BACKGROUNDER

Samuel de Champlain: A Chronological History

1574: Samuel is born, probably in La Rochelle, France, to Antoine Chapeleau and Marguerite Le Roy. He is baptized several weeks later in the Protestant temple of Saint Yon in La Rochelle.

1599-1601: Barely 25 years of age, Champlain makes his first voyage, to Spain and then on to the West Indies. He also visits what are now Mexico, Cuba, Puerto Rico, the Bermudas, Panama and Colombia.

About 1602: Henry IV of France appoints Champlain as hydrographer royal. Champlain is invited to join an expedition that is going to Tadoussac in New France to set up a fur trading post. His mission is to explore New France, study its waterways and choose a site for a large trading factory.

1603: The expedition sets sail and Champlain prepares to follow the route that Jacques Cartier took in 1535, as far as the Island of Montréal where he visited the village of Hochelaga. He explores part of the Saguenay River Valley. There he forms an alliance with several First Nations gathered to celebrate a recent victory over a common enemy. Then he sails up the St. Lawrence as far as present day Montréal. He learns from his guides that above the apparently impassable Lachine Rapids there are three great lakes (Erie, Huron and Ontario) to be explored. Later, he publishes an account of this voyage, the first detailed description of the St. Lawrence since Cartier’s explorations.

1604–1607: For these three years, Champlain is based on the Atlantic Coast in Acadia. A failed attempt at settlement on Sainte-Croix Island is followed by the establishment of Port Royal. As explorer and map- maker, Champlain investigates the coastline and searches for safe harbours. He journeys almost 15,000 kilometres south along the Atlantic Coast from Maine to southernmost Cape Cod.

1608: Champlain proposes a return to the St. Lawrence Valley and specifically where Cartier had described the Iroquoian village of Stadacona, but which he called Québec. He regards this site as the most suitable for both the fur trade and a starting point for his search for the elusive route to China. On July 3, he founds what is to become Québec City and builds his own home there.

1609: In exploring the Iroquois (now Richelieu) River, he arrives on July 14 at the lake that will later bear his name. Like the French traders

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who preceded him, he sides with the Huron, Anishinabeg (Algonquin) and Innu (Montagnais) in their battles against the Iroquois. This alliance leads to the warlike relations between the French and the Iroquois that will exist for generations.

1610: Champlain marries a young Protestant woman, Hélène Boullé. The marriage is not a success and his wife deserts him. She comes back reluctantly, but is with him in New France from 1620 to 1624 only.

1611: Champlain returns to the Hochelaga islands and locates an ideal harbour. Facing it, he builds Place Royal, around which the town that will become Montréal develops from 1642 onwards. This same year, he succeeds in journeying beyond the Lachine Rapids, becoming the first European (apart from Étienne Brûlé and other young Frenchmen sent to learn First Nations languages and cultures) to start exploring the St. Lawrence and its tributaries as a route toward the interior of the continent.

1612: Champlain obtains a commission to “search for a free passage by which to reach the country called China.” In this quest, he relies upon First Nations people as guides and for logistic support.

1613: Champlain journeys up the Ottawa River and arrives in the region that is now Ottawa/Gatineau on June 4. He goes as far as Allumette Island, his first foray along the route that will eventually take him into the heartland of present-day Ontario. It is on this journey that he is thought to have lost his astrolabe, although he is still able to make accurate readings and maps.

1615: He reaches Lake Huron on August 1. This is to be his last voyage of discovery. Thereafter, he devotes all his efforts to founding a colony at Québec and making it a powerful commercial, industrial and agricultural centre.

1629: Champlain returns to France when war breaks out, with Québec falling to the English, who occupy it until 1632.

1633: Appointed lieutenant by Cardinal Richelieu, Champlain returns on May 22 to Québec, where he begins to see the colony show the promise he envisioned.

1635: In the autumn, Champlain becomes ill and is paralyzed. He dies in December and is buried in the Champlain chapel adjoining Notre- Dame-de-la-Recouvrance. He leaves behind a considerable body

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of writings relating to his voyages and maps of the regions he explored. He becomes known as the “Father of New France.”

1867: Discovery of an astrolabe near Cobden, Ontario.

1870: Modern publishing of Œuvres de Champlain draws attention to the writings of the explorer.

1915: A statue of Champlain holding an astrolabe by Hamilton MacCarthy is erected at Nepean Point in Ottawa. The astrolabe is upside- down.

2012: Discovery of what is widely believed to be the baptismal record of Champlain at the pastoral register of Temple Saint Yon, La Rochelle, France. .

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