Samuel de Champlain (c.1580-December 25, 1635) was a French navigator, explorer and soldier who was referred to as the "Father of New France." He was the first European to explore and describe the Great Lakes. He founded Quebec City on July 3, 1608, and served as governor of New France till his death. Lake Champlain, which borders Canada and the United States, was named for him.
Champlain's travels are documented in The Voyages and Explorations of Samuel de Champlain (1604-1616), narrated by himself, translated by Annie Nettleton Bourne, together with the Voyage of 1603, Reprinted from Purchas His Pilgrimes, edited with introduction and notes by Edward Gaylod Bourne, Late Professor of History in Yale University, with special introduction by W.L. GRANT, M.A., Professor of Colonial History, Queens University, Kingston, Ontario, In Two Volumes, (Toronto, The Courier Press, Limited, 1911, The A.S. Barnes Company).
In the special introduction to Voyages and Explorations, W.L. Grant wrote:
<The history of Western Civilization begins in a conflict with the Orient, a conflict of which it maybe the end is not yet. But the routes between East and West have been trodden by the caravans of trade more often even than by the feet of armies. The treasures of the East were long brought overland to Alexandria, or Constantinople, or the cities of the Levant, and thence distributed to Europe by the galleys of Genoa or of Venice. But when the Turk placed himself astride the Bosporus, and made Egypt his feudatory, new routes had to be found. In the search for these were made the three greatest voyages in history, those of Columbus, of Vasco da Gama, and greatest of all of Magellan.
In his search for the riches of Cipangu, Columbus stumbled upon America. The great Genoese lived and died under the illusion that he had reached the outmost verge of Asia; and though even in his lifetime men realized that what he had found was no less than a new world, America was long looked on as an unwelcome obstacle of unknown extent across the path of the Eastern trader. Farther and farther men ranged the coast, seeking into every bay and estuary, in the vain hope that the South Sea might open to their gaze.
To southwards, Magellan found a strait, but the journey was long and dangerous, and open only to the ships of Spain. To northwards France took up the search, and it was in quest of the Orient that Jacques Cartier put out from St. Malo. For a moment Chaleur Bay seemed to him the strait of his dream, but soon he came to its end, "whereof we were much torn with grief," he says in his quaint old French. On his next voyage he went in vain up the St. Lawrence as far as Montreal; but the terrors of a Canadian winter, with its attendant scurvy, and the still greater horrors of the Wars of Religion, for the next half-century restricted the French to fishing voyages to Newfoundland and the Gulf of St. Lawrence.
With the Peace of Vervins and the Edict of Nantes in 1598, France had rest from foreign and civil strife, and turned again to the nobler task of exploration. This was the quest to which the sea-captain of Brouage, Samuel de Champlain, gave the best years of his life, "always travelling -with an hungry heart," with the great South Sea ever a day's journey in advance. Tired at last, he gave himself up to establish on the rock of Quebec a station from which his successors might fare forth. In his search for the South Sea he had been the first great explorer of Canada, and this series of "Trail Makers of the North" appropriately begins with his undaunted name.
As the new world opened out, the search for the Orient took a second place. Even in the days of Champlain, his partners thought chiefly of trade with the natives, and in the next two centuries a series of great fur-trading companies, English and French, took toll of the country, and pushed ever farther west and north. Among these, too, there were great-hearted dreamers, men who "yearned beyond the sky-line where the strange roads go down," and of such was Alexander Mackenzie. His great voyage to the mouth of the mighty river which bears his name was made in 1789; four years later he had pierced the Rockies, and come out upon the shores of the Pacific; first of white men to cross the continent by land, the Highland Scot had made true the dream of Champlain.
As the West revealed its vastness, men gave themselves to its exploration. Another great fur-trader, indefatigable as Mackenzie, was the New Englander, Daniel Williams Harmon. If his voyages did less for geography, they tell us even more of the manners and customs of the old lords of the prairies, ere yet Canada had entered upon the experiment of seeking to make in the West a great civilization from the off-scourings of Europe.
To these records has been added "The Wild North Land," a journal of the youthful travels of the late General Sir William Butler. The record of his adventures adds hardly less than Harmon to our knowledge of a vanishing race, and also shows that in these later days the hardihood of the Celt is as cheery and as unflinching as in the day of Champlain and of Mackenzie.
To the travels of Mackenzie, Harmon and Butler I have contributed short introductions. That to the voyages of Champlain is by the late Professor Bourne of Yale, whose premature death is mourned by every student of early American history.> 1580SC001
Samuel de Champlain wrote in Volume I, Book I, Chapter II, of his Voyages and Explorations:
<That Kings and great Princes ought to take more pains to spread the knowledge of the true God and magnify His glory among barbarians than to multiply their states.
The most illustrious palms and laurels that kings and princes can win in this world are contempt for temporal blessings and the desire to gain the spiritual. They cannot do this more profitably than by converting, through their labor and piety, to the catholic, apostolic and Roman religion, an infinite number of savages, who live without faith, without law, with no knowledge of the true God.
For the taking of forts, the winning of battles, and the conquests of countries, are nothing in comparison with the reward of those who prepare for themselves crowns in heaven, unless it be fighting against infidels. In that case, war is not only necessary, but just and holy, since the safety of Christianity, the glory of God and the defense of the faith are at stake. These labors are, in themselves, praiseworthy and very commendable, besides being in conformity to the commandment of God, which says, That the conversion of an infidel is of more value than the conquest of a kingdom.
And if all this cannot move us to seek after heavenly blessings at least as passionately as after those of the earth, it is because men's covetousness for this world's blessings is so great that most of them do not care for the conversion of infidels so long as their fortune corresponds to their desires, and everything conforms to their wishes.
Moreover, it is this covetousness that has ruined and is wholly ruining the progress and advancement of this enterprise, which is not yet well under way, and is in danger of collapsing, unless His Majesty establishes there conditions as righteous, charitable and just as he is himself; and unless he himself takes pleasure in learning what can be done to increase the glory of God and to benefit his state, repelling the envy of those who should support this enterprise, but who seek its ruin rather than its success.
It is nothing new for the French to make sea voyages for conquest. We know very well that the discovery of new countries and noble enterprises on the sea were begun by our forefathers.
It was the Bretons and Normans who, in the year 1504, were the first Christians to discover the grand bank of the Codfish and the islands of the New World, as is noted in the histories of Niflet and of Antoine Maginus.
It is also very certain that in the time of King Francis I, in the year 1523, he sent Verazzano, a Florentine, to discover the lands, coasts and harbors of Florida, as the accounts of his voyages bear testimony; where, after having explored the coast from latitude 33 to latitude 47, just as he was thinking of making a home there, death put an end to his life and his plans.
After that, the same King Francis, persuaded by Messire Philip Chabot, Admiral of France, sent Jacques Cartier to discover new lands, and for this purpose he made two voyages in the years 1534 and 1535.
In the first he discovered the Island of Newfoundland and the Gulf of Saint Lawrence, with several other islands in this gulf, and he would have gone farther had not the severe season hastened his return. This Jacques Cartier was from the city of St. Malo. He was thoroughly versed and experienced in seamanship; the equal of any one of his times. And St. Malo is under obligation to preserve his memory, for it was his greatest desire to discover new lands.
At the request of Charles de Mouy, Sieur de la Mailleres, at that time Vice-Admiral, he undertook the same voyage for the second time; and in order to compass his purpose and to have His Majesty lay the foundation of a colony to increase the honor of God and his royal authority, he gave his commissions with that of the aforesaid Sieur Admiral, who had the direction of this embarkation and contributed all he could to it.
When the commissions had been prepared, His Majesty put this same Cartier in charge, and he set sail with two vessels on May 16, 1535.
His voyage was so successful that he arrived at the Gulf of Saint Lawrence, entered the river with his ships of 800 tons burden, 6 and even got as far as an island a hundred and twenty leagues up the river, which he called the Isle of Orleans.
From there he went some ten leagues farther up the same stream to winter on a small river which is almost dry at low tide. This he named St. Croix, because he arrived there on the day of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross. The place is now called the St. Charles River and at present the Recollect fathers and the Jesuit fathers are stationed there to found a seminary for the instruction of youth.
From there Cartier went up the river some sixty leagues, as far as a place which was called Ochelaga in his time and is now called Grand Sault St. Louis. It was inhabited by savages who were sedentary and cultivated the soil. This they no longer do, because of the wars that have made them withdraw into the interior.> 1580SC002
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American Quotations by William J. Federer, 2024, All Rights Reserved, Permission granted to use with acknowledgement.
Endnotes:
1580SC001. William J. Federer, American Quotations (2014). Samuel de Champlain, Special Introduction by W.L. Grant, M.A., Professor of Colonial History, Queens University, Kingston, Ontario. The Voyages and Explorations of Samuel de Champlain (1604-1616), narrated by himself, translated by Annie Nettleton Bourne, together with the Voyage of 1603, Reprinted from Purchas His Pilgrimes, edited with introduction and notes by Edward Gaylod Bourne, Late Professor of History in Yale University, In Two Volumes, (Toronto, The Courier Press, Limited, 1911, The A.S. Barnes Company).
1580SC002. William J. Federer, American Quotations (2014). Samuel de Champlain wrote in Volume I, Book I, Chapter II, of his Voyages and Explorations. The Voyages and Explorations of Samuel de Champlain (1604- 1616), narrated by himself, translated by Annie Nettleton Bourne, together with the Voyage of 1603, Reprinted from Purchas His Pilgrimes, edited with introduction and notes by Edward Gaylod Bourne, Late Professor of History in Yale University, Special Introduction by W.L. Grant, M.A., Professor of Colonial History, Queens University, Kingston, Ontario. In Two Volumes, (Toronto, The Courier Press, Limited, 1911, The A.S. Barnes Company).