Voyages of Samuel de Champlain, Vol. 1 by Samuel de Champlain

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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 Grave 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
Gaspe. 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 Gaspe 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 Hebert 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 Gaspe, 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 Boulle, 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
Emeric 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 Chateauneuf, 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 Barthelemy 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.

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