Samuel de Champlain

Samuel de Champlain
Born	Samuel Champlain 1567 [1] Brouage, Province of Saintonge, France
Died	December 25, 1635 (aged c. 68) Quebec, Canada, New France
Occupation	navigator, cartographer, soldier, explorer, administrator and chronicler of New France
Known for	exploration of New France, foundation of Quebec City, Canada, being called The Father of New France
Religion	Roman Catholic
Signature

Samuel de Champlain (French pronunciation: [samɥɛl də ʃɑ̃plɛ̃] born Samuel Champlain; ca. 1567 ^[1] – December 25, 1635), "The Father of New France", was a French navigator, cartographer, draughtsman, soldier, explorer, geographer, ethnologist, diplomat, and chronicler. He founded New France and Quebec City on July 3, 1608.

Born into a family of master mariners, Champlain, while still a young man of 16, began exploring North America in 1603 under the guidance of François Gravé Du Pont.^[2][3] From 1604-1607, Champlain participated in the exploration and settlement of the first permanent European settlement north of Florida, Port Royal, Acadia (1605). Then, in 1608, he established the French settlement that is now Quebec City.^[4] Champlain was the first European to explore and describe the Great Lakes, and published maps of his journeys and accounts of what he learned from the natives and the French living among the Natives. He formed relationships with local Montagnais and Innu and later with others farther west (Ottawa River, Lake Nipissing, or Georgian Bay), with Algonquin and with Huron Wendat, and agreed to provide assistance in their wars against the Iroquois.

In 1620, Louis XIII ordered Champlain to cease exploration, return to Quebec, and devote himself to the administration of the country.^[5] In every way but formal title, Samuel de Champlain served as Governor of New France, a title that may have been formally unavailable to him owing to his non-noble status.^[6] He established trading companies that sent goods, primarily fur, to France, and oversaw the growth of New France in the St. Lawrence River valley until his death in 1635.

Champlain is also memorialized as the "Father of New France" and "Acadia", and many places, streets, and structures in northeastern North America bear his name, or have monuments established in his memory. The most notable of these is Lake Champlain, which straddles the border between the United States and Canada. In 1609 he led an expedition up the Richelieu River and explored a long, narrow lake situated between the Green Mountains of present-day Vermont and the Adirondack Mountains of present-day New York; he named the lake after himself as the first European to map and describe it.

Early years

Inauthentic depiction of Champlain,
by Théophile Hamel (1870),
after the one by Ducornet (d. 1856),
based on a portrait of Michel Particelli d'Emery (d. 1650)
by Balthasar Moncornet (d. 1668).
— No authentic portrait of Champlain is known to exist.^[7]

Champlain was born to Antoine Champlain (also written Anthoine Chappelain in some records) and Marguerite Le Roy, most likely in the port town of Brouage, in the French Province of Saintonge. The exact date and location of Champlain's birth are unknown, and all the vital records of Brouage were lost in a fire in 1690. In his 1851 book, Pierre Damien Rainguet, a Catholic priest in Saintonge, estimated Champlain's birth year to be 1567, without giving any reference or raw data he used for his estimate.^[8] In 1870, the Canadian Catholic priest Laverdière, in the first chapter of his Œuvres de Champlain, accepted Rainguet's estimate and tried to give details justifying it, but his calculations were based on many assumptions now believed or proven to be incorrect. Although Léopold Delayant (member, secretary, then president of l'Académie des belles-lettres, sciences et arts de La Rochelle) wrote as early as 1867 that Rainguet's estimation was wrong, the books of Rainguet and Laverdière have had a significant influence: the 1567 date was carved on numerous monuments dedicated to Champlain, and has been widely republished as true. In the first half of the 20th century, some authors disagreed and chose 1570 or 1575 instead of 1567. In 1978 Jean Liebel published groundbreaking research about these estimates of Champlain's birth year and concluded, "Samuel Champlain was born about 1580 in Brouage."^[9] Liebel asserts that some authors, including the Catholic priests Rainguet and Laverdière, preferred years when Brouage was under Catholic control (which include 1567, 1570, and 1575).^[10]

Champlain claimed to be from Brouage in the title of his 1603 book, and to be Saintongeois in the title of his second book (1613). He belonged to either a Protestant family, or a tolerant Roman Catholic one, since Brouage was most of the time a Catholic city in a Protestant region, and his Old Testament first name (Samuel) was not usually given to Catholic children.^[11][12] The exact location of his birth is thus also not known with certainty, but at the time of his birth his parents were living in Brouage,^[13] near Rochefort in the French province of Saintonge.

Born into a family of mariners (both his father and uncle-in-law were sailors, or navigators), Samuel Champlain learned to navigate, draw, make nautical charts, and write practical reports. His education did not include Ancient Greek or Latin, so he did not read or learn from any ancient literature. As each French fleet had to assure its own defense at sea, Champlain sought to learn fighting with the firearms of his time: he acquired this practical knowledge when serving with the army of King Henry IV during the later stages of France's religious wars in Brittany from 1594 or 1595 to 1598, beginning as a quartermaster responsible for the feeding and care of horses. During this time he claimed to go on a "certain secret voyage" for the king,^[14] and saw combat (including maybe the Siege of Fort Crozon, at the end of 1594).^[15] By 1597 he was a "capitaine d'une compagnie" serving in a garrison near Quimper.^[15]

Early travels

Champlain and guide^[16] in Isle La Motte, Vermont, at the site Champlain is said to have first set foot in Vermont (and encamped) in 1609. Lake Champlain is in the background. (Sculptor E.L.Weber, 1967; Photo by Matt Wills, 2009)

In 1598, his uncle-in-law, a navigator whose ship Saint-Julien was chartered to transport Spanish troops to Cadiz pursuant to the Treaty of Vervins, gave Champlain the opportunity to accompany him. After a difficult passage, he spent some time in Cadiz before his uncle, whose ship was then chartered to accompany a large Spanish fleet to the West Indies, again offered him a place on the ship. His uncle, who gave command of the ship to Jeronimo de Vallebrera, instructed the young Champlain to watch over the ship.^[17] This journey lasted two years, and gave Champlain the opportunity to see or hear about Spanish holdings from the Caribbean to Mexico City. Along the way he took detailed notes, and wrote an illustrated report on what he learned on this trip, and gave this secret report to King Henry,^[18] who rewarded Champlain with an annual pension. Secret, this report was very late published for the first time (it was in 1870 by Laverdière), as Brief Discours des Choses plus remarquables que Sammuel Champlain de Brouage a reconneues aux Indes Occidentalles au voiage qu'il en a faict en icettes en l'année 1599 et en l'année 1601, comme ensuite (and in English as Narrative of a Voyage to the West Indies and Mexico 1599–1602). The authenticity of this account as a work written by Champlain has frequently been questioned, due to inaccuracies and discrepancies with other sources on a number of points; however, recent scholarship indicates that the work probably was authored by Champlain.^[19]

On Champlain's return to Cadiz in August 1600, his uncle, who had fallen ill, asked him to look after his business affairs. This Champlain did, and when his uncle died in June 1601, Champlain inherited his substantial estate. It included an estate near La Rochelle, commercial properties in Spain, and a 150-ton merchant ship.^[20] This inheritance, combined with the king's annual pension, gave the young explorer a great deal of independence, as he was not dependent on the financial backing of merchants and other investors.^[21] From 1601 to 1603 Champlain served as a geographer in the court of King Henry. As part of his duties he traveled to French ports and learned much about North America from the fishermen that seasonally traveled to coastal areas from Nantucket to Newfoundland to capitalize on the rich fishing grounds there. He also made a study of previous French failures at colonization in the area, including that of Pierre de Chauvin at Tadoussac.^[22] When Chauvin forfeited his monopoly on fur trade in North America in 1602, responsibility for renewing the trade was given to Aymar de Chaste. Champlain approached de Chaste about a position on the first voyage, which he received with the king's assent.^[23]

Champlain's first trip to North America was as an observer on a fur-trading expedition led by François Gravé Du Pont. Du Pont was a navigator and merchant who had been a ship's captain on Chauvin's expedition, and with whom Champlain established a firm life-long friendship. He educated Champlain about navigation in North America, including the Saint Lawrence River, and in dealing with the natives there (and in Acadia after).^[2] The Bonne-Renommée (the Good Fame) arrived at Tadoussac on March 15, 1603. Champlain was anxious to see for himself all of the places that Jacques Cartier had seen and described about sixty years earlier, and wanted to go even further than Cartier, if possible. Champlain created a map of the St. Lawrence River on this trip and, after his return to France on September 20, published an account as Des Sauvages: ou voyage de Samuel Champlain, de Brouages, faite en la France nouvelle l'an 1603 ("Concerning the Savages: or travels of Samuel Champlain of Brouages, made in New France in the year 1603").^[24] Included in his account were meetings with Begourat, a chief of the Montagnais at Tadoussac, in which positive relationships were established between the French and the many Montagnais gathered there, with some Algonquin friends.

The Order of Good Cheer, Acadia (1606), by Charles William Jefferys in 1925.

Promising to King Henry to report on further discoveries, Champlain joined a second expedition to New France in the spring of 1604. This trip, once again an exploratory journey without women and children, lasted several years, and focused on areas south of the St. Lawrence River, in what later became known as Acadia. It was led by Pierre Dugua de Mons, a noble and Protestant merchant who had been given a fur trading monopoly in New France by the king. Dugua asked Champlain to find a site for winter settlement. After exploring possible sites in the Bay of Fundy, Champlain selected Saint Croix Island in the St. Croix River as the site of the expedition's first winter settlement. After enduring a harsh winter on the island the settlement was relocated across the bay where they established Port Royal. Until 1607, Champlain used that definitive site as his base, while he explored the Atlantic coast. Dugua was forced to leave the settlement for France in September 1605, because he learned that his monopoly was at risk. His monopoly was rescinded by the king in July 1607 under pressure from other merchants and proponents of free trade, leading to the abandonment of the settlement.

In 1605 and 1606, Champlain explored the North American coast as far south as Cape Cod, searching for sites for a permanent settlement. Small skirmishes with the resident Nausets dissuaded him from the idea of establishing one near present-day Chatham, Massachusetts. He named the area Mallebar ("bad bar").^[25][26]

Founding of Quebec City

In Honfleur, remaining of Champlain's departures

Painting by George Agnew Reid, done for the third centennial (1908), showing the arrival of Samuel de Champlain on the site of Quebec City.^[27]

In the spring of 1608, Dugua wanted Champlain to start a new French colony on the shores of the St. Lawrence. Dugua equipped, at his own expense, a fleet of three ships with workers, that left the French port of Honfleur. The main ship, called the Don-de-Dieu (the Gift of God), was commanded by Champlain. Another ship, the Lévrier (the Hunt Dog), was commanded by his friend Du Pont. The small group of male settlers arrived at Tadoussac on the lower St. Lawrence in June. Because of the dangerous strength of the Saguenay River ending there, they left the ships and continued up the "Big River" in small boats bringing the men and the materials.^[27]

On July 3, 1608, Champlain landed at the "point of Quebec" and set about fortifying the area by the erection of three main wooden buildings, each two storeys tall, that he collectively called the "Habitation", with a wooden stockade and a moat 12 feet (4 m) wide surrounding them. This was the very beginning of Quebec City. Gardening, exploring, and fortifying this place became great passions of Champlain for the rest of his life.

In the 1620s, the Habitation at Quebec was mainly a store for the Compagnie des Marchands (Traders Company), and Champlain lived in the wooden Fort Saint Louis newly built up the hill (south from the present-day Château Frontenac Hotel), near the only two houses built by the two settler families (the ones of Louis Hébert and Guillaume Couillard, his son-in-law).

Murder of the King

In May 1610, King Henry was assassinated by a Catholic fanatic, and rule fell to his wife, Marie de' Medici, as regent for the nine-year-old Louis XIII. Marie was a staunch Catholic with little interest in New France, and many of Champlain's Protestant financial supporters, including Pierre Dugua, were denied access to court. Champlain, on hearing the news, returned to France in September 1610 to establish new political connections in support of efforts at colonization.^[28]

Marriage

One route Champlain may have chosen to improve his access to the court of the regent was his decision to enter into marriage with the twelve year old Hélène Boullé. She was the daughter of Nicolas Boullé, a man charged with carrying out royal decisions at court. The marriage contract was signed on December 27, 1610 in presence of Dugua, who had dealt with the father (a Protestant like him), and the couple were married three days later. The terms of the contract called for the marriage to be consummated two years later.^[29]

Champlain's marriage was initially quite troubled, as Hélène rebelled when she was told to join him in August 1613. Their relationship, while it apparently lacked any physical connection, recovered and was apparently good for many years.^[30] Hélène lived in Quebec for several years,^[31] but returned to Paris and eventually decided to enter a convent. The couple had no children, although Champlain did adopt three Montagnais girls named Faith, Hope, and Charity in the winter of 1627-8.^[32]

Relations and war with natives

Engraving based on a drawing by Champlain of his 1609 voyage. It depicts a battle between Iroquois and Algonquian tribes near Lake Champlain

During the summer of 1609, Champlain attempted to form better relations with the local native tribes. He made alliances with the Wendat (called Huron by the French) and with the Algonquin, the Montagnais and the Etchemin, who lived in the area of the St. Lawrence River. These tribes demanded that Champlain help them in their war against the Iroquois, who lived further south. Champlain set off with 9 French soldiers and 300 natives to explore the Rivière des Iroquois (now known as the Richelieu River), and became the first European to map Lake Champlain. Having had no encounters with the Iroquois at this point many of the men headed back, leaving Champlain with only 2 Frenchmen and 60 natives.

On July 29, somewhere in the area near Ticonderoga and Crown Point, New York (historians are not sure which of these two places, but Fort Ticonderoga claims that it occurred near its site), Champlain and his party encountered a group of Iroquois. A battle began the next day. Two hundred Iroquois advanced on Champlain's position, and one of his guides pointed out the 3 Iroquois chiefs. Champlain fired his arquebus, killing two of them with a single shot, and one of his men killed the third. The Iroquois turned and fled. This action set the tone for French-Iroquois relations for rest of the century.^[33]

Champlain returned to France in an unsuccessful attempt, with Dugua, to renew their fur trade monopoly. They did, however, reach an agreement with some merchants from Rouen, in which Quebec became an exclusive warehouse for their fur trade and, in return, the Rouen merchants supported the settlement.^{[citation needed]}

Exploration of New France

Baie des Chaleurs and Gulf of Saint-Lawrence — extract of Champlain 1612 Map.

On March 29, 1613, arriving back in New France, he first ensured that his new royal commission be proclaimed. Champlain set out on May 27 to continue his exploration of the Huron country and in hopes of finding the "northern sea" he had heard about (probably Hudson Bay). He traveled the Ottawa River, later giving the first description of this area.^[34] It was in June that he met with Tessouat, the Algonquin chief of Allumettes Island, and offered to build the tribe a fort if they were to move from the area they occupied, with its poor soil, to the locality of the Lachine Rapids.^[26]

By August 26 Champlain was back in Saint-Malo. There he wrote an account of his life from 1604 to 1612 and his journey up the Ottawa river, his Voyages^[35] and published another map of New France. In 1614 he formed the "Compagnie des Marchands de Rouen et de Saint-Malo" and "Compagnie de Champlain", which bound the Rouen and Saint-Malo merchants for eleven years. He returned to New France in the spring of 1615 with four Recollects in order to further religious life in the new colony. The Roman Catholic Church was eventually given en seigneurie large and valuable tracts of land estimated at nearly 30% of all the lands granted by the French Crown in New France.^[36]

Champlain continued to work to improve relations with the natives promising to help them in their struggles against the Iroquois. With his native guides he explored further up the Ottawa River and reached Lake Nipissing. He then followed the French River until he reached the fresh-water sea he called Lac Attigouautau (now Lake Huron).^{[citation needed]}

In 1615, Champlain was escorted through the area that is now Peterborough, Ontario by a group of Hurons. He used the ancient portage between Chemong Lake and Little Lake (now Chemong Road), and stayed for a short period of time near what is now Bridgenorth.^{[citation needed]}

Military expedition

On September 1, at Cahiagué (A Huron community on what is now called Lake Simcoe), he and the northern tribes started a military expedition against the Iroquois. The party passed Lake Ontario at its eastern tip where they hid their canoes and continued their journey by land. They followed the Oneida River until they arrived at the main Onondaga fort on October 10, 1615. The exact location of this place is still a matter of debate. Although the traditional location, Nichols Pond, is regularly disproved by professional and amateur archeologists many still claim that Nichols Pond is the location of the battle. 10 miles (16 km) south of Canastota, New York.^[37] Champlain attacked the stockaded Oneida Indian village. He was accompanied by 10 Frenchmen and 300 Huron Indians. Pressured by the Hurons to attack prematurely, the assault failed. Champlain was wounded twice in the leg by arrows, one in his knee. The conflict ended on October 16 when the French and Huron were forced to flee.^{[citation needed]}

Although he did not want to, the Hurons insisted that Champlain spend the winter with them. During his stay he set off with them in their great deer hunt, during which he became lost and was forced to wander for three days living off game and sleeping under trees until he met up with a band of aboriginals by chance. He spent the rest of the winter learning "their country, their manners, customs, modes of life". On May 22, 1616, he left the Huron country and returned to Quebec before heading back to France on July 2.^{[citation needed]}

Improving administration in New France

Map of New France (Champlain, 1612). A more precise map was drawn by Champlain in 1632.

19th century artist's conception of Champlain by E. Ronjat.^[38]

Champlain returned to New France in 1620 and was to spend the rest of his life focusing on administration of the territory rather than exploration. Champlain spent the winter building Fort Saint-Louis on top of Cape Diamond. By mid-May he learned that the fur trading monopoly had been handed over to another company led by the Caen brothers. After some tense negotiations, it was decided to merge the two companies under the direction of the Caens. Champlain continued to work on relations with the natives and managed to impose on them a chief of his choice. He also negotiated a peace treaty with the Iroquois.

Champlain continued to work on the fortifications of what became Quebec City, laying the first stone on May 6, 1624. On August 15 he once again returned to France where he was encouraged to continue his work as well as to continue looking for a passage to China, something widely believed to exist at the time. By July 5 he was back at Quebec and continued expanding the city.

In 1627 the Caen brothers' company lost its monopoly on the fur trade, and Cardinal Richelieu (who had joined the Royal Council in 1624 and rose rapidly to a position of dominance in French politics that he would hold until his death in 1642) formed the Compagnie des Cent-Associés (the Hundred Associates) to manage the fur trade. Champlain was one of the 100 investors, and its first fleet, loaded with colonists and supplies, set sail in April 1628.^[39]

Champlain had overwintered in Quebec. Supplies were low, and English merchants pillaged Cap Tourmente in early July 1628.^[40] A war had broken out between France and England, and Charles I of England had issued letters of marque that authorized the capture of French shipping and its colonies in North America.^[41] Champlain received a summons to surrender on July 10 from some heavily armed English merchants, the Kirke brothers. Champlain refused to deal with them, misleading them to believe that Quebec's defenses were better than they actually were (Champlain had only 50 pounds of gunpowder to defend the community). Successfully bluffed, the English withdrew, but encountered and captured the French supply fleet, cutting off that year's supplies to the colony.^[42] By the spring of 1629 supplies were dangerously low and Champlain was forced to send people to Gaspé and into Indian communities to conserve rations.^[43] On July 19, the Kirke brothers arrived before Quebec after intercepting Champlain's plea for help, and Champlain was forced to surrender the colony.^[44] Many colonists were taken first to England and then France by the Kirkes, but Champlain remained in London to begin the process of regaining the colony. A peace treaty had been signed in April 1629, three months before the surrender, and, under the terms of that treaty, Quebec and other prizes taken by the Kirkes after the treaty were supposed to be returned.^[45] It was not until the 1632 Treaty of Saint-Germain-en-Laye that Quebec was formally given back to France. (David Kirke was rewarded when Charles I knighted him and gave him a charter for Newfoundland.) Champlain reclaimed his role as commander of New France on behalf of Richelieu on March 1, 1633, having served in the intervening years as commander in New France "in the absence of my Lord the Cardinal de Richelieu" from 1629 to 1635.^[46] In 1632 Champlain published Voyages de la Nouvelle France, which was dedicated to Cardinal Richelieu, and Traitté de la marine et du devoir d’un bon marinier, a treatise on leadership, seamanship, and navigation. (Champlain made more than twenty-five round-trip crossings of the Atlantic in his lifetime, without losing a single ship.)^[47]

Last return, and last years working in Quebec

Champlain returned to Quebec on May 22, 1633, after an absence of four years. Richelieu gave him a commission as Lieutenant General of New France, along with other titles and responsibilities, but not that of Governor. Despite this lack of formal status, many colonists, French merchants, and Indians treated him as if he had the title; writings survive in which he is referred to as "our governor".^[48] On August 18, 1634, he sent a report to Richelieu stating that he had rebuilt on the ruins of Quebec, enlarged its fortifications, and established two more habitations. One was 15 leagues upstream, and the other was at Trois-Rivières. He also began an offensive against the Iroquois, reporting that he wanted them either wiped out or "brought to reason".^{[citation needed]}

Illness, last wills, death, and burial

Champlain suffered a severe stroke in October 1635, and died on 25 December 1635, leaving no immediate heirs. Jesuit records tell us he died in the care of his friend and confessor Charles Lallemant.

Although his will (drafted in November, 17, 1635) gave much of his French property to his wife Hélène, he made significant bequests to the Catholic missions and to individuals in the colony of Quebec. However, Marie Camaret, a cousin on his mother's side, challenged the will in Paris and had it successfully overturned. It is unclear exactly what happened to his estate.^{[49][50][51][52]}

He was temporarily buried in the church while a standalone chapel was built to hold his remains in the upper part of the city. Unfortunately, this small building, along many others, was destroyed by a large fire in 1640. Though immediately rebuilt, no traces of it exist anymore: his exact burial site is still unknown, despite much research since about 1850, including several archaeological digs in the city. There is general agreement that the previous Champlain chapel site, and the remains of Champlain, should be somewhere near the Notre-Dame de Québec Cathedral.^[53]

The search for Champlain's remains supplies a key plot-line in the crime writer Louise Penny's 2010 novel, Bury Your Dead.^[54]

Gallery

• 

  Samuel De Champlain statue in Ottawa, Ontario

• 

  1935 Canada 1 dollar stamp, Samuel de Champlain 1908 Monument in Quebec City

• 

  Samuel de Champlain monument, lower portion, in Orillia, Ontario

• 

  |Alfred Laliberté's Samuel de Champlain (1930) in Brouage Paris, France, VIIIe arrondissement

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  Samuel de Champlain 1930 bust in Paris

• 

  Samuel de Champlain 1935 plaque in Oneida

Memorials

Statue of Samuel de Champlain at sunset (looking to the south; with a similar expressive face as traditionally Jacques Cartier's), by Paul-Romain Chevré (Paris, 1896-1898), as newly repaired for 2008, at Quebec City since 1898, near Château Frontenac grand hotel, on the Acadia, Ontario, Quebec, New York, and Vermont. They include:

• Lake Champlain, Champlain Valley, the Champlain Trail Lakes.
• Champlain Sea: a past inlet of the Atlantic Ocean in North America, over the St. Lawrence, the Saguenay, and the Richelieu rivers, to over Lake Champlain, which inlet disappeared many thousands years before Champlain was born.
• Champlain Mountain, Acadia National Park - which he first observed in 1604.^[55]
• A town and village in New York, as well as a township in Ontario and a municipality in Quebec.
• The provincial electoral district of Champlain, Quebec, and several defunct electoral districts elsewhere in Canada.
• Samuel de Champlain Provincial Park, a provincial park in northern Ontario near the town of Mattawa.
• Champlain Bridge, which connects the island of Montreal to Brossard, Quebec across the St. Lawrence.
• Champlain Bridge, which connects the cities of Ottawa, Ontario and Gatineau, Quebec.
• Champlain College, one of six colleges at Trent University in Peterborough, Ontario, is named in his honour.
• Fort Champlain, a dormitory at the Royal Military College of Canada in Kingston, Ontario; named in his honour in 1965, it houses the 10th cadet squadron.
• A French school in Saint John, New Brunswick; Champlain College, in Burlington, Vermont; and Champlain Regional College, a CEGEP with three campuses in Quebec.
• Marriott Château Champlain hotel, in Montreal.
• Streets named Champlain in numerous cities, including Quebec, Shawinigan and no less than eleven communities in northwestern Vermont.
• A memorial statue on Cumberland Avenue in Plattsburgh, New York on the shores of Lake Champlain.
• A memorial statue in Saint John, New Brunswick, Canada in Queen Square that commemorates his discovery of the Saint John River.^[56]
• A memorial statue in Isle La Motte, Vermont, on the shore of Lake Champlain.
• The lighthouse at Crown Point, New York features a statue of Champlain by Carl Augustus Heber.
• A commemorative stamp issue in May 2006 jointly by the United States Postal Service and Canada Post.^[57]
• A statue in Ticonderoga, New York, unveiled in 2009 to commemorate the 400th anniversary of Champlain's exploration of Lake Champlain.
• A statue in Orillia, Ontario at Couchiching Beach Park on Lake Couchiching.

Bibliography

These are works that are either known to have been written by Champlain:

• Brief Discours des Choses plus remarquables que Sammuel Champlain de Brouage a reconneues aux Indes Occidentalles au voiage qu'il en a faict en icettes en l'année 1599 et en l'année 1601, comme ensuite (first French publication 1870, first English publication 1859 as Narrative of a Voyage to the West Indies and Mexico 1599–1602)
• Des Sauvages: ou voyage de Samuel Champlain, de Brouages, faite en la France nouvelle l'an 1603 (first French publication 1604, first English publication 1625)
• Voyages de la Nouvelle France (first French publication 1632)
• Traitté de la marine et du devoir d’un bon marinier (first French publication 1632)

Notes

1. ^ ^{a b} See discussion in "Early years" on Champlain's birth year.
2. ^ ^{a b} (French) his uncle. d'Avignon (Davignon), Mathieu (2008) (in fr). Champlain et les fondateurs oubliés, les figures du père et le mythe de la fondation.. Québec (Ville): Les Presses de l'Université Laval (PUL). pp. 558. ISBN 2-7637-8644-5. http://www.pulaval.com/catalogue/champlain-les-fondateurs-oublies-les-figures-9133.html. 
   Note: Mathieu d'Avignon (Ph.D in History, Laval University, 2006) is an affiliate researcher into the University of Quebec at Chicoutimi Research Group on History. He is preparing a special new full edition, in modern French, of Champlain's Voyages in New France.
3. ^ (French) Denis Vaugeois (lors du 133e congrès du comtié des travaux historiques et scientifiques (CTHS) à Québec le 2 juin 2008), Champlain et Dupont Gravé en contexte.
4. ^ Thanks to Pierre Dugua de Mons, who fully financed—at a loss—the first years of both French settlements in North America (first Acadia, then Quebec).
5. ^ According to Trudel, Louis was 18 years old, an inexperienced minor (age of majority was 25), and Champlain was lieutenant to the Prince de Condé, the viceroy of New France since 1612, who, as Trudel writes, "was liberated [from jail, where he been for 3 years] in October 1619, and yielded his rights as viceroy to Henri II de Montmorency, admiral of France. The latter confirmed Champlain in his office [...]. On 7 May 1620, Louis XIII wrote to Champlain to enjoin him to maintain the country 'in obedience to me, making the people who are there live as closely in conformity with the laws of my kingdom as you can.' From that moment Champlain was to devote himself exclusively to the administration of the country; he was to undertake no further great voyages of discovery; his career as an explorer had ended."
6. ^ Some say that the King of France made him his "royal geographer", but it is unproven and may only come from Marc Lescarbot books: Champlain never used that title. The honorific "de" was only added to his name from 1610, when he was already well-known, right after his patron, King Henry IV, was murdered. This usage by a non-noble was tolerated so that he would continue to gain access to the court during the long regency of King Louis XIII (who was only eight years old at the death of his father). Champlain received the official title of "lieutenant" (adjunct representative) of whichever noble was designated as Viceroy of New France, the first being Pierre Dugua, Sieur de Mons. From 1629 Champlain was named "commandant" under the authority of the King Minister, Richelieu. It was Champlain's successor, Charles Jacques Huault de Montmagny, who was the first to be formally named as the governor of New France, when he moved to Quebec City in 1636, and became the first noble to live there in that century.
7. ^ Morris Bishop, Samuel de Champlain: The Life of Fortitude'(New York: Knopf, 1948), pp. 6-7
8. ^ Rainguet, p. 140
9. ^ (French) Liebel, Jean (1978). On a vieilli Champlain (They made Champlain older), in la Revue d'histoire de l'Amérique française, 32 (2): 236
10. ^ Liebel, 229-237.
11. ^ According to many modern historians, including Alain Laberge, the 2008 Chair of the History Department at Quebec City's Laval University, a specialist in the history of New France, Champlain could have been born a Protestant. A guest on the February 6, 2008 CBC radio program, Sounds Like Canada, Professor Laberge said that the fact of Champlain's Protestantism would have been downplayed or omitted from educational materials in Quebec by the Roman Catholic Church, who controlled Quebec's education system from 1627 until 1962.
12. ^ However, Champlain was born in or near a time when the city was taken by Protestants, but Brouage became a royal fortress and its governor, from 1627 until his death in 1642, was Cardinal Richelieu, a strong anti-Protestant, wanting to stop the Religion Wars in France, and chosing to promote Catholicism only because every King of France had to be a Catholic, even if having been first a Protestant, like Henri the last king.
13. ^ Britannica.com; his family lived in Brouage at the time of his birth; the exact place and date of his birth are unknown.
14. ^ Fischer, p. 62
15. ^ ^{a b} Fischer, p. 65
16. ^ Samuel de Champlain, (sculpture)
17. ^ Vaugeois, p. 87
18. ^ Three different handwritten copies of this report still exist. One of them is at the John Carter Brown Library at Brown University.
19. ^ For a detailed treatment of claims against Champlain's authorship, see the chapter by François-Marc Gagnon in Vaugeois, pp. 84ff. Fischer, pp. 586ff, also addresses these claims, and accepts Champlain's authorship.
20. ^ Fischer, pp. 98-99
21. ^ Fischer, p. 100
22. ^ Fischer, pp. 100-117
23. ^ Fischer, pp. 121-123
24. ^ Champlain did not begin using the honorific de in his name until at least 1610, when he married, the year King Henry was murdered. A reprint of this book in 1612 was credited to "sieur de Champlain, civilization.ca
25. ^ "USA National Park Service Archeology Program: Visit Archeology". National Park Service. http://www.nps.gov/history/archeology/visit/Champlain/about.htm. 
26. ^ ^{a b} "Map of Samuel de Champlain voyages". http://www.travel-vermont.net/2008/09/map-samuel-de-champlain-voyages-travels/. 
27. ^ ^{a b} Only at his last arrival (in 1633), Champlain did not left the ships at Tadoussac but arrived directly to Quebec City with them.
28. ^ Fischer, pp. 282-285
29. ^ Fischer, pp. 287-288
30. ^ Fischer, pp. 313-316
31. ^ Fischer, pp. 374-5
32. ^ Fischer, pp. 399-400
33. ^ In 1701, The Great Peace Treaty was signed in Montreal, involving the French and every native nation coming or living on the shores of the Saint Lawrence River except maybe in wintertime.
34. ^ In 1953, a rock was found at a location now known as the Champlain lookout, which bore the inscription "Champlain juin 2, 1613". What about this finding?
35. ^ Les voyages du Sieur de Champlain, Saintangeois, capitaine ordinaire pour le Roy en la Marine.
36. ^ Dalton, Roy. The Jesuit Estates Question 1760-88, p. 60. University of Toronto Press, 1968.
37. ^ [1]
38. ^ François Pierre Guillaume Guizot, A Popular History of France from the Earliest Times Vol. 6, Chapter 53, (Boston: Dana Estes & Charles E. Lauriat (Imp.), 19th C.), 190.
39. ^ Fischer, pp. 404-410
40. ^ Fischer, pp. 410-412
41. ^ Fischer, p. 409
42. ^ Fischer, pp. 412-415
43. ^ Fischer, pp. 418-420
44. ^ Fischer, p. 421
45. ^ Fischer, p. 428
46. ^ Trudel
47. ^ Fischer, p. 447
48. ^ Fischer, pp. 445-446
49. ^ Fischer, p. 520
50. ^ "Images of the Testament of Champlain (6 pages)" (in French). Archives Canada France. http://bd.archivescanadafrance.org/acf-pleade-3-images/img-viewer/FRDAFANCH/IMAGES/MC/RESERVE/282/viewer.html. Retrieved 2010-12-03. 
51. ^ Conrad E. Heidenreich: Who was Champlain? His Family and Early Life. (Métis sur mer; August 8, 2008). — As said into a note to this text, "this lecture is based on parts of a book by Conrad E. Heidenreich and K. Janet Ritch soon to by published by The Champlain Society, provisionally entitled: The Works of Samuel de Champlain: Des Sauvages and other Documents Related to the Period before 1604".
52. ^ (French) Robert Le Blant: Le triste veuvage d’Hélène Boullé (Revue d'histoire de l'Amérique française, 18 (3), 1964, pp 425-437).
53. ^ Time Periods - Life and Death of Champlain
    For a detailed report on the research: (French) La chapelle et le tombeau de Champlain : état de la question
54. ^ Penny, Louise. Bury Your Dead. New York: Minotaur. 2010. ISBN #978-0312377045
55. ^ History of Acadia National Park
56. ^ Saint John Additional Information
57. ^ ed. William J. Gicker (2006). "Samuel de Champlain 39¢ (USA); Samuel de Champlain 51¢ (Canada)" (print). USA Philatelic 11 (3): 7. "This souvenir sheet celebrates the 400th anniversary of the explorations of Samuel de Champlain in 1606." 

Further reading

• Bishop, Morris. Champlain: the life of fortitude (1948).
• Champlain, Samuel de (2005). Voyages of Samuel de Champlain, 1604-1918: with a map and two plans. Elibron Classics. ISBN 1402128533. http://books.google.ca/books?id=hLAbmiXoRWEC&lpg=PP1&dq=Samuel%20de%20Champlain&pg=PP1#v=onepage&q&f=true 
• Dix, Edwin Asa. (1903). Champlain, the Founder of New France, IndyPublish ISBN 1417922702
• Fischer, David Hackett, (2008). Champlain's Dream, Simon and Schuster ISBN 9781416593324
• Laverdière, Abbé Charles-Honoré Cauchon (1870) (in French). Œuvres de Champlain. Quebec City: Desbarats. http://books.google.ca/books?id=N-pYAAAAMAAJ&dq=%C5%92uvres%20de%20Champlain&pg=PP1#v=onepage&q&f=true. 
• Morganelli, Adrianna (2006). Samuel de Champlain: from New France to Cape Cod. Crabtree Pub. ISBN 9780778724148. http://books.google.ca/books?id=hBULxrkwi0cC&lpg=PP1&dq=Samuel%20de%20Champlain&pg=PP1#v=onepage&q&f=true 
• Morison, Samuel Eliot, (1972). Samuel de Champlain: Father of New France Little Brown, ISBN 0-316-58399-5
• Rainguet, Pierre-Damien (1851) (in French). Biographie Saintongeaise ou Dictionnaire Historique de Tous les Personnages qui se sont Illustrés dans les Anciennes Provinces de Saintonge et d'Aunis jusqu'à Nos Jours. Saintes, France: M. Niox. OCLC 466560584. http://books.google.com/books?id=xEEBAAAAQAAJ. 
• Sherman, Josepha (2003). Samuel de Champlain, Explorer of the Great Lakes Region and Founder of Quebec. Group's Rosen Central. ISBN 0823936295. http://books.google.ca/books?id=x_3IbOH2_HgC&lpg=PP1&dq=Samuel%20de%20Champlain&pg=PP1#v=onepage&q&f=true 
• Marcel Trudel, Marcel. "Biography of Samuel de Champlain". Dictionary of Canadian Biography Online. http://www.biographi.ca/009004-119.01-e.php?&id_nbr=115. Retrieved 2009-05-28.  - (French) Most recent edition: not yet all translated in english.
• Vaugeois, Denis; Litalien, Raymonde (eds); Roth, Käthe (trans), (2004). Champlain : the birth of French America McGill-Queen's University Press, ISBN 0-7735-2850-4

External links

Biography portal

• Works by Samuel de Champlain at Project Gutenberg
• From Marcel Trudel: Champlain, Samuel de (at The Canadian Encyclopedia)
• A complete map of the exploration routes of Samuel de Champlain: Map of Samuel de Champlain voyages
• From Champlain College (Vermont): Biography
• Champlain in Acadia (A Historica project from 7th Floor Media)
• Biography at the Museum of Civilization
• The Canadian Museum of Civilization - Face-to-Face - The Canadian Personalities Hall
• Samuel de Champlain Biography by Appleton and Klos
• Description of Champlain's voyage to Chatham, Cape Cod in 1605 and 1606.
• The Samuel de Champlain Portal
• They Didn't Name That Lake for Nothing, Sunday Book Review, The New York Times, Oct. 31, 2008
• Dead Reckoning - Champlain in America, PBS documentary 2009
• World Digital Library presentation of Descripsion des costs, pts., rades, illes de la Nouuele France faict selon son vray méridienor Description of the Coasts, Points, Harbours and Islands of New France. Library of Congress. Primary source portolan style chart on vellum with summary description, image with enhanced view and zoom features, text to speech capability. French. Links to related content. Content available as TIF. One of the major cartographic resources, this map offers the first thorough delineation of the New England and Canadian coasts from Cape Sable to Cape Cod.
• (French) Champlain's tomb: State of the Art Inquiry
• (French) From Samuel de Champlain: Les Voyages de la Nouvelle France... (1632) (at Rare Book Room)

Government offices
Preceded by Cardinal Richelieu	Lieutenant General of New France 1632–1635	Succeeded by Charles de Montmagny as Governor of New France

Persondata
Name	Champlain, Samuel De
Alternative names
Short description	Navigator, cartographer, draughtsman, soldier, explorer
Date of birth
Place of birth	Brouage, Province of Saintonge, France
Date of death	December 25, 1635
Place of death	Quebec, Canada, New France