coming over to him from Stadacona. Among them was the
interpreter Domagaya, whom Cartier had known to be stricken
by the illness only ten days before, but who now appeared
in abundant health. On being asked the manner of his
cure, the interpreter told Cartier that he had been healed
by a beverage made from the leaves and bark of a tree.
Cartier, as we have seen, had kept from the Indians the
knowledge of his troubles, for he dared not disclose the
real weakness of the French. Now, feigning that only a
servant was ill, he asked for details of the remedy, and,
when he did so, the Indians sent their women to fetch
branches of the tree in question. The bark and leaves
were to be boiled, and the drink thus made was to be
taken twice a day. The potion was duly administered, and
the cure that it effected was so rapid and so complete
that the pious Cartier declared it a real and evident
miracle. 'If all the doctors of Lorraine and Montpellier
had been there with all the drugs of Alexandria,' he
wrote, 'they could not have done as much in a year as
the said tree did in six days.' An entire tree--probably
a white spruce--was used up in less than eight days. The
scourge passed and the sailors, now restored to health,
eagerly awaited the coming of the spring.

Meanwhile the cold lessened; the ice about the ships
relaxed its hold, and by the middle of April they once
more floated free. But a new anxiety had been added.
About the time when the fortunes of Cartier's company
were at their lowest, Donnacona had left his camp with
certain of his followers, ostensibly to spend a fortnight