Voyages of Samuel de Champlain, vol 1 | Page 5

near
or remote, young Champlain, with his eagle eye and quick ear, was
receiving lessons and influences which were daily shaping his
unfolding capacities, and gradually compacting and crystallizing them
into the firmness and strength of character which he so largely
displayed in after years. His education, such as it was, was of course
obtained during this period. He has himself given us no intimation of
its character or extent. A careful examination of his numerous writings
will, however, render it obvious that it was limited and rudimentary,
scarcely extending beyond the fundamental branches which were then
regarded as necessary in the ordinary transactions of business. As the
result of instruction or association with educated men, he attained to a

good general knowledge of the French language, but was never nicely
accurate or eminently skilful in its use. He evidently gave some
attention in his early years to the study and practice of drawing. While
the specimens of his work that have come down to us are marked by
grave defects, he appears nevertheless to have acquired facility and
some skill in the art, which he made exceedingly useful in the
illustration of his discoveries in the new world.
During Champlain's youth and the earlier years of his manhood, he
appears to have been engaged in practical navigation. In his address to
the Queen [10] he says, "this is the art which in my early years won my
love, and has induced me to expose myself almost all my life to the
impetuous waves of the ocean." That he began the practice of
navigation at an early period may likewise be inferred from the fact that
in 1599 he was put in command of a large French ship of 500 tons,
which had been chartered by the Spanish authorities for a voyage to the
West Indies, of which we shall speak more particularly in the sequel. It
is obvious that he could not have been intrusted with a command so
difficult and of so great responsibility without practical experience in
navigation; and, as it will appear hereafter that he was in the army
several years during the civil war, probably from 1592 to 1598, his
experience in navigation must have been obtained anterior to that, in
the years of his youth and early manhood.
Brouage offered an excellent opportunity for such an employment. Its
port was open to the commerce of foreign nations, and a large number
of vessels, as we have already seen, was employed in the yearly
distribution of the salt of Saintonge, not only in the seaport towns of
France, but in England and on the Continent. In these coasting
expeditions, Champlain was acquiring skill in navigation which was to
be of very great service to him in his future career, and likewise
gathering up rich stores of experience, coming in contact with a great
variety of men, observing their manners and customs, and quickening
and strengthening his natural taste for travel and adventure. It is not
unlikely that he was, at least during some of these years, employed in
the national marine, which was fully employed in guarding the coast
against foreign invasion, and in restraining the power of the Huguenots,

who were firmly seated at Rochelle with a sufficient naval force to give
annoyance to their enemies along the whole western coast of France.
In 1592, or soon after that date, Champlain was appointed
quarter-master in the royal army in Brittany, discharging the office
several years, until, by the peace of Vervins, in 1598, the authority of
Henry IV. was firmly established throughout the kingdom. This war in
Brittany constituted the closing scene of that mighty struggle which had
been agitating the nation, wasting its resources and its best blood for
more than half a century. It began in its incipient stages as far back as a
decade following 1530, when the preaching of Calvin in the Kingdom
of Navarre began to make known his transcendent power. The new
faith, which was making rapid strides in other countries, easily
awakened the warm heart and active temperament of the French. The
principle of private judgment which lies at the foundation of Protestant
teaching, its spontaneity as opposed to a faith imposed by authority,
commended it especially to the learned and thoughtful, while the same
principle awakened the quick and impulsive nature of the masses. The
effort to put down the movement by the extermination of those engaged
in it, proved not only unsuccessful, but recoiled, as usual in such cases,
upon the hand that struck the blow. Confiscations, imprisonments, and
the stake daily increased the number of those which these severe
measures were intended to diminish. It was impossible to mark its
progress. When at intervals all was calm and placid on the surface, at
the same time,