Voyages of Samuel De Champlain — Volume 01

by Samuel de Champlain

The publication of 1632 is stated by Laverdière to have been reissued in 1640, with a new title and date, but without further changes. This, however, is not found in the National Library at Paris, which contains all the other editions and issues. The copies of the edition of 1632 which we have consulted are in the Harvard College Library and in the Boston Athenaeum.

It is of importance to refer, as we have done, to the particular copy used, for it appears to have been the custom in the case of books printed as early as the above, to keep the type standing, and print issues at intervals, sometimes without any change in the title-page or date, and yet with alterations to some extent in the text. For instance, the copy of the publication of 1613 in the Harvard College Library differs from that in Mrs. Brown's Library, at Providence, in minor points, and particularly in reference to some changes in the small map. The same is true of the publication of 1603. The variations are probably in part owing to the lack of uniformity in spelling at that period.

None of Champlain's works had been reprinted until 1830, when there appeared, in two volumes, a reprint of the publication of 1632, "at the expense of the government, in order to give work to printers." Since then there has been published the elaborate work, with extensive annotations, of the Abbé Laverdière, as follows:—

OEUVRES DE CHAMPLAIN, PUBLIÉES SOUS LE PATRONAGE DE L'UNIVERSITÉ LAVAL. PAR L'ABBÉ C. H. LAVERDIÈRE, M. A. SECONDE ÉDITION. 6 TOMES. 4TO. QUÉBEC: IMPRIMÉ AU SÉMINAIRE PAR GEO. E. DESBARATS. 1870.

This contains all the works of Champlain above mentioned, and the text is a faithful reprint from the early Paris editions. It includes, in addition to this, Champlain's narrative of his voyage to the West Indies, in 1598, of which the following is the title:—

Brief Discovrs des choses plvs remarqvables qve Sammvel Champlain de Brovage a reconneues aux Indes Occidentalles au voiage qu'il en a faict en icelles en l'année mil v[c] iiij.[xx].xix. & en l'année mil vj[c] i. comme ensuit.

This had never before been published in French, although a translation of it had been issued by the Hakluyt Society in 1859. The MS. is the only one of Champlain's known to exist, excepting a letter to Richelieu, published by Laverdière among the "Pièces Justificatives." When used by Laverdière it was in the possession of M. Féret, of Dieppe, but has since been advertised for sale by the Paris booksellers, Maisonneuve & Co., at the price of 15,000 francs, and is now in the possession of M. Pinart.

The volume printed in 1632 has been frequently compared with that of 1613, as if the former were merely a second edition of the latter. But this conveys an erroneous idea of the relation between the two. In the first place, the volume of 1632 contains what is not given in any of the previous publications of Champlain. That is, it extends his narrative over the period from 1620 to 1632. It likewise goes over the same ground that is covered not only by the volume of 1613, but also by the other still later publications of Champlain, up to 1620. It includes, moreover, a treatise on navigation. In the second place, it is an abridgment, and not a second edition in any proper sense. It omits for the most part personal details and descriptions of the manners and customs of the Indians, so that very much that is essential to the full comprehension of Champlain's work as an observer and explorer is gone. Moreover, there seems a to be some internal evidence indicating that this abridgment was not made by Champlain himself, and Laverdière suggests that the work has been tampered with by another hand. Thus, all favorable allusions to the Récollets, to whom Champlain was friendly, are modified or expunged, while the Jesuits are made to appear in a prominent and favorable light. This question has been specially considered by Laverdière in his introduction to the issue of 1632, to which the reader is referred.

The language used by Champlain is essentially the classic French of the time of Henry IV. The dialect or patois of Saintonge, his native province, was probably understood and spoken by him; but we have not discovered any influence of it in his writings, either in respect to idiom or vocabulary. An occasional appearance at court, and his constant official intercourse with public men of prominence at Paris and elsewhere, rendered necessary strict attention to the language he used.

But though using in general the language of court and literature, he offends not unfrequently against the rules of grammar and logical arrangement. Probably his busy career did not allow him to read, much less study, at least in reference to their style, such masterpieces of literature as the "Essais" of Montaigne, the translations of Amyot, or the "Histoire Universelle" of D'Aubigné. The voyages of Cartier he undoubtedly read; but, although superior in point of literary merit to Champlaih's writings, they were, by no-means without their blemishes, nor were they worthy of being compared with the classical authors to which we have alluded. But Champlain's discourse is so straightforward, and the thought so simple and clear, that the meaning is seldom obscure, and his occasional violations of grammar and looseness of style are quite pardonable in one whose occupations left him little time for correction and revision. Indeed, one rather wonders that the unpretending explorer writes so well. It is the thought, not the words, which occupies his attention. Sometimes, after beginning a period which runs on longer than usual, his interest in what he has to narrate seems so completely to occupy him that he forgets the way in which he commenced, and concludes in a manner not in logical accordance with the beginning. We subjoin a passage or two illustrative of his inadvertencies in respect to language. They are from his narrative of the voyage of 1603, and the text of the Paris edition is followed: