The Lansdowne Letters: The Order of Good Cheer

This Friday my father’s Lansdowne Letters
have me thinking of a time centuries ago
when the first Europeans ventured into the New World.

I'm talking post Vinland Vikings here ~
At the time my father began writing his letters,
Newfie George Decker had just led two Norwegians, 
explorer Helge Ingstad and 
archaeologist Anne Stine Ingstad,
to the Old Indian Camp mounds
at the tip of the Great Northern Peninsula of Newfoundland.

L'Anse aux Meadows
UNESCO World Heritage Site
2011

Once excavated, the mounds
became the most famous Viking settlement 
in North America outside of Greenland.

But these are not 
the Europeans settlers on my mind.

A "Viking" Walks to the Settlement

at L'Anse aux Meadows

2011

I’m talking November 14, 1606,
when the Order of Good Cheer had its first meeting 
in Port Royal, Nova Scotia.

Replica of Champlain's Habitation 

at the Port-Royal National Historic Site of Canada, Nova-Scotia

Wikimedia

Samuel de Champlain
Wikipedia

   

Samuel de Champlain 

organized the order 
as a premptive strike 
against land sickness or scurvy
which was thought 
to be caused by idleness.

Champlain’s weapons?  
Food and entertainment. 








As someone whose ancestors
have lived near Port Royal for some three centuries,
it is only natural that Dad’s letters reminded me
of Champlain’s Order of Good Cheer,
then and now.

Champlain and the Order of Good Cheer

heritagetrust.on.ca

To hold back the blackness of nights in the wilderness,
people have always turned to making their own fun.
The fourteen white people in Lansdowne House
were really not that different
from the fifteen Frenchmen of birth
(sufficient social standing) 
who founded the order in the wilds of Nova Scotia 
on the shore of the Annapolis Basin.

Wikimedia

On Friday, September 30, 1960
my father wrote about
the social scene in Lansdowne:

Hello There!
How’s everyone tonight?  
Another nice long week has just ended, 
and I am looking forward to 
some peace and quiet on the weekend.  
I love children, but sometimes 
one would rather love them at a distance.

I received nice letters from Sara, ‘Mac,’ and Mother, 
and I will be expecting Aunt Maude to write me 
as soon as she is better and feels like writing.  
The rest of you, however, keep up the good work, 
for mail from home is awfully important up here.

Lansdowne House (Mainland), 1960

Uno and I are going over to the MacRaes'
for bridge this evening, 
and I am going over to Mitchells' with the Brother 
for bridge tomorrow evening.  

One of you, I forget who, 
told me to try to make a couple of Baptists 
out of the Father and the Brother.  
I’m afraid this wouldn’t be possible, 
but I keep them aware of the fact 
that I am Baptist every chance I get 
without being too difficult.  

For instance when I came up here first, 
I was invited over to Mitchell’s for bridge on Sunday night.  
The first time I went because I didn’t want to refuse 
the first invitation I received at Lansdowne, 
but the next time I was invited on a Sunday, 
I asked in a diplomatic manner to be excused, 
because Baptists don’t enjoy playing cards on Sunday.  

Actually, I enjoy a good game of bridge any time, 
but I just thought I would let them know 
what Baptists think about the matter.  

As you can see, I shifted the bridge night 
from Sunday to Saturday by my mild protest.  
Bill Mitchell was telling me 
that it was the Father’s suggestion 
that the bridge night be changed to accommodate me.

 Map of Lansdowne House

Fall 1960

2 ~ Dad's and Uno's Shack

12 ~ Hudson Bay Store

14 ~ Mitchells' House

18 ~ MacRaes' House

29 ~ Usual Path of My Canoe

I also bow my head and say grace 
when everyone else is crossing himself.  
Actually, it is a good experience for me living with a priest.  
I find myself paying more attention to my own religion 
than I would normally.
 
Today was mail day, 
but other than that, it was uneventful.  
There was considerable suspense at first, 
because the sky was heavily overcast, 
and there was a chance that the plane wouldn’t get in. 

But thank goodness the sky cleared 
and the plane arrived three hours late; 
but better late than never, I always say.

There have been no more misadventures 
with the canoe to relate.  
I have been getting along quite well in it lately.  
I can actually get where I want to go now 
and not end up half a mile from my destination.

That’s all for today.
Bye now,
Love, Don

Till next time ~
Fundy Blue.