After A Long Talk, As Donnacona Saw That There Were No Means
Of Avoiding The Voyage To France, He Commanded His People To Bring Him
Some Victuals To Serve Him During The Passage.
At this time our captain
gave Donnacona two frying pans of copper, eight hatchets, with several
knives, strings of beads, and other trifles, with which he seemed highly
pleased, and sent them to his wives and children.
Our captain also made
similar presents to the chiefs who had come to speak with Donnacona, who
thanked him for the gifts and retired to their town.
[Footnote 60: A very unintelligible account of the manner in which this
article, so precious in the eyes of the Canadians, is procured, has been
already given in this chapter; but there are no data on which even to
conjecture what it is. Belts of wampum, a kind of rudely ornamented
ribbons or girdles, are universally prized among the North American
Indians, of which frequent mention will occur in the sequel of this
work. - E.] Very early on the 5th of May, a great number of the people
came back to speak with their lord, on which occasion they sent a boat,
called casnoni in their language, loaded with maize, venison, fish,
and other articles of provision after their fashion, and lest any of
their men might be detained, this boat was navigated by four women, who
were well treated at our ships. By the desire of Donnacona, our captain
sent a message on shore by these women, to assure the natives that their
chief would be brought back by him to Canada at the end of ten or twelve
months:
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 107 of 809
Words from 28986 to 29263
of 221361