Franquet Makes Plans 153

farmer in it enjoyed an easy competency, possessing a sufficiency of farm stock, and reaping every year from his fields enough to satisfy all his wants. The view up the Pisquid Valley was one to charm the eye. On the shelving sides of the valley through which the river ran, stood the log houses of the settlers, dotting the land- scape with a pleasing irregularity, and by every house was its spring of fresh water. Up the slopes behind the houses lay the cultivated fields, their crops beginning to assume the ripening tints of autumn, while along the summits of these slopes waved spreading beeches and hardwood trees of various kinds. Over the entire picture fell the warm light of an August sun, and Franquet records the impression which this landscape made on him, by saying, that life in a spot so picturesque could not be otherwise than agreeable.

Less than a league above where now stands Mount Stewart, the barge came in front of a house built on the right bank and looking down on the river. Its situation had in a manner forced it to assume some of the duties of an inn, in those days of toilsome travel, being about midway on that route between Port Lajoie and St. Peters. It was occupied by a widow named Gentil, whose hospitality was well known to the traveller. Here merchants and others were accustomed to halt for rest and refreshment. Immediately under the dwelling in a miniature estuary through which when the tide was low, in a bed worn in the slime, ran the limpid waters of a great spring which lay at some distance up in the woods, the barge was moored, and Sieur Franquet, be- fore resuming his journey, found time to admire the

luxuriant fields of grain that lay around the residence of Madame Gentil.