St. Lawrence Area Aboriginals and Grapes in “Chapter 4”

I will tell you of another case which would seem almost incredible […] In Canada in several of the coastal regions you see beautiful grapevines growing there without tending or cultivation by a living soul, and which bear grapes which the savages call Oroba and are good to eat: but I do not know whether the wine is any good because I have never seen any of it made. And if you are astounded, imagine that those who saw them and ate their fruit were no less so, considering the terrain of the spot which is high mountains. These vines grow a lot with poplars and elms, which having climbed over they are so abundant in foliage and branches that they can only be separated from them without breaking with great difficulty. I am sure that if these vines were cultivated they would produce good wine.

Source: André Thevet, "[St. Lawrence Area Aboriginals and Grapes in] Chapter 4" in André Thevet’s North America: A Sixteenth-Century View, an edition-translation with notes and introduction by Roger Schlesinger and Arthur P. Stabler, (Kingston and Montreal: McGill-Queen’s University Press, 1986).

Return to parent page