infected with this malady.[105]

Our surgeons could not help suffering themselves in the same manner as the
rest. Those who continued sick were healed by spring, which commences in
this country in May.[106] That led us to believe that the change of season
restored their health rather than the remedies prescribed.

During this winter, all our liquors froze, except the Spanish wine. Cider
was dispensed by the pound. The cause of this loss was that there were no
cellars to our storehouse, and that the air which entered by the cracks was
sharper than that outside. We were obliged to use very bad water, and drink
melted snow, as there were no springs nor brooks; for it was not possible
to go to the main land in consequence of the great pieces of ice drifted by
the tide, which varies three fathoms between low and high water. Work on
the hand-mill was very fatiguing, since the most of us, having slept
poorly, and suffering from insufficiency of fuel, which we could not obtain
on account of the ice, had scarcely any strength, and also because we ate
only salt meat and vegetables during the winter, which produce bad blood.
The latter circumstance was, in my opinion, a partial cause of these
dreadful maladies. All this produced discontent in Sieur de Monts and
others of the settlement.

It would be very difficult to ascertain the character of this region
without spending a winter in it; for, on arriving here in summer, every
thing is very agreeable, in consequence of the woods, fine country, and the
many varieties of good fish which are found there. There are six months of
winter in this country.

The savages who dwell here are few in number. During the winter, in the
deepest snows, they hunt elks and other animals, on which they live most of