flesh. Chilled with the cold, huddled in the narrow holds
of the little ships fast frozen in the endless desolation
of the snow, the agonized sufferers breathed their last,
remote from aid, far from the love of women, and deprived
of the consolations of the Church. Let those who realize
the full horror of the picture think well upon what stout
deeds the commonwealth of Canada has been founded.

Without the courage and resource of their leader, whose
iron constitution kept him in full health, all would have
been lost. Cartier spared no efforts. The knowledge of
his situation was concealed from the Indians. None were
allowed aboard the ships, and, as far as might be, a
great clatter of hammering was kept up whenever the
Indians appeared in sight, so that they might suppose
that Cartier's men were forced by the urgency of their
tasks to remain on the ships. Nor was spiritual aid
neglected. An image of the Virgin Mary was placed against
a tree about a bow-shot from the fort, and to this all
who could walk betook themselves in procession on the
Sunday when the sickness was at its height. They moved
in solemn order, singing as they went the penitential
psalms and the Litany, and imploring the intercession of
the Virgin. Thus passed the days until twenty-five of
the French had been laid beneath the snow. For the others
there seemed only the prospect of death from disease or
of destruction at the hands of the savages.

It happened one day that Cartier was walking up and down
by himself upon the ice when he saw a band of Indians