Though the opinion seems to have been candidly given up by one of the writers who attempted to defend it, yet, as what was published on the subject may have impressed some persons with an idea that these works were of Euro

* [A minute and circumstantial narrative of De Soto's expedition was written by a "Portugese gentleman of Elvas," who accompanied him. It was translated about 1562, and is cited in these notes as the Relation.--H.]

+ If the reader wishes to see a particular investigation of this hypothesis, he may consult the American Magazine, printed at New-York, for December, 1787, January and February, 1788, and some subsequent numbers, compared with the Columbian Magazine, printed at Philadelphia, for September and November, 1788.

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