[Sidenote: =Cartier, 1534=]
=31. The French in North America.= France was the slowest of the great
nations in the race for North America. Not until 1534 did Jacques
Cartier, a French sea captain searching for a shorter route to India,
sail into the mouth of the St. Lawrence River. He reached an Indian
village where Montreal now stands and took possession of the country
for his king.
[Sidenote: =Champlain founded Quebec, 1608=]
One year after Jamestown was settled, and one year before the _Half
Moon_ sailed up the Hudson, Samuel de Champlain laid the foundations of
Quebec (1608). Champlain was of noble birth, and had been a soldier in
the French army. He had already helped found Port Royal in Nova Scotia.
[Illustration: SAMUEL DE CHAMPLAIN
_From the portrait painting in Independence Hall, Philadelphia,
Pennsylvania_]
[Sidenote: =Made friends and foes among the Indians=]
Wherever he went, Champlain made fast friends with the Algonquin
Indians, who lived along the St. Lawrence. He gave them presents and
bought their skins of beaver and of other animals. In the fur trade
he saw a golden stream flowing into the king's treasury. Champlain
certainly made a good beginning in winning over these Indians, but he
also made one great blunder out of which grew many bitter enemies among
other Indian tribes.
[Illustration: THE SITE OF QUEBEC
_Here, 1608, on a narrow belt of land at the foot of the high bluff,
Champlain laid out the city of Quebec_]
[Sidenote: =An Indian war party=]
=32. Champlain and the Indians.= The Algonquins were bitter foes of
the Iroquois or Five Nations. One time they begged Champlain and his
men, clad in steel and armed with the deadly musket, to join their war
party (1609). This he did. They made their way up the St. Lawrence to
the mouth of the Richelieu, and up that river to the falls. The Indians
then carried the canoes and the baggage around the falls.
[Sidenote: =Discovery of Lake Champlain=]
What must have been Champlain's feelings when they glided out of the
narrow river into the lake now bearing his name! A lake no white man
had ever seen, and greater than any in his beloved France! On the left
he saw the ridges of the Green Mountains, on the right the pine-clad
slopes of the Adirondacks, the hunting grounds of the hated Iroquois.
One evening, near where the ruins of Ticonderoga now stand, they saw
the war canoes of their enemies. That night the hostile tribes taunted
each other and boasted of their bravery. On the shores of the lake the
next day they drew up in battle array. The Iroquois chiefs wore tall
plumes on their heads, and their warriors carried shields of wood or
hide.
[Sidenote: =Why the Iroquois came to hate the French=]
All at once the Algonquins opened their ranks and Champlain, in full
armor, walked forth. The Iroquois gazed in wonder on the first European
soldier they had ever seen. Champlain leveled his musket and fired.
Two chiefs fell. Then another report rang through the woods, and the
boldest warriors in North America broke and fled in confusion. The
Algonquins, yelling like demons, ran after them, killing and capturing
as many as possible.
There was great rejoicing among the victors, and Champlain was their
hero. But there must have been great sorrow and vows of revenge among
the Iroquois.
[Illustration: THE ROUTES FOLLOWED BY CHAMPLAIN]
[Sidenote: =Champlain and the Algonquins invade the Iroquois country=]
The next year Champlain joined another Algonquin war party, and helped
win another victory from the Iroquois. Again, in 1615, he joined
a party of more than five hundred fiercely painted warriors. They
traveled to the shore of Lake Ontario and boldly crossed to the other
side in their bark canoes. They hid their boats and then silently
marched into the country of the Iroquois.
Some miles south of Oneida Lake they came upon a fortified Indian town.
For several days Champlain and his Indians tried to break into or burn
the fort, but had to give it up. These campaigns made the Iroquois hate
the French almost as much as they did the Algonquins.
[Illustration: THE DEFEAT OF THE IROQUOIS AT LAKE CHAMPLAIN
_After an engraving of Champlain's published in 1613_]
[Sidenote: =Iroquois make St. Lawrence unsafe for French=]
For this reason Frenchmen found it safer to go west by traveling up the
Ottawa River and crossing over to Lake Huron than by paddling up the
St. Lawrence and through lakes Ontario and Erie. The result was that
the French discovered Lake Michigan and Lake Superior long before they
ever saw Lake Erie. On the other hand, we are soon to see how the Dutch
made friends with the Iroquois.
[Illustration: A FRENCH FUR TRADER ON SNOWSHOES]
[Sidenote: =Champlain true to king and country=]
Champlain remained many years in Canada, always working for the good
of New France, as the country was called. He helped on the work of
the missionaries, made peace between hostile tribes of Indians, and
encouraged the fur trade and the coming of new settlers. Worn out with
toil and travel, far away from kindred and native land, Champlain died
at Quebec on Christmas Day, 1635.
JOLIET AND MARQUETTE, FUR TRADER AND MISSIONARY, EXPLORE THE
MISSISSIPPI VALLEY FOR NEW FRANCE
[Sidenote: =Stories of a new country=]
=33. French Explorers in the Northwest.= Year after year, traders and
missionaries, returning to Montreal and Quebec from the west, told
strange stories of a great river larger than any the French had yet
seen. In May, 1673, Joliet, a fur trader, and Marquette, a missionary,
were sent out by Count Frontenac, governor of the French settlements in
Canada, to explore this river.
[Sidenote: =Joliet and Marquette find the Mississippi=]
With five others they paddled in canoes along the north shore of
Lake Michigan, through Green Bay, up the Fox River, and then crossed
overland to the beautiful Wisconsin. Quietly and rapidly their boats
passed down the Wisconsin until they reached a great valley several
miles in width and a great river.
Following the current, they passed the mouth of the gently flowing
Illinois, then the rushing and muddy Missouri, the slow and clear Ohio,
and finally, in July, they reached the mouth of the Arkansas. Convinced
that the Mississippi flowed into the Gulf of Mexico, they set out on
the return trip of two thousand miles.
Joliet reached Quebec in safety, but Marquette fell ill and remained
among the Indians. The next spring while preaching in Illinois near
where Ottawa now stands, he fell ill again, and died. The Indians
showed their love and respect by bearing his remains by canoe to
Mackinac, where he was buried beneath the chapel floor of his own
mission house.