Philip de la Vache ""The Canterbury Tales"". However, the reference to Vache in Chaucer's poem may on good grounds also be a pun on his own name. The phrase Vache, leve! in the first line of the Envoy corresponds to medieval French Vache, reïs!, 'cow, leave!'. The French phase reïs, Vache!, (REISVACHE), when reversed, becomes CHAVSIER, the French form of the poet's name (this is a so-called palindrome). In the First Book of Kings in the Old Testament, the cows on their way to Beth Shemesh are likened to holy men, or monks on their way to the Heavenly Jerusalem. Chaucer may have regarded
Île-à-Vache would think about his plan. But just one day later, on January 1, 1863, Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation, which contained not a single word about this or any other colonial plan. Disappointed, Kock moved to Washington. There, he managed to find some blacks who were interested in going to Haiti. Back in New York, he found three financiers who pledged $70,000 to his venture. On the basis of this pledge, Koch chartered the British ship the "Ocean Ranger" and with this ship he brought 500 people to Île-à-Vache on April 13, 1863. Some of his passengers became ill from