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Voyages of Samuel de Champlain, Vol. 1

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ENDNOTES:

73. Pierre Jeannin was born at Autun, in 1540, and died about 1622. He
began the practice of law at Dijon, in 1569. Though a Catholic, he
always counselled tolerant measures in the treatment of the
Protestants. By his influence he prevented the massacre of the
Protestants at Dijon in 1572. He was a Councillor, and afterward
President, of the Parliament of Dijon. He was the private adviser of
the Duke of Mayenne. He united himself with the party of the League in
1589. He negotiated the peace between Mayenne and Henry IV. The king
became greatly attached to him, and appointed him a Councillor of State
and Superintendent of Finances. He held many offices and did great
service to the State. After the death of the king, Marie de Médicis,
the regent, continued him as Superintendent of Finances.

74. Count de Soissons, Charles de Bourbon, was born at Nogent-le-Rotrou, in
1556, and died Nov. 1, 1612. He was educated in the Catholic religion.
He acted for a time with the party of the League, but, falling in love
with Catherine, the sister of Henry IV., better to secure his object he
abandoned the League and took a military command under Henry III., and
distinguished himself for bravery when the king was besieged in Tours.
After the death of the king, he espoused the cause of Henry IV., was
made Grand Master of France, and took part in the siege of Paris. He
attempted a secret marriage with Catherine, but was thwarted; and the
unhappy lovers were compelled, by the Duke of Sully, to renounce their
matrimonial intentions. He had been Governor of Dauphiny, and, at the
time of his death, was Governor of Normandy, with a pension of 50,000
crowns.

75. Prince de Condé, Henry de Bourbon II., the posthumous son of the first
Henry de Bourbon, was born at Saint Jean d'Angely, in 1588. He married,
in 1609, Charlotte Marguerite de Montmorency, the sister of Henry, the
Duke de Montmorency, who succeeded him as the Viceroy of New France. To
avoid the impertinent gallantries of Henry IV., who had fallen in love
with this beautiful Princess, Condé and his wife left France, and did
not return till the death of the king. He headed a conspiracy against
the Regent, Marie de Médicis, and was thrown into prison on the first
of September, 1616, where he remained three years. Influenced by
ambition, and more particularly by his avarice, he forced his son
Louis, Le Grand Condé, to marry the niece of Cardinal Richelieu, Claire
Clémence de Maillé-Brézé. He did much to confer power and influence
upon his family, largely through his avarice, which was his chief
characteristic. The wit of Voltaire attributes his crowning glory to
his having been the father of the great Condé. During the detention of
the Prince de Condé in prison, the Mareschal de Thémins was Acting
Viceroy of New France, having been appointed by Marie de Médicis, the
Queen Regent.--_Vide Voyages du Sieur de Champlain_, Paris, 1632, p.
211.

76. In making the portage from what is now known as Portage du Fort to
Muskrat Lake, a distance of about nine miles, Champlain, though less
heavily loaded than his companions, carried three French arquebusses,
three oars, his cloak, and some small articles, and was at the same
time bitterly oppressed by swarms of hungry and insatiable mosquitoes.
On the old portage road, traversed by Champlain and his party at this
time, in 1613, an astrolabe, inscribed 1603, was found in 1867. The
presumptive evidence that this instrument was lost by Champlain is
stated in a brochure by Mr. O. H. Marshall.--_Vide Magazine of American
History_ for March, 1879.




CHAPTER VIII.

CHAMPLAIN OBTAINS MISSIONARIES FOR NEW FRANCE.--MEETS THE INDIANS AT
MONTREAL AND ENGAGES IN A WAR AGAINST THE IROQUOIS.--HIS JOURNEY TO THE
HURONS, AND WINTER IN THEIR COUNTRY.

During the whole of the year 1614, Champlain remained in France, occupied
for the most part in adding new members to his company of associates, and
in forming and perfecting such plans as were clearly necessary for the
prosperity and success of the colony. His mind was particularly absorbed in
devising means for the establishment of the Christian faith in the wilds of
America. Hitherto nothing whatever had been done in this direction, if we
except the efforts of Poutrincourt on the Atlantic coast, which had already
terminated in disaster. [77] No missionary of any sort had had hitherto set
his foot upon that part of the soil of New France lying within the Gulf of
St. Lawrence. [78] A fresh interest had been awakened in the mind of
Champlain. He saw its importance in a new light. He sought counsel and
advice from various persons whose wisdom commended them to his attention.
Among the rest was Louis Houêl, an intimate friend, who held some office
about the person of the king, and who was the chief manager of the salt
works at Brouage. This gentleman took a hearty interest in the project, and
assured Champlain that it would not be difficult to raise the means of
sending out three or four Fathers, and, moreover, that he knew some of the
order of the Recollects, belonging to a convent at Brouage, whose zeal he
was sure would be equal to the undertaking. On communicating with them, he
found them quite ready to engage in the work. Two of them were sent to
Paris to obtain authority and encouragement from the proper sources. It
happened that about this time the chief dignitaries of the church were in
Paris, attending a session of the Estates. The bishops and cardinals were
waited upon by Champlain, and their zeal awakened and their co-operation
secured in raising the necessary means for sustaining the mission. After
the usual negotiations and delays, the object was fully accomplished;
fifteen hundred _livres_ were placed in the hands of Champlain for outfit
and expenses, and four Recollect friars embarked with him at Honfleur, on
the ship "St. Étienne," on the 24th of April, 1615, viz., Denis Jamay, Jean
d'Olbeau, Joseph le Caron, and the lay-brother Pacifique du Plessis. [79]

On their arrival at Quebec, Champlain addressed himself immediately to the
preparation of lodgings for the missionaries and the erection of a chapel
for the celebration of divine service. The Fathers were impatient to enter
the fields of labor severally assigned to them. Joseph le Caron was
appointed to visit the Hurons in their distant forest home, concerning
which he had little or no information; but he nevertheless entered upon the
duty with manly courage and Christian zeal. Jean d'Olbeau assumed the
mission to the Montagnais, embracing the region about Tadoussac and the
river Saguenay, while Denis Jamay and Pacifique du Plessis took charge of
the chapel at Quebec.

At the earliest moment possible Champlain hastened to the rendezvous at
Montreal, to meet the Indians who had already reached there on their annual
visit for trade. The chiefs were in raptures of delight on seeing their old
friend again, and had a grand scheme to propose. They had not forgotten
that Champlain had often promised to aid them in their wars. They
approached the subject, however, with moderation and diplomatic wisdom.
They knew perfectly well that the trade in peltry was greatly desired, in
fact that it was indispensable to the French. The substance of what they
had to say was this. It had become now, if not impossible, exceedingly
hazardous, to bring their furs to market. Their enemies, the Iroquois, like
so many prowling wolves, were sure to be on their trail as they came down
the Ottawa, and, incumbered with their loaded canoes, the struggle must be
unequal, and it was nearly impossible for them ever to be winners. The only
solution of the difficulty known to them, or which they cared to consider,
as in all Indian warfare, was to annihilate their enemies utterly and wipe
out their name for ever. Let this be done, and the fruits of peace would
return, their commerce would be safe, prosperous, and greatly augmented.

Such were the reasons presented by the allies. But there were other
considerations, likewise, which influenced the mind of Champlain. It was
necessary to maintain a close and firm alliance with the Indians in order
to extend the French discoveries and domain into new and more distant
regions, and on this extension of French influence depended their hope of
converting the savages to the Christian faith. The force of these
considerations could not be resisted. Champlain decided that, under the
circumstances, it was necessary to give them the desired assistance.

A general assembly was called, and the nature and extent of the campaign
fully considered. It was to be of vastly greater proportions than any that
had hitherto been proposed. The Indians offered to furnish two thousand
five hundred and fifty men, but they were to be gathered together from
different and distant points. The journey must, therefore, be long and
perilous. The objective point, viz., a celebrated Iroquois fort, could not
be reached by the only feasible route in a less distance than eight hundred
or nine hundred miles, and it would require an absence of three or four
months. Preparations for the journey were entered upon at once. Champlain
visited Quebec to make arrangements for his long absence. On his return to
Montreal, the Indians, impatient of delay, had already departed, and Father
Joseph le Caron had gone with them to his distant field of missionary labor
among the Hurons.

On the 9th of July, 1615, Champlain embarked, taking with him an
interpreter, probably Etienne Brûlé, a French servant, and ten savages,
who, with their equipments, were to be accommodated in two canoes. They
entered the Rivière des Prairies, which flows into the St. Lawrence some
leagues east of Montreal, crossing the Lake of the Two Mountains, passed up
the Ottawa, taking the same route which he had traversed some years before,
revisiting its long succession of reaches, its placid lakes, impetuous
rapids, and magnificent falls, and at length arrived at the point where the
river, by an abrupt angle, begins to flow from the northwest. Here, leaving
the Ottawa, they entered the Mattawan, passing down this river into Lac du
Talon, thence into Lac la Tortue, and by a short portage, into Lake
Nipissing. After remaining here two days, entertained generously by the
Nipissingian chiefs, they crossed the lake, and, following the channel of
French River, entered Lake Huron, or rather the Georgian Bay. They coasted
along until they reached the northern limits of the county of Simcoe. Here
they disembarked and entered the territory of their old friends and allies,
the Hurons.

The domain of this tribe consisted of a peninsula formed by the Georgian
Bay, the river Severn, and Lake Simcoe, at the farthest, not more than
forty by twenty-five miles in extent, but more generally cultivated by the
native population, and of a richer soil than any region hitherto explored
north of the St. Lawrence and the lakes. They visited four of their
villages and were cordially received and feasted on Indian corn, squashes,
and fish, with some variety in the methods of cooking. They then proceeded
to Carhagouha, [80] a town fortified with a triple palisade of wood
thirty-five feet in height. Here they found the Recollect Father Joseph Le
Caron, who, having preceded them but a few days, and not anticipating the
visit, was filled with raptures of astonishment and joy. The good Father
was intent upon his pious work. On the 12th of August, surrounded by his
followers, he formally erected a cross as a symbol of the faith, and on the
same day they celebrated the mass and chanted TE DEUM LAUDAMUS for the
first time.

Lingering but two days, Champlain and ten of the French, eight of whom had
belonged to the Suite of Le Caron, proceeded slowly towards Cahiagué, [81]
the rendezvous where the mustering hosts of the savage warriors were to set
forth together upon their hostile excursion into the country of the
Iroquois. Of the Huron villages visited by them, six are particularly
mentioned as fortified by triple palisades of wood. Cahiagué, the capital,
encircled two hundred large cabins within its wooden walls. It was situated
on the north of Lake Simcoe, ten or twelve miles from this body of water,
surrounded by a country rich in corn, squashes, and a great variety of
small fruits, with plenty of game and fish. When the warriors had mostly
assembled, the motley crowd, bearing their bark canoes, meal, and
equipments on their shoulders, moved down in a southwesterly direction till
they reached the narrow strait that unites Lake Chouchiching with Lake
Simcoe, where the Hurons had a famous fishing wear. Here they remained some
time for other more tardy bands to join them. At this point they despatched
twelve of the most stalwart savages, with the interpreter, Étienne Brûlé,
on a dangerous journey to a distant tribe dwelling on the west of the Five
Nations, to urge them to hasten to the fort of the Iroquois, as they had
already received word from them that they would join them in this campaign.

Champlain and his allies soon left the fishing wear and coasted along the
northeastern shore of Lake Simcoe until they reached its most eastern
border, when they made a portage to Sturgeon Lake, thence sweeping down
Pigeon and Stony Lakes, through the Otonabee into Rice Lake, the River
Trent, the Bay of Quinté, and finally rounding the eastern point of Amherst
Island, they were fairly on the waters of Lake Ontario, just as it merges
into the great River St. Lawrence, and where the Thousand Islands begin to
loom into sight. Here they crossed the extremity of the lake at its outflow
into the river, pausing at this important geographical point to take the
latitude, which, by his imperfect instruments, Champlain found to be 43
deg. north. [82]

Sailing down to the southern side of the lake, after a distance, by their
estimate, of about fourteen leagues, they landed and concealed their canoes
in a thicket near the shore. Taking their arms, they proceeded along the
lake some ten miles, through a country diversified with meadows, brooks,
ponds, and beautiful forests filled with plenty of wild game, when they
struck inland, apparently at the mouth of Little Salmon River. Advancing in
a southerly direction, along the course of this stream, they crossed Oneida
River, an outlet of the lake of the same name. When within about ten miles
of the fort which they intended to capture, they met a small party of
savages, men, women, and children, bound on a fishing excursion. Although
unarmed, nevertheless, according to their custom, they took them all
prisoners of war, and began to inflict the usual tortures, but this was
dropped on Champlain's indignant interference. The next day, on the 10th of
October, they reached the great fortress of the Iroquois, after a journey
of four days from their landing, a distance loosely estimated at from
twenty-five to thirty leagues. Here they found the Iroquois in their
fields, industriously gathering in their autumnal harvest of corn and
squashes. A skirmish ensued, in which several were wounded on both sides.

The fort, a drawing of which has been left us by Champlain, was situated a
few miles south of the eastern terminus of Oneida Lake, on a small stream
that winds its way in a northwesterly direction, and finally loses itself
in the same body of water. This rude military structure was hexagonal in
form, one of its sides bordering immediately upon a small pond, while four
of the other laterals, two on the right and two on the left were washed by
a channel of water flowing along their bases. [83] The side opposite the
pond alone had an unobstructed land approach. As an Indian military work,
it was of great strength. It was made of the trunks of trees, as large as
could be conveniently transported. These were set in the ground, forming
four concentric palisades, not more than six inches apart, thirty feet in
height, interlaced and bound together near the top, supporting a gallery of
double paling extending around the whole enclosure, proof not only against
the flint-headed arrows of the Indian, but against the leaden bullets of
the French arquebus. Port-holes were opened along the gallery, through
which effective service could be done upon assailants by hurling stones and
other missiles with which they were well provided. Gutters were laid along
between the palisades to conduct water to every part of the fortification
for extinguishing fire, in case of need.

It was obvious to Champlain that this fort was a complete protection to the
Iroquois, unless an opening could be made in its walls. This could not be
easily done by any force which he and his allies had at their command. His
only hope was in setting fire to the palisades on the land side. This
required the dislodgement of the enemy, who were posted in large numbers on
the gallery, and the protection of the men in kindling the fire, and
shielding it, when kindled, against the extinguishing torrents which could
be poured from the water-spouts and gutters of the fort. He consequently
ordered two instruments to be made with which he hoped to overcome these
obstacles. One was a wooden tower or frame-work, dignified by Champlain as
a _cavalier_, somewhat higher than the palisades, on the top of which was
an enclosed platform where three or four sharp-shooters could in security
clear the gallery, and thus destroy the effective force of the enemy. The
other was a large wooden shield, or _mantelet_, under the protection of
which they could in safety approach and kindle a fire at the base of the
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.

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