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SAMUEL DE CHAMPLAIN AND OTHER FRENCH DISCOVERERS

Champlain: Born 1567—Died 1635

Once more on the deck I stand

Of my own swift gliding craft.

Set sail! Farewell to the land!

The gale follows fair abaft.

We shoot through the sparkling foam,

Like an ocean bird set free; —

Like the ocean bird, our home

We'll find far out on the sea!

—   SARGENT'S "A Life on the Ocean Wave."

If we turn our attention to France, we find that she had not been idle while other nations were sending men and ships across the Atlantic to make discoveries and to found new colonies. The French monarchs were quite as eager as those of other nations to increase their wealth and power.

Spain and Portugal, because of discoveries of Columbus and others, claimed the entire new territory. To prevent quarrels, the Pope, in 1494, divided as he thought best the " lands discovered or to be discovered. "He drew an imaginary line three hundred and seventy leagues (about one thousand miles) west of the Cape Verde Islands; all lands west of this line were to belong to Spain, all east of it to Portugal. Measured by this line, Brazil was the only part of the New World that Portugal could claim. All the rest belonged to Spain. But of course at that time no one knew the size, shape, or extent of the undiscovered country.

The governments of England and Holland paid no attention to the claims of Spain and Portugal, or to the division of land by the Pope. The French king, Francis I, treated the Spanish and Portuguese claims just as lightly. "I should like you to show me," said he to the kings of these two countries, "that part of Father Adam's will which divides America between you and leaves out the French." And he began to take steps whereby France might get her share.

At about the time that Cortez and Pizarro were conquering the Indians of Mexico and Peru, and stealing their treasures, France sent a vessel to our shores. It was under the command of Verrazano, an Italian.

Verrazano skirted the American coast in 1524 in the vicinity of what is now North Carolina. He then cruised along the Atlantic seaboard to Newfoundland, and was probably the only white man before Henry Hudson to sail into New York Bay.

Soon after Verrazano's return, France became engaged in war with Spain, and for the time lost all interest in the new country.

Ten years passed before the French government sent out another exploring expedition. In 1534, and again in 1535, under the command of the jovial, lighthearted Jacques Cartier, French vessels crossed the Atlantic. Reaching Newfoundland, Cartier sailed westward across a gulf to which he gave the name St. Lawrence, because the day happened to be the feast-day of that saint. 

Later he passed up the St. Lawrence River, where the French found a beautiful, fertile country, inhabited by friendly Indians; At Gaspe, Cartier planted a cross thirty feet high with the inscription, Vive le Rol- de France, — Long live the King of France. The Indians were alarmed at this unusual

sight, but Cartier explained that it was merely "set up to be as a light and leader" to guide his ship into port when he should come again.

Cartier felt well repaid for his voyages. He had taken possession of the country for the French, and he thought the St. Lawrence might prove to be the pathway to China. He learned from the natives that there was a large Indian town called Hochelaga on the banks of the St. Lawrence, and he resolved to see it. The savages, however, distrusted these strange white men, and did not approve of their plan.

So three Indians disguised themselves as devils, and tried to frighten the Frenchmen by appearing before them with blackened faces and long horns. Cartier only laughed at this ridiculous sight, and spreading his sails proceeded to Hochelaga. He found the town beautifully situated on a high hill on an island in the St. Lawrence River, and Cartier gave it the name of Montreal, or Mount Royal.

The Indians at Hochelaga were delighted with the visit of the white men, who distributed knives, rings, and metal trinkets to the wondering natives. Perhaps these strange palefaces might be able to cure the sick! The chief of the tribe, a helpless old man, was accordingly carried on a mat before Cartier to be healed. The Frenchman was touched by this simple faith, and gladly did all he was able to do. He laid his hands upon the old warrior and offered up a prayer for his recovery.

Cartier at length sailed back to France. Owing to religious wars it was nearly thirty years before that country did anything further in the way of discovery or exploration in America. In the meantime there was much suffering at home. The Huguenots, as the French Protestants were called, were being cruelly persecuted for daring to hold religious views which differed from those of their king.

Accordingly Coligny, the celebrated leader of the Huguenots, decided to send' enough Protestants to America to found a colony. The expedition was in charge of Jean Ribault and sailed from France in 1562, a few years before Sir Francis Drake left England on his first voyage to America.

The Huguenots landed on the coast of South Carolina, and began to build cabins and found a settlement, while Ribault went back to France for more colonists. But, alas, Ribault did not return, and the starving settlers in despair decided to build a ship in which to sail for home. With such crude tools as they possessed, they constructed a strange little craft, using for sails sheets and pieces of clothing. In this frail structure they pluckily put out to sea, and after barely escaping shipwreck were picked up by an English vessel.

Ribault's delay was caused by war at home, and it was two years before Coligny could send out another colony. This time the Frenchmen landed on St. John's River in Florida. Later they were joined by other Huguenots, and the happy colonists thought that at last they had found peace. The king of Spain, however, heard of the little Protestant settlement, and determined to destroy it. He did not mean to allow any French or English to settle in this country, so he ordered a ship load of soldiers to attack the French colony. Men, women, and children, about seven hundred in all, were mercilessly killed.

It was not until Samuel de Champlain followed Cartier's footsteps to Canada that a permanent French settlement was made in America. Champlain was the son of a ship captain, and had been carefully educated as a navigator. He has been called "one of the most remarkable Frenchmen of his time,— a beautiful character, devout and high-minded, brave and tender." He had served in the French navy, and was a favorite of his monarch, Henry IV.

Champlain's daring and roving disposition led him to visit the Spanish settlements in the West Indies. He explored a part of Mexico, and, returning by way of Panama, was the first man to suggest building a ship canal across that isthmus. He carefully explored our northeastern coast and gave to many places the names they still bear. In 1603 he explored both banks of the St. Lawrence River, and pressed eagerly forward to find the Indian town of Hochelaga described by Cartier. But Hochelaga was now a ruin, the little cabins destroyed, the corn-fields waste ground. The explorers soon returned to France.

In 1604 Champlain again set sail with a number of colonists for Acadia, as the whole Canadian region was then called. He cruised along the coast of Nova Scotia and landed at a place which he named Port Royal. Sailing around the Bay of Fundy, the explorers entered the mouth of a river which they called St. John's, and finally settled on the island of St. Croix.

Trees were cut down to build houses and barracks, and these were surrounded with a palisade for defense. The pleasant autumn was followed by a long, hard winter, when food, fuel, and fresh water were difficult to obtain on the island. Scurvy broke out, and by spring only forty-four of the seventy-nine colonists were left alive. Had it not been for Champlain's courage and energy, this first little French settlement in Canada would not have survived. Soon another ship, with more settlers, came from France, and the colony was moved to Port Royal, where it was permanently established.

In 1608, the year after the first English colonists came to Virginia, Champlain laid the foundation of Quebec, the first trading post on the St. Lawrence. A few small houses were built around an open square, and outside of these a wooden wall and ditch.

In the center of the square Champlain set up a pole with a dove'cote on the top, to show the Indians that his intentions were peaceful. Gardens and small farms were laid out, the Indians were encouraged to bring their furs, and soon the French settlement of Quebec began to grow.

After a while Champlain brought his young wife, a beautiful, devout woman, to the cold little settlement in Acadia. Her name still lives in one of the islands of the St. Lawrence, Helen's Island. She gave herself to the work of converting the Indian women and children, and for five years labored among them with unselfish devotion. "France," says the historian Parkman, "aimed to subdue the natives not by the sword but by the cross. She invaded but to convert, to civilize, and embrace them among her children."

When Champlain first came to Canada he found two powerful bands of Indians, the Hurons and the Algonquins, joined in war against the fierce Iroquois. The Hurons were deeply impressed by the guns and armor of the Frenchmen. They begged Champlain, whom they called "the man with the iron breast," to help them in their struggle with the enemy.

The explorer thought that it would be to his advantage to make friends with these Indians, so he promised to give them his support, and to join in an attack which they had planned. On his way to meet the Iroquois, Champlain came out on the beautiful lake that separates northern Vermont and New York. To this sheet of water the Frenchman gave his name, and later he discovered Lakes Huron and Ontario.

The warring tribes came together near the site of Ticonderoga, at the head of Lake Champlain, in 1609. The Iroquois expected to meet only men of their own color, who would fight with the bow and arrow and tomahawk. Imagine their astonishment at the sight of the palefaces, and the noise of the Frenchmen's muskets! Champlain himself killed two Indian chiefs and mortally wounded another, and it was not long before the Iroquois fled in terror, while the joyful war whoops of the Hurons and Algonquins rang through the forest.

Dearly in after years did the Frenchmen pay for this victory, for it brought them the lasting hatred of the Iroquois Indians. These Indians played a very important part in our history, as we shall learn a little later. They were known as "The Five Nations " because they were divided into five tribes :the Mohawks, the Oneidas, the Onondagas, the Cayugas, and the Senecas. They lived in New York state and were on very friendly terms with the English and Dutch, with whom they formed an alliance against the French. It was through their aid in after years that the English were able to prevent the French from getting control of New York.

Champlain was governor of Canada until his death. He built fortifications on Richelieu Island, founded the town known as Three Rivers, and established a college for Indians at Quebec, where they were taught the French language. As fur trading was the principal attraction which drew the Dutch to New York, so it was for a long time the chief interest of the French in Canada. Twenty-two thousand beaver skins were sent in one year from the St. Lawrence to France. The French had also large fisheries at Newfoundland.

When Champlain had reached his sixty-eighth year, he saw in the tiny, but thriving, village of Quebec the fruits of his hard labor. The long struggle to establish a colony in Canada had been successful. He died on Christmas Day, 1635, in the community that he had founded, and his brilliant record still lives. Well had he earned his title, "Father of Canada."

We have now seen that, in the early part of the seventeenth century, the nations of Europe were beginning to covet the American continent. Someone has said: "Here lay the shaggy continent from Florida to the Pole, stretched in savage slumber along the sea. On the bank of the James River was a nest of woebegone Englishmen, a handful of fur traders at the mouth of the Hudson, and a few shivering Frenchmen among the snowdrifts of Acadia."

French Discoveries
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