before, and some other Frenchmen, went to meet them and conducted them
to the fort, which had been decorated with evergreens and inscriptions.
On the principal door they had placed the arms of France, surrounded
with laurel crowns, and the king's motto: _Duo protegit unus_. Beneath
the arms of de Monts was placed this inscription: _Dabit Deus his quoque
finem_. The arms of Poutrincourt were wreathed with crowns of leaves,
with his motto: _In via virtuti nulla est via_. Lescarbot had composed a
short drama for the occasion, entitled, _Le Theatre de Neptune_.

The winter of 1606-07 was not very severe. The settlers lived happily in
spite of the scurvy, from which some of them died. Hunting afforded them
the means of providing a great variety of dishes, such as geese, ducks,
bears, beavers, partridges, reindeer, bustards, etc. They also organized
a society devoted to good cheer called, _Ordre du Bon Temps_, the
by-laws of which were definite, and were fixed by Champlain himself. The
Indians of the vicinity who were friendly towards the French colony were
in need of food, so that each day loaves of bread were distributed
amongst them. Their _sagamo_, named Membertou, was admitted as a guest
to the table of Poutrincourt. This famous Souriquois, who was very old
at that time--probably a hundred years, though he had not a single white
hair--pretended to have known Jacques Cartier at the time of his first
voyage, and claimed that in 1534 he was married, and the father of a
young family.

Lescarbot, who was an able man and a good historian, records the
particulars above related, besides many other interesting facts
concerning Port Royal which appear to have escaped Champlain's
observation. Lescarbot was an active spirit in the life of the first
French colony in Acadia. He encouraged his companions to cultivate their
land, and he worked himself in the gardens, sowing wheat, oats, beans,
pease, and herbs, which he tended with care. He was also liked by the
Indians, and he would have rejoiced to see them converted to
Christianity. Lescarbot was a poet and a preacher, and had also a good
knowledge of the arts and of medicine. Charlevoix says: "He daily
invented something new for the public good. And there was never a
stronger proof of what a new settlement might derive from a mind
cultivated by study, and induced by patriotism to use its knowledge and
reflections. We are indebted to this advocate for the best memoirs of
what passed