What country did samuel de champlain sail for

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c. 1567

Brouage, France

December 25, 1635

Quebec, New France (now Canada)

French explorer

" . . . I went to Quebec, wither some Algonquin savages came, expressing their regret at not being present at the defeat of their enemies, and presenting me with some furs, in consideration of my having gone there and assisted their friends."

Samuel de Champlain.

In 1608 the French explorer Samuel de Champlain visited New France, a French colony in North America that became the province of Quebec, Canada. Within four years he had convinced the French government that the land in North America had great potential for settlement and commercial development. Champlain made twelve journeys to New France to explore and consolidate French holdings in the New World (a European term for North and South America). He wrote six books about his expeditions and the importance of the new French settlement. Serving for a time as the king's lieutenant in New France, he lived to see Quebec established on both shores of the St. Lawrence River. Today Champlain is considered the father of New France and the founder of Quebec.

Becomes a navigator

Samuel de Champlain was born in the small seaport town of Brouage on the west coast of France in about 1567. It is believed that he was born a Protestant and at some point converted to Roman Catholicism during the Wars of Religion (also known as Hugenot Wars; 1562–98). This period of bitter rivalry between Protestants (members of the Protestant Christian religion, which was formed in opposition to the Roman Catholic Church) and Catholics (members of the Roman Catholic Church, a Christian religion based in Rome, Italy, and headed by a pope who has supreme authority in all church affairs) would determine the dominant religion in France. At an early age, Champlain went to sea to learn navigation and cartography (the drafting of maps and charts). Until 1598 he fought as a sergeant on the side of Protestant king Henry IV in the religious wars. After his military service, he worked as a navigator on a voyage to the West Indies. Although Champlain was born a commoner (one who is not of noble rank), his reputation as a navigator earned him an honorary title in Henry's court.

Joins expedition to New France

In 1603 Champlain was invited to join the expedition of François Gravé Du Pont to visit the river of Canada, now known as the St. Lawrence River. The expedition party landed at Tadoussac, a summer trading post where the Saguenay River runs into the St. Lawrence. Champlain sailed with the expedition past the sites of present-day Quebec, Trois-Rivières, and Montreal. He immediately realized that these lands could be colonized by French citizens and provide France with many resources and great wealth. Champlain also learned of the existence of the Great Lakes. The French found the land sparsely inhabited by Native Americans, some of whom were friendly toward the Europeans while others were hostile. Champlain wrote about the customs of the Native Americans in a report that was published in France.

Returning to Tadoussac, the expedition sailed around the Gaspé Peninsula into a region Champlain called Acadia (probably named for Arcadia, the mythical paradise of the ancient Greeks). Champlain urged the French government to explore Acadia, now known as Nova Scotia. The region reportedly had rich mineral deposits and some speculated it might even be the key to finding the elusive Northwest Passage (the water route between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans that the major world powers had long been seeking).

As a result of his impressive efforts in New France, Champlain was chosen in 1604 to be the geographer on an expedition to Acadia to find the best site for settlement. Led by Lieutenant-General Pierre du Gua, Sieur de Monts, who had a monopoly (exclusive possession or control) on the fur trade in the region, the party of settlers sailed to Acadia. Traveling down the coast of New Brunswick, they stopped at the St. Croix River and built a small fort on a site that is now almost exactly on the border between the United States and Canada. The first winter was a near disaster for the expedition party. Besides the harsh weather, nearly half the party died of scurvy (a disease caused by lack of Vitamin C in the diet). The following winter they moved across the Bay of Fundy to Port Royal, now called Annapolis Royal in Nova Scotia. This was to become the main settlement for the French Acadians.

Explores present-day New England

During the next three years Champlain traveled on his own, trying to find an ideal site for colonization. He sailed along the coast of present-day Maine and journeyed as far as 150 miles inland. On another trip, he sailed down the coast of New England to the island that is now Martha's Vineyard, off Cape Cod. Although the English were exploring in the same area and eventually established the Plymouth Colony in 1620, Champlain was the first European to give a detailed account of the region. He is also credited with discovering Mount Desert Island as well as most of the major rivers in Maine.

Since the French could not find a suitable area for settlement, they returned to Acadia to build a more permanent fort at Port Royal. De Monts returned to France and Champlain stayed with the settlers in Acadia. In September 1606, he made another journey to the south as far as the present-day state of Rhode Island. During the following winter the French made the best of their isolated situation by forming the Order of Good Cheer, which sponsored banquets and games and amateur shows. In 1607, when Henry IV canceled de Monts's trading privileges, the entire colony was forced to return to France. Before he left the New World, Champlain had accurately charted the Atlantic coast from the Bay of Fundy to Cape Cod.

Founds Quebec City

Champlain was determined to return to New France, this time on his own terms. By 1608 he had secured financial backing for his most ambitious project in the New World, the beginning of a permanent settlement at Quebec City. Arriving in July, the party, which included thirty-two colonists, built a fort and faced their first hard winter. Only nine people survived to welcome the reinforcements who arrived in June of the following year. That spring, Champlain continued his exploration of Canada by traveling up the St. Lawrence and Richelieu Rivers to a lake that now bears his name, Lake Champlain. In 1609 he joined the Huron tribe and their allies in a great battle against a marauding (raiding) band of Iroquois on Lake Champlain near present-day Crown Point, New York. The French and Hurons defeated the Iroquois, thus beginning 150 years of hostilities between the French and the Iroquois, one of the most powerful tribal nations in North America.

Named lieutenant in New France

In 1612 Champlain returned to France. On the basis of his report, the king decided to make Quebec the center for French fur trading in North America. Champlain provided an account of this meeting in Voyages of Samuel de Champlain, 1604–1618 (published by Scribner, 1907). He wrote:

I reported to him in detail all that had transpired in regard to the winter quarters and our new explorations, and my hopes for the future in view of the promises of the savages called Ochasteguins [Hurons] . . . . After I had concluded my interview with His Majesty, Sieur de Monts determined to go to Rouen to meet his associates. . . . They resolved to continue the settlement, and finish the explorations up the great river St. Lawrence, in accordance with the promises of the Ochasteguins.

Around the time of his meeting with the king, Champlain married Hélène Broullé, the daughter of the secretary to the king's chamber. During the next few years, he frequently traveled back and forth between Quebec and France. While in New France he pursued further exploration and tried to nurture the colony in Quebec, but the many political intrigues (secret schemes) in France demanded all his diplomatic skills and much of his time and energy. For example, when the fur trade faltered, he had to muster support for the colony. He came out of this skirmish the victor, having been made a lieutenant in New France by the new king, Louis XIII.

Champlain describes torture

In his Voyages of Samuel de Champlain, 1604–1618 Champlain provides a detailed account of the aftermath of the successful battle the Hurons and their allies waged against the Iroquois in 1609. He describes the torture of an Iroquois prisoner by the Hurons, a common practice among Native Americans in the seventeenth century. As the Hurons proceed to torture the man, Champlain lists the various techniques they used, including branding, scalping, and mutilation. Champlain admits that it was difficult to watch another human being suffer, but he also describes with admiration the strength of the victim who displayed "such firmness that one would have said, at times, that he suffered hardly any pain at all." Evidently it was customary among warriors on both sides to resist displaying any reaction to pain.

When Champlain turned his back on the torture, the Hurons allowed him to kill the prisoner by shooting him with a musket. Afterwards, they performed perform ritualistic mutilations of the dead body that included cutting off the head, legs, and arms. Champlain explains that following the ritual "we set out on our return with the rest of the prisoners, who kept singing as they went along, with no better hopes for the future than he had had who was so wretchedly treated." Despite his feelings about the brutal spectacle, Champlain concludes his account by saying that when the French, Iroquois, and Hurons went their separate ways, they parted "with loud protestations of mutual friendship."

When Champlain returned to Canada in 1613, he explored the Ottawa River to present-day Allumette Island, opening the route that was to become the main river route to the Great Lakes for the next two centuries. By this time the French had made favorable treaties with many Native American tribes, and the fur trade prospered. Champlain then turned his attention to other aspects of governing the colony. In 1615 he returned from France with the first Roman Catholic missionaries, who came to convert the Native Americans to Christianity. During that summer he saw the Great Lakes for the first time.

Position threatened by politics

The Iroquois presented a real danger to the French colonists. When the French, allied with the Hurons and Algonquins, unsuccessfully attacked an Iroquois stronghold at a site in what is now modern-day New York, Champlain was seriously wounded. He spent the winter recuperating among the Huron people. When he returned to France in 1616, he found that political intrigues at court had once again weakened his position, and he lost the rank of lieutenant in New France. In order to regain what he had lost, he proposed an ambitious plan to colonize Quebec, establish agriculture, and search for the Northwest Passage. He gained the king's support and spent part of 1618 in Quebec.

Champlain's problems in France, however, were not yet over. Plagued by lawsuits and political intrigue, he again appealed to the king to keep his power. This time Champlain was appointed commander of the colony and spent the following years trying to strengthen New France. His authority strengthened when the most powerful man in the French government, Cardinal de Richelieu, formed the company of One Hundred Associates to rule New France with Champlain in charge.

Quebec becomes stable

In 1629 Quebec was attacked and forced to surrender to a party of English privateers (sailors on a private ship transporting goods). Champlain was exiled to England, where he spent the next four years defending the importance of New France and writing accounts of his life. When a peace treaty was signed between England and France in 1632, Champlain was restored to his former post and returned to New France. In 1634 he sent Jean Nicolet, a French trapper and trader, to the west to extend French claims in the region that is now Wisconsin. Westward expansion was made possible through Champlain's friendly relationship with the Hurons. Even though southward movement was still impossible because of the British, Quebec was a stable French settlement. It was stronger, in fact, than the English settlement of Jamestown, in the modern-day state of Virginia (see John Smith entry). This progress was the result of Champlain's success as an explorer and diplomat. Having suffered from various health problems since 1633, Champlain died in Quebec on December 25, 1635.

Jean Nicolet makes peace with the Winnebago tribe

Jean Nicolet was a Frenchman who had been living among the Huron, Algonquin, and Nipissing tribes since 1618, working as a trapper and trader. In 1634 French explorer Samuel de Champlain sent Nicolet on a diplomatic mission to the Winnebago tribe, living on the shores of Green Bay in the present-day state of Wisconsin. Because the Winnebagos were enemies of the Algonquins, it was feared that they would trade with the English instead of the French. Since it was believed that the route to the Great Lakes might also lead to China, Nicolet wore an embroidered Chinese robe.

Nicolet began his journey in July 1634 and traveled via the Ottawa River, Lake Nipissing, and the French River to Lake Huron, where he passed through the straits of Michilimackinac to Lake Michigan, then proceeded down to Green Bay. He was the first European to follow this route, which eventually became the passage for French fur traders to the west. One of the great scenes of North American exploration is Nicolet coming ashore in Green Bay dressed in his Chinese robe. Impressing the tribesmen with his elaborate costume, Nicolet successfully completed his mission by signing a peace treaty between the Winnebagos and the French.

For further research

Armstrong, Joe C. W. Champlain. Toronto: Macmillan of Canada, 1987.

Champlain, Samuel de. Voyages of Samuel de Champlain. W. L. Grant, ed. New York: Barnes and Noble, 1952.

Morison, Samuel Eliot. Samuel de Champlain, Father of New France. Boston, MA: Little, Brown, 1972.

"Samuel de Champlain's 1607 Map." http://lcweb.locgov/exhibits/treasures/trr009.html Available July 13, 1999.