Count Frontenac: Makers of Canada, Volume 3LeSueur, William Dawson
History
Count Frontenac: Makers of Canada, Volume 3
LeSueur, William Dawson
Canada -- History -- To 1763 (New France); Frontenac, Louis de Buade, comte de, 1620-1698
The vessels which brought out recruits brought also the news that the
exclusive privilege of trade granted to de Monts had been cancelled, or
at least had not been renewed, though de Monts still retained his
position as the king's lieutenant in New France. Champlain was therefore
obliged to return to France in the autumn and discuss matters. Leaving
Quebec on the 5th September he reached Honfleur on the 14th October. He
saw the king, reported progress, and showed him some of the products of
the country. De Monts renewed his efforts to be reinstated in his
privileges, but without success. In the end it was arranged that
Champlain should return to Canada, which he did, leaving Honfleur on the
8th April 1610, and arriving at Quebec early in May. We pass over the
second attack on the Iroquois, made in the month of June of this year,
in which Champlain was slightly wounded. It is interesting, however, to
learn that, on returning from his campaign, he found a piece of land
near his "habitation" at Quebec, which he had brought under
cultivation, yielding good crops of vegetables, Indian corn, wheat,
rye, and barley. He had been much annoyed on reaching Quebec in the
spring to find that no care had been taken of some grape vines that he
had carefully laid down the previous fall. This was but one example of
an indolent neglect only too characteristic, unhappily, of the Quebec
colonists in after years.
Towards the end of this summer grave news arrived. The king, Henry IV,
had fallen under the dagger of an assassin. Champlain and Pontgrave both
thought it desirable to return to France without delay, as it was
impossible to say how their interests might be affected by the change of
government. The only incident of importance, so far as is known, which
happened during Champlain's stay in France on this occasion, was his
marriage to a Protestant young lady named Helen Boulle, whom, on account
of her tender years--she was only twelve years old--he left to grow up
under her father's roof, but who brought him as her dowry a much needed
subsidy of six thousand francs. Thus financially reinforced he sailed
again for Canada in the spring of 1611. He had an appointment to keep,
made the previous year, with certain Indians to meet them at the Grand
Saut (Lachine Rapids) to discuss matters of trade and war. He arrived
there on the 28th May, a few days later than he had said, but found no
Indians. Not being a man to waste time he employed himself while waiting
in prospecting the Island of Montreal and erecting a wall, as the
commencement of a fort, almost on the very spot selected thirty-one
years afterwards by Maisonneuve for the same purpose. It has been
conjectured that, if Champlain had known all the advantages possessed by
Montreal, as compared with Quebec, before he began to construct
buildings at the latter place, Montreal would probably have been the
first capital of New France. This, however, seems hardly probable. It
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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