The legacy of Samuel de Champlain (c. 1574-1635), like most historical figures, is complex. He has been remembered as an explorer, a diplomat, and a colonizer. He is revered by some, reviled by others, and forgotten by many. Regardless, his legacy endures and continues to influence who we are as Canadians and as members of the Trent community some 400 years after first coming to North America.
Champlain was a sailor, cartographer, artist, soldier, and a colonial administrator. From 1603 to 1635, he made over 25 voyages across the Atlantic, forged diplomatic relations with some First Nations peoples, made enemies of others, founded settlements in Acadia and New France and explored a large portion of North America including present-day Nova Scotia, Quebec, Ontario, and the States of Vermont and New York. Champlain was not the first European to explore New France. However, his publications — replete with elaborate descriptions and illustrations of the landscape and indigenous peoples — offer an invaluable perspective for this early period of European contact.
Champlain was baptized on 13 August 1574 to Protestant, or Huguenot, parents Anthoine Chapeleau and Marguerite Le Roy in the French city of Brouage. It is believed that he learned his seafaring skills at the side of his father a skilled navigator in La Rochelle, France. Champlain never lost a ship at his command which, considering his two dozen crossings, is a remarkable feat.
The gulf that existed in his day between Protestants and Catholics was often wider and more difficult to cross than the Atlantic. Champlain was considered an outsider, both in terms of religion and class. Early on he would adopt the Roman Catholic faith of France; however, his birth to a navigator would not be forgotten by the French court. Indeed, for many years he was the de facto governor of New France (Québec), an official title he could never have because of his common birth and Protestant roots.
In 1603, Champlain made his first voyage to New France sailing up the Saint Lawrence River to Tadoussac with the experienced navigator François Gravé du Pont (c. 1560-1629). The next year, Champlain sailed to Acadia as a cartographer with the fur entrepreneur Pierre Du Gua de Monts (c. 1558-1628). Champlain would later establish the Habitation at Port-Royal where, in order to maintain the health and morale of the French inhabitants, he created the Order of Good Cheer. By 1608, Champlain’s focus had shifted to New France where he established a new Habitation (Quebec City) which, four centuries later, is the capitale nationale of the province.
On 24 April 1615, Samuel de Champlain left the French port of Honfleur aboard the ship Saint-Ėtienne. In his journals, he writes that he had a “very favourable wind” which transported him across the Atlantic in 31 days without incident. Upon his arrival in Quebec, Champlain was informed of increased tensions between his Anishinaabe and Wendat allies with their traditional enemy the Haudenosaunee. Champlain decided that it was prudent to travel further inland to Huronia in what is now the Province of Ontario.
His writings from this time give an illustrative account of his diplomatic visit to several villages, the manner of the indigenous peoples and the countryside which he later describes as “very fine and of pleasing character. Along the shores one would think that the tress had been planted for ornament in most places.” His primary destination during this time would be the grand Wendat village of Cahiagué, a settlement of over 200 longhouses and an estimated 6000 inhabitants, near the present-day city of Orillia.
In October, Champlain with a mixed force of 400 to 500 Anishinaabe and Wendat warriors travelled south, near us along the Trent River system, crossed Lake Ontario and attacked the fortified village of their rivals, the Haudenosaunee, near what is now Syracuse, New York. During the battle, Champlain was injured in the leg. Without reinforcements and facing the prospect of increasingly poor weather, a retreat was made transporting Champlain back to Cahiagué. During his recovery he made diplomatic visits to the neighbouring First Nations, including the Petun peoples. He left Huronia in the spring for Quebec. In August 1616, he sailed back to Honfleur and while his adventures in New France would continue for another fifteen years, he and would never to return to the region of Ontario.
In nineteenth and early-twentieth century Ontario, Champlain was a symbol of what many people believed to be the European origins of the region. Legends of his lost (and later found) swords and astrolabe further bolstered the idea of the early European pedigree of the province. By the second half of the twentieth century, Champlain became seen as less of a founder and more of an interlocutor with First Nations peoples negotiating within their complex social, commercial, and political networks. Throughout North America, his name can be found on geographic features, high schools, a CEGEP in Québec, an American university, and Trent’s own Champlain College. Today, the legacy of Champlain is not always seen in such a positive light. Indeed, some view him as ushering in an era of reckless and relentless colonizers. His ill-fated raid on the Haudenosaunee, the unflattering commentary of his First Nations allies, and foes alike, found in his journals are offered as proof of his cultural insensitivities and arrogance. On the other hand, Champlain’s cartography and written accounts have also assisted in the better understanding of the territories and interactions of various First Nations across northeastern Canada. In spite of Champlain’s prominence, it may come as a surprise that (outside of his writings and maps) the specific details of his life and influence are opaque. How he spelled his name, or what he actually looked like, continues to be a subject of academic debate. For over 400 years, Samuel de Champlain has been an enigma and his legacy remains complex.