Voyages of Samuel de Champlain, vol 2 | Page 2

the King in the Marine.
OR,
_A MOST FAITHFUL JOURNAL OF OBSERVATIONS made in the
exploration of New France, describing not only the countries, coasts,
rivers, ports, and harbors, with their latitudes and the various
deflections of the Magnetic Needle, but likewise the religious belief of
the inhabitants, their superstitions, mode of life and warfare; furnished
with numerous illustrations_.
Together with two geographical maps: the first for the purposes of
navigation, adapted to the compass as used by mariners, which deflects
to the north-east; the other in its true meridian, with longitudes and
latitudes, to which is added the Voyage to the Strait north of Labrador,
from the 53d to the 63d degree of latitude, discovered in 1612 by the
English when they were searching for a northerly course to China.
PARIS.
JEAN BERJON,
Rue St. Jean de Beauvais, at the Flying Horse, and at his store in the
Palace, at the gallery of the Prisoners.
MDCXIII.
WITH AUTHORITY OF THE KING.

TO THE KING.
_Sire,
Your Majesty has doubtless full knowledge of the discoveries made in
your service in New France, called Canada, through the descriptions,
given by certain Captains and Pilots, of the voyages and discoveries
made there during the past eighty years. These, however, present
nothing so honorable to your Kingdom, or so profitable to the service
of your Majesty and your subjects, as will, I doubt not, the maps of the

coasts, harbors, rivers, and the situation of the places described in this
little treatise, which I make bold to address to your Majesty, and which
is entitled a Journal of Voyages and Discoveries, which I have made in
connection with Sieur de Monts, your Lieutenant in New France. This I
do, feeling myself urged by a just sense of the honor I have received
during the last ten years in commissions, not only, Sire, from your
Majesty, but also from the late king, Henry the Great, of happy
memory, who commissioned me to make the most exact researches and
explorations in my power. This I have done, and added, moreover, the
maps contained in this little book, where I have set forth in particular
the dangers to which one would be liable. The subjects of your Majesty,
whom you may be pleased hereafter to employ for the preservation of
what has been discovered, will be able to avoid those dangers through
the knowledge afforded by the maps contained in this treatise, which
will serve as an example in your kingdom for increasing the glory of
your Majesty, the welfare of your subjects, and for the honor of the
very humble service, for which, to the happy prolongation of your days,
is indebted,
SIRE,
Your most humble, most obedient, and most faithful servant and
subject,
CHAMPLAIN_.

TO THE QUEEN REGENT,
MOTHER OF THE KING.
MADAME,
Of all the most useful and excellent arts, that of navigation has always
seemed to me to occupy the first place. For the more hazardous it is,
and the more numerous the perils and losses by which it is attended, so
much the more is it esteemed and exalted above all others, being
wholly unsuited to the timid and irresolute. By this art we obtain
knowledge of different countries, regions, and realms. By it we attract
and bring to our own land all kinds of riches, by it the idolatry of
paganism is overthrown and Christianity proclaimed throughout all the
regions of the earth. This is the art which from my early age has won
my love, and induced me to expose myself almost all my life to the
impetuous waves of the ocean, and led me to explore the coasts of a

part of America, especially of New France, where I have always
desired to see the Lily flourish, and also the only religion, catholic,
apostolic, and Roman. This I trust now to accomplish with the help of
God, assisted by the favor of your Majesty, whom I most humbly
entreat to continue to sustain us, in order that all may succeed to the
honor of God, the welfare of France, and the splendor of your reign, for
the grandeur and prosperity of which I will pray God to attend you
always with a thousand blessings, and will remain,
MADAME, Your most humble, most obedient, and most faithful
servant and subject, CHAMPLAIN.

EXTRACT FROM THE LICENSE.
By letters patent of the KING, given at Paris the ninth of January, 1613,
and in the third year of our reign, by the King in his Council,
PERREAU, and sealed with the simple yellow seal, it is permitted to
JEAN BERJON, printer and bookseller in this city of Paris, to print, or
have printed by whomsoever it may seem good to him, a book entitled
_The Voyages of Samuel de Champlain of