Also, the residents were happy and healthy; were excellent farmers and highly civilized, so would not be looking toward the Europeans to teach them how to improve their lot. Their villages were fortified, so that any act of aggression, could be handled swiftly and they had strong leadership to negotiate peace and ensure future stability. This was clearly not a place where they could assume control, if that was what they were looking to do.
As a matter of fact, their mere presence caused some alarm, as the villagers prepared to take action. Sensing trouble, Poutrincourt ordered his crew to return to the ship at Stage Harbor, but a few of them refused, stating that they were making bread and would not leave the shore until it was done. That bread would cost them their bacon, as they were soon surrounded by an army of about 400 locals, who massacred the men with bow and arrow. One of the bodies was actually found with a small dog on his back, giving the impression of an arrow felling the poor canine, but while still in flight, meeting it’s mark on the fleeing sailor. Of course, this may have been staged, but did send a clear message that they were a force to be reckoned with.
Every time the French advanced, the opposition fled to the safety of the woods. They wouldn’t even allow them to bury their dead. During funeral services they danced and howled in the distance, mocking the mourners, and when the task was completed and the men returned to their ship, the warriors tore down the cross, exhumed the bodies and threw them into the bushes. Before leaving they performed one final act; mooning the ship as it was pulling away.
Poutrincourt and Champlain spent the next few days sailing around 'Nantucket', plotting their pay back. The plan was to try to get a small group together and approach them in the interest of trade. They would then kidnap the unsuspecting traders and take them back to Port Royal as slaves to run the unpopular hand mill. They were even going to use their large rosaries as lassoes, to reign in their victims.
However, this only resulted in the deaths of more of their crew, and with provisions running low, the decision was made to return to Port Royal and safe harbor. However, they did manage to kill two of them, cut off their heads and took them back as trophies (remind me again, who were the savages?); though Pontgrave's son Robert lost a hand when his gun misfired.
This would be Champlain’s last visit to New England. It would be more than a decade before English emigrants from “land that had grown weary of it’s people” , would arrive at Plymouth Rock and change the course of history for the people living in the area.
The aim of these squatters however, was not develop a business interest, but to establish a self-sufficient agricultural community. They were given supplies and assured that any additional foodstuffs they required could be obtained from the local people. However, the Natives had only enough for themselves, so the settlers were forced to steal out of desperation. This established the climate for future relations with the original “Virginians”.
Meanwhile, at Port Royal, the inhabitants embraced the foreign investors, and allowed them to reside under their protection, each group learning from the other. Before long a blending of cultures created an almost theatrical atmosphere in the midst of this vast wilderness. Marc Lescarbot, himself classically educated, orchestrated an extravaganza to greet the returning wanderers. He had written a play, which he later published as Les Muses de la Nouvelle France. The cast of characters included Neptune, six tritons and four Canadians, played by Frenchmen dressed in their Mi'kmaq clothing.
When the voyagers returned on November 14, 1606, they were told to dress in their finest “opera attire” and were ushered to their seats aboard a shallop. In the audience were Membertou, his family and people and when the stage was set, the play began. The gallant Neptune, dressed in a blue robe with crown and beard, approached Poutrincourt on his floating gallery, followed by the tritons in birch bark canoes. Trumpets sound and Neptune shouts out in a booming voice: “Stop, Sagamore, stop here a spell, and listen to a god who wishes you well...”
Neptune goes on to say that he has guided others before them; bringing the Sultan’s elephant to Charlemagne, leading the Portuguese to the Orient and the French to Acadia. He then applauds the courage of the officers and crew:
In this New World, where ages will inspire,
Th’ immoral fame of de Monts and of thee, Under the puissant reign of the great Henri”.
We beg you use from our hearts entire
To live forever in thy grace
Is all our wish, our whole desire.
This little taste of their culture raised the spirits of the homesick Frenchman and prompted a desire to not only survive this upcoming winter, but enjoy it as much as possible. Champlain and Lescarbot organized a social club, known as “I Ordre du Bon Temps” or “The Order of Good Cheer”, whereby, each day a member of the order would be responsible for providing the food for the entire company, which also included the supervision of how the meal would be prepared and served. This would not only keep the men’s hunting skills honed, but would also ensure that they had at least one good meal a day. And, of course, afforded them the opportunity to have a little fun in the process, as each one tried to be more and more creative with the daily repast.
The Order of Good Cheer would become the first Euro-Canadian social club in North America. We could also probably take it one step further and say the first integrated social club of Europeans and Canadians, since Membertou was an official member and any other visiting sagamores always held a place of honor at the main table, while their people were seated with the men on the floor of the dining hall. But then we could also say that it was the first social club in North America that banned membership based on racial or religious grounds. Lescarbot says that everyone joined, except "the artisans, who were from a different class", or more precisely from the Jewish Ghetto at Saintes.
On the 14th of January, the weather was so nice that everyone enjoyed an open air picnic. As a result, the winter of 1606-07 passed much better than the last, with only four Europeans dying from scurvy. One of them, Mathieu De Costa, was a Negro slave owned by Sieur De Monts. Apparently he was well educated and had visited Canada before aboard a Portuguese fishing boat, where he learned the Mi'kmaq language. Therefore, his services were invaluable as an interpreter. A Rouen merchant had kidnapped Mathieu in the East Indies and sold him to De Monts but later, his original owner sued De Monts for his value as a slave and the case dragged on for years.
All in all, residents at Port Royal trading post were happy and optimistic about the future of the enterprise. One of the artisans had made the men special shoes with deerskin uppers and wooden soles to keep their feet dry, and by the time that spring rolled around, everyone was eager to get to work. Poutricourt had a water-powered grist mill constructed to replace the arduous hand mill and supervised the building of two more pinnaces. Gardens were planted and the fruit trees that De Monts had brought over from Normandy, the previous summer, were doing well.
Which like a double wall surround the port so near.
Adieu those grassy fields which the tide of Neptune
Flows completely o’er twice in every moon,
To noursih noble herds of antlered moose
And lesser beasts designed for human use.
Adieu, O my delight, thy springs and tiny rill Which flow down from mountains, watering the hills.
And could I forget thee. O lovely wooded Isle,
Which honoreth this place, and gives this basin style?
