Champlain , Samuel de (1567-1635) American National Biography v.4 NY: OXford, 1999 652 CHAMPLAIN maintain the old system of procurement. As a result Trumbull and C.J Hoadly, eds., Public Records of the Colony many producers started to cut back on their herds and of Connecticut, 1636-1776 (15 vols., 1850-1890); and C. Champion quickly lost the capacity to provide the Hoadly et al., eds., Public Records of the State of Connecticut troops with meat. (1894). A short life of Colonel Champion has been published in Encyclopedia of Connecticut Biography; Genealogical-Memo- Though designated as purchaser for the eastern de- rial (10 vols., 1917), but the best secondary treatment of his partment by the new commissary general, Ephraim career is Chester M. Destler, "Colonel Henry Champion, Blaine, and by the Connecticut General Assembly in Revolutionary Commissary," The Connecticut Historical Soci- 1780, Champion was forced to rely principally on taxa- ety Bulletin 36 (1971): 52-64. Destler's Connecticut: The Pro- tion in kind for what little meat he was able to procure visions State (1973) also refers frequently to Champion. for the army during the remainder of the war. Cham- RICHARD BUEL, JR. pion's sons, Henry, Jr., and Epaphroditus, had more success acting as Wadsworth's agents in supplying the CHAMPLAIN, Samuel de (c. 1567-1570-25 Dec. French expeditionary force under Jean Baptiste Dona- 1635), explorer and colonizer, probably was born at tien Rochambeau's command. Since the French had Brouage, Saintonge (Charente-Maritime), France, the money with which to pay for their supplies, the Cham- son of Anthoine de Champlain, allegedly a naval cap- pions simply reactivated their father's old purchasing tain, and Dame Margueritte Le Roy. Champlain may system for the French. They also participated as sub- have been baptized a Huguenot, but if so he was early contractors in the contracts let by Robert Morris converted to the Church of Rome. Little is known of (1734-1806) for provisioning the army in 1782. But in his early years except that he acquired the skills of a the later phases of the war Champion's agents proved draftsman and cartographer. In 1632 he declared that less effective because of Congress's inability to make he had served in Brittany for several years (until 1598) effective provision for the enormous debts they had with the army of Henri IV against the Catholic League previously contracted. in the French Wars of Religion. Yet, when the Span- After the war Champion retired to private life in ish army occupying Britanny returned to Spain at the Colchester. Few clues remain in the surviving docu- end of those wars, Champlain went with them, for in mentation about his personality, suggesting a secretive 1601 he was in Cadiz. In 1603 he accompanied Fran- streak, perhaps motivated by a desire to protect the çois Gravé Du Pont on a fur-trading venture up the St, centralized character of his procurement system from Lawrence River to Tadoussac at the mouth of the Sag- political jealousies. But he was obviously well known uenay. It had become the customary summer rendez- and well regarded by the Trumbull family in neigh- vous for European traders and the Montagnais Indi- boring Lebanon as well as by Jeremiah Wadsworth. In ans, who provided furs in exchange for metal goods, 1746 he had married Deborah Brainard, with whom cloth, and trinkets. he had nine children, six of whom grew to maturity. During the few weeks that he was there Champlain Though Champion remained prominent locally as made brief trips up the Saguenay and Richelieu rivers and the St. Lawrence as far as the island of Montreal. deacon of the Westchester Society church and occa- sionally represented the town in the General Assem- By somehow questioning the Indians he encountered, bly, his energies after the war took a more private with the aid of French interpreters whose command of turn, focusing on the building of a family house that the Montagnais language could hardly have been com- still stands. After Deborah's death in 1789 Champion prehensive, Champlain managed to gain a remarkably married Sarah Brainard Lewis in 1791. She outlived accurate concept of the geography of the northeastern him by more than twenty years. When he died, his es- third of the continent; of a large bay to the north, soon to be named Hudson Bay; and of the Great Lakes. He tate was appraised at $48,933.61. The sum suggests that Champion was a merchant of above average pros- then leapt to the conclusion that these lakes would prove to be the ardently desired water route across the perity, but it was hardly the princely estate of which continent to the Pacific Ocean and thence to the riches his enemies and critics throughout the war had repeat- of Cathay. He subsequently declared to Louis XIII edly accused him of accumulating through self-inter- that were the French to control this route they could ested extravagance in procurement. charge customs tolls for its use. Every maritime nation The Connecticut Historical Society holds a small collection in Europe would have to pay rather than make the of Henry Champion Papers, but they pertain mostly to a long, dangerous voyage around Africa or South Amer- prominent son's rather than to the colonel's life. Important ica. This was a chimera that would endure among the fragments of Colonel Champion's correspondence can be French down to the mid-eighteenth century. found in the Joseph Trumbull Papers and Jeremiah Wads- Champlain subsequently published journals of his worth Papers in the Connecticut Historical Society, Hart- voyages and experience in New France. They were ford; in the Jonathan Trumbull Papers and Connecticut written for a gullible French audience unable to check Archives Revolutionary War Series in the Connecticut State Library, Hartford; and in the papers of the Continental Con- their accuracy and were manifestly intended to en- gress and the George Washington Papers in the Library of hance his reputation and advance his career by im- Congress. In addition, the Connecticut State Library has a pressing influential personages at the royal court. Not manuscript journal and some accounts pertaining to his serv- everything that he wrote can be accepted at face value, ice as a company officer during the Seven Years' War. His yet they are one of the few sources that we have for the public career is best traced in the relevant volumes of J. H. period. CHAMPLAIN 653 he Colony On their return to France, Du Pont and Champlain party at what came to be known as Crown Point and C. J. paused at Gaspé, where they learned from the Indians (Pointe à la Chevelure). Champlain's account of what connecticut of a land to the south, with a more agreeable climate then ensued stretches credulity beyond all reasonable published than that at Tadoussac. They were shown tantalizing limits. He states that the two parties agreed to give bat- al-Memo- pieces of copper and silver, imagined mines to equal tle the next day. Champlain also claims that he and his ent of his those of Mexico and Peru, and were told of great bays two companions, with their clumsy matchlock mus- hampion, rical Soci- and rivers that surely had to lead to the Pacific. Thus kets, enabled his grossly outnumbered allies to rout The Pro- when Pierre du Gua de Monts received a commission the Mohawks. If so, it was a costly victory for the ion. as lieutenant general of New France and a monopoly French. Later, first the Dutch and then the English BUEL, JR. of its trade on condition that he establish a permanent established themselves in the area and became allies of settlement there, Champlain apparently persuaded the Iroquois. -25 Dec. him to base it on the Atlantic coast, in what came to be Champlain then returned to France to regain finan- born at called Acadia.. cial backing for the Canadian enterprise. The follow- ince, the In 1604 de Monts, accompanied by Champlain, es- ing year he was back at Quebec, where he took part in aval cap- tablished a base on an island at the mouth of the Saint- an attack on a marauding Iroquois war party. Accord- lain may Croix River. It was a poor choice because it lacked ing to his account, the Iroquois were defeated with vas early fresh water and firewood; thirty-five of the seventy- heavy losses. His account of this and other events leave nown of nine men who wintered there died of scurvy. When the reader with the impression that there was no lan- kills of a the Bay of Fundy was free of ice in the spring, the sur- guage barrier. ared that vivors moved to an inlet on the south side of the bay, In August he sailed again for France, where on 30 til 1598) where they established a base that they named Port- December 1610, in his forties, he married Hélène 2 League Royal. Champlain remained there for three years. Boullé, aged twelve, with the understanding that the ne Span- While there he established North America's first gas- marriage would not be consummated until two years in at the tronomic society, the Order of Good Cheer. He also hence. The 6,000 livres dowry was what mattered. n, for in systematically mapped the coast south as far as Cape During these years he spent a few summer months in ed Fran- Cod. He ventured up a large river flowing from the Canada, more months in France, and three or more p the St. north that he named the Saint-Jean and somehow going back and forth. In France he assembled mer- the Sag- gathered from the Indians that it was a route to the St. chants willing to finance the commercial base at Que- rendez- Lawrence. That filled in another gap in the map of the bec. At Quebec he had to whip lazy workers into doing ais Indi- continent that he was forming in his mind. the work that they had neglected in his absence, such il goods, De Monts's trade monopoly was revoked in 1607, as repairing old buildings and restoring damaged rela- and he gave up on Port-Royal. The following year he tions with the Indian allies. amplain made another attempt to establish a secure base for the In 1613 Champlain embarked on a voyage up the eu rivers fur trade, this time farther up the St. Lawrence, where river of the Ottawas to Huronia but got no farther than Montreal. interloping fur traders could be forestalled. In 1608 Lac aux Allumettes. He mapped the Ottawa River, untered, Champlain chose a site where the St. Lawrence nar- which was the main route to the west for two centu- mand of rows to a cannon shot in width. It came to be called ries. een com- Quebec. Here, too, scurvy took its toll. Of the twenty- Back in France later that year he persuaded the markably five men who wintered there, sixteen died, but the Recollet branch of the Franciscan order to send four heastern base was maintained. Everything that followed in New missionaries to Canada. He accompanied them to rth, soon France was built on it. Quebec in 1615 and then set off with two of his men on akes. He Champlain's main aims in life were to explore and his epic voyage to the country of the Hurons south of es would map that part of the world, find a viable water route Georgian Bay. Once there, fulfilling his promise to cross the across it, and convert the Indians to Christianity. support them in their war with the Iroquois, he ac- he riches These objectives depended on a commercial alliance companied a war party in an attack on a village south uis XIII with the northern Indian nations, which could supply of Lake Ontario. It failed dismally. This Champlain ey could the furs that would finance the entire enterprise. attributed to the Hurons' failure to heed his orders. ne nation These nations, Montagnais, Algonquin, Huron, Nip- During the affray he received two arrow wounds in the nake the issing, and Ojibway, demanded military support in leg and had to be carried by a Huron warrior for some th Amer- their interminable war with the Iroquois Confederacy. days during the retreat to Huronia. nong the It was for this reason that in June 1609 Champlain Champlain spent that winter with the Hurons, ac- with two of his men set out with a war party of some quiring much knowledge of their country, customs, als of his sixty Indians on a sortie into the country of the Mo- way of life, and religious beliefs. He never made an hey were hawks. They ascended the Richelieu River to a lake attempt to comprehend their sophisticated cosmology. to check that Champlain named after himself. The Indians ex- Since they had no edifice set aside for worship, he as- d to en- plained, likely by means of crude maps drawn on sumed that they had no religion. Nor did he make an r by im- birch bark with a charred stick, that they could go attempt to master any Indian language; always he re- ourt. Not from that lake to yet another and thence to a river that lied on interpreters who were of dubious competence. ce value, flowed down to the ocean. He wanted to discover what lay west of Huronia, but ve for the Late at night, according to Champlain's account, he the Hurons were at war with the nations there and and his Indian allies encountered a large Iroquois war would not allow the French to have any dealings with 654 CHAMPLIN them. Thus the map that he eventually produced was Laye in 1632. The following year Champlain returned largely a product of his imagination. to Quebec as Richelieu's acting governor once more. Back in France Champlain found that the prince de There he had first to repair the depredations of the Condé, viceroy of New France, was incarcerated in the Kirkes' men; they had not been good tenants, and all Bastille; his company, the Compagnie des Marchands had to be rebuilt. de Rouen et de Saint-Malo, in disarray. Champlain In 1635 Champlain's health failed. Paralyzed, his had been stripped of his lieutenancy. He may have vis- mind obviously gone, he dictated a new will bequeath- ited Quebec briefly in 1717, but he was back in Paris ing all his possessions to the Virgin Mary. He died in that July. The following February he presented his fa- Quebec. His will was annulled two years later. mous reports to the king and the chamber of com- Champlain, an intrepid navigator and explorer and merce. In them he espoused a grand colonizing policy, a skilled geographer and cartographer, was the first the establishment of a town at Quebec with 300 fami- person to map the Atlantic coast from Newfoundland lies, a garrison of 300 soldiers, and 15 Recollet mis- to Cape Cod and the eastern Great Lakes. He estab- sionaries. Thus France would control access to a vast lished an enduring alliance with the northern Indian country, the pagans would be converted to Christiani- nations and laid the foundations on which others built ty, and wealth would pour into the kingdom from the a vast, if short-lived, empire. country's fish, timber, silver, iron, copper, precious stones, and furs. Most important, the wealth to be gar- The best edition of Champlain's works is The Works of nered once the short water route to China was found Samuel de Champlain, ed. H. P. Biggar (6 vols., 1922-1936). That series provides the best available French text with an would surpass all the rest combined. The chamber was English translation. There is no good biography of Cham- persuaded, and the king gave the proposal his sup- plain. That by Narcisse-Eutrope Dionne, Samuel de Cham- port. plain, fondateur de Québec et père de la Nouvelle-France. His- Champlain spent a few weeks at Quebec that sum- toire de sa vie et de ses voyages (2 vols., 1891-1906), as the title mer but had to spend the following two years in indicates, is hagiographic and also outdated. Morris B. Bish- France combating the chicanery of his associates in the op, Champlain, the Life of Fortitude (1948), is hagiography, a trading company. When the duc de Montmorency, mixture of facts and fiction, but very readable. Samuel Eliot admiral of France, succeeded Condé as viceroy of New Morison, Samuel de Champlain: Father of New France (1972), is another hagiographic work riddled with misconceptions. France, he confirmed Champlain's commission as his The best work in English on Champlain and his times is con- lieutenant and appointed him commandant of the col- tained in Marcel Trudel, The Beginnings of New France 1524- ony. From this time on he devoted himself to that task. 1663, trans. Patricia Claxton (1973), a condensation of the In July 1620 Champlain, accompanied by his wife, first four volumes of Trudel's magisterial Histoire de la Nou- was at Quebec, where he tried to resolve disputes be- velle-France (1963-1983). An excellent study of Champlain's tween rival trading factions, curb the depredations of mysterious Brief Discours is Luca Codignola, "Samuel de interlopers, and mend French relations with the Indi- Champlain et les mystères de son voyage aux Indes occiden- ans. Somehow he managed to keep this flicker of tales, 1599-1601. L'état de la recherche et quelques routes à French imperialism alive in North America. Four suivre," in La découverte de nouveaux mondes: aventures et voy years later he and his wife were back in France. Hé- ages imaginaires au XVIIe siècle. Actes du XXIIe Colloque du Centre Méridional de Rencontres sur le XVIIe Siècle, ed. Cecil- lène, who had had her fill of the American wilderness, ia Rizza (1992). never returned to Canada, but in 1626 Champlain was Robert le Blant and Rene Baudry, Nouveaux documents sur back at Quebec coping with a multitude of mundane Champlain et son époque, vol. 1, 1560-1622 (1967), is an im- problems. portant collection. Other sources are Reuben Gold Thwaites, At long last, in 1627 someone competent took ed., The Fesuit Relations and Allied Documents (73 vols., charge of the French colonial enterprise. It was Cardi- 1896-1901). Marc Lescarbot was a contemporary of Cham- nal Richelieu, the king's first minister. He established plain's in Acadia. His Histoire de la was pub- the Compagnie de la Nouvelle-France (commonly lished in 1609. It appeared with an English translation, notes, and appendices by W.L Grant as The History of New France known as the Compagnie des Cent-Associés) with 100 vols., 1907-1914). An intriguing contemporary account of associate members, each of whom invested 3,000 li- a sojourn with the Hurons in Champlain's day is Gabriel Sa- vres in the venture. Champlain was one of them and, gard, Le Grand Voyage du pays des Hurons. The best edition is while Richelieu retained the title of governor, Cham- that edited and annotated by Réal Quellet and Jack Warwick plain was duly appointed acting governor of New (1990). France. The settlers in Canada and Acadia were esti- WILLIAM ECCLES mated to number 107; to the south the Dutch and English numbered at least 2,600. Thus it was that in CHAMPLIN, Stephen (17 Nov. 1789-20 Feb. 1870), 1629 Champlain was forced to surrender Quebec to a naval officer, was born in South Kingston, Rhode Is- force of Anglo-Scottish freebooters led by the Kirke land, the son of Stephen Champlin and Elizabeth Per- brothers. Champlain was taken prisoner to England, ry. His parents' occupations are unknown. He was where he discovered that peace had been declared be- cousin to the celebrated commodores Oliver Hazard tween England and France before he had surrendered Perry and Matthew Calbraith Perry. Champlin resid- Quebec. In France, at his urging, Richelieu and the ed on a farm in Lebanon, Connecticut, until he ran king obliged England to restore Canada and Acadia to away to join the merchant marine at the age of sixteen. France as a term of the Treaty of Saint-Germain-en- By 1806 he had completed several cruises to Deme-