CHAMPLAIN'S LARGE MAP.

GEOGRAPHICAL CHART OF NEW FRANCE, MADE BY SIEUR DE CHAMPLAIN OF SAINTONGE, CAPTAIN IN ORDINARY FOR THE KING IN THE MARINE. MADE IN THE YEAR 1612.

I have made this map for the greater convenience of the majority of those who navigate on these coasts, since they sail to that country according to compasses arranged for the hemisphere of Asia. And if I had made it like the small one, the majority would not have been able to use it, owing to their not knowing the declinations of the needle. [230]

Observe that on the present map north-northeast stands for north, and west-northwest for west; according to which one is to be guided in ascertaining the elevation of the degrees of latitude, as if these points were actually east and west, north and south, since the map is constructed according to the compasses of France, which vary to the northeast. [231]

SOME DECLINATIONS OF THE MAGNETIC NEEDLE, WHICH I HAVE CAREFULLY OBSERVED.

Cap Breton . . . . . . 14 deg. 50' Cap de la Have . . . . 16 deg. 15' Baye Ste Mane . . . . 17 deg. 16' Port Royal . . . . . . 17 deg. 8' En la grande R. St Laurent 21 deg.

St Croix . . . . . . . 17 deg. 32' Riviere de Norumbegue. 18 deg. 40' Quinibequi . . . . . . 19 deg. 12' Mallebarre . . . . . . 18 deg. 40'

All observed by Sieur de Champlain, 1612.

REFERENCES ON CHAMPLAIN'S LARGE MAP.

A. Port Fortune. B. Baye Blanche. C. Baye aux Isles. D. Cap des Isles. E. Port aux Isles. F. Isle Haute. G. Isle des Monts Deserts. H. Cap Corneille. I. Isles aux Oiseaux. K. Cap des Deux Bayes. L. Port aux Mines M. Cap Fourchu. N. Cap Negre. O. Port du Rossignol. P. St. Laurent. Q. Riviere de l'Isle Verte. R. Baye Saine. S. Riviere Sainte Marguerite T. Port Sainte Helene. V. Isle des Martires. X. Isles Rangees. Y. Port de Savalette. Z. Passage du Glas.

1. Port aux Anglois. 2. Baye Courante. 3. Cap de Poutrincourt. 4. Isle Gravee. 5. Passage Courant. 6. Baye de Gennes. 7. Isle Perdue. 8. Cap des Mines. 9. Port aux Coquilles. 10. Isles Jumelles. 11. Cap Saint Jean. 12. Isle la Nef. 13. La Heronniere Isle. 14. Isles Rangees. 15. Baye Saint Luc. 16. Passage du Gas. 17. Cote de Montmorency. 18. Riviere de Champlain. 19. Riviere Sainte Marie. 20. Isle d'Orleans. 21. Isle de Bacchus.

NOTE—The reader will observe that in a few instances the references are wanting on the map.

CHAMPLAIN'S NOTE TO THE SMALL MAP.

On the small map [232] is added the strait above Labrador between the fifty-third and sixty-third degrees of latitude, which the English have discovered during the present year 1612, in their voyage to find, if possible, a passage to China by way of the north. [233] They wintered at a place indicated by this mark, 6. But it was not without enduring severe cold, and they were obliged to return to England, leaving their leader in the northern regions. Within six months three other vessels have set out, to penetrate, if possible, still farther, and, at the same time, to search for the men who were left in that region.

GEOGRAPHICAL MAP OF NEW FRANCE, IN ITS TRUE MERIDIAN.

Made by Sieur Champlain, Captain for the King in the Marine. 1613.

+o Matou-ouescariny. [Note: This figure is inverted on the map. Vide antea, note 59, p. 62.] o+ Gaspay. oo Ouescariny. [Note: Vide antea, note 47, pp. 59, 81. The figure oo is misplaced and should be where o-o is on the map, on the extreme western border near the forty-seventh degree of north latitude.] o-o Quenongebin. [Note: This figure o-o on the map occupies the place which should be occupied by oo. Vide antea, p. 58, note 46.] A. Tadoussac. B. Lesquemain. C. Isle Percee. D. Baye de Chaleur. E. Isles aux Gros Yeux. [Note: A cluster of islands of which the Island of Birds is one.] H. Baye Francoise. I. Isles aux Oyseaux. L. Riviere des Etechemins. [Note: This letter, placed between the River St. John and the St. Croix, refers to the latter.] M. Menane. N. Port Royal. P. Isle Longue. Q. Cap Fourchu. R. Port au Mouton. S. Port du Rossignol. [Note: The letter S appears twice on the coast of La Cadie. The one here referred to is the more westerly.] SS. Lac de Medicis. [Note: This reference is probably to the Lake of Two Mountains, which will be seen on the map west of Montreal.] T. Sesambre. V. Cap des Deux Bayes. 3. L'Isle aux Coudres. 4. Saincte Croix. [Note: St. Croix on the map is where a cross surmounted by the figure 4 may be seen.] 4. Riviere des Etechemins. [Note: This appears to refer to the Chaudiere. Vide vol. I. p. 296.] 5. Sault. [Note: This refers to the Falls of Montmorency.] 6. Lac Sainct Pierre. 7. Riviere des Yroquois. 9. Isle aux Lieures. 10. Riviere Platte. [Note: A small river flowing into Mal Bay. Vide Vol. I. p. 295; also Les Voyages de Champlain, Quebec ed., p. 1099.] 11. Mantane. [Note: Vide Vol. I. p 234.] 40. Cap Saincte Marie. [Note: The figures are wanting. Cape St. Mary is on the southern coast of Newfoundland. Vide Vol I. p. 232.]

ENDNOTES:

228. The determination of longitudes has from the beginning been environed with almost insuperable difficulties. At one period the declination of the magnetic needle was supposed to furnish the means of a practical solution. Sebastian Cabot devoted considerable attention to the subject, as did likewise Peter Plancius at a later date. Champlain appears to have fixed the longitudes on his smaller map by calculations based on the variation of the needle, guided by the principles laid down by Guillaume de Nautonier, Sieur de Castelfranc, to whose work he refers in the text. It was entitled, Mecometrie de l'eymant c'est a dire la maniere de mesurer les longitudes par le moyen de l'eymant. This rare volume is not to be found as far as my inquiries extend, in any of the incorporated libraries on this continent. There is however a copy in the Bodleian Library at Oxford, to which in the catalogue is given the bibliographical note: Six livres. Folio. Tolose, 1603.

It is hardly necessary to add that the forces governing the variation of the needle, both local and general, are so inconstant that the hope of fixing longitudes by it was long since abandoned.

The reason for the introduction of the explanation of the maps at this place will be seen antea, p. 39.

229. The rose is the face or card of the mariner's compass. It was anciently called the fly. Card may perhaps be derived from the Italian cardo, a thistle, which the face of the compass may be supposed to resemble. On the complete circle of the compass there are thirty-two lines drawn from the centre to the circumference to indicate the direction of the wind. Each quarter of the circle, or 90 deg., contains eight lines representing the points of the compass in that quarter. They are named with reference to the cardinal points from which they begin, as: 1, north, 2, north by east, 3, north-northeast; 4, northeast by north; 5, northeast; 6, northeast by east; 7, east- northeast; 8, east by north. The points in each quarter are named in a similar manner.

230. The above title is on the large map of 1612. This note is on the upper left-hand corner of the same map.

231. For this note see the upper right-hand corner of the map.

232. In Champlain's issue in 1613, the note here given was placed in the preliminary matter to that volume. It was placed there probably after the rest of the work had gone to press. We have placed it here in connection with other matter relating to the maps, where it seems more properly to belong.

233. This refers to the fourth voyage of Henry Hudson, made in 1610, for the purpose here indicated. He penetrated Lomley's Inlet, hoping to find a passage through to the Pacific Ocean, or, as it was then called, the South Sea, and thus find a direct and shorter course to China. He passed the winter at about 52 deg. north latitude, in that expanse of water which has ever since been appropriately known as Hudson's Bay. A mutiny having broken out among his crew, he and eight others having been forced into a small boat, on the 21st of June, 1611, were set adrift on the sea, and were never heard of afterward.

A part of the mutinous crew arrived with the ship in England, and were immediately thrown into prison. The following year, 1612, an expedition under Sir Thomas Button was sent out to seek for Hudson, and to prosecute the search still further for a northwest passage. It is needless to add that the search was unsuccessful.

A chart by Hudson fortunately escaped destruction by the mutineers. Singularly enough, an engraving of it, entitled, TABVLA NAVTICA, was published by Heffel Gerritz at Amsterdam the same year. Champlain incorporated the part of it illustrating Hudson's discovery in his smaller map, which is dated the same year, 1612. He does not introduce it into his large map, although that is dated likewise 1612. A facsimile of the Tabula Nautica is given in Henry Hudson the Navigator, by G. M. Asher, LL.D. published by the Hakluyt Society in 1860.