On the coast of Maine, Champdoré also met a new generation of Indian leaders, in particular the Penobscot sagamore Asticou, “a man of weight and fine presence” who summered on Mount Desert Island. Here again, the French and the Penobscot Indians built good relations that endured in a remarkable way. Asticou’s memory is still green on Mount Desert Island, where even today Indians, islanders, cottagers, and tourists continue to meet and trade every summer on the campus of Bar Harbor’s College of the Atlantic, in the spirit of Asticou and Champdoré.54
* * *
In the last week of June, 1608, Champlain ended his work on the Saguenay and prepared to sail up the St. Lawrence Valley in search of a permanent site. His river barque was finally ready on June 30, and he set off that very day to explore the great river. He did not sail in midstream as others might have done, but preferred to study the banks and tributaries with close attention. This method called for great skill and constant vigilance. It put his vessel at risk among the submerged rocks and shifting shoals of the river. He loved to go ferreting on an unfamiliar shore—sounding, sketching, entering every major stream, going ashore, studying the soil, collecting flora and fauna. The tone of Champlain’s account reveals the pleasure that he took in this happy work.
He also took delight in naming every prominent landmark along the river, often in colorful ways. On this trip, he named one tributary the Rivière du Gouffre, Whirlpool River, for its dangerous currents. He called another prominent landmark Cap Tourmente because of his struggle against its tricky winds and currents. His names are still to be found on the land in Canada and the United States.
For many miles beyond Tadoussac the countryside did not attract him as a place of settlement. “All the coast,” he wrote, “both on the north and south sides, from Tadoussac to the Isle d’Orléans, is hilly country and very poor, with nothing but pine, spruce and birch, and very ugly rocks, amongst which, in most places, one cannot penetrate.” Today, visitors find this terrain very attractive, but Champlain had different aesthetic ideas—and another purpose.55
When he came to the Île d’Orléans, about a hundred miles upriver from Tadoussac, he examined its shoreline closely and charted its very dangerous shoal water. Then he went ashore to explore the island itself, and admired its clear fertile meadows and open woodland, with “many fine oaks and nut trees,” and “vines and other trees such as we have in France.” Here was a very promising site for a large settlement.56
At the eastern end of the island he went ashore near the great waterfall that he had earlier named after Admiral Montmorency of France, who had supported him. Champlain climbed to the top of the falls, walked inland on land that was “level and pleasant to see,” and found “a lake some ten leagues in the interior.” From that elevation, he wrote that “one can see high mountains which seem to be fifteen or twenty leagues away.”57 Champlain returned to his boat and headed upstream, noting that the land had changed its character. “Here begins the fine good country of the great river, distant 120 leagues from its mouth.”58
* * *
On July 3, Champlain and his men went another mile up the river past the Île d’Orléans, and reached the place that the Indians called Kebec, the narrowing of the waters. He had been there five years previously. This time he judged it by far the best place for permanent settlement. The strength of its position caught a soldier’s eye. The high rocky promontory commanded the full width of the river. A strong fort could control traffic through the St. Lawrence Valley.
Below the promontory was a level area, perfect for a trading settlement. It is now the lower town of Vieux-Québec. Champlain found it covered by a thick stand of nut trees, with an odor that reminded him of French walnuts. The settlers came ashore and immediately began the heavy work of clearing the land. Champlain divided his workers into several parties: one group cut down the trees; another sawed the logs into planks; a third dug cellars and ditches. A fourth had the easiest duty, sailing from Quebec to Tadoussac and back again many times with supplies.59
Champlain’s chart of Quebec (1613). At the upper center is the French town with fields to the north, meadows to the west, and fish weirs on the St. Charles River to the east. Across the St. Lawrence River is the Indian town at Lévis, and the Rivière des Etchemins, which led to Norumbega. Downstream is the Île d’Orleans.
The first priority was to build a secure storehouse, which was done promptly “by the diligence of every one.” The storehouse had two purposes: to serve the needs of trade and to hold provisions for the winter. As always, Champlain insisted on an abundance of food stocks, remembering the disasters that had destroyed many French settlements.60 Then they went to work on the building that Champlain called the habitation. It was different from the design of Acadia, where the settlement took the form of a quadrilateral fort. In Quebec, Champlain put up three interconnected buildings. One was for the artisans. Another, on the south side, looking out over the river, was the residence of Champlain. A third was for a forge and workshops. To the west was the storehouse with its deep cellar. In the courtyard he placed a dovecote with the escutcheon of the sieur de Mons and probably the king’s arms.61 Each part of the habitation was a large structure of two stories. On one of the buildings, Champlain put a great symbolic sundial as an emblem of light, time, symmetry, and order. He also raised the flag of France on a staff high above the roof. It caught the strong winds on the river, and flew bravely over the busy settlement.62
The habitation was designed to withstand a siege. The entire complex was surrounded by a palisade (unfinished until 1610), with a ditch fifteen feet wide and six feet deep that could only be crossed by a drawbridge. The ditch was enfiladed by cannon mounted on triangular bastions. Historian Marcel Trudel writes that Champlain “reproduced in miniature a European fortress.” The strength of the fortress also demonstrated his resolve to build a permanent settlement and hold it against any enemy.63
Around the settlement at Quebec, Champlain also ordered his workers to plant gardens. He had done it in every settlement: first on Sainte-Croix Island, once more at Port-Royal, and now in Quebec. “While the carpenters, sawyers and other laborers worked on our quarters,” Champlain wrote, “I put the rest to work clearing land around the settlement in order to make gardens in which to sow grain and seeds to see how everything would succeed. The soil appeared to be very good.”64
His published engravings show the plan of the gardens. Here again, as in Champlain’s other experiments, the plantings were done not in functional hills or rows but in elaborate designs that resembled the formal gardens of France. Champlain’s drawing of the settlement showed six garden plots, and there were likely more. He was still planting in the fall. “On the first of October,” he wrote, “I had some wheat sown and on the fifteenth some rye.” He noted that the killing frosts came early, with a mild “white frost” on October 3. Even so, he kept on sowing. “On the 24th [of October],” he wrote, “had some native vines planted and they prospered extremely well.”65
The first habitation at Quebec (1608–10), with its fortress, warehouse (A), barracks (C, D, F), and Champlain’s quarters (H). Above are a dove cote (B), sundial (E), and a flag with the lilies of Henri IV’s Bourbon dynasty. On the water’s edge is a quay (4), and Champlain’s garden (0).
Champlain was much interested in native plants and made a list of the more attractive varieties: “nut trees, cherry trees, plum trees, vines, raspberries, strawberries, gooseberries, red currants and several small fruits which are quite good.” Among the others were blueberries, which caught his eye. He wrote, “There are also several sorts of useful herbs and roots.” Champlain was quick to discover the botanical expertise of the Indians and sought to learn from them. He also introduced many seeds and plants from France. Grains were tried in great variety, especially wheat and rye. Fall and spring sowings both succeeded at Quebec.66
Champlain also introduced flowers, and was especially fond of roses. He was very much the driver of French gardening in America. T
he men who did the work did not share his passion. Often he complained of his gardens that “after I left the settlement to come back to France, they were all ruined for want of care, which distressed me very much.”67 Champlain’s gardens were not only useful and ornamental. They were also symbols of sovereignty and order. Champlain made an association between l’estate and l’état, the garden and the state.68
Champlain was racing the calendar and he drove his men very hard. The labor was heavy and unremitting. The food was not good, and the men began to grow restless and unhappy. In late summer and fall of 1608, four of them turned against Champlain. Their leader was Jean Duval, a skilled locksmith with a special expertise in the repair of gunlocks, and access to weapons. He had been in trouble before. On Poutrincourt’s southern cruise to Nauset in 1606, it was Duval who had refused to obey a direct order to remain aboard ship, and slept on the beach with his friends. All had been killed except Duval, the sole survivor.69
At Quebec, Duval enlisted three workers in a conspiracy. They made a plan to murder Champlain. The four men decided that it had to be done by deep stealth and extreme secrecy—a testament to Champlain’s strength and alertness. Probably he always carried arms, and knew how to use them. The conspirators agreed that he had to be killed, but they could not decide how to do it. They met together in the dark, and debated whether to poison him, blow him up with a bomb, strangle him in his bed, or sound an alarm and shoot him from ambush as he emerged from his quarters.70 Once Champlain was dead, they planned to take over the colony, and seek an alliance with the Basques, or even with Spain. The ringleaders found broad support among other workers at Quebec. Even one of Champlain’s personal servants joined the conspiracy—evidence perhaps of resentment to Champlain’s driving leadership at this stage of his career. They set a date, and all were made to swear a solemn oath of secrecy, on penalty of death by many dagger-thrusts.71
Just before the fatal day, a river barque arrived from Tadoussac and began to unload its cargo. Its commander, Captain Guillaume Le Testu, was a “very prudent man,” in Champlain’s phrase, and much respected by others. An artisan in the settlement, a locksmith named Natel, approached Captain Le Testu and warned him of the plot. The captain went at once to Champlain and found him laying out his gardens, completely absorbed in the task at hand. The two men walked alone into the woods, and Champlain learned what was afoot.
He moved very quickly. First he spoke secretly with the informer Natel, who was shaking with fear. Natel was offered full pardon if he revealed the identity of the leaders. He named four men. Champlain laid a cunning trap for them. He arranged that a young seaman should invite the ringleaders onto Le Testu’s ship, with a promise of two bottles of alcohol. The conspirators went aboard and instantly were seized by Champlain and Le Testu’s loyal crew. All were clapped in irons.
Then Champlain went ashore. It was ten o’clock at night and pitch-dark. He summoned everyone in the colony. Standing with him in the shadows were the captain and some of Le Testu’s men, all heavily armed. A faint light glinted on their weapons. Champlain told the colonists that Duval and the ringleaders had been put in irons. He gave each man a choice: pardon if he spoke the truth; death if he did not. Every man confessed and testified against the leaders. Champlain carried the four conspirators to Tadoussac and returned with Pont-Gravé (now nearly healed from his wounds) and more men who were also well armed. He convened a tribunal of four officers: Champlain himself, Pont-Gravé, Le Testu, and the surgeon Bonnerme. All were men with long experience of discipline at sea.72
They constituted a formal court, and a public trial followed, with depositions in great detail. The men of Quebec testified against the conspirators. Under the accumulating weight of evidence, Duval also made a confession and begged for mercy. For him, there would be none. The tribunal sentenced Duval to death, and Champlain ordered his immediate execution. Jean Duval was hanged, strangled, and beheaded. His severed head was mounted on a pike in Quebec as a grim warning to others.73
The three other ringleaders were also sentenced to death, but at Champlain’s recommendation the tribunal ordered that they should be taken to France in chains and their sentence should be reviewed by the king’s courts. On September 19, Pont-Gravé carried them home, and much later they were pardoned—a common pattern under Henri IV. Champlain had faced a mortal threat to the colony. He moved against it with energy and dispatch, but also with restraint. He executed one man, sent three to France, pardoned all the rest of the habitants, and regained their loyalty. Afterward Champlain wrote that all the others conducted themselves properly and did their duty. He won them to his leadership by a combination of strength, resolve, and restraint that held the colony together.74
Mutinies happened frequently in early French colonies and destroyed several of them, as in the murder of La Pierria at Charlesfort, the attack on Laudonnière at Fort Caroline in Florida, and the repeated revolts on Sable Island off the Grand Bank. Champlain, unlike earlier leaders, was able to suppress the rising before it happened, and dealt with it in a way that his men accepted as legitimate. This mortal challenge made the colony stronger—and Champlain, too.75
In the late summer, Indians visited Quebec and talked with Champlain. Most were Montagnais, and Champlain took a deep interest in them. “I studied their customs very particularly,” he wrote.76 He knew that the Montagnais were a hunting and gathering people—and thought that they were the most skillful hunters he had ever met. They were also expert traders, and constructed complex networks of exchange. He admired them as a handsome people, “well-proportioned in body, without deformity and agile.” He found the women very attractive, “well-formed, plump, of a dusky hue on account of certain pigments with which they rub themselves, which make them look olive-colored.”77
Algonquins also began to appear—many nations who lived along the upper St. Lawrence River from Quebec to the Great Lakes. Among them was the son of Iroquet, a leader of the Petite-Nation who lived far to the west, near Georgian Bay on the shore of Lake Huron. These nations, Algonquin and Montagnais, had “long been at war” with their ancient Iroquois enemies, especially the Mohawk, the easternmost of the Iroquois nations. Nobody could remember when this fighting had begun. It started long before the Europeans arrived. But with the expansion of the fur trade, these wars were growing more violent. The result was a cycle of violence and vengeance that kept all parties at war. The Algonquin and Montagnais wanted Champlain to join them in fighting the Mohawk.78
Champlain welcomed them all to Quebec, and gave them a “kind reception,” in the words of one Algonquin sagamore. They began to build alliances, French and Indians together, but with different purposes in mind. The Montagnais and Algonquins wanted Champlain to join them in defeating their mortal foes the Mohawk. The French commander agreed, and said that he “wished to help them against their enemies,” but with a different purpose in mind. His object was to bring peace to the St. Lawrence Valley. He hoped to break the cycle by striking forcefully against the Iroquois, whom he regarded as the aggressors. The plan was not to destroy their power; it was to raise the price of raiding in the St. Lawrence Valley. During the summer and fall of 1608, they made an alliance with different goals in mind. It was a fateful agreement.79
Champlain sketched this Montagnais warrior, wife, and baby. He admired this “great nation,” as expert hunters and skilled traders in highly developed networks. They thought themselves superior to farming Indians, whom they called “dogs who raise corn.”
While Champlain was meeting with the Indians, the seasons were changing rapidly. Winter came early to Quebec in 1608. On November 18, the settlement was lashed by “a great gale,” and a “heavy fall of snow.”80 It was the harbinger of a long winter that nearly destroyed the colony. The months from October to December were bad enough, with fierce winds, wet weather, and high water. Then the weather turned bitter cold and very dry—the cruelest combination. Houses were without the insulation that snow provided. Communications became difficu
lt. Thick ice choked the rivers, and snow paths failed to form on the ground. Without deep snow, the hunting of large animals became difficult.
All of this was very hard on the French settlers and much harder on the hunting Indians. When the fall of 1608 approached, the Montagnais moved to Quebec, as they did every year. Champlain observed that they lived on the edge of subsistence and had a complex annual rhythm in their hunting and fishing. They came to the narrows of Quebec to fish for eels that began to come up the river in great numbers from about September 15, and continued to run abundantly to mid-October. “During this time,” Champlain wrote, “the natives all live upon this manna and dry some for the winter to last till the month of February.” They were a vital source of food.81
After the eel-run, the Montagnais went hunting for beaver from late October to December. Then in the coldest months they hunted large game such as moose, which were more easily caught when the snow was deep.82 Champlain greatly respected the skill of the Montagnais, and their mastery of the environment in which they lived. He was interested in their warm and handsome clothing. “In winter,” he wrote, “they are clad in good furs, such as the skins of moose, otter, beaver, bear, seal, deer, and more, which they have in great quantity.” He was fascinated by their snowshoes. “When the snow is deep,” he wrote, “they make a kind of racquet, two or three times as large as those in France, and tie them to their feet, and in this way they walk over the snow without sinking; otherwise they could not hunt or walk in many places.”83
When the Montagnais had good luck in all of their successive hunts, they could eat through a long North American winter. But the failure of even one hunt meant a time of hunger. The failure of several hunts could cause starvation. The Montagnais had no reserves of food, unlike the Huron and Iroquois, who were highly successful farmers and produced surpluses from their fields.84 Champlain urged the Montagnais to take up farming—not in the European way, but on the model of their Indian neighbors. “The soil is very good and suitable for cultivation,” he wrote, “if they were willing to take the trouble to sow Indian corn, as do all their neighbors, the Algonquin, Huron, and Iroquois,” who “are free from such cruel attacks of famine,” and “live prosperously in comparison with the Montagnais, Canadien and Souriquois.”85
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