Champlain's Dream
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Trudel is correct as to an official title of the Royal Geographer, but Buisseret reports that many geographers, cartographers, and experts in related sciences were employed by the king, with apartments in the Louvre. We have evidence that Champlain was receiving an annual pension from the king of 600 livres a year and that he was at the Louvre in this period, and Champlain himself wrote that the king wished to keep him “about his person.” Buisseret observes that “the King was a great patron of Samuel de Champlain who would soon be compiling his astonishing maps of North America.” See David Buisseret, The Mapmaker’s Quest: Depicting New Worlds in Renaissance Europe (Oxford, 2003), 64, 92–95. From this I conclude that Trudel was correct in his statement that Champlain was not the only oicial géographe du roi under Henri IV, but Buisseret and Lescarbot are correct in describing him as one of many géographes du roi who worked in the basement of the Grande Galerie of the Louvre.
13. A biographical sketch of Champlain in the Biographie Saintonge, 1852, reported that Champlain had worked as an armateur in Dieppe during these years; see also Morris Bishop, Champlain: A Life of Fortitude (New York, 1948, 1963), 37.
14. CWB 3:260.
15. Guilheume Allene [sic], Agreement, Nov 7, 1570, folios 709–10, Archives départementales de la Charente-Maritime; reproduced in Pauline Arsenault, “Acadia in Champlain’s New France: From Arcadia to China,” Litalien and Vaugeois eds., Champlain: The Birth of French America (Montreal 2004), 114–20.
16. Samuel E. Morison, Samuel de Champlain: Father of New France (New York, 1972), 24–25.
17. Marine archaeologists have raised some of these sixteenth-century boats from coastal waters off Labrador. They are remarkably similar to the whaleboats of Nantucket and New Bedford in the nineteenth century. See James A. Tuck and Robert Grenier, Red Bay, Labrador, World Whaling Capital A.D., 1550–1600 (St. John’s, Newfoundland, 1989), 36–37.
18. CWB 1:463, 3:415; Lescarbot, New France 2:362; Cartier had similar encounters with Basque fishermen as early as 1534 and 1535. See also Tuck and Grenier, Red Bay, Labrador, 2–3.
19. Robert Le Blant and René Baudry, Nouveaux documents sur Champlain et son époque (Ottawa, 1967), xxvii.
20. René Bélanger, Les Basques dans l’estuaire du Saint-Laurent, 1535–1635 (Montreal, 1971); Laurier Turgeon, “Pêcheurs basques et indiens des côtes du Saint-Laurent au XVIe siècle: Perspectives de recherches,” Études canadiennes/Canadian Studies 13 (1982), 9–14; Turgeon, “Pêches basques en Atlantique Nord (XVIIe—XVIIIe siècles): étude d’économie maritime” (Bordeaux, thèse de doctorat, 1982) and many essays by Selma Barkham, including “The Basques: Filling a Gap in Our History between Jacques Cartier and Champlain,” Canadian Historical Journal 96 (1978), 8–19; “The Documentary Evidence for Basque Whaling Ships in the Strait of Belle Isle,” in G. M. Story, ed., Early European Settlement and Exploitation in Atlantic Canada: Selected Papers (St. John’s, Nfld., 1982), 53–95; “The Basque Whaling Establishment in Labrador, 1536–1632: A Summary,” Arctic 37 (1984), 515–19; “A Note on the Strait of Belle Isle during the Period of Basque Contact with Indians and Inuit,” Études/ Inuit/Studies 4 (1980), 51–58.
21. Peter Bakker, “A Basque Etymology for the Word ‘Iroquois,’” Man in the Northeast 40 (1990), 89–93; idem, “The Language of the Coast Tribes is Half Basque: A Basque-Amerindian Pidgin in Use between Europeans and Native Americans in North America, ca. 1540—ca. 1640,” Anthropological Linguistics 31 (1989), 117–41; G. M. Day, “Iroquois, An Etymology,” Ethnohistory 15 (1968) 389–402; and I. Goddard, “Synonymy,” in B. G. Trigger ed., Handbook of North American Indians, Northeast (Washington, 1978) 15:319–21.
22. CWB 1:228.
23. Ibid. 3:261.
24. Ramsay Cook, ed., The Voyages of Jacques Cartier (Toronto, 1993), xxv—xli, passim; Gustave Lanctot, A History of Canada (Toronto, 1963), 55.
25. For Cartier’s kidnapping of Donnacona and his sons, see Cook, ed., The Voyages of Jacques Cartier, xxxviii—xxxix. See also Roland Tremblay, Les Iroquoiens du Saint-Laurent: peuple du maïs (Montreal, 2006), 100–11.
26. Cook, ed., The Voyages of Jacques Cartier, xli, with much more on the mistrust of Cartier.
27. CWB 6:193; 3:298–99; 1:227; H. P. Biggar, ed., The Voyages of Jacques Cartier (Ottawa, 1924); A Collection of Documents relating to Jacques Cartier and the Sieur de Roberval (Ottawa, 1930); Lanctot, Canada, 1:52–75.
28. CWB 3:264.
29. Ibid. 3:265–66.
30. Ibid. 3:268–69.
31. Ibid. 3:290–91.
32. Ibid. 3:275.
33. Ibid. 3:289–91.
34. Marq de Villiers and Sheila Hirtle, Sable Island (New York, 2004), 2–10, 123–33.
35. Joseph de Ber, ed., “Un document inédit sur l’île de Sable et le Marquis de la Roche,” RHAF 2 (1948–49) 199–213; Lescarbot, New France, 2:398–405; Dionne, Samuel Champlain, appendix, 354–60.
36. Lescarbot, New France, 194–95; Lanctot, Canada; Trudel, Histoire de la Nouvelle-France 1: 231–33; Bishop, “The Marquis de la Roche and Sable Island,” in Champlain, 347–49; Gustave Lanctot, “l’Établissement du Marquis de La Roche à l’Île de Sable,” Rapport de la Société historique du Canada, 1933, in Annual Report of the Canadian Historical Association (1933), 33–37; Charles Bréard and Paul Bréard, Documents relatifs à la Marine Normande et à ses armements aux XVlle et XVllle siècles (Rouen, 1889), 79–83.
37. CWB 3:302–04.
38. This Pierre de Chauvin should not be confused with Captain Pierre Chauvin de la Pierre (var. Chavin) of Dieppe, whom Champlain appointed acting commander of Quebec in 1609–10. For Dieppe and North America, and a discussion of the two Chauvins, see Pierre Ickowicz and Raymonde Litalien, Dieppe-Canada: cinq cents ans d’histoire commune (Dieppe, 2004), 14ff.
39. CWB 3:311.
40. Ibid. 3:308.
41. Ibid. 3:305–12.
42. Ibid. 3:310; Bréard and Bréard, Documents relatifs à la Marine Normande, 65–92.
43. CWB 3:293–94.
44. Ibid. 2:294–95.
45. Ibid. 3:302–04.
46. H. P. Biggar, The Early Trading Companies of New France (1901, 1937, Clifton, N.J., 1972), 45–49.
47. CWB 1:229; 3:312–18; 6:194.
48. Ibid. 3:313.
49. Ibid. 3:313–14.
50. Ibid. 3:315.
51. Ibid. 3:316.
7. TADOUSSAC
1. Alain Beaulieu, “The Birth of the Franco-American Alliance,” in Raymonde Litalien and Denis Vaugeois, eds., Champlain: The Birth of French America (Montreal, 2004), 160.
2. CWB 3:315–16.
3. CWB 5:92–93, 198; 3:316; Morris Bishop, Champlain: A Life of Fortitude (New York, 1948, 1963), 38; Samuel E. Morison, Samuel de Champlain: Father of New France (New York, 1972), 23.
4. D’Aumont to Henri IV, July 3, 1594, Robert Le Blant and René Baudry, Nouveaux documents sur Champlain et son époque (Ottawa, 1967), 15–16.
5. CWB 3:305.
6. Ibid. 4:363.
7. Bishop, Champlain, 39; Joe C. W. Armstrong, Champlain (Toronto, 1987), 39; CWB 1:98.
8. Details of the ships appear in actes notariés, Feb. 18, 24, Mar. 10, 12, 1603, Charles Bréard and Paul Bréard, La Marine normande et ses armements aux XVle et XVlle siècles pour le Canada, l’Afrique, les Antilles, le Brésil et les lndes (Rouen, 1889), 99–101.
9. Ibid.
10. For a discussion of Champlain’s purposes, see Alain Beaulieu and Réal Ouellet, eds., Des Sauvages (Montreal 2002), 36–37.
11. CWB 3:316. For the shipment of prefabricated boats, see William A. Baker, The Mayflower and Other Colonial Vessels (London, 1983), 65–74. A description of shallops “transported in portions” can be found in Captain John Smith’s account of the first voyage to Virginia, and in Mourt’s Relation, a journal recounting the Pilgrims’ venture at Plymouth.
12. CWB 1:92.
13. Ibid.
14. CWB 1:92–94; Morison, Samuel de Champlain, 27.
15. Ib
id. 3:316.
16. Ibid. 1:105–06. Some historians believe that this first encampment was very small, and that the larger group gathered in response to the French arrival. But Champlain tells us explicitly: “They were 1,000 people—men, women and children. The place at St. Matthew’s Point where they first camped, is very pleasant.”
17. Eleanor Leacock, “Seventeenth-Century Montagnais Social Relations and Values,” and Edward S. Rogers and Eleanor Leacock, “Montagnais-Legaspi,” in June Helm, ed., Handbook of North American Indians 6: Subarctic (Washington, 1981), 169–89, 190–95; notes and materials in the Canadian Museum of Civilization, Hull, Quebec; conversations with Martin Gagnon, ethnographer and historian of the Montagnais nation at the Innu Cultural Centre, Essipit Reserve.
18. CWB 1:103. Champlain always called them nations, not tribes, and recorded their names as “Montagnes, Estechemins & Algoumekins.” Some scholars have raised a question: were the three nations all present, or was this merely a gathering of Montagnais? Alain Beaulieu concludes that all three were there. I absolutely agree, on the basis of Champlain’s language, on the numbers cited in two passages, on the location of the meeting in relation to their homelands, and the description of the tabagie. Cf. Beaulieu, “The Birth of the Franco-American Alliance,” 15–62.
19. Camil Girard and Édith Gagné, “Première alliance interculturelle. Rencontre entre Montagnais et Français à Tadoussac en 1603,” Recherches Amérindiennes au Québec 25 (1995), 3–14.
20. Was Anadabijou a name or a title? Some of Champlain’s passages imply that it was a title; others, that it was a name. For a discussion, see Beaulieu, “The Birth of the Franco-American Alliance,” 15–62. For the length of the lodge see CWB 1:101, where Champlain writes that “they had eight or ten kettles full of meats in the midst of the said lodge, and they were set some six paces apart, each on its own fire.” CWB 1:101; see also Victor Tremblay, “Anadabijou,” Saguenayensia, Sept.–Oct. 1959, 98–101.
21. CWB 1:99–101.
22. Ibid. 1:101.
23. Ibid. 1:104.
24. Ibid. 1:104.
25. Ibid. 1:108–09, 118.
26. Ibid. 1:109–11.
27. Ibid. 1:110.
28. Historians have come to different conclusions on the nature of this event. Early writers thought of it as an understanding on the fur trade and exploration. Benjamin Sulte in 1882 may have been the first to describe it as an alliance between the French and the Indians. The Abbé Tremblay thought of it as more than an alliance and called it a “traité.” Marcel Trudel described it as an “entente,” or understanding rather than a traité or formal alliance. Olive Patricia Dickason thought of it as “une alliance selon le ritual amérindien” and that Champlain also had this idea of it. I believe that this interpretation is correct. This informal entente, anchored in Indian rituals, proved to be more durable in that form than many formal treaties or pacts that were reduced to writing in a formal document of consent on a European model. For a discussion see Girard and Gagné, “Première alliance interculturelle,” 5–9.
29. Marcel Trudel, Histoire de la Nouvelle-France: Les Vaines Tentatives, 1524–1603 (Montreal, 1963), 260–61; Beaulieu and Ouellet, in their excellent edition of Champlain’s Des Sauvages, 11–60. My wife, Judy, and I learned much in conversation on August 7, 2007, with Jacques Martin in his home near Pointe aux Alouettes (also called Pointe Saint-Mathieu) on the Saguenay River. Martin knows intimately the place, the people, and the event. He lives the dream of Champlain and Anadabijou, as do we, and is devoted to the preservation of its memory, and he showed us some of the artifacts that he has found in the area.
30. Marcel Trudel, “Bâtir une Nouvelle-France plutôt sur l’axe Tadoussac-Baie d’Hudson?” Mythes et réalités dans l’histoire du Québec (Montreal, 2001), 39–47.
31. Ibid., 39–48.
32. Champlain’s soundings appeared in his map, “Port de Tadoussac,” reproduced in CWB 2:19 facing page; also CWB 2:16–19; 1:96–97, 121–24; by the evidence of soundings in the twentieth century, the Saguenay River is not as deep in our time as in Champlain’s. Rivermen told us that sediment as much as 500 feet deep has accumulated near the river’s mouth.
33. Ibid., 2:16–19; Pierre Béland, Beluga: A Farewell to Whales (New York, 1996), 32–49.
34. CWB 1:96–97.
35. Ibid. 2:19.
36. Ibid. 2:18.
37. Trudel, “L’axe Tadoussac,” 41.
38. CWB 1:124.
39. CWB (1632) 3:316.
40. CWB 1:137.
41. Ibid. 1:127.
42. Ibid. 1:129.
43. Ibid. 1:131–32.
44. Ibid. 1:137.
45. Ibid. 1:135.
46. Ibid. 1:138, 140–41.
47. Ibid. 1:149; 3:316–17.
48. Ibid. 1:151.
49. Ibid. 1:151.
50. Ibid. 1:152.
51. Ibid. 1:156.
52. Ibid. 1:153–56.
53. Ibid. 1:180–85; Carl O. Sauer, Northern Mists (Berkeley, 1970), 78.
54. Morison, Samuel de Champlain, 32.
55. Ibid.
56. Samuel de Champlain, Des Savvages, ov, Voyage de Samvel Champlain, de Brovage, fait en la France nouvelle en l’an mil six cens trois (Paris, chez Clavde de Monstr’oeil, tenant sa boutique en la Cour du Palais, au nom de Jésus, avec privilege dv Roi, 1603). A modern edition, edited by Alain Beaulieu et Réal Ouellet is published by Les Messageries (Montreal, 1993). A bilingual edition in French and English is in Champlain, Works, CWB 1:81–189.
57. Alain Rey et al., eds. Le Grand Robert de la langue française, 6 vols. (Paris 2001) 6:213ff, s.v. “sauvage.” For discussion see Peter N. Moogk, La Nouvelle France: The Making of French Canada, A Cultural History (East Lansing, 2000), 17ff; also Gervais Carpin, Histoire d’un mot: l’ethnonyme Canadien de 1535 à 1691 (Sillery, 1995), chapter 2, “Le canadien nommant Le ‘Sauvage,’ “25–66; and Olive Patricia Dickason, The Myth of the Savage and the Beginnings of French Colonialism in the Americas (Edmonton, 1984).
58. CWB 1:110.
59. Ibid. 3:81ff, 91n; 169–72; 4:267, 275, 335.
60. Marc Lescarbot, History of New France, 3 vols. (Toronto, 1907) 1:32–33; CWB 1:308.
61. CWB 1:110.
62. Ibid. 1:120.
63. Ibid. 1:111, 117.
64. Ibid. 1:111.
65. Ibid. 1:111.
66. Ibid. 3:222; Bruce Trigger wrote of Champlain: “He failed completely to understand the consensual nature of native political arrangements, because he viewed all power as being delegated from above, he did not comprehend that Indian leaders could not decide matters.” Trigger, Natives and Newcomers: Canada’s “Heroic Age” Reconsidered (Montreal, 1985, 1994), 198–99. This is mistaken. Champlain repeatedly noted that chiefs had very little authority in the European sense. He repeated these observations from 1603 to the end of his life, and organized many approaches to the Indians around an understanding of the more consensual Indian polities.
67. CWB 1:119.
68. Ibid. 3:13.
69. Ibid. 3:17.
8. SAINTE-CROIX
1. Henry Percival Biggar, ed., The Works of Samuel de Champlain, 6 vols. and a portfolio of maps and drawings (CWB), (Toronto, 1922–36, reprinted 1971) 1:307.
2. CWB 3:317.
3. The “special account” and manuscript map that Champlain gave Henri IV in 1603 have not been found. Probably the special account was a detailed report on the tabagie at Tadoussac, and prospects for settlement in the St. Lawrence Valley. It would have been very different from Des Sauvages. Champlain had been explicitly ordered to submit such a document by de Chaste and the king himself (CWB 3:318).
The map probably centered on the St. Lawrence River. Champlain wrote later, “I made a very exact map of what I saw, which I had engraved in 1604, which since then has been published with the account of my first voyages [in 1612].” No map engraved by Champlain in 1604 has been found. His map of 1612 centers on his observations in the St. Lawrence
Valley and on reports that the Indians had given him about the Great Lakes. It also includes much additional information about Acadia and Norumbega that Champlain obtained on his coastal voyages of 1604–06. The 1612 map was likely based on the 1603 manuscript map and the 1604 engraving, with additions from the subsequent voyages. Cf. CWB 3:411, 318 and discussion in C. E. Heidenreich’s excellent Explorations and Mapping of Samuel de Champlain, 1602–1632 (Toronto, 1976), 2–4; Cartographica monograph 17; also published as a beiheft to Canadian Cartographer 13 (1976).
4. CWB 3:318.
5. Jean Liebel, Pierre Dugua, sieur de Mons, fondateur de Québec (Quebec, 1999), 75, citing a manuscript in the Bibliothèque nationale de France, n. acq. fr. 9281 folio 2 recto; see also Guy Binot, Pierre Dugua de Mons (Royan, 2004), 66–70. Some of the major documents were first published as Commissions du Roy et de Monseigneur l’Admiral au sieur de Monts, pour l’habitation ès terres de Lacadie, Canada, & autres endroits en la nouvelle France. Ensemble les défenses premières et secondes à tous autres de traffiquer avec les Sauvages desdites terres. Avec la verification en la Cour de Parlement à Paris (Paris, 1605; facsimile published in Bar Harbor, Maine, 1915); also Collection de manuscrits contenant lettres, mémoires, et autres documents historiques relatifs à la Nouvelle France, recueillis aux Archives de la Province de Québec ou copiés à l’étranger, 4 vols. (Quebec, 1883), 1:40–49. These and other primary materials on de Mons’ appointment also appear in Binot, Pierre Dugua de Mons (Royan, 2004), 247–55; also William Inglis Morse, ed., Pierre du Gua, sieur de Monts: Records Colonial and ‘Saintongeois,’ (London, 1939), 4–13.
6. Binot, Pierre Dugua de Mons, 60.