Champlain's journal: Explorer notes native agriculture

By Joel Banner Baird, Free Press Staff Writer • April 28, 2009

Samuel de Champlain wrote very little in his journal about the arrival of spring in 1609.

Emerging from his first winter in Quebec — a season of sickness and malnutrition — surely brought to mind the miserable winter of 1604-1605, which he spent on St. Croix Island, in the Bay of Fundy.

That earlier attempt at a permanent settlement led to explorations of what he hoped would be a milder climate, along what is now the Maine coast.

By the end of the summer of 1605, he and his men journeyed up the Saco River, where he made notes about native agricultural practices:

“We saw their Indian corn, which they raise in gardens. Planting three or four kernels in one place, they then heap up about it a quantity of earth with shells of the signoc (horseshoe crab). ... Then three feet distant they plant as much more, and thus in succession.

“With this corn they put in each hill three or four Brazilian beans (perhaps kidney beans), which are of different colors. When they grow up, they interlace with the corn, which reaches to the height of from five to six feet; and they keep the ground very free from weeds.

“We saw there many squashes, and pumpkins, and tobacco, which they likewise cultivate.

“We saw also many grape-vines, on which there was a remarkably fine berry, from which we made some very good verjuice (a beverage pressed from unripe fruit).”

What were Champlain and his men doing in April and May of 1609? In all likelihood, preparing for forays deeper into the St. Lawrence Valley — and feverishly planting gardens.

• The “Voyages of Samuel de Champlain,” translated by Charles Pomeroy Otis and published in Boston in 1878, is in the public domain. It can be found at www.gutenberg.org.

Contact Joel Banner Baird at 660-1843 or This email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it . To have Free Press headlines delivered free to your e-mail, sign up at www.burlingtonfreepress.com.

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