Samuel de Champlain: Difference between revisions
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==Exploration of New France== |
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On March 29, 1613, he arrived back in New France and proclaimed his new royal commission. Champlain set out on May 27 to continue his exploration of the Huron country and in hopes of finding the "northern sea" he had heard about (probably [[Hudson Bay]]). He traveled the [[Ottawa River]], later giving the first description of this area. It was in June that he met with [[Tessouat]], the Algonkian chief of Allumette Island, and offered to build the tribe a fort if they were to move from the area they occupied, with its poor soil, to the locality of the Lachine Rapids. |
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By August 26 Champlain was back in [[Saint-Malo]]. There he wrote an account of his life from 1604 to 1612 and his journey up the Ottawa river, his ''Voyages''<ref>''Les voyages du Sieur de Champlain, Saintangeois, capitaine ordinaire pour le Roy en la Marine''.</ref> and published another map of New France. In 1614 he formed the "Compagnie des Marchands de Rouen et de Saint-Malo" and "Compagnie de Champlain", which bound the Rouen and Saint-Malo merchants for eleven years. He returned to New France in the spring of 1615 with four [[Recollects]] in order to further religious life in the new colony. The [[Roman Catholic Church]] would be given ''[[Seigneurial system of New France|en seigneurie]]'' large and valuable tracts of land estimated at nearly 30% of all the lands granted by the [[King of France|French Crown]] in [[New France]]. <ref name="roydalton">Dalton, Roy. ''The Jesuit Estates Question'' 1760-88, p. 60. [[University of Toronto Press]], 1968.</ref> |
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Champlain continued to work to improve relations with the natives promising to help them in their struggles against the Iroquois. With his native guides he explored further up the [[Ottawa River]] and reached [[Lake Nipissing]]. He then followed the [[French River (Ontario)|French River]] until he reached the fresh-water sea he called Lac Attigouautau (now [[Lake Huron]]). |
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In 1615, Champlain was escorted through the Peterborough area by a group of Hurons. He used the ancient portage between Chemong Lake and Little Lake (now Chemong Road); stayed for a short period of time in Bridgenorth area. |
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==Military Expedition== |
==Military Expedition== |
Revision as of 21:04, 1 April 2007
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/0/05/Samuel-de-champlain-s.jpg/220px-Samuel-de-champlain-s.jpg)
by Théophile Hamel (1870)
Samuel de Champlain, the "father of New France," was born around 1567 in the town of Brouage, a seaport on France's west coast. A sailor, he also came to be respected as a talented navigator, mapmaker, and founder of Quebec City. He was also integral in opening North America up to French trade, especially the fur trade. His influence is still felt in the presence of French Canadians in Quebec, where he did most of his exploring. Champlain's pattern was to spend several months or years exploring North America and then to head back to France to raise more funds for further explorations. >SPINNER OWNS :d
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Military Expedition
On September 1, at Cahiagué (on Lake Simcoe), he started a military expedition. The party passed Lake Ontario at its eastern tip where they hid their canoes and continued their journey by land. They followed the Oneida River until they found themselves at an Iroquois fort. Pressured by the Hurons to attack prematurely, the assault failed. Champlain was wounded twice in the leg by arrows, one in his knee. The attack lasted three hours until they were forced to flee.
Although he didn't want to, the Hurons insisted that Champlain spend the winter with them. During his stay he set off with them in their great deer hunt, during which he became lost and was forced to wander for three days living off game and sleeping under trees until he met up with a band of Indians by chance. He spent the rest of the winter learning "their country, their manners, customs, modes of life". On May 22, 1616, he left the Huron country and was back in Quebec on July 11 before heading back to France on July 20.
Improving Administration in New France
Champlain returned to New France in 1620 and was to spend the rest of his life focusing on administration of the country rather than exploration.
Champlain spent the winter building Fort Saint-Louis on top of Cap Diamant. By mid-May he learned that the fur trade had been handed over to another company led by the Caen brothers. After some tense negotiations, it was decided to merge the two companies under the direction of the Caens. Champlain continued to work on relations with the Indians and managed to impose on them a chief of his choice. He also managed to create a peace treaty with the Iroquois tribes.
Champlain continued to work on improving his fortification around what became Quebec City, laying the first stone on May 6, 1624. On August 15 he once again returned to France where he was encouraged to continue his work as well as to continue to look for a passage to China. At the time, most of the European powers believed that North America included a passage on land to China. By July 5th he was back at Quebec and continued expanding the city.
Things weren't to continue well for Champlain and his small village. Supplies were low during the summer of 1628 and English merchants had pillaged Cap Tourmente in early July. On July 10, Champlain received a summons from the Kirke brothers, English merchants. Champlain refused to deal with them and, in response, the English cut off supplies from going to the city. By the spring of 1629 supplies were dangerously low and Champlain was forced to send people to Gaspé to conserve rations. On July 19, the Kirke brothers arrived and Champlain was forced to negotiate the terms of the cities' capitulation. By October 29, Champlain found himself in London.
A member of the Compagnie des Cent-Associés, from 1629 to 1635 Champlain was commander in New France "in the absence of my Lord the Cardinal de Richelieu". [1] During the next several years Champlain wrote Voyages de la Nouvelle France dedicated to Cardinal Richelieu as well as Traitté de la marine et du devoir d’un bon marinier. It wasn't until the Treaty of Saint-Germain-en-Laye in 1632 that Quebec was given back to France and on March 1, 1633, Champlain reclaimed his role as commander of New France on behalf of Richelieu.
Champlain returned to Quebec on May 22, 1633, after an absence of four years. On August 18, 1634, he sent a report to Richelieu stating that he had rebuilt on the ruins of Quebec, enlarged its fortifications, constructed another habitation 15 leagues upstream, as well as another one at Trois-Rivières. He had also begun an offensive against the Iroquois Indians stating he wanted them wiped out or "brought to reason".
Illness and Death
By October of 1635, Champlain was stricken with paralysis and stroke. He died childless on December 25, 1635. He was buried temporarily in an unmarked grave while construction was finished on the chapel of Monsieur le Gouverneur. Unfortunately, it was destroyed by fire in 1640 and immediately rebuilt but nothing is known of it after 1640, although after 1674 it no longer existed. As such the exact burial site of Champlain is unknown.
However, Jesuit records tell us he died in the hands of his friend Charles Lallemant who also heard his last confession, a reassuring point for a Catholic of the period.
There is no authentic portrait of Champlain. Paintings of Champlain have been shown to be actually of Michel Particelli d’Émery. The only surviving picture we have is an engraving of a battle at Lake Champlain in 1609, but the facial features are too vague to make out.
Legacy
Champlain remains, to this day, a prominent historical figure in many parts of Acadia, Ontario, Quebec, New York, and Vermont.
- There are two communities in New York named Champlain as well as a township in Ontario and a municipality in Québec.
- There is also Lake Champlain, Champlain Valley, The Champlain Trail Lakes, and Champlain Sea, a glacial sea which disappeared 6000 years before Champlain was born.
- Fort Champlain at the Royal Military College of Canada in Kingston, Ontario was named in his honour in 1965. This dormitory houses 8, 9 and 10 Squadrons.
Notes
References
- Samuel Eliot Morison, Samuel de Champlain: Father of New France (Little Brown, 1972) ISBN 0-316-58399-5
- Champlain : the birth of French America / edited by Raymonde LItalien and Denis Vaugeois. (McGill-Queen's University Press, 2004) ISBN 0-7735-2850-4
- Biography at the Dictionary of Canadian Biography Online
External links
- Full text http://www.gutenberg.net/etext/6825 Vol. 3
- Samuel de Champlain Biography by Appleton and Klos
- Works by Samuel de Champlain at Project Gutenberg
- Biography at the Dictionary of Canadian Biography Online
- Description of Champlain's voyage to Chatham, Cape Cod in 1605 and 1606.'
- Champlain's tomb: State of the Art Report. (in French, translation with Alta-Vista available'
- Biography at the Museum of Civilization
- Champlain in Acadia (A Historica project from 7th Floor Media)
- Champlain, Samuel de (From The Canadian Encyclopedia)
- Biography at the Museum of Civilization
- Les Voyages de la Nouvelle France... 1632, from Rare Book Room