on they timidly approached the French ships in a canoe, then landed and went through a wild dance on the shore to typify friendliness.  Champlain took with him some drawing paper and a pencil or crayon, together with a quantity of knives and ship’s biscuit.  Landing alone, he attracted the natives towards him by offering them biscuits, and having gathered them round him (being of course as much unable to understand their speech as they were French), he proceeded to ask questions by means of certain drawings, chiefly the outlines of the coast.  The savages at once seized his idea, and taking up his pencil drew on the paper an accurate outline of Massachusetts Bay, adding also rivers and islands unknown to the French.  They went on by further intelligent signs to supply information.  For instance, they placed six pebbles at equal distances to intimate that Massachusetts Bay was occupied by six tribes and governed by as many chiefs.  By drawings of growing maize and other plants they intimated that all these people lived by agriculture.

[Footnote 13:  The pigeons referred to by Champlain were probably the Passenger pigeon (Ectopistes) which at one time was extraordinarily abundant in parts of North America, though it has now been nearly killed out by man.  It would arrive in flocks of millions on its migratory journeys in search of food.]

Champlain thought Massachusetts (in his first voyage) a most attractive region in the summer, what with the blue water of the enclosed arms of the sea, the lofty forest trees, and the fields of Indian corn and other crops.

When these French explorers reached the harbour of Boston, the islands and mainland were swarming with the native population.  The Amerindians were intensely interested in the arrival of the first sailing vessel they had ever seen.  Although it was only a small barque, its size was greater than any canoe known to them.  As it seemed to spread huge white wings and to glide silently through the water without the use of paddles or oars, it filled them with surprise and admiration.  They manned all their canoes[14] and came out in a flotilla to express their honour and reverence for the wonderful white men.  But when the French took their leave, it was equally obvious that the natives experienced a sense of relief, for they were disquieted as well as filled with admiration at the arrival of these wonderful beings from an unknown world.

[Footnote 14:  It is interesting to learn from his accurate notes that in Massachusetts (and from thence southwards) there were no more bark canoes, but that the canoes were “dug-outs”—­trunks of tall trees burnt and chipped till they were hollowed into a narrow vessel of considerable length.]