The Founder of New France: A Chronicle of Champlain

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CHRONICLES OF CANADA
Edited by George M. Wrong and H. H. Langton
In thirty-two volumes

Volume 3

THE FOUNDER OF NEW FRANCE
A Chronicle of Champlain

By CHARLES W. COLBY
TORONTO, 1915

CHAPTER I

CHAMPLAIN'S EARLY YEARS

Were there a 'Who's Who in History' its chronicle of
Champlain's life and deeds would run as follows:

Champlain, Samuel de. Explorer, geographer, and colonizer.
Born in 1567 at Brouage, a village on the Bay of Biscay.
Belonged by parentage to the lesser gentry of Saintonge.
In boyhood became imbued with a love of the sea, but also
served as a soldier in the Wars of the League. Though an
enthusiastic Catholic, was loyal to Henry of Navarre. On
the Peace of Vervins (1598) returned to the sea, visiting
the Spanish West Indies and Mexico. Between 1601 and 1603
wrote his first book--the Bref Discours. In 1603 made
his first voyage to the St Lawrence, which he ascended
as far as the Lachine Rapids. From 1604 to 1607 was
actively engaged in the attempt of De Monts to establish
a French colony in Acadia, at the same time exploring
the seaboard from Cape Breton to Martha's Vineyard.
Returned to the St Lawrence in 1608 and founded Quebec.
In 1609 discovered Lake Champlain, and fought his first
battle with the Iroquois. In 1613 ascended the Ottawa to
a point above Lac Coulange. In 1615 reached Georgian Bay
and was induced to accompany the Hurons, with their
allies, on an unsuccessful expedition into the country
of the Iroquois. From 1617 to 1629 occupied chiefly in
efforts to strengthen the colony at Quebec and promote
trade on the lower St Lawrence. Taken a captive to London
by Kirke in 1629 upon the surrender of Quebec, but after
its recession to France returned (1633) and remained in
Canada until his death, on Christmas Day 1635. Published
several important narratives describing his explorations
and adventures. An intrepid pioneer and the revered
founder of New France.

Into some such terms as these would the writer of a
biographical dictionary crowd his notice of Champlain's
career, so replete with danger and daring, with the
excitement of sailing among the uncharted islands of
Penobscot Bay, of watching the sun descend below the
waves of Lake Huron, of attacking the Iroquois in their
palisaded stronghold, of seeing English cannon levelled
upon the houses of Quebec. It is not from a biographical
dictionary that one can gain true knowledge of Champlain,
into whose experience were crowded so many novel sights
and whose soul was tested, year after year, by the
ever-varying perils of the wilderness. No life, it is
true, can be fitly sketched in a chronological abridgment,
but history abounds with lives which, while important,
do not exact from a biographer the kind of detail that
for the actions of Champlain becomes priceless. Kant and
Hegel were both great forces in human thought, yet
throughout eighty years Kant was tethered to the little
town of Konigsberg, and Hegel did not know what the French
were doing in Jena the day after there had been fought
just outside a battle which smote Prussia to her knees.
The deeds of such men are their thoughts, their books,
and these do not make a story. The life of Champlain is
all story. The part of it which belongs to the Wars of
the League is lost to us from want of records. But
fortunately we possess in his Voyages the plain, direct
narrative of his exploits in America--a source from which
all must draw who would know him well.

The method to be pursued in this book is not that of the
critical essay. Nor will these pages give an account of
Champlain's times with reference to ordinances regulating
the fur trade, or to the policy of French kings and their
ministers towards emigration. Such subjects must be
touched on, but here it will be only incidentally. What
may be taken to concern us is the spirited action of
Champlain's middle life--the period which lies between
his first voyage to the St Lawrence and his return from
the land of the Onondagas. Not that he had ended his work
in 1616. The unflagging efforts which he continued to
put forth on behalf of the starving colony at Quebec
demand all praise. But the years during which he was
incessantly engaged in exploration show him at the height
of his powers, with health still unimpaired by exposure
and with a soul that courted the unknown. Moreover, this
is the period for which we have his own narrative in
fullest detail.

Even were we seeking to set down every known fact regarding
Champlain's early life the task would not be long. Parkman,
in referring to his origin, styles him 'a Catholic
gentleman,' with not even a footnote regarding his
parentage. [Footnote: It is hard to define Champlain's
social status in a single word. Parkman, besides styling
him 'a Catholic gentleman,' speaks of him elsewhere as
being 'within the pale of the noblesse.' On the other
hand, the Biographie Saintongeoise says that he came from
a family of fishermen. The most important facts would
seem to be these. In Champlain's own marriage contract
his father is styled 'Antoine de Champlain, Capitaine de
la Marine.' The same document styles Champlain himself
'Samuel de Champlain.' A petition in which he asks for
a continuation of his pension (circ. 1630) styles him in
its opening words 'Le Sieur de Champlain' and afterwards
'le dit sieur Champlain' in two places, while in six
places it styles him 'le dit sieur de Champlain.' Le
Jeune calls him 'Monsieur de Champlain.' It is clear that
he was not a noble. It is also clear that he possessed
sufficient social standing to warrant the use of de. On
the title-page of all his books after 1604 he is styled
the 'Sieur de Champlain.'] Dionne, in a biography of
nearly three hundred pages, does indeed mention the names
of his father and mother, but dismisses his first twenty
years in twenty lines, which say little more than that
he learned letters and religion from the parish priest
and a love of the sea from his father. Nor is it easy to
enlarge these statements unless one chooses to make
guesses as to whether or not Champlain's parents were
Huguenots because he was called Samuel, a favourite name
with French Protestants. And this question is not worth
discussion, since no one has, or can, cast a doubt upon
the sincerity of his own devotion to the Catholic faith.

In short, Champlain by birth was neither a peasant nor
a noble, but issued from a middle-class family; and his
eyes turned towards the sea because his father was a
mariner dwelling in the small seaport of Brouage.

Thus when a boy Champlain doubtless had lessons in
navigation, but he did not become a sailor in the larger
sense until he had first been a soldier. His youth fell
in the midst of the Catholic Revival, when the Church of
Rome, having for fifty years been sore beset by Lutherans
and Calvinists, began to display a reserve strength which
enabled her to reclaim from them a large part of the
ground she had lost. But this result was not gained
without the bitterest and most envenomed struggle. If
doctrinal divergence had quickened human hatreds before
the Council of Trent, it drove them to fury during the
thirty years that followed. At the time of the Massacre
of St Bartholomew Champlain was five years old. He was
seventeen when William the Silent was assassinated; twenty
when Mary Stuart was executed at Fotheringay; twenty-one
when the Spanish Armada sailed against England and when
the Guises were murdered at Blois by order of Henry III;
twenty-two when Henry III himself fell under the dagger
of Jacques Clement. The bare enumeration of these events
shows that Champlain was nurtured in an age of blood and
iron rather than amid those humanitarian sentiments which
prevail in an age of religious toleration.

Finding his country a camp, or rather two camps, he became
a soldier, and fought for ten years in the wretched strife
to which both Leaguers and Huguenots so often sacrificed
their love of country. With Henry of Valois, Henry of
Navarre, and Henry of Guise as personal foes and political
rivals, it was hard to know where the right line of faith
and loyalty lay; but Champlain was both a Catholic and
a king's man, for whom all things issued well when Henry
of Navarre ceased to be a heretic, giving France peace
and a throne. It is unfortunate that the details of these
adventurous years in Champlain's early manhood should be
lost. Unassisted by wealth or rank, he served so well as
to win recognition from the king himself, but beyond the
names of his commanders (D'Aumont, St Luc, and Brissac)
there is little to show the nature of his exploits.
[Footnote: He served chiefly in Brittany against the
Spanish allies of the League, and reached the rank of
quartermaster.] In any case, these ten years of campaigning
were a good school for one who afterwards was to look
death in the face a thousand times amidst the icebergs
of the North Atlantic, and off the rocky coast of Acadia,
and in the forests of the Iroquois.

With such parentage and early experiences as have been
indicated Champlain entered upon his career in the New
World. It is characteristic that he did not leave the
army until his services were no longer needed. At the
age of thirty-one he was fortunate enough to be freed
from fighting against his own countrymen. In 1598 was
signed the Peace of Vervins by which the enemies of Henry
IV, both Leaguers and Spaniards, acknowledged their
defeat. To France the close of fratricidal strife came
as a happy release. To Champlain it meant also the dawn
of a career. Hastening to the coast, he began the long
series of voyages which was to occupy the remainder of
his life. Indeed, the sea and what lay beyond it were
henceforth to be his life.

The sea, however, did not at once lead Champlain to New
France. Provencal, his uncle, held high employment in
the Spanish fleet, and through his assistance Champlain
embarked at Blavet in Brittany for Cadiz, convoying
Spanish soldiers who had served with the League in France.
After three months at Seville he secured a Spanish
commission as captain of a ship sailing for the West
Indies. Under this appointment it was his duty to attend
Don Francisco Colombo, who with an armada of twenty
galleons sailed in January 1599 to protect Porto Rico
from the English. In the maritime strife of Spain and
England this expedition has no part that remains memorable.
For Champlain it meant a first command at sea and a first
glimpse of America.

The record of this voyage was an incident of no less
importance in Champlain's fortunes than the voyage itself.
His cruisings in the Spanish Main gave him material for
a little book, the Bref Discours; and the Bref Discours
in turn advanced his career. Apart from any effect which
it may have had in securing for him the title of Geographer
to the King, it shows his own aspiration to be a geographer.
Navigation can be regarded either as a science or a trade.
For Champlain it was plainly a science, demanding care
in observation and faithfulness of narrative. The Bref
Discours was written immediately upon his return from
the West Indies, while the events it describes were still
fresh in mind. Appearing at a time when colonial secrets
were carefully guarded, it gave France a glimpse of
Spanish America from French eyes. For us it preserves
Champlain's impressions of Mexico, Panama, and the
Antilles. For Champlain himself it was a profession of
faith, a statement that he had entered upon the honourable
occupation of navigator; in other words, that he was to
be classed neither with ship-captains nor with traders,
but with explorers and authors.

It was in March 1601 that Champlain reached France on
his return from the West Indies. The next two years he
spent at home, occupied partly with the composition of
his Bref Discours and partly with the quest of suitable
employment. His avowed preference for the sea and the
reputation which he had already gained as a navigator
left no doubt as to the sphere of his future activities,
but though eager to explore some portion of America on
behalf of the French crown, the question of ways and
means presented many difficulties. Chief among these was
the fickleness of the king. Henry IV had great political
intelligence, and moreover desired, in general, to befriend
those who had proved loyal during his doubtful days. His
political sagacity should have led him to see the value
of colonial expansion, and his willingness to advance
faithful followers should have brought Champlain something
better than his pension and the title of Geographer. But
the problems of France were intricate, and what most
appealed to the judgment of Henry was the need of domestic
reorganization after a generation of slaughter which had
left the land desolate. Hence, despite momentary impulses
to vie with Spain and England in oversea expansion, he
kept to the path of caution, avoiding any expenditure
for colonies which could be made a drain upon the treasury,
and leaving individual pioneers to bear the cost of
planting his flag in new lands. In friendship likewise
his good impulses were subject to the vagaries of a
mercurial temperament and a marked willingness to follow
the line of least resistance. In the circumstances it is
not strange that Champlain remained two years ashore.

The man to whom he owed most at this juncture was Aymar
de Chastes. Though Champlain had served the king faithfully,
his youth and birth prevented him from doing more than
belongs to the duty of a subaltern. But De Chastes, as
governor of Dieppe, at a time when the League seemed
everywhere triumphant, gave Henry aid which proved to be
the means of raising him from the dust. It was a critical
event for Champlain that early in 1603 De Chastes had
determined to fit out an expedition to Canada. Piety and
patriotism seem to have been his dominant motives, but
an opening for profit was also offered by a monopoly of
the Laurentian fur trade. During the civil wars Champlain's
strength of character had become known at first hand to
De Chastes, who both liked and admired him. Then, just
at the right moment, he reached Fontainebleau, with his
good record as a soldier and the added prestige which
had come to him from his successful voyage to the West
Indies. He and De Chastes concluded an agreement, the
king's assent was specially given, and in the early spring
of 1603 the founder of New France began his first voyage
to the St Lawrence.

Champlain was now definitely committed to the task of
gaining for France a foothold in North America. This was
to be his steady purpose, whether fortune frowned or
smiled. At times circumstances seemed favourable; at
other times they were most disheartening. Hence, if we
are to understand his life and character, we must consider,
however briefly, the conditions under which he worked.

It cannot be said that Champlain was born out of his
right time. His active years coincide with the most
important, most exciting period in the colonial movement.
At the outset Spain had gone beyond all rivals in the
race for the spoils of America. The first stage was marked
by unexampled and spectacular profits. The bullion which
flowed from Mexico and Peru was won by brutal cruelty to
native races, but Europe accepted it as wealth poured
forth in profusion from the mines. Thus the first conception
of a colony was that of a marvellous treasure-house where
gold and silver lay piled up awaiting the arrival of a
Cortez or a Pizarro.

Unhappily disillusion followed. Within two generations
from the time of Columbus it became clear that America
did not yield bonanza to every adventurer. Yet throughout
the sixteenth century there survived the dream of riches
to be quickly gained. Wherever the European landed in
America he looked first of all for mines, as Frobisher
did on the unpromising shores of Labrador. The precious
metals proving illusive, his next recourse was to trade.
Hawkins sought his profit from slaves. The French bought
furs from the Indians at Tadoussac. Gosnold brought back
from Cape Cod a mixed cargo of sassafras and cedar.

But wealth from the mines and profits from a coasting
trade were only a lure to the cupidity of Europe. Real
colonies, containing the germ of a nation, could not be
based on such foundations. Coligny saw this, and conceived
of America as a new home for the French race. Raleigh,
the most versatile of the Elizabethans, lavished his
wealth on the patriotic endeavour to make Virginia a
strong and self-supporting community. 'I shall yet live
to see it an English nation,' he wrote--at the very moment
when Champlain was first dreaming of the St Lawrence.
Coligny and Raleigh were both constructive statesmen.
The one was murdered before he could found such a colony
as his thought presaged: the other perished on the
scaffold, though not before he had sowed the seed of an
American empire. For Raleigh was the first to teach that
agriculture, not mines, is the true basis of a colony.
In itself his colony on Roanoke Island was a failure,
but the idea of Roanoke was Raleigh's greatest legacy to
the English race.

With the dawn of the seventeenth century events came
thick and fast. It was a time when the maritime states
of Western Europe were all keenly interested in America,
without having any clear idea of the problem. Raleigh,
the one man who had a grasp of the situation, entered
upon his tragic imprisonment in the same year that
Champlain made his first voyage to the St Lawrence. But
while thought was confused and policy unsettled, action
could no longer be postponed. The one fact which England,
France, and Holland could not neglect was that to the
north of Florida no European colony existed on the American
coast. Urging each of these states to establish settlements
in a tract so vast and untenanted was the double desire
to possess and to prevent one's neighbour from possessing.
On the other hand, caution raised doubts as to the balance
of cost and gain. The governments were ready to accept
the glory and advantage, if private persons were prepared
to take the risk. Individual speculators, very conscious
of the risk, demanded a monopoly of trade before agreeing
to plant a colony. But this caused new difficulty. The
moment a monopoly was granted, unlicensed traders raised
an outcry and upbraided the government for injustice.

Such were the problems upon the successful or unsuccessful
solution of which depended enormous national interests,
and each country faced them according to its institutions,
rulers, and racial genius. It only needs a table of events
to show how fully the English, the French, and the Dutch
realized that something must be done. In 1600 Pierre
Chauvin landed sixteen French colonists at Tadoussac. On
his return in 1601 he found that they had taken refuge
with the Indians. In 1602 Gosnold, sailing from Falmouth,
skirted the coast of Norumbega from Casco Bay to Cuttyhunk.
In 1603 the ships of De Chastes, with Champlain aboard,
spent the summer in the St Lawrence; while during the
same season Martin Pring took a cargo of sassafras in
Massachusetts Bay. From 1604. to 1607 the French under
De Monts, Poutrincourt, and Champlain were actively
engaged in the attempt to colonize Acadia. But they were
not alone in setting up claims to this region. In 1605
Waymouth, sailing from Dartmouth, explored the mouth of
the Kennebec and carried away five natives. In 1606 James
I granted patents to the London Company and the Plymouth
Company which, by their terms, ran athwart the grant of
Henry IV to De Monts. In the same year Sir Ferdinando
Gorges sent Pring once more to Norumbega. In 1607 Raleigh,
Gilbert, and George Popham made a small settlement at
the mouth of the Sagadhoc, where Popham died during the
winter. As a result of his death this colony on the coast
of Maine was abandoned, but 1607 also saw the memorable
founding of Jamestown in Virginia. Equally celebrated is
Champlain's founding of Quebec in 1608. In 1609 the Dutch
under an English captain, Henry Hudson, had their first
glimpse of Manhattan.

This catalogue of voyages shows that an impulse existed
which governments could not ignore. The colonial movement
was far from being a dominant interest with Henry IV or
James I, but when their subjects saw fit to embark upon
it privately, the crown was compelled to take cognizance
of their acts and frame regulations. 'Go, and let whatever
good may, come of it!' exclaimed Robert de Baudricourt
as Joan of Arc rode forth from Vaucouleurs to liberate
France. In much the same spirit Henry IV saw De Monts
set sail for Acadia. The king would contribute nothing
from the public purse or from his own. Sully, his prime
minister, vigorously opposed colonizing because he wished
to concentrate effort upon domestic improvements. He
believed, in the second place, that there was no hope of
creating a successful colony north of the fortieth
parallel. Thirdly, he was in the pay of the Dutch.

The most that Henry IV would do for French pioneers in
America was to give them a monopoly of trade in return
for an undertaking to transport and establish colonists.
In each case where a monopoly was granted the number of
colonists was specified. As for their quality, convicts
could be taken if more eligible candidates were not
forthcoming. The sixty unfortunates landed by La Roche
on Sable Island in 1598 were all convicts or sturdy
vagrants. Five years later only eleven were left alive.

For the story of Champlain it is not necessary to touch
upon the relations of the French government with traders
at a date earlier than 1599. Immediately following the
failure of La Roche's second expedition, Pierre Chauvin
of Honfleur secured a monopoly which covered the Laurentian
fur trade for ten years. The condition was that he should
convey to Canada fifty colonists a year throughout the
full period of his grant. So far from carrying out this
agreement either in spirit or letter, he shirked it
without compunction. After three years the monopoly was
withdrawn, less on the ground that he had failed to fulfil
his contract than from an outcry on the part of merchants
who desired their share of the trade. To adjudicate
between Chauvin and his rivals in St Malo and Rouen a
commission was appointed at the close of 1602. Its members
were De Chastes, governor of Dieppe, and the Sieur de la
Cour, first president of the Parlement of Normandy. On
their recommendation the terms of the monopoly were so
modified as to admit to a share in the privilege certain
leading merchants of Rouen and St Malo, who, however,
must pay their due share in the expenses of colonizing.
Before the ships sailed in 1603 Chauvin had died, and De
Chastes at once took his place as the central figure in
the group of those to whom a new monopoly had just been
conceded.

[Footnote: The history of all the companies formed during
these years for trade in New France is the same. First
a monopoly is granted under circumstances ostensibly most
favourable to the Government and to the privileged
merchants; then follow the howls of the excluded traders,
the lack of good voluntary colonists, the transportation
to the colony of a few beggars, criminals, or unpromising
labourers; a drain on the company's funds in maintaining
these during the long winter; a steady decrease in the
number taken out; at length no attempt to fulfil this
condition of the monopoly; the anger of the Government
when made aware of the facts; and finally the sudden
repeal of the monopoly several years before its legal
termination.--H. P. Biggar, 'Early Trading Companies of
New France,' p. 49.]

We are now on the threshold of Champlain's career, but
only on the threshold. The voyage of 1603, while full of
prophecy and presenting features of much interest, lacks
the arduous and constructive quality which was to mark
his greater explorations. In 1603 the two boats equipped
by De Chastes were under the command of Pontgrave [Footnote:
Francois Grave, Sieur du Pont, whose name, strictly
speaking, is Dupont-Grave, one of the most active French
navigators of the seventeenth century. From 1600 to 1629
his voyages to the St Lawrence and Acadia were incessant.]
and Prevert, both mariners from St Malo. Champlain sailed
in Pontgrave's ship and was, in fact, a superior type of
supercargo. De Chastes desired that his expedition should
be self-supporting, and the purchase of furs was never
left out of sight. At the same time, his purpose was
undoubtedly wider than profit, and Champlain represented
the extra-commercial motive. While Pontgrave was trading
with the Indians, Champlain, as the geographer, was
collecting information about their character, their
customs, and their country. Their religious ideas interested
him much, and also their statements regarding the interior
of the continent. Such data as he could collect between
the end of May and the middle of August he embodied in
a book called Des Sauvages, which, true to its title,
deals chiefly with Indian life and is a valuable record,
although in many regards superseded by the more detailed
writings of the Jesuits.

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