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قراءة كتاب The Jesuit Relations and Allied Documents, Vol. V: Quebec, 1632-1633
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The Jesuit Relations and Allied Documents, Vol. V: Quebec, 1632-1633
tag="{http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml}a">3 for, as we had not foreseen our departure, if Father Charles Lallemant, of Roüen, and these good people in Havre, had not assisted us in the hasty preparations we were obliged to make, we should, without doubt, have been very badly off. From Havre we went to Honfleur, and on Low Sunday,4 April 18th, we set sail.
Nous eumes au commencement [5] vn tres-beau temps, & en dix iours nous fimes enuiron six cens lieuës, mais à peine en peumes nous faire deux cens les trente trois iours suiuans. Ces bons iours passez 12 nous n'eumes quasi que tempestes, ou vent contraire, hormis quelques bonnes heures qui nous venoient de temps en temps. I'auois quelquefois veu la mer en cholere des fenestres de nostre petite maison de Dieppe: mais c'est bien autre chose de sentir dessous soy la furie de l'Ocean, que de la contempler du riuage; nous estions des trois & quatre iours à la cappe, comme parlent les mariniers, nostre gouuernail attaché, on laissoit aller le vaisseau au gré des vagues & des ondes, qui le portoient par fois sur des montagnes d'eau, puis tout à coup dans des abysmes; vous eussiez dit que les vents estoient déchainez contre nous; à tous coups [6] nous craignions qu'ils ne brisassent nos mats, ou que le vaisseau ne s'ouurit: & de fait il se fit vne voye d'eau laquelle nous auroit coulé à fond, si elle fût arriuée plus bas, ainsi que i'entendois dire. C'est autre chose de mediter de la mort dans sa cellule deuant l'image du Crucifix, autre chose d'y penser dans vne tempeste, & deuant la mort mesme. Ie vous diray neantmoins ingenuëment, qu'encor que la nature desire sa conseruation, que neantmoins au fond de l'ame ie sentois autant ou plus d'inclination à la mort qu'à la vie; ie me mettois deuant les yeux que celuy qui m'auoit conduit dessus la mer, auoit de tres-bons desseins; & qu'il le falloit laisser faire; ie n'osois luy rien demander pour moy, sinon de luy presenter ma vie pour tout l'equipage. Quand ie me figurois que peut-estre dans peu d'heures, ie me verrois au milieu des [7] vagues, & par aduanture dans l'épaisseur d'vne nuict tres-obscure, i'auois quelque consolation en cette pensée, m'imaginant que là où il y auroit moins de la creature, qu'il y auroit plus du Createur, & que ce seroit là proprement mourir de sa main: mais ma foiblesse 14 me fait craindre, que peut-estre si cela fust arriué i'eusse bien changé de pensée & d'affection.
We had fine weather at first, [5] and made about six hundred leagues in ten days; but we could hardly cover two hundred on the following thirty-three days. After this fine weather we had little but storms and contrary winds, except a few pleasant hours which were vouchsafed us from time to time. I had sometimes seen the angry sea from the windows of our little house at Dieppe; but watching the fury of the Ocean from the shore is quite different from tossing upon its waves. During three or four days we were close-reefed, as sailors say, our helm fastened down. The vessel was left to the will of the billows and the waves, which bore it at times upon mountains of water, then suddenly down into the depths of the sea. You would have said that the winds were unchained against us. Every moment [6] we feared lest they should snap our masts, or that the ship would spring a leak; and, in fact, there was a leak, which would, as I heard reported, have sunk us if it had been lower down. It is one thing to reflect upon death in one's cell, before the image on the Crucifix; but quite another to think of it in the midst of a tempest and in the presence of death itself. But I say to you honestly, that, although nature longs for its preservation, nevertheless, in the depths of my soul, I felt quite as much inclination to death as to life; I kept constantly before my eyes, that he who had brought me upon the sea had some good purpose, and that he must be allowed to do as he pleases. I dared not ask of him anything for myself, unless it were to offer up my life for all on the ship. When I realized that in a few hours I might see myself in the midst of the [7] waves, and perhaps in the depths of the blackest night, I found some consolation in the thought that there, where there would be less of the creature, there would be more of the Creator, and that it would be really dying by his hand. But my weakness makes me fear that perhaps, if that had really happened, my thoughts and inclinations might have been greatly changed.
Au reste nous auons trouué l'hyuer dans l'esté, c'est à dire dans le mois de May & vne partie de Iuin, les vents, & la bruine nous glaçoient, le Pere de Nouë a eu les pieds & les mains gelées, adioustez vne douleur de teste ou de cœur qui ne me quitta quasi iamais le premier mois; vne grande soif, pour ce que nous ne mangions que choses salées, & il n'y auoit point de fontaine d'eau douce dans nostre vaisseau. Nos cabanes estoient [8] si grãdes, que nous n'y pouuions estre ny debout, ny à genoux, ny assis, & qui pis est, l'eau pendant la pluie me tomboit par fois sur la face. Toutes ces incõmoditez estoient communes aux autres, les pauures mattelots enduroient bien dauantage. Tout cela est passé, Dieu mercy, ie n'eusse pas voulu estre en France. Tous ces petits trauaux ne nous ont point encor, comme ie croy, donné la moindre tristesse de nostre depart. Dieu ne se laisse iamais vaincre; si on luy donne des oboles, il donne des mines d'or, encor me semble-il que ie me suis mieux porté que le Pere de Nouë, lequel a esté fort longtemps sans quasi pouuoir manger; pour nostre Frere, il est comme ces animaux Amphibies, il se porte aussi bien sur la mer que sur la terre.
But, to speak of other things, we found winter in summer; that is to say, in the month of May and a part of June, the winds and the fogs chilled us; Father de Nouë's feet and hands were frozen; and, besides this, I had pains in my head or heart, which scarcely left me at all during the first month; and a keen thirst, because we ate nothing but salted food, and there was no fresh water upon our vessel. The size of our cabins was [8] such that we could not stand upright, kneel, or sit down; and, what is worse, during the rain, the water fell at times upon my face. All these discomforts were shared by the others; but the poor sailors suffered many more. All that is past; thank God, I would not have wished to be in France. All these little afflictions have not as yet, I believe, caused us the least sadness over our departure. God never suffers himself to be vanquished; if you give him mites, he gives mines of gold. Still, it seems to me that I get along better than Father de Nouë, who, for a long time, was hardly able to eat; as to our Brother, he is like the Amphibious animals; he is just as much at home on the sea as on the land.
Le iour de la Pentecoste, comme i'estois prest de prescher, ce que ie faisois [9] ordinairement les Dimanches, & bonnes Festes, vn de nos mattelots se mit à crier moluë, moluë, il auoit ietté sa ligne, & en tiroit vne grande. Il y auoit desia quelques iours que nous estions sur le banc, mais on n'auoit quasi rien pris. Ce iour là on en prit tant qu'on voulut. C'estoit vn plaisir de voir vne si grande tuerie, & tant de ce sang répãdu sur le tillac de nostre nauire. 16 Ce rafraichissement nous vint fort à propos, apres de si