PART I

Produced by Al Haines

[Frontispiece: THE ORDER OF GOOD CHEER--PORT ROYAL, 1606-7. From a

colour drawing by C. W. Jefferys]

THE FOUNDER OF

NEW FRANCE

A Chronicle of Champlain

BY

CHARLES W. COLBY

TORONTO

GLASGOW, BROOK & COMPANY

1915

Copyright in all Countries subscribing to

the Berne Contention

{v}

CONTENTS

Page

I. CHAMPLAIN'S EARLY YEARS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1

II. CHAMPLAIN IN ACADIA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22

III. CHAMPLAIN AT QUEBEC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59

IV. CHAMPLAIN IN THE WILDERNESS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84

V. CHAMPLAIN'S LAST YEARS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 116

VI. CHAMPLAIN'S WRITINGS AND CHARACTER . . . . . . . . . . . . 137

BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 152

INDEX . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 155

{vii}

ILLUSTRATIONS

THE ORDER OF GOOD CHEER--PORT ROYAL, 1606-7 . . . . _Frontispiece_

From a colour drawing by C. W. Jefferys.

PORTRAIT OF CHAMPLAIN ASCRIBED TO MONCORNET.

(See Bibliographical Note, p. 154) . . . . . . . _Facing page_ 4

From Laverdiere's 'Champlain' in M'Gill

University Library.

COASTS EXPLORED BY CHAMPLAIN, 1604-7 . . . . . . . . " 36

Map by Bartholomew.

CHAMPLAIN'S DRAWING OF THE HABITATION AT QUEBEC . . " 64

From Laverdiere's 'Champlain' in M'Gill

University Library.

HENRI DE BOURBON, PRINCE DE CONDE,

VICEROY OF NEW FRANCE . . . . . . . . . . . . . " 74

From Laverdiere's 'Champlain' in M'Gill

University Library.

THE DISCOVERY OF LAKE CHAMPLAIN, 1609 . . . . . . . " 86

From a drawing by J. D. Kelly in the Chateau

de Ramezay, Montreal.

CHAMPLAIN'S ROUTE, 1615-16 . . . . . . . . . . . . . " 106

Map by Bartholomew.

{1}

CHAPTER I

CHAMPLAIN'S EARLY YEARS

Were there a Who's Who in History its chronicle of Champlain's life and

deeds would run as follows:

Champlain, Samuel de. Explorer, geographer, and colonizer. Born in

1567 at Brouage, a village on the Bay of Biscay. Belonged by parentage

to the lesser gentry of Saintonge. In boyhood became imbued with a

love of the sea, but also served as a soldier in the Wars of the

League. Though an enthusiastic Catholic, was loyal to Henry of

Navarre. On the Peace of Vervins (1598) returned to the sea, visiting

the Spanish West Indies and Mexico. Between 1601 and 1603 wrote his

first book--the _Bref Discours_. In 1603 made his first voyage to the

St Lawrence, which he ascended as far as the Lachine Rapids. From 1604

to 1607 was actively engaged in the attempt of De Monts to establish a

French colony in Acadia, at the same time exploring the seaboard from

Cape Breton to Martha's Vineyard. Returned to the St Lawrence in 1608

and founded Quebec. In 1609 discovered Lake Champlain, and fought his

first battle with the Iroquois. In 1613 ascended the Ottawa to a point

{2} above Lac Coulange. In 1615 reached Georgian Bay and was induced

to accompany the Hurons, with their allies, on an unsuccessful

expedition into the country of the Iroquois. From 1617 to 1629

occupied chiefly in efforts to strengthen the colony at Quebec and

promote trade on the lower St Lawrence. Taken a captive to London by

Kirke in 1629 upon the surrender of Quebec, but after its recession to

France returned (1633) and remained in Canada until his death, on

Christmas Day 1635. Published several important narratives describing

his explorations and adventures. An intrepid pioneer and the revered

founder of New France.

Into some such terms as these would the writer of a biographical

dictionary crowd his notice of Champlain's career, so replete with

danger and daring, with the excitement of sailing among the uncharted

islands of Penobscot Bay, of watching the sun descend below the waves

of Lake Huron, of attacking the Iroquois in their palisaded stronghold,

of seeing English cannon levelled upon the houses of Quebec. It is not

from a biographical dictionary that one can gain true knowledge of

Champlain, into whose experience were crowded so many novel sights and

whose soul was tested, year after year, by the ever-varying perils of

the wilderness. No life, it is true, can be fitly sketched in a

chronological {3} abridgment, but history abounds with lives which,

while important, do not exact from a biographer the kind of detail that

for the actions of Champlain becomes priceless. Kant and Hegel were

both great forces in human thought, yet throughout eighty years Kant

was tethered to the little town of Koenigsberg, and Hegel did not know

what the French were doing in Jena the day after there had been fought

just outside a battle which smote Prussia to her knees. The deeds of

such men are their thoughts, their books, and these do not make a

story. The life of Champlain is all story. The part of it which

belongs to the Wars of the League is lost to us from want of records.

But fortunately we possess in his _Voyages_ the plain, direct narrative

of his exploits in America--a source from which all must draw who would

know him well.

The method to be pursued in this book is not that of the critical

essay. Nor will these pages give an account of Champlain's times with

reference to ordinances regulating the fur trade, or to the policy of

French kings and their ministers towards emigration. Such subjects

must be touched on, but here it will be only incidentally. What may be

taken to concern us is the spirited action of {4} Champlain's middle

life--the period which lies between his first voyage to the St Lawrence

and his return from the land of the Onondagas. Not that he had ended

his work in 1616. The unflagging efforts which he continued to put

forth on behalf of the starving colony at Quebec demand all praise.

But the years during which he was incessantly engaged in exploration

show him at the height of his powers, with health still unimpaired by

exposure and with a soul that courted the unknown. Moreover, this is

the period for which we have his own narrative in fullest detail.

[Illustration: PORTRAIT OF CHAMPLAIN ASCRIBED TO MONCORNET

(See Bibliographical Note, P. 154)

From Laverdiere's _Champlain_ in M'Gill University Library]

Even were we seeking to set down every known fact regarding Champlain's

early life, the task would not be long. Parkman, in referring to his

origin, styles him 'a Catholic gentleman,' with not even a footnote

regarding his parentage.[1] Dionne, in a biography {5} of nearly three

hundred pages, does indeed mention the names of his father and mother,

but dismisses his first twenty years in twenty lines, which say little

more than that he learned letters and religion from the parish priest

and a love of the sea from his father. Nor is it easy to enlarge these

statements unless one chooses to make guesses as to whether or not

Champlain's parents were Huguenots because he was called Samuel, a

favourite name with French Protestants. And this question is not worth

discussion, since no one has, or can, cast a doubt upon the sincerity

of his own devotion to the Catholic faith.

In short, Champlain by birth was neither a peasant nor a noble, but

issued from a middle-class family; and his eyes turned towards the sea

because his father was a mariner dwelling in the small seaport of

Brouage.

Thus when a boy Champlain doubtless had lessons in navigation, but he

did not become a sailor in the larger sense until he had first {6} been

a soldier. His youth fell in the midst of the Catholic Revival, when

the Church of Rome, having for fifty years been sore beset by Lutherans

and Calvinists, began to display a reserve strength which enabled her

to reclaim from them a large part of the ground she had lost. But this

result was not gained without the bitterest and most envenomed

struggle. If doctrinal divergence had quickened human hatreds before

the Council of Trent, it drove them to fury during the thirty years

that followed. At the time of the Massacre of St Bartholomew Champlain

was five years old. He was seventeen when William the Silent was

assassinated; twenty when Mary Stuart was executed at Fotheringay;

twenty-one when the Spanish Armada sailed against England and when the

Guises were murdered at Blois by order of Henry III; twenty-two when

Henry III himself fell under the dagger of Jacques Clement. The bare

enumeration of these events shows that Champlain was nurtured in an age

of blood and iron rather than amid those humanitarian sentiments which

prevail in an age of religious toleration.

Finding his country a camp, or rather two camps, he became a soldier,

and fought for ten {7} years in the wretched strife to which both

Leaguers and Huguenots so often sacrificed their love of country. With

Henry of Valois, Henry of Navarre, and Henry of Guise as personal foes

and political rivals, it was hard to know where the right line of faith

and loyalty lay; but Champlain was both a Catholic and a king's man,

for whom all things issued well when Henry of Navarre ceased to be a

heretic, giving France peace and a throne. It is unfortunate that the

details of these adventurous years in Champlain's early manhood should

be lost. Unassisted by wealth or rank, he served so well as to win

recognition from the king himself, but beyond the names of his

commanders (D'Aumont, St Luc, and Brissac) there is little to show the

nature of his exploits.[2] In any case, these ten years of campaigning

were a good school for one who afterwards was to look death in the face

a thousand times amidst the icebergs of the North Atlantic, and off the

rocky coast of Acadia, and in the forests of the Iroquois.

With such parentage and early experiences as have been indicated

Champlain entered upon his career in the New World. It is {8}

characteristic that he did not leave the army until his services were

no longer needed. At the age of thirty-one he was fortunate enough to

be freed from fighting against his own countrymen. In 1598 was signed

the Peace of Vervins by which the enemies of Henry IV, both Leaguers

and Spaniards, acknowledged their defeat. To France the close of

fratricidal strife came as a happy release. To Champlain it meant also

the dawn of a career. Hastening to the coast, he began the long series

of voyages which was to occupy the remainder of his life. Indeed, the

sea and what lay beyond it were henceforth to be his life.

The sea, however, did not at once lead Champlain to New France.

Provencal, his uncle, held high employment in the Spanish fleet, and

through his assistance Champlain embarked at Blavet in Brittany for

Cadiz, convoying Spanish soldiers who had served with the League in

France. After three months at Seville he secured a Spanish commission

as captain of a ship sailing for the West Indies. Under this

appointment it was his duty to attend Don Francisco Colombo, who with

an armada of twenty galleons sailed in January 1599 to protect Porto

Rico from the English. In the maritime strife of Spain {9} and England

this expedition has no part that remains memorable. For Champlain it

meant a first command at sea and a first glimpse of America.

The record of this voyage was an incident of no less importance in

Champlain's fortunes than the voyage itself. His cruisings in the

Spanish Main gave him material for a little book, the _Bref Discours_;

and the _Bref Discours_ in turn advanced his career. Apart from any

effect which it may have had in securing for him the title of

Geographer to the King, it shows his own aspiration to be a geographer.

Navigation can be regarded either as a science or a trade. For

Champlain it was plainly a science, demanding care in observation and

faithfulness of narrative. The _Bref Discours_ was written immediately

upon his return from the West Indies, while the events it describes

were still fresh in mind. Appearing at a time when colonial secrets

were carefully guarded, it gave France a glimpse of Spanish America

from French eyes. For us it preserves Champlain's impressions of

Mexico, Panama, and the Antilles. For Champlain himself it was a

profession of faith, a statement that he had entered upon the

honourable occupation of navigator; in other words, that {10} he was to

be classed neither with ship-captains nor with traders, but with

explorers and authors.

It was in March 1601 that Champlain reached France on his return from

the West Indies. The next two years he spent at home, occupied partly

with the composition of his _Bref Discours_ and partly with the quest

of suitable employment. His avowed preference for the sea and the

reputation which he had already gained as a navigator left no doubt as

to the sphere of his future activities, but though eager to explore

some portion of America on behalf of the French crown, the question of

ways and means presented many difficulties. Chief among these was the

fickleness of the king. Henry IV had great political intelligence, and

moreover desired, in general, to befriend those who had proved loyal

during his doubtful days. His political sagacity should have led him

to see the value of colonial expansion, and his willingness to advance

faithful followers should have brought Champlain something better than

his pension and the title of Geographer. But the problems of France

were intricate, and what most appealed to the judgment of Henry was the

need of domestic reorganization after a {11} generation of slaughter

which had left the land desolate. Hence, despite momentary impulses to

vie with Spain and England in oversea expansion, he kept to the path of

caution, avoiding any expenditure for colonies which could be made a

drain upon the treasury, and leaving individual pioneers to bear the

cost of planting his flag in new lands. In friendship likewise his

good impulses were subject to the vagaries of a mercurial temperament

and a marked willingness to follow the line of least resistance. In

the circumstances it is not strange that Champlain remained two years

ashore.

The man to whom he owed most at this juncture was Aymar de Chastes.

Though Champlain had served the king faithfully, his youth and birth

prevented him from doing more than belongs to the duty of a subaltern.

But De Chastes, as governor of Dieppe, at a time when the League seemed

everywhere triumphant, gave Henry aid which proved to be the means of

raising him from the dust. It was a critical event for Champlain that

early in 1603 De Chastes had determined to fit out an expedition to

Canada. Piety and patriotism seem to have been his dominant motives,

but an opening for profit was also {12} offered by a monopoly of the

Laurentian fur trade. During the civil wars Champlain's strength of

character had become known at first hand to De Chastes, who both liked

and admired him. Then, just at the right moment, he reached

Fontainebleau, with his good record as a soldier and the added prestige

which had come to him from his successful voyage to the West Indies.

He and De Chastes concluded an agreement, the king's assent was

specially given, and in the early spring of 1603 the founder of New

France began his first voyage to the St Lawrence.

Champlain was now definitely committed to the task of gaining for

France a foothold in North America. This was to be his steady purpose,

whether fortune frowned or smiled. At times circumstances seemed

favourable; at other times they were most disheartening. Hence, if we

are to understand his life and character, we must consider, however

briefly, the conditions under which he worked.

It cannot be said that Champlain was born out of his right time. His

active years coincide with the most important, most exciting period in

the colonial movement. At the outset Spain had gone beyond all rivals

in the {13} race for the spoils of America. The first stage was marked

by unexampled and spectacular profits. The bullion which flowed from

Mexico and Peru was won by brutal cruelty to native races, but Europe

accepted it as wealth poured forth in profusion from the mines. Thus

the first conception of a colony was that of a marvellous

treasure-house where gold and silver lay piled up awaiting the arrival

of a Cortez or a Pizarro.

Unhappily disillusion followed. Within two generations from the time

of Columbus it became clear that America did not yield bonanza to every

adventurer. Yet throughout the sixteenth century there survived the

dream of riches to be quickly gained. Wherever the European landed in

America he looked first of all for mines, as Frobisher did on the

unpromising shores of Labrador. The precious metals proving illusive,

his next recourse was to trade. Hawkins sought his profit from slaves.

The French bought furs from the Indians at Tadoussac. Gosnold brought

back from Cape Cod a mixed cargo of sassafras and cedar.

But wealth from the mines and profits from a coasting trade were only a

lure to the cupidity of Europe. Real colonies, {14} containing the

germ of a nation, could not be based on such foundations. Coligny saw

this, and conceived of America as a new home for the French race.

Raleigh, the most versatile of the Elizabethans, lavished his wealth on

the patriotic endeavour to make Virginia a strong and self-supporting

community. 'I shall yet live to see it an English nation,' he

wrote--at the very moment when Champlain was first dreaming of the St

Lawrence. Coligny and Raleigh were both constructive statesmen. The

one was murdered before he could found such a colony as his thought

presaged: the other perished on the scaffold, though not before he had

sowed the seed of an American empire. For Raleigh was the first to

teach that agriculture, not mines, is the true basis of a colony. In

itself his colony on Roanoke Island was a failure, but the idea of

Roanoke was Raleigh's greatest legacy to the English race.

With the dawn of the seventeenth century events came thick and fast.

It was a time when the maritime states of Western Europe were all

keenly interested in America, without having any clear idea of the

problem. Raleigh, the one man who had a grasp of the situation,

entered upon his tragic imprisonment in the {15} same year that

Champlain made his first voyage to the St Lawrence. But while thought

was confused and policy unsettled, action could no longer be postponed.

The one fact which England, France, and Holland could not neglect was

that to the north of Florida no European colony existed on the American

coast. Urging each of these states to establish settlements in a tract

so vast and untenanted was the double desire to possess and to prevent

one's neighbour from possessing. On the other hand, caution raised

doubts as to the balance of cost and gain. The governments were ready

to accept the glory and advantage, if private persons were prepared to

take the risk. Individual speculators, very conscious of the risk,

demanded a monopoly of trade before agreeing to plant a colony. But

this caused new difficulty. The moment a monopoly was granted,

unlicensed traders raised an outcry and upbraided the government for

injustice.

Such were the problems upon the successful or unsuccessful solution of

which depended enormous national interests, and each country faced them

according to its institutions, rulers, and racial genius. It only

needs a table of events to show how fully the English, the {16} French,

and the Dutch realized that something must be done. In 1600 Pierre

Chauvin landed sixteen French colonists at Tadoussac. On his return in

1601 he found that they had taken refuge with the Indians. In 1602

Gosnold, sailing from Falmouth, skirted the coast of Norumbega from

Casco Bay to Cuttyhunk. In 1603 the ships of De Chastes, with

Champlain aboard, spent the summer in the St Lawrence; while during the

same season Martin Pring took a cargo of sassafras in Massachusetts

Bay. From 1604 to 1607 the French under De Monts, Poutrincourt, and

Champlain were actively engaged in the attempt to colonize Acadia. But

they were not alone in setting up claims to this region. In 1605

Waymouth, sailing from Dartmouth, explored the mouth of the Kennebec

and carried away five natives. In 1606 James I granted patents to the

London Company and the Plymouth Company which, by their terms, ran

athwart the grant of Henry IV to De Monts. In the same year Sir

Ferdinando Gorges sent Pring once more to Norumbega. In 1607 Raleigh,

Gilbert, and George Popham made a small settlement at the mouth of the

Sagadhoc, where Popham died during the winter. As a result of his

death this colony {17} on the coast of Maine was abandoned, but 1607

also saw the memorable founding of Jamestown in Virginia. Equally

celebrated is Champlain's founding of Quebec in 1608. In 1609 the

Dutch under an English captain, Henry Hudson, had their first glimpse

of Manhattan.

This catalogue of voyages shows that an impulse existed which

governments could not ignore. The colonial movement was far from being

a dominant interest with Henry IV or James I, but when their subjects

saw fit to embark upon it privately, the crown was compelled to take

cognizance of their acts and frame regulations. 'Go, and let whatever

good may, come of it!' exclaimed Robert de Baudricourt as Joan of Arc

rode forth from Vaucouleurs to liberate France. In much the same

spirit Henry IV saw De Monts set sail for Acadia. The king would

contribute nothing from the public purse or from his own. Sully, his

prime minister, vigorously opposed colonizing because he wished to

concentrate effort upon domestic improvements. He believed, in the

second place, that there was no hope of creating a successful colony

north of the fortieth parallel. Thirdly, he was in the pay of the

Dutch.

{18}

The most that Henry IV would do for French pioneers in America was to

give them a monopoly of trade in return for an undertaking to transport

and establish colonists. In each case where a monopoly was granted the

number of colonists was specified. As for their quality, convicts

could be taken if more eligible candidates were not forthcoming. The

sixty unfortunates landed by La Roche on Sable Island in 1598 were all

convicts or sturdy vagrants. Five years later only eleven were left

alive.

For the story of Champlain it is not necessary to touch upon the

relations of the French government with traders at a date earlier than

1599. Immediately following the failure of La Roche's second

expedition, Pierre Chauvin of Honfleur secured a monopoly which covered

the Laurentian fur trade for ten years. The condition was that he

should convey to Canada fifty colonists a year throughout the full

period of his grant. So far from carrying out this agreement either in

spirit or letter, he shirked it without compunction. After three years

the monopoly was withdrawn, less on the ground that he had failed to

fulfil his contract than from an outcry on the part of merchants who

desired their share of the trade. To {19} adjudicate between Chauvin

and his rivals in St Malo and Rouen a commission was appointed at the

close of 1602. Its members were De Chastes, governor of Dieppe, and

the Sieur de la Cour, first president of the Parlement of Normandy. On

their recommendation the terms of the monopoly were so modified as to

admit to a share in the privilege certain leading merchants of Rouen

and St Malo, who, however, must pay their due share in the expenses of

colonizing. Before the ships sailed in 1603 Chauvin had died, and De

Chastes at once took his place as the central figure in the group of

those to whom a new monopoly had just been conceded.[3]

We are now on the threshold of Champlain's career, but only on the

threshold. The {20} voyage of 1603, while full of prophecy and

presenting features of much interest, lacks the arduous and

constructive quality which was to mark his greater explorations. In

1603 the two boats equipped by De Chastes were under the command of

Pontgrave[4] and Prevert, both mariners from St Malo. Champlain sailed

in Pontgrave's ship and was, in fact, a superior type of supercargo.

De Chastes desired that his expedition should be self-supporting, and

the purchase of furs was never left out of sight. At the same time,

his purpose was undoubtedly wider than profit, and Champlain

represented the extra-commercial motive. While Pontgrave was trading

with the Indians, Champlain, as the geographer, was collecting

information about their character, their customs, and their country.

Their religious ideas interested him much, and also their statements

regarding the interior of the continent. Such data as he could collect

between the end of May and the middle of August he embodied in a book

called _Des Sauvages_, which, true to its title, deals {21} chiefly

with Indian life and is a valuable record, although in many regards

superseded by the more detailed writings of the Jesuits.

The voyage of 1603 added nothing material to what had been made known

by Jacques Cartier and the fur traders about Canada. Champlain

ascended the St Lawrence to the Sault St Louis[5] and made two side

excursions--one taking him rather less than forty miles up the Saguenay

and the other up the Richelieu to the rapid at St Ours. He also

visited Gaspe, passed the Isle Percee, had his first glimpse of the

Baie des Chaleurs, and returned to Havre with a good cargo of furs. On

the whole, it was a profitable and satisfactory voyage. Though it

added little to geographical knowledge, it confirmed the belief that

money could be made in the fur trade, and the word brought back

concerning the Great Lakes of the interior was more distinct than had

before been reported. The one misfortune of the expedition was that

its author, De Chastes, did not live to see its success. He had died

less than a month before his ships reached Havre.

[1] It is hard to define Champlain's social status in a single word.

Parkman, besides styling him 'a Catholic gentleman,' speaks of him

elsewhere as being 'within the pale of the noblesse.' On the other

hand, the _Biographie Saintongeoise_ says that he came from a family of

fishermen. The most important facts would seem to be these. In

Champlain's own marriage contract his father is styled 'Antoine de

Champlain, Capitaine de la Marine.' The same document styles Champlain

himself 'Samuel de Champlain.' A petition in which he asks for a

continuation of his pension (_circ._ 1630) styles him in its opening

words 'Le Sieur de Champlain' and afterwards 'le dit sieur Champlain'

in two places, while in six places it styles him 'le dit sieur de

Champlain.' Le Jeune calls him 'Monsieur de Champlain.' It is clear

that he was not a noble. It is also clear that he possessed sufficient

social standing to warrant the use of _de_. On the title-page of all

his books after 1604 he is styled the 'Sieur de Champlain.'

[2] He served chiefly in Brittany against the Spanish allies of the

League, and reached the rank of quartermaster.

[3] The history of all the companies formed during these years for

trade in New France is the same. First a monopoly is granted under

circumstances ostensibly most favourable to the Government and to the

privileged merchants; then follow the howls of the excluded traders,

the lack of good voluntary colonists, the transportation to the colony

of a few beggars, criminals, or unpromising labourers; a drain on the

company's funds in maintaining these during the long winter; a steady

decrease in the number taken out; at length no attempt to fulfil this

condition of the monopoly; the anger of the Government when made aware

of the facts; and finally the sudden repeal of the monopoly several

years before its legal termination.--H. P. Biggar, _Early Trading

Companies of New France_, p. 49.

[4] Francois Grave, Sieur du Pont, whose name, strictly speaking, is

Dupont-Grave, one of the most active French navigators of the

seventeenth century. From 1600 to 1629 his voyages to the St Lawrence

and Acadia were incessant.

[5] Now called the Lachine Rapids. An extremely important point in the

history of New France, since it marked the head of ship navigation on

the St Lawrence. Constantly mentioned in the writings of Champlain's

period.

{22}

CHAPTER II

CHAMPLAIN IN ACADIA[1]

The early settlements of the French in America were divided into two

zones by the Gulf of St Lawrence. Considered from the standpoint of

colonization, this great body of water has a double aspect. In the

main it was a vestibule to the vast region which extended westward from

Gaspe to Lake Michigan and thence to the Mississippi. But while a

highway it was also a barrier, cutting off Acadia from the main route

that led to the heart of the interior. Port Royal, on the Bay of

Fundy, was one centre and Quebec another. Between them stretched

either an impenetrable wilderness or an inland sea. Hence Acadia

remained separate from the Laurentian {23} valley, which was the heart

of Canada--although Acadia and Canada combined to form New France. Of

these two sister districts Canada was the more secure. The fate of

Acadia shows how much less vulnerable to English attack were Quebec,

Three Rivers, and Montreal than the seaboard settlements of Port Royal,

Grand Pre, and Louisbourg.

It is a striking fact that Champlain had helped to found Port Royal

before he founded Quebec. He was not the pioneer of Acadian

colonization: De Monts deserves the praise of turning the first sod.

But Champlain was a leading figure in the hard fight at St Croix and

Port Royal; he it was who first charted in any detail the Atlantic

seaboard from Cape Breton to Cape Cod; and his narrative joins with

that of Lescarbot to preserve the story of the episode.

Although unprosperous, the first attempt of the French to colonize

Acadia is among the bright deeds of their colonial history. While the

death of De Chastes was most inopportune, the future of the French race

in America did not hinge upon any one man. In 1603 fishing on the

Grand Bank off Newfoundland was a well-established occupation of

Normans and Bretons, the fur trade held out hope of great {24} profit,

and the spirit of national emulation supplied a motive which was

stronger still. Hence it is not surprising that to De Chastes there at

once succeeds De Monts.

As regards position they belonged to much the same class. Both were

men of standing, with enough capital and influence to organize an

expedition. In respect, however, of personality and circumstance there

were differences. By reason of advanced age De Chastes had been unable

to accompany his ships, whereas De Monts was in his prime and had

already made a voyage to the St Lawrence. Moreover, De Monts was a

Huguenot. A generation later no Huguenot could have expected to

receive a monopoly of the fur trade and a royal commission authorizing

him to establish settlements, but Henry IV, who had once been a

Protestant, could hardly treat his old co-religionists as Richelieu

afterwards treated them. The heresy of its founder was a source of

weakness to the first French colony in Acadia, yet through a Calvinist

it came into being.

Like De Chastes, De Monts had associates who joined with him to supply

the necessary funds, though in 1604 the investment was greater than on

any previous occasion, and a {25} larger number were admitted to the

benefits of the monopoly. Not only did St Malo and Rouen secure

recognition, but La Rochelle and St Jean de Luz were given a chance to

participate. De Monts' company had a capital of 90,000 livres, divided

in shares--of which two-fifths were allotted to St Malo, two-fifths to

La Rochelle and St Jean de Luz conjointly, and the remainder to Rouen.

The personal investment of De Monts was somewhat more than a tenth of

the total, as he took a majority of the stock which fell to Rouen.

Apart from Sully's unfriendliness, the chief initial difficulty arose

over religion. The Parlement of Normandy refused to register De Monts'

commission on the ground that the conversion of the heathen could not

fitly be left to a heretic. This remonstrance was only withdrawn after

the king had undertaken to place the religious instruction of the

Indians in the charge of priests--a promise which did not prevent the

Protestant colonists from having their own pastor. The monopoly

contained wider privileges than before, including both Acadia and the

St Lawrence. At the same time, the obligation to colonize became more

exacting, since the minimum number of new settlers per annum was raised

from fifty to a hundred.

{26}

Champlain's own statement regarding the motive of De Monts' expedition

is that it lay in the desire 'to find a northerly route to China, in

order to facilitate commerce with the Orientals.' After reciting a

list of explorations which began with John Cabot and had continued at

intervals during the next century, he continues: 'So many voyages and

discoveries without results, and attended with so much hardship and

expense, have caused us French in late years to attempt a permanent

settlement in those lands which we call New France, in the hope of thus

realizing more easily this object; since the voyage in search of the

desired passage commences on the other side of the ocean and is made

along the coast of this region.'

A comparison of the words just quoted with the text of De Monts'

commission will serve to illustrate the strength of Champlain's

geographical instinct. The commission begins with a somewhat

stereotyped reference to the conversion of the heathen, after which it

descants upon commerce, colonies, and mines. The supplementary

commission to De Monts from Montmorency as Lord High Admiral adds a

further consideration, namely, that if Acadia is not occupied by the

French it will {27} be seized upon by some other nation. Not a word of

the route to the East occurs in either commission, and De Monts is

limited in the powers granted to a region extending along the American

seaboard from the fortieth parallel to the forty-sixth, with as much of

the interior 'as he is able to explore and colonize.'

This shows that, while the objects of the expedition were commercial

and political, Champlain's imagination was kindled by the prospect of

finding the long-sought passage to China. To his mind a French colony

in America is a stepping-stone, a base of operations for the great

quest. De Monts himself doubtless sought honour, adventure, and

profit--the profit which might arise from possessing Acadia and

controlling the fur trade in 'the river of Canada.' Champlain remains

the geographer, and his chief contribution to the Acadian enterprise

will be found in that part of his _Voyages_ which describes his study

of the coast-line southward from Cape Breton to Malabar.

But whether considered from the standpoint of exploration or

settlement, the first chapter of French annals in Acadia is a fine

incident. Champlain has left the greatest fame, but he was not alone

during these years {28} of peril and hardship. With him are grouped De

Monts, Poutrincourt, Lescarbot, Pontgrave, and Louis Hebert, all men of

capacity and enterprise, whose part in this valiant enterprise lent it

a dignity which it has never since lost. As yet no English colony had

been established in America. Under his commission De Monts could have

selected for the site of his settlement either New York or Providence

or Boston or Portland. The efforts of the French in America from 1604

to 1607 are signalized by the character of their loaders, the nature of

their opportunity, and the special causes which prevented them from

taking possession of Norumbega.[2]

De Monts lacked neither courage nor persistence. His battle against

heartbreaking disappointments shows him to have been a pioneer of high

order. And with him sailed in 1604 Jean de Biencourt, Seigneur de

Poutrincourt, whose ancestors had been illustrious in {29} Picardy for

five hundred years. Champlain made a third, joining the expedition as

geographer rather than shipmaster. Lescarbot and Hebert came two years

later.

The company left Havre in two ships--on March 7, 1604, according to

Champlain, or just a month later, according to Lescarbot. Although De

Monts' commission gave him the usual privilege of impressing convicts,

the personnel of his band was far above the average. Champlain's

statement is that it comprised about one hundred and twenty artisans,

and there were also 'a large number of gentlemen, of whom not a few

were of noble birth.' Besides the excitement provided by icebergs, the

arguments of priest and pastor diversified the voyage, even to the

point of scandal. After crossing the Grand Bank in safety they were

nearly wrecked off Sable Island, but succeeded in reaching the Acadian

coast on May 8. From their landfall at Cap de la Heve they skirted the

coast-line to Port Mouton, confiscating _en route_ a ship which was

buying furs in defiance of De Monts' monopoly.

Rabbits and other game were found in abundance at Port Mouton, but the

spot proved quite unfit for settlement, and on May 19 De Monts charged

Champlain with {30} the task of exploring the coast in search of

harbours. Taking a barque of eight tons and a crew of ten men

(together with Ralleau, De Monts' secretary), Champlain set out upon

this important reconnaissance. Fish, game, good soil, good timber,

minerals, and safe anchorage were all objects of search. Skirting the

south-western corner of Nova Scotia, the little ship passed Cape Sable

and the Tusquet Islands, turned into the Bay of Fundy, and advanced to

a point somewhat beyond the north end of Long Island. Champlain gives

at considerable length the details of his first excursion along the

Acadian seaboard. In his zeal for discovery he caused those left at

Port Mouton both inconvenience and anxiety. Lescarbot says, with a

touch of sharpness: 'Champlain was such a time away on this expedition

that when deliberating about their return [to France] they thought of

leaving him behind.' Champlain's own statement is that at Port Mouton

'Sieur de Monts was awaiting us from day to day, thinking only of our

long stay and whether some accident had not befallen us.'

De Monts' position at Port Mouton was indeed difficult. By changing

his course in mid-ocean he had missed rendezvous with the {31} larger

of his two ships, which under the command of Pontgrave looked for him

in vain from Canseau to the Bay of Islands. Meanwhile, at Port Mouton

provisions were running low, save for rabbits, which could not be

expected to last for ever. The more timid raised doubts and spoke of

France, but De Monts and Poutrincourt both said they would rather die

than go back. In this mood the party continued to hunt rabbits, to

search the coast north-easterly for Pontgrave, and to await Champlain's

return. Their courage had its reward. Pontgrave's ship was found, De

Monts revictualled, Champlain reappeared, and by the middle of June the

little band of colonists was ready to proceed.

As De Monts heads south-west from Port Mouton it is difficult to avoid

thoughts regarding the ultimate destiny of France in the New World.

This was the predestined moment. The Wars of Religion had ended in the

reunion of the realm under a strong and popular king. The French

nation was conscious of its greatness, and seemed ready for any

undertaking that promised honour or advantage. The Huguenots were a

sect whose members possessed Calvinistic firmness of will, together

with a special motive for emigrating. And, {32} besides, the whole

eastern coast of America, within the temperate zone, was still to be

had for the taking. With such a magnificent opportunity, why was the

result so meagre?

A complete answer to this query would lead us far afield, but the whole

history of New France bears witness to the fact that the cause of

failure is not to be found in the individual French emigrant. There

have never been more valiant or tenacious colonists than the peasants

of Normandy who cleared away the Laurentian wilderness and explored the

recesses of North America. France in the age of De Monts and Champlain

possessed adequate resources, if only her effort had been concentrated

on America, or if the Huguenots had not been prevented from founding

colonies, or if the crown had been less meddlesome, or if the quest of

beaver skins farther north had not diverted attention from Chesapeake

Bay and Manhattan Island. The best chance the French ever had to

effect a foothold in the middle portion of the Atlantic coast came to

them in 1604, when, before any rivals had established themselves, De

Monts was at hand for the express purpose of founding a colony. It is

quite probable that even if he had landed on Manhattan Island, the

European {33} preoccupations of France would have prevented Henry IV

from supporting a colony at that point with sufficient vigour to

protect it from the English. Yet the most striking aspect of De Monts'

attempt in Acadia is the failure to seize a chance which never came

again to the French race. In 1607 Champlain sailed away from Port

Royal and the English founded Jamestown. In 1608 Champlain founded

Quebec, and thenceforth for over a century the efforts of France were

concentrated on the St Lawrence. When at length she founded Louisbourg

it was too late; by that time the English grasp upon the coast could

not be loosened.

Meanwhile De Monts, to whom the future was veiled, left Port Mouton

and, creeping from point to point, entered the Bay of Fundy--or, as

Champlain calls it, 'the great Baye Francoise, so named by Sieur de

Monts.' The month was June, but no time could be lost, for at this

juncture the aim of exploration was the discovery of a suitable site,

and after the site had been fixed the colonists needed what time

remained before winter to build their houses. Hence De Monts' first

exploration of the Baye Francoise was not exhaustive. He entered

Annapolis Basin and glanced at {34} the spot which afterwards was to be

Port Royal. He tried in vain to find a copper-mine of which he had

heard from Prevert of St Malo. He coasted the Bay of St John, and on

June 25 reached St Croix Island. 'Not finding any more suitable place

than this island,' says Champlain, the leaders of the colony decided

that it should be fortified: and thus was the French flag unfurled in

Acadia.

The arrangement of the settlement at St Croix was left to Champlain,

who gives us a drawing in explanation of his plan. The selection of an

island was mainly due to distrust of the Indians, with whom, however,

intercourse was necessary. The island lay close to the mouth of a

river, now also called the St Croix. As the choice of this spot proved

most unfortunate, it is well to remember the motives which prevailed at

the time. 'Vessels could pass up the river,' says Champlain, 'only at

the mercy of the cannon on this island, and we deemed the location most

advantageous, not only on account of its situation and good soil, but

also on account of the intercourse which we proposed with the savages

of these coasts and of the interior, as we should be in the midst of

them. We hoped to pacify them in course of time and put an end to the

wars {35} which they carry on with one another, so as to derive service

from them in future and convert them to the Christian faith.'

De Monts' band was made up largely of artisans, who at once began with

vigour to erect dwellings. A mill and an oven were built; gardens were

laid out and many seeds planted therein. The mosquitoes proved

troublesome, but in other respects the colonists had good cause to be

pleased with their first Acadian summer. So far had construction work

advanced by the beginning of autumn that De Monts decided to send an

exploration party farther along the coast to the south-west. 'And,'

says Champlain, 'he entrusted me with this work, which I found very

agreeable.'

The date of departure from St Croix was September 2, so that no very

ambitious programme of discovery could be undertaken before bad weather

began. In a boat of eighteen tons, with twelve sailors and two Indian

guides, Champlain threaded the maze of islands which lies between

Passamaquoddy Bay and the mouth of the Penobscot. The most striking

part of the coast was Mount Desert, 'very high and notched in places,

so that there is the appearance to one at sea as of seven or eight

mountains extending along {36} near each other.' To this island and

the Isle au Haut Champlain gave the names they have since borne.

Thence advancing, with his hand ever on the lead, he reached the mouth

of the Penobscot, despite those 'islands, rocks, shoals, banks, and

breakers which are so numerous on all sides that it is marvellous to

behold.' Having satisfied himself that the Penobscot was none other

than the great river Norumbega, referred to largely on hearsay by

earlier geographers, he followed it up almost to Bangor. On regaining

the sea he endeavoured to reach the mouth of the Kennebec, but when

within a few miles of it was driven back to St Croix by want of food.

In closing the story of this voyage, which had occupied a month,

Champlain says with his usual directness: 'The above is an exact

statement of all I have observed respecting not only the coasts and

people, but also the river of Norumbega; and there are none of the

marvels there which some persons have described. I am of opinion that

this region is as disagreeable in winter as that of our settlement, in

which we were greatly deceived.'

[Illustration: COASTS EXPLORED BY CHAMPLAIN, 1604-7]

Champlain was now to undergo his first winter in Acadia, and no part of

his life could have been more wretched than the ensuing {37} eight

months. On October 6 the snow came. On December 3 cakes of ice began

to appear along the shore. The storehouse had no cellar, and all

liquids froze except sherry. 'Cider was served by the pound. We were

obliged to use very bad water and drink melted snow, as there were no

springs or brooks.' It was impossible to keep warm or to sleep

soundly. The food was salt meat and vegetables, which impaired the

strength of every one and brought on scurvy. It is unnecessary to cite

here Champlain's detailed and graphic description of this dreadful

disease. The results are enough. Before the spring came two-fifths of

the colonists had died, and of those who remained half were on the

point of death. Not unnaturally, 'all this produced discontent in

Sieur de Monts and others of the settlement.'

The survivors of the horrible winter at St Croix were not freed from

anxiety until June 15, 1605, when Pontgrave, six weeks late, arrived

with fresh stores. Had De Monts been faint-hearted, he doubtless would

have seized this opportunity to return to France. As it was, he set

out in search of a place more suitable than St Croix for the

establishment of his colony. On June 18, with a party {38} which

included twenty sailors and several gentlemen, he and Champlain began a

fresh voyage to the south-west. Their destination was the country of

the Armouchiquois, an Algonquin tribe who then inhabited Massachusetts.

Champlain's story of his first voyage from Acadia to Cape Cod is given

with considerable fulness. The topography of the seaboard and its

natural history, the habits of the Indians and his adventures with

them, were all new subjects at the time, and he treats them so that

they keep their freshness. He is at no pains to conceal his low

opinion of the coast savages. Concerning the Acadian Micmacs he says

little, but what he does say is chiefly a comment upon the wretchedness

of their life during the winter. As he went farther south he found an

improvement in the food supply. At the mouth of the Saco he and De

Monts saw well-kept patches of Indian corn three feet high, although it

was not yet midsummer. Growing with the corn were beans, pumpkins, and

squashes, all in flower; and the cultivation of tobacco is also noted.

Here the savages formed a permanent settlement and lived within a

palisade. Still farther south, in the neighbourhood of Cape Cod, {39}

Champlain found maize five and a half feet high, a considerable variety

of squashes, tobacco, and edible roots which tasted like artichokes.

But whether the coast Indians were Micmacs or Armouchiquois, whether

they were starving or well fed, Champlain tells us little in their

praise. Of the Armouchiquois he says:

I cannot tell what government they have, but I think that in this

respect they resemble their neighbours, who have none at all. They

know not how to worship or pray; yet, like the other savages, they have

some superstitions, which I shall describe in their place. As for

weapons, they have only pikes, clubs, bows and arrows. It would seem

from their appearance that they have a good disposition, better than

those of the north, but they are all in fact of no great worth. Even a

slight intercourse with them gives you at once a knowledge of them.

They are great thieves, and if they cannot lay hold of any thing with

their hands, they try to do so with their feet, as we have oftentimes

learned by experience. I am of opinion that if they had any thing to

exchange with us they would not give themselves to thieving. They

bartered away to us their bows, arrows, and quivers for pins and

buttons; and if they had had any thing else better they would have done

the same with it. It is necessary to be on one's guard against this

people and live in a state of distrust of them, yet without letting

them perceive it.

{40} This passage at least shows that Champlain sought to be just to

the savages of the Atlantic. Though he found them thieves, he is

willing to conjecture that they would not steal if they had anything to

trade.

The thieving habits of the Cape Cod Indians led to a fight between them

and the French in which one Frenchman was killed, and Champlain

narrowly escaped death through the explosion of his own musket. At

Cape Cod De Monts turned back. Five of the six weeks allotted to the

voyage were over, and lack of food made it impossible to enter Long

Island Sound. Hence 'Sieur de Monts determined to return to the Island

of St Croix in order to find a place more favourable for our

settlement, as we had not been able to do on any of the coasts which he

had explored during this voyage.'

We now approach the picturesque episode of Port Royal. De Monts,

having regained St Croix at the beginning of August, lost no time in

transporting his people to the other side of the Bay of Fundy. The

consideration which weighed most with him in establishing his

headquarters was that of trade. Whatever his own preferences, he could

not forget that his partners in France expected a return {41} on their

investment. Had he been in a position to found an agricultural colony,

the maize fields he had seen to the south-west might have proved

attractive. But he depended largely upon trade, and, as Champlain

points out, the savages of Massachusetts had nothing to sell. Hence it

was unwise to go too far from the peltries of the St Lawrence. To find

a climate less severe than that of Canada, without losing touch with

the fur trade, was De Monts' problem. No one could dream of wintering

again at St Croix, and in the absence of trade possibilities to the

south there seemed but one alternative--Port Royal.

In his notice of De Monts' cruise along the Bay of Fundy in June 1604,

Champlain says: 'Continuing two leagues farther on in the same

direction, we entered one of the finest harbours I had seen all along

these coasts, in which two thousand vessels might lie in security. The

entrance is 800 paces broad; then you enter a harbour two leagues long

and one broad, which I have named Port Royal.' Here Champlain is

describing Annapolis Basin, which clearly made a deep impression upon

the minds of the first Europeans who saw it. Most of all did it appeal

to the imagination of Poutrincourt, who had come to Acadia for the {42}

purpose of discovering a spot where he could found his own colony. At

sight of Port Royal he had at once asked De Monts for the grant, and on

receiving it had returned to France, at the end of August 1604, to

recruit colonists. Thus he had escaped the horrible winter at St

Croix, but on account of lawsuits it had proved impossible for him to

return to Acadia in the following year. Hence the noble roadstead of

Port Royal was still unoccupied when De Monts, Champlain, and Pontgrave

took the people of St Croix thither in August 1605. Not only did the

people go. Even the framework of the houses was shipped across the bay

and set up in this haven of better hope.

The spot chosen for the settlement lay on the north side of the bay.

It had a good supply of water, and there was protection from the

north-west wind which had tortured the settlers at St Croix. 'After

everything had been arranged,' says Champlain, 'and the majority of the

dwellings built, Sieur de Monts determined to return to France, in

order to petition His Majesty to grant him all that might be necessary

for his undertaking.' Quite apart from securing fresh advantages, De

Monts at this time was sore pressed to defend his title against the

traders who were {43} clamouring for a repeal of the monopoly. With

him returned some of the colonists whose ambition had been satisfied at

St Croix. Champlain remained, in the hope of making further

explorations 'towards Florida.' Pontgrave was left in command. The

others numbered forty-three.

During the autumn they began to make gardens. 'I also,' says

Champlain, 'for the sake of occupying my time made one, which was

surrounded with ditches full of water, in which I placed some fine

trout, and into which flowed three brooks of very fine running water,

from which the greater part of our settlement was supplied. I made

also a little sluice-way towards the shore, in order to draw off the

water when I wished. This spot was entirely surrounded by meadows,

where I constructed a summer-house, with some fine trees, as a resort

for enjoying the fresh air. I made there, also, a little reservoir for

holding salt-water fish, which we took out as we wanted them. I took

especial pleasure in it and planted there some seeds which turned out

well. But much work had to be laid out in preparation. We resorted

often to this place as a pastime; and it seemed as if the little birds

round took pleasure in it, for they gathered there in large {44}

numbers, warbling and chirping so pleasantly that I think I have never

heard the like.'

After a busy and cheerful autumn came a mild winter. The snow did not

fall till December 20, and there was much rain. Scurvy still caused

trouble; but though twelve died, the mortality was not so high as at St

Croix. Everything considered, Port Royal enjoyed good

fortune--according to the colonial standards of the period, when a

winter death-rate of twenty-six per cent was below the average.

At the beginning of March 1606 Pontgrave fitted out a barque of

eighteen tons in order to undertake 'a voyage of discovery along the

coast of Florida'; and on the 16th of the month a start was made.

Favoured by good weather, he and Champlain would have reached the

Hudson three years before the Dutch. But, short of drowning, every

possible mischance happened. They had hardly set out when a storm cast

them ashore near Grand Manan. Having repaired the damage they made for

St Croix, where fog and contrary winds held them back eight days. Then

Pontgrave decided to return to Port Royal 'to see in what condition our

companions were whom we had left there sick.' On their {45} arrival

Pontgrave himself was taken ill, but soon re-embarked, though still

unwell. Their second start was followed by immediate disaster.

Leaving the mouth of the harbour, two leagues distant from Port Royal,

they were carried out of the channel by the tide and went aground. 'At

the first blow of our boat upon the rocks the rudder broke, a part of

the keel and three or four planks were smashed and some ribs stove in,

which frightened us, for our barque filled immediately; and all that we

could do was to wait until the sea fell, so that we might get

ashore.... Our barque, all shattered as she was, went to pieces at the

return of the tide. But we, most happy at having saved our lives,

returned to our settlement with our poor savages; and we praised God

for having rescued us from this shipwreck, from which we had not

expected to escape so easily.'

This accident destroyed all hope of exploration to the southward until

word came from France. At the time of De Monts' departure the outlook

had been so doubtful that a provisional arrangement was made for the

return of the colonists to France should no ship arrive at Port Royal

by the middle of July. In this event Pontgrave was to take his people

{46} to Cape Breton or Gaspe, where they would find trading ships

homeward bound. As neither De Monts nor Poutrincourt had arrived by

the middle of June, a new barque was built to replace the one which had

been lost on April 10. A month later Pontgrave carried out his part of

the programme by putting aboard all the inhabitants of Port Royal save

two, who were induced by promise of extra pay to remain in charge of

the stores.

Thus sorrowfully the remnant of the colonists bade farewell to the

beautiful harbour and their new home. Four days later they were nearly

lost through the breaking of their rudder in the midst of a tempest.

Having been saved from wreck by the skill of their shipmaster,

Champdore, they reached Cape Sable on July 24. Here grief became

rejoicing, for to their complete surprise they encountered Ralleau, De

Monts' secretary, coasting along in a shallop. The glad tidings he

gave them was that Poutrincourt with a ship of one hundred and twenty

tons had arrived. From Canseau the _Jonas_ had taken an outer course

to Port Royal, while Ralleau was keeping close to the shore in the hope

of intercepting Pontgrave. 'All this intelligence,' says Champlain,

'caused us to turn back; and we arrived at {47} Port Royal on the 25th

of the month, where we found the above-mentioned vessel and Sieur de

Poutrincourt, and were greatly delighted to see realized what we had

given up in despair.' Lescarbot, who arrived on board the _Jonas_,

adds the following detail: 'M. de Poutrincourt ordered a tun of wine to

be set upon end, one of those which had been given him for his proper

use, and gave leave to all comers to drink freely as long as it lasted,

so that there were some who made gay dogs of themselves.'

Wine-bibbing, however, was not the chief activity of Port Royal.

Poutrincourt at once set men to work on the land, and while they were

sowing wheat, rye, and hemp he hastened preparations for an autumn

cruise 'along the coast of Florida.' On September 5 all was ready for

this voyage, which was to be Champlain's last opportunity of reaching

the lands beyond Cape Cod. Once more disappointment awaited him. 'It

was decided,' he says, 'to continue the voyage along the coast, which

was not a very well considered conclusion, since we lost much time in

passing over again the discoveries made by Sieur de Monts as far as the

harbour of Mallebarre. It would have been much better, in my opinion,

{48} to cross from where we were directly to Mallebarre, the route

being already known, and then use our time in exploring as far as the

fortieth degree, or still farther south, revisiting upon our homeward

voyage the entire coast at pleasure.'

In the interest of geographical research and French colonization

Champlain was doubtless right. Unfortunately, Poutrincourt wished to

see for himself what De Monts and Champlain had already seen. It was

the more unfortunate that he held this view, as the boats were

victualled for over two months, and much could have been done by taking

a direct course to Cape Cod. Little time, however, was spent at the

Penobscot and Kennebec. Leaving St Croix on September 12, Poutrincourt

reached the Saco on the 21st. Here and at points farther south he

found ripe grapes, together with maize, pumpkins, squashes, and

artichokes. Gloucester Harbour pleased Champlain greatly. 'In this

very pleasant place we saw two hundred savages, and there are here a

large number of very fine walnut trees, cypresses, sassafras, oaks,

ashes and beeches.... There are likewise fine meadows capable of

supporting a large number of cattle.' So much was he charmed with this

harbour and {49} its surroundings that he called it Le Beauport. After

tarrying at Gloucester two or three days Poutrincourt reached Cape Cod

on October 2, and on the 20th he stood off Martha's Vineyard, his

farthest point.

Champlain's chronicle of this voyage contains more detail regarding the

Indians than will be found in any other part of his Acadian narratives.

Chief among Poutrincourt's adventures was an encounter with the natives

of Cape Cod. Unlike the Micmacs, the Armouchiquois were 'not so much

hunters as good fishermen and tillers of the land.' Their numbers also

were greater; in fact, Champlain speaks of seeing five or six hundred

together. At first they did not interfere with Poutrincourt's

movements, even permitting him to roam their land with a body of

arquebusiers. After a fortnight, however, their suspicions began to

become manifest, and on October 15 four hundred savages set upon five

Frenchmen who, contrary to orders, had remained ashore. Four were

killed, and although a rescue party set out at once from the barque,

the natives made their escape.

To pursue them was fruitless, for they are marvellously swift. All

that we could do was to carry away the dead bodies and bury them near a

cross {50} which had been set up the day before, and then to go here

and there to see if we could get sight of any of them. But it was time

wasted, therefore we came back. Three hours afterwards they returned

to us on the sea-shore. We discharged at them several shots from our

little brass cannon, and when they heard the noise they crouched down

on the ground to escape the fire. In mockery of us they pulled down

the cross and disinterred the dead, which displeased us greatly and

caused us to go for them a second time; but they fled, as they had done

before. We set up again the cross and reinterred the dead, whom they

had thrown here and there amid the heath, where they kindled a fire to

burn them. We returned without any result, as we had done before, well

aware that there was scarcely hope of avenging ourselves this time, and

that we should have to renew the undertaking when it should please God.

With a desire for revenge was linked the practical consideration that

slaves would prove useful at Port Royal. A week later the French

returned to the same place, 'resolved to get possession of some savages

and, taking them to our settlement, put them to grinding corn at the

hand-mill, as punishment for the deadly assault which they had

committed on five or six of our company.' As relations were strained,

it became necessary to offer beads {51} and gewgaws, with every show of

good faith. Champlain describes the plan in full. The shallop was to

leave the barque for shore, taking

the most robust and strong men we had, each one having a chain of beads

and a fathom of match on his arm; and there, while pretending to smoke

with them (each one having an end of his match lighted so as not to

excite suspicion, it being customary to have fire at the end of a cord

in order to light the tobacco), coax them with pleasing words so as to

draw them into the shallop; and if they should be unwilling to enter,

each one approaching should choose his man and, putting the beads round

his neck, should at the same time put the rope on him to draw him by

force. But if they should be too boisterous and it should not be

possible to succeed, they should be stabbed, the rope being firmly

held; and if by chance any of them should get away, there should be men

on land to charge upon them with swords. Meanwhile, the little cannon

on our barque was to be kept ready to fire upon their companions in

case they should come to assist them, under cover of which firearms the

shallop could withdraw in security.

This plot, though carefully planned, fell far short of the success

which was anticipated. To catch a redskin with a noose required more

skill than was available. Accordingly, {52} none were taken alive.

Champlain says: 'We retired to our barque after having done all we

could.' Lescarbot adds: 'Six or seven of the savages were hacked and

hewed in pieces, who could not run so lightly in the water as on shore,

and were caught as they came out by those of our men who had landed.'

Having thus taken an eye for an eye, Poutrincourt began his homeward

voyage, and, after three or four escapes from shipwreck, reached Port

Royal on November 14.

Champlain was now about to spend his last winter in Acadia. Mindful of

former experiences, he determined to fight scurvy by encouraging

exercise among the colonists and procuring for them an improved diet.

A third desideratum was cheerfulness. All these purposes he served

through founding the _Ordre de Bon Temps_, which proved to be in every

sense the life of the settlement. Champlain himself briefly describes

the procedure followed, but a far more graphic account is given by

Lescarbot, whose diffuse and lively style is illustrated to perfection

in the following passage:

To keep our table joyous and well provided, an order was established at

the board of the said M. de Poutrincourt, {53} which was called the

Order of Good Cheer, originally proposed by Champlain. To this Order

each man of the said table was appointed Chief Steward in his turn,

which came round once a fortnight. Now, this person had the duty of

taking care that we were all well and honourably provided for. This

was so well carried out that though the epicures of Paris often tell us

that we had no _Rue aux Ours_ over there, as a rule we made as good

cheer as we could have in this same _Rue aux Ours_, and at less cost.

For there was no one who, two days before his turn came, failed to go

hunting or fishing, and to bring back some delicacy in addition to our

ordinary fare. So well was this carried out that never at breakfast

did we lack some savoury meat of flesh or fish, and still less at our

midday or evening meals; for that was our chief banquet, at which the

ruler of the feast or chief butler, whom the savages called Atoctegic,

having had everything prepared by the cook, marched in, napkin on

shoulder, wand of office in hand, and around his neck the collar of the

Order, which was worth more than four crowns; after him all the members

of the Order carrying each a dish. The same was repeated at dessert,

though not always with so much pomp. And at night, before giving

thanks to God, he handed over to his successor in the charge the collar

of the Order, with a cup of wine, and they drank to each other. I have

already said that we had abundance of game, such as ducks, bustards,

grey and white geese, partridges, larks, and other birds; moreover

moose, caribou, beaver, otter, bear, rabbits, wild-cats, racoons, and

other animals such as the savages caught, whereof {54} we made dishes

well worth those of the cook-shop in the _Rue aux Ours_, and far more;

for of all our meats none is so tender as moose-meat (whereof we also

made excellent pasties) and nothing so delicate as beaver's tail. Yea,

sometimes we had half a dozen sturgeon at once, which the savages

brought us, part of which we bought, and allowed them to sell the

remainder publicly and to barter it for bread, of which our men had

abundance. As for the ordinary rations brought from France, they were

distributed equally to great and small alike; and, as we have said, the

wine was served in like manner.

The results of this regime were most gratifying. The deaths from

scurvy dropped to seven, which represented a great proportionate

decrease. At the same time, intercourse with the Indians was put on a

good basis thereby. 'At these proceedings,' says Lescarbot, 'we always

had twenty or thirty savages--men, women, girls, and children--who

looked on at our manner of service. Bread was given them gratis, as

one would do to the poor. But as for the Sagamos Membertou, and other

chiefs who came from time to time, they sat at table eating and

drinking like ourselves. And we were glad to see them, while, on the

contrary, their absence saddened us.'

These citations bring into view the writer who has most copiously

recorded the early {55} annals of Acadia--Marc Lescarbot. He was a

lawyer, and at this date about forty years old. Having come to Port

Royal less as a colonist than as a guest of Poutrincourt, he had no

investment at stake. But contact with America kindled the enthusiasm

of which he had a large supply, and converted him into the historian of

New France. His story of the winter he passed at Port Royal is quite

unlike other narratives of colonial experience at this period.

Champlain was a geographer and preoccupied with exploration. The

Jesuits were missionaries and preoccupied with the conversion of the

savages. Lescarbot had a literary education, which Champlain lacked,

and, unlike the Jesuits, he approached life in America from the

standpoint of a layman. His prolixity often serves as a foil to the

terseness of Champlain, and suggests that he must have been a merciless

talker. Yet, though inclined to be garrulous, he was a good observer

and had many correct ideas--notably the belief that corn, wine, and

cattle are a better foundation for a colony than gold or silver mines.

In temperament he and Champlain were very dissimilar, and evidence of

mutual coolness may be found in their writings. These we shall

consider at a {56} later stage. For the present it is enough to note

that both men sat at Poutrincourt's table and adorned the Order of Good

Cheer.

Meanwhile De Monts was in France, striving with all the foes of the

monopoly. Thanks to the fur trade, his company had paid its way during

the first two years, despite the losses at St Croix. The third season

had been much less prosperous, and at the same moment when the Dutch

and the Basques[3] were breaking the monopoly by defiance, the hatters

of Paris were demanding that it should be withdrawn altogether. To

this alliance of a powerful guild with a majority of the traders, the

company of De Monts succumbed, and the news which Poutrincourt received

when the first ship came in 1607 was that the colony must be abandoned.

As the company itself was about to be dissolved, this consequence {57}

was inevitable. Champlain in his matter-of-fact way states that De

Monts sent letters to Poutrincourt, 'by which he directed him to bring

back his company to France.' Lescarbot is much more outspoken.

Referring to the merits and struggles of De Monts, he exclaims:

Yet I fear that in the end he may be forced to give it all up, to the

great scandal and reproach of the French name, which by such conduct is

made a laughing-stock and a byword among the nations. For as though

their wish was to oppose the conversion of these poor Western peoples,

and the glory of God and of the King, we find a set of men full of

avarice and envy, who would not draw a sword in the service of the

King, nor suffer the slightest ill in the world for the honour of God,

but who yet put obstacles in the way of our drawing any profit from the

province, even in order to furnish what is indispensable to the

foundation of such an enterprise; men who prefer to see the English and

Dutch win possession of it rather than the French, and would fain have

the name of God remain unknown in those quarters. And it is such

godless people who are listened to, who are believed, and who win their

suits. _O tempora, O mores_!

On August 11, 1607, Port Royal was abandoned for the second time, and

its people, sailing by Cape Breton, reached Roscou in Brittany at the

end of September. The {58} subsequent attempt of Poutrincourt and his

family to re-establish the colony at Port Royal belongs to the history

of Acadia rather than to the story of Champlain. But remembering the

spirit in which he and De Monts strove, one feels glad that Lescarbot

spoke his mind regarding the opponents who baffled their sincere and

persistent efforts.

[1] This word has sometimes been traced to the Micmac _akade_, which,

appended to place-names, signifies an abundance of something. More

probably, however, it is a corruption of Arcadia. The Acadia of De

Monts' grant in 1604 extended from the parallel of 40 deg. to that of 46 deg.

north latitude, but in the light of actual occupation the term can

hardly be made to embrace more than the coast from Cape Breton to

Penobscot Bay.

[2] There appears in Verrazano's map of 1529 the word Aranbega, as

attached to a small district on the Atlantic seaboard. Ten years later

Norumbega has become a region which takes in the whole coast from Cape

Breton to Florida. At intervals throughout the sixteenth century

fables were told in Europe of its extraordinary wealth, and it was not

till the time of Champlain that this myth was exposed. Champlain

himself identifies 'the great river of Norumbega' with the Penobscot.

[3] Traders from the extreme south of France, whose chief port was St

Jean de Luz. Though living on the confines of France and Spain, the

Basques were of different racial origin from both Spaniards and French.

While subject politically to France, their remoteness from the main

ports of Normandy and Brittany kept them out of touch with the mariners

of St Malo and Havre, save as collision arose between them in the St

Lawrence. Among the Basques there were always interlopers, even when

St Jean de Luz had been given a share in the monopoly. They are

sometimes called Spaniards, from their close neighbourhood to the

Pyrenees.

{59}

CHAPTER III

CHAMPLAIN AT QUEBEC

From the Island of Orleans to Quebec the distance is a league. I

arrived there on the third of July, when I searched for a place

suitable for our settlement, but I could find none more convenient or

better than the point of Quebec, so called by the savages, which was

covered with nut-trees. I at once employed a portion of our workmen in

cutting them down, that we might construct our habitation there: one I

set to sawing boards, another to making a cellar and digging ditches,

another I sent to Tadoussac with the barque to get supplies. The first

thing we made was the storehouse for keeping under cover our supplies,

which was promptly accomplished through the zeal of all, and my

attention to the work.

Thus opens Champlain's account of the place with which his name is

linked imperishably. He was the founder of Quebec and its preserver.

During his lifetime the results seemed pitifully small, but the task

once undertaken was never abandoned. By steadfastness he prevailed,

and at his death had created a {60} colony which became the New France

of Talon and Frontenac, of La Salle and D'Iberville, of Brebeuf and

Laval. If Venice from amid her lagoons could exclaim, _Esto perpetua_,

Quebec, firm based upon her cliff, can say to the rest of Canada,

_Attendite ad petram undo excisi estis_--'Look unto the rock whence ye

are hewn.'

Champlain's Quebec was very poor in everything but courage. The fact

that it was founded by the men who had just failed in Acadia gives

proof of this virtue. Immediately upon his return from Port Royal to

France, Champlain showed De Monts a map and plan which embodied the

result of his explorations during the last three years. They then took

counsel regarding the future, and with Champlain's encouragement De

Monts 'resolved to continue his noble and meritorious undertaking,

notwithstanding the hardships and labours of the past.' It is

significant that once more Champlain names exploration as the

distinctive purpose of De Monts.

To expect a subsidy from the crown was futile, but Henry felt

compunction for his abrupt recall of the monopoly. The result was that

De Monts, in recognition of his losses, {61} was given a further

monopoly--for the season of 1608 only. At the same time, he was

expressly relieved from the obligation to take out colonists. On this

basis De Monts found partners among the merchants of Rouen, and three

ships were fitted out--one for Acadia, the others for the St Lawrence.

Champlain, as lieutenant, was placed in charge of the Laurentian

expedition. With him went the experienced and invaluable Pontgrave.

Nearly seventy-five years had now passed since Jacques Cartier first

came to anchor at the foot of Cape Diamond. During this period no one

had challenged the title of France to the shores of the St Lawrence; in

fact, a country so desolate made no appeal to the French themselves.

Roberval's tragic experience at Cap Rouge had proved a warning. To the

average Frenchman of the sixteenth century Canada meant what it

afterwards meant to Sully and Voltaire. It was a tract of snow; a land

of barbarians, bears, and beavers.

The development of the fur trade into a staple industry changed this

point of view to a limited extent. The government, as we have seen,

considered it desirable that colonists should be established in New

France {62} at the expense of traders. For the St Lawrence, however,

the first and only fruits of this enlightened policy had been Chauvin's

sixteen derelicts at Tadoussac.

The founding of Quebec represents private enterprise, and not an

expenditure of money by Henry IV for the sake of promoting

colonization. De Monts and Champlain were determined to give France a

foothold in America. The rights upon which the venture of 1608 was

financed did not run beyond the year. Thenceforth trade was to be

free. It follows that De Monts and his partners, in building a station

at Quebec, did not rely for their expenses upon any special favours

from the crown. They placed their reliance upon themselves, feeling

confident of their power to hold a fair share of the trade against all

comers. For Champlain Quebec was a fixed point on the way to the

Orient. For De Monts it was a key to the commerce of the great river.

None of his rivals would begin the season of 1609 with a permanent post

in Canada. Thus part of the anticipated profits for 1608 was invested

to secure an advantage in the approaching competition. The whole

success of the plan depended upon the mutual confidence of De Monts and

Champlain, both {63} of whom unselfishly sought the advancement of

French interests in America--De Monts, the courageous capitalist and

promoter; Champlain, the explorer whose discoveries were sure to

enlarge the area of trading operations.

Pontgrave sailed from Honfleur on April 5, 1608. Champlain followed

eight days later, reaching Tadoussac at the beginning of June. Here

trouble awaited him. The Basque traders, who always defied the

monopoly, had set upon Pontgrave with cannon and muskets, killing one

man and severely wounding two others, besides himself. Going ashore,

Champlain found Pontgrave very ill and the Basques in full possession.

To fight was to run the risk of ruining De Monts' whole enterprise, and

as the Basques were alarmed at what they had done, Darache, their

captain, signed an agreement that he would not molest Pontgrave or do

anything prejudicial to the rights of De Monts. This basis of

compromise makes it clear that Pontgrave was in charge of the season's

trade, while Champlain's personal concern was to found the settlement.

An unpleasant dispute was thus adjusted, but the incident had a still

more unpleasant sequel. Leaving Tadoussac on June 30, {64} Champlain

reached Quebec in four days, and at once began to erect his storehouse.

A few days later he stood in grave peril of his life through conspiracy

among his own men.

The ringleader was a locksmith named Jean Duval, who had been at Port

Royal and narrowly escaped death from the arrows of the Cape Cod

Indians. Whether he framed his plot in collusion with the Basques is

not quite clear, but it seems unlikely that he should have gone so far

as he did without some encouragement. His plan was simply to kill

Champlain and deliver Quebec to the Basques in return for a rich

reward, either promised or expected. Some of the men he had no chance

to corrupt, for they were aboard the barques, guarding stores till a

shelter could be built. Working among the rest, Duval 'suborned four

of the worst characters, as he supposed, telling them a thousand

falsehoods and presenting to them prospects of acquiring riches.' The

evidence subsequently showed that Champlain was either to be strangled

when unarmed, or shot at night as he answered to a false alarm. The

conspirators made a mutual promise not to betray each other, on penalty

that the first who opened his mouth should be poniarded.

[Illustration: CHAMPLAIN'S DRAWING OF THE HABITATION OF QUEBEC

A Storehouse.

B Pigeon-house.

C Building for storing arms and housing workmen.

D Workmen's quarters.

E Sun-dial.

F Building containing forge and artisans' quarters.

G Outside galleries.

H Champlain's private quarters.

I Main door with drawbridge.

L Walk (10 feet wide) all round the building.

M Ditch surrounding the building.

N Platforms for artillery.

O Champlain's garden.

P Kitchen.

Q Terrace in front of the building on the river-bank.

R The St Lawrence river.

From Laverdiere's _Champlain_ in M'Gill University Library]

{65}

Out of this deadly danger Champlain escaped through the confession of a

vacillating spirit named Natel, who regretted his share in the plot,

but, once involved, had fears of the poniard. Finally he confessed to

Testu, the pilot, who immediately informed Champlain. Questioned as to

the motive, Natel replied that 'nothing had impelled them, except that

they had imagined that by giving up the place into the hands of the

Basques or Spaniards they might all become rich, and that they did not

want to go back to France.' Duval, with five others, was then seized

and taken to Tadoussac. Later in the summer Pontgrave brought the

prisoners back to Quebec, where evidence was taken before a

court-martial consisting of Champlain, Pontgrave, a captain, a surgeon,

a first mate, a second mate, and some sailors. The sentence condemned

four to death, of whom three were afterwards sent to France and put at

the discretion of De Monts. Duval was 'strangled and hung at Quebec,

and his head was put on the end of a pike, to be set in the most

conspicuous place on our fort, that he might serve as an example to

those who remained, leading them to deport themselves correctly in

future, in the discharge of their {66} duty; and that the Spaniards and

Basques, of whom there were large numbers in the country, might not

glory in the event.'

It will be seen from the recital of Duval's conspiracy that Champlain

was fortunate to escape the fate of Hudson and La Salle. While this

_cause celebre_ was running its course to a tragic end, the still more

famous _habitation_ grew day by day under the hands of busy workmen.

As fruits of a crowded and exciting summer Champlain could point to a

group of three two-storeyed buildings. 'Each one,' he says, 'was three

fathoms long and two and a half wide. The storehouse was six fathoms

long and three wide, with a fine cellar six feet deep. I had a gallery

made all round our buildings, on the outside, at the second storey,

which proved very convenient. There were also ditches, fifteen feet

wide and six deep. On the outer side of the ditches I constructed

several spurs, which enclosed a part of the dwelling, at the points

where we placed our cannon. Before the habitation there is a place

four fathoms wide and six or seven long, looking out upon the

river-bank. Surrounding the habitation are very good gardens.'

Three dwellings of eighteen by fifteen feet each were a sufficiently

modest starting-point {67} for continental ambitions, even when

supplemented by a storehouse of thirty-six feet by eighteen. In

calling the gardens very good Champlain must have been speaking with

relation to the circumstances, or else they were very small, for there

is abundant witness to the sufferings which Quebec in its first twenty

years might have escaped with the help of really abundant gardens. At

St Croix and Port Royal an attempt had been made to plant seeds, and at

Quebec Champlain doubtless renewed the effort, though with small

practical result. The point is important in its bearing on the nature

of the settlement. Quebec, despite such gardens as surrounded the

_habitation_, was by origin an outpost of the fur trade, with a small,

floating, and precarious population. Louis Hebert, the first real

colonist, did not come till 1617.

Lacking vegetables, Quebec fed itself in part from the river and the

forest. But almost all the food was brought from France. At times

there was game, though less than at Port Royal. The river supplied

eels in abundance, but when badly cooked they caused a fatal dysentery.

The first winter was a repetition of the horrors experienced at St

Croix, with even a higher death-rate. Scurvy began {68} in February

and lasted till the end of April. Of the eighteen whom it attacked,

ten died. Dysentery claimed others. On June 5, 1609, word came that

Pontgrave had arrived at Tadoussac. Champlain's comment is eloquent in

its brevity. 'This intelligence gave me much satisfaction, as we

entertained hopes of assistance from him. Out of the twenty-eight at

first forming our company only eight remained, and half of these were

ailing.'

The monopoly granted to De Monts had now reached its close, and trade

was open to all comers. From 1609 until 1613 this unrestricted

competition ran its course, with the result that a larger market was

created for beaver skins, while nothing was done to build up New France

as a colony. On the whole, the most notable feature of the period is

the establishment of close personal relations between Champlain and the

Indians. It was then that he became the champion of the Algonquins and

Hurons against the Iroquois League or Five Nations, inaugurating a

policy which was destined to have profound consequences.

The considerations which governed Champlain in his dealings with the

Indians lay quite outside the rights and wrongs of their tribal {69}

wars. His business was to explore the continent on behalf of France,

and accordingly he took conditions as he found them. The Indians had

souls to be saved, but that was the business of the missionaries. In

the state of nature all savages were much like wild animals, and

alliance with one nation or another was a question which naturally

settled itself upon the basis of drainage basins. Lands within the

Laurentian watershed were inhabited mainly by Algonquins and Hurons,

whose chief desire in life was to protect themselves from the Iroquois

and avenge past injuries. The Five Nations dwelt far south from the

Sault St Louis and did not send their furs there for the annual barter.

Champlain, ever in quest of a route to the East, needed friends along

the great rivers of the wilderness. The way to secure them, and at the

same time to widen the trading area, was to fight for the savages of

the St Lawrence and the Ottawa against those of the Mohawk.

And Champlain was a good ally, as he proved in the forest wars of 1609

and 1615. With all their shortcomings, the Indians knew how to take

the measure of a man. The difference between a warrior and a trader

was {70} especially clear to their untutored minds, they themselves

being much better fighters than men of commerce. Champlain, like

others, suffered from their caprice, but they respected his bravery and

trusted his word.

In the next chapter we shall attempt to follow Champlain through the

wilderness, accompanied by its inhabitants, who were his guides and

friends. For the present we must pursue the fortunes of Quebec, whose

existence year by year hung upon the risk that court intrigue would

prevail against the determination of two brave men.

From 1608 till 1611 De Monts had two partners, named Collier and

Legendre, both citizens of Rouen. It was with the money of these three

that the post at Quebec had been built and equipped. Champlain was

their lieutenant and Pontgrave the commander of their trading ships.

After four years of experience Collier and Legendre found the results

unsatisfactory. 'They were unwilling,' says Champlain, 'to continue in

the association, as there was no commission forbidding others from

going to the new discoveries and trading with the inhabitants of the

country. Sieur de Monts, seeing this, bargained with them for what

remained at the settlement at Quebec, {71} in consideration of a sum of

money which he gave them for their share.'

Thus the intrepid De Monts became sole proprietor of the _habitation_,

and whatever clustered round it, at the foot of Cape Diamond. But the

property was worthless if the fur trade could not be put on a stable

basis. Quebec during its first three years had been a disappointment

because, contrary to expectation, it gave its founders no advantage

over their competitors which equalled the cost of maintenance. De

Monts was still ready to assist Champlain in his explorations, but his

resources, never great, were steadily diminishing, and while trade

continued unprofitable there were no funds for exploration. Moreover,

the assassination of Henry IV in 1610 weakened De Monts at court.

Whatever Henry's shortcomings as a friend of Huguenots and colonial

pioneers, their chances had been better with him than they now were

with Marie de Medicis.[1] Champlain states that De Monts' engagements

did not permit him to prosecute his interests at court. {72} Probably

his engagements would have been less pressing had he felt more sure of

favour. In any event, he made over to Champlain the whole conduct of

such negotiations as were called for by the unsatisfactory state of

affairs on the St Lawrence.

Champlain went to France. What follows is an illuminating comment upon

the conditions that prevailed under the Bourbon monarchy. As Champlain

saw things, the merchants who clamoured for freedom of trade were

greedy pot-hunters. 'All they want,' he says, 'is that men should

expose themselves to a thousand dangers to discover peoples and

territories, that they themselves may have the profit and others the

hardship. It is not reasonable that one should capture the lamb and

another go off with the fleece. If they had been willing to

participate in our discoveries, use their means and risk their persons,

they would have given evidence of their honour and nobleness, but, on

the contrary, they show clearly that they are impelled by pure malice

that they may enjoy the fruit of our labours equally with ourselves.'

Against folk of this sort Champlain felt he had to protect the national

interests which were so dear to him and De Monts. As things then {73}

went, there was only one way to secure protection. At Fontainebleau a

great noble was not habituated to render help without receiving a

consideration. But protection could be bought by those who were able

to pay for it.

The patron selected by Champlain was the Comte de Soissons, a Bourbon

by lineage and first cousin of Henry IV. His kinship to the boy-king

gave him, among other privileges, the power to exact from the regent

gifts and offices as the price of his support. Possessing this

leverage, Soissons caused himself to be appointed viceroy of Canada,

with a twelve-year monopoly of the fur trade above Quebec. The

monopoly thus re-established, its privileges could be sublet, Soissons

receiving cash for the rights he conceded to the merchants, and they

taking their chance to turn a profit out of the transaction.

Such at least was the theory; but before Soissons could turn his post

into a source of revenue he died. Casting about for a suitable

successor, Champlain selected another prince of the blood--Henri de

Bourbon, Prince de Conde, who duly became viceroy of Canada and holder

of the monopoly in succession to his uncle, the Comte de Soissons.

The part of Champlain in these transactions {74} is very conspicuous,

and justly so. There was no advantage in being viceroy of Canada

unless the post produced a revenue, and before the viceroy could

receive a revenue some one was needed to organize the chief Laurentian

traders into a company strong enough to pay Soissons or Conde a

substantial sum. Champlain was convinced that the stability of trade

(upon which, in turn, exploration depended) could be secured only in

this way. It was he who memorialized President Jeannin[2]; enlisted

the sympathy of the king's almoner, Beaulieu; appealed to the royal

council; proposed the office of viceroy to Soissons; and began the

endeavour to organize a new trading company. Considering that early in

1612 he suffered a serious fall from his horse, this record of activity

is sufficiently creditable for one twelvemonth. Meanwhile the Indians

at Sault St Louis grieved at his absence, and his enemies told them he

was dead.

[Illustration: HENRI DE BOURBON, PRINCE DE CONDE, VICEROY OF NEW

FRANCE. From Laverdiere's _Champlain_ in M'Gill University Library.]

It was not until 1614 that the new programme in its entirety could be

carried out. {75} This time the delay came, not from the court, but

from the merchants. Negotiations were in progress when the ships

sailed for the voyage of 1613, but Champlain could not remain to

conclude them, as he felt that he must keep faith with the Indians.

However, on his return to France that autumn, he resumed the effort,

and by the spring of 1614 the merchants of Rouen, St Malo, and La

Rochelle had been brought to terms among themselves as participants in

a monopoly which was leased from the viceroy. Conde received a

thousand crowns a year, and the new company also agreed to take out six

families of colonists each season. In return it was granted the

monopoly for eleven years. De Monts was a member of the company and

Quebec became its headquarters in Canada. But the moving spirit was

Champlain, who was appointed lieutenant to the viceroy with a salary

and the right to levy for his own purposes four men from each ship

trading in the river.

Once more disappointment followed. Save for De Monts, Champlain's

company was not inspired by Champlain's patriotism. During the first

three years of its existence the obligation to colonize was wilfully

disregarded, while in the fourth year the treatment accorded {76} Louis

Hebert shows that good faith counted for as little with the fur traders

when they acted in association as when they were engaged in cut-throat

competition.

Champlain excepted, Hebert was the most admirable of those who risked

death in the attempt to found a settlement at Quebec. He was not a

Norman peasant, but a Parisian apothecary. We have already seen that

he took part in the Acadian venture of De Monts and Poutrincourt.

After the capture of Port Royal by the English he returned to France

(1613) and reopened his shop. Three years later Champlain was

authorized by the company to offer him and his family favourable terms

if they would emigrate to Quebec, the consideration being two hundred

crowns a year for three years, besides maintenance. On this

understanding Hebert sold his house and shop, bought an equipment for

the new home, and set off with his family to embark at Honfleur. Here

he found that Champlain's shareholders were not prepared to stand by

their agreement. The company first beat him down from two hundred to

one hundred crowns a year, and then stipulated that he, his wife, his

children, and his domestic should serve it for the three years during

which the grant {77} was payable. Even at the end of three years, when

he found himself at liberty to till the soil, he was bound to sell

produce to the company at the prices prevalent in France. The company

was to have his perpetual service as a chemist for nothing, and he must

promise in writing to take no part in the fur trade. Hebert had cut

off his retreat and was forced to accept these hard terms, but it is

not strange that under such conditions colonists should have been few.

Sagard, the Recollet missionary, says the company treated Hebert so

badly because it wished to discourage colonization. What it wanted was

the benefit of the monopoly, without the obligation of finding settlers

who had to be brought over for nothing.

A man of honour like Champlain could not have tricked Hebert into the

bad bargain he made, and their friendship survived the incident. But a

company which transacted its business in this fashion was not likely to

enjoy long life. Its chief asset was Champlain's friendship with the

Indians, especially after his long sojourn with them in 1615 and 1616.

Some years, particularly 1617, showed a large profit, but as time went

on friction arose between the Huguenots of La Rochelle {78} and the

Catholics of Rouen. Then there were interlopers to be prosecuted, and

the quarrels of Conde with the government brought with them trouble to

the merchants whose monopoly depended on his grant. For three years

(1616-19) the viceroy of Canada languished in the Bastille. Shortly

after his release he sold his viceregal rights to the Duke of

Montmorency, Admiral of France. The price was 11,000 crowns.

In 1619 Champlain's company ventured to disagree with its founder, and,

as a consequence, another crisis arose in the affairs of New France.

The cause of dispute was the company's unwillingness to keep its

promises regarding colonization. Champlain protested. The company

replied that Pontgrave should be put in charge at Quebec. Champlain

then said that Pontgrave was his old friend, and he hoped they would

always be friends, but that he was at Quebec as the viceroy's

representative, charged with the duty of defending his interests. The

leader of Champlain's opponents among the shareholders was Boyer, a

trader who had formerly given much trouble to De Monts, but was now one

of the associates. When in the spring of 1619 Champlain attempted to

sail for Quebec as usual, Boyer {79} prevented him from going aboard.

There followed an appeal to the crown, in which Champlain was fully

sustained, and Boyer did penance by offering a public apology before

the Exchange at Rouen.

It was shortly after this incident that Conde abdicated in favour of

Montmorency. The admiral, like his predecessor, accepted a thousand

crowns a year and named Champlain as his lieutenant. He also

instituted an inquiry regarding the alleged neglect of the company to

maintain the post at Quebec. The investigation showed that abundant

cause existed for depriving the company of its monopoly, and in

consequence the grant was transferred, on similar terms, to William and

Emery de Caen. Here complications at once ensued. The De Caens, who

were natives of Rouen, were also Huguenots, a fact that intensified the

ill-feeling which had already arisen on the St Lawrence between

Catholic and heretic. The dispute between the new beneficiaries and

the company founded by Champlain involved no change in the policy of

the crown towards trade and colonization. It was a quarrel of persons,

which eventually reached a settlement in 1622. The De Caens then

compromised by reorganizing the {80} company and giving their

predecessors five-twelfths of the shares.

The recital of these intricate events will at least illustrate the

difficulties which beset Champlain in his endeavour to build up New

France. There were problems enough even had he received loyal support

from the crown and the company. With the English and Dutch in full

rivalry, he saw that an aggressive policy of expansion and settlement

became each year more imperative. Instead, he was called on to

withstand the cabals of self-seeking traders who shirked their

obligations, and to endure the apathy of a government which was

preoccupied with palace intrigues.

At Quebec itself the two bright spots were the convent of the

Recollets[3] and the little farm of Louis Hebert. The Recollets first

came to New France in 1615, and began at once by language study to

prepare for their work among the Montagnais and Hurons. It was a

stipulation of the viceroy that six of them should be supported by the

company, and in the absence of parish priests they ministered to the

ungodly hangers-on of the fur trade as well as to the Indians. Louis

{81} Hebert and his admirable family were very dear to the Fathers. In

1617 all the buildings which had been erected at Quebec lay by the

water's edge. Hebert was the first to make a clearing on the heights.

His first domain covered less than ten acres, but it was well tilled.

He built a stone house, which was thirty-eight feet by nineteen.

Besides making a garden, he planted apple-trees and vines. He also

managed to support some cattle. When one considers what all this means

in terms of food and comfort, it may be guessed that the fur traders,

wintering down below on salt pork and smoked eels, must have felt much

respect for the farmer in his stone mansion on the cliff.

We have from Champlain's own lips a valuable statement as to the

condition of things at Quebec in 1627, the year when Louis Hebert died.

'We were in all,' he says, 'sixty-five souls, including men, women, and

children.' Of the sixty-five only eighteen were adult males fit for

hard work, and this small number must be reduced to two or three if we

include only the tillers of the soil. Besides these, a few adventurous

spirits were away in the woods with the Indians, learning their

language and endeavouring to exploit the beaver trade; but twenty years

after the founding of Quebec the {82} French in Canada, all told,

numbered less than one hundred.

Contrast with this the state of Virginia fifteen years after the

settlement of Jamestown. 'By 1622,' says John Fiske, 'the population

of Virginia was at least 4000, the tobacco fields were flourishing and

lucrative, durable houses had been built and made comfortable with

furniture brought from England, and the old squalor was everywhere

giving way to thrift. The area of colonization was pushed up the James

River as far as Richmond.'

This contrast is not to be interpreted to the personal disadvantage of

Champlain. The slow growth and poverty of Quebec were due to no fault

of his. It is rather the measure of his greatness that he was

undaunted by disappointment and unembittered by the pettiness of spirit

which met him at every turn. A memorial which he presented in 1618 to

the Chamber of Commerce at Paris discloses his dream of what might be:

a city at Quebec named Ludovica, a city equal in size to St Denis and

filled with noble buildings grouped round the Church of the Redeemer.

Tributary to this capital was a vast region watered by the St Lawrence

and abounding 'in rolling plains, {83} beautiful forests, and rivers

full of fish.' From Ludovica the heathen were to be converted and a

passage discovered to the East. So important a trade route would be

developed, that from the tolls alone there would be revenue to

construct great public works. Rich mines and fat cornfields fill the

background.

Such was the Quebec of Champlain's vision--if only France would see it

so! But in the Quebec of reality a few survivors saw the hunger of

winter yield to the starvation of spring. They lived on eels and roots

till June should bring the ships and food from home.

[1] The second and surviving wife of Henry IV--an Italian by birth and

in close sympathy with Spain. As regent for her son, Louis XIII, she

did much to reverse the policy of Henry IV, both foreign and domestic.

[2] One of the chief advisers of Marie de Medicis. In the early part

of his career he was President of the Parlement of Dijon and an

important member of the extreme Catholic party. After the retirement

of the Duc de Sully (1611) he was placed in charge of the finances of

France.

[3] The Recollets were a branch of the Franciscan order, noted for the

austerity of their rule.

{84}

CHAPTER IV

CHAMPLAIN IN THE WILDERNESS

Champlain's journeyings with the Indians were the holiday of his life,

for at no other time was he so free to follow the bent of his genius.

First among the incentives which drew him to the wilderness was his

ambition to discover the pathway to China. In 1608 the St Lawrence had

not been explored beyond the Lachine Rapids, nor the Richelieu beyond

Chambly--while the Ottawa was known only by report. Beyond Lake St

Louis stretched a mysterious world, through the midst of which flowed

the Great River. For an explorer and a patriot the opportunity was

priceless. The acquisition of vast territory for the French crown, the

enlargement of the trade zone, the discovery of a route to Cathay, the

prospect of Arcadian joys and exciting adventures--beside such

promptings hardship and danger became negligible. And when exploring

the wilderness Champlain was in full command. {85} Off the coast of

Norumbega his wishes, as geographer, had been subject to the special

projects of De Monts and Poutrincourt. At Fontainebleau he waited for

weeks and months in the antechambers of prelates or nobles. But when

conducting an expedition through the forest he was lord and master, a

chieftain from whose arquebus flew winged death.

The story of Champlain's expeditions along these great secluded

waterways, and across the portages of the forest, makes the most

agreeable page of his life both for writer and reader, since it is here

that he himself is most clearly in the foreground. At no point can his

narrative be thought dull, compact as it is and always in touch with

energetic action. But the details of fur trading at Tadoussac and the

Sault St Louis, or even of voyaging along the Acadian seaboard, are far

less absorbing than the tale of the canoe and the war party. Amid the

depths of the interior Champlain reaped his richest experiences as an

explorer. With the Indians for his allies and enemies he reached his

fullest stature as a leader.

It is not important to dwell upon the minor excursions which Champlain

made from his headquarters at Quebec into the country of the {86}

Montagnais.[1] He saw little of the rocky northland which, with its

myriad lakes and splendid streams, sweeps from the St Lawrence to

Hudson Bay. Southward and westward lay his course to the cantons of

the Iroquois south of Lake Ontario and the villages of the Hurons north

of Lake Simcoe. Above all, the expeditions of 1609, 1613, and 1615 are

the central episodes of his work as an explorer, each marked by a

distinct motive and abounding with adventures. In 1609 he discovered

Lake Champlain and fought his first battle with the Iroquois. In 1613

he was decoyed by a lying guide into a fruitless search for the

North-West Passage by the route of the Ottawa. In 1615 he discovered

Lake Huron, traversed what is now Central Ontario, and attacked the

Iroquois in the heart of their own country. These three journeys make

the sum of Champlain's achievements as a pioneer of the interior. For

all three, likewise, we have his own story, upon which all other

versions are based and from which they draw their most striking details.

[Illustration: THE DISCOVERY OF LAKE CHAMPLAIN, 1609. From a drawing

by J. D. Kelly in the Chateau de Ramezay, Montreal.]

The discovery of Lake Champlain had its root in Champlain's promise to

the Algonquins {87} that he would aid them in their strife with the

Iroquois. In turn this promise was based upon the policy of

conciliating those savage tribes from whom the French derived their

supply of furs, and with whom throughout the St Lawrence basin they

most constantly came in contact.

It was the year which followed the founding of Quebec. Of the

twenty-eight who entered upon the first winter eight only had survived,

and half of these were ailing. On June 5 relief came in the person of

Des Marais, who announced that his father-in-law, Pontgrave, was

already at Tadoussac. Champlain at once set out to meet him, and it

was arranged that Pontgrave should take charge of the settlement for

the coming year, while Champlain fulfilled his promise to aid the

Algonquins in their war with the Iroquois. The full plan required that

Pontgrave should spend the winter in Canada, while Champlain, after his

summer campaign, was to return to France with a report of his

explorations.

The Indians had stated that the route to the land of the Iroquois was

easy, and Champlain's original design was to proceed in a shallop

capable of carrying twenty Frenchmen. Early in July he reached the

mouth {88} of the Richelieu, but on arriving at Chambly he found it

quite impossible to pass the falls with his shallop. Either the

expedition must be abandoned or the plan be radically changed, with the

consequence of incurring much greater risks. To advance meant sending

back the shallop with its crew and stores, embarking in a canoe, and

trusting wholly to the good faith of the savages. The decision was not

easy. 'I was much troubled,' says Champlain. 'And it gave me especial

dissatisfaction to go back without seeing a very large lake, filled

with handsome islands and with large tracts of fine land bordering on

the lake, where their enemies lived, according to their

representations. After duly thinking over the matter I determined to

go and fulfil my promise and carry out my desire. Accordingly I

embarked with the savages in their canoes, taking with me two men, who

went cheerfully. After making known my plan to Des Marais and others

in the shallop, I requested the former to return to our settlement with

the rest of our company, giving them the assurance that in a short

time, by God's grace, I would return to them.'

Having convinced himself, Champlain was next forced to convince the

Indians, whose {89} first impulse was to abandon the campaign when they

found that they would be accompanied by only three of the Frenchmen.

Champlain's firmness, however, communicated itself to them, and on July

12 they set out from Chambly Basin to commence the portage. At the top

of the rapid a review of forces was held, and it proved that the

Indians numbered sixty men, equipped with twenty-four canoes.

Advancing through a beautifully wooded country, the little war-party

encamped at a point not far below the outlet of Lake Champlain, taking

the precaution to protect themselves by a rough fortification of tree

trunks.

At this point Champlain introduces a graphic statement regarding the

methods which the Indians employ to guard against surprise. On three

sides they protect the camp by fallen trees, leaving the river-bank

without a barricade in order that they may take quickly to their

canoes. Then, as soon as the camp has been fortified, they send out

nine picked men in three canoes to reconnoitre for a distance of two or

three leagues. But before nightfall these scouts return, and then all

lie down to sleep, without leaving any pickets or sentries on duty.

When {90} Champlain remonstrated with them for such gross carelessness,

they replied that they worked hard enough during the daytime. The

normal formation of an Indian war-party embraced three divisions--the

scouts, the main body, and the hunters, the last always remaining in

the rear and chasing their game in a direction from which they did not

anticipate the appearance of the enemy. Having arrived at a distance

of two or three days' march from their enemies, they united in a single

party (save for the scouts) and advanced stealthily by night. At this

juncture their food became baked Indian meal soaked in water. They hid

by day and made no fire, save that required to smoke their tobacco.

Thus does Champlain describe the savage as he is about to fall upon his

foe. He gives special prominence to the soothsayer, who on the eve of

battle enters into elaborate intercourse with the devil. Inside a

wooden hut the necromancer lies prostrate on the ground, motionless.

Then he springs to his feet and begins to torment himself,

counterfeiting strange tones to represent the speech of the devil, and

carrying on violent antics which leave him in a stream of perspiration.

Outside the hut the Indians sit round on their {91} haunches like apes

and fancy that they can see fire proceeding from the roof, although the

devil appears to the soothsayer in the form of a stone. Finally, the

chiefs, when they have by these means learned that they will meet their

enemy and kill a sufficient number, arrange the order of battle.

Sticks a foot long are taken, one for each warrior, and these are laid

out on a level place five or six feet square. The leader then explains

the order of battle, after which the warriors substitute themselves for

the sticks and go through the manoeuvres till they can do them without

confusion.

From this description of tactics we pass speedily to a story of real

war. Reaching Lake Champlain, the party skirted the western shore,

with fine views of the Green Mountains, on the summit of which

Champlain mistook white limestone for snow. On July 29, at Crown

Point, the Iroquois were encountered at about ten o'clock in the

evening. Thus the first real battle of French and Indians took place

near that remarkable spot where Lake Champlain and Lake George draw

close together--the Ticonderoga of Howe, the Carillon of Montcalm.

The Algonquins were in good courage, for, {92} besides the muskets of

the three Frenchmen, they were inspired by a dream of Champlain that he

had seen the Iroquois drowning in a lake. As soon as the enemies saw

each other, both began to utter loud cries and make ready their

weapons. The Algonquins kept out on the water; the Iroquois went

ashore and built a barricade. When the Algonquins had made ready for

battle

they dispatched two canoes to the enemy to inquire if they wished to

fight, to which the latter replied that they wished nothing else; but

they said that at present there was not much light, and that it would

be necessary to wait for day so as to be able to recognize each other;

and that as soon as the sun rose they would offer us battle. This was

agreed to by our side. Meanwhile the entire night was spent in dancing

and singing, on both sides, with endless insults and other talk; as how

little courage we had, how feeble a resistance we should make against

their arms, and that when day came we should realize it to our ruin.

Ours also were not slow in retorting, telling them that they would see

such execution of arms as never before, together with an abundance of

such talk as is not unusual in the siege of a town.

Care had been taken by the Algonquins that the presence of Champlain

and his two companions should come to the Iroquois as a complete

surprise. Each of the Frenchmen {93} was in a separate canoe, convoyed

by the Montagnais. At daylight each put on light armour and, armed

with an arquebus, went ashore. Champlain was near enough the barricade

to see nearly two hundred Iroquois, 'stout and rugged in appearance.

They came at a slow pace towards us, with a dignity and assurance which

greatly impressed me, having three chiefs at their head.' Champlain,

when urged by his allies to make sure of killing the three chiefs,

replied that he would do his best, and that in any case he would show

them his courage and goodwill.

Then began the fight, which must be described in Champlain's own words,

for in all his writings there is no more famous passage.

As soon as we had landed, they began to run for some two hundred paces

towards their enemies, who stood firmly, not having as yet noticed my

companions, who went into the woods with some savages. Our men began

to call me with loud cries; and in order to give me a passage way they

opened in two parts and put me at their head, where I marched some

twenty paces in advance of the rest, until I was within about twenty

paces of the enemy, who at once noticed me and, halting, gazed at me,

as I did also at them. When I saw them make a move to fire at us, I

rested my musket against my cheek and aimed directly at one of the

three chiefs. With the same shot two fell to {94} the ground; and one

of their men was so wounded that he died some time after. I had loaded

my musket with four balls. When our side saw this shot so favourable

for them, they began to raise such loud cries that one could not have

heard it thunder. Meanwhile the arrows flew on both sides. The

Iroquois were greatly astonished that two men had been so quickly

killed, although they were equipped with armour woven from cotton

thread and with wood which was proof against their arrows. This caused

great alarm among them. As I was loading again, one of my companions

fired a shot from the woods, which astonished them anew to such a

degree that, seeing their chiefs dead, they lost courage and took to

flight, abandoning their camp and fort and fleeing into the woods,

whither I pursued them, killing still more of them. Our savages also

killed several of them and took ten or twelve prisoners. The remainder

escaped with the wounded. Fifteen or sixteen were wounded on our side

with arrow shots, but they were soon healed.

The spoils of victory included a large quantity of Indian corn,

together with a certain amount of meal, and also some of the native

armour which the Iroquois had thrown away in order to effect their

escape. Then followed a feast and the torture of one of the prisoners,

whose sufferings were mercifully concluded by a ball from Champlain's

musket, delivered in such wise that the unfortunate did not see {95}

the shot. Like Montcalm and other French commanders of a later date,

Champlain found it impossible to curb wholly the passions of his savage

allies. In this case his remonstrances had the effect of gaining for

the victim a _coup de grace_--which may be taken as a measure of

Champlain's prestige. The atrocious savagery practised before and

after death is described in full detail. Champlain concludes the lurid

picture as follows: 'This is the manner in which these people behave

towards those whom they capture in war, for whom it would be better to

die fighting or to kill themselves on the spur of the moment, as many

do rather than fall into the hands of their enemies.'

Beyond the point at which this battle was fought Champlain did not go.

At Ticonderoga he was within eighty miles of the site of Albany. Had

he continued, he would have reached the Hudson from the north in the

same summer the _Half Moon_[2] entered it from the mouth. But the

Algonquins were content with their victory, though they candidly {96}

stated that there was an easy route from the south end of Lake George

to 'a river flowing into the sea on the Norumbega coast near that of

Florida.' The return to Quebec and Tadoussac was attended by no

incident of moment. The Montagnais, on parting with Champlain at

Tadoussac, generously gave him the head of an Iroquois and a pair of

arms, with the request that they be carried to the king of France. The

Algonquins had already taken their departure at Chambly, where, says

Champlain, 'we separated with loud protestations of mutual friendship.

They asked me whether I would not like to go into their country to

assist them with continued fraternal relations; and I promised that I

would do so.' As a contribution to geographical knowledge the

expedition of 1609 disclosed the existence of a noble lake, to which

Champlain fitly gave his own name. Its dimensions he considerably

over-estimated, but in all essential respects its situation was

correctly described, while his comments on the flora and fauna are very

interesting. The garpike as he saw it, with amplifications from the

Indians as they had seen it, gave him the subject for a good fish

story. He was deeply impressed, too, by the richness of the

vegetation. His attack on the {97} Iroquois was not soon forgotten by

that relentless foe, and prepared a store of trouble for the colony he

founded. But the future was closed to his view, and for the moment his

was the glorious experience of being the first to gaze with European

eyes upon a lake fairer and grander than his own France could show.

Four years elapsed before Champlain was enabled to plunge once more

into the depths of the forest--this time only to meet with the severest

disappointment of his life. Much has been said already regarding his

ambition to discover a short route to Cathay. This was the great prize

for which he would have sacrificed everything save loyalty to the king

and duty to the church. For a moment he seemed on the point of gaining

it. Then the truth was brutally disclosed, and he found that he had

been wilfully deceived by an impostor.

It was a feature of Champlain's policy that from time to time French

youths should spend the winter with the Indians--hunting with them,

living in their settlements, exploring their country, and learning

their language. Of Frenchmen thus trained to woodcraft during

Champlain's lifetime the most notable were Etienne Brule, Nicolas

Vignau, Nicolas {98} Marsolet, and Jean Nicolet. Unfortunately the

three first did not leave an unclouded record. Brule, after becoming a

most accomplished guide, turned traitor and aided the English in 1629.

Champlain accuses Marsolet of a like disloyalty.[3] Vignau, with more

imagination, stands on the roll of fame as a frank impostor.

Champlain, as we have seen, spent the whole of 1612 in France, and it

was at this time that Vignau appeared in Paris with a tale which could

not but kindle excitement in the heart of an explorer. The basis of

fact was that Vignau had undoubtedly passed the preceding winter with

the Algonquins on the Ottawa. The fable which was built upon this fact

can best be told in Champlain's own words.

He reported to me, on his return to Paris in 1612, that he had seen the

North Sea; that the river of the Algonquins [the Ottawa] came from a

lake which emptied into it; and that in seventeen days one could go

from the Falls of St Louis to this sea and back again; that he had seen

the wreck and debris of an English ship that had been wrecked, on board

of which were eighty men who had escaped to the shore, and whom the

savages killed because the English endeavoured to take from them by

force their Indian corn and other necessaries of life; and that he had

seen {99} the scalps which these savages had flayed off, according to

their custom, which they would show me, and that they would likewise

give me an English boy whom they had kept for me. This intelligence

greatly pleased me, for I thought that I had almost found that for

which I had for a long time been searching.

Champlain makes it clear that he did not credit Vignau's tale with the

simple credulity of a man who has never been to sea. He caused Vignau

to swear to its truth at La Rochelle before two notaries. He

stipulated that Vignau should go with him over the whole route.

Finally, as they were on the point of sailing together for Canada in

the spring of 1613, he once more adjured Vignau in the presence of

distinguished witnesses, saying 'that if what he had previously said

was not true, he must not give me the trouble to undertake the journey,

which involved many dangers. Again he affirmed all that he had said,

on peril of his life.'

After taking these multiplied precautions against deceit, Champlain

left the Sault St Louis on May 29, 1613, attended by four Frenchmen and

one Indian, with Vignau for guide. Ascending the Ottawa, they

encountered their first difficulties at the Long Sault, {100} where

Dollard forty-seven years later was to lose his life so gloriously.

Here the passage of the rapids was both fatiguing and dangerous.

Prevented by the density of the wood from making a portage, they were

forced to drag their canoes through the water. In one of the eddies

Champlain nearly lost his life, and his hand was severely hurt by a

sudden jerk of the rope. Having mounted the rapids, he met with no

very trying obstacle until he had gone some distance past the Chaudiere

Falls. His reference to the course of the Gatineau makes no sense, and

Laverdiere has had recourse to the not improbable conjecture that the

printer dropped out a whole line at this point. Champlain also

over-estimates considerably the height of the Rideau Falls and is not

very exact in his calculation of latitude.

The hardships of this journey were greatly and unnecessarily increased

by Vignau, whose only hope was to discourage his leader. In the end it

proved that 'our liar' (as Champlain repeatedly calls him) had hoped to

secure a reward for his alleged discovery, believing that no one would

follow him long, even if an attempt were made to confirm the accuracy

of his report. But Champlain, undeterred by portages and mosquitoes,

kept on. Some {101} savages who joined him said that Vignau was a

liar, and on their advice Champlain left the Ottawa a short distance

above the mouth of the Madawaska. Holding westward at some distance

from the south shore, he advanced past Muskrat Lake, and after a hard

march came out again on the Ottawa at Lake Allumette.

This was the end of Champlain's route in 1613. From the Algonquins on

Allumette Island he learned that Vignau had wintered with them at the

time he swore he was discovering salt seas. Finally, the impostor

confessed his fraud and, falling on his knees, asked for mercy. The

Indians would gladly have killed him outright, but Champlain spared his

life, though how deeply he was moved can be seen from these words:

'Overcome with wrath I had him removed, being unable to endure him any

longer in my presence.' After his confession there was nothing for it

but to return by the same route. An astrolabe found some years ago

near Muskrat Lake may have been dropped from Champlain's luggage on the

journey westward, though he does not mention the loss.

Apart from disclosing the course of the Ottawa, the _Voyage_ of 1613 is

chiefly notable {102} for its account of Indian customs--for example,

the mode of sepulture, the _tabagie_ or feast, and the superstition

which leads the Algonquins to throw pieces of tobacco into the cauldron

of the Chaudiere Falls as a means of ensuring protection against their

enemies. Of the feast given him by Tessouaet, an Algonquin chief,

Champlain says:

The next day all the guests came, each with his porringer and wooden

spoon. They seated themselves without order or ceremony on the ground

in the cabin of Tessouaet, who distributed to them a kind of broth made

of maize crushed between two stones, together with meat and fish which

was cut into little pieces, the whole being boiled together without

salt. They also had meat roasted on the coals and fish boiled apart,

which he also distributed. In respect to myself, as I did not wish any

of their chowder, which they prepare in a very dirty manner, I asked

them for some fish and meat, that I might prepare it my own way, which

they gave me. For drink we had fine, clear water. Tessouaet, who gave

the _tabagie_, entertained us without eating himself, according to

their custom.

The _tabagie_ being over, the young men, who are not present at the

harangues and councils, and who during the _tabagie_ remain at the door

of the cabins, withdrew, when all who remained began to fill their

pipes, one and another offering me one. We then spent a full half-hour

in this occupation, not a word being spoken, as is their custom.

{103}

But for the dexterous arrangement by which Champlain managed to cook

his own food, the _tabagie_ would have been more dangerous to health

than the portage. In any case, it was an ordeal that could not be

avoided, for feasting meant friendly intercourse, and only through

friendly intercourse could Champlain gain knowledge of that vast

wilderness which he must pierce before reaching his long-sought goal,

the sea beyond which lay China.

As for Vignau, his punishment was to make full confession before all

the French who had assembled at the Sault St Louis to traffic with the

Indians. When Champlain reached this rendezvous on June 17, he

informed the traders of all that had happened, including

the malice of my liar, at which they were greatly amazed. I then

begged them to assemble in order that in their presence, and that of

the savages and his companions, he might make declaration of his

maliciousness; which they gladly did. Being thus assembled, they

summoned him and asked him why he had not shown me the sea of the

north, as he had promised me at his departure. He replied that he had

promised something impossible for him, since he had never seen the sea,

and that the desire of making the journey had led him to say what he

did, also that he did not suppose that I would undertake it; and he

begged them to be pleased to pardon him, as he also {104} begged me

again, confessing that he had greatly offended, and if I would leave

him in the country he would by his efforts repair the offence and see

this sea, and bring back trustworthy intelligence concerning it the

following year; and in view of certain considerations I pardoned him on

this condition.

Vignau's public confession was followed by the annual barter with the

Indians, after which Champlain returned to France.

We come now to the _Voyage_ of 1615, which describes Champlain's

longest and most daring journey through the forest--an expedition that

occupied the whole period from July 9, 1615, to the last days of June

1616. Thus for the first time he passed a winter with the Indians,

enlarging greatly thereby his knowledge of their customs and character.

The central incident of the expedition was an attack made by the Hurons

and their allies upon the stronghold of the Onondagas in the heart of

the Iroquois country. But while this war-party furnishes the chief

adventure, there is no page of Champlain's narrative which lacks its

tale of the marvellous. As a story of life in the woods, the _Voyage_

of 1615 stands first among all Champlain's writings.

As in 1609, there was a mutuality of interest between Champlain and the

Indians who {105} traded at the Sault. His desire was to explore and

theirs was to fight. By compromise they disclosed to him the recesses

of their country and he aided them against the Iroquois. In 1615 the

Hurons not only reminded him of his repeated promises to aid them, but

stated flatly that without such aid they could no longer attend the

annual market, as their enemies were making the route too unsafe. On

their side they promised a war-party of more than two thousand men. A

further proof of friendship was afforded by their willingness to

receive a missionary in their midst--the Recollet, Father Joseph Le

Caron.

Champlain's line of exploration in 1615-16 took the following course.

He first ascended the Ottawa to the mouth of the Mattawa. Thence

journeying overland by ponds and portages he entered Lake Nipissing,

which he skirted to the outlet. French River next took him to Georgian

Bay, or, as he calls it for geographical definition, the Lake of the

Attigouautan [Hurons]. His own name for this vast inland sea is the

_Mer Douce_. That he did not explore it with any degree of

thoroughness is evident from the terms of his narrative as well as from

his statement that its length, east and {106} west, is four hundred

leagues. What he saw of Lake Huron was really the east shore of

Georgian Bay, from the mouth of French River to the bottom of

Matchedash Bay. Here he entered the country of the Hurons, which

pleased him greatly in comparison with the tract before traversed. 'It

was very fine, the largest part being cleared, and many hills and

several rivers rendering the region agreeable. I went to see their

Indian corn, which was at that time [early in August] far advanced for

the season.'

[Illustration: CHAMPLAIN'S ROUTE, 1615-16]

Champlain's route through the district between Carmaron and Cahaigue

can best be followed in Father Jones's map of Huronia.[4] The points

which Champlain names are there indicated, in each case with as careful

identification of the locality as we are ever likely to get. For those

who are not specialists in the topography of Huronia it may suffice

that Champlain left Matchedash Bay not far from Penetanguishene, and

thence went to Carmaron at the very north of the peninsula. Returning,

he passed through some of the largest of the Huron villages, and after

sixteen days came out at Cahaigue, which was situated {107} close to

Lake Simcoe and almost on the site of the modern Hawkestone. It was

here that most of the Huron warriors assembled for the great expedition

against the Onondagas. Setting out on their march, they first went a

little to the northward, where they were joined on the shores of Lake

Couchiching by another contingent. The party thus finally made up,

Champlain's line of advance first took him to Sturgeon Lake.

Afterwards it pursued that important waterway which is represented by

the Otonabee river, Rice Lake, and the river Trent. Hence the warriors

entered Lake Ontario by the Bay of Quinte.

This country between Lake Simcoe and the Bay of Quinte seems to have

pleased Champlain greatly. He saw it in September, when the

temperature was agreeable and when the vegetation of the forest could

be enjoyed without the torment inflicted by mosquitoes. 'It is

certain,' he says, 'that all this region is very fine and pleasant.

Along the banks it seems as if the trees had been set out for ornament

in most places, and that all these tracts were in former times

inhabited by savages who were subsequently compelled to abandon them

from fear of their enemies. Vines and nut trees are here very

numerous. {108} Grapes mature, yet there is always a very pungent

tartness, which is felt remaining in the throat when one eats them in

large quantities, arising from defect of cultivation. These localities

are very pleasant when cleared up.'

From the Bay of Quinte the war-party skirted the east shore of Lake

Ontario, crossing the head of the St Lawrence, and thence following the

southern shore about fourteen leagues. At this point the Indians

concealed all their canoes and struck into the woods towards Lake

Oneida. Though made up chiefly of Hurons, the little army embraced

various allies, including a band of Algonquins. Whether from

over-confidence at having Champlain among them or from their natural

lack of discipline, the allies managed their attack very badly. On a

pond a few miles south of Oneida Lake lay the objective point of the

expedition--a palisaded stronghold of the Onondagas. At a short

distance from this fort eleven of the enemy were surprised and taken

prisoners. What followed was much less fortunate. Champlain does not

state the number of Frenchmen present, but as his drawing shows eleven

musketeers, we may infer that his own followers were distinctly {109}

more numerous than at the battle on Lake Champlain.

The height of the palisade was thirty feet, and a system of gutters

supplied abundant water for use in extinguishing fire. Champlain's

plan of attack was to employ a _cavalier_, or protected scaffolding,

which should overtop the palisade and could be brought close against

it. From the top of this framework four or five musketeers were to

deliver a fusillade against the Iroquois within the fort, while the

Hurons kindled a fire at the foot of the palisade. Champlain's drawing

shows the rest of the musketeers engaged in creating a diversion at

other points.

But everything miscarried. Though the _cavalier_ was constructed, the

allies threw aside the wooden shields which Champlain had caused to be

made as a defence against the arrows of the Iroquois while the fire was

being kindled. Only a small supply of wood had been collected, and

even this was so placed that the flames blew away from the palisade

instead of towards it. On the failure of this attempt to fire the fort

all semblance of discipline was thrown to the winds. 'There also rose

such disorder among them,' says Champlain, 'that one could not

understand {110} another, which greatly troubled me. In vain did I

shout in their ears and remonstrate to my utmost with them as to the

danger to which they exposed themselves by their bad behaviour, but on

account of the great noise they made they heard nothing. Seeing that

shouting would only burst my head and that my remonstrances were

useless for putting a stop to the disorder, I did nothing more, but

determined, together with my men, to do what we could and fire upon

such as we could see.' The fight itself lasted only three hours, and

the casualties of the attacking party were inconsiderable, since but

two of their chiefs and fifteen warriors were wounded. In addition to

their repulse, the Hurons suffered a severe disappointment through the

failure to join them of five hundred allies who had given their solemn

promise. Although Champlain had received two severe wounds, one in the

leg and another in the knee, he urged a second and more concerted

attack. But in vain. The most the Hurons would promise was to wait

four or five days for the expected reinforcements. At the end of this

time there was no sign of the five hundred, and the return began. 'The

only good point,' says Champlain, 'that I have seen in their mode of

{111} warfare is that they make their retreat very securely, placing

all the wounded and aged in their centre, being well armed on the wings

and in the rear, and continuing this order without interruption until

they reach a place of security.'

Champlain himself suffered tortures during the retreat, partly from his

wounds, but even more from the mode of transportation. The Indian

method of removing the wounded was first to bind and pinion them 'in

such a manner that it is as impossible for them to move as for an

infant in its swaddling-clothes.' They were then carried in a kind of

basket, 'crowded up in a heap.' Doubtless as a mark of distinction,

Champlain was carried separately on the back of a savage. His wound

was so severe that when the retreat began he could not stand. But the

transportation proved worse than the wound. 'I never found myself in

such a _gehenna_ as during this time, for the pain which I suffered in

consequence of the wound in my knee was nothing in comparison with that

which I endured while I was carried bound and pinioned on the back of

one of our savages. So that I lost my patience, and as soon as I could

sustain myself got out of this prison, or rather _gehenna_.'

{112}

The enemy made no pursuit, but forced marches were kept up for

twenty-five or thirty leagues. The weather now grew cold, as it was

past the middle of autumn. The fight at the fort of the Onondagas had

taken place on October 10, and eight days later there was a snowstorm,

with hail and a strong wind. But, apart from extreme discomfort, the

retreat was successfully accomplished, and on the shore of Lake Ontario

they found the canoes intact.

It had been Champlain's purpose to spend the winter at Quebec, and when

the Hurons were about to leave the east end of Lake Ontario for their

own country he asked them for a canoe and an escort. Four Indians

volunteered for this service, but no canoe could be had, and in

consequence Champlain was forced reluctantly to accompany the Hurons.

With his usual patience he accepted the inevitable, which in this case

was only unpleasant because he was ill prepared for spending a winter

among the Indians. After a few days he perceived that their plan was

to keep him and his companions, partly as security for themselves and

partly that he might assist at their councils in planning better

safeguards against their enemies.

{113}

This enforced residence of Champlain among the Hurons during the winter

of 1615-16 has given us an excellent description of Indian customs. It

was also the means of composing a dangerous quarrel between the Hurons

and the Algonquins. Once committed to spending the winter among the

Indians, Champlain planned to make Huronia a point of departure for

still further explorations to the westward. Early in 1616 there seemed

to be a favourable opportunity to push forward in the direction of Lake

Superior. Then came this wretched brawl of Hurons and Algonquins,

which threatened to beget bitter hatred and war among tribes which

hitherto had both been friendly to the French. Accepting his duty,

Champlain gave up his journey to the far west and threw himself into

the task of restoring peace. But the measure of his disappointment is

found in these words:

If ever there was one greatly disheartened, it was myself, since I had

been waiting to see this year what during many preceding ones I had

been seeking for with great toil and effort, through so many fatigues

and risks of my life. But realizing that I could not help the matter,

and that everything depended on the will of God, I comforted myself,

resolving to see it in a short time. I had such sure {114} information

that I could not doubt the report of these people, who go to traffic

with others dwelling in those northern regions, a great part of whom

live in a place very abundant in the chase and where there are great

numbers of large animals, the skins of several of which I saw, and

which I concluded were buffaloes from their representation of their

form. Fishing is also very abundant there. This journey requires

forty days as well in returning as in going.

Thus Champlain almost had a chance to see the bison and the great

plains of the West. As it was, he did his immediate duty and restored

the peace of Huron and Algonquin. In partial compensation for the

alluring journey he relinquished, he had a better opportunity to study

the Hurons in their settlements and to investigate their relations with

their neighbours--the Tobacco Nation, the Neutral Nation, _les Cheveux

Releves_, and the Race of Fire. Hence the _Voyage_ of 1615 not only

describes the physical aspects of Huronia, but contains intimate

details regarding the life of its people--their wigwams, their food,

their manner of cooking, their dress, their decorations, their marriage

customs, their medicine-men, their burials, their assemblies, their

agriculture, their amusements, and their mode of fishing. It is

Champlain's most {115} ambitious piece of description, far less

detailed than the subsequent narratives of the Jesuits, but in

comparison with them gaining impact from being less diffuse.

It was on May 20, 1616, that Champlain left the Huron country, never

again to journey thither or to explore the recesses of the forest.

Forty days later he reached the Sault St Louis, and saw once more his

old friend Pontgrave. Thenceforward his life belongs not to the

wilderness, but to Quebec.

[1] An Algonquin tribe dwelling to the north of the St Lawrence, for

the most part between the Saguenay and the St Maurice.

[2] Henry Hudson, an English mariner with a Dutch crew, entered the

mouth of the Hudson in a boat called the _Half Moon_ on September 4,

1609. As named by him, the river was called the 'Great North River of

New Netherland.'

[3] Marsolet's defence was that he acted under constraint.

[4] This map will be found in _The Jesuit Missions_ in this Series, and

also in vol. xxxiv of _The Jesuit Relations_, ed. Thwaites.

{116}

CHAPTER V

CHAMPLAIN'S LAST YEARS

When Champlain reached the Sault St Louis on July 1, 1616, his career

as an explorer had ended. The nineteen years of life that still

remained he gave to Quebec and the duties of his lieutenancy.

By this time he had won the central position in his own domain.

Question might arise as to the terms upon which a monopoly of trade

should be granted, or as to the persons who should be its recipients.

But whatever company might control the trade, Champlain was the king's

representative in New France. When Boyer affronted him, the council

had required that a public apology should be offered. When Montmorency

instituted the investigation of 1620, it was Champlain's report which

determined the issue. Five years later, when the Duc de Ventadour

became viceroy in place of Montmorency, Champlain still remained

lieutenant-general of New {117} France. Such were his character,

services, and knowledge that his tenure could not be questioned.

Notwithstanding this source of satisfaction, the post was difficult in

the extreme. The government continued to leave colonizing in the hands

of the traders, and the traders continued to shirk their obligations.

The Company of the De Caens did a large business, but suffered more

severely than any of its predecessors from the strife of Catholic and

Huguenot. Those of the reformed religion even held their services in

the presence of the Indians, thus anticipating the scandals of Kikuyu.

Though the Duc de Ventadour gave orders that there should be no

psalm-singing after the outbound ships passed Newfoundland, this

provision seems not to have been effective. It was a difficult problem

for one like Champlain, who, while a loyal Catholic, had been working

all his life with Huguenot associates.

The period of the De Caens was marked by the presence at Quebec of

Madame Champlain. The romance of Champlain's life does not, however,

revolve about his marriage. In 1610, at the age of forty-three, he

espoused Helene Boulle, whose father was secretary of the King's

Chamber to Henry IV. {118} As the bride was only twelve years old, the

marriage contract provided that she should remain two years longer with

her parents. She brought a dowry of six thousand livres, and

simultaneously Champlain made his will in her favour. Probably De

Monts had some part in arranging the marriage, for Nicholas Boulle was

a Huguenot and De Monts appears as a witness to the notarial documents.

Subsequently, Madame Champlain became an enthusiastic Catholic and

ended her days as a nun. She had no children, and was only once in

Canada, residing continuously at Quebec from 1620 to 1624. No mention

whatever is made of her in Champlain's writings, but he named St

Helen's Island after her, and appears to have been unwilling that she

should enter a convent during his lifetime.

One need feel little surprise that Madame Champlain should not care to

visit Canada a second time, for the buildings at Quebec had fallen into

disrepair, and more than once the supply of food ran very low. During

1625 Champlain remained in France with his wife, and therefore did not

witness the coming of the Jesuits to the colony. This event, which is

a landmark in the history of Quebec and New France, followed upon the

inability of {119} the Recollets to cover the mission field with any

degree of completeness. Conscious that their resources were unequal to

the task, they invoked the aid of the Jesuits, and in this appeal were

strongly supported by Champlain. Once more the horizon seemed to

brighten, for the Jesuits had greater resources and influence than any

other order in the Roman Catholic Church, and their establishment at

Quebec meant much besides a mere increase in the population. The year

1626 saw Champlain again at his post, working hard to complete a new

factory which he had left unfinished, while the buildings of the Jesuit

establishment made good progress under the hand of workmen specially

brought from France. What still remained imperfect was the

fortification. The English had destroyed the French settlements at

Mount Desert and Port Royal. What was to hinder them from bombarding

Quebec?

This danger soon clouded the mood of optimism that had been inspired by

the coming of the Jesuits. The De Caens objected to any outlay on a

fort, and would not give Champlain the men he needed. In reply

Champlain sent the viceroy a report which was unfavourable to the

company and its methods. But even without this {120} representation,

the monopoly of the De Caens was doomed by reason of events which were

taking place in France.

At the court of Louis XIII Richelieu had now gained an eminence and

power such as never before had been possessed by a minister of the

French crown. Gifted with imagination and covetous of national

greatness, he saw the most desirable portions of other continents in

the hands of the Spaniards, the Portuguese, the English, and the Dutch.

The prospect was not pleasing, and he cast about for a remedy.

For Hanotaux,[1] Richelieu is 'the true founder of our colonial

empire,' and La Ronciere adds: 'Madagascar, Senegal, Guiana, the

Antilles, Acadia, and Canada--this, to be exact, was the colonial

empire for which we were indebted to Richelieu.' Regarding his breadth

of outlook there can be no doubt, and in his _Memoirs_ he left the

oft-quoted phrase: 'No realm is so well situated as France to be

mistress of the seas or so rich in all things needful.' Desiring to

strengthen maritime commerce and to hold distant {121} possessions, he

became convinced that the English and the Dutch had adopted the right

policy. Strong trading companies--not weak ones--were what France

needed.

Henry IV could have given the French a fair start, or even a lead, in

the race for colonies. He missed this great opportunity; partly

because he was preoccupied with the reorganization of France, and

partly because Sully, his minister, had no enthusiasm for colonial

ventures. Twenty years later the situation had changed. Richelieu,

who was a man of wide outlook, was also compelled by the activity of

England and Holland to give attention to the problem of a New France.

The spirit of colonization was in the air, and Richelieu, with his

genius for ideas, could not fail to see its importance or what would

befall the laggards. His misfortune was that he lacked certain

definite qualifications which a greater founder of colonies needed to

possess. Marvellous in his grasp of diplomatic situations and in his

handling of men, he had no talent whatever for the details of commerce.

His fiscal regime, particularly after France engaged in her duel with

the House of Hapsburg, was disorganized and intolerable. Nor did he

recognize that, {122} for the French, the desire to emigrate required

even greater encouragement than the commercial instinct. He compelled

his company to transport settlers, but the number was not large, and he

kindled no popular enthusiasm for the cause of colonization. France

had once led the crusade eastward. Under proper guidance she might

easily have contributed more than she did to the exodus westward.

At any rate Richelieu, 'a man in the grand style, if ever man was,' had

decided that New France should no longer languish, and the Company of

One Hundred Associates was the result. In 1627 he abolished the office

of viceroy, deprived the De Caens of their charter, and prepared to

make Canada a real colony. The basis of the plan was an association of

one hundred members, each subscribing three thousand livres.

Richelieu's own name heads the list of members, followed by those of

the minister of finance and the minister of marine. Most of the

members resided in Paris, though the seaboard and the eastern provinces

were also represented. Nobles, wealthy merchants, small traders, all

figure in the list, and twelve titles of nobility were distributed

among the shareholders to help in the enlistment of capital. The

company received a {123} monopoly of trade for fifteen years, and

promised to take out three hundred colonists annually during the whole

period covered by the grant. It also received the St Lawrence valley

in full ownership. One notable provision of the charter was that only

Roman Catholics should be sent to New France, and the company was

placed under special obligation to maintain three priests in each

settlement until the colony could support its own clergy.

Champlain was now sixty years of age, and he had suffered much.

Suddenly there burst forth this spontaneous enthusiasm of Richelieu the

all-powerful. Was Champlain's dream of the great city of Ludovica to

come true after all?

Alas, like previous visions, it faded before the glare of harsh,

uncompromising facts. The year in which Richelieu founded his Company

of New France was also the year of a fierce Huguenot revolt. Calling

on England for aid, La Rochelle defied Paris, the king, and the

cardinal. Richelieu laid siege to the place. Guiton, the mayor, sat

at his council-board with a bare dagger before him to warn the

faint-hearted. The old Duchesse de Rohan starved with the populace.

{124} Salbert, the most eloquent of Huguenot pastors, preached that

martyrdom was better than surrender. Meanwhile, Richelieu built his

mole across the harbour, and Buckingham wasted the English troops to

which the citizens looked for their salvation. Then the town yielded.

The fall of La Rochelle was a great personal triumph for Richelieu, but

the war with England brought disaster to the Company of New France. At

Dieppe there had lived for many years an Englishman named Jarvis, or

Gervase, Kirke, who with his five sons--David, Lewis, Thomas, John, and

James--knew much at first hand about the French merchant marine. Early

in the spring of 1628 Kirke (who had shortly before moved to London)

secured letters of marque and sent forth his sons to do what damage

they could to the French in the St Lawrence. Champlain had spent the

winter at Quebec and was, of course, expecting his usual supplies with

the opening of navigation. Instead came Lewis Kirke, sent from

Tadoussac by his brother David, to demand surrender.

Champlain made a reply which, though courteous, was sufficiently bold

to convince the Kirkes that Quebec could be best captured {125} by

starvation. They therefore sailed down the St Lawrence to intercept

the fleet from France, confident that their better craft would overcome

these 'sardines of the sea.' The plan proved successful even beyond

expectation, for after a long cannonade they captured without material

loss the whole fleet which had been sent out by the Company of New

France. Ships, colonists, annual supplies, building materials--all

fell into the hands of the enterprising Kirkes, who then sailed for

England with their booty. Alike to Champlain and to the Hundred

Associates it was a crippling blow.

Thus, but for the war with England, Quebec would have seen its

population trebled in 1628. As it was, the situation became worse than

ever. Lewis Kirke had been careful to seize the cattle pastured at Cap

Tourmente and to destroy the crops. When winter came, there were

eighty mouths to feed on a scant diet of peas and maize, imperfectly

ground, with a reserve supply of twelve hundred eels. Towards spring

anything was welcome, and the roots of Solomon's seal were esteemed a

feast. Champlain even gave serious thought to a raid upon the Mohawks,

three hundred miles away, in the hope that food could be brought back

{126} from their granaries. Finally, on the 19th of July 1629, Lewis

Kirke returned with a second summons to surrender. This time only one

answer was possible, for to the survivors at Quebec the English came

less in the guise of foes than as human beings who could save them from

starvation. Champlain and his people received honourable treatment,

and were promised a passage to France. The family Hebert, however,

decided to remain.

We need not dwell upon the emotions with which Champlain saw the French

flag pulled down at Quebec. Doubtless it seemed the disastrous end of

his life-work, but he was a good soldier and enjoyed also the comforts

of religion. A further consolation was soon found in the discovery

that Quebec might yet be reclaimed. Ten weeks before Champlain

surrendered, the two countries were again at peace, and the Treaty of

Suza embodied a provision that captures made after the treaty was

signed should be mutually restored. This intelligence reached

Champlain when he landed in England on the homeward voyage. It is

characteristic of the man, that before going on to France he posted

from Dover to London, and urged the French ambassador that he should

insistently claim Quebec.

{127}

As a result of the war Canada and Acadia were both in the possession of

England. On the other hand, the dowry of Henrietta Maria was still,

for the most part, in the treasury of France. When one remembers that

1628 saw Charles I driven by his necessities to concede the Petition of

Right, it will be readily seen that he desired the payment of his

wife's dowry. Hence Richelieu, whose talents in diplomacy were above

praise, had substantial reason to expect that Canada and Acadia would

be restored. The negotiations dragged on for more than two years, and

were complicated by disputes growing out of the captures made under

letter of marque. When all was settled by the Treaty of St

Germain-en-Laye (March 1632) Quebec and Port Royal became once more

French--to the profound discontent of the Kirkes and Sir William

Alexander,[2] but with such joy on the part of Champlain as only

patriots can know who have given a lifelong service to their country.

Having regained Canada, Richelieu was forced to decide what he would do

with it. {128} In certain important respects the situation had changed

since 1627, when he founded the Company of New France. Then Gustavus

Adolphus and the Swedes were not a factor in the dire strife which was

convulsing Europe.[3] In 1632 the political problems of Western and

Central Europe had assumed an aspect quite different from that which

they had worn five years earlier. More and more France was drawn into

the actual conflict of the Thirty Years' War, impelled by a sense of

new and unparalleled opportunity to weaken the House of Hapsburg.

This, in turn, meant the preoccupation of Richelieu with European

affairs, and a heavy drain upon the resources of France in order to

meet the cost of her more ambitious foreign policy. Thus the duel with

Austria, as it progressed during the last decade of the cardinal's

life, meant a fresh check to {129} those colonial prospects which

seemed so bright in 1627.

Richelieu's first step in resuming possession of Canada was to compose

matters between the De Caens and the Company of New France. Emery de

Caen and his associates were given the trading rights for 1632 and

79,000 livres as compensation for their losses through the revocation

of the monopoly. Dating from the spring of 1633, the Company of New

France was to be placed in full possession of Canada, subject to

specific obligations regarding missions and colonists. Conformably

with this programme, Emery de Caen appeared at Quebec on July 5, 1632,

with credentials empowering him to receive possession from Lewis and

Thomas Kirke, the representatives of England. With De Caen came Paul

Le Jeune and two other Jesuits, a vanguard of the missionary band which

was to convert the savages. 'We cast anchor,' says Le Jeune, 'in front

of the fort which the English held; we saw at the foot of this fort the

poor settlement of Quebec all in ashes. The English, who came to this

country to plunder and not to build up, not only burned a greater part

of the detached buildings which Father Charles Lalemant had {130}

erected, but also all of that poor settlement of which nothing is now

to be seen but the ruins of its stone walls.'

The season of 1632 thus belonged to De Caen, whose function was merely

to tie up loose ends and prepare for the establishment of the new

regime. The central incident of the recession was the return of

Champlain himself--an old man who had said a last farewell to France

and now came, as the king's lieutenant, to end his days in the land of

his labours and his hopes. If ever the oft-quoted last lines of

Tennyson's _Ulysses_ could fitly be claimed by a writer on behalf of

his hero, they apply to Champlain as he sailed from the harbour of

Dieppe on March 23, 1633.

Come, my friends,

'Tis not too late to seek a newer world.

Push off, and sitting well in order smite

The sounding furrows; for my purpose holds

To sail beyond the sunset, and the baths

Of all the western stars until I die.

Tho' much is taken, much abides; and tho'

We are not now that strength which in old days

Moved earth and heaven; that which we are, we are;

One equal temper of heroic hearts,

Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will

To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.

It was Champlain's reward that he saw {131} Quebec once more under the

fleur-de-lis, and was welcomed by the Indians with genuine emotion.

The rhetorical gifts of the red man were among his chief endowments,

and all that eloquence could lavish was poured forth in honour of

Champlain at the council of the Hurons, who had come to Quebec for

barter at the moment of his return. The description of this council is

one of the most graphic passages in Le Jeune's _Relations_. A captain

of the Hurons first arose and explained the purpose of the gathering.

'When this speech was finished all the Savages, as a sign of their

approval, drew from the depths of their stomachs this aspiration, _ho,

ho, ho_, raising the last syllable very high.' Thereupon the captain

began another speech of friendship, alliance, and welcome to Champlain,

followed by gifts. Then the same captain made a third speech, which

was followed by Champlain's reply--a harangue well adapted to the

occasion. But the climax was reached in the concluding orations of two

more Huron chiefs. 'They vied with each other in trying to honour

Sieur de Champlain and the French, and in testifying their affection

for us. One of them said that when the French were absent the earth

was no longer the earth, the river was {132} no longer the river, the

sky was no longer the sky; but upon the return of Sieur de Champlain

everything was as before: the earth was again the earth, the river was

again the river, and the sky was again the sky.'

Thus welcomed by the savages, Champlain resumed his arduous task. He

was establishing Quebec anew and under conditions quite unlike those

which had existed in 1608. The most notable difference was that the

Jesuits were now at hand to aid in the upbuilding of Canada. The

Quebec of De Monts and De Caen had been a trading-post, despite the

efforts of the Recollets and Jesuits to render it the headquarters of a

mission. Undoubtedly there existed from the outset a desire to convert

the Indians, but as a source of strength to the colony this disposition

effected little until the return of the Jesuits in 1632.

With the re-establishment of the Jesuit mission the last days of

Champlain are inseparably allied. A severe experience had proved that

the colonizing zeal of the crown was fitful and uncertain. Private

initiative was needed to supplement the official programme, and of such

initiative the supply seemed scanty. The fur traders notoriously

shirked their obligations to enlarge the colony, {133} and after 1632

the Huguenots, who had a distinct motive for emigrating, were forbidden

by Richelieu to settle in Canada. There remained the enthusiasm of the

Jesuits and the piety of those in France who supplied the funds for

their work among the Montagnais, the Hurons, and the Iroquois. As the

strongest order in the Roman Catholic Church, the Jesuits possessed

resources which enabled them to maintain an active establishment in

Canada. Through them Quebec became religious, and their influence

permeated the whole colony as its population increased and the zone of

occupation grew wider. Le Jeune, Lalemant, Brebeuf, and Jogues are

among the outstanding names of the restored New France.

During the last two years of his life Champlain lived patriarchally at

Quebec, administering the public affairs of the colony and lending its

religious impulses the strength of his support and example. Always a

man of serious mind, his piety was confirmed by the reflections of

advancing age and his daily contact with the missionaries. In his

household there was a service of prayer three times daily, together

with reading at supper from the lives of the saints. In pursuance of a

vow, he built a chapel named Notre Dame de la {134} Recouvrance, which

records the gratitude he felt for the restoration of Quebec to France.

He was, in short, the ideal layman--serving his king loyally in all

business of state, and demeaning himself as a pilgrim who is about to

set forth for the City of God.

It is not to be inferred from the prominence of Champlain's religious

interests that he neglected his public duties, which continued to be

many and exacting. One of his problems was to prevent the English from

trading in the St Lawrence contrary to treaty; another was to

discourage the Hurons from selling their furs to the Dutch on the

Hudson. The success of the mission, which he had deeply at heart,

implied the maintenance of peace among the Indians who were friendly to

the French. He sought also to police the region of the Great Lakes by

a band of French soldiers, and his last letter to Richelieu (dated

August 15, 1635) contains an earnest appeal for a hundred and twenty

men, to whom should be assigned the duty of marshalling the Indian

allies against the English and Dutch, as well as of preserving order

throughout the forest. The erection of a fort at Three Rivers in 1634

was due to his desire that the annual barter should take place at {135}

a point above Quebec. A commission which he issued in the same year to

Jean Nicolet to explore the country of the Wisconsins, shows that his

consuming zeal for exploration remained with him to the end.

It was permitted Champlain to die in harness. He remained to the last

lieutenant of the king in Canada. At the beginning of October 1635 he

was stricken with paralysis, and passed away on Christmas Day of the

same year. We do not possess the oration which Father Paul Le Jeune

delivered at his funeral, but there remains from Le Jeune's pen an

appreciation of his character in terms which to Champlain himself would

have seemed the highest praise.

On the twenty-fifth of December, the day of the birth of our Saviour

upon earth, Monsieur de Champlain, our Governor, was reborn in Heaven;

at least we can say that his death was full of blessings. I am sure

that God has shown him this favour in consideration of the benefits he

has procured for New France, where we hope some day God will be loved

and served by our French, and known and adored by our Savages. Truly

he had led a life of great justice, equity, and perfect loyalty to his

King and towards the Gentlemen of the Company. But at his death he

crowned his virtues with sentiments of piety so lofty that he

astonished us all. What tears he shed! how {136} ardent became his

zeal for the service of God! how great was his love for the families

here!--saying that they must be vigorously assisted for the good of the

Country, and made comfortable in every possible way in these early

stages, and that he would do it if God gave him health. He was not

taken unawares in the account which he had to render unto God, for he

had long ago prepared a general Confession of his whole life, which he

made with great contrition to Father Lalemant, whom he honoured with

his friendship. The Father comforted him throughout his sickness,

which lasted two months and a half, and did not leave him until his

death. He had a very honourable burial, the funeral procession being

formed of the people, the soldiers, the captains, and the churchmen.

Father Lalemant officiated at this burial, and I was charged with the

funeral oration, for which I did not lack material. Those whom he left

behind have reason to be well satisfied with him; for, though he died

out of France, his name will not therefor be any less glorious to

posterity.

[1] Gabriel Hanotaux, member of the French Academy, is the author of

the most authoritative work on the life and times of Richelieu.

[2] Alexander had received grants from the British crown in 1621 and

1625 which covered the whole coast from St Croix Island to the St

Lawrence.

[3] At this period the largest interest in European politics was the

rivalry between France and the House of Hapsburg, which held the

thrones of Spain and Austria. This rivalry led France to take an

active part in the Thirty Years' War, even though her allies in that

struggle were Protestants. Between 1627, when the Company of New

France was founded, and 1632, when Canada was restored to France, the

Swedes under Gustavus Adolphus had won a series of brilliant victories

over the Catholic and Hapsburg forces in Germany. After the death of

Gustavus Adolphus in 1632, Richelieu attacked the Emperor Ferdinand II

in great force, thereby conquering Alsace.

{137}

CHAPTER VI

CHAMPLAIN'S WRITINGS AND CHARACTER

There are some things that speak for themselves. In attempting to

understand Champlain's character, we are first met by the fact that he

pursued unflinchingly his appointed task. For thirty-two years he

persevered, amid every kind of hardship, danger, and discouragement, in

the effort to build up New France. He had personal ambitions as an

explorer, which were kept in strict subordination to his duty to the

king. He possessed concentration of aim without fanaticism. His

signal unselfishness was adorned by a patience which equalled that of

Marlborough. Inspired by large ideals, he did not scorn imperfect

means.

Thus there are certain large aspects of Champlain's character that

stand forth in the high light of deed, and do not depend for their

effect either upon his own words or those of others. But when once we

have paid tribute {138} to the fine, positive qualities which are

implied by his accomplishment, we must hasten to recognize the

extraordinary value of his writings as an index to his mind and soul.

His narrative is not an epic of disaster. It is a plain and even

statement of great dangers calmly met and treated as a matter of

course. Largely it is a record of achievement. At points where it is

a record of failure Champlain accepts the inevitable gracefully and

conforms his emotions to the will of God. The _Voyages_ reveal a

strong man 'well four-squared to the blows of fortune.' They also

illustrate the virtue of muscular Christianity.

At a time which, like ours, is becoming sated with cleverness, it is a

delight to read the unvarnished story of Champlain. In saying that the

adjective is ever the enemy of the noun, Voltaire could not have

levelled the shaft at him, for few writers have been more sparing in

their use of adjectives or other glowing words. His love of the sea

and of the forest was profound, but he is never emotional in his

expressions. Yet with all his soberness and steadiness he possessed

imagination. In its strength and depth his enthusiasm for colonization

proves this, even if we omit his picture of the fancied Ludovica. But

{139} as a man of action rather than of letters he instinctively omits

verbiage. In some respects we suffer from Champlain's directness of

mind, for on much that he saw he could have lingered with profit. But

very special inducements are needed to draw him from his plain tale

into a digression. Such inducements occur at times when he is writing

of the Indians, for he recognized that Europe was eager to hear in full

detail of their traits and customs. Thus set passages of description,

inserted with a sparing hand, seemed to him a proper element of the

text, but anything like conscious embellishment of the narrative he

avoids--probably more through mere naturalness than conscious

self-repression.

From Marco Polo to Scott's _Journal_ the literature of geographical

discovery abounds with classics, and standards of comparison suggest

themselves in abundance to the critic of Champlain's _Voyages_. Most

naturally, of course, one turns to the records of American exploration

in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries--to Ramusio, Oviedo, Peter

Martyr, Hakluyt, and Purchas. No age can show a more wonderful galaxy

of pioneers than that which extends from Columbus to La Salle, and

among the great explorers of this era {140} Champlain takes his place

by virtue alike of his deeds and writings. In fact, he belongs to the

small and distinguished class of those who have recorded their own

discoveries in a suitable and authentic narrative, for in few cases

have geographical results of equal moment been described by the

discoverer himself.

Among the many writings which are available for comparison and contrast

one turns, singularly yet inevitably, to Lescarbot. The singularity of

a comparison between Champlain and Lescarbot is that Lescarbot was not

a geographer. At the same time, he is the only writer of importance

whose trail crosses that of Champlain, and some light is thrown on

Champlain's personality by a juxtaposition of texts. That is to say,

both were in Acadia at the same time, sat together at Poutrincourt's

table, gazed on the same forests and clearings, met the same Indians,

and had a like opportunity of considering the colonial problems which

were thrust upon the French in the reign of Henry IV.

It would be hard to find narratives more dissimilar,--and the contrast

is not wholly to the advantage of Champlain. Or rather, there are

times when his Doric simplicity of style {141} seems jejune beside the

flowing periods and picturesque details of Lescarbot. No better

illustration of this difference in style, arising from fundamental

difference in temperament, can be found than the description which each

gives of the _Ordre de Bon Temps_. To Champlain belongs the credit of

inventing this pleasant means of promoting health and banishing ennui,

but all he tells of it is this: 'By the rules of the Order a chain was

put, with some little ceremony, on the neck of one of our company,

commissioning him for the day to go a-hunting. The next day it was

conferred upon another, and thus in succession. All exerted themselves

to the utmost to see who would do the best and bring home the finest

game. We found this a very good arrangement, as did also the savages

who were with us.'

Such is the limit of the information which we receive from Champlain

regarding the _Ordre de Bon Temps_, his own invention and the life of

the company. It is reserved for Lescarbot to give us the picture which

no one can forget--the Atoctegic, or ruler of the feast, leading the

procession to dinner 'napkin on shoulder, wand of office in hand, and

around his neck the collar of the Order, which was worth more than four

crowns; after him all the {142} members of the Order, carrying each a

dish.' Around stand the savages, twenty or thirty of them, 'men,

women, girls, and children,' all waiting for scraps of food. At the

table with the French themselves sits the Sagamos Membertou and the

other Indian chiefs, gladdening the company by their presence. And the

food!--'ducks, bustards, grey and white geese, partridges, larks, and

other birds; moreover moose, caribou, beaver, otter, bear, rabbits,

wild-cats, racoons, and other animals,' the whole culminating in the

tenderness of moose meat and the delicacy of beaver's tail. Such are

the items which Champlain omits and Lescarbot includes. So it is

throughout their respective narratives--Champlain ever gaining force

through compactness, and Lescarbot constantly illuminating with his

gaiety or shrewdness matters which but for him would never have reached

us.

This difference of temperament and outlook, which is so plainly

reflected on the printed page, also had its effect upon the personal

relations of the two men. It was not that Lescarbot scandalized

Champlain by his religious views, for though liberal-minded, Lescarbot

was not a heretic, and Champlain knew how to live harmoniously even

with Huguenots. {143} The cause of the coolness which came to exist

between them must be sought rather in fundamental contrasts of

character. To Champlain, Lescarbot doubtless seemed a mere hanger-on

or protege of Poutrincourt, with undue levity of disposition and a

needless flow of conversation. To Lescarbot, Champlain may well have

seemed deficient in literary attainments, and so preoccupied with the

concerns of geography as to be an uncongenial companion. To whatever

cause conjecture may trace it, they did not become friends, although

such lack of sympathy as existed shows itself only in an occasional

pin-prick, traceable particularly in the later editions of their

writings. For us it is the more needful to lay stress upon the merits

of Lescarbot, because he tends to be eclipsed by the greater reputation

of Champlain, and also because his style is sometimes so diffuse as to

create prejudice. But at his best he is admirable, and without him we

should know much less than we do about that Acadian experience which

holds such a striking place in the career of Champlain.

The popular estimate of French character dwells overmuch upon the

levity or gaiety which undoubtedly marks the Gallic race. {144} France

could not have accomplished her great work for the world without

stability of purpose and seriousness of mood. Nowhere in French

biography are these qualities more plainly illustrated than by the acts

of Champlain. The doggedness with which he clung to his patriotic and

unselfish task is the most conspicuous fact in his life. Coupled

therewith is his fortitude, both physical and moral. In times of

crisis the conscript sets his teeth and dies without a murmur. But

Champlain enlisted as a volunteer for a campaign which was to go on

unceasingly till his last day. How incessant were its dangers can be

made out in full detail from the text of the _Voyages_. We may omit

the perils of the North Atlantic, though what they were can be seen

from Champlain's description of his outward voyage in the spring of

1611. The remaining dangers will suffice. Scurvy, which often claimed

a death-roll of from forty to eighty per cent in a single winter;

famine such as that which followed the failure of ships from home to

arrive at the opening of navigation; the storms which drove the frail

shallop on the rocks and shoals of Norumbega; the risk of mutiny; the

chances of war, whether against the Indians or the English; the rapids

{145} of the wilderness as they threatened the overloaded canoe on its

swift descent; the possible treachery of Indian guides--such is a

partial catalogue of the death-snares which surrounded the pathway of

an explorer like Champlain. Every one of these dangers is brought

before us by his own narrative in a manner which does credit to his

modesty no less than to his fortitude. Without embellishment or

self-glorification, he recites in a few lines hairbreadth escapes which

a writer of less steadfast soul would have amplified into a thrilling

tale of heroism. None the less, to the discriminating reader

Champlain's _Voyages_ are an Odyssey.

Bound up with habitual fortitude is the motive from which it springs.

In Champlain's case patriotism and piety were the groundwork of a

conspicuous and long-tested courage. The patriotism which exacted such

sacrifices was not one which sought to define itself even in the form

of a justifiable digression from the recital of events. But we may be

sure that Champlain at the time he left Port Royal had made up his mind

that the Spaniards, the English, and the Dutch were not to parcel out

the seaboard of North America to the exclusion of the French. As for

the religious {146} basis of his fortitude, we do not need Le Jeune's

story of his death-bed or the record of his friendship with men of

religion. His narrative abounds throughout with simple and natural

expressions of piety, not the less impressive because they are free

from trace of the theological intolerance which envenomed French life

in his age. And not only did Champlain's trust in the Lord fortify his

soul against fear, but religion imposed upon him a degree of

self-restraint which was not common among explorers of the seventeenth

century. It is far from fanciful to see in this one of the chief

causes of his hold upon the Indians. To them he was more than a useful

ally in war time. They respected his sense of honour, and long after

his death remembered the temperance which marked his conduct when he

lived in their villages.

As a writer, Champlain enjoyed the advantage of possessing a fresh,

unhackneyed subject. The only exception to this statement is furnished

by his early book on the West Indies and Mexico, where he was going

over ground already trodden by the Spaniards. His other writings

relate to a sphere of exploration and settlement which he made his own,

and of which he well merited to be the chronicler.

{147}

Running through the _Voyages_ is the double interest of discovery and

colonization, constantly blending and reacting upon each other, but

still remaining matters of separate concern. It is obvious that in the

mind of the narrator discovery is always the more engaging theme.

Champlain is indeed the historian of St Croix, Port Royal, and Quebec,

but only incidentally or from chance. By temper he was the explorer,

that is, the man of action, willing to record the broad results, but

without the instinct which led Lescarbot to set down the minutiae of

life in a small, rough settlement. There is one side of Champlain's

activity as a colonizer which we must lament that he has not

described--namely, his efforts to interest the nobles and prelates of

the French court in the upbuilding of Canada. A diary of his life at

Paris and Fontainebleau would be among the choicest documents of the

early colonial era. But Champlain was too blunt and loyal to set down

the story of his relations with the great, and for this portion of his

life we must rely upon letters, reports, and memoranda, which are so

formal as to lack the atmosphere of that painful but valiant experience.

Excluding the brief notices of life at St Croix, {148} Port Royal, and

Quebec, Champlain's _Voyages_ present a story of discovery by sea and

discovery by land. In other words, the four years of Acadian adventure

relate to discoveries made along the seaboard, while the remaining

narratives, including the _Des Sauvages_ of 1604, relate to the basin

of the St Lawrence. Mariner though he was by early training, Champlain

achieved his chief success as an explorer by land, in the region of the

Great Lakes. Bad fortune prevented him from pursuing his course past

Martha's Vineyard to the mouth of the Hudson and Chesapeake Bay. It

was no small achievement to accomplish what he did on the coast of

Norumbega, but his most distinctive discoveries were those which he

made in the wilderness, leading up to his fine experience of 1615-16

among the Hurons.

To single out Champlain's chief literary triumph, it was he who

introduced the Algonquin, the Huron, and the Iroquois to the delighted

attention of France. Ever since the days of Cartier the French had

known that savages inhabited the banks of the St Lawrence, but

Champlain is the pioneer in that great body of literature on the North

American Indian, which thenceforth continued without interruption in

France to the _Rene_ and _Atala_ {149} of Chateaubriand. Above all

other subjects, the Indians are Champlain's chief theme.

To some extent the account of Indian life which is given in the

_Voyages_ suffers by comparison with the _Relations_ of the Jesuits.

The Fathers, by reason of their long residence among the Indians,

undoubtedly came to possess a more intimate knowledge of their

character and customs than it was possible for Champlain to acquire

during the time he spent among them. On the other hand, the Jesuits

were so preoccupied with the progress of the mission that they tended

to view the life of the savages too exclusively from one angle.

Furthermore, the volume of their description is so great as to

overwhelm all readers who are not specially interested in the mission

or the details of Indian custom. Champlain wrote with sufficient

knowledge to bring out salient traits in high relief, while his

descriptive passages are sufficiently terse to come within the range of

those who are not specialists. When we remember the perpetual interest

which, for more than three hundred years, Europe has felt in the North

American Indian, the _Voyages_ of Champlain are seen in their true

perspective. For he, with fresh eyes, saw the red man in his wigwam,

at his council, and on {150} the war-path; watched his stoic courage

under torture and his inhuman cruelty in the hour of vengeance. Tales

of the wilderness, the canoe, the portage, and the ambush have never

ceased to fascinate the imagination of Europe. Champlain's narrative

may be plain and unadorned, but, with such a groundwork, the

imagination of every reader could supply details at will.

In all essential respects Champlain seems to have been a good observer

and an accurate chronicler. It is true that his writings are not free

from error involving facts of distance, altitude, and chronology. But

such slips as have crept into his text do not constitute a serious

blemish or tend to impugn the good faith of his statements on matters

where there is no other source of information. Everything considered,

his substantial accuracy is much more striking than his partial

inaccuracy. In fact, no one of his high character and disinterested

zeal could write with any other purpose than to describe truly what he

had seen and done. The seal of probity is set upon Champlain's

writings no less than upon the record of his dealings with his

employers and the king. Unselfish as to money or fame, he sought to

create New France.

{151}

In national progress much depends on the auspices under which the

nation was founded and the tradition which it represents. Thus

England, and all the English world, has an imperishable tradition in

the deeds and character of Alfred the Great; thus Canada has had from

the outset of the present stage in her development a great possession

in the equal self-sacrifice of Montcalm and Wolfe. On the other hand,

the nation is doomed to suffer which bases its traditions of greatness

upon such acts as the seizure of Silesia by Frederick or Bismarck's

manipulation of the Ems telegram.

For Canada Champlain is not alone a heroic explorer of the seventeenth

century, but the founder of Quebec; and it is a rich part of our

heritage that he founded New France in the spirit of unselfishness, of

loyalty, and of faith.

{152}

BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE

_Original Text_

The best edition of Champlain's own works, in the original text, is

that of Laverdiere--_Oeuvres de Champlain, publiees sous le Patronage

de l'Universite Laval. Par l'Abbe C.-H. Laverdiere, M.A. Seconde

Edition. 6 tomes, 4to. Quebec: Imprime au Seminaire par Geo. B.

Desbarats_, 1870.

The list of Champlain's writings includes:

1. The _Bref Discours_, describing his trip to the West Indies.

2. The _Des Sauvages_, describing his first voyage to the St Lawrence.

3. The _Voyages_ of 1613, covering the years 1604-13 inclusive.

4. The _Voyages_ of 1619, covering the years 1615-18 inclusive.

5. The _Voyages_ of 1632, which represent a re-editing of the early

voyages from 1603 forward, and continue the narrative from 1618 to 1629.

6. A general treatise on the duties of the mariner.

{153}

_English Translations_

1. The _Bref Discours_, in a translation by Alice Wilmere, was

published by the Hakluyt Society in 1859.

2. The _Des Sauvages_ (1604) was translated in _Purchas His Pilgrimes_

(1625).

3. The _Voyages_ of 1604-18 inclusive were translated by C. P. Otis for

the Prince Society of Boston, in three volumes, 1878-82, with the Rev.

E. F. Slafter as editor. This is a fine work, but not easily

accessible in its original form. Fortunately, Professor Otis's

translation has been reprinted, with an introduction and notes by

Professor W. L. Grant, in the _Original Narratives of Early American

History_ (Scribners, 1907). The passages quoted in the present volume

are taken from Otis's translation, with occasional changes.

4. The _Voyages_ of 1604-16 inclusive have also been well translated by

Annie Nettleton Bourne, with an introduction and notes by Professor E.

G. Bourne (A. S. Barnes and Co., 1906). This translation follows the

edition of 1632, and also gives the translation of _Des Sauvages_ which

appears in Purchas.

_General Literature_

The career of Champlain is treated in many historical works, of which

the following are a {154} few: Parkman, _Pioneers of France in the New

World_; Dionne, _Samuel de Champlain_ (in the 'Makers of Canada'

series); Biggar, _Early Trading Companies of New France_, Slafter,

_Champlain_ (in Winsor's _Narrative and Critical History of America_,

vol. iv, part i, chap. iii); Salone, _La Colonisation de la

Nouvelle-France_; Suite, _Histoire des Canadiens-Francais_; Ferland,

_Cours d'Histoire du Canada_; Garneau, _Histoire du Canada_, fifth

edition, edited by the author's grandson, Hector Garneau.

_Portrait_

Unfortunately, there is no authentic portrait of Champlain. That

ascribed to Moncornet is undoubtedly spurious, as has been proved by V.

H. Paltsits in _Acadiensis_, vol. iv, pp. 306-11.

{155}

INDEX

Acadia, 22-3; the first French colony in, 24, 34-7, 40-8, 52-5;

abandoned, 56-8.

Alexander, Sir William, his interest in Acadia, 127 and note.

Algonquins, the, 68-9, 86-7, 101-2, 113-14; their expedition against

the Iroquois, 87-96.

America, early opinions regarding, 13.

Armouchiquois, the, 38, 39-40, 49-52.

Basques, the, 56 n.; defy French trading monopoly at Tadoussac, 63, 64.

Boyer, his public apology to Champlain, 78-9.

Brule, Etienne, explorer and interpreter, 97-8.

Caen, Emery de, represents France in the restoration of Quebec, 129.

Caen, William and Emery de, granted a monopoly in New France, 79-80,

117, 119-20; deprived of their charter, 122; monopoly restored, 129-30.

Cartier, Jacques, 61.

Champdore, with Champlain at Port Royal, 46.

Champlain, Samuel de, his birth and parentage, 2-3; serves in the Wars

of the League, 6-8; his voyage to the West Indies and Mexico, 8-10; his

first voyage to the St Lawrence, 11-12, 16, 19-21; with De Monts'

expedition to Acadia, 23, 26-43; his work at Port Royal, 43-6; with

Poutrincourt's exploring expedition, 47-52; founds the Order of Good

Cheer at Port Royal, 52-4; his second voyage to the St Lawrence and the

founding of Quebec, 59-68, 81, 82-3, 123; a conspiracy to kill him,

64-5; his habitation, 66-7; his Indian policy, 68-70, 87, 97, 104-5;

organizes a trading company in France and secures a monopoly, becoming

lieutenant-general of New France, 71-5; his difficulties with his

company, 77-80; his expedition with the Algonquins against the

Iroquois, 87-96, 101-2; his marriage, 117-18; is grossly deceived by

Nicolas Vignau, 98-104; wounded in expedition with the Hurons against

the Onondagas, 104-12; winters with the Hurons, 112-15, 146, 148-50;

his work as king's lieutenant in Quebec, 116-17, 119, 134; captured and

taken to London, 124-6, 127; his reception on his return to Quebec,

130-1; his last years and death, 133-6; his writings and character,

84-5, 137-51, 152-3; a comparison with Lescarbot, 55-7, 140-3; his

patriotism, 12, 62, 78, 84; his strong geographical instinct, 9-10, 20,

26-7, 29, 55, 139-40, 148; his ambition to discover a westerly route to

the East, 26, 62, 69, 84, 97, 103; his explorations, 21, 30, 35-6,

38-40, 41, 44, 47-9, 84-6, 96, 99-101, 105-8.

Champlain, Madame, 117-18.

Champlain's Company, its charter, 74-5; its treatment of Louis Hebert

and failure to encourage colonization, 76-8; deprived of its monopoly,

79.

Chastes, Aymar de, 24; sends Champlain on his first voyage to the St

Lawrence, 11-12, 16, 19, 20-1.

Chauvin, Pierre, secures monopoly of the fur trade in the St Lawrence,

16, 18-19, 62.

Coligny, Admiral de, his interest in New France, 14.

Colombo, Don Francisco, and Champlain, 8.

Company of One Hundred Associates, founding of the, 122-3, 129;

disaster befalls it, 124, 125.

Conde, Prince de, viceroy of Canada, 73-4, 75, 78.

Duval, Jean, his plot to kill Champlain, 64; suffers death, 65.

France, and the Wars of the League, 6-8; her colonization policy,

10-11, 15, 17, 18, 25, 28, 61-2, 117, 121, 132; and trading monopolies

in New France, 19 and note, 26-7, 56-57, 79, 80; her magnificent

opportunity of colonial expansion, 31-3; the Huguenot revolt at La

Rochelle, 123-4; war with Britain, 124-6; her rivalry with the House of

Hapsburg, 121, 128 and note; her colonial policy retarded by her

ambitious foreign policy, 127-9.

Georgian Bay, Champlain at, 105-6.

Gosnold, Bartholomew, an English navigator, 13, 16.

Great Britain, her colonization policy, 14-15; founds a colony in

America, 16-17, 33, 82; her capture of New France, 124-7.

Hebert, Louis, in Acadia, 28, 29; scurvily treated by Champlain's

Company, 76-7; his farm in Quebec, 67, 80-1.

Henry IV, 7, 8; his interest in colonial expansion, 10-11, 17, 18, 24,

25, 60, 121; assassinated, 71.

Holland, her interest in America, 14-16, 17.

Hudson, Henry, explorer, 17, 66, 95 n.

Huguenots, the, forbidden to settle in New France, 133.

Hurons, the, 68-9, 113-14; their expedition against the Onondagas,

104-12; their welcome to Champlain on his return to Quebec, 130-1.

Indians, their tactics when on a war expedition, 89-92; when

retreating, 110-11; some customs of, 95, 102; missions to, 132-3, 134.

Iroquois, and Champlain, 68-9; their battle with the Algonquins, 91-5,

97; with the Hurons, 108-10.

James I, and colonization, 16, 17.

Jeannin, President, and Champlain, 74.

Jesuits, established at Quebec, 118-19, 129, 132, 133, 149.

Kirke, Jarvis or Gervase, and his sons, their expedition against New

France, 124-6, 127.

Kirke, Lewis, his capture of Quebec, 124-6; restores it to France, 129.

Kirke, Thomas, 124; with his brother represents England in the

restoration of Quebec, 129.

Lake Champlain, discovery of, 86, 91, 96-7.

Lalemant, Father Charles, at Quebec, 129, 133, 136.

La Roche, his colony on Sable Island, 18.

La Rochelle, revolt of, 123-4.

Le Caron, Father Joseph, among the Hurons, 105.

Le Jeune, Father Paul, his arrival at Quebec, 129, 131, 133; his

appreciation of Champlain, 135-6.

Lescarbot, Marc, 28, 29, 55-6; quoted on De Monts' colony in Acadia,

30, 47, 52, 52-4, 57-8; a comparison with Champlain, 55, 140-3.

Marais, Des, with Champlain in New France, 87, 88.

Marsolet, Nicolas, a guide and interpreter, 97-8.

Micmacs, the, 38.

Montagnais, the, 86 n., 93, 96.

Montmorency, Duke of, 26-7; viceroy of Canada, 78, 79, 80.

Monts, Sieur de, 16, 24; his trading company and monopoly, 22 n., 25-7,

28, 29, 56-7, 60-1, 68; his colonizing expedition to Acadia, 23, 28-43;

equips Champlain's expedition to the St Lawrence, 60-1, 62-3, 70-2;

member of Champlain's Company, 75.

New France, 23; and the trading companies, 19 and note; explorations

in, 21, 23, 84; religious strife in, 117; the Huguenots forbidden to

settle in, 117, 123, 133; surrendered to Britain, 126; restored to

France, 127; progress in retarded by the Thirty Years' War, 128-9.

Nicolet, Jean, an explorer and interpreter, 98, 135.

Norumbega, what it comprised, 28 n., 36.

Onondagas, the, 104, 108-10.

Pontgrave, Sieur du, his voyages to New France, 20 and note; with De

Monts' expedition to Acadia, 28, 31, 37, 42; left in command at Port

Royal, 43-6; with Champlain in the St Lawrence, 61, 63, 65, 68, 87.

Port Mouton, De Monts' expedition at, 29-31.

Port Royal, the French colony at, 34, 40-6, 47; Order of Good Cheer

founded, 52-4; colony abandoned, but re-established, 56-8; captured by

the British, 76.

Poutrincourt, Seigneur de, with De Monts in Acadia, 28-9, 31, 41-2; his

colonizing expedition to Port Royal, 46-56, 58.

Prevert, a mariner of St Malo, 20, 34.

Quebec, 59-60, 62, 81; Champlain reaches, 64, 66-7; hard times in,

67-8, 83, 87; two bright spots, 80-1; captured by the Kirkes, 124-6;

restored to France, 127.

Raleigh, Sir Walter, his colony in America, 14, 16.

Ralleau, with Champlain in Acadia, 30, 46.

Recollets, the, in New France, 80, 119.

Richelieu, Cardinal, his energetic colonial policy, 120-3, 129, 133;

succumbs to European interests, 124, 127-8 n.

Sagard, Gabriel, a Recollet missionary, 77.

St Croix, the French colony at, 34-5, 37.

St Germain-en-Laye, treaty of, 127.

St Lawrence, the, 22, 61-2; Champlain's explorations of, 21, 84.

Soissons, Comte de, and Champlain, 73.

Spain, her early conquests in America, 8, 12-13.

Sully, Duc de, opposes French colonization, 17, 25, 61, 121.

Suza, treaty of, 126.

Tessouaet, an Algonquin chief, 102.

Thirty Years' War, its effect on New France, 128 and note.

Three Rivers, erection of fort at, 134.

Ventadour, Duc de, viceroy of New France, 116, 117.

Vignau, Nicolas, 97; deceives Champlain with a story of the North Sea,

98-101; his punishment, 103-4.

Wars of the League, the, 6-8.

Printed by T. and A. Constable, Printers to His Majesty

at the Edinburgh University Press

THE CHRONICLES OF CANADA

THIRTY-TWO VOLUMES ILLUSTRATED

Edited by GEORGE M. WRONG and H. H. LANGTON

THE CHRONICLES OF CANADA

PART I

THE FIRST EUROPEAN VISITORS

1. THE DAWN OF CANADIAN HISTORY

By Stephen Leacock.

2. THE MARINER OF ST MALO

By Stephen Leacock.