"I was talking with the sailors on the vessels which have come in.

They dare not bring their own ships up without a pilot on board.

If the English try to sail their great battleships up through the shoals and other perils, they will assuredly, say the men, run them upon the jagged edges of the sunken reefs and wreck them hopelessly.

I was telling them that the English are better sailors than ever the French will be; but they only laughed grimly, and bid them come and see what their sailor craft could do without pilots in the mouth of the St.Lawrence.

I should grieve if the noble vessels were wrecked and stranded in the Traverse, which they say is the most dangerous part of all.