Samuel de Champlain
also reminds his readers of the labors he has dedicated to the cause of New France over the past 16 years. He makes various promises about the wealth to be gained in further exploration and specifically argues for the permanent settlement of at least 300 families and 15 friars. The court, however, was not interested in religious converts nor in permanent settlement. During his year and a half in France, Champlain penned and published his third book, Voyages et descouvertures faites en la nouvelle france . . . accounting for his explorations in the interior as well as his military failure against the Iroquois at Onondaga. He missed the annual voyage to Canada in 1619 because he became embroiled in a dispute over his authority and position in New France after de Condé sold his viceroyalty to his brother-in-law. In spring 1620, Champlain sailed back to Canada with his wife, Hélène, who would remain with him for four years in Quebec. Their return to France in 1624 was due in no small part to further disputes and questions over Champlain’s role and authority in New France. The new viceroy dissolved the Campaigne de Canada and gave a fur trading monopoly to Guillaume de Caen. The duke, however, confi rmed Champlain’s position as lieutenant and increased his salary twofold. When Montmorency sold the viceroyalty to his zealous nephew, Henri de Lévis, who was intent on securing Native converts, Champlain was issued a new commission that gave him complete authority. He sailed with the new viceregal edict back to Quebec in 1626 without Hélène. When France was at war with England, Champlain experienced the confl ict in the very real terms that he had feared and warned the French against: seizure of French territory by the English. Champlain fi rst heard of the presence of English ships on Cape Tourmente from some native guides. Soon enough, word arrived from David Kirke, who commandeered an English fleet off Quebec, that they had blockaded the St. Lawrence River to cut them off from any supplies or aid from France. After consulting Pont-Gravé, Champlain decided to hold out: They would neither surrender nor engage in battle. When their only hope, a French fleet con-
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taining supplies, was soundly defeated by Kirke, Champlain and the other settlers faced certain starvation. He had no alternative but to raise the white flag and broker a surrender agreement that included the repatriation of all French settlers. The peace treaty of Saint-Germain-en-Laye concluded the war between England and France in March 1632. Canada and Acadia were returned to France. In March of the following year, Champlain made his fi nal voyage to Canada. He returned to Quebec and saw it once again as French territory; he had the role of diplomat to play in order to run the English out of Quebec. He restored the seigneurial system, a feudal land settlement that allowed people to gain property in New France. In October 1635, he suffered a stroke from which he never recovered. He died on Christmas Day, December 25, in Quebec.
The Voyages of Samuel de Champlain (1604–1635) Although he is known as the father of New France, Samuel de Champlain was fi rst to explore Plymouth Bay and Boston Harbor, years before the settlements of the British. His biographer Samuel Eliot Morison speculates “as to the course of history if the French had settled at the site of Boston and had received enough support from home to defend it against the English Puritans . . . a town on the Rivière de Gua (Charles River) would have become the capital of New France extending from Cape Cod or Long Island to the North Pole” (63). Champlain did sail a pinnace into Boston Harbor, but he decided that it did not rival Penobscot, or Annapolis Basin, Nova Scotia. Champlain opens his book of voyages from 1604 to 1607 with a wide lens—human motivations— that narrows to the topics of colonization and trade routes, and then stretches across time to document various voyages undertaken in the hope of discovering a northerly route to China: “The inclinations of men differ according to their varied dispositions; and each one in his calling has his particular end in view. Some aim at gain, some at glory, some at the public