Champlain's Dream

by David Hackett Fischer

  25. Lescarbot, History of New France 2:288. The full text of “Adieu à la France” appears in idem., 2:532–35; it might be compared with subsequent works, “Adieu aux François,” August 25, 1606, and “Adieu à la Nouvelle France,” July 30, 1607, in idem., 3:470–72, 480–89.

  26. Lescarbot, History of New France 2:531; 3:333; CWB 1:279; for a review of the evidence see Trudel, Histoire de la Nouvelle-France 2:29; and Le Blant and Baudry, Nouveaux documents, 163, 237, 276, 344, 368, 242–43. Poutrincourt appeared in legal records as master of “the seigneury of Port Royal and adjacent lands.”

  27. On the La Tours, for a celebration see Azarie Couillard-Després, Charles de Saint-Étienne de la Tour, gouverneur, lieutenant-général en Acadie, et son temps, 1593–1666 (Arthabaska, 1930). For an execration, see Lauvrière, “Deux Traitres d’Acadie et leur victime: les La Tour père et fils et Charles d’Aulnay-Charnisay,” Canada français 19 (1931–32), 14–33, 83–105, 168–79, 233–38, 317–43; also published in Paris, 1932. For a refutation, see Azarie Couillard-Després, Charles de Saint-Étienne de la Tour, gouverneur en Acadie, 1593–1666, au tribunal de l’histoire (n.d.). An excellent work is M. A. MacDonald, Fortune and La Tour: The Civil War in Acadia (Halifax, 2000).

  28. CWB 1:422n; Jones, Gentlemen and Jesuits, 74.

  29. This Captain du Boullay should not be confused with Eustache Boullé or Boulay, who would be Champlain’s future son-in-law and his comrade in Quebec, ca. 1618–29; see DCB s.v., “Eustache Boullé;” and Trudel, Histoire de la Nouvelle France 2:24, 26, 34, 36, 49, 273, 471, 495.

  30. The journeyman carpenters were Jehan Pussot, and Simon Barguin from Rheims, and Guillaume Richard from Lusignan in Poitou. Three journeymen woodcutters signed on for one year and were paid 100 livres: Antoine Esnault from Montdidier in Picardy, Michel Destrez from Magny en Vexin, and Michel Genson from Troyes in Champagne.

  31. Lescarbot, History of New France 2:289.

  32. Ibid. 2:288.

  33. Trudel, Histoire de la Nouvelle France 2:63, 465, 486.

  34. Lescarbot in History of New France 2:330, 333, 350; Jones, Gentlemen and Jesuits, 75; Richardson, ed., The Theatre of Neptune, xxii; Champlain CWB 1:209, 422; Trudel, Histoire de la Nouvelle France 2:474, 486.

  35. Marc Lescarbot, La Conversion des Sauvages qui one esté baptisés en la Novvelle France, avec un bref récit du voyage du Sieur De Povtrincovrt (Paris, n.d. [1610] rpt. in The Jesuit Relations and Allied Documents (New York, 1959) 1:102–03.

  36. Mercure françois 1:296; Trudel, Histoire de la Nouvelle-France 2:63; CWB 1:439–40 with a map by Biggar on its probable location. Lescarbot, History of New France 2:347, noted that it was “much admired by the Indians.” For its location today, see Brenda Dunn, A History of Port-Royal/Annapolis Royal (1605–1800), (Halifax, 2004), 6; MacDonald, Fortune and La Tour, 199.

  37. Trudel, Histoire de la Nouvelle-France 2:54–56; Jones, 146.

  38. Lescarbot, History of New France; Trudel, Histoire de la Nouvelle-France 2:62; Jones, Gentlemen and Jesuits, 146.

  39. Lescarbot, History of New France 2:317, 3:246–49.

  40. Ibid. 2:320.

  41. Ibid. 2:320.

  42. Ibid. 2:321.

  43. Ibid. 2:320–21.

  44. See above.

  45. Here again we have multiple sources for this event. Champlain made brief reference to it in CWB 1:438, and Lescarbot, the author of the work, did the same in his History of New France, 2:341; Lescarbot also included the script in an appendix to his history, called “The Muses of New France,” idem 3:473–79. It was frequently reprinted in 1611, 1612, 1617, and 1618. In the twentieth century it appeared in the Champlain Society’s edition of Lescarbot’s works. Complete bilingual texts in French and English were carefully edited by Harriette Taber Richardson, ed., The Theatre of Neptune in New France (Boston, 1927). Another English translation followed in Eugene and Renate Benson, “Marc Lescarbot and the Theatre of Neptune,” Canadian Drama 15 (1989) 84–85, rpt. in Anton Wagner, Canada’s Lost Plays (Toronto, 1982). All of these texts are reproduced with a learned introduction by Jerry Wasserman, Spectacle of Empire: Marc Lescarbot’s Theatre of Neptune in New France, 400th Anniversary Edition (Vancouver, 2006).

  46. Trudel in Histoire de la Nouvelle France 2:63, citing Bibliothèque nationale de France, National Archives of France, 9.269.193v.

  47. Don B. Wilmeth and Christopher Bigsby, eds., The Cambridge History of American Theatre (New York, 1998) 1:22–23.

  48. Compare texts by Lescarbot and Benson in Wasserman, Spectacle of Empire, 73–81. Richardson’s text is more contemptuous of the Indians. Lescarbot’s first Indian’s speech begins:

  De la part des peuples sauvages

  Qui environnent ces païs

  Nous rendre les homages

  Deuz aux sacrées Fleur de Lis

  Richardson translated it thus:

  In the name of peoples uncouth

  Whose homeland is bound by the seas,

  We come to give our vows in truth

  Unto the sacred Fleur-de-lis

  The Bensons rendered it more accurately and less pejoratively:

  On behalf of the Indian people,

  Who inhabit these countries

  We come to render homage

  To the sacred fleur-de-lis.

  49. Wasserman, Spectacle of Empire, 23; Lescarbot, History of New France 2:344, 352; Canadian iconoclasts and debunkers have interpreted the play in the opposite way. A group in Montreal condemned the Theatre of Neptune as “an extremely racist play … designed to subjugate the First Nations through the appropriation of their identities, collective voices, and lands.” They tried to produce what they described as a “subversive, deconstructive counter-performance” called Sinking Neptune; Wasserman, Spectacle of Empire, 14.

  50. Thomas E. Warner, “European Musical Activities in North America before 1620,” Musical Quarterly 70 (1984), 77–95.

  51. Lescarbot, History of New France 2:346.

  52. CWB 1:451; 2:353. This was not Gaston, the third son of Henri IV, but his older brother, who was born at Fontainebleau April 16, 1607, and died in 1611.

  53. CWB 1:447–48; Lescarbot agreed that he was the founder. See History of New France 2:342–43; Éric Thierry, “A Creation of Champlain’s: The Order of Good Cheer,” in Raymonde Italien et Denis Vaugeois, eds., Champlain: The Birth of French America (Montreal, 2004), 135–42.

  54. CWB 1:448.

  55. Lescarbot, History of New France 2:342n. Ganong, Grant, and Biggar explain that the rue aux Ours was “the street of the rôtisseurs, or sellers of cooked meat.” It is a very old street and exists in the IIIe Arondissement, off the rue St. Martin. In medieval Paris it was called in Latin vitus ubi coquntur anseres, “the street where geese are cooked.” In the early modern era, it also became a street of pelletiers or furriers, who had strong ties to New France. Cf. Jacques Hillairet, ed., Dictionnaire historique des rues de Paris, 2 vols. (10th edition, Paris, 1957–61) and supplement (4th edition, 1972); 2:207, s.v. “Ours.”

  56. History of New France 2:342–43.

  57. Ibid. 2:343.

  58. Michael Salter, “L’Ordre de Bon Temps: A Functional Analysis,” Journal of Sport History 3 (1976), 2.

  59. This information is drawn from rosters in Trudel, Histoire de la Nouvelle-France: Le Comptoir, 1604–1627 (Montreal, 1966), 465–500, which lists settlers who wintered over in New France from 1606 to 1627. For Addenin, see Éric Thierry, “Creation of Champlain’s,” 135–42, 142n; Lescarbot, History of New France 3:231n.

  60. Lescarbot, History of New France 2:344.

  61. For Champlain’s perception of the Abenaquioit see CWB 1:321, 6:12, 43–45 for Canadien 2:57, 6:26, 39 for Etchemin 1:103–20, 292–98, 308–09; 4:370–76; 5:313–18; 6:42, 44; for Souriqouis 1:384, 444–58; 2:53–57, 6:307. He divided the Etchemin into smaller groups, mainly by the river valleys where they lived and traded: the Penobscot, the Kennebec (which he called the Norumbega), and the Saint John River. To observe Champlain worki
ng in the role of peacemaker is to discover more evidence of error in the writings of academic iconoclasts who argue that he tried to play off one Indian nation against another. His repeated words and acts were the reverse. Champlain always regarded continued hostilities among the Indians as a mortal threat to his design for New France, and he was more effective than any colonial leader in discouraging it.

  62. Pierre Biard writes that the young man “made his confession upon the shores of the sea in the presence of all the Savages, who were greatly astonished at thus seeing him upon his knees so long before me. Then he took communion in a most exemplary manner, at which can say tears came into my eyes, and not unto mine alone. The devil was confounded at this act; so he straightaway planned trouble for us this afternoon; but thank God through the justice and goodness of M. de Poutrincourt, harmony was everywhere restored.” Cf. Biard in Jesuit Relations 1:171.

  63. MacDonald, Fortune and La Tour, 6.

  64. On Bessabes, see CWB 1:284, 296, 442–45, 457–58; 3:360–61; on Secoudon, CWB 1: 267, 374–75, 381–82, 393–94, 436–42; on Sasinou, CWB 1:316, 319, 364–65, 457–58; 3:366, 368.

  65. Biard, Jesuit Relations 1:167.

  66. Lescarbot, History of New France 2:354; Lucien Campeau in Dictionary of Canadian Biography, s.v., “Membertou, Henri.”

  67. Lescarbot, History of New France 2:354.

  68. Ibid. 2:350–51.

  69. Ibid. 2:359.

  70. Marc Lescarbot, La Conversion des Savvages 1:51–113.

  71. Lescarbot, History of New France 3:37 records a baptismal register that differs in small details and order from the other list. See also Extrait dv Registre de Bapteme de l’Église dv Port Royal en la Nouvelle France Le iour Sainct Iehan Baptiste 24. de juin [1610] a record of the baptisms of Sagamore Membertou and his large family on St. John’s Day, 1610, by Jesse Fleche. The original is in the John Carter Brown library, Providence, Rhode Island. It is also published in Jesuit Relations 1:108–13; it is an interesting source for the structure of a Mi’kmaq family in the early seventeenth century.

  72. Lescarbot, History of New France 3:40.

  73. Champlain, CWB 1:384.

  74. CWB 1:457, 458n, 451, 442. An account of this war also appears in The Relation of a Voyage to Sagadahoc, 1607; CWB 1:458n.

  75. CWB 1:444.

  76. Lescarbot, History of New France 3:184.

  77. CWB 1:449; Lescarbot, History of New France 2:347, 571.

  78. Lescarbot, History of New France 2:347.

  79. CWB 1:450.

  80. Ibid. 1:450.

  81. Ibid. 1:454.

  82. Ibid. 1:456–58.

  83. Ibid. 1:466, 1:468–69; Lescarbot, History of New France 2: 364–65; Nicolas Denys, The Description and Natural History of the Coasts of North America (Acadia), ed. Willima F. Ganong (Toronto, 1908), 164.

  84. Lescarbot, History of New France 2:237–38.

  11. QUEBEC

  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) 3:326.

  2. Marc Lescarbot, History of New France (Toronto, 1907) 2:365–66.

  3. Ibid. 2:366–67.

  4. Champlain, CWB 2:3; De Mons’ address in Paris on October 17, 1607, appears in a “procuration de Pierre du Gua pour s’opposer à l’enlèvement par Samuel Georges des pelleteries rapportées au cours de l’année 1607,” in Robert Le Blant et René Baudry, eds., Nouveaux documents sur Champlain et son époque (Ottawa, 1967), 144–45.

  5. Samuel de Champlain, “Descr[i]psion des costs p[or]ts, rades, Illes de la nouuele france faict selon son vray meridien Avec la declinaison de le[y]ment de plussiers endrois selon que le sieur de Castelfranc le demontre en son liure de la mecometrie de le[y]mant faict et observe par le Sr de Champlain, 1607.” The date is written over 1606. Map Division, Library of Congress. Modern images rarely do it justice. The original is very delicate and refined, in a fluent and graceful style. Modern reproductions are more coarse and have a strong yellow-shift that does not appear in the original.

  6. David Buisseret, The Mapmaker’s Quest: Depicting New Worlds in Renaissance Europe (Oxford, 2003), 94–95, 106.

  7. Guillaume de Nautonier, sieur de Castelfranc, Mécometrie de Leymant, cest a dire la manière de mesurier des longitudes par le moyen de l’eyment (Toulouse, 1603). For a discussion see C. E. Heidenreich, Cartographica: Explorations and Mapping of Samuel de Champlain, 1603–1632 (Toronto, 1976), 55–59. Champlain appears to have used Nautonier’s work not to calculate longitude, but to assist him in orienting his map to true north.

  8. CWB 2:18; Henry Percival Biggar, Early Trading Companies: A Contribution to the History of Commerce and Discovery in North America (Toronto, 1901, 1937; rpt. Clifton N.J., 1972), 63–64.

  9. CWB 3:324.

  10. “Interrogatoire de Pierre du Gua …” April 2, 1612, in Le Blant and Baudry, eds., Nouveaux documents, 213–14; see also Jean Liebel, Pierre Dugua, sieur de Mons, fondateur de Québec (Paris, 1999), 210.

  11. Sully appears to have accumulated a fortune of 5 to 6 million livres, small by comparison with that of Richelieu (20 million) or Mazarin (38 million), but still very large. Cf. Liebel, Pierre Dugua sieur de Mons, 210; Bernard Barbiche and Ségolène de Dainville-Barbiche, Sully, L’homme et ses fidèles (Paris, 1997), 305–09, 397–99; Joseph Bergin, Cardinal Richelieu: Power and the Pursuit of Wealth (New Haven, 1985), 243; and Claude Dulong, La fortune de Mazarin (Paris, 1990), 133.

  12. William L. Riordan, Plunkitt of Tammany Hall: A Series of Very Plain Talks on Very Practical Politics (1906; New York, 1993), chap. 1.

  13. Maximilian de Béthune, duc de Sully to President Jeannin, n.d., Bibliothèque Nationale, Coll. Colbert Cinq Cents, vol. 203, folio 236; as cited in Biggar, Early Trading Companies, 64.

  14. Marcel Trudel, Histoire de la Nouvelle-France (Montreal, 1966) 2:66–67; CWB 3:326; Lescarbot, History of New France 2:351.

  15. Champlain’s scathing judgments of Boyer were confirmed by Lescarbot. Cf. CWB 4:343–46, 363, 366–70; 5:56; and Lescarbot, History of New France 2:318–19.

  16. In the early twentieth century Biggar found these cases in the Archives Municipales of Saint-Malo, series EE 4, 138. He summarized them in Early Trading Companies, 69. Some of this material was lost in the Second World War.

  17. CWB 3:325–27.

  18. CWB 2:4.

  19. Lescarbot, “A Samvel Champlein, Sonnet,” LNAF, 3:404.

  20. CWB 2:4.

  21. CWB 4:33; Champlain always believed that the revocation of the Sieur de Mons’ commission in 1607 cost the French dearly in North America. Looking back, he wrote, “Had these matters been properly directed … the English and Dutch would then not have the places that they stole from us, and where they settled at our expense.” CWB 3:328.

  22. Commission from Henri IV to the Sieur de Monts, Paris, Jan. 7, 1608; rpt. in CWB 2:5–9; 4:32, Arthur Giry, Manuel de diplomatique (Paris, 1894, 1925), 628, 759, 771–74, cited in Biggar, Early Trading Companies, 51–68.

  Liebel, Pierre Dugua, sieur de Mons, 214–25.

  23. Robert Le Blant, “La première bataille pour Québec en 1608,” Bulletin philologique et historique (jusqu’a 1610), année 1971 (Paris, 1977), 113–25. This excellent essay has put our knowledge of the founding of Quebec on a new empirical base. Also helpful are documents in Le Blant and Baudry, Nouveaux documents, 158–80; Liebel found more materials in the Departmental Archives of Calvados, some of which are available on microfilm at Library and Archives Canada in Ottawa; see Pierre Dugua, sieur de Mons, 221–26; also still helpful is Charles Bréard and Paul Bréard, Documents relatifs à la Marine Normande … XVIe et XVIIe siècles (Rouen, 1889), 106–13.

  24. The numbers are those of Le Blant in “Première bataille,” 115.

  25. Le Blant, “Première bataille,” 116–17; Liebel, Pierre Dugua, sieur de Mons, 232.

  26. CWB 4:31; 2:24–25.

  27. Ibid. 4:28.

  28. Ibid. 4:31.
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br />   29. Ibid. 4:31; Similar arguments with different emphases were made to religious leaders, investors, settlers, de Mons, and the king himself.

  30. Champlain in CWB 4:31–32. This dual design was missed in earlier studies, and it does not appear in Champlain’s writings. It has emerged with increasing clarity from more recent research in France by Liebel and Le Blant. See Liebel, Pierre Dugua, sieur de Mons, 222–23; Le Blant, “Première bataille,” 119–21; Lescarbot, History of New France 3:303.

  31. CWB 4:32.

  32. Champlain, CWB 3:1–14.

  33. Le Blant and Baudry, Nouveaux documents, 154–61; Trudel, Histoire de la Nouvelle-France 2:152–53, 486–87; Liebel, Pierre Dugua, sieur de Mons, 230–31; John A. Dickinson, “Champlain, Administrator,” in Litalian and Vaugeois, eds., Champlain: The Birth of French America (Montreal, 2004), 211–17.

  34. Contracts survive for Jean Duval and Antoine Notay, smiths; Robert Dieu and Antoine Audry, sawyers of planks; Lucas Louriot, Jean Pernet, and Antoine Cavallier, carpenters; Martin Béguin, gardener; Nicolas du Val, Lyevin Lefranc, François Jouan, and Marc Balleny, carpenters; Mathieu Billoteau dit La Taille, tailor; Pierre Linot, woodcutter; Clément Morel and Guillaume Morel, laborers; François Bailly and Jean Loireau, masons. The manuscripts are in the French National Archives, Minutier XV 18 (registre de Cuvillyer). Richard Cuvillier was a notary in the Châtelet at Paris who executed these documents. Four of these contracts have been reprinted in Le Blant and Baudry, eds., Nouveaux documents 1:154–61; The surgeon Bonnerme and the boys are mentioned in Champlain’s writings, CWB 2:31–32, 59; 136–42 passim; 4:118; 5:128.

  35. CWB 2:4–8, 11–14, 32–34; 4:8, 19; Trudel, Histoire de la Nouvelle-France 2:152–53, 158, 469, 479; Le Blant and Baudry, eds., Nouveaux documents, 1:95, 151.

  36. Champlain, CWB 3:327.

  37. Ibid. 4:28.

  38. For preparations and departures see Champlain’s accounts in CWB 2:4, 8–9; and 4:32, 37. The best study is Le Blant, “Première bataille,” part II, “Les trois navires du Lieutenant-Général de Mons,” 119–21.