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

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For the most part, Champlain's narrative of what he saw and of what he
learned from others is given in simple terms, without inference or comment.

His views are, however, clearly apparent in his description of the Spanish
method of converting the Indians by the Inquisition, reducing them to
slavery or the horrors of a cruel death, together with the retaliation
practised by their surviving comrades, resulting in a milder method. This
treatment of the poor savages by their more savage masters Champlain
illustrates by a graphic drawing, in which two stolid Spaniards are
guarding half a dozen poor wretches who are burning for their faith. In
another drawing he represents a miserable victim receiving, under the eye
and direction of the priest, the blows of an uplifted baton, as a penalty
for not attending church.

Champlain's forecast and fertility of mind may be clearly seen in his
suggestion that a ship-canal across the Isthmus of Panama would be a work
of great practical utility, saving, in the voyage to the Pacific side of
the Isthmus, a distance of more than fifteen hundred leagues. [23]

As it was the policy of Spain to withhold as much as possible all knowledge
of her colonial system and wealth in the West Indies, we may add, that
there is probably no work extant, on this subject, written at that period,
so full, impartial, and truthful as this tract by Champlain. It was
undoubtedly written out from notes and sketches made on the spot, and
probably occupied the early part of the two years that followed his return
from this expedition, during which period we are not aware that he entered
upon any other important enterprise. [24]

This tour among the Spanish colonies, and the description which Champlain
gave of them, information so much desired and yet so difficult to obtain,
appear to have made a strong and favorable impression upon the mind of
Henry IV., whose quick comprehension of the character of men was one of the
great qualities of this distinguished sovereign. He clearly saw that
Champlain's character was made up of those elements which are indispensable
in the servants of the executive will. He accordingly assigned him a
pension to enable him to reside near his person, and probably at the same
time honored him with a place within the charmed circle of the nobility.
[25]

While Champlain was residing at court, rejoicing doubtless in his new
honors and full of the marvels of his recent travels, he formed the
acquaintance, or perhaps renewed an old one, with Commander de Chastes,
[26] for many years governor of Dieppe, who had given a long life to the
service of his country, both by sea [27] and by land, and was a warm and
attached friend of Henry IV. The enthusiasm of the young voyager and the
long experience of the old commander made their interviews mutually
instructive and entertaining. De Chastes had observed and studied with
great interest the recent efforts at colonization on the coast of North
America. His zeal had been kindled and his ardor deepened doubtless by the
glowing recitals of his young friend. It was easy for him to believe that
France, as well as Spain, might gather in the golden fruits of
colonization. The territory claimed by France was farther to the north, in
climate and in sources of wealth widely different, and would require a
different management. He had determined, therefore, to send out an
expedition for the purpose of obtaining more definite information than he
already possessed, with the view to surrender subsequently his government
of Dieppe, take up his abode in the new world, and there dedicate his
remaining years to the service of God and his king. He accordingly obtained
a commission from the king, associating with himself some of the principal
merchants of Rouen and other cities, and made preparations for despatching
a pioneer fleet to reconnoitre and fix upon a proper place for settlement,
and to determine what equipment would be necessary for the convenience and
comfort of the colony. He secured the services of Pont Grave, [28] a
distinguished merchant and Canadian fur-trader, to conduct the expedition.
Having laid his views open fully to Champlain, he invited him also to join
the exploring party, as he desired the opinion and advice of so careful an
observer as to a proper plan of future operations.

No proposition could have been more agreeable to Champlain than this, and
he expressed himself quite ready for the enterprise, provided De Chastes
would secure the consent of the king, to whom he was under very great
obligations. De Chastes readily obtained the desired permission, coupled,
however, with an order from the king to Champlain to bring back to him a
faithful report of the voyage. Leaving Paris, Champlain hastened to
Honfleur, armed with a letter of instructions from M. de Gesures, the
secretary of the king, to Pont Grave, directing him to receive Champlain
and afford him every facility for seeing and exploring the country which
they were about to visit. They sailed for the shores of the New World on
the 15th of March, 1603.

The reader should here observe that anterior to this date no colonial
settlement had been made on the northern coasts of America. These regions
had, however, been frequented by European fishermen at a very early period,
certainly within the decade after its discovery by John Cabot in 1497. But
the Basques, Bretons, and Normans, [29] who visited these coasts, were
intent upon their employment, and consequently brought home only meagre
information of the country from whose shores they yearly bore away rich
cargoes of fish.

The first voyage made by the French for the purpose of discovery in our
northern waters of which we have any authentic record was by Jacques
Cartier in 1534, and another was made for the same purpose by this
distinguished navigator in 1535. In the former, he coasted along the shores
of Newfoundland, entered and gave its present name to the Bay of Chaleur,
and at Gaspe took formal possession of the country in the name of the king.
In the second, he ascended the St. Lawrence as far as Montreal, then an
Indian village known by the aborigines as Hochelaga, situated on an island
at the base of an eminence which they named _Mont-Royal_, from which the
present commercial metropolis of the Dominion derives its name. After a
winter of great suffering, which they passed on the St. Charles, near
Quebec, and the death of many of his company, Cartier returned to France
early in the summer of 1536. In 1541, he made a third voyage, under the
patronage of Francois de la Roque, Lord de Roberval, a nobleman of Picardy.
He sailed up the St. Lawrence, anchoring probably at the mouth of the river
Cap Rouge, about four leagues above Quebec, where he built a fort which he
named _Charlesbourg-Royal_. Here he passed another dreary and disheartening
winter, and returned to France in the spring of 1542. His patron, De
Roberval, who had failed to fulfil his intention to accompany him the
preceding year, met him at St. John, Newfoundland. In vain Roberval urged
and commanded him to retrace his course; but the resolute old navigator had
too recent an experience and saw too clearly the inevitable obstacles to
success in their undertaking to be diverted from his purpose. Roberval
proceeded up the Saint Lawrence, apparently to the fort just abandoned by
Cartier, which he repaired and occupied the next winter, naming it
_Roy-Francois_; [30] but the disasters which followed, the sickness and
death of many of his company, soon forced him, likewise, to abandon the
enterprise and return to France.

Of these voyages, Cartier, or rather his pilot-general, has left full and
elaborate reports, giving interesting and detailed accounts of the mode of
life among the aborigines, and of the character and products of the
country.

The entire want of success in all these attempts, and the absorbing and
wasting civil wars in France, paralyzed the zeal and put to rest all
aspirations for colonial adventure for more than half a century.

But in 1598, when peace again began to dawn upon the nation, the spirit of
colonization revived, and the Marquis de la Roche, a nobleman of Brittany,
obtained a royal commission with extraordinary and exclusive powers of
government and trade, identical with those granted to Roberval nearly sixty
years before. Having fitted out a vessel and placed on board forty convicts
gathered out of the prisons of France, he embarked for the northern coasts
of America. The first land he made was Sable Island, a most forlorn
sand-heap rising out of the Atlantic Ocean, some thirty leagues southeast
of Cape Breton. Here he left these wretched criminals to be the strength
and hope, the bone and sinew of the little kingdom which, in his fancy, he
pictured to himself rising under his fostering care in the New World. While
reconnoitring the mainland, probably some part of Nova Scotia, for the
purpose of selecting a suitable location for his intended settlement, a
furious gale swept him from the coast, and, either from necessity or
inclination, he returned to France, leaving his hopeful colonists to a fate
hardly surpassed by that of Selkirk himself, and at the same time
dismissing the bright visions that had so long haunted his mind, of
personal aggrandizement at the head of a colonial establishment.

The next year, 1599, Sieur de Saint Chauvin, of Normandy, a captain in the
royal marine, at the suggestion of Pont Grave, of Saint Malo, an
experienced fur-trader, to whom we have already referred, and who had made
several voyages to the northwest anterior to this, obtained a commission
sufficiently comprehensive, amply providing for a colonial settlement and
the propagation of the Christian faith, with, indeed, all the privileges
accorded by that of the Marquis de la Roche. But the chief and present
object which Chauvin and Pont Grave hoped to attain was the monopoly of the
fur trade, which they had good reason to believe they could at that time
conduct with success. Under this commission, an expedition was accordingly
fitted out and sailed for Tadoussac. Successful in its main object, with a
full cargo of valuable furs, they returned to France in the autumn,
leaving, however, sixteen men, some of whom perished during the winter,
while the rest were rescued from the same fate by the charity of the
Indians. In the year 1600, Chauvin made another voyage, which was equally
remunerative, and a third had been projected on a much broader scale, when
his death intervened and prevented its execution.

The death of Sieur de Chauvin appears to have vacated his commission, at
least practically, opening the way for another, which was obtained by the
Commander de Chastes, whose expedition, accompanied by Champlain, as we
have already seen, left Honfleur on the 15th of March, 1603. It consisted
of two barques of twelve or fifteen tons, one commanded by Pont Grave, and
the other by Sieur Prevert, of Saint Malo, and was probably accompanied by
one or more advice-boats. They took with them two Indians who had been in
France some time, doubtless brought over by De Chauvin on his last voyage.
With favoring winds, they soon reached the banks of Newfoundland, sighted
Cape Ray, the northern point of the Island of Cape Breton, Anticosti and
Gaspe, coasting along the southern side of the river Saint Lawrence as far
as the Bic, where, crossing over to the northern shore, they anchored in
the harbor of Tadoussac. After reconnoitring the Saguenay twelve or fifteen
leagues, leaving their vessels at Tadoussac, where an active fur trade was
in progress with the Indians, they proceeded up the St. Lawrence in a light
boat, passed Quebec, the Three Rivers, Lake St. Peter, the Richelieu, which
they called the river of the Iroquois, making an excursion up this stream
five or six leagues, and then, continuing their course, passing Montreal,
they finally cast anchor on the northern side, at the foot of the Falls of
St. Louis, not being able to proceed further in their boat.

Having previously constructed a skiff for the purpose, Pont Grave and
Champlain, with five sailors and two Indians with a canoe, attempted to
pass the falls. But after a long and persevering trial, exploring the
shores on foot for some miles, they found any further progress quite
impossible with their present equipment. They accordingly abandoned the
undertaking and set out on their return to Tadoussac. They made short stops
at various points, enabling Champlain to pursue his investigations with
thoroughness and deliberation. He interrogated the Indians as to the course
and extent of the St. Lawrence, as well as that of the other large rivers,
the location of the lakes and falls, and the outlines and general features
of the country, making rude drawings or maps to illustrate what the Indians
found difficult otherwise to explain. [31]

The savages also exhibited to them specimens of native copper, which they
represented as having been obtained from the distant north, doubtless from
the neighborhood of Lake Superior. On reaching Tadoussac, they made another
excursion in one of the barques as far as Gaspe, observing the rivers,
bays, and coves along the route. When they had completed their trade with
the Indians and had secured from them a valuable collection of furs, they
commenced their return voyage to France, touching at several important
points, and obtaining from the natives some general hints in regard to the
existence of certain mines about the head waters of the Bay of Fundy.

Before leaving, one of the Sagamores placed his son in charge of Pont
Grave, that he might see the wonders of France, thus exhibiting a
commendable appreciation of the advantages of foreign travel. They also
obtained the gift of an Iroquois woman, who had been taken in war, and was
soon to be immolated as one of the victims at a cannibal feast. Besides
these, they took with them also four other natives, a man from the coast of
La Cadie, and a woman and two boys from Canada.

The two little barques left Gaspe on the 24th of August; on the 5th of
September they were at the fishing stations on the Grand Banks, and on the
20th of the same month arrived at Havre de Grace, having been absent six
months and six days.

Champlain received on his arrival the painful intelligence that the
Commander de Chastes, his friend and patron, under whose auspices the late
expedition had been conducted, had died on the 13th of May preceding. This
event was a personal grief as well as a serious calamity to him, as it
deprived him of an intimate and valued friend, and cast a cloud over the
bright visions that floated before him of discoveries and colonies in the
New World. He lost no time in repairing to the court, where he laid before
his sovereign, Henry IV., a map constructed by his own hand of the regions
which he had just visited, together with a very particular narrative of the
voyage.

This "petit discours," as Champlain calls it, is a clear, compact,
well-drawn paper, containing an account of the character and products of
the country, its trees, plants, fruits, and vines, with a description of
the native inhabitants, their mode of living, their clothing, food and its
preparation, their banquets, religion, and method of burying their dead,
with many other interesting particulars relating to their habits and
customs.

Henry IV. manifested a deep interest in Champlain's narrative. He listened
to its recital with great apparent satisfaction, and by way of
encouragement promised not to abandon the undertaking, but to continue to
bestow upon it his royal favor and patronage.

There chanced at this time to be residing at court, a Huguenot gentleman
who had been a faithful adherent of Henry IV. in the late war, Pierre du
Guast, Sieur de Monts, gentleman ordinary to the king's chamber, and
governor of Pons in Saintonge. This nobleman had made a trip for pleasure
or recreation to Canada with De Chauvin, several years before, and had
learned something of the country, and especially of the advantages of the
fur trade with the Indians. He was quite ready, on the death of De Chastes,
to take up the enterprise which, by this event, had been brought to a
sudden and disastrous termination. He immediately devised a scheme for the
establishment of a colony under the patronage of a company to be composed
of merchants of Rouen, Rochelle, and of other places, their contributions
for covering the expense of the enterprise to be supplemented, if not
rendered entirely unnecessary, by a trade in furs and peltry to be
conducted by the company.

In less than two months after the return of the last expedition, De Monts
had obtained from Henry IV., though contrary to the advice of his most
influential minister, [32] a charter constituting him the king's lieutenant
in La Cadie, with all necessary and desirable powers for a colonial
settlement. The grant included the whole territory lying between the 4Oth
and 46th degrees of north latitude. Its southern boundary was on a parallel
of Philadelphia, while its northern was on a line extended due west from
the most easterly point of the Island of Cape Breton, cutting New Brunswick
on a parallel near Fredericton, and Canada near the junction of the river
Richelieu and the St. Lawrence. It will be observed that the parts of New
France at that time best known were not included in this grant, viz., Lake
St. Peter, Three Rivers, Quebec, Tadoussac, Gaspe, and the Bay Chaleur.
These were points of great importance, and had doubtless been left out of
the charter by an oversight arising from an almost total want of a definite
geographical knowledge of our northern coast. Justly apprehending that the
places above mentioned might not be included within the limits of his
grant, De Monts obtained, the next month, an extension of the bounds of his
exclusive right of trade, so that it should comprehend the whole region of
the gulf and river of St. Lawrence. [33]

The following winter, 1603-4, was devoted by De Monts to organizing his
company, the collection of a suitable band of colonists, and the necessary
preparations for the voyage. His commission authorized him to seize any
idlers in the city or country, or even convicts condemned to
transportation, to make up the bone and sinew of the colony. To what extent
he resorted to this method of filling his ranks, we know not. Early in
April he had gathered together about a hundred and twenty artisans of all
trades, laborers, and soldiers, who were embarked upon two ships, one of
120 tons, under the direction of Sieur de Pont Grave, commanded, however,
by Captain Morel, of Honfleur; another of 150 tons, on which De Monts
himself embarked with several noblemen and gentlemen, having Captain
Timothee, of Havre de Grace, as commander.

De Monts extended to Champlain an invitation to join the expedition, which
he readily accepted, but, nevertheless, on the condition, as in the
previous voyage, of the king's assent, which was freely granted,
nevertheless with the command that he should prepare a faithful report of
his observations and discoveries.

ENDNOTES:

18. Blavet was situated at the mouth of the River Blavet, on the southern
coast of Brittany. Its occupation had been granted to the Spanish by
the Duke de Mercoeur during the civil war, and, with other places held
by the Spanish, was surrendered by the treaty of Vervins, in June,
1598. It was rebuilt and fortified by Louis XIII, and is now known as
Port Louis.

19. _Deseada_, signifying in Spanish the desired land.

20. _Margarita_, a Spanish word from the Greek [Greek: margaritaes],
signifying a pearl. The following account by an eye-witness will not be
uninteresting: "Especially it yieldeth store of pearls, those gems
which the Latin writers call _Uniones_, because _nulli duo reperiuntur
discreti_, they always are found to grow in couples. In this Island
there are many rich Merchants who have thirty, forty, fifty _Blackmore_
slaves only to fish out of the sea about the rocks these pearls....
They are let down in baskets into the Sea, and so long continue under
the water, until by pulling the rope by which they are let down, they
make their sign to be taken up.... From _Margarita_ are all the Pearls
sent to be refined and bored to _Carthagena_, where is a fair and
goodly street of no other shops then of these Pearl dressers. Commonly
in the month of _July_ there is a ship or two at most ready in the
Island to carry the King's revenue, and the Merchant's pearls to
_Carthagena_. One of these ships is valued commonly at three score
thousand or four score thousand ducats and sometimes more, and
therefore are reasonable well manned; for that the _Spaniards_ much
fear our _English_ and the _Holland_ ships."--_Vide New Survey of the
West Indies_, by Thomas Gage, London, 1677, p. 174.

21. _Caymans_, Crocodiles.

22. For an interesting Account of the best route to and from the West
Indies in order to avoid the vigilant French and English corsairs, see
_Notes on Giovanni da Verrazano_, by J. C. Brevoort, New York, 1874, p.
101.

23. At the time that Champlain was at the isthmus, in 1599-1601, the gold
and silver of Peru were brought to Panama, then transported on mules a
distance of about four leagues to a river, known as the Rio Chagres,
whence they were conveyed by water first to Chagres. and thence along
the coast to Porto-bello, and there shipped to Spain.

Champlain refers to a ship-canal in the following words: "One might
judge, if the territory four leagues in extent lying between Panama and
this river were cut through, he could pass from the south sea to that
on the other side, and thus shorten the route by more than fifteen
hundred leagues. From Panama to the Straits of Magellan would
constitute an island, and from Panama to New Foundland another, so that
the whole of America would be in two islands."--_Vide Brief Discours
des Choses Plus Remarquables_, par Sammuel Champlain de Brovage, 1599,
Quebec ed., Vol. I. p 141. This project of a ship canal across the
isthmus thus suggested by Champlain two hundred and eighty years ago is
now attracting the public attention both in this country and in Europe.
Several schemes are on foot for bringing it to pass, and it will
undoubtedly be accomplished, if it shall be found after the most
careful and thorough investigation to be within the scope of human
power, and to offer adequate commercial advantages.

Some of the difficulties to be overcome are suggested by Mr. Marsh in
the following excerpt--

"The most colossal project of canalization ever suggested, whether we
consider the physical difficulties of its execution, the magnitude and
importance of the waters proposed to be united, or the distance which
would be saved in navigation, is that of a channel between the Gulf of
Mexico and the Pacific, across the Isthmus of Darien. I do not now
speak of a lock-canal, by way of the Lake of Nicaragua, or any other
route,--for such a work would not differ essentially from other canals
and would scarcely possess a geographical character,--but of an open
cut between the two seas. The late survey by Captain Selfridge, showing
that the lowest point on the dividing ridge is 763 feet above the
sea-level, must be considered as determining in the negative the
question of the possibility of such a cut, by any means now at the
control of man; and both the sanguine expectations of benefits, and the
dreary suggestions of danger from the realization of this great dream,
may now be dismissed as equally chimerical."--_Vide The Earth as
Modified by Human Action_, by George P. Marsh, New York, 1874, p. 612.

24. A translation of Champlain's Voyage to the West Indies and Mexico was
made by Alice Wilmere, edited by Norton Shaw, and published by the
Hakluyt Society, London, 1859.

25. No positive evidence is known to exist as to the time when Champlain
was ennobled. It seems most likely to have been in acknowledgment of
his valuable report made to Henry IV. after his visit to the West
Indies.

26. Amyar de Chastes died on the 13th of May, 1603, greatly respected and
beloved by his fellow-citizens. He was charged by his government with
many important and responsible duties. In 1583, he was sent by Henry
III., or rather by Catherine de Medicis, to the Azores with a military
force to sustain the claims of Antonio, the Prior of Crato, to the
throne of Portugal. He was a warm friend and supporter of Henry IV.,
and took an active part in the battles of Ivry and Arques. He commanded
the French fleet on the coasts of Brittany; and, during the long
struggle of this monarch with internal enemies and external foes, he
was in frequent communication with the English to secure their
co-operation, particularly against the Spanish. He accompanied the Duke
de Boullon, the distinguished Huguenot nobleman, to England, to be
present and witness the oath of Queen Elizabeth to the treaty made with
France.

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