There are some things that speak for themselves. In attempting to
understand Champlain's character, we are first met by the fact that
he pursued unflinchingly his appointed task. For thirty-two years he
persevered, amid every kind of hardship, danger, and discouragement,
in the effort to build up New France. He had personal ambitions as an
explorer, which were kept in strict subordination to his duty to the
king. He possessed concentration of aim without fanaticism. His
signal unselfishness was adorned by a patience which equalled that of
Marlborough. Inspired by large ideals, he did not scorn imperfect means.
Thus there are certain large aspects of Champlain's character that stand
forth in the high light of deed, and do not depend for their effect
either upon his own words or those of others. But when once we have
paid tribute to the fine, positive qualities which are implied by his
accomplishment, we must hasten to recognize the extraordinary value of
his writings as an index to his mind and soul. His narrative is not
an epic of disaster. It is a plain and even statement of great dangers
calmly met and treated as a matter of course. Largely it is a record of
achievement. At points where it is a record of failure Champlain accepts
the inevitable gracefully and conforms his emotions to the will of
God. The Voyages reveal a strong man 'well four-squared to the blows of
fortune.' They also illustrate the virtue of muscular Christianity.
At a time which, like ours, is becoming sated with cleverness, it is a
delight to read the unvarnished story of Champlain. In saying that
the adjective is ever the enemy of the noun, Voltaire could not have
levelled the shaft at him, for few writers have been more sparing in
their use of adjectives or other glowing words. His love of the sea
and of the forest was profound, but he is never emotional in his
expressions. Yet with all his soberness and steadiness he possessed
imagination. In its strength and depth his enthusiasm for colonization
proves this, even if we omit his picture of the fancied Ludovica. But as
a man of action rather than of letters he instinctively omits verbiage.
In some respects we suffer from Champlain's directness of mind for on
much that he saw he could have lingered with profit. But very
special inducements are needed to draw him from his plain tale into a
digression. Such inducements occur at times when he is writing of the
Indians, for he recognized that Europe was eager to hear in full detail
of their traits and customs. Thus set passages of description, inserted
with a sparing hand, seemed to him a proper element of the text,
but anything like conscious embellishment of the narrative he
avoids--probably more through mere naturalness than conscious
self-repression.
From Marco Polo to Scott's Journal the literature of geographical
discovery abounds with classics, and standards of comparison suggest
themselves in abundance to the critic of Champlain's Voyages. Most
naturally, of course, one turns to the records of American exploration
in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries--to Ramusio, Oviedo, Peter
Martyr, Hakluyt, and Purchas. No age can show a more wonderful galaxy
of pioneers than that which extends from Columbus to La Salle, and among
the great explorers of this era Champlain takes his place by virtue
alike of his deeds and writings. In fact, he belongs to the small and
distinguished class of those who have recorded their own discoveries in
a suitable and authentic narrative, for in few cases have geographical
results of equal moment been described by the discoverer himself.
Among the many writings which are available for comparison and contrast
one turns, singularly yet inevitably, to Lescarbot. The singularity of
a comparison between Champlain and Lescarbot is that Lescarbot was not a
geographer. At the same time, he is the only writer of importance whose
trail crosses that of Champlain, and some light is thrown on Champlain's
personality by a juxtaposition of texts. That is to say, both were in
Acadia at the same time, sat together at Poutrincourt's table, gazed
on the same forests and clearings, met the same Indians, and had a like
opportunity of considering the colonial problems which were thrust upon
the French in the reign of Henry IV.
It would be hard to find narratives more dissimilar,--and the contrast
is not wholly to the advantage of Champlain. Or rather, there are times
when his Doric simplicity of style seems jejune beside the flowing
periods and picturesque details of Lescarbot. No better illustration
of this difference in style, arising from fundamental difference in
temperament, can be found than the description which each gives of the
Ordre de Bon Temps. To Champlain belongs the credit of inventing this
pleasant means of promoting health and banishing ennui, but all he tells
of it is this: 'By the rules of the Order a chain was put, with some
little ceremony, on the neck of one of our company, commissioning him
for the day to go a-hunting. The next day it was conferred upon another,
and thus in succession. All exerted themselves to the utmost to see who
would do the best and bring home the finest game. We found this a very
good arrangement, as did also the savages who were with us.'
Such is the limit of the information which we receive from Champlain
regarding the Ordre de Bon Temps, his own invention and the life of the
company. It is reserved for Lescarbot to give us the picture which
no one can forget--the Atoctegic, or ruler of the feast, leading the
procession to dinner 'napkin on shoulder, wand of office in hand, and
around his neck the collar of the Order, which was worth more than four
crowns; after him all the members of the Order, carrying each a dish.'
Around stand the savages, twenty or thirty of them, 'men, women, girls,
and children,' all waiting for scraps of food. At the table with the
French themselves sits the Sagamos Membertou and the other Indian
chiefs, gladdening the company by their presence. And the food!--'ducks,
bustards, grey and white geese, partridges, larks, and other birds;
moreover moose, caribou, beaver, otter, bear, rabbits, wild-cats,
racoons, and other animals,' the whole culminating in the tenderness of
moose meat and the delicacy of beaver's tail. Such are the items which
Champlain omits and Lescarbot includes. So it is throughout their
respective narratives--Champlain ever gaining force through compactness,
and Lescarbot constantly illuminating with his gaiety or shrewdness
matters which but for him would never have reached us.
This difference of temperament and outlook, which is so plainly
reflected on the printed page, also had its effect upon the personal
relations of the two men. It was not that Lescarbot scandalized
Champlain by his religious views, for though liberal-minded, Lescarbot
was not a heretic, and Champlain knew how to live harmoniously even with
Huguenots. The cause of the coolness which came to exist between
them must be sought rather in fundamental contrasts of character. To
Champlain, Lescarbot doubtless seemed a mere hanger-on or protege of
Poutrincourt, with undue levity of disposition and a needless flow of
conversation. To Lescarbot, Champlain may well have seemed deficient in
literary attainments, and so preoccupied with the concerns of geography
as to be an uncongenial companion. To whatever cause conjecture may
trace it, they did not become friends, although such lack of sympathy
as existed shows itself only in an occasional pin-prick, traceable
particularly in the later editions of their writings. For us it is the
more needful to lay stress upon the merits of Lescarbot, because he
tends to be eclipsed by the greater reputation of Champlain, and also
because his style is sometimes so diffuse as to create prejudice. But at
his best he is admirable, and without him we should know much less than
we do about that Acadian experience which holds such a striking place in
the career of Champlain.
The popular estimate of French character dwells overmuch upon the levity
or gaiety which undoubtedly marks the Gallic race. France could not have
accomplished her great work for the world without stability of purpose
and seriousness of mood. Nowhere in French biography are these qualities
more plainly illustrated than by the acts of Champlain. The doggedness
with which he clung to his patriotic and unselfish task is the most
conspicuous fact in his life. Coupled therewith is his fortitude, both
physical and moral. In times of crisis the conscript sets his teeth
and dies without a murmur. But Champlain enlisted as a volunteer for a
campaign which was to go on unceasingly till his last day. How incessant
were its dangers can be made out in full detail from the text of the
Voyages. We may omit the perils of the North Atlantic, though what they
were can be seen from Champlain's description of his outward voyage in
the spring of 1611. The remaining dangers will suffice. Scurvy, which
often claimed a death-roll of from forty to eighty per cent in a single
winter; famine such as that which followed the failure of ships from
home to arrive at the opening of navigation; the storms which drove the
frail shallop on the rocks and shoals of Norumbega; the risk of mutiny;
the chances of war, whether against the Indians or the English; the
rapids of the wilderness as they threatened the overloaded canoe on
its swift descent; the possible treachery of Indian guides--such is a
partial catalogue of the death-snares which surrounded the pathway of an
explorer like Champlain. Every one of these dangers is brought before
us by his own narrative in a manner which does credit to his modesty no
less than to his fortitude. Without embellishment or self-glorification,
he recites in a few lines hairbreadth escapes which a writer of less
steadfast soul would have amplified into a thrilling tale of heroism.
None the less, to the discriminating reader Champlain's Voyages are an
Odyssey.
Bound up with habitual fortitude is the motive from which it springs.
In Champlain's case patriotism and piety were the groundwork of a
conspicuous and long-tested courage. The patriotism which exacted such
sacrifices was not one which sought to define itself even in the form of
a justifiable digression from the recital of events. But we may be sure
that Champlain at the time he left Port Royal had made up his mind that
the Spaniards, the English, and the Dutch were not to parcel out the
seaboard of North America to the exclusion of the French. As for the
religious basis of his fortitude, we do not need Le Jeune's story of
his death-bed or the record of his friendship with men of religion.
His narrative abounds throughout with simple and natural expressions of
piety, not the less impressive because they are free from trace of the
theological intolerance which envenomed French life in his age. And not
only did Champlain's trust in the Lord fortify his soul against fear,
but religion imposed upon him a degree of self-restraint which was
not common among explorers of the seventeenth century. It is far from
fanciful to see in this one of the chief causes of his hold upon the
Indians. To them he was more than a useful ally in war time. They
respected his sense of honour, and long after his death remembered the
temperance which marked his conduct when he lived in their villages.
As a writer, Champlain enjoyed the advantage of possessing a fresh,
unhackneyed subject. The only exception to this statement is furnished
by his early book on the West Indies and Mexico, where he was going over
ground already trodden by the Spaniards. His other writings relate to a
sphere of exploration and settlement which he made his own, and of which
he well merited to be the chronicler.
Running through the Voyages is the double interest of discovery and
colonization, constantly blending and reacting upon each other, but
still remaining matters of separate concern. It is obvious that in
the mind of the narrator discovery is always the more engaging theme.
Champlain is indeed the historian of St Croix, Port Royal, and Quebec,
but only incidentally or from chance. By temper he was the explorer,
that is, the man of action, willing to record the broad results, but
without the instinct which led Lescarbot to set down the minutiae of
life in a small, rough settlement. There is one side of Champlain's
activity as a colonizer which we must lament that he has not
described--namely, his efforts to interest the nobles and prelates of
the French court in the upbuilding of Canada. A diary of his life at
Paris and Fontainebleau would be among the choicest documents of the
early colonial era. But Champlain was too blunt and loyal to set down
the story of his relations with the great, and for this portion of his
life we must rely upon letters, reports, and memoranda, which are so
formal as to lack the atmosphere of that painful but valiant experience.
Excluding the brief notices of life at St Croix, Port Royal, and Quebec,
Champlain's Voyages present a story of discovery by sea and discovery
by land. In other words, the four years of Acadian adventure relate to
discoveries made along the seaboard, while the remaining narratives,
including the Des Sauvages of 1604, relate to the basin of the St
Lawrence. Mariner though he was by early training, Champlain achieved
his chief success as an explorer by land, in the region of the Great
Lakes. Bad fortune prevented him from pursuing his course past Martha's
Vineyard to the mouth of the Hudson and Chesapeake Bay. It was no small
achievement to accomplish what he did on the coast of Norumbega, but his
most distinctive discoveries were those which he made in the wilderness,
leading up to his fine experience of 1615-16 among the Hurons.
To single out Champlain's chief literary triumph, it was he who
introduced the Algonquin, the Huron, and the Iroquois to the delighted
attention of France. Ever since the days of Cartier the French had known
that savages inhabited the banks of the St Lawrence, but Champlain
is the pioneer in that great body of literature on the North American
Indian, which thenceforth continued without interruption in France
to the Rene and Atala of Chateaubriand. Above all other subjects, the
Indians are Champlain's chief theme.
To some extent the account of Indian life which is given in the Voyages
suffers by comparison with the Relations of the Jesuits. The Fathers,
by reason of their long residence among the Indians, undoubtedly came to
possess a more intimate knowledge of their character and customs than
it was possible for Champlain to acquire during the time he spent
among them. On the other hand, the Jesuits were so preoccupied with the
progress of the mission that they tended to view the life of the
savages too exclusively from one angle. Furthermore, the volume of
their description is so great as to overwhelm all readers who are not
specially interested in the mission or the details of Indian custom.
Champlain wrote with sufficient knowledge to bring out salient traits
in high relief, while his descriptive passages are sufficiently terse to
come within the range of those who are not specialists. When we remember
the perpetual interest which, for more than three hundred years, Europe
has felt in the North American Indian, the Voyages of Champlain are seen
in their true perspective. For he, with fresh eyes, saw the red man
in his wigwam, at his council, and on the war-path; watched his stoic
courage under torture and his inhuman cruelty in the hour of vengeance.
Tales of the wilderness, the canoe, the portage, and the ambush have
never ceased to fascinate the imagination of Europe. Champlain's
narrative may be plain and unadorned, but, with such a groundwork, the
imagination of every reader could supply details at will.
In all essential respects Champlain seems to have been a good observer
and an accurate chronicler. It is true that his writings are not free
from error involving facts of distance, altitude, and chronology. But
such slips as have crept into his text do not constitute a serious
blemish or tend to impugn the good faith of his statements on matters
where there is no other source of information. Everything considered,
his substantial accuracy is much more striking than his partial
inaccuracy. In fact, no one of his high character and disinterested zeal
could write with any other purpose than to describe truly what he had
seen and done. The seal of probity is set upon Champlain's writings no
less than upon the record of his dealings with his employers and the
king. Unselfish as to money or fame, he sought to create New France.
In national progress much depends on the auspices under which the nation
was founded and the tradition which it represents. Thus England, and
all the English world, has an imperishable tradition in the deeds and
character of Alfred the Great; thus Canada has had from the outset of
the present stage in her development a great possession in the equal
self-sacrifice of Montcalm and Wolfe. On the other hand, the nation is
doomed to suffer which bases its traditions of greatness upon such acts
as the seizure of Silesia by Frederick or Bismarck's manipulation of the
Ems telegram.
For Canada Champlain is not alone a heroic explorer of the seventeenth
century, but the founder of Quebec; and it is a rich part of our
heritage that he founded New France in the spirit of unselfishness, of
loyalty, and of faith.
BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE
Original Text
The best edition of Champlain's own works, in the original text, is
that of Laverdiere--'OEuvres de Champlain, pabliees sous le Patronage de
l'Universite Laval. Par l'Abbe C.-H. Laverdiere, M.A. Seconde Edition. 6
tomes, 4to. Quebec: Imprime au Seminaire par Geo. E. Desbarats, 1870.'
The list of Champlain's writings includes:
1. The 'Bref Discours,' describing his trip to the West
Indies.
2. The 'Des Sauvages,' describing his first voyage to
the St Lawrence.
3. The 'Voyages' of 1613, covering the years 1604-13
inclusive.
4. The 'Voyages' of 1619, covering the years 1615-18
inclusive.
5. The 'Voyages' of 1632, which represent a re-editing
of the early voyages from 1603 forward, and continue
the narrative from 1618 to 1629.
6. A general treatise on the duties of the mariner.
English Translations
1. The 'Bref Discours,' in a translation by Alice Wilmere,
was published by the Hakluyt Society in 1859.
2. The Des Sauvages (1604) was translated in 'Purchas
His Pilgrimes' (1625).
3. The 'Voyages' of 1604-18 inclusive were translated by
C. P. Otis for the Prince Society of Boston, in three
volumes, 1878-82, with the Rev. E. F. Slafter as
editor. This is a fine work, but not easily accessible
in its original form. Fortunately, Professor Otis's
translation has been reprinted, with an introduction
and notes by Professor W. L. Grant, in the 'Original
Narratives of Early American History' (Scribners,
1907). The passages quoted in the present volume are
taken from Otis's translation, with occasional changes.
4. The 'Voyages' of 1604-16 inclusive have also been well
translated by Annie Nettleton Bourne, with an
introduction and notes by Professor E. G. Bourne
(A. S. Barnes and Co., 1906). This translation follows
the edition of 1632, and also gives the translation
of 'Des Souvages' which appears in Purchas.
General Literature
The career of Champlain is treated in many historical works, of which
the following are a few: Parkman, 'Pioneers of France in the New World';
Dionne, 'Samuel de Champlain' (in the Makers of Canada' series); Biggar,
'Early Trading Companies of New France'; Slafter, 'Champlain' (in
Winsor's 'Narrative and Critical History of America,' vol. iv, part
i, chap. iii); Salone, 'La Colonisation de la Nouvelle France'; Sulte,
'Histoire des Canadiens-Francais'; Ferland, 'Cours d'Histoire du
Canada'; Garneau, 'Histoire du Canada,' fifth edition edited by the
author's grandson, Hector Garneau.
Portrait
Unfortunately, there is no authentic portrait of Champlain. That
ascribed to Moncornet is undoubtedly spurious, as has been proved by V.
H. Paltsits in 'Acadiensis,' vol. iv, pp. 306-11.