EDITOR'S INTRODUCTION

A
GOOD captain,' wrote Champlain, 'must be hardy
a ~ d active, possess good sea-legs, and prove himself
untiring at his work, so that whatever happens he
may be able to appear on deck, and in a loud voice issue
orders to his crew. Occasionally he should not disdain to
lend a hand himself. He should know his vessel's hull, and
also have some experience of her sailing qualities. He should
see that the store-rooms are dry, that the stores are of good
quality and sufficient in quantity, with too much rather
than too little, since the length of the voyage is dependent
entirely upon the weather. Prayers should be held night
and morning, and the routine of the day carried out in an
orderly manner. The decks must be well scrubbed and the
ship kept clean after the manner of the Dutch, who therein
surpass all other sea-faring nations.
' In converse a captain should be quiet and affable, but
peremptory in his orders, and on not too familiar terms with
his ship's company except with the officers. Disobedience
he should punish severely, but he should encourage good
behaviour, both by showing affection and by the grant of an
occasional favour.
' He should keep a compass of his own, and should
consult it frequently to see that the right course is. being
steered. He must also make sure that every man of each
watch is doing his duty. Night he must turn into day and
remain on duty the greater part of each night, lying down
always in his clothes, ready in case of an accident to appear
on deck quickly. Should an accident happen, the captain
must give proof of a manly courage, and even in the face of
death make light of this, and issuing his orders in a calm
voice incite each to be courageous and to do everything
possible to clear the danger.'
.
XIV EDITOR'S INTRODUCTION
Such a captain in all probability was Champlain himself,
who in his Treaty of Navigation here quoted doubtless drew
a picture of the ideal at which he also had aimed. Of his
early life we know nothing beyond what he tells us at the
beginning of his West Indian voyage, printed on pages 3-80
of this volume. He made his first voyage to Canada appar-
ently in 1 6 ~ , the account of which, published in Paris on
his return, is here printed on pages 83-189.
From 1604 to 1607 Champlain was engaged from Monts'
headquarters on Ste. Croix island and at Port Royal in
exploring and mapping the Acadian and New England
coast as far south as Stage harbour in Nantucket Sound.
His account of these explorations, which forms Book I of the
work published by him at Paris in 1613, completes this first
volume (pp. 207-469).
The remainder of that work will form volume II of this
present edition. Champlain therein describes the foundation
of Quebec in 1608, his fight with the Iroquois on Lake Cham-
plain in July, 1609, his visits to the St. Lawrence in the
summers of 1610 and 1611, and finally his journey in 1613
up the Ottawa river as far as Allumette island.
Champlain's fourth work, published at Paris in 1619,
will be reprinted in our third volume. In this he gives a
description of his visits to the Hurons near Lake Simcoe
in the summer of 1615, of their expedition across Lake
Ontario against the Iroquois in that autumn, of his winter
in the Huron country, and of his return to France in 1616,
with an account of his visit to the St. Lawrence in the
summer of 1618. This third volume will also contain the
first two books of Part I of the collected edition of his dis-
coveries, which Champlain brought out at Paris in 1632.
The remainder of Part I of that work will form volum;;-IV
of this new edition, while Part II will be reprinted in volumes
V and VI. This second part of the 1632 edition contains
an account of events in New France from 1620 to 1632,
EDITOR'S XV
including the capture of Quebec by the English in 1629,
and its restoration to France in 1632 by the treaty of St.
Germain-en-Laye. Chan1plain did not return to Quebec
till the summer of 1633, and died there on Christmas Day
1635
Well has Champlain earned for himself title of ' Father
of New France.' From 1603, when he first visited the St.
until his death he devoted all his energies and all
his thoughts to the discovery, occupation, and colonisation of
that country His works dispelled the darkness in which
hitherto New France had been enshrouded. By his letters to
the king, to Richelieu, and to the Chamber of Commerce he
endeavoured in every way to further the development of this
colony, which he explored from the Bay of Fundy on the east
to Lake Huron on the west, and from Lake Champlain in
the south to Lake Nipissing in the north.
That Champlain's achievements are not more familiar
to English-speaking Canadians must be attributed in part to
the absence hitherto of any complete version of his works in
English. French-Canadians on the other hand have at their
disposal the excellent edition of Champlain's works published
in 1870 under the auspices of Laval University, by the
late Abbe C. H. Laverdiere. That scholar spared neither
time, trouble, nor labour to make his edition worthy in every
respect of the founder of Quebec. When the text was ready
for the press 2 fire unfortunately destroyed the building in
which it was being printed. One proof was saved, and with
this editor and publisher courageously set to work again.
The result was the so-called second edition published at
Quebec by George E. Desbarats in 1870, which does so
much honour alike to the editor and to the publisher.
1
That
1 CEuvres de Champlain, publiees so us le pat'Yonage de l' Univet'sitl
Laval, par l'abbe C. H. Laverdiere, M.A., Professeur d'histoire a Ia Faculte
des Arts et Bibliothecaire de l'Universite. Seconde edition. Quebec :
Imprime au Seminaire par Geo. E. Desbarats. 1870. 6 vols in-quarto.
VOL. I. b
.
XVI EDITOR'S INTRODUCTION
edition has always enjoyed everywhere a deservedly high
reputation.
1
Hitherto, only portions of Champlain's works have
appeared in English. Samuel Purchas in I625 translated
the Des Sauvages of I603
2
and that translation has been
frequently reprinted.
3
In I859 the Hakluyt Society brought
out an English version of the West Indian voyage,
4
the French
text of which was first printed in I87o by Laverdiere.
5
Between I 878 and I 882 the Prince Society of Boston issued
translations by C. P. Otis of the volumes published by Cham-
plain at Paris in I6I3 and I6I9,
6
but no portion of the I632
collected edition of Champlain's travels ever appeared in
English until 1906, when Mrs. E. G. Bourne translated Part I
of this work, with the exception of the last chapter.
7
This
chapter and the whole of Part II of that work will thus appear
in English for the first time in volumes V and VI of the present
edition. The last volume will also contain Champlain's
'Treatise on Navigation, a work never yet done into English.
1
Cf. Abbe Auguste Gosselin, Le vrai monument de Champlain : ses
CEuvres editees par Laverdiere in the Transactions of the Royal Society of
Canada. 3rd ser. II. i. 2-23. Ottawa. 1908.
1
Purchas, His Pilgrimes, the fourth part, I605-I6Ig. London,
1625.
a In the Prince Society's edition, I. 225-291 (Boston. 1881); in
A. N. Bourne, The Voyages and Explorations of Santuel de Champlain,
ii. 149-229 (New York. 1906) ; and in the reprint of Purchas, op. cit.,
xviii. 188-226 (Glasgow. 1906).
' Narrative of a Voyage to the West Indies and Mexico in the years 1599-
1602, translated b ~ r Alice Wilmere; edited by Norton Shaw. London
(Hakluyt Society). 1859.
6
Laverdiere, op. cit. i. 1-48, with 62 plates.
1
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. Shafter, A.M. 3 vols. Boston: The Prince
Society. 1878, 188o and 1882. In 1907 Mr. W. L. Grant reissued this
translation in his Voyages of Samuel de Champlain 1604-1618, published
by Charles Scribner's Sons, in the series of Original Narratives of Early
American Histcwy, edited by J. Franklin Jameson, LL.D.
' The Voyages and Explorations of Samuel de Champlain (1604-1616)
Na,ated by himself, translated by Annie Nettleton Bourne, with intro-
duction and notes by Edward Gaylord Bourne. 2 vols. New York:
A. S. Barnes & Co. (The Trail Makers Series). 1906.
EDITOR'S INTRODUCTION
..
XVll
For this first translation of the second part of the 163 2
edition of Champlain's travels the Society is indebted to the
late Mr. W. D. LeSueur of Ottawa, whose death is deeply
regretted by all friends of Canadian historical studies. Our
Society has also to deplore the loss of Professor P. Cultru
of the Sorbonne at Paris, who was to edit these French texts.
His duties have been undertaken and his methods adopted
by Professor J. Home Cameron of the University of Toronto,
to whose industry and care the accuracy of the texts here
printed is entirely due.
Only one of Champlain's works has come down to us in
manuscript, and that is his West Indian voyage of 1599,
the MS. of which is now preserved in the John Carter Brown
Library at Providence, R.I. Through the kindness of Mr.
George Parker Winship, photostats were made of the whole
of this MS., and with these the text here printed has been
carefully collated. Miss Gertrude Robson, the Assistant
Librarian, has also been good enough to compare the proof
with the original MS. Furthermore the Committee of
Management, as an exceptional privilege, allowed this precious
MS. to be taken to Boston so that reproductions in colour
might be made of the sixty-two illustrations reproduced in
the portfolio. For this great favour the members of the
Champlain Society are under a deep debt of gratitude to the
Library Trustees. Our thanks are also due to :M;r. William
Fawcett, late Director of Public Gardens at Jamaica, for his
kindness in identifying the fauna and flora mentioned in
that work.
The text of the Des Sauvages is here printed from the
original volume, copies of which are to be found in the British
Museum, the Bibliotheque Nationale and the Bibliotheque
Sainte-Genevieve at Paris. The Bibliotheque Nationale also -
possesses a unique copy bearing the date 1604, wherein many
of the printer's errors of the original have been corrected.
Variant readings in this 1604 edition have been indicated in
the notes to the text here printed.
XVlll EDITOR'S INTRODUCTION
The text of Book I of the work published by Champlain
at Paris in 1613 has been printed from the original edition,
copies of which are to be found in most important libraries,
even as far afield as Canada. Variants in the texts of the
copies examined have been indicated in the notes.
From the above texts have been made the translations.
The West Indian voyage and the Des Sauvages have been
translated with great care by Mr. H. H. Langton, the Lib-
rarian of the University of Toronto, while Book I of the
1613 edition has been done into English afresh by Professor
W. F. Ganong, of Smith College, Northampton, Mass., who
has also compiled maps of all the harbours charted by
Champlain. The members of the Society are most fortunate
in being able thus to compare Champlain's maps with modern
drawings of the same localities. Professor Ganong has also
drawn the large general map (Plate LXXXII) to illustrate
the travels of Champlain set forth in this volume. It is
with great pleasure that the editor acknowledges also the
valuable help received from Professor Ganong towards the
solution of the many difficult problems connected with
Champlain's explorations. He wishes to thank also Mr.
L. G. Carr Laughton, O.B.E., for help in identifying the
types of vessels of that period. The collaborators have done
their work well and deserve the thanks of the members of
the Society.. The editor alone is to blame for any errors
that may exist.
On the completion of the publication of this new edition
it is hoped to bring out a supplementary volume containing
the original texts of Champlain's letters and papers, any
contemporary documents bearing upon his career, and a
general index to the whole work. Possibly a detailed
biography may also be included.
TR.USCA,
GonALMING, SuRREY,
8 7une, 1921
H. P. BIGGAR