THE MEN WHO PLANTED NEW FRANCE IN
AMERICA, FOUNDED QUEBEC, EXPLORED
THE GREAT LAKE REGION, AND PENE-
TRATED THE MISSISSIPPI VALLEY

SAMUEL DE CHAMPLAIN, THE FATHER OF NEW FRANCE

31. The French in North America. France was the slowest of the great nations in the race for North America. Cartier, Not until 1534 did Jacques Cartier, a French sea captain 1534 searching for a shorter route to India, sail into the mouth of the St. Lawrence River. He reached an Indian village where Montreal now stands and took possession of the country for his king.

One year after Jamestown was settled, and one year before the Half Moon sailed up the Hudson, Samuel de Champlain laid the foundations of Quebec (1608). Champlain was of noble birth, and had been a soldier in the French army. He had already helped found Port Royal in Nova Scotia.

Wherever he went, Champlain made fast friends with the Algonquin Indians, who lived along the St. Lawrence. He gave them presents and bought

Jacques Lerch

their skins of beaver and of other animals. In the fur trade he saw a golden stream flowing into the king's

Champlain founded Quebec,

1608

Made

friends

and foes

among

the

Indians.

An
Indian

war

party

Discov

ery of Lake

Champlain

treasury. Champlain certainly made a good beginning in winning over these Indians, but he also made one great blunder out of which grew many bitter enemies among other Indian tribes.

THE SITE OF QUEBEC

Here, 1608, on a narrow belt of land at the foot of the high
bluff, Champlain laid out the city of Quebec

32. Champlain and the Indians.

The Algonquins were bitter foes of the Iroquois or Five Nations.

One time they begged Champlain and his

men, clad in steel and armed with the deadly musket, to join their war party (1609). This he did. They made their way up the St. Lawrence to the mouth of the Richelieu, and up that river to the falls. The Indians then carried the canoes and the baggage around the falls.

What must have been Champlain's feelings when they glided out of the narrow river into the lake now bearing his name! A lake no white man had ever seen, and greater than any in his beloved France! On the left he saw the ridges of the Green Mountains, on the right the pine-clad slopes of the Adirondacks, the hunting grounds of the hated Iroquois.

That

One evening, near where the ruins of Ticonderoga now stand, they saw the war canoes of their enemies. night the hostile tribes taunted each other and boasted of their bravery. On the shores of the lake the next day they drew up in battle array. The Iroquois chiefs wore

tall plumes on their heads, and their warriors carried shields of wood or hide.

All at once the Algonquins opened their ranks and Champlain, in full armor, walked forth. The Iroquois gazed in wonder on the first European soldier they had ever seen. Champlain leveled his musket and fired. Two Why the Iroquois chiefs fell. Then another report rang through the woods, and the boldest warriors in North America broke and fled hate the in confusion. The Algonquins, yelling like demons, ran French after them, killing and capturing as many as possible.

There was great rejoicing among the victors, and Champlain was their hero. But there must have been great sorrow and vows of revenge among the Iroquois.

came to

The next year Champlain joined another Algonquin war party, and helped win another victory from the Iroquois. Again, in 1615, he joined a party of more than five hundred fiercely painted warriors. They traveled Chamto the shore of Lake Ontario and boldly crossed to the

plain and the Algonquins

invade

the Iroquois country

IROQUOIAN INDIANS

other side in their bark canoes. They hid their boats and then silently marched into the country of the Iroquois.

Iroquois make St. Lawrence

unsafe for

French

Champlain true to

king and country

Some miles south of Oneida Lake they came upon a fortified Indian town. For several days Champlain and

his Indians tried to break into or burn the fort, but

had to give it up. These campaigns made the Iroquois

hate the French almost as much

as they did the Algonquins.

For this reason

THE DEFEAT OF THE IROQUOIS AT LAKE CHAMPLAIN After an engraving of Champlain's published in 1613 Frenchmen found it safer to go west by traveling up the Ottawa River and crossing over to Lake Huron than by paddling up the St. Lawrence and through lakes Ontario and Erie. The result was that the French discovered Lake Michigan and Lake Superior long before they ever saw Lake Erie. On the other hand, we are soon to see how the Dutch made friends with the Iroquois.

Champlain remained many years in Canada, always working for the good of New France, as the country was called. He helped on the work of the missionaries, made peace between hostile tribes of Indians, and

encouraged the fur trade and A FRENCH FUR TRADER ON SNOWSHOES

the coming of new settlers. Worn out with toil and travel, far away from kindred and native land, Champlain died at Quebec on Christmas Day, 1635.

JOLIET AND MARQUETTE, FUR TRADER AND MISSIONARY,
EXPLORE THE MISSISSIPPI VALLEY FOR NEW FRANCE

of a new

country

33. French Explorers in the Northwest. Year after year, traders and missionaries, returning to Montreal Stories and Quebec from the west, told strange stories of a great river larger than any the French had yet seen. In May, 1673, Joliet, a fur trader, and Marquette, a missionary, were sent out by Count Frontenac, governor of the French settlements in Canada, to explore this river.

and

With five others they paddled in canoes along the north Joliet shore of Lake Michigan, through Green Bay, up the Fox MarRiver, and then crossed overland to the beautiful Wis- quette consin. Quietly and rapidly their boats passed down the find Wisconsin until they reached a great valley several miles in width and a great river.

Following the current, they passed the mouth of the gently flowing Illinois, then the rushing and muddy Missouri, the slow and clear Ohio, and finally, in July, they reached the mouth of the Arkansas. Convinced that the Mississippi flowed into the Gulf of Mexico, they set out on the return trip of two thousand miles.

Joliet reached Quebec in safety, but Marquette fell ill and remained among the Indians. The next spring while preaching in Illinois near where Ottawa now stands, he fell ill again, and died. The Indians showed their love and respect by bearing his remains by canoe to Mackinac, where he was buried beneath the chapel floor of his own mission house.

the

Missis

sippi