Champlain's Dream

by David Hackett Fischer

  71. A list of the hundred original investors and the 102 others who invested after 1628 appears in Trudel, Histoire de la Nouvelle-France 3.1: 415–37.

  72. The powers of the company are published as “Articles accordez par le Roy, à la Compagnie de Canada, 29 April 1628,” in Blanchet et al., Collection de documents relatifs à l’histoire de la Nouvelle France, 64–72; also in the manuscript division, Library of Congress. For the composition of the Board, see Trudel, Histoire de la Nouvelle-France 3.1: 7–8n.

  73. Trudel’s very helpful “tableau des hivernements, 1604–1628,” is in Histoire de la Nouvelle-France 2:428, and 485–500.

  19. NEW FRANCE LOST

  1. “Il ne faut pas négliger de se loger fortement, aussi bien en temps de paix, que de guerre, pour se maintenir aux accidents qui peuvent arriver, c’est ce que ie conseille à tous entrepreneurs de rechercher lieu pour dormir en seureté; one must not neglect to situate oneself in a strong place, in times of peace and in war, to protect oneself against accidents that might occur. The advice I give to all adventurers is this: seek a place where you can sleep in safety.” Champlain, Voyages (1632), in Henry Percival Biggar, ed., The Works of Samuel de Champlain, 6 vols. and a portfolio of maps and drawings (CWB) 6:176.

  2. A book mindful of these comparisons is J. H. Elliott, The Count-Duke of Olivares: The Statesman in an Age of Decline (New Haven, 1986), 146, 181–82, 220–24, 659, passim; also Victor-L. Tapié, France in the Age of Louis XIII and Richelieu (1952, Cambridge, 1974, 1984), 141; Roger Lockyer, Buckingham: The Life and Political Career of George Villiers, First Duke of Buckingham, 1592–1628 (London, 1981, 1984).

  3. The text of the marriage contract is reprinted in Henri Carré, Henriette de France, reine d’Angleterre, 1609–1669 (Paris, 1947), 21–24.

  4. Tapié, France in the Age of Louis XIII, 198; F. de Vaux de Folletier, Le siège de La Rochelle (Paris, 1931).

  5. CWB 6:158.

  6. Ibid. 6:86, 130. For the Kirke family, see Maurice Duteurtre, “Jarvis Kirke et ses cinq fils,” in Pierre Ickowicz and Raymonde Litalien, eds., Dieppe-Canada: cinq cents ans d’histoire commune (Dieppe, 2004), 44–46. On the Scottish colony in Dieppe see Pope, Fish into Wine, 132–44, drawing on much new material from British archives; also Charles de la Roncière, Histoire de la Marine française (Paris, 1934), 4:634.

  7. CWB 5:272–73.

  8. Arrêt du conseil d’État, 26 Jan. 1628 Bibliothèque nationale, Fonds français, 16 738:147; see also: Archives nationales, serie E 95A:95, as cited by Marcel Trudel, Histoire de la Nouvelle-France (Montreal, 1966) 3.1: 30n.

  9. Trudel, Histoire de la Nouvelle-France 3.1:30; CWB 5:287; Gabriel Sagard, Histoire du Canada (1636, ed. Tross, 1865) 4:838, 852.

  10. Champlain, CWB 5:273; Trudel, Histoire de la Nouvelle-France 3.1:32; Sagard, Histoire du Canada 4:832, 838; Henry Kirke, The First English Conquest of Canada (London, 1871).

  11. CWB 5:267.

  12. CWB 5:268.

  13. La Fourière, also called La Ferrière, Forière, Fourière, and Foyrière, was a Montagnais leader, also called Erouachy or Esrouachit. Cf. CWB 5:258–266, 268, 305–17, and 3:190–91; 6:6–25; Trudel, Histoire de la Nouvelle-France 2: 258n, 325, 356, 372, 403.

  14. CWB 5:273; Trudel, Histoire de la Nouvelle-France 3.1:32–34.

  15. CWB 5:275. See Jacques Guimont, La Petite-ferme du cap Tourmente: de la ferme de Champlain aux grandes volées d’oies. (Quebec, 1996). Guimont writes that Farmer Pivert survived to make a report to Champlain, and he appears to have returned to the site. Afterward, the farm was abandoned for a time, and then recovered. A larger farm was built there for the seminary of Quebec, and farmed for more than three centuries. It became part of the Canadian National Parks system in 1969. Today it is a wildlife refuge and a center for nature studies. No historical exhibits were available when we visited there in the summer of 2007.

  16. Sagard, Histoire du Canada 4:834.

  17. Ibid. 4:834.

  18. CWB 5:285: Guimont, La Petite-ferme, 61–64; Guy de Repentigny, La Ferme d’en bas du cap Tourmente: La Petite-ferme et la Réserve nationale de faune du cap Tourmente: occupation humaine des origines à 1763 (Quebec, 1989).

  19. CWB 6:22.

  20. CWB 5:277.

  21. CWB 5:277–79; Sagard, Histoire du Canada 4:837.

  22. David Kirke to Champlain, July 18, 1628 O.S.; July 8, 1628 N.S. The text is reproduced by Champlain in CWB 5:279–80; and in Sagard 4:838–39 (copied from Champlain). In that year, Britain still used the old-style Julian calendar. The French had shifted to the new style of the Gregorian calendar. (See appendix P.) These and other documents are reprinted in Abbé C.-H. Laverdière, Oeuvres de Champlain, 3:13, 16.

  23. CWB 5:282–85.

  24. Ibid. 5:286; other documents are reproduced from Catholic archives in Lucien Campeau, Monumenta Novae Franciae (Quebec, 1967) 2:201–03.

  25. CWB 5:286.

  26. Ibid. 5:287.

  27. Sagard, Histoire du Canada, 4:863, 852; Champlain, CWB 5:287.

  28. The French commis Thierry Deschamps heard the sounds of battle when he was at St. Barnabé Island, opposite the site of today’s Rimouski. See CWB 5:291.

  29. Sagard, Histoire du Canada 4:863.

  30. CWB 6:131.

  31. Ibid. 6:2.

  32. The date of July 18 is given in Sagard 4:852; Trudel dates the meeting of the two fleets to July 17, with the battle following on July 18.

  33. CWB 6:28.

  34. Ibid. 6:29.

  35. Trudel, Histoire de la Nouvelle-France 3.1:34; citing Henry Kirke, The First English Conquest of Canada, 65, 16, 206–08; also Léon Pouliot, “Que penser des frères Kirke?” BRH 44 (1938), 321–35.

  36. This discovery was announced by Dr. James Tuck and archaeologist Barry Gaulton. See “Archaeologists Strike Gold,” Memorial University Research Report (2004–05), www.mun.ca/research/2005).

  37. CWB 5:293.

  38. Ibid. 5:236; Trudel, Histoire de la Nouvelle-France 2:428.

  39. CWB 5:296.

  40. Ibid. 6:48.

  41. Ibid. 5:297.

  42. Ibid. 5:298.

  43. Ibid. 5:300–01.

  44. Sagard, Histoire du Canada 4:885.

  45. Sagard, Histoire du Canada 4:853; CWB 5:326.

  46. Ibid. 6:40.

  47. CWB 6:51, 5:300–04; Trudel, Histoire de la Nouvelle-France 3.1: 34; Sagard, Histoire du Canada 4:885.

  48. Ibid. 6:48–49; Sagard, Histoire du Canada 4:854.

  49. CWB 6:50.

  50. Ibid. 5:298, 321, 266; 6:48; Sagard, Histoire du Canada 4:854; Trudel, Histoire de la Nouvelle-France 3.1:34.

  51. CWB 5:299.

  52. Ibid. 6:41.

  53. Ibid. 6:47.

  54. Ibid. 6:45–46.

  55. Ibid. 6:27–28.

  56. Ibid. 6:42. Choumina’s brother was called Ouagabemat by Champlain, Neogabinat by Sagard, and Onagabemat by scholars.

  57. Ibid. 6:43–45.

  58. Ibid. 6:50.

  59. The documents appear in the British Calendar of State Papers, Colonial, 5, no. 2; rpt. Kirke, English Conquest of Canada, appendix D; Henry Percival Biggar, The Early Trading Companies of New France: A Contribution to the History of Commerce and Discovery in North America (Toronto, 1901, 1937; rpt. Clifton, N.J., 1972), 143.

  60. CWB 6:53.

  61. Louis and Thomas Kirke to Champlain July 19, 1629; CWB 6:53–54.

  62. Champlain to Louis and Thomas Kirke, July 19, 1629; CWB 6:54–55.

  63. “Articles which are to be granted by the Sieur Kirke, at present commanding the English vessels lying off Quebec, to the sieur Champlain and Dupont, 19 July 1629;” text in CWB 6:56.

  64. CWB 6:59–61.

  65. Ibid. 6:62.

  66. Ibid. 6:63.

  67. Ibid. 6:69.

  68. Ibid. 6:63, 69.

  69. Ibid. 6:67.

  70. Ibid. 6:71.

  71. Ibid. 6:70.

  72. Ibid. 6:74.

  73. Ibid. 6:69.

  74. Ibid.


  75. Ibid. 6:81–82.

  76. Ibid. 5: 52, 60, 62, 70, 104–24, 144; Sagard, Histoire du Canada 4:908–11.

  77. CWB 6:143; Champlain, “alloüettes, pluuiers, courlieux, bécassines.” Biggar translates the first as snipes; citing Ganong, The Identity of the Animals and Plants, etc. 202, 205; I make it larks.

  78. CWB 6:143.

  79. Ibid. 6:86–87.

  20. NEW FRANCE REGAINED

  1. Champlain, Voyages (1632), in 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) 6:69.

  2. Gabriel Sagard, Histoire du Canada (1636, ed. Tross, 1865) 4:911; CWB 4:144.

  3. CWB 6:144.

  4. Champlain, Traitté de la Marine, CWB 6:144–45.

  5. CWB 6:145; Victor-L. Tapié, France in the Age of Louis XIII and Richelieu (1952, tr. C. M. Lockie, Cambridge, 1974, 1988), 253–55.

  6. CWB 6:126–27; Marcel Trudel, Histoire de la Nouvelle-France (Montreal, 1966) 3.1: 41, 46, 49; Lucien Campeau, Monumenta Novae Franciae (Quebec, 1967) 2:58, 59.

  7. CWB 6:145.

  8. Ibid. 6:146.

  9. Ibid. 6:147–48.

  10. Ibid. 6:146–49.

  11. Ibid. 6:148–49.

  12. Ibid. 6:147.

  13. Ibid. 6:150; Henri Carré, Henriette de France, reine d’Angleterre, 1609–1669 (Paris, 1947), includes the marriage contract, 21–24; See also Charles I to Sir Isaac Wake, English ambassador in France, June 12, 1631, reprinted in N.-E. Dionne, Champlain, Founder of Quebec, Father of New France (Toronto, 1962) 2:526–30, Pièces Justificatifs, 13.

  14. CWB 6:149.

  15. Ibid. 6:151.

  16. “Ie m’acheminay à Paris” suggests a journey by land; CWB 6:107.

  17. CWB 6:69.

  18. Ibid.

  19. Trudel, Histoire de la Nouvelle-France 3.1: 19–21, 50, 417, 433, 439; M. A. MacDonald, Fortune and la Tour: The Civil War in Acadia (Halifax, 2000), 66–70.

  20. CWB 6:168.

  21. Ibid.

  22. Ibid.; documents in C.-H. Laverdière, Oeuvres de Champlain (Quebec, 1870).

  23. CWB 6:151–522.

  24. Ibid. 6:169.

  25. Ibid.

  26. Ibid. 6:169.

  27. Trudel, Histoire de la Nouvelle-France 3.1:47; CWB 6:170–71.

  28. Mercure François, reprinted by Campeau in his Monumenta Novae Franciae 2:350–97; 3:403–04.

  29. Champlain, “carte de la nouvelle france … 1632,” legend.

  30. CWB 6:224–52.

  31. Trudel, Histoire de la Nouvelle-France 3.1: 55–60; Robert Le Blant, “Les Compagnies du Cap-Breton (1629–1647) RHAF 16 (1962), 81–94.

  32. Charles Daniel, “Narrative of the Voyage Made by Captain [Charles] Daniel of Dieppe to New France in the present year 1629” (1629); reprinted as Voyage à la Nouvelle France du Capitaine Charles Daniel de Dieppe (Rouen, 1881), and also in CWB 6:153–61. Daniel’s account confirms the accuracy of Champlain’s writings on this subject.

  33. CWB 6:157; Daniel, “Narrative.”

  34. CWB 6:159; Daniel, “Narrative.”

  35. CWB 6:161; Daniel, “Narrative.”

  36. “There was in 1631, a second sub-contracting company founded in Normandy and interested in Cape Breton … the expedition being directed by Samuel de Champlain.” Trudel, Histoire de la Nouvelle-France 3.1:58, 62, 120; Lucien Campeau, “Le dernier voyage de Champlain, 1633,” MSRC ser. 4, 10 (1972) 81–101; Mercure François (1633), 19:806.

  37. Libert, Daniel, and Desportes were all members of the Hundred Associates. Trudel, Histoire de la Nouvelle-France 3.1:60.

  38. Campeau, “Le dernier Voyage de Champlain,” 81–101; Mercure François 19:806–08; Trudel, Histoire de la Nouvelle-France 3.1:58–60, 62.

  39. No previous biographer of Champlain was aware of this voyage. There is no doubt that it took place, but no certainty that Champlain led it. Even so, both Campeau and Trudel make a case for its high probability. Compare Lucien Campeau, “Le dernier voyage de Champlain, 1633,” 80–101; and Trudel, Histoire de la Nouvelle-France 3.1:58–60. The primary evidence appears in an anonymous relation of the voyage in 1632, published in Mercure François 19 (1633), 80. The leader who remained in the fort was the sieur de Remercier; two Jesuits in residence were Antoine Daniel and Ambrose Davost.

  40. CWB 6:173; Trudel, Histoire de la Nouvelle France 3.1:47 citing “Extrait de l’état général des dettes passives de la Compagnie de la Nouvelle-France” 5 Feb. 1642; Robert Le Blant, “La Compagnie de la Nouvelle France et la restitution de l’Acadie,” Revue d’histoire des colonies 42, 146 (1955), 77–80; Lucien Campeau, Les finances publiques de la Nouvelle-France, sous less Cent-Associés, 1632–1635 (Montreal, 1975), 31–33.

  41. CWB 6:175–78, 181; Nicolas Denys, The Description and Natural History of the Coasts of North America (Acadia) ed. William F. Ganong, 131–37, 477–79.

  42. Trudel, Histoire de la Nouvelle-France 3.1:64, 70, passim; citing documents in the archives de la Charente Maritime BB 188 30–31v; Denys, Acadia, 474, 476, 479. Trudel identifies the ships that traded with the La Tour settlements: Cheval Blanc (120 tons); Renard Noir (220 tons); Saint-Luc (90 tons); Saint-Jean (100 tons); Pigeon blanc (200 tons); Saint-Pierre; this from Delafosse in RHAF 4.4 (March 1951), 485; Trudel, Histoire de la Nouvelle-France 3.1:60.

  43. MacDonald, Fortune and La Tour, 50–51; CWB 6:171–72, 198–99; Trudel, Histoire de la Nouvelle-France 3.1:428.

  44. CWB 5:165, 212, 280; Trudel, Histoire de la Nouvelle-France 2:311; W. F. Ganong, “A History of Miscou,” Acadiensis 6 (1906), 79–94; idem, “The History of Miscou and Shippegan,” revised and enlarged from the author’s notes by Susan Brittain, New Brunswick Historical Studies 5 (Saint John, N.B., 1946) 42–45; Denys, Acadia, 201; Robert Le Blant, “La Premiere Compagnie de Miscou, (1635–1645),” RHAF 17 (1963), 269–81; N.-E. Dionne, “Miscou, hommes de mer et hommes de Dieu,” Le Canada Français 2 (1889), 432–77, 514–31.

  45. Trudel, Histoire de la Nouvelle-France 3.1: 60.

  46. Marcel Hamelin, “Thierry Desdames,” DCB, s.v., “Desdames;” Champlain CWB 5: 88, 94–96, 322–25; 6: 40, 95; Dionne, “Miscou, hommes de mer et hommmes de Dieu” 2:445–47; Ganong, History of Miscou and Shippegan, NBHS 5 (Saint John, N.B., 1946), 44–45.

  47. Trudel, Histoire de la Nouvelle-France 3.1:20–21, 60, 80, 388; Robert Le Blant, “Inventaire des meubles faisant partie de la communauté entre Samuel Champlain et Hélène Boullé, 21 Nov 1636,” RHAF 18 (1965), 601.

  48. Trudel, “Émery de Caën,” DCB.

  49. Declaration of Razilly, May 12, 1632, LAC, C11 A, 2, I:49 cited in Trudel, Histoire de la Nouvelle-France 3.1:121; see also Joe C. W. Armstrong, Champlain (Toronto, 1987), 259.

  50. Trudel, Histoire de la Nouvelle-France 3.1:121; Champlain to Richelieu, August 15, 1633, and August 18, 1634, rpt. in CWB 6:375–78, appendices 6, 7.

  21. REALIZING THE DREAM

  1. Paul Le Jeune, “Relation de ce qui s’est passé en la Nouvelle France en l’année 1633 …” (Paris, 1634), Jesuit Relations, ed. Reuben Gold Thwaites (Cleveland, 1896–1901) 5:253.

  2. Ibid. 6:103.

  3. “Mémoire et instruction baillés au Sieur de Champlain par les Directeurs de la Nouvelle-France, Paris, Feb. 4, 1633;” and “Supplément d’Instructions …, Dieppe, March 17, 1633;” Mercure François 19 (1633) 809–11; Lucien Campeau, Monumenta Nova Franciae (Quebec, 1967) 2:340–41, 359–60.

  4. This was probably the family of Jacques Panis and his wife, Marie Pouchet (or Pousset), with their daughters Isebeau and Marie. Both girls would marry in Quebec six years later, on Sept. 3 and 12, 1639. See Campeau’s note in Monumenta 2:354n.

  5. [Champlain], “Relation du voyage du sieur de Champlain en Canada,” Mercure François 19 (1636), 803–67, 803–06; rpt in Campeau, Monumenta 2:350–97; Le Jeune, “Relation” (1634) 5:220; Marcel Trudel, Histoire de la Nouvelle-France (Montreal, 1979) 3.1: 121–22.

  6. For Champlain as “nost
re Gouverneur,” see Jesuit Relations 9:207.

  7. [Champlain], “Relation du Voyage,” Mercure François 19 (1636), 803–67; Campeau, Monumenta 2: 353; for Jacquinot see Campeau, Monumenta 1:671–2.

  8. [Champlain], “Relation du Voyage,” Mercure François 19:804.

  9. Ibid. 19:805; Campeau, Monumenta 2:355.

  10. Campeau, Monumenta 2:805. Here is further evidence that Champlain was present at Ste. Anne in 1632.

  11. Samuel E. Morison, Samuel de Champlain: Father of New France (New York, 1978), 216.

  12. Le Jeune, “Relation” (1633), Jesuit Relations 5:83–85.

  13. Ibid. 5:201.

  14. Ibid. 5:202, 6:72–74; Marcel Trudel, Histoire de la Nouvelle-France (Montreal, 1979) 3.1:121–22; John A. Dickinson, “Champlain, Administrator,” in Litalien and Vaugeois, eds., Champlain and the Birth of French America (Montreal, 2004), 212.

  15. Le Jeune, “Relation” (1634), Jesuit Relations 6:103–05.

  16. Ibid. 6:105.

  17. Ibid. 5:211–13 (1632–33).

  18. Champlain, Traitté de la Marine, 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) 6:259–60.

  19. Samuel Eliot Morison, The Founding of Harvard College (Cambridge, 1935), 416–18, includes a short history of the Jesuit College of Quebec with an argument that “the answer to this question as to which college was ‘first’ depends on one’s definition of a college.” Morison concocted a unique definition by which Harvard “may justly be called the first college” north of Mexico. By any reasonable definition, the Jesuit College was first.

  20. Morison, Champlain, 216–17.

  21. Le Jeune, “Relation,” 1634, Jesuit Relations 6:103.