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Voyages of Samuel de Champlain, Vol. 1

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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
of France. Sometimes one and sometimes the other was more prominent.

His voyage to the West Indies was undertaken under a twofold impulse. It
gratified his love of exploration and brought back rare and valuable
information to France. Spain at that time did not open her island-ports to
the commerce of the world. She was drawing from them vast revenues in
pearls and the precious metals. It was her policy to keep this whole
domain, this rich archipelago, hermetically sealed, and any foreign vessel
approached at the risk of capture and confiscation. Champlain could not,
therefore, explore this region under a commission from France. He
accordingly sought and obtained permission to visit these Spanish
possessions under the authority of Spain herself. He entered and personally
examined all the important ports that surround and encircle the Caribbean
Sea, from the pearl-bearing Margarita on the south, Deseada on the east, to
Cuba on the west, together with the city of Mexico, and the Isthmus of
Panama on the mainland. As the fruit of these journeyings, he brought back
a report minute in description, rich in details, and luminous with
illustrations. This little brochure, from the circumstances attendant upon
its origin, is unsurpassed in historical importance by any similar or
competing document of that period. It must always remain of the highest
value as a trustworthy, original authority, without which it is probable
that the history of those islands, for that period, could not be accurately
and truthfully written.

Champlain was a pioneer in the exploration of the Atlantic coast of New
England and the eastern provinces of Canada, From the Strait of Canseau, at
the northeastern extremity of Nova Scotia, to the Vineyard Sound, on the
southern limits of Massachusetts, he made a thorough survey of the coast in
1605 and 1606, personally examining its most important harbors, bays, and
rivers, mounting its headlands, penetrating its forests, carefully
observing and elaborately describing its soil, its products, and its native
inhabitants. Besides lucid and definite descriptions of the coast, he
executed topographical drawings of numerous points of interest along our
shores, as Plymouth harbor, Nauset Bay, Stage Harbor at Chatham, Gloucester
Bay, the Bay of Baco, with the long stretch of Old Orchard Beach and its
interspersed islands, the mouth of the Kennebec, and as many more on the
coast of New Brunswick and Nova Scotia. To these he added descriptions,
more or less definite, of the harbors of Barnstable, Wellfleet, Boston, of
the headland of Cape Anne, Merrimac Bay, the Isles of Shoals, Cape
Porpoise, Richmond's Island, Mount Desert, Isle Haute, Seguin, and the
numberless other islands that adorn the exquisite sea-coast of Maine, as
jewels that add a new lustre to the beauty of a peerless goddess.

Other navigators had coasted along our shores. Some of them had touched at
single points, of which they made meagre and unsatisfactory surveys.
Gosnold had, in 1602, discovered Savage Rock, but it was so indefinitely
located and described that it cannot even at this day be identified.
Resolving to make a settlement on one of the barren islands forming the
group named in honor of Queen Elizabeth and still bearing her name; after
some weeks spent in erecting a storehouse, and in collecting a cargo of
"furrs, skyns, saxafras, and other commodities," the project of a
settlement was abandoned and he returned to England, leaving, however, two
permanent memorials of his voyage, in the names which he gave respectively
to Martha's Vineyard and to the headland of Cape Cod.

Captain Martin Pring came to our shores in 1603, in search of a cargo of
sassafras. There are indications that he entered the Penobscot. He
afterward paid his respects to Savage Rock, the undefined _bonanza_ of his
predecessor. He soon found his desired cargo on the Vineyard Islands, and
hastily returned to England.

Captain George Weymouth, in 1605, was on the coast of Maine concurrently,
or nearly so, with Champlain, where he passed a month, explored a river,
set up a cross, and took possession of the country in the name of the king.
But where these transactions took place is still in dispute, so
indefinitely does his journalist describe them.

Captain John Smith, eight years later than Champlain, surveyed the coast of
New England while his men were collecting a cargo of furs and fish. He
wrote a description of it from memory, part or all of it while a prisoner
on board a French ship of war off Fayall, and executed a map, both
valuable, but nevertheless exceedingly indefinite and general in their
character.

These flying visits to our shores were not unimportant, and must not be
undervalued. They were necessary steps in the progress of the grand
historical events that followed. But they were meagre and hasty and
superficial, when compared to the careful, deliberate, extensive, and
thorough, not to say exhaustive, explorations made by Champlain.

In the Gulf of St. Lawrence, Cartier had preceded Champlain by a period of
more than sixty years. During this long, dreary half-century the stillness
of the primeval forest had not been disturbed by the woodman's axe. When
Champlain's eyes fell upon it, it was still the same wild, unfrequented,
unredeemed region that it had been to its first discoverer. The rivers,
bays, and islands described by Cartier were identified by Champlain, and
the names they had already received were permanently fixed by his added
authority. The whole gulf and river were re-examined and described anew in
his journal. The exploration of the Richelieu and of Lake Champlain was
pushed into the interior three hundred miles from his base at Quebec. It
reached into a wilderness and along gentle waters never before seen by any
civilized race. It was at once fascinating and hazardous, environed as it
was by vigilant and ferocious savages, who guarded its gates with the
sleepless watchfulness of the fabled Cerberus.

The courage, endurance, and heroism of Champlain were tested in the still
greater-exploration of 1615. It extended from Montreal, the whole length of
the Ottawa, to Lake Nipissing, the Georgian Bay, Simcoe, the system of
small lakes on the south, across the Ontario, and finally ending in the
interior of the State of New York, a journey through tangled forests and
broken water-courses of more than a thousand miles, occupying nearly a
year, executed in the face of physical suffering and hardship before which
a nature less intrepid and determined, less loyal to his great purpose,
less generous and unselfish, would have yielded at the outset. These
journeys into the interior, along the courses of navigable rivers and
lakes, and through the primitive forests, laid open to the knowledge of the
French a domain vast and indefinite in extent, on which an empire broader
and far richer in resources than the old Gallic France might have been
successfully reared.

The personal explorations of Champlain in the West Indies, on the Atlantic
coast, in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, in the State of New York and of
Vermont, and among the lakes in Canada and those that divide the Dominion
from the United States, including the full, explicit, and detailed journals
which he wrote concerning them, place Champlain undeniably not merely in
the front rank, but at the head of the long list of explorers and
navigators, who early visited this part of the continent of North America.

Champlain's literary labors are interesting and important. They were not
professional, but incidental, and the natural outgrowth of the career to
which he devoted his life He had the sagacity to see that the fields which
he entered as an explorer were new and important, that the aspect of every
thing which he then saw would, under the influence and progress of
civilization, soon be changed, and that it was historically important that
a portrait Sketched by an eyewitness should be handed down to other
generations. It was likewise necessary for the immediate and successful
planting of colonies, that those who engaged in the undertaking should have
before them full information of all the conditions on which they were to
build their hopes of final success.

Inspired by such motives as these, Champlain wrote out an accurate journal
of the events that transpired about him, of what he personally saw, and of
the observations of others, authenticated by the best tests which, under
the circumstances, he was able to apply. His natural endowments for this
work were of the highest order. As an observer he was sagacious,
discriminating, and careful. His judgment was cool, comprehensive, and
judicious. His style is in general clear, logical, and compact. His
acquired ability was not, however, extraordinary. He was a scholar neither
by education nor by profession. His life was too full of active duties, or
too remote from the centres of knowledge for acquisitions in the
departments of elegant and refined learning. The period in which he lived
was little distinguished for literary culture. A more brilliant day was
approaching, but it had not yet appeared. The French language was still
crude and unpolished. It had not been disciplined and moulded into the
excellence to which it soon after arose in the reign of Louis XIV. We
cannot in reason look for a grace, refinement, and flexibility which the
French language had not at that time generally attained. But it is easy to
see under the rude, antique, and now obsolete forms which characterize
Champlain's narratives, the elements of a style which, under, early
discipline, nicer culture, and a richer vocabulary, might have made it a
model for all times. There are, here and there, some involved, unfinished,
and obscure passages, which seem, indeed, to be the offspring of haste, or
perhaps of careless and inadequate proof-reading. But in general his style
is without ornament, simple, dignified, concise, and clear. While he was
not a diffusive writer, his works are by no means limited in extent, as
they occupy in the late erudite Laverdière's edition, six quarto volumes,
containing fourteen hundred pages. In them are three large maps,
delineating the whole northeastern part of the continent, executed with
great care and labor by his own hand, together with numerous local
drawings, picturing not only bays and harbors, Indian canoes, wigwams, and
fortresses, but several battle scenes, conveying a clear idea, not possible
by a mere verbal description, of the savage implements and mode of warfare.
[120] His works include, likewise, a treatise on navigation, full of
excellent suggestions to the practical seaman of that day, drawn from his
own experience, stretching over a period of more than forty years.

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