The American farmers of to-day cannot adopt any better method.
The islands round about Portland (Maine) were matted all over with wild red currants, so that the eye could scarcely discern anything else.

Attracted by this fruit, clouds of wild pigeons had assembled[13].

They manifested hardly any fear of the French, who captured large numbers of them in snares, or killed them with guns.
The natives of southern Maine fled with dismay on sighting the French ships, for they had never before seen sailing vessels, but later 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.