THE ERA OF CHAMPLAIN
The name of Champlain must ever stand before all others in the history
of Quebec. He was the founder of the city, and for more than a quarter
of a century he was its very life. If repeated disappointment and
misfortune could have brought this great empire-builder to despair; if
obstacles apparently impossible to overcome could have turned the hero
from his purpose, Quebec would not be to-day the oldest city in the
western hemisphere. As it was, his character gave the keynote not only
to the great fortress-capital, but to the whole history of New France.
He was an embodiment at once of the religious zeal and of the mediæval
spirit of romance which carried the Bourbon lilies into the trackless
wilderness of North America, at a time when English colonisation
contented itself with a narrow strip on the Atlantic seaboard.
Samuel de Champlain was born in 1567 at the small seaport of Brouage,
on the Bay of Biscay. His father was a captain in the French navy, in
which profession the son also received early training. In the conflict
between the King and the rebellious Duc de Mercoeur and the League,
Champlain was found on the Royalist side; and Henry the Fourth
rewarded his faithful subject with a pension and a place at court. But
the war in Brittany was not long over before Champlain became
restless. The spirit of adventure beat strong in his veins, and at
length he determined upon a project which, while it should serve the
purpose of the King, was also well spiced with peril. Proceeding to
Cadiz, where his uncle was Pilot-General of the Spanish marine,
Champlain obtained command of one of the ships in Don Francisco
Colombo's fleet, bound for the West Indies. On this voyage he was
absent from France more than two years, visiting not only the West
Indies, but also Mexico and Central America.
On his return, these travels gave him an unusual importance at the
French court; and when, in 1603, the aged De Chastes, Governor of
Dieppe, decided to seal his pious life with an enterprise for the King
and for the Church, the adventurous Champlain became the instrument of
his purpose.
De Chastes' two small vessels set sail from Honfleur, one commanded by
Pontgravé, the other by Champlain. The voyage was long but
uneventful. Pontgravé's former trading-post at Tadousac had been
abandoned, and they held their lonely way up the St. Lawrence, past
the mantling rock of Stadaconé, on to the wooded heights of Hochelaga.
Cartier's Indian village of sixty-eight years before had
disappeared--undoubtedly swept from existence by the relentless
Iroquois. At this point, however, the foaming St. Louis rapids barred
their way, and the caravels were turned homeward. With wind and
current down the river, and out through the Gulf, in due season they
came safely to Havre de Grace.
[Illustration: CHAMPLAIN]
In their absence the Sieur de Chastes had died; but De Monts, another
courtier at the Louvre, succeeded to the patent for colonising in the
New World. Exploration was not to rest, and Champlain and the Baron de
Poutrincourt accompanied the new Deputy in his Acadian expedition of
1604. Once more the Atlantic was crossed. Passing Cap la Hêve the
explorers sought a suitable site for their colony along this coast,
and when they reached the beautiful basin of Annapolis, hemmed in by a
circle of wooded hills, the artistic Poutrincourt was charmed, and
forthwith obtained from De Monts a private grant of the surrounding
country. He established his demesne here, naming the place Port Royal,
while Champlain and De Monts, continuing their way around the Bay of
Fundy, came at length to the bleak island of St. Croix, where they
founded their colony.
There is no need to present fully the vicissitudes of the tiny
settlement. Scurvy and the rigours of the first winter carried off
thirty-five colonists out of a total of seventy-nine. The winter of
1606-1607 was happily much less severe; moreover, Champlain's "Ordre
de Bon-Temps," and Lescarbot's wit and gaiety contributed to cheer the
shivering exiles. In the spring, however, the first ship from St. Malo
brought bad news from France. The enemies of De Monts at home had
triumphed, and had persuaded the King to cancel the charter of the
Deputy. In a way this contretemps led to the founding of Quebec.
Although De Monts was no longer Lieutenant-General of Acadia, he was
yet unwilling to give up the scheme which appealed so strongly to his
adventurous nature. On his return to Paris, his influence had been
sufficient to secure for one year a monopoly of the new fur trade.
Champlain, cherishing the memory of the voyage of the previous year,
persuaded him that the valley of the St. Lawrence would serve his
purpose better even than Acadia, and between them they planned an
expedition in which profit and adventure were evenly mingled. Two
ships were fitted out--the one commanded by Champlain, the other by
the elder Pontgravé. The latter was to revive the old trading-station
of Tadousac, while Champlain was to establish, further inland, a
fortified post from which expeditions might set forth to find the
hoped-for passage to Cathay.
Pontgravé sailed from Honfleur on the 5th of April, 1608, Champlain
following on the 13th of the same month. His was the first ship to
carry a permanent colony to New France. Crossing the wide gulf by
Anticosti, the little vessel of Champlain stopped at Tadousac to do a
timely service for his colleague who was now further up the river. The
stately grandeur of the scene was not new to Champlain. Five years
before he had glided past the yawning cañon through which the dark
Saguenay rushed down from the north; he had gazed upon the blue
sky-line of the Laurentian mountains; in the caravel of De Chastes the
surging tide had carried him past the Isle of Bacchus and the milky
cataract of Montmorency.
Anon the channel narrows; on the left are the Heights of Levi, and on
the right a frowning cliff shoulders far into the stream. Here ancient
Stadaconé stood; but the Iroquois passed over it long since, and the
village is gone. On this spot Champlain decided to establish his post,
and what site could be more suitable than that found by the Breton
mariners as they rounded the point of Orleans? They had entered a
beautiful harbour where an armada might safely ride at anchor. On
their left the Heights of Levi formed the southern boundary of the
glistening basin; on their right, a tiny river murmured through the
lowlands; and beyond it a rugged promontory thrust into the current a
tower of rock, commanding the narrow channel into which the mighty St.
Lawrence was here compressed. The solitude of a forest wilderness now
hung over the site of Stadaconé. On the narrow wooded strand at the
base of this rocky eyrie, Champlain made a landing.
[Illustration: MONTMORENCY FALLS]
Trees were felled, and in the clearing the log foundations of
"L'Habitation" were laid. Ere the summer ended it was completed; and a
sketch from Champlain's own unskilled pencil has preserved its
grotesque likeness. First of all there was a moat, then a staunch wall
of logs, with loopholes for musketry, and, inside, three buildings
and a courtyard. Over all rose a dove-cot, quaintly mediæval, and
prettily symbolical of Champlain's peaceful invasion. But Indians were
Indians, and two or three small cannon were accordingly mounted on
salient platforms on the riverside. A large storehouse was also built
inside the palisade; and presently Champlain laid out a flower garden.
In preparing against foes without, however, Champlain had taken no
thought for foes within. Not all of the little company had the same
enthusiasm as their leader, and a plot was set on foot to destroy him,
and sell Quebec to the Spaniards and the Basques. Fortunately the
fidelity of his pilot saved Champlain from assassination. Warning
reached him in time, and he dealt fearlessly and rigorously with the
mutinous crew. The four ringleaders were decoyed on board a pinnace
from Tadousac, and seized and put in irons. The body of the chief
conspirator swung next morning from the cross-trees, and his three
companions were sent back to the galleys of France. A free pardon for
the minor malcontents secured their loyalty from that time forward.
In September, Pontgravé set sail for France, and Champlain and his
twenty-eight companions made ready for the winter. Frost and snow came
early that year, and a devastating scurvy invaded the Habitation. The
improvident Montagnais huddled in their birch tepees about the fort,
raving for food, and perishing with disease; while of the twenty-eight
Frenchmen there were only eight despairing survivors to greet the
returning spring. On the 5th of June, however, Pontgravé's ship again
arrived at Quebec, to the joy of Champlain and his stricken
companions.
Summer warmed their enthusiasm anew, and the dauntless explorer now
thought only of pressing on westward to Cathay. To further this
project, he consented to ally himself with the Hurons and Algonquins
in an attack upon the Iroquois, and for several days their dusky
allies swarmed in and around Quebec. At length, towards the end of
June, the war-party set out. Champlain embarked in a shallop with
eleven men, armed with arquebuse and match-lock, sword and
breast-plate; and the painted, shrilling foresters swarmed up the
river in their bark canoes. From the St. Lawrence they passed into the
Iroquois River.[4]
After destroying one of the Mohawk towns, the victorious raiders
returned to Quebec. Champlain, "the man with the iron breast," had
cemented his alliance with the northern tribes, and from this time
forth Quebec became the great emporium for the fur trade of the
continent.
[Footnote 4: Now the Richelieu.]
In 1613 Champlain's enthusiasm was kindled by the tale of one Nicolas
de Vignau, who claimed to have traced the Ottawa to its source in a
great lake, which also emptied itself through a northern river into an
unknown sea. Champlain set off with Vignau and three others to
establish this new route to Cathay. In two birch canoes they proceeded
up the St. Lawrence and into the rushing Ottawa. Portaging around the
seething Chaudière, they came at length to Allumette Island. Here the
old Algonquin chief, Tessouat, received them; but he presently
convinced Champlain that there was no such northern route as he looked
to find. Whereupon Vignau confessed his imposture, and Champlain
generously let him go unpunished.
Meanwhile, De Monts had wearied of his New World enterprise, and to
secure the interests of his colony Champlain was constrained to make
annual voyages to France. In 1612 he found a protector in the Comte de
Soissons, who appointed the discoverer his deputy in New France.
Soissons, however, died in the same year; but fortunately the Prince
of Condé, by whom he was succeeded, was also well-disposed, and
retained Champlain as his lieutenant.
Up to this time Quebec had realised only an elementary form of
colonisation. The entire population numbered less than fifty persons,
and the city consisted of the fortified post at the foot of the cliff,
with a few cabins clustering about the log palisades. But on his
visit to France in 1615, Champlain took a step forward in his policy.
Hitherto the dwellers at Quebec had been transients. They came not to
take up residence, but to trade, intending to return again to France
as soon as possible. The fear of a death unshriven likewise
contributed to tentative settlement; and to meet the latter want,
Champlain resolved to establish a church in his colony. Four Récollet
friars--Franciscans of the Strict Observance--were easily persuaded to
return with him to Quebec. Burning with holy zeal, they confessed
their sins, received absolution, and embarked at Honfleur on the 24th
of April, 1615. A month later they arrived at Tadousac, and sailed on
to Quebec. Every new arrival increased the surprise of the bewildered
Indians, who gazed with suspicion upon the four mendicant friars, in
their coarse, gray _soutanes_ girt at the waist with the knotted cord
of St. Francis of Assisi, and wearing peaked _capotes_ and thick
wooden sandals.
The site of the first church in New France was selected without delay.
It stood on the strand near the Cul-de-sac, a little distance from the
Habitation. Its construction was simple and speedy, and before the end
of June the half-hundred citizens of Quebec knelt upon the bare ground
and reverently listened to the first Mass ever said in Canada. The
guns of the ship in the harbour, and the cannon on the ramparts,
boomed forth in honour of the event. That day the priesthood began its
long _régime_. The colonial policy of New France had now been
definitely shaped. Henceforth this new Power would stride into the
wilderness with the crucifix in one hand and the sword in the
other--for God and for the King; by baptism, binding the heathen to
the faith, and by co-operation with the native tribes against the
Iroquois, making Quebec the heart and soul of the vast Indian country,
whose boundaries no one knew, and whose wealth none could divine.
[Illustration: BONNE STE. ANNE (OLD CHURCH)]
In pursuance of this policy, Father Dolbeau, with much suffering,
accompanied the roving Montagnais to their northern hunting-grounds.
Their wanderings were so wide that, before he returned, the priest
had encountered the Esquimaux of Labrador. Meanwhile, Père Joseph made
his way to the Sault St. Louis, where a mighty concourse of savages
was assembled; and when the war-conference was ended he went back with
the Hurons to their villages. Champlain and Étienne Brulé, the most
daring bushman in New France, followed him thither by way of the
Ottawa, Lake Nipissing, French River, and the Georgian Bay. Thus Lake
Huron was discovered. Then, from Cahiagué, the Huron capital, set out
the memorable war-party of 1615, which came near to altering the fate
of the Colony. Up the Severn, across Lake Simcoe, thence by portage
route to the valley of the Trent, they arrived at Lake Ontario.
Crossing to the south shore, they hid their canoes in the forest and
were soon in Iroquois territory; but when they came within sight of
the Onondaga town, Champlain was no longer able to control his naked
allies, and in spite of his precautions they rushed the palisade, only
to be beaten back and scattered. The muskets of the twelve Frenchmen
alone saved a rout, Champlain himself being wounded; and with much
chagrin the dispersed Hurons made their way back to Lake Ontario. They
refused even to escort their wounded leader to Quebec as they had
promised, and he was obliged to spend the winter in the lodge of one
of the chiefs. He hunted and fished with the Hurons, and in one of
these expeditions he was lost in the forest for several days, being
only saved by that wonderful resource which marked his character. When
the spring came again Champlain set off for Quebec, guided by his kind
host Durantal. He reached the fort in July, after an absence of a
year, and the inhabitants, who had long since believed him dead,
assembled in the Récollet church for a special thanksgiving
service--nor without good reason, for upon the inveterate ruler and
leader depended the destiny of France in America.
The condition of the little colony had not improved during the absence
of the governing and inspiring spirit. From the force of
circumstances, it did not at once improve upon Champlain's return.
These first settlers of Quebec, whose food and living were easily got,
and with no ambition to work or trade, idled their time away. Gambling
and drinking were their common diversions, the more reckless spirits
taking to the woods and adopting the savage life of the hunting
tribes. These became the famous _coureurs de bois_, the picturesque
vagrants who were destined in the succeeding years to constitute so
serious a "problem" in the administration of New France. At first
Champlain could do little more than hold his colony together.
Intelligent as his purposes were, he received no help from the Court
of France or from the Viceroy De Monts, though the importance of the
enterprise of colonisation was set before Europe with every
circumstance of national pride and no detail of responsibility.
A painful evidence of the slight importance which the Louvre attached
to New France is furnished by the frequent and easy changes in its
patronage to which reference has already been made. On the
imprisonment of Condé, the young Duc de Montmorency purchased for a
song the Lieutenancy of New France, and he in turn sold it to his
nephew, Henri Lévis, the Duc de Ventadour. All except De Ventadour had
been moved by the lust of gain; in his case, however, the motive was
religious--to win the infidels of the New World to the faith of the
Old. The Jesuits were his chosen instruments; and accordingly, in the
summer of 1625, Charles Lalement, Enemond Masse, and Jean de Brébeuf,
landed at Quebec. No guns boomed a welcome to the disciples of Loyola.
No salvos of artillery hailed their arrival. Their reception was even
distressing. In the temporary absence of Champlain, the Calvinist
Émery de Caen was in charge of the fort, and in the violence of his
heresy refused them shelter. The inhabitants, likewise, declined to
admit the newcomers to their homes. In despair at such treatment the
three Jesuits were on the point of returning to France, when the
hospitable Récollets invited them to the convent at Notre Dame des
Anges. In September the Jesuits made a clearing on the opposite side
of the St. Charles, and here they began to build a convent of their
own. Thus had the forty-three French exiles, who now made the
permanent population of Quebec, a sufficiency of both Récollets and
Jesuits for their spiritual guidance. Lalement soon became the keeper
of Champlain's conscience, and from this time forward the Jesuits were
to have their way in New France.
In 1627 Richelieu's policy of absolutism was extended also to the New
World. Revoking the charter of De Caen the Huguenot merchant, he
organised the Company of One Hundred Associates, of which he was
himself the head. In return for sovereign powers and a perpetual
monopoly of the fur trade, this society was to people New France with
artisans and colonists, whom they were pledged to provide with cleared
lands for agriculture and to maintain. Huguenots, moreover, were to be
for ever excluded from the colony.
For a time the new company took an honest view of its obligations--but
only for a time. Within a year or so, Quebec was again on the verge of
starvation; and in the spring of 1629 the famished inhabitants were
eagerly awaiting the Company's ships from France. By July their
patience was almost worn out, when at last the watchers at Cap
Tourmente brought the news that a fleet of six vessels had reached
Tadousac. Quebec could scarcely await their arrival, and the more
eager inhabitants prepared to meet the ships down the river. But
suddenly two Indian canoes swung round the point of Orleans. These
made hot haste for the rock, and breathlessly announced that the fleet
in the river was a hostile English squadron, and that a fishing
village had already been pillaged and destroyed. Joy now became
consternation. Unknown to the distant colony, war between France and
England had been declared.
Quebec was not left long in suspense, for next day the messengers of
the English admiral, Sir David Kirke, himself a Huguenot refugee,
arrived with a demand for surrender. The heart of the valiant
Champlain was wrung. He had inspected his empty magazine and the
rickety fort which the improvidence of the Company had allowed to fall
into ruin. But even the weakness of his starved and paltry garrison
did not affect his fortitude. Kirke's envoy was courteously dismissed,
with the bold assurance that Quebec would defend itself to the last
man. Champlain still clung to the hope that supplies would arrive from
France; and even as he uttered his bold defiance, De Roquemont's
convoy and fleet of transports had entered the Gulf of St. Lawrence.
Quebec strained eager eyes for the succouring sail. Night and day the
tiny garrison stood to the guns, resolving to spend their remaining
fifty pounds of gunpowder with equal fervour in welcome of friend or
foe.
But weeks wore into months, and misery and despair proportionately
increased. Here were nearly a hundred persons huddled in a decayed
fortress in the wilderness, with seven ounces of pounded pease for a
daily ration. By and by this supply also failed, and the starving
inhabitants were driven into the wood in search of acorns and roots.
Then came the news, which Champlain had long been dreading, that De
Roquemont's fleet had fallen into the hands of Sir David Kirke. The
last hope of saving Quebec was now brushed away. But the English fleet
did not yet summon the garrison to surrender, and instead of making
immediate assault, Kirke continued to blockade the River and the Gulf.
Another winter dragged by, and spring came again. The people continued
to starve, ever hoping that the enemy would raise the siege. This hope
was not to be fulfilled. On the 19th of July three English ships
sailed up the river, and with the apathy of despair the gallant
Champlain and his sixteen famished soldiers watched them anchor in the
basin. The bitter end was come.
Next day, the 20th of July, 1629, the English flag floated, for the
first time, over the fortress of Quebec. "There was not in the sayde
forte at the tyme of the rendition of the same, to this examinate's
knowledge, any victuals, save only one tubb of bitter roots"--such is
the evidence of one of Kirke's captains. This, in brief, is the story
of the first of the five sieges of Quebec.
When Lewis Kirke, the Admiral's brother, took possession of the city
in the name of King Charles, he treated his captives with high
courtesy. The French inhabitants were given the option of remaining in
peaceful possession of their homes, or being transported back to
France. Louis Hébert, the chemist, and his relatives the Couillards,
the only two families of colonists in the strict sense of the word,
elected to remain on their small holdings. Champlain and the Jesuits,
choosing to return to France, embarked in the ship of Thomas Kirke,
who was sailing down the river to join his brother's fleet at
Tadousac. When they were opposite Mal Baie, about twenty-five leagues
below Quebec, a strange sail bore in sight. She proved to be a French
ship which had stolen past Tadousac with succours for Quebec. The
_George_ immediately gave chase, a sharp fight ensued, but in the end
the Frenchman struck his flag, and the new prize was borne down the
river.
Sir David Kirke now continued homeward with his prisoners. They
reached Plymouth in October, and from here the devoted and patriotic
Champlain went to London to urge the French ambassador to seek the
restitution of Quebec. Its capture had actually occurred after the
declaration of peace, and on that ground was held invalid. Champlain
pleaded well and in the end prevailed. It was not, however, until 1632
that the fortress was restored to France by the Treaty of St.
Germain-en-Laye; and it is probable that the mercenary Charles held
such a concession cheap when weighed in the scale with four hundred
thousand golden crowns, the promised dowry of Henrietta Maria.
During the three years of English occupation Quebec had made no
progress. The Indians had found in the newcomers a spirit in rough
contrast with the forbearance and good-fellowship of the French.
Disliking the brusqueness of the new rulers, the Algonquins now
shunned the city. Even the fort had been burned to the ground, and the
Hébert homestead alone made a sweet oasis in a desert of neglect and
dilapidation.
Such was the condition of the settlement in the summer of 1632, when
Émery de Caen again sailed into the harbour. He had come to take over
possession from the English. Despite his old antipathy, his fierce
Calvinism, he now brought with him--in some sense the price of his
commission--the Jesuits Père de Nouë and Père le Jeune; and joyfully
the exiled French gathered at the house of honest Hébert to hear Mass
after the lapse of three years.
It is not clear why the Huguenot De Caen was chosen to retake
possession of Quebec. The expedition was fitted out at his own
expense; and for recompense, a monopoly of the fur trade was granted
him for one year. At the end of that time the Company of One Hundred
Associates was to resume the privileges of its charter. Thus it
happened that, in 1633, Champlain was reappointed Governor of New
France by the astute Richelieu.
With three vessels Champlain set sail on the 23rd of March, and two
months later he look over the command of Quebec from De Caen. The next
two years passed placidly for the city. The Indians rejoiced to have
"the man with the iron breast" back in their lodges, and the harbour
swarmed once more with friendly canoes. Meanwhile, trade increased
with the Indians, and the settlement became a genuine commercial
colony. On one occasion as many as seven hundred Hurons flocked to
Quebec with their hunting trophies, and at length every midsummer came
to be marked by an Indian Fair. Père le Jeune's _Relation_ gives a
quaint description of one of the annual visits of the tribes. On the
24th of July, 1633, the harbour was dotted with fur-laden canoes from
the Ottawa and from Lake Huron. Landing at the Cul-de-sac, the dusky
braves took possession of the strand below the rock, where they
hastily set up their portable huts of birch-bark. "Some," says the
Jesuit chronicler, "had come only to gamble or to steal; others out of
mere curiosity; while the wiser and more businesslike among them had
come to barter their furs and sacks of tobacco leaves." The second day
of the visitation was marked by a solemn conclave of the chiefs and
the officers of Fort St. Louis--a smoking pow-wow for the exchange of
compliments and wampum.
The courtyard of the fort witnessed this garish function. The chiefs
and principal men of each village grouped themselves together. Some
were garbed in beaver skins, others in the shaggy hide of the bear.
Still others were guiltless of apparel, and all bore themselves with
an excessive dignity bordering on burlesque. Brébeuf, Daniel, and
Davost stood by in their sable vestments; and in the midst of all was
Champlain surrounded by the soldiers of his garrison. The next two
days were given up to trade--a beaver-skin exchanging for a tin
kettle, a bright cloth, or a string of beads. On the fifth day a huge
feast was given, by means of which savage appetites forced the French
to disgorge a moiety of their profit. But before another dawn the
Indians had vanished, and Quebec smiled to see its storehouses full of
furs.
By this time the little settlement had more than ever taken on the
appearance of a mission. The Récollets had virtually been excluded
from New France, the influence of the Jesuits having permeated even
the official atmosphere of Fort St. Louis. It has been claimed that,
in his younger years, Champlain was a Huguenot. It is more likely he
was a Catholic of a liberal type; and certainly in his last years a
Jesuit became his spiritual adviser. Both the soldier and the merchant
gave way to the priestly influence in the purposes of Government. The
cross was to precede the sword of empire on the march into the
wilderness.
In the midst of peace and progress a heavy loss was now to befall
Quebec. Champlain, beyond sixty-eight years of age, lay prostrate in
the fort. His last illness had come upon him, and on Christmas Day,
1635, the father of New France passed away. Soldiers, priests, and
settlers sorrowfully followed his remains to the little church on the
cliff, Notre Dame de la Recouvrance, which Champlain himself had
founded in honour of the restitution of the city, and where he had
renewed so often his faith and hope and courage.
A great spirit had crossed the bourne. The whole history of Canada has
no fairer pages than those which deal with the deeds of the founder of
Quebec. His was a character great and unselfish, often mistaken, but
always high-minded and just; not free from the credulity that
characterised his generation, but with a spirit of romantic endurance
which leaves the New World still his debtor; with a love of high
emprise unsullied by lust of gain or by cruelty or vain-glory. Like
Moses, he went forth into a land of promise; and, like Moses, the
place of his sepulchre is not known. It is, however, recorded that his
remains were placed "_dans un sépulcre particulier_." During the
administration of Montmagny a small chapel adjoining Notre Dame de la
Recouvrance came to be known as "Champlain's Chapel," and for a long
time this was believed to mark the founder's tomb. But in 1856 an
excavation at the foot of Breakneck Stairs revealed a curious vault
containing human bones; and later investigation has led to the belief
that the last resting-place of Champlain was a rocky niche part way
down Mountain Hill, in full view of the strand upon which his early
Habitation was built.