Radisson's ship, the _St. Pierre_,--named after
himself,--came first, a rickety sloop of fifty tons with a crew of
twelve mutinous, ill-fed men, a cargo of goods for barter, and scant
enough supply of provisions. Groseillers' ship, the _St. Anne_, was
smaller and better built, with a crew of fifteen. The explorers set
sail on the 11th of July. From the first there was trouble with the
crews. Fresh-water _voyageurs_ make bad ocean sailors. Food was
short. The voyage was to be long. It was to unknown waters, famous
for disaster. The sea was boisterous. In the months of June and July,
the North Atlantic is beset with fog and iceberg. The ice sweeps south
in mountainous bergs that have thawed and split before they reach the
temperate zones.[4] On the 30th of July the two ships passed the
Straits of Belle Isle. Fog-banks hung heavy on the blue of the far
watery horizon. Out of the fog, like ghosts in gloom, drifted the
shadowy ice-floes. The coast of Labrador consists of bare, domed,
lonely hills alternated with rock walls rising sheer from the sea as
some giant masonry. Here the rock is buttressed by a sharp angle
knife-edged in a precipice. There, the beetling walls are guarded by
long reefs like the teeth of a saw. Over these reefs, the drifting
tide breaks with multitudinous voices. The French _voyageurs_ had
never known such seafaring. In the wail of the white-foamed reefs,
their superstition heard the shriek of the demons.
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