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Voyages of Samuel de Champlain, Vol. 1

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After they had rowed about eight leagues, according to Champlain's
estimate, they encamped for the night. A prevailing characteristic of the
savages on the eastern coast, in the early history of America, was the
barbarous cruelties which they inflicted upon their prisoners of war. [64]
They did not depart from their usual custom in the present instance. Having
kindled a fire, they selected a victim, and proceeded to excoriate his back
with red-hot burning brands, and to apply live coals to the ends of his
fingers, where they would give the most exquisite pain. They tore out his
finger-nails, and, with sharp slivers of wood, pierced his wrists and
rudely forced out the quivering sinews. They flayed off the skin from the
top of his head, [65] and poured upon the bleeding wound a stream of
boiling melted gum. Champlain remonstrated in vain. The piteous cries of
the poor, tormented victim excited his unavailing compassion, and he turned
away in anger and disgust. At length, when these inhuman tortures had been
carried as far as they desired, Champlain was permitted, at his earnest
request, with a musket-shot to put an end to his sufferings. But this was
not the termination of the horrid performance. The dead victim was hacked
in pieces, his heart severed into parts, and the surviving prisoners were
ordered to eat it. This was too revolting to their nature, degraded as it
was; they were forced, however, to take it into their mouths, but they
would do no more, and their guard of more compassionate Algonquins allowed
them to cast it into the lake.

This exhibition of savage cruelty was not extraordinary, but according to
their usual custom. It was equalled, and, if possible, even surpassed, in
the treatment of captives generally, and especially of the Jesuit
missionaries in after years. [66]

When the party arrived at the Falls of Chambly, the Hurons and Algonquins
left the river, in order to reach their homes by a shorter way,
transporting their canoes and effects over land to the St. Lawrence near
Montreal, while the rest continued their journey down the Richelieu and the
St. Lawrence to Tadoussac, where their families were encamped, waiting to
join in the usual ceremonies and rejoicings after a great victory.

When the returning warriors approached Tadoussac, they hung aloft on the
prow of their canoes the scalped heads of those whom they had slain,
decorated with beads which they had begged from the French for this
purpose, and with a savage grace presented these ghastly trophies to their
wives and daughters, who, laying aside their garments, eagerly swam out to
obtain the precious mementoes, which they hung about their necks and bore
rejoicing to the shore, where they further testified their satisfaction by
dancing and singing.

After a few days, Champlain repaired to Quebec, and early in September
decided to return with Pont Gravé to France. All arrangements were speedily
made for that purpose. Fifteen men were left to pass the winter at Quebec,
in charge of Captain Pierre Chavin of Dieppe. On the 5th of September they
sailed from Tadoussac, and, lingering some days at Isle Percé, arrived at
Honfleur on the 13th of October, 1609.

Champlain hastened immediately to Fontainebleau, to make a detailed report
of his proceedings to Sieur de Monts, who was there in official attendance
upon the king. [67] On this occasion he sought an audience also with Henry
IV., who had been his friend and patron from the time of his first voyage
to Canada in 1603. In addition to the new discoveries and observations
which he detailed to him, he exhibited a belt curiously wrought and inlaid
with porcupine-quills, the work of the savages, which especially drew forth
the king's admiration. He also presented two specimens of the scarlet
tanager, _Pyranga rubra_, a bird of great brilliancy of plumage and
peculiar to this continent, and likewise the head of a gar-pike, a fish of
singular characteristics, then known only in the waters of Lake Champlain.
[68]

At this time De Monts was urgently seeking a renewal of his commission for
the monopoly of the fur-trade. In this Champlain was deeply interested. But
to this monopoly a powerful opposition arose, and all efforts at renewal
proved utterly fruitless. De Monts did not, however, abandon the enterprise
on which he had entered. Renewing his engagements with the merchants of
Rouen with whom he had already been associated, he resolved to send out in
the early spring, as a private enterprise and without any special
privileges or monopoly, two vessels with the necessary equipments for
strengthening his colony at Quebec and for carrying on trade as usual with
the Indians.

Champlain was again appointed lieutenant, charged with the government and
management of the colony, with the expectation of passing the next winter
at Quebec, while Pont Gravé, as he had been before, was specially entrusted
with the commercial department of the expedition.

They embarked at Honfleur, but were detained in the English Channel by bad
weather for some days. In the mean time Champlain was taken seriously ill,
the vessel needed additional ballast, and returned to port, and they did
not finally put to sea till the 8th of April. They arrived at Tadoussac on
the 26th of the same month, in the year 1610, and, two days later, sailed
for Quebec, where they found the commander, Captain Chavin, and the little
colony all in excellent health.

The establishment at Quebec, it is to be remembered, was now a private
enterprise. It existed by no chartered rights, it was protected by no
exclusive authority. There was consequently little encouragement for its
enlargement beyond what was necessary as a base of commercial operations.
The limited cares of the colony left, therefore, to Champlain, a larger
scope for the exercise of his indomitable desire for exploration and
adventure. Explorations could not, however, be carried forward without the
concurrence and guidance of the savages by whom he was immediately
surrounded. Friendly relations existed between the French and the united
tribes of Montagnais, Hurons, and Algonquins, who occupied the northern
shores of the St. Lawrence and the great lakes. A burning hatred existed
between these tribes and the Iroquois, occupying the southern shores of the
same river. A deadly warfare was their chief employment, and every summer
each party was engaged either in repelling an invasion or in making one in
the territory of the other. Those friendly to Champlain were quite ready to
act as pioneers in his explorations and discoveries, but they expected and
demanded in return that he should give them active personal assistance in
their wars. Influenced, doubtless, by policy, the spirit of the age, and
his early education in the civil conflicts of France, Champlain did not
hesitate to enter into an alliance and an exchange of services on these
terms.

In the preceding year, two journeys into distant regions had been planned
for exploration and discovery. One beginning at Three Rivers, was to
survey, under the guidance of the Montagnais, the river St. Maurice to its
source, and thence, by different channels and portages, reach Lake St.
John, returning by the Saguenay, making in the circuit a distance of not
less than eight hundred miles. The other plan was to explore, under the
direction of the Hurons and Algonquins, the vast country over which they
were accustomed to roam, passing up the Ottawa, and reaching in the end the
region of the copper mines on Lake Superior, a journey not less than twice
the extent of the former.

Neither of these explorations could be undertaken the present year. Their
importance, however, to the future progress of colonization in New France
is sufficiently obvious. The purpose of making these surveys shows the
breadth and wisdom of Champlain's views, and that hardships or dangers were
not permitted to interfere with his patriotic sense of duty.

Soon after his arrival at Quebec, the savages began to assemble to engage
in their usual summer's entertainment of making war upon the Iroquois.
Sixty Montagnais, equipped in their rude armor, were hastening to the
rendezvous which, by agreement made the year before, was to be at the mouth
of the Richelieu. [69] Hither were to come the three allied tribes, and
pass together up this river into Lake Champlain, the "gate" or war-path
through which these hostile clans were accustomed to make their yearly
pilgrimage to meet each other in deadly conflict. Sending forward four
barques for trading purposes, Champlain repaired to the mouth of the
Richelieu, and landed, in company with the Montagnais, on the Island St.
Ignace, on the 19th of June. While preparations were making to receive
their Algonquin allies from the region of the Ottawa, news came that they
had already arrived, and that they had discovered a hundred Iroquois
strongly barricaded in a log fort, which they had hastily thrown together
on the brink of the river not far distant, and to capture them the
assistance of all parties was needed without delay. Champlain, with four
Frenchmen and the sixty Montagnais, left the island in haste, passed over
to the mainland, where they left their canoes, and eagerly rushed through
the marshy forest a distance of two miles. Burdened with their heavy armor,
half consumed by mosquitoes which were so thick that they were scarcely
able to breathe, covered with mud and water, they at length stood before
the Iroquois fort. [70] It was a structure of logs laid one upon another,
braced and held together by posts coupled by withes, and of the usual
circular form. It offered a good protection in savage warfare. Even the
French arquebus discharged through the crevices did slow execution.

It was obvious to Champlain that, to ensure victory, the fort must be
demolished. Huge trees, severed at the base, falling upon it, did not break
it down. At length, directed by Champlain, the savages approached under
their shields, tore away the supporting posts, and thus made a breach, into
which rushed the infuriated besiegers, and in hot haste finished their
deadly work. Fifteen of the Iroquois were taken prisoners; a few plunged
into the river and were drowned; the rest perished by musket-shots,
arrow-wounds, the tomahawk, and the war-club. Of the allied savages three
were killed and fifty wounded. Champlain himself did not escape altogether
unharmed. An arrow, armed with a sharp point of stone, pierced his ear and
neck, which he drew out with his own hand. One of his companions received a
similar wound in the arm. The victors scalped the dead as usual,
ornamenting the prows of their canoes with the bleeding heads of their
enemies, while they severed one of the bodies into quarters, to eat, as
they alleged, in revenge.

The canoes of the savages and a French shallop having come to the scene of
this battle, all soon embarked and returned to the Island of St. Ignace.
Here the allies, joined by eighty Huron warriors who had arrived too late
to participate in the conflict, remained three days, celebrating their
victory by dancing, singing, and the administration of the usual punishment
upon their prisoners of war. This consisted in a variety of exquisite
tortures, similar to those inflicted the year before, after the victory on
Lake Champlain, horrible and sickening in all their features, and which
need not be spread upon these pages. From these tortures Champlain would
gladly have snatched the poor wretches, had it been in his power, but in
this matter the savages would brook no interference. There was a solitary
exception, however, in a fortunate young Iroquois who fell to him in the
division of prisoners. He was treated with great kindness, but it did not
overcome his excessive fear and distrust, and he soon sought an opportunity
and escaped to his home. [71]

When the celebration of the victory had been completed, the Indians
departed to their distant abodes. Champlain, however, before their
departure, very wisely entered into an agreement that they should receive
for the winter a young Frenchman who was anxious to learn their language,
and, in return, he was himself to take a young Huron, at their special
request, to pass the winter in France. This judicious arrangement, in which
Champlain was deeply interested and which he found some difficulty in
accomplishing, promised an important future advantage in extending the
knowledge of both parties, and in strengthening on the foundation of
personal experience their mutual confidence and friendship.

After the departure of the Indians, Champlain returned to Quebec, and
proceeded to put the buildings in repair and to see that all necessary
arrangements were made for the safety and comfort of the colony during the
next winter.

On the 4th of July, Des Marais, in charge of the vessel belonging to De
Monts and his company, which had been left behind and had been expected
soon to follow, arrived at Quebec, bringing the intelligence that a small
revolution had taken place in Brouage, the home of Champlain, that the
Protestants had been expelled, and an additional guard of soldiers had been
placed in the garrison. Des Marais also brought the startling news that
Henry IV. had been assassinated on the 14th of May. Champlain was
penetrated by this announcement with the deepest sorrow. He fully saw how
great a public calamity had fallen upon his country. France had lost, by an
ignominious blow, one of her ablest and wisest sovereigns, who had, by his
marvellous power, gradually united and compacted the great interests of the
nation, which had been shattered and torn by half a century of civil
conflicts and domestic feuds. It was also to him a personal loss. The king
had taken a special interest in his undertakings, had been his patron from
the time of his first voyage to New France in 1603, had sustained him by an
annual pension, and on many occasions had shown by word and deed that he
fully appreciated the great value of his explorations in his American
domains. It was difficult to see how a loss so great both to his country
and himself could be repaired. A cloud of doubt and uncertainty hung over
the future. The condition of the company, likewise, under whose auspices he
was acting, presented at this time no very encouraging features. The
returns from the fur-trade had been small, owing to the loss of the
monopoly which the company had formerly enjoyed, and the excessive
competition which free-trade had stimulated. Only a limited attention had
as yet been given to the cultivation of the soil. Garden vegetables had
been placed in cultivation, together with small fields of Indian corn,
wheat, rye, and barley. These attempts at agriculture were doubtless
experiments, while at the fame time they were useful in supplementing the
stores needed for the colony's consumption.

Champlain's personal presence was not required at Quebec during the winter,
as no active enterprise could be carried forward in that inclement season,
and he decided, therefore, to return to France. The little colony now
consisted of sixteen men, which he placed in charge, during his absence, of
Sieur Du Parc. He accordingly left Tadoussac on the 13th of August, and
arrived at Honfleur in France on the 27th of September, 1610.

During the autumn of this year, while residing in Paris, Champlain became
attached to Hélène Boullé, the daughter of Nicholas Boullé, secretary of
the king's chamber. She was at that time a mere child, and of too tender
years to act for herself, particularly in matters of so great importance as
those which relate to marital relations. However, agreeably to a custom not
infrequent at that period, a marriage contract [72] was entered into on the
27th of December with her parents, in which, nevertheless, it was
stipulated that the nuptials should not take place within at least two
years from that date. The dowry of the future bride was fixed at six
thousand livres _tournois_, three fourths of which were paid and receipted
for by Champlain two days after the signing of the contract. The marriage
was afterward consummated, and Helen Boullé, as his wife, accompanied
Champlain to Quebec, in 1620, as we shall see in the sequel.

Notwithstanding the discouragements of the preceding year and the small
prospect of future success, De Monts and the merchants associated with him
still persevered in sending another expedition, and Champlain left Honfleur
for New France on the first day of March, 1611. Unfortunately, the voyage
had been undertaken too early in the season for these northern waters, and
long before they reached the Grand Banks, they encountered ice-floes of the
most dangerous character. Huge blocks of crystal, towering two hundred feet
above the surface of the water, floated at times near them, and at others
they were surrounded and hemmed in by vast fields of ice extending as far
as the eye could reach. Amid these ceaseless perils, momentarily expecting
to be crushed between the floating islands wheeling to and fro about them,
they struggled with the elements for nearly two months, when finally they
reached Tadoussac on the 13th of May.

ENDNOTES:

58. The situation of Quebec and an engraved representation of the buildings
may be seen by reference to Vol. II. pp. 175, 183.

59. Scurvy, or _mal de la terre_.--_Vide_ Vol. II. note 105.

60. _Hurons_ "The word Huron comes from the French, who seeing these
Indians with the hair cut very short, and standing up in a strange
fashion, giving them a fearful air, cried out, the first time they saw
them, _Quelle hures!_ what boars' heads! and so got to call them
Hurons."--Charlevoix's _His. New France_, Shea's Trans Vol. II. p. 71.
_Vide Relations des Jésuites_, Quebec ed. Vol. I. 1639, P 51; also note
321, Vol. II. of this work, for brief notice of the Algonquins and
other tribes.

61. For the identification of the site of this battle, see Vol. II p. 223,
note 348. It is eminently historical ground. Near it Fort Carrillon was
erected by the French in 1756. Here Abercrombie was defeated by
Montcalm in 1758. Lord Amherst captured the fort in 1759 Again it was
taken from the English by the patriot Ethan Alien in 1775. It was
evacuated by St. Clair when environed by Burgoyne in 1777, and now for
a complete century it has been visited by the tourist as a ruin
memorable for its many historical associations.

62. This lake, discovered and explored by Champlain, is ninety miles in
length. Through its centre runs the boundary line between the State of
New York and that of Vermont. From its discovery to the present time it
has appropriately borne the honored name of Champlain. For its Indian
name, _Caniaderiguarunte_, see Vol. II. note 349. According to Mr. Shea
the Mohawk name of Lake Champlain is _Caniatagaronte_.--_Vide Shea's
Charlevoix_. Vol. II. p. 18.

Lake Champlain and the Hudson River were both discovered the same year,
and were severally named after the distinguished navigators by whom
they were explored. Champlain completed his explorations at
Ticonderoga, on the 30th of July, 1609, and Hudson reached the highest
point made by him on the river, near Albany, on the 22d of September of
the same year.--_Vide_ Vol. II. p. 219. Also _The Third Voyage of
Master Henry Hudson_, written by Robert Ivet of Lime-house,
_Collections of New York His. Society_, Vol. I. p. 140.

63. _Lake George_. The Jesuit Father, Isaac Jogues, having been summoned in
1646 to visit the Mohawks, to attend to the formalities of ratifying a
treaty of peace which had been concluded with them, passing by canoe up
the Richelieu, through Lake Champlain, and arriving at the end of Lake
George on the 29th of May, the eve of Corpus Christi, a festival
celebrated by the Roman Church on the Thursday after Trinity Sunday, in
honor of the Holy Eucharist or the Lord's Supper, named this lake LAC
DU SAINT SACREMENT. The following is from the Jesuit Relation of 1646
by Pere Hierosme Lalemant. Ils arriuèrent la veille du S. Sacrement au
bout du lac qui est ioint au grand lac de Champlain. Les Iroquois le
nomment Andiatarocté, comme qui diroit, là où le lac se ferme. Le Pere
le nomma le lac du S. Sacrement--_Relations des Jésuites_, Quebec ed.
Vol. II. 1646, p. 15.

Two important facts are here made perfectly plain; viz. that the
original Indian name of the lake was _Andtatarocté_, and that the
French named it Lac du Saint Sacrement because they arrived on its
shores on the eve of the festival celebrated in honor of the Eucharist
or the Lord's Supper. Notwithstanding this very plain statement, it has
been affirmed without any historical foundation whatever, that the
original Indian name of this lake was _Horican_, and that the Jesuit
missionaries, having selected it for the typical purification of
baptism on account of its limpid waters, named it _Lac du Saint
Sacrement_. This perversion of history originated in the extraordinary
declaration of Mr. James Fenimore Cooper, in his novel entitled "The
Last of the Mohicans," in which these two erroneous statements are
given as veritable history. This new discovery by Cooper was heralded
by the public journals, scholars were deceived, and the bold imposition
was so successful that it was even introduced into a meritorious poem
in which the Horican of the ancient tribes and the baptismal waters of
the limpid lake are handled with skill and effect. Twenty-five years
after the writing of his novel, Mr. Cooper's conscience began seriously
to trouble him, and he publicly confessed, in a preface to "The Last of
the Mohicans," that the name Horican had been first applied to the lake
by himself, and without any historical authority. He is silent as to
the reason he had assigned for the French name of the lake, which was
probably an assumption growing out of his ignorance of its
meaning--_Vide The Last of The Mohicans_, by J. Fenimore Cooper,
Gregory's ed., New York, 1864, pp ix-x and 12.

64. "There are certain general customs which mark the California Indians,
as, the non-use of torture on prisoners of war," &c.--_Vide The Tribes
of California_, by Stephen Powers, in _Contributions to North American
Ethnology_, Vol. III. p. 15. _Tribes of Washington and Oregon_, by
George Gibbs, _idem_, Vol. I. p. 192.

65. "It has been erroneously asserted that the practice of scalping did not
prevail among the Indians before the advent of Europeans. In 1535,
Carrier saw five scalps at Quebec, dried and stretched on hoops. In
1564, Laudonniere saw them among the Indians of Florida. The Algonquins
of New England and Nova Scotia were accustomed to cut off and carry
away the head, which they afterwards scalped. Those of Canada, it
seems, sometimes scalped the dead bodies on the field. The Algonquin
practice of carrying off heads as trophies is mentioned by Lalemant,
Roger Williams, Lescarbot, and Champlain."--_Vide Pioneers of France in
the New World_, by Francis Parkman, Boston, 1874, p. 322. The practice
of the tribes on the Pacific coast is different "In war they do not
take scalps, but decapitate the slain and bring in the heads as
trophies."--_Contributions to Am. Ethnology_, by Stephen Powers,
Washington, 1877, Vol. III. pp. 21, 221. _Vide_ Vol. I. p. 192. The
Yuki are an exception. Vol. III. p. 129.

66. For an account of the sufferings of Brébeuf, Lalemant, and Jogues, see
_History of Catholic Missions_, by John Gilmary Shea, pp. 188, 189,
217.

67. He was gentleman in ordinary to the king's chamber. "Gentil-homme
ordinaire de nôstre Chambre."--_Vide Commission du Roy au Sieur de
Monts, Histoire de la Nouvelle France_, par Marc Lescarbot, Paris,
1612, p. 432.

68. Called by the Indians _chaousarou_. For a full account of this
crustacean _vide_ Vol. II. note 343.

69. The mouth of the Richelieu was the usual place of meeting. In 1603, the
allied tribes were there when Champlain ascended the St Lawrence. They
had a fort, which he describes.--_Vide postea_, p 243.

70. Champlain's description does not enable us to identify the place of
this battle with exactness. It will be observed, if we refer to his
text, that, leaving the island of St Ignace, and going half a league,
crossing the river, they landed, when they were plainly on the mainland
near the mouth of the Richelieu. They then went half a league, and
finding themselves outrun by their Indian guides and lost, they called
to two savages, whom they saw going through the woods, to guide them.
Going a _short distance_, they were met by a messenger from the scene
of conflict, to urge them to hasten forwards. Then, after going less
than an eighth of a league, they were within the sound of the voices of
the combatants at the fort These distances are estimated without
measurement, and, of course, are inexact: but, putting the distances
mentioned altogether, the journey through the woods to the fort was
apparently a little more than two miles. Had they followed the course
of the river, the distance would probably have been somewhat more:
perhaps nearly three miles. Champlain does not positively say that the
fort was on the Richelieu, but the whole narrative leaves no doubt that
such was the fact. This river was the avenue through which the Iroquois
were accustomed to come, and they would naturally encamp here where
they could choose their own ground, and where their enemies were sure
to approach them. If we refer to Champlain's illustration of _Fort des
Iroquois_, Vol. II. p. 241, we shall observe that the river is pictured
as comparatively narrow, which could hardly be a true representation if
it were intended for the St. Lawrence. The escaping Iroquois are
represented as swimming towards the right, which was probably in the
direction of their homes on the south, the natural course of their
retreat. The shallop of Des Prairies, who arrived late, is on the left
of the fort, at the exact point where he would naturally disembark if
he came up the Richelieu from the St. Lawrence. From a study of the
whole narrative, together with the map, we infer that the fort was on
the western bank of the Richelieu, between two and three miles from its
mouth. We are confident that its location cannot be more definitely
fixed.

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