When the celebration of the victory had been completed, the Indians departed to their distant abodes. Champlain, however, before their departure, very wisely entered into an agreement that they should receive for the winter a young Frenchman who was anxious to learn their language, and, in return, he was himself to take a young Huron, at their special request, to pass the winter in France. This judicious arrangement, in which Champlain was deeply interested and which he found some difficulty in accomplishing, promised an important future advantage in extending the knowledge of both parties, and in strengthening on the foundation of personal experience their mutual confidence and friendship.
After the departure of the Indians, Champlain returned to Quebec, and proceeded to put the buildings in repair and to see that all necessary arrangements were made for the safety and comfort of the colony during the next winter.
On the 4th of July, Des Marais, in charge of the vessel belonging to De Monts and his company, which had been left behind and had been expected soon to follow, arrived at Quebec, bringing the intelligence that a small revolution had taken place in Brouage, the home of Champlain, that the Protestants had been expelled, and an additional guard of soldiers had been placed in the garrison. Des Marais also brought the startling news that Henry IV. had been assassinated on the 14th of May. Champlain was penetrated by this announcement with the deepest sorrow. He fully saw how great a public calamity had fallen upon his country. France had lost, by an ignominious blow, one of her ablest and wisest sovereigns, who had, by his marvellous power, gradually united and compacted the great interests of the nation, which had been shattered and torn by half a century of civil conflicts and domestic feuds. It was also to him a personal loss. The king had taken a special interest in his undertakings, had been his patron from the time of his first voyage to New France in 1603, had sustained him by an annual pension, and on many occasions had shown by word and deed that he fully appreciated the great value of his explorations in his American domains. It was difficult to see how a loss so great both to his country and himself could be repaired. A cloud of doubt and uncertainty hung over the future. The condition of the company, likewise, under whose auspices he was acting, presented at this time no very encouraging features. The returns from the fur-trade had been small, owing to the loss of the monopoly which the company had formerly enjoyed, and the excessive competition which free-trade had stimulated. Only a limited attention had as yet been given to the cultivation of the soil. Garden vegetables had been placed in cultivation, together with small fields of Indian corn, wheat, rye, and barley. These attempts at agriculture were doubtless experiments, while at the same time they were useful in supplementing the stores needed for the colony's consumption.
Champlain's personal presence was not required at Quebec during the winter, as no active enterprise could be carried forward in that inclement season, and he decided, therefore, to return to France. The little colony now consisted of sixteen men, which he placed in charge, during his absence, of Sieur Du Parc. He accordingly left Tadoussac on the 13th of August, and arrived at Honfleur in France on the 27th of September, 1610.
During the autumn of this year, while residing in Paris, Champlain became attached to Hélène Boullé, the daughter of Nicholas Boullé, secretary of the king's chamber. She was at that time a mere child, and of too tender years to act for herself, particularly in matters of so great importance as those which relate to marital relations. However, agreeably to a custom not infrequent at that period, a marriage contract [72] was entered into on the 27th of December with her parents, in which, nevertheless, it was stipulated that the nuptials should not take place within at least two years from that date. The dowry of the future bride was fixed at six thousand livres tournois, three fourths of which were paid and receipted for by Champlain two days after the signing of the contract. The marriage was afterward consummated, and Helen Boullé, as his wife, accompanied Champlain to Quebec, in 1620, as we shall see in the sequel.
Notwithstanding the discouragements of the preceding year and the small prospect of future success, De Monts and the merchants associated with him still persevered in sending another expedition, and Champlain left Honfleur for New France on the first day of March, 1611. Unfortunately, the voyage had been undertaken too early in the season for these northern waters, and long before they reached the Grand Banks, they encountered ice-floes of the most dangerous character. Huge blocks of crystal, towering two hundred feet above the surface of the water, floated at times near them, and at others they were surrounded and hemmed in by vast fields of ice extending as far as the eye could reach. Amid these ceaseless perils, momentarily expecting to be crushed between the floating islands wheeling to and fro about them, they struggled with the elements for nearly two months, when finally they reached Tadoussac on the 13th of May.
ENDNOTES:
58. The situation of Quebec and an engraved representation of the buildings may be seen by reference to Vol. II. pp. 175, 183.
59. Scurvy, or mal de la terre.—Vide Vol. II. note 105.
60. Hurons "The word Huron comes from the French, who seeing these
Indians with the hair cut very short, and standing up in a strange
fashion, giving them a fearful air, cried out, the first time they saw
them, Quelle hures! what boars' heads! and so got to call them
Hurons."—Charlevoix's His. New France, Shea's Trans Vol. II. p. 71.
Vide Relations des Jésuites, Quebec ed. Vol. I. 1639, P 51; also note
321, Vol. II. of this work, for brief notice of the Algonquins and
other tribes.