Page:Acadiensis Q2.djvu/137

ON A WINTER morning in the year 1677 a party comprising Father Christian LeClerc, M. Henaut de Barbaucannes, a French gentleman who at that date carried on farming at Nepisiguit, on the Bay of Chaleur, and an Indian with his squaw, who carried a baby in her arms, left the mission at the mouth of that river, the clergyman having been called upon by a deputation of Micmacs from the Miramichi some time previously to visit and instruct them. The provisions which they had prepared for the journey consisted of twenty-four small loaves, five to six pounds of flour, three pounds of butter, and a small barrel made of bark, which contained a little brandy. The father had been provided by the religious ladies, "Hospitalières" of Quebec, with a box of confection of hyacinth, a medicine then much in vogue.

Each of the party took his blanket and loaded himself with his pack, in which was part of the food needed for the journey, the squaw taking only her "papoose," which was indeed load enough, as the sequel will show. This infant Father LeClerc had baptized before leaving, giving him the name of Pierre. Having put on their snow-shoes, they began their journey, continuing it for a distance of twelve or fifteen miles, until the approach of night warned them to prepare a camp, which they did by making a hole in the snow four or five feet deep by means of their snow-shoes. As soon as the earth was reached, the squaw covered it with fir boughs, which she had been gathering

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