happened one day that Cartier was walking up and down by himself
upon the ice when he saw a band of Indians 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 in hunting deer in
the forest. For two months he did not return. When he came back, he was
accompanied not only by Taignoagny and his own braves, but by a great
number of savages, fierce and strong, whom the French had never before
seen. Cartier was assured that treachery was brewing, and he determined
to forestall it. He took care that his men should keep away from the
settlement of Stadacona, but he sent over his servant, Charles Guyot,
who had endeared himself to the Indians during the winter. Guyot
reported that the lodges were filled with strange faces, that Donnacona
had pretended to be sick and would not show himself, and that he
himself had been received with suspicion, Taignoagny having forbidden
him to enter into some of the houses.

Ca