Early in May, 1620, Champlain sailed from Honfleur, accompanied by his wife and several Recollect friars, and, after a voyage of two months, arrived at Tadoussac, where he was cordially greeted by his brother-in-law, Eustache Boullé, who was very much astonished at the arrival of his sister, and particularly that she was brave enough to encounter the dangers of the ocean and take up her abode in a wilderness at once barren of both the comforts and refinements of European life.
On the 11th of July, Champlain left Tadoussac for Quebec, where he found the whole establishment, after an absence of two years, in a condition of painful neglect and disorder. He was cordially received, and becoming ceremonies were observed to celebrate his arrival. A sermon composed for the occasion was delivered by one of the Recollect Fathers, the commission of the king and that of the viceroy appointing him to the sole command of the colony were publicly read, cannon were discharged, and the little populace, from loyal hearts, loudly vociferated Vive le Roy!
The attention of the lieutenant was at first directed to restoration and repairs. The roof of the buildings no longer kept out the rain, nor the walls the piercing fury of the winds. The gardens were in a state of ruinous neglect, and the fields poorly and scantily cultivated. But the zeal, energy, and industry of Champlain soon put every thing in repair, and gave to the little settlement the aspect of neatness and thrift. When this was accomplished, he laid the foundations of a fortress, which he called the Fort Saint Louis, situated on the crest of the rocky elevation in the rear of the settlement, about a hundred and seventy-two feet above the surface of the river, a position which commanded the whole breadth of the St. Lawrence at that narrow point.
This work, so necessary for the protection and safety of the colony, involving as it did some expense, was by no means satisfactory to the Company of Associates. [86] Their general fault-finding and chronic discontent led the Duke de Montmorency to adopt heroic measures to silence their complaints. In the spring of 1621, he summarily dissolved the association of merchants, which he denominated the "Company of Rouen and St. Malo," and established another in its place. He continued Champlain in the office of lieutenant, but committed all matters relating to trade to William de Caen, a merchant of high standing, and to Émeric de Caen the nephew of the former, a good naval captain. This new and hasty reorganization, arbitrary if not illegal, however important it might seem to the prosperity and success of the colony, laid upon Champlain new responsibilities and duties at once delicate and difficult to discharge. Though in form suppressed, the company did not yield either its existence or its rights. Both the old and the new company were, by their agents, early in New France, clamoring for their respective interests. De Caen, in behalf of the new, insisted that the lieutenant ought to prohibit all trade with the Indians by the old company, and, moreover, that he ought to seize their property and hold it as security for their unpaid obligations. Champlain, having no written authority for such a proceeding, and De Caen, declining to produce any, did not approve the measure and declined to act. The threats of De Caen that he would take the matter into his own hands, and seize the vessel of the old company commanded by Pont Gravé and then in port, were so violent that Champlain thought it prudent to place a body of armed men in his little fort still unfinished, until the fury of the altercation should subside. [87] This decisive measure, and time, the natural emollient of irritated tempers, soon restored peace to the contending parties, and each was allowed to carry on its trade unmolested by the other. The prudence of Champlain's conduct was fully justified, and the two companies, by mutual consent, were, the next year, consolidated into one.
Champlain remained at Quebec four years before again returning to France. His time was divided between many local enterprises of great importance. His special attention was given to advancing the work on the unfinished fort, in order to provide against incursions of the hostile Iroquois, [88] who at one time approached the very walls of Quebec, and attacked unsuccessfully the guarded house of the Recollects on the St. Charles. [89] He undertook the reconstruction of the buildings of the settlement from their foundations. The main structure was enlarged to a hundred and eight feet [90] in length, with two wings of sixty feet each, having small towers at the four corners. In front and on the borders of the river a platform was erected, on which were placed cannon, while the whole was surrounded by a ditch spanned by drawbridges.
Having placed every thing at Quebec in as good order as his limited means would permit, and given orders for the completion of the works which he had commenced, leaving Émeric de Caen in command, Champlain determined to return to France with his wife, who, though devoted to a religious life, we may well suppose was not unwilling to exchange the rough, monotonous, and dreary mode of living at Quebec for the more congenial refinements to which she had always been accustomed in her father's family near the court of Louis XIII. He accordingly sailed on the 15th of August, and arrived at Dieppe on the 1st of October, 1624. He hastened to St. Germain, and reported to the king and the viceroy what had occurred and what had been done during the four years of his absence.
The interests of the two companies had not been adjusted and they were still in conflict. The Duke de Montmorency about this time negotiated a sale of his viceroyalty to his nephew, Henry de Levi, Duke de Ventadour. This nobleman, of a deeply religious cast of mind, had taken holy orders, and his chief purpose in obtaining the viceroyalty was to encourage the planting of Catholic missions in New France. As his spiritual directors were Jesuits, he naturally committed the work to them. Three fathers and two lay brothers of this order were sent to Canada in 1625, and others subsequently joined them. Whatever were the fruits of their labors, many of them perished in their heroic undertaking, manfully suffering the exquisite pains of mutilation and torture.
Champlain was reappointed lieutenant, but remained in France two years, fully occupied with public and private duties, and in frequent consultations with the viceroy as to the best method of advancing the future interests of the colony. On the 15th of April, 1626, with Eustache Boullé, his brother-in-law, who had been named his assistant or lieutenant, he again sailed for Quebec, where he arrived on the 5th of July. He found the colonists in excellent health, but nevertheless approaching the borders of starvation, having nearly exhausted their provisions. The work that he had laid out to be done on the buildings had been entirely neglected. One important reason for this neglect, was the necessary employment of a large number of the most efficient laborers, for the chief part of the summer in obtaining forage for their cattle in winter, collecting it at a distance of twenty-five or thirty miles from the settlement. To obviate this inconvenience, Champlain took an early opportunity to erect a farm-house near the natural meadows at Cape Tourmente, where the cattle could be kept with little attendance, appointing at the same time an overseer for the men, and making a weekly visit to this establishment for personal inspection and oversight.
The fort, which had been erected on the crest of the rocky height in the rear of the dwelling, was obviously too small for the protection of the whole colony in case of an attack by hostile savages. He consequently took it down and erected another on the same spot, with earthworks on the land side, where alone, with difficulty, it could be approached. He also made extensive repairs upon the storehouse and dwelling.
During the winter of 1626-27, the friendly Indians, the Montagnais, Algonquins, and others gave Champlain much anxiety by unadvisedly entering into an alliance, into which they were enticed by bribes, with a tribe dwelling near the Dutch, in the present State of New York, to assist them against their old enemies, the Iroquois, with whom, however, they had for some time been at peace. Champlain justly looked upon this foolish undertaking as hazardous not only to the prosperity of these friendly tribes, but to their very existence. He accordingly sent his brother-in-law to Three Rivers, the rendezvous of the savage warriors, to convince them of their error and avert their purpose. Boullé succeeded in obtaining a delay until all the tribes should be assembled and until the trading vessels should arrive from France. When Émeric de Caen was ready to go to Three Rivers, Champlain urged upon him the great importance of suppressing this impending conflict with the Iroquois. The efforts of De Caen were, however, ineffectual. He forthwith wrote to Champlain that his presence was necessary to arrest these hostile proceedings. On his arrival, a grand council was assembled, and Champlain succeeded, after a full statement of all the evils that must evidently follow, in reversing their decision, and messengers were sent to heal the breach. Some weeks afterward news came that the embassadors were inhumanly massacred.