Champlain

Nora T. Corley is a librarian in Ottawa.

Samuel de Champlain is generally considered the founder of Canada. And, other than trying to establish a colony in Acadia, founding Quebec City, exploring westward to Georgian Bay and Lake Ontario, and losing his astrolabe, details of his life are generally unknown to Canadians. This biography, based on Champlain’s many published works on his explorations and observations, should help fill this gap in our national historical conscience.

Champlain was a remarkable man, a man of many talents. Born in Brouage, near La Rochelle in France, he appears on the historical page full blown at the age of about 30 (the exact date of his birth is unknown), trained navigator and geographer, future explorer and prolific writer. His first voyage to the New World was to the Caribbean where he did some mapping of the islands. He next turned his interest to the shores of the Bay of Fundy and the coastline of New England south to Cape Cod. His attempts at colonization at Ile Ste Croix and Port Royal were disastrous, and finally abandoned. He then turned his interests to the Saint Lawrence River, which he had visited several years before, founding the Habitation at Quebec and later exploring the Ottawa and French Rivers to Georgian Bay, along the Kawartha Lakes to Lake Ontario, and south into what is now northern New York State. Until his death in Quebec in 1635 Champlain divided his time between France and New France.

Armstrong, the author of From Sea to Sea: Art and Discovery Maps of Canada (1982), has written an interesting and sometimes witty biography of this complex man. The text is based almost entirely upon Champlain’s own works, which are themselves so full of details of observations on the flora and fauna, of the Indians and their customs, and of battles as to bore even the most ardent adventure fan; but here the nuggets have been presented to make a fascinating story. The numerous illustrations and maps are all by Champlain, and show his eye for detail, as well as his talent as a cartographer. The scholar may find little new here, but the general reader, wanting to know more about Canada’s Founding Father, will find this biography informative and easy to read.