Chapter I: Part 1

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NARRATIVE OF A VOYAGE TO THE WEST INDIES AND MEXICO IN THE YEARS 1599-1602,

* * * * *

WORKS ISSUED BY

The Hakluyt Society.

NARRATIVE OF A VOYAGE TO THE WEST INDIES AND MEXICO.

FIRST SERIES. NO. XXIII-MDCCCLIX

* * * * *

NARRATIVE OF A VOYAGE TO THE WEST INDIES AND MEXICO IN THE YEARS 1599-1602,

With Maps and illustrations.

by

SAMUEL CHAMPLAIN.

Translated from the Original and Unpublished Manuscript, with a Biographical Notice and Notes by Alice Wilmere.

Edited by Norton Shaw.

Burt Franklin, Publisher New York, New York

Published by Burt Franklin 514 West 113th Street New York 25, N.Y.

Originally Published by The Hakluyt Society Reprinted by Permission

Printed in the U.S.A.

* * * * *

THE HAKLUYT SOCIETY.

SIR RODERICK IMPEY MURCHISON, G.C.St.S., F.R.S., D.C.L., Corr. Mem. Inst. Fr., Hon. Mem. Imp. Acad. So. St. Petersburg, &c., &c., PRESIDENT.

THE MARQUIS OF LANSDOWNE. } }VICE-PRESIDENTS. REAR-ADMIRAL C. R. DRINKWATER BETHUNE, C.B. }

RT. HON. LORD BROUGHTON.

BERIAH BOTFIELD, ESQ.

THE LORD ALFRED SPENCER CHURCHILL.

CHARLES WENTWORTH DILKE, ESQ., F.S.A.

RT. HON. SIR DAVID DUNDAS.

SIR HENRY ELLIS, K.H., F.R.S.

JOHN FORSTER, ESQ.

LIEUT.-GEN. CHARLES RICHARD FOX.

R. W. GREY, ESQ., M.P.

EGERTON HARCOURT, ESQ.

JOHN WINTER JONES, ESQ., F.S.A.

HIS EXCELLENCY THE COUNT DE LAVRADIO.

RT. HON. ROBERT LOWE, M.P.

R. H. MAJOR, ESQ., F.S.A.

SIR HENRY RAWLINSON, K.C.B.

THE EARL OF SHEFFIELD.

CLEMENTS R. MARKHAM, ESQ., HONORARY SECRETARY.

* * * * *

INTRODUCTION.

The manuscript, of which the following is a translation, as literal as the idioms of the two languages admit, is in the possession of Monsieur Feret, the learned and extremely obliging librarian of the Public Library at Dieppe. Of its originality and authenticity there can be no doubt; the internal evidence of similarity in style, diction, and orthography even, with the published account of Champlain's _Voyages in New France_, would alone suffice to establish those points.[1]

[1] Extract from "Histoire et Description Generale de la Nouvelle
France, avec le Journal Historique d'un Voyage fait par ordre du
Roi dans l'Amerique Septentrionnale. Par le P. De Charlevoix, de
la Compagnie de Jesus." Tome Premier, 12o., Paris, 1744, p. 172.
"Le Commandeur de CHATTE, governeur de Dieppe, lui succeda, forma
une Compagnie de Marchands de Rouen, avec lesquels plusieurs
Personnes de condition entrerent en societe, et fit un Armement,
dont il confia la conduite a Pontgrave, a qui le Roy avoit donne
des Lettres Patentes, pour continuer les decouvertes dans le
Fleuve du Canada, et pour y faire des Etablissemens. Dans le meme
tems Samuel de CHAMPLAIN, Gentilhomme Saintongeois, Capitaine de
Vaisseau, et en reputation d'Officier brave, habile et experimente,
_arriva des Indes Occidentales, ou il avoit passe deux ans et
demi._ Le Commandeur de Chatte lui proposa de faire le voyage de
Canada, et il y consentit avec l'agrement du Roy, etc."--ED.

M. Feret obtained this valuable document from a resident in Dieppe, where it has been for an unknown time; and it is more than probable that it had been in the possession of M. de Chastes, governor of the town and castle of Dieppe, who was Champlain's chief friend and protector, under whose auspices he had been employed in the war in Brittany against the League, and by whom, after his return from the West Indies, he was sent to Canada. To him, it is most likely that Champlain would present a narrative of his voyage. On M. de Chastes' death, the manuscript probably passed into the possession of the Convent of the Minimes at Dieppe, to which he was a great benefactor during his life, and by testament after his death. He was also, by his desire, buried in the church of the convent. The library of the Minime fathers was, with the rest of their property, and that of the other convents of the town, dispersed at the great Revolution; but most of the books remained at Dieppe, as may be seen by a reference to the numerous works which have gradually found their way, by gift or purchase, to the "Public Library" of that town, bearing inscriptions as having belonged to the convent.

The readers of Champlain's _Voyages in New France,_ will remember the allusion to the expedition which is the subject of the following narrative: "Sur ces entrefaites," he says, speaking of the projects of Monsieur de Chastes for the Canadian voyage, "je me trouvais en cour, venu fraischement des Indes Occidentales, ou j'avois ete pres de deux ans et demy apres que les Espagnols furent partis de Blavet, et la paix foict en France, ou pendant les guerres j'avais servi sa dicte majeste (Henry IV) souz Messeigneurs le Mareschal d'Aumont de St. Luc, et le Mareschal de Brissac."

The relation of this voyage was never published, and this should rather confirm the supposition that the manuscript had been presented to M. Chastes. It was evidently finished in haste; as the omission of several drawings, which are mentioned but not inserted, and the character of the writing, shews. Champlain returned from this voyage early in 1602, and before the autumn of the year was occupied in making preparations for his first voyage to Canada, before his return from which in the next year, 1603, M. de Chastes had died. Had Champlain kept the manuscript of his West India voyage, he would surely have published it in 1604, at the same time that the account of his first expedition to Canada was printed, and to none is it so likely that he would have given his "Brief Discourse" as to his best friend and patron, at whose death (he died at Dieppe) it would pass into private hands, or the Minime Convent, and be lost sight of.

The narrative is highly interesting as exhibiting the state of some of the West India Islands two hundred and fifty years ago, many of them being then uninhabited by Europeans; and of the condition of Mexico, and of the Spanish policy there, where no foreigner was then permitted to set his foot. Gage, who travelled some five and twenty years after Champlain, bears witness to the difficulty of proceeding thither, being obliged to hide himself in an empty biscuit-cask to avoid the search of the Spanish officials, till the vessel in which he had embarked should sail.

The account of the capture of Porto-rico, by the Earl of Cumberland, and the state in which it appeared, after the English had abandoned the island, is curious; and the combat with the Anglo-Franco-Flemish fleet, amusing. The idea of the junction of the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans is also remarkable.

The accuracy of Champlain's observations of all that he saw, is evident; as to the hearsay descriptions, we may entertain doubts of the fidelity of his informant, but not of the good faith of the narrator. He had a certain amount of credulity in his character, the more remarkable in a man of such natural penetration and sagacity; but the belief in strange monsters was prevalent before, during, and for a long time after, his epoch; and it was the more to be excused from the hermetically closed state of the Spanish colonies, and the strange stories to which the consequent mystery gave rise. The curious details of the "Brief Discourse" seemed worthy of the attention of the geographer, the naturalist, and of the inquiring general reader. As the founder of the capital of our principal North American colony, Champlain's name is, in some sort, associated with English adventure. With that idea, permission was requested of M. Feret, to translate this narrative into English, which was most kindly and unhesitatingly granted by him. In the translation, endeavour has been made to preserve Champlain's style, as much as possible. The drawings are fac-similes of those in the manuscript. Discoverers are general benefactors: after a time, all nations profit by their labours. In Champlain's case, we are the principal gainers; but for his indomitable courage, enterprise, and determination, Quebec might never have existed, the colonization of Canada have been indefinitely retarded, and instead of a valuable country, advanced in civilization, and sufficing to itself, England might have conquered only a small colony struggling for existence, or scattered and insignificant settlements, feebly subsisting on a precarious and badly organized trade with native tribes. For nearly a century Champlain's predecessors had endeavoured, with all means and appliances, to found colonies in various parts of North America; all failed, and, for long after his time, Canada remained in a semi-torpid state. It required the solid foundations laid down by Champlain, to enable the young settlement to pass through the struggles of its infancy and arrive at maturity. None were found capable of carrying out his views for years after his death. Had he died earlier, no one could have replaced him; had he not lived, in all probability expedition after expedition would, as before, have been sent out with the same success which had attended all previous attempts, from Cartier to De la Roche.

Notes have been made on the various subjects which appear to require some explanation.

BIOGRAPHICAL NOTICE OF CHAMPLAIN.

It will be well, perhaps, to preface the notice of Champlain's career with a rapid sketch of the various expeditions, discoveries, and attempts at colonisation, of the French in North America, from the discoveries of Sebastian Cabot, in 1497, to the beginning of the seventeenth century.

The errors, disasters, and failures of his predecessors will throw out in stronger relief the sound common sense and sagacity, the determined courage and unfaltering resolution, and the prudent wariness, which enabled Champlain to note and avoid their errors, to meet and to overcome difficulties, to foresee and to prepare for possible evil contingencies.

It is certain that the French were among the first, if not the very first, who followed in the track, and profited by the discovery, of Cabot. The Basques, Bretons, and Normans, as early as 1504, practised the cod fishery along the coast and on the Great Bank of Newfoundland[2]--the ancestors, probably, of the Basques and Bretons who, a century later, so stoutly resisted the pretensions of the companies which were then forming, to the exclusive privilege of the fishery and trade in those parts.

[2] The Pere Fournier, in his _Hydrographie_, says that the
Basques and Bretons had been there before 1504: "L'an 1504, ainsi
qu'il est porte dans l'histoire de Niflet, et dans Magin, les
Basques, Normands, et Bretons allerent en la coste des Moreies,
dit le Grand banc, vers le Cap Breton; voire, il semble qu'ils y
ayent este bien auparavant, car dans une lettre ecrite par
Sebastian Cavot a Henry VII, Roy d'Angleterre, l'an 1497, ces
terres sont appelees du nom d'Isles de Bacaleos, comme d'un nom
assez connu. On ne peut douter que ce nom ne leur ait este donne
par les Basques, qui seuls en Europe appellent ce poisson
Bacaleos, ou Bacallos: et les originaires l'appellent
Apage."--Lib. vi, c. 12, Paris, 1643. Others say that Juan Vaz de
Cortereal explored the northern seas and discovered the land of
_Baccalhos_, or Codfishland, in 1463, either of which, if true,
accounts for Cabot's mentioning the name as familiar, but
overthrows his claim to its discovery.... Champlain also writes:
"Ce furent les Bretons et les Normands qui en l'an 1504
descouvrirent, _les premiers des Chrestiens_, le Grand Banc des
Moluques (Molues or Morues) et les Isles de Terre Neufve, ainsi
qu'il se remarque es histoires de Niflet et d'Antoine
Maginus."--_Voyages de la Nouvelle France_, Paris, 1632.

In 1506, Jean Denys, of Harfleur, published a map of the newly known country, and, two years after, a pilot of Dieppe, named Thomas Aubert, commanding a vessel named the "Pensee," belonging to Jean Ange, father of the celebrated Vicomte de Dieppe, brought a North American Indian with him to France.[3]

[3] Navarrete and Ramusio.

In the year 1518, the Baron de Lery undertook a voyage to North America with the intention of forming a settlement; but, being detained at sea for a long time, was obliged to return to France without accomplishing his object, leaving on the Isle des Sables (Sable Island) and at Campseau (Canso) his cattle and pigs, which multiplied considerably, and were subsequently of the greatest service to certain of the Marquis de la Roche's people, who, about eighty years later, were left on Sable Island, without any other resource but fish and the flesh of the cattle they found there.[4]

[4] Fournier.

In 1524, Francis I sent Giovanni Ferazzano, a Florentine, on an expedition of discovery to the coast of North America. The only document extant of this (first) voyage is a letter from Ferazzano to the king, dated the 8th July, 1524,[5] wherein he supposes that His Majesty is acquainted with his progress, the events of the voyage, and the success of this first attempt. In the following year he again sailed, and in March arrived at the coast of Florida. He ranged the coast from about the 30th to the 50th degree north latitude, as far as an island which the Bretons had before discovered.[6] Ferazzano took possession, in the name of the most Christian king, of all the country which he visited. The next year he undertook a third voyage, of which nothing authentic was ever known, save that he perished in it.[7]

[5] Ramusio. Mark Lescarbot, who wrote a history of New France
(Paris, 1612), also gives a detailed account of the voyages of
Ferazzano.

[6] Bruzen de la Martoniere, _Dictionnaire Geographique_, Paris,
1768.

[7] Fournier quaintly says: "Il avait l'intention d'aller jusques
au Pole, mais il fust pris et mange par des sauvages."

In 1534, Jacques Cartier, of St. Malo,[8] sailed thence on the 20th April, with two vessels of the burthen of sixty tons each, furnished by Philippe Chabot, admiral of France, and the Comte de Brion, for the purpose of continuing the discoveries of Ferazzano, and on the 10th May arrived at Cape Bonavista, in Newfoundland. After some discoveries in that island he proceeded to the southward, and entering the great gulf, explored a bay, which he named La Baye des Chaleurs. The rigour of the season prevented his pursuing his discoveries that year, and he returned to France.

[8] Champlain says that he was "fort etendu et experimente au
faict de la marine, autant qu'autre de son temps."

At the instance of Charles de Moiry, sieur de la Mailleres, then vice-admiral of France, Cartier returned in the following year to the gulf, to which he gave the name of Saint Lawrence, subsequently extended to the great river which flows into it, and which the natives called the river of Canada. On the 15th August, he discovered the island of Naliscolet, calling it Isle de l'Assomption, now Anticosti. On the 1st September he arrived at the Saguenay river, flowing into the St. Lawrence. He ascended the latter stream to an island about a hundred and twenty leagues from the sea, which he named Isle d'Orleans, and wintered at a little river which he called Ste. Croix, afterwards riviere St. Charles. He then continued his voyage up the St. Lawrence to a place called Hochelaga, a large Indian village on an island at the foot of a mountain which he called Mont Royal, and which, altered to Montreal, is now the name of the whole island. Finding it impossible (according to his report) to surmount the rapids (Sault St. Louis), he returned to his vessels, but was obliged again to winter on the banks of a small river falling into the Ste. Croix, and which he named "the river Jacques Cartier." The greater part of his people died of scurvy, and Cartier, discontented and disappointed at the little progress he had made, and grieved for the loss of his people, returned to France. "And thinking the air was so contrary to our nature that we could hardly live there, having so suffered during the winter from the disease of the scurvy, which he called 'mal de terre,' he so made his relation to the king and the vice-admiral de Mailleres, who not looking deeply into the matter, the enterprise was fruitless. And, to say truth, those who have the conduct of discoveries are often the cause of the failure of the best plans, if their reports are too implicitly trusted; for in thus entirely confiding in them, enterprises are judged to be impossible, or so traversed by difficulties, that they cannot be carried out, save with almost insupportable expenses and pains."[9]

[9] Champlain, _Voyages en Nouvelle France_, etc.

In 1541, Jean Francois de la Roque, sieur de Roberval, a gentleman of Picardy, was named viceroy of Nouvelle France, and renewed the attempt to form a colony in Canada. He first sent out Cartier as his deputy, to commence a settlement in the island of Mont Royal, and despatched one of his pilots, Jean Alphonse, of Saintonge, one of the best French navigators of his time, to reconnoitre the coast beyond Labrador, and to endeavour to find a shorter passage for Eastern commerce than round Cape Horn or the Straits of Magellan; but, meeting with great obstacles and risk from the ice, Alphonse was obliged to return. The proposed settlement had no better success. Cartier remained nearly eighteen months abandoned to his own resources, as De Roberval, who was to have shortly followed him, delayed his departure, and when at last he set out on his voyage, he met Cartier on his way back to France, having lost many of his people, and suffered extreme distress from famine. De Roberval wished to force him to return to Canada, but Cartier refused.

The next expedition was that of Jean Ribaut, of Dieppe, a Protestant, and one of the best sea captains in France. He was despatched under the auspices of the Admiral de Coligny to establish a colony in that part of Florida visited by Ferazzano in his second voyage. Ribaut set sail on the 18th February, 1562, and landed at a cape which he named Cape Francois. Pursuing his course towards the north, he disembarked at the "Riviere de Mai," setting up a stone pillar with the arms of France affixed, in token of taking possession of the country. Continuing about sixty leagues more to the northward, he built a fort, which he styled Charles fort, on about the spot where Charleston was subsequently founded by the English. The fort finished, Ribaut found that his provisions were running short, and that he could not that year make the purposed settlement. He therefore left eighteen men in the fort, under the command of a Captain Albert, with all the supplies that he could spare, and set sail for France in July, promising to return to revictual his people and establish the colony. Unfortunately, on his arrival in France he was employed in the war which had just broken out with Spain, and could not accomplish his promise.

Captain Albert and his men, trusting to Ribaut's coming back with ample stores, did not trouble themselves to clear and cultivate land, so as to be prepared in case of delay or accident, but consumed their provisions without order or care, so that in a short time they were reduced to great scarcity. The men mutinied, hung one of their comrades for some trifling cause, and becoming more violent from want and impunity, killed their commander Albert, electing in his place one Nicolas Barre, "a good sort of a man!" No succour arriving, they built a small vessel to endeavour to return to France, and put to sea with the scanty remains of their stock of provisions. In a very few days that was exhausted, and the famine became so terrible and reduced them to such extremity that they were obliged to cast lots which of them should be killed to support the others. "And," says Fournier, "what is greatly to be admired, the lot fell on the man who had been the cause of the mutiny against Captain Albert." Fortunately, the survivors were picked up by an English ship and carried to England.

In 1564 Rene de Laudonniere was sent to Florida by Admiral de Coligny. He sailed on the 22nd of April, and duly arrived at the Riviere de Mai, where he built a fort, which he named La Caroline, rechristened by the Spaniards "San Matteo." As in the case of Captain Albert, a conspiracy was formed against Laudonniere, his men mutinied, and threatened to kill him if he would not allow them to go to sea and pillage the Virgin Islands and the coast of St. Domingo: Laudonniere was forced to consent. The mutineers fitted out a small vessel, captured and plundered some Spanish ships, but after cruising for some time were obliged to return to La Caroline, where Laudonniere, resuming his authority, had four of them hanged. In addition to these troubles, before the winter was past, their provisions began to fail, and after subsisting for more than six weeks on roots, and no supplies arriving from France, they determined to build a vessel, so as to be able to return there in August; but the famine becoming more and more severe, the men were too weak to finish their barque. Many went among the Indians, who mocked and ill treated them, upon which they attacked the savages and obtained some maize, which strengthened and gave them courage to work at their vessel. They then prepared to demolish the fort before setting sail for Europe; but while thus occupied, four ships were seen off the coast, which proved to be English, who, on seeing the extremity to which the French were reduced, assisted them with provisions, and helped them to complete their vessel. When ready to embark, Laudonniere again descried some ships approaching the coast; this time they were French, commanded by Ribaut, who was bringing succour and the means of increasing the settlement.

Ribaut had been again despatched by the Admiral de Coligny with six ships and about six hundred men, chiefly Protestants, to complete the establishment of the long-desired colony. He set sail from Dieppe in June, 1565, and arrived at his destination on the 25th August. The Spaniards had doubtless been informed of this expedition, as before Ribaut could disembark his men and stores, a squadron of large ships was seen in the offing. He sent his son to reconnoitre, following shortly with his other vessels. A violent tempest arose, his ships were driven on shore, and many of his men drowned. With the remainder he retired to his little fort, almost without arms or ammunition. The Spaniards (although then at peace with France) stormed it, and massacred all in it, men, women, and children. Ribaut, although promised his life, was at last stabbed in cold blood by a Spanish captain, named Vallemande, and his body treated with atrocious barbarity,--his head and face were flayed; the skin, with the hair and beard attached, dried, and sent to the nearest Spanish colony. The Spaniards then hung the bodies of the slain, and all the French whom they could catch, on the nearest trees, with an inscription to the effect that "these men are not hung as Frenchmen, but as heretics."

Laudonniere with a few men escaped into the woods, and returned after some time to France. The son of Ribaut also, escaping both the storm and the Spanish squadron, arrived there in safety. The king of France made some remonstrances about this horrible affair to his brother sovereign, the king of Spain, who disavowed the deed, but gave no redress.

Ribaut was, however, well avenged by one of his own creed. In 1567, Dominique de Gourgues, a Calvinist gentleman of Gascony, fitted out two (some say three) ships, at his own cost, and proceeded to Florida. Assisted by the natives, with whom he formed an alliance, he attacked and took by assault the Spanish forts, treating the Spaniards as they had treated the French, by hanging them all on the same trees, altering the inscription to the purport that "these men are not hung as Spaniards, but as traitors, robbers, and murderers." He then demolished the forts, and returned to France in 1568, performing the voyage, it is said, in seventeen days.

The king of Spain in his turn complained, and De Gourgues, disavowed and threatened with condign punishment by his sovereign, was obliged to absent himself. He seems, however, to have kept his ire warm against the Spaniards, as in 1582 we find him in the service of Don Antonio, of Portugal, who named him admiral of the fleet which he was equipping against Spain; but, on the point of sailing, De Gourgues was seized with a mortal malady, and died,--thus disappointing the hopes of his old enemy the king of Spain, who had offered a large sum for his head.

In the year 1591, a voyage to Canada was undertaken by the sieur du Court Pre Ravillon, in a vessel called the Bonaventure, to endeavour to establish a trade in moose-skins and teeth. Whether he succeeded in his adventure or not, history is silent.

The Marquis de la Roche fitted out some vessels in 1591, embarking a number of men and a large quantity of stores of all kinds requisite for forming a colony in Canada. Not having, it appears, any personal knowledge of the country or of navigation, he engaged a Norman pilot, of the name of Chedotel, for the voyage. The details of this enterprise are not very clear, but it is certain that the expedition reached the Isle des Sables, and, for some reason or other, seventeen of the people were sent on shore and abandoned. The poor fellows remained there for seven years, living in holes in the ground, and subsisting on fish and the cattle which they found wild in considerable numbers--the descendants of those left there in 1518 by the Baron de Lery.[10]

[10] Champlain says, that the cattle had been saved from the
wreck of a Spanish ship.

At the expiration of seven years, the pilot Chedotel was _condemned_ by the Parliament of Rouen to go and fetch away the unfortunate men,--with the condition, however, that he was to have half of all the property, hides, oil, seal and black fox skins, etc., which the wretched creatures might have collected during their banishment.

On their arrival in France, the poor men were presented to the king, Henry IV, who ordered the Duke de Sully to give them some relief,--which the worthy Duke did, to the amount of fifty crowns each, "to encourage them to return there!"

The poor Marquis de la Roche, unfortunate in his expedition, was equally so at court in his endeavours to obtain the aid which the king had promised him. "It being denied him," says Champlain, "at the instigation of certain persons who had no wish that the true worship of God should increase, or to see the Catholic, Apostolic, and Roman religion flourish in those parts."

The Marquis took all this so much to heart that he fell sick and died, having consumed all his property, and wasted his time and labour, in vain.

In the year following (1599), the sieur Chauvin, de Ponthuiet, captain in the Royal Marine, at the persuasion of Captain du Pont Grave of St. Malo, (both Protestants), obtained a privilege for ten years, at the charge of forming a company for the colonization of Canada. Having equipped his vessels, he gave the command of one of them to Du Pont Grave, and proceeding to the river St. Lawrence, arrived in safety at Tadoussac, at the junction of the Saguenay with that river. One of the objects which they were bound mainly to follow was the propagation of the Roman Catholic religion among the savages. Chauvin's people were for the most part Catholics, but the chiefs were Calvinists, which was not precisely adapted for the fulfilment of the projected purpose, "but that," again says Champlain, "was what they thought of the least."

Chauvin resolved to remain at Tadoussac, in spite of the remonstrances of Du Pont Grave, who wished him to proceed higher up the river, having already been to "Three Rivers" in a previous voyage, trading with the Indians. M. de Monts (of whom we shall hear more hereafter), who had made the voyage with them for his pleasure, agreed with Du Pont Grave, but Chauvin was obstinate, and set about erecting a habitation in the most disagreeable and unproductive spot in the country,--full of rocks, fir and birch trees, the land unfit for cultivation, and the cold so excessive, that "if there be an ounce of cold forty leagues up the river, there is a pound at Tadoussac."[11]

[11] Champlain.

Chauvin posted sixteen men at a little stream near the house, to which they might retire upon occasion. The stores (little enough) were at the mercy of all, and soon began to run short, whereupon Chauvin returned to France, taking Du Pont Grave and De Monts with him.

The men remaining at the intended settlement, quickly consumed the little provision left, and "the winter coming on soon taught them the difference between France and Tadoussac,--it was the court of king Petault, where every man commanded."[12] Indolence and carelessness, with sickness, soon did their work, and they were reduced to the necessity of giving themselves up to the Indian tribes around, who received them kindly. Many died, and all suffered extremely.

[12] _Ibid._, _Voyages en Nouvelle France_, etc.

Chauvin, in 1600, prepared another expedition, which from the same causes was as fruitless as the first. He fitted out a third on a larger scale, but was not able to carry out his new plans, being attacked by a malady "which sent him to the other world."[13]

[13] Desmarquets, in his _Memoires Chronologiques pour servir a l'Histoire de la Ville de Dieppe_, says that Chauvin, on arriving at Tadoussac the second time, found only the corpses of the sixteen men whom he had left there. When he again returned to France he left twenty more men, but death preventing his intended third voyage, those twenty died of hunger, like the sixteen first.

We have now arrived at the period of Champlain's first connection with Canadian discovery and colonization. The difficulties, dangers--not to say horrors--of the previous expeditions were enough to deter any but the most confident and resolute from attempting such an apparently hopeless task; but the hour and the man were come, and from the date of Chauvin's death a new era was to arise for Canada, and French colonization in North America was at last--to be.

Samuel Champlain, descended from a noble family of Saintonge, was born at Brouage,[14] a place formerly of some importance in that province, now an obscure town of the department of the Charente Inferieure. Of the date of his birth and of his earlier career there is no account extant; from the events of the last thirty-five or thirty-six years of his life we may, however, form a correct judgment of his attainments, which, in navigation, in military matters, and in general knowledge, were evidently of no common order. That he had early distinguished himself is also clear, and that his services were appreciated we may gather from the high favour with which he was regarded by the king, and from the friendship and constant protection with which he was honoured by one of the best and bravest, as well as most intelligent and devoted followers of Henry IV,--the Sieur Aymar de Chastes, governor of the town and chateau of Dieppe, who commanded the fleet appointed to cruize on the coast of Brittany during the latter years of the war with the League and the Spaniards,[15] and under whose orders Champlain had served. On Champlain's return from the voyage to the West Indies, of which the narrative is now for the first time published, he learned that Chauvin was dead, and that his friend, Mons. de Chastes, undeterred by the previous failures and disasters, had resolved to undertake the establishment of a colony in Canada, and even to proceed thither and devote the remainder of his well-spent life to the prosecution of the enterprise. The cause and manner of Champlain's embarking in the undertaking cannot be better narrated than in his own words.

[14] The salt works at Brouage were considered the finest in the
kingdom. Cardinal Richelieu also established a large cannon
foundry there in 1627.

[15] The Commander Aymar de Chastes, also styled Frere Aymar de
Clermont, was knight and mareschal of the order of St. John of
Jerusalem, of the language of Auvergne, commander of the Armeteau
and of St. Paul, lieutenant-general for the king in the Pays de
Coer, and governor of the town and castle of Dieppe. He was
employed by Henry III to reinstate Don Antonio of Portugal in his
kingdom, and by Henry IV to command the fleet on the coast of
Brittany; it was almost entirely owing to Mons. de Chastes that
Dieppe declared for the king against the League, which enabled
him to fight and win the battle of Arques. He died at Dieppe, on
the 13th of May, 1603, and was buried in the church of the
Minimes there, followed to the grave by all the inhabitants, "who
looked on him as their father and protector," says Asselini, MS.
Chron.

"The fourth enterprise was that of the Sieur Commander de Chastes, a very honourable man, a good catholic, and worthy servant of the king, whom he had faithfully served on many signal occasions, and although his head was charged with grey hairs as with years, he resolved to proceed thither in person, and dedicate the remainder of his life to the service of his God and of his king, by fixing his residence and living and dying there gloriously: so he hoped, if God had not withdrawn him from this world sooner than he thought. He had very Christian designs, to which I can bear good witness, he having done me the honour of communicating somewhat of them. Soon after the death of Chauvin he obtained a new commission from the king, and as the expenses were very great, he formed a company with several gentlemen and with the principal merchants of Rouen and other places, on certain conditions: this being done, vessels were prepared, as well for the execution of the main design, as for discovery and peopling the country. Du Pont Grave, as one who had already made the voyage and noticed the faults of the past, was (with commission from his majesty) chosen to proceed to Tadaussac, thence to go and examine the Sault St. Louis and the country beyond, in order to make a report on his return for the better preparation of a second voyage, when the said commander, De Chastes, would quit his government (of Dieppe), and, with the permission of his majesty, who truly loved him, proceed to the country of New France.

"While this was going on, I found myself at court, being freshly returned from the West Indies, where I had been nearly two years and a half, after the Spaniards had quitted Blavet, where, during the wars, I had served His Majesty under Messeigneurs the Marechal d'Aumont de St. Luc and the Marechal de Brissac."

"Going from time to time to see the said sieur de Chastes, judging that I might serve him in his design, he did me the honour, as I have said, to communicate something of it to me, and asked me if it would be agreeable to me to make the voyage to examine the country, and see what those engaged in the undertaking should do. I told him that I was very much his servant, but that I could not give myself license to undertake the voyage without the commands of the king, to whom I was bound, as well by birth as by the pension with which His Majesty honoured me to enable me to maintain myself near his person,[16] but that, if it should please him to speak to the king about it, and give me his commands, that it would be very agreeable to me, which he promised and did, and received the king's orders for me to make the voyage and make a faithful report thereof; and for that purpose M. de Gesvres, secretary of his Commandments, sent me with a letter to the said Du Pont Grave, desiring him to take me in his ship, and enable me to see and examine what could be done in the country, giving me every possible assistance."

[16] This fact at once shews that Champlain's fortune was but
small and his merits great. Henry IV at that time had no funds to
throw away, and a pension then given must have been well
deserved. The attachment to his person also proves the feeling of
the king.

"Me voila expedie," continues Champlain, who immediately left Paris, and embarking with Du Pont Grave, had a favourable voyage to Tadoussac, from whence they proceeded up the St. Lawrence in small vessels of twelve to fifteen tons burthen. At Sault St. Louis, Du Pont Grave and Champlain, with five men, continued with great difficulty about a league further, to the foot of the rapids; where, finding it impossible to proceed with their skiff, on account of the rocks and rushing waters, all they could do was to land and examine the course and difficulties of the rapids, explore the surrounding country, and obtain accounts from the Indians as to the inhabitants, the productions, and the sources of the principal rivers, particularly of the St. Lawrence.

Champlain prepared a _petit discours_, or report, with an exact chart of all that had been seen and explored, and they then returned to Tadoussac, having made but little progress; rejoining their people, who had been employed in the interim in trading with the natives, they set sail for France.

When Champlain arrived at Honfleur, he learned the death of his friend and patron, the commander De Chastes, "which greatly afflicted me, well knowing that it would be difficult for another to undertake the enterprise without being opposed, unless it should be some nobleman, whose authority was capable of overcoming envy."

From Honfleur he proceeded directly to Paris, to present his "_discours fort particulier_," and the Map which he had made, to the king, who was much gratified, and promised not to abandon the design, but rather to pursue and favour it.

After the death of Monsieur de Chastes, the Sieur de Monts,[17] who had already been to Canada with Chauvin, desirous of following the example of Monsieur de Chastes, completed the arrangements with the merchants of Rouen, Dieppe, La Rochelle, etc., which had been prepared by his predecessor, for the formation of a company for colonization in New France; but not on the St. Lawrence, the specimen he had seen of the country when with Chauvin having taken away all desire to return there, particularly as he wished to settle more to the southward, in a milder and more agreeable climate.

[17] Pierre du Gast, sieur de Monts, gentleman of the chamber to
the king, was named in 1603 vice-admiral of the coasts of Acadia,
from the fortieth to the forty-sixth degree of north latitude,
and in the following year his majesty gave him the lieutenancy of
the same country. By letters patent of 21st January, 1605, all
subjects, save De Monts and his associates, were forbidden to
trade in those parts. De Monts first named the sieur Du Pont
Grave his lieutenant in September 1605, and in February 1606
replaced him by the sieur de Paitrincourt. The cession to De
Monts was again ratified in 1608, but to little purpose.

De Monts, who was of the "pretended-reformed religion," undertook to establish the Roman Catholic and Apostolic religion in his colony, but every one was to be free to live according to his creed.

All preliminaries being settled, De Monts fitted out three ships, with all things necessary, not only for trading in peltries at Tadoussac, but for establishing a settlement elsewhere; taking out a number of gentlemen, and all kinds of artisans, with soldiers and others of both religions, not forgetting priests and ministers.

Being ready to depart, De Monts proposed to Champlain to accompany him, and the desire to revisit and see more of the country having grown stronger within him, he readily promised to go, always with the king's permission, which was willingly granted; being ordered, moreover, by his Majesty to make to him a faithful report of all that he should see and discover.

They all embarked at Dieppe in 1603: one vessel proceeded to Tadoussac; another, commanded by Du Pont Grave, went to Campseau (Canso) and along the coast towards the island of Cape Breton, to look after certain adventurers trading there in contravention of the king's prohibition. De Monts, with Champlain, took his course to the coast of Acadia, and the weather being very favourable, in a month arrived off Cape la Heve. De Monts continued along the coast, seeking some convenient spot for his settlement, sending Champlain also with a pilot to examine the coast for the same purpose. They discovered a number of ports and rivers, and De Monts at last fixed on an island which he thought well adapted to his purpose; the situation strong, the land good, and the temperature mild. He therefore set about discharging his vessels and building shelter for his people, and when all that was done he sent back the ships with Mons. de Paitrincourt, who had replaced Du Pont Grave as his lieutenant, and who had gone out to see the country with the intention of settling there.

During this time (fully three years) Champlain occupied himself in exploring the whole coast of Acadia (Nova Scotia), from Cape la Heve, in latitude 45 deg. 5'; examining all the bays, creeks, mouths of rivers, and islands of the great Baye Francoise (so named by him), now the Bay of Fundy, coasting on to "Cape Fortune," in latitude 41 deg. 20' (now Cape Cod), and a few leagues farther, to a headland, which, with a great shoal near it, he called "Mallebarre", from the dangers he had there experienced. To the northward he examined the land from Cape la Heve to Cape Canso and Cape Breton, and, his arduous labours terminated, he returned with De Monts to France in 1607.

On their arrival, they found that great complaints had been made by certain Bretons, Basques, and others, of the excesses committed by the captains of De Monts' vessels while on their cruise, and of the ill-treatment they had sustained from them and their crews, who had seized their property, detained their persons, and deprived them of all traffic that had hitherto been free to them; so that, if the king did not interfere and take some order about it, all that navigation would be lost, the customs diminished, themselves ruined, and their wives and children, poor and miserable, obliged to beg their bread. It seems, though, that the poor Bretons and their companions were able to bribe pretty highly; as, in consequence of this outcry, and the intrigues of some influential persons at court, who promised to equip and keep three hundred men in the country, the commission or privilege of De Monts was revoked, "as the price of a certain sum, which a certain person received, without the king's knowing anything about it," says Champlain.

Thus was De Monts rewarded for having expended upwards of one hundred thousand livres, and passed more than three years of great suffering, from long duration of the snows and extreme cold, and having lost more than half his people by the dreaded "maladie de terre", or earth sickness.

As compensation, however, for his losses, the Royal Council generously granted him six thousand livres; not in ready money, but to be paid by such vessels as should traffic in peltry, etc., in the new country; but De Monts was obliged to abandon even this mockery of a grant, finding the expense of collecting greater than the receipts. Champlain at this exclaims indignantly: "Thus were affairs managed in the Council of his majesty; may God pardon those whom He has called to Himself, and amend the living! He! bon Dieu! who would ever undertake anything, if all can be revoked in such a fashion, without carefully examining affairs before deciding. Those also who know least cry out the loudest, and pretend to know more than men of tried experience." He adds that there was one great defect in De Monts' expedition--the mixture of creeds, "as two contrary religions never produce much fruit for the glory of God among the heathen they wish to convert." "I have seen," says he, "the minister and our cure fight with their fists about differences of religion, and," he continues slyly, "I do not know which was the bravest or hit the hardest blows, but I do very well know that the minister complained sometimes to Mons. de Monts of having been soundly beaten; and in this way they cleared up the points of controversy. I leave you to think if it was very pleasant to behold. The savages were sometimes on one side, sometimes on the other; and the French, divided according to their different belief, said everything that was bad, both of one and the other religion. These quarrels were really the means of rendering the infidel more hardened in his infidelity."

In the following year (1608) De Monts, desirous of making another attempt, consulted with Champlain, who advised him to proceed direct to the river St. Laurence, with which he was well acquainted from the experience of his previous voyage. De Monts, adopting his advice, applied again to the king, who granted him another commission authorising him to make the desired settlement; and to enable him the better to bear the expenses, interdicted the trade in peltry to all others for one year.

Upon this De Monts fitted out two vessels at Honfleur, and named Champlain his deputy or lieutenant in New France. One of the ships was commanded by Du Pont Grave, who sailed first for Tadoussac, and Champlain followed with all things necessary for the intended settlement, arriving happily at Tadoussac. He then landed his people and stores, and proceeded up the river to seek for a convenient spot for his purpose, and finding at the narrowest part of the stream a place called by the natives Quebec, which seemed suitable, he there resolved to establish his colony, and accordingly transported thither all his men and goods with as little delay as possible. He then immediately caused dwellings to be erected, gardens prepared and planted, and land cleared and sown.

It was on the 3rd of July, 1608, that Champlain first arrived at Quebec; the remainder of the season and the winter were fully occupied with the necessary works of lodging the people, apportioning and clearing land, getting supplies of firing, etc., and exploring the country in the more immediate neighbourhood. On the 18th of May in the next year, Champlain proceeded to examine the river above the new settlement. At the little island of St. Eloy, near the river St. Marie, he fell in with a body of two or three hundred Indians, "Algenquins and Ochotiquens," who were on their way to Quebec to beg his assistance (which they reminded him he had promised ten moons before to the son of their chief) against the Iroquois, with whom they were at deadly feud. Champlain promised his aid, and returned with them to the settlement, where they remained for five or six days feasting and rejoicing. From thence he wrote to Du Pont Grave, who was at Tadoussac, begging him to join him as soon as possible; and so soon as he arrived Champlain again left Quebec with the Indians, and on the 1st of June arrived at Saint Croix with a boat furnished with all things necessary for the expedition. From thence he continued to the Iroquois river, but finding that he could not pass the first rapid with his boat, as the natives had assured him, he resolved to pursue the journey in the canoes of the Indians. The greater part of his men refused to follow him, but, resolved to fulfil his promise, and desirous of visiting a great lake and beautiful country in the enemy's territory, which had been described to him by his allies, he determined on proceeding, with only two of his men, who volunteered to accompany him.

On the 2nd of July, the expedition left the rapids and ascended the Iroquois river to the lake above mentioned, where they were met by some two hundred of the enemy; a battle ensued, in which Champlain, at one shot of his arquebuss loaded with four balls, killed two of their chiefs and wounded another, which equally astonished both his friends and the enemies, who seeing their chiefs fall, fled, abandoning the field of battle and their village to the victors, who, after making good cheer, singing, and dancing, set out on their return with some ten or twelve prisoners.

Champlain gave his name to the lake on whose borders the action was fought, which it still retains.

On the way back, his Indian allies began tormenting one of their prisoners with the usual refinements of cruelty; which considerably disgusted Champlain, whom they requested "to do as they did." He angrily refused, but offered to put the poor wretch out of misery by shooting him at once with his arquebuss. Seeing that he was irritated, they told him he might do so, "and," says he naively, "so I did, without his seeing anything."

They soon arrived at Quebec, where he gave them "bread and peas and paternosters," to ornament the skulls of their enemies, as rejoicing on their return. The next day Champlain went with them in their canoes to Tadoussac, in order to witness their ceremonies; and does not omit to mention how the women stripped themselves stark naked, and threw themselves into the water to meet the canoes, taking the enemies' heads to hang round their necks as precious ornaments. His Indian friends also made him a present of some of their weapons and one of the heads "to show to his king," which to please them he promised.

From this first battle Champlain seems to have imbibed a taste for fighting the Iroquois (though why he mixed in the quarrel at all he does not explain), as in 1610 he again started from Quebec, with a boat and some of his people for the mouth of the Iroquois river, to join about four hundred Algenquins and others in another attack on their mortal enemies. They found the Iroquois intrenched in a "fort" or stockade, and after a sharp fight, in which Champlain was wounded by an arrow in the ear and neck, and one of his men in the arms, they stormed the "fort," assisted by the men whom he had left in the boat, but who, hearing the firing, thought it shame to remain idle while their comrades were fighting. On leaving the Algenquins, they insisted on his taking one of their young men with him as hostage for a young French lad whom he left with them, at his own desire, to learn their language, etc.

While Champlain was thus busily occupied, Mons. de Monts, who was then governor of Pons, in Saintonge, having remained at Paris to settle some private affairs, was again attacked and worried by the complaints of his former opponents, "the Bretons, Basques, and Normans," and, they again getting the ear of persons in power, De Monts was for the second time deprived of his privilege, and this time without any compensation. He wrote an account of the whole business to Champlain, who immediately returned to France, and, after having informed De Monts of his labours at Quebec, made a full report of all to the king, who received both him and it with much satisfaction.

De Monts endeavoured by every possible means to obtain a third commission, but his enemies were too powerful, and so managed matters that all his attempts and labour were in vain. Nevertheless, being extremely desirous of settling in the new country, he resolved, with or without commission, to continue his establishment there, and explore the country inland on the upper part of the St. Laurence; and for the better execution of the project he again equipped two ships, in conjunction with a company formed under the auspices of Father Coton (confessor to Henry IV) and of Madame de Guercheville, and which had obtained certain privileges for the establishment of a Jesuit mission in New France.[18] The vessels being ready, Champlain and Du Pont Grave embarked with labourers and artisans of all kinds, and arriving at Tadoussac and Quebec, found all things in good and flourishing condition.