The popular estimate of French character dwells overmuch upon the levity or gaiety which undoubtedly marks the Gallic race. {144} France could not have accomplished her great work for the world without stability of purpose and seriousness of mood. Nowhere in French biography are these qualities more plainly illustrated than by the acts of Champlain. The doggedness with which he clung to his patriotic and unselfish task is the most conspicuous fact in his life. Coupled therewith is his fortitude, both physical and moral. In times of crisis the conscript sets his teeth and dies without a murmur. But Champlain enlisted as a volunteer for a campaign which was to go on unceasingly till his last day. How incessant were its dangers can be made out in full detail from the text of the Voyages. We may omit the perils of the North Atlantic, though what they were can be seen from Champlain's description of his outward voyage in the spring of 1611. The remaining dangers will suffice. Scurvy, which often claimed a death-roll of from forty to eighty per cent in a single winter; famine such as that which followed the failure of ships from home to arrive at the opening of navigation; the storms which drove the frail shallop on the rocks and shoals of Norumbega; the risk of mutiny; the chances of war, whether against the Indians or the English; the rapids {145} of the wilderness as they threatened the overloaded canoe on its swift descent; the possible treachery of Indian guides—such is a partial catalogue of the death-snares which surrounded the pathway of an explorer like Champlain. Every one of these dangers is brought before us by his own narrative in a manner which does credit to his modesty no less than to his fortitude. Without embellishment or self-glorification, he recites in a few lines hairbreadth escapes which a writer of less steadfast soul would have amplified into a thrilling tale of heroism. None the less, to the discriminating reader Champlain's Voyages are an Odyssey.

Bound up with habitual fortitude is the motive from which it springs. In Champlain's case patriotism and piety were the groundwork of a conspicuous and long-tested courage. The patriotism which exacted such sacrifices was not one which sought to define itself even in the form of a justifiable digression from the recital of events. But we may be sure that Champlain at the time he left Port Royal had made up his mind that the Spaniards, the English, and the Dutch were not to parcel out the seaboard of North America to the exclusion of the French. As for the religious {146} basis of his fortitude, we do not need Le Jeune's story of his death-bed or the record of his friendship with men of religion. His narrative abounds throughout with simple and natural expressions of piety, not the less impressive because they are free from trace of the theological intolerance which envenomed French life in his age. And not only did Champlain's trust in the Lord fortify his soul against fear, but religion imposed upon him a degree of self-restraint which was not common among explorers of the seventeenth century. It is far from fanciful to see in this one of the chief causes of his hold upon the Indians. To them he was more than a useful ally in war time. They respected his sense of honour, and long after his death remembered the temperance which marked his conduct when he lived in their villages.

As a writer, Champlain enjoyed the advantage of possessing a fresh, unhackneyed subject. The only exception to this statement is furnished by his early book on the West Indies and Mexico, where he was going over ground already trodden by the Spaniards. His other writings relate to a sphere of exploration and settlement which he made his own, and of which he well merited to be the chronicler.

{147}

Running through the Voyages is the double interest of discovery and colonization, constantly blending and reacting upon each other, but still remaining matters of separate concern. It is obvious that in the mind of the narrator discovery is always the more engaging theme. Champlain is indeed the historian of St Croix, Port Royal, and Quebec, but only incidentally or from chance. By temper he was the explorer, that is, the man of action, willing to record the broad results, but without the instinct which led Lescarbot to set down the minutiae of life in a small, rough settlement. There is one side of Champlain's activity as a colonizer which we must lament that he has not described—namely, his efforts to interest the nobles and prelates of the French court in the upbuilding of Canada. A diary of his life at Paris and Fontainebleau would be among the choicest documents of the early colonial era. But Champlain was too blunt and loyal to set down the story of his relations with the great, and for this portion of his life we must rely upon letters, reports, and memoranda, which are so formal as to lack the atmosphere of that painful but valiant experience.

Excluding the brief notices of life at St Croix, {148} Port Royal, and Quebec, Champlain's Voyages present a story of discovery by sea and discovery by land. In other words, the four years of Acadian adventure relate to discoveries made along the seaboard, while the remaining narratives, including the Des Sauvages of 1604, relate to the basin of the St Lawrence. Mariner though he was by early training, Champlain achieved his chief success as an explorer by land, in the region of the Great Lakes. Bad fortune prevented him from pursuing his course past Martha's Vineyard to the mouth of the Hudson and Chesapeake Bay. It was no small achievement to accomplish what he did on the coast of Norumbega, but his most distinctive discoveries were those which he made in the wilderness, leading up to his fine experience of 1615-16 among the Hurons.

To single out Champlain's chief literary triumph, it was he who introduced the Algonquin, the Huron, and the Iroquois to the delighted attention of France. Ever since the days of Cartier the French had known that savages inhabited the banks of the St Lawrence, but Champlain is the pioneer in that great body of literature on the North American Indian, which thenceforth continued without interruption in France to the Rene and Atala {149} of Chateaubriand. Above all other subjects, the Indians are Champlain's chief theme.

To some extent the account of Indian life which is given in the Voyages suffers by comparison with the Relations of the Jesuits. The Fathers, by reason of their long residence among the Indians, undoubtedly came to possess a more intimate knowledge of their character and customs than it was possible for Champlain to acquire during the time he spent among them. On the other hand, the Jesuits were so preoccupied with the progress of the mission that they tended to view the life of the savages too exclusively from one angle. Furthermore, the volume of their description is so great as to overwhelm all readers who are not specially interested in the mission or the details of Indian custom. Champlain wrote with sufficient knowledge to bring out salient traits in high relief, while his descriptive passages are sufficiently terse to come within the range of those who are not specialists. When we remember the perpetual interest which, for more than three hundred years, Europe has felt in the North American Indian, the Voyages of Champlain are seen in their true perspective. For he, with fresh eyes, saw the red man in his wigwam, at his council, and on {150} the war-path; watched his stoic courage under torture and his inhuman cruelty in the hour of vengeance. Tales of the wilderness, the canoe, the portage, and the ambush have never ceased to fascinate the imagination of Europe. Champlain's narrative may be plain and unadorned, but, with such a groundwork, the imagination of every reader could supply details at will.

In all essential respects Champlain seems to have been a good observer and an accurate chronicler. It is true that his writings are not free from error involving facts of distance, altitude, and chronology. But such slips as have crept into his text do not constitute a serious blemish or tend to impugn the good faith of his statements on matters where there is no other source of information. Everything considered, his substantial accuracy is much more striking than his partial inaccuracy. In fact, no one of his high character and disinterested zeal could write with any other purpose than to describe truly what he had seen and done. The seal of probity is set upon Champlain's writings no less than upon the record of his dealings with his employers and the king. Unselfish as to money or fame, he sought to create New France.

{151}

In national progress much depends on the auspices under which the nation was founded and the tradition which it represents. Thus England, and all the English world, has an imperishable tradition in the deeds and character of Alfred the Great; thus Canada has had from the outset of the present stage in her development a great possession in the equal self-sacrifice of Montcalm and Wolfe. On the other hand, the nation is doomed to suffer which bases its traditions of greatness upon such acts as the seizure of Silesia by Frederick or Bismarck's manipulation of the Ems telegram.

For Canada Champlain is not alone a heroic explorer of the seventeenth century, but the founder of Quebec; and it is a rich part of our heritage that he founded New France in the spirit of unselfishness, of loyalty, and of faith.



{152}

BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE

Original Text

The best edition of Champlain's own works, in the original text, is that of Laverdiere—Oeuvres de Champlain, publiees sous le Patronage de l'Universite Laval. Par l'Abbe C.-H. Laverdiere, M.A. Seconde Edition. 6 tomes, 4to. Quebec: Imprime au Seminaire par Geo. B. Desbarats, 1870.

The list of Champlain's writings includes:

1. The Bref Discours, describing his trip to the West Indies.

2. The Des Sauvages, describing his first voyage to the St Lawrence.

3. The Voyages of 1613, covering the years 1604-13 inclusive.

4. The Voyages of 1619, covering the years 1615-18 inclusive.

5. The Voyages of 1632, which represent a re-editing of the early voyages from 1603 forward, and continue the narrative from 1618 to 1629.

6. A general treatise on the duties of the mariner.

{153}

English Translations

1. The Bref Discours, in a translation by Alice Wilmere, was published by the Hakluyt Society in 1859.

2. The Des Sauvages (1604) was translated in Purchas His Pilgrimes (1625).

3. The Voyages of 1604-18 inclusive were translated by C. P. Otis for the Prince Society of Boston, in three volumes, 1878-82, with the Rev. E. F. Slafter as editor. This is a fine work, but not easily accessible in its original form. Fortunately, Professor Otis's translation has been reprinted, with an introduction and notes by Professor W. L. Grant, in the Original Narratives of Early American History (Scribners, 1907). The passages quoted in the present volume are taken from Otis's translation, with occasional changes.

4. The Voyages of 1604-16 inclusive have also been well translated by Annie Nettleton Bourne, with an introduction and notes by Professor E. G. Bourne (A. S. Barnes and Co., 1906). This translation follows the edition of 1632, and also gives the translation of Des Sauvages which appears in Purchas.

General Literature

The career of Champlain is treated in many historical works, of which the following are a {154} few: Parkman, Pioneers of France in the New World; Dionne, Samuel de Champlain (in the 'Makers of Canada' series); Biggar, Early Trading Companies of New France, Slafter, Champlain (in Winsor's Narrative and Critical History of America, vol. iv, part i, chap. iii); Salone, La Colonisation de la Nouvelle-France; Suite, Histoire des Canadiens-Francais; Ferland, Cours d'Histoire du Canada; Garneau, Histoire du Canada, fifth edition, edited by the author's grandson, Hector Garneau.

Portrait

Unfortunately, there is no authentic portrait of Champlain. That ascribed to Moncornet is undoubtedly spurious, as has been proved by V. H. Paltsits in Acadiensis, vol. iv, pp. 306-11.



{155}

INDEX

Acadia, 22-3; the first French colony in, 24, 34-7, 40-8, 52-5; abandoned, 56-8.

Alexander, Sir William, his interest in Acadia, 127 and note.

Algonquins, the, 68-9, 86-7, 101-2, 113-14; their expedition against the Iroquois, 87-96.

America, early opinions regarding, 13.

Armouchiquois, the, 38, 39-40, 49-52.

Basques, the, 56 n.; defy French trading monopoly at Tadoussac, 63, 64.

Boyer, his public apology to Champlain, 78-9.

Brule, Etienne, explorer and interpreter, 97-8.

Caen, Emery de, represents France in the restoration of Quebec, 129.

Caen, William and Emery de, granted a monopoly in New France, 79-80, 117, 119-20; deprived of their charter, 122; monopoly restored, 129-30.

Cartier, Jacques, 61.

Champdore, with Champlain at Port Royal, 46.

Champlain, Samuel de, his birth and parentage, 2-3; serves in the Wars of the League, 6-8; his voyage to the West Indies and Mexico, 8-10; his first voyage to the St Lawrence, 11-12, 16, 19-21; with De Monts' expedition to Acadia, 23, 26-43; his work at Port Royal, 43-6; with Poutrincourt's exploring expedition, 47-52; founds the Order of Good Cheer at Port Royal, 52-4; his second voyage to the St Lawrence and the founding of Quebec, 59-68, 81, 82-3, 123; a conspiracy to kill him, 64-5; his habitation, 66-7; his Indian policy, 68-70, 87, 97, 104-5; organizes a trading company in France and secures a monopoly, becoming lieutenant-general of New France, 71-5; his difficulties with his company, 77-80; his expedition with the Algonquins against the Iroquois, 87-96, 101-2; his marriage, 117-18; is grossly deceived by Nicolas Vignau, 98-104; wounded in expedition with the Hurons against the Onondagas, 104-12; winters with the Hurons, 112-15, 146, 148-50; his work as king's lieutenant in Quebec, 116-17, 119, 134; captured and taken to London, 124-6, 127; his reception on his return to Quebec, 130-1; his last years and death, 133-6; his writings and character, 84-5, 137-51, 152-3; a comparison with Lescarbot, 55-7, 140-3; his patriotism, 12, 62, 78, 84; his strong geographical instinct, 9-10, 20, 26-7, 29, 55, 139-40, 148; his ambition to discover a westerly route to the East, 26, 62, 69, 84, 97, 103; his explorations, 21, 30, 35-6, 38-40, 41, 44, 47-9, 84-6, 96, 99-101, 105-8.

Champlain, Madame, 117-18.

Champlain's Company, its charter, 74-5; its treatment of Louis Hebert and failure to encourage colonization, 76-8; deprived of its monopoly, 79.

Chastes, Aymar de, 24; sends Champlain on his first voyage to the St Lawrence, 11-12, 16, 19, 20-1.

Chauvin, Pierre, secures monopoly of the fur trade in the St Lawrence, 16, 18-19, 62.

Coligny, Admiral de, his interest in New France, 14.

Colombo, Don Francisco, and Champlain, 8.

Company of One Hundred Associates, founding of the, 122-3, 129; disaster befalls it, 124, 125.

Conde, Prince de, viceroy of Canada, 73-4, 75, 78.

Duval, Jean, his plot to kill Champlain, 64; suffers death, 65.

France, and the Wars of the League, 6-8; her colonization policy, 10-11, 15, 17, 18, 25, 28, 61-2, 117, 121, 132; and trading monopolies in New France, 19 and note, 26-7, 56-57, 79, 80; her magnificent opportunity of colonial expansion, 31-3; the Huguenot revolt at La Rochelle, 123-4; war with Britain, 124-6; her rivalry with the House of Hapsburg, 121, 128 and note; her colonial policy retarded by her ambitious foreign policy, 127-9.

Georgian Bay, Champlain at, 105-6.

Gosnold, Bartholomew, an English navigator, 13, 16.

Great Britain, her colonization policy, 14-15; founds a colony in America, 16-17, 33, 82; her capture of New France, 124-7.

Hebert, Louis, in Acadia, 28, 29; scurvily treated by Champlain's Company, 76-7; his farm in Quebec, 67, 80-1.

Henry IV, 7, 8; his interest in colonial expansion, 10-11, 17, 18, 24, 25, 60, 121; assassinated, 71.

Holland, her interest in America, 14-16, 17.

Hudson, Henry, explorer, 17, 66, 95 n.

Huguenots, the, forbidden to settle in New France, 133.

Hurons, the, 68-9, 113-14; their expedition against the Onondagas, 104-12; their welcome to Champlain on his return to Quebec, 130-1.

Indians, their tactics when on a war expedition, 89-92; when retreating, 110-11; some customs of, 95, 102; missions to, 132-3, 134.

Iroquois, and Champlain, 68-9; their battle with the Algonquins, 91-5, 97; with the Hurons, 108-10.

James I, and colonization, 16, 17.

Jeannin, President, and Champlain, 74.

Jesuits, established at Quebec, 118-19, 129, 132, 133, 149.

Kirke, Jarvis or Gervase, and his sons, their expedition against New France, 124-6, 127.

Kirke, Lewis, his capture of Quebec, 124-6; restores it to France, 129.

Kirke, Thomas, 124; with his brother represents England in the restoration of Quebec, 129.

Lake Champlain, discovery of, 86, 91, 96-7.

Lalemant, Father Charles, at Quebec, 129, 133, 136.

La Roche, his colony on Sable Island, 18.

La Rochelle, revolt of, 123-4.

Le Caron, Father Joseph, among the Hurons, 105.

Le Jeune, Father Paul, his arrival at Quebec, 129, 131, 133; his appreciation of Champlain, 135-6.

Lescarbot, Marc, 28, 29, 55-6; quoted on De Monts' colony in Acadia, 30, 47, 52, 52-4, 57-8; a comparison with Champlain, 55, 140-3.

Marais, Des, with Champlain in New France, 87, 88.

Marsolet, Nicolas, a guide and interpreter, 97-8.

Micmacs, the, 38.

Montagnais, the, 86 n., 93, 96.

Montmorency, Duke of, 26-7; viceroy of Canada, 78, 79, 80.

Monts, Sieur de, 16, 24; his trading company and monopoly, 22 n., 25-7, 28, 29, 56-7, 60-1, 68; his colonizing expedition to Acadia, 23, 28-43; equips Champlain's expedition to the St Lawrence, 60-1, 62-3, 70-2; member of Champlain's Company, 75.

New France, 23; and the trading companies, 19 and note; explorations in, 21, 23, 84; religious strife in, 117; the Huguenots forbidden to settle in, 117, 123, 133; surrendered to Britain, 126; restored to France, 127; progress in retarded by the Thirty Years' War, 128-9.

Nicolet, Jean, an explorer and interpreter, 98, 135.

Norumbega, what it comprised, 28 n., 36.

Onondagas, the, 104, 108-10.

Pontgrave, Sieur du, his voyages to New France, 20 and note; with De Monts' expedition to Acadia, 28, 31, 37, 42; left in command at Port Royal, 43-6; with Champlain in the St Lawrence, 61, 63, 65, 68, 87.

Port Mouton, De Monts' expedition at, 29-31.

Port Royal, the French colony at, 34, 40-6, 47; Order of Good Cheer founded, 52-4; colony abandoned, but re-established, 56-8; captured by the British, 76.

Poutrincourt, Seigneur de, with De Monts in Acadia, 28-9, 31, 41-2; his colonizing expedition to Port Royal, 46-56, 58.

Prevert, a mariner of St Malo, 20, 34.

Quebec, 59-60, 62, 81; Champlain reaches, 64, 66-7; hard times in, 67-8, 83, 87; two bright spots, 80-1; captured by the Kirkes, 124-6; restored to France, 127.

Raleigh, Sir Walter, his colony in America, 14, 16.

Ralleau, with Champlain in Acadia, 30, 46.

Recollets, the, in New France, 80, 119.

Richelieu, Cardinal, his energetic colonial policy, 120-3, 129, 133; succumbs to European interests, 124, 127-8 n.

Sagard, Gabriel, a Recollet missionary, 77.

St Croix, the French colony at, 34-5, 37.

St Germain-en-Laye, treaty of, 127.

St Lawrence, the, 22, 61-2; Champlain's explorations of, 21, 84.

Soissons, Comte de, and Champlain, 73.

Spain, her early conquests in America, 8, 12-13.

Sully, Duc de, opposes French colonization, 17, 25, 61, 121.

Suza, treaty of, 126.

Tessouaet, an Algonquin chief, 102.

Thirty Years' War, its effect on New France, 128 and note.

Three Rivers, erection of fort at, 134.

Ventadour, Duc de, viceroy of New France, 116, 117.

Vignau, Nicolas, 97; deceives Champlain with a story of the North Sea, 98-101; his punishment, 103-4.

Wars of the League, the, 6-8.



Printed by T. and A. Constable, Printers to His Majesty at the Edinburgh University Press



THE CHRONICLES OF CANADA

THIRTY-TWO VOLUMES ILLUSTRATED

Edited by GEORGE M. WRONG and H. H. LANGTON



THE CHRONICLES OF CANADA

PART I

THE FIRST EUROPEAN VISITORS

1. THE DAWN OF CANADIAN HISTORY By Stephen Leacock.

2. THE MARINER OF ST MALO By Stephen Leacock.

PART II

THE RISE OF NEW FRANCE

3. THE FOUNDER OF NEW FRANCE By Charles W. Colby.

4. THE JESUIT MISSIONS By Thomas Guthrie Marquis.

5. THE SEIGNEURS OF OLD CANADA By William Bennett Munro.

6. THE GREAT INTENDANT By Thomas Chapais.

7. THE FIGHTING GOVERNOR By Charles W. Colby.

PART III

THE ENGLISH INVASION

8. THE GREAT FORTRESS By William Wood.

9. THE ACADIAN EXILES By Arthur G. Doughty.

10. THE PASSING OF NEW FRANCE By William Wood.

11. THE WINNING OF CANADA By William Wood.

PART IV

THE BEGINNINGS OF BRITISH CANADA

12. THE FATHER OF BRITISH CANADA By William Wood.

13. THE UNITED EMPIRE LOYALISTS By W. Stewart Wallace.

14. THE WAR WITH THE UNITED STATES By William Wood.

PART V

THE RED MAN IN CANADA

15. THE WAR CHIEF OF THE OTTAWAS By Thomas Guthrie Marquis.

16. THE WAR CHIEF OF THE SIX NATIONS By Louis Aubrey Wood.

17. TECUMSEH: THE LAST GREAT LEADER OF HIS PEOPLE By Ethel T. Raymond.

PART VI

PIONEERS OF THE NORTH AND WEST

18. THE 'ADVENTURERS OF ENGLAND' ON HUDSON BAY By Agnes C. Laut.

19. PATHFINDERS OF THE GREAT PLAINS By Lawrence J. Burpee.

20. ADVENTURERS OF THE FAR NORTH By Stephen Leacock.

21. THE RED RIVER COLONY By Louis Aubrey Wood.

22. PIONEERS OF THE PACIFIC COAST By Agnes C. Laut.

23. THE CARIBOO TRAIL By Agnes C. Laut.

PART VII

THE STRUGGLE FOR POLITICAL FREEDOM

24. THE FAMILY COMPACT By W. Stewart Wallace.

25. THE 'PATRIOTES' OF '37 By Alfred D. DeCelles.

26. THE TRIBUNE OF NOVA SCOTIA By William Lawson Grant.

27. THE WINNING OF POPULAR GOVERNMENT By Archibald MacMechan.

PART VIII

THE GROWTH OF NATIONALITY

28. THE FATHERS OF CONFEDERATION By A. H. U. Colquhoun.

29. THE DAY OF SIR JOHN MACDONALD By Sir Joseph Pope.

30. THE DAY OF SIR WILFRID LAURIER By Oscar D. Skelton.

PART IX

NATIONAL HIGHWAYS

31. ALL AFLOAT By William Wood.

32. THE RAILWAY BUILDERS By Oscar D. Skelton.



TORONTO: GLASGOW, BROOK & COMPANY

THE END