Columbus and Other Heroes of American Discovery

by N. D'Anvers

In the autumn of the year of the taking of Quebec, Kirk left that city under the charge of his brother Lewis, and returned to England, accompanied by Champlain, who hoped to obtain by diplomacy what he had been unable to gain by force; and so earnestly did he plead his cause with the French ambassador in London, that the affairs of New France were brought before the then all-powerful Cardinal Richelieu.

Convinced of the vast importance to his country of the fur-trade and fisheries of Canada, the French Minister negotiated with the English Court for the restoration of Canada, Acadia, and Cape Breton, and after much discussion they were transferred to the French Crown by the treaty of St. Germain de Sage, which put off for more than a century the establishment of the British dominion in Canada.

A year or two before this event, so auspicious to French interests in the West, a new association had been formed in France, known as the “Company of the Hundred Associates,” to whom Louis XIII. had given the whole of Canada and of Florida—though the latter, as we are aware, was already claimed by Spain—together with a monopoly of the fur-trade. The cod and whale fisheries of the Gulf of St. Lawrence, however, the French monarch reserved for himself.

The joy of the Company of the Hundred Associates, on the restoration of the privileges which had so suddenly been snatched away from them by Kirk, may be imagined. They at once elected Champlain Governor of New France, and he returned to his old home at Quebec in 1633, taking with him a large party of new settlers, including many Jesuits, who were to form the nucleus of a college for the education of the youth of Canada, from which missionaries were to be sent forth for the conversion of the natives.

Having patched up something of a peace with the Indians, and founded his college, Champlain prepared to continue that part of his work which was nearest his heart—the further exploration of the country; but before he could organize an expedition to the West, his career was cut short by death. He expired in December, 1635, having sown the seeds of the future greatness of Canada, and inaugurated a new era of geographical discovery.

Champlain was succeeded as Governor of Canada by M. de Montonaguy, a man of a very different stamp, who, while displaying great ability and address in his management of the internal affairs of the colony and his dealings with the treacherous Iroquois, did little to extend our knowledge of the country under his charge.

To continue our narrative of the progress of discovery in French America, we must leave the ruling powers to join two obscure Jesuit missionaries, named Brébœuf and Daniel, the advance guard of that heroic band of laborers for the faith of Christ who led the way in every early expedition from Canada, and with whose names is associated the origin of every great town on the vast inland seas which are now among the proudest possessions of England.

Brébœuf and Daniel, who had both already done good work among the natives, left Quebec on their joint mission in 1634, with a party of Huron Indians, and after just such another arduous journey through the forest and up the Ottawa as that taken by Champlain a few years before, they arrived safely on the banks of Georgian Bay. Here they pitched their tents, and in a short time they gathered about them a little band of converts to the Roman Catholic faith, for whose use a little chapel, built of the trunks of trees, was presently erected, which was dedicated to St. Joseph.

To this little center of civilization in the wilderness flocked many natives and Europeans alike, who were eager to lead a new life—the former won over by the hopes held out to them for the future, the latter eager to forget the past. First one and then another Christian village arose on the banks of the stream connecting Lakes Huron and Ontario, from which every now and then some worn father of the faith would pay a flying visit to Quebec, to return with fresh recruits. Such was the origin of St. Louis, St. Ignatius, St. Mary’s, and many another now flourishing town of Canada, which were yet in their infancy when the news of the great work going forward in the West reached the ears of the Pope himself. Struck by the vast field thus opened for the extension of the Roman Catholic religion, the Holy Father expressed his loving approval of the work of his children in the land of their exile. The King of France followed suit; the enthusiasm spread to his nobles, and, eager to win the favor of the heads of their church and of their native land, numbers of young French gentlemen of rank joined the missionary band, and devoted their wealth to its cause. The result was what might have been expected. Montreal became the headquarters of the Indian church, St. Mary’s, lying about half-way between it and Lake Huron, the rendezvous of the missionaries from distant points, who met three times a year to give an account of their progress.

Six years after the first arrival of Fathers Brébœuf and Daniel on Lake Huron, the missionary outposts had extended as far west as Green Bay, on the north-west of Lake Michigan; and though the iron belt of the Five Nations still kept the French from the shores of Lakes Ontario and Erie, Brébœuf was able in 1641, accompanied by Father Joseph Marie Chaumonot, to visit the Onguiaharas, a neutral tribe living on a river of the same name, now the Niagara.