On the way back, his Indian allies began tormenting one of their prisoners with the usual refinements of cruelty; which considerably disgusted Champlain, whom they requested "to do as they did." He angrily refused, but offered to put the poor wretch out of misery by shooting him at once with his arquebuss. Seeing that he was irritated, they told him he might do so, "and," says he naïvely, "so I did, without his seeing anything."
They soon arrived at Quebec, where he gave them "bread and peas and paternosters," to ornament the skulls of their enemies, as rejoicing on their return. The next day Champlain went with them in their canoes to Tadoussac, in order to witness their ceremonies; and does not omit to mention how the women stripped themselves stark naked, and threw themselves into the water to meet the canoes, taking the enemies' heads to hang round their necks as precious ornaments. His Indian friends also made him a present of some of their weapons and one of the heads "to show to his king," which to please them he promised.
From this first battle Champlain seems to have imbibed a taste for fighting the Iroquois (though why he mixed in the quarrel at all he does not explain), as in 1610 he again started from Quebec, with a boat and some of his people for the mouth of the Iroquois river, to join about four hundred Algenquins and others in another attack on their mortal enemies. They found the Iroquois intrenched in a "fort" or stockade, and after a sharp fight, in which Champlain was wounded by an arrow in the ear and neck, and one of his men in the arms, they stormed the "fort," assisted by the men whom he had left in the boat, but who, hearing the firing, thought it shame to remain idle while their comrades were fighting. On leaving the Algenquins, they insisted on his taking one of their young men with him as hostage for a young French lad whom he left with them, at his own desire, to learn their language, etc.
While Champlain was thus busily occupied, Mons. de Monts, who was then governor of Pons, in Saintonge, having remained at Paris to settle some private affairs, was again attacked and worried by the complaints of his former opponents, "the Bretons, Basques, and Normans," and, they again getting the ear of persons in power, De Monts was for the second time deprived of his privilege, and this time without any compensation. He wrote an account of the whole business to Champlain, who immediately returned to France, and, after having informed De Monts of his labours at Quebec, made a full report of all to the king, who received both him and it with much satisfaction.
De Monts endeavoured by every possible means to obtain a third commission, but his enemies were too powerful, and so managed matters that all his attempts and labour were in vain. Nevertheless, being extremely desirous of settling in the new country, he resolved, with or without commission, to continue his establishment there, and explore the country inland on the upper part of the St. Laurence; and for the better execution of the project he again equipped two ships, in conjunction with a company formed under the auspices of Father Coton (confessor to Henry IV) and of Madame de Guercheville, and which had obtained certain privileges for the establishment of a Jesuit mission in New France. [ [18] ] The vessels being ready, Champlain and Du Pont Gravé embarked with labourers and artisans of all kinds, and arriving at Tadoussac and Quebec, found all things in good and flourishing condition.
In 1611, in the early spring, Champlain started from Quebec in order to meet the Indians with the young Frenchman, and give back the hostages left at the settlement; but not finding them, he continued to explore the country as far as Mont Royal, or Montreal. Shortly after the natives arrived, and after exchanging presents, he took leave of them, trusting another lad to their care, with particular instructions as to the observations he was to make while with them. He returned to Quebec in June, and finding matters proceeding regularly he sailed for France, arriving at La Rochelle on the 11th of August.
On the 5th of March of the next year (1612), Champlain again embarked at Honfleur for Quebec, arriving on the 7th of May, and finding all who had wintered there in health and prospering. The winter had been so mild that the river had not been frozen, "the trees also began to reclothe themselves with leaves, and the fields to be enameled with flowers."
On the 23rd, he left Quebec for the Sault St. Louis with two canoes, having with him only four men, one of whom was a certain Nicolas Vignan, "the most impudent liar that had been seen for a long time," as will presently appear. One of Champlain's cherished projects was to endeavour to penetrate to the Arctic Sea by means of some of the rivers tributary to the St. Lawrence, which, by the account of the natives, had their sources in great lakes, from which other streams flowed towards the north.
This man Vignan had formerly wintered with the natives, and had been sent on journeys of exploration by Champlain on various occasions. He had returned to Paris, where, in the commencement of the present year (1612), he had assured Champlain that he had seen the Northern Sea; that the Algenquin river issued from a lake, which by another river discharged itself into the said sea, and that in seventeen days he might go to it from Sault St. Louis. He added that he had seen the wreck of an English ship which had been lost on the coast, and that eighty men had escaped to land, where they had all been killed by the savages. He had been shown their heads, which had been skinned (scalped) according to their custom; and the Indians wished to present them to Champlain, with a young English boy whom they had preserved.
"This news," says Champlain, "rejoiced me greatly, thinking I had found near me that which I had sought far off; so I conjured him to tell me the truth, that I might inform the king. If his relation was false he would put a rope round his neck, while if what he said was true he would assuredly be well recompensed. He assured me of the truth of his statement with more oaths than ever, and to play his part better, he gave me an account of the country, which, he said, he had made as well as he could." All these details, the assurance of the man, and the air of simplicity which Champlain thought he perceived in him, combined with a knowledge of the voyage which the English had made to Labrador near that time, where they had wintered about the 63° of latitude and 250° of longitude, and had actually lost some vessels, induced him to give credence to the man's story, and make a report of it to the Chancellor. He also presented him to the Maréchal de Brissac and other high personages, who strongly recommended Champlain to look after the matter in person. Upon this advice he procured a passage for Vignan, in a vessel belonging to a Sieur Georges of La Rochelle, who, asking him why he was going out, etc., was also told by Vignan that he was going to show the Northern Ocean, which he had seen, to Champlain, and made a formal declaration to that effect before a notary of the town.