French navigator; born in
Brouage, France, in 1567.
His family had many fishermen and
mariners, and he was carefully educated for a navigator.
In early life he was in the cavalry of
Brittany, and was with his uncle, pilot-general of the fleets of
Spain, when that officer conducted back to that country the troops who had served in
France.
In 1599 he commanded a vessel of the Spanish fleet that sailed to
Mexico, and he drew up a faithful account of the voyage.
On his return he received a pension from Henry IV.
of
France; and he was induced by
M. de Chastes, governor of
Dieppe, to explore and prepare the way for a. French colony in
America.
Chastes had received a charter from the
King to found settlements in New France, and the monarch commissioned
Champlain lieutenant-general of
Canada.
With this authority, he sailed from Honfleur on March 5, 1603, with a single vessel, commanded by
Pont-Greve, a skilful navigator.
In May they ascended the
St. Lawrence and landed near the site of
Quebec, from which place
Pont-Greve and five men ascended the river in a canoe to Lachine Rapids, above
Montreal.
The
Indians at
Stadacona yet remembered
Cartier's perfidy (see
Cartier, Jacques), but were placable.
Champlain, on his return to
France in the autumn, found
Chastes dead and his concessions transferred by the
King to
Pierre de Gast, the Sieur de Monts, a wealthy
Huguenot, who had received the commission of viceroy of New France.
The latter made a new arrangement with
Champlain, and in March, 1604, he sailed with the navigator from
France with four vessels.
They landed in
Nova Scotia, and remained there some time planting a settlement and exploring the neighboring regions; and when
de Monts returned to
France, he left
Champlain to explore the
New England coast.
He went as far south as
Cape Cod, and in 1607 returned to
France.
Having suggested to De
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Monts that a point on the
St. Lawrence would be a more eligible site for the seat of the projected new empire,
Champlain was sent to the river in 1608 with
Pont-Greve, and, at
Stadacona, founded
Quebec, the
Indian name for “the narrows,” and pronounced Kebec. There the colonists built cabins and prepared to plant.
In 1609
Champlain, who had made the
Montagnais Indians on the
St. Lawrence his friends, marched with them against their enemies, the
Iroquois.
They were joined by a party of Hurons and Algonquins, and ascended the
Sorel to the
Chambly Rapids, whence
Champlain proceeded in a canoe and discovered a great lake, and gave it his own name.
On its borders he fought and defeated the
Iroquois, who fled in terror before the fire of his arquebuses.
He returned to
France, but went back in 1610, and the same year was wounded by an arrow in a fight with the
Iroquois.
Again returning to
France, he, at the age
of forty-four years, married a girl of twelve; and in 1612 he went back to
Canada, with the title and powers of lieutenant-governor, under the
Prince of
Conde, who had succeeded De Soissons, the successor to
De Monts, as viceroy.
In 1815 he started on his famous expedition to the
Onondaga Indians.
He followed
Father Le Caron and his party to
Lake Huron, to which he gave the name of Mer Douce.
Returning across the great forests, he sailed with several hundred canoes down a stream into the
Bay of Quinte, and entered the broad
Lake Ontario, which he named Lac St. Louis.
With a considerable war party, chiefly Hurons, he crossed the lake into the country of the
Iroquois, in (present) New York.
Hiding their canoes in the forest, they pressed onward to the
Indian post on the shore of
Onondaga Lake.
It was at the time of the maize harvest, and the
Iroquois were attacked in the fields.
They retired to their town, which was fortified with four rows of palisades.
On the inside of these were galleries furnished with stones and other missiles, and a supply of water to extinguish a fire if kindled beneath these wooden walls.
The
Hurons were rather insubordinate, and the attack was ineffectual.
Champlain had constructed a wooden tower, which was dragged
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near the palisades, and from the top of which his marksmen swept the galleries filled with naked
Iroquois.
But he could not control the great body of the Hurons, and, in their furious and tumultuous assault upon the palisades, they were thrown back in confusion, and could not be induced to repeat the onset, but resolved to retreat.
Champlain, wounded in the leg, was compelled to acquiesce, and he made his way back to
Quebec (1616), after a year's absence.
The same year he went to
France and organized a. fur-trading company.
On his return to
Canada he took with him some Recollet priests to minister to the colonists and the pagans.
The colony languished until 1620, when a more energetic viceroy gave it a start.
Champlain got permission to fortify it, and he returned with the title and power of governor, taking with him his child-wife.
Jesuit priests were sent to
Canada as missionaries, and
Champlain worked energetically for the cause of religion and the expansion of French dominion.
In 1628
Sir David Kertk appeared with an English fleet before
Quebec and demanded its surrender.
Champlain's bold refusal made
Kertk retire, but on his way down the
St. Lawrence he captured the
French supply-ships.
This produced great distress in
Quebec; and in July of next year
Champlain was compelled to surrender to
Kertk's brothers, and was carried to
England.
By a treaty in 1632,
Canada was restored to the
French.
Champlain was reinstated as governor, and sailed for the
St. Lawrence in 1633.
He did not long survive, but worked energetically and faithfully until the last.
His wife survived him. She was a Protestant when she was married, but died an Ursuline nun.
Champlain's zeal for the propagation of Christianity was intense.
A college was established at
Quebec, in which the children of the savages were taught and trained in the habits of civilization.
In 1603
Champlain published an account of his first voyage, and, in 1613 and 1619, a continuation of his narrative.
In 1632 they were included in a work of his then published, which comprised a history of New France from the time of Verrazani's discoveries to 1631, entitled
Les voyages á la Nouvelle France Occidentale et Canada. He died in
Quebec, Dec. 25, 1635.
In 1870 a complete collection of his works, including his voyage to
Mexico, with facsimiles of his maps, was published in
Quebec, edited by Abbes Laverdiere and Casgrain.