Columbus and Other Heroes of American Discovery

by N. D'Anvers

THE FIRST HOUSE ERECTED IN QUEBEC.

The winter was spent in winning the friendship of the Algonquin Indians, chief of the three races then occupying the basin of the St. Lawrence, and in learning from them the capabilities of their country. In a terrible struggle then going on between the Algonquins and their neighbors, the Iroquois, or Five Nations, Champlain was able to give both advice and material assistance, and, as a reward, he was escorted by the former, in the spring of 1610, up the St. Lawrence as far as its junction with the Iroquois, now the Richelieu River, ascending which he discovered Lake Peter, and came, after some little difficulty with the rapids, so characteristic of the tributaries of the great river, to the beautiful sheet of water now bearing his own name, and which has so often figured in the history of the struggle between the French and English in Canada.

Though prevented by the hostility of the Iroquois, or Five Nations—occupying the whole of the South-west of Canada—from actually visiting them, Champlain, on this trip, approached very nearly the sources of the Hudson in the lofty Adirondack Mountains, on the south-west of the great lake, and in the north-eastern corner of the present State of New York, thus connecting his own work with that of his great Dutch contemporary.

The discovery of Lakes Peter and Champlain may be said to have closed the first chapter of our energetic hero’s career. On his return to Quebec, he found that De Monts’s commission, under which he had been acting, was revoked, compelling him to return to France to obtain fresh powers. In this he was unsuccessful; but he agreed with De Monts to persevere in his undertaking without royal patronage, and in 1610 we find him again on the St. Lawrence, prevented from pursuing his geographical researches by the fierce struggles still going on between the two native tribes, but binding the Algonquins yet further to his service by the efficient aid he was able to render to their cause.

QUEBEC.

On the restoration of peace in 1611, Champlain, after having paid a second flying visit to France for supplies, ascended the St. Lawrence as far as its junction with the Ottawa, and founded the modern city of Montreal, near the hill which had been named Mont Royal by his predecessors. In 1613, leaving both his infant settlements in a flourishing condition, he started, accompanied by several Frenchmen and an Indian escort, on an exploring expedition up the Ottawa, having heard rumors that it came from a lake connected with the North Sea.

The early part of the voyage up the great tributary of the St. Lawrence was full of difficulty, owing to the number and force of the cataracts and rapids impeding navigation; but, now carrying their canoes through the woods, now dragging them with ropes through the foaming current, the explorers reached the home of a friendly chief, named Tessouant, only to learn from him that the information on which they had acted was false.

Returning to Quebec after this disappointing trip, Champlain again sailed to France in the hope of obtaining fresh recruits for his infant colonies. Aided by the powerful co-operation of the Prince of Condé, he succeeded in equipping a little fleet of four vessels. These, filled with emigrants—including four fathers of the Recollet order, the first missionaries to settle in Canada—all well provided with supplies for the ensuing winter, arrived safely at the mouth of the St. Lawrence early in May 1615, and on the 25th of that month we find the indefatigable explorer pushing on with a few picked men to the Lachine rapids, which had been fixed on as the rendezvous of the Indian tribes, who were again about to push forward against the Iroquois, encamped among the Great Lakes on the west, never yet visited by a European.