CHAPTER ONE
THE EXPLORATIONS OF CHAMPLAIN
1.
Introduction
In the work of Samuel de Champlain one has the unique opportunity of
studying a series of maps drawn by an explorer who also published a
series of journals describing his explorations. Although these journals
are not as complete as one could wish, no other 16th-or 17th-century
explorer or cartographer documented his work so thoroughly. By reading
Champlain's journals one can actually determine the sources of most of
the information on his maps. Such a complete record is not again available until well into the 18th century.
The information-gathering phase for Champlain's maps is described
in this chapter. In order to interpret Champlain's maps properly, it is
important to discuss the course of his explorations, noting in particular
when he visited certain localities and what he observed there. Since the
quality and extent of Champlain's observations tended to vary somewhat with the tasks he was required to perform by his superiors, this
discussion digresses in places to cover aspects of Champlain's activities
that were not directly related to exploration.
Champlain's journals and maps, our principal sources of information,
tended to appear at the completion of important phases in his work. It
is therefore appropriate to discuss these as they appeared during the
course of his explorations. This chapter is therefore a discussion of
Champlain's explorations and publications as sources of information
leading to an understanding of his maps.
2. Explorations in 1603
In 1603, shortly after his return from the West Indies, Champlain joined
a trading expedition to the St. Lawrence valley headed by Francois
Grave, Sieur du Pont. His function on the expedition is not clear; that
is to say, he does not seem to have had any official position. He may
have been responsible to the King, a senior minister, or Commander
Aymar de Chaste, head of the company that sponsored the expedition.
At any rate, it was from the King that Champlain obtained permission
to join the expedition, and to King Henri IV that Champlain was required
to report upon his return. Aymar de Chaste also gave his permission and
suggested that Champlain "see this country, and what the colonisers
might accomplish there." 1 In other words, Champlain seems to have
been required to make geographical observations, and an evaluation of
the St. Lawrence area for future colonization.
1
The results of Champlain's explorations were published in Des Sauvages
late in 1603. 2 This volume was reprinted in 1604 with many of the
printer's errors corrected. 3 Although Champlain makes only brief mention of the 1603 journey in his later books, he does mention that he
delivered a "very special account" of his explorations together with a
map to the King immediately upon his return to France in September,
1603. Neither the "special account" nor the map are extant.
Judging from two brief references to the 1603 map, it was a manuscript map of the St. Lawrence drawn for the account which he presented to the King. Since Champlain does not mention a map in Des
Sauvages, one can assume that the 1603 map was not intended for
publication. The "special account" may have been Champlain's geographical observations and opinions on the suitability of the St. Lawrence
valley for trading and colonization. Both De Chaste and the King had
requested such an account. Since Des Sauvages was dedicated to Charles
Montmorency, it is doubtful that this was the account presented to the
King. The "special account" was probably a more analytical document
than Des Sauvages. On the basis of this account the King "promised not
to give up this design [exploration, trade and colonization], but to have
it continued and facilitated." 4
In all likelihood the 1603 map was in the same style as Champlain's
manuscript 1607 map, which is discussed below. Since the 1607 map
was incorporated almost completely into the large printed map of 1612,
one can assume that the 1603 map was handled in a similar manner. The
1612 map is also discussed below.
The 1603 explorations set down in Des Sauvages form a pattern followed by Champlain in later years. They consist of brief geographical
and ethnological descriptions, copious notations of distances between
prominent physical features, observations of latitude, and numerous
Indian accounts of rivers and lakes beyond the areas explored by
Champlain. On at least one occasion he requested that the Indians draw
a map for him. 5 This was a map of the Great Lakes west of the Lachine
rapids, but it was not this particular Indian map which was incorporated
into the 1612 map.
Champlain's route is not difficult to reapproximate 6 (Fig. 2). He
departed Havre on March 16, crossed the Grand Banks in latitude 44° 20',
and sighted Cape St. Mary on the coast of Newfoundland on May 7.
From there he coasted the southern shore of Newfoundland past the
islands of Saint Pierre and Miquelon to Cape Ray and crossed to St. Paul's
island and Cape St. Lawrence on the 18. By the 20 of May he was off
Anticosti Island. The next day he sighted the Gaspé Peninsula and
skirted the south shore of the St. Lawrence past Matane to Bic, whence
he crossed to Tadoussac, reaching that port on the 24 of May. In total
the crossing from France to Tadoussac took seventy days.
On J u n e 18 Champlain left for the Lachine Rapids. He arrived there
2
Figure
1.
Location Map showing major lakes and rivers of Eastern Canada.
on July 2 and departed again on J u l y 4, arriving back at Tadoussac on
the 10. The only detour Champlain made along the way was up the
Richelieu river to the first set of rapids some five to six leagues (actually
fourteen miles) from the mouth.
On the 11 or 12 of July Champlain re-embarked for the Gaspé, which
he reached on the 15. On the 19 the expedition left Percée, but was
delayed by a storm near Fame Point until the 23 of July. On the 28
Champlain reached the north shore of the St. Lawrence near Sept-Isles.
From there he coasted the north shore, reaching Tadoussac on August 3.
The entire expedition left Tadoussac for France on August the 16,
with a five-day stopover at Percée. Havre de Grace was reached on
September 20. The entire return trip, omitting the stop at Percée,
therefore took some thirty days.
From the time he reached Tadoussac, until the time he departed,
Champlain spent forty-six days exploring. During that time he covered
about 1,500 miles of coastline, which he described better than anyone
before him. To these personal explorations Champlain added the following Indian accounts: (1) the source of the Saguenay River and its connections through lakes and rivers to Hudson Bay; (2) the lands upstream
from the mouth of the Batiscan and Riviere Ste. Anne; (3) the canoe
route up the Saint Maurice to the Saguenay; (4) the route up the
Richelieu to Lake Champlain and down the Hudson to "Florida"; (5)
the lands interior from the mouth of the Nicolet River and various rivers
around Montreal Island; (6) three separate accounts of the upper St.
Lawrence River and Great Lakes west of the Lachine Rapids as far as
Lake Huron; (7) a canoe route from Matane to Chaleur Bay (probably
via the Metapedia River); (8) canoe routes from Chaleur Bay to Tracadie
via the Big Tracadie River, and to Miramichi Bay over the Nepisiguit
and Northwest Miramichi Rivers; (9) a canoe route leading from Shediac
Bay or Bay Verte to Chignecto Bay; (10) the extent of the Metapedia
River to Metapedia Lake; and, finally, (11) a somewhat problematic
account of a great river south of the Bay of Fundy which approaches the
"lake of the Iroquois. "While the "lake of the Iroquois" is almost certainly
Lake Champlain, the river could be one of many along the New Brunswick
— New England coast, although none has its headwaters near Lake
Champlain. Some confused information on the canoe routes between
Northumberland Strait and the Bay of Fundy was obtained by Champlain
from Sarcel de Prévert, who had sent a couple of his men, accompanied
by Indians, to explore the copper deposits on the north shore of the
Minas Channel.
3. Explorations between 1604 and 1607
On March 7, 1604 Champlain re-embarked for New France, not to return
again until September 28, 1607. During these years he explored and
4
Figure
2.
Explorations, 1603-1607.
mapped the eastern coast of North America from Cape Canso in Nova
Scotia to Nantucket Sound in Massachusetts. The details of these
explorations are set forth in the first book of Les Voyages Du Sieur De
Champlain, published in 1613, with a condensed version in the second
book of Les Voyages De La Nouvelle France, published in 1632. Additional information by an eyewitness to some of Champlain's activities
can be found in Lescarbot's Histoire De La Nouvelle France.7
The tasks which Champlain was to perform in New France appear to
have been similar to those of the 1603 voyage. In the dedication to
Louis XIII which prefaces Les Voyages (1613), Champlain mentions
that he had been commissioned to explore and map by King Henry IV
and Pierre Du Gua, Sieur de Monts, head of the trading company that
operated in New France. 8 In the 1632 edition of Les Voyages Champlain
adds that he was requested by De Monts to undertake the voyage and
received permission by the King to go, on the condition that he prepare a
report of his discoveries. 9 Lescarbot reproduced the commissions held by
De Monts. These were issued by Henry IV and Charles de Montmorency,
Admiral of France. 10 Both commissions demanded, among other tasks,
that explorations and surveys be undertaken between 40 and 46 N.
latitude and that ore deposits be sought and assayed for their mineral
content. Judging from Champlain's activities between 1604 and 1607,
it was he who was chosen to fulfill the conditions of De Monts' commission. Indeed, shortly after Champlain arrived off the coast of Nova
Scotia he was "commissioned" by De Monts " t o go and make an examination of the coast and of the ports suitable for the safe reception of
our vessel." 11
After an Atlantic crossing of sixty-one days, Champlain first sighted
land on May 8, 1604 at Cap Lahave (Cap de la Héue) (Fig. 2). From
there the expedition coasted to Port Mouton, and Champlain was sent
ahead in a pinnace of eight tons with eleven men to look for a safe site
for their settlement. After exploring the coast as far as Long Island on
the western coast of St. Mary's Bay, Champlain returned to Port Mouton
to fetch the rest of the expedition.
On J u n e 16, the main expedition having safely anchored in St. Mary's
Bay, De Monts, accompanied by Champlain, set out into the Bay of
Fundy (Baye Francoise) to continue searching for a good settlement
site. After a thorough exploration of the Annapolis Basin (Port Royal),
the expedition proceeded along the eastern coast of the bay for about
thirty miles and then crossed to Cape Chignecto. From there they sailed
east to Advocate Harbour (Port des Mines) to take ore samples from a
copper deposit discovered by Prévert's men in 1603. On J u n e 20 the
expedition set sail for the western shore of the Bay of Fundy. Near Quaco
Head they discovered what they thought were iron deposits. From there
they coasted southwestwards to the mouth of the St. J o h n River (R. St.
Jean). The river was explored as far as the Reversing Falls. From natives
6
camped in the area Champlain learned that they travelled up the river
and, by means of a short portage, could reach the St. Lawrence across
from Tadoussac. Leaving the St. J o h n River, the explorers continued
southwestwards to the Ste. Croix River (Riviere des Etechemins). After
reconnoitering the Ste. Croix as far as their vessels could go, and learning
from local natives that both the Penoboscot (Norumbega) and the St.
J o h n could be reached from the upper Ste. Croix, De Monts decided to
build his settlement on Dochet Island (Isle de Sainte Croix). As soon as
proper defences had been completed, De Monts sent for the main
expedition anchored in St. Mary's Bay, and for supplies left at Canso.
Champlain was dispatched in a vessel of eight to nine tons with an Indian
guide and nine men to look for more ore deposits on the western shore of
the Bay of Fundy. After a few weeks of only minor success, Champlain
returned to Ste. Croix.
On September 2, with the settlement well on the way to completion
and the ships on their way back to France, De Monts sent Champlain
off to the southwest to explore the coast of New England (Norumbega).
He departed in a vessel of seventeen to eighteen tuns, two native guides,
and twelve sailors. On the fifth of September he coasted past Mount
Desert Island, reaching the mouth of the Penoboscot (Norumbegue) on
the seventh. Penoboscot Bay was thoroughly explored as far as Treats
Falls near the present town of Bangor. After exchanging presents and
trading furs with local and neighbouring Etechemin, Champlain continued his journey on the seventeenth. On the way he learned of canoe
routes to the Ste. Croix and the St. Lawrence near Quebec via the
Penoboscot. Just before reaching the Kennebec River
(Quinibegui),
Champlain's Etechemin guides left him because they were at war with
various native groups who frequented the river. Now on his own,
Champlain proceeded as far as the western extremity of Muscongus Bay,
two-thirds of the distance between the Penoboscot and the Kennebec.
Here foul weather induced him to return to Ste. Croix, which he reached
on October 2. In 147 days, in spite of a number of other tasks, Champlain had explored about 700 miles of coastline from Lahave almost to
the Kennebec river.
The fledgling settlement at Ste. Croix underwent a disastrous winter.
Inexperience with North American winter conditions, coupled with a
severe outbreak of scurvy, resulted in the death of thirty-nine of the
seventy-five men in the settlement. Relief finally came on June 1 5 , 1 6 0 5
with the arrival of ships from France.
Three days after the ships had arrived, De Monts, Champlain, "some
gentlemen", twenty sailors, and a native guide with his wife 1 2 departed
in a pinnace of fifteen tons to continue the explorations begun the
previous year.
Early in July the expedition reached the Kennebec River. After peaceful relations had been established with the local natives, Champlain was
7
guided through the maze of islands that form the mouth of the river as
far as Merrymeeting Bay, near the junction of the Androscoggin and
Kennebec Rivers. By questioning the Armouchiquois Champlain learned
of a canoe route up the Kennebec, a short portage, and the Chaudiere
to the St. Lawrence near Quebec.
On July 8 the expedition departed the mouth of the Kennebec and
coasted as far as the Saco River. The shoreline was now more thickly
settled with natives who, in contrast to those north of the Kennebec,
practised agriculture. On the Saco Champlain made some brief but
accurate ethnographic observations. They departed from the Saco on
the twelfth, coasting as far as Cape Porpoise Harbour (Port aux Isles)
and Goose Fair Bay. On the sixteenth they reached Cape Ann (Cap aux
Isles). Here Champlain drew a map of the coastline north of Cape Ann
for some local natives. The natives then added to the map the coastline
along Massachusetts Bay as far as Brant Point. On the map they placed
some rivers and the location of six native groups. As the expedition continued southward Champlain found this map to be extremely accurate.
Proceeding to the south, the expedition reached Brant Point (Cap St.
Louis), where an attempt was made to establish peaceful relations with
the local natives, although neither side could understand the other's
language. From Brant Point Champlain coasted to Plymouth Harbour
(Port St. Louis), circumnavigated Cape Cod Bay, rounded Cape Cod
(Cap Blanc), and cast anchor on the 20 of July at Nauset Harbour
(Mallebarre). After an unfortunate altercation with some natives, in
which a Frenchman was killed, as well as continuing storms, fog, and
dwindling provisions, De Monts made the decision to return to Ste.
Croix. He set sail on the 25 of July and arrived back at the settlement
on August the second.
During the late summer and early fall the settlement at Ste. Croix
was moved to Port Royal. Champlain spent part of the late fall again
searching for copper deposits near the St. J o h n River and along the
western shore of the Bay of Fundy. By the end of 1605 Champlain had
added 280 miles of coastline to his previous explorations.
The winter of 1605 - 1606 at Port Royal was not as severe as the previous one at Ste. Croix. Scurvy struck the expedition again, but this
time only twelve out of forty-five men died.
On March 16, 1606 Champlain, accompanied by Pont-Gravé, deputy
to De Monts, set out in a pinnace of seventeen to eighteen tons to continue the explorations of the previous years. Off Grand Manan Island
the ship ran aground but was speedily repaired. By the 21 they had
reached Campobello Island (Port aux Coquilles), but on account of
heavy fog and strong head winds Pont-Gravé decided to return to Port
Royal on the 28. By April 9 Pont-Gravé set out again but was shipwrecked only a few miles from Port Royal. He now decided to wait
until the ships from France arrived. When these did not appear by July
8
17, he set out towards Canso to meet them. After some problems with
their vessel's rudder, which had broken during heavy weather, the
expedition met a shallop of De Monts' men near Cape Sable. They
therefore returned to Port Royal, where De Monts' ship, commanded
by De Poutrincourt, had preceded them. During the remainder of July
and August Champlain stayed at Port Royal "in order with God's help
to complete the map I had begun of these coasts and countries." 1 3
Not satisfied with the climate at Port Royal, De Monts had ordered
De Poutrincourt to continue explorations of the coastline south of
Mallebarre in order to find a better location for a permanent settlement.
Accordingly De Poutrincourt departed with Champlain on September 5.
Much to Champlain's chagrin the expedition reinvestigated the entire
coastline from Ste. Croix to Mallebarre instead of sailing straight to
their destination. The only new additions to the earlier explorations
along this route were Gloucester Harbour {Le Beau Port) and Wellfleet
Harbour (Port aux Huistres) in Cape Cod Bay. Mallebarre was finally
reached on October 2. After examining the place the expedition departed.
With some difficulty they rounded Monomoy Point (Cap Batturier) and
finally cast anchor in Stage Harbour (Port Fortuné). Here the expedition
remained for about two weeks, exploring the countryside and making
repairs to the pinnace. Champlain seems to have busied himself with
mapping and making notes on the local natives. On October 15 the
natives attacked a landing party and four Frenchmen were killed. Rather
than engage in a useless chase the expedition weighed anchor the next
day and set off into Nantucket Sound. Strong headwinds permitted
them to proceed only as far as the Mashpee River (Riviere de Champlain).
Martha's Vinyard (La Soupçonneuse
or La Douteuse Isle) and Great
Neck Point (Cape Ste. Elaine) were named by Champlain but were not
reached. Continuing headwinds forced the expedition to return to Stage
Harbour. Here they attacked the native settlement and killed six or
seven souls as vengeance for the earlier murder of the four Frenchmen. 1 4
The next day De Poutrincourt decided to return to Port Royal. Dwindling supplies, a number of wounded men, and poor weather made further
exploration unwise. After a brief stop at Mallebarre the expedition
headed home on October 28. Unfortunately, the ship's rudder broke
off Mount Desert Island, forcing a nine-day halt for repairs at a beach
on Great Wass Island (Cap de Corneille). Finally, on November 14 the
expedition landed at Port Royal.
During 1606 Champlain had added only 55 miles of coastline to his
previous explorations. He did, however, prove to his satisfaction that
there was little point in moving the settlement to yet another location.
During the winter, which was unusually mild, Champlain busied himself with road construction, hunting, and the beginnings of a trout pond.
Only seven men died of scurvy.
By late J u n e De Poutrincourt and Champlain had set off again to
9
search for mineral deposits. They sailed northwestwards along the
eastern coast of the Bay of Fundy to Cape Split (Cap de
Poutrincourt),
made a circuit of Minas Basin, and explored the shoreline around
Advocate Harbour (Port des Mines). Not meeting with much success,
they returned to Port Royal.
On July 12 De Monts' secretary, J e a n Ralleau, arrived at Port Royal
to confirm the news that De Monts' trading monopoly had been cancelled and that the entire company was to return to France. By early
July the men and stores were on their way to Canso to await transshipment to France.
Champlain departed for Canso on August 11. His task was to explore
and map the coastline from Lahave to Canso, "a distance of nearly sixty
leagues, which I had not yet d o n e . " 1 5 This trip was accomplished in
sixteen days. Each potential port and river mouth was described only in
the briefest of terms, along with their latitudes and the distances between
them. On September 3 the expedition sailed for France, reaching the
coast of Brittany on the 28.
Summary
Between May 8, 1604 and September 3, 1607 Champlain explored some
1,200 miles of coastline, noting potential harbours, mineral deposits,
the presence of native settlements, prominent rivers, shoals, islands,
vegetation, fish — in short, the geography of the coastline he came in
contact with. Sprinkled through the text are also copious estimates of
distance, direction, and latitude and some readings of compass declination.
When he had the opportunity, he also made brief observations on native
life, noting in particular the differences between the groups he encountered. As on his 1603 voyage to the St. Lawrence, Champlain tried
to ascertain the location of canoe routes to the interior from native
informants. Whenever possible an attempt was made to establish friendly relations with the native groups that were encountered. Unfortunately,
hostilities broke out at the two southernmost landfalls, Mallebarre and
Port Fortuné. Judging from Champlain's and Lescarbot's accounts, it
is difficult to see how these hostilities could have been avoided.
During these years Champlain drew sixteen large-scale maps and plans,
and at least one small-scale map, titled descrpsion des costs — de la
nouvelle france — 1607 (Appendix II and III, Plate 1) This manuscript
map covers Champlain's explorations from Cap Lahave to La Douteuse
Isle in Nantucket Sound. These explorations were performed by the
close of 1606. The original date on the map reads 1606 but was changed,
probably by Champlain, to 1607. The fact that the map does not include
any of the 1607 explorations, with the possible exception of the Minas
Basin, demonstrates that the earlier date on the map is the correct one.
Indeed, Champlain noted the completion of a map in August, 1606 which
10
he had begun earlier of the "coasts and countries" visited to d a t e . 1 6 A
later entry in the journals shows that he had such a map with him when
he sailed past Cape Ann in September of the same year. 1 7 In accordance
with Champlain's commission, the completed manuscript map was presented to De Monts upon his return to France in 1 6 0 7 . 1 8
This map is fully discussed with his later ones in Chapter 3.
4. Publications and Explorations, 1608 to 1613
Publications and Maps
Champlain's explorations between the summer of 1608 and the end of
1612 are described in the second book of Les Voyages, while the explorations of 1613 are covered in the Quatriesme Voyage.19 These two
accounts were planned as separate books but were published together as
one bound volume with a printer's date of 1613. Each of them has, for
example, a separate title page, index, dedication, and pagination. Judging
from the Privilege of Les Voyages (January 9, 1613), this volume went
to press sometime before the close of 1612. 2 0 The fact that Les Voyages
contains no information later than September of that year 2 1 or the
important commission granted by the King to Champlain on October 15,
1612 supports this view. It is likely that Champlain worked on Les
Voyages while he was recovering from an accident which befell him
shortly after his return from Canada in 1611. 2 2
The Quatriesme Voyage begins with Champlain's efforts to secure a
new charter and monopoly for De Monts' trading company through
Chief Justice Jeannin, the Compte de Soissons, and finally the King. All
of these deliberations took place late in the summer of 1612, resulting
in Champlain's appointment as Lieutenant under De Soissons, who had
been given the post of Viceroy on October 8. The volume ends with
Champlain's arrival at St. Malo on August 26, 1613.
From the foregoing it seems likely that Les Voyages went to the
printer sometime in September of 1612- When Champlain returned from
Canada late in August, 1613, the printing of Les Voyages was sufficiently
far advanced that he could not incorporate the Quatriesme Voyage as a
chapter. Instead he had it set as a separate unit and bound with Les
Voyages in order to save himself the time and expense of obtaining a
separate Privilege. From an entry in one of his later volumes, the combined Les Voyages and Quatriesme Voyage probably appeared in 1614. 2 3
The foregoing discussion has a bearing on the maps which were
published with these volumes. The explorations to the end of 1613
resulted in two major small-scale maps dated 1612 and 1613, as well as
an undated variant of the 1613 map (Appendix III; Plates 2, 3 and 4).
Of these maps the large Carte Geographique, dated 1612, poses little
problem (Plate 4). It appears at the end of Les Voyages with a descrip11
tion by Champlain of its properties. 2 4 Since the 1613 journey does not
appear on this map, its date seems to be correct. It is likely that this
map, or perhaps a manuscript version, was the one Champlain took to
Justice Jeannin and the court. 2 5
The smaller Carte geographique (Plate 3), dated 1613, presents a
problem because it was bound and described together with the 1612
map at the end of Les Voyages and because an undated, apparently
earlier version of the map is known to exist (Plate 2).
The 1613 version is well known and can be found in almost every one
of the original editions of Les Voyages. The undated state appears in
redrawn form in Laverdière's Oeuvres de Champlain.26 The Laverdiere
edition of Les Voyages was taken from an original text at Laval University, which included "les deux tirages de la petite c a r t e . " 2 7 Due to the
difficulties of reproducing the original maps, Laverdière had them copied.
Enquiries at Laval and the National Map Collection in Ottawa have not
produced an original version of this map.
A careful comparison of the Laverdière copy and the 1613 map shows
the two states to be so similar that one must come to the conclusion
that Champlain had only one copper plate prepared, probably in 1612,
to which he added his 1613 explorations when he returned to France in
August of that year. The major addition to the 1613 state is Champlain's
trip up the Ottawa River. Minor additions were made to the western
Grand Banks; the banks off the eastern coast of Cape Breton; the Lac de
medicis (Lac des Deux-Montagnes) ; the symbols for Cape Gaspay, the
place of the 1609 skirmish with the Iroquois on Lake Champlain; the
location of Quenongebin's
Kinounchepirini
Indians; and the name
golphe St. lauraens. Erasures of some features which are present on the
Laverdière state can be detected on the 1613 map. These include the
word gaspay ; two trees, as well as the branch of a river in the southwestern portion of the map, above the name hochataigains; and the
words bonne advanture, with the substitution of ban au vert to the
west of the Grand Banks. A minor change was made in the title; moridia
was changed to meridiein. One additional change was the erasure of a
ship and two rowboats off the southwestern coast of Greenland on the
Laverdière state. These ships were replaced by a whale on the 1613 map.
The 1613 state also has a complete scale and the author's name inscribed
beneath it.
Unfortunately, this author has been unable to find an original copy
of the Laverdière state. Judging from the differences between it and the
1613 state, the Laverdière version is older. All the differences between
the two states can be detected as erasures from, and additions to, the
1613 state. What is likely is that Champlain almost completed this map
in late 1612. All he really had left to do was add his name. When he
returned from the 1613 voyage, he retrieved the copper plate from the
printer, added his new information, and made a few corrections. The
12
additions, one may note, are all in a different style of lettering. During
his absence some copies of the earlier version, perhaps page proofs, had
been printed. Whatever the case may be, the Laverdière state and the
large 1612 map represent Champlain's knowledge of Canada before his
1613 voyage. Therefore, these two maps properly belong with Les
Voyages, while the 1613 map belongs with the Quatriesme Voyage.
Explorations,
1608 to 1613
Shortly after his return to France in 1607, Champlain met De Monts
and reported his explorations of the previous years. De Monts, probably
on Champlain's advice, decided to resume activities on the St. Lawrence
and obtained a trade monopoly from King Henri IV. Champlain was
appointed Lieutenant of the expedition with the task of establishing a
settlement at Quebec, wintering there, and continuing his explorations.
Pont-Gravé was to take charge of trade and return with the ships in the
late summer.
Champlain departed Honfleur on April 13 and arrived at Tadoussac
on J u n e 3 (Fig. 3). While he was waiting to go to Quebec he explored
the Tadoussac area and the Saguenay River up to the first rapids, near
what is now Chicoutimi. As on the 1603 voyage, he collected information
from local natives regarding the sources of the Saguenay, and stories
they had obtained from natives still farther north about a route to a
great "salt sea" which lay forty to fifty days' travel from Tadoussac.
Champlain surmised that this northern sea was the one being explored
by the English and hoped that soon the natives would guide him there.
During the remainder of the year Champlain was kept busy beginning a
settlement at Quebec and familiarizing himself with its surroundings.
On the Charles River, northeast of Quebec, Champlain and his workmen
found the remains of a small settlement. These remains, and a careful
analysis of Jacques Cartier's writings, convinced Champlain that this
was the place where that explorer had wintered in 1 5 3 5 . 2 8 Champlain
therefore becomes the first European we know of to undertake archaeological excavations in Canada. During the winter he made observations
on the natives, vegetation, and climate of the area. Only eight of the
twenty-eight men in the fledgling colony survived the bouts of scurvy
and dysentery.
On May 28, 1609 Pont-Gravé arrived at Tadoussac. Champlain consulted with him in early J u n e and the decision was made that Champlain
should accompany the Montagnais into the Iroquois country. The
purpose of the trip was twofold: to gain the trust of the Montagnais,
who were up to then the major suppliers of French furs, and to continue
exploration. Lescarbot added that Champlain was interested in exploring
the areas south of the St. Lawrence first because the climate was milder
there. 2 9 At St. Eloi Island, near Batiscan, Champlain and his Montagnais
13
met a major Huron-Algonquin war party who were interested in concluding an alliance with the French. After consulting with Pont-Gravé
at Quebec. Champlain set off with twelve men to help his new allies.
Ever the explorer, he again proceeded to collect Indian accounts of the
canoe routes up the St. Maurice to Lake St. J o h n and to "the great
Northern Sea." Copious notes were made of the environment along the
entire route travelled by the war party to their ultimate destination
near the southwestern end of Lake Champlain. After the defeat of an
Iroquois (Mohawk) war party, Champlain questioned some of the
captives regarding the geography of their country and the canoe routes
to the south. The replies he got were essentially accurate, including the
route from Lake Champlain down the Hudson River to the "coast of
Norumbega."
On September 5 Champlain left Tadoussac, arriving at Honfleur on
October 13. At once he sought out De Monts at Fontainebleau and
obtained an audience with the King. Both received a detailed report
of the previous two years of activities. Champlain was given permission
to proceed with the settlement at Quebec and carry out explorations
with the help of the Huron, in turn for which he was to aid them in
their warfare. De Monts did not succeed in retaining his monopoly.
After an illness lasting one month, Champlain departed Honfleur on
April 8, 1610 and reached Tadoussac on the 26 of the same month.
This had been the most rapid crossing within the memory of the oldest
sailors, some of whom had been making this journey for sixty years. 3 0
Champlain attributed the unusually rapid crossing to a mild winter and
the lack of ice conditions in the North Atlantic. Immediately upon his
arrival he contacted the Montagnais who had promised to help him explore
the St. Maurice River but was told that they would only do it the
following year. Since the Huron had promised to take him to the "great
lake" and show him some copper mines in the same year, Champlain
hoped that at least one of these promises would materialize.
In mid-June Champlain departed for the Richelieu River in order to
participate in another raid. Near Trois Rivieres he met an Algonquin
chief who presented him with a bar of copper, thus further whetting
Champlain's interest in exploring the lands to the west of the Lachine
Rapids. 3 1 On the 18 of J u n e the Montagnais discovered an Iroquois
raiding party near the mouth of the Richelieu. With French help the
Iroquois were routed, but Champlain was wounded when an arrow
split his ear and entered his neck.
Not being able to undertake any explorations that year, Champlain
sent a young man, possibly Etienne Brûlé, to winter with the H u r o n . 3 2
In return Champlain took a Huron lad named Savignon with him to
France. While Champlain hoped that this exchange would lead to a
better understanding between the two groups, his prime purpose in
sending the French boy was to have him learn Huron and to gain knowl14
Figure
3.
Explorations, 1608-1613.
edge of the geography of the interior west of Lachine. After hearing of
the assassination of King Henri IV, Champlain decided to return to
France. He left Tadoussac on August 13 and arrived at Honfleur on
September 27.
While the 1610 crossing had been one of the fastest in memory, the
1611 crossing was one of the slowest. Champlain left Honfleur on
March 1, and did not reach Tadoussac until May 13. Off the Grand Banks
the ship ran into icebergs and extremely cold weather with high winds
and freezing temperatures. Ice conditions forced the expedition to take
a southern course via Cape Breton instead of the usual route along the
southern coast of Newfoundland.
As soon as Champlain arrived at Quebec he met with the Algonquins
who had promised to take him t o explore the headwaters of the St.
Maurice River. Now they did not cooperate. They even refused to lend
him a canoe so that he could send some of his men on the journey.
Champlain had to content himself with the usual native accounts of the
geography of the interior and its inhabitants. Not having met with success
from the St. Maurice Algonquins, Champlain left for the Lachine Rapids,
where he hoped he would meet the Huron who also had promised to
take him into the interior. When these did not arrive by late May,
Champlain began a thorough exploration of what is now the Montreal
area. He was so impressed by the locale as a site for a settlement that
he began clearing land at the mouth of the St. Pierre River on the south
shore of Montreal Island. Local clay deposits were tested by building a
wall to see how it would winter, and two garden plots were laid out and
seeded to test the soil.
On J u n e 13 the Huron finally arrived, accompanied by the young
man Champlain had left with them. Their purpose in coming to the
Lachine Rapids was not to explore, as they had promised, but to gain
French help in their warfare. Again it was impressed upon Champlain
that he would only get help in exploration if he gave aid in warfare. As
in previous years, Champlain had to content himself with Indian sketch
maps and verbal descriptions of the interior. He could now, however,
attempt a better evaluation of these accounts from the stories told b y
the French boy who had wintered with the Huron. After some light
trading and many assurances of friendship, Champlain was again promised by both the Huron and Algonquin that they would take him on
an exploratory trip the following year. Three youths were placed with
the Indians — one with the Huron, another with Iroquet's Algonquins,
and the third, Nicolas de Vignau, with the Allumette.
Champlain left Tadoussac on August 11 and arrived at La Rochelle
on September 10. On the way to the court Champlain was badly injured
when a horse fell on him. This accident, as well as difficulties within
De Monts' company, prevented him from undertaking a trip to Canada
in 1612. Once he had recovered, Champlain set about reorganizing the
16
company. After an audience with the ministers of Louis XIII, Champlain
was appointed Lieutenant under Charles de Bourbon, Compte de
Soissons, who was made Governor of New France. When De Soissons
died a month later, Champlain retained his commission under the new
Governor, Henry de Bourbon, Prince de Condé. Finally, early in 1613
Champlain was granted a monopoly on the fur trade in the St. Lawrence,
much against the opposition of rival merchants.
In the fall of 1612 Nicolas de Vignau had arrived in Paris with an
account of a voyage he had taken up the Ottawa as far as James Bay,
where he had seen the wreckage of an English ship and a captive kept
by the Indians. 3 3 In view of the exploration and mapping of these
northern areas by Hudson, whose accounts Champlain knew well,
Champlain decided that Vignau's story had merit. When he further
learned that the Indians were ready to guide him, he decided to spend
1613 on an extensive exploratory trip. All the important people in the
company and at court were informed of Vignau's report and agreed
with Champlain's plans.
On March 6, 1613 Champlain, accompanied by Vignau, left Honfleur.
From the small fleet of four ships, each captain agreed to lend Champlain
four men to assist him in his endeavours, which, Champlain was certain,
would have to include yet another raid on the Iroquois. The fleet arrived
at Tadoussac on April 29. By May 7 Champlain was at Quebec and on
the 21 at the Lachine Rapids. Unfortunately, he had just missed a group
of Algonquin with whom he could have travelled up the Ottawa. These
men had left a promise to return in order to take Champlain on another
raid. Not wishing to be sidetracked from his explorations, and hoping
to contact some of the interior native groups to enlist them in the fur
trade, Champlain left the Lachine Rapids with Vignau, one guide, and
four Frenchmen on May 27 without waiting for the Algonquins to
return. After travelling up the Ottawa for a few days he met fifteen
canoes of the Kinounchepirini
who were going to the Lachine Rapids.
From them he obtained a second guide and sent back with them a
Frenchman who was to inform the traders of Champlain's progress. On
J u n e 4 the expedition passed the Gatinau River, up which, Champlain
was informed, the headwaters of the St. Maurice could be reached. The
Rideau River, he was told, was one of the avenues up which the Iroquois
came to raid the St. Lawrence. By the 6 of J u n e the expedition had
reached the vicinity of what is now Gould's Landing on the west shore
of the Ottawa. Here the Indian guides wanted to go overland but Vignau
wished to continue up the Ottawa. Champlain made the difficult decision
in favour of his Indian guides. A couple of days later, after passing over
the small lakes and portages of the Muskrat Lake route, Champlain
reached Lower Allumette Lake on the Ottawa River. From there he was
transported to Morrison Island, near the present town of Pembroke,
where he met Tessoüat, an old trading partner of the French, who was
17
encamped there with his Allumette Indians. Champlain informed
Tessoüat that he intended to travel as far as the Nipissing, of whom he
had heard from Vignau. He also offered further help in Allumette wars.
In order to reach the Nipissing, Champlain requested canoes and guides,
from the Allumette. They flatly refused both canoes and guides, insisting that Vignau's travel stories were lies. After being crossexamined by
Champlain and some of the Allumette, Vignau confessed that he had
not been north of Tessoüat's encampment. Frustrated and disappointed,
Champlain left the Allumette on J u n e 10. This time he travelled the
entire route on the Ottawa River and reached the Lachine Rapids on
J u n e 17. By July 6 he was at Tadoussac, which he departed on August
8, reaching St. Malo on September 26.
Evaluation
Compared with his Atlantic coast explorations, Champlain covered
little territory between 1608 and 1613. Two major factors account for
this. Firstly, from 1608 Champlain became involved in the operation of
the fur trade and had to begin the settlement at Quebec. He was no
longer solely explorer and mapmaker. In order to make the company
pay its way he had to devote more time to other tasks. Secondly, unlike
the Atlantic coast and the St. Lawrence, where one could explore from
a ship manned by a French crew, the interior, away from navigable waters,
could only be explored with help from native guides. The Indians,
Champlain quickly discovered, readily promised to take him anywhere
he wanted to go but always found excuses, when the time came, not to
take him along. The only exceptions occurred when Champlain joined
them on raids into the Iroquois country, as he did in 1609, 1610, and
1615, or when he took matters into his own hands, as he did in 1613. On
numerous occasions the Indians made it abundantly clear that he would
only get their help in return for French aid in their wars. Champlain's
reaction was to give the Indians all the aid he could, make them promises of future aid, gather verbal accounts of the areas he could not
visit, and send French youths to live with various native groups to learn
their language and the geography of the interior. The latter tactic was
particularly useful. The various native groups, especially those on the
Saguenay and Ottawa, were reluctant to let Champlain or any traders
through their territory for fear that the French would contact interior
groups and thus undermine their position as middle-men in the fur trade.
They had no objection to French boys making such a trip, probably
because they felt that someone so youthful could not affect their
position. Over time, however, these boys became expert interpreters
and guides, and eventually traders' agents, ranging far into the interior
to urge other groups to gather and trade furs to the French.
With the change in Champlain's activities came a change in the nature
18
of the material he recorded. The accounts written before 1608 contain
excellent geographical descriptions and many useful observations for
navigators. After 1608 the geographical observations continue, but there
are more observations on the behaviour of the natives and fewer mathematical observations of distance and latitude. This begins a trend that
becomes a deliberate plan in his later volumes.
5. Publications and Explorations, 1614 to 1618
Publications and Maps
Champlain's activities between the end of 1613 and 1618 are covered in
his Voyage Et Descouvertures, published in 1619, with other editions in
1620 and 1627 (Appendix I). The Privilege of the book is dated May 18,
1619, while the last entry dates from Champlain's arrival at Honfleur
on August 28, 1 6 1 8 . 3 4 Some of the events contained in this volume
were reprinted in Book IV, Chapters Six to Nine, of the 1632 edition
of Les Voyages, especially the years 1615 to 1616. 3 5
It is not clear when Champlain wrote up these events. The year 1614
is scarcely mentioned, except to say that Champlain spent it in France.
The years 1615 to 1616 are covered in great detail and form the major
unit within the book. As with Champlain's activities in 1614, those of
1617 receive no treatment, and 1618 appears almost as an appendix to
the volume. Unlike the earlier volumes there is no table of contents.
It is likely that Champlain wrote the two sections of the Voyages Et
Descouvertures
much like the earlier combined Les Voyages and
Quatriesme Voyage. The first part, Voyage Du Sieur De Champlain, En
La Nouvelle France, faict en l'annee, 1615, was written and perhaps
completed late in 1616 or early 1617, while the second part, Continu­
ation Des Voyages. . .l'an 1618, was written and completed late in
1618. This hypothesis is supported not only by the organization of the
book but also by the concluding paragraph of the first part, which is an
evocation to the King and his Council requesting continuing support to
the colony and especially the missionary effort. 3 6 Such an evocation
seems appropriate at the end of a volume but not here, two-thirds of
the way through the book.
If the above hypothesis is correct, why was the Voyage of 1615-1616
not published as a separate volume immediately after it was written?
Perhaps he had intended a map for the volume but had not been able to
complete it, thus holding up the manuscript until a later date. An incomplete Champlain map dated 1616 has been found, and will be discussed below. What is more likely is that Champlain returned to France
in 1616 thinking that he would be staying there for at least a year but
had to make trips to New France in 1617 and 1618, thus not permitting him to make all the printing arrangements for the volume he had
19
nearly completed. Finally, in August, 1618 he was back in France for
a full year. He now had the time to write up 1618, and he appended it
to what he had written in 1616 for publication early in 1619.
Although the evidence supporting the above hypothesis is incomplete,
the following discussion might lend some support. When Champlain
returned from New France in 1616, he found that his viceroy, the man
who had appointed him as his lieutenant in New France, the Prince de
Condé, had been arrested. The machinery had been put into motion to
appoint a new viceroy and t o deprive Champlain of his appointment.
Even his partners in the trading company had turned against him. 3 7 It
was an unsettling experience to Champlain, and he must have wondered
whether he would get back to New France. Perhaps it was then that he
decided to write his Voyages up to the end of 1616 with a plea to the
King to allow the colony to continue. In the spring of 1617, perhaps
because he wanted to establish his personal authority in New France
and with his partners, Champlain made a rapid voyage to Canada. Since
"nothing of n o t e " happened on this trip, and because events in France
overshadowed it, Champlain did not bother to write up the details. 3 8
Immediately upon his return from Canada Champlain was kept busy
countering the intrigue against him and the activities of his company.
In order to short-circuit these lengthy squabbles Champlain petitioned
directly to the King by sending him a lengthy outline of a plan for
colonizing New France. 3 9 At the same time he secured the support of
the Paris Chamber of Commerce by outlining to them some of the
benefits France could expect to gain through such a colonizing venture. 4 0
As a result Champlain retained his lieutenancy and was sent to New
France on May 24, 1618. When he returned on August 28, court proceedings were still in full swing. Even the King's support could not get
him back to Canadain 1619. During this enforced stay he finished writing
the 1618 Voyage, appended it to the 1615-1616 explorations, and sent
the works to his printer. Finally, when the Prince de Condé was pardoned
in October, 1619 and relinquished his viceroyalty to the Duc de Montmorency, Admiral of France, events returned to a more settled state.
Champlain was reconfirmed in his position and allowed to return to
New France to take up the post of senior administor of the colony.
A review of the above events helps to clarify the dating and organization of the Voyages Et Descouvertures. It also explains why Champlain
was increasingly drawn into administration and away from exploration.
Of the five years under discussion here, only two were spent exploring,
1615 to 1616, while the rest were spent trying to save the entire enterprise in New France from disintegration. Over these years it must have
become increasingly evident to the King's Council and the various merchants concerned with New France that Champlain was the only steady
element in the entire venture. He was the only one who combined the
interests of all of the parties concerned with New France, and the only
20
one who presented a clear-cut plan t o implement these interests. Consequently, Champlain moved from being an explorer and cartographer
to being an administrator. In spite of these new and demanding tasks, a
review of the years from 1619 to 1635 will show that Champlain never
lost his interest in exploration.
With the writing of the Voyages Et Descouvertures Champlain departs
significantly from his earlier volumes in the nature of the material he
recorded. In this volume Champlain becomes an ethnographer. Native
cultures, particularly the Huron, are described in some detail. Native
informants are still questioned regarding the geography of the lakes and
rivers beyond Champlain's route, but gone are the detailed descriptions
of particular localities and most mathematical observations. This was a
deliberate plan on the part of Champlain, as he explained in the opening
of the book with the first two sentences of his dedication to the King:
Sire — Here is a third volume containing an account of the most noteworthy events in the
voyages made by me to New France, in the perusal whereof I am of the opinion that your
Majesty will take greater pleasure than in those which preceded it, inasmuch as they describe
nothing but ports, harbours, latitudes, magnetic variations and other matters more suitable for
navigators and seamen than for others. In this volume you will be able to note more particularly
the manner and mode of life of these peoples, both in detail and in general, their wars, weapons,
methods of attack and defence, their expeditions, narrated with many peculiarities, of a nature
to satisfy an inquiring mind.
This change in objectives was not merely an attempt to entertain a teenaged Louis XIII or an interested public. It was a very deliberate attempt
to gain continuing support for Champlain's enterprises. By describing
native life in some detail Champlain hoped that he could appeal to the
court's desire to foster Catholicism as well as to enlist the help of the
Church. If motives such as economic and territorial gain were not enough
to gain lasting support for his enterprises, perhaps the spectre of thousands of " h e a t h e n " natives living without "the knowledge of God and
the glory of His holy n a m e " would gain such assistance. In 1614
Champlain had contacted the Recollect Order and gained their support,
with the result that four priests went with him to New France in 1 6 1 5 . 4 2
In the Voyages Et Descouvertures he made a very strong plea that such
support should be continued and intensified. By bringing the priests t o
New France and pleading for a missionary effort, Champlain demonstrated again to all his readers and potential supporters that he was one
of the very few who had the total interests of the colony in mind. It is
difficult to be cynical about the missionary motives that appear in this
volume. There is no doubt that Champlain was a devout Catholic who
had long desired to see a conversion of the natives to Catholicism. By
late 1612, through his appointment as lieutenant to the viceroy, he was
finally in the position to affect the outcome of these desires, but it was
21
not until 1614, when he spent a year in France, that he was able to make
the necessary contacts to bring priests to New France. The missionary
effort therefore served a dual purpose; it fulfilled a personal desire which
Champlain enunciated as early as 1 6 0 3 4 3 and, by appealing to the
religious sentiments current in France at that time, he hoped he could
gain stronger support for the colony and his trading interests. All of
these motives are reflected in the contents of the Voyages Et Descou­
vertures, which makes this volume somewhat different in scope and
intent from the previous ones. 4 4
Champlain published three pictures with the Voyages Et Descou­
vertures but no maps. Two of the pictures are of native dress, the other
is of the Iroquois village he attacked in 1615. In 1953 an incomplete
Champlain map, dated 1616, came to light. This map was not completed
or printed in his lifetime. 4 5 It has been given the provisional title La
Nouvelle France (Appendix III; Plate 5). The map has an extensive
legend and incorporates Champlain's 1615-1616 trip to the Huron and
Petun, as well as his journey through the Kawartha Lakes area to the
Iroquois near the southeastern end of Lake Ontario. The areas south
and west of his line of explorations were taken from Indian accounts.
There is nothing in the map to suggest that the date or authorship are
anything other than what they purport to be.
It is probable that this map was intended for the Voyages Et Descou­
vertures but for some reason was never completed. 4 6 Champlain does
not mention a map in this volume, but it would have been very unusual
for him not to have drawn one after the important discoveries he made
in 1615-1616. This is especially true in view of the speculative cartography of the areas west of his earlier explorations, cartography which
he had incorporated on the maps of 1612 and 1613. He was now in the
position to correct these maps. Champlain was not a person who allowed
incorrect cartographical information to exist when he had better
information at hand, as the two states of the 1613 map show. Why the
map was not completed and printed may never be known. Perhaps the
engraver lost the manuscript or ran out of time before the book went
to press.
In 1653 the incomplete 1616 map was augmented and published by
Pierre du Val, with later editions in 1664 and 1677 (Appendix III;
Plate 9). Du Val gave a title to the map and embellished it with geographical information taken from Champlain's map of 1632, Sanson's map
Amerique
Septentrionale,
published in 1650, and either verbal or
published reports from various Jesuit priests who had been in the St.
Lawrence-Great Lakes area. From a close comparison of the 1616 and
1653 versions it is evident that Du Val used the original incomplete
copper plate of the 1616 map. Both maps are discussed further in
Chapter 3.
22
Explorations,
1614 to 1618
Champlain spent the year 1614 in France. On April 24, 1615 he left
Honfleur and arrived at Tadoussac on May 2 5 . One of the four Recollect
priests he had brought with him, Father Joseph Le Caron, immediately
set out for the Lachine Rapids to meet the Huron in order to book
passage with them. He did this in spite of Champlain's warning to wait
a year in order to become acclimatized to the country. Champlain in
turn also made an arrangement to accompany the Huron with his men,
both to explore the "western sea" he had heard so much about and to
help his allies on another raid against the Iroquois. Late in J u n e , while
Champlain was at Quebec giving instructions for the summer's work,
Le Caron left with the Huron and twelve of Champlain's men. Disappointed at the impatience of the Huron and his French compatriots,
Champlain set out after them on July 9, accompanied by his interpreter, a servant, and ten Huron.
On July 26, after passing up the Ottawa and Mattawa Rivers, Champlain arrived at Lake Nipissing. At the junction of the Mattawa and
Ottawa Rivers he was told that the headwaters of the Ottawa could be
taken to get to the Saguenay area. The party stayed in a Nipissing encampment for two days, permitting Champlain to compile a brief sketch
of their mode of life. He also noted that the Nipissing traded up the
Sturgeon River with more northerly groups. After travelling down the
French River Champlain finally arrived at Georgian Bay, which he
named the Freshwater Sea. Unfortunately, he does not tell the reader
what his reaction to this large lake was. Possibly his disappointment at
not finding a salt sea had been curbed years earlier by stories from his
interpreters who had wintered with the Huron. At the mouth of the
French River he met a large group of Ottawa who had come there to
gather and dry blueberries. Champlain made friends with them and gave
the chief an iron hatchet. The chief in turn told Champlain about the
territories to the west and drew a map for him with charcoal on bark.
The rest of the journey to the Huron country was uneventful. Champlain briefly described the lake and the fish it contained.
On August 1 Champlain landed in Huronia. The 480-mile trip from
the Lachine Rapids had been done in twenty-three days, of which
twenty had been spent travelling. For two weeks Champlain travelled
around the villages of eastern Huronia, among them Carhagouha,
where Father Le Caron had decided to set up his mission. 4 7 On August
17 he arrived with ten Frenchmen at Cahiague, where the Huron
warriors were to rendezvous prior to their departure for the Iroquois
country. The Huron, who believed that the project had been abandoned,
now began to assemble their army again. While at Cahiague Champlain
learned that the Carantouanais (Andaste or Susquehanna), a large tribe
at war with the Iroquois and the Dutch seven days' travel south of
23
Huronia, wanted to join the raid and establish relations with the French.
The Huron decided to accept the offer of the Susquehanna and sent
twelve men to guide them to the proposed battle. Eager to gain knowledge of these southern areas, Champlain sent along one of his interpreters, Etienne Brûlé. On the 8 of September the two parties left the
narrows between Lake Couchiching and Lake Simcoe. Brûlé headed
south to the western end of Lake Ontario, while Champlain with his
500 warriors headed eastward through the Kawartha Lakes chain, Rice
Lake, and the Bay of Quinte to the eastern end of Lake Ontario. Here
the party crossed the lake to the vicinity of Stoney Point in New York
State, apparently via the string of islands beginning with False Duck
and ending with Stoney Island. From there the route is not entirely
clear. Judging from the meagre written description and his 1632 map,
Champlain and his party hid their canoes near Stoney Point and proceeded south for eight to twelve miles along a sandy beach, whereupon they headed inland. They crossed either the Oneida or Oswego
Rivers, where Champlain either saw, or got a report of, Lake Oneida.
Shortly thereafter the Huron caught eleven Iroquois who were going
fishing. Some four leagues from the place of capture (judging from the
map it was to the south), stood an Iroquois village beside a small lake.
This village was attacked b y the war party on October 10. If the above
interpretation is correct, Champlain and his Huron warriors attacked a
major Onondaga or Cayuga village. The evidence is simply not good
enough to make a more positive identification. 4 8 Such an identification
must await a thorough archaeological survey.
During the battle Champlain was wounded by two arrows, one in the
knee, the other in the leg. After a siege lasting six days, and a futile wait
for the Susquehanna, the Huron decided to retreat. Two days later, on
October 18, the war party reached their canoes. Champlain now expected
to be taken back to Quebec via the St. Lawrence. To his chagrin the
Huron refused to let him have a canoe. Their plan, Champlain thought,
was to use him and his men as protection against the Iroquois. Later he
learned of a second motive, namely, that the Huron feared French
revenge if he happened to die. The Huron thought, probably correctly,
that the French would blame them for it. At any rate, Champlain was
forced to retrace his steps through the wintry Kawartha Lakes system
to Cahiague, where he arrived on December 23.
Champlain rested only a few days at Cahiague. His plan was to explore
Huronia and visit neighbouring tribes. On January 5, 1616 he visited
Father Le Caron at Carhagouha, departing with him for the Petun
country on January 1 5 . 4 9 While with the Petun he visited an Ottawa
(Cheveux-releves)
settlement. Some of these bands usually wintered
near the Petun on the shore of Nottawasaga Bay. From the Petun and
Ottawa he heard of the Assistaeronnon (Asistaguerououn,
Fire people,
Mascouten), who were at war with the Ottawa and Neutral. 5 0 When he
24
25
Figure
4.
Explorations, 1614-1616.
learned about the Neutral two days' travel south of the Petun, Champlain
wanted to visit them. The Petun and Ottawa, however, dissuaded him
from that venture in spite of protestations from Neutral visitors that no
harm would come to him.
From the Petun country Champlain retraced his steps to Huronia. In
eastern Huronia, among the Huron Bear tribe (Attignaouantan), he
found the Nipissing who were wintering there. In the previous year the
Nipissing had promised to take him north on their trading trips to
Hudson Bay. Champlain now tried to finalize these arrangements. In the
meantime a serious quarrel had broken out between Iroquet's Algonquin
and the Huron at Cahiague. Champlain was asked to mediate the dispute.
In spite of the fact that the quarrel was finally settled, Iroquet persuaded
his Nipissing friends by means of gifts not to take Champlain on the
northern trip. While he was with the Nipissing he learned of a tribe who
lived a forty-day journey from them. This group, probably the Puan,
traded in buffalo skins. Champlain identified the animal from pictures
that the Nipissing drew for him.
On February 15 Champlain was back at Cahiague to mediate the dispute. During the next couple of months he explored the Huron country,
made his extensive observations of Huron life, and questioned them
about the areas and peoples they were familiar with. What interested
Champlain particularly were the stories of lands farther to the west.
His informants told him that a people with whom they were at war,
forty days by canoe across Lake Huron, were in contact with another
group of people who were as fair as the French and lived in a similar
way. The Huron themselves had only seen the scalp of one of these
people. Champlain, growing more cautious in his interpretation of
native information, decided that this story, while it should be checked
through further exploration, might simply mean that some fair-skinned
group lived in the west which was somewhat more "civilized" than the
Huron. It is likely that this story, as well as similar ones gathered by
Nicollet many years later, prompted at least in part, the Nicollet expedition to the Puan in the Green Bay area in 1634.
On April 26 Champlain received news that Brûlé was still among the
Susquehanna. He was not to see his interpreter again until 1618. At last,
on May 20 Champlain left for the St. Lawrence, where he arrived at
the end of J u n e . After enlarging Quebec and supervising some other
projects, Champlain set sail from Tadoussac on August 3, reaching
Honfleur on September 10.
Champlain makes no mention of a 1617 voyage in the Voyages Et
Descouvertures. He does, however, mention one in the 1632 edition of
Les Voyages, and states that nothing particular happened on it. 5 1 According to Le Clerq, the party left Honfleur on April 11 and arrived at
Tadoussac on J u n e 1 4 . 5 2 The purpose of the voyage seems to have been
26
to return the Recollet Fathers Le Caron and Huet to New France, bring
supplies to a suffering group of men at Quebec, and get the Hébert
family settled. 5 3 The Héberts were of considerable importance to
Champlain because they were the first agricultural settlers he had been
able to attract to the St. Lawrence. Judging from a statement written
in his 1618 account, another reason for going to New France in 1617
was to engage in yet another raid on the Iroquois. This raid did not
materialize because the Indian allies failed to turn u p . 5 4
On March 12, 1618 Champlain received a long-awaited letter from
Louis XIII asking everyone to help Champlain in his endeavours as much
as they could. Armed with this letter, Champlain departed Honfleur on
May 24 and arrived at Tadoussac on J u n e 24. As soon as Champlain
arrived at Tadoussac he was confronted by the problem of how to
punish two Montagnais who had murdered two Frenchmen. Between
Champlain and the Recollet Fathers the matter was settled by letting
the murderers go, instead of hanging them under French law. Champlain
reasoned that by using native customs in such a case the Montagnais
would be placed under obligation to him. By this practice he also hoped
to avoid a possible blood feud if the relatives of the murderers decided
to avenge their kin as a result of a hanging. In order to make French
displeasure clear to all, Champlain refused to join the Montagnais and
their allies on the warpath that year.
At Trois Rivieres Champlain finally met Etienne Brûlé, whom he had
sent to the Susquehanna in 1615. From the confused account given by
Champlain one can deduce that Brûlé and the twelve Huron accompanying him crossed the Niagara River and skirted the western edge of
Seneca territory. Along the way they killed four Seneca and captured
two. At Carantouan, the major Susquehanna village, Brûlé was well
received and managed to assemble 500 warriors. Because the war party
was slow to form, they arrived at the Iroquois village which Champlain
had attacked two days after the siege. The Susquehanna decided to
return to their villages, taking Brûlé with them. During the winter of
1615-1616 Brûlé explored the Deleware River to its mouth on the
Atlantic coast. The next spring five or six men tried to guide him back
to the Huron but the party was scattered by what may have been a
band of Seneca. A few days later Brûlé was captured and tortured, but
released when he promised to promote peace between the French and
the Iroquois. His captors then led him to the Huron, who lived a fourday journey away. Brûlé spent the remainder of 1616 as well as 1617
in Huronia. During this sojourn he travelled along the northern shore
of Lake Huron for "ten days."
It is difficult to know whether Champlain got more information from
Brûlé than the brief account he gives in the Voyages Et Descouvertures.
Judging from the map of 1632, which appears to depict Brûlé's trip, the
information was meagre indeed. There is nothing on the map or in the
27
account to indicate that Brûlé had any idea where he was or what native
groups he had encountered. Apart from establishing friendly relations
with the Susquehanna and getting out of the whole affair alive, Brûlé's
journey accomplished nothing.
Brûlé's journey is the last account of any trips of exploration given by
Champlain in this journal. On July 30 Champlain sailed from Tadoussac,
arriving at Honfleur on August 28.
Evaluation
During 1615 and 1616 Champlain added some 700 miles of new territory
to his explorations. He had been preceded to Georgian Bay and the
Huron country by Brûlé and Le Caron, but unfortunately neither of
them left a record of their discoveries. Champlain was the first to describe these new lands and leave a tolerably good account of native life
in the area, particularly of the Huron. He was also the first European to
penetrate deep into the Iroquois country. One cannot help but wish
that this had been a peaceful venture, but such matters seem to have
been out of his control. It is doubtful if the French could have stayed
out of these wars, as the Iroquois suggested to Champlain, since Huron
and Algonquin support depended upon his cooperation.
Although Champlain's geographical descriptions became sketchier,
and he did not publish any maps, his descriptions of Indian life became
more detailed. This change in emphasis seems to be related to Champlain's
attempt to write a more entertaining book and his efforts to attract
support for his work by publicizing a potential field for missionaries.
The lack of maps concerned with these explorations is unfortunate.
Champlain evidently began one in 1616 but did not finish it. Although
he had ample opportunity to draw plans, he made none, and he does
not refer to any in his texts. Why? Unlike the explorations between 1603
and 1613, by 1615 Champlain was no longer employed just to explore
and make maps. He may not have made any maps or plans simply because
he was not required to do so by his superiors. Another possibility is
that he did make sketch maps but did not publish them because he was
trying to produce a more popular work than the previous ones. The
question has no answer, but it demands an answer because of Champlain's
prodigious map output before the publication of the Voyages Et
Descouvertures.
6.
Publications and Explorations, 1619 to 1635
Champlain undertook no more trips of exploration after his return from
the Huron country. An attempt will be made here to assess his continuing
interest in exploration and cartography.
Information on Champlain's activities after 1618 can be found in his
28
Les Voyages De La Nouvelle France, published in 1632, and various
entries in the writings of some of his contemporaries, such as Gabriel
Sagard, 5 5 a number of Jesuit Priests, 5 6 and at a later date, Chrestien Le
Clercq. 5 7 Of these, Les Voyages is of course the most important document. This work is divided into two parts (Appendix I). The first part
contains a historical sketch of the exploration of North America from
1504 to Champlain's time. It then continues with a reprint (in places
abbreviated, in other places verbatim) of his voyages up to the end of
1619. The second part is a somewhat disjointed account of events
between 1620 and 1632. Appended to Les Voyages are a lengthy legend
for the map that accompanied the work, the Traitté De La Marine
(Champlain's treatise on navigation), and two religious tracts, one by
Father Brebeuf, the other by Father Masse.
Les Voyages is a curious, and in places disappointing, work. Particularly striking is the difference between the two parts. The first, made
up largely of reprints, depicts Champlain as the explorer and careful
observer of detail. The second part depicts the administrator on the
St. Lawrence, almost oblivious to what was happening in the interior.
For example, he tells us nothing of the further explorations of Brûlé,
or of Father La Roche Daillon's visit to the Neutral. He says nothing
about Nicollet's sojourn among the Nipissing and the stories he gathered
there, or the stories which many of the other unknown travellers in the
interior must have brought back. In fact, he adds little to our knowledge
of the exploration of New France after his interrogation of Brûlé in
1618. In view of Champlain's earlier writings this is curious indeed. In
the second part of Les Voyages we still see a man interested in exploration, but one who does not tell the reader what was going on.
The printing history of Les Voyages deserves a study of its own, and
may in part account for the unevenness of the work. Because of the
many variants of the work there is as yet no definitive, comparative
text. The first editions appeared in 1632 under the imprint of at least
three different printers. 5 8 A second edition came out in 1640. It is not
known which of the variants, if any, was prepared by Champlain. Similar
problems are faced in studying the later editions of the Voyages Et
Descouvertures.
Most of the second part reads like a diary which someone attempted
to work into book form. This writer would not be at all surprised to
learn someday that Champlain kept fairly detailed diaries which he asked
someone else to work into a book. Only the second chapter in book two
of the second part stands out as if it had been written by the pre-1618
Champlain. This chapter is a superb guide to navigation between Cape
Race and Quebec. It is the essence of years of sailing and observing in
those waters.
Had Champlain lost his interest in exploration? Probably not his
interest, but certainly the opportunity. By 1620 Champlain was in his
29
early fifties. He was lieutenant to the viceroy and in complete charge
of French interests on the St. Lawrence. Experience had shown him and
his superiors that when he was absent from the colony for any length
of time, especially in the summer, nothing got done except trading.
Champlain had to be on hand to oversee those aspects of the colony
that related to settlement and peaceful relations with the natives. One
might also wonder whether he had simply had enough of the nature of
the "exploration" he was forced to undergo by his native companions.
On three of the four occasions when he left the St. Lawrence to explore
inland he had to participate in a raid. On two of those occasions he was
wounded. These were anything but ideal conditions under which to
pursue exploration. Earlier, participation in these raids had been necessary to gain Huron, Algonquin, and Montagnais good will, "to induce
them to come to trade and to love us". By 1620 this had been achieved;
the natives were firmly committed to trade. The amount of exploring
that was carried out on these raids was minimal and could really be
better performed by men who were not linked by the natives, as was
Champlain, to their wars. To Champlain the reciprocal raids performed
by the various native groups must have been a terrible waste of effort.
Militarily these raids accomplished nothing except the certainty that
they would be repaid. The object of native warfare was quite different
from that carried on in Europe. Disgusted with his native allies'inability
to conduct a campaign properly, and seeing that he had achieved his
goal in gaining their trust, Champlain decided not to play any further
personal part in these wars. This decision, as well as his age and tasks on
the St. Lawrence, helped to spell an end to further personal explorations.
The first six chapters of the second part of Les Voyages clearly demonstrate that Champlain had not lost his interest in promoting exploration.
On several occasions he pointed out why exploration was important,
how it could be carried out, and the kind of support it needed from
France. 5 9 Such a task, he pointed out, was full of personal risks and
physical hardships and should be properly rewarded through honours
and material benefits. This, he claimed, had never been properly recognized by the merchants and the state. Since exploration could only be
carried out with the help of the natives, one had to curry their favour.
In order to keep explorers safe from their guides, Champlain felt that it
would be sensible to promote native settlements near the French posts.
The families who settled there would, in a sense, act as hostages. Early
in 1622 he began to implement this idea by persuading a Montagnais by
the name of Miristou to settle his people near Quebec. Over succeeding
years this proved to be a fruitful relationship. As to his own role in
exploration, Champlain summed it up with an entry early in 1622: "my
task will be to prepare the way for those who, after me, shall desire to
engage in this enterprise" [exploration].
That Champlain was not required to conduct exploration personally
30
is documented by the King's order of March 12, 1618 60 and the commission he received from his viceroy, the Duc de Vetandour, on February
15, 1625. 61 The King's order requested Champlain ". . .to choose tried
and faithful men for employment in exploring. . ." Vetandour's commission ordered Champlain to:
. . .have explorations made of the said lands, and in particular from the said place of Quebec
as far onward and distant as it may be possible to extend them above this place into the interior
of the country, and up the rivers which discharge into the said river St. Lawrence, in order to
endeavour to find the easiest way to go through the said country to the kingdom of China and
the East Indies; or otherwise as far onward as may be possible along the coasts of the said
country, as well by sea as by land.. .
Clearly Champlain did not have to go on these trips himself.
The Duc de Vetandour's commission requesting Champlain in discover a route to China is interesting because there is little in Champlain's
writings, after his Huron trip, to indicate that he actually believed such
a route existed. In 1618 Champlain gave both the King and the Chamber
of Commerce reason to hope that a route to China might be found. 62
As a matter of fact, he led the Chamber of Commerce to believe that
China lay only "a six months journey" from the St. Lawrence. The
promise of such an easy route to China was reiterated to the King in
1621. 63 These statements were obvious attempts at gaining support for
a venture in New France at a time when it looked as if the entire French
effort would disintegrate in a mass of legal suits and royal disinterest.
The only hint we have, and not from Champlain, that he may have made
a token effort at finding a route to China was Nicollet's 1634 mission
to the Puan in the Green Bay area of Wisconsin. This mission will be
discussed below. In the meantime, suffice it to say that Champlain
made no mention in his journals or maps of the existence of China
beyond the "Freshwater Sea."
Did Champlain hire any men to conduct trips of exploration? From
his writings and those of Sagard one can infer that some Frenchmen
were among the Huron almost every year. 64 In all of these cases these
men seem to have been there as missionaries, traders' agents, soldiers,
or servants. None was specifically sent as an explorer. Some of these men
travelled outside Huronia, and many of them were probably interviewed
by Champlain on their return to the St. Lawrence. Sagard, for example,
met Champlain on his return to Quebec in 1624 and talked to him at
'ength of his stay in Huronia.65 During that visit Sagard must have told
Champlain some of the geographical information he had gleaned from
native accounts, especially the story that the Nipissing were in contact
with a tribe (Cree? ) about a six-week journey from them who traded
with people who came in ships. 66 Sagard thought that these might be
Chinese who, he was sure, lived just to the west. It is, however, more
31
likely that these were Englishmen trading on Hudson Bay. One might
also speculate that Champlain interviewed Father Joseph de la Roche
Daillon, who had spent the winter of 1626 to 1627 among the Neutral. 6 7
Daillon's visit to these people had not been the first— Brûle had preceded
him — but it was probably the first articulate account of that area.
Similarly, Jean Nicollet had spent 1618 to 1620 among the Allumette
and 1620 to 1629 among the Nipissing. The notes he wrote during that
time were turned over to the Jesuits, 6 8 but surely Champlain read them,
or at least talked to Nicollet. Finally, what of the further explorations of
Brûlé? In 1618 Champlain had thanked Brûlé for his work and obtained
for him a salary of 100 pistoles a year. 6 9 Brûlé's task was to continue
to lead the Huron, and others, to the annual trade and to continue his
explorations. Champlain does not mention any further explorations by
Brûlé, but such can be inferred from Sagard. Sagard mentions that
Brûlé travelled north from Huronia for 80 to 100 leagues to a copper
deposit. 7 1 On returning from this trip he also spoke of a large sea beyond
the Sault de Gaston (Sault Ste. Marie). 7 2 While Butterfield and others
believe that Brûlé travelled well into Lake Superior, 7 3 considerable
doubt can be thrown on this hypothesis. This writer is inclined to agree
with Crouse that Brûlé was simply recounting native stories and never
made any claim to having discovered Lake Superior or Michigan. 74
Why does Champlain not give the reader an account of the stories
told by these men? The answer probably is that he learned nothing of
note from them that he did not know before. He had been to Huronia;
he had heard native accounts of the "northern sea" and the English
ships; he had spoken to the Neutral about their country; and he had
heard the same stories from the Ottawa and Huron that Brûlé later told.
None of these men added much to his previous discoveries, so none of
their accounts was retold. Furthermore, there is nothing on the Great
Lakes — St. Lawrence sections of Champlain's map of 1632 that cannot
be traced to his own explorations — with one interesting exception. On
the 15 of July, 1628 Champlain met with a man whom he had sent on a
journey of exploration from Quebec to the Atlantic coast. 7 5 The object
was to find a route to the Abenaki who, Champlain knew, lived on the
lower Kennebec River. The man discovered the route and described it
to Champlain. He also established friendly relations with the Abenaki,
who promised to come to Quebec to sell their corn to the French. This
was the only trip of exploration which Champlain mentions that he
specifically commissioned. On the map of 1632 the route found by this
man is depicted. In the legend Champlain states that he had commissioned
its discovery in 1628. 7 6 Nowhere on the map, or its extensive legend,
does he give similar credit to any discoveries made by anyone other than
himself or to the accounts of native informants.
In view of the preceding discussion, this writer believes that, notwithstanding the labours and travels of Champlain's contemporaries between
32
1616 and 1629, none of these, except one, discovered anything that
Champlain chose to record. The reason for this was that none of them
brought him any new geographical knowledge. The exception was, of
course, the unknown explorer who pioneered the route from Quebec
via the Chaudiere and Kennebec Rivers to the Abenaki on the Atlantic
coast. This exception was noted by Champlain.
A year before his death on Christmas Day, 1635 Champlain may have
commissioned one other trip. This was Nicollet's journey to the Puan
(Winnebago) in the Green Bay area of Lake Michigan. 7 7 This voyage is
usually described as being, at least in part, an exploratory trip ordered
by Champlain. The documentary evidence states that it was a peace
mission and says nothing about Champlain. It is probable, but not
certain, that the voyage was ordered by Champlain, but its prime purpose was to promote peace between the Huron and the Winnebago. A
secondary aspect of the journey seems to have been exploration. Nicollet
had with him a robe of Chinese damask, no doubt just in case he met
Chinese at his destination. The record does not say that he set out to
look for a route to China. Even though Nicollet's mission was primarily
intended to promote peace and thereby extend the fur trade, he did make
important discoveries as far west as the Fox River flowing into Green
Bay, 7 8 and he gave the Jesuits a list of native groups he encountered
on his journeys. 7 9 It is unfortunate that Champlain ceased publishing
his diaries after 1632 because this is a journey he would have mentioned.
The general lack of exploration between 1616, Champlain's return
from the Huron, and 1629, the English capture of Quebec, can be explained in a variety of ways. Many of the men who travelled in the
interior, such as Brûlé, were illiterate and therefore did not leave accounts
or maps. In a very few cases, such as the travels of Nicollet and Le Caron,
their journals and notes have been lost. More important was the reluctance on the part of all of the natives engaged in the fur trade to take
Europeans along on their trips. Sagard expressed this most clearly when
he stated that the Nipissing, Huron, and Montagnais were unwilling to
guide laymen but had fewer objections to taking priests on their journeys. 8 0 The reason was quite simply that these tribes did not wish to
lose control over their end of the fur trade. Every time the French contacted interior groups, these tribes would themselves come to the St.
Lawrence to trade and the Huron, Algonquin, and Montagnais middlemen would lose the furs that these people had been bringing them. These
middlemen probably also feared that if their sources of furs became
known, French traders would bypass them and deal directly with the
suppliers. The Recollet Joseph la Roche Daillon ran into this problem
with the Huron, when he tried to explore and promote the fur trade in
the Neutral country, and several Jesuits after him had similar experiences
with other groups. To the Huron and others it was one thing to help
them in their warfare and explore along the way as Champlain had done,
33
or to engage in a peace mission for their benefit as Nicollet had done;
it was quite another thing to explore in order to promote the fur trade.
Native protection of their trading interests goes at least part way towards
explaining Champlain's early problems in promoting exploration, and
the lack of that activity in the 1620s.
Champlain's last map, the Carte de la nouvelle france, was based on
material gathered between 1603 and 1629, and published in 1632 with
Les Voyages81 (Appendix III). It was probably drawn and engraved
while Champlain was in France between December, 1629 and 1632,
when Les Voyages were published. Since one of the items on the table
for the map mentions that the Recollets were at Port La Tour on Cape
Negro Harbour in 1630, one can assume that the map was drafted sometime late in that year or in 1 6 3 1 . 8 2
To date the author has been able to find two slightly differing states
of the 1632 map. Discussion will focus on Le grand banc, ban auert
and the Great Lakes area, the only places where variations occur.
The first state is easily recognizable by an island-filled Bras d'Or Lake
running northeast to southwest across Cape Breton Island (Plate 6).
State two (Plate 7) has the lake running east-west along the southern
edge of the island. On state one Le grand banc begins thirty leagues due
east of Cup de raze, while on state two the Grand Banks begin eighteen
leagues east of Cape Race. On state one the ban auert is exactly seventy
leagues in length from northwest to southeast, while on state two its
length has been reduced to thirty-eight leagues. Not only the length but
also the position and shape of these two banks have been changed slightly.
On state two the Grand Banks were shifted slightly eastward, while the
Green Banks were shortened and extended southward. Since these
changes are easily detectable on state two, the author concludes that
state one preceded state two. One other slight change exists south of
Lake Ontario (Lac St. Louis). On state one a feature that looks like an
oval village palisade exists above the numeral 89. On state two this
feature has been erased.
One of the unfortunate aspects of this map, resulting in some confusion as to the number of states, are the copies made in the last century.
Since-re-engravings, no matter how good they are, are not exactly like
the original, some differences can be detected. Since these maps are
often reproduced they are worth mentioning here. Of the two that have
come to the author's attention, the first was engraved in 1860 by Adam
Pilinski and published by Tross in Paris. 8 3 This fact is mentioned under
the map title on the bottom left-hand corner of the map. This map
follows state two but has a few mistakes. For example, the numeral 93
south of Lac St. Louis has been changed to 97, and the claim of discovery engraved on Mer Douce reads iusques en l'an 1628 instead of
1618. The second re-engraving can be found in Laverdiere's Ouevres de
Champlain. 84 The major error is in the title, which reads Imprimer en
34
1652 instead of 1632. Laverdiere's copy follows state one of the original
map.
An effort was made to determine which state Champlain may have
used or authorized by checking the map against distances between the
banks and the mainland as listed in the Traitté de la Marine. The results
are inconclusive. The distance between the Grand Bank and Cape Race
(25 leagues), and the distance the Green Bank stretches into the St.
Pierre Islands, match state one. The distance between the Grand and
Green Banks (10 to 12 leagues), and the distances from Cape Breton
(100 leagues) and Canso (120 leagues) to the Grand Bank, match state
two.85
Two 17-century versions of the 1632 map deserve mention. The first,
entitled Description De La Novvelle France, was published by Jean
Boisseau in 1643 (Appendix III;Plate 8). This map appears to be a tracing
of the second state. Boisseau added some place names, chiefly from
Champlain's extensive printed legend, but also from a second source, as
yet undiscovered. Some of the additions from the unknown source are
place names such as Lac de Pichioua on the east branch of the St.
Maurice; Tauandekouate in the western headwaters of the St. Maurice;
I. de Kaoutotan (Manitoulin Island); Grand Lac des Nadouessiou (Lake
Superior or Michigan); Lac Derie; and Les gens de Chat. Champlain does
not name Lake Erie or the tribe of that name. Most of these names are
not found in the Jesuit Relations, and the author has not seen a map
that has them.
The second copy of the 1632 map, Nicholas De Fer's 1669 Carte De
La Novvelle France, is actually more than a copy (Appendix III, Plate 10).
In this piece of plagiarism the " a u t h o r " actually used the original plate
of the second state of Champlain's map. Under the scale of the original
the date 1632 was replaced by 1669, and Champlain by de N. Champlain's
claim to authorship and his map description in the lower left hand
corner were replaced by L'aigniet's and De Fer's names. A new map
description was composed for the upper left hand corner. Numerous
other additions were made to the map; all are easily recognizable by the
slightly different style of lettering between the two maps. Some of the
additions can be traced to Champlain's legend and Boisseau's copy or a
common source. So far this author has not been able to trace the source
of the tribal names added by De Fer with any certainty, especially those
on the western half of the map. They are almost all in a Huron-Iroquois
dialect and appear on Sanson's map Le Canada, ou/Nouvelle France. . .
1656 but in quite different places. It almost looks as if De Fer had a
partial list of Sanson's tribal names and proceeded to place them on his
map without any apparent order. Neither Sanson's nor De Fer's tribal
names can be traced to lists in the Jesuit Relations. This map merits
study, but it is doubtful if it can contribute anything to an understanding
of the ethnohistory of the early 17th century.
35
Summary
After 1616 Champlain ceased all personal exploration. Administrative
duties in a growing colony, increasing age, and the natives' insistence on
receiving military aid in return for their guidance on trips of exploration
— all probably helped to curtail his activities. Instead he relied on others
to carry out exploration for him. Although his commissions expected
some exploratory work to continue, Champlain appears to have ordered
only one such trip — a route up the Chaudiere and down the Kennebec
Rivers to contact the Abenaki. Judging from the activities of other men
in the Great Lakes area, not much new geographical information was
being obtained. Lack of experienced explorers and uncooperative natives
were probably responsible for this.
Three years before Champlain died, his last map was printed. It is the
culmination of thirty-two years of contact with New France, of which
twelve were spent either on foot, canoe, or ship exploring the country.
During this time Champlain crossed the Atlantic twenty-three times on
twelve expeditions. There was no one else who had the personal experience to compile the information for such a map. Posterity is fortunate
that in Champlain experience was combined with scientific skill; otherwise the information he gathered would have been lost. With justification
this map has become a "mother m a p " — a map that began scientific
cartography in Canada. In fact, Champlain's maps are the first scientific
documents relating to Canada.
36
References and Notes
1
C h a m p l a i n , Works,
vol. 3 , p p . 3 1 5 - 3 1 8 .
2
T h e l i c e n s e for t h e b o o k was issued on N o v e m b e r 1 5 , 1 6 0 3 . T h e b o o k was
dedicated t o C h a r l e s M o n t m o r e n c y , A d m i r a l of F r a n c e and B r i t t a n y ( C h a m p l a i n ,
Works, vol. 1, p p . 8 4 - 8 5 . )
3
Ibid., p . xvii.
4
Ibid., v o l . 3, p . 3 1 8 .
5
Ibid., v o l . 1, p . 1 5 3 .
6
The r o u t e is r e c o n s t r u c t e d from e n t r i e s in Des
Sauvages.
7
M. L e s c a r b o t , The History of New France, W.L. G r a n t ( e d . and transi.)
( T o r o n t o : T h e C h a m p l a i n S o c i e t y , 1 9 0 7 - 1 9 1 4 ) , 3 vols. The y e a r s 1 6 0 4 to 1607
are r e l a t e d in vol. 2, p p . 209-372 of t h i s e d i t i o n .
8
C h a m p l a i n , Works, v o l . 1, p p . 2 0 7 - 2 0 8 .
9
Ibid., vol. 3 , p p . 3 2 1 - 3 2 3 .
10
Lescarbot, History, vol. 2, p p . 2 1 0-220. The commissions w e r e dated N o v e m b e r 8,
1 6 0 3 ( H e n r y IV) and O c t o b e r 3 1 , 1 6 0 3 ( M o n t m o r e n c y ) .
11
C h a m p l a i n , Works, vol. 1, p . 3 2 9 .
12
It is i n t e r e s t i n g to n o t e that the guides were h u s b a n d a n d wife. He was
Etechemin,
she was Armouchiquois.
It will be recalled t h a t the previous year Champlain had had
problems with his Etechemin
guides who would not venture n e a r
Armouchiquois
t e r r i t o r y ( C h a m p l a i n , Works, vol. 1, p. 299, 312). The coastline southward from the
Kennebec was inhabited by the Armouchiquois
( L e s c a r b o t , History, vol. 2, p. 277).
13
C h a m p l a i n , Works,
vol. 1, p . 391.
L e s c a r b o t , History,
vol. 2, p . 3 3 8 .
14
15
C h a m p l a i n , Works, vol. 1, p. 459.
16
Ibid.,
p. 3 9 1 .
17
Ibid., p . 3 9 6 .
18
Ibid., vol. 2, p . 3.
19
The e v e n t s of 1608 t o 1613 were r e p r i n t e d in the 1632 edition of Les Voyages de
la Nouvelle France as Book III (1 6 0 8 - 1 6 1 1 ) and Book I V , C h a p t e r s O n e to Five
( 1 6 1 2 - 1 6 1 3 ) . This r e p r i n t docs n o t a d d m u c h t o o u r knowledge of Champlain as
an e x p l o r e r t h a t cannot be gained from his earlier writings.
37
20
C h a m p l a i n Works, vol. 1, p . 223.
21
The last entries in Les Voyages make it clear that Champlain received news from Canada
regarding the summer's activities on the St. Lawrence (Champlain, Works, vol. 2, p. 217).
The ships that would bring such news usually arrived in France during late September (Ibid.,
vol. 1, p p . 1 8 0 , 4 6 8 , vol. 2, pp. 108, 154, 214, 308; vol. 3, pp. 1 7 5 , 2 3 0 ) .
22
Champlain was nearly killed when a horse fell on him. This appears to have happened in
late September of 1611 (Champlain, Works, vol. 2, pp. 214-216). This accident delayed him
"for a long time", probably into the summer of 1612.
23
Champlain, Works, vol. 3 , p. 28, 37.
24
Ibid., vol. 2, pp. 222-230. This author has managed to find only one state of this map.
A case can be made for a second state in the sense that some copies have Plate LXXXI
engraved on the top left-hand corner before the title, while others do not.+Winsorrelates
that some of the 19th-century re-engravings of this map are faulty. These re-engravings
could be mistaken for states of the map (J. Winsor, Narrative and Critical History of America
(Boston: Houghton, Mifflin and Company, 1884), vol. 5, p. 380).
25
Champlain, Works, vol. 2 , p . 244, vol. 4, p. 208.
26
C. H. Laverdière, (ed.), Ouevres de Champlain, 2nd ed. (Quebec: G. Desbarats, 1870),
vol. 3, pp. 4 22-423. As this manuscript was going to press, the author learned from Mr. Edward
Dahl, National Map Collection, Ottawa, that an original copy of the map reproduced by
Laverdière has been located in the Sächsische Landesbibliothek in Dresden. It is reproduced in:
E. Klemp (ed. and comp.), American Maps Dating from 1500 to 1856, (New York: Holmes and
Meier, 1976), Map 27. A brief examination of this map does not change any of the conclusions
reached in this monograph.
27
Ibid., vol. 1, p. iii.
28
Champlain, Works, vol. 2, pp. 3 6-44.
29
Lescarbot, History, vol. 3, p . 9.
30
Champlain, Works, vol. 2, p. 117
31
Ibid., p . 123. The Algonquin also told Champlain that the Indians mined and smelted this
c o p p e r and beat it into sheets with stones. Also see Lescarbot, History, vol. 3, p. 18. It is
usually supposed that the North American Indians did not know how to smelt copper, and that
the widespread use of this mineral had gradually fallen into disuse with the disappearance of
the Old Copper Culture about 1500 B.C. (G. I. Quimby, Indian Life on the Upper Great Lakes
(Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1962), p. 61).
32
Champlain, Works, vol. 2, pp. 138-142, 186-188.
33
Ibid., p p . 216-217, 255-258.
34
Ibid., vol. 3, pp. 11, 230.
35
Ibid., vol. 4 , pp. 226-371.
36
Ibid., vol. 3 , pp. 175-176
38
37
For Champlain's description of these events see Ibid., v o l . 4, p p . 3 3 9 - 3 7 1 .
38
Ibid., p . 3 4 4 .
39
Ibid.,
vol. 2, p p . 3 2 6 - 3 3 9 .
40
Ibid., pp. 3 3 9 - 3 5 1 .
41
Ibid., vol. 3 , p . 3 .
42
Ibid., pp. 15-23.
43
Ibid.,
vol. 1, pp. 111-117.
44
Also see C. Le Clercq, First Establishment
of the Faith in New France- (J-G, Shea, ed.)
(New York: J.G.Shea, 1811), vol. 1. Le Clercq discusses at length Champlain's role in bringing
the Recollet to New France.
45
L.C. Wroth, "An Unknown Champlain Map of 1616," Imago Mundi, vol. 11 (1954),
p p . 85-94.
46
Wroth, for example, suggests that the lettering on the map and the title page of the
Voyages Et Descouvertures are so similar that they seem to have been made by the same
engraver.
47
For the location of the villages mentioned by Champlain, see C.E. Heidenreich, Huronia:
A History and Geography of the Huron Indians, 1600-1650 (Toronto: McClelland and Stewart,
1973).
48
Much ink has been spilled trying to guess where the site of the battle was, and which
Iroquois tribe had been attacked. Champlain called them Entouhonorons
(Entouhonorōs,
Ouentouoronon, or Antouhonorons).
Their village lay a four-day walk or twenty-five to thirty
leagues from his landing place at Stoney Point. As will be shown later, Champlain seems to have
used a land league of some two to two and a half miles, making his trip fifty to seventy-five miles.
This eliminates the Seneca, whom he also distinguished from the Entouhonorons by the name
Chouontouarouon. This also rules out the Mohawk, who were located on the Mohawk River,
some forty miles west of its junction with the Hudson. Champlain also made a distinction
between the Antouhonorons and the "Iroquois". The latter were probably the Mohawk, since
he was most familiar with this group and consistently located them on his maps where they
should be. The Huron names for the Seneca (Sonnontouan) and Mohawk (Agniehronnon) are
also fairly far removed from Entouhonoron.This leaves the Cayuga (Ouioenrhonnon), Oneida
(Oneiochronnon), and Onondaga (Onnontageronnon). None of the Huron names for these
tribes is close to Entouhonoron. The Oneida can probably be eliminated from the list. The fact
that Champlain crossed a river which discharged from Lake Oneida and into Lake Ontario
demonstrates that he crossed either the Oneida or Oswego Rivers, west of Lake Oneida. To get
to the Oneida villages southeast of Lake Oneida, Champlain would have had to pass through
Onondaga territory along the southern shore of the lake. If the Oneida had been the target, it
would have been more direct and safer to skirt the northern side of the lake. In that case the
war party could not have crossed the Oneida or Oswego Rivers. The Oneida are a possibility,
but a very remote one, made even more remote by recent excavations at the Nichols Ponds site,
long supposed to be the village Champlain attacked (P.P. Pratt, Archaeology of the Oneida
Iroquois (George's Mills: Man in the Northeast Inc., 1976), vol. 1, pp. 87-93). Taking into
a c c o u n t Champlain's distances from the place where he left the canoes, and his crossing
of a river which empties from Lake Oneida, he would have had to come either into Onondaga
39
or Cayuga territory. Which tribe it was is inconclusive. If I would have to take a guess on the
basis of the confusing route on the 1632 map, I would propose t h a t t h e war p a r t y a t t a c k e d
a C a y u g a village. O n l y a raid into Cayuga territory would lead the war party past so
many little lakes and across so many little streams. In an admirable review of the subject
Pratt (ibid., p. 55) comes to a similar conclusion.
49
The P e t u n (Kkionontateronnon
ot T o b a c c o ) tribe lived b e l o w t h e Niagara
E s c a r p m e n t between the p r e s e n t villages of Craigleith and Creemore, Ontario.
50
The Assistaeronnon
lived in Michigan between Lake St. Clair and Saginaw Bay.
The N e u t r a l (Attiouendaronnon),
composed of several tribes, lived in an arc around the
western end of Lake Ontario between the Humber and Grand Rivers and just across the
Niagara River in western New York State.
51
Champlain, Works, vol. 4, p. 344.
52
Le Clercq, First Establishment, vol. l , p p . 117-118.
53
Ibid., pp. 113-121.
54
Champlain, Works, vol. 3 , pp. 209-210.
55
G. Sagard, Histoire du Canada et Voyages que les Freres Mineures Recollets y ont faicts
pour la conversion des Jnfidelles depuis l'an 1615, avec un dictionnaire de la langue huronne
(1636) (Paris: Edwin Tross, 1866);G. Sagard, The Long Journey to the Country of the
Hurons, G.M. Wrong (ed.), H.H. Langton (trans.) (Toronto: The Champlain Society, 1939).
56
R. G. Thwaites, The Jesuit Relations and Allied Documents (New York: Pageant, 1959),
73 vols.
57
Le Clercq, First Establishment, vol. 1.
58
These printers are: Claude Collet, au Palais, en la Gallerie des Prisonniers à l'Estoille de
Or; Louis Sevestre, Imprimeur Libraire, rue du Meurier prés la Porte S. Victor & en sa Boutique
dans la Cour du Palais; Pierre Le-Mur, dans la Grand' Salle du Palais.
59
See, for example, Champlain, Works, vol. 5, pp. 58-60, 70-73.
60
lbid., vol. 4, pp. 364-365.
61
/bid., vol. 5, pp. 142-149.
62
lbid., vol. 2, pp. 326-351.
63
Le Clercq, First Establishment, vol. 1, p. 169.
64
Champlain, Works, vol. 5, pp. 101, 104, 108, 129, 131-32, 207; vol. 6, pp. 1 2 , 4 1 , 4 5 ;
Sagard, Long Journey, pp. 193-95, 198.
65
Champlain, Works, vol. 5, pp. 131-32.
66
Sagard, Long Journey, pp. 86-87.
67
Le Clercq, First Establishment,
vol. 1, p p . 2 63-2 7 2.
40
68
T h w a i t e s , J e s u i t Relations,
v o l . 9 , p p . 215-217.
69
Champlain, Works, vol. 5, p . 1 32.
70
Ibid., vol. 3 , p . 225-226.
71
Sagard, Long Journey,
p . 242; Sagard, Histoire, p p . 3 1 2-3 13, 328, 716-717.
72
Sagard,Histoire, p. 589.
73
C.W. Butterf ield, History of Brule's Discoveries and Explorations
1610-1626
(Cleveland: Helman-Taylor, 1898).
74
N .M. Crouse, Contributions of the Canadian Jesuits to the Geographical Knowledge of
New France, 1632-1675 (Ithaca: Cornell Publications, 1924), pp. 124-128.
75
Champlain, Works, vol. 6, pp. 43-45.
76
Ibid., p. 230.
77
The details of this journey are given in Thwaites, Jesuit Relations, vol. 23, pp. 275-279.
78
Ibid., vol. 28, p . 237.
79
Ibid., vol. 18, pp. 227-233.
80
Sagard, Long Journey, p. 87.
81
Champlain gives this information on the lower left-hand corner of the map. The map is also
advertised on the title page of the book.
82
Champlain, Works, vol. 6, p. 236. On pp. 1 71-182 Champlain discusses the embarkation of
the Recollets for Acadia and their relation to Claude and Charles La Tour.
83
For a reproduction of this map, see L.F. Hannon, The Discoverers (Toronto: McClelland
and Stewart, 1971), pp. 182-83. An original can be found in the National Map Collection,
Public Archives of Canada, Ottawa.
84
Laverdière, Ouevres, vol. 6, p. 1384.
85
Champlain, Works, vol. 6, pp. 3 04-308.
41