And it is, therefore, a worthy object that brings this Embassy of the French Nation from over seas to install at that lighthouse a bronze bas-relief of France, wrought by the hands of one of the greatest of living sculptors—that Rodin, whose name is as well known in America as in his native country; a token which will remain there as an abiding symbol of the intimate part and mighty influence which the French people have had in the history and development of America.
How many illustrious French names are written in the history of this continent, from the earliest days of struggle with the miseries of rigorous climate and savage aborigines, down to the cession by Napoleon of the vast territory of Louisiana! What a roll of noble names of men who sacrificed all that makes life pleasant, in the pursuit of ideals in which no thought of self entered, save the hope and vision of that day when they should be greeted with the words:
Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.
The names of Cartier, Le Jeune, Brébeuf, Lalemant, La Salle, Joliet, Frontenac, Hennepin, Marquette, Champlain, and many others rise before us. But among them all, none is more worthy to be remembered than that of Samuel de Champlain. When, in 1640, Père Le Jeune visited a place in the country of the Hurons where Champlain had stopped longest in a journey he had made there twenty-two years before, he recorded that,
sa reputation vit encore dans l’esprit de ces peuples barbares, qui honorent mesme après tant d’années plusieurs belles vertus qu’ils admiroient en luy, et particulierement sa chasteté et continence envers les femmes.
(his reputation still lives in the minds of these barbarous peoples, who honor, even after so many years, many excellent virtues which they admired in him, and in particular his chastity and continence with respect to the women).
And the good Le Jeune exclaims:
Pleust à Dieu que tous les François qui les premiers sont venus en ces contrées lui eussent esté semblables. (Jesuit Relations, Vol. XX, p. 18.)
(Would to God that all the French who came first to this country had been like unto him.)