VOYAGES
By CHARLES POMEROY OTIS




CHAMPLAIN'S VOYAGES.

VOYAGES OF SAMUEL DE CHAMPLAIN.

TRANSLATED FROM THE FRENCH

By CHARLES POMEROY OTIS, Ph.D.

WITH HISTORICAL ILLUSTRATIONS, and a MEMOIR

By the REV. EDMUND F. SLAFTER, A.M.

VOL. I. 1567-1635

FIVE ILLUSTRATIONS.

Editor: The REV EDMUND F SLAFTER, A.M.




PREFACE

The labors and achievements of the navigators and explorers, who visited
our coasts between the last years of the fifteenth and the early years of
the seventeenth centuries, were naturally enough not fully appreciated by
their contemporaries, nor were their relations to the future growth of
European interests and races on this continent comprehended in the age in
which they lived. Numberless events in which they were actors, and personal
characteristics which might have illustrated and enriched their history,
were therefore never placed upon record. In intimate connection with the
career of Cabot, Cartier, Roberval, Ribaut, LaudonniГЁre, Gosnold, Pring,
and Smith, there were vast domains of personal incident and interesting
fact over which the waves of oblivion have passed forever. Nor has
Champlain been more fortunate than the rest. In studying his life and
character, we are constantly finding ourselves longing to know much where
we are permitted to know but little. His early years, the processes of his
education, his home virtues, his filial affection and duty, his social and
domestic habits and mode of life, we know imperfectly; gathering only a few
rays of light here and there in numerous directions, as we follow him along
his lengthened career. The reader will therefore fail to find very much
that he might well desire to know, and that I should have been but too
happy to embody in this work. In the positive absence of knowledge, this
want could only be supplied from the field of pure imagination. To draw
from this source would have been alien both to my judgment and to my taste.

But the essential and important events of Champlain's public career are
happily embalmed in imperishable records. To gather these up and weave them
into an impartial and truthful narrative has been the simple purpose of my
present attempt. If I have succeeded in marshalling the authentic deeds and
purposes of his life into a complete whole, giving to each undertaking and
event its true value and importance, so that the historian may more easily
comprehend the fulness of that life which Champlain consecrated to the
progress of geographical knowledge, to the aggrandizement of France, and to
the dissemination of the Christian faith in the church of which he was a
member, I shall feel that my aim has been fully achieved.

The annotations which accompany Dr. Otis's faithful and scholarly
translation are intended to give to the reader such information as he may
need for a full understanding of the text, and which he could not otherwise
obtain without the inconvenience of troublesome, and, in many instances, of
difficult and perplexing investigations. The sources of my information are
so fully given in connection with the notes that no further reference to
them in this place is required.

In the progress of the work, I have found myself under great obligations to
numerous friends for the loan of rare books, and for valuable suggestions
and assistance. The readiness with which historical scholars and the
custodians of our great depositories of learning have responded to my
inquiries, and the cordiality and courtesy with which they have uniformly
proffered their assistance, have awakened my deepest gratitude. I take this
opportunity to tender my cordial thanks to those who have thus obliged and
aided me. And, while I cannot spread the names of all upon these pages, I
hasten to mention, first of all, my friend, Dr. Otis, with whom I have been
so closely associated, and whose courteous manner and kindly suggestions
have rendered my task always an agreeable one. I desire, likewise, to
mention Mr. George Lamb, of Boston, who has gratuitously executed and
contributed a map, illustrating the explorations of Champlain; Mr. Justin
Winsor, of the Library of Harvard College; Mr. Charles A. Cutter, of the
Boston Athenaeum; Mr. John Ward Dean, of the Library of the New England
Historic Genealogical Society; Mrs. John Carter Brown, of Providence,
R. I.; Miss S. E. Dorr, of Boston; Monsieur L. Delisle, Directeur GГ©nГ©ral
de la BibliothГЁque Nationale, of Paris; M. Meschinet De Richemond,
Archiviste de la Charente InfГ©rieure, La Rochelle, France; the Hon. Charles
H. Bell, of Exeter, N. H.; Francis Parkman, LL.D., of Boston; the AbbГ© H.
R. Casgrain, of RiviГЁre Ouelle, Canada; John G. Shea, LL.D., of New York;
Mr. James M. LeMoine, of Quebec; and Mr. George Prince, of Bath, Maine.

I take this occasion to state for the information of the members of the
Prince Society, that some important facts contained in the Memoir had not
been