Champlain's Dream

by David Hackett Fischer

  19. Le Clercq, Premier établissement, 114–15, 129, 150–53, 158–59.

  20. Champlain to Louis XIII, Sieur de Montmorency, Chancellor de Sillery and the Sieur de Villemenon, 25 August 1622, BN ms 16738, fol 143; cited in H. P. Biggar, 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), 279–80.

  21. Pierre-Francis-Xavier de Charlevoix, Histoire de l’établissement, des progrès, et de la décadence du christianisme dans l’Empire du Japon, 3 vols. (Rouen, 1713).

  22. Pierre-Francis-Xavier de Charlevoix, Histoire et description générale de la Nouvelle-France with Journal historique, 3 vols, in quarto, six volumes in duodecimo (Paris, 1744); an excellent modern scholarly edition of the Travels is Charlevoix: Journal d’un voyage fait par ordre du roi dans l’Amérique septentrionale, ed. Pierre Berthiaume, 2 vols. (Montreal, 1994). English translations include History and General Description of New France, tr. John Gilmary Shea, 6 vols. (New York, 1866–1872, rpt. Chicago, 1962); and Louise Phelps Kellogg, Journal of a Voyage to North America, 2 vols. (Chicago, 1923); David M. Hayne, “Charlevoix,” DCB/DBC.

  23. Charlevoix, Journal d’un Voyage, ed. Berthiaume, 1:317–18, 364–65; 2:89, passim.

  24. Ibid. 2:89.

  25. Ibid. 1:215, 244, 251, 453–54]; idem, History and General Description of New France, ed. Shea, 2:12, 90.

  26. Charlevoix, Journal d’un Voyage, ed. Berthiaume, 2:32.

  27. Cadwallader Colden, History of the Five Indian Nations (1727, 1747, rpt., 1866; Ithaca, 1958), chap. 1, 1–6.

  28. Ibid., 6.

  29. Jean le Rond d’Alembert and Denis Diderot, Encyclopédie ou dictionnaire raisonné des sciences, des arts, et des métiers (Paris, 1751), s.v., “Québec.”

  30. Portrait of Samuel de Champlain, anonymous sanguine of unknown provenance and date, Archives nationales du Québec, reproduced in Alain Beaulieu et Réal Ouellet, eds., Samuel de Champlain, Des Sauvages (Montreal, 1993), 10.

  31. François-Xavier Garneau, Histoire du Canada, depuis sa découverte jusqu’à nos jours; my set is the second edition, corrected and enlarged, 3 vols. (Quebec, 1852).

  32. Ibid. 1:121.

  33. Ibid. 1:120.

  34. Ibid. 1:121.

  35. Ibid. 1:120.

  36. Andrew Bell, History of Canada … translated from Histoire du Canada of F.-X. Garneau, Esq., 3 vols. (Montreal, 1860) 1:iv; 1:120, 128.

  37. Marcel Trudel, Memoirs of a Less Travelled Road (translation of Mémoires d’un autre siècle) (1987, Montreal, 2002), 152.

  38. Francis Parkman, Pioneers of France in the New World (1865, revised edition with corrections, 1885; rpt. Boston, 1901), 186–87.

  39. Ibid. xix.

  40. Ibid. 280, 438.

  41. Ibid. 185, 255.

  42. Ibid. 243, 255.

  43. Ibid. 464.

  44. Ibid. xxv.

  45. Parkman’s notes and collected materials are in the manuscript collections of the Massachusetts Historical Society.

  46. Gagnon, Quebec and Its Historians, 45–66.

  47. Ibid. 54–55.

  48. Parkman, Pioneers, 244.

  49. Abbé Auguste Gosselin, “Le vrai monument de Champlain: ses oeuvres éditées par Laverdière,” Mémoires de la Societé Royale du Canada 1 (1908), 3–23.

  50. Philéas Gagnon, Essai de bibliographie canadienne (Quebec, 1895) 1:103.

  51. Gosselin, “Le vrai monument de Champlain,” qtd. in Ronald Rudin, Founding Fathers: The Celebration of Champlain and Laval in the Streets of Quebec, 1878–1908 (Toronto, 2003), 56.

  52. For a short biography of Ducornet, see Emmanuel Bénézit, Dictionnaire critique et documentaire des peintres, sculpteurs, dessinateurs et graveurs (Paris, 1999).

  53. “Samuel de Champlain, governor general of Canada,” lithograph, 1854, attributed to Louis-César-Joseph Ducornet (1806–56); Litalien and Vaugeois, eds., Champlain, 356.

  54. Litalien and Vaugeois, eds., Champlain, 357.

  55. Samuel de Champlain, steel-plate engraving by J. A. O’Neil, ca. 1866; reproduced in Litalien and Vaugeois, eds., Champlain, 357; O’Neil’s engraving appeared as the frontispiece in John Gilmary Shea’s edition of Charlevoix’s History and General Description of New France published in the United States that year.

  56. Victor-Hugo Paltsits, “A Critical Examination of Champlain’s Portrait,” Acadiensis 4 (1904), 306–11; rpt. in Bulletin des Recherches Historiques 38 (1932), 755–59.

  57. H. P. Biggar, “The Portrait of Champlain,” CHR 1 (1920), 379–80; Bishop, Champlain, 6n; Joe C. W. Armstrong, Champlain (Toronto, 1987), 20–21; Jean Liebel, “Les faux portraits de Champlain,” Vie des arts 28 (1983), 112; Martin, “The Face of Champlain,” 354–62.

  58. Martin, “The Face of Champlain,” 359; Trudel, Champlain, 15.

  59. “What did Champlain really look like?” www.champlainsoc.ca.

  60. Martin, “The Face of Champlain,” 357.

  61. Narcisse-Eutrope Dionne, Champlain, fondateur de Québec et père de la Nouvelle-France, 2 vols. (Quebec, 1891). An abridged edition would later be published in English as Champlain, Founder of Quebec, Father of New France (Toronto, 1962); Trudel, Memoirs, 152–53, passim.

  62. Abbé Henri-Raymond Casgrain, Champlain, sa vie et son caractère (Quebec, 1898); Gabriel Gravier, Vie de Samuel de Champlain, fondateur de la Nouvelle-France (Paris, 1900), 363.

  63. Many of Sulte’s articles were brought together in his Mélanges littéraires and Mélanges historiques, which ran to 23 volumes (1918–34). More accessible was his Histoire populaire du Canada, d’après les documents français et américains. An excellent study of his work appears in Gagnon, Quebec and Its Historians, 67–110, 103–04.

  64. John Bach McMaster, The History of the People of the United States, 9 vols. (New York, 1883–1927).

  65. Gagnon, Quebec and Its Historians, 90.

  66. Benjamin Sulte, Histoire des Canadiens-français, 1608–1880, 8 vols. (Montréal, 1882–84) 2:58; Gagnon, Quebec and Its Historians, 74.

  67. Sulte, Histoire des Canadiens-français, 1:57, 5:35; Gagnon, Quebec and Its Historians, 74, 86, 89.

  68. Trudel, Memoirs, 133.

  69. The Champlain Society’s website includes essays on the history of the society and on Sir Edmund Walker; http://www.champlainsociety.ca.cs_origins-history.htm. See also Heidenreich’s monograph on the publication of Champlain’s Works.

  70. H. P. Biggar, ed., The Works of Samuel de Champlain, 6 vols, and a portfolio of maps and drawings (Toronto: Champlain Society, 1922, rpt. University of Toronto Press, 1971).

  71. John Squair, Autobiography of a Teacher of French, n.p. (Toronto, ca. 1928, published posthumously). Squair also left a manuscript diary and memoir; see www.chass.utoronto.ca/french/dept-of-french/history/chap3a.html.

  72. Nicolas Denys, The Description and Natural History of the Coasts of North America (Acadia) (Toronto, Champlain Society, 1908); Lescarbot’s History of New France, 3 vols. (Toronto, Champlain Society, 1907); and Récollet father Gabriel Sagard’s Le Grand Voyage du pays des Hurons published as The Long Journey to the Country of the Hurons, ed., George M. Wrong and tr. by H. H. Langton, now available online in digital editions that are key-word searchable, a great tool for serious scholars: 7 volumes for Champlain himself, now the indispensable source for Champlain; three for his comrade and later enemy. A new edition of Champlain’s works is in progress at the society, edited by C. E. Heidenreich.

  73. William Francis Ganong, Sainte Croix (Dochet) Island, first published in Transactions of the Royal Society of Canada in 1902, revised and enlarged by Susan Brittain Ganong (Saint John, 1945 and 1979), reprinted again with new material as Champlain’s Island (Saint John, 2003).

  74. Ganong, Champlain’s Island, 20.

  75. The leading study is Ronald Rudin, Founding Fathers: The Celebration of Champlain and Laval in the Streets of Quebec, 1878–1908 (Toronto, 2003), esp. 53–102.

  76. Patrice Groul
x, “In the Shoes of Samuel de Champlain,” Litalien and Vaugeois, eds., Champlain, 338; David Russell Jack, “Proposed Champlain Memorial at Saint John, N.B.,” Acadiensis 5 (1901); W. F. Ganong, “A Visitor’s Impressions of the Champlain Tercentenary,” Acadiensis 5 (1905), as cited in Groulx, 378–79.

  77. Groulx, “In the Shoes of Champlain,” 338–39.

  78. Henry Raymond Hill, The Champlain Tercentenary: First Report of the New York Lake Champlain Tercentenary Commissions (Albany, 1913). A full set of these materials is in the Research Center at Fort Ticonderoga.

  79. The source for this paragraph is Groulx, “In the Shoes of Champlain,” 341.

  80. Quoted in Gérard Malchelosse, Trois-Rivières (1934), 13–14; from Martin, “The Face of Champlain,” 358. In practice, it was looser than that. The standard formula combined the costumes of Louis XIII with the characters of Dumas père, and the hair of Napoleon III. The sculptor Hébert added one other element. For the face of Laviolette, he used the features of his friend Benjamin Sulte.

  81. Rudin, Founding Fathers, 233; quoting Maurice Aguilhon, “La ‘statuomanie’ et l’histoire,” Ethnologie française (1978), 145–72.

  82. Roger Motus, Maurice Constantin-Weyer, écrivain de l’Ouest et du Grand Nord (n.p., 1982).

  83. Maurice Constantin-Weyer, Champlain (Paris, 1931), iv.

  84. Constantine-Weyer, Champlain: 11 (courage and humanity); vii (patience); and 113–16 (perseverance).

  85. Ibid. vi.

  86. Bishop, Champlain: The Life of Fortitude, 87.

  87. Ibid. 341.

  88. Ibid. 87.

  89. Hubert Deschamps, Roi de la Brousse: mémoires d’autres mondes (Paris, 1975).

  90. William B. Cohen, Review, International Journal of African Historical Studies 10 (1977), 300–03; compare with a hostile review by Myro Echenberg in Revue Canadienne des Études Africaines 11 (1977), 157–59, who suggests that Deschamps was not a democratic socialist but a “romantic reactionary.”

  91. Hubert Deschamps, Les voyages de Samuel Champlain, saintongeais, père du Canada (Paris, 1951).

  92. Ibid. 6.

  93. Florian de la Horbe, L’incroyable secret de Champlain, preface by Hubert Deschamps (Paris, 1958), author’s collection.

  94. Jean Bruchési, “Champlain a-t-il menti?” Cahiers des Dix 15 (1950), 39–53.

  95. Claude de Bonnault, “Encore le Brief Discours: Champlain a-t-il été à Blavet en 1598?” Bulletin des recherches historiques 60 (1954), 59–64.

  96. Wilson Smith, Professors and Public Ethics (Ithaca, 1955).

  97. Marcel Trudel, Histoire de la Nouvelle-France 3.1:xix: see full citation below (n 115).

  98. Raymonde Litalien, “L’inventaire des archives françaises relatives à la Nouvelle-France: bref historique,” Archives 33 (2001–02), 53–62.

  99. M. A. MacDonald, Robert Le Blant, Seminal Researcher and Historian of Early New France (Saint John, N.B., 1986).

  100. Of particular value for Champlain are the first three volumes in Campeau’s great work: La première mission d’Acadie, 1602–1616; Établissement à Québec, 1616–1634 (Rome and Quebec, 1979); and Fondation de la mission Huronne, 1635–1637. Other volumes include: 4. Les grandes épreuves, 1638–1640; 5. La bonne nouvelle reçue, 1641–1643; 6. Recherche de la paix, 1644–1646; 7. Le témoignage du sang, 1647–1650; 8. Au bord de la ruine, 1651–1656.

  101. The documents are reproduced in William F. Ganong, Champlain’s Island (1902, 1946, 1972, Saint John, N.B., 2003). Much unpublished material is available in the archives and library of Acadia National Park, Bar Harbor, Maine.

  102. Camille Lapointe, Béatrice Chassé, Héléne de Carufel, Aux origines de la vie québécoise (Quebec, 1983, 1987, 1995), 102.

  103. Yves Cormier, Les aboiteaux en acadie, hier et aujourd’hui (Moncton, 1990); Alaric Faulkner and Gretchen Faulkner, The French at Pentagoet, 1635–1674: An Archaeological Portrait of the Acadian Frontier (Saint John, N.B. and Augusta, Me., 1987, 1988); James A. Tuck and Robert Grenier, Red Bay, Labrador, World Whaling Capital, 1550–1600 (St. John’s, Nfld., 1989, 1990).

  104. Gregory M. Pfitzer, Samuel Eliot Morison’s Historical World (Boston, 1991) surveys Morison’s career.

  105. Samuel Eliot Morison, Samuel de Champlain, Father of New France (Boston, 1972). Other material appears in his The Story of Mount Desert Island (Boston, 1960).

  106. Morison, Samuel de Champlain, 22.

  107. Conrad E. Heidenreich, Huronia: A History and Geography of the Huron Indians, 1600–1650 (Toronto, 1971), 310–11.

  108. Conrad E. Heidenreich, Explorations and Mapping of Samuel de Champlain, 1603–1632 (Toronto, 1976), published by the Geography Department of York University in a series of monographs called Cartographica, monograph 17 (Toronto, 1976), and also as supplement 2 to Canadian Cartographer 13 (1976). For quotations see pp. 71, 99, 100.

  109. Don W. Thomson, Men and Meridians: The History of Surveying and Mapping in Canada (Ottawa, 1966), 35–47. This was an official history by the private secretary to the Minister of Mines and Technical Surveys in Canada. The first volume carried the story to 1867. Champlain was a central figure. See also Paul La Chance, “L’arpenteur-géomètre au Canada français” (Quebec, 1962).

  110. Carl O. Sauer, Seventeenth Century America (Turtle Island Foundation, 1980), 89–113; Chandra Mukerji, unpublished lecture on Champlain, ecology, and social thought, presented at the College of the Atlantic, Bar Harbor, Maine, 2005.

  111. Marcel Trudel, Mémoires d’un autre siècle (Montreal, 1987); translated by Jane Brierley as Memoirs of a Less Travelled Road: A Historian’s Life (Montreal, 2002), 13–32.

  112. Trudel, Memoirs, 198.

  113. Ibid., 205.

  114. Gagnon, Quebec and Its Historians: The Twentieth Century, 20.

  115. Marcel Trudel, Histoire de la Nouvelle-France: Les Vaines Tentatives (1524–1563) (Montreal and Paris, 1963); Le Comptoir, 1604–1627(Montreal, Paris, and Ottawa, 1996); La Seigneurie des Cent Associés, 1627–1663:1. Les Événements (Montreal and Paris, 1979); La Seigneurie des Cent Associés, 1627–1663:2. La Société (Montreal and Paris, 1983); and La Guerre de la Conquête, 1754–1760 (Montreal, 1975).

  116. Marcel Trudel, Champlain, 2d edition revised and enlarged (Montreal and Paris, 1968).

  117. Gagnon, Quebec and its Historians: The Twentieth Century, 42–43.

  118. Trudel, Champlain 1:212; Gagnon, Quebec and Its Historians: The Twentieth Century, 50–51.

  119. Trudel, “Champlain,” DCB.

  120. Louis Henry, Fécondité des mariages: nouvelle méthode de mesure (Paris, 1953).

  121. Cyprien Tanguay, Dictionnaire généalogique des familles canadiennes depuis la fondation de la colonie jusqu’à nos jours, 7 vols. (Montreal, 1871–1890); Jacques Henripin, La population canadienne au début du XVIIIe siècle: nuptualité-fécondité-mortalité infantile (Paris, 1954), 112.

  122. Hubert Charbonneau, André Guillemette, Jacques Lagre, Bertrand Desjardins, Yves Landry, François Bault, Real Bates, and Mario Boleda, Naissance d’une population; les Francais établis au Canada au XVIIe siècle (Montreal and Paris, 1987); tr. by Paola Colozzo as The First French Canadians: Pioneers in the St. Lawrence Valley (Newark, Del., 1993).

  123. H. P. Biggar, The Early Trading Companies of New France, 274–81, passim.

  124. Harold Innis, The Fur Trade in Canada: An Introduction to Canadian Economic History (revised edition Toronto, 1956); idem, The Cod Fisheries: The History of an International Economy (revised edition, Toronto, 1956); idem, Essays in Canadian Economic History (Toronto, 1956); Melville Watkins, “A Staple Theory of Economic Growth,” Canadian Journal of Economics and Political Science 29 (1963), 141–58; for its refinement and application to other economies see Marc W. Egnal, New World Economies (Oxford, 1998).

  125. Egnal, New World Economies, 131, 212–13n; John Hare et al., Histoire de la Ville de Québec, 1608–1871 (Montreal, 1987), 327; Louise Dechêne, Habitants and Merchants in Seventeenth-Century Montreal (Montreal, 1992
), 292.

  126. Lewis Henry Morgan, League of the Ho-dé-no-sau-nee, or Iroquois (Rochester, 1851).

  127. George Hunt, The Wars of the Iroquois (Chicago, 1940), 184–85.

  128. Denis Delâge, Le pays renversé: Amérindiens et Européens en Amérique du Nord-est, 1600–1664 (Montreal, 1985); tr. by Jane Brierley as Bitter Feast: Amerindians and Europeans in Northeastern North America, 1600–1664 (Vancouver, 1993).

  129. Ibid. 333.

  130. Ibid. 96, 84, x.

  131. Cf. Denys Delâge, “Uneasy Allies,” The Beaver Feb.-March 2008, 14–21.

  132. Bruce Trigger, The Children of Aataentsic: A History of the Huron People to 1660 (Montreal, 1976).

  133. Ibid. 246–330.

  134. Bruce Trigger, “Champlain Judged by His Indian Policy: A Different View of Early Canadian History,” Anthropologica 13 (1971), 85–114; idem, Natives and Newcomers.

  135. Trigger, Children of Aataentsic, 274.

  136. To discuss a few points at issue:%

  Trigger is mistaken that Champlain and the Récollets did not understand the ways of the Indians, and that they “did not possess such knowledge or have the motivation to obtain it” (Natives and Newcomers, 317). One could debate the question of understanding, but as to motivation, the Recollets and Champlain wrote often and at great length of their deep interest in the ways of the Indians, repeatedly described their sustained efforts to learn and understand, and left long accounts of Indian ways.%

  Trigger’s assertion that Champlain (increasingly through time) thought of the Indians not as individuals but as instruments of his purposes is also inaccurate. Champlain often wrote of his relations with individual Indians. This trend grew stronger through time, both in his relations with Indian leaders and his Christian caritas for three young Indian girls, the Montagnais boy Bonaventure and also many others.%

  Trigger’s argument that a major change occurred in Champlain in 1612 is not supported by the evidence. Virtually all of Champlain’s attitudes and judgments were the same before and after that date, and his actions too, in regard to making alliances with the Indians, working closely with them, and establishing strong rapport. An exception is the trouble that he had later with the Montagnais, but the rule is strong and consistent.%