When the French Were Here
Champlain Quadricentennial
Samuel de Champlain, A Life
From Mexico to Maine
For two and a half years, crossing the Atlantic eight times on his uncle’s ship, the Saint Julien, Champlain mapped the West Indies, Mexico and Panama. In 1601, when he returned to France, he published the first of seven books based on his travels.
In that first volume, he described the splendors of Mexico City. He was probably the first person to propose digging a canal across Panama to the Pacific. It would not be built for another 300 years.
Champlain presented the manuscript of his Brief Discourse and the maps he had drawn to the royal court of King Henry IV in Paris. The book caught the king’s eye. Henry was already eager to acquire new wealth in the New World. He hoped to find a “Northwest Passage”, a water route across North America to Asia. In recognition of Champlain’s early exploits, he granted him a royal pension. Champlain began using the honorary title, “de Champlain.”
About this time, Champlain’s Uncle Guillaume died, leaving him an inheritance that included a house, a ship and all his other assets. That same year, 1603, Champlain accepted an invitation to sail to Canada on a trading venture. Francois Grave Du Pont was in command of three ships that sailed up the Saint Lawrence to the summer rendezvous place at Tadoussac, at the mouth of the Saguenay River, where the Indians brought their furs.
By this time, it was no longer a simple matter of swapping a few trinkets for a valuable fur. The tribes had become choosy. A trader had to bring from France caps, hats, nightcaps, shirts, sheets, coverlets, axes, iron arrowheads, knives, swords, tools for breaking the ice in winter, iron pots, dried prunes and raisins, corn, peas, hardtack biscuits and tobacco.
In exchange, the Indians laid out moose and wolf hides, fox, otter, marten, fisher, wolverine and, most prized of all, beaver. On average, the French were importing 15,000 beaver skins a year. Traders made a ten to twenty-fold markup back in France. Presumably, Champlain would garner his share.
At Tadoussac, Champlain first observed and then wrote about a tabagie, a feast offered by a Huron chief. Champlain studied the customs and beliefs of the Indians. He never learned any Indian language, relying on interpreters and a form of “pig” French the Indians learned.
Beginning to explore, he sailed up the Saguenay, the Indian trading route, then sailed up the Saint Lawrence with Du Pont. They made a side trip up the Richelieu River, which Champlain christened the Iroquois River after its inhabitants. He came within about twelve miles of present-day Vermont on his first voyage to Canada, then turned back north. Learning from the Indians of a fertile land in Acadia, Champlain joined a Huron celebration of a victory over the Iroquois before he sailed back to France.
Shortly after presenting King Henry with a map of the Saint Lawrence, Champlain received a royal commission to sail with Pierre Dugua, Sieur de Monts, to create a new settlement at Acadia, along the Bay of Fundy. Champlain remained based in Acadia for the next three years.
The first site chosen for a settlement was on an island in the St. Croix River between present-day Maine and Canada. Icebound in winter, with no firewood or fresh food, the choice cost the lives of half of the colonists that first winter.
Each summer, Champlain searched for a better site. He explored down the Atlantic Coast in a sailing bark with ten men. He named Port-Royal (Annapolis Royal), his eventual choice, in present-day Nova Scotia. He explored the mouth of the St. John River (New Brunswick). He entered the Penobscot and the Kennebec, mapping 200 miles of the Maine coast as he also searched for precious metals. He explored as far south as Boston Bay and Cape Cod. He made very precise maps of these voyages.
In his last winter in Acadia, Champlain established the Order of Good Cheer, America’s first gastronomic society. The first French play, Theatre de Neptune, also was staged. Setting out to map the shoreline of Cape Breton Island (Nova Scotia) before he returned to France, he searched for sites for copper mines.
His maps of the Maritime Provinces and of New England earned him the new title, “King’s Geographer.”
