I.

Introduction

Champlain, Samuel de (c. 1567-1635), French explorer, known as the father of New France—the French colonial empire in North America—who renewed French interest in North America after the largely unsuccessful voyages of Jacques Cartier. In 1608 Champlain established a trading post at the first narrows of the St Lawrence River, which eventually became the city of Quebec, and governed it until his death.

II.

Early Life

Champlain was born in Brouage, France, but little is known of his early years. His parents may have been members of the lower nobility. Like his father before him, he served as a naval captain, gaining the training to become a very competent navigator and geographer, and an excellent cartographer.

III.

First Visit to North America

In 1603, Champlain made his first visit to North America as a royal geographer on a fur trading expedition. Jacques Cartier had previously explored parts of North America for France but his mission to establish a colony in Canada had failed because of scurvy and the harsh winters. Champlain’s expedition sailed to Tadoussac, at the mouth of the Saguenay River, which had long been a trading centre for the indigenous peoples living along the St Lawrence. From Tadoussac, Champlain ventured far up the Saguenay, up the St Lawrence River to Montreal Island, and up the river that would be named the Richelieu. He also gathered information from the Montagnais people about the geography of the north-eastern section of North America and used this information to draw a remarkably accurate map. It showed a large bay to the north (Hudson Bay) and water to the west, which Champlain later discovered was the Great Lakes. This western body of water was so large that he believed it must connect with the Pacific Ocean, forming the fabled North West Passage. Champlain was also told about a pleasant land to the south with a mild climate, and was shown a metal, which he thought might be silver.

IV.

Second Visit

The southern area that Champlain had been told about during his first visit to North America became the destination of his second trip in 1604, undertaken with Pierre du Guast, sieur de Monts. De Monts had obtained a commission to govern Acadia—the region that now comprises Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and Prince Edward Island—in exchange for establishing a permanent settlement in the area.

Hired by de Monts, Champlain explored the Atlantic Coast on the north side of the Bay of Fundy, sighting a river flowing from the north that he named the Saint-Jean (now the Saint John River). He learned from the area’s inhabitants, the Maliseet, that this river was their route to the St Lawrence. Travelling west along the coast, Champlain chose a site on the St Croix River for the permanent settlement, but 35 of the 79 men who stayed there during the winter of 1604-1605 died of scurvy. The base was then moved, in the spring of 1605, to the south side of the Bay of Fundy and its new site was named Port Royal. Champlain remained in North America three years, during which time he charted the coast as far south as Cape Cod.

V.

Third Visit

In 1607 de Monts lost his commission to govern Acadia. The following year he decided to establish a trading post far up the St Lawrence, at a point where it narrows to less than a mile wide. There his traders could greet indigenous people bringing furs from the west and take away business that would otherwise go to Tadoussac. This trading post, established by Champlain on July 3, 1608, became Quebec.

Champlain was given the title of lieutenant of the viceroy of New France in 1612. From this time, his aims were to explore and map the continent, to find a water route to the Pacific, and to convert the indigenous peoples to Christianity. The fur trade promised a source of funding to achieve these aims. Champlain had also realized that the indigenous people of the area could aid his exploration. He therefore made a commercial alliance with the northern and western nations, the Montagnais, Algonquin, and Huron.

The alliance was entered into on the part of the indigenous peoples on the basis that they would receive military aid. In June 1609, Champlain and two of his men joined these nations when they invaded the hunting grounds of a longtime enemy, the Iroquois confederacy. This marked the beginning of warfare between the French and the Iroquois that lasted off and on for 90 years and almost destroyed the colony.

VI.

Further Travels and Explorations

In 1613 Champlain explored the Ottawa, the river that would become the main highway to the west, as far as Allumette Island. He then returned to France and persuaded the Franciscan Récollet order to send four missionaries to Canada, with whom he returned to the colony in 1615. He then set out on a major voyage of discovery to the country of the Huron, the territory between Georgian Bay and Lake Ontario, both of which he explored.

Champlain spent the winter of 1615 in the Huron country, where he learned much about the land and its inhabitants. He was particularly interested in knowledge of the area farther west, beyond Lake Huron. He learned that this area contained other vast lakes, but the Huron would not allow him to go there, as they were at war with the nations to the west and were afraid that the French might establish relations with their enemies. Thus Champlain had to rely on scanty information for the map that he eventually produced of the region. As a result his map was flawed, but his account of his stay with the Huron is a mine of information about these people, their customs and religion, and the geography of the country.

VII.

The Struggle for Financing

In 1618, struggling to keep his command over Quebec, Champlain presented reports on the future of the French colonies in America to Louis XIII and to the French Chamber of Commerce. In these reports he proposed that 300 settler families and 15 Récollets be established at Quebec, with 300 soldiers to protect them. He claimed that this would give France the ability to control the interior of the continent and to convert the pagans to Christianity. Wealth would pour into France from the land’s resources of fish, timber, copper, iron, silver, and precious stones. However, he believed that the major benefit would be the revenue from the short water route to the western ocean and China, once this route was discovered.

Champlain’s struggles to maintain the infant colony took a turn for the better in 1627 when the king’s first minister, Cardinal Richelieu, took charge of the overseas colonies. He founded a joint stock company—the Company of One Hundred Associates—and required each associate to invest a large sum of money. Champlain became one of the associates and remained in charge of New France.

But two years later disaster struck. Anglo-Scots privateers, the Kirke brothers, drew up their ships at Quebec in 1629 and demanded its surrender. Champlain had to comply because he did not have the manpower to resist: in all of New France—Canada and Acadia together—there were only 107 settlers at that time. The Kirkes also seized the company’s convoy of ships bringing reinforcements and supplies up the St Lawrence. That loss exhausted the company’s capital, and it never recovered. Champlain was taken prisoner and held in England until 1632. In 1633 he returned to New France and tried to repair the damage done by the Kirkes and reestablish good relations with his old allies. However, his health began to fail, and he died at Quebec on December 25, 1635.

VIII.

Evaluation

In the face of great difficulties, Champlain had established the commercial and military alliances that were to endure to the end of the French regime in Canada. He also produced the first accurate chart of the Atlantic coast from Newfoundland to Cape Cod and maps of the St Lawrence Valley and Great Lakes Basin. Many of his observations were published in the large body of writing he left behind, which was eventually printed in six volumes. His accounts of the habits and characteristics of indigenous peoples, although flawed by his lack of understanding of their cultures, have been of great value to historians.