Samuel de Champlain

I

Introduction

Samuel de Champlain (1567?-1635), French explorer, known as the father of New France, the French colonial empire in North America. He established a trading post, which eventually became the city of Québec, in 1608 at the first narrows of the St. Lawrence River and governed it until his death.

II

Early Life

Champlain was born in Brouage, France, but little is known of his early years. His parents may have been members of the lower nobility. Like his father before him, he served as a naval captain. He thus acquired the training that made him a very competent navigator and geographer, and an excellent cartographer.

III

First Visit to North America

In 1603 Champlain made his first visit to North America as a royal geographer on a fur trading expedition. The expedition sailed to Tadoussac, at the mouth of the Saguenay River, which had long been a trading center for the indigenous peoples living along the St. Lawrence. Here the French were accustomed to meeting the Montagnais people bringing furs to trade for French cloth and metal wares.

Champlain made good use of his time there. He ventured far up the Saguenay, up the St. Lawrence River to Montréal Island, and up the river that would be named the Richelieu. He gathered information from the Montagnais on the geography of the northeastern section of the continent. He used this information to draw a remarkably accurate map showing a large bay to the north (Hudson Bay) and water to the west, which he later discovered was the Great Lakes. This western body of water was so large that he believed it must connect with the Pacific Ocean, thus forming the fabled Northwest Passage through the continent. Many 17th-century explorers were searching for that passage, believing it would provide an easy water route to the wealth of China.

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IV

Second Visit

During Champlain’s first visit to North America, he had learned about a pleasant land to the south, with a mild winter climate. He had also been shown a metal, which he thought might be silver. This southern area became Champlain’s destination on his second trip, in 1604, which was undertaken to establish a settlement in this region. The French named the area Acadie (in English, Acadia). A permanent settlement was required in exchange for a commission to govern Acadia that French explorer Pierre du Gua, Sieur de Monts had obtained.

Champlain explored the Atlantic Coast on the north side of the Bay of Fundy, sighting a river flowing from the north that he named the Saint-Jean (now the Saint John River). He learned from the area’s inhabitants, the Maliseet, that the river was their route to the St. Lawrence. Traveling west along the coast, Champlain chose a site on the Saint Croix River for the permanent settlement, but 35 of the 79 men who stayed there during the winter of 1604 to 1605 died of scurvy. The base was then moved, in the spring of 1605, to the south side of the Bay of Fundy and named Port Royal. Champlain remained there for three years, during which he charted the coast as far south as Cape Cod.

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