The Founder of New France : A chronicle of Champlain | Page 7

to him from his successful
voyage to the West Indies. He and De Chastes concluded an agreement,
the king's assent was specially given, and in the early spring of 1603
the founder of New France began his first voyage to the St Lawrence.
Champlain was now definitely committed to the task of gaining for

France a foothold in North America. This was to be his steady purpose,
whether fortune frowned or smiled. At times circumstances seemed
favourable; at other times they were most disheartening. Hence, if we
are to understand his life and character, we must consider, however
briefly, the conditions under which he worked.
It cannot be said that Champlain was born out of his right time. His
active years coincide with the most important, most exciting period in
the colonial movement. At the outset Spain had gone beyond all rivals
in the race for the spoils of America. The first stage was marked by
unexampled and spectacular profits. The bullion which flowed from
Mexico and Peru was won by brutal cruelty to native races, but Europe
accepted it as wealth poured forth in profusion from the mines. Thus
the first conception of a colony was that of a marvellous treasure-house
where gold and silver lay piled up awaiting the arrival of a Cortez or a
Pizarro.
Unhappily disillusion followed. Within two generations from the time
of Columbus it became clear that America did not yield bonanza to
every adventurer. Yet throughout the sixteenth century there survived
the dream of riches to be quickly gained. Wherever the European
landed in America he looked first of all for mines, as Frobisher did on
the unpromising shores of Labrador. The precious metals proving
illusive, his next recourse was to trade. Hawkins sought his profit from
slaves. The French bought furs from the Indians at Tadoussac. Gosnold
brought back from Cape Cod a mixed cargo of sassafras and cedar.
But wealth from the mines and profits from a coasting trade were only
a lure to the cupidity of Europe. Real colonies, containing the germ of a
nation, could not be based on such foundations. Coligny saw this, and
conceived of America as a new home for the French race. Raleigh, the
most versatile of the Elizabethans, lavished his wealth on the patriotic
endeavour to make Virginia a strong and self-supporting community. 'I
shall yet live to see it an English nation,' he wrote--at the very moment
when Champlain was first dreaming of the St Lawrence. Coligny and
Raleigh were both constructive statesmen. The one was murdered
before he could found such a colony as his thought presaged: the other

perished on the scaffold, though not before he had sowed the seed of an
American empire. For Raleigh was the first to teach that agriculture,
not mines, is the true basis of a colony. In itself his colony on Roanoke
Island was a failure, but the idea of Roanoke was Raleigh's greatest
legacy to the English race.
With the dawn of the seventeenth century events came thick and fast. It
was a time when the maritime states of Western Europe were all keenly
interested in America, without having any clear idea of the problem.
Raleigh, the one man who had a grasp of the situation, entered upon his
tragic imprisonment in the same year that Champlain made his first
voyage to the St Lawrence. But while thought was confused and policy
unsettled, action could no longer be postponed. The one fact which
England, France, and Holland could not neglect was that to the north of
Florida no European colony existed on the American coast. Urging
each of these states to establish settlements in a tract so vast and
untenanted was the double desire to possess and to prevent one's
neighbour from possessing. On the other hand, caution raised doubts as
to the balance of cost and gain. The governments were ready to accept
the glory and advantage, if private persons were prepared to take the
risk. Individual speculators, very conscious of the risk, demanded a
monopoly of trade before agreeing to plant a colony. But this caused
new difficulty. The moment a monopoly was granted, unlicensed
traders raised an outcry and upbraided the government for injustice.
Such were the problems upon the successful or unsuccessful solution of
which depended enormous national interests, and each country faced
them according to its institutions, rulers, and racial genius. It only
needs a table of events to show how fully the English, the French, and
the Dutch realized that something must be done. In 1600 Pierre
Chauvin landed sixteen French colonists at Tadoussac. On his return in
1601 he found that they had taken refuge with the Indians. In 1602
Gosnold, sailing from Falmouth, skirted the coast of Norumbega from
Casco Bay to Cuttyhunk. In 1603 the ships of