Were there a 'Who's Who in History' its chronicle of Champlain's life
and deeds would run as follows:
Champlain, Samuel de. Explorer, geographer, and colonizer. Born in 1567
at Brouage, a village on the Bay of Biscay. Belonged by parentage to the
lesser gentry of Saintonge. In boyhood became imbued with a love of the
sea, but also served as a soldier in the Wars of the League. Though an
enthusiastic Catholic, was loyal to Henry of Navarre. On the Peace of
Vervins (1598) returned to the sea, visiting the Spanish West Indies and
Mexico. Between 1601 and 1603 wrote his first book--the Bref Discours.
In 1603 made his first voyage to the St Lawrence, which he ascended as
far as the Lachine Rapids. From 1604 to 1607 was actively engaged in the
attempt of De Monts to establish a French colony in Acadia, at the
same time exploring the seaboard from Cape Breton to Martha's Vineyard.
Returned to the St Lawrence in 1608 and founded Quebec. In 1609
discovered Lake Champlain, and fought his first battle with the
Iroquois. In 1613 ascended the Ottawa to a point above Lac Coulange. In
1615 reached Georgian Bay and was induced to accompany the Hurons, with
their allies, on an unsuccessful expedition into the country of the
Iroquois. From 1617 to 1629 occupied chiefly in efforts to strengthen
the colony at Quebec and promote trade on the lower St Lawrence. Taken
a captive to London by Kirke in 1629 upon the surrender of Quebec, but
after its recession to France returned (1633) and remained in Canada
until his death, on Christmas Day 1635. Published several important
narratives describing his explorations and adventures. An intrepid
pioneer and the revered founder of New France.
Into some such terms as these would the writer of a biographical
dictionary crowd his notice of Champlain's career, so replete with
danger and daring, with the excitement of sailing among the uncharted
islands of Penobscot Bay, of watching the sun descend below the waves of
Lake Huron, of attacking the Iroquois in their palisaded stronghold, of
seeing English cannon levelled upon the houses of Quebec. It is not from
a biographical dictionary that one can gain true knowledge of Champlain,
into whose experience were crowded so many novel sights and whose
soul was tested, year after year, by the ever-varying perils of
the wilderness. No life, it is true, can be fitly sketched in a
chronological abridgment, but history abounds with lives which, while
important, do not exact from a biographer the kind of detail that for
the actions of Champlain becomes priceless. Kant and Hegel were both
great forces in human thought, yet throughout eighty years Kant was
tethered to the little town of Konigsberg, and Hegel did not know what
the French were doing in Jena the day after there had been fought just
outside a battle which smote Prussia to her knees. The deeds of such men
are their thoughts, their books, and these do not make a story. The life
of Champlain is all story. The part of it which belongs to the Wars
of the League is lost to us from want of records. But fortunately we
possess in his Voyages the plain, direct narrative of his exploits in
America--a source from which all must draw who would know him well.
The method to be pursued in this book is not that of the critical essay.
Nor will these pages give an account of Champlain's times with reference
to ordinances regulating the fur trade, or to the policy of French kings
and their ministers towards emigration. Such subjects must be touched
on, but here it will be only incidentally. What may be taken to concern
us is the spirited action of Champlain's middle life--the period which
lies between his first voyage to the St Lawrence and his return from
the land of the Onondagas. Not that he had ended his work in 1616. The
unflagging efforts which he continued to put forth on behalf of the
starving colony at Quebec demand all praise. But the years during which
he was incessantly engaged in exploration show him at the height of his
powers, with health still unimpaired by exposure and with a soul that
courted the unknown. Moreover, this is the period for which we have his
own narrative in fullest detail.
Even were we seeking to set down every known fact regarding Champlain's
early life the task would not be long. Parkman, in referring to his
origin, styles him 'a Catholic gentleman,' with not even a footnote
regarding his parentage. [Footnote: It is hard to define Champlain's
social status in a single word. Parkman, besides styling him 'a Catholic
gentleman,' speaks of him elsewhere as being 'within the pale of the
noblesse.' On the other hand, the Biographie Saintongeoise says that he
came from a family of fishermen. The most important facts would seem
to be these. In Champlain's own marriage contract his father is styled
'Antoine de Champlain, Capitaine de la Marine.' The same document styles
Champlain himself 'Samuel de Champlain.' A petition in which he asks
for a continuation of his pension (circ. 1630) styles him in its opening
words 'Le Sieur de Champlain' and afterwards 'le dit sieur Champlain'
in two places, while in six places it styles him 'le dit sieur de
Champlain.' Le Jeune calls him 'Monsieur de Champlain.' It is clear that
he was not a noble. It is also clear that he possessed sufficient social
standing to warrant the use of de. On the title-page of all his
books after 1604 he is styled the 'Sieur de Champlain.'] Dionne, in a
biography of nearly three hundred pages, does indeed mention the names
of his father and mother, but dismisses his first twenty years in twenty
lines, which say little more than that he learned letters and religion
from the parish priest and a love of the sea from his father. Nor is it
easy to enlarge these statements unless one chooses to make guesses
as to whether or not Champlain's parents were Huguenots because he
was called Samuel, a favourite name with French Protestants. And this
question is not worth discussion, since no one has, or can, cast a doubt
upon the sincerity of his own devotion to the Catholic faith.
In short, Champlain by birth was neither a peasant nor a noble, but
issued from a middle-class family; and his eyes turned towards the
sea because his father was a mariner dwelling in the small seaport of
Brouage.
Thus when a boy Champlain doubtless had lessons in navigation, but he
did not become a sailor in the larger sense until he had first been a
soldier. His youth fell in the midst of the Catholic Revival, when the
Church of Rome, having for fifty years been sore beset by Lutherans and
Calvinists, began to display a reserve strength which enabled her to
reclaim from them a large part of the ground she had lost. But this
result was not gained without the bitterest and most envenomed struggle.
If doctrinal divergence had quickened human hatreds before the Council
of Trent, it drove them to fury during the thirty years that followed.
At the time of the Massacre of St Bartholomew Champlain was five years
old. He was seventeen when William the Silent was assassinated; twenty
when Mary Stuart was executed at Fotheringay; twenty-one when the
Spanish Armada sailed against England and when the Guises were murdered
at Blois by order of Henry III; twenty-two when Henry III himself fell
under the dagger of Jacques Clement. The bare enumeration of these
events shows that Champlain was nurtured in an age of blood and iron
rather than amid those humanitarian sentiments which prevail in an age
of religious toleration.
Finding his country a camp, or rather two camps, he became a soldier,
and fought for ten years in the wretched strife to which both Leaguers
and Huguenots so often sacrificed their love of country. With Henry
of Valois, Henry of Navarre, and Henry of Guise as personal foes and
political rivals, it was hard to know where the right line of faith and
loyalty lay; but Champlain was both a Catholic and a king's man,
for whom all things issued well when Henry of Navarre ceased to be a
heretic, giving France peace and a throne. It is unfortunate that the
details of these adventurous years in Champlain's early manhood should
be lost. Unassisted by wealth or rank, he served so well as to
win recognition from the king himself, but beyond the names of his
commanders (D'Aumont, St Luc, and Brissac) there is little to show the
nature of his exploits. [Footnote: He served chiefly in Brittany
against the Spanish allies of the League, and reached the rank of
quartermaster.] In any case, these ten years of campaigning were a good
school for one who afterwards was to look death in the face a thousand
times amidst the icebergs of the North Atlantic, and off the rocky coast
of Acadia, and in the forests of the Iroquois.
With such parentage and early experiences as have been indicated
Champlain entered upon his career in the New World. It is characteristic
that he did not leave the army until his services were no longer needed.
At the age of thirty-one he was fortunate enough to be freed from
fighting against his own countrymen. In 1598 was signed the Peace of
Vervins by which the enemies of Henry IV, both Leaguers and Spaniards,
acknowledged their defeat. To France the close of fratricidal strife
came as a happy release. To Champlain it meant also the dawn of a
career. Hastening to the coast, he began the long series of voyages
which was to occupy the remainder of his life. Indeed, the sea and what
lay beyond it were henceforth to be his life.
The sea, however, did not at once lead Champlain to New France.
Provencal, his uncle, held high employment in the Spanish fleet, and
through his assistance Champlain embarked at Blavet in Brittany for
Cadiz, convoying Spanish soldiers who had served with the League in
France. After three months at Seville he secured a Spanish commission as
captain of a ship sailing for the West Indies. Under this appointment
it was his duty to attend Don Francisco Colombo, who with an armada of
twenty galleons sailed in January 1599 to protect Porto Rico from the
English. In the maritime strife of Spain and England this expedition has
no part that remains memorable. For Champlain it meant a first command
at sea and a first glimpse of America.
The record of this voyage was an incident of no less importance in
Champlain's fortunes than the voyage itself. His cruisings in the
Spanish Main gave him material for a little book, the Bref Discours;
and the Bref Discours in turn advanced his career. Apart from any effect
which it may have had in securing for him the title of Geographer to the
King, it shows his own aspiration to be a geographer. Navigation can be
regarded either as a science or a trade. For Champlain it was plainly
a science, demanding care in observation and faithfulness of narrative.
The Bref Discours was written immediately upon his return from the
West Indies, while the events it describes were still fresh in mind.
Appearing at a time when colonial secrets were carefully guarded, it
gave France a glimpse of Spanish America from French eyes. For us it
preserves Champlain's impressions of Mexico, Panama, and the Antilles.
For Champlain himself it was a profession of faith, a statement that he
had entered upon the honourable occupation of navigator; in other words,
that he was to be classed neither with ship-captains nor with traders,
but with explorers and authors.
It was in March 1601 that Champlain reached France on his return from
the West Indies. The next two years he spent at home, occupied partly
with the composition of his Bref Discours and partly with the quest
of suitable employment. His avowed preference for the sea and the
reputation which he had already gained as a navigator left no doubt as
to the sphere of his future activities, but though eager to explore some
portion of America on behalf of the French crown, the question of
ways and means presented many difficulties. Chief among these was the
fickleness of the king. Henry IV had great political intelligence, and
moreover desired, in general, to befriend those who had proved loyal
during his doubtful days. His political sagacity should have led him
to see the value of colonial expansion, and his willingness to advance
faithful followers should have brought Champlain something better than
his pension and the title of Geographer. But the problems of France were
intricate, and what most appealed to the judgment of Henry was the need
of domestic reorganization after a generation of slaughter which had
left the land desolate. Hence, despite momentary impulses to vie with
Spain and England in oversea expansion, he kept to the path of caution,
avoiding any expenditure for colonies which could be made a drain
upon the treasury, and leaving individual pioneers to bear the cost of
planting his flag in new lands. In friendship likewise his good impulses
were subject to the vagaries of a mercurial temperament and a marked
willingness to follow the line of least resistance. In the circumstances
it is not strange that Champlain remained two years ashore.
The man to whom he owed most at this juncture was Aymar de Chastes.
Though Champlain had served the king faithfully, his youth and birth
prevented him from doing more than belongs to the duty of a subaltern.
But De Chastes, as governor of Dieppe, at a time when the League seemed
everywhere triumphant, gave Henry aid which proved to be the means of
raising him from the dust. It was a critical event for Champlain that
early in 1603 De Chastes had determined to fit out an expedition to
Canada. Piety and patriotism seem to have been his dominant motives, but
an opening for profit was also offered by a monopoly of the Laurentian
fur trade. During the civil wars Champlain's strength of character had
become known at first hand to De Chastes, who both liked and admired
him. Then, just at the right moment, he reached Fontainebleau, with his
good record as a soldier and the added prestige which had come to
him from his successful voyage to the West Indies. He and De Chastes
concluded an agreement, the king's assent was specially given, and
in the early spring of 1603 the founder of New France began his first
voyage to the St Lawrence.
Champlain was now definitely committed to the task of gaining for France
a foothold in North America. This was to be his steady purpose, whether
fortune frowned or smiled. At times circumstances seemed favourable; at
other times they were most disheartening. Hence, if we are to understand
his life and character, we must consider, however briefly, the
conditions under which he worked.
It cannot be said that Champlain was born out of his right time. His
active years coincide with the most important, most exciting period in
the colonial movement. At the outset Spain had gone beyond all rivals
in the race for the spoils of America. The first stage was marked by
unexampled and spectacular profits. The bullion which flowed from Mexico
and Peru was won by brutal cruelty to native races, but Europe accepted
it as wealth poured forth in profusion from the mines. Thus the first
conception of a colony was that of a marvellous treasure-house where
gold and silver lay piled up awaiting the arrival of a Cortez or a
Pizarro.
Unhappily disillusion followed. Within two generations from the time
of Columbus it became clear that America did not yield bonanza to every
adventurer. Yet throughout the sixteenth century there survived the
dream of riches to be quickly gained. Wherever the European landed
in America he looked first of all for mines, as Frobisher did on the
unpromising shores of Labrador. The precious metals proving illusive,
his next recourse was to trade. Hawkins sought his profit from slaves.
The French bought furs from the Indians at Tadoussac. Gosnold brought
back from Cape Cod a mixed cargo of sassafras and cedar.
But wealth from the mines and profits from a coasting trade were only a
lure to the cupidity of Europe. Real colonies, containing the germ of
a nation, could not be based on such foundations. Coligny saw this, and
conceived of America as a new home for the French race. Raleigh, the
most versatile of the Elizabethans, lavished his wealth on the patriotic
endeavour to make Virginia a strong and self-supporting community.
'I shall yet live to see it an English nation,' he wrote--at the very
moment when Champlain was first dreaming of the St Lawrence. Coligny and
Raleigh were both constructive statesmen. The one was murdered before he
could found such a colony as his thought presaged: the other perished
on the scaffold, though not before he had sowed the seed of an American
empire. For Raleigh was the first to teach that agriculture, not mines,
is the true basis of a colony. In itself his colony on Roanoke Island
was a failure, but the idea of Roanoke was Raleigh's greatest legacy to
the English race.
With the dawn of the seventeenth century events came thick and fast. It
was a time when the maritime states of Western Europe were all keenly
interested in America, without having any clear idea of the problem.
Raleigh, the one man who had a grasp of the situation, entered upon
his tragic imprisonment in the same year that Champlain made his first
voyage to the St Lawrence. But while thought was confused and policy
unsettled, action could no longer be postponed. The one fact which
England, France, and Holland could not neglect was that to the north of
Florida no European colony existed on the American coast. Urging each of
these states to establish settlements in a tract so vast and untenanted
was the double desire to possess and to prevent one's neighbour from
possessing. On the other hand, caution raised doubts as to the balance
of cost and gain. The governments were ready to accept the glory and
advantage, if private persons were prepared to take the risk. Individual
speculators, very conscious of the risk, demanded a monopoly of trade
before agreeing to plant a colony. But this caused new difficulty. The
moment a monopoly was granted, unlicensed traders raised an outcry and
upbraided the government for injustice.
Such were the problems upon the successful or unsuccessful solution of
which depended enormous national interests, and each country faced them
according to its institutions, rulers, and racial genius. It only needs
a table of events to show how fully the English, the French, and the
Dutch realized that something must be done. In 1600 Pierre Chauvin
landed sixteen French colonists at Tadoussac. On his return in 1601
he found that they had taken refuge with the Indians. In 1602 Gosnold,
sailing from Falmouth, skirted the coast of Norumbega from Casco Bay to
Cuttyhunk. In 1603 the ships of De Chastes, with Champlain aboard, spent
the summer in the St Lawrence; while during the same season Martin Pring
took a cargo of sassafras in Massachusetts Bay. From 1604. to 1607 the
French under De Monts, Poutrincourt, and Champlain were actively engaged
in the attempt to colonize Acadia. But they were not alone in setting
up claims to this region. In 1605 Waymouth, sailing from Dartmouth,
explored the mouth of the Kennebec and carried away five natives. In
1606 James I granted patents to the London Company and the Plymouth
Company which, by their terms, ran athwart the grant of Henry IV to De
Monts. In the same year Sir Ferdinando Gorges sent Pring once more to
Norumbega. In 1607 Raleigh, Gilbert, and George Popham made a small
settlement at the mouth of the Sagadhoc, where Popham died during the
winter. As a result of his death this colony on the coast of Maine was
abandoned, but 1607 also saw the memorable founding of Jamestown in
Virginia. Equally celebrated is Champlain's founding of Quebec in 1608.
In 1609 the Dutch under an English captain, Henry Hudson, had their
first glimpse of Manhattan.
This catalogue of voyages shows that an impulse existed which
governments could not ignore. The colonial movement was far from being a
dominant interest with Henry IV or James I, but when their subjects
saw fit to embark upon it privately, the crown was compelled to take
cognizance of their acts and frame regulations. 'Go, and let whatever
good may, come of it!' exclaimed Robert de Baudricourt as Joan of Arc
rode forth from Vaucouleurs to liberate France. In much the same spirit
Henry IV saw De Monts set sail for Acadia. The king would contribute
nothing from the public purse or from his own. Sully, his prime
minister, vigorously opposed colonizing because he wished to concentrate
effort upon domestic improvements. He believed, in the second place,
that there was no hope of creating a successful colony north of the
fortieth parallel. Thirdly, he was in the pay of the Dutch.
The most that Henry IV would do for French pioneers in America was to
give them a monopoly of trade in return for an undertaking to transport
and establish colonists. In each case where a monopoly was granted the
number of colonists was specified. As for their quality, convicts could
be taken if more eligible candidates were not forthcoming. The sixty
unfortunates landed by La Roche on Sable Island in 1598 were all
convicts or sturdy vagrants. Five years later only eleven were left
alive.
For the story of Champlain it is not necessary to touch upon the
relations of the French government with traders at a date earlier than
1599. Immediately following the failure of La Roche's second expedition,
Pierre Chauvin of Honfleur secured a monopoly which covered the
Laurentian fur trade for ten years. The condition was that he should
convey to Canada fifty colonists a year throughout the full period of
his grant. So far from carrying out this agreement either in spirit
or letter, he shirked it without compunction. After three years the
monopoly was withdrawn, less on the ground that he had failed to fulfil
his contract than from an outcry on the part of merchants who desired
their share of the trade. To adjudicate between Chauvin and his rivals
in St Malo and Rouen a commission was appointed at the close of 1602.
Its members were De Chastes, governor of Dieppe, and the Sieur de
la Cour, first president of the Parlement of Normandy. On their
recommendation the terms of the monopoly were so modified as to admit to
a share in the privilege certain leading merchants of Rouen and St Malo,
who, however, must pay their due share in the expenses of colonizing.
Before the ships sailed in 1603 Chauvin had died, and De Chastes at once
took his place as the central figure in the group of those to whom a new
monopoly had just been conceded.
[Footnote: The history of all the companies formed during these years
for trade in New France is the same. First a monopoly is granted under
circumstances ostensibly most favourable to the Government and to the
privileged merchants; then follow the howls of the excluded traders, the
lack of good voluntary colonists, the transportation to the colony of
a few beggars, criminals, or unpromising labourers; a drain on the
company's funds in maintaining these during the long winter; a steady
decrease in the number taken out; at length no attempt to fulfil this
condition of the monopoly; the anger of the Government when made aware
of the facts; and finally the sudden repeal of the monopoly several
years before its legal termination.--H. P. Biggar, 'Early Trading
Companies of New France,' p. 49.]
We are now on the threshold of Champlain's career, but only on the
threshold. The voyage of 1603, while full of prophecy and presenting
features of much interest, lacks the arduous and constructive quality
which was to mark his greater explorations. In 1603 the two boats
equipped by De Chastes were under the command of Pontgrave [Footnote:
Francois Grave, Sieur du Pont, whose name, strictly speaking,
is Dupont-Grave, one of the most active French navigators of the
seventeenth century. From 1600 to 1629 his voyages to the St Lawrence
and Acadia were incessant.] and Prevert, both mariners from St Malo.
Champlain sailed in Pontgrave's ship and was, in fact, a superior
type of supercargo. De Chastes desired that his expedition should be
self-supporting, and the purchase of furs was never left out of sight.
At the same time, his purpose was undoubtedly wider than profit, and
Champlain represented the extra-commercial motive. While Pontgrave was
trading with the Indians, Champlain, as the geographer, was collecting
information about their character, their customs, and their country.
Their religious ideas interested him much, and also their statements
regarding the interior of the continent. Such data as he could collect
between the end of May and the middle of August he embodied in a book
called Des Sauvages, which, true to its title, deals chiefly with Indian
life and is a valuable record, although in many regards superseded by
the more detailed writings of the Jesuits.
The voyage of 1603 added nothing material to what had been made known by
Jacques Cartier and the fur traders about Canada. Champlain ascended
the St Lawrence to the Sault St Louis [Footnote: Now called the Lachine
Rapids. An extremely important point in the history of New France, since
it marked the head of ship navigation on the St Lawrence. Constantly
mentioned in the writings of Champlain's period.] and made two side
excursions--one taking him rather less than forty miles up the Saguenay
and the other up the Richelieu to the rapid at St Ours. He also visited
Gaspe, passed the Isle Percee, had his first glimpse of the Baie des
Chaleurs, and returned to Havre with a good cargo of furs. On the whole,
it was a profitable and satisfactory voyage. Though it added little to
geographical knowledge, it confirmed the belief that money could be made
in the fur trade, and the word brought back concerning the Great Lakes
of the interior was more distinct than had before been reported. The one
misfortune of the expedition was that its author, De Chastes, did not
live to see its success. He had died less than a month before his ships
reached Havre.