Next in order, perhaps, come the sketches of Jean Allefonsce, pilot of

Roberval, who sailed with him for Canada, Aug. 22, 1541. Of his maps we

have four examples relating to the Gulf of St. Lawrence and the North.

Like the rest of his sketches, they are intercalated in his manuscript.

These particular sketches are found on folios 62, 179, 181, 183. Folio

62 represents Labrador and the regions to the north, with Iceland;

folio 179 shows “La Terra Neufe,” the southern part being an island,

and Labrador cut in two by a broad channel marked “La Bay d’au vennent

les glaces,” which Allefonsce thought came out of a fresh-water sea.

Folio 181 has the Gulf of St. Lawrence, with Assumption Island marked

“L’Ascention.” He invariably makes this mistake.

[Illustration: ALLEFONSCE, FOL. 179.]

The Gulf is called the Sea of Canada (_Mer de Canada_). There are three

inlets without names, representing Miramichi, Chaleur, and Gaspé. The

Gaspé region is called “Terre Unguedor.” The mouth of the St. Lawrence

is shown; and near the entrance, on the Labrador side, we find “La

Terre de Sept Isles.” There is an opening intended for Cartier’s Bay

of St. Lawrence; and farther eastward is “Cap de Thienot,” so named by

Cartier on his first voyage, after the Indian chief found there. Folio

183 indicates the Gulf again, as part of the Sea of Canada (_Partie

de la Mer de Canada_), together with a portion of the St. Lawrence,

marked “Riviere du Canada.” Where the sketch of folio 181 properly

shows “Unguedor,” we find “La Terre Franciscaine.” The Saguenay is

represented as a broad strait leading into a great sea, “La Mer du

Saguenay,” in which are three islands. These sketches, though rude,

possess considerable interest, as being the first known delineations of

the region made on the spot by an actual navigator; but the Saguenay

region is sketched fancifully from hearsay.

[Illustration: ALLEFONSCE, FOL. 181^A.]

In this connection we may mention Allefonsce’s sketches of the Atlantic

coast on folios 184, 186, 187 of his _Cosmographie_. The first includes

the entrance to the Gulf and the southern part of Newfoundland. The

entrance is marked “Entree des Bretons.” The Island of Cape Breton

bears its proper name, with the Straits of Canso clearly defined. Near

its true locality in the Gulf, but on too small a scale, we discover

the “Isla de Saint-Jean,” the “Isle Gazeas” of the map of Du Testu. The

New Brunswick section is styled, “One part of the Land of the Laborer”

(_Une partje de la Coaste du Laboureur_).[286] Cape Race, Newfoundland,

is called “Cap de Rat.” Folio 186 shows the New England coast proper,

with the River of Norumbega, south of which is “Cap de la Franciscaine”

and “Terre de la Franciscaine.” The next section (187) includes the

coast to Florida, with the West Indies and part of South America.

It would prove interesting if one could establish the priority of

Allefonsce in his application of the name “Saint-Jean” to our present

Prince Edward Island.[287] The _Cosmographie_ was finished in 1545,

while the so-called Cabot map, which uses the same name, was published

in 1544. Now did Allefonsce adopt the name from this map of 1544?

Clearly the name was not given by Cartier, either on his first or

second voyage. On his third voyage he does not appear to have sailed on

that side of the Gulf, while we have no details of the fourth voyage.

He, however, gave the name of St. John to a cape on the west coast of

Newfoundland during his first voyage. Allefonsce called Prince Edward

Island by that name. A full discussion of this subject might involve

a fresh inquiry into the authenticity of the Cabot map, and expunge

“Prima Vista.”

[Illustration: ALLEFONSCE, FOL. 183^A.]

The globe of Ulpius, 1542, does not recognize the voyages of Cartier,

showing Canada as the “Baccalearum Regio,” with openings in the coast

north and south of Newfoundland, called “Terra Laboratores.” North

America appears as a part of Asia.[288] The Nancy globe, which also

shows North America as connected with Asia, indicates that the insular

character of Newfoundland, called “Corterealis,” was well known at

the time of its construction, about 1542. From the gulf behind the

island—the southern part of which is much broken—two rivers extend

some distance into the continent.[289] These globes are according to

the prevailing French idea of the period, making New France, as Francis

I. expressed it, a part of Asia. The map of Jean Rotz, 1542, shows the

explorations of Cartier, but omits the names that belong on the Gulf

and River of St. Lawrence.[290]

The Vallard map 1544 (?) shows very fully the discoveries of Cartier,

his French names being corrupted by the Portuguese map-makers, who

promptly obtained a report of all that Cartier had done. The Gulf and

River of St. Lawrence appear simply as “Rio de Canada.”[291]

In 1544 we reach the famous Cabot map,[292] drawn from French material,

fully illustrating the French discoveries in Canada, and practically

ignoring the claims of Spain, though the alleged author was in the

service of that country. This appears to be the first publication,

and in fact the first recognition in a printed form, of the voyages

of Cartier and Roberval, the narrative of Cartier’s second voyage not

appearing until the following year.

[Illustration: ALLEFONSCE, CAPE BRETON, 1544-1545.]

Next, we find in the map of the Dauphin, or Henri II. (1546), that

Roberval is recognized standing with his soldiers in martial array

on the bank of the Saguenay. Newfoundland is represented as a mass

of islands,—an idea not dissipated by the voyages of Cartier; but

the Gulf and River of St. Lawrence are well depicted, and show the

explorations of the sailor of St. Malo. We see the Island of Assumption

(our Anticosti), the Island of St. John (Alezay), Brion’s Island, and

the Bird Rocks, with many of the names actually given to points of

the coast by Cartier, which shows that he did his work with care, yet

without attempting to affix names to either the gulf or the river,

giving to the latter in his narrative the Indian name “Hochelaga.” On

this map[293] the name of “St. Laurens” stands where Cartier put it

on his first voyage, at the St. John’s River, though the name very

soon—we cannot say when—was applied to the Gulf, as to-day. Gomara

styles it San Lorenço in 1553. The _Isolario_ of Bordone (1549) has

no recognition of Roberval or Cartier, repeating the map found in the

edition of 1527.

[Illustration: ALLEFONSCE, COAST OF MAINE, 1544-1545.]

In this connection the map of Gastaldi (1550) is somewhat remarkable.

Publishing it in 1556, in the third volume of his _Raccolta_ in

connection with the “Discorso d’vn Gran Capitano,” supposed to

have been written in 1539, Ramusio says that he is aware of its

deficiencies. This map, as well as the “Discorso,” makes no reference

to Cartier, though the country is called “LA NVOVA FRANCIA.” The map

gives a lively picture of the region. Norumbega appears as an island,

and Newfoundland as a collection of large islands, with evidences

of what may stand for explorations in the Gulf lying behind; but,

unlike the globe just mentioned, it shows no names on the coast of the

Gulf.[294] The insular character of the Norumbega region is not purely

imaginary, but is based upon the fact that the Penobscot region affords

almost a continued watercourse to the St. Lawrence, which was travelled

by the Maine Indians.

A map of Guillaume le Testu (1555),[295] preserved in the Department

of the Marine at Paris, exhibits very fully the work of Cartier. He

uses both the names “Francica” and “Le Canada.” To the Island of Prince

Edward, one cape of which Cartier called “Alezay,” he calls “Isle

Gazees.” The map marked xi. in Kunstmann’s _Atlas_ appears to apply “I:

allezai” to the same island.

Diego Homem’s map (1558), in the British Museum, also shows the

explorations of Cartier, though, in a poor and disjointed way,

representing the Northern Ocean as extending down to the region of

the St. Lawrence, and as being connected therewith by several broad

passages. Mercator (given by Jomard) reveals the discoveries of Cartier

in a more sober way, though he puts “Honguedo” at the Saguenay instead

of at Gaspé.

Here some notice should perhaps be taken of a map drawn in the year

1559,—the year 967 of the Hegira,—by the Tunisian, Hagi Ahmed, who

was addicted to the study of geography in his youth, and who, while

temporarily a slave among Christians, acquired much knowledge which

afterwards proved very serviceable. This map is cordiform, and engraved

on wood. It is described in the _Bulletin de la Société de Géographie_

(1865, pp. 686-757). A delineation in outline is also given, though

this representation affords only a faint idea of its contents. It was

found in the archives of the Council of Ten, and was discussed by

the Abbé Assemani in 1795. He was awarded a gold medal by the Prince

of Venice, who caused it to be struck in his honor. His treatise was

limited to twenty-four copies, which were accompanied by an equal

number of copies of the map. The name “Hagi” indicates that Ahmed had

made the holy pilgrimage to Mecca. The photograph[296] of it measures

16½ × 16 inches, the representation of the earth’s surface being

bordered by descriptive text inclosed in scroll work. Only two and one

half inches are devoted to the coast from Labrador to Florida; the

work, accordingly, being very minute, is difficult to examine even

under a lens. The coast is depicted according to Ribero; the Gulf of

St. Lawrence not being shown, though deep indentations mark the two

entrances. He does not appear to have had access to any good charts,

and shows a poor knowledge of what Cartier had done.

The map of Nicholas des Liens, of Dieppe (1566), which is a map of the

world, preserved under glass in the Geographical Department of the

Bibliothèque Nationale, gives on a small scale a curious representation

of Cartier’s exploration; the St. Lawrence as far as Quebec being

a broad gulf, one arm of which extends southwest, nearly to what

represents the New England coast. Along Lower Canada is spread out the

name “Jacques Cartier.”

Mercator’s map of 1569 makes some improvement upon the Dauphin’s map of

1546, showing Cape Breton more in its true relation to the continent;

while Newfoundland is comprised in fewer fragments. North America and

the lands to the north are dominated by imagination; and in this map we

find the source of much of that confusion which the power of Mercator’s

name extended far into the seventeenth century.[297] Mercator does not

give any additional facts respecting the explorations of Cartier.

The general map in the Ptolemy of 1574, by Ruscelli, shows North

America connected with both Asia and Europe, Greenland being joined

with the latter. Another map in this volume, showing the coast from

Florida to Labrador, presents Newfoundland in the old way as a

collection of islands, with three unnamed rivers extending into the

main at the westward.[298]

Ortelius, in 1575, fashioned his map of the world after Mercator, and

shows “Juan” out in the sea off Cape Breton; while in his special map

of America, farther out, we find “Juan de Sump^o” in the place of

Mercator’s “Juan Estevan.”[299]

The map of Thevet, given in his _Cosmographie Universelle_, 1575,

adds little to the interest of the discussion, as for the most part

he follows Mercator, the master of the period. On reaching the year

1584, the map of Jacques de Vaulx is found to show no improvement over

its immediate predecessors. The Gulf of St. Lawrence appears under its

present name, and the river, which is very wide, extends to Chilaga.

The Penobscot River runs through to the St. Lawrence, while a large

island, called “L’Isle St. Jehan,” lies in the sea along the coast

which occupies the region where we should look for a definition of the

peninsula of Nova Scotia.[300] On Lower Canada we read, “Terre Neufe.”

Newfoundland appears almost as a single island.

[Illustration: DES LIENS (1566).

[Sketched from a tracing furnished by Dr. De Costa.—ED.]]

Porcacchi’s work, _L’Isole piv Famose del Mondo_ of 1590 (p. 161),

goes backward in a hopeless manner. A river extends from the region of

Nova Scotia into a great lake (Lago) near “Ochelaga,” the latter being

nearly the only word on the map distinctly recalling the voyages of

Cartier.[301]

The map of De Bry, 1596, gives no light; though out at sea, off Cape

Breton, is the island “Fagundas.”[302] Wytfliet’s _Descriptionis

Ptolemaicæ_, etc., of 1597, contains the same representations of the

Gulf and River of St. Lawrence found in other editions, including the

Douay edition of 1611.[303] This author is also dominated by Mercator.

The Molyneux map of 1600, among other points, shows Allefonsce’s Sea of

Saguenay, saying, “The Lake of Tadenac [Tadousac?], the boundes whereof

are unknown.”[304] On this map Newfoundland appears as one solid

island, while the Penobscot extends through to the St. Lawrence, which

itself flows westward into the great “Lake of Tadenac, the boundes

whereof are unknoune.”[305]

Here we close our brief notice of a few of the representative maps

produced prior to the opening of the seventeenth century. A careful

examination of these maps would show, that, from the period of the

Dauphin Map down to the first voyage of Champlain to Canada, in 1603,

no substantial improvement was made by the cartographers of any nation

in the geographical delineation of the region opened to France by the

enterprise of Cartier and those who followed him. As we have shown

(_ante_, p. 61), the connection with New France was maintained, vast

profits being derived from the fisheries and from trade; but scientific

exploration appears to have been neglected, while the maps in many

cases became hopelessly confused. It was the work of Champlain to

bring order out of confusion; and by his well-directed explorations

to restore the knowledge which to the world at large had been lost,

carrying out at the same time upon a larger scale the arduous

enterprises projected by Jacques Cartier.

[Illustration]

THE CARTOGRAPHY

OF THE

NORTHEAST COAST OF NORTH AMERICA.

1535-1600.

BY THE EDITOR.

ALONZO DE CHAVES, who was made a royal cosmographer April 4, 1528, and

still retained that title, at the age of ninety-two, in 1584,[306]

is known to have made in 1536 a chart of the coast from Newfoundland

south; and though it is no longer extant, Harrisse[307] thinks its

essential parts are given in all probability in a chart of Diego

Gutierrez, preserved in the French archives.[308] It is known that

Oviedo based his description of the coast upon it; his full text

was not generally accessible till the Academy of History at Madrid

published its edition of the _Historia general de las Indias_[309] in

1852.

[Illustration: FROM THE NANCY GLOBE.

The key is as follows: 1. Gronlandia. 2. Corterealis. 3. Baccalearum

regio. 4. Anorombega.]

During the few years immediately following the explorations of Cartier

we find little or no trace of his discoveries. There is scarcely any

significance, for instance, in the Agnese map of 1536,[310] the Apianus

map of 1540,[311] the Münster of the same year,[312] or in other

maps mentioned in connection with the Sea of Verrazano on an earlier

page.[313] A little more precision comes with the group of islands

standing for the Newfoundland region, which appears in the early

Mercator map of 1538 and in the gores of Mercator’s globe of 1541,[314]

and in the Nancy globe of about the same date; but the Ulpius globe

(1542) is uncertain enough, and has the names confused.

We first begin to trace a sensible effect of Cartier’s voyage in

a manuscript in the British Museum[315] indorsed, _This Boke of

Idrography is made by me, Johne Rotz, Sarvant to the Kinges Mooste

Excellent Majestie_. The author was a Frenchman of Flemish name, and

his treatise is dated 1542. Harrisse[316] thinks that he used the

Portuguese-Dieppe authorities; and Kohl thinks that he must have had

access to the maps, now lost, which Cartier brought home from his first

voyage, while along the Gulf of Maine he depended upon the Spanish

accounts.[317] Both of the sketches from Rotz here given follow copies

in the Kohl Collection; one is a section from his map of the east coast

of North America, and the other is from his Western Hemisphere,—which

seems to indicate that he had in the interim between making the two

maps got tidings of Cartier’s later voyage.[318]

[Illustration: FROM THE ULPIUS GLOBE, 1542.

The key is as follows: 1. Groestlandia. 2. Islandia. 3. Grovelat.

4. Terra Corterealis. 5. Baccalos. 6. Terra laboratoris. 7. Cavo de

Brettoni. Cf. the fac-simile on an earlier page.]

Baptista Agnese at Venice seems not to have been as fortunate in

getting knowledge of Cartier’s voyages as Rotz in London was; and

two or three of his charts, dated 1543, showing this region, are

preserved. They give a pretty clear notion of the eastern coast of

Newfoundland, with “C. Raso” and “Terra de los Bretones” to the west of

it.[319] These Agnese maps are in London,[320] Paris, Florence,[321]

and Coburg.[322] Other maps by Agnese of a year or two later date, but

preserving much the same characteristics, are in the Royal Library at

Dresden,[323] dated 1544, and in the Marciana Collection at Venice,

dated 1545.[324]

We get at last, as has been said in the previous chapter, the first

recognition in a printed map of the Cartier voyages in the great

Cabot map of 1544, of which a section is here reproduced,[325] and a

similar section is given by Harrisse in his _Cabots_, preserving the

colors of the original. Harrisse, by collating the references and

early descriptions, reaches the conclusion that there may have been

three, and perhaps four, editions of this map, of which a single copy

of one edition is now known. Of the maps accompanying the manuscript

_Cosmographie_ of Allefonsce, in the Paris Library, sufficient has been

said in the preceding text.[326]

None of these explorations prevented Münster, however, from neglecting,

if he was aware of, the newer views which the Cabot map had made

public; and his eagerness for the western passage dictated easily

a way to the Moluccas in the “Typus universalis” of his edition of

Ptolemy in 1545.

[Illustration: ROTZ, 1542 (_East Coast_).]

In the same year (1545) a map of America appeared in the well-known

nautical handbook of the Spaniards, the _Arte de navegar_ of Pedro

de Medina, which was repeated in his _Libro de grandezas y cosas

memorables de España_ of 1549. A sketch of this part of the coast is

annexed, and it will be seen that it betrays no adequate conception of

what Cartier had accomplished.

[Illustration: ROTZ, 1542 (_Western Hemisphere_).]

To 1546 we may now assign the French map sometimes cited as that of

the Dauphin, and sometimes as of Henri II. It is but a few years since

Mr. Major first deciphered the legend: “Faictes a Arques par Pierre

Desceliers, presb^r, 1546.” Jomard, who gives a fac-simile of it,

places it about the middle of the century;[327] D’Avezac put it under

1542;[328] Kohl thought it was finished in 1543.[329]

[Illustration: FROM THE CABOT MAPPEMONDE, 1544.]

The annexed sketch will show that the Cartier discoveries are clearly

recognized. The Spanish names along the coast seem to indicate that the

maker used Spanish charts; and probably in part such as are not now

known to exist.[330]

[Illustration: PART OF MÜNSTER’S MAP OF 1545.

This sketch is reduced from a copy in Harvard College Library. This map

was re-engraved in the edition of _Ptolemy_ (1552), and on this last

plate the names of “Islandia” and “Bacalhos” are omitted, and “Thyle”

becomes “Island.”

A different engraving is also found in Münster’s _Cosmographia_ (1554).

Harrisse (nos. 188, 189) refers to unpublished maps of this coast of

about this date, which are preserved in the Musée Correr, and in the

Biblioteca Marciana at Venice, and to accounts of these and others in

Matkovic’s _Schiffer-Karten in den Bibliotheken zu Venedig_, 1863, and

in Berchet’s _Portolani esistenti nelle principali biblioteche_ _di

Venetia_, 1866.]

[Illustration: FROM MEDINA, 1545.

This is sketched from the Harvard College copy. The map is repeated in

the Seville edition of 1563,—the first edition (1545) having appeared

at Valladolid. The _Libro_, etc., is also in Harvard College Library.]

A map preserved in the British Museum belongs to this period. That

library acquired it in 1790, and its Catalogue fixes it before 1536;

but Harrisse, because it does not give the Saguenay, which Cartier

explored in his third voyage, places it after October, 1546. Harrisse

thinks it is based on Portuguese sources, with knowledge also of

Cartier’s discoveries.[331]

Dr. Kohl, in his Washington Collection, has included a map by Joannes

Freire, of which a sketch is annexed. It belonged to a manuscript

portolano when Kohl copied it, in the possession of Santarem, which is

described by Harrisse in his _Cabots_ (p. 220). Freire was a Portuguese

map-maker, who seems to have used Spanish and French sources, besides

those of his own countrymen.

The New England coast belongs to a type well known at this time, and

earlier; and if the position of the legend about Cortereal has any

significance, it places his exploration farther south than is usually

supposed. The names along the St. Lawrence are French, with a trace of

Portuguese,—“Angoulesme,” for instance, becoming “Golesma.”

[Illustration: HENRI II. MAP, 1546.

The key is as follows: 1. Ochelaga. 2. R. du Saĝnay. 3. Assumption.

4. R. Cartier. 5. Bell isle. 6. Bacalliau. 7. C. de Raz. 8. C. aux

Bretons. 9. Encorporada. 10. Y^e du Breton. 11. Y^e de Jhan estienne.

12. Sete citades. 13. C. des isles. 14. Arcipel de estienne Gomez.

Some of these names not in Ribero, nor in other earlier Spanish charts,

indicate that Desceliers had access to maps not now known.]

Kohl placed in the same Collection another map of this region from an

undated portolano in the British Museum (no. 9,814), which in some

parts closely resembles this of Freire; but it is in others so curious

as to deserve record in the annexed sketch. Kohl argues, from the

absence of the St. Lawrence Gulf, that it records the observations of

Denys, of Honfleur, and the early fishermen.

The precise date of the so-called Nicolas Vallard map is not certain;

for that name and the date, 1547, may be the designation and time of

ownership, rather than of its making. The atlas containing it was once

owned by Prince Talleyrand, and belongs to the Sir Thomas Phillipps

Collection. Kohl has conjectured that it is of Portuguese origin,[332]

and includes it in his Collection, now in the State Department at

Washington.

[Illustration: FREIRE, 1546.]

Cesáreo Fernandez Duro, in his _Arca de Noé; libro sexto de las

disquisiciones náuticas_, Madrid, 1881, gives a map of the St. Lawrence

Gulf and River of the sixteenth century. It was found in a volume

relating to the Jesuits in the Library of the Royal Academy of History

at Madrid, and was produced in fac-simile in connection with Duro’s

paper on the discovery of Newfoundland and the early whale and cod

fisheries,—particularly by the Basques. The date of the chart is too

indefinitely fixed to be of much use in reference to the progress of

discovery. Harrisse[333] is inclined to put its date after the close of

the century, even so late as 1603.

Intelligence of Cartier’s tracks had hardly spread as yet into Italy,

judging from the map of Gastaldi in the Italian Ptolemy of 1548.

Mr. Brevoort[334] says of the sketch,—which is annexed,—that it

is a “draught entirely different from any previously published. The

materials for it were probably derived from Ramusio, who had collected

original maps to illustrate his Collection of Voyages, but who

published very few of them. In this particular map we find indications

of Portuguese and French tracings, with but little from Spanish ones.”

Gastaldi is thought to have made the general map which appears in

Ramusio’s third volume (1556), five or six years earlier, or in 1550.

All that it shows for the geography of the St. Lawrence Gulf and River

is a depression in the coast nearly filled by a large island. In 1550,

and again in 1553, the Abbé Desceliers, who has already been shown to

be the author of the Henri II. map, made portolanos which are of the

same size, and bear similar inscriptions: (1) “_Faicte a Arques par

Pierres Desceliers, P. Bre: lan 1550_; and (2) _Faicte a Arques par

Pierre Desceliers, Prebstre_, 1553.”

[Illustration: BRITISH MUSEUM, NO. 9,814.]

No. 1 was in the possession of Professor Negri at Padua, when it was

described in the _Bulletin de la Société de Géographie_, September,

1852, p. 235. It is now in the British Museum.[335] Harrisse[336]

describes it, and says its names are essentially Portuguese. On

Labrador we read: _Terre de Jhan vaaz_ and _G. de manuel pinho_. The

St. Lawrence is not named, but the Bay of Chaleur bears its present

name.

[Illustration: NIC. VALLARD DE DIEPPE.]

No. 2, which is less richly adorned than the other, was intended for

Henri II., as would appear from its bearing that monarch’s arms. Some

inquiry into the life of its maker is given in the _Bulletin de la

Société de Géographie_, September, 1876, p. 295, by Malte-Brun. It is

owned by the Abbé Sigismond de Bubics, of Vienna. Desceliers was born

at Dieppe, and his services to hydrography have been much studied of

late.[337]

[Illustration: FROM GASTALDI’S MAP.

A sketch of map no. 56 in the Italian edition of Ptolemy, 1548,

entitled, “Della terra nova Bacalaos.” The following key explains it:

1. Orbellande. 2. Tierra del Labrador. 3. Tierra del Bacalaos. 4.

Tierra de Nurumberg. 5. C: hermoso. 6. Buena Vista. 7. C: despoir. 8.

C: de ras. 9. Breston. 10. C. Breton. 11. Tierra de los broton. 12. Le

Paradis. 13. Flora. 14. Angoulesme. 15. Larcadia. 16. C: de. s. maia.

Paul Forlani, of Verona, had scarcely advanced beyond this plot of

Gastaldi, when so late as 1565 he published at Venice his _Universale

descrittione_ (Thomassy, _Les Papes géographes_, p. 118).]

Harrisse[338] thinks that the praise bestowed upon Desceliers as the

creator of French hydrography is undeserved, as the excellence of the

maps of his time presupposes a long line of tentative, and even good,

work in cartography; and he holds that Portuguese influence is apparent

from the early part of the sixteenth century.

Wuttke, in his “Geschichte der Erdkunde,”[339] describes and figures

several manuscript American maps from the Collection in the Palazzo

Riccardi at Florence, dated 1550 or thereabout; but they add nothing

to our knowledge respecting the region we are considering. One makes a

large gulf in the northeast of North America, and puts “Terra di la S.

Berton” on its east side, and “Ispagna Nova” on the west. This gulf has

a different shape in two other of the maps, and disappears in some. In

one there is a gulf prolonged to the west in the far north.

At about this date we may place a curious French map, communicated

by Jomard to Kohl, and included by the latter in his Washington

Collection. A sketch of it is annexed.[340] It is manuscript, and

bears neither name nor date. The extreme northeastern part resembles

Rotz’s map of 1542, and the explorations of Cartier and Roberval seem

to be embodied. The breaking-up of Newfoundland would connect it with

Gastaldi’s maps, or the information upon which Gastaldi worked, while

the names on its outer coast are of Portuguese origin, with now a

Spanish and now a French guise. Farther south the coast seems borrowed

from the Spanish maps. The large river emptying into the St. Lawrence

from the south is something unusual on maps of a date previous to

Champlain. If it is the Sorel, Champlain’s discovery of the lake known

by his name was nearly anticipated. If it is the Chaudière, it would

seem to indicate at an early day the possibilities of the passage by

the portage made famous by Arnold in 1775, and of which some inkling

seems to have been had in the union of the St. Lawrence and the Gulf

of Maine not infrequently shown in the early maps. The most marked

feature of the map, however, is the insularity of the continent, with a

connection of the Western Ocean somewhere apparently in the latitude of

South Carolina, similar to that shown in John White’s map, as depicted

in the preceding chapter. It may, of course, have grown out of a belief

in the Sea of Verrazano; or it may have simply been a geographical

gloss put upon Indian reports of great waters west of the limit of

Cartier’s expedition.

[Illustration: THE JOMARD MAP, 155—(?).]

Harrisse[341] puts _circa_ 1553 a fine parchment planisphere, neither

signed nor dated, which is preserved in the Archives of the Marine

in Paris. It shows the English standard on Labrador (Greenland), the

Portuguese on Nova Scotia, and the Spanish at Florida.

[Illustration: PART OF BELLERO’S MAP, 1554.

The whole map is reproduced in Vol. VIII.]

Another popular American map by Bellero was used in the Antwerp

_Gomara_ of 1554, and in several other publications issuing from

that city.[342] It was not more satisfactory, as the annexed sketch

shows,—which indicates that even in Antwerp the full extent of

Cartier’s explorations was not suspected. Nor had Baptista Agnese

divined it in his atlas of the same year, preserved in the Biblioteca

Marciana at Venice. Our sketch is taken from the fifth sheet as given

in a photographic fac-simile[343] issued at Venice in 1881, under the

editing of Professor Theodor Fischer, of Kiel.

An elaborate portolano _Cosmographie universelle, par Guillaume

Le Testu_, and dated in 1555, is described by Harrisse[344] as an

adaptation of a Portuguese atlas, with the addition of some French

names. The northern regions of North America are called _Francia_.

[Illustration: BAPTISTA AGNESE, 1554.]

In 1556, in the third volume of Ramusio’s _Navigationi et viaggi_,[345]

Gastaldi, excelling a little his Ptolemy map of 1548,—a sketch

of which is given on p. 88,—produced his _Terra de Labrador et

Nova Francia_; while for the accounts which Ramusio now printed of

Cartier’s voyage, Gastaldi added the _Terra de Hochelaga nella Nova

Francia_,—which was simply a bird’s-eye view of an Indian camp.[346]

In the same year (1556) the map of Volpellio was not less deceptive.

Two years later (1558) we find an atlas in the British Museum, the work

of Diego Homem, a Portuguese cartographer, which seems to indicate

other information than that afforded by Cartier’s voyages. It is not

so accurate as regards the St. Lawrence as earlier maps are, but shows

additional knowledge of the Bay of Fundy, which comes out for the

first time, and is not again so correctly drawn till we get down to

Lescarbot, half a century later.

[Illustration: VOPELLIO.

Part of the northern portion of Vopellio’s cordiform mappemonde, which

appeared in Girava’s _Cosmographia_, Milan, 1556; cf. _Carter-Brown

Catalogue_, i. 200. The map is very rare; Stevens has issued a

fac-simile of it from the British Museum copy.]

Girolamo Ruscelli, in the Venice edition of Ptolemy, 1561, gave a map

which was evidently derived from the same sources as the Gastaldi, as

the annexed sketch will show.

A mere passing mention may be made of a large engraved map of

America, of Spanish origin, “Auctore Diego Gutierro, Phillipi regis

cosmographo,” dated 1562, because of its curious confusion of names and

localities in its Canadian parts.[347]

[Illustration: GASTALDI IN RAMUSIO.

Kohl, _Discovery of Maine_, p. 226 (who gives a modern rendering of

this map), puts the making of it at about 1550,—two years later than

the appearance of his Ptolemy map.]

The atlas of Baptista Agnese of 1564, preserved in the British

Museum,[348] and another of his of the same date in the Biblioteca

Marciana, still retain some of the features of his earlier portolanos.

He always identifies Greenland with Baccalaos, and still represents

Newfoundland as a part of the main. Harrisse holds that he had not

advanced beyond the Toreno (Venice) map of 1534, and in 1564 knew

little more of the Newfoundland region than was known to Ribero and

Chaves thirty-five years earlier.

[Illustration: HOMEM, 1558.

This sketch follows a reproduction in Kohl’s _Discovery of Maine_, p.

377; cf. _British Museum Catalogue of Manuscript Maps_ (1844), i. 27;

Harrisse, _Cabots_, p. 243. Various atlases of Homem are preserved in

Europe. This 1558 map (giving both Americas) is included in Kohl’s

Collection at Washington, as well as another map of 1568, following a

manuscript preserved in the Royal Library at Dresden, purporting to

have been made by “Diegus Cosmographus” at Venice. Kohl thinks him the

Diego Homem of the 1558 map, which the 1568 map closely resembles,

though it makes the northern coast of America more perfect than in the

earlier draft.]

The Catalogue of the King’s maps in the British Museum puts under 1562

a map entitled, _Universale descrittione di tutta la terra cognosciuta

da Paulo di Forlani_.

[Illustration: RUSCELLI, 1561.

A sketch of his _Tierra Nueva_. The key is as follows: 1. Lacadia.

2. Angouleme. 3. Flora. 4. Le Paradis. 5. P. Real. 6. Brisa I. 7.

Tierra de los Breton. 8. C. Breton. 9. Breston. 10. C. de Ras. 11. C.

de Spoir. 12. Buena Vista. 13. Monte de Trigo. 14. Das Chasteaulx.

15. Terra Nova. 16. C. Hermoso. 17. S. Juan. 18. Isola de Demoni. 19.

Orbellanda. 20. Y. Verde. 21. Maida.

There are reproductions of this map in Kohl’s _Discovery of Maine_,

p. 233, and Lelewel, _Géographie du Moyen-Age_, p. 170; cf. Harrisse,

_Cabots_, p. 237; and his _Notes, pour servir à l’histoire ... de la

Nouvelle France_, etc., no. 294.]

Thomassy,[349] however, cites it as published in Venice in 1565, and

says it strongly resembles Gastaldi’s map, and is, perhaps, the same

one credited to Forlani under 1570, as showing the recent discoveries

in Canada. It is contained in the so-called Roman atlas of Lafreri,

_Tavole moderne di geografia_, Rome and Venice, 1554-1572.[350]

[Illustration: ZALTIERI, 1566.]

Next in chronological order comes an engraved map (15½ × 10½)

with the following title: _Il disegno del discoperto della Nova Franza

... Venetijs aeneis formis Bolognini Zalterij, Anno M.D. LXVI_.[351]

It gives the whole breadth of the continent, and is very erroneous in

the eastern parts. The “R. S. Lorenzo” runs southeast from a large

lake into the ocean between Lacadia and Baccalaos, while Ochelaga and

Stadaconi[352] are on a river running east farther to the north, whose

headwaters are in a region called “Canada.” The island C. Berton, as

well as Sable Island (Y. Darena), would seem to indicate that the coast

to the north of them is intended for the modern Nova Scotia, which

would make the river running from the lake the Penobscot, and the group

of islands east of Baccalaos a disjointed Newfoundland, compelling

the river rising near Canada to do duty for the St. Lawrence. The

large island, “Gamas,” is perhaps a reminiscence of Gomez.[353] The

map in these parts is so confused, however, that its chief interest

is to illustrate the strange commingling of error and truth, “which

we have received lately,” as the inscription reads, “from the latest

explorations of the French,”—which must, if it means anything, refer

to Roberval. The map has signs neither of latitude nor longitude. In

general contour it resembles other Italian maps of this time, like

those of Forlani, Porcacchi, etc. Zaltieri differs from Forlani,

however, in separating America from Asia.

The great mappemonde of Gerard Mercator, introducing his well-known

projection, followed in 1569. The annexed sketch indicates its

important bearing on a portion of North American cartography. The

St. Lawrence is extended much farther inland than ever before, with

no signs of the Great Lakes, and it is made to rise in the southerly

part of the region, put in modern maps west of the Mississippi,

among mountains which also form a watershed westerly to the Gulf of

California and southerly to the Gulf of Mexico.

[Illustration: MERCATOR, 1569.

The key is as follows: 1. Hic mare est dulcium aquarum, cujus terminum

ignorari Canadenses ex relatu Saguenaiesium aiunt. 2. Hoc fluvio

facilior est navigatio in Saguenai. 3. Hochelaga. 4. P^o de Jacques

Cartier. 5. Belle ysle. 6. C. de Razo. 7. C. de Breton. 8. Y. della

Assumptione. 9. G. de Chaleur.

A fac-simile of this map is given on a later page.]

Kohl[354] sums up his essay on this map as follows: “It is a remarkable

fact, that while the icy seas and coasts of Greenland, Labrador,

Newfoundland, and Canada were depicted on the maps of the sixteenth

century with a high degree of truth, our coasts of New England and New

York were badly drawn so late as 1569; and their cartography remained

very defective through nearly the whole of the sixteenth century.”

A close resemblance to Mercator is seen in the rendering of Ortelius

in the first (1570) edition of his _Theatrum orbis terrarum_.[355]

The contour and general details of North America, as established by

Mercator and Ortelius, became a type much copied in the later years

of the sixteenth century. The woodcut map in Thevet’s _Cosmographie

universelle_ (1575), for instance, is chiefly based on Ortelius, though

Thevet claimed to have based it on personal observation in 1556.[356]

[Illustration: ORTELIUS, 1570.]

The maps in De la Popellinière’s _Les trois mondes_ (1582), that of

Cornelius Judæus (1589), those in Maffeius’s _Historiarum Indicarum

libri xvi._ (1593), in Magninus’s _Geographia_ (1597), and in Münster’s

_Cosmographia_ (1598),—all follow this type. Reference may also be

made to a Spanish mappemonde of 1573 which is figured in Lelewel,[357]

an engraved Spanish map in the British Museum, evidently based on

Ortelius, and assigned by the Museum authorities to 1600; but Kohl, who

has a copy in his Washington Collection, thinks it is probably earlier.

A similar westward prolongation of the St. Lawrence River is found in

a “Typus orbis terrarum,” dated 1574, which, with a smaller map of

similar character, appeared in the _Enchiridion Philippi Gallæi, per

Hugonem Favolium_, Antwerp, 1585. Quite another view prevailed at the

same time with other geographers, and also became a type, as seen in

the map given by Porcacchi as “Mondo nuovo” in his _L’ isole piu famose

del mondo_, published at Venice in 1572, in which he mixes geographical

traits and names in a curious manner. It is not easy to trace the

origin of some of this cartographer’s points.

A theory of connecting the Atlantic and the St. Lawrence on the line

of what is apparently the Hudson River, which had been advanced by

Ruscelli in the general map of the world in the 1561 edition of

Ptolemy, was developed in 1578 by Martines in his map of the world in

the British Museum, from a copy of which in the Kohl Collection the

accompanied sketch is taken.[358]

What is known as Dr. Dee’s map was presented by him to Queen Elizabeth

in 1580, and was made for him, if not by him. It is preserved in the

British Museum, and the sketch here given follows Dr. Kohl’s copy in

his Washington Collection. Dee used mainly Spanish authorities, as many

of his names signify; and though he was a little too early to recognize

Drake’s New Albion, he was able to depict Frobisher’s Straits.[359]

[Illustration: PORCACCHI, 1572.

This is sketched from the copy in the Harvard College Library. The book

has a somewhat similar delineation in an elliptical mappemonde, of

which a fac-simile is given in Stevens’s _Historical and Geographical

Notes_. The bibliography of Porcacchi is examined in another volume.]

The peculiarities of three engraved English maps of about this time

are not easy to trace. The first map is that in Sir Humphrey Gilbert’s

_Discourse_;[360] the second is the rude drawing which accompanied

Beste’s _True Discourse_ relating to Frobisher;[361] the third, that of

Michael Lok,[362] in Hakluyt’s _Divers Voyages_. Hakluyt, in the map

which he added to the edition of Peter Martyr published in Paris in

1587, conformed much more nearly to the latest knowledge.[363]

We find what is perhaps the latest instance of New France being made

to constitute the eastern part of Asia, in the map (1587) given in

Myritius’s _Opusculum geographicum rarum_, published at Ingoldstadt

in 1590.[364] A group of small islands stands in a depression of the

coast, and they are marked “Insulæ Corterealis.” It carries back the

geographical views more than half a century.

[Illustration: MARTINES, 1578.]

In the Molineaux globe of 1592,[365] preserved in London, we find

a small rudimentary lake, which seems to be the beginning of the

cartographical history of the great inland seas,—a germ expanded in

his map of 1600[366] into his large “Lacke of Tadenac.” Meanwhile Peter

Plancius embodied current knowledge in his well-known map of the world.

So far as the St. Lawrence Valley goes, it was not much different from

the type which Ortelius had established in 1570. Blundeville, in his

_Exercises_ (1622, p. 523), describing Plancius’ map, speaks of it as

“lately put forth in the yeere of our Lord 1592;” but in the Dutch

edition of Linschoten in 1596 it is inscribed: _Orbis terrarum ...

auctore Petro Plancio_, 1594.

[Illustration: JUDÆIS, 1593.]

It appeared re-engraved in the Latin Linschoten of 1599; but in this

plate it is not credited to Plancius. The map which took its place in

the English Linschoten, edited by Wolfe, in 1598, was the same recut

Ortelius map which Hakluyt had used in his 1589 edition. This was the

work of Arnoldus Florentius à Langren, though Wolfe omits the author’s

name.[367]

[Illustration: JOHN DEE, 1580.]

In the map, “Americæ pars borealis, Florida, Baccalaos, Canada,

Corterealis, a Cornelio de Judæis in lucem edita, 1593,” which appeared

in that year in his _Speculum orbis terrarum_, Mercator and Ortelius

seem to be the source of much of its Arctic geography; but its Lake

Conibas, with its fresh water, records very likely some Indian story

of the Great Lakes lying away up the Ottawa,—which is presumably the

river rising in the Saguenay country. A legend on the map says that

its fresh water is of an extent unknown to the Canadians, who are, as

another legend says, the nations filling up the country from Baccalaos

to Florida.

[Illustration: DE BRY, 1596.]

It will be observed that to the northwest the Zeno map[368] has been

made tributary, while one name, “Golfo quarré,” is not in the place

usually given to it, since it is generally the alternative name of the

Gulf of St. Lawrence. The nomenclature of the coast from Cape Breton

south follows the Spanish names; and though Virginia is recognized by

name, there is no indication of the new geography of that region.[369]

[Illustration: FROM WYTFLIET.]

De Bry in 1596 added little that was new; and much the same may be said

of the maps in the edition of Ptolemy published at Cologne in 1597, and

numbered 2, 29, 34, and 35.[370]

New France is also shown in the “Nova Francia et Canada, 1597,” which

is no. 18 of the series of maps in Wytfliet’s Continuation of Ptolemy.

Others in the same work show contiguous regions:—

No. 15. “Conibas regio cum vicinis gentibus,”—Hudson’s Bay and the

region south of it.

No. 17. “Norumbega et Virginia,”—from 37° to 47° north latitude.

No. 19. “Estotilandia et Laboratoris,”—Labrador and Greenland, mixed

with the Zeni geography.

[Illustration: QUADUS, 1600.]

The map by Mathias Quaden, or Quadus, in the _Geographisches Handbuch_,

was published at Cologne in 1600, bearing the title, “Novi orbis pars

borealis.” The northeastern parts seem to be based on Mercator and

Ortelius. A marginal note at “Corterealis” defines that navigator’s

explorations as extending north to the point of what is called

Estotilant. In its Lake Conibas it follows the 1593 map of Judæis.

* * * * *

In this enumeration of the maps showing the Gulf and River St.

Lawrence down to the close of the seventeenth century, by no means

all of the reduplications have been mentioned; but enough has been

indicated to trace the somewhat unstable development of hydrographical

knowledge in this part of North America. Most interesting, among the

maps of the latter part of the century which have been omitted, are,

perhaps, the _Erdglobus_ of Philip Apian (1576), given in Wieser,

_Magalhâes-Strasse_, p. 72; the mappemonde in Cellarius’ _Speculum

orbis terrarum_ (Antwerp, 1578); the map of the world in Apian’s

_Cosmographie augmentée, par Gemma Frison_ (Antwerp, 1581, 1584, and

the Dutch edition of 1598); the map of the world by A. Millo (1582),

as noted in the _British Museum Manuscripts_, no. 27,470; that in the

_Relationi universali di Giovanni Botero_, Venice (1595, 1597, 1598,

1603); the earliest English copperplate map in Broughton’s _Concent

of Scripture_ (1596); the _Caert-Thresoor_ of Langennes, Amsterdam,

1598; and, in addition, the early editions of the atlases of Mercator,

Hondius, Jannsen, and Conrad Loew, with the globes of Blaeuw.

The maps in Langenes were engraved by Kærius, and they were repeated

in the French editions of 1602 and 1610 (?). They were also reproduced

in the _Tabularum geographicarum contractarum libri_ of Bertius,

Amsterdam, 1606, whose text was used, with the same maps, in Langenes’

_Handboek van alle landen_, edited by Viverius, published at Amsterdam

in 1609. In 1618 a French edition of Bertius was issued by Hondius at

Amsterdam with an entirely new set of maps, including a general map of

America and one of “Nova Francia et Virginia.”

CHAPTER III.

CHAMPLAIN.

BY THE REV. EDMUND F. SLAFTER.

FROM 1603 to 1635 the ruling spirit and prominent figure in French

exploration and colonization in America was Samuel de Champlain.

His temperament and character, as well as his education and early

associations, fitted him for his destined career. His home in the

little town of Brouage, in Saintonge, offered to his early years more

or less acquaintance with military and commercial life. He acquired a

mastery of the science of navigation and cartography according to the

best methods of that period. His knowledge of the art of pictorial

representation was imperfect, but nevertheless useful to him in the

construction of his numerous maps and topographical illustrations.

He wrote the French language with clearness, and without provincial

disfigurement. Several years in the army as quartermaster gave him

valuable lessons and rich experience in many departments of business.

Two years in the West Indies, visiting not only its numerous Spanish

settlements, including the City of Mexico on the northern and New

Grenada on the southern continent, gave him an intimate and thorough

knowledge of Spanish colonization.

With such a preparation as this, at the age of thirty-five or

thirty-six, Champlain entered, in a subordinate position, upon his

earliest voyage to the Atlantic coast of North America. During

the preceding sixty years the French had taken little interest in

discovery, and had made no progress in colonization, though their trade

on the coast may have been kept up.[371]

In 1603, Amyar de Chastes, a venerable governor of Dieppe, conceived

the idea of planting a colony in the New World, of removing thither

his family, and of finishing there his earthly career. He accordingly

obtained from Henry IV. a commission; and, associating with himself in

the enterprise several merchants, he sent out an expedition to make a

general survey, to fix upon a suitable place for a settlement, and to

determine what provision would be necessary for the accommodation of

his colony. De Chastes invited Champlain to accompany this expedition.

No proposition could have been more agreeable to his tastes. He

accepted it with alacrity, provided, however, the assent of the King

should first be obtained. This permission was readily accorded by

Henry IV., but was coupled with the command that he should bring back

a careful and detailed report of his explorations. Champlain was thus

made the geographer of the King. It is doubtless from this appointment,

unsought, unexpected, and almost accidental, that we are favored with

Champlain’s unparalleled journals, which have come down to us rich in

incident, prolific in important information, and covering nearly the

whole period of his subsequent career.

The expedition set on foot by Amyar de Chastes left Honfleur on the

15th of March, 1603. It consisted of two vessels, one commanded by Pont

Gravé, a distinguished fur-trader and merchant, who had previously

made several voyages to the New World, and the other by Sieur Prevert,

both of them from the city of St. Malo. Two Indians, who had been

brought to France by Pont Gravé on a former voyage, accompanied the

expedition, and made themselves useful in the investigation which

ensued. Delayed by gales lasting many days, and by floating fields

of ice sometimes fifteen or twenty miles in extent, the company were

forty days in reaching the harbor of Tadoussac. Here, a short distance

from their anchorage, they found encamped a large number of savages,

estimated at a thousand, who were celebrating a recent victory. These

savages were representatives from the three great allied northern

families or tribes,—the Etechemins of New Brunswick and Maine, the

Montagnais of the northern banks of the St. Lawrence about Tadoussac,

and the Algonquins, coming from the vast region watered by the Ottawa

and its tributaries. They had just returned from a conflict with the

Iroquois near the mouth of the Richelieu. War between these tribes was

of long standing. All traditions as to its beginning are shadowy and

obscure; but it had clearly been in progress several generations, and

probably several centuries, renewing its horrors in unceasing revenge

and in constantly recurring cruelties. For the thirty years which

Champlain was yet to spend as the neighbor of these tribes such hostile

encounters were, as we shall see, a continual obstacle to his plans and

a steady source of anxiety.

On the arrival at Tadoussac, preparations were at once made for

an exploration of the St. Lawrence. While these were in progress,

Champlain explored the Saguenay for the distance of thirty or forty

miles, noting its extraordinary character, its profound depth, its

rapid current, and impressed with the lofty and sterile mountains

between whose perpendicular walls its pent-up waters had forced their

way, moving down to the ocean with a heavy and irresistible flood. This

survey of the Saguenay was probably the first ever made by a European

explorer. At all events, Champlain’s description is the earliest which

has come down to us.

On the 18th of June, leaving Tadoussac in a barque, and taking with

them a skiff made expressly for ascending rapids and penetrating

shallow streams, Champlain, Pont Gravé, and a complement of sailors,

with several Indians as guides and assistants, proceeded up the

St. Lawrence. From Tadoussac to Montreal they explored the bays and

tributary rivers, observing the character of the soil, the forests,

the animal and vegetable products, including all the elements of

present and prospective wealth. On reaching the Lachine Rapids above

Montreal, their progress was abruptly terminated. Neither their barque

nor their skiff could stem the current. They continued on foot along

the shore for several miles, but soon found it inexpedient with their

present equipment to proceed farther. Having obtained from the Indians

important, if not very definite, information concerning the country,

rivers, and lakes above the falls, and having likewise learned from

them that in the lake region far to the north native copper existed

and had been fabricated into articles of ornament, they returned to

Tadoussac.

Champlain immediately organized another party to examine the southern

shore of the Gulf of St. Lawrence. Skirting along the coast, they

touched at Gaspé, Mal-Bay, and Isle Percée, which were at that time

(1603) important stations, annually visited by fishermen of different

nations. Soon after reaching the southern coast they met a troop of

savages who were transporting arrows and moose-meat to exchange for the

skins of the beaver and marten with the more northern tribes whom they

expected to find at Tadoussac. Having obtained such information as they

desired of the country still farther south, and of the copper mines in

the region about the Bay of Fundy, Champlain’s party passed directly

from Gaspé to the northern side of the Gulf, touching somewhere near

the Seven Islands, and thence coasted along the inhospitable shores of

the northern side till they reached the harbor of Tadoussac. Having

completed their explorations and secured a valuable cargo of furs,

which was a subordinate purpose of the expedition, they returned to

France, arriving at Havre de Grâce on the 20th of September, 1603.

On their arrival Champlain received the painful news of the death of

Amyar de Chastes, under whose auspices the expedition had been sent

out. This put an end to the present scheme of a colonial plantation.

Champlain applied himself immediately to the preparation of an

elaborate report of his explorations, and in a few months it was

printed under the sanction of the King and given to the public. This

book proved of importance at that early stage of French colonization in

America; it covered, indeed, nearly the same ground which had been gone

over by Cartier sixty years before. But the survey had been more exact

and thorough; for he had observed more of the harbors and penetrated

more of the tributaries both of the river and of the gulf. The pictures

which he presented were more completely drawn, and detailed more

accurately the sources of wealth, while they conveyed the practical

information which was needed by those who were about to embark in the

colonization of the New World. This fresh statement of Champlain,

virtually with the royal commendation, awakened in the public mind, as

might well be expected, a new interest, and enterprising merchants in

different cities of France were not wanting who were ready to invest

their means in the new undertaking.

This union of colonization and mercantile adventure was incongruous in

itself, and proved a constant impediment to settlements. The merchant

made his investments for no reason but to obtain immediate returns in

large dividends. On such conditions of profit, money for the necessary

outlays could be obtained, but upon no other. This put into the hand of

the merchant or adventurer a power which he exercised almost entirely

for his own advantage. What was necessary for the prosperity of the

colony which he seemed to be founding, he absorbed in frequent and

excessive dividends. The avarice of the merchant thus hampered the true

colonial spirit, and his demands consumed the profits which should

have given solid strength and expansion to the colony. This condition

was a constant source of annoyance and discouragement to Champlain,

and against it he found it necessary to contend throughout his whole

career, but with not very satisfactory results.[372]

It was two months after the return of this first Canadian voyage of

Champlain when the commission was granted to the Sieur de Monts of

which an account is given in the following chapter. De Monts had

succeeded in forming an association of merchants, who were lured by the

prospects of the profits of the fur-trade. Taking himself the charge

of one of his vessels, of one hundred and fifty tons, and putting Pont

Gravé over the other, of one hundred and twenty tons, accompanied by

several noblemen, among whom was Poutrincourt, and with Champlain still

in the capacity of geographer of the King, they led forth their company

of one hundred and twenty men,—laborers, artisans, and soldiers,—of

whom about two thirds were to remain as colonists.

De Monts, who had been in the Gulf of St. Lawrence with De Chauvin

several years before, decided to seek out a suitable location for

his colony in a milder climate, which he could well do without going

beyond the limits of his grant. The expedition reached the shores of

Nova Scotia early in May, where they captured and confiscated several

vessels engaged in a contraband fur-trade. Pont Gravé proceeded

through the Strait of Canseau to the Gulf of St. Lawrence, in order to

prosecute more successfully the fur-trade, by which the expenses of the

outfit were to be met.

Champlain’s duties as an explorer and geographer began at once. He

proceeded in a barque of about eight tons, accompanied by several

gentlemen, sailing in advance of the vessel, exploring the southern

coast of the peninsula of Nova Scotia, touching at numerous points,

visiting the harbors and headlands, giving them names, and making

drawings, until he reached St. Mary’s Bay, within the opening of

the Bay of Fundy, where he discovered several mines of silver and

iron. Subsequently having been joined by De Monts, continuing his

examinations, he entered Annapolis Harbor, crept along the western

shore of Nova Scotia, and passing over to New Brunswick, skirted the

whole of its southern coast, and entered the Harbor of St. John; then

exploring Passamaquoddy Bay as far as the mouth of the River St. Croix,

he finally reached the island which the patentee selected as the seat

of his new colony.

Champlain—undoubtedly the best engineer in the party—was immediately

directed to lay out the grounds and fix upon the situation and

arrangement of the buildings, which were forthwith erected.[373]

This settlement, here and at Port Royal,[374] under the charter of De

Monts, continued for three years, making, as might well be expected,

but little progress as a colony, the principal achievement being

the cultivation of some small patches of ground, the raising of a

few specimens of European grains, and of garden vegetables for its

own use. It has consequently very little historical significance in

itself. But it served in the mean time a very important purpose as

a base, necessary and convenient, for the extensive explorations

made by Champlain on the Atlantic coast, stretching from Canseau, at

the eastern extremity of Nova Scotia, to the Vineyard Sound, on the

southern shores of Massachusetts. These geographical surveys occupied

him three summers, while the intervening winters were employed in

executing a general chart of the whole region, together with many local

maps of the numerous bays, harbors, and rivers along the coast.[375]

The first of these surveys was made during the month of September,

1604. This expedition was under the sole direction of Champlain, and

was made in a barque of seventeen or eighteen tons, manned by twelve

sailors, and with two Indians as guides. He examined the coast from the

mouth of the St. Croix to the Penobscot. He was especially interested

in the beautiful islands which fringe the coast, particularly in Mount

Desert and Isle Haute, to which he gave the names which they still

bear. Sailing up the Penobscot, called by the Indians the Pentegöet,

and by Europeans who had passed along the coast the Norumbegue, he

explored this river to the head of tide-water, at the site of the

present city of Bangor, where a fall in the river intercepted his

progress. In the interior, along the shores of the river, he saw

scarcely any inhabitants; and by a very careful examination he was

satisfied beyond a doubt that the story, which had gained currency from

a period as far back as the time of Alfonse, about a large native town

in the vicinity, whose inhabitants had attained to some of the higher

arts of civilization, was wholly without foundation. He not only saw

no such town, but could find no remains or other evidence that one had

ever existed. Having spent nearly a month in his explorations, he

obtained a good knowledge of the country and much information as to the

inhabitants, when having exhausted his provisions, he returned to his

winter quarters at De Monts’ Island.

The next expedition was made early in the following summer, after it

had been decided to abandon the island. Accordingly, on the 18th of

June, 1605, De Monts himself, with Champlain as geographer, several

gentlemen and twenty sailors, together with an Indian and his wife,

necessary guides and interpreters, set sail for the purpose of finding

a more eligible situation somewhere on the shores of the present New

England. Passing along the coast which had been explored the preceding

autumn, they soon came to the mouth of the Kennebec. Entering this

river, and bearing to the easterly side, they sailed through a tidal

creek, now called Back River, into the waters of the Sheepscot, and

passing round the southern point of Westport Island, skirting its

eastern shore, they came to the site of the present town of Wiscasset.

Lingering a short time, exchanging courtesies with a band of Indians

assembled there, and entering into a friendly alliance with them, they

proceeded down the western shores of Westport, and passing through

the Sasanoa, again entered the Kennebec, and sailed up as far as

Merrymeeting Bay, where, by their conference with the Indians whom they

met in the Sheepscot, they were led to believe they should meet Marchin

and Sasinou, two famous chiefs of that region, whose friendship it was

good policy to secure. Failing of this interview, they returned by a

direct course to the mouth of the Kennebec.

Champlain having made a sketch of the mouth of the river, the islands

and sandbars, with the course and depth of the main channel, the party

moved on towards the west. Examining the coast as they proceeded,

they passed without observing the excellent harbor of Portland,

concealed as it is by the beautiful islands clustering about it, and

next entered the bay of the Saco, which stretches from Cape Elizabeth

to Fletcher’s Neck. Here they observed strong contrasts between the

natives and those of the coast farther east. Their habits, mode of

life, and language were all different. Hitherto the Indians whom they

had seen were nomadic, living wholly by fishing and the chase. Here

they were sedentary, and subsisted mainly on the products of the soil.

Their settlement was surrounded by fine fields of Indian corn, gardens

of squashes, beans, and pumpkins, and ample patches of tobacco. They

observed also on the bank of the river a fort, which was made of lofty

palisades. After tarrying two days in this bay, making ample sketches

of the whole, including the islands, the place now known as Old Orchard

Beach, and the dwellings on the shore, and having bestowed on the

natives some small presents as tokens of gratitude for cordial and

friendly entertainment, the French, on the 12th July, once more weighed

anchor. Keeping close in, following the sinuosities of the shore, and

lingering here and there, they observed everything as they passed, and

on the morning of the 16th arrived at Cape Anne.

[Illustration: PORT ST. LOUIS.

[From the edition of 1613. Key: _A_, anchoring-place. _B_, channel.

_C_, two islands (the left-hand one seems to be what is now known

as Saquish, a peninsula connected at present with the Gurnet Head,

here marked _H_; the right-hand one is the present Clark’s Island).

_D_, sand-hills (apparently the low sand-hills of Duxbury beach).

_E_, shoals. _F_, cabins and tillage ground of the natives. _G_,

beaching-place of our barque (apparently the present Powder Point).

_H_, land like an island, covered with wood (the present Gurnet

Head). _I_, high promontory, seen four or five leagues at sea. This

promontory has usually been called Manomet, and if the right-hand of

the map is north, it has the correct bearing from the Gurnet; but it

is in that case very strange that so marked a feature as the sand-spit

known as Plymouth Beach is not indicated, and no sign is given of the

conspicuous eminence known as Captain’s Hill. If, however, we consider

the top of the map north (and the engraver may be accountable for

the erroneous fashioning of the points of the compass), it becomes

at once perfectly comprehensible as a sketch of that part of the bay

known as Duxbury Harbor, and would not, accordingly, show that part

of the shore on which the Pilgrims landed. In this view the hill _I_

becomes Captain’s Hill, and the rest of the plan, though but rudely

conforming to the lines of Duxbury Harbor, is much more satisfactory in

its topographical correspondences than the other theory would allow.

See the modern map of the harbor in Vol. III. chap. viii. Cf. further

Davis’s _Ancient Landmarks of Plymouth_, p. 35, and the papers in the

_Mag. of Amer. Hist._, December, 1882.

It will be remembered that the French found in all this region populous

communities, which had been greatly reduced or destroyed by a plague

in 1616 and 1617, before the English made their settlements. Mr. Adams

has grouped the authorities on this point in his Morton’s _New English

Canaan_, p. 133.

The French accounts of these Massachusetts Indians may be compared

with the later English descriptions of Smith, Winslow, Wood, Morton,

Williams, Lechford, Josselyn, and Gookin.

The French continued to frequent the Massachusetts coast for some

years. We have accounts of two of their ships, at least, which were

lost there between 1614 and 1619,—one on Cape Cod, two of whose crew

were reclaimed by Dermer (Bradford’s _Plymouth Plantation_, 98), and

the other in Boston Harbor, whose crew were killed. Cf. 4 _Mass. Hist.

Soc. Coll._, iv. 479, 489, in Phinehas Pratt’s narrative; Morton’s _New

English Canaan_, Adams’s edition, p. 131; Mather’s _Magnalia_, book i.

chap. ii.—ED.]]

Their stay here was brief, its chief feature being an interview with

the natives, whom they found cordial and highly intelligent. The

Indians made an accurate drawing, with a crayon furnished by Champlain,

of the outline of Massachusetts Bay, and indicated correctly their six

tribes and chiefs by as many pebbles, which they skilfully arranged for

the purpose.

Holding short interviews with the natives at different points,

threading their way among the islands which besprinkle the bay, many

of which, as well as ample fields on the mainland, were covered

with waving corn, they sailed into Boston Harbor. The next day they

proceeded along the south shore, and on the 19th entered and made

such survey as they could of the little bay of Plymouth, destined a

few years later to become the seat of the first permanent English

settlement in New England. Besides a description of the Indian methods

and implements of fishing, in which vocation he found them engaged,

and of the harbor and its surroundings, Champlain has left us a sketch

of the bay, to which he gave the name of Port St. Louis. This sketch

is certainly creditable, when we bear in mind that it was made without

surveys or measurements of any kind, and during a hasty visit of a

few hours. Leaving Plymouth Harbor, and keeping along the coast, they

made the complete circuit of the bay, and rounding the point of Cape

Cod they sailed in a southerly direction, and entered an insignificant

tidal inlet now known as Nauset Harbor. Here they lingered several

days, making inland excursions, gathering much valuable information

relating to the Indians, their mode of dress, ornamentation, the

structure of their dwellings, the preparation of their food, and the

cultivation of the soil. These particulars did not differ essentially

from what they had observed at Saco, on the coast of Maine, and

indicated clearly that the people belonged to the same great family.

Their provisions being nearly exhausted, it now became necessary to

turn back. On reaching the mouth of the Kennebec, they learned that an

English ship had been anchored at the island of Monhegan, which proved

to be the “Archangel,” in command of Captain George Weymouth, who was

making an exploration on the coast at that time, under the patronage

of the Earl of Southampton. The conflicting claims of the French and

English to the territory which Champlain was now exploring will come

into prominence later in our story. On arriving at De Monts Island, it

became necessary to hasten arrangements for the removal of the colony

to a situation less exposed; but in all the explorations thus far made

they had found no location which was in all respects satisfactory for

a permanent settlement. They determined, therefore, to transfer the

colony at once to Annapolis Basin, where the climate was milder and the

situation better protected. The buildings were forthwith taken down

and transported to the new site. De Monts, the governor, soon after

departed for France, in order to obtain from the King assistance in

establishing and enlarging the domain of his colony. The command in his

absence was placed in the hands of Pont Gravé. Champlain determined

also to remain, in the hope of “making new explorations towards

Florida.”

During the early autumn Champlain made an excursion across the bay to

St. John, whence, piloted by an Indian chief of that place, he visited

Advocate’s Harbor, near the head of the Bay of Fundy, in search of a

copper mine. A few small bits of that metal, which was all he found,

offered little inducement for further search.

The colony, in their new quarters at Port Royal, suffered less from

the severity of the climate during the winter than they had done on

the preceding one at De Monts Island. Nevertheless the dreaded _mal

de la terre_, or scurvy, made its appearance, and twelve out of the

forty-five settlers died of that disease. Early in the spring several

attempts were made to continue their explorations along the southern

coast; but, much to their disappointment, they were as often driven

back by disastrous storms. The supplies needed for the succeeding

winter were much delayed, and did not come till late in July, when De

Poutrincourt arrived as lieutenant of De Monts, and took command at

Port Royal.

On the 5th of September an expedition under De Poutrincourt,

together with Champlain as geographer, departed to continue their

explorations.[376] It was Champlain’s opinion that they should sail

directly for Nauset Harbor, where their previous examinations had

terminated, and from that point make a careful survey of the coast

farther south. Had his counsels prevailed, they might, during the

season, have completed the exploration of the whole New England coast.

But De Poutrincourt desired to examine personally what had already been

explored by previous expeditions. In this re-survey they discovered

Gloucester Harbor, which they had not seen before. They found it

spacious, well protected, with good depth of water, surrounded by

attractive scenery, and therefore named it _Le Beauport_, the beautiful

harbor. It was fringed with the dwellings and gardens of two hundred

natives. In their mode of life they were sedentary, like those at Saco

and at Boston, and they gave their guests a friendly welcome, offering

them the products of the soil,—grapes just from the vines, squashes

of different varieties, the trailing-bean which is still cultivated

in New England, and the Jerusalem artichoke, fresh and crisp, the

product of their industry and care. After several days at Gloucester,

the voyagers proceeded on their course, and finally rounded Cape Cod,

touched again at Nauset, and after infinite trouble and no less danger

crept round Monomoy Point and entered Chatham Harbor, where they found

it necessary to remain some days for the repair of their disabled

barque. From Chatham as a base they made numerous inland excursions,

and also sailed along the shore as far as the Vineyard Sound, which was

the southern terminus of Champlain’s explorations on the coast of New

England. The work of exploration having thus been completed, spreading

their sails for the homeward voyage, touching at many points on their

way, they reached Annapolis Harbor on the 14th of November.

The winter that followed was employed by the colonists in such minor

enterprises as might seem to bear on their future prospects. Near

the end of the following May a ship arrived from France bringing a

letter from De Monts, the patentee, stating that by order of the

King his monopoly of the fur-trade had been abolished, and directing

the immediate return of the colony to France. The cause of this

sudden reverse of fortune to De Monts, of this withdrawal of his

exclusive right to the fur-trade, is easily explained. The seizure

and confiscation of several ships and their valuable cargoes on the

coast of Nova Scotia had awakened a personal hostility in influential

circles, and they easily represented that the monopoly of De Monts was

destroying an important branch of national commerce, and diverting to

the emolument of a private gentleman revenues which belonged to the

State.

Preparations for the return to France were undertaken without delay.

Meanwhile two excursions were made, one, accompanied by Lescarbot the

historian, to St. John and to the seat of the first settlement at De

Monts Island; another, under De Poutrincourt, accompanied by Champlain,

to the head of the Bay of Fundy. The bulk of the colonists left near

the end of July, in several barques, to rendezvous at Canseau, while De

Poutrincourt and Champlain remained till the 11th of August, when they

followed in a shallop, keeping close to the shore, which gave Champlain

an opportunity to examine the coast from La Hève to Canseau,—the last

of his explorations on the Atlantic coast.

As the geographer of the King, Champlain had been engaged in his

specific duties three years and nearly four months. His was altogether

pioneer work. At this time there was not a European settlement of any

kind on the eastern borders of North America, from Newfoundland on

the north to Mexico on the south. No exploration of any significance

of the vast region traversed by him had then been made. Gosnold and

Pring had touched the coast; but their brief stay and imperfect and

shadowy notes are to the historian tantalizing and only faintly

instructive.[377] Other navigators had indeed passed along the shore,

sighting the headlands of Cape Anne and Cape Cod, and had observed some

of the wide-stretching bays and the outflow of the larger rivers;[378]

but none of them had attempted even a hasty exploration. Champlain’s

surveys, stretching over more than a thousand miles of sea-coast, are

ample, and approximately accurate. It would seem that his local as well

as his general maps depended simply on the observations of a careful

eye; of necessity they lacked the measurements of an elaborate survey.

Of their kind they are creditable examples, and evince a certain ready

skill. The nature and products of the soil, the wild, teeming life

of forest and field, are pictured in his text with minuteness and

conscientious care. His descriptions of the natives, their mode of

life, their dress, their occupations, their homes, their intercourse

with each other, their domestic and civil institutions as far as they

had any, are clear and well defined, and as the earliest on record,

having been made before Indian life became modified by intercourse with

Europeans, will always be regarded by the historian as of the highest

importance.

On the 3d of September, 1607, the colonists, having assembled by

agreement at Canseau, embarked for France, and arrived at St. Malo

early in October. Champlain hastened to lay before De Monts the results

of his explorations, together with his maps and drawings. The zeal of

De Monts was rekindled by the recital, notwithstanding the losses he

had sustained and the disappointments he had encountered. Specimens

of grain, corn, wheat, rye, barley, and oats, together with two or

three braces of the beautiful brant goose, which had been bred from

the shell, were presented to the King as products of New France and

as an earnest of its future wealth. Henry IV. was not insensible to

the merits of the faithful De Monts, and he granted him a renewal of

his monopoly of the fur-trade, but only for a single year. With this

limitation of his privilege, stimulated by the futile hope of getting

it extended at its expiration, De Monts fitted out two vessels,—one to

be commanded by Pont Gravé, and devoted exclusively to the fur-trade,

while the other was to be employed in transporting men and material

for a settlement or plantation on the River St. Lawrence. Of this

expedition Champlain was constituted lieutenant-governor,—an office

which he subsequently continued to hold in New France, with little

interruption, till his death in 1635.

On the 13th of April, 1608, he left Honfleur, and arrived at Tadoussac

on the 3d of June. Here he found Pont Gravé, who had preceded him, in

serious trouble. A Basque fur-trader and whale-fisherman, who did not

choose to be restrained in his trade, had attacked him, killed one of

his men, severely wounded Pont Gravé himself, and taken possession

of his armament. The illegal character of this proceeding and its

utter disregard of the King’s commission clearly merited immediate

and severe punishment. While the Governor was greatly annoyed, he

did not, however, allow passion to warp his judgment or overcome the

dictates of reason. The punishment, so richly deserved, could not be

administered without the sacrifice of all his plans for the present

year. With a characteristic prudence he therefore decided, “in order

not to make a bad cause out of a just one,” to use his own expression,

upon a compromise, by referring the final settlement to the authorities

in France, with the assurance, in the mean time, that there should be

no further interference by either party with the other.

[Illustration: TADOUSSAC.

Champlain’s plan in the edition of 1613. Key: _A_, Round Mountain. _B_,

harbor. _C_, fresh-water brook. _D_, camp of natives coming to traffic.

_E_, peninsula. _F_, Point of all Devils. _G_, Saguenay River. _H_,

Point aux Alouettes. _I_, very rough mountain covered with firs and

beeches. _L_, the mill Bode. _M_, roadstead. _N_, pond. _O_, brook.

_P_, grass-land.]

Having constructed a small barque of about fourteen tons, and taken

on board a complement of men and such material as was needed for his

settlement, he proceeded up the River St. Lawrence. On the fourth

day the French approached the lofty headland jutting out upon the

river and forcing it into a narrow channel, to which, on account of

this narrowing, the Algonquins had given the significant name of

Quebec.[379] Here on a belt of land at the base of a lofty precipice,

along the water’s edge, on the 3d day of July, 1608, Champlain laid the

foundations of the city which still bears the name of Quebec.

[Illustration: QUEBEC, 1613.

[A fac-simile of Champlain’s plan in the edition of 1613. Key: _A_, Our

habitation, now the Point; _B_, cleared ground for grain, later, the

Esplanade, or Grande Place; _C_, gardens; _D_, small brook; _E_, river

where Cartier wintered, called by him St. Croix, now the St. Charles;

_F_, river of the marshes; _G_, grass-land; _H_, Montmorency Falls,

twenty-five fathoms high (really forty fathoms high); _I_, end of Falls

of Montmorency, now Lake of the Snows; _R_, Bear Brook, now La Rivière

de Beauport; _S_, Brook du Gendre, now Rivière des Fons; _T_, meadows

overflowed; _V_, Mont du Gas, very high, now the bastion Roi à la

Citadelle; _X_, swift mill-brooks; _Y_, gravelly shore, where diamonds

are found; _Z_, Point of Diamonds; _9_, sites of Isle d’Orléans; _L_,

very narrow point, afterward known as Cap de Lévis; _M_, Roaring

River, which extends to the Etechemins; _N_, St. Lawrence River; _O_,

lake in the Roaring River; _P_, mountains and “bay which I named New

Biscay;” _Q_, lake of the natives’ cabins. Cf. Slafter’s edition, ii.

175. This map is often wanting in copies of this edition; cf. _Menzies

Catalogue_, no. 368. There is another fac-simile of it in the _Voyages

de Découverte au Canada_, published by the Literary and Historical

Society of Quebec in 1843.—ED.]]

The remaining part of the season was employed in establishing his

colony, in felling the forest trees, in excavating cellars, erecting

buildings, in laying out and preparing gardens, and in the necessary

preparations for the coming winter. Among the events to occupy the

attention of the Governor early after their arrival was the suppression

of a conspiracy among his men which aimed at his assassination, the

seizure of the property of the settlement, and the conversion of it

to their own use. Proceeding cautiously in eliciting all the facts,

Champlain got the approbation of the officers of the vessels and

others, and condemned four of the men to be hanged. The sentence was

executed upon the leader at once, while the other three were sent

back to France for a review and confirmation of their sentence in the

courts. This prompt exercise of authority had a salutary effect, and

good order was permanently established. The winter was severe and

trying, especially to the constitutions of men unaccustomed to the

intense cold of that region, and disease setting in, twenty of the

twenty-eight which comprised their whole number died before the middle

of April. The suffering of the sick, the mortality which followed,

the starving savages who dragged their famishing and feeble bodies

about the settlement, and whose wants could be but partially supplied,

produced a depression and gloom which can hardly be adequately pictured.

Early in June, 1609, Pont Gravé returned from France with supplies

and men for the settlement. The colony, even thus augmented, was

small; and under the system on which it was established and was to

be maintained, there was little assurance that it would be greatly

enlarged. During the first twenty-five years its whole number did not

probably at any time much exceed one hundred persons. While there was a

constant struggle to enlarge its borders and increase its numbers, it

was in fact only a respectable trading-post, maintained at a limited

expense for the economical and successful conduct of the fur-trade.

The responsibility of the Lieutenant-Governor was mostly confined

to maintaining order in this little community, and in giving the

men occupation in the gardens and small fields which were put under

cultivation, and in packing and shipping peltry during the season of

trade. For a man of the character, capacity, and practical sense of

Champlain, this was a mere bagatelle. He naturally and properly looked

forward to the time when New France should become a strong and populous

nation. Its territorial extent was at present unknown. The channel only

of the St. Lawrence, including the narrow margin that could be seen

from the prow of the barque as it sailed along its shore from Tadoussac

to the Lachine Rapids, had been explored. A vast continent stretched

away in the distance, shrouded in dark forests, diversified with deep

rivers and broad lakes, concerning which nothing whatever was known,

except that which might be gathered from the shadowy representations

of the wild men roaming in its solitudes. To know the capabilities of

this mysterious, unmeasured domain; to learn the history, character,

and relations of the differing tribes by whom it was inhabited,—was

the day-dream of Champlain’s vigorous and active mind. But to attain

this was not an easy task. It required patience, discretion, endurance

of hardship and danger, a brave spirit, and an indomitable will. With

these qualities Champlain was richly endowed, and from his natural love

of useful adventure, and his experience in exploration, he was at all

times ready and eager to push his investigations into these new regions

and among these pre-historic tribes.

[Illustration: THE ST. LAWRENCE, 1609.

[From Lescarbot’s map, showing Quebec (Kebec) and Tadoussac at the

mouth of the Saguenay.—ED.]]

During the winter Champlain had learned from the Indians who came to

the settlement that far to the southwest there existed a large lake,

whose waters were dotted with beautiful islands, and whose shores were

surrounded by lofty mountains and fertile valleys. An opportunity to

explore this lake and the river by which its waters were drained into

the St. Lawrence was eagerly coveted by Champlain. This region occupied

a peculiar relation to the hostile tribes on the north and those on

the south of the St. Lawrence. It was the battle-field, or war-path,

where they had for many generations, on each returning summer, met

in bloody conflict. The territory between these contending tribes

was neutral ground. Mutual fear had kept it open and uninhabited.

The Montagnais in the neighborhood of Quebec were quite ready to

conduct Champlain on this exploration, but it was nevertheless on the

condition that he should assist them in an attack upon these enemies if

encountered on the lake. To this he acceded without hesitation. It is

possible that he did not appreciate the consequences of assuming such

a hostile attitude toward the Iroquois; but it is probable that he was

influenced by a broad national policy, to which we shall revert in the

sequel.

[Illustration: VIEW OF QUEBEC.

[Champlain’s, in his edition of 1613. Key: _A_, storehouse; _B_,

dovecote; _C_, armory and workmen’s lodging; _D_, workmen’s lodging;

_E_, dial; _F_, blacksmith shop and mechanics’ lodging; _G_, galleries

all about the dwellings; _H_, Champlain’s house; _I_, gate and

drawbridge; _L_, promenade, ten feet wide; _M_, moat; _N_, platform for

cannon; _O_, Champlain’s garden; _P_, kitchen; _Q_, open space; _R_,

St. Lawrence River. This print is also reproduced in Lemoine’s _Quebec

Past and Present_, Quebec, 1876, and in _Voyages de Découverte au

Canada_, published by the Literary and Historical Society of Quebec in

1843.—ED.]]

On the 18th day of June Champlain left Quebec for this exploration. His

escort of Montagnais was subsequently augmented by delegations from

their allies, the Hurons and the Algonquins.

[Illustration: Champlain

[This follows the Hamel painting after the Moncornet portrait, as

given in Dr. Shea’s _Charlevoix_, vol. ii., and _Le Clercq_, i. 65.

Cf. Slafter’s _Champlain_, vol. i., for a statement regarding the

portraits of Champlain. Mr. Slafter prefers a woodcut by Roujat, and

thinks that Hamel worked upon a sketch made from the Moncornet picture,

which failed to preserve the strength of the original. The autograph

of Champlain is rare. Dufossé in 1883 advertised a manuscript contract

signed by him and his wife for 190 francs.—ED.]]

After numerous delays and adjustments and readjustments of plans, when

the expedition was fairly afloat on the River Richelieu it consisted of

sixty warriors in bark canoes, clad in their usual armor, accompanied

by Champlain and two French arquebusiers. Proceeding up the river,

they entered the lake, coursed its western shore, and moved tardily

along. At the expiration of nearly three weeks,—on the 29th of July,

1609,—in the shade of the evening, they discovered a flotilla of bark

canoes containing about two hundred Iroquois warriors of the Mohawk

tribe, who were searching for their enemies, the tribes of the north,

whom they hoped to find on this old war-path. Early the next morning,

on the present site of Ticonderoga, near where the French subsequently

erected Fort Carillon, whose ruins are still visible, the two parties

met.[380]

[Illustration: DEFEAT OF IROQUOIS AT LAKE CHAMPLAIN.

[A fac-simile of Champlain’s engraving in his edition of 1613. Key: _A_

(wanting), the fort; _B_, enemy; _C_, oak-bark canoes of the enemy,

holding ten, fifteen, or eighteen men each; _D_, two chiefs, who were

killed; _E_, an enemy wounded by Champlain’s musket; _F_ (wanting),

Champlain; _G_ (wanting), two musketeers; _H_, canoes of the allies,

Montagnais, Ochastaiguins, and Algonquins, who are above; _I_ (also on

the), birch-bark canoes of our allies; _K_ (wanting), woods.—ED.]]

It was the first exhibition of firearms which the savages had ever

witnessed. Champlain, moving at the head of his allies, discharged

his arquebus, and by it two chiefs were instantly killed, and another

savage fell mortally wounded. The two French arquebusiers, attacking

in flank, poured also a deadly fire upon the astonished Mohawks. The

strange noise of the musketry, their comrades falling dead or wounded,

and the deafening shout of the victors, carried dismay into the Mohawk

ranks. In utter consternation they fled into the forest, abandoning

their canoes, arms, provisions, and implements of every sort. The joy

of the victors was unbounded. In three hours after the fight they had

gathered up their booty, placed the ten captives whom they had taken

in their canoes, performed the customary dance of victory, and were

sailing down the lake on their homeward voyage. They soon reached

their destination, having lingered here and there to inflict the usual

inhuman punishments upon their poor prisoners of war. The cruelties

which they practised in the presence of Champlain were abhorrent to

his generous nature, and he used his utmost influence to mitigate and

soften the sufferings which he could not wholly avert.

The exploration which Champlain had thus conducted was interesting and

geographically important. He had made a hurried survey of the lake

extending nearly its whole length, and had observed its beautiful

islands, with its wooded shores flanked by the Adirondacks on the

west and by the Green Mountains on the east. From the mouth of the

Richelieu he had penetrated inland a hundred and fifty miles, and as

the discoverer he might justly claim that the whole domain, of which

this line was the radius, had by him been added to French dominion. To

this exquisitely fine expanse of water he gave his own name; and now,

after the lapse of two hundred and seventy-five years, it still bears

the appellation of Lake Champlain.

Soon after arriving at Quebec, Champlain made preparations to return

to France. Leaving the settlement in charge of a deputy, he arrived at

Honfleur on the 13th of October. He immediately laid before De Monts

and the King a full report of his discoveries and observations during

the past year, and to both of them it was gratifying and satisfactory.

The monopoly of the fur-trade which had been granted to De Monts

had expired by limitation, and he now sought for its renewal. The

opposition, however, was too powerful, and his efforts were fruitless.

Nevertheless, De Monts did not abandon his undertaking, but with a

commendable resolution and courage he renewed his contracts with the

merchants of Rouen, and in the spring of 1610 sent out two vessels to

transport artisans and supplies for the settlement, and to carry on the

fur-trade. Champlain was again appointed lieutenant for the government

of the colony at Quebec.

During this summer he was unable to undertake any explorations,

although two important ones had been projected the year before. One of

them was in the direction of Lake St. John and the headwaters of the

Saguenay, the other up the Ottawa and to the region of Lake Superior.

The importance of an early survey of these distant regions was obvious;

but the Indians were not ready for the undertaking, and without

their friendly guidance and assistance it was plainly impracticable.

Early in the season the Montagnais were on their way to the mouth of

the Richelieu, where they were to meet their allies, the Hurons and

Algonquins, and proceed up the river to Lake Champlain, and engage in

their usual summer’s entertainment of war with the Mohawks. Sending

forward several barques for trading purposes, Champlain repaired

to the rendezvous, where he learned that the Iroquois or Mohawks,

nothing daunted by the experiences of the previous year, had already

arrived, and had thrown up a hasty intrenchment on the shore, and

were impatiently awaiting the fight. There was no delay; the conflict

was terrific. By the aid and advice of Champlain the rude fort was

demolished. Fifteen of the Mohawks were taken prisoners, others plunged

into the river and were drowned, and the rest perished by the arquebus

and the savage implements of war. Not one of the Mohawks escaped to

tell the story of their disaster.

Before the Algonquins from the Ottawa returned to their homes,

Champlain began a practice which proved of great value in after years.

He placed in the custody of the Indians a young man to accompany them

to their homes, pass the winter, learn their language, their mode

of life, and the numberless other things which can only be fully

understood and appreciated by an actual residence. On the other hand,

a young savage was taken to France and made familiar with the forms of

civilized life. These delegates of both parties became interpreters,

and thus intercourse between the French and Indians became easy and

intelligent.

During the summer information was received of the assassination of

Henry IV. This was regarded as a great calamity. He had from the first

been friendly to those engaged in colonial enterprise, and they could

fully rely upon his sympathy, although his impoverished treasury did

not permit him to give that substantial aid which was really needed.

Champlain returned to France in the autumn of 1610, but again visited

Quebec in 1611, though only for the summer, which was devoted almost

exclusively to the management of the fur-trade. This trade was at

best limited and desultory. The French did not obtain their peltry

by trapping, snaring, or the chase, but by traffic with the savage

tribes, who every summer visited the St. Lawrence for this purpose.

A small number of them appeared each spring at Tadoussac, and a much

larger number at Montreal, with their bark canoes loaded with skins

of the beaver and of other valuable fur-bearing animals. Having no

use for money or for such fabrics as are useful and necessary in

civilized life, the savages gladly exchanged the accumulations of

the winter, sometimes not reserving enough for their own clothing,

for such glittering trifles as were offered to their choice. To

facilitate these exchanges a rendezvous was established at Montreal,

and when the flotilla of canoes appeared in the river, the trade was

completed in an incredibly short time. As it was absolutely free and

unrestricted, the competition became excessive, and the balance-sheet

of the merchants usually presented an exceedingly small net profit,

if not a considerable loss. This competition was so disastrous, that

the associates of De Monts decided to withdraw from the enterprise,

and sold to him their interest in the establishment at Quebec. The

formation of a new company was forthwith committed to Champlain. He

accordingly drew up a scheme, embracing, besides others, these two

important features: First, that the association should be presided

over by a viceroy of high position and commanding influence; this was

supposed to be important in settling any complications that might arise

in France. Second, that membership should be open to all merchants who

might desire to engage in trade in New France, sharing equally all

profits and losses. This was supposed to remove all objections to the

association as a monopoly, since membership was free to all. The Count

de Soissons was appointed viceroy. He died, however, a few weeks later,

in the autumn of 1612, and the Prince de Condé, Henry de Bourbon II.,

was chosen his successor. The organization of the Company, under many

embarrassments, notwithstanding the precautions which had been taken by

Champlain, occupied him during the whole of the year 1612. Having been

appointed lieutenant, he returned to New France in 1613, arriving at

Quebec on the 7th of May of that year.

It had been from the beginning an ulterior object of the French in

making a settlement in North America to discover a northwest passage

by water to the Pacific Ocean. Whoever should make this discovery

would, by diminishing the distance to the markets of the East Indies,

confer a boon of untold commercial value upon his country, and earn for

himself an imperishable fame. This day-dream of all the old navigators

had haunted the mind of Champlain from the first. Every indication

which pointed in that direction was carefully considered. Nicholas

de Vignau, one of the interpreters who had passed a winter with the

Algonquins on the upper waters of the Ottawa, returned to France in

1613. Having heard doubtless something of the disastrous voyage of

Henry Hudson to the bay which bears his name, he manufactured a fine

story, all of which was spun from his own brain, but was nevertheless

well adapted to make a strong impression on the mind of Champlain and

others interested in this question. This bold impostor stated that

while with the Algonquins he had made an excursion to the north, and

had discovered a sea of salt water; that he had seen on its shores the

wreck of an English ship from which eighty men had been taken and slain

by the savages, and that the Indians had retained an English boy to

present to Champlain when he should visit them. Although the story was

plausible, Vignau was cross-examined, and put to various tests, and

finally made to certify to the truth of his statement before notaries

at La Rochelle. Champlain laid the statement before the Chancellor de

Sillery, the President Jeannin, and the Marshal de Brissac, and by them

was strongly advised to ascertain the truth of the story by a personal

exploration. He therefore resolved to make this a prominent feature of

the summer’s work.

Accordingly, with two bark canoes, provisions and arms, an Indian guide

and four Frenchmen, including De Vignau, Champlain proceeded up the

Ottawa. This river is distinguished by its numerous rapids and falls,

many of them impassable even by the light canoe;[381] and at that time

the shores were lined with dense and tangled forests, which could only

be penetrated with the utmost difficulty. After incredible fatigue and

hunger, the party at length arrived at Alumet Island, where they were

kindly received by the chief of the Indian settlement. Here De Vignau

had passed a previous winter, and was now obliged to confess his base

and shameless falsehood. The indignation of Champlain, as well as his

disappointment, can well be comprehended. He bore himself, however,

with calmness, and restrained the savages from taking the life of De

Vignau, which they were anxious to do for his audacious mendacity.

Although Champlain did not attain the object for which the journey

was undertaken, he had nevertheless explored an important river for

more than two hundred miles, and had made a favorable impression upon

the savages. On his return he was accompanied by a large number of

them, with eighty canoes loaded with valuable peltry for exchanges at

the rendezvous near Montreal. Having placed everything in order at

Quebec, he returned to France, where he remained during the whole of

the year 1614, occupied largely in adding new members to his company

of associates, and in perfecting such plans as were necessary for the

success of the colony. Among the rest he secured several missionaries

to accompany him to New France, with the purpose of converting the

Indians to the Christian faith. These were Denis Jamay, Jean d’Olbeau,

Joseph le Caron, and the lay brother Pacifique du Plessis, Recollects

of the Franciscan order.

On his return in 1615, Champlain immediately erected a chapel at

Quebec, which was placed in charge of Denis Jamay and Pacifique du

Plessis, while Jean d’Olbeau assumed the mission of the Montagnais,

and Joseph le Caron that of the Hurons. Hastening to the rendezvous

for trade at Montreal, Champlain found the allied tribes awaiting him,

and anxious to engage him in a grand campaign against the Iroquois. It

was to be on a much more comprehensive scale than anything that had

preceded it, and was to be an attack on a large fort situated in the

heart of the present State of New York. This was distant not less than

eight hundred or a thousand miles by the circuitous journey which it

was necessary to make in reaching it. The warriors were to be collected

and marshalled from the various tribes whose homes were along the

route. The undertaking was not a small one. A journey, including the

return, of fifteen hundred or two thousand miles, by river and lake,

through swamps and tangled forests, with the incumbrance of necessary

baggage and a motley crowd of several hundred savages to be daily fed

by the chance of fishing and hunting, demanded a brave heart and a

strong will.

[Illustration: CHAMPLAIN’S ROUTE, 1615.

[This sketch-map follows one given by Mr. O. H. Marshall in connection

with a paper on “Champlain’s Expedition of 1615” in the _Mag. of Amer.

Hist._, August, 1878. It shows the route believed by Mr. Marshall to be

that of Champlain from Quinté Bay, and the route suggested by General

John S. Clark, which is in the main accepted by Dr. Shea.

The route of Champlain and the site of the fort attacked by him has

occasioned a diversity of views. Champlain’s own narrative, besides

making part of the English translation of his works, is also translated

in the _Doc. Hist. of New York_, vol. iii., and in the _Mag. of Amer.

Hist._, September, 1877, p. 561. Fac-similes of the print of the fort,

besides being in the works, are also in the _Doc. Hist. of New York_,

iii. 9; Shea’s _Le Clercq_, i. 104; _Mag. of Amer. Hist._, September,

1877; Watson’s _History of Essex County, N. Y._, p. 22.

Mr. Marshall began the discussion of these questions as early as 1849

in the _New York Hist. Soc. Proc._ for March of the same year, p. 96;

but gave the riper results of his study in the _Mag. of Amer. Hist._,

vol. i., January, 1877, with a fac-simile of Champlain’s 1632 map. His

views here were controverted in the same, September, 1877, by George

Geddes, who placed the fort on Onondaga Creek, and by Dr. J. G. Shea

in the _Pennsylvania Magazine of History_, ii. 103, who substantially

agreed with an address by General J. S. Clark, which has not yet been

printed, but whose views are shared by Mr. L. W. Ledyard, who in an

address, Jan. 9, 1883, at Cazenovia, N. Y., tells the story of his own

and General Clark’s investigation of the site of the fort, and places

it near Perryville, N. Y. Dr. Shea, in his _Le Clercq_, i. 100, has

since gone over the authorities. It was in reply to Geddes, Shea, and

Clark that Mr. Marshall wrote the paper from which the above sketch-map

is taken. Dr. O’Callaghan, in his _Documentary History of New York_,

iii. 16, had advanced the theory that the fort was on Lake Canandaigua:

and to this view Mr. Parkman guardedly assented in his _Pioneers_, and

so marked the fort on his map. Brodhead, _History of New York_, i. 69,

and Clark in his _History of Onondaga_, placed it on Onondaga Lake. Cf.

the _Transactions_ of the Literary and Historical Society of Quebec,

New Series, part ii., and the notes in the Quebec and Prince Society

editions of _Champlain’s Voyages_.—ED.]]

But it offered an opportunity for exploring unknown regions which

Champlain could not bring himself to decline. Accordingly, on the

9th of July, 1615, Champlain embarked with an interpreter, a French

servant, and ten savages, in two birch-bark canoes. They ascended

the Ottawa, entered the Mattawan, and by other waters reached Lake

Nipissing. Crossing this lake and following the channel of French

River, they entered Lake Huron, or the Georgian Bay, and coasted along

until they reached the present county of Simcoe. Here they found the

missionary Le Caron, who had preceded them. Eight Frenchmen belonging

to his company joined that of Champlain. The mustering hosts of the

savage warriors came in from every direction. At length, crossing Lake

Simcoe, by rivers and lakes and frequent portages they reached Lake

Ontario just as it merges into the River St. Lawrence, and passing

over to the New York side, they concealed their canoes in a thicket

near the shore, and proceeded by land; striking inland, crossing the

stream now known as Oneida River, they finally, on the 10th of October,

reached the great Iroquois fortress, situated a few miles south of

the eastern end of Oneida Lake. This fort was hexagonal in form,

constructed of four rows of palisades thirty feet in height, with a

gallery near the top, and water-spouts for the extinguishing of fire.

It inclosed several acres, and was a strong work of its kind. The

attack of the allies was fierce and desultory, without plan or system,

notwithstanding Champlain’s efforts to direct it. A considerable number

of the Iroquois were killed by the French firearms, and many were

wounded; but no effective impression was made upon the fortress. After

lingering before the fort some days, the allies began their retreat.

Champlain, having been wounded, was transported in a basket made for

the purpose. Returning to the other side of Lake Ontario, to a famous

hunting-ground,—probably north of the present town of Kingston,—they

remained several weeks, capturing a large number of deer. When the

frosts of December had sealed up the ground, the streams, and lakes,

they returned to the home of the Hurons in Simcoe, dragging with

incredible labor their stores of venison through bog and fen and

pathless forest. Here Champlain passed the winter, making excursions

to neighboring Indian tribes, and studying their habits and character

from his personal observation, and writing out the results with great

minuteness and detail. As soon as the season was sufficiently advanced,

Champlain began his journey homeward by the circuitous route of his

advance, and arrived safely after an absence of nearly a year. Having

put in execution plans for the repair and enlargement of the buildings

at Quebec, he returned to France.

For several years the trade in furs was conducted as usual, with

occasional changes both in the Company in France and in local

management. These, however, were of no very essential importance, and

the details must be passed by in this brief narrative. The ceaseless

struggle for large dividends and small expenditures on the part of the

company of merchants did not permit any considerable enlargement of the

colony, or any improvements which did not promise immediate returns.

Repairs upon the buildings and a new fort constructed on the brow

of the precipice in the rear of the settlement were carried forward

tardily and grudgingly.[382] As a mere trading-post it had undoubtedly

been successful. The average number of beaver skins annually purchased

of the Indians and transported to France was probably not far from

fifteen or twenty thousand, and it sometimes reached twenty-two

thousand. The annual dividend of forty per cent on the investment,

as intimated by Champlain, must have been highly satisfactory to the

Company. The settlement maintained the character of a trading-post,

but hardly that of a colonial plantation. After the lapse of nearly

twenty years, the average number of colonists did not exceed much

more than fifty. This progress was not satisfactory to Champlain,

to the Viceroy, or to the Council of State. In 1627 a change became

inevitable. Cardinal de Richelieu had become grand master and chief

of the navigation and commerce of France. He saw the importance of

rendering this colony worthy of the fame and greatness of the nation

under whose authority it had been planted. Acting with characteristic

promptness and decision, he dissolved the old Company and instituted a

new one, denominated _La Compagnie de la Nouvelle France_, consisting

of a hundred or more members, and commonly known as the Company of

the Hundred Associates. The constitution of this society possessed

several important features, which seemed to assure the solid growth of

the colony. Richelieu was its constituted head. Its authority was to

extend over the whole territory of New France and Florida. Its capital

was three hundred thousand livres. It proposed to send to Canada in

1628 from two hundred to three hundred artisans of all classes, and

within the space of fifteen years to transport four thousand colonists

to New France. These were to be wholly supported by the Company for

three years, and after that they were to have assigned to them as much

land as was needed for cultivation. The settlers were to be natives of

France and exclusively of the Catholic faith, and no Huguenot was to be

allowed to enter the country. The Company was to have exclusive control

of trade, and all goods manufactured in New France were to be free

of imposts on exportation. Such were the more general and prominent

features of the association. In the spring of 1628 the Company, thus

organized, despatched four armed vessels to convoy a fleet of eighteen

transports, laden with emigrants and stores, together with one hundred

and thirty-five pieces of ordnance to fortify the settlement at Quebec.

War existing at that time between England and France, an English

fleet was already on its way to destroy the French colony at Quebec.

The transports and convoy sent out by the Company of the Hundred

Associates were intercepted on their way, carried into England, and

confiscated. On the arrival of the English at Tadoussac, David Kirke,

the commander, sent up a summons to Champlain at Quebec, demanding

the surrender of the town; this Champlain declined to do with such

an air of assurance that the English commander did not attempt to

enforce his demand. The supplies for the settlement having thus been

cut off by the English, before the next spring the colony was on the

point of perishing by starvation. Half of them had been billeted on

Indian tribes to escape impending death. On the 19th of July, 1629,

three English vessels appeared before Quebec, and again demanded its

surrender. Destitute of provisions and of all means of defence, with

only a handful of famishing men, Champlain delivered up the post

without hesitation. All the movable property belonging to the Company

at Quebec was surrendered. The whole colony, with the exception of such

as preferred to remain, were transported to France by way of England.

On their arrival at Plymouth, it was ascertained that the war between

the two countries had come to an end, and that the articles of peace

provided that all conquests made subsequent to the 24th of April,

1629, were to be restored; and consequently Quebec, and the peltry and

other property taken after that date, must be remanded to their former

owners. Notwithstanding this, Champlain was taken to London and held as

a prisoner of war for several weeks, during which time the base attempt

was made to compel him to pay a ransom for his freedom. Such illegal

and unjust artifices practised upon a man like Champlain of course came

to nothing, except to place upon the pages of history a fresh example

of what the avarice of men will lead them to do. After having been

detained a month, Champlain was permitted to depart for France.

[Illustration: CAPTURE OF QUEBEC, 1629.

Fac-simile of the engraving in Hennepin’s _New Discovery_, 1698, p.

161. Of this capture (during which not a gun was fired, notwithstanding

Hennepin’s dramatic picture) see an enumeration of contemporary

authorities in the notes to Shea’s _Charlevoix_, ii. 44, _et seq._,

principally Champlain, Sagard, and Creuxius. It is the subject of

special treatment in H. Kirke’s _Conquest of Canada_, with help from

papers in the English Record Office. In the same year (1629) there was

a seizure on the part of the French of James Stuart’s post at Cape

Breton, commemorated in _La Prise d’un Seigneur Écossois, etc._ Par

Monsieur Daniel de Dieppe. Rouen, 1630. Cf. Champlain, 1632 ed., p.

272; and Harrisse, no. 45.]

The breaking-up of the settlement at Quebec just on the eve of the new

arrangement under the administration of the Hundred Associates, and

with greater prospect of success than had existed at any former period,

involved a loss which can hardly be estimated, and retarded for several

years the progress of the colony. The return of the property which

had been illegally seized and carried away gave infinite trouble and

anxiety to Champlain; and it was not until 1633 that he left France

again, with a large number of colonists, re-commissioned as governor,

to join his little colony at Quebec.[383] He was accompanied by the

Jesuit Fathers Enemond Massé and Jean de Brébeuf. The Governor and

his associates received at Quebec from the remnant of the colony a

most hearty welcome. The memory of what good he had done in the past

awakened in them fresh gratitude and a new zeal in his service. He

addressed himself with his old energy, but nevertheless with declining

strength, to the duties of the hour,—to the renovation and improvement

of the habitation and fort, to the holding of numerous councils with

the Indians in the neighborhood, and to the execution of plans for

winning back the traffic of allied tribes. The building of a chapel,

named, in memory of the recovery of Quebec, Notre Dame de Recouvrance,

and such other kindred duties as sprang out of the responsibilities of

his charge, engaged his attention. In these occupations two years soon

passed.

During the summer of 1635 Champlain addressed a letter to Cardinal de

Richelieu, soliciting the means, and setting forth the importance of

subduing the hostile tribes known as the Five Nations, and bringing

them into sympathy and friendship with the French.[384] This in

his opinion was necessary for the proper enlargement of the French

domain and for the opening of the whole continent to the influence of

the Christian faith,—two objects which seemed to him of paramount

importance. This was probably the last letter written by Champlain,

and contains the key to the motives which had influenced him from

the beginning in joining the northern tribes in their wars with the

Iroquois.[385] On Christmas Day, the 25th of December, 1635, Champlain

died in the little fort which he had erected on the rocky promontory

at Quebec, amid the tears and sorrows of the colony to which for

twenty-seven years he had devoted his strength and thought with rare

generosity and devotion.[386] In the following June, Montmagny, a

Knight of Malta, arrived as the successor of Champlain.

[Illustration]

CRITICAL ESSAY ON THE SOURCES OF INFORMATION.

THE richest source of information relating to Champlain’s achievements

as a navigator, explorer, and the founder of the French settlement in

Canada is found in his own writings. It was his habit to keep a journal

of his observations, which he began even on his voyage to the West

Indies in 1599. Of his first voyage to Canada, in 1603, his Journal

appears to have been put to press in the last part of the same year.

This little book of eighty pages is entitled: _Des Savvages; ov, Voyage

de Samvel Champlain, de Brovage, faict en la France Nouuelle, l’an

mil six cens trois. A Paris, chez Clavde de Monstr’oeil, tenant sa

boutique en la Cour du Palais, au nom de Jesus, 1604. Auec priuilege

du Roy._ This Journal contains a valuable narrative of the incidents

of the voyage across the Atlantic, and likewise a description of the

Gulf and River St. Lawrence, and enters fully into details touching

the tributaries of the great river, the bays, harbors, forests, and

scenery along the shore, as well as the animals and birds with which

the islands and borders of the river were swarming at that period. It

contains a discriminating account of the character and habits of the

savages as he saw them.[387]

In 1613 Champlain published a second volume, embracing the events which

had occurred from 1603 to that date. The following is its title: _Les

Voyages dv Sievr de Champlain Xaintongeois, Capitaine ordinaire pour

le Roy, en la marine, divisez en devx livres; ou, jovrnal tres-fidele

des observations faites és descouuertures de la Nouuelle France:

tant en la descriptiô des terres, costes, riuieres, ports, haures,

leurs hauteurs, et plusieurs delinaisons de la guide-aymant; qu’en la

creâce des peuples, leur superstition, façon de viure et de guerroyer:

enrichi de quantité de figures. A Paris, chez Jean Berjon, rue S.

Jean de Beauuais, au Cheual volant, et en sa boutique au Palais,

à la gallerie des prisonniers, M.DC.XIII. Avec privilege dv Roy_.

4to.[388] It contains a full description of the coast-line westerly

from Canseau, including Nova Scotia, the Bay of Fundy, New Brunswick,

and New England as far as the Vineyard Sound. It deals not only with

the natural history, the fauna and flora, but with the character

of the soil, its numerous products, as well as the sinuosities and

conformation of the shore, and is unusually minute in details touching

the natives. In this last respect it is especially valuable, as at

that period neither their manners, customs, nor mode of life had been

modified by intercourse with Europeans. The volume is illustrated by

twenty-two local maps and drawings, and a large map representing the

territory which he had personally surveyed, and concerning which he

had obtained information from the natives and from other sources.

This is the first map to delineate the coast-line of New England with

approximate correctness. The volume contains likewise what he calls

a “geographical map,” constructed with the degrees of latitude and

longitude numerically indicated. In this respect it is, of course,

inexact, as the instruments then in use were very imperfect, and it is

doubtful whether his surveys had been sufficiently extensive to furnish

the proper and adequate data for these complicated calculations. It was

the first attempt to lay down the latitude and longitude on any map of

the coast.[389]

In 1619 Champlain published a third work, describing the events

from 1615 to that date. It was reissued in 1620 and in 1627. The

following is its title, as given in the issue of 1627:[390] _Voyages

et Descovvertvres faites en la Novvelle France, depuis l’année 1615

iusques à la fin de l’année 1618. Par le Sieur de Champlain, Cappitaine

ordinaire pour le Roy en la Mer du Ponant. Seconde Edition. A Paris,

chez Clavde Collet, au Palais, en la gallerie des Prisonniers, M.D.C.

XXVII. Avec privilege dv Roy._ The previous issue contained the

occurrences of 1613. The year 1614 he passed in France. The present

volume continues his observations in New France from his return in

1615. It describes his introduction of the Recollect Fathers as

missionaries to the Indians, his exploration of the Ottawa, Lake

Nipissing, Lake Huron, and Ontario; the attack on the Iroquois fort in

the State of New York; his winter among the Hurons; and it contains his

incomparable essay on the Hurons and other neighboring tribes. It has

Brûlé’s narrative of his experiences among the savages on the southern

borders of the State of New York, near the Pennsylvania line, and that

of the events which occurred in the settlement at Quebec; it contains

illustrations of the dress of the savages in their wars and feasts, of

their monuments for the dead, their funeral processions, of the famous

fort of the Iroquois in the State of New York, and of the deer-trap.

In 1632 Champlain published his last work, under the following title:

_Les Voyages de la Novvelle France occidentale, dicte Canada, faits

par le S^r de Champlain Xainctongeois, Capitaine pour le Roy en la

Marine du Ponant, et toutes les Descouuertes qu’il a faites en ce

pais depuis l’an 1603 iusques en l’an 1629. Où se voit comme ce pays

a esté premierement descouuert par les François, sous l’authorité de

nos Roys tres-Chrestiens, iusques au regne de sa Majesté à present

regnante Lovis XIII. Roy de France et de Navarre. A Paris, chez Clavde

Collet, au Palais, en la Gallerie des Prisonniers, à l’ Estoille d’Or,

M.DC.XXXII. Auec Priuilege du Roy._[391] A sub-title accompanies this

and the other works, which we have omitted as unnecessary for our

present purpose. This volume is divided into two parts. The first part

is an abridgment of what had already been published up to this date,

and omits much that is valuable in the preceding publications. It

preserves the general outline and narrative, but drops many personal

details and descriptions which are of great historical importance,

and can be supplied only by reference to his earlier publications.

The second part is a continuation of his journals from 1620 to 1631

inclusive. Champlain’s personal explorations were completed in

1615-1616, and consequently this second part relates mostly to affairs

transacted at Quebec and on the River St. Lawrence. It contains an

ample and authentic account of the taking of Quebec by the English in

1629. The volume is supplemented by Champlain’s treatise on navigation,

a brief work on Christian doctrine translated into the language of the

Montagnais by Brebeuf, and the Lord’s Prayer, Apostles’ Creed, etc.,

rendered into the same language by Masse.

REPRINTS.—In 1830 the first reprint of any of Champlain’s works was

made at Paris, where the issue of 1632 was printed in two volumes.

It was done by order of the French Government, to give work to the

printers thrown out of employment by the Revolution of July, and is

without note or comment.[392] In 1870 a complete edition of Champlain’s

works was issued at Quebec, under the editorial supervision of the Abbé

Laverdière, who gave a summary of Champlain’s career with luminous

annotations. It was called _Œuvres de Champlain, publiées sous le

Patronage de l’Université Laval. Par l’Abbé C. H. Laverdière, M. A.

Seconde Édition.[393] 6 tomes, 4to. Québec: Imprimé au Séminaire par

Geo. E. Desbarats, 1870._ This edition includes the Brief Discourse or

Voyage to the West Indies in 1599, which had never before been printed

in the original French. The manuscript had been almost miraculously

preserved, and at the time it was used by Laverdière it belonged to M.

Féret of Dieppe.[394] The edition of Laverdière is an exact reprint,

most carefully done, and entirely trustworthy, while its notes are full

and exceedingly accurate.[395]

TRANSLATIONS.—The “Savages” was printed in an English translation by

Samuel Purchas in his _Pilgrimes_, London, 1625, vol. iv. pp. 1605-1619.

In 1859 the _Brief Discourse_, or Voyage to the West Indies, translated

by Alice Wilmere and edited by Norton Shaw, was published at London by

the Hakluyt Society.

In 1878, 1880, and 1882, an English translation of the Voyages was

printed by the Prince Society, in three volumes, comprising the

Journals issued in 1604, 1613, and 1619, as _Voyages of Samuel de

Champlain, translated from the French by Charles Pomeroy Otis, Ph.D.,

with Historical Illustrations, and a Memoir by the Rev. Edmund F.

Slafter, A. M._ The Memoir occupies the greater part of vol. i., and

both the Memoir and the Voyages are heavily annotated. It contains

heliotype copies of all the local and general maps and drawings in the

early French editions,—in all thirty-one illustrations; besides a new

outline map showing the explorations and journeyings of Champlain,

together with two portraits,—one engraved by Ronjat after an old

engraving by Moncornet; the other is from a painting by Th. Hamel,

likewise after the engraving by Moncornet.[396]

The _Mercure François_, a journal of current events, contains several

narratives relating to New France during the administration of

Champlain.[397]

In vol. xiii. pp. 12-34, is a letter of Charles Lalemant, a Jesuit

missionary (Aug. 1, 1626), about the extent of the country, method of

travelling, character, manners, and customs of the natives, and the

work of the mission.[398] In vol. xiv. pp. 232-267, for 1628, is a full

narrative of the _Compagnie de la Nouvelle France_, or the Company

of the Hundred Associates, which was under the direction of Cardinal

Richelieu, setting forth its origin, design, and constitution.[399]

In vol. xviii., for 1632, pp. 56-74, there is again much about the

Indians, and the delivery in that year of Quebec to the French by the

English. In vol. xix., for 1633, pp. 771-867, are further accounts of

the savages, and of the return of Champlain as governor in 1633, with

the events which followed, particularly his dealings with the Indian

tribes.

[Illustration]

CHAPTER IV.

ACADIA.

BY CHARLES C. SMITH,

_Treasurer of the Massachusetts Historical Society._

ACADIA is the designation of a territory of uncertain and disputed

extent. Though its sovereignty passed more than once from France to

England, and from England to France, its limits were never exactly

defined. But in this chapter it will be used to denote that part of

America claimed by Great Britain under the Treaty of Utrecht, in 1713,

as bounded on the south by the Atlantic Ocean, on the west by a line

drawn due north from the mouth of the Penobscot River, on the north by

the River St. Lawrence, and on the east by the Gulf of St. Lawrence and

the Strait of Canso. Within these bounds were minor divisions vaguely

designated by French or Indian names; and the larger part of this

region was also called by the English Nova Scotia, or New Scotland.

[Illustration: SIEUR DE MONTS.

[This follows a copy of a water-color drawing in the _Massachusetts

Archives; Documents Collected in France_, i. 441, called a portrait of

De Monts from an original at Versailles. Mr. Parkman tells me that he

was misled by this reference of Mr. Poore in stating that a portrait

of De Monts existed at Versailles (_Pioneers_, p. 222); since a later

examination has not revealed such a canvas, and the picture may be

considered as displaying the costume of the gentleman of the period,

if there is doubt concerning its connection with De Monts. There is

another engraving of it in Drake’s _Nooks and Corners of the New

England Coast_.—ED.]]

So large a tract of country naturally presents great varieties of soil

and climate and of other physical characteristics; but for the most

part it is fertile, and it abounds in mineral resources, the extent and

value of which were long unsuspected even by such eager seekers for

mines as the early voyagers. It was often the theatre of sanguinary

conflicts on a small scale, and its early history, which is closely

connected with that of the New England colonies, includes more than

one episode of tragic interest. Yet it has never filled an important

place in the history of civilization in America, and it was a mere

make-weight in adjusting the balance of losses and acquisitions by the

two great European powers which for a century and a half contended here

for colonial supremacy.

Acadia seems to have been known to the French very soon after the

voyages of Cabot, and to have been visited occasionally by Breton

fishermen almost from the beginning of the sixteenth century. For

nearly a hundred years these adventurous toilers of the sea prosecuted

their dangerous calling on the Banks of Newfoundland and the near

shores before any effective attempt at colonization was made. It was

not until 1540 that a Picard gentleman, Jean François de Roberval,

was appointed viceroy of Canada, and attempted to establish a colony

within the St. Lawrence.[400]

Owing to the unexpected severity of the climate and the want of

support from France, the enterprise failed, and, with the exception

of the abortive efforts of De la Roche in 1584 and in 1598,[401] no

new attempt at French colonization was made for more than half a

century afterward, when the accession of Henry IV. gave a new impulse

to the latent spirit of adventure. In 1603 Pierre de Guast, Sieur de

Monts, was named lieutenant-general of Acadia, with powers extending

over all the inhabitable shores of America north of the latitude of

Philadelphia.[402] Vast as was this domain, his real authority was

confined to very narrow limits. Setting sail from France in the early

part of April, 1604, De Monts, accompanied by Champlain, came in sight

of Sable Island on the 1st of May, and a week later made the mainland

at Cape La Hêve.

[Illustration: ISLE DE SAINTE CROIX.

[This is a fac-simile of Champlain’s engraving in his edition of 1613.

The key is as follows: _A_, Habitation. _B_, Gardens. _C_, Isles with

cannon. _D_, Platform for cannon. _E_, Burial-place. _F_, Chapel.

_G_, Rocky shoals. _H_, Islet. _I_, De Mont’s water-mill begun here.

_L_, Place for making coal. _M_ and _N_, Gardens. _O_, Mountains

(Chamcook Hill, 627 feet high). _P_, River of the Etechemins (called

later Schoodic River, till the name St. Croix was restored). Slafter

describes the island as about 540 feet wide at the broadest part, and

it contains now six or seven acres. Five small cannon-balls, two and

one-quarter inches in diameter, were dug up at the southern end some

years ago. Slafter’s edition, ii. 33.—ED.]]

Subsequently he doubled the southwestern point of the peninsula of

Nova Scotia, and coasting along the shore of what is now known as the

Bay of Fundy, he finally determined to effect a settlement on a little

island[403] just within the mouth of the St. Croix River. Here several

small buildings were erected, and the little company of seventy-nine

in all prepared to pass the winter. Before spring nearly one half of

their number died; and in the following summer, after the arrival of a

small reinforcement, it was decided to abandon the place. The coast was

carefully explored as far south as Cape Cod, but without finding any

spot which satisfied their fastidious tastes;[404] and the settlement

was then transferred to the other side of the bay, to what is now

called Annapolis Basin, but which De Monts had designated the year

before as Port Royal. Here a portion of the company was left to pass

a second winter, while De Monts returned to France, to prevent, if

possible, the withdrawal of any part of the monopoly granted him by the

Crown.

Nearly a year elapsed before he again reached his settlement,—only to

find it reduced to two individuals. After a winter of great suffering,

Pontgravé, who had been left in command during the absence of De Monts,

weary with waiting for succor, had determined to sail for France,

leaving these two brave men to guard the buildings and other property.

He had but just sailed when Jean de Poutrincourt, the lieutenant of De

Monts, arrived with the long-expected help. Measures were immediately

taken to recall Pontgravé, if he could be found on the coast, and these

were fortunately successful. He was discovered at Cape Sable, and at

once returned; but soon afterward he sailed again for France.[405]

Another winter was passed at Port Royal, pleasantly enough according

to the accounts of Champlain and Lescarbot; but in the early summer,

orders to abandon the settlement were received from De Monts, whose

monopoly of the trade with the Indians had been rescinded. The settlers

reluctantly left their new home, and the greater part of them reached

St. Malo, in Brittany, in October, 1607. The first attempt at French

colonization in Acadia was as abortive as Popham’s English colony at

the mouth of the Sagadahock in the following year.[406]

[Illustration: BUILDINGS ON ST. CROIX ISLAND.

[This cut follows Champlain’s in the 1613 edition. It represents,—_A_,

De Monts’s house. _B_, Common building, for rainy days. _C_,

Storehouse. _D_, Building for the guard. _E_, Blacksmith’s shop. _F_,

Carpenter’s house. _G_, Well. _H_, Oven. _I_, Kitchen. _L_ and _M_,

Gardens. _N_, Open square. _O_, Palisade. _P_, Houses of D’Orville,

Champlain, and Champdoré. _Q_, Houses of Boulay and artisans. _R_,

houses of Genestou, Sourin, and artisans. _T_, Houses of Beaumont, la

Motte Bourioli, and Fougeray. _V_, Curate’s house. _X_, Gardens. _Y_,

River.—ED.]]

Three years later, Poutrincourt, to whom De Monts had granted Port

Royal, set sail from Dieppe to found a new colony on the site of

the abandoned settlement. The deserted houses were again occupied,

and a brighter future seemed to await the new enterprise. But this

expectation was doomed to a speedy disappointment.

[Illustration: PORT ROYAL, OR ANNAPOLIS BASIN (_after Lescarbot_).

After a few years of struggling existence, the English colonists

determined to expel the French as intruders on the territory belonging

to them. In 1613 an English ship, under the command of Captain Samuel

Argall, appeared off Mount Desert, where a little company of the

French, under the patronage of the Comtesse de Guercheville,[407] had

established themselves for the conversion of the Indians.

[Illustration: PORT ROYAL (_after Champlain_).

[This is Champlain’s plan (edition of 1613) a little reduced. The

letters can be thus interpreted: _A_, Our habitation. _B_, Champlain’s

garden. _C_, Road made by Poutrincourt. _D_, Island. _E_, Entrance.

_F_, Shoals, dry at low water. _G_, St. Antoine river. _H_, Wheat-field

(Annapolis). _I_, Poutrincourt’s mill. _L_, Meadows under water at

highest tides. _M_, Equille River. _N_, Coast (Bay of Fundy). _O_,

Mountains. _P_, Island. _Q_, Rocky Brook. _R_, Brook. _S_, Mill River.

_T_, Lake. _V_, Herring-fishing by the natives. _X_, Trout-brook. _Y_,

Passage made by Champlain. Harrisse (nos. 245-246) cites two plans of

Port Royal in the French Archives.—ED.]]

The French were too few to offer even a show of resistance, and the

landing of the English was not disputed. By an unworthy trick, and

without the knowledge of the French, Argall obtained possession of the

royal commission; and then, dismissing half of his prisoners to seek in

an open boat for succor from any fishing vessel of their own country

they might chance to meet, he carried the others with him to Virginia.

The same year Argall was sent back by the governor of Virginia, Sir

Thomas Dale, to finish the work of expelling the French. With three

vessels he visited successively Mount Desert and St. Croix, where he

destroyed the French buildings, and then, crossing to Port Royal,

seized whatever he could carry away, killed the cattle, and burned the

houses to the ground. Having done this, he sailed for Virginia, leaving

the colonists to support themselves as they best could. Port Royal

was not, however, abandoned by them, and it continued to drag out a

precarious existence. Seventy-five years later, its entire population

did not exceed six hundred, and in the whole peninsula there were not

more than nine hundred inhabitants.[408]

[Illustration]

Meanwhile, in 1621, Sir William Alexander, a Scotchman of some literary

pretensions, had obtained from King James a charter (dated Sept. 10,

1621) for the lordship and barony of New Scotland, comprising the

territory now known as the provinces of Nova Scotia and New Brunswick.

Under this grant he made several unsuccessful attempts at colonization;

and in 1625 he undertook to infuse fresh life into his enterprise by

parcelling out the territory into baronetcies.[409] Nothing came of

the scheme, and by the treaty of St. Germains, in 1632, Great Britain

surrendered to France all the places occupied by the English within

these limits. Two years before this, however, Alexander’s rights in

a part of the territory had been purchased by Claude and Charles de

la Tour;[410] and shortly after the peace, the Chevalier Razilly was

appointed by Louis XIII. governor of the whole of Acadia.[411] He

designated as his lieutenants Charles de la Tour for the portion east

of the St. Croix, and Charles de Menou, Sieur d’Aulnay-Charnisé, for

the portion west of that river.

[Illustration]

The former established himself on the River St. John where the city of

St. John now stands, and the latter at Castine, on the eastern shore

of Penobscot Bay. Shortly after his appointment, La Tour attacked and

drove away a small party of Plymouth men who had set up a trading-post

at Machias; and in 1635 D’Aulnay treated another party of the Plymouth

colonists in a similar way.[412]

[Illustration: MAP OF ABOUT 1610.

[This follows a fac-simile in the _Massachusetts Archives; Documents

Collected in France_, i. 345, where it is called “Carte pour servir à

l’intelligence du mémoire sur la Pesche de moluës, par Jean Michel,

en 1510. Copie de l’original (Dépôt des Cartes).” The date is clearly

wrong, as copied. It cannot be earlier than Champlain’s time, a hundred

years later than the date given.—ED.]]