The Grinding
Was Performed With A Hand-Mill, And Consequently So Laborious And
Tedious That The Savages Would Rather Suffer Hunger Than Submit To Such
Drudgery, Which They Also Seemed To Think Degrading To The Free Sons Of
The Forest.
Proverbially fickle are princes; and of this De Monts was convinced on
his return to France, for during his
Absence he had lost favor with his
sovereign, Henry IV., who revoked his commission; still he succeeded,
after many difficulties, in procuring supplies for his colony, and
arrived just in time to prevent his people from leaving Port Royal
discouraged and disheartened. One member of the little community of
Frenchmen was Lescarbot, a lawyer, who was talented, poetical, and did
much to enliven the others during the absence of their leader, who, on
his return, was received by a procession of masqueraders, headed by
Neptune and tritons, reciting verses written by Lescarbot. Over the
entrances to the fort and to the Governor's apartments were suspended
wreaths of laurel and garlands surrounding Latin mottoes, - all the work
of the pastimist (if one may coin such a word). The relief and
encouragement brought by De Monts were but temporary, and in the spring
(1606) news was received that nothing more could be sent to the
colonists, and they must be disbanded.
Imagination portrays the strange picture presented at this time in this
remote region, the gay French courtiers vanishing from the sight of
their Indian comrades almost as suddenly and mysteriously as they had
appeared but three years before, and leaving their dusky boon companions
lamenting on the shore.
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