Samuel de Champlain

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Hibersfoe UBiograptjtcal Aeries

NUMBER 14

SAMUEL DE CHAMPLAIN

BY

HENRY DWIGHT SEDGWICK, JR.

SAMUEL DE CHAMPLAIN

BY

HENRY DWIGHT SEDGWICK, JR.

BOSTON AND NEW YORK
HOUGHTON, MIFFLIN AND COMPANY
fiitosi&e press, Cambribge

1902

COPYRIGHT, 1902, BY HENRY DWIGHT SEDGWICK, JR.
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

Published March,

CONTENTS

CHAP. PAGE

I. YOUTH, AND VOYAGE TO MEXICO . . 1

II. FIRST VOYAGE TO NORTH AMERICA . 16

III. SECOND VOYAGE; WINTER AT ISLE ST.

CROIX 32

IV. PORT ROYAL ...... 47

V. FIRST YEAR AT QUEBEC, 1608-1609. . 61

VI. CANADIAN AFFAIRS, 1610-1613 . . 78
VII. THE OTTAWA RIVER; THE RECOLLETS;

THE HURONS 92

VIII. QUEBEC, 1616-1635 110

The portrait follows the painting by Th.
Hamel after the Moncornet Portrait.

227639

SAMUEL DE CHAMPLAIN

YdUTH, AND VOYAGE TO MEXICO

THE story of Champlain's life is the
story of the foundation of French empire
in America. Champlain himself had all the
qualities of a successful colonist, but, as the
events of his life show, there was some fatal
weakness in France which did not suffer her
to found enduring colonies. In order fully
to comprehend the causes of her ultimate
failure, we should have to study the history
of France in the sixteenth century, with its
civil and religious wars ; and as that, in its
turn, is explained by the great struggle be-
tween Latin and Teutonic civilizations, of
which the chief expression was the Reforma-
tion, we should wander far afield. As Bacon
says, it were infinite to seek the cause of

£ CHAMPLAIN

causes, and so throughout the story we must
remember that the failure of the colony at
Port Eoyal, and the weakness of the little
settlements along the St. Lawrence, were not
due to the men on the spot, but to remote
causes across the Atlantic.

Champlain was born in the year 1567, a
most interesting time. The flood of life,
swelling upon the discovery of a new world,
upon the knowledge of astronomy, navigation,
and geography, upon printing and bills of
exchange, swept over western Europe on-
ward and upward. In England Elizabeth
was finishing the first ten years of her reign,
Francis Drake was captain of his first ship,
Raleigh, Sidney, and Spenser were lads, Ba-
con, Marlowe, and Shakespeare little boys.
To the south of the Pyrenees Philip II. was
reigning and ruining, Cervantes had begun
to write sonnets, Lope de Vega was five years
old. In the Netherlands William the Silent
was marshaling Dutch obstinacy in support
of liberty. In Italy Giordano Bruno was a
young Dominican friar, and Galileo could
toddle out of his father's house to watch
the evening stars.

YOUTH, AND VOYAGE TO MEXICO 3

In one way and another the desire for
more life, the need of expression, the craving
for things new, the emphasis of self, stirred
imaginative men, driving some across the
Atlantic, some to the study of human life,
others to contemplation of the physical world.
But a greater passion than delight in life
or joy in knowledge was at work. The old
Latin practices were in grapple with new
Teutonic ideas, and the attempt at religious
reformation was shaking Europe. In Spain
and Italy the Papacy and absolutism had
held their own triumphantly, in England
Protestantism and personal liberty had won,
and the main battle was raging midway be-
tween, in the pleasant land of France. In
most Frenchmen of serious ' disposition the
new birth from medieval times had asserted
itself in religious forms; but by this time
massacre and outrage had made Christianity
a mere name, and consequently a certain
skeptical, compromising spirit, embodied in
Montaigne and Henry IV., was abroad. The
minds of serious men, who, a generation ear-
lier, would have been absorbed in religious

4 SAMUEL DE CHAMPLAIN

matters, had begun to turn to things more
. within the reach of human senses.

In this noteworthy time, 1567, Samuel
Champlain was born in the little town of
Brouage, province of Saintonge, on the Bay
of Biscay, some twenty miles south of La
Rochelle. Little is known of his family or
early life. His father, probably the son of
a fisherman, was a captain in the navy, and
one of his uncles followed the sea and became
a distinguished pilot. It is certain that
Champlain was familiar with boats from
boyhood, and that the sea laid strong hold
upon his boyish imagination. In the dedica-
tion of one of his books he says : " Among
the most useful and excellent arts naviga-
tion has always seemed to me to take the
first place. In the measure that it is dan-
gerous and accompanied by wrecks and a
thousand perils, by so much is it honorable
and lifted above all other arts, being in no
wise suitable for those who lack courage and
confidence. By this art we acquire know-
ledge of various lands, countries, and king-
doms. By it we bring home all sorts of

YOUTH, AND VOYAGE TO MEXICO 5

riches, by it the idolatry of Paganism is
overthrown and Christianity published in all
parts of the earth. It is this art that from
my childhood has lured me to love it, and
has pricked me to expose myself almost all
my life to the rude waves of the ocean."

In youth Champlain became an excellent
seaman, but he was unable to gratify his
master passion uninterruptedly. Civil and
religious wars were desolating France, and
Champlain toward their close enlisted in the
king's army. Henry IV. had succeeded of
right to the throne in 1589, but the Catholic
League proclaimed the Cardinal of Bourbon
as Charles X., and there were " crowns to
be broke " and masses to be said before the
rightful title was acknowledged.

Brouage was a military post of importance,
coveted by both sides. It was captured,
restored, recaptured, and frequently attacked
from 1570 to 1589, so that all its inhabit-
ants must have been familiar with war and
trained to arms, more especially a lad of
spirit like Champlain. There were periods
of peace, however, and Champlain must have

6 SAMUEL DE CHAMPLAIN

received some gentler schooling, for although
he was a good soldier, an eager sailor, and
a fanatical explorer, he was always just, toler-
ant, and gentle, especially with Indians ; and
his whole attitude toward life was so much
that of a stoic and philosopher that we feel
that he must have been subject to those
intellectual and moral influences of which
Montaigne is the great exponent. It may
be that in one of these intervals of peace,
at the age of seventeen or eighteen, he and
some friends, their minds and mouths full of
America, sailed a pinnace up the Gironde
and the Garonne as far as Bordeaux, to
see the city and hear with impressionable
memories its wise and witty mayor deliver
some characteristic speech similar to this
passage from his " Essay on Savages." " I
once saw among us some men fetched over-
sea from far-off lands. Because we could
not understand their language, and because
their manners and their clothes were so dif-
ferent from ours, did we not deem them
savages and brutes? Who did not judge
them stupid and brainless when we per-

YOUTH, AND VOYAGE TO MEXICO 7

ceived them dumb, ignorant of the French
language, ignorant of our hand kissings, of
our sinuous obeisances, of our deportment
and carriage, — after which, methinks, Na-
ture should take pattern?"

Although Champlain had fought in the
king's army against the Catholic League, and
though Brouage, his birthplace, was a Hu-
guenot town lying in Huguenot country, nev^
ertheless he was a staunch Roman Catholic.
Like other moderate men, he deemed the
Leaguers mere rebels, and believed that they
used religion as a cloak to cover political
ambitions. He loved his religion, but he
loved his country better ; he fought to save
her from dismemberment and from Spanish
dominion, and no doubt his sympathy went
out to the gallant, dashing Navarre strug-
gling for his own against many enemies. He
was indifferent enough toward theology to
be able to agree with what Montaigne says
of the treatment of religion during the civil
wars : " One side pulls it to right, the other
side pulls it to left, these say it is black, those
affirm it is white, nevertheless both make use

8 SAMUEL DE CHAMPLAIN

of it for their rude and ambitious enterprises
in exactly the same way ; and in ill behavior
and injustice keep step so evenly, that they
make it hard for us to believe in that diver-
sity of opinion which they profess." The
justice of this skepticism affected Champlain
profoundly. In fact, all his life, at least till
close to its end, Champlain seems not to have
cared at all for purely theological matters.

History first mentions Champlain as quar-
termaster in the royal army serving in Brit-
tany. Possibly he was there when the rebels
with their Spanish allies captured the town
of Blavet (Port Louis), and women flung
themselves into the sea to escape the Spanish
soldiers ; but we know nothing certain until
1598, when peace was made and Champlain's
uncle went to that port to act as pilot of
the fleet which was to carry the Spanish gar-
rison home. Champlain went with him in
search of employment.

At Blavet Champlain's own narrative be-
gins. At that port he embarked with his
uncle, commissioned as pilot-general by the
king of Spain, on board the St. Julien, a

YOUTH, AND VOYAGE TO MEXICO 9

large ship of five hundred tons, and sailed
to Cadiz, where the Spanish soldiers were
landed. He spent several months at Cadiz,
San Lucar de Barrameda, and Seville, draw-
ing rude pictures of cities and harbors, as
was his wont, and there found the opportu-
nity, which he had coveted, of going to the
West Indies.

Philip II., acting on the economic princi-
ples of the day, allowed no foreigners to trade
with his western possessions or even to visit
them ; but every year a Spanish fleet sailed
thither, and this year the admiral, looking
about for ships, chartered the St. Julien
for the voyage, and on the pilot-general's
recommendation accepted Champlain as her
captain. The voyage was uneventful. At
Porto Rico the Spaniards found a scene
of desolation, for the English had surprised
the garrison, and, having sacked and pil-
laged, had set fire to the town. At San
Domingo they captured two French vessels
surreptitiously trading, and chased away a
dozen others, which they might have captured
had Spanish courage been equal to " their

10 SAMUEL DE CHAMPLAIN

rodomontades." These islands Champlain
- describes as very pleasant " except for a
great quantify of little flies, like midges or
gnats, which bite in such a strange way
that, if one is bitten on the face, red pimples
swell up round the bite, and disfigure the
whole countenance."

The fleet cruised on past Cuba to the
mainland near Vera Cruz, where Champlain
received leave of absence, and he at once set
forth on horseback through the province of
New Spain to the city of Mexico. His " Nar-
rative" describes delicious fruits, beautiful
rivers, birds of gay plumage, great prairies
swarming with horses and cattle, splendid
trees, — palms, cedars, orange, ebony, " and
an infinity of other sorts." Nevertheless
" all the contentment which I got from the
sight of these agreeable things was but little
compared with that which I had when I saw
the lovely city of Mexico ; I had not believed
that it was so proudly built, with temples,
palaces, and beautiful houses, nor its streets
so well made, lined with beautiful great shops,
filled with all kinds of rich merchandise."

YOUTH, AND VOYAGE TO MEXICO 11

He paid close attention to everything that he
saw, making careful notes and childish draw-
ings, for he intended to render a full report
of these Spanish dominions to the king of
France. He describes cocoa, and the method
by which it is prepared as a beverage, cochi-
neal, bananas, maize, melons, cucumbers, ar-
tichokes, lettuce, also various animals, alli-
gators, lizards, rattlesnakes, jaguars, civets,
llamas, wild boars, deer, besides " dragons
of strange appearance, with head resembling
that of an eagle, wings like a bat, body like
a lizard, with two legs and a scaly tail."

With visions of French colonies in his
mind, he watched carefully the methods of
the Spaniards, in particular their behavior
to the Indians ; for he understood that the
success of a colony would in great measure
depend on the friendly attitude of the na-
tives, and that the first step towards friend-
ship with them was to understand their re-
ligion. His report contains an account of
Spanish treatment of the Indians in mat-
ters of worship, which is interesting as a
contrast to the course subsequently followed

12 SAMUEL DE CHAMPLAIN

by the French. The Mexican Indians out-
'side Spanish territory, "poor people devoid
of reason," were moon-worshipers. Within
Spanish dominion nothing of the sort was
tolerated. Immediately after the conquest,
the Inquisition had been established, the
natives had been treated as slaves, and
many of them had been cruelly put to death.
The consequence was that those natives who
could fled to the woods and revenged them-
selves on straggling Spaniards. The con-
querors were compelled to promise personal
liberty, and withdraw the harsh laws of the
Inquisition, substituting in their stead "a
gentle rule of life, . . . for if they had wished
to continue to punish according to the rigor
of the Inquisition, they would have burned
all the natives." According to this gentle
rule a priest lived in each village, who on
Sunday morning at mass kept tally of all
the inhabitants present. Those who failed
to appear were ferreted out, and if their ex-
cuses did not appear true or reasonable, they
were well cudgeled in sight of the congrega-
tion. As this report was to be submitted to

YOUTH, AND VOYAGE TO MEXICO 13

Henry IV. and his council, it is plain that
Champlain had complete confidence in find-
ing among them no sympathy with such pro-
selyting methods — a confidence that was en-
tirely justified.

From the city of Mexico Champlain went
back to Vera Cruz, and thence to .Panama,
where he noticed the advantages to trade
that would result from cutting a canal from
the Atlantic to the Pacific, thereby shorten-
ing the journey round the Horn by fifteen
hundred leagues. On the return voyage the
fleet stopped at Havana for several months,
where as usual Champlain was eager to sat-
isfy his curiosity about men and merchan-
dise, plants and animals. He was interested
by the Indian habit of " gathering tobacco,
which is dried and then twisted into little
rolls ; sailors, even the English, and other
people use them and suck in smoke from
them in imitation of the Indians." From
Cuba the Spaniards sailed back by way of
Bermuda and the Azores to Cape St. Vin-
cent, where they captured two English mer-
chantmen, and then to San Lucar de Barra-

14 SAMUEL DE CHAMPLAIN

meda, which they reached in March, 1601,
'after an absence of two years and two
months.

Champlain remained in Spain for a time,
and probably did not return to France till
the beginning of 1602. Then he went to
Paris and made a report of his travels to the
/ king ; in return he was named a royal geo-
jgrapher and received a small pension. His
report, which is entitled the " Brief narrative
of the most remarkable things which Samuel
Champlain of Brouage met in the West In-
dies 011 the voyage which he made there in
the years 1599 and 1601," remained in manu-
script till 1859, when an English translation
was published. In 1 8 7 0 the Abbe Laverdiere
of the Laval University in Quebec published
the original. The report is a very simple,
straightforward story, and reveals much of
Champlain's character. Here is a man of
thirty three or four, confident in himself, but
with no touch of self-conceit, eager to serve
his king and his country, bearing himself so
wisely and modestly that Spanish jealousy
and suspicion are not aroused, taking the

YOUTH, AND VOYAGE TO MEXICO 15

dangers of the sea carelessly, a sturdy mari-
ner, curious for knowledge ; and yet the nar-
rative reveals but a small part of the man ;
we have still to discover his steadfast cour-
age, his patience, his resourcefulness, and
his kind heart. Champlain, too, had a love
of romance that carried him into many
dangers, but never overcame his prudence,
and a religion that kept him unavaricious
among greedy traders, forgiving to those who
wronged him, chaste even among Indian
women, — a religion free from bigotry, that
made him always desire that the people of
the new world should be discreetly persuaded
to Christianity but never forced into it. He
is particularly interesting to Americans be-
cause he is a Frenchman with those qualities
which a wayward English tradition denies to /
the French, — patience, sobriety, calm self- f
control, and a complete absence of vanity. \
His was the very character for the founder
of a colony.

II

FIRST VOYAGE TO NORTH AMERICA

DURING his stay in Paris Champlain heard
talk of a proposed French colony to be settled
in that part of North America known as New
France, but very little known except by name.
The plan interested him immensely. It was
the very affair for him. Here was an oppor-
tunity to put his knowledge and capacities
to use in the service of his country, of the
Christian religion, and in the pursuit of ro-
mantic and scientific adventure. Here was
the chance to found a colony which by devo-
tion to agriculture and commerce should be
the beginning of a dominion which in the
north would rival the Spanish empire in
the south.

By the year 1602 the motives for western
voyages had begun to change. During the
previous century the mainspring of action
for sailing westward had been the hope of

FIRST VOYAGE TO NORTH AMERICA 17

finding some western route to the riches of
China, Japan, and India. European trade
with Asia in earlier times had been prin-
cipally in the hands of Venice and Genoa,
whose sailors carried cargoes to the end of the
Mediterranean and sent them on by overland
route eastward, and returned with bales and
bundles brought by caravans. In the mid-
dle of the fifteenth century the Turks swept
over Asia Minor, conquered the remains of
the Roman Empire at Constantinople, and,
spreading to Egypt, stopped all Christian
trade. Europe was then forced to find an-
other route. The Portuguese discovered a
way round the Cape of Good Hope, but all
geographers and sailors expected to discover
a westward route. Magellan's voyage round
the southern end of South America in 1520
took away the hope of a short southern route,
and thereafter explorers directed their efforts
to the discovery of a northwest passage. As
knowledge of the American coast slowly in-
creased, the limits within which a possible
passage might exist decreased, until the St.
Lawrence River and the icy seas opening

18 SAMtJEL DE CHAMPLAIN

from Baffin's Bay remained the most likely
places. But at the time of Champlain's first
expedition to North America, the northwest
search had ceased to be the matter of chief
importance. The period of vague explora-
tion and chance discovery had ended, and the
international strife between the maritime na-
tions of western Europe for colonial empire
had begun. Spain had a long lead, in her
great possessions round about the Gulf of
Mexico, but England and France were de-
termined to follow and overtake her if pos-
sible.

A full hundred years before, the Spaniards
in Haiti had already discovered gold mines,
and from that time on the story of Spanish
dominion in America is the story of searches
for gold. One expedition went to Cuba, an-
other to Florida. Cortez conquered Mexico ;
another adventurer attempted to plant a col-
ony in Virginia, but without success ; a third
skirted the Atlantic coast from Labrador to
Florida. By 1535 Pizarro had conquered
Peru ; then came inland expeditions through
Florida and westward to the Mississippi ; but

FIRST VOYAGE JTO NORTH AMERICA 19

as no gold was found, there was no motive
for Spanish colonization there. Thus by
the middle of the sixteenth century Spanish
America was many times as large as Spain.
Meanwhile the Tudors, from Henry VII.
to Elizabeth, had been developing the naval
power of England, and had been encouraging
sailors and merchant adventurers to try their
fortunes on the seas. First the Cabot s ex-
plored their way along the Atlantic coast.
Then Hawkins developed the slave trade be-
tween Africa and America. Frobisher and
Davis made exploring voyages between the
coasts of Labrador and Greenland as far as
the Arctic Ocean. Drake played the buc-
caneer on the Spanish Main. Raleigh was
the first to propose colonization. In 1584
two ships fitted out by him touched at Eoa-
noke Island, off Virginia, and the next year
a little colony also sent by him landed there,
but after a few months of hardship returned
to England. Two years later another colony
of his made a similar attempt, but it was de-
stroyed by the Indians. In 1588, by the
destruction of the Spanish Armada, the lord-

20 SAMUEL DE CHAMPLAIN

ship of the Atlantic Ocean passed to England,
and the way was cleared for Protestant colo-
nists.

Although the Spanish and the English were
the first of modern mariners to reach South
and North America, French sailors and fish-
ermen were close upon their rudders. There
are claims that a ship from Dieppe touched
at Brazil in 1488, and it is certain that in
the beginning of the sixteenth century Nor-
man and Breton fishing smacks were fishing
for cod off the Banks of Newfoundland, as
they have continued to do from that time till
to-day. These fishermen sailed due west ;
and familiarity with this route no doubt de-
termined the course of French colonists to
Canada, for Normandy and Brittany are on
the same parallel as Newfoundland and the
mouth of the St. Lawrence. Before the
middle of the century Jacques Cartier, a
Breton from St. Malo, had made several
voyages up the St. Lawrence, and had spent
two winters in Canada, one on the site of
Quebec. As a consequence of his discov-
eries, Sieur de Roberval, under royal author-

FIRST VOYAGE TO NORTH AMERICA 21

ity and with the title of lieutenant-general
of Canada, attempted to establish a colony.
He took across the ocean a motley com-
pany of nobles, soldiers, artisans, laborers,
and convicts ; but disease, mutiny, and want
dealt blow on blow, until the survivors were
thankful to abandon their settlement and sail
back to France. With Eoberval went as
pilot Jean Alphonse of Saintonge, an expe-
rienced navigator, who, in search for the
Northwest Passage, went as far north as
Davis Strait and Baffin's Bay, and on his re-
turn published his " Cosmography," a work
containing many marvelous matters, which
his fellow Saintongeois, Champlain, no doubt
diligently studied.

In the middle of the century Coligny at-
tempted to found a Huguenot colony in
Brazil, but the Portuguese, deeming it a
trespasser, destroyed it. In 1562-63 Co-
ligny tried to make another Huguenot set-
tlement in Florida, but the Spaniards, in
time of peace and by a dastardly ruse, cap-
tured the village and massacred all the in-
habitants. French traders also had sailed

22 SAMUEL DE CHAMPLAIN

to New York harbor, following in the wake
of Verrazano, a Florentine mariner in the
service of Francis I., and up the Hudson for
the purpose of trading with the Indians.
They built a blockhouse and some huts near
Albany, but no permanent settlement was
established.

The fierce wars of religion (1562-1598)
prevented further French exploration, so that
at the close of the century, when Spain had a
long-established empire around the Gulf of
Mexico, and the English had definite plans
for the colonization of Virginia, France, ex-
cept for the regular voyages of the fishermen
to the Banks and the irregular ventures of
few traders, had little but a claim to repre-
sent her title to the great northern regions
from Maine to Labrador.

As soon, however, as peace was reestab-
lished in France, the curiosity of cosmogra-
phers, the spirit of adventurers, and the purses
of traders resumed the attempts at explora-
tion and colonization. The Marquis de la
Roche made an endeavor which ended in ac-
cidents and misery ; but one failure could not

FIRST VOYAGE TO NORTH AMERICA 23

daunt the Norman merchants. Chauvin, a sea
captain, and Pontgrave, a merchant of Rouen
(destined to become a life-long friend of
Champlain), obtained from the king, Henry
IV., a monopoly of the fur trade with Canada,
upon the condition that they should found
a colony. Little success followed, but on
Chauvin's death, Aymar de Chastes, a dis-
tinguished and patriotic nobleman, sought
and obtained the reversion of these privileges
and monopolies. He had served the royal
cause faithfully and well in Brittany, and
there had made the acquaintance of Cham-
plain, learning his character and accomplish-
ments ; so that when he found the latter had
returned from Spain and was in attendance
on the court, he offered him an important
position in the new enterprise.

Champlain, weary of dangling about the
Louvre and the Tuileries, and of sauntering
through the Place Royale, hailed the offer
with delight, and, rejoicing in the prospect
of serving his king and his country in the
manner which he loved best, accepted at once.
De Chastes was unable to go, being kept by

24 SAMUEL DE CHAMPLAIN

various duties, but Champlain betook himself
at once to Honfleur, the seaport for Rouen,
where he met Pontgrave, and the two em-
barked in a little ship to make a reconnoi-
tring voyage, and report upon a site favorable
:or a settlement.

They set sail on March 15, 1603, and on
May 2 reached the Banks ; on the 20th they
were passing Anticosti, and on the 24th, after
an easy sail up the St. Lawrence, they cast
anchor at Tadousac, by the mouth of the
river Saguenay. Here Champlain made his
first acquaintance with North American In-
dians, excepting that he had seen certain
captives in France, of whom two returned
on the ship with him.

Champlain relates that the day after land-
ing, Pontgrave and he went with the two re-
turning Indians to the wigwam of the great
sagamore, Anadabijou, where there was a
gathering of the tribe. One of the two In-
dians made a speech to the assembled com-
pany, in which he told of the hospitality be-
stowed upon him by the French king, and
said that his brethren might rest assured that

FIRST VOYAGE TO NORTH AMERICA 25

the king was most kindly disposed toward
them, and wished to people their country,
and either help them make peace with the
Iroquois or send them soldiers to win victory.
He then described the beautiful palaces of
France, the people he had seen, and French
manners and customs. All listened in silence.
Then Anadabijou presented some tobacco to
his guests, and after smoking for a time be-
gan his harangue, speaking with circumspec-
tion, and pausing at intervals. He said thalT
they should all be very happy to have his
Majesty for a good friend ; to this all the In-
dians assented with shouts of ho, ho, ho. He
continued that they were very glad to have
his Majesty people their land and make war
on their enemies, that there was no nation
on earth to whom they were more kindly dis-
posed than the French ; and ended by dilating
upon the advantages that they would receive
from the king. After the harangue the com-
pany fell to the repast, which was contained
in eight or ten great pots. One helped the
others, who took their portions on bits of
bark and ate very untidily, wiping their

26 SAMUEL DE CHAMPLAIN

greasy hands on their hair or on the backs
of their dogs. Then, the feasting done, while
one chanted, the others danced, brandishing
scalps and tomahawks, and shouted songs of
victory.

Champlain's narrative makes it plain that
the kindness which the French showed to the
Canadian Indians had already developed into
a policy of alliance in peace and war, and that
therefore he was not personally responsible
or blameworthy for subsequently taking part
with them in a raid against the Iroquois. On
the contrary, }t seems clear that in uniting
with the Algonquins and their allies against
the Five Nations, he acted in obedience to
instructions given by de Chastes or per-
haps by the royal council.

The alliance has been condemned because
the Iroquois subsequently proved themselves
fiercer, stronger, and more capable than the
Canadian Indians ; but at the time it appeared
to be a wise policy, and still seems so if we
confine ourselves to the facts then known to
the French. For the sake of trading, of colo-
nizing, and of proselytizing, the French de-

FIRST VOYAGE TO NORTH AMERICA 27

sired to win the friendship of the Indians.
The nearest way to that end was to prove
that they themselves were friendly, and by
far the most cogent proof of friendship to
them was enmity to their enemies. A petty
number of French soldiers could easily have
turned the scales of force against the Iro-
quois, and colonists, traders, and missionaries
would then have lived among friends, deliv-
ered from the fear of arson and massacre.

Although Champlain would have preferred
a treaty of peace between the Canadian In-
dians and the Iroquois, he believed in this
policy of alliance offensive and defensive,
and pursued it ; and had the French govern-
ment and the trading companies been willing
to provide a couple of hundred soldiers, such
policy might well have been completely suc-
cessful.

Champlain found the Algonquins of a joy-
ous disposition, laughing often, though mel-
ancholy at times, cruel to their enemies and
great liars, but reasonable and intelligent.
He inquired about their religion of the saga-
more, who told him that they believed in

28 SAMUEL DE CHAMPLAIN

one God who had created all things, and lis-
tened attentively to Christian dogmas which
Champlain expounded, and said he was in
part ready to be persuaded. However, as
the early missionaries had great difficulty in
finding Algonquin equivalents for such words
as trinity, grace, redemption, it is doubtful
how much the sagamore really understood
even of simpler matters. Nevertheless he left
Champlain under the impression that with
proper instruction the Indians were ready to
become Christians.

From Tadousac Champlain explored the
river Saguenay, attempting in vain to fathom
its depth. He questioned the Indians con-
cerning its course from the lake (St. John)
out of which it flowed, and still more eagerly
asked about a mysterious sea (Hudson's
Bay) far to the north, reported to be salt.
On June 18 the Frenchmen sailed on up the
St. Lawrence in pinnaces, for the channel
had not been sounded and was so little known
that no ships of any size dared venture be-
yond Tadousac. They passed Hare Island,

FIRST VOYAGE TO NORTH AMERICA 29

Pointe-a-Pic, the Eboulements, Isle aux Cou-
dres and Baie St. Paul, until on the 22d
they reached the Island of Orleans, and then
' the Falls of Montmorency and the cliffs of
Quebec. On they went past Three Rivers,
till they came to» the river of the Iroquois
(Richelieu), which they tried to ascend but
.could not, being stopped by rapids.

There Champlain's curiosity was pricked
by reports that the Richelieu flowed out of
a large lake (Champlain), that beyond that
lake there was another, near which dwelt the
Iroquois, and then a great river (Hudson)
flowing south, by which a canoe might reach
the coast of Florida. Champlain sailed on
up the St. Lawrence as far as Mont Royal
(Montreal), but the city of Hochelaga, which
had existed in Cartier's time, had disappeared,
leaving no trace behind. There he heard
vague stories of great inland seas, following
one another toward the west ; and conclud-
ing that the last must be the South Sea, he
resolved to explore this unknown region the
first opportunity he could make. Time failed

30 SAMUEL DE CHAMPLAIN

him and he was obliged to return to Tadou-
sac on July 11.

After cruising about the mouth of the St.
Lawrence, Champlain set sail for France,
stopping near Gaspe, where he heard stories
of a horrible monster called the Gougou, with
woman's shape most terrifying, so tall that
the mainmast of a ship would scarcely reach
its waist, and hungry to eat Indians. Cham-
plain was at first inclined to think these
stories fables, but so many Indians con-
firmed them that he deemed the land the
residence of some evil and tormenting spirit.

The ship sailed from Gaspe on August 24,
and with favoring winds arrived at Havre-
de-Grace on September 20. De Chastes
had died in their absence. Champlain pre-
sented himself at court and showed the
king his report of the voyage, and a map,
which unfortunately is now lost. He was
well received and the king promised to take
the colonization of Canada under his protec-
tion. The narrative of his voyage, preceded
by a dignified dedication to the very noble,
high, and mighty Seigneur, Charles de Mont-

FIRST VOYAGE TO NORTH AMERICA 31

morency, admiral of France and Brittany,
was published in Paris in the autumn by
Claude de Monstr'oeil, printer to the Uni-
versity of Paris, whose shop was in the court
of the palace.

Ill

SECOND VOYAGE, WINTER AT ISLE ST. CROIX

AT the opening of the sixteenth century
the modern world had begun. Ships plied
between Spain and the West Indies, between
France and the Banks of Newfoundland, be-
tween England and India. English mer-
chants had penetrated Muscovy and had
flown the flag of St. George on the Caspian
Sea, the East India Company had been char-
tered, the Atlantic ports had begun to b'estir
themselves, the overland routes from Venice
to Frankfort, from Frankfort to Antwerp,
were falling into ruin, the paths of the sea
were the roads to wealth, and the period of
commerce and colonial empire had begun.

Henry IV. and his councilors, except Sully
who feared a waste of money, were alive to
the new conditions and the new needs. They
wished to plant French colonies in North
America, and were wise enough to perceive

SECOND VOYAGE, ISLE ST. CROIX 33

that the basis of a colony must be cultiva-
tion of the soil, and that agriculture is a
quicker road to wealth than gold hunting.
There was no money in the royal exchequer,
and at that time it was an accepted principle
that private enterprise was necessary to make
a colony prosper, and that the one means
which a government possessed to stimulate
private enterprise was to grant a monopoly
in trading privileges. With this policy the
king had granted a monopoly in the trade of
skins and ivory to de Chastes as well as to
his predecessors, much to the detriment of
the merchants of St. Malo ; but he felt par-
ticularly free to do so, as that city had been
disloyal during his struggle with the League.
On de Chastes's death the Sieur de Monts of
Saihtonge came forward to take his place and
asked the right to colonize Acadia, a very
ill-defined region extending from Philadelphia
to Cape Breton. Permission was granted,
de Monts was made feudal lord over the new
country with all but regal powers, and with
a monopoly of the fur trade extending far
enough north to include Newfoundland and

34 SAMUEL DE CHAMPLAIN

the mouth of the St. Lawrence. De Monts
agreed to establish settlements, cultivate the
soil, and convert the natives to the Roman
Catholic religion.

No sooner had the monopoly been granted
than the merchants of Rouen, Dieppe, St.
Malo, and La Rochelle cried out that they
would be ruined; the Parlement of Rouen
presented a remonstrance alleging that de
Monts was a Huguenot, and that the liber-
ties of trade were destroyed. De Monts,
however, for a time triumphed over rivalry
and envy. He hurried on his preparations,
and on April 7, 1604, sailed in a ship of 150
tons from Havre-de-Grace with Champlain,
Baron de Poutrincourt (a new enthusiast),
and a mixed company of priests, Huguenot
ministers, impressed rogues, and honest set-
tlers. Pontgrave was to follow in a smaller
vessel with supplies for passing the winter.
De Monts had made a voyage to Canada
several years before, and had gone as far as
Tadousac, but he did not like the country,
and determined to sail farther south, seeking
a milder climate.

SECOND VOYAGE, ISLE ST. CROIX 35

On May 1 they sighted Sable Island, and
then ran along the coast of Acadia (Nova
Scotia), capturing a ship which was trading
in furs contrary to the rights conferred by
the monopoly, and disembarked at Port Mou-
ton. There Champlain was sent southward
in a pinnace of eight tons with eleven men,
to explore the coast and find good harbors for
the ships. He was gone for about three weeks,
having sailed round Cape Sable into the Bay
of Fundy. On his return de Monts followed
the same course and sailed into Annapolis
harbor, to the site of Port Royal (Annapo-
lis). There, as lord suzerain, he granted a
fief to Poutrincourt, who was so charmed
with the spot that he proposed to live there.
Thence they went on looking for copper
mines, while Champlain busied himself tak-
ing soundings and making maps of every
harbor at which they stopped.

They passed the mouth of St. John River
and came to the St. Croix River, which is
now the boundary between Maine and New
Brunswick, and near its mouth discovered '
the Island of St. Croix, which they named.

36 SAMUEL DE CHAMPLAIN

This island, only eight or nine hundred paces
in circumference and rocky all about except
for one spit of sand enriched with clay, yet
full of oak, pine, and birch, seemed to de
Monts a good place for a settlement. Here
they disembarked and set to work, erecting
fortifications, planting cannon, constructing
houses, much annoyed by mosquitoes, which
stung some of the men so that they could
hardly see. All worked so well that before
long they had built a little house for M. de
Monts, a cabin for rainy days, a storehouse,
a forge, a hut for the carpenters, a^ well,
an oven for baking bread, a kitchen, one
house for Messieurs d'Orville, Champlain,
and Champdore, a second for three other
gentlemen, and two more for the artisans, a
little cabin for the cure, and lodgings for
the sailors, besides making gardens and a
palisade.

After the winter quarters were erected,
the ship in which they had come sailed back
to France, with Poutrincourt on board be-
holding visions of a barony at Port Eoyal,
i and Champlain was sent with a dozen sailors

SECOND VOYAGE, ISLE ST. CROIX 37

and two Indians to explore the coast to the (
southwest. He skirted the Maine shore, and
passed an island that looked like seven or
eight mountains huddled together, bare on
top and girded with trees of little growth.
This he named Monts Deserts. Thence he
sailed on past Penobscot Bay, to the mouth
of the Kennebec Eiver, where he had a very
friendly interview with some Indians, to
whom he gave presents of hatchets, beads,
knives, and trinkets. He left them in good
humor, and returned to St. Croix at the
beginning of October.

In the mean time Pontgrave had sown more
seed of future troubles by seizing several
Basque trading vessels, and arresting their
captains for violation of the king's grant,
much to their surprise and indignation, for
they and their fathers had been fishing and
trading off Acadia for near a hundred years,
and knew nothing of charters and mo-
nopolies. To the long series of complaints
from Basque, Breton, and Norman they,
added fresh charges of ill treatment which,
so they said, they had received from de

38 SAMUEL t)E CHAMPLAIN

Monts's officers. They cried aloud that if
the king would not interfere, commerce would
be ruined, customs would fall away, their
wives and children would be forced to beg
for food, and they either starve or become
pirates. Lawsuits and lobbying began. But
news of these evil days did not reach Acadia
till later, and de Monts and his companions
peacefully settled down for a dreary winter
on the Isle St. Croix.

Champlain and some others sowed grain
in their little gardens, but the sandy soil
choked the seed, except that which de Monts
had planted in a little patch of ground on the
mainland. An early winter came upon them,
snow fell on October 6, and blocks of ice
floated by the island in the beginning of
December. Lack of fresh vegetables and
meat brought a loathsome disease, the scurvy.
Great swollen sores formed in the patient's
mouth, he could not eat, his teeth all but
dropped out, he was spotted as with flea-
bites, he coughed, his breath came short,
pains racked his limbs, he could not walk,
and most of the time could not stand up

SECOND VOYAGE, ISLE ST. CROIX 39

alone. Out of seventy-nine men, thirty-five
died, twenty were near to death, and most
of the others had pains and short breath.
They could find no remedy, but the spring
brought back health to those who were still
living. Champlain himself escaped the dis-
ease, but life was hard even for the well.

There was* no cellar under the storehouse,
and everything froze except some Spanish
wine. Cider was distributed by the pound.
There was nothing else to drink, except
melted snow, as it was impossible to get to
the mainland for fresh water and there were
no springs on the island. The mill was hard
to grind, because most of the men were weak
from sickness and cold ; therefore bread was
scarce, and there was nothing to eat but salt
meat and dried vegetables, which always
threatened scurvy. The discontent was great,
and de Monts was about to make ready two
pinnaces and try to sail to Gaspe, on the
Gulf of St. Lawrence, in hope of finding a
fishing vessel that would take them back
to France, when in the middle of June,
1605, Pontgrave arrived on a ship from St.

40 SAMUEL DE CHAMPLAIN

Malo with provisions and various supplies.
Another winter on that island was impossi-
ble, so de Monts decided to look at once for a
more pleasant place for a settlement. "With
Champlain and a small company he set sail
in one of the pinnaces which had been pre-
pared for Gaspe, and coasted to the south-
west, past Grand Manan, Mt. Desert, and
the Kennebec River, to the islands near
Portland. A little farther on, by the river
Saco, they came upon the Almouchiquois
(probably the Massachusetts Indians), who
cultivated the soil.

The pinnace went on its way southward
past Boston bay and the river Charles, past
Plymouth Rock, and down Cape Cod till,
on July 20, it made the harbor of Nauset,
which Champlain calls Mallebarre. There
a number of Indians came to the beach in
friendly fashion, offering hospitality. Cham-
plain and de Monts went with them to see
their huts, fields, and manner of life, and
everything went pleasantly for several days
till an unfortunate breach of the peace. Up
to this time the French had had most arnica-

SECOND VOYAGE, ISLE ST. CROIX 41

ble relations with all the Indians they had
met, interchanging presents and vows of
amity. That day four or five sailors had
gone ashore with large pails to fetch fresh
water from a spring behind one of the sand
dunes a little distance from the beach. One
of the Indians, becoming covetous, watched
his chance, and, snatching a pail from the
hands of a sailor, darted off with it. The
other sailors ran to the shore crying for help.
There were at the time some Indians aboard
the pinnace, who, taking fright at the cries,
jumped into the water, — except one who was
caught, — and swam ashore. When those on
shore saw that their comrades on the ship
were safe, they chased the sailor from whom
they had stolen the pail, shot him down with
arrows, and dispatched him with knives.
Meanwhile the French pulled to the beach
in their rowboats, firing their muskets.
Cham plain's weapon exploded in his hands
and nearly killed him. But before they could
land, the savages, far too nimble to be over-
taken, ran off into the woods, and did not
show themselves for several hours, when some

42 SAMUEL DE CHAMPLAIN

came slowly towards the shore making signs
that not they were the wrong-doers but others,
who had fled far away. The French, disap-
pointed that their happy series of friendships
with the indigenes had been broken, made no
attempt at revenge, and recognizing that the
captured Indian was in no way to blame,
loosed him and let him go.

The expedition was prevented from going
farther stmth by lack of provisions, so they
turned back and sailed to St. Croix, which
they reached on August 2 without special
adventures. There they found a vessel from
St. Malo laden with supplies for the follow-
ing winter ; but de Monts, resolving not to
spend another winter on that dreary little
island, loaded all their possessions, including
the woodwork of the houses, on the pinnaces,
and sailed across the Bay of Fundy to the
j wooded shore of Port Royal (Annapolis), near
the mouth of Annapolis River, in that Acadia
described by Longfellow.

This is the forest primeval. The murmuring pines and

the hemlocks,
Bearded with moss, and in garments green, indistinct in

the twilight,

SECOND VOYAGE, ISLE ST. CROIX 43

Stand like Druids of eld, with voices sad and prophetic,

Stand like harpers hoar, with beards that rest on their
bosoms.

Loud from its rocky caverns, the deep-voiced neighbor-
ing ocean

Speaks, and in accents disconsolate answers the wail of
the forest.

There they built houses, cabins, and forti-
fications, arid prepared a little settlement for
their second winter. By this time, however,
the uproar arising from the confiscations and
seizures of Basque and Breton trading ves-
sels had resounded across the Atlantic, and
de Monts found it necessary to go back to
France to defend his cause before the king.
Pontgrave stayed, as lieutenant in charge,
and with him remained Champlain, who was
eager to continue his explorations along the
American coast as far as Florida.

As soon as de Monts had sailed, the little
company of forty-five men went to work on
their gardens. Champlain, who hated idle-
ness, took special interest in his. He dug
all round it a little ditch, which he filled with
water from a spring, and he stocked the ditch
with very good trout, and made a little sluice-

44 SAMUEL DE CHAMPLAIN

way and water gate to guard against an over-
flow. In the fields near the settlement he
made an arbor under some large trees,
where he went to enjoy the freshness of the
air ; and there he dug a little reservoir in
which fish caught in the sea were kept till
they were needed for food. There, too, he
sowed grain, which grew well, and gave him
great satisfaction ; but first it was necessary,
as he says, to do a great deal of hard work.
" We used to go there often," he adds, " to
pass the time, and it seemed as if the little
birds of the neighborhood were pleased there-
by, for they flocked together in great num-
bers, and made such flutterings and chirp-
ings that I think I never heard the like."

The winter was a hard one, and scurvy
broke out again. Twelve men died. In the
spring.a pinnace of seventeen tons was made
ready for a voyage of exploration down the
New England coast, but one storm drove
it ashore, and a second destroyed it alto-
gether, arid the trip had to be abandoned.
Champlain was greatly vexed, for there was
not time to build another pinnace and make

SECOND VOYAGE, ISLE ST. CROIX 45

the proposed voyage to the Florida coast before
the arrival of the vessels from France which
were to be sent by de Monts.

The vessels had not arrived by the middle
of July, and provisions ran out ; so Pontgrave,
acting under de Monts' parting instructions,
took the settlers on board the bark, to sail
to Cape Breton or Gaspe, in order to find
some fishing or trading ship that would carry
them back to France. Two men volunteered
to stay and take care of the settlement and
guard the wheat, furniture, and odds and
ends which could not be stowed on the bark ;
and an old chief, Membertou, a man of great
reputation for sagacity and cunning, pro-
mised to be a good friend to them. Pont-
grave then set sail in the bark, with Cham-
plain and all (except the brave two) aboard,
and another little boat of only seven or
eight tons followed ai ter. On the fourth day
a furious wind broke the rudder fastenings
and left the bark helpless to the fury of the
sea. They did not know what to do. It was
impossible to land, although the coast of
Nova Scotia was just off their port bow, for

46 SAMUEL DE CHAMPLAIN

the surf was running mountain high all
along the shore, and they chose rather to
drown at sea than be dashed to pieces on
the rocks. Every man fell to thinking what
could be done for the general safety. One
sailor suggested that a quantity of rope tied
to the stern and let drag in the water would
help steer the ship. " We saw," says Cham-
plain, " that, unless God helped us by other
means, that device would not guarantee us
from wreck." Champdore, the pilot, took a
cable, cut it, and adjusted the rudder so
skillfully that it steered as well as ever, and
the ship was enabled to hold her course.

IV

PORT ROYAL

IN the mean time de Monts had had trials
and sufferings in Paris. The Basques and
Bretons were pouring lamentation and com-
'plaint into every ear that would hearken.
The monopolists' settlement was said to be
in a desert, in a horrid climate, the losses
great, the profits small, and many men dead.
All this was only too true, but the mo^t dam-
aging charge was behind : report said that
not a single Indian had been converted to
Christianity, and no wonder, for de Monts
was a Protestant. Basque and Breton fur
traders grieved as if they had set their hearts
on the baptism of the heathen. De Monts
did what he could, both to defend his mono-
poly and to fit out a ship with supplies for
the colonists ; and Poutrincourt, though he
was in the midst of a lawsuit, was full of
spirit and ready to return to Port Eoyal,

48 SAMUEL DE CHAMPLAIN

and a new adventurer, Marc Lescarbot, a
lawyer of small practice but great resource,
was ready to go too.

With great prudence de Monts and Pou-
trincourt sought a priest, in order to give an
orthodox color to the new expedition, and
went about to various churches in Paris ask-
ing for one. They were told that it was holy
week and that the priests could not leave the
confessionals. At La Eochelle, whence the
expedition was to sail, Poutrincourt tried
again, for there were said to be many priests
there with little to do ; but the answer was,
" that for such a voyage people needs must
be pushed on by great zeal and piety, and
that therefore he would do well to go to the
Jesuit Fathers." Poutrincourt, however, not
relishing that advice, concluded that he had
no time for further search. Preparations
were hurried on as fast as practicable, and
after various setbacks, their ship, the Jonas,
sailed on May 13, 1606,, leaving de Monts
behind to protect the interests of his com-
pany at court.

They had a long voyage, and did not reach

PORT KOYAL 49

Port Koyal till July 26, nine days after Font-
grave and Champlain had left. At the en-
trance to the harbor of Port Royal they saw
nobody to greet them and heard nothing.
The garrison of two were at dinner, but
Membertou's watchful eyes saw the sail, and
he ran into the fort shouting, " What, you
amuse yourselves with dinner, and don't see
the great ship that 's coming up, and we can't
tell what kind of people are on board." One
man ran to the cannon, the other to the shore
with his harquebus ; Membertou took one of
his daughters — for he was a very old man —
and paddled out in a canoe to inspect the
newcomer. The fleur-de-lis was flying at her
peak. The soldier in the fort fired the can-
non as a salute of welcome ; the ship replied ;
and the arrival was celebrated with jollity,
especially when Pontgrave and Champlain,
who had met the little boat left by Poutrin-
court near Cape Sable to watch for them,
also sailed up the harbor.

After a general consultation Poutrincourt,
who was at the head of the settlement, de-
cided not to attempt a change of winter quar-

50 SAMUEL DE CHAMPLAIN

ters until another year, and immediately
planted wheat, rye, and other grains about
a mile from the water. Pontgrave sailed
back to France, taking with him all the men
who had passed the winter at Port Koyal
except Champlain, Champdore, and one other.
There was a report that there were some
fur traders carrying on illegal trade off Cape
Breton, so Pontgrave hurried off in hope
to capture them.

A few days after Pontgrave's departure
(^ Poutrincourt and Champlain set forth on
their expedition to reach the coast of Florida.
They sailed along the shores of New Bruns-
wick and stopped at the island of St. Croix,
where they found a crop of excellent wheat,
sprung from the sowing of two years before.
Then they went on along the coast of Maine
and Massachusetts, following the course of
Champlain' s former expedition, until they
came to Chatham harbor, where they stopped
to repair the bark and to bake bread.

It soon became apparent that the Indians
had evil intentions. Poutrincourt gave strict
orders to run no risks, and bade every man

PORT ROYAL 51

return to the ship that night. Everybody
obeyed except the man who was baking; he
stayed to finish the loaves that were in the
oven, and two men stayed with him. When
evening came Poutrincourt sent a dory to
fetch them back, but the three refused to
come, in spite of remonstrance and entreaty,
and two sailors from the dory joined them,
in order to eat some cake that had been
made. Their comrades, returning to the
bark, said nothing to Poutrincourt of the dis-
obedience. At daybreak the Indians crept
up in great numbers, surprised the sleeping
Frenchmen, and poured volleys of arrows
upon them. One sailor fell dead, the others
stumbled toward the shore, riddled with
arrows, crying for help. The man on watch
shouted, " To arms ! " and quick as possible
some fifteen men pushed off in the dory,
which stuck on a sand-bar. The men jumped
into the water, wading ashore with their
harquebuses over their heads. The Indians
fled, and the French buried their murdered
comrades, and set up a cross on the grave.
Three hours later the Indians came back,

52 SAMUEL DE CHAMPLAIN

threw down the cross, and dug up the bodies.
The Frenchmen landed again, but the In-
dians escaped, and plans of punishment were
postponed.

The bark attempted to continue its voyage,
and succeeded in getting to Martha's Vine-
yard, but contrary winds drove it back ; and
as the season was growing late Poutrincourt
decided to return to Port Royal, but before
going the Frenchmen had their revenge :
they lured the Indians into an ambuscade
and killed several. The voyage back was
uneventful.

They were received with joy by Marc Les-
carbot, who had been preparing to welcome
them with honor. He had decorated the
fort by fastening over the great gate the
royal arms of France, surrounded by laurel
wreaths, and had put underneath the es-
cutcheons of de Monts and of Poutrincourt,
also encircled with laurel. Lescarbot was a
most delightful person, poorly endowed with
physical strength, but of wonderful spirit;
eagerly interested in everything, — roaming,
digging, building, planting, writing verses,

PORT ROYAL 53

making jests, composing history, — he makes
us understand the extent of the difference
between the French colonists and the Eng-
lishmen of Plymouth Rock.

Lescarbot did not like Champlain very
much, for what reason is not apparent.
Perhaps Champlain was too serious minded,
and inclined to think writing poetry an un-
necessary, even an undesirable, accomplish-
ment in a colonist ; or perhaps Lescarbot
deemed the mere explorer and geographer
of necessity somewhat thick witted. There
was no quarrel of any kind, but Champlain
alludes to Lescarbot casually as to a frivo-
lous subject, and Lescarbot once or twice
finds fault with Champlain for no good
reason. The reader is sorry that the serious,
noble-minded Champlain was not able to
derive more pleasure from his gay com-
patriot, who flashes up so brilliantly in this
duU winter at Port Royal, especially as
Champlain was by no means a sour Puritan,
but held up his end of jollity and good
fellowship.

Lescarbot tells the story of the principal

54 SAMUEL DE CHAMPLAIN

amusement during the winter. " I must tell
how, in order to keep us jolly and well
served in our victuals, an Order was estab-
lished for the Sieur de Poutrincourt's table,
according to a device of Champlain. His
idea was that those sitting at this table
should play the host each one in turn, that
is, once every fifteen days. The host's duty
was to see that we were well and honorably
treated. This was so well done that (though
gourmands at home tell us that we did not
have the Rue aux Ours of Paris) we had
there ordinarily as good cheer as we could
have had at their Eue aux Ours, and
cheaper; because each man, two days be-
fore his turn came, was careful to go hunt-
ing or fishing, and brought back something
dainty in addition to our ordinary fare, so
that at breakfast and dinner we were never
without some good dish of meat or fish, and
at supper had still more ; for then was the
great feast, to which the host, as lord pur-
veyor, having got everything ready in the
kitchen, marched, napkin on shoulder, the
collar of the Order round his neck, and all

PORT ROYAL 55

the members of the Order after him, each
man carrying his dish. The same happened
at dessert, though not always with so much
ceremony. And in the evening before say-
ing grace, the purveyor surrendered the col-
lar of the Order to his successor in the
charge, and each drank a glass of wine to
the other." 'After the feast, stories were
told, songs sung by both Frenchmen and
Indians, and Lescarbot recited his own
verses.

Lescarbot by no means confined himself to
amusement. During Poutrincourf s voyage
down the New England coast, he had been
put in charge of the colony, and took his ap-
pointment seriously. He planted rye and
barley, he hoed in the garden, thinking the
while of " our old father Noah, great King,
great Priest, great Prophet, whose occupation
was to be husbandman ; " he cut paths in
the woods, and digged a ditch round the fort.
After working outdoors all day, in the even-
ing, when every one was indoors, he shut him-
self in his room to read or to write. " I am
not even ashamed to say, that, having been

56 SAMUEL DE CHAMPLAIN

urged by the Sieur de Poutrincourt, our
chief, to give a few hours of my time to teach
our little settlement in the ways of Chris-
tianity, so as not to live like the beasts, and
also to show a good example of our way of
living to the Indians, I did so in the exi-
gency and because I was asked, every Sun-
day and sometimes on special occasions, al-
most all the time that we were there alone.
It stood me in good stead that I had brought
my Bible and some books without any special
reason, for otherwise such a duty would have
been too hard for me and I should have been
obliged to refuse. My doings were not with-
out fruit, for many came and told me that
they had never heard God preached so well,
and that before that they knew nothing of
the principles of Christian doctrine, and that
is the condition in which the greater part of
Christendom lives. But if on one side there
was edification, on the other there was some
adverse speech, because I always tried to
speak the truth with proper French free-
dom."

The winter was mild and was pleasantly

PORT ROYAL 57

passed, except for the scurvy which attacked
the colony late in the season. It was not so
severe as in the two preceding years. Only
seven died. The eight or ten others who
had the disease recovered when, to use Les-
carbot's phrase, " the sun once more began
to warm the earth and to cast amorous looks
at its mistress," and all were able to set to
work on their gardens. But disappointment
was in store for them.

On the 24th of May, after morning pray-
ers, when breakfast had been distributed, the
Sagamore Membertou, in spite of his hun-
dred years, was the first to spy a French
ship coming up the harbor. Bad news was
brought ; in the first place the Dutch, led by
a traitor Frenchman, had sailed up the St.
Lawrence, and had carried off all the skins
brought by the Indians, thereby inflicting
a great blow upon the company. But worse
tidings were to follow. De Monts' privi-
leges and monopolies had been revoked by
the royal council. Eumor said that certain
persons in high place had promised the
complaining Bretons and Normans to see that

58 SAMUEL DE CHAMPLAIN

the patent should be broken, provided a cer-
tain sum of money was forthcoming. The
money was paid, unknown to the king, and
the grant was rescinded on the ostensible
grounds that the price of beaver-skins had
been raised, and that no Indians had been
converted. Lescarbot says that after the re-
vocation of the monopoly, the price of skins
doubled, and that he deemed the ' Christian
character too noble to be given on a sudden
to savages who had no sentiment of religion.
Chagrined as they were, none of the colonists
imputed any wrong to the king, and they
celebrated the news of the birth of his second
son by burning bonfires and singing the Te
Deum.

There was nothing to be done but to aban-
don the colony, for it could not support it-
self, and de Monts could not provide funds
except from a monopoly of the fur trade.
They sorrowfully made ready to leave. Les-
carbot went direct to Canso, where the Jonas
was laying in cod previous to taking the
colonists home ; but Poutrincourt wanted
to reap what he had sowed and take home

PORT ROYAL 59

specimens of Acadian grain to the king, and
Champlain wished to map out the coast of
New Brunswick, so they tarried, and did not
reach Canso till the end of August. They
sailed on September 3, and arrived at St.
Malo on September 30, 1607.

Champlain had been away from France i
for three years and a half, on an unsuccess- /
f ul enterprise, yet, indignant as he was against
the lobbyists and their bribery, all he said
of them was, " God pardon those whom He
has taken, and mend those who are still
living."

The year 1607 was memorable for the
foundation of an English colony at James-
town. From that beginning the power of
England gradually increased on American
soil till it possessed all the land from the
Spanish domain in Florida on the south to
the French colonies in Acadia on the north.
Fear of English raids, such as that of Ar-
gall, who in 1613 destroyed the little Jesuit
settlement near Mt. Desert and Poutrin-
court's colony at Port Royal, undoubtedly
affected the course of French settlers. From

60 SAMUEL DE CHAMPLAIN

this time on the main current of French
enterprise was directed to Canada instead
of to Acadia. The French left the English
south of the river St. John in undisputed
possession.

FIRST YEAR AT QUEBEC, 1608-1609

ON his arrival in France Chainplain went
to see the Sieur de Monts, showed him his
maps and charts, and gave him an account
of all that had happened at Port Royal while
he was away. The two talked over plans,
and de Monts resolved, in spite of his mis-
fortunes, to persevere and make another at-
tempt to plant a colony. Following Cham-
plain's advice, he chose Canada as the place,
and obtained from Henry IV. a commission,
bearing date January 7, 1608, which granted
him a monopoly of the fur trade with Can-
ada for one year. Two ships were fitted out
at Honfleur. Pontgrave, who was appointed
deputy for trading with the Indians, sailed
in one in the beginning of April, and Cham-
plain, de Monts' lieutenant for all matters
except trading, left a few days later, receiv-
ing a friendly good-by from Lescarbot in the
form of a sonnet.

62 SAMUEL DE CHAMPLAIN

On May 15 Champlain was off the Banks,
and on June 3 anchored at Tadousac, where
he found troubles in plenty. Poiitgrave had
attempted to enforce the king's commission
against some Basque fur traders ; the latter
had resisted. They had wounded Pontgrave
and two of his men, killed a third, boarded
the ship, and had taken possession of all the
arms and ammunition. Champlain entered
into parley with the Basques, and after con-
sultation with Pontgrave said that they might
go in peace, on condition that the whole dis-
pute be left to the courts in France. The
Basques accepted the terms and departed.

Pontgrave, though suffering from his
wound, began to trade with the Monta-
gnais Indians, who were wont to paddle
their canoes down the rough waters of the
Saguenay, and bring from Lake St. John to
Tadousac the skins collected by the hunters
in the wild regions stretching northward to
Hudson's Bay.

Champlain, after an interval of five years,
once more sailed up the broad St. Lawrence.
In four days he passed the island of Orleans,

FIRST YEAR AT QUEBEC, 1608-1609 63

and after a search found no better place for
a camp than the sloping ground covered with
nut-trees, between the river and the cliffs,
where the lower town of Quebec now stands.
Here he landed on July 3, and with his
usual energy laid the foundation of that ro-
mantic city. One band of workmen chopped
down the trees, another sawed them into
beams and planks, a third dug a cellar and
hollowed out a ditch, while the fourth hur-
ried back to Tadousac to fetch the stores and
utensils.

Unexpectedly quickly one pinnace arrived
from Tadousac in charge of the pilot Tetu,
a man of much good sense. He unloaded
his cargo, and was about to sail back when
a smith, Natel by name, went up to him and
whispered that there was something of which
he wished to speak. Thereupon Natel re-
lated how Duval, a locksmith, had contrived
a plot to surprise Champlain, unprepared and
unarmed, by the ruse of a false alarm at night,
and then having murdered him, to deliver the
place to the Basques or the Spanish. Duval
had suborned with lies and false hopes three

64 SAMUEL DE CHAMPLAIN

of the worst men in the company, and then
the four together had frightened or seduced
almost all the others into consent or acqui-
escence. The murder was to have been com-
mitted before the pinnaces arrived from
Tadousac. Tetu said to Natel, " My friend,
you have done well to reveal so wicked a
plot. You show that you are a good man, led
by the Holy Spirit. But the Sieur de Cham-
plain must know of this so that he can take
the proper measures, and you must promise
to act so that he will pardon you and others.
I will tell him secretly, and no one will sus-
pect. Go about your business, learn what
you can, and be sure that everything will go
well."

Tetu went at once to Champlain, who was
working in his garden, took him off into the
woods, and disclosed the plot. Natel was
then brought up, and repeated what he had
told. Champlain bade Tetu bring his dory
to the shore ; he then gave two bottles of
wine to a trusty man, and directed him to
tell the four ringleaders that the wine was a
present from some friends at Tadousac, and

FIRST YEAR AT QUEBEC, 1608-1609 65

to invite them to come aboard the pinnace for
supper and a carouse. The four accepted
the invitation and came ; Champlain fol-
lowed and arrested them promptly. It was
then ten o'clock in the evening, and on
land all had gone to bed. Each man was
waked, told that the plot was discovered, and
that he should be pardoned if he would con-
fess everything. All agreed, and the next
morning Champlain took their statements
down in writing, and was relieved to discover
that they had all joined the conspiracy from
fear of the four ringleaders. These four
were handcuffed, and promptly tried by a
court-martial. The witnesses confirmed their
depositions. The four were sentenced to
death. Duval was hanged, and his head,
stuck on a pike, was fastened to the highest
peak of the roof as a warning ; the other
three were sent back to France, where they
were condemned to the galleys. Perhaps we
may contrast Champlain' s leniency with Sir
Thomas Dale's severity in Virginia, who, a
year or two later, discovered a similar con-
spiracy against him, and put the five ring-

66 SAMUEL DE CHAMPLAIN

leaders to death in a " cruel and unusual "
manner.

Meanwhile the buildings at Quebec were
going up as fast as possible. They consisted
of a main structure and two wings, each with
its chimney. In Champlain's drawing each
chimney puffs a wreath of curling smoke into
the air. Close to the buildings was a small
court encompassed by a high wall; in the
middle of the court rose a tall dovecote, and
on top of the wall and round the top of the
first story of the buildings ran a covered
gallery, loopholed for muskets. Outside was
a ditch, and three platforms on which the
cannon were mounted, and beyond was a
little garden with beds and walks laid out
symmetrically, and a few yards farther down
was the river bank.

Here, while Pontgrave was taking back
his cargo of skins to France, Champlain was
preparing for the winter. In the first days
of October he sowed wheat, after the 15th
rye, and by the 24th he began planting
vines, although frosts had already come and
the leaves were falling fast; for he under-

FIKST YEAR AT QUEBEC, 1608-1609 67

stood that a colony to thrive must support
itself, and not depend on help from over seas
for the maintenance of life. In November
the snow began to fall and the winter closed
in on them. The Indians were very friendly ;
and after they had finished catching eels, and
hunting beaver and moose, they encamped
in their wigwams near the settlement. But
they needed more 'help than they gave, for
they were in constant alarm lest their terri-
ble enemies, the Iroquois, should attack them,
and a bad dream would send them howling to
the French for protection. Champlain tried
to make them keep a watch or picket at night,
but they merely replied that the French knew
better how to take care of them than they
did themselves.

The Canadian winter was harsh, and the
spring dreary. The scurvy again broke out.
Of the little company of twenty-eight, fifteen
died from it; five more from dysentery. In
June, 1609, when news came that Pontgrave
had returned to Tadousac, half of the eight
survivors were ill. Nevertheless Champlain,
ever restless to explore, hastened away to

68 SAMUEL DE CHAMPLAIN

confer with Pontgrave, and the two agreed
that Pontgrave should stay in charge at Ta-
dousac while Champlain went to explore the
St. Lawrence.

Champlain started on July 18, and had
not gone far before he met two or three
hundred Indians, Hurons, Montagnais, and
Algonquins in alliance, who had bivouacked
by the river and were on their way to Que-
bec to take him on a journey of discovery
into the land of the Iroquois. The pipe of
peace was produced and a ceremonious par-
ley followed ; the savages wished to see the
great buildings at Quebec, so all went back
there, to f eastings and celebrations. A fresh
start was made on the 28th. Champlain
had a dozen men with him in a shallop, and
the Indians all followed in their canoes.
When they came to the mouth of the river
of the Iroquois (river Eichelieu) they halted
for two days, hunting and fishing. Then a
dispute arose among the Indians, and half
of them went home ; the other half paddled
up the Kichelieu, and Champlain sailed after
them in his shallop. They passed a number

FIRST YEAR AT QUEBEC, 1608-1609 69

of lovely little islands, and soon came to the
Chambly Rapids, which neither shallop nor
canoes could pass ; but the canoes were easily
carried, whereas it was impossible with so
few white men to carry the shallop overland.
Champlain was greatly vexed at the idea of
going back without seeing " un grandicime
lac " filled with green islands and surrounded
by a beautiful country, so he resolved to send
back the shallop and keep on with two white
men in a canoe.

The party, sixty in number, shouldered
their canoes, and having gone beyond the
rapids, embarked on the river again, and
paddled about ten miles before they stopped
for the night. Then, as the custom was, they
chopped down trees and built a strong bar-
ricade around their camp, excepting on the
river side, where the canoes were drawn up.

At each encampment the medicine-man
erected a little hut and covered it with his
robes to hide the interior. Then going in-
side so that he could not be seen, he shook
the hut by pulling at the main pole, mum-
bling the while certain words in his throat

70 SAMUEL DE CHAMPLAIN

which he said summoned the devil, who ap-
peared in the shape of a stone, and delivered
oracular answers to the question whether the
allies should find their enemies and kill many
of them. The conversation ended, the medi-
cine-man leaped to his feet, talking and whirl-
ing about in such a fashion that he became
bathed in sweat. Meanwhile all the Indians
sat round about, telling Champlain that the
shaking of the hut was caused by the devil,
and that he would see fire issue from the
top of the hut ; but he did not. Champlain
remonstrated with them and told them that
the whole performance was nonsense, and
that they ought not to believe in it ; but he
reasoned in vain.

The next day they paddled to the beginning
of the great lake named in honor of Cham-
plain, and the day after they continued down
it, and skirted the western shore, leaving the
Green Mountains, still capped with snow, on
their left, till they came in sight of the Adi-
rondacks to the right, in which place the In-
dians expected to meet the Iroquois. Then
it became necessary to take precautions ; they

FIRST YEAR AT QUEBEC, 1608-1609 71

lay close during the day and paddled that
night, and paid sharp attention to dreams.
Before this the Indians had frequently asked
Champlain if he had not had a dream ; he
had always answered no, but that day he said
he dreamt that he saw the Iroquois drown-
ing in a lake. This dream inspired the In-
dians with absolute confidence in victory.

The next evening they came upon some
Iroquois canoes. Each side yelled in defiance
and prepared for battle, but the Iroquois re-
treated to land and hewed down trees with
their stone hatchets, and made a barricade.
The allies stayed in their canoes, and sent
an envoy to ask if the Iroquois wished to
fight ; they answered that they desired no-
thing else, but that it would be better to
wait for day. Both parties spent the night
dancing, singing, and shouting insults and
opprobrious epithets " as we are wont to do
at the siege of a city, " remarks Champlain.

When morning dawned, Champlain and
his two white men, protected by helmet,
breastplate, and greaves, after the military
fashion of the time, each with his barque-

72 SAMUEL DE CHAMPLAIN

bus, separated and lay down in the bottom
of their respective canoes, so as not to be
seen. Then the allies landed, and Cham-
plain watched the Iroquois come forth from
their intrenched camp, about two hundred,
vigorous and strong. They advanced to
the combat slowly, with a deliberation and
gravity that gave him a soldier's content,
three chiefs, decorated with flowing plumes,
conspicuous at their head. The Algonquins
bade Champlain shoot at the chiefs, and he
promised to do his best. As they drew near
the enemy, the allies, outnumbered three to
one, called on Champlain and opened their
ranks to let him pass and go first. He ad-
vanced till he was about thirty paces from
the Iroquois, who, perceiving him, stopped
in astonishment, for he was the first white
man they had ever seen. He saw them
bending their bows, so he fired his har-
quebus, loaded with four balls. The chief
fell and two warriors near him. The allies
raised a shout "to outroar thunder," and
arrows rained on each side ; but the Iroquois
were shaken by the miraculous destruction

FIRST YEAR AT QUEBE C, 1608-1609 73

of their three warriors, and on the discharge
of another harquebus from another spot,
discomfited they broke and fled, losing sev-
eral dead and a dozen prisoners, beside what
stores they had in their camp, whereas the
allies sustained no injuries except a few tri-
fling arrow wounds. This battle was fought
near TicondSroga.

After a three hours' dance to celebrate the
victory, the allies started back ; having pad-
dled about twenty-five miles, they landed and
began to torture their prisoners. They took
one, harangued him on his cruelty toward
their people, bidding him make up his mind
to receive the like treatment, and sing if he
had enough courage. He did sing, but with
a chant very sad to hear. Then the victors
lighted a fire, and each took a burning brand
and burnt the wretched captive little by little ;
and in order that he should suffer as much
as possible, they stopped now and then and
poured water over him. Then they plucked
out his nails and burnt the tips of his fingers,
and next dropped boiling gum on his head.
After that they hacked his arms and pulled

74 SAMUEL DE CHAMPLAIN

out the nerves, and when they could not
tear them out, cut them. The captive uttered
strange cries, but behaved with such forti-
tude that at times one might have thought
that he felt nothing. The torturers invited
Champlain to join them. He replied that
Frenchmen never practiced such cruelties,
and asked leave to put a bullet through the
captive's head ; they refused and he walked
off in anger. At this the Indians, not wish-
ing to displease him, gave him leave to
shoot, and he ended the ordeal with a shot
from his harquebus. The Indians took the
dead body, ripped it open, threw the bowels
into the lake, and cut off legs, arms, and head
after taking the scalp. They then cut out
the heart, and chopped it in bits, which they
forced into the mouths of the other captives,
who, however, instead of swallowing, spat
them out. The bleeding bits were finally
thrown into the lake.

The next day the victors continued their
homeward journey. When they came to the
Falls of Chambly on the river Eichelieu,
the Hurons and Algonquins went their sev-

FIRST YEAR AT QUEBEC, 1608-1609 75

eral ways, and Champlain, promising to help
them always like a brother, returned with
the Montagnais, who paddled down the St.
Lawrence at the rate of seventy-five to ninety
miles a day, until, having barely stopped at
Quebec, they came to Tadousac, where wives
and daughters greeted them with ceremony
and great rejoicing.

This raid was more eventful in the his-
tory of the New World than Champlain was
aware, for the battle with the Iroquois made
them bitter enemies of the French. These
five confederated tribes, the Mohawks, Onei-
das, Onondagas, Senecas, and Cayugas, were
the most powerful in North America, and
thereafter always allied themselves with the
enemies of France. They lived in the cen-
tral and western parts of New York State,
and had convenient routes to threaten Can-
ada, either by Lake Champlain and the
river Richelieu, or by Lake Ontario and the
St. Lawrence. They were fiercer, braver,
and more capable in war than any other In-
dians, and perhaps, had the white men not
come, would have established their sway

76 SAMUEL DE CHAMPLAIN

over a wide dominion, subduing or destroy-
ing all rivals.

Toward the end of August Pontgrave and
Champlain decided to return to France ; they
established Pierre Chauvin of Dieppe at Que-
bec with fifteen men, and on September 1
sailed in the shallop to Tadousac, where the
large vessel had remained. Thence they set
sail on the 10th, and arrived at Honfleur a
month later. Champlain took post at once
to Fontainebleau, to report to de Monts, who
was at court. He also had an interview with
the king, who was much pleased and inter-
ested, and graciously accepted a belt of j)or-
cupine-skin, Indian work well wrought, two
little scarlet birds, and the head of a great
fish caught in Lake Champlain.

De Monts went to Rouen to discuss mat-
ters with some of his associates, certain mer-
chants there, and they decided to continue
the settlement, and to make further explora-
tions. Then he returned to Paris and tried
to obtain a further grant of exclusive privi-
leges, but his enemies were too strong and
he got nothing. Nevertheless he determined

FIRST YEAR AT QUEBEC, 1608-1609 77

to persevere, animated by a great desire that
all things should redound to the welfare and
the honor of France. Pontgrave was eager
to go back to trade in furs and do what else
he could to defray expenses, and Champlain
was ready to pass another winter in Quebec.
All three went to work to get together the
necessary stores and supplies.

Energy was necessary. A new competitor
for the possession of North America was in
the field. In this same year Henry Hudson,
in the employ of the Dutch East India Com-
pany, having attempted in vain to find a
northeast passage to Cathay, crossed the At-
lantic, to look for a western route, and, dis-
covering a broad river flowing north, sailed
in his little vessel, the Half Moon, as far up
as the Catskills. His voyage was the begin-
ning of the Dutch settlement at New Am-
sterdam, on the island of Manhattan.

VI

CANADIAN AFFAIRS, 1610-1613

CHAMPLAIN embarked again at Honfleur
on March 7, 1610, but fell so ill that he
feared he should be unable to make the voy-
age, and put back in a small boat. He re-
covered, and by good luck the vessel he had
been on was obliged to put in for some for-
gotten necessaries ; so he went aboard again
and sailed April 8. He made Tadousac on
the 26th, and there learned that the little
colony at Quebec had had a very good win-
ter, little snow, and hardly any sickness.
The colonists had had plenty of fresh meat,
and their chief difficulty had been to amuse
themselves. Champlain pushed on and found
some Montagnais expecting him to go at
once on the warpath with them. In a few
days sixty more warriors came, and it was
agreed that all should meet at the Three
Rivers.

CANADIAN AFFAIRS, 1610-1613 79

Champlain left Quebec on June 14, found
the Montagnais at the rendezvous, and they
went on together to an island at the mouth .
of the river of the Iroquois, where they were
to await the Algonquins. As they were
felling trees to barricade their camp, an Al-
gonquin paddled up furiously in his canoe,
and said that his people had found the
Iroquois, who were strongly fortified in a
camp not far away. The Indians hurried
to shore, making less speed with more haste,
and darted off through the woods, leaving
Champlain and his four comrades to wander
wildly, for they could not keep up with their
fleet-footed allies, and lost their way, floun-
dering in bogs up to their knees. They
pushed on, encumbered by their armor and
harquebuses, and bitten by mosquitoes, which
swarmed so thick that they could scarce draw
breath, when, beginning to despair, they
caught sight of two friendly braves. They
shouted out that the braves must act as
guides, otherwise they would take no part
in the battle. The Indians guided them,
and soon they met a third, who reported

80 SAMUEL DE CHAMPLAIN

that ihe Algonquins and Montagnais had
been repulsed from the Iroquois fort, and
that the only hope of victory lay in Cham-
plain's arrival. In a short time they could
hear shouts and battle-cries, and when Cham-
plain came up the allies raised a din " like
a tornado."

The Frenchmen reconnoitred the barri-
cade and found it very strongly built, but
they advanced close and began firing. The
Iroquois at first defended themselves bravely ;
one Frenchman was wounded in the arm.
Champlain, too, was hit by an arrow, which
pierced his ear and buried itself in his neck ;
but he pulled it out, and was able to con-
tinue the fight. He directed the savages to
approach the barricade under cover of the
harquebuses and tie ropes to its supports,
and wrench them out and so make a breach
in the wall. While the Indians were en-
gaged in this operation, a fresh band of
Frenchmen came up and began firing on the
fort from the side opposite to Champlain.
They had come from a trading pinnace which
had followed Champlain's shallop, and hear-

CANADIAN AFFAIRS, 1610-1613 81

ing the musket fire had hurried to take part
in the fight. Encouraged by this aid the
allied Indians carried out Champlain's ma-
noeuvre with success ; the breach was made,
Frenchmen and Indians rushed in together,
brandishing swords and tomahawks. The
Iroquois, cowed by the firearms, made slight
resistance. .Some were killed on the spot,
others ran and were at once shot down,
others escaped as far as the river and were
drowned, and fifteen were taken prisoners;
not one succeeded in getting away.

The allies danced and sang, and tortured
their prisoners, with no thought of following
up their victory. Champlain had his wound
dressed by a physician from Rouen who had
come with him, and all stayed three days at
the island of Saint-Ignace, near the mouth
of the Richelieu. The Hurons came up,
much disgusted to find they had missed their
share of combat and victory . French traders
also came, eager to avoid battle and danger,
yet prompt to buy furs, and finally Font-
grave appeared with a shallop full of mer-
chandise. After a short delay all separated

82 SAMUEL DE CHAMPLAIN

and went their several ways. One young
Frenchman, eager to learn the Intlian tongue,
went with the Algonquins, and a young In-
dian in exchange stayed with Champlain.
Lescarbot says that he often saw this young
Indian in Paris, and that he used to mock
and jeer when he saw two Frenchmen quar-
rel without fighting, and call them women
and cowards.

Champlain went back to Quebec, and there
had consultations with Pontgrave as to plans
for the next winter. Nothing had been defi-
nitely decided, when vessels arrived from
Brouage bringing vague and terrible rumors.
M. de St. Luc, reviving civil war, had gone
with soldiers from Paris and driven the
Huguenots out of Brouage; the king had
been murdered, and also Sully and two other
noblemen, whose names were not known.
Champlain was greatly troubled, and, though
he did not believe that the news could be
true, was eager to go home. Pontgrave
decided to go with him. They left at Que-
bec seventeen men, whom they enjoined to
live soberly in the fear of God, and repaired

CANADIAN AFFAIRS, 1610-1613 83

to Tadousac. They sailed on August 13,
and at Honfleur learned that the king had
indeed been murdered, but that the other
rumors were false.

The death of Henry IV. was a great blow
to Champlain, for the king not only had been
his friend, but had taken large views of policy,
and had worked for the prosperity of France
with a love even greater than Champlain's*

With regard to the schemes of de Monts
and Champlain on colonization, the king had
been placed in an embarrassing position. The
country, exhausted by nearly forty years of
war, was very poor, and though the king ex-
ercised economy, he had not been able to pay
for a colonial settlement out of his revenues.
The only means to raise funds was to grant
a monopoly of trade to a company for a pe-
riod of years, in hope that the colony would
thereafter be self-supporting. Such a mono-
poly in Canada certainly did great injustice
to merchants and traders who had been wont
to send out vessels to Tadousac ever since
Roberval's time, and in spite of Champlain's
courage and enthusiasm the first attempts at

84 SAMUEL DE CHAMPLAIN

planting a colony had not given cautious men
at home much reason to expect success. Nev-
ertheless the king was romantic and adven-
turous, and had he lived, the prospect of the
colonists might have been bright ; but on his
death his incompetent young son, Louis XIII.,
succeeded to the crown, with Marie de Medici,
his mother, as regent, and the colonists were
left for the time to their own devices.

In this cheerless condition of affairs de
Monts, Champlain, and the leading mer-
chants put their heads together. De Monts
was governor of the little town of Pont in
Saintonge, not far from La Rochelle, and was
obliged to stay in France ; and he had no bet-
ter plan to offer than that Champlain should
return to Canada in the spring and strengthen
friendly relations with the Indian tribes in
the interior, for the purpose of retaining
the company's old trade with them, in spite
of the broken monopoly. Champlain agreed
and made ready for the expedition.

Business often took him to Rouen, where
both friendly and unfriendly merchants con-
gregated. Rouen, at the time when Cham-

CANADIAN AFFAIRS, 1610-1613 85

plain was there, cheering stockholders, and
buying supplies for the colony at Quebec,
was more like what it is to-day than any of
the other French cities. There stood the
Cathedral with its towers, and its beautiful
north door, outside of which the booksellers
ranged their booths, and displayed for sale
" The Voyage of Sieur de Champlain in
the year 1603," as well as Ronsard, Mon-
taigne, and Rabelais. There stood the glori-
ous church of St. Ouen, where Champlain
knelt, and felt his heart uplifted by its
winged vault ; and perhaps like other visit-
ors he went to the donjon keep where Joan
of Arc had been tortured, and said his
prayers again. Many a time he must have
listened to the biggest bell in France ring
out from the north tower of the Cathedral,
and have heard her sister peal back her an-
swer from the belfry by the Great Clock, as
he rode through the narrow streets on his way
to the sign of " The Little Shoes," wonder-
ing if in years to come the city of Quebec
might not look as fair. Many times must
he have had serious talk with long-pursed

86 SAMUEL DE CHAMPLAIN

merchants in their shops on the Rue aux
Anglais and Eue aux Espagnols, urging
them to share in the great ventures which
were to bring so much profit to them and so
much honor to France, and begging for let-
ters to their correspondents in Dieppe, St.
Malo, and La Rochelle.

In the midst of his absorbing labors there
were brighter spots in their season. He fell
in love. On December 27 he signed a con-
tract of marriage with Mademoiselle Helene
Boulle, daughter of Nicolas Boulle, secretary
of the king's chamber. The betrothal took
place in Paris at the church of Saint-Ger-
main 1' Auxerrois, from whose bell tower had
rung the signal for St. Bartholomew's mas-
sacre, and the marriage was celebrated the
next day. The young lady brought him a
dowry of forty-five hundred francs. Gossip
says that this was the motive of his mar-
riage, but a hard-working seafaring soldier,
upright, honest, chaste, might well captivate
the imagination of a child, and in return lose
his heart to a sweet maid who might have
been his daughter.

CANADIAN AFFAIRS, 1610-1613 87

** She loved him for the dangers he had passed,
And he loved her that she did pity them."

Her father was a Huguenot, and she had
been brought up in that faith, but Cham-
plain would have no such barrier between
them. So teaching her himself, he persuaded
her to take his creed, and before he left he
confided her to the care of some Ursuline
nuns to watch over her in his absence.

His ship sailed from Honfleur on March 1,
1611, but after eighteen days of good
weather met contrary winds and was driven
out of her course. With great difficulty,
for she was obliged to make frequent tacks,
she came within eighty leagues of the Banks,
where she encountered series of icebergs
rising a hundred feet and more out of the
water. The ship was delayed so long that
she did not cast anchor at Tadousac till
May 13, after a voyage of two months and
two weeks. Pontgrave stopped there, but
Champlain kept on to Quebec, where his
shallop, which had been injured, was repaired,
and then up the river to Mont Royal (Mont-
real) where he selected a place for a trading

88 SAMUEL DE CHAMPLAIN

post, and named an island near by Ste. He-
lene in honor of his wife. Pontgrave fol-
lowed, having found the fur trade at Tadou-
sac bad ; and many traders, in the hope of
taking advantage of his friendly relations
with the Indians, came trooping after him.

On June 13 the Indians came, but they
were suspicious at sight of the fleet of trad-
ing pinnaces and withdrew; then followed
confabulations, feasts, ceremonies, inter-
change of presents, and many talks on geog-
raphy between Champlain and any Indians
who had either information or guesses to im-
part. Finally it was agreed that on their
part the Indians should take Champlain on
a journey of exploration through their coun-
try, and that on his part Champlain should
ask the king for forty or fifty soldiers to
help them in their wars, that he should fetch
gifts for the chiefs through whose territories
they might go ; and it was further agreed
that if the land explored seemed good and
fertile the French should plant colonies and
all live there together happily and in fear of
God.

CANADIAN AFFAIRS, 1610-1613 89

More ceremonies followed, and the French-
man who had passed a winter with the Hurons
and the Indian who had gone to France with
Champlain rejoined their respective compa-
triots, and another young Frenchman, named
Vignau, who afterwards achieved notoriety,
remained with the Algonquins.

Between the importunity of the traders
and the procrastination of the Indians there
was neither profit nor exploration to be made
that year. Champlain returned to France,
convinced that to attain success new methods
must be tried and new help obtained.

He at once conferred with de Monts, who
put the whole matter hi his hands ; next he
consulted members of the company, and
finding them unwilling to persevere without
the grant of a monopoly, went busily to work
with new schemes, in spite of injuries received
from a fall from his horse. His project was
to secure the help of some powerful noble-
man, who should become the protector of
the company, and watch over its interests
at court. The plan was approved by his
associates, and he persuaded the Count of

90 SAMUEL DE CHAMPLAIN

Soissons, " a pious prince, well disposed to
all holy enterprises," to accept an appoint-
ment as governor of New France, which was
granted by the king, who also bestowed on
the company exclusive privileges of trade
in the regions beyond Quebec. The count
named Champlain his lieutenant, and then
unfortunately for the enterprise died. Conde,
first prince of the blood, took his place.

This business took a year's time, and vexa-
tions lay in wait for Champlain both abroad
and at home. In the summer ships arrived
from Canada, and reported that the Indian
braves had come in, expecting to have him
join them on the warpath, and had been
greatly disappointed not to find him. His
friends had tried to pacify the Indians, and
had promised them that he would come next
year ; but rival traders from St. Malo had
asserted that he was dead. " See," writes
Champlain, " how envy of virtuous actions
glides into evil natures; these traders wish
others to run a thousand risks in the dis-
covery of strange lands and peoples, in order
that they may have the spoil and others the

CANADIAN AFFAIRS, 1610-1613 91

pains. It is not reasonable when one has
caught the sheep that others should shear
it."

In France many intriguers, angered by
the new monopoly, strove to obtain the re-
vocation of Champlain's commission, and
succeeded in giving Champlain so much to
do that he was unable to prepare for winter-
ing in Quebec, and was obliged to content
himself with the plan of a journey of ex-
ploration instead. In the mean time he
prepared the narrative of his last voyages,
which he closed with the words : "I trust
that God will one day give our king the
grace (for his own greatness and for the
good of his subjects) to bring many poor
Indians to the knowledge of our faith, so
that they may one day enjoy the Kingdom
of Heaven." The book contained two large
maps of New France made by Champlain,
and was dedicated both to the king and to
the queen regent. It was published in Jan-
uary, 1613. Champlain was at last able to
leave, and reached Quebec early in May.

VII

THE OTTAWA RIVER. THE RECOLLETS..

THE HURONS

THE chief purpose of this voyage of Cham-
plain was to make further search for a north-
west passage. Exciting indications had been
furnished by the report made to him by
Nicolas Vignau, the young man who, after
passing a winter with Tessouat, a chief of
the Algonquins, had returned to France in
1612. He told how he had journeyed up the
river of the Algonquin s (the Ottawa) to the
lake from which it flowed, and on to the north,
a journey of seventeen days from the rapids
near Montreal, till he had come to the North
Sea, where he had seen the wreck of an
English ship lost on the coast ; that, as he
heard, the English sailors had attempted to
rob the Indians there, and all had been
killed. Vignau swore to the truth of his
story by everything that he held sacred, and

THE OTTAWA RIVER 93

showed Champlain his written narrative,
which received confirmation from the recent
accounts of Henry Hudson's voyage to the
North Sea in 1610-1611. Champlain sub-
mitted this report to President Jeannin, Mar-
shal de Brissac, M. Nicolas Brulart de Sil-
lary, the chancellor, and other noblemen of
the court, and they bade Champlain go him-
self and make the same journey.

Full of expectation, a day or two after
arrival, Champlain left the island of Ste.
Helene in canoes, with Vignau, three other
Frenchmen, and an Indian. At the Lachine
Rapids they shouldered their canoes and
packs, which the Frenchmen found uncom-
fortably heavy, and walked through the
woods ; they paddled up the lake of St. Louis,
the lake of the Two Mountains, and up the
Ottawa, where they passed the rapids of
Carillon with much labor, walking along the
bank, and towing their canoes with ropes.
Champlain met some Indians on their way to
the St. Lawrence, who had heard that he was
coming ; and after a friendly confabulation,
they gave him an Indian guide, and he sent

94 SAMUEL DE CHAMPLAIN

back with them to Montreal the least valu-
able of his Frenchmen.

Champlaiii made slow progress up the
river; the current was strong, and there were
many carries. At one place the Indians un-
did their packs, and left everything but bare
necessaries hidden in the woods, for they
said there was a very long and difficult carry
ahead, past certain rapids. Vignau, however,
asserted that there would be no danger in
passing the rapids, and that they should stay
in the canoes. The Indians replied that
Vignau must be tired of life, and bade
Champlain not to believe him, as he spoke
falsely. As Champlain had already noticed
that Vignau showed no knowledge of their
route, he took the Indians' advice in spite of
Vignau 's protestations.

Weary with their packs, stung to des-
peration by mosquitoes, hungry and sore,
they arrived at last at Muskrat Lake, where
there was an Indian settlement. These In-
dians received them very hospitably, and said
the Frenchmen must have fallen from the
clouds, so difficult was the journey up the

THE OTTAWA RIVER 95

Ottawa. They gave them food, showed them
their gardens planted with Indian corn, and
sent them on with an escort to another In-
dian village, near the Lac des Allumettes.

There Tessouat, the chief, entertained
them most hospitably, and made a feast in
their honor, inviting all the countryside.
Champlain • expressed his astonishment that
they should live so far north, in a bleak
climate with poor soil, while fertile land and
sunny weather made the region about Mont
Royal so pleasant. They explained that they
lived where they did to avoid danger from
the Iroquois, but that if the French would
make a settlement near Mont Royal they
would gladly migrate thither. Champlain
replied he had already chopped down trees
and hauled stones to lay the foundations of
a trading post at Mont Royal, and they all
shouted their satisfaction. At the feast
each man brought his wooden trencher, and
Tessouat helped them from a dish of boiled
maize, enriched with fish and meat, and
cooked without salt. There were also roasted
meats and boiled fish, but as the cooking

96 SAMUEL DE CHAMPLAIN

was very dirty, Champlain asked for meat
and fish, which he cooked to his own taste.
Eating over, the young braves withdrew, and
the elders smoked in silence for an hour and
a half.

Champlain then explained through his
interpreter the purposes of his visit, which
were to assure them of his good-will, to assist
them in their wars, to ascertain the fertility
of the country, to explore the forests, riv-
ers, and lakes ; but that his immediate wish
was to go to the country of the Nipissings
on his way to the North Sea, and that he
hoped they would furnish him with guides
and four canoes. The chiefs smoked and
whispered to one another, then Tessouat gave
their answer : they had always found Cham-
plain more kindly disposed toward them than
any other Frenchman they had ever seen ; the
proofs he had given in the past gave them
confidence of his kindness for the future ;
his coming to see them, and his readiness
to join them in their wars, compelled them
to love him as dearly as their own children ;
therefore, they would give the four canoes,

THE OTTAWA RIVER 97

but much against their will, on account of
the perils which would beset him on the jour-
ney, for the Nipissings were sorcerers, and
had killed many of their people by witchcraft
and poison ; and that was the reason that they
were not friends with them.

Champlain answered that he was not afraid,
and that God would protect him. They re-
peated their promise to give him four canoes,
and, well content, he had gone off to inspect
the vegetables in their gardens, when the in-
terpreter hurriedly came to tell him that the
Indians had concluded not to give him either
canoes or escort. Greatly vexed, for his only
route to the North Sea was through the coun-
try of the Nipissings, he rushed back, up-
braided them, and bade them at least give
him two canoes and four men for escort.
Tessouat enumerated again the dangers of
the way, the number of cataracts, the wick-
edness of the Nipissings, and added that the
real cause of their refusal was their fear lest
he be killed.

To this Champlain replied that he was
disappointed to find that they were not his

98 SAMUEL DE CHAMPLAIN

friends, and that there, pointing to Vignau,
sat a young man who had been to the coun-
try of the Nipissings, and had not found the
way difficult, nor the people as bad as they
said. At that all the Indians, and especially
Tessouat, stared at Vignau, and Tessouat
spoke out in his language : "Nicolas, is it
true that you said that you have been to the
Nipissings?" Vignau remained silent a
long time, and then answered in their lan-
guage: "Yes, I have been there." All the
savages started to their feet with yells as
if they would tear him to pieces, and Tes-
souat burst forth: "You are a shameless
liar ; you know very well that you went to
bed every night by my side with my chil-
dren, and that every morning you got up by
my side ; if you have been to those people
it was when you were asleep ; how could you
be so impudent as to tell your chief lies,
and so wicked as to wish him to hazard his
life among such dangers ? You are damned,
and he ought to put you to death, with
greater cruelty than we show to our enemies.
I no longer wonder at his importunity to go
among these people."

THE OTTAWA RIVER 99

Champlain immediately took Vignau aside,
and conjured him to speak the truth, and say
whether he had been to the great sea. Vig-
nau, on his oath, protested that he had told
the truth, and that if the Indians would lend
the canoes he would guide Champlain to the
sea. Then Champlain went back, and the In-
dians crowded about him, saying they were
indignant that he should trust a liar rather
than their chiefs. He repeated that Vignau
had been to the North Sea with a cousin of
Tessouat, and had seen the wreck of an Eng-
lish ship. The Indians shouted " Liar, liar,"
and bade Vignau describe the road. Cham-
plain produced Vignau's map, and the sav-
ages, examining it, questioned Vignau closely.
The latter made no reply, but sat gloomily
silent. Champlain called him out before the
other Frenchmen, and said that he must
know the truth, that he was ready to forgive
the past, but that if he misled him further
he would hang him without mercy. Vig-
nau fell on his knees, and confessed that
he had invented the whole story. Hot with
anger, Champlain bade the others take the

100 SAMUEL DE CHAMPLAIN

impostor away, as he could not bear to see
him; and though misled into hardship and
danger, tricked in his hopes, made a fool of
before the king and council, a year of his
life wasted, his reputation hurt, his friends
weakened, his enemies encouraged, he let
the cheat go unpunished.

All hope of passage to the North Sea gone,
there was nothing to do but turn back. Cham-
plain promised Tessouat to come again next
year, and took the chief's son with him. Be-
fore leaving he erected a great cross, deco-
rated with the king's arms, on the border of
the lake, and asked the savages to preserve it.
He began his hard journey back in the be-
gipnihg of June. Going down stream was
quicker than going up, and he arrived at
Moikt Royal in the middle of June. After
buying from the Indians all their furs and
leaving two young Frenchmen with them, he
bade them good-by, promising to return the
following spring, and took passage in a trad-
ing vessel for St. Malo.

There was plenty of work for Champlain
to do in France. Conde, the governor-gen-

THE OTTAWA RIVER 101

eral, had been busy in raising rebellions and
selling his submission, and had done nothing
for Canada or the company, and de Monts
had been so much occupied with various mat-
ters that he had been unable to perfect the
new company, and do the things necessary
to secure the exclusive privileges granted by
the charter. In consequence of this neglect,
in the summer (1613), during Champlain's
absence, special license had been granted to
five vessels, three from Normandy, one from
La Rochelle, and one from St. Malo, to trade
in furs west of Quebec, on condition that
they should contribute towards the expense
of Champlain's expedition.

This division of interests foreboded con-
tention and failure for all. On his return,
therefore, Champlain stopped at St. Malo,
and explained to the merchants there how
advantageous it would be for those con-
cerned to have one well-ordered company in
which all interests should be combined under
the authority of a great prince, for they
could see how trade had suffered in the last
few years by disorderly competition. Per-

102 SAMUEL DE CHAMPLAIN

suaded by his arguments, they promised to
come to court to help form a united com-
pany, provided certain conditions were
agreed to. Champlain then hurried to Fon-
tainebleau, and submitted the report of his
adventures and ill success to the king and
to Conde.

In a few days the merchants from St.
Malo and from Eouen arrived, and a kind of
stock company was formed for the period of
eleven years. Champlain, eager that a united
France, Huguenot as well as Catholic, should
support the colony, insisted that a one-third
interest should be reserved for the merchants
of La Eochelle ; but the latter, busy with
reorganizing the Reformed Church, with a
veiw to becoming a republic, dawdled and hesi-
tated till their opportunity was forfeit, and
the Bretons and Normans divided between
them the one-third interest set apart for La
Rochelle. Normandy took the lead in the
enterprise, vessels for Canada were fitted
out in her ports, and the colonists came
chiefly from Rouen, Honfleur, Cherbourg,
le Havre, Dieppe, and Caen.

THE RECOLLETS 103

The failure of La Kochelle to join de-
prived the company of the wealth, intelli-
gence, and ability of the rich Huguenot mer-
chants, and Champlain felt the need of filling
their place and strengthening the company
by wider public sympathy and support. This
could be effected, he believed, by promoting
a purpose, which he had near at heart, the
conversion of the Indians to Christianity.
There was nothing of the bigot in Cham-
plain ; he was a loyal son of the church, and
he had no special dislike to Huguenots, — his
old chief de Monts was of them, so was his
wife's father, so were the merchants whom
he tried to bring into the new company ; and
in his desire to convert the heathen, there
was far less of the zealous churchman than
of the large-hearted man, who grieves to see
his fellow-men so like brutes in many re-
spects. He had attempted in vain to make
the colonies non-sectarian in religious mat-
ters ; the Huguenots had held off, so he was
driven to the Catholics.

He took advice of a distinguished citizen,
one of the king's secretaries, and comp-

104 SAMUEL DE CHAMPLAIN

troller-general of the salt works of Brouage,
a pious and good man, greatly interested
in the matter, who bade him go to the
Recollets, a branch of the Franciscan order.
Among the Recollets he found a spirit of
devotion and self-sacrifice worthy of St.
Francis. They were ready to brave all dan-
gers in the path of duty, but there was
much to be obtained in the way of permis-
sion ; father superior, provincial, general,
governor, king, and Pope must sign warrants
giving four poor brethren leave to carry the
gospel to New France, and near a year was
spent in obtaining sufficient authority to
allow them to embark.

There was need of money, but Champlain
laid his plans before a noble company of
cardinals and bishops, assembled as the
spiritual power of the realm to take their
place in the States-General then convening,
and begged so well that he was given fifteen
hundred livres. The merchants of Rouen
and St. Malo promised to contribute, but
failed to do so ; nevertheless, Champlain at
length prepared everything, and the four

THE RECOLLETS 105

brethren repaired to Honfleur, where the
Saint-Etienne, under command of Pontgrave,
was ready to sail. Champlain says, " Each
of us examined his own conscience, and con-
fessed and repented of his sins, in order to
put ourselves in a state of grace, so that
we should be more prepared to submit our-
selves, under the protection of God, to the
mercy of the waves and of the great, perilous
ocean."

In the beginning of June they reached
Quebec ; and at once a simple convent was
built beside the little fort, a chapel was
begun, an altar raised and mass said for the
first time in New France. Missions were
divided among the four brethren, and the
most zealous, Father Joseph Carillon, started
at once for Mont Royal, and picking up such
smattering of the Indian tongue as he could,
resolved to go to the Hurons and pass the
winter with them.

Champlain wished to explore, but the In-
dians reminded him of his promise to take
part in their campaign against the Iroquois ;
so he acquiesced, and returned from a pow-

106 SAMUEL DE CHAMPLAIN

wow at Mont Royal to Quebec to make
preparation, for he was fully convinced that
the Iroquois must be driven back from the
shores of the St. Lawrence, otherwise all
trade with the Hurons and other Indians
west of the River Richelieu, which served
the Iroquois for a warpath, would have to
be abandoned. Before he went he endeav-
ored to persuade Father Joseph to forego his
plan of passing the winter with the Hurons ;
but Father Joseph replied that he must go,
both to learn their language and to compre-
hend their nature ; and as to dangers and
difficulties, by God's grace he would be able
to withstand and endure them; that he
should adapt himself to their manner of liv-
ing and to other discomforts well and cheer-
fully, and in temporal matters there was
need of but little to content a man who had
taken the vow of poverty, and who sought
only the kingdom of God for his fellows and
himself. Champlain had no further wish to
dissuade him, seeing this great content at an
opportunity to suffer for the name and the
glory of our Saviour Jesus Christ.

THE HURONS 107

Champlain delayed a few days at Quebec,
and when he returned found that the impa-
tient savages, thinking him killed or captured
by the Iroquois, had broken their camp and
returned home. With them had gone Father
Joseph and twelve Frenchmen. Champlain,
with a couple of white men and some In-
dians, immediately set out after them, taking
the same route which he had followed in
1613 with the impostor Vignau. After hard
paddling and marching he reached the Lac
des Allumettes, thence he continued up the
Ottawa River, now enjoying a dear stretch
of river, now making carries past rapids, till
he turned to the left and ascended the river
Mattawan, then quitting that, after a portage
past some little lakes, he reached the lake of
the Nipissings, and paddled along its shore
till he reached their village. After two days'
rest, he went westward down French River,
where he saw a tribe of Indians with wonder-
ful headdress, and on till he reached the
great fresh-water sea, Lake Huron, of which
he had heard such vague reports. There he
came upon the villages of the Hurons, well

108 SAMUEL DE CHAMPLAIN

peopled, in which he was received with great
cordiality, especially by those warriors who
had not waited for him, as they had prom-
ised, at the rendezvous near Mont Royal.
In one of the villages was Father Joseph,
ministering and teaching; he had already
set up a great wooden cross, and the In-
dians were building him a chapel, in which,
soon after Champlain' s arrival, he celebrated
mass.

After a week or two spent in feasts and
dances the Huron braves set forth on the
warpath. They crossed Lake Simcoe, pad-
dled down the river Trent, crossed the east
end of Lake Ontario, and marched past the
west shore of Lake Oneida. In a day or
two they came upon an Iroquois fort, which
they attacked with great fury and the utmost
imprudence. They were easily repulsed.
Champlain endeavored to direct their move-
ments, but in vain. A second attack, fool-
ishly attempted, was repulsed with great loss.
The Hurons lost heart, and retreated, carry-
ing Champlain, who was wounded in two
places. He hoped to be able to leave them

THE HURONS 109

on the march home, and go by water from
Lake Ontario to Quebec ; but no Indian
would lend a canoe or act as his guide ; so
he was obliged to go back, and spend an
idle winter with them, to his great chagrin.
All chance of making explorations to the
north was lost for this year.

In September Champlain went back to
France, accompanied by Father Joseph and
Father Denis. He says : " On landing we
gave praise and benediction to God, for His
great care in preserving our lives, and for
plucking and snatching us, as it were, from
all the dangers to which we had been ex-
posed, and for bringing us back in health to
our native land ; and we prayed Him to
move the hearts of the king and his council
to render what help might be needful to up-
lift these poor Indians to a knowledge of
God, from which act honor would accrue to
his majesty, greatness and increase to his
kingdom, prosperity to his subjects, and the
glory of all the labor and enterprise would
be to God, author of all things perfect, to
whom be honor and glory, Amen."

VIII

QUEBEC, 1616-1635

FROM 1616 to 1628 Champlain's life was
one long struggle against danger, difficulty,
and vexation, both in France and in Canada.
There were always foes and rivals, and the
frail little colony lay helpless among them.
The traders of La Eochelle refused to re-
spect the grants made to the company formed
by Rouen and St. Malo ; Huguenot irritated
Catholic, and Catholic badgered Huguenot ;
the reformed worship was prohibited, and
the prohibition was ostentatiously violated ;
viceroys succeeded one another with shifting
policy, only consistent in lining their own
purses. pThe merchants neither wished to
establish TFrench colonies nor to civilize the
Indians, for they feared lest agricultural oc-
cupations would hurt the fur trade, and all
plotted to harm one another.

QUEBEC, 1616-1635 111

Sailors from La liochelle furnished fire-
arms to the savages, and rendered them
dangerous ; and all the traders treated the
Indians harshly, and made them unfriendly.
At one time the Montagnais threatened hos-
tility from the north, at another the Iroquois
besieged Quebec, and once a Spanish ship
sailed up -the St. Lawrence to Tadousac,
causing great alarm. In the midst of con-
fusion Champlain kept making trips up and
down the river, superintending the little
settlements with watchful eye, and fulfilling
the duties of commander as best he could.
Every year he sailed back to France, where
he hurried from St. Malo to Rouen, from
Eouen to Paris, encouraging, entreating,
warning, and threatening, in the interests of
New France.

Quebec was a wretched little settlement
of fifty or sixty traders, its buildings were
tumbling down, its gardens few, its farms
consisting only of pigs and poultry, and its
inhabitants rude and quarrelsome. In 1620,
on the verge of the cliff, not far from where
his great statue steps lightly on its pedestal,

112 SAMUEL DE CHAMPLAIN

in garb very unlike the rough clothes he
wore as commander of the colony, Cham-
plain built a new fort ; and down below,
near the river, he repaired the habitation
to receive his wife, still a young woman of
only twenty-two. She was well received by
the settlement, and having no children, and
being very devout, devoted herself, during the
four years that she stayed, to assisting the
Eecollet fathers in their missionary labors
among the Indian women and children.
She and her husband were always good
friends, but she had not the character and
force necessary to make her a real helpmeet.
The most important event in these trou-
bled years was the advent of the Jesuits.
In spite of the Edict of Nantes, relations
between Catholic and Huguenot were greatly
strained, both in the New World and in the
Old. In Canada the Protestants set at
naught decrees of the, king's council, they
committed all sorts of illegal acts, and when
the injured traders went to La Rochelle for
justice the mayor said : " I think I am doing
you no little favor and courtesy in advising

QUEBEC, 1616-1635 113

you to keep quiet and go away as quickly
as possible ; for if the people know that you
have come here to execute the commands of
milords of the council, you will stand a good
chance of being drowned in the harbor, and
I should be unable to help you."

In France the Huguenots desired to set
up a republic, called on England and Hol-
land to help them, and civil war was renewed.
Peace was patched up, but to the patriotic
citizen, who hoped to see the fair domains
of France triple their size by colonies over
the sea, it looked more clear than ever that
some means must be devised to give com-
plete preponderance to the Catholics in those
colonies.

The Recollet fathers in New France ap-
pealed for help to the rich and powerful
Order of Jesus ; and the viceroy of Can-
ada, the duke de Ventadour, a friend and
protector of that order, sent, at his own
expense, five fathers, Lallemant, Brebeuf,
Masse, Fran£ois, and Gilbert, in order that
he might see "the glory of God flourish
in those barbarous lands." These fathers

114 SAMUEL DE CHAMPLAIN

arrived in Quebec in July, 1625, and the
order began its great career of heroism,
self-abnegation, and domineering tyranny in
North America. Even to-day, in the prov-
ince of Quebec, the great wooden churches,
with schools and convents attendant, lift
their crosses high above the little villages,
seeming to gather the straggling cottages
and huts as a hen gathers her chickens under
her wings, and show in their physical domi-
nation the spiritual control which the Roman
Church acquired over the simple French
settlers by the unflagging energy and persist-
ence of the Jesuit order. Report says that
Champlain dreaded their coming, but he was
too prudent or £00 good a Catholic to say so
in his narrative.

By the year 1627 Richelieu, become the
all-powerful minister, had made himself
Grand Master and Superintendent of Navi-
gation and Commerce, and though busy with
a hundred cares at home, laid his vigorous
hand on Canadian affairs ; he suppressed all
existing charters and privileges, and formed
a new company of one hundred associates,

QUEBEC, 1616-1635 115

of which he was to be the head. This new
company was granted a perpetual monopoly
of the fur trade, and a monopoly of other
commerce, excepting whale and cod fishery,
for fifteen years, and on its part undertook
to plant and maintain a colony of several
hundred persons, until it should become self-
supporting. • The company '-was forbidden to
transport to Canada any persons except
French Catholics. This measure was polit-
ical rather than religious, for the Huguenots
at La Rochelle were again in revolt, the
king's army was besieging the city, and the
English had sent Buckingham with a hun-
dred ships to its relief.

The foreign allies were driven back and
the city captured, but Richelieu did not
propose that a colony, founded or controlled
by rebels, should be able to start a fresh
revolt against the crown of France, and offer
alliance to England and to Holland ; and
perhaps he realized that, with the Order of
Jesus once established in Canada, there
could be no hope of toleration and peace
unless that order was supreme and unvexed
by heretics.

116 SAMUEL DE CHAMPLAIN

The war between France and England had
a further effect on Champlain's fortunes. In
the spring of 1628 the little colony of Que-
bec, long neglected, was looking forward
eagerly to the supplies it was to receive from
the new company ; but none came, and the
settlers were put on starvation rations. By
June they had resolved to abandon Quebec,
and were building a pinnace which was nearly
ready to carry them to Gaspe, when re-
port came that English ships were seen near
Tadousac. Champlain immediately put Que-
bec in as good condition for defense as pos-
sible ; and none too soon, for in a few days
a shallop brought a demand for surrender
from one David Kirke, in the name of the
king of England, Champlain refused abso-
lutely, and his bold front deceived Kirke,
who sailed away, but as luck would have it,
met the French ships which had been fitted
out by the company with supplies of all
kinds for the colonists. He captured them
all, and went home well content.

Vague rumors of a sea-fight reached Cham-
plain, — but no certain news. Expecting

QUEBEC, 1616-1635 117

the enemy daily, the settlement passed the
autumn and winter in extreme privation.
The scanty quantity of peas and beans was
eked out with roots and berries. The winter
and spring were so many months of famine.
Champlain was turning over desperate plans,
when the English flag again appeared. A
small fleet anchored off Quebec. There was
no possibility of defense. Champlain sur-
rendered upon honorable terms, and on July
22, 1629, the English flag was hoisted on
the rampart of the fort, and the captured
cannon announced the English victory.

The prisoners were taken to Tadousac,
where Champlain met various friends who
had also been captured, and learned that a
treaty of peace had been agreed upon be-
tween England and France on April 24, two
months before the fall of Quebec. After
delaying at Tadousac for some weeks, the
English ships sailed for England, and an-
chored off Plymouth in October. Cham-
plain went direct to London, where he
conferred with the French ambassador, and
found that both nations had bound them-

118 SAMUEL DE CHAMPLAIN

selves to restore, each to the other, whatever
should have been captured after the date of
the treaty. After a short stay he returned
to France, where he made report to Eichelieu.
Many diplomatic requests were made to the
English to fulfil their share of the treaty, but
they held on to Canada till 1632, when
Charles I. gave the necessary orders, and
French ships, bearing various besealed and
beribboned documents, sailed to Quebec, and
once more, after three years, the fleur-de-lis
was hoisted on the ramparts.

If the English had retained their conquests
of 1629 in Canada and Acadia, English su-
premacy in America, north of Florida, would
have been conceded, and the long struggle
which ended at last on the Plains of Abraham
might have been avoided. English colonists
were rapidly outnumbering the French, —
from 1629 the Puritan exodus swelled the
settlements in Massachusetts, until within a
dozen years there were 26,000 colonists in
New England. During the same time the
population of Virginia was doubling. Lord
Baltimore formed a colony in Maryland, and

QUEBEC, 1616-1635 119

the conquest of New Amsterdam, shut in on
north and south by the English, was plainly
imminent.

Besides increase of population, there were
other causes of English strength in Amer-
ica. The principle of self-government had al-
ready been put into practice ; in Virginia, the
House of Burgesses had been established ;
in Massachusetts the colonists had the right
to elect governor, council, and assembly.
England allowed the Puritans to found colo-
nies at their pleasure, but France would not
allow a single Huguenot to settle in French
dominions across the ocean. The Jesuits
and theology were masters in New France,
and, although the Puritans dominated in
New England, other English colonies were
open to other sects, Maryland to Catholics,
Virginia to Episcopalians, and an emigrant
of any faith could find toleration if nothing
more. Therefore, although the perseverance
of French settlers, and the wonderful explo-
rations of La Salle and his followers, were
able to make France possessor of the St.
Lawrence and the Mississippi, fencing in the

120 SAMUEL DE CHAMPLAIN

English, the doom of French transatlantic
empire had already been decreed, and the
restoration of 1632 was a vain ceremony.

On the return of the French Quebec was
desolate : the habitation had been burnt;
the houses of the Jesuit fathers nearly de-
stroyed ; the Indians had been kicked,
cuffed, and frightened away; only a few
French colonists, who had remained there
by Champlain's advice, gave an appearance
of life. These welcomed their compatriots
with joy.

Champlain himself did not go to Canada
till the following year, when he was sent out
by Richelieu as his lieutenant, and resumed
his hard task as commander of the little
settlement. With his usual energy he be-
gan the reconstruction of the habitation,
and strengthened the fort. He reestablished
friendly relations with the Indians, forbade
the sale of spirits or wine to them, prepared
a market place, a habitation, and a fort at
Three Rivers, some twenty leagues up the
St. Lawrence, for the barter of furs, and
endeavored to arouse the authorities in

QUEBEC, 1616-1635 121

France to the need of a strong campaign
against the Iroquois. But he was now an
old man ; the trading company, eager for im-
mediate dividends, cared little for the evil
that might come after their day ; and Kiche-
lieu was busy with many cares at home.

Harassed by anxieties, Champlain became
more pious in the observance of religious
ritual. His confessor, Father Le Jeune, a
Jesuit, for none of the Kecollet brethren
had been allowed to return, wrote: "The
fort seemed like a well-managed school : in
the morning at table M. de Champlain heard
read aloud some good history, and at night
the lives of the saints ; in the evening there
was private meditation, and then prayers
were said kneeling. The Angelus was rung
at dawn, at midday, and at sunset, according
to the usage of the Church. In a word, we
had reason to be comforted, seeing a chief
so zealous for the glory of our Lord, and for
the good of the settlement."

On a column before the church were
posted prohibitions and their penalties ; men
must not swear, neither get drunk, nor

122 SAMUEL DE CHAMPLAIN

absent themselves from mass or divine ser-
vice on feast days. A pillory was set up
hard by as a warning, and once a drunken
blasphemer was put in it as an example to
evil-doers. A chapel, dedicated to Our Lady
of the Recovery, was built where now stands
the Cathedral of Notre Dame; and the
Jesuits prayed and preached to Frenchmen
and Indians, with great content and suc-
cess.

Age brought to Champlain a gloomier cast
of mind; life lost its adventurous interest,
the color faded from expected travels toward
the north, and from hoped-for voyages to the
west over the great fresh-water seas, and he
turned toward contemplation of a life to
come. ) His wife had remained in France,
eager to become a nun, and well provided
for ; so he made his will, bequeathing his
little property of 4000 livres to the Virgin
Mary. To this bequest the Jesuits laid
claim, as her representatives on earth ; but
the will was broken in the French courts for
some legal defect.

We of to-day, being children of this world,

QUEBEC, 1616-1635 123

had rather have seen this wandering Ulysses,
to the last, urging his comrades westward ;

" for my purpose holds
To sail beyond the sunset, and the baths
Of all the western stars, until I die."

But perhaps we lack sympathy, imagination,
and insight. A noble man is likely to have
a noble religion, and Champlain's piety never
interfered with his devotion to his country.
In the last letter of his which we have, he
wrote to Richelieu commending Canada to
his protection.

SIRE, — The honor of the commands which I
have received from your Eminence has uplifted
my courage to render service of all kinds with
as great fidelity and affection as one could wish
from a faithful servant. I will spare neither my
blood nor my life, if there be occasion for either.
I trust that your Eminence will stoop your
authority to a consideration of the condition of
this land, which stretches more than fifteen hun-
dred leagues from east to west. It has the same
latitudes as our France ; it is watered by one of
the world's noblest rivers. Here live innumera-
ble people, — some dwell in cities and villages,

124 SAMUEL DE CHAMPLAIN

others wander about hunting and fishing. They
only need the help of Frenchmen and of priests
to learn our faith. The beauty and richness of
this land cannot be praised or commended too
much. Everything stretches out its arms' to you,
Monseigneur, and it seems as if God had given
you to this generation for the very purpose of
enjoying greater opportunities for good than any
of your predecessors had. For thirty years I have
been familiar with this land, and I have learned
to know it well ; pardon my zeal, Monseigneur,
if I say to you, that, as your renown has spread
to the east, so let it extend to the west. Make
the English respect our rights. Danger from
them removed, within twelve months, by the help
of one hundred and twenty French soldiers, we
could subdue the Iroquois, and then worship and
trade would increase beyond belief.

The cost of one hundred and twenty men is
little to his Majesty, the enterprise is as full of
honor as could be wished, and all for the glory
of God, whom I pray with all my heart to give
to you increase of prosperity all your days, and to
grant to me to be, all the rest of my life, your
very humble, very faithful and obedient servant,

CHAMPLAIN.

QUEBEC, NEW FBANCE,

August 15, 1635.

QUEBEC, 1616-1635 125

The lord cardinal, however, was straining
every nerve to break the power of Austria
and Spain, and the petitions of New France
sounded faint in his ears.

Champlain was not destined to do more
towards incorporating within the realm of
his dear France the fair new country beyond
the sea. Sixty-eight years of hard life over-
came his constitution at last, paralysis struck
him, and on Christmas day, 1635, he died.
His confessor said, " He was born again in
Heaven ; at least we can say that his death
was filled with blessings. I believe that God
has done him this favor, in consideration of
the good that he had done for New France,
where, we hope, one day God will be loved
and served by us French, and will be known
and worshiped by the Indians. It is true
that he has lived in great justice and equity,
in perfect faithfulness toward his king, and
toward the gentlemen of the company ; but
at death he perfected his virtues, with senti-
ments of piety so great that we all mar-
velled."

Champlain was very noble in public and

126 SAMUEL DE CHAMPLAIN

in private life, simple, just, honorable, and
,kind, with a tenderness toward the weak,
and a steadfast, patient loyalty in trouble,
that with his " insuppressive mettle" make
him one of the worthiest, if not the worthiest,
man in the early history of North America.

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Ebctrotyped and printed by H. O. Houghton & Co.
Cambridge, Mass., U.S. A,

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