Why do we remember samuel de champlain

What Mr. Certainly the document is difficult to read; the letters often have to be deciphered as much from their context, as from their appearance. Moreover, in that era the rules of spelling were flexible, to say the least. The different spellings used for the family name of the child and his father can be explained by the fact these names had perhaps previously been written down only rarely.

A standard spelling had possibly not yet been adopted. What are the chances of finding another baptismal certificate dating from this era where the names are identical to those we find in other historical documents?

The chances are in fact very small indeed. However, even though the family names of Chapeleau and Champlain are similar, this small difference — understandable as it may be — cautions us not to jump to conclusions. Although the probability is slight, it is still possible that this document has nothing to do with our Samuel de Champlain.

If we are indeed looking at the baptismal certificate of our Samuel de Champlain, we can now say for certain that he was born into a Protestant family, most probably during the summer of But unless there is another discovery to equal the one made by Mr. Denors N. Aymar de Chaste, governor of Dieppe in Northern France, had obtained a monopoly of the fur trade and set up a trading post at Tadoussac.

Champlain always tried to establish good relations with certain Native nations, especially the Hurons. He even spent an entire winter with them in The stories he left behind are very valuable because they tell us about the Native way of life.

Champlain and the French aided the Hurons in an attack on the Iroquois, but they lost the battle and Champlain was hit in the knee with an arrow and unable to walk. During his stay, he composed one of the earliest and most detailed accounts of Native American life. When Champlain returned to France, he found himself embroiled in lawsuits and was unable to return to Quebec. He spent this time writing the stories of his voyages, complete with maps and illustrations.

When he was reinstated as lieutenant, he returned to Canada with his wife, who was 30 years his junior. Things didn't go smoothly for Champlain for long. Eager to capitalize on the profitable fur trade in the region, Charles I of England commissioned an expedition under David Kirke to displace the French. They attacked the fort and seized supply ships, cutting off necessities to the colony. Champlain surrendered on July 19, and returned to France. Champlain spent some time writing about his travels until, in , the British and the French signed the Treaty of Saint-Germain-en-Laye, returning Quebec to the French.

Champlain returned to be its governor. By this time, however, his health was failing and he was forced to retire in Through his propaganda for Acadia in , Champlain has his share of responsibility for the temporary abandonment of the St.

Lawrence in favour of Acadia. Invited by de Monts and authorized by Henri IV, who apparently instructed him to make a report on his discovery, Champlain embarked once again in March ; he still had no official title, but the role he was to play and the completed tasks that he was to leave show that, without having the title, he did perform the duties of a geographer. In early May , the expedition stopped at Port-au-Mouton, on the east shore of Acadia.

De Monts instructed Champlain to choose a temporary base for the settlement, until a site combining the most suitable conditions could be located. Champlain therefore set off on 19 May, sailed round the Cap de Sable, entered the Baie Sainte-Marie where he chose a harbour for the largest ship, noticed some mines, added to the toponymy, and came back to Port-au-Mouton after three weeks. De Monts decided to have separate buildings constructed, and Champlain built himself a dwelling to be shared with MM.

Before the winter, Champlain busied himself with exploration. He entered the Penobscot River and tried to reach the Kennebec, but he could not get beyond Pemaquid.

On this month-long trip he covered some miles, and penetrated as much as 50 miles into the lands adjoining the Penobscot River. Although not the first European to visit this region, he has given us the first precise description of it.

He returned somewhat disappointed with what he had seen. The winter season spent at Sainte-Croix, —5, was disastrous because of scurvy and the exceptional severity of the cold.

De Monts rounded this and made a stop at Mallebarre Nauset Harbour. After a journey of about miles, he returned to Sainte-Croix without finding the ideal site for a settlement. Gosnold and Weymouth had preceded him at some points on this coast, but the geographer Champlain has left us a set of such precise maps that he deserves the title of first cartographer of New England.

While waiting for something better to turn up, de Monts transported his colony to Port-Royal; experience led him to adopt this time the closed quadrilateral dwelling, and they settled in with a certain degree of comfort. Before the winter started Champlain set off again, unsuccessfully, to look for mines. The winter season of —6, even though made miserable by scurvy, was less painful than the preceding one. In September Poutrincourt, in his turn, searched southward for the site of a permanent settlement; Champlain went with him.

This voyage added little to the toponymy; Champlain gave his name to a small river, the Nashpee, east of Rhode Island. The winter of —7 was a most merry one: pleasant temperature, food and wine in abundance. Champlain added to the high spirits by founding the Order of Good Cheer, a sort of carefree order of chivalry, whose members had to take their turn in providing game for the table and maintaining a joyful humour. In May it was learned that the trading privilege had been revoked; de Monts gave orders to his colony to return to France.

When Champlain sailed, 11 August , for Canseau Canso , he took the opportunity to reconnoitre the coast in detail and to make a map of it. And it was thus that in , thanks to him, all the Atlantic coastline, from Cape Breton to the south of Cap Blanc, was charted and decked out with French place-names.

The English, who returned in to winter on the Kennebec, did nothing comparable in this domain. The Acadian venture having been broken off, what was to become of Champlain? In he had influenced de Monts in the choice of Acadia rather than of the St. Lawrence; and he was the one, it seems, who was responsible for the return to the St.

Lawrence in This time he received the first official function of his Canadian career; he became lieutenant to the Sieur de Monts. On 13 April he set out a third time for New France; he arrived on 3 June at Tadoussac, where he had not been for five years.

Quebec was beginning its history. A few days later, Champlain escaped a plot led by the locksmith Jean Duval , who had been with him in Acadia. To try out the soil, Champlain turned his attention to sowing wheat and rye; he planted vines, and made a vegetable garden.

Like the first winter season in Acadia, the one at Quebec was marked by a severe onset of scurvy; of the 25 winterers, 16 died, including the surgeon Bonnerme [ see Duval ].

Champlain was taking part for the first time in military operations in New France: although he was not responsible for the long Franco-Iroquois conflict, since the French had contracted an offensive alliance before , he consolidated the prestige of the French; to honour Champlain, the allies reserved for him a brace of firearms and the head of one of the enemy.

As a result of his voyage of exploration, Champlain enlarged the map of New France and opened up a route that was to be a strategic one for Europeans for two centuries; had he lingered on until September and gone a few miles farther south, he would have encountered the Englishman Henry Hudson , who was introducing Dutch supremacy into this region.

Although he did not manage to get his monopoly renewed, de Monts formed a society with some Rouen merchants: the latter would support the Quebec habitation, but on condition that it served as a warehouse for the fur trade; as a temporary compromise, Quebec would be exclusively a storage point for furs.

After a false start and a month of illness, Champlain re-embarked with some artisans on 8 April , and reappeared at Quebec 28 April, after an unusually rapid voyage. The allies were awaiting Champlain, to start another expedition against the Iroquois. They had agreed upon a rendezvous at the mouth of the Richelieu; the Iroquois were already there, and well stockaded.

Before he left for France, Champlain discovered that the fur trade that year was ruinous for those supporting him, and he learned that Henri IV had been assassinated. In that unfortunate combination of circumstances he set out from Quebec, 8 Aug. Without making any allusion to it in his writings, Champlain took an important step at the beginning of the winter; on 27 Dec. Of the promised dowry 6, livres , Champlain received 4, livres the day before the ceremony, which was a valuable contribution to his undertaking.

He sailed again 1 March , and arrived at Quebec 21 May. Forced by a mistake of the Indians to abandon his plan of exploring the St.

At last, on 13 June, some Indians came down from the hinterland, and after parleys with them Champlain carried out a feat calculated to increase his prestige among the natives: with them, he shot the rapids in a canoe. He arrived at La Rochelle 10 Sept. Finally, 8 Oct. Shortly afterwards Bourbon de Soissons died. The supporters of the freedom of trade would try none the less to deprive Champlain of the support of a society of merchants; they would seek every expedient to prevent Champlain from publishing his commission.

Champlain was to overcome this opposition only through the personal intervention of the king. The autumn of had thus brought Champlain an important advancement.

Moreover, he obtained the real powers of a governor, without however having either the title or the commission. As in , the fur trade yielded little profit. Disgusted by the tactics of the unauthorized merchants, the natives came only in small numbers. Champlain then decided to extend his exploration into the Huron country; with an Indian guide and four men among them the Nicolas de Vignau , who in in Paris had boasted that he had seen Hudson Bay by going up the Ottawa River , Champlain set out on 27 May.

He rejoined the river at the end of Allumette Island. In June he visited the home of Tessouat fl. On the other hand, they tried to dissuade Champlain from going as far as the territory of the Nipissings.