The Makers of Canada: Champlain

by N.-E. Dionne

Father Lalemant, a Jesuit, wrote in the year 1626: "This interpreter had never wanted to communicate his knowledge of the language to any one, not even to the Reverend Récollet Fathers, who had constantly importuned him for ten years." So also wrote Father Le Jeune in his Relation of 1633.

The difficulties that the missionaries had to overcome are therefore readily understood. However they had the merit of preparing the way for their successors, and the honour of planting the cross of Jesus Christ everywhere, from Tadousac to Lake Huron.

The number of missionaries was limited at the commencement, but some others came to Canada later, particularly Fathers Guillaume Poullain, Georges Le Baillif, and Paul Huet. These men, some of whom were of noble birth, were remarkable for their virtues and their abilities. In the annals of the primitive church of New France, their names are illustrious, and around their memory gathers the aureole of sanctity. During six years, from 1615 to 1621, the spiritual direction of the colony was entrusted to six fathers and three friars. Father d'Olbeau remained in charge of the habitation of Quebec, and Father Le Caron resolved to proceed at once to the country of the Hurons.

On July 9th, 1615, Champlain, Étienne Brûle, an interpreter, a servant, and ten Indians, set out for the mouth of the Ottawa River. They rowed up the river as far as the Mattawan, which they followed westwards, and soon reached Lake Nipissing where they stopped for two days. This was on July 26th. After having taken this short rest, they continued their voyage, crossing Georgian Bay, and reached the land of the Hurons. Near the shore they met the Attignaouantans, or people of the bear tribe, one of the four chief branches of the great Huron family. Their village or bourgade was called Otouacha. On the second day of August, Champlain's party visited the village of Carmeron, and on the following day, they saw the encampments of Tonaguainchain, Tequenonquiayé and Carhagouha. In the latter encampment Father Le Caron resided.

On July 12th Father Le Caron celebrated mass and sang the Te Deum, after which the Indians planted a cross near the small chapel which had been erected under Champlain's direction. The reverend father occupied a hut within the palisade which formed the rampart of the village, and he spent the fall and winter with the Hurons of Carhagouha.

The Huron country was situated between the peninsula watered by Lake Simcoe on the eastern side, and by the Georgian Bay on the western side. It extended from north to south between the rivers Severn and Nottawasaga. This land is twenty-five leagues in length and seven or eight in width. The soil, though sandy, was fertile and produced in abundance corn, beans, pumpkins and the annual helianth or sun-flower, from which the Hurons extracted the oil. The neighbouring tribes, such as the Ottawas and the Algonquins, used to procure their provisions from the Hurons, as they were permanently cultivating their lands.

Champlain observed, in 1615, that there were eighteen bourgades or villages, of which he mentions five, namely: Carhagouha, Toanché, Carmeron, Tequenonquiayé and Cahiagué. Cahiagué was the most important, and had two hundred huts; it was also the chief bourgade of the tribe called de la Roche.

Four tribes of a common origin and a common language were living on the Huron peninsula. They were: (1.) The Attignaouantans, or Tribe de l'Ours; (2.) The Attignenonghacs, or Tribe de la Corde; (3.) The Arendarrhonons, or Tribe de la Roche; (4.) The Tohontahenrats. The general name given to these four tribes by the French was Ouendats.

The most numerous and the most respected of the tribes were the tribes de l'Ours and de la Corde, which had taken possession of the country; the first about the year 1589, and the second twenty years after. The oldest men of these tribes related to the missionaries, in 1638, that their ancestors for the past two hundred years had been obliged to change their residence every ten years. These two tribes were very friendly, and in their councils treated each other like brothers. All their business was conducted through the medium of a captain of war and a captain of council.