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Wounded, and repulsed, and destitute of guides, he
spends the first winter after his return to
America in the country of the Hurons; and a knight errant among the forests carries his language, religion, and influence, even to the hamlets of Algonquins, near
Lake Nipissing.
Religious disputes combined with commercial jeal-
ousies to check the progress of the colony; yet in the summer, when the Pilgrims were leaving
Leyden, in obedience to the wishes of the unhappy
Montmorenci, the new viceroy,
Champlain, began a fort.
The merchants grudged the expense.
‘It is not best to yield to the passions of men,’ was his reply; ‘they sway but for a season; it is a duty to respect the future;’ and in a few years the castle
St. Louis, so long the place
of council against the
Iroquois and against
New England, was durably founded on ‘a commanding cliff.’
In the same year, the viceroyalty was transferred to
the religious enthusiast,
Henry de Levi; and through his influence, in 1625, just a year after Jesuits had
reached the sources of the
Ganges and
Thibet, the banks of the
St. Lawrence received priests of the order, which was destined to carry the cross to
Lake Superior and the
West.
The presence of Jesuits and Calvinists led to dissensions.
The savages caused disquiet.
But the persevering founder of
Quebec appealed to the Royal Council and to
Richelieu; and though disasters inter-
vened,
Champlain successfully established the authority of the
French on the banks of the
St. Lawrence, in the territory which became his country.
‘The father of New France’ lies buried in the land which he colonized.
Thus the humble industry of the fishermen of
Normandy and
Brittany promised their country the acquisition of an empire.
