Voyages of Samuel de Champlain, Vol. 1
by
Samuel de Champlain
Part 3 out of 5
fort, and protect the fire thus kindled from being extinguished by water
coming from above.
When all was in readiness, two hundred savages bore the framed tower and
planted it near the palisades. Three arquebusiers mounted it and poured a
deadly fire upon the defenders on the gallery. The battle now began and
raged fiercely for three hours, but Champlain strove in vain to carry out
any plan of attack. The savages rushed to and fro in a frenzy of
excitement, filling the air with their discordant yells, observing no
method and heeding no commands. The wooden shields were not even brought
forward, and the burning of the fort was undertaken with so little judgment
and skill that the fire was instantly extinguished by the fountains of
water let loose by the skilful defenders through the gutters and
water-spouts of the fort.
The sharp-shooters on the tower killed and wounded a large number, but
nevertheless no effective impression was made upon the fortress. Two chiefs
and fifteen men of the allies were wounded, while one was killed, or died
of wounds received in a skirmish before the formal attack upon the fort
began. After a frantic and desultory fight of three hours, the attacking
savages lost their courage and began to clamor for a retreat. No
persuasions could induce them to renew the attack.
After lingering four days in vain expectation of the arrival of the allies
to whom Brûlé had been sent, the retreat began. Champlain had been wounded
in the knee and leg, and was unable to walk. Litters in the form of baskets
were fabricated, into which the wounded were packed in a constrained and
uncomfortable attitude, and carried on the shoulders of the men. As the
task of the carriers was lightened by frequent relays, and, as there was
little baggage to impede their progress, the march was rapid. In three days
they had reached their canoes, which had remained in the place of their
concealment near the shore of the lake, an estimated distance of
twenty-five or thirty leagues from the fort.
Such was the character of a great battle among the contending savages, an
undisciplined host, without plan or well-defined purpose, rushing in upon
each other in the heat of a sudden frenzy of passion, striking an aimless
blow, and following it by a hasty and cowardly retreat. They had, for the
time being at least, no ulterior design. They fought and expected no
substantial reward of their conflict. The sweetness of personal revenge and
the blotting out a few human lives were all they hoped for or cared at this
time to attain. The invading party had apparently destroyed more than they
had themselves lost, and this was doubtless a suitable reward for the
hazards and hardships of the campaign.
The retreating warriors lingered ten days on the shore of Lake Ontario, at
the point where they had left their canoes, beguiling the time in preparing
for hunting and fishing excursions, and for their journey to their distant
homes. Champlain here took occasion to call the attention of the allies to
their promise to conduct him safely to his home. The head of the St.
Lawrence as it flows from the Ontario is less than two hundred miles from
Montreal, a journey by canoes not difficult to make. Champlain desired to
return this way, and demanded an escort. The chiefs were reluctant to grant
his request. Masters in the art of making excuses, they saw many
insuperable obstacles. In reality, they did not desire to part with him,
but wished to avail themselves of his knowledge, counsel, and personal aid
against their enemies. When one obstacle after another gave way, and when
volunteers were found ready to accompany him, no canoes could be spared for
the journey. This closed the debate. Champlain was not prepared for the
exposure and hardship of a winter among the savages, but there was left to
him no choice. He submitted as gracefully as he could, and with such
patience as necessity made it possible for him to command.
The bark flotilla was at length ready to leave the borders of the present
State of New York. According to their usual custom in canoe navigation,
they crept along the shore of the Ontario, revisiting an island at the
eastern extremity of the lake, not unlikely the same place where Champlain
had stopped to take the latitude a few weeks before. Crossing over from the
island to the mainland on the north, they appear to have continued up the
Cataraqui Creek east of Kingston, and, after a short portage, entered
Loughborough Lake, a sheet of water then renowned as a resort of waterfowl
in vast numbers and varieties. Having bagged all they desired, they
proceeded inland twenty or thirty miles, to the objective point of their
excursion, which was a famous hunting-ground for wild game. Here they
constructed a deer-trap, an enclosure into which the unsuspecting animals
were beguiled and from which it was impossible for them to escape.
Deer-hunting was of all pursuits, if we except war, the most exciting to
the Indians. It not only yielded the richest returns to their larder, and
supplied more fully other domestic wants, but it possessed the element of
fascination, which has always given zest and inspiration to the sportsman.
They lingered here thirty-eight days, during which time they captured one
hundred and twenty deer. They purposely prolonged their stay that the frost
might seal up the marshes, ponds, and rivers over which they were to pass.
Early in December they began to arrange into convenient packages their
peltry and venison, the fat of which was to serve as butter in their rude
huts during the icy months of winter. On the 4th of the month they broke
camp and began their weary march, each savage bearing a burden of not less
than a hundred pounds, while Champlain himself carried a package of about
twenty. Some of them constructed rude sledges, on which they easily dragged
their luggage over the ice and snow. During the progress of the journey, a
warm current came sweeping up from the south, melted the ice, flooded the
marshes, and for four days the overburdened and weary travellers struggled
on, knee-deep in mud and water and slush. Without experience, a lively
imagination alone can picture the toil, suffering, and exposure of a
journey through the tangled forests and half-submerged bogs and marshes of
Canada, in the most inclement season of the year.
At length, on the 23d of December, after nineteen days of excessive toil,
they arrived at Cahiagué, the chief town of the Hurons, the rendezvous of
the allied tribes, whence they had set forth on the first of September,
nearly four months before, on what may seem to us a bootless raid. To the
savage warriors, however, it doubtless seemed a different thing. They had
been enabled to bring home valuable provisions, which were likely to be
important to them when an unsuccessful hunt might, as it often did, leave
them nearly destitute of food. They had lost but a single man, and this was
less than they had anticipated, and, moreover, was the common fortune of
war. They had invaded the territory and made their presence felt in the
very home of their enemies, and could rejoice in having inflicted upon them
more injury than they had themselves received. Though they had not captured
or annihilated them, they had done enough to inspire and fully sustain
their own grovelling pride.
To Champlain even, although the expedition had been accompanied by hardship
and suffering and some disappointments, it was by no means a failure. He
had explored an interesting and important region; he had gone where
European feet had never trod, and had seen what European eyes had never
seen; he had, moreover, planted the lilies of France in the chief Indian
towns, and at all suitable and important points, and these were to be
witnesses of possession and ownership in what his exuberant imagination saw
as a vast French empire rising into power and opulence in the western
world.
It was now the last week in December, and the deep snows and piercing cold
rendered it impossible for Champlain or even the allied warriors to
continue their journey further. The Algonquins and Nipissings became guests
of the Hurons for the winter, encamping within their principal walled town,
or perhaps in some neighboring village not far removed.
After the rest of a few days at Cahiagué, where he had been hospitably
entertained, Champlain took his departure for Carhagouha, a smaller
village, where his friend the Recollect Father, Joseph le Caron, had taken
up his abode as the pioneer missionary to the Hurons. It was important for
Le Caron to obtain all the information possible, not only of the Hurons,
but of all the surrounding tribes, as he contemplated returning to France
the next summer to report to his patrons upon the character, extent, and
hopefulness of the missionary field which he had been sent out to explore.
Champlain was happy to avail himself of his company in executing the
explorations which he desired to make.
They accordingly set out together on the 15th of January, and penetrated
the trackless and show-bound forests, and, proceeding in a western
direction, after a journey of two days reached a tribe called _Petuns_, an
agricultural people, similar in habits and mode of life to the Hurons. By
them they were hospitably received, and a great festival, in which all
their neighbors participated, was celebrated in honor of their new guests.
Having visited seven or eight of their villages, the explorers pushed
forward still further west, when they came to the settlement of an
interesting tribe, which they named _Cheveux-Relevés_, or the "lofty
haired," an appellation suggested by the mode of dressing their hair.
On their return from this expedition, they found, on reaching the
encampment of the Nipissings, who were wintering in the Huron territory,
that a disagreement had arisen between the Hurons and their Algonquin
guests, which had already assumed a dangerous character. An Iroquois
captive taken in the late war had been awarded to the Algonquins, according
to the custom of dividing the prisoners among the several bands of allies,
and, finding him a skilful hunter, they resolved to spare his life, and had
actually adopted him as one of their tribe. This had offended the Hurons,
who expected he would be put to the usual torture, and they had
commissioned one of their number, who had instantly killed the unfortunate
prisoner by plunging a knife into his heart. The assassin, in turn, had
been set upon by the Algonquins and put to death on the spot. The
perpetrators of this last act had regretted the occurrence, and had done
what they could to heal, the breach by presents: but there was,
nevertheless, a smouldering feeling of hostility still lingering in both
parties, which might at any moment break out into open conflict.
It was obvious to Champlain that a permanent disagreement between these two
important allies would be a great calamity to themselves as well as
disastrous to his own plans. It was his purpose, therefore, to bring them,
if possible, to a cordial pacification. Proceeding cautiously and with
great deliberation, he made himself acquainted with all the facts of the
quarrel, and then called an assembly of both parties and clearly set before
them in all its lights the utter foolishness of allowing a circumstance of
really small importance to interfere with an alliance between two great
tribes; an alliance necessary to their prosperity, and particularly in the
war they were carrying on against their common enemy, the Iroquois. This
appeal of Champlain was so convincing that when the assembly broke up all
professed themselves entirely satisfied, although the Algonquins were heard
to mutter their determination never again to winter in the territory of the
Hurons, a wise and not unnatural conclusion.
Champlain's constant intercourse with these tribes for many months in their
own homes, his explorations, observations, and inquiries, enabled him to
obtain a comprehensive, definite, and minute knowledge of their character,
religion, government, and mode of life. As the fruit of these
investigations, he prepared in the leisure of the winter an elaborate
memoir, replete with discriminating details, which is and must always be an
unquestionable authority on the subject of which it treats.
ENDNOTES:
77. De Poutrincourt obtained a confirmation from Henry IV. of the gift to
him of Port Royal by De Monts, and proceeded to establish a colony
there in 1608. In 1611, a Jesuit mission was planted by the Fathers
Pierre Biard and Enemond Massé. It was chiefly patronized by a bevy of
ladies, under the leadership of the Marchioness de Guerchville, in
close association with Marie de Médicis, the queen-regent, Madame de
Verneuil, and Madame de Soudis. Although De Poutrincourt was a devout
member of the Roman Church, the missionaries were received with
reluctance, and between them and the patentee and his lieutenant there
was a constant and irrepressible discord. The lady patroness, the
Marchioness de Guerchville, determined to abandon Port Royal and plant
a new colony at Kadesquit, on the site of the present city of Bangor,
in the State of Maine. A colony was accordingly organized, which
included the fathers, Quentin and Lalemant with the lay brother,
Gilbert du Thet, and arrived at La Hève in La Cadie, on the 6th of May,
1613, under the conduct of Sieur de la Saussaye. From there they
proceeded to Port Royal, took the two missionaries, Biard and Massé, on
board, and coasted along the borders of Maine till they came to Mount
Desert, and finally determined to plant their colony on that island. A
short time after the arrival of the colony, before they were in any
condition for defence, Captain Samuel Argall, from the English colony
in Virginia, suddenly appeared, and captured and transported the whole
colony, and subsequently that at Port Royal, on the alleged ground that
they were intruders on English soil. Thus disastrously ended
Poutrincourt's colony at Port Royal, and the Marchioness de
Guerchville's mission at Mount Desert.--_Vide Voyages par le Sr. de
Champlain_, Paris ed. 1632, pp. 98-114. _Shea's Charlevoix_, Vol. I.
pp. 260-286.
78. Champlain had tried to induce Madame de Guerchville to send her
missionaries to Quebec, to avoid the obstacles which they had
encountered at Port Royal; but, for the simple reason that De Monts was
a Calvinist, she would not listen to it.--_Vide Shea's Charlevoix_,
Vol. I. p. 274; _Voyages du Sieur de Champlain_, Paris ed. 1632, pp.
112, 113.
79. _Vide Histoire du Canada, par Gabriel Sagard_, Paris, 1636, pp. 11-12.
80. _Carhagouha_, named by the French _Saint Gabriel_. Dr. J. C. Taché, of
Ottawa, Canada, who has given much attention to the subject, fixes this
village in the central part of the present township of Tiny, in the
county of Simcoe.--_MS. Letter_, Feb. 11, 1880.
81. _Cahiagué. Dr. Taché places this village on the extreme eastern limit
of the township of Orillia. in the same county, in the bend of the
river Severn, a short distance after it leaves Lake Couchiching. The
Indian warriors do not appear to have launched their flotilla of bark
canoes until they reached the fishing station at the outlet of Lake
Simcoe This village was subsequently known as _Saint-Jean Baptiste_.
82. The latitude of Champlain is here far from correct. It is not possible
to determine the exact place at which it was taken. It could not,
however have been at a point much below 44 deg. 7'.
83. There has naturally been some difficulty in fixing satisfactorily the
site of the Iroquois fort attacked by Champlain and his allies.
The sources of information on which we are to rely in identifying the
site of this fort are in general the same that we resort to in fixing
any locality mentioned in his explorations, and are to be found in
Champlain's journal of this expedition, the map contained in what is
commonly called his edition of 1632, and the engraved picture of the
fort executed by Champlain himself, which was published in connection
with his journal. The information thus obtained is to be considered in
connection with the natural features of the country through which the
expedition passed, with such allowance for inexactness as the history,
nature, and circumstances of the evidence render necessary.
The map of 1632 is only at best an outline, drafted on a very small
scale, and without any exact measurements or actual surveys. It
pictures general features, and in connection with the journal may be of
great service.
Champlain's distances, as given in his journal, are estimates made
under circumstances in which accuracy was scarcely possible. He was
journeying along the border of lakes and over the face of the country,
in company with some hundreds of wild savages, hunting and fishing by
the way, marching in an irregular and desultory manner, and his
statements of distances are wisely accompanied by very wide margins,
and are of little service, taken alone, in fixing the site of an Indian
town. But when natural features, not subject to change, are described,
we can easily comprehend the meaning of the text.
The engraving of the fort may or may not have been sketched by
Champlain on the spot: parts of it may have been and doubtless were
supplied by memory, and it is decisive authority, not in its minor, but
in its general features.
With these observations, we are prepared to examine the evidence that
points to the site of the Iroquois fort.
When the expedition, emerging from Quinté Bay, arrived at the eastern
end of Lake Ontario, at the point where the lake ends and the River St.
Lawrence begins, they crossed over the lake, passing large and
beautiful islands. Some of these islands will be found laid down on the
map of 1632. They then proceeded, a distance, according to their
estimation, of about fourteen leagues, to the southern side of Lake
Ontario, where they landed and concealed their canoes. The distance to
the southern side of the lake is too indefinitely stated, even if we
knew at what precise point the measurement began, to enable us to fix
the exact place of the landing.
They marched along the sandy shore about four leagues, and then struck
inland. If we turn to the map of 1632, on which a line is drawn to
rudely represent their course, we shall see that on striking inland
they proceeded along the banks of a small river to which several small
lakes or ponds are tributary. Little Salmon River being fed by numerous
small ponds or lakes may well be the stream figured by Champlain. The
text says they discovered an excellent country along the lake before
they struck inland, with fine forest-trees, especially the chestnut,
with abundance of vines. For several miles along Lake Ontario on the
north-east of Little Salmon River the country answers to this
description.--_Vide MS. Letters of the Rev. James Cross, D.D., LL.D._,
and of S. D. Smith, Esq._, of Mexico, N.Y.
The text says they, continued their course about twenty-five or thirty
leagues. This again is indefinite, allowing a margin of twelve or
fifteen miles; but the text also says they crossed a river flowing from
a lake in which were certain beautiful islands, and moreover that the
river so crossed discharged into Lake Ontario. The lake here referred
to must be the Oneida, since that is the only one in the region which
contains any islands whatever, and therefore the river they crossed
must be the Oneida River, flowing from the lake of the same name into
Lake Ontario.
Soon after they crossed Oneida River, they met a band of savages who
were going fishing, whom they made prisoners. This occurred, the text
informs us, when they were about four leagues from the fort They were
now somewhere south of Oneida Lake If we consult the map of 1632, we
shall find represented on it an expanse of water from which a stream is
represented as flowing into Lake Ontario, and which is clearly Oneida
Lake, and south of this lake a stream is represented as flowing from
the east in a northwesterly direction and entering this lake towards
its western extremity, which must be Chittenango Creek or one of its
branches. A fort or enclosed village is also figured on the map, of
such huge dimensions that it subtends the angle formed by the creek and
the lake, and appears to rest upon both. It is plain, however, from the
text that the fort does not rest upon Oneida Lake; we may infer
therefore that it rested upon the creek figured on the map, which from
its course, as we have already seen, is clearly intended to represent
Chittenango Creek or one of its branches. A note explanatory of the map
informs us that this is the village where Champlain went to war against
the "Antouhonorons," that is to say, the Iroquois. The text informs us
that the fort was on a pond, which furnished a perpetual supply of
water. We therefore look for the site of the ancient fort on some small
body of water connected with Chittenango Creek.
If we examine Champlain's engraved representation of the fort, we shall
see that it is situated on a peninsula, that one side rests on a pond,
and that two streams pass it, one on the right and one on the left, and
that one side only has an unobstructed land-approach. These channels of
water coursing along the sides are such marked characteristics of the
fort as represented by Champlain, that they must be regarded as
important features in the identification of its ancient site.
On Nichols's Pond, near the northeastern limit of the township of
Fenner in Madison County, N.Y., the site of an Indian fort was some
years since discovered, identified as such by broken bits of pottery
and stone implements, such as are usually found in localities of this
sort. It is situated on a peculiarly formed peninsula, its northern
side resting on Nichols's Pond, while a small stream flowing into the
pond forms its western boundary, and an outlet of the pond about
thirty-two rods east of the inlet, running in a south-easterly
direction, forms the eastern limit of the fort. The outlet of this
pond, deflecting to the east and then sweeping round to the north, at
length finds its way in a winding course into Cowashalon Creek, thence
into the Chittenango, through which it flows into Oneida Lake, at a
point north-west of Nichols's Pond.
If we compare the geographical situation of Champlain's fort as figured
on his map of 1632, particularly with reference to Oneida Lake, we
shall observe a remarkable correspondence between it and the site of
the Indian fort at Nichols's Pond. Both are on the south of Oneida
Lake, and both are on streams which flow into that lake by running in a
north-westerly direction. Moreover, the site of the old fort at
Nichols's Pond is situated on a peninsula like that of Champlain; and
not only so, but it is on a peninsula formed by a pond on one side, and
by two streams of water on two other opposite sides; thus fulfilling in
a remarkable degree the conditions contained in Champlain's drawing of
the fort.
If the reader has carefully examined and compared the evidences
referred to in this note, he will have seen that all the distinguishing
circumstances contained in the text of Champlain's journal, on the map
of 1632, and in his drawing of the fort, converge to and point out this
spot on Nichols's Pond, as the probable site of the palisaded Iroquois
town attacked by Champlain in 1615.
We are indebted to General John S. Clark, of Auburn, N.Y., for pointing
out and identifying the peninsula at Nichols's Pond as the site of the
Iroquois fort.--_Vide Shea's Notes on Champlain's Expedition into
Western New York in 1615, and the Recent Identification of the Fort_,
by General John S Clark, _Pennsylvania Magazine of History_,
Philadelphia, Vol. II. pp. 103-108; also _A Lost Point in History_, by
L. W. Ledyard, _Cazenovia Republican_, Vol. XXV. No 47; _Champlain's
Invasion of Onondaga_, by the Rev. W. M. Beauchamp, _Baldwinsville
Gazette_, for June 27, 1879.
We are indebted to Orsamus H. Marshall, Esq., of Buffalo, N.Y., for
proving the site of the Iroquois fort to be in the neighborhood of
Oneida Lake, and not at a point farther west as claimed by several
authors.--_Vide Proceedings of the New York Historical Society_ for
1849, p. 96; _Magazine of American History_, New York, Vol. I. pp.
1-13, Vol. II. pp. 470-483.
CHAPTER IX.
CHAMPLAIN'S RETURN FROM THE HURON COUNTRY AND VOYAGE TO FRANCE.--THE
CONTRACTED VIEWS OF THE COMPANY OF MERCHANTS.--THE PRINCE DE CONDÉ SELLS
THE VICEROYALTY TO THE DUKE DE MONTMORENCY.--CHAMPLAIN WITH HIS WIFE
RETURNS TO QUEBEC, WHERE HE REMAINS FOUR YEARS.--HAVING REPAIRED THE
BUILDINGS AND ERECTED THE FORTRESS OF ST. LOUIS, CHAMPLAIN RETURNS TO
FRANCE.--THE VICEROYALTY TRANSFERRED TO HENRY DE LEVI, AND THE COMPANY OF
THE HUNDRED ASSOCIATES ORGANIZED.
About the 20th of May, Champlain, accompanied by the missionary, Le Caron,
escorted by a delegation of savages, set out from the Huron capital, in the
present county of Simcoe, on their return to Quebec. Pursuing the same
circuitous route by which they had come, they were forty days in reaching
the Falls of St. Louis, near Montreal, where they found Pont Gravé, just
arrived from France, who, with the rest, was much rejoiced at seeing
Champlain, since a rumor had gone abroad that he had perished among the
savages.
The party arrived at Quebec on the 11th of July. A public service of
thanksgiving was celebrated by the Recollect Fathers for their safe return.
The Huron chief, D'Arontal, with whom Champlain had passed the winter and
who had accompanied him to Quebec, was greatly entertained and delighted
with the establishment of the French, the buildings and other accessories
of European life, so different from his own, and earnestly requested
Champlain to make a settlement at Montreal, that his whole tribe might come
and reside near them, safe under their protection against their Iroquois
enemies.
Champlain did not remain at Quebec more than ten days, during which he
planned and put in execution the enlargement of their houses and fort,
increasing their capacity by at least one third. This he found necessary to
do for the greater convenience of the little colony, as well as for the
occasional entertainment of strangers. He left for France on the 20th day
of July, in company with the Recollect Fathers, Joseph le Caron and Denis
Jamay, the commissary of the mission, taking with them specimens of French
grain which had been produced near Quebec, to testify to the excellent
quality of the soil. They arrived at Honfleur in France on the 10th of
September, 1616.
The exploration in the distant Indian territories which we have just
described in the preceding pages was the last made by Champlain. He had
plans for the survey of other regions yet unexplored, but the favorable
opportunity did not occur. Henceforth he directed his attention more
exclusively than he had hitherto done to the enlargement and strengthening
of his colonial plantation, without such success, we regret to say, as his
zeal, devotion, and labors fitly deserved. The obstacles that lay in his
way were insurmountable. The establishment or factory, we can hardly call
it a plantation, at Quebec, was the creature of a company of merchants.
They had invested considerable sums in shipping, buildings, and in the
employment of men, in order to carry on a trade in furs and peltry with the
Indians, and they naturally desired remunerative returns. This was the
limit of their purpose in making the investment. The corporators saw
nothing in their organization but a commercial enterprise yielding
immediate results. They were inspired by no generosity, no loyalty, or
patriotism that could draw from them a farthing to increase the wealth,
power, or aggrandizement of France. Under these circumstances, Champlain
struggled on for years against a current which he could barely direct, but
by no means control.
Champlain made voyages to New France both in 1617 and in 1618. In the
latter year, among the Indians who came to Quebec for the purpose of trade,
appeared Étienne Brulé, the interpreter, who it will be remembered had been
despatched in 1615, when Champlain was among the Hurons, to the
Entouhonorons at Carantouan, to induce them to join in the attack of the
Iroquois in central New York. During the three years that had intervened,
nothing had been heard from him. Brulé related the story of his
extraordinary adventures, which Champlain has preserved, and which may be
found in the report of the voyage of 1618, in Volume III. of this work.
[84]
At Quebec, he met numerous bands of Indians from remote regions, whom he
had visited in former years, and who, in fulfilment of their promises, had
come to barter their peltry for such commodities as suited their need or
fancy, and to renew and strengthen their friendship with the French. By
these repeated interviews, and the cordial reception and generous
entertainment which he always gave them, the Indians dwelling on the upper
waters of the Ottawa, along the borders of Lake Huron, or on the Georgian
Bay, formed a strong personal attachment to Champlain, and yearly brought
down their fleets of canoes heavily freighted with the valuable furs which
they had diligently secured during the preceding winter. His personal
influence with them, a power which he exercised with great delicacy,
wisdom, and fidelity, contributed largely to the revenues annually obtained
by the associated merchants.
But Champlain desired more than this. He was not satisfied to be the agent
and chief manager of a company organized merely for the purpose of trade.
He was anxious to elevate the meagre factory at Quebec into the dignity and
national importance of a colonial plantation. For this purpose he had
tested the soil by numerous experiments, and had, from time to time,
forwarded to France specimens of ripened grain to bear testimony to its
productive quality. He even laid the subject before the Council of State,
and they gave it their cordial approbation. By these means giving emphasis
to his personal appeals, he succeeded at length in extorting from the
company a promise to enlarge the establishment to eighty persons, with
suitable equipments, farming implements, all kinds of feeds and domestic
animals, including cattle and sheep. But when the time came, this promise
was not fulfilled. Differences, bickerings, and feuds sprang up in the
company. Some wanted one thing, and some wanted another. Even religion cast
in an apple of discord. The Catholics wished to extend the faith of their
church into the wilds of Canada, while the Huguenots desired to prevent it,
or at least not to promote it by their own contributions. The company,
inspired by avarice and a desire to restrict the establishment to a mere
trading post, raised an issue to discredit Champlain. It was gravely
proposed that he should devote himself exclusively to exploration, and that
the government and trade should henceforth be under the direction and
control of Pont Gravé. But Champlain was not a man to be ejected from an
official position by those who had neither the authority to give it to him
or the power to take it away. Pont Gravé was his intimate, long-tried, and
trusted friend; and, while he regarded him with filial respect and
affection, he could not yield, even to him, the rights and honors which had
been accorded to him as a recognition, if not a reward, for many years of
faithful service, which he had rendered under circumstances of personal
hardship and danger. The king addressed a letter to the company, in which
he directed them to aid Champlain as much as possible in making
explorations, in settling the country, and cultivating the soil, while with
their agents in the traffic of peltry there should be no interference. But
the spirit of avarice could not be subdued by the mandate of the king. The
associated merchants were still, obstinate. Champlain had intended to take
his family to Canada that year, but he declined to make the voyage under
any implication of a divided authority. The vessel in which he was to sail
departed without him, and Pont Gravé spent the winter in charge of the
company's affairs at Quebec.
Champlain, in the mean time, took such active measures as seemed necessary
to establish his authority as lieutenant of the viceroy, or governor of New
France. He appeared before the Council of State at Tours, and after an
elaborate argument and thorough discussion of the whole subject, obtained a
decree ordering that he should have the command at Quebec and at all other
settlements in New France, and that the company should abstain from any
interference with him in the discharge of the duties of his office.
The Prince de Condé having recently been liberated from an imprisonment of
three years, governed by his natural avarice, was not unwilling to part
with his viceroyalty, and early in 1620 transferred it, for the
consideration of eleven thousand crowns, or about five hundred and fifty
pounds sterling, to his brother-in-law, the Duke de Montmorency, [85] at
that time high-admiral of France. The new viceroy appointed Champlain his
lieutenant, who immediately prepared to leave for Quebec. But when he
arrived at Honfleur, the company, displeased at the recent change, again
brought forward the old question of the authority which the lieutenant was
to exercise in New France. The time for discussion had, however, passed. No
further words were now to be wasted. The viceroy sent them a peremptory
order to desist from further interferences, or otherwise their ships,
already equipped for their yearly trade, would not be permitted to leave
port. This message from the high-admiral of France came with authority and
had the desired effect.
Early in May, 1620, Champlain sailed from Honfleur, accompanied by his wife
and several Recollect friars, and, after a voyage of two months, arrived at
Tadoussac, where he was cordially greeted by his brother-in-law, Eustache
Boullé, who was very much astonished at the arrival of his sister, and
particularly that she was brave enough to encounter the dangers of the
ocean and take up her abode in a wilderness at once barren of both the
comforts and refinements of European life.
On the 11th of July, Champlain left Tadoussac for Quebec, where he found
the whole establishment, after an absence of two years, in a condition of
painful neglect and disorder. He was cordially received, and becoming
ceremonies were observed to celebrate his arrival. A sermon composed for
the occasion was delivered by one of the Recollect Fathers, the commission
of the king and that of the viceroy appointing him to the sole command of
the colony were publicly read, cannon were discharged, and the little
populace, from loyal hearts, loudly vociferated _Vive le Roy!_
The attention of the lieutenant was at first directed to restoration and
repairs. The roof of the buildings no longer kept out the rain, nor the
walls the piercing fury of the winds. The gardens were in a state of
ruinous neglect, and the fields poorly and scantily cultivated. But the
zeal, energy, and industry of Champlain soon put every thing in repair, and
gave to the little settlement the aspect of neatness and thrift. When this
was accomplished, he laid the foundations of a fortress, which he called
the _Fort Saint Louis_, situated on the crest of the rocky elevation in the
rear of the settlement, about a hundred and seventy-two feet above the
surface of the river, a position which commanded the whole breadth of the
St. Lawrence at that narrow point.
This work, so necessary for the protection and safety of the colony,
involving as it did some expense, was by no means satisfactory to the
Company of Associates. [86] Their general fault-finding and chronic
discontent led the Duke de Montmorency to adopt heroic measures to silence
their complaints. In the spring of 1621, he summarily dissolved the
association of merchants, which he denominated the "Company of Rouen and
St. Malo," and established another in its place. He continued Champlain in
the office of lieutenant, but committed all matters relating to trade to
William de Caen, a merchant of high standing, and to Émeric de Caen the
nephew of the former, a good naval captain. This new and hasty
reorganization, arbitrary if not illegal, however important it might seem
to the prosperity and success of the colony, laid upon Champlain new
responsibilities and duties at once delicate and difficult to discharge.
Though in form suppressed, the company did not yield either its existence
or its rights. Both the old and the new company were, by their agents,
early in New France, clamoring for their respective interests. De Caen, in
behalf of the new, insisted that the lieutenant ought to prohibit all trade
with the Indians by the old company, and, moreover, that he ought to seize
their property and hold it as security for their unpaid obligations.
Champlain, having no written authority for such a proceeding, and De Caen,
declining to produce any, did not approve the measure and declined to act.
The threats of De Caen that he would take the matter into his own hands,
and seize the vessel of the old company commanded by Pont Gravé and then in
port, were so violent that Champlain thought it prudent to place a body of
armed men in his little fort still unfinished, until the fury of the
altercation should subside. [87] This decisive measure, and time, the
natural emollient of irritated tempers, soon restored peace to the
contending parties, and each was allowed to carry on its trade unmolested
by the other. The prudence of Champlain's conduct was fully justified, and
the two companies, by mutual consent, were, the next year, consolidated
into one.
Champlain remained at Quebec four years before again returning to France.
His time was divided between many local enterprises of great importance.
His special attention was given to advancing the work on the unfinished
fort, in order to provide against incursions of the hostile Iroquois, [88]
who at one time approached the very walls of Quebec, and attacked
unsuccessfully the guarded house of the Recollects on the St. Charles. [89]
He undertook the reconstruction of the buildings of the settlement from
their foundations. The main structure was enlarged to a hundred and eight
feet [90] in length, with two wings of sixty feet each, having small towers
at the four corners. In front and on the borders of the river a platform
was erected, on which were placed cannon, while the whole was surrounded by
a ditch spanned by drawbridges.
Having placed every thing at Quebec in as good order as his limited means
would permit, and given orders for the completion of the works which he had
commenced, leaving Émeric de Caen in command, Champlain determined to
return to France with his wife, who, though devoted to a religious life, we
may well suppose was not unwilling to exchange the rough, monotonous, and
dreary mode of living at Quebec for the more congenial refinements to which
she had always been accustomed in her father's family near the court of
Louis XIII. He accordingly sailed on the 15th of August, and arrived at
Dieppe on the 1st of October, 1624. He hastened to St. Germain, and
reported to the king and the viceroy what had occurred and what had been
done during the four years of his absence.
The interests of the two companies had not been adjusted and they were
still in conflict. The Duke de Montmorency about this time negotiated a
sale of his viceroyalty to his nephew, Henry de Levi, Duke de Ventadour.
This nobleman, of a deeply religious cast of mind, had taken holy orders,
and his chief purpose in obtaining the viceroyalty was to encourage the
planting of Catholic missions in New France. As his spiritual directors
were Jesuits, he naturally committed the work to them. Three fathers and
two lay brothers of this order were sent to Canada in 1625, and others
subsequently joined them. Whatever were the fruits of their labors, many of
them perished in their heroic undertaking, manfully suffering the exquisite
pains of mutilation and torture.
Champlain was reappointed lieutenant, but remained in France two years,
fully occupied with public and private duties, and in frequent
consultations with the viceroy as to the best method of advancing the
future interests of the colony. On the 15th of April, 1626, with Eustache
Boullé, his brother-in-law, who had been named his assistant or lieutenant,
he again sailed for Quebec, where he arrived on the 5th of July. He found
the colonists in excellent health, but nevertheless approaching the borders
of starvation, having nearly exhausted their provisions. The work that he
had laid out to be done on the buildings had been entirely neglected. One
important reason for this neglect, was the necessary employment of a large
number of the most efficient laborers, for the chief part of the summer in
obtaining forage for their cattle in winter, collecting it at a distance of
twenty-five or thirty miles from the settlement. To obviate this
inconvenience, Champlain took an early opportunity to erect a farm-house
near the natural meadows at Cape Tourmente, where the cattle could be kept
with little attendance, appointing at the same time an overseer for the
men, and making a weekly visit to this establishment for personal
inspection and oversight.
The fort, which had been erected on the crest of the rocky height in the
rear of the dwelling, was obviously too small for the protection of the
whole colony in case of an attack by hostile savages. He consequently took
it down and erected another on the same spot, with earthworks on the land
side, where alone, with difficulty, it could be approached. He also made
extensive repairs upon the storehouse and dwelling.
During the winter of 1626-27, the friendly Indians, the Montagnais,
Algonquins, and others gave Champlain much anxiety by unadvisedly entering
into an alliance, into which they were enticed by bribes, with a tribe
dwelling near the Dutch, in the present State of New York, to assist them
against their old enemies, the Iroquois, with whom, however, they had for
some time been at peace. Champlain justly looked upon this foolish
undertaking as hazardous not only to the prosperity of these friendly
tribes, but to their very existence. He accordingly sent his brother-in-law
to Three Rivers, the rendezvous of the savage warriors, to convince them of
their error and avert their purpose. Boullé succeeded in obtaining a delay
until all the tribes should be assembled and until the trading vessels
should arrive from France. When Émeric de Caen was ready to go to Three
Rivers, Champlain urged upon him the great importance of suppressing this
impending conflict with the Iroquois. The efforts of De Caen were, however,
ineffectual. He forthwith wrote to Champlain that his presence was
necessary to arrest these hostile proceedings. On his arrival, a grand
council was assembled, and Champlain succeeded, after a full statement of
all the evils that must evidently follow, in reversing their decision, and
messengers were sent to heal the breach. Some weeks afterward news came
that the embassadors were inhumanly massacred.
Crimes of a serious nature were not unfrequently committed against the
French by Indians belonging to tribes, with which they were at profound
peace. On one occasion two men, who were conducting cattle by land from
Cape Tourmente to Quebec, were assassinated in a cowardly manner. Champlain
demanded of the chiefs that they should deliver to him the perpetrators of
the crime. They expressed genuine sorrow for what had taken place, but were
unable to obtain the criminals. At length, after consulting with the
missionary, Le Caron, they offered to present to Champlain three young
girls as pledges of their good faith, that he might educate them in the
religion and manners of the French. The gift was accepted by Champlain, and
these savage maidens became exceedingly attached to their foster-father, as
we shall see in the sequel.
The end of the year 1627 found the colony, as usual, in a depressed state.
As a colony, it had never prospered. The average number composing it had
not exceeded about fifty persons. At this time it may have been somewhat
more, but did not reach a hundred. A single family only appears to have
subsisted by the cultivation of the soil. [91] The rest were sustained by
supplies sent from France. From the beginning disputes and contentions had
prevailed in the corporation. Endless bickerings sprung up between the
Huguenots and Catholics, each sensitive and jealous of their rights. [92]
All expenditures were the subject of censorious criticism. The necessary
repairs of the fort, the enlargement and improvement of the buildings from
time to time, were too often resisted as unnecessary and extravagant. The
company, as a mere trading association, was doubtless successful. Large
quantities of peltry were annually brought by the Indians for traffic to
the Falls of St. Louis, Three Rivers, Quebec, and Tadoussac. The average
number of beaver-skins annually purchased and transported to France was
probably not far from fifteen thousand to twenty thousand, and in a most
favorable year it mounted up to twenty-two thousand. [93] The large
dividends that they were able to make, intimated by Champlain to be not far
from forty per centum yearly, were, of course, highly satisfactory to the
company. They desired not to impair this characteristic of their
enterprise. They had, therefore, a prime motive for not wishing to lay out
a single unnecessary franc on the establishment. Their policy was to keep
the expenses at the minimum and the net income at the maximum. Under these
circumstances, nearly twenty years had elapsed since the founding of
Quebec, and it still possessed only the character of a trading post, and
not that of a colonial plantation. This progress was satisfactory neither
to Champlain, to the viceroy, nor the council of state. In the view of
these several interested parties, the time had come for a radical change in
the organization of the company. Cardinal de Richelieu had risen by his
extraordinary ability as a statesman, a short time anterior to this, into
supreme authority, and had assumed the office of grand master and chief of
the navigation and commerce of France. His sagacious and comprehensive mind
saw clearly the intimate and interdependent relations between these two
great national interests and the enlargement and prosperity of the French
colonies in America. He lost no time in organizing measures which should
bring them into the closest harmony. The company of merchants whose
finances had been so skilfully managed by the Caens was by him at once
dissolved. A new one was formed, denominated _La Compagnie de la
Nouvelle-France_, consisting of a hundred or more members, and commonly
known as the Company of the Hundred Associates. It was under the control
and management of Richelieu himself. Its members were largely gentlemen in
official positions about the court, in Paris, Rouen, and other cities of
France. Among them were the Marquis Deffiat, superintendent of finances,
Claude de Roquemont, the Commander de Razilly, Captain Charles Daniel,
Sébastien Cramoisy, the distinguished Paris printer, Louis Houêl, the
controller of the salt works in Brouage, Champlain, and others well known
in public circles.
The new company had many characteristics which seemed to assure the solid
growth and enlargement of the colony. Its authority extended over the whole
domain of New France and Florida. It provided in its organization for an
actual capital of three hundred thousand livres. It entered into an
obligation to send to Canada in 1628 from two to three hundred artisans of
all trades, and within the space of fifteen years to transport four
thousand colonists to New France. The colonists were to be wholly supported
by the company for three years, and at the expiration of that period were
to be assigned as much land as they needed for cultivation. The settlers
were to be native-born Frenchmen, exclusively of the Catholic faith, and no
foreigner or Huguenot was to be permitted to enter the country. [94] The
charter accorded to the company the exclusive control of trade and all
goods manufactured in New France were to be free of imposts on exportation.
Besides these, it secured to the corporators other and various exclusive
privileges of a semifeudal character, supposed, however, to contribute to
the prosperity and growth of the colony.
The organization of the company, having received the formal approbation of
Richelieu on the 29th of April, 1627, was ratified by the Council of State
on the 6th of May, 1628.
ENDNOTES:
84. The character of Étienne Brulé, either for honor or veracity, is not
improved by his subsequent conduct. He appears in 1629 to have turned
traitor, to have sold himself to the English, and to have piloted them
up the river in their expedition against Quebec. Whether this conduct,
base certainly it was, ought to affect the credibility of his story,
the reader must judge. Champlain undoubtedly believed it when he first
related it to him. He probably had no means then or afterwards of
testing its truth. In the edition of 1632, Brulé's story is omitted. It
does not necessarily follow that it was omitted because Champlain came
to discredit the story, since many passages contained in his preceding
publications are omitted in the edition of 1632, but they are not
generally passages of so much geographical importance as this, if it be
true. The map of 1632 indicates the country of the Carantouanais; but
this information might have been obtained by Champlain from the Hurons,
or the more western tribes which he visited during the winter of
1615-16.--_Vide_ ed. 1632, p. 220.
85. Henry de Montmorency II was born at Chantilly in 1595, and was beheaded
at Toulouse Oct 30, 1632. He was created admiral at the age of
seventeen He commanded the Dutch fleet at the siege of Rochelle. He
made the campaigns of 1629 and 1630 in Piedmont, and was created a
marshal of France after the victory of Veillane. He adopted the party
of Gaston, the Duke of Orleans, and having excited the province of
Languedoc of which he was governor to rebellion, he was defeated, and
executed as guilty of high treason. He was the last scion of the elder
branch of Montmorency and his death was a fatal blow to the reign of
feudalism.
86. Among other annoyances which Champlain had to contend against was the
contraband trade carried on by the unlicensed Rochellers, who not only
carried off quantities of peltry, but even supplied the Indians with
fire-arms and ammunition This was illegal, and endangered the safety of
the colony--_Vide Voyages par De Champlain_, Paris, 1632, Sec Partie, p
3.
87. _Vide_ ed 1632, Sec Partie, Chap III.
88. _Vide Hist. New France_, by Charlevoix, Shea's. Trans., Vol. II. p. 32.
89. The house of the Recollects on the St. Charles was erected in 1620, and
was called the _Conuent de Nostre Dame Dame des Anges_. The Father Jean
d'Olbeau laid the first stone on the 3d of June of that year.--_Vide
Histoire du Canada_ par Gabriel Sagard, Paris, 1636, Tross ed., 1866,
p. 67; _Découvertes et Êtablissements des Français, dans Pouest et dans
le sud de L'Amerique Septentrionale_ 1637, par Pierre Margry, Paris,
1876, Vol. I. p. 7.
90. _Hundred and eight feet_, dix-huiet toyses. The _toise_ here estimated
at six feet. Compare _Voyages de Champlain_, Laverdière's ed., Vol. I.
p. lii, and ed. 1632, Paris, Partie Seconde, p. 63.
91. There was but one private house at Quebec in 1623, and that belonged to
Madame Hébert, whose husband was the first to attempt to obtain a
living by the cultivation of the soil.--_Vide Sagard, Hist, du Canada_,
1636, Tross ed. Vol. I. p. 163 There were fifty-one inhabitants at
Quebec in 1624, including men, women, and children.--_Vide Champlain_,
ed. 1632, p. 76.
92. _Vide Champlain_, ed. 1632, pp. 107, 108, for an account of the attempt
on the part of the Huguenot, Émeric de Caen, to require his sailors to
chaunt psalms and say prayers on board his ship after entering the
River St. Lawrence, contrary to the direction of the Viceroy, the Duke
de Ventadour. As two thirds of them were Huguenots, it was finally
agreed that they should continue to say their prayers, but must omit
their psalm-singing.
93. Father Lalemant enumerates the kind of peltry obtained by the French
from the Indians, and the amount, as follows. "En eschange ils
emportent des peaux d'Orignac, de Loup Ceruier, de Renard, de Loutre,
et quelquefois il s'en rencontre de noires, de Martre, de Blaireau et
de Rat Musqué, mais principalement de Castor qui est le plus grand de
leur gain. On m'a dit que pour vne année ils en auoyent emporté iusques
à 22000. L'ordinaire de chaque année est de 15000, ou 20000, à une
pistole la pièce, ce n'est pas mal allé."--_Vide Rélation de la
Nouvelle France en l'Année_ 1626, Quebec ed. p. 5.
94. This exclusiveness was characteristic of the age. Cardinal Richelieu
and his associates were not qualified by education or by any tendency
of their natures to inaugurate a reformation in this direction. The
experiment of amalgamating Catholic and Huguenot in the enterprises of
the colony had been tried but with ill success. Contentions and
bickerings had been incessant, and subversive of peace and good
neighborhood. Neither party had the spirit of practical toleration as
we understand it, and which we regard at the present day as a priceless
boon. Nor was it understood anywhere for a long time afterward. Even
the Puritans of Massachusetts Bay did not comprehend it, and took
heroic measures to exclude from their commonwealth those who differed
from them in their religious faith. We certainly cannot censure them
for not being in advance of their times. It would doubtless have been
more manly in them had they excluded all differing from them by plain
legal enactment, as did the Society of the Hundred Associates, rather
than to imprison or banish any on charges which all subsequent
generations must pronounce unsustained _Vide Memoir of the Rev. John
Wheelwright_, by Charles H. Bell, Prince Society, ed. 1876, pp. 9-31
_et passim; Hutchinson Papers_, Prince Society ed., 1865, Vol. I. pp.
79-113. American _Criminal Trials_, by Peleg W. Chandler, Boston, 1841,
Vol. I. p. 29.
CHAPTER X.
THE FAVORABLE PROSPECTS OF THE COMPANY OF NEW FRANCE.--THE ENGLISH INVASION
OF CANADA AND THE SURRENDER OF QUEBEC--CAPTAIN DANIEL PLANTS A FRENCH
COLONY NEAR THE GRAND CIBOU--CHAMPLAIN IN FRANCE, AND THE TERRITORIAL
CLAIMS OF THE FRENCH AND ENGLISH STILL UNSETTLED
The Company of New France, or of the Hundred Associates, lost no time in
carrying out the purpose of its organization. Even before the ratification
of its charter by the council, four armed vessels had been fitted out and
had already sailed under the command of Claude de Roquemont, a member of
the company, to convoy a fleet of eighteen transports laden with emigrants
and stores, together with one hundred and thirty-five pieces of ordnance to
fortify their settlements in New France.
The company, thus composed of noblemen, wealthy merchants, and officials of
great personal influence, with a large capital, and Cardinal Richelieu, who
really controlled and shaped the policy of France at that period, at its
head possessed so many elements of strength that, in the reasonable
judgment of men, success was assured, failure impossible. [95]
To Champlain, the vision of a great colonial establishment in New France,
that had so long floated before him in the distance, might well seem to be
now almost within his grasp. But disappointment was near at hand. Events
were already transpiring which were destined to cast a cloud over these
brilliant hopes. A fleet of armed vessels was already crossing the
Atlantic, bearing the English flag, with hostile intentions to the
settlements in New France. Here we must pause in our narrative to explain
the origin, character, and purpose of this armament, as unexpected to
Champlain as it was unwelcome.
The reader must be reminded that no boundaries between the French and
English territorial possessions in North America at this time existed. Each
of these great nations was putting forth claims so broad and extensive as
to utterly exclude the other. By their respective charters, grants, and
concessions, they recognized no sovereignty or ownership but their own.
Henry IV. of France, made, in 1603, a grant to a favorite nobleman, De
Monts, of the territory lying between the fortieth and the forty-sixth
degrees of north latitude. James I. of England, three years later, in 1606,
granted to the Virginia Companies the territory lying between the
thirty-fourth and the forty-eighth degrees of north latitude, covering the
whole grant made by the French three years before. Creuxius, a French
historian of Canada, writing some years later than this, informs us that
New France, that is, the French possessions in North America, then embraced
the immense territory extending from Florida, or from the thirty-second
degree of latitude, to the polar circle, and in longitude from Newfoundland
to Lake Huron. It will, therefore, be seen that each nation, the English
and the French, claimed at that time sovereignty over the same territory,
and over nearly the whole of the continent of North America. Under these
circumstances, either of these nations was prepared to avail itself of any
favorable opportunity to dispossess the other.
The English, however, had, at this period, particular and special reasons
for desiring to accomplish this important object. Sir William Alexander,
[96] Secretary of State for Scotland at the court of England, had received,
in 1621, from James I., a grant, under the name of New Scotland, of a large
territory, covering the present province of Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and
that part of the province of Quebec lying east of a line drawn from the
head-waters of the River St. Croix in a northerly direction to the River
St. Lawrence. He had associated with him a large number of Scottish
noblemen and merchants, and was taking active measures to establish
Scottish colonies on this territory. The French had made a settlement
within its limits, which had been broken up and the colony dispersed in
1613, by Captain Samuel Argall, under the authority of Sir Thomas Dale,
governor of the colony at Jamestown, Virginia. A desultory and straggling
French population was still in occupation, under the nominal governorship
of Claude La Tour. Sir William Alexander and his associates naturally
looked for more or less inconvenience and annoyance from the claims of the
French. It was, therefore, an object of great personal importance and
particularly desired by him, to extinguish all French claims, not only to
his own grant, but to the neighboring settlement at Quebec. If this were
done, he might be sure of being unmolested in carrying forward his colonial
enterprise.
A war had broken out between France and England the year before, for the
ostensible purpose, on the part of the English, of relieving the Huguenots
who were shut up in the city of Rochelle, which was beleaguered by the
armies of Louis XIII, under the direction of his prime minister, Richelieu,
who was resolved to reduce this last stronghold to obedience. The existence
of this war offered an opportunity and pretext for dispossessing the French
and extinguishing their claims under the rules of war. This object could
not be attained in any other way. The French were too deeply rooted to be
removed by any less violent or decisive means. No time was, therefore, lost
in taking advantage of this opportunity.
Sir William Alexander applied himself to the formation of a company of
London merchants who should bear the expense of fitting out an armament
that should not only overcome and take possession of the French settlements
and forts wherever they should be found, but plant colonies and erect
suitable defences to hold them in the future. The company was speedily
organized, consisting of Sir William Alexander, junior, Gervase Kirke,
Robert Charlton, William Berkeley, and perhaps others, distinguished
merchants of London. [97] Six ships were equipped with a suitable armament
and letters of marque, and despatched on their hostile errand. Capt. David
Kirke, afterwards Sir David, was appointed admiral of the fleet, who
likewise commanded one of the ships. [98] His brothers, Lewis Kirke and
Thomas Kirke, were in command of two others. They sailed under a royal
patent executed in favor of Sir William Alexander, junior, son of the
secretary, and others, granting exclusive authority to trade, seize, and
confiscate French or Spanish ships and destroy the French settlements on
the river and Gulf of St. Lawrence and parts adjacent.
Kirke sailed, with a part if not the whole of his fleet, to Annapolis Basin
in the Bay of Fundy, and took possession of the desultory French settlement
to which we have already referred. He left a Scotch colony there, under the
command of Sir William Alexander, junior, as governor. The fleet finally
rendezvoused at Tadoussac, capturing all the French fishing barques, boats,
and pinnaces which fell in its way on the coast of Nova Scotia, including
the Island of Cape Breton.
From Tadoussac, Kirke despatched a shallop to Quebec, in charge of six
Basque fishermen whom he had recently captured. They were bearers of an
official communication from the admiral of the English fleet to Champlain.
About the same time he sent up the river, likewise, an armed barque, well
manned, which anchored off Cape Tourmente, thirty miles below Quebec, near
an outpost which had been established by Champlain for the convenience of
forage and pasturage for cattle. Here a squad of men landed, took four men,
a woman, and little girl prisoners, killed such of the cattle as they
desired for use and burned the rest in the stables, as likewise two small
houses, pillaging and laying waste every thing they could find. Having done
this, the barque hastily returned to Tadoussac.
We must now ask the reader to return with us to the little settlement at
Quebec. The proceedings which we have just narrated were as yet unknown to
Champlain. The summer of 1628 was wearing on, and no supplies had arrived
from France. It was obvious that some accident had detained the transports,
and they might not arrive at all. His provisions were nearly exhausted. To
subsist without a resupply was impossible. Each weary day added a new
keenness to his anxiety. A winter of destitution, of starvation and death
for his little colony of well on towards a hundred persons was the painful
picture that now constantly haunted his mind. To avoid this catastrophe, if
possible, he ordered a boat to be constructed, to enable him to communicate
with the lower waters of the gulf, where he hoped he might obtain
provisions from the fishermen on the coast, or transportation for a part or
the whole of his colony to France.
On the 9th of July, two men came up from Cape Tourmente to announce that an
Indian had brought in the news that six large ships had entered and were
lying at anchor in the harbor of Tadoussac. The same day, not long after,
two canoes arrived, in one of which was Foucher, the chief herds-man at
Cape Tourmente, who had escaped from his captors, from whom Champlain first
learned what had taken place at that outpost.
Sufficiently allured of the character of the enemy, Champlain hastened to
put the unfinished fort in as good condition as possible, appointing to
every man in the little garrison his post, so that all might be ready for
duty at a moment's warning. On the afternoon of the next day a small sail
came into the bay, evidently a stranger, directing its course not through
the usual channel, but towards the little River St. Charles. It was too
insignificant to cause any alarm. Champlain, however, sent a detachment of
arquebusiers to receive it. It proved to be English, and contained the six
Basque fishermen already referred to, charged by Kirke with despatches for
Champlain. They had met the armed barque returning to Tadoussac, and had
taken off and brought up with them the woman and little girl who had been
captured the day before at Cape Tourmente.
The despatch, written two days before, and bearing date July 8th, 1628, was
a courteous invitation to surrender Quebec into the hands of the English,
assigning several natural and cogent reasons why if would be for the
interest of all parties for them to do so. Under different circumstances,
the reasoning might have had weight; but this English admiral had clearly
conceived a very inadequate idea of the character of Champlain, if he
supposed he would surrender his post, or even take it into consideration,
while the enemy demanding it and his means of enforcing it were at a
distance of at least a hundred miles. Champlain submitted the letter to
Pont Gravé and the other gentlemen of the colony, and we concluded, he
adds, that if the English had a desire to see us nearer, they must come to
us, and not threaten us from so great a distance.
Champlain returned an answer declining the demand, couched in language of
respectful and dignified politeness. It is easy, however, to detect a tinge
of sarcasm running through it, so delicate as not to be offensive, and yet
sufficiently obvious to convey a serene indifference on the part of the
French commander as to what the English might think it best to do in the
sequel. The tone of the reply, the air of confidence pervading it, led
Kirke to believe that the French were in a far better condition to resist
than they really were. The English admiral thought it prudent to withdraw.
He destroyed all the French fishing vessels and boats at Tadoussac, and
proceeded down the gulf, to do the same along the coast.
We have already alluded, in the preceding pages, to De Roquemont, the
French admiral, who had been charged by the Company of the Hundred
Associates to convoy a fleet of transports to Canada. Wholly ignorant of
the importance of an earlier arrival at Quebec, he appears to have moved
leisurely, and was now, with his whole fleet, lying at anchor in the Bay of
Gaspé. Hearing that Kirke was in the gulf, he very unwisely prepared to
give him battle, and moved out of the bay for that purpose. On the 18th of
July the two armaments met. Kirke had six armed vessels under his command,
while De Roquemont had but four. The conflict was unequal. The English
vessels were unencumbered and much heavier than those of the French. De
Roquemont [99] was soon overpowered and compelled to surrender His whole
fleet of twenty-two vessels, with a hundred and thirty-five pieces of
ordnance, together with supplies and colonists for Quebec, were all taken.
Kirke returned to England laden with the rich spoils of his conquest,
having practically accomplished, if not what he had intended, nevertheless
that which satisfied the avarice of the London merchants under whose
auspices the expedition had sailed. The capture of Quebec had from the
beginning been the objective purpose of Sir William Alexander. The taking
of this fleet and the cutting off their supplies was an important step in
this undertaking. The conquest was thereby assured, though not completed.
Champlain, having despatched his reply to Kirke, naturally supposed he
would soon appear before Quebec to carry out his threat. He awaited this
event with great anxiety About ten days after the messengers had departed,
a young Frenchman, named Desdames, armed in a small boat, having been sent
by De Roquemont, the admiral of the new company, to inform Champlain that
he was then at Gaspé with a large fleet, bringing colonists, arms, stores,
and provisions for the settlement. Desdames also stated that De Roquemont
intended to attack the English, and that on his way he had heard the report
of cannon, which led him to believe that a conflict had already taken
place. Champlain heard nothing more from the lower St. Lawrence until the
next May, when an Indian from Tadoussac brought the story of De Roquemont's
defeat.
In the mean time, Champlain resorted to every expedient to provide
subsistence for his famishing colony. Even at the time when the surrender
was demanded by the English, they were on daily rations of seven ounces
each. The means of obtaining food were exceedingly slender. Fishing could
not be prosecuted to any extent, for the want of nets, lines, and hooks. Of
gunpowder they had less than fifty pounds, and a possible attack by
treacherous savages rendered it inexpedient to expend it in hunting game.
Moreover, they had no salt for curing or preserving the flesh of such wild
animals as they chanced to take. The few acres cultivated by the
missionaries and the Hébert family, and the small gardens about the
settlement, could yield but little towards sustaining nearly a hundred
persons for the full term of ten months, the shortest period in which they
could reasonably expect supplies from France. A system of the utmost
economy was instituted. A few eels were purchased by exchange of
beaver-skins from the Indians. Pease were reduced to flour first by mortars
and later by hand-mills constructed for the purpose, and made into a soup
to add flavor to other less palatable food. Thus economising their
resources, the winter finally wore away, but when the spring came, their
scanty means were entirely exhausted. Henceforth their sole reliance was
upon the few fish that could be taken from the river, and the edible roots
gathered day by day from the fields and forests. An attempt was made to
quarter some of the men upon the friendly Indians, but with little success.
Near the last of June, thirty of the colony, men, women, and children,
unwilling to remain longer at Quebec, were despatched to Gaspé, twenty of
them to reside there with the Indians, the others to seek a passage to
France by some of the foreign fishing-vessels on the coast. This detachment
was conducted by Eustache Boullé, the brother-in-law of Champlain. The
remnant of the little colony, disheartened by the gloomy prospect before
them and exhausted by hunger, continued to drag out a miserable existence,
gathering sustenance for the wants of each day, without knowing what was to
supply the demands of the next.
On the 19th of July, 1629, three English vessels were seen from the fort at
Quebec, distant not more than three miles, approaching under full sail
[100] Their purpose could not be mistaken. Champlain called a council, in
which it was decided at once to surrender, but only on good terms;
otherwise, to resist to their utmost with such slender means as they had.
The little garrison of sixteen men, all his available force, hastened to
their posts. A flag of truce soon brought a summons from the brothers,
Lewis and Thomas Kirke, couched in courteous language, asking the surrender
of the fort and settlement, and promising such honorable and reasonable
terms as Champlain himself might dictate.
To this letter Champlain [101] replied that he had not, in his present
circumstances, the power of resisting their demand, and that on the morrow
he would communicate the conditions on which he would deliver up the
settlement; but, in the mean time, he must request them to retire beyond
cannon-shot, and not attempt to land. On the evening of the same day the
articles of capitulation were delivered, which were finally, with very
little variation, agreed to by both parties.
The whole establishment at Quebec, with all the movable property belonging
to it, was to be surrendered into the hands of the English. The colonists
were to be transported to France, nevertheless, by the way of England. The
officers were permitted to leave with their arms, clothes, and the peltries
belonging to them as personal property. The soldiers were allowed their
clothes and a beaver-robe each; the missionaries, their robes and books.
This agreement was subsequently ratified at Tadoussac by David Kirke, the
admiral of the fleet, on the 19th of August, 1629.
On the 20th of July, Lewis Kirke, vice-admiral, at the head of two hundred
armed men, [102] took formal possession of Quebec, in the name of Charles
I., the king of England. The English flag was hoisted over the Fort of St.
Louis. Drums beat and cannon were discharged in token of the accomplished
victory.
The English demeaned themselves with exemplary courtesy and kindness
towards their prisoners of war. Champlain was requested to continue to
occupy his accustomed quarters until he should leave Quebec; the holy mass
was celebrated at his request; and an inventory of what was found in the
habitation and fort was prepared and placed in his hand, a document which
proved to be of service in the sequel. The colonists were naturally anxious
as to the disposition of their lands and effects; but their fears were
quieted when they were all cordially invited to remain in the settlement,
assured, moreover, that they should have the same privileges and security
of person and property which they had enjoyed from their own government.
This generous offer of the English, and their kind and considerate
treatment of them, induced the larger part of the colonists to remain.
On the 24th of July, Champlain, exhausted by a year of distressing anxiety
and care, and depressed by the adverse proceedings going on about him,
embarked on the vessel of Thomas Kirke for Tadoussac, to await the
departure of the fleet for England. Before reaching their destination, they
encountered a French ship laden with merchandise and supplies, commanded by
Émeric de Caen, who was endeavoring to reach Quebec for the purpose of
trade and obtaining certain peltry and other property stored at that place,
belonging to his uncle, William de Caen. A conflict was inevitable. The two
vessels met. The struggle was severe, and, for a time, of doubtful result.
At length the French cried for quarter. The combat ceased. De Caen asked
permission to speak with Champlain. This was accorded by Kirke, who
informed him, if another shot were fired, it would be at the peril of his
life. Champlain was too old a soldier and too brave a man to be influenced
by an appeal to his personal fears. He coolly replied, It will be an easy
matter for you to take my life, as I am in your power, but it would be a
disgraceful act, as you would violate your sacred promise. I cannot command
the men in the ship, or prevent their doing their duty as brave men should;
and you ought to commend and not blame them.
De Caen's ship was borne as a prize into the harbor of Tadoussac, and
passed for the present into the vortex of general confiscation.
Champlain remained at Tadoussac until the fleet was ready to return to
England. In the mean time, he was courteously entertained by Sir David
Kirke. He was, however, greatly pained and disappointed that the admiral
was unwilling that he should take with him to France two Indian girls who
had been presented to him a year or two before, and whom he had been
carefully instructing in religion and manners, and whom he loved as his own
daughters. Kirke, however, was inexorable. Neither reason, entreaty, nor
the tears of the unhappy maidens could move him. As he could not take them
with him, Champlain administered to them such consolation as he could,
counselling them to be brave and virtuous, and to continue to say the
prayers that he had taught them. It was a relief to his anxiety at last to
be able to obtain from Mr. Couillard, [103] one of the earliest settlers at
Quebec, the promise that they should remain in the care of his wife, while
the girls, on their part, assured him that they would be as daughters to
their new foster-parents until his return to New France.
Quebec having been provisioned and garrisoned, the fleet sailed for England
about the middle of September, and arrived at Plymouth on the 20th of
November. On the 27th, the missionaries and others who wished to return to
France, disembarked at Dover, while Champlain was taken to London, where he
arrived on the 29th.
At Plymouth, Kirke learned that a peace between France and England had been
concluded on the 24th of the preceding April, nearly three months before
Quebec had been taken; consequently, every thing that had been done by this
expedition must, sooner or later, be reversed. The articles of peace had
provided that all conquests subsequent to the date of that instrument
should be restored. It was evident that Quebec, the peltry, and other
property taken there, together with the fishing-vessels and others captured
in the gulf, must be restored to the French. To Kirke and the Company of
London Merchants this was a bitter disappointment. Their expenditures had
been large in the first instance; the prizes of the year before, the fleet
of the Hundred Associates which they had captured, had probably all been
absorbed in the outfit of the present expedition, comprising the six
vessels and two pinnaces with which Kirke had sailed for the conquest of
Quebec. Sir William Alexander had obtained, in the February preceding, from
Charles I., a royal charter of THE COUNTRY AND LORDSHIP OF CANADA IN
AMERICA, [104] embracing a belt of territory one hundred leagues in width,
covering both sides of the St. Lawrence from its mouth to the Pacific
Ocean. This charter with the most ample provisions had been obtained in
anticipation of the taking of Quebec, and in order to pave the way for an
immediate occupation and settlement of the country. Thus a plan for the
establishment of an English colonial empire on the banks of the St.
Lawrence had been deliberately formed, and down to the present moment
offered every prospect of a brilliant success. But a cloud had now swept
along the horizon and suddenly obscured the last ray of hope. The proceeds
of their two years of incessant labor, and the large sums which they had
risked in the enterprise, had vanished like a mist in the morning sun. But,
as the cause of the English became more desperate, the hopes of the French
revived. The losses of the latter were great and disheartening; but they
saw, nevertheless, in the distance, the long-cherished New France of the
past rising once more into renewed strength and beauty.
On his arrival at London, Champlain immediately put himself in
communication with Monsieur de Châteauneuf, the French ambassador, laid
before him the original of the capitulation, a map of the country, and such
other memoirs as were needed to show the superior claims of the French to
Quebec on the ground both of discovery and occupation. [105] Many questions
arose concerning the possession and ownership of the peltry and other
property taken by the English, and, during his stay, Champlain contributed
as far as possible to the settlement of these complications. It is somewhat
remarkable that during this time the English pretended to hold him as a
prisoner of war, and even attempted to extort a ransom from him, [106]
pressing the matter so far that Champlain felt compelled to remonstrate
against a demand so extraordinary and so obviously unjust, as he was in no
sense a prisoner of war, and likewise to state his inability to pay a
ransom, as his whole estate in France did not exceed seven hundred pounds
sterling.
After having remained a month in London, Champlain was permitted to depart
for France, arriving on the last day of December.
At Dieppe he met Captain Daniel, from whom he learned that Richelieu and
the Hundred Associates had not been unmindful of the pressing wants of
their colony at Quebec. Arrangements had been made early in the year 1629
to send to Champlain succor and supplies, and a fleet had been organized to
be conducted thither by the Commander Isaac de Razilly. While preparations
were in progress, peace was concluded between France and England on the
24th of April. It was, consequently, deemed unnecessary to accompany the
transports by an armed force, and thereupon Razilly's orders were
countermanded, while Captain Daniel of Dieppe, [107] whose services had
been engaged, was sent forward with four vessels and a barque belonging to
the company, to carry supplies to Quebec. A storm scattered his fleet, but
the vessel under his immediate command arrived on the coast of the Island
of Cape Breton, and anchored on the 18th of September, _novo stylo_, in the
little harbor of Baleine, situated about six miles easterly from the
present site of Louisburgh, now famous in the annals of that island. Here
he was surprised to find a British settlement. Lord Ochiltrie, better known
as Sir James Stuart, a Scottish nobleman, had obtained a grant, through Sir
William Alexander, of the Island of Cape Breton, and had, on the 10th of
the July preceding, _novo stylo_, planted there a colony of sixty persons,
men, women, and children, and had thrown up for their protection a
temporary fort. Daniel considered this an intrusion upon French soil. He
accordingly made a bloodless capture of the fortress at Baleine, demolished
it, and, sailing to the north and sweeping round to the west, entered an
estuary which he says the savages called Grand Cibou? [108] where he
erected a fort and left a garrison of forty men, with provisions and all
necessary means of defence. Having set up the arms of the King of France
and those of Cardinal Richelieu, erected a house, chapel, and magazine, and
leaving two Jesuit missionaries, the fathers Barthélémy Vimond and
Alexander de Vieuxpont, he departed, taking with him the British colonists,
forty-two of whom he landed near Falmouth in England, and eighteen,
including Lord Ochiltrie, he carried into France. This settlement at the
Bay of St. Anne, or Port Dauphin, accidentally established and inadequately
sustained, lingered a few years and finally disappeared.
Having received the above narrative from Captain Daniel, Champlain soon
after proceeded to Paris, and laid the whole subject of the unwarrantable
proceedings of the English in detail before the king, Cardinal Richelieu,
and the Company of New France, and urged the importance of regaining
possession as early as possible of the plantation from which they had been
unjustly ejected. The English king did not hesitate at an early day to
promise the restoration of Quebec, and, in fact, after some delay, all
places which were occupied by the French at the outbreak of the war. The
policy of the English ministers appears, however, to have been to postpone
the execution of this promise as long as possible, probably with the hope
that something might finally occur to render its fulfilment unnecessary.
Sir William Alexander, the Earl of Stirling, who had very great influence
with Charles I, was particularly opposed to the restoration of the
settlement on the shores of Annapolis Basin. This fell within the limits of
the grant made to him in 1621, under the name of New Scotland, and a Scotch
colony was now in occupation. He contended that no proper French plantation
existed there at the opening of the war, and this was probably true; a few
French people were, indeed, living there, but under no recognized,
certainly no actual, authority or control of the crown of France, and
consequently they were under no obligation to restore it. But Charles I had
given his word that all places taken by the English should be restored as
they were before the war, and no argument or persuasions could change his
resolution to fulfil his promise. It was not, however, till after the lapse
of more than two years, owing, chiefly, to the opposition of Sir William
Alexander, that the restoration of Quebec and the plantation on Annapolis
Basin was fully assured by the treaty of St Germain en Laye, bearing date
March 29, 1632. The reader must be reminded that the text of the treaty
just mentioned and numerous contemporary documents show that the
restorations demanded by the French and granted by the English only related
to the places occupied by the French before the outbreak of the war, and
not to Canada or New France or to any large extent of provincial territory
whatever. [109] When the restorations were completed, the boundary lines
distinguishing the English and French possessions in America were still
unsettled, the territorial rights of both nations were still undefined, and
each continued, as they had done before the war, to claim the same
territory as a part of their respective possessions. Historians, giving to
this treaty a superficial examination, and not considering it in connection
with contemporary documents, have, from that time to the present, fallen
into the loose and unauthorized statement that, by the treaty of St.
Germain en Laye, the whole domain of Canada or New France was restored to
the French. Had the treaty of St. Germain en Laye, by which Quebec was
restored to the French, fixed accurately the boundary lines between the two
countries, it would probably have saved the expenditure of money and blood,
which continued to be demanded from time to time until, after a century and
a quarter, the whole of the French possessions were transferred, under the
arbitration of war, to the English crown.
ENDNOTES:
95. The association was a joint-stock company Each corporator was bound to
pay in three thousand livres, and as there were over a hundred, the
quick capital amounted to over 300,000 livres--_Vide Mercure François_,
Paris, 1628, Tome XIV. p 250. For a full statement of the organization
and constitution of the Company of New France, _Vide Mercure Francois_,
Tome XIV pp 232-267 _Vide_ also _Charlevoix's Hist. New France_, Shea's
Trans Vol. II. pp. 39-44.
96. _Vide Sir William Alexander and American Colonization_, Prince Society,
Boston, 1873.
97. _Vide Colonial Papers_, Vol. V. 87, III. We do not find the mention of
any others as belonging to the Company of Merchant Adventurers to
Canada.
98. Sir David Kirke was one of five brothers, the sons of Gervase or
Gervais Kirke, a merchant of London, and his wife, Elizabeth Goudon of
Dieppe in France. The grandfather of Sir David was Thurston Kirke of
Norton, a small town in the northern part of the county of Derby, known
as the birthplace of the sculptor Chantrey. This little hamlet had been
the home of the Kirkes for several generations. Gervase Kirke had, in
1629, resided in Dieppe for the most of the forty years preceding, and
his children were probably born there. Sir David Kirke was married to
Sarah, daughter of Sir Joseph Andrews. In early life he was a wine-
merchant at Bordeaux and Cognac. He was knighted by Charles I in 1633,
in recognition of his services in taking Quebec. On the 13th of
November, 1637, he received a grant of "the whole continent, island, or
region called Newfoundland." In 1638, he took up his residence at
Ferryland, Newfoundland, in the house built by Lord Baltimore. He was a
friend and correspondent of Archbishop Laud, to whom he wrote, in 1639,
"That the ayre of Newfoundland agrees perfectly well with all God's
creatures, except Jesuits and schismatics." He remained in Newfoundland
nearly twenty years, where he died in 1655-56, having experienced many
disappointments occasioned by his loyalty to Charles I.--_Vide Colonial
Papers_, Vol. IX. No. 76; _The First English Conquest of Canada_, by
Henry Kirke, London, 1871, _passim; Les Voyages du Sieur de Champlain_,
Paris ed. 1632, p. 257.
99. Champlain criticises with merited severity the conduct of De Roquemont,
and closes in the following words "Le merite d'un bon Capitaine n'est
pas seulement au courage, mais il doit estre accompagné de prudence,
qui est ce qui les fait estimer, comme estant suiuy de ruses,
stratagesmes, & d'inventions plusieurs auec peu ont beaucoup fait, & se
sont rendus glorieux & redoutables"--_Vide Les Voyages du Sieur de
Champlain_, ed 1632, part II p. 166.
100. On the 13th of March, 1629, letters of marque were issued to Capt.
David Kirke, Thomas Kirke, and others, in favor of the "Abigail," 300
tons, the "William," 200 tons, the "George" of London, and the
"Jarvis."
101. This correspondence is preserved by Champlain.--_Vide Les Voyages par
le Sieur de Champlain_, Paris, 1632, pp. 215-219.
102. _Vide Abstract of the Deposition of Capt. David Kirke and others_.
Calendar of State Papers, Colonial, 1574-1660, p. 103.
103. _Couillard_ Champlain writes _Coulart_ This appears to have been
William Couillard, the son in-law of Madame Hébert and one of the five
families which remained at Quebec after it was taken by the
English--_Vide Laverdière's note, Oeuvres de Champlain_, Quebec ed
Vol. VI p. 249.
104. An English translation of this charter from the Latin original was
published by the Prince Society in 1873 _Vide Sir William Alexander
and American Colonization_, Prince Society, Boston, pp. 239-249.
105. Champlain published, in 1632, a brief argument setting forth the
claims of the French, which he entitles. _Abregé des Descouuertures de
la Nouuelle France, tant de ce que nous auons descouuert comme aussi
les Anglais, depuis les Virgines iusqu'au Freton Dauis, & de cequ'eux
& nous pouuons pretendre suiuant le rapport des Historiens qui en ont
descrit, que ie rapporte cy dessous, qui feront iuger à un chacun du
tout sans passion.--Vide_ ed. 1632, p. 290. In this paper he narrates
succinctly the early discoveries made both by the French and English
navigators, and enforces the doctrine of the superior claims of the
French with clearness and strength. It contains, probably, the
substance of what Champlain placed at this time in the hands of the
French embassador in London.
106. It is difficult to conceive on what ground this ransom was demanded
since the whole proceedings of the English against Quebec were
illegal, and contrary to the articles of peace which had just been
concluded. That such a demand was made would be regarded as
incredible, did not the fact rest upon documentary evidence of
undoubted authority.--_Vide Laverdière's_ citation from State Papers
Office, Vol. V. No. 33. Oeuvres de Champlain, Quebec ed, Vol. VI. p
1413.
107. _Vide Relation du Voyage fait par le Capitaine Daniel de Dieppe, année
1629, Les Voyages du Sieur de Champlain_, Paris, 1632, p. 271. Captain
Daniel was enrolled by Creuxius in the Society of New France or the
Hundred Associates, as _Carolus Daniel, nauticus Capitaneus_. _Vide
Historia Canadensis_ for the names of the Society of the Hundred
Associates.
108. _Cibou_. Sometimes written Chibou. "Cibou means," says Mr. J. Hammond
Trumball, "simply river in all eastern Algonkin languages."--_MS.
letter_. Nicholas Denys, in his very full itinerary of the coast of
the island of Cape Breton speaks also of the _entree du petit Chibou
ou de Labrador_. This _petit Chibou_, according to his description, is
identical with what is now known as the Little Bras d'Or, or smaller
passage to Bras d'Or Lake. It seems probable that the great Cibou of
the Indians was applied originally by them to what we now call the
Great Bras d'Or, or larger passage to Bras d'Or Lake. It is plain,
however, that Captain Daniel and other early writers applied it to an
estuary or bay a little further west than the Great Bras d'Or,
separated from it by Cape Dauphin, and now known as St. Anne's Bay. It
took the name of St. Anne's immediately on the planting of Captain
Daniel's colony, as Champlain calls it, _l'habitation saincte Anne en
l'ile du Cap Breton_ in his relation of what took place in
1631.--_Voyages_, ed. 1632, p. 298. A very good description of it by
Père Perrault may be found in _Jesuit Relations_, 1635, Quebec ed p.
42.--_Vide_, also, _Description de l'Amerique Septentrionale par
Monsieur Denys_, Paris, 1672, p. 155, where is given an elaborate
description of St Anne's Harbor. _Gransibou_ may be seen on
Champlain's map of 1632, but the map is too indefinite to aid us in
fixing its exact location.
109. _Vide Sir William Alexander and American Colonization_, Prince
Society, 1873, pp. 66-72.--_Royal Letters, Charters, and Tracts
relating to the Colonisation of New Scotland_, Bannatyne Club,
Edinburgh, 1867, p. 77 _et passim_.
CHAPTER XI.
ÉMERIC DE CAEN TAKES POSSESSION OF QUEBEC.--CHAMPLAIN PUBLISHES HIS
VOYAGES.--RETURNS TO NEW FRANCE, REPAIRS THE HABITATION, AND ERECTS A
CHAPEL.--HIS LETTER TO CARDINAL DE RICHELIEU.--CHAMPLAIN'S DEATH.
In breaking up the settlement at Quebec, the losses of the De Caens were
considerable, and it was deemed an act of justice to allow them an
opportunity to retrieve them, at least in part; and, to enable them to do
this, the monopoly of the fur-trade in the Gulf of St. Lawrence was granted
to them for one year, and, on the retirement of the English, Émeric de
Caen, as provisional governor for that period, took formal possession of
Quebec on the 13th of July, 1632. In the mean time, Champlain remained in
France, devoting himself with characteristic energy to the interests of New
France. Beside the valuable counsel and aid which he gave regarding the
expedition then fitting out and to be sent to Quebec by the Company of New
France, he prepared and carried through the press an edition of his
Voyages, comprising extended extracts from what he had already published,
and a continuation of the narrative to 1631. He also published in the same
volume a Treatise on Navigation, and a Catechism translated from the French
by one of the Fathers into the language of the Montagnais. [110]
On the 23d of March, 1633, having again been commissioned as governor,
Champlain sailed from Dieppe with a fleet of three vessels, the "Saint
Pierre," the "Saint Jean," and the "Don de Dieu," belonging to the Company
of New France, conveying to Quebec a large number of colonists, together
with the Jesuit fathers, Enemond Massé and Jean de Brébeuf. The three
vessels entered the harbor of Quebec on the 23d of May. On the announcement
of Champlain's arrival, the little colony was all astir. The cannon at the
Fort St. Louis boomed forth their hoarse welcome of his coming. The hearts
of all, particularly of those who had remained at Quebec during the
occupation of the English, were overflowing with joy. The three years'
absence of their now venerable and venerated governor, and the trials,
hardships, and discouragements through which they had in the mean time
passed, had not effaced from their minds the virtues that endeared him to
their hearts. The memory of his tender solicitude in their behalf, his
brave example of endurance in the hour of want and peril, and the sweetness
of his parting counsels, came back afresh to awaken in them new pulsations
of gratitude. Champlain's heart was touched by his warm reception and the
visible proofs of their love and devotion. This was a bright and happy day
in the calendar of the little colony.
Champlain addressed himself with his old zeal and a renewed strength to
every interest that promised immediate or future good results. He at once
directed the renovation and improvement of the habitation and fort, which,
after an occupation of three years by aliens, could not be delayed. He then
instituted means, holding councils and creating a new trading-post, for
winning back the traffic of the allied tribes, which had been of late drawn
away by the English, who continued to steal into the waters of the St.
Lawrence for that purpose. At an early day after his re-establishment of
himself at Quebec, Champlain proceeded to build a memorial chapel in close
proximity to the fort which he had erected some years before on the crest
of the rocky eminence that overlooks the harbor. He gave it the appropriate
and significant name, NOTRE DAME DE RECOUVRANCE, in grateful memory of the
recent return of the French to New France. [111] It had long been an ardent
desire of Champlain to establish a French settlement among the Hurons, and
to plant a mission there for the conversion of this favorite tribe to the
Christian faith. Two missionaries, De Brébeuf and De Nouë, were now ready
for the undertaking. The governor spared no pains to secure for them a
favorable reception, and vigorously urged the importance of their mission
upon the Hurons assembled at Quebec. [112] But at the last, when on the eve
of securing his purpose, complications arose and so much hostility was
displayed by one of the chiefs, that he thought it prudent to advise its
postponement to a more auspicious moment. With these and kindred
occupations growing out of the responsibilities of his charge, two years
soon passed away.
During the summer of 1635, Champlain addressed an interesting and important
letter to Cardinal de Richelieu, whose authority at that time shaped both
the domestic and foreign policy of France. In it the condition and
imperative wants of New France are clearly set forth. This document was
probably the last that Champlain ever penned, and is, perhaps, the only
autograph letter of his now extant. His views of the richness and possible
resources of the country, the vast missionary field which it offered, and
the policy to be pursued, are so clearly stated that we need offer no
apology for giving the following free translation of the letter in these
pages. [113]
LETTER OF CHAMPLAIN TO CARDINAL DE RICHELIEU.
MONSEIGNEUR,--The honor of the commands that I have received from your
Eminence has inspired me with greater courage to render to you every
possible service with all the fidelity and affection that can be desired
from a faithful servant. I shall spare neither my blood nor my life
whenever the occasion shall demand them.
There are subjects enough in these regions, if your Eminence, after
considering the character of the country, shall desire to extend your
authority over them. This territory is more than fifteen hundred leagues in
length, lying between the same parallels of latitude as our own France. It
is watered by one of the finest rivers in the world, into which empty many
tributaries more than four hundred leagues in length, beautifying a country
inhabited by a vast number of tribes. Some of them are sedentary in their
mode of life, possessing, like the Muscovites, towns and villages built of
wood; others are nomadic, hunters and fishermen, all longing to welcome the
French and religious fathers, that they may be instructed in our faith.
The excellence of this country cannot be too highly estimated or praised,
both as to the richness of the soil, the diversity of the timber such as we
have in France, the abundance of wild animals, game, and fish, which are of
extraordinary magnitude. All this invites you, Monseigneur, and makes it
seem as if God had created you above all your predecessors to do a work
here more pleasing to Him than any that has yet been accomplished.
For thirty years I have frequented this country, and have acquired a
thorough knowledge of it, obtained from my own observation and the
information given me by the native inhabitants. Monseigneur, I pray you to
pardon my zeal, if I say that, after your renown has spread throughout the
East, you should end by compelling its recognition in the West.
Expelling the English from Quebec has been a very important beginning, but,
nevertheless, since the treaty of peace between the two crowns, they have
returned to carry on trade and annoy us in this river; declaring that it
was enjoined upon them to withdraw, but not to remain away, and that they
have their king's permission to come for the period of thirty years. But,
if your Eminence wills, you can make them feel the power of your authority.
This can, furthermore, be extended at your pleasure to him who has come
here to bring about a general peace among these peoples, who are at war
with a nation holding more than four hundred leagues in subjection, and who
prevent the free use of the rivers and highways. If this peace were made,
we should be in complete and easy enjoyment of our possessions. Once
established in the country, we could expel our enemies, both English and
Flemings, forcing them to withdraw to the coast, and, by depriving them of
trade with the Iroquois, oblige them to abandon the country entirely. It
requires but one hundred and twenty men, light-armed for avoiding arrows,
by whose aid, together with two or three thousand savage warriors, our
allies, we should be, within a year, absolute masters of all these peoples,
and, by establishing order among them, promote religious worship and secure
an incredible amount of traffic.
The country is rich in mines of copper, iron, steel, brass, silver, and
other minerals which may be found here.
The cost, Monseigneur, of one hundred and twenty men is a trifling one to
his Majesty, the enterprise the most noble that can be imagined.
All for the glory of God, whom I pray with my whole heart to grant you
ever-increasing prosperity, and to make me, all my life, Monseigneur,
Your most humble,
Most faithful,
and Most obedient servant,
CHAMPLAIN.
AT QUEBEC, IN NEW FRANCE, the 15th of August, 1635.
In this letter will be found the key to Champlain's war-policy with the
Iroquois, no where else so fully unfolded. We shall refer to this subject
in the sequel.
Early in October, when the harvest of the year had ripened and been
gathered in, and the leaves had faded and fallen, and the earth was mantled
in the symbols of general decay, in sympathy with all that surrounded him,
in his chamber in the little fort on the crest of the rocky promontory at
Quebec, lay the manly form of Champlain, smitten with disease, which was
daily breaking down the vigor and strength of his iron constitution. From
loving friends he received the ministrations of tender and assiduous care.
But his earthly career was near its end. The bowl had been broken at the
fountain. Life went on ebbing away from week to week. At the end of two
months and a half, on Christmas day, the 25th of December, 1635, his spirit
passed to its final rest.
This otherwise joyous festival was thus clouded with a deep sorrow. No
heart in the little colony was untouched by this event. All had been drawn
to Champlain, so many years their chief magistrate and wise counsellor, by
a spontaneous and irresistible respect, veneration, and love. It was meet,
as it was the universal desire, to crown him, in his burial, with every
honor which, in their circumstances, they could bestow. The whole
population joined in a mournful procession. His spiritual adviser and
friend, Father Charles Lalemant, performed in his behalf the last solemn
service of the church. Father Paul Le Jeune pronounced a funeral discourse,
reciting his virtues, his fidelity to the king and the Company of New
France, his extraordinary love and devotion to the families of the colony,
and his last counsels for their continued happiness and welfare. [114]
When these ceremonies were over his body was piously and tenderly laid to
rest, and soon after a tomb was constructed for its reception expressly in
his honor as the benefactor of New France. [115] The place of his burial
[116] was within the little chapel subsequently erected, and which was
reverently called _La Chapelle de M. de Chiamplain_, in grateful memory of
him whose body reposed beneath its sheltering walls.
ENDNOTES:
110. This catechism, bearing the following title, is contained on fifteen
pages in the ed. of 1632: _Doctrine Chrestienne, du R. P. Ledesme de
la Compagnie de Jesus. Traduîte en Langage Canadois, autre que celuy
des Montagnars, pour la Conversion des habitans dudit pays. Par le R.
P. Breboeuf de la mesme Compagnie_. It is in double columns, one side
Indian and the other French.
111. The following extracts will show that the chapel was erected in 1633,
that it was built by Champlain, and that it was called Notre Dame de
Recouvrance.
Nous les menasmes en nostre petite chapelle, qui a commencé ceste
année à l'embellir.--_Vide Relations des Jésuites_. Québec ed. 1633,
p. 30.
La sage conduitte et la prudence de Monsieur de Champlain Gouuerneur
de Kebec et du fleuve sainct Laurens, qui nous honore de sa bien-
veillance, retenant vn chacun dans son devoir, a fait que nos paroles
et nos prédications ayent esté bien receuens, et la Chapelle qu'il a
fait dresser proche du fort a l'honneur de nostre Dame, &c.--_Idem_,
1634, p. 2.
La troisiéme, que nous allons habiter cette Autome, la Residence de
Nostre-dame de Recouvrance, à Kebec proche du Fort.--_Idem_, 1635, p.
3.
112. According to Père Le Jeune, from five to seven hundred Hurons had
assembled at Quebec in July, 1633, bringing their canoes loaded with
merchandise.--_Vide Relations des Jésuites_, Quebec ed. 1633, p. 34.
113. This letter was printed in oeuvres de Champlain, Quebec ed. Vol. VI.
_Pièces Justificatives_, p 35. The original is at Paris, in the
Archives of Foreign Affairs.
114. _Vide Relations des Jésuites_, Quebec ed. 1636, p. 56. _Creuxius,
Historia Canadensis_, pp. 183-4.
115. Monsieur le Gouverneur, qui estimoit sa vertu, desira qu'il fust
enterré prés du corps de feu Monsieur de Champlain, qui est dans vn
sepulchre particulier, erigé exprés pour honorer la memoire de ce
signalé personnage qui a tant obligé la Nouuelle France.--_Vide
Relations des Jésuites_, Quebec ed. 1643, p. 3.
116. The exact spot where Champlain was buried is at this time unknown.
Historians and antiquaries have been much interested in its discovery.
In 1866, the Abbés Laverdière and Casgrain were encouraged to believe
that their searches had been crowned with success. They published a
statement of their discovery. Their views were controverted in several
critical pamphlets that followed. In the mean time, additional
researches have been made. The theory then broached that his burial
was in the Lower Town, and in the Recollect chapel built in 1615, has
been abandoned. The Abbé Casgrain, in an able discussion of this
subject, in which he cites documents hitherto unpublished, shows that
Champlain was buried in a tomb within the walls of a chapel erected by
his successor in the Upper Town, and that this chapel was situated
somewhere within the court-yard of the present post-office. Père Le
Jeune, who records the death of Champlain in his Relation of 1636,
does not mention the place of his burial; but the Père Vimont, in his
Relation of 1643, in speaking of the burial of Père Charles Raymbault,
says, the "Governor desired that he should be buried near the _body of
the late Monsieur de Champlain_, which is in a particular tomb erected
expressly to honor the memory of that distinguished personage, who had
placed New France under such great obligation." In the Parish Register
of Notre Dame de Quebec, is the following entry: "The 22d of October
(1642), was interred _in the Chapel of M. De Champlain_ the Père
Charles Rimbault." It is plain, therefore, that Champlain was buried
in what was then commonly known as _the Chapel of M. de Champlain_. By
reference to ancient documents or deeds (one bearing date Feb. 10,
1649, and another 22d April, 1652, and in one of which the Chapel of
Champlain is mentioned as contiguous to a piece of land therein
described), the Abbé Casgrain proves that the _Chapel of M. de
Champlain_ was within the square where is situated the present
post-office at Quebec, and, as the tomb of Champlain was within the
chapel, it follows that Champlain was buried somewhere within the
post-office square above mentioned.
Excavations in this square have been made, but no traces of the walls
or foundations of the chapel have been found. In the excavations for
cellars of the houses constructed along the square, the foundations of
the chapel may have been removed. It is possible that when the chapel
was destroyed, which was at a very early period, as no reference to
its existence is found subsequent to 1649, the body of Champlain and
the others buried there may have been removed, and no record made of
the removal. The Abbé Casgrain expresses the hope that other
discoveries may hereafter be made that shall place this interesting
question beyond all doubt.--_Vide Documents Inédits Relatifs au
Tombeau de Champlain_, par l'Abbé H. R. Casgrain, _L'Opinion
Publique_, Montreal, 4 Nov. 1875.
CHAPTER XII.
CHAMPLAIN'S RELIGION.--HIS WAR POLICY.--HIS DOMESTIC AND SOCIAL LIFE.--
CHAMPLAIN AS AN EXPLORER.--HIS LITERARY LABORS.--THE RESULTS OF HIS CAREER.
As Champlain had lived, so he died, a firm and consistent member of the
Roman church. In harmony with his general character, his religious views
were always moderate, never betraying him into excesses, or into any merely
partisan zeal. Born during the profligate, cruel, and perfidious reign of
Charles IX., he was, perhaps, too young to be greatly affected by the evils
characteristic of that period, the massacre of St. Bartholomew's and the
numberless vices that swept along in its train. His youth and early
manhood, covering the plastic and formative period, stretched through the
reign of Henry III., in which the standards of virtue and religion were
little if in any degree improved. Early in the reign of Henry IV., when he
had fairly entered upon his manhood, we find him closely associated with
the moderate party, which encouraged and sustained the broad, generous, and
catholic principles of that distinguished sovereign.
When Champlain became lieutenant-governor of New France, his attention was
naturally turned to the religious wants of his distant domain. Proceeding
cautiously, after patient and prolonged inquiry, he selected missionaries
who were earnest, zealous, and fully consecrated to their work. And all
whom he subsequently invited into the field were men of character and
learning, whose brave endurance of hardship, and manly courage amid
numberless perils, shed glory and lustre upon their holy calling.
Champlain's sympathies were always with his missionaries in their pious
labors. Whether the enterprise were the establishment of a mission among
the distant Hurons, among the Algonquins on the upper St. Lawrence, or for
the enlargement of their accommodations at Quebec, the printing of a
catechism in the language of the aborigines, or if the foundations of a
college were to be laid for the education of the savages, his heart and
hand were ready for the work.
On the establishment of the Company of New France, or the Hundred
Associates, Protestants were entirely excluded. By its constitution no
Huguenots were allowed to settle within the domain of the company. If this
rule was not suggested by Champlain, it undoubtedly existed by his decided
and hearty concurrence. The mingling of Catholics and Huguenots in the
early history of the colony had brought with it numberless annoyances. By
sifting the wheat before it was sown, it was hoped to get rid of an
otherwise inevitable cause of irritation and trouble. The correctness of
the principle of Christian toleration was not admitted by the Roman church
then any more than it is now. Nor did the Protestants of that period
believe in it, or practise it, whenever they possessed the power to do
otherwise. Even the Puritans of Massachusetts Bay held that their charter
conferred upon them the right and power of exclusion. It was not easy, it
is true, to carry out this view by square legal enactment without coming
into conflict with the laws of England; but they were adroit and skilful,
endowed with a marvellous talent for finding some indirect method of laying
a heavy hand upon Friend or Churchman, or the more independent thinkers
among their own numbers, who desired to make their abode within the
precincts of the bay. In the earlier years of the colony at Quebec, when
Protestant and Catholic were there on equal terms, Champlain's religious
associations led him to swerve neither to the right hand nor to the left.
His administration was characterized by justice, firmness, and gentleness,
and was deservedly satisfactory to all parties.
In his later years, the little colony upon whose welfare and Christian
culture he had bestowed so much cheerful labor and anxious thought, became
every day more and more dear to his heart. Within the ample folds of his
charity were likewise encircled the numerous tribes of savages, spread over
the vast domains of New France. He earnestly desired that all of them, far
and near, friend and foe, might be instructed in the doctrines of the
Christian faith, and brought into willing and loving obedience to the
cross.
In its personal application to his own heart, the religion of Champlain was
distinguished by a natural and gradual progress. His warmth, tenderness,
and zeal grew deeper and stronger with advancing years. In his religious
life there was a clearly marked seed-time, growth, and ripening for the
harvest. After his return to Quebec, during the last three years of his
life, his time was especially systematized and appropriated for
intellectual and spiritual improvement. Some portion was given every
morning by himself and those who constituted his family to a course of
historical reading, and in the evening to the memoirs of the saintly dead
whose lives he regarded as suitable for the imitation of the living, and
each night for himself he devoted more or less time to private meditation
and prayer.
Such were the devout habits of Champlain's life in his later years. We are
not, therefore, surprised that the historian of Canada, twenty-five years
after his death, should place upon record the following concise but
comprehensive eulogy:--
"His surpassing love of justice, piety, fidelity to God, his king, and the
Society of New France, had always been conspicuous. But in his death he
gave such illustrious proofs of his goodness as to fill every one with
admiration." [117]
The reader of these memoirs has doubtless observed with surprise and
perhaps with disappointment, the readiness with which Champlain took part
in the wars of the savages. On his first visit to the valley of the St
Lawrence, he found the Indians dwelling on the northern shores of the river
and the lakes engaged in a deadly warfare with those on the southern, the
Iroquois tribes occupying the northern limits of the present State of New
York, generally known as the Five Nations. The hostile relations between
these savages were not of recent date. They reached back to a very early
but indefinite period. They may have existed for several centuries. When
Champlain planted his colony at Quebec, in 1608, he at once entered into
friendly relations with all the tribes which were his immediate neighbors.
This was eminently a suitable thing to do, and was, moreover, necessary for
his safety and protection.
But a permanent and effective alliance with these tribes carried with it of
necessity a solemn assurance of aid against their enemies. This Champlain
promptly promised without hesitation, and the next year he fulfilled his
promise by leading them to battle on the shores of Lake Champlain. At all
subsequent periods he regarded himself as committed to aid his allies in
their hostile expeditions against the Iroquois. In his printed journal, he
offers no apology for his conduct in this respect, nor does he intimate
that his views could be questioned either in morals or sound policy. He
rarely assigns any reason whatever for engaging in these wars. In one or
two instances he states that it seemed to him necessary to do so in order
to facilitate the discoveries which he wished to make, and that he hoped it
might in the end be the means of leading the savages to embrace
Christianity. But he nowhere enters upon a full discussion of this point.
It is enough to say, in explanation of this silence, that a private journal
like that published by Champlain, was not the place in which to foreshadow
a policy, especially as it might in the future be subject to change, and
its success might depend upon its being known only to those who had the
power to shape and direct it. But nevertheless the silence of Champlain has
doubtless led some historians to infer that he had no good reasons to give,
and unfavorable criticisms have been bestowed upon his conduct by those,
who did not understand the circumstances which influenced him, or the
motives which controlled his action.
The war-policy of Champlain was undoubtedly very plainly set forth in his
correspondence and interviews with the viceroys and several companies under
whose authority he acted. But these discussions, whether oral or written,
do not appear in general to have been preserved. Fortunately a single
document of this character is still extant, in which his views are clearly
unfolded. In Champlain's remarkable letter to Cardinal de Richelieu, which
we have introduced a few pages back, his policy is fully stated. It is
undoubtedly the same that he had acted upon from the beginning, and
explains the frankness and readiness with which, first and last, as a
faithful ally, he had professed himself willing to aid the friendly tribes
in their wars against the Iroquois. The object which he wished to
accomplish by this tribal war was, as fully stated in the letter to which
we have referred, first, to conquer the Iroquois or Five Nations; to
introduce peaceful relations between them and the other surrounding tribes;
and, secondly, to establish a grand alliance of all the savage tribes, far
and near, with the French. This could only be done in the order here
stated. No peace could be secured from the Iroquois, except by their
conquest, the utter breaking down of their power. They were not susceptible
to the influence of reason. They were implacable, and had been brutalized
by long-inherited habits of cruelty. In the total annihilation of their
power was the only hope of peace. This being accomplished, the surviving
remnant would, according to the usual custom among the Indians, readily
amalgamate with the victorious tribes, and then a general alliance with the
French could be easily secured. This was what Champlain wished to
accomplish. The pacification of all the tribes occupying both sides of the
St. Lawrence and the chain of northern lakes would place the whole domain
of the American continent, or as much of it as it would be desirable to
hold, under the easy and absolute control of the French nation.
Such a pacification as this would secure two objects; objects eminently
important, appealing strongly to all who desired the aggrandizement of
France and the progress and supremacy of the Catholic faith. It would
secure for ever to the French the fur-trade of the Indians, a commerce then
important and capable of vast expansion. The chief strength and resources
of the savages allied with the French, the Montagnais, Algonquins, and
Hurons, were at that period expended in their wars. On the cessation of
hostilities, their whole force would naturally and inevitably be given to
the chase. A grand field lay open to them for this exciting occupation. The
fur-bearing country embraced not only the region of the St. Lawrence and
the lakes, but the vast and unlimited expanse of territory stretching out
indefinitely in every direction. The whole northern half of the continent
of North America, filled with the most valuable fur-producing mammalia,
would be open to the enterprise of the French, and could not fail to pour
into their treasury an incredible amount of wealth. This Champlain was
far-sighted enough to see, and his patriotic zeal lead him to desire that
France should avail herself of this opportunity. [118]
But the conquest of the Iroquois would not only open to France the prospect
of exhaustless wealth, but it would render accessible a broad, extensive,
and inviting field of missionary labor. It would remove all external and
physical obstacles to the speedy transmission and offer of the Christian
faith to the numberless tribes that would thus be brought within their
reach.
The desire to bring about these two great ulterior purposes, the
augmentation of the commerce of France in the full development of the
fur-trade, and the gathering into the Catholic church the savage tribes of
the wilderness, explains the readiness with which, from the beginning,
Champlain encouraged his Indian allies and took part with them in their
wars against the Five Nations. In the very last year of his life, he
demanded of Richelieu the requisite military force to carry on this war,
reminding him that the cost would be trifling to his Majesty, while the
enterprise would be the most noble that could be imagined.
In regard to the domestic and social life of Champlain, scarcely any
documents remain that can throw light upon the subject. Of his parents we
have little information beyond that of their respectable calling and
standing. He was probably an only child, as no others are on any occasion
mentioned or referred to. He married, as we have seen, the daughter of the
Secretary of the King's Chamber, and his wife, Hélène Boullé, accompanied
him to Canada in 1620, where she remained four years. They do not appear to
have had children, as the names of none are found in the records at Quebec,
and, at his death, the only claimant as an heir, was a cousin, Marie
Cameret, who, in 1639, resided at Rochelle, and whose husband was Jacques
Hersant, controller of duties and imposts. After Champlain's decease, his
wife, Hélène Boullé, became a novice in an Ursuline convent in the faubourg
of St. Jacques in Paris. Subsequently, in 1648, she founded a religious
house of the same order in the city of Meaux, contributing for the purpose
the sum of twenty thousand livres and some part of the furnishing. She
entered the house that she had founded, as a nun, under the name of Sister
_Hélène de St. Augustin_, where, as the foundress, certain privileges were
granted to her, such as a superior quality of food for herself, exemption
from attendance upon some of the longer services, the reception into the
convent, on her recommendation, of a young maiden to be a nun of the choir,
with such pecuniary assistance as she might need, and the letters of her
brother, the Father Eustache Boullé, were to be exempted from the usual
inspection. She died at Meaux, on the 20th day of December, 1654, in the
convent which she had founded. [119]
As an explorer, Champlain was unsurpassed by any who visited the northern
coasts of America anterior to its permanent settlement He was by nature
endowed with a love of useful adventure, and for the discovery of new
countries he had an insatiable thirst. It began with him as a child, and
was fresh and irrepressible in his latest years. Among the arts, he
assigned to navigation the highest importance. His broad appreciation of it
and his strong attachment to it, are finely stated in his own compact and
comprehensive description.
"Of all the most useful and excellent arts, that of navigation has always
seemed to me to occupy the first place. For the more hazardous it is, and
the more numerous the perils and losses by which it is attended, so much
the more is it esteemed and exalted above all others, being wholly unsuited
to the timid and irresolute. By this art we obtain a knowledge of different
countries, regions, and realms. By it we attract and bring to our own land
all kinds of riches; by it the idolatry of paganism is overthrown and
Christianity proclaimed throughout all the regions of the earth. This is
the art which won my love in my early years, and induced me to expose
myself almost all my life to the impetuous waves of the ocean, and led me
to explore the coasts of a part of America, especially those of New France,
where I have always desired to see the Lily flourish, together with the
only religion, catholic, apostolic, and Roman."
In addition to his natural love for discovery, Champlain had a combination
of other qualities which rendered his explorations pre-eminently valuable.
His interest did not vanish with seeing what was new. It was by no means a
mere fancy for simple sight-seeing. Restlessness and volatility did not
belong to his temperament. His investigations were never made as an end,
but always as a means. His undertakings in this direction were for the most
part shaped and colored by his Christian principle and his patriotic love
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