68 (p. 259).--Adrien du Chesne (Duchêne), a surgeon, came from Dieppe to Canada, probably about 1620. He remained with his wife at Quebec during the English occupation; and, after the return of the French, practised his profession at Quebec and Three Rivers. In October, 1645, he is mentioned by the _Journ. des Jésu._ (p. 9), in connection with his nephew Charles le Moyne, the father of the noted explorer Le Moyne d'Iberville.--See Sulte's _Can.-Français_, vol. ii., pp. 7, 144.
69 (p. 267).--Pierre de Launay (born 1616), a native of the province of Maine, France, is first mentioned in January, 1636, as an agent of the Hundred Associates; this position he seems to have retained at least until 1645; in that year he married Françoise Pinguet, at Quebec. Certain Indians from Tadoussac made complaints to the Quebec council (June, 1646) concerning De Launay's methods of trade, and the exorbitant prices charged by him. He was killed by the Iroquois, Nov. 28, 1654.
70 (p. 269).--_Porcelain, which is the diamonds and pearls of this country_: According to Littre, _porcelain_ (a word of Italian origin; adopted, with slight variations, into nearly all European languages) was a name given, from very early times, to a univalvular, gastropodous mollusk, _Cypræa;_ especially used for the species _C. moneta_, the money cowry of Africa and the East Indies, and for its shell. The same term was applied to the nacre (from which were made vases, ornaments, etc.) obtained from the shells of this and many other mollusks; and the enameled pottery brought from the Orient about the 16th century was also called "porcelain," from its resemblance to this nacre.
The early explorers on this continent found shells, or beads made therefrom, everywhere in use among the natives as currency. Cartier mentions this article as called "esurgny" by the Indians at Montreal; Champlain and other French writers applied the term already familiar to them, "porcelain;" the English colonists adopted the name in use among the natives of New England, "wampum" (from _wompi_, "white"); while the Dutch traders called it "sewan" (seawant, or zee-wand; a corruption of _seah-whóun_, "scattered, loose").