Stadacona, and the French fort on the Sainte-Croix River
An Iroquoian town on the site of Quebec City, below the cliff, whose chief was Donnacona. Cartier's ships wintered close by, in the Sainte-Croix (now Saint-Charles) River, in 1535–1536.
Today: Quebec City, Quebec, Canada
Winter at Stadacona and the Cedar Cure
Jacques Cartier’s second voyage, Brief récit (Paris, 1545), on the winter of 1535–1536 at Stadacona · events of December 1535 to April 1536; printed 1545
Au mois de Décembre fumes avertis que la mortalité s'estoit mise au peuple de Stadacona, tellement que jà en estoient morts par leur confession plus de cinquante. A cause de quoi, leur fimmes défenses de non venir à notre Fort, ni entour nous. Mais nonobstant les avoir chassés, commença la mortalité entour nous d'une merveilleuse sorte, et la plus inconnue.
In December we learned that a mortality had struck the people of Stadacona. By their own account, more than fifty of them had already died. So we forbade them to come to our fort, or anywhere near us. But even though we had chased them off, the mortality broke out among us too, in an astonishing way, and of a kind no one knew.
Un jour notre Capitaine voyant la maladie si émue, et ses gens si fort épris d'icelle, estant sorti hors du Fort, et soy promenant sur la glace, apperçut venir une bande de gens de Stadaconé, en laquelle estoit Domagaya, lequel le Capitaine avoit veu depuis dix ou douze jours fort malade de la propre maladie qu'avoient ses gens: car il avoit l'une de ses jambes aussi grosse qu'un enfant de deux ans, et tous les nerfs d'icelle retirez, les dents perdues et gâtées, et les gencives pourries et infectes.
One day our captain saw the sickness spreading so and his men so badly stricken by it. He had gone out of the fort and was walking on the ice. He saw a band of people coming from Stadaconé, and among them was Domagaya. Ten or twelve days before, the captain had seen him very sick with the very same sickness his men had. One of his legs was as thick as a two-year-old child, with all its sinews drawn tight. His teeth were lost and ruined, and his gums rotten and foul.