Standing on the summit of one of the rocky eminences at the mouth of the
Sagueuay, and looking back through the haze of two hundred and seventy-four
years, we may descry two small sailing craft slowly making their way up the
majestic stream which Jacques Cartier, sixty-eight years before, christened
in honour of the grilled St. Lawrence. The vessels are of French build, and
have evidently just arrived from France. They are of very diminutive size
for an ocean voyage, but are manned by hardy Breton mariners for whom the
tempestuous Atlantic has no terrors. They are commanded by an enterprising
merchant-sailor of St. Malo, who is desirous of pushing his fortunes by
means of the fur trade, and who, with that end in view, has already more
than once navigated the St. Lawrence as far westward as the mouth of the
Saguenay. His name is Pontgravé. Like other French adventurers of his time
he is a brave and energetic man, ready to do, to dare, and, if need be, to
suffer; but his primary object in life is to amass wealth, and to effect
this object he is not over-scrupulous as to the means employed. On this
occasion he has come over with instructions from Henry IV., King of France,
to explore the St. Lawrence, to ascertain how far from its mouth navigation
is practicable, and to make a survey of the country on its banks. He is
accompanied on the expedition by a man of widely different mould; a man who
is worth a thousand of such sordid, huckstering spirits; a man who unites
with the courage and energy of a soldier a high sense of personal honour
and a singleness of heart worthy of the Chevalier Bayard himself. To these
qualities are added an absorbing passion for colonization, and a piety and
zeal which would not misbecome a Jesuit missionary. He is poor, but what
the poet calls "the jingling of the guinea" has no charms for him. Let
others consume their souls in heaping up riches, in chaffering with the
Indians for the skins of wild beasts, and in selling the same to the
affluent traders of France. It is his ambition to rear the _fleur-de-lis_
in the remote wildernesses of the New World, and to evangelize the savage
hordes by whom that world is peopled. The latter object is the most dear to
his heart of all, and he has already recorded his belief that the salvation
of one soul is of more importance than the founding of an empire. After
such an exordium it is scarcely necessary to inform the student of history
that the name of Pontgravé's ally is Samuel De Champlain. He has already
figured somewhat conspicuously in his country's annals, but his future
achievements are destined to outshine the events of his previous career,
and to gain for him the merited title of "Father of New France."
He was born some time in the year 1567, at Brouage, a small seaport town in
the Province of Saintonge, on the west coast of France. Part of his youth
was spent in the naval service, and during the wars of the League he fought
on the side of the King, who awarded him a small pension and attached him
to his own person. But Champlain was of too adventurous a turn of mind
to feel at home in the confined atmosphere of a royal court, and soon
languished for change of scene. Ere long he obtained command of a vessel
bound for the West Indies, where he remained more than two years. During
this time he distinguished himself as a brave and efficient officer. He
became known as one whose nature partook largely of the romantic element,
but who, nevertheless, had ever an eye to the practical. Several important
engineering projects seem to have engaged his attention during his sojourn
in the West Indies. Prominent among these was the project of constructing a
ship-canal across the Isthmus of Panama, but the scheme was not encouraged,
and ultimately fell to the ground. Upon his return to France he again
dangled about the court for a few months, by which time he had once more
become heartily weary of a life of inaction. With the accession of Henry
IV. to the French throne the long religious wars which had so long
distracted the country came to an end, and the attention of the Government
began to be directed to the colonisation of New France--a scheme which had
never been wholly abandoned, but which had remained in abeyance since the
failure of the expedition undertaken by the brothers Roberval, more than
half a century before. Several new attempts were made at this time, none
of which was very successful. The fur trade, however, held out great
inducements to private enterprise, and stimulated the cupidity of the
merchants of Dieppe, Rouen and St Malo. In the heart of one of them
something nobler than cupidity was aroused. In 1603, M. De Chastes,
Governor of Dieppe, obtained a patent from the King conferring upon him and
several of his associates a monopoly of the fur trade of New France. To M.
De Chastes the acquisition of wealth--of which he already had enough, and
to spare--was a matter of secondary importance, but he hoped to make his
patent the means of extending the French empire into the unknown regions of
the far West. The patent was granted soon after Champlain's return from the
West Indies, and just as the pleasures of the court were beginning to pall
upon him. He had served under De Chastes during the latter years of the war
of the League, and the Governor was no stranger to the young man's skill,
energy, and incorruptible integrity. De Chastes urged him to join the
expedition, which was precisely of a kind to find favour in the eyes of an
ardent adventurer like Champlain. The King's consent having been obtained,
he joined the expedition under Pontgravé, and sailed for the mouth of the
St. Lawrence on the 15th of March, 1603. The expedition, as we have seen,
was merely preliminary to more specific and extended operations. The ocean
voyage, which was a tempestuous one, occupied more than two months, and
they did not reach the St. Lawrence until the latter end of May. They
sailed up as far as Tadousac, at the mouth of the Saguenay, where a little
trading-post had been established four years before by Pontgravé, and
Chauvin. Here they cast anchor, and a fleet of canoes filled with wondering
natives gathered round their little barques to sell peltries, and
(unconsciously) to sit to Champlain for their portraits. After a short stay
at Tadousac the leaders of the expedition, accompanied by several of
the crew, embarked in a batteau and preceded up the river past deserted
Stadacona to the site of the Indian village of Hochelaga, discovered by
Jacques Cartier in 1535. The village so graphically described by that
navigator had ceased to exist, and the tribe which had inhabited it at
the time of his visit had given place to a few Algonquin Indians. Our
adventurers essayed to ascend the river still farther, but found it
impossible to make headway against the rapids of St. Louis, which had
formerly presented an insuperable barrier to Cartier's westward progress.
Then they retraced their course down the river to Tadousac, re-embarked on
board their vessels, and made all sail for France. When they arrived there
they found that their patron, De Chastes, had died during their absence,
and that his Company had been dissolved. Very soon afterwards, however, the
scheme of colonization was taken up by the Sieur de Monts, who entered into
engagements with Champlain for another voyage to the New World. De Monts
and Champlain set sail on the 7th of March, 1604, with a large expedition,
and in due course reached the shores of Nova Scotia, then called Acadie.
After an absence of three years, during which Champlain explored the coast
as far southward as Cape Cod, the expedition returned to France. A good
deal had been learned as to the topographical features of the country lying
near the coast, but little had been done in the way of actual colonization.
The next expedition was productive of greater results. De Monts, at
Champlain's instigation, resolved to found a settlement on the shores of
the St Lawrence. Two vessels were fitted up at his expense and placed under
Champlain's command, with Pontgravé as lieutenant of the expedition, which
put to sea in the month of April, 1608, and reached the mouth of the
Saguenay early in June. Pontgravé began a series of trading operations with
the Indians at Tadousac, while Champlain proceeded up the river to fix upon
an advantageous site for the projected settlement. This site he found at
the confluence of the St. Charles with the St. Lawrence, near the place
where Jacques Cartier had spent the winter of 1535-6. Tradition tells us
that when Cartier's sailors beheld the adjacent promontory of Cape Diamond
they exclaimed, "_Quel bec_"--("What a beak!")--which exclamation led to
the place being called _Quebec_. The most probable derivation of the name,
however, is the Indian word _kebec_, signifying a strait, which might well
have been applied by the natives to the narrowing of the river at this
place. Whatever may be the origin of the name, here it was that Champlain,
on the 3rd of July, 1608, founded his settlement, and Quebec was the name
which he bestowed upon it. This was the first permanent settlement of
Europeans on the American continent, with the exception of those at St.
Augustine, in Florida, and Jamestown, in Virginia.
Champlain's first attempts at settlement, as might be expected, were of a
very primitive character. He erected rude barracks, and cleared a few small
patches of ground adjacent thereto, which he sowed with wheat and rye.
Perceiving that the fur trade might be turned to good account in promoting
the settlement of the country, he bent his energies to its development.
He had scarcely settled his little colony in its new home ere he began to
experience the perils of his quasi-regal position. Notwithstanding
the patent of monopoly held by his patron, on the faith of which his
colonization scheme had been projected, the rights conferred by it began to
be infringed by certain traders who came over from France and instituted
a system of traffic with the natives. Finding the traffic exceedingly
profitable, these traders ere long held out inducements to some of
Champlain's followers. A conspiracy was formed against him and he narrowly
escaped assassination. Fortunately, one of the traitors was seized by
remorse, and revealed the plot before it had been fully carried out. The
chief conspirator was hanged, and his accomplices were sent over to France,
where they expiated their crime at the galleys. Having thus promptly
suppressed the first insurrection within his dominions, Champlain prepared
himself for the rigours of a Canadian winter. An embankment was formed
above the reach of the tide, and a stock of provisions was laid in
sufficient for the support of the settlement until spring. The colony,
inclusive of Champlain himself, consisted of twenty-nine persons.
Notwithstanding all precautions, the scurvy broke out among them during the
winter. Champlain, who was endowed with a vigorous constitution, escaped
the pest, but before the advent of spring the little colony was reduced
to only nine persons. The sovereign remedy which Cartier had found so
efficacious in a similar emergency was not to be found. That remedy was
a decoction prepared by the Indians from a tree which they called
_Auneda_--believed to have been a species of spruce--but the natives of
Champlain's day knew nothing of the remedy, from which he concluded that
the tribe which had employed it on behalf of Cartier and his men had been
exterminated by their enemies.
With spring, succours and fresh immigrants arrived from France, and new
vitality was imported into the little colony. Soon after this time,
Champlain committed the most impolitic act of his life. The Hurons,
Algonquins and other tribes of the St. Lawrence and the Ottawa, resolved
upon taking the war-path against their enemies, the Iroquois, or Five
Nations--the boldest, fiercest, and most powerful confederacy known to
Indian history. Champlain, ever since his arrival in the country, had done
his utmost to win the favour of the natives with whom he was brought more
immediately into contact, and he deemed that by joining them in opposing
the Iroquois, who were a standing menace to his colony, he would knit the
Hurons and Algonquins to the side of the King of France by permanent and
indissoluble ties. To some extent he was right, but he underestimated
the strength of the foe, an alliance with whom would have been of more
importance than an alliance with all the other Indian tribes of New France.
Champlain cast in his lot with the Hurons and Algonquins, and accompanied
them on their expedition against their enemies. By so doing he invoked the
deadly animosity of the latter against the French for all time to come. He
did not forsee that by this one stroke of policy he was paving the way for
a subsequent alliance between the Iroquois and the English.
On May 28th, 1609, in company with his Indian allies, he started on the
expedition, the immediate results of which were so insignificant--the
remote results of which were so momentous. The war-party embarked in
canoes, ascended the St. Lawrence to the mouth of the Richelieu--then
called the River of the Iroquois--and thence up the latter stream to the
lake which Champlain beheld for the first time, and which until that day
no European eye had ever looked upon. This picturesque sheet of water
was thenceforward called after him, and in its name his own is still
perpetuated. The party held on their course to the head waters of the lake,
near to which several Iroquois villages were situated. The enemy's scouts
received intelligence of the approach of the invaders, and advanced to
repel them. The opposing forces met in the forest on the south-western
shore, not far from Crown point, on the morning of the 30th of July. The
Iroquois, two hundred in number, advanced to the onset. "Among them," says
Mr. Parkman, "could be seen several chiefs, conspicuous by their tall
plumes. Some bore shields of wood and hide, and some were covered with a
kind of armour made of tough twigs, interlaced with a vegetable fibre,
supposed by Champlain to be cotton. The allies, growing anxious, called
with loud cries for their champion, and opened their ranks that he
might pass to the front. He did so, and advancing before his red
companions-in-arms stood revealed to the astonished gaze of the Iroquois,
who, beholding the warlike apparition in their path, stared in mute
amazement. But his arquebuse was levelled; the report startled the woods,
a chief fell dead, and another by his side rolled among the bushes. Then
there arose from the allies a yell which, says Champlain, would have
drowned a thunderclap, and the forest was full of whizzing arrows. For a
moment the Iroquois stood firm, and sent back their arrows lustily; but
when another and another gunshot came from the thickets on their flank they
broke and fled in uncontrollable terror. Swifter than hounds, the allies
tore through the bushes, in pursuit. Some of the Iroquois were killed, more
were taken. Camp, canoes, provisions, all were abandoned, and many weapons
flung down in the panic flight. The arquebuse had done its work. The
victory was complete." The victorious allies, much to the disgust of
Champlain, tortured their prisoners in the most barbarous fashion, and
returned to Quebec, taking with them fifty Iroquois scalps. Thus was the
first Indian blood shed by the white man in Canada. The man who shed it was
a European and a Christian, who had not even the excuse of provocation.
This is a matter worth bearing in mind when we read of the frightful
atrocities committed by the Iroquois upon the whites in after years.
Champlain's conduct on this occasion seems incapable of defence, and it was
certainly a very grave error, considered simply as an act of policy. The
error was bitterly and fiercely avenged, and for every Indian who fell
on the morning of that 30th of July, in this, the first battle fought on
Canadian soil between natives and Europeans, a tenfold penalty was exacted.
"Thus did New France rush into collision with the redoubted warriors of the
Five Nations. Here was the beginning, in some measure doubtless the cause,
of a long succession of murderous conflicts, bearing havoc and flame to
generations yet unborn. Champlain had invaded the tiger's den; and now, in
smothered fury the patient savage would lie biding his day of blood."
Six weeks after the performance of this exploit, Champlain, accompanied by
Pontgravé, returned to France. Upon his arrival at court he found De Monts
there, trying to secure a renewal of his patent of monopoly, which had
been revoked in consequence of loud complaints on the part of other French
merchants who were desirous of participating in the profits arising from
the fur trade. His efforts to obtain a renewal proving unsuccessful, De
Monts determined to carry on his scheme of colonization unaided by royal
patronage. Allying himself with some affluent merchants of Rochelle, he
fitted out another expedition and once more despatched Champlain to the New
World. Champlain, upon his arrival at Tadousac, found his former Indian
allies preparing for another descent upon the Iroquois, in which
undertaking he again joined them; the inducement this time being a promise
on the part of the Indians to pilot him up the great streams leading from
the interior, whereby he hoped to discover a passage to the North Sea,
and thence to China and the Indies. In this second expedition he was
less successful than in the former one. The opposing forces met near the
confluence of the Richelieu and St. Lawrence Rivers, and though Champlain's
allies were ultimately victorious, they sustained a heavy loss, and
he himself was wounded in the neck by an arrow. After the battle, the
torture-fires were lighted, as was usual on such occasions, and Champlain
for the first time was an eye-witness to the horrors of cannibalism.
He soon afterwards began his preparations for an expedition up the Ottawa,
but just as he was about to start on the journey, a ship arrived from
France with intelligence that King Henry had fallen a victim to the dagger
of Ravaillac. The accession of a new sovereign to the French Throne might
materially affect De Monts's ability to continue his scheme, and Champlain
once more set sail for France to confer with his patron. The late king,
while deeming it impolitic to continue the monopoly in De Monts's favour,
had always countenanced the latter's colonisation schemes in New France;
but upon Champlain's arrival he found that with the death of Henry IV De
Monts's court influence had ceased, and that his western scheme must stand
or fall on its own merits. Champlain, in order to retrieve his patron's
fortunes as far as might be, again returned to Canada in the following
spring, resolved to build a trading post far up the St. Lawrence, where it
would be easily accessible to the Indian hunters on the Ottawa.--The spot
selected was near the site of the former village of Hochelaga, near the
confluence of the two great rivers of Canada. The post was built on the
site now occupied by the hospital of the Grey Nuns of Montreal, and even
before its erection was completed a horde of rival French traders appeared
on the scene. This drove Champlain once more back to France, but he soon
found that the ardour of De Monts for colonization had cooled, and that he
was not disposed to concern himself further in the enterprize. Champlain,
being thus left to his own resources, determined to seek another patron,
and succeeded in enlisting the sympathy of the Count de Soissons, who
obtained the appointment of Lieutenant-General of New France, and invested
Champlain with the functions of that office as his deputy. The Count did
not long survive, but Henry de Bourbon, Prince of Condé, succeeded to his
privileges, and continued Champlain in his high office. In the spring of
1613 Champlain again betook himself to Canada, and arrived at Quebec early
in May. Before the end of the month he started on his long-deferred tour of
western exploration. Taking with him two canoes, containing an Indian and
four Frenchmen, he ascended the Ottawa in the hope of reaching China and
Japan by way of Hudson's Bay, which had been discovered by Hendrick Hudson
only three years before. In undertaking this journey Champlain had been
misled by a French imposter called Nicholas Vignan, who professed to have
explored the route far inland beyond the head waters of the Ottawa, which
river, he averred, had its source in a lake connected with the North Sea.
The enthusiastic explorer, relying upon the good faith of Vignan, proceeded
westward to beyond Lake Coulange, and after a tedious and perilous voyage,
stopped to confer with Tessouat, an Indian chief, whose tribe inhabited
that remote region. This potentate, upon being apprised of the object of
their journey, undeceived Champlain as to Vignan's character for veracity,
and satisfied him that the Frenchman had never passed farther west than
Tessouat's own dominions. Vignan, after a good deal of prevarication,
confessed that his story was false, and that what the Indian chief had
stated was a simple fact. Champlain, weary and disgusted, abandoned his
exploration and returned to Quebec, leaving Vignan with the Indians in the
wildernesses of the Upper Ottawa.
His next visit to France, which took place during the summer of the same
year was fraught with important results to the colony. A new company was
formed under the auspices of the Prince of Condé, and a scheme was laid
for the propagation of the Gospel among the Indians by means of Recollet
missionaries sent out from France for the purpose. These, who were the
first priests who settled in Canada, came out with Champlain in May, 1615.
A province was assigned to each of them, and they at once entered upon
the duties of their respective missions. One of them settled among the
Montagnais, near the mouth of the Saguenay; two of them remained at Quebec;
and the fourth, whose name was Le Caron, betook himself to the far western
wilds. Champlain then entered upon a more extended tour of westward
exploration than any he had hitherto undertaken. Accompanied by an
interpreter and a number of Algonquins as guides, he again ascended the
Ottawa, passed the Isle of Allumettes, and thence to Lake Nipissing. After
a short stay here he continued his journey, descended the stream since
known as French River, into the inlet of Lake Huron, now called Georgian
Bay. Paddling southward past the innumerable islands on the eastern coast
of the bay, he landed near the present site of Penetanguishene, and thence
followed an Indian trail leading through the ancient country of the
Hurons, now forming the northern part of the county of Simcoe, and the
north-eastern part of the county of Grey. This country contained seventeen
or eighteen villages, and a population, including women and children, of
about twenty thousand. One of the villages visited by Champlain, called
Cahiague, occupied a site near the present town of Orillia. At another
village, called Carhagouha, some distance farther west, the explorer found
the Recollet friar Le Caron, who had accompanied him from France only a few
months before as above mentioned. And here, on the 12th of August, 1615, Le
Caron celebrated, in Champlain's presence, the first mass ever heard in the
wilderness of western Canada.
After spending some time in the Huron country, Champlain accompanied the
natives on an expedition against their hereditary foes, the Iroquois, whose
domain occupied what is now the central and western part of the State
of New York. Crossing Lake Couchiching and coasting down the north-eastern
shore of Lake Simcoe, they made their way across country to the Bay of
Quinté, thence into Lake Ontario, and thence into the enemy's country.
Having landed, they concealed their canoes in the woods and marched inland.
On the 10th of October they came to a Seneca [Footnote: The Senecas were
one of the Five Nations composing the redoubtable Iroquois Confederacy.
The Tuscaroras joined the League in 1715, and it is subsequently known in
history as the "Six Nations."] village on or near a lake which was probably
Lake Canandaigua. The Hurons attacked the village, but were repulsed by
the fierce Iroquois, Champlain himself being several times wounded in the
assault. The invading war-party then retreated and abandoned the campaign,
returning to where they had hidden their canoes, in which they embarked and
made the best of their way back across Lake Ontario, where the party broke
up. The Hurons had promised Champlain that if he would accompany them on
their expedition against the Iroquois they would afterwards furnish him
with an escort back to Quebec. This promise they now declined to make good.
Champlain's prestige as an invincible champion was gone, and wounded and
dispirited, he was compelled to accompany them back to their country near
Lake Simcoe, where he spent the winter in the lodge of Durantal, one of
their chiefs. Upon his return to Quebec in the following year he was
welcomed as one risen from the dead. Hitherto Champlain's love of
adventure had led him to devote more attention to exploration than to the
consolidation of his power in New France. He determined to change his
policy in this respect; and crossed over to France to induce a larger
emigration. In July, 1620, he returned with Madame de Champlain, who was
received with great demonstrations of respect and affection by the Indians
upon her arrival at Quebec. Champlain found that the colony had rather
retrograded than advanced during his absence, and for some time after his
return, various causes contributed to retard its prosperity. At the end
of the year 1621, [Footnote: In this year, Eustáche, son of Abraham and
Margaret Martin, the first child of European parentage born in Canada,
was born at Quebec.] the European population of New France numbered only
forty-eight persons. Rival trading companies continued to fight for the
supremacy in the colony, and any man less patient and persevering than the
Father of New France would have abandoned his schemes in despair. This
untoward state of things continued until 1627, when an association, known
to history by the name of "The Company of the One Hundred Associates," was
formed under the patronage of the great Cardinal Richelieu. The association
was invested with the Vice-royalty of New France and Florida, together with
very extensive auxiliary privileges, including a monopoly of the fur trade,
the right to confer titles and appoint judges, and generally to carry
on the Government of the colony. In return for these truly vice-regal
privileges the company undertook to send out a large number of colonists,
and to provide them with the necessaries of life for a term of three years,
after which land enough for their support and grain wherewith to plant it
was to be given them. Champlain himself was appointed Governor. This great
company was scarcely organized before war broke out between France and
England. The English resolved upon the conquest of Canada, and sent out a
fleet to the St. Lawrence under the command of Sir David Kertk. The fleet
having arrived before Quebec, its commander demanded from Champlain a
surrender of the place, and as the Governor's supply of food and ammunition
was too small to enable him to sustain a siege, he signed a capitulation
and surrendered. He then hastened to France, where he influenced the
cabinet to stipulate for the restoration of Canada to the French Crown in
the articles of peace which were shortly afterwards negotiated between the
two powers. In 1632 this restoration was effected, and next year Champlain
again returned in the capacity of Governor. From this time forward he
strove to promote the prosperity of the colony by every means in his power.
Among the means whereby he zealously strove to effect this object was the
establishment of Jesuit missions for the conversion of the Indians. Among
other missions so established was that in the far western Huron country,
around which the _Relations des Jesuites_ have cast such a halo of romance.
The Father of New France did not live to gather much fruit from the crop
which he had sown. His life of incessant fatigue at last proved too much
even for his vigorous frame. After an illness which lasted for ten weeks,
he died on Christmas Day, 1635, at the age of sixty-eight. His beautiful
young wife, who had shared his exile for four years, returned to France
where she became an Ursuline nun, and founded a convent at Meaux, in which
she immured herself until her death a few years later.
Champlain's body was interred in the vaults of a little Recollet church in
the Lower Town. This church was subsequently burned to the ground, and its
very site was not certainly known until recent times. In the year 1867 some
workmen were employed in laying water-pipes beneath the flight of stairs
called "Breakneck Steps," leading from Mountain Hill to Little Champlain
street. Under a grating at the foot of the steps they discovered the vaults
of the old Recollet church, with the remains of the Father of New France
enclosed. Independently of his energy, perseverance, and fortitude as an
explorer, Samuel de Champlain was a man of considerable mark, and earned
for himself an imperishable name in Canadian history. He wrote several
important works which, in spite of many defects, bear the stamp of no
ordinary mind. His engaging in war with the Iroquois was a fatal error, but
it arose from the peculiar position in which he found himself placed at the
outset of his western career, and it is difficult to see how anything short
of actual experience could have made his error manifest. The purity of his
life was proverbial, and was the theme of comment among his survivors for
years after his death. He foresaw that his adopted country was destined for
a glorious future. "The flourishing cities and towns of this Dominion,"
says one of has eulogists, "are enduring monuments to his foresight; and
the waters of the beautiful lake that bears his name chant the most fitting
requiem to his memory as they break in perpetual murmurings on their
shores."
This sketch would be incomplete without some reference to the mysterious
astrolabe which is alleged to have been found in the month of August,
1867, and which is supposed by some to have been lost by Champlain on the
occasion of his first voyage up the Ottawa in 1613, as recounted in the
preceding pages. The facts of the case may be compressed into few words,
although they have given rise to many learned disquisitions which, up to
the present time, have been barren of any useful result.
In the month of August, 1867, some men were engaged in cultivating a piece
of ground on the rear half of lot number twelve, in the second range of the
township of Ross, in the county of Renfrew, Ontario, while turning up the
soil, as it is said, they came upon a queer looking instrument, which upon
examination proved to be an astrolabe an instrument used in former times to
mark the position of the stars, and to assist in computing latitudes, but
long since gone out of use. Upon its face was engraved the date 1603. Now,
Champlain's first journey up the Ottawa was made in the summer of 1613, and
he must have passed at or near the identical spot where the astrolabe was
found. It is claimed that this instrument belonged to Champlain, and
that it was lost by him in this place. In support of this claim it is
represented that Champlain's latitudes were always computed with reasonable
exactness up to the time of his passing through the portage of which the
plot of ground whereon the instrument was found forms a part. After that
time his computations are generally erroneous--so erroneous, indeed, as to
have led some readers of his journal very seriously astray in following out
his course. This, in reality, is all the evidence to be found as to the
ownership of the lost astrolabe. Taken by itself, it is reasonably strong
circumstantial evidence. On the other hand it may be contended that
astrolabes had pretty well gone out of use before the year 1613, and
Champlain was a man not likely to be behind his times in the matter of
scientific appliances. But the strongest argument is to be found in the
fact that Champlain's journal, which contains minute details of everything
that happened from day to day, makes no allusion whatever to his having
lost his astraolabe--a circumstance, it would seem, not very likely to be
omitted. The question is of course an open one, and has given rise, as has
already been said, to much discussion among Canadian archaeologists. It is,
however, of little historical importance, and needs no further allusion in
these pages.