V.

Third Visit

In 1607 De Monts lost his commission to govern Acadia. The following year he decided to establish a trading post far up the St. Lawrence, at a point where it narrows to less than a mile wide. There his traders could greet indigenous people bringing furs from the west and take away business that would otherwise go to Tadoussac. This trading post, established by Champlain on July 3, 1608, became Québec. Scurvy again took its toll, claiming 16 of the 25 men; but they were replaced, and Québec survived. This was the first permanent white settlement in the region called Canada, and today it is the oldest city in the western hemisphere north of Saint Augustine, Florida. (Port Royal remained a small town.)

Champlain was given the title of lieutenant of the viceroy of New France in 1612. From this point on, Champlain’s aims in life were to explore and map the continent, to find a water route to the Pacific, and to convert the indigenous peoples to Christianity. Such aims were costly, and the money could come only from the fur trade. He therefore made a commercial alliance with the northern and western nations, the Montagnais, Algonquin, and Huron.

The alliance included military aid. In June 1609 Champlain and two of his men joined these nations when they invaded the hunting grounds of a longtime enemy, the Iroquois confederacy. They met 200 Iroquois by the lake now known as Lake Champlain. This marked the beginning of warfare between the French and the Iroquois that lasted off and on for 90 years and almost destroyed the colony.